Gab's Abs, take 2

The downside of having a blog is that as well as tracking your successes you also track your disappointments. Looking back at my earlier entries when I started out in January, I made a lot of plans, including striving to do yoga every day, and a workout plan for building up my abs. Both of these have now fallen by the wayside (although I keep thinking I may try to get back into yoga) somewhere along the way.

But it's alright through as I have still met some admirable targets. I have knocked the stuffing out of the C25K, run 13.5K in the Great Midland Fun Run, and yesterday I broke the 10 mile mark in my preparation for the Birmingham Half Marathon. I've lost a ton of weight (I really should do a more recent photograph for comparison to that one I took a few months ago) and I feel better in myself both mentally and physically. All in all, this is nothing to be sniffed at, but I feel there is still more I could be doing.

At the photoshoot we did earlier this month, I couldn't help but notice the lack of muscle tone to my body. The weight loss was noticeable (go me!) but I had ended up looking both too narrow in the frame and too podgy at the same time, at least in comparison to Renee O'Connor. So the decision has been made to begin a strength training regime to tone up and get something approximating to Gabrielle's legendary abs - not to mention her arms, back and shoulders.

My trouble with this sort of thing is that I rarely know which exercises I should be doing, or indeed how to do them, or how many, or how often... or anything really.

Help came along in the form of Ares, God of War. Or to be specific, Andy, God of Fitness (who cosplays as Ares God of War).

Ares God of War, for all your personal training needs.

Andy is a pretty formidable human being, capable of deadlifting 195 kilos, so if ever I was looking for someone to help me improve my strength and muscle tone, he's the one for the job! He's also husband to my partner-in-cosplay Anna, who makes a beautiful Xena and features in our latest photo shoot, and the pair of them have an adorable son who cosplays Solan. So between the three of them they are quite the Xena family!

Anna is on a fitness kick too and recommended that I chat to Andy to get some advice, as he'd helped her out a great deal (yes, Xena is being trained by the God of War, let's take a moment to think about the beauty of this). So I consulted 'Ares' and within a few days he had devised a set of 5 exercises to start me out, complete with a 7-page instruction manual with photos, YouTube links, recommended apps, times, and other bits of info. I also have a spreadsheet to fill in.

So this morning I sweated, grunted, panted and flailed my way to the end of a 20 minute starter session of modified, easy exercises for people with no core strength.

Well this has been lovely. Can I stop now?

Some were easier than others. I can do squats with no effort at all. Leg lifts start off like a dream but I really start to feel it in my lower abs after a while (this is good, I am told). Push-ups are evil and should be banned.

The plan is to build up to 40 minutes by next week, then keep going and try to increase the number I can do in one minute. I fill in my little spreadsheet and then Ares changes the plan as I improve or throws a sword at me if I've been lazy. We shall see what happens after a few weeks...

Horsing Around

Sorry it has been a little quiet here lately! I've had a lot on in terms of charity work and sewing my new BGSB, but I will try and play catchup as soon as I can. I still need to do a writeup of the XenaFest, and some other convention-related news that may be of interest.

The big news, however, is that I have done another shoot with 'Xena' and 'Argo', aka my friend Anna and a lovely pony called Yorkie. Yesterday was spent up the side of a hill in the rain in various different costumes while a slightly impatient pony wondered why these silly humans kept insisting that he stand still for so long when there was mud to be sniffed, hedges to be eaten, and a bag of apples that was being hidden behind his mum's back. Once again, my ever-suffering photographer, 'Joxer-of-all-Trades' has managed to work miracles and made us look vaguely human - except for Yorkie, obviously, who looks thoroughly equine.

Check out the gallery here!

A little candid on a mobile phone while we set up a shot...

Return to XenaFest

People talk about their "first convention" as if there was one massively defining event which they attended and suddenly became a con-goer. For me there were several. The one which I think of as my first con was a 'Buffy' event down in London when I was 17. This was the event where I met several of my convention friends, my first boyfriend (and my second and third boyfriends, actually) and was actually attending without parental supervision.

Before that I had been taken to the SFX weekender in Blackpool, with my dad taking care of me, and several years before that I had gone to Starfury's 'Chariots of War' convention in Heathrow, a 'Xena' convention held in a hotel which I would later come to know, love and get drunk in many years later.

My first convention. One of many.

But shortly prior to 'COW', my 13 year old self had gone, with my Mum and Dad, to a small, local 'Xena' event in a town hall in Coleshill.

This was 'XenaFest'.

I turned up, in my Callisto t-shirt which had been bought specially for the day, and which I am now wearing as I write this almost 17 years later, and spent the day begging my parents for merchandise and watching a selection of 8 episodes from series 4 which had been sent over on video from the States. This was of course back in the day when there were no internet downloads, and the wait between the US airdates and the UK could be up to a year, and that was if you had satellite. We were a terrestrial only household and as such had not even seen series 3 yet. Fortunately some other fans were able to fill me in on the essential back story for the series 4 opening (why is Gabrielle dead, and who is this "Hope" person they keep banging on about?) so I could sit back and enjoy the weirdness that was 'Adventures in the Sin Trade'. I remember revelling in the ridiculousness of 'In Sickness and in Hell' and being awestruck by 'Devi'. And most of all I remember how amazing it was to spend a day with other fans.

It was a wonderful day out for a young Xenite, but as 17 years had passed I had not held out much hope that they would still be going. So imagine my surprise when I learned that I had just missed one back in January!

It felt like a long wait until July, but it gave me time to get my crossover kit, bag and staff completed. Summer XenaFest fell on July 19th, and I turned up nice and early, all on my lonesome, in full costume without knowing a soul.

For a hardened conventioner, I was nervous as hell. I was used to knowing half the attendees, most of the staff, the organiser, the DJ and the venue like the back of my hand, but I was shaking with nerves at the prospect of walking into an unknown building full of unknown people. What if I was in the wrong place? What if I was the only one in costume? What if everyone else knew each other and nobody spoke to me?

But it has to be said that the Xena crowd were an immensely welcoming bunch and before long I was sat at a table being given glasses of wine and chocolates and trying to work out complex anagrams of Xena quotes for the quiz. (Incidentally, I am very aware that I owe some of my fellow quiz team members drinks, so do please come and collect at the next one as I will be bringing a small vineyard with me in order to make up by debt!) It was a wonderfully jovial and laid back afternoon, and as the evening drew on I was introduced to Anna and Andy and their teenage son, who had all come along dressed as Xena, Ares and Solan. Anna also had large quantities of wine with her, and was so delighted to have acquired a Gabrielle all of her own that I was presented with yet more alcohol.

Take me with you! Teach me everything you know!

As well as being more than a little tipsy, the vino had clearly lubricated my wallet and so by the time the charity auction came about I was more than willing to donate £45 for a stack of autographs. It was all for a good cause though, and it'll save me some pennies come convention season!

It was a truly wonderful experience, and I cannot say enough of a thank-you to the organisers and the fans who have kept the event going for so many years, and who made it such a welcoming event to attend. I'm counting down until the next one!