Lifestyle Fitness by Dean

I enjoyed this recent post from Dean's training journal (you can follow his daily routine by clicking on his link on the left hand column of this page) and thought I'd paste it here.  That's what we in the trade call "lifestyle fitness".

January 28, 2012:  Run 45 min.  Kara and I ran to the neighbours to get our daughter from a B-Day party.  So not only was it a 45 minute run we swapped pushing a double stroller with 1 kid in it going one way and 2 kids in it coming back.  Oh, and did I mention coming back it was directly into the wind.  Needless to say the next day we were a little sore.  5 x 12 walking lunges.

Oh, THAT's the problem

So, I've really been trying to concentrate on proper workout form recently, and as vain as it sounds I've been using my iPhone to capture some footage while I'm working out (seeing as I don't have a personal trainer - that's the trouble with being the personal trainer), and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why it seemed impossible to get perfectly symmetrical push-up form.  As I looked further at the footage, and kept trying to get it right, I suddenly realized that my right shoulder (to the left in the shot below) is about an inch shorter than the other one.  Not only that, but it's not aligned properly either. 

Of course this is because I broke my collarbone a few years back and the medical attention I received was, well, non-existent really, so my clavicle is snapped in the middle and overlaps quite a bit.  Once the pic below finally reminded me of this I actually felt a lot better about my form.  Still, if I stare at it for more than a few seconds I think it looks a little freakish.  Thankfully I usually wear a shirt when I go out.

'Mike G's Barn Cross - Skills Demo' Video

Here's Mike G. from the Red River Racing gang displaying ALL the right 'skills' at the Barn Cross racing event a few days ago! Definitely deserving of his own video ... a 'Skills Demo'!



On the day, Mike's main 'protagonist' turned out to be Mark 'The Hipster' R. from the Fort Garry Bike Club ... a logical 'opponent' from the Dark Side gang, who found a few ways to even the odds in his own crafty ways. But, Mike took it all in stride and continued his skills demo! Well played Mike.

MB Arrowhead Finishers!

RIGHT ON ... HAL, IAN AND DALLAS ARE DONE!!!  New personal records set.  Just Al to follow. 

Check it all out here at OCC: Finishers!

A few snagged pics:

Hal in recovery after an impressive race!

Ian at the finish - new personal best time!

Mug shot and Trophy ... off to bed? You bet!

Dallas "I could be running" Sigurdur in action!

TrainingCoop tires

I'll be posting a blurb about this bike in the coming days on the Olympia site but I had to feature if here too. Look, it has TrainingCoop tires! I think they should be team issue for our cyclocross bikes, though we better hope for dry conditions.

Where did we go wrong?

Pick stolen from winnipegcyclechick.com

What happened?  At some point Graham turned into a sort of grungy hipster, though we raised him in the best preppy environment our resources could afford.  I led by example with white mesh shoes (well, I switched to off white after Labour day, I'm not a Neanderthal), pink shirts, up turned collars, and lots of europop, and still Graham ended up hanging out in Main Street coffee shops, unshaven, wearing zero hair product, in a grey hoodie.  I mean at least he's not wearing plaid and a toque like some of his cohorts, but it can't be long.  

If this is what it takes to ride fast I want no part of it.  Now excuse me while I go upstairs to my home studio, turn on some Erasure, grab my Assos bibs, and hop onto my PowerTap equipped indoor trainer to spin for 20 minutes.  I may only register 84 watts at my peak, but my hair is perfectly gelled and I can sing along to every line of The Innocence while I ride and for inspiration I can dream of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Brian Mulroney all in office at the same time.  I'll bet you none of them have ever owned a hoodie.

Camelbak Oxygen

This is kind of cool, even if I can't really think of any real world application for myself (the surf at Lake Winnipeg isn't really this big): Camelbak has manufactured a new product that contains an oxygen reserve, as opposed to the usual water reserve. Click here for more info.

Or just view the video below to see what circumstances might require the use of this new product.

My usual disclaimer regarding not following TMZ applies.

'Barn Cross Race - The Time Trials' Video

* Yesterday was a Big Cyclocross Day in Winnipeg (all day actually) and across the world (more on the special early morning group viewing of the Men's World CX Race at Parlour Coffee later)!

For now, here's the first of two videos from the awesome Barn Cross ...
"BARN CROSS RACE - THE TIME TRIALS":



The 'Barn Cross' was the brainchild of Brad 'The Impaler' Enns of the 'White-side' Red River Racing and put on by RRR in cooperation with the 'Dark-side' Fort Garry Bike Club. Brad's obviously smarter than your average bear (especially the hibernating ones this cold time of the year), because his indoor Cross Racing plan came together for an afternoon of pure mid-winter cycling nirvana!

I couldn't race (because of a new cast on my right hand), but I used my GoPro HD cams to record the event. For the initial Time Trials part, I am only using my roving HD Hero2 cam, but was able to get most of the interesting angles in for most all racers. Good fun!

'Back on the River Trail - Dark Goodness' Video

DARK GOODNESS! YES!!



A late start, but a great start to the winter biking season on the Winnipeg 'River Trail' with the Fort Garry Bike Club and associates gang this past Tuesday Night Ride. It was only a mildly cold night, but still worthy as a winter ice bike and snowy trail ride. The ride actually started for well out west, then over to Wolseley for the group start, on to the Forks and coffee at the Junction and finally down onto the River Trail proper.
This year it looks like the trail will only be on the Red (for now), due to irregular freezing on the Assiniboine and the late arrival of cold temps. So far, it is a fair ways down to Churchill Parkway and the scrimmage hockey rinks are a go.
Anyways, a ride that finishes with DARK beers and GOOD company is DARK GOODNESS!

'Back in the Black' - Winter Ride Video

So ... this is what I was up to 3 nights ago, before the xrays caught up with me:



Decided to do some fixed camera 'ride-by' filming to capture my ride. Not my usual POV helmet cam approach and not likely to replace it ... I like being able to JUST RIDE and capture video as able. Having said that, this little video project was fun and I find myself enjoying the 'story board' aspect of it.

Body Rock image

I've been visiting the Body Rock site for about 3 years now, sometimes to get ideas that I'll modify and incorporate into workouts for clients and other times to find a workout for myself to mix things up a bit.  I've never followed it exclusively, though many do, and if you've been following Deanna's recent posts you'll know that she's doing their 30 day challenge this month.

I hopped on the site this morning and found this pic waiting for me and had to post it here (pictured are the current hosts of the daily videos).  Maybe after Deanna has completed the 30 day challenge we'll have to try to duplicate it ourselves.  Regardless, I thought it was a fun pic to start the day with.

Tom's Thumb's Up!

Tom's Thumb's Up (pun intended) ... BUT, Up is not always the best! :-(

On the bright side, for the next 6 weeks I color match with the Coop and the Air Force! :-)