There are some days I truly believe there is no place better than the beach where I live, today was one of those days. The past couple of days it has been quite windy leading to some significant waves. While it sucks walking/running in that wind is freezing, the stunning beauty of watching our ocaen move makes it so worth it. Today the tide was in and there sitting on a log watching the water was a stunning bald eagle. He just reminded me of the beauty of the nature around me and why I live in this gorgeous part of the world.
Today was 10km day. I did an easy one a few weeks ago and it was quite difficult. But I have been working hard the past few weeks and thought it was time to do a longer run again. So, up early and on the road by 6am. It was a bit warmer today than it has been this past week and I really appreciated that. I started out at a nice pace down the hill and my immediate thought was how much I was enjoying this. That thought is a huge change from 2 years ago before I had to take my break due to the blown out ankle. Back then I hated running only appreciated it once the run was over. Instead, today I thought about how good it felt.
So what has changed? I realized that hiatus I took really made me miss running. At the point when my brother died I remember thinking how much I wanted to do a run to clear my head but I couldn’t. Having stepped away for 18 months I now appreciate how invigorating doing a good run can be. And today was no exception.
I was a bit disappointed in my first kilometer because the pace was slower than what I wanted therefore I picked it up for km 2. Now don’t get me wrong, I still run slowly but I am working on that. I kept trying to up the pace but it wasn’t going as well as I hoped during those first 5 km’s. But I turned it up for the last 5 km’s and was pleased at the end result. Again, I still have work to do but each kilometer is getting easier.
I also had a bit of a break through today. Because of the ankle I have avoided running/walking up the steep hills. This week I decided it was time to work on this so twice I have walked up a very steep hill just to get back to doing it. Today I decided it was time to conquer running up a hill again. And so instead of only running on the promenade/pier I actually tackled the hill that leads me back home. The 1st 2 blocks of that hill are brutal but I kept pushing myself until I had made it. The ankle held (note I do still wear a brace when running) and I was pretty proud of hitting the top of the hill. It told me that I can do this on my long runs and can’t wait to try it again next week.
When I started running a friend who is a long time runner told me that a 10km run is simply 10 1km runs and don’t let the large number intimidate me, she was right. Running is about each kilometer, not the total. When I was about to do a 1/2 marathon the smae friend dropped off a hilarious card (10 things that mean you are a runner) and reminded me it is 1 kilometer at a time. Again she was right and I am really looking at my new found love for running through those lenses.
Tomorrow I will do an easy 8km run. I know that like today I will focus on each individual kilometer instead of thinking about how far I still have to go. Shifting that focus makes the experience so much more enjoyable. Really, I can’t wait to get out there again and just enjoy what I am doing.
So, I intend to improve my running 1 kilometer at a time because that is all that I need to do. Who knows maybe someday I’ll be at the point of not being a ‘slow’ runner, I sure hope so.
Ok, today I did my 3rd 8km run this week. I have given up on the 5km runs because they just aren’t doing it for me anymore. Having said that, when I get back to Mexico in 5 weeks I fully intend to use those 5km runs to improve my speed. My goal is to come back with the best pace I have ever done. And Saturday this week I fully intend to get in a 10km which will include for the 1st time in nearly 2 years finishing the run coming up a steep hill. Wish me luck.
As part of my newly rediscovered focus on my fitness, I am putting much more emphasis on strength training. A lot of what I have been reading about tells me that just doing cardio won’t cut it, I need to be doing strength at least 3 times a week in order to build muscle and reduce fat. While it seems a bit counter intuitive i realize that as I am getting older having those muscles to support my joints is becoming more and more important.
This week in particular has been a good week. For several months now my fitness classes have only had 2 instructors, one who does 4 days a week and the other who only does one (of course I am only referring to the 5:30am classes). While both of these instructors are awesome, I did find having the same instructor 4 times a week was not necessarily offering the variety that I am looking for. Don’t get me wrong, the workouts have been excellent, just often times very similar.
Things have changed this week in that a new instructor has been added. That means each of the strength classes has a different instructor. What a difference I found this week. Of course the instructors have a lot of similarities i.e. adding weights to my exercises without my consent (it’s ok, I actually like it) but also a lot of differences. Each of them has a different way of doing the classes and sometimes have different ways of doing exercises which is not a bad thing. What is important is that they are all making me want to push myself to do better.
