The Mysteries of Snow

Over the Christmas holidays I have been staying at my folks place where I have been happy to be away from the Ottawa cold and snow for a while. I knew that the absence of snow wouldn't last long. Overnight we received two inches of fresh snow which brighten up the muddy front yard. As I was taking Hoover out for his morning walk, I started to notice something that the snow had revealed. The snow exposed all of the local animal activity. As we were walking around the back forty we saw mouse, rabbit, mole, vole and deer tracks in the snow. I spotted where mice had started to eat the bark off tree for food. Flying overhead were red-tailed hawks in search of a daily meal.

Albino/Leucistic Canada Goose

Today on my morning bike commute I spotted an anomaly that caught my attention, a Canada goose with an odd coloring. The bird's feathers didn't have any pigments. Once at the office I did a quick google check and Leucistic/albino geese are quick common. Here is a link to more pictures

Swing dancing -- "switch dancing"

Something new happened at last night's Friday night swing dance which I will call a "switch dance" but I'm sure there is another name. We were all on the dance floor watching the jam session and once it was over the dance started up again but with a twist about every 15 seconds we had to change dance partner. The DJ would call out "change" and we would dance with the closest follower. Over about a four minute period I danced with a fair number of women and many of which, I have never dance with before. It was a great way to meet a lot of dancers in a short period of time. After the dance I was able to dance with some new women which was great.

2009 Baltimore race weekend

Very soon I'll start my second Baltimore adventure and thought I would take a moment to write about my most recent one. For much of the summer and fall the people I train with on Wednesday night at the Running Room had been gearing up for the Ottawa Army half-marathon race near the end of September. Coach Phil had designed a training program so we would peak for around that time. I was able to continue the program for another week. As I was heading down to Baltimore I knew that I probably should have done two more 12-13 mile long runs but if I had done so I would not be racing on fresh legs. I spent the final week detraining and allowing my legs to recover. This is a phase of training that I don't enjoy as you cut back on your training volume and one feels grouchy.
On Thursday, before the race I picked up race packet and like the new system where you pick up your race number outside and then head into Raven Stadium to pick up your gear bag and t-shirt. Friday was spent giving my legs some more time to recover for the pending race. On Saturday morning, I got early and started the fueling routine of eating part of a book of Vector cereal. Jason drove me quite close to starting line area which was great. Thanks, Jason. If I'm lucky may be I can convince him to run the 5km race next year. I spent about an hour chilling at the Raven Stadium before eating my pre-race Clif bar. The idea was to stay relaxed while waiting for the race. About 40 minutes before the start, I headed over to the Inner Harbor to do my warm-up run followed by stretching. With about 15 minutes go I headed over to corral #1 to find a good starting point. After the national anthem was played we started on our 13.1 mile journey by heading north-west over to Patterson Park. The weather started to deteriorate in light rain which reduced one's traction. On the uphills you would slip backwards and on the downhill you would slide forward. One of the race highlights was running in Clifton Park. A second highlight was running a loop of Lake Montebello before heading over to John Hopkins University before heading south to finish at Camden Yards. I was pleased with the way I finished as I had medical complications along the course. When I started off the racing I was sweating which is not a good thing. I had a migraine and severe stomach pain for much of the race. I was tempted to stop in at the medical tent at the end of the race but decided to pass. In the end, I was pleased with my time and place as I improved on my performance over last year and am looking forward to doing the race in 2010.

While in Baltimore I was able to do some geocaching in Falls Road area. I found a couple of geocaches in Falls Road Park before heading over to Robert E. Lee Park which has an awesome running trail network as well as mountain bike trails.

Three more workout to go...

As I type this blog I realize that time is running out. This a good thing. I only have three more workouts before I do my half-marathon in Baltimore next Saturday. I'll do my usual 40 minute run along the Rideau Canal tomorrow night. The Friday night swing dancing and Saturday night contra-dancing don't count as workout. On Sunday morning, I'll do a 10 mile easy long run. On Tuesday or Wednesday I'll do my final workout which will most likely be quite peppy. I'm looking forward to next weekend for a whole host of reasons. It caps off my fall training season which has been more intense than usual. I will be able to see my good friend Jason and his fiance.

Swing dancing innovations

This past weekend, I spotted something new on the sidelines of the dance floor. Chip, one of our dancers, who is a professional engineer has built himself a battery powered fan that is driven by ten "C" batteries. C-size batteries are the ones about twice the size of a fig newton or your thumb. Chip has mounted the batteries and the fan on a board which uses to cool himself between dances. The fan face is on a mount which means he can just the angle at which the gusts of air hit his body. I thought it was a cool concept but a little too geeky for me.

Hints of fall...

As I bicycle commute in the mornings I find it is becoming harder and harder to wear a quick dry t-shirt as it is getting colder and colder. I'm at the point where I start the day in a long sleeve shirt and roll up the sleeves for the nightly commute. My legs are much more durable so I'll probably cycle bare-legged for a little while longer. Along the bike path there are more hints of fall each day, trees starting to develop shades of red, orange and yellow and the trees are starting to thin out as they start their annual shedding cycle. There is now a new hazard starting to appear on the horizon and that is, wet leaves on the bike path. Folks at the office say that they can almost double your stopping distance in an emergency situation could make a bad situation worse. Cycling with studded tires might be an option but I would prefer to take it easy when cycling under these conditions.

It's almost race time...

In a little over two weeks, I'll be heading to Baltimore to run in my fourth the Baltimore half-marathon. My training is progressing well and I only have two long runs before I can give my legs some much needed rest. The race comes at a good time as my running coach designed a training schedule so that team peaked for a race in Ottawa last weekend. I just have to continue the program for another week and I'm set to go. As the time draws near, I'm starting to get excited. As well, I'm looking forward to seeing Jason and Emily and catching up with them.

Geocaching and bouldering

Yesterday I went geocaching and was able to use my bouldering skills. It had a difficulty rating of four and a half stars. The highest rating is five stars. The cache was midway up a pine tree. The problem was that the lowest branch was six feet up. What to do? I had a McGyver moment and saw two possibilities brute force, or make use of my environment. About 300 feet away from the cache were two things that might help a shopping cart and a oil drum trash can. I opted to take the plastic bag out of the drum and roll it over to the tree. Once the drum was upended I could reach onto a branch and pull myself up the tree. From there I was able to climb up to the tree until I reached the cache. I signed cache log and slowly worked my way down the tree and finally landed back on the drum. I rolled the drum back to its home and was on my way.

On dancing...

