Radost

Week 4 roundup! Run 🌟 Additional Movement 🌟 Music practice 🌟🌟 Nature Appreciation 🌟 Meditation Bonus? Sociability Adventure runs 🌟 Photos 🌟 Running total 28 🌟 I gave myself two stars for music. Between 3 rehearsals and plenty of home practice I logged between 8-9 hours this week! MIL is singing with my choir for this concert, so we practiced together on one of my short workdays. It’s nice to have that time with her and feel like we can develop a relationship of our own, not just the relationship-by-proxy through Mr. Radost. Even with all that time spent making music, I carved out an Adventure Saturday! Sibling B took dinner duty and just as well because I didn’t get home until after 5. I went out to the Far Lake, which is on a lovely rail trail, about 2 hours away by bike. Every time I get out there I go “Why don’t I do this more often???” …and then I have to get back on the bike to get home and oh, that’s why. 😅 I tried a new trail. I found it searching for “running trails in [area]” and it was listed as an 11k loop…but I realized when I was there that although the new-to-me trailhead was around the middle of the park, not far from my favourite bike rack and viewpoint, the loop was meant to start at the park entrance and follow the rail trail for about half the distance. BORING! I took the Cedar Grove trail and then headed on what was supposed to be a 2-3 km creekside trail to take me back to my bike but morphed into the far side of the lake loop, whoops. I love the creekside trail though, it’s beautiful twisty single-track without too much elevation change, dodging tree roots and mud puddles. I think it was around 8k again, but much more challenging than last week! @Mad Hatter I know 8k is An Achievement in itself! But also I have been aiming to up my distance to around 12 by the end of May, so I’m feeling a bit behind schedule, haha. It was beautiful sunny spring weather when I started in the morning, but clouds rolled in as I was in the trees. I had hoped to take a proper rest with a picnic lunch and a good book but between how long it took me to get back around the lake and the way it was spitting rain I settled for a speedy sandwich and like five minutes of just sitting and appreciating the stormy sway of the trees across the water. Got a few pics under the cut. Oh! And when I got home Mr. Radost had picked up the bisexual pop rocks Oreos I’ve been desperate to try! They’re such a weird treat, I love them!

Week 3 roundup! Run 🌟 Additional Movement 🌟 Music practice Nature Appreciation 🌟 Meditation Bonus? Sociability 🌟 Adventure runs Photos 🌟 Running total 21 🌟 Guess what I realized??? You can foam roll your legs standing up against a wall! I have persistent hip pain that’s helped by rolling, but it’s hard to do it on the ground with my current arm and core strength. It’s not quite as intense and a bit hard to get some spots but doing what I can several times a week instead of a more complete job like a few times a month is going to make a big difference. I didn’t practice my choir music at all this week. I usually have two afternoons a week where I can carve out an hour, but this week one was taken up by a meeting + shopping, the other by a last-minute dentist appointment (just my regular cleaning, but I’d had to reschedule and was going to have a ten-month gap, so I got on the cancellation list). I will do better this week (although also a vocal ensemble friend said her coworker who’s also in the choir “could totally tell that you’ve been practicing a lot at home,” so I’m definitely not letting the team down). My additional activity this week was dancing my butt off at…a rave…? A friend was going for her 55th birthday. I wasn’t sure whether I’d be DMing Sunday morning and hesitated and the show sold out, but I said I’d swing by Friend’s place for drinks and cake anyway. Then it turned out Family D&D would be in the afternoon and that some friends who had bought tickets crashed out early, so I tagged along. We only stayed a couple hours but we had a ton of fun! It took me back to Electronica Nights in my early 20s, but it was also really cool to hear the influence of newer artists and see where the genre is going. Boy am I tired, though! Total activity for yesterday: 8km run, 23ish km cycling (in like 6 trips), two hours jumping rhythmically and energetically up and down. Special moments this week included our Scion game meeting our first Actual Mythological Person (aside from our individual progenitors), watching Work!Kid’s dance solo, my garden going Full Spring Bulb, and ducks and a hummingbird in my yard (not on the same day)! Just a couple garden pics (including a House Panther) under the cut

Kinda phoned in my run today. Just 8k, running about 7:45/km. My vocal ensemble met this morning instead of Sunday, so I ran midafternoon instead of midmorning. It’s getting too hot in the afternoons already! Mind you, I start to melt at around 15C, haha. Definitely the last run in pants until fall. And it was also hard to know what to do about lunch given that it’s also my night to make dinner and I want to get out to see Work!Kiddo’s festival dance performance then swing by a friend’s 55th birthday this evening. but. Despite all that, I got out and did it!

