I don't mean to alarm you...

Two years ago.

On June 4th, 2004, Sue had a doctors appointment and she was told that "nothing would happen anytime soon. We'll see you in two weeks." I was scheduled to play a solo Sunday morning, June 6th, and had been working to get it polished up. On June 5th, we had been out late for dinner at a friends place and came home to watch the overtime of the Stanley Cup Finals. After the game was over, Sue got up and went to the washroom. I started falling asleep, I remember thinking that Sue was taking FOREVER. "What on earth is she doing in there?" A minute later, she came out and crawled into bed. "I don't mean to alarm you, but I think my water broke."

How was that NOT supposed to alarm me!?

A little over 12 hours later, we had a daughter.

I don't mean to alarm you, but I think I have a two year old.

Long Run

I did my 8 miler. A stunning success, I wasn't sure how it was going to go. My legs felt heavy and the first two miles were slow, but I ran strong the rest of the way and finished it in 1:04:24, for an 8:03 average mile.

Weekly Recap

I did all my scheduled training this week. It ended up being over 300 minutes. Which is pretty big volume by my standards.

My track work was great again, this week I did 4 x 800, at 3:08 per interval. It made me remember why I loved running track in high school. The 800 is such a great distance. First lap, see what every one else is doing, second lap, crank it up and beat them. It was raining slightly during the first two repeats, but enough to be refreshing, not annoying. During the third repeat it poured. Like soaked to the bone drenched. By the forth repeat the sun was out. I hit all the intervals and managed to make the last one my fastest. Two miles (with recovery breaks) in 12:35.

This afternoon I went for a ride and found it to be too easy. I was going along at 30km/hr, but not even working, my heart rate was barely 100 bpm. I knew that that could only mean one thing: strong tailwind. So I knew not to expend any extra energy, because I'd need it going against the wind. When I turned around I knew that I had made the right choice. I was pushing to keep the speed at 25km/hr and my heart rate was over 145 bpm.

We'll see how this effects my run tomorrow. I'm going 8 miles (13 km), my longest so far. I hoping for something between 64-72 minutes.

Long Run

Yesterday was my long run, a 6 miler. Nothing fancy or special about it, except the amount that I can sweat, done in about 50 minutes. Slower then planned, but it was crazy hot and super humid. I started at 8pm and it was still over 30C + humidity. I was dripping before I got through the first mile. I kept a steady 8:14 pace for the first three, then my left calf started to cramp (not surprising given the heat) and the last three were at 8:33. It's still a little tender today, weird. Nothing at all in my right Achilles, that's a good thing.

I've been giving my legs ice bathes for the last few nights. I take our biggest pot, fill it with cold water, add ice and then soak each leg for ten minutes, twice. Getting in is interesting / painful, but it's done wonders for working out the kinks from my lower legs and feet. Very refreshing after a hot run like yesterdays.

Combining Workouts

This week my schedule had a speed workout yesterday and I have a tempo run tomorrow. I've had to do some training for work this week, so I wasn't able to run yesterday and won't be able to tomorrow either. So tonight, I combined my workouts.

I started with the tempo run, just 3 miles. My target pace was 7:35-7:40 per mile, I finished at 7:34 per mile. It was a terrible start. It felt like my legs were made of lead, it took about the first mile to get into it. So sore and tight all over. I guess I've been on my feet a lot at work and I was really feeling it in the first bit. But by mile 2, things were feeling good and the pace was very steady. Overall, this started out as a bad run, but turned into a very good one.

After I was done, I headed over to the high school track a block away. My speed workout was 4 x 400 at a target pace of 91 seconds per 400 or 6:04 mile pace, with 2 minute recoveries in between intervals. I was a little unsure how fast I'd be able to go, with tired legs and having just done 3 miles at tempo, but it was only 4 x 400's, if I can't suck THAT up, what good am I? My intervals were: 92, 89, 92 & 92 or a 6:05 mile. Bingo! I was very happy with that. Not to say that I wasn't working hard on the third and forth intervals, but I did what I set out to do.

A day off training tomorrow and a long ride on Sunday. Hopefully this week I'll be able to bike farther than I ran.

My Achilles Heel

We all know who Achilles was right? An ancient Greek warrior, he is known for being the most handsome of the heroes assembled at Troy, as well as the fleetest. When Achilles was born, according to the most common version of the myth, Thetis (his mother, a sea nymph) tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx. But she forgot to wet the heel she held him by, leaving him vulnerable at that spot, the Achilles tendon. It's kind of a bad break, but that's also where he was fatally wounded. Kind of like Lou Gehrig getting Lou Gehrig's disease.

After I did my triathlon last August, it took me a few days to work some kinks out of my legs. One major stiffness was in my right Achilles tendon. I battled soreness in it for a little while, then added an elastic ankle brace to my running wardrobe and things improved dramatically. No more stiffness, no more soreness. Good deal.

I kept wearing the brace during my runs and at some point during the winter the soreness started coming back. Recently it has been getting worse again. Although it never hurt during the run, the morning after (even if I stretched my Achilles thoroughly) it would be very stiff and quite painful. The only things that would help were more stretching in the mornings and some Vitamin I before OR after the run, but even those didn't really help much. My concern was really starting to grow, as this could really turn into an injury like Achilles tendinosis or worse, an Achilles tendon rupture. I was type-cast in the role of Achilles while getting my BFA, so the irony wasn't missed.

Last week I did a four mile tempo run, with the brace, and felt really good. A good strong run, right on tempo, no worries. But an hour or so after the run, the Achilles was really starting to throb and get that pins & needles feeling. It felt like by brace was too tight and it had cut off the circulation to the area. The next morning things were really tight and uncomfortable. So I decided to try running without the brace.

I did a three mile tempo run on Saturday and was fine. Not even a little soreness afterward, some good stretching, no need for vitamin I, and the next morning my foot felt better than it had in a long time. So on Monday I did a slow six miles without the brace. Again, my Achilles was fine before, during and after. I did take some Ibuprofen, as a preventative measure, but never had any stiffness or pain. There was a little soreness, but I'll attribute that to having to run some hills and the longer miles. Once again, the next morning there was no soreness or pain. YES!!!

Weird that what originally helped me overcome an injury in the end almost caused me a worse one. I'm not really sure why I kept running with the brace, maybe out of paranoia, maybe out of comfort, but I wasn't really sure when to stop using it either. I guess that's been decided now.

The Black Lung

Remember when Zoolander gives up his brilliant career as a male model to go back home and work the coal mines with his father and brothers? Remember how after one day he was coughing and wheezing, thinking he'd contracted the dreaded "Black Lung"? Remember the weak little girl cough he had? Darcy tried that strategy on us yesterday.

Last night we had some running around to do and combined errands with dinner at the mall. Darcy and I always go to A&W, she likes the chicken fingers there (Mmmmm, Yummy, yummy!). Well, we'd forgotten to bring a cup for her, so we tried letting her drink a carton of chocolate milk through a straw (Mmmmm, chalk mak!). She did very well, not even spilling a drop. However, she discovered a really good way to scam her parents.

After coughing on a piece of chicken, we gave her some milk to drink. After that, every bite she took was followed by a couple of tiny little fake coughs and, "Chocolate milk, please?" (Chalk mak, pees?). I don't think she ever took more then a bite without 'needing' to have more milk to stave off the impending choke-fest.

My little drama queen.

Need to bike

It's rained here for about a week, which means I haven't biked in a while. And it's driving me crazy. The running is going well, my official 10 week training program starts this coming Monday, but I will go crazy if all I'm doing is running.

Today is nice and sunny. Warm breeze, dry roads. It's my off day. The schedule is such that I can't bike on Wednesdays. Fear not, tomorrow it's supposed rain all day. Clearly the Mother Nature is taunting me. I really need a few good hard rides to get those juices flowing again.

Last year was all about building up to the distance. So every day was a higher step achieved. This year is about going faster (and a little farther), so I'm really anxious to get out there and start hammering.

Marathon Man

Jake (a co-worker) ran his second marathon today, the Forest City Marathon in London, ON. His goal was 3:45 and he crushed it with a 3:44:15. Which, in a race this size, was good enough for a seventh place finish in his age group. Nice.

Good stuff Jake. I hope you're not limping tomorrow.

I'm in the pool

This has nothing to do with swimming.

In April, I posted about the possibility of a new job. At the time, I was told that I wouldn't hear anything until June or July about whether or not I had passed the interview. Yesterday, a thin envelope came from them in the mail. I was out of town for an Exalt concert, so Sue had to stair at the letter all night. The suspense was killing her.

