Tag: summer

fitness

Summer, by the Numbers

Diane Harper1 Comment

Back in the spring, I joined up with an app to track my cycling efforts for Bike Month. I decided it was sufficiently fun that I kept going even after the count ended. Since June 1st, which is technically late spring, but a convenient place to start, and leaning slightly into fall by counting up to September 26 when I drafted this post, here’s how I have done:

Km ridden on my bike: 1,059

Greenhouse gases averted: 270 kg. A round-trip flight to Ottawa to Berlin creates 2 metric tons of GHG, so I’ll need to cycle at this rate for at least 2 1/2 years in order to offset a single trip to Europe. I am assuming I’ll cycle less in winter and use my car a bit more. This is the calculator I used.

Money saved by riding my bike instead of driving: $643. Honestly, this seems a bit low to me as most estimates have car costs per month in Canada at nearly $1,000, when you include financing, fuel, maintenance and insurance. I’m guessing this amount is just fuel and maintenance.

Critical mass rides to advocate for climate change and safer streets (including Kidical Mass and Fancy Women rides): 5

Organized social bike rides: 11

Km swum: 19.743. This is way lower than past years, but between shoulder issues and general busyness it was all I could manage. Next year!

Activities for a cause: 5 – apple picking for the food bank; helping on various rides; census of transit at various locations around the city for the annual Pedal Poll; swim Angel for Bring on the Bay, which is itself a fundraiser for Easter Seals; 15 km swim fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society

Personal cycling goals set and achieved: 4 (18 km each way for a bike swim bike at Britannia Beach, feeding my friend’s cat 20 km away, visiting my parents 25 km away, and visiting my horse 24 km away).

Walks: I didn’t add them up but there were lots, mostly as a way to catch up with a friend, but sometimes for a history tour or to go to the grocery store with my rolly cart.

What did I get out of all this? I discovered that I can do a lot more than I imagined. I have gone from being a steady short-distance commuter to the office to being the person who thinks nothing about using the bike for all kinds of errands – from medical appointments to picking up groceries, going to shows and concerts, to checking on my community garden plots or joining others for a swim, drink or to check new cycling infrastructure. And that I love being social for a good cause.

Kidical Mass Ride, with a range of bikes and people of all ages in a park
My bike loaded with purchases
Me in the river, wearing a white swim cap and goggles
Friends checking out the new pedestrian/cycling bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau, folks at a social bike ride, and a group of people packing up boxes of freshly harvested apples in an orchard

Diane Harper lives and swims and bikes in Ottawa.

fitness

The Joy of Unplugging

Diane Harper1 Comment

I started writing this from my cottage property, where I hung out for a long weekend of mixed primitive and glamping with my buddy Melanie. The irony of writing on my phone about unplugging is not lost on me.

Though I call it a cottage property, it’s really just a plot of land with a clearing with a fire pit where we can pitch a couple of tents. It got a major upgrade a couple of years ago when Mel and I built and installed a thunder box (a primitive open-air version of an outhouse).

Mel, like me, loves to camp. But it’s also important to her to take time to just be together with other women, alone. Though she loves her hubby dearly and does lots of things with him, taking time away is invaluable. It’s the same for him – staying at home with the cats, indulging in all the baseball.

Mel came with a list of things she hoped to accomplish – clear a better trail to the thunder box, move the woodpile from one side of the clearing to the other, mark some walking trails.

What did I want from the weekend? To just “be”. Go for a swim if it got warm enough. Maybe break out the compass and see if I could identify the edges of the property.

For the most part, just “being” won out. Breakfast not eaten until it’s nearly lunch time. Remembering that if you just sit back and look at the stars, listen to the howling wolves/coyotes and the calls of loons, time has no meaning.

We did some serious contemplation of the impact of humans on the earth as our trail to the outhouse became clearer each time someone walked back there (no specific labour involved). And we thought a lot about the unpaid labour of millions of women who for centuries were responsible for collecting wood and water. It was hard work to replenish a modest woodpile without the aid of power tools.

