Tag: triathlete

veganism vs wfpb

“I’ve been an aggressive, jealous, and angry person in my life and although we all have our moments, I can say that changing how I was nourishing myself as well as changing how I think about food and my place in my environment has flushed a lot of that animosity out of my body and allowed me to be more the person I was meant to be.”

Lu and I became vegan at the outset of Covid-19, meaning that we are encroaching on our third ‘veganniversary‘ a while back. It’s been a driving force, and a real game changer in our health journeys and I’d recommend anyone try it for 3 weeks. You can eat anything for 21 days, we know this because you can literally eat nothing for 21 days.

We’re not just vegan. We’re also Whole Food Plant Based, and there’s a difference in technique and motivating factors between the two, though they’re not at odds. not for us, anyway.

Veganism entails living in abstinence from the exploitation of animals. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly a massive step in the right direction, and it’s never been easier than right now to become vegan, thanks to numerous consumer products available.

The Whole Food Plant Based crowd tends to abstain from animal products for personal health reasons, which then extends to things that are not whole foods including extracts and oils. It’s difficult to be strict about extracts, particularly if you take any supplements such as pea protein or other vitamins, but cooking oil-free and largely salt-free presents no real challenge.

We’re both. We’re stewards of the animals and the environment, and we nourish ourselves with the best whole food plant sources we can. The perpetuated concept that you can only be one or the other is very narrow-minded.

On a whole other level, one of the things I’ve noticed in myself is a lack of animosity. I’ve been an aggressive, jealous, and angry person in my life and although we all have our moments, I can say that changing how I was nourishing myself as well as changing how I think about food and my place in my environment has flushed a lot of that animosity out of my body and allowed me to be more the person I was meant to be.

Furthermore, I believe there is a karmic debt that is owed for the way we live, and the decisions we passively make when we choose what to eat, and where that food comes from. Ask most people what they think of factory farming and/or slaughterhouses, and they’ll tell you they’re terrible – but grocery stores still regularly run out of meat, and the fast food drive-thru is still lined up several cars deep. Something’s gotta change.

Living this way has also had amazing results with overall health, and athletic recovery.

Without getting too ‘Christmasy‘ about it, I feel that these topics need to be raised because we’re all staring down some holiday meals that are laden; if not polluted with, butter, cream, meat, egg, cheese, oil, excess salt, and all manner of things that many of us eschew. Many people are going to be eating in ways that will raise questions about how we want to live for the next year or longer and I’d like to take this opportunity to mention that you can make this decision BEFORE this heavy-eating time in our lives. It’s never been a better time to be attentive to what you’re eating and why.

At this point, I’ve dedicated some blog entries to each of the main macronutrients, if you’re at all interested in those, I’ll link them here:
PROTEIN // CARBOHYDRATES // FATS
There are also some amazing documentaries, such as Forks Over Knives, The Game Changers, They’re Trying To Kill Us, Seaspiracy, and many others.

Thanks for checking in as always.

Training this week has been good. Monday, despite the onslaught of deep fried food from a company Christmas party the night before, was a success w/ a 45 minute bike ride and a 45 minute chest/biceps session, and Tuesday saw some calisthenics at home between songs I’m charting for some upcoming performances.
Wednesday was a well-needed rest day. Thursday was a full on endurance session, 90 minutes each, and Friday was 20 minutes of rowing, 20 minutes on the bike, and 45 minutes of triceps and back work.

Saturday was fraught with Santa-business, and Sunday, my other rest day, is set to be my extended family Christmas lunch/dinner, for which I hope I am well behaved enough to meet my Monday workout with the enthusiasm it deserves. I’ll need to decide what that means in advance of that meal, but I already know it means a lot of vegan cheese and salt… so I’ll need to make sure there’s enough water flowing!

I keep telling myself (as I’m sure we all do): It’s only once a year.

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.

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 harvest

Thanksgiving has never really meant much to me.

I’ve never been big on turkey or ham – obviously less so now that my relationship with the animal kingdom is that of a respectful spectator. Maybe I was ungrateful, or maybe we just didn’t have enough extended family around when I was a kid, but the meaning behind Thanksgiving seemed a ironic to me since we were giving thanks to the creator for the harvest.

As a kid, this just meant summer was over, and that I wasn’t allowed to have any friends over – which didn’t matter much since they weren’t allowed to go outside and do anything either.

As a parent, it means even less.

As a descendant of European colonizers, it’s lost what little meaning it ever had.

As a vegan; however, I feel overjoyed to be part of an ecosystem that is self-sustaining despite the corporate greed that’s weaved it’s way into the fabric of our lives. I’m reminded that the earth owes us nothing, and that we owe it everything. I’m also reminded that you can put seeds in the ground, put water on them, and food comes out – which is more and more remarkable with each passing year.

The creator though – regardless of how you might think of your tumultuous religious upbringing or lack there of – is interesting. If we take the various spiritual texts at face value, and understand that nature (among other things) is a force much bigger and stronger than any of us; which is something that those of us who identify as addicts should be painfully aware of, we’ll also find written that we are made in the image of the creator. This means that we; too, are creators – artists, metal workers, musicians, carpenters, dancers, writers, gardeners, storytellers, – and if there is something I am grateful for in the midst of this socially contracted long weekend, it’s that I am both capable and affirmed in my efforts of creating, and positively affecting the lives of those in my community with my contributions.

So if that’s what we’re celebrating, then happy thanksgiving.