The letter was a "pleased to inform me" letter. While this doesn't guarantee that I'll be sent for the extended training or receive a job offer, it is a good sign. I've made it to the short list, now I need to get a couple of certified qualifications because having them "will expedite your future placement".

The waiting continues.

Trying to find my tempo

As I posted in my training plan, my tempo runs are supposed to be around the 7:35-7:40 pace per mile. Tonight the weather was windy and it looked like there was going to be heavy rain, so I decided that this would be a good time to try a tempo run and get home fairly quickly.

My first mile went by in 6:52. I thought, "Woo, a little too fast. But it felt good. Try and slow down some."
Mile two: 7:16. "Hmm, slower, but still too fast. Alright, I don't want to get rained on and there's a nice tail wind, tonight will be a hard run. What have I got in me?"
Mile three: 6:56. "Holy moly. 3 miles in 21:04, that's quick."
Mile four: 6:51. "27:54 for four miles? That's a sub-seven average!" It's a 6:58.5 to be exact.

And the tank was not empty, I could have gone further. Clearly there has been improvement over the winter. Last year, my fastest run home was 28:40 (7:10 pace), I think this is a sign of good things to come.

So it looks like I've got some self control to work on in these tempo runs. But I enjoyed the hard run and it didn't rain.

Training Plan

*** Warning, this is a long post about training ***

Over the last month I've been working on a training schedule for the summer. There are a few races that will be my "A" races, where I plan on leaving it all out on the course, the kind of race where you are completely sucking wind at the end. And I'll have a couple of others that will be "B" races, or races where I go for race experience and use the race a hard training period, but my main focus will be an easier goal time.

There are a few obstacles that I'm facing; having to pay for all these races, my schedule could change and trying to plan into September & October now just isn't smart, but hopefully my "A" races and goal times will be:
June 17: Moon in June 5 km or 10 km - 20:00 or 43:30
August 13: Windsor Triathlon (Long Sprint) - 1:30.00
September 16: Montreal Triathlon (Olympic) - 2:45.00
October 22(?): Run for the Cure 5 km - 20:00

My "B" races and goal times will be:
March 19: Spring Thaw 5 km - 22:00 (Done, ran 21:54)
July 14: Beat Beethoven for Breast Cancer 8 km - 34:30
July 30: Tecumseh 1/2 Marathon - 1:36.30 (7:22 pace per mile)

The key race in my schedule is the 1/2 Marathon. It's a brand new race and is being organized in part by the none other then Kona Shelley (she's actually done the Hawaii Ironman!). Building my running towards this race will put me in perfect shape for the two triathlons. Let me explain...

I read a great 16 week marathon training program in the August '05 Runner's World. It involved running three times a week and cross training at least two more times a week. I still can't commit to the time that marathon training requires, so when they wrote a 10 week half marathon version (March '06) I was sold. Now that I'm able to bike to and from work regularly again, all my cross training needs are taken care of. I only need to run three times a week to build up to half marathon distance (13.1 miles).

The three runs are organized like this:
#1 - Speed work; ranging from 4 x 400 up to 3 x 1600 (around 6:30 ppm)
#2 - Tempo runs; ranging from 2 miles up to 8 miles (around 7:35-7:40 ppm)
#3 - Long runs; starting from 6 miles and going up to 12 miles (around 7:52-8:00 ppm)

I got interested in triathlon to begin with because it doesn't focus on one event. For starters, I could never be a competitive swimmer, cyclist or runner, the talent just isn't there. Secondly, if I was only training for one sport I would get terribly bored. I need the constant change of running and cycling to keep me sane. That is what I love about this program, you have to cross train to get the most out of it. I've also read that since triathletes train for three different disciplines, they tend to have more balanced whole-body muscular development than pure cyclists or runners, whose training emphasizes only the legs. Although, I don't spend nearly enough time training for the swim.

So what about swimming? Truthfully, it's a bit of a concern. In a lot of the beginner training that I've read people talk about how nervous they are in open water, how far 1000 m can be to swim, how they are overcome with panic during the mass start. And it's all true, swimming is not easy work and I am no fish, I'm not going to blaze through any swim portion. The 'washing machine' feeling of any mass swim start is a little unsettling, but as long as I can remember, I've been swimming. I used to be a life-guard, I've been on competitive swim teams, played water-polo, so, swimming has never intimidated me. I'm totally comfortable in the water. Last year I was able to get my swims in early Saturday mornings and worked myself up to a decent 1000 m. That is still probably the best time for me to get my swimming in, I may just have to stay in the pool a little longer this year.

Most of my weeks will look something like this:
Sunday: Long bike (1+ hours)
Monday: Easy bike (to & from work) & Long run (6+ miles)
Tuesday: Speed work - bike
Wednesday: REST
Thursday: Easy bike ride (up to half of race distance at an average pace) & Speed work - running
Friday: Medium/Hard bike ride (up to half of race distance at an above average pace)
Saturday: Swim (early morning) & Tempo run (evening)

Last year all, except for my long rides, all of my cycling was done 'in transit'. So only twice during the week is there extra time commitment, and it goes towards running. My long runs will most likely start from work-home (4 miles) and then add on my different routes from around the neighbourhood. One of the most important parts to the schedule is having the long rides and long runs on back to back days. It can be punishing on the legs, but you really absorb a lot of benefits by putting the two on back to back days. I did it this way last year and it proved to be very successful for me. As long as I hit all the runs and have two hard rides during the week, I know from last year that my transit rides make up the slack. If I feel like taking an easy day, I know I'll be glad for the break.

While I've been running all winter and have got a good start on the cycling, the real build up starts at the end May and goes for 10 weeks to the end of July, leading to the 1/2 Marathon. That will put two weeks away from the Windsor Tri and in prime form. The Montreal Tri is a month after that, which leaves me plenty of time to take an easy week and then build hard again for that race. Well, that's the plan anyway...

Rough Weekend

While not as rough as what the Police Officer's family is going through, we haven't had a good few days.

Darcy woke up at 3 am Saturday morning (Friday night) and had puked (we think her milk might have been a day past due). She then continued puking about every ten minutes until 4 am, when we realised that at this pace we run going to run out of sheets and sleepers in about 17 minutes. So there was a 4 am load of laundry, then I made a run to the 24 hour drug store at 4 am and had to drive right passed the spot where the cop was shot, there were already flowers. Then she puked about every 15 minutes until 5 am. By this point her stomach was empty and you could tell it was really hurting her to vomit. At 5 am she went about 20 minutes and then half an hour. Her last puke was around 5:45 am. She slept until almost 9 am, so did we. She ended up having a pretty good day yesterday, she ate a little lunch, had a long nap, played outside a little, had some supper, drank water and wasn't sick again. She slept about 12 1/2 hours.

This morning she and I had breakfast together. I gave her half a cup of milk and she seemed fine. Until we went upstairs to get Mommy. She puked on the stairs and then again twice more in the next half hour. She been begging me "Milk Dada? Water Dada? Apple Juice Dada?" all morning. She's just been cuddling up to me saying, "My tummy oww." No more pukes yet. NO more milk for a few days, that's for sure.

The scorecard looks like this so far:
Darcy's sheets: 4
Darcy's sleepers: 6
Sue's shirts: 2
Sue's pants: 2
Nick's shirts: 3
Nick's pants: 1
Carpets: 2

Not a pleasant post.

You may have heard, a Police Officer was shot and killed today in Windsor. It is the first time since 1957 that an Officer was killed in the line of duty and the first time EVER that one had been shot and killed. Disturbing.

What's more disturbing is that, according to Gmaps Pedometre, it happened 800 metres from our house. I kid you not. An intersection that I cross every day going to and from work, that I have driven, biked and run passed hundreds of times. Dad, this the intersection that you walked to for Chinese food last September. Because much of the area was cordoned off and they were still looking for a suspect, I took a different route home. When I came up our street, I noticed that our normally quiet street was really quiet. No one was around. No kids playing, no one sitting on their porches. Too quiet.

Even more disturbing, is that just as we were leaving to go to a friends house for dinner we saw our neighbour was out on her porch. We exchanged greetings, but you could tell she was upset. Earlier in the afternoon she had been on her way to write an exam and passed the spot literally a minute or two after it happened. Through her tears she told us how she saw him laying on the ground, blood gushing out of his head. She saw him moving on the ground, trying to get up, but unable to do so. She didn't know what had actually happened, she thought that maybe he'd been hit by a car. But she didn't have her cell phone, so was unable to do anything. That's the part that was killing her the most. "What if I had done something? What if I had a blanket in my car? What if I had my phone? No, he died alone on the sidewalk."

Ironman

This is a 5 minute video about Ironman. It is the distance that I one day hope to complete. Not because I think I can win, but because doing it is the victory. As Teshie says, "this is about limits, reaching them, exploring them, exceeding or coming to the conclusion that are none."

