Thank you for the great post from The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, NS
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1010016.html
Friday, January 11, 2008
Look into your heart for a changeBy MAGGIE MARWAHWed. Jan 9 - 6:04 AM
I HAVE SEEN change and his name is Harry.
He’s a tall fellow, too tall to have been running beside five-foot-zero me that late spring day. If I moved too far and too quickly to my left, his pumping elbow would have caught me on a cheekbone. His leg length alone should have given him a stride twice mine.
But I was too polite to ask him why he had joined our plodding group on this long run, so instead I listened to his story – a story of taking control and making change.
I offer a retelling now, without doing it full justice, as this new year takes root and many of us look to this calendar start as a time for change. We make fewer resolutions the older we get, perhaps because we’ve learned how hard they are to keep – how hard it is to change. But that doesn’t mean that quietly, perhaps secretly, many of us haven’t made a promise to ourselves to change something.
On the day we met, Harry had run 10 kilometres in Halifax’s Blue Nose Marathon event a few weeks earlier. He was proud of this achievement and of his time of 61:43 minutes. Not particularly stellar by some measures, but not bad for a guy who a year previous was 100 pounds heavier.
As the other runners asked questions, he told of weighing more than 300 pounds, of being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and getting exercise walking to the fridge and back to his computer. He told of how, after his diabetes diagnosis, he started eating healthier meals and walking around the block at lunchtime. Then twice around, then three times. He added a stationary bike and, soon after, running, barely 10 minutes a day starting out. And now, he was determined to run a half-marathon – 21.1 kilometres – that fall.
As I listened to him, my mind dwelled on a question that had long confounded me – and more so at the time as I was working in health care communications. In this province, to work in the health care sector is to understand the full challenge of changing behaviours in a population with some of the worst health stats in the country.
I asked Harry: "What finally made you change?" After all, others weigh as much as he did, have diabetes, and do nothing about it.
"My doctor said if I didn’t, my life would be much shorter."
"Change or die?"
"Yeah. I didn’t want to die."
We ran in silence for a while after that. Too facile an answer, I thought at first. But maybe the puzzle piece was still in there somewhere: Is it fear that gives people the courage to finally change?
Change would be a trendy word if it weren’t for the heft and longevity behind that one syllable, despite the best efforts of politicians to trivialize it.
"CHANGE," Barack Obama’s posters shout, its all-capped, sans serif font the more readable for the TV viewers. "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN." In Canada, should a federal or provincial election – or both – take place this year, I wonder which political party will co-opt the word first and most strongly in their campaign one-liners and jingles.
The experts tell us to be wary of big changes to come this year. They warn of economic tightening and issue cautions about the end of our great run of prosperity. They forecast the price of oil higher and higher. They say Mother Earth can’t withstand our assault much longer. If all comes to pass, we will need to change our behaviour – spend less, drive less, use less.
But change is difficult. And it often hurts. It’s rarely quick – and in this age of instant gratification, we haven’t the patience to wait for results. Yet change is sometimes necessary for survival. Just ask Harry.
The study of change and the development of change models have exploded in the past decade as businesses and organizations seek to weather a turbulent world and governments try to address the unhealthy behaviours of citizens. Organizational change, societal change, individual change, behavioural change. The researchers study how and why it happens, how to make it happen, and more particularly, why it doesn’t happen.
For all the advancements in this studied field, the thinking that has most resonated with me is found in John Kotter and Dan Cohen’s 2002 book The Heart of Change, which looked at how people change their organizations. Change, they argued, is less about giving people data and analysis to influence their thoughts than it is about speaking to their emotions.
"People change what they do … because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings," they wrote. "Both thinking and feeling are essential, and both are found in successful organizations, but the heart of change is in the emotions."
Change is not just a cognitive exercise. Knowing the changes we want and need is rarely enough to achieve them. If it were, we’d have fewer smokers and more active people.
Instead, true change lives in our hearts – in that place that badly feels it and wants it. We change not because someone tells us to or because we know we need to. We change out of fear. Love. Desire. Sadness. Joy. Passion. Anger.
