Author: Iron Rogue

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Friday Five: The Five Things I Would Have Posted About If I Could Have

The blog went on a bit of a hiatus for the last month and a half, but I finally got a chance to wrap up my review of the Samsung Gear Fit Smartwatch earlier this week.  There were tons of topics I wanted to post on during that hiatus, and the truth is, I’m still really swamped with work while the holiday madness is on the horizon, so I guess it could happen again.  Still, I want to move forward, so rather than try to write all those posts that were timely weeks ago, I’m going to use a Friday Five to get caught up on the big ticket items and move forward from there, OK? These are the posts I woulda-coulda-shoulda posted:

  1. Featured Blogger at Fitfluential – Running Apps: Did you guys see my guest post on the Fitfluential Blog? In October, I covered Running Apps, what’s available, what’s important, etc..  Here’s the link to the article.
  2. Levac Attack – This year’s Levac Attack came and went, and I wish I’d been able to do more to promote it.  We were in a new location (Port Credit) and it was a fun course, with a 15 km option this year in addition to the usual 5 km, 10 km and half-marathon courses.  While we enjoyed it, I think it marks the close of our stroller running career as Shark Boy rode his bike for a lap then chose to hang out near the finish line and gorge himself of Timbits.  The Lightning Kid started to cry after a lap, so my wife and I had to split up our running and did the last 5 km of our 10 km runs separately – each taking turns to watch the Lightning Kid.  It was another big success raising money for Mount Sinai hospital, and I’ll keep hoping to get some more of my local bloggers involved next year!
  3. Angus Glen 10k/Half-Marathon – This is my wife’s favourite race as it has an awesome post race meal inside the Angus Glen country club.  Due to an organizational/scheduling snafu, we scrapped our childcare plans for the day, which was just as well as I had a splitting headache and didn’t feel like running, so I watched the kids while she ran it.  We also met my friend John and his wife there – she scolded me for not recruiting her to watch the boys, but once she saw how they tore it up running around the inside of the country club, she might have had second thoughts!  My wife was really happy with her time, as it wasn’t a personal best overall, it was certainly faster than she’s run all year, and that’s especially impressive considering how hilly the Angus Glen course is.  John PR’ed his half-marathon, which I thought would be impossible considering how hilly it was, but he had done the Scotiabank Marathon weeks earlier; being in marathon shape makes a half-marathon no big deal, I guess.
  4. New Phone – In spite of a protective cover, I cracked the screen of my Samsung Galaxy S3. One crack wasn’t so bad, but then this happened:

    And here’s how:

    Anyway, we were due for an upgrade at work soon enough anyway, so all I had to do was stick it out for a couple of weeks, and ta-daaa! Samsung Galaxy S5.  So far, I really like it, and though the S5 comes in an Active version that is waterproof and shock-proof, which I didn’t get.  I still like this model, especially now that I have a Lifeproof case on it to make it waterproof.

    5. A photo posted by Axel Kussmann (@apkussma) on


I’m still getting used to the phone, having to make little changes to make the user experience more like what I’m used to, and I have yet to use all the new bells and whistles it offers (HR sensor like on the Gear Fit Smartwatch, ANT connectivity – hopefully to connect to my Garmin accessories).  I can post a review of the phone and the case in the near future hopefully.
  1. Weight lifting – The general, haphazard approach I’ve taken with my off-season is to lose weight, or more accurately, get leaner.  I’m using the principles from Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat – Feed The Muscle; but not only am I not adhering to his prescription very closely, I haven’t even finished the book cover to cover.  Still, it’s gotten me re-engaged with strength training and considering macro-nutrients a little closer. I’ve known that protein is supposed to make you feel full, but I usually felt just as hungry for a mid-morning snack when I ate egg whites as when I ate cereal, and unfortunately, healthy snacks like veggies or nuts never seemed to satisfy.  I’ve been playing around with making a smoothie with hemp protein (from Manitoba Harvest) alongside my breakfast (which is starting to include more protein sources too).  While I’m wary of simply adding too many calories to my day, it’s better to have them earlier than later, and feeling full right through till lunch has kept me away from the Tim Horton’s more and more often.  On the exercise front, the idea has been to schedule in strength workouts as first priority, with the idea that cardio is easier to come by – I could run or even bike outside my lunchtime workout slots more easily.  While work and family chaos, high-priority items and emergencies have kept me from being on point and regular with workouts and nutrition too often during the last month and a half, when I have been good, I’ve seen results.  Pounds come off the scale and go on the barbell.  Some of the strength gains might be actual muscular strength and some might be more me getting more confident with the lifting technique and willing to push it more.  If I keep up some endurance work, I shouldn’t really bulk up, and generally when I’ve gotten too swamped to fit in the endurance work, I’ve been too swamped to weight lift too, so it kind of works out.  I’ll be posting a time-space efficiency hack of my workout routine in the near future so stay tuned for that.

Is your off-season regime radically different from your on-season? Is there a phone upgrade you’re craving?  Do you know of a hidden gem race like Levac Attack or Angus Glen?


