New Rule

When at the gym, if you insist on walking around the locker room buck naked (no towel, no bra/panties, buck.naked.), please have the decency to follow common etiquette of walking on the right in the hallways. 

I would prefer not to turn the corner and run into your boobs.

Really.

Puppy Olympics

Also known as dog agility.

A woman in our rescue group, Teri, is also involved in dog agility and this past weekend her group ARFF (Agility is Really Fun for Fido) had a competition nearby and invited anyone to attend and watch the dogs run the course.  Having nothing better to do, we packed Lizzy into the Jeep, picked up Cindy and her son Jake and headed out to watch the fun. 

It was such a neat place.  Dave and I had seen such things on TV but never watched dogs run these courses in person.  Lizzy was in heaven with all the dogs around. She was pretty good, but all the excitement got the howls going in her.  She was very friendly with all the dogs and people she met.  And I fell in love with the 9 month old Golden Retriever who came to say hello to us.  Her ears were so soft she reminded me of Panda (who still holds the title of Softest Ears). 

Besides watching the dogs run the circuit, one enjoyable part was seeing so many well-behaved dogs and their owners.  Quite the difference than what we see at some of the parks and even at Petco where owners aren't always paying attention or correcting their dogs when necessary. 

Better still were the owners who clearly had worked with their dogs on the course but didn't take themselves too seriously when the dog completely forgot what he or she was supposed to do on the course.  One little poodle was so excited for the treat his owner had that it took 3 or 4 tries through the weave poles.  He eventually did it, but the look on his face was purely that of a dog (not an athlete) as though to say, "I don't understand. Why won't you just give me the treat?"

It was hot so we didn't stay too long, but we did have a good time watching the runs and being outside with other dog lovers.  Lizzy had a fun time and finally let me get a picture of her in the car.  This is her happy face.  It's also her "let's play"face, her "I'm hungry" face and her "I've got to pee" face.  She does, however, have another face for "I don't understand these words you're speaking."

Dave and I are hoping that we when adopt our very own dog, she'll be smart enough and eager enough to do some agility exercises.  Or at least I hope we're smart enough to teach her. 

Rock Climbing

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Living Social Adventures for a Rock Climbing and BBQ night.  They had a few nights and times and I thought it would be a fun evening out for Dave and I.  Dave used to rock climb a lot in college (does this really surprise you?) but I only went once about 10 years ago and did not have a good time (I didn't go with Dave).  However, I was up for the challenge.  Plus, at the end of it all, I would get a tasty dinner from Blue Ribbon BBQ, the best BBQ joint in the area (which isn't saying much considering we went on a BBQ bender while in North Carolina, but it was still good food).

Saturday late afternoon we made our way to MetroRock, but we didn't know exactly what to expect.  The email confirmation said we'd be provided with equipment, so we just wore comfy clothes and sneakers.  The beginning was a little disorganized. They probably had about 50 participants and at the designated time to begin, they just said, "Follow the person in the yellow MetroRock or the grey Living Social T-shirt."  So all 50 of us followed the first person in the yellow shirt we saw walking with harnesses in her hand.  Turns out she only had 3 of said harnesses.  I was confused.

And then more yellow and grey T-shirt clad people began appearing and the lines started to shorten.  Slowly I began to understand.  We weren't there to learn to rock climb--we were there just to run up the walls.  Each T-shirted staff member would belay the participant, and we would cycle through the allotted harnesses at that particular climb, and then move onto another staff person.  It took a while to figure it out, but once we did it made more sense.  Although I did question why they sold more slots than they had harnesses available.

On the first climb, I made it up to the top without too much problem.  Admittedly, it was a pretty easy climb.  Although when I got to the top I did remember that I'm not a huge fan of heights.  Oops.  Dave of course did very well, since he actually knows what he's doing.  (Please excuse the blurry pictures. I forgot the camera and had to go with the phone for these.)

The second wall we climbed was tougher.  It was almost twice as tall as the first and took a sharp right turn partway up, so if you didn't use the right path or got yourself twisted, it'd be tough to stretch over to the right course and get to the top.  I made it most of the way up before my legs started shaking in fear.  From the floor Dave and the staff person were cheering me on, encouraging me to just stand up on that leg to reach the next hold.  Easier said than done.  I would be more confident standing on that leg if it wasn't shaking so bad I thought it would give out.  But I made it and although I had to do a little stretch jump at the end to hit the target, I still made it all the way up.

After a short break, we found another wall that didn't seem too scary. Technically there were two logical routes to take, one being very short, the other taller and more tricky that would require jumping from one wall to another. 

Small world story: Dave and I were standing in line and two women were behind us. Dave had on a Fat Heads T-shirt (bar in Pittsburgh) and one of the women asked if he was from Pittsburgh. He said no, but I was.  Turns out I went to middle school with this chick.  She was a year ahead of me and we even road the bus together.  Neither of us recognized each other's names, but we played the name game of who you know and knew a bunch of people in common.  How weird is that?  I can go to Pittsburgh and never run into anyone I know.  But at a random rock gym outside of Boston I come across someone I apparently went to school with.

Dave let me go first and I made it up the short one quickly, so I decided to go for the big one.  I made it over to the other wall and slowly and thoughtfully climbed the big one.  I was doing reasonably well when I went to grab the next hold and it moved on me.  AHHH!  Dave hollered that I was doing good and I looked down (WHY???) and told him that it moved on me. It made me nervous to continue to use that hold, but I needed it, so I persevered.  I was pretty close to the top (although going slowly on shaky legs) and then I just had to hang out for a while.  The holds were not in a useful place anymore.  And because I'm short, I didn't have the wingspan to stretch.  I made to attempts to jump and hit the target, but failed at both.  I needed to hit the next hold.  So I chalked up, and gave it my all.  I was able to grab the next hold, which was super small, just long enough to propel myself to the target.  Not easy.  Dave went up and agreed that it was a reasonable course until you got to the top and had to use a lot of strength to finish.

