HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 24,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Good morning….I hope, as it’s back to work again after a second straight long weekend. I wish I had 2-3 day weekends all the time Yesterday I just rested up as I have a cold and my heel was just a bit off. I think I’ll be able to run Tuesday as long as my cold isn’t any worse. OK enough with the boring stuff, eh?!

Last Thursday I was on twitter when I found out about the Sears Great Canadian Chill. Most people would probably know it better as a “polar bear plunge/dip”. I hummed and hawed about trying it for 2 days straight. I tried to get someone to join me but alas everyone was chicken So it’s 11:30am on New Years Day and I’m thinking it’s supposed to be pretty nice out. I check my iPhone and it says 5C/41F. That in the end was the difference maker. I figured if I’m going to ever try this craziness I’d better do it while the weather was abnormally warm for the middle of winter!

As I was scrambling to grab everything I’d need my brother phoned to see when I was going to our parents for dinner. I told him after I was finished in the city. When I told him what I was doing he decided to come watch. I was glad too as then I’d have a witness in case no one believed I went through with it I got there with plenty of time to spare and registered. Even though it was free to try I donated $20 as the money being raised was going to “directed by Sears Charitable Foundation to the 16 Canadian pediatric oncology centers to help children and their families cope with this devastating disease and find a cure.” If I had known about this event sooner I would have tried to raise some money but maybe next year?!

After I was registered and had brought my stuff to the heated tent to change into afterwards it was time to play the waiting game. They had a costume contest and money-raising contest which they announced before we jumped along with the obligatory speeches from all involved. They asked everyone how far they were going to go in the water and there were surprisingly few, less than a 3rd of the crowd, who said they were going fully under. I decided before I got there I wanted to try to stay in for 5 minutes but found out they wouldn’t let us even though the website says you can. So I went with plan B which was to grab a souvenir from the river bottom…a “sand grabber” I was informed.

Probably the coldest I was the whole time I was there was when I stripped to my swimsuit and had to stand in a light rain for 5-10 minutes. I don’t know if it was the nice temp. outside, the extra fat I’ve put on the last 3 months or the fact I had my plan to grab sand from the bottom but I don’t remember being that cold in the water for more than a second or two. Don’t get me wrong it WAS cold but not as bad as I had imagined. I was successful in grabbing two fistfuls of sand in chest deep water but lost one when I realized I needed one hand to pull myself out.

After I got out I talked with my brother, his fiancee and their daughter for a few minutes while grabbing my clothes and eyeglasses off him. Then they were off to my parents for New Years dinner. I was going too but needed to warm up a bit and get into dry clothes so no point in them waiting. As I was drinking hot chocolate and eating a muffin while standing directly in front of a heater I’m suddenly like “F _ _ _!” I realized I forgot to get my keys before my brother left and of course he doesn’t have a cell phone! After calling my other brother to confirm the cell phone fact he said he’d lend me a vehicle so I calmed down and went and got dressed.

As I was walking to my van I was hoping my brother had found the keys and had brought them back and was waiting for me. Wouldn’t you know it as I could first see my van I saw him getting out of his car right behind it. Turns out he had just got there. He said he only found them because the Tim Horton’s he was at didn’t take gift cards. When he reached in his other pocket for cash is when he realized he had my keys! So thankfully my day wasn’t any longer than it had to be.

So that’s it. That’s my New Years Day adventure. I don’t think I’ve ever thought of trying the polar bear plunge when I’ve seen it on TV newscasts in the past but you know what? I think I’m going to have to do it again next year. I need to see how much worse/better it is when it’s freezing out. I was told afterwards Saturday that it’s better when it’s colder….we’ll see…maybe To end here’s a few pics from the day.

Good morning! Everyone recovered from New Year’s festivities? My celebrating was pretty low key as usual. It was a little different this year though as I was running a 10k race New Year’s Eve followed by a poker game. I did something kind of crazy yesterday as well but I’ll leave that for my next post.

As I mentioned in my last post I haven’t been running for 3.5 weeks. Heading into Friday’s race I had gone 4 straight days with no heel pain and feeling good about my chances of coming out of this without the heel flaring up again. So I was a pretty worried when half-way from where I parked to the starting line my heel started bothering me. Not just a little but a fair bit. I now know what I’m doing with the gift certificates I got for my birthday and Christmas. I’m buying new shoes as the ones I was wearing felt like there was no cushioning left in them.

