Lilacs

On the ripple blog they have a question of the week and it got me thinking to blog on it tonight...
"What is your favourite childhood memory?"

Off the top of my head/my first thought:

For the two summers that we lived in Manitoba, my sister and I used to ride our bikes every single day to this wading pool run by the city. I think I was around 8 years old at the time. We spent the better part of the day there in the pool, playing games with the other kids, and doing crafts - there was a girl from the university who ran the activities there all summer and I guess was kind of a lifeguard for the pool - although it was a wading pool, so I'm not sure an official lifeguard was necessary. It was the 80's though, I think there was more money for stuff like that back then. And I don't think you had to pay for any of these things either - you were a kid in the neighbourhood and you just showed up. It was so fun. We would bike there through a bunch of different streets, passing some of our friends' houses, sometimes stopping at their houses on the way home, or going to their houses for lunch and back to the pool again. Sometimes we'd ride all around for hours just riding - to the train tracks, to the park, etc. Back then (OMG I'm about to sound old) we were allowed to hop on our bikes and not return home til dinner. Our parents didn't worry at all about where we were. When we lived there I got my first ten-speed. That was a big deal. I never really knew how to work the gears very well. The most vivid part of this memory is the pathway that took us from a residential street into the park where the wading pool resided - it was lined with lilacs. Whenever I pass lilacs/smell lilacs today it brings me back to age 8-9 and biking in Manitoba to the pool with my sister and our friends.

Change Management

Interesting how lessons seem to come around in life like a theme. At least sometimes they do. And if you are open to seeing it, you notice, and you think - how funny (not funny - haha) how that works... Or maybe it's just the universe hitting you over the head with the message to be sure you don't miss it. Of course, some people miss it anyway. I'm glad that sometimes I catch on...

So, I found out that I'm likely going to make a big change in my life in the next few months: I will have to move. Like where I live, is what I mean. It's not ideal timing as I have other ideas for my 'short-term life plans'. I had no short term life plans a while ago, but now I see some forming and I'm excited about that. As a result I thought those plans would come about in the next year or so and then I would start to look at moving. But life doesn't always work on my schedule and according to my detailed plan of attack. My landlord wants to take over living in my apartment himself and it's about a year earlier than I'd hoped we'd have to think about stuff like this. So, this is one big change that I'm sorting out on every level.

Then today I had my performance appraisal at work. It went really well. :) And in the process we talked about me being a leader in change orientation for the other people on my team. Which is cool, because for the most part I welcome change, and even when I'm not welcoming it with open arms, my usual approach to it is: OK, I may not like this, but let's figure out how to make the best of it (kinda like the situation I just described in the previous paragraph). So I'm going to look for a course to take on how to be a change agent - or whatever the catch-phrase/buzz word of the times is for that.

It's nice how you can work on personal and work stuff at the same time. Figuring it all out. Growing and maturing in both areas at the same time and using the same tools and skills for work and life outside of work. Hmmm. OK. Way too cerebral. What happened to posting on bikes and bike gear and cycling and trips and, and... ;)

Some quotes on change for inspiration:

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. ~Mary Engelbreit

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~Author Unknown

Change always comes bearing gifts. ~Price Pritchett

Hungry

I'm hungry. All the time these days. I know I've been working out a LOT, but it's more than that. Maybe it's the weather or something. It's cold. So I feel like I need to eat all the time. And nothing satisfies me. And the only reason why I'm not actually giving in to the hunger and eating more than normal is because I'm lazy. I've got celery in the fridge waiting to be washed and cut so I can eat it with my hummus for snacks and I'm too lazy to wash and cut the freakin' stuff! So then I just don't bother eating. When that happens I just sleep instead. Cuz I'm also tired. I defrosted some of that tuna casserole that I made last week and ate it for dinner because I'm even too tired and lazy to make anything. Or do the dishes. You should see the kitchen. Ugh. :(

I hope I ate enough. Seriously. I'm heading out shortly to my rescheduled xc-ski lessons. And since they are later than my originally scheduled lessons, and it's colder when it's later, and it's the first lesson... I'm not sure how much skiing we're actually going to do. On the first lesson they like to teach you how to wax and talk and stuff - and they do more talking if it's cold so you don't have to be outside in the cold too long. Because you're not going to move a lot on the first lesson - they will start easy drills and make you learn your balance and weight transfer. And I just finished waxing my skis. I already know how to do that too. So why the hell am I in beginner skate lessons again? I already know what we're going to do. If I were the instructor I could write the lesson plan. But the thing is - I need to start from the beginning. So anyway, I hope I ate enough - in case I get to be more active than I think. And I hope I didn't eat too much in case we aren't too active. It's torture, I tell you!

