Mark

Lets see if that helps. I also got the 20 pull up app and the 200 sit up app… Maybe they will work better together….

Ankle healing as fast as I had hoped, but I wonder when I will be able to look back and remember when my ankle was sore…

and it looks like I have found it.

This is a resolution that I took seriously, which to tell you the truth, surprised even me. I thought that by putting this down into a resolution, the gods of resolutions would mock me, like they are wont to do, and I would have ended up on this day looking at my resolution and wondering why in the world I ever thought I could do that. Strangely, this isn’t the case at all. I stuck with this one and used it to guide my actions… Wow… I wonder what has changed.

So, the recap,

I began the year signing up for the Yeti snowshoe clinic. I convinced a friend to join me and we did weekly snowshoe runs. Each one was about 5k and it was extremely hilly. Still, it was great to get out and do what was essentially a brutal 5k trail run every week in January and February.
I also got out and X-country skiied several times (once totally by myself because I couldn’t find anyone to join me). This is so contrary to my nature I can’t even come close to describing it. It was a lot of fun and I am hoping to massively increase my x-country skiing this year, getting the kids out at least a dozen times, maybe even a few times before this year is over.
So, I did the Yeti Enduro race. It was 2 laps and the second lap nearly killed me. It was about 10k and it was one hell of a difficult snowy race. I loved it!! The next week I did the grouse snowshoe grind race and came in 2nd for my age group, something that has literally never happened before in my life.
I did the odd run, through spring, running about 10k a week, and cycled further than I ever have in my life this year, working up to some 70k rides. For about 2 months I rode every weekend and I even did the ride up Cypress. This was quite possibly the most brutal thing I have ever done.
I did the grouse grind about 10 times this year, at least a match from last year and maybe a little more.
I joined crossfit and progressed amazingly. I was RX’ing a bunch of workout and lifting pretty big weights when my shoulder became injured. It slowly got worse and I took 2 months of to rehab it. This has worked out perfectly as it it back to being totally unhurt. I swam further than I ever have (although I only did one season of masters swim class out of 3 in a year), 3km and did several 2k swims, including a race with Jason early in the year. He crushed me.
I am back to crossfit and just lifting lighter weights, but so excited to be back. I love it!
I did 2 half marathons, which is a tie for my previous fittest year. That year, I rocked one of the halfs 2 years ago at 1:49, a speed I haven’t gotten close to since, but I did the Fall Classic both years, getting 2:22 2 years ago, and 2:07 this year. So although I was at my fittest most likely 2 years ago, I am ending this year much fitter.
I also did my biggest event ever this year, a half iron man triathlon. That was huge. I struggled with an olympic triathlon 2 years ago, and this is double, and double in fitness isn’t just double… I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment for having done that and I will probably go up another level, either next year or the following year.
Finally, I took the kids out to play field hockey with them a number of times this year, including a summer drop in game. I played with the kids so that they felt comfortable playing (a lot of the players are adults so it was understandable that they felt intimidated). I sucked at the game but my fitness level was high so I could keep up. In any case, I was talking with another dad who was playing (after I brought my girls, a lot of the girls who dropped into field hockey brought their parents and there were a bunch of us dads playing), and he was suggesting that we join the recreational field hockey league… I didn’t even know there was one, but now I am officially playing a sport, I have a jersey, it even has a number. I am practicing once a week and playing games once a week. I SUCK, but I make up for some of it in the fact that I can run all out with any player for an hour… That counts for something I think. I am getting better and practicing on my own every chance I get.
So, that sums up my fitness into late November in my fittest year ever! I am thinking of challenging myself to top this next year, but maybe I will just try to match it. I feel great about this years activities, I am having so much fun. A big part of this though has been the philosophy of the movie Yes Man.
From the snow shoe clinics, to the field hockey team and crossfit, whenever an opportunity that I would normally have been scared of or intimidated by comes up, I have said Yes. It has paid off in ways I never imagined and I am loving my life!