Exercise & Fitness: it’s a marathon, not a sprint

[Iskaral Pust]

5 hours ago, baxus said:

Just got back from a family vacation in the mountains. We went to a local ski resort, the whole point was to get my daughter into skiing and it worked. It was so much fun.

This winter was the first time I took two snowboarding trips after skipping three years because of covid and some other stuff. The first one was a week in Italy with my friends for ski opening, and I was so rusty and out of shape it wasn't as much fun as I hoped. After that one, I was stunned how much I improved in two months between my trips. I could ride much better, do longer runs, do more consecutive runs etc. Weather was spectacular, clear skies, lots of sun, the only thing that kept it short of perfect was it was a bit cold and windy. Loved it, loved it, loved it!

I've already started making plans to make two snowboarding trips per season a regular thing.

I miss snowboarding.  When we lived in Seattle we drove to local mountains at the weekends for ~10 days on the slips each season.  Whistler (Vancouver, BC) was the furthest but there were several within 2 hours of us.

But since leaving Seattle, we did just a few Saturdays on crappy ice-snow on a Wisconsin hill so that our son could take ski lessons.  It wasn’t worth it.  He didn’t learn enough and wasn’t particularly interested to keep going regularly.

Ski conditions in the Midwest and Northeast are so bad compared to the West.  I’m only interested in snowboarding on good snow but it hasn’t been worth a family trip out west to do so — slopes are crazy crowded during the limited window of school breaks during the season.

[baxus]

I've snowboarded the most in this local ski resort called Kopaonik. It's great to learn skiing/snowboarding and I love it because that's where I learned to snowboard, but it's by no means among the top European resorts. Being in Europe, I've went to France, Austria and Italy on snowboarding trips and mountains are great, ski lifts are not crowded (though maybe I was just lucky on that one), but A LOT depends on the weather. Based on my experience, March is not worth the trip, but if you don't mind the cold January is a great time for it.

My daughter took 5 classes - 2 in a sort of skiing kindergarten environment, 2 on a very mild slope that's used almost exclusively for learning and on her last class (on this trip, of course) her instructor took her to the "regular" slope, the most popular in the resort, and she went down it on her own and did it twice! I'm so proud of her and I love that she enjoyed it and had fun. She's already asking when are we going again.

[BigFatCoward]

22 hours ago, baxus said:

Just got back from a family vacation in the mountains. We went to a local ski resort, the whole point was to get my daughter into skiing and it worked. It was so much fun.

This winter was the first time I took two snowboarding trips after skipping three years because of covid and some other stuff. The first one was a week in Italy with my friends for ski opening, and I was so rusty and out of shape it wasn't as much fun as I hoped. After that one, I was stunned how much I improved in two months between my trips. I could ride much better, do longer runs, do more consecutive runs etc. Weather was spectacular, clear skies, lots of sun, the only thing that kept it short of perfect was it was a bit cold and windy. Loved it, loved it, loved it!

I've already started making plans to make two snowboarding trips per season a regular thing.

I used to go for a week at least every year, sometimes 2 weeks, one amazing year I had 3 weeks out of 7 - one in the 3 valleys, one Serre chevalier (best conditions every, had a metre of snow one night, 2 other nights had about 30 cm, but glorious sunshine every day and no wind) and one week in St Anton.  But then I had kids and responsibilities and that all stopped, Its not a cheap hobby. 

I would love to go again with my family but my wife is definitely not the sort that would want to go skiing so i think that's me done. 

Must be a great feeling to get your kids to do something you like to do that is fun for the whole family, i'm still trying to establish those activities with my daughter. 

 

[baxus]

6 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

But then I had kids and responsibilities and that all stopped, Its not a cheap hobby.

Yeah, it can get rather expensive but I find it's not that much more expensive than going to the seaside or visiting another city (or cities). I guess the offers you get in UK are a bit more expensive, but here in Serbia you can get a trip to France (Val Thoren, Les 2Alpes, Serre Chevalier, Tignes, Mongenevre etc.) with transportation (bus, unfortunately), rooms/apartments and lift tickets for around 400€ per person (Tignes is usually a bit more expensive but it's around 450€).

Also, this season I went to Livigno, Italy. My friends and I booked an apartment online (came to 270-280€ per person for a week) and lift tickets were free because it was the opening week of the season (that offer is in place for first 2 weeks of each season).

12 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I would love to go again with my family but my wife is definitely not the sort that would want to go skiing so i think that's me done. 

Maybe try a hotel that has some spa or something that your wife would like. Of course, that would usually be a bit more expensive than what I mention above but might be worth it.

My wife used to ski but hasn't for some 6-7 years. She's skipped it this season but is keen on getting back into it next season.

