10 Things that make me happy!

In any particular order, except the first one, that ones' def. most important. :)

1. My wife
2. a big PB
3. The feeling I get after a really hard effort either in a race or workout
4. accomplishments, even small things like carrying in all the groceries in one trip(I can still wow my wife with my skinny arms although somtimes I think she's just patronizing me)
5. I've never gotten a Kona slot or gone under 10 hours for an IM, but I'm pretty sure those both would make me happier than a pig in mud.
6. Playing WOW for long periods of time
7. Eating
8. Pop(coke is my first choice)
9. Making people happy, not necessarily people I know(right Susi?)
10. being there for someone (I'm actually a good listener)
11. Can I add one??? SLEEPING, I LOVE TO SLEEP!! although I don't like going to bed.

Inspiration

Kind of a cheesy movie, but I like it. "A man can change his stars!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhep2fZKHgE

Good weekend

Hey there,

Had a good weekend overall, I'm already seeing some kick ass fitness shine through and it sure feels good!! Saturday Chuckie gave me a double bike but gave me the option to both in one. I took that option and it earnt me a CarlosV bar Yayyyyyy. Check out his blog if you don't know what I'm talking about. I still don't knowif he's serious about his athletes actually earning chocolate or not?? But w/e like he said the workout is it's own reward right? Anyhow the ride ended up being 3.5 hours ending off with 2x30min at a really hard pace, low cadence and high heart rate. This hurt a lot, I think I blanked out cause we(went to Greg's to ride) were watching an Ironman and after the set I looked up and I barely even knew where I was I completely blocked everything out.

Yesterday I woke up early to run with Curtis. We talked about possibly running indoors because of all the ice/snow, but decided to suck it up and go outside since if we don't hold each other accountable we'd put it off too long and endup wasting the morning away before the run actually happens. So we met at 8am(did I mention I'm actually able to workout a few mornings aweek now? This is huge!! for me) at the rez to run around on the paths. About half of it was cleared, but even on the cleared stuff therewas ice. At one point going down a small hill Curtis's feet both slipped out and he landed hard on his elbow and hand. I freaked for a bit, so worried that he'd hurt his back. But he would have none of it and jumped up just as fast to keep running, he didn't even stop. What can I say the guy is tough!! I'll have to check with him again but I think he's perfectly fine. We finished the run 1:36 of it I think at a really good pace considering all the ice.

That evening I went swimming with Greg and this time it was a strength set. 3500m again, but I didn't quite finish since we got to the pool too late and they closed before we could finish. Oh well 3100 in one hour I think is pretty good I think. I get another shot at that particular workout on wed. I was going to do a easy ride to finish up the day. I just mentioned that I was a lil wiped to Chuckie and he didn't even let me ride easy. Off to bed, were my orders...So I went. I slept like a baby btw and feel great today!!

One more building week I think before I get a break, I haven't had a actual day off in 2-3 weeks? I will be training more and harder than ever before(for this time of year).
I uploaded a bunch of youtube videos if you guys want to comment on them that would be cool, either poke fun, or constructive crit is fine by me. I'll take what I can get. A buddy of mine took them to send to Chuckie so he can critique my form. Kinda limited without underwater shots, but I've had others do that for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Higco05jn24 (swim)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW9TzFmSqz8 (swim)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGt1WVgULYA (swim)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncoM4xurJ1o (swim)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GWEPe9mmB8 (swim)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93dSaHtw-rA (bike)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rizI_QKv-rE (bike)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_iDvtKaXzg (bike)

I hate you Chuckie

I've been dreading this swim all week since I first saw it on the schedule. I did my best, went to the pool determined(in the AM mind you) to nail it!! I really did, I had the best intentions, but unfortunatly it chewed me up and spit me out promptly. The first few sets were all 25s with ALL-OUTs mixed in. The sets decreased in number of 25s while the hard ones became more frequent, longer rest too. That wasn't too bad, half way through I'm thinking I can handle this, but I also knew it wasn't this set that I was worried about. Ohhhh no the next one, I won't bore you with details, but it was a dousy involving 2100m no rest only "easy" 25s to recover from the ALL OUT efforts. Anyways 3500 total and I'm wiped!! I had to add a bunch of forbidden rest. :( But I will get up, dust myself off and proceed to crush the rest of my workouts this week.

Ok Cam, and whoever else wants some workouts to do.

