Week Five - Day Four

TIME THERE: 26 min.
TIME BACK: 26 min.
WEATHER: clear, -2C, 7 km/hr wind there; clear, 13C, 6 km/hr wind back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, waterproof shell, cotton gloves (gloves in panniers on the way back)
NOTES:
When I opened the door to leave this morning, I was confronted with frost-covered lawns and my car windows needing a scrape. My outgoing breath crystallized and hung in the air before me while my inhalations chilled my lungs. It was cold. When I started biking, I very quickly became aware of just how unprepared I am to deal with this kind of weather. Running shoes designed for "breathability" allowed my feet to freeze to numbness. My legs were stiff, numb, and slow under the thin layer of protection the yoga pants provided. My hands, in their dainty powder blue cotton gloves, could barely move enough to use the brakes properly. The cold wind bit at my cheeks and my eyes watered like I was watching Magnolia. It's not even that cold! It's not even windy! My God, there's not even snow on the ground to have to force my way through! This will not do.

This weekend I will head over to Mountain Equipment Co-Op and buy some things: a warm middle layer to go between my waterproof outer shell and my base layer, some gloves, maybe something to cover my ears, maybe even a pair of waterproof pull-over pants and some goggles. Considering I'll be taking my daughter with me, and likely chasing her through the store trying to prevent her from tearing everything off every shelf she can reach, perhaps I'll have to just buy one or two things and save the rest for another day.

Speaking of my daughter: baby, you are killing me. I have no idea what's wrong, but she's not sleeping well and she's often whiny, prone to tantrums and tears, and everything's a fight (I often have to pin her arms down with my toes so I can change her diaper without getting poop everywhere, all while she's screaming and thrashing as best she can). Here's a run-down of how we spent our time between getting home from work this evening and the present:

1. She didn't want to go inside the house and tried to break away from me as soon as I got her out of the car, making a bee-line for the road. I caught her and took her by the hand to lead her back onto the sidewalk, but she threw herself down onto the pine cone riddled concrete and screamed, so I suggested we could go for a walk along the path instead of the street. She held onto my finger and we walked along the path for a while, and this was very sweet for about a half-block, until she tripped and fell and cried hysterically. I picked her up, kissed her hands, and tried to carry her home, but she squirmed and squealed til I put her down because she had to walk herself. When I did put her down, she ran into a neighbour's yard and immediately found some rocks that she then proceeded to throw at their garage. I used my stern voice and gave her a warning to stop. She continued, so picked her up, kicking and screaming, and carried her the rest of the way home.
2. We got inside and I brought her to the backyard so she could play. When she was outside, she screamed at the back door to let her back in. When I put her inside, she screamed at the door to be let out, throwing herself backwards onto the hardwood floor and sprawling dramatically with her clenched fists waving above her head and demonstrating her "angry legs" (tense as can be, toes pointed). We have been home 20 minutes, and I can't wait for her bed time.
3. I cook dinner while she pads around by my legs, crying for milk, then cheese, then throws her milk on the floor and watches with glee as the lid pops off and leaves a massive, spreading milky mess all over the floor. I drop what I'm doing to clean this up, and she does her best to splash in the puddle and make the mess even bigger than it has to be. When I try to prevent her from getting to the milk puddle, she throws another tantrum. During this incident, I burn my dinner.
   
