In the ongoing struggle to address my Shoulder issues (which now stretch well down into my hip and thigh), I have a new physiotherapist. My old one was great, but has gone on maternity leave.
My old therapist had given me a whole lot of exercises over our time together. I hate them. They work, and my shoulder is significantly better than it was six months ago, but it would probably be even better if I did them more regularly.
My new physiotherapist says the only good exercises are the ones I’ll actually do. She has given me exactly two, plus using a ball to roll my hip against a wall. One feels very much like doing butterfly stroke, which is perfect. It’s an exercise I can connect with my love of swimming. The other is a leg lift at a slightly different angle than I am used to, so familiar but also a challenge.
Do I do them all every day? No. But I am making a serious effort to do at least some of them every day. They are stinking hard and when I do them all, I go to bed exhausted. Even this limited work is helping enough that I am able to swim more often and I’m gradually able to do longer distances using freestyle.
Top: the peaceful little lake where I swim most often these days. Ignore the time. Strava on my phone is terrible for time but accurate on distance in the water. Bottom: Willow the dog gets a kayak ride. She also understands the value of doing less.
These days, it seems, whenever I ride my bike, there’s someone amazed that I rode my bike “in these conditions. “
In the winter, it’s cold, and in the summer, it’s heat.
It’s too hot to ride a bike, they say.
And I understand that on heat alert days especially, it might seem ill advised to ride a bike.
To be clear, our heat alerts are at temperatures like 35 but less than 40. I think I’d behave differently in Palm Springs, for example, where it was 51 this month.
Sun!
On heat alert days, I don’t do long rides, and I don’t ride fast. I make sure I take water with me, even if it’s a short distance. I confess Itry to time lights to avoid stopping. That’s when I get sweaty.
I do ride fast enough to catch a breeze, and that’s my favorite thing about summer riding. It makes riding better than walking.
I cool down at work before I change into work clothes and on hot days, that might take some time.
I might bike in very early if I lived somewhere with warmer summer temperatures.
But I’m certainly not going to drive because of the extreme heat. I feel like that’s perverse. It’s too hot because of climate change and so I’m going to do something that makes things worse? No.
“From weekend runners to Olympians, extreme weather is changing when, where and even whether people run, as heat, wildfire smoke and smog make certain types of outdoor exercise dangerous.”
How about you? Do you bike in the heat? Does the heat affect your running plans?
Yesterday, I finally got to swim in a pond- my first time this summer!
Yes, the angle of the photo, the fact that only my head is above water, and the colour of my swimsuit contrasting with my pale limbs does make me look like some sort of strange pond creature in this shot. I hope you find it as funny as I do. Image description: a photo of me swimming in a pond. The photo was taken from a dock and you can see my head above the water and my arms underwater out to the side and one of my legs kicking out behind me below the water. My hair is pulled back in a ponytail and I am squinting in the sun.
It was big fun and it felt summery and relaxing and like I was letting out a breath I had been holding for a long time.
And it was all because I decided to reprioritize my summer fun.
But then some work projects went off the rails, and my foot started hurting, and the weather kept getting in my way (too hot, too rainy, too windy…you know the deal), and my weekends and evenings were crammed full of stuff and…
The short version is that I got overwhelmed.
And once I got overwhelmed, my ADHD went into overdrive and made it impossible for me to tell the difference between ‘meh, I don’t wanna’ and ‘this is actually an obstacle.’
And, as usual, it kept trying to get me to finish the stuff on my list before it would let me go into relaxation mode.*
Note: You might think this tendency is about needing to be productive or to really earn my rest, but that’s not the goal there. Instead, my ADHD wants me to finish this stuff so when I do rest, I can ‘really relax without this stuff hanging over my head.’ Alas, it also gets in the way of me actually finishing the stuff so it simultaneously keeps me from working and keeps me from relaxing but pressured me about both things. (This situation is just as fun as it sounds.)
I have been doing some fun things and relaxing here and there but I haven’t been able to really get into the plans I laid out in that post.
Here’s how things have stacked up so far:
I’ve been doing some relaxation exercises (imagine how tricky the past month would have been without them!)
I haven’t done any cycling.
I’ve done some yoga on the patio but not the 3-5 times a week I had planned.
I haven’t done any hiking.
I’ve done some hula hooping and had fun with it – I’m not any better yet, though.
And until yesterday, I hadn’t actually gone for a swim in a pond this summer.
Luckily, last Friday, my friend sent me a message asking me to hang out and swim with her on Monday afternoon.