Workout #1

Here's a fav workout of mine that works on several things. One, the transition between cycling and running, changing muscle groups often. First warmup, might want to do some spinning as well as a short jog(easy pace) on the tready. Oh btw this will work best if you have a treadmill and trainer, or good weather and clean roads near by. So once you're warmed up do this;

20 min mod pace(high Z3) on the bike. Shouldn't feel that hard for 20 min, soon as you're done, get off and jump on the tready immediatly after.
1 mile Hard, like 10k race pace. (the idea is to basically do running reps with tired cycling legs)

rest, however long it takes you to get the heart rate down. Then repeat 3X total.

Workout #2

W/U spin for 10 min, doing some accellerations
3 x 15 min mod-hard. Like a half IM pace. (3 min easy spinning between them)
5 min C/D and you're done.

Simple as that. :) Enjoy

Please Donate, lives depend on it!!

Hey,

I'm sure most of you have or intend on doing so, but just a reminder to please donate somthing, anything to our neighbors in Haiti. It's a poor country to begin with and they got hit in the worst possible place by this. We need to buck up and do somthing for our fellow man. The Canadian Government has made it pretty easy to donate, donations are tax deductable. Not only that but they are going to match every dollar that people donate as long as it's a Candian Charity. I linked two good ones below. You guys can link other ones if you want. Do ET!!!

https://secure.unicef.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx?at=1211&appealID=90&CID=99

https://www.paypaq.com/redcross/new/index.php

Funniest thing I've ever read on ST

DISCLAIMER*** Please do not read this if you are eating or if you are easily offended. Seriously the funniest, but also most descriptive disgusting story ever.

The greatest poop story ever written Now, I know that there is a lot of embellishment that occurs on this group and I am aware that a small number of things are perhaps sheer fabrication, but I have a story to tell that is the absolute truth.

Funniest damn thing that has ever happened to me. A couple of weeks ago we decided to cruise out to Ryan's Steakhouse for dinner. It was a Wednesday night which means that macaroni and beef was on the hot bar, indeed the only night of the week that it is served. Wednesday night is also kid's night at Ryan's, complete with Dizzy the Clown wandering from table to table entertaining the little bastards. It may seem that the events about to be told have little connection to those two circumstances, but all will be clear in a moment.

We went through the line and placed our orders for the all-you-can-eat hot bar then sat down as far away from the front of the restaurant as possible in order to keep the density of kids down a bit. Then I started my move to the hot bar. Plate after plate of macaroni and beef were consumed that evening, I tell you - in all, four heaping plates of the pseudo-Italian ambrosia were shoved into my belly. I was sated. Perhaps a bit too much, however.

I had not really been feeling well all day, what with a bit of gas and such. By the time I had eaten four overwhelmed plates of food, I was in real trouble. There was so much pressure on my diaphragm that I was having trouble breathing. At the same time, the downward pressure was building. At first I thought it was only gas, which could have been passed in batches right at the table without too much concern.

Unfortunately, that was not to be. After a minute or so it was clear that I was dealing with explosive diarrhea. It's amazing how grease can make its way through your intestines far faster than the food which spawned the grease to begin with, but I digress... I got up from the table and made my way to the bathroom. Upon entering, I saw two sinks immediately inside the door, two urinals just to the right of the sinks, and two toilet stalls against the back wall. One of them was a handicapped bathroom. Now, normally I would have gone to the handicapped stall since I like to stretch out a bit when I take a good crap. But in this case, the door lock was broken and the only thing I hate worse than my wife telling me to stop cutting my toenails with a pair of diagonal wire-cutters is having someone walk in on me while I am taking a crap.

I went to the normal stall. In retrospect, I probably should have gone to the large, handicapped stall even though the door would not lock because that bit of time lost in making the stall switch proved to be a bit too long under the circumstances. By the time I had walked into the regular stall, the pressure on my ass was reaching Biblical portions. I began "The Move."

For those women who may be reading this, let me take a moment to explain "The Move." Men know exactly what their bowels are up to at any given second. And when the time comes to empty the cache, a sequence of physiological events occur that can not be stopped under any circumstances. There is a move men make that involves simultaneously approaching the toilet, beginning the body turn to position ones ass toward said toilet, hooking ones fingers into ones waistline, and pulling down the pants while beginning the squat at the same time. It is a very fluid motion that, when performed properly, results in the flawless expulsion of crap at the exact same second that one’s ass is properly placed on the toilet seat. Done properly, it even assures that the choad is properly inserted into the front rim of the toilet in the event that the piss stream lets loose at the same time; it is truly a picture of coordination rivaling that of a skilled ballet dancer.

