The Goings On

It is high time I updated this blog.  It's been over 3 months since I last wrote.  A lot has happened.

In about mid-November, I broke my toe.  I couldn't walk properly for 3 weeks, and couldn't exercise or run for much longer.  Around this time, I also got a new job.  So it was one terrible thing followed by one awesome thing.  The job also kept me from going to the gym often, as I had to focus and put lots of hours in.  I was doing 10 hour days, so I was frequently passing on the gym.  In more recent weeks, I have revisited my gym schedule and have put more effort into making the time.  I now do at least 2 classes per week, have a 3rd as a "I'd better do it, but if I miss it it's not the end of the world", and then I try to fit in my own little workout, whether it's on a treadmill or something.

But I'm getting ahead of myself!  Back to my toe injury.

The horror.  I was limping around, taking the TTC to work every day, trying to rest my foot and leg at all possible moments...  I grew lazy and tired as I limped around and didn't want to walk anywhere.  It took a while for the residual pain to wear off.  I think I had phantom broken toe syndrome of some kind, because even when I was sure it had to be ok, I could still feel twinges of pain when I bent my toe even slightly out of alignment.  It screwed up my workout regimen, and put me behind quite a bit.  I haven't fully recovered from this setback, partly because it was so long that I'd been off my feet, but also because it happened just before I got this new job.  The injury timeout bled into the "I have to work fifty-six hours per day" sentiment, and voila.  No gym.

But now I'm back, and I'm back with a vengeance.  There is not a day that passes by that I don't think about the 10K run that got me started on this trip, and the 10K that's coming up in May (yes, I signed up for the Sporting Life 10K again, so I'll be aiming to beat both my previous 10k times).  The weather outside has been miserable.  It's the coldest Toronto winter that I can remember, and one of the snowiest in this city.  It's been slippery and treacherous, so running (avec or sans Ben) has not been an option.  I swear, though, that the first warmer (as in not -20C), dry day that comes along, I'm going to strap on my shoes and get out there for a nice jog around the neighbourhood.  You can only do so much on a treadmill.

In other exciting news, Ben and Susana both joined Goodlife, so Marie and I have some new workout buddies.  We're all gung ho about the place.  Ben likes to swim, and now that I work in a store that sells amazing swimwear, I figure I should join him.  In fact, I just bought a swimsuit today, so once my goggles and swim cap come in (on order right now), I'm going to join him.

Working in a building that houses a gym has certainly raised my bar a bit higher.  Now that I take care of ordering and selling fitness and sports equipment, I feel the need to further educate myself about these things, as well as get super duper in shape. I have let myself slide these past few months, but I think with the warmer weather just around the corner, I'm starting to wake up to the fact that this life is not ok and that I need to move my booty!

Tomorrow, however, there will be not workout for me.  I am doing a wonderful, relaxing spa day with Esther and Rachel.  Monday I can work and workout, but Sunday I will rest, sit in a hot tub, and sooth my body and soul.

I promise, my dear internet, that I will not neglect you for so long again - unless I have a very good excuse.  A broken toe just doesn't cut it.  Until next week.

Sail on, silver girl

Last weekend I was in the country just outside of Ottawa.  I played some soccer with Angela and her brother, and we did a bit of walking/jogging.  It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend.  I slept in until 9 each morning (this is unprecedented for me, as I always wake up automatically by 7am), and we enjoyed a number of movies, TV shows, the Sims, and a 1000 piece puzzle.

When I got back to my Shred class on Wednesday, I lagged behind.  It's amazing what even just a 5 day break can do.  I also ate enormous amounts on the weekend (it was Thanksgiving!), so I'm sure that has also been slowing me down.  Time to shave that off!

I did a Pump class today, and I was happy that my legs were doing all right and I was able to do the same weight as usual for them.  At a party on Friday night with coworkers, I had a few good talks about fitness, and I have a number of friends who would like to workout with me.  Bring it on.  It's always nice to have a buddy to keep inspired.

I was actually feeling quite morose all morning, right up until I started writing this entry.  Pump was fun, but I had this terrible shadow looming over me.  I felt down and didn't even want to go to my class this morning, but I'll be damned if a silly feeling stemming from a dumb incident earlier int he week is going to take away my health.  I won't let it change what I do in my free time.  I have so much more going for me that it's ridiculous.  Somehow, writing this all down has taken a weight off of my shoulders, and mulling over a talk I had with my mother has made me see the positive, or at least the different options I have.

