I Rode A Girls Bike

I didn’t mention this a few days ago but, I rode my bike into the ground!  The last time I rode it home from work I had to stop and screw around with the back wheel for about ten minutes so that it would stop rubbing on the frame of the bike, and the crank and/or chain made a hideous noise any time I applied force (as opposed to just cruising)(so all the time).

So my bike has been in the shop since Tuesday I think.  My lovely wife took it in for me.  So I have been without my usual ride.  It’s not the first time.

The first time I can recall being without my bike as when I lived in Toronto.  Mississauga actually, while I attended U of T (University of Toronto).  I was riding my bike and cutting across some grass right beside Mississauga road.  I was about to ride over a sewer cover thinking nothing of it when the ground dropped out from under my front tire.  See the sewer lid was actually on like a concrete pedestal and the grass in the small ditch around it had just been cut even with the grass of the ‘lawn’.  BLAM! My tire hit it and immediately took on a more taco like shape as I was flung over my handlebars inches away from having my face on Mississauga road! My bike spent a couple of hours in the shop then too!

One other time I had my bike stolen whilst I lived in East City (Part of Peterborough), on the night after the first day of school no less. I was using that bike as my main transportation from work at Esso and going to college (the first time).  In the meantime while I gathered up some money to buy a new bike my dad lent me his hybrid bike.  I was used to riding a mountain bike, so it was a little different.

One day on that bike I was riding down Lansdowne Street.  The busiest street in Peterborough, heading toward work.  I was riding on the sidewalk, because, as I said, busiest street in town and not a bike lane in sight.  This was back in about 2001 after all.  Anyways, I was riding and I thought I spotted my stolen bike!  I was not wearing my glasses, because I only need them to drive, or read a chalkboard or whatever, so I was looking and looooooooking and looooo- BAM!!! Slammed my shoulder (somehow) into a hydro pole.  The ground and I immediately renewed our friendship.  Luckily I was not going that fast.

So today while my bike is in the shop getting repaired I rode Amber’s bike.  We adjusted her seat last night because when I took it for a short spin on Wednesday I figured she must have hobbit legs because the seat was so low.  Her legs are a smidge longer than mine and now the seat is in a much better spot.  Thankfully I made it home without incident, which should not be too surprising since our bike are actually identical except for that thing where the crossbar on a girls bike goes down on an angle instead of straight across like a boys.

The Last Friday Of Summer

Not on the calendar, but everyone knows it.  School is back in next week for anyone under 18, and a whole lot of people older than that.  So many of my kids at daycare are heading off to their first year at kindergarten.  I have taken today off work and yet here I am at six o’clock typing, stupid internal clock!  Yet yesterday my body was totally willing to sleep in! What gives?!

It has been a good summer, I ran lots, I rode my bike lots and I think this weekend I will meet both my running distance goal for the year and my biking distance goal!  How nice is that?

I am excited for the fall and some nicer cooler fall weather.  I think that fall is my favourite season.  Hockey will be starting up in a month, I have a Zombie run scheduled! And running or biking after work will become a bit more enjoyable as the temperature drops a little bit.

During the summer months I ran 239 kilometres and biked 432 kilometres! not too shabby from June 1st until this morning (though I will be doing one or the other of those things today to boost the numbers a bit).  I’m only about 7K away from my goal of running 500k this year and just short of 100k away from biking 700k!

I think it might be time this morning to change those goal numbers and instead of a total of 1200k, shoot for a total of 1500k.  Should be doable.  If I decided to do all that running and riding down south I would end up just past Winnsboro in South Carolina!

Or I could almost make it through Ontario getting just past Thunder Bay!

Yeah Ontario is HUGE!

 

You might be wondering where the pictures from the mud run are, well there aren’t any, well not any good ones!

That’s all I got.  Two pictures!  Crappy, they aren’t even action type photos.  I was really hoping for one where I was leaping over the hay bails.  I’m glad I got good pictures from the Warrior Dash, and I really hope there are good ones from Run For Your Lives!

That’s about it I think.  I’m awake and bored, hopefully you are less bored now.

 

Eyeball!

Eyeball

I work at daycare.  You knew that right?  Well now you do.  I have had a few posts where I gush about my workplace and how much I love it.  This is not exactly one of those.  This will be a bit more specific.

You might not be aware of this, but eyeball, just as a word on its own is hilarious.  Go find a two or three year old, strike a pose and say “Eyeball!” They will laugh.  Why?  I have no idea at all.  But it’s great!

The other day I was taking a young lady to the bathroom to change her diaper and I said to her, ‘Let’s go and change your bum.  What should we change your bum into?’

“An eyeball. Tehehehehehe” Was the response I got.

“But if your bum was an eyeball you’d be able to see your poop!” I say.

“Eeeewwwwwww” She goes, and laughs some more.

That might sound pretty gross to a few of you, but it was funny to her, and to me as well. And when you are the kind of guy that wears pants on your head while you change diapers jokes about eyeballs and poop is pretty standard stuff.

This obsession with the word eyeball, extends to other kids as well, they say it and laugh, yesterday I was called an eyeball-head.  I can’t even be upset about ‘name-calling’ in that instance, I’m too busy laughing with the child because to them it’s just so funny.

Eyeball!

Well, That Didn’t Last

I have never been one to let an injury slow me down.  When I smashed my knee on a tree while sledding when I was a kid and it swelled up full of blood I still went and played hockey the next weekend.  When I was snowboarding last year and smacked my head on the ground when I fell backwards I continued for another couple of hours before I called it quits, even though my neck was killing me.

