A little snow = free cardio

We had a little snow last night... actually, we had a little snow with slush.  Total accumulation was about 5 inches, however 1 inch of that was wet, heavy slush and the other 4 inches were wet, heavy snow.  I don't mind shoveling snow.  I always tell people it's nature's way of giving you free cardio and they usually look at me as if I'm a bit odd.  Truth be told, it is free cardio, unless you're one of those individuals who sits on his duff until you're more dumpling then human, then it can be fatal.  This morning, to prove my point, I wore my HRM while shoveling.

This is what it looks like.  I averaged about 111 beats per minute.  My heart rate went up when I got to edge of the driveway and needed to shovel all of the snow plow debris, an area 12 feet x 3 feet and 1 foot deep, of heavy, plowed snow.  Besides the driveway, I shovel the sidewalk from the house to the front sidewalk (20 feet) and then I have 75 feet of sidewalk across the front.  Was I tuckered out?  Tired?  No.  I did sweat a lot, but that's fairly normal for me.  I burned 153 calories in about 22 minutes.

I suspect the reason most people dislike shoveling snow is because it is work.  You need to exert yourself.  It's so much easier to pull out your snow thrower and clean your sidewalks that way.  Of course there is a price for easy, isn't there?  Turning into something that's more dumpling then human is not a good thing, yet a lot of people would do that rather then grab a shovel.  Me?  I'll take the free cardio every chance I get.  This is a good thing, since we're supposed to get another 5 inches tomorrow night.

Healthiest Cities horse crap

I saw this article on the Healthiest Cities for men in the US and had to chuckle.  Do you live in one of these cities?  I don't.  Like most of these studies, there really is not a lot of concrete evidence given to validate the assertions.  Research has not been carried on for years and years and, obviously, there weren't any blind studies completed.  All you have is opinion, and we know what that's worth.  I've never been to Boise so I don't know how good the cycling is there, I do know two things,  it's a conservative state and they get a lot of snow.  Oh, and a third thing, which may be more of an assumption, they have a lot of guns out there (that can't be too healthy).

Since I've always felt runners were outstanding candidates for knee replacement surgery in their older years I ride bike.  From what they say, there is a lot of cycling going on in Boise.  Geographically, I would suspect it to be rather hilly as well, which makes the cycling even better.  As for the snow, I always tell people it's free cardio, get off your ass and go out and shovel.  Every time I see some lazy ass out pushing a snow blower I can't help but think, 'hey, you dumb shit, if you shoveled that snow you'd have more muscle mass and your life expectancy would probably be a little longer.'

Hills are good.

Harrisburg, how healthy is it?

I live in Enola, a suburb of Harrisburg, PA which, itself, lies in the heart of the Susquehanna Valley.  What this means is you have flat land on one side of the east shore for about 1.5 miles and hills on the west shore starting about 500 feet back for the shore line.  I'm on the west shore, and I have hills.  This is the place to live if you don't like climbing.  We do get snow, six inches yesterday.  My dog loved it, so did I.  So, what I have going for me is probably the same as the guys out in Boise, except for the guns, though I suspect we have a lot more in Central Pennsylvania then I might want to believe.  This means Harrisburg is probably a fairly healthy place if you cycle (or run) and like to shovel snow.  I don't believe it was even considered when the Healthiest city list was being put together.  This is kind of sad.  If you're putting together a list you should include all cities.