Tei is apparently an assassin now

[tei_]

Am I an assassin? I dunno! *quietly has identity crisis in corner*

 

Okay, that was fun!

 

So, I live, or at least pay rent regularly, in Toronto, but for pretty much all of April I will be working in Thunder Bay, staying with three different friends at different times for the month except when I have to go back to Toronto for a few days in the middle, aurrggh.  So this challenge is not going to be particularly strict. Basically I'm posting this so that I have somewhere to write about stuff and/or link to in my sig. 

 

Things I would like to do in April:

 

-Continue using 750words.com! Neverthatbored inspired me to re-start with this journaling site, and although I only managed a total of six days on it last Challenge... that's six days I wouldn't have written there otherwise? Hahaha. 

 

-Go to gymnastics whenever I can. Yep, "whenever I can" is a lame goal, but seeing as I really WANT to go to gymnastics, it's not like procrastination or laziness is the reason that I haven't been for a while. With my traveling schedule, work schedule and the combination of adult open gym sessions I have found in Thunder Bay and Toronto, it looks like I will be able to attend 6 times in April if nothing else comes up. Which is pretty good! Also, I invited a friend from work in Thunder Bay to come with me, who was talking a while ago about how he used to do gymnastics and wants to start again now that his kids are in it, so I may have a gym buddy!

 

-Figure out my summer employment. I'm a freelance musician and stuff tends to slow down in the summer, so I plan on using the handy-dandy gymnastics coaching certification which I just got last weekend to plug the gaps. I still haven't decided which city I even want to work in, but there are a few options of gyms doing summer camps that I could apply to. One actually already casually offered me a job before I even did the course, so. 

 

-Continue lifting. I put my membership at my tiny oddball gym in Toronto on hold for April, and bought a membership for the month for the local tiny oddball gym here. I had been going 3x a week, but I might replace one of my lifting days with a bodyweight day in which I work on:

-Pistol squats (my legs are uneven! I can do on unassisted with my left but not my right!)

-Handstand push-ups

-Chinups/pullups

-Leg raises

-Pike-ups

 

-HIKING! Purely in terms of driving time from downtown metropolis to world-class hiking spots, Thunder Bay is probably one of the greatest cities in North America. I went hiking today with some friends despite there having been a resurgence of winter this week and it is now hovering consistently between -5 and -15c. By the end of the month enough snow should have melted to do some more challenging hikes. I've never been to Mount McKay, which is one of the more common hiking spots, so I want to go there. Also, last year around this time I did the "head trail" of the Sleeping Giant, which is 17 km the last km of which is really steep. If the trails are good enough I want to do the knees this year.

 

Aaaaaand those are all the things I think I can reasonably do this month! 

 

 

[raptron]

!!!! YYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY. I hope you really can convince your friend to join you! It's so much more fun that way. 

[tei_]

12 minutes ago, raptron said:

!!!! YYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY. I hope you really can convince your friend to join you! It's so much more fun that way. 

 

I thought there was going to be a class yesterday but the building was being used for something else, and when I texted him that he seemed disappointed, so I think I have him  

[raptron]

Mwahah, excellent! 

[tei_]

Ah, I thought of another goal I can do for this challenge! I want to get in the habit of actually using the two health-focused apps I have, SleepCycle (the alarm clock that wakes you up at a light phase in your sleep) and Kindara (a fertility tracker, which is like a period tracker but more involved.) I forgot my thermometer, which is important for the main functionality of Kindara, so I can only start that later this week when I make my pit stop in Toronto. 

 

The challenge with sleepcycle is that your phone has to be in your bed, which means my challenge with it is to get up and turn it off in the morning without my getting-out-of-bed routine being interrupted by "well, I'll just check Twitter while I've got my phone here..."

[SymphonicDan]

Ooh, found you again

 

The SleepCycle app (and equivalents) are interesting... I used one lots during January  and it was interesting to see e.g. caffeine => light sleep, lots of moving => deep sleep. And I did spend one night with the phone on the bedside table just to check that it wasn't just fabricating a load of spurious data  (it behaved well, for the record, and thought that I was just motionless for 8 hours).

 

What music do you play as a freelance musician?

[tei_]

3 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

Ooh, found you again

 

The SleepCycle app (and equivalents) are interesting... I used one lots during January  and it was interesting to see e.g. caffeine => light sleep, lots of moving => deep sleep. And I did spend one night with the phone on the bedside table just to check that it wasn't just fabricating a load of spurious data  (it behaved well, for the record, and thought that I was just motionless for 8 hours).

 

What music do you play as a freelance musician?

 

I play bassoon! So I have a tenured position in a part-time orchestra, and then freelance a bunch. Right now I'm playing with the Thunder Bay Symphony for the rest of their season, so we have... a bunch of education concerts for grades 3-5 tomorrow, marimba concerto and some dvorak next week, some pops stuff I forget (a Simon and Garfunkel show at some point I think?), then end the season with Sibelius Violin concerto+Brahms 2, then a fundraising gala which is "Great Gatsby" themed, which, IDK what kind of music that's going to be. That's a pretty standard mix of stuff for my schedule!