I've seen this video and others like it hundreds of times. I see their pain and suffering. I've read peoples accounts of doing an Ironman, there is nothing easy about it. I do not take that for granted. Knowing what people go through to complete one of these races inspires me. And somewhere deep inside me is a burning desire and a need to do this.

Thanks to Flatman for posting this.

Hammer Time

I want to be 10 minutes faster in the Windsor Tri this year. To do that I need to cut at least 5 minutes out of the bike portion, which means going from an average speed last year of 32.5 km/hr to 36 km/hr. I think it can happen.

Today was the first day that I've really hammered it on the bike. I went from work to home in just over 13 minutes and was able to sustain 34+ wherever there were no stops. The best part is that I still have three higher gears to use.

Vocabulary Explosion

Darcy's vocabulary switch has been moved from "On" to "Overdrive". Apparently, she's right in the middle of the vocabualry explosion. Not everything is clear, but this week she's been non-stop putting two and three words together, she's also been trying out some big long words, like "Chocolate milk, please?" It's hard to resist such a polite little girl.

The other day Sue was getting her out of the car and said, "Darcy tell Daddy want you want." The kid looked me dead in the eyes and said, "Baby sister." The next thing I remember was the EMT's giving me mouth to mouth.

FOR THE RECORD, there is NO baby is process. While we're not ruling out the possibility of other little Titcombes, there is nothing to report. Period.

Apparently, Dora The Explorer had a baby sister and Darcy never stopped saying "Baby sister" all day long. Instantly aging both her parents 10 years in the process.

--- UPDATE ---

While there is still nothing to report, I've been informed (by my sister-in-law, Hi!) that Dora's mom actually had twins. A boy and a girl. So, apparently Darcy doesn't want anything to do with a baby brother, just a baby sister.

Ankle Problem

Since Tuesday my left ankle has been bothering me. I sprained it in 1993, really badly, and again in January. I took my time recovering and my ankle never really bothered me again. There's some pain about an inch below the ankle bone, on the outside of the foot. Nothing is swollen, but it is tender if I push on it. I ran tonight and could feel the tenderness the whole time. I've reintroduced myself to biking to work, but I can't think of anything that would have aggravated the sprain.

I was hoping to increase my mileage this weekend, but I guess I'll play it safe and wait.

Lotus Elise

Remember the James bond car/submarine? It was a Lotus Esprit. Back in the 60's and 70's Lotus was an up and coming name in the sports car world. They gained a lot of notoriety in F1 while Colin Chapman was leading that team, until his death in 1982. He was a pioneer to the sport of auto racing and many of his innovations are still in use today. After he died, Lotus fell off the map, but has had a bit of a resurgence lately, with the help of Toyota.

Their latest incarnation is the 2006 Lotus Elise. I saw one last week and took a close look. It's a small car and, not surprisingly, it looks like the Toyota Spider, but hotter. Way hotter. If the Spider looks like a fast car, then the Elise looks like an Olympic sprinter. Enormous air intake on the hood and grill, monster brake discs and calipers. Right down to the tires, super slim, almost racing slicks, that are sure to keep the wheels glued to the road.

It's available in hard top, but I couldn't find a price for the submarine option.

Life Altering Questions

My parents and sister were here for the long weekend. Here are some of the questions that Darcy asked:
Where's Papa (Grandpa)?
Where's Papa's car?
Papa?
A book, Papa?
Another book, Papa?
A walk, Papa?
Again, Papa?

And since they've gone home:
Where did Papa go?

I think she has a new favorite person.

Heart Rate Monitor

Today was my first run with my new HRM. I've playing with it for the past few days and am very impressed. When I just sitting around, not doing anything, my resting heart rate is usually below 50 beats per minute. The lowest I've seen is 44 bpm.

I need to establish what my peak heart rate is, so that I can zero in on my ideal zones. There are many easy ways to figure that out (210 - age gives me 179, 214 - 0.8age gives me 189.2). But I'm a sucker for punishment, so I'm going to do it the old fashion way; work it up until I can't get it any higher. I'm in good shape now, so I'm fairly confident that my max is higher than the equations show. Once I know what it is, I'll be able to focus on heart rate training more seriously.

Here are a few numbers that my watch recorded today (my run was 6.5km in 31:34):
Calories burnt (based on the weight that I input): 552
Avg HR: 163
Max HR: 176
Min HR: 133

Some hilarity, from a galaxy far, far away...

Here are a few funny little Star Wars spoofs:

Napoleon Skywalker - having seen both movies will help.

Store Wars - an Organic attack on the Empire.

More Spoofs - these are not as strong as the other ones.

It's Finally Here!

In January, I lost my watch, so I ordered a beautiful Timex Heart Rate Monitor off eBay. Unfortunately, it was lost during shipping and never arrived. I contacted the seller and he was going to send a replacement, but was out of stock. So he gave me a refund and asked me to check back with him in March. So I did. Once he had more in stock, he sent me the replacement and finally, three months after I originally ordered it, it came today!

S W E E T N E S S !

Long Weekend

I was telling Sue yesterday that Jake was doing a 22 mile training run yesterday. Her response was simple; why? Of course, he won't be able to go the full 26.2 on race day if he doesn't work for it now.

I've been part of a Youth Band of the Salvation Army for the last 3 1/2 years. We represent the region from Windsor to Woodstock. Right now we're in the process of planning a trip to Bermuda next May, as a return for hosting their band, which is coming here in November. Clearly we got the better end of that deal! I'm officially too old to be in the band, but I got roped into being on the planning committee and now I'm stuck. Anyone who knows me is probably thinking, "Yeah, it must be a real burden for Nick to have to play in a brass band and go on trips." Okay, I admit, there are some perks.

This weekend was one of those times. We had recording sessions on Friday night and Saturday morning. This meant for a short night Friday (home after midnight, gone by 7:15am), and a looong day Saturday. While I'm was practically falling asleep over my diner last night, it was worth it. For the same reasons Jake puts in huge miles for the marathon; you can't have the glory without the suffering.

I think that makes an interesting theme this week.

Change of Scenery?

In late November I sent my resume to a very large company. Since early January, I've been doing testing to see whether or not I qualify. So far, I've done very well on all the tests and very nearly got exempt from ever needing to be tested again in one area.

Today I had my formal interview in front of the board of directors. A little nerve wracking, but not as intimidating as I feared. All those years of 'opening night jitters' helped me deal with the nerves. The tough part is the waiting. I won't find out anything about today's interview until June or July. If I move on to the next step, I'll be sent away for an extensive training period. And the kicker is, even if I pass the interview, I could be in the waiting pool for as little as four weeks or as long as two years before I get sent for training. IF, capital I and F, I pass the training period, then I've got the job. If not, I need something to fall back on (like maybe my current job?). To me (and to Sue), this opportunity is worth the wait and the risk.

That's pretty much all I'm going to say about it.

The Magic is Over

Officially, the 2006 NCAA champ has yet to be crowned, but our office pool is over. Jake wins whether or not Florida beats UCLA. I'm in second place right now, but if Florida wins, I'll drop to third. Shameful.

Incidentally, Jake ran the Martian Half-Marathon (see his shirt?) on Saturday. He did very well, running 1:41:38 (a PR), beating his goal of 1:45. Well done Jake! Our next head to head battle will probably be at the Moon in June (5 or 10km), I know you're all giddy with anticipation.

Goal #2 - Complete

Today I completed another of my goals for 2006. I ran 10 km in under 45 minutes, I finished my 10 km route in 43:46. Considering it's the third time in my life that I've run that far (once 13 years ago at John Abbott & once in January), I'm very happy to have met my goal time already. Maybe I set it too high, but there's still room for improvement.

I've been having some really good runs from work lately. So I figured it was a good time to try another long one. We had another spectacular day here, it was around 15C and I wore shorts and a T-shirt. I felt strong throughout the first half, but my 5km time was a little slower than where I wanted it. The route takes me right by the house and I had left a water bottle on the porch this morning. Once I got some water in my mouth, it made a big difference. I did get some slight cramping in my left calf around 7km, but it never got painful. I did get one tiny blister on my left "piggy who went WEEE WEEE WEEE all the way home." That was because the seam of my Ultimax socks went right over the edge of the toe. No big deal, easy enough to fix next time.

This ended up being a great run for me. At the race last week, I ran 21:54 over 5km or 4:23/km. Based on that time, according this fatigue calculator, my 10km should be 45:37. If you double my 5km time, 10km would 43:48 - and I beat that time and pace today! I guess that shows that I had a very bad run during the race and I had a very good run today.

