Going for my first ride in almost 3 months- this should be interesting....

The Burried Life, The Bucket List, & the 100 before I die

1. Live life with no regrets- truly believe that everything happens for a reason- I guess this is called Faith
   
2. Hike the West Coast Trail
3. Visit South Africa
4. Bungy jump
5. Love unconditionally
6. Earn 1 million dollars in one year
7. Celebrate my 25 year wedding anniversary
8. Have 2 healthy, happy children
9. Qualify for, and race Iron Man Hawaii
10. Run a 5 minute mile
11. Write a best selling book
12. Visit the Galapagos Islands
13. Mentor 5 people to earn a million dollars
14. Backpack through South America
15. Earn a Ph.D in Exercise Physiology/Nutrition
16. Visit Machu Pcichu
17. Spend 1 month in India
18. Surf Indonesia
19. Climb Yak Peak
20. Joint Venture on a multi-million dollar real estate deal
21. Buy my parents their dream vacation home
22. Take my family on and all expense paid vacation to Ireland
23. Spend four weeks each year, between December and March in the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand and/or Australia)
24. Play the piano well- grade 6
    
25. Ride an elephant
26. Have an endless summer; 18 months of summer. 6 months in Canada (April-October), 6 months in the Southern Hemisphere (November-March), 6 months in Canada (April-October)
27. Complete the Love Dare
28. Go to a Full Moon party
29. Get an undergrad degree
30. Read the entire Bible
31. Sky dive in 3 countries
32. Travel to South East Asia
33. Travel to New Zealand
34. Travel to Australia
35. White water raft in 4 countries
36. Hug a live Tiger
37. Hike Kilimanjaro
    
38. Run a sub 3 hour marathon
39. Hear the Northern Lights
40. Go to Alaska
41. When collecting my baggage at the airport, have my baggage come out first on the carousel
42. Visit natural hot springs in the Queen Charlotte Islands
43. Be a paid extra in a movie
44. Do a mission trip in a 3rd world country
45. Be a staff member for the Olympics
46. Published in a journal for Nutrition/Exercise Physiology
47. Take dance lessons
48. Go camping in the winter
49. Be mentored by a millionaire
50. Have lunch with a billionaire
51. Eat an entire meal in pitch black
52. Go tandem bungy jumping
53. Mile high club
54. Own an Audi R8
55. Road trip from BC to Baja in a Westfalia
56. Learn to sail
57. Learn Italian
58. Fall in Love
59. Do an Ironman
60. Have a piercing
61. Get a tattoo
62. Spend an entire day in silence
63. Hold a human heart
64. Coach/empower someone to release 100lbs
65. Attend a Broadway musical
66. Read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
67. Go to Vegas
68. Go kayaking
69. Become a grandfather
70. Own a dog
71. Win a national medal
72. Travel to Fiji
73. Surf in the Maldives
    
74. Go on a cruise
75. Swim with a sea turtle
76. Climb a single pitch 5.12b
77. Climb a multi pitch route
78. Snowboard & surf in the same day
79. Learn to fly
80. Be a best man
81. Leg press 800 lbs
82. Perform a eulogy
83. Win a game of Scrable
84. Run a 10km with my dad in under an hour
85. Work for a personal development company to empower others to choose their own lives
86. Run a marathon with a family member
87. Spend a whole day without complaining
88. Create a scholarship to pay for a deserving student's degree
89. Build a house with my dad
90. Give the gift of life
91. Travel for 1 week in another country with only: my passport, a wad of cash, and the clothes on my back
92. Be a godfather
93. Fly 1st class on a trans-atlantic/trans-pacific flight
94. Stay at the Wickaninnish Inn
    
95. See Cirque du Soleil
96. Eliminate the following words from my vocabulary: Need, Should, Couldn’t, Can’t & Won’t
    
97. Travel to Dubai
98. Dance till sunrise in Greece
99. Spend a week at Sanoviv
100. Live a life of servantship, leadership, abundance and passion

If you don't use it, you lose it.

That statement pretty much sums up what has gone on for me in the last 9 weeks.

If I was to compare the amount of physical work I've done in the last 9 weeks to any other period over the last 18 months I have been a lazy sack of hammers....

With my goal to do 2 IronMans (New Zealand in March, Canada this weekend) in about 6 months my training for the last 18 months had been consistent, with huge improvements in my bike and run. I thought everything was going well for me until 10 weeks ago.

Training had been going pretty good, and I felt I had a huge amount of base that could push me through race day. I had been running with shin splints for quite some time (about a year), and although they were uncomfortable, I felt the issue wasn't getting worse, so my doctor and I saw no reason to adjust my training. Well that all changed when I got a bone scan that revealed 12 medial-lateral tibial stress fractures (yes, 6 on each side).

Was I disappointed, yes? But after wallowing in my sorrows for a weekend , it was time to move on. I've spent the summer building my business, having more free time and trying not to think about my running shoes and bike that sit by the door, sad and unused.

Ok, so fast track 10 weeks which brings me to now.

Just got back from my first opportunity to get back into some sort of shape, Usana's Children Hunger Fund Run. A 5km run to raise funds for the Childrens Hunger Fund in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Now I won't go into depressing details, but I will say that my 1 minute run, 4 minute walk put my 5 km time about 4 minutes slower than my best 10km time.
Right now, running for a minute was tough! my feet hurt, my lungs burn- I'm going to blame that on the 1400m of elevation, and my ego has been checked nicely into a small box.

So what did I think about during the run? How my heart was pumping 35% less blood per pump, that 10 weeks ago I had a much better body composition, with these great Type 1 muscle fibers that got me to where I wanted to go with minimal energy expenditure, the electrical conduction that regulates the rate and effectivness of my heart were not as in sync as they were at one point, that my brain and muscles were wishing there was more of those nice hemoglobin molecules to help deliver precious oxygen to the tissue that it desperately needed, and that at this elevation the partial pressure of oxygen makes it harder to go from my lungs to my blood, and even harder to get out of the blood to where it needs to go.... Yes, these are the thoughts that passed through my mind as a struggled to keep a smile on my face.

But here's one thing I know, it can only get better from here. And that today was my big take home message- if you don't use it, you lose it. Your body doesn't care if you did run a marathon a few months ago, or if in your younger days you were an elite athlete. We all need to exercise frequently and consistently!

Going to start training for real this week- starting with a few run/walks each week starting with 1 minute run, 4 minute walk, and building from there. Some water running, some swimming and a bit of biking until the weather forces me inside.

Now the silver lining is that I was able to raise over 500$ for a charitable cause. Thank you to everyone who was able to sponsor me for this event.

Looking forward to the day when a 10km run can be done as a normal maintenance session. Until then I'll keep my ego in that small box next to my shoes and bike.

Entourage tonight