Beautiful Deep Cove, (Vancouver, BC). The small island in front of the mountains is our turnaround point. Yikes!

Kayaking.

Always wanted to try it, never really got around to it. Part of the reason is just plain apprehension about tipping over!

But when I signed on to participate in the a super-worthy Innovative Fitness Canuck Place Adventure Challenge which raises money to benefit the sick kids and their families that visit Canuck Place, I knew that it involved kayaking.

Canuck Place Children’s Hospice provides specialized pediatric palliative care for children living with a life-threatening illness and support for their families throughout British Columbia. Despite what you might think, Canuck Place is a happy, positive place where you are likely to see – or get inadvertently involved in – a water balloon fight in amongst the medical equipment and nursing staff.  The Adventure Challenge is a major fundraiser for Canuck Place and since 65% of their huge budget comes from donations (only 35% comes from government funding and the support of the Vancouver Canucks NHL team), I am happy to do my small part.

Even if it means that I need to hop in a tipsy kayak and paddle like crazy through the sometimes choppy waters of Deep Cove, avoiding power boats, falling in and the occasional seal. (Yikes!)

Most of our team got together a week ago for a practice paddle, tracing the actual route we’ll be taking on race day.

I was sooooo nervous, but also really looking forward to the chance to get out on the ocean and experience what kayaking is all about.

Tip: Do not hit yourself in the head with the paddle.

We received a few words of wisdom from the kayaking experts (“Don’t hit yourself in the head with the paddle….wear your lifejacket, even if it doesn’t match your outfit….The funny looking cylinder is a pump; use it if there is more water in the kayak than in the ocean;”).  Then we hopped into the kayaks and prepared to launch.

My partner in the double kayak was Dawn and she is a fellow blonde and a fellow kayaking newbie.  We had a sneaking suspicion that team-captain, Esther, carefully planned our partnership for her own heightened entertainment value.

The rest of our team had all kayaked before and looked like experts as they prepared their kayaks.

Dawn and I managed to avoid hitting each other with our paddles when we got in the wobbly little thing.

We were both happy because our kayak was pink.

We were off to a good start.

Our fab team captain Esther, my kayak partner Dawn, me and Allison. See how us newbies already have our lifejackets on. You know, in case we drown up there on the sidewalk.

We got a push, and somehow by dumb luck managed to avoid the huge kayak traffic jam that ensued.

We were floating! Free as fish!  Ocean adventurers!

Then Dawn yelled, “Paddle!”

Oops.

No motor.

I looked at my paddle and tentatively dipped it in the water. To my great relief, no lurking sea monsters seemed hungry enough to nibble on it.

It took us a few minutes to get a rhythm going (well, it took me a lot longer, I kept hitting the kayak with my paddle on the left side, what’s up with that?) but once we did, it was pure pleasure to glide along the water and take in the beauty of Deep Cove from a different perspective: smelling the salty ocean in the tickle of the light breeze, admiring of the beauty of the waterfront homes that had boats bobbing gently at their docks. Warm sun on our backs.

Paradise.

We paddled 2 kilometres (about a mile and a half) and circled little Jug Island (pictured above in the photo) and headed back.

We didn’t tip.

We didn’t paddle in circles (or worse, squares).

We didn’t hit anyone.

Best of all, we didn’t get eaten by any large sea creatures.

When we landed back at the beach I was tired but exhilarated and didn’t really want to get out. I loved it so much, I’m seriously considering buying a couple of double kayaks for our family.  I can’t wait to do it again!

We’d love your support in this great race – you can help keep happy smiles on the face of the children and families that visit Canuck Place. Please click here for more info or to donate. We really appreciate every donation, no matter what the size!

See how we look so happy? That's because the Grouse Grind is like childbirth: you always forget how bad it really is until you're right into the thick of things.

I don’t know what possessed me to check my phone the other night when my good friend Lori texted me.  I was minding my own business reading and enjoying my second glass of wine of the evening. All was calm and peaceful and lazy…

…and then my phone beeped and there was Lori’s text beckoning me.  Always happy to hear from a friend, I read her message, which went something like: “Grouse Grind tomorrow morning, you in?”

And silly me, I texted back something like, “I guess if I stop drinking now, I’m in.  OK, sure!”

Yes, silly me.  We all know that two glasses of wine are enough to impair one’s judgment.

Silly me, because I have a passionate love / hate relationship with the Grouse Grind.

Mostly, I hate it.

Scratch that, I always hate it.

