My Workshop

 

 

I have recently switched positions at my place of employment. I still work for Parks Canada, but instead of conserving archaeological finds I have now switched to the conservation and restoration of furniture and wooden objects. It is a great new challenge professionally. In the course of my job I have to know not only standard wood workign practices of modern times but also all of the older styles of wood working as well. I see this as a great new chapter in my career. It should help keep my job from getting too stale. Anyway, I thought I would show a couple of pictures of my work shop.

Ian's 2010 Sporting Goals - Swimming

Well the third part in my goals for the year blog entry series is finally up. I do seem very slow at posting these. Anyways, this post concerns my goals for swimming this year. Well, in the past i don't think I would ever have thought about swimming goals other than trying to get to the lake or ocean on hot days. This year is different. Over the winter I decided to take swimming lessons and actually learn how to swim properly. Well, those lessons are over now and thanks to Val at Centennial Pool I can now properly do a back crawl, front crawl, and a really awesome breast stroke. We won't talk about the butterfly, really we won't.

Of course I still have a lot of improvement to do, mostly in the area of endurance. I can't do much more than 6 laps of the 25 meter pool at a time without a rest. So to think that my goals for the year should be lofty, is well, silly.

So I will put this out there, by the end of the year I want to be able to swim 750 meters without stopping. Simple as that. yes, that will mean loads of practice, but it is essential for next years sporting goals. Wow, to think I am planning for a year from now.

Anyway, the final installment of the goals should be coming soon (I hope). That being MultiSports (ie Triathlon/Duathlon, where all of these other goals will come together into a great big messy crash.

Ian's 2010 Sporting Goals - Cycling

Cycling as a stand alone sport was where I started when I first got into competitions. of course this was a only a few years back (maybe 6 now?). Anyway, it was a reason to justify buying a fancy (to me) bike. Anyway, due to reasons I won't get into, the world of bike races in Nova Scotia just aren't fun for me at the moment. So my goals for cycling this year are pretty simple.

I want to get as much riding as I can in. Now my 35 KMs of commuting each day sure make that easy to do. Some days it seems a chore, most days it is the best thing in the world. But it is still just a commute and not a real goal.

My goal is to get some good group rides in with some good friends. Short and hard rides, long and slow, doesn't matter (long and hard are good as well). This will include at least 3-4 Peggy's Cove loops (my favorite ride). This will also include at least 1 organized century ride. I think that this year it will be the Bridgewater Century if the timing works out well. this event is actually a slight elongated metric century it seems, but it should be hilly so that's fine by me.

There you have it. An easy one for me. No training necessary. Of course I will be training, as you just can't get that out of the blood. Plus cycling will form a major component in one of my other goals (multi-sports). But I'll write more about that later.

I hope to be riding with you any time now.