Spinning my wheels

My work is starting to kick into overdrive for the next several months. I have 3 key projects to be completed between January 15 - Feb 7, so I am contemplating coming into work during my Christmas break to get a handle on things. My work is really good though, so any days I work they'll give them back to me in lieu. I will probably just work the days Mel has to work.

We had our yearly departmental retreat yesterday to strategize for the upcoming year. Found out we are hiring another developer to help me out which is a huge relief! Both my manager and I have a good idea of where we want to take web development at the school and this is a step in the right direction.

Enough about my work...

Training...well, I am still cycling and focusing on building efficiency and strength. My workouts are short and sweet in nature...60 - 75 minutes.

I actually ran today for 40 minutes on the treadmill. I am wearing a tensor band under the knee cap...same thing I wore during Florida. No knee issues! The plan is to get a handful of runs in before the end of the year to get ready for a month of running in January...should be fun.

Next week I'm back in the pool and focusing on drills for the next little bit.

This weekend there are no big plans...Mel and I are walking the dogs before doing our separate workouts. She'll be doing one of her Ripped Videos by Jari Love and I'll be on my bike doing strength drills watching some PVR'd shows. After wards I believe we are having a BBQ and a few Coronas!

Saturday is our weekly cleaning day, walking the dogs, and some sort of physical activity. I need to pick up a few more things for Mel for Christmas.

Sunday I plan on riding with Katie, Keith, and Chris/Jill at the store in the morning. In the afternoon Mel and I are taking lessons at COP for classic cross country skiing! This will be Mel's first time on skis and I am hoping it goes well b/c next time I'm dragging her to Pocaterra in Kananaskis.

Enjoy the holiday treats...I know I am!!!

Cue the porno music please...

Mel and I have been doing Christmas shopping for each other over the past week. I thought there is nothing I really need as I have sexy wife, two cool dogs, have my health (knock on wood), enough training gear...I'm set. However, upon a little digging we discovered a few things I could really benefit from Mrs. Claus this year. Thermal socks for example...both Mel and I plan on doing some snowshoeing/x-country skiing this year so those would certainly be handy. Somehow I don't think my thin work socks nor training socks would cut it this year. Believe or not, when I first went out skiing last year with the gang, I wore a pair of those ankle high racing socks, covered by two pairs of argyle work socks! I forgot to pack my proper socks before leaving Nova Scotia. Needless to say, my toes were frozen by the end of the ski.

We, Mel has already boxed up the parcels and sent them off to our families out on the east coast. I'm Mel is good like that ;)

I read an interesting article by Sam McGlone last night. It was about training (surprise!), however she put it from the perspective of a dog. It touched on how training should be fun - how we should be excited to tear out the door for a ride/run or cannonball into the pool to start a swim. It was a good reminder of why most of us should be doing this...something that is sometimes lost in routine.

Training for me has been relaxing these past two weeks. No set schedule, no target heart rate, no intervals, just do what I want when I want. I have been really focusing on strength training and rebuilding muscle after putting the body to it's paces this past season. I am happy to be feeling and seeing some results of this work this past week.

Minus W-T-F

(I shamelessly stole the title for this post from my friends in Sask.)

Both Melinda and I had our EDO's on the same day this week. We took advantage of the day off to run a few errands early in the morning. In the afternoon we had ADT come by the house and install an alarm system finally. We also donated our old (but relatively new) stove/fridge to a family in need through some City of Calgary program - a couple guys came over to pick it up and drop it off.

Later that evening we headed out to the new mall north of the city to do some Xmas shopping and had dinner in the food court. Nice mall overall with some good chains. Although, there weren't as many people as we expected to be there. Before leaving, we picked up a few cupcakes from the Buttercream kiosk there. Not like we needed them but I view it has added motivation when I start training in the new year.

Today I slept in for a total of 10.5 hrs of sleep. This past week I had another bout of insomnia which left me feeling pretty sluggish & tired. I was treated to breakfast in bed by Mel which made it even harder to get up. In the early afternoon I went with Mel to the Superstore to pick up some stuff for another family in need project she is part of at work. Again, not a big crowd at the store as I had anticipated.

The bike workout I followed today was a strength building in focus:

• 20 minute warmup - Starting at 170watts and building to 205watts in smaller chain ring in the front.
• First half of the main set was 5x 5minute standing at 60 rpms (230 - 240 watts) with 2 minutes active recovery.
• Second half of main set was 8-6-4-2 minute seated at 60 rpms (235watts) in an overgear on 2 minutes active recovery
• Rest was easy spinning at 90 cadence to cool down.

Been thinking about some races to do next year and have settled on two so far....Sylvan Lake Half and Frank Dunn...yes, I am invading Sask and bringing my tent!

24 DoC

So I had my work Christmas party last Saturday night. It was an opportunity for both Mel and I to get dressed up and head out for an evening of debauchery. Well for me at least, as my lovely wife said she would be the DD. I work with a great team of people who not only work hard, but know how to have a good time! Our table had way too much wine, if such a thing exists. In the end, Mel, I, and one of my co-workers Cathryn shut'er down on Saturday...we were the last people to leave, but not before drinking as much of the wine as we could.

I got to bed around 4:30am on Sunday morning and got up about 5 hours hung-over like a dog. My head was absolutely killing me - so as soon as I could string a sentence together and dress myself it was off to Timmy Ho's for coffee and some greasy breakfast sandwiches. Best breakfast evar!

So it is now Wednesday and I still haven't caught up on my sleep. However, that has not deterred me from starting up 24 Days of Cycling. The goal here is pretty obvious...cycle every day for at least 60 minutes for the remainder of December. I have been collecting/creating a bunch of different bike workouts that I am itching to tryout so I figured I would do a bike focus period to give them a go. I have been getting up at 5:45am the past couple of mornings - wow, does that ever feel early. Anyways, things are going well and it is good to have a goal to strive towards.

Deuces!

take'r easy

I really haven't been up to much over the past week. Been to the gym a couple of times to do some strength training and that is about it. I don't have a plan for a training at the moment nor any races picked out for next year although I am keen on visiting Sask next summer and doing a race there. One of my life goals is to do a race in each province and territory in our country.

Last Sunday/Monday I made the homemade bread I was itching to make back in October. 10 loaves of the white stuff on Sunday and a smaller batch of the raisin-spice variety on Monday on my EDO. Posted a pic of my hard work on my facebook account for those of you on there.

My knee seems to be healing nicely - tempted to run on it now but are trying to hold off until at least the Christmas break. During that time I hope to get out for a few easy runs in time before my January Running Blitz! The JRB involves running every day, for at least 30 minutes, during the month of January. Nothing too extravagant but I thought I'd add a twist to kick-start training in the New Year.

Been doing a lot of reading, and re-reading, of my training magazines, articles, online sites, and books. I am looking for some new things to try out in my training routine next year...especially in the off-season. Gleemed a few items I'm keen on giving a go.

This weekend I have back-to-back Christmas parties which is going to be super fun.

Other then that, life is grand!