Snow pants, for sure, with a side of AMA

What an odd night. Many people say that, or worse, as the effects of alcohol poisoning take hold during many New Year's Eve celebrations. I had no inkling it was going to be odd. We had a really nice dinner and a bit of a nice evening. I was working on my book, hot on the trail of finishing a first draft. Then I was in bed by 9am, then up again at 1am. Lots of traffic outside. I think many of my neighbours were having parties.

I had got to the point I could compile the work to date into a text document, and started reading that. Holy cow, is there a difference between reading it in Scrivener, and reading it in a text doc with the text all blown up. I fixed lots of things, mostly little. There are a few more things to smooth over tomorrow. There are 85.2 K words now.

I went back to be about 4, then woke up about dawn. Here's the dawn of a new year, and some other photos as well. Some of you may have seen one or the other of these shots, but I was watching the dawn, and felt so serene. There's something so soothing and restful about dawns and sunsets. Days like this make me wish I had a better camera and tripod, to say nothing of the knowledge of how to use them properly.

Here's a couple from the other end of the day.

During the day it was so beautiful I had to get out. I was initially thinking about going for a run, but it was so nice with all the fresh snow I thought I'd get out on my snowshoes. I just went around the green space across the road for 30 minutes and was pretty tired at the end. Some of the snow is several feet deep.

This bench for the ball players. I'm not sure how high that bench is, I'm guessing a foot and a half or so. This is a lot of snow for Calgary.

Looking back at our house from near the tennis courts.

Last, while I was taking the sunset shots, I couldn't resist this one of Curtis. He had just noticed and whipped his head around so fast.

The problem with snowshoeing is that even with nearly knee high Sorel boots, I was still getting snow kicked up on the back of my pants. I'm going to have to get some proper snow pants if I'm going to do this more. That means another trip to MEC. Oh, the Humanity!

After the snowshoeing I was downstairs for some core and stretching.

Before the snowshoeing I had a very nice FaceTime conversation with a sick friend.

AMA The last one from Michelle

What qualities do you admire / dislike most in other people / in yourself? 
Is there a correlation among your likes and dislikes in others and yourself?

	In Others	In Myself
Qualities Admired	Punctuality. Consideration for others. Ability to state clearly and concisely what they mean or want. To go where the facts and data lead, as opposed to where you think you'd like them to go.	Being able to figure out a solution to a wide variety of problems. Determination to achieve goals. Open to learning new things. Self-starter.
Qualities Disliked	Shambling around like a half slaughtered water buffalo trying to figure out what they are about. Being disorganized when it affects me. An inability to shut up and listen to others (not just me.)	Sometimes forgetful. Sometimes I get wrapped up in my way of doing things, and don't see there are other valid ways. Sometimes impatient with others.

This is just a sampling of course. Being the crusty old curmudgeon that I am, there are many more qualities I dislike in other people than what I've listed here. Walking slowly for example, for most people, and not signaling your turns.

It's funny, I'd always thought that figuring out problems was a good thing, but in one case it lost me a job. I was going to a third interview at a particular company. THIRD! The first was with the technical team evaluating skills. They loved me. The second was a senior vice president evaluating overall fit. He had some reservations, and called in the company psychologist for the last interview. She harped on teamwork, and when I would call in others if I couldn't solve a problem. Since almost all of my experience has been in jobs where I'm the only one doing it, I don't have a lot of experience in being able to call in others to solve my problems for me. She did not like that at all. I think she saw me as being a bit of a loose cannon. I did not get a job offer, and reading between the lines it was clear there was no point in applying for any other jobs with them.

Of course there is a correlation. One can hardly like a quality in others, and not like the same quality in oneself, if you have it, or deplore not having it if you don't. One example is that I don't talk much at work. As soon as someone talks over me, almost all the time, I'm done. At that point I wouldn't tell them where the fire exit was. Or more likely, the washroom. One of my huge peeves is people that simply cannot ask a question and shut up to hear the answer. The CBC hosts are bad for that. I once sat silent for a full half hour meeting, listening to someone babble away trying to ask a question. I was pretty sure I knew what they were asking, and I knew an answer that was the start to more discussion at the very least. But he kept on trying to rephrase, and provide illustration and examples, that he took up the entire meeting time. At the end I said "I have another meeting," and walked out. Then I refused all further meeting requests till my boss got on my case about it, and then we did THE WHOLE THING AGAIN. If they're paying me by the hour, and I have no investment in the outcome, I'll sit and listen to someone babble.