And so, against the suggestions of the chiropractor I went for a very short run yesterday.  I figured it had been about 3.5 days since I hurt my leg, and she only said don’t do any running for a week, so, y’know, close enough!

I decided I would only run 2k, about 8 or 9 minutes worth.  I also decided that since I was only running such a short distance I was going to go fast.  While I am happy with the results of the Mudnewton race, 13th Male, I was not happy with the overall speed.  I know that part of the speed issue in that race is that I am running on trails through the woods with hills and obstacles and whatnot but, I wanted to show myself that I could still be fast!  I need to be fast for my next race anyways, the Zombie run!

So off I went, and I completed the 2k in 8:16 with only one little twinge in my leg.  It’s fine really.  I’m going to layoff again for a few days and probably just do a short run on Saturday.

I did go for a swim again with Amber yesterday, that was pretty good.  I don’t think I enjoy it as much as she does, but it’s a different challenge for me.  I was doing 25m laps in about 25 seconds, so I’m pretty happy with that.  I will say that I was told to stretch that part of my leg and swimming accomplished that.  It was actually much more sore than it was while running, but in a different sort of way.

I think that exercise has just become so routine for me that to be told to sit on the couch is something I really don’t want to do.  I like being on the move and unless I feel that I really am unable to do it I am going to.

Finally, An injury That Sounds Impressive

So I neglected to mention during my whole Mudnewton story (mainly because I wanted to plaster the link anywhere Mudnewton related to bring in readers) that during that final muddy pit adventure I might have hurt myself a tiny bit.

You see when I leaped over that rope and onto the slide into the muddy water I might have hurt my leg a bit.  Sometime during that quick series of events, I can’t remember when exactly, I ‘heard’ that sort of sickening squishy crunchy sound your body makes from within when you do something that your bones/tendons/ligaments don’t really agree with.

It didn’t really affect the finishing of the race, I kept going and finished the race without an issue and I can walk around just fine now.  I went to the chiropractor today for my usual visit and had her check out my slightly swollen shin area.  She felt it all up and pressed here and there gauging my pain levels and watching me make painful faces.  She then stated that I most likely had a stress fracture.

Apparently I’m not supposed to run for at least about a week she told me.  I’m not so sure how well I will do with that, I don’t like to sit still much you know.  I think it’s pretty cool to have something like a fracture, I know that straining my ankle and dislocating my shoulder were far more unpleasant.  This hurts a bit, but nothing too serious but when you say like ‘Oh yeah I ran this race on Saturday and fractured my leg!’ that sounds awesome!  Especially given that I’m just up and walking around like its no big deal.

Friend Making Monday – Tech Questions

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 over 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!

 

Tech Questions

 

1.  PC or Mac? 

PC, I like to be able to do the things I want to do with my computer, have it communicate with my other devices and buy software for it easily.  And y’know, not buy software as the case may be.

2. When did you get your first computer?

I got my own first computer back at the start of my last year in highschool 1997.  I bought it with my own cash I had worked all summer helping to build the house of a neighbour.  I actually bought it from my friend’s dad.  When I handed over $1700 in cash he says “What is this? Drug money?”

3. Do you use cable, DSL or something else? 

I have cable now, I had DSL a few weeks ago before I moved, they seem to be pretty equivalent in most cases anyways – especially with a laptop since the wireless can only go so fast anyways.

4. When choosing a laptop, do you think it’s more important to choose the fastest one, or the lightest one? 

Fastest.  Lightest usually means stripped down anyways.  Always go for the faster processor too over RAM, you can add RAM later.

5. What kind of cell phone do you own?  Do you like it?

I have the Samsung Galaxy S, it’s and Android phone.  I love it.  Soon I can get the S3 and I am dyeing for it!  I REALLY loved it when I got it because I could even do my college homework on it while I was at work at the gas station.  Yes it took a little longer to type things, but it’s amazing.  Fair battery life, fantastic camera, great functionality.

6. How do you carry your laptop when you travel? 

I’ve only flown to go on cruises, and I have not taken my laptop with me on those.  So I’m not sure.  Generally I take my laptop in it’s bag when I go to work and stuff.

7. How many e-mails do you send on an average day?

When I was working as a tech guy I would say maybe four or five.  Now like one real email a week.  A lot of times I email pictures from my phone to myself (to pick up on the computer) because it’s easier than getting the cord to plug it in.

8. Do you ever blog using your iPad or similar tablet?

I have blogged from my phone plenty of times.  Both with the blogger app and just by emailing it.  The only thing I tend not to like about it is editing (blogger really did not like to let me go back and move the cursor and change things) and I never remember to add the blank line between paragraphs that usually happen automatically.

9. What do you use more often – a desktop or a laptop?

Laptop.  Once I got a laptop that actually worked I hardly ever touched the desktop I had.  There has not been a desktop computer in our house for over two years now I think – I sold it to a friend, and it seems like she has learned to stop getting viruses now too!

10.  As a blogger, are there other gadgets that you need to get the job done?  If so, what are they? 

My phone for pictures, Photoshop to edit them.  I find that it is just handy to have something on you to capture things.  I have used my drawing book to take down ideas for blogging and my 3DS to blog with too.

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions on your blog!  Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Happy Monday, friends!

Mudnewton 2012

Today was race day.  This was the first race I signed up for this year, way back in January.  Last year I ran it with Jodi and Laurie from karate but this year it was just me.  The weather was nice, but hot.  Why could this race have not been last weekend when the high was 22C?

I suited up in the morning and left the house at about 7:30.  It took just about an hour to get to the site, google maps always overestimates time for travel!  It turned out not to be a bad thing since by the time I got my free stuff and went to the potty I only really had to kill about five minutes.  This was my exact plan really.  Waiting around just makes me jumpy and I would rather just show up and race if that was an option.