This last weekend I tried another form of dancing called contra-dancing. The Wikipedia link is. I was encouraged to give it a try as many of the followers I dance with on Friday night are really into contra-dancing. As typical of many types of dancing there is always a shortage of leaders. To prepare for my initiation I watched some contra-dancing tutorial YouTube videos from a dancing group in North Carolina. As Saturday evening approached, I watched them again so I could tell the difference between doing an allemande, a star and a side pass. The dance hall is within walking distance from where I live and just across from Mountain Equipment Co-op. I arrived a little early to find that I wasn't only newbie. We were given a 30 minute crash course on contra-dancing. To ease you into the dance they pair you with an experienced dancer that acts as a mentor for the first couple of dances. Contra-dancing is a more structured dance compared to the free flowing East coast swing dancing that I am used to. The dancing is down and up a line which made up of line of leaders facing their follower. The caller is the person that calls out the moves during the dance. Below the dance starts the caller explains and walks the line through the various moves which acts as a rehearsal. Moments later the band starts planning and the caller calls out the move and the leaders and followers do their respective moves. The leader and follower either dance towards the band or away from the band. Once you reach the end of the line you sit for a couple of cords and then you re-enter the line and either dance up or down the line. When all the leader and follower pairs do there moves in sequence it is a high octane dance. The fun begins when people start to get tired or the sequences of moves are convoluted. The line will get a little screwed up and eventually self-corrects itself. I found the dancing quite demanding and opted to dance every second song. When sitting on the sidelines I realized the dance is about the leader-follower pair weaving back and forth between other leaders and followers. Tongue in check, I think I learned how some of my followers stay in such good shape by swing dancing on Friday night and contra-dancing on Saturday night every second week. We concluded evening with something special, a waltz which is something that I haven't done in a long time and only occasionally on New Years Eve. It was a really fun evening and I'm looking forward to next weekend for two reasons, a waltzing lesson and more contra-dancing.

Baltimore Race Weekend Approaches...

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be heading down to Baltimore to run in my fifth Baltimore half-marathon. It is a race that I look forward to each year as it comes at the end of my summer and fall training season and it’s how I like to conclude my racing year. There are a variety of things that I like about the race course, running around Patterson Park near the start of the race, the Lake Clifton pump house at the midpoint of the course, doing a loop around Lake Montebello and finally the finale, of running through the gates of Camden Yards towards the finish line. My workouts are getting longer, tougher and more intense as I prepare for the race. I’ve heard it rumoured that Baltimore races are for the strong runner and not necessarily the speed. I’m at the point where I still have a couple of more long runs but very soon I’ll reach a point where I can start checking them off the list and it will be time to give my legs a chance to recover for the big day.

Almost the end of summer...

This past weekend was a busy one as I headed home for a long weekend at my parent’s place. Much of my Saturday was spent driving to and from the university as well as the Toronto airport. My father has had a visiting research in town for much of the summer and I offered to drive him to the airport. On the way back, we stopped in at Whole Foods and I was able to restock on some Earl Gray Nourish Tea. The highlight of Sunday was heading over to a local dairy to have one last peach sundae as there are hints of fall in the air. In keeping with tradition, G, had his own peach sundae minus the whipped cream and nuts. He normally would have been a couple of times this summer but the car was always full with the foreign guest. On Monday, we headed south-west to Long Point Provincial Park on the shore of Lake Erie. My family camped there was we were young kids and it was great to get back there for a day trip. On the horizon, I’m looking forward to a couple of trips to the US in the fall.

The Beach

Today, I noticed that the beach along my daily bike commute looked different. It looked unkempt. The groundsman hadn't leveled or smoothed the sand. The buoys were absent from the Ottawa River and the life guard towers were no longer within inches of the Ottawa River. After a closer look the flag pole no longer flew a red or green flag. The nearby restaurant on the beach had shuttered for another season. The swimming season was coming to an end. All that was left, as I took a last glance was an old geezer wanding the beach with his metal detector in search for some sunken treasure. Futher along the path, the trees were starting to show the first hints of fall as there were specks of red in the leaves.

Swing dancing floors

Over the weekend while swing dancing, I experienced a new type of dance floor, a homemade one made out of particle board and a 2x4 studs. The venue was along the Ottawa River at Britannia Park which is close to where I live. The forecast for the weekend was a 60% chance of thunderstorms so the organizers opted to hold the dancing under a tent and to build an impromptu dance floor which was bouncy in some places and stiff as a board in others. Midway through the afternoon Alaina, one of the local dance instructors, came out with a 10lb bag of corn meal and poured it all of the dance floor. The floor suddenly became very slippery which made for a new dancing experience. There was a side benefits as little kids saw the corn meal as a play toy and made piles and figures out of it while their parents were dancing nearby. This got me thinking about the other two dance floors that I regularly dance on. The Ottawa Swing dance society moved in the spring to a social hall attached to an old church which has a sprung floor. I really like the floor as it hall a nice give. OSDS's previous home was a community centre which had a parquet which sat on a cement pad which was hard on your back and knees after a while. I wondering what other dance floors are out there.

The Beach

Every day, I cycle by the Westboro beach twice, once in the morning and on the way home after work. Some days I catch the groundsman cutting the grass, usually on Monday. I can usually tell if I can running early or late based on whether the beach has been raked and smoothed. If I'm lucky, I'll catch the groundsman, in action, dragging the rake behind his tractor. It has been so wet this summer that I haven't been able to enjoy the beach first hand. As I write this entry, I'm sitting at the beach for the second time in two days as the hot summer days have finally arrived in Ottawa. People are coming and going with some carrying a once burdensome cooler back to the car that has been sitting in the sun for too long. It's so hot that there are the same number of people in the water as lazying on the beach. The two lifeguard are sitting up in their chairs with water cans ready for deployment at the first cry of urgency. On top, cyclist, roller bladers and joggers trundle by in the unbearable heat. Close to the shore children are building sandcastles under the watchful eye of their parents. The lifeguards finish another shift and head to the portable shelter to gain some relief and his replacement reluctantly leave his oasis . Slowly, the sun descends towards the horizon and the children and parents take a final swim before packing up for the day. Soon the beach will be deserted and the lifeguards will announce that another day has come to an end. The sun finally dips below the horizon and a marvelous sunset graces the Ottawa River. It is dark. Another day await the groundsman as a new day will break soon.

Happy Birthday Wordabble

Today, I achieved two goals one of which was expected and the other a surprise. 365 days ago I played my first game of Wordabble which is a word game that Jason Lancaster and Adam Douglass released a year ago for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch. I've played every day and enjoyed the 300 word games almost as much as the games when there are fewer than 100 words to find in the 5x5 grid. There is one mystery I discovered today that I have been waiting for quite some time and that is, what happens when you find all the words. Today was my chance when there were only 19 words to find. I can say with a smile that it was worth waiting 365 days to see what was behind the magic curtain. Over the past year, I have earned281,268 points with an average score of 771 points per game and in theory played for 56 hours which I think underestimates the actual time. I close by thanking Jason and Adam for a year of challenging fun.

