Rainbow Dragon's Lair

Laura Rainbow Dragon Laura Rainbow Dragon Logging since September 2022
Monday, September 14

Pushing: max push-ups: 7
Strength: Yoga Strength Basics for Beginners: Scapular Strength
Feet: 3 sets of 10 calf raises with 10 second hold on last rep of each set
Hiking: 11.6 km
Aikido: 90 min. class

Push-ups were done in the same location as Sunday, but facing in the opposite direction. This day was definitely facing slightly downhill. But it wasn't a huge difference, and I still hit the same # of reps.

In Aikido class this night they practised a kneeling technique. First time since I've been going that a kneeling technique was presented for everyone to work on (although I know these techniques are testing requirements for some of the senior belts). I took one look at the technique and said, "Yeah. No." So when we were asked to partner up, I chose one of the older students in the class who I figured likely wouldn't want to crawl around on his knees either. I was correct in my assessment. So we asked the teacher for an alternative, and he showed us the standing equivalent.

Most of the senior belts in the club miss classes due to injuries, or come to watch and help teach but sit out for much of the practice. Or they'll do the first part of a technique, but we have to skip the part where we're actually meant to throw them. Some come to class wearing braces and wraps and flags of coloured tape on their dogi. (The coloured tape is to alert their training partner to go easy on that body part because it's injured.) Some of the senior belts are a decade or two older than me. Others are my age and younger, but their bodies are nevertheless more wrecked up than mine.

Me, I attend the classes because it's a fun physical activity to do with other humans who I like being around. Add in the learning new things aspect and it hits the trifecta of being a boon to physical, social, and cognitive health. But I am not there to get injured! I don't need to prove myself to anyone. So if everyone else is doing something that I don't think is wise for my body, I sit it out. This choice is respected in my club.
 
Tuesday, September 15

Legs: 1 x Shelby stair carries
Hiking: 8.2 km

In this case the stair carry was down. Shelby did not want to go out for a pre-bed walk. I try to respect her wishes on this front. But lately it's become an issue if she skips the late night walk with a full bladder.
 
Wednesday, September 16

Pushing: max push-ups: 7 (downhill)
Legs: 1 x Shelby stair carries
Feet: 3 sets of 10 elevated calf raises with 10 second hold on last rep of each set
Hiking: 8.7 km


Thursday, September 17

Hiking: 7.8 km


Friday, September 18

Hiking: 7.8 km


Shelby has decided that the purpose of every walk is to visit all of her friends and to sit and visit with each one of them for an hour (or three)! (Often visiting the same friends multiple times in the same day.) I don't want to deny her this, because we are moving into the nicest time of the year for sitting outside and visiting with people. Winter is socially very different here. And I don't know for how much longer Shelby's health will permit her to keep up with these extensive neighbourhood walks. But I am going to have to get more disciplined about fitting other things in around Shelby's busy social calendar!
 
Saturday, September 19

Mobility: yoga squat holds between push-up sets
Pushing: max push-ups: 8, 5, 5 (downhill)
Legs: 1 x Shelby stair carries
Hands: clench unclench, wrist circles, passive stretches
Feet: 3 sets of 10 elevated calf raises with 10 second hold on last rep of each set
Hiking: 9.5 km

Did the small stuff while visiting a friend in her garden. Shelby looks forward to these visits as opportunities to break up her walks and rest. But I am trying to sit less. This is a good compromise.

This day's party on our village green was Irish Fest. Shelby likes to attend gatherings on the green because usually there are people there with treats and also people who want to pet her. This day, however, we sadly encountered no one at the festival with treats and, wildly, no one interested in petting her!

One of the exhibitors at the festival was an Irish Wolfhound breeder. (I think breeder? They were people with a display about wolfhounds and several such dogs on site.) Multiple times we saw kids' eyes go wide. "Wow! Look at the doggie!" Followed by a race right past Shelby to go see one of the huge wolfhounds.

This happened not only to Shelby but to all of the other labs and retrievers and other smaller dogs wandering around the festival with their humans, hoping for some attention but receiving none. Several, Shelby included, looked quite confused.

(Don't worry. Shelby still enjoyed treats and nice visits with several of her more loyal friends in the Village.)
 