Yesterday with the new instructor we were doing deadlifts. Now Tuesday the instructor had made me do 50 lb dumbbell deadlifts which I got through. Yesterday I was doing 75 lb barbell deadlifts and yes, they were hard but you know what? I got through them for several sets. It’s all about building strength and challenging yourself to do better each and every week.
And so I am going to keep focusing on building that strength until I get to the point that when I look at myself in the mirror even I am stunned at how buff I am. Trust me, if I keep up what I am doing now it won’t take long.
Finally we seem to be making progress with our new kitty. After the 1st week we managed to completely traumaticize him. We decided to do a reset so put him in our basement family room and kept all the other pets away. We tried to make him feel comfortable and safe by leaving low level lights on, kept the fireplace running (it get quite cold in our basement) and left on a pet calming music channel (yes there is such a thing). After a week we started leaving the family room door open and the cat has slowly started to explore. While he won’t let us touch him yet, he is not running away when he sees us. I am calling this progress.
When I returned from Mexico I vowed it was time to give this health and fitness thing my all. There were some things that were easy to get started; reduce alcohol, watch carb intake and increase lean proteins. Those have all been relatively easy to do. But I knew I had to up my game when it came to workouts. I needed to go back to my no excuses mantra and go back to a tight schedule for my workouts. I think I am having relative good success.
I was at the fitness center this morning for a strength training class. I saw on the whiteboard what we were going to do so grabbed appropriate weights. I knew we were starting with dumbbell deadlifts so grabbed a couple of 20 lb weights which I thought was pretty good. But no, the trainer announced that no one should be using less than 25 lb weights. I sighed and grabbed a new set and you know what? 3 rounds of 10 reps and I didn’t die. Next was barbell back squats (have I mentioned I hate back squats?) and we were instructed to weight up the bars so I pulled out a couple of 15 lb weights which meant with the weight of the bar I would be squatting 65 lbs. Again I thought this was pretty good but when I turned my back to get clips for the weights suddenly I had another 10 lbs added to the bar so now I am going to be squatting 75 lbs! Again, I got through it and didn’t die. As a matter of fact I felt pretty good.
I realized I had for quite a while slid into the habit of taking the easy route. Today just proved to me that kind of mentality needs to stop. Yes, I have limitations but those need to be dealt with as one offs, not the entire workout routine. I have so much room to get even more fit and I am going to get back to being in the best shape of my life. I even managed to get in 20km of walking today and expect, for the 2nd day in a row to burn 3,000+ calories.
So I am getting into my groove. I am back to planning each day and how I am going to get all my workouts in. I know tomorrow I have a lunch to go to so that means fitness class followed by 3 hours of walking in the morning and then another hour in the afternoon. Thursday I have client work to do but I know how to do a work around to get in all of my training.
On a final note, I feel really good. Right now I go to bed at night just anticipating what I will accomplish the next day. That is what my groove looks like.
Sorry there was no post on Thursday, I was going off on a excusion for the afternoon so had to spend the morning getting my 3 hours of walking done.
I have to say yesterday I had 2 amazing customer service experiences. The first was with my accounting software technical support line. Not only did they resolve my issue but they set my system up so I can do the work via the cloud meaning I don’t have to try and rely on saving everything to a USB. This will actually make my saved work more stable. The 2nd was a call with a credit union that I deal with. They resolved all but one issue which was referred to another department but I was given the instruction that if I don’t hear back by Monday I am to call the rep I spoke with directly. It was so great to finish both calls feeling good.
It has been such a great week workout wise for me. When I got back from Mexico I committed to going back to really pushing myself when it comes to working out. And so I set a goal of Monday to Friday fitness class every morning then at least 3 hours of walking/running during the day. It is a pretty hefty goal but one I have done before and that I want to get back to. The only real issue with this arose on Monday when I realized it was a holiday and there was no early morning fitness class so instead I walked 4 hours that day.
