Hey its -22 C degrees today in Antigonish. Good thing I had a swimming session this morning. GAH! I dont understand the pleasure some Canadians take in living through these crazy freakin cold temperatures and wearing it like a badge of honour. Some where, in some impoverished nation, is there someone there saying ' hey motembee look at how much i starved today, i cant believe you are complaining about how little you have starved compared to how much i have starved' ( not trying to be insensitive to plight - hey kids look at all plight - just trying to emphasize a similarity for comedic effect.)
 But sure enough I was greeted 3 different times today with either ' cold enough for ya' or ' this isnt cold, one time in some year of yore it was minus a billion and we had to cut wood and sleep naked under pelts just to make it through the night....in a shoe box in the middle of the road' 
If you got all the references in that last paragraph, you are either over 40 or have too much time watching netflix, either way, Bravo.

All I'm saying is while a certain Prime Minister is busy destroying our country from within and tarnishing our reputation world wide, couldnt he add taking over some warmer nations closer to the equator and moving the country lock stock and barrel there? With gas prices the way they are, I would totally chip in for gas.

Now I am not advocating starting a large scale war just to be warmer, but lets use our Canadianness and all vacation to the desired destination at the same time, and apologize our way into the hearts and minds of the local inhabitants. Or at least blind them all with our yeti white skin reflecting the sun into their eyes.

Now I dont mind crisp weather, a little cold, but I cannot abide anything below -20, i think that is fair.

I just dont understand people that enjoy that kind of cold, the same way i dont understand people that enjoy camping. BOOOM!

As a kid i was a boy scout and my dad had a job that if we wanted to see him in the summer months we were flown, helicoptered, sea planed, and or portaged to random obscure places in Northern Canada, so I speak from a place of experience and not ignorance. I did more camping before the age of 12 then some people will ever do in a lifetime.

Now that I am older and have had the pleasure of staying in hotels, i will never quite get why people would choose sleeping in a tent then sleeping in a room with a pillow top mattress and a working shower. If I want nature, I can get a massage with nature music in the background, i would gladly substitute the strong tough of Sven or Olga for my own hands swatting my flesh trying to kill the latest creepy crawly that has invaded my space. Various massage oils for calamine lotion and lastly a toilet that with a whoosh removes byproducts not required by the body instead of a hole in the ground with years of the same byproduct combining for potency to assault the nasal cavity and scar my brain.

So there you have it, I dislike the extreme cold, and camping, maybe I have to turn in my Canadian card or something but i love bacon and hockey so maybe it all balances out.
Two rants for the price of one!
Weekly workout update next time!

Sean " BigBoyRunning" Ryan

What a week! First week back at work and wasnt sure how it would gel with my work out schedule and I also started keeping track of my nutrition this week. I have used MyFitnessPal App from time to time and am using it this time as well. Sometimes the numbers are a bit off but it is a great little tool to keep you honest about what you are eating and actually makes me want to push a little harder on the work outs so I can add those number into the exercise section. So far I have not missed a day and been under my calories, carbs and fat each day. Sodium has been off the chart though. Everything is a work in progress though. The week has gone something like this:
Monday: 40 min Bike ride + 3k run
Tuesday: 2x750m + 1x250m swims
Wednesday: 25min bike ride + 5k run
Thursday: off
Friday: 3x750m +1x250m swims
Saturday: 48min ride ( best time for 13miles at 41:02 min) + 5k ( best time in a long time of 40:28)
Sunday: ( will be a swim tomorrow)
So not bad considering monitoring food intake, a couple of night time meetings and a very long day yesterday.
Now for todays discussion, first off though, I am very fortunate. I have a job that I actually love. It is too hard to explain what I do, but in a nutshell, I get to work with student leaders along with a great group of people and act as a support for them as they work to provide services, and advocacy for other students. I am a full believer that being around that type of inspiration, enthusiasm and desire for change to make things better, keeps those of us in this industry, young at heart.
Yesterday I had a discussion with some students around the differences between my generation of people and our activities in university and this generation. 
To be honest I dont think there is that much of a gap. There was drinking, drugs, sex, talent, aggression, causes, music, sports, homecoming, graduation, life long friends and memories for successes and failures. The same exist today.
However given the chance to either go to school then or now, I would always pick then. The single reason why, social media.
I honestly dont know if i could have lived with the stress that social media presses on students of today.
I am an active participant on a couple of different social media platforms, and i can tell you i will be keeping my kids off of things like facebook and twitter as long as humanly possible. I honestly think that there should be classes on it at the junior high and highschool, for both function and purpose. 
I know I am bad for the #cigarSunday selfies, but Im old, and have been through multiple facebook profiles over the years weeding out 'friends' and figuring our what things I will post and what social media outlet.
I cant imagine how difficult this is to figure out as students are adjusting to new social media outlets on a daily and weekly basis. How quickly one comment or post can ripple out and go viral, how it can do an incredible amount of good or an incredible amount of harm. 
I am not a scholar or academic so I wont try and offer much more then this as a final comment, that is not my own, but has stuck with me for the Canadian Heritage Moments from Marshall McLuhan:

