We like to go hiking on the trails at Henry Cowell State Park in Felton, California, which is about 15 minutes from our house. On one of our hikes in December 2020 we happened to be in the right place at the right time and I took some video with my cell phone of one of the steam trains making its way past us. The edited video is a bit over a minute and a half and you can check it out here or by clicking the video below.
The trains are run by an outfit called Roaring Camp and Big Trees, which offers rides through the redwoods and also offers a service shuttling people from Felton to nearby Santa Cruz and back again. The train in question is a Shay locomotive called the Dixiana and was built in 1912 by the Lima Locomotive Works of Ohio. Roaring Camp got their hands on the train in 1962.
Sun, January 10th
Afternoon Workout
- Recumbent Bike: 30 Minutes, Levels 9 – 14 for the first 15 minutes and 10 – 15 for the second half of the session. I followed this video again. The workout was interval training along with some upper body range of motion work and getting off the bike for some quick calisthenics. I did four sets of leg lifts for 12 reps each. (Coach Kim doesn’t give us much time before we jump back on the bike!)
- Mostly static stretching for 20 minutes.
- Walked 5.17 miles.
Calories: 2096, Protein: 135 g.
Mon, January 11th
Morning Walk: Three miles. I went back to the park a couple of hours later and jogged two miles over mostly flat terrain. Calories: 2150, Protein: 125 g.
Tues, January 12th
I did the “Taekwondo Follow Along Class – White Belt – Class #1″ from Global Martial Arts University in the afternoon. I’ve taken a little Taekwondo in the past, but figure I’ll start at the beginning again since I didn’t keep up the training.
Afternoon Walk for 3.43 miles. Calories: 1797, Protein: 137 g.
There are a lot of forest elves living in Henry Cowell Park and one sees their anonymous handiwork quite a bit on the local trails. Their talents run to more than just decorating trees at Christmas. I ran across this little scene on top of a pile of rail ties not too long after taking the train video and I thought I’d include it here since it kind of fits with the whole railroad motif thing.
Wed, January 13th
Morning Walk: 3.35 miles and an afternoon walk of 3.92 miles for a total of 7.27 miles for the day.
I warmed up for the deck of cards by doing a bunch of high energy vacuuming down in the cellar and then worked the Taekwondo white belt “Stances” lesson on the Global Martial Arts University site. The lesson taught the difference between a sparring stance and fighting stance, ending with drills.
Deck of Cards Workout
| Suit | Number Card | Face Card |
|---|---|---|
| Hearts | Alternating Stationary Lunges + Front Kick Stretch (2-ct) | 10 Goblet Full Squats (30 lb. DB) |
| Clubs | Dead Bugs (3-ct) | 10 Cossack Squats (Four Point) |
| Diamonds | Standing Side Crunches (3-ct) | 30 Squats |
| Spades | Snap Kick Exercise (2-ct) | 10 Rom. Dead Lifts (15 lb. DB’s) |
| Aces | Black = 20 Full Squats | Red = 20 Hindu Squats |
| First Joker | 20 Bridging Exercise (2-ct) | |
| Second Joker | 60 Supine Leg Windmills (ea. way) |
I noticed some irritation in the top of my right quad in the upper rectus femoris area when I was about half way through the deck. I learned long ago not to try and work through an irritation because this is the body’s way of trying and get you to stop doing something before there is a full blown injury. The only exercise I noticed this with was lunges, so I substituted kneeling squats (2-ct) for the remainder of the deck.
Toward the end of the deck I managed a few three point Cossack Squats. I still have some work to do so far as getting my heels flat on the mat when I’m fully in the down position, which is one of my current goals.
Deck of Cards workout music: Mirror of Souls album by Theocracy. Calories: 2081, Protein 150 g.
Thur, January 14th
Morning Walk: 3.12 miles. Calories: 2045, Protein: 132 g.
Fri, January 15th
Morning Walk: 3.89 miles.
Afternoon Work out | Weight Lifting Music: Aggressive Metal Songs Volume 1.
- Reviewed Taekwondo white belt “Stances” lesson and did the “Switching” lesson on the Global Martial Arts University. “Switching” highlighted some of the basic mechanics of switching the legs for kicking.