Marie is back from the Dominican, so it's full speed ahead for our workouts this week.  We're planning it out, and it looks like it's going to be a killer week (in a good way).  Esther and Rachel ran the Scotiabank half marathon this morning, and I'm so proud of them!  It really makes me want to train over the winter and next summer so I can join them next October.  We'll see...!

Things happen, but life goes on.  In fact, those things are life, so get used to it.  It just makes the rest of life so much more enjoyable and that much happier.

Only three times?

I was talking to a co-worker and friend today about my exercise these days.

"How's the gym going?" she asked.

I took a breath to answer, then stopped myself.

I took a step back from what I was going to say, thought about what it meant, and its implications, and then continued, "Wow, I sound like a total snob saying this, but my response to that is: it's going well, but I only went to the gym three times last week."

*Only* three times?  Clearly I've reached a point where going to the gym three times per week doesn't feel like enough.

And it's true!  I never went out for those runs I promised in my last entry, which has left me feeling unsettled and unprepared for my 10K on Sunday.  But last week for me was an incredibly busy week.  I went out every night.  As Marie put it on Facebook, "Work was just a break between one party to the next".  It was a much-needed social week, as I connected with new friends and re-connected with old friends.

Work this week has become a madhouse, and it will continue for the next few weeks.  I won't have as much time to relax, read, meet friends for coffee and drinks.  Tomorrow is definitely a gym night, but we'll see what I have time to do in the next few days before the weekend.  I feel confident at least in my basic fitness level that running a 10K without direct running training won't kill me.  But I feel like the 1:02 time I would like to beat will not be beat this Sunday.  And you know what?  I'm okay with that.  There will be other races, less busy weeks, and more training to come!

That's all for now, as I must now go and rest from an 11 hour day at work!  My next update will probably be about the run.  Ciao!

Letting go

It's been a busy, sometimes stressful week.  I worked many hours, which was great, since it kept me busy and made the time fly.

We're five days into August, and it's not exactly what I was expecting, but it'll get better.  The weather has been bizarre for the past few weeks - chilly at night and in the mornings, warm (but not that hot) during the days.  It turns out that I may be the only person in the world who actually likes her summers blazing hot.  I want that humidity and that oppressive heat that makes you want to sit in the shade with a glass of ice cubes.  I hope it comes back, because the weather we have now is starting to get on my nerves.

It was a very physical week.  I did my usual Monday BodyAttack and Wednesday BodyShred.  On Thursday, Marie convinced me to do a back-to-back combo of Attack and Shred.  So we did that.  It was exhausting.  Our legs wanted to fall off.  Friday was a very physical day, as I helped moved boxes around the medical section of the store.  I got a strength and endurance workout over the 9 hours I was there.  Later that evening I was hailed on while biking home.  Ouch!  I took refuge a minute away from my house because the wind was so strong that I was being blown off my bike.

After a few months of hiatus, the Ben/Elisa running team is back!  We ran our usual route on Saturday morning, although we were both feeling a bit tired out from our previous days.  It was a lot of fun to run together again, and now that we're back on the wagon, we're going to push hard.  The Island run is coming up in just over a month, so I want to be absolutely ready for it.  I plan to beat my standing 10K finish time.  

On Sunday we were supposed to go to the beach, but when we all gathered at Marie's, we lounged for 2 hours and then went to see the Wolverine movie.  Oops.  When we left the movie, we were hyper and talking about wanting to learn parkour.  We went back to Marie's and made delicious pizza.  We had a wonderful time chilling on the patio and chatting.

Today is a holiday, but there's no rest for the wicked.

I hope to take part of this day to reflect on this past year.  July 31st marked my 1 year "anniversary" of coming back to Toronto.  So much has happened to me.  It's been good, bad, ugly, pretty, exciting, and dreadfully anxious.  I still haven't found that perfect dream job, I still live with my parents and earn not quite enough to live on my own sans roommates, but my friends are great.  Sometimes when I think my personal life is in shambles, or I feel like a monster or a horrible person that nobody wants to be with, I think of my friends.

There are so many things that are left unsaid to people in my past, but I have to just let it all go.  Let it go so that it doesn't have power over me.  Ignore the hurt and pain that it caused me, and convince myself it has no bearing on my life now.  I have the tendency to let things haunt me for long, long times.  It's a curse.  The only positive thing is that it makes me remember what I want and makes me smarter in avoiding the things that look unhealthy for me.  Unfortunately, however, it also makes me a bit suspicious.  Maybe another goal for me, besides building up my self-confidence, is to work on letting go - not just forgiving, but also forgetting.  Because it's not going to do me any good to remember small, painful things from my past that cannot be fixed.

