Month: July 2016

Special thanks to everyone for the play list suggestions!  Music is what keeps me going, especially as the running intervals are getting longer.   There were lots of great suggestions, but it was Uptown Funk that got me moving.  I watched the video before downloading the song, and it is so much fun.

I have been known to (often) dance and sing along to music – even when not wearing headphones or safely in my car or shower.  I can’t actually sing while jogging, but I do have a vivid imagination, so I like to pretend that I don’t have the moves a middle aged ,( little less) out of shape white woman, but somewhere in there is an inner bit of a culture who can dance.  Like my hips move not – well, like a middle aged white woman.  Basically, I pretty much think that I move much more like this:

Thank like this:

 

So half way through my run, I’m panting down Bathurst Street (a major artery in Toronto), kind of singing along to Uptown Funk, and sashaying a little here and there, with a huge cheesy grin on my face.

I may have looked silly, but it was a lot of fun!

Next run is the big 20 minutes with no walking intervals.  I’ll be doing it in Blind River and hoping I don’t run into the wildlife a friend has talked about seeing.

I think I’ll have Uptown Funk on repeat the whole time.

If you want a smile for the day, watch the video:

Uptown Funk

I watched it with C and R – who loved it.  But C wanted to know why he kept singing “woo ooo” when the women walked by.  I told her he really liked their shoes….

 

 

 

I just finished week 5 day 1. 3 sets of 5 minutes of running, separated by 3 minutes of walking. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

I’ve been running inside on the track at the YMCA because it’s stupid-hot here.  One of the drawbacks of this plan is the tracking doesn’t work on the app.  Instead of a lovely little blue line drawn on the map of my neighbourhood along the lines of the roads I’ve jogged along, it looks more like my 2 year old took a blue crayon and scribbled her little heart out. It doesn’t give me the distance or the time.  I tried counting the number of laps because the Y has thoughtfully posted saying 10 laps = 1 KM, but it’s hard to count and pant a the same time…So I’m not sure exactly how far I can jog in one session, but last outdoor session (week 4 day 3) was oh-so-close to 2km.

I was feeling it was getting off a little easy until I ran outside on Saturday and realized that although there are no uphills on the track, there are no downhills either.  And I had done a very good job of planning my route so all the big runs were – yup, going downhill!

I’ve also discovered the miracle of coconut water.

I usually get a migraine headache after any kind of exercise (no matter how wimpy or energetic), which I have some great pills for. Running 3x week meant a lot of pills. But I tried drinking coconut water after a run, and it worked! No headache!  So I tried again – and it worked again.  I was never a huge fan before.  I don’t hate coconut but it’s not
my first choice – but am a serious fan now.  Something in it is keeping the pain away.

If only it worked for my knees.

I’m looking for new music – it’s crucial to my motivation. My play list is called Run, KB, Run, and it’s still pretty good, but I need to find a few new pieces to put in the motivation mix.Modest Mouse and Linkin Park are the best so far (I save them for the end of the long runs…like 5 minutes long…).  I like a good driving drum beat.

I’m pretty proud of myself for sticking to this.  I still can’t say I love it, but I enjoy working through the different levels.

I also took the shoes out yesterday to show someone and remind myself they are so very, very lovely.  At this rate, I’ll be able to debut them in September.

 

 

Every so often I get a Sunday or two off from leading worship.  Because I’m a church geek I used to go to other churches on these Sundays, but since having kids it’s not really feasible (unless I want to spend my time in the nursery and/or Sunday School with my children who don’t necessarily want to be left with strangers).

Now on my Sundays off, I realize what I’m up against trying to get families to come to church.  And am very grateful that the families who come actually make it!

Two weeks ago,  we held C’s “half” birthday party (because we didn’t get our act together and have her party in January when her actual birthday is). On a Sunday morning.  In Dufferin Grove Park.  It was a lot of fun – and there was the splash pad and playground to help with kid entertainment.

