Progress and What I'm Thinking About

To help me keep on my fitness goals, I've decided to keep a spreadsheet. Because I'm a bit of a geek for this kind of thing, rather than fill in a boring spreadsheet, I put it in Google Drive, and made it a survey. This way, I have a link on my iPad, I click the link and fill in the survey (Weight, belly measurement, mileage and "did I eat drivethru this week: Y/N). It automatically timestamps it, and adds each response to my spreadsheet. Cool, huh?

Technically, I don't have enough data to actually confirm anything (two weeks), but I'm happy to report that both weight and belly are down! I am trying to do the measurements at the same time, but I didn't, so it could just be the difference between evening and morning.

***

On a wildly unrelated note, I spent my downtime this weekend thinking about my Garden! Why? That and running are the two things that de-stress me. Since I don't have much to actually DO in the garden just yet, I've been planning. What to plant, when to plant it, where to plant it, what to start indoors and when, what to plant stuff in when I plant it indoors... there's lots to think about, especially because I'm still learning.

I ended up dwelling on what to plant stuff in. Last year, I used left over plastic pots, and a few coir (coconut hull) pot strips that you're supposed to plant directly in the ground. The plastic pots didn't fit together well under my lights, and wasted space, and the coir pots were a pain in the a$$ - they didn't separate easily, and they didn't break down in the ground.

My alternatives are to buy more plastic pots that would fit together better, or buy peat pots that would (in theory) break down in the ground better. Then I came across this concept:

Photo Credit: Lee Valley www.leevalley.com

It's called soil blocking, and I'd seen it in my Lee Valley catalogue before, but it looked scary. Scary as in: :that looks like it could be a lot of work, and you must have to buy special fancy soil. But wait a minute, I LIKE doing this kind of stuff! And, after a little research, I'm pretty sure the soil for this won't cost any more than I would spend on soil anyway.

The more I look into it, the more appealing it is. The first thing I like about it is that the size of the blocks fit into my trays (and thus under the lights) better. Second, it seems that it creates very healthy root systems, which is really the main goal of starting plants early. It also minimizes transplant shock, because you put the small blocks into the big blocks, and the big blocks go straight into the ground. Lastly, if I buy these instead of peat pots, the tool pays for itself by the second year (based on how much I plant).

I think I've found a good use for the loose change I've been collecting.

Crazy Timing

Sometimes, the weather cooperates and you get that break in the clouds, or the perfect soft breeze to cool you off on a run...

Last night was not one of those times.

On the schedule was 9 hills. For the past couple of days, the weather has been unseasonably warm - warm enough to melt a lot of the snow we've had. I'd heard that it was going to get a bit colder in the evening, but the forecast was for -7 (C) or so; not too bad.

When driving home, and driving to the Running Room, the roads were dry, and the outside temp on my car was showing about -5 C. Still, not bad.

When I stepped out of the car in the parking lot, I noticed a couple of stray flakes. Still, not bad.

In the 5 minutes I was in the store, the wind started to kick up, and the snow was starting to really come down, to the point that running to the hill was shockingly difficult. Not because it's a hard run, but because stinging, wet, icy snow was driving into my face. I was wishing I had my ski goggles!

By the time we got to the hill, it was a full on blizzard, driving at us from the right side going up, and the left side going down. I had several thoughts of quitting, but by the time I'd run up and down three times, I was a little more acclimated (numb), and thought I might as well finish. If you're going to start to run in something like that, you might as well do the entire run so that the suffering is worth it!

By Hill #7, I noticed my face was stuck. Frozen in a weird, drooping, wind-blasted way. I took a photo, but iphoto is acting up, so you'll just have to imagine it.

The final icing on the cake was that by the time I got home, it had warmed up, and the snow and wind had completely stopped!! As crappy as all that was, it was a bit of an ego boost - I was able to stay at the head of the pack, and even more importantly, I toughed out that storm.

And the Garmin data:

Holy Crotch!