The other alternative is that rather than shut down, I'll cut them off at the balls, bite their heads off and spit out the remains, or do whatever it takes to be able to finish answering the question. That doesn't happen very much, and it's very startling to people when it happens for the first time.

And that's it for the AMA feature. Thanks very much for playing along and sending in your questions. Maybe I'll do it again next year.

AMA. Curtis and I worked out a deal

It's been a bit of a struggle. Curtis regards the laptop as an usurper taking his rightful place. Even when I help to organize him settled in, he isn't happy. But today it all worked out. We were cuddled together for quite a while, him lying on his back between my thigh and the arm of the chair.

 I figured out when a major event in the book happens, and how to merge two chunks I'd written. Writing is easier when there is the sound and vibration of purring.

That was after the swim this morning. 45 minutes, fairly strong, with the pool mostly to myself. One of the swim clubs came in just as I was finishing. I could never be part of a swim club. The coach was all 100 m this, 200 m that, on the 40 blah blah blah, echoing. There were some hieroglyphics on the whiteboard, but they didn't help. The kids seemed to get sense out of it, hopping in as I was hopping out. I watched a bit. They cruise along, relaxed, recovering, faster than I can swim all out.

Then an errand to Sunterra for a nice evening meal (herb-roasted leg of lamb, Thai salmon, roasted yam, and Parisienne spuds. Blueberry cheesecake for dessert. Carrot cake for later. Primitivo wine.) We need not discuss the woman wearing pajamas gassing up her car at Coop this morning. It was still cold. I couldn't tell if she still had slippers on.

While swimming I mused about some thoughts. Some of my buddies have just run 31 days in a row on the Strides streak thing. Yay them! I could never do that. Even short distances I think I'd be so beaten up by the end of the week I'd by lying there, feet in the air, begging to be put out of my pain.

But I was thinking, there is swim, bike, run, snowshoeing, yoga. Hmmmm. So here it is, almost 7pm on NYE. Supper was good, the wine is good, and I'm almost ready to hit publish. I think I'll go back to the novel. But maybe not. Maybe I'll put a movie on. I don't know. Hmmmm.

Runner Leana
Here are a couple of AMA questions! How did you and Linda meet?
We met in a middle school gym off of McKnight blvd October 1982. We were both involved in a medieval recreation organization. It's well known, you might recognize the name if I said it. She took one look, basically, and executed a perfect BDD. She sensed my innate weakness and vulnerability,  (cookies) and thought the odds were good for a successful outcome to the women's lifetime project thing. It just occurred to me that a couple of my blog readers could have been there, and just might have an alternate view of things. Hang tight guys, I'll get some wine to you if you stay silent about your versions. We don't want to confuse the audience here.

I have been told this is inadequate. That it's very much along the lines of what I wrote to my Granny once, where I said "Linda is out of the hospital and doing fine" and then went on to other relevant news. Which was perfectly true, and in my mind, perfectly adequate. Women. Within a week there was a letter from my Granny, addressed to Linda Mulligan (our mail from her had been addressed as Mr and Mrs Keith Cartmell up to that point) asking for ALL the details, and excoriating me firmly for my lack of understanding of her needs.

None the less, BDD is an accurate description of what happened that night. I was swept off my feet and carried away. Things have never been the same. Better of course. Yes dear, much better. In all ways. Of course dear.

Still, one has to admire her courage. I look back on myself and shudder. I was a pretty callow youth back than.

We ended up renting a townhouse, getting a cat, building the house we are now in (paying someone to build, not doing it ourselves), then getting married. Linda kept her name because I'm not fussed about things like that, and back then money was tight. After paying the mortgage and bills, there was very, very little left over. If she took my name, the bank would have collapsed our accounts together, and we would have lost about 5K of potential credit. We ended up not needing it, but one never knows these things in advance.

Would you ever shave your mustache? 
I think not. Maybe if the donation to charity went to serious values. Serious. Very Serious. Very, Very, Seriously Serious. I think you get the idea. Feel free to start a collection.

