Category: family

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This Summer’s “Training” “Schedule”

It’s been a bit of a rough summer so far.  In the Holding Your Ground post, I talked about how I wasn’t going to be breaking new ground in terms of distance or performance this year, and the way things are shaking out, I don’t think I’m going to do any triathlons this year.  I had thoughts of doing Bracebridge again, or maybe dropping down to the Sprint level, but I think I know I’d be pretty much limping through it, and needing the better part of a week to recover.  The concept of merely doing the race for fun and simply enjoying completing it appeals to me, but I know I’d be cursing how slow I am and everything that woulda/shoulda/coulda (Shel Silverstein shout-out!) happened this season with every stroke, revolution and step.



Immediately after getting back from Germany, I underwent a vasectomy.  The snip.  I’m thinking of devoting a post to it in case anyone was considering it and wondering about effects and impacts (don’t worry, there wouldn’t be any pictures), but for now, I’ll just leave it at the fact that I was unable to exercise (or even pick up the kids) for a week after a less-than-completely active vacation just as the summer was getting started.  A summer that follows a brutal winter, where getting/keeping a good base was very unlikely.  It also meant missing out on Band On The Run (at least the racing part, but the music festival/live concert was a lot of fun); I don’t think I’m going to post about it since it’s so long ago and I didn’t run it myself, but it’s a must-have for next year; family friendly, lots of fun.  


So here we are, without racing goals, without a formal training program, with a weak training base and the summer has been rather rainy, if you ask me.  Rain and storms has meant cancelling rides and open water swims at the cottage where I spend most weekends.


Still, I’m not writing this to describe what hasn’t happened, I’m here to celebrate what has been happening.  For one thing, like they say in the movie The Crow, it can’t rain all the time, so the cottage has been good for open water swims.  Unfortunately, due to some weird Garmin firmware crash (that my Forerunner 910XT has fortunately has recovered from) I don’t have any data to show you for it… the Garmin ate everything from June 23rd till sometime in Mid-July.  I can tell you that I did the first one sans wet-suit.
OWS_StrawPoll.JPG


That decision to swim without it was a good one, I got 1.4 km of swimming done in 33 minutes which made me feel good about where my technique, body positioning and endurance were at.  I had a couple of other swims, one of which was in very windy and rough conditions and was really unpleasant, but at least it would toughen me up for adverse conditions, right?

We’ve taken the kids kayaking a couple of times too. The first time was about 1km, the second we got up to two. They’re pretty good about patiently sitting still, to the point where our arm endurance is a bigger limiter than their fidgetiness (I just made that word up).




The other thing the cottage has been good for is using my mountain bike.  Rather than cart my tri-bike back and forth from the city, I just try and get out on the mountain bike, which I’m treating as part cycling training, part cross-training.  The first time I looked for a trail in the area I encountered a massive mud puddle which a little too much for this novice mountain biker…. but when I hit the same trail the week after, it was dry enough to ride through and I got a little further.
MTB3.JPG


Whenever I hit some challenging terrain (which, for me, is just about anything more than a dirt road) I giggle and hoot. I bet I sound like Daffy Duck out there.



Back at home, the Lightning Kid’s sleeping schedule has returned back to its horrible default condition.  He’s less accepting of me as means to get back to sleep, but the good news is that when I’m industrious and organized, I prearrange my running gear so I can get up, grab it, change quickly in his room, and take him out running before he can wake anybody else.


It’s been a great opportunity to play with fasted cardio, since I don’t take any fuel before I go (though it’s super important to hydrate before and during, because I wake up as dry as a bone).  I’m pushing the Chariot and taking it easy and just trying to kill 30-60 minutes so that the rest of the house can sleep.  I don’t push the pace, and I’m just happy to be moving, and even then, I find myself tempted to stop running or turn around early.  I’m training my body to recruit more of my fat stores, and training my mind to keep going even though I’m tired which is key for triathlon.

I wasn’t sure how much he was enjoying it, and in fact, when he starts asking for ‘Mama’ I know it’s time to get home quick, but I was surprised at how quickly he’s come to expect it: I got up early with him on Tuesday, and since I didn’t have my gear out and ready (and I was pretty groggy), I didn’t take him out.  He grabbed my running shoes and though I took him out on the porch for a few minutes when he asked to go outside (not for long, because it was surprisingly cold and we were just in pyjamas), he threw a tantrum when he found we were going back inside.  Sometimes when we’re out on the run if he starts to fuss I give him my water bottle to drink from.  He hardly ever drinks from it, but he does play with it a little.  The funny part is when he starts calling me to take it back; he’s like a little coach reminding me to hydrate.

So, though I haven’t exactly been lighting the world on fire, I’ve had some fun and that’s what summer’s all about… and it’s half over!

How has your summer been so far?

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Snapshots From Germany

In my on-going game of blog post catch-up, I would like to engage in the (probably pointless) exercise of telling you, dear reader, about our annual family trip to Germany.  Last time I kept a detailed journal, not so much this time, so I’ll wrap it up in a single post, with just the broad strokes. With Germany in the World Cup final, I’m sure you’re all eager for a little taste of the Fatherland, right?

Travelling with small children is indeed exhausting, especially the flights, but I have to say, my boys are actually pretty good, all things considered and they get compliments from airline staff and other passengers.  They’ve both been on planes since they were 6 months old, and while the Lightning Kid still doesn’t get the need to stay seated, they show their veteran flyer status in their general behaviour.


Due to the German holiday calendar this year, we weren’t able to spend as much time with my brother’s family, and we ended up heading to the Berlin area shortly after landing.  Germany gave us some great weather this year, though it was late May, it felt like a full-on summer (meanwhile, back in Canada, the climate was still shaking off the Polar Vortex).


