November fitness goals

A couple of months back, my most-disciplined-exerciser-in-the-world husband asked me what my fitness goals were for the next few months.  I'm glad he asked the question because I've been rather hit or miss in the exercise department.  More hit than miss, but still, on my mapmywalk monthly workout summary, there are far too many empty spaces.  I feel it in my legs when I hop on the bike.  I feel it in my arms when I get in the pool.  I am neither as strong nor as cardiovascularly (is this a word?) fit as I have been in previous months/years. I needed the gentle nudge of Coty's question to get me thinking more seriously about my goals and formulate a plan to put them into action!

So, here are my November goals.  I'm planning to ...

1)  Exercise on a regular schedule:

Swim - twice per week
Cycle - twice per week
Walk/run - twice per week
That gives me one day off.

The key to maintaining this workout schedule will be planning ahead for swim and cycling days.  It's no big deal to get out the door and walk, but with cycling, weather is a much bigger factor so I'll need to look ahead at the forecasts and figure out at the beginning of each week which days will be my cycling days.  Swimming takes advanced planning, too, since it requires a bigger chunk of time.  I have to drive to the pool and back and there's changing and shower time included.  Also, I like to swim when the pool is least crowded (middle of the day) so I have to do it on a day when my mid-day is free.

2) Talk to the Masters Swim coach at the aquatic center and find out about swimming with the Masters swim team.  OK, this feels pretty scary to me.  I've never been on a swim team, never had any swim coaching or training.  Just community pool swimming lessons as a kid and lifeguard training at the Y in high school.  I have a LOT to learn.  I feel sort of intimidated by this and don't know if I'll do it.  The practices are from 5:30-6:30 AM.  It's dark then.  And cold.  And you have to go and jump into a cold pool.  After driving in the dark.  And the cold. I hope the lights are on in the pool.  But the water will be cold.  You get my drift.

But, this is the year of overcoming cold and dark wimp-hood for me.  I'm determined.  I'm going to embrace the dark ... and the cold.  My new motto, with thanks to a Minnesota friend, is, "It's never too cold.  You're just wearing the wrong clothes."  (I don't know how that works with a bathing suit. Not much you can do there, unless you don a full wetsuit, which I don't own or plan on purchasing. But I guess I can make sure I'm clothed sufficiently warmly on the way to the pool and back which, frankly, will be much easier in North Carolina than in Minnesota. Thank goodness for that).

3) Finally, in keeping with the above determination and my new motto, I plan on cycling through the winter this year.  I'm figuring out what the "right clothes" for winter cycling are for a small Southern woman who is cold from October til June.  I have thermal tights.  I have full finger cycling gloves and insulated lobster mitts.  I have a very bright cycling windbreaker. I'm looking at thermal cycling shirts, balaclavas and shoe covers. I have a warm house to come home to, hot showers, hot tea, hot chocolate, a heating pad, a space heater, a down comforter, a hot husband ; )  If I get cold, guess what?! I can warm up again.  I hope.   

So, that's it.  Those are my November fitness goals.  If I survive the month, I'll press on through the rest of the winter.  Hold me to it. OK?

The end of summer

"The crickets sang in the grasses.  They sang the song of summer's ending, a sad, monotonous song. 'Summer is over and gone,' they sang, 'Over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying.'

The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into fall - the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change...

Everybody heard the song of the crickets.  Avery and Fern Arable heard it as they walked the dusty road ... Mrs. Zuckerman, at work in the kitchen, heard the crickets, and a sadness came over her, too. 'Another summer gone,' she sighed.

'Summer is over and gone,' repeated the crickets. 'How many nights til frost?' sang the crickets. 'Good-bye, summer, good-bye, good-bye, good-bye!'

The sheep heard the crickets, and they felt so uneasy they broke a hole in the pasture fence and wandered up into the field across the road ... a little maple tree in the swamp heard the cricket song and turned bright red with anxiety.'"

I read this chapter, "Crickets, " from Charlotte's Web to Clara the other day and thought that perhaps E. B. White felt the way I do about the ending of summer.  I never want it to end.  I want the long hot days to go on and on and on; for watermelons and corn and tomatoes and yellow squash and okra to keep ripening; for the farmers to continue bringing their produce on Monday afternoons to the little market by the railroad tracks.  I want to be hot enough that the cool, well water in the pool feels refreshing; to sweat when I walk; to hear the electric throbbing hum of the cicadas.

Down south, first frost is still a ways off.  We will have plenty of hot days in September, I'm sure.  I even thought about challenging myself to swim outside every day in September.  We'll see about that.

E. B. White, who wrote Charlotte's Web, lived in Maine, so Labor Day weekend really did signal the end of summer for him.  Fall was just around the corner, the brilliant colors of the maples and oaks, the harvest of apples, the chill of frost soon coming very soon.  We still have a bit of time.  September is not yet full-fledged fall here.  In October and on into November, we will have mild, shirt-sleeve days.

It's coming, though.  Leaves are already drying and drifting down.  The tulip poplars are the first ones that yellow and fall.  We scoop them out of the pool along with the last of the pink crepe myrtle blossoms.  I spotted a bit of red on the drooping leaves of an August-dry dogwood.  Mums are appearing in the garden centers.  Pumpkins will be here soon.

I don't want summer to end.  I'm not ready for sweaters.  And yet ...

I feel the dry, brittle grass in the front yard, see the summer weary beauty berry with hints of purple in the clusters of berries. The hosta blooms are spent, their stalks, dry pokers now.  The bronze fennel has gone to seed, .  So, let the season change.  Let the cool weather come.  E.B. White said these were the most beautiful days - the days when summer was changing into fall.  I understand but don't agree.  I still prefer March and April, with the promise of growth and warmth ahead, but I'll settle into the beauty of fall when it comes. I'll put a mum on the porch and change out the summer wreath on the front door and even enjoy wrapping up in a quilt on the porch in the chill of the mornings to come.