Tagged by Keith

Yesterday was possession day of our house in Calgary so workouts were pushed aside in lieu of that. Everything went smoothly...both Melinda and I were commenting how well things went here vs Nova Scotia. We both agreed, it is worth it to spend the money to hire a really good Realtor...Kim, our Realtor here in Calgary, is a Rock-Star!

We both love, love, LOVE the house and the location. It backs onto a ravine with a paved walking trail which will get a lot of use I am sure. Jessie has a couple of four-legged friends on one side of us - Shelties! One of them can leap the height of the fence...J is not too sure about that which is funny to watch her reaction...too cute.

New location means new bus route - to get to work I have to catch 3 buses to travel 15.5km to work. It takes approximately 90 minutes...W-T-F! I vaguely remember checking this out before we bought the home but shrugged it off as I thought there would be a way around it. Regardless, the house and location have too many positives to have not purchased it because of the bus route. As soon as my stuff arrives next week I'll be able to cut that time in half by riding my mountain bike to/from work. There...turning a negative into a positive.

In the meantime I am going to call Calgary Transit and my community association to communicate my displeasure surrounding the bus routes in the area and also ask them what are they currently doing about it. I highly doubt anything will change immediately but if you don't bring it up then you are not doing your part.

This morning I got up at 5:15am to catch the first of three buses at 5:37am. Got to the pool by 7:05am. The pool I swim at is never busy so I generally recognize everyone there...especially now that classes are over for the summer. Anyways there was some new faces there this AM...looking lean, mean, and fit! A couple of them were sporting IMC gear and Las Vegas Marathon gear bags.

I pulled up into the lane next to them and jumped in for a warm up. The one guy passed me like I was standing still. I have never been dropped that fast since the time in grade 4 when Tina Cassell kicked me in the nuts. We were arguing over something stupid...like who was the better singer or something. She went on to release a cd just recently...and me...well...I am never allowed to sing during RockBand nor will any of my friends take me out for Karaoke with them...

So, anyways, back to the swim this morning...this guy was super fast and had skulls (or something similar) on his swim cap. That just added to his façade of being a god like swimmer. At one point we were on the wall together and he asked me if the pool was measured in metres or yards? I told him it was metres...then thought to myself "I hope I am right"...lol...I have never really checked before.

After that it was down to business of cranking out some fast 200m and 50m sets. It was good having someone faster than me as it provided the motivation to take you beyond your normal threshold. Workout was follows:

- 400m w/u
- 300m drill
- 6x 200m controlled sprints on 45 seconds rest
- 4x 50 balls-to-the-wall sprints on 20 seconds rest
- 150m kick w/ flutter board
- 150m paddles/pull buoy
- 400m cool down.

I was tagged by my buddy Keith

1. What are your current obsessions?
Working out and being healthy is pretty much a standard. With a new house, we have a ton of fun projects we want to tackle. With work, I am researching improvements to the Google Maps API so I can apply them to the campus Google map I'll be updating shortly.

2. Which item from your closet are you wearing most often?
T-shirts.

3. Last thing you bought for yourself?
Endurox R4 - this stuff is really good for recovery after long workouts or extremely hard efforts.

4. What’s for dinner?
We are going to have some fresh pasta with a creamy white garlic sauce and red wine. Dessert will be tiramisu.

5. Say something to the person who tagged you:
Keith and I share similar backgrounds and interests. I enjoy reading his blog because he blogs well and approaches everything in a down-to-earth manner...I appreciate people who can do that.

6. What is your motivation for continuing to work out? No, your REAL motivation.
I have a problem sitting still - yes that is odd from someone with a desk job but it's true! That and I would really like to participate in the Hawaii Ironman World Championships some day...

7. Vacation spots you must visit before you die?
Italy, parts of South America, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, and course back to
Greece!

8. What is your most immediate short term goal:
Enjoying some reno projects with Melinda in our new digs.

9. What are you reading right now?
Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax...I need to start reading some non-technical stuff...I can't even remember the last novel I have ever read.

10. What is the last movie you saw and enjoyed?
Transformers.

11. What’s your guilty pleasure?
I go through phases with this...currently two things are on the list...Big Rocks Traditional Ale in a nice tall beer glass and plain, salty ruffled chips.

12. What’s your favorite smell?
That damp smell you get in the fall when running on the trails through the woods.

13. Whats something you look forward to?
Seeing my wife and our dog at the end of a work day.

14. Favorite Quote?
"pain is liberating, pain is freedom"
My friend Troy once told me that and it has stuck with me every since.

15. Whats one thing you can't go a day with out doing?
Exercising...on days that I don't have an opportunity to do something active I'm like a big ole grumpy bear.

16. What do you have an addiction to?
see 15.

17. Whats your favorite holiday?
Christmas

18. How many pairs of shoes (not just running) do you have??
2

19. Tell us one random thing about you.
I grew up in a remote, northern town in Labrador.

20. Why did you start your blog?
Originally I wrote my own blogging software to learn PHP and MySQL. From there it became a medium for me to share with friends and family with what I am up to.

21. If you had to recommend just ONE place that everyone should visit in their lifetime, where would it be?
The Acropolis of Athens, Greece. Words cannot describe the feeling the first time you see this in person. You need a full day to explore it and surrounding ruins. At night, there is a nice restaurant just below it where you can sit out in the open air and admire it at night as it is all lit up.

Tag three more:
Darryl
Megan
Leslie