“In a 12-week study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, adults ages 45 to 65 who took creatine increased their lean tissue and strength even if they did not follow a structured exercise program. Participants who combined creatine with regular exercise experienced even larger improvements.”
Sam’s two cents: I’ve blogged about creatine before. I’ve been taking creatine monohydrste for some time now. Creatine is on my list of everyday things. I’ve been stuck by how much evidence there is of its benefits.
It wasn’t a disaster. Honest! No one got injured either. Yay!
But we definitely didn’t have “type 1 fun” that is fun in the moment. Welcome to “type 2 fun”, aka fun when it’s done.
To celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary Michel and I decided to go on a hike someplace new. I was charged with choosing the route. I swear I set the filters to:
Route type = loop
Difficulty = easy
Distance = 4-6 km
I was looking for something not to far away but also someplace new. We have a bunch of trails near London. I played around with the map. Suddenly a loop at the Dalewood Reservoir appeared. It was a 20 minute drive. Perfect!
I threw a few snacks, my water bottle and hiking poles in the car. Michel smiled. I knew he was thinking “classic Nat over preparing.” (I later confirmed he thought that and, to his credit, he admitted it!)
The first hiccup was that the entrance to the conservation area was locked. Huh. I had not anticipated that. Michel to the rescue! He had noticed we had passed a sign marking a trailhead entrance just up the road.
A short drive and we were at a parking lot with trail map, bathrooms and a garbage can. Pro tip, don’t use those toilets. Pee outside. They were super gross.
Michel holds our dog Lucy in his arms. She’s licking her chops in eager anticipation of a good hike. I smile, confident this will be a jolly 90 minute jaunt.
The weather on the holiday Monday morning was cool and overcast but surprisingly humid. After skittering down to the main trail loop we were both quite sweaty.
We crossed an iron bridge and kept an eye out for our right hand turn to go around the reservoir. Otherwise we would walk along a subdivision and end up on pavement after a kilometer or so. We did not want to do that.
Imagine our surprise when we were definitely walking along a fence line as people roasted turkeys. The mosquitoes were fierce and the path was kind of a gravel trench with a narrow gap where it had been washed out.
“We missed our turn.” I frowned. There were no trail markers. But the trail was well worn. As we turned around Michel offered that we could go back to the car. A 3 km walk met our minimum daily walk distance.
“No!” I exclaimed. “I picked this route to see beautiful fall colours, water and listen to birds!”
So we back tracked nearly to the bridge and saw a no snowmobile sign high up on a tree.
“Dang. I saw this on the way out but it didn’t look like a main trail.”
Michel pushed aside several shrubs and 10 feet off the trail was a single blue arrow. We laughed. It was absolutely not visible.
Confident we were now on the trail Michel broke out his Merlin app as I shed my outer plaid jacket layer.
It had rained a lot on Sunday and the trail was clay with freshly falling leaves. There was a lot of little up and downs and it was slippery. Michel slid down hills, Lucy’s leash in one hand and his phone on “listen” in the other.
“That’s a Carolina Wren!” He was like Jack Be Nimble. I was picking my path carefully. Stick, stick, step, step. I soon shed my mid layer and was just in a tank top.
We saw a handful of people going the opposite direction. It was beautiful going from stands of oaks to cedars then maples. The birds were singing, mosquitoes biting and the views were beautiful.
Michel regularly checked in with me. He shared that his legs were hurting. I admitted the trail was more challenging than I had expected. He laughed. We were 90 minutes in.
We kept walking, sweating and minding our footing. Each boardwalk or bridge was numbered, counting down to the locked conservation gate that was close to the car.
We discovered other spots to park and join the trail. At our 6 km point we joined the road to walk on a beautiful bridge above the damn. We knew we were close now.
We rejoined the trail, passing through the canoe launch for the paddling route. Michel offered we could walk back out to the road and find the car. I doubled down on completing the loop. It was the same distance either way. His watch and phone were dead and he was feeling as done with the adventure as I was.
We started seeing the same folks we had met at the beginning. One couple was worried they would not find their car. After a short chat we realized they had parked near the bridge. We reassured them they were almost done and they could not miss the bridge.
The last half hour we were both tired and kind of done with slipping and sliding.
Lucy sits on a bench, looking away. We play the game “up,up” when hiking. Her job is to jump up onto the designated object and pose. She loves having a job!
We got back to the car and devoured all the snacks.
A screenshot of our route from Strava shows it was 8 km and “a three hour tour”.
On the drive back we were both tired. Back at the house I exclaimed “that did not feel like AN EASY 5 km”.
I re-read the trail description. It was best to be avoided after heavy rainfall. No shit. It was also scored as a “ moderate” difficulty. Uh-huh. And it was 6 km only if you avoided the north-east spur, which we did not!