My instinct was to say no but when I looked at the date on the calendar I realized that we’re well into July and I have barely done any of my summer fun!
That realization pulled me out of my ‘don’t relax until you can REALLY relax’ loop and reminded me that stopping to rest and to have fun is not only good in its own way, it might actually help me be able to focus when I head back to my desk.
So, on Monday, instead of trying to work on ALL OF THE THINGS, I picked three main things, worked on them until noon, had lunch and then headed out to see my friend.
I basically made fun my priority for the afternoon and I followed through.
And I had a glorious time alternating between being a pond creature and a creature who eats chips and chats with her friend.
I’ve got a lot of writing deadlines this summer. (Do I even need to say that? I’m an academic. Maybe it goes without saying.) There’s also a lot of family stuff on the go. In the midst of all this, I’m excited that it’s seriously summer. That means warmer weather, brighter skies, and a schedule that’s just a little bit more flexible.
So far, I’ve been traveling for work and pleasure, which has been amazing, but for the rest of summer, there are some things I want to do closer to home. These are the activities that feel most like summer to me. It feels like it’s not really summer unless I get to do these things.
The one must-do summer thing we have done is camping. We’ve been to the Pinery and to Awenda Provincial Park, both trips with bikes for daytime rides. We’ve also spent a couple of weekends on the boat, and that’s been fun too.
Still, there are some summertime itches I’ve yet to scratch. What are they?
First on my list is a Beach Day. It could even be a beach evening or two. I want to swim, play in the waves, nap in the sand, and maybe read a beach book or two. Proximity to Lake Huron is one of the things I miss about living in London, but Guelph isn’t that far away, really. Sarah’s family farm is also close to the Sandbanks beach. We went last summer but got rained out. Might be worth trying again.
Second on my list are some Long Bike Rides. We haven’t done much of that this summer. It used to be my go-to weekend activity, often focused on getting ready for the Friends for Life Bike Rally. I’m hoping to be rally ready by next year. Fingers crossed. This year, Sarah and I have the Pedaling for Parkinsons ride. Please sponsor us here. And I’m riding 60 km for my birthday. Finally, there is a fall Parkinson’s Ride, the Growling Beaver gravel ride we might take on.
The third item on my list is a Canoe Camping Trip. It doesn’t need to be that rugged, and it doesn’t need to be that long. A couple of nights in a tent listening to loons will do. For years, I’ve thought that in terms of relaxation and that feeling that I’ve really had a break, absolutely nothing beats back country canoe camping. Being gone for even a few days feels like a week or so away. I’m not sure what it is. The beautiful natural environment? The absolute no signal and complete disconnect? Cooking over the camp stove? Yoga on rocks? I don’t know. I just know I love it. Bring it on.
Fourth of my list is a day hanging out around Sarah’s family Swimming Pool. I like days that move between swimming, hot tubbing, reading, snacking, and napping. Sigh.
Fifth is another Prince Edward County weekend. This one has bike rides around Big Island and riding for ice cream at Slickers. Those could be fall activities, but Slickers closes early for the season. They’re not long long bike rides. I think the ice cream loop is about 50 km, and Big Island is about 30 km.
Here’s Big Island:
Big Island bike ride on Strava
And here’s a neon cone!
Don’t worry. I’m not going to ignore my summer writing deadlines. They’re all looming in August. But I’m not going to let them get in the way of summer fun.
How about you? Do you have certain summer activities that mean summer to you? Are there things that you feel it’s not really summer until you manage to do this thing?Let us know in the comments.
This week I’ve been on vacation with my aunt Cathy at the Chautauqua Institution in western NY state. We saw several musical concerts, kayaked, meditated to the sound of a live gong, went to talks about important issues, hung out with friends, and walked everywhere. Today we’re going to Niagara Falls, and tomorrow we both go home– her to South Carolina and me back to Boston.
It’s been a great week, with lots of time together, which was our reason for the trip. We were active together, too, mostly with loads of walking all over the area. Cathy is almost 77 and in great physical shape; she and her friends walk 2.5 miles each morning Mon-Fri at 7am, converging on another friend’s house for coffee at 8. By 8:30 everyone departs to begin their day. What a lovely ritual, I think to myself.
My WOTY for 2024 is COLLECTIVE, so I’ve been thinking about my place in and participation as a member of a collective– friend groups, family groups, work groups, etc. In particular, I’ve been thinking about collective exercise– walking, swimming, kayaking, cycling, yoga.
