{not much} training tuesday

Over the summer, I took a break from running. My training buddy and I hit the heavy weights in an attempt to gain muscle, using Jamie Eason’s LiveFit program. The first phase of the plan calls for no cardio, then a gradual reintroduction in phase 2. 

Sandwiched between the two phases, my cruise allowed for a week of activity but not necessarily exercise. The kayaking and the stand-up paddle boarding were done at more of a leisurely pace, instead of something which got my heart rate up or really fatigued my muscles.

Phase 2 called for lifting 6 days a week which made the scheduling of other workouts difficult. Even if I had been able to find the time, the workouts were such that my energy suffered as well. Jay and I played basketball in our community’s common area, but otherwise I didn’t get much cardio in.

Instead of progressing to the cutting phase of LifeFit, I decided my efforts would be better spent finding a routine I could stick with. Phase 3 of the program is very intense and is focused on leaning down for a special event. Looking over the diet plan to accompany the workouts, I knew I didn’t have the motivation to stick with it.

I switched to Body for Life, which involves lifting 3 times a week and alternates upper and lower body. Sprinkle in a few runs here and there, and I had a good routine going.

Until Europe.

Given the limited accessibility to electrical outlets to charge devices, I didn’t track every day/step we walked. I did, however, attempt to log at least a little bit of each town so that my Garmin log, and subsequent maps, would reflect our travel.

A rough estimation, I’d say on non-bus days we probably walked between 3-6 miles a day. Unfortunately I did no running while we were gone because I had neither the energy nor familiarity with the streets to pound the international pavement.

Paris offered a bike tour, but it was more a leisurely jaunt than a training session. Hiking the glacier at Jungfrau definitely got the heart rate up, but at only a mile or so each direction, it lacked the umph Jay and I are used to in a hike. The view, however, did leave me breathless.

 Photo credit: me or Jay. I can't really remember.

See those black dots on the lower right? Those are people. Seriously.

Upon my return to the United States, I brought back with me the bola. (Note: not actual Ebola, but rather the pet name I gave to the nasty infection clogging up my head.) I spent a week sleeping off my virus + jet lag, only reporting to my job for a 12 hours that week despite the stack of work awaiting me.

Errands filled up this past week –getting a haircut, catching up with my discipleship group, and of course the meeting I had with the associate pastor of discipleship regarding the not-to-be Sunday school teaching position.

 I’ve ran 4 times since I’ve been back from vacation, with my mileage totaling just under 16 miles. This includes my not-so-stellar 6 miler this past Sunday. I suppose you could consider this a 500+ word excuse as to why a 4 time marathoner had trouble with a run that lasted just over an hour. 

Thankfully my attitude stayed in-check during the run. It gave me confidence that if I have the follow through to complete a 6 miler in 80 degree weather, under hydrated and wheezing from the early-fall allergens then I can finish 13.1 miles respectably in 5 weeks.

What are you training for these days? 

Do you have any big events on the horizon – athletic or otherwise?

Cruisin' - Farewell

I've told all my cruise adventure stories, but had a few more pictures to leave you with - all taken our last evening on the cruise. Unfortunately, Jay and I never got a good picture of the two of us. Either I looked good or he did, but never together.

Jay and I had carried on a bottle of honey wine - something that absolutely disgusted my self-professed "cork dork" friend Holly. Thankfully she loves me anyway. 





 


 
Jay used his injuries (a bum ankle and skinned knee - two separate incidences) as an excuse not to dance with me. During the appropriate part of dinner, Mark was more than happy to step up and fill in for him.






 



After dinner, while the rest of the crew was at the Styx concert, we headed over to our usual spot,the Majestic lounge, and get this snap.











After the concert, the crew met back up on the smoking deck for cigars and cocktails. Karen and Jay didn't partake, but were sports to hang out in the smoky with us.

 And a good time was had by all.

THE END

...of this adventure.

Cruisin' - Nassau

Since we leave tomorrow for vacation, I figured now was as good a time as any to finish up blogging about the cruise. Not sure why I haven't done this sometime over the past month, but whatevs yo. 

