Runners, I Covet Thee...

Have you been running?  Maybe you've just run a marathon?  Or you just love getting outside and running--just because?  I'm envious of you.

Sure, I run, too.

Sometimes.

At 5 am and in the dark.

But I haven't been keeping up with it.  Or lifting weights.  Or much of anything at all.  And all this NOT working out is stressing me out.  Because I feel guilty that I'm just not doing enough of....anything.  I really feel like I should buy me some kettle bells   But who am I kidding?  I hate working out in my basement.  I hate staring at the walls while I do the same thing over and over and over.  I've said it before; I have a VERY short attention span.  So the kettle bells idea, while good for someone else, for me is just an excuse to not work out some more, because I don't have any, and I'd have to go shopping for some instead of just working out, right?

So they say too much running is bad for you now.  Well, not running enough is bad for you too, you know, because if I went out and tried to run a marathon tomorrow, I WOULD JUST DIE.  So there, marathons can kill.  Exercise can kill.  I should just stay home and sit very still so that I remain safe....  Oh, that's my inner lazy speaking, and it's done too much of the talking lately and for totally stupid reasons, I seem to have been listening.  The really lazy part of my brain was secretly wishing I had some kind of adrenal issue going on, so I could blame all this non-exercise on something.  Yea, I can see right through that excuse, too.

These excuses weren't getting me anywhere I wanted to be.

So I took to my closet to think this one out.  Hey, I have a big closet.  It's perfect for thinking in.  And as I hunkered down with a handful of forbidden ju jubes, it dawned on me.  Whaaat?  You don't hunker down in a closet with ju jubes for thinking?  Don't judge me.  It's perfectly normal in my house.  My daughter says so.  She consoled me after I ate the ju jubes, saying, "Don't worry mom, I've sat in your closet and eaten ju jubes, too."  She has a lifetime history of hunkering down in closets.  That's just her thing.  And that IS where I hid the ju jubes that the orthodontist gave me.  Isn't that where bad food belongs?  In your bedroom closet behind the fancy shoes and sewing kit?  Huh.  Well, that's where I hide mine so if you ever want to rob me, the ju jubes are in the closet, ok?  Funny thing is, I hate candy.  Really, I do.  So that's how much this new level of sloth was bothering me.  Or how hungry I was when I entered the closet.  You decide.  Either way, the ju jubes are almost gone.  Maybe I shouldn't think so hard when I'm hormonal.  Don't worry.  I don't actually like candy enough to want to buy any more. Sh!t happens.  I shouldn't have them in my house, and yet can't work up the nerve to throw them out.

So I had to take matters into my own hands on the exercise issue and change something.  This non-exercise state just wasn't working for me.

So I broke down and I called a running club.  Yea, I did it.  Excessive cardio-schmardio.  I have to DO enough cardio before it can actually be called EXCESSIVE.  I'm hoping the social atmosphere will get me hooked.  I am a social creature, after all.  The best part is that I get to bring my dog.  That'll be fun until - squirrel! - No, seriously, the dogs are trained to run with me.  We've done that plenty of times, maybe hundreds of times.  Combined, the two dogs outweigh me, but they know better.  My shepherd has pretty dysplastic hips, so anything over 5km is out of the question for her.  She'll be pretty pissed to be left behind, though.

Know what's really sad?  I've run so little over the summer that I'm struggling to do a continuous 5km run.  I sound like a big ole' asthma attack.  So I have to run with the "No One Gets Left Behind" crowd.  Yea.  Beginning Running 101 all over again.  It's more than a little embarrassing.  But anything is better than nothing, and we all have to start somewhere.  So I'm starting HERE.

Beware--this is how us slower runners see the rest you...

Do you ever get tired of your workout routine and need a change?  I tend to change things up every few months.  I just get bored.  Now, with winter coming, running is about the only thing I'll be able to do outside on a regular basis.  Running in -20 is a whole different animal and if I'm going to get outside then, I have to start working on it now.

I've run with the running group from Running Free a couple of times now--and yup, I'm hooked.  On my second run, I explained to the instructor that I was working my way up to running with the 7-km group, so he said to me, "I'll let you set the pace, then" and without saying so, he turned my 5km beginner run into an almost 6km non-stop run because I wasn't complaining.  So, yea, group running WORKS!  There's something about having a group of witnesses that pushes you to go further and faster than you would on your own.  So who knows?  Maybe one day I will be a marathoner.  But not this winter.  I just want to get back to a place where I can call myself a runner without snickering, and without ju jubes.  (Don't worry, I'm off them now).

