There are other things to worry about

Hi. We are fine. There are lots of people worse off than us here.

Our biggest worry today was getting a window installed, on a north facing wall, while it was raining. There was a four man crew. Let's just say they went to town and got'er done.

Other than that we are appalled and horrified at the flooding not far from here. I'm pretty sure the parking garage for the building I work in is full of water. They told me to stay home today, and it's not like that broke my heart. I was sort of planning it anyway. I'm actually going to be a little surprised if we are not told to stay home the beginning of the week as well.

When I say downtown is flooded, I'm not meaning the rain has built up on the streets and the gutters are full. I mean the buried parkades are full of water. The LRT tunnel behind city hall is full of water. The Saddledome is full of water up to row 14, and there is a tiny little event called the Calgary Stampede that is supposed to start in a couple of weeks. The rest of the Stampede grounds are under about a foot of water. As is much of down town. Some of the big electrical transformers are in danger of being flooded. The underpasses under the railway tracks are completely full.

I don't think any of the bridges over the bow river are open except to emergency vehicles. For some the bridge deck is under water. I saw a clip that said the bridges are fine because they're anchored to bedrock, and that's well and good. But if the soil supporting the nearby roadway is eroded away, there's going to be a problem. That appeared to be the case for north bound MacLeod Trail near the Earlton LRT station.

Bad as it is here, it's worse elsewhere. High River for example, and I'm not being facetious. There is actually a very nice little town about an hour south of here with that name. I saw a photo that looked like there was about 4 feet of water in the main street. The whole town is flooded. All of it. About 15,000 people have to go elsewhere.

If you can get to a house promptly after a flood there is stuff you can do to save it. But if it's been a couple days, especially if the water is up to the main floor, it becomes an insurance nightmare if it's cheaper or better to tear down and replace, or try to repair.

Many people have spoken of getting themselves, their families, and their pets out, and having to leave everything else behind. Some are lucky enough to bring things like essential paperwork, photographs, and other irreplaceable treasures. That still leaves a house full of soaking wet stuff to be dealt with. If you still have a house. Some have had their entire house swept away, which means that the plot of land it was on is gone too.

Think about that for a moment. There you are in an emergency shelter, knowing that everything you own is there with you. Not knowing what the insurance settlement, if any at all, will be. Some people don't even know if their house will be there. I can't imagine that, and I'm a person who was told as a child the house I lived in had burned down.

It's been raining pretty well all day, though it is nice at the moment. At some point, hopefully soon, the rivers will start receding and we can start putting our city back together. I'll be looking for a place to help out. Blogging and workouts might be sporadic.

There are times when one must focus on the essentials. Stay safe, try to stay dry.

The rain is NOT mainly in the plain

It's everywhere.

Google Canmore Cougar Creek, or High River, or Bragg Creek. It's awesome and horrifying all at once. There is lots of water upstream of much of Southern Alberta, and its all trying to come downhill at once. A good chunk of central Calgary along the rivers are in the process of being evacuated. They think by morning 100,000 people will be displaced. I won't be going in to work tomorrow. There are entire communities under mandatory evacuation order. High River looks like it has about 4 feet of water in the main street.

Even getting home today was a bit of an ordeal. A bunch of low lying roads were closed. They've built a berm 6 feet high across 5th Ave near Elbow. But first, I had to take the shuttle to the Honda dealership to get the car. Routine servicing. That's up in the NE, only a few blocks from where I used to work. This time of day it usually took 35 to 45 minutes or so to get home. Deerfoot was a parking lot, so I went north to 16th, over to 52nd, south to Glenmore, South again on Barlow to Deerfoot, then north to Anderson and home. It took 1.25 hours. Lots of traffic. Lots of rain. I got a few shots along the way. These are straight out of the camera, no Snapseed or other enhancements.

This last one was just a few minutes ago. Torrential rain just ending.

We are warm and dry, so far. If the water gets so high that we have to evacuate, then essentially the entire city will need a place to go. Can't go west, the road is partially washed away near Canmore. Can't go south, the road is flooded and might be washed away near High River.

Somehow don't have the ambition to do a bike and core workout tonight.

The rain is hosing down

I've been lucky so far. It's monsoon season in Calgary, and we're getting record rainfall. Right now it's coming down as hard as I've ever seen it happen, with the clouds just screaming along overhead.

It rained hard, briefly, during yoga class and was fine when we came out. We were home a few minutes and it started again. This is the last class of the year for us, unless we get onto Helen's crazy summer schedule. Probably not, at least not for me. I can go down into my fitness cave and do all the yoga I please, on my schedule.