K, I think it's time for some chocolate.

b-early

What's up with the word 'belated'? What's the antonym for that? You know like - over-early? Because you know, late is late - how can it be 'belated'? Anyway... happy be-earlied birthday to me:



Oh Becks - you shouldn't have! ;)

Tuna Casserole

So my weekend had a theme of an "attempt at self care". I think I did not too badly. After a very hectic week and low spirits I tried my best to do things that would just make me happy. I had an amazing dinner with some friends on Friday night at a restaurant I would highly recommend. I skied - a lot. Since I wasn't doing so well at learning skate up in the park Saturday morning (1/2 an hour spent battling hills when I should have been working on my gliding technique), I went home, had a nice lunch (pictured above) and rested. Then I headed over to the TF complex once I figured the xc lessons would have wrapped up, and I practiced loops and loops of gliding without my poles. Before I left though, I had phoned up one of my friends and when she joined me later I switched over to my classic gear and did a loop of that park with her. Enough exercise for me? ;) I should hope so. After that I had dinner with she and her hubby where they had a special dessert for me (in celebration of the upcoming date of my birth). Today I slept in and then bummed around most of the morning. I finally got my butt out the door - brrrrr, it's a cold one today! And headed to the gym to do my strength training. Once home I cleaned a bit, studied for my exam, road the bike for 40 mins and then dinner, laundry and now this. Not bad. Today might not have been as relaxing as it could have been for a self care initiative, however, the total lack of doing anything until 1 PM likely made up for it!

As for the picture I posted... my new little treating myself thing - which I just started this weekend with that meal. My sister made me that little tray for Christmas - cute eh?! Talented little sister I've got. And it's my favourite colours and all. Makes me happy. So now I'm going to take all my meals to the living room on that tray - like a weird old lady. lol.

My Week

Yep. This is how I've been feeling this week. Since my last post really.

And Sunday wasn't really as nice as it usually is. Certainly not as fun as it looks for Snoopy.

What I'm thinking: 'this too shall pass'. Hope to have more fun stuff to blog on soon.

Skate Skiing

Did I write yet about how I got out on the weekend for my first skate ski? I kinda learned all on my own. My lessons are supposed to be this weekend, but now that it rained and got all warm this week the conditions are all screwed and my lessons are postponed for two weeks.

So anyway, as I said, I went to the park and did my first real skate ski - AND I LOVED IT! I found it came more naturally to me than classic - but it's also quite a bit harder cardio-wise. However, that gets me pretty excited too because if I can skate a couple times per week for the rest of the season (may the snow-gods shine on our city!), then my cardio will be so wicked for cycling season!! Yay! I love it!

Year in Review

Yesterday I wrote this, but now I've changed a few things after playing around some more. Now you can just click and go to a set of photos. I tried to get it to go to a slideshow, but I was having difficulty with the code. I'm not that adept - yet.

As you can clearly see, I am very easily finding my way back into the work groove.
Since it's working out so well for me, I've decided to take tomorrow off to go skiing.
And in the meantime, share my favourite images from 2007...

www.flickr.com

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008 boys and girls! Another year has passed. Hard to believe.

I hope everyone had a safe but fun holiday! I spent New Years in Montreal. I had a really fun time there for the past few days! We're in the middle of yet another snow storm though and I drove home in it. It was a pretty slow drive back - the roads were a bit dicey. Maybe not the best thing to do, but I managed ok and didn't take any chances on the road. Just slow and steady. I'm bagged though. Last night the people living below my friend, Lisa, stayed up til about 5 AM I think and they were screaming and laughing and pounding around. Needless to say - I think I'm ready for bed now. Yikes!

