99to1

Polar (claibrated 50-80% of estimated 185 max hr)
Time 52.01
In zone 1.36
Limits 93-132
Ave 157
Kcal 827
Fat 30%

Cateye
Time 52.13
Ave 33.1
Max 64
Odo 211
Dist 28.83

I'm going to have to research what are the implications of training past cardio zone.
And how the Polar calculates the calorie/fat values ( and if my personal info is set right)
2nd music disc

15 Years of New Moons
Poem for Loren

water towards root
oceans towards moon
our Love
carries my heart
to you

Loren's photo gift

Well I've certainly done it this time...
I've pissed Al off. I mean really pissed him off.
I should have been more tuned into how he has very little tolerance for being challenged.

He did say we were good to have the email debate and that we agreed it would taken be in a friendly and light-spirited manner...

Though I guess I got carried away applying a strict methodological approach to defining the context of the discussion, and corralling his tendancy to snake around the actual topic.

And I really should not have pointed out how I considered his argument to be a misapplied oversimplification.

I'm really not comfortable creating situations where feelings get hurt...I really blew it this time.

His reply was full of all kinds of charged lauguage, including name calling.
I though he'd have a real hoot digging into this deeper and rekindling a passion for a topic he used to love (geography, or rather geology).

Here's the apology I sent him:

I'm truely sorry Al.
I was honestly looking to have fun...not get you worked up... I swear.
If I had thought, even for a second, that you'd be upset by my email I would never had sent it.
I can assure you that the tone you read the email with is most different that the spirit I wrote it with.

Love,

R

Email is so volatile

We're going to have dinner with Colin and Hannah, and Gilles (Deb backed out...)
Colin says we're "going to spend a pile of dough!!"
Loren's not so keen...

I hope we can quickly acquire a taste for truffles...

deep in the forest
in the territory of wolves
grass grows straight up
this song is just for you
this dance is just for you
we walk over eggs
into the ocean
the hair on my arms
stands straight up
you walk me
into the sky

with love, Loren

My wife is my favorite poet

Called today to offer his apology, he spoke to Loren as I was out of the house at the time.
I had called and left a message on his machine offering the same sort of apology as I wrote to him by email.

It would seem we're over the biggest hump, he realizes his language was too strong. Loren asked him if he knew I'd never send a message intended to hurt him (or anybody) and he said yes he knew that.

I'm going to be sure to not challenge him again...it's too risky.

Had a nice afternoon with Ed.
Put a 3-pronged plug in the wall in the music room at 295 so we could plug in some gear, and we were off.

It was really quite fun to be playing music with him after all these years...it just feels right.
He switched between playing bass and guitar, so we got to try different stuff.

I played for him some of the music of He Glen and I recorded circa 1989. Apparently he's lost that stuff...it was great to be able to play it for him...he's got some fantastic playing on those tracks, and he was really keen to hear it.

Looks like we might get to be able to play every other week. He's got 50km to travel to get here, I'm thankful that he doesn't mind comming all this way to play.

Coffee and donuts too...and really good pumpkin muffins that Loren made.

After some settling, our department has been shuffled around a bit. I like the changes so far, though it looks like they want me to do additional duties, in terms of apprenticing to our coordinator.

It's not a promotion, (right yet) just lots more work. I have the impression that our manager will want to eventually change the nature of that roll and turn it into a project manager roll, in stead of coordinatior. It would go along with his other changes quite well.

Essentially he has changed our dept from having many sub-groups, into a dept with 2 cross-functional project oriented groups. This will drastically change the historical amount of in-fighting for budget and hours to get things done.

Am feeling quite conflicted about how to plan my time between the assignment in the production dept, and in my own dept getting up to speed on the new duties...

I hope this won't affect the possibility of me travelling to France, Singapore, and Finalnd, as I'm really looking forward to those trips.

Al wrote me a very touching note. It is an apology, and he hand worte it and put it in a cusotm card (he's a photographer and he used one of his images).

It came at a time when I was tearing myself to pieces trying to figure out how I could have provoked him so violently. And feeling pretty horrible that I did...
Am I that thoughtless??
Am I that mean??
And if those things are true, how aweful am I that I had such a good time writing the very words which hurt him?

Dear Roy,
Please accept my sincerest apologies for much over-reacting to your zealous, well-intended debate tactics. I acted in a manner much below that of a gentleman…but then I should not pretend to be one.

Godspeed, Al

He is one of our most generous friends.
It's about time to have a chat with him.

Had another Thai Massage with Christine Monday night.
She's goood...
She was working deeper this time, and found my breathing to be very slow and deep...which sounds good to me...however she thinks I need to envigorate myself...and has prescribed homework.

I'm to do 4xweek, minimum 30 min asana session for a month (which is when I see her again).

We have the same conclusion about what should be added to my routine. I'm not convinced that this would change my breathing pattern during massage however...

