MORE motivated in the cold months?

2

Replies

  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    I run faster in the cold. Maybe it's because the sooner I finish, the sooner I can go inside. Maybe it's because I overheat easily when it's warmer. Maybe it's just because winter means I'm coming off fall training season and I picked up some speed...all I know is that I've been flying (relatively speaking) for the past couple weeks.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I lift, but I'm not much of a gym rat regardless of the season. I'm a cycling enthusiast and I hate winter because it's dark in the morning and dark in the evening and cold out on the road. I usually have to force myself to get on the indoor bike trainer during the week and wait until a nice weekend afternoon to do a road or trail ride.

    Come up here for a week in January and try cross country skiing. As a cyclist, you'll take to it like a fish to water.
  • youngmomtaz
    youngmomtaz Posts: 1,075 Member
    We have so many daylight hours in the summer. But I find I am much more likely to commit to a program and routine in the winter time. When the kids are in school. Spring a summer are for hiking and camping and gardening and sitting on the deck and farm stuff. Bales and fencing and bales, bales, bales. I am gettin I’m movement but I do better when I have a program and a routine in my head to stick with. In the inter I can hit the gym during the cold mornings and then walk/snowshoe/ski in the warmer afternoons and hope the wind dies down in the evening for a bit to get out after chores. A snoweshoe in the moonlight is my fave!
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,262 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I lift, but I'm not much of a gym rat regardless of the season. I'm a cycling enthusiast and I hate winter because it's dark in the morning and dark in the evening and cold out on the road. I usually have to force myself to get on the indoor bike trainer during the week and wait until a nice weekend afternoon to do a road or trail ride.

    Come up here for a week in January and try cross country skiing. As a cyclist, you'll take to it like a fish to water.

    I would really love to go cross country skiing. I've been only one time, when I was around 11. My mom and I decided we wanted to try it so we went to the park and rented skis. We laughed so much because we fell down so much. I'm not even sure if there is a place around where I live now that rents out the equipment like that.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    I am definitely more active in the winter in terms of exercise because I am less sociable, however my NEAT would be higher in the Spring/Summer because I walk more often in the sunshine, overall it probably balances out.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I lift, but I'm not much of a gym rat regardless of the season. I'm a cycling enthusiast and I hate winter because it's dark in the morning and dark in the evening and cold out on the road. I usually have to force myself to get on the indoor bike trainer during the week and wait until a nice weekend afternoon to do a road or trail ride.

    Come up here for a week in January and try cross country skiing. As a cyclist, you'll take to it like a fish to water.

    Just wish it wasn't a weekend only thing. Our local area is opening soon.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Definitely, but because I don't enjoy hot weather and get lethargic and averse to going outside.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I lift, but I'm not much of a gym rat regardless of the season. I'm a cycling enthusiast and I hate winter because it's dark in the morning and dark in the evening and cold out on the road. I usually have to force myself to get on the indoor bike trainer during the week and wait until a nice weekend afternoon to do a road or trail ride.

    Come up here for a week in January and try cross country skiing. As a cyclist, you'll take to it like a fish to water.

    I love cross country...we have some great areas up in the mountains here. Unfortunately, it's not something I can do during the week which is my biggest issue in staying active. I can still get out and ride most weekends as we have pretty mild winters in ABQ and highs are usually mid 40s-mid 50s with sunshine most of the time...it's just the weekdays that are hard.

    I used to ride at lunch most days, but my schedule only allows for that on Tuesday and Friday now.
  • lgt2015
    lgt2015 Posts: 30 Member
    I thought I was the only one! I naturally lose weight without trying in the winter because I skate ski in the mornings with my dog instead of walking (significantly higher calorie burn), and I snowboard as much as possible. I actually have to try to stay strong in the warmer months so I can keep up with my crew snowboarding. I just struggle with this time of year when there is no snow yet (where I live) and it feels like midnight when I leave work so I don't want to go to the gym.
  • AmyC2288
    AmyC2288 Posts: 386 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    I am more motivated when it's colder outside. I don't like hot weather and think that I have reverse SAD. Give me cold, gray, and cloudy and I'm happy as a lark. I shrink away from warm sunbeams.

    THIS!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    lgt2015 wrote: »
    I thought I was the only one! I naturally lose weight without trying in the winter because I skate ski in the mornings with my dog instead of walking (significantly higher calorie burn), and I snowboard as much as possible. I actually have to try to stay strong in the warmer months so I can keep up with my crew snowboarding. I just struggle with this time of year when there is no snow yet (where I live) and it feels like midnight when I leave work so I don't want to go to the gym.

    In the few years I've been skiing as an adult, I've passed a skate skier twice. Man, those were great days!

    It looks exhausting though.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    edited November 2018
    jemhh wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I lift, but I'm not much of a gym rat regardless of the season. I'm a cycling enthusiast and I hate winter because it's dark in the morning and dark in the evening and cold out on the road. I usually have to force myself to get on the indoor bike trainer during the week and wait until a nice weekend afternoon to do a road or trail ride.

    Come up here for a week in January and try cross country skiing. As a cyclist, you'll take to it like a fish to water.

