A spin for a winter’s day

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competing, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hockey, spinning, training, working out

Every now and then a day at the gym turns out better than you imagined it would and today was a day like that. And that’s saying something because I really like working out and I like the people at my gym, so most days are good ones.

Today is Day Two of the 81-Day Challenge. And today’s benchmark test was a 25-kilometre ride in the spin room. No one was looking forward to this. The race was strictly against the clock. It wasn’t so much a race at all as it was – for me at least – a benchmarking of modest progress over the preceding months.

But spinning is hard work, if you’re trying. You stop spinning, you slow then stop and you’re trapped in the spin room that much longer. And today, no one was allowed to leave until you did 25 kilometres. So go fast, leave fast.

Do the math. If you peddle at a 25 km-per-hour pace, it will take you an hour. I wanted to be out of the room by 7a so I would have time to shower and catch my usual train. Plus the weather made driving slow. So, add on another 10 minutes for that mess.

We went in the spin room about 620a and were quickly at it. I needed to be sub-40 minutes to make my train.

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The challenge and the challenged

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competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, kids hockey, training, working out

We started a new challenge at ATC this morning that is intended to change the way we think about and manage our diets as much as address our fitness.

I won’t bore you with endless details but the highlights are it’s a team concept – Coach Dave and I co-captain one of the five teams – and each of the seven members of the team can contribute points by adhering to rules like filling out a diet diary, not drinking alcohol (at all), only eating meat four times a week, eating no dairy products at all and showing up at the gym and working out, among other things.

You can get bonus points for doing extra challenges – which might be additional pullups or pushups or a long spin. We don’t know yet.

Most of the first two days this week are devoted to benchmarking where we all are so we can (hopefully) see how far we have come by March 31. Weight loss is not a vital component but it should be an inevitable result of working out regularly, eating lower fat diets and more vegetables, and cutting out beer/wine/etc.

March 31 is a long way off but I will declare some goals that can be mocked later if I don’t reach them (I will make them, trust me) – first, I’m going to weigh 214 pounds on or before March 31, and I’m going to be able to do 35 pushups, and I will move my visceral (belly) fat to 5 (from 7).

I have no clue what life is like in your world but I have tendinitis in my elbows so getting to 35 pushups will be some work — about double where I am now. I tried to do pullups today and it was ugly after the first one. I did one (1) in textbook fashion. After that, searing pain and I hung on the rack like so much meat on a hook.

Five for Friday: Vol. VI

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AUS Hockey, canadian politics, cycling, dalhousie tigers, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, journalism, music, tiger woods, training, working out

Time for five for Friday. I have no idea what to say. I’ll be honest. I’m just filling in the spaces right now and hope it makes sense.

–

Item 1: Awesome workout today. The group was a little smaller than usual but the music was a little louder and everyone was having a good time. Why do Fridays always feel more fun?

It was as much of a good time as you can have running suicides, doing ropes and sweating at 6 a.m. , but me, I enjoyed it.

There was a funny moment yesterday just before spin when Richard asked Mike – one of the top athletes and nicest people at ATC – what music genre he wanted for the spin. Mike got the honours because he was the winner of the November challenge. Mike was flummoxed so Richard turned to me to name a genre and I picked Motown.

And then much chirping ensued.

Hey Nineteen

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competing, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, houndmouth, music, training, working out

Back in the summer – which feels like a million years ago right now – I decided I was tired of the same old music and made an effort to shake off the cobwebs and be a little daring.

And it was during such a foray into the wilds of alternative music that I happened upon Houndmouth – a bunch of kids from Illinois who have a great sound and energy and singalong lyrics of love and heartache and the pounding, relentless pulse of life.

They are not yet a “big deal” but Chris and I love the band and today they are in Toronto. They are playing a free show at noon at The Edge 102 and then at the Mod Club tonight, which is a small venue already sold out.

I watched one of their videos last night and it made me happy and melancholy all at the same time.

A weekend in Parentland

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4k tv, AUS Hockey, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hdtv, hockey, junior hockey, kids hockey, training, working out

It was a pretty decent weekend, all things considered. I had two grueling workouts, we bought two TVs, Chris came home for the weekend, the peewees had TWO big wins and we had a couple nice meals.

If it wasn’t for Pad getting crosschecked in the mouth Friday night with 90 seconds left in the game, I might have elevated the weekend to great. But that’s how it goes in Parentland.

