tha tha that don't kill me..can only make me stronger

Cue the Kanye West (even though I think he is a douche bag). Kinda does say how I feel lately. Not that training is the problem, it's everything else right now. I didnt really think that having a child would be as much of a change and stress as it has been....well I did , but you know.



Money....I love my son more than life itself and would NEVER trade him for my "other" life. But every once in a while the stress creeps up on you. Money is definately an issue...I am not broke by any means but my expendible income is pretty darn low right now. The EI system is great on one hand, my wife gets to stay at home and raise our child for the first year. However the amount is somewhat a kick to the junk. Definately have to be more frugal and boy does it suck when those not so cheap and very sudden extra expenses pop up.



Time.....Not enough time in the day/week/month. Between work, training, housework and spending time with my family (note..these are not in order of importance) I feel like i dont have much time to myself to wind down. Training is probably the closest thing I have to downtime. It is definately my "ME" time. I struggle to fit everything in some days. I know that I am not the only person that experiences this.



Work....This has been weighing on my mind alot lately. I am not sure how much longer I want to stay in ICU. I do enjoy my schedule...work 2 days, 2 nights then 5 off. But the frustrating part is getting time off. As of now I am scheduled to work both half IM's that I am signed up for and the weekend of IMC (which I need to be there to sign up for next year). Hopefully I will get my time off requests granted. But besides those issues, I am feeling more and more ethical/moral distress at work. I can't really elaborate because of confidentiality but it sucks. Just because we can do things doesnt mean we should. Not sure what will be the final straw but we shall see.



Family....I have a great wife and you know how I feel about my boy. I love just holding him and talking to him and watching him smile...and now laugh. I love it when I get to sit down with my wife and have a nice meal. I think we have our best talks on our worst days. I do hate the guilt I sometimes feel when I am out training. I probably shouldnt because they are perfectly fine with it. And I worry sometimes because I know whats ahead for the next year and a half or so. I will get through it though.

We all have stress and we all deal with it in our own way. Despite all of these items that cause stress they also are my biggest enjoyments. The trick it to find the right balance of them all. I will let you know the year that happens ;).

Wahooo free time!

Not really sure what free time is anymore. My wife and son are gone for a few days to visit her family and I am home alone! Truth is I miss them alot, lol. But while they are gone I am taking advantage of it.....training and relaxing.

Training was a bit off for a couple of days...I had a bit of an infection in one of my toes. Putting on my shoe was painful to say the least. Luckily after a couple of days the toe is just mildly inflamed at this point. Despite the toe issue, my training days yesterday and today have been really good.

Yesterday started off meeting Greg at the pool for some swim coaching. Its been a while since we had made it too the pool. I was anxious to get some feedback since I have been working pretty hard at it lately. After some observation it was good to hear that my progress is noticeable. My stroke was not perfect, still room for improvement and that's what we worked on. After some corrections I noticed a huge difference...where the hell did that glide come from, lol. I can feel it in my shoulders today but its the soreness that is welcomed.

After the swim it was off time indoor cycling that night. I am feeling really good about my cycling too. I can't wait to get outside this year. My legs feel much stronger than at this time last year. I am always curious at to what surprises Greg has in store for us!

Today was a long run that was to be all about the form and low heart rate. I started in Edworthy park and headed east along the north side of the bow until I hit Crowchild and then went over to the southside. I love running along the pathway when its sunny out. I kept a nice slower than race pace the whole time. Not a huge amount of people on the paths so it was nice. I had crossed the Center street bridge and stopped for a drink and gel. It was nice to walk for a minute and just relax.

It was just as nice on the way back. A nice easy run, listening to tunes and not pushing things. I love my tempo runs but this was a nice change. I think my form held up pretty good. I made sure I kept it going. In the end it was 15.5km in 1:35. I think my next long run I will do the Glenmore reservoir. I will be running the police half so I want to get a bit more elevation change in my runs.

The family comes back tomorrow and so will my "bachelor" time, lol. I have another swim and cycling day on the schedule and I am looking forward to it. But I have to admit that I am looking forward to seeing my wife and son more, lol. I am finding a better balance of everything as of late. I think now its time to play some Xbox and get some of that relaxation in.

Hypothermic Half

Last Sunday was my second time running the Hypothermic Half in Calgary. There is something about the potentially adverse conditions that appeals to me. You can't get much easier of a run, the pathway along the Bow is pretty much the flattest run you will get here in Calgary. It is also nice to have an "off season" half marathon to break things up in the winter. Sooo...how did it go....

The venue had changed this year from Eau Claire to Fort Calgary. During race package pickup they said to get there early because parking was limited. I decided to heed this and arrived just after 8am (9am start). Not sure if this was totally necessary and turned out to be a P.I.T.A . The Fort Calgary building was not open so it was either stand in the cold or sit and wait in my Jeep.....I chose the latter.