The race itself went fairly well considering said lack of running. The first mile I probably went out a bit too fast but since it was only a 10k I wasn’t too worried. I just wanted to get an idea of how much my running deteriorated between the lack of running and added weight. The first mile I ran in about 9.5 minutes so I was pretty happy even though I knew I’d pay for it later in the race Shortly after that I came across a friend who was running it as well. We ended up running together for most of the next 4 miles. We were at different times running anywhere from a 10:00-11:00/mile pace. With about 1 mile or so to go I lost my friend and was on my own again. After I finished I walked back out and ran the rest of the way in with my friend.

I was kind of hoping to break 1 hour but knew 1/2 way through it was unlikely. In the end I had to settle for finishing in 1:06:30 for a 10:43/mile pace(6:38/km). Great thing about the race was that my heel held up well during the race and afterwards hurt me just a little bit. Now I’m trying to decide to rest it one more week or not. The next race isn’t till the 16th and it’s another 10k so something I can obviously do w/o much training.

Ok that’s it for now. One race down and 39 more to go. Piece of cake!

Finally after 3.5 weeks my heel is pain free! It’s been that way for three straight days now. I wanted to run this week but decided after taking 3+ weeks off and putting some weight on it wouldn’t make much of a difference for tonight’s run. I wasn’t going to set a personal best either way so figured it was best to rest the heel. I’m really hoping it’s healed for good and that this first race doesn’t re injure it! If it does it’s only a 10k so it won’t do much damage I’ll let you know how it goes in my next post.

Happy New Year everyone!

For those of you who don’t know, as I was cryptic in a previous post, I do have the new blog up and running. I wasn’t ever able to get permission to use the name Strideaman(never got a response one way or another) so I had to think up something different. I ended up deciding on “Racing to 40…and beyond”. I think it works well as I’ll be racing to my 40th birthday and racing to complete 40 races at the same time. Last night I posted my schedule of races I have lined up so far. So if you’re interested you can check it out here: www.racingto40.com

Ok sorry to rush off but I have to go. Have a good night!

My first race is just a 10k a week later so I’m not worried about starting again with so little time. Of course my race time will be slower than it could have been but it was going to be slower anyways with my weight gain! No matter how that first run goes Friday I will be heading back to skating and badminton. I’ve been restless and haven’t been able to get into other forms of exercise yet.

To end I’m glad you all thought the new blog looked good! I have another post up on it but it’s just about not getting my intended post up I’m hoping tomorrow night to have a post about my race schedule up.

The van you see in the other pics is what I bought about 3 weeks ago. It’s a 1999 Dodge Ram 3500 1 ton. It was a little more than I wanted to blow on a new vehicle but it seemed to make sense. It only had 80k km/50k miles on it and other than a bent in front bumper it was in really good shape. Being a 1 ton it can also handle all the product I’ll ever need to carry in it. The van came with some equipment I didn’t need like the ladder rack and beacon light you see in the pic along with shelves for inside and a directional light on the back. I’m hoping to sell these items after Christmas to bring the cost of the van down. The biggest expense so far was patching the hole where the generator use to be. I had to pull the box it was housed in out in order to get my product in the van which left the hole.

So far it seems like the van was worth the money. All except for the gas mileage! It’s a bit cheaper than my work truck but not much and that’s with me obeying the speed limits! I just keep reminding myself I have a safe, reliable vehicle for my smaller delivery days and I’m prolonging the life of my work truck. I have a feeling I’ll be walking more when I don’t need to drive

This purchase may not have happened so soon if it wasn’t for everyone who helped me win the Bigstridea contest. So again I’d like to thank you all for your help. I’ll be thinking of you all when I’m driving The rest of the money has or will be put towards my races and the new blog for it. I’m hoping to finally tell you about it tomorrow. Till tomorrow then!

When I started my weight loss and this blog I had some challenges I put in writing. Hence the name of the blog Well I guess I forgot a few of them the last few months. One of them was not to eat out and another was to start a savings fund. These two challenges just came screaming into my mind this past week. After finally pulling the trigger on a new vehicle and business really slowing down I’m really noticing how much money I’m blowing on my unhealthy eating! So starting tomorrow I start eating healthy again. Because I couldn’t yesterday or the day before or the…..

The exercise front for the most part has been decent. A missed run here or there due to the weather. I hadn’t missed my badminton Tuesday nights till tonight. And the ice skating has been going well except for one night. I figured out I must have had my skates tied to tight and the next day I couldn’t even stand in my skates w/o my ankle hurting. So overall pretty good till last week.

Since I don’t know when, I’ve had a nagging left heel injury. Usually it’s just the day of my runs. Sometimes it would linger to the next day. Nothing I couldn’t handle. I thought after my marathon it was clearing up as I ran 26.2 miles and didn’t have any heel problems that day or the next. Guess that was just an anomaly. So anyways like I said no big deal till last week. Last week my heel started hurting me during my workday. I hadn’t run in three days and it hadn’t hurt in that time.
However during my day it started hurting me. I’m leaning towards it being my new winter boots and/or them being tied too tightly but I decided I needed to take some time off running.

