Sheee’s Crafty!

Oh no, not me! Check out my New Year love gift from my very crafty (and witty) friend Lysa….

Did I mention that she has a fantastic website and blog (we also share a love for Wonder Woman)? Stop by and visit her at the Red Spotted Patch.

2011: The Year Of Wonder Woman

2011 was a year all of its own.  To quote Charles Dickens, 2011 “was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.  And I chose to pay homage to it by running the Las Vegas Rock ‘N’ Roll ½ Marathon dressed as Wonder Woman!

At first glance the whole costume thing may have looked like just a fun way to run a race, but it was really quite deliberate.  Although I am slightly shorter in stature, smaller in build, but maybe not when I am wearing my good bra (as I found out when I took the “Which Superhero Are You Quiz” and it asked if I wore a push-up bra), Wonder Woman is an adventurer, a princess, an ambassador and a warrior, which I can relate to.  She believes in truth (me too), justice (yes, also) and can psychically communicate with animals (something which I can’t do, but I do have that doggy/kitty voice that we all talk to our animals in), my jet isn’t invisible, it’s blue, but that’s ok I left it at home, but I did wear my star sapphire ring, which has been the object of much speculation and criticism, hey, I like it!  Thanks to my crafty Mum, my boomerang tiara was not only practical, it was sweat-proof and my indestructible gauntlets accommodated my Garmin…which of course didn’t work. I opted not to wear the lasso of truth for my trek, and for those of you that know me, you know full well that I would have ended up tangled up or tripping over it no matter how securely it was fastened to me, all part of my charm.

So after a year of ‘undulation’ for lack of a better word and also turning 40, running 21.1km up and back down the Vegas strip in a pair of booty shorts covered with stars paired with a red and gold lamé top, was to say the least liberating and pretty much my highlight of 2011.

Let’s raise our glasses together one last time this year.   Here’s to climbing the mountain and enjoying the view!

And to 2012, may it bring peace, good health and happiness.  Cheers my friends.

That Doesn’t Look Like A Water Bottle…

I guess I must have been a good girl this year, Santa left this for me on my spin bike last night!

Thank you Santa.

Graduation Night

Due to traffic, the flu and a baby due in just days (not one of the runners, the wife of) the graduation run of the Beginner Running Clinic was small in numbers but HUGE in spirit.

Congratulations everyone on taking that 3 minute run at the end of September and turning it into a 30 minute run last night! I am so proud of you all.

NO-vember Challenge: Making The Grades

As November comes to an end, it is time to take stock and see how everyone did with the NO-vember Challenge.  The rules were simple, we were to exercise, eat a nutritious diet, get plenty of rest, set a fitness goal as well as a reward, indulge only on occasion and get rid of negativity.  Of course there were exceptions to the rules, there had to be, mastering self-control in one month isn’t an easy thing to do (unless of course you are D).

As corny as it sounds, I live by “everything in moderation”, so fitness aspect aside, this challenge was not an easy one for me…I am weak, I admit it.  I can say no to dessert but not to Lays barbeque  chips.  I may not have gone to Starbucks very often, but when I did I was overcome by eggnog lattes.  I was even somewhat forced to go to Starbucks on Sunday after a rainy morning on the track, and when the person next to me ordered a steamed eggnog, I caved under the pressure, making it three for the weekend. Grade: FAIL.

I have to say that I have ‘rested’ more this month than I have in quite a long time (Grade: PASS), training will do that to you, as well as getting rid of negative energy, people and of course the leopards in your life.  Really who needs them anyway and perhaps they should just worry about themselves, or find a hobby.  I wouldn’t say that I completely cleaned house this month, but I was able to let go and/or move on from a few situations, and hey, I even extended a couple of olive branches.  Nobody is going to put Baby in a corner again.  Grade: PASS

Weekend wine only…I did add the desperate times clause, but any wine that was consumed this month out of the weekend criterion, was not consumed out of desperation, but out of pure enjoyment.  I go back to everything in moderation, and the definition of weekend is open for interpretation.  Grade: DEBATEABLE.