Nassau was the last port on our cruise, Jay and I had gone it alone the other two excursions. The beer walk we had decided upon, however, drew the rest of the crew (save the wine-o) out and about with us.

The tour took us to 3 different craft brewpubs, and at each we got 3 samples. Walking from bar to bar we were given a brief history of the City. It was a fun excursion, made even better thanks to the crowd along for the ride...erm...walk.

At the last stop, a few in the group took advantage of the free WiFi, and discovered a rum distillery within walking distance. After purchasing some souvenirs, enjoying a few more pints of the darker beers, we set off for part 2 of the adventure.

We walked around the grounds and facilities, then headed to the gift shop for some sampling. Chatting up the bartender, we learned that he was dating the gift shop attendant who had originally greeted us upon our arrival. This really highlights our trip - talking to people and hearing their stories.

We saw this church on our walk back. I have no clue what I'm doing in this picture. Storming the castle perhaps? Back on the ship, we prepared for our last formal evening of the cruise. 

I borrowed my dress from my niece - one of her (much older) friends had gifted it to her. She loves to sew, and she was planning on deconstructing it then rebuilding her own masterpiece. I'm just thankful to have gotten my hands on it for the cruise.

All week, we'd had the same wait-staff. Joseph, the head server, was sweet and funny, not to mention great at his job. So thankful we were able to get a group photo with him. 

While the professional photos were expensive, the impromptu goofy group shot turned out better than the one of us perfectly posed. I'm so thankful Holly and Todd purchased this one! 

Cruisin' - Half Moon Cay

Before the cruise, I went online to see which excursions were available for our boat. I found several interesting, but had concern over if we had time for more than one at each port.

 Paddle boarding, kayaking, a beer walk, and a hike/bike combo topped my list. When Jay hurt his ankle  during our sea-day, he said that the biking would probably be a bad idea. Given all the walking done to the breweries and the weighted pressure from the paddle boards, I suspect this was due to his lack of interest. We ended up booking the other 3, and left our schedule open to other potential adventures.

Half Moon Cay is an island owned by the Carnival corporation, and is mostly staffed by the ship's crew. As our kayak guide explained, a handful of people have a couple hour (each way) commute by boat from another island, but mostly the crew disembarks first to set up shop.

With no way to port on the island itself, the cruise ship ran tenders  all day. I had no clue what that meant until one of the seasoned travelers in our group filled me in; its basically a smaller boat shuttling too and front the island.

I don't mention this as an exercise of my vocabulary, but rather because it shaped our morning. Despite a later excursion time, our tickets required us to meet in the large theater at 8:30. The ship didn't arrive on time, so we had to wait a bit longer than anticipated. The staff tried to keep us entertained with trivial, but both Jay & I found myself more bored than we'd been the entire vacation.

There were, however, a couple of benefits to this. I used the time to run back to the room and grab a beach bag with towels, sunscreen, and a carbonated beverage. When I sat back down and opened the beverage, it spewed all over me. Once again, i returned to the room to change clothing.

Once we finally got off the ship, our first excursion was a kayaking trip into a cove. Jay and I snagged a tandem outfit, and paddled together like champs. We frequently had to stop to allow the others to catch up with us. The kayak also had a glass bottom, but I didn't see much in the way of sea-life. 

We paddled out to a predetermined location, where our guide had us get into the water and walk out a piece. He then informed us that the water we were standing in was filled with sharks and jelly fish. After having a good laugh at all the girls freaking out, he informed us that the kinds of creatures near us weren't dangerous. 

The lemon sharks are most common in that area, and we saw a couple off a bit in the near distance. The jelly fish are a type that are safe to pick up and only sting a bit if touched. While Jay was brave enough to pick one up and touch it, I made him piggy back me over the landminds of jelly fish on the ocean floor.

 At the last minute, we signed up for a Sting-ray excursion. While we were waiting, we reapplied sunscreen. Some random dude walked up and asked if his wife could borrow our sunscreen. Their bottle ran out and she needed to reapply. He thanked us profusely and even offered to buy us a drink to say thanks.

