Rest and X-Mas Trek

Ahhh! ......Saturday, rest day! ..NO Training!! Yippy!! ...... :-)

It's my anniversary today. Joanne and I were married 28 years ago today. It was a bright sunny warm day in Toronto, the temperature was a balmy 50F for our wedding, with a snow storm brewing for the next day.

Today 28 years later it is freezing cold, with the temp this morning at 8F -16c with a snow storm brewing for tomorrow....coincidence???

I left a bouquet of flowers in a vase and placed them on the kitchen table with a card for Joanne this morning. We both decided no presents for each other, but I bought her flowers anyways. Joanne said I'll get my present later tonight. Hmmm? I wonder what that could be? :-)

We then got ourselves ready for our trek to the tree farm to cut our own X-Mas tree.

My daughters Melissa and Victoria came along with us, my son didn't want to come this time.

We were meeting up with our friends Steve and Denice at there place. Every year we get together with them for this outing as a tradition. (they are from St Vincent in the Caribbean, and moved up here 13 years ago) We became quick friends with them when they moved up to Barrie, as a result of Victoria and there daughter Krissy connecting and becoming best friends.

Anyways we got to the farm and it was Freezing out!! .....It's one of the coldest days we have gone out for our tree over the years, Brrrrrrrr.

We all decide to make this a quick tree cutting trip and get back home as fast as we could.

Here are some pictures of our day.

The perfect tree.....

Have you hugged a tree lately?

Timber!!!!

Trimming off the excess....

Victoria got pushed down.....

Dragging the tree back.....

Getting the tree wrapped in the twiney machiney thingy...

Heading back to the car.

Some shots from inside the X-Mass Store....

Joanne wanted to buy this Angle, but for $70 buck??? I don't think so.

Some of the X-Mas trinkets they were selling

Feeling strong.

Today's swim was strong. I put in a straight 2000m freestyle swim, I didn't check the time but it was solid. When I came up for air, one of the other swimmers in the other lane said to me, " your swimming is improving" I said thanks! it's feeling strong!

I have to agree with the other swimmer! all the time I have been putting in, my swimming is getting better!! the key here is? Better!! ......My stroke is good , my form is good, and it's getting easier!....and in time as I lose more weight I will get even faster!!

Then I did some 100's mixing up 2 x 100 leg kicks, 2 x100 breast, and 6 x 100 freestyle using the pull buoy.

Total swim today!.... "3000m " ....the most I've done to date.

Tonight 30min on the bike. ............Right now I'm baking a cake for tomorrow, a rainbow bits cake with cherry, raspberry, blueberry jam center, iced with french vanilla & rainbow bits icing.

Tomorrow will be my wife's and my 28th wedding anniversary........... Good thing it's my rest day! ......I'll need some extra energy tomorrow night, if you know what I mean! [wink] [ wink]


[GAK!].....28 years?!?!!!!......hard to believe? ...... specially when I'm only 29?? hee hee hee.

Second day Cut short, and feeling light headed

NO, my training wasn't cut short!? I went for a hair cut and lost about 5lbs. I was getting tired of long hair, and it kept getting in my way while I swim. (No I don't use a swim cap while I swim, it squeezes my head to much! and I don't like the squeezed head feeling!! ) ... I couldn't believe the amount of hair that was cut off? It had to be at least 4 inches off the top, and the back was so long it looked like I was sporting a red neck mullet!! Not that there is anything wrong with a red neck mullet? But I don't want to look like no red neck with a mullet!! just saying? :) ....

Now it's nice and short, a great wash and wear look! a real babe magnet look! GQ like! So now I have to wear a hat so I don't get attacked!! HA! as if?

After I got the hair cut, I went to the gym for my run. The first thing one of the older regular guys says to me? ..."i didn't recognize you ? you got your hair cut!" ..... Well duh! if you didn't recognize me? how did you know it was me? hee hee hee...

I signed up my mill and started my weights and core work for the next 15 min. Today I ran what I call one and ones, you probably know them better as 9 and 1's where you run 9 min and walk 1 min? Well I like to have round numbers so I run to the 1 mile mark and walk 1 min, which basically works out to the same but with my OCD if I'm not at the mile mark I have to keep going, so instead of 9 and 1's, it 1 and 1's. Its just me? hee hee.

That went well, except my foot and knees were killing me today, I forgot to take some pain meds before I went out today. So I toughed through it anyways. Another hour running in the bank!

I did my stretching after my run, then went down to the pool. Guess what the first thing the life guard said???....yep! .."Ha ha! you got your ears lowered!! " So much for the babe magnet GQ look??? ... Grrrrr, so juvenile!!!....something like I would have said?!? hee hee... Doh! .....