Sunday, September 20

Mobility: 3 x yoga squat holds
Pushing: max push-ups: 8, 5, 5 (downhill)
Pulling: active hang
Yoga Flow: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 1
Hands: wrist circles, passive stretches
Feet: 2 sets of 10 elevated one-legged calf raises with 10 second hold on last rep of each set
Hiking: 9.2 km
 
Monday, September 21

Mobility: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 2
Pushing: max push-ups: 9
Pulling: active hang
Legs: tree pose, shrimp squats (5 per leg)
Hands: 20 wrist circles, 50 clench-unclench, passive stretches (in tree pose)
Feet: 3 x 10 calf raises
Hiking: 10.45 km

No Aikido tonight.
Kept things simple since it was late.
 
Tuesday, September 22

Mobility: yogi squat
Pushing: max push-ups: 8
Pulling: active hang
Legs: 1 Shelby stair carry, one-legged balance holds
Yoga Flow: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 3 (subbed mountain pose w. anjali mudra in place of child's pose for blood pressure reasons)
Hands: 20 wrist circles, 100 overhead clench-unclench, passive stretches (in one-legged balance)
Feet: 3 x 10 elevated calf raises with 10 second hold on last rep of each set
Hiking: 5.95 km

Bit of a late start to our day today. Shelby needed to get outside right away, but wasn't yet ready for a walk or tackling the stairs. So our first trip out was just to use our own lawn and ended with my carrying her back up the stairs. Later we did our afternoon and evening walks, as usual. Shelby is very clear these days that she does not want to do a late night walk any more. After our evening walk, she is done. I try to respect this (unless I know she has a very full bladder), and we just deal with the consequences. (With gratitude for highly absorbent, washable pee pads, and in-suite laundry.)
 
Wednesday, September 23

Mobility: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 4
Hiking: 9.88 km

Day 4 is a recovery day in 30DoY, so I decided to go easy on the whole day. I didn't feel that I needed this training-wise. But time-wise I did.

I'm still struggling to fit everything in. And I'm not gonna lie: some time-waster activities happened on this day. I need to cut those out. But I also did laundry, took Shelby for three walks, did (a small amount of) food prep, and did some writing work. I'd fallen completely away from my writing earlier this year, and this is my first week back at it. So I want to do some work on it each day now to keep my momentum up.

I've switched Shelby to using our back stairs now. Which she does not like. But this is because she is a creature of habit. The front stairs are what she is used to. But the back stairs have a shallower rise, and there's only 5 of them (as opposed to 6 at the front), and they are clearly easier and safer for her. So back stairs it is. We will learn to adjust.
 
Friday, September 25

30 Days of Yoga: Day 6
Hiking: 10.2 km

On one of our walks Shelby and I saw this little one, struggling the climb the wall of a church.

bat1.png

bat2.png

bat3.png

bat4.png

bat5.png

I observed the bat for ~ 20 minutes, during which time it never made it more than a few inches up the church wall. I and other observers weren't certain if the bat was sick or injured. One of the observers offered to call a local wildlife rescue. After that, Shelby and I left the scene.

I returned solo an hour or so later. A friend who had been there almost since the beginning of the vigil was still there, and reported the bat had made it over a metre up the church wall at one point but then fell down again. Another neighbour managed to get the bat onto a plastic dust pan and thereby moved the bat to the base of this tree, a couple of metres from the church. The bat immediately crawled back to the church! The neighbour with the dust pan tried a second time. This time the bat crawled ~ 80 cm up the tree, oriented itself upside down, and settled in for a rest.

We're all hoping our little friend will be okay! (We didn't hear anything back from the wildlife rescue, and I don't know enough about bats to know why it was struggling so much.) Poor little guy sure worked hard! I'm sure it was exhausted by the time it finally got onto the tree. I'm a little concerned about how close to the ground it stopped. But it did appear to be calm and in a place it was happy with when we ended the vigil.
 
