"Demise of a Snowman"

...or...

"Running Against The Wind"

What a lovely day



But man this wind is viscious!



Oh No!  My head blew off!

 

Meltinnnnng!  Meltinnnnng!

There is nothing worse than running against a strong wind when you're already completely bagged.  I had another very tough run today and the last couple of kilometres was directly into the wind.  I have no idea, how, or why I kept  moving other than out of a sense of self preservation.. If I stopped I may have died.

I have to rethink my scheduling a bit.  I have been doing tough bike workouts on thursday along with my weights, and then an easy day friday with swimming only.  It seems however that that my legs are not sufficiently recovered from the thursday bike and weights to be able to complete my saturday long run without a great deal of hurt....and I mean a great deal!  Either that or I'm just out of shape!

I feel like the snowman!

(run 30 kms, 2:37:21)

To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor."---Oliver Wendell Holmes

Love
Peter

"Sorry, But Here I Go Again!"

I have been very agitated the last couple of days over the latest bit of Holy Roman Catholic insanity I accidentally came across.  I had intended a major rant about it  but reconsidered and will try to keep it reasonable.  Roo is on an intitiative to reduce the amount of negative energy in her domain (something Oprah learned from a skinhead I think) and for her I will keep it brief.  I cannot however promise not to come back to it. I get incensed all over again just thinking about it. 

The bit of insanity I stumbled across is an organization called Courage, a Catholic initiative to help those who "suffer" from same sex attraction....help them learn how to lead a life of celibacy.  They actually have a twelve step program like the drunks and the addicts, something else I know a little about!  Are you kidding me?? 

The stated goal of the intiitative is to get the queers to stop touching each other, but as you read their website offerings you will find it is much deeper than that.  The real thing they are advocating is that you actually stop thinking about touching each other.  The most remarkable bit of wisdom I came across in one of their essays was the suggestion that when you start thinking bad thoughts you should repeatedly say the name of Jesus to drive those thoughts out of your mind.  I couldn't figure out how that was gonna work since I have always thought that Jesus was a pretty good looking guy.  Gay or straight, it may have the opposite intended affect!

For anyone who  may suggest that I'm biased because I have many gay people in my life,(a brother and a son, as well  as dear friends), I categorically deny it.  For my entire life I have believed that you should love who you choose to love, and screw who you choose to screw, and that as long as it is between consensual adults it is nobodys fucking (pun intended) business but your own!!  Screw the dog for all I care!

But you know what?  If you think I'm an idiot that's okay with me!  If you think being gay is a choice that dumb people make that's okay!  If you think same sex intimacy is wrong that's okay.  If you believe that homosexuality can be cured that's okay.  If you are against laws that allow same sex unions, or same sex marriage, and all the accompanying social benefits that's okay.  If you are intimidated by homosexuality that's also okay.

But you know what's not okay, at least with me? What is not okay with me is an organization that has for my entire life, repeatedly and consistently protected hundreds and even thousands of sexual predators, most of them homosexual, and out of the other side of their hypocritical mouths try to tell the rest of us that Fred and I should not rub each others dicks in the privacy of our own home, and that furthermore we are going to go to hell for doing it, maybe even for just thinking about doing it.  It makes me ill!

This paragraph initially started with an apology in case I offended anyone, but I back spaced out of it  I know I have not lived the life of a saint myself and as such how can I be so critical?  I defend myself and the lack of an apology by saying that my disgust is not for individuals, and/or even for their acts, or indeed I would also be a hypocrite.  My disgust is for the institution.  An institution that does more harm than it does good!!  Sorry Dad but I think the evidence is irrefutable!

Oh by the way.  Do you know the number one reason that most catholic priests chose to be catholic priests in the first place?  It's because they're gay!  Ask God.  He knows, and he's the popes boss

Here for your reading pleasure is  a link to "Courage".  Enjoy!

(swim 2000 metres, 37:15)

"Catholic theology believes that God gave man free will, and you can't give somebody free will and then send in a play from the sidelines."---Roger Ebert

"I was raised Catholic until I was old enough to say no."---John Cusack
“The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.”---Rollo May

Love
Peter

"There's no Business Like Snow Business"

And one of the most important aspects of snow business is snowmen!

First there was Rollie the Goalie (Roland Melanson).  Then along came Olie the Goalie (Olaf Kolzig).  But clearly the greatest of them all was our guy....



Sno-lie the Goalie!!  Note the puck he caught woith his teeth.  A true Canadian!

Here he is in his street clothes after the game.



And here's his little brother who lost both of his natural eye's in a street hockey game, and so they had to be replaced with spare plumbing parts!



All in all a damn fine January afternoon.   We also had a snowball fight which I won again this year!  They really love that, since they're not allowed to do it at school!

(computrainer 1hr 25 mins, weights)

"The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love."---Margaret Atwood

Love
Peter

"It's 10:39 PM"

And thus past my bedtime.  I usually go about an hour before Colby!  Of course he doesn't work out as hard as me.

