Workouts at the castle on the hill

I don't think I've ever blogged about my workout schedule. I didn't have an interesting angle, until now.

I've been working out with Stan for a couple years. One evening of personal training a week, and then a weekend warriors class with him on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I (*ahem*) try to get in a fourth workout on my own, but find that if I don't have someone at the gym waiting for me, I often don't make it there.

We do a lot of activities that work the cardiovascular system and the core muscles, focusing on both strength and balance and endurance. I think they call that functional training. It's not my area of expertise, but I'm pretty sure that what it's called. (Hint: If you look at the client photos on Stan's site, you can find some unflattering photos of me working out. There's lots of sweating involved.)

Since I work at a desk job and can be a couch potato at home, I need something to motivate me to get moving. (As if both my parents having heart attacks in their 50s wasn't enough motivation.) For those three hours a week I'm with Stan, I'm motivated and focused and I get a really good workout.

Anyway, that's not the interesting angle I promised in the lead. What's interesting is that for the past month or so, Stan has been a trainer without a formal gym. The old personal training gym closed, and while Stan has been looking for a new location, we've been doing our weekend workouts outside -- Saturdays in a park and Sundays at a local high school track. It officially become too cold to workout outside this past weekend, but up until then our Sunday workouts were here:



What is "here"? It's Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn, Ill., known informally as the castle on the hill. Imagine me huffing and puffing and running around the track, dodging goose poop and being dazzled by the view. I took this photo one morning after our workout.

Why do I feel the need to blog about it now? Because ESPN just recently named it one of the best high school football stadiums. Here's what ESPN had to say:

7. Bill Duchon Stadium (Glen Ellyn, Ill.)
The field is surrounded by woods on three sides, and with the man-made Lake Ellyn Park behind the visitors' stands, the crowd atmosphere on Saturday afternoons (there are no lights) appears right out of the movies. In fact, scenes from the movie "Lucas" were filmed at the site. The high school, built in 1923, looks like a castle, complete with turrets, and sits atop a hill behind the home bleachers. After a Hilltopper victory, the home-team players storm up the hill to ring a victory bell to announce to the town they've won. The field is named after a longtime coach/athletic director who still resides in the affluent suburb west of Chicago.

I would have been oblivious to this tidbit of information, except I saw today that another blogger used my photo from Flickr and had posted about it.

Oh, and about that movie mentioned -- Lucas? My husband was an extra in one of the crowd scenes. I'm pretty sure you can't actually see my husband in any of the crowd shots in the movie, but he was there and can tell you in minute detail how mind-numbingly boring filming a movie can be.

P.S. I'll give 100 Entrecard credits to anyone (up to 2 people) who locate a photo of me on Stan's site and link to it in the comments. Why? I have no idea.

Update: Fragileheart found two of the four pictures. There are still two more on the site. Hint: In one I'm photographed with Karen and in the other with Yvonne.

Things I've discovered this first week of March

~random ramblings and reflections from the past seven days~

I still have the stamina to pull an all-nighter
I'm not sure that's a good thing. I mean, I wish I was motivated enough to finish the task during normal hours. But if I need to stay up all night to finish something and still function at work the next day, I'm capable. Let's just not make a habit of it, OK?

I'm an old-school emoticon kind of girl
Yeah, I like my emoticons built out of old-fashioned text characters. None of this flashy animation for me. :P

This photo is generating hits
I don't get it. This photo is horrible. It's available light using my camera phone. It's not even flattering. But my SiteMeter says at least three or four people have visited my site in the past week because of this photo. Huh?

My journalism professor was right
Way back in the late '80s, before the Internet age, my favorite journalism professor, Bob Woodward (not *the* Bob Woodward of Watergate fame), liked to tell me that my byline should be "haleyhughes, one word, lowercase." This week, as I was typing my name for the umpteenth time on some web form, I realized that the Internet has proven Professor Woodward right and, indeed, my byline is now "haleyhughes, one word, lowercase." And I like it that way.

I write at a sixth-grade level
A post I read on Bloody Computer! reminded me that Microsoft Word has a feature that allows you to judge the readability of your writing. It's through the spelling/grammar check tool. Anyway, after reading the post, I copied the text from my blog's main page into Word and ran the check. It came back as a sixth-grade readability level, which I think is great, because that means it's easily readable, like they taught me in J-school. I'm not trying to write a dissertation here. An enjoyable reading experience is the goal.

Avon Romance Blog
I've been reading romance novels since I was 13 years old. Some of the first that I read and many of my favorites have been published by Avon Books. So imagine my surprise when the Avon Romance Blog dropped an EntreCard on my site and then requested to place an ad here. OMG, Avon! I have since become a regular reader of the blog. If you like to read romance novels or if you're writing a romance novel and want to learn more about the acquiring editors, go visit this blog.

CoComment
A cool way to keep track of comments you've made on other blogs, and track followup discussions. Unfortunately, a few comments do manage to escape its tracking system, but I'm not sure how. Maybe if there's no RSS feed?

AdSense
I haven't felt the need to place advertising on this blog before, simply because I know the return would be minimal. Plus I'm not blogging for the money, although money is nice. Sometimes, though, my curiosity gets the better of me and I sign up for something just to see it from the inside. So, I signed up for AdSense (see the Google ads in the right column) and I've been discovering the inner workings. I think I've earned all of 1 cent so far. :)

Not everyone has an EntreCard widget yet
Every blog I visit now, I find myself searching for the EntreCard widget so I can drop my card. When I don't find one, I wonder: Why hasn't this person signed up yet? Are they afraid of the extra traffic and exposure? Seriously, follow the EntreCard link, take the tour, create an attractive 125-by-125 pixel calling card for your blog, sign up and see what happens. (I'm talking to you, Don M.F.H. And Wook. And Stanimal.)