If you did another Ironman would you pick Challenge over a WTC race? 
I think at this stage I'm not going to do another Ironman. The more I think about it, the more amazed that I got through it last time. After spending a few years simply trying to get in regular workouts, I do not think I could train credibly for IM while working a regular job. If it somehow became possible, I think I'd try the Challenge, because it's the same stunningly beautiful course and closer than Whistler or Quebec.

What is one thing (athletically) you would like to achieve?
I want to do the Calgary Marathon before I'm too decrepit. Some days there is considerable internal discussion if this point has been reached or not.

As a bonus, I'll throw in a professional thing. I'd like to get my book published and on the bookshelves. Some sales would be nice. I am still musing about the self publish, and traditional publish routes. Much of what I read I'm suspicious about. It smells very much like "5 ways to make your opening paragraph pop!" or "4 tricks to rivet reader attention." Yeah.

Creaky start to the swim

I think I sat too long with the laptop the other day. My left shoulder was killing me. Couldn't wait to get into the pool after dropping Linda off.  I actually spent a few minutes stretching it out and warming it up. The 30 minute swim was essentially a long gradual warmup. It felt better and better as I went along.

Once home I cuddled the cats a bit and browsed in a mindless sort of way. About lunchtime I got on the bike for some easy spin and a good stretch after.

The year end is coming quickly, and I still don't have any particularly cogent reflections or thoughts about the year. Good thing I'm not paid to come up with them.

The novel has one more major scene to place. I need to review 3 act structure to see where it ought to go, then a bit of tidy up. It looks like I'll make my goal by the end of this vacation. The NaNoWriMo goal was to get 50K words in a semi-coherent structure. Now the goal is to tell the whole story, in a form that I could actually give someone to read. Not that it's ready to pitch to a publisher, oh no. Just tonight I was still fixing minor grammar errors that I didn't care about earlier, and no doubt there are many more of them.

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice again, maybe I'll go for a run after the swim. If anyone is off work and wants to go for coffee or lunch, this is a good week.

There were some nice comments about yesterday's AMA, thanks guys! I was going to post another one, but realized I need to write much more there to tell the story properly. Look for it tomorrow.

AMA 4 and buddies

Today I was a slacker. My buddies Sophia and Michelle were running 16 K today, and I weenied out. 14.24 K yesterday isn't really an excuse, not for the hard core.

They headed off for their run from Eau Claire, and I settled into one of the semi-comfey chairs where the wifi hotspot USED to be. Lots of progress made on the book with no distractions other than the homeless guy that plopped into the next chair, stinking of tobacco.

They came back in good time and we settled into Good Earth for a wonderful chat. Not just running, but all sorts of things. It made me think about buddies a bit. Sophia I've known for years, long before social media was popular with adults, and while it's possible I could meet Michelle at a local event, it's not terribly likely. So many people and all. But there are a ton of people I've got to know through social media. Lately it's been through that mega-social butterfly Cori, though she's been buried in stuff this season.

Here's a couple shots from our meet up today. Linda insists, INSISTS I include the shot of me looking like a madman. Michelle's finger was nowhere near the button, and I hadn't realized she set it go go off automatically.

That first one is best, I think, though that last one is pretty good too. I forget who took that one.

Did you notice the change on the pages section for the Novel Snippets? Scroll down to under the followers section of my sidebar. You can now get all the snippets in one place, and in order, even. Once I'm done with the AMA I will add them there too. I might take out the follower thing, since that hasn't changed in a year or more. I think people have other ways of following blogs now.

Speaking of which, did you see the article on alternatives to Wordpress and Blogger? There's a couple of them I'll be checking out.

No run for me today, just a bit of stretching this morning and perhaps I'll get down for some core tonight.

AMA!
FineFettle (Michelle C.) had lots of questions. Here's another.
AMA: What is your favourite healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks when you are training for something?

One of my all time favourite foods, any meal, any time of day, is a peanut butter and honey sandwich. But it's more complex than that. Organic peanut butter, the Coop Gold brand is good, and I sometimes sprinkle some extra peanuts in. Organic crystalized honey is best, though creamy is good too. Fresh whole wheat bread. An organic banana. All with milk, and chocolate chip cookies after. Or maybe a few chocolate chips sprinkled on the peanut butter.