I’d come to the same conclusion, haha. Didn’t get my first choice site but have made a reservation for my preferred dates at another island campground. Only 25 minutes from the ferry to the site, according to Google…but I was telling friends and they were like “it’s down a BIG hill…” I was like “THEY ARE ALL DOWN A BIG HILL, this is (low) mountainous territory we live in!”

Drive by post that’s been sitting in my draft pile for a few days 😅 Week 2 roundup! Run 🌟 Additional Movement 🌟 Music practice 🌟 Nature Appreciation 🌟 Meditation 🌟 Bonus? Sociability 🌟 Adventure runs Photos🌟 Running total 16 🌟 It was back to work as of Tuesday so less time for adventures, sigh. Although I did have some virtual adventures by hopping on the livestream of the Northeast Dungeon Siege music festival, which was so much fun! I missed a lot due to an out-of-town friend stopping by and some local live music but what I caught was magical. My fave act was Aura Merlin, but Cernunnos Woods had an epic show with masks and props…glad I had the camera lens between us or I’m pretty sure I would have been caught in some kind of spell, haha. Nature Appreciation took the form of bringing lawn chairs and a pot of tea to the front yard to do some flower watching with my mom. If you’ve heard of the Japanese Hanami tradition, that’s the inspiration. Many years I do a whole picnic with friends and lots of snacks at a nearby park with lots of cherry trees but this year the peak of the blossom wave was inconveniently early - the weather was cold and rainy most of the time and I was exhausted from prepping for a big concert. Mr. Radost and I went on a blossom walk one of those late winter days when it was actually sunny, and then the ornamental cherries on our street turned out to be about 3 weeks behind the ones in the park, so Mom and I could enjoy them on the Easter Monday holiday. A neighbour came over and chatted and complimented my tulips, too! It was a lovely day. Here’s my mom’s cat in my native plant garden (still looks like nothing’s going on there! I’m worried!) (More flowers under the cut) For Additional Exercise I did ten minutes of jump rope after work. I was doing 5 minutes back in the fall…I was not prepared for how much of a slog ten minutes would be! But I did it! Got two hours of singing in (in addition to rehearsals/last lesson). And found out my MIL is going to be joining us for the upcoming concert! So maybe we’ll make time to practice together at some point. Meditation I squeaked in under the wire with a short music + breathing exercise Saturday afternoon. This week I also found out the friend I’ve gone bike camping with the past two summers is going to be too busy with work to go this year. We’ll plan some day rides, but I’m disappointed. Now the question is, do I plan a solo trip or stay home and focus on hikes? Pros: I love camping solo, no schedules and no talking (except to froggés), feeds my Cool Independent Nature Weirdo identity. Cons: biking with gear is HARRRRD especially in my hilly area, food management is tough without a trunk to lock stuff up and I can’t find good info on what campsites have bear lockers so I’ll have to either head to the one place I know or plan for nothing. I should book a campsite soon so I have to decide probably this week, yikes.

Week 1 roundup! (Week 2 roundup coming soon, haha) Run 🌟🌟 Additional Movement 🌟 Music practice 🌟 Nature Appreciation 🌟 Meditation 🌟 Bonus? Sociability 🌟 Adventure runs 🌟 Photos 🌟 Running total 9 🌟 Week 1 was the last week of spring break so I had plenty of time for Everything. We booked a weekend away in a small community where there’s very little to do except look at trees, walk on beaches, walk on beaches while looking at trees, and walk among the trees looking out at the beach. In addition to hike day (logged probably 15k, finishing with a slow wander through Botanical Beach), I got out for a “run” on the last few km of the Juan de Fuca trail! It was suuuuper muddy and I was thinking a lot about how tough it would be to traverse loaded with full backpacking gear. It’s supposed to be a tougher trail than the nearby-and-more-famous West Coast Trail and, holy smoke, the section I was on is labelled “moderate difficulty,” I can’t actually imagine what the “difficult” section would be like! More (with pics!) under the cut, because my computer is out of commission and adjusting photo sizes on mobile is not my friend.

