Kedges

3 Kedges for me.

1. Stay in shape for annual "Geezer Ski" Trip to Colorado.
2. Stay in shape for hiking with grandsons on Appalachian Trail
3. Atlanta Half-Marathon (Still Thinking about this one) Got to make up my mind soon. It's Thanksgiving Day.

I'm training for the Breast Cancer 3 Day in November. I'll be walking 60 miles in 3 days. I finished my first 8 mile training walk last week and felt great. I probably could have gone another mile or 2.

No problems with my cardio, it's my geezer knees that I have to take care of. When I got back they were already getting swollen, so I iced them and the next day felt good enough to do a 5 mile walk.

I keep my pace between 3.5 to 3/8 mph.

After reading all this I realize that I've only ever done one kedge and I had no idea it was called that at the time. I took (and passed) the USSF class C licensing course for soccer coaches. If you think you're in shape, try running around on a soccer field all day long for 2 weeks with a bunch of recent ex-college soccer players. I was about 50 at the time.

My next kedge is going to be the 3-day 60-mile walk for breast cancer awareness, I'm going to do the one in Tampa (October 2008) because I have a good friend who lives in that area who is very involved in it and does it every year. She's been bugging me for years to join her. They're held all over the country in case any one else wants to do one. It's an opportunity to raise money for a good cause and test yourself at the same time.

this is a strange one, but i'm 55 and have never been able to do a pushup, a REAL pushup, or a pull up.
I have been training since, what, February? and last Friday i did 2 pushups, and then when my husband came home, i repeated the trick. Now i'm up to 3. I am absolutely thrilled. and i have triceps that show, and definition in my forearms... and that under your arm flabby thing?
it's GONE!!!
Still working on the pullups

I have completed kedge; a beginners kedge; my first kedge. But today I cheer ! Let me set the background: 2 months ago I could hardly ride the recumbant bike at the gym a full 15 minutes. I am overweight; my knees and hips hurt from inactivity, falls, arthritis-- whatever body parts hurt from at age 60 ! But today I am pounds lighter and have completed a 3 mile walk to raise money for the Arthritis Foundation in my area ! I exceeded my goal to raise money for the Foundation -- and I met my own personal goal to become YNY and complete a Kedge ! Today I walked " for those who cannot walk for themselves". I am triumphant in my own small way. For those of you who are just starting out to be YNY like I am --- don't give up--together we can accomplish our goals!

Hockey Anyone?

If a Kedge is to get you motivated or re-motivated here's one that works for me. I am 49 years old, and have never been an athlete, but I took up hockey a few years back and found it to be super fun!
Yes I mean ice hockey. I was not a good skater when I started but I am improving as the years go by. We only play from January to March each year so I have to do something from April to December to keep in some sort of shape for Hockey Season. I used to play with a ladies team, but they folded, so now I play with the "Oldtimers" Rec team (all men) every Friday night. I can't keep up to them, but trying is sure a work out!

Cathy (crazy canuck) Cornwell Brown

ps I am a CANADIAN!!

I am asuming a kedge is a goal...I'm 50 in July, I refuse to go down without a fight. I was divorced 6 years ago and since then have gained 40 lbs...My kedge is to be able to pull myself up on water skis again, by my birthday. I started eating vegetarian, (because this is what makes me feel the best and gives me the most energy) on February 13th, 07, and have lost 20 lbs. I picked up your journal,and am adding that to my regime. I plan to be at least another 20 lbs lighter by July 27. Never give up, never give up, never give up..... Judith

One of my little kedges is playing hockey with a bunch of other "oldtimers". ( I am 49 this year) Our tiny town of 120 people, plus farmers from the surrounding area, had 5 hockey teams at one time - 2 men's, 2 kids, and one ladies team. I played on the ladies team for about ten years, then one year half of them either got pregnant or moved away and that was the end of that. Luckily, some of the oder guys wanted to retire from the regular teams, and started up an oldtimers rec night . They invited the few ladies who had no team any more to come out and play too, so every Friday night from January to March (natural ice!!) we get out and zoom around and have a wonderfuyl time! our oldest player is about 65.

I find it really motivates me to do more exercise between games so I can TRY to keep up with those other old guys!! Lots of fun!