 This gave us an opportunity to swim in the Havel river a bunch including off a boat!  Shark Boy really improved his swimming and it ended up paying off a few weeks later at TriKids Burlington.  I even got my own open water swimming training session, and though it didn’t feel great in terms of technique, performance or accomplishment, this is the first year I’ve gotten one done while on vacation though that river has been there the whole time, so I feel proud of it.


This boat was docked nearby, and it gave me a daydream about living on it, and having constant access to open water, living a nomadic, triathlon lifestyle a little like Team Wuertele.  Having a cottage is pretty good too, though.

We don’t do much sight-seeing while there and prefer to be homebodies… it’s quite cozy. Apparently some ducks thought so too – but nobody told them that ducks aren’t roof birds…


The other big physical activity we did as a family was a bike ride; Shark Boy rode at 10 km on his own, and now that the Lightning Kid is a little bigger, he can ride longer in the rear seat – he is also carrying on his brother’s tradition of reaching forward to try and give me a wedgie.


While we didn’t sightsee, we did have to find ways to keep the kids entertained, and we looked into a couple of amusement park and play centres as we’ve come across them over the years. Lots of jumping and climbing for both boys, and it’s great to see the Lightning Kid really rock his gross motor skill development.


After Berlin, we did finally get a chance to spend time with my brother and his family, and what we didn’t have in quantity of time, we made up for in quality. Seeing the cousins play and bond really reinforces the feeling that family is something to be treasured. We took a nice hike up one of the Taunus mountains.


I also got a nice run in with my brother.



Like any vacation, it was over too quickly and now seems so long ago.

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Race Recap: Shark Boy’s Triathlon Debut at Sunrype TriKids Burlington

Happy Canada Day!

After the 5 Peaks – Heart Lake event, we headed to Burlington for our race kit pickup.  The best race kit pick-up systems in triathlon have you report to stations in order, with big numbers to identify each station.  This is probably doubly important with dealing with kids.  I was really impressed with how organized the TriKids event was.  Finding the bib number, body marking, swag bags, it was all there, and there was even an orientation session.


The orientation session

They not only explained the overall flow of the day and the event (which is a little different for each age group) but also their dedication to the enjoyment of all the athletes, safety, and the ‘complete not compete’ philosophy.  I thought it was a little long for kids (especially ones like Shark Boy) to sit through, but frankly, all the information was necessary and reassuring for the parents.  They had at least 3 different orientation sessions that people could attend, so I don’t think they can do any better.

We met some friends of ours who decided to sign their son (same age as Shark Boy) up for the triathlon too.  The rewards of being physically active are for the self; it’s basically a selfish act, but the values of it is something we want to pass on to our children.  The reason we crow about it on blogs and social media, however, is in the hopes of inspiring someone else to start reaping the rewards, so I can’t tell you how much it pleased me to see them there and on race day.

Speaking of race day, it was an early morning to make sure we made it in time for the cut-off to get our stuff set up in the transition area.  And when I say ‘our’, I mean it.  I had to put my own Zoots (which were ideal for slipping on to my wet feet) and a t-shirt that I could slip on after getting out of the pool.  I was beside Shark Boy every step of the way, and he double-checked that fact every time we discussed the race right up till race day.  He had shoes, socks (ankle socks were recommended for ease of putting on), small towel bike and helmet all there too.

Shark Boy’s is the Spider-Man bike WITHOUT training wheels.

I actually bought a t-shirt there, since the veteran triathlete somehow managed to forget.  It’s hard to communicate the need for foresight to a four year-old, as I couldn’t seem to get him to drink much water before we started.  We had changed into swim stuff and awaited the command to gather for our wave.


We were in Wave 5, and after lining up outside the pool area, we were brought into a small yard outside the pool, and each athlete was called by name and bib number and given an ankle chip.  Then we filed into the pool deck and lined up to swim one width of the pool.  We actually took a false start, because I didn’t quite realize how the timing would work, but I figured it out quickly enough and no harm done – we’ll call it a warm-up.

A volunteer did a great job of calming everyone’s nerves, and then we were off!  It was a little disappointing seeing Shark Boy lag behind since he was one of the only kids swimming unaided, and the water was shallow enough that even he could touch bottom, but I’d rather have an event that can include as many kids as possible that some kind of ultra-tough weeding out race.

We’re way at the back.
Once we hit the other side, it was walking only on the pool deck (though we walked briskly!) and out to transition.  The ankle socks were still really hard to get on his feet, but it’s taken this long to get him to wear socks with running shoes so I wasn’t going undo all that work for a few seconds.  And then we were off!  Shark Boy knows from his duathlons (and my constant reminders) to walk his bike to the mount line.  Once he mounted, I knew we were going to put on a show.

If I lead him he not only goes faster, but keeps his eyes on where he’s going.
It was a 500m bike course (the swim was the 15m width of the pool, by the way), and Shark Boy was not only one of the fastest kids on the bike, but he safely navigated around a lot of little traffic jams that crept up.  He really shines on the bike, that’s all I can say.

This race had one unusual thing that I haven’t (yet) seen in a triathlon; the second transition area was at another location.  We dropped off the bike at the other end of a soccer field where it (and the helmet) were taken by a volunteer, and then we sprinted down the field 100m to the finish line chute (I first typed that as ‘cute’, which also applies).


We crossed the finish line smiling, and for a few seconds I got too pre-occupied with handing off his race chip and finding my wife and the Lightning Kid to properly hug and congratulate him, but I soon corrected that.


We try to do a daily gratitude exercise (usually at dinner, sometimes bedtime) where we talk about our favourite part of the day.  His was this moment right here, not any part of the race.  He’s an athlete (a TRIathlete!), but best of all, he’s got a great heart this one.

