To do? or not to do?

I didn't do any of my scheduled training yesterday. Instead I had to go up to North Bay to pick my oldest daughter Melissa From Nippissing University to bring her home for x-mass. She had her second last exam for this semester and her next exam is on the 18th. So she's came home to be with us and she will drive back up on her own on the 17th to do her last exam before her official x-mass break. It's good to have her home. :-)

So today I debating whether to do any training, as it is my scheduled rest day? What do you think?

I think I will probably end up at the gym anyway, but maybe not! who knows? it's to early yet!...I need coffee first! then I will decide. hee hee hee.

Btw, they closed down the down town core around the fire scene for the rest of the weekend, until they clean up the rubble from the burnt building.

Barrie is on Fire!!

Late last night around 11:30pm at the five corners in the heart of mid down town Barrie, there was an explosion in the kitchen of a thai restaurant which was the main floor of this old landmark building built in the 19th century at the corner of Bayfield St. and Dunlop St.

The corner building burned to the ground overnight as firefighters battled to confine the fire, which also housed tenants up above, several other business's and upper rooming houses were destroyed in the neighbouring buildings being gutted by fire. Nobody was hurt and no casualties. When I got there this morning at 9am, the fire fighters were still dousing water over the building to contain hot spots and flair ups. this is the second major fire in the down town area this year. The other fire during the summer was across the street and down the block, and the third major fire down town was on the opposite corner here at the five points since I've lived here in Barrie over the last 15 years.

Here are some pictures I took this morning at the five points down town Barrie.

This is what I saw as I came around the corner of Dunlop St.(main street) and Toronto St. as I made my way around the block to get the shots up above.

This is a shot around the corner from the fire looking down Toronto street towards the lake with the spirit catcher in the background. also to the left of the picture on the corner is where the other major fire was over the summer.

Day's come with ups and downs

I got in my run, my foot wasn't to bad as long as I stay in my orthotics. After my weight and core work I did another straight run for 45min, this time at 6miles/hr then stepped it down to 5mi/hr for 10 min and walked out the rest, for a total of just over an 1hr on the mill.

I went down to the pool to go for my cool down fun swim and as I got to the locker room I hear a commotion, I quickly go to the showers where the commotion is and there laying on the shower floor having a heart attack is my old high school PHE teacher Bob Wilson who I have talked about before on Mile 141. He was in v-fib, (he was known to have a heart condition, at least I knew about it?) and was taking meds for his heart. At the time I got there, their were 3 lifeguards working on him including the director of pool operations who teaches the first aid and CPR classes in Barrie. They had one of those portable de-fibulator attached to him and were preforming CPR. This was the first time I have seen how those potable de-fibs work in action, very cool to see, it takes all the guess work out of resuscitation. and now I know how great they work, as in my first aid classes I've taken, we were shown how to use it without really having it on and working.

While that was going on, they didn't know who the patient was and as I got there and saw it was my friend/ teacher Bob Wilson, I immediately told one of the lifeguards standing by taking down information it was Bob Wilson. I also told the lifeguard his wife is in the other change room and that Bob had a heart condition and was taking meds for it.

While in v-fib one guy was doing the Cpr on Bob, the other guy gave mouth to mouth when needed, all the while the de-fib machine takes the vitals telling each person to go on or stop, Bob was still breathing on his own off and on at times but unconscious, After about 5-8 min of working on him and zapping him a couple of times to get his heart back in rhythm they finally got a reactive pulse with him breathing on his own but still unconscious. The paramedics arrives just as they got Bobs vitals and the paramedics took over to take him to the hospital.