Well, I'm ready for 2008. I'm ready for my skate ski lessons next weekend - yipee! I've already started teaching myself because I'm too excited to wait. I had a totally wicked ski last Friday with a group of friends up in the park. Super-fun. I'm ready for more cycling, and I'm ready to be even stronger this year than last. I'm ready for new challenges at work (I think). I'm ready for a boyfriend, however I don't really blog about that stuff so you won't hear much about that unless you are one of my girlfriends. If you are one of them - rest assured, I hope not to disappoint with more dating stories for you. I'm ready for more traveling - although my travel plans keep changing in my head on a semi-regular basis. Regardless of changes, I should have more wander to lust about this year on the blog. And I definitely plan to travel and bike this year - maybe even more than last! Yipee!!

I wish you all health, happiness, success, love, and friendship for this year... 2008 - here we come!

And here's an interesting tidbit for you:
Happy 150th Anniversary Ottawa!















Couple of photos I took in February 2002!
Can you believe the difference in snow to this year?

MEMO from Messy Desk Woman

This is so telling...

My sister gave me the notepad pictured above one year in my stocking. Interesting timing eh?

While cleaning up my desk/office/filing system today; getting rid of a lot of unnecessary papers, shredding, recycling, etc; and putting all of the remaining stuff into my new cabinet system I found that notepad. Somehow, because my desk had been so messy, it got lost in amongst all of the other papers and got filed away somewhere only to be found again one day (today) when I got around to trying to get organized - yet again.

Note to everyone: a notepad that states it's coming from the messy desk woman will likely have a short lifespan before it finds itself lost in the abyss.

Organization?

Uh-oh! I've been shopping at Ikea again...

Yes, I spent the better part of - hmm, I lost track of how many hours - yesterday building yet another piece of Ikea furniture for my little place.

Yes, it was yet another attempt at better organizing myself and my office space. PLEASE if there is a power greater than me in the universe let this be the last piece of Ikea furniture I build for my office!!! I don't mind building Ikea furniture - I've become quite adept at it. :) And I find it kinda fun! This time I even had to measure and drill holes. It's the staying somewhat organized that seems to keep escaping me and toying with my precarious level of sanity.

I'm willing to pimp out my Ikea furniture building skills at a reasonable price. Inquire within. ;)

Move on down Nutcracker

Now that Christmas is over I need to push that post down...

...and bore you with my past few days' activities. I actually kept up with the biking. It was hard to get back into it after being sick, but I pushed myself to get into it. I tried something different...

(this is what I look like lately except I've been watching the 2006 Tour of Flanders - I don't have a computrainer)

I'm not supposed to do intervals til near the end of January according to my own periodized plan (and I double checked to see what the professional scheduled for me last year and it was the same). But I'm really itching to drop some poundage and I needed something to shock my legs and my body and my brain. So not only did I do intervals, but I did "Pukervals". And no, I'm not referring to overconsumption of special Christmas drinks in the last few days. And I'm quite sure I didn't make that word up myself. I think someone else who trains told me it once upon a time. The afternoon of Christmas Eve I decided to do intervals that are suggested by Chris Carmichael in one of the articles he wrote in Bicycling mag recently. It's a quick workout - only an hour. And you do 2 sets of intervals: 2 mins as hard as you can (the pukerval part), 2 mins recovery - 5 times, then do it all over again after a 6 min recovery spin. Since it was my first interval ride of the season and thus far I have only stepped into zone 3 briefly in a couple of rides (and this ride would mean maxing out) I tried not to push too hard, so I only felt like puking on one of the intervals (HR>190) but I pushed it hard enough to really need the 2 minutes to recover my breathing and my heart rate (only back into zone 3 ~150). I may be pushing it too soon, but I don't care. After doing that ride I felt awesome and I really realized how I will never improve and never shed poundage if I don't push myself like I did that afternoon. So I'm thinking of changing my program a little based on how I felt Monday. I'm going to start adding in pukervals about once per week (maybe twice - only because I can't seem to resist) and increase to twice per week for sure by end of January.

I spent Christmas Eve dinner with one of my close friends and her family having something called raclette. It was fun and delicious! Then we all played Taboo and couldn't stop laughing. There were far too many swear words coming out of people's mouths in the presence of Grandma. Poor Grandma was a good sport about it. Maybe grandparents are getting used to profanities these days.

Christmas Day was spent having more laughs with my sister, her hubby and the dog. With silly fleece pants and my brother-in-law wearing a new hoodie like a goofball and maybe a little too much hot chocolate, maple syrup, and Ferraro Rochers - we got the giggles. I got some really great presents - including (but not limited to) a bunch of stuff for the bike! :)

Then on to dinner with another close friend of mine and her family. I was starting to get tired by that point and instead of having a nap when I stopped home to finish making sweet potato casserole to take to dinner and change, I decided to do a 45 min recovery ride. (I'm hopelessly addicted) After eating far too much food, doing a book-stealing exchange, and being entertained by her second cousins' fiddling and step dancing, I was ready for a long sleep.