Harry knew this. I came to understand what while fear might have launched him, other emotions kept him going. A year after our brief encounter, and two years into his change, he ran a marathon.
( mmarwah@herald.ca)
Maggie Marwah is a freelance writer and communications consultant living in Halifax.
I HAVE SEEN change and his name is Harry.
He’s a tall fellow, too tall to have been running beside five-foot-zero me that late spring day. If I moved too far and too quickly to my left, his pumping elbow would have caught me on a cheekbone. His leg length alone should have given him a stride twice mine.
But I was too polite to ask him why he had joined our plodding group on this long run, so instead I listened to his story – a story of taking control and making change.
I offer a retelling now, without doing it full justice, as this new year takes root and many of us look to this calendar start as a time for change. We make fewer resolutions the older we get, perhaps because we’ve learned how hard they are to keep – how hard it is to change. But that doesn’t mean that quietly, perhaps secretly, many of us haven’t made a promise to ourselves to change something.
On the day we met, Harry had run 10 kilometres in Halifax’s Blue Nose Marathon event a few weeks earlier. He was proud of this achievement and of his time of 61:43 minutes. Not particularly stellar by some measures, but not bad for a guy who a year previous was 100 pounds heavier.
As the other runners asked questions, he told of weighing more than 300 pounds, of being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and getting exercise walking to the fridge and back to his computer. He told of how, after his diabetes diagnosis, he started eating healthier meals and walking around the block at lunchtime. Then twice around, then three times. He added a stationary bike and, soon after, running, barely 10 minutes a day starting out. And now, he was determined to run a half-marathon – 21.1 kilometres – that fall.
As I listened to him, my mind dwelled on a question that had long confounded me – and more so at the time as I was working in health care communications. In this province, to work in the health care sector is to understand the full challenge of changing behaviours in a population with some of the worst health stats in the country.
I asked Harry: "What finally made you change?" After all, others weigh as much as he did, have diabetes, and do nothing about it.
"My doctor said if I didn’t, my life would be much shorter."
"Change or die?"
"Yeah. I didn’t want to die."
We ran in silence for a while after that. Too facile an answer, I thought at first. But maybe the puzzle piece was still in there somewhere: Is it fear that gives people the courage to finally change?
Change would be a trendy word if it weren’t for the heft and longevity behind that one syllable, despite the best efforts of politicians to trivialize it.
"CHANGE," Barack Obama’s posters shout, its all-capped, sans serif font the more readable for the TV viewers. "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN." In Canada, should a federal or provincial election – or both – take place this year, I wonder which political party will co-opt the word first and most strongly in their campaign one-liners and jingles.
The experts tell us to be wary of big changes to come this year. They warn of economic tightening and issue cautions about the end of our great run of prosperity. They forecast the price of oil higher and higher. They say Mother Earth can’t withstand our assault much longer. If all comes to pass, we will need to change our behaviour – spend less, drive less, use less.
But change is difficult. And it often hurts. It’s rarely quick – and in this age of instant gratification, we haven’t the patience to wait for results. Yet change is sometimes necessary for survival. Just ask Harry.
The study of change and the development of change models have exploded in the past decade as businesses and organizations seek to weather a turbulent world and governments try to address the unhealthy behaviours of citizens. Organizational change, societal change, individual change, behavioural change. The researchers study how and why it happens, how to make it happen, and more particularly, why it doesn’t happen.
For all the advancements in this studied field, the thinking that has most resonated with me is found in John Kotter and Dan Cohen’s 2002 book The Heart of Change, which looked at how people change their organizations. Change, they argued, is less about giving people data and analysis to influence their thoughts than it is about speaking to their emotions.
"People change what they do … because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings," they wrote. "Both thinking and feeling are essential, and both are found in successful organizations, but the heart of change is in the emotions."
Change is not just a cognitive exercise. Knowing the changes we want and need is rarely enough to achieve them. If it were, we’d have fewer smokers and more active people.
Instead, true change lives in our hearts – in that place that badly feels it and wants it. We change not because someone tells us to or because we know we need to. We change out of fear. Love. Desire. Sadness. Joy. Passion. Anger.
