10,000

We hit the 10,000 mark a few days ago actually but I though that I’d wait until the end of the month to actually make anything of it.  See it turns out that July 2012 was the blog best month ever! Over 1000 page views!  Not too shabby considering I only have 19 followers here at the end of the month.

• Mario Power Ups
• Warrior Dash 2012
• How I lost 80 pounds
• What The Mind Believes, The Body Achieves
• Another 5K Race

These are the top posts, the Mario one ends up being on top because I guess everyone searches for the picture that is in that post I guess.

Visits by country!  Apparently they love me in Russia.

Rwanda, Chile and The Philippines are my sort of off the map single digit visitors.

 

I now have readers from every continent.

I am really very honoured and humbled by all this (even while at the same time thinking that it is amazing!)  I know that a lot of these posts are more just me spewing things that fall out of my head from time to time but some of the comments I have gotten recently really allow me to think that amidst all of the fluff pieces that there are here, there are at least a few posts that speak to people.

Thanks for reading folks!  There is more to come to be sure!

My Back Hurts

The last few days, probably since about Thursday, my back has been killing me!  Usually in the morning and it definitely more of a muscle pain than a spine out of joint type pain.

It’s a bit frustrating to be in so much anonymous pain.  That is, I don’t know really why I am in pain and I can’t even see where that pain is coming from.  My guess would be moving things.  You don’t lift properly or carry weight conveniently while moving furniture.

Fight through it, is all that there is to do.  I still ran and did karate and biked on the weekend.  I spit in the face of pain.  Who’s in charge over here?  Me? Or a muscle twinge, that runs the length of the left side of my back?

Clearly I am.

Tomorrow I’ll be making my return to the gym before I head over to karate.  I was a bit dismayed to realise that with all this moving and packing and Warrior Dashing and being sick that it had been almost two weeks since I have been to the gym!

Far too long, sure I have run and biked in the meantime but weights are just as cruel of a beast as cardio is.  Sure I was lifting things during moving, but its not the same.

I’m hoping that a few workouts at the gym will cure my sore back, it is possible.  But at the very least a sore back is not going to stand in my way!

Friend Making Mondays: Goals and More

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here and at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Goals and More

1. Brag about some of your daily, healthy habits.

I put in the effort to eat properly each day and avoid foods that I know are bad for me.

2. Do you track your daily food intake? If so, how?

I do, I used to track calories very closely, now it is more of a general number.  I know I can eat about 2500-2800 and since I have been doing this for so long I just know how much certain staple foods contain.

3. What do you want to change most about your daily routine?

Nothing really.  A few years ago I had loads of things to change, what I ate, if I exercised and so on, I’ve made those changes for the better already.

4. How often do you exercise? 

Many times a week.   I’m usually at the gym twice a week to do weights and then running and biking two to three times each per week, and karate.

5. How do you stay on track when you’re on the go?

I still count calories when we go places or even just out to dinner.  I also put in time at the hotel gym or out running if we are visiting people.  While on our last cruise I was in the gym almost every morning.

6. What’s one excuse you use that prevents you from reaching your goals? 

I don’t.  Sometimes I don’t make it to the gym, like with moving just now it makes things a bit hectic, but I don’t make excuses, I make alternate plans.  Can’t get to the gym? Go for a run.

7. What scares your most about your journey?

When I set out to get in shape I was too focused on results to worry about being scared.

8. What do you think will change most when you reach your goal? (If you have reached it, what’s different?) 

My entire lifestyle.  If you spend enough days being active and eating right it no longer is a conscious choice you make, it becomes just something that you do.

9. What motivates you to reach your goals? 

The desire to always improve.  Once I started getting in shape I just wanted to get better each day.

10. Share a few of your goals. 

I spent this year so far reaching for a lot of running goals, but there are a few others too:

Complete 5K in under 20 minutes.  Done

Do the Warrior Dash in 30 minutes. Close enough!

Run 500k

Bike 700k

Get back to benching my body weight

Beat last years time at the Mudnewton

Fox In Socks

So I ran yesterday morning here at the new house as I mentioned earlier, it turns out my route was 0.74k longer than 10k though I would have sworn that it was at least a 12k run while doing it.  Why?  Hills.

The hills out here are nothing compared to the hills from the Warrior Dash out in Horseshoe Valley, but running up an incline for a long distance will slow you down quite a bit, or at least make it seem that way.  I was really only 8 seconds per kilometre slower than I was on the route in town, but it sure seemed slow.

