Training Tuesdays: there is no magic formula for getting fit

As we near the end of January, it’s about that time when fitness and health resolutions start to fade away.  Maybe that fire in your belly to get fit in 2018 is barely a flicker now.  It needs some serious fanning to roar up into another flame, but you’re tired and so maybe you just let it die a slow death instead.  This happens to people every single year. When I was a lot younger, it happened to me many a time.

It’s easy to seek online advice in the digital age. There are a lot of articles claiming to reveal the secret to finally getting fit.  There’s always a new exercise fad, or studies showing a correlation between people who work out first thing in the morning being a certain percentage more likely to stick with their fitness goals.  Cardio is all that matters. Strength training is the new cardio. Running is the only way to get thin so you better learn to like running. Running is the worst for your joints so you better find a low-impact workout.  This is our world. Conflicting views abound and everyone’s got her own two cents.

Well, here’s my two cents: there is no magic formula for getting fit. There is not one type of exercise that works best for every single person.  There is no one approach that turns a single workout into a lifelong habit. There, I said it.  We all want an easy answer to complex challenges, myself included, but sometimes the easy answer just doesn’t exist.

So what really works?  Find something–anything–that you actually enjoy enough that you’ll do it for long enough to form a habit.  Start small and build up to bigger things.  That’s it.

What will you be willing to do even when it’s freezing cold or boiling hot outside? Even when you’re tired? Even when you’d rather be Netflix and chilling? Even when your body is a bit sore? Even when life gets in the way? What do you genuinely enjoy? What gives you energy? What makes you feel like you accomplished something? Whatever activity comes to mind when you ask these questions, that’s your ticket and you’re probably ten times more likely to stick with that activity. You don’t need me to tell you there’s a million different ways to get fit. You know this already.

Then start small. The starting small piece is not to be underestimated. If you go roaring out of the gates and try to run a 5 k or lift weights five days per week when you haven’t done either in years (or maybe ever), you’ll likely regret it. Your muscles will be too sore, you might even injure yourself, and you’ll do nothing more than reinforce the belief that you hate [insert whatever form of activity you tried].  It’s demoralizing and it’s totally avoidable. You know what will motivate you to keep going? Seeing small, incremental improvements.  Don’t worry about how small you’re starting. The journey is long and you have all the time in the world to get to bench pressing 100 lb or hiking 20 km trails. You’ll never get to those goals if you try to do too much too fast.

That’s it. That’s my two cents. There’s a lot of noise out there about fitness and health and sometimes you just have to cut through the noise and give some real thought to what makes sense for you.  And then, then you just take one small step forward…

Monday Musings: on trial by fire

I have a love/hate relationship with trial by fire. My reptilian brain sounds alarm bells at the thought of being thrown into the deep end without a life preserver. My experience, however, tells me that when I’m thrown in the deep end I actually tend to learn the most and the most quickly. Not only that, they’re the times when I’ve been forced to come up against and change some deeply held beliefs about myself.

The thing with trial by fire is that it forces you to figure something out quickly. The alarm bells are fleeting because you simply don’t have the luxury of time to slowly think through your options and extensively weigh out the best way to respond.  You’ve got to figure it out. Right now. And then you have to come to terms with the choices you made in that moment.  More often than not, my game time decisions are just as good, if not better, than ones I’ve agonized over.

I am a homeowner, a designer, a career coach, a facilitator, and a strength training enthusiast, all because of trial by fire. I was thrown into all of these roles thinking ‘that’s not me’ but by virtue of being forced to disprove myself, I have come to realize that these things are all very much me. Sometimes trial by fire is the fastest route to seeing new possibilities in ourselves. But it’s not the only route.

Ultimately I’m starting to see that trial by fire is actually just about trusting my gut in moments that require immediate action because the answers and ideas are already there. I’ve been working with a coach lately who flies against my conception of conventional coaches–which I love–and the more I work with her, the more I’m seeing a powerful pattern: when I’m forced to do something, I find a way. Even when it’s uncomfortable, even when it goes against what I believe to be true about myself, even when I think I have no idea how to do it, I will get it done.