Breakfast is usually granola with several kinds of nuts and fruit on top, sometimes mixed with yogurt.
Lunch could be anything, from nothing, to a full meal. Supper is the same. Linda is a good cook. Go back through my blog, I talk lots about food, though I haven't got a label specifically for food photos. Maybe I should do that. In my copious free time.

I don't eat any differently when I'm training. I figure a good diet is good for regular life and for training. Maybe the calorie count goes up during training, as I'm a bit more likely to snarf more cookies as recovery food. I'm a big believer in cookies as recovery food. I am very fortunate to not have any food allergies, or any other issues that restrict what I eat.

When I wasn't working much that one year we saved a ton of money by not eating out much. We spent perhaps a bit more than we used to by getting good quality food, with lots more of it being organic and local. We love the farmer's markets. After the XL beef scare I eat very, very little commercial beef in any form. My red meat is local bison or lamb. The chicken we get tastes amazing by itself and roasted with veggies in a hand made pottery dish, it is out of the world! Now going out to eat is a rare occasion, since we can eat better at home for far less money.

Plus, I have this odd aversion to buying dinner with the wine. There are two parts of that. Wine is very expensive in a restaurant, with a bottle costing $30 to $40 being very common, and frankly, some of it doesn't taste as good as my wine. At that price it's a whole other entree. Plus there is the whole driving home thing. One drink, and I'll drive. Two drinks, over the course of an evening with a meal, and I'll drive unless I'm tired. I won't drive on three drinks at all.

One of my big worries before Ironman was eating something that would disagree with me. Normally I've got a cast iron tummy (except for brussels sprouts, and some other green veggies), but after more than year of working towards one big day, I didn't want it derailed by something avoidable. We shopped and ate much like we do at home, though there was this amazing Okanagan salsa that was tres yummy.

An anonymous question
"How did you get over the disapproving looks from people when you were big and started working out? How did you go out in public in spandex?"

Several parts to this. Mainly, I didn't give a shit what other people thought of how I looked. I still don't. I was there for me, not for some imaginary fashion show. I knew I was big, and there was lots of jiggle, and there is still more than I'd like. I'm working on it, and will be working on it the rest of my life. More activity is one of the key ways of dealing with it. There is no practical way of hiding the jiggle, or disguising it. Don't waste your time trying. Wear the clothes appropriate to the activity, that fit you now, and get out there. You'll need a smaller size sooner than you think.

Other people aren't looking anyways. Mostly they are focussed on their own workout. If they're really noticing you, then they're posers. Anyone that mocks you has just proved they are a jerk, and unworthy of your company.

Even if other people are looking, do you know what they're saying? They're saying, "Good for you. Stick with it." Yes, you're slow, and you're feeling very conspicuous. Been there, done that. Still slow, and that 'stache is very conspicuous. Stick with it. You'll make new friends that will accept and encourage you.

Get out there and do it. Stick with it. I can't say that enough. Don't be afraid to ask others how best to fit in, where the lane for your speed is. Know your numbers and do not be afraid or ashamed to say I swim an xxx 100 m, or I run a xxx Km pace. Movement at any pace is better than an ass parked on a couch. In a group activity the leader should help you find someone about your pace. If you can't cope with part of the workout, do what you can.

It doesn't matter if you're the slowest. Don't think about that. Just get out there. Slowest is infinitely  better than not starting. Next week, next month, next year, if you keep at it, someone else will be slower, and you can pay it forward by helping them.

They people you'll see out there being active, the people in your spin class, the people you see at the pool, the people in yoga, whatever, they won't judge you for what you're wearing (unless you wear that suit past the see-through bottom stage) or for being big. Many of us have been there. They won't judge you for being slow, or clumsy, or new. Almost all of us have been there. They won't judge you if you have to dial back because of aches or pains or minor injuries. That happens to everybody sooner or later. But they will judge you if you quit.

That saying you may have heard, "Pride is forever." They aren't kidding. Whether it's the first time you run 5 K without stopping, or your first Ironman. It doesn't matter. You did it, and you can be proud of yourself. Nobody can ever take that from you. Now get out there and go do it.