It was a much bigger event than last year and I would say there was at least double the number to 10K runners.  Almost exactly on time the race began and we all took off.

The first while of this newly routed 10K course was fairly flat, we twisted and turned between some trees that were in the more openish area of the field and then we were funnelled into the woods.  It was a bit cooler in the forest and I very much welcomed that.  I usually do my running earlier in the morning and so even at 9:30 I found it pretty hot.

The first hill came and I was able to pass a person or two during that bit of a climb I think I was at about 16th place or so in the early stages of the race. The first obstacles were fairly simple, bungee cord stretched between tress to block the path.  I rolled under the first group, and then stepped over the next set.  It was the obstacles that allowed me to keep up with that lead pack for the first 4K or so.

There was a few more hills and then some hanging PVC pipes.  I ducked under some and launched over others, it was very similar to the obstacles from last year, just with different placements.  Coming up to the 5K mark, which this time was back near the starting area so that the spectators could get a glimpse of us, I had lagged behind the main leaders and was hitting the half way point at about 28 minutes.  Not as good as I had hoped but not bad either.

For the second half of the race I was just trying to keep in reach of this one girl.  She was a strong runner, but much like the main pack during the first half it was the obstacles that allowed me to close the gap on her.  Many of the obstacles were very similar, hanging pipes, or ropes to crawl under, nothing as big and boisterous as the things during the Warrior Dash, to this point at least.  There came some tires on a hill, much like last year, and I bounded up them on the rims overtaking the girl.  Once that section was over though, when I told my legs to move faster, they protested and she once again passed me, with her in sight though I seemed to be able to keep the pace with her.

We went through a bus, Jodi’s favourite thing from last year.  This time we didn’t have to loop around and crawl under it, just run through it and while the girl ahead of me took a hand of a helper to get out of the back end I leaped nearly at my full run.  The end was nearing and I was not going to let her finish ahead of me.

looping back through the main start finish area again the best obstacle of the day was present. Stacked round hay bails.  I’d say each was easily 5 feet in diameter, or at least very close.  So there was two as a base and one sitting on top of those two.  Like this:

They had a rope hanging down cascading down the round part for you to use.  If you were a sissy.  I leaped up onto the first bail and then vaulted the upper one bouncing my feet off the second lower one on the way down.  I really hope there is pictures of that!!

Then it was up the hill of death that was present near the end of the race last year, but we came to it from a slightly different angle.  Under a fence, then over a fence down back through the woods to the pond.  It was here on the pond crossing that I passed the girl for the final time.  She was trying to run through the water, wasting energy lifting herself up, I plodded through the pond and then passed her as we exited the water.

There was two mounds of dirt that I hopped up and jumped from and then it was a quick dash to the muddy finish.  Up some stairs and over a rope (that I think I was supposed to go under) onto a slide and into a pool of very brown and yucky water!  This happened three times, out of one pool down a slide into the next.  I crossed the finish line with water and my wet hair in my eyes at 1:02:32.

I’m not sure how I placed, I’ll have to wait for the race results, but If I counted right at the first and kept track accurately, I should be in the top 20.

I managed my main goal of beating last years time, and so I am glad for that.  It was a fun and exciting day!

Muddy, hot and with an aerial in the way!

P.S.  This year there was no issues with me nearly exploding, if you read the post from before you’ll know what I mean!

Mudrun Take Two

Tomorrow I get my first chance to re-run a race that I did last year. Last September 3rd Jodi and I drive to Uxbridge to take part in the first Mudnewton. This year I will be going it alone.

I feel that I am far more prepared this year than I was last time. Last year it was my first race ever, and I had only run 10 K a couple of times. This year I have run that distance at least eight times and I am commonly running further than 5k.

If what I have read on the Mudnewton website is to be believed the route this year is different, but I fully expect to get a better time than I did last time out. The last few weeks I have been running 10.74 in about 53 minutes. If I can manage a time close to that (using last years times) I would come in in the top five!

I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes as soon as possible.

I Swim Like A Cat

So Sunday Amber suggested I go with her to the Wellness Centre and go swimming.  I had run and biked the day before and thought sure, why not.  Amber likes to swim, she used to swim a lot!  I approach swimming the same way a cat does.

Talia (and Cringer before her) likes to go in the tub when it is wet and lick the water.  She likes to play with the stream of water in the sink, she likes to lay in the sink and generally likes all sorts of water play provided that she does not actually have to submerse in water or get too wet.  I like to splash, I like to jump into the pool, I like to generally cavort about and goof around, but actual swimming is not my thing.

My main problem is that I sink, like a rock, wearing lead shoes.  I simply cannot float.  That whole thing where you relax and lay back and float, it does not happen for me.  During our time swimming Sunday Amber said I have to get my ears in the water for it to actually work.  Therein lies the problem.  I hate water in my ears.

This stems from two things.  One is a particular event and the other is just that I hate that bit where water gets in your ear and then it’s there for like hours after your done swimming until finally you lay down to go to bed and *pop* *fuuussshhhh* that bit of water finally drains out onto your pillow.  The particular event is when I was in high school, in Outdoor Ed. class.  We did kayaking at the pool at Trent University, during one of the sessions we had some free time, I jumped off the diving board, did some weird contortion in the air and hit the side of my head on the water.  It must have popped my eardrum or something but also water go in my ear.  It hurt like crazy!  I had to go to the doctor later and get antibiotics.  And since then, I’m not even a big fan of putting my head under water.