Every single pair of running shorts or tights I've ever worn has come apart at the seams - specifically, the crotch seam. Apparently, I'm hard on stuff. And my thighs rub together when I run.

This is frustrating. I really don't want to buy new stuff every year, but it seems like I have to. The only thing worse than clothing rubbing together and wearing out is my skin rubbing together and wearing out. Trust me, not fun. It's happened so often that although I routinely forget watch, sunglasses, jacket, or miscellaneous other vital gear, I never run without Body Glide.

The thing is, I don't think this will change even if I lose the few (dozen) pounds I need to. Maybe I should get one of these:

2013 Goals

Let's get right to it. There's no other way to say it, but in 2012, I did not focus enough on ME. I'm not saying I was a selfless saint, but I just didn't spend enough time, thoughts, and energy on myself. Work, family, distractions all took precedent, but in 2013 I'm going to focus on me a little more, so that I can be a better dad, husband, boss, employee.

So, here's the plan:

Start Each Day with Intention, or, Focus On the Little Things
Reflecting on 2012, I got out of routine in the morning. My work is extremely varied, I work a lot of hours, and I'm near the top of the "org chart" (if we had one), which means that I'm able to get away with a flexible schedule. In early, in late, I still work a lot, so it didn't really matter when I showed up. This really throws off a morning routine. So, in 2013, I'm going to get up sooner, have a consistent routine that focuses more on little details, like taking at least 5 deep, focused "yoga" breaths the moment I wake up. I've started doing this, and it's amazing how it shakes out the cobwebs, physically and mentally.

I've got a whole list of things like this that I want to do, but I'm going to take on 1-2 of them until they become routine. This is probably the biggest, yet smallest change - spending a little more time preparing for each day, rather than just zipping out the door to tackle the world.

Save Money
Wifey has a great blog post about this here, but the gist of this one is that I've been spending too much money on fast food (which makes me feel like crap), and less money on distractions - especially iTunes (TV shows and movies on Apple TV, in-app purchases like digital comic books). I'll do this cold turkey in January, since I have more than enough stuff to occupy my time, and I've been contemplating disconnecting the credit card from my account and budgeting by buying iTunes gift cards and using those instead. Oh, and no drive-thru at all in 2013.

More Exercise
(Duh). I'm actually in the worst shape of my life. My asthma and allergies are worse than they've ever been, the "triplets" are back (ie my gut looks so big I might be carrying multiples), and my running times are not so great.

The plan here is to a) make up missed runs from my running room training plan, and run at least 10k per week, shooting for 750 km in the year, and b) work out in the basement after baby goes to bed, at least three times per week. I'm hoping we'll have more time to go hiking this summer, too.

Part of my work goals this year are to measure more, so I'm going to carry this over into my personal life. This part might be overly ambitious, but I like spreadsheets, so I'm going to put one together to track my exercise and physical progress.

Oh, and the last part of the exercise goal is to run at least two half-marathons. I'd also like to do an Olympic Triathlon, but we'll see if I can squeeze that in.

Take More Down-Time
In 2012, I had one week off when my daughter was born, one week in Phoenix in the fall, and a few days here or there (that I more than made up for in "overtime"). This year, I want to take at least an extra-long weekend in Fernie this summer, go back to Phoenix, and go fly-fishing in Smithers, BC, with my Dad.

Lastly, I'll spend more time on my garden this year. 2012 was okay, but I was working too much to really take care of it properly.

Coming to Terms With My Social Media Personna

... aka Why I Haven't Posted for So Long.
... aka (Hate the Word, but) Resolutions part 1
... aka Full Circle

I started this blog a long time ago (well, long time in technology years, where there's some sort of exponential-growth calculation needed, not just times seven like dog years) to discuss my discovery of triathlon, and to keep me accountable to my goals.

A new year naturally inspires reflection, as we come away from Winter Solstice with new hope as days get longer. I've never much liked the concept of (ugh) Resolutions, they just seem like over-hyped and under-thought broken promises to yourself each year. But I am a big fan of setting goals. And it is true that putting stuff "out there"is a good way to stay accountable.