Harry knew this. I came to understand what while fear might have launched him, other emotions kept him going. A year after our brief encounter, and two years into his change, he ran a marathon.
( mmarwah@herald.ca)
Maggie Marwah is a freelance writer and communications consultant living in Halifax.
Well, I have been Naughty haven’t I, no update to the blog since December. There has been a big change in where I live. Aingeal and I now reside in Yellowknife Northwest Territories. For those unfamiliar with Yellowknife it sits on the shores of Great Slave Late at 62’ 27” north.
It holds a number of Canadian Weather records including the coldest city in Canada. Winter arrives early here in Yellowknife, with weather dropping below freezing just as fall is starting. The weather stays below zero well into April and May finally warming up by June. While summers I hear are great in this area they are short.
Another change of course aside from the –25 to –30C weather that is going on at the moment is the fact that the sun comes up at 10AM and goes down at 3AM for a whopping 5 hours of sunlight/twilight a day. Of course the opposite effect in the summer so we are looking forward to 19 hours of sunlight.
How you may ask does it affect running, well at the moment I am running on a treadmill. My best laid plans to run outside year round were set aside along with the Frostbite I received one frosty –33C degree morning. While everything is fine and my toes are finally healed with nice pink new skin. I am in no rush to go outside and run in those days where the temperature dips below –20C.
Now I know I wanted to run the goofy but with the change in venue it was not possible to run the event. Training outside for long runs were a logistical nightmare. This due to the cold weather and the fact that I would have to run long distances in the dark of the morning with little or no lights as once you get outside Yellowknife the road is pretty barren.
The good news is there are a couple of running groups up here and if the weather crawls back to under –20C I will run outside with them on Saturday. If not I will be using the treadmill. This Sunday the weather is suppose to creep back up to –14C which is really not that bad to run in.
I am very excited about the prospect of a couple of big runs this year. First and foremost is the ING Edmonton Marathon on August 10, 2008. I have already started ramping up slowly as I am recovering from Achilles tendonitis. So I am taking a slow build up to the mileage I need.
With a modified ½ program I am slowly building my base up. The emphasis for the next 14 weeks is to get my base up to 25 miles a week, but more importantly work on my core strength and stretching. Already I can see the difference with my stretching. I can actually now touch my toes again.
So on April 6th, 2008 I will switch over to a full marathon schedule and 18 weeks later the marathon. Secondary to that is I am now trying to work with the Team Diabetes program to transfer everything over so that I can do the New York City marathon, on November 2nd, 2008. If not I am going to enter the lottery and hope that I get a spot. If not maybe Chicago may be a good alternative.
Cheers to all for the New Year and most important keep on running
harry
It holds a number of Canadian Weather records including the coldest city in Canada. Winter arrives early here in Yellowknife, with weather dropping below freezing just as fall is starting. The weather stays below zero well into April and May finally warming up by June. While summers I hear are great in this area they are short.
Another change of course aside from the –25 to –30C weather that is going on at the moment is the fact that the sun comes up at 10AM and goes down at 3AM for a whopping 5 hours of sunlight/twilight a day. Of course the opposite effect in the summer so we are looking forward to 19 hours of sunlight.
How you may ask does it affect running, well at the moment I am running on a treadmill. My best laid plans to run outside year round were set aside along with the Frostbite I received one frosty –33C degree morning. While everything is fine and my toes are finally healed with nice pink new skin. I am in no rush to go outside and run in those days where the temperature dips below –20C.
Now I know I wanted to run the goofy but with the change in venue it was not possible to run the event. Training outside for long runs were a logistical nightmare. This due to the cold weather and the fact that I would have to run long distances in the dark of the morning with little or no lights as once you get outside Yellowknife the road is pretty barren.
The good news is there are a couple of running groups up here and if the weather crawls back to under –20C I will run outside with them on Saturday. If not I will be using the treadmill. This Sunday the weather is suppose to creep back up to –14C which is really not that bad to run in.
I am very excited about the prospect of a couple of big runs this year. First and foremost is the ING Edmonton Marathon on August 10, 2008. I have already started ramping up slowly as I am recovering from Achilles tendonitis. So I am taking a slow build up to the mileage I need.