But I have pushed myself even further. Tuesday I got in a good 7km run. At the fitness classes I am not letting myself shy away from doing things that I don’t think I can accomplish. Instead I am trying things 1st and funny, pretty much all of them I was able to do. As well I am forcing myself to reach out of my comfort zone and instead try to use the heaviest weights I am able to. Yesterday I even kept upping weights doing exercise ball crunches because I didn’t think they were challenging enough. As well yesterday I decided to do one last quick walk which brought me up to burning nearly 3,100 calories for the day.
I finished the week off this morning with a run. Initially I had decided to just do a 5km since I have really pushed it this week. However, I started running and after the 1st km thought, hmm, this feels pretty good. And so I decided I could do a 7km run. When I hit the 7km mark I figured I was about 1km from where I would turn to go up a steep hill and went, what the hell, let’s do an 8km run today and so I did. I was pretty proud of myself so as a reward I had a nice soak in the hot tub.
All in all it has been a very successful week and I am proud of myself. On top of the exercise I have been very cognizant of keeping my carbs low and my lean protein high. I have also gone back to measuring my blood pressure twice per day and have to brag that it is pretty friggin’ amazing.
Now on to another successful week.
I am truly not liking this weather. I get that here on the west coast of BC we really haven’t had winter weather this year but I don’t need it to start now. The next few days it is going to be below freezing each day and I am really not liking Friday where it will be particularly chilly first things which of course is when I will be going for a run. Sigh, at least I have appropriate clothing as well as hand warmer packs for my gloves.
The past few days have been pretty good exercise wise. I had planned to start back at it last week but of course the infection in my hand stopped that from happening. However, I am bound and determined to get back to a better weight and get myself more fit than I have ever been. I am doing it relatively caustiously as the last thing I want to do is blow out my ankle again. My overall goal for the next month is to get back to my weekly long run being 14km. I’m not to worried about getting there, I just need my schedule to cooperate.
I started my workouts on Sunday (ok I usually consider Monday the start of the week but for this week it was Sunday). It was a pretty nice day so I thought ok, let’s try a nice easy 5km run. I started off doing a little over a km walk then off on a run. It was actually quite lovely because I got to be down at the beach and the weather was pretty good. And, I ran into many of my fellow early morning walker/runners many of whom I haven’t seen in a few months. I finished off the workout with a 4km walk. Not bad for a Sunday morning.
Yesterday messed me up a bit. Being retired you really don’t think about things like holidays so I had forgotten that it was Family Day. I didn’t realize it until I went to book my early morning fitness class only to find the class wouldn’t be until 9:15am which is way too late for me. So, got up early and did a 1 hour walk. Came home and rested for a bit then headed out for a 1 1/2 hour walk to meet my walking group for coffee. That was followed by an hour walk with them then 1/2 walk home. Yep, clocked 4 hours of walking yesterday and if felt pretty good.
Then there was today. Started with a 1 hour strength class which for the 1st time in nearly 2 months I was using weights more than 10 lbs which is the only ones I have at the condo. The deadlift was a little too easy so I added a few extra pounds. Next I headed off for a 1km warm up walk followed by a 7km run. The only challenge was it was at the freezing mark and so our wooden pier was covered with frost. I only ran on the pier for a minute or so realizing how slippery it was so decided to just do some double backs along the promenade. Finally I was facilitating a support group early in the afternoon so to finish off my workouts I walked (1 hour) to the support group location. Hmm, again not too bad.
I have also started focusing on higher protein, lower carbs for my meals. I am not a fan of eliminating food groups so there is still carbs in my meals, just at a reduced level. For example, today is Shrove Tuesday which means we are supposed to have pancakes for dinner. To make that work I just avoided carbs the rest of the day. Hasn’t been that difficult because I really want those pancakes.
The rest of the week is challenging because I am very busy. Tomorrow will be the most challenging because I have meetings most of the day. I’ll get in my fitness class but am just hoping I get home in time to do at least a 2 hour walk. Thursday I am off on an excursion but am pretty sure I can get in 3 hours of walking. I’ll do a small run on Friday and then Saturday will get in my 10km. All of it is ambitious but I am determined.
And so it’s been a good few days and I hope the rest of the week goes just as well.
