Despite that, I decided I really needed to get outdoors today so I rode my bike for the first time in about three weeks.

I debated whether to go for an a.m. or p.m. ride, with mornings always the preference.  After watching the weather, I decided and headed out at about 8:30 a.m. The forecast said cloudy this morning, but a cold front will be coming through and will bring the sun but dropping temps.

I did a terrible job picking out layers to wear.  Although what I wore would be deemed warm, it wasn’t windproof.  I had forgotten windproof is as important as warm.

I headed out on the world famous llama farm route.  Yes, the llamas were out.  When I sung out, “Hello, Llamas” as I am apt to do, I startled one and he took off running.  I felt kinda bad for that.  Elsewhere I saw two cute little baby goats hopping around their mama.

This may be the only ride I’ve ever done where I tried not to go faster.  This causes wind which leads to cold.

Despite what the weather people said, the sun burst forth at about the half-way point.  I like me some winter sunshine.  But as I was heading home, I could feel the wind picking up out of the northwest.  Brr.

When I got home, I wanted a hot drink.  So I decided to stir some chocolate protein powder into some skim milk and nuke it in the microwave.  Do not try this at home.  All of the powder gathered up in a strange floating island solid lump.  I didn’t drink it.  It was weird.

BTW, I tried a nice simple recipe for supper, peppered steak with a pan sauce from red wine.  Very good stuff.  I also made some roasted sweet potato fries and some grape tomatoes with a vinaigrette.

A good day.

I did another 45 minute on the stairmaster last night using CardioCoach v. 5.  Afterwards I did a little research on setting the time for a workout.  I have a pdf of the original manual.  It seems the machine is not programmed for workouts longer than 45 minutes.  I can go shorter.  I tried a couple of the codes from the manual, but no joy.  I’ll try some research on the net this weekend.  I’ll also see if I can find an email for the company, although the brand has changed hands a couple of times.

Supper was some nice roasted veggies, cauliflower and sweet potato, with a pan roasted filet of tilipia.  I roasted a lot veggies and thought I would have some leftover, but I ate every bite.

I been working my way through some of the stuff in my freezer.  Living alone, I’ve become the master of buying big packages and freezing portions.  I tend to forget what is in there.

I continue to be a total doofus coordinating my electronics when I exercise.  I use my android phone with a bluetooth heart rate strap and endomondo plus my nano to play my audio workout, the CardioCoach series.

The readout using the phone as an HRM works great while I’m actually on the stairmaster.  The workout is based on heart rate zones.  Although I can used perceived exertion, it’s nice to have the correct feedback.  But at the end, when I hit stop, the information is uploaded to a website, incorrectly.  I realized that it always give my max rate as 145, which is way low.  I know I spotted 155 last night.  I need to fiddle around with the app to see if it is something in setup.  If I can’t fix it, I’ll take a look at map my fitness.

As to using the nano to play my workout, it has little tiny writing and I have blind eyes.  Plus I have fat little fingers.  So last night I ran version 5 instead of v4.  That wasn’t a big deal.  I just hadn’t set up the stairmaster for that time.  It’s a slightly longer workout so I cut short the last challenge.

Finally I can’t figure out how to get the stairmaster to acknowledge odd numbers of minutes of a workout.  It only wants to rum for times that end in 0 or 5.  So it won’t set for things like 48 minutes.  I can just set it for 50 minutes, not a biggie, but that seems to mess with my idea of balance or something.

Despite all of my kvetching, it was a good workout last night followed by a dinner of a pork chop, leftover risotto and broccoli.

A good evening.

This weekend I mostly stayed home except for a few errands.  I hit the stairmaster and ate fairly cleanly.

I did a bit more furniture moving too.  It seems to be the best way to clean things.

2 more months of winter left!

After my whirlwind of furniture moving Saturday, Sunday I took it a bit easier.  I did my stairmaster workout.  Then I messed around the house doing odds and ends, watched a little football, did laundry and put the rest of my workouts on my nano.  I had forgotten how to do that last one, since I had forgotten how to make a playlist then move it over from the computer.

For dinner I made a skirt steak with a nice red wine pan sauce with roasted parsnips.  Doesn’t that sound fancy!  Pretty easy though.

I realized late in the afternoon, that I hadn’t left the house all weekend; unless you count walking to the mailbox.

So now my loaded nano awaits and I need to work up the energy to workout this evening.  I keep telling myself to start adding back some strength and abs, but I just don’t seem to do it.

Yesterday, I was very productive.  I did my time on the stairmaster.  My many and necessary electronics fought with me the whole time.

First off, the workout I wanted to do, CardioCoach v5 is 47:43 long.  So logically I should set the SM to 48 minutes.  It won’t do that.  It’ll set at 45 or 50.  I’m going to check the manual here in a minute to see if it will tell me anything.

