Being at Home with Family

I haven't been doing much travelling with my job lately and it's been sooo nice to be able to spend a little more time with Amber and Harley. I've tried to make the last week and first week of the month my "travel weeks" and then I'm able to be home during the middle weeks every month. It's been very nice and allows me a chance to recharge from being on the road.

I'm also able to get in some pretty good training, I did two swims last week and that's a major accomplishment for me. I'd like to get in the pool at least three times a week but if I can't get in there on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it's probably not going to happen. I made it this morning and it's great to see the tri gang at the pool bright an early but it's usually really, really busy. Trying to get a lane becomes a serious challenge.

Sunday was a tough, tough "have mercy" workout with our little group and I managed to make out much better than I thought I would. My legs were really tired from running and working on our basement but I suffered through it and lost about two liters of sweat in the process. Had a great time hammering away with five other people, it always keeps me going.

Getting Up Early Is Really Tough!

Its been an interesting week for me, I finally finished my big project at work yesterday, something I should have been working on months ago but it's finished now so I'll never have to think about it again!! Yeah. I had to transition over 600 investment accounts over to my rep code one at a time. I literally spent hours going through file after file in a never ending tedious process. Sometimes I think the compliance part of this job is WAY overblown but it's done now so I'll never have to worry about it again.

In the midst of all that I managed to get in some pretty good training. This was the first week I was at home while Amber ran her 6am bootcamp in our basement on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I tried to use it as motivation to get up early and go to the pool. It worked well on Tuesday and Wednesday but by Thursday I had zero fuel left in the tank. I could not drag my body out of bed no matter what, someone tied a piano to my butt. It didn't help that I also completed 30kms of running and 93km of biking so far this week. I plan to do another 40km ride tonight and a 17km run on Saturday with the Harley dog so I bailed on my swim today too.

Harley seems to be getting braver when we're running together (which isn't a good thing) he is cutting me off and taking my legs out from under me. He's going psycho everytime we run by other dogs and the other dog owners are looking at me like, "what the hell is up with your crazy dog?" Amber and I need to socialize him a bit more so we have plans to take him to the dog park this Saturday and let him play nicely with friends. Hopefully that will help. We both love him so much that we want to do what's best for him but sometimes the additional energy to take him out to the dog park just doesn't exist (for him or us).

Our little spin class seems to be getting bigger. This week we should have 8 people including Amber and myself which is pretty close to capacity in our basement. It's a lot of fun riding with other athletes and it gives you the motivation to push yourself harder. I look forward to Sundays with everyone even though we're usually pushing too hard to talk. I can't wait to see how strong everyone is going to be come spring, especially AD she's been doing a lot of good training.

Post Dog Park; Harley had a great time but was a little too rough. Amber and I have decided he needs to get his butt kicked a little bit to calm him down and we need to learn to let go a little.


and he really needed to rest after having so much fun with other dogs.

Thanks GP Athletes!!!

Had a great weekend at home with AD and Harley, Friday was just a light spin in the basement. Amber had a very tough week of training as well as training her clients so she sat it out but I was eager to do something because I was travelling all week and didn't get a chance to train much. I did something to my neck and I've been trying to get over a pinched nerve for almost a week now.

Saturday we skipped the group run and did a run on our own a little later in the day. It was really nice out (-1) so it felt like I could run forever and Harley was having a ball being outside for a 90 minute run. He did his usual little freak-out whenever we came across other dogs but if I keep running he's usually very, very good. I'd like to take him to the dog park a little more on the weekend but the weekend usually goes very quickly and it's hard to do much of anything other than what we have planned.

Sunday we had the GP group come over to our place for our weekly group spin and it was tough but nice to suffer with other people. There are some very good athletes in this town and I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone's racing season is going to play out, including mine and Amber's. Amber told me she has no expectations for this upcoming season and I think that is a good way to approach an upcoming race. I am going to go into every race giving my best effort but whatever the results are, I'll be satisfied. I've been training very hard and I'm going to keep it up throughout the year so everything else is out of my control. Thanks to everyone we train with for keeping me motivated to push myself beyond what I thought I could achieve and a special thanks to my favorite training partner (and toughest), my wife Amber.

2009 Training has begun!

Well it's already the new year and I've been doing pretty well with the training so far. I keep telling myself that my results during this year's season depend on the effort I put in now, not in the summer. It's definitely been hard trying to stay motivated in what seems like 4ft of snow but I'm doing my best, despite a very painful neck injury. I slept funny and now I can't move my neck or back without a lot of shooting/stabbling neck pain. I'll get over it, it's just going to take a little time.

I've set a lot of great new year goals (much more effective than resolutions) and I'm committed to getting to the pool more often. I've swam a few times already this year and fortunately my body has retained some of the muscle memory and things have been going well. I've also been training fairly consistently on the bike, even though it's just trainer riding Amber and I have still managed to keep things fresh and not get too board spinning in our basement. The only exception was a two hour power outage last Sunday when we were in the middle of a tough Coach Troy session. 40 minutes into it we ended up spinning in the dark, no power, no entertainment but still made it the 90 minutes. Running is a lot more fun when it's a little warmer out, I haven't had much of a chance to use our treadmill except for last Saturday when it was -40 degrees!! I notice that I can breathe a lot easier when the temperature is above -15, anything below that my muscles are just completely starved of O2 and I have to stop or collapse. Amber bought me some Newtons for Christmas (thanks babe) and they are awesome! I feel so much faster and lighter and I can give Harley a good, fast run, enough to wear him out for a while anyway.

