Tag: diy

the finest print

“… that small decluttering of our periphery has allowed for a more concentrated focus on the tasks at hand – which are very exciting.”

Alignment. Personal alignment of mind body and spirit – that’s the daily goal and the eternal pursuit.

I’ve been finding that; although I feel completely aligned in the broad sense of the term, there are always some days that are just better than others – and the less good days need to be given the respect they deserve. Without those (relatively speaking) down days, we wouldn’t knw that the good days are.

Lately I’ve been feeling really good – like it’s all laid out in front of me. It’s as though my list of priorities are all getting the amount of time and attention they need right now and it’s inspiring all on it’s own. My girlfriend and I have been focused; somewhat peripherally, on a project that we’ve elected to put on the back burner for the time being. The reason for that is that we’ve both come to our own similar, yet separate, conclusions that this particular project hasn’t been serving us the way it should if it’s to become a priority.

Our two independent, yet same realizations have allowed us to realize that we were becoming a bit distracted with the project – and that distraction was only taking a small measure of time and energy away from our main priority right now – which is my band, Confusionaires. It wasn’t a massive distraction, but it was a distraction nonetheless – and that really only means it’s a distraction now.

A lot of ideas don’t take flight because of poor timing, and I can chock this idea up to that pretty easily. Frankly, the idea of following through on that idea later, rather than sooner, is just exciting.

In the meantime, that small decluttering of our periphery has allowed for a more concentrated focus on the tasks at hand – which are very exciting. I’ve got a new record coming out in 2023 – it’s a record that the band is really excited about, and I truly believe it’s a high water mark for all of us. It’s also going to have the best launch campaign budget of any album I’ve been a part of.

It’s a lesson; among many, about living in the moment and attracting more of what you are, rather than what you want.

This post is entitled ‘the finest print’ partly in reference to a Tom Waits quote I’ve always appreciated: “The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away” which is among other things, a statement about keeping your wits about you. When your body, mind & spirit, are in alignment you’re aware of the small print without incident, and the broad scope view of everything is just as detailed as the microscope view.

If I have any words of encouragement on this subject, it’s to trust yourself and trust your process.

Training this week has been good, but taxing. My increased efforts are certainly being felt, and my diligence in fueling myself needs to be executed with precision. This became painfully obvious to me on Wednesday.

Typically, on the days I’m at work, following my program is simple. I can only eat the food I brought and I eat it at prescribed times through the day. But on Wednesday when I was summoned to pick up my sick kid from school mid-day, I forgot to eat mid-day. All of a sudden it was 6:30 and I was in a poor state from not eating, but I couldn’t really even figure out why. I ate a meal and had a very difficult time stopping eating after that – the old food addict tendencies had kicked back in with force and I’m fortunate that there isn’t much junk food in my house.

But I have to move forward.

Monday‘s swim was great – a full kilometer in roughly 45 minutes, which is a time I can be happy with after years of fear of the deep end of the pool.
Tuesday I pedaled for 60 minutes and worked my chest and biceps hard.
Wednesday was a rest day, but Thursday became a rest day inadvertently as well. My dog got me up at 2:30 to go out and I just couldn’t get back to sleep, so when my alarm went off at 4:30am I got out of bed and tried to make a go of my usual morning, but it just couldn’t happen. I have to be ok with the fact that I went back to bed.
Friday was 45 minutes on the bike and a back & triceps workout, and Saturday is set to be a 60 minute bike ride and a 15 minute run. This week I flipped those two in the interest of saving time… I’m not sure it worked though.

All things considered, I feel like I’ve moved past the Wednesday eating hiccup and the missed training session on Thursday pretty well. I have to strive to not have these things happen, but I also have to know I can get past them, and the sooner I get past those bumps in the road, the more I can live in this moment – and this moment is pretty great.

adverse conditions

“The aforementioned old, sick version of me would react much more explosively than I do, but the person I’ve become is confused by these encounters. Not only for the fact that there’s an assumption that I’ll emit some volatile reaction at the first sight of sour news, but that I’m having their feelings of confusion projected onto me – like I’m the one confused.”

I’ve been actively dealing with and reflecting upon a situation in my daily life. I’ve got a few people in my life who’ve been there for a good long while and as I progress in my fitness, spirituality, and seek purpose in my life there are some who are incredibly encouraging and supportive – and some, who are not.