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Gear Corner: Review of the Samsung Gear Fit #Smartwatch

Ever since smartwatches were announced (and yes, it was well before Apple announced theirs) I’ve wanted one.  It would have to be waterproof and fitness oriented, though which narrowed down the selection somewhat.  The Samsung Gear Fit would fit the bill (and work well with my phone the Galaxy S3 since they’re made by the same company), and when one went on sale, I couldn’t pass it up.


Once I got it out of the box, it was quick to pair with the phone.  There is a Gear Fit Manager app to download, and the fitness features require a separate app.  The first one (from here on, I’ll refer to it as the Manager) let me make some adjustments to the watch’s display and interface.

I didn’t like the default wallpaper (too colourful) and went with a purple one.  The other default I ddidn’tlike was the orientation of the screen for data.  It was perpendicular to the way I usually look at a watch.

Bluetooth pairing went seamlessly; there was hardly anything to do – the connection can be initiated from the phone’s app side or the watch. I think people who struggle with Bluetooth pairing won’t have any trouble.

As I started using the watch, there were things I liked right away. I loved getting notifications through the watch – I usually keep my phone on vibrate because I don’t like it making obtrusive noises, but sometimes I still miss notifications or calls. When your wrist buzzes, it’s hard to ignore. You can configure what kinds of notifications get sent to the watch: text messages are probably important, notifications from Google+ communities (for example), maybe not so much. The notifications don’t get sent to the watch when you’re using the phone, which is a very intelligent feature.

The watch has a pretty good range from the phone (I think I got as far as 50 feet from it), so it can be handy to leave the phone somewhere nearby yet safe and secure. Of course, that range gets decreased by walls or obstructions.

Beyond the convenience of having an interface to the phone on my wrist, the biggest benefit of the Gear Fit is as a fitness device. There’s an accelerometer inside which tracks arm movements and is used to drive the step counter, much like the Fitbit Flex. Unlike the Fitbit, however, you can look at your progress on the Gear Fit’s own screen. Making 10,000 steps a day is a great way to keep burning calories throughout the day, and better yet, you have proof of how tiring chasing kids around really is.

The Gear Fit has a Heart Rate sensor, which I was really excited about. It’s worth noting though, that you have to hold still to use it, so you can’t track your heart rate continuously while working out. It’s better for spot checks like seeing what your resting heart rate is; I tried taking measurements during a run, and even though I stood still it wouldn’t get a reading because I was too sweaty or something. The heart rate readings don’t interface into third party apps like Endomondo (see below).

Heart rate aside, the Gear Fit has its own interface to apps like Endomondo and Strava, so that you can start and stop tracking your mileage through the watch. This is probably my favourite feature, since this kind of thing (starting/stopping, pausing) is always awkward. Now, I put the phone in a Spi-belt (or armband) and don’t fiddle with it once I’m out the door.

The Gear Fit has an interface to the media player, so that you can start, stop the music (or even video) you may be listening to (or watching) or skip tracks. That’s a lot easier than mucking about with the phone that was nicely tucked away in a pocket. I did notice one time that when I used Endomondo to pick my music, there was a serious lag between when I’d hit a control on the smart watch and when the action (e.g. skipping tracks) took place.

The accelerometer in the Gear Fit doesn’t just track your steps while walking, but you can put the smart watch into sleep mode to track the quality of your sleep, like the Fitbit. The screen makes it easier than the Fitbit to start tracking, but I didn’t like how the assessments were presented. It simply gives you a total amount of time, and a percentage that you were motionless. At least Fitbit tried to differentiate (and illustrate the occurrence of) restless sleep vs. waking, even if it got it wrong some of the time.

The Gear Fit can be used for alarms, but it doesn’t store the alarms locally; the phone must be on and connected (via Bluetooth) to the watch for alarms to work. In my opinion, that makes the alarm feature next to useless.

Staying connected to the Gear Fit drains the phone’s battery quite aggressively, and the Galaxy S3 didn’t have great battery life to begin with. Turning off Bluetooth occasionally (when you didn’t need them to be connected) was a good way to save a little battery life. The watch’s battery typically lasted about 2.5 days between charging. It charges with the regular charging cable that works for Samsung and Blackberry, but needs an adapter cradle. This cradle is roughly 1 square centimeter and black, so of course, I eventually lost it. I’ve ordered a new one from Amazon, and I’ve written this post from notes I’ve taken during my ownership of the Gear Fit. I’d probably have more details in this review if I was still using the watch (and rest assured, I will again), but I’d really like to get this review finished and move on to other posts.

Overall, with smartphones getting bigger and bigger screens, the smartwatch form factor has a lot going for it, and a fitness oriented, waterproof model like the Gear Fit is close to perfect for the tech-savvy, connected fitness enthusiast.

What do you think of smartwatches? Cool, or dorky?

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Youth Are More Active Than You Think…

King of the Playground

The news has been getting me down lately.  I really don’t know how to fix terrorism or the sorry state of our culture when it comes to gender roles etc.  But I have seen a few things this week that make me want to refute claims that our youth are overly sedentary and our digital society is ruining how they socialize.