Let me put it this way. The Grouse Grind is the place you take your least-favorite or most arrogant out-of-town relatives when you want to punish them for taking over your house.  Or where you take your evil boss on a bet.  Or your kids when they’re bad (wait, I’m just joking on that one….mostly.)

“The popular Grouse Grind® is a 2.9-kilometre trail up the face of Grouse Mountain, commonly referred to by Vancouverites as ‘Mother Nature’s Stairmaster.’”

That’s right, it’s only about 3k long (that’s like less than 2 miles) but I hate it more – much more – than say, the last 18 mile run I did.

Why?

Because it is STRAIGHT. UP. GROUSE. MOUNTAIN.

-Grouse Grind elevation gain: 853 metres / 2,800 feet (yeah, you read that right.)
- Total Stairs: 2,830 (yeah, that too.)

Lori is way too happy. I, however, was not. Which is why she is pictured and not me.

Uh, you’d have to be crazy, right?  Well, I guess I got my “Crazy Legs” nickname honestly, because I keep going back for more punishment.  And punishment it is, as my legs and butt always feel like hamburger after.  Hamburger that’s been eaten, chewed up…and well, you get the point.

But we did it.  Again.  In my case, hating every step, while Lori kept saying, “this isn’t as bad as I thought”.  She’s lucky I didn’t push her right off the mountain, but she’s scared of heights and never went close enough to the edge for me to give her a good shove.  Anyway, I really like Lori, even though she has bad judgment about texting me while I’m drinking my nightcap.

(note to other Crazy People:  I heard on the radio today that some guy did the Grouse Grind 14 times yesterday. In one day.  Beating the previous record of 13.  What would drive a person to such crazy lengths? …He’s raising money for charity.  Way to go! …and I hope you have a good massage therapist. And medical. And a wheelchair.)

And the best part of the whole trip…?

View of downtown Vancouver as you ride down the Grouse Mountain Gondola. Worth the hike up? Almost...

When you get all the way to the top, they only charge $5.00 for the Gondola ride down (round trip is much, much more – lazy people pay through the nose).

And the view of beautiful Vancouver – almost – makes it worth it.

Almost.

I’ve come a long way, baby, since my first experience with spinning.

In fact, I’ve come to really love it as a complement to my first love (running).  And right now, since I’ve injured my shin – I’m about 90% recovered – spinning has taken over as the main part of my cardio routine.

This week marks my second week at the Hills and Drills spin class at our new Steve Nash Sports Club.  Both weeks’ classes were taught by the experienced and effervescent Jackie (also known by the unfortunate name of “Squirrel Killer”, the poor dear, and she still has the road rash to prove it).

I’ll get to Jackie in a couple of paragraphs, but first…

The SN facility has its own dedicated spin class room and the room is reported to be temperature controlled, but someone evil seems to be in charge because the air conditioning is not yet working. However, we are assured that it is on its way to being fixed.  In the meantime, I’m drinking about 30% more water than usual and sweating it all out. Yuck. Thankfully, I’m using my cute Inperspire towel to mop it all up.

The class is called Hills and Drills and if you take a class like this, you can expect to be increasing the tension of your bike and really working your legs, both in the saddle and standing.  You can also expect intervals of high intensity riding alternated with active recovery.  Think repeats of: 1 minute of maximum hill work, 2 minutes of sitting hill work, and after the repeats, 3 minutes of active recovery.  The class is sixty minutes long and you’ll feel every minute of it.

I would recommend this class for people who have at least some experience with spinning, and for those who really want to build a good base of strength. You will also want to bring a heart rate monitor, as training by heart rate is the optimal way to go.

Now every instructor has their own style, but I must admit I find Jackie’s style unique.  In my past experiences with spinning, the music has blared and the instructor has instructed, usually yelling out the next moves from their bike.

Jackie does this too.

But she is the first spin class instructor I’ve had who has quoted inspirational quotes from a book while we ride!  As a self-professed student of sports psychology (in her words, “the study of winners”), Jackie doesn’t just train us physically, she also spends a great part of the class (while we pedal away of course) on building mental toughness.  While she hops on and off her bike to pat someone on the back or make a slight adjustment of a bike, she keeps us pumped and motivated through the tough hills and drills with inspirational sayings, encouragement and even funky dance moves.

Hills and Drills at the Steve Nash Sports Club gets a big thumbs up from me. And as long as the Club keeps hiring instructors as experienced and motivating as Jackie is, they’ve got a great thing going.