There’s real joy for me in collective movement. Yoga in the studio feels so much more enjoyable than over Zoom in my living room. Exercising with others (and their dogs) provides entertainment, connection, and fun distraction.
Sometimes, however, I want to be solitary and experience physical activity just for myself. Instead of enjoying the (welcome) distraction of friendly chatter, I focus on the experience of the ride, the paddle, the swim, the walk. How does my body feel doing this or that?
There’s also the environment: noticing and reveling in the micro-changes of plants and flowers and trees during the season is a particular pleasure of mine. My friend Pata notes how much of a flower lady I am as I point out new blooms during our rides. We both appreciate the cycle of nature as we cycle along.
Sometimes, though, I want the simplicity of pedaling or swimming or walking alone; the license to pick my pace, route, and focus for that outing. Reading Cate’s blog posts about her solo cycling trips all over the world, we can see the richness and complexity (inner and outer) of a solitary physical endeavor. I’m intrigued.
COLLECTIVE is a good WOTY for me this year, and I’ve really enjoyed my collective trips and outings and physical activities. I’ve got another trip with and to visit friends planned for late August.
But I’m thinking: it would be fun to do an all-day (or even overnight!) outing with the COLLECTIVE of me, myself and I. Cycling, swimming, walking, or maybe all three. I don’t think I’ll go to Hungary this time. But maybe a day trip to Rhode Island? Hmmm. Stay tuned for updates.
Readers, what are your experiences of planning a day or overnight or weekend activity trip for you yourself? I’d love to get ideas and tips.
The bow of the canoe at Ruth Roy Lake, a magical, tiny lake
Happy summer! I’m just back from a camping and canoeing vacation, and I am thinking all about how to keep going when I’m sore.
My knee is still troubling me, and seems to be vulnerable to reinjury if I step hard on it. I will need to address whatever is causing this knee grief – my x-ray was negative, so I imagine physiotherapy and an MRI are in my future. But while I wait for those processes, I am trying to get creative and asking for help to keep doing the activities I love.
In order to at least stay moderately active, I’ve taken to wearing a knee brace while walking. What a difference it has made! I was able to enjoy a week of tent camping and a full day interior canoe adventure, by avoiding reinjuring it, and using a cane on unstable surfaces (campground paths, hiking trails).
In doing that, and with the help of my family, I had a totally fun week at Killarney Provincial Park. Yay!
In my happy place – on the water!
One of the joys of camping for me is getting to flex my fire making skills. Note the knee brace!
I went out for a ride with my big kid bike gang last night and once again was struck by the gender gap in our cycling group. Out of 24 people, only 7 were women. Sometimes, the disparities are even greater.
Part of our cycling group relaxing at the end of a ride.
It’s a pretty casual bunch of people mostly between the ages of about 30 and 60, and most of them are strong advocates for everyday cycling (a demographic that includes a lot of people who identify as women). So why aren’t the women out for a ride?
Among my friends, some of it boils down to child care. Even with a supportive partner, getting an evening away from the kids to go ride a bike can be difficult. If your kids are big enough to ride on their own, they may not be up to riding to a distant start point and home again after the ride. If they are younger, they might be easy to carry on a cargo bike, but their bedtime falls in the middle of the ride.
There may be other reasons keeping women away, or they don’t even know about our rides. Or they know and just aren’t comfortable joining us. I admit that I was intimidated about showing up for a ride around town with a bunch of strangers the first time I went.
If this happens to women who love riding bikes and use them for transportation every day, imagine what it’s like for women who are more fearful about their safety, more intimidated by harassment and close passes, or who simply don’t have the same opportunities as boys and men to ride bikes at all.
This Shifter YouTube video is an excellent summary of the issues, with their sources in the description.
Have you noticed similar disparities where you live? What has worked to help change that? I would love to hear your ideas.
This week, we’re checking in. How are words of the year working for us? Do they still resonate?
Nicole and Truth
TRUTH – as per usual for me, I forgot what my WOTY was, but when I was reminded, I thought about the different ways this word has played out for me in the first half of the year.
Wobbly Runnjng – if you have read my posts in the last few months you will know that one day the world became unstable while running and walking. Through physiotherapy, medical check-ins and talking to lots of people with similar experiences, it seemed my wobbliness was related to anxiety. That may seem like the wobbliness was made up in my head. But, it was very real. It frightened me because, suddenly, I was struggling to walk normally, never mind run. Part of my identity is formed by the idea that I AM A RUNNER. Also, I walk everywhere. It’s my primary mode of transportation. Through physical therapy, practicing mantras and grounding exercises, I worked through the TRUTH that this was a reality and I had to deal with it. It wasn’t quick but, happily, I currently feel as though my running and walking are completely back to normal. That doesn’t mean the problem won’t return. I am grateful every day things are normal and I feel better equipped should the problem reappear. The TRUTH is that things come up as we age and are dealing with stressful situations. Accepting this and working with what happens helped me.
