all that isn't, plus more

So; it is about time I post about last weekend.

On Saturday morning I drove to Calabogie Peaks to run in the Sprint (5km) Spartan Race being held there. What was odd about the registration was that there was no machine; a guy wrote down my name, number and recording chip number. Now; when I look at the results on-line, I cannot find my race time. This is a little disappointing, but no matter, I did finish the race, get the medal and t-shirt and was quite happy with how I performed. The first third of the course was to go up and down, and the last two-thirds was mostly flat; so even though during that first ascent I was starting to wear out a little, I pushed hard as I knew that following it would be a descent and the rest flat. I managed to complete all obstacles and even got the spear throw to stick, so that was good. I think I got a really good time as I managed to run through most of the course.

After the race I drove back to Arnprior where I stayed at the Knight's Inn, a motel that also offers free wifi and a very simple continental breakfast. Once I got into my room and showered I had a nap, then went to A&W for supper, then went for a walk in the cute little town of Arnprior.

Sunday morning I awoke early, had that simple breakfast at 7AM, and then drove back to Calabogie Peaks for the Super (13km) Spartan Race. Registration was normal this time, they scanned the barcode that denotes my registration. This course had two steep ascents, one steep descent, and one not steep ascent with two not steep descents, followed by the same flat section as the Sprint had. So, with three up-and-downs of the mountain, I also knew I could push pretty hard, especially given that there were only two steep ascents. About two-sevenths of the way through the course I found someone who was more or less matching pace with me; and by the three-sevenths mark I engaged in conversation with this person. I never got her name, but found she is originally from France (we spoke French and her accent was clear), is 30 years old, and this was her 8th or 9th Spartan Race and she hadn't done the Sprint the previous day as I had. She was quicker in the downhill sections and I was quicker in the uphill sections, so a few times we would separate, but then catch up with each other again. There were two obstacles that she missed that I didn't; and she did the burpees that you are supposed to do. This also made it so that she would catch up later as I had started to flag. Once she caught up, I was able to pick up my pace again.

I finished in the top 5% of all racers, top 8% of male racers and top 7% of the M45-49 group. This is the best finish I've ever had. Part of it was that Calabogie Peaks (232m vertical) is smaller than Owl's Head (540m vertical) and another part was having a partner through more than half the race that help to push me along.

Following the race, I went back to my car to retrieve my Sprint and Beast medals, and then returned to the race site and found someone to take my photo with all three medals. Finally, I drove home, uneventfully.

I had been saying that in the future I would not do the Beast (21km) race again and that I would only stick with the Sprint race, with co-workers, going to the race as a group; and, that during the race, instead of going my own pace, I would pair up, or group up with other people. However, I really enjoyed doing the Calabogie Super; not just because I partnered with someone, but that it was a more pleasant course compared to Owl's Head. So, for next year, maybe I'll consider doing the Calabogie Super in addition to the Sprint locally with coworkers.

Spartan Race - Beast Distance

Yesterday I competed in my first Spartan Race of 2019, it is the Beast distance which is 21km and 30 obstacles. Most of the course was going up or coming down a mountain.

I awoke at 4h42, ate a bit, then drove and got there at 6h50. Parking was quick and easy this time as there are fewer Beast competitors then there are Sprint ones. It actually turned out that I got to park three cars away from the entrance to the start/finish site, so that made it really easy for me to leave any items I had with me in the car.

I watched a few of the ultra and elite racers depart, and then my departure was at 8h30. I would say about the first hour was to ascend the mountain, with just one or two obstacles. It was pretty grueling to start this way, but I was still feeling pretty good by the time I got to the top to begin the descent back to the bottom. By about the half way point, though, I really started to wane, and had to take numerous breaks to recoup my energy.

In past Spartan Races there was only one obstacle that I would have trouble with, the Spear Throw. This time was no different, I did not get the spear to stick. In past Spartan races I also managed to get through 'The Rig', but this one I failed yesterday also. Finally, the sand bag carry I just skipped altogether; it was in the second half of the course and I just didn't have it in me to attempt/complete this obstacle.

Here is an example of a Rig video, though the one I did did not have that easier bar at the end of it.
https://youtu.be/8ad3tk-VuxU

It is mentioned in the Spartan Race info site that the Beast Rig setup is more difficult than the Super, which is more difficult than the Sprint, so hopefully when I do those other races I'll be able to do this obstacle successfully.

