Banffffff

I went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival last night. It was held at the same venue as the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Fest that I put on in March, and walking in I had a few stress flashbacks to that night.

Katie and I settled into one of the comfy MontBleu booths, broke out the Mirror Pond Pale Ale and trail mix we'd snuck into the theater and got ready to watch some adventure films.

It turned out that I'd already seen two of the films that showed last night, Life Cycles (which everyone who loves bicycles should see) and Into Darkness which I "screened" (And by screened, I mean listened to with my eyes shut because I am claustrophobic and caving freaks me out.) for Wild & Scenic.

My favorite movie was a five minute short called The Longest Way, a "highly entertaining time-lapse of a one-year-walk from Beijing to Urumqi. Time and distance travelled are charmingly demonstrated by the growth of a beard in this five-minute short."

Honestly, I think this was my favorite because you could track the guy getting hotter as his beard grew in, then hit a critical point where his beard was too long, and he got less cute. I made a graph:

Other notes from the Film Fest:

• I have no interest in base jumping/wearing one of those flying squirrel outfits and jumping off of high things.
• I would waaaaaay rather go base jumping than go caving. And I really like interesting rocks.
• I don't think there were any women as main characters in any of the films. Boo, Banff.
• The guy who puts on Lake Tahoe Banff is named Squirrel

First Trip to the Chiropractor

First off, this is my 300th post. Woo hoo!

As I've mentioned before, apparently my spine is curved and my pelvis is crooked, which is causing lower back pain on my right side. My GP recommended I go see Dr. Kane at Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic, in hopes that readjustment will solve that problem.

From here

Yesterday was my first appointment, and, as I've never been to the chiropractor before, I was really nervous. Luckily, it turns out that I had no reason to be. Dr. Kane and Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic are totally awesome!

The whole atmosphere of the office (located behind one of my favorite Lake Taco restaurants, Sprouts) was welcoming and calming, from the relaxing music to the two year old son of Dr. Kane running around to the fact that they have an office dog. Everyone was super friendly and my nervousness quickly dissipated.

Dr. Kane did a cursory examination and came to the same conclusion as Dr. Brooks. My pelvis is crooked, so my sacroiliac joint is not moving correctly, causing irritation in my sacroiliac ligaments.

Since I'm young and otherwise pretty healthy, Dr. Kane told me that this would hopefully be a pretty easy problem to fix, just a few of adjustments, spaced a week apart, with some "homework" for me to do between visits.

I agreed that this sounded like a reasonable course of action, and so Dr. Kane's assistant (who is also his wife- gotta love family businesses) prepared me for my first adjustment.

The nerves started creeping back in at this point, but they did an awesome job explaining what was going on/what was going to happen. First they prepped my back using some machine to do electrical stimulation and heating pads to make the area relaxed. It was a relaxing 15 or 20 minutes of me laying there while tiny shocks ran across my lower back...kind of like a prickly massage. Then it was time for my real adjustment.

I'm not even going to try to describe that part, as I can't really convey what exactly was going on. Basically, Dr. Kane twisted and contorted my hips, back and neck to try to get them in proper alignment. It didn't hurt at all (which I had worried about), and in fact, it made my neck feel a lot better (I didn't even realize how much tension I'd been holding in my neck!). I was surprised by how short the whole procedure was.

Dr. Kane warned me that I might feel kind of sore in the next couple of days, but hopefully I'd start feeling more "even" and "balanced" after that. I also got my "homework" sheet, which is just a bunch of pretty easy, lower back-focused yoga moves, like cat-cow, bridge, twists, etc.

I go back next week to check my alignment and see if I need any more adjustments.

All in all, it was an excellent first ever trip to the chiropractor. If you are in the Tahoe area, I seriously recommend Dr. Kane at Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic. He was great, and everyone there made my first experience at the chiropractor a great one.

You Know You Live in a Ski Town When...

