Almost beginning

Sunday was a nice easy day, restworthy even. The important part of the day was this. One of them is started already.

Monday I water ran with Katie, moved on to swim when she got out, with some kick and pull. Working on intervals. 4x50 on 60 s, all under 50 seconds.

After work there was a 40 minute mostly easy spin, but 5 minutes fairly hard. Then a nice stretch and core session.

After looking over the marathon plans, I'm mostly going with the one on the Calgary Marathon website. With some changes. I'm not going to run 5 x a week. At least not to start. One of the runs will be done as a water run and some high intensity swimming, the other will be a spin session. On both of these I can push the cardio effort quite hard, without running the risks of doing so running on outdoor paths. The actual runs will be the LSD,  a run with strides or Fartlek or hills, and one other at a steady pace faster than LSD, but slower than full on. I haven't yet built a spreadsheet to track all this yet. I know that astonishes some of you.

The main reason for doing that one is that it's already in Km, and the weeks are already numbered. Yes, I'm lazy about some things. I've discovered over the years that miles mean nothing to me for distance anymore, and a plan built on miles is just blah blah blah. Besides, miles are obsolete, archaic, and backwards.

Once the daylight is around longer, the paths are better, and I see how the training goes, I may run more. Not going to push it though. My goal is to finish the marathon without needing a trip to the med tent. Half the battle for finishing in good shape is to get to the starting line in good shape.

I was listening to a CBC interview that was talking about a study showing that happy people are healthy, and it makes total sense to me. One of the metrics they used was walking speed. People that walk faster are both happier and healthier. Which means that woman that passed me this morning on the way to the office must have been nearly orgasmic. I was going at a brisk but not all out pace, and she passed by with a zoom. That doesn't happen very often.

They are onto something though. I know from experience that having a positive outlook makes getting the workouts done that much easier, and I think you get more out of them if you enjoy them. That's why I'd like to get up, and get on with the workout first thing, before I have time to talk myself out of it. I feel for the people that have to drag themselves into it, and struggle through. I've certainly had tough workouts, and times I wasn't in the mood, but mostly I've loved getting it done.

The guys at work were watching the hockey fights. The "line brawl" between Calgary and Vancouver. Disgusting. It started seconds after the game started, so they were told to do it. There's no place for that sort of goonery in the game. Shit like that is what drove me away from being a hockey fan.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If you don't want that in the game, you fine it out of existence. Pick the things you want to ban. Stupid fights like that one, bloody stick work, head shots, whatever. First offense, 10K fine, 10 games off. Second office, 100K fine, 100 games off, and third offense a million dollar fine and you are out of the game forever. For every incident, the team gets a flat million dollar fine. That shit would stop, right now. Even regular penalties should be upped. Instead of 2 minutes, it should be 10 minutes, and no back on the ice if the other team scores. Each player should be assessed fines of 1K per penalty minute.

For the really bad stick swinging intentional assaults, I'd go straight to the 3rd offense fine. For extraordinary shit like that game earlier this week, I'd fine each of the players on the ice, (except the goalies) 100K and out of the game if they ever do it again. The Calgary centre started it, so the Flames should be fined $1,000,000. Coach, each of them, 100K.

Grrrr.