The thing is, I think about technology a little too much. I work at a desk, on which sits a laptop, an extra monitor to handle the 25 different windows I seem to need open, a landline phone, an iPhone, an iPad... and a couple hundred pounds of paper. I haven't had time at work to blog, and when I come home, usually the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer. Tried Twitter, it's too impersonal and, well, just too much information. Facebook is okay, but well, too personal. I stopped blogging primarily because I kept wanting to write about things other than my original intent, and I felt obligated to reciprocate comments, and felt a need to foster views and comments.

So what changed? I just decided to look at blogging differently. I've decided I don't care what you think! No promises as to frequency or what I'll write about, and I'm okay with that.

Happy New Year.

Defeat

I'm going to post a full race report later tonight, but here's a sneak peek:


Not sure if you can click to get more details, so here's the link just in case:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/97997213

Note the average speed. We were hoping to average 20-25 kph on the way up the pass. Wind speeds were forecast to be 15-25 kph from the west....

Three Thankful Things Thursday

1. Thanks to my beautiful wife and better half for being so understanding when I'm working crazy hours to help build this little business.

2. Thanks to the people who motivate me! Again, my lovely wife, plus all the other awesome run club buddies at the Country Hills Running Room - especially those (past, present) in the Half Marathon Clinic. I know not every one is a fan of the RR, but wow, our group sure is something special. Turnout is always great, the atmosphere and camraderie - regardless of age/gender/speed/fitness - is just amazing!!
Also in this group is a good friend of mine, who back in February convinced me (or I convinced him?) to do a Gran Fondo this year. We originally planned to do Kelowna, but on Saturday we're going to do Highwood Pass instead. We put in some time on the trainers over the winter, got a few road rides in, but I'm sure he's got me beat because he was riding to work more than I did! What makes it even more amazing is that this time last year, he wasn't able to even ride his bike due to a big health scare. Dude, hope you read this, and know how much you inspire me.

3. Thanks to God, Mother Earth, the weatherman... or whoever else you want to credit with this amazing weather we've had this week. I don't do well with heat, but man is it ever nice. Not sure if our flowers are holding up to it, between heat and the rainy weather a few weeks ago, but oh well.

Big Announcement

I went public with this Big Announcement at my RR clinic night this week, and thought it might be a good end to my blog hiatus.

It's a life and relationship-changing announcement.

It's going to involve some crying, some naps, probably some loss of sleep...

Running in Medicine Hat

 
...


I'm going to run the Calgary Marathon next spring!

The half-marathon training has been going really well-- not that I've been posting about it. I've been running very consistently for a year now (the most consistent training I've ever done), and posted a PR 1:50 in the Big Run half-marathon this past spring. I think the half will always be my favorite distance, but it's time for a new challenge!

The plan is to continue on with the half-marathon group at the Country Hills Running Room this summer, but rather than start a new cycle with them in the fall, just jump up to the Marathon group, and start upping the distance over the winter. Not sure how it'll go, but gotta set goals for myself!

Anyone else doing their first 42.2 next year? Any training tips? Any bets on whether or not I can keep up the blog consistently? :)

I'm Getting Too Old For This Sh*t

Great line, great movie...

I used to be able to indulge in more than a few drinks, stay up all night, get up early, snowboard all day, then do it all over again. Ah, to be young and stupid. Well, in some ways I suppose I still am...

This weekend, we went out to our place in Fernie, BC for the annual weekend with our friends. It's a great little spot that we're very, very lucky to have, and we're even more lucky to have great friends to come with us! This is the fifth year we've gone with more or less the same crowd-- sometimes we ski/ride, sometimes we do more socializing than snowsports.

