Staying active in the winter can be challenging if you aren’t into going to the gym (Sage Creek has an excellent gym, by the way, in the Village Centre. Check out Orangetheory Fitness). Luckily, if you’re willing to bundle up and go for a walk or a winter bike ride, Sage Creek features nearly 10km of trails for you to get out and enjoy.
Winter is fantastic for exercise as the snow and ice provide a new surface for additional activities while the air outside keeps you cool. This year, consider getting out and completing at least one of these activities:
Cross Country Skiing
Cross Country Skiing is not only an excellent full-body workout, but it’s a great form of transportation! Why not plan to hit the trails, solo or with a group, and head towards the Village Centre to get a bite to eat or something to drink? It’s a workout with a purpose. Cross Country Skiing doesn’t take much to learn, and a few how-to videos on YouTube can be enough to get you where you need to be.
Walking
Without a doubt, walking is the classic calorie-burner we turn to every single day. To make it count, however, it’s best to walk for at least an hour during the day or in the evening to get your heart pumping and help keep you healthy! The trails are a great place, but can be long if taken on all at once. Start slow. Go for a quick 15-minute walk down the trails, and then 15 minutes back home. Each week you can go a little longer until you hit your goal. Using a FitBit or a step-counter can help you achieve your goals.
Jogging
Much like walking, but with a bit more intensity, jogging only requires your two feet and the drive to get out and put them to use. Jogging is also great as a winter activity as the increased intensity forces the body to generate more heat and keeps you warm while you’re exercising. Just make sure you don’t go for a jog if you have to be outside immediately after, as your sweat can freeze and become quite dangerous! So long as your body is moving and generating heat, you are safe. Keep this in mind, as well, when we experience deep cold.
Winter Cycling
There are a few different forms of winter cycling nowadays; Fat Bikes, Mountain Bikes, and Road Bikes.
Fat Biking is a relatively new activity and is becoming quite popular. A fat bike is a bike specially built to accommodate extra-ordinarily wide bike tires. These tires provide great stability and their knobby exteriors give you great traction. Fat Bikes are great for the trails in Sage Creek, year-round, as you can cover a lot of terrain on one.
Mountain Bikes are the middle ground between Fat Bikes and Road Bikes. They are multi-geared, which is great for uneasy terrain, but typically weigh a lot. Some mountain bikes are built with lightweight frames, which reduces the amount of physical effort needed to operate them. These bikes will work well on the trails, but may require studded tires for winter use.
Road Bikes are popular amongst year-round cyclists as they have the greatest speed to effort ratio of any bike. Making use of large thin tires, they are best suited for track or road use. If you get one with studded tires or just a good set of knobby ones, you can make it work quite well year-round.
Snowshoeing
Historians believe snowshoes were invented 4,000 to 6,000 years ago in Central Asia, and they have surfaced in snowy climates all over the world. However, modern snowshoes are a big departure from their historical predecessors. They are typically made of lightweight metal frames, and have high-quality composite materials in their weave. Many new snowshoes are also so effective they are a fraction of the size of the older ones.
At the end of the day, there are numerous activities available to the residents of Sage Creek. If you’re growing tired of staying indoors, hopefully you’ll try some of these suggestions and go experience the winter wonderland that is Sage Creek.
