Thursday's Paddle

Heading west to where the river opens wide.

For weeks I've been anticipating a paddle with a group of local paddlers. Their standing date of Thursday afternoons has been rained out three weeks running. I was excited to be joining them yesterday. We paddled west out of the city, further than I'd ever been. In an hour, we'd paddled a distance that equals a ten-minute drive. The river opens up at this point. Much wider than I'm used to seeing.

A quiet bay begins with this great lighthouse.

Just when you think you're going to have to deal with open water - chop, wind and fast boat traffic, there's a little bay on the north shore that shelters a tiny group of islands. As you get into the shallows, you find yourself directly over a shipwreck. The skeleton of the boat is covered in seaweed. It was much larger than I thought it would have been for something sunk in such a shallow spot.

Molly's Gut Shipwreck

When you're out on the river in the afternoons, there's a good amount of traffic. When you pair the first sunny afternoon with a month of rain and wind, there's a lot of traffic. Some you might not expect. A small plane did a fly-over directly over top of our group of 5 paddlers. It flew around the island we were approaching and then looped around. We soon discovered it was preparing to land directly ahead of us. It passed overhead once more - this time much lower than before - at treetop level.

The plane takes off overhead as we had back to town.

It's times like this that I realize the importance of travelling in a group of paddlers. We're much more visible when we're in a group. As a rookie paddler, I really appreciated the more experienced paddlers. It's fine to skirt the islands or the shoreline and putter about, but there are the world's largest fresh-water shipping channel, tour boat routes, the yacht club's sailing races, the wake boarding club boats to negotiate as well as numerous personal watercraft, fishing boats and motor boat traffic to watch for. The channel and the islands make for some interesting current patterns as well. Calm looking water is not always as it seems.

I believe the paddle was about 6.5km (4 miles) in total. A really good, long, interesting time. I met some new people, learned lots and got to know my boat a little better. Hopefully next week is as enjoyable.

Read more...

Week 1 - Complete!

I know, I know; I should be in the middle of week two by now. Don't stress me. Last night I went out and 'ran' the last workout of Week 1 (C25K).

So, onward and upward to Week 2. I'm scared to even look at the length of the running intervals. So we won't talk about that.

I'm convinced I'm an ugly runner. I'm sure I have bad form. I sweat and pant and I jiggle. Really, I'm embarrassed. I can't even bring myself to take a 'before' picture. But I'm also sick of being like this so I will get through the emotional dramatics and I will run.

Let's instead talk about how proud I am of myself. You'd think I might be proud of the actual workout part. And I am, sort of. However, I am even more proud of the fact that I am getting past my perfectionist hang-ups and getting through to the important bit of actually getting some exercise.

Last Friday should have been workout #3. It poured all day. There was a quick break in the evening - just in time for The Boy Child's soccer game. They ended up calling the game at half time since it had been pouring since kickoff and the field was now flooded. But I digress. There was no opportunity for a 'run'.

Late Friday night I was getting a bit stressed about being off schedule. How am I supposed to stick with something if the schedule is not working out?! How am I supposed to maintain the benefits of the previous workout if too much time lapses until the next workout?! Why not just throw in the towel and wait for a better/easier/<insert excuse-worthy adjective here> exercise alternative? Why not wait for the perfect time, the best weather? Why not get X, Y and Z out of the way before starting?

Because that is the method I've been using for the past ten years and it's just not working out for me anymore.

So, I had all weekend to psych myself up for continuing with my workout schedule first thing Monday morning. Yeah, right. Monday was a write off. I didn't feel 100% and I was exhausted. I should just give up the whole idea and get over it now. I don't stick with anything. My plans and visions of grandeur just never work out.

Tuesday rolled around and I gave myself a deadline: by bedtime, I had to have fit in my workout. This was ridiculous. I know very well that nothing but actually getting off my ass and doing it is going to work. There will be no suddenly available time, no miraculous decrease in BMI, no surge of endless energy. Things are going to continue to be busy. It's going to rain. Schedules will suddenly change. I won't feel well. I'll make dinner late. I'll spend too much time on the computer. The house will never be clean enough; the kids never settled enough. I'll not have time...but really, there will be time. So just go ahead and do the stupid running already.

Goodness knows why I have these dialogues with myself. What do I really have to do in a day that prevents me from taking a 1/2 hour exercise break? Nothing! If something isn't working out perfectly, I throw in the towel.

