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I posted on the 5th about fitness, and now it's the 9th. It was a very, very full weekend in between, with no gym time per se. But I am totally wiped out (happy, but exhausted) anyway.

Friday was set aside for a dinner party with windelina and Monte, spacebug and s4. Which is already awesome! But not, apparently, enough. Mid-week, I found out some news that made me sad about the imminent departure of our friends tesla_aldrich & E, headed off to the Bay Area. While chatting with my dear xatharine (who lives in SF) I realized that this was an excellent chance to play friend-yenta. And then it turned out that xatharine and qubit were going to be swinging through town at high speed on their way to see Xat's mom for Mother's Day. So we managed to squeeze in a happy hour on Friday evening to introduce the four. Hooray! I like being friend-yenta.
While sipping our drinks, we decided what the heck, we should invite T & E along for dinner. They seemed enthusiastic about seeing the other dinner guests and when you host, you get to decide that sort of thing at the last minute if you want to! So that was nice, Best Beloved, do you see?*
So I whipped up a big batch of my Mediterranean-inspired pasta thing (recipe at the bottom of the post below the cut if you want it) and steamed some broccoli, and Azure made some salad and we threw some of that bake-it-at-home bread in the oven, and S4 had picked up some delicious cheesecake, so the food was great. Teddie (age not-quite-3) entertained us all for a while and then went to bed next door, and the adults got to stay up and chat and drink wine and watch Payback.
And that was only one evening!! Oof.

Saturday I met up with a friend I hadn't seen since college. She and I both had Groupons for a mosaic class at Mercury Mosaics, so we decided to go together and have lunch first (at Anchor Fish & Chips). It was fun, and I got to catch up with A which was very cool. I got tired from 3 hours of standing and snipping tiles up and so on, but I'm pleased with the mosaic mirror frame I came out with this time (quite different from the last one. It's not grouted yet and I haven't taken pictures of it, sorry..).
Then I went to fayde's 33 & 1/3 birthday party. It was really excellent. The lady herself was radiant, the food was delicious, the company was fun. Although I became overwhelmed by people a few times, I was able to escape briefly and find ways to keep enjoying myself.
Somehow, I found the energy to make it to the fourth event of the day (I'm counting lunch as 1 and mosaic as 2), the Danger Board's farewell show. More friends leaving the state means a good chunk of the band will be gone. As sad as that is to think about, the show was quite good, with bonus aerial stuff from dangerdhotrod & co. I was super tired though... which makes me inclined to be socially awkward/put my foot in my mouth. If I did that to you, I apologize.

Sunday - Mother's Day. My mom lives too far away (hi mom! I miss you!) for me to meet up with her and make her brunch on her special day, so I did it for my mother-in-law instead. spacebug and s4 and Azure & I made her waffles and veggie sausage and fruit salad and had a nice visit. And lots of coffee. I think we all really needed to leave by the time we did, though - I was not the only one having overwhelmed/doing-too-much problems.
I got a precious half hour or so on the couch with Azure at home.
The final thing of the weekend was hanging out with springbok1! We went out for sushi and saw Arms and the Man at the Guthrie. That was thoroughly enjoyable and well worth the (very difficult) prying myself off the couch. The play entertained at multiple levels, I really enjoyed it.

And then I came home and decompressed for a little with Azure. And now I feel a bit like I need a vacation from my vacation. I look forward to doing nothing tonight, with the possible exception of the gym.

*bonus points if you get that reference.

( Mediterranean-inspired )

So April was supposed to be Fitness Month, with me kicking off a good habit of going to the gym 2-3 times a week, and getting other regular exercise through taking the stairs at home and at work, etc.

And then I got the flu. For two weeks solid, I was either super-sick or sick-ish and not able to exercise.

So that kind of blew April. I mean, yes, recovering one's health is an important aspect of fitness, but it wasn't what I had in mind.