'The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology'

So then the message of social media = ?

Okay that is about as deep as i get for this post. haha
Sean "Big Boy Running" Ryan



 

Okay the past week was a big eye opener. Bit of a different week again in terms of work outs as there was New Years day and wonky pool closures, but it went a little something like this:
Monday: off
Tuesday: Swim 3x 750m
Wednesday: Bike 40min + 5k run
Thursday: Bike 25min + 5k run
Friday: Swim 2x750m +10min travel time + 20k bike ride ( 46min) + 5k run ( 42min)
Saturday: off
Sunday: 2x750m + 1x500m swims
For those that have been following along, this was the first week i attempted to do all the Sprint Triathlon distances back to back to back. Now i did do extra swimming, but holy crap i was bagged at the end of the 5k run. Not that I ever thought this was going to be easy, but I never expected the bike to be the toughest part.
Now i did have to travel from the pool to the gym ( I dont use the gym at the pool location, I dont know why but i hate having to sign out machines to use, I feel like i should be able to show up and use what i want #brattygymgoer) but climbing on the bike and trying to get up to speed was a lot harder then i thought it would be. It felt like my thighs were two boiled hams, and they did not want to work. 
I have been also working out for the last week or so without the aid of music. According to the rules for the triathlons I plan on participating in, you are not allowed to use headphones. I would like to say this is the sole reason i have not used headphones, but i notoriously can not find things that i use all the time and "misplaced" my ipod. I have been 'that guy' that stands there saying has anyone seen my car keys, when they are in my hand. So for the last week or so i have been music free for biking and running. 
I am not sure i am a fan of this, without that music my brain starts to wander into a bunch of random thoughts and observations, mostly having to do with making up backstories for other gym goers, most of them having some dark secret lives, or broken hearted drama, that has forced them into a life of physical fitness or how stella got her groove back plan for revenge.
So I will keep trying this no music thing, but not sure how long it will last.
So why the picture of the beloved John Candy for today's post. Well he was one of my favorite actors as a kid, Space Balls, Uncle Buck, and Planes Trains and Automobiles and even this cameo in National Lampoons Vacation. But more then that he was someone i really looked up to. I always loved comedy as a genre and still do, and he was able to make his characters be about something other then being big or the ' fat guy' character. 
Being the big or fat guy in the room is always something that i have dealt with my whole life. 
The first time I can recall that I was called fat was made in a reference to John Candy in grade nine. I remember thinking how bad i felt about myself as others in the room and even some friends laughed. I then did that thing that most people do that have something that is different about them do when confronted by a 'mean person's' opinion, make a joke about it. Over the years I got very good at making jokes about my weight before others had the chance, even now at 41 i still employ that technique from time to time if insecurity creeps in.
At the end of the day I am trying to keep the following in mind:
You cannot control what others think or say.
You can control doing a little exercise a day. ( Totally didnt mean to make that rhyme)
You can control what goes into your mouth.
You can control how a little change can make you feel a lot better.
Lastly just because you had a good week, doesnt mean you can over indulge the next. ( this one is the toughest for me)
A true lifestyle change has to be for life, well at least for me.
Okay this went way off on a tangent, to bring it back around, but i think John Candy said it best, in the best movie of all time, which i encourage all of you to see, ' The Blues Brothers':
Who wants an orange whip? 
Orange whip? 
Orange whip? 
Three orange whips.
Slainte
Sean "Big Boy Running" Ryan

