Thought I’d record a little garden shed gym update as I’ve had a few sessions there now. I’m not sure what the spiders make of this new intrusion into their environment.
Others in the neighbourhood may have noticed as well; I think the next door neighbours spotted me and my head torch as I came back to the house one evening. Not that there was anything weird about that on the surface. I was, however, wearing my cycling shorts and a short sleeved teeshirt and it was freezing at the time. In fact we were having a little sleet and to see me tiptoeing around outside must have been a strange sight. Next are some other neighbours who have these crazy dogs. You only have to sneak towards the end of the garden and they hear me and start growling and barking away. Not that I care but they are still annoying.
My actual sessions in my little gym consist of:
- 20 minutes on the bike. I set the timer on my phone and have become pretty good at guessing when the time is almost up. I do the usual thing of 4 or 5 minutes warming up with a moderate pace in an easy gear, then harder to push my heart rate up for a few minutes. Then I repeat that a few more times and finish with a couple of easy minutes. All this is sufficient to get me a little sweaty and feeling nice and warm.
- Stretching comes next, or at least just my legs. I do a variety of stretches and hold them for 30 to 60 seconds.
- Weights for my arms and shoulders.
- The Plank. I used to be able to hold The Plank for at least 1 minute 30 seconds, sometimes over 2 minutes. Nowadays I can just about hold for 1 minute 10 seconds. So clearly homework to be done there!
And the music!
I started off feeling pretty excited about the prospect of playing some of my old records while I pedalled away. I retrieved my Garrard SP25 Mk 2 turntable from my mother-in-law’s garage and dusted it off. This is the first time it had been plugged in and used since 1995. I found my Dual amplifier in our loft, together with a handful of records (seems most of my records are missing or suspect I gave them away years ago).
The main issue was having no speakers. A long time ago I had sold my black KEF speakers as Rachel had a aversion to black, dark, heavy things in our small house. Shame really as these were the best part of my little system. I remember they were covered in a black fabric all the way around and probably mid-range at the time.
So an appeal on Facebook had a few offers of different speakers come my way, either free or for a song. I accepted the kind offer of a pair of Mission 77 speakers. These are really nice, with a lovely sound quality. Appearance-wise they are very dated and therefore fit the other components beautifully.
With a bit of excitement, I wired it altogether in our dining room as a test blast. It all worked and WOWEEEEE I thought, this is amazing. I have been so used to listening to music through the little speakers in my Honda car, or through my ear buds.
Now I’m thinking these are all a bit too good to consign to the “gym” i.e. a garden shed. Mind you, I could really crank the volume up. I know it would drive the neighbour’s dogs absolutely nuts but at least the music would easily drown out their barking. I’m giving this a little more thought…. my record collection is depleted somewhat and my half decent stereo could deteriorate in a rather damp shed. And as for the shed’s spiders, well they might enjoy it!
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