I’ve been somewhat lax in my PrimalStride Challenge updates. It seems that life doesn’t want to slow down now that the holidays are over! With the LoneCubs starting back to school and other commitments starting back up, the time just fades away. I’ve been pretty good with the challenge so far, so let’s catch up with it!
Day 3
Up and at em’ — made the 7:00 am wakeup and then getting ready for church. Snowshoeing had to wait. Good thing though — it was very cold and the wind was whipping! I got out in the afternoon and it was still very cold (about -20C) and the wind was screaming. You can hear it on the video over my huffing and puffing! I started off going up the toboggan run. Then I broke some new trail in the powder snow. That was fun.
The forest was breaking the wind, so I decided I’d go for the high point. It turned out to be easier with the snow than it is in the summer. Easy-peasy and I’m at the top!
I’ve got the video (and still haven’t sorted out my YouTube upload trouble) and want to thank Partners in Rhyme for the funky soundtrack loops!
Day 4
Nailed the wakeup once again! It wasn’t pretty, but I was up. Monday. School. Work. Yikes! It turned out to be a very busy day. I’m volunteering as a coach for the Upward Basketball program at our church. I’m coaching 2 teams this year: Gr 3-5 girls (my daughter is on this team) and Gr 4-6 boys. The practices are on Mondays for the girls and Thursday for the boys. My son is also playing and his practices are on Fridays. Makes for a busy Monday, Thursday and Friday. Then there is game day on Saturday!
Given the busy schedule, I decided I wouldn’t snowshoe today. “Boo! Hiss! Quitter!” Hold on — I actually did a switcheroo (my spell checker doesn’t like that word 8=).
Rather than snowshoe, I went to play ball hockey with the Man2Man group. We get together most Mondays at the gym in the church and whack an orange ball (and sometimes each other’s ankles) with hockey sticks. We go for 2 hours with a 20 minute break in the middle, so it’s an intense workout. We usually have enough guys to make 2 lines and run 2 minute shifts. Great fun. Someday soon I’ll have to get some pics.
Day 5
Bit of a slow start today. Missed the wakeup by 15 minutes (well, 20 if you count the 5 extra minutes it took for my feet to actually figure out where the floor was). Got the 2km though, but not on snowshoes. Tuesday and Thursday are karate for LoneCub1. She started this last November and is loving it. She’s pretty good at it too!
However, I knew that I couldn’t get in the snowshoeing after karate (the sun still goes down before 5) so I used the hour to walk downtown Huntsville. I took the camera and I’ll be posting a “walking tour” of downtown Huntsville on HubPages sometime soon. Watch for the link.
Also, I did almost 1km of walking in and out of the house to bring in a rack full of firewood. Getting the “warms you twice” thing going on there.
Day 6
Got a great sleep and woke up right on time. Actually felt good this morning — the rhythms are starting to shift a bit.
The snowshoeing was an easy one today. My daughter’s class has cross-country skiing during the winter months (every 6 days if the weather is good) for phys ed. They love to have parents volunteer to help them get set up and also to go with them on the trails. I’ve been doing that as much as I can since she was in Gr 1 (she’s now in Gr 5). They all laugh at me for being on snowshoes instead of skis, but I’ve never liked the nordic skis — something about the way that the heel isn’t securely fastened to the ski doesn’t instill much confidence in a guy who did downhill as a youth.
So I got to meet my challenge, volunteer at the school and spend some quality time with my daughter. You just can’t beat that (at least until tomorrow — LoneCub2’s JK class is going snowshoeing 8=)
Unfortunately, I had a snowshoe meltdown. One of the rawhide laces I used to repair damage from last year wore through (I’ll have to find another material to fix it) and then the original plastic lace down the one side came undone as well. It held together enough to get me back to the school.
No more snowshoeing at home until I get it fixed (or replaced — to dream) but the school has some I can borrow when I volunteer, so that’s cool.
Keepin’ On
Well, I’m really loving this challenge. While I doubt that I’ll continue the 2km every day, I’ll definitely be looking to do at least 2 times a week. Once the spring hits it will be hiking in the trails (with mosquitoes) and the distance will go up.
I do intend to keep up the 7:00 am wakeup. I may even try to push it further back, but I am a bit of a night owl and I do need my beauty sleep — lots of it 8=) so I doubt I’ll get much earlier than 6:30. But you never know…
Shalom Striders. Keep on keepin’ on!
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