March 2018 – #SixKidChaos

100 Day Run Challenge Update

Good afternoon everyone!

Today will mark my 89th run in a row, and it almost didn’t happen. About two weeks ago I started to doubt my ability to finish this challenge. I was not in a good mental space and was struggling with just getting by with the day to day grind of life. It took considerable effort just to get out the door and run during runs 76 through the early 80’s as some of those runs were actually run/walks. I literally didn’t have the stamina to finish a 3km easy pace loop around my neighbourhood. My legs felt dead, the hamstring in the left leg had been sore the entire challenge and has flared up in recent days, and I was considering quitting.

I actually had my computer open and had started writing a blog post about my stopping this challenge when my daughter Megan came down and asked what I was doing. When I mentioned I was writing a post about not running anymore, she immediately responded with a loud NO, you can’t quit now your so close to finishing. She suggested I go for a very short run to keep my streak going, and that I would be very disappointed if I didn’t finish.

I knew she was right, and immediately closed the lid on my computer and went for that easy slow 1km run around the block. In fact I did that very run for the next six days in a row and I was amazed that over the course of a week th hamstring started to feel much better, and the dead feeling in my legs started to go away. Once I figured out how to properly maintain my legs by alternating a short 1km run between longer runs has made all the difference.

So now as I sit here I have my daughter Megan to sincerely thank for helping keep this streak and dream alive. Shows that you can always learn something when your open to receiving a lesson, and from an unlikely source. So I’m about to head out on long run Friday, run # 89 in a row and we shall take it nice and easy and enjoy this Good Friday!

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Quiet Time…

Every once in awhile, all of us need a vacation from well, everything! Even silly things like a blog site, which I have had a tremendous amount of enjoyment in writing random things here… It is an outlet of all the crazy things going on inside my head, and they all need to go somewhere. And despite how negative some folks have gotten about what I’ve written here, and the impact it has had on the “real” world has been very interesting indeed.

All I’m saying is that we all have our point of view on absolutely everything out there, and just because yours is different than mine… well it doesn’t mean everything. I am reminding of this all the time, we see strang (to us) behaviour, but we certainly don’t know the backstory at all… we sure are quick to judge, myself included…

Okay, I’ve been thinking, been reflecting, needed to do some emotional processing, work through some things which I will share in upcoming posts, as well as making (mental) plans for my future in terms of career, social, fitness, personal growth, etc… The above thought was definitely one of them…

Decisions about life choices, children, direct of the future… all the fun wonderful stuff we get to deal with 😉 , when I was out running today (day 77 and counting) I was looking up into the beautiful sky with sun starting to set in the background and not a cloud in the sky, I immediately thought of my future. It’s as wide open as that sky…

It was a fun thought to have, brought a smile to my face and made me run just a little bit faster. Thank you very much for reading along today, have a great rest of Sunday.

Welcome to the Next Evolution

Life is an ever evolving journey that will keep me on my toes right up until the day that I die, which I hope to be many years from now but in all reality who really knows?

I have been doing a lot of soul searching, reflection and subconscious thinking about my future over the past several weeks. At times in my life I have been caught in the cycle of the nothing, but this period of time was completely different… when I am in the grip of the nothing, nothing happens, I don’t do much (usually zero exercise) and I feel sorry for myself, a little depressed, just generally not a good mental place.

Again this was different, I know BIG changes are coming and my mind has been planning things out getting ready for today. Today is the first day of the next evolution of my life as things seem to be falling into place, perhaps not the way I originally planned or intended but that is life isn’t it?

It’s kind of funny to me when I sit here and think about things, rolling with things, being a bit of a free spirit has never been my strong suit and something I have really struggled with in the past. I would fight against what I had planned, and what life was presenting to me, it was a struggle and it would usually end up sucking the joy and excitement of whatever it was I may be doing. A very small change in my own mental perception of things has helped tremendously when approaching life.

Using my oldest daughter as a perfect example, as I have struggled with her or more correctly my own mental perception of what I thought her teenage years should be, and as time went by and I struggled with my vision of my daughter’s life, the way I thought it should be, and what ultimately it turned out to be were two completely different things. The more I would fight against what was reality, and what my vision of that reality the further apart we seemed to grow. Having accepted the situation for what it is, for accepting the way my life has turned out now I can build from here.

The next four months are going to see a lot of HUGE changes coming in this guys life, and I am very excited to see where I can end up come the end of this summer. It’s going to be awesome!!

Monkey See, Monkey Doo

I didn’t quite understand just how much my actions would influence my children’s behaviour until very recently when I had a numerous of life hard truths that I had to first face, and then overcome. The last few months I have had the absolute pleasure of seeing the results of a positive, action lifestyle. A few weeks ago during one of my MasterMind group calls, the topic of doing things in front of your children. One in our group is learning to play the guitar, and it was suggested to practice while the kids were around so they could see Dad practice… Interesting concept.

This has now translated into working out with Austin each day as opposed to lifting weights at the gym, I have the ability to do this at home. Each day he gets very excited to join Daddy in building muscle downstairs in my home gym. Today will be no different as Austin and I will soon be crushing chest day.

The opposite effect of something like even writing this blog post is that Austin is lying here beside me watching his Ipad, or his cartoons on the TV. If I am not actively engaging him he can get lost in the electronic world, and I’d much rather have him based in the real world. With most of the snow now melted up here, Austin has also started asking to go the park, as this is when my “training” will get to be really a lot of fun. As beneficial as lifting weights has been to my overall strength it does get rather repetitive and boring for me. Perhaps lacking a true workout partner to push me harder and further… who knows… but what I really enjoy is jumping on my bike with the boy in tow, and then stopping at parks for him to play and me to get some working out in on the playground equipment.

It’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of weight based movements with lot’s of pushing and pulling involved, I challenge you to try to the kids monkey bars the next time you find yourself passing a playground. It’s tough.

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