Wednesday, May 17, 2017

On Curling

So this post should have been written, done, and dusted ... two weeks ago? ... but, well, lots of life changes going on over here so I'm getting to it now.

Back in high school, I was a bit of a Canuckophile. Blame my crazy love of hockey that blossomed, but I became obsessed with pretty much all things Canadian. This also included the, at the time, relatively obscure sport of curling. Curling, which you may or may not know, because a bit more of a household sport in 2002 thanks to it being added to the Winter Olympics.

I married a Minnesotan who also loved hockey and also curling. He's a way bigger curling nerd than I, really, and actually tried it once up in college.

A few years back, the Denver Curling Club opened up here as a dedicated facility to curling (next closest? Somewhere in Arizona and in South Dakota. I think.). We've been tossing around the idea of doing lessons pretty much since then, but I finally signed up for information and, what do you know? They opened up a few spring classes and one of them was open AND fit in our schedule. Whaaaaa?

I signed us both up.

So, back on May 3, we took a Learn to Curl class at the DCC.

curling

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The sheet.

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Brandon on the ice.

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Me curling, as posted on Instagram. 

It. Was. So. Much. Fun. Seriously. People may not think curling is much of a sport, but you're doing a lot of lunges when you're the one handling the rock and sweeping? Can be exhausting. Especially if you're playing a game and you're one person down so you only have one sweeper (as opposed to two). 

We loved it so much that, in the fall, when the ice goes back in, we might sign up to become members. We probably won't join a league (yet), but as members, we can book practice ice and we can sign up to sub on teams just to start getting the practice.

It might not have been multisport related, but trying new things and cross-training is always a good idea. So whatever sport/activity you might have been tossing around trying? Sign up for a beginner's class! You might just fall in love with something new.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

April Round-Up

Ugh, April. You weren't much better than March. In fact, you might have been worse ...

Swimming: 3000m (1.86 mi)
Cycling: 45.25 mi
Running: 10.52 mi
Lifting: six sessions (3:06)
Other: two hikes (1:00), one session plyometrics (:25), one walk (1:00), four yoga sessions (:49)

I tried resetting for April, but clearly it didn't really work. The early part of the month was tentative, but successful-ish. I look back at the month and I didn't have too terribly many off days, but I didn't do a lot of triathlon-related stuff. I also had a few very rough days emotionally (Dad in the hospital for major surgery will do that ...), which didn't help.

I am trying to be more positive, though, so here are a few things I can positively take away from April:

- I raced again. Sometimes, a little thing like that can get me going. The Sneak wasn't my fastest 5K, but it certainly wasn't my slowest and even though it was (given my history) a fairly mediocre time, it was probably one of my best executed races. I'll put it this way - I haven't been that sore after a 5K in a really, really long time.

- I've started hiking. With Pikes Peak Ascent in August, I'm not only going to need to start trail running (which I also did a tiny bit), but I'm also going to need to hike to get used to that. I've started that process.

- May is still planned out. I haven't totally given up. In theory, Santa Cruz training starts the 22nd. I probably won't be following the plan to the letter, but I have it as a guideline/baseline to where I should be.

- I signed up for SMASH camp. Yep. Early August will see me back in Tucson SMASHING it with Hillary Biscay, Alyssa Godesky, and a lot of my other TeamSFQ teamies. I already know the loose schedule, which includes a crazy ass swim (at least 50x100), climbing up and over Gates Pass, climbing Mt. Lemmon, trail running, and some track work. This camp? TERRIFIES me. Which is probably a good thing, because if nothing else will motivate me to get my ass in gear, this will.