Saturday, September 26

30 Days of Yoga: Day 7
Hiking: 7.15 km

Still pretty minimalist on the workout front. However, I did do something. I also made progress this day on:

dishes :v:
food prep/cooking :v:
writing :v:
Shelby's ramp :v:

Additionally: Shelby collected treats from multiple friends, and we spent some time visiting with our friend who has cancer. This lady's daughters were both visiting her for most of the past month but have both gone back home now. (One lives a few hours' drive away. The other lives on the other side of the world.) So it's up to the neighbourhood to check in on her now. (Fortunately, she--and we--live in a wonderful neighbourhood!)
 
Sunday, September 27

Mobility: down dog, walking the dog, rag doll, bit of twisting
Pushing: max push-ups: 10
Pulling: active hang
Legs: 10 shrimp squats
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 50 calf raises, 50 one-legged calf raises
Hiking: 3 km

Tomato prep day! Monday will be too, but I got a lot done this day.
 
Wednesday, September 30

Mobility: Oi! My beloved Posture workout got remade! Fortunately, I have a PDF copy of the old workout. (Which I've always done with modifications in any case and know by heart at this point anyhow.) So I did 2 sets with DP (30 seconds/exercise) of:
  • chest expansions
  • yawn stretch
  • shoulder circles
  • rear hand clasp stretch
  • ragdoll
  • bodyweight deadlifts
  • torso twists
  • side bends
  • hip circles
Hiking: 7.5 km
 
Thursday, October 1

Mobility: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 8
Pushing: 30DoY (plank, knee-to-chest plank), Ranger (40 punches) - got ambushed on my very first day!
Pulling: active hang
Legs: Ranger Challenge: 2 x 10 jumping lunges
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench, wrist circles, stretches
Feet: 40 calf raises, 40 elevated calf raises, 2 x 10 one-legged calf raises, calf stretches
Hiking: 10.9 km
 
Shelby's Ramp (Why Our Neighbourhood is Awesome)

As regular visitors to this thread know, my beautiful Shelby has been struggling to climb the stairs to our home lately. She still loves to go for walks. But the stairs were becoming too much for her. I have carried her up them a few times now. But she doesn't like that either. And on occasion she has even refused to go for a walk because she did not want to have to deal with those stairs.

What to do? It's not as if I can remodel the entrances to our home, given that it's rental housing. (Not that I could afford to do that anyhow.) But I couldn't have Shelby giving up on an activity that is so enriching to her life just because there's a half flight of stairs between our home and the outside world. So I put out a call for help in my neighbourhood's Buy Nothing facebook group.

It took some time, and different people contributing different pieces of the puzzle (folding portable ramp gifted by one neighbour, wood for the wooden ramp gifted by another, construction of the wooden ramp gifted by a third neighbour with the help of his father, using tools loaned by another family member), but as of October 1, Shelby is now the proud owner of her very own Shelby-sized ramp.

Shelby-ramp-800.png

It's only been one day, and Shelby is already getting used to using it. (And it's obviously very much easier for her than the stairs.)

We are truly blessed to have most wonderful neighbours where we live now. :happy:
 
Friday, October 2

Mobility: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 9
Pushing: Ranger (40 punches) - got ambushed again!
Pulling: active hang w. pulses
Legs: Ranger Challenge: 30 jumping lunges
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 20 calf raises, 2 x 10 one-legged calf raises
Hiking: 5.5 km
 
Saturday, October 3

Mobility: 9PM Yoga (done rather later than 9PM!)
Pushing: max push-ups: 10, Ranger (40 punches) - got ambushed yet again!
Pulling: active hang w. pulses
Legs: Ranger Challenge: 4 x 10 jumping lunges
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 3 x 10 calf raises w. 10 sec. hold on last rep of each set, downward facing dog
Hiking: 3.3 km

Slacker day on the hiking front because Shelby and I spent a bunch of time in our own yard, harvesting walnuts.
 
Sunday, October 4 - Tuesday, October 6

Three days of nothing but hiking with Shelby. She's been keeping up a good pace lately. So, apart from the short part of one walk we did with our octogenarian friend, it wasn't nothing. But it was a lot less than I want to be doing.

Sunday: 4.7 km
Monday: 5.6 km
Tuesday: 4.9 km

Sunday evening I had dinner with some friends, and we played Wingspan together afterward. A good time was had. And yes: certainly I could have done a workout before dinner. I didn't leave for my friends' place until almost 6PM. But well, I didn't. And afterward I just walked Shelby and then went to bed. Monday and Tuesday I have no excuse for.