Well everyone, I am back posting after a long break. It really wasn’t’ intentional, it was more circumstances. I had some technical issues while at the condo leading me to be behind in not just volunteer work but client work. It did look like it got resolved but then went south once I got home (more on that later). I did manage to do a fairly good job of working out a couple hours each day (with the exception of the week off due to the coati chase) and until the last week we were pretty good about not eating out more than twice per week. Of course at the end all sorts of places and people came up and so we kind of got sidetracked.
We arrived home late Thursday Feb 5th. The next day we picked up an 8 month old kitty that we have adopted from an owner who is not able to care for it. We know how to intigrate a new cat into the home so set Willie (full name William Wallace MacGregor) in our bedroom where he could feel safe. It did not go as planned. 2 things happened last Saturday. Firstly, my home laptop died and wouldn’t reboot (picture the fact it is year end for my clients so this is a bit of an issue). Secondly, I was in the bedroom holding Willie when there was an incredibly loud noise happened (the chihuahua was playing dance, dance, dance which also means she screeches at the top of her lungs) scaring the cat who lashed out and bit my hand. Things were about to go really south at this point.
I got up Sunday morning and I was in such incredible pain I almost passed out. My hand was starting to swell and I spent all day icing it every 20 minutes. On Monday that hand was nearly double in size and was red (note the redness was actually heading up my arm). I managed to get an appointment with my doctor who immediately sent me to the emergency. Eventually the wounds were cleaned (trust me I had cleaned them and applied antibiotic cream) and I was put on strong antibiotics. The doctor warned me it would likely get worse before it improved in approximately 48 hours. He was right and I was maxing out on Tylenol just to be able to function. Because of this I did nothing in terms of workouts for the entire week though I did manage to traumatize the new cat but I will leave that for another day.
But now I am back. Tomorrow I plan on doing at least a 5km run and a 5km walk (even though it will be below freezing). Monday I am starting a higher protein lower carb meal plan which I hopes helps kick start me getting back into better shape. We have been staying away from alcohol (2 drinks yesterday which was the 1st of the week) and plan to do so until March 17th (note, not to celebrate St Patrick’s but to toast the anniversary of the passing of my father in law). I’m back at the gym on Monday though if the hand is bothering me then I will work with either lighter weights or none at all. As for the laptop, well it made it out of the computer hospital for about an hour before I took it back because it still wouldn’t boot up.
So yeah, I’m back from my break. The one good thing about that break was I found a bunch of runners on social media and have started following them. It has been very inspirational and I can’t wait to get out there tomorrow.
That past few days it has really cooled down here in Playa. As a matter of fact it will only get up to about 24 C today. Ok, I know if you aren’t in Mexico you likely think that is still pretty warm but frankly it is not when you aren’t used to it. As a matter of fact, last night it got down into the teens. Fortunately this trip I am a little more prepared as I have some leggings and a couple of long sleeved t-shirts as well as a 2 light hoodies and one heavier one. Bottom line is I can still be comfortable. By the end of the week it is suppose to warm up which is good because we are going to a beach club on Friday.
Last Tuesday I was out walking before doing a 5km run when that bloody coati snuck up on me. He was less than a foot away from me and stupidly I tried to run backwards which did not go well and I ended up flat on my ass taking some of the brunt of the fall with my right arm. Strangely enough the fall scared the coati as much as it did me. It gave me a few seconds to find food to throw at him so I could make my escape (someone contacted me and suggested instead of giving him food I get bear or pepper spray but I haven’t had much success finding either one).
I quickly got myself off the ground and walked away as fast as I could. It wasn’t long before I realized my lower back was starting to hurt. It wasn’t screaming pain but it was certainly enough to recognize there was some sort of injury. I should note my shoulder also hurt but that could have been from jarring it or from my spinal stenosous, hard to tell. Anyways I finished the walk at a slower pace than normal and mentally canceled my run. I also got back to the condo and canceled my online fitness class.