Around 8:40 am I decided to head on over to the start and pee before the race start. I was a bit surprised to see the line up for the port-a-potty. Seriously.....2 of them for 200 registered runners in my wave. One thing that always annoys me...the lack of facilities. I was in line up before the start of the race but they delayed the start a few minutes because of the number of people waiting for the john. No problem...I will just stand here and freeze my ass off ( I dress for the running conditions not the waiting conditions)

Anyway....a few minutes later and we are off. I always try to "seed" myself where I think I should be in the line up....obviously many others don't. Pet peeve here....if you are slow stay near the back!!! I spent the first km getting around people. I find it frustrating when I am getting held up because slower runners are running 3 or 4 across. I am not trying to be an A-hole or making myself out to be a "contender" for the win but come on. Even bigger pet peeve....if you are running with a dog (and not talking about a aid dog) get to the very back. Sorry, rant over.

I should mention that my goals for the race was just to go sub 2hrs again and to not take any walk breaks. My running is just starting to feel good again so I was looking forward to the longer distance. I decided just to run the pace I needed to get sub 2 and enjoy the day.

The pathways were a bit sketchy for the first 1.5km or so. Some ice patches covered with light snow. The rest of the run was fairly clear with the exception being the under passes. The first 10k went pretty uneventful. Once I hit the turn around I took in a gel and some water. I was feeling pretty good!!

I hit 14km and then my stomach started to grumble. Ohh yeah, I forgot to mention, I ran out of the house this morning and didn't eat breakfast. Total oversight on my part. I just ate some sharkies before the start. After a few minutes the stomach grumbling went away and all was good.

Now at 17.5km my legs started to feel a bit heavy although my lungs felt great. I thought my pace was going downhill in a big way but after looking at the data from my garmin I actually stayed pretty consistent ( I knew I was going to be around 2 hours so I didn't really care to look at my pace at the time). I love the auto lap feature on the garmin 310xt...I really like the vibration feature telling when i hit each km and the pace...sweet.


At km 19 I started to feel good again and picked up the pace again (I am guessing because I knew the finish was coming up). As I came around the turn up to the finish I saw that the clock was getting close to 2 hrs. Even though I knew my chip time was under 2 hours I still wanted to be sub 2 on the clock, hence my sprint to the finish. I made it with 5 seconds to spare, lol. My time was 1:59:23, not my fastest by far, but I was happy with that time.

Overall I enjoyed the race. I was not a fan of the venue this year. Being in the first wave was crappy as there was not place to keep warm and the limited "washroom" access. I didn't think the finish was very spectator friendly. But as always you have to give thanks to the volunteers that give up their time to help out your race, even more so on a cold winter morning. I am already looking forward to my next race!

HTFU!!!

Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it....Ferris Bueller

Wow, it has been a while since I blogged. Between my family, work and training there isn't much time left to do anything else. I have sat down and started new posts and then have to go feed the boy. My wife is great about letting me get my workouts in but I really try to let her get some free time. I absolutely love my time with my son, but it is nice to get some alone time in there.

The beginning of the new year marked my return to a formal training schedule. I took a couple months off after my son was born and I am glad I did. Quite a change in lifestyle! But with a big race season coming up I knew it was time to get back into the swing of things. Luckily Greg started me out fairly easy and the workouts are slowly getting back up to speed.

Swimming is slowly getting better. It is still my least favorite discipline and I am sure it will remain there. But it is progressing....slowly, lol. Did I mention that it is slowly progressing? I am impatient and want to be way ahead of where I am...eventually I will get there.

Cycling is coming along quite nicely despite not having been on a road in what seems like forever! The indoor classes have been awesome. I am feeling pretty strong on the trainer and don't feel like my cycling will suffer over the winter months. My mantra for the season...pass everyone and be passed by no one. Usually that is the case anyway...they were already ahead of me coming out of the water, lol. Bottom line is I want to excel on the bike.

Running has suffered a bit but that is my own doing. My running volume had declined over the last 6 months. Part is due to the new family addition but it seems lately I have not been a fan of running in the colder weather nor running on the treadmill. I miss running in shorts and a tshirt in the SUN! I have noticed my run times slipping a bit too. Totally my own fault. However, in the last few weeks I have been getting back into the running mood. I decided to HTFU! I want my running to get back to where I want it! Going out and giving a half assed attempt won't help. I will not be a person that complains about a race result when I didn't put in the training effort.

Hmmm what else....I picked up a garmin 310 xt and so far I love it. I like the fact that it has a vibration feature. During my intervals today I was about to run and not worry about looking at my watch, the garmin vibrates and I knew it was time to switch (although I could hear the beep over my music). Big thing is not having to deal with the touch bezel of my garmin 405. I might write a review of the garmin 310 after more use.

Merry Christmas Errrbody.....

H2O Audio Interval product review

It's no secret to anyone that knows me that swimming is not my favorite discipline....therefore it is by far, my worst. I often get bored in in the pool and lose focus. After a quick Internet search, I found the H20 Audio Interval. It is a water proof case/headphone system for the ipod shuffle. It is available for the 2nd and 3rd generation models. I was super excited to get an Interval for an early Xmas gift!