With a modified ½ program I am slowly building my base up. The emphasis for the next 14 weeks is to get my base up to 25 miles a week, but more importantly work on my core strength and stretching. Already I can see the difference with my stretching. I can actually now touch my toes again.
So on April 6th, 2008 I will switch over to a full marathon schedule and 18 weeks later the marathon. Secondary to that is I am now trying to work with the Team Diabetes program to transfer everything over so that I can do the New York City marathon, on November 2nd, 2008. If not I am going to enter the lottery and hope that I get a spot. If not maybe Chicago may be a good alternative.
Cheers to all for the New Year and most important keep on running
harry
Friday, September 28, 2007
Your metobolsim from CBC September 26, 2007
In Depth
Exercise and fitness
Your metabolism
Burn, calories, burn
Last Updated September 26, 2007
CBC News
Putting on a little weight even though you swear you haven't upped your food intake or cut your energy expenditure? Well, you can blame a slow metabolism, right?
Probably not.
A slow metabolism means that you burn fewer calories at rest than you should, according to estimates based on your height, weight, age and sex. Very few people can actually say they have a slow metabolism. People who are overweight may actually have a higher metabolic rate because while they may have more fat, they may also have more muscle mass. And muscle mass is key when it comes to your metabolism.
What is metabolism?
Basically, it's the process by which your body converts food into energy. Your food is digested and broken down into proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, which are absorbed by the body. These elements are used to fuel your body. Your body uses only as many calories as it needs to function, depending on your level of activity. Anything above that is stored as fat.
There are three components that determine the rate at which you burn calories: basal metabolic rate (BMR, the energy we burn to keep our organs functioning and to breathe and sleep), thermic effect of food (the energy we burn processing the food we eat) and physical activity.
The basal metabolic rate uses up two-thirds to three-quarters of the calories you take in. There's very little you can do to change the amount of energy required to keep you breathing, to keep your blood moving, and to grow and repair your cells.
And there's not much you can do to alter the amount of energy it takes for your body to process the food you eat. That accounts for about 10 per cent of the calories you consume.
But when it comes to physical activity, you're in the driver's seat. Although the less time you actually spend sitting means the more calories you will burn.
How many calories does my body need?
It's simple math. To calculate how many calories your body needs just to keep functioning without putting on weight (your Basal Metabolic Rate), stick your appropriate numbers in the following formula:
For women, BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kilos) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)
For men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)
Once you have figured out your BMR, you can calculate how many calories you should be taking in to maintain your current weight:
If you get little or no exercise, multiply your BMR by 1.2.
If you exercise lightly or take part in easy sports one to three times a week, multiply your BMR by 1.375.
If you are moderately active — three to five times a week — multiply your BMR by 1.55.
If you are very active — hard exercise or sports six to seven times a week — multiply your BMR by 1.725.
If you are extra active — very hard exercise or sports and a physical job — multiply your BMR by 1.9.
So, for example, a 40-year-old moderately active 60 kilogram woman who is 163 cm tall would have a BMR of 1,336.4. She would need around 2,071 calories a day to maintain her weight, depending on body composition. If she has a lot of muscle mass, she would need more calories. If she's overweight, she would need fewer calories to maintain her weight. A registered dietician would be able to provide a more accurate reading with more precise equipment.
Does my metabolism slow with age?
Yes. As you age, mainly because of a loss of muscle mass. You can expect to lose two to three per cent of your muscle mass each decade as you enter your 30s. Muscles require fuel, so the more muscle mass you have, the less of what you eat will be stored as fat.
Neglecting those muscles and eating the same as you've always eaten means you will get fatter — unless you increase your physical activity.
What else can affect the rate at which I burn calories?
Your body size and composition will affect how many calories your body needs to maintain its weight. A six foot tall person would require more calories than someone a foot shorter. Again, if you're carrying around little fat and a lot of muscle, you will need more calories to maintain that body.
Your sex will also affect your caloric needs. A man sitting on the couch, operating the remote control needs more calories than a woman doing the same thing. He might burn off the snack they're sharing, while it goes "straight to her hips."
