Week 1, Friday

• 3 miles
• Treadmill speed: 4.8 miles/hr but on my last cycle I jumped it back up to my normal 5 miles/hr because I was feeling really good still.
• Time to complete: just under 39 min.
• Today it felt great. I didn't have any bad thoughts, my legs weren't tired. I think I'm used to running 3 miles now! Hurray!!!!
• Now let's hope I don't get sick because I drank twice out of Sheldon's cup by accident in the last couple days and he's got a cold. Yikes!
  

Week 1, Thursday

• I was supposed to do 3 miles today but I was so exhausted that I'll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow is supposed to be a day off anyways.

Week 1, Wednesday

• Run 2 miles
• Treadmill speed: 4.8 miles/hr.
• Run 9 min., Walk 1 min.
• Time to complete: approx. 28 min.
  

Official Half-Marathon Training Starts

It's official, I've moved to the 12-week half marathon training schedule.

Week 1, Tuesday: 3 mile run

• Run 9 min., Walk 1 min.
• Completed in approx. 40 min.
• I bought better earphones to run with (the ones that wrap around your ears), ran a little slower than usual (4.8 miles/hour rather than 5 miles/hour) and ate Swedish Berries while periodically in order to keep my energy up.
• Today I did SOOOO much better. My mind was in a better place. I decided a few days ago to celebrate my 5km milestone. I ?hink that made a difference. As a reward, I think I'm going to get a massage. I wonder what my next milestone and reward should be? Any suggestions.
  

Week 1, Monday: Stretch and Strengthen

• I'm replacing these days with volleyball and last night we kicked some volleyball butt. Sheri joined us as a spare player...thanks Sheri. You were great!
  

Week 7, Day 6

• Run 8 min., Walk 1 min., Repeat 4 more times
• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hour
• Distance: 3.57 miles
• This was really tough. When I was done, my legs were jelly and my head was dizzy. Discouraging thoughts were going through my mind during the last 2 cycles. Can do I a half marathon? I'm struggling at 5 km. Well, I think I have about a dozen weeks left of training. I hope I will get some major breakthroughs in the coming weeks because this is getting really, really hard.
  

Week 7, Day 5

• Exercise for 20 min.
• I took the boys skating on the canal for over an hour.
  

Week 7, Day 4

• Run 7 min., Walk 1 min., Repeated 4 times
  
• Again it didn't say how many times I would have to repeat it so I ran the cycles until I hit 3 miles.
• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hour
• Distance: 3.16 miles

Week 7, Day 3

• I was supposed to run today but Sheldon decided to spray paint Aidan's cub car in the basement. Thirty seconds around the fumes started to make me feel nauseated. So no running today.
  

Week 7, Day 2

• Day off
  

Week 7, Day 1

• Run 8 min., Walk 1 min.
• For some reason, this week's runs don't have how many times I should repeat each cycle. I don't know if that was a typo or on purpose, but just in case I repeated the cycle 2 more times.
• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hour
• Distance: 2.15 miles
• Adding this extra minute wasn't bad. It felt good. I'm so glad because I was losing speed.
  

Week 6, Day 7

• Day off
• Went ice skating with the kids.
  

Week 6, Day 6

Run 7 min., Walk 1 min., Repeat 3 more times

• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hour
• Distance: 2.53 miles
• Legs were extremely tired; my calves were exhausted. I must stretch them lots tonight or I can see them being really sore tomorrow.
  

Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day, Sheldon calls me at work and asks me if I was having a good day, if I was busy, etc. I knew something was up. Any time he tries to surprise me, I can smell it coming a mile away.

Not long after, I get another phone call. This time it was somebody I didn't know. He asked me if I would be in the office between 2:30-2:45? I said yes. I definitely knew something was up. I guessed Sheldon was sending me flowers or something.

Just before 2:30, I was on a call with a client when a page went through the office asking me to go downstairs to the cafe area. I looked at my co-worker who was also on the call and shrugged my shoulders. He motioned that he would go down and check it out and I agreed. I figured if it was just flowers, he could bring them up to me.

My co-worker just got out of his chair when another page went through the office. This time my boss was asking the whole office to come downstairs to the cafe area to see what I got. Now I was thinking, "What the heck did Sheldon get me?" I made my apologies to the client and let my co-worker continue the call while I went downstairs with everyone else. I had no idea what was waiting for me.