The Interval is a very basic system. It consists of a water proof case with attached earbuds. Also included are various ear buds ranging from small to XL. A 30 min test submersion without an ipod in place is done to ensure the compartment is properly sealed.

Before my first use of the the system I watched a video on the H2O audio web page that gave hints to getting the best results from the product. The major complaint that I had read in reviews was getting the earbuds to stay in the ear and poor sound quality related to this. The first suggestion is to choose the best fitting earbuds for your ears (rather obvious). The second suggestion is to use a swim cap over the ears to help keep the buds in.

The system attaches to the strap of your goggles. Controls are very simple, 2 buttons to control volume and 1 button to control song selection. Depressing the button once will start/stop playback. Depressing the button twice will forward to the next song and 3 times with go back one song.

Trial #1

I donned the Interval and did a quick head dunk to test the sound. It did actually sound pretty good but obviously the real test is during the swim. I tried first without a swim cap and quickly found the earbuds falling out. I did take the advice of the video and brought a swim cap to hold in the earbuds. But I made the mistake of using a Lycra cap that wasn't tight enough to keep the earbuds in. The ear buds wound not stay in place. I didn't bring the additional earbuds to try for a different fit. I have to admit that it was a bit of a disappointment. Good points were that the controls worked flawlessly and it was absolutely waterproof!

Trial #2

This time I brought a latex cap to keep the buds in place. I had done a re-fit at home with the other earbud size but in the end I felt like I had correctly chosen the right size already. After placing the buds in a tucking them under my swim cap I definitely felt they were more secure. During the swim session I had a few periods of reduced sound and one episode of the buds falling out. But overall a much better experience with the system!

Overall Impression

The H2O interval can be a bit challenging to use, it involves some trial and error (getting the proper ear bud size and technique to keep them in the ears). Although it is not a perfect system it does provide some a good source of entertainment during swims! It is simple to use and is pretty much idiot proof. I give it a 7/10.

Last Chance Half Marathon

The LC half was my first half marathon that I had ever run. I really like running races that I had previously run to see how I have progressed. I like seeing time improvements and my next running goal is to get under 1:50 for a half. But going to this run I was pretty sure that I would not meet that goal. My running lately has been...well....shit. I have done one "long" run in the past 2 months I think and it was only 14km. My weekly run totals have been abysmal.

I had signed up for this one almost as soon as it opened up, I know that it always sells out. My wife's original due date was Nov 24th. I figured that even if she was a week early it would be no problem. I wasn't counting on almost 3 weeks early, lol. I have been trying to help Shelly out as much as possible. She pumps milk while I feed Logan and usually change him. I encourage her to nap and sacrifice a bit of sleep to let her rest. My sleep is definitely not great this past week.

For the last week I debated even racing due to the circumstances. Luckily I have a very supporting wife. Last night she let me sleep the whole night and get a good sleep before the race. I had decided that I would make a final decision in the morning. When I woke up this morning I was still pretty bagged. For a few minutes I was thinking...I could just go back to bed and get more needed sleep. But then I had a talk with myself. "Shut the F*#& up and run". OK so I probably would not get the time I wanted but run it anyway. I can sleep later and tough the distance out of I had to. I am running today!

Met up with a few people I know for work and the gym and chatted for a while. I was actually feeling pretty good and was ready to get going. The race started and I pretty quickly got settled in. There was a bit of a head wind as we headed out, I decided to not push hard for the first 10km, last thing I wanted to do was to blow up on the second half. I was getting passed by a fair number of people which normally doesn't happen to the degree it was. I very quickly got over it ;).

I made it to the first first turn around which was manned by Chad from team legend and our coach Greg. Kinda funny getting water from your coach during a race. After a brief stop to drink I was off again. A nice flat path and a bit of a tail wind...wahooo. I really didn't notice the tailwind but I did notice the lack of headwind. Things were pretty uneventful until after the last turn around. I felt pretty good until about 17km. I was feeling good from a cardio perspective but my legs were feeling pretty heavy. But that comes with not running as much as I should be.

I decided to take it relatively easy until km 19 and then give it everything after that. Wellll that didn't really pan out. I just stayed the course for the last 4 km and ran a steady pace. Less than 1k left and we had to run up the ramp to get over to Prince's Island. I did run it, no walking lol. I picked up the pace at the top of the ramp and was going to finish strong.

I decided that sub 2hrs and I would be happy. I saw the clock and saw that I would indeed be sub 2. I had barely looked at my garmin through out the whole race. I actually felt good as a crossed the line...just tired. My finish time was 1:58:45 ish.

I am so glad I talked myself into running today, it felt really good to get out. I came home and got to spend some time with my son and let me wife have a nap. I now have a pair of last chance medals, lol. I laughed when I saw that they were the exact same medals. I would have liked to see something unique from last year, lol. Next up....Hypothermic Half in feb...and I will get below 1:50 ;).