Soon after I crossed the finish line I asked someone for the time and it was 15h20; so I knew I was closer to 7 hours to complete this race, compared to the 5:40 I managed to do when I did the Beast race in 2017.

These two guys, Vincent and Colin, they came in first (in the 'Open' competition, not the Elite racers) and they were right next to each other, finishing at 3:56:56 and 3:57:02 respectively.

Matthis, who was the last to finish the Beast Open, was the 614th participant to cross the finish line in 10:29:22.

I finished 229th with a time of 6:50:42. Out of 441 men, I finished 181st. Out of 54 in the M45-59 range, I finished 26th. So, in all groups I finished ahead of at least half of the participants.

My next two Spartan Races of 2019 are back to back, with the Sprint distance (5km) on July 27, and the Super distance (13km) on July 28.

wow, what a nice polka dot you have!

Retirement.

Greta Thunberg.

Sailing.

Long walks.

Eating ice cream.

Going to the gym.

Spartan Races.

Summer Olympics.

Carbon offsets.

School Strike for Climate.

What else?

These are some of the things I have been thinking about recently.

when meet and meat meet meat

The sousterrain race for 2020 is already on sale; I'm not going to do it.

2020 I'm going to Tokyo to attend the summer Olympics. I may also do a Sprint Spartan Race if I have coworkers who will do it; and I will do it with them. The only other race I'll do is a 5KM in the fall, the Classique du Parc Lafontaine. This is a race I've been doing for quite a few years and it is one of the least expensive ones. I need pecuniary savings to pay for this Tokyo adventure.

This summer (and fall) I have
June 16, 5K race of Pointe-Claire
June 29, Spartan Race - Beast Distance
July 27, Spartan Race - Sprint Distance
July 28, Spartan Race - Super Distance
October 20, 5K race of Classique du Parc Lafontaine

Still to be scheduled are the Exo walks, I'll preliminarily schedule them this way:
May 25, Exo Vaudreuil Walk
June 6, Exo Candiac Walk
June 20, Exo Mont St-Hilaire Walk
July 2, Exo St-Jerome Walk
August 12, Exo Deux Montagnes Walk
September 5, Exo Mascouche Walk

As the Exo walks can really happen at any time, I will allow myself some flexibility with the dates so that I can take advantage of better weather conditions. The only limitation is that only Exo Vaudreuil operates on weekends and holidays, the other five lines do not operate on weekends or holidays.

I'm looking forward to doing these walks, maybe I'll make a habit of it. After I do this the first time, I may also see if I can organize something publicly to get other people to join me. Of course, the Exo's affected by the REM may need to be skipped until the REM is up and running. What would be interesting is that each person who joins gets to walk home, so from the start we'd be together, but eventually our routes would diverge. If a dozen or more people ended up doing it, the diverging would take place at different points so sub groups would form for part of the distance.

a cringe and a crock

There are no lipids in the soup that a gargling grow-op would send to the milk truck manufacturer.

It has now happened twice that a public transit bus driver remarked on my wearing a Spartan Race t-shirt; striking up a conversation as they had participated also. I am happy to talk about it, though on both occasions it had me bereft of French language vocabulary. I can remember for the most part to use the correct tense in verb usage, but I have no strong memory for what is masculine and what is feminine with respect to inanimate objects. I know roughly 36,000 words in the English language, and perhaps only a few thousand in the French language.

A provincial election has begun, here in Quebec, it will have a total duration of about 35 days. Fairly typical for a campaign within Canada. It is unclear who will be the winning political party; the incumbent Liberal Party of Quebec, or the Coalition Avenir du Quebec who have the distinctive acronym CAQ. More than likely where I live it will go Liberal; considering at the last election the Liberal guy got 74% of the vote and the next highest person (CAQ) got 15%.

In the soup that was used as a stop sign preventing yoga teachers from occupying a telephone booth, no sonnets could be found.

selling soilless dirt

I watched all ten episodes of 'Lost in Space' on Netflix.

So often through the episodes, they would bring the viewer to the brink of a calamity or catastrophe only to turn out okay in the end. It got to be that even though the principal characters were in peril, there was less stress as it was clear they would survive.

