The Good Kind of Exhaustion

Wing Walker Jane Wicker is a favourite at the Base Borden Air Show. I haven't seen any dates for this summer's event yet, but if you live in the area, consider checking it out.
These pics were taken June, 2012.

Some days, I feel on top of the world, like wing walker Jane Wicker, above, who graces us with her awesome, death-defying aerobic manoeuvres at the Base Borden Air Show and who gives me a chance to use my awesome telephoto lens. Well, maybe not exactly like Jane Wicker, because my preference is to stay grounded - as in, on the ground. Or, if I must be in the sky, then at least on a seat in an enclosed passenger jet.

Today, I feel exhausted. In all likelihood it has something to do with ramping up the workouts over the past week. I looked at my workout journal and counted five. Five workouts last week, Monday through Saturday, from cardio to TRX strength to boot camp. Tuesday and Sunday were the days off. And I still haven't managed to add more yoga into the schedule. But it's been fun having my new partner accompany me to some classes. Way to go daughter! We can share in the "good exhaustion" feeling!

About one month and a half before the Mec Con mud run and the Alliston Summer Solstice run. Almost signed up for the Barrie half marathon on Father's Day (husband actually didn't care if I was going to do it or not) but listened to the wise words of my iron woman friend and nurse Janate who dug deep into her memory bank to recall how she felt after the mud run last year (actually she didn't have to dig deep; the painful memory was lying just under the surface): "I was really sore all over the day after that event," she said. "You may want to re-consider running a half marathon the next day. You may not enjoy it." She's probably right. If Iron Woman felt pain, I will probably be immobile. Maybe I'll book a massage therapy treatment for myself instead. On Father's Day. Ha.

So I am still searching for a half to do before the usual fall events. Just one. I see Huntsville has one on June 8, and that's a nice area, up in Muskoka. "Cottage Country" as we call it around here. Ideally, I would like to have a cottage to go to afterwards. With a sauna, and a hot tub, and maybe a massage therapist on hand, or a cabana boy. (Actually heard about some women who ran an ad for a cabana boy for a girls' weekend away. He had to agree to sign a 'non-disclosure' agreement. As in "what happens at the girls' weekend away STAYS at the girls' weekend away. No hanky-panky allowed either. I wonder how that worked out for them.) Oh to dream. (Post Update: Found one! MEC Barrie Race Three! June 1, Innisfil. Half marathon, 10K or 5K. www.events.mec.ca. This is great, since I just realized the Huntsville race unfortunately falls on the same day as the second run in the 5 Peaks trail series. I need a secretary.)

Maybe I'll just stick to training for the trail runs this spring/summer. A bunch of us are on a team this year for the 5 Peaks and we start training together in a couple of weeks, which is great, because I am too chicken to trail train by myself. Last time I did it, all I could think about was the local news article on the peeping tom the police were trying to track down in the neighbourhood. Not a common occurrence around here, comprised as it is with mostly small towns, hamlets, and farm land. So as much as the woods were lovely, my suspicious "I-am-watching-way-too-many-X-File- re-runs" mind couldn't help but think, "I wonder where Mr. P. Tom hides out during the day?"

Meanwhile, it's off to spin and core classes galore. I wonder what Jane Wicker does to prep herself for wing walking. I wonder what she felt like the first time she decided to give it a go? Can you imagine if it was during an argument with her partner? "Screw you! I'm going for a wing walk!"

The next workout at Thrive Fitness. And when we get really good, we will climb between the wings with no safety line, just like Jane Wicker! (*All in jest, new Thrive members, all in jest.*)

I wonder when Thrive Fitness will have exhausted all of their killer workout routines to the point where they add wing walking to the menu? I can just hear our boot camp/core coach, Steve: "And now for something completely different, a plank on top of this here 450HP Stearman. It's our latest piece of equipment. You'll LOVE it! Who wants to go first?"

Enjoy your day. May you feel like you are soaring into the wind, strong and happy to be alive. And may your landing find you feeling pleasantly exhausted, with dinner and a glass of wine waiting in the wings.

Hills, Rain, 2 Girls and a Crazy Woman

Oh the joys of living in the country in a forest. Internet connection issues for the past three days. Writing from the iPad right now, which taps into 3G most of the time because it can't seem to work off of our Wi-Fi. So this post will be brief.

Met Con "Team in Training" Update:
So as part of their efforts to ready their young bods for the upcoming mud run, my daughter and her friend decided to go for a training run last night, "rain or shine." I said I would go too, because quite frankly, as much as I have been consistent with all kinds of other workouts, I really need to get more runs in again.