We started watching some people doing more challenging climbs and came to an area that apparently was challenging everyone.  As we got there, a guy went up and became the first one to make it to the top during our session.  The difficulty was an overhang at the beginning that you needed to get over and then climb across the wall, away from the target, and then work your way back.  A few more people went, some successful and others not so much.  I convinced Dave to do it, though.  (I knew I would never be able to figure out how to get around the overhang.)

Dave was pretty methodical about his path and he did really well.  He wasn't the fastest, but he figured it out and didn't get twisted or have to backtrack like a few other people did.

After the last climb, we went up to get dinner.  They didn't have any seating, so we got our BBQ and beer and pulled up a piece of floor to chow down.  The food was good, which was a relief considering the amazing BBQ we'd had the week before.  And we were starving because it was already about 2 hours pas tour normal dinner time, adding to that the activity portion of the evening.

Overall we had a really good time.  It was something completely different for us and we probably wouldn't have done it had I not seen the deal.  It also encouraged me to get back to working out.  There's no excuse to being this sore after only 3 climbs!

Bouncy

Last week Dave and I went to North Carolina. It was so much fun.  My sister lives there with her family (we stayed with them) and my uncle and his family live there too.  My parents also joined us, since my cousin Angela graduated high school.  We're the kind of family that travels for a party.  And yummy cake.

We also got a chance to visit our friends Kate, Andy, Brandi and Seth, which was a lot of fun.  We got to meet Kate and Andy's baby, Chad, who is super adorable.  I wish we'd had a chance to spend more time with them, but alas.

Anyway, back to the party.  Angela and her sister Nikki have a trampoline in their backyard.  This might be the only reason that my niece Abi agrees to visit them.  We were there for about 5 hours or so and I'm pretty sure Abi spent at least 3 hours on the trampoline (1 hour was spent doing Just Dance 2--so much fun!--and the other was spent being mad at her mom because she wouldn't let her on the trampoline in the dark).

Abi was bound and determined to figure out how to bounce back up to her feet if she hit the trampoline on her bum. I tried doing it myself and almost broke my neck (sorry, Dave wasn't around to take video of me).  I think it's easier for little ones because they're shorter and have less distance to travel to get into a standing position.  But eventually Abi got it.

(By the way, who knew bouncing on the trampoline was such a good work out?  If it wasn't for the fact that I drank so much water and had to pee, I might have spent 3 hours on that thing.)

But I'm Not Old

Since I started this blog about being 30 and taking on a new perspective of my life and what I want out of it, it never really occurred to me that 30 is that age where you start to become "old." I mean, 40 is the new 30, right? I didn't have a crisis and I embraced turning 30, feeling young and vibrant, and not at all mourning the loss of my youth.

And then I went to my annual physical.

Let me start of by saying in the past 8 years or so, I've increased my frequency and enjoyment of physical activity. Growing up I hated gym class and sports. Sweating was for losers and unless someone was chasing me, I wasn't interested in running. I did like to swim and was on the team throughout middle school, getting sidelined by an injury in high school. And frankly, I wasn't athletic enough to want to come back from the injury.



Throughout college I would work out some; going to the gym on an infrequent basis to torture myself on the elliptical, never quite figuring out what I was to do with the free weights. But after college, I joined Curves and something clicked. I started enjoying my workouts, looking forward to them, and was very happy with the physical results. Eventually my schedule made it difficult for me to get to a gym to work out, so Dave and I bought an elliptical machine for the basement and a piece by piece we've created a pretty fantastic home gym. We have a weight bench, free weights and bar bells, medicine balls, a Bosu ball, resistance bands, a full stereo and Dave even hung the TV on the wall so I can catch up on my TV shows from Netflix. I'm a few seasons behind on Grey's Anatomy, Lost and 24, but learned if I do 30-45 minutes of cardio, I can catch up pretty quickly. And the stereo allows me to indulge my secret hip-hop/gangsta rap fetish during strength training.

For those of you still wondering what a Bosu ball is.

Since the basement floor is concrete, we even bought the foam gym flooring to put down and I've got several yoga mats that I work on. But prior to the wedding, when I was in complete buff bride mode, I bought Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and started going all out with the intense workouts, which includes a lot of plyometric (jumping) training. The result was exactly what I wanted (I was in, fact, a buff bride). So this past year, when I put on a few extra pounds, I went back to what I knew worked.

Hmm, I don't remember my knee hurting like that last year. How come it only hurts the day after I jump around on the basement floor?

Crap.

I'm old. And possibly busted.

I just wanted to be the new hotness!

(10 points to anyone who gets that reference.)

The good news is that I didn't break myself. My doctor say my knee is fine and that I certainly didn't do any damage. But if I continued to jump around on a concrete floor, it could be bad news. Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

So I haven't jumped around in the basement for about two months. And guess what? My knee doesn't bother me anymore. Imagine that.

While I'm a little disappointed that I literally can't do the things I was doing a little more than a year ago, I definitely don't want to injure myself and am glad I paid attention to what my body was saying. So it's back to the elliptical and static strength training for me.

So lessons learned. 1) I'm old, whether I like it or not. 2) If it hurts, don't do that. 3)Relish what I can do, so I don't have to mourn the loss of my youth when I'm 40.


You get extra LOLcats today since I skimped on the photos. And I thought these were funny.