Those ten episodes made up the first season; there is not yet an additional season. I enjoyed the series and would like to see more.

I'm aiming to raise 2000$ by June 22nd. I wonder if I will succeed. It would take only 40 people to donate 50$,
or 50 people to donate 40$,
or 100 people to donate 20$,
or 200 people to donate 10$.

If I can get enough of my coworkers to contribute, my company will match; so that will be one way to get the donations going. After composing most of this post and before submitting it I received my first donation of 29$.

It has rained today, and the rain is not yet over.

I am wearing an analog wrist watch.

I still think of AXY3 sometimes.

I've stopped thinking about aardvarks and what is their preferred type of soup.

I participate in my one and only Spartan Race of 2018 in sixteen days. I'm looking forward to it.

Welcome to the gallup

It has been a while since I have posted.

Oh well.

I participated in a Spartan Race this past weekend, Beast distance. It was 21km of going up and down a mountain with 30 obstacles to overcome. I failed the spear throw and one other one I did only half, but I cheated and didn't end up doing the burpees you are supposed to do when you don't succeed at an obstacle.

I'm okay with that little bit of cheating. The course itself is punishing enough; there is no need for further abuse.

If I was in the elite competition level, I would really have to do them.

In other news, I have taken up chainsaw juggling; it was a lot of fun until I managed to cut off both arms. This post was submitted by typing with my toes.

I have no plans to travel to Ecuador in the next six minutes. I may, however, get up from my chair.

What came after Mesopotamia?

It isn't every Thursday that has in it, a bowl of petunias.

I should know.

Today marks the last day of swim classes for my girls; they will receive a simple version of a report card indicating what level they should register into in a subsequent session.

My plan is to run three circuits of my neighbourhood Spartan Race training run this evening; this time I will also test the consumption of a protein bar. I bought three different kinds to see if one is superior to the others and I will do three separate training runs before the actual race. The plan is to cut the bar into thirds; at the start of the first circuit, eat a third, at the start of the second circuit, eat a third and at the start of the third circuit, eat the last third.

With respect to intermittent fasting, I have taken this up again, having fasted this past Monday, and I am doing so again today. Monday and Thursday have often worked best for me. On Monday the day flew by and I hardly had a hunger pang. Today already it seems will be more challenging.

Yesterday I gave blood.

I would say all of my readings are in good shape.

I will not be going to Mexico tomorrow.

dead dead dead

Home computer, dead.
Printer at home, dead.


If I can finagle a USB stick with a Windows 10 recovery I may be able to save my home computer.
I think I just need to replace the printer.

Salmonella isn't my favourite bacterial disease.

I thought of ghost this morning, between the hours of 2h30 and 5h30, as I turned and tossed, unable to fall back asleep again. It is a particularly rare occurrence that I am unable to return to sleep if I have awoken. Under normal circumstances I do not wake up at all during my primary sleep period; and on those rare occasions that I do awake, I usually return to unconsciousness in only a few moments.

Oh well; perhaps tonight my sleep will be better.

Space X launched and landed two rockets over the weekend, one of which had been previously launched. I read today that they are adding another platform to their arsenal which would mean that it would be theoretically possible to launch four rockets in rapid succession if not simultaneously. I do not know if the ground crew demands are such that they would need to separate each launch in order to monitor it.

The idea of the Hyperloop Hotel is intriguing. I think of it as like a private cruise ship that crosses land. I imagine upon first install that these would be expensive rooms to hold; but perhaps within my children's life time it would be a more common way to visit places.

Chris Cornell is the third dead from the subject; though he died 39 days ago, I heard him singing in an Audioslave song just yesterday. His passing did not affect me nearly as much as did the passing of David Bowie, but still; I was quite the fan of both Soundgarden and Audioslave.

I have one more Spartan Race to compete in, it is at the last week of August at the Stoneham ski center northwest of Quebec City. I have booked an AirBNB close to the race that I will be sharing with a friend who will accompany me for the weekend trip. The race will be the 'Beast' distance, completing the Trifecta for 2017.

As my girls finished their school year this past Friday we had to undo all of their school supplies and locker components, put them in storage for when school starts up again in the fall. This was quite an ordeal taking a number of hours on Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately, the job is done now. We already have the list for both C-Ling and V-8, so we could, theoretically, look into those supplies to see what can be used again for the following year, but we want to let the dust settle a little, to give ourselves a break.

