And why I like Battlestar Galactica

Why I Like Battlestar Galactica

Need I say more??

My new addiction

Yes that is right folks, I am an addict. It seems that the evil demons that live inside our TV have taken over my mind. I'm not sure how it happened or when it happened, but slowly TV has had its sights on me and has been reeling me in. It's started harmlessly last year when I figured that I would rent a few DVD's of TV shows to watch while I rode the trainer. I was being good I thought. Working out, getting rid of flab and watching Jack Bauer (who is actually Canadian by the way) kick some ass and save the world from terrorists.


But it didn't stop at the trainer. I wanted more! There were 5 seasons that had been played out already on TV and I had only discovered the first. There were still 119 hours of mind numbing, ass kicking, terrorist fighting action out there and I was getting thirsty for more. I started watching an extra episode before I went to bed with my lovely wife who would eventually become an addict as well. Soon it became 2 episodes, then 3 and then an even more dreadful day came. I had finished watching disk 5 of season 1 and only disk 6 remained till I would find out how Jack would get him self out of this mess. I ran to Blockbuster to get disk 6 but someone had beat me to it. My dealer was dry. I knew of other blockbusters in town so I drove around all night looking for that elusive disk 6 of season one. I couldn't sleep, eat or love again till I was holding it in my hand and it was in my DVD player revealing to me it's secrets. That was only one dark night of many.

I have watched an entire season in a weekend (thats right 24 hours of 24 in a 2 day period), and have reached out to others to get my fix. Now I take comfort in Prison Break, Battlestar Galactica (Kristi's drug of choice), The Office, and Heroes. I am just a simple man who's mind is being turned to goo by these addictive modern shows. I'm not sure when the day will come that I will break free of these chains but hope soon enough I will run out of good TV and can return to my normal life to function as a regular member of society.

Week 6 Training Plan

Week 5 Training Plan

I know, I know. Week 5 is almost over, and I'm posting this week's training schedule very late. But I will post Week 6 early to make up for it.

Week 4 Training Plan

Our recovery week is over and it's time to get back at it. Here is Week 4 of our training schedule. It's only Tuesday, so I figure this is still news.

Stick It In Your Eye

Well, James and I are both having really busy weeks at work. He is closing a construction job. My boss is in town and I'm starting a clinical study. Between the two of us, it's been hectic to say the least.

Today was by far the worst for me. My clinical study was supposed to commence this morning, and we were supposed to be testing a new piece of ultrasound equipment that takes pictures of the inside of the eye. In order to use this equipment, you need to anesthetize the eye, put ultrasound gel INSIDE the eye, and use an ultrasound probe to capture images of different eye structures. It all sounds very simple, doesn't it?

As simple as it seemed, we decided to try testing the device yesterday in-house, using my boss as a test subject. Not yet being an ultrasound expert, I had picked up a few liters of "regular" ultrasound gel, which apparently causes my boss' eye to turn very red, swell, and sting like crazy. Don't ask me how I know. Regardless, I had to find ultrasound gel specifically intended for use in someone's eye. After a few hours of calling around, I was finally able to locate some of this special gel on the mainland, but it wouldn't be able to be delivered until tomorrow. But the testing was supposed to start today! We needed an alternative. After some brainstorming, someone suggested we try KY Jelly, and I was subsequently sent to the pharmacy to procure a tube of lube.

So, mid-morning on a Thursday, dressed in my finest work clothes, I headed over to the Family Planning section of the pharmacy and snagged a jumbo tube of KY. Seeing the "Keep Away From Eyes" warning on the package and recalling the earlier incident with the other gel, I thought it would be wise to consult an expert before inflaming my boss yet again. So, in a most professional fashion, I marched right up to the pharmacy counter, held up my jumbo tube of KY, and asked the pharmacist, "Do you think it would be ok if I put this in my eye?"

Almost instantly, I realized I should have rephrased my question. With a look of utter disgust, the pharmacist leaned back from the counter and said, "I won't guarantee that you won't get hurt, but if you're going to do it, make sure you use the kind without spermicide."