- Arnold Press: 25 lbs. x 12 reps, 30 lbs. x 7 reps, 25 lbs. x 2 sets x 8 reps
- DB Bench Press: 25 lbs. x 12 reps, 30 lbs. x 3 sets x 8 reps
- Incline Push ups (4th stair): 4 sets x 10 reps
- DB Lateral Raises: 12 lbs. x 13 reps, 15 lbs. x 8 reps, (15 lbs. x 6 reps + 12 lbs. x 5 reps), 12 lbs. x 12 reps
- DB Front Raises: 12 lbs. x 4 sets x 9, 8, 9, 9 reps
- (Super Set)
- DB Prone Rear Delt Row: 8 lbs. x 12 reps, 10 lbs. x 3 sets x 12 reps
- DB Hammer Curls: 20 lbs. x 4 sets x 10, 8, 8, 7 reps
- (Super Set)
- Face Pulls: 12.5 lbs. x 4 sets x 12 reps
- DB Flies: 12 lbs. x 4 sets x 12 reps
- Tricep Pushdowns (tricep handle): 45 lbs. x 12 reps, 50 lbs. x 3 sets x 9, 8, 8 reps
- (Super Set) One-Handed Reverse Grip Tricep Pushdowns (d-handle, ea. arm): (12.5 lbs. x 5 reps + 10 lbs. x 5 reps), 10 lbs. x 3 sets x 8 reps +
- (Set #1) Dead Bugs (2-ct): 20 reps
- (Set #2) Crunches: 30 reps
- (Set #3) Small Shoulder Circles (each way): 70 reps
- (Set #4) DB American Swings: 30 lbs. x 12 reps
Calories: 2057, Protein: 161 g.
Sat, January 16th
Rest Day. Went to the chiropractor for routine maintenance. I tried to get Paint Cat to come down cellar and train with me (maybe some HIIT work chasing rats around?), but she said, “Naw, I’m good right where I am,” and after I thought about it I decided to join her. So ends another week.
Calories: 1887, Protein: 142 g. (I lost 0.8 pounds this week, so my total loss is 18.8 lbs.)
Ann's Immaterium 
19 responses to “Work Outs: January 10 – 16, 2021 (Steam Locomotive Video, Forest Elves, and Paint Cat)”
You really do live in a beautiful part of the world Ann – thank you for sharing such lovely pics! 😊👍
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Yes, I really like it here. I’ve lived in a lot of places and this is my favorite place so far as the weather and terrain are concerned by far. You are welcome. It is fun keeping my eyes open for pictures to share with my weekly workouts.
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If you live close to Redwoods, you live in a very pretty and relativity quiet part of California compared to many. I went there as a kid and even I, who was jaded after being dragged to many national parks in the West was impressed by how pretty and awe inspiring the Redwood trees are 🙂 They would be a great backdrop for hiking too I would imagine.
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Yes, where we live is pretty quiet. The redwoods and forest in general are nice to walk in and I feel pretty lucky landing in a place where we can go to a very nice state park within a few minutes from our house. I’ve lived a lot of places and if I have my way I’ll never live anywhere else.
It is funny how as kids we sometimes don’t appreciate some of the great things our family takes us to. I remember seeing old pictures from trips my parents “dragged” me on as a child and thinking that I wished I had appreciated and embraced it more at the time because I’d be thrilled to have those experiences now.
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Living in a big city, it is a lot harder to visit nature so to have Redwoods nearby sounds ideal to me 🙂 I’m glad to hear it wasn’t just me who had that experience on family trips too 😀
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I think a lot of people do but in the modern era with the added feature of missing a lot of it because when one is bored there is a tendency to bury one’s nose in browsing the phone. At least when I was young, even though I did some tweener/teen eyerolling and sighing and such, there were no cell phones or really any distractions so at least I got to see stuff.
I remember going to Plymouth Plantation as a child, which was a historical reenactment settlement simulating a slice of life in the 17th Century. I was mostly bored at the time but as an adult the place would fascinate me if I were to go back. Same with the tour we did of the nearby battleship, Massachusetts. I remember my father being very excited about it and even kind of getting “weird” (he teared up a bit uncharacteristically) and how my mother had to pull me to the side and tell me “not to ruin this for him.” He had been in the Navy and the ship brought back a lot of memories. (He mostly served on destroyers.) I didn’t ruin it for him but the main thing I remember from that so many years ago is how I put on a happy face but seethed at my mother’s rebuke. Fast forward years later and I took my husband there in the late ’90’s and loved touring the ship again. I only had wished that my father could have been there; it would have been a whole different experience, at least for me.
One funny thing was that most of the guys were impressed by the ship’s main guns, the powerful engines and stuff like that. My husband, who had been in food service as a young person, before going into tech, and had worked his way up pretty well in the food business waxed eloquent about the ship’s kitchens and ooh’ed and aahh’ed over the giant bread mixers, all of the lovely stainless steel and such. 🙂
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That is the truth. I didn’t get a cell phone until I was in high school and those were the old flip phones so with a phone and/or tablet, you really have little excuse to be bored these days.
