For the haters

Cribs

Here's a couple of shots of a room where I spend loads of time: the bathroom!
I thought it would be a good time to offer up a progress report on 'Operation 2009: Be less of a P*ssy'.
So far, I'm hanging in there with the daily push ups and core exercise. To round out the strength training I added this little beauty: chin up bar!



I don't know if you can tell from the pic but it's wider than the door frame so you can do wide grip pull ups as well as underhand grip chin ups. According to the packaging, you can do about 176 different exercises but to be honest there are grips in spots I can't imagine using.
As of this week, I'm doing 21 push ups, 16 v-sit ups, 6 wide grip pull ups and 6 underhand grip chin ups every day adding one to each every week. I'm the guy who started lifting the calf until he could pick up the bull!

This shot is for any spouses of endurance athletes who might be reading the blog. Yeah, it's not just their bathroom that has smelly ass clothes hanging in there all the time.


I got this idea from a friend of mine who used to write herself notes on the inside of her car window with a white board dry erase marker. I started doing the same thing on my bathroom mirror. I put in on the bathroom mirror so it's the first thing that I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night.
'No chain' is a phrase that I read in Lance Armstrong's book that he used to describe how he felt on great days on the bike. He felt like there was 'no chain' on the bike, it felt that easy. For me, the best way to feel good on the bike is to stay on the couch!



I'm also keeping track of the days that I have managed to get my push ups, sit ups and chin ups in. That's 55 hash marks. Every day in 2009. It's also the number of days since the last time I ate a piece of candy.

This last one is a reminder that I sign up for this crazy business of my own demented free will. No whining!

I'm adding inspirational/motivational/insightful quotes to the mirror as the year goes along. Any ideas?

Ride on

Another amazing weather day in Vancouver and I thought since I had some free time I would take advantage and go for a ride and enjoy some more beautiful Canadian scenery.




The snow boot, the spare car battery from Canadian Tire, the ice skate and the mitten. All iconic parts of the rugged Canadian landscape.



Took a nice little out and back route. Coming home was uphill and into the wind.


But the view made all the hard work worthwhile!

Super Sunday

Beauty shot of the Vancouver skyline looking south east from the Stanley Park seawall. I was treated to almost 2 hours of this Sunday morning.
Ran my first pseudo race of the year: the Pacific Road Runner's First Half half marathon. Our friend Stephanie was racing and convinced Jamie and her brother Jared to run. Jamie signed up and then decided she wasn't going to run so I figured that one of us should. After all, it was $55 and the race sold out in about 5 hours. So, I agreed to run and to meet Steph at the 10 mile mark and run her in the last 3 miles. I hadn't done a long run since Vegas so this was mostly for fun but I was curious to see how I felt. Here's Jared on the way down at about 6:30 AM.


The race was amazing! If you live in the Greater Vancouver area and can get in, I would recommend this race FOR SURE. A beautiful course around the sea wall and a great expo/food line afterward. This is the most surprising shot of them all: Jamie with a big smile after being woken up at 5 and dragged to a race that she wasnt running. And yes, it was a little chilly. Sunny, but cold.
Even Violet came to cheer me and Uncle on.


I took a page out of Speedo Steve's book and decided to run with a camera. Did you know that a Canon Powershot will fit in the front key pocket of your tights? Well, it will. And you'll get many odd looks when you reach in there and grab it during the race!
Not sure why I look so intense in this pic. Kinda reminds me of Zoolander, but as a runner. One pace? One pace? Really, really, ridiculously fast looking. Haha

There were only 2000 runners so it didn't take long for me to catch up with Steph. I started back in the pack so I would be sure to see her at least once before the 10 mile mark.


I also ran into Michelle, another Sugoi Brand Champion. If you enlarge the pic you can see the cool West Coast Native design on the arm warmers. Looking good Michelle.

The course was pretty much 13 miles along the water. If you've been to Vancouver, you'll know that the weather is always like this. Sunny. Always.


The run for me was actually pretty good. I started back in the pack and hit my watch to start as soon as the gun went off. It took me about 1 min to get to the line and I stopped once during the first mile to adjust my stuff. The camera and iPod, that is. Garmin said 9:30 for that first mile and I was between 7:10 and 7:20 for the next 9 miles. I felt not bad for having not really been running.

The rest of this post is bascially an ad for the 2010 Olympics. Vancouver is rad, the weather is always sunny and warm. Come and enjoy our city.

Ups and Downs

This weekend was a mix of highs and lows.
Saturday was Violet's second birthday party and we had a sugar fueled toddler rampage at our house. Jamie made sugar cookies and the kids all decorated them while the parents tried to keep tiny hands out of giant tubs of icing. So much fun. Pictures are on Violet's blog.
Sunday was 6 months since Oliver was born and we stopped by the cemetery to see him in the morning. It's a difficult thing to hear your child say hello to her brother through a grave stone.
Today was a beautiful Vancouver day with typical flaky West Coast weather. It was hailing at the Y when Violet and I finished swimming and by the time we drove the 15 minutes to the beach it was almost too warm for my hoodie. Spent the rest of the morning throwing rocks into the ocean and saying hello to seagulls. Violet leaned the new word 'creatures' to describe what you find when you turn over a rock at the shoreline.
The most important part of training is the recovery so now we're both off for a nap!