The first race in my “40 races before 40″ is December 31st so I figured I better take a break sooner than later. Today marks the start of the second week of my self-imposed time-out. My heel has been feeling better. Today was the second day wearing the new boots and it went better. I tied them looser and I was only in them for about 3 hours while shoveling my driveway and doing some errands. Towards the end of my time in them the heel was bothering me just a bit but nowhere close to what it has in the past. I’m thinking now how tight I tie up my shoes,boots and skates has a bit to do with my heel problem. The reduced circulation hasn’t been helping I guess?! I’m sure it’s not the only or main reason but I’m making sure not to over tighten my footwear.

So one more week at least not running and maybe not skating or playing badminton. Luckily that first race is just a 10k so I’m not worried even if I end up not running till the day of the race. I really hope I don’t need a third week but it’s going to be a busy 2011 so I’m prepared to take it if necessary.

I think that’s enough for now. I need to save some material for my next post. Hopefully tomorrow night. Hopefully….I mean you know my track record lately!

start of the race

Hello everyone! Finally I have a chance to blog again. I’ve had my house torn apart since Saturday. It’s actually still messier than normal but not as bad. This afternoon I got to the point where I could set my computer up again and get back on the internet. The reason for the mess and yet another absence is I bought myself a new TV. This is the biggest total splurge since my BigStridea win. I have bought new skates and a used mountain bike but these were for exercise purposes more than just outright enjoyment. I did set my road bike up on the trainer right in front of the TV so I guess as long as I use it the TV won’t be for total enjoyment

I had to tear my place apart because I bought a 46″ which didn’t fit too well in my bedroom. So I’ve moved it and the computer into the living room. So the living room is a living room again and not a poker room I’ve held one poker game in the last 3 years so it was time. One of the benefits of this arrangements is I’ll get more sleep. With the tv in the bedroom most nights I would be up till 2am. With the alarm set for 6:25am everyday I don’t get as much sleep as I should. The latest I’ve been up since the new set up has been 12:30am so already I’m picking up an extra 1.5hrs sleep. I think it helps the only chair I have in the living room so far is uncomfortable if I sit in one position too long. It’s good incentive not to push the TV watching and risk falling asleep in it.

MY 1ST DNF:
So this past Sunday I raced my second ever cyclo-cross race. The main reason was because it was right in my own hometown. The secondary reason was more race experience for next year. It was 1.3 miles from home so I biked to the race. To be honest it was almost my 1st DNS (did not start) as I woke late and it was freezing outside. I manned up though and biked to the race. Since I was running late I picked up my bib# first and then proceeded to practice on the course.

I found this course easier than the first race I did. I’m thinking maybe just because I had done one before and didn’t faze me as much? Don’t get me wrong it was challenging and tiring but at the same time easier. Once the race started it was a little harder as a race always brings a higher intensity than a practice run. On the first lap the biggest problem I had was from a racer who couldn’t ride a section of tight turns on a hill. The racer “stalled” out on the turn and held up 4-5 of us. Since it was tight we were forced to wait till he/she got going. Some of us got by but I didn’t and I was right behind her when he/she stalled out on another tight uphill turn. I had to slam the brakes on and may have swore…not sure. He/she felt bad and just pulled over till we got by this time.

After that the ride was going pretty good when I tried to pass a young girl. When she saw me out of the corner of her eye she bolted! I yelled “I guess I’m not getting by?” She yelled back “NEVER!” I could only smile and laugh. I loved her spirit but you know this meant the game was on! About 200 yards further down the course I saw we were coming up on another young rider. I realized if I paid attention and made my move at the right time this was the time to pass her. Sure enough she didn’t move to pass her quick enough and I used that opportunity to pass her. With me coming up on the left of her and the other rider in front of her she couldn’t fight me off this time! She would get the last laugh shortly after though.

That was the last bit of fun I was to have on the course unfortunately. Shortly after that I started having problems with my bike. First my chain came off for some reason. I stopped and put it back on but then it started to stay on the front ring instead of travel back to the rear wheel and this would cause me to come to stop. I tried 5 or 6 times after that to fix it but it would come off or bind up each time. I didn’t want to quit but I realized then I wasn’t going to finish this race. I was happy the DNF was due to mechanical issues rather than an injury though. Next year I’ll need a better bike for these races as I didn’t like the DNF. I would have preferred coming in dead last than not finishing at all.