Heredity will also play a role. Look at your parents, grandparents and siblings. The odds are, you'll be able to see whether you should consider cutting back your intake or increasing your physical activity — or, more likely, a combination of both.
What can I do to increase my metabolism?
Unfortunately, you can't change your basal metabolic rate or the amount of energy your body uses to process the food you eat. But you can do something about your level of physical activity and the amount of food you eat.
Here are a few steps you can take:
Eat often: eating five or six small meals throughout the day maintains a constant flow of energy to your body and keeps your body's furnace processing that food. Calories consumed during larger meals are more likely to be stored as fat.
Eat a balanced diet: your body needs a mix of protein, fibre and carbohydrates — especially complex carbohydrates like whole grains. Avoid processed foods and sugary drinks. Choose fruit over fruit juice — you can take in a lot of calories and sugar, without fruit's filling fibre if you drink a lot of juice.
Strength train: building muscle mass will replace stored fat. It takes more calories to maintain muscle than fat.
Ensure that you get cardiovascular exercise: 20 to 30 minutes of exercise five days a week that gets your heart rate up will help burn calories. Brisk walking, swimming, cycling or running will all do the trick. These exercises may not build muscle mass as efficiently as strength training, but combining cardio and strength training will help turn your body into a calorie burning machine. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/exercise_fitness/metabolism.html September 26, 2007)
Exercise and fitness
Your metabolism
Burn, calories, burn
Last Updated September 26, 2007
CBC News
Putting on a little weight even though you swear you haven't upped your food intake or cut your energy expenditure? Well, you can blame a slow metabolism, right?
Probably not.
A slow metabolism means that you burn fewer calories at rest than you should, according to estimates based on your height, weight, age and sex. Very few people can actually say they have a slow metabolism. People who are overweight may actually have a higher metabolic rate because while they may have more fat, they may also have more muscle mass. And muscle mass is key when it comes to your metabolism.
What is metabolism?
Basically, it's the process by which your body converts food into energy. Your food is digested and broken down into proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, which are absorbed by the body. These elements are used to fuel your body. Your body uses only as many calories as it needs to function, depending on your level of activity. Anything above that is stored as fat.
There are three components that determine the rate at which you burn calories: basal metabolic rate (BMR, the energy we burn to keep our organs functioning and to breathe and sleep), thermic effect of food (the energy we burn processing the food we eat) and physical activity.
The basal metabolic rate uses up two-thirds to three-quarters of the calories you take in. There's very little you can do to change the amount of energy required to keep you breathing, to keep your blood moving, and to grow and repair your cells.
And there's not much you can do to alter the amount of energy it takes for your body to process the food you eat. That accounts for about 10 per cent of the calories you consume.
But when it comes to physical activity, you're in the driver's seat. Although the less time you actually spend sitting means the more calories you will burn.
How many calories does my body need?
It's simple math. To calculate how many calories your body needs just to keep functioning without putting on weight (your Basal Metabolic Rate), stick your appropriate numbers in the following formula:
For women, BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kilos) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)
For men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)
Once you have figured out your BMR, you can calculate how many calories you should be taking in to maintain your current weight:
If you get little or no exercise, multiply your BMR by 1.2.
If you exercise lightly or take part in easy sports one to three times a week, multiply your BMR by 1.375.
If you are moderately active — three to five times a week — multiply your BMR by 1.55.
If you are very active — hard exercise or sports six to seven times a week — multiply your BMR by 1.725.
If you are extra active — very hard exercise or sports and a physical job — multiply your BMR by 1.9.
So, for example, a 40-year-old moderately active 60 kilogram woman who is 163 cm tall would have a BMR of 1,336.4. She would need around 2,071 calories a day to maintain her weight, depending on body composition. If she has a lot of muscle mass, she would need more calories. If she's overweight, she would need fewer calories to maintain her weight. A registered dietician would be able to provide a more accurate reading with more precise equipment.
Does my metabolism slow with age?
Yes. As you age, mainly because of a loss of muscle mass. You can expect to lose two to three per cent of your muscle mass each decade as you enter your 30s. Muscles require fuel, so the more muscle mass you have, the less of what you eat will be stored as fat.