We’ve had a nice Indian Summer going on here, and when I’ve gotten home from work, the easiest way to get the kids out of my wife’s hair while she prepares dinner is to head out the back door, through the backyard, to a local playground.  If you’ve been reading this blog at all before today, it should come as no surprise that we get active outside as a family; at least half of this year’s posts follow that theme.

My kids, however, are very young – too young for cellphones, tablets, video games or even most television.  They don’t necessarily represent (even demographically) the overall problem that gets reported in the media.

On Tuesday, I was at the park with the Lightning Kid; Shark Boy is still getting used to full school days without naps, and was taking it easy at home.  I saw some pre-teen boys doing some calisthenics.  I found it puzzling, because there didn’t seem to be a real leader or purpose to their exercises, but I was still glad to see young people being active.  The Lightning Kid and I played our little game of climbing up the playground and going down the slide for a while before we got called to dinner, but on the way back, I noticed their exercises had progressed to martial arts kicks.  I started to think they might be doing some kind of pretend ninja training… then I saw one of the kids consult a tablet. They were obviously following some kind of Youtube workout/training video!  Score one for the digital age.

Yesterday, I took the Lightning Kid to the playground again, and I got a call that Shark Boy wanted to join us.  He ran out of the backyard and I made sure he got to the park.  Once we started climbing the structure, we found we had to share it with some teenagers (I’d put them around 14 – definitely a little older than Tuesdays’ kids).  They were playing Manhunt/Manhunter or something – basically a combination of tag/hide and seek that involved teamwork.  I don’t need to figure out the details – I played games like that as a kid too, and rules always vary from region to region and generation to generation.  The point is, they were breathlessly sprinting, climbing, trash-talking etc. not cyber-bullying or sexting, or any of the other things we worry about teenagers getting up to.

Technology has a way of reshaping our culture for better and for worse, but the important thing to remember is that it usually fragments the way we spend our time rather than making wholesale replacements – kids are playing outside AND playing video games, for example.  It’s not always black/white/either/or out there.

Have you seen any examples of kids engaging in traditional play, or even re-interpreting it for the modern age?

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Best of the Beaches Kids of Steel Duathlon starring Shark Boy

For the third year in a row, Shark Boy has participated in this Fall tradition of doing a Kids’ Duathlon down at Ashbridges Bay.  He’s getting to be a veteran of multisport, but he still seems to want me pacing him for re-assurance.  I don’t mind the exercise…

Saturday was a jam-packed day, as after the duathlon my wife and I attended training run by the Down Syndrome Association of Toronto, and Shark Boy would be going to a birthday party.  I’m happy to say we got it all done, but let’s just focus on the exercise and activity – that’s what we do in this blog.

Thanks to a public address system hooked up to loud speakers, we all knew how much time we had to get the bike and helmet set up in transition.  Shark Boy was running in the second heat (which didn’t help our schedule much). I could see he was nervous before the start, and yet eager to go, but he still did a great job of keeping the excitement in check so that we could have a good time.


He’s been talking a lot lately about being “the fastest” and while I don’t want these events to become high-pressure and competitive, I did let him know that if he wanted to be the fastest, he was going to have to lead the pack a little and tried to coach him on how to do that.


Running, he really put the pedal to the metal – he was gasping for air after the first run leg (50m) heading into transition.  We’d reviewed the important safety steps about putting on the helmet and walking the bike to the mount line before the race, and he nailed it.  As usual, the bike course made it look like he was on a motorcycle compared to the other kids – his focus did start to wander a little on the middle part of the bike course when you can look out at the lake; I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree after all! I do the same thing…

The bike course is 600m long, and ends with an uphill climb, and he got up it by himself (except for my constant cheering).   Again we executed a good transition, and then we got to see him run like I’ve never seen before.  He had his mouth wide open gasping for air, and though the last 25m (of a 100m run leg) started to lag a little, all it took was a reminder that “drinks and cookies” were at the finish line and he started to sprint.  It’s what we call in German “Endspurt”.

The Need for Speed… and anonymity.



Apparently the Lightning Kid did a great job of cheering “Go, go, go” to everyone and also enjoyed pretending to take pictures.  We looked up the race stats later that evening and found out Shark Boy was 4th overall, and 2nd place boy (the girls took the top 2 spots!).  We’re really proud of him; I hope he’s enjoying the sport for itself, and not just the fatherly bonding and approval, though. 


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Terry Fox Run 2014

On Sunday we did the Terry Fox Run at West Deane Park.  Sure, I was sore from the *Lakeside Tri* the day before, but no rest for the wicked, right?  That’s what the “Indefatigable” at the top of the web page refers to….

It was a chore packing the Chariot (which the Lightning Kid has been showing a lot of enthusiasm for), and Shark Boy’s new “mountain” bike into the trunk, but we ultimately made it to the park for 10:00.

My father-in-law and his wife had come to the park and convinced us that they could take the Lightning Kid off our hands during the run.  They’d end up walking a good portion of the Southern half of the trail and spending some extra time at the great playground.

