Alethea's Challenge

[sandman]

I know! Just felt I needed to defend myself.. Especially since I've barely been a presence here in the past little bit.

[Crooked]

Haven't yet mastered the getting-up-without-annoying-bedmate issue, but you could try a compromise? Put the alarm clock far enough away that you have to get out of bed to turn it off but not so far that it will be going off for a long time. Maybe actually set your alarm 5 minutes earlier than usual with the promise that you can do a fun little something every morning - like run through a quick sun salutation or check your favorite website - before you have to get into your routine. That'll get you motivated to get out of bed AND it could really be an addition to your routine rather than a deviation.

[Alethea]

Bananandrea: Thanks for the thread-love!

Catspaw: ooooooooh, now THAT is sexy. I wish I had an iPhone!

Caco: Been doing yoga on and off for about 5 years, but I still consider myself a beginner. Pidgeon! It took me a long time to learn to love that pose, but now it hurts so good. I'm a huge huge fan of the balancy ones - tree, dancer, etc. I love the feeling when all the stars align and the balance is effortless and you can focus on pushing the pose just a bit further... Then you fall over. So much fun to play with.

Ormay, Yeah, was kinda embarassed about the whole thing so just laid low (but did not slack off!) until I got to a better place.

Zippy: You made me tired just reading that. 3:30AM?!? When do you SLEEP?!

Colin: ooooh, I like that! I shall try it and report back!

Crooked: That is the plan! I have not yet hit on something I want enough to get out of bed, but thats more due to my weak morning-will than the unappealingness of the activities. I shall ponder and come up with something!

Sandman: Mwahahaha, my slander drew you out of the shadows. N.O. E.S.C.A.P.E. F.R.O.M. N.F.

Accusations of attempted homicide aside, here is the story. Sandman generously invited me and my lover out on his yearly trailbiking trip. I was given 2 tips to follow. First, never push beyond what you're comfortable with. Second, keep your weight back on the bike. I failed to do either.

THINGS I DID WRONG:

1. Going bloody trail biking when I'm barely practiced on street biking. Do not let Sandman's videos fool you, that shit is STEEP.

2. Not reviewing the trails beforehand.

3. Not taking the hint when I ended up in the bushes 2 times just getting to the chairlift.

4. Going too fast because Sandman was behind me with a camera.

5. Missing the turnoff to a green trail and taking a blue trail instead.

6. Not listening to my instincts, which were screaming "STOP BEFORE YOU GET YOURSELF BLOODY KILLED"

7. Daring to take a jump instead of taking (yet another) dive into the bushes.

8. Seeing an even bigger jump ahead while I was midair, panicing, and hitting the brakes.

9. Not keeping my weight back.

Yeah. Bike stopped, I did not. 'Nough said.

THINGS I DID RIGHT:

1. went trail biking, which is the most daring thing I've done in my life and So. Frigging. Awesome.

2. rented full body armor, even though I "didn't need it" according to Sandman. Who's right now?!?

But the rest of the weekend was a lot of fun despite the badness. Lego pictionary, booze, hot tubs and beautiful hiking trails ftw! I hereby invite the entirety of NF to come along with when I go back in 2 years to beat that stupid mountain.

[PrincessZippy]

I arrange my entire life around getting enough sleep! I teach 5th grade and I am NOT nice when I'm tired. Herding 32 two cats (students) is tiring.

I start heading for bed around 7 and usually asleep by 7:30. I'm really a morning person and get so much done before I go to work. Ran intervals with a full moon out this morning - took 6 seconds off my previous best time!, graded my reading tests and made lunches. I like the quiet in the world before the raucous commotion of humanity is awake.

But it's not a schedule for everyone.

Sounds like an awesome mountain bike adventure, sorry about the fractures.

Veronica

[ormaybemidgets]

Wow, PZ, that is so intriguing. How did you get husband onboard? (Or was it his idea?) Do you have kids? Do they go to bed early too? People must think you're crazy! But wow you must be out in the world when it's totally empty.

[PrincessZippy]

I'm lucky that he's a morning person too. Maybe I made him that way - we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary this year. He doesn't need quite as much sleep as I do, so he goes to bed a little bit later.

No kids, which certainly helps.

He commutes 90 minutes each way to work and by the time he gets home, he's beat. Getting up that early gives him time to practice the piano and work out too. We do sleep a little bit later on Thursday and Friday. We sort of front loaded his work out schedule so that as the week went on, we could sleep 'til 4. Our cats think we should be up at 3:30 though. I get up that early on the weekends too.

Yeah, most people think we're crazy.

Veronica

[Alethea]

Thats cool, Zippy! Very neat idea.