Year end blither with fine tusks

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way first, shall we? Michelle and I ran in Fish Creek the day after the Flash Freeze warning happened. We only got a couple cm of snow here, but worried about where we planned to run, and the roads to get there. The Nose Creek path is very open to the wind, and it's still cold. I was going to pick up Michelle and car pool there.

We changed plans thinking that running in Fish Creek would be more sheltered. Mostly that's true. Here I am modeling my new run jacket. Very warm. The only problem with the face mask is that my glasses fog up even more than usual. I should see if I can find some of that anti fog goop.

The big difference is that the change of plans means I didn't get to send the best tweet of the year. I was going to say, "Half dressed and on way to pick you up." Maybe it's just as well.

We ran along, with some minor drifts, but mostly quite good footing. Then we got here and decided to turn around.

At turnaround we did the obligatory selfie. Yes, for some reason I look like a drowning person here, but really, I'm just trying to find the button on the phone.

And the close up of the tusks that you've all been waiting for. AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!

I haven't put much of the Runmeter stuff up on my graph lately. Some of the mapping has been nuts lately, and a few times it's been pissy about emailing me the data link. I know Julie is pining for the numbers, so I thought I'd indulge her. I'm pretty pleased. This is my longest run in a very long while, probably in almost a year. My legs were getting a bit tight at the end. I've been down to stretch and roller them. Over all a pretty even pace considering the footing.

Don't fret, the AMA feature is not over yet. I'm just considering which questions to do next. Thinking about who gets the next attributed question...

Another year is drawing to a close. I often take a bit of time for reflection. Lately it seems like the yearly reflection time happens faster and faster. I'm not quite sure where to start. I know you all breathlessly read every word of every blog, hot off the press, so a recap of what I've already said would just bore you.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with the year. Well, except for the cranky legs for much of it, that wasn't any fun. Mostly that seems to be over now. No races at all in 2013, but I'm hoping to get it together for a marathon in 2014. Just lately the running is good.

Work is good, doing stuff I like doing, with people that ended the year appreciating the results a lot more than at the start. In any case, they renewed my contract for another year. This is always reassuring for a contractor.

I suppose the biggest surprise in the year was pounding out 60K words in the NaNoWriMo contest. Since then I've been massaging, adding some detail, fixing things, and generally playing. I'm up to 83 K words now, though some will need to be trimmed I'm sure. It's been a lot of fun, even if Curtis resents the time my lap is occupied. You can see he isn't thrilled. Sometimes he tries to walk on the keyboard, or lie on it, and it takes a bit of doing to discourage him.

I've really enjoyed taking and showing some of my photos, and playing with some others in Snapseed. I've mused about getting a nicer camera than the iPhone. Then I remember that it's still more of a camera than what some well known photographers had to work with, and think maybe I should take some lessons. Perhaps in 2014.

Something I did do was get snowshoes, and actually get out onto them. Lots of snow out there, maybe I'll have another go tomorrow. I've wanted to do this for a long time, and finally got around to it. This is something I'm still learning, that if you want something, you have to make it happen.

Off to the mall.

Back, musing about where the mall rat kids put their clothes after arriving. Even walking from the car to the mall dressed like that would be courting frostbite. Oops, someone wants a lap.

There, Curtis has abandoned my lap, and now I can write again. Over the next couple days look for some of my pages to get rearranged to make it easier to find the novel snippets (new and old) as well as the AMA feature. Once its done I'll mention it again.

Sometimes I use this as time of year as an excuse to rant about politics, but the big story this year, topping even the thieving Harper Conservative Senators, and eminent admirable Chris Hadfield, was (gack) Rob Ford. I'm sorry, I just can't. He represents everything that is wrong with Canada and politics in general. He's a perfect example of why we shouldn't let angry old white men run for office. I still say it would be interesting to have only nice brown-skinned Muslim people run for office. Enough of that.

Some people like to talk about what they'll do in the coming year. I'm not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions. I've got things I worked on last year, and will continue to work on this year.

Lastly, I hope all my readers had a wonderful Christmas, and they are all ready to make 2014 the best year ever.

AMA 3, and Only 3 of the discs!