While I was committed to meeting my goals while I am here particularly in terms of the amount of workouts, the reality is I’m better off to let myself heal than push myself and make things work. And so, I medicated with some Advil and prescription anti-inflammatory cream. I told myself there would be not walking/running/online classes until I could go all day without any meds. The 1st day that happened was Saturday but even then I did just an hour walk. Yesterday I got out there for 3-1 hour walks and so far today I have done a 5km run, fitness class, and 5km walk ( I was careful in the fitness class to not do anything that caused pain to my back or shoulder). Depending on how I am feeling later this afternoon I may do another 5km walk.
The important message in this was that I knew I was injured and took measure to allow myself to heal. The fact that I missed my goals last week was not important to me, what was important is giving myself time to heal. And, if on Thursday when I am scheduled to do my next run I am still sore from today’s run, I’ll just do a nice walk. Again, I’d rather not push an injury and make it worse.
The big lesson I have learned? I’m 60 and not 16 so running backwards while being chased is probably not a good thing.
Well, it has happened, today I have turned 60. Not sure how all of those years have crept up on me but they have. But you know what, it’s ok. I have earned every one of those years and am proud of them. The only thing to me that is bittersweet is I would love to have my brother around to wish me happy birthday. I will be thinking of him as I celebrate with my friends today.
I told you that I was going to focus on new goals while I am here in Mexico because I want to get back to normalizing being healthy and fit. As a reminder, the goals were 5 days of fitness classes a week, reduced carbs, less alcohol and at least 3 runs a week. The reason I wanted to start all of this while at the condo is because it is more challenging to do all of that here as opposed to at home. It becomes quite easy to find reasons not to do most of the workouts but especially the online fitness classes. And we are really quite social while here so the less alcohol takes a lot of commitment. But you know what, I got through week 1.
I have managed to reach all of my goals this week. I targeted 1 meal a day that had significant carbs and that one was easy. I didn’t miss a single fitness class Monday to Friday (the Saturday one is just too late in the day because we are 3 hours ahead here). Today I did my 3rd 5k run of the week and trust me those are brutal because even at 6am the temperature is about 23c before humidity. I actuall ran/walked at least 15k each of the last 5 days and while I have only hit 10k so far today, before we meet our friends for a late lunch celebration my husband and I will be doing a long walk to get a few more km’s in. Finally, while I will be celebrating today, the last drink of alcohol either my husband and I have had was last Sunday. I am particularly proud of him because he doesn’t have to follow my crazy goals but he is supportive and knows this is good for him as welll.
And so, it has been a very successful week for me. I’m am happy with what I have managed to accomplish and I know the first week is the hardest. We’ve got about 4 more weeks here and I am determined to say that I have met my goals each week while I am here. Oh, and we found Corona Cero (Zero) which has been a nice treat to have when sitting out on the deck.
Well we are getting through the closets in the condo and it is going much quicker than I thought. We are moving on to our pantry tomorrow and it might takes some time because it is quite full of all sorts of things. However, I am fairly confident that I will still have some time in the afternoon to get on my pool floatie and spend some time reading in the sun. The weather is supposed to be nice and I just haven’t done enough of being on the water.
I have gotten to the point that I just don’t understand how we got here. I’m talking about all the lies, vitrol and out and out racism that we are now seeing in society spread mainly by social media. We seem to be doing the if I post it on X/Facebook/Instagram or whatever then what I am saying must be true. Worese because you can often do it anonymously that seems to give people the absolute courage to be vile. It almost makes me cry that this is the society that we have become.
A few days ago a sitting BC MLA (she sits as an independant) posted that our Prime Minister should declare ANTIFA a terrorist organization (she also seems to be a residential school denier). I thought wait, ANTIFA is a movement, not an organization. Hell, I’m ANTIFA because I don’t agree with facism. My Dad was absolutely ANTIFA because he was a veteran of WWII and came home with both the physical and emotional injuries to prove it. Seriously, he should have been declared a terrorist? Sadly there were so many responses supporting this that I was taken aback.
I belong to a couple community groups on Facebook for the area where we live. Often times people will ask for advice or have questions about the community. The responses sometimes just make me feel ill as people spew complete hatred and quite frankly for no reason. Someone asking a question should be spat upon by social media? Why, what the hell motivates you to do this? The ones that really anger me are the ones who are anonymous which I don’t think should be allowed. Fortunately one of the groups has awesome administrators who will shut the feed down as soon as they realize what is going on (and then the haters have a tantrum because they can’t post more hate). The other one not so much and it becomes a free for all of the vitrol by some people.