Which brings me to today where the only real accomplishment I've made is to wax my skis. I was hoping to get out skiing today (and teach myself how to skate ski). However, the conditions were only so-so after the rain we got on the weekend and the teaching facility will not be grooming til tomorrow (and I didn't want to hit the park for fear that there would be far too many people who might get annoyed with me not knowing what I'm doing). So tomorrow I plan to either 1) ski with my friends in the park (classic) or 2) go to the complex where they teach and learn to skate ski. I'm going to decide what I feel like doing when I wake up. Hopefully I wake up earlier than I did today.

Merry Christmas

I found this a couple of years ago and went looking for it today again so I could post it. :) Voila!
The last day of work before the holidays is now behind me. I look forward to some R&R and some good training!!

Carbon Offsetting

OK. Since my little fevered (quite literally) rant last Friday I have learned about a few resources for offsetting the carbon footprint we leave on the earth when flying. And now I'm sharing them. Thanks to those who shared with me.

Offsetters (can be used with various airlines from what I gather)
Aeroplan (just learned about this today via their newsletter)
Carbon Reduction Fund

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

I came back from the Big Smoke last week with someone else's virus in tow. Thank you to one of the many ill colleagues of mine for that special gift. I spent the whole weekend, starting Friday afternoon literally the minute I landed in my living room, on the couch or in bed. Fever, aching, coughing, and a sore throat so swollen that I actually put an ice pack on it a few times. Go figure that someone who has gotten used to icing sore shoulders and calf muscles would think to put an ice pack on their throat.

Today is my first day back in the real world - and man! the real world is a bit of a mess! I knew that I'd avoided dealing with a major snowstorm while I was in convalescence, but wow - manoeuvring out there is slightly nuts! And it just keeps snowing! Now, I should confess that I'm not all that sad that it's snowing. I'm really looking forward to being in full form by Friday (that's the goal anyway) so I can learn skate skiing!!! :) However, I do have a few things I need to get done - like buy a printer cartridge so I can print my final expense report and send it to my manager - but I ran out of time today since it was so difficult and took so much extra time to get everywhere. And then tonight... well, frankly there were like 20 vehicular accidents listed on the news as I drove home (which, BTW, took me 50 minutes to get home from somewhere that was only 10 mins away!), so I'm not driving out there again tonight. There is an office supply store about 5-6 blocks away, so I could walk there, but the sidewalks aren't plowed and people are resorting to walking on the street... no thanks. Especially not in the dark. Hopefully things will start sorting out overnight and I'll be able to get the many errands I need to do done tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

A Heady Post to End the Week

In keeping with my latest theme (see yesterday's post) I have to say that I've been feeling very disappointed... No. Wait. Maybe that's not the right choice of words to describe it, although it's not totally off...

I have to say that I've been feeling - for the first time - a little ashamed of my country. Wow. That's definitely a first. But no. No. That's not totally accurate either. I'm not ashamed of my country - of the people who comprise it. No. I love this country - a lot.

I have to say that I'm ashamed of the government that is representing this country right now. Yep. That's pretty much it.

It's an extremely rare occurrence for me to get 'political' about anything. I'm not stupid. I know politics are a part of life - of almost every aspect of it. Work, school, even within groups of friends there are politics. But I try to avoid getting into it. Politics are very frustrating. Maybe because there's just no one way to please everyone. However, after a week of listening and reading and watching news about how our country - or rather the political leaders of our country - are still refusing to take any leadership on changing the way we live, produce, and consume (see the video in my last post... likely that didn't help my attitude on the topic this week - although maybe that's not a bad thing), I'm feeling really disappointed and ashamed. I know I can do more - personally - and I'm endeavouring to do so. But this thing is bigger than me. And while I also realize that the sum of our individual efforts is much more powerful than any one of us taking something on alone (not unlike voting... i.e. I won't NOT participate because I feel like I'm too small to make a difference), there still must be leadership.