Part of it was the blisters forming on my toe on my left foot and the arch of my foot on the right.  Ouch! A while ago Amber bought me running socks and I scoffed at them.  The first time I ran 10k in my new Saucony shoes (the blue and green ones), I got blisters on my toes and I think it is because I wear just Wal-mart sports socks usually.  They are thick socks and they don’t allow for any room at all in those shoes, and apparently my trail running shoes either.

Just goes to show again that you need the right tools for the job!

I feel more and more like I am becoming my dad, with specific gear for my running endeavours.  Under Armour shirts and expensive shoes and now certain socks.  At least the shoes only cost $170 and now the $4000 his bike costs.

Last Run At The Old House, First Run At The New

Wednesday was moving day and while I have posted a couple of things since then they were both pretty short.  There are a few reasons for this. I didn’t have Internet for a day here at home, and the place was a complete disaster!  Thankfully now it is much more aster than disaster and I’m feeling a sense of normalcy returning to my life here at the new house.

I woke up on Wednesday really early and decided that it would be a good use of my time to go for one last run at the old house.  I had thought the same thing on Sunday evening, the day after the Dash, but my time was abysmal (23:50).  I knew the first person to get to the house on Wednesday would be my dad with the moving truck and if anyone was going to understand me out running on moving day it would be him.

So I pulled on my running gear, that i could find as so much was packed away, and headed out on the usual 5k route.  My goal was to beat the time from Sunday, but also to just go out on a high note.  Success! 21:54 was my time and it is the fastest I have ever run my usual 5k course!  A fact I did not even realize until just now looking at the data to type this here post.  My only faster 5k times around the block are the ones where I ran the super flat course to get down under twenty minutes.

It is Saturday, and with less than four weeks to go until the Mudnewton I need to get back into running 10k.  For the last month I have mainly been running between five and six kilometers with loads of hills.  That hill training will serve me well but I need distance now too. 

This morning will be my first run at the new house and I have struggled to find routes that will be easy to remember while I am out running than end up at even numbers for distance.  There are no easy loops to make.  The easiest 10k route I could figure out was just going up the bike path that leads to Peterborough and then turn around and come back, not my favourite type of run to do.

I expect that my time for this 10k will be a few minutes higher than my old route.  The one I ran in town was fairly flatish with long smooth declines and inclines as I ran down to the river, along the river and then back to the house.  This route today has a couple of hills in it and no sidewalks at all to help me set my pace.  Just have to see how it goes I guess.

Moving!

Since Tuesday I have been moving.  We have been taking loads of things in the cars and then Amber’s mom and Lyle came and moved things in their trailer, and then my dad came with a moving truck on Wednesday and we finished moving things on Thursday!

What a pain moving is.  We have so much stuff I felt while we were moving it, but while it was in the house I didn’t think it was so bad really.  I am sure once move things are put away this house will seem a bit bare by comparison.  Having this house seem a bit bare is actually a really good thing I think though.

Amber seems to like to complain about how much display stuff I have, while I don’t think I have enough of it really.  But now I can have a lot of that stuff out and visible and things don’t seem so crowded.

I don’t know how we would have gotten this move done with family though really.  Being able to take a few loads of things in the trailer that Amber’s mom brought was so valuable in terms of time and the general need to pack things.  Also having my dad and Greg and Pete come to help load and unload the big moving truck was fantastic.  Of course Amber looked after so many of the details of moving that it seemed like all I had to do was show up and haul stuff out from the truck and the rest was done for me.

Finally yesterday Nexicom came and set us all up, I have Internet and phone and cable and it’s great, though we overlooked getting the food network in out new package, so I’ll get on that today no big deal there.

I would like to sleep until my alarm goes off soon though, I have been up at about 5 each of the last two mornings, totally not my favourite thing!

Warrior Dash Pictures

The event photos were finally posted the other day and I bought some.  I wasn’t really sure I wanted to buy race photos and I think if it was just a plain old road race I would not have.  But since these are pretty cool action shots I felt that I had to by them.  The question was then ‘how many?’  they are, of course, a fortune and so I was just going to buy two.

Buying two photos would have cost me $30, buying five in a package cost me $35.  So I bought five digital copies that I can go and print for myself. 

They are pretty great pictures!  And here they are:

I love the second picture while I am in mid jump and the last picture especially, those two I’ll be getting printed.

More pictures and race day details here!

