rickohikes

Snowshoeing in West Bragg

Robbie and I had Monday off, so we decided to head to West Bragg Creek. I recently learned about this gem of a place. It’s very close to Calgary with great cross-country skiing and a nice snowshoeing trail. It was sunny and it seemed like a good day for a quick snowshoe outing. In fact, I was testing out some new winter boots, as well as the MSR Lightning Ascent snowshoes that I purchased.

Like I realized last year when I went snowshoeing for the first time, I really enjoy it! This was definitely a beginner trail, but you can certainly progress and hit some mountain peaks on snowshoes. Unfortunately, this usually involves backcountry terrain, avalanche safety know-how, and use of other technical gear. One day. One day. But until then, it was an enjoyable afternoon, and a super easy way to enjoy a nice wintery day :).

Thank Goodness for Physio!

To recall, I tweaked my right elbow joint somehow while doing P90X2, and I tore my anterior and lateral talofibular ligaments in my left foot during the Spartan Race. Then there was the Big Mountain Challenge a week after the Spartan Race, where many mountain peaks were conquered while wearing an ankle brace. Then there was a beautiful September where I kept hiking while injured. It all finally came to a halt once the cold of October hit. I realized: I really should get these injuries checked out! So I decided it was time to make recovery a priority, and began visiting my awesome physiotherapist Deb at Calgary Sports Therapy. We’ve been doing exercises to strengthen the muscles (though admittedly, I’m horrible with my physiotherapy homework), massages, and lots of acupuncture in both the left foot, left leg, and right arm. The progress has been great. I no longer use the ankle brace, and my foot and arm seem strong enough to withstand the plyometric cardio and body resistance strength training of Beachbody’s Insanity.

Speaking of Insanity, it’s now 7 days into The November Three-way Challenge of Awesomeness, and I haven’t missed a day! In fact, the schedule has been like this:

Day 1: Insanity- Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Day 2: Insanity- Cardio Power and Resistance
Day 3: Insanity- Cardio Recovery
Day 4: Bikram Yoga
Day 5: Insanity- Pure Cardio
Day 6: Insanity- Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Day 7: Insanity- Cardio Recovery

I’m still going strong, and let’s hope that with all of that physiotherapy, I can conquer this challenge. Maybe I’ll even extend it throughout December!

The November Fitness Challenge

So a while back, I was e-mailing with friends Beth and Dan about our current fitness levels. In general, we’re pretty active people, but sometimes life gets in the way. In my case, a few injuries have set me back, and while I’ve relished in some much needed relaxation time, I’ve definitely been feeling like it’s time to get back into the swing of things. As a visual, I’ve stolen these awesome images created by Beth for her blog entry about the challenge. The sloth-like nature of these photos describes our activity levels quite well. But not for long! From the depths of the pity party, the November Three-way Challenge of Awesomeness was born.

The basic premise of the challenge is this: Do some sort of honest physical activity each day, whether that’s running, stretching, yoga, cardio or strength training. Just do something! I think I’m going to try to stick to the Insanity schedule interspersed with Bikram yoga and snowshoeing. That’s the goal, anyway. The good thing about making a commitment like this with others is that I know Dan and Beth will keep me accountable, and probably throw insults at me in the event that I fail to stick with the schedule. Or instead of insults, maybe they’ll send a bit of encouragement to keep me going. It’s the least they could do, really.

But wait?! How will they know that I’ve actually completed my daily activity? Well, as expected with three crazy nerds like us, there was a shared tracking spreadsheet created by the end of our e-mail discussion. Let the November fitness challenge begin!

Destined to Win

I’ve been playing this new (and awesome!) game called “Letterpress”. Basically you try to spell words and occupy as much of the board as possible with your colour until all letters have been used at least once. In my current game, I’m blue, and I was able to spell the word STATISTICS. I think my nerdery was just meant to be…

UofC: I’m a Graduate!!

Lo and behold! I returned home after work on Friday to find a large envelope in the mail. What could it be?? I opened it up and received this:

I’m a graduate!! Yatta! Which means, I’m officially a University of Calgary Continuing Education Alumni! 🙂 Yay! UofC Continuing Education offers great courses in many different interest areas, certificates, and professional designations. As part of my current work, it is most fortunate that I am allowed to take 4 free continuing education classes a year. So when I was deciding on what to do, I chose the funnest topic out there: Databases! I have completed all four of the required courses for the Certificate in Relational Databases:

ICT128: Relational Databases Fundamentals (this was extra!)

ICT448: Microsoft SQL Server Introduction

ICT449: Microsoft SQL Server Intermediate

ICT450: Microsoft SQL Server Administration

ICT451: Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence

I even earned a shiny new certificate. Apparently, I now know something about how to use Microsoft SQL Server. And something about databases. Apparently. At the very least, I have proof that I learned something!