The ones who are not are making some assumptions about the changes I’ve gone through and goals I’ve accomplished and although they think they know me, what they really know is an old, sick, outdated version of me. There’s likely an assumption about me battling a mid-life crisis or just genuinely losing my mind, but in the end I’m a more focused, purpose-driven, happy, and healthy person.

The aforementioned old, sick version of me would react much more explosively than I do, but the person I’ve become is confused by these encounters. Not only for the fact that there’s an assumption that I’ll emit some volatile reaction at the first sight of sour news, but that I’m having their feelings of confusion projected onto me – like I’m the one confused. I’ve never been so clear in my life.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

If my writing seems diplomatic, it is that way by design. I’m not interested in exploiting anyone’s ignorance for my own personal ego boost, and I’m not interested in arguing. For that matter – I’m not interested in explaining myself at all. I really don’t owe anyone an explanation for anything and the last thing I would want is for anyone to feel the need to compare their situation to mine.

That said… just ask and I’ll tell you.

The only way I can describe it is to say I’m a different person. So different that I feel compelled to apologize to the people who knew me back then, for the set-in-my-ways, often belligerent and usually selfish demeanor. I have some things in common with that version of me, but every time I try something and win, I’m winning over that older version of me who never wanted to try in the first place. I’ve laid that old version of myself in his grave many times, and if I felt like I had something to prove (which I really don’t anymore) I’d be trying to prove that I’ve changed.

They say a person never steps in the same river twice.
Not the same river.
Not the same person.

For the time being, I’ll just be over here, keeping my head down and doing my thing – in the moment.

Training this week has seen it’s increases – particularly on Tuesday and Saturday. Here’s how it went:

Monday: Swam 750m. The pool was busy but we held fast to our obligation and that hot tub sit was glorious.
Tuesday: I thought I had a 45 minute bike ride, but the schedule told me it was a 60 minute ride. I overcame, and truthfully could have ridden longer (which I’ll eventually have to). I also did some weights targeting my biceps & chest.
Wednesday: I rested. My Tuesday rehearsals keep me out later than I typically would, so waking up a little later suits me well on this day.
Thursday: 30 minute run followed by 10 minutes on the stair climber. This workout is shorter because of my cramped schedule on Thursday mornings.
Friday: 45 minutes on the bike followed by a back & triceps workout. I found myself a little rushed to get everything done on this particular day, so I may have to shuffle a day or two around.
Saturday: This brick workout is 60 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes running.

I’m keeping my pedaling between 135 and 150 watts pretty consistently, with rpms around 60-65. I don’t actually know what my pulse is at this rate by I’m fairly sure it’s around 130 bpm… roughly double what the rpm’s are, as I hold a pretty good rhythm.

This coming week will be roughly the same, likely with a longer swim, but the following week things jump another 15 minutes on Tuesdays & Saturdays (which are days I don’t work, so they’re ideal for increased efforts).

Tonight, I’ll be playing at Mikey’s on 12th w/ my band Confusionaires, so all y’all in the Calgary area should consider dropping in and stompin’ a couple fresh dents in the dancefloor.

his dying wish

“Comments sections being the fountains of bootless insight that they are, the majority of commenters stated that they would grant a man his dying wish but since the 12-steps of Recovery tend to get well-battered by onlookers who don’t understand addiction and compulsion, I’m inclined to disagree with the majority.”

I recently happened upon some writing about William Griffith Wilson, often known as Bill W. who is credited as one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (12 step) and was the author of ‘The Big Book‘ which detailed how to successfully recover from alcoholism. Bill W.’s lifestyle leaves a little to be desired, as the lifestyles of many men in the first few decades of the 20th century might. I’m addressing it because there’s potential for some know-it-all to try and devalue my point by muddying it up by with irrelevant facts, but I won’t dwell on it because it’s not important to my statement.

The story that got me digging was the documented four (4) requests for a bottle of whiskey to be brought to him in his hospital bed as emphysema gradually dismantled him. Each request was made roughly a week after the previous one, and he was denied every time. When he passed, he was 36 years sober.