While I like to tell myself that I need time to think things through and  to process information before making big decisions I’ve also noticed that the more time and space I have to think about things, the more likely I am to experience immobilizing anxiety and fear.  The end result: I’m stuck in the same place with the exact same story. And the pattern repeats.

As I’ve been digging into this pattern, I’ve realized I’ve spent years asking myself the wrong question. I’ve been asking myself how can I light a fire under my ass to replicate the trial by fire feeling as a means of forcing me to challenge my stories.  What I really needed to be asking myself is how I can question my stories and trust my gut in the calm of comfort. All along, I have been missing the fact that I would be better served to rewrite my story out of want rather than necessity.  I don’t need external pressure or the replication of external pressure to get stuff done. I need to quiet the noise, open my heart and listen.

Onward and upward I go.

TWIR #94: Shaking it Up

Any time I travel, I find I end up shaking up my workout routine a bit.  Most of the time, this means reducing workout duration or missing a day here or there. This week, however, it just meant the return of an old favourite and moving things around within the week. The end result was a workout week that felt a little less stale. Hurrah! Let’s see what I got up to.

Saturday
Activity: planned rest day
Relevant Stats: operation-surprise-my-dad-for-his-70th-birthday successfully completed!
Observations: After a quick early morning flight, we surprised the heck out of my dad and whisked the fam out to Banff for the day.  There is nothing like fresh, mountain air to reinvigorate the spirit.  Though we didn’t get a real workout in, there was lots of walking and photo snapping, and my soul was happy so I was 100% okay with no real exercise.  I also shook up my cheat day and stayed carb and sugar free thanks to those new Starbucks egg bites (sidenote: still not sure how I feel about them and they’re odd, souffle-like texture…) and finding a lunch spot that featured many healthy options.  Somehow, I even resisted the urge to down my half pound of fudge the second I had it in my possession. Growth.

Sunday
Activity: at home strength workout
Relevant Stats: 40 min.
Observations:  We bought my dad a Sonos speaker system for his birthday and were having some issues connecting it to an older stereo system. I could explain the whole set up but who really cares? Suffice it to say I have no patience for nor experience with technological set up so I avoided the whole damn set up process by escaping to the basement for an at-home workout. We capped off the day with a lovely stroll along the Bow river, my mom’s famous home-made caesar salad and turkey pot pie, a half pound of fudge, and a belly ache. Worth it.

Monday
Activity: mini winter hike!!!!!
Relevant Stats: 5.2 km return, 295 m elevation gain
Observations: I have a smaller-than expected ice carving festival to thank for this hiking adventure. Our plan had been to check out the ice carvings in Lake Louise and then grab overpriced specialty coffees at the Chateau Lake Louise. When it became clear that the ice carvings would occupy all of 15 minutes of our time, we needed a plan B. We opted for a quick mini-hike through safe snow terrain and headed up to Mirror Lake. Though a quick and easy trail, I was left wondering why this was my first winter hike of the year.  Plus, man do I miss that nice, fluffy, dry Alberta snow.

Tuesday
Activity: planned rest day
Relevant Stats: travel day + return to the never-ending rain
Observations: As quick as we arrived, we headed back to Vancouver. And to the rain. Which never seems to end. Seriously, it has rained every day in January except for one. I’ll point out the obvious: that’s too much rain. At any rate, I’d contemplated a track workout that afternoon but, upon being greeted by torrential downpours, thought better of it and spent my afternoon meal planning, grocery shopping and doing kitchen chores instead.  Related: four-day weekends are the absolute best. For once I didn’t feel at all stressed about getting all the chores done while still fitting in fun. New goal: find a way to have four-day weekends all the time.

Wednesday
Activity: running intervals + strength
Relevant Stats: 5 min. warmup + 8 2 min. running intervals + strength
Observations: When your brand new umbrella just snaps shut unexpectedly in the pouring rain and after the world’s most painful three hours at work following a wonderfully extra long weekend that made you not want to go back to work, it can sometimes make you want to angry run.   This was one of those times. I needed to run. I craved the running. I ran at speeds I could never sustain these days, but that felt necessary to my sanity. I ran farther than I’ve run in months, and faster. And it felt freaking fantastic.