Dreams vs. Reality

Can you guess which is which?

Week 3 Training Plan

There hasn't been a lot of blogging lately, mostly because not much is going on at the moment. Other than training, of course. Let me see if I can think of anything interesting to tell you...

I lost my swimsuit and found it in the washing machine. We discovered that we can buy fresh made corn tortillas from a nearby Mexican restaurant. There are lots of great vegan recipes in Vegetarian Times this month, so we're thinking of subscribing. Oh, and we think Disco may have picked up some fleas at doggie daycare, so she's getting a serious bath tonight. It's a fascinating life, isn't it? ;)

Truthfully, the past few weeks have really been focused on organizing our lives and getting all of our workouts in. To this point, we are doing really well. Our place isn't dirty. The laundry isn't piling up. We're not eating takeout. And we're hitting all the planned training. Hopefully, once we really get the hang of all of this organization, our life will start to get more interesting again. In the meantime, it's a recovery week and we're REALLY happy about that. :) Here's what we're up to this week.

Week 2 Training Plan

As promised, here is Week 2.

Week 1 Training Plan

Since this blog is supposed to be about our Ironman year and what it takes to get us there, we have decided that we will occasionally post overviews of our weekly training plans. I can't promise we will post them every week because, heck, we will be spending most of our time training! But we will try to do it as often as possible.

We will be leaving out all the intimate details of our workouts and instead just listing the amount of time we are supposed to spend doing each discipline. If you want to know more about the individual workouts, email me and I will send you links to our online training logs, where we write the details of our workouts each day along with some commentary. It's true that we could post everything here and keep it all in one place, but out of respect for our coach and the time she spends creating our personalized training plans, we are electing not to share them with the entire world. Because the entire world is reading our blog, after all... ;-)

Enough disclaimers -- now for the training plans. Here is Week 1 (last week), with Week 2 (this week) to follow in a separate post.

The Life (and Near Death) of Bo and Tina

My friend Cara, who sits next to me at work, has two goldfish who live on her desk -- Bo and Tina. Until recently she had three goldfish, but sadly, Johnny B. Good passed away earlier this week. We think his early demise was due to the dismal conditions of his bowl when no one was cleaning it over the holidays. There was a short service in the ladies' bathroom. But I digress. This story is really about Bo.

This morning, during our daily meeting, we noticed a funny sound coming from Bo and Tina's tank. Because we all love our animal companions, we put the meeting on hold to investigate. As we approached the tank, we realized that the weird sound was in fact Bo throwing himself against the glass. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that he had a rock (a piece of gravel from the bottom of the tank) stuck in his little fishy mouth and was thrashing about, trying to dislodge it! We're not sure exactly why he tried to eat a rock (feed those fish often, Cara?), but it didn't really matter -- Bo was clearly suffering.

As panic set in, we all gathered around the tank, shouting out ideas. "Help him!" someone shouted. "Press on his gills!" None of us could stand the thought of losing yet another fish this week. Instinctually, Cara reached for a drumstick (the drumming kind, not the eating kind) on her desk and proceeded to poke and prod Bo with it, squeezing him between the stick and the side of the tank in what appeared to be an attempt at an aquatic Heimlich maneuver. The compression didn't seem to help Bo at all, rather it only made him thrash more vigorously. I can just imagine him thinking, "Great! Not only am I choking on a rock, now they are attacking me with a musical instrument!"

Abandoning the underwater Heimlich idea, Cara ran to the lunchroom and returned with a teacup, which she used to scoop Bo from the tank. She placed two fingers on either side of his torso, and again attempted to pop the rock out by pressing on Bo's belly. Not only was this second attempt unsuccessful, but Cara was also entirely grossed out by the feeling of fish scales on her fingertips. Cara stepped back from Bo, head hanging in defeat, while the rest of us stood trembling around her desk, anticipating yet another fish funeral. And at that moment, Dave stopped by the office to see what all the commotion was about.

