I moved to Flagstaff to have weather. Changes in weather. Rain. Snow. Wind. All that and a bag o' chips. Well 78 out of the last 81 days have had no measurable precipitation and all we've had is wind - big wind - during a normally calm fall season. The forecast calls for 10 more days in the 50's and 60's with nothing but sun. The trails are dry, and the riding is good - but my snowboard is tuned with nothing to do.
Time for a change since the days are all too short right now meaning riding time has been squeezed into a small timeframe. So I've re-entered the world of strength training. Not at the gym - hell no - I can't succumb to the pressure of lifting weights alongside buffed out 20-year olds with sticks for legs, trophy wives with racks of Gibraltar who catch a peek of themselves in the meathead mirrors any chance they get, and everybody - I mean everybody - has headphones on. Crazy anti-social...........but the real reason I'm skipping the gym is that I like my little home setup.
For me it means a chin up bar in the garage, and an old piece of outdoor carpeting on the cement floor for pushups and crunches. Bodyweight exercises, something I've been doing intensely on and also intensely off for about 10 years. Rocky-style, man. Maybe I'll lift some logs in the snow and throw them off a cliff and scream in Russian, or run 15 miles in a blizzard with no shirt with songs from SURVIVOR on my headphones. OK -scrap that. The truth is I have a space heater in my garage and my bike on a stand so I can do repairs in between sets. It's pretty comfortable. Call it the man-cave, call it a poor man's gym. The goal is to stay dedicated to this for three months and emerge a little bit stronger for the 2009 race season. Eye of the Tiger baby.
Steve's gym? The rec-room in the basement with the following equipment: an elliptical, the skinny tires on the trainer and an exercise ball. Just a little more indoors than your plush set-up. Also have a 27" screen to watch hockey games while I sit and spin. And a stereo with the cd player set to auto replay. What cd you ask? "Maniac 80s Workout". A lovely compilation cd of various, hot 80s artists including Michael Sembello (Maniac), Billy Idol (Dancing W/ Myself), Berlin (Sex), Madness (Our House), Pat Benatar (Hit Me W/ Your Best Shot), Toni Basil (Mickey), Wang Chung (Dance Hall Days), Klymaxx (Meeting in the Ladies' Room) and others. This cd will really get those ol' full-sized Technics speakers rockin'.
ReplyDeleteKlymaxx? Dude - sweet gym you got over there in 'Sconnie. You should charge Julie just to pass through to the laundry room when she's doing skirtwork.
ReplyDeleteKlymaxx? OK - i admit I know the chorus to that song.
All that is missing is the hanging beef punching bag.
ReplyDeletehuhuhuh... I said hanging beef.