OK. Here's my kedge:

My good friend of 31 years and I go to Chile each August to ski for a week. This year will be our third trip. We vow to go every year for as long as we're able.

Leave the wives and children at home, rendevous in Atlanta, board the Delta #146 to Santiago. We arrive at 7:30 AM in Chile, catch a minivan to Valle Nevado. Last year we were on the slopes at 11:30 AM. Way cool.

No frills....just ski from 9 to 5 everyday....back to the room for a shower....maybe veg-out in the heated pool before dinner....great 4 course meal with a little Chilean vino... then sleep. Get up next morning....repeat for 8 days.
Valle Nevado is great www.vallenevado.com Some folks like Portillo...need to try that someday but changing from VN would be tough. It has it all...even heli-skiing.

It's a great "guy thing". Very energizing and a wonderful respite from the Houston heat. (HOUSTON....in AUGUST...are you KIDDING!!!) Where do you think you'd rather be? LOL!

Anyone who is interested can email me at blindtex52@gmail.com Will give you some pointers.

Yep. It's a kedge all right!

Tom

Not sure if this is where you would like us to enter our Kedges but...
First Kedge, set November 2006 - Big Climb in Seattle, 69 floor stair climb in the Columbia Tower. Completed last week, March 18, 2007. Not last im my age groop but close. 144 of 147.

Next Kedge, STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride. Mid July 2007 - 100 miles per day for two days. Wish me luck.

We once had to kedge a bare-boat charter sailboat off a sand bar in Tahiti, so this is a really meaningful term or me.

I am blessed to live in La Jolla, CA, where the outdoor weather is always friendly. My cardiovascular exercise of choice is brisk walking - can get into the middle of my my target range (had to set my heart monitor for 14 years younger than I am to get the right range) at 4.2MPH pace.

Ways I motivate myself:

Do strength training weekly with a personal trainer

Do a semi-private Pilates session on a reformer with a friend weekly

Volunteer weekly with an organization that teaches disabled children to ride and spend the day saddling horses, leading horses (often at a trot - me and the horse), running beside a horse to keep the child from sliding off, shoveling, occasionally riding a horse, and otherwise both working up a sweat and doing something for the world. Both feel really good.

Wear a pedometer and log my steps daily - the 4 days I do my slow and fast cardiovascular workouts, getting over my goal is easy - other days it takes some doing. I aim for 10,000 or more every day, often hit twice that. Some evenings will find me walking up and down the sidewalk in front of my house to get my quota. Keeps me moving every day. I probably would not be so faithful if I weren't logging it, and all my other exercise and food, daily.

Schedule a 10k or half marathon occasionally.

Walk 6 miles briskly with a local YMCA group - they walk 5 days a week.

Hike in the mountains or desert or along the ocean - all easily accessible.

Join one of the many walks Walkabout International has locally each week - hope to do one of their international trips once of these days.

Take a week bike tour (just had to cancel one scheduled for next month - hubby went over the handlebars as he swerved to avoid a small child who had careened into his path - shattered his arm.)

Do the Susan B. Komen 60 mile walk - it was great fun, and raised a lot of money for cancer research. May do it again.

Promise myself a pedicure when I reach a goal (no intrinsic exercise value, but keeps me going)

Take international trips to countries I want to see, then walk
dozens of miles daily exploring city streets and country roads. Some favorite walking places have been tiny streets dead-ending in canals in Venice, the Great Wall, the heaths of Cornwall, Paris, the back roads in Pompeii, Luxor, Sydney, Anegada, Breckenridge, and on and on. The only place I've been that wasn't that great for walking was the Serengeti - too many lions...

My ace in the hole when the whole thing just seems to be too hard - a week at Rancho la Puerta, trying new ways to exercise, eating perfectly, and generally relaxing. This was my first kedge after reading your book last summer, but not my first trip there.