Our friends completed their race too (with both parents and grandparents) chaperoning various stages of the race.   We had coffees and cookies and it was one of the finest summer days an active family could ask for.  I heartily recommend the TriKids series, sign-up early though, because they sell out early… maybe we’ll see you next year?

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Race Recap – 5 Peaks Trail Run – Heart Lake

Whenever a blogger hasn’t posted in a while, they always lead with something like “Don’t worry, I’m not dead!” and I always have a reaction along the lines of “I wasn’t thinking that at all.”  I’ve been swamped (still am, in fact), and there are quite a few topics I want to write about to get caught up on, but last things first….  I raced the 5 Peaks Trail Run Series – Heart Lake Sport course this weekend.

 I ran this race last year in September, and doing it in the summer had an entirely different feel. Just like last year, there was a Kids’ Challenge Fun Run of just under 1 km that both Shark Boy and the Lightning Kid participated in.  It’s fun to see them actually improve year over year: I’m pretty sure Shark Boy can pace himself better so that he keeps up a more consistent tempo, and the Lightning Kid finished much faster too.  They make me so proud.

Game Faces.

Shark Boy raises the flag (or ribbon) of victory (or participation).

The Lightning Kid approaches the finish line with Mama in tow

The Kids’ Challenge course had many of the same features as the sport course, only shorter, naturally.  We took off from the starting line and dropped down into a little valley where we circled a field, while going up and down a few hills that surrounded it.  It was all led by a volunteer and there was a tiger mascot to motivate them right to the end.  The really great part about this venue for kids is there was a splash pad right next to the race site where the boys got to spend the time while I was off on my race.

 This year, I decided to seed myself in the 4th wave rather than the 3rd.  I think I got passed a little too much in the early first kilometre last year, and I wasn’t exactly at my fastest going in.  In spite of the guidelines they give you as to wave vs. benchmark time (the pre-race bulletin called it “…the 5K time you could run immediately after eating a plate of nachos, with a beer or two to wash them down, followed by an ice cream sandwich for dessert.”).  By the time I had finished getting my good luck kisses, I had a little trouble getting to the front of the 4th wave, but I still think it worked well.  


 The single-track didn’t start till 500-700m into the race, so there was plenty of time to get things sorted out in terms of runners’ paces and who should be where in the pack.

 I started my Garmin a little late (and my MapMyFitness app even later – I hope no-one was listening to the robot lady in my phone calling out false kilometre marks), and I quickly noticed a little problem.  I recently added a new heart rate sensor and I think that reset my HR Zones and values; according to what it displayed, I did nearly the entire race above 90% my maximum heart-rate (I later found out that the programmed max was 187 bpm, and my max of the day was 197, so now at least I have a new, up-to-date maximum heart rate).



The course spent a lot of time in the shade of the forest, which I really appreciate; I had a hat and sunscreen, but I don’t like to rely on those more than I need to.  Even the little bit toward the end (I think well after 4km on a 7km course) that was more sun exposed was well thought out – there was only a single aid station on the course, but I thought it came at the perfect place the first time I passed it, and you got to pass it again another time.

 I took a couple of walk breaks during the race, but they were more in anticipation of hills and wanting to be properly energized for the climb than necessary to recover from fatigue.  My favourite hill was a near vertical climb that slowed people down to a crawl.  I used my trick from last year to make the crawl literal and used my hands to get extra traction to make the climb.

 I made the final climb to the finish line with a smile on my face, and finished in 45:46 which is more than a minute slower than last year, but with my training schedule (or lack thereof) I wasn’t too surprised and quite pleased.


 After a slight cool down in the shade and getting a few snacks into me (including mint-chocolate Clif Bar Builder Blocks!) I met my wife and kids coming back from the splash pad.  We had the briefest of moments to meet with Jessica of Laces and Lattes (which is not only a good blog, but an excellent running resource) – if not for her, I think I would have forgotten that the race was that weekend.  I also got to meet Robyn Baldwin, and she fell victim to the charms of the Lightning Kid:

So much fun meeting @apkussma‘s fam jam. I may have wanted to kidnap your son just so we could eat cookies together
— RobynBaldwin (@RobynBaldwin) June 21, 2014

He didn’t give her nearly the attention I wanted him to, because he was so busy stuffing cookies in his mouth, but maybe he knows more about playing it cool than I do.  Rounding out the group of tweeps I met is Mark Sawh, who was better known to me as Spider-Man (from the Yonge St. 10k).  Based on the conversation I had with him, trail running has another convert…

I wish we’d been able to hang around more for draw prizes and other fun, but we had to get to Burlington for the race kit pickup of the TriKids Burlington triathlon Shark Boy would be doing the next day.  Guess what my next post is going to be about?

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Holding Your Ground

It’s May, and there are no triathlons in my Race Calendar.  I don’t really have any goals set.  I follow bloggers who are doing half-ironman and ironman triathlons, bloggers who have already done their first marathons this season.  It’s an ecology of overachievers in the corner of the blogosphere that my personal flight pattern covers, and at the very least, the benefit of setting goals is well understood.  I should feel bad for not toeing the line by having some goals set.



I don’t.  I won’t.  I can’t, because feeling bad certainly wouldn’t change anything.  I’m certainly inspired by all those who are conquering new ground, there’s no question of that.   They are my heroes.

Yet, I can’t help but be reminded about something I read about the movie 300.  It’s based on the Graphic Novel by Frank Miller, and loosely (i.e. with plenty of artistic licence) based on the Battle of Thermopylae, where a mere 300 Spartans (give or take some other support from other Greeks) held off tens of thousands of men serving a Persian invasion.  When Frank Miller learned of the story of the Battle of Thermopylae, “…the film altered his perception of the ‘Hero’ concept insofar as he came to realize that the hero didn’t always win and that sometimes, to be a hero, one must sacrifice oneself.”  In that story, the good guys (according to the way it was told) didn’t “win” or conquer, but they held their ground against seemingly overwhelming odds.