Swim lessons begin tomorrow and continue each Tuesday and Thursday evening at 18h; it isn't the best time for the lessons, but since my girls are staying at my mother-in-law's house through the summer, they can be fed a 17h and then I can pick them up after my work day is over and they'll already be ready to head over.

It is looking like I will need to buy a new pair of shoes in the next three weeks.

The Quebec provincial government today announces 42 measures of a 1.5 billion dollar value that will go towards promoting clean energy and reducing GHGs. There is an immediacy to this that the money is being spent over the next three years with some of the measures going into effect immediately. I may look into this to see what kind of financial assistance the government would give me to remove the oil part of my furnace and replace it with electricity. This may cost more in terms of energy consumption, but it would mean that we are no longer burning oil in our house on the coldest days of the winter to heat the house.

Anca Zoltan; now there's a name I won't forget soon. I just wish I had a better photo.

My guess is that the most favourite flavour of ice cream that people who love chocolate ice cream is chocolate ice cream.

I have not yet begun to think about what costume I would get for this year's Halloween. I did see a Deadpool suit that I thought would be fun; but there are still other options.

This coming Friday I am leaving with my kids to a Dad & Kid camping weekend; we'll be leaving Friday morning and then coming home again Sunday afternoon/evening, though we may return sooner depending on the weather. At the moment there is a forecast of rain over the weekend, include 15-20MM on Saturday, which means heavy rain. This is not ideal weather for camping.

Tomorrow at my work place I am participating in a social events committee meeting to discuss what our next plans are to try to build upon past events that aim towards maintaining and growing a sense of community within the company. Last year we had a 'beach party' in July that it may be too late now to organize an equivalent event. In the last two years we had a family day where both of those events were held at the same location. There is a question about having the event again this year, but at a new location. There may be other community service suggestions that come up, we shall see.

I have really been sucked into this 'Wish' application on my mobile device. I have ordered a bunch of things spread out over six weeks or so, most of which have cost only a few dollars. I have 'flagged' a larger number of things into a few different categories; like: something for me, gift for someone else, or Camping. That last is a little shaky as I haven't really any intention of increasing the amount of time/expense/effort I already take in terms of camping. Still, some of the things I see on the app look very appealing to have in terms of camping.

I should probably end this post; it is probably long enough.

On Monday, a week from today, it will be C-ling's turn for 'Daddy-and-Me' day. The plan is to get her her Opus pass and then walk around the city, maybe catch a movie. The Opus pass is the public transit pass and I need to bring her to have her photo taken as the student fare on an Opus card requires the photo. The one I have has no photo. Once we have the pass, I will then be able to register it online with the pass that I am already paying for G-bot. The program is called Opus+ and it makes it really easy - the monthly payments for the transit cards are automatically withdrawn from my credit card and I pay only 11 months out of 12. They don't really need to have the pass for the full months of July or August, as they are out of school, but if we take one of those two months as the 'free' month, then the other one is just a little bit extra that we pay which gives them unlimited access to the transit network year round. With respect to G-bot, this has taken a load off as I do not need to be driving him around nearly as much as I would have otherwise. I expect the same to hold true for C-ling in short order.

For V-8's 'Daddy-and-me' day I'll be taking her to Arbraska which is a tree-climbing obstacle zip-lining place about a 45 minute drive out of the city. In the past I've taken both G-bot and C-ling to this place and they always have a good time.

One idea I've had for G-bot's 'Daddy-and-me' day would be to rent an AirBNB apartment in the downtown of my city for a Friday-Saturday night. There are some apartments that are quite inexpensive. I would make sure he would get any homework done, and then we could walk around the city; have a nap, go out at night and walk around; go see a movie; play video games in the apartment, eat in to cut costs but eat one meal out. This would be the most I'd ever have spent on one of these days; so I do not know if I would end up doing it.

I have not played table tennis, or ping pong, or as we used to call it: i/g, in a very long time. I dream of some day being in a place in my life where I can play it regularly with friends who love this game as much as I do. Fifteen years ago for a few years in a row I was able to play against two of my best friends where we would rotate 1 vs 2, then 2 vs 3, then 3 vs 1, then 1 vs 2 and so on. We would play at our lunch break, almost daily, and on top of that, periodically, we would come outside of work hours to play for a more extended period. I do not know how mobile my two friends are now, compared to then, I also don't know how much loss of mobility I have lost since then, but still, I think it would be fun.