Training this week has been magical. Still riding my bike for transportation; which admittedly has cut into my running a bunch, and cross-training – but I feel the cycling-to-work season closing in around me. Truthfully I have a hard time just “going for a bike ride” without a set destination and a specific time I aim to arrive. Perhaps I’ll be able to change that about myself at some point but it’s just how I tend to treat that activity – except when I’m on a stationary bike, obviously.

Fall is certainly upon us and it’s a special time to be in the river valley. We spend as much time there as we possibly can, especially now that we’re headed into that part of the year where we’re at a deficit for sunlight and nature. This last couple of weeks certainly feels like we’re on borrowed time.

I just returned from a music conference earlier this week, so I’ve got a head full of ideas and the future is promising. That said – Conscious Pilgrim video production has obviously taken a bit of a turn, and will continue to be that way. I intend to post to YouTube periodically. My plan was to post a summer recap (talk about the half marathon, etc) but living in an old house with old appliances and driving an old vehicle have certainly sidelined me with some much-needed repair & maintenance of the aforementioned, and without putting too fine of a point on it, I’ve been a little too busy living life to post about it.

The blog will continue. I love to write – it feels effortless to me and therefor is not a hindrance. My video skills; however, are needed to generate content for Confusionaires at this time and I am anticipating a fairly busy 2023 with that band. I have an eternal appreciation for anyone who can maintain a Youtube Channel in any meaningful way.

intellectualizing an emotional response

“Few things happen without thought, and of course the conscious decision to be more grateful, loving, caring, and open has to take place in the brain first, but the practice of getting there is similar to any other training you can put yourself through.”

How often do we ‘should’ ourselves…

We see it all the time in our bird’s eye view of impassioned online debates – the kind of debates that make you want to log off forever and throw your electronic devices into the sun: the battle of scientific fact vs. feeling. These debates don’t have winners in the traditional sense, just people who endure longer than others before locating the ‘block’ button.

‘This is a scientific fact’ vs ‘this is how someone feels’ knows no boundary. Everything from Covid-19 vaccines to whether or not Pluto is a planet seem to illicit both an intellectual and an emotional response, but when are these actually appropriate in our daily lives?

I don’t mean online. If anything, I’d advocate for abstaining from such online debates.

Interestingly, there’ve been studies done to show that although we live and work in a time when there are readily available data analytics for everything (as is the byproduct of having computers so central in our lives), that in professional settings, the extrapolation of such data is either (a) not done in the first place, or (b) completely ignored in favor of a gut-decision made by a manager or executive who largely relies on personal experience as rationale. The studies are often cherry-picked after the fact in an effort to back up the boss’ decision, but typically only in cases where the decision is under scrutiny.

In our personal lives, emotional responses typically make their home around joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, gratitude, and the like – but we as humans are masters of intellectualizing our responses to this just as much as we are masters of emotionalizing math & science. Questions like “Am I showing enough gratitude, and how can I respond better?” or “What are some ways I can be more patient?” do come about, and no doubt come from a good place – but may end up being a little too heady to be genuine. As well, topics like the climate change debate get confirmed or denied based on how we feel about making changes to our daily lives more than any scientific data that’s available.

Few things happen without thought, and of course the conscious decision to be more grateful, loving, caring, and open has to take place in the brain first, but the practice of getting there is similar to any other training you can put yourself through. For example:
– I don’t think about running: I just go for a run at a predetermined time of day for a predetermined distance.
– I don’t think about protein intake: I plan my meals ahead of time, and rest knowing I’m getting what I need when the time comes.
– I don’t think about meditation: I meditate.

These are all things that require some forethought or planning, of course, but when the time comes to actually do them, the infrastructure is already in place for me to do them. I might think about them anyway (or obsess, if we’re being totally transparent), but I really don’t need to do so, in the same way I don’t need to think about what I’m wearing to work tomorrow, because there’s a dress code / uniform and that decision has been made – but I’ll take 20 long minutes to determine what T-shirt I want to wear on a day I’m not scheduled to work only to get dog drool on it in less time than it took to select it. Perhaps my selection of cool T-shirts is too expansive and overwhelming. Nah.

In the end, if I want to show more gratitude for what good things come my way, then I need to begin by acknowledging and appreciating what I have here & now, and not not be too concerned with what it looks like from someone else’s perspective. Love, patience, kindness, and gentleness require similar action – being loving rather than thinking about being loving, being patient rather than thinking about being patient, showing kindness rather than thinking kind thoughts…

If my heart, mind & body are in alignment, then my genuine response will speak for me… and ultimately will require no thought whatsoever.

Training this week has been good. Hard… but good. I have a real desire to push my body to it’s ever-moving limits and I feel satisfied when I get there, but being properly fed is an important piece of that puzzle that I need to prioritize. I’m typically in a slight calorie deficit but sometimes that means ‘running in the red’ a little bit. I almost never feel it during the workout, but the recovery time that follows the workout can feel like a real slog so I need to make sure I’m giving myself enough of what I need to repair my muscles between workouts… which is protein.

We also tried a new smoothie this week that blew my mind and highlighted some things I’ve been missing in my daily food consumption – namely: kale. It gave me the boost of energy I needed to really push my limits at the gym, and reminded me of the importance; not only of diet, but of a varied diet.

As an aside, I’ve also missed a run or two this past week – largely due to forest fire smoke blowing into Edmonton from southern BC. It’s been hard not to reprimand myself for missing these sessions but I’m at no risk of falling off the wagon here… my practice is strong and I can handle an extra rest day here & there provided my calorie consumption is in check. It’s important to remember that there are no training days… only training weeks and training months, and that there IS room to move within my program.