Have I said what a wonderful teacher we have? Today we were playing with our feet, and since the bottom of my left foot is a bit tender, this is all good. This was a move that she had known and forgot about till she was reminded at her wine I mean yoga retreat. It was in Naramata, so you can understand my confusion.

There was a short bike yesterday, then a good stretch and core session. That's when I got into the serious thoughts post, which has had some nice comments.

This morning I was in the pool for a nice swim, though I had no water feel at all. Which is a pity because I was sharing the lane with a couple of fast swimmers and it would have been nice to be on my game. Then water ran with my buddy Katie for a little while, getting  all caught up. I get tired just listening to what she gets up to!

Still not signed up for any races. I don't see any point of doing races while not completely recovered. I've suffered through enough races just to finish. I don't need to do more of that. It's another thing entirely to be healthy and pushing to claw my way up that fiercely competitive age group I'm in. That would be nice.

A friend triggers serious thoughts

As you know, I've been married a long time. A few years back I was suddenly put in the position of approaching a woman sitting by herself on a bench, and introducing myself. My liver didn't quite shift in my chest, but I sure thought about it for a minute. I most assuredly did not want to come across like some perv hitting on her.

This was at one of the private lakes in Calgary, and my coach at the time had arranged an evening swim courtesy of a resident. I got there on time, and didn't see anyone I knew. This tall blonde woman sitting there had what looked like a wetsuit peeking out of her bag. Eventually I summoned my courage and asked if she was Leaha, here to swim with our mutual coach. It turned out she was, and we chatted a bit as the others were very late.

Eventually we zipped each other up, (our wetsuits!) and just as we were about to get in the water everyone else showed. I nearly cooked waiting for them. We had a nice swim, and we were on chatting terms at the periodic occasions we met up.

Back in 2009 her and Shannon and I tackled the Calgary 70.3 course, and of course I blogged about it. She is an experienced runner and was working on building up to Ironman Canada 2011. She never got there. She was struck by a car. Here's a link to Leaha's story link. It isn't long, and it's worth taking a minute to read.

Since I've been involved in triathlon I've heard of a number of people being struck by cars or having bike crashes or being murdered as they are out for a run. Often they are the friend of a friend or blog buddy. Leaha is the first person I actually knew that had a really serious injury. It really isn't the same when it's someone you actually know.

I visited her in the hospital after she was out of the coma, but still nowhere near recovered. It is a very strange feeling to be talking to someone, when there isn't really anyone home. It was night and day visiting just before she moved back to Ontario for a while. While she was still struggling, someone was there to talk to.

Her recovery has been amazing, though she has had to work and struggle for every bit of it. She is one of the people I think about when my own life gets a little difficult, or so it seems. Compared to what she has gone through, my troubles are trivial. I only had to learn to eat, talk, and walk once. Seeing her up and around is a testament to the power of our brains to recreate ourselves in the face of tragedy.

It's related to how I feel watching the Ironman finish line camera. The pros are all nice and everything, finishing in times that make me shake my head, knowing how frigging difficult it is. But what I really like watching is after the 14 hour mark. These are my people. These are the people that probably are not sure if they would actually finish. It doesn't matter if you've done it before, every race is different. Crossing that line is an emotional experience for them. It was for me. That finish line photo is probably one of the biggest grins I've ever had in my life.

There are many days I wonder if I'm doing everything I can with my life. I go earn money to pay my bills, I dabble at fitness stuff, I write, I socialize with friends, I try to enjoy myself. But I wonder if I'm really making best use of who and what I am. If there is something I should be doing that is as difficult for me, as learning to walk and talk again was for Leaha.

Faucet failure with a side of slutty

Sunday was a whole lot of nothing. Well, that isn't true. I did get a couple things scratched off my to do list. The jungle got repressed, once again. The eco spray seems to be doing a nice number on the dandylions, but it isn't touching the vetch and that other stuff. Another flower box got finished off, ready for planting. A ton of Anise Hysop is coming up. I thought we'd got rid of that a long time ago, but I guess it's patient. I looked at playing with money to pay bills, but lost ambition. Maybe tonight.

There was an embarrassing moment in the washroom of the pub where we hold our book club meeting. I was waving my hands under the outlet, and nothing was happening. Then I realized this is a more primitive model, where I actually have to touch something to make the water flow. Oh, the humanity! I'm glad nobody was watching.