So of course there was no "shine" to be had last evening, and in keeping with the crappiest April weather we have seen around here for a long time, the temp hovered at 6C and yes, it started to rain. At least it didn't snow and hail like the night before. I really did not relish going out in the rain, but part of me chastised myself, saying, "What are you girl? Some kind of FAIR WEATHER RUNNER?" The girls were committed, and therefore so was I.

We drove to the hill instead of running to it. I wimped out with that part. I just wanted to be able to see my car should we get stuck in a hail storm or something. Plus I was a little sore and achy from spin and core class that morning.

We started up the hill, which isn't too terribly steep but is still a good challenge if you repeat it a few times. We ran up once. I felt ok, and the girls kept up. I used some of Coach Ann's motivational words, "Don't stop until you get to the top! Power through! "

"How many of these are we doing?" came the question from the girls.

"As many as you want." (We had to pick up the young son from tae kwon do in 45 minutes, which was ample time, I figured, to do a few repeats).  During the second climb, I heard a bit of "Aaagghhhs" from my daughter, to which I responded the same mantra, "Power through, power through!"

After I passed them on their descent from the second hill and my ascent to the third hill, I asked, rather chipper at this point as the rain was starting to feel nice and cooling, "What do you guys think? One more hill after this?"

"NO!?!" came the unified response.

When they descended the third hill, we ran a loop around a little street before heading back to the car, with just a little complaining from my daughter. But they did it!

When we got back to the car, I was oblivious to the rain and feeling like a little Jack Russell Terrier ready to sprint.  "How about one more hill?" I announced to my teenaged team-mates.

They looked at me like I had completely lost it. "What IS this?" my daughter's friend exclaimed, thinking, I guess, this was beginning to look suspiciously like boot camp (Granted,, she did some kind of extreme physical fitness test in phys-Ed class that day and got top marks, so she was done. Plus she was wearing a frigging cotton hoodie. Note to self: her birthday is coming up. Buy the poor child a rain jacket, or at least a dollar store rain poncho!)

 "You can one more hill, we'll wait in the car!" replied my daughter.

So I did. And they did. and then we all went for tea. Not a bad start to training! Not bad for a 49 year old runner chick either! (Although I am still looking forward to fair weather.)

Half Marathon Shopping (& A Photo of Mr. Whitlock)

Some of my running pals and me with the famous long distance record-breaker Ed Whitlock a couple of years ago. Whitlock is known for smashing age-group world records. Last fall, he ran the Toronto Marathon in 3:30:26 at the age of 81. That was over 16 minutes faster than the previous age 81 best. And over an hour faster than my first marathon at age 46.

I need to sign up for another half marathon. I write this as the rest of the training group are running hill repeats tonight. I should have been there, but instead, was so caught up in computer tasks that I sailed right through dinnertime and leave-the-house-now-before-the-run-group-leaves-without-you time. Not feeling overly guilty though, because this morning's spin and core strength classes have rendered various body parts sufficiently sore.

Still, this half marathon addiction needs to be abated and the sooner in the season, the better. I don't want to drive far, and am not interested in a super huge event this time. Mississauga half is too close for comfort at 11 days away - I have not been keeping up the mileage. Then I remembered a running acquaintance mentioning the Barrie half. That would be perfect, I thought. Nice and close to home, looks like a nice route, not very expensive, and it's in mid-June. Perfect! 

But wait. June 16. That somehow rings a bell...The mud run? I checked. Nope. That's June 15. Yeeahhch (trying to mimic the sound I made when I imagined slogging through the Met Con Blue mountain adventure race/mud run on Saturday then plunging right in to a half marathon on Sunday.) Then, I thought, I could do it (your thinking tends to get skewed that way after you hang around with other runners and fitness enthusiasts after awhile. That is why I have signed up for the 5 Peaks trail series again, despite having not fully recovered from a sprained ankle from last year's series. And that is why my friend Janette is full-on running again after taking the required amount of recoup time for her broken leg.) And if it turns out to be an all-out disaster, I could always blog about it in a self-deprecating way!

