Work out for Sparta!!!

Do you want to know what happens when your burly 27yr personal trainer watches the movie 300? For those of you who don't know about it, its a braveheart-esque movie about the Spartans. I haven't seen it but from what I've been told its 90 minutes of roiling, testosterone men beating their chests before going into battle crying "FOR SPARTA!!!!" and then kicking each others' asses. all sporting great six packs.

We are greeted by an inspired Nathan who says "You will be trained like SPARTANS!!!!!" And so began the 1hr of thrashing. A whooping like I haven't had in a long time, which left me a quivering, nauseated mess with one more set of exercises to do. I dunno... but I don't think Spartans puked after a long workout. I don't think they'd be worried about how sore they're going to be the next day either...

The main Workout:

Set One
1. 25 jump pull ups
2. 50 deadlifts, (not sure about weight)

3. On your back holding up the same bar straight arms while you bring your legs up to the bar one side then the other - that was 1. - 25 of those

4. 30 jumps onto a box

6. Run up the stairs with 2 - 15lb weights

We did that 3 fr&&**%^ times.

There was more to the workout but that was the bulk of it. I was left a shell of a woman. Which is funny because Jason loves to tell the story about how he almost puked after his first Nathan workout with me. He thought he was going to hurl all the Rockstar energy drink I made him have. And what did I have before tonights workout, but one of those evil pink Tab drinks. No amount of Taurine was going to help me!

Jason is training to climb Mt Aconguaga so the workouts won't get any easier, in fact they'll get tougher. On thurs Jason will get worked with a weighted pack and I'll get my workout with Betty and Veronica (my petzl nomics). I think that'll be great for both of us. Jason is already getting out there on long days, the guy can go and go. And this winter we'll get him more exposure to ice to get him all ready for the big mountain. Mind you I don't know how ready you can get. Big scary mountains are big scary mountains in my book. It may not be the hardest mountain, but mountains are mountains. They can be beautiful and forgiving or very unpleasant places to be with danger everywhere. I'll be happy to climb my ice this winter, getting more mileage leading the Gr 4's.

Then for some extra stupidness I did some bouldering as Colin was working in the garage when I got home. I figured I may as well boulder before the nasty soreness settled in. I fully expect to have some problem getting out bed in the morning. Colin put up the sloper holds I had just bought. They offer added challenge as you have to have a good open palmed grip. A great challenge on a inclined wall.

But the training has been going pretty good despite the issues now and then, sore shoulders etc. But that is par for the course for an active lifestyle. Sooner or later you visit a physio therapist, a massage person, chiropractor whatever. I still swear by my twice monthly massages. I went once a week for almost 2 years and now go half that time. It took him a long time to get all the kinks out of the body so that now I'm fairly limber most of the time, well for me anyhow. But he keeps me that way, no scar tissue build up, and we fix things sooner. I guess I hate to say this, but at 42 I have to work smarter not harder. Easier to get injured and harder to heal so best be proactive.

Whew that was a chatty blog huh? I think the floating endorphins are still hanging out. Yippee!

South meets North

So I'm sitting on this plane leaving Beijing and heading to Mongolia and this rather tall dude is sitting beside me. I strike up a conversation during the 3hr flight. We go on our separate adventures, he goes to the Gobi desert and I head for the Altai Mountains. A year later the dude comes for a visit to Canada. Isn't this how it works with most people? :-)

Soooooo to back up abit. John and I did meet on the plane, after the flight we exchanged email addresses and struck up an email friendship. He ended up being on business in Seattle and thought "Hey why not visit Lise in Calgary"

So the New Yorker comes to the Cow-Town. John had been to Toronto but never been West. I took him on the standard tourist junket, Banff and Lake Louise. There's a reason its so popular, it has a rather large "wow" factor.

The first night John was here I had a dinner party with my best friends. I figured if John could deal with them and all their idiosyncacies then he was probably a tough and resilient fellow. But coming from the Bronx in NYC this was chump change for him. Fhuggetaboutit....