As I rounded the corner downstairs, this is what was waiting for me...




Needless to say, I was totally surprised and thoroughly embarrassed. Well done, Sheldon and a Happy Valentine's Day to you too.

For pictures, visit my Facebook account.

Thank you to Capital City Chorus for making this a Valentine's Day to remember!

Crazy Hair Day

Week 6, Day 5

• Day off

Week 6, Day 4

• Work retreat at Chateau Montebello. After the day's meetings, a co-worker and I went to the gym and ran.
• I ran 6 min., walked 1 min., and repeated 4 more times. I ended up running a little faster than usual because this treadmill had the option of no incline (mine has an automatic incline of 1.5). The distance was 3 miles (about 5km)....hurray!
  
• There was a semi-enclosed squash court parallel to my treadmill. A group of teenage boys started to wail a ball against the wall. Of course this didn't bode well for me and I did get whacked in the shoulder with that little black rubber ball.
  

Week 6, Day 3

• I was supposed to run today but it was Valentine's Day. I could have switched with tomorrow and did the 20 min. exercise but nah, it's Valentine's Day. Plus I ate so much sushi for dinner I was way too full to move.
  

Week 6, Day 2

• Day off

Driving through the Mountains

Here's the latest from Jen and Eric's adventure in Morocco:

"Today Jenn and I rented a car in Marrakech and headed for
the Sahara desert. We wondered why we had rented a car 
and were a bit jealous when we started passing trucks 
and buses filled with goats and chickens while the people 
got to ride on the roof.  I like riding on mobile barns too. We 
didn't make it to the desert today. You see there were a few 
mountains in between. We spent the day climbing and 
diving through the mountain passes of the high atlas 
mountains. It was the most enchanting thing we have ever 
seen.
 
We would occasionally stop and look over the valleys and 
vistas and see and hear the shepherds and animals on 
the terraces. We could see many berber villages raised 
out of the mountains. Camouflaged because the huts were 
made of sand and rock. We stopped somewhere and had 
a berber woman make us some lunch. We are certain none
of the ingredients ever touched a grocery store. I mentioned 
the berber villages weren't colorful but everything else was. 
Their clothes their faces and jewelry. They have the warmest 
smiles.  The sky and the orchards and the crystals for sale 
at the side of the road.  I shook a young girls hand. She was 
about 12 and her sister 4. Her hand was like rough sandpaper 
and I could see her face was weathered the same. Must be 
from the wind and sun. Around and on top of every mountain 
there were men gathering sticks or shepherding and women 
drying clothes on stone fences or washing them in the stream. 
I can't tell you how many times a donkey or goat almost startled 
me off a cliff. 
 
Atop the snowy peaked mountains there was no vegetation and 
many steep turns and climbs. On some of the switchback turns 
with little or no guardrails Jenn was getting too anxious. We had 
to take a break. So I stopped and got out for a breather myself 
and was approached by some berber merchants with whom I 
haggled for some jewelry. It was very windy and too cold to 
stand out there without my berber wool sweater or hands in pockets. 
 
We picked up a hitchhiker who's car broke down and brought him 
to ouarzazate  . Here he invited us into his cousin's house for tea 
and we went. We soon found out that anyone who wants to try and 
sell you something is everyone's cousin. That's right. The hitchhiker 
turned out to be a traveling sales agent claiming commissions on 
every service ,meal, and hotel we might need. But we were tough 
and after we guided him to where we wanted to stay he went off 
probably to find another tourist
 
Then we had a wonderful tagine and coucous dinner with dates 
and pickled lemons etc. 
 
Where we are now is in between mountain and desert. Kind of 
like a Utah or Nevada Navaho scene.
 
Tomorrow night we sleep with our camel in a tent in the Sahara. 
The dunes in this part get to 300 meters high. We will probably 
stretch that to 2 nights and press on on camel to the Algerian 
border where the black volcanic sands are. The tribes there
live in stone huts too and I'm told they will invite us in for the night. 
 
This trip so far has been thrilling. 
 
On the way back we might try to bring a live chicken from the 
market and see if we can stop at a berber village and trade for 
a dinner and some interesting conversation."

--Eric

My response will suggest to Eric that he try a similar tactic when
he's traveling and invite his sales leads to his cousin's house.