Neglecting those muscles and eating the same as you've always eaten means you will get fatter — unless you increase your physical activity.
What else can affect the rate at which I burn calories?
Your body size and composition will affect how many calories your body needs to maintain its weight. A six foot tall person would require more calories than someone a foot shorter. Again, if you're carrying around little fat and a lot of muscle, you will need more calories to maintain that body.
Your sex will also affect your caloric needs. A man sitting on the couch, operating the remote control needs more calories than a woman doing the same thing. He might burn off the snack they're sharing, while it goes "straight to her hips."
Heredity will also play a role. Look at your parents, grandparents and siblings. The odds are, you'll be able to see whether you should consider cutting back your intake or increasing your physical activity — or, more likely, a combination of both.
What can I do to increase my metabolism?
Unfortunately, you can't change your basal metabolic rate or the amount of energy your body uses to process the food you eat. But you can do something about your level of physical activity and the amount of food you eat.
Here are a few steps you can take:
Eat often: eating five or six small meals throughout the day maintains a constant flow of energy to your body and keeps your body's furnace processing that food. Calories consumed during larger meals are more likely to be stored as fat.
Eat a balanced diet: your body needs a mix of protein, fibre and carbohydrates — especially complex carbohydrates like whole grains. Avoid processed foods and sugary drinks. Choose fruit over fruit juice — you can take in a lot of calories and sugar, without fruit's filling fibre if you drink a lot of juice.
Strength train: building muscle mass will replace stored fat. It takes more calories to maintain muscle than fat.
Ensure that you get cardiovascular exercise: 20 to 30 minutes of exercise five days a week that gets your heart rate up will help burn calories. Brisk walking, swimming, cycling or running will all do the trick. These exercises may not build muscle mass as efficiently as strength training, but combining cardio and strength training will help turn your body into a calorie burning machine. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/exercise_fitness/metabolism.html September 26, 2007)
Monday, September 24, 2007
Harry’s Great White Adventure Part I.
September 24, 2007
Today is the last full week I will spend here in Halifax, as Aingeal and I get ready for our move across the country to Yellowknife. We are moving into the unknown as neither of us has visited that area before. I have been told it’s a great area to live in and many folks move out there and never come back.
My running gear is not complete, over the last 3 weeks I have been slowly adding quality cold weather gear. Aside from my normal pants and jackets I have purchased a micro fleece base layer (Long underwear for runners), wind briefs for the family jewels, triple layered micro fleece mittens rated to -30, a balaclava with a wind guard for the neck and of course a safety light that blinks.
This week while busy is also slightly sad, because of the move Shapiro our greyhound will be headed back to GPAC. They are the Greyhound Pet rescue here in Halifax. Greyhounds are a great dog and if you are interested in a great dog give them a lookup on the neb. www.gpac.ca
But on a good note, I just got an email that will allow me to run a leg in the Rum Runners Relay here in Nova Scotia. While I don't get a 1/2 marathon in because of the move I will get a good race in under my belt. Leg 6 between Hubbards and Chester. Should be a good time.
Harry
Today is the last full week I will spend here in Halifax, as Aingeal and I get ready for our move across the country to Yellowknife. We are moving into the unknown as neither of us has visited that area before. I have been told it’s a great area to live in and many folks move out there and never come back.
My running gear is not complete, over the last 3 weeks I have been slowly adding quality cold weather gear. Aside from my normal pants and jackets I have purchased a micro fleece base layer (Long underwear for runners), wind briefs for the family jewels, triple layered micro fleece mittens rated to -30, a balaclava with a wind guard for the neck and of course a safety light that blinks.
This week while busy is also slightly sad, because of the move Shapiro our greyhound will be headed back to GPAC. They are the Greyhound Pet rescue here in Halifax. Greyhounds are a great dog and if you are interested in a great dog give them a lookup on the neb. www.gpac.ca
But on a good note, I just got an email that will allow me to run a leg in the Rum Runners Relay here in Nova Scotia. While I don't get a 1/2 marathon in because of the move I will get a good race in under my belt. Leg 6 between Hubbards and Chester. Should be a good time.