Paintball Recap

Sunday was, as it typically is during the summer paintball day.  We meet over at Pete’s house and then head over to a field across the street that SGS so kindly modifies for us every few months as they move and store equipment there and dump dirt and debris. We also have run of just an empty field that has tall grass and hills and such. It is always great fun and I end up coming home with welts polka-dotting my body.

Worst Play Of The Day

Playing a game where we had to take ‘hamburger hill’ at the back of one field.  I snuck up close but since things were taking a bit longer than I liked I decided I’d dash across an open area and circle around to the back of the hill.  It was a solid plan except that about four strides into my run I misjudged my footing and face planted, dropping my gun to save my melon from hitting the ground.  As I reached back to pick up my gun I got shot the required three times in the arm and leg to be ruled dead.

Highlight Of The Night

Playing a game of defend the fort on the much more barren SGS field I had come down out of the fort and was hiding behind some debris of concrete slabs.  I has two people firing on my from the bushes that line a bit of a roadway SGS uses to get their stuff in and out of the field.  It took about two minutes, though it seemed like ages, but I ended up scoring a headshot (a one hit kill by our rules) on each of my assailants winning the match for my team as I was the last man standing.

Truly there are very few better ways to spend a Sunday morning!  I just wish we had video of the whole thing!

Warrior Dash 2012

Today was the Warrior Dash  I woke up a bit earlier than I had hoped but it was alright.  Amber had taken the day off to come with me and we got on the road by 8:10 and headed to my old stomping grounds of Orillia (and Horseshoe Valley) Ontario.  After about 2:20 of driving we had arrived.  My back was a bit sore from the long ride, but that melted away quickly as the excitement for the race was building up.

We met up with Jodi right away and the three of us hung out while we waited for the noon start time.  We gazed upon the massive hills that surrounded us hoping that they were not in fact part of the race itself.

Once 11:30 came by we got into the starting coral for the noon wave time.  Jodi just decided to run in the same wave as me possible chip timer screw ups were not her concern.  Excitement built and people were yelling when the guys at the start line were calling out things to chant and counting down the minutes to the start time.

Finally noon came and we were off!  I went at a pretty good clip to begin with staying with the leaders of my wave.  This was actually planned, I wanted to be at the very front so as not to be bogged down in the big group of people!  The waves were supposed to be about 650 people each!!.

The first obstacle was just mud pits.  The first few I leaped from firm ground to firm ground on rocks or tree stumps.  My first actual step in the mud I lost my right shoe! Luckily I was able to step on solid ground when that socked foot landed next, circle around outside the race course and grab my shoe.  Even after that I caught back up to Jodi and passed her again for a while.  Then there was the first of the hills!  My god was it ever steep! And long!  I managed to run up that hill and keep on going.  At the top of it was a bunch of bungee cord strung between trees.  It was no big deal stepping over that and continuing along the way.  The first real obstacle came shortly after with a series of walls to jumps over that were just about waist level and then a board with barbed wire over top to duck under.  There was about five of each of these and it was during this portion that I separated myself from the pack of leading people.  I would say by this point, from our wave there was maybe about 8 of us that were bunched up within ten seconds of each other.

I was still ahead of Jodi when we came to a section where we had to just crawl maybe 20 feet under barbed wire.  I was motoring along and went to stand to run not realizing that there was one more wire!  I got it right in the forehead and down to the side of my nose.  Luckily it did not hit me in the eye, but I have a nice little scratch to show for it.  Jodi said that her and the next guy both looked at each other when I did that and just made that ‘that's gotta hurt face’.  I sort of went back a bit with the pull of the wire and then got free and continued.

More hills followed and while they were very hard to climb requiring a few walking steps, what was worse was that the downhills were so steep you couldn’t even really run down them!  You had to stutter step or constantly be trying to slow yourself down.

It is hard to recall all the obstacles in order now.  I wish I had thought to jot them down in the car on the way home!  I believe that the next thing after a steep down hill was crawling through the sand pit.  I think what makes it hard to remember is that the first mile was maybe just those three obstacles I have already mentioned, maybe just two of them even!  i know for sure that I completed the first mile in just under 6 minutes!  A blistering pace really, less than 4 minutes per kilometre!  and then the end of the race was rife with obstructions, so it is a bit hard to keep things straight, unless there was significance to them!

