How I got up the hill today

It was pretty fun, actually.

Picked up my brand-spankin-new Pendlay Olympic Barbell today. It was delivered to my old address in Creekside; I grabbed the bus there and back, including a lovely chat with Miranda's flatmate Helena. The real fun part though was walking up Staff Hill with a 7', 45-lb steel bar (I'd dispensed with the cardboard packaging already). Decided to make it a bit of a workout. It went like this: every 16 steps or so, full-press the bar above my head as I walked. Hold it for the same count, and repeat. I maintained that all the way up, hiking it at a good pace and rhythm, without stops (though I did slow some). Perfect level of exertion for a pleasant walk home; just beginning to growl with the effort as I made it to the road. I don't know the distance or vertical rise of that hike. It's not immense, but it is a bit of a workout, especially with extra load. Perhaps a 400m distance with 100m rise? I'm gonna find that one out sometime.

Also, my universal door-mount pullup bar arrived! What a lovely, simple piece of work that is! Soooo much more comfortable than swinging my door out and hanging on top of that. Much nicer on the hands :) Set a PR for pullups (as far as I can recall) at 10 , and a PR for hanging L-sit at 45sec (a bit sloppy, not strictly to 90 degrees). Played with kettlebells a couple times as well, of course.

Oh, I hadn't mentioned yet... my olympic plates and kettlebells arrived this weekend! (well, I loaded them into the taxi after an airport drop-off, and took 'em home) I've been LOVING the kettlebell work/kettlebell play! So much fun, and it feels so good. The physical results of my past two months' enthusiasm and effort is showing up.

So, I now own:
Pendlay olympic bar, and color-coded bumper plates
7 kettlebells, from 12kg(x2) to 32kg
A universal door-mount pullup bar

and soon to be arriving, my gymnastics rings & ringtraining DVDs!

Next up for fitness tools: books and video from Pavel Tsatsouline on kettlebell training and general hard-living fitness. Then probably a heavybag and some focus gloves.

Exciting times, indeed!

Bored?

Bored is a thing of the past. I remember I used to feel bored very often in my youth - pre-teen and teen years. As I continue to grow, I very rarely feel bored. Even if I'm not physically engaged in some activity, I either have interesting thoughts to pursue, or the present moment to be aware of.

Not today, however. I was bored today. Had a very slowww day driving taxi - considered takign today off to go snowboarding at a couple of junctures, and with the way my day went at work, it definitely would have been a more satisfying choice. Easy to say in retrospect, though. So what did I do? Did some thinking, some brainstorming and note-making on my work & life options for the year. Took a couple of long lunch breaks. Even did a quick workout on one of my breaks.

When I finished my day, I enjoyed my brisk hike up the hill, visited a friend, did a better workout indoors/outdoors, made some hot dinner, chatted with the flatmate, and here I am.

Why do I write all this? Perhaps because I had a boring day (such a strange thing). But also because I still moved towards my fitness goals. An idea popped into my head in the shower: if I'm suffering through boredom anyways, I may as well exercise and suffer through some physical pain. At least in that case, the suffering is short-lived, and yields positive results.