Thursday
Activity: personal training session
Relevant Stats: 60 min.
Observations: As it turns out, my anger fueled running made my SI stiff and made my hip positioning regress, so not only did I have to do prowler chest presses, but I had to do them with a new form that made them twice as hard.  Ugh. For the most part, my trainer spared me any torturous new activities, but I have to say that my arms and shoulders wanted nothing to do with any form of exercise so even the basics felt difficult.

Friday
Activity: strength training
Relevant Stats: 40 min.
Observations: I seriously contemplated bailing on my workout today, but I’m glad that I didn’t because a) it stopped raining and the sun actually came out while I was walking to the gym (!!!) and b) it turned out okay. I focused on nice, controlled exercises today to give my stiff body a break from the angry running earlier this week and the jumping in yesterday’s training session.  Now that it’s done, I feel accomplished. Nothing more should be required of me today, right? Right.

With that, the weekend is here. Even though I had a three day work week, I’m still saying a big glory hallelujah to the weekend’s arrival. Time to bring on the donuts and relaxation and chill time with friends. I may also day dream just a little bit about blue sky days and sparkling snow in the Rockies because, even though I could frolic in the snow here, I can assure you that it would not be under blue skies. Happy weekend y’all. Hope you find some sunshine, real or metaphorical, wherever you are.

Mid-Week Tangent: kid in a candy store

Look at that. Look at all that beautiful, beautiful fudge. It stretches beyond the eye can see (trust me, this photo shows only a quarter of the actual size of the display case).  This is what I was faced with on Saturday in Banff at my beloved The Fudgery .*  Can you imagine the dilemma? With so many fudges to choose from, how can a sugar addict (i.e. me) reasonably be expected to narrow her choice to just one option? It can only be described as cruel.

It’s easy to eliminate the obviously disgusting choices–hello, vanilla maraschino cherry–but beyond that the selection process becomes significantly more challenging. Do you stick with the old classic standbys like chocolate? Do you seek out some texture with chocolate walnut or Turtle? Do you throw caution to the chocolate fudge wind and go for peanut butter or maple fudge? Do you cave in to the trends and try out the salted caramel chocolate? Do you go with your old favourite, the one that you’d buy at embarrassing frequencies when you lived in Banff–the Reese’s Pieces peanut butter fudge? Ugh. Can you see my point? There are simply too many options to consider.

In the end, and after lengthy deliberation, I opted for the vanilla oreo. That classic cookies and creme was calling my name. I’ve had it before and couldn’t resist its saccharine charm.

This is what it’s like to be me. I am the actual kid in a candy store. I am still a child at heart, in awe of the sheer multitude of candy options laid out before me, simultaneously stressed and excited by the pressure of making the ‘right’ choice because who knows when I will find myself back in the candy store again?  Also like the kid in a candy store, I have yet to learn that you do not, in fact, have to eat the entire half pound block of fudge in one fell swoop. Multiple stomach aches and near-vomiting experiences have failed to teach me that lesson in the past, and I certainly didn’t learn it this weekend as I lay in agony after downing a half pounds’ worth of sugar and butter.  This is the price I must pay for being the 38-year-old kid in a candy store. And it is worth every penny.

 

*Seriously, if you are in Banff do not buy fudge anywhere other than The Fudgery. This is not a paid sponsorship. I have no affiliation with them (though I wish I did). Just trust me when I say I have sampled all the fudge to be found in Banff and theirs is the best.

Training Tuesdays: almost forgotten joys of winter hiking

I have not hiked a single trail this winter. Contrast this with the last few years when I had an almost weekly track record, if not more frequently. Last year, for instance, when I was temporarily (and by choice) out of work, I was winter hiking at least a couple days a week. I couldn’t get enough of it, and I thought for sure that the same would be true this year.

Instead, I’ve found myself in this reality:  I’ve been working in a role that leaves me feeling exhausted and unmotivated. While winter hiking could very well have been my reprieve,  I found myself unwilling to spend my precious weekends driving to trails, dealing with crowds at our local ski/winter sport hills, and putting up with the heavy, wet, clumpy west coast snow.   As a result, and despite invitations to join others on the snowy trails, I’ve not ventured out even once.