Since we would miss our 20km LSD training run, I had every intention of going out on my cross-country skis for a workout. But Saturday looked far too wet from inside the condo. So we watched movies, played cards, caught up, compared iPhone apps, talked about triathlons and how crazy we are for doing them... and drank. The road into town was closed for part of the day, so we didn't even visit the brewery or the waterslides, but we still had a blast. After a great meal, we hit the hot tub, sang some songs, and played Cranium. I was a wreck!

...but based on how much snow was falling all day, I knew Sunday would be epic. Usually the plan is to leave at a reasonable time on Sunday, but I was determined to break out my board first thing. So of course, I had to wax it. At midnight. After *ahem* a few drinks. I was very impressed with myself-- I didn't cut myself as I sharpened the edges, and I didn't burn myself or the board with the iron!

I've never had (and I'm sure I WILL never have) any problems getting up for powder. Because I know that if I just get out there, all the aches, pains, and hangovers will just vanish. Sure enough, this is what I was rewarded with:

Blue skies and powder!!

 I was too worried about dropping my iPhone and never finding it again to take many photos, but trust me, the powder was fantastic. There were a few runs where every other turn was a faceshot (ie the turn kicks up a big cloud of snow that smacks you in the face as you ride through it!)

These were on my favorite run (shh, it's a secret!), on the last run of the day at 1:00. We had to get home, and I was feeling so good at this point, that I thought I'd set up the spin trainer, ride for an hour, then dreadmill for an hour. Well. By the time I got back to the condo to Nicole, packed, and drove for thirty minutes (of a three and a half hour drive), I remembered that I was really hungover, and really tired! Thus the title of this blog.

So I missed the 20k run. And I was really looking forward to it!

January Recap and Pacing

IcantbelieveJanuaryisalmostover!!!

Seems like only last week we were celebrating Christmas and New Year's... and suddenly it's the end of January! It might partly have something to do with being sick (second time in two months!!), this time with sinus/chest cold-- it really knocked me out for a good week, with lingering after effects for another week and a half. But feeling much better now.

So what have I been up to, you ask? Went snowboarding twice in very, very cold weather on the first and the third-- fun times. Have been doing a lot of hot yoga, and running. Haven't been spinning, because the spin trainer was seizing up on me, so I took it in for warranty, and it wasn't resolved until yesterday (more in another post...) Went swimming once, then again today (finally!). And I was asked to take over as one of the pacers for my running group-- which I agreed to do, but it's changed my runs.

Don't get me wrong, I love to help people. But we don't really have a solid "pace group" really established, as there are two clinics that have overlapped-- one is doing the Hypo Half on February 12, the other the Big Run in April. So my old pace group is sort of the "veterans", most have done more than once clinic, or have been running forever. Our long runs have been 18km the last two weekends, and we're scheduled to do 20km this weekend. On the other hand, the new group is doing 9km long run on Sunday. It will sort itself out in a week or two, I'm just more concerned with how spread out everyone is-- there are three or four of the people in the new clinic that could probably form a bit more of a pacegroup, but they all seem to run just slightly different speeds on different days...

Why am I worried about this?

Because to me, the best things about these clinics is the group. Let's face it, although we have talks once a week about gear, or physiology, or technique, or race strategy, or goal setting... it's not like you're running with a coach. You don't really get any direct feedback on your stride, or technique, you get a workout plan, and people to help you get through the workouts. I want to make sure that everybody in the clinic has someone to run with, no matter their pace!

On the other hand, maybe some people in the group like to run alone... but then, why would they sign up for a group?

What do you think? Are you a solo runner? Do you run in a group? If you run with a group, do you like to chat, or prefer to just run, or listen to your music?

***
This week's training:
1 hr Hot Yoga on Monday
4.5 km Tempo run on Tuesday (26:40)
4.5 km Steady run on Wednesday (26:30) (I know, steady is supposed to be slower than tempo... )
1500m in the pool this morning - 5x100 w/u, 500m main set, 5x100m cooldown

Resolution Run Race Report

Busy weekend, haven't gotten around to posting this! You may have already read Deb's post about the race, or perhaps the one by Nicole... they both posted very detailed versions, so I'll keep mine short.