Bravo, Jackie! See you next week.

The GGS girls were presented with the opportunity to try out  Real Ryder bikes at a spin class. 

Yipeeee…we love to spin!  On a new type of bike…even better!

We arrived at GOLD’s gym, in Langley, BC which conduct spin classes on the Real Ryder bike several times a day.  We were greeted  to a very professional, helpful staff.  They gave us a quick tour of their facilities.  It really was a nice gym with a great feel.  Too bad we did not live closer to this gym, it was just that nice.

Gold’s Gym.  Not a great shot….taken from a moving car.

Woman’s only section, always important at any gym!

We were introduced to our instructor of the class, Lisa.  She gave us a quick lesson on how to use the bike, and adjusted the height of the bike for us.  She explained that this type of bike is suppose to mimic riding outdoors, tilting from right to left to straight.

The class was ready to go! But wait…

My water bottle wouldn’t fit in the water holder that was attached to the bike.  It was the extra large bottle.  The instructor insured that I will need it through out the class.  So we had the bike moved so I could access my water by placing it on a shelf, how nice is that?  Thank you, Lisa because I would have died or at least fallen off the bike without water at this high intensity class!  I seemed to be the only one that had this problem. 

Lisa, commanding the room!

The class started off slow.  It took a few minutes to get used to the resistance knob.  It was very sensitive as you need to adjust it quickly once the class got started.  You also had to get used to the bike tilting and really had to engage your core muscles to keep the bike straight.  The class we took there wasn’t a lot of tilting from left to right but more to keep the bike steady.  We were told that other classes has the rider tilt more.  Lisa, took us for a great spin regardless.  She was a great  instructor and I have done many group classes before.  She really keep reminding us to stay focused on the road and when we had to go up hill you really thought you were going up hill.  She would tell us that we were first in our race and our opponent that we really wanted to beat was right behind us.  It completely keep me focused. 

2 of the GGS girls going spinning!

It was one of the hardest classes I have ever done and I absolutely loved these Real Ryder bikes!  I was exhausted at the end of the class, but felt fantastic at the same time.  I cannot say enough about the whole experience. 

This GGS girl gives the Real Ryder  out of 5 dumbbells. Yup, that is a perfect score.  One we don’t give out easily!

Thank you Real Ryder bikes (check out their very cool site) and Lisa for great workout!

Also Mr. Steve Nash, if you are reading this, please equip your  Steve Nash Sport Club with the Real Ryder and I will definitly join your gym.  Thank you in advance.

Reviews on Girlgetstrong.com reflect the personal opinion of the writer, whether it is good, bad or ugly.  No compensation was accepted by me or GGS Media Corporation for this review.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I’ve signed up for a 5k snowshoe race next weekend.  I’m sure that’s not very remarkable, except for the fact that I’ve only ever been on snowshoes once.  When I was eight.

My brother – aka “itwillbesoeasydon’tworry” Mike – made it sound like fun.

Then he invited me up to Mount Seymour for a training run.

That’s right, a training RUN.  Because the darned snowshoe race is a run.  And it is 2.5k UP and then 2.5k DOWN the mountain.

Fun?

I’m not so sure.

But, this blog is all about girls gettin’ stronger, and my name isn’t Crazy Legs for nothing.  So of course I agreed.  How dumb am I?

Here’s how it went. If you are trying snowshoeing for the first time, look at everything we do and do the opposite.

Then you’ll be fine.

* * *

We went for our snowshoe training “run” at Mount Seymour, just north of Vancouver. It’s about the only “quiet” mountain right now during the Olympics.  Quiet being a relative term because the parking lot was PACKED.

I hoped the mountain trail wasn’t packed with people – I didn’t need that many witnesses to what I believed was going to be a snowshoe slaughter, with lil ol me as victim.

Yikes.

Me, left and my brother's friend Katie in Mount Seymour Parking Lot.

My brother rented snowshoes for me and gave me a lesson on how to put them on.

So of course I didn’t put them on tight enough.

That became quite apparent when we got about 100 yards up the trail and all of a sudden Katie veered left, straight off the trail and up through the trees.

UP.

As in vertical.

…Um, Mike, I asked.

Yes, he replied.

Why are we leaving the trail? The perfectly nice, safe, happy trail? Why are we heading straight up a mountain where there are no tracks?  Where it is so steep I don’t even see animal tracks? Where it is so steep my snowshoes feel like they’re going to fall off?