What I was trying not to watch was either of the two waiters. I can appreciate that they need to hustle for tips, and it helps to dress to accent your highlights, so to speak. But there's a line, and both of crossed over into slutty territory. One had a mostly off the shoulder top and a spaghetti strap bra on. Well, mostly on. Most of of the time it and the top was not just off the shoulder, but off the bicep and working on the crook of the elbow. I figured it was even money the right boob was going to make a break for daylight. The other waiter was more covered, but the outfit, the hair, and the makeup looked like she had just got off shift from her dominatrix job. She was scary. Service was very slow. In the few months we've been there things have gone downhill pretty far.

Much of Sunday was working on my novel. A new and interesting character has shown up in two different places.

Then the important part of the day, placating the mammals of the house. And BBQing the bison burgers.

There was a really good stretch and core session after getting warmed up working on the lawn. I can feel it in my hams today. I'm already tired of the lawn growing, and monsoon season can end any time now. Getting a bobcat in to strip off all the grass is more and more attractive.

This glass of wine is tasting very good. I'll be ready for bed soon.

I ran again, actually ran!

Saturday was supposed to be rainy all day, so my initial plan was to putter about the house inside. I did manage to get two items checked off my to do list - excavate the laundry table, and bleach a bunch of wine bottles.

It's nice to see clean glass emerge after the remnants of label goo, old water spots, wine film or other buildup is removed. Some of that goo is pretty stubborn. It's a peaceful activity, and can be almost meditative. My hands still smell a bit of bleach.

We had a thunderstorm sweep through with some light hail. I didn't see it. By the time I emerged from the basement it was nice again. My feet were itchy for a run. I was feeling warmed up, having been doing lots of bending and stretching and squatting and twisting, and all that while doing wine bottles.

Changed and headed out, with the thought I'd do whatever my feet and legs were happy with. Look at the pace time on this graph!

My feet and legs were happy and light. I wasn't pushing the pace at all or trying to run fast. It was warm but not hot, with a nice breeze. I could see the mountains. I was relaxed and enjoying it. This is how running is supposed to feel. My lungs and heart were working a bit, but could have carried on longer. Just at the end I could feel my run form starting to fall apart. Rather than push it, I hit the button, and walked home to cool down. There were some interesting tingles in my left calf, almost as if a prickly plant was brushing against the top of my calf.

Good stretch and core session after, including plank. Lots of wine in the evening. Today my feet are feeling a bit tender. I'll go do a bit more stretching, and rolling my feet on the ball. That feels so good! Book club in a little while.

We had some Telus guys show up at the door. At first I thought they were Jehovahs Witness, but no. They wanted to give me a TV, and a PVR, and a cable package for $130 dollars a month. He kept asking me what I liked about Shaw, and didn't seem to understand that I wasn't getting my internet from them, and that I'm not especially keen to have phone, internet, and cable all from the same provider. Nor am I keen to pay the extortionate fees for cable service. If we do this at all, we'll buy our own equipment, and hook it up to Netflix or Hulu, or whatever else seems good. Anybody else try that Telus package? What did you think? We can't be the only door they banged on.

Where am I?

First things first. If you missed it, and it hasn't even been there 24 hours so it's entirely possible if you have a life, you might want to read one of my better rants. Mainly political, but that's where the Stupidity Kool-Aid seems to be getting drunk these days.

On to today, and the pool in the morning. Swam 45 minutes, the usual workout. Water ran after. It wasn't as rusty as I thought it might be given how long it's been since I was last in the pool. I think I can carry on the way I was with swimming.

Once home, onto the bike for an hour. Easy warmup, 20 minutes at the middle of endurance pace or so. Heart rate 115 to 120, light sweat, easy breathing. Easy spin to cool down, with some spin ups to 115 rpm. Sit bones complaining a bit, quads a bit tired, especially just above the knee, and hams were feeling it. Toward the end I could feel my spin losing smoothness. I think I'll stay at this level for a week or two, trying to stay on the bike a bit longer, but hold off trying to push big watts.

Good stretch session after, with just a bit of core. There was a bit of clicking in my left knee, but that ironed itself out.

Five years ago tomorrow was my first triathlon, the Chinook Half ironman. I still want to have a good day that this race, but this year isn't going to be it. During my ride today I was feeling a bit out of shape, compared to myself from 5 years ago. I'm pretty sure I'm not ready to go do a half iron, though these things are hard to tell until you try.

In some ways I think I'm stronger, and I think my base cardio fitness might even be a bit better, but my muscular endurance sucks. Hopefully that will come around. So at this point I want to continue the core stuff, and start swimming and biking regularly again. This will start working the muscular endurance and building the cardio more, without the impact of running. That will come. My thinking is to run a little bit, nice and easy so I don't forget how, but don't stress them too much as they work on the bike. A year is a long time for a gradual build.