Nearing the end of the Madness

I'm sure you all know by now, the Final Four has been decided. This weekend proved again why they call it "March Madness". It's the first time since the early 80's that no #1 seeds made the Final Four and George Mason is the highest seed (#11) to make it this far in a long time, and could be the highest seed ever to make the final if they beat Florida.

As for the office pool, there are only four people that still have a team alive. I'm holding strong, but now in second place and all my hopes rest on UCLA making the final and Florida not making the final. Jake is beating me, I think he's getting used to that... If Florida wins, Jake wins it all. If Florida loses their game to George Mason and UCLA makes the final, then I'll win. Those are pretty long odds.

A small rant

Tonight was a night to run home from work. It did not get off to a good start.

Right at the beginning had a little "heart to heart" with the railway police for crossing the tracks after the train had gone by, but the gates were still down. I only got a warning, what a sweety. Then a 400 lb man told to run on the grass, because it would be easier on my knees. Clearly he was an expert.

Usually I use these end of day runs to de-stress after work. Today I was more stressed when I finished.

Madness Baby!

I'm not a basketball fan, but I cannot resist following the NCAA tournament every year. It's one of those great equalizers in life. You don't have to know anything about basketball or you can follow every game, and the odds are you'll pick the NCAA tournament equaly. At work we do a pool for the world's tackiest trophy.

After night #1, I'm in first place. More updates to follow.

UPDATE!

After the first weekend, I'm still leading the office pool. In the first round I picked 26 of 33 games (including the play-in game) and in the second round I picked 11 of 16 games. I have five of my elite eight still alive and all of my final four (Texas, UCLA, UCONN & Villanova). I've picked UCLA & Villanova in the final, with Villanova winning it all.

Race Day

Not a good race. I ran at a good pace, but couldn't get warm. There was a cross wind and my fingers and nose didn't get warm until 4.5 km. I had some serious side stitches from 4 km on. I just never felt that race instinct. I wanted to catch some of my pacers, but just couldn't make the move. I've still not found a good way to eat when running in the morning, today I had a bagel w/cream cheese & a banana, 2 hours before running. My gut just got worse as the race went on. I was happy with my time, but I wish it had been a better run.

Some things I noticed: The guy who was lined up beside me with a DOUBLE jogging stroller got behind because of the mass start, but then blew by me around the 1 km mark.

A kid who was less than 11 passed me after the turnaround and I could barely keep up. He finished two spots ahead of me. While we were in the finishing chute, I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "Hey man, you were awesome." He was kind of shy about it, but the girl who finished right in front of me said so too.

The winner went sub-15 minutes. Holy crap.

My co-worker Jake had a great race. He took off like a bullet and I knew that there was no way I was going to keep up with him today. He finished 56th overall and 9th of 32 in our age group. His time was 20:35.

I finished 87th out of 395, 15 of 32 in my age group. My time was 21:54. The results are posted here.

I still have a soft spot for The Force.

Courtesy of Jason Kottke, I couldn't pass up taking this little quiz. And so I encourage you to take 3 minutes and "let your feelings guide you." - Ben Kenobi.

I don't know what web 2.0 is. For the record, I got 35 and moved out of my parents basement over 9 years ago.

Running Hard

The weather has been amazing here recently. For my last couple of runs I've been wearing shorts. Last week it rained while I was out and when I came in Darcy took one look at me and said, "Dada, why ze watur?" I asked her, "Why is Daddy covered in water?" "Yeah." She was fascinated by the fact that my hair was soaking.

Today is was 18C while I was out, in shorts and a T-shirt, in mid-March. I love it here. The wind was very strong today, but lucky for me it was at my back the entire way (from work to home). I tried to pick things up a notch, but couldn't get the speed that I used to have. Still I managed a very respectable 29 minutes for 6.5 km. My legs felt great the whole time, but between 3-4 km I got a good side stitch. By the time I hit 5km, the hard breathing was getting to my gut. I've had no pain in either ITB for a couple of weeks now. Stretching works.

All in all, I should be happy with this run, but I'm always expecting more out of myself.

Race #1

The seasons first race for me is next Sunday morning. Our local Running Factory hosts the Spring Thaw 5K. The very informal DigiPrint Running Club seems to have disbanded after the Santa Shuffle in December. Chris discovered he has a bone spur on the ball of his foot and Lorne wasn't all the motivated to keep slugging through the winter months. Jake's going warp speed in his marathon training (he'll be running the London Marathon on May 14th). I've had a rough winter, two weeks lost to injury and another 10 days lost to sickness running through our house. So it'll just be Jake and I going at it next week.

I'm not expecting much. I haven't been working on speed, so I'll be happy to finish around 22 minutes.

Can't Deny the Truth

This is just sad. But the thing is, it's 100% true.

Even though I NEVER drink coffee and Sue only does on occasion, we went to Starbucks afterward to get something to help perk us up a bit. To borrow from the great Derek Zoolander, "If I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't do it in that order."

Feel Good Story of the Year

You may have already seen this story in the paper, on TV or floating around the Web, but it's worth as many mentions as it can get, here's another link.

The links are video about Jason McElwain, a 17-year-old senior at Greece Athena High in Greece, N.Y., a Rochester suburb. Jason, who is autistic, serves as the manager for the boys' basketball team. The coach let him suit up for the last regular-season game on Feb. 15, then put in the 5-foot-6 McElwain for the final four minutes, with the game well in hand. Jason threw up an airball the first time he touched the rock. Then he hit six (out of 10) three-pointers and one more long two on which his foot was touching the three-point line. In all, Jason scored 20 points in less than four minutes before his wildly ecstatic fellow students swarmed the floor and carried him off the court on their shoulders. It's really amazing to watch.

Olympics: Week Two

More highlights from the second week.

On the same day as the Daytona 500, there were several spectacular NASCAR-like crashes in Ice Dancing (shouldn't that be on Fox?). If people crashed like this more often, no one would question whether or not this is a sport. Incidentally, a Canadian, competing for the US, wins the silver. Nice job, eh?

Taking a page from the "Jeremy Wotherspoon: How to NOT compete" manual, Francois Bourque leads the first run of the GS, only to get too nervous and fall way off the pace in the second run. Finishing, in classic Canadian style, fourth.

The Canadian women defend their gold medal in hockey. There are some many Canucks in the building that when the anthem is sung, the singing overpowers the music. Very awesome.

Last week I mentionned the Canadian who won gold for Australia. As far as I'm concerned, the land of Oz can keep him. Turns out that he and his brother are millionaires, they own an internet company. Every day they send out over 20 million spam emails. That's right, he's a crook. Fitting that Australia, founded penal colony, would gladly adopt a criminal. Good on ya Oz.

Cindy Klassen blows away the field to win gold in the speed skating 1500. She wins by 1.5 seconds, a veritable eternity in this sport. It is her forth medal of the games (1 G, 2 S, 1 B). Klassen then cranks out her fifth medal, a bronze, of the games in the 5000 m. She wins the most medals of any athlete in Turin. Her fifth medal, sixth overall in two Olympics, also makes her the most decorated Canadian Olympian ever. How awesome is that?! And she's only 26. Good thing our hockey program is so deep and she got cut from the 1998 team, otherwise we might never have known about what great a speed-skater she is.

So Canada ends with 24 medals, our best ever. But still one short of the goal the Canadian Olympic committee set, thanks NHLer's for your choke job! I heard some impressive numbers that aren't reflected in the final totals: Canada got 42 top five finishes, 14 of those were fourth place. Of the 15 sports in the winter Olympics, Canada won medals in 10 of them, more than any other country. The US won 25 medals in nine sports and Germany won 29 medals in seven sports.

Vancouver 2010, here's to turning those forth places into gold, silver or bronze.

I'll miss the Olympics.

Memo

Memo to Chris Pronger:
You are an oversized useless oaf. Thanks for nothing.

I'm not surprised Canada lost to Russia, in fact I called it before the game started. This team didn't appear hungry or desperate until they were behind and it was too late. Disappointing, but not surprising.

ps: I wonder which way Janet bet on this game?

Being a Superhero

When I was a kid I wanted to be a Superhero, I mean who didn't? Superman: The Movie had come out, the Super Friends were on TV, Adam West was Batman, Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk were all in their original and prime forms, even Wonder-Woman (to an extent) was pretty cool. An invisible plane? That's pretty cool. On some level, I'm still holding out hope that I just haven't yet tapped into my super-powers.