So yeah, I swim like a cat, that is to say, reluctantly.  But I did, it was fun and I did 30 laps of our 20 metre pool.  Swimming is a good and hard workout.  Any notion I have of doing a triathlon are totally dashed because I only really swam about 600 meters and I was tired.  I recovered pretty quickly between sets of 4 laps or so, but in a race there is no time for recovery, so I would be screwed.  That and I don’t have a proper bike for any sort of race.

It was nice to have the change of pace and maybe in the winter when I don’t want to be running on the treadmill all the time I’ll do it a few more times.

Change The Look

As you can see I changed the way the whole blog looks.  It has been about a year since I went to the all black background and I wanted to try out something new.  What do you think?  Thoughts? Suggestions?

Friend Making Monday - Inappropriate Questions

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 over 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!

Inappropriate Questions

1. Will you vote in the upcoming presidential election? 

No, I’m not allowed.  Which is because I’m Canadian.  I will however vote in our next election, because it is an important thing to do.  And if you don’t vote you can’t complain, and I like to complain.

2. Do you say curse words?

No… Well not on here at least.  I have been know to say things like ‘gosh-darnit’ and ‘shucks’ a few times though.

3. Have you ever kissed a stranger?

Define stranger.  I have kissed a couple strange people I guess, but I knew who they were.  I think it is far more acceptable fore a girl to kiss a stranger and for a guy to do that, and really how fair is that?

4. If you could choose to meet only one fellow blogger in person right now who would you choose?

Oh hard choice! Hmm  well I live with Amber, so I don’t think that should count as my choice.  I think at the moment I would pick Holly, we could run and stuff. Plus, she seems cool and comments on my things, I like comments.

5. What is the most inappropriate pick-up line that anyone has ever used on you? 

“My eyes are up here!”  No seriously, I have no idea, I don’t think anyone has tried to pick me up so I wouldn’t know.  And according to Crystal I was completely oblivious even when girls were flirting with me anyways.

6. Do you sing in the shower?

No, but I talk to myself about things, the shower is a good place to get thinking done.  I think I was in grade eight when someone told us that because to the stimulation of the water hitting your head it is actually a fact that good thinking and being in the shower are actually a thing.

7. How often do you get drunk?

I don’t.  I don’t even drink.  Pretty un-Canadian I know, but that’s how it is.

8. Have you ever been fired from a job?

No, not like “Pick up your crap and get out!” fired.  I have been laid off, but that was more due to lack of work than anything else really.  Me and Damion had theories on the whole few years long series of events that lead to our lack of work, but you can’t let the inmates run the asylum don’t you know.

9. Were you popular in high school? 

I was popular with the friends I had, there was a good group of us, like ten-ish or so.  Was I popular with the girls? Not really, I was too busy not smoking and not being an ass – seems like most high school girls like that.  Don’t look so shabby now eh?  Good career, in shape, part time awesome, rest of the time amazing.

10. Who is your current celebrity crush?

I don’t really have a crush, though Anne Hathaway was pretty hot as Catwoman! Meow!

Now it’s your turn, fill out the questions, leave a comment, or go tell Kenlie how great she is for thinking this whole thing up!

My Fitness Pal

So Amber has put me on to an app for my phone (not an iphone –Number 4), it’s online too (www.myfitnesspal.com) it lets to track your calories and such.  You can scan barcodes of items, I have yet to come across one that will not scan and not have full info for it.  You can also type in things and it will search for them and select the most matching item on the list.  You can choose your number of servings and things.

One neat feature it that you can save whole meals, or copy items from one day to another so you don’t always have to be searching for things endlessly.  It is a very efficient way to track calories and I wish I could have had it while I was really religiously counting my calories for weight loss.

You can also put in the exercise you do in the day and it will give you a calorie value for that as well.  It then calculates the difference between the two and measures that against your goal amount and gives you an analysis of the numbers and what it means for you and your goal.

Pretty useful all around.  You can even add friends to your account on it and see what they are up to and so on.  For those that like to feel accountable in their weight loss or fitness that could be a good thing, or you could be inspired by what someone else is doing and stuff.  If that’s your gig and you’d like to add me I’m Chrispy47 on there, chrisbarnes47@hotmail.com.

World Record

No, I was not in the Olympics, but a thought occurred to me whilst running this morning, and getting my best time on this current route. I’m fairly certain, especially since I start from my own house, that I’m the only one that runs my Saturday morning 10.74km route.  On this track I hold ALL the records, the mid range, the slowest and the World Record!

Like pools and tracks and stuff are all specifically designed to be the same all over the place so that athletes can compare like times against each other in an apples to apples kind of way.  I do similar things with all my running times, comparing certain routes to certain routes, I think it helps keep things in perspective.  For instance, when I was running around the old house on the usual 5k route I was getting an average speed 13.39km/h of and a pace of 4:30/km around here at the new place I get 13.11km/h and 4:35/km.  Am I actually not able to run as fast as I was before?  No, the terrain is different, long uphill slopes slow down my speed, and it doesn't help that all my runs for 5k here have been after work.

When I wanted to get my best 5k time, I ran as flat of a course as I could.  I knew that would be the truest measure of my own abilities as a runner.  In my neighbourhood that 19:48 time was a World Record as well, I never saw anyone else even out there running to challenge it!

How many, incredibly specific, World Records do you hold?

Our Dishwasher Washes Dishes!

Seems obvious right?  But sometimes it is the little things that make you excited while at work.  Since I have been here we’ve had to pre-wash our dishes and then put them in the washer to be sanitized.  It was not a terrible thing, but not exactly how that particular machine is supposed to work.

