Ok, so second day out with the new walking poles and I can't feel their effect. The back of my arms, my shoulders and back are all feeling sore today.
I did 4km this morning in 40 minutes, which is a little slower than if I was just walking, but I am still feeling the effects of my recent 10km walk in my lower legs. A couple days off should fix that up.
Numbers of interest: I have approximately 120 km on my new runners now. I'm also at 323km total with my Nike+ unit.
Of note with my poles, I learned that when the roads and side walks are wet from rain I need to be more conscious of planting my poles properly so they don't slip.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Ok, so later on meant later yesterday
So I went and bought my own pair of walking poles yesterday at the Running Room. They are made by Excel and are of a mid to upper level of construction amongst their poles. I picked a length of 125 cm as 130 felt to tall and 120 was a little too short. The 125 cm length is also what the manufacturer recommends based on my height.
I can say now that without a doubt proper sizing of the poles are very important. Right away I noticed a huge difference when using these new poles over the ones Marla has. It was working my arms much more effectively and I had an easier time planting the poles to get the proper bite into the road and sidewalk.
I only did my regular 3k walk this morning but I can't give times or pace as I forgot to start my Ipod's Nike+ program. I'm fairly certain I did it a little faster than normal, but for the next little while I'm going to concentrate on getting my technique down before trying to go faster.
I can say now that without a doubt proper sizing of the poles are very important. Right away I noticed a huge difference when using these new poles over the ones Marla has. It was working my arms much more effectively and I had an easier time planting the poles to get the proper bite into the road and sidewalk.
I only did my regular 3k walk this morning but I can't give times or pace as I forgot to start my Ipod's Nike+ program. I'm fairly certain I did it a little faster than normal, but for the next little while I'm going to concentrate on getting my technique down before trying to go faster.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Nordic Walking
I have a small new pasttime now. Nordic Walking. What is Nordic Walking? Well, it's walking with poles. I guess you could call them hiking poles, except they have rubber tips for hard surfaces. It's been quite fun and gives a good workout as it uses both your upper and lower body. As of right now I've been using poles that I found for Marla and to be honest they are a little short for me. I'll be picking up some propertly sized ones soon.
All in all it's a great work out and takes pressure off of lower joints. I'm not quite in the demographic in North America that uses them however, that goes to women over 30. Nordic walking is huge in Europe though and is the biggest growing physical activity there. I haven't actually seen anyone else using them around here, but that's not a big deal to me.
Anyway, I'll keep my training with the poles updated here.
All in all it's a great work out and takes pressure off of lower joints. I'm not quite in the demographic in North America that uses them however, that goes to women over 30. Nordic walking is huge in Europe though and is the biggest growing physical activity there. I haven't actually seen anyone else using them around here, but that's not a big deal to me.
Anyway, I'll keep my training with the poles updated here.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Yeah, yeah, ok, I haven't updated this in a while. I've been busy at work and it's been far too nice outside to be doing a blog;)
Anywho, not much happening. My duties at work have changed a bit. I'm now doing the mid month, monthly and quarterly credit reports along with user administration for our credit system. It's been a somewhat steep learning curve and I'm still not 100% on a lot of things, but I'll get there soon enough... not that I really have a choice as my coworker who is training me leaves on friday for a month.
Such is the work life;)
Our fence is being installed tomorrow. We didn't go with the cheapest contractor, but with one who recently installed another fence here in town. I erred on the side of caution when marking out our property line just so we don't have any issues with neighbors crying foul about encroaching on their property. I was disappointed to find that our builder dug up both steel rods that mark the back corners of our property. Luckily Marla's cousin Jeff - who lives next door - has the same size lot as us. So I measured from his marker over to where ours should be. I'll see about getting some pictures up tomorrow after it's done.
On other news, Chrysler has been sold. I'm a little iffy on what Cerebus will do with it, but they do have controlling shares in a number of other large corps. The fact that Chrysler will be a private company is both exciting and unnerving. Exciting in that they can tell the union to F-off, unnerving in the sense that they don't have to make anything public anymore about business transactions. I am leaning towards feeling that the sale will actually be a huge positive for Chrysler - which by the way is bringing back the pentastar logo=)
Anywho, not much happening. My duties at work have changed a bit. I'm now doing the mid month, monthly and quarterly credit reports along with user administration for our credit system. It's been a somewhat steep learning curve and I'm still not 100% on a lot of things, but I'll get there soon enough... not that I really have a choice as my coworker who is training me leaves on friday for a month.
