Country Jog

Amish Farms

This morning, I took a jog in the country side. We're up at my in-laws' lake house in Northern Indiana. They live in Amish country. It's really slow paced and relaxed here. As I shared before, I restarted my fitness routine in June. I've been back to spin classes at the gym and working out about 4-5 days a week. I feel really good and not feeling sore after exercising.

A few weeks ago when we were at the lake, I ran about 45 minutes. Today, I set out for a goal for an hour. I use my heart monitor and watch my heart rate closely. Instead of speed or distance, I look at my heart rate and listen to my body. In spin classes, I do lots of interval training and have already seen my aerobic endurance improve. My lungs feel clear when I exercise and I'm not seeing any asthma issues.

Today, I ran on a straight, dirt road along the Amish farms. I ran for an hour and turned around at the 30 minute mark. The sun wasn't very direct in the first half, but it was starting to get really hot towards the end. 

I enjoyed the quiet scenery, despite the farm smells. I didn't see any cars, just an Amish man crossing the road to get his mail. I passed two horses and one blinked at me sweetly to I took their picture.

Beautiful horses

At the halfway point where I turned around, I saw a sign in the corn field that said no spray organic. That made me happy!

Organic corn

When I got back to the house, I felt good. But then I looked in the mirror and I was bright red from the heat! I drank a lot of water to cool off.

I ran close to 4 miles in an hour and burned 735 calories. I don't run for distance. I just stay in tuned with my body and how I feel. I religiously watch my heart monitor to take a break if it starts getting too high. I will do a recovery period and let my heart rate come down about 20 beats per minute after walking a minute or so. It was nice to be alone away from the family to decompress.