So while conquering a new frontier in multi-sport and/or endurance is an appealing goal, that might not be the path for me at this point in time.  Over the past 3 years, we’ve become not only a family of two small children which is often overwhelming (“That’s cute.” said everyone with 3 or more kids), but a special needs family too.  The special needs aren’t that overwhelming, but the Lightning Kid has more of them now than he did as a newborn.  The transition from daycare to “real school” is coming.  I’m looking at some medical procedures, which I won’t detail here, at least not yet (nothing serious, routine stuff).  Oh, and there’s water in the basement (my precious man-cave!)… that’ll take time, effort and money.

I have an incredibly supportive spouse, but not a Sherpa wife.  Triathlon (and by extension blogging about it) is a hobby, and fits in after (or gets outranked by) family obligations, career, the welfare of my kids, my relationship with my wife, etc.  It can’t eclipse them.

These are not excuses, per se.  I’m not trying to weasel out of anything, in fact, I am more committed than ever to active, outdoor, multi-sport living.  So we’ll be running races with the whole family using a stroller, parent and child sports classes, triathlons for the kids, active family vacations and so on.  These are my values.  They are our Family Values. I can serve these values without pushing my personal performance envelope.  And to whatever would try to come between me and those values, I say:

MOLON LABE

Which loosely translates to “Come and Take them”.
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Race Recap: 9th Annual Spring Into Action for Diabetes (10k)

Jacqueline over at Skinny Chick Blog has mentioned often how she actually prefers smaller events for running races.  I’m beginning to think I know what she means.  This weekend was the Toronto Goodlife Marathon, and I’m sure lots of people I know (at least on the internet) were there, but the Iron Rogue clan ran something much smaller on Saturday.


 We picked up a flyer for the Spring Into Action for Diabetes race while crossing the finish line at the Yonge Street 10k.  We had fun running as an entire family then, so when they said strollers would be allowed, we put ourselves down for a family entry as soon as we could.




 The race start was at the Wilket Creek entrance to Sunnybrook Park.  There were a little over 200 participants spread over a 2 km Walk, 5 km, and 10 km run.  It was a cloudy, overcast day with cooler temperatures, which is good for running, but the threat of rain put a bit of a damper on our spirits.  There was walk-up registration, which might have actually been a time saver compared to the long line up the pre-registered participants needed to stand in to get their bibs and race kits.  Fortunately, this was a very, very family friendly event with a few fitness obstacles set up as a way to keep kids who don’t like standing in line (e.g. mine) occupied.


Once we got to the front of the line we got our bibs and race swag.  There were bibs and timing chips for everybody, which made Shark Boy feel like part of the team.

Timing Chips for Everyone!

They had run out of safety pins for the bibs, so he missed out on feeling super official during the race, but the cotton t-shirt did a great job as an extra layer for someone who was dressed a little too light, i.e. me.

 Once they had done a few speeches to welcome everyone (including some rather frightening statistics about incidence rates of diabetes – some don’t realize they have it) by the race director, and a speech by Toronto mayoral candidate Karen Stintz (who seems super nice).  They started the warm-up exercise routine (led by InsideOut Fitness staff) including some Yoga and a little dynamic movement.  

Couldn’t quite get Eagle Arms right on Shark Boy

That was fun to watch the kids try and follow along.  Shark Boy is passingly familiar with Yoga (not sure how, maybe daycare?), and the Lightning Kid lives to entertain others (especially the ladies).  Before we knew it, it was time to line up at the start.  It was a little scary having the 10 km runners be first – with the Chariot, I would have preferred being in the back, but there was never a problem with people going around.

 Shark Boy wanted to start the race running for himself, and he kept up a good pace for nearly a kilometre.  I’m pretty proud of him because when I’ve gotten him to run distances of any kind in the past, he’s more like the hare than the tortoise – fast out of the gate, then needing long, time-wasting rests.  He called for entry to the Chariot shortly before the 1 km mark and then we started rolling with both kids inside.

Just past the 2.5 km mark, which served as the turn-around point for the 5 km runners and the last water station for us 10 km runners, there seemed to be some confusion, with several faster runners turning back saying they’d hit a dead-end.  My wife went back with some of them to see if we could clear up the course, and they said they’d send someone ahead to clear things up.  Before they could get there we decided to strike out on our own.  Later that weekend we saw a quote somewhere on Facebook that it’s “Better to Walk Alone, than to be in a Crowd Going the Wrong Way.”  That is sound advice, because we would have wasted less time (and mileage) if we hadn’t gotten infected with the self-doubt of others and ploughed ahead.  Sticking to the park trails (going under a bridge to cross Don Mills) was easy enough, and though other racers got fewer to encounter, we confirmed the 5 km turn-around point was on the course we were following.



Breaking up squabbles between the boys and keeping them occupied with snacks was the biggest hindrance to performance and enjoyment, but we still ticked off the kilometres with smiles on our faces (and were greeted with many more in return).  The cool weather kept us from overheating climbing up some of the hills (which were mostly ramps for bridges under the overpasses).   

Toward the end, there seemed to be a little bit of drizzle that came and went.  Shark Boy got out with a little less than a kilometre do finish, and ran it holding his bib in his hand, as did his mother, while I held my bib and the Lightning Kid’s in mine pushing the Chariot across the finish line.   After the run, we ate hamburgers (courtesy of the race) for lunch and stretched before going home with our medals.



It was a small potatoes event with small potatoes hiccups, but great fun for a great cause.
Here’s a clip from the local news, including a little sound bite from the Lightning Kid and I.