Comments sections being the fountains of bootless insight that they are, the majority of commenters stated that they would grant a man his dying wish but since the 12-steps of Recovery tend to get well-battered by onlookers who don’t understand addiction and compulsion, I’m inclined to disagree with the majority. What limited knowledge I have of the 12 steps indicates to me more that it’s a guide toward spiritual enlightenment more so than it is a fleeting attempt to prevent early death or lobbing a metaphorical grenade into all your personal relationships – but that is a discussion for another day, I reckon.

Anyway: The reason I; too, would have denied him has nothing to do with the power of addiction and everything to do with the power of legacy, and the fact that even the slightest rumors of that simple slip-up in the twilight hours of his life would have completely deflated the AA movement and may have shaken the ground on which many recovered addicts stood, and continue to stand now. It may be a documented 20% effective, but that’s still millions upon millions of people.

There are things we are part of that are important, and that are so much bigger than ourselves that deserve our respect even at our weakest points. The 12 steps of Recovery are steeped in this idea. We are artists and creators, and by association to our communities are contributors and groundbreakers, creating a legacy that will one day overshadow our small contributions. In my purview Bill W. is no different in this situation and I’m glad he was able to rely on the people around him at his weakest moments.

Maybe I’m wrong. Lemme know what you think!

Training this week was good. I adhered to my program without wavering and pushed myself as planned.

Monday we swam 750m, and spent a little over half an hour doing it. Neither of us had been in a pool since May so we figured that was a good place to start – and ultimately I don’t think either of us lost much in the way of speed, though we’ll see what happens when the distances increase.

Tuesday I rode 45 minutes on the stationary bike before spending another 40 minutes weightlifting, focusing on my chest and biceps (the ‘pushing’ muscles)

Wednesday was a rest day, and Thursday was a 30 minute jog with my heartrate sitting around 136 beats per minute, hovering consistently between 8.5 and 9 km/hour. Zone 2, babies. I didn’t get my 10 minutes on the stair climber due to running out of time, but I pushed hard on Friday to make up for it.

Friday I rode another 45 minutes – this time paying closer attention to my rpms and watts as I rode in a gear I haven’t been comfortable in since starting back up a few weeks ago… but I’m there now. So I’m pretty consistently pushing 150 watts at 60 rpms. After that I spent another 45 minutes primarily working my back & triceps (the ‘pulling’ muscles) and digging in hard on those muscle groups.

Today is Saturday, and I’ll be biking another 45 minutes and running 15 minutes – I’m possibly doing that as you read this, really. These numbers start to increase next week though.

All in all, I’m good with how this went and I’m looking forward to the increases in effort over the next week when I add time to a couple of those bike sessions.

the seasonal shift

“With the advent of Halloween being earlier this week, I don’t mind saying that I’ve been on borrowed time for a while, and as of earlier this week I moved my fitness efforts completely indoors for at least the next 5 or 6 months and I’m really pushing to keep my attitude positive about the impending weather – but know that I struggle.”

When I first started running in 2017, I set out to complete a couch-to-5k program that started on July 4th and stretched into August. The running bug got me real good, and I ran outdoors into the dark & cold months as late as I possibly could. The calendar date escapes me, but I’d surpassed Remembrance Day of that year, and I’d continued outdoors until the temperature reached -14 degrees Celsius (or about 6 degrees Fahrenheit).

I had a lot more “natural insulation” (as I’d gotten DOWN to about 265 lbs) back then, and these days I’m much more inclined to cop to being a wimp when it comes to the weather.

With the advent of Halloween being earlier this week, I don’t mind saying that I’ve been on borrowed time for a while, and as of earlier this week I moved my fitness efforts completely indoors for at least the next 5 or 6 months and I’m really pushing to keep my attitude positive about the impending weather – but know that I struggle.

Zone 2 heartrate training is the primary focus this winter as we gear up to do the Canadian Death Race with our relay team of Rad Moms & Dads. Kristian, the man behind Rad Dads is about to hit round 2 of fatherhood and is on our team. Naomi; my friend from way back, has been through the ringer with injuries upon accidents and is still running and still smiling through it all. Then there’s Lu and I – the 2 vegans on the team and the two who had the furthest to come; physically speaking over the past few years, to rise to this challenge.

The race is in August, which is both really far away and right around the corner. We aim to have a fruitful winter full of discipline and focus, and to grow as the spiritual being we are amid our human experience.