Such is the work life;)
Our fence is being installed tomorrow. We didn't go with the cheapest contractor, but with one who recently installed another fence here in town. I erred on the side of caution when marking out our property line just so we don't have any issues with neighbors crying foul about encroaching on their property. I was disappointed to find that our builder dug up both steel rods that mark the back corners of our property. Luckily Marla's cousin Jeff - who lives next door - has the same size lot as us. So I measured from his marker over to where ours should be. I'll see about getting some pictures up tomorrow after it's done.
On other news, Chrysler has been sold. I'm a little iffy on what Cerebus will do with it, but they do have controlling shares in a number of other large corps. The fact that Chrysler will be a private company is both exciting and unnerving. Exciting in that they can tell the union to F-off, unnerving in the sense that they don't have to make anything public anymore about business transactions. I am leaning towards feeling that the sale will actually be a huge positive for Chrysler - which by the way is bringing back the pentastar logo=)
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Hey Scott, time to get on Facebook! (www.facebook.com) Marla is on there now, my brother, father, old friends, new friends, etc. I know your busy, but it would be a good tool to keep in contact with your friends while you're away!
So yeah, I'm not addicted to facebook but there are plenty of people I haven't talked to in years on there and I've reconnected with a number of good friends already. Such a great networking tool.
On the exercise front I've been running consistently over the last little while. This last week saw a total of 29 km run. I'll probably beat that this week as Cedar and I logged a 8.5 km walk, averaging just under 10 minutes a km. I felt quite good and would have gone further but had to go help my in-laws install a new counter top.
It's been quite the nice week here. Yesterday the mercury reached 27. Today it was in the mid 20s. Nice breeze and no mosquitoes yet. Fields are dry enough that farmers are out prepping the fields (fertilizing, etc). No snow piles left to be seen. Ahh, so nice. I did get a bit of a sun burn yesterday though as I was outside for most of the day.
Anywho, going for another walk with the doggie now.
So yeah, I'm not addicted to facebook but there are plenty of people I haven't talked to in years on there and I've reconnected with a number of good friends already. Such a great networking tool.
On the exercise front I've been running consistently over the last little while. This last week saw a total of 29 km run. I'll probably beat that this week as Cedar and I logged a 8.5 km walk, averaging just under 10 minutes a km. I felt quite good and would have gone further but had to go help my in-laws install a new counter top.
It's been quite the nice week here. Yesterday the mercury reached 27. Today it was in the mid 20s. Nice breeze and no mosquitoes yet. Fields are dry enough that farmers are out prepping the fields (fertilizing, etc). No snow piles left to be seen. Ahh, so nice. I did get a bit of a sun burn yesterday though as I was outside for most of the day.
Anywho, going for another walk with the doggie now.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
On the road with no destination
Just stealing a lyric from U2's "Beautiful Day" for the title of this blog post because, well, it's a beautiful day here again. A subtle cool breeze, blue sky and some puffy clouds. Very nice.
On the dance front Marla and I learned the Rumba (dance steps here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumba_(dance)) yesterday. I quite enjoyed it and I find it easier to dance to a rhythm instead of trying to find a beat. We both had a lot of fun and it is the first dance we've done so far that feels sultry.
I also visited the Running Room yesterday to get fitted for a proper pair of runners. I've been getting terrible shin-splints as of late while running and my buddy Scott told me that it could be that my current shoes were worn out. Anyway, long story short: my "runners" weren't runners at all and more of a cross trainer, although not really a cross-trainer either. I ended up trying on around 10 pairs of runners and decided to go with the shoes shown below: Asics Landereth II. They are last years model so were on clearance for $99.
I had my first run in them this morning and they are so much better than my old Nikes. Way better shock absorption and I didn't get shin splints until around the 45 minute mark (vs 10 minutes in my old shoes). To be honest it wasn't really shin splints, but just my lower legs being tired.
On the home front we got some quotes to get a chain link fence installed around our backyard. Quotes ranged from $2700 to $4800 for the same style of fence. One of the contractors is coming to Stonewall on Tuesday to install a fence so we're going to go check it out and get them to come and give us a more official quote on paper. We're going with a 5 foot tall black chain link with a couple gates. Should be nice.
