Hot hot hot!

Well I haven’t done any cycling in weeks, I’m afraid. I had a grand plan of taking my spare bike up to the subway stop near the kiddo’s pre-school, and then at least cycling that chunk of the journey. But when I dragged the bike out I found it needs new tubes, and it has been too hot and humid for me to ride anyway! My little lungs can’t cope.

We have managed to go swimming a few times, though. I don’t get to swim as much as just run in the water, but running in water is pretty taxing, I think. Let’s call it “resistance training.” although really, it is mainly “trying to fulfill the always be an arms-length from your child rule.” He is faster than I!

Anyway on this record-breaking temperature day, which may or may not end in a thunderstorm, we took our lunchtime yoga class up the many steps of Casa Loma to the gardens of Spadina House. And there, in the shade of a chestnut tree, did some cooling breaths as the breezes swept around us. It was lovely! Can’t think of a nicer place to be, or nicer way to get some exercise on a hot day.

more downs, and ups

i have been sadly off the bike for a couple of weeks, due to school being out and the kiddo being back at his old preschool which is waaay uptown, which has changed my commute time from a daily 30-40 minutes by bicycle to 3 hours of driving + public transit. yuck. and, because it's summer time and the heat makes people crazy, i was involved in a minor fenderbender last week (smart guy thought it would be a good idea to cross a solid line & pull into oncoming traffic to pass me as i made a left turn), which thankfully did no real damage, but did cause my back to say "what's this? best we go into spasm!" resulting in me staying home from the kiddo's first ever camping & canoe trip.

so the good news? well, it got me taking my fish oil again (which habit i'd gotten out of, due to eating breakfast in the car), which seems to have helped. also had a great yoga session the other day, outside in dappled light, and a giant earthworm crawled across my mat. i swear, it was the healthiest earthworm i have ever seen.

spoke to soon?

lovely ride today, and lovely swim. i'm tuckered out, which is to be expected, but my foot is so sore which i didn't expect at all! i did a fair amount of running in the water, could that be it? maybe i hit the bottom funny dropping in to the shallow end, and didn't notice with the water to "catch" me? in any case it felt almost like a strain when we got out of the pool, at one point i thought my toe was swelling (but it wasn't), now it just has that same burning in the middle of the sole of th ball, which i had forgotten about, but a flood of memories are coming back... think i'll try to keep it elevated tonight.

back on the bike

i have new brake pads and the oppressive humidity has lifted for the time being, so i'm happy to be back on the bike!

took a new route to the kiddo's karate school yesterday - my usual path up the hill is under construction, so i took a windy side street. it was steeper than i remembered! but if i'm going to be climbing a hill, better to do it where there is no traffic, lots of shade. next time i'll be ready.

tonight the plan is to ride the "big bike" (my bike + kiddo's half-wheeler) to the pool for some swim time. we went for about 10 minutes last week - before the pool was closed due to a thunderstorm - and it was lovely while it lasted. also got some swimming in at the cottage over the weekend.

my foot has really been bothering my of late, so i am very keen to get more low-impact exercise to get in better shape cardio-wise before i start running! (and yes i'm aware it's just another in a long line of excuses...)

It’s amazing

How keeping up with the blog and maintaining good diet/exercise habits go hand in hand. I don’t know which inspires which, but I certainly need to make more of an effort with both!

So this morning I did 20 sit-ups, remembered my supplements, replaced the brake pads on my bike, and rode to work. Whoo! Oh, and instead of grabbing a coffee when I got to the office, I filled my water bottle.

Had a healthy lunch yesterday (green salad, organic swiss cheese, cherries, carrots, and an orange) and will have a similar lunch today (except an apple instead of an orange). Should get more variety I suppose, but it’s a challenge grocery-wise.

Another challenge is this weather—hot & humid. It’s meant to be like this all week, then cool off a bit on the weekend. looking forward to that—I find I get short of breath quite a bit in this weather.

Next step will be buying some new sneakers. I don’t even know where to begin—what brands are good/bad? I’m concerned as much about the ethics of the company as performance—actually I’m not really concerned with “performance” at all so much as support. My foot has been sore a lot lately—due I think to walking more in inappropriate shoes, and then favouring it. I need a bit of a heel, not a lot, but I tend to feel like my foot is being bent upwards, if that makes any sense. I would assume that is related to the soft tissue damage? Who knows...

Baaah

Oh, what is with me. I keep falling off the wagon and struggling to get back on. Breathing is difficult lately, and I don’t know if it’s the summer weather or just that I haven’t been getting enough exercise.

I haven’t been biking, because I need new brake pads (actually bought some, but they are the wrong kind). I have one in my handbag today though, so hopefully will get it taken care of!

On the weekend I had a good search for my running shoes but failed to turn them up. Don’t know what I’ve done with them! Argh. it may however be time for new shoes... I’ve had mine forever, although I am so lazy about running, they don’t show much wear!

The good news, is that the garden is flourishing, and this year I had the good sense to plant fewer wait-forever-for-veg-that-won’t-ripen things (tomatoes, I’m looking at you) and more harvest-as-you-go things (lettuce, spinach, arugula) so I’ve started grabbing a few leaves for salads, and packed workweek’s worth of leaves & home-made vinaigrette this morning to keep me going all week (I hope).

And, summer also means lots of lovely fruit, so we are fully stocked with cherries and apples and watermelon and things. Yum. If nothing else, I will have all the vitamin c I need!

summer is almost here!

aside from anything else, that means a different route to work - instead of the kiddo taking a school bus in the morning and being minutes away from work & home in the afternoon, i'll be driving him uptown to preschool. it's about 10km (7 miles) uphill, and not easy to do on transit either (i would need to take 4 routes from home to preschool, then 3 more to get to work). yay, traffic.

but what i'm thinking is this: we have a spare bicycle, which isn't ideally sized for me, but which i could certainly leave uptown all summer. then, i could drive up the kid up to preschool (against traffic, not so bad), then bicycle either 1.5km to the nearest subway or 5.5km to one that will mean i don't have to transfer at all. leave the bike at the station, transit to and from work, thus avoiding driving in traffic, and getting some exercise besides.

there will be kinks to work out obviously, but i think it's doable! and with my big new basket, i'll be able to bring my knitting with me for the subway portion of the trip.