LOVE your book, have read both the men's and women's version, recommended to a lot of people, bought it for a few close friends, natter on about it to anyone who will listen. As a chemistry major, loved the science of it. As a long-time (but not well focused) exerciser, loved the structure of the exercise recommendations, as well as the advice on food, relationships and meaning in life. Excellent job! THANK YOU.

i'm at a loss. i'm one of those total non-athletes they talk about in YNY. if there is an "athlete within" she is totally beyond detection at this point. i just did my first 2 sesions with a trainer, i can barely type, my arms are so sore, and i'm finding it hard to think that in 3 months i'll be able to much more that just keep doing it. i'm not whining -- well, okay, i am -- but i'm not coming up with anything i'll be in shape to do beyond the usual 5k walk-type things that hold no appeal to me. it needs to be FUN. i'd LOVE some ideas.

OK. Here's a kedge for all the skiers. Steve, my buddy of 31 years, and I are returning to Chile in August for our third annual ski trip. We leave the families behind.....just the guys for a solid week of skiing. On the lifts in the morning, ski hard all day (no crowds), have a nice dinner in one of 5 restaurants at the base, in bed by 9:30 pm....Repeat! Just great. We've pledged (and the wives seem willing) to do this every year as long as we live.

Steve is in Connecticut while I'm in Texas. We try to meet with the girls in Colorado or Utah in the winter for a second ski trip but we don't always hook up. We have similiar interests, lifestyles, philosophies so that we get along great, yet we are different enough that we stimulate each other with different perspectives and ways of thinking. So I think we come away from the trip with a new vitality. Pretty close to kindred spirits but not clones.

Our decision-making process is simple.....He who gives a (insert favorite curse word here) wins! So, with any event that requires an action or judgement we simply ask the other, "Do you give a ......?"
If the answer is "Yes", then that's what we do. Otherwise, we skip it.
Works for us. :-)

We greatly look forward to these trips. It's just one week out of the year but a nice side-effect of getting older (me -54; Steve - 59) is that time speeds up so much. So it seems to come faster each year and the memories of the previous two years are still very fresh.

So, that's my kedge......get your favorite buddy and go do the thing you most enjoy. 50% of the pleasure is in the planning/dreaming...but before and after. Guard the time jealously...don't be swayed by events....commit! But remember, always buy Travel Insurance! LOL!

For those interested, we go to Valle Nevado, Chile www.vallenevado.com We book through a travel agent in USA...all is prepaid before we go. It's an "all-inclusive" resort and very reasonable by US standards. Lower costs in Chile more than offset the airfare, IMO. Ski season is June- Sept/Oct. Book early, before April, for the best rates.

For pics, http://www.flickr.com/photos/blindtex52Cheers!

Tom

My next Kedge is a walk across the Grand Canyon (24 miles) in one day this May. We will walk from the North Rim to the South Rim, spend the night and next day on the South Rim then turn around and walk back to the lodge on the North Rim. Like doing 2 marathons in 3 days but with a lot of elevation and heat. It has been a great motivator to get in gear and train. I am 61, just read your book and am looking forward to setting many wonderful challenges in the years ahead. I was a ski guide for 17 years with Chicago Ridge Snow Cat Tours based out of Ski Cooper. I decided not to return this year so I could devote more time to other activities. Still ski every week or so at Monarch which is close to my home I live.

Been dreadful about keeping this up. What I did do, before coming out here to Aspen, was crank up the aerobics about 20% (not enough but a help) and crank up the weights, especially the leg stuff, by about 40%. The upshot: now I'm here and feel pretty good. Wish i'd done more...especially cross training and core workouts, but not bad. Today is day three in the hills and I feel pretty great. Certainly good enough for your basic, 72 year old skier. And not ridicuous for your basic, 52 year old skier. It works.

And here's the kedge messsage: A slight sag in spirits and optimism about aging is...turned around. Yet again. So kedge. It works. Again and again.

I'm pushing 66 and have found after years of marathons, tris, weight training and swimming that I need what I like to call "negative kedges," sort of like a brief hibernation where - for just a day or two - I sleep as long as I want, lie around the cave, read, eat modestly, listen to music, and just chill out. It's marvelously restorative. I go back to my workouts rejuvenated, fired up, and well-rested. I think Percy Cerutty - the coach of undefeated miler and Olympic Champion Herb Elliot - also advocated this. I've simply created my own version of it.

Chris -you mentioned in your book that there was something on your website regarding "new gear." I am interested in upgrading to a new road/tri-bike & would like to know what you suggest.