I swum my 500m and called it a day. :)

Swim Cut Short OR Maybe I'll Teach?

This morning I was all ready and eager to get in a solid + 2000m swim.

I get to the pool, chat up the women lifeguards as usual before jumping in the water starting out on my swim. Today I thought I would do a straight 1000m free at race pace to see what kind of time I can pull off. So off I go, but not without the challenge of yet another session of water aerobics white water chop! and also having 3 other slower women in my lane that I had to lap every other length, but they were cool about it by stopping to let me by.

I finish my 1000m in a decent time that I'm happy with at this point in my training. It wasn't fast but not to slow either. What was it you ask? Well don't forget I'm still carrying a ton of weight but I did it in BLBLBLBLB min!.... hee hee hee! ...Ok! it was 17 and change min.

As I stopped at the wall the life guard was standing in front of me and says to me; "you know you only can swim until 10am this morning? there is a high school swim meet in the pool today" ...It was 9:50am at the time. So I say oh! ok, no problem.
So my swim was cut short!!

So I start chatted to the lifeguard, and asked when the new pool opens? so I can start doing some diving on the new boards! ( I miss diving and can't wait to get back into it!) It's been over 15 years since I've been on a board, although I'm not sure if I'll be able to dive normally anyways because of my foot? but I will give it a try!

As I said it's been 15 years without diving, but over those 15 years I still did a lot of trampoline! I have one in my yard that I have been bouncing and doing my flips and tricks on forever I even taught my kids some of the basics, but they never realy had the interest that I had with it. I have had a trampoline since I bought my first one when I was 16 when I got serious about my diving.

When I moved up here in Barrie 15 years ago I was hoping to continue my diving club and instruction up here but there were no diving boards around and the closest pool was to far to drive to, so I stopped diving and teaching. But since I had a trampoline I kept up a little with that over the years. It's like riding a bike when I jump on it. I still can do most of my flips and twists, but over the years and with the extra weight I carry, it is a little more difficult. hee hee ...huh!?...

Now Barrie has built it's third Rec center for the city and this time they put in a one meter and a three meter board. woo hoo! ( the last rec center? the pool I swim in now, was suppose to have boards put in, but was canceled at the last min because of cost cuts)...

As I said I'm excited about it, but I also learned that they won't be allowing the general public to use the 3 m board during public swims, only during diving lessons that the city will run.... Well as far as I know they don't have any instructors to teach diving in Barrie? let alone 3m diving?.....

This is where i come in! I have been thinking of resuming my diving instruction career. I do have the connections and know who to contact, but I'm not so sure on the time? ( I work evening shift and most programs are in the evenings ) And if I do start teaching again I will also want to start up a Diving club too! So if I can work out a deal with the city for pool time for a club, I would be willing to teach and run their dive program maybe on the weekends.

Sounds like a plan. But what about Triathlon?

I think there will always be tri's in my future? But all I can say at the moment is; I'm doing the best I can to train for my up coming races including IMLP/08, But! if my foot doesn't get better?!?!? It's good to know there might be something of interest for me to fall back into. ..... Hmmmmm???? :)

It's in the stars! With more star gazing!!

After yesterday's encounter with my comet, I read about this?.

Best Meteor Shower of 2007 Peaks Dec. 13

"What could be the best meteor display of the year will reach its peak on the night of Dec.13-14"
"The Geminid Meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20071207/sc_space/bestmeteorshowerof2007peaksdec13


My Run and swim today;

I ran and swam. hee hee hee, I'm a funny guy!

Today I did running hill repeats. Yes! it can be done on the treadmill very easily. and it really builds the endurance by getting the old heart rate up into the red zone.

I started out with a steady 5.5mi/hr run for the first 30 min,, a nice easy pace for me with my heart rate around 140- 145bpm. I then brought the speed down to my 3.5mi/hr (walking speed for a me) then set the incline up to 3.0 . then I would walk 1 min on the incline then hit the interval button to bring me up to 5.5mi/hr and I would run on that incline for 2 min and then back to walking at 3.5 for 1 min. I did this for the next 30 min.
For a total run of 1hr on the mill.

This being the first time doing hill repeats since starting up my training? I didn't want to push it to hard, so I am starting at a easy uphill of 3.0 for the next little while before increasing the incline to a higher level, keeping in mind I will keep my speed at 5.5mi/hr as my max run speed doing hills in the future. ( no need to kill myself, I'm not working out to do the Olympics? I'm just training for a decent time at Ironman at Lake Placid. )

Then as usual I went down to the pool for a easy 500m cool down and fun swim.