Tomorrow it is back to the routine, here at work, as this past weekend was La Fête National, a Quebec Holiday; so half of our department was off on Friday and the other half today. Tomorrow we should all be present. It made today a very quiet day; making tomorrow quite the contrast. This coming weekend is Canada Day weekend.

If you've read this far, it means you have read this far. Have a good rest of your whatever time zone you are in.

like a rainbow melting an electron

Yep, so this Saturday I am doing a Spartan Race - Sprint distance.
This Sunday I am doing a Spartan Race - Super distance.

The Sprint distance is described as this:
5-8 km
20-23 Obstacles
40 minutes Fastest Time

The Reebok Spartan Sprint: This is our shortest distance. It is perfect for athletes of all levels; from Spartan first timers to seasoned racers. The 3-5 Mile Sprint may be our shortest distance but it packs more than 20 Signature Spartan Obstacles. If you think you can’t do it, you’re wrong. Get to the starting line and show yourself what you are capable of.

The Super distance is described as this:
13-16 km
24-29 Obstacles
80 minutes Fastest Time

The Reebok Spartan Super: This is our middle distance course. With a longer distance than the Sprint and more obstacles, the Super will test your endurance, perseverance and grit. The 8-10 Mile Super packs more than 25 Signature Spartan Obstacles through tougher and more rugged terrain. The Super is the test en route to your Spartan TRIFECTA.

I think of the Sprint as being a warm-up to do the Super.

I have not been able to train as much for the race this year as I did for the race last year.

What will also be a different experience is that last year when I did the race I did it with a group of about 10 other coworkers; completing the last 4/7ths of the course with one particular coworker with whom I teamed up. This coming weekend there isn't anyone else going apart from me.

In August I will be doing a Spartan Race - Beast distance, described thus:
20-23 km
30-35 Obstacles
3 Hours Fastest Time

The Reebok Spartan Beast: This is our most difficult of the three. The Beast will test not only your endurance, perseverance and grit, but also your mind. The 12-14 Mile Beast packs more than 30 Signature Spartan Obstacles and your final hurdle to Spartan TRIFECTA glory. It won’t be easy but you can’t believe how good the medal feels at the finish line.

By doing all three distances within the same calendar year I earn the 'Trifecta'. Whoop de do.

In 2018 I hope that we'll be able to get a group going again from my work and I would probably only do that race, having experienced the other races in 2017.

yep, third place

On Netflix last night, saw the movie 'The Bronze'.

I hadn't heard anything about it and as a result had no expectations whatsoever. I quite enjoyed, it actually. Yes, it was raunchy, but I felt it was smartly written and well acted.

Dang Spartan Race support, they won't get back to me. Arg!

When deleteriousness creates wealth for the driven

There are Spartan Races of various distances at ski resort mountains outside of Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Ottawa during the summer of 2017. I would like to attend at the very least the bare minimum of earning the Trifecta, which would be three races, each of different distances (Sprint, Super, Beast). However, I would enjoy doing one or two additional races. First I need to get wife approval to participate, and the next step would be to speak with the teammates I had last year who did this, and open it up to anyone else, to see if anyone else wants to join me in this.

I already know of a few who do, but I don't know about everyone.

A season's pass can be had that costs around 320$, which is significantly more than it was last year, however, last year they split the passed out into Canada East and Canada West and this year it is for all of Canada, so conceivably one could participate in all of the races across Canada. Each individual race is about 100$, so by going to three races the season's pass is covered, and by going to four or five, the cost per race is even less.

I will provide another update once I have made progress in this.

As for fasting, it sure is slow

Last week I started up again the intermittent fasting that I read about back in April of '15. Today too, then, is a Fast day so I have not eaten anything yet since about 19h yesterday and the current time is 13h26 (as I end this sentence). The plan is to eat a light meal at around 18h tonight so it will almost have been 24 hours of not eating.

Yesterday I raked an additional 10 more bags of leaves, another nice round number, so my leaf bag count is up to 50 now.

