Grrrrrrind

The thought of doing the Grouse Grind either excites or scares you…or both, it’s not called the Grind for nothing.  This morning, Conny, Deb, Christine and myself hit Starbucks and then headed out to North Vancouver to climb up the side of Grouse Mountain.  It was to be a special climb, it was Christine’s first time and it was my 1^-year FU to RA anniversary climb.

The weather wasn’t perfect climbing weather, I prefer it a little cooler (but will not argue about today’s temp), and it was cloudy so there would be no view from the top, but really, it’s not about the view.

Grouse Grind facts:

• Length: 2.9km (1.8 miles)
• Elevation gain: 853 metres (2800 feet)
• Over 2830 stairs
• On average it takes an hour to an hour and a half to complete the hike
• Official course records:
  • Men – 25:24 (unofficial 24:22)
  • Women – 31:04

The trail was extremely busy this morning, I passed 174 people, yes most were tourists and students on field trips but a pass is a pass (although I don’t really count pass 168 and 172, 2 Dads packing 20lb babies on their backs).

I don’t know why it does but it always surprises me how ill prepared and unfit some of the hikers are.   Five minutes into the hike I heard one man complain about how tired his legs were…he wasn’t even half way to the quarter way point, yikes.  I am sure that it sounded like a fantastic idea at the time to take a group of pre/early teens on the hike, get them active, something to talk about, but most of these kids were wearing jeans and long sleeved shirts, can you imagine how rank their school bus must have smelled on the trip home? EW.  I saw many inappropriate running shoe styles but didn’t however see any flip-flops or kitten healed sandals as I have in the past.  I did count a Louis Vuitton purse, a Coach swing-pack and a stuffed to max satchel, what are you people thinking?  All of the people watching does make the time go by a little faster and does detract from the burning sensation in your calves and your heart beating out of your throat!

We regrouped at the top, and even bumped into a few other running friends. Grind timer to Grind timer I was 52:36, not bad for my first time up and with so many people on the trail.  My goal is a sub 50 by the end of the summer. Christine loved the hike, and is up for another trip next week, she is a total rockstar!  We timed our browsing in the store just perfectly and walked straight onto the gondola heading back down (I know that we could have hiked back down, but there was a sign saying that it was prohibited, and I am all about signs).  After a quick change of clothes we hit Starbucks again, this time paying “resort pricing”…

Who’s in next week?

Day 22 – June 22/10 – Road trip

Hey everyone, it is day 22 of the 30-Day Sweat Challenge and double cardio Tuesday!  So what’s the plan for today?  I will be venturing out of Ridge today for some cardio, (report to follow later) and then a spin class at the Leisure Centre tonight.

Enjoy!

Day 21 – June 21/10 – First day of summer

It’s day 21 of the 30-Day Sweat Challenge and the first day of summer.  So how are you going to spend it?  For me, it’s a 75 minute muscle and core conditioning class…I am hoping that my abs have fully recovered from last week!

Have a super day!

Day 20 – June 20/10 – Happy Father’s Day!

It’s Father’s Day and day 20 of the 30-Day Sweat Challenge.  I have already got my sweat in this morning, I hit the roads early for a mean 45-minute run, no breaks and finished with 3 hill repeats up Iron Mountain hill to Ray Charles’ “Night Time Is the Right Time”….BABY…BABY…BABY…OH, BABY!

In honor of Father’s Day, fellas take the day off and have a terrific day!

Cheers Dad!

I take full credit for my Dad’s gray hair. To say that my teenage years were challenging would be putting it very mildly. I know that payback is going to be a bitch!

My Dad is probably one of the most easy going people on the planet, I often joke that he is so relaxed that he is asleep (sometimes he is). With all of my drama, and there was a lot, my Dad only lost his cool a couple of times (my poor Mum is another story, I take full credit for her being on blood pressure pills. It’s not funny now, not that it was funny then but it kinda was, but I there was a time when I would watch the color of her face change to the point that I thought her head may blow off. Sorry Mum).

