My turn

[Christo13]

Cynthia: I'm looking forward to seeing you train--I can't wait for the weekend even more, now!

Panache: The picture of your wife. With the background and the truck back there...the pose...the whole photo...if you use your imagination, it looks like training grounds for some top secret superhero team in the making, with your wife totally flexing her telekinesis muscles (why yes, I am a geek! ).

That's a great photo.

I'll be sure to get photos of Cynthia training.

[Cynthia]

I had a blast at Saturday's practice. We worked on:

- braemar (I can't remember the weight of the stone, but it would have been the ladies' open stone weight, I think... need to practice with a heavier stone, but I was getting form down)
- weight for distance (I think it was a 16 lb weight)
- hammer (16 lb weight... they didn't have a ladies' light hammer with them).

I apparently did fairly decently for my first time out. These folks are GREAT help. Very nice, patient, and awesome tips. I'm so glad we found this group to train with. No one put out the usual cones or had a measuring tape, so I have no idea how far any of my throws went.

We're going out again today (this evening)! I'm not sure what we'll be working on (although I heard mention of a caber) -- they're gearing up for an event next weekend.

[McMurdo]

Good luck with it Cynthia, I think your hair should be down that would look wonderful, most of all have fun with it and be careful, please keep us up to date.

[Cynthia]

McMurdo, head over to Facebook -- I have 2 photos and 2 videos up there

I did wear my hair down in a braid for practice. When I was just walking through some of the forms, I ended up holding it in my free hand and when I got more confident, I just let it whip around and it did stay out of the way for the most part (now of course, I wasn't bending over and picking up a caber or anything... I've stepped on my hair enough to know I have to watch out for that).

I did, for the hammer throw, end up wrapping it around my neck and tucking it down my shirt to keep it out of the way I'll have to see if it'll stay out of the way when I get a little more practice with the hammer. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, thankfully.

For tonight's practice, I think I'll go ahead and put it up in a bun, since there may be a caber and possibly some weight for height stuff going on. My hair was cranky last night when I took it out of the braid... massive tangles and a bit dry. Ouch! But I might be able to work on some ways to keep it happy (my hair is such a touchy brat at times).

I am having a blast and keeping an eye on things -- I don't want to over do it and no one pushes me too hard. What a wonderful way to get some exercise, though! I've been needing to add weights and things like that back into my workouts... and the people are so incredibly nice!

I'll definitely keep folks updated. I'm looking forward to getting some numbers to keep track of how I'm doing over time, but they really are focusing mostly on form (including the ones who've been at it a while). Christopher and I will get into the swing of things soon, I'm sure, and probably find a way to keep track of how we're doing at practices. The only thing I don't like is the camera I'm so busy, I barely got a chance to even watch Christopher yesterday much less take any photos of him, and I don't know how he managed to even watch me much less get the few photos and video he did of me. Setting it up on a tripod and leaving it running isn't an option for us at the moment (it's an older digital camera with a soundless, small video option), but the other guys will do that occasionally (although I haven't seen any of the footage).

Hopefully if we do compete (I'm not sure when I will, they've already told Christopher that he should try one of the games coming up), we'll figure out some way to get some photos and video to share here. We've found that it is SO helpful to see what you're doing right and wrong.

[McMurdo]

Was just over on Facebook good photos I'll check out the videos once I get home, they don't like you looking at video here at work, anyway I wish we were still getting weather like yours, it's cool and rainy here today.

[Cynthia]

I definitely understand the work thing The quality of the videos is pretty bad, anyway. Small, grainy, and no sound... but it does give you a little bit of an idea of how I'm doing so far.

And although rain would get in the way of training, I would love more clouds and less sun and definitely less heat. It's starting to cool down a bit, but ugh! You'd think living in Texas all my life would make me handle the heat better, but I've gotten worse over the years and can't stand hot weather or too much sun. Last night was wonderful, though! Oooooh... the sun was going down so it wasn't too terribly hot and we had this lovely breeze! Ahhhhh! Not sure what the weather will be like tonight, but I'll cross my fingers for "more of the same"

[Jack Daw]

Good luck with it all, Cynthia. Gym work should exceed the actual athletic work to avoid injury, along with proper form. Enjoy!

[Cynthia]

Well, I'm not too sore (it's that good kind of sore where your muscles go "oh yes, remember us? Remember that thing called exercise and using us?"). I had a blast but I didn't over do it

I had a little trouble getting back into the swing of things with my one-spin-only light WFD, but with help from the guy who runs practices, I think I started getting back where I was on Saturday. It's just a matter of getting used to it and remembering everything and getting enough practice in, I'm sure.

The hammer, on the other hand, went quite well I think. This time, someone brought the ladies' light hammer and no one at Sunday's practice had seen me throw the 16 lb from Saturday's practice except Christopher. I had a lot of good help Saturday, but the guy from Sunday really gave me some great tips that helped a lot. I'm still only doing the first swing, but I felt I was really getting the hammer out there (not sure how far yet). I'm looking forward to getting more practice with the hammer -- I think it may be my favorite!

I didn't get any other practice in... we were going to work on the braemar, but the guys started playing with this monster caber and we ended up watching them before Christopher and I had to leave.

I'm not sure I'll be able to make it out to any practices this week, and although there is an event this weekend, I'm not going to compete (not sure if Christopher will either, because he can't get in touch with the person who is handling the registration).

I also may be getting a part time job soon that involves a lot of lifting, so I haven't added any other workouts or training in yet to see what my body ends up doing or what I might need to do yet.

So, we'll see how things go!

[Ancienne Alliance]

Hey we're all mighty proud of you , Cynthia.

Keep going !


Best,

Robert & Chrystel

[Cynthia]

I didn't get practice last weekend due to there being a competition (we didn't go, sadly). I went nuts because I wanted to hang out and chat with people and throw weights. I'm looking forward to this weekend, and hope I remember enough to keep rolling smoothly with training.

This week, I started a nice workout routine during the week. I'm hoping to work on it and settle down into a nice routine to help build up strength and get the rest of my weight off. I still need to get a few things to practice form with during the week. We've been looking for a braemar stone, since that should be one of the easiest things. Otherwise, I've been working with weights and other fitness things (like a step-up station in the park I walk in) to keep myself going.

Is it the weekend, yet!?