Got Charles to join me for a canal wall ride last night.
It was good to see him. We've only seen each other a few times since he left work.
Charles is not a cyclist and he did very well along the trail. He's fit now...he's been shaping up, now that he has the time to be active during the day. I think he's still a little frustrated about the change in his life, and about the difficulty he seems to be having finding new work.

We missed the bridge...and had to return via the Jacques-Cartier...an extra 25 minutes of pedalling. I couldn't offer him the classic trail-side coffee experience, it was simple esspresso... the plunger-frother is out of commision...as Zen has destroyed that...off to buy another Touttii Crema...or whaterver it's called. (After my appointment with Karen tomorrow morning I'll see if the Cafe Creme on victoria sells them.) And of course the biscotti I brought had nuts and Charles couldn't share...he's allergic...

We had a nice time. The sky was clear and the view of montreal was sharp. I like our city.

Following on with the prescribed 30 min daily vigorous asana assignment, I got to the mat yesterday evening and did sunslautations. I did 20 minutes of A's and 10 minutes of B's. When I started out I imagined that in addition to this, I would also do closing postures.

Oh man I was way too zonked to do finishing...

I am considering working up to doing 10 minutes of A's and 20 Minutes of B's, though I think that's a bit much as well.

Anyhow three more sessions for ths week...yep I left it to the last minute.

Toes were taped and the tape didn't roll off so I avoided my typical toe splitting injury... Even though my landings seemed really heavy.

30 minutes on the table with Karen yesterday...was long overdue.
She has such a way with cutting to the chase, and helping to acheive health and balance.

She even fixed my thumb...it's been really sore ever since I wrestled with those tires a few weeks back (months now??).

Look what Loren made me this morning...
The one with brie also has marmelade underneath...

Polar (claibrated 50-80% of estimated 185 max hr)
Time 48.28
In zone 39.41
Limits 140-170 (had been 93-132)
Ave 160
Kcal 790
Fat 25%

Cateye
Time 48.03
Ave 33.5
Max 53
Odo 239
Dist 26.81

Interesting to note that our average (me and Gio) speed is slightly higher this week, despite a lower max.
Have adjusted the limits for manual zone. 40 minutes is like 80% of the workout time, and that was in zone. 170 represents about 88% of max heartrate of 195 based on input from Ross (bad method I know). I should do a test with the monitor to get a better idea. Ross mentioned that if on the bike I can get 185 as a max HR, then my actual max HR would probably be close to 200, so I took 195.

Didn't have home-made sports drink lovingly called Salty Dog available last night, and I was cramping in left calf, and left hamstring...I'm pretty sure that stuff works for me to minimize cramps.

I owe myself a 30 minute session.
Last weeks homework assignment was missed by 1 session, I did three not four.
Sundays session was a lead primary until navasana along to the video again. Toes still ok. I seem to be not sweating as much, I did all those postures without needing to put down the cotton rug.

After my roller session last night I did a supported uttiha hasta padangustashana prep posture, as my hamstring were tight and sore. It was about 3 sessions of 3 minutes for each leg.

I feel excellent today.

Getting much closer to playing music with Ed.
The music room is essentially set up and we have palyed a bit. The laptop needs some driver configuration before it is a recording studio.

Perhaps we're eating too many donuts??
Am considering buying some 2nd hand mics from Gio.

We'll see...holiday season is coming and budget is tight.

15 years to this date (Nov. new moon was a few weeks back).
We are blessed indeed.
We had a nice dinner last night to celebrate. I cooked Loren's favorite, lamb chops. Served with green beans (cooked squeaky-crunchy dusted with butter and garlic powder) and potato and a really tasty salad. We also shared the bottle of Kellermeister from Jost vinyard from our Nova Scotia trip this summer. And we also openned the Iniskillin Vidal that Bill gave us for Christmas last year. We enjoyed our selves listenning to the new discs...Neil Young, John Hyatt, Sigur Ross...

This morning was a mess...we discovered that Zen's fur was getting in the way of her....errr...well her pooping. It was a rough morning with the after effects of 2 bottles of wine and having to deal with that mess...

Then we were off to the last day of the OGC sale...got some great deals on stuff 10$ Gary Fisher helmet...35$ RNH pants...15$ bike shorts...or rather tri-shorts...they'll be great for asana, if ever I get back to my practice...

Talked Gio into a bike ride at rougemont tomorrow...
"it's be our last fair-weather ride" I was telling him...it's supposed to be 2 degrees (35 F) and might be snowing!!!
He's a good guy...he agreed to come along.

Have tuned the bikes and now off to get my clothes ready for the ride...

itunes Sigur Ros...I agree with the reviews... this new album (Takk) is not spectacular [spectakkular??]

It was a beautiful day for a ride. Crisp Fall air tons of open shade under a mainly overcast sky. Not too cold...right around zero I imagine...as there were icesheets on the ponds/puddles. We did the typical lake-leg trail, with a return on the high road, followed by another lake-leg. I strayed away from our usual exit trail in serch of that other stream crossing with the cement walls...near one of the sugarshacks.