I have been making a concerted effort for the last few months to cook more from scratch.  It really is shocking to see what unpronounceable ingredients as well as the outrageous amounts of sodium that go into short cut and processed products.  Although it says it is organic, I cut out my stand by chili seasoning package and used chili powder instead, duh.  And there is nothing like the flavor of butter, shallots and garlic simmering in vodka (vodka cream sauce) to impress your weekend dinner guests.  Grade: PASS.

The fitness goal was easy and kind of already in the works, it is also serving as my reward and will be addressed in an upcoming post. Grade: PASS.

Four PASSES, one DEBATEABLE, one FAIL…while there are areas that could be improved upon, in accordance with NO-vember, I am choosing to focus on the positives and am giving myself a strong B as my final letter grade as well as giving myself a big hug and a pat on the back, and maybe have a glass of non-weekend wine.

So how did you do with NO-vember?

It’s Official

Just added Certified Weight Trainer to my credentials!

Today I Ran For

And worth every step!

What did you run for this morning?

The Gun Show

The only thing that this post has to do with fitness is that it involved E, whom I met at the gym many moons ago.

When you spend a Friday afternoon with one of your girlfriends, normally it involves lunch, shopping maybe a glass of wine.  Spending a Friday afternoon with E involves none of the above; instead she took me to the gun range!

I was all smiles leading up to this, peeking around corners with my finger gun, kicking in virtual doors with my finger gun as well as the classic holding my finder gun to my lips and blowing on it.  I was a little disappointed to find out that I was not allowed to wear heels to the gun range, because in my fantasy I was wearing my really cute black suede boots, funny I don’t recall any of the Charlie’s Angels wearing sensible shoes…well may be Sabrina but I think she drove a Pinto too.

With my wardrobe completely rethought, I met E (who was wearing very cute flat black boots, she has done this a time or two before) and we headed out on our adventure.

So about this gun range, it isn’t an ordinary open to the public kind of place, it is a “training facility” and my first experience shooting a gun would be Trevor’s (my instructor) practicum.  The poor guy.

Before we entered the range the gun rules were explained, and my giddiness quickly turned into nervousness.

Rule 1: Treat all guns as if they were loaded. Gulp, I kinda blanked out after the first rule, so the rest of the rules look something like this.

Rule 2: Keep the muzzle (that would be the end of the gun where the bullets come out of) pointed down and away for you.

Rule 3: Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot at your target.

Rule 4: Be sure of your target.

So much for hair, because we were then given baseball hats because sometimes the shell casings fly up and towards your face and they are hot, the hat protects your face.  And so much for wardrobe because if the shell casings fly up and hit your hat, they can also drop down and if your neck/chest is exposed they can burn that too.  I was wearing a good bra too, so the thought of shell casings dropping in my cleavage sounded very flammable.  Lucky me I got to wear the evaluator’s jacket…zipped all the way up.

We got to practice a bit with a pretend gun.  I did not need to death grip the gun either, in fact my grip should be similar to the grip that I squeeze a peach with to determine its ripeness…Trevor was trying to relax me I think, and what relaxes a girl more than squeezing peaches?  After our practice the range became “hot”.  We put on our protective eyewear and hearing protection and out came the real guns, mine would be a Smith and Wesson MP90.  Trevor explained how to load the gun and also told me that if at any time I became tired or no longer wanted to shoot I was not to put the gun down, but instead I should say, “take it” (Breathlessly? Forcefully?  I’m not sure it really mattered) and he would.

Trevor hung my target and set it across the range.  It made a really loud noise and I practically jumped out of the evaluator’s jacket!  He then handed me the gun…holy crap I am holding a gun…I am sure that the only way to describe my facial expression was stunned virgin.

The first shot was fired from the stall beside me; I screamed.  At this point Trevor had to be thinking that he would receive an automatic fail.  As any good angel would, I pulled myself together and fired my first shot at the target…holy crap, I just fired a gun!  Although I did hit the target, I did not hit the silhouette on the target, oops I hit the innocent civilian.  I re-positioned, re-focused and fired again, this time hitting the target, ahhh hell yeah!

It’s amazing how quickly one can go through a clip.  We went through the unloading and re-loading of a new clip and I was good to go again.  I was really starting to get the hang of this, and yes, shell casings were a flying so it was a good job that I was redressed!