Once we had our stickers and ribbons on, I got excited at the prospect of finally doing the course in its entirety, in the correct order of kilometer markers.  We took Shark Boy along on his bike and headed North.  The North end turnaround is about 2km from the start, but you see a 9km marker on the way, which we would face later.  I tracked our run with Endomondo, and when my wife heard the app announcing our pace at every kilometer, she’d cringe at how we’ve slowed down over the past 10 years or so.  I figure you’ve got to be happy to be still moving and getting out there.  We took water at the North end, and turned back toward the start.   From there, you head to the South End turn-around which occurs around 6km.  Shortly before then, we ran into the Lightning Kid and his grandparents, and Shark Boy let us know he was done for the day – he probably got around 7km or riding done.



My wife and I carried on to the Southern end, took some water, then back to the start and past it for another 1km to the 9km mark, then the final stretch. I got her to space the walking breaks up a little to more regulated intervals instead of just willy-nilly.

 I don’t know whether to be proud or ashamed of how I egged my wife on for the rest of the trail, but I’m proud of her for getting out of her comfort zone a little by pushing pace and distance, and hopefully it made her a stronger for the next run she does.

Once the run was finished, we had hot dogs and hamburgers with a little extra playground time. We didn’t quite make it to the bouncy castle or hot air balloon before they were shutting down, but we still had a nice day out and raised $175.00 (thanks to our generous donors).

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Race Recap: Lakeside Sprint Triathlon

I woke up to rain.  Not good.  I could also feel sore muscles from a Boot Camp two days before;  either the glute bridges or hamstring curls on the Swiss ball had taken their toll.  I wanted a good breakfast – a protein shake with Zico coconut milk water, hazelnut milk, real milk, Manitoba Harvest hemp powder and almond butter beside oatmeal with Greek yogurt and wild blueberries.


I had packed the night before and even pumped up my tires and the race didn’t start till 10:00…. I had plenty of time, right?


I’m not quite sure how it happened,  but my 7:45 planned departure became an 8:00 one,  and the 90 minute drive ran into 100 thanks to a bathroom break on the way.


My wife was with me; I figured there wouldn’t be much for spectators to do and everyone but me should stay home,  but she wanted to cheer me on and my mom had come over to watch the kids – so I had my favourite roadie/cheerleader along.



By the time we parked the car and I had my race kit picked up, they were calling for athletes to clear the transition area, and I had somehow lost my timing chip, much like I had the week before at the Kortright Centre (though I left that part out of the recap).  Luckily in both cases it was short-term loss and the chip was found.


And yet I still hadn’t found my way into transition.  For security, they were giving everyone bracelets that would be keyed by bib number to each bike so that athletes taking bikes out after the event could be verified.  I figured I’d cross that bridge when I got to it, and snuck under one of the fences.  I racked my bike, grabbed my goggles, swim-cap and wet-suit (leaving my earplugs behind) and exited the transition area without having done any organization or setup, though apparently my transition bag (which I’ve used in at least half a dozen races) was a violation that they let slide in the interest of time.  At least I wasn’t the last one out, or the one to hold up the whole race…


I got to the swim start and nearly literally ran into my friend Steve and his wife Andrea.  They wanted to see me put on my wet-suit while wading into the water; challenge accepted.  According to them, Lakeside is quite the nice venue for families when the weather is nice; I’ll have to make a note of that for next year.  They were doing the relay and swimming in a later wave, so they helped me zip up (and get the sleeves high on my shoulders) seconds before my wave took off.  Being at the back of my wave didn’t seem so bad considering I had no idea where I was going; I’d need to follow the crowd as best as possible.

Once my face hit the water, I settled in mentally – I was at the start of the race on time, and here to enjoy myself.  Being insecure about the navigation and everything else made me pop my head up to sight too much, but I think there was a little extra adrenaline for keeping a good pace.  I think I had managed to get to the front of my wave of yellow swim caps by the time we  could put our feet down. (Swim Time: 16:12)



I exited the water and the run to transition was really short. I think my legs felt somehow, I could almost describe myself as feeling woozy. I even lost my balance taking my legs out of the wet-suit and fell on my butt; which is exactly what I was trying to avoid given the wet grass and mud around. The T1 transition was going to be extra-long, I had made my piece with that. Getting my Garmin sorted out, finding my shoes, etc. gave me lots of time to get my bearings, catch my breath and start confidently. Except for how cold it was and the fact that I don’t own arm warmers or anything like that. I’d have to ride myself warm. (T1 Time: 5:20)

I’d been worried about the rain not only for the sake of being cold and wet, but also for safety. I’d heard a co-worker had broken his collarbone entering transition at a race a few weeks before and couldn’t even lie down to sleep for all the pain he was in. The rain had stopped fortunately, and though we had to exercise caution, the ride never felt precarious, especially given that there weren’t many turns involved and it was a relatively flat course for long stretches (though not entirely free of hills – what fun would that be?).

