Beyond Running... ideas please!

Yesterday I got very little exercise.  I had an appointment with an opthomologist in the morning, to consult about an eye condition that was discovered last June while prepping for my surgeries in February.  The doctor's assistant put drops in my right eye that dialated the pupil, so for the remainder of the day, I stayed indoors, out of the bright daylight... we did go out for a quick 35 minute walk before supper.

I was not motivated to do my upper body work nor my ab/planks work.  I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and just wanted to eat chocolate.

Today I woke up with a better outlook - literally - and walked to my Weight Watchers meeting, where I collected my 5K charm for participating in Sunday's Walk-It Challenge.  And then I carried on, walking downtown, and amused myself window shopping, checking out the food section of our local health food shop (where I discovered a peanut grinder to make peanut butter!), picking up some fresh veggies, and walking along the waterfront and admiring the intrepid sailors out in the blustery weather we are having right now.  A thoroughly enjoyable morning and it took about 90 minutes to walk back to the marina.

After we had lunch I got some posts ready for my recipe blog.  We are going to be away for a bit and I want to make sure I have something ready to publish every couple of days... and then I got out my dumbbells and did my upper body workout.  I am using 5 lb dumbbells and doing 6 different exercises, 12 reps of each, and then repeating the sequence 3 times... takes about 15 minutes and then I stretch a bit.

I really enjoyed it today. It was hard but I have noticed lately how quickly my arms have responded to this latest effort at building them up.  It does encourage me to keep it up on a consistent basis and to try to encorporate some more, different exercises into my routine. 

Right now I am only working my upper body... I think that doing lower body work along with the increased mileage I am running might be too much. I have been thinking a lot about this strength work lately and doing some research.

For the past several years, since we have been spending 4 - 6  months each year on the boat, I have let my resistance training go during that time.  In the months we are in a house, I enjoy many different kinds of workouts... Pilates, some Yoga, strength training exercises for both upper and lower body with 5 lb and 8 lb dumbbells, a variety of aerobics, along with walking and running.  I have several DVDs that I use and am always downloading something from the internet to try. 

Usually by the time Spring arrives I am pretty fit looking and ready for the summer... during which time my activities are usually limited to running, walking, some biking and some rowing.

This past year, because of the eye surgeries, I couldn't do anything but walk throughout February and March.  I started running again in April and doing some weight training again too, but I had really gotten behind in getting my arms toned for tank tops.  This summer I have decided to keep it up while onboard, although in a limited capacity due to space considerations, and am quite happy about it.  I love that my arms respond so quickly to the weight training and the pushups. 

I am going to be looking for some new kinds of workouts to do this next winter.  I am not interested in going to a gym... or a yoga class... or NIA... or Zumba.  And I tried one of those big exercise balls one year and really didn't like it... ditto resistance bands.

But I think I might like to try some swimming.  I took lessons before we bought the boat and was very bad at it.... but I know it would be a great workout.  And I might also try some aquafit, just for fun. 

Spinning appeals to me.   And so does kayaking.

What do you like to do for exercise, other than running?