Lyttle House in the Suburbs: New hobbies

Ah, finally some warmer weather!!!! We're having an unusual year, it's usually really really hot by May (I feel terribly for the kids taking their standardized tests in May-it's typically hot as hell and there's no air conditioning except the library and office, so classes will move to the library to take their tests. This year however, May was quite pleasant, it didn't get really hot until the last week of school at the end of June when there's not much academic going on anyway.

This past year I've noticed repetitive use injuries-my shoulder from curling/sweeping and my hips from running. So I decided to branch out my fitness. I have to exercise regularly for many reasons:

1) Only cooking for 3 picky children means my diet isn't fantastic and as a lady of a certain age, I would gain a ton of weight which would be hard on my body if I didn't counteract my so-so diet.

2) Stress relief. As you can imagine, having a husband out west and 3 kids under my care can get stressful when there's no one else to referee. The endorphins and exercise not only help my mental health but they help me sleep well enough to be a good parent. It's much easier to be patient when you are sleeping well.

3) The time for my brain to wander. Because I wake up so early, I go to bed early and don't always have time to just let my brain wander and think about issues I need to solve in life-a good run or walk helps with that.

So, besides joining the gym classes, I've added walking 3 times a week first thing in the morning with a neighbor ( we walk 4.3 mile loop with hills that takes us about 1.25 hours) as well as a weekly 5.3 mile run with another mom who's son is a friend of H's. When the weather isn't cooperative we have been very lucky this year to be able to meet at the newly built community center/arena in our town that has an indoor walking track. We refer to it as the hamster wheel because it's terribly boring, but we chat, get our exercise and it get the job done.

As the weather's been nicer I also started two other activities. I started playing tennis again twice a week. The local paper that's delivered once a week had an ad for the local tennis club. I vaguely remembered seeing the courts on visits to the park they are located at but never really thought about it. They had an information table at the community center and I went and talked to them. For $100 CN members are given a key to 5 beautiful courts about 10 minutes drive/25 minutes bike ride out of town for the season and there was a ladies drop in league Monday and Wednesday nights. They even let me come out to try the league to make sure the level was ok for my not-played-since-High school self. It was great. Everyone does play better than I do but I play well enough to not embarrass myself and am getting better all the time. It feels great to do something different. Sometimes I need a brush up on the rules and tips on how to swing the racket, but I'm doing alright.

The other endeavor is trail running. I'd noticed that running on a rail rather than on a road made my hips happier, but wasn't really sure what trails were around me. Last fall, my walking partner mentioned she ran into a friend of hers running a weekly 5k race at a local recreation area and got information on the program for me. The main purpose of the group is to promote running. They are out of the town just north of us and they run 5k timed, free races that alternate between the town south of me and the town north of me every Saturday morning July-October. The group, though before the 5k series was offering two classes for free- a couch to 5 K program and a trail running program for those who could already run 5k. I signed up for the trail running class one evening a week for a month. I showed up with about 10-15 other people, mostly women, who were interested in finding out where the trails were and skills like how to run up those steep hills, how to handle loose rocks, etc. for 4-5 weeks we tried various trails around the area for 5-6k distances. I not only learned what trails are around me, what shoes are useful, how to handle various terrain, but also have met several women to run with (our teacher, a male made it clear he did not recommend women running trails along sadly). The classes worked out great because they started after curling season and ran until V started up her swim team practices.

I was able to get out for one 5k race before V started having swim meets every Saturday morning and surprised myself by coming in 3rd with a time of 27:53!

When the class ended, he invited us to the trail running group he does on Sunday mornings where they run 10-15K (1-2 hours) on Sundays. I showed up. Let's say our fearless leader is adventurous. It's been rainy and the trails were very muddy and there were some creek crossings up to our shins. I was glad I'd worn older shoes. I looked at my white socks and they said, "yes, should probably stick to black." I'd mentioned I'd chosen these socks hoping they'd keep my feet dry with their "moisture wicking" ability. They laughed as there's not much hope when you are crossing creeks up to your shins. Most of the runs take place adjacent to or on the Bruce Trail, a trail that is 890km and 400km of side trails.

I've found some advantages to the trail running-my hips are happier, but I'm working other muscles I don't usually-especially the sides of my thighs with back to back motion as many trails bow in the centre where rain runs down the middle or the trail's been worn. I can't run with music-I have to pay closer attention to where I'm stepping. This has made me appreciate the scenery more and give my brain a different sort of work out than putting in music and running on a road.

(no one calf is not way bigger than the other-it's a weird camera angle trying to take a picture of the back of ones own calves.

After the first week with the one instructor from the class, I was interested in continuing. The longer runs were exhilerating, exhausting and I was meeting new people and discovering this area I'd lived in for 6 years and didn't realize how little I'd explored.

After the 5k, I asked the other instructor from the class what to do-the regular trail group wasn't meeting-they were participating in various ultra races that weekend (an ultra race is any distance over marathon distance which is 42.2 km or 26.2 miles). He showed me the facebook page for a group that he runs with. They run two loops, each about 6k, so that if people are short on time or can't run the full distance, they can opt out of the 2nd loop.

They stick more to actual trails and move a little faster. One thing I've learned in finding local groups to run with is to see if they are "no drop." This means no runner is left behind, the group stops at all intersections to make sure they have everyone in the group before continuing on. Important when you aren't the fastest or don't know the trails well.