I was about halfway into "The Move" when I looked down at the floor and saw a pile of vomit that had been previously expelled by one of those little bastards attending kids night. It was mounded up in the corner so I did not notice it when I had first walked into the stall. Normally, I would not have been bothered by such a thing, but I had eaten so much and the pressure upward was so intense, that I hit a rarely experienced gag reflex. And once that reflex started, combined with the intense pressure upward caused by the bloated stomach, four plates of macaroni and beef started coming up for a rematch.

What happened next was so quick that the exact sequence of events is a bit fuzzy, but I will try to reconstruct them as best I can. In that moment of impending projectile vomiting, my attention was diverted from the goings-on at the other end. To put a freeze frame on the situation, I was half crouched down to the toilet, pants pulled down to my knees, with a load of vomit coming up my esophagus.

Now, most of you know that vomiting takes precedence over crap no matter what is about to come slamming out of your ass. It is apparently an evolutionary thing since crapping will not kill you, but vomiting takes a presence of mind to accomplish so that you do not aspirate any food into the bronchial tubes and perhaps choke to death. My attention was thus diverted. At that very split second, my ass exploded in what can only be described as a wake...you know, as in a newspaper headline along the lines of "30,000 Killed In Wake of Typhoon Fifi" or something similar. In what seemed to be most suitably measured in cubic feet, an enormous plug of crap the consistency of thick mud with embedded pockets of greasy liquid came flying out of my ass.

But remember, I was only halfway down on the toilet at that moment. The crap wave was of such force, and of just such an angle in relation to the back curve of the toilet seat, that it ricocheted off the back of the seat and slammed into the wall - at an angle of incidence equal to the angle at which it initially hit the toilet seat. Then I sat down. Recall that when that event occurred, I was already halfway to sitting anyway and had actually reached the point of no return. I have always considered myself as relatively stable gravitationally, but when you get beyond a certain point, you're going down no matter how limber you may be. Needless to say, the crap wave, though of considerable force, was not so sufficient so as to completely glance off the toilet seat and deposit itself on the walls - unlike what you would see when hitting a puddle with a high-pressure water hose; even though you throw water at the puddle, the puddle gets moved and no water is left to re-form a puddle. There was a significant amount of crap remaining on about one-third of the seat rim which I had now just collapsed upon.

Now, back to the vomit...

While all the crapping was going on, the vomit was still on its way up. By the time I had actually collapsed on the toilet, my mouth had filled up with a goodly portion of the macaroni and beef I had just consumed. OK, so what does the human body instinctively do when vomiting? One bends over. So I bent over. I was still sitting on the toilet, though. Therefore, bending over resulted in me placing my head above my now slightly-opened legs, positioned in between my knees and waist. Also directly above my pants which were now pulled down to a point just midway between my knees and my ankles. Oh, did I mention that I was wearing not just pants, but sweatpants with elastic on the ankles. In one mighty push, some three pounds of macaroni and beef, two or three Cokes, and a couple of Big, Fat Yeast Rolls were deposited in my pants...on the inside...with no ready exit at the bottom down by my feet. In the next several seconds, there were a handful of farts, a couple of turds, and the event ended. Yet I was now sitting there with my pants full of vomit, my back covered in crap that had bounced off the toilet, spattered on three ceramic-tiled walls to a height of about five feet, and still had enough force to come back at me, covering the back of my shirt with droplets of liquid crap. All while thick crap was spread all over my ass in a ring curiously in the shape of a toilet seat.

And there was no ****ing toilet paper. What could I do but laugh. I must have sounded like a complete maniac to the guy who then wandered into the bathroom. He actually asked if I was OK since I was laughing so hard I must have sounded like I was crying hysterically. I calmed down just enough to ask him if he would get the manager. And told him to have the manager bring some toilet paper. When the manager walked in, he brought the toilet paper with him, but in no way was prepared for what happened next. I simply told him that there was no way I was going to explain what was happening in the stall, but that I needed several wet towels and I needed him to go ask my wife to come help me. I told him where we were sitting and he left. At that point, I think he was probably assuming that I had pissed just a bit in my pants or something similarly benign.