On Sunday I rented cross country skis for my little jaunt through the meadow, and on Monday morning I attempted to return them. The shop was closed.

Not the most flattering photo, but a nice view of the onsie.

I figured that the bro working the morning shift had probably just slept in, so I returned at noon to try again. Still not open.

Katie did awesome her first time ever cross country skiing!

Hmmm...I know they're supposed to be open today. But, if they're not, two days of skiing for the price of one! I gave them a call at 4:30...still no one there. So I g-chatted Katie, and we made plans: cross country skiing after work.

We headed to Camp Rich with just a couple of hours of daylight (don't worry, we packed our headlamps just in case) and set off along Lake Taco. Skiing along the lake is always gorgeous, but yesterday evening was the most beautiful I have ever seen it. Usually Lake Taco fades from aqua to dark blue, but last night, between the clouds and the sunset and the patches of blue sky, the lake was a soft blue with patches of gold.

It was gorgeous, and there were no other people around, and basically everything I love about cross country skiing wrapped up in one perfect day.

Poor quality cell phone pics still capture some of the beauty of the evening.

After two days of xc skiing, I am sore! My core is so tired that I kind of just want to flop on the floor of my office and work from there. My boss is gone today....

I called the rental place again this morning, and they were finally open. When I went to return the skis, this is the conversation I had.

Lynn: I tried to return these yesterday, but you guys weren't open.

Bro: Powder day, brah. I was shredding.

Ah, life in a ski town.

And I'll leave you with one more picture...Katie and I living the Tahoe Fabulous Lifestyle, in the Lakeland Village hot tub with a bottle of champagne from the Gross Out:

(Not pictured: 2 German dudes, one in a fuzzy Viking helmet that were also hot tub poaching that night.)

People are strange

I had the most interesting people watching experience at the gym tonight.

She was wearing, I kid you not:

- Skate shoes (with apparently no socks)

- Black sparkly leg warmers

- Maroon yoga type capris

- A cruise-wear style halter top with wooden beads for the neck strap. (Kind of like this)

- No bra

- Weightlifting gloves

- An NBA sweatband/wristband

And her outfit is not even the weirdest part!

Pretty much the whole time I was working out in the weight room, she was on the hip abductor/adductor machine. But she didn't do the normal abduction/adduction movements the machine is designed for. Instead, she stood, balanced on the foot rests and swung her knees in and out or swiveled her hips. I think she may have used the machine the normal way as well, but I was trying not to stare too much. That was hard. But she spend at least a half an hour on that machine. Lake Tahoe has some interesting locals.

I figured out a way to make the elliptical more interesting. It involved an attractive rugby player running on the treadmill in front of me, and a basketball game on the tv.

Sadly he was not wearing this outfit.

I did the stair machine, which made my knees hurt. No more stairs for me! Then I elliptical-ed and lifted and streeeeeeetched a lot.

Now I am eating a burrito, more toffee, and icing with my 99 cent frozen pea ice bags.

Last week in review

Run/bike/swim:

I did all of my biking. Unfortunately, it was all indoors. I am counting down the days to my next trip to Santa Barbara (11 days!), and all of the outdoor biking I will do.

Still no swimming. Bad. This week! I promise!

I did ran 4 times this week, but I didn't get my "long" run in. I was so excited to run outside yesterday, but I felt sick to my stomach. And I've already learned the hard way that running when my stomach already feels off is a recipe for disaster. So I took Sunday off, and enjoyed the sunshine through my kitchen window.

Strength:

I lifted 4 times this week. Plus, I mixed it up more than the 8 - 10 lifts that I normally do. I also tried to get more of my body involved instead of just focusing on one area, like standing on one legs to do curls, etc.

Yoga/pilates:

No yoga or pilates classes this week, but I did some yoga on my own. I really think classes are important for me, but sometimes yoga on my own works out better for my schedule.