Yesterday's bag count: 10 bags.
This season's bag count: 50 bags.

We're getting close to the end of the season, I may only have another 8-10 more.

The Spartan Races for next year have mostly been announced, there are only two more that took place last year that are as yet to be announced for this year. I am hoping to do four or five of them and to see if there are others, here at my work place, who would join me. It is likely that for one of them we would rent an AirBNB home close to the event as it is sufficiently far away that driving there and back again on race day would potentially be too much. It is possible that a second one of them we would do the same. I plan on organizing a meeting to discuss this sometime in the next three weeks to see what others think of the plan.

Spartan Race completed

Last week I spent up at Camp, but on the Sunday immediately prior to going to camp I participated in my first ever Spartan Race.

It was a coworker who organized a group of us to go and before the race started we decided to see about sticking together to run the race as a group.

Before the race started, on the grounds of the race, there were a few practice elements and it was interesting to see who on the team was able to do it, and who wasn't. We had to climb over a wall to enter the starting 'pit' and that was easy enough.

We were more or less grouped together at the starting line, and the first 80 minutes or so of the course we were to follow was a fairly steep, continuous, uphill. About 5/7ths of the way up there was a slight leveling off and those of us who were at the front of the team decided to wait for the rest as we did not all ascend the hill at the same rate.

It turns out one of our team members felt ill part way through, and two others stayed with him. For those of us who were at the top, we decided to press on. Out of about 11 team members, five or six of us moved ahead, and as the race progressed, this front group separated further. I ended up in the very front of the team with another coworker, a young woman, and we decided to be partners for the remainder of the race as of about the 4/7 mark.

I do not remember exactly the order of the obstacles, so I will simply list the ones that I can remember in whatever order I can think of them. There were three vertical climbing walls, one at four feet, one at six feet and one at eight feet. There was also an angled wall, where the top of the wall is closer to the racer as compared to the bottom of the wall. There was also a through wall (a rectangle cut out of it that a racer climbs through) and an under wall (a wall raised up about a foot off the ground that a race climbs under).

There were three crawling spots, two under camouflage netting and a third under barbed wire.

There were four carrying obstacles, one was a sand bag, one was two tires, one was two water jugs and one was a very heavy atlas ball. For the first three we had to carry the items up a hill and then down, or down a hill then up with the tire one being very long. For the atlas ball we had to carry it only a short distance, then do five burpees, then pick it up and bring it back.

There were some upper body strength obstacles, like the rope climb, the monkey bars and the tank raise. The tank raise was an obstacle where a propane cannister was filled with sand or water and tied to a rope that went up to a pulley and back down again, so the challenge was to raise the cannister to the top by pulling down on the rope.

There were a few other obstacles, like a balance beam, jumping over a fire, the slippery wall/cargo net, and there was some mud in a few spots. In youtube videos I've seen of other races there was more mud, or some muddy water to pass through, but in this one there wasn't. Between each obstacle there was some amount of going up the hill some more and then going down the hill. The total distance of the course was 8.5km.

There were four water stations spread out throughout the race and at each one I downed two or three cups of water. That worked out fine for me, but before the third water station my partner had started to flag so we took it easy.

My partner and I ended up completing the race in 2 hours and 52 minutes. If I had been doing this on my own I think I would have cut off about half an hour from that time as there was various times that I had to wait, near the beginning, and then a few more times when I had to wait for my partner. In the M40-44 group I placed 68th out of 92 competitors. I'd have placed 52nd if I had come in a half hour sooner.

She wasn't able to do some of the obstacles but in those cases I was able to help her - for the monkey bars, for example, I did them and then went back to the start and put her on my shoulders.

I really enjoyed the experience, it was a thrill to get through the obstacles and the challenge of over coming the distance. My plan for next year is to purchase a season pass for Spartan Races held in Eastern Canada and attend three or four different races.

There are different distances - the one I did last week was the Sprint distance, the shortest one. There is also a Super distance (about 1.5 times the length of a Sprint) and a Beast distance (about 2 times the length of a sprint). If you do all three of these in a calendar year, you earn what is called the Trifecta. I will see if I can do that next year.

the best thing about sliced bread

There is a fair chance that this will be my last blog post until about July 25 as I will be off to the summer camp that my family attends most summers over the next week.

So after the Spartan Race on Sunday I will be driving up to camp.