Until this weekend.

We were blessed with the warmest of rocky mountain weather this weekend (i.e. temperatures just slightly below 0). When you are near the rockies and are greeted with semi-clear skies coupled with temperatures that warm, there is only one thing to do: hit the trails. And so we did.  And from the second we stepped into closed forest, surrounded by nothing but lightly falling snow, snow-capped trees, and the gentle crunch of snow beneath our feet, my love for the winter hike came flooding back.

There is something about winter hiking that is even more magical than summer hiking. There air is crisp and fresh. There is a deep silence that only snow can bring. Snow evens out the trail surface, making snow hiking far more leisurely and less technical than summer hiking.  In the rockies at least, there tends to be fewer people on trails than here in Vancouver, giving the experience an air of solitude.  It’s also amazing what a blanket of pristine snow can do for normally dull terrain. Even forest-enclosed trails become portrait worthy. I had somehow forgotten all of this and it took only two hours on trail to remind me.

If there’s snow and trails to be found where you are, I strongly encourage you to bundle up and head to the mountains, find a suitable trail (i.e. a trail that’s meant to be hiked or snowshoed in the winter), put one foot in front of the other, breathe deep and find the peace and solitude you didn’t even know you were missing. I just might do the same again very soon in my neck of the woods (despite the heavy, wet snow, neverending cloud cover and hordes of hikers).

Monday Musings: Old Haunts

This weekend was my father’s birthday, so off we went to Cochrane to celebrate with him.  In efforts to help him ring in his 70th year in style, we took him out to the mountains, one of his most favourite places. I won’t lie, they’re also one of my favourite places.  Banff and its surrounding area has always held a special place in my heart, and it occurred to me this weekend that somehow I let myself go a year and a half without stepping foot within park boundaries. I didn’t know just how much I missed it, just how much a part of me it is, until I found myself there again this weekend, standing on the banks of the Bow River staring up at the mighty Mt. Rundle.

Without a doubt,  this is the longest I’ve gone without visiting Banff since I was a child. When I was a kid, we camped around Banff every single year.  It captured my heart so much so that I moved there as an adult. I spent almost four years in Banff, and they were truly some of my best years.  I had hiking at my doorstep. In fact, it’s the place responsible for my true love of trails and the birthplace of my trail running adventures. For the first time in my life, I was part of a small community, the kind  where you couldn’t go anywhere without running into someone you knew. I was part of a quirky, delightful, challenging and absolutely fascinating team within an organization that helped me carve out a path for myself that I never would have considered otherwise.  Many of those quirky and wonderful teammates became friends, friends I still see to this day, though not as often as I’d like. It was a life-altering experience in many ways.

So this weekend, as we visited Banff and surrounding areas I found myself lost in my old haunts: browsing through the Christmas store even though it was nowhere near Christmas, agonizing over what type of fudge to choose from the Fudgery, cutting down back alleys to avoid the hordes of tourists,  thinking of nights out at virtually every restaurant and bar in town, remembering the smell unique to the Rockies in winter (a mix of snow and trees), staring in awe at the grandeur of the scenery in all directions,  and reveling in the familiar motion of winter hiking and the feel of dry, rocky mountain snow (so much better than west coast snow, by the way) beneath my feet.

It was a feast for my soul in so many ways. It reminded me of times when I was at my most active, invigorated by fresh air and the constant presence of epic mountain scenery.  It felt like coming home again. I always hear that expression ‘you can’t go home again’ and, to be honest, I’ve never felt it to be true. Of course places change and evolve. Even in Banff, so many storefronts and restaurants and neighborhoods are different than they were when I lived there.  That’s not the point. Home is nothing more than a feeling.  Being able to step foot into a place and have it feel familiar, even when the sights and sounds around you are not exactly the same, to have it instantly transport you back to a wonderful time in your life, that is what home is.  And I can tell you that any time I find myself in and around Banff,whether in town on on the trails, I am home.

 

TWIR #93: TGILW

Okay, I know, that post title has way too many acronyms. I’m just over the moon that a) it’s Friday and b) it’s an extra long weekend for me.  Hence the TGILW (thank goodness it’s a long weekend). Certainly it doesn’t have the same ring to it as TGIF but an extra long weekend is worth a clunky acronym isn’t it? Let’s check out what I got up to this week.