Changing Gyms – Another way that TRUTH has manifested for me in relation to exercise is that I have known I have to try new gyms after several years of putting up with a toxic gym owner, which I put out of my mind because she was mostly absent and I loved my community there. Things have happened recently that made me accept that change is necessary. The truth is that the community is stronger than one person, and we will prevail. That is the truth.
The word truth in felt letters
Diane and Explore
I’m halfway through “EXPLORE”. I retired at the end of June but had been busily exploring options for how to spend my time well before that. I qualified as a lifeguard and swim instructor (yay!) and will start a part-time job with the city of Ottawa in September. I have been exploring the city by bike, both as a cycling advocate going to events and as part of a gang of adults that hangs out Thursday nights riding around different areas and sometimes stopping for ice cream. The skating plans were a complete bust this year – thanks climate change. My hiking plans won’t start until August or September because I can’t stand all the biting insects that are active in early summer.
Time and money management are a mixed bag: I am slowly learning that it’s okay not to do all the things on my list each day: I don’t have to go to the office tomorrow so can tackle unfinished projects tomorrow. One of those projects is building a cottage on a property I have owned for many years. It’s costing more than I had planned, but I think it’s a good long-term investment to have a proper bed and screened in area, instead of sleeping in a tent.
As expected, learning to relax and rediscover my imagination has been hard. Instead of meditation or even a daily drawing or writing practice, I have settled on reading books and magazines for now.
explore, a verb, to travel through (an unfamiliar area) in order to learn about it
Elan and Slow
Halfway through “S L O W” this year. Honestly, it’s been hard. Fast is encouraged, rewarded, and celebrated in so many areas of life. Even time itself seems to speed up as we age (Landau et al., 2017; Bejan, 2019)!
Slow on my own can be okay, but slow with others in soccer, cycling, or group walking can have me feeling or (actually being) behind. Doesn’t help that I compare myself to others, and overthink feeling less or left out when I am slow. It’s also easy for me for SLOW to become STOP, and I just end up on the couch all the time!
Solutions for the second half of the year? The research says to try new things, which I am good at doing. It also suggests pausing to “live in the moment,” which I am not always so good at doing. Maybe I can find a happy balance in thinking about PACE or CADENCE, which might be a word for next year.
SLOW written on pavement
Tracy and Strong
STRONG six-month check-in. This has been a strange six months for me, and I have not been using my WOY as a touchstone quite the way I hoped I would. Back in January I was all enthusiastic about literal strength, having just returned to strength training. I stuck it out for the duration of Caroline Girvan’s EPIC I, and then took a week off and have floundered ever since. I tried EPIC II but there was something about it (maybe renegade rows lol) that just didn’t resonate. I have now just started back with EPIC III, which is working better and serving to motivate me. I had considered back in January that STRONG would feel layered and reveal itself as more complex after some years of emotional fragility. I’m not really struggling with that part – I do feel emotionally STRONG these days, but I don’t need my WOY to keep me on task. It just is how I’m feeling. So that has got me to reflect on how the WOY is supposed to function (or help me to function) in my life. I’m not entirely sure, so I have no words of wisdom to offer on that but would love to know how others feel.
The check-in also reminded me that I was meant to be an accountability partner with Mina, and we haven’t been doing a lot of checking in. Mina, I hope you’re doing well with your DISCERNMENT!
ADVENTURE is my word of the year, and it’s also been a theme I’ve been thinking about for the decade ahead. I turn 60 next month and I’ve been thinking about active outdoor adventurer for my sixties fitness identity. You might have already read this blog post, Sam’s next fitness life: the active outdoor adventurer!
But it’s not just about physical activity. I’ve been aspiring to be more adventurous intellectually, too.
I feel like I’ve opened up again to travel, really for the first time since the pandemic. For the past few years, I’ve just been traveling in North America, but this year so far, I’ve been to Germany, Italy, Iceland, and I’m writing this blog post from Scotland.
I’m hoping to get outside with my bike more often in August and sneak in a canoe trip or two in the fall.
I finally feel like I’m recovering from knee replacement surgery. I love being able to walk all day again.