The other day it made a huge clunking sound and stopped working altogether.  We washed and sanitized dishes with the three sink method that day, it sucked.  The repair man came and said something along the lines of ‘How have you even been using this thing?!’  Well, we’ve been washing our dishes first.

Now the machine works as it is supposed to, I put the pot from the homemade cheese sauce from our Mac and Cheese lunch today in the thing, and BOOM! Clean!  Nice!

Other things that make me happy at work:

• When it’s not too hot
• When it’s not too cold
• Lower numbers than expected
• A potty training kid goes on the potty!
• Early pickups
• Being in the toddler room at nap time, and they are all asleep
• Good lunches
• Good snacks – like nacho dip!
• Stories with other Educators
• Lunch room chats
• When someone brings coffee
• When experiences with the children go well

That is about it off the top of my head, still a pretty good list though.

Spending Money

Like a drunken sailor!

Today seemed to be all about laying out cash on brand name things.  I’m not really about name brand things especially when it comes to clothes.  Today however I was the money spender.

So, as you know, I moved.  The new house is almost all carpet and we had two cheap vacuums, mine was very cheap since in the old house all I had was two area rugs, Amber’s was a bit more robust but after being stored in the basement for 3 years it felt like not working anymore.  I was sent off to Sears to use what remained of our wedding gift cards and a whole wad of money (that we don’t really have in hand yet, well we sort of do with a security deposit from our new renter) to buy a Dyson vacuum.  I was a bit sceptical and when I arrived in Sears and the lady asked if she could help me I said “Yes, I’m here to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a vacuum!”  It was the quickest $699.99 sale she ever made I am sure.

Our reasoning was that we have a house that is almost all carpet, if we are buying a new vacuum, we are getting the best one.  I brought it home, set it up and began. 

This machine is the single greatest home appliance I have ever bought.  Works like a dream, sucked up things that my old vacuum would not even with different methods applied, handles very easily and is simple to empty.  Totally worth the money.

I did make one other purchase today too.  A new hoodie at sport check.  I had eyed up this sweater a few times while in there and hinted it would be a good Christmas gift last time I was in the store.  This time there was only one left and I brought it up again.

Now typically I shop at Old Navy, I like their things and most of it is dirt cheap, and also not slathered in brand names, right up my ally.  So desiring this hoodie was a bit out of my usual taste, but I liked the colour and that it is also a functional piece, being water resistant and such.  And so after a bit of a debate with Amber via text.  I bought this:

Pretty spiffy I think.

I did ask about one other thing while I was there that I thought was totally unjust.  See on the American site for Under Armour I can get this

It is the same shirt, but different colours and here on the Canadian version of the site (and at sportchek) I can’t get those colours!  I did a live chat with an Under Armour rep and they said nope to the shipping to Canada, but directed me to EastBay.com.  They do ship to Canada but would charge me and extra $17 plus 34% in tax and duties!  I don’t get why we would have this item here (I have a blue and black one of these) but not certain colours.  Weird.

Anyway, hoodie and vacuum, totally worth it!

Friend Making Monday: In The Kitchen

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 over 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!
In the Kitchen

 

1. How often do you cook at home?

Some weeks it will be like each night, but most typically probably five nights a week.

2. Do you eat more fresh produce, frozen or canned produce?

Usually we have fresh veggies and stuff and some frozen things. We almost never have canned veggies in the house.

3. What are a few unusual staples that can always be found in your kitchen? 

Pickled jalapenos for making nachos

4. Look in your fridge, then tell us about the healthiest thing in there.

Baby carrots

5. Now share the most unhealthy thing in it. 

Cheese whiz, I almost never eat it though

6. Do you eat leftovers?

I eat leftovers pretty often actually, especially at work.

7. Do you use coupons at the supermarket?

No, I almost never have, sometimes I will if they have them in the store though.

8. How often do you try new recipes?

I concoct something new-ish once a month or so, not really new recipies though, just variations on my usual things.

9. Do you make grocery lists? Do you stick to them?

Sometimes yes, I usually stick to them too, I might pick up a few extra things though.

10. If you could buy one food item that would magically be calorie-free, which item would you choose?

Ice cream in the summer, hot chocolate in the winter.

 

Your turn!  Answer your questions and leave a comment!

I’ll Rest When I’m Dead, Or The Weather Looks Iffy…

Whichever comes first.

Today I slept in.  Like even for normal people.  I normally get up at the ungodly hour of 5:45am  (A.M.!) to to go work and so my usual ‘sleep in’ is about 7 or so, usually 6 something.   Today I got up at around 8!  It was nice for a change.  It was raining outside and so I thought to myself, well actually I said to myself ‘I guess I’m not biking this morning’.  I tend to talk to myself when Amber is still asleep or I am home alone.

So I didn’t bike this morning, I sat around and looked at this:

Mckayla is NOT impressed

Not hilarious, but pretty good.  Then it was pancake breakfast Sunday so that was good.  Finally around noon the rain let up a bit and I went for a little 5k run, nothing to serious but I felt like I should do something.  Since then it has rained a few little bits and I’ve sat around a whole lot.

It is not often that I sit around and not workout but I feel like I’ve earned a day off.

Astounding

As you are well aware by now I am sure I spend and have spend over the last couple of years a lot of time at the gym and out side training for various things and getting fit and such.  I am under no illusions that I could be an Olympic athlete, but I know from being in a few races that I am no slouch, especially considering the point at which I began all this fitness stuff.

But Holy Crap!

Some amazing things I have seen on the TV in the last 13 days:

Some woman weight lifter that weighs about what I weigh lifting THREE TIMES her body weight!

Cyclists at the track going nearly 70Km/h in their sprints!

Guys running a 5k in like 13:15!  That is about as fast as I ride my bike! Unreal!