Harry
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
August/September 2007
Yes I know its been a long while since I last posted a paragraph or two here. Things have been hectic and busy as ever in Halifax. I guess the big news is that the diabetic runner (me) is going on down the road.
Not just running, but Aingeal and I are moving out west. In fact we are moving to the Northwest Territories in about 3 weeks. The flight leaves on October 4, 2007. I love Halifax and I am very sorry to have to leave a great city. But, the job opportunity of a lifetime has come up and I would be foolish not to go.
I will be moving my Team Diabetes Marathon from the Goofy in Florida to I hope the New York City Marathon in Nov 2008. Couple of reasons for this, first training for a major event in Yellowknife may be a challenge, first the light. I can’t imagine running 30K runs in the dark. Also, the heat factor, I will be running in -30C weather, can you imagine going from -30C training to running in a marathon where the weather is 25 – 30C.
Just a quick update for now.
Harry
Not just running, but Aingeal and I are moving out west. In fact we are moving to the Northwest Territories in about 3 weeks. The flight leaves on October 4, 2007. I love Halifax and I am very sorry to have to leave a great city. But, the job opportunity of a lifetime has come up and I would be foolish not to go.
I will be moving my Team Diabetes Marathon from the Goofy in Florida to I hope the New York City Marathon in Nov 2008. Couple of reasons for this, first training for a major event in Yellowknife may be a challenge, first the light. I can’t imagine running 30K runs in the dark. Also, the heat factor, I will be running in -30C weather, can you imagine going from -30C training to running in a marathon where the weather is 25 – 30C.
Just a quick update for now.
Harry
Monday, July 23, 2007
July Update
Greetings, folks I thought I would take a few moments and update the blog for this month. I really should try to update more often. But here I go for this month.
Well, I am now starting my training a bit more intensely for this falls ½ marathon in the Valley here in Nova Scotia. I am waiting for the clinic to catch up a bit on the longer runs. I am doing about 12 – 13K on Sunday’s at the moment. So it will be about 3 more weeks when they get up there. Meanwhile I am maintaining about a 40K per week base.
My health is good and my diabetes is not an issue in terms of day to day. My weight I am happy to report is now just a touch under 203. The goal is to be under 200 for the ½ marathon in the fall. With a further goal of 190 before next years marathon season, I am hoping that I will go to NYC or Chicago next fall.
My LTR clinic is going well; I need to polish up my public speaking a bit better. But with Practice and more self confidence I will be much better at presenting topics. This week we talked about goals, which went pretty good through I think I could have been a bit more polished and avoids the Uh’ and Ah’s. But nothing wrong with this as I push the envelope of my comfort zone on occasion.
Hopefully there may be some big news in the next week or two. But mum’s the word at the moment, look for more in perhaps 1 – 2 weeks on that.
Angela and I did get to see Beyond the Pail here in Halifax last week. They were fantastic, great energy and great music.
Just a small one today
Later
Harry
Well, I am now starting my training a bit more intensely for this falls ½ marathon in the Valley here in Nova Scotia. I am waiting for the clinic to catch up a bit on the longer runs. I am doing about 12 – 13K on Sunday’s at the moment. So it will be about 3 more weeks when they get up there. Meanwhile I am maintaining about a 40K per week base.
My health is good and my diabetes is not an issue in terms of day to day. My weight I am happy to report is now just a touch under 203. The goal is to be under 200 for the ½ marathon in the fall. With a further goal of 190 before next years marathon season, I am hoping that I will go to NYC or Chicago next fall.
My LTR clinic is going well; I need to polish up my public speaking a bit better. But with Practice and more self confidence I will be much better at presenting topics. This week we talked about goals, which went pretty good through I think I could have been a bit more polished and avoids the Uh’ and Ah’s. But nothing wrong with this as I push the envelope of my comfort zone on occasion.
Hopefully there may be some big news in the next week or two. But mum’s the word at the moment, look for more in perhaps 1 – 2 weeks on that.
Angela and I did get to see Beyond the Pail here in Halifax last week. They were fantastic, great energy and great music.
Just a small one today
Later
Harry
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