The world isn’t a very easy place right now, and it’s tempting to curl up into ball, hide under the covers, and stay there. I want to be able to maintain a sense of adventure, both playful and purposeful, through it all. Wish me luck!
adventure, pink text on black background
How about you? Did you pick a word of the year for 2024? How is it working out for you? Let us know in the comments below.
Hi y’all– I’m still on my mid-summer vacation with Aunt Cathy at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York state. We’ve been here since Saturday and have walked tens of thousands of steps, seen upwards of three million blooming hydrangeas, and partaken of many musical, cultural and nature-al events. There are still three days to go, during which we plan to kayak (canceled Monday because of small craft warning and torrential rainstorm), ride bikes (delayed in part because of rain) and try English lawn bowling (details tba).
For now, I can show you a bit of what we’ve been seeing on foot here. Many of the houses have detailed lacy railings and other ornamental details.
Real gingerbread houses should be so pretty…
The gardens are very well tended. Some are neat and formal, while others let nature run wild.
I fully approve of this garden. It reminds me of my closet– all kinds of nice things everywhere.
My newest house ornamental obsession is awnings.
My aunt Cathy likes the crisp classic look of black and white awnings and shades.But give me some color! Love the creamy yellow house with blue, white and yellow awnings.
And then were the individualists in the neighborhood. One family expressed their love for Barbie and Ken for all to see.
Barbie waves hello from an upper window.The front of the house sports its name– tranquility base– and a pic of Ken in the upper window.Closeup of Ken, framed as the Victorians intended.
Others opted for classic bathtub necessities, enlarged and relocated for all to enjoy.
Every side yard should have its own gigantic rubber ducky, don’t you think?
Bottom line: how often do we have time to just stroll around, gawk at other people’s houses and gardens, take pictures and then form opinions about them? Not very often! So, if you are taking some vacation or down time or an afternoon off, I suggest you find an interesting area and walk around. You never know what you might find…
I‘m writing this on Monday evening and I am feeling pretty tired.
(Not ‘worn out and tired of all of the things’ just tired from doing stuff.)
I was at a conference in Quebec on the weekend and while it was a lot of fun, it was also busy, and hot, and involved a bit of convoluted travel.
That all takes a lot of energy and, as a result, today, I both needed rest and I felt restless.
Mostly I felt drawn to rest by sitting outside to read but then I would feel restless from sitting around too long and want to dooooo somethiiiing.
I was starting to get on my own nerves going back and forth between the two (which is never fun) but through a combination of luck and inattention while in the kitchen, I happened to knock something against my empty metal water bottle on the counter.
Being empty and metal, my water bottle made a kind of a clanging noise and it acted like reminder chime for my brain.
Even though I know what to do when I both need rest and feel restless, I often forget in the moment.
When I get stuck in that rest/restless loop, I need to get back to the very basics of self- care like…
Jettisoning anything on my to-do list that isn’t absolutely necessary.
Filling my water bottle and making sure to drink it all. Oh, and some snacks are a good idea, too.
Writing or drawing any thoughts that are dancing around over and over in my brain.
Doing some gentle movement – yoga, walking, a few stretches – so the restless feeling can ease a little.
Deliberately slowing down by meditating, breathing slowly, or by listening to cello or to bilateral music.
Making sure my clothes are comfortable and that I am warm/cool enough.
I know, I know!
That’s a lot of things but I don’t have to do them all. I just pick the one that seems most appealing and start there, then I do as many or as few of the others as needed.
The important thing is that all of these tasks will bring me closer to my favourite self instead of adding to my tiredness or making me more jittery.
So, Team, I’m wondering what kinds of things will help bring you closer to your favourite self?
What kinds of things can you do that help you feel less jittery and more rested?
What are the basics of your self-care?
Please, please, please don’t think that I’m advising you to make a ‘should’ list here.
This is not about the elaborate kinds of “self-care” that influencers try to sell you on, it’s about things that actually help you feel calmer, less agitated, more like yourself.
That might mean lying on the floor with your legs up on a chair or it might mean baking a cake or going for a bike ride or singing opera in your car.
The key is to find the things that work for you and figure out a way to keep that list handy for when you are too tired/restless/worked up to remember them.
I wish you ease in the process.
As always, here are some gold stars for your hard work.
Image description: a photo of a my set of outdoor lights that hang in a similar way to wind chimes. There are 5 gold stars (with round lights in the middle) hanging from a circular piece of metal which is, in turn, hanging from the clothesline in my backyard with maple trees, grass, and a wooden fence visible in the background.
