General

Howdy folks! Have you been missing me of late? There really hasn't been that much to fill you all in on that would be of great interest. Basically, I've been training and packing and working. Boring, right? Also ActiveSteve has been operating out of a temporary location, and that hasn't been all that conducive to doing much other than the things I've listed. However, that is all about to change tomorrow, on April 1st. Why you ask? Because I'm pulling up stakes and heading to a whole other province to my new house! Yup, it's moving day! Get the keys at noon, and movers should show up at the old place soon after. I imagine you are all now wondering what sort of casa I managed to find in a short period, right? Well, you're curiosity will be rewarded. For starters, just check out the folder of pictures that I put up on flickr. Afterwards, read on for a few more details.

Hey folks, just a quick little post to talk about a little fun that I had last weekend, as a break from training and work. Although I did end up working both Saturday and Sunday for a little bit, I did avoid doing too much and losing my brain. Good thing too, since I had a long training run in the works, as well as a trip to an Oktoberfest in Van Kleek Hill, and a bachelor party back in Ottawa later Saturday evening! See, I don't just do boring things all the time like train and race. I still know how to party. However, I sort of regretted it the next morning, and think I should probably lay off the drinks till after my marathon at the end of the month. Seems like the prudent thing to do. For a collection of the pictures from the Oktoberfest event, click on over to the folder on flickr.

Well hello there inter-nauts! This is just another short little post to assure you all once again that there is more to ActiveSteve than just training and racing :-) Last weekend I was lucky enough to head to Montreal with some friends to catch AC/DC in concert at the Olympic Stadium. That's right, as with most things ActiveSteve, it's go big or go home. Why go to a little show here when I can catch the venerable rock legends from the land down under? I've never been a super-big fan or anything, but I knew that these guys would put on a kick-ass show. After all, any group that can last over 30 years and still be rocking hard well into their 50's is worth seeing, right? Of course, as with all my blog posts, I invite you all to check out the pictures and videos that I took over the course of the weekend. Once you've had your fill, come on back and read the rest of my post.

Hello friends! I'll keep the post short, but I did want to say first off, thanks to everyone who sent me a warm birthday wish, be it card, phone call, wall post or email. It's always great to get a little love on your birthday. This past weekend marked yet another year going by for ActiveSteve. And what better way to spend that occasion then being active? The weather has been particularly uncooperative towards the end of last week, but that didn't stop me and a group of friends from setting up a nice long bike ride for Saturday. All told, we were out there over 7 hours, 6 of those hours pushing hard on the mountain bikes all over Gatineau park. I've set up a nice folder of all the pictures, as well as put together a custom map of the ride for all of you to check out. It was certainly a large and great part of my weekend fun, but there were some other treats in store the rest of the weekend as well. Read on for a little bit more about the festivities.

Howdy gang. Just thought I should dash off another quick blog post to fill you in on a fun charity ride that Jody and I took part in over the weekend, the CN Cycle for CHEO. Of course, I have previously written a quick little piece about it, but now the day has come and gone, and all that's left are some sore butts and legs :-) All in all, the day was a great success, both physically, and mentally. You see, in an economic downturn, it's often charities that are hurt most, so I've made it a point to try and be charitable with my good fortune this year, be it in making donations myself, taking part in events or both. After all, I figure there's nowhere worth investing my money in at the moment anyway, why not give more to charity and get a tax receipt at the same time, right? Anyway, I'll try to keep the post on the short side, but as always, I've got a few little bonuses for you as well, including a map I did of the ride, along with a folder of pictures I took along the route. Once you've had a look, click on back here and read the rest of our tale.

Ok, so I wasn't really biking in Hawaii, but I sort of experienced what biking in that neck of the woods might be like. This will in fact be a different sort of post for me, because it's actually going to be... wait for it... a product review! What?! I'm sure you're wondering why, and fear not, your questions will all be answered, and you'll also get to laugh at me trying to do yoga, and read about a set of cycling DVDs that are new(ish) to the market. Yup, my tireless blogging and training has finally got me some notice. I noticed a comment on my site less than 2 weeks ago asking me if I'd like to review some spinning DVDs, as I'm a cycling blogger, and the gent thought I'd be interested. What follows in the next few paragraphs will explain how I came to get those DVDs, and just what I thought of them. I had to get cracking on it, because with the nicer weather, I didn't want to stay locked up in my basement spinning anymore, so I sacrificed a Friday night to bring you this review and the associated pictures and videos, all of which you can check out on the flickr folder I put them in. But before that, you might as well just hit the read link, since I've embedded the videos as well.

Howy folks. Nope, I don't have a huge exciting blog post for you, but I just realized I'm only a week and a half away from the CN Cycle for CHEO Tour, and haven't gotten off my butt and started fundraising yet :-) Each year, I try to do at least one charity race. Normally, that's the 48hour Quest for a Cure adventure race supporting the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. Unfortunately, this year I'll be in BC racing in another race at the same time, so I had to find an alternative. This year, I'll be riding 70km in the CN Cycle for CHEO, in support of, obviously, CHEO, as well as Ronald McDonald House and the Candlelighters.

If you'd like to sponsor me (any amount would be greatly appreciated), just head on over to my personal donation page. Donations can be made in any amount, and you'll obviously get a tax receipt (for amounts $10 and up). I know, it's not exactly the same as suffering for 48 hours straight as I've done in the past, nor am I riding for days on end, but the cause is still an excellent one, and every penny counts. CHEO helps countless families every year, and they're always looking for support. This idea was actually Jody's, so I've let her get a jump on me in the fundraising, but she's been mainly targeting the ladies, so fellas... why not sponsor me? ;-)

Gobble gobble. Oops, I guess that's Thanksgiving, isn't it? Okay, I'm really talking about Easter weekend for this post. The title is a bit misleading, since I already seem to have burned off the extra bunny weight, but boy, did I eat a whole butt-load of great food over the weekend. If there is one thing I can say about visiting my dad and his wife, it's that you never leave with an empty belly. This visit was no exception. You see, on a whim about a month ago, I booked a fairly affordable weekend airfare for Nova Scotia, since I hadn't been out to see him since he moved fully into his new house in Pictou . It took a while for them to off-load the old house, which meant there was a bit of stress on their end, but now that they've sold it and fully moved to the new place, they can now work on getting it set up the way they want it. I figured it would be a good chance to see it 'in progress'. I've taken a number of pictures over the weekend, both at home, as well as around the area while running and visiting friends. Check 'em out if you want, then come back to read a short bit more about what I got up to over the 4-day weekend.