When I was a teenager my quick wit and fierceness may have translated into attitude and back talking, which lead to the “holy crap my Dad is going to kill me incident”. Not one of my proudest moments, but I will recreate it for you. After the 20th time my Dad came into my room and asked me to get off the phone (the whole ordeal could have been completely avoided if my parents had given into my demands of my own phone line) I used my outside voice and told (not asked as he did) him to close the door behind him…yup, the calm and peaceful man that I knew SNAPPED! Now my Dad could move, although I had never seen him move this quick. I don’t actually recall seeing him turn around, I do recall seeing him lunge toward me, fortunately for me he lunged onto my waterbed and like a house of cards, down he went! Taking full advantage of the turn of events I quickly hung up the phone and exited my room with as much speed as my Dad had entered. As quick as the moment happened, it was over.

Oh how we laugh about it now. I’m not sure what my Dad would have done if he hadn’t fallen, I am pretty confident that I would not have been able to bat my eyes and get out of that one. My Dad told me once that you are never given more than you can handle…Dad, you are a rockstar!

So to my rockstar Dad, husband and all of the other rockstar Dads out there, I would like to wish you a happy and drama free Father’s Day. Xoxo

Day 19 – June 19/10

It’s sunny Saturday and day 19 of the 30-Day Sweat Challenge, Duty calls for me today, I am on lifestyle activity. Wishing all of the Saturday morning runners and grinders a fantastic morning, and no head injuries today at the Woodlot!

Ciao

Day 18 – June 18/10 – Ouch!

Welcome to day 18 of the 30-Day Sweat Challenge, and E’s Birthday! It’s Friday and the sun is out, what more could we ask for? I would like to thank my Thursday evening classes who toasted to the summer with me last night, gotta love a wine break during class! And holy crap am I ever feeling my abs this morning, what did I do to us?

A spin class for me this morning and to celebrate my first day of vacation I am going to visit my friend Brenda.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Why do we exercise?

When a friend asked Chaps why she exercises, she doesn’t need to lose weight, it got me to thinking.  Is there a misconception out there that you only need to exercise if you have a weight problem?

I started seriously hitting the gym in my early 20’s.  It wasn’t a weight thing; it was more of a healthy lifestyle thing.  I did not have the luxury of a gym buddy as most of my friends didn’t go to the gym (so funny, because I can’t think of one friend that I have now who doesn’t work out) so it was just me and my Champion basketball shorts and my short sports bra…yikes, it was the 90’s, what can I say.  It took me so long to get my Dad to tell my friends who called when I was at the gym and that I was not at “keep fit”, a term that has to be right out of the 70’s or used for seniors classes!  I started with the generic cardio and weight circuit (with the workout card) which they give you, but from the seated chest press machine I really wanted to be one of those girls in the step classes, kicking, turning and clapping.  I scrapped my workout card and joined them.  Although I was fairly uncoordinated (it took me until I was 23 to grow into my body, completely another blog) I loved step class (I remember how proud I was when I finally got the arms and legs right for ‘L’ step, nothing would stop me after that until of course I tried to pivot over the step, BIG mistake!  A word to the wise, when in doubt basic right people), step class made me feel fierce.  I was never a front and centre girl, I was always to the left of the instructor, I still am when I take a class.  Why is it that we always migrate to the same spot?  I think that is also another blog as well.  In my years at the gym I have seen some vicious exchanges and near all out cat fights over step class territories (spin class too, husbands even got involved)!  I have even seen an instructor get involved saying, “sorry, it is her spot”, what the hell?  I am always very careful, when I drop into a class I ask the people around me if I am taking someone else’s spot, I am a sweater not a fighter and really all I want is to be close to a fan….oh gym drama.

After the birth of my daughter I was not one of those bitches fortunate women who got to leave the hospital with their new bundle of joy in their pre-pregnancy jeans.  Going to the gym then became about losing weight and toning my stomach back up(Ok, so why doesn’t anyone tell you that you stomach will literally look and feel like a bowl of jelly after you have had a baby?  Holy pivotal moment in my life!  Really, that image could be used as birth control).  It took me nine months to put it on, and it took me nine months to take it off.