In the end, we mostly celebrated just being together in a peaceful space with some goofiness,

Melanie, wearing a long-sleeved shirt, pants and a hat, is dancing around a campfire, using the fire poking stick like a tap dancer’s cane.

delicious food cooked over the campfire,

Roasted corn, green beans in a mustard cream sauce, and piri piri chicken are on a white plate balanced on my knees in front of the fire pit.

and a swim.

Diane with wet hair in a purple T shirt and Melanie wrapped in a blue towel and wearing a white bucket hat at the beach just after our swim, with the lake in the background.

We are already starting to plan next year’s trip, maybe timing it so we can watch the Perseid meteor shower. If we go a bit earlier in the year, maybe there will be more loons, too.

Diane Harper lives and swims in Ottawa.

My Own Mini-Triathlon
fitness

My Own Mini-Triathlon

Diane Harper

On Saturday, I participated in a couple of activities that fall close to the category of Elan’s Silly summer fun. But they also supported causes dear to my heart.

Swim: the day started with a 3.2 km swim as a swim angel for my friend Sarah from my master’s swim club at Bring on the Bay, an annual swim in the Ottawa River that raises funds for Easter Seals. This year, there were 651 swimmers. Swim angels are “buddies” for swimmers with anxiety, disabilities, or medical issues who want someone with them in case they need support.

This year about 20 of us were paired with a swimmer. A few more people act as “sweeps” available in case someone swimming alone needs assistance. It’s a great program and I benefitted from it years ago when I was anxious about cramping up following foot surgery.

Me in a white cap, multicoloured goggles and a swimsuit, with Sarah, who is wearing a red cap, black goggles and a wetsuit.
Swimmers heading out into the river with their angels. Two of the sailboats, a kayak and SUP that mark the route and provide support are in the background. Sara and I are in the front of the group, on the left, closest to the green channel marker.

Sarah did great! She is actually a bit faster than me, but this was only her second open water swim and she had never swum this distance. She’s a musician, so my job was to be her metronome. I set the pace and she drafted behind me until we got close to the end. Then she moved up beside me so we could finish together. I was a good metronome: we finished within 3 minutes of the time I had predicted.

Bike: this was pretty straightforward as I biked to and from Bluesfest, a 10-day long series of concerts in Ottawa. Even though I have lived here for nearly 40 years and have been a commuter cyclist for 20, I’m still learning new ways to get around. My friend Florence showed me a couple of changes to the route I would have taken, which minimized car contact. 12 km done and dusted.

Run: technically walk, but 9.6 km worth of walk according to my phone app. This was the silly fun part. I’m a member of Bike Ottawa, a group that advocates for safe infrastructure for all people who bike. Every year at Bluesfest, volunteers run a free bike parking service to encourage people to bike to the venue rather than driving a car. This year, they parked their 100,000th bike. Any donations received are split between Bike Ottawa and Blues in the Schools.

The volunteers were a mixed group from teens through to seniors. The supervisors were dressed up in all sorts of bling for visibility. It works just like a car valet service, except we weren’t allowed to ride the bikes. We did get to admire some beauties though.

This was an incredibly smooth operation, but there was a LOT of wheeling bikes to their designated spots and retrieving them for their owners at the end of the night. We cleared out roughly 800 bikes, scooters and skateboards in about half an hour after the last concert ended.

A field filled with orange construction horseshoes, with hundreds of bike leaning up against them. A few volunteers in blue shirts are walking more bikes to their designated spot.

At their base, none of these activities was really silly, though I thought they were a lot of fun. So, because I can’t figure out any other excuse to share, here is a photo of my friend Gwendolyn and I, just after winning the teacup obstacle race at a friend’s 40th birthday party. The race involved running around a tree and then shooting a croquet ball through a hoop while holding a teacup full of water. Then you were blindfolded and turned around five times before being guided by your partner to pour your water into a container. The winning team was the one with the most water after each person had gone through the course.