I need to get myself back in gear. I don't want Santa to think I am a slacker!

Speaking of Santa:
The Santa Bees are getting a new toy to play with this year! It is super cool, and I'm excited to share it with you all! But not yet! Patience we must have!
 
Triceps and Turbo Dogs (Befriending the Wolves)

So I've been playing a little catch up on the Ranger Challenge this weekend. Mostly not tough for me to do, since I'm still on early days of the Challenge. Except that I am choosing to befriend (not fight) any wolf packs I encounter on my travels. To this end, I committed to doing turbo dog presses instead of the punches anytime I encounter wolves. And I just encountered wolves twice in a row. My triceps are going to be feeling this tomorrow!

The good news is that showing the wolves my playful, non-threatening nature worked, and I have befriended one pack of wolves thus far. I'm still working on winning over the second wolf pack. Wish me luck!
 
Sunday, October 11

Mobility: 30DoY
Pushing: 1350 punches (1000 jab/cross, 200 sitting, 40 sit-up, 50 lunge, 60 jump lunge), 120 turbo dogs
Pulling: active hang
Legs: Ranger Challenge Days 6-8: 50 lunge punches, 130 jump lunges (60 w. punch)
Hands: Wrist Pain (DP each side), Hand Tendons (2DP)
Feet: Sore Feet (2DP)
Yoga: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 10 + Day 11
Hiking: 3.5 km

Rainy day. Shelby and I did not get out for a walk until late.
Made friends with wolves on days 6 & 7 of my Ranger patrol. Actually had a quiet patrol (my first one!) on day 8.
 
Monday, October 12, 2026

Mobility: Perfect Start, knee rolls for @Saffity
Pushing: max push-ups: 10
Pulling: active hang
Legs: Ranger Challenge Day 9: 4 x 20 lunges - all quiet on this day's patrol
Hands: Talk to the Hand (DP each side), Hand Tendons (2DP)
Feet: Ankle Recovery (2DP)
Yoga: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 12

No hiking this day. No significant reason for the omission. The day started out a bit discombobulated due to a laundry issue (which hopefully will be resolved soon), and daytime hikes weren't a priority since it was a holiday so there wasn't anyone around for Shelby to visit. Then I ended up doing most of my workouts very late, by which point Shelby preferred to just go to bed. No worries. We'll get back at it on Tuesday. (Although Tuesday is predicted to get uncomfortably hot here.)
 
Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Mobility: down dog, up dog, sphinx, child's pose
Pushing: max push-ups: 10
Pulling: active hang
Legs: Ranger Challenge Day 10: 30 lunges, 60 jump lunges
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 3 x 10 elevated calf raises w. 10 second hold on last rep of each set
Hiking: 7.68 km

Encountered wolves on my patrol this day. But it was super late by that point. So I showed them a nice, friendly downward facing dog so they would know I was not threatening, then convinced everyone to have a nap. We will play in the morning.
 
Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Mobility: 30 DoY
Pushing: 40 punches, 60 turbo dogs
Pulling: active hang
Legs: Ranger Challenge Day 11: 5 x 20 lunges
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 40 one-legged calf raises
Yoga: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 13
Hiking: 5.1 km

The turbo dogs worked not only to entice the wolves to play this day but also Oreo (a poodle) who immediately joined in.
 
Crucible

So there's this now. It pushes all the right buttons for me re: the badass exercises I want to be training on/towards as well as having a training structure that I like (weekly schedule, lots of variety, days off between upper body days, progression to harder exercises--not just more reps). I am very tempted to make it a permanent feature of my training regimen.

It's a tough Program though. The dedicated upper body days, in particular, will wipe the floor with me (even with modifications--which I will definitely need). If I'm doing Crucible I'm not doing anything else alongside it besides mobility work and restorative stretches.

