Not a resolution

I've kinda been dancing around this for a while now, but ever since Scott found BodyRock.tv I've secretly been wanting to join in. Secretly, since those super intense workouts scare me as much as they inspire me. If those superfit, superlean hosts find it so hard, how on earth can I hope to keep up? But I'm finally ready to declare myself and commit.

As of Jan 2nd (the day new workouts start posting to the site), I'm going to be following the BodyRock.tv site for daily workouts Monday to Friday. It's a big commitment for me. I've found it more difficult lately to get up for morning workouts but I hope this extra structure will help me stick with it. No more thinking / planning - I just do the day's workout and be done with it. The workouts are all pretty short, so it shouldn't be a problem to fit them in before work.

Here's a recent workout so you all know what I'm in for:

Dean's Training Journal

Just letting you know that we're following your training journal Dean.  You're not the only one who may have missed 2 or 3 days of training sometime around the 25th.  We think that's okay.  There are 362 other potentially productive days of the year.  Well maybe 361 - you don't have to do anything on your birthday either if you don't want to, though thinking about it that's usually when we want to.

It's a bit hard to understand how we're not done the relatively minor changes to the gym considering we've been on holidays the whole week (which may only be the 2nd or 3rd time in our 17 years of marriage that we've both had a solid week off at the same time btw) and considering the mutt gets us up at 6 am whether we like it or not (though actually we do) but we have made some good headway.

Pictured below are some of the changes which, frankly, look like nothing. That was the point. We wanted to configure things so that one third of the gym was pretty much empty of equipment and other encumberments. This allows for better body movement when doing some free weight stuff, Kettlebell drills, sandbag work, medicine ball partners exercise, yoga, TRX workouts, and much more.

Deanna is also looking to mix up her routine in the new year and I'm sure this set up will help - she'll likely post about that soon.

So, we cleaned up the shelving in the room, greatly organized the closet to hold stuff that was formerly out in the open, rubberized the floor wall to wall, and mounted a larger TV (okay, that didn't contribute to cleaning up the room, but it didn't detract either, and I find myself using videos more for my personal workouts and as a part of client's routines as well.

The result is a very simple, functional space within the gym that even my dad might like (he insists he'd like to live in a monochromatic home with very little furniture, no pictures on the walls, and has suggested he'd consider making the whole thing out of concrete so he can just hose it down periodically to maintain its stark cleanliness).

We're not there yet, but we're getting a little closer.

Good winter group ride

I enjoyed a really good group ride today, organized by Ian, Hal, and Dallas (or at least that's the impression I got). A few others showed up as well and we tooled around town for a few hours before I split off to head home - I had targeted doing about half of their full ride which looked like it might work out to 6 hours or so. It ended up being a little bit less for me because I motored home at a faster pace than I anticipated.

It's been a while since I had ridden in a bit of a pack and it was nice to feel the organic ebb and flow of the riders as we wound our way through some trails.

Riding the U of M trails that Kevin cut was also a pleasure. It's the first time I've been on them and they very nicely broke up the other ride sections. It was nice to then bump into Kevin on the trails so we could compliment him on his work.

Another highlight was dropping down into the Seine river for a bit. It's always magical riding, running, walking, or paddling our river systems and this was my first time on a river this winter.

Below are a few random shots of the ride, including one of a curling rink some dudes were maintaining on the Seine that looks good enough for the pros to use (but what do I know about curling).

It's a bit odd to think that as I type this, curled up in my grandma's afghan, most of the guys I was riding with are still out there. Good on them I guess :)

New Wheels - rear hub needed

Well I've made the final commitment NOT to get the Moonlander whenever it arrives by instead investing in a nice new white set of Rolling Darryl rims. With a tip from Liam a shop customer bought my existing Large Marge's to build a Fatbike recumbent (yes you read that right) so I could rationalize the white Darryl purchase.

Sadly the shop doesn't have any appropriate rear hubs in stock at the moment so i'm without the new wheel set until a hub comes in UNLESS someone has a used mid range (deore / xt or similar) 135 disc specific hub kicking around that they'd like to sell me. I'd need to know very soon because an order may go in as early as today, and I'd have to check on spoke length required for the build because if I have to order spokes I may as well just order the hub too, but I figured I'd throw it out there.

Regardless, I look forward to testing the new wheels out soon, and maybe we'll get some real snow by then as well!

Gym Floor Workout

We've decided to take the Christmas break to do a few updates to the gym, starting with wall to wall rubber flooring. Yesterday we headed to Fitness Experience to pick up the extra mats we need to expand our current matted area out from the middle of the room to the walls.