So the sand pit, Jodi and I arrived to the sand pit at almost the exact same time, there was different dug outs, like six of them I think, and she just edged me out by a second or two coming out of the pit, I know this because I cursed her as we exited. and then it was the mother of all hills.  In direct glaring sun both of us plodded up this monster of a mountain, no one was running.  It was here that I recognised just how flippin’ hot I was. It seemed to last forever and while we were both walking up the hill it was here that Jodi took the lead for good on me.

At the top of the hill was the rope walk, you stood on one rope and held onto another.  I slipped off this a couple of times, but made it across in fairly good time.   Then we were up and over a framed structure, just climbing up and down on 2x3s.  It was somewhere around here that we came down from the peak of this mountain! it was a decent so steep that they zig-zagged the course and it was all I could do not to lose my footing!  It was frightening to be running, well more like trotting down this hill right on the edge of completely losing my balance and rolling down this hill. I was right on Jodi’s tail still as we came to a bunch of 2x10s set on different angles up and down that you had to balance across, it was on these that I passed a few of the guys from the heat that had been leading up to this point.

Then it was the last big climb, I pushed myself to be jogging up this hill as it was not quite as steep as the last and came to the top, I looked down and saw the big slippery slide thing.  The relief must have been evident on my face as a bunch of guys that were just watching yelled out to me “you have to turn!!” I clued in that they were talking to me, and turned ninety degrees to my right, only to discover, more hill! UGH! Up I went, and then came back down to see a very steep obstacle where you had to use a rope to help pull you up and you walked up the super steep incline.  I think this was actually my favourite one, it just seemed cool. The opposite side of this particular obstacle was not as cool and other than fearing for my life running down the steep hill I mentioned earlier this was the only moment of ‘oh crap’ that I felt.  It was a framed structure again, but the gaps here where big enough that one missed footing would send you tumbling between the boards like 15 feet maybe.  Yikes.

I came to the slippery slope. Jodi was out of sight by then, but the guy that had been out in front from our heat was in my sights.  I got to the big tarp for the slope, and did a bit of a jump and landed on my bum and began to go!  I pushed with my hands and caught up with the guy. But now I was going FAST down this tarp.  The tarp was quickly coming to and end and the ground did not look so slippery as much as it just rocky at the bottom of it.  I tucked one leg under the other, and planned to plant my right foot on firm ground and spring myself back up into a run.  My plan did work.  Nearly perfectly.  The only problem was that it went into action about ten feet too late.  My left shin has a few scrapes on it, but not nearly as bad as I had feared.

By this point the end was in sight, I had caught up to the guy that had been giving a bit of advice to everyone at the start of the race, and the accent up the cargo nets ensued.  I took the net two or three squares at a time, bouncing my way up. Down was a bit slower going, but I managed to hit the ground just after my new rival did (I later learned that Jodi ‘ran’ down the netting facing forwards, I think I called her insane when I heard that).

I turned on whatever jets I had left and leapt over the two sets of burning logs and then got into the mud pit at just about the same time but got out just ahead of the guy.  I slogged through, ducking under the barbed wire, not so much crawling as monkey walking before coming out and making the final ten metre dash over the finish line.

I had completed, in 30:16!!  I was not under 30 minutes, but there is still a 30 there, and so I’m totally calling that goal accomplished!  We got our medals, and Amber took some pictures of us all muddy. Then went to get hosed off.

Jodi finished in 29:38, so not too far ahead of me, but that time for her, was good enough for 6th woman overall (and in her age group) on the day! out of 3700+ women competing!  My time placed me 38th in my age group and 110 for men. In my age group there was 1126 competitors for Saturday, my 38th place puts me in the top 3%! and over all I was in the top 110/2966, also good for a top 3% finish!

What a fantastic day!  I couldn’t have asked for a better experience and it was great that Amber was able to get the day off and be there for it too!

Warrior Dash 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Professional photos of me jumping over fire and coming out of the mud here.

Follow Me on Twitter or Facebook Today

As you should be aware if you follow this blog, today I am in the Warrior Dash.  I am in the 12:00pm wave and it’s going to be awesome!

I have signed up through Facebook and Twitter to have live updates posted.  I’m not sure exactly what type of updates you’ll get, but I assume at least a start and a finish.  I’d imagine they would have things at some or all of the obstacles.

If you want to know how I’m doing as I do it, follow me on either Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/chrispy47?ref=tn_tnmn) or Twitter https://twitter.com/Chrispy47  @Chrispy47

This will be awesome!!