Sunday:

Got up, Ate breakfast, walked the dog, worked, stopped by my mums place for an hour of tai chi. Walked the dog again, sadly gave the dog back to her owner, did strength in 40 min (dropped the 1 legged deadlifts in favor of overhead deadlifts with a big ball to speed up my time a bit), ate dinner, went to bed at 11. I think my ideal morning routine is getting up, making a good breakfast, eating said breakfast while reading, then going for a walk. Someday that will be going for a run, but that's too much pressure right now when running is A Major Event. Cool.

Weekly total:

3 strength: did 2.

3 run: did 1

1 pilates: 0

1 plyo: 0

Tai Chi: Yup.

Yoga: nope.

Extra Activity: 23 hours of roofing.

Weight loss:

So I have an Active Weight and a Sedentary Weight. This week took me from 1 to the other. Lost 5 lbs. Past experience says thats the only weight loss I see this month so I'm not getting excited, but we'll see.

Monday:

Slept horribly, woke up very cranky and my usual frantic time, didn't eat enough yesterday so was kinda weak and shaky most of today, brought breakfast, sucked back too much coffee, ate homemade lunch, worked (of course. Roofing was such a treat - only 1 job for a week!), then worked again, 30 min of pilates when I get home. Then I'm buying dinner. Frigging starved. Have to clean tools before returning them to their owners. Ever cleaned tar off a dozen tools with paint stripper? Teh Fumes!!! Add a headache to my list of complaints, I'm sure. Tomorrow Will Be Better. G'night folks!

[cacodaemonia]

I love the feeling when all the stars align and the balance is effortless and you can focus on pushing the pose just a bit further... Then you fall over. So much fun to play with.

Haha, exactly! I was teaching on Friday and got us all into standing bow/dancer. Then, as soon as I started counting down I lost my balance. It's always a good laugh though.

It's great that you got to borrow a dog! My beasts are excellent motivation to be active every day. Have you ever thought about volunteering at your local shelter and walking dogs there? I do it and it's a great workout!

Where is this mountain of arm-breaking, anyhow?

Zippy - that is a crazy schedule, but it sounds kind of awesome! I'm not naturally a morning person, but I absolutely love being awake really early, when the world is so still and quiet. The only thing I don't like is how cold it can be before dawn! :|

[LynnyLee]

Roofing, ick. I know those paint stripper fumes too. Here's to a roofing free tomorrow.

[sandman]

Where is this mountain of arm-breaking, anyhow?

Silverstar Mountain, Vernon BC Canada

Here's my trip from last year -

I'm still working on the 2011 movie, which will feature a cameo appearance by Alethea.

[cacodaemonia]

Silverstar Mountain, Vernon BC Canada

Here's my trip from last year -

I'm still working on the 2011 movie, which will feature a cameo appearance by Alethea.

Holy SHIT that looks insanely fun but waaaaay to terrifying for me! I assume you need a pretty good bike and a lot of experience to be able to do something like that?

[Alethea]

Colin, you're a genius! Vibratey-phone alarm works like a charm. I officially have no excuses! Thanks!

Caco, love dogs, but my shelter is no where near me. I shall just have to continue borrowing my friends, I guess. The bikes you can rent (strongly recommended, really. They get thrashed in a weekend of biking), but experience is good to have before you go. As demonstrated by me. Though I am convinced that taking things slower would result in a far different experience. I saw kids riding with their parents, for heavensakes. They were slow, but they took the same trail that totalled me without problems.

Sandman, can't wait to see it! It'll be nice to see what the rest of Challenger Trail looks like. Did you get any footage of the hottube or games or incredible scenery or food at least? Mmmmm, the food..... I shall also send you the pictures I took of the butterflies on my hike the day after, so you can include them. They are FAR cooler than any death-defying mid-air shots YOU have from the second day.

TUESDAY: 3 points, yay for hitting all my goals!

Got up with alarm, 6:45am. You know what? I'm good with this time. I was gonna do something dramatic like 6:00 eventually, but I like the illusion of almost 8 hours of sleep. It was enough time to shower, bundle up warm and sit in meditation for 10 min (cant have fallen back asleep because I was sitting, right?) before throwing on work attire, packing bag (and breakfast/lunch), and bolting out the door to the train (seriously, the quick exit is an art form I have mastered).

"Going for a Run" Efficiency Check: 47 minutes

25 min Deciding to do C25K Week 4.1 Run/Walk to stepping out the door. Head Chef requested I brown hamburger for his stew (another art form I have mastered). Call it 10 minutes to drink water, get battlegear on, arrange the headphone cord so it wont strangle me, etc.

5 min warmup

5 min walk (I dont know why I do this. It's nice to get the muscles going, I guess, and it gets me to my Start Intersection.)

