The Importance of Backups

Nothing worse than opening your tunes and watching the battery life drop from half full to a red sliver. I've worked out without my tunes and that's an exercise in patience as I try to drown out the ambient noise and music and errant snippets of conversation. Nope. Much better to have tunes even if I'm so used to the songs that they barely register as music. Luckily, I always carry a small backup battery and USB-lightning cable in my winter coat (the phone is old and cold-sensitive, so a battery backup has been critical this winter). I plug in the battery and watch the iPod spring back to life. 

Earlier today I had to rely on another type of backup: a hardened steel utility shovel. I keep that and a snow shovel in the back of my Subaru. Although temps are well above freezing, the packed snow at the dog park is deep enough to have an insulating layer of ice several inches thick. It's not a problem anywhere except at the gates where it is critical that they are able to open and close freely. When I arrive this morning, both gates are open, with ice impeding their ability to shut properly. I let the dogs into the park and hold the gate closed while chipping away at the icy ground. After 10 minutes, I'm satisfied that the gates can be secured and won't open on their own or if dogs should leap up on them. 

If I hadn't had that utility shovel to chip away the ice, I wouldn't've been comfortable letting the dogs run loose through the park. The park is also the reason I've put an extra snow shovel in my car. Although the shed atop the Bark Park hill has a snow shovel, you actually have to get the gate open and yourself up the steep path to access it. So, after a big winter storm, you need a shovel to remove the snow blocking the gate just to get to the shovel. Yep.

I'm pleased that after an entire week away from the gym, I still get a decent workout on the elliptical. (There's been a lot of shoveling.) The gym is really cold though and I don't work up much of a sweat. Push-ups were a tad weak but pull-ups felt strong all the way up to the last rep. I'm hoping to work back up a few more reps, maybe even back to where I was two years ago. I can hope... 

23 February 2021
Another Icy Slushy Tuesday

Precor elliptical
35 min
Program 3
HR n/a
Cal 320
Distance 2.87

Crunches x 60 x 2
Piriformis Stretch
Plank 60s
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Bent Knee Glute Kickbacks 25 x 2
Plank 60s
Pushups 50
Piriformis stretch et al

Sneaky HGPU 15

Seated Cable Row
70 lbs x 15 reps
85 x 12
92.5 x 10, 10, 10