I didn't do weight today.

That's it for today! Time to make dinner.......

Don't forget to look up!.....look waaaay up! and you might see some shooting stars!.......and don't forget to make a wish on it!. :-)

Seeing Stars

I just spotted a comet!! .... I was sitting in my hot tub on this cold crisp night watching tv, with no wind and the steam rising straight up off the tub, I look up to the clear night sky during a commercial break on the tv gazing up at the stars.

As I looked up, I spot this cluster of brightness right above me. (My eyes being as bad as they are) I try focusing in to see what it is? but I can't, so I knock on the living room window above and behind me to get my wife's attention. She comes to the window and asks; "What do you want" ...I say; " pass me the binoculars through the widow" but the window screen won't slide over because it's frozen in, so she brings them around to the back door for me.

I quickly grab them soaking wet with my feet freezing to the ice on the ground and jump back into the hot tub.

I then focus in on the cluster of brightness and what do I see?? It's a frigging comet!! I think??

I heard a few weeks ago about some anomaly in the sky that was visible to the naked eye, but for got about it. Does it ever look cool!!

I tell my wife to come out an see!! she looks and says cool!! but as she was passing the binoculars to my daughter to look a shooting start comes zipping across the sky right at the bright blob cluster hitting the heart of it like a bulls eye before fading off. Again cool!! I'm not making this up!

If you look up into the clear sky facing west look up to 11 o'clock ( 7;30 - 8pm my time tomorrow or later tonight it will be farther down the horizon ) it looks like a blob of brightness. If you have binoculars or better yet telescope check it out.:D

Since I'm the first to see it in the night sky I get to name it right!!

I think I'll call it? .... Josef's comet!! hee hee hee!

Dang ! ! just found out someone saw it before me it's call the 17/P holmes... Geeez!

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Sky%20Events%20Now.html check it out.

Ruff swim

My swim this morning was pretty ruff, the aqua fitness class was in the pool, jumping up and down making all kinds of waves.....bada baaa! arrr arrr! ....actually it was a huge class today, very few were under 300lbs..bada ba ching! arr arr! I got a million of them!! hee hee!

Seriously, there were about 45 women in the class today and really churning up the water, which is all good for them getting in there exercises, and good for me too! it simulates a real open water swim for me, kinda?

Today I just did sets of easy 100's free on 1:45's after the first 500 free warm up, I felt kinda tired today, must have been all the penguin ribs I ate last night weighing me down. :)

2000m Total swim.

Time for some Coffee.....then 30 min on the bike.

Josef Style Penguin Ribs Winter BBQ

Up in the nord country we BBQ all year round eh! Not like the sissy mans who wait for summer eh!

.....See how Nord People BBQ? No coat eh!

Yum! almost done.......

.....The final product, Makes you hungry? eh!

Come on up and get some, if you like Nord country Josef Style BBQ Penguin Ribs , eh!

Hmmm let me check...

Yep! more snow!!! Grrrrr! I hate snow!.......

I'm back from my workout and the run went well, only a little stiffness in the knees and the foot is about the same, (sore to start, numbs out and then the pain lessens )

This time I ran a solid 50min, starting a 5.5mi/hr, after 2 miles i went up to 6.5mi/hr for the next mile and then back down to 5.5 until I stopped at 50 min to walk out the last 10 min. My legs felt great, not tired, and my breathing was good. I checked my heart rate at the end of the 3rd mile after running at 6.5mi/hr and it was steady at 170bpm, then again at the 50 min mark while running at 5.5 mi/hr and it was 160bpm. Another good run in the bank!

I went down to the pool after my cool down stretching for my easy swim and put in 500m.

Now the Christmas music is blasting in the house. (Josh Groban's new X-mas CD Noel ) while my wife is doing some x-mass baking. Yep! my wife is baking?? the smoke alarm just went off, and the house is now full of smoke!! hmpf hee hee hee.

I'll be cooking up a few racks of Penguin ribs on the BBQ later for dinner........Falalalalaaaa la laa la laaaaaaa!! :)

Back to training

I took the advise of an old wise man, and didn't train yesterday being my rest day to make up for missing my Friday's scheduled day. ( the old wise man being me hee hee. :) )...that and being lazy!

Today I will pick it up, and continue on my scheduled training for Sunday's, which is a light weight and core work out, run on the mill and a fun swim. I might even throw in a 30 min bike spin.


Here is my training totals for December week one.