4. She's in her high chair, eating. More accurately, throwing. I'm not sure she ate anything, considering how much of her food ended up on the floor. I gave her a toddler-sized yogurt drink for dessert, which she began drinking nicely. This is my opportunity to sit down to eat my own dinner, and just as I sit down I hear a splat-splat-splat. She has emptied the entire yogurt drink down her shirt, making a waterfall from her chest through her lap, down her high chair, and onto the floor - and the cat - below. As I begin cleaning this, she throws what remains of her food at me.
5. As I'm cleaning up after dinner, I hear her transferring precisely one-half of the cat's food into the cat's water dish. The remaining half of the kibble she spreads all over the floor of the spare bedroom. Throughout this process she manages to eat a handful or two of it.
6. Bath time! Thank God, bed time is almost here! It's going pretty well, except for when she starts using the cup that's meant for washing her hair to empty the bathwater onto the bathroom floor. She manages to get a cup of water directly down the heating vent that is right beside the tub before I'm able to confiscate the cup. Bathtub tantrum ensues.
7. BED TIME!!! Not soon enough! I read her a story as she sits in my lap (one of my favourite things is how she hands me a book and then backs herself into my lap when she wants me to read to her). I give her a snuggle, and a kiss, and put her to bed, then go downstairs to catch up on the blog.
8. She screams for an hour. Only after she stops do I realize that my jaw has been clenched in frustration for the past hour. I am exhausted.
   

I love my daughter dearly, AND, sometimes: I. Hate. Parenthood.

MONTHLY CHECK-IN

WEIGHT LOSS THIS MONTH: 10 lbs.
WEIGHT LOSS TO DATE: 10 lbs.

Whooooooooooot! I lost TEN pounds in September! That was the goal I set in my head, knowing it was a little on the ambitious side. I kept trying to preemptively find reasons why I may not reach that goal (i.e., I didn't really change my eating that much, the weight gain of muscle in my legs may counteract some of the weight loss of fat from my body, etc.), and now I can throw my head back and laugh triumphantly because I didn't have to use them! HAHAHAHA!

I do take all this with a grain of salt, though. After all, in my experience the most dramatic weight loss happens in the first couple of weeks, then my body gets used to its new routine and settles back into its habit of holding onto the rest of the weight for dear life. I'm hoping that with the approach of winter and how much harder the biking is going to get, not to mention the energy it'll take just to keep my body warm, that might keep me working hard and steadily losing weight. We'll see!

I'm just so happy that the biking has made such a big difference so far. And I even got away with eating a lot on the weekends! Cookies, even, and alcoholic drinks, and movie theatre popcorn and CANDY!

Ahhhhh, life is good!

Week Five - Day Three

TIME THERE: 26 min.
TIME BACK: 26 min.
WEATHER: clear, 3C, 20km/hr wind there; overcast, 10C, 35 km/hr wind (gusts up to 45 km/hr) on the way back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, waterproof shell, cotton gloves (gloves in panniers on the way back)
NOTES:
Another 5-hr. night of sleep, thanks to the baby. She didn't fall asleep at all til I gave up on every other effort to soothe her and gave her some Tylenol at 1 am. At least that worked and she fell asleep, but then she was up again before 6. Maybe she's teething again, I don't really know. Whenever I went to check on her she didn't seem to be in pain, didn't want any milk or snuggles or a diaper change, she just wanted to play. Nice timing, kiddo. I was so frustrated with her, I felt like throwing my face through the window. Not that something like that would solve any of my problems, but it would sure make a statement, wouldn't it??

On the way to school this morning I tried a new variation on my route, proceeding straight through an intersection where I usually turn right, making the right turn a few blocks further down. This didn't work in my favour, as it meant slightly more uphill riding and a longer wait at the lights. I'll stick with my tried and true route for now, thank you very much.

On the way home I was definitely battling some intense wind, and I was very happy to get home and check the weather report and find out that it was indeed hard wind pushing directly into me and not just me being kind of wimpy like I (apparently) was yesterday. Especially on the unprotected stretches the wind hit me head-on and both sounded and felt like I imagine it would be like to put my face inside the mouth of a giant roaring lion. Assuming the lion had icy cold breath. The wind rushing past my ears made it more difficult to listen out for cars coming up behind me, so I was sure to be extra vigilant with my eyes. Despite the strong arctic lion breath, I made it home in decent time, so I'm happy about that.