Saturday
Activity: planned rest day
Relevant Stats: sushi and chocolate and donuts, oh my!
Observations: I am not at all apologetic about the donut that I ate for breakfast nor the melt-in-your-mouth saba aburi oshi at Minami (seriously, if you live in Vancouver, go there immediately. Put aside the fact that you ‘don’t like mackarel’ and put this in your mouth.).  However, I am apologetic for the rapid consumption of chocolate because I ate it all before I realized I really didn’t even feel like chocolate. The freedom of Saturday’s eating sometimes just gets to me, you know?

Sunday
Activity: unplanned rest day
Relevant Stats: beach walk + epic kitchen chores
Observations: I have no excuses for this rest day. It wasn’t even raining outside. In fact, it was a beautiful sunny day.  I just didn’t want to.  Instead, we opted to drive out to White Rock for a long walk along the beach because it was so nice out. Well, little did we know we would be driving straight into the epic wall of fog. We left brilliant sunshine in the city to walk in grey fog. Still, it was lovely and refreshing. I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen, deeply engrossed in a true labour of love (at least without a food processor): homemade bolognese. Seriously, there’s way too much fine chopping involved to do this without my food processor. I can’t wait to have my things out of storage.

Monday
Activity: running intervals + strength training
Relevant Stats: 45 min.
Observations: I had to use the treadmill for my running intervals but this was still a satisfying workout.  In fact, it was actually more satisfying in some ways because running on the treadmill always feels easier than running outdoors. I cranked that speed up (for me, at least) and felt like I was flying rather than plodding along gasping for air like I do at the track. Regardless, the workout was solid and I was a sweaty beast by the end.

Tuesday
Activity: personal training session
Relevant Stats: 60 min.
Observations: I’m afraid to tell my trainer that the prowler chest presses are getting easy, at least at the weights we’ve been working with.  Let’s just keep that our little secret, shall we? This was also the first training session during which she introduced nothing new for me to hate with a vengeance. I wondered if she was feeling guilty about forgetting our session a couple weeks back. No matter the reason, I’ll take it!

Wednesday
Activity: strength training
Relevant Stats: 40 min.
Observations: There is no delicate way to put this: this workout was painful from start to finish. I could tell from my first set of single leg deadlifts that I was not going to have a good workout. My legs were tired. My arms were even more tired. I decreased my weight on all sorts of exercises, dropped down to three sets of most, and generally am amazed that I survived for a full 40 minutes. That was pure dedication…and a whole lotta habit.

Thursday
Activity: strength training
Relevant Stats: 40 min.
Observations: After Wednesday’s debacle, I was determined to fit in a good workout despite it being yet another early(ish) morning workout (any more than one in a week is not my jam).  Although I was solidly on the early morning workout train before Christmas, I’ve definitely returned to the camp of mid-morning workout since the start of the new year. I’m not going to lie. This workout was a bit rough at the start. My muscles just kept asking me why I was doing this to them.

Friday
Activity: running intervals + strength
Relevant Stats: 30 min.
Observations:  More treadmill running intervals! I was going to go to the park this morning instead, but then freaked out about being there in the dark with headphones in because, obviously, I would be murdered despite it being a relatively safe neighborhood. As I’ve mentioned before, watching crime shows has not been good for me.  At any rate, I had a great interval workout on the go before I realized I’d forgotten my breakfast at home and thus had to cut my workout short to pay an ungodly amount of money for a keto friendly option between my gym and my office.  My mother used to tell me I’d forget my own head if it weren’t screwed on. She is correct.

Alas, now the weekend is here and it’s a gloriously long one for me. If you’re wondering when I’ll stop bragging about that to all you two-day weekenders, the answer is never. Happy weekend to all and to all a good night.

For me at least. Sorry…not sorry.

Training Tuesdays: is 2018 the year fitness resolutions died?