Two white women, wearing flowered dresses and hats are standing in a trees park. One is blindfolded and holding a croquet mallet and ball. The other holds a teacup.

Summer Fun! Finally!
fitness · hiking · nature · swimming

Summer Fun! Finally!

Christine Hennebury

A few days after I wrote my post about pretending that it was summer, the weather changed and it started getting warmer.

Now, I’m not saying that my post was a magic spell or anything but I think you can draw your own conclusions there.

Ahem…let’s carry on with today’s post.

The weather hasn’t been evenly delightful, we’ve still had a few cold days and a few rainy ones but, overall, we’ve been trending toward summer.

And today (Monday), I was able to do TWO of my most important summer activities – hiking and swimming.

My husband, my brother-in-law, and my 20 year old nephew and I went for an hour-long hike on the East Coast Trail this morning.

It was tough in some places but even in the challenging spots it was wonderful to be outside in the warm weather, moving happily along the trail.

A selfie of the author with the ocean and cliff in the background
I couldn’t see the phone screen when I took this so I didn’t realize that I looked a bit disgruntled, I am far happier than I look here. Image description; A selfie with the ocean in the background with a cliff in the distance. I’m wearing a white shirt, brown sunglasses and my hair is pulled back with a bandana. I’m smirking a little and I am kind of red in the face – it was hot out today!

This afternoon, we drove to a swimming hole about half an hour away and I had a marvellous time swimming and then floating on my back looking at the sky.

It was peaceful and cool – even with a bunch of kids goofing around nearby scaring each other with the idea that they had seen an eel in the water. (There probably wasn’t an eel, there was a bunch of vegetation at the bottom and some of it was pretty eel-like.)

A photo of the author in chest-deep water.
In order to be close enough for a clear picture, I had to stand in ankle-deep mud and vegetation, hence the smile that’s almost a grimace. Again, I’m having way more fun that it looks like. Image description: I’m standing in chest-deep water, wearing a black swim shirt, a black bandana, and brown sunglasses. I’m smiling but it’s a bit of a strange smile like I’m a little uncomfortable because, in the moment, the slimy vegetation was creeping me out a bit.

I felt so relaxed and delighted just to be there in the water, especially after my more challenging activity in the morning.

So, with two key fun activities rolled into one day, that’s my summer fun off to a solid start.

I hope the same holds true for you. 💚⭐️

PS – This won’t be the only times that I go swimming and or hiking, but I’m so happy to have done both of them once already!

Christine Pretends It’s Summer
fitness · nature · season transitions · temperature and exercise · yoga

Christine Pretends It’s Summer

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

I’m a creative and imaginative person and I enjoy using those skills in all kinds of different contexts.

I do not, however, enjoy having to use my creativity and imagination to pretend that it is summer.

Sure, technically, that’s the season we’re in but in my part of NL we have been having a very unsummery June.

We’ve had lots of rain, drizzle, and fog (a.k.a. RDF) and, as of last week, we hadn’t reached 20 degrees Celsius yet. I’m not sure if that one sunny day we had recently broke that unfortunate streak of chilly temperatures but even if it did, one warm day can’t really shake off the gloom of so many dreary ones.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to be safe from drought and fires and smoke. I recognize that there are far greater troubles in the world than a month of disheartening weather.

But disheartening weather is still disheartening.

And I could really use some heartening during this emotionally difficult time in my life.

It’s much easier to feel hopeful, try new things, and get yourself moving when you have some sunshine and when you can wear bright colours.

(Yes, yes, I can wear bright-coloured clothing at any time but my summer clothes have a different feel to them – you know what I mean!)