Not far from our group of happy preschoolers was a large group of people who gathered to practice yoga.  I watched them a little and thought – I would love to be practicing Yoga in the park on a Sunday morning.  Which made me start thinking about what I usually do on Sunday morning and how it doesn’t feel nearly a soul-feeding as Yoga in the park. Or Church on Tap. Or some of the other alternative ways of worshipping. Which as a worship  leader, a church geek, a lover of good liturgy, is very sad. Very frustrating. Maybe hypocritical?

I’m not in a position in this church to change our worship liturgy – but even if I was, I don’t know that it would be appreciated.  People come for the familiar.  I’ve tried “alternative” kinds of worship which has drawn – well far too few people to try again.

So for now, I’ll enjoy the great liturgy and worship that other folks have created (and maybe drag a few likely congregants along too?) and enjoy the opportunities that I have to spend more time having parties in the park with my darling little girls.  And listen for the opportunities to make space and create the experiences that feed my soul and connect me with the Divine.  And that will have to be enough.

 

It’s hot here in southern Ontario – +38 degrees with the humidex. Forget about frying an egg on the sidewalk, you can probably roast the whole chicken.

Not the kind of weather for jogging – even if it’s only for 3 whole minutes at a time. But if I skip too many days then I’ll have to go back a week or two and then I won’t want to keep going and those lovely shoes will sit in the cupboard…

So I went to the Y.  To jog around the track.  But is it cheating? Instead of running up and down the hills in our neighbourhood – like the day I managed to find the route that had me going uphill every time I had a run segment – it was a nice, flat track. In an air-conditioned room. Kind of feels like cheating.

But it was hard!  I’m only on week 3 so running for 3 whole minutes is hard.  And the track is upstairs around the weight room – which instead of the Portuguese grandmas I usually see at the Y during the day, was filled with very fit people doing intense workouts.

When I started this program, I spent the first few runs trying to plan routes that avoided people I knew in the neighbourhood (didn’t work, actually ran into the husband of the neighbour who runs all the time. For fun, not shoes).  I’m kind of self-conscious about how jiggly and huffing and puffing I look.

Kinda like this.

At least that’s how I feel!

So, while running around the track at the gym with all the super fit people working out, I decided to pretend I actually look more  like this:

 

It helps to have an active imagination. And there were no mirrors visible from the running track.

I’ve decided it’s not cheating. At least I ran. Week 4 might be killer when I get back to those hills, though.

 

 

My eldest child went to summer day camp today.

Up until last week, she was in daycare – she’s only just 4 1/2 so not in Kindergarten yet.  That begins in September. We thought that summer day camp would help ease the transition from 3 days a week in daycare where they provide lunch and help in the bathroom to school, to where all of a sudden come September these little ones are supposed to be big boys and girls.

And I’m not prepared for this.  We had her in this lovely cocoon of a daycare – Waldorf if you know what that is.  However, we don’t have private school salaries, so she goes to the local school in the fall.  Which is a great school in a lovely neighbourhood with the children of people we really like.

But there is something big about moving from the place that I took her three days a week for three years of her life to this new school.  Not that it was all unicorns and sunshine at the daycare – at the beginning when I left her in the classroom she would be crying and I would be crying and I would call B from the car to tell her all about the crying.  It was hard to trust my beautiful, vulnerable baby to someone else to care for.  School, though, school is bigger.  More permanent.  A serious step away from the cocoon into real life. All of a sudden we have to pay attention to the school day for drop off and pick up, for holiday plans and dentist appointments.

Last night we made her lunch for the day together – and it was lovely.  Choosing the food she would eat, helping her learn to peel the carrots and decide if the ham would be cubed or rolled in little tubes, washing the cherries.  We packed quite a lot of food, but still I worry – will it be enough?  Will she like the little muffins I made? Will she be hungry or bring most of it back?  Will she be ok?

My baby, my first born, is one little step closer to being her own strong, independent soul in the world, which is my job to help her be.  But my momma heart is breaking as my little chick takes a few steps out on that limb toward where she doesn’t really need me anymore.

But today, when she comes home from this grand adventure, there will still be snuggles and cuddles and how was your day, because for now we are still the safety of the nest she needs.  Today I can still make everything better with a kiss and story time is the highlight of the day.  And so I will try to stay present in today.