Turns out, they were booked for the same outing, and we chatted with them on the bus ride out.  He and Jay enjoyed laughing at me, when I yelled every time a stingray touched me. I wasn't necessarily scared of them, but definitely startled. I finally became brave enough to feed one, holding the bait in my enclosed hand as she sucked it out.

A young handicapped girl also joined our group. She too was a bit skiddish around the stingrays, but didn't let the opportunity pass her by. I shared my personal philosophy with here. Being brave isn't about not being scared, but rather being scared and doing it any way.

Jay and I only purchased 2 professional photos on the cruise. Both pictures were taken on this excursion. In hind-site, had I know that waterproof cameras were so inexpensive, we would have purchased one to take on the trip. The first picture is of us with our guide and a baby stingray.

The second is of Jay and I kissing a sea cucumber. Its supposed to be good luck, but she wasn't able to tell us which end was which. I sure hope I got the mouth end!!

Before returning to the trip, we headed out to the beach just to hang out. The water and temperature were both perfect. After enjoying the ocean, we dried off on the beach chairs with an frosty beverage. Our buddy Misael from the Majestic Lounge had a tray of Miami Vice cocktails so we both enjoyed one before calling it and getting back on the tender boat.

Cruisin' - Grand Turk

After a couple of days at sea, Jay and I were ready to disembark. Grand Turk will forever more be known as our first international locale as a married couple. Over a decade ago I'd used my passport for a trip to Ireland with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law. Jay had only ever been to Canada before this. Toronto, more specifically - not exactly a journey into another culture.

Given the nature of cruising, we didn't actually get a passport stamp at any of our excursion locations. While I'm a tad disappointed we missed out on all the ink we could have gotten, we'll have a chance to break our passports in properly late August, so I won't let it keep me up at night.

We decided to try the stand-up paddle boarding excursion for our first adventure off the boat. Jay had hurt his ankle the night before, so I worried a bit about his ability to paddle. I've SUPed before, and knew he could ride the board on this knees if need be. 

Exact opposite of river SUPing, we took the boards out with the current on the way to our snorkling site. We had no trouble paddling out or staying standing (unfortunately one poor guy in our group was not as fortunate). 

Once we got out far enough, we tied our boards together, put on our goggles and flippers and explored the water below us. The spot must be one used by plenty of guides on a regular basis, because the guy in charge of our crew knew exactly where to dive and find a nurse shark. He even brought it up towards the surface of the water for us to see more closely and pet if we wanted. 

I regret not having an underwater camera, because we saw such beautiful flora and fauna. In addition to the shark, there were colorful fish, some pretty purple algae-like things, and a barracuda! Maybe I'll spring for a Go-Pro (or a more reasonably priced knock-off) for Jay this birthday/Christmas season.
 
Paddling back proved more difficult than the trip out, thanks to the current and wind resistance we were facing. For whatever reason, I couldn't get my stride and ended up far behind everyone else. It wasn't one of my finer moments.  Instead of enjoying myself, I found myself thinking nasty things about my husband.

When I got back, the guide wasn't in the water. We'd finished up early and he allowed us to swim in the water before taking us back to our cruise ship. Maybe I wasn't slow, everyone else was just fast. Yeah, I'm going with that. While we splashed around, we got to know our excursion mates a bit better. Turns out, one of the couples vacations where Jay and I live. Our town is definitely not on the same level as Turks & Caicos, but its cool to know that there is something special drawing people here, and I'm blessed to see it daily.
 

Jay and I saw a bit of the city driving to and from our paddle site. Most of the friends we had cruised with decided to take a historical tour to see it up close and personal. While we had to slow down for a donkey in the road, they had time for pictures. I think a couple of them even petted a group of them. 

Jay and I saw the touristy end of the beach, but had no interest in getting a chair or back into the water. Signs everywhere warned us not to leave our possessions unattended, and we obliged. We took our bag o'stuff and got back onto the boat. 

