my pledge to you, my friends!

I seem to experience quite the ebb and flow in my activity levels, as evidenced by my recent and not-so-recent blogging efforts.  I still feel that this is the year that I make a significant difference to myself.

As I mentioned in my last post, ultimate frisbee is starting up again soon, and beach volleyball starts next week!

Also, I just joined Goodlife Fitness and plan to pick up my membership card on Thursday. And will start going to the classes soon!

And to kickstart my new pledge, I am planning to get up early tomorrow (like I used to) and go for a run.

I know, I know, this isn't the first time I've said this, but now that summer is coming, I have no excuses.  Um, unless it rains.  Who runs in the rain?!

So this new surge of wanting to do something may have something to do with the fact that it's Tuesday night and we are flipping between the hockey game and The Biggest Loser.  It's makeover night on TBL and it's very inspiring!  It's amazing to see the transformations and what difference a bit of weight loss can make.

If only Montreal would focus more on scoring a goal than knocking the hell out of Pittsburgh!

In any case, this is a short, but sweet blog just to say that I am giving running another go and am very vaguely contemplating running a 10k at the end of the summer.  Vaguely. 

So!  For the summer, in addition to ultimate and volleyball, I propose to:

• run at least twice a week
• take at least one class per week at the gym
• make better food choices

I mentioned in a previous blog that I want to also try some racket sports this summer and I am going to do it.  Dammit.  Soon.

Also, I'm really curious about Dragon Boating!  I recently met someone who coaches DB teams and has said if I can put together a team of 22ish people who are willing to pay ~$160 each for 2 months of training (once a week) with coaching and a race, we can do it!  Who's in?!

Alternatively, Mount Sinai has a DB team, although they seem really hardcore.  They practice twice a week and started in January!  I may consider trying it out, but I'm scared.  But!  As Chow so kindly (read: rudely **UPDATE** read: rudely, but supportively) pointed out - it's time for me to break out of my comfort zone!   So maybe I'll suck it up and go to one of their practices.

Life is good, people.  And I want to enjoy it!  :)

hopefully not another false start!

Ah my friends - how I've missed you all!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful 2010 thus far! Mine's been pretty good, but filled with too much laziness and inactivity until now.

The first hint of real activity I had was that first nice day back in March? We hit the beach and played volleyball and ran around with the frisbee like madmen. It was awesome! It felt so good to be out and running around.

But then I fell back into my old rut and started getting lazy again. Don't get me wrong, I was still playing dodgeball every week, but it just wasn't enough activity - although dodgeball is more exercise than you'd think! And can be really fun! Someone once told me (or thrice told me), you get as much exercise as you want to when playing dodgeball. You can hustle and run around and go nuts, or you can hide in the corner. Guess what I did most of the time.

Fortunately, we are now coming up to ultimate frisbee and, more importantly, BEACH VOLLEYBALL season! /cheer. Just thinking about it makes me want to get active again.

Also fortunately I have some new friends who are active and old friends who are newly active.

This has resulted in my having gone jogging on Wednesday night. Admittedly, I did try to cancel on Ylona. But she made me :( So I went over and we ran near the Lakeshore from about her place until close to Parkside, I think. I just checked on Google Maps, that's about 10k total there and back. We obviously did not run the entire way. I wimped out pretty early, but I kept trying to run when I could and so we were out for about an hour and a half total.

This is the first time I have ever gone running with someone else, other than in the 5k "marathons" I did last year. It was good! It was motivating to try to keep up with someone else and not let them down by having to walk - although I did it quite a bit, but not as much as I wanted to. Thankfully I didn't get shin splints, but I did get this pain in my hip that I've noticed I get when I run. It sucks. Otherwise, I could have run more that evening. I think.

So it was good! I felt good. Motivated.

I woke up feeling a bit sore in the legs, but I had to suck it up because!

Charles was back in town so we decided to celebrate by going out for a Mandarin dinner. Mm. Chow has recently been on a big Muay Thai kick so he invited us to join him for a class prior to dinner. We obliged. Then we regretted our decision. Then we thanked him.

We had this "warmup" for 30 minutes. Clearly, the instructors and I had a different idea of what a warmup is! Me: 5-minute walk/jog. Instructors: trying to kill us with running, skipping, jumping jacks, squats, burpees, pushups, situps, etc. This was the phase where I wasn't so happy with Chow.

Then finally the warmup ended and the fun began! We learned the Muay Thai stance and how to punch and kick. It was SOFUN. The hardest part was holding up the pads for someone else! I have talked before about how I wanted to do some kind of martial arts/boxing class. So I'm thanking Chow for finally getting me to try one.