There has been some good progress in organizing a Tri club for GP. Even though my suggestions were not really embraced I still feel that we can have a very competitive group and a lot of fun training together. It's nice to hear that a race is coming back to GP and I definitely want to be in it. I'll support the kids in their race the day before but if there is a race here in town, I'm racing!! It'll be the first tri of the year for me so it's a nice way to shake the rust off and not have to drive 4.5hrs to Edmonton to do it.

Our spin sessions with the group start up again this Sunday and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again. It's a lot easier suffering when you know you are not the only one going through it.

Time To Think Of Nothing But Family

Amber and I have had a wonderful Christmas so far, other than some stomach cramps AD is feeling today. No more popcorn with butter for her, it happens every time. We arrived in Jasper Thursday night and were exhausted from some white-knuckle driving. I'm used to it but Amber seemed a little tense; she's not used to driving at night and throw in some icy roads and big semi's and she was pretty nervous. We had a little wine at the apartment in Jasper just to unwind (a little too much for me) but woke up feeling okay. I had to work on Friday so AD spent the day walking/running Harley, it was brutally cold -30+ but he always has fun no matter what the weather. I finished up work and felt a little stir crazy so I took him out for an hour run on some of the awesome trails around town. He was having a ball but when he's off-leash he tends to do his own thing and I spend half the time calling out for him and trying to get him to come back. It was a spectacular run though, we climbed for 30 minutes and got to the top of a lookout overseeing the entire town and an incredible mountain view. I didn't realize how cold it was because when I got home the tip of my big toe had some serious frost bite. It's still a little numb but there shouldn't be any long term damage.

The rest of the weekend we had a fantastic time exploring some of the x-country ski trails and thoroughly wore out Harley. He was in his glory, off-leash and running from side to side, in the woods, out of the woods, running with us, looking for other animals to terrorize. The only time we really had any trouble was when we saw some other skiers with a dog that he had to go bug. We know he's only wanting to play with them but he's SO ROUGH that other dogs get a little scared when he's around. We'll learn to socialize him with other dogs, it's just going to take a little time.

Tuesday we made the trip to Calgary to spend Christmas with my family this year. It was nice to see everyone and spend a little time in our old home town. My family hasn't changed, they are still as happy as ever (the exception being my niece Natasha, she's 14 and just a little hellion). Christi (my sister) says she is going for counselling to try work through some of her issues. We spent some time with Emma (my other niece) and Jake (my little 14 month nephew), he's really strong and is running around getting into everything! So cute though. It was a great Christmas and made me realize that as much as I can get caught up in training, racing, working and travelling, the most important thing in the world to me is my little family. Getting Harley has really made me think of our little household as a "family" and I've made a lot of new-year's goals but the most important one is to make sure Amber and Harley know how much I love them everyday.

Let Go Of My Lungs!!!

It's been well over a week now and this cold just will not release it's hold on my lungs. I took the entire week off and decided to go out for a little jog on Saturday morning with Harley just to see how I felt. I've been coughing like crazy all week and this weekend but I just needed to get moving again. We started out okay and Harley was running beside me at a good pace but after the first mile I felt myself slowing down. I was struggling to breathe and my muscles felt like they were being suffocated. It was the strangest feeling I've ever had, I was moving slower than I ever have before but every step made running harder and harder. I was running through water and breathing through a straw. I finally slowed to a walk after 4kms and I think Harley was disappointed in me, he normally loves running at my pace but today I just didn't have it.

I decided to skip our group ride as well, the last thing I needed was a tough Coach Troy session while not being able to breathe but Amber had fun with a couple other hardcore riders. They were "bending crank arms" while I laid on the couch, arrgh! I hope all this rest means I'm going to come back stronger in the new year.

After they finished Amber and I watched the IM world championships, we both wished we were back there and relived the experience again. It was such a great race and incredible to see so many strong athletes especially considering we both know how hot and humid it was. We know what it's like to race in conditions like that, Kentucky was very similar, although without the trade winds which made it A LOT harder for the athletes on the bike out there. Great race for Craig Alexander and Chrissy Wellington, two phenoms that found something special that day.

A Little Under The Weather

I just arrived back from TO late Friday night and after three days of travelling and meetings it was really, really nice to see Amber and Harley again. We normally have our national conference or western conference during the first week of December and this year was no different. A lot of boring fund managers and a lot of trying to explain what's happening in the markets and how long they think it will last. I guess everyone has their own opinion but I think that once Obama is officially inaugurated things will start to pick up again. Slowly at first but things will get back to normal in the markets again.

Amber and I had our usual bike session in the basement and this one was tough for me to get through. I woke up feeling really rough, I could barely talk and my throat was killing me. It was a fairly easy session but after two hours my knees were really hurting, that's when I knew I needed to take it easy. I obviously picked something up on the plane or in TO somewhere. At least I'm back home with my happy little family, I can handle anything with Amber around.