I heard my name being called by someone about to pass me – it was Phaedra of Blisters and Blacktoenails! If you don’t know her from her blog, just check the podium at a given Ontario race, she’ll be there. Needless to say I expected to be passed by her, I’m just glad that it was on the bike course where we could spot each other and say hi instead of the swim where there would be no recognizing each other. She’s not just fast, but she must be perceptive to recognize me (we’ve met all of twice) – I wasn’t wearing my race bib. Still thinking of the wet roads, I told her to stay safe and watched her pull further and further ahead. I toyed with the idea of trying to catch her once, just for kicks, but it proved hard with some of the blocking and drafting that was going on in the pack I found myself in. I’m tempted to name and shame since I still remember the bib numbers of the worst offenders, but instead I will just say, that it’s very romantic that you two want to ride as a couple, but this is a race that actually has rules against riding side by side like that. I kept Phaedra in sight longer than I expected to, which still wasn’t that long. After the turnaround I took a gel, and but my concentration wavered on the latter half, which may be why I averaged less than the elusive 30 km/h on the race. Averaging 28.7 km/h isn’t too bad given the general state of my conditioning, though (Bike Time: 46:48)

Coming into T2
T2 is always simpler than T1, even when you’re completely disorganized. I had my Zoots along, so it was easy to slip off the bike shoes and into the run shoes (no socks) once my helmet was off.
I ran out of the transition area, and promptly stopped, snuck back under the fence, and went back, because while I had ridden the bike without my bib, I knew I wanted it for the run. The timing mats counted my first exit, not my second, but I started my Garmin according to the second attempt; more on that later. (T2 Time: 1:59)


So fast the camera couldn’t catch me… except in those pics above where it did.

The dirt road was pitted and there were times you had to avoid deeper mud, so nobody seemed sure exactly what part of the road we were supposed to run on, luckily we had it all to ourselves. There was a young girl who must have twisted her ankle and was crying pretty badly around 2 km in; luckily she was about 50m away from an aid station so help arrived quickly. I took water or whatever carb-electrolyte drink they were serving (they said Gatorade, but I don’t think so) every time, but I used the little breaks to make sure I had a good aggressive pace, especially on the last 2 km. My Garmin said I got a time of 27:10 for the 5km which is not a personal best (within a triathlon), but pretty close (I did 24:31 at the Muskoka Sprint of 2011). (Run Time: 28:54)


I was happy and proud to be done. The post-race food was pizza, but I really love the chocolate milk the most. I got cold fairly quickly, so we opted not to hang around, though it would have been nice to socialize a little more. I managed to talk my way back out of transition with my bike by showing my bib and body marking (by then I was wearing a hoodie and track pants to stave off hypothermia) and I made the long drive home with a smile on my face.

I owe another thank-you to my lovely wife, who’s support not only makes racing triathlon possible, but her photography is what makes this recap possible! Thanks, my love!





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Going Long – Race Recap: 5 Peaks Kortright Centre Enduro Course

To ultra-runners, the distance of the Enduro courses at 5 Peaks events are laughable.  But to me, it’s the longest I’ve gone on a trail (with all the hills) and longer than most training runs to do 10 km.  


And then I found out that it would be more like 13km.  I was still looking forward to the race until I heard thunder rolling in as I was trying to get the Lightning Kid to sleep.
That should read “… don’t *want* a thunderstorm..”
With rain forecasted for the day, we decided to keep the kids home.  I was already nervous about how they’d behave for their mom when I was out running for twice as long as I usually do, and I didn’t think the Kortright Centre had as much to offer as Heart Lake or Albion Hills (like splash pads).  In the end, the weather ended up not being so bad, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

I picked out the absolute worst pair of running shorts I could for the day, but I think they were the only clean ones I had available.

  1. I worried that they’d soak water like a sponge
  2. It turns out the elastic is worn out and I had to pull them up continuously while running (sorry about the plumber-butt anyone running behind me!)
  3. They chafe the insides of my thighs.
I got to the race, picked up my bib and timing chip, then lost the latter while standing in line for the porta-potty.  Luckily, it was recovered and announced so I got it back.  Before the race I found Jessica of Laces and Lattes, as well as Robyn Baldwin and her friend Allegra. Robyn is a big fan of Shark Boy and the Lightning Kid, but she took it well when she found out they wouldn’t be there.  She and Allegra were in the wave ahead of me, but I managed to get a shot of them doing Robyn’s patented “The Face”.
 

The rain from the night before made the course wet and slippery, so we were warned to take it easy on hills, bridges, boardwalks, whatever.  I was determined to take the pace easy, to make sure I was able to finish strong anyway.  Taking it easy also meant I had the opportunity to take nice pictures, and with a 2 loop Enduro course, I had 2 chances to get pictures of notable sights.

I wouldn’t have predicted that the Kortright Centre (to which we’ve been for Maple Syrup festivals before) would have some of the nicest sights of the 5 Peaks series, but have a look.



There were some hills on this course, and I’m pretty proud of how I handled all of them.  Early on, of course, I was feeling strong and passed people who chose to walk.  Then I encountered what the hilarious Erin Dasher (race director and announcer) described as a “water feature”.  There’s a saying (or rather more of an excuse/rationalizaiton) in Engineering Development: “It’s not a bug! It’s a feature!”  That’s what this reminds me of…


I think I could have balanced on those railings to get across dry, but that honestly felt like cheating, so I got wet feet like everybody else.  Between the wet shoes and fatigue (especially on the second loop) some of the hills gave me a very heavy feeling in my legs, which reminded me of a hard brick workout… which is a good thing, I suppose.