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Toronto Yonge Street 10K Race Recap

With the summer being dominated by my triathlon season, in the past it’s been nice for us as a couple for me to support my wife in running races in the spring.  Two years ago, she ran the Yonge St 10K and the Sporting Life 10K which used to be the same event.  After mixing the two up last year, she found she preferred the Yonge St 10K and wanted to do it again this year.

April 2012 – Human Totem Pole waiting for Mama… the Lightning Kid is around 6 months old in this pic

When she found out that there was a stroller division this year, she asked me if we should do it as a family.  While Shark Boy hasn’t been too keen on sitting in the Chariot during runs anymore, we thought we could make it work, and got excited at the prospect of running a 10K as a family.  I started doing more runs on my lunch hour (perfect timing since the run club just started at work) and we got one ‘dry run’ as a family 2 weeks before race day – 8 km, with the Chariot and everything.  What we learned is that managing the boys would be as big a challenge as pushing the stroller, or dragging our butts across the finish line.

 I also put out a few feelers prior to race day to see who was doing the Yonge Street 10k.  There were people I met through my outing with Tribe Fitness, as well as some of my favourite local fitness bloggers (who I’d met last year at the May Tweet-Up) like The Athletarian, Eat Spin Run Repeat, Work It Wear It Eat It, Robyn Baldwin, ElleSeeFit and Darwinian Fail… so many awesome people in one place.  Krysten (a.k.a Darwinian Fail) let me know that she was meeting people at a Starbucks at 8:30.


The problem?  Our corral (the stroller division) wouldn’t be starting till 9:20 and I knew trying to keep the boys still in a crowded area for a long time was a recipe for disaster.  We ended up at the starting area sometime after 9:00 and I’m sure everyone who wasn’t right at the back was in their corral chomping at the bit.  So…  a missed social opportunity, but at least there was no Amber Alert situation right?

Before the Start

My wife preferred the Yonge Street 10k to the Sporting Life 10k due to better organization, and boy does it show.  The stroller division/purple corral started at 9:20 on the dot.  And I mean, on the dot – (a nerd alert shouldn’t be necessary here,  but maybe it’s your first time on this blog, so… NERD ALERT!) My watch syncs nightly to an atomic clock with the exact official time, and it had just ticked over to 9:20:00 when they said go.  That’s how on the dot, I mean.

We really enjoyed the run.  We got a lot of positive attention for having two handsome little boys along for the ride and people got a real kick out of Shark Boy’s singing as we rolled along.  We also got a few laughs for having to do parenting/management mid run e.g. “No Fighting you two!”  The smart thing we had done was pack a ton of snacks, because it’s hard to whine or complain with a mouthful of goldfish crackers.
I skipped the port-a-potties at 4 km, but by 5 km, I was regretting that decision a little.  I told my wife I was going to use them at the 7 km water station and when it got within sight, I let her push the stroller and ran ahead so she wouldn’t have to wait as long.  Here’s where things went off the rails – I thought she’d wait by the port-a-potties or maybe the water station, she thought she’d give me a chance to run at my normal pace by going ahead and letting me catch up.

 When I got out, I couldn’t see them anywhere; I back tracked till I could see Dundas St, where I’d left them – no sign of them.  I ran back (or more accurately, forward) to the water/aid station and couldn’t see them there either.  I hesitated, then ran forwards for a while, at a near sprint.  When the route turned West on Richmond, I described them to a volunteer who said they’d seen them, so I kept sprinting.  I sprinted for nearly a kilometre and I still hadn’t seen them anywhere.  My cell phone was in the back of the stroller, but a medical volunteer (from the Ski Patrol) offered me his.  They’d gotten just past the 9 km mark, but we still had a chance to finish the race together!  I’d been running around with the ‘Baby Stroller’ bib on my back, but no baby stroller, so I was relieved to ‘take the wheel’ again, so to speak.

 We finished the race in a pitiful 1:31:22, and the MapMyFitness tracker shows the 10k route (with a bunch of waiting around near the end):
Yet with all the back tracking I did, as far as I can tell, I did about 14km.


We were still all smiles to be together as a family, and Shark Boy got his wish to run across the finish line (in fact he did the last 500 m or so); holding his mother’s hand.

Done!


We chowed down on all kinds of snacks and drink samples, and I think one of the highlights was meeting a group (including Mark Sawh and Steve Layton) who decided to run the race as superheroes while raising money for the Hospital For Sick Children.  Shark Boy was thrilled to meet his heroes, and the heroes seemed just as thrilled!

They were taking down the festivities as we left to catch the very last shuttle back to the starting area.  Once we were back on Yonge, we opened patio season (sort of – we were near an open window at least) with a pub lunch.  Fulfilling our promise of ice cream was surprisingly trickier, but that was also a treat.

When I got home, I found my toes felt bruised.  It took me a while to figure out, but with the race’s net downhill, I had spent a good deal of the course putting on the brakes trying to keep the stroller from running away on us, thus jamming my toes into the front of the shoe repeatedly!

 All in all, a great day, and the Canada Running Series should be congratulated for running a great event.  It left us thirsty for more family 10k runs!

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Our Family Trip To Grand Palladium Mayan Riviera

We’re big on travel in our family, and we want to give our kids great, diverse experiences, even from a young age, even though travelling with young ones can be very stressful.  So far, we’ve been going South in even-numbered years (it was Turks & Caicos for 2012) and ski vacations in odd years (Mt. Ste. Anne for 2011 and 2013).  I’m glad this year wasn’t a ski year, because after the Polar Vortex(es) of this winter, I couldn’t take more cold and really needed some sun and warmth.  We all did.