    I would really love to go cross country skiing. I've been only one time, when I was around 11. My mom and I decided we wanted to try it so we went to the park and rented skis. We laughed so much because we fell down so much. I'm not even sure if there is a place around where I live now that rents out the equipment like that.

    You should make a winter trip out here. We have places to rent gear. One of them has 120+ miles of connected trails. Plenty of smaller ones too, I've heard there are some Nordic areas where you can spend a day on groomed trails and not see another person.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    damn I'm jealous. I wish I lived somewhere I could ski.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    where do you people live where you can just go out and ski whenever? Do you have to go to like a ski resort or can you just go out anywhere and do it for free? I am jealous, we don't get much snow where I live.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    where do you people live where you can just go out and ski whenever? Do you have to go to like a ski resort or can you just go out anywhere and do it for free? I am jealous, we don't get much snow where I live.

    Canada?

    Our town is in a valley and does not get much snow in the winter. Not enough to go cross country skiing. But 30 mins out of town and there are groomed trails for snowshoeing or cross country. Or you can hit a ski hill, but I don't downhill.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    where do you people live where you can just go out and ski whenever? Do you have to go to like a ski resort or can you just go out anywhere and do it for free? I am jealous, we don't get much snow where I live.

    It's less than an hour from Seattle to Hyak, about an hour to Cabin Creek or Crystal Springs. Those are state parks, you pay $80 a year for trail grooming and parking lot plowing, it covers all the state parks that do this.

    Leavenworth is about two hours, and a great weekend trip. There's skiing in town and the mountains outside too.

    Methow Valley is a five hour drive, I go for my birthday (Dec 21) and spend a week to make up for the drive. I think this is the biggest Nordic trail system in the USA. There's a free shuttle so you can ski one way across the valley and arrive at your car. There are cabins every 5 miles or so through the Rendezvous mountains, you can ski from one town to another staying each night in a different cabin. You can't drive to any of them but if you don't want to carry your gear you can have it snowmobiled in for you. There are a hotels and cabins whose doors open to the trail system. Winthrop's town trailhead is a short walk.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    where do you people live where you can just go out and ski whenever? Do you have to go to like a ski resort or can you just go out anywhere and do it for free? I am jealous, we don't get much snow where I live.

    I live in New Mexico. A lot of people don't realize that we get snow here and think we're more like Arizona. Northern New Mexico is more similar to southern Colorado than Arizona. We have mountains abundant here. Ski Santa Fe is a little over an hour drive...Taos is a couple of hours. I can be in Pagosa or Durango, Colorado in about 3 hours. We have a small ski area in the Sandia Mountains just outside of Albuquerque and you can just take the arial tram (the longest in the world) from the base of the foothills to the top of the mountain and the ski area...it's more hit or miss as to whether they will have sufficient snow though...some years are good and some years they don't even open. Santa Fe and Taos are pretty much always good downhill mountains.

    As cross country goes, we have some great areas in the Jemez Mountains which is about 45 minutes from my front door. The Valles Caldera in the Jemez is awesome and has miles and miles of cross country trails and snow shoeing trails. There are a number of good trails in Santa Fe as well, just before you get to the ski area.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited November 2018
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    hesn92 wrote: »
    where do you people live where you can just go out and ski whenever? Do you have to go to like a ski resort or can you just go out anywhere and do it for free? I am jealous, we don't get much snow where I live.

    I live in New Mexico. A lot of people don't realize that we get snow here and think we're more like Arizona. Northern New Mexico is more similar to southern Colorado than Arizona. We have mountains abundant here. Ski Santa Fe is a little over an hour drive...Taos is a couple of hours. I can be in Pagosa or Durango, Colorado in about 3 hours. We have a small ski area in the Sandia Mountains just outside of Albuquerque and you can just take the arial tram (the longest in the world) from the base of the foothills to the top of the mountain and the ski area...it's more hit or miss as to whether they will have sufficient snow though...some years are good and some years they don't even open. Santa Fe and Taos are pretty much always good downhill mountains.

    As cross country goes, we have some great areas in the Jemez Mountains which is about 45 minutes from my front door. The Valles Caldera in the Jemez is awesome and has miles and miles of cross country trails and snow shoeing trails. There are a number of good trails in Santa Fe as well, just before you get to the ski area.

    I live in Kansas City. It's really very lame here. :( We do get snow, but typically it will warm up above freezing within the next few days and it will all melt. Either that or it will rain and then drop below freezing and then we just have
    a sheet of ice on the ground. Also, no mountains anywhere close. I really want to move away from here.
  • youngmomtaz
    youngmomtaz Posts: 1,075 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    where do you people live where you can just go out and ski whenever? Do you have to go to like a ski resort or can you just go out anywhere and do it for free? I am jealous, we don't get much snow where I live.

    I am in Manitoba. Unfortunately, we have snow already. Just enough in the field behind my house to make a trail. That doesn’t usually happen until mid to late December. We were lucky enough to be gifted a homemade ski trail groomer that we pull behind our skidoo so I can make a trail wherever I want. Or I just strap my skis to the skidoo, go for a tour, then hop off and break trail myself. Best kinda workout.