My goal going in was 22:30, but I knew it was a "stretch goal"-- I'm sure that my fitness level is there, but just looking at the course and the weather, I knew it wouldn't be easy. It turns out the weather wasn't as much a factor as the crowds! Like Deb, we were a little confused as to the actual start line, so we ended up starting near the back of the pack.

The first km, I was dodging people, and warming up. I got well behind my goal pace, and didn't manage to put in a sub 5:00 minute pace until the second km or so. Like Nicole wrote, it's awesome when you pass a bunch of people, even if it means that you started too far back, and it makes it tough to hit your goal. I finished in 23:33-- which would have been good, if the course hadn't been short.

A few thoughts about the race:

1. Fun-runs aren't a good place to target a PR. 
2. The race was put on by the local run store, the Running Room. Their goal seems to be to get people running, not to put on a serious competitive race
3. The fact the course was a little short was very disappointing, especially since they sell Garmins.
4. I liked the crazy orange sweaters they gave out!
5. Didn't care for the "post-run meal"... hot chocolate (yay) and cinnamon buns (meh)... someone said there'd be chili?

Still, we had a lot of fun, and I'd do it again.

Afterwards, we went to a friend's house for NYE celebrations. A majority of people there are turning thirty in 2011, so the hostess made a cake and we sang happy birthday... perverse. But the cake was tasty.

Three Things Thursday (or Strawberry Beer is A Great Dessert)

Sometimes it's hard to post without repeating my DW Haute Runner... we do pretty much everything together!

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS COPIOUS FOOD REFERENCES!! IT STARTS WITH POSTRUN PIZZA AND BEER AND ENDS WITH A RESTAURANT  REVIEW...


1. Wednesday Hills - The weather outside was frightful, the fire was so delightful (sorry Keith, like I told you this morning, I'm not Christmas-ed out yet)... but we still went running. Hills, no less. The plan called for 7 repeats, family requested our presence for pizza and beer, and since pizza and beer only help you run faster as a post-run reward, we ran early. As much as I thought postrun pizza and beer would motivate me, the cold my poor layering choices and the lack of competition running buddies made it a tough slog.

2. I  SWAM again today!!! Since getting rear-ended at the beginning of November, I've been in a whiplash-induced swimbattical. I haven't been too happy about that. But I asked Dr. Dan last week, and he said go for it, so I WENT TO THE POOL THIS MORNING! Nothing crazy, just decided to do a bit of a pyramid to build up some mileage: 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 500m, cooldown, all nice and easy, about a minute rest in between. The f200m set, or maybe the 300m was actually the most difficult! After that, I worked out enough of yesterday's snow shoveling to get back into my rhythm. And, I got to chat with Keith.

Not us, but we were there!

3. FANTASTIC dinner tonight. In my books, the perfect meal involves great friends, great wine, and great food, bonus if the food is local/ organic/ or both, but fresh and skillfully prepared is a must. Good service (attentive, but not overbearing) is also a bonus. We have some great friends in town from San Francisco, and we went to Farm with them and a mutual friend from here in Calgary. Amazing charcuterie, great cheeses (the owner also owns Calgary's premier fine cheese store) and the menu is an haute-cuisine take on rustic home cooking. Fine ingredients and refined touches to simple, right-sized dishes, everything obviously made in-house, from scratch. After the shared charcuterie selection, I had what could be described as a perfectly-dressed house salad with canola seeds on it (very nice touch), and a braised wild boar shoulder with carmelized cabbage that was perfectly seasoned and melt-in-your-mouth tender. The berry crumble and a taste of strawberry beer finished me off though! Highly recommended for any foodie-- bit on the pricey side, but worth it.

PS In case you were wondering, pizza and beer hard apple cider is not good postrun food. But we had to let our friends properly thank us for the move.


