So it's winter and cold and John and I aren't inclined to be out doing much walking or hiking so for exercise we've pulled out the Wii system again and started dancing to the "Just Dance" programs again. We bought them last winter just for that purpose, to have something to exercise with in the cold weather. It's still a lot of fun and we're building up slowly doing about 20-25 minutes a night right now aiming to stretch that time as we get our dance legs again.

Back before Christmas I had the other Gr. 4 teacher approach me asking if I would like to combine our two classes together in the New Year to work on our Gr. 4 dance unit, which is part of the gym program. She had decided to bring her Wii system to school, set it up in the gym with the big screen TV and have the students learn some of the routines from the "Let's Dance for Kids" program. Her daughter has done the dances so the teacher was quite familiar with them. It seemed like an inspired idea to me, as neither of us have training in teaching dance, so we set up the big screen TV in the gym for the first time today and gave it a try.

The kids loved it. First of all it surprised me that when I asked my class how many of them had danced to the "Let's Dance" program either at home or at someone else's house about 90% of them put up their hands. Those video game dance programs are popular. So when we started the dances in the gym all the kids got enthusiastically into it jumping and moving, swaying their arms. Even the kids I thought might be "too cool" for such things were having the time of their lives. So fun. We figure we'll do the Wii dances for 4-5 weeks twice a week. We'll just let them practice for the first two weeks and then in the last few weeks we'll observe and mark them for effort, stamina, coordination, ability to learn routines.

I figure this unit, plus the Medieval dance I will teach them later in the year for their Medieval Festival should work well.

Been looking to step up my exercise again and since I know I never kept to a walking plan more faithfully than when I was in a challenge, like "The Walk to Rivendell" challenge or the "Idita-rod" winter walking challenge I went searching the Internet for walking challenges.

Came across the Walking With Attitude website and it captured my imagination enough that I decided to sign up for a six month membership. The site is filled with a variety of walking challenges, many where you virtually walk famous hiking trails around the world. Once you sign up for a challenge you are provided with a virtual map that tracks your progress along the trail when you enter in how far you walked that day. Along each trail is a series of benchmarks and when you hit a benchmark (I hit my first one today) you are given a bunch of information and photos of that part of your trail, notice of it on your personal bulletin board and a congratulatory e-mail. Each member also has a virtual trophy case to place the trophies you win at the end of each hike you sign up for and complete. Right now I just have one trophy in my trophy case for signing up :). But I'm working on my first walking trophy!

I decided to start with a hike close to home, the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. The trail is 75 km. and walking 10,000 steps a day it's supposed to take 30 days, so if I stay faithful I should finish that virtual trail just about the time John and I are leaving for Banff! And it should put me in better condition to actually hike in Jasper, Banff and Yoho National Parks.

Right now my next virtual benchmark is the Gordon River, still early on the trail, but it has kept me on the road for four days, so it's a start.

I've also printed out the EowynChallenge.net "Hobbit" walking challenge, following in the footsteps of Bilbo and the dwarves from Rivendell to The Lonely Mountain - 570 miles. I figure I'll pin it up here by my computer and follow along with it at the same time as I'm doing the "Walking With Attitude" challenges. Let's see if I can get to the Lonely Mountain before Martin Freeman. When exactly is "The Hobbit" coming out again? If PJ gives me 'til the end of 2012 I might make it :).

Now that the weather is getting consistently nice again I'm trying to step up my power walking again. John's also getting a bit alarmed at gaining weight this winter, so he's taking up daily walking with me, too. My present goal is to try to walk an hour a day at least 5-6 times a week.

I find I tend to enjoy walking for exercise more when I take on some kind of challenge or a goal. The first walking challenge I took on was the Iditawalk Challenge back in 2002. The challenge was to walk as many minutes as the length of the Iditarod Dog Sled Challenge in Nome, Alaska. You have about 39 days between February and March to complete the challenge. I completed the challenge three years in a row and earned certificates and t-shirts for doing it.

In March of 2003 I took on The Walk to Rivendell challenge, where participants walked 458 miles, the equivalent distance that the hobbits walked from Hobbiton to Rivendell in "The Lord of The Rings". I even ran a chapter of the Rivendell challenge for 18 months and again earned myself a t-shirt and a tote bag. I eventually walked on to Lothlorien (about 1000 miles from Hobbiton) and ended up somewhere in the middle of the Anduin River before losing steam on that challenge.

folkmew has occasionally mentioned an exercise challenge called Get Fit on Route 66, which is again a timed challenge where you walk one minute for every mile of the 2448 mile route from Chicago to Santa Monica. There are maps to trace your route, sign markers along the way with fun information and the website sends you daily nutrition and exercise tips. It looks like fun and I think I'm going to try it.

Calculations show me that the Route 66 challenge takes about 40 hours, so my goal is to walk it before the end of June. After that I have another idea for a walking challenge of my own, but we'll see how this one goes first!

I usually plug the Idita-Walk Challenge earlier than this, but this year the time sort of got away from me.

( Third year's the charm.Collapse )

I have had my treadmill now for five days...

( And here's what I've learned.Collapse )

Yay, I got e-mail from Sears this morning telling me that my treadmill is ready to be picked up. We're going to go get it after school.

( Treadmill prep.Collapse )

I'm mad at Sears... but I just ordered a treadmill from them, anyway.

( The whole sad tale and a QUESTION.Collapse )

How's this for a stereotypical first day of the New Year post? Resolutions to do more exercise in 2005.

( Walking in one place and a QUESTION.Collapse )

I have extremely sore neck muscles this morning. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the new weights program I've started. Thing is I'm not sure yet if it's the typical soreness that comes with starting a new exercise program or if I'm doing something wrong with the weights program. Being that it doesn't feel anything like the soreness I've experienced before when starting some new exercise I'm suspecting the latter. As a result, I'm backing off on the weights some until I figure out what I'm doing wrong. It was weird, half-way through discussions with parents in my classroom last night suddenly I got this massive muscle spasm/twinge in my neck and it was an interesting experience to suddenly feel like a muscle had fallen off its track while continuing on with my professional face and discussion of students. This morning it's just sore.

I'm not quite sure what I may have done to bother my neck muscles so, but the top runners up seem to be that a) I'm using too heavy a weight too quickly in a beginner weight program (5 pound weight at present, figuring the heavier of my two weights would intensify a shorter work-out) or b) I'm not doing the exercises properly or c) I'm doing the wrong exercises in the wrong sequence for a beginner program or d) despite only doing 10 to 15 minutes a day maybe I shouldn't be doing weights daily until my body is more used to the program.

I want to do some research when I get home tonight to find a safer, more effective weights plan. I've taken note of the DVD that braider mentioned in my journal earlier in the week. Does anyone else know of a website/book/DVD with a good beginner weight program (preferably 10 to 15 minute sessions) that you could recommend to me?

In my fervor to keep up my exercise I just don't want to end up doing something stupid and hurting myself.

'Tis the season, so today we took our Gr. 4 to 8 runners out for their first cross-country running practice.

( Makin' the team.Collapse )