It's March, a month whose very name is an active verb. If that doesn't stir you into moving that body, then, honey, what are you waiting for? You want to be fit when the good warm weather comes around, don'tcha?

In this thread, we'll keep a record of our physical activity and watch how our efforts add up.

Yes, everybody, it's the third month of the year. Get on your feet and march like a little black-and-white Antarctic bird:



(Okay, I couldn't resist this picture. I want one. No, I want all of them. The whole matching set; I want to collect them all.)

We polar bears live in the Arctic.

I started the month with a 6 a.m. spin class with a drill sergeant instructor. I actually cried in her class on one occasion last year! We've since come to terms with each other.

Freelance

Glad you've come to terms, Freelance.

Hip stretches etc before I got out of bed. This is working well as part of keeping my niggly SI joint fairly calm.

40 minute brisk walk between clearing the (work) decks this morning and starting on the current project. A nice day with few people about mid-morning and spring working hard to burst through.

Cute penguins Saef!!
I would love them, but I hate cold weather so I could never live where they do.
Unless....
When we lived in South Africa, there were warm weather penguins-- guess what they are called? Jackass penguins! Really! We'll see if that gets censored.

March exercise:

March 1: 60 minutes Zumba

Totals:
1 day
60 minutes

Catching up from yesterday, as I went straight to bed after returning from the gym. Oh, and that was a mistake. Now I know that I have difficulty sleeping if it's too soon after a hard workout.

Thursday, March 1st:

15 minutes Stairmaster stepper, resistance at seven, difficult because I discovered the only footwear in my gym bag was my bike shoes.
60 minutes shoulders, biceps and triceps workout
45 minutes recumbent bike, resistance at eight, trying to keep the rpms above 70 all the way

Last night, there were more women in the weight section than I've ever seen before. We dominated. Two of us were working out alone, two were working with trainers, and one seemed to be trained by a boyfriend or a trainer who'd become a, well, close personal friend. I think the former, as they both had identical army green t-shirts on.

Friday, March 2nd:

45 minute spin class, with the young instructor who likes lots of short, fast-paced songs and isn't so much into simulating the road experience. She pretty much wiped me out.

Say 35 minutes of brisk walking, starting at 1345 to get away from talk in the office and an imminent visitor. It's a glorious day.

I did some exercises before I got up but didn't manage the second set later as a packed lunch pow-wow threw my routine and time got away from me.

March 2: 30 minutes elliptical; 15 minute fast walk home from gym

Totals:
2 days
105 minutes

saef Do they still have the penguin exhibit at the Central Park zoo? The first time I ever went to Manhattan was during a March school break and The Boy (my foray into cougar country - 12 years younger than me ) and I wound up at the zoo there. I was charmed by the penguins.

Dagmar

Oh, yes, Dagmar, the penguins are definitely still in residence in the Central Park Zoo. Did you read all the media coverage when two of the male penguins formed a pair, tried to hatch a rock together, and then were given a living egg to nurture? The gay male penguin couple successfully raised a female penguin chick. There is even a children's book about this, which is invariably given to the children of gay male couples in my acquaintance. These penguins have lived a soap opera kind of life and are no longer together. But anyway, yeah, there are definitely still penguins in the park.

As for me, on Saturday, March 3rd, I ran just under four miles.

And now I understand the phrase "hitting your stride." Maybe about halfway through this run, that's what happened. I came up over a hill to a flat section and felt myself run differently. I had an interval of flight in between my feet hitting the ground. It wasn't all repeated impacts. It was an actual long almost floating stride. It felt briefly wonderful. It's like it took me over a mile & a half to figure out how to run.

March 3: 90 minutes bikram yoga

Totals:
3 days
195 minutes

I remember that feeling back in the days when I was still able to jog with my dog in the mornings. For me it was when my mind stopped complaining about how much my body didn't want to do this and my body TOOK OVER. My body gladly jogged about 6K every morning without protest, after the first 2K where my mind whined in protest.

We went out in rain, sleet, and even in a howling blizzard when I was able to jog down the main street as there were no cars or transit vehicles out moving. Kaya (my dog) and I were the only ones out there in that howling whiteness.

I miss those days - kinda.

Dagmar

Sunday, March 4th:

March Forth: Thinking of Lori Bell each time I see the date written.

Left the Ramada Inn at 7:30 AM to head to my old gym, which felt like an extension of my apartment building or even of my own living room.

20 minutes arc trainer, intervals, resistance at eight, as a warmup, and how happy I am to see those individual TVs mounted on the machines, on which I learned that SU won its basketball game yesterday
60 minutes back and biceps routine, using the Gravitron
45 minutes back on the arc trainer, hill intervals, resistance at nine, which actually felt good

I talked to six different people who got surprised looks on their faces when they saw me and said, "Heyyyy ..." and grinned and then asked what I'd been up to. Of course the flood is famous there. So many shared their contractor stories, or told me their husbands are involved in some way with contracting. Everyone bemoans the payment system.

This children's book "And Tango Makes Three" is consistently on the top of the banned and censored children's books each year. We have it in my library and when a child wants to check it out I'm always a little nervous that the parents will object after reading it. So far I've had no issues with it though. It is a very cute book and story!

March 4: 60 minutes fast walk
40 minutes stairclimber

Totals:
4 days
295 minutes