22 min Walk/Run: R3m/W90s/R5m/W90sx2. but I hit a long red light and stood around for like a min and a half which isn't counted here. How do you handle red lights?

10 min cooldown walk (misjudged how far away I was. I'm trying to hit a landmark and get back to my house for fun.)

5 min stretches. Shoulda done more, but stew was ready and smelling good. I regret nothing!

Now, it's 10:23 and my update is done, and I'm off to go read. Gnight!

[Colin]

Hey Alethea, GENIUS may be stretching it, but you know, maybe upper level 'smrt'. Actually, just a master of duct taped and jury rigged solutions.

Your mountian biking skills sound right in line with mine. My last mtn bike ride (5 years ago?) was with a group of Calagry riders that called themselves "Klub Karnage" (this should have been my first clue). I forgot a helmet, almost decided to start the ride anyway (see ... not genius), had a stranger loan me one (at least smrt enough to ask), and then went over the handlebars landing on my head and splitting the helmet in half. Gave me enough pause thinking about, at best, a life being fed through tubes, to decide that I was more of a roadie.

[cacodaemonia]

Caco, love dogs, but my shelter is no where near me. I shall just have to continue borrowing my friends, I guess. The bikes you can rent (strongly recommended, really. They get thrashed in a weekend of biking), but experience is good to have before you go. As demonstrated by me. Though I am convinced that taking things slower would result in a far different experience. I saw kids riding with their parents, for heavensakes. They were slow, but they took the same trail that totalled me without problems.

Oh well, as long as I could putt along like a 7 year old, I think I'd be okay! XD

Borrowing dogs is great too. I had four with me this morning, but they were all pretty well-behaved.

and bolting out the door to the train.

How far is the train station from your house? I desperately miss public transportation. Oh, and congrats on getting up earlier and meditating! How has the meditation been going?

How do you handle red lights?

Jog in place or cross in a direction that's green for you. The latter can be kind of fun because then you have to work out a slightly different root.

[Alethea]

Colin, Hah! Yeah, all it takes is 1 good fall to realize trail-biking is a sport for masochists. My partner took a dive later in the day and dislocated his shoulder. Since we were both hurting, figured a trip to the hospital "just in case" might not be a bad idea (and it was a damn good idea after I saw those xrays). We were the 42nd (and 43rd) people to come in from Silverstar that day. 42!!

Oh well, as long as I could putt along like a 7 year old, I think I'd be okay! XD

That's my plan!! I have to go back and prove I don't completely suck. Nothing says I have to go FAST.

My problem with the red light is that I am a wuss. More specifically, I am trying to build up duration of running at a half-decent speed, and that particular red light is right at the base of a sizable hill, so I can either wait for the light to turn or do some brutal uphill, pooping me out and making the increased duration plan rather difficult. Possibly I just need to man up.

Train is a 10 min walk away, and the reason why I bought this house. It's SOOO nice.

Wednesday:

Slept in, packed food, worked, chatted with Spezzy who convinced me to go 100% paleo for 2 weeks (with the exception of 1 tbsp of cream in my morning coffee), was unable to eat lunch as it had vermacelli noodles. Impromptu IF! Worked, napped, strengthed (50 min, and able to do 45 seconds of plank before elbows complain. Sloowly coming along!), regretfully decided not to do the jumprope challenge as it's too much stress in addition to the running on my right foot, which has never fully recovered from a break a year ago. Ate dinner, watched star trek (Data = awesome), read, went to bed at 11.

2WeekPaleoChallenge: Day 2 complete (yesterday was fully paleo by accident).

[ormaybemidgets]

We were the 42nd (and 43rd) people to come in from Silverstar that day. 42!!

WHAT! That's crazy!

Impromptu IF!

? Fasting?

Did I get it? I... intermediate... fasting? Did I get it?

[pinupgeek]

Do the hill! Or, do you have a residential area you can run in? That's how I avoid the red lights.

[sandman]

Holy SHIT that looks insanely fun but waaaaay to terrifying for me! I assume you need a pretty good bike and a lot of experience to be able to do something like that?

As it turns out, yes. Seriously though, the hill has trails for all skill levels and speeds. The stuff you saw in the video is some of the more advanced riding - stuff you wouldn't ride until you've had some experience riding downhill first. As mentioned - Alethea wound up taking a wrong turn, paniced and broke her self.

For something of a much easier pace maybe this is more your style -

taken last year as a 'warmup' for the silverstar leg of our trip.

Sandman, can't wait to see it! It'll be nice to see what the rest of Challenger Trail looks like. Did you get any footage of the hottube or games or incredible scenery or food at least? Mmmmm, the food..... I shall also send you the pictures I took of the butterflies on my hike the day after, so you can include them. They are FAR cooler than any death-defying mid-air shots YOU have from the second day.