Ever notice how we didn’t meet Claire Huxtable, June Cleaver or Carol Brady when their children were going through their terrible two’s (we did however meet Bob Saget and Uncle Jessie…ah Uncle Jessie, and since the Gosselins)?  There is reason.   For that reason, exercise made me a better Mommy and wife.  It didn’t matter what may have happened that day, or in what state I left the house, but once I returned from my workout it all seemed so much more manageable.  It was around that time that I got my fitness certification; I was there anyway so why not teach a class or two?

Fitness now is not only my profession, it is a way of life for me, you could make it my second middle name.  I don’t think that I am obsessed with it, but when I am not doing it, my thoughts do tend to wonder when the next time I will be doing it (that doesn’t sound obsessive at all)

Going back to Chaps and her friend, I don’t think that there is a misconception at all; perhaps that’s just how Chaps’ friend views exercise at this point in her life.   We need to bring this girl out to a Monday morning class!

I don’t give out most improved awards, but I will give out a most improved shout out.  Last year I was talking up my upcoming Beginner Running program to a Pilates class and Marcia was quite vocal that the only time I would get her to run was if a bear was chasing her. I’m not sure what made her change her mind because she was pretty adamant about it, but since then Marcia has completed my Beginner Running Clinic, my Intermediate Road and Trail Clinic, my Spring 5 Peaks Trail Running Clinic, several road races and two 5 Peaks Trail races.  She is planning to run another 5 Peaks race in Alberta while she is on vacation this summer and also has plans for a ½ marathon later this year.  She is kicking ass.  A couple of weeks ago while running on the trails with some friends a bear stood up on it’s hind legs at her, she also ran into a Momma and her cubs while on a road run about the same time…not quite a chase, but a great full circle story.

Not too long ago I polled my clients to find out the main reason that they exercise (appearance – including weight management or maintenance or how it made them look; stress relief; how it makes them feel; or other).  For most of them there wasn’t one specific answer, and most of them said that it started out as something different than it is today.

Trying to complete my full circle here, the reasons why we started exercising probably aren’t the same as why we do it today and will continue to change. Things I thought that I would never be able to do like run to the top of Incline without stopping, push-ups from my toes, I have done and can do, and there is still plenty more that I want to do, a full marathon, an ultra trail race, rappelling down a waterfall (now that sounds cool).  I was watching Tony Horton on P90X info video yesterday, and he said something I really thought made a lot of sense, instead of saying that you can’t do something change your mindset to say, “I presently struggle with” (unless of course it is something that you really don’t want to do anyway, he didn’t say that, that’s me).

Exercise is a mindset, it can be a love hate relationship some days, it should be work that’s why it’s called a workout and if it were easy, everyone would do it.  When it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter what motivates you to exercise, what matters is that you are exercising.  Never say never people (ask Marcia), and keep your eyes on the prize!

Day 17 – June 17/10 – last day in the Studio!

It’s day 17 of the 30-Day Sweat Challenge and my last official day of work in my Studio for a couple of weeks! No tropical climates and drinks by the pool for me, unless the weather warms up here, I will be getting caught up on my neglected garden, dropping into a couple of classes, climbing a few mountains and writing this book of mine.

Muscle and core conditioning classes morning, noon, and night for me today.  What about you?

Day 16 – June 16/10 – Woooo we’re half way there…

It truly is hump day…we have reached the ½ way point, welcome to day 16 of the 30-Day Sweat Challenge. We have been going hard for the last 15 days; today we set a new goal (or perhaps even a goal) to take us to the end of the challenge. It could be something as simple as adding a weekly yoga class to your routine, or maybe doing the Grouse Grind before the end of the challenge, just a little something to shake up your world. Starting next week I am taking a couple of weeks off from the Studio, so I have set a couple of goals, to do the Grind twice and to take a couple of classes lead by other instructors.

So how will you be elevating your heart rate today? I will be joining the ladies from Body Camp this morning, squatting and lunging our way to the top of Iron Mountain.

Update: As if my heart rate wasn’t elevated enough on my way up Iron Mountain, ran into Mama and baby bear on the trail !  I was with a tough group of ladies, after Mama stood up on her hind legs and had a look at us, the bears crossed the trail and we carried on.

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