"It's Bo!" we cried. "He tried to eat a rock and it's stuck in his mouth! He's dying, and we can't get it out!" Perfectly composed, Dave surveyed the scene. Calmly, he picked up the pair of tweezers sitting on Cara's desk, gently removed the rock from Bo's gaping mouth, and returned Bo to his tank where he enjoyed a happy reunion with Tina. "Hooray for Dave!" we shouted. "You're a hero! You saved Bo's life!" Dave merely shrugged and walked out the door. All in a day's work, I suppose.

In other news, today is James' 26th birthday! Everyone please wish him another happy year and tease him for being such a geezer.

2007 - The year of IRONMAN

Well 2006 came and went. It started off with Kristi and I joining the Tri club at our local YMCA not really knowing how to run, bike or swim and before we knew it we were in line signing up for Ironman Canada. A race that seemed impossible to complete and only attempted by elite athletes at the beginning of the year has became our goal for 2007. Now neither of us are elite athletes and the distance still makes me shudder when I think about it , but one important thing has changed in my life. Triathlon has made me re-evaluate what is possible and what I as a person can accomplish.

So here are my totals for 2006

Bike: 101h 16m 06s (37.2%)
Run: 85h 54m 33s (31.6%)
Swim: 55h 43m 54s (20.5%)
Strength: 15h 15m (5.6%)
Yoga: 14h (5.1%)

TOTAL HOURS TRAINING = 272.15

That works out to roughly 45min a day every day in 2006. Up from probably 2 -3 min a day in 2005. Also as a comparison to 2007 I figure from the first bit of training schedules our coach has given us, this year I will surpass those totals by June! It looks like my life will consist of sleeping, eating, training and working. I know it will all be worth it though when I cross the finish line at Ironman.

Now I have to get back to the working part. I hope that everyone had a wonderful 2006 and has an even better 2007. Take a chance this year like Kristi and I did last year and do something you think is impossible. I'm sure that you will find as I have you are capable of far more then you could ever imagine.

Lady Di

Well, there is not a whole lot of training going on around our house. Between home improvements, holiday parties, and loads of treats, we are truly enjoying some time off. Since we moved into our place last summer, we have dreamed of covering up the neon walls with more neutral colors, hanging some pictures, arranging our furniture, and just generally making our home look like "us." And that's exactly what we've been doing...slowly but surely...

The truth is that, nearly three weeks into our "home therapy" project, we are still painting. We've decided that either painting takes a lot of time or we're really bad at it -- or both! We've repainted the kitchen three times to date because we hated the color we picked each time. Now we've finally settled on a color, but need to do a second coat with a more durable finish. The bathroom, which was supposed to be spa blue, has received two coats of a minty green hue, and I feel compelled to inform each and every visitor to our home that we did not, in fact, smear Aquafresh toothpaste on every wall. Though mint green could be an appropriate bathroom color, it overwhelms our small space and is destined to be covered over with a safe, beigy variation. Our new rule is to stick to basic colors for basic items (e.g., walls, furniture, appliances) and bring color in through accessories that are easy to change if you don't like them. Yes, I know, that does seem logical. But we are learning by doing, people! Oh, by the way, if anyone is looking for interior paint in buttercup yellow or spearmint green, come see us.

Finally, I will post some slightly blurry pictures of Disco in her new ladybug outfit. (Note the wings and antennae!) She spent last Saturday hanging out with her friends and upstairs neighbors Uncle George and Auntie Janice, who snapped these photos while she was playing in their living room. For those of you who are wondering, yes, Disco will be packing the ladybug costume in her suitcase for her trip to Texas later this month -- a lucky few of you may get to witness the extreme cuteness in person!

And the Painting Begins

So this weekend is shaping up to be quite busy and full of paint. We are attempting to prime and paint our entire condo over the course of the weekend. When we first bought our condo we did so on the basis that it needed a paint job really bad. So here we go. I plan on taking many pictures along the way and will up date on the journey. This is the first time painting a house for both of us. Wish us luck!