You’ll be fine, he replied. You’re in good shape.

Well, you know if I could have caught them I would have killed them.  But my first time on snowshoes in, um, thirty years, going straight up a mountain was not the sort of race I was going to win.

Time to look at the good side. At least there weren’t any people around to see how freakincrazybad I was.

I didn’t want to be left behind so I busted my butt to keep up.

Um, does that look steep to you? Hey guys, this is my first time!

Of course, my snowshoes immediately DID start to fall off, so I had to call my brother to help me tighten them. It was a great ploy relief to stop for a few minutes, and I seriously considered pushing his conniving butt right down the cliff but since he had a good hold on my feet, I had to bide my time.

Soon we were underway again. This time, I had tight snowshoes and I immediately felt more secure.  This was better! Now if only we could do something a little flatter…or downhill. Downhill would be good right?

Wait, I think that’s called skiing.

Feeling better now that my snowshoes are on properly! This is okay!

After a few minutes, I was relieved to see that we were back on some sort of path.  Things were going well, it was a beautiful day, it was warm, I was happy…

Until Katie told me to stop and smile at her for a picture.

Sure, I said.

Why does Katie want a picture of me here? What? There's a sign above me? What does it say?

In case you can’t read the sign, it says “DANGER.  Steep terrain. Do not proceed beyond this point…”

Um, why do I not see any other snowshoe tracks here? WTH?  Is this some sort of cruel joke on my first snowshoe outing?  And hey, how come we haven’t RUN yet?

They distracted me by telling me I’d get to make a cool igloo if we just kept going.

I fell for it.

No seriously, of course we did NOT pass the sign.

Not at that point.

Cheered, I trudged on, trying to ignore the little voice in my head that said…RUN BACK DOWNHILL NOW!!!

But I’m Crazy Legs so of course I kept going.

Look Ma, I made an igloo! Okay, I didn't make it, but I could have.

And of course I was all happy and proud to be standing innocently in the little snow house. Until…

Yay Me! ...Wait a minute, where's my brother...?

Did I mention my brother is mean in a capital M sort of way?

Oh. Crap. There he is....

No, he didn’t end up dropping it on my head. But I think he spared me only because he had other plans for me.

Plans like this:

What does THIS sign say...?

Of course THAT sign was right next to THIS sign:

Yup, we're entering Avalanche territory. Is this sort of thing normal for a beginner snowshoer?

So of course I did what any self-respecting girl would do.

I fainted.

They're trying to kill me so I might was well just die here and save everyone the trouble.

But it was really cold. So I had to get up.

And continue on.

Up.

Why?

Because Katie was carrying my food.

And, in every situation…even the dire ones, I’m ALL about the FOOD.

Yes, that little speck half way up the peak is a PERSON. Yikes!

And at some point, we got there.

Where?

I have no idea. Up high, I guess. They told me it would be a beautiful vantage point to view Vancouver…

Oh, yeah, baby. Our last hill and I'm at the top!

It WAS beautiful. Take a look:

And then all too soon, it was time to go back down hill.

Which sounds fine, right?

But wow, it looks steeper going back down.

A LOT steeper, lol.

Now I don’t know your idea of snowshoeing, but in my world you would stay ON your snowshoes to go downhill.

In Katie and my brother’s world, this is not the case.

They swore you slide down the really steep parts on your butt.

What? Are you kidding me?

When I’m wearing perfectly good snowshoes? Isn’t that what I’m wearing them for? To stay ABOVE the snow?

And anyway, I’m not wrecking my Lululemon pants!

Hey guys…you’re kidding, right?

Guys…?

But no, they weren’t. And not only were they NOT kidding, but as soon as we got to the first steep downhill part (how did I not notice this on the way up???), I saw that there was a little “chute” that looked suspiciously like a luge run.

A steep, dangerous, narrow luge run.

Sure enough, there are other crazy snowshoers (no, not Katie or Mike in this case) who are actually on their butts, shrieking with laughter, sliding down the hill.

So okay.

I can do this. Right?

RIGHT?

But it is harder than it looks.

And Lululemon…? Can you please design some pants for this? Because mine did not cut it.

Nope, I got bad butt burn like you wouldn’t believe.

But it WAS fun…

The bottom of the chute. On our butts. Way too fun! (But the butt burn...ouch!)

So.

If you are planning to go snowshoeing and have never been, I do not recommend going with my brother or Katie.

‘Cause they’re crazy.  And so, apparently, am I.

Get out there and try it!