If you look closely you can see some of the network of tubing to bring the sap from the trees on the right side of the picture.
I not only saw the Kortright Centre’s maple syrup facilities, but also learned of their Raptor Centre (for the Canadian Peregrine Foundation).  I couldn’t get too close to the cages (sorry about the poor photos), but in addition to peregrine falcons they had a bald eagle and a great horned owl that actually went: “HOO… HOO”.  We’ll have to bring the kids once.

HOO



I mentioned I wanted to finish strong, but in spite of taking a Clif gel on the second lap and Gatorade being available on the course, my pace simply had to slack on the second lap.  Still, on the last kilometer I started getting aggressive.  I passed 2 runners on the final, biggest hill.  There was a contest to name the hill and someone came up with “S.O.B” which stands for Shortness of Breath (not that other thing).  I never submitted my suggestion which was “Hill-o, I hate you won’t you tell me your name” (sung to the tune of the old song by The Doors, with option second verse Hill-o, I hate you, you drive me insane).  As I crested the hill I saw two younger ladies who seemed to be easily prancing like pixies through the forest.  I must stress that this was a false impression that was brought on by pain and exhaustion, but I sprinted to the finish to catch them both (tying the faster of them at the finish line).  You know, like the spiteful jerk that I am. I’d like to think Robyn and Allegra’s cheers helped me achieve that final sprint.

For once I didn’t have to dash away from the race, and I managed to snag a cup of coffee (well after eating my post-race bagel, banana and cookie).  I forgot to add my bib number to the draw, and my finish time put me in 3rd last of my age category, so sticking around for the awards ceremony didn’t have much point, but at least I got to witness the shoe toss challenge (for the prize of a Suunto GPS watch).


It never did rain, so it was really a magnificent day and an appropriate end to my trail running season.
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Friday Five: Top 5 Fall Races

I’ve got 3-4 other topics I know I want to talk about, and write posts for, so what am I going to do? Write a completely different post instead.  Must be a blogger thing.  If you’re new here, I’ll tell you I’m going to review the Samsung Gear Fit smartwatch, and go really in-depth on how sleep is important for health, so be sure to subscribe for these posts as they come in.


Fridays mean Top Five Countdowns (when I feel like doing them of course), and this time I’m highlighting my Top 5 Fall (or Autumn if you prefer) Races.  For whatever crazy reason, our family’s race calendar seems to be craziest in September; but we had fun last year, so we’ll do it again!


  1. 5 Peaks Kortright Centre.  We’ll be there tomorrow!  If you haven’t noticed, I’m a big fan of the 5 Peaks Series.  The whole family has fun, and while I haven’t run this venue, I’m somewhat familiar with the Kortright Outdoor Education Centre from Maple Syrup Festivals every spring.


  1. Lakeside Sprint Triathlon.  The only thing standing between me and a triathlon-less 2014.  I hope I’ll have a respectable time that is comparable with past performances, but with the differences between courses, there might be no sense in comparing.  I’ve never been to this venue… I’m just looking forward to getting my swim/bike/run on again.
  1. Terry Fox Run – This is a threepeat for us (Triathletes love 3s).  Here’s the family donation page if you want to help fight cancer with us.  I’ll be recovering from the Lakeside Tri the day before, but this is really leisurely family fun.  Let’s hope for good weather.

  1. Kids of Steel Duathlon – Shark Boy is going to threepeat this one this year too.  Between this and the Kortright Centre, I’m hoping to light a bit of a fire under him as it dawns on him that races can be more than just a light bit of sightseeing; if he wants to be “the fastest” (his words), that might mean starting at the front and going as hard as he can.  On the other hand, I don’t want over-competitiveness and pressure rearing their ugly heads.  I want to coach him, yet let him take the lead as to what he wants to get out of these events… does that make any sense?

  1. Levac Attack – Registration is now open! The event has been moved to Mississauga and takes place on Saturday October 4th (event details here [Facebook].  A very small race with great post-race food, that is accessible for strollers and whatnot.  We are in our 5th year of raising money for Mount Sinai Hospital’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit.


Over the past year, I’ve noticed my blog has undergone a bit of a theme shift from my individual endurance endeavours to active family living.  Both were always supposed to be big factors in what I’m inspired to write about, but there’s no doubt the balance has shifted from more of the former to more of the latter.  Active,healthy families are a big deal to me, but not every family can be as lucky as ours (even with a child with special needs, we are all able to participate in a lot of physical activities, as you can see from some of the links I’ve used).  Mount Sinai is there to help families with high-risk pregnancies get to a point where they can hopefully enjoy lifestyles as fun and wonderful as the one my family does.  It’s an honour and a privilege to be associated with this cause; if you’d like to register to join us (we have 5, 10, 15 and 20 km events) the registration link is here.  If you can’t make it out, you can sponsor me here.

I know I basically asked you for money twice in this letter, Dear Reader.  You can’t really blame me for assuming someone so attractive, well-dressed and discerning as yourself might also be rich though, right?

