Kayaking, MORE Fireworks, and My Workouts of the Week

It's been a challenge for me to want to get to the gym this week - or even out to do too terribly much of anything - because I've been stricken with an excruciating muscle pain within my left shoulder blade that makes me want to do little more than sob in a corner. It's a rather relentless pain that only lets up when I'm lying flat on my back, so general discomfort has been a big part of this entire past week for me. 

This exact shoulder issue happens to me about once a year, can last for weeks, and is most likely brought on by falling into poor posture while working long hours on a computer. It's the best (albeit the most painful) reminder for me to maintain good posture while I'm working and to keep my core and upper back muscles strong with specific exercises to target those muscles. Having actually gone to physical therapy for this shoulder blade pain in the past, I've thankfully learned some good exercises for just that purpose - some of which I did just yesterday afternoon (see below for 8/2 arm workout).

After the gym yesterday, Dave and I went kayaking down in the English Bay. We rented kayaks from the same beach-side kiosk that we got those paddleboards from a few weeks ago. Paddleboarding had been a tentative part of our plan for Friday evening, but the water was a bit choppier than I would have liked (especially considering my weakened left arm) so we passed and went for a long walk into the city instead. Kayaking was a great alternative for us for yesterday:

 

.  hey look, that's me  .

Last night was the final night of the Celebration of Lights fireworks competition in Vancouver, with Team Japan putting on a pretty good display of pyrotechnics. 

That'll probably be the last you see any fireworks on my blog for quite awhile; I've got no more random celebratory fireworks displays in my near future.

And on that sad and low note, here are my workouts from the past week:

7/27 (mostly upper body)

6.75-mile walk into the city

5 mins elliptical

3x:  12 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 overhead press, 10 lbs each hand

3x:  12 rear fly, 7.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 bent over rows, holding 20 lbs

3x:  12 deltoid raises, 7.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 tricep extensions on exercise ball, 7.5 lbs each hand

12 seated leg press, 40 lbs

12 seated leg press, 50 lbs

12 seated leg press, 60 lbs

7/28 (lower body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:  13 sumo squats, holding 30 lbs

3x:  40 diamond clamshells each leg

3x:  40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

3x:  40 calf raises, 25 lbs each hand

3x:  40 bridges

7/29 (core)

2x:  30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

2x:  30 cobras

2x:  30 Russian get ups, holding 5 lbs

2x:  30 Brazilian crunches

2x:  30 alternating weighted side bends, 20 lbs each hand

2x:  30 leg raises + reverse crunch

2x:  30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

2x:  30 plank knee to elbow

7/31 (cardio)

16 mins biking

15 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

15 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

15 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

8/2 (upper body)

30 alternating shoulder raises on exercise ball, 5 lbs each hand

3x, prone on exercise ball:

   - 15 M, 5 lbs each hand (prone row)

   - 15 Y, 5 lbs each hand (wide front raise)

3x:

   - 15 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 15 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

3x: 

   - 30 alternating chest flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 15 overhead tricep extensions, 5 lbs each hand

I slept in later today than is typical for me - I didn't get up till 10:15! Normally I'm up an hour or two earlier than that on the weekends. Hopefully it's not setting a lazy precedent for my entire day. The sun is shining and I should probably be outside! Actually this weekend kicks off Pride Week here in Vancouver, which draws hundreds of thousands of people to the city each year. The Pride Parade is this afternoon downtown, so if we can make it down there in time to catch some of it, we will!

I hope you've been having a great weekend! What are you up to today?

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Dreaming of Beach Days

So last week was full of gorgeous sunny days, warm temperatures, blue skies and beach days... until Friday, when it turned grey and gloomy. It hasn't let up much since! "Reading a book on the beach" was LITERALLY on my list of things to do this weekend, and I wasn't able to do it once! Hey Mother Nature - WHAT GIVES, GIRL? It's July, you know. Not February. Let's get that sun back out here, pronto.

To hold me over till the next showing of sun, here are some beachy pictures from last week. Just imagine me snapping these photos while lying leisurely on a blanket on the hot sand beside the water. That's what I'll be doing.

 

.  david in the water  .

.  that speck in the sky is a seaplane  .

Wishing you beach days this week as well!!

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A Few Good Things

A couple weeks ago I went to dinner at the Cactus Club Cafe in English Bay with my friend Rose. This was our view of the Bay from our window at the restaurant...