I also belong to some, what should be, friendly pet pages such as My Orange Cat is a Little Shit (if you have had an orange cat you will understand). One of the group members asked for assistance because she was going away for a few days and should she send her cat to her ex with her dog or would it be better to leave the cat at home and have someone check on it daily. Now I responded positively telling her what we do the once a year we leave our cats home alone for a few day. Others did not respond well calling her names and telling her that her pets should be taken away from her. What the hell? This is supposed to be a fun page where we do things like share the antics of our orange cats and help each other out. How is it acceptable to treat someone like this over trying to do the best thing for her cat?
And the worst of course is X. I cannot believe the number of posts where people openly admit they are racists and are proud of it. I am also disguted by the return of the slur, retard. When did it become ok again to use that? Oh and god forbid that you post anything political that isn’t part of a right wing agenda. The comments become almost violent because you have a political opinion that doesn’t match someone elses. Where did the concept of while I disagree with your opinion but I respect your right to have one go?
Yes I know, I could just stay away from social media but you know what, that makes things almost problematic when I am at the condo. The positive part of social media is that you can use it almost anywhere and it can help you keep in contact with your communties. However, I am concerned that the negative aspects are taking over.
So I ask again, how did we get here? While I do know some of the answers, I don’t know all of them. I’ve decided I will keep doing what I am doing which is mainly helping people with their pets and posting awesome pictures of my pets. Having said that I will still refuse to be a bystander when I see someone abusing another person online. I think if we all started doing that maybe, just maybe, some of this would tone down.
I am so glad to be back at the condo. It’s not just our friends and the warm weather (note it is definitely not the freezing cold pool) but I am back to feeding all my cats and dogs. So many of them chase me down and want some sort of cuddles along with their treats. Even several of the feral cats will now come up to me (though still leave some distance). There’s a long legged chihuahua named Mia who literally starts vibrating and dancing when she sees me. It really makes me feel good to have all of these 4 leged friends.
So my husband and I committed to having fun our first week here (i.e. not particularly paying attention as to what we were eating or drinking). We agreed that as of yesterday it would be time to get serious about a few things. For me it was to not find excuses to avoid working out (even ran a 5k this morning after walking a 5k then did a fitness class), reduce my carbs and not have alcohol more than twice a week. For him it was to improve his eating and same with the alcohol (note he’s a work in progress when it comes to walking each day). The challenge is that it is so easy here to just go out to eat, snack on chips or sit on the back patio with a beer or tequila. However, I have come up witha plan.
There’s that saying something about idle hands are the devil’s playground. I believe that in terms of if you don’t have anything to do, that’s when you get into trouble. Keeping that in mind I decided what will help keep us on the right path would be to find things for us to do. So I made a list of things we could do around the condo each day. We also have all sorts of board games that we can play to keep ourselves occupied. Finally we both have several books we want to read so we are committing time for that as well.
Today it was clean the windows. I know this doesn’t sound like much but trust me, we have very large windows. There are 2 sets in the front that are battered by the wind and rain and therefore can be quite filthy. The ones at the back off each bedroom are more protected but are much more challenging to clean because of their locations and size (these are huge patio doors). Still we went to it today and after several hours those windows are sparkling clean.
I am a firm believer that our tasks should not be more than a few hours each day. After all, we are here to get some relaxation and socilization as well. Remember, even with these tasks I am working out 4 hours a day and still have clients to deal with. Instead, I have broken all of the tasks down to which area of the condo to work on. For example, tomorrow will be reorganizing the closets/cupboards in both bedrooms. Thursday we are going to clean out and organize the cupboards and drawers. After that we are on to the pantry and eventually the kitchen cabinets which will likely take a couple days because I want to wash the exteriors. Trust me I am confident that when all of that is complete I will be able to find more for us to do.
I’m good with keeping us busy the next 4+ weeks. I want to normalize that when we come down here it is not an excuse to just sit around and let ourselves go. Rather, I want to make it so coming down here improves us and that is exactly what I think is likely to happen.
gwennefarrell 