The Beaches resort in Turks and Caicos really spoiled us in terms of what was possible for an all inclusive with child care, but it was too expensive to repeat this year.  My wife did some great research and we booked a Sunwing holiday through Corinne at Have Baby Will Travel.  We were going to the Grand Palladium in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico.  I’d been looking forward to it for a while but as the days before the trip trickled down to single digits, I got worried.  I’d had bad experiences with charter airlines in the past, getting tripped up on baggage weight restrictions and being crammed (me=5’11.5”) into small seats.  I’ve got to say, though, combined with our using their online check-in, Sunwing made it really fast and efficient, which is very important, because I find it hardest to manage the kids when standing in line.  Having got through baggage drop-off and security quickly, we had time to kill before boarding but I find the gate area a lot better space for managing kids, the Lightning Kid’s disagreement with an escalator about direction of travel notwithstanding.

The flight went well too; the kids are too energetic to be easy on the plane, but they’re experienced enough flyers that they weather most of the challenges well.  We were warned of keeping track of our immigration papers on the flight, and briefed about the customs procedure (where you push a button to determine whether you’re going to have your luggage searched) by the flight crew.  Exiting the terminal, we bought snacks for the long bus ride to the resort – 15USD for a beer, a water and a can of Pringles.  Ouch.  The kids slept a little on the bus ride, which made things a little easier.

Grand Palladium in the Mayan Riviera is a resort with 4 different lobbies: Riviera, White Sands, Kantenah and Colonial.  We were booked in the latter, which I liked, because as far as I could tell from the map, it was closest to one of the biggest pools, the kids water park, the beach, and definitely closest to the “Mini-Club” (child care).  The Colonial lobby is next to a Flamingo lagoon, which made a strong first impression for our arrival.


 Our room was ready with a crib, and the couch had been pulled out and made with sheets, so both kids would have a place to sleep.  We’ve struggled with this in other hotels – we’ll request a crib, be assured that one will be there, and come up empty when we check in.

Once we were ready to explore, we found we had a neighbour: a rather large iguana; I asked Shark Boy to give him a name and he picked “Max”.  At first we were astounded not only by how tame he seemed, but how nobody else seemed to notice him (or us staring at him).  It turns out, these things are everywhere on the resort, and if you’re grossed out by lizards, I have to tell you that there was a startling absence of bugs, and maybe that’s a coincidence, and maybe it isn’t.  The entire resort is peppered with mangroves, which not only protect the landscape from erosion and give the local fauna a place to live (while making little visits to the inhabited sections of the resort) but also provide extra shade.  As a melanoma survivor, it’s not always easy to enjoy sunny destinations and the shade provided by the mangroves as well as some sheltered paths was really welcome.

Cooling off became our first priority.  We found the big pool (or one of them) and started in the shallow end.  Shark Boy has gotten the hang of swimming (thanks to his grandfather) and he splashed around in the water as comfortably as his namesake.  We didn’t really get to sample the rest of the pool much; in spite of an on-site daycare, we spent most of the time with the kids… more on this in a bit.  I would have liked to use it to swim a few lengths in the mornings before things got busy, or spend some time at the pool-side bar, but I was able to fetch drinks from it once or twice.

After the pool, we showed the kids the new water park.  I took the Lightning Kid with me on a water slide and was chided by the life-guard who directed me to the rules board… where we couldn’t find what rule I had broken.  Finally he pointed out “Always obey the life-guard” which would have to do.  No big slides for the Lightning Kid, and he was hesitant on the smaller ones, but fun in the water is still a favourite for both kids.

The other thing that had made me apprehensive before the trip besides the flights was that we’d all be in the same room.  The Lightning Kid was waking up 2-3 times a night still, I snore, and Shark Boy sometimes gets nightmares if he’d overtired or overstimulated (both of which were likely while on vacation), so I thought we’d all end up waking each other up and come back from vacation less rested than when we left.  That couldn’t have been further from what actually happened.  The kids were so tuckered out from walking and swimming in the sun that both nap-time and night-times were a breeze to get them down and keep them down.  It’s almost upsetting to me, because we strive to keep them active and outdoors every day, but the Canadian suburbs simply can’t compete with living by the beach in Mexico.  As for me, I think the sea air helped my sinuses or something, because snoring was lessened.

Speaking of the beach and sea, I think this was the best part of every day we spent there.  Shark Boy could really show his stuff (and make his parents’ teeth sweat) being thrown around in the surf, and the Lightning Kid loved running into the water repeatedly after a (mispronounced) “1-2-3-GO!”, not to mention running up to people on beach chairs and socializing. I’m really happy that the boys were able to get so much out of being on the ocean.

The resort had activities that I would have liked to try including kayaks, catamarans and stand-up paddle boarding at the beach, not to mention archery on their sports field. It was for this kind of thing and the potential for date dinners/lunches that the ‘Mini-Club’ (for Shark Boy, age 4) and ‘Baby-Club’ (for the Lightning Kid aged 2) were supposed to come in handy. I think the Mini-Club would have been fine (especially once Shark Boy’s initial resistance was overcome and we got into a routine) for longer stays since they would take them to the water park or beach. The Baby Club, however, gave us a walky-talky to reach us at a moment’s notice (which you want in a way, just in case), but apparently had very limited range, as they specified we couldn’t go further than the beach or pool area. This, combined with picking the kids up at lunch time made for limited opportunities. More than anything else, we used our kid free time to research what on-site restaurants to try and other logistical details. I did manage to fit in one scuba dive, though. The dive shop was right at the beach and the dive site was only 5 minutes by boat, so I managed a single tank dive in something under 90 minutes; perfect when you have kids to get back to. The weather had been kind of windy all week, so visibility was not so great and we didn’t manage to spot any big ticket items like sharks or turtles, but I did see some lionfish, pufferfish and a seahorse (not pictured).


