Full gear ahead, with a touch of Instagram

I survived the week in the new workplace!! I also managed to do all my workouts this week, with a lot of "suck it up, buttercup" self-talk. Long days, lots of driving, but I don't feel too exhausted right now, so the amount must have been just right.

Last Saturday (yes, my blogging weeks start with the weekend) I went to my first spin class in almost a year. Because I went to bed pretty late the night before, I decided that the 9:15am class was going to be early enough. Drove to my regular gym and found this very cheerful crowd and the teacher who seemed to know all the people in the room, so she picked up on me right away and said "good luck, you're going to need it". Oh she knew what I was in for! 55 minutes later, I was drowning in a puddle of sweat, I had lost my voice and my legs were burning. So much fun, it hurt!

What I also loved was wearing my biking shoes for the first time ever in a spin class. What a difference hard soles make!

The rest of the day was a blur... so fast forward to the next day, a few folks from my tri club were going to meet in Inglewood (about 15min drive from home) for a hilly long run. I had never run there before, but I was familiar with the place for having driven there a few times to check out the local bike shop. That is actually where hubbs bought his bike and I bought my tri top as well. Anyway, despite going to bed really late again, I managed to leave the house on time. Alas the road looked really really wet and I didn't doubt that I was going to get drenched too.

But I had promised that I'd join the fun, so didn't want to bail out at the last minute. Once I arrived in Inglewood, only 2 other folks (and a dog) showed up though, so without thinking twice about the rain, off we went. It was damn challenging, so many hills, all I could tell myself was: "you signed up for Muskoka - 70.3 worth of hills, so shut up and keep moving". Thankfully, once we hit km 6, it was time to turn around, and I started feeling hopeful that I was going to make it back to the car after all.

The rain was falling on and off by then, roads were pretty wet, my shoes and clothes were too, but I wanted more. My workout needed to be 1h40 long, so I told my tri peeps goodbye and hopped on another trail to meet my quota. I finished the run pretty happy with my exploits even though I know that I embarrassed myself on those hills. Baby steps, baby steps.

Monday - Yoga. Nothing new to report there.
On Tuesday I needed to do the same treadmill killer workout as last week, so I went to the gym with my minimalist shoes. Tried to kill two birds with one stone, and the result was rather surprising. It took in average 5bpm LESS effort to move those feet. In the end, it didn't feel so criminal. It felt awesome! But this commuting + driving to the gym daily was starting to feel repetitive.

Indeed. On Wednesday, I went back again, this time for a bike workout. Foursquare +3 points bonus for going to the same gym 3 days in a row. Ouch. Wattage? Power intervals? Whaaaaat? I do not know how to do that... I started moving my feet, I had 10 minutes of warming up to figure it out. Thanks to Google, I found that Life Fitness bikes on Level 6 = 100 watts. Ok... so if I were to extrapolate, I needed to be on level 12 for my intervals. Oy! Decided to stay on level 4 when I wasn't pushing, and 11-12 for the rest, for a set that turned into a bunch of humps.

What you gon' do with all that junk?

All that junk inside your trunk?

I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk,

Get you love drunk off my hump.

My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump,

My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely little lumps (Check it out)

I counted them - all eight of them, my lovely little lumps. I got culture, didn't you know?

Thursday I decided that it was time for a walk. Too beautiful outside, too much driving around, not enough fresh air. I went on a recon mission at lunch to find my way to the nearby trail, aka my new playground. It was wonderful. I took a bunch of pictures, listened to the birds, looked at the river and the few ponds around, said hi to the passerby's. The rest is history, in all its Instagram glory.

I drove back from work and out of the house again. I was so friggin' tired, I had to take a nap after dinner, secretly hoping that I wouldn't wake up. But hubbs makes a good alarm clock "Get up! Get out! It's pool time!". Oh well, here we go again... Drills, drills, more drills, drinking chlorine, foggy goggles, flippers, flip turns, pretending that I can make it 200m without drowning (barely, ok?).

And now here we are, it's FRIDAY!! REST DAY!! Blogging day, whatever... I am in a murderous mood for whatever reason, hormonal or not, so I am taking all my anger on the keyboard. Really, I feel like screaming out loud. Like really loud. I guess I just needed to get all this stuff out. I think I am feeling better already. Here, look at this croissant with me, it was my dinner, along with a herbal peppermint tea.

By the way, I sent it back to remove the mayo. It was pretty sexy for the photo, but that didn't need to make it inside my stomach with the extra calories. I think I am hungry again. Okay, time to go to bed, sleep cures everything. Tomorrow the cycle starts again.