Nice to be in such illustrious company! Yeah! Adventure runs/hikes = getting out into the woods. There’s a hike I took last spring where the wildflowers were breathtaking, I want to get back there this year. Plus just taking time to attend to the flora and fauna I encounter every day. I also continue to be excited about my garden, even though I’m bad at taking care of it. I have some veggies planted, but I’m also working on lots of flower beds mostly from seed. I am meadow-ifying my front yard with about 70% native species, 20% neighbours (mostly from regions down the west coast as far as California, but a few from central/eastern Canada), and a few plants I just Really Like. Then in the back I have a thriving planting of corn poppies that will hopefully be augmented by some other cottage garden flowers this year. I regularly take the cat out in the garden (leashed), which is the perfect opportunity to just Appreciate the birds and plants around me.

You know when there’s a thing you want to do, it’s easy, it’s right there, but you Just Can’t Initiate The Task? Yeah. I’ve been in the land of Can’t Initiate all last challenge and zero/week 1 of this one. 😅 But I’m here now! I have a trail race coming up at the beginning of June and I’m training a little harder this year than last, hoping to get my typical distance up to 12 km. Last year my phone clocked the route at 9.9 km, so if I can pull 12 on my easier trail near home I should be in pretty good shape on the day. I did 9.75 this morning so I think I’m on track. I am also going to officially put meditation on the goal list. A while ago I was trying new yoga videos and found one I like…but it’s Yin yoga and she has you hold the poses for like three minutes and it was so. hard. mentally. But, like, the same way a really good stretch is hard? Like “wow, I need to lean into that a bit.” Not sure what that’s going to look like exactly, maybe this challenge is for exploring meditation in the context of yoga, on its own, or just practicing mindfulness in nature, and see what gives me that “good stretch” feeling. Ugh, the weather is getting so nice and I have to go back to work Tuesday after spring break. Rude! Also 9 more days before my choir officially starts rehearsals for Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem. I’ve been reading through it all break, and, well, I’ll get it but it’s a lot to learn in six weeks. I’m going to try holding out a prize this challenge. Not sure how it will work…I’m pretty impulsive and like. If there’s a thing I want and I don’t have it, there’s probably a reason (lack of funds, not a real priority (I’m looking at you, daydreams about booking a makeup lesson at Sephora), realistically not enough time/space to enjoy it…). But there’s an embroidery pattern I’ve wanted for a long time, so maybe I’ll put that on the line. Here’s the weekly goals (5 stars): Run Additional Movement (yoga, walk, Just Dance, strength workout) Music practice Nature Appreciation Meditation (can be combined with yoga or Nature Appreciation) Weekly bonus points available for (up to 5 stars/week): Any of the above more than once Posting more than a weekly roundup Adventure runs Photos Goal: 35 stars Prize: embroidery pattern

Oof, that’s a mood. I know so many people who’ve been diagnosed with ADHD, Autism, or both in middle adulthood and yeah. The relief/anger is a wild ride. I’m so happy for you to get the diagnosis, I hope it will make a lot of pieces slide into place, at the very least the one that lets you say “yes, this is actually harder for me and it’s not because I suck.” And to feel legitimately entitled to using supports and taking advice (from AuDHD for AuDHD, there’s a lot of outside garbage out there too) that will make things easier.

Whoops, stepped away, there! I had a very weird week after I last posted. Content note: death and grief, no specifics . . . . . . Three deaths: one a not-so-close family member, one a friend’s parent, and one a co-worker, all in the span of three days. I’m okay, but the colleague is definitely hard emotionally. Partly, I’m just really sad I won’t ever have the chance to get to know her better. We’d worked at the same school for 3 years, never directly together since she mostly did early primary and I’ve been on the intermediate side, but she was always in the break room. It was shockingly sudden. Trying to figure out how best to manage my weekly run and the funeral on Saturday. It’s super weird, I’m definitely in that “it doesn’t feel real” space, but I can feel that it’s so different from when my grandpa died a few years ago: J will fade from my life like any coworker I knew at a job and left as my career shifted. There won’t be a space in my life that I need to reconcile with, she’ll just gradually become someone I don’t expect to see at lunch anymore without any effort, just time. Weird. Callous? I think all losses are unique, but there’s always a fear of Doing It Wrong. Also, I had a major ego challenge that hit on the heels of The First Day Back Without J. My choir director spoke to us sternly at the end of rehearsal about knowing our notes. It was fair! I was feeling delicate, though, and I’m definitely struggling with feelings of inadequacy in this group. I’m a good choral singer! But this is arguably the city’s best chamber choir and I was honestly surprised that I made the audition. I’ve been working my butt off to learn the music and…it’s working, I will get there by the end of our six rehearsals. But the director stated, both in rehearsal and in a later email, that what he’s looking for is note- and rhythm-perfect by the second rehearsal, with the remainder to be spent on ensemble and interpretation. I can’t do that. It’s not just a matter of time, although spending more time practicing would certainly help. But my brain just doesn’t comprehend complex music that way - I can practice a line a million times at home, and have it perfectly, and in rehearsal it seems to shift and morph and the notes become completely other. Listening to recordings and playing other parts along with mine helps, but it’s no substitute for full-choir rehearsal. So, I’m not the singer this choir needs, and that hurts. Especially as someone who grew up in the constant shadow of “how much you could achieve if you would only apply yourself!” At first I was mad, like, if I’m not good enough, let me know at the audition, don’t make me devote dozens of hours to the music and the people and then tell me “the bar has always been HERE” (imagine someone gesturing above my head as I look up soulfully). But it’s not really something a person can assess in a 15-minute meet-and-greet. So I’m sad, because I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO FAIL IF I’M TRYING. And because it’s an awesome choir, and I was really enjoying the music and the challenge and the people! In sum: Anyway, I’m more or less back on an even keel this week, but I’ve been basically in survival mode, lacking energy for extra challenges around fitness and food. Keeping my weekly runs, though. I may not cure cancer, but basic consistency is achievable!

