Photos from Florida

Some of the highlights...

The trip didn't start off great, this was the view from my windshield in New York and most of New Jersey.

Spent a little time fishing, although we didn't catch much on the charter boat.

Little bit of time boating with my grandfather.

I even did a little bike training

Tried the local sushi

Laid around quite a bit.

REALY enjoyed the beach



I also managed to go for a couple runs, and do some swimming in the pool. Now it's back to the cold and daily grind. I have a bike maintenance course tonight with my brother which should be interesting... and hopefuly I will get back into the routine soon.

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Back

I'm home from Florida... we arrived sometime after 12 this past morning and after all the gyrations of dropping off people and moving luggage around I get in bed close to 2AM.

I'll post a bunch of pictures in the next few days as I get stuff downloaded. We had a great time and I'm feeling pretty well rested. More to come later...

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Gone Fishing

Headed out on the boat this morning with my two cousins for a day of fishing. Hope they're biting.

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Zoo Day

Beautiful weather here, we're headed to the Naples Zoo this morning.

I can't figure out how to post pictures from my phone, so they will have to wait till we get back.

We're planning on the beach later today and some fishing tomorrow. Also got in some good tennis matches.

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warming up

We've arrived in Naples,FL after a somewhat crazy trip where we battled traffic in what felt like every state. Here's the typical view from the driver's seat.(If I can post the picture)

The weather is beautiful, we saw my wife's aunt and uncle yesterday and have a relaxing day planned today. I hope everyone is keeping warm!

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Odds and Ends

I've been missing swimming already, our last practice on Thursday was cancelled due to weather and I haven't been in the pool since. I'm going to try and swim a bit at the gym this week perhaps, and see if I can translate some of the stuff I've done at practice. As I've mentioned, it is very difficult to get a meaningful swim workout done in a short 12 meter pool.

I'm leaving for Florida on Friday afternoon, piling into an RV and driving for 24 hours straight. There probably won't be a whole lot of oppurtunity to workout, but on the plus side I've downloaded some audio books to my phone and I'm planning to listen to them on the drive. I may even get the chance to do some longer ocean swims while I'm down there, but we'll have to wait and see. I'm going to use the week to get my run training kickstarted, I won't have a bike available so that's my best option. I may also get in a little tennis as there are courts near where I'm staying. Should make this guy and this guy at work happy that I'm giving their sport some air time.

Unfortunately I will be missing the Colchesther 1/2 Marathon since I will be in Florida, good luck to my brother and sister-in-law who are still planning to run it. Remember, there may be a few hills involved!

I'll try to post from the road, if only just to try out the phone...

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A good start

Season two for me in Volleyball started last night and we got off to a pretty good start. We came close but lost the first game as we started to get used to playing with each other. We won the second two pretty easily and it was pretty clear that we have a really good team. Lots of talent from hitters to setters, with no glaring weaknesses. I felt that I played pretty well, but didn't get many oppurtunites, a feeling which was echoed by my teammates afterwards. We have lots of good players, so we rotated quickly and kept everyone involved.

The really good thing was that we didn't have anyone without range. In fact, one of the reasons we lost the first game was that we were running all over the place. It took a game for us to realize that we could all stay in position and feel confident that our teammate would get the ball hit to them. This meant our passing was better and we had people ready to take advantage of every chance.

Personally, I need to continue to work on my passing (what else is new?) and take my shots when I can. I've gotten better, but I'm still a bit erratic when passing from the back line. I played fairly well in pickup later in the evening, but unfortunatly whacked my finger again. It hasn't seemed to heal completely, and then gets reinjured. I'll have a week off, to see if that helps as I'm traveling to Florida this coming weekend and will miss the game next Monday. Hopfully my team will be able to hold things together without me :)

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A new league..

Starting tonight, I'm back in the volleyball game with an all new team. Things are looking pretty good on paper, we have a bunch of good players. My friend Greg is on the team as well as a bunch of players I've met over the last few months and I know most of them are good. It remains to be seen where the weaknesses will be however I'm sure it will be fun and we'll be good enough to get into the playoffs again. Let's hope for a better showing this time!

I also got a solid weekend of mountain biking in, heading out on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, we got enough snow on Saturday to make it tough going Sunday morning. Matt and Josh and I got a long ride in Saturday morning with a bit of excitement when one of Josh's dogs tangled with a hiker's dog. Fortunately, the other dog was the aggressor and we were able to separate them without any damage done.

A couple shots from this weekend, I'm loving taking the BlackBerry with me and getting the chance to take some photos. Hopefully as things get warmer and the snow melts I can get some more cool shots since right now it's just riding around in the woods without a lot of tough lines to try out.

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Don't forget your pants...

I had a decent swimming practice this morning. It was tough to get really moving, my legs weren't great but I was glad that I went. The unfortunate part was yes, I forgot my pants! Well, only in the truck, but I didn't realize it until I was out of the shower. My options were basically, put the wet suit back on, or sneak out in my boxers. Yeah, I chose boxers, it was dark and I didn't think anyone would notice since they are blue and would look like shorts from a distance.

Sadly, there were a couple parents lined up to pick up thier kids, and the construction crew had started to gather right next to my truck. I tried to act nonchalant, but I'm not convinced that I pulled it off. I'm guessing I won't forget again anytime soon!

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Monthly Summary - January 2008

Good solid month, lots of swimming and biking. Pretty weak on the running, my challenge didn't inspire anyone else, and it didn't work on me either. I also had 8 hours worth of aerobic exercise tracked this month, primarily Volleyball. I think that has helped my conditioning overall, and gotten me to the gym consistently.

Swim 12,600 yd - 6 1/2 hours
Bike 137 mi - 8 hours (MTB primarily)
Run 12 mi - 2 1/2 hours
Other - 11 1/2 hours

Total - 26 1/2 hours

The swimming was all at Suffield with the Master's group which unfortunately is going to end this week. I'm hoping he starts up another session again soon, as I probably won't swim much more unless I get in the pool at the gym. The gym pool is way too small to really swim effectively in though, so I will probably only jump in occasionally to try and keep my feel for the water. On the plus side, I should be able to ramp up my morning spin sessions again now that I won't be headed to the pool.

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MTB weekend

Great weekend for mountain biking, the weather got a little warmer and the rain got rid of most of the remaining snow. There was some ice left, which played an interesting role in my ride but ultimately the conditions were great! I went out Saturday and Sunday morning for a couple hours each time. Matt and I founds some nice trails to play on Saturday where there were a few different lines you could take depending on how adventurous you wanted to be. I ended up falling quite a bit since the icy spots would come without warning and tip you over. Ultimately it wasn't too bad until on the way back I hit a bad spot while descending at speed and landed pretty hard. My neck is still pretty sore and I wacked my head pretty good. Fortunately I had my helmet on, so the damage wasn't too bad. I did destroy my front wheel though, snapping a few spokes on impact. Limping out after that, more and more spokes would pop out as I went. I had to squeeze the rim brakes the whole time to help keep the wheel aligned and straight. I was getting nervous that the wheel would collapse at any moment. I forgot to take a picture, but there weren't many spokes left on one side by the time we got to the truck.

Sunday morning, I swapped out a wheel from my other bike and headed out again. I picked up one of my younger cousins and took him along. He did very well considering it was his first time on clipless pedals!

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Crazy week

Things have been a bit hectic this week at work and so I haven't gotten a lot of workouts in. No time to cut out for Yoga during the day, and I've missed a few swim workouts. Next week is the last week of Master's swim in the morning for this session, we'll probably start up again sometime in the spring. I'm hoping to be back on track a bit next week, and ready to go for another Volleyball session as well.

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