(swim 1500 metres, run 7.3 kms)
"The hardest people to convince they are at retirement age are children at bedtime"---Shannon Fife

Love
Peter

"Ya Gotta Believe!"

Over the course of both of my Ironman ramblings I have often used the training and racing as a metaphor for life, and/or aspects thereof. I can't think of one concept that adapts more easily than the idea of faith. Every day I work out tired, doing the things I have either learned from the experts or figured out myself, and every day I wonder if it's working. The problem is that at this point of the whole exercise you don't really get any kind of true test as to whether you are making progress. You can of course use your training results as some kind of barometer but it is very dangerous. The risks are twofold. First, that you will start "racing" your training workouts which leads to lousy workouts because you had to shorten them, or because you overdid it and got hurt. The second is a loss of faith. Then when you get dispirited the tempetation is to take days off so that you can then have that extra special workout after a rest. The great workout that will prove yourself to your self, and help you to regain your faith! Which is all very fine and dandy except for the fact that you rested needlessly and in essence wasted training time. If you're not tired you are doing something wrong.

The answer? For my training and my life? Just believe! I'm pretty confident that I am doing most things right, and that I normally adjust appropriately in response to my bodys signals, or in the case of my life, the signals of my heart and my mind. Oh wait. My training is my life!

That's why I'm gonna consider my 2 hours and 19 minutes on the computrainer today a success instead of the poor effort it seems based on past experience. I am doing weights fairly regularly now which definitely affects the other workouts, and I am generally doing 2 workouts most every day. That's gotta be tiring eh? I will continue to plug along and perhaps rest for a few days before Around the Bay at the end of March, and use that as a bit of a fitness test. If I can keep up with Roo I will designate myself fit. And I ain't kidding. Most of her workouts are faster than mine now! Of course, I'm her coach so that would explain that!

Meanwhile. "Ya Gotta Believe"!

(computrainer, 60 kms, 2:19)

"I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind."---Einstein

"I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."---Buddha

"To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest."---Gandhi

...hmmm...Einstein, Buddha and Gandhi. I wish I was known by just one name.

Love
"Peter"

"Almost Forgot to Blog"

Hey John, you'll be delighted to know that Old Roo said I was just feeling sorry for myself. She may indeed be right, and as such I thought it fitting that as the sum total of my post today, I give you this sublime quote.

(swim 1200 metres, run 7kms, weights)

"Don't call the world dirty because you forgot to clean your glasses.".---Aaron Hill

Love
Peter

"Eat, Sleep, Train, Worry"

That's my plan for 2012! Whadda ya think?

Well maybe it's not the plan for the whole year but it sure seems to be the way I started it out. At least the eating, sleeping, and worrying part! You can't doo too much training! Well I guess you can but I'm a long ways away yet.

I feel angry with the world on this first day of a new year. I don't think the world deserves my anger but it's either that or be pissed at myself. That of course is where the anger, or at least the frustration properly belongs. I'm tired of paying for the mistakes I've made and I want to be absolved of my quilt. If I thought it would work I would go down to the local catholic church and sit in the little dark booth and maybe say a few hail marys or something. Unfortunately I know the only one who can forgive me is me, and I ain't the forgiving type. What a quandary eh?

I'm also really effin tired of being a parent. I don't regret having any of them but why did someone not forewarn me that it was a lifelong commitment. Everything else in life comes and goes but once you have kids you're on the hook for ever. It can just sap the life out of a person, or at least that's what it seems to do to me. I think that if I belived that all of my kids were at peace then I could handle just about anything else without whining. Unfortunately when any one of them is struggling I feel like I am carrying the world on my shoulders. What's that guys name that always had to roll the stone up hill? Oh yah. Sisyphus. When I checked up on the myth I realized how appropriste the reference is for me. He had to roll the stone up hill only to have it roll back down as soon as he got it there, and his punishment was designed specifically because of his "hubristic" belief that he was cleverer than everyone else. That would be me!

I expect a lecture from Old John of course and I welcome it fom him or anyone else as long as it also comes with practical advice. Just plain lecturing I can do myself.

On a lighter note, Santa brought Colby the most amazing toy I have ever seen this past Xmas. It is something called Lego Technics and it is a combination of conventional lego and a whole series of electric motors, gears and other drive train elements. Since Santa bought the toy online from Toys R Us, he was given an opportunity to post a review which if approved would then appear on the site for other potential buyers to consider. Because I was so impressed with this thing and Colby really seemed to enjoy building it I decided that for once in my life I was going to respond to such a request. The link they provided took me to this statement.

"When a product review is submitted on this website, you grant Toys R Us and it's afilliates a nonexclusive, royalty free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display content throughout the world in any media"

Fuck off you idiots!  Needless to say I did not post a review!!

(swim 1000 metres, bike 30 kms)

"Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath."---Eckhart Tolle

“The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent.”---Sam Levinson

Love
Peter