Thursday, September 17, 2009

A Durango Workout

The babies were in rare form yesterday. They pretty much cried, screamed, hollered, and fought the entire day. (My friend, JD, can totally vouch for this as he called during one of their many squealing fights.) Since Reed had already hollered out "Oh Mannnn!" and they had finished the "Backpack dance", Dora just wasn't holding their attention anymore, and I decided to take them out for a walk. (Sure they screamed, cried, and fought through most of it, but the screams seemed much quieter outside than in my house.) I know I've posted before about how hard it is for me to walk to the mailbox, but I was so desperate to get out of the house, I thought I'd give walking in the neighborhood another try. So as I left the house, I strapped on my heart rate monitor just so I could report back to y'all about my leisurely walk. (AKA: pushing twins up a mountain.) Just so you know, I wasn't running, jogging, or even doing the fast-booty-shaking-arm-pumping-walk. I was walking (behind a twin stroller). My heart rate reached 158 beats a minute. Now since I haven't worked out in so long, I'd kinda forgotten what that even means, but I figured it was pretty high since I was gasping and sweating. I checked online (mayoclinic.com as a shout out to the MN relatives) and it said that my target heart rate for exercise is 130-157 beats per minute. That means I was above my target heart rate just by walking! Now I know some of you might be thinking, "Well Jan, shouldn't that show you how out of shape you are?" Well, No. It's not about me being out of shape (which I do know I am), it's about how the terrain and the elevation here can make just walking a true workout. No wonder everybody's so skinny and fit in this town!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could hardly walk to Gate 24 at the Denver Airport. I agree. MR

Friedt Family said...

158?! Girl, you sit down immediately! You need to get one of those motorized shopping carts with a big basket on the front for the babies! Or get two of those "baby leashes", strap them to the front of the stroller and you ride for a little while:-) BTW, we appreciate the shout out...I work for Mayo so I'll let them know that their online advice was useful:-)

Shelley said...

That is so funny. As I've been back-reading your blogs, I was wondering how the mailbox hike was going and almost texted you to find out about 10 minutes ago! Happily, I got to this blog and all questions were answered. Good luck with that! ;) Shel