A couple of weeks ago we watched The Incredibles. When I say we, I mean that Darcy was in bed and Sue lasted 28 minutes before falling asleep. We tried it again recently and she made it the whole way. Sue's aunt saw it last year and emailed to tell us that Elastigirl reminded her of Sue. It was true, if not a little creepy, how similar they are. Having Darcy around has really put a cramp on how many movies we watch. We used to go see all the Oscar contenders and have a pretty good idea of who was going to win the awards. Slowly but surely we're catching up, we're still working on last years movies, but we're getting a bit of a life back, if "a life" means crashing on the couch at 8:30 pm Saturday night...

The movie was really good. I like the fact that they can make cartoons that aren't totally geared to kids. The premise of frivolous law suits forcing the government to ban 'supers' into hiding was pretty smart. There were some silly moments, but the makers did a great job of recreating that 70's spy movie feel to most it. In fact, the campy music and some of the plot lines were practically right out of the Bond flick "You Only Live Twice". For example, the egg shaped monorail system and the dasterdly evil mastermind that was going to launch a rocket out of a mountain, but it was that sort of device that I liked. It brought me back to those warm-fuzzy feelings of childhood imagining that I was going to be a Superhero one day.

I've realised that my dream has come true. According to the welcome Darcy gives me everyday, I am a super-hero. While I don't have super-human strength, I can't fly, disappear or spin webs out of my wrists, all I have to do is come in the door and she'll scream out, "DADA!" Then while she's running over, arms pumping, hands waving frantically, she'll keep saying, "Dares (there's) Dada. Halllooo Dada, haallllloo Da!" When she does get over to me, she asks me to take off my coat and boats. After all, once a super-hero comes into your house, you want them to feel welcome and to stay a while. Then she'll stand at my feet, with her arm stretched out above her head saying, "UP UP UP!" She will wait like that until I pick her up and she gives me a hug and plants a nice slobbery kiss on me.

Can it feel much more super than that?

The Olympics: Week One

Here are some things of the highs and lows that I noticed during the first week. You decide if they are highs or lows.

Norwegian cross-country skier, defending Gold Medalist, breaks a ski at the beginning of the 30km. He loses 45 seconds before getting a replacement, only to come back and win the silver medal, missing the gold by 0.6 seconds.

Chinese pairs figure skater falls badly on a throw landing, like her hip should have snapped. She skates it off and skates the rest of the routine, somewhat tentatively, but good enough to capture the silver.

American downhill skier crashes badly in practice. She comes back two days later to do the race with a badly bruised hip and back. She finished 8th.

Canadian cross-country skier breaks a poll, loses the lead and falls way back from the pack. A Norwegian coach sees this, runs on to the course and gives her a replacement. Canada wins the silver, Norway finishes forth.

A Canadian born mogul skier, competing for Australia, wins the gold medal and in the process, knocks the top Canadian from third to forth place. Way to go Canada, push those winners as far away as possible!

The US woman's hockey team calls out Canada for running up the score, calling it selfish and only for short term gains. The US, heavy favorite to meet Canada for the gold, lose to Sweden in the semi-finals.

A US woman snowboarder has the gold medal locked up with a three second lead and about 200 metres to go. Then she hotdogs on the last jump and crashes. The Swiss boarder passes her and wins the gold. To add salt to the wound, half a dozen people mob the Swiss girl at the bottom of the hill, leaving the US girl all alone. Included in the people celebrating is the men's snow board champ, from the US, who is currently dating the Swiss boarder.

Canada wins gold, silver and almost bronze (4th by 0.25 seconds) in Skeleton.

The Swiss mens hockey team upsets Canada 2-0 during round robin play.

Jeremy Wotherspoon, apparently one of the greatest speed skaters ever and favoured to win at least one medal, finishes 9th and 11th in his two "specialties". Way to show up when it counts!

The Streak

It's Friday morning and I'm at home. I wish it was a regular long weekend, but no, I'm just sick.

Remember the Seinfeld episode where he goes on about his streak of not vomiting for 13 years? Mine was 6 years, 1 month and 21 days or 2246 days (you've got to love the internet, that someone has put together a list like this!). I remember it well. It was Christmas of 99, Sue and I had taken the train to Montreal from Toronto and for lunch I bought a ham and Swiss sandwich. Later that night, for my birthday, we went out and had a huge meal at Le Vieux Port and the then went home for cake. Stef had made a wonderful chocolate cake covered with crushed candy canes. But it was about then that the ham and Swiss came back to get me. I spent that night sleeping on the bathroom floor and the next two days laying on a couch with a bucket.

Yesterday my streak was broken. I will spare you the details, but I did lose almost 5 pounds yesterday alone. That can't be good. It took me ten minutes to get downstairs last night and then twenty more to summon the strength to go back up. I couldn't believe how thirsty I was, but drinking was pointless. A small consolation was that in between naps, I was able to see Canada win four medals. Today I've made it downstairs again and ate a little too.

Do you have a streak going?

One Sick Family

Aside from the throat infection that Darcy has, and graciously passed on to me, since Friday night, this whole family has been down with a wicked fever, Olympic fever baby!
Admittedly, we are Olympic-junkies (2 medals so far!). It's way worse then just being addicted to them, it is all we watch, all day long for 16 straight days. When the games are over, there is some serious detox that happens. I would bet that I watch more TV during the Olympics than I do the rest of the year combined. Friday, for the opening ceremonies, we all wore Canada shirts. Darcy wore the hockey jersey she got from her Uncle. It fits really well now.

Darcy seems to have a natural love for the games. We were watching ski-jumping the other morning and every time the jumper would be in the air, she'd yell, "Weeeeeeeeeeeee!" Yesterday morning we were watching in our room and the gold medal ceremony for Canada came on. After Jen Heil got up on the top of the podium, Darcy pulled out the scale and stood on it (her own little podium), at attention, while the national anthem was played.

As has been said before, what a little nut.

"Say it ain't so"

Gambling in sports. It seems to be the hot topic in the news.

This latest hockey gambling ring in just the latest in a long line of sports teams and players getting in trouble for gambling. Have you heard about "the Black Sox Scandal"? Remember Pete Rose getting banned for life? Even Michael Jordan got into hot water with gambling, but then he retired and his trouble disappeared.

According to the news, it looks like Rick Tocchet could easily serve some time for organizing this illegal gambling ring that involves some current and former NHL players, as well as Janet Jones (Wayne Gretzky's wife).

So, is The Great One involved? I'm willing to believe just about anything Gretzky says, so I'd sure like to think that he has kept his hands clean. If he had never married that "Yoko Ono" in the first place, he'd still be winning Cups for the Oilers.

ITB

Stretching works.

I've been fairly diligent in stretching my legs. I admit, that I thought my knee was going to hurt yesterday. I ran well until the 5 km point, at which I could start to feel the ITB tightening. It was never painful, but it would have been if my run had gone any further. I also ran on the opposite side of the road. I've read that continously running on the same side of a cambered road will cause problems for your legs.

So I'll keep stretching and switching sides. Hopefully I'll be able to get back up to where my mileage was in a few more weeks. Injuries stink.

Proof of an Existing Parallel Universe?

Do you read Dooce? If are a parent of a child who is two years old or less, you should. If not, you should. She is just plain funny. Probably not the best things for kids to read, but her takes on parenting are dead on.

In fact, her accounts of raising a toddler apply so directly to our house that there have been many times that I've said to Sue, "Are you and Darcy Dooce and Leta?" or "How did she get into our house?" or "Where are the cameras?"

Recently she posted about being in the grocery store and catching someone singing along to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." A day later the very same thing happened to me. Elmo-Mommy is a commonly heard in my house. But the one fact that obviously proves the relationship between Sue and Dooce is the fact that Leta and Darcy have the same bath toys. I mean, practically every kid in the developed world knows who Elmo is and worships him, but the same bath toys? It's not like we went out to Wal-Mart or Zellers and bought them. My cousin in Switzerland sent them to us. That's down right freaky.

The only discernible difference, other than the "recovering mormon" part, is that they have a dog.

XL

In case you haven't heard, Super Bowl XL is this Sunday in Detroit. Windsor also gets to host a few events, we're going to a fan fest thing this weekend. I was in Detroit, for work, today and came back through downtown Detroit to take a peak at how the city looks. Wow. They have done a great job getting this place ready.

I think it gets a bad wrap from some pretty generalized stereotypes. Yes, there are some pretty nasty areas, but every big city I've been to has those. Anyway, the Super Bowl planning committee and the City of Detroit have done an incredible job cleaning things up. The downtown core is immaculate. There are banners everywhere, tents the size of city blocks to host outdoor activities, several sky-scrapers have 20 story bill boards on them. It felt pretty exciting to be down where all the action is taking place.