A light dusting of snow was all over...very thin. I endo 'ed twice and Gio once...no injuries. Those new tires actually perform quite well, though they are really hard to set. The front one still needs to be adjusted on the rim...I'm going to need a pair of tire-setting plyers to get this done...I dread taking them off...or even worse..flatting...

Had a close call to not being able to ride...at the moment we were to start Gio's back wheel slipped, as if the q/r wasn't secured properly. Then we realized that it had broken...and we had no spares :-(

We borrowed one from a group of riders who were just finishing their ride as we were working on this problem. I did an emergency field-tap of the threads which were stripped, and we headed off like that (with the spare in the bag). My repair held...that wheel stayed in place for the entire ride. Going to have to figure a way to get that back to the rider who kindly lent it to us...good payback for all the help Gio and I have offered when on the trail.

We did fresh cafe lattes on the trail, with biscotti and dark bitter chocolate...that's what it is all about. Coffee was had at the cliff location...it was beautiful. We considered having a 20 minute nap, but thought that we might wake up frozen...or completely drained of energy to cycle out of the woods.

I think Loren had the camera in an odd setting...all the photos have camera blur...there was ample light...and my hands are usually steady down to 1/15 or even 1/4 second...

Bikes uptop keen to go!

He's Grown up now and drives his own car to the mountain

The rosary which blesses me by clunking my head on the way in and out of the car...I think it was his grandmother's...that's rougemont in the background

They took the indication of Rougemont from the sign

A rare on-the-bike shot

The orchards at the end of the lake-leg

Happy bikers

Frozen rings in a pond

Near the pond taking a break

Me and my bike

Coffee on the brew...milks warmed ready for frothing

Scattered stuff

Gio in fresh dry garb

More scattered stuff

Ghostly

I crossed this stream by bike...but missed the climb up the opposite bank...I stayed dry too!

I had planned to do my second (of four weekly) vigorous asana sessions today before bed.
Though Colin had called last minute to invite us to joing them at dinner...with his mum, Hannah, and Jen. We had a nice time with them. Now it's almost 1/2 past ten...and way too close to having eaten, to even think of practicing. Ireally blew it this week.

I'm going to have to make a more consolidated effort to practice this week...
and the rest of my life...

Target is again four sessions for this week.

Somewhere in there are 2 red roses.
Our home smells wonderful...

Polar (claibrated 50-80% of estimated 185 max hr)
Time 50.45
In zone 44.18
Limits 140-170 (had been 93-132)
Ave 149
Kcal 741
Fat 35%

Cateye
Time 50.58
Ave 35.4
Max 65
Odo 269.4
Dist 30

Average speed is going up...average heart rate is going down...that's getting fitter I think.
In speaking with Ross and Lynne, they are suspecting that my actual max h/r will be over 195...I'm going to have to do some benchmark testing to at least find this out.

Careful with those vitamins and supplements.
In a not-too-well-thought-out move this morning, I took 150mg of zinc. Everybody at work seems to be getting sick, so my mind turned to prevention.

Turns out that 50mg was probably enough...and that I shouldn't have had it on an empty stomach. Awful morning...snow was coming down and traffic was horrible couldn't get the temperature right in the car...and there was I pulled over by the turcotte yards nauseous being sick as a dog.

I'm trying to determine if I'm sick with a bug, or from poisoning...or both.

Back at home now going to rest...

Stephen Micus, East of the Night
KTel Various artists, 25 Rock'n Roll Revival Greats
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
Laurie Anderson, Big Science
Shreikback, Oil and Gold

Polar (claibrated 50-80% of estimated 185 max hr)
Time 52.54
In zone 41.47
Limits 140-170 (had been 93-132)
Ave 156
Kcal 838
Fat 30%

Cateye
Time 52.35
Ave 36.3
Max 65
Odo 301.3
Dist 31.89

At work, it's been a long time now that things have been in flux...
Our #2 guy seems to be looking for work in another department...and that dept. seems to be interested to have me work for them. Either way it looks like my job here has the possibility of totally reinventing itslelf over the next month or two. Still, advice seems to be the best action is "to wait".

In the mean time prep for my trip to France for late Jan, and several other projects are also ongoing...

Well last week was certainly not pleasant in terms of health, but am much better now. I only managed one session of vigorous asana. Feeling pretty clear now.

Tonight Charles is back over for his intro to yoga...we're going to be working up to a full 5 As and 5 Bs. In the course of the evening we'll probably be doing twice that, including the times we'll have to remind him of the flow.

Off to see Karen...have been fit in for a 07:20 appointment. :-)

It's the first morning in a very long time which sees me up before 05:30...we'll see...

On iTunes...Ry Cooder from Chavz Ravine