By the third clip I was getting a bit cocky, aiming for the head on my target, you know, mixing up my shots a little, Trevor even called me on it!  And then it was over.  Out of bullets Trevor “took it” and the range returned to “cold”.  I was a hot mess, my hands were shaking, I was in an all out sweat, and I liked it!

Trevor rolled my target up for me as a souvenir, debriefed my on my experience and of course we took some photos!

Thank you Trevor and all of the staff at the JI for an afternoon that I won’t soon forget and a special thank-you to E for helping me cross off another item on my bucket list, I so wasn’t ready to jump out of a plane this year.

Ironing The Iron Mountain Movement Way

This post is not fitness related, unless of course you iron your running socks.

There was a point in my life when I wanted to be Martha Stewart (Martha Stewart in the early years, pre conviction, back in the 90’s when Martha Stewart Living was a weekly half-hour syndicated show maybe even until it became a weekday hour long show, when she was just pretentious, not bitter yet). But I am not crafty, I can’t sew, don’t have a room dedicated to either. I do however have a kitchen and did receive the Home Economics Academic Award two years running and I love to cook, but the thought of de-boning a chicken or making gravy using the contents of the paper sack found inside the turkey or foie gras gives me the heebie-geebies.

So I moved on to somewhere between Morticia Addams and Carmela Soprano. I work, I cook when I can, I clean more often than I would like to and I don’t iron. If it won’t de-wrinkle in the dryer or requires any major pressing I either don’t buy it or it goes directly to the dry cleaner.

True story, I was attempting to iron a few years ago and my daughter actually asked me “what is that?” I am ok with my lack of domesticity as is my family and I know that I am not alone. But some are not, including the older generations and that can-do-it-all/know-it-all acquaintance we all have, you know the one “you don’t do what?” as she is looking down her nose at you. If you have never run a marathon, you should if only for this situation. I know that I have only done one, but my response to Bitter Betty is now “I run marathons”, which inevitably stops her dead in her tracks, she may be a domestic engineer but can she run 42.2km’s?

So lately I have spent a little quality time with my flat iron, life in the fast lane. Not only have I learned how to curl my hair with it, I also found out that you can iron your clothes with it! Where have I been? I give you Exhibit A:

Now I haven’t tested it on fine silks, anything too expensive or anything Lulu, and it would not pass the Grandmother/Monster-in-law test (there is my disclaimer), but it does do the job for those little touch ups on an item that I would normally re-hang in the closet.

Oh, I know you’re going to try this one!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Over the past 9 years, the spin area at the Maple Ridge Leisure Centre has gone through many changes.

We started in the middle of the weight room and pretty much annoyed everyone who wasn’t taking part in the spin classes.  While participants in the class enjoyed a view of the pool the instructor bike was in direct line of fire for anyone falling off the treadmills.  Back in those days people still used portable CD players so when there was a tumble, the CD player would also fly, I often thought I should be wearing my bike helmet to class.

All that changed when a partition was constructed, the spin bikes were turned in the opposite direction and moved to what is now the stretch area.  Most gym users were now used to our schedule and us and if they didn’t like the noise they now either brought their own noise or worked out when we weren’t using the bikes.

A couple of years ago, the spin area moved to the back of the weight room into what was the old stretch area.  From the instructor’s perspective this was fantastic.  We were contained in our own area, the music as well as our voices was directed away from the weight room and noise complaints were reduced.  Instead of a view of a wall, participants had a view of the weight room and its goings on.  One problem, weight room users felt like they were being stared at and spin class users felt like the same.  Can’t we all just get along?

The Leisure Centre re-opened from its annual shutdown this week and unveiled some new changes to the weight room.  The weight room supervisor’s desk has now been moved back to it’s old location making it more visible and opening up the weight room allowing the machines to be spread further apart.  The stretch table (which I have never seen anyone actually stretch on, it is mostly used as a bench to sit and chat or pose on) has been moved into the stretch area thus opening up the spin area.  The trees have been removed, and the bikes have been turned so they now face the mirror, hello posture check!  The corner fan has been replaced and another floor fan has been added.  And thanks to Laura, the spin bikes gleam!

May there be peace in the weight room.

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