On the dance front Marla and I learned the Rumba (dance steps here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumba_(dance)) yesterday. I quite enjoyed it and I find it easier to dance to a rhythm instead of trying to find a beat. We both had a lot of fun and it is the first dance we've done so far that feels sultry.
I also visited the Running Room yesterday to get fitted for a proper pair of runners. I've been getting terrible shin-splints as of late while running and my buddy Scott told me that it could be that my current shoes were worn out. Anyway, long story short: my "runners" weren't runners at all and more of a cross trainer, although not really a cross-trainer either. I ended up trying on around 10 pairs of runners and decided to go with the shoes shown below: Asics Landereth II. They are last years model so were on clearance for $99.
I had my first run in them this morning and they are so much better than my old Nikes. Way better shock absorption and I didn't get shin splints until around the 45 minute mark (vs 10 minutes in my old shoes). To be honest it wasn't really shin splints, but just my lower legs being tired.
On the home front we got some quotes to get a chain link fence installed around our backyard. Quotes ranged from $2700 to $4800 for the same style of fence. One of the contractors is coming to Stonewall on Tuesday to install a fence so we're going to go check it out and get them to come and give us a more official quote on paper. We're going with a 5 foot tall black chain link with a couple gates. Should be nice.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Now I can say Spring is here
Wow, long time since I've last made a post here. It's supposed to be 20 degrees here today, which is a bit warmer than it was yesterday. I believe it his 16 or 17 yesterday. Most beautiful day so fat this year anyway. The snow is all gone although the ground is still soggy.
Not much to report from my end. Work is going along the same. We haven't had too many dance lessons lately with us having to cancel a few and our instructor having to do the same. We did have one yesterday which introduced me to spinning Marla around. I realized I'm getting the short end of the stick in this deal ;-) When there's a mess up 95% of the time it's my fault. I have to remember the steps, lead, listen to the rhythm and adjust my timing for it, all while keeping a good solid frame. It does get a bit taxing, but 95% of the time it's still fun ;-)
I did get a new cell phone yesterday. My old Nokia wasn't holding a charge very well and my contract with MTS was up two months ago so we went to a MTS store to look at what phone options they had. We wanted free or cheap =) I ended up getting a Sanyo Katana for $19. It's bassically a cheap version of the Motorola Razor. It's a nice phone with nice options and has a camera. The camera isn't the greatest (it has a tendency to overexpose), but it's better than some others I've seen. Here's a picture of Zack that I took with it this morning:
Not much to report from my end. Work is going along the same. We haven't had too many dance lessons lately with us having to cancel a few and our instructor having to do the same. We did have one yesterday which introduced me to spinning Marla around. I realized I'm getting the short end of the stick in this deal ;-) When there's a mess up 95% of the time it's my fault. I have to remember the steps, lead, listen to the rhythm and adjust my timing for it, all while keeping a good solid frame. It does get a bit taxing, but 95% of the time it's still fun ;-)
I did get a new cell phone yesterday. My old Nokia wasn't holding a charge very well and my contract with MTS was up two months ago so we went to a MTS store to look at what phone options they had. We wanted free or cheap =) I ended up getting a Sanyo Katana for $19. It's bassically a cheap version of the Motorola Razor. It's a nice phone with nice options and has a camera. The camera isn't the greatest (it has a tendency to overexpose), but it's better than some others I've seen. Here's a picture of Zack that I took with it this morning:
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
New Racing Website is up.
I decided to fast track the new website and have it up now at the root address of http://www.pozernickracing.com
Still a couple of things to finish/fix, but it's there now.
Still a couple of things to finish/fix, but it's there now.
Monday, March 26, 2007
The Racing website
Due to an issue with our service provider the website for our racing team is a little messed up. They offered no explanation as to what happened and for some reason the older version I uploaded doesn't display properly. I've been working on a new site over the last few days and have a beta version up now. You can check it out at http://www.pozernickracing.com/test.php
If you have firefox or internet explorer 7 it should display properly. If you're using an older browser it may look a little messed. I believe I've found a way to fix that, but since I'm at work as I write this (yeah, busy day) I'll have to wait until later to try it out. For the final "version 2.0" of the site I may implement the same banners that are found on the old version (total of 4 images with the selection being a random one each time the page loads.
Since Grant's Daytona should be ready for the opening weekend in May I'll be working to get some newer pictures than what I currently have. I spent too much time before filming the car instead of taking pictures.