The house was pretty quiet all afternoon as I knitted and Michel did schoolwork.
At dinner we had both regained our sense of humour. I shared a video of a man saying his parents didn’t raise a quitter, they raised a complainer. It was spot on. I had been determined to finish the loop but, boy, there were a few moments where I complained.
I wonder if I do truly enjoy hiking? I’m not sure. I do love the views. We were treated to regular Bald Eagle calls and were rewarded at the very end to see the giant bird close up. We could hear the wings flapping when it took off.
Michel shared he was glad he hadn’t picked that route. I offered I would not have complained then, I would have just pushed it down.
“Your silent fuming is much worse than your complaining!”
That’s what 30 years of marriage gives you, perspective and understanding.
Apps like Workout Locker and SweatPass and Fit Locker force you to complete physical exercises like pushups before unlocking social media apps like Instagram.
A few years ago, I blogged about the controversy over the proposed smaller ball in women’s rugby and tonight, the women will use the smaller ball. The game is Canada vs. England but the real experiment might be the ball size.
World Rugby introduced a trial using a size 4.5 rugby ball (about 3% smaller than a standard size 5, but weighing the same) across the women’s Sevens circuit and the 2026 WXV Global Series—featuring high-profile matchups between England’s Red Roses and Canada.
Until this year, I had never registered for an organized running race. They had seemed intimidating. But my partner signed up for an early fall 10K, so spontaneously I joined for the 5K as well.
My training schedule was inconsistent: I only made it out to the track a few weekends. But my plan, as a friend had described to me, was to complete, not compete. I focused on my playlist and my breathing and the sunshine.
On race day, everything was ready to go when we got there. There was water, snacks, and later fresh fruit and pizza. There was music, announcements, warm up stretches, a land acknowledgement, and the National Anthem performed by a live choir. The running path was clearly marked, with signs that read things like, Runners are sexy – Meet you at my pace, and a big inflatable start and finish line. There was a photography station and water stations and cheering sections, teenagers in orange shirts who clapped along the way.
It was corporate. Sponsors were thanked before each group left. Dominoes pizza flags flew. Someone was walking around in the Wendy’s girl costume. There were brand shoes and shirts and socks for sale. I got some free promotional lip balm, but I passed on a free promotional plastic thing that takes hair out of your drain.
It was also community. I saw families and prams on the route. I saw high school track teams lacing up together. I saw a group of laughing women wearing the same blue shirt that read Kinda Fit and Kinda Fat. I saw one athlete with running blades surrounded by her people. And I saw supporters with coffees and dogs and cardboard signs at the finish. At about 1000 people in attendance, it was big enough to feel like an event but not so big to feel crushed by a crowd.
Afterwards, the standings were easy to find at an online website: at just under 36 minutes I placed about in the middle of the 5K group (and my age group). I ran the whole way and didn’t fall, so that was a win for me.
Elan before the race, the inflatable start line behind her
My impressions
Acknowledging the race was also as a fundraiser, as a regular hobby registration fees would likely be a financial barrier for some. Although it seemed an easy day, I have no comparative experience: the route may have had less grade, the weather nicer, and the crowd much smaller than at typical races. Also, I had novice-level goals: I am not sure how the race day was for those running the half marathon.
But after the race, with my gratis water bottle in one hand and a pre-chopped half banana in the other and a giant Also Participated medal around my neck, I thought about how much planned encouragement there was. How much positive support, and how little negative pressure, I felt as a result of it as a first-timer.
If you’ve hesitated to sign up for your first 5K race, it may be less intimidating and more approachable than you might think.
When I was in my 40s, I spent a lot of time training for long rides, short intense rides, hilly rides, and yes, bike racing. Mountain bike racing was the most fun, and I also did some crits, some cyclocross races and a few road races (my least favorite).
For a while, I had a cycling coach, the marvelous and wise Steve Weller. He was in his 20s then, racing and also beginning coaching. He saw and appreciated my strengths (cornering, bike handling, general enthusiasm) and helped me improve on my weaknesses (sticking to a training regimen, developing high-end power and hill-climbing coping strategies).
I’m still on Steve’s email list. He sends out weekly posts about training, mental states and attitude, seasonal shift advice, etc. Last week’s post was about research on intense workouts featuring 30-second all-out intervals with 15 second breathers.
And then there was this one small mention of the grey zone. What’s that? Here’s what Steve wrote:
The grey zone is the intensity band between genuinely easy and genuinely hard. It’s not Zone 2. It’s not a threshold interval. It’s the moderately hard effort that feels productive — the group ride that’s too spicy on the hills, that solo endurance ride where you keep the power “comfortably uncomfortable” for two hours.
