Free Fitness Movement. All you need to do is show up!
Time for a story… Last Friday evening, I happen to run into my very good friend, Bryce. Now, if you’ve been coming to NP for a few years, you may have met Bryce. He was a regular here a few years ago… somewhere around 2015-2017 if I had to guess. Our conversation bought up a memory of an old document related to NP.
Dear friends,
In honour of today’s Valentine’s Day workout and blog, Please enjoy the following cheesy love poem about NP. (Okay, I don’t write poems and didn’t actually have time for that. I totally used ChatGPT to write this. My apologies for the cop-out! But ChatGPT did a way better job than I could have so you’re better off with this anyway. Enjoy! 😊)
There’s something to be said about the classic workouts – the ones we’ve done every year for years. Things like the Twelve Days of Christmas, Bridge Wars, Sunrise 6Ks, the Deck, and of course… Animal Tracks!
Truth be told, Animal Tracks was not plan A for today. It wasn’t even plan B. No, we actually originally planned to go sledding today (Plan A). If you remember, we couldn’t sled on New Year’s Day due to the lack of snow, so we moved it to today. However, as of Friday, we still had a lack of snow (hindsight 20/20, I guess we could have sledded, haha), so we pivoted to the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market block workout (Plan B).
Hello my friends, and happy Wednesday!
Another Race Day has come and gone. Did you get a PR? If yes, congratulations! If no, don’t sweat it – there will be many more Race Day Wednesdays to get a new PR, and at the end of the day, what really matters is showing up and being part of the community (I say this because I’m someone who is competitive with myself, and can get frustrated with myself if I don’t get a PR – so mainly a reminder to me 🙂).
Years ago, we lived in simpler times. If you said to meet at the LRT bridge, everyone knew what you meant. This referred to the blue pedestrian bridge under the LRT bridge, beside the High Level.
But now, my friends, times have changed. Edmonton now has TWO LRT bridges, making it so much harder to talk bridges in this town. Thankfully, the new bridge has a recognizable name: Tawatinâ (side note: it’s pronounced də-WAH-tin-now). This name is the Plains Cree word for “valley”. About those pieces of artwork on the bridge, there are over 500! Personally, I loved incorporating them into today’s “I spy” workout (thank you to Rob for creating this great workout).
Gosh, what a time this is! Record colds, wind chills in the -50’s, emergency alerts to conserve power… and yet, NP continues.
I considered writing today’s blog about the infamous Talus Balls, and how I built a model of them out of gingerbread over the Christmas break. (Fun fact: I made an Instagram poll to determine what Edmonton structure I should build, and 75% of people responded with the Talus Balls. I suppose that’s our most famous landmark?) However, given the extreme conditions of recent workouts, I decided to discuss that today instead. As a prize for reading this blog, I’ll put a picture of the gingerbread balls at the end, so read on!
Helloooo!!! Hope you’ve been keeping warm for the rest of your Wednesday!
I had a different blog planned for today, but last minute, I’ve decided to switch it up. Stay tuned for next week, where I’ll post the original blog I wrote for today (hint: it’s about bridges).
Why did I change it up? Well because I want to use today’s blog to give a shoutout to two members of our community who showed up early today and helped clear snow off the stairs. Cory and Christie – THANK YOU for showing up early and spending extra time in the extreme cold to shovel and clean off the snowy stairs! It really helped make the workout safer and more enjoyable for us all!
Happy New Year, gang! I have so much to say about today! So many firsts happened today:
One of my most special memories from 2023 is being given this opportunity to be a NP co-leader. It has been three months now since I stepped in, and I’m still just as humbled and honoured as the day Rob and Lazina invited me. I am so grateful for all the love and support you’ve given me. Thank you for continuously lifting me and everyone else up to be the best we can. This community is something really, really special.
Well, my friends, I’ve made an error… Friday has come and gone, and no vlog was posted. Not even a blog made its way to this page. So sorry everyone!
Let me explain what happened. So we usually record a vlog after the workout on Fridays, but yesterday, I had an errand to run between NP and work, so I’ll left right away and decided to do a vlog some other time in the day. I then got caught up in a bunch of meetings, work tasks, a quick lunchtime skate with my work team, and an evening holiday party (complete with an emergency run to a mall because I didn’t have the right clothes for this party). After the party, I spent a bit of time helping my mom make chocolates (fun fact: my mom has a small chocolate business at the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market – this is one of the busiest Saturdays of the year). It was at this point, now sometime in the middle of the night, that I realized I forgot to record that vlog!
Hello!!
You may have noticed something missing this morning: Rob! Rob is away, and I just blogged on Monday, so today we’re lucky enough to have a special guest blog. Our very own Andi has offered to write a blog about traction for winter activities. As someone who doesn’t own grips (yet), and typically spends all winter slipping and falling, I can attest that some sort of traction would be a wise choice!