Over the course of a couple days John was exposed to the differences between American and Canadian culture. I think the average American would assume that Canadians are just like them except live in a colder climate, whereas most Canadians consider themselves fundamentally different than their American neighbours. I think the biggest surprise for John was that we aren't always that nice and accomodating. I did make him take a shot of my parent's moonshine which almost made him hurl the lovely dinner we had just ate, OK.... so that wasn't so nice. Him and I had similar views on Dubya Bush, although he did seem bemused at my concern that America could at some point in the future turn into a foe when they start running out of water and look to their northern neighbours' vast resources. (but thats another rant all together) I schooled him in the Canadian love of beer, making him try our popular brands and he learned first hand about our unpredicatable mountain weather. Apparently my mountain climbing concern about weather and commenting on the approaching lightening while we were riding down from Sulpher Mountain does nothing to to help a nervous american sitting in a metal gondola as the weather storms around us and the gondola stops...

Here is John's suggestion of how I should describe his visit:

This is my friend John, he came to Canada, I made him jump up and down like a monkey and had Canadian flags pop out of his head and took pictures. In this picture I cut off John's legs with my ice axes because the f**ker ate my gateau chocolate, then I dropped his sorry ass in a lake. Don't mess with us Canadian chicks or a similar fate awaits you.

*Editors note: Ya John did make a move on my Chocolate Molten Lava cake, hence how he found out the hard way that Canadians are not all that nice.

Long Time No Blog

August has gone by in a flurry of activity and we're half-way through September... whao can someone stop the clock abit here?

A couple of my weekends could be blogs onto themselves and had I actually gotten my ASS in gear they would have been. So I've at least written about one.

Hood to Coast Race in Oregon. Once again 12 of us runners got together, took a few days off, coughed up some cash, begged for some sponsor money and headed to the states for a 200mile running race. After 3yrs running in California we headed back to the Oregon for the biggest race of this kind, the Hood to Coast. This would our third time in this race. 1000 teams all with 12 runners converged on Mt Hood to run the 200miles (well 198 actually) to end up at Seaside. Our one lament (and a big one) was leaving the California race and the day of wine tasting we had always worked into our schedule. Oregon in many ways is a funner and more well organized race just given the sheer volumne of runners attending. But not to overlook that after 20yrs of experience, the organizers run this race like a well oiled machine. The afterparty alone on the beach is worth entering a team in. But there is no Sonoma, no Napa. However Lise, Yup me, the one and only had this thunderboldt of inspriration... didn't Oregon have wine too? A few searches on the internet and there was the splendor of Oregon wine in all its Pinot Noir splendor. Goodbye Napa and hello Willamet Valley!

I propositioned to the group (because they'll take any proposition they can get, none of us are getting any younger) that we could now wine taste in Oregon too. A collective cheer arose and our excitment of going back to the Oregon race increased exponentially.

Oh but ya that little detail about running 200miles (OK 198) Each runner has to run 3 legs over the course of the race which took us just over 24hrs. We each had an overall distance of about 25 - 30km. Most of us could run the distances off the couch since we're habitual long-term runners so we did fine. In fact even some of our slightly injured runners ran faster than the average times and we came in the top 20%. Not bad considering almost half of our runners are now over 50yrs old. Just for the record I was the slowest member of the team but hey, I did organize the wine touring part of our adventure so I demonstrated my value.

Great fun was had by all, which is no surprise. Most of us have been running together for over 10yrs. We may not see each other much over the course of the year or maybe we run a couple times a week with each other. I think about the conversations I've had with the running buddies on the trails, the times when some of us have dealt with illnesses, injuries, marriages ending, new chapters being opened in our lives. The interesting conversations that are started when you've been up for 24hrs and your sitting beside your buddy in a cramped van. Friendships that are forged during shared activities and have the opportunity to deepen over the years are highly valued in my books.

It was a great time for sure and though most of us came home limping from punishing our bodies, I know that most of us will be back next year.

hmm best to end this blog and start a new one! More adventures to come