[tei_]

Gymnastics tonight! I basically attempted "run-through" kips until I ripped. (I had never heard of this before, but the coach said the way they teach them here is by running your toes to the bar instead of doing a glide swing, to just concentrate on the second half of the movement, so I gave it a try.) Pretty much every time someone would wander up to me and say in an anguished tone of voice, "you're SO CLOSE!" LOL, I've been SO CLOSE for a bout ten years now , so

 

Then I did 2 new things on tumble track, a fronthandspring front tuck and a side aerial! Yay. 

[Mad Hatter]

I like the idea of sleep cycle but I didn't find it very useful. The sleep quality indicator had zero correlation between how well rested I felt and how well rested the app thought I was. It might be good with an improved sleep analysis or with a combination of other apps, but I couldn't find a way to extract useful data. I think the problem is that my recovery from training dictates how well rested I am more so than how well I slept. 

 

Awesome job on learning new skills!  

[raptron]

Yay for progress! I don't think I've heard of that method of learning a kip before, but whatever helps!  Grats on the TT skills. 

[Sam Ashen]

On 4/5/2016 at 7:35 PM, tei_ said:

April I will be working in Thunder Bay

 

My Thunder Bay friend now lives in Yellowknife.  Another one in the middle of nowhere.  They keep bugging me to visit.

 

Anyway.  Hi!

 

I have one other friend that started out as a Ranger and has been an Assassin since CNF2015.

[tei_]

4 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I like the idea of sleep cycle but I didn't find it very useful. The sleep quality indicator had zero correlation between how well rested I felt and how well rested the app thought I was. It might be good with an improved sleep analysis or with a combination of other apps, but I couldn't find a way to extract useful data. I think the problem is that my recovery from training dictates how well rested I am more so than how well I slept. 

 

Awesome job on learning new skills!  

 

I used it for a while a few years ago and found it did seem fairly accurate for me. But even if the metrics don't work I do appreciate that it usually seems to pick a good time to wake me up at and delivers on its promise to cut down on grogginess!

 

1 minute ago, Sam Ashen said:

 

My Thunder Bay friend now lives in Yellowknife.  Another one in the middle of nowhere.  They keep bugging me to visit.

 

Anyway.  Hi!

 

I have one other friend that started out as a Ranger and has been an Assassin since CNF2015.

 

Thunder Bay people have a tendency to catch the "LET'S GO EVEN FARTHER NORTH!" bug. They're the outdoorsiest city folk I've ever met

 

34 minutes ago, raptron said:

Yay for progress! I don't think I've heard of that method of learning a kip before, but whatever helps!  Grats on the TT skills. 

 

Thanks! I think it was helpful in that without the swing I could get in a lot more attempts focusing on technique before fatigue set in. 

[Mad Hatter]

I could see it could be useful for wake up calls. I wake up without an alarm anyway, so for me I just wanted to analysis.

[tei_]

9 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

I could see it could be useful for wake up calls. I wake up without an alarm anyway, so for me I just wanted to analysis.

 

Ahhh... you have reached my Level 50 of sleep goals

[raptron]

Phew yeah, wow, that is fancy, MH! 

[Sam Ashen]

56 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

I wake up without an alarm anyway

 

I wake up without an alarm anyway, but that's because I'm old.

[Mad Hatter]

2 hours ago, Sam Ashen said:

 

I wake up without an alarm anyway, but that's because I'm old.

 

Haha me too, I go to bed really early.  And I have a decent margin of error as my standing morning meeting is at 9:45.

[tei_]

Did nothing yesterday but be on an airplane and attend a concert. Went to gymnastics tonight, since I am now in Toronto and the open gym is on Fridays! 

 

-Tried to do more kip stuff, but the minor rip I got on Wednesday got another layer of rip on it so I wimped out after that. I did have one good insight, though, which is that i think part of my problem is that my conception of the pulling movement doesn't last as long as it should. When I watch great bar workers, the amount ofd time between the toes getting to the bar and the shoulders getting over the bar appears quite leisurely. Next time I can go to gymnastics will be a week from Sunday, so my hand will definitely be healed by then. 

 

-Back walkovers on beam! I did them on the wider beam cover and then  a few on the real-size beam which is set into the floor between mats, and stayed on although my body is twisting too much in the middle of it. My back and shoulder flexibility is just not quite there yet I think.

 

-Vaulted. I am going to vault EVERY TIME I GOT TO GYMNASTICS. Grrrr.

 

-Figured out punch front tucks on floor! Turns out if I try to see the wall in my set before I start rotating, I can get high enough to land on my feet instead of my ass!

 

I honestly feel pretty beat up from having gone to gymnastics 2 times in 3 days. As I write this my roommates (2 of my 6 roommates) are having a party downstairs, which is OK I guess, I don't have to work tomorrow, but I am a little annoyed that it was just announced-- they put up a sign being like "we're having a party on Friday!" instead of, you know, asking other people if that was OK and if it was a good day. I have no interest in partying right now so I am hiding in my room eating carrots and dip, contemplating whether I want to make an attempt at sleep.