In non-workout life, I addressed 500 plus envelopes by hand this weekend, watched 10 episodes of Secret Life, 2 episodes of Battlestar Galactica (nerd alert!), and 12 episodes of Parks and Rec. My HLP, Jodi Christ Superstar told me that I have to watch Parks and Rec. I'm so glad she did, and Leslie Knoap is one of my new feminist icons. Ovaries before brovaries!

On Saturday night, I put on my tight jeans, thermal socks, boots and down coat and went to a bluegrass show at The Divided Sky. It was definitely the place to be in Lake Taco that night. A guy came up to me and said, "You look really nice. You're wearing jewelry. You went all out tonight." For the record, I was wearing giant ceramic earrings that I bought at Value Village and a plastic necklace from H&M. So it's not like I was blinging out like T Pain or anything. Lake Taco is a different kind of place. Bison was great, as was the hard cider that I drank. I forgot what kind it was, but it was delicious.

Since I was feeling sick on Sunday, and I care a negative amount about both the Packers and the Steelers, I didn't watch the Superbowl. I took advantage of the nearly empty laundromat and did a mountain of laundry. I managed to have more laundry than would fit in my basket, and had to have laundry overflow into a reusable shopping bag. It was pretty impressive.

Here's my latest workout jam: Tightrope by Janelle Monae feat. Big Boi. Sadly no imbedding.

And here's the non-workout tunes I've been listening to while addressing envelopes and dancing around my apartment:

And:

An Open Letter

Dear Lady Downstairs with the Impractical Car,

I know that since it's really cold out, it must suck to go outside at 4 in the morning to have a cigarette. However, we live in a non-smoking building. That means you are not allowed to smoke indoors. Because, when you do smoke indoors, all of the smoke filters right into my bedroom. And I don't want to wake up at 4 am because my bedroom is filled with cigarette smoke, and have to open my window. Because it's cold. And if one of us has to be cold, I think that it's only fair that the person who chooses to smoke should be the cold one.

Thanks,

The Girl Upstairs who Tries to Walk Quietly

I'm spun

I used to go to spinning class at Western; I absolutely loved it, aside from the instructor's weird taste in spinning music. (Note: Dave Matthew's Band is absolutely not good work out music.)

I have now attended two spinning classes at my new gym, Push. Wowzers. It's a very different experience. 1. No DMB. 2. Much harder. 3. More than half the class wears clipless shoes. I didn't even know they made clipless pedals for spin bikes. 4. Way, way harder.

My goal for the next month is to go to two spin classes a week. I really like the instructor of the class that I went to last night and on Thursday, but I may switch it up to check out the other instructors. Another goal is to go to yoga at least once a week.

My two main hurdles in mountain biking are core strength and fear. I need more core strength to be able to stand up on the bike for longer periods of time, which I hope the spinning (lots of standing) and yoga will address. Aside from doing lots of riding (difficult with three feet of snow), I think that increasing my strength will help me have more control over the bike, and, therefore, decrease my fear. Additionally, I plan to do lots of visualization. It may sound cheesy, but it's totally worked for me in the past. I close my eyes and imagine a tough section of trail that I've crashed or had to walk around. Then I picture myself doing it perfectly. Repeat 5 - 10 times. I try to do it a couple of times per day. Honestly, it's really worked for me in past athletic ventures (shot putting, free throws, volleyball serves, etc.)

In other news, this song is the perfect spinning song. Go Flo Rida!

After spin class yesterday, I met my friends Katie and Karen at the bar to watch the Orange Bowl. Katie went to undergrad at V-Tech, and she made me an honorary Hokie for the night. Sadly, V-Tech lost to Stanford, but we did decide to become Monday night regulars at the Brewery. We also made a new (very drunk) BFF named Leyna. She was a font of information about all sorts of things: the best flavor of vodka (bubblegum), how to avoid a hangover when you are over 30 (start early, end early), best place to ski in Tahoe (Sierra-at-Tahoe), and wedding planning (elope). She and her equally hilarious husband also had created several new dance moves that they demonstrated for us.