The only thing that could hang this up for me would be if Confusionaires secured a festival date for that weekend, in which case I’d have to sweet talk the team into relaying another ultramarathon… or, As Lu has suggested, just go do the course (or part of it) unassisted – which is kind of our M.O.

A side note about Zone 2 – this is a scientifically determined heart rate zone in which an athlete can increase their capacity for performance by spending time with their pulse between 60% and 70% of their max capacity. It’s determined by lactic testing of the blood, but for my purposes (read: budget) I’m defaulting to a range that I’ve determined using a number of different calculators including this one and have determined a common range using them. Eventually I’ll get tested but for my purposes, this will have to do.

With that, training this week has been pretty solid. In lieu of posting an active training schedule, perhaps more of a week-by-week approach is more ideal. That will allow me to stay more immersed in what’s happening and prevent me from the daunting number of weeks there’ll be snow on the ground.

Tuesday: 45 minute stationary bike ride (+20km) followed by back/tricep weight training
Thursday: 30 minute treadmill run (+4 km), 10 minute stair-climber
Friday: 45 minute stationary bike ride (+20km) followed by chest/bicep weight training
Saturday: 45minute stationary bike ride (+20km) followed by 15 minute treadmill run (+ 2km)

The distances indicated are not something I’d consider special, but as indicated in the side note about Zone 2, the important part is that I’m keeping my heart rate around 133-136 bpm for the entire duration (or close to it).

… Rest days are typically Wednesdays and Sundays and this week will start with a Monday swim, followed by roughly the same program, with slight changes to follow in subsequent weeks.

The acceleration of efforts and time spent will be gradual, primarily because I have all winter to work through and although I know I can handle more than I’m doing at the present moment, efforts will be pretty lofty in the spring and I want to take my time getting there… progressively.

Every day is a gift.

One Year

“if it’s humanly possible, then it can be done by any one of us.”

1 year ago yesterday I made my first blog entry.

To quickly reflect on what’s happened since then is wild. A year ago I was barely able to swim, and I’d have run further than 10km maybe once or twice ever at that time, and had never run on a trail before…

Since that time Lu and I have trained for and performed an Olympic Length Triathlon before throwing all our efforts behind a Half-Marathon training program. I then completed the Edmonton Half Marathon – my first formal event, and we’re staring down / training for some other challenges I might have never considered possible… since then I’ve made a concerted effort to make my 14.5km commute to work under my own power by either running or biking.

One year is a funny unit of measurement, especially since it’s such a common one. We’ll often think about what we were doing one… five… 10 years ago on New Years Eve, or birthdays, and where we’ll be, but the more seemingly arbitrary dates like October 21st are interesting to me… I mean in truth, today isn’t that arbitrary. It’s my mother’s birthday… it’s the anniversary of the day I moved into my house… and I saw Stiff Little Fingers in my home town that night after moving in! They were great!

I’ve always sort of felt like the year starts in the autumn (despite not being a student for more than 2 decades) but it seems to me that the year starts when the work starts, and the fall is certainly a return to that. Fall introduces the beginning inclement weather, training programs, and a return to normalcy (whatever that means), winter follows with it’s punishing workload, wherein everything is much more difficult. The Spring eventually follows and is largely caked in mud and smells like mold, and we clean up that mess in time to enjoy the end of the cycle – and the summertime is the reward at the end of the year.

Following that narrative, we’ll be moving back indoors for some proper Zone-2 training & strength training, and the occasional swim under controlled temperature and humidity. We’ll be measuring every effort and calorie to optimize our health as we hold onto hope for an early spring and an outdoor run.

I’ve mentioned it before, but we’re building a team to accomplish a goal. we have 4 people so far, and as much as that’s not enough to compete the way I’d like to, it’s enough to compete. Compete… what is that? This is always about finishing and learning.

I’ll cap this monologue with the thought that I come back to from time to time. It’s not ideal to spend too much time reminiscing about the past. Try as we might, we cannot live there, nor can we live in the future – we have to live in the here & now. If we try to live elsewhere, we’ll miss all the good stuff. And so as I quietly blow out the solitary candle on my metaphorical cupcake and celebrate 1 year of continuous blogging – which IS an accomplishment I’m proud of – I’ll say this:

If it’s humanly possible, then it can be done you.

