At a kid's birthday party a dozen years ago, I discovered that I can't really roller skate anymore. I guess it's not like riding a bicycle, probably because of more wheels.
It's been a long time since I combined exercise with heavy concentration.
Scottish country dancing is basically this, though the risk of injury is prohibitive...
There's a certain casual way of roller skating where you look super relaxed, and leisurely swing one leg out and place it in front of the other when you're shifting your weight, and it all looks super cool and mellow.
Also IME true of Nordic skiing, right up to the point where you, or rather I, casually place one super-relaxed ski on top of the other super-relaxed ski and collapse in a heap of embarrassment and carbon fibre.
1: Is that roller blading or the 4 wheel style? My sister was really into roller blading for a while. It looks like more fun than the old school style. I really want to go dancing. In the 70's when people abandoned the cities, there were suburban clubs, but now everything in the suburbs is staid.
I don't need all ages, just me and Tim. Do people at the rink chat with other people? Would adults without kids go as a group of friends? I need something's fun and upbeat with music - M fun.
Tim used to enjoy moving while skiing, but compared to even 10-15 years ago, the cost is outrageous. I could go to NH for a couple of days midweek for a reasonable price, but. Lift tickets are mostly $300 each.
If we have to bring back the 50's, can we have dinner and dancing places for grown ups? Can we make it ok for kids to do the dishes and adults to go out and socialize with adults during the week?*
I honestly think that worked only because housewives had dinner on the table right at 6.
4: The rink and all it's equipment was the same as in the 80s. I even got 80s-style athlete's foot from the rented skates.
I don't do any fun or interesting exercise anymore. It has been a little over 10 years since I stopped the French-y kickboxing.
However, partly sparked by my Dad dying in March, I have been back on my previous exercise routine with some vigour, after about a year or so when I haven't been doing anything really apart from walking. I had some lingering long Covid type symptoms and still have some mild asthma, after my 5th bout of Covid last summer, so I hadn't been doing much for a year.
The really nice thing, is that it takes much less time to get back into it than it did in the first place. While I'm nowhere near as fast on the bike as I was, I'm able to get two or three 20 mile plus rides in a week, without any discomfort and I can see my resting HR dropping quickly, and a route that was hard work a month ago, is easy now. Ditto with lifting weights. I'm still moving pretty small weights, in terms of raw kilos,* but I'm getting some basic form back together, and I'm progressing quite quickly week on week.
* I don't tell my other "Dad" friends as I know they'll mock me, as some of them claim weights that, frankly, I find slightly unbelievable.
Old school 4-wheel roller skating on a rink does look very cool. It was a big thing when I was a teenager, and my sister and her friends were fairly regular at the local rink.
The place we were at had both in-line and regular skates. Both couples and families, although it was pretty empty overall because it is a rec center that converts the basketball court to a roller rink on saturday nights. But also dirt cheap for the same reason.
How do the keep the disco ball from being hit by a basketball?
7.last: I'm lifting pretty low weights and not increasing reps or weight very fast. I keep going slower and that has really helped.
In other words, each rep is done more slowly up and down, not pausing more between reps or sets.
"M fun"
Now there's a phrase I've not heard in a long time. A long time.
I can't remember what M fun means! All I can think of is Mandatory Fun, from summer camp.
There's Mandatory Metallica on the radio.
Megan Fun, e.g. throwing couches off roofs.
I didn't have any trouble recalling the rhythm of roller skating, but I think it helped that the mat they used to convert the basketball arena wasn't as slick as the slickest of rinks.
I was working on my Casual Skate, by trying to spend an extra beat on one leg at a time. But I couldn't get the leg swing.
I still can't run. It's been three weeks. Stupid ankle. Swimming is going well though.
My right heel keeps getting bigger. I think that means I'm gaining muscle mass.
I took ice skating lessons with my daughter maybe 10 years ago. It was terrifying. I can skate serviceably as long as I'm in motion, but the lessons involved standing still for a long period (as well as attempting things that were beyond my capacity, like skating backwards). I did not fall once, but I was so traumatized by the experience that I haven't been skating since.
A couple of years ago I worked in an office building with a basketball court on the roof, and when I was out of shape, I'd run around the court and shoot baskets to get myself back in running shape. Alas, now I need to find some form of moderate exercise that I don't hate. (I kinda like running when I can do it, but I need to slim down and redevelop my cardio capacity.)
I just need my back spasms to chill a bit more.
I'm probably too heavy to run and would not have ankle problems at 30 pounds less.
You could run with drones strapped to your shoulders? Like Baron Harkonnen, but wholesome.
People say I should try the elliptical trainer, because Newton invented both gravity and ellipses. But he was also an alchemist. Plus, I can't get a smooth stride on one.