So here's my dilemma:
  1. I'm going to need to work on Crucible for a long time to get to a point of actually being able to complete the Program as written.
  2. I'm far too much of a generalist in my exercise tastes (and in life in general, for that matter) to tolerate just doing the same Program and nothing else over and over and over again. I want to also be able to work on challenging power yoga routines and poses. If I can get my Achilles tendons back into a happy place, I want to start running again. But I'm not a professional athlete. It's too much training volume for me to do all of this all at once.
  3. Realistically, there are going to be days when I don't have the time to complete a Crucible workout, even if I do nothing else on the workout front that day. The rep counts are short. But taking breaks after every set adds up to a lot of time. Taking a look at the dedicated upper body days--where I am definitely going to need to take the full rest breaks--the rests alone add up to 39 minutes for the first Push workout up to 51 minutes for the final one.
  4. Taking days off doesn't work well for me. Days turn into weeks turn into Programs being dropped from my schedule entirely. I struggle with a heavy amount of resistance to tackling a grueling upper body workout, and taking days off makes it harder--not easier--for me to return to the work the next day.
Yet Crucible is the Program I feel jazzed about trying. And it's the Program I need if I'm ever going to make it to the point of being able to execute the tougher exercises I'm chasing. I need to find a way to make a tough Program like Crucible work for me.

Here's what I'm going to try:
  1. I will begin Crucible on Monday, and I will do a workout from the Program to the best of my ability, EVERY day. No days off. But I will reduce the volume of work as necessary. Honestly: if I can make it through the Program doing even one set of each exercise on the upper body days on my first pass, it will be a win for me. On the legs, plyo, and core days, I should be able to handle the full training volume called for in the Program from day one. But any day I don't have the time, or am feeling too tired, or for whatever other reason am not able to make it through the full workout on that day, I'm going to do what I can and then move on.
  2. I am officially giving myself permission to break up the workouts and do them as 4 mini workouts throughout the day instead of all at once. For the upper body exercises, I will physically need the longer breaks. For the other work, I'll keep the workouts whole when I can. But an hour long workout can be tough to schedule into my day. Four shorter workouts are much more likely to actually get done.
  3. Once I make it through the Program I will immediately do another pass. But my second pass will be for maintenance only. One set of each exercise on each day. This is my chance to go harder on other areas of my training without dropping Crucible entirely. My plan is to alternate best-of-my-ability passes with maintenance passes. So four weeks of going hard on Crucible, followed by four weeks focusing on yoga (and possibly some other things). But if I need to adjust the weeks to accommodate scheduled events, the maintenance pass can be shortened or lengthened as necessary. [e.g.: My next birthday will fall on a Wednesday. Wednesdays are recovery days in Crucible. If I'm going full-bore on Crucible, there's no way I can give up a recovery day to do 56 for 56! But if I'm only doing one set of each exercise that week, fitting in my birthday workout won't be a problem. (If I actually start Crucible next week, and keep to the schedule as intended, I'll be back on a maintenance pass by the week of my birthday anyhow. But this is the sort of thing for which some flexibility in my schedule would potentially be necessary.)]
This is the plan.
 
Shelby's New Old Vet

Thanks to the very generous gift of transportation given to us by our most wonderful neighbour, Shelby and I were able to visit her old vet (the one from the Booming Metropolis, where we used to live) today. It was a HUGE relief to be back with a vet who I trust and with whom I've always been on the same page w.r.t. Shelby's care. He was happy to see us too as he's always liked working with me, and well, everyone who has any sense at all loves Shelby.

The consult went very well. I have the meds now that Shelby needs. And our new old vet is happy to work with us such that I'll be able to get refill prescriptions filled at London pharmacies.

This is a huge monkey off my back! I am feeling so grateful today, both for excellent neighbours and excellent veterinary care. We are well blessed by both.
 
Friday, October 16, 2026

Mobility: some down dog and forward folds
Pushing: max push-ups: 10
Pulling: active hang
Legs: Ranger Challenge Day 13: 4 x 30 lunges
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 30 calf raises
Yoga: tree pose hold

Rain, rain, and more rain. So no hiking this day.
Encountered wolves on my patrol but it was late. I'll play with them on Saturday.
 