The Dark Knight Rises

I don’t want to give away anything, so let me put that to rest right off the bat (get it?).  It was a really good movie and all the parts were played very well.  It certainly was not the end to the trilogy that I expected.

It was exciting and tense, the 2.5 hours seemed to go by pretty quick as I thought the story kept rolling on without many lulls.  There are a few things I would have changed for sure I think, just to satisfy my ideal Batman movie, but it was really good.

I said to Amber on the way home that I liked The Dark Knight better though.  When she asked way I replied that I felt the Joker was more of a character. Yes Bane was played well and so was Catwoman, but the Joker as a character and specifically as played by Heath Ledger was outstanding.  I think if I was doing a Batman trilogy I would be having the plot build to where the Joker is the main bad guy in the third film. 

I will say that this particular story did seem more like a one-off graphic novel rather than part of the monthly series, if you follow my meaning.  Like it’s not something that would fit snugly into the main timeline of Batman history like the first two movies could have.

It’s totally worth seeing, I’m likely to see it at least twice, maybe three times if I can convince my dad to go. Out of 10, I’d give it a 9 (Batman begins would get a 9 as well and The dark Knight would get a 12).

This Is It

After two days of feeling decidedly ill my body has begun to return to normal functioning.  I’m assuming that mainly because there is still Pepto Bismal in my system, so my hope are that I’m a fully functioning human being by this evening or tomorrow at noon at the latest.

In a way it might have been good to be knocked out of commission the last couple of days as it forced me to rest my body.  No desire to run outside even in the great weather!

Tonight is also of course the opening day of The Dark Knight Rises and I have been looking forward to this flick ever since I knew it existed almost two years ago now I guess.  I’m excited to see what is going to happen to wrap up the trilogy.  For the sounds of it, it is going to be pretty amazing.  I’ll give you my impressions once I have viewed it.

This weekend, should all go according to plan will be awesome. Stay Tuned!

Ultimate Warrior?

It is now less than a week until the Warrior Dash takes place.  I have been gearing up for this day for over a year believe it or not.  Last summer a friend of mine was in the race, but I only found out about the whole thing two days before the event, Far too late for me to get in on the action.  That race day in June a year ago was the first time I went out running.

I’ve been in three races since, and now finally the Dash is on Saturday.

Am I ready?

Well, on the Warrior Dash website they have a bit of a workout guide and suggestions and all that for three different warrior types.  I would suggest that I fall under the Ultimate Warrior category:

Time to begin preparing for Warrior Dash so you can step on the guy doing push ups in the start corral and not scream for your Mom. You are the Ultimate Warrior - a 5K run is considered a mere warm-up and pain is viewed as a necessary component of any challenge. Your diet consists mainly of protein and your sheer athleticism causes Chuck Norris to tremble. To you, there's nothing like the smell of sweat at 6am on a Saturday. The term "fear" does not exist in your vocabulary. You don't want to run Warrior Dash - you want to win it.

Begin training five to six weeks before Warrior Dash. You should perform four to five of the listed exercises, five to six days a week. Make sure you cycle the strength exercises in order to achieve a full body workout. Read below for helpful gym and cardio timelines:

Strength Timeline:
Week 1-2: Pick your preferred four to five exercises and then perform each exercise for one minute, with a 30 second rest between exercises. Try to do as many reps as you can in that minute.
Week 3-4: Exercise for two minutes with 30 seconds rest between exercises. Do as many reps as you can in the two minutes.
Week 5-6: Exercise for two minutes with 30 seconds rest between exercises. Do as many reps as you can in the two minutes. Take two to three days off prior to Warrior Dash to ensure that your body is full prepared for the Battleground.

Cardio Timeline:

Complete a 45 minute cardio exercise after each workout.

I haven been at the gym for the last 2.5 years almost now so, the videos of things they have are not something that pose a problem for me and in fact I have done at one point or another almost all of those exercises.

Yesterday at the gym I met with Jodi to do another fitness assessment and to run our obstacle course again and the beep test.  The results are pretty much exactly what I had hoped for since our last assessment back in March and the change to my workout routine!

Fitness Assessment July 2012

Read this first.

Back In march was my last fitness assessment and there were a couple of things I discovered after a season of hockey that I wasn’t all that happy about.  My skin folds leapt up by about 10mm, which really is not that much, but the number looks big.  And my muscles are shrunk a bit.  We were focusing on plyo type exercises to keep short burst cardio things happening and not so much focused on strength.