PPS "Pizza and beer" - the phrase always reminds me of Econ 101... for some reason, every supply-and-demand example was pizza and beer. Which was always confusing to me, because there's rarely just one slice of 'za, and beer comes in sixpacks. Whatever.

PPPS I thought I'd posted about the rear-ender, but I guess I didn't. We got hit at a red light coming home from running, and have been in chiro/ massage/ physio for the past two months. And I was told NOT to swim. :(


PPPPS I realize that the past few posts make me sound like a hedonist/ alcoholic/ foodie, but I swear I usually eat pretty well, and I don't actually drink that often... I'm usually pretty good.... besides, it's the holiday season. (enough justification for you?)

Annoyed At My Spin Trainer

So annoyed, I won't repeat what I said to it yesterday morning. So annoyed, it's going back to where I bought it.

I hopped on the bike, intending to ride for at least half an hour to 45 min. At ten minutes, the flywheel started to stiffen up, slowing me down, then it would ease up, and I'd be almost freewheeling... it did this a dozen times before grinding to a complete lockup. I had to get off the bike, wiggle the flywheel back and forth before it let go.

So mad!! Just bought it last year, I would expect it to last longer than this! We'll see if the shop can do anything...

The good news is, I got to try out my Real Rides Grand Canyon (even though I wasn't able to finish it)... and I did do some yoga instead, which I needed.

Still busy with the holidays! Helped some family friends move all day yesterday, had other friends over for dinner, working a few hours today, back to helping move, then having my cousin and her family for dinner! Crazy, but I'd rather be busy than not!

16km and A Bottle of Scotch

Today, we skipped the boxing day shopping and ran 16km in beautiful weather (ranged from -5C to 5C). Our run club group was the only one to have people show up, even though we met at 10am instead of the usual 8:30am, and our instructor told me that I was the only reason she showed up, because I insisted that I would be there when I talked to her on wednesday!

There were certain parties who, at about midnight last night, thought I might not make it out in the morning...

When I was in my teens, my grandpa got a 25 year old bottle of scotch for his birthday. It was standing on the bar, next to a box lined with crush velvet and gold leaf...
"What's the big deal? I mean, I understand that it's old, but so what? What difference does it make?"
To answer my question, my grandpa pulls out two glasses, pours a little splash of the good stuff into one and asks me to taste it. I still remember the burn! Then, he reaches under the bar and pulls out some J&B scotch whiskey, and poured another splash into the second glass. I immediately asked to taste the good stuff again!

Every year at Christmas, my dad usually buys a decent bottle of scotch-- we enjoy a few glasses, and the bottle lasts for most of the year (if not longer). Last year, I decided to continue the tradition at our house. There's still some scotch left in the bottle of Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban I bought last Christmas-- I've thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so, that I thought this year I'd buy the same brand, but for a few dollars more I sprung for a slightly better rated version, the Nectar d'Or.

Me, dad, and brother enjoying a glass of fine scotch

The three of us finished the bottle. Yep, it was that good.

Considering how much I drank, I was shocked at how good I felt on the run! I managed a 5:55 min/km pace, finishing in 1:35... my calves are a little sore, but otherwise feeling exceptionally not hungover!

Christmas Eve update

Yet again, I've fallen behind on my blogging. I seem to either have too much to write, or perhaps too little... and sometimes I just feel self-conscious about putting it all out here.

It's the morning of Christmas Eve. All week, I haven't been able to get up as early as planned, but today, I woke up wondering about friends I've made over the years and lost touch with. (Facebook just doesn't count). We had dinner last night with my best friend from high school--the one person from that time in my life I've kept in touch with--and I dreamed that I ran into a whole party of my old high school friends. It may have had something to do with seeing people's photos on facebook, and actually seeing and talking to another friend last weekend, too.The past few months have also seen me reflecting a lot on the past few years-- but perhaps I'll leave that for another post, maybe a "farewell 2010" post next week.