I got Linda season 1 of Deadwood for a stocking stuffer after hearing some people at work talk about it. It sounds pretty violent to me, so I'm not sure I can take it. I'm pretty much a weenie when it comes to movie violence. Last night she stayed up to watch it while I worked on other things. She's a bit of a binge show watcher. Always wanting to watch one more episode. This is how we get our viewing out of synch.

This morning when she got up I asked if she watched the whole season. "I only watched 3 of the discs!" was her indignant reply. I'm getting better at capturing these good blog titles.

I had a quiet day for me, mostly writing. I've been working on the death scene, and was struggling with it. In the mean time I was writing a couple other scenes. Something clicked and I pounded out 2500 words or so, mostly on the death scene. Now to figure out exactly where it goes and tweak wording as necessary. There's a scene that is a bunch of exposition, and I know where it goes, just need to figure out how. It happens before the scene that opens the book, but it itself isn't a book opening scene. Decisions decisions.

Even though I was up at 5 to feed the cats, and was awake enough to drive to the pool, I didn't. Maybe I should of. It was nice enough today to run in shorts and tech shirt, but I'm planning to run tomorrow. Even though the temperature is dropping like a rock. It's not often you see the words "Flash Freeze Warning" on the weather page.

We may have to rethink the run, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Instead today I had a hard hour on the bike, with some core and stretching after. Very happy with how that went.

A couple photos for you. The cats being affectionate, and the sky as the cold weather was coming in.

From Nicole @ Haute Runner 

AMA: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I had to think about that once. I was once in discussions with an American non-profit, and for complicated reasons I would actually have to live in America. Anywhere within an hour or so of a major airport was fine. After a bunch of noodling around, I landed on Boulder, Colorado. However, America has turned into a police state. I'm reluctant to even visit there. They've taken Canadians and sent them overseas for torture.

Within Canada Calgary is pretty well near the top of the list, mainly because I like sunny weather. It doesn't have to be warm. In fact, I like the mix of climates, and don't mind cold weather. Going for a run on a clear sunny day at -30 C is very nice. We've been discussing if we want to live here in retirement, but have come to no firm conclusions.

There is a passel of relatives that live in the Fraser Valley, but if I was going to live there I should have bought a long time ago. I very much enjoyed Penticton during my two stays there. Granted I was a bit distracted, but it might be fun to rent a house there in the summer, and commute to Calgary for a 4 day work week. Maybe I could talk my boss into that. Last year one member of the team lived in Edmonton, technically speaking.

Once we nearly bought a house in Lunenburg, and some parts of Nova Scotia are very nice. Living within a short distance of Hirtle's beach would be very attractive, to say nothing of a certain bakery nearby. However, one person there talked of the fog line as being an important consideration for selecting a place to live. That sounds ominous.

New Zealand would be a nice place to live, I think, as would several parts of Australia.
Florence, the one in Italy, was very nice. I'd go back in a heartbeat. Not so sure about living there, but maybe while I was writing a book, for a year or so. There's lots of other places I'd like to live for a while, like Iceland and other parts of Scandinavia.

For a while I think I'd like to live on an island in the South Pacific. There's such a romantic vision of that, the beach, the palm trees, the climate. The bikini clad cuties. Ahem.  Then again, I think I'd get tired of just the one climate all the time.

And another made up question, this one from Sophia!
You've often said that you are not photogenic at all, which I can believe given the evidence. However your Facebook and Twitter profile photo is awesome! Who took this great shot? What's the story of why you look so good in it?
We were visiting our friends Kris and Sophia, and their adorable daughter. When this photo was taken she had crawled into my lap and was working on falling asleep. Sophia took the photo with my iPhone. Normally I'm kind of allergic to kids, so I'm not sure why I look so good in it, perhaps because I was relaxed. Maybe it's the photographer's skill. It's one of a very, very small number of photos that I look good in. This is the un-cropped version.

That profile photo is one of a very few that I like. Here's the other one, just in case you missed it. Best selfie ever! Totally by accident one morning on the way into work. No post processing.

AMA 2 or the sky is beautiful these days

This has been a wonderful vacation so far. I've been sleeping in as much as the cats will let us. Some workouts, lots of writing/editing. Not too much pigging out. Christmas we visited some friends in Okotoks, and I actually stopped to take a picture of the sky. Wouldn't you?