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Creating A Solo Triathlon

Having a cottage makes me one of the lucky ones, I’m well aware.  For a few years, I’ve had this idea to really take advantage of the location: rather than just do open water swimming, or a long hard/hilly bike ride or run or even a brick, what if I could do all three sequentially, like a real tri?  This Sunday I made it happen.


Not only would it be good training in all three disciplines, it would be a good practice of transition between them, plus it would be fun!  There’s a public dock for people to put their boats in the water across the bay; it’s accessed by a paved road (unlike the one behind the cottage) so it’s great for the bike, and of course the water is right there. I’m registered for the Lakeside Sprint Tri  I decided doing a sprint distance (more or LESS) would be appropriate – I would squeeze it in during the kids’ nap.  I’ve done something like this indoors (using the gym pool, a spinning class and a treadmill) but outdoors is obviously a better simulation of the real thing.

As I said, I’m lucky to be able to pull this sort of thing off, but if anyone reading has a similar opportunity, hopefully you can pick up a few tips from my experience. To maximize training time, I tried to have the car loaded up while being dressed to go during the kids lunch.  My choices were to skip lunch so that I wouldn’t have a full stomach weighing me down, or eat with everyone… and burgers were on the menu with me manning the grill.  I love burgers, I love eating with my family, and the truth is I simply get hungry by noon.  I ate a single burger rather than my usual two, and was hoping to have the second one after I was done; bet you didn’t know the “Iron” in “Iron Rogue” refers to my stomach…

I parked in the public dock’s parking lot, and locked my bike to some community mailboxes.  Dealing with locking/unlocking the bike falls outside of the usual flow of triathlon transition, but I figured the art of transition is part following a prescribed recipe, part keeping an organized mind that is flexible according to different circumstances.  Besides, T1 (from swim to bike) is the longer transition usually, and I’d still be practising taking off the wet-suit (probably the longest part of transition that isn’t related to the distance between swim exit and bike exit).  I sorted out the rest of the stuff for transition in my trunk (should have taken a picture!) and hid my car keys, then headed out to the dock.

The old swim cap I used to keep in my gym bag had long since melted and I haven’t remembered to grab a replacement, so I would be swimming with hair in my face.  I pulled on my wet-suit and hopped into the water.  I stuck to my usual open water swimming safety rule of following the shoreline; it’s easier to get out in case of emergency (weather, cramps, etc.), boats tend to go slower near the shore and they are watching more closely (important here, since there would be extra traffic near a public dock), and since I wasn’t familiar with this side of the lake navigating was easier too.

My goal was to simply swim 400 m out and turn around again for a total of 750-800 m.  I passed by a number of people’s boathouses and it looked friendly enough for swimmers.  It felt like my kicking was very lazy, I regret how much of a crutch my wet-suit can be, but the swim went well enough, and doesn’t seem to be too crooked.  I guess my sighting is alright.  I figured out that climbing back onto the dock would be tough so I ended up exiting the water in a grassy/marshy corner close to where I had parked.


I out of the water with my wet-suit half off, and grabbed my car key.  Taking the wet-suit off could still be better, especially with having to contend with the Garmin wristband.  Besides dealing with keys and locks, the other thing these transitions had that race ones don’t is the taking of selfies!



Once I got on the bike, I hammered it pretty hard, and realized it wouldn’t be a sustainable pace, but it got me over the first hill OK.  I’ve used the route for both runs and biking, so it was familiar ground for the most part.  I noticed I’m not naturally comfortable in aero position, and I found myself coming out of it often, sometimes to drink water, sometimes because my concentration would wander.  That wandering mental focus became a theme throughout the ride, as I noticed my pace/effort lagging on some of the long climbs.  I almost wonder if it’s something I really need to change in the short term, since my conditioning isn’t going to change vastly between now and race day, and settling into a more ‘natural’ pace for me is what has let me survive previous triathlons and run strong after the bike.  I’d hoped the out and back would add up to 10 km that I could do twice, but it was more like 8 (for a total of almost 16 km).





In T2 I neglected to lock the bike to anything (except itself – wheel to frame), but that ended up being OK – no-one touched it.  I switched to my Zoot shoes which are great for racing but I generally don’t use otherwise.  This always makes me nervous, as you don’t want surprises on race day – so this solo triathlon just gave me an added benefit.  I should be fine on them for 5 km, but for 10 or more, I’m going to want socks and more cushioning.

The heavy legs were there post-bike, but I’ve been doing this long enough not to get freaked out by the feeling, and while the heat was getting to me, I was able to focus on pace better than the bike.  That’s probably why I like the run so much – I’m not really saving my effort anymore, just trying to finish.  Between the heat and bike fatigue I expected to be slow, but I’m actually pretty happy with my pace of below 6 min/km on average.



DONE!



I finished with a smile on my face, and though my recovery plan was to have the second burger, I took the boys off my wife’s hands and down to the lake in order to make this happen…
Kings of the Lake



I should take a very close look at the Lakeside race course, but if it’s not too hilly, I may be on track for a 90 minute finish.  Fitting swim, bike and run into a single workout has been a goal of mine for years (not really big enough to be called ‘Bucket List’ but still important).  One day I hope to do it on a bigger scale by swimming across the lake (with a chaperone in a canoe or kayak – Google Earth says it’s about 1.1km), followed by a longer ride (perhaps clear around Lake of Bays? it’s about 76km), and of course, a run (maybe 15km to Huntsville for a beer…?)
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How Much Does a Vasectomy Hurt?