Okay, first a little catch up.
Christmas was great, all the things you expect from Christmas happened as it should, presents, family, friends and a lot of great food and beverages.
I even managed to get 6 days of work outs in during Christmas week with a wonky pool schedule and a closed gym for Christmas day. The week went like this:
Monday: 3x750m swims with a 10 lengths warm up for 2500m on the day
Tuesday: 2x750m swims and 1x500m swim + a 5k run
Wednesday: 40min bike ride followed by a 5k run
Thursday: Christmas
Friday: 60min bike ride
Saturday: 40min bike ride and a 5k run
Sunday: 2x750m swims and 1x250m swim
Nutrition is still a work in progress, my biggest problem is most healthy food resembles things that you feed birds or woodland creatures and most dont contain bacon....mmmmmm bacon.
But a concerted effort to manage calories will begin soon....NOT A RESOLUTION! A needed lifestyle change, we will see how that goes.
This week for workouts has been going well, for real life not so much. My wife's grandmother passed away this week, she was 89 years old and she was an amazing lady. My wife and I have been together dating/married for over 20 years so in that time you really get to know the other persons family. I am not going to get into the many ways she was amazing but you could not find a funnier, more down to earth, energetic, loving person. You didnt even have to be one of her 15 children to get named by her. Yes I said 15 children. That alone deserves sainthood. Very early in our relationship I was introduced to my wife's side of the family, in a town of 2000 people and the size of her family, and extended family, really you couldnt throw a rock without hitting someone that she is related to. 
Within about 30 seconds of meeting Nanny, I was named. Milkfed. Why Milkfed, well, Nanny took one look at my rosy cheeks and knew right away that i must have been a milkfed baby. I didnt quite know what to think about being called milkfed but in this family you better have a sense of humor or you are not going to last. There is a huge list of former boyfriends and girlfriends that did not make the cut, I am sure there is probably a Currie song about one or two of them somewhere. 
One of the best things about Nanny was her laugh. She was such a funny person herself and has coined so many family terms and phrases, she could say more with a look then most people could articulate in a paragraph. I loved trying to get a giggle out of her when given the opportunity.
I could literally write pages about how awesome she was, but I will sum up with this, it was an absolute pleasure to get to this lady over the years, it is sad to see anyone pass, but knowing she is now free from some of the pain that plagued her in her last few years is some comfort.
Rest in peace Nanny Currie,
Much love
Sean 'Big Boy Running' Ryan
aka
Milkfed