I then went out with the lifeguard who earlier got hold of Mrs Wilson to talk to her,( who I also knew, as she was a PHE teacher at my wife's high school to, it's a small world and have been friends with.) The first thing she asked me was? was bob gone? I calmed her down and told her everything is under control, that they got his vitals back and has a pulse and the paramedics are here taking care of him, getting him ready to go to the hospital. She asked me if I knew his locker as she needs his wallet and car keys. I told her I knew where his locker was and I need to find his key. At that time I went back to check how Bob was doing in the showers and to look for his locker key which were in swim pants hanging on a hook. I took all his clothing and stuff and packed it into his sport bag along with his coat which had his wallet and key in and gave it to Mrs Wilson's Daughter who was outside the locker waiting.

I think and hope Bob will make it, things look promising as the lifeguards got to him fast and the fact that our Rec Center has those portable de-fib machines may have saved his life today!!.... I also have to commend the efforts of the lifeguards today in doing a great job in Reviving Bob. Well done!.

I'm going to Disney World

Yes, it's true! I just signed up for the Disney 70.3 race last night and I'm going to Disney world!!

As luck will have it I got a call from my good friend and new sponsor( who wishes to remain anonymous) last night who said, "Joe your going to enter the Disney 70.3 race before it closes out"..... hee hee hee.....who would of thunk it, me getting a sponsor to enter the race with a place to stay, it couldn't have come at a better time!

I was thinking of doing "The Gulf coast tri" In Panama City Beach in May, as it is cheap to enter with cheap hotel rates for an early 1/2 Ironman in the spring to get me ready for IMLP in July, GCT doesn't close out fast, so I was waiting to enter in the new year if I could afford to.

I would have liked to enter and do The "Disney 70.3" race, as a lot of my mile 141 friends are entered, but it is more expensive to enter and to go down for because of high cost of hotels being at Walt Disney world and it is destined to have entrees close out in the next few days, and I don't have the cash or plastic right now to enter, so it was out of the question.

But here you have it! I'm in for the big Disney race and all I have to worry about is driving down. I'm so excited!! It's going to be so cool because all of my friends from mile 141 (Including my good friend and sponsor) are doing the race to, and I'll be able to meet up with them in May.

The only down side is "IF" I'm able to race because of my foot? my friend said no worries, just come down and have a good time, if you have to walk out the race, WALK. If you can't do the race, it's all good. ....What a good friend!!

My daughter Victoria is also excited because she has always wanted to go to Disney (what kid doesn't) and she asked if she could come along? I said sure! save your money because it will be expensive to see Mickey! She said how much? I said at least $300 She said no problem!( she has a part time job and makes/has more money then me) Then she asked can I bring a friend? I said, we will see. :-)

Ok, all that's left is my left foot? COME ON FOOT, HEAL SO I CAN RACE!!...


Werrrrrre off to see the Wizar........ Opps! wrong song.


How does that Disney song go?.... :-)


Ok, time to check my lottery tickets! Then off to the gym to see if I can do some running.

Whats Cooking

Another bright and sunny day here today with the snow making machine well to the west of us today. We got lucky last night and didn't get the squalls called for as the wind Gods had them going straight off of Georgian Bay, with the edge of the streamer skimming the outer edge of Barrie, it is very ominous seeing the big grayish black clouds stretching North and South across the sky in the horizon, knowing that if the wind changes a bit to the east we could be getting the dumping of snow. But it didn't happen, so I'm happy!

This morning was very cold brrrrr, I had to get another bucket of warm water to pour over my windshield to defrost it before I could leave to go to the pool for my swim.

At the pool I swam a 1000m straight set, then did 10x100's on 1:35 with the first 25 of the 100 doing breast and the next 75 hard straight with 15 sec between set. total swim, another 2000m in the bank.

When I got home I had more coffee and made my breakfast, then started to bake up a batch of my world famous Chocolate Orange, chocolate, chocolate chip cookies. Yum! I had a container of my cookie dough in the fridge that I made a couple of weeks ago that I forgot about, so seemed like a good thing to do. Last night I spent time making one of my own formula power bars which make for a great snack or breakfast or for training. Yesterdays batch was a mix of oatmeal, bran flakes, raisins, almonds, cranberries and a few other things cooked up over the stove. again Yum!