I’ve been gradually ramping up the indoor training this week. A couple 45 minute stationary bike sessions and a couple of resistance training sessions have been successfully executed as I refamiliarize myself with my gym. I’ve devised a training plan for the winter months that gradually increases in intensity but it’s not firm enough to post a this point – I’m not totally sure that I will post the whole thing all at once. This may be more of a week by week sort of thing.

The reason for that is that I’m not 100% set on the parameters for each day of the week, and I do need to allow for travel days with my rock & roll band, so I think I can give a more accurate account on a more micro scale.

I’ll also be able to show “what the goal was” vs. “what I accomplished” because there are days when I go above and beyond, and days that I’m short on time due to other factors in my life. These things happen and we need to be objective about them. I’m unsure if I want to post about macronutrients and calories on a weekly basis – these things do fluctuate sometimes, be it intentional or not.

the fats you need and don’t need

“Most often, you’ll want to see between 25% and 33% of your daily calories come from fats… which if we’re sticking with the average 2000 kCal’s per day is around 50g total. Suddenly, that tablespoon of peanut butter just became more decadent.”

Hey all,

Since I’ve talked protein & carbs periodically over the past while, I might as well round this out a bit.

*** Dietary fats are essential to give your body energy and to support cell function. They also help protect your organs and help keep your body warm. Fats help your body absorb some nutrients and produce important hormones, too. ***

Now, as much as fats are a fuel source, fats are not the body’s preferred fuel source. That title is reserved for carbohydrates – which can be problematic for people opting to go on a ketogenic diet for an extended period of time. Issues with not being able to stay awake, or having brain fog are of definite concern, so if you’re ‘on the keto’ and experiencing this, I’d advocate trying something else.

A common misconception is that ‘fats make you fat’ which is woefully untrue even though 1 gram of fat = 9 calories so you are bound to find that something low in fat, like pineapple, is going to be much more plentiful and functional within your (average) 2000 kCal’s per day than something with a lot of fat, such as peanut butter. By comparison, a 25g tablespoon of peanut butter will net you roughly 150 kcals, compared to 300g of pineapple which will also net you 150 kcals – which is enough to fill a soup bowl. So with a bunch of fat in your diet, you’ll find it pretty hard to stay within the average 2000 kCal’s per day.

However, super low fat intake has it’s downsides as well – including dry & flaky skin, sensitivity to sunburn, moodiness. Most often, you’ll want to see between 25% and 33% of your daily calories come from fats… which if we’re sticking with the average 2000 kCal’s per day is around 50g total. Suddenly, that tablespoon of peanut butter just became more decadent.

This brings us to the Omega 3 Fatty Acids. They are an integral part of cell membranes throughout the body and affect the function of the cell receptors in these membranes. They provide the starting point for making hormones that regulate blood clotting, contraction and relaxation of artery walls, and inflammation. Obviously, these are essential, and not all fats are created equal, that is to say, not all fats are Omega 3’s.

Fat sources for Omegas include nuts, seeds, and avocados, and as much as I wouldn’t personally advocate the consumption of fish (for both ethical reason and for the high levels of mercury and microplastics we’ve put in the ocean) or eggs (for ethics as well, and the extremely high cholesterol content has caused researchers to compare it to smoking cigarettes) you CAN get Omega-3’s this way. Of the top 12 foods to get your Omega-3’s from, the top 8 are fish sources, followed by ground flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, and soybeans.

I will say that between the Fats, Proteins, and Carbohydrates, you can lead a healthy life by implementing a good cross section of all the plant foods you can get. Generally… everything else falls into place.

Training this week has been bittersweet. I’m fairly sure I just had what was my last bicycle commute of the year. The +2 celcius mornings I can ultimately contend with, but with the leaves falling and turning into a slick, frosty pulp makes my personal safety a little uncertain, and banging-up my precious guitar fingers just isn’t an option for me.

Lu and I are formulating our plan to move indoors, including mapping out an ideal swimming and cross-training schedule between endurance sessions. I’ll make that all available before too long, for those of you following along at home. For the time being I’m increasing my frequency of going to the gym in the mornings – something I didn’t do for the first half of the week, but I did have some time-sensitive things to tend following the long weekend.