The amazingness of Usaine Bolt!

I was talking with Jodi the other day at the gym and both of us were so animated describing all of this.  How incredible the training must be to be able to preform at that level and how cool it would be to be able to dedicate years and years of your life to that one event, maybe even lasting less than 10 seconds.  Astounding!

The Difference Between 'Knowing' and 'Doing'

I left this as a comment on another blog, and thought 'Hey, that's not bad' I should use it here... So here it is.

Knowing you have to make change to reach a goal and actually implementing it are so very different. I know the feeling, not from solely weight loss but from the time I sat and waited as a brown belt at Karate. I got my brown belt back in 2007, I was about 220 at the time and I constantly had people telling me I was a good teacher and good at the techniques and the self defence and pretty much everything to do with the whole karate thing.

And so I waited for my black belt grading to come just as the other gradings had. I waited and waited, grading came and went, but I was never promoted. I had bought into my own hype, people had been telling me I was going to be there and so I just stayed the course. We had a day with a bit of a workout, only really like 10 minutes of work, I thought I was going to die.

On that one day the idea that I needed change became a purpose. Like someone slapped me across the face and said 'Look, this is what you need to do!' I wish I knew how to replicate that singular moment of realization. As I splayed out on the floor gasping for air, unbeknownst to me, it was probably the greatest realization I will ever have in all my life. If I could give that moment to everyone I know, especially those that are embarking on, or renewing a weight loss journey, I would in a heart beat because it changed my thinking from "Yeah I should get in shape." to "I'm done with being unable to preform at a level I desire and I am going to make this happen, nothing will stand in my way!"

Long Weekend Fitness Extravaganza! Day 3 And 4–Finished

So back on Friday I set out on this whole fitness thing this weekend proclaiming that I would ride my bike at least 100k and run at least 20k. Day 1 and 2 details can be found here.  I am glad to say that this mission has been accomplished!

Yesterday was kind of crappy weather wise and yet I still set out early in the morning, at 8:00am, to put in the kilometres for the day. I ended up doing this route:

From home, over past work and then over to near Fowler’s Corners and back down over the causeway.  I learned on this ride that the map tool over at mapmyride.com is a liar! See the litter 17 and 18 there?  Well the map has it as a road, it is an unassumed road.  That means, in this instance, that one should have a monster truck to get through it.  For over a kilometre I was up and down off my bike, walking it around huge mud puddles and trying not to fall off as I bumped over huge rocks.

When I got home I noticed that Amber was not up yet and so I decided I would go for a short run just to pad my numbers a bit and ran this route:

It is just 2.18k, but I did it immediately after the ride above and I though my legs were going to give out at first.  I could have run a bit longer, but I wanted to go to brunch and Chemong Lodge so I had to get back and showered and stuff.

Brunch was so good, but I did have a bit much I felt and so mid way through the day I decided that I would head out riding again.

Just a quick half hour ride, but it made me feel like I had worked off the two plate brunch I had.  Mid way through this ride it started to rain pretty good and I got soaked, but it cleaned a lot of the trail dust off my bike, so that was not too bad.  Day three of the Long Weekend Fitness Extravaganza! had gone well, and I went further than I had really anticipated.

Today the plan was another run on the new 10k(ish) route and a bike ride.  The weather this morning was great! It was nice and cool and the sun was just coming up over the trees as I ran.

It is a much hiller run than my old 10k route (and 0.74k longer than the other!) But I managed my best time on this route yet.  Made possible by pushing along the trail on the way back and nearly sprinting down the last little decline back to the house.  I beat my previous best on this route by 10 seconds!  Pretty good considering that this is my fourth day in a row of gruelling exercise!

I went to breakfast with Amber and then did some things around the house, at about noon I had a peanut butter and strawberry-rhubarb jam sammich (homemade jam of course) so good, then set out on the final ride.

This route is almost the same as the one from Saturday, except I rode it the other way around, and avoided the main road from Bridgenorth to Peterborough.  This ride was pretty uneventful, but the weather was beautiful and there was not too much wind.

when I got back I rode over to the ice cream place in town again and got this:

Dipped cone!  Not as exciting as the peanut, hot fudge sundae from Saturday, but I didn’t do as much today, and eating that whole thing Saturday made me feel a little off.

So, here are the final numbers.

Biking: 105.58k  Time: 4:45:19  Average Speed 22.2  Pace 2:42

Running:  23.64k  Time: 1:58:58  Average Speed: 11.92  Pace: 5:02

Total:  129.22k

To go along with this I was at the gym for push day and at Karate for two hours on Saturday.

I’d say this Long Weekend Fitness Extravaganza! was a success!

Friend Making Monday: A Little More Personal

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 over 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!

A Little More Personal

1. Are you a morning person?

Yeah I would say that I am. I sort of have to be for work arriving at the daycare at 7. And then I usually feel I do my best runs and bike rides in the morning.

2. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

I can be both I think. Meeting me at first or in a group of people I don’t know I’m definitely an introvert, but with people that I am comfortable with I’m an extrovert for sure.

3. Are you addicted to anything?

Not that I know of, but I sure could use a coke zero right about now. I think that is more of a caffeine thing than anything else though.

4. How many times have you been in love?

I’d say four, three at least.

5. What is your position on politics?

Keep in mind that Canadian politics are pretty different than US politics. I have voted Liberal so far in every election, which is very centre as far as policies go, I was tempted to vote NDP last federal election though, they are left of centre. If I was American I would be voting for Obama.

