Snow Storms = Worthless

I get it, I live in Minnesota. To many, that supposedly means that I am unable to complain or vent about the massive amounts of snow we've had lately. We've had a particularly large amount in December. In fact, there have been more weekends of snow than of no snow. Right now, all of you who say, "You live in Minnesota. It snows. Get over it" or, "Get used to it," are receiving evil death stares from me. I will not get over it, nor will I get used to it. How does one really get "used to" cold and wet chunks falling out of the sky? Plus, it's typically not a gentle fall. The cold, wet chunks are generally accompanied by 30 mph winds. Stellar. Thanks, Minnesota.

Here is a pretty extensive list of why winter is awful. Maybe for fun I'll include a list of why it's nice. That list is guaranteed to be shorter.

1. Snow - It's pretty self explanatory really. It makes travel unbearable. Traveling down the block has been treacherous. To all those people mentioned above who say, "You live in Minnesota, get used to it." I say, "You live in Minnesota. It snows. Learn how to drive in it." Now, I fully understand the freakout factor of 4 inches of snow for drivers from anywhere below the Mason-Dixon line. I do not however, understand it for people living in Minnesota. I also understand slow cautionary speeds. What I do not understand is the idea that suddenly rules of the road do not exist when it's snowing. I'm talking to you in the Land Rover who turned left in front of me, as I was in the left turn lane and you were in the right lane. Did you see the red light at which I was stopped? I'm also talking to you in the white sports car, parked in an accessible spot when you have neither an accessible license plate, nor parking tag. By the way, not only did you park that way, you parked crooked, making it difficult for people with an accessible vehicle to open a ramp, or even simply get out of their car. I hope Target towed your sorry butt. If you forgot your hang tag at home, I apologize for the rant, except for the crooked parking. Even though you can't see the lines on the ground, you can tell that you're not perpendicular to the curb or parallel to the car next to you.

2. Cold - Miserable. Plain and simple. Some people try to tell me it's equally miserable in the summer when it's 95 degrees out with 80% humidity. It may be "uncomfortable" however, last time I checked it doesn't physically hurt to breathe like it does when it's 10 below zero.

3. Darkness - Though I thouroughly enjoy darkness when I'm sleeping, I do not enjoy leaving for work when the sun is barely up and returning when it is most definitely down.

4. Impedes Exercising - There are a lot of excuses for not exercising. Cold weather and snow don't help. I can't run outside due to my lungs feeling like they're being stabbed every time I take a breath. It's difficult to get to the gym because it takes me an hour to get there in snowy traffic. Then, once there, I most likely will not find a parking space due to mountains of snow taking up the spots. I do not care to park in another parking lot, or down the street due to having to walk in the cold. Refer to number 2. I also do not care to put my life in danger in order to get to the gym. In conjunction with this, winter brings holidays, holidays bring overeating, overeating brings new year resolutions of weight loss, new year resolutions bring an over crowded gym. I've got serious business to attend to on that treadmill/stair stepper/ bike/leg press/bench press. If you're not going to be here by March, you shouldn't be here now. You're wasting both of our time.

5. Sickness - Closed quarters and people are germ magnets.

For all that is wrong with winter, here is what is good

1. Christmas!!! Best. Holiday. Ever. But, let it be known that the birth of Jesus more than likely took place in the spring.

2. Working for the Gophers - Now most don't associate work with pleasure, but this part time job pretty much rocks. It's easy and the people I work with are great. I make extra money to sit in a ticket office and spend time with fun people. This job only happens Sept-May, which often equates to Minnesota winter. It's fairly perfect since I'd probably rather enjoy my summer than worry about shifts with the Gophs.

Short list of positives huh?

Now, all of this ranting and raving aside, the month of December, despite it's snow, has been pretty fruitful with workouts. Jill and I have been fairly faithful in our trips to the gym. We've been pretty good at doing a strength workout and a cardio workout in one trip to the gym. This means we're getting optimal results from our efforts. Don't forget, combining strength and cardio in one trip to the gym burns significantly more calories than doing just one or the other. It has to do with stored energy usage but I won't go into that now. Mental note for a future post. Always remember to do your strength training first. It provides the maximum usage of stored energy. It's most efficient, and your less likely to fatigue during your strength training portion. This means one will get the most out of a bout of strength training.