Anyway, despite the disappointing weather, I have still been doing some summery things – a little gardening, tidying the yard, taking longer walks, using my swing, and sitting outside to read (bundled in a blanket, but still!)

Yesterday morning (Monday), though, I took it a step further and really pretended that the weather was warm.

A photo of a yoga mat on a deck on a dull day, deck chairs, railings, trees, a lawn and a swing are in the background.
Image description: a close-to-the-ground cloudy day photo of my patio with my yoga mat stretching out length-wise between the camera and the space where my patio steps are. At the far end of the mat, on either side of the opening for the steps are patio railings (wooden tops with black uprights), a patio chair with a red cushion, and a white table hanging off the railing. Beyond the deck is a green lawn and on the far side of the lawn there are trees and a fence and an orange patio chair. My green disk swing is hanging from one of the trees.

Yep, I dragged my mat outside and practiced out there.

It was only about 6 degrees Celsius, it was threatening to rain, and the sky was dull, but I did my yoga outside because that’s the kind of thing I like doing this time of year.

The weather is making it hard to feel summery but I am determined to have a summer fun all the same.

Even if it starts to rain immediately after I take photo evidence.

a photo of Khalee - my light-haired, medium-sized dog standing on my deck looking back over her shoulder towards me. Most of the ​deck boards are wet with rain but the ones closest to me are sheltered by the roof overhang so they aren’t wet yet.
Image description: a photo of Khalee – my light-haired, medium-sized dog standing on my deck looking back over her shoulder towards me. Most of the deck boards are wet with rain but the ones closest to me are sheltered by the roof overhang so they aren’t wet yet.
Night Kayaking in Costumes
fitness · fun · kayaking

Night Kayaking in Costumes

elan.paulson1 Comment

Wonder Woman and a boy of about 11 paddled by on light-bedecked standup boards. “He’s never done this before” Wonder Woman shouted proudly. From their also light-bedecked kayaks, Green Lantern, Poison Ivy, and the Joker cheered.

This was a scene from a free event called “Light Up the Night” kayaking in Stratford, Ontario. Folks meet monthly around 8:30pm to paddle together after decorating their non-motorized water craft with lights. There’s also an optional theme for each outing, including Canada Day, Romantic Evening, and (of course) Superheroes.

It was silly fun to transform this daytime activity into a water-based costume parade of about 40-50 “floats.” I should mention our audience: because we were in town, folks watched and took pictures from the banks of the Avon River as they picnicked or waited for their theatre show.

Participants were instructed to put in before dusk, then paddle together at the same time around a tiny island. So while it was a very leisurely pace, we did end up paddling for quite a while as it got dark. Here is part of my friend’s recorded route.

We were to paddle around the island 3 times, but because we dressed as superheroes and supervillains, we had the strength to do a 4th.

A few of our friends supporting this silliness took pictures from atop the island bridge while we paddled underneath. Afterwards, folks shared their snaps on the group’s Facebook page. Alan Hamberg used a drone to capture in video the paddle as well.

Kayaks and other watercraft on the Avon at Stratford as night falls.
Screen capture of drone footage of light up the night kayaking. The video is available on the FB group.

Overall, this night kayaking event offered outside activity, happy folks, and lots of pretty lights! Next time, my friends and I will likely picnic again before decorating our kayaks, as doing so made the activity into a whole fun evening. We’ll bring bug spray and headlamps for re-packing kayaks in the dark. I may also buy better quality lights and avoid the dollar store glow sticks that ended up glowing in my garbage the next day.

FIFI bloggers: what silly summer fun will you get up to and share about?!

fitness · holidays

Radical incrementalism and micro-adventures

Sam B1 Comment

As we’re heading into spring (slowly) here in my part of Canada, many of my friends, neighbours, and colleagues are talking about summer vacation plans.

I may be an academic (we’re notorious for not really vacationing and reading and writing while doing so) but I’ve always taken holidays seriously. That is, I take time off work and deliberately get away from my job. I don’t make rules about not reading philosophy or working on papers, and I do do some of that, I do it at my pace and sometimes don’t do it all.