Okay. This week started blah but is finishing strong! I did a YWKassandra yin yoga video yesterday with a focus on hips and it was great. It did really highlight that I’m struggling with mindfulness right now…but in a good way, haha. Tells me a good place to focus some effort. Then out for Vietnamese food with an old friend. Today was a balmy 5 degrees. Still slush on the ground but I boldly went for a run anyway. A great opportunity to pull out my “Running to Windhelm” playlist (a little slower, mostly instrumental, heavy on the Skyrim soundtrack, natch). I planned a short run but as I hit the 2/3 mark I started turning over the idea of another loop around the trail…I was undecided but by the time I hit the off ramp, as it were, I just blew right by it. It was a slow run and I had an entire lake of slushy water in my shoes but I was very much In My Body and had some fantastic Gerudo Meditations. Rounded out the morning by revisiting the first yoga-for-runners video I ever tried. It’s a good one and I’m feeling awesome! Now I’m snuggling under a cat + fuzzy blanket watching an episode of the Dark Crystal before I tidy the house for board games. Perfect winter afternoon!

Thanks for the check-in! 🌹 This week has been so-so. We’ve had some “extreme” for this area weather and I’ve been phoning it in. On Saturday I skipped my run because it was -10C…I happily run around freezing but my bike commute in the -9-11 evenings had been brutal and I just didn’t want to challenge my lungs. So I Just Danced! But I ended up tweaking my shoulder somehow and couldn’t lift my arm Sunday-Wednesday. 🥺 I was supposed to have a massage Thursday, but we had a dump of snow (only about 3 inches, but we just don’t have the infrastructure or skills/habits here on the wet coast) and the practitioner canceled it. My calves are screaming from walking through snow and icy slush! I am off from my second job this afternoon so I’m planning to do a yoga video and cross my fingers that the trails are clear enough to run tomorrow.

You did the thing! Here's hoping the path to talk therapy will be similarly smooth once you get rolling. Way to look after your wonderful self!

BLACKBERRIES!!! I have been waging war with the damn things here since we moved in 2.5 years ago. It’s like a hydra! I dig them up by the roots when I can but they pop up all over! I think I’m pushing them back enough each year that if I have to slack off one spring I won’t come back to a complete jungle. I get kind of annoyed at how many are snaking in from my back neighbour’s place…she has an extremely well-kept yard, absolutely beautiful, but I don’t think she realizes what is coming up under her privacy hedge. 😭 Good luck!

Workout day today. I turned on Just Dance for the first time in months and got really into that, probably spent close to 45 minutes rocking out, which didn’t leave me much time for strength training per se. I put on a short Chloe Ting video I had saved during my 2019 bodyweight training kick, but I had to modify or skip basically every exercise, sigh. Anyway, I did something, so that’s great! I also had the chance to chill with some ambient drone music and cross stitch as snow fell softly outside the window, so that was lovely. Not thrilled about the ice that we’ll have tomorrow (though it seems not as bad as I worried - we usually have very wet snow, and I was imagining a slick layer of that as the temperature drops below freezing overnight …but it’s a pretty dry snow and the temperature fell as the snow did). But that’s tomorrow’s problem, haha.