I did my exercising outside this morning, jog/walked to the mailbox in under 20 minutes – a milestone for me!

Exercising Outside

Feeding the critters acted as a warm-up spell, but it was still cold when I sat the bucket down and departed toward the driveway. The rest of my body warmed up pretty good with the pace, but my hands stayed cold the whole time.

I jogged downhill until I got to the first creek crossing. Then I had to pick my way over the icy rocks and made it through without getting my feet wet. Then jogged to the next creek crossing where it was a little more difficult to find a way across, but made it too without wet feet.

I like exercising outside because I get to see nature while I’m at it, but it frustrates me sometimes to not stop and get closer looks. No camera on hand to slow me down or otherwise distract. But I wish I would have had it to take a picture of the icicles on the dripping bluff.

Walked the remaining 1/4 mile at a quick pace, tapped the mailbox and turned around to head back to the house. I jogged a short distance until the uphill became too hard to keep up that pace then walked to the first creek crossing and made it through with dry feet. Slipped a bit on the second crossing and got wet shoes, but the new cross-trainers are water resistant so it was only cold, not wet.

By the time I got back up the hill to the bucket I was pretty tired, but there was one last fairly steep uphill to go. We usually take this hill in 4wd in the trucks to keep from slipping and kicking rocks with the back tires.

Made it to the steps, about a mile total, in 19 minutes and 30 seconds. Not too winded and didn’t need to collapse on the couch once inside. Whoo-hooo! I’m making progress.

Outdoor Weight Training

After I recovered from my morning exercises, I later went back to the mailbox to actually check the mail. This time I used the four-wheeler. But I stopped at the second creek crossing and moved rocks around to make the floor a little smoother for the vehicles when we drive through it. I had my insulated

waterproof boots and gloves on for this.

I would have taken pictures of the icicles, too, but they had already melted. It was a lot warmer this afternoon than it was this morning, but the water was still frigid.

Now the crossing should be a little smoother. I haven’t tried it yet with a truck, but when I do if the placement wasn’t just right I’ll look for a few more rocks to put in the spots that still needs them.

If you like the more relaxing form of exercising in nature, you’ll probably enjoy my post on why it took me an hour to get to the mailbox and back.