I was happy with the workouts I was doing, but things like this seem to be cyclical.  If I work focused on cardio, strength drops, if I focus on strength cardio drops.  I think now with my current routine we’ve found that balance as I do my strength stuff at the gym, and my cardio things at home by running or biking.  There is a bit of plyo work at the gym still, but not as much as before.

So here are some numbers for you.

Now I’ve talked about my whole fitness assessment things before and how it really can give some nice things to track other than weight when you are trying to get in shape.  So if you want to read all that go here! As for this what are we seeing of importance.  You can see my weight is pretty consistent even since the June of 2010.  My waist has gotten “bigger” and the body fat percentage numbers change greatly at the end.  So.  The wait thing is something I find a bit misleading because Jodi takes that measurement right around my belly button, in going from 81-90cm I have not needed new pants or anything, but it’s my core muscles that have made that number change.  The low number there of 81cm I looked like this:

And now at 90cm I look like this:

It’s hard to even see the difference I think, in the waist area that is.  There are all sorts of other things I notice between those two pictures.

As for the body fat percentage, we do that on the scale they have at the gym with the electronics in the foot pads and all the numbers that are in the teen I am entered into the scale as a ‘normal’ body type.  It was not until the last two assessments that Jodi thought to change it to the ‘athletic’ body type, which I assume takes into account more muscle mass and density of the body in general.  So 7.7% is pretty awesome I would say.

This chart is Muscle measurements. Now as I was saying between September of 2011 and March of 2012 the focus for me was not really on building muscle and strength.  For instance I was not doing a bench press or a squat during that time.  And the affects of that show here with many of my muscles dropping by at least a cm and some up to 5cm!  Noticing that we shifted gears and started to work on building that strength back up again with the whole do squats and bench presses until you want to die thing and now with the push day and pull day so that I get a full body muscle workout each time I go to the gym.  That work clearly has paid off, as each of the new measurement are new highs or equal to previous bests.

You also will note the beep test and obstacle course levels and times and there are a few things to note here I think.  The beep test where I got to level 10.5 that is the only thing we did other than the measurements on that assessment day.  We didn’t have the time or access to the right gym to actually to the course.  I wasn’t exactly happy with 8.5 yesterday, but it was super hot all day and I did the obstacle course before the beep test, so I had already spent some time running.  The times for the obstacle course are either set out on that top line horizontally or in the last orange column vertically. (Why? you might be asking.  Because of the graphing dear readers, see the horizontal numbers there are actually “times” like 5:54.6am, where as the vertical chart of that has all sorts of formulas and junk to make the time in the last orange column equivalent to a passing of time, as in 5 minutes and 55 seconds (I rounded up)).  ANYWAYS!  That time dropped by about 20 seconds, and that too is awesome to gain that much time over such a short span of time.

Coming Soon

I want to blog, I have things to tell you, you’ll just have to wait ‘til tomorrow.

Sport is about Confidence

I’m so ready to be done with running up hills for a while.  I have set out now eight times over the last three weeks to specifically run up and over hills, or as is the case at the gym just up one long steady incline.

I really do get the point, I’m building up a different type of endurance as I charge up the slopes over and over.  It is much much harder than just running on the flat ground.  I am having a hard time with it though because I find it so hard to pinpoint quantitative results.  This frustration is more so with the hill running on the trails in Jackson park than it is on the roads though.  The reason for this is that on the roads it is easy to map the distance and keep the time and know for certain that, yes, I was faster this time over the exact same distance.  In the woods it seems that the GPS on my phone is not picking up correctly and each time I do that run I am running a different number of laps around the hill and I can’t even map the route accurately so not only am I making a 1:1 comparison hard because I’m not sure how many laps I did on previous runs, but I can’t even really compare by pace because mapping the route is all wonky and I’m not really sure how far I have gone on any of those runs.

The end result of all this hill running though is that I feel slow in general.  While running the hills (outdoors) I am averaging a speed of 12.17Km/h while on my last six ‘normal’ 5k runs I have averaged a speed of 13.52Km/h.  That’s a big difference!

Today I don’t have to work until 9, I switched shifts, and so even though I ran last night I intend to get off the computer now and run my usual 5K in hopes that it makes me feel a bit faster again (my last 5K at the end of a work day was dreadfully slow, about two minutes longer than usual).