That is a wonderful story about your Dad visiting Massachusetts. My experiences were going to Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and visiting National Parks. Those are some of my Dad’s favorite places to go and when I was that age, I found the time spent driving from place-to-place to be tedious compared to the payoff of mountains, canyons, and arches 🙂 My brother and I are currently planning a trip with him to Arizona as I think the three of us will really enjoy that so its funny how things change!
It is really funny that your husband was impressed by the kitchen area! I’ve only been on one ship like that and I can only imagine what that area must look like to feed the crew 🙂
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I call that a workout. Good job keeping at it. I do virtual classes, too, but got lazy over Christmas.
My favourite pic is the foggy forest. You are really lucky to live so close to a state park.
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Good luck with your virtual classes. I’ve been doing some of that as well and although they do have their disadvantages, they have a lot of advantages too, even if you set the pandemic restrictions to the side. For example, I’ve been wanting to get back into martial arts for awhile not but none of the places I was interested in have classes at hours that would work for my schedule.
I love the foggy forest. We went out walking today (Friday) in the dark as we often do and it was nice seeing the fog hanging in the trees. I also like that we don’t get snow here. I grew up with snow and while it can be fun and pretty, it sure is a lot of work to shovel and makes a mess.
Thank you. I keep plugging away and it is a lot of fun trying different things. Working out is one of those things I really enjoy and I have to keep an eye on myself because I’m more likely to over train rather than under train. Unfortunately I can say the same thing about food. Food is something I have to work at though fortunately my metabolism has stayed healthy so I can lose weight by simply ratcheting things down a bit and cutting out most of the junk. So far as the gym goes, The pandemic restrictions were initially a problem for my fitness efforts but in the long run it has turned into a blessing: the situation forced me to put together a home gym where I can just walk down into my basement and have fun to my heart’s content. Once the gyms open up again, I don’t see much reason to ever go back. I’m sorry about that for the gym owners and wish them well.
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Very well done on the weight loss. 🙂
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Thank you, TIM. I’ve been pretty pleased about that given that I wasn’t really prioritizing weight loss as a main goal — I just cut out most of the junk and kept track of what I ate better. For 2021 though I am thinking I am going to prioritize weight loss more and see if I can get back into something of the shape I used to be in 20 years ago. I used to be involved in pro wrestling back then but stopped doing it about 10 years ago when we moved out to California and most of my contacts were 3600 miles away. Some people not too far from where I live now asked me if “I’d like to join their team,” once the pandemic restrictions loosen up and I thought, “Why not?” There certainly isn’t anything really stopping me.
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Nothing wrong with being fit and healthy and by the sound of it you are certianly getting in shape.
By my reckoning going back 20 years would return you to your early teens?
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I’m certainly working on it. 🙂 No, I’m in my mid-50’s.
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Great to see how well you are doing.
The photo of the mist in the trees is fantastic too.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks, Pete. The mists we get are something I really like about living here. Been enjoying the workouts and trying different things versus just specializing like I used to do to maximize specific lifts.
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Definitely nice pics and video! 🙂 I’m old enough to have actually travelled on a regular scheduled train pulled by a steam loco (I think they went out of general service here in the UK in the 60s) as opposed to a trip on a preserved line, but that loco in your video is really nice! 🙂 As always, I’m not qualified to comment on the exercise regime, but I have been keeping up with pulling faces this week! And today I’ve actually painted my first model of the year for your challenge, but just need to wait for a still day to get it varnished (no spoilers)!
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Thank you, John, I’m glad we were in the right place at the right time for the video. It is fun carrying a decent quality camera around just by having a phone. We missed being able to record and document so many things in life before smart phones. My mother, who has been smart phone resistant for many years, said that she wants to get one now because of all of the pictures I’ve been sending her of the forests and such. Hopefully she’ll be able to come out and live with us eventually … I know she’d like to and we’d like to have her around.
I’m glad that you’ve worked some face pulling work into your life. 🙂 Joking aside, there are exercises people do for their face to try and reduce the visible effects of aging. One of my friends swears by them, though I’m not so sure.
Congratulations on getting your first model of the year done. I’d expect nothing less varnish-wise from you, given the name of your blog. 🙂 Do you generally use brush on or spray varnish? I’ve used both but have had some problems with spray so I usually use brush on now for metal miniatures and nothing at all for most of my plastics, which don’t seem to require it so long as they are carefully handled.
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Great progress on the workouts Ann, and wonderful pictures as always
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Thank you, Dave. I have always loved trains and rail yards. We used to play around rails and such a lot when I was a child and they’ve been in my system ever since. When we go hiking along the tracks now, the smells of tar, oil, and creosote brings back fond memories and is a very pleasant odor to me.
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