Unfortunately, my job requires mostly sitting so I'm fine when I'm sitting, but every time I have to get up, I get more and more sore. But I like it. It means I did something useful for my body, right? This feeling (where I'm not so sore I'm practically disabled) is what motivates me to keep going.

I had vowed I wouldn't write again until I did a solid week of exercise. This never happened. But I'm getting close so I thought I would write anyways. My next step is to go to a Boot Camp class that Ylona's building is putting on for free for the month of May. This happens on Saturday morning. Then tossing the frisbee around in the afternoon with the ultimate frisbee team.

Then soon, very soon, the leagues start!

Oh! I've also joined a gym, which I now have mixed emotions about. But I'm determined to treat it as a good thing and make the most of it. I've discovered I work best in a classroom setting with other people vs. trying to work out on my own. Luckily, Goodlife has a lot of classes to choose from so I should be good to go. I would like to do more Muay Thai or something similar, but it is so much more expensive :( We'll see how this gym membership goes! I think it starts this weekend!

Anyways, I hope you've missed me as I've missed all of you! And I hope you're ready to follow my exploits over the summer! Not the really fun exploits - those might be more of an in-person conversation :)

the rise and fall of the connie empire

Forgive me, dear readers. It has been 8 days since my last confe-.. er... blog post.

I can't do penance, though, since I don't know my Hail Marys or whatever - despite being Catholic. I can do the Lord's Prayer, though! :)

The last post I made was pre-rock climbing and I think I've already told most of you about it or you were there, but too bad. It was super fun! It was actually much harder than I expected it to be. Even once I got there and saw other people doing it, I was inwardly scoffing because it looked fairly easy. That cliff showed me who was boss, though. It showed that my overall muscle strength and flexibilty is sorely lacking. Brutal. Also, it showed me that I bruise like a peach. It was fun and challenging, though! Very different than anything I've done before. The second time up was also a bit easier since I knew what to expect and wasn't such a sissy about letting go. I wasn't really worried about death or dismemberment, which was good.

Well, let me clarify. On the way down the side of the cliff to get to the bottom was a harrowing experience! There was supposed to be a "scramble path" that led down to the bottom - that we completely missed and had to practically machete our way through the forest to get to the bottom. I was worried I was going to tumble down the mountain or break a leg. Luckily, no disasters. Then we found the path after climbing over and under trees and rocks galore. The path was glorious. I maintain that we wouldn't have fully appreciated the scramble path unless we had gone where we had :P So, I guess that's something!

So I would definitely go again! Well, I have to since I bought a harness :) I think I'd like to try indoor next time. Or if I do outdoor again I will wear better shoes. I brought shoes that were small and would fit into crevices instead of shoes with grip on the bottom. A big mistake considering there were not really any crevices, but rocks that were slightly jutting out that you had to leverage against. I blame my shoes for my poor showing. :) Also the arduous journey that preceded the climb itself. Oh, and the burning sun. :P

No, but really, I had a blast. Especially with the camping and the fire and the company! :) I could have stayed another night.

So after that I got lazy. So lazy.

I had Friday off and I feel like I slept and lazed around most of the day. Oh, we did bike to High Park for breakfast and back :) That's something, right?

And there was volleyball on Friday evening. Always a good time, despite the crazy ridiculous wind. It was impossible to play actually, but we did our best!

On Saturday I think I did more of nothing. Well I went out in the evening, but nothing much that day I think. The less I do, the less I want to do :(

More of the same on Sunday (although I can't actually remember what I did on Sunday so I could very well have done something fantastic - but I doubt it :P)

Monday morning I went for a run! But it was a piddly one. I was so tired and felt ridiculously out of shape after not having done much for a few days. :(

Tuesday more of the same. I went out for a run in the morning, but it was also piddly. And apparently I forgot to pee before I went out so that cut my run a wee bit short, too. Yes, I'm 10 and can't hold it. I don't know about you guys, but for me if I really have to pee and I'm rushing it makes it worse. I have to walk a fine line of hurrying, but not too much or else it increases the urgency of the pee!

Tuesday evening was ultimate frisbee! Our second to last game. It was also harder than it has been because of my few days of laziness. It's amazing how quickly my body forgets. But at least it got me out there and running around. Then we had Hakka food after. My first time! It was pretty good. :)

Wednesday morning I missed the spin class. I almost could have made it, but then didn't.

It's getting harder and harder to get up in the mornings, I tell ya. I think I've also realized I might dislike running. It's just so mind-numbingly boring! But I will persevere at least until the 5k and re-evaluate.