Seattle, Hot Wheels, and an Unexpected Offseason

So a lot has happened since our last triathlon related post. I'll give you a quick rundown.






Injuries plenty
Sickness Everywhere
Canceled Races

Basically I learned being new to this whole triathlon thing my body needs a rest after a the long summer racing season. The marathon that Kristi and I had scheduled for November proved to be too ambitious. As a result, after the summer races ended and we started to pack on the training miles in preparation our bodies started to give us some signals that we needed a rest. I got a fairly serious calf injury that has taken almost 7 weeks to fully heal. Kristi injured her hip and knee and to top it all off while trying to keep the training volume up and with our nutrition being less then perfect germs took advantage of our weak immune systems. I missed a week of work, have had a slow recovery and Kristi has fallen sick as well. The past 2 months have not been good and neither of us got to the starting line of the Seattle Marathon.

So what is the lesson learned? The body NEEDS a rest, so give it what it wants.

With that aside and our plane tickets already booked to go to Seattle we figured that we would take it easy and have a nice relaxing weekend. We checked out the very cool Experience Music Project, got nice massages is a Russian bath house, Kristi shopped till I dropped, we ate WAY too many vegan donuts and I picked up some slightly used racing wheels at an amazing price!

Really the only important thing in the above paragraph are the wheels that I have obtained that will hopefully propel me to lightning fast speeds at races this year. They are beauties :). Zipp 606 clinchers, which are essentially carbon fiber wheels which have a deep rim profile that will make me a lot more aerodynamic in my races. The front tire has a 58mm deep rim and the rear 81mm. I should get an extra 1.5 - 2 KPH or speed on the bike out of them which means that hopefully I'll be able to push around 33 - 34 KPH (21 - 22 MPH) in some of the shorter races.

Kristi picked up lots of new clothes and was very excited to be let loose in a city with real shopping. In around 10 hours of shopping we didn't even cover more then 2 square blocks! Her shopping stamina is quite remarkable. I have never seen her so focused an motivated :). We also got a chance to check out the Whole Foods in Seattle. So much vegan and organic goodness packing into such a small place. We ended up eating breakfast there 2 of morning that we were there and ate 8 donuts! Well I ate about 6 of them but I figured what other occasions do I get to eat donuts!

Lets see what else happened. Oh yes, we got massages at a Russian bath house called Banya 5. This was my first professional massage ever and I must say that I will be getting more. Although my masseuse put me into excruciating pain as he dug into my back on several times, it was actually quite enjoyable. I'm not sure how to describe it. But it was a good pain.

Well there is a fragmented description of the past weekend as well as the past few months of training. Hopefully all the resting and relaxing we have done will lead to happy training in the new year. I suspect that our coach will have us taking it easy over the next few weeks and start into some serious training come January.

Hot Child in the City

Hello, folks. I write to you from a bathtub in the city of Elvis impersonators and shotgun weddings. Yes, that's right, I am in Vegas. For work, not fun mind you, and hard work at that. Standing on your feet all day while schmoozing with doctors and trying to sell medical devices really takes it out of you. But why am I writing from a bathtub, you ask? Good question.

You see, in this city, cheap hookers abound, but I challenge you to find a gym open past six o'clock in the evening. My hotel's gym is only open from 6:00 am - 6:00 pm, which means that the 15k run that was planned for today has been scrapped in favor of a leisurely soak in the tub before dinner and the obligatory "team-building" (i.e., binge drinking with co-workers) that typically follows. Though I suppose the reasoning for terrible gym hours is clear -- get thee into the casino -- it is nonetheless frustrating. I was really looking forward to a precious hour of "me" time in the midst of all this teamwork. Not to mention how proud I was of myself for mustering the energy to even put on my gym clothes after such a long day. I suppose my only option at this point is to peel myself out of the bathtub and meet my colleagues for what I imagine will be a long night after a long, long day. On the upside, the hotel I'm staying at has a roller coaster. That should get my heart rate up!