Was just about to click the "REGISTER NOW!" tab when I thought of something else about that date. I checked my Anne Taintor desk calendar. Yep. I knew it. It's Father's Day. Now, I know my own father would be totally fine with me running a race that day. After all, it will likely be over by noon and then we can have him over for dinner later that same day. The person who I am concerned about is not even my father. It's my husband. The one who will want to be pampered right from the morning onwards. The one who will want his coffee brought to him in the morning, and perhaps even breakfast in bed. The reason I know this, is because for every day of the year, pretty much except his birthday and Father's Day, he makes the coffee and brings it to my bedside first thing in the morning. It is something he started doing all on his own one day, and, as a routine-oriented person, he has continued the tradition, much to my benefit (and now expectation...ha ha. But true.) 

I have not mentioned the idea of me running this Father's Day half marathon yet. But by the end of the evening, I had better mention something about it -- today is the last day they offer that little extra, that little dangling carrot, if you will:  your name printed on your race bib! So complete strangers can cheer you on from the sidelines, exclaiming things like, "Way to go Sandy! You're almost there!" as you have 5km left to go and are thinking, in your state of half-delirium, "THAT is not ALMOST! And how did you know my name?" (But what you say out loud is, "Thank you" and you smile and wave.)

Hmmm, if I got up extra early I could make his coffee and breakfast, deliver it to his bedside, give him a kiss, run the race, get home, shower, and be in the kitchen cooking up Father's Day dinner by the afternoon....

Unless, of course, I get trampled in the mud run the day before and am so sore I can't get out of bed on Father's Day. I wonder if he'd take pity and deliver my coffee....

Just Jiggle, Sweat & Smile

New iMac computer finally up and running! Too bad I wasn't up and running this morning. In fact, as I write this on a Saturday late morning, I am still lounging in my jammies. Why? because it is blowing snow and hail outside. On April 20. Enough already!

Sweaty, delirious me, after my first half marathon in 2009. Lots of very proud, jiggly butts that day.

 Despite not getting out for a run today (I am just going to assume it's not happening today), I have been very aware of the impending runs I have registered for beginning in May. So far, the 5 Peaks trail series and the crazy mud run at Blue Mountain. To train, I have upped my core workouts and have gotten back into the spin of things with the indoor cycling classes at Thrive Fitness.

Began last week with the 90-minute combo on Monday morning which features a 45 minute spin followed by a 45 minutes core class, followed by major hunger pangs (I think that's a slang word, if not, I just made up a new slang word. Not only am I too lazy to run this morning, I am too lazy to pick up my dictionary). It was upon arrival to this class, funny enough (I can laugh at this now), when I realized that I was still part of the training group that meets every Monday night for a run workout. Instead of abandoning my bike though, and heading back to bed, I stayed for the whole 90 minutes, then drove back into town that evening for hill training. As loopy as I felt, there are even loopier friends in this group who had worked out at 6 am that day, did the hills that night, and then went to boot camp at 6 am the next morning. They need therapy. Personally, I am not ashamed to admit I took Tuesday off. Then I did circuit training on Wednesday and increased the weight for my bicep curls from 10lbs to 12lbs! Yay! But I still have wimpy triceps. Thursday morning provided another spin opportunity and if I didn't have to go into the city on Friday I may have done another core strength class. What I love about the core classes and the TRX training is that it can get your arms and shoulders fine-tuned very quickly, if you are consistent, over the course of just a few weeks. I have tried to convince my daughter of this fact, because the latest hate-on she has with her pre-prom body is her arms. Sigh. Girls. 

Run like no-one is watching.

Which brings me to a neat little observation. How cool is it, that one's teenaged daughter wants arms like her 49 year old mom? A bunch of us middle-aged mamas started talking about our fitness journeys the other day while finishing a spin class. The stories were very funny, but inspiring at the same time. LeeAnne, an avid fitness enthusiast (who got back into the game after several years of mommy-hood) who will be 50 next year like me, remembers training for a marathon years ago with her friend. "We were running along and all these cars started honking at us and I thought, 'YES!' Fellow runners are cheering us on!" Until she noticed the two large sweat marks on the front of her friend's top. They did not stop running, though. Instead, they just laughed and carried on. Another friend, Andrea, who works out regularly and also plays sports, remembers, as a young mom, making an effort to get outside and go for a run, with her kids happily riding their bikes behind her, only to hear giggles followed by the less-than-inspiring words, "Your butt jiggles when you run Mommy!" I believe I also have heard those words from at least one of my children over the years. And I also remember my best friend killing herself laughing when she watched me run one day. Apparently I flail my feet out to the sides. My husband helpfully came up with a description for my running style: "the windmill." I think it's also the classic "run like a girl" style. WhatEVER, right? At least I DO IT!