So, this morning I also didn't run, but I did lunges and squats. So I should feel those tomorrow. And I plan to run tomorrow morning. For reals.

The one good thing coming up despite my laziness is that booty camp starts next week! I'm still really looking forward to that - even though Breanna can no longer join me for September :(

So maybe that will kick my ass out of this lazy funk I'm in and re-motivate me. One can hope!

That is all. Not a great post, but a post nonetheless. :)

Happy Thursday!

Ps Please sponsor me for the 5k Scotiabank Marathon! Click Me!

Thanks <3
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a balanced life.

Yesterday morning I went for a bike ride through High Park. Instead of my usual loop through, I took a few extra side streets. Also, in light of the spin class I took last week, I tried to push myself to go faster and not just coast along whenever I could. So that was good! My thighs aren't thrilled with me today, but what can you do :)

Last night we played ultimate - and we won! /cheer!

We all played really well and there was lots of running. Lots of running.

The best part is that I SCORED A GOAL! YAY! And it was an epic score, too. So, it was the longest point ever and you can't sub out until someone scores. And I was getting tired! We were finally in our endzone and the frisbee came in low and I dove for it (aka crashed to the ground) and managed to catch it! GO ME! lol. The other team members made some more frequent epic catches and goals, but this was my first :)

I was soooo sore when I got home. Still from softball on Sunday and the bike ride Tuesday morning and then all the running from ultimate. But it's good. I feel good.

Tonight, as most of you know, a bunch of us are going camping then rock climbing tomorrow!

I'm so excited!

I think I've said this many times before but I just like to stop and marvel at the fact that I'm trying all these new things now. I feel like I'm chomping at the bit wanting to try everything. I really like it. I've spent a lot of my life reading and learning and it's nice that I am now balancing that out with being more active. I'm, like, perfect. ;D

Also, I can't actually see much difference, but according to my scale I'm at my lowest weight that I've been in a while. I still have a long way to go, but booty camp starts soon! /confetti

j00 can DO it!

Morning!

This morning was the dreaded spin class. I trudged over to the studio for 7am!

I got all set up on the bike and away we went! It was actually pretty good! Though my knees were hurting a little, I enjoyed it! Admittedly, I did not go as hard or as fast as everyone else in the class (though everyone else seemed like spin class veterans!), I think I still pushed myself. All I know is that I was ready to quit after the first 15-20 minutes, but how embarrassing would that have been!! So I stuck it out. I got my second wind in the last 20ish minutes of the class and actually got "out of the saddle" for some of it and pushed even harder.

I was positively dripping. Gross.

I think I probably could have done more, but I'm pretty proud of myself for having gone and done what I did! Did what I did.. done what I done? Hm.

Anyways.

The good thing about the class was that it made me tough it out for the full 45 minutes because I didn't want to look like a pansy. And that there is so much room for improvement. It makes me want to go back and do more and do better. Good times!

Today after work I am going to a softball practice. That should also be interesting.

So, Chow brought up the issue of my diet these days. First, I have to say, I am hungry all the time. I am usually good for about half the day. Then start to slip.

Take last night for example. Gary came over after ultimate frisbee and we had pizza. And a few wings. It was SO GOOD. I felt like I hadn't eaten in days. I almost couldn't stop eating! HOWEVER, I did not have any pop. That's something, right? The coke was looking mighty delicious, but I refrained. I am off the pop. :D So even though I had a thousand calories - I didn't have a thousand PLUS 200 :)

This morning I had a piece of toast with peanut butter and jam before the class. Then I picked up a yogurt parfait (yogurt, granola/oatmeal, raisins, strawberries) at the cafeteria downstairs and a coffee. Oh and I bought a banana. Now I'm starving again.

I am sure this play-by-play of my food intake is fascinating - too bad. :)

I will try to eat better the rest of the day, but it's hard when I'm so hungry and food is so delicious. And when I'm not at home. Le sigh. Life is hard. :)

PS. Don't forget to read yesterday's post. I posted it late last night, but I did post!

the problem with exercise..

Good evening, folks!

I am clearly a little delayed today. I actually had too much work to do today :(

Today I finally dragged myself out of bed around 7:30 and went for a little bike ride. I prayed that the gears would be ok and that no one would hit me because I hate helmets. (NB: I would wear one if I was city cycling :) Randomly my gears like to f*ck up and either fall off or just grind like something is dying.

Praise be!

Nothing calamitous happened! Well, except :( hmph. Except for the fact that as I was cycling along I passed a jogger. I didn't think much of it until! I heard him picking up the pace behind me and he passed me.