"Dah-bee-dah"

We had a crazy weekend, both of us going to different directions trying to get everything done and a few extra commitments that all happened to fall in the same two day span. Darcy really doesn't seem to mind though. Saturday afternoon Sue was out and I asked D if she wanted to go for a walk, "Y E A H ! ! !" We walked just short of 1.5 km in about 40 minutes, that's a good time for a 19 month girl ;) She slept for almost 13 hours Saturday night, we had to wake her up a 9am on Sunday. That I could get used to!

Yesterday Darcy didn't take her nap and was a little cranky in the afternoon, but then after she ate supper was hysterical; telling us stories, reading her books out loud. When Sue and I finally sat down to eat something, she came right over to the table and wanted to get back in her hi-chair to sit with us. We asked if she wanted to sit in a big chair, "Y E A H ! ! !", so she coloured at the big table with us. As if she wasn't being good enough for us she sat on the floor by her toy box and put all her toys IN it before going to bed. The cherry on top of it all was that after her bath she started singing a song at the top of her lungs and laughing like a maniac. It goes something like this, "Dah-bee-dah bee-dah-bee-dah. Dah-bee dah-bee dah-bee dah-bee dah." We were trying to get her settle down, so that she would sleep, but when you told her to be quiet, she'd sing the song in a whisper "Dah-bee-dah bee-dah-bee-dah. Dah-bee dah-bee dah." We wondered if she'd remember her song this morning and while she was waking up she started singing again. By the time we left it was all that was coming out of her mouth. And it's totally a song, she says something in her normal voice and then switches to this little singing voice and goes crazy with her song. What a crazy little nut.

Cape Town on Fire

A huge fire has been chewing up much of Table Mountain. At least one person has died so far. Having been up there in both good and bad weather, I can honestly say this has got to be one of the worst places you could get stuck. Here's another news story about it.

Back in the Saddle Again

I've gone running a couple of time since I sprained my left ankle. Saturday (3 miles) was the first time and then tonight, I ran home from work (4 miles). The ankle is 100% better for running. I need to rebuild some lateral strength in it, but that will come with time. I know that from experience. Not sure if it's related, but at the end of Saturday's run my right ITB was on fire and tonight there was mild pain again.

Since I first felt it, I've done LOADS of reading on the subject and found some fellow tri-bloggers who are currently suffering from the dreaded ITBS, or as it's sometimes known, IT BS. What I know is that running isn't truly the best option for me. However, my own shcedule forces me to rest for 3-4 days in between some runs, so I know I'm not going to overdo it. It's during those days off that I can really help myself by doing some of these stretches. If I'm patient with the recovery and I take care of the ITB, I'll be back to normal in about 3-4 weeks. No big deal, it's winter, what else am I going to do? After all, I'm better off treating this now and not risk greater injury later on down the road, when the training is more serious.

Ps: Happy 45th Birthday to The Great One.

Going Techno

I'm not very good with code and all the fancy computer languages. So I am fairly impressed when I can make changes to this template. If you care, scroll A L L the way down to the bottom of my page, you'll notice that I have added a site metre. Lucky visitor number 1 million will have my heart felt congratulations.

(Collective ohhhs and ahhhs here)

Thank you, that is all.

Where Did My Baby Go?

Darcy got her first haircut today. She wouldn't keep her ponytail in her hair anymore and her hair was constantly in her face. Her babysitters son in a hairstylist and Darcy likes him, so Sue had him trim her bangs. Now she looks like a big girl and, frankly, I'm pretty sad about losing my baby girl.

Busting Vegas

I don't read a lot of books. I've never been much of a reader. I don't really know why, I'm a slow reader and I just find it hard to get in to fiction. When I do read it's certainly non-fiction and tends to be more of the 'true crime' or 'amazing human feats' type book. A real life story like that of Sir Edmund Hillary conquering Everest, Frank Abagnale Jr. in "Catch Me if You Can" or the Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the Andes in "Alive" is what I can really get involved with. I think it's because I find real life to be more dramatic than fiction. Sure, it takes talent to write good fiction and to make up a story that's believable. But, to me, that just can't compare with what real people go through and survive.

Last week I read "Busting Vegas", in one and a half days. I just ate it up. This is the story of Semyon Dukach, an MIT student, who, under the guidance of a professor and as part of a team of freaky smart geniuses, discover that there is a science behind blackjack. And then they go to Vegas and other casinos world wide make the most of their systems. While the author takes some liberties with reality, to spice up the story, the truth behind the systems remains. It would be hard to make a story as fascinating as this one. Not that I think gambling is how I'm going to earn my fortune (although Semyon does make a compelling argument about the fact that it's not really gambling if you know what the result is going to be...), but it's hard to deny how exciting this story is.

This goes on my "Read it now!" list.

Outsmarted - Updated

What does it mean when your 19 month old daughter shows you who's boss?

Round 1:

Darcy was done her bath, but she likes to splash around before we take her out, so she was splishing and splashing away. We told her that it was time to get out, but she told us, "No," and kept splashing. So I pulled the plug to see if the empty tub would convince her that it was actually time go get out. She didn't seem to notice at first. Then, with about a quarter of the water left, she just reached up and took the plug and put it back in the drain. She didn't even hesitate, it was like she'd done that a million times before. Sue burst out laughing. I was slightly less impressed. That girl is one little monkey.

------

Round 2:

As Sue commented, Darcy outsmarted me once again last night. This time, thinking I was smarter than a 19 month old child, I hid the plug and she took her toy froggie and jammed it into the drain, stopping the water to a slight trickle. Darcy 2, Daddy 0.

It's funny because it's true.

This sign is posted along a main street here in Windsor. It's perfect. If you have trouble reading it, it says, "Politicians and diapers both need to be changed and for the same reason."

Awesome.

Ouch

Some people say that a sprain is worse than a broken bone. I wouldn't know, because I've never broken a bone. But twelve years ago I sprained my left ankle. It was brutal, it was during a phys. ed class, I was jumping and landed on someone else's foot. I can still remember my ankle bone touching the floor, from about six inches up. The exact sound was C R A C K ! Within minutes it was yellow and as big as a grapefruit. I went through physiotherapy, twice a week, for at least six weeks. Even after that I had trouble for a long time. Still to this day it stiffens up and cracks a dozen times a day.

Tonight, while almost half way into my 6.5 km run home, I stepped on a rock and turned my left ankle. It cracked, I screamed. Then I hobbled to a fence and screamed again; mostly because I immediately knew how serious this could be. This is the big disadvantage about running home, there's no short route if I don't think I can make it. But the pain wasn't fierce at all, so I gingerly kept going. I did run the whole way, but I definitely sprained my ankle again. It's not nearly as severe as it was, but I'll have to take at least a week off. That's the most frustrating part. I've got myself up over 20 km a week and now I'm going to have to rebuild. Argh.

Once upon a time...

in a land far away,

A girl named Sue met a guy named Nick. They talked and talked. There were lots of laughs. And then, nine years ago today, under a star lit sky, the peek of a mountain, overlooking the city below, they feel in love on a tiny little curb.

One down

I've completed my first goal for the year.

I did a 10 km run on the way home from work. My regular route is 6.5 km and ends almost right at my door. So I was just going to add a small loop at the end et voila, 10 km! A simple plan. However, most of the afternoon it 'slushed' out, so I wasn't very thrilled at the prospect of running for 50 minutes through slush. Fortunately, there wasn't anything coming down when I started, for a few minutes I did have ice pellets and then some light rain, nothing too serious.

Things went really well. The hardest section was probably from 4-6. I can't really put my finger on why. Towards the end of my regular route, I do get thirsty. So to combat dehydration, I left a bottle out on the porch and picked it up on the way by. It was perfect. Getting something cold into my mouth really hit the spot.

At 7 km, I checked my time and then again at about 7.6 km. I was running a very steady pace of 4:55/km. At 8 km I went to check my time again, but my watch was gone. The metal strap broke a very long time ago and I've never found a good replacement. So I've always either carried it, put it in my pocket or worn Sue's watch. Today it was in my pocket. The best I can figure is that after I checked my time at 7.6 km, I tried to put it in my pocket and missed. So I altered my planned loop and did an 'out and back' section instead, hoping that I'd find it on the way back. No such luck, it's gone.

However, I miscalculated slightly on the 'out and back' and went further than I needed to. My run ended up being 10.36 km, according to gmaps pedometre. Based on the steady pace I was doing, that puts my 10 km time at 49:06 and my finish time at 50:53. Sweet.

Time to shop eBay for a good watch with a velcro strap.

New Shoes

This is a post about running shoes.

Last year I heard about a small local running shop (Tortoise & The Hare (Dougall & Cabana), for anyone who is local) that has a 50% off sale, but by the time I heard about it, it was too late, they were out of my sizes. I went there this year and got two great deals.