Ottawa -- July -- Record rainfall

One of the things I like about Ottawa are its weather extremes. In the winter we get a lot of snow and cool temperatures (-13F/-25C). During the summer months it gets hot and sticky (93F/34C). This July has been different as we have just set a record for rainfall (234mm/9.21 inches) surpassing a record set in 2002. The meterologist mentioned on the radio this morning that we had rain on 24 days this month. This is in contrast to a "normal" July when our average temperature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa) is (80F/26.5C) and the grass should be yellow, dead and straw-like and not a lush green that it currently is. During a wicked rain storm earlier this week we saw our first "snow" in July. A quick check with google said that there are only two months on record when it hasn't snowed in Ottawa. The wet weather has made the daily bicycle commute challenging as I was constantly dodging puddles. I'm hopefully that we will have a "normal" August with long, hot and dry days.

Almost Wordabble's first birthday

In 15 days or so Wordabble with celebrate its first anniversary of operation. It is hard to believe that 349 days ago Jason sent me an email at 11:30 pm to say that he and Adam's game was available for sale on the iTunes Appstore. With 30 minutes to go it would be a hard challenge to beat either Adam's or Jason's score for the day. I can say with a smile on my face, that I have enjoyed all the games that I have played. I've enjoyed the 300 words games as much as the frustrating ones where you have to find under 50 words (Argh!). Over the year, I have learned many news words and probably used the familar ones too often. I've also used Wordabble as a way of testing my mental acuity each day. There is still one challenge that I have to overcome and that is to discover what happens when you locate all the words. I know that something mysterious or magical happening but I'll have to keep playing to find out. I'll close out this blog by thanking Jason and Adam for almost a year's worth of daily challenges.

Geocaching extravaganza

Last week one of my colleagues, who is also a geocacher, suggested that I should revisit a park that I had cached in a couple of years ago. Back then there was only a handful of caches over there which I was able to easily find in an afternoon. When I pulled up the map in geocaching.com, I found that there were now 30 new geocaches. This morning I got up early and cycled along the Ottawa River parkway before crossing the Ottawa River into Quebec. Before I reached the park I had some adversity. As I was cycling all the north side of the Ottawa River I got my first flat tire. I replaced the inner tube and celebrated by having my second breakfast at McDonalds. I was within a stone's throw of Lac Beauchamp park when the second flat tire occurred. Since it was early in the day I decided to persevere and find as many caches as I could. I started by caching the east side of the Lac Beauchamp before heading over to cache the west side. Some of the caches were more unfriendly than others as two of them involved wading through knee high mud. The recent rains had made some of the trails impassible. I headed back to the chalet to try out an innovation, the geocaching iPhone application. I had used the app yesterday to locate a couple of caches and to log my finds aka "field notes" but decided to put it to the test of logging 15 finds. The app worked great. I was able to retrieve the description and logs of some the caches that were hard to find. I'll post a review of the geocaching app in the future. After munching on a Clif Bar I headed north to locate a final geocache and was glad that I did. Sweet! 16 finds!

I retrieved the bike from its hiding place and started my slow trek home. Along the way, I stopped in at McDonalds for a late lunch/early supper. After an hour and half of walking I was back in Ontario. Rather than walking with the bike home I decided to leave it locked up at the office and to replace the tire and inner tube tomorrow at the lunch hour.

Running goals

Last week's Running Room workout was not what I had expected. We were suppose to start our second round of 1,000 meter intervals on 60 seconds rest. The workout would be 4x1,000 meters with 60 second rest between each interval. We have been getting some much rain in Ottawa recently that our 1,000 meter loop in the arboretum has become water logged.

On paper, we would be doing a simpler workout 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy and 1 minute hard. We would do six of these sets. Over the course of 45 minutes we ran just over five miles at close to 85% of my maximum heart rate. I was suffering when I got home on Wednesday night. As we were running back to the store the coach mentioned why the change of plan. We would be starting our training next week to peak for fall marathons and half-marathons. I wanted to blog that my fall goal is to race the Army Run half-marathon run in the September, and either the Baltimore half-marathon or Philadelphia half-marathon later in the fall. So, next week it is back to intervals but with a long rest period (90 seconds) which is fine with me as I won't be grasping for air between the intervals.

Hiking Old Rag

Here is a link to my recent hike of Old Rag.

http://www.christophermoule.com/2009/07/hiking-old-rag/

Sea to Summit bowl and mug

When I go out camping and hiking I like to keep the amount of gear I have to carry to a minimum. I recently discovered an new innovation, the Sea to Summit mug and bowl. When you are not using them the mug fits inside the bowl and the result is a disc four inches in diameter by 1/4" thick. To use either of them you push out the centre of the disc and you are ready to go. Before putting the mug to a test in the wilderness I decided to test it out in my kitchen. I added my favourite hot brew to the mug and discovered that it is best to the grip the cup by the black rim and to use two hands when drinking say a cup of hot coffee or tea. I was impressed by how well they worked. The next test will be to see how they operate in the arctic cold of Adirondack winter camping or a local trek in the Ottawa environs.

http://www.rei.com/product/767560 Sea to Summit bowl

http://www.rei.com/product/787278 Sea to Summit X-Mug

Lindy500 -- Baltimore

In a week's time I'll be heading to Baltimore. Charm City Swing has organized a weekend which showcases some of the premiere Lindy Hop swing dance instructors in the US. Lindy500 will have three nights of live bands and two days of intensive swing dance lessons focusing on the Lindy Hop and Charleston swing dance moves. I'm excited to be able to head to Baltimore as I will be able to learn more Lindy Hop, spend some time with Jason and Emily, hike Old Rag, possibly help Jason on a home renovation project and hopefully much more.

Day #2 Heart rate study a VO2 max test - max

A couple of days ago, I did the second part of the heart rate study which involved running as hard as I could on a treadmill as the incline increased every minute. When we tried the treadmill test last week we were plagued by a nose clips that kept sliding off. Rachel was able to locate a nose clip that kayakers use when doing the eskimo rolls. With the new nose clip the test started and we were starting to get some good data until I started to profusely sweat. Bingo, off goes the nose clip! By this point in the test my legs were still fresh and I was feeling energetic and could have run for another 15 minutes and was keen to see how high I could boost my VO2 max value. Rachel has a couple of minutes of quality data which is what she needed for the research so she pulled the experiment. Oh, crap! So, I know what my VO2 value was somewhere in the high 50s but much lower than my past tests. After the treadmill session I had to wear the heart monitor for another 24 hours. The goal of the research was to compare my pre- and post-test heart rate responses.

One of the fun parts of the test is that I ran on the latest and greatest of treadmills. Rather than running on a continous belt I ran on a Woodway ELG treadmill which has 87 rubber slats which rotate sort of like a caterpillar track. The slats have a nice spring and mimics running on a rubber floor.

Heart rate study -- Day #1 Again

This morning I headed over to uOttawa to redo my heart rate research study. A bit of background the research study is looking at "the evaluation of continuous HRV during 24 hour periods and during staged exercise testing." While at the university they attached five heart rate sensor patches to my chest which are smaller and more comfortable than the ones they used last week. Rachel was happy with the first-24-hours worth of data collected before the VO2 test fiasco. As I was heading back to the office they promised me that they had found a new nose clip which won't slide off during the VO2 running test tomorrow. We'll have to see what happens. In anticipation of the test, I gave my legs a couple of days rest from running.

