Way too much cardio

As long as Cardio means spending time with an elevated heart rate.

We’ve had issues with ice dams along the edge of our roof since the “Blizzard of Aught Five”. Ice dams form when snow melting from contact with the roof hits bitterly cold air at the edge of the roof and freezes. Eventually accumulation of ice starts working back up under shingles and flashing around roof penetrations, and water starts coming into the house. We’ve never had a problem with them before, but the combination of an above-average amount of snow and consistiently below freezing temps did us in.

Last night, I finally got out there and did something about it. We’ve got a Cape-style house, meaning that the roof in the front has a pretty steep pitch, and comes down to just over the front door. The roof in the back has a much shallower pitch, and ends above the second story windows. The front of the house was pretty easy – I was able to use the 12′ extension ladder and a shovel to remove snow back about 8′ from the edge of the roof, and then use a hatchet and hammer to break off the 6-8″ of ice along the lip. Great upper body workout.

For the back, I had to borrow the neighbor’s 20′ extension ladder. And I climbed up on the snowy roof and shoveled off about 18″ of snow from the whole thing. I was not as successful at chipping off the ice dam in the back – something about working on the edge of a 20-30′ drop in the dark in the freezing cold just scared the hell out of me. But the snow’s gone, and there are a couple of channels cut through the ice near the flashing that the biggest leaks were coming from. Hopefully, that’ll do the job.

In any case, my heart was pounding for about 2 hours, especially as I contemplated the edge of the roof while shoveling. Wow.

To finish off the “fight or flight” reposnse, I banged out a slow-ish 3 on the treadmill while watching the Simpsons (lame episodes – one was the Christmas episode where Homer and Ned try to out-good each other, the other was so mediocre I can’t even remember it. Which is unusual).

The upside is that if I don’t get out for my “long” run on Saturday (4 miles by the schedule), I’ll have Battlestar Galactica to watch. But I’m planning on heading to Bluff Point to ski at the crack of dawn. Which will count as the jogging.

One thought on “Way too much cardio”

  1. Well, Men’s Health says its good for your heart. Ofcourse, falling off the ladder is very bad for the part of your body that hits first. Be careful up there.

    And YEAH for Battlestar Galactica! Um, not that I watched it or anything.

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