I have a fairly neutral gait. I have been running in the Asics 1090, a good shoe for neutral-slight overpronators. My only complaint was the blister I got during the summer. That was probably because the size was about a half size to small. So I was hoping to get the same model, in a larger size, but there were none left. I really love the way Asics shoes fit my foot. They grab my foot nice and snugly in all the right places. So I tried the Asics Cumulus VII. Asics themselves describes this shoe as like being on a cloud. They are right, these are keepers.


There was very little in the store that compared with it. Believe me, I must have tried about six or seven other pairs of different brands. Nothing else came close to the cushioning of the Cumulus. But I plan on getting about twice as much mileage this year, so I figured it would be a good idea to get two pairs now, rather than pay a lot more later on down the road. There are a lot of serious runners who rotate a few pairs of shoes, so that none of them get worn down too quickly. Plus, if I like one pair more than the other, I can use one for long runs and the other for short runs.

I very nearly got two pairs of the Cumulus, but I also really liked a couple of Saucony models. Both were very similar to the Asics 1090 in cushioning and stability. In the end the Grid Phoenix won out because it felt the closest to what I currently have.



I'll retire my 1090's at the end of this week.

2006 Resolution & Goals

My New Years resolution os the same as last year, don't smoke. But I am going to add to it this year, run a 10 km.

My goals are:
Bike 2000 km (this year I did 1800)
Run 700 km (this year I will finsh at 380)

Those are really just arbitrary numbers. If I don't meet them, I won't really care. If I blow them away, no biggy either.

What I really want to accomplish is:
Run a 10 km the first week of January. Completed January 5, 2006.
Run 5 km in under 20 minutes. Ran 20:19 August 17, 2006.
Run 10 km in under 45 minutes. Completed March 30, 2006 (43:46 - 4:23/km).
Complete the Windsor Triathlon in 1 hour 30 minutes (10 minutes faster). Completed August 13, 2006, in 1hr40min.
Complete an Olympic length triathlon (1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run). Not completing due to new job training.

Happy New Year!

What were you doing...

31 years ago today?

I was busy, you know, being born. Not that I remember, but they tell me that it happened. Ryan Seacrest was also born 31 years ago today. That's pretty distinguished company.

Now would be a good time to celebrate my birth. Tomorrow we can all think about Jesus.

Titcombe out!

Busting My Chops

The Christmas rush for me is over. If it's not done now, it's too late. It was a pretty typical mad rush of going to the mall at the same time as everyone else in Windsor, trying not to kill anyone, dealing with supposed Canadians not knowing how to drive in the snow, trying not to kill anyone. This week at work has been pretty insane. We are closed all next week (sweet!), so we're trying to get everything finished up. This meant that I had to go to Toronto yesterday to pick up an ultra-rush job, so that it could in our customers hands by the end of the day yesterday. I left at 6 am, made my pick up at 9:30 and was back at the shop by 1 pm. A nice little 760 kms round trip. I was exhausted about an hour later. Add to all that being out serenading with the band 7-8 extra times during the last two weeks. But I enjoy that, it doesn't make me want to kill anyone. Which is a good thing.

Since I can remember, going out serenading with the Salvation Army Band at the Kettles is just simply part of Christmas. It wouldn't be the same if I didn't do that. The year I moved to Windsor is the only year I can remember not doing any serenading. Our band has taken it's lumps over the past few years. We've had more than a dozen people move away or leave the band for various reasons (some as crazy as having a baby!), which has whittled our group down to eight members and left me in charge. I'm a little reluctant to be "bandmaster", I prefer the term "acting bandmaster", because that puts my BFA (Theatre) to good use. All you need for a solid serenading group is four parts, right now our weakest link is the first part, cornet. We've got a couple of young guys who do an excellent job on Sundays, but going out and playing for over an hour straight is too much to ask of them.

Short aside, for anyone not familiar with brass instruments. Two basic things to understand how a brass instrument works: 1. The smaller the instrument, the smaller the mouthpiece. 2. The smaller the instrument, the more back pressure you feel on your embouchure. I'm used to playing a relatively small mouthpiece, the tenor horn, which has some back pressure, but nearly as much as a cornet. Switching from a larger instrument to a smaller one is hard. Although switching from small to large is also hard, because you have to increase your lung capacity. Now I'm getting too technical...

So that left me, not a natural cornet player, to pick up the slack and carry the tunes for the extra gigs. Last week we played 5 of 6 days, this week we had two more. Most of the serenading we do is for an hour and by the end of it my lips were pretty dead.

So that's it. All that's left is the travelling. I'm done.

A Brush with His Greatness

We've all had the experience. Being at the right place, at the right time, bumping into a celebrity, a real honest to goodness superstar. My favorite experience is the fact that I was in a movie with Christopher Reeve,Street Smart. Okay, so were 400 of my classmates (our school was used in the background), but during several takes, I walked right beside Superman. I had a few other brushes with celebrities, but that's my favorite one. It was pretty sweet.

My personal all-time favorite celebrity is Wayne Gretzky. He is THE Great One. As you've probably heard, his mother past away on Monday, in his hometown of Brantford, On. This is where Sue's sister, Lynn, and her family live. Steve (my brother-in-law) once bumped into Walter Gretzky, almost literally, in the local grocery store. Walter did stop to sing a song with my niece and did shake Steve's hand. I'm sure you've already guessed the ending of this story, but I'll tell all the same.

Steve and Lynn were at the Keg for Steve's company Christmas party. They were getting ready to leave the restaurant and one of Steve's coworkers said to him, "Wayne Gretzky is here right now." Steve was like, "Oh sure, we know he's in town, but what are the odds that he's here right now." Just as they were about to head out the door, here comes The Great One. Walking right toward Steve, close enough to be within arms reach. Lynn saw him too. Of course, Steve being a man of great politeness and thoughtfulness, he didn't say anything. However, the minute they got home he called to tell me.

Although I would have wanted to say something to him, I'm sure I would have been paralyzed in awe. And hopefully, I would have had the tact to respect his mourning.

Who have you met?

Darth Vader, Sissy Lord

As long as I can remember, I have always been a big Star Wars fan. Like, we're talking, toys still in the boxes big. In fact, going to see Star Wars in the theatre in 1977, is the first memory that I have that I can place in time. We went with good friends who lived down the street, the McIntyres, and I can still remember the trash compactor scene like it was yesterday. Yes, it's true, only a few years ago I did receive "Ultimate Hair Amidala" and it is also true that she is still in the box. Although, while Sue was pregnant I decided that if we were to have a girl, when she was old enough, she could have Amidala. Three more years Darcy, and she's all yours!

But the latest trilogy really soured my taste for the "galaxy far, far away..." Then, as previously posted, George Lucas went out and ruined Return of the Jedi with a re-edit. Episode III "Revenge of the Sith", was supposed to be the unveiling of how Anakin became so evil and turned into the ultimate villain, Darth Vader, a Sith Lord. It would have been better titled "Revenge of the Sissy" as Anakin turns out to be nothing more intimidating than a cry-baby with some wicked sword skills and the ability to make things float. A nice party trick, but not evil enough to rule the universe, if you ask me.

Turns out that art was only imitating life. The "actor", and that is being used VERY loosely, that played Anakin recently chased a heckler off a movie set for yelling out that he had ruined Star Wars.

Yes, he was terrible, but (and I can't believe I'm writing this) you can't blame Hayden for everything. After all, Lucas is the one who cast him, wrote the juvenile script and put the whole package together.

Booooo, George Lucas, boooooo. You've ruined Star Wars.

ps: I was not saying "Booo-urns."

Naughty and Nice

Sue found a cute little game to see if you are on which side of Santa's list you are on this year. She thinks it's faulty, because I ended up on the nice side.

This picture is indisputable visual proof that neither Sue, nor Darcy, were good enough this year. I'm shocked that they are the only two listed as naughty on the girls side.



Being born so close to Christmas and being named after St. Nicholas, gives me the inside track on this kind of stuff.

Monopoly = One person rules or recipe for divorce?

My favorite sister, Stef, sent me my birthday present. Since I'll be spending a good portion of my birthday, the 24th, in airports, I opened it early. It's "Canada-opoly", a Canadianized version of Monopoly. Which looks cool, all the properties are Canadian, you can own the CN Tower, instead of getting sent to jail, you get snowed in, a bunch of hockey references, all very Canadian. What made me laugh the hardest was that in the middle of the board, in tiny type, it says "Manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio." I'm glad to know that we, as Canadians, couldn't even produce the thing ourselves. Beeeauuuttti, eh? Sue comment was, "I hope we can play this without getting a divorce."

