The workout made by Mother Nature

My car Tuesday evening.

This week Chicago got hit with the Blizzard of 2011 or Snowmaggedon, as I like to call it. We started getting pounded by Mother Nature's white, wintery goodness on Tuesday evening leaving us with over 20 inches by Wednesday afternoon. Lakeshore Drive a major trafficway was closed down with cars and drivers being stranded there for hours. Schools got two Snow Days out of it and businesses were forced to close as it was both unsafe to travel as well as impossible. Although travelling and work was impossible getting a great workout wasn't.

Wednesday Dig out.

I took early to starting to dig my car out on Wednesday morning. I shoveled for about an hour, burned over 300 calories (according to my heart rate monitor), and worked my core and shoulders galore. Although I realized I really needed to alternate sides while shoveling as my right obliques and shoulder (more dominant side) was extremely sore later that day. No worries though, I knew another day of shoveling was in store and I was sure to work my left side to balance my body out.  Unlike many of my neighbors, whose cars are still buried underneath the snow and now plowed in, I have been able to get in and out of my space since Thursday. I did need to mark my space, in order to assure that I would be able to return. This is a common and annoying tradition here in Chicago, that unfortunately many of us are forced to adhere to.

My karma inspired sign.

As well as my own workout from digging, my boy Logan, a vivacious 4 1/2 year old Golden got his own workout. He played fetch in the middle of the street. Diving into the snow as if it were the lake and coming up with his toy, while the rest of his body remained buried in the feet of snow. He would then try to gallop and swim his way out to bring his toy back. He played like this for over an hour and slept like a baby that night, with the occasional twitching of his sore legs.

Mother Nature may have intended to leave us couch bound for two days, but Logan and I both got a great workout and had a ton of fun in the wintery mountains of snow that were dropped on us. Take that Mother Nature.