What I'm not happy about is that I can't seem to break that 25-minute mark for my ride to school. It seems like my ride time home is getting faster, even on windy days, but my ride time to school is hovering in the same place and maybe even stretching a minute longer on average. What the nut? My supervisor told me he figured I'd break the 20-minute mark in a month, and as much as I'd like to believe him I'm definitely not heading in that direction. Then again, I have to keep reminding myself - it's about getting there. The fact that I'm riding at all, and sticking to it despite the colder weather, is something to be proud of. Timing shmiming! I need to remember that the important thing is just sticking to it, and also ensuring that I take care of my knees as best I can to make sure I can continue sticking to it.

Week Five - Day Two

TIME THERE: 25 min.
TIME BACK: 26 min.
WEATHER: clear, 6C, 6 km/hr wind there; partly cloudy, 8C, 22 km/hr wind home.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, waterproof shell, gloves (gloves in panniers on the way home)
NOTES:
I couldn't believe it when I checked the hourly weather report when I got home and discovered that my epic battle with the wind on the way home today was against a measly 22 km/hr foe. I felt like I was crawling home, with great effort. I was even surprised that I got home in only 26 minutes. I was working so hard! I figured I was up against 30 km/hr at least. What a disappointment.

I was really tired by the end of the day today, maybe that had something to do with it. I even slept well last night: woke my daughter up before I went to bed to give her a cup of milk and a cereal bar (she won't sleep through the night without a midnight snack), I made sure I was in bed at a decent hour, and I even did some light stretching before getting into bed and put lavender essential oil on my pillow so I'd be guaranteed a good night's sleep. I probably fell asleep around 10:30 and managed to sleep right til the alarm went off at 6:30. So why did I feel so tired in the afternoon? Is it because I ate pasta for lunch? Is it because Tuesdays are usually a heavy client-load day? Is it because I live in a province whose government routinely makes me lose my will to live? Well, at least live here, anyway?

Maybe I'll never know. The key is just to keep sleeping as well as I can, for as long as I can, and keep managing my ample stressors as best I can. What else is one to do? Just keep on keepin' on. And enjoy these snow-free roads every single day that I have them.

Week Five - Day One

TIME THERE: 25 min.
TIME BACK: 25 min.
WEATHER: clear, 6C, 22km/hr wind there; clear, 14C, 54km/hr wind back (oh yes, that's not a typo)
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, sweatshirt, gloves (gloves in panniers on the way back)
NOTES:
Today was the first day that my lungs stung a little bit from breathing heavily in the cold air on the way to school. My right hand went numb despite wearing gloves (thin as they may be). It is definitely fall, and as I wonder how the hell I'm going to fit a balaclava (usually mispronounced as "baklava" by me) under my helmet, I am beginning to feel terrified for winter. What's going to happen when it's -30C? Hell, even when it's just -5C? How am I going to bike through snow drifts when I still get brutally winded going up a short up, low-grade hill? How will my hands and my nose and my delicate lungs survive? What have I gotten myself into?

These questions were especially relevant for me on the way home, when I was hit with brutal crosswinds of 54 km/hr. Going over the bridges, especially the High Level Bridge (which is a 0.8 km long bridge spanning the river valley, with its wide, shallow river 150 ft. below), I was terrified that the wind would push me over the rail! That wind pushed unevenly at me, making my bike swerve to and fro and threatening to knock me over while going over that bridge - I was definitely grateful to get to the residential streets on the other side which were far more protected.

I've mentioned before that my right knee has been hurting lately. I figured it was probably from a combination of putting too much pressure on it by biking at too high a gear, and also from biking with my leg at some kind of angle so that it's not in line with my hip. Today I made a conscious effort to keep my leg in line, and I'm also ensuring that I don't cross my legs at work. The straighter I can keep that thigh-knee combo, the better. I'm also ensuring to stretch not just my hips but the front of my thighs as well. I should also consider stretching out the back of my thighs while I'm at it. Any stretching of that general area is probably a good thing for me. Still, there was that familiar sharp sting on the side of my right knee when I got home this evening. This knee situation is making me very nervous.