There's a rollerskating rink near our house that M and I used to go to, about 20 years ago. They had different themed nights.* We went on Tuesdays, which was "organ night," when they would play 50s and 60s pop hits arranged for the electric organ. (We met this guy Marvin we would see there all the time. He was an elderly mortician, and he didn't skate -- he was just a big fan of electric organ music.)
Anyway, we went every week, because I wanted to learn to skate backwards in that easy graceful way heebie describes. Everyone else there was probably in their 70s or 80s, and were all fantastic skaters. The best skaters would dance/skate in the center of the rink, while everyone else would loop around them. Many of them were couples skaters, which meant that one of the couple was always skating backwards. I remember this one guy I saw every week -- he was recovering from a stroke, and skating was part of his therapy. He would skate backwards the whole time. He kept his hands folded behind him, and would swing one leg up for several beats, super relaxed, and then set it down and switch. It looked so easy. I never got the hang of it.
*There was one night a week, maybe Wednesdays, which was always blocked off on the calendar for a "private event." Eventually, someone explained to me that that was actually elderly gay people night, but they kept it DL on public calendars because it had been around since pre-Stonewall.
I worked out with a fantastic personal trainer for about two years up to 3 times a week after my knee injury. It was ideal as his gym is in my high rise and he's very flexible so if I was going to leave work early I could text him and see if he can fit me in. Sadly he'll be gone and the gym closed when I get back in late July. The reason he could be so flexible is that he also lived in the same building but he's got two kids, 5 and 10 and the older one was miserable as she had no friends outside of school (most families here live in villas on compounds where there are plenty of kids.) His wife, also a personal trainer, is Portuguese and he's got Portuguese citizenship (he's Lebanese) so the last few years they bought land near her family and built a house and are moving there. The owner of the gym was pissed even though he gave two months notice and has always had a good relationship with him and refused his offer to find someone to hand off the gym and clients to so it's just closed. There is another gym (not as nice) in the building but I'll miss working out with him and I don't think I'll be able to keep up the same pace on my own.
You could run with drones strapped to your shoulders?
At PT, Jammies got to do the machine where they zip you in up to your waist in a pressurized chamber, so that you can use a treadmill without having to support your whole weight. I think that sounds super fun.
Trump is paving the white house rose garden to host a UFC fight. On topic because exercising.
Seems more restrictive than drones.
He was an elderly mortician, and he didn't skate -- he was just a big fan of electric organ music.
Some people try to hard to become part of a Wes Anderson movie.
32: My grandfather was a general surgeon and in his retirement he worked as a county medical examiner, as in being called out in the middle of the night to scrutinize corpses, and also drove a school bus.
(At his funeral someone had a story of him using the bus to take an ME call, and gaslighting someone present that in that state a school bus driver could declare someone legally dead.)
re: 28
I saw a trainer a few times to work on squat and deadlifting technique a couple of years ago. He was a UK ranked strongman competitor and power lifter. He was a surprisingly small lean, nimble looking guy considering he could deadlift 300kg. I wanted to be able to move up to more realistic weights and I was aware that my technique was poor. He was quite good, but I did tear a rotator cuff while working with him. I don't think either of us realised just how inflexible my shoulders are as I'd torn the same at least once before in a bike crash and then had a frozen shoulder after it healed.
I should see a physio to work on my shoulders as I can't rack a bar across my shoulders--nowhere near enough mobility--and my knees probably need some work if I want to stay healthy.
34: That's trying just the right amount.
In 2021 I took up jogging. In less than two years I developed plantar fasciitis. Physical therapy helped a bit and I think orthotic inserts in my shoes helped more, but I'm still not quite up to the level of jogging I had reached at my peak.
Within the past month I've taken up yoga at the local studio. Partly because it's low-impact exercise, see previous point, and also partly because it's very local, i.e. literally around the corner. Makes it easier to find the time for, and having a subscription and scheduled classes will hopefully make it easier to stick with. All too often I've found myself jogging in 90-degree weather just because I didn't get around to doing it earlier in the day.
My wife and I hiked quite a bit pre- and early Covid, but her AS kicked in and made walking difficult. We'd been bicycling occasionally, but she found that it was a form of exercise that still worked okay for her, so picked up an ebike and started commuting by bike. She had goals the first few years - 2000 miles, which she got close to, but didn't quite meet. She's now looking into much longer rides and bikepacking; I picked up an ebike to be able to handle the longer distances and pace with her.
Plantar fasciitis is the second worst thing that starts with "fasc".
The Calabat joined the MTB team and I'm a parent coach, which means I ride along with the team and shout encouragement or pick up crashed 12yos as necessary. We also spent the weekend kayaking, which was new to us.
I'm fit by most standards but it is just so much more effort to be mediocre now than it used to.
And we're backpacking in the Winds this weekend on our first bigger trip, and I'm just hoping that mountain biking 40 miles a week equates to hiking somehow.
