Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Last day in Chile

Tommorow, Chile I like you lots as a country to come and visit, But I wanna be home!

Friday is a national Holiday here which we were not aware of when originally planning so that means get to go home a day early. Never looked so forward to that. I am actually packing my bags tonight ( or shall I say throwing the dirty clothes into the suitcase :)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Sunday in Chile

Well I am sitting in the Lobby of the Hotel, in a little section that has a small bar ( serving only non-alchoholic drinks thanks to elections) typing away at the keyboard. I started my day with work that has to get done being that I will not have time tommorow. I spent about 2-3 hours on that. Then I decided to do a nice workout: 40 minutes on the stationary bike (ave HR 129, Max HR 144); After I went for a 3 mile run (3.16 miles to be exact, ave HR 156, max HR 173) The run was seemingly a very slow pace, but the fact wass I stopped alot since part of the run was through a sculpture park that was previously closed.

Now I am back online trying to catch up on work that seems to just creep up on me. Right now I am short one staff person at work so while I am in Chile manageing the work being done here I am also trying to finish up work that the previous occupant of the now empty position.

I read somewhere that you can tell the quality of life a population has by the amount of parks and the number of people using them. I am looking out the hotel window as I sit here working; looking at the locals playing in the park along the River. What does that say about me I wonder?

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Slow long days

The weather in Santiago has been spectacular. Not that I have had the chance to enjoy it since I have been cooped up in the office. Been some VERY long days here. Business travel is not all it sounds like it could be. Travel to exotic locations and sit in an office to leave after dark to a restaurant. Thats it.

Now this weekend figured to see do some sightseeing. It was OK but it was cloudy and drizzly at times. NOT the awesome weather we have had. Tommorow(Sunday) I will have half day off to veg out and relax. The other part I will be working on some memo's. FUN

Travelling for bussiness just sucks.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Travel like crazy!

OK so the next six weeks I will pay for the arrangements I had made earlier in the year. I had rescheduled business travel so I could train for Ironman. Of course The Ironman did not happen thanks to my timely collarbone breakage.

So Now I pay the tax man. I have to leave today for 2 weeks in Chile, come back for one week to change clothes say "Hi" to my wife and dogs( also probably throw in a paint job in the house or some other repair work that will no doubt come up), and then I leave for Sao Paolo Brazil for another two weeks.

International man. Thats me :) One benefit tho is I have racked up enough frequent flier miles to buy my folks tickets to come visit me for Christmas! Which I think is really cool!

In a way this is the best time time to do this. I cant really train yet so it disrupts nothing.

Oh well, none the less I hate travel, but its just part of my life right now. So I make the best of it. I will get a chance to revisit some spots I saw the last time.

I may just contact my pals at www.labicicletaverde.com and see about taking a tour with them. I cant really get into the hard stuff I did last year, but the tour is fairly tame since its for tourists. I should be fine doing that.

Monday, October 13, 2008

My Life

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The 5 K run

Well as part of the World Wide Festival of races I did a 5 K run at the Rockies. It was my return to running of sorts so I did not want to push it. I was joined Jackie at the Rockies, who was there with other Rockies regulars like Irwin and some of the Westchester Tri folks.

It was a beautiful day, and I was joined by Simba. Who as usual did awesome. My results were 31:04. Pretty slow for me. But plenty fine since I was just enjoying a pain free run :)

The Sleepy Hollow High Parking lot where just about All Rockies runs start from


Me and Simba on a Sunny day



Simba was wearing her race attitude and gear!


Yes she is pulling me along. a 9 min pace just won't do

The Start of the Rockies trail

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Kick the Couch

For some reason I woke up feeling a need to workout today. I jumped on the Bike downstairs for 30 minutes ( easy) and felt great! Saw that several of my Peeps had signed up for an online event called the World Wide Festival of races which is a online race where you either register for a real race or do the distance on your own and report the results. This was right up my alley since I cannot really race and have to take it easy. But I have and can run 30 minutes in a slow and controlled manner. So this seemed perfect! I am doing it with Simba. here is my Bib:

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Slow but steady

OK so I, after some research, have found a few useful exercises I can do without ruining my collarbone or back. I can do some core work, not all not because of my shoulder but because of my back. BUT did do leg raises and strangely enough I was able to do planks. I started off slowly yesterday just to get a feel for it and see if it aggravated anything. Literally 15 second efforts. No negative effects! So Today I will continue with 15 seconds but add more reps. So I figure I can slowly work that up as well as scissor kicks. I know I can do the stationary bike so long as I am sitting up ( cant bend forward due to back) But it still works the legs.

My doc did say I could begin to do light strength work on the arms also, like use a 5 lb dumbbell do do curls and such. He emphasized it was just to keep muscle tone not to build strength.

So I think I can slowly start to work back into these, over time. Looking forward to getting going, but right now patience is more important. I can easily screw up the recovery I have had thus far. So I will take it lightly. This is the one reason I will not try the light run strategy the doc said I could do, because the last time i tried it, after 20 minutes I was zoning out as I do when running and found my self taking off when I felt good. that is until my collarbone started to hurt from the bouncling around. The temptation to "Book" is just too strong.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Frustration

This morning I woke up feeling incredibly frustrated and bummed that my injuries just keep piling up and I am just starting to feel well....OLD. Due to them I am unable to do things that I normally do. The inability to get things done is just getting me down.

However, this morning I woke up to this scene below and realized that Marmalade(my cat) was having a worse day ;)




As Marmalade and I have discovered, life just has a way of coming between us and our full potential.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Pain... a love/hate relationship...mostly Hate



Well the back is better, still sensitive to the touch, in fact its bruised. I think thats odd since I did not hit anything but I guess its possible I burst some blood vessels back there. Still feel pain when bending over. But at least i'm mobile and do not feel pain when walking like I did on Sunday. Medicine is a wonderful thing. One of the medicines is a muscle relaxant. I wonder if a joint would help? hehe anything in the name of science!

This much I know, I will never make fun of people that are holding their backs ever again!