Canadians aren’t Europeans. We don’t tend to take big chunks of time off work. But we aren’t Americans either. We do tend to take some time off during the summer.

That said, this year will be different for me. Spring will begin with 6-12 weeks of medical leave while I recover from knee replacement surgery. I don’t think I’ll feel like vacation right after that. And I’ll have physio twice a week all summer. I don’t think I’ll want to stray too far away from town that often. So this has my mind turning once again to small adventures.

I also enjoyed reading this: Taking Small Adventures Might Make You Just as Happy as Climbing Everest.

“In his book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman briefly references the concept of radical incrementalism. Burkeman writes about psychology professor Robert Boice, who studied writing habits of other academic professionals. Boice found that PhD students who wrote a little bit per day—even as little as 10 minutes—were more productive and less anxious than those who tried to write in big chunks (which they often procrastinated on until they had a deadline coming up).

Radical incrementalism has been mostly embraced in academia, policymaking, and even self-improvement. But I think it’s also an interesting way to look at having more fun: Instead of wishing I had the money and time to take a month or several to do some sort of very notable human-powered adventure to the top of a mountain or across a country, how about doing some less-notable stuff near where I live every week, or every month?” 

I’ve written about this a bit before…

Looking forward to a summer of micro-adventures

I love the idea of treating weekends like a vacation. So while I don’t plan to take a lot of time off this summer, I’m thinking I will plan lots of long weekends–biking, sailing, swimming, boating, camping…

But I am also thinking some weeknight evening drives to the beach might be in order too. Each summer, at the end, I regret that I didn’t go swimming more often and spend more time at the beach.

Even at work it feels especially summery when I take my lunch outside and chat with friends, or read fiction.

What kind of micro-adventures do you think you might get up this summer?

Water, photo by Nikhil Mitra on Unsplash
GIFs that get me going
fitness

GIFs that get me going

elan.paulson

Summer is ending here in the Northern hemisphere. As the days start to get colder, I find it’s usually harder for me to get outside for regular exercise. Fall is also a busy time for folks like me who work in education, so compared to the summer months my free time for recreational activities seems to shrink to near nothing.

On a hitherto unrelated note, I recently learned that Gen Z thinks that GIFs are out of fashion, or “cringe” as the kids say. However, I’m late Gen X, which means I like to hold onto things.

So, today I am here to give both outdoor fun and GIFs another short moment in the sun.

FIFI readers, I share with you 14 GIFs that get me motivated to get outside! I hope they get you going too…or at least give you a smile.

Once I leave the earth I know I’ve done something that will continue to help others – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Young girl flipping a tire
Woman swinging on rings with a hula hoop
Girl flipping then throwing a baseball
Young in a fairy dress skateboarding
Woman doing a chin-up outside
Woman hitting a pickle with a racket
Woman flexing and posing
Woman doing soccer ball kick tricks in high heels
Young girl dancing with other kids watching
Woman jumping on top of a mountain
Girl dribbling two basketballs at the same time
Love it!
School sports are for everyone
Late summer magic (Guest post)
fitness · Guest Post · season transitions

Late summer magic (Guest post)

Sam B

by Judy Steers

It’s THAT time of day. You know the one. Where the sun is slicing through the trees at a sharp angle. It’s warm while it’s on you and losing that hot edge like it had back in July. Wrapped in a damp towel, your hair wild and wind-blown, you’re gingerly walking barefoot on the soft moss and hard stones back to shelter – whether that’s the tent, the camper, or the cottage.

You’re a bit wet still from an afternoon of playing in the waves and paddling down the wind and lying in the sun. You’ve body surfed and got rolled over and come up laughing. You’ve had a cold beer or soda or juicy apple or a bag of salty chips on the dock and now, it’s time to shift to the Later Things.