We had a bit of time to relax before getting cleaned up and heading back to fancy dinner. Then of course we hit the Majestic Lounge for Blue Moon Martinis, buckets of IPA, and Cards Against Humanity. I'm pretty sure any other group of people would be embarrassed to play this in a very public setting, but not us. Which of course only served to make the cruise that much more fun!!

Sail Away - Days at Sea

Despite being cruise newbies, Jay and I knew all the tips and tricks of season veterans. My friend Holly and her husband Todd had gotten the trip together in order to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. Having never experienced a ceremony. they wanted to do a vow-renewal ceremony.

Jay and I drove 4 hours Friday to spend the night with them, then Saturday morning we met up with the rest of the crew - Mike & Karen and Mark - and caravaned to Savannah. They wanted to get on the boat early, so we were on the boat, in the dock for hours before we ever set sail.

We all had our first drink immediately upon boarding and Jay experienced his first (and only) bar sticker shock. For the rest of the cruise we took a "its vacation" approach. We had the money to cover the bill so we made an effort to enjoy ourselves instead of nickle and diming things. I considered it our reward for being so frugal the rest of the year.

After our cabin rooms were ready, we dropped off our carry-on luggage and head around the boat to explore. We found the walking track which surrounded the mini-golf course on the very top deck. 

 Jay had never been to Charleston before, so Mike & Karen gave us the tree-top tour, pointing out the tops of the the tallest buildings in the City.

Leaving the port we saw our first and only dolphins of the cruise. We also watched as the armed Coast Guard boat guided our ship to see. With a machine gun at the helm, it was a tad intimidating despite the relative smallness to our vessel.

Dinner dress-code regulations weren't in effect the first evening, since some people may not have had their luggage. Jay had a bit of dread for these events because he loves flip flops and stretch shorts (basketball shorts with elastic waist bands), but we ended up attending every evening. Through the mornings and afternoons we did our own thing, then our group would meet up for dinner and spend the evening together getting into some form of foolishness.

Most all of the evenings were spent in the Majestic Lounge. Our server came to know us by name, drink order, and finally room number - to the tune we didn't have to show our room key to charge to our accounts. 

We chose the lounge because it was the one place with a TV for Jay to watch the NBA finals. Every-other evening we watched basketball and the other evenings we watched NHL. Finally when both sports crowned their champion, we explored other evening activities. We caught a couple comedy shows, "The Game of Love" interactive game show, an adult scavenger hunt, and listening to a performer in the piano bar.

I cannot overstate how lost Jay and I were the first day at sea. We are used to action-packed vacations and we felt like we were missing something. By the second day we had no problem kicking back, ordering a drink, and enjoying the slow pace of the cruise. 

Cruisin' - The Count Up

Our cruise returned to US soil last Saturday. That's a full 10 days of Internet access without blogging a word of it. And I pretend to be a writer!!!

I took my iPad (but not the Bluetooth keyboard) with every intention of writing a daily synopsis. I didn't have Internet, but I could always copy/paste to post when I returned. In reality, I used the tablet to read when I was in bed and didn't want the overhead light on.

Then of course I came back to laundry, a week's worth of work (ya know, what I'm expected to do in exchange for a meager salary and a Cadillac health care plan), not to mention the epic #firstworldproblem of re-entry into life.

A week without cooking, dishes, or housework can really spoil a girl!!!

After a few days of the post-vacation blues, my social life picked up and I've had a full calendar since Friday. I write all this in an attempt to assuage my guilt for not giving my blog as much attention as I feel I should. Because you guys are totally out there judging me right??

If not, its because you're not out there. EEEK - that's worse. After gaining 7 pounds on the cruise I'm a bundle of insecurity and self-doubt.

So here I am. Blogging, while not sharing much of anything. How about a 2-for-Tuesday synopsis?

1. The weather was perfect.
2. We had a blast.

More later. Including, but not limited to: kayaking, blue moon martinis, stand-up-paddle boarding, Cards Against Humanity, snorkeling, Todd & Holly's vow renewal ceremony, Lido deck's hairy chest contest, and Cotton-Eyed Joe.

Counting Down the Hours

Only 4 working hours until my vacation begins!!!