The resort had both buffet-style and a la carte restaurants. I was surprised by how good the quality at the buffets (La Hacienda, Tikal and Grand Azul) were with plenty of healthy things like fruits and smoothies, local dishes like antojitos, international cuisine including paella and run of the mill stuff like chicken fingers for the kids. By contrast, the a la carte places didn’t seem as good, with the Italian place (Portofino) being the biggest disappointment (slow service, bland food), the Japanese being mediocre (interesting Mexican twists on the sushi, but not high quality fish, I think). The Mexican a la carte (Adelita), on the other hand, was mouth wateringly good, and we had a nice, if rushed due to Baby-Club hours, date night dinner.


While we did get around the resort mostly on foot, there was the opportunity to take little trains (on wheels, not tracks) from one lobby to another and the boys got a kick out of the ride. Shark Boy and I used this to attend a ‘Surf Party’ with animal mascots (known as Raggs and Friends – side note: Raggs has a friend who is differently abled – hooray for inclusion!) run by the Kids’ Club staff. There were plenty of evening entertainment options for the kids (if they weren’t too tired from the days activities) including a Pinata party one night too.

Surf Party

Pinata Party

I have to confess that there were times I wish we had taken a holiday without the kids; the funny thing is that now I have trouble remembering the specifics of what made it so difficult. I guess it just got frustrating trying to take the kids to places like the pool and the beach while they actively worked against making it easier to do so (e.g. resisting getting dressed), even though the destination was where they wanted to be. What I do remember, is all the smiles and fun we had. Grand Palladium not only gave us a taste of sun and sea (as a family), but a good sampling of both Mexican cuisine and the local ecology too.

An Agouti

The resort has a crocodile lagoon in addition to the flamingo lagoons

Coati and raccoons were occasionally visible around the resort.  We saw a monkey once too.


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Active Family Vacation: Skiing in Mont Sainte Anne

I’m really behind on blog post topics.  As the subject matter becomes less current (or even irrelevant), I’m left with either abandoning the topic, or going ahead with a ‘better late than never’ attitude.  This one falls into the latter camp; I know you don’t want to hear about winter, but we had a good time, and maybe the information will be useful for next season.

Winter is tough.  For everyone, but even worse for families with small children.  If you’re a family with small children and want to lead active lifestyles, EVEN TOUGHER.  We’ve done a good job of embracing the elements that a Canadian Winter gives us, but the snow in Southern Ontario is inconsistent at best, and really immersing yourself in the winter environment takes more time than than the average weekend allows (think packing, driving, herding the cats kids).  Enter the ski vacation.


Two years ago, we shopped around at the Ski and Snowboard Show for ski resorts that could accommodate a family with a child less than 18 months.  All the reps at the show acted like it would be no problem, since they simply wanted to make a sale, but the truth was, that the 18-month mark is a dividing line for daycare licensing and insurance and most resorts didn’t have that capability.  Shark Boy was going to be 17 months old (close but no cigar) for the dates we were looking at, but Mont Ste Anne takes kids into it’s daycare from 6 months on!  Staying inside Canada meant no customs/border hassles, avoiding invasive TSA screening procedures and dealing in Canadian currency.   Long story short, we loved it and booked another trip this year, which we did in the end of March.


We flew to Quebec City with Porter Airlines from the Toronto Island Airport. That made for some excitement as the kids got to enjoy a taxi ride, a ferry ride and a plane trip… I made the pre-boarding a little more exciting by forgetting one of our suitcases, necessitating a panicked taxi-ride home and back (an extra hundred bucks, ouch), but we made our flight just fine.  

The weather in Ontario had been iffy, sometimes cold, sometimes mild, but not very good with snow, but immediately before we left, Sainte Anne got a dump of fresh snow.

From what I could tell, this wasn’t powder of the very highest grade, but it was good enough for me. We were booked into the Chateau Mont Sainte Anne, and in one of their newer Studio (Nordik) rooms with a King bed. We had a crib for the Lightning Kid and Shark Boy slept on the pull-out couch.


The morning after arriving, we brought the boys to the daycare where they were welcomed with open arms. My theory on child-care givers is that experience brings an air of cool confidence that kids can read, and things tend to go smoother; the staff at Mont Sainte Anne has that air. We kept Shark Boy in for the whole day on Saturday which gave us the time to ski almost

all day.


Problem: I hadn’t downhill skied in two years at least. We took mostly Blue runs, but we found we had to take frequent breaks on the hills, and even on the Blue trails we found moguls we weren’t ready for. My theory is that downhill skiing is quite the opposite of most sports I do: rather than applying little to moderate force through a fairly large scale movement (like a running stride or cycling pedal stroke), you’re mostly pushing with a great deal of force through very little movement at all when you’re digging your edges in on turns. It’s dynamic versus static muscular strength and endurance.




We’d pick Shark Boy up after his second ski lesson, and had a few runs with us so we could see the progress he was making – it seems like he’s a natural. After that, we’d pick the Lighting Kid up (typically once he’d woken up from a nap) and take them for a ride up the gondola… and of course, back down.

He got frightened during a plane take-off but this didn’t bother him a bit.


Dead times before (and sometimes after) meals were spent in the kids room in the basement of the Chateau (there is also a video arcade, but our kids are too young for that kind of thing, and we weren’t going to encourage it – though later on, I got smoked at Dance Dance Revolution). The kids loved the toys in there and frequently played with other children – language barrier be darned.