Why is this a recipe for divorce? When I moved to Windsor, before we were married, Sue had a terrible, low paying job and I was a student working part time. We didn't have any money. While we're now married and our jobs have changed, we still don't have any money...

Since we were never able to go out, we decided to buy a board game and entertain ourselves that way. We got Monopoly and played it all the time. There were some really terrific battles, once I even took a picture of the board because pretty much everything had been built up and there was no way either of us could lose. But, you might be saying, that is hardly the point of Monopoly. And this is where the battle left the game board and came into real life.

My understanding of the game Monopoly is that everyone is trying to monopolize the property to put the others players out of business. Hence, MONOpoly. It's a game, there is one winner and everyone else loses. During the game in question, I had the upper hand and was looking to MONOpolize the property and put Sue on skid row. She was trying to stay alive, but I wouldn't accept the deals she was offering. She took that personally and we got into a huge domestic about how, "if you're going to treat me like this in a game, then you're going to treat me like this in life." We never finished that game. I left that night and the game stayed set up on the only table Sue had in her apartment. We didn't speak about it until T H R E E days later, when we decided that it would be good to take a break from Monopoly for a while. A few years later, Sue's brother Brian was in town, so we figured that it would safe to try it with a third person. But once again things did not exactly go well. For the record, I have yet to put Sue out of business in real life.

We'll give this version a shot at some point (I also have the Star Wars version, with cool little pewter figurines as the players), but let the records show that if things get ugly, it's all Stef's fault.

An English Language Update

According to Darcy, all fruit, round Christmas Tree ornaments and anything shape likewise will be henceforth be known as, "Appull."

Go back to your day now.

The Amazing Race

This is our one weakness when it comes to reality shows. It concluded the other night, with the final three groups working their way through, my home town, Montreal. One conclusion that I came to is that my sister, Stef, is not exagerating when she says that the taxi drivers there are morons. All the groups has to go to the underground city to find one clue, then to McGill Arena (at the MacDonald Campus) or the Morgan Arboretum (incidentally, I used to run there) to do one of two skill testing events, then to the American pavillion of Expo '67 for another clue, before doing some trapeze and then searching all of the seats at the Big Owe for their departure time.

The Weavers got the absolute most unknowledgable driver ever. He got them downtown and then went to the wrong arena (a somewhat understandable mistake). But it seemed like he didn't even know that McGill had two campuses. He had to call for directions to the Expo '67 site and wasn't even sure if he was dropping them off at the right spot. Somehow, this team made it first to the "Sttaaadey Oolympickay", but got all huffy and almost gave up when they couldn't find the departure time.

So is there a test these drivers have to take? If so, shouldn't they have to pass it?

As a note, it's worth mentioning that I picked the winning team, the Linz Family, on the very first show. It was four siblings, one girls and three guys. They were young, fast, strong and had a lot of fun. They had no really weak member. We Titcombes would fit that mold very nicely. Throw in our experience travelling and Stef's insane ability at languages and I'm sure we would have been right there in the end.

The coolest thing is what these four did with the million dollars they won. They are four of seven siblings. So they gave their parents half the money and split the other half evenly between all seven. That's doing it for the family.

One Ring to Get Resized

This year I've lost weight, like at least 15 lbs. Over the last three years I'm down a total of 29 lbs. From my heaviest, a chunky 188, to my current 159. It's not like I've been trying experimental weight loss pills, I stuck to the classic methods of eating well and exercising. The latter having the most emphasis, almost to the point of obsessive, but not yet. This year I biked 1813.7 kms, according to my bike computer, I swam over 6 kms this summer and so far this year I've run 340 kms. I'll end up just being right around 400 kms when the year is done. If I'm one or two kilometres short, I may have to go out on New Year's Eve.

I've noticed the weights loss all the normal areas. My pants are loose, my belts are tighter, my face is trimmer. But one of the biggest differences is in my hands. So much so that my wedding ring doesn't fit, it's so loose that it falls off all the time. So I took my ring in to get resized last night. They are shrinking it by full size, I don't really know how much that is, but it sounds like a lot. I keep feeling my finger and thinking that I've lost it. Why couldn't I just have one of those cool rings like Frodo? It always seemed to adjust in size for whomever was carrying it. Plus, then I could do that freaky vanishing thing!

Word of the week.

This is starting to feel like Sesame Street. But there's a reason for that.

This weekend's choice word was, "No." She answered that to every imginable question, including, "Darcy, do you want to eat chocolate?" "Noo."

She also came out with a few "Yeah!" at the right times. "Darcy do you want to go see your friend?" "Yeah!", and she clapped her hands.

But the winner of the word of the week award, for the second consecutive week, was "ELMO!"

I've seen more Elmo then I really care to, but there is nothing on earth that captures her attention like that little red monster.

Sue's Super Duper Race Report!

Feel free to read this. She did great. It was awesome to see her come down that finishing stretch, totally pushing it the whole way. I was almost as excited as her.

I am very proud of her.

Race Day!

Well today was the Santa Shuffle, in London. So it was an early morning, 6 am rise, eat, get half dressed for the race (base layer only), get D up and ready, leave at 6:55, pick up Lorne at 7:05 and hit the road.

The weather was calling for a lot of snow overnight in London, but the drive from Windsor had nothing on the 401. Until we past the sign for London, then there was about a foot and it looked like one single snow cloud was in the sky, right over downtown, where we were headed.

Once we were in London, Sue drove and I finished getting dressed to run. It was cold. Easily -15C, way colder than it's been in Windsor yet, but there wasn't any real significant wind. So we figured it wouldn't be too bad. Once we got there, Chris and Jake found us pretty easily and we started to realize that there was a lot of snow on the ground. They had over 20 cm overnight and were trying to get the sidewalks cleared.

Somehow, during the week, I remembered that last year for Christmas, Uncle Bob had given all the boys this sort safety ice grippers (remember the overwhelming stench of rubber?). So I needed to find them. Thursday night I spent going through boxes in the shed with a flashlight and in the very last box that I opened, there they were! Now, if there were bad running conditions, I may have an advantage.

Since the race is more of a 'fun run' then an Olympic event, it was pretty informal. There were about 300 people participating. Both runners and walkers, which made for a crowed course on very poorly plowed sidewalks. Jake and I started near the front, but still had some really slow traffic to get around in the first 1/2 km. The spikes, which the guys were claiming as illegal (I said that it's not illegal to be prepared), were of no real advantage. As the race progressed most of the bad spots turned to slush, but all four corners were tough to navigate (more about that in a minute) spikes or not. We exchanged the lead a couple of times in the first lap, then I led two laps, then he led the forth and at the beginning of the fifth lap. But for the entire race we were within arms length of each other. We lapped Lorne and Sue starting our third lap, their second. Then we corralled Chris towards the end of either our third or forth lap. We weren't setting any speed records with the course being as it was, we were at about 20 minutes through four laps.

Into the fifth lap and things started to heat up, not literally, it was still really cold. With so much traffic out there we kept yelling "LEFT LEFT LEFT!" Which to runners means, "I'm about to pass you on your left." I did hear one lady say, "Oh our left, not theirs." For the record, my left is on the same side as her left. With Jake leading, he did most of the calling out. We caught Lorne again half way through our last lap and coming into the final corner we caught Sue again. Jake got by her right before the corner and this is where I made a big blunder. I thought, for a split second, about cutting inside to get by her, but I knew I had to stay on her left. Of course, with the split second delay, I pretty much bumped right into her and slowed right down. Thankfully, I didn't knock her over, or I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be here now to write this! I don't think that this had any effect on the outcome, but Jake was now about twenty feet ahead and we both started to really pick up the pace. I got back within arms length about 50 feet from the end, but that was as close as I could make it. Jake won, he gets the Nano, I was a step behind him. He said later that if the line had been ten feet further, I would have beat him. He could hear my spikes coming hard and was really worried. It was an excellent race. I'm disappointed to lose, but not too much because I know we were so close.

Our time was about 24:30, which seemed really slow to us, almost a 5 minute kilometre. But with the bad conditions, wasn't a huge shock. Anyway, I checked the distance on Gmap pedometre and came to realization that we had actually run further! Check out the course that I mapped out, we went almost 5.6 km! Which puts out pace at 4:24, which is closer to what it felt like.

I think part of the reason I didn't beat Jake is that I spent a lot of time thinking about what he was doing and not thinking about what I should be doing to take control. I kept saying to myself, "Stay a couple of steps behind him." Unfortunately for me, that is exactly how the race ended. I should have been focusing on how I felt and how I could have taken the lead in the final lap and done the work to stay ahead. Being behind, I never got to see what kind of pain he was in, and he told me that he was hurting, that I really pushed him in the end. Next time I'll take more control.