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Exercise vs. Hardwood Floor

Well, it's certainly been a while.  I have wanted to write, but each time I start, I change my mind about posting what I've written. 

Things on the running front have been pretty quiet.  I have a couple of big races lined up in the first half of next year, which kind of scares me, because I can feel that my running endurance is nowhere near where it should be.  After a 5K on July 4th, my racing for this year pretty much ended, due to a combination of factors such as lack of races that allure me and our big trip in November that leaves us kind of strapped for time... and superfluous race funds. 

Speaking of funds, I'm a homeowner now! Now that we've at least got a bed and refrigerator, I consider ourselves moved in, because we finally got to spend the night, on the nine-month-i-versary of our wedding. The couch, dining room table, and TV can wait... right?!


I'm still in that weird mode in which doing anything takes much longer, because I am unfamiliar with where things are located (at least the half of things that are not still at the apartment).  Plus, there's always that "icky" feeling that I get in any new place, even though I KNOW I have cleaned the heck out of everything.

Part of all this new-ness is getting my exercise routine to some state of normalcy.  Prior to this change, I had been working out 6-7 days a week, running about 3 of those days.  The past couple of weeks have been "weekdays only," as you might guess, though moving and initial yardwork are no sneeze.  Additionally, now that I've quit the gym, I have no other option but to work out at home.  As for running, I did my usual route around my old place one last time last Thursday and have yet to explore the new neighborhood.  It's been getting darker each morning (~5:30 AM), so these days, I wait for "The Ukrainian" to be available in the morning to run.  This is particularly important now, because as I was driving out to work, I saw three male peacocks walking freely on the next block that would have given me a cardiac episode had I seen them on a run by myself.

Anyway, I instead cranked out the iPod and did Insanity.   I know those workouts so well that I only need the verbal cues, so this works out well for me.  Now, I'm used to doing these workouts in socks on carpet, so I need to figure out what to do on this new surface.  For now, socks on a large rug worked decently (some rug tape on the bottom would make it even better), but I'm pretty sure the poor rug will die if I keep at it... not to mention, there are sometimes TWO of us working out.

I've done a little research and am not certain any of the solutions will work without turning any given room in our small-ish house into an outright gym.  We have a second bedroom that currently is going to store things that don't fit in other rooms, but I would hate to get used to having a "gym" and then losing it later if kids come along.  So I'm stuck with the living room, and I really need to protect the floor -- I'm so paranoid about the wood on the floors that I have only been using a specialty cleaner on them.  This definitely means NO shoes (I had the same rule in the carpeted apartment, too, hence working out in socks).

I'll post an update when I (hopefully!) find a solution.  Meanwhile, any input is appreciated.

Comments

  1. Congrats on the new place!

    Can you use a couple of yoga mats for the workouts? Or the mat over the carpet? That's what I did with the Nike training workouts, but there's not much jumping.

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