About two minutes later, my wife came into the bathroom not knowing what was wrong and with a certain amount of worry in her voice. I explained to her (still laughing and having trouble getting out words) that I had a slight accident and needed her help. Knowing that I had experienced some close calls in the past, she probably assumed that I had laid down a small turd or something and just needed to bring the car around so we could bolt immediately. Until I asked her, I'm sure she had no idea that she was about to go across the street and purchase me new underwear, new socks, new pants, a new shirt, and (by that time due to considerable leakage around the elastic ankles thingies) new sneakers. And she then started to laugh herself since I was still laughing. She began to ask for an explanation as to what had happened when I promised her that I would tell her later, but that I just needed to handle damage control for the time being. She left.

The manager then came back in with a half-dozen wet towels and a few dry ones. I asked him to also bring a mop and bucket upon which he assured me that they would clean up anything that needed to be cleaned. Without giving him specific details, I explained that what was going on in that stall that night was far in excess of what I would expect anyone to deal with, what with most of the folks working at Ryan's making minimum wage of just slightly above. At that moment, I think it dawned on him exactly the gravity of the situation. Then that manager went so far above the call of duty that I will be eternally grateful for his actions. He hooked up a hose. Fortunately, commercial bathrooms are constructed with tile walls and tile floors and have a drain in the middle of the room in order to make clean up easy. Fortunately, I was in a commercial bathroom. He hooked up the hose to the spigot located under the sink as I began cleaning myself up with the wet towels.

Just as I was finishing, my wife got back with the new clothes and passed them into the stall, whereupon I stuffed the previously worn clothing into the plastic bag that came from the store, handing the bag to my wife. I finished cleaning myself off and carefully put on my new clothes, still stuck in the stall since I figured that it would be in bad taste to go out of the stall to get redressed, in the event I happened to be standing there naked and some little bastard kid walked in. At that point, I had only made a mess; I had not yet committed a felony and intended to keep it that way.

When I finished getting dressed, I picked up the hose and cleaned up the entire stall, washing down the remains toward the drain in the center of the room. I put down the hose and walked out of the bathroom. I had intended to go to the manager and thank him for all he had done, but when I walked out, three of the management staff were there to greet me with a standing ovation. I started laughing so hard that I thought I was going to throw up again, but managed to scurry out to the car where my wife was now waiting to pick me up by the front door.

The upshot of all this is that I strongly recommend eating dinner at Ryan's Steak House. They have, by far, the nicest management staff of any restaurant in which I have eaten.

First week

Hey all,

Well the first week with Chuckie is nearly over. He took it really easy on me at first because I was sick, plus he played it safe while getting to know me, my limits, zones, etc. Well it hasn't all been easy. The cycling and running yes, not so much in the swimming dept. I swam 4 days this week!!! That's a whole lot for me, and yesterday it was a 3k swim. Greg did it with me, it was a pyramid 100,200,300,400,500,400,300,200,100. with 15 secs rest between. Course it didn't help that I just came from the work Christmas party, I didn't eat too much, but I guess it was a bit much for a swim after.

So yeah the week was good lots of swimming, but the cycling and running has been pretty easy. I got a new heart rate monitor(the Garmin 305) so that I can send more data Chuckie's way. In his opinion the more feedback he gets from me the better. So I emaail him all the time, I've realized how much of a learning process this "getting a new coach" business is. He gives me workouts and or tests and I send him the data back, then he adjusts my next workouts accordingly. It makes it even harder that I haven't even met the guy. Oh well if there's someone that can pull off this long distance coach/athlete relationship it's him!! He really is a fountain of knowledge, I've learned a ton from him already. Cheers, hope everyone else's training is going well. Later,

DP

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!!

Sorry that's a lil late. That's my lil(well not so little anymore) nephew. Notice he has the "trainer" out just like his Uncle. Notice he has the fluid out, just like his Uncle. Notice yet again, he has the towel as well...... just like his uncle(although he doesn't sweat a 1/100th that his uncle does. Ohhhhhh yes it was on over Christmas I started him off easy with a easy spin, but the next ride I took it to him 5x5min @ 300W. I explained it to him that he needed to push hard, or go fast for 5min, I would keep track and he would then get 3 min rest, and then we do it again!!! He rode hard, I was so proud of him, he rode an hour with me more than once while I was visiting family in Manitoba. Yes I lugged my bike 1400k across country with the trainer to ride just in case I couldn't run outside. Anyhow he didn't quite make it for the 2 hour one, but he sure tried!