Girls Gone Wild -- T.O.

Okay, so it's not a completely appropriate title. There was no breast flashing or drunken madness. But I did have four days of pretty much girl time without family in Toronto.

There was shopping, drinking, dressing up, being dressed up, food, workouts and hanging about. I had my second opportunity to wear my corset and this time, I managed to get it on all by myself, so that's a large accomplishment.

I got to snuggle with two very cute dogs and two very affectionate cats. I learned I liked a new kind of protein bar, and I get to visit with folks I usually only get to see every couple of years. And surprise, surprise, U.S. Immigration even let me back into the country with my crazy inaccurate passport photo.

(The officer did ask me about it and then asked me how I lost the weight -- and then instead of considering me a security risk he confessed that he was terrible at listening and following directions when it came to eating properly. He looked at the image and declared, "Well, your nose hasn't changed. You look great" and sent me on my way.)

We'll have to see what happens when I fly to Montreal in October for the Parc LaFontaine 10k.

I worked out at Andrina and Ian's gym twice this week, and my legs are really showing it today. I have trouble balancing and my brain signals for my body to move, but I can count to three before it actually follows directions. Stairs are -- interesting. The pain is gone, but there's a significant stiffness. On Friday we trained with her personal trainer Greg. Greg did a lot of strength moves (squat jumps, heaving dumbbells, hurdle work, etc.) and then had us run 1100 meters (1600 meters is a mile) as fast as we could up and down hills (which my back wasn't used to and was a bit sore from the next day). Dri estimated that she burned around 1,000 calories in the hour workout according to her watch. The next day we went with Ian to a circuit class. Weight training and cardio activities for 60 minutes, each for a minute at a time as fast and as hard as you can go. The movements were all very different than what I was used to, but I did love the warm up which was shuttle runs (remember those from gym class?).

But we also ate well. I had red snapper for the first time on Friday night and it was so good I literally sucked on it in my mouth. It was followed by a warm butter tart. We shopped at the high-end mall, where I found a hot pair of shoes at Aldo's.

We had pedicures when I arrived (hence the pretty toes). All in all it was a lovely trip, and it was nice to see friends who I normally only get to chat with through Facebook. And as useful as the social networking site is, it's not the same as spending time together.