What the shit.

Is that supposed to happen?? So then _I_ picked up the pace and finally managed to pass him and I was triumphant! I can cycle faster than a jogger! -.-

Clearly I need to work on the cycling! I was talking to this girl who did the triathlon recently. It was 750m swim, then 30km run, then 7.5km run. So, maybe a triathlon won't be in my future for the next year. But I would really like to do one of those Ride for Heart or whatever cycling things. I'll show that jogger!!

So anyways. I was out for about 25 minutes and forced myself to do one last lap around the block before going home. Good times.

Although, I still don't like bikes and I still am not quite able to sort out the gear business. I just stay on 2 or 3 and go with it.

Tonight I went to play Ultimate Frisbee. We lost. Again. 16-6. Brutal. But seriously, those guys could run. They only had 2 girls who had to stay on the whole time and they were go! go! go! for the entire game! It was disgusting. :P

So, ya, they creamed us. But this one girl I was following kept making me sprint across the field to chase her down. Also disgusting! But I think I noticed a difference when I was doing it. If they had been one of the teams we played before I started running, I think I would have been dead on the field a lot sooner. Admittedly, we had more subs this time, but still, I think I ran a lot! Not faster than that damn girl, but still! Fun!

Tomorrow is *gulp* spin class day! dun dun dun. It keeps slipping in and out of my mind. I think part of my subconscious is trying to make me conveniently forget it. But now that I have written it out here, I have no excuse!

I am going to get up at 5:30am. Then get down to Spadina and Adelaide for 7am. SEVEN IN THE MORNING. It is going to be torture, especially since it has been getting increasingly harder to drag my ass out of bed in the morning. I am scared.

Also, after work, I promised a co-worker I would join a baseball practice. The hospital puts on an intramural softball tournament every summer and our department always puts a team together. They bullied me into joining even though I will suck. And they caught me at a weak moment when I was contemplating other sports/activities I could do. The big problem is that the tournament itself is the day after my birthday. I warned them I might still be drunk then. So I agreed to go to the practice tomorrow and if I absolutely hated it then I wouldn't play, but if it was bearable then I would come on Sunday. I do like to try to hit the ball...

This is the same co-worker I am going to spin class with. She is hardcore.

So then I have to go to pool afterwards, which means I will be bringing like 8 changes of clothes.

Oh! I almost forgot - the reason for my title.

Now, I don't know how many of you read my Facebook note about 25 things about me, but one of them is about showering. I know, it's gross, and it will probably make me out to be some kind of pariah, but I just don't like to shower. I do it. I just don't like it. It's so much work. I just want to be clean and smell lovely all the time with no work. So the problem with exercise is that it is making me shower twice a day most days! This is unacceptable. :P Clearly this means I have to do less exercise :D

Just kidding. I guess. ^^

/sigh. Wish me luck for tomorrow!

new pain, new gain..

When I was running this morning I developed a new pain. It didn't last the whole time, but it felt weird. I guess it was my Achilles' heel on my left leg. Like I said, it went away, but it was new so I thought I would mention it.

So let me first talk about last night. We had an ultimate frisbee practice at Trinity-Bellwoods Park. It is actually quite a nice park! And pretty big! Lots of trees, too. So we found a nice shaded patch of field to run around in. I practiced a few different throws and have decided that the hammer throw is where it's at. I'm getting pretty good at it! Also, I'm getting pretty good at throwing curving frisbees. I'm less good at throwing them backhanded or other variations, but I'm getting better. It's fun to do the hammer!! Also I need to work on catching the frisbee and being able to tell where the frisbee is going to end up. I am usually running all over chasing a curving frisbee and I have to stop that :P

We played a bit of 4v4 and it was fun. The more I play the more I get a sense of what to expect and what I am supposed to do (weird how that works out, eh?). Although during a real game I am still a bit like a chicken with its head cut off :( But I can only get better, right?

Also! Tammy said my calves looked more muscle-y. /beam

Therefore, even though I did not run yesterday morning, at least I ran around for a couple hours last night!

This morning I was determined to make it out for my run because I knew the longer I kept putting it off, the harder it would be to start again. So I did it. I am a little messed up on my Couch to 5k training sessions because of the various missed days. I should be on Day 3, Week 5, so I skipped a couple sessions over the past 2 weeks and today I did Day 2, Week 5. That's not too shabby, eh?

This morning's plan:

5 min warmup
8 min jog
5 min walk
8 min jog

Easy peasy! I did it with barely a hitch (except for the aforementioned new pain). I think I probably could have run a bit longer than 8 minutes, but it was getting rather hot outside!