On another note, I had one of my best swing dance nights on Friday. I danced with a record number of followers and for some reason followers wanted to dance with me. There was only one bummer and that is, I didn't drink my diet coke before the dance. This made dancing a little hard as I really had to concentrate and focus on the music, and my footwork. Corona and I discovered a new form of dancing which we are called "fan dancing." Ottawa Swing Dance Society recently changed it dance location to a church hall which doesn't have air conditioning. I usually dance in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. While Corona and I were dancing I steered her so that we were dancing in front of the fan. This made dancing in the hot church more bareable. For the rest of the night, I would steer my follower over to the fan so we could have a "fan dance." I think they appreciated the breeze from the fan.

Heart study #2

This morning I headed over to uOttawa for the second part of the heart rate study, the VO2 test on a treadmill. After doing a warmup on the treadmill and then some stretching, it was time for the fun to begin. There are a couple of ways to conduct the test, one ways is to incrementally speed up the treadmill until you can no longer run as fast as the treadmill is spinning and the second, is to keep the treadmill spinning at a constant rate and gradually increase the grade angle. For this test they opted for later and it simulates hill climbing. The test started off well as the angle of the treadmill was adjusted every minute but then something bad happened. I started to sweat and nose clip started to slide off. When the clip was on we were starting to get a VO2 value in the low 50s with the expectation that my final VO2 would be in the mid 60s which is similar what I had done a couple of years ago. The researcher decide because the results were coming out so inconsistent to pull the test. I was having a good time and as I was getting into the "groove"/"zone" and my legs still felt fresh.

The plan is to re-do the research early next week and with the hope that they can locate a non-defective nose clip.

Day #1 of heart research study

Today is the first day of the uOttawa heart rate research project. I went in early and they attached five EKG pads to my chest that connect to a recording box (Holter Monitor) which will record an electrocardiogram of my heart for 48 hours. An ECG for a normal heart look like this with the typical PQRST pattern of the heart wave.

I did a bit of quick math and they will have 172,800 data point at the end of research. They gave me replacement pads to user after taking a shower. Once the research is over I am hoping to post a graph of my daily hourly average heart rate. It is currently a mystery to me what it might look like. I know it will be very low when sleeping but during the day it is anybodies guess as to what my daily average heart is. Before I left the lab they did a check and were surprised that my resting heart rate is 50 beats per minute. This suggests that I'm in relatively good fitness. Rachel, a MSc student, is hoping to use the data to help doctors better prescribe exercise programs to weight-challenged individuals semi-fit and fit patients.

Tomorrow we have more fun as I get to jump on a treadmill and run as fast as I can before sliding off the back of the treadmill. In the tests I've done in the past they have a student at the end the treadmill to catch you from flying off and hitting the wall.

Another experiment

In a couple of days, I'll do another physiology experiment at the University of Ottawa. This one involves one of my passion running. There will be three parts to the experiment. The first part involves being wired up with sensors on my chest which will monitor my heart activity 24 hours before the experiment. The next morning, I will jump on a treadmill and do a VO2 test which involves incrementally run faster and faster until you just about fall or fly off the treadmill. The final stage is to monitor my heart activity for 24 hours after the VO2 test. I think the idea behind the test is to see how my body responds to the stress of running as fast and hard as it can in a controlled environment. This will be the third time that I have done a VO2 test and they are always fun but at the same time quite challenging. I blog after the experiment with my the findings.

Geocaching milestone #1,000

Over the weekend, I achieved a geocaching milestone that has been looming for a while, finding my 1000th geocache. The find was special as it was located in a deer yard with many deer milling around in the background. I discovered geocaching by mistake a couple of years ago when doing some research about GPS satellites. I had bought a watch with GPS capabilities to help me train better for my road races. I discovered that there was a geocache close to where I lived and looked into buying a GPS handset. At this time, I thought they were very expensive and not within my reach and most likely very complex. I went to my local Mountain Equipment Co-op and found that I could get a starter GPS for a couple of hundred dollars. My first geocache was located underneath the rail bed of an abandoned railway bridge. The cache had been disguised to look like a piece of steel with the rivets sticking out. To a novice it would look like a steel plate attached to the underside of the bridge but hidden behind it was the geocache. After finding my first geocache I logged into geocaching.com and found that there were more caches near my place and I started to explore more the city with my GPS handset. One of my most memorable cache is still "Crusty the Clown." You have to climb to the top of a pine tree where you find a bird house. When you opened the door "Crusty the Clown" shoot out at you which scares the crap out of you. After signing the log book I climbed down the tree and cycled to another nearby cache. As I start my second 1000, one of my goals is to try and geocache in more Canadian provinces as well as US states.

Diabetic Research Study

Earlier this week, I participated in a research study comparing the blood glucose levels of non-diabetic athletes with diabetic athletes during an exercise trial. I'm not diabetic so I was part of the control group. There were two part to the study. The first part involved cycling in a 35C/95F calorimeter to determine what wattage/resistance they should apply to the pedals during the main trial. The second part involved be wired up with a multitude of sensors.

• Four sweat capsules attached to my arms and legs to measure my sweat rate
• A heart rate monitor to measure my heart rate
• A laser sensor on my wrist to measure the maximal blood flow and oxygen level through my skin
• An oxygen mask connected to a long hose connected to a metabolic cart measuring my oxygen, carbon dioxide, breathing rate
• Three internal thermometer measure my body core temperature -- ear (tympanic), throat (esophageal) and anonymous place
• A blood glucose monitor. I have to take three blood samples during the trial
  

Once I was all wired up I headed into the calorimeter (35C/95F) and remained stationary for 30 minutes. The purpose of this segment was to let my body adapt to the warm conditions and to get some baseline measurements. The main part of the experiment involved cycling for 60 minutes at a fixed cadence and with fixed resistance. The final segment was sitting for an hour chilling. Apparently, all the data collected was of value as the researcher was eagerly analyzing it as I left. The idea was to compare all of the data from my session with a diabetic athlete having similar characteristics who also did the same trial to see how s/he responded to the stress of the exercise.

Lindy 1 summary

Last week, I finished my first Lindy Hop swing dance with Alana Hock and decided to post a summary of the moves/steps we learned during the course.