Take a deep breath, hold it, clear the mind, and go.

Oh No, Not Another Camping Trip

On Sunday evening I got back from the second of my two trips up to Bruce Peninsula.  Trip 1 involved yurts.  Trip 2 involved tents.  In today's post, I'd like to share some pictures, but the report will be somewhat disjointed, as I will mostly just point out events that go with the pictures.

We were a group of 7.  Marie, Dave, Vaughn, Melissa, Ben, Kevin, and me.  We went up in 2 groups.  Group one included me, Melissa, and Dave.  We drove through tornado weather.  We thought we were going to die.

Melissa and I saw big dust clouds signalling what we think may have been the touchdown of a tornado.  We arrived safely and pitched the 2 tents that we had brought with us.  We then attempted to make a fire, but everything was so wet that it was very difficult.  When the rest of the gang arrived, they pitched the other tent, and we got a fire going.  Dinner that night was apples, carrots, hummus, and three roasted chickens Ben had picked up from a Fiipino restaurant in our neighbourhood.  It was a little hard to fall asleep that night, but in the morning, we were up pretty early.  We made what Marie termed "breakfast boats".  This was necessary because out of the 7 of us, nobody brought a pan or a pot.  Oops!

We set off for a hike, and lo and behold, just like my last trip, in the same place except on the other side of the bridge, we spotted a snake.  He was hard to follow, but after some movement he resurfaced with… a fish in his mouth.  Wildlife hunting in action!

We made it to Georgian Bay and the Grotto.  Ben and Kevin went for a dip in the cold waters.  They were very brave, since it was also a very windy day and the waves were choppy.

After a while, we hiked to a rock beach on our way back to the campsite for lunch.  Here is Ben and wilderness.

Many photo ops presented themselves.  Here was a beautiful dragonfly that decided to chill out on Vaughn's tent.

We picked up a bunch of sticks on our way back from the hike.  They would serve as our food cooking sticks.  Vaughn whittled them with a whistle (well, I don't think he whistled, but we can pretend he did, since it sounds cheery).  He did a wonderful job.  Those sticks made our marshmallows and hotdogs feel safe and properly pierced.

The fire constantly going and the light shining through the trees made for some interesting photos.  Here is Dave looking like he has Cyclops' powers, except with smoke, not lasers.

After a visit to the Singing Sands Beach (the dip in Lake Huron served as our "shower" for the weekend), we went back to the campsite for dinner.  Dave's mother - bless her heart - made kalbi for us.  20 pieces of wonderfully delicious, authentic kalbi.  Oh, we ate like kings that night, for we also had burgers and s'mores.

Later in the evening, Vaughn went for a swim, and when he came back, he informed us that a big snake was chilling by the beach.  I was the first out the door.  We went down to the beach, and there she was.  A big, beautiful, hungry snake. 

She was eating some kind of salamander. She got very nervous when we approached close, and she backed up into this tree trunk, curling her tail up and out of sight.  It took her quite a long time to eat.  In fact, we were there for…. oh, I'd say over half an hour and she still hadn't finished her meal by the time we left.  A lot of people passed by and were curious what we were looking at.  We presented Snake (what a creative name) proudly to passersby, explaining what was happening.

We watched the sunset as the mosquitoes started to really dig into us.  Some ducks swam by.  Here was a straggler.

On the last day, Sunday, we reluctantly packed up and loaded up the cars.  We went to a rock beach (Little Cove) and hung out there by the rough waves.  We threw rocks into the lake, and I ran up and down the beach, a most precarious exercise on such uneven chunks of rock.  Afterwards, we went into Tobermory for some delicious Fish n Chips.  We hung around the docks for a bit after lunch, and then, sadly, it was time to go home.  I'm glad we had such beautiful weather to end a beautiful trip.

Trips like this can really make friends grow closer. But I find that not just the trip, but the aftermath of the trip helps friendships grow.  I can certainly say that on Monday, after such a wonderful weekend away, and the reality of being back in the city sinking in, I was inspired, and my love for my friends grew infinitely.  I realised that my friends are here to stay, and that nothing - really, nothing (except maybe murder) - can take them away from me.

This week promises to be a very good one.  I've been busy with social events and it's only Tuesday!  I did BodyAttack yesterday with Marie, planned a bachelorette with Rachel and Sarah after the gym, then did coffee with Ben this morning, worked, and then did tea with Alex in the evening.  I think the first 2 days of the week really set the tone for the rest of the week, so here's hoping for another great set of days.

Love and peace.