As I sat down to write this, wondering if I'd even bother publishing it to the blog since it's just a bit of a barf-up of my thoughts into a little rant to end my exhaustive week, I realized that I have learned several lessons this week about leadership. I've been learning more and more about being a good leader over the past few years, actually. Anyway... the company I work for decided recently to make a tough decision and lead on an ethical issue. When this change was announced to us this week lots of people were upset because the decision might put us at a competitive disadvantage. Now, I'm not saying the people I work for make all the right decisions - they certainly don't, and I haven't always agreed with decisions that are made. But this decision has come at an interesting time for me personally as I think even more about leadership and making tough choices. Are all decisions these days based on 'preserving the economy' and selling and consuming and, and, and... me, me, me... ? Yeah. Exactly. Taking the high road is rarely the easy, smooth, comfy ride we might prefer, but it's usually a short-term commitment to endure hardship for an important long-term goal that gets easier later on - you know... no pain no gain. Any big change I've made in my life was hard at the beginning, and then it got easier as it became more routine - like changing dietary habits. If I didn't spend some time doing intervals on the bike (where you do hard, intense minutes over and over) I wouldn't get stronger or faster... short term pain, long term gain. Anyway... I'm sure you get this point. I know you're not stupid either.

The point I wanted to make, or come back to is this... leaders don't wait for their neighbours to make changes. Leaders do what they know to be a good, fair, perhaps difficult, but right decision and don't worry about what other people think. And they do it with confidence even when they are afraid that it might prove to make things more difficult for a time, while they figure out how to do things differently. Leaders don't bury their heads in the sand and hope that things will miraculously change - they take action. Leaders find solutions. Leaders make change happen. And when leaders do this, others follow.

"Stuff"

Mir sent me this video last night and I had to share it...

The Story of Stuff
(it's about 20 minutes in length, so sit back and relax)

It's interesting. I made a comment last week when I was skiing with my friend, Ruth, about wondering whether things are changing, or whether I seem to just be surrounding myself with like-minded people more and more... not sure since I've known Mir since I was fourteen. ;) Perhaps with us it's just a case of growing up together. At any rate, I've definitely been changing my way of life in terms of chemical pollutants, how I eat, a little bit of what I buy (although this gives me even more pause for thought). Something else I've thought about recently (after listening to David Suzuki on CBC a few weeks back) is the impact that air travel has on the environment. It also makes me think more seriously about making my trips more meaningful by contributing something to the places I visit so that perhaps my footprint on the earth when I fly isn't in vain - or at least not just all about me and my pleasure. Hmmm. Anyway... I'm a bit too tired right now from meetings to get overly philosophical about it. Perhaps another time. Just to say though, it gives me pause for thought - and the fact of the matter is, I've already been thinking about this stuff. So in actual fact it gives me more reasons to act. Which I will continue to do. I've already started simplifying my life and consuming less. I know I can do more though.

Work, Travel and other fun stuff

Well folks... here I am again - in the Big Smoke. Trapped inside all day today in a ballroom enduring meetings, feeling claustrophobic with no fresh air. Granted, the meeting was actually really good this morning. I just can't get used to breathing recycled air for more than a few hours at a time. So after the meeting concluded this evening and we had a couple of hours to ourselves before heading down to an organized dinner in the same ballroom where we spent the entire day (sigh), Janette and I figured we'd go buy our manager a Christmas card so the group of us could sign it while we're together and get some fresh air. So much for that idea: it's raining and neither of us had an umbrella, and we still have to look good for dinner (otherwise, frankly I'd have gone out there and gotten soaked). They have this underground tunnel system here in T-dot and we were able to find a card store. We were starving for air though, so we went outside and stood at the doorway like a couple of smokers on a smoke-break just to get some oxygen.

I have to give another airline-other-than-AC endorsement today... I flew Porter Airlines yesterday for the second time and it's very enjoyable. I actually feel like the seat in front of me is a little far away... my knees don't bang into it and I had to reach for my Bicycling mag that I had inserted into the leather seat pocket. The staff was so nice and accommodating too. There was a comedian at our meeting this morning (a real one - seriously) and he made the funniest joke: "On Air Canada we're not happy until you're unhappy". LOL!!!! So true. When you fly with another airline you really realize how surly the majority of the staff are at AC (even though I should acknowledge that due to the sheer number of times I've flown with AC I have encountered some very nice staff). I think it's part of their recruitment strategy.

