Fall fitness plans

saltysparkle

As fall approaches, with cooler weather for some of us, does anyone have any fall fitness plans?

I'm planning on riding my bike as soon as I can. I have to wait until my recovery from surgery, but I'm hoping that means by mid-October at the latest, I'll be riding on bike paths with my teen who just learned to ride and my friend, who is buying her first bike since she was 8, and my DH, who loves riding but needs a nudge, and my dad and his wife, who just came back from a 52 mile round-trip biking adventure with friends.

Another activity that's on-deck for me is that as soon as ever we think it's safe to (post-op and pandemic-wise), I want to go to Pilates reformer classes. And that, again, would be mid-October at the soonest, and only pandemic-permitting.

goal06082021

I'm in south Florida, we don't really...uh...~do~ seasons like that, LMAO. Our seasons are "hurricane" and "not." Thus far none of the storms in the Atlantic have hit my part of the state, but in recent history they haven't come this way until much later in the season. So, there's still a good two months' worth of storms ahead that could derail my outdoor cardio plans, I'm hoping they don't.

I recently decided to add "crush a watermelon betwixt my mighty and powerful thighs" as a training goal, to give myself something to focus on beyond the number on the scale. (And also to be able to do that thing, because God, can you IMAGINE? Walking down the street knowing you have that kind of power?) There's no specific timeline on this new goal, but I have found a training program for exactly that and I'm thinking about starting it soon. I expect I'll need to modify it into Super-Ultra Baby Mode and go through it a few times before I can actually crush a watermelon, but who knows, maybe I've got more core/leg strength than I think I do.

Antiopelle

goal06082021 wrote: »

I'm in south Florida, we don't really...uh...~do~ seasons like that, LMAO. Our seasons are "hurricane" and "not." Thus far none of the storms in the Atlantic have hit my part of the state, but in recent history they haven't come this way until much later in the season. So, there's still a good two months' worth of storms ahead that could derail my outdoor cardio plans, I'm hoping they don't.

I recently decided to add "crush a watermelon betwixt my mighty and powerful thighs" as a training goal, to give myself something to focus on beyond the number on the scale. (And also to be able to do that thing, because God, can you IMAGINE? Walking down the street knowing you have that kind of power?) There's no specific timeline on this new goal, but I have found a training program for exactly that and I'm thinking about starting it soon. I expect I'll need to modify it into Super-Ultra Baby Mode and go through it a few times before I can actually crush a watermelon, but who knows, maybe I've got more core/leg strength than I think I do.

Wow, seriously???!!! Well, actually I cannot even imaging this. Whaaaat?

Antiopelle

I'm less ambitious I guess

Comes winter, I will be less able to ride my bike and diving will be much less also. It's always the period during which I gain weight and lose shape. So this year, I finally have a plan to get through the cold season. My new neighbors are young and very fit 20-somethings and she has a PT practice 6 km from our home. She does manual therapy but she also runs a very small gym. The plan is that when we get back from our holiday in Spain on November 1st, to ask her for a - get me through winter- plan there. And hubby will join as well !

Nothing serious, just enough to stay in shape, not necessarily to get into better shape. Although that would be a bonus

goal06082021

If you, too, would like to crush a watermelon betwixt your mighty and powerful thighs, search for "Kourtney Olson Watermelon Crush" and you can download the training plan for free from her website. You do need to put in an email address, I used my ancient throwaway Yahoo that I just keep for spam, and she does send you motivational messages throughout the program. (Mild content note: she uses "we" and "women" a lot in her messaging in a way that, I think, makes a lot of assumptions about her audience and may feel alienating to people who are childfree, transfem, or AFAB nonbinary.)

I started Week 3 today and I'm honestly impressed by how much I've been able to do without modification. We'll see how it goes in Phase 2 (Weeks 5-8). Each workout, after the warmup, starts with what can best be described as a "practice squeeze" (official name is "90-90 Adduction Functional Isometric"), but the instructions for how to do it in the program are "squeeze it like it owes you money," which makes me laugh. I use a couple of towels folded in half lengthwise twice and then rolled up tight and held together with a belt, makes about a 7"hx7"d cylinder that I am able to deform into an eggular shape with my increasingly-mighty-and-powerful thighs. I might need to add a third towel to pad it out to the right diameter; she recommends a full-size watermelon for the feat, not a personal-size one. I'm going to use a pumpkin, anyway, since I absolutely won't be able to get a watermelon circa Halloween when I finish this program for the first time.

saltysparkle

Antiopelle, is the bike riding draw more the joy of being outside and seeing things and experiencing the bike ride? If not -- and honestly, I think you're probably a healthier person if it is -- have you tried just putting your bike on a trainer in winter?

I just hit some kind of wall recently, and decided I had to make some big changes as soon as I was recovered enough from my reconstructive surgery, so last week I cleared out space in the attic for a workout area. Saturday I got my husband to set up the bits I can't (still on lifting restrictions from surgery) and put my bike on a trainer so I can use it for workouts. Sunday I started using a planner that includes setting long-term goals and breaking them down into smaller bits, and Monday morning I got up, walked the dog, and came back and got on that bike for a horrible half hour of sweat dripping off my face. Tuesday I walked the dog and then did yoga. Today it was back to the bike, and I plan to continue that way on weekdays, at least until my Livestrong classes start next month. Biking on a trainer may not be fun, and may not be as good exercise as boing outdoors, but it gets my heart rate up and that's what I need right now.