Basic footwork followers: right, left, right-left-right (triple step), left, right, left-right-left (triple step)
Basic footwork leaders: left, right, left-right-left (triple step), right, left, right-left-right (triple step)

1. Lindy Hop basic
- rock-step, triple forward, step step, triple back (8-count)
- stay in closed position

2. Send Out
- rock “send” (leaders send followers out on 2)
- begin in closed, move to open position

3. Into closed
- leaders: back-together (on 1-2)
- followers: walk forward on 1-2
- begin in open, leaders catch and stop followers on 3-and-4, end in closed

4. Side pass
- leaders: back-together, bring left hand across body to lead follower to turn
- begin and end in open

5. Flip flop
- begin in closed with “circular” rock-step, move hand to shoulder blade
- leads open “door” on 1-2, then close on 3-and-4
- switch hands on follower’s back, then rock step on opposite foot
- to end, bring hand and arm back around follower’s hip (closing the space)

6. Rotating basic
- same as basic, but leads rotation towards right shoulder (clockwise)
- triple step back on 7-and-8

7. Lindy circle
- begin in open position, and same beginning as into-closed
- leaders: wait for follower, then start rotating clockwise
- triple step back on 7-and-8 (end in closed position)

8. Under-arm Tuck-turn
- “circular” rock-step, and move hand to shoulder blade
- close “door” on 3-and-4 (leader’s left and follower’s right hand squishing a
marshmallow)
- leaders: turn followers out (clockwise) and draw “C” with hand

9. Swing out!
- begin in open position
- leaders: back-together, triple-step (moving 180 degrees)
- followers, walk forward, matching leader’s shoulders
- on 4, face-off position
- on 5, leaders look then step to side 90 degrees
- end in open position

Stability of the Apple iPod touch

One of the apps on my iPod touch that I consult often is iStat which provides a variety of statistics on the operation of your iPod/iPhone. It is an iPod touch/iPhone version of the iStat application that is available for the iMac and Macbook. There is one statistic that currently impresses me and that is, uptime. My iPod touch has been up for 81 days. I am really impressed with the stability, robustness and reliability of the iPod touch operating system.

In running news last week's Wednesday workout was 4x1,000 meters on 30 second rest (ouch). [4.05/4.12/4.17/4.13] The good news is that my times are going down and starting to close in on the kilometer times I ran last year.

Long run and El

Tonight, I did my weekly long run which was challenging for two reasons, the heat and the wind. For most of the 16km/10miles I was facing a strong headwind that sapped most of my energy. When I had the wind behind me my legs felt like dead batteries. The wind on the way back was so strong that the sand and road grit started to sandpaper my ankles. When I was back at the university it was good to check off along long run.

Last Wednesday, I did a 12km/7m fartlek run with the folks I train with at the Running Room and it ended with a bit of a jolt. The final mile of the looped course is uphill and I could hear footstep approaching and then backing off. Out of the corner of my eye appears "El" whose mantra is "El loves hills." At this moment, I said a strong expletive and with a surge of adrenaline pulled away. The dose of adrenaline was stronger than needed as I was able to hold her off for half a mile. At the finish line, we had a good chuckle as she thought I was an easy target and I had overestimated the strength of her long legs. In four weeks time, we will do the fartlek workout again but we'll have three weeks of intense kilometer intervals before then.

Urban jetboiling

Tonight, I did something that has been on my "ToDo" list for a while is some Jetboil cooking. On Friday, I was over a MEC buying some bike stuff and grabbed two package of AlpineAire dinners. The idea is to test out meal in an urban setting before experiencing them in the wild only to discover that they are no good. I sort of wanting to make an adventure out of cooking dinner so I loaded my Jetboil, Nalgene bottle, utensils and roll of toilet paper into my backpack and headed out along the Ottawa River. The sun was starting to set so I couldn't travel too far but a handy park bench was nearby.

Both dinners required two cups of water and the nice thing about the Jetboil is that it has a 2 cup/16 oz mark on the inside of the pot. I set up the stove and had my first load of water ready to heat. The first dinner was AlpineAire Wild Tyme Turkey. The Jetboil was steaming in under a minute and I loaded the water into the pouch and gave it a good stir and set it aside for 10 minutes. The second batch of water was heated even faster and was loaded into the AlpineAire Pepper Steak Rice pouch. At this point it was time to get out the toilet paper for all the wrong and not obvious reasons. While both pouches were steeping I dried off the inside of the Jetboil pot and the lid and put the stove away and waited.

The Wild Turkey dinner was tasty but not as filling as the Pepper Steak Rice. A note -to-self to really stir the Pepper steak before serving as the salt and pepper tend to accumulate at the bottom of the pouch. The Pepper Steak Rice dinner would feed two people well. The Wild Turkey when combined with something else would feed two people satisfactorily.

First workout in shorts

Tonight I did my second intervals workout of the year. While doing my warm-up run down to the Running Room on Bank Street I found I was overheating and so I ditched my winter REI tights. My coach suggested I do the same workout that I did last week as it will take a few weeks for my body to adapt to running fast again.

4 x 1,000 meters on 60 seconds rest -- 4.09/4.18/4.20.4.30

Wordabble -- 200K

Today I experienced something that I had predicted might happen soon, that is, my high score in Wordabble went over 200,000 points. Over the past little while I have been inching towards this goal. It was a great milestone to surpass. A quick shout out to Jason and Adam for me one of my daily challenges. I openly wonder which will come next wordabble's first anniversary or reaching a high score of 500,000 points.

Multi-national swing dancing

One thing I like about the lesson that comes before the Friday night swing dance is that I get to dance with people who are dancing swing for the first time. Recently, I have been dancing with people from all over the world, such as from Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Germany and the Ukraine. I could usually get a hint from where there from through the chit-chat we exchange before we rotate. This influx of people from around the world is something new. I started talking to the regulars and they mentioned that the swing dance club has been advertising in the magazine and the newspapers that the diplomats read. This sort of explains why there are so many folks from various nations at the Friday night swing dance. So, the easiest way to meet foreign diplomats is swing dancing.

1st interval workout of the year

Last night, I did my first interval workout with the guys I train with at the Running Room. The bus strike and my recent soleus injury prevented me from starting the intervals a month ago. They are starting there second set where the rest time between each interals has dropped from 90 seconds down to 60 seconds. My workout took the form of a five miles warmup over to the experimental farm and then four 1,000 meter intervals with 60 seconds rest between. I was pleased that my legs survived the workout and my times are a little slower than they should be but using an horse analogy it feels good to be back in the saddle. After the workout I spoke my coach, Phil, and was pleased with my times but said to very gradually add speed back into my workouts as the intervals are always a jolt to one's system.

For the record: 4:14/4:08/4:23/4:37

I was hoping to do something this week but was held off by the snow and that is to have a Jetboil dinner along the Ottawa River close to where I live.

The Old Duffer and running

For the past little while I have been treating my legs with care as it has taken a little longer for my right soleus to heel than I would have liked. Last Sunday, I did my first 10 mile long run along the canal. I was on my way back and within 3 miles of the university when the hairs on the back of my neck went up. A speedster was closing and would pass me any minute. He thought I would be an easy target. He was in for a bit of a surprise and so was I. Very quickly he went by and opened up a lead on me. This irked me a bit. I caught up and increased the pace as it has been a while since I really stressed my legs. For the next two miles we both ran side-by-side with an ever increasing pace. Who would drop whom first? After two miles he disengaged. I eased up a bit as I could feel the lactic acid building in my legs. The university was quickly appearing on the horizon. I was feeling good as my legs were handling the pressure/stress. The old duffler did another surge and caught up with me. I responded with another surge and finished the workout with a smile of relief on my face.