I've been reading like it's going out of style lately. So I finished yet another book and I think I'm about 5 books in arrears posting on the book blog. But if you didn't already notice, I did post recently there. I'm onto another book that I brought with me for the week. I'll get some time in the next few weeks I think to get some updates because I've read some really awesome ones lately!

And I've been out xc-skiing again since my last post. Wow. The conditions are absolutely FANTASTIC!!! Every time it snows I am giggly like a child. I love it! When I get back from this trip I plan to learn the skate technique. So I'll be practicing both disciplines this winter. Don't worry - the bike hasn't been missing me at all. I've been getting on it about 4x/week right now. Next week marks the start of "Early Base" phase. I will have 8 weeks of that - heavy weight time with Jessica. :) I'm already seeing some major differences since I stepped it up in the last month. Wicked!!! (I don't think I've said that since I was a student)

Winter Wonderland

Wow!!! I can't express how excited I've been the last week with all the snow we've been getting. Last winter I remember blogging about not skiing in January and it being so warm I seriously considered getting out on my bike - outside - first week of that month. Well, old man winter has arrived early this year and it looks like he's setting up house. Tonight we're going to have a big snowstorm. And guess what I did today??? Well, I almost titled this post "hip flexors", because man, they are tight tonight. Yes, I went for my first xc ski of the season today. Even though the wind chill was minus 20 or something, it was actually quite nice out. There was light snow most of the time, and I only felt the wind a few times really. I'm conquering my fear of going downhill this season. Starting today. With a nice wipe-out due to my hesitation and attempt at slowing down. Got back up and continued down, reminding myself the whole time to relax and not hesitate (the hill was quite long - funny how I'm willing to climb it far more than descend... exactly the opposite of being on a bike!). It was super fun!! I absolutely love being outside in the fresh air. With so much cycling in the summer, I'm so accustomed to fresh air on a daily basis. Being couped up inside really gets to you. Breathing recycled air. Spending a few hours outside, being active - you can't imagine what it does for the soul. Now it's time to stretch I think, because you also can't imagine what it does to the shoulders and hip flexors! ;)

Hamstrings

Holy hamstrings batman!!! They are TI-I-IGHT!

November 3rd marked the beginning of off-season, base training. I'm hoping to really gain a lot this year in strength and speed on the bike. I'm not bad on speed now, actually. I made some really good progress last year on my average speed. I guess now it's maintaining that speed for longer durations, and climbing faster. The climbing faster thing comes down to something that's called power to weight ratio, and frankly in the last 2 years mine has been shit! Can I say that on the blog? Well, it has. Now that I've got some health stuff sorted out I think I might actually be losing some weight. But I haven't dared step on the scale yet. I promised myself and Jess that I wouldn't for 2-3 more weeks. Just stick to the program and wait for it to happen.

So, base training... right now I'm in the middle of a six-week period which is called 'pre-base'. I'm not allowed to push hard on the bike or any other cardio activity I decided to pursue - zones one and two only (estimated HR zones for me since I haven't done any fancy-shmancy blood work to know exactly what my zones should be). It's actually really hard to sit on the bike for an hour and not push yourself. You know - it's fun to crank up the resistance and push hard - get into the music and such. However lazy I feel for the super-easy workout, it's supposed to work - burn fat now, and prepare my muscles to use fat more and conserve carbs a little more when I'm on the bike in the summer. You want to conserve some of the carbs in your muscles for when you have to push harder or faster quickly because carbs are quick energy. The low burn is the sitting and climbing kind of stuff. If I can use more fat for energy then, I'll be working more efficiently. Anyway... I don't want to bore you with all of that.

At the gym I've started to really do a lot more strength training. My legs aren't used to maintaining a contraction for extended periods of time - hence hamstring hell tonight! Ahh! So right now I'm preparing them for heavy weights which I will start in 3 weeks' time. This year I plan to really push myself when it comes to the weights. I know Jess is a bit skeptical (although still on board with the plan) - not of my ability (god knows she had me doing some crazy weight last winter) - but I kind of bulk up quick, so you know... I don't want to look like this:

i removed the image...

Hahaha! Funny picture (never knew 'muscles' was spelled with an 'a'). ;) I want to be really, really strong. I want to climb those mountains in Vermont next year. So, here goes nothing...

And I apologize in advance to my poor hamstrings, quads, glutes, and calf muscles. No pain no gain, as they say.