So much of sport is about confidence and perception, I simply cannot go into the Warrior Dash in a week feeling like I am slow or that will end up being the outcome.  I need to regain that feeling that I am fast with the added confidence of knowing that hills are not a problem.  Those two things combined are what will make meeting my goal for the race possible.

I Think I Upset Adversity…

Yeah, I played hockey last night, and part was through the game I was skating hard to the end of the rink to try to block a shoot around by the goalie.  I sort of forgot to slow down at all, and slammed into the boards.  I knew what I was doing, like, I meant to do what I did.  I just forgot how fast I was actually going I guess.

Now my back hurts.

A bunch.

A visual Idea, if I stand straight, hands at my side I can lean to the right and get my finger tips to touch my knee with little trouble.  But when I lean the other way they only get to be touching about 1/2 down my thigh before I can feel it.

Luckily I already have a chiropractor appointment tomorrow, hopefully she can straighten me out.

In the mean time, no gym today sadly, but paintball! maybe that movement will loosen me up a bit.

Hey, Adversity! Screw You!

This week running was more like a contest than something I really enjoyed.  My car has been on the fritz for the last while and I finally took it in to Russell’s to be fixed after two attempts by the garage in Bridgenorth.  To be fair they did do things that needed to be done at that garage, and did suggest that the spark plugs were the next step, but it was just too hard to get the car there early in the morning and work it out to get to work and back.

The whole back from work thing did however end up being a bit of a pain.  On Thursday it was about a flobbity-jillion degrees and I couldn’t get a ride even from Ennismore into Bridgenorth due to commitments people had at work, which was fine.  So I decided I would run to the new house and then use one of the bikes my dad has there to ride home from there.  It was a good plan.  I soaked my hat in the sink at daycare and then took off running.  It was unbearable.  There was no shade the entire way and the last leg of the run is up and over the causeway.  I was dying by the time I got to the house!  I went directly to the back yard and soaked myself with the hose before the heat took me!

Amber had called just before I left the day care and offered me a ride home from there.  I thought about turning it down but I am glad I didn’t as I was in no condition to ride home after that run!

This morning I went to go for a run and discovered that it was raining as I stepped out the door.  Typically that would have been the end of that, but the Warrior Dash is in a mere two weeks and I’m going to be ready for it.  I changed into my older runners and set out into the rain, up and down the hills again.  I was soaked before I hit the end of the road but pressed on to be about 12 seconds faster than last week.  Not bad considering that I was at the gym with Amber at the end of the day yesterday.

After being reminded of just how unbearable it is to run in the heat earlier in the week and then running in the rain today, I really hope it is raining on Warrior Dash day (but of course sunny back here for Ashley’s wedding). 

Don’t let adversity stand in your way!

Bell Is Ripping You Off

So unless something majorly bad happens it looks like all this moving stuff is proceeding forward as planned.  The couple that put the offer in on our house did their home inspection Thursday and we have not heard that the deal is off and the neighbour saw them lounging in the back yard and chatting and we saw them out by the road before they left and they looked awful happy.

With those pieces in place while I have not heard ‘yes 100% confirmed you house is sold’ we have begun to prepare some of the things we need to do to move like transfer communication services over to the new house.  While I was in the process of researching all that I looked at what Nexicom had to offer in Bridgenorth compared to what Bell had to offer.

It turns out I can get almost exactly the same service, except I will lose having RDS on TV (RDS is the French version of TSN (The Sports Network) that I usually watch the Canadiens games on.  TSN is like ESPN for my American readers). 

When I phoned Bell to cancel my service because I could get a better price with a competitor they were all like ‘Well what if we can save you that same amount?’ I thought that if I could actually save that same amount it would be worth it to stay with Bell for the consistency of email addresses and still get RDS and so on.  I was on the phone with their Customer Loyalty Representative for almost an hour.  In the end they ‘discounted’ each of my Home Phone, Internet and Satellite services to be about equal with what I could get with Nexicom.

EXCEPT – in Bridgenorth they could only provided the most basic of basic Hi-speed Internet, and there was a download cap of 30 gigs.  This for me on the phone was not a big deal.  But after I got off the horn and was able to think by myself I thought ‘we are going to have tenants, what if they are the movies downloading types, I want my own Internet to still be fast and I don’t want to run out of download space’. By the time all these types of factors were considered Bell was only going to save us about $55 a month.

