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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It's-a me! Wario! I'm-a gonna win!

Hahaha. First, I would like to share that there is a Mario Wiki! How fantastic is that.

http://www.mariowiki.com/Main_Page

Anyways, back to me :)

Busy, busy weekend. Filled with a bit of overeating, but also activity! And though it may not have seemed like it, I actually didn't binge as much as I could have. If that's any consolation. :) It's all about relativity, right?

So Friday I finally got to play volleyball again! Apparently taking a few weeks off means one forgets how to play and is dismal. I started getting it together a bit more near the end, but it was a rough start! But fun! I definitely missed volleyball. I'm sad about the end of summer, which spells the end of beach volleyball. But I am really interested in playing indoor court this fall/winter!

Saturday was d-

Urgh. I think I just swallowed a hair. Gross.

As I was saying. Saturday was do or die day. Mostly because, as I had previously mentioned, I needed to finish up week 4, which involved a 20-minute run. Also, it was an especially important day because not only was it the weekend, but since I stayed out a wee bit too late on Friday night, I could not get up for 7am. Therefore, when I finally did get up and was ready to go around 10:30am, I didn't want to! I have never run during the day before. Only in the early morning or in the evening once the sun had gone down. I was scared :( But I knew that if I didn't run then, it would only get hotter in the afternoon and then I was going to be out all afternoon/evening and wouldn't be able to run in the evening. And I'd most likely be out a little late and so would repeat this whole conversation again Sunday morning. And! The more I put something off, the less likely I am to want to do it.

Therefore, with all of this in mind, I finally forced myself out the door around 11am. I armed myself with sunscreen and a hat. It wasn't as horrific as I expected it to be. I think the hat really helped!

I was supposed to run 20 minutes. I tapped out at 15 minutes. Although I wanted to quit at, like, 8 minutes. So it was quite the achievement for me! I walked for a minute or two, then finished up the last 5 minutes. I'm quite proud of myself! /beam

Not only because I ran 15 minutes, but also because I actually went out running.

Let's recap:

1. One month ago I was thrilled to bits when I ran my first 6-minute stretch. Now I have successfully run 15 minutes. If that's not progress, I don't know what is!


2. Last year the idea of running a 5k marathon would have reduced me to tears from laughing so hard at the idea of it. Now it's almost a reality!


3. Three months ago the idea of taking a spin class would have left me horrified at the prospect. Who would subject themselves to such a thing!? Apparently I plan to! Although I'm still dubious about the enjoyment factor. We'll see.

There are probably more things, but I need to get back to work and still have more to write about!

On Sunday we went to High Park and we biked there and back. There was also a bit of frisbee playing. Not terribly active. But! Ara said that I was the most active person he knows! He was probably exaggerating slightly, but it still made me feel warm and fuzzy. ^^

Mondays are rough. I had to force myself out of bed and out the door this morning for my run.

Today's regime was:

5min walk

5min run

3min walk

5min run

3min walk

Much more manageable! Though my leg muscles did protest quite a bit. But even my thought processes have changed. I used to think, "Oh man, 5 minutes??". Now I think, "5 minutes should be easy peasy!". Amazing, isn't it? Granted, it was still harder than I expected it to be, but I did it! Despite the screaming leg muscles. Brutal. I need to stretch more. It just seems like such a time-waster. :)

In addition to all of the above, I discovered that my friend Mai is a personal trainer! She is going to help me come up with a program to do in addition to the running. I'm really looking forward to it!

Lessons Learned:

1. I do much better with following a program (ie. the Couch to 5k program). I think if I had continued on as I was originally doing, I would have quit by now.
2. I have to work further on my diet. I need to make better choices :( Why does food have to be so delicious!
3. I have to stop talking about the people I work for when I keep my doors open. It never fails that they walk by just at that moment. Ok, maybe I should stop talking about people, period. But I feel it's ok to bitch about the people you work for (not with) because it's expected. I just have to find a more private place to do it :P

Happy Monday, folks!