I usually dread January at the gym.  Every year, there’s this mass influx of people from start of the month to around mid-February. I can only assume most are spurred on by new years’ resolutions to get fit and healthy. I’d never discourage anyone from setting health and fitness goals. I really do believe it’s fantastic. However, it certainly won’t stop me from complaining about how all the newly minted fitness fanatics overcrowd the gym, make it more difficult for me to get my hands on equipment, create line ups for showers, and generally make the January/February gym-going experience significantly less pleasant.

I had the worst expectations for that first week of January. I walked into the gym expecting to see every machine taken, every last bench snagged, every last piece of equipment claimed. I was dreading it and mentally preparing myself to be in a heightened state of annoyance throughout my workout. But then I arrived at the gym on January 2nd and, well, there were no hordes of new gym converts. In fact, dare I say it was quiet.

My next thought was that maybe everyone was still on holiday vacation. Surely the following week everyone would be back at work and, thus, visiting the gym in droves.  Once again, I went through the exercise of mentally preparing myself and once again my worries proved to be baseless.  Still, there were no masses of exercisers. There was no competing for equipment. There was no battling to find a square inch of gym surface in which to set up my own private workout station. There was just me and the regulars.

In the days since, it’s occurred to me that perhaps this year is the dawn of a new era, an era in which the fitness resolution has lost its steam. Perhaps more people are slowly, gradually finding avenues to work activity into their lives instead of showing up at the gym January 2nd, killing their bodies for four weeks, realizing it sucks to bombard their bodies with sudden and unexpected exercise, and then giving up because they can’t imagine being in that kind of physical pain all the time.  Perhaps more people are legitimately changing their lifestyles with activities that actually fit into their lives instead of trying to fit into a one-size-fits-all, “I-have-to-go-to-the-gym-five-days-a-week-to-be-fit” mentality.  Perhaps we are all finally learning that health comes from doing activities you actually enjoy with a cadence you’ll actually stick with. Wouldn’t that be something?

Or, you know, perhaps it’s just that I live in one of the fittest cities in North America and everyone’s already uber fit here. Regardless, I’m not going to complain about this pleasant turn of events because it means I no longer have to focus my death glare on that girl who’s hogging the kettle bell I want to use while she (obliviously) sits on the bench texting her friends…

Monday Musings: on being a former (and maybe future) runner

About two years ago now, I signed up for an ultra marathon, a mountain ultra to be exact. This after having just one half marathon (which I hated) and one marathon (which I also hated) under my belt, and this also after never really being willing to commit to a legitimate training plan for any running event. Still, at the time it seemed a worthy and lofty goal…until my SI and sciatic crapped out on me.

I tried for a really long time, too long really, to get back into running. I pushed myself to the point of re-injury time and time again.  For the last six months, though, I’ve very intentionally bid a fond farewell to any real form of running. I’ve been content with maybe weekly, but maybe not weekly, interval running workouts at the track. Most of the time, running is a distant memory.

Every once in a while, though, I see people effortlessly bounding down the street or pack myself up for an indoor workout on a sunny day or dread having to drive to the gym for a workout because it’s such a time suck. Those are the moments when I remember the runner I used to be.

I see those runners go by and I think ‘that used to be me…only slower and with a much grouchier look on my face.’ When I look out the gym window and see sunshine I think ‘ahhh, it would be so nice to be out there instead of in here.’ And when it takes me an hour and a half to do a 45 minute workout because I have to drive and look for parking, I think ‘good god, I miss the days when I could throw on my shoes, open the door and just run.’ Sure, these moments are few and far between these days, but they’re still there enough to make me wonder if I will run again. I also wonder if running is just always part of your identity, even when you’re not actively doing it, or at least how long it takes to work its way out of how you see yourself.

The long and the short of it is that from time to time I wrestle with these questions. Other times, I welcome the break from pounding the pavement and wonder if my body is thanking me for sparing it further injury. When it’s pouring rain, I am thankful that I am not out there, like I used to be, getting soaked to the very core, to the point where not even a lengthy hot shower will take away the chills. When I’m able to spend an entire day doing whatever I want instead of organizing my day around a training run or my workout, I’m equally thankful. Running, it seems, can occasionally steal your spontaneity.