For those of you who have been worried since the beginning of this post about me using a laptop while in the bathtub, let me put your mind at ease. I have made it to the end, dear friends, without so much as a minor shock. It's just as well...I'm sure there are plenty of shocking Las Vegas moments yet to come.

Ode to Disco

It's been a rough couple of days for our little Disco doggie. An accident at the groomer has left her with ulcerated corneas that, though healing nicely, are causing her a lot of pain. Through it all, though, she has been her spunky, playful, and just generally loveable self. What's not to love, really?







And since I'm posting photos, what the heck...here are a few more.

No, that's not half of the Village People! It's James and Kristi on the way to a Halloween party.


Kristi about to dig into breakfast at a Penticton restaurant.


James and a big sandwich. No real reason for posting this other than, wow, look at that sandwich!

Just Half and We're Baked

Several weeks ago, James and I completed the Royal Victoria Half Marathon. Please refer to photo of us at left, looking happy and exhausted. The distance was a first for both of us, something we love because you always set a personal record the first time around! Though the day was cold and rainy, it was a fun experience to take on the challenge with so many other people, and it was an important stepping stone on our way to the Seattle Marathon.

Since our last race, we have upped our mileage as well as our time in the pool. Because we continue to be plagued by overuse injuries, presumably caused by missing too many key runs throughout the summer and early fall, the mandate from our coach is essentially to spend as much time pool running as possible. All of our long runs are long run/walks, and we are focused on injury prevention and our long-term Ironman goal. While it's not particularly fun to aqua jog, get poked by the chiropractor, and roll around on a big piece of foam (okay, that part is kind of fun), I'm glad we're having these complications now instead of the middle of next summer. The point of a fall marathon was to introduce us to endurance training and help us work out the kinks, and it's done exactly that.

And now, as we prepare to slog through a long, wet winter of training, let us review exactly how we ended up here.

First, James and I went to spectate at Ironman Canada in Penticton BC. We met up with a bunch of our friends from Victoria. Some were racing, some were just spectating like us, but all were confirmed tri-geeks.




We watched the swim.


We watched the bike.


We watched the run. (Yes, that is Lisa Bentley.)


And somehow, even after seeing all of this, we still waited in line.


And we signed ourselves up for 2007.


And then we went to Hawaii and forgot all about it.


Don't you wish you were in Hawaii right now? ;)

The Right Stuff

Being strict vegetarians, James and I like to think of ourselves as a nutritionally conscious couple. However, when you're trying to be conscious of so many other things at the same time -- work, bills, housekeeping, triathlon training, doggy care, social life, marriage -- it's inevitable that something will occasionally slide. And for us, lately, it's been our focus on nutrition.

Sure, we eat a vegan diet, eschewing all animal products (except honey, occasionally) in favor of plant-based foods. But the busier we get, the more we tend to shift away from wholesome, home-prepared, vegetables and legumes to more processed, grain-based convenience foods. And let me tell you, we can feel the difference. So today, as we both battle a hangover from a particularly successful weekend dinner party, we will re-focus ourselves on the veggies and commit to making thoughtful food choices. After all, what's the point of doing so much hard work in training if we're not doing the easy stuff, like eating, properly?

Here's our daily plan, with quantities listed per person:

• Strive to eat 1 lb of fresh, raw veggies.
• Strive to eat 1 lb of cooked green veggies.
• Eat no fewer than 4 pieces of fruit.
• Eat at least 1 cup of beans, legumes, tofu, or some combination of those.
• Choose starchy vegetables over whole grains, and whole grains over refined ones.
• Eat 1-2 oz of raw nuts and seeds, plus some flaxseed.
• Minimize use of added oils in cooking.

We both agree that eating this way makes us feel better. We both agree that we deserve to feel good all of the time. And we both agree that a little bit of planning goes a LONG way in helping us make the best choices to support our training and recovery and just keep us happy and healthy in general. Wish us luck!