I have to say - i'm not as death defying as you claim me to be. MUCH of the footage you see in my videos are taken by my much more skilled brother and his group of friends. My riding is pretty tame in comparison. I did get some pics and footage of our extra curricular activities, although I haven't even gone through all the stuff yet to see what all will work. Please do send me the pics you took. The more the merrier.

Your mountian biking skills sound right in line with mine. My last mtn bike ride (5 years ago?) was with a group of Calagry riders that called themselves "Klub Karnage" (this should have been my first clue). I forgot a helmet, almost decided to start the ride anyway (see ... not genius), had a stranger loan me one (at least smrt enough to ask), and then went over the handlebars landing on my head and splitting the helmet in half. Gave me enough pause thinking about, at best, a life being fed through tubes, to decide that I was more of a roadie.

Scary stuff - but road riding can be just as dangerous.. and way less fun. Riding on pavement SUCKS. just sayin'

[Alethea]

Ormay, you get half a prize! Fasting yes, intermediate..... what? That makes no sense, silly girl. IF = Intermittant Fasting. Which is really rather redundant (oh, so you're NOT starving yourself until you die), but somehow that became the common phrase for "skipping a meal or two on purpose".

Pinup: Bullying is appreciated! I took that hill like the badass I am . I'm runnin IN a residential zone, but there's still lights all over the place. It's curious, now that I think about it. Possibly the city is overcompensating for incredibly slippery roads in winter by putting traffic control devices EVERYWHERE.

Sandman: Riding on pavement doesn't suck, but FALLING on pavement sucks. Falling in trail biking (as long as you dont try to be superman and are adequately protected), hurts nothing but your pride. 2nd time I ended up in the bushes wrapped around a tree, I thought to myself "you know, this is kinda fun." But I'm insane like that.

Thursday:

Got up on time, packed breakfast but no lunch (ran out of paleo foodstuffs). Worked, bought a half-cooked lunch I threw out, bought a larabar to tide me over, went home, ran 3/4 of my route before calling it on account of rain (I like rain, but my ipod and blackberry likely do not), filled my backyard patio with sand under the stones (recently Did Battle with a wasp nest underneath the patio where the dirt settled). Poured more sand in the cracks and jumped up and down on the stones for a while to settle it. Hopping from one to the other, stomping feet HARD like a maniac, has now been dubed "The Wasp-Death Dance". Returned all my borrowed tools, steak for dinner at 10pm, sleep at 12:00. I hate going to bed right after eating so I guess I made the better choice here, but best would be eating at the right time. I blame the Taskmaster and his insistance on finishing what we start. A girl needs to eat, dammit!

Paleo 14 Day Mini Challenge: 3 days.

[pinupgeek]

Hooray for taking the hill! And the Wasp-Death Dance. I need one of those. Wasps are completely useless as a lifeform.

[cacodaemonia]

ran 3/4 of my route before calling it on account of rain (I like rain, but my ipod and blackberry likely do not)

You know what you could do if you anticipate rain? Grab a sandwich bag or two to keep your electronics in while you run. I had to do that the other day and it worked well.

I hate going to bed right after eating so I guess I made the better choice here, but best would be eating at the right time.

Blech, I agree! I like to be done eating at least 3 hours before I go to sleep, or I tend to feel kind of sick in the morning. xP

[cacodaemonia]

For something of a much easier pace maybe this is more your style -

taken last year as a 'warmup' for the silverstar leg of our trip.

That looks much less death-defying. Is this trail just less steep than the Silverstar one? It looks really beautiful.

[catspaw]

You know what you could do if you anticipate rain? Grab a sandwich bag or two to keep your electronics in while you run. I had to do that the other day and it worked well.

I ran my marathon in a typhoon. (Long story.)

My sandwich bag kept my electronics dry the entire time, which was amazing, because nothing else within 50 miles was dry.

[cacodaemonia]

I ran my marathon in a typhoon.

Haha, you need a T-shirt with a list of things and check boxes, so it would be like,

1. Fight a bear with a spork. [ ]

2. Score a goal in the World Cup with a fresh wasp nest. [ ]

3. Climb the Eiffel Tower with nothing but teeth and toenails. [ ]

4. Run a marathon in a typhoon. [check]

[catspaw]

1. Fight a bear with a spork. [ ]

2. Score a goal in the World Cup with a fresh wasp nest. [ ]

3. Climb the Eiffel Tower with nothing but teeth and toenails. [ ]

4. Run a marathon in a typhoon. [check]

That's badass!

.... and makes me want to fight a bear with a spork.