But this time I didn't. At 8:45 last night, I went and 'ran'. Once I climbed Mt. GetOutTheDoorAndJustDoIt, I was alright.

My first running interval landed when I was in front of a parking lot full of people. I paused my iPod and continued my brisk walking pace to a more run-worthy place. The world didn't fall apart because things hadn't gone perfectly! (I'm certain it would have fallen apart if I'd been seen running by actual real-life people.)

During my third running interval, I somehow managed to skip ahead to the next song. Damn. I took some time - while continuing my brisk walking pace - found the podcast again (it's a Shuffle, no screen), scanned ahead a bit and continued with the workout. I didn't even know if I'd found the correct spot. And what do you know, the world didn't fall apart because things hadn't gone perfectly. Again! In the end, I may have even done too many running intervals. Can you imagine?!

The carnage continued: my knees hurt. So I ran on the soccer pitches for a while. My dog took off after a squirrel, stopped to roll in something and was a general pain. I let her leash out and pretty soon, she was following me. The kids didn't get to be 'on time'. Who cares? It's summertime!

So, against all usual personal odds, some exercise was had. I'm cautiously optimistic. Tomorrow I will begin Week 2. Perhaps in addition to the exercise I hope to achieve this summer, I'll also learn a thing or two and be able to apply it to other areas of my life. Goodness knows I'll have some time to consider those and other deep thoughts while I'm out trying not to be seen so that when I am seen, I'm not embarrassed to have been seen exercising.

Read more...

We Went Camping!

Hey all.

A two day camping trip necessitated a week-long respite from the blog.

Silly, eh?

When word came down the pipe that we'd be roughing it for two days, a few things needed to be put together so we would have a lovely time in the woods. Like food. And sleeping gear. And swimming gear. And dishes.

I spent last Thursday and Friday collecting things and packing and baking. Saturday and Sunday we did the deed. Monday was Recovery Day. Camping wipes me out!


Saturday:

• Drag butt out of bed.
• Wake others.
• Take Skittish White Dog to the kennel.
• Pack clothes; pack cooler; pack car.
• Drive to rendezvous point.
• Unpack car. Pack boat.
• Boat ride!
• Unpack Boat. Trek gear uphill to 'cottage'. Unpack gear.
• Chat with hosts.
• Unpack cooler. Lunch. Pack cooler.
• Pack fishing gear, snacks, drinks, kids into boat.
• Fish.
• Visit other cottagers.
• Kids' first motorboat ride. Fish The Girl's hat out of the lake.
• Return to prepare dinner. Eat.
• Campfire.
• Rescue children from mosquitoes thicker than fog.
• Play really cool card game.
• Sleep.

Sunday:

• Wake at 9:15 thinking it's 6a.m.
• Check on health of The Boy, my early riser, who has never been so quiet for so long.
• Take book to dock and read in the sunshine.
• Help get breakfast out. Ok, brunch.
• Pack up sleeping gear.
• Hang out at the dock while kids swim.
• Call MNR on idiots who parked their rental boat 30 feet from the dock.
• Mention the wee tiny fish they're keeping in their live well.
• Snacks dockside. Too full from brunch for lunch.
• Take boat out for the kids' maiden tubing adventure.
• Reassure The Girl that not everyone likes tubing.
• Remark quietly to Mr. B about the shortest and slowest no-wake tubing adventure ever.
• Pack swim toys and inflatables.
• Return to cottage and pack up all gear.
• Trek gear to dock. Pack boat.
• Boat ride!
• Unload Boat. Find Car. Pack Car.
• Drive home. Unpack car. Unpack cooler.
• Sleep.

In the end it was a great time. I get a kick out of all the 'necessary' things we need for a short overnight stay. We so appreciate our hosts inviting us to their family cottage (no plumbing, no electricity) as this isn't the kind of thing that we're able to do with the kids on our own. It's so quiet and relaxing to be on their wooded island even for just a short time. I love watching my kids do stuff for the first time. It still gets me after all these years. This time is was snorkeling and tubing and whittling. They love the 'adventurous' feeling they get from doing all of the out-of-the-ordinary stuff a trip like this entails. I love that at their ages, the kids are still excited to spend this family time together. Neither could imagine doing something like this any other way.


This one weekend made both the kids' summer.

Read more...