April 2006 - ActiveSteve

What’s Your Poison?

The Nanaimo Bar management is pleased to announce that the newly-renovated facilities are ready for use! That’s right, work has been completed on the new oak bar fixtures in the renovated basement of the Cheshire Studios and home complex. After 5ish months of spotty labour (you get what you pay for), the beautiful 8 foot bar is done. Not only is it done, but it’s now fairly well stocked. I finished off work last week, but hadn’t gotten around to posting anything on the completed project. The picture at the right shows the back of the bar, with the cabinet doors on, and the fridge it place. The cabinets to the left of the fridge are loaded up with all sorts of libations for future consumption. If you’d like to see a few more pictures of the bar, click over to flickr.

Race Reports

Boy, Does it Add Up….

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So, I just did some quick adding up. Would you believe that since January of this year, up to yesterday night (April 23, 2006), I have run over 820 km? Holy crap! Well, I double checked, and that number is accurate. I’ve put this distance on my own two feet in various shoes over the past 13 weeks. All of this of course is preparation for the marathon, which will be my third time running it. This distance doesn’t include any other things I’ve done, like skiing, snowshoeing, swimming and biking either! I’d like to say I’m a machine, but it really doesn’t feel that way. I’m just a regular guy, who’s been able to be pretty disciplined about getting out there and doing what needs to be done. I’ve got a bit of drive, since I’d like to start coming out with some possible podium finishes in various races that I’ll be doing this summer.

Speaking of which, my schedule is already filling up fast it seems. As of right now, I’m planning to do the marathon, 3 triathlons (including a ½ Ironman), 5 adventure races (hopefully including a ridiculous 1-week, unsupported ‘expedition’ race), 2 trail running races, and playing ultimate Frisbee. Jody isn’t so pleased to hear about new races I’d like to do, since it ultimately means no camping or outings on those weekends. Of course, camping is usually a challenge in itself, what with the Great White Beast, Jonah.

Life in General

Uncle’s Log – April 13, 2006

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Good Morning to you all!

As of the moment of this writing, I am not quite yet an uncle. However, the event is iminent. I’ve decided to try to keep a little log of the day as it unfolds for me (and the new family).

Things started off yesterday when I got a call from my sister: “Are you ready to be an uncle sooner rather than later?”. She was on her way to a diner for a bite to eat, since contractors had invaded their house to do some kitchen renovations. Ironically, a few days earlier, Andrea had said ‘I hope I don’t go into labour while they are there…’. Well, she didn’t, but was awfully close. It turns out that she was full term and pretty much dilated, meaning the big event could happen at any moment. The doctor pegged that within 48 hours, Andrea and Patrick would be new parents, and as a result, I would be the crazy uncle!

Life in General

Opening Night Coming Soon…

Hooray! The bar is seriously starting to shape up into the beautiful oak masterpiece that I envisioned it will be! On the right you can see a shot of the current bar progress. All the main cabinetry work is done, and the lower bar counter-top has been installed. The sink was fitted in for the picture, but not yet fastened down, to make sure I don’t mark it up before finishing the other pieces. The counter came out really nice, and I think this will definitely be a bar worthy of pouring some high-quality spirits on. To those ends, Jody even gave me an early Easter gift, a bottle of Tanqueray No. TEN, a top-shelf gin, since she knows me affinity towards gin. I now have nice top shelf Rum (various aged rums), Vodka (Grey Goose of course), Gin (Tanq. No. TEN) and Tequila (Cuervo Gold), not to mention a nice Single Malt. All these bottles, along with countless others, will no doubt grace the liquor shelf soon once the bar is completed.

Race Reports

The Longest Week

As the title of this post indicates, last week marked the longest week in my marathon training program mileage. From Tuesday to Sunday, I ran a total of 80 km, culminating in a 32km run on Sunday! I repeat this same week twice more in the next 5 weeks, and then it will be the final taper to the marathon. I’m pretty sure I could finish the marathon with no problem tomorrow if I had to, but I’ll still need these next 7 weeks to tune up my engine. Thus far, I’ve had pretty good luck with my training program, avoiding both injury and illness, the bane of any endurance athlete’s existence. That changed for a me a bit in the past week, with me coming down with a nasty little bug. At first, I was worried that perhaps it was my old friend strept throat coming back to haunt me, but as I write this, I think it’s just a nasty cold brought on my who knows what. All I know is that it has caused me to take 2 days off work to basically sleep. Normally, on a sick day, I try to catch up a bit on chores, but this time around, it was sleep central for me, not getting up till after 1 pm both days. It also caused me to yet again seek out medical advice. I still have not gotten a family doctor, and at this point, figure I won’t be getting one anytime soon. Instead, I just keep going to Appletree Medical Clinics. This time, I even signed up to be part of their ‘group’. Essentially, it makes them my family doctor.