What snow means to me

We have been getting a lot of snow here in Virginia recently. My parents are still under more than 2 feet of snow up in Northern Virginia. Here in Richmond, we have had a great deal of snow also. I always like it when it snows. Mostly for selfish reasons. When it snows, I get to do more of what I want. We have missed some work and had some late openings. Plus this past weekend, we were pretty socked in. All of this extra time at home allows me to work out more. Also, I love to shovel snow so this winter has been really great in that respect.

Today was another snow day. But the county did not decide to call off school until about 7:15AM. When they checked the roads at 4 AM like they usually do, everything looked fine and the forecast called for little or no accumulation from the storm that was coming. Unfortunately for the county administrators, the snow came like a blizzard and there were white out conditions. I was lucky. I don't leave until the last possible minute so I had not left when I got the call that school was closed. Some others were no so lucky. The emails from my coworkers were flying back and forth describing road conditions all over town. We all have mobile devices that allow us to keep up with email no matter where we are so I heard from all different parts of town that the roads were terrible and it was like a blizzard out there.

Also unfortunate was the fact that some students had been picked up by the buses already. Some buses turned around and took the kids back home. Some took the kids to school where they stayed until parents could be contacted. Needless to say, parents were pretty upset about the whole ordeal. Buses were sliding around, cars were in ditches, there was even a 50 car pile up on one of the highways. Later in the day, we received an apology message from the county. Apologizing was probably a good idea. That probably lessened the outrage or at least the number of people vocally complaining to the county about it. They were probably still mad but some were probably willing to forgive.

For me, it meant I could do more working out and get some chores done as well as go out to lunch with Melissa which is always nice. I managed to get a bunch of laundry done and get in a very long workout. I rode the bike for 45 minutes during a live Manchester United game. After the ride, I did all my PT exercises plus upper body work including bicep curls, tricep curls, overhead presses, dumbbell flys, chest presses, and push-ups with the inverted BOSU ball. I do 3 sets with 10 reps on each exercise. After all that, I did my BOSU ab workout. I have not attempted part 2 of the BOSU abs workout yet because it starts out kneeling and I am not quite ready to do all that. Since I got such an early start on my exercises, that gives me more time to ice.

So here I am with 1 week left before I go to the doctor. I still have some pain in my knees but they really get better everyday. I am hoping the doctor can tell how hard I have been working. And I am hoping he can give me a better idea of what I can expect in the coming months. My exercises are getting a little old and I am ready to start being able to do other things. I will probably have to continue doing the PT for quite some time but I am thinking eventually I will be able to cut back to a few times a week so I can d0 other kinds of workouts. Just in time for Spring I am hoping.

I have one race on my radar at the moment. Sunday, September 5th is the Shenandoah 100. The race is a 100 mile mountain bike race that is supposed to be quite grueling but also very fun. I have some friends who have participated a couple of times but they have yet to actually finish the race. Right now, when I ride my trainer, I do have a very slight pain in my left knee when I finish riding but during the ride, it does not hurt at all. I am hoping that my Glucosamine regimen helps with my knee joints. It takes about 3 months for the Glucosamine to start to have beneficial effects. I will be approaching the 3 month mark in about a month and a half. So we will see.

Tomorrow we open 2 hours late. I am going to try to get up early and get some sort of workout in. I have recently added the foam roller routine. Basically you roll your quads, glutes, and IT Band on the foam roller as a sort of self massage. It is very helpful to loosen up tight muscles. I may just wake up and try to do some stretching and foam roller. I don't have a good track record for getting up to work out before work but there is a first time for everything.

Thanks for reading.