13 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Must be a great feeling to get your kids to do something you like to do that is fun for the whole family, i'm still trying to establish those activities with my daughter. 

I am yet to actually go down the slopes with my daughter. She's only 4 and we didn't want to rush her into anything so we kept her time on the slopes to an hour of her skiing lesson and went sledding or rolling around in the snow for fun. Also, with her skiing and me snowboarding, I'd like to have her a bit more comfortable on the skis before we go there. I look at it as an investment in future fun times.  

[VigoTheCarpathian]

As part of some goals I have for this year, I signed up for a gym via a discount available through work - $27/month.  They have sauna/steam, which I love, especially during winter.

Question is:  how do you put on muscle/weight?  I’ve upped my consumption by ~600 kcal per day (added a mid morning and afternoon protein snack, as well as a protein shake before bed), which should put me at around the 3030 I need to gain a pound a week…but I’m seeing very minimal scale movement, like within a half pound of baseline since I started 4 weeks ago.  

I am sure I am making a rookie mistake somewhere, either undercounting my macros, or maybe my energy expenditure (not using a fitness tracker)? I’m doing 3 days of strength training (have added weight every week), 2 days of at home abs/HIIT, and 1 day of 45-60min of zone 2 cardio, and am feeling more fit, and looking more defined - just no weight gain yet.  I’ve never done weight training outside of CrossFit like 10 years ago, and have never ever tried to gain weight before (i.e., bulk/cut) - any advice or pitfalls around this would be helpful!

[baxus]

3 hours ago, VigoTheCarpathian said:

Question is:  how do you put on muscle/weight?  I’ve upped my consumption by ~600 kcal per day (added a mid morning and afternoon protein snack, as well as a protein shake before bed), which should put me at around the 3030 I need to gain a pound a week…but I’m seeing very minimal scale movement, like within a half pound of baseline since I started 4 weeks ago.  

You put on muscle VERY slowly, nowhere near the pound a week range. If that's the result you are expecting, you'll only get disappointed. If you got near a pound of muscle per month that would be a great result.

Also, don't forget that training 6 days a week is bound to burn some fat so that would affect the number on the scale.

[Tywin et al.]

Finally cleared to return to lifting weights, but I was told I have to start as if I was lifting for the first time. Still no running until I can walk a few miles with zero discomfort. Thankfully the snow is mostly done and the trails will be safe again. 

Happy to get back at it, but god knows how much I've lost during the last four plus months (and I've gained like 15 pounds which sucks). Oh well. 

[A True Kaniggit]

PSA: Remember not to be stupid when lifting weights. 
 

I tugged something in my neck while not setting a dumbbell down correctly.

I was punished for it all day today, and will probably suffer for it tomorrow as well. 

Edited April 12 by A True Kaniggit

[Tywin et al.]

I joked around about buying a decent rowing machine and did so just before I broke my foot. Finally used it today and liked it a lot. A combination of it, adjustable free weights, yoga, pilates, jogging and biking should help fix a half year of losses and overall misery. Maybe by the end of summer. Everything takes time though. Thankfully I learned how to meditate during the pandemic, which will also help. But I think, or just hope, I'm ready to get back to finding myself. 

Edited Thursday at 04:21 AM by Tywin et al.

[3CityApache]

I'm gradually returning to regular running in the last three months and so far, so good, my knee seems fine. I try not to overwieght it of course , so I'm still far from intensity from before the injury, but I feel like I'm on the right path at least. I manage about 3 trainings a week, 7-10 k per run, including at least one anaerobic training. Feels good to be out there again.

Plus as much cycling as the time allows, and one 1,5k swimming per week.

[baxus]

Planning on returning to running on days when I'm not lifting weights. Nothing too much, I'll stick to 5k(ish) distances for a while, working up to around 40-45 minute runs.

Who knows, maybe I will even get back into it and start with half-marathons again, but at the moment it doesn't seem likely.

[Iskaral Pust]

My workouts have been good lately.  I built back some better consistency (but still below target) until I got sick this past week.  My strength surprisingly had dropped off very little during my months of distraction and rebounded quickly. I’ll return to the gym over the weekend and start my outdoor swimming season soon too.

Although I feel like I’m carrying 10lbs of flab (I’m 200lbs at 6’0) that I’d like to lose and return to my leaner days of yore, when I’ve worn a T-short to the office on recent casual days I got a lot of comments about how well I looked, along with random colleagues asking me if I’ve been hitting the gym at lot.  These aren’t tight T-shirts, and I think my usual dress shirts are pretty fitted, but apparently the difference was shocking enough to elicit a lot of comments.  I think for guys with my build there may actually be a trade-off that when I’m as lean as I like to be, it actually makes the physique under clothes less impressive.  It’s not like I’m walking around shirtless.