Over the past while, I’ve had several – a dozen or so – people reach out with stories about how they’ve felt inspired by this blog. Without patting myself on the back (since I didn’t do that – they did!) I hope they see fit to be open about their experiences and inspire people around them.

what if it kills you

“Most; if not all of us, have an ‘Everest’ – a goal we’d like to conquer in our lifetime. For most in the western world, financial goals or career platitudes come to mind, but there are outliers who are much less concerned with those sorts of feats and are more inclined toward physical, mental, and emotional challenges.”

I was recently listening to a podcast that broached the subject of climbing K2, which is very slightly shorter than Mount Everest, but the path to the summit is much more treacherous than what Mount Everest has to offer. The discussion mentioned that summitting K2 during the winter has never been done until only last year, and there’s no shortage of mountain climbers who’ve tried, and not even come close.

It got me thinking: How would you know when to bail? Pursing victory to the point of injury is not an option, because you still have to climb down the mountain in these cases. There’s no question that the desire to reach the summit is strong, but with a healthy and clear mind – in mid-climb – one would have to determine that to go on would be a fool’s errand.

It got me thinking, on a more metaphorical level, most; if not all of us, have an ‘Everest’ – a goal we’d like to conquer in our lifetime. For most in the western world, financial goals or career platitudes come to mind, but there are outliers who are much less concerned with those sorts of feats and are more inclined toward physical, mental, and emotional challenges.

When do we pull the ripcord?

I don’t have an answer – not a tangible one, anyway – other than to conclude that you’d have to trust your gut to tell you when it’s time to pack up and go home – to fight another day. And you would have to ensure that your gut was trustworthy. It goes without saying that out there on the mountain these decisions are life & death, and it’s quite possible that a persistent enough individual would die up there in pursuit of their goal. It happens pretty frequently.

Personally, I don’t know where the top of ‘my Everest’ is as far as career trajectory goes any better than I know what the limits of my physical training will be. I’m one of those people who’s been pretty good at pretty much everything he’s tried (like, REALLY tried – I’ve half-assed a few things that didn’t pan out the way I would have liked) but I’m fairly certain that I wouldn’t lose my life in any of my current endeavors, no matter how hard-headed I became (or… already am).

I know that if I invested a large sum of money into something that didn’t work out, I’d be okay since I have the means to make more money and recover from the loss. Similarly, my body has the ability to recover from most things that can happen along the running trail or any other physical challenge. I can write more songs, I can work more hours, I can replace damaged equipment – these are the benefits of living moment to moment, really, because even valuable stuff is still just stuff, and there’s more money coming. I’m in no danger of damaging the relationships I’ve maintained because my integrity remains intact, and I can’t see an occasion where I would hurt someone on purpose.

… so where’s the line?

Again, I don’t have an answer so I’ll have to leave this topic as rhetoric – just some food for thought. It seems most likely that you’d have to; as mentioned, trust your gut in the moment – in which case I’d have to advocate maintaining your gut health as best you can, because that’s a lot of responsibility to be handled by a single abdomen.

Training this week is bittersweet. It’s truly a magical time to be meeting my fitness regimen outdoors in our river valley here in Edmonton as the leaves are beginning to turn funny colors, but it’s ominous warning that the snow is coming and I’ll be chased indoors before long is palpable. The urge to soak up every ray of sunshine, inhale every stray histamine that floats on the wind, and push every one of my limits, but there are times when my brain flashes forward to the dearth and dread that winter can bring. I MUST worry about that when it’s happening, and maintain living in THIS moment, Here & NOW.

I won’t lie to you… the bicycle commute to work in the morning is pretty chilly, but the rides home in the early evening are wonderful. I’m optimistic that I can keep going into October, but to what end? Thanksgiving? Halloween? Truthfully, right now it feels like riding into October means being on borrowed time, but every ride is a gift… and a slight reprieve from those chilly temperatures is not out of the question so I’ll cross my fingers for that. My girlfriend has ridden into November in previous years, but it’s a shorter (and slightly later) commute.

I dunno… I’ll digress a bit. This level of cold is not unreasonable – but rain this time of year is a deal breaker for me. There’s no merit in subjecting myself to temperatures around the freezing mark while wet – especially when it means missing future training sessions as a result of illness.

The slow transition back to the gym is in sight, but I’m holding out for the time being.