The real work started today. First set: squat, bear hug a rolled mat, carry it up the stairs (6 reps). Second set: cut mats to size (number of reps tbd - but I've already learned the hard way that the number of reps is directly proportional to your measuring skill). It is astonishingly hard to cut these things.

It's going to look great when it's done and will expand the working area of the gym nicely, but the 'workout' to get it done is gonna be brutal...

Santa's Time-Trial Is Coming to Town

Merry Christmas Training Coop-ers ... HO HO HO !!!

The Oatmeal Workout

I figure this is at least marginally more interesting than last week's salad post, but then again I really like porridge.

I'm experimenting with different things to fill my new 'Ultimate Sandbag' so that I can train with different weights but roughly the same volume. I already have about 50 lbs of sand divided into a bunch of smaller bags (which are then all placed in the sandbag together) and yesterday I bought 30 lbs of oats divided into the same number of bags.

I got some pretty good stares at Scoop n Weigh as I drained their oat barrel (my apologies to anyone who was looking forward to porridge on Christmas morning - maybe try the Bulk Barn).

I'll be doing my first oatmeal workout later today so we'll see how it goes!

Olympia Trip delayed by bomb threat

Yes, that grainy pic above is of a bomb disposal robot removing a suspicious package from a destroyed SUV following an accident at the end of my street this morning. And yes, the pic is taken from my kitchen window.

So, it seems my bike ride to Olympia may be delayed a bit this morning as we stay put. Cops have pretty much surrounded the area.

Hmmm, a few of them are hiding behind a van in front of our house as I type this. For reals. Not good.

Christmas Salad Prep

Preparing Christmas salad for extended family gathering later today. Mmmmm.

Kicked my butt

Whoa, just kicked my own butt, with the help of these things (no they aren't sacks of weed. Though that might help deaden the pain right now). More to come. Off to Olympia party to get fat and purge later. JK.

N.E.O.S.

I noticed Ian and Hal wearing these overboots last weekend - they looked great, not only for cold or cold and wet conditions on the fatbike, snowshoeing, etc., but they might also work well for trudging to and from Blue Cross classes with my indoor gym shoes on underneath.

I've got some early Christmas money in my pocket, and these might just be a great way to spend it.  Trying to hunt them down locally...

Update: Got 'em.  Somehow they do seem to work with both my winter hiking books and my smallest pair of indoor gym shoes.  Think I'm going to be very happy with these.  Guess I'll have to ride all 24 hours of Sloth Cross now.  Or just sleep outside.

Never been to Canadian Footwear before.  Weird.  In a good way.  Would have been nice if I had noticed the ample free parking before I paid for a spot on the street though :)

Jeep Down

I was just sent this pic from Deanna, who will apparently do anything to avoid having lunch with her father, including coming up with a guerrilla style workout program by puncturing her own tire and changing it on the way there.

It would have been cooler if her Mukluk was racked on the back - she could have just ditched the Jeep and carried on with two wheels.

Inconvenience aside, after replacing a whole engine this summer you can't really get too worked up over a tire.

Activ Epica Photoshoot

Ian promised us that this would get us at least national level media exposure, and all the residuals that come with it...



Go to www.actifepi.ca (isn't that domain name clever) for event details, and hey, maybe a pic from the above shoot will make its way to the site some time.

Get Smart - Stay Warm: Actif Epica Info Night

They say 'Knowledge is Power' and 'Communication is Key' ... well Ian Hall, Actif Epica coordinator, knows these things to be true and puts them into action ... starting at this Wednesday's Actif Epica Info Night ... or as he puts it "How to stop worrying and learn to love biking long distances in freezing temperatures".

I look forward to the evening and catching up with my former Air Force SAR Squadron mate Ernie Whelan.  He's an amazing guy, as you can see in the links below and at his "Gliding Thru Barriers" Facebook page that documents his endeavours to show that diabetes does not have to limit adventure pursuits and also raise money for the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Details were posted by Halberto over here at OCC and pasted below:

The session will be at Olympia Cycle and Ski, 1813 Portage Avenue, and will start at 7:00PM. It should be about 90 minutes in length.
Right now the tentative agenda is:

• 7:00 – Introductions from Ian Hall, Actif Epica coordinator
• 7:10 – Ernie Whelan* – Cold weather safety/survival
• 7:40 – Hal Loewen – bike prep and clothing/gear advice (cables, freehub body, big boots, pogies, test all your stuff, etc.)
• 8:00 – Lindsay Gauld – mental toughness and mental preparation (tales from Ukatak and more)
• 8:15 – Q&A

*Ernie Whelan (Air Force Sergeant), is a former member of 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron in Winnipeg andSearch and Rescue Technician (SAR Tech), who is now a Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Instructor at theCanadian Forces School of Survival and Aeromedical Training (CFSSAT) at 17 Wing, Winnipeg.

