Bring on the Pain…

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Well, here we go. Yesterday was officially Day 1 of my 2006 Marathon Training program. Luckily, it was a ‘cross-training’ day, and as such, I decided that by going to vote, and then watching people swim for a bit at the Pinecrest Pool, that counted! Ha ha. Well, not really, but I’m still recovering from a cold, and just decided to rest up. Today however is a new day. No more messing around. Training starts in earnest. Mind you, I’ve been keeping active anyway, but now I’ll start monitoring it. As such, I’m just back from my first official 5k run. Great weather for it. 0-1 degrees. I’m once again choosing to use Hal Higdon’s training guides, and have decided to follow the Intermediate II program, which ups my total mileage again over last year. I’ve been a follower of his programs for several years now, and he’s never steered me wrong. Tonight I’ve also got a spinning class for an hour at Cyclelogik, which is next to MEC. Overall, I’ve decided to train more seriously again this year leading up to the summer season. Read on.

Snorkelling is Fun!


So a while back, I promised to blog a bit more about Cuba, and specifically about our snorkelling adventures while we were down there. Well, we finally got around to posting the pictures from the underwater camera, so I guess now is a good time to write about that. Gotta love those little disposable numbers. We took one down with us to Cuba over the holidays to catch us in underwater action. It helps a lot that the water is pretty clear, and that there is cool stuff to be found. The picture to the left is of a piece of brain coral that was in the water in the beach in front of the resort. We took some pictures during our Jeep safari day (see the crazy drunk russian post), volleyball action in the pool, and snorkelling in front of the resort. Overall, they turned out pretty good. The coral in the area we were frequenting weren’t the really colorful stuff, but we’ve definitely decided we’d like to do some more snorkelling elsewhere in the world. I had brought down one nice set of mask / fins / snorkel that I bought at MEC, and we decided we’ll have to buy another set.

I Must be Mad!

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Okay, I suppose everyone knew that I was crazy, but in this case I’m talking about the Mad Trapper snowshoe racing series! Yup, I finally participated in my first official winter racing-type event. It’s part of my ongoing commitment to staying in racing form for more months of the year, and part of my long journey to New Zealand for the Southern Traverse in November of 2007. I was holding off in hopes of having a picture of this event that was held last Saturday, but I haven’t come across any, so instead, you get to see the logo. But I digress. A couple of years ago, Jody and I both got nice snowshoes courtesy of a nice Christmas bonus that Jody got from her work. Since then, I’ve gone out a few times on them, but nothing serious. Well, a friend of mine, Mike Caldwell, who happens to run adventure racing training clinics (at Synergy Adventure Training), also hosts a winter snowshoe racing series consisting of 3 races at his property in the Gatineau region. This year, I decided to give it a shot. I also convinced Kev and Jim Doucette to also join me (although for this race Kev had to bail due to prior plans).

Build by Numbers?

Well, the bar is still coming along, albeit at more of a sloths pace than a gazelle, but what can you do, right? It’s winter, yes, but I’ve still got other things to do. In this picture, you can see most of the rought cut pieces for the bar. Before building, I plan to cut, rout, pre-drill, sand, stain, and varnish most of the wood, so when the time comes to assemble the bar, it’s more like an IKEA project, although much nicer. The little green stickers are the numbers for each piece as per the project plan. If you want to see a few more pictures of where the bar project is at, check out the pictures on flickr. I’ll keep adding more as I go.

Apart from having all the wood cut, I’ve also started tackling the routing. This in itself is proving to be a new challenge, since I’ve never actually used a router. Just to make sure I do an alright job, I snagged a brand new plunge router, as well as a routing table. I’ll say this. After spending 3-4 hours playing with it yesterday, I can safely say there’s no way I would’ve got the project done without those two additions. Now of course, I’m thinking I want a drill press as well. Sheesh. This bar is suddenly getting really expensive! On the plus side, I’ve decided that when I retire, I’ll definitely start doing woodworking much more frequently. Although it can be frustrating at times, I enjoy the precision and the satisfaction of doing something with my own hands. No doubt I’ll tackle a few more projects in the coming years. This bar will be the biggest one in a lone time though I’m sure. There are just so many steps and things I’m learning along the way! Oh well, I guess that’ll make future projects seem that much simpler.

…on Russians and Driving in Cuba

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Hello there loyal readers. My sincerest apologies for the delay in posting any additional tales of intrigue on our recent trip to Cuba. I had to fact-check all of my information for fear that the Somking Gun might find me to be a fraud as they claim to have found Jim Frey’s book “A Million Little Pieces” to be :-). But seriously folks, I’ve just been pre-occupied with welcoming in 2006, and figuring out just what the hell I plan to do with it! At any rate, allow me now to magically transport you back to Cuba. Picture it: Cuba. 2005. December. One of the things that you may read about Cuba is that you really shouldn’t try to drive there. Cars are unreliable, and drivers don’t have that Canadian sensibility (hunh? what? Last I checked, there were plenty of idiots on the road here too!). Well, after our full day of Jeep safari in Cuba, I will concur. However, the drivers you really have to worry about are the damn tourists. And in our case, the crazy drunk Russian tourists (ed. note: this is not an anti-Russian post, just an anti-Russian-that-was-on-our-jeep-safari post.) Read on.