On Wednesday, I did a 8 mile run and a 7 mile run on Friday. My strategy is to rebuild my base- training before add speed to the mix. On Wednesday, I will do my first set of 1,000 meters intervals. I'm a little behind my training peers but I accept that it may take a couple of speed workouts before my zest returns. Over the next little while I hope to do a 10km road race and may be a 13 mile half-marathon next month.

Culinary -- Hot Cross Buns

I like hot cross buns and with Easter appearing quickly on the horizon this blog entry is sort of appropriate. The large grocery chain in Ottawa sells hot cross buns all year long. They taste very good after a long workout or a hike with tea or hot chocolate. I recently learned that there are variations in how they put the white cross on top of the bun. I always thought that the white stuff was some sort of special baking material. My local bakery does something different. They put the cross on the bun after it is baked and it is a seam of fresh butter. This make these extra tasty. Over the next little while, I'll be eating a lot of hot cross buns giving me a chance to decide whether I like the baked cross or the butter cross.

A quick trip to Washington and Baltimore

It was been a little while since I blogged last and I wanted to capture my thoughts on a recent adventure. Last week, I was at the SAS Global Forum conference in National Harbor/Oxon Hill, Maryland. The conference was held at the new Gaylord conference centre which offered an amazing very of the Potomac River. The conference talks were good and I learned about many of the new software products that will be released later this year. I opted to stay in Oxon Hill giving me ready access to Safeway and Starbucks but at the expense of brief commute to the conference centre in the morning. I enjoyed the twice daily walks and was happy to see a flocks of deer, geese on the pond, and bamboo trees growing next to the road. I was able to find a couple of geocaches hidden along a bike path which I did a workout on a couple of days later. The bus trip to Georgetown took us by many famous sites and I would like to vacation in Washington, DC in the future.

On Wednesday, I started my journey north to Baltimore a little earlier than expected. The airport shuttle was suppose to pick me up at 7:15 am but met me at 6:30 am. I was packed by this point but skipped breakfast to save some time. Jason and I had arranged to meet at 10:00 am and I was at the airport for 7:30 am. Ouch! What to do? I had often wondered what it was like to take the light rail from the airport. For $1.60 the light rail will take you from the airport to downtown. I got off at the convention center where they were having an Emergency Medical Technician conference and they had a van whose side was a flat screen display running commercials for the LifePak 15 debrillator and heart rate monitor. Jason met me and we headed back to the Daily Grind in Fells Point. The jolt of coffee felt good. We headed back to Jason's place for lunch. It was the first time I had seen his place finished and he and Emily have down an awesome job. It looked really good. It was bright and warm. After lunch Jason gave me some help with my Macbook which was really great. He pointed out some vulnerability which scared me but we were able to fix them quickly. One of things I really liked is he showed me how to link iCal to Google Calendar to the calendar in my iPhone. This rocked. Thanks Jason. Jason, Emily and I head north to the Druid Hill park area for a dinner at restaurant that looked like a converted warehouse. The location and the meal were great. I can't remember the name of the place but I would highly recommend it.

On Thursday, we headed north to REI where I bought a smaller version of the REI Muir Wood jacket. I had bought the XL earlier this year but found it too large but it would better fit my father. We spent much of afternoon hiking along the Gunpowder in area west of where we have hiked before. We did a circular loop with help of a GPS and Google maps in the iPhone. Afterwards we headed up to EarthTreks for some bouldering. Before heading out to dinner we stopped by the Teavana store and I loaded up on some new teas. We had dinner at PF Chang's before heading back down to Canton. On Friday morning, I headed back to Ottawa. Thanks, Jason for this brief adventure and I hope we can do a couple of more adventures this year.

A small victory...

Tonight, I had a small victory which made me feel good. I was able to run 10 kilometers almost pain-free. Every day my gastrocnemius gets a little stronger and is a little less sore. As I tell Tina, my massage therapist, my "fist of pain" is getting smaller. What surprises me is that I can dance East-coast swing and Lindy Hop pain-free. It is the sudden jarring impact of landing with twice the force-of-gravity while running is the main culprit. The plan is to try and run the same distance tomorrow.

I started another set of Lindy hop swing dancing lessons with Alana, Rebecca and Louis. We spent most of the lesson going over the basic foot work, RS-TS-S-S-TS. Most the drills we did had us dancing forward and backward where as in other classes we would dance from left to right. There was one thing that sort of bother me a bit and that is what to do with my right hand. I've always been taught to place my right hand on the follower's scapula or shoulder blade (either left or right). Rebecca and Louis were having us place our right hand on the follower's right hip. It sort of felt awkard having been taught to avoid putting your hand on a follower's squishy bit.

Seagate and Running....

Today as I was heading out my phone began to vibrate letting know that UPS was attempting a delivery. In an early blog I talked about problems with a Seagate backup drive and how it had to be uniquely packaged before a replacement would be sent. The replacement drive came this morning and the plan is to setup a RAID level 1 backup strategy. A quick thanks to the folks at Seagate for sending the warrantied replacement drive in under a week.

Tonight, I did something that I have been desperate to do for about two weeks and that is to have a quality run outside. Two weeks ago while out for a routine training run I pulled part of my right gastrocnemius and soleus . It happened at a good point in the run as I was 50 yards from the university. After a couple of days of rest I was able to aggressively stretch it a couple of times a day still with a fair amount of pain. I called Tina and made an appointment for some active release technique, and some very aggressive massaging. I usually leave these sessions privately moaning. But the injury and the recovery make me really appreciate how lucky I have been recently to run injury-free. After last night's aggressive massage I decided to be bold and take a run outdoors this evening. The run went well and the soleus started to complain as I approached the university. But it did feel good to go for a run. For the past week and a half, I've been cross-training at the gym by using the rowing machine, stair master, exercise bicycle, treading water and water running but they don't compare with a 40 minute run outdoors. The plan is to go for a slightly longer run on Sunday and very gradually start building up my workout length.

Finger socks

Today we are going to talk about my feet. Over the weekend, I stopped by Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy some new socks. They had some new socks -- Injinji -- which are like the Five Fingers of socks. One of the ideas behind the Five Finger shoes is that they spread you toes apart so that each toe is allowed to carry its share of your body weight rather than being scrunched together with his pals. The Injinji socks use the same principle as each toes lives inside its own pocket. Like the Five Fingers fitting your toes into the Injinji takes a little bit of effort but once you put the sock on they are quite comfortable. I bought two pairs of white and black and will put them through there paces for the next little while. I am curious to see if I notice a difference when I go a run wearing them.

When a backup isn't a backup!