Week 6, Day 1

Run 7 min., Walk 1 min., Repeat 4 more times

• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hr. for the first 2 cycles, 4.5 miles/hr. for the last 3 cycles
• Distance: 3.04 miles
• Yay! I finally passed the 3 mile mark. Man was it hard.
  

Short Cuts

You can compare the difference in hair lengths with the picture in my blog header.

Celebrity Sighting

On my walk to the bus stop after work, who should pass in front of me but a celebrity. Maybe she's not a huge celebrity, but you see her quite a bit on TV. I didn't know what her real name was at the time; I just knew her as Lacey from Corner Gas. She's on a bunch of other Canadian shows too like Robson Arms and a variety of made-for-TV movies.

My co-worker who was with me at the time made a good observation: She looks EXACTLY the same as she does on Corner Gas. Her hair was done up the same way on the show; hair pulled back but the front had lots of volume.

Connor loves Corner Gas so I thought he would enjoy hearing about it. Aidan asked why I didn't chase after her. Maybe next time I see her I will but maybe I should find out what her real name is first.

The End of the Innocence

I'm in mourning. Here's the story why...

My boys got in trouble in Primary (children's Sunday school) today for their behavior and got pulled out. They have NEVER been pulled out at church before in their lives. Then when we got home and tried to get them to tell us what happened, both of them couldn't get their stories straight. We knew what the real story was because we asked the teacher that pulled them out. But both of them were lying about certain parts of the story.

We told them to stay in their rooms for an hour to think about it. Then we would go to each one to get his side of the story. Then like a police interrogation, we'd go to the other to try and collaborate the story. They still wouldn't confess to the whole truth!

We were more angry that they were lying than what happened in Primary. We wanted to nip this in the bud. We wanted them to know that lying like this is NOT tolerated. We wanted to punish them where it hurt. The consequence: both of them are grounded for a month; no electronics of any kind (TV, video games, computer, mp3 player, etc). When the month is done (which coincidently ends at the beginning of March break) they are going to be given another chance to tell us what happened. If they are still lying, they are grounded for another month.

Connor bawled his eyes out. Aidan just sat there until later when he realized he wouldn't be able to get the new Simple Plan CD that comes out on Tuesday or see the movie Spiderwick which comes out on Thursday.

That's right...hit them where it hurts so hopefully they'll never do it again.

Back to the reason why I'm mourning...the way we handled this and how we came up with the punishment was similar to the way we came up with Solomon's punishments when we lived with us. I'm mourning because my little boys aren't little anymore. They are entering the dreaded teenage years. They are not so innocent anymore. That is why I'm in mourning.

I guess it was fitting that I was wearing all black today.

Week 5, Day 6

• Run 6 min., Walk 1 min., Repeat 3 more times
• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hour
• Distance: 2.18 miles
  
• I tried listening to the Grammy Awards on Aidan's mp3 player (you can get Global TV on the radio for some reason) but the volume only went so high so I couldn't hear very much. I could hear myself running so my attention was on me. I wasn't distracted enough. It was really hard. I'm starting to really doubt myself. If I could have a few runs where I wasn't finding it hard maybe it would boost me up some. I need to find something "fun" about it again. I'm wondering why I'm doing this at all. Why didn't I start with a 5k or a 10k race? I'm really crazy for doing this. I have about 14 weeks until race day. I'm just really feeling negative about the whole idea lately. It's hard to get motivated. I try and find any little thing that could help get me motivated but nothing has gotten me out of this "slump" yet. I hope it comes soon. Deep down inside I don't want to quit but while I'm struggling during my run sometimes, thoughts like "this is nothing compared to the distance I'm going to have to go during the half marathon" I have got to stop thinking like this. Are there any sports psychologists out there who can give me some tips? D...any thoughts?
  

Week 5, Day 5

• Day off
  

Adventures in Morocco

Jen and Eric are in Morocco and I will be sharing their adventures as they email them to me.

"We arrived in Marrakesh today. Wow. I can't describe it. It is sensory overload.
Picture a narrow sand cement labyrinth closed in by 2 or 2 story walls. Fill it
with people then squish them out of the way for donkeys and wagons. Push
them away to fit bikes and scooters and sometimes cars. None of which slow
down for each other. 
 