We finished dinner just in time to head outside to watch the sunset:

July 1 was Canada Day, which means little to me other than "FIREWORKS!" Your girl loves fireworks, in case you weren't wise to that. We headed down to Kitsilano Beach to watch the 'works being set off from West Vancouver, across the Bay.

Walking along Vancouver's West End on my way home from a walk to Stanley Park, I had to stop and take a picture of this ivy-covered building:

And just for a dose of self-deprecation, here's a picture David took of me falling off my paddleboard last week:

What sorts of good things have you been capturing lately?

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Chambray, Pink and Polka Dot Nails (and Paddleboarding!)

Whoooo guys, is my body stiff today. Yesterday after work, for the first time ever, I went stand-up paddleboarding - a very popular thing to do around Vancouver's English Bay. Despite it being a breezy day with choppy waters, we rented paddleboards right from Kitsilano Beach (it was $22.50 each, for 1 hour) and headed out into the Bay!

Standing up on the paddleboard (or should I say, remaining standing on the paddleboard) was tricky, and I can only assume made trickier by the fact that the water was so wavy. That is to say, there was definitely more kneeling than standing going on - at least on my board. David somehow took to it like a freaking Hawaiian. It was like he'd done it a million times before! (He hadn't. Ever.)

Anyway, even from the kneeling position, paddleboarding was a great workout - both in the core and in the quads. And despite falling off the board many times (and probably accruing a handful of new bruises), it was still a lot of fun and I hope to do it again!

.  look at me go!  .

So (unintentionally) following the aquatic theme, today's nails were inspired by an outfit I found while reading some blogs yesterday afternoon. Alison from Get Your Pretty On was wearing a delightfully summery pair of white shorts with a cute whale print, paired with a bubble gum pink top and a chambray button-up. Since I was on the hunt for something to inspire me for this week's nail polish post anyway, Alison's outfit jumped out at me as something to translate onto my nails.

... But as much as I would have loved to make a bunch of tiny whales on my accent nail, it was obvious after a few practice rounds on paper that it wasn't in the cards for me. A master nail artiste, I am not. A pretty good polka dotter, however... well that I am. #IfIDoSaySoMyself. (I even wrote a blog all about How to Make Perfect Polka Dots!)

Cue the polka dots! Maybe if I make them really good, you guys will forgive them for not being whales. But really though, when you think about it, we're supposed to be saving the whales. Not splashing them across our nails. So. I win.

.  alison's original outfit  .
.  source  .

For polishes I used Milani - Tip Toe Pink, Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, Wet 'n Wild - Rain Check, and Love & Beauty - Navy.

On my left hand I did 2 coats of Rain Check on my pinky, pointer and thumb nail; 2 coats of Tip Toe Pink on my middle finger; and 2 coats of Snow Me White on my ring finger. Then I used my dotting tool to add Navy polka dots to my ring.  On my right hand, I switched the colors a bit so that my pinky, pointer and thumb were pink and my middle finger was blue.

Whatcha got on your nails today?
Has anyone else tried paddleboarding?
What do YOU want to try for the firs time this summer?

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I'm Still Alive! So Here Are Some Pretty Pictures :)

Why hello there! DID YEW MISS ME?!

... I will interpret your silence as a "hell yes!" and just take this moment to console you and hope that my absence these past few weeks didn't take too much of a toll on your daily life and general morale.

I have finally returned to Vancouver after being away in New England since June 6, and it is good to be home! The travel between hither and yon is never (EVER) easy on me, and often stretches into two days of travel in each direction. On June 6 my day began with a 7:00 AM, 5.5-hour bus ride from Vancouver to Seattle, followed by a 2-hour wait in the SeaTac airport, followed by a 5-hour flight from Seattle to Boston which landed at around midnight EST. From there, my brother picked me up and brought me to his Danvers apartment (about 25 mins north of Boston), where I slept for the night before continuing my jaunt to Western Mass the next day. I didn't get into Pittsfield till about 2:00 PM on Saturday June 7.

Returning from Mass to Vancouver was, again, a 2-day process. I got a car service from Auburndale, MA to Boston's Logan Airport on Monday June 23, took a 1-hour flight from Boston to JFK, had a 2-hour layover there before a 6-hour flight from JFK to SeaTac. That got me into Seattle at around 9:30pm, which was too late for me to take a bus back to Vancouver, so I had a hotel room for the night in Seattle before another 7:00 AM, 5-hour bus ride back north to Vancouver... culminating in a cab ride back to my home. By the time I walked in the door, I was ready to kiss the carpet in my apartment and not move for the rest of the day.