 

Tomorrow, Toronto NF Rebels are going to an obstacle course gym! Three of us, anyway. It looks like. So that should be fun if my body starts working again in time

[raptron]

Ooh, yeah, increased frequency at practice really takes it out on you. Nice insights on your kips and front tucks -- spotting is always key. We have a huge smiley face drawn on the wall in one of the corners to spot on front tumbling.  

 

I hope you body was functional enough for the obstacle course gym! 

[tei_]

Hiking goal #1 completed: went to Mount McKay yesterday! It was technically not open yet, which just meant that instead of paying $5 and then driving up to the parking lot at the beginning of the lookout trail, you have to walk up the unploughed road to the beginning of the official lookout trail, which made it about twice the length and four times the amount of snow in my running shoes, which are the only shoes I have to hike with. That combines with the fact that the lookout trail is steep and rocky enough to basically become a waterfall the fist consistently above-zero week we've had, my feet were very wet indeed by the end  Anyway, from the lookout point 1) you can see all of Thunder Bay and 2) The Sleeping Giant definitely becomes a lady.  

 

Went to the gym this morning and for the first time managed 5x5 squats at 125 lbs without my knees caving in too badly. The gym here doesn't have plates smaller than 2.5 lbs, so I'm going to wait a bit longer before I go to 130 (aaaa 130 is almost 135, I am so close to the big-girl plates! :D) 

 

In other news, the friend I am staying with right now lives with a bunch of roommates and they ferment ALL THE THINGS! Okay, well, they at least ferment the normal things: sourdough, ginger wine, yoghurt, kombucha, and pickles. So my next challenge is going to feature yoghurt- and kombucha- making in Toronto! 

[Sam Ashen]

 

Hiking goal #1 completed: went to Mount McKay yesterday! It was technically not open yet, which just meant that instead of paying $5 and then driving up to the parking lot at the beginning of the lookout trail, you have to walk up the unploughed road to the beginning of the official lookout trail, which made it about twice the length and four times the amount of snow in my running shoes, which are the only shoes I have to hike with. 

 

Who hikes in running shoes?

[tei_]

 

 

Who hikes in running shoes?

People who don't own hiking boots do! 

[SymphonicDan]

I hike in running shoes! If you have good ones with serious grip then they're fine, I even went up Scafell Pike in them. Lots of people tell me I shouldn't though...

[tei_]

Gymnastics tonight! 

 

- Did a front tuck step out on tumble track tonight! I had had some sort of mental block with stepping out of it for a while, so yay.

- UGH I got the closest I have ever gotten to a kip. Like, if I had realized during the attempt how close I was I probably could have thrown my stomach over the bar and stayed on it  The coach showed me something which helped, which was basically... swinging with toes to the bar, but going back and forth, and how I should stay in that piked position longer before pulling. Then he casually was talking to me while demonstrating perfect drop kips, and I realized that there is (contrary to my assumption, which in retrospect was kinda dumb) plenty I can do at the lifting gym to help with kips! I am going to work on swinging in a piked position on the chinup bar at the gym. (The friend's house I'm staying at right now also has a chinup bar, but I don't trust it for anything where my feet aren't pointed at the ground... just in case...)

- Vaulted! I am determined to learn to love vault, and I made pretty good progress today by starting to figure out what "heel drive" is. (Spoiler: It's when you move your heels!) (Freaking out over Dipa Karmakar qualifying for Rio today basically because of her Produnova probably also helped with my motivation to figure out handsprings. :P)

 

Only other news to report: I really need to stop eating so much chocolate. Turns out Cadbury Toffee chocolate is not, in fact, a high-quality preworkout snack, and in fact is likely to make on feel quite ill  I might have to buy something chocolate-flavoured but not delicious enough for me to eat it all at once. When I'm in Toronto I make mug brownies with chocolate protein powder when I need my chocolate fix, but the house I'm in doesn't have a microwave  (Also, I would feel somewhat embarrassed eating a whey protein mug brownie among people who make their own bread, yoghurt, wine, kombucha, pickles, and collect plants for herbal tea.)

[tei_]

Yesterday was supposed to be a lifting day, but in the morning my friend asked if I wanted to go climbing, so I said yes. Her and her SO are both experienced climbers, so my fingers tired out while they were both still pretty much just warming up. Luckily, the climbing gym had a shiny new weight room (well, the entire place is actually shiny and new!) so I did some squats (at 115 instead of my current working weight of 125) and cleans (at 70 lbs which I guess is technically a PR but since I'm just trying to learn the movement right now the amount of weight I'm moving is negligible) and stretched, and then had regained enough grip strength to do some bouldering until they were tired enough to leave. We were there for... at least three hours? Then they were considering going back in the evening after dinner for more

 

I think I am going to add some more outdoor-type adventuring to my Epic Quest list... outdoor rock climbing is a thing that people possibly might do while I am here, although I have no idea if I'm an advanced enough climber to go take it outdoors (or even how advanced once has to be.)