We got some more heavy rain over night last night with a chance of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon as the heat and humidity continues this summer.

Current Temperature: 22C
Forecast high for today: 28C
Current Humidity: 78%
Current Skies: Partly Cloudy
Current wind: 6kph gusting at 9kph
Sunrise: 5h21
Sunset: 20h38

ever since a syncopating

This coming Sunday morning I will be awaking at about 5:00AM.

At about 5:35 my buddy 'R' is going to arrive at my house and together we will drive to pick up 'A' and then 'S' and then meet at a restaurant at 6:30 to hook up with most of the rest of the team.

Following that we'll head over to Owl's Head (a ski resort) to participate in a Spartan Race, our heat starts at 11:00AM.

As I am a participant and not a spectator I may not be in a position to take photos.

I have done some training (with one more training session tonight, and perhaps one more before the race) in preparation for this event. I am not certain how much training the rest of my team has done.

I am very much looking forward to doing this, I think it will be lots of fun. Exhausting, perhaps, but fun just the same. I realize that at 15,729 days I am not as youthful as I once was to do events like this, but I'm still fairly fit and hope to be able to do this kind of thing for at least another 6500 days.

rainbow unicorn pancreas

A staple remover is just to the left of my left arm that is attached to the wrist that connects the left hand which is being used to type this sentence along with the right hand.

To the right of my right arm is the mouse which I do not use as I type sentences. On my lap, a cat.

Tomorrow I go to see a doctor about a twitch I have beneath my left eye that has persisted now for six days. Tomorrow evening my cat goes for his annual checkup.

I have just registered for the summer family camp that we go to most summers. This year is special as my wife will not be coming, except perhaps for an evening or two - her job at the moment has become extremely demanding, but only for a finite time.

The first day of camp coincides with a Spartan Race I have signed up to participate in, so likely I will leave the kids at home with the wife, go do the race, then come home and pack up the kids and the van and head over to camp. This will put us up at camp later than we would normally be for this week of camp, but I'm really excited (a little bit more than I am about anything) to participate in this Spartan Race. It is a 'Sprint' distance, so only about 5KM, but there are twenty or so obstacles.

I did a pretty good job of not eating today, except for a grill cheese sandwich I ate at dinner time and the can of Coca-Cola I am just about finishing now.

image

The start and end point are at my house, where the red shape with the white circle is. I run north on Boul St-Jean, cross under the highway and train tracks and then run east on Donegani until Maywood and go up Maywood. Almost exactly where the 2km mark is on Maywood is a park where I will do lifts, climbs and burpees. Then I run west back to boul St-Jean and then south to boul St. Jean to my house where I have prepared a 30kg sand bag that I will run with for about 200 meters doing a round trip so I end up putting it back at my house. Then I run down to Lakeview and west, and then south into the park of a school yard where I do more lifts, climbs and burpees. Then I run that U-shape at the bottom back to Lakeview and run further west to the next park where I do more lifts, climbs and burpees and finally I sprint back to the corner of Lakeview and Saint-Jean to finish, and walk home the rest of the way.

This is in preparation for a Spartan Race that I've signed up for that will take place in July. It is a sprint distance, so in about 5km of mountainous terrain facing about 20 obstacles I will race with a team made up mostly of coworkers.

Either tonight or tomorrow night (or much less likely, both) I will try out this course to see how well it works.

Celebrating Day 111

Today is/was the 111th day of the year. The significance of such is not particularly compelling.

So Hilary and Donald did well yesterday, good for them.

I, for one, side with the socialist Sanders, not that anything any of them will do will have an enormous effect here in Canada. Well, if Donald ends up getting elected, I think there might be an influx of American citizens applying as immigrants into Canada.

I've signed up for a Spartan race that will take place this summer, I'll be 15,734 days old on the day of the race. It will be roughly 5 km of uphill and downhill on a fairly steep mountain with 20 or so obstacles that I need to traverse. I've signed up with coworkers and we are enough in numbers to form a team, so we will to the race together as a team.

I have acquired for C-Ling a new analog watch that I will be giving to her today. She will be happy about this as she has been asking for a watch for quite a few weeks. The watch was 10$ and it came with a dead battery, so I brought it to a jeweler who replaced the battery for, you guessed it, 10$.