I'm not sure why I lose touch with people so easily. Does everyone experience this? My lovely wife seems much more able to maintain relationships-- or at least try to--partly because she spends so much time on FB, but shhh, don't tell her I said so. To me, I find myself constantly meeting new people, and I give myself the excuse that it's better to have a few friends that have shared interests and are "in the same place in life". I'm not so sure about that anymore. Am I lamenting a lack of friends, or feeling sorry for myself? Certainly not... especially since I'm sure at least a few of my friends are reading this... :)

I've been working on a post about how much I love my run club (I will post this before the new year!), and a big reason is it's such a great way to get to know people who ultimately have a pretty major common interest- running. In some ways, blogging is a great way to meet new people, on a strangely intimate, yet sometimes very surreal way. New jobs, new neighborhood, all bring new people to meet, and each time, with each encounter, you have to choose how much of yourself to give, how much you want to connect.

But I do really wonder about some people with whom I've lost touch. People I went to school with since childhood. People I once worked with. People I partied with. Sure, some of them are "on Facebook"... but really, I don't think that counts. At least not for me-- I don't check status updates regularly, and not everyone is inclined to post about themselves, and if they do, it varies from the mundane to the ridiculous, to the political, to the odd funny clip. Is it the same as sitting down and having coffee or a beer with someone and catching up on a few years of missed time? I think not.

So in case you haven't noticed, I'm feeling a little nostalgic. If any of my old (or new!) friends is reading this and wants to (re) connect, I'm always free for a coffee or a beer (but not at the same time). I'll buy. jarrett dot nixon at gmail dot com

... And in other news, the post-accident whiplash treatments are working, and next week I'm back in the pool. I can't believe how much I've missed swimming!!!

10k PR

.... But it wasn't mine. I'm pretty happy with how (consistently) fast I've been running lately. That and the fact I was a little hungover :P was incentive to help someone else push themselves a little today. One of the ladies in the group has been pretty much on our heels for the past few weeks- and we've been bugging her to run with us. Today, she did, and even thought we were doing 10-and-1's, she kept up, and clocked her first sub-hour 10k! We'll find out Tuesday how sore she is...

Speaking of sore- this week has been pretty light on training, but heavy on the whiplash treatments. Monday and Wednesday were Chiro, Tuesday massage, and Thursday was physio, featuring about 6 needles for muscle release. It was great, I feel awesome now, but if I go back for another treatment, it will be late afternoon instead of mid-day. Even though he taped my back, it sucked to work another 7 hours after! Have you ever tried needling or acupuncture? what did you think? What's the best/worst treatment you've ever done?

Hopefully I won't be working as many long hours this week... We got most of the month-end agility sorted out now, so this week will be catching up on everything else- especially workouts!

PS I Think most of you read her blog anyway, but check out wifey's blog for a more detailed update!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone (Or at least I thought I did... until I checked it and it didn't actually post!!!! boooo....)

Calgary Running and Tri Blogroll

Busy week! Between the two jobs, Chiro, massage, accupuncture (later this week), running and yoga, it's gonna be crazy. But I'm sitting at home waiting for the furnace cleaner, so thought I'd post a quickie before doing some work...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to manage reading all the great blogs out there. I've discovered inspirational and interesting blogs from all over Canada, the US, and lately even one from across "the pond". But some days I'm so busy, that I end up skipping a lot of great blogs. At the same time, I want more!

Reading Deb and Jen's blogs the last few days, they both wrote about meeting each other for the first time-- and there has been talk of meeting up at the Resolution Run on New Year's eve. I'm currently trying to arrange a coffee meetup with a blogger who lives across town, I live with another Calgary blogger, and used to work with yet another. I'm really enjoying the community that comes with connecting to other 'local' bloggers!

So, dear readers, I'm asking for your help and feedback.

1. How do you manage to read (and comment) on so many blogs?
2. How do you find local blogs and/or running buddies in your area?
3. Do you know of any Calgary area running/triathlon bloggers? Are you one I've missed? So far I've manged to find (and follow):

• Nicole at Haute Runner
• Keith's Odyessy to Planet Fitness
• Barefoot Neil Z at Because All The Cool Kids Are Doing It
• Deb Shrinks
• Jen at Triathlete Within
• Richard at BlaznFast

I know there are a LOT more out there...

