Is it just me …

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cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, music, prince, training, working out

It could be a result of my creeping old age, which some days is less of a creeping like an afternoon shadow across a patio and more like a wild galloping horse from which I have fallen, attached only by a single foot stuck in a stirrup as I get dragged along to an inevitable conclusion.

But my question is this: is it just me, or is it cold?

This spring seems to be slower in arriving than a tax refund. Slower than just about any spring I can recall in the last few years.

It is absolutely true our winter was relatively simply – maybe two or three mornings when shovelling was required and perhaps two or three weeks of true, raw chilling cold. So are we paying the price for that now?

Where are the scientists and their data on global warming, alarming us about the coming tropical reckoning? Even on Saturday and Sunday, days filled with glorious sun and blue skies, it was too cold for my old bones to cycle. The windchill created on a bike moving 25 or 30 km per hour is outside of my comfort zone.

So no biking for me yet – and no, I have not yet replaced the Bianchi. These things take time.

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A day of rest

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

For the first time in a long time I did something different on a weekday morning. I stayed in bed.

My habit since late June is to (mostly happily?) get up at 515a or so and head to the gym every Monday through Friday for a workout. Contorting on artificial turf at 6a is not really “fun” – that’s the wrong word. And pushing weight and pulling yourself through circuit training and flop sweating in the spin room is not entirely a recreational pursuit.

Did I mention the 6a part?

But it is a decent way to start a day and you get fit – or fitter, at least – and you meet some really good people.

With the exception of days when the place is closed – Sundays and holidays – and days when I was sick (three) and days when I was out of town, I can’t remember a weekday since late June when I just stayed in bed rather than work out. (Other than when I was ordered out of the place to rest in late August.)

Today I wasn’t sick or out of town. I wasn’t hurting. There was no injury. But Richard  — who trains us and whom we entrust with our well being — he likes to make sure that recovery days are part of the training regime. And he has been suggesting I needed to take a day or two and just let my system catch up.

Arguing with Richard is pointless, so I did.

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.

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.

They met in a hurricane …

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AUS Hockey, Blue rodeo, cycling, dalhousie tigers, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hockey, jim cuddy, music

“They met in a hurricane,
standing in an Airbus out of the rain …”
— with apologies to Blue Rodeo

It took two tries, but we landed safely in Halifax, our Airbus pushed by massive tailwinds that were once a Hurricane Patricia in Mexico.

Rain lashed the plane on our final approach and winds buffeted the craft, moving the metal beast not just in a turbulent up and down bounce but also left to right. Wisely our pilot bailed out on his first attempt to land and circled and tried it again, this time with success.

Boarding the flight held its own adventure. The Canadian folk rock band Blue Rodeo were on the flight and crooner-in-chief Jim Cuddy was seated in business class, row 1 on the aisle.

To say Laura is a fan of Jim’s would be a disservice to 50-something women everywhere. She knows all the words by heart, has seen the band multiple times and likes the cut of his jib, shall we say.

She boarded ahead of me — the miracle of Air Miles may have allowed us cheap flights, just not seats together — and as she walked by Cuddy she noted the seat next to him was empty.

Enough. Bring on hockey season

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BCHL, hockey, hollerado, music

And suddenly it is like summer, if not technically over, is done in practical terms.

The air changed. The temperature dropped. The humidity dissipated. And the kids trudged back to school. Summer vacations for those lucky enough to have them are done and gone, memories relegated to Facebook photo albums and credit card statements.

Minor hockey is about to burst into bloom, with younger house league divisions having evaluation skates this weekend, the annual coaches meeting creeping up next week, and league drafts coming up.

With Chris officially retired from minor hockey and his brother enjoying life on the left coast, my only hands-on hockey now will be assisting with Coaches Dave and Mike and a team to be named later in MOHA’s atom red division. Planning for that may be discussed at dinner Friday night. Then again, beer.