The cruise doesn't leave until Saturday, but Jay and I are driving a good portion of the way tomorrow afternoon. The friends we are cruising with live 2 hours from Charleston. We're staying over night with Holly & Todd. Saturday morning, we are all going to caravan to the port.

I'm still not 100%, so I skipped yet another workout. Instead, I used today's lunch hour to shop for new sandals. I didn't realize until I started packing earlier in the week, but I don't own a pair of brown heeled sandals. I've had several straps break on shoes this past year or so, but I have so many I haven't bothered to replace them.

Until today that is. I stopped at 3 different stores and tried on at least a dozen pair. These weren't exactly what I was looking for (the heel is a bit thicker than I'd like), but sometimes a girl has to make compromises. Especially when said girl wears a size 9 narrow.  


I've still got a few last minute things to pack, toiletries and the like, but for the most part I've got my clothing packed up and am excited to head out!!

Sorry I didn't get around to pre-scheduling posts while I'm gone, but I hope to have some epic photos and stories when I return!!

Are you vacation this summer?

Cruise Countdown - 4 to go!

Hard to believe, but the countdown is on! For weeks, months even, I've wanted the cruise to hurry up and get here already. Now that its almost here, I want more time! 

Late last week I started getting sick. Cough, sore throat - you know the drill. So yesterday I headed to urgent care to try to get something to knock it in the head before we leave. I left with a 10 day course of antibiotics. I'm already feeling better BUT I'll still be taking the medication on the cruise, and I've read it can make you sensitive to sunlight.

 Also?

Let's just go ahead and change that "May cause" statement to "Will cause." Cause it has. I'm just hoping that my body will adjust and this isn't something I'll have to deal with on the boat.

BUT!

First thing in the door at the urgent care office they requested my insurance card and drivers license. I sat down to fill out my paperwork, only to be called back to the counter. "I'm sorry ma'am, but this is no longer a valid form form of ID. It expired yesterday."

 
 From our moves, the address on my license wasn't correct and the renewal notice never reached me. I guess I assumed the renewal process was every 10 years instead of 5. Never crossed my mind I could show up to the port in Charleston without all my paperwork in order.

I'm so thankful to have gone to urgent care, for her to notice and point it out to me. I'm also thankful I brought my make-up bag with me, just in case I went to work after leaving the doctor. Even if this isn't the hairstyle I would have chosen had I known it was going to stay with me for the next 5 years.


Have you ever cruised? If so, are there any must-pack items to take with me?

Cruise Countdown: T-minus 7 Days

Not sure how its possible, but I feel as if our upcoming cruise has been planned forever and up on me all at the same time. Here I sit, a week away, and I'm not really sure I'm ready.

This time next week, we'll be on our way to Charleston, South Carolina to meet our floating home for the following week. I'm really not sure what I'm going to think about it. My claustrophobia is weird and doesn't really make sense (does any phobia?), so I'm a bit concerned about being trapped on the open water with no escape.

Then there is the small room. Many moons ago (perhaps a decade) a friend suggested a rolling duffel as the perfect solution to the cramped quarters. This way a cruiser could unpack, but then stow the case under the bed and out of the way.  I bought the bag then never took the cruise. I love it though. when it tears up I plan on buying another - even if Jay and I don't catch the cruising bug like a lot of our friends. 

Hold please while I add hangers to my master packing list. 

Jay doesn't have a proper suitcase, so I'm borrowing one from a friend. Since we'll be attending a on-board vow renewal (the friends we are traveling with are celebrating 20 years of marriage) Jay and I will both be packing nicer-than-normal attire. For this, I'm borrowing a garment bag from my parents. 

Perhaps I'll spend the next week doing other SOC posts about my preconceived cruise thoughts. While there will be no posting while I'm gone, I hope to write up this vacation as it happens, then of course post it when we get back and logged onto the Internets.
 
Linking up with Jaime for Stream of consciousness Saturday. If you've like to join us, just set a timer for 5 minutes, let the words flow, and link up. Be sure to let me know in the comments if you participate. I'd love to read about whatever is on your mind. The crazier the better - in my crazy opinion at least!