I’m a little ambivalent about writing about this, as it is a quite private matter, but if my tale helps quell the nerves of someone who is considering it, then it will be worth the effort.

I had a vasectomy.  Don’t worry, this post won’t have any pictures – and if you feel like skipping out on reading the rest, I totally understand, but please come back next time!  My wife and I have the family we want; we’re not looking to add anymore Scoundrels of Steel.  Vasectomy was the best way for us to implement this decision.

Before I describe the experience, I need to hop on the soapbox for a bit.  While I do have several friends who have gotten “the snip”, some of the background feedback I was picking up was that the procedure is emasculating.  When doing the referral, my family doctor couldn’t stop congratulating me; you see, in the area around her practice, the trend seemed to be that husbands were pressuring their wives to get their “tubes tied” (tubal ligation).  If you ask me, (and yes this is based in some out-dated conceptions of masculinity), there’s nothing less manly than putting your woman in a greater danger than you’re willing to face yourself.  Tubal ligation is an invasive surgical procedure; vasectomy is not.  I’d hate to see what these guys if they ever ran into a bear or something, they’d probably feed their wives to it while running away screaming.  While there may be reasons to want to be fertile down the road, none of them apply to me, and like David Eddie says, a vasectomy is “a terrific gesture of monogamy”.

Dismount from soapbox.

I had heard about ‘Gentle Vasectomy’ being done in Peterborough, unfortunately, the doctor who performed them retired without finding anyone to take over his practice.  I did find So Simple Vasectomy in Oakville, which was closer anyway.  The procedure has an extra cost not covered by the health care system, but I figured the lessened pain and shortened recovery time was worth a few bucks.

I’m a little ambivalent about writing about this, as it is a quite private matter, but if my tale helps quell the nerves of someone who is considering it, then it will be worth the effort.
I had a vasectomy.  Don’t worry, this post won’t have any pictures – and if you feel like skipping out on reading the rest, I totally understand, but please come back next time!  My wife and I have the family we want; we’re not looking to add anymore Scoundrels of Steel.  Vasectomy was the best way for us to implement this decision.
Before I describe the experience, I need to hop on the soapbox for a bit.  While I do have several friends who have gotten “the snip”, some of the background feedback I was picking up was that the procedure is emasculating.  When doing the referral, my family doctor couldn’t stop congratulating me; you see, in the area around her practice, the trend seemed to be that husbands were pressuring their wives to get their “tubes tied” (tubal ligation).  If you ask me, (and yes this is based in some out-dated conceptions of masculinity), there’s nothing less manly than putting your woman in a greater danger than you’re willing to face yourself.  Tubal ligation is an invasive surgical procedure; vasectomy is not.  I’d hate to see what these guys if they ever ran into a bear or something, they’d probably feed their wives to it while running away screaming.  While there may be reasons to want to be fertile down the road, none of them apply to me, and like David Eddie says, a vasectomy is “a terrific gesture of monogamy”.
Dismount from soapbox.
I had heard about ‘Gentle Vasectomy’ being done in Peterborough, unfortunately, the doctor who performed them retired without finding anyone to take over his practice.  I did find So Simple Vasectomy in Oakville, which was closer anyway.  The procedure has an extra cost not covered by the health care system, but I figured the lessened pain and shortened recovery time was worth a few bucks.


The appointment was booked for a few days after getting back from Germany (I called sometime the previous November).  Leading up to the big day I hadn’t done much reading; I think I use denial way too much – as I write this, I’m acting like the first days of school won’t have any significant impact on our family life.  I’m a little unsure about going into too much detail, but the instructions were to… *ahem* shave myself, “as [I] would shave [my] face”.  I guess they didn’t know how sloppy I am with getting every single face whisker.  The good news is that was probably the scariest part of the whole procedure.

On the day of the appointment, I was given a valium (by my choice) for my nerves, and I nodded off in the waiting room.  The doctor explained that at times I would experience pain like being kicked in the junk (he compared it to when my kids jump in my lap too aggressively), but it was closer to being pressed… we used to call it the ‘gas pedal’ when I was a kid (if you didn’t know, boyhood is basically the life of a gladiator).  I went home basically pain-free.

I had to refrain from exercise or even lifting the kids for the next week, which sucked.  I did have days where I felt ‘tender’ – as if having experienced a kick earlier that day.  I think I used a painkiller (ibuprofen) once, and ice 2-3 times.  Using ice down there is no fun, so I never lasted too long with it.  I missed Band On The Run, which I had been signed up for, but I started exercising the week after no problem

Best of all, I was riding a bike, which was what I was most nervous about.  In a couple of weeks, I have a date with a plastic cup to confirm that the procedure worked.  I hope this has been informative to some of you, if there’s anything you felt I didn’t cover, you could email me (link is on the page), or look at the link for So Simple Vasectomy as they have a FAQ page.  I’ll be back soon with more endurance sport, I promise.