As with most things in life, being a runner is neither inherently good nor bad. It all depends, among other things, on what you want for your health, what your body will tolerate, what you love, and what you will sustain. For me, the verdict is still out on whether I will be a real runner again. For now, two years out from when I decided to give my first ultra a try, I’m still conflicted.

 

TWIR #92: longest week ever

Does anyone else feel like the first 5-day work week after the holidays is the longest week ever? Well, I do. Wednesday felt like Thursday. Thursday felt like Friday. You get the picture. It all adds up to my beyond ready for the weekend.  Alas, at least there were some decent workouts this week. Let’s see what I got up to.

Saturday
Activity: walk + planned rest day
Relevant Stats: 7 km walking
Observations:  Saturday rest days are the best. They involve a giant breakfast donut (yay cheat day!) plus a walk to the local farmer’s market. This week’s visit was a bit disappointing, though, because our onion guy wasn’t there. Seriously, this guy grows the best onions.  You know an onion must be beyond good if I’m taking time to specifically mention it.  Completely unrelated, do you ever have one of those days when you feel like you did nothing but walk all day but then it adds up to nothing? This was one of those days. Only 7 km!?! Wtf.

Sunday
Activity: unplanned rest day
Relevant Stats: laziness 10 out of 10
Observations: Can I lie and say the day got away from me and that’s why I didn’t work out? In all honesty, I simply cannot bear the thought of driving to the gym on weekends and I also cannot bear the thought of a track workout in the rain. I have clearly become soft. The rain never used to phase me but now I shudder at the thought of working out outside in the rain, which is unfortunate given that it rains here EVERY DAY. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it feels that way. Instead of exercising, I lounged, read my book, did chores, and ran errands. It was perfect. Sometimes, you just have to take an extra rest day for your sanity.

Monday
Activity: strength training
Relevant Stats: 45 min.
Observations: Hallelujah to not having a headache anymore and to feeling a bit more energy! It was a sharp contrast to last week, and I made sure to fit in a solid workout while the energy was in me.  I even added weight to my step ups and single legged squats. On a Monday. That’s pretty impressive in my books.

Tuesday
Activity: personal training session + return of the after work walk (!!!)
Relevant Stats: 60 min.
Observations: It’s been three weeks since my last training session and, even though I do a lot on my own, there’s something about my trainer’s exercises or combinations thereof that leave me so sore.  She also manages to integrate something new every week that I despise. This week’s torture: sideways bear crawls. Ugh. On a more positive note, the rain stopped (!!!!) and we were able to get out for an after work walk, something I find very soothing after an exhausting day at work.

Wednesday
Activity: strength training + after work walk (!!!)
Relevant Stats: 35 minutes
Observations: Everything in my lower body hurt after Tuesday’s session. I decided to focus on my arms, combining all of my least favourite upper body exercises only to spare my legs.  I succeeded in killing my arms, to the point where carrying my bag back from the gym felt like a workout.  But the big win was a second after-work walk of the week! This hasn’t happened since October. The only thing that could’ve made me more excited would’ve been a celebratory donut. Don’t worry, I abstained…but I promise you it was challenging since our walk took us right past our favourite bakery. Mmmm, donuts.

Thursday
Activity: strength training
Relevant Stats: 40 min.
Observations: It was back to legs to spare my arms. I’m sensing a pattern here.  My big win was upping my prowler weight to 120 lbs in between sets of kettle bell side lunges and weighted single leg squats. My legs are not going to be pleased with me tomorrow. Honestly, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not have half of my body in pain every single day of the week.

Friday
Activity: strength training(ish)
Relevant Stats: 35 min.
Observations: It’s somehow fitting that at the end of what I’ve deemed the longest week ever, I had what felt like the longest workout ever (even though it clearly was not).  I had little energy left in the tank for this workout. It could be because I left it until 2:30. It could be that I’ve overdone it other days this week. Or it could just be that it’s Friday and I’m done and I’m more than ready for the weekend.

On that note, I’m outta here. I’ve got some friends to see, some donuts to eat, some wine to drink, and some relaxing to do. Maybe, just maybe this weekend I’ll manage to fit in a workout…but no promises on that if this rain continues. Happy weekend y’all.