Arab music and conversation buzzing everywhere. Every corner and street is
part of a market,  smells of food, incense, and garbage every where. It is
what I thought it would be but more intense than I ever could have imagined.
Everything comes to a hush when the call to prayer rings through the streets.
Then people go right on groping at you and offering their services. It is
exciting but scary at the same time. 
 
Call to prayer is every few hours. Yet I don't feel like it is a spiritual place.
 
There are old men speaking oracles for hours while onlookers listen intently. 
 
I haven't seen other tourists really.
 
They don't really sleep. Kids Konrad's age are out till midnight in the streets.
 .
I'll tell you more later."

-- Eric


I replied with "Tell Jen to watch out for donkey poo," and this was his reply:


"You can't watch the ground for poo. It is too busy. Only rest is in our riad or outside the
medina walls and we won't see that for a couple days."

-- Eric


Stay tuned for more rockin' tales from Jen and Eric.

Week 5, Day 4

Run 6 min., Walk 1 min., Repeat 4 more times

• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hour (walking 3 miles/hour)
• Distance: 2.74 miles
• I had a hard time motivating myself to jump on the treadmill today. Plus it's so late...11pm (it's the weekend so I can sleep in tomorrow). My legs were really tired. My breathing seemed to be ok though.
• I found out there's 5 more people from work who are planning on running the half marathon. I think that's great. At work, we're sharing tips...well I'm learning more than sharing. It's nice because I know once the weather gets better and the sidewalks are clear, there will be a bunch of us running along the canal during lunch.

Week 5, Day 3

• Walked for 20 min.
• I was supposed to run but by the time I had time, it was 10:50pm. Yeah, I have to work in the morning so no 35 min. run at that time.
  

Angelina's Early Birthday Party

This event happened a couple weekends ago but since her birthday isn't until mid-February, I figure I'm not too late posting these pics.

The classic girls night at my place. Sarah forgot it was a girls night and Kirk ended up coming over as well. But he joined my guys down in the basement and played video games.

The night was so much fun. I game of "Well I never...", good food, and lots of laughs. Why don't we do this more often?

Week 5, Day 2

• Day off

Frozen Grand Central

This is so cool. At exactly 2:30pm, over 200 improv actors froze on the spot for 5 minutes. For more info, go to Improv Everywhere, the group who organized this.

It's a Miracle!

I hope you're sitting down for this...Aidan is actually eating salad!

Week 5, Day 1

Run for 5 min., Walk for 1 min., Repeat 4 more times

• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hour during the 1st cycle
• Treadmill speed: 5.5 miles/hour during cycles 2-4
• Treadmill speed: 6 miles/hour during cycle 5
• Distance: 2.49 miles
• I figure I'd have fun with the speeds and push myself to see how I felt.
  
• 5 miles/hour feels a little too easy now
• 5.5 miles/hour was ok for the first cycle but then it got a little harder
• 6 miles/hour was very tiring but I just wanted to push myself hard - maybe it's to make up for missing a run
• My legs definitely feel tired and I'm sweating like crazy.
• No tv shows to watch while running today. Instead I listened to Simple Plan's new CD that's out next week...there was a sneak peek on mtv.ca. I wanted to quality control it since Aidan wants to buy the CD when it comes out.
• Does anybody have Cashmere Mafia on PVR and could burn me the first episodes. I'm really curious about that show. I was going to watch season 3 of The Office while I was running but I couldn't help myself and watched it all while I was sick this weekend. Oops.
  

Week 4, Day 7

• Day off
• I still didn't run to make up for yesterday; still recovering from a cold.

Week 4, Day 6

• I was supposed to run today but I was too sick to.

Week 4, Day 5

Walk, bike, or exercise for 20 min.

• Today I shoveled the driveway for 40 min. I think that counts.
• This cold should be going away soon, but in the meantime, does somebody want to trade noses?
• One great advantage of having two vehicles...less snow in the driveway to shovel!
  

Week 4, Day 4

• Run 5 min., Walk 1 min., Repeat 4 more times
• Treadmill speed: 5 miles/hour running; 3 miles/hour walking
• Distance: 2.34 miles
  
• I have a cold but I ran anyways. Overall, it wasn't a bad run.
  
• Another snow storm today...sigh.
  

Week 4, Day 3

• Day off
• Had to work late again. Didn't get home until 9pm and then I had to watch the season premiere of Lost so I didn't run. I'll juggle things around so it all works out.
  

Week 4, Day 2

• Day off