On a bike, you might be about to outrun the bears.
If you guys have mountain lions, probably doesn't matter.
I did not handle the start of the year well and both fell off on hiking regularly and started eating snacks a bit too compulsively, ultimately gaining 10+ pounds after almost a decade at the same weight.* Weirdly, as I've started hiking again I've found that I can hold myself to a faster pace than before on flat ground, but struggle more on uphills. And there's no way I would attempt 10+ miles in a single hike right now, unless I gave myself all day and picked a route where I could take long breaks in the shade (rare in my part of southern California).
I've never really looked at hiking as something to do for the sake of exercise but my weight gain and fitness loss have me feeling more urgency around getting into shape, where previously I could look at hiking as an ambient part of life that kept me in decent shape without going to a gym.
*I've probably told the story multiple times that I lost 20-25 pounds in the year after cutting out all sugar-ed/high-fructose-d sodas from my diet. I barely exercised during that time because I had plantar fasciitis, so I was initially worried that my weight loss was a serious condition. Then I maintained the same weight for years, even after getting into pretty good shape for hiking.
I keep expecting to hear that the funding for the big wildlife crossing has been canceled because it will coddle mountain lions or something. And then we'll be left with something like a ruin over 101, which after the US descends into a civil war will be turned into a monument known as the Arc de Tumphe.
I'm sorry, I live in southern California now, so it's "the" 101.
4. is so sad, after all the fun in 1-3.
I guess the lesson is that after you reach a certain age trying to have fun is a bad idea.
I have a busted up (mostly arthritic) hip for no reason at all that's been increasingly limiting my ability to do any exercise. Not that I would anyway.
My dumb ortho guy keeps insisting that I need a hip replacement. So far I've convinced him to just do a higher than recommended amount of steroid injections while I kick the decision down the road some more.
46: I listened to this stupid speech Ira Glass gave somewhere in outdoorsy Colorado in which he said he's never hiked. This lead me to the great philosophical question of how to distinguish hiking from walking. Does hiking require a backpack? Or is it just that it has to be out in "nature"?
My cousin's husband got a hip replacement and now he's really Republican.
There's an oldies cover band here called The Hip Replacements. Probably not the only band with that name.
46: I think you have to go up a hill.
46: Walking through fields or trails is what the English call rambling or trail walking in the US, but not hiking.
perambulating
promenading
sauntering
strolling
powerwalking
racewalking
jabberwalking
"I can't believe it's not hiking"
62: it's hiking if it's outdoors and primarily for exercise or sightseeing. Mall walking isn't hiking. (I don't know if that's even a thing anymore, but anyways.) Running errands on foot isn't hiking.
I'm tempted to add something about the environment being scenic or wild, but that gets vague and would exclude absolutely any walking I could do near my house, so I don't want to.
I'm in my second week of doing water aerobics and I still love it. The highlight is definitely the part where we listen to "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls and jog back and forth across the pool during the chorus. Literal choreography is the best.
61: I'm hoping this proves 50.2 is wrong.
OT: I'm now starting to think that Epstein didn't kill himself.
It's waterhiking if it's in a river, lake, or ocean. In a pool it's waterwalking.
63: tomorrow's post! Not that I have anything in particular to contribute, but it's way too fun for me not to get some mileage out of it.
63: Wikipedia is good on this. It was the first suicide in 14 years at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
If Epstein is really dead.
Oops. 66 before reading 65. Sorry!
I'll go back to complaining about my joints until tomorrow.
I just went out for my first ride with my son driving where I didn't spontaneously say a single Hail Mary silently to myself.
"They have to train, I understand that," said one woman whose car was damaged by the howitzer. "And our street is really too narrow."
45: We do! There are a couple in the hills up here, but I've never seen one. They've probably seen me.
The issue with a five day backpacking trip is mostly that the Calabat eats as much as a second adult despite weighing only 80 pounds, and so he can't carry all that much yet.
I found a fig and walnut nugget thing at Costco. Very dense with calories.
It's not actually that bad in terms of flavor, but people need to write the "Nondairy" bigger on the package of nondairy ice cream.
I started playing hockey goalie this past season. That's a good way to expedite needing hip replacements.
I'm not sure if I could skate backwards on roller skates. Roller blades probably.
I haven't run in four weeks, I still hate it even though starting a couple years ago greatly helped my cardio fitness. First 5k I ever ran was at age 45 in 31 min, I got down to 22:30 in a year, now I'm not sure I could still break 25. There was a heat wave, then I pulled some muscle in my stomach/waist, then I've been playing golf early mornings before work when I used to run. My cardio fitness graph in apple health is very sad.
Before my ankle went out, I was at 9:30 for a mile, so you seem pretty fast.
Speaking of ankles, have you seen Trump's? It looks like he's got edema.