Anyway, here it is May. I am trying again! I am healthy enough to be back to taking the stairs and went back to the gym last night. I bought that hot yoga coupon with spacebug and Azure and S4 are in on that too, so there will be some Lowertown Lofts hot yoga action going on for a while! I am optimistic. Now I just need to stay healthy!

Last night I started out by going for a walk with Azure for about half an hour. We walked down to the river and walked around there until we got cold. The river is no longer dangerously full, but it is still quite swollen. The landing is still closed, and you can see silt and detritus washed up on the landing ramp from the high water that's receded a bit. It was really nice that it was a little warmer and sunnier than it has been.

Anyway, then we walked up to the gym, where I went in, did a bit of yoga, and hit the treadmill. I thought I'd play with some of the programs I'd never used on the machine. I tried the "fitness test" and found it disappointing. It was only about 4 minutes long, and really not specific in its results: "50. Excellent Score". Huh. That's very nice but totally vague and not useful! Oh well.

Then I went for a varied incline program for 20 minutes... and while I was going I found myself distracted by the food network. Usually I just listen to music while I work out, but this time I got curious about the Cupcake Wars and plugged my headphones in. Then I got hooked! So I ended up treadmilling for a good 55 minutes or so until I knew who won. I'm going to count that as an unusual example of a TV show being good for me.

Overall, I finished out the evening feeling better than I have in a couple of weeks.

I noticed something about the Lazy Triathlon at the Y. Dunno what exactly that's about, but I should remember to ask them the next time I go in. Which will be Thursday, if all goes as planned!

Thursday I had a volunteer meeting that kept me away from home until almost 9, so no major exercise. But I did walk to the co-op over lunch with my colleagues, where I bought delicious kumquats for my lunch dessert. It's about a mile walk round-trip, not hard but still at least some exercise. Plus I got to enjoy the sunshine and beautiful weather! I think Spring is finally coming to MN.

I have been very good about taking the stairs at home and work. Hopefully I can make that a habit.

I'm also working on a new sock creation - started him last night for a colleague's 5-year-old son who recently had brain surgery (and is doing okay, but can you imagine?). He's a T-Rex, and I'm really doing this one without any pattern or idea what's going on. Considering that, I think he's coming out well!
( picture of finished T-Rex )

Okay! I went to the gym, and read while I recumbent-biked for 50 minutes. I am really enjoying this book, Solitaire. That plus music = totally didn't notice the first 40 minutes of the workout. Yay! And then I finished up with some weights and some floor stuff. I really like listening to the Podrunner podcast even when I'm not running per se - it's nice that it's an hour exactly, so even if I fail to pay attention to the machine's timers or if I'm moving around, I still know when I've done an hour. And the music's pretty good in a mindless-techno way.

And I took the stairs at home, before and after the gym. (The second time was definitely harder... I went slow.)

It felt really good to go back to the gym! I kind of like the feeling of sweat dripping off me. It's very cathartic.

And then I inhaled two big ol' tacos. They were deeeeeelicious. And I was hungry!

R's plan is to do something every day. I am not sure if I am up for that (unless stairs counts as "something") but I will see what happens tomorrow. My next planned gym visit is Thursday.

Swam 20 laps, not in any big hurry last night. I don't even know how long it took, maybe 30 minutes, which is slow. But hey, I was at the gym two nights in a row, which is a relatively new thing...

And then sat in the hot tub, and then the sauna. Mmm. My hip feels much better today than it did yesterday.

In other news, I am finally, finally going back to the gym. I've been a few times in the last couple of weeks. I'm aiming for Tuesday, Thursday, and one weekend day; so far I have not managed that but am ramping up.

I haven't been keeping good track of my running or biking time yet, and am mixing a lot of stuff in, partly because I'm trying to show J how the gym works (he has Never Ever worked out before this). But I have kept track of my swimming somewhat.

First time I swam, it was 500m in 15 minutes. (33.3 meters per minute)
Second time, 600m in 17 minutes. (35 meters per minute)

I just went and compared, and when I was triathlon training I was swimming much further -- 1150 m or so in a session -- but no faster -- about 32 meters per minute. That makes me feel good.