Since my run yesterday my foot has been hurting, I can't put any pressure on my foot walking bare foot. I'm ok while in my shoes with the orthotics but still have pain. I might have to ease up on my running this week, and maybe not run at all. I will see how it feels tomorrow before my scheduled run.

Boy am I tired and sore.

Well the snow squalls have stopped for the moment, and the sun is out, but don't fret! we are expecting another 10-30 cm from squall action later tonight. I had to dig a doggy path to Ambers Dog house after I finished shoveling the front drive.

First thing I did this morning when I got up was have my morning coffee, then I had to head out and shovel the end of the driveway, because the plow came by while I was having my coffee this morning. Uuughh!!

Yesterday I shoveled my driveway 4 times, and my back and foot is aching! My back from all the snow shoveling and throwing, and my foot from standing in my boots while shoveling without my othotic insert. You see, I can't stand or walk any distance without my orthotic on now, I can barely walk bare footed anymore. I have my orthotics in my running shoes because I have to wear them all the time now, indoors and out as part of my recovery that my surgeon prescribed, but I didn't want to take them out of my shoes to put in my boots to shovel as I only have the one pair, and I'm to lazy to make the effort to take them out of my shoes to put in my boot only to put them back in my shoe after. So i had to suffer a bit to shovel and I'm paying for it now.

I went to the gym after I finished shoveling and did some weights before my scheduled run, not that I had to after all the lifting and throwing of all that snow I did! but I did anyway. I always start with my sit ups before moving on to the weight machines to work on my discipline specific muscle groups, as well as throwing in some extra bench pressing to pump up the arms a bit for the Lady's. [wink] [wink] hee hee...

I then went on the treadmill and did a steady LSD run ( for me) at 5.5miles/hr for 45min and walked out the last 15min climbing at an incline of 2 at 4miles/hr. For a total of 1 hr running today.

Boy am I tired and sore. But another good day and run in the bank.

Now it's time to fire up the BBQ and throw some Penguin steak on the grill for a good protein dinner to fuel up for the next snowfall so I'll have some energy to shovel.

Snow Squalls in Barrie, You got to love it...NOT!

This morning after yesterdays storm dumping a ton of snow on us, then changing over in the evening to rain for a few hour, then back to snow as the temp dropped back down below freezing.


My dog Amber was having a tough time getting through the snow in the back yard to go potty.






Now We are getting hit with snow squalls which is forecast to dump up to 2feet of snow over the next day and a half.

<--this is what it looks like now.

It was crazy getting out to my car this morning to go for my swim. There was like a inch thick of ice over the car, so I started up my car to warm up, and I went back in the house to get a bucket of hot water to pour over the windshield to melt the ice. I ended up going back and forth about 6 times to refill the bucket with hot water to melt off all the ice before I could get going to the pool.

I finally got to the pool and did my 2000m swim, actually 2100m, I felt a little stiff and tired at the start, but after a few lenghts I loosened up. It was another good swim in the bank.

Now I have to do some shoveling to rid some of the snow off the driveway before it gets to deep... day's like today, it is common to shovel the drive 2 and 3 times in a day during the winter months when we get snow squalls, but not so early in the season!....

I HATE SNOW SQUALLS.....AND I HATE SNOW!!!....... Unless I'm skiing on the ski hills! :-)
<--4 foot high banks and it's only Dec 3. [[GAK!]]

Probably by tomorrow it will be up to my head high. Ughhh!

My Nov training totals

Here is my condensed Nov training log.

If you notice my emphasis was on swimming and moderate running. My plan is to change my running from mileage to time for Dec based on my schedule I have posted on the side of my blog. I will still record my run distances in my log, but they will be irrelevant in the next months run training as time running will be my focus for some good base. As you can see I drifted from my biking, but I will get on track with that in Dec and will have a more rounded and steady workload for all three disciplines. My swim challenge is on again for Dec so my goal will again be 24km for the month and more if I can.