A couple of years ago, I bought a Seagate FreeAgent disk drive to backup my laptop. In keeping with tradition, my father bought the same drive to backup his computer. Over the Christmas holidays, the backup drive stopped working as you could feel the drive spinning but Windows Vista would not detect the drive. While at home on the weekend my father asked me to take a look at it. We ran the diagnostic software and it said that the drive was toast. We ran the disk recovery software and it said that it could not recovery any files. Once back in Ottawa, I did a couple of more tests and found to my surprise that the drive is still under warranty. Sweet! The repair depot is located near Toronto. Seagate is very precise on how they want the drive packaged for return. The drive has to be surrounded by 2" of foam on all sides. Where to find 2" foam rubber? I had a brainwave which saved the day. Fabric stores sell foam rubber for folks that want to make cushions and comforters. I headed out at lunch to a fabric stores and bought a 2' x 2' x 1" foam rubber pad and cut it into segments to fit a box. I'll send the box on its way tomorrow and see what Seagate does.

Dancing in the dark...

I am typing this blog in the dark. It is Friday night and my first swing dance in a little while. A construction crew cut the power to studio earlier today by mistake. There is a CAT diesel generator humming outside which is still warming up so it is not producing any power yet. The dance hall is full of people talking with hushed tones in the dark. There are pockets of people huddling near folks that have cell phones. The phones are acting as portable flashlights and beacons. It is a weird situation. Power is expected soon but they keep on announcing delays. Harmonic Dave has pulled his harmonic and we are have a jam sessions waiting for the lights to come. Updates to follow...

Time Capsule installation a success

Last night, I installed my Apple Time Capsule backup drive and it went really well. It was simple to do and fun at the same time. Apple makes the installation and configuration easy to do. The plan was to buy the Time Capsule to backup my Macbook and little else. When I flipped over to using WiFi so my iPod touch and iPhone could access the internet at home I have always faced the dreaded wifi drop problem. My iPod touch would find the wireless modem and I would surf for a few minutes and them BOOM out-of-the-blue I would get signal degradation. This was frustrating. I made an antenna out of tin foil and it sort of helped.

While waiting at the Apple store for my GarageBand workshop, I started talking to concierge and explained the problem as his father had the same problem. He gave me some leads to look at. I downloaded Apple's Designing Airport Networks guide and started to think about the scenarios. I opted to have an Ethernet connection from the modem to my windows laptop. I run another Ethernet connection from the modem to the Time Capsule. This allows my Macbook, laptop, Touch and iPhone to have access to WiFi. An added bonus is that my printer can wirelessly accessed from either computer. The wireless signal strength from Time Capsule is good. To reduce interference, I set the signal strength of the wireless modem to low. So, I now have a wireless network that I am happy with and a backup drive for my Macbook. The initial Time Machine backup took longer than expected but I really pleased that I was able to solve a major wireless problem. Thanks Apple.

Another 30 seconds faster....

Short version

Ran the PF Chang RnR half-marathon in Phoenix, Arizona
Finish time:1:35.26, 30 seconds faster than 2008 time
Place: 443/21,000
Distance: 13.1 miles/21.1km
Visited the Grand Canyon and Four Corners, Arizona
(Location where four states meet at a 90 degree angle)

Long version

In mid-January, I ran my third PF Chang RnR half-marathon in Phoenix Arizona. On race day, I got up at 0500 and ate half a box of Vector cereal before taking the hotel-provided shuttle to the start line in Phoenix. The race starts in Phoenix and runs south-west finishing in Tempe. When I arrived at the start area it was pitch dark. There was an air of anticipation as both the marathon and half-marathon start side by side about an hour apart. It was fun watching the sunrise and to take in some people watch. Some people wore minimal clothing and shivering while others were bundled up and would sweat a bucket during the race. I was happy to chill on a hillside and watch the race traffic mosey by. About an hour before the start I munched on my Clifbar and did an easy warmup. As the race approached I dropped my gear at the UPS trucks and had a couple of biobreaks.

I would start the race in the first of 26 corrals. They volunteers at the corral entrance were checking your bib number to make sure you entered the right corral. One of the race innovations I really like are the new disposable timing chips. It is a loop of plastic that contains an RDIF chip which you fasten to your shoe laces. At the end of the race you throw it away. After the playing of the national anthem the governor started the race. The conditions were a sunny 5C/41F. But it wouldn't stay cool for long as the blistering Arizona sun started to rise. I started off at a brisk pace and then geared back a bit at mile three. The course is flat and fast and quite familiar. When I arrived at the eight mile marker I thought I would need to take in a gel as usual but still felt energetic. My friend JB met me at mile 10 and we ran together for the final three miles. It was good to run with him as it was at this point that I started to feel the heat. Up to this point, I had been taking in water and pouring water on myself every second water stop. With two miles to go I decided to speed up as it couldn't be any worse than a Pretoria Bridge to Bank Street bridge fartlek surge. As we crossed the finish line I was a little concerned as I thought I ran slower than last year. It was only back in the hotel that I realized that I had run 30 seconds faster.

After the race we headed north to the Grand Canyon and were able to hike around part of the south rim. It sort of felt like home as there was snow and ice everywhere. We drove the Grand Canyon parkway as far east as we could before heading north to Monument Valley the backdrop of many western movies. Our final stop would be Four Corners, USA, a location where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet at a 90 degree angle. By perching yourself you can have your hand and legs in four states at the same time.

Minimalist

Today I ran to the office (3 miles) which is something that I do a couple of times a week. With the bus strike unofficially over, the buses will remain in the yards for another week. After I showered I started to do a ritual which I do a couple of times a week, shaving. Today I had a crisis. I squeezed the shaving cream can and nothing came out but a pin-sized amount of cream. I looked at myself for a while and contemplated using the hand soap but felt it would be too hard on my face. I opted to shave without shaving cream. It worked. I was able to shave without cutting myself and my skin felt okay. Over the lunch hour, I headed to the drug store to buy some more cream. So, the moral of the story is, that if you are in a bind you can shave without shaving cream.