I have another movie to recommend: 300. It's an adaptation of Frank Miller's adaptation (nice, adaptation of an adaptation) of the Battle of Thermopylay in which 300 Spartan soliders led by Leonidas stood against the Persian Army controlled by Xerxes. Considering Xerxes army at the time is anywhere from one million to 2.6 million in strength... well, that shows you what kind of fight the Spartans had on their hands. Now mind you the fight took place in a pass that was around 50 feet wide, so only so many Persians could get through at any one time. The battle lasted ~3 days before the Spartans were betrayed by a man telling the Persians about a path that lead around the Spartans.
Anyway, the entire movie was shot against a green screen and all the scenery was added in after using computers. The cinematography is stunning, while the story is really a simple one. Lots of action, lots of violence (hey, they did fight in hand to hand combat back then), but not a lot of story. Then again, the story of what happened is told, so I guess that makes it ok. It's not Gladiator or Braveheart quality, but it still stands on it's own merits. I'd watch it again.
If you have firefox or internet explorer 7 it should display properly. If you're using an older browser it may look a little messed. I believe I've found a way to fix that, but since I'm at work as I write this (yeah, busy day) I'll have to wait until later to try it out. For the final "version 2.0" of the site I may implement the same banners that are found on the old version (total of 4 images with the selection being a random one each time the page loads.
Since Grant's Daytona should be ready for the opening weekend in May I'll be working to get some newer pictures than what I currently have. I spent too much time before filming the car instead of taking pictures.
I have another movie to recommend: 300. It's an adaptation of Frank Miller's adaptation (nice, adaptation of an adaptation) of the Battle of Thermopylay in which 300 Spartan soliders led by Leonidas stood against the Persian Army controlled by Xerxes. Considering Xerxes army at the time is anywhere from one million to 2.6 million in strength... well, that shows you what kind of fight the Spartans had on their hands. Now mind you the fight took place in a pass that was around 50 feet wide, so only so many Persians could get through at any one time. The battle lasted ~3 days before the Spartans were betrayed by a man telling the Persians about a path that lead around the Spartans.
Anyway, the entire movie was shot against a green screen and all the scenery was added in after using computers. The cinematography is stunning, while the story is really a simple one. Lots of action, lots of violence (hey, they did fight in hand to hand combat back then), but not a lot of story. Then again, the story of what happened is told, so I guess that makes it ok. It's not Gladiator or Braveheart quality, but it still stands on it's own merits. I'd watch it again.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Spring has Sprung?
Sorry for ignoring the blog so much as of late but I haven't found the desire to write as much as I was in say January ;-)
Spring does seem to be on it's way here in Manitoba, although winter doesn't want to go without a fight. Two days ago it was -28 with the windchill when I went to work and when I went out for lunch is was +5. Yesterday was warm, then turned to snow, then to rain and this morning's commute was a slippery one as the said rain decided to turn to ice.
With all that said, the snow is still melting and there is lots of bare ground showing now. To top it off I saw some Canada geese yesterday on my drive home. That's a pretty good clue that Spring is here. The number of people out walking in the evenings has quadrupled at least. Cedar is very happy to see other dogs on her walk.
On the entertainment front I have some movies to recommend:
Children of Men: set in the UK in 2027 all humanity has for some unknown reason become infertile. I'll leave it at that as I don't want to ruin the story. Cinematography was good and the acting suited the feel of the film.
Layer Cake: Staring Daniel Craig (the new James Bond), Colm Meany and a host of actors who have done time in other british "gang" films. Daniel plays the part of a drug dealer attempting to retire from the business. If you like the gangster films, especially the british style (ie: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), then you'll have to see this one.
Trailer Park Boys: the Movie: Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and the rest of the Sunnyvale crew in their first feature length film. If you love the show, you'll love the movie.
Eragon: Don't bother. The best part of the movie is when the dragon hatches. Other than that the entire movie is set up for a second part (whenever that arrives). Boring.
Casino Royale: The newest James Bond movie is simply one of the best. Daniel Craig plays the best Bond since Sean Connery. Hands down, bar none. A "real world" story line, believable action and Craig has just the right amount of cockiness/arrogance to play an effective James Bond. I look forward to more from him.
And in closing, I'll show a recent picture I did from Gran Turismo 4 of a Mercedes SL300. This is one of the best and more realistic shots I've done in this game (the full size image can be found here: http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7822/01vw0.jpg):
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