But right now? Now is that beautiful in-between time where you look for the mossy patch stepping stones to take your feet back to warm clothes and lunch dishes still on the table (because you were just so keen to get out on the afternoon adventure).

You wrap up in flannel and someone lights the barbeque or the fire. The water and the wind still roar and the towels dance in the line. You’re warm and happy and surrounded by people you love. Good food awaits. The promise of campfire, s’mores and the wind in the trees to lull you to sleep.


You’re 10 years old at Girl Guide camp, you’re 20-something on a short weekend with friends, you’re 40-something wrapping shivering children in big fluffy towels, you’re staring down 60 and feel like all of them.


5:00 pm on a late summer afternoon is pure magic. It’s the transition between splashing, shivering fun and warm well-fed contentment. The tentative barefoot steps on the moss tell you you’ve been here before, and your heart is grateful you get to do it again.

Sun through the trees
Feet in the sand

Judy is a school chaplain in her work life and a kayaker and board game geek in her play life. She lives in Guelph and regularly waves as Sam bikes past her house on her cool Brompton. She is now past 60 and still loves playing in the waves and campfire.

Go Team: View Your Highlight Reel
fitness · goals · play · season transitions

Go Team: View Your Highlight Reel

Christine Hennebury

So, Team, here we are at the end of August, being our marvellous selves.

We had BIG plans for the summer and we got some of them done.

We managed to do some cool stuff that wasn’t on our lists.

We also dealt with unexpected (and likely very challenging) stuff.

While we *could* sit here and list all of the things that didn’t go as planned, the stuff we hoped to get to but never did, the obstacles we faced, I’m going to vote no on that sort of deliberate review for us right now.

I am especially voting no on anything that might lead us to be harsh to ourselves about the whole thing.

(Yes, there’s a time and a place to review what went awry and to adjust future plans accordingly but it doesn’t have to be right now. And there might be a time and a place to decide to make different choices and take different actions but there is never a time when we have to be hard on ourselves about that sort of stuff.)

Instead, I’m inviting us to view our summer highlight reels – the fun stuff, the shiny bits, the hard work that paid off, the times we relaxed, the summer-specific moments and memories that feel great when we roll them around in our minds.

Take a minute when you can and sink into those highlights.

Relive how you felt, the sensory details, the work and the fun.

Give yourself the chance to celebrate the effort you put in, the good choices you made, the fun that happened even if things didn’t go according to plan.

I know that the end of summer can bring a sort of melancholy and, obviously, it’s totally ok to feel however you feel about the change in season, but you don’t have to get mired in that feeling.

You can be present for your melancholy moments AND you can enjoy the memories of the highlights of your summer. You don’t have to choose.

You can have some regrets about things undone AND be happy about the fun you had. this isn’t an either/or situation.

However, given the human brain’s negativity bias, we might have to consciously choose to fully remember the highlights of summer as the season comes to an end.

So, Team, here are some stars for your efforts to celebrate the good and create your summer highlight reel.

A GIF of cartoon stars dropping from the top of the image, each with a trail of sparkles
Okay, so these stars aren’t gold per se but they are super fun so they totally count. Image description: a GIF of a series of stars dropping from the top of the image trailing sparkles behind them.

And, truth be told, summer doesn’t officially end until sometime in September. So, once you have that mental highlight reel in place, you can spend a little time planning another adventure or two even as your schedule moves into Autumn mode.

Go on, I dare you to add more fun to your next few weeks.

PS – If a mental highlight reel isn’t enough for you, create an album of photos on your phone, make a list, create a visual journal, doodle some memories, or make a video for future you to watch.

PPS – My summer highlight reel includes swimming with Trudy and Michelle, sitting on my patio in the evening, a backyard fire with a small group of friends, getting my tiny spiral garden planted, a couple of day trips with Steve, and watching Khalee sniff the same patch of flowers each day on our walk.