Arizona 2009 -- part 1

A little while ago I came back from my annual Arizona adventure and so it is time to blog the adventures. Early Friday morning, I caught my flight from Ottawa to Chicago and finally to Phoenix. JB and Raeanne met me at the airport and we headed to the race expo to pickup my race packet. I would be running in the first corral which was a intimidating and the same time exhilirating. We next heading over to REI to pickup some clothing that I had shipped to the Tempe store. I really like my new Muir Woods polar fleece jacket fitted. We headed across town, to the Bitlmore plaza home of Teavana and the Apple Store. It was my first time visiting Teavana and I had a fun experience. I bought some Early Grey and Dragon Pearl tea. To my regret I would have to wait until I was home before trying the teas. We went to the nearby Apple store and I checked my email and checked out the Time Capsule backup drives. We ate dinner at PF Changs which is a traditionally place where we have our pre-race dinner.
I was up early on Saturday by Arizona time and had a hearty breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Mid-morning JB picked me up and we headed over to the gun range to meet Pete. He is a former private investigator and has in excess of 300 firearms in his house. Canada has strict rule on firearms making it very difficult for me to check out handguns. For a long time I have wondered what it was like to shot a handgun. I also wanted to have a better understanding of the second amendment to the US constitution. Here was my opportunity to explore both and have some fun. Pete brought four guns of varying caliber including a 9mm and 45 calibre "John Wayne" gun. We bought $200 worth of bullets. After putting on eyeshield and ear protection we headed into our range slot. Pete and his son loaded up the gun cartridges while JB mounted the paper target. Pete gave me some firearms training and I emptyed my first cartridge consistently hitting around the same area. As Pete put as long as you are hitting "body matter" that is all that is important. During the experience I had sweay palms. I don't know whether it was my body reacting to the warmer conditions or the experience of firing a gun. Over the next two hours, the four of us cycled through successfully more powerful guns. Even with a double hand grip of a 45 calibre handgun, I found it had quite a kickf. Firing off these various guns will be a memorable experience for quite some time.

We stopped in a Qdoba's for lunch and watched Obama's Baltimore speech. It was a good speech and one which I think he wrote himself. We headed north of Phoenix to Lake Pleasant which is a source of drinking water for the Tempe-Phoenix-Scottsdale area. JB had done a triathlon in the area and the cycling hill looked brutal.Our next stop would be Glendale, where the last SuperBowl was played. JB, his parents and I had a pasta dinner at a Italian restaurant.

Innovative uses for a coffee stirring stick

Every year my honor society has an induction ceremony where we welcome our new members. Myself and a couple of other students form the local chapter's executive. Many of us have been organizing the ceremony for a couple of years so we delegate the various tasks among each of us. I send out reminder emails to our 400 new members and handle all the email correspondence. While in Phoenix, AZ, the president and I drafted the speeches and constructed the programme. One of the more humorous part happened in Monument Valley. We were midway through a three mile hike around a 1000 feet butte and waiting for the morning sun to catch it and admiring the stillness and silence when when my iPhone chirps away. The message was along the line, do I remember how many cakes we bought last year.

Every year there are new challenges and some we can't seem to solve. The most pressing deals with knives to cut the celebration cake. We always end up by forgetting them in the mad rush. This year was no exception. In the past we have used cardboard, plastic plates and forks. They all work but not very well. While the speeches were going on we had to quickly find a way of cutting and serving cake to 400 people. The solution this year was to slice the cake using wooden coffee stirrers and to us two forks to lift the cake onto the plates. The solution worked and at times it was comical to watch. The students and parents didn't seem to notice as they were eager for free food and coffee.

Half-marathon and some traveling

This coming weekend I will head to Arizona to run my first half-marathon of the year. I am looking forward to the race as it will give me some relief from the arctic cold weather that the Ottawa area has been getting recently. There is also another thing I curious about and that is my physical fitness. Over the Christmas holiday, I ran a 10 mile race in Hamilton in a time that suggested that I am in better shape than last year. This could be because I am eating better this year but I really think it is the extra exercise that I am getting each day. I run to and from the office twice a week and walk the other days. One of the bummer is that all this exercise leaves me more tired than usual in the evenings. The upshot is that I am loosing more and more weight which is a good thing and might mean that I will run faster on the weekend as I will be lighter.

Once the race is over I'll spend a couple of extra days in the Phoenix area and head up to explore the Grand Canyon area as well as head up to the north-eastern corner of the state to a place called "Four Corners." The states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico all meet at a 90 degree angle. It is the only place in America where this happens. I am excited to take a picture of myself with each arm and legs in a separate state. I'll post a blog and pictures next week talking about all my adventures.

Wordabble at six month

Today is a special day for folks that play Wordabble. Wordabble is an iPhone/iPod Touch game from the folks at Fusion Bay and today it celebrates its first six month of offering challenging daily word puzzles. When you look at the rankings page, five of the top 20 regular players have over 200,000 points. Congratulation and thanks to Jason and Adam for six month of fun and daily challenges.

2008 Goals in Review

Last year around this time I uploaded my goals for 2008. The wisdom was if you publicly state some of your goals you are more likely to take the steps to achieve them. I found this a good exercise last year and something I will do this year. Before I list my 2009 goals I thought I would take a minute to see how I did in achieving my 2008 goals.



* Run a 1:30 half-marathon time
Getting closer with each race. Will have to try harder in 2009


* Go on more OHOC outdoor adventures
Achieved


* Do more hiking trips
Achieved (OHOC trips, Catochins, Pretty Boy dam, etc.)


* Climb more of the 46ers (46 highest peaks in the Adirondacks , NY)
Achieved. Climbed a couple of more peaks


* Loose 10 lbs by May 30 (race date –National Capital half-marathon)
Achieved.


* Hike the West Coast Trail/Shenandoah National Park/Old Smoky National Park
No. Shifted to 2009.


* Run a faster Baltimore half-marathon (< 1:34 ) in October 2008
Achieved. Each year I run the race around a minute faster


* Visit Brent ( Algonquin Park ) by canoeing and portaging and bring along a digital camera
No. But parents had two roofs and one patio deck rebuilt.


* Reach 500,000 Babble point (now 350,000) www.playbabble.com
Achieved. When I combine my babble scores and wordabble scores I achieved this goal.


* Do more cycling (road and mountain biking)
No. Ouch


* Geocaching goal 900-1000 finds by Dec 31 2008
Achieved in the spring and finished off the year with 949 finds.


* Become more mobile
No


* Complete an Olympic Distance triathlon (1500m swum/40km cycle/10km run)
No


* Swing dancing – Learn the Lindy Hop
Achieved but more work to do.


* Take the train to Baltimore
Goal for 2009 (Montreal to New York to Baltimore Penn Station)

2008 was a good year for me. I did more than I expected an achieved other goals that I that I didn't push up to my blog.

Date Squares and Caesar Salad

This is a culinary blog entry. I recently have taken a strong liking to date squares. It is similar to my enjoyment of a caesar salad. A couple of years ago while volunteer I spent a summer preparing caesar salads on Saturday mornings. It got to the point where I could tell how long ago it was that the greens/lettuce had be washed and spun in the salad spinner. The crisper the salad the sooner it had been prepared.

When my folks were visiting Ottawa recently we visited a bakery that they had been eager to visit for a long time. We made two trips to the Rideau Bakery. When I headed down to my folks place for the winter break I brought down a shopping list of breads that my mother wanted. One of the bakery's specialties is date squares. They are yummy and so sweet. While doing some Christmas errands we stopped in at my mother's local bakery and I asked for date squares. They were not as good as the ones in Ottawa. Today, my folks and I made our second time to the Oakville Whole Foods store. I bought a variety of there scones and you guessed it, date squares. Compared to other date squares the ones from Whole Foods were better as they were not as sweet and the top material did not disintegrate and they looked and tasted healthier.