This evening I missed the best part of sunset, but still liked the rolls of cloud. Only slightly tweaked in Snapseed.

Curtis and Celina still enjoy playing with each other, and loved playing with the tissue wrap from presents. I just missed a flurry of paw waving.

This was dawn the other morning, though I'm looking west instead of east. You never know where the colour is going to be.

Tuesday I ran up to the reservoir and back, 8.5 K in exactly an hour. This is a fine pace for me, and if I could keep it up another 4 hours a marathon would be done. Beautiful warm weather, slightly over dressed.

Thursday I did a short run around the neighborhood, 30 minutes, not quite 4.5 K. Slipping and sliding in the soft sandy snow. It's melted a bit, and refrozen. There are some slippery bits. Lots of limbering up and cool down and stretching. I think this is going to be an important part of my routine if I'm going to start seriously training for a marathon. Do any of you hard core runners have any suggestions for good books to read on the topic?

Planning on an easy run on Saturday, if you're interested let me know.

More questions from Michelle.
How long ago did you do your first triathlon?
My first triathlon was the Chinook Half Ironman in 2008. You can read about it here and here. Yes, I only started seriously training late 2007. It's all in the old blog posts, though the first bunch of them are really boring. Even for me.

How did you know you were ready? 
I didn't. It was a goal I'd trained for, to see if I could do it. To save the suspense, I just barely made it.

Did someone inspire you? Who?
Susi de Leeuw. We started at an engineering company at the same time. Not that I'm an engineer. Later she had a tough breakup, and started doing triathlon. I was watching the internet feed at IMC 2007, waiting for her to come in on the bike. The story is at the same link as above, so if you read the Chinook followup post, you know the story.

She's been one of my biggest supporters along the way, showing up to cheer me on at IMC. Now she doesn't do triathlon anymore, and very rarely blogs, but she does lots of other stuff that makes her happy.

She got me started with a coach, which worked for a while, and I met a ton of other interesting people along the way. The other inspiration is all the ordinary people that do triathlon and other activities. Sure, the pro's are amazing, but this is what they do all the time. Watching ordinary people getting out every day, juggling work, a spouse, children, and the never ending laundry, to say nothing of the other trials of everyday life, just keeps me going. When you read some of the stories of what people had to overcome just to get the start line, let alone the finish line, how can you do anything but get your stuff on and get going?

Cori @ Read.Write.Run.Mom 
okay okay. I've been crazy busy. Here's the question...just so you won't attribute one to me!!!
How many millimetres long is your mustache?

Linda measured today. The longest hair she found was 37 mm long. The average was about 30, and the shortest hair she found was 5 mm. From corner to corner it's about 75 mm, and each wing is 45 mm. The height ranges from 40 mm to 20 at the edges. I've had it ever since I was about 17. I have no idea what my upper lip looks like. I started it as an experiment, and when it became clear my father hated it for reasons unspecified, it became a permanent fixture. I realized only later that he could not say the words "porn star" to me.

I trim it every couple weeks or so, though if I was really on the ball I'd do it every week. The barber always wants to cut it, but I'm sure they'd leave me looking like a porn star. That part of me anyways. Being a guy, it's just slightly depressing where hair grows when it no longer grows on my head.

As the hair on my head gradually thins, the mustache seems to be getting thicker. It's also going gray, which is no surprise. A few years ago while on vacation I decided I was going to be a beach bum and not shave. 3 weeks later I was horrified to see this white stripe running from my mouth, down my chin to my neck. The rest of the beard was still reddish, and it all looked horrible. I shaved, and have been (mostly) clean shaven ever since. Some weekends I don't shave, though you will be relieved to know I don't shamble around the house in my underwear. Much. Call before you drop in, just in case.

And the first attributed question, from Jayne, who says she has no fears.
When are you going to catch up on your dues (payable to me as treasurer) of the Chocolate Mainliners Association?
Ummm. I'm strictly a freelance chocoholic. I hadn't been aware I was part of an organization, let alone one that had dues. Considering that said dues are to be paid in chocolate, I'm a little dubious about the whole darned thing, speaking quite frankly.