Second,  I use endomondo on my android phone to track my heart rate (the workout are based on four heart rate zones).  About five minutes in, I apparently hit the stop button, so I lost some of the info.

Third, I’m using my Ipod Nano touch to play the workout.  I had it clipped to the hem of my shimmel.  In the middle of the workout, I accidentally touched the screen and advanced to the next track.

But despite my electronic klutziness, I at least got in my time.

I spent much of the rest of the day cleaning and rearranging future in the living room.  I moved my desktop computer in there too.

Moving my arts and crafts style furniture is hard work, especially my huge bookcase.  I have to empty it of books and use those plastic discs to slide it.  The funniest part was when I got to the part where I reload the books, I found I had not emptied the center section on the bottom.  No wonder it seemed harder to move!

Have a good day!

Composed with the assistance of Miss Kitty and her tail.

Ate really well yesterday.  Then did 45 minutes on the stairmaster.

I really need to start adding in the other stuff like abs and upper body.    But, A.  I actually like doing stairmaster (that’s probably a little masochistic on my part), B.  When I do it first I’m too cooked by the time I’m done.

I could, at least, do abs in the morning pretty easily.  But I need to post a couple of reminders, maybe in the bedroom, bathroom or on the coffeepot.  My brains do not work in the morning.

I was thinking as I drove in this morning, I think the stairmaster may benefit my cadence in consistency if not speed.  On the bike, there are always times you coast.  On the Stairmaster, you never stop.

Everybody have a good day!

I wish I had weighed before and after, because I lost a ton of sweat.

I used Cardiocoach v4 which is a 45 minute program of intervals with warmup and cool down.  Overall, I hung with it.  I did back off once in the middle.  That’s better than stopping.

I’m using Endomondo for heart rate tracking.  The funny part is it has built in GPS.  Between intervals, I jumped off of the machine to run across the room and turn on the ceiling fan.  When the workout uploaded to the website, that 10 foot dash showed up on the map.

I also did an abs workout.

Foodwise today, oatmeal for breakfast.  That’s good.   I did a little experimenting for lunch.  I had an avocado that needed to be used.  So I chopped it up and covered it with lime juice.  Then I mixed it with tuna, a bit of chopped shallot, some dried herbs from the summer.  I ate half of the mix on some lettuce and spinach.  It needs something.  For one thing, I should have salted the avocado before mixing it with everything else.  I probably should have used onion or scallion.  the shallot is too mild.  Summer tomato would have been really good.

Tonight for supper, I’m thinking about a fritatta.  I’ve never made one before

So I decided to ride, stay close to home and keep it in the hour range.  Got to wear my pretty winter jersey.

That worked well.

It’s funny what you think about while riding.  I no longer ride when it’s really cold.  My hands just cannot tolerate it.  The pain usually starts at the ends of my fingers.  So I thought about nail polish that is insulated or wind resistant.  Do you think there would be a big demand for that? Uh, probably not.

On the food front, I’m doing pretty well.  I’m down about three pounds.  Even if some of that is water, I think that’s decent for a week’s time.  I want to keep it at a healthy rate.

So a meal example.  Dinner tonight was a broiled tilipia filet topped with a mix of olive oil mayo, my own french herb mix, garlic, and lemon; roasted asparagus and couscous.

Today I also modified a Chai hot chocolate recipe to reduce the sugar and made it with skim milk.  Very good stuff.  I have more of that waiting for me in the frig and may have some for bedtime.

The weather forecast is the same for tomorrow, so maybe I can get out again.

As the holidays draw to a close, we start a new one with new plans.  Not resolutions, plans.

Saturday I went to Beaman Park to hike the Ridgetop Trail.  I had never been there before.  It’s surprisingly wooded and rural for a Nashville city park.  I used my android phone and the endomondo app for tracking purposes.  I would post a direct link but there doesn’t seem to be a way to that.  But I’m on the site as Susan P.

Sunday winter started to creep it’s way back with big winds and dropping temps.  But I recently prepared for that by buying my very own Stairmaster.  If you keep your eyes open on Craigslist long enough, you can find some good deals.  Although this one is a little older, it was lightly used and well-maintained.  It doesn’t have telementary for a heart rate monitor, so I just use the bluetooth one I have for my android along with endomondo.  I’ve had a little problem with that, it kept pausing.  But I figured out how to turn off auto-pause, so that should be taken care of for the future.

Sunday I did 40 minutes using CardioCoach v3.  Today (Monday) I did 45 minutes using v4.  I have versions 3 through 8, so hopefully that will keep me going for the winter.

I’m also working on the food front.  I want to drop about 12 pounds.  I basically use South Beach style eating.

I track my workouts on Fitocracy.  If anybody wants an invite to that site, let me know.  I’ll need an email address for you.  I don’t think you can just invite yourself.

I track my food on Sparkpeople.  I find the site a little goofy, but it has a good nutrition tracker with an app for the phone.

This post prepared with the aid of Miss Kitty.