I did have a little scare in the kids’ playroom. One morning, the Lightning Kid woke up around 5, and wouldn’t go back down. I had to dress quickly and hustle him out of the room before he could wake up his brother. I took him down to the playroom and let him go. I ended up finding a very large bug, which (to my surprise, since I was feeling sluggish as you can imagine) I was able to capture and bring to the front desk. Any parent wants their kids to be able to play in a fairly clean environment so my paranoia was going full tilt. When I followed up later, a member of the staff explained that they deemed it a grasshopper (rather than something more scary), and that these sorts of things could come in from all over the world in visitors suitcases. They take a lot of measure to prevent infestations like the kind my imagination was running wild with, and I had to admit, it didn’t really look like a cockroach or anything like that, so I was basically satisfied.

There are a good variety of restaurants within the resort grounds, so we tried a new place every night. We also ended up packing up our food before we could complete a proper meal, because the kids wouldn’t behave properly (I think they were a little overstimulated by the new environment and/or activities). Quebecers are really laid-back and don’t bat an eyelid at kids’ behaviour; unfortunately, I’m not a Quebecer, I’m an uptight Ontarian and meal-times ended up stressing me out.

The last gasp before bedtime was a swim in the pool (also in the basement of the pool). I was able to get Shark Boy to show me some of the skills he’s been learning in his swim lessons, and we’ve long since discovered that swimming is an excellent way to tucker them out so they’ll sleep.

Once they were out one of us had to stay in the room with them, so we weren’t able to enjoy our evenings as a couple. We’d do a little solo (drinks, the aforementioned arcade) but conk out early from exhaustion. There were many wake-ups to deal with, so it was good to get all the rest we could.

The next day, I felt so much stronger and more confident on my skis. We still stuck mostly to Blue hills, but it really felt like the best I’ve ever skied in terms of technique. We made sure this time to put in a stop at the Maple Syrup hut on the East side of the mountain. Here, they pour maple syrup into a trough of snow where it congeals, then you pick that up on a stick by rolling it all up (see below). Delicious!

In the trough
I got all the syrup… LIKE A BOSS!


The other thing we made time for is making sure we caught some of Shark Boy’s ski lesson. Then we took him for another run with his parents on “The Big Magic Carpet” as requested.

On our third day, I actually opted to head back to the room and sleep rather than ski. Normally there’s a voice inside that makes me seize the day, and says:”You can only ski like this so often, but you can sleep anytime!” but that isn’t actually true anymore. A chance to sleep without being woken up by the kids (or a phone call or whatever) is about as rare as good powder, which I missed out on that morning by all reports. I did manage a couple of Black Diamond runs in the afternoon, though the snow had gotten granular.

The vacation wound to an end… but they left me wanting more. There is an extensive network of cross-country skiing trails that we haven’t explored yet, and other winter activities like dog-sledding beckon too. My one gripe is that access to other services isn’t so great; two years ago I had to hail a taxi to get to a drug store for infant pain-killers because Shark Boy got an ear infection. There is also no shuttle to/from the Quebec City Airport making cab rides necessary.

Even as the kids get older and the daycare requirements get lighter, easier and more flexible I could see us returning to Mont Ste Anne. For another view on this trip, please visit the Lightning Kid blog.



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The Axel Project

This post is about something wonderful, that comes from something terrible.  So it’s hard to know where to start.  Every once in a while, I’ll get a notification that I have a new follower, and it’ll be someone who seems really cool.  This happened a couple of weeks ago.  Jen Charrette is a mom into cycling, adventure, and travel.  Her twitter profilet also mentioned The Axel Project; with a name like that, how could I not be intrigued.



Before I get into what’s great about it (besides the name), I did have the sinking feeling that it was one of those causes born from a terrible loss.  Axel Charrette was a 2 year-old who had “love of life and adventure….He left a mark on almost everyone he came in contact with. His energy, kind soul, and joy of life was contagious.”  I remembered reading about his death in the news earlier last year, and I think I had repressed the memory; suffice it to say, I wish I had never read it, and if you’ll take my advice, we’ll leave it at the tragic loss of a child.


Having said that, I simply have to tell you about the Axel Project because it’s just that fantastic. From the website:


Axel Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the fundamental principle that a productive, happy life begins with bikes. Our mission is to introduce and nurture a lifelong passion for cycling to children and their families. While our goal is broad, our first project is aimed at providing balance bicycles and instruction to children in need, ages 18 months to 5-years of age, to teach the basic skills necessary to get them riding on two wheels—with their friends, their family and forever.


As I mentioned in the Designed To Move post, it’s imperative to develop these habits and values before age 10.  This is where the Axel Project is being smart – they are promoting the use of glider bikes.  The more traditional path of getting kids on pedal bikes with training wheels only delays their progress; the complicated act of turning the pedals is what they work on before learning balance, and so they get to go so fast, that they’re scared to take off the training wheels.

We’ve had great success with a glider for Shark Boy.  Thanks to using a glider, he was able to participate in a Duathlon before he turned 3. Though people always marvelled to see him cruising our neighbourhood at such a young age, I was surprised to find how resistant people could be to adopting a similar strategy – the worst had to be when I found myself arguing with an 8 year-old neighbour over the necessity of training wheels; +10 points for intention, -100 for common sense (an 8 year-old!).


The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Less than a year later he was riding a real bike (in a foreign country, no less)… that’s a bike with pedals, no training wheels, being ridden by a 3 year-old.


We’ve been struggling a little with the Lightning Kid in this regard, but the honest reason is his legs aren’t so long and don’t reach the ground from even the plastic toddler glider we got, though I have a good feeling about this spring, after seeing what kind of physical stunts he’s been capable of pulling around the house.


Thanks to the Chariot, we’ve already taken short family bike rides on weekends, and I look forward to more. Bicycles are really the best short-cut to getting the whole family involved in an active adventure, and the Axel Project is making that happen for as many families as they can. Donations can be made by Paypal or mailing a cheque.

I really hope that somewhere, Axel Charrette, is having fun, and smiling at the kinds of adventures families like mine and his might be having.