6. Are you religious?

Not particularly. Ever seen Dogma, the Kevin Smith movie? That sums up a lot of my opinions on religion. Lots of people have great ideas about faith, then they go and ruin them by acting on them. I do believe in God, but not necessarily in the Western definition of him.

7. Would you prefer backpacking or a luxury hotel?

Could I backpack to luxury hotels? I prefer excitement and adventure, but not sleeping outdoors.

8. Do you have/want pets?

I now have one kitty, Talia.

9. Are you a sports fan?

Yes, I am a hockey fan, mainly the Montreal Canadiens. I also like watching bits and pieces of other sports or the Olympics. I love to play sports too, again mainly hockey.

10. How often do you brush your teeth?

At least twice a day

11. Do you have tattoos and/or piercings?

I have one tattoo. You can see it here.

12. What’s your favourite clothing brand?

Old Navy, I like a lot of their stuff and it is cheap! Win, Win.

13. Should a man open doors for a woman?

I think yes, but not that he should dash to the door just to be the one to open it, if men opened all the doors all the time women would forget how and lose the skill and then be trapped in any room without a man to open the door. By letting women do some of the door opening, we as men, are saving them from a tragic evolutionary problem.

14. Which season is your favourite?

Fall is my favourite by far. It’s beautiful here in the fall, and it’s nice and cool, I can run and bike and play hockey and go outside without sweating or freezing to death.

15. Would you rather eat less or workout more?

Neither, I don’t think I would survive either of those options right now! I like working out lots though.

16. What’s your idea of romance?

Whatever my wife thinks it is :)

17. How often do you do things that are outside of your comfort zone?

Fairly often I would say, I’m forever doing new things like entering races or stuff at daycare and stuff.

18. Christmas or Halloween?

Christmas, it has always been my favourite. I like the food, I like family and I like giving and getting things!

19. Would you rather live in the country or the city?

Small town. I’m not a great city person, and living way out in the country is too much of a pain to be able to get anything. We just moved to Bridgenorth and that is pretty much my ideal.

20. Share your life philosophy.

I don’t really know if I have one philosophy that looks after my entire life, but I’d say it really would be as simple as ‘Treat people the way you’d like to be treated’ I know that there are times when I have faltered from that, but that makes me human I guess. No one is perfect all the time, I just try my best.

Food

I like food, a lot.  I cook pretty well I feel and I think that the kids and staff at daycare would agree along with Amber.  It is of course something that must be tempered with moderation or exercise so that too much food does not lead to issues.

Here are some of my meals over the past while.  Some are just quick and easy, some are a bit more elaborate.

This one is chicken pot pie that we make at daycare for one of our lunches.  During the summer here I have gotten to make this twice.  It’s all from raw ingredients.  Roasted a whole chicken, carrots, potatoes, some peas and corn and then just some added water and flour for gravy, the topping it just flour, butter and milk (I added some spices to this biscuit top to make the crust a bit more savoury).  All the things together made five pans of pot pie.  I’m not sure how many calories are in this, but considering the ingredients, per serving I would only guess around 500 or so.

 

This is actually tonight's dinner, rice and chicken and some veggies and sweet chilli Thai sauce.  It is a big bowl, it is tasty and the whole things is only about 600 calories

Last week it was almost the same dinner, but with all fresh veggies and honey garlic sauce instead! Very yummy.  Super easy to make for each of these.

I made this last Sunday.  Jerk chicken and corn on the cob.  I had bought some jerk spice from the bulk barn a while ago, and finally made this dish right.  I coated the chicken thighs in the spice and let them sit for about three hours, then it was off to the barbeque!  So Good!  The corn is just simple corn on the cob but Amber’s mom told us a trick to make the ears easy to peel and it takes almost all the silk at once too!  leave the corn in the husk, but cut off the closed end, microwave two ears for six minutes, then just give it a bit of a squeeze and pop the corn out of the husk! Done.  This dinner was three chicken thighs and two cobs of corn, likely about 450-500 calories.

Good food is really easy to make, and if you have fresh ingredients it usually pretty quick to make too.  It’s cheaper and faster and usually tastier than going out for dinner!

Long Weekend Days 1 and 2

So, the Long Weekend fitness extravaganza is well on it’s well.  I am including Friday into this simply because I rode my bike to work and home on Friday and usually I consider my weekend to began the second I get off work.

So riding to work was 6k and riding home I took a bit of a tour and rode 18k seeing the sights down along the lake on the Ennismore side, and then doing the same down off the main Bridgenorth road. 

This was done with a bit of purpose in mind since I knew we (being some Shamrockers and Amber and myself) were going out for dinner before heading over to Carley’s wedding.  It was a very nice event.  And I was happy to spend the evening there I even danced a bit with Nicole and Amber and then as part of that group dancing type of in a circle thing that happens.

This morning I ran 10.74k, it would be just 10k but there is no easily marked turn around point to make that possible.  I figure it serves me well for getting ready for the Mudnewton in a few weeks.

Then it was off to karate where I taught and hour of class and then we did randori for and hour.  So much fun!

A couple of big throws!

After that it was off to push day at the gym.  Squats, bench and shoulder press, box step ups, tricep extentions with pushups and burpees and box jumps and floor wipers all mixed in 3 sets of each pair of exercises plus 180 crunchies of various formats!  It was and hour and fifteen minutes well spent!

I came home and putzed around for a bit then it was off on my bike heading over to Lakefield, down to Peterborough and then back home. 24.51k that is WAY hillier that my old routes along the bike trails in Peterborough but I was still going at a good clip despite the hills, the heat and the wind. 

The reward was ice cream.  When you spend the morning, and part of the afternoon burning about 2000 calories or so, I think a treat is deserved.