Jill and I switch between 3 strenth training rotations. This isn't the only way to train, but for us it's most effective. Since we aren't looking to build significant amounts of muscle (gross) we trade up muscle groups each day. Here's what we do:

Day 1: Triceps, chest and shoulders - This includes most things that require a "pushing" motion away from the body. Pushups are a good example of this. We also do a lot of skullcrushers (sounds awesome right?) and chest presses/flies.
Day 2: Biceps and back - This includes a "pulling" motion towards your body. Pull ups with a closed grip are a good bicep and back workout, as are standard bicep curls and rowing motions.
Day 3: Lower body/legs - Both of us have pretty strong legs so we can crank this out pretty quickly, with minimal amounts of soreness so we don't break it up into 2 days. This reminds me that we havn't done our glutes for a while. Mental note for next week. :)

You may be wondering about abdominals and core muscles. Well, as it turns out, those muscles are some of the fastest to recover so one can work on them daily. Usually Jill doesn't want to hear that.

I like to be sure we have a lot of variety in our workouts so we've been keeping a log. We also log our weights so we can see progress and adjust if need be. Variety is key to not getting bored. Boredom often leads to quitting.

Everything seems to be paying off because I am seeing some definite results in our bodies. Both of us are significantly stronger. My arms haven't been this shapely since I worked at the warehouse. Mostly because I never cared to work out my upper body. Jill no longer groans when I mention most exercises. She suggests doing wall sits. That has been a groaner in the past. She even runs without me telling her to! I'm happy to hear that she's at a point where she gets bored with simply walking on the treadmill. A two minute run then two minute walk, repeated multiple times, is a great step for someone who is not a runner by nature.

On a marathon note: It seems that registration through my office has been delayed a bit. I'll now be able to register by the end of January. I'm excited to get started on fundraising. Real training commences in April. Wahoo!

I will not be at the gym until Monday due to going to South Dakota for Christmas. I will try to get in a workout at the Heber's. Erich's mom said I could use the treadmill so that is FANTASTIC! Now, let's see if I actually do it. Thanksgiving was not so productive. I shall report back later.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Cookies, long runs, and Afghani pizza

Since Thanksgiving I've been getting into the Christmas spirit. This is pretty normal for me. To start, I tuned the car radio to the 24/7 Christmas music stations both on XM and regular radio. It annoys Erich to no end but I allow him to change it if we're in the car together. On Saturday I decorated the apartment including putting up the tree. Sunday brought about cookie baking with Jenna!!! We made peanut butter kisses, ginger snaps, shortbread, frosted sugar cookies, monster cookies, peppermint bark, peanut clusters, pretzel hugs and rocky road fudge. Woo hoo! I brought a lot of the cookies to work today so I wouldn't have to eat them all, however I just ended up eating them at work. :) Christmas baking is awesome.

The excessive amounts of Christmas treats must have been great fuel for my run today. I did 45 minutes of running and it felt really good. I had great form, got into a groove quickly and stayed there. I can't wait to make 60 minutes! When I was done I had a serious runners high and was ridiculously sweaty! Grotesquely sweaty actually. So sweaty that I felt really bad sitting in Crescent Moon waiting for my pizza to be done.

This leads me to the Afghani pizza portion of my post. I've been given a recommendation from two people to visit Crescent Moon which is just down the street from my apartment. It's an Afghani restaurant and I really like Middle Eastern foods. Hence my love for Holy Land which is coincidentally down the street as well. My supervisor told me to try the house special, Afghani pizza, spicy. It was one of the best recommendations I've ever received. Holy wow. We decided to finally give it a try as a celebration for Erich getting a new job (more later) and it turned out to be a great celebration for my tongue as well. If in Minneapolis and craving a different kind of pizza, definitely check out Crescent Moon on Central and 23rd in Nordeast.

As I mentioned above, Erich got a new job. On December 20, he'll be starting with the Timberwolves. He's going to be doing box office operations. We're looking forward to the change and to Erich having his summers back. Also, we can now carpool to work!

On to be unproductive and finish my evening with many episodes of The Big Bang Theory. Thanks Meredith.