On Friday we replaced the late, lamented family room TV with a new 49-inch LG 4K model. I honestly wasn’t in the market for 4k — new technology with four times the resolution of a 1080 screen — but the price was good, we like LG, Chris approved and the rest is history.

Sonny’s Dream

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AUS Hockey, canadian politics, competing, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hockey, music, ron hynes, sonny's dream, training, working out

Sonny don’t go away, I am here all alone
And your daddy’s a sailor, and he never comes home
And the nights get so long, and the silence goes on
And I’m feeling so tired, I’m not all that strong

— Sonny’s Dream, by Ron Hynes

 I’m foregoing the usual Five-for-Friday with a musical interlude.

A guy you’ve never heard of from a place you’ve probably never been who is famous for a song I’m guessing you don’t know the words to died yesterday. I owe him much.

I never met Ron Hynes, the Newfoundland folk singer who among hundreds and hundreds of songs wrote a barroom howler called Sonny’s Dream.

If you read the lyrics sober, it is a profoundly sad and moving song about a young man trapped in the service of his mother, long abandoned by his father for life on the seas. She implores him to never leave; he stares down the road to the cities he’s never seen and dreams of something better.

If you sing the song in a pub in a less-than-sober state, you will make friends, have a grand time, completely miss the sadness of the song, and possibly marry someone you sang with.

One of those days

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competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, training, working out

A couple times in recent months I have written with enthusiasm about how my running has improved and how there are days when I feel almost like a real runner and move with less effort and blah blah blah.

Today was not one of those days.

Today was a day when I awoke in darkness and thought, hmmm, maybe I’m just going to stay here for another hour and not go to the gym. For the first time in a long, long time (excluding the Man Cold™ last month) I didn’t want to work out.

But I got up anyway. I swung my legs out and stumbled to the basement and pulled my gear out of the dryer (I had a work event last night and wasn’t home until late, and when I got home my entertainment was waiting for the wash to finish so I could put it in the dryer. And yes I have more than one pair of shorts and one t-shirt but why can’t you just listen and support me, okay?)

And I drove to the gym and there was a smaller crowd than Wednesday because Thursday is a hard, hard day at the gym and maybe my mind forgot that but my body remembered and wanted me to stay in bed. Note to self: listen to your body.

When I was a boy we didn’t party with Dinos

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canadian politics, competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hockey, journalism, training, working out

Live from Toronto, It’s Friday Night!

When I was a kid in university we amused ourselves on weekends with the usual, time-tested distractions, which given the family friendly nature of this space I will won’t bother detailing.

You all grew up and did most of the same things with varying degrees of effort/enjoyment/criminal prosecution.

Kids now do all that stuff plus – they go to parties at museums.

On the weekend, Chris opted to stay in town Friday night because he was going out with some friends to the Royal Ontario Museum to . . . party? Yes, party.

A travel day

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AUS Hockey, cape Breton, dalhousie tigers, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hockey

Before leaving Ben Eoin I spent some time just sitting on the shore enjoying the quiet. It wasn’t cold. I was the only human in sight. It was wonderful.

I think I have to chalk up Monday as a travel day.

We awoke in Ben Eion after having a great evening visiting with Laura’s family. The weather was classic Nova Scotia indifference — cool but not cold, cloudy with a spit of rain now and then, sunny with dark rolling clouds, and then rain. A good day to drive the four hours back to Halifax.

Today is Day 6 with out working out for me and I’m getting a little twitchy, but I’ve got a bunch of things going on that are preoccupying my time. It just means I’ll be all the more motivated when I get back. Right?

Right.

Five for Friday, Vol II (Monday edition)

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AUS Hockey, cape Breton, cycling, dalhousie tigers, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hockey, Mother Webbs

The view from the shotgun seat.

Five for Friday seemed like such a clever idea 10 days ago. Then the combination of work, travel, and my diminishing memory conspired to override that thought.

So just to keep it going, let’s pretend today’s update is just a late version of Friday.  On with the show.

1. I’m actually writing this portion of the entry on Saturday morning. Dal lost 4-2 last night to Moncton. It was a decent game and except for about an eight minute stretch it could have gone either way. Our guy played well I thought and was certainly the most physical presence in the game, delivering one highlight reel open ice hit that was a show stopper. But he’d rather have two points for a win. Back at it tonight again St. Thomas and Dal really needs to win this one. Obviously I’ll update things later.