Snowy Black Knight Army Virtual 10k!!!

I just squeezed it in! The plan for the running group today was 10k LSD (long slow distance, not the other kind), but I decided to push the pace (a little, it was pretty slippery), and do the BLACK KNIGHT ARMY VIRTUAL RACE!!!! (Doesn't it just sound epic?!!? It was.)

I didn't bring my iPhone, because it's bad when you slip and fall on it, so you'll have to take my word that I wore black tights, black turtleneck (under my sweater and jacket!). Oh, and a black toque, black gloves, and black neckwarmer. Kind of like what I wore for this run. Except it wasn't so cold!

That's right, it wasn't so cold today... but it is snowing. Not the lovely big, fluffy flakes that kiss your cheeks, the tiny little ice daggers that stab out your eyes. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but they do kind of hurt the eyes!

Still, the run was quite the adventure. As you can see from the details below from my Garmin, it's a hilly route, and not very well cleared of snow. In fact, the longest hill was punctuated with snow drifts-- only about 3-6 inches deep, but it was like running on river rocks- slippery, unsure footing. And the steep parts were particularly slippery!

Right now, we're just taking a little break from putting up the Christmas decorations... the tree is up! I'll post some photos later in the week. When do you put up your tree? Do you put one up at all?

Yoga, Sushi, and Saturday Spin

...and I won a poster over at Because All The Cool Kids Are Doing It! (Thanks for voting if you did...)

Yesterday (Friday), I finally took advantage of the Living Social deal we bought a few weeks ago at Sanguine Yoga. I'll definitely be using up all 20 of the visits, and will probably be buying more after that! It's a really nicely laid out and newly renovated hot yoga studio that is about 5 minutes from my office.

The first time I did yoga was when I was living and working in Field, BC at the Travel Alberta visitor information center. It was a really tight community, and one of my friends was a yoga instructor, and she put on a weekly session at the community center. I was in decent shape then (lotsa hiking and mountain biking), and was terrible at the yoga, but I enjoyed it. I'm in better shape now, and yoga is still hard, but almost in a different way. There was less stopping, and I was able to keep up a little better. The class was Power Hot, and I sweat buckets! The muscles felt much looser by the end, and I think it's really going to help my back strength and flexibility.

What's the perfect dinner after yoga? Sushi! We LOVE Globefish Sushi - they have some really creative and delicious rolls! The only complaint is that parking is always difficult after about 5:00, as it gets pretty busy around then too. Still, it's worth the wait!

Spin Saturday
I would have liked to go to the spinnathon today, but logistically, it just didn't work out. I have to do some work later today, and am planning to visit my father in law later today. So I hopped on the bike around 9:30, made some adjustments to my handlebars, and rode Richter Pass.

Three Things Thursday

1. Oww!  I wussed out on the run last night because I was very tired, but also because my left leg was really sore. Kind of a weird feeling, almost an IT-band tightness, but more on the side of my quad. Nicole helped me roll it with the stick-- I almost cried. Feels like a massive bruise.

2. So busy with work! There are fewer people looking to build a garage lately, but those who are seem to be more serious about it. Also doing a lot of work on my presentation, and there's lots going on at my consulting gig as well. It's a good kind of busy though.

Even the Hulk Does Crunches

3. Did core work this morning! I know this is important-- I know core is my weakpoint, and that to get faster I need to get stronger. Also, a few weeks (months?) ago, I went to physio for some preventative work. Did some needling, and got some exercises to improve my posture and back issues. Shhhh.... don't tell my physio, but I haven't been doing them! But since we got rear-ended a few weeks ago, it's more important than ever to improve my core muscles! Did plank, bicycle crunches, and situps on the ball, and back exercises.

... And the bonus thing- weather's getting better! High of -1 (C)