Those rides take some effort, they feel like a workout, and they’re definitely not easy.
But physiologically, this approach is a dead end. You ride too hard to truly build an aerobic base, but not hard enough to create a meaningful high-end stimulus. You accumulate fatigue without triggering the adaptations that will actually make you faster.
Yep, I can speak for myself that I’ve spent way too many minutes on the bike going harder than I might like, but not in a focused or intentional way with a particular goal in mind (other than to get this ride over with or keep up with folks who are faster or peppier than I am). All cycling coaches and all cycling training advice tells us that the grey zone is where motivation goes to die. We don’t get the benefits of focused threshold or top-end-power training, and we don’t get the advantages of long slow distance. We just get tired and then frustrated when we don’t see results.
Oh my god, I can so relate to this now, even though I’m not doing bike training.
Reading Steve’s posts, it was clear to that this is a thing I do in life as well. When I’m feeling behind or pressed by tasks and obligations piling up, I’ll often speed up a little, trying to catch up, but without a real plan or purpose or specific and reachable end point. Instead, it’s all about Go faster! Try to catch up! When will this be over? When can I take a break?
We all know that frantic flailing rarely works in any context, but it is an easy go-to move. Maybe there are other options.
Can I push myself to go hard for a short period of time, a particular goal in mind (e.g. finish that abstract, grade that set of exams, write that report draft, do that group family call)? Can I schedule in rest or relaxation or recreation for some amount of time (e.g. crafting, reading, watching a movie, calling a friend, taking a nice walk, swimming with my favorite toddler)? I’m thinking that yes, I can do that. I can do that more often.
The grey zone sounds scary, but really it’s just a place where we can’t see our way clear to resting or focusing. Let’s clear things up and see how that makes us feel. Thanks, Steve, for reminding me how to train for life as well as cycling!
This blog supports all kinds of bodies finding joy doing fitness activities. I like to think I do too. But recently I have realized that being truly welcoming to everyone is harder than I thought.
I take a jazz class every week. It’s a small group, and none of us are particularly good. This year there only four of us. Two have some sort of intellectual disability (they both compete in the Special Olympics and I recognize one from the Dragonfly program that the dance school runs for people with Down Syndrome).
This slows down the class as it takes longer for our teacher to explain the steps. I can feel myself getting impatient. The fact that I’m only doing the class for fun makes no difference to my competitive perfectionist self.
I’m working to shift my perspective. I love this class and my teacher. I’ll never feel the pure unadulterated joy of my two classmates because I’m just too self-conscious and worried about getting everything right.
But I can try. And I can practice being a little more patient while I’m at it.
Two women jump for joy. They are silhouetted against a yellow and orange sunset.
I saw a reel recently where a cyclist asked her followers a simple question: do you always wave to other cyclists? She called the wave a small act of good vibes. Her view is that waving adds up to a better cycling community for everyone.
There’s different ways of waving, of course. There are different levels of comfort with taking one’s hand off the bars. Some of us just lift two fingers off the handlebar. Some people just nod. And then there’s the full on very enthusiastic wave below.
There is some hierarchy in the world of waves. Mostly it breaks down along predictable lines. Some riders in full kit on expensive bikes don’t wave at people on rental bikes or everyday bike commuters.
It’s a credential check. Are you a real cyclist or merely someone riding a bike?
I wave at everybody on a bike out on the open ride. It’s a bit weird in the city where there are so many people on two wheels.
And I think waving matters. There’s lots of social science behind why it matters so much explained in the Instagram reel linked below.
Sociologists call this kind of contact a “weak tie”: not your close friends, not your family, but the loose, low-stakes connections with people you’ll likely never speak to again. A wave between strangers on bikes is about as minimal as a weak tie gets, and it still counts.
There wave sends a message: I see you. You’re one of us out here.
So my advice? Wave. Wave at the kid on the BMX. Wave at the person on a wobbly rental bike. It costs you nothing, and for someone, it might be the whole reason the ride felt okay.
H/t to the Instagram reel that got me thinking about this and for the explanation of the work done by waves.
Today (Tuesday, October 13) is Train Your Brain Day so I thought I would find a few fun ways for us to celebrate.
Don’t worry if you struggle with these activities or videos though because October 13 is also the International Day For Failure – a day to celebrate the important role that failure plays in the learning process.
So, even if you make a total mess of the brain training, you can console yourself with the fact that you ARE learning and that you are celebrating both Train Your Brain Day and International Day For Failure at the same time.
That would be pretty impressive, don’t you think? There’s really no downside to giving this whole thing a try!
