Sorry for the Delay...

Why do I always feel like I need to apologize for not writing sooner? Is it a Canadian thing? Sorry, online journal, I didn't write for several days. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry you bumped into me. Sorry. I - AM - CANADIAN.

40 days of writing every day about fitness left me thinking that maybe I should have broadened my blog to include all of my other interests - art (other artists'), photography and creative writing. Perhaps "Fitness Seeker" could be broadened in meaning, to include "fitness of the mind" or "fitness of the creative spirit" and such. Flaky? Maybe. But it's my blog. Sorry.

To keep up with the fitness side of things. I finally signed up for a half marathon in Innisfil on June 1. So naturally instead of falling peacefully asleep last Saturday night, I started calculating how many weeks I had to get my legs prepared for this obsession of mine. (My legs are not naturally prepared like some of my running friends' appear to be. Then again, maybe they're naturally prepared because they RUN a lot. At at any rate, my legs don't feel like they are prepared unless I pound the crap out of them several times a week leading up to a race.) As I calculated, I suddenly realized, "Holy crap. I have four weeks to add distance again."

You see I have been doing very well avoiding running long distances since the Around the Bay race. I have run a few scant 6, 8, 10 and recently 12 km distances, with a few hills rolled in. How I have been avoiding isn't such a bad thing though - I have been doing a heck of a lot of spinning, core strength and resistance training. I feel great. My cardio is great. Still, though, the legs need the mileage.

So this past weekend, after calculating what I needed to do for a long run each weekend, I set out to do 12 km on a beautiful, sunny, warm Sunday mid-morning. Actually I think it was noon. And it's hot outside here in Simcoe County these days. (I am not complaining about the heat. I love that winter is finally at rest for awhile. But still, noon is probably the worst possible time to start a long run.) So off I go, about to do "Six times to the top of the road" as I call it. We live on a dirt road surrounded by forest that has a dead-end, so there is no traffic. I like it. It's my 2 km loop. I even (finally) plug in my new Ipod Shuffle that I got for Christmas. I have never made a habit out of running with music because every time I have tried in the past, the sweat would pour down my head and in and around the stupid ear plugs and make them slide out of my ears and then I would end up running and dealing with ear plugs and cords and adjustments and it just drove me crazy. But now I have these awesome earplugs that hook around my ears and stay in place. So anyway, here I am, in my own little world, shuffling to the music on my Shuffle, 2 km done, warming up, feeling good, and in my peripheral vision I see my young son.

"WHAT?" I say, slightly annoyed, as I can see he is saying something to me. I reluctantly turn down the music. "We can't find Stormy," he says, rather guiltily. Stormy is one of our 8-month-old kittens, who is just getting used to the outdoors. I told my son and husband that if they let him outside they NEED TO WATCH HIM. He is a lovable, but dumb and curious baby and he will wander with the butterflies. 

Stormy

So, long story short, I stopped my run to search for a cat for 15 minutes. Twice. Then I got cranky and let the other four members of my family search for the cat while I finished my run. Priorities. (And I half thought, maybe the vet is right: "They're pretty smart. They know where their food is. I doubt they'd run away," she said once, when I asked her about letting them outside in the the summer.) In the end, it turned out Stormy had ran back into the house unbeknownst to everyone, and had fallen asleep under my daughter's bed as we all worried about his whereabouts for nearly two hours. Just when we started to think he was out for the night, he wandered down the hall yawning and stretching. If he could speak, he would have said, "Yo, dudes, what's happenin'? Got food?" 

So I continue on my personal quest to stay strong. My new favourite exercise at Thrive is the chin-up contraption. Don't know it's official name, but basically it requires you to (very ungracefully, in my case) slide one foot into a stretchy bungee loop that is secured to a chin-up bar and then you pull yourself up like you're doing chin-ups. The foot in the bungee makes it a little easier but it's fun and challenging. I am also loving the weight training. 

Many run events are coming up and I will write about all of them. If I include some artsy stuff in with this blog I could probably write every day. Perhaps a new page is in order....