You likely heard about him in local and national news last year during his ‘Gliding Thru Barriers’ winter skiing trek on Lake Winnipeg. Check out coverage of his trek HERE, HERE and HERE.

Throughout, Jared Falk (he of Taints of Steel fame) and/or David Pensato will be tweeting/blogging the event, including taking questions from the internets (via 3G, since there is no known wi-fi…), we’ll provide more info about sending your questions into Jared and David soon – check back!

Brian Wilson is at it again. Makes my workouts look lame.

The Dude (not THE Dude) is at it again, this time going for a run with someone perched on his back. Seriously:

It seems if your name is Brian Wilson you're destined to be a bit crazy, in a mostly good way.

(Once again, this pic was most definitely not lifted from TMZ.com, which I most definitely was not on)

WNR Report: 'Fat and Not So Fat'

Made it out tonight to my 2nd WNRide is a row (yes, it's true :-)) and it was a great night to ride.

We had a gang of eight that got together at the MB Fat Bike rendezvous point at Assiniboine Forest.  All were Fat Bike riders except for two 'Not So Fat' Bike riders on their MTBs (Vern the Intrepid Orienteerer and Andrea the Wpg Cycle Chick, who was apparently beginning her HTFU winter riding campaign - right on!).  The MTBs were just fine tonight, because other than some narrow snow trails and the occasional log obstacles (Fat Bikes laugh at logs!), this ride had a distinctly urban assault flavour to it ... lots of clear wide trail, roads and one 'super-highway' ... 



We rode through Assiniboine Park, west through Woodhaven, up Sturgeon Creek and then east onto the Silver multi-use pathway (truely a biking super-highway) and back south to the Assiniboine Park Footbridge where we split up.  There's not much snow yet, but it was still a cold and yet pleasant night to ride, especially in the forest ... and ... on ... the ... 'Monkey Trails' ...


I was about to head home from the footbridge, when I decided to have a go at the Monkey Trails. Good call ... they were so much fun I rode them several times before calling it a night. By the time I got home, I had been out riding for over three and a half hours. Time well spent!

I figured it was time to start updating my Training Journal again.  Now that I have a few months of base training under my belt I feel that I can start tracking my training progression to my goal of the Calgary 70.3 on July 29, 2012.  Feel free to follow along if you are interested.  Should be a fun ride!

Dean

Floyd

VN: What’s more frightening, rounding a NASCAR track at near 200 mph or descending a mountain on a road bike at 60-plus mph?


FL: I’m not afraid of anything.


VN: Can you list a few things you would you like to find in your holiday stocking this year and why?


FL: A time machine.

Drums, Shorts, Mittens & Snow on the Harte Trail

Check out this video that is about to go viral and was just created by a local Winnipeg high school student.  The kid's got musical talent for sure, but I am most impressed with his eye for winter beauty and his video editing.  Love his 'Winterpeg' moxie with the shorts and the Canada Olympic mittens on while beating away on his drum set ... right there on a snow covered Harte Trail.  Awesome!  Maybe he could play a set for the next Fat Tire WNR ...

1st Fat Tire Flat

Nothing like a little urban adventure. This one started when I realized that my 50 lb weight vest was in the Jeep, the Jeep was with Deanna at the U of M, and I was at home having just put together a workout plan for a client later today that relies heavily on said weight vest.

So I called Deanna and asked if she'd like to meet me for lunch. I'd ride to the University and then take the Jeep home with the vest (and the racked bike) and would pick her up later in the day.

Sounded like a good plan until I somehow flatted on river trails near Osborne and Jubilee. I'm calling Deanna now, hoping that she'd like to meet me for lunch, well, here. If no one sees me for a while her answer was obviously no.

WNR Report: Four Fatties Forage For Fun

Enjoyed my first Wed Night MB Fat Tire Ride. Check it out here: Four Fatties Forage For Fun

New CycleOps x 2

2 new CycleOps' have arrived for Blue Cross gym. Yippee. Too bad the boxes don't say "supply your own pedals". Back to the shop. Oh well, it's worth it. These things are great.

Sorry babe, but read the fine print...

NO MUKLUKS PERMITTED

500 calories of easy and delicious

Looking forward to tonight's tree trimming party.

Pugs and Tims is a great combo

Just loving my Pugsley. Though I thought it would be best in deep (ish) snow what I'm finding so far is how much more solid than a conventional tired bike it feels on ice. Could this be the winter I don't fall? Not likely, but I'm sure I'll hit the ground less.

Okay, done with the morning Tim's visit (just a bagel sandwich, hold the sauce, and a coffee - no donut), and now on to DeLuca's.  Classic Canadian to Authentic Italian in 10 blocks.