What do you do to alleviate the boredom of exercising?  Are you a social exerciser, or a loner?  Let me know!  I love comments.

The View from Up Here

Just a fun post today.  Sorry, no food on this one at all!

So last weekend, I tried something I hadn't done before, but I've wanted to try for a very long time.....  Treetop Trekking.

I organized this trip for the GTA Paleo Meetup Group I help run.  I wanted there to be, like, 20 of us up there, but only 3 of us actually went.  I don't know why people are so shy about getting outside for some fun time.  We never seem to have a big turnout for the fun outdoorsy stuff, but if it's a seminar?  Bang, 20 people.  Weird.  I'd take outdoors over science any day.  I guess that's just me.  In the beginning, I probably would have sought out a lot of the science as well.  Heck, I DID seek out every last drop of science and I still do.  But some stuff is just meant to be fun, you know?

And this was really fun.

The advertising for these places goes like this, "Based on Navy Seal Training Courses..."  Well, I'm no Navy Seal.  Hell, I'm only MODERATELY fit, too.  I'm no crossfit deadlift champion.  But I completed the whole course from beginner to advanced.  It freakin' rocked.  You climb up a ladder (or a set of ladders) to platforms high up in the treetops and there are obstacle-styled bridges that you have to cross to get to the next platform.  There are several zip lines throughout the course.  You don't get to come down from the treetops until you finish that segment or series of obstacles.  Don't worry, you're safely strapped in the whole time by- not one, but two,- safety contacts.  You get a little tutorial at the outset, where you learn how to use the safety contacts.  You can just barely see the giant safety-lock carabiners at my hip in the first picture.  If you look closely at each picture, you can see the safety wire right around my head-height in every shot.  But once you get through the tutorial, you're pretty much on your own.  It's up to you to apply the safety techniques on your honour and if you're spotted not using them properly, you're thrown off the course.

So this is my picture tour of that day....

Good lord, those are ugly helmets.  We're too excited to care, though.

They harness you up really safely, don't worry about that.  You're wearing a climbing harness, first of all, then  a shoulder harness, which they cinch up nice and tight until your boobs are all mashed, then cinch the two together with the biggest carabiner  you've ever seen.

I'm grinning like an idiot; having a blast.  

I apologise for the slightly gritty pics--it was really overcast on Sunday, I was using a blackberry cell phone camera and no one thought to change the phone settings to low light....  My bad.

Steve on one of the last obstacles

This bridge was crazy-long, and the safety rope was intentionally really slack, so if you lost your balance you REALLY felt like you were falling way off before it caught you.  The wind through the valley added a certain element....  There were moments where I, the sh!t disturber, felt the need to hop back on the obstacle and start bouncing like a lunatic.  Fortunately for Steve, I did not do that here.

My friend Glenn, demonstrating how you can do it all wrong

Another advanced obstacle, logs all canted at weird angles and crazy-slack safety wire.  He's having the time of his life, I swear.

Still grinning like an idiot.  This obstacle had no platforms.  Just rope.

Sometimes the hardest part is just not getting tangled in the ropes and lines and not catching your anchors on the ropes.

This is how zip-lining is SUPPOSED to look.

This is how I look.  Yea, I know, graceful as a pygmie hippo on a  trampoline.

The best obstacle was a tarzan rope on a sliding cable that you swung across and landed face-first like spiderman on a cargo net wall and then had to climb over to the platform while the Tarzan rope glided back away, trying to pull you back off.  I stuck the landing, but had all the grace of that hippo, once again.  Almost peed my pants watching everyone else slaughter it as well.  Made me feel a lot better.

There doesn't seem to be a limit on how many times you can do the course, except the time it takes--it took us about 3 hours to get through it once.  I could feel it in my core by the end.  I would have gone back and done it again anyways, but it was getting dark and they were trying to close the place down for the night.

This is a new course east of Oshawa, less than a 1/2 hour from my house.  It just opened up this summer.  I hear that next year they're going to build a "black level" course.  Do it.  Please do.  I'll be back there.

Do you have a Paleo Meetup Group in your area?  Seriously, check into it.  http://www.meetup.com/    It's a great place to meet other paleo peeps in your area, or just to find like-minded people to hang out with.  For our Toronto/GTA Paleo Meetup Group, we try to do a bunch of things; fun outings, paleo education, support, buying groups and potlucks to meet and greet.  We're working on launching a few value-added-types of things, as well, so keep an eye on us because we're growing and changing every day!