Saturday, October 17, 2026

Mobility: 30 DoY, YIN
Pushing: max push-ups: 10, 60 turbo dogs
Pulling: active hang
Legs: Ranger Challenge Day 14: 60 lunges, 100 squats
Hands: 100 clench-unclench
Feet: 30 calf raises, 10 elevated calf raises
Yoga: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 15, YIN
Bonus: 100 jumping jacks (leading the geese to greener pastures)
Hiking: 8.1 km

Beautiful weather this day for being outside, and Shelby was hot to trot. When we arrived home from the vet's, our neighbour parked in the street in front of her house. So when I got Shelby out of her car, there we were both standing on the sidewalk right where our walks start, and Shelby had her lead on. So she figured a walk was happening!

It was 12:30 PM at that point. I was hungry (having not had time to eat anything before leaving for the vet's that morning), and needed to pee, and was loaded down with all the stuff we'd needed to bring with us for the trip to the vet's. But Shelby would not be dissuaded from her plan! So my neighbour waited on the sidewalk with Shelby while I ran inside to unload. Then we were off. At quite a good clip! And this was before I'd had a chance to give Shelby any of the new meds we'd just picked up. Shelby had places to go and people to see. She was not about to let a little arthritis slow her down!

By the time we headed out for our evening walk it was quite late (10:30 PM). But Shelby's new NSAID had had a chance to kick in by then, and she was good to go for an even longer walk.
 
Sunday, October 18, 2026

Mobility: 30 DoY, some nice quad stretches at camp after Ranger patrol
Pushing: max push-ups: 11
Pulling: active hang: 30 seconds
Legs: Ranger Challenge Day 15: 100 lunges, 100 squats
Hands: 100 clench-unclench
Feet: 30 calf raises, 10 second calf raise hold
Yoga: 30 Days of Yoga: Days 16-18
Bonus: 100 jumping jacks (leading the geese to greener pastures)
Hiking: 8.26 km
 
Monday, October 19, 2026

THE MAIN COURSE

Ranger Challenge: :x:
Crucible: Day 1 - the bridge walkouts were no joke!
Yoga: 30 Days of Yoga: Day 19, Greet the Day
Hiking: 10.13 km

DAILY TARGET AREA COVERAGE

Mobility: 30 DoY, Greet the Day
Pushing: max push-ups: 10
Pulling: active hang: 30 seconds
Legs: 8 x 6 skater squats, 4 x 16 Cossack squats (Crucible)
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 6 x 20 one-legged calf raises (Crucible)

Shelby chased a rabbit this day! Not for far. And not terribly fast. But she gave a good enough showing to convince the rabbit to seek out greener pastures elsewhere.
 
Go Shelby go! Run, wabbitty wabbit, run!
Excited Who Framed Roger Rabbit GIF
 
Tuesday, October 20, 2026

THE MAIN COURSE

Ranger Challenge: Day 16
Crucible: Day 2 - Did only 2 sets of the archers and tricep extensions. Full sets of everything else. First 2 archers in each set were actually from my toes! First 3 tricep extensions each set from toes! (Though not entirely even on the lifting phase.)
Yoga: :x:
Hiking: 7.34 km

DAILY TARGET AREA COVERAGE

Mobility: I'm sure I did some kind of prone stretch for recovery between push-up sets. But I didn't log it.
Pushing: 2 x 12 archer push-ups, 4 x 8 pike push-ups, 2 x 10 tricep extensions, 3 x 20 tricep dips (Crucible)
Pulling: :x:
Legs: 4 x 30 lunges (Ranger)
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 30 calf raises
 
Wednesday, October 21, 2026

THE MAIN COURSE

Ranger Challenge: Day 17
Crucible: Day 3
Yoga: 30 Days of Yoga: Days 20-21, Crucible
Running: 1 km in 7:26 - being smart for once and starting things off short and slow
Hiking: 4.84 km

DAILY TARGET AREA COVERAGE

Mobility: 30DoY, Crucible, standing quad stretch
Pushing: 9 standard push-ups, 11 kneeling push-ups
Pulling: 30 second active hang
Legs: 110 lunges (Ranger), 200 high knees, 100 squats
Hands: 100 overhead clench-unclench
Feet: 30 calf raises

Startled a skunk on my run. Mercifully, it did not spray! No griping from my Achilles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.