Aug 6 to Aug 17

 

Artist's rendition

It has been a minute - I've been enjoying my time to myself. Most of it anyway. Dealing with people who are under the weather at my house these days is a drag - I'd rather be out touring the countryside but I gotta be a nurse.

Shrug. It's part of the wedding vows I made a few years ago, so it gets done. 

I bought a second-hand kayak but have yet to be in it, thanks to a series of rain and thunderstorms. I'm hoping today will be the day I get out there on it. 

I hit every morning session - usually about a half hour of stretching and mobility. It's really been helpful and I really do want to learn a lot more about it. I've been missing swims in the evening, thanks to some new ink I got. Meh, again I think today is the day I go back to swimming. At least any rotator cuff problems have been able to recover. 

...and hiking. I've done a few hiking trips. I'm starting out low distance, but getting about a 25-30 minute session done before the heat or the bugs drive me into the adventure van.

July 5 to Aug 5

 

A throwback to a long time ago

Sorry to my loyal readers - this has been a rather odd month. I finished my side hustle gig the last week of July. It was kind of cool to be able to work full-time from the back of an RV. I did have some recommendations for 2025, but I left them in the journal I finished and they are not handy at this time to share.

Suffice it to say I did not train very much, which disappointed me. Just too many bugs and a forgotten tent that might have worked had I had it present. We got back to civilization on or about the 15th of the month and I was able to get back into the yoga in the mornings, teach, eat a decent meal /get out of the house, mark, teach, nap then swim before working/prepping and then bed on time routine. 

Honestly, getting to bed early and taking up early saved July for me, as it got me to focus on the work at hand. Keeping a journal helped me keep ideas from overwhelming my mind and served as a place to brain dump constantly. 

I am setting goals for 2024-25 at the moment as it is very close to my new years eve. AMong those goals is an increase of basic fitness, mobility and living pain free as much as possible. Swimming is helping as is Yoga - I'd like to think about ASL and getting some sort of Lifeguarding certification as well. We will see what I can get done about that. 

As for fitness, it was the usual:

Morning sessions were about a half hour of

Mobility for the hips and spine opening stretches

Abdominal and hip work including leg kicks, ab crunches, v-sits and the like. Ab wheel rollouts and prone shoulder lifts finish this section off

Then shoulder and upper body band work - bicep curls, shoulder presses with bands, banded lat pulls and shoulder pulls are all here. I even get some bodyweight squats done. 

A nice half-hour of mobility and a bit of strength training. 

The evening is 30-minute swims, lengths of front crawl and breaststroke. In the middle is enough walking ... or should I say sometimes enough walking to get to about 4 kilometres of steps in. 

I really do want to get back to running/jogging/getting onto an elliptical trainer this winter.  And Wrestling. I miss that. And rugby ... sigh. 

June 18 to July 4

 

The view from the yoga mat the other day

I'm sorry loyal readers - the past few weeks have gotten away from me. I'm working with a few people around blogging and realized I hadn't updated this wonderful space for a little while. As always, I will try and do better.

On the whole, these weeks were decent. I've been doing a bit of exhaustion sleeping and having to go to end-of-year events. Both are just participated in and I'm happy to report I got to the end. 

I did set up and have been following a Daily Routine. Up early with the Morning Routine/Yoga being done. 

Yoga was made to have a coffee with, man. These two things go well together. Yoga and coffee, peas and carrots. 

Some swimming, some hiking, some laziness, some travel have made this time period not quite what I needed to get back to limitless cardio. However, these are the things that I need to overcome and keep going.

Morning sessions have been great on the whole. Lots of mobility with some band work. Alll good in the hood. 

I did check my blood pressure and there was a slight rise. Need to get on that, get back in our groove and get it back to the optimal now.

June 3 to June 17

 

Yeah, a flash of completed rings and a few days of nothing. Mah, I'm just tired and it is the end of June ... both of those things mean it is hot and weary and just lazy.

A few swims and a few bike rides and a kayak ride or two. The morning routine was also done most days - except for Father's Day.

As I'm writing this I'm looking at Saturday's are light on getting stuff done. Interesting. 

In any case... summer is just this close.

May 27 to June 2

 

I keep closing the exercise and standing rings, but not the Move ring these days. Ah well, my hip isn't bugging me and I'm making progress in other parts of my life. 

I did open up the garage gym and added more mat space for BJJ with Chuck the Grappling Dummy. I did do some work with him but then put him on the airbike and he's been training on that since then.

I did get my morning routine done each day and got out on the kayak at least once during this time. I also got more than a bit of work done on the wilderness that is my backyard.

That is not a clever metaphor, I cleaned up my yard and got a pretty good sweat going before needing a pint. Or two. 

I dunno, no swimming for me these days and I'm still not sure why. At least now I have the option for some BJJ/Grappling at my house. ...except right now I have two inflatable kayaks out flat and drying on them right now. 

So ... you at least know what I'm going to be doing after I write this line. 

May 15 to 26

 

Sorry loyal readers I let May get away from me a little. 

I'm tired. I mean, I did not make finishing off the rings a priority for May - and I am finished with that mindset. I just have to get back to the endless cardio I had when I was younger.

I know just how much easier life is with it rather than lacking it. 

And it is all on me.

I did get out for two sessions with my kayak during this time. One was on glass flat water and the second session was a lot more ... active. Yeah, that's the word I will use. "Active". Both sessions were fun and made me want to get out there a lot more. I had to vacuum out the van today, the sand in there was becoming sentient. 

The funny thing about the morning routine - I've kept it up every day during this time - is that every IG influencer is telling me what I am doing is perfect. I do wonder why my hip keeps meeting with my serenity though. Shrug. I'll just keep going. 

I do have a plan for outdoor fitness in the summer, as well as a plan for the home gym moving into the future. Watch this space for further details. Hint - The home gym gets to be a more of a BJJ space and I'll be doing more training at my gym outside. 

Made it to watch a bit of rugby this weekend and that was interesting. The score was 6-0 for the people I did not want to talk to vs the people I did want to talk to 15 minutes into the experience there. I wonder why there are so many people I don't want to talk to, but that is a matter for my paper and ink journal, not here. Kinda cool to see the club doing so well, just want the guys to work on their set piece. 

Meh, I'mma just shut my mouth and keep working on my hip. I'm sure I'mma live somewhere else when I hit 70 or so. 

May 6 to May 14

 

Not a bad view from the RV. 

Not a lot of workouts during this time - I mean I'm tired from coaching rugby - it finished for me on the 7th. Just bone tired. Time of year, too. I'm looking forward to getting out for a few hikes and a few episodes with the RV and a few episodes with my kayak.

The hiking and kayak are going to be relatively boring repeats of years gone by, but that is okay. Not looking for anything but just seeing a part of Canada. The RV trip was rainy and I had to keep myside hustle going - I do have regular contract with them and I just want to finish this and be done with it. Surely I've got like six weeks or so left.

Swims occurred during this time and I usually closed two out of the three rings. I did keep up my stretching until the rain while away in the RV. To be fair, I didn't plan that RV experience very well. Shrug ... I will get another chance in a few weeks.