I plan to run this weekend and finish off Week 5 so I can transition into Week 6 without being behind. However, day 5's plan is: 5 minute warmup followed by 20 minute run.

What the hell?

What kind of transition is that?? So I'm not going to lie, my friends. I am a little nervous. But the only thing I can do is try, right? :D I'm such an after-school special. You can do it, Duffy Moon! (That was for you, Denise).


Lessons Learned:

1. I think my cardio has improved slightly. The reason I want to stop running is not usually because I can't breathe, but because my legs are tired. Although when I do stop I am breathing pretty hard.
2. I need to strengthen my legs. Are there home exercises for that? Other than the lunges and squats for my upper legs. Any actual exercises to strengthen my lower legs or do I just have to keep running?
3. I need to stop buying cheap flip flops. Another pair just bit the dust. Sigh. Luckily it happened while I was already in the hospital and luckily I have a pair of shoes here. But I really didn't feel like wearing heels today :( And! I have to go to the beach after work and can't wear heels! Brutal. You know what this means, right? Yup, I will have to go find another cheap pair of flip flops before the beach!
4. Lunges and squats seriously work. Or at least they seem to since I'm still feeling it a million days later.

In addition to the boot camp and the rock climbing, I am also going to try spinning! I am going with a co-worker to a Wednesday morning spin class at 7am (eep) . I'm a little scared, but looking forward to it, too!

I just want to say that having started running has really expanded my life in a lot of unexpected ways. I am trying things that even a year ago I would have seriously scoffed at or been horrified by. Taking this spin class is just a further progression of that. I know this sounds smarmy, but I am really looking forward to the new direction my life is taking :)

Life's good! And my future looks even better. /dimple

ah shiz.

So last night was pool. Gary's birthday is today (Happy Birthday, Gary!) and so we had to buy him some shots, which meant we had to have one, too. Obviously. So I didn't get plastered, but I got a wee bit tipsier than I meant to get. Oops.

This meant I got home later than I meant to, which means I got to bed later than I meant to. And the point of this story is that I did not get up in time to run this morning. /sheepish.

I didn't even have any rational thought processes happening this morning, though. My alarm went off as usual at 6:30am and I just insta-snoozed until 7:30am. I didn't realize until around then that the loud noises every 10 minutes actually mean something!

So then I actually got out of bed closer to 8am and had to scurry off to work. The only plus side to this sad little story is that I have an ultimate frisbee practice tonight so I will be working up a sweat tonight at least!

And tomorrow morning I will go running. FURREALZ.

I have also decided to break my no-running-on-the-weekend rule because I've been such a dirty slacker all week.

AND! My thighs hurt from the lunges/squats I did yesterday! Brutal.

I am going rock climbing in a few weeks! On a real cliff face or whatever they are called. Shyn assures me I can trust him and he won't let me die.

That is all. Have a lovely day!

"vanity is my favourite sin" -al pacino

Morning!

Of all the times of the day I prefer to look at myself in the mirror, it has to be in the morning. From what I understand (and what I see to be true), the body is at its lowest weight of the day at that time. So even though I don't think I have lost a significant amount of weight pound-wise, I think the last few weeks have still made a difference. Or maybe my view of myself is skewed because of the morning mirror looks. Either way. It works for me! I think I might be ready to start measuring myself.

Last night I played ultimate frisbee finally. It was slightly easier to run around than it was the last time I played, which was 3-4 weeks ago? I was told that I did run a bit faster and didn't seem as winded as quickly. All good things! Although it was bloody hot last night! And we lost. By a lot. Really a lot.

Oh! I usually got shin splints playing ultimate frisbee, but not a twinge last night!

As I mentioned on Charles' blog, I am all about the small triumphs and victories. So I am a happy camper today all things considered.

This morning I did 3 sets of 10 lunges and squats. I should feel that tomorrow or even later today.

The one thing I have been slacking on is snacks for the day. I am constantly starving between meals, which can't be good for me. I really need to work on this!

Also, I am excited for September when booty camp starts! I haven't signed up yet, but I will soon! Oh, that reminds me, I should also sign up for the 5k marathon :P

I have been considering signing up at the UofT Athletic Centre to use their pool and track in the winter. As long as it is not too expensive. But that would be good. It's close to my work so I could go afterwards maybe. Or zip over early in the morning. So that's an option. Or maybe the Y.

Or maybe I will hibernate all winter and pack on the pounds. So I can struggle through this all over again next summer!