m@adie

2007-02-20 to 2007-02-22 Training (very light)

No enthusiasm this week, so I took it as a sign that I should take it easy. But starting tomorrow I’m going to start pushing again.

Total Time 3 days: 2:30

Tues
12:00 pm – YMCA track
- run: 0:30 ok run

5:30 pm – YMCA swim
- swim: 0:30 1250 (mixed, 750free, 500s and 250)

Wed
11:30 pm – YMCA swim
- swim: 0:30 1500 (1000 continuous free, and 500kick)

Thurs
5:30 pm – YMCA swim
- swim: 1:00 2250 (mixed, 1250 free, 500s and 250)

2007-02-17 to 2007-02-19 Training (nope)

Went to Ottawa for the weekend, and while I got a 12km of skating in on Sat I’m not going to count it. On Sun I did little other than hang out with my Dad, and on Mon I was in full geek out mode with a Drupal 5.1 setup for mile-end.qc.ca and a well overdue Gentoo upgrade on my Mythtv box.

Check in

Went to the Junction SM show for about 15 minutes or so; I left because I could tell that it wasn’t really going to get going for at least another hour, and I felt sleep would be a better option than waiting around. Though it did look like it would get fun, and I’ll definitely check out another Diskfunction production.

Skating on the Canal in Ottawa with my friends was fun. I’d like to go again before the winter ends.

Diskfunction Junction (what's your function) SM

I want to go but I’m not sure I’ve got the waking power. I saw them at Mutek last summer and danced my ass off, however, I do have to leave for Ottawa tomorrow morning at 10:30am for some Winterlude skating… At any rate, I just picked up my rental car, and I’m currently sitting at Laika trying to decide what to do. Nobody confirmed attendance so I’m pretty much free to do as I wish.

Here’s the promo (the doors are open now, and the DJs come on at midnight):
 
Junction SM :: (Dandy Jack + Sonja Moonear, Perlon, Kalk Pets, Chili, Suisse) @ Diskfunction February 16th 2007.
Friday the 16th of February, Diskfunction presents in collaboration with MUTEK, the duo JUNCTION SM (Switzerland..Chile) at club L’Academy (4445 St.Laurent Boulevard).

It is a good idea to show up early, since the rich groovy rhythms of MightyKat will warm up the night from 10 PM, and Junction SM will perform beetween midnight and 2 AM (and maybe later if the vibe is good).

Junction SMis a live/dj duo in which Dandy Jack’s sophisticated rhythms & sounds combine with Sonja Moonear’s fine records selection. The JUNCTION SM performance is all about a perfect mixture of Dandy Jack’s live improvisation and Sonja Moonear’s dj work. Jack’s input is routed through 2 channels of Sonja’s mixer in order to let her control the whole given sound.

Depending on the evolution of the night, Dandy Jack can reload new sets while Sonja is taking over the dancefloor, or she might slow down her input to let Jack perform solo. The interaction between both of them and the public is the oxygen of their performance.

You will never recognize any pieces, nor have any repetition from a set to another. The frontier between live sets and records vanishes in the most subtle way, and the immediate effect is that the audience gets lost trying to determine who does what… Hence more fun for everybody!

Academy Dancehall
4445, St-Laurent

7$ from 22h to midnight, 12$ after
Drinks Specials 4 $ before midnight (Vodka, Rhum, Gin)

Dom&Phil

2007-02-16 Training (ok)

Couldn’t make the 6:30am wake time, and I took it a bit easy, but overall it was OK.

Total Time: 1:45

12:00 pm – YMCA Swim
- swim: 0:30 1250 (mixed, 750free, 500s and 250)

5:30 pm – YMCA track, and weights
- run: 0:40 good track run
- weights: 0:35 upper body, core, and stretch

Imagine

There’s the thick sweet odour of dense tropical flora in the air as the over grown trails become difficult… You feel the moister being stripped from your body by the wind as it fills your tracks in the desert dunes… The fields of wheat gently sway in the breeze under miles of sky on a horizonless road… The chill hits bone as you push ahead across the ice… You fall into the rythm of the waves as they pound the shore…

  And as you run you are fully aware of your stride length, cadence, speed, distance covered, heart rate, elevation, etc… All a because you’re wearing a Polar RS800sd that you purchased from a local seller on EBay for a third off the price it would cost you at Boutique Courir (though I love Boutique Courir). And since you only won the bid last night you cross your fingers and hope it arrives as advertised (new, unopened, with warranty intact).

I’ll post a review once it’s arrived and I’ve given it a good run for the money.

FYI I already own a Garmin Forerunner 205, and while the GPS is a fun toy for the geek in me, I found that the satellite connection cuts out too frequently in the city (Montreal) and is non existent in the woods…

2007-02-15 Training (good)

Triple run on a long swim day…

Total Time: 3:20

7:45 pm – YMCA Treadmill
- run: 0:30 easy run

12:00 pm – YMCA Track
- swim: 0:30 track run (good pace)
- core: 0:10 core and stretch

5:30 pm – YMCA swim, and track
- swim: 1:30 3000 meters (mixed, 1500 free, sets of 500)
- run: 0:30 ok track run
- stretch: 0:10 stretch

Almands: the super food

Almonds are widely considered to be one of the super-foods (along with flax seed, kale, butternut squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes…). They are very good source of protein, Vitamin E (an antioxidant), phosphorus, calcium, and fiber. They also contain potassium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and trace amounts of the B vitamins thiamine and riboflavin and.

Anyway, I’ve been eating a lot of almonds lately, and just now I was sitting in my office munching away when a co-worker informed me that almonds help slow drunkenness and prevent hangovers. A quick search for “almonds hang over” turned up this site which states:

Almonds: American Indians contend that eating six raw almonds before imbibing helps prevent intoxication. Plus, they taste good!

Not exactly proof, but here’s a cheers to almonds.

Run 28 Days in Feb

The Slowtwitch frequency challenge:

1. 28 runs platinum, 24 gold, 20 silver, 16 bronze
   You get credit for double/triple/quad runs in a day but they must be spaced 4 hours apart…for example, a good way to get doubles might be to “run commute” part way to work and part way back.
2. You get no credit for intensity
3. You get no credit for running longer than 30 min
4. minimum 30′ per run
5. Because you can double up, you can actually take rest days and hit platinum!

So far so good, I’m at 16 runs in 15 days. Most of my runs thus far have been 30min average runs, but I have had one 3 hour long run and one 10k race so…

2007-02-14 Training (good)

Not as long a day as intended, but a pretty good day just the same.

Total Time: 2:20

7:45 pm – YMCA Treadmill
- run: 0:30 easy run (it’s hard to run hard in the morning)
- core: 0:10 core and stretch

12:00 pm – YMCA Swim
- swim: 0:40 1500 (mixed, 875free, 500s)

5:30 pm – YMCA track, and weights
- run: 0:30 good track run
- weights: 0:30 upper body, core, and stretch