But that was just the getting to/from nonsense. There was an AMAZING array of fun and joy and love and family and friends that were experienced in the time between!! Being with my besties and my family is rejuvenating, fo sho.

Rather than try to overwhelm you or myself with a recap of the trip just yet, I thought I'd ease back into my little blogging hobby with some photos that I snapped in Vancouver the week before leaving for my trip in early June. Enjoy!

I spent an inordinate amount of time perched above the following little scene... the colors all just seemed so lovely to me that I kept snapping away...

 

And yes, today is normally my nails day, but I'll post one of those for tomorrow instead. Stay tewnnnnned.

It's good to be back... and thanks for sticking around  :)

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Weekend Love & Workouts of the Week

Whoooooo I am exhausted! This morning we set off on a decently-paced hike up Mt. Seymour, and spent about 2.5 hours on the mountain total. I got to set the pace on the way up and did my damnedest to make it brisk and fairly unrelenting. My body is definitely tired now, and my feet are aching a bit - but in a totally good way. Check back here tomorrow for photos from today's hike!

It's been a good weekend around here. On Friday night we went down to the beach for a bit and threw our football around with Dave's friend Evan. It was the first football pass of the season! WHOO! From our beach, we could see a rain cloud across English Bay that was actively pouring rain down onto West Vancouver...

 

So that was pretty cool to see.

Yesterday I went to pick up a package at a Purolator, and in the process discovered an entirely new-to-me shopping center in Vancouver - the City Square Shopping Center. I swear I stumble upon a new mall every week. Of course I picked up a few things - a sage green fleece vest (on sale for $8.80!), a basic white long-sleeve tee with blue stripes, and a lavender bandana to use while hiking (which I immediately put to use today on Mt. Seymour).  Oh, and the package I was picking up at Purolator? THESE BAD BITCHES*, which you may have seen me post on Instagram:

.  you can find them here!  .

I'M OBSESSED. They're from Forever21 and they were on sale for $25, so it was kind of a no-brainer. And by that I mean, a total impulse purchase that I happened to not regret.

Last night we went out to dinner at The Sandbar, which I've been to (and written about) several times now. For Christmas this past year, David's brother's family gave us a gift certificate to the restaurant, and we were excited to finally get around to using it. I ordered some to-die-for salmon with citrus butter and jasmine rice, and Dave had a salad full of crab, shrimp, egg, avocado, and god knows what else. We also shared some oysters... and both wished that we had ordered way more. #SOGOOD.

We also watched a bunch of movies the last few days - one of my favorite things to do on the weekends. We watched The Fast & The Furious, 2 Fast, 2 Furious, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Have you seen Wolf yet? I really liked it!

Alright, now on to my workouts from the past week ~>

3/30 - 5 mile power walk to Stanley Park

3/31 (lower body and core)

10 mins elliptical

60 bridges

40 weighted v-sit twists holding 15 lbs

40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

60 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

40 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

40 diamond clamshells each leg

50 Brazilian crunches

15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

30 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

60 alternating forward lunges

50 plank knee to elbow

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

30 cobras

4/1 (upper body and core)

16 mins biking

12 chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 reverse crunch + leg raise

15 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

40 plank knee to elbow

12 tricep extensions on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

12 upright row + lateral tricep extension, 5 lbs each hand

12 overhead press, 10 lbs each hand

30-second side planks each side

60 bridges

4/2 (cardio)

20 mins ellpitical

0:00 - 3:00 - warm-up

3:00 - 4:00 - all-out

4:00 - 6:00 - moderate

6:00 - 6:30 - sprint

6:30 - 8:00 - recover easy

8:00 - 9:00 - all out

9:00 - 11:00 - moderate

11:00 - 11:30 - sprint

11:30 - 13:00 - recover easy

13:00 - 14:00 - all out

14:00 - 16:00 - moderate

16:00 - 16:30 - sprint

16:30 - 18:00 - recover easy

18:00 - 19:00 - all out

19:00 - 20:00 recover  easy 

4/4 (lower body and core)

5 mins elliptical

40 side lunges + plyometric push-off (each side)

40 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

40 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

60 alternating forward lunges

50 Brazilian crunches

60 bridges

40 reverse crunch + leg raise

40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

40 Russian get ups, holding 5 lbs

20 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

50 plank knee to elbow

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

30 cobras

How are your workouts going?
Do we share any of the same common exercise moves?
Seen any good movies lately? Share with me!!

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