Is solving a Rubik’s Cube specifically mentioned in the articles I read? No. Does it seem like the kind of challenge that would be beneficial? Yes. Image description: a photo of someone’s hands holding a Rubik’s Cube as they turn one column of squares into place.
So, let’s get started with the whole Brain Training/Day for Failure cycle then, shall we?
I’m giving you a big list of links and a bunch of videos but I don’t want you to break your brain.
Just pick one or two things to try, pretty please. No need to overwhelm ourselves!
And, finally, here is just a sample of all the fun videos I found about training your brain.
A video from Justin Agustin called How to Improve Brain Power/ Easy Brain Exercises to Improve Memory. On the right side the still image shows Justin (a man with light brown skin, very short/shaved hair, and a green sweatshirt), using his left index finger to point to his right hand which has two fingers raised. In the middle of the image is a pink image of a brain and text reading 6 Powerful Brain Exercises is on the left.
This video from the Wellness Cupboard is called 2 Min Brain Boost Quick Hand Exercises: Day 1. The still image shows a pair of light-skinned hands with their fingertips pressed together and the background is beige with text reading Neuro-nimble Series Day 1 in brown on the upper right. Their channel includes a whole playlist of activities like this.
This video from NeuroYoga is called Halloween Memory Challenge: Where Was It? Brain Game and the still image is supposed to represent a spooky night. The majority of the background is purple with a darker purple representing the night sky and lighter purple representing clouds. The ground at the bottom is black and there are small houses with triangular tops and a few trees at the bottom and a few black bats in the sky. Text in white reads Train Your Memory Halloween Challenge “Where Was It?”
This video by SENDCo is for kids but I found it fun so I included it. It’s called Brain Break Hand Movement Routine for Focus and Crossing the Midline. The still image shows a landscape in the background with a simple drawing of green hills against a light blue sky. There are two hands near the bottom of the image with the palms facing the viewer. The left hand is pink and the right hand is blue. Text in black reads Cross the Midline Bilaterial Coordination. Copy the left and right hands and pulse to the beat. The words left hand are next to the pink hand and the words right hand are next to the blue. A blue numeral 5 is on the right side of the image near the bottom.
This video from Yoga with Adriene is called Yoga for Brain Power and shows Adriene (a woman in her 30s with light skin and brown hair that is pinned up, wearing black leggings and a grey shirt) standing on her yoga mat in the middle of her living room doing tree pose (left foot resting on right inner thigh) with her arms in the air. Her dog Benji is sleeping on the floor behind her near some potted plants.
This video from Jim Kwik is called 5 Exercises to Improve Memory and Concentration. The still image features Jim Kwik an Asian man with short black hair in a black tshirt who is standing up with his right arm raised and his right hand over his head. There is a black rectangle with text reading Brain Exercises and featuring a small cartoon picture of a brain superimposed over him at waist-height.
This video from The Calm and Content Mind is called Balancing Exercises (the Cerebellum Connection): Inspired by the Book ADHD 2.0. The still image shows the instructor (a woman with light skin and brown hair that is pinned up, wearing a burgundy long-sleeved shirt, leggins, and black sneakers without socks) standing on a small square and holding her arms out to the sides, level with her shoulders. She is in a room with beige walls that have white trim and there is a window to one side with the white blind closed. There is a painting with lots of green in it behind her on her left.
This video from Ageless Grace Brain Health is called The 21 Tools of Ageless Grace. And the still image shows the instructor, a woman with blonde shoulder-length hair and bangs wearing an orange shirt and dark pants, sitting in a chair with her eyes closed and her hands raised in front of her at chest height. She is in the middle of a movement that may be about turning her hands in a circle. She is sitting in a living room chair and there are shelves of photos and knick-knacks behind her on her left and a table with knick-knacks behind her on her right.
This video from Power for Parkinson’s is called Boost Your Brain with this Standing Cardio Workout for Parkinson’s and the still image features the instructor (a woman with long curly brown hair, light skin, and glasses, wearing a black tshirt that says Power for Parkinson’s) mid-movement on the left and the title of the video in yellow on the right.
This video from Yes2Next is called 15 Min Brain + Body Workout for Seniors and features the two video participants, one on either side of the image with the video title in the center. The words ’15-Minute’ are white and are enclosed in a purple rectangle, the words Brain + Body are in yellow with a purple outline. The person on the left is the main instructor (a middle-aged Asian woman with a pink tanktop and black pants with a big smile and her right arm held up in a non-aggressive fist), the person on the right is an elderly Asian woman (the instructor’s mother) with short grey hair, glasses and a small smile. She is wearing a black sweatshirt that says Live Your Yes2Next and she is holding up one finger on her right hand and is making the ‘thumbs-up’ signal with her left hand.
