Thoughts of the Chronically Indecisive

30-something Angeleno. Aspiring writer. Awful Blogger. Spartan OCR. Equestrian.

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RIP

An employee at Wizarding World left a lily at the potions classroom door.  

Source: @mikewallancedesign

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[samspratt-deactivated20200724]

“From Ashes, We Build.” - 9/11 Tribute Painting by Sam Spratt

In 8th grade I was on a class trip about 3 blocks from The Pentagon. We were just getting back into the bus heading to our next DC landmark when a large shadow passed over us–seconds later a low booming crash in the distance, and a massive, unforgettable wave of heat passed through us. What followed was something of a silent blur of our teachers rushing us into the bus, radio speculation as to what was happening, and a class of 8th graders sitting unblinking having no idea what was going on. I was young and the significance of 9/11 was largely lost on me then–but you never forget the feeling of an explosion and the quiet that follows. 

Fast forward to today: I wanted to pay tribute to September 11th in painted form showing the new construction of One World Trade Center, not just replacing the twin towers–but literally being built from the wreckage. 10 years later, I felt it necessary to acknowledge the importance of past tragedy in the pursuit of a better future: to remember lives lost while looking to save more, to remember fallen icons as we build new ones, and to remember our mistakes as we pursue perfection.

Rest In Peace to all of the victims directly or indirectly killed by the attacks and my heartfelt sympathies to those who lost loved ones through them.

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Welcome home.

[escapingthemonsters]

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Roo aka Three Teeth McGee

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Love her even though she nearly reared me off today. #horses #horsesofinstagram #equestrian #warmblood #mare #intraining #crazychestnut

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Thirsty! #horses #horsesofinstagram #equestrian #warmblood #mare #quinn

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Life Getting in the Way

I took two weeks off of any hard workouts. And absolutely no running. Did some swimming last week since I was house sitting for a friend with a pool. Made sure to get ab workouts in and push ups. Did VERY CAREFUL sets of mountain climbers to finish off my August Spartan 30. Stupid calf.

Still, it doesn’t make me feel quite as good as an hour long ass kicking. To make things shittier, I have a workout scheduled for Monday but then I leave for a work trip until NEXT TUESDAY. The hotel has a gym, of course, but I’m going to need to find that motivation to even go.

I’m supposed to do a 5K in September, but running is my weakness and even two weeks off is going to make a difference in my stamina. Still planning on the Los Angeles Spartan race in December!

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Mother trucker. Minor calf muscle tear. This is because of improper form. Anyone have any no leg workouts for the next two weeks?

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Prayers for Lafayette

The Second Amendment Part II: The right to live in fear that you could be shot at any given moment.

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Workout Challenge

My coach wanted to kill us today. The challenge: 5 reps of 10 exercises, 20 times in 45 minutes. The farthest someone got in the morning was 15 rounds. Challenge accepted. I got 17.5 rounds which comes out to be...

90 Jumping Jacks 90 Jump Squats 90 Rows 90 Sit Ups 85 Ice Skaters 85 Front Lunges 85 Push Ups 85 Mountain Climbers 85 Shoulder Presses 85 Burpees

Know what this looks like on a heart rate monitor?

I pass this challenge on. And remember, sloppy form doesn’t count or you need to start over.  And just because, I STILL did an additional 30 mountain climbers for my Spartan30.

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Pull Up Tips?

For as hard as I train the one thing we don’t have is a pull up bar. I’ve never been able to do a pull up. In school when we’d do the Presidential Physical Fitness test that is what I always failed.

So I bought a doorway pull up bar. I still can’t do any -- not a shocker. But if I’m going to do a Spartan Race, I need the ability to pull myself up if there are rope obstacles or who knows what else.

Any tips on how to start training for pull ups? I do arm workouts already with resistance bands and I’m still just a hanging mess on the bar.

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Reality.

I hadn’t been out to the barn since we lost Princess. I kept telling myself to go, get it over with, but I kept making excuses.

This morning I was there first.  About 20 yards from the barn I found I couldn’t move. Princess had the first stall and turning that corner was going to finalize everything. It would all be real.

Her stall was empty and closed. Her nameplate was gone. 

Last Thursday flashed through my head. “Princess is sick” then “We’re at the hospital” and finally...”You need to come say goodbye.” Then seeing her in the stall at the hospital, hooked up to an IV. I had whistled to her and her ears perked up as much as they could on the pain killers she was on. But she knew it was me...she knew I was there. And the minutes that went by as I held her head in my arms and cried and kissed her. The vet handing me her leather halter and a braid of her tail I asked for. She said something to her assistant. I couldn’t watch so I stood outside the barn with my friend who drove me. Then a flash forward to my room. Sitting on the floor with her black braid in one hand and the leather halter in the other. And crying. For hours.

It’s been nine days and now at her empty stall I found myself back to that night, crying again.

For the rest of the morning I found myself looking there. Waiting to see her pop her head out of her stall. Every dark horse made me turn my head. 

As I left, I passed her stall again, and out of habit I looked over. 

Still empty.

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Polar Loop

I was having an issue working out with my HRM chest strap (running it's fine). It would pair to various apps, but unless I was wearing my phone, it would lose connection, and the last thing I want is my phone on my arm when we’re doing a dozen burpees. Wearable wrist HRM -- sorry, but they’re crap. It’s a chest strap or don’t even bother with one. I had one from Pear Sport that died and I replaced it with a Polar H7. Then I found the Polar Loop--a wearable activity tracker that connects via bluetooth to my H7. This baby worked like a charm.

There’s an app called Flow on my phone and also a desktop version. It was pretty spot on with the activity below. You can see where I put the HRM monitor on and synced it.

I put the H7 on at home to make sure I was doing it correctly so my “workout” was actually only about an hour long. Once it reads a heart rate it starts a training session. I have NO idea how it knew “other outdoor” (we workout in a parking lot), but that’s something to figure out later.

It’s pretty comfortable even though my wrist is so tiny I had to cut it down almost all the way to fit it properly.

I’ll see how it does with monitoring sleep tonight and then have another workout at 7am. We’ll see how it does.

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Finally mine! ❤ #equestrian #horses #italian #equestrianfashion #tucci #tucciboots #tuccilovers #paddockboots #lasaddlery

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My ActionPack from @actionjacquelyn came today! Can't wait to test it all out! @mott50 @pointestudio @melissasproduce @peripherallifeandstyle @lebrisadesigns