Tomorrow brings more biking, and maybe more ice cream.  Depends how hot it is when I go.

Long Weekend Fitness Extravaganza!

Another long weekend is here and since I had to ride my bike to work today because my wife’s car was in the shop I have already begun what I hope to be my most ambitious long weekend of exercise to date.

I have already biked 24k today (6 to work and 18 the long way home), I intend to ride a total of 100k before the day is over on Monday and to run at least 20k.  I hope to make that distance in two 10k runs in hopes of getting better prepared for the Mudnewton in a few weeks.

Do you have any weekend plans?

UPDATE

Day 1 and 2

Day 3 and 4

How I Gained 15 Pounds

A couple recent tours of other people’s blogs and a particularly interesting post from Friend Making Monday has brought a lot of new people to the blog and to my How I lost 80 pounds post.  While that post is an important one in the life of the blog and goes a long way to explain how I did lose weight, it misses the whole fitness aspect.

See when I lost 80 pounds I was down to under 150lbs (just for a day or two) in September of 2010.  It was not necessarily a healthy weight for me.  I looked a bit of a waif when I look at the pictures now.

That is where a weight training program came in. I got to work on full body workouts and I got to eat, lots, but good things.  It was a HUGE thing to wrap my head around though.  After spending so long and so much effort into watching my weight drop, I then had to go and do a complete 180 turn and be ok with putting weight on.

It was harder than dropping weight at that point. Ah I’m 155, ahhhh I’m 158  AAAAAHHHHHH  I’m over 160!  It was a bit frightening!  It was  a lot frightening! 

But I was getting fit.  Not just thin.  I was becoming fit and strong.  I told Jodi ages ago that ‘We aren’t building the Hulk, we are building Batman’.  I wanted to be balanced.  Strong and fast (for hockey at that point).

Once I had put on about 10 pounds and was breaking the 160 mark I was finally getting to be ok with that new weight because I could see I was not having to buy bigger shirts or pants or anything.  The weight I was gaining was in muscle.

Every now and then I have a little flash back. I’m steadily between 163 and 166 now, but if I bump up to 167 I sort of lose it for a day or two on the cardio and eating to be back under.  The 160s have been very very gradual both to gain and to get used to.  But I think now my body is trained to weigh about that much.  I related this to a couple of people lately.  When I was big, I weighed 220 (give or take), it was just my ‘natural weight’  I could eat whatever and do the nothing I was doing, well just Karate and hockey once a week, and I would be 220.  If I got over that I felt fat and I would sort of auto correct.  Now I weigh about 165 (give or take) no matter what I eat and do as a workout I bounce right around that weight, when I’m 166 or so I’ll feel a bit fat and make the correction.

Does this post seem disjointed? That because I wrote the first half last night and am continuing now in the morning! Ergh.

And now continuing at lunch, so hard to write this way!

I think that in my own long winded way I’m saying that being skinny or thin, was not all that great for me, and I think that if I had just been skinny, I’d be much bigger again now than I am, because I would not have the muscle to burn up calories.  Getting fit and building muscle has kept me at a good weight because having the muscle means I need to eat more just as a rule.  I burn more calories just sitting here typing than I used to two years ago.  Holly over here, posted some things about body fat percentage, and I thought, those pictures are BS.

So…

This is me, at like 5:50 in the morning, don’t judge me.  As you know I had a fitness assessment done a few weeks ago.  According to the scale at the gym as an athletic body type I am at 7.7% body fat, just as a normal body type I am around 12 or 13%.  A far, far cry from what the people in Holly’s pictures look like.

So to try to tie this all back up.  I gained 15 pounds after losing my weight, but I gained no inches on my pants waist, it’s lots of muscle, and it’s stable. I weigh what I weigh and it hardly moves more than two pounds either way.

Gaining weight is not all as bad as I thought it was back in September of 2010, it, as I see now, was a necessary thing.  Just be sure you are gaining the right type of weight.

Did that even make any sense?  Writing a blog post in four separate sittings FTW!

Good News And Sad News

Finally today I was back at the gym.  Turns out I forgot to bring my book with my workout programs in it and my headphones since somehow in the move my gym backpack went missing.  It was great to be back there and working.

It’s funny how you can miss something that at one time is considered a huge chore and undertaking.  I know my wife, Amber, is trying to Learn to Love the Gym, it really is something that takes time.  She’ll get there, I’m confident.

Then it was over to karate, also awesome, I’ve missed far too many classes in the last two weeks to keep me happy.  A lot of my friends are there and so not only do I miss the fun of karate but I miss the fun of being with friends too!

That’s the good news.

The sad news requires a bit of a back story.

This:

Is Cringer.  You might have been aware of this earlier if you have been a reader for a while.  She has been my cat for about ten years.  For the last two she’s been pooping other places than her litter box.

We’ve taken her to the vet, we’ve tried two litter boxes, different food, different litter, probiotics to go in her food, blocking off places in the house (both old and new), so many things!

So the good part of the sad news is that one of the girls I work with has a farm, that has cats that they feed and look after.  Cringer still has her claws and would be with a family that takes care of their animals.  To go along with that it means I’m having to send her away.  It makes me sad.  But she can’t be pooping all over the carpet of the new house.  When Amber gets pregnant we can’t have cat poop randomly around the house some mornings.

When Daisy had kidney failure it was a sad decision to put her down, but it ended her suffering and it was a black and white type of decision.  This has so much grey area to me.  Will Cringer be ok on a farm? The best I can even say is that ‘I hope so’.  Sure it’s better for us, no cat poop except in the litter box.

I hope she does fine there, and is happy.  I know she will be looked after and loved. I will miss snuggling her at night though. :(