Exercise with a point

This spring and summer, I've been finding myself doing a lot more "practical" exercise. I'm not training for any multi-day bike rides, but I AM riding my bike to work 3-4 days a week, which is 35 minutes of solid cardio (there and back). And I'm not training for a marathon, but if I need to run an errand after dinner, I try to walk there. We have two drugstores and two supermarkets within a mile of our house, and as long as I'm not picking up a 40 lb. bag of cat litter, those distances are easily walkable. I've never been much of a walker, but now I usually "walk my errands" at least two nights a week. If I really need to sweat, I fight Brad for lawn-mowing duties (we both love mowing the lawn). And finally, since I work on the 8th floor of a 10-floor building, I always try to take the stairs (unless I'm in a huge hurry). Walking up 8 flights of stairs twice a day is a killer workout!

I realize I'm pretty lucky for living in a place where I can bike and walk everywhere. That's actually one of the main reasons we bought a house where we did. (Oh, thank GOD it didn't burn down...I love our house.) Especially now that I'm in school and 3-4 nights a week will be lost to reading and writing (no 'rithmetic, thankfully), I'm starting to realize that practical exercise may just be the best form of exercise for me these days. I can just remember coming home from those two-hour tri club workouts at 8:30 p.m., so hungry I was about to pass out, and I still needed to do about a billion chores before bed. I loved those workouts, but they aren't very practical for a busy person.

I know that as the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, I'll have to put in more time at the gym and the pool, so I'm trying to soak up the summer days while I've got 'em.