So I went back to Nexicom and actually went physically to their office and did an application.  I already had a general idea of the cost in mind, but since we were signing up for all their services there was extra saving in that we don’t get charged for the PVR for the cable.  The Internet they provide is unlimited download and at the same speed I have currently (though with the problems we have had with the phone lines in the area I bet it will be faster).

By switching to Nexicom we are going to save just around $100 a month!! Seriously. I was also really annoyed by the fact that Bell was like ‘If we try to price match will you stay with us?!’  If they can offer me as good of a price as their competition when I want to leave they should provide that price the entire time!

In the end I am actually really disappointed with Bell as a customer.  To use my ECE language a bit, their Image of The Customer must be very low.  To be willing to charge so much, willing to just drop the price to match a competitor like it’s nothing, to have installers that leave things hanging from the roof, to make me stick with a certain receiver for a year when I want to upgrade to one that even gives them more money each month.

I look forward to dealing with a local company where I actually know people that work there, I’m not on hold forever, the people that I speak to I can understand easily and they are giving me a great price without the threat of me switching away.

I had always maintained that I had no issue with Bell while using their service.  I think part of that is I’m pretty easy going, part is that I was a computer tech for about seven years and could just fix my own problems and part was that I was with Bell and never looked into how much other companies were charging for the same services.

If you are on Bell now, and have the option of Nexicom, Cogeco or someone else in your area, look into it.  Even if you don’t switch, just having the ‘please cancel all my stuff’ conversation with Bell could save you a lot of money!

I Hate The Dental Hygienist

Most people claim to hate the dentist.  I have never had a problem with that position.  I’ve only had two fillings (both of with have since been replaced) it was not that big of a deal besides the needle to freeze the area, I hate needles too.

No, the person I have an issue with over at the dentists office is the hygienist.  All the scraping and poking and flossing.  It is painful!  If I was going to stick sharp tools into someone's mouth accuracy would be my main area of focus.  Stop prodding me in the gums for God’s sake!

And the flossing, ooowwww  geez take it easy would you?  I bet 10-1 that when the hygienist flosses at home she’s a lot more gentle about the whole procedure!

Anyways, my teeth are clean and my mouth hurts, I just needed to vent.

There I Have Done It!

Over 100 Kilometres in one weekend (I did have an extra day though..  well two since it was a long weekend and I took Friday off).

I started on Thursday evening by doing some hill training out in Jackson park, I followed that up on Friday morning by doing some more hills but this time going over and back on Park hill.  I used the side streets to snake my way over and back and back again.

It turns out that by running on the roads I ended up with just as much of a climb as i did in the park..  which is only about a quarter of what the Warrior Dash is.  In hopes of getting a bit more climbing in I shifted my route for Saturday mornings run over one street.

Parkhill is a nasty hill to be running over, but I think the Edinborough is an even steeper climb! By the end of these three runs I had just gone a bit over 17K.  My goal of 15 was met.

It turns out I didn’t end up riding my bike on Saturday just due to the plethora of things I had on my plate to do that day, like cleaning out the junk from under our deck in preparation of the sale of our house, and a quick 1 hour stop at the gym to do my pull day that I didn’t get to on Thursday..

So I rode on Sunday and ride I did.  Before Amber was even awake I took my bike out the Jackson Park Trail and went to the sign for the Orange Corners Trestle.

It’s not that difficult of a ride, but it is about 25K.  I came home and had breakfast and did some cleaning up of the basement and then headed out to ride to Lakefield.

The Lakefield ride is nice and a round trip is about 32K.  I always stop in at Hamblin’s and get ice cream.  I got Moose Tracks, so yummy!  I was quite satisfied to have gone about 58K in one day, but my butt sure did hurt.

This morning my butt still hurt, but I was not about to let that stand in the way of meeting my goals. I Hopped on my bike and headed out the Jackson Park Trail again.  This time I went just to where the trail goes under Highway 28.

The ride is about 18.5K and I had now covered the goals of 15K run and 75K biked over the weekend!  What I realised when I added up those number that I has is that I was just 6K short of going 100!  So when I stopped in at the gym to do push day today, I left out squats and step ups due to all the biking, but I tacked on a 2K run up a 5% incline. Then I rode my bike over to karate.

All together I went:

101.35 Total Kilometres!

Average bike speed 23.28 Km/h which is 2:35/Km pace

Average running speed 11.89 Km/h which is 5:03/km Pace (a bit slower than my flat running, but it was three consecutive days and lots of hills).

I would call that a successful weekend!

Oh, now it’s time for ice cream!