David Chats with Jill about Her Love for Nature, Part 2

David:What piece of advice would you give the people at the gym who would think you're nuts for going out and hiking for two hours, as opposed to being on a step climber for forty-five minutes and getting the same workout? How would you drag them out of the health clubs and the fitness clubs and into the outdoors? What would you say? What was your revelation? Jill:Well, I just find that I get extremely bored using a machine at the gym, it doesn't hold my interest. You're not going anywhere, you don't have a beginning point and a destination. You're just-you're going nowhere, and so I find it extremely boring, after ten minutes I can hardly stand it. So I find that being outdoors, you have beautiful surroundings, which is really important, so you can appreciate everything that's around you. You're not in a gym with a bunch of sweaty people and fluorescent lights, and it's hot, you know. You're out, and it's natural, and it's beautiful, and you're going somewhere. So, for me there's a lot more appeal to that, than walking in one place at the gym. David:When I go to the gym, it's an extremely solitary time for me. I'm never more alone than I am when I'm at the gym, concentrating. Other people are looking around, I'm concentrating to the point where when people ask me questions, I don't hear them, because I'm working out. These activities that you do outdoors-are you going with people and doing them with people, or are you going alone? Could you do this and have as much fun alone, or is it more important to go out in the elements by yourself and experience them like Henry David Thoreau, or someone like that? Jill:No, I actually prefer to do it with somebody, I almost always do. If I have to go by myself, I will, but I generally don't and I don't choose to. Depending on what we're doing, sometimes we can have a bit of a conversation at the same time. If we're just doing a mellow, light run, we can kind of chat the whole way. Hiking, same thing. If you're pushing yourself really hard, then you can't talk, but it's just knowing that somebody's there with you, and motivating you if you start feeling like you need to stop or you just can't go on any further. There's always that person that's motivating you and telling you that you can do it, and you want to keep up with that person. You don't want to slow that person down. So I find for me, it's much more motivating to do these things with other people, and then at the end of it, there's always-we usually reward ourselves with having a great breakfast or a great dinner, whatever the time of day it happens to be. So I look forward to having the social part of it afterward. David:What are one or two or three places in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver area, that are really great places to go? Often people will say they have a favorite trail, a favorite trail that nobody else knows about, a very few people know about. Do you have any places like that? Jill:Because I live in North Van, and we have so many great trails here, I generally run in Lynn Headwaters, and there's just a million trails in there. There's all sorts of stuff you can do. You can do hikes, or you can run around the lake. And there's all levels, there's easy stuff, there's harder stuff. You can just walk. It's beautiful in there, so that's generally where I go. I also hike up Grouse Mountain the Grind, or the BCMC trails. I also love the seawall, the Stanley Park seawall, running around there or cycling around there, which is really easy. You don't have to be in good shape to rollerblade or to cycle around Stanley Park. It's so flat, so it's not difficult, but it's just really beautiful. So, those are probably the three places I like the best. I want us to get some snow, and I'm really excited to start snowshoeing, because we can't hike anymore once we have snow, the trails are too slippery. So I am looking really forward to being able to go snowshoeing, hopefully within the next month. This weekend, I'll probably just go for a couple nice, long walks. Maybe a little run in there, nothing too, too strenuous though. David:What is the next big outdoor step that you hope to take? You said you're monkeying around with the snowboarding, you know, it gets more extreme from there. Is there something that you've got your heart set on-skydiving, blading? Jill:No, you know, I'm not a huge thrill seeker. I'm not. I don't need-I'm not into height things, and anything that requires a daredevil type of mentality. That's really not me. I just-I mean, I don't really have to be exercising outdoors, I just like to be outdoors. So I can be just sitting there, or I can just be-like I said, walking, or I just like breathing in the fresh air, and feeling the fresh air on my face. So I don't have any huge desire to do any crazy, extreme sport or anything. I might, one day, possibly start rock climbing, and it would be on a fairly small scale, I would think. Nothing like Everest or anything like that. So I've considered doing that, and I might do that. Improving my snowboarding abilities will be a challenge anyway, so I might focus on that for a while. I don't know, that's about it. David:Thank you very much for speaking with me. Jill:You're welcome, thank you, David. This work was released under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Source: TheLinguist