My daughter's illustration of my (our) "windmill" running style, or what she dubs the FlAIL Run.

I am sure many of us have heard words that discourage rather than encourage. The important thing is that, despite some embarrassing moments, these women carried on with their fitness routines and goals. Who cares if your boobs sweat or your butt and arms jiggle or your feet flail when you work out? You have to start somewhere, and it will only get better. The jiggling will subside, the sweat means you're working and hey, if your run style can produce giggles, then great! Laughing is good for us. What I have noticed, personally, is that I have learned to love the parts of myself that I can't change, like my short legs and my thick ankles, for example. The important thing, is that they are strong (well, my ankles need to be stronger, but that's another blog post unto itself). I think the secret to feeling good about oneself is to take care of oneself. Eat well, and put your muscles to work regularly. Then, at the end of the day, you can be confident in saying (and I have borrowed these words from my dad, more or less, who works out regularly at 73 and who always has a smile on his face when he says this): "I have done my best; the rest (meaning if anything out of our control happens to arise when it comes to our health) is not my fault!"

OK I gotta get out of these jammies now.

My strong and mighty son, who does not complain about flabby arms like his sister, but has been known to comment on my jiggly running butt in the past.

My Heart Goes Out...

My heart goes out to all the people affected by the Boston Marathon tragedy yesterday. How many runners around the world talk about potentially trying to qualify for Boston? Thousands, I would guess. I know some of the people in our run group would chat about it, and so many marathons and half marathons are described as "Boston qualifiers." And to qualify is such a proud adrenaline rush kind of moment in and of itself. Our run coach, Ann, competed there two years ago and remembers her family having stood right around where the second blast occurred - a popular spot for spectators. I remember her telling us stories about what a wonderful, exciting event it was, with several spectators having gained the reputation for helping to cheer on the runners, in very unique and funny ways. It was inspiring to listen to her. Now all that is left from 2013 is pain, sadness and terrible grief. We can only hope the cruel perpetrators are found and brought to justice.

Computer Shopping, Back Soon.

Computer shopping this week so blog post opportunities have been limited. Hope to be up and running on a regular basis again within the week.

Daughter and I continue to train for Mec Com Blue. She got her run in this morning while I dutifully watched son play soccer. Will have to get run in tomorrow. Also want to add more strength training to weekly regime, so I have half a chance of actually scaling some of these obstacles they throw in our path at this event!

And yoga - gotta get back to that. Speaking of which, heard there is a new yoga apparel shop in Barrie on Bryne Drive! Anyone who is interested, it is near Scholar's Choice, Holly's Sweets & Eats and Red Tulip area. Will give you an update if I go next week.

But computer upgrade is main priority at the moment. Gotta post this before battery runs out on the iPad. The 10 year old drained it playing games again!

CREATIVITY: Inspiring Words for Young Athletes

This motivational piece comes from the technical director of our Huronia District Soccer Association. It was written for our players to study, however, I think it could be adapted to inspire any person who is aiming to incorporate more fitness into their life:

C is for confidence, which is so important for success. Play without fear. Experiment. Try things. Do not worry about mistakes, everyone makes them, including adults.

R is for ready. Be ready for training and games. Be ready to work hard. Be ready to learn and be ready to ask questions.

E is for enjoyment. This is a big one. Play soccer with joy, with a smile. Have fun.

A is for attitude and aggression. A good attitude will be rewarded. Be aggressive in your actions. Determination is important.

T is for technique and time. The better you are with the ball, the better you will be as a player. Think about that next time you are in front of the television or computer screen.

I is for imagination. Use your imagination when you play. Make magic.

V is for vision. Keep your head up. Use your eyes. Look everywhere. See what's happening and move and react as required.

I is for intelligence. Use your brain when you play. Scan the whole field to see what is going on and to think about the game. Try to anticipate what opponents are going to do so you can intercept their passes and interrupt their plans.

T is for trying. You must never stop trying, never.

Y is for you. It is you who trains and plays, not your coach, not your parents. It is you who has to be allowed to make decisions and adjustments during a game. This is your time. These are your dreams. Be yourself.

As for the word CREATIVITY:

Canadian soccer needs creative players; individuals who can make a difference. Players who can come up with a solution when none seems possible. At the highest level of soccer, when all else is equal, it is an individual who can make the difference. No matter how solid the defence, a brilliant piece of magic can open it up. No matter what the obstacle, an individual can be creative enough to remove it. YOU can be that player.