Monday, January 18, 2010

Swimming

So I have signed up for adult swim lessons. This was week 2. Now it isn’t that I can’t swim, but judging from how much I have learned in two 1/2 hour sessions, I must say that I surely didn’t know how to swim well.

My plan, this year, is to see if I can do a triathlon. I have run races, I have cycled races and I have done duathlons, but now a new challenge is upon me.

Hopefully my stroke and breathing (oh man the breathing) will improve enough that I will attempt a sprint triathlon. But that is a 750m swim and so far I haven’t come close to that distance. But at least there is a try a tri I can look at. A 400m swim might be just the kick I need to see where I am at. The 10K bike ride and 5K  run certainly won’t pose a problem for me. We’ll see.

For those of you that can’t swim or swim poorly though, I highly suggest some lessons. Fairly cheap, and a great thing to do over a winter.

Last week front stroke. This week continued that and added back stroke. Neither stroke worthy yet, but soon, oh soon.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Found a Great New (to me) Band

Okay so casually browsing through Youtube can sometimes turn up real gems. By accident I found a video for a band called Friendly Fires. The video in question is called Skeleton Boy and is truly a great and unique piece. Plus the song ain't too bad either. Great for a workout (I will be adding it to my running mix I think). Check these guys out.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Welcome to a New Year

So 2010 has arrived and it may be the start of a new decade for some and the end for others (depends on whether year zero is counts I guess). Anyway, here in Nova Scotia we started out with a bang. That is snow, crazy temps and add in some rain as well. But now that it has that out of its system we have been fairly blessed with mild (near freezing) daily temps and little new snow. Good.

Of course all this new snow and wet roads mean that I still can't properly take out my new bike which I purchased from the good folks at Sport Wheels. It is just far too pretty to get dirty this early in its life. Instead I still ride my good trusty old commuter mountain bike. It rarely lets me down and generally when it does it is actually my fault.

The new year also brings about new changes at my work. While I was working solely on the conservation and restoration of Archaeological finds these past 10 years, I am now moving into the Parks Canada Furniture and Wooden Objects conservation and restoration lab. New and exciting things ahead for me.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season as well. I did in Colorado with my extended family. We even flew our little dog Newt down with us for vacation. And while she doesn't care much for cold and snow, she had a blast getting all sorts of attention from all sorts of new people.

Here's looking forward to more exciting things in 2010. I include in that the possibility of me doing a Triathlon this year. Swimming lessons are now paid for and start in a few days. More on that in the future.

Take care.