Little Christmas throw back picture for this post tonight.
So finished up my last workout for the week and the week went something like this:
Monday: Swim 100x25m
Tuesday: Swim 90x25m
Wednesday: Day Off
Thursday: Bike 42 min 20.5km + 5k run right after the bike 
Friday: Swim 90x25m
Saturday: Bike 39min 20.5km + weights
Sunday: 7k run 
Not to shabby I guess, if only i wasnt off setting all the exercise with the christmas baking that i have been doing haha. Have worked this weeks schedule around christmas, its what jesus would want haha.
I have been researching fitness tracking devices with some great opinions from facebook friends last week.
I have got it down to 3: FitBit, Jawbone and the Suunto mega super tracker. 
Having read all the reviews, and done all the pricing for what I am going to need it for just getting started I think i am going to go with a fitbit. The one they are set to release looks like it will have everything i need for the short and medium term. My wishlist is for the suunto ambit3. Aside from flossing it will pretty much do everything in the way of tracking but for me the cost is just a little beyond what i am prepared to spend. Thanks again to all the folks that wrote it with their experiences and thoughts, it was greatly appreciated.
The last thing i will leave you with a speech from one of my favorite Christmas movies, def in the top 5, the top being:
Christmas Story
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
Miracle on 34th Street
Scrooged
Die Hard
From the King, Bill Murray - 
It's Christmas Eve. It's the one night when we all act a little nicer. We...we smile a little easier. We...we...share a little more. For a couple of hours we are the people we always hoped we would be. It's really a miracle because it happens every Christmas Eve. And if you waste that miracle, you're gonna burn for it. I know. You have to do something. You have to take a chance and get involved. There are people that don't have enough to eat and who are cold. You can go and greet these people. Take an old blanket out to them or make a sandwich and say, "Here." "l get it now." And if you give, then it can happen, the miracle can happen to you. Not just the poor and hungry, Everybody's gotta have this miracle! It can happen tonight for you all! If you believe in this pure thing, the miracle will happen and you'll want it again tomorrow! You won't say, "Christmas is once a year and it's a fraud." It's not! It can happen every day! You've just got to want that feeling! You'll want it every day! It can happen to you! I believe in it now. I believe it's gonna happen to me, now. I'm ready for it! And it's great. It's a good feeling. It's better than I've felt in a long time. I'm ready. Have a Merry Christmas. Everybody.
Sean 'Big Boy Running' Ryan

AAARGG!
Okay so this is the second time i had to type this post today! Weebly you are not in my good books right now.
Anyway, I had a great swim today, second of the week. I did 10x25m warm up, 2 30x25m swims and 1 20x25m swim. For the 30x25's i seem to be hitting between 16-18 minutes. I am not sure if that is good, but I am pretty happy with those times. Not sure how that will translate to open water though.
The second thing to discuss today is a pet peeve of mine that seems to crop up for me from time to time in locker rooms, and that is mistimed eye contact, resulting in staring at old man junk.
The worst being that albino guy old guy that thought he was in a Captain Morgans commercial, with his foot up on the changing room bench in all his naked glory. I, putting on my socks having no idea that he has taken the Captain Morgan stance, turn to answer a question, expecting a face and instead end up having an albino, old man hacky sack a foot from my face.
This has happened to me countless times in my life, not the albino thing, just the old man bag in my eyeline mid conversation.
Now i am not a prude or a homophobe or anything distasteful like that but I feel I should have an old man bag free experience while i am getting changed.
My change room routine is like clockwork.
I am not going to bore you with the details, but it involves a lot of staring at the floor and very little open air time of nakedness on my part.
So today, out of the pool, quick shower, and into the change room. I am mid way through my routine when the only other person in the change room, Chatty MacChatterton decides to saddle up next to me and discuss the current events of the day. Why, you may ask, could he not do that from a bench or row away? I will never know, as I am to polite to say, hey bub, wouldnt you be more comfortable changing on the next bench?
So i am holding up my end of the conversation yada yada ready for Christmas, yada yada weather, yada yada Leafs won again.
I am in the final stages of my routine. I am dressed and looking to pack up.
I go to grab my towel on the floor and it happens to be under his foot.
I lightly pull to see if I can get it without him knowing.
No luck.
Pull a little harder, using my Jedi mind powers to will it over to me, and with one final tug, the towel is free.
Bringing with it, a fully naked, spinning his old man, naked bits directly into my eye line.
I spin away like i am avoiding molten lava thrown at me.
Quickly get my things put away, make a concentrated effort to look him directly in the eye and wish him a Merry Christmas, then poof, i was gone.
Again, the human body is a wonderful thing, and I would be as equally pet peeved if it was a younger dude's meat and veg that keeps untimely popping up into my eye line through unfortunate timing and conversation. But it has historically been old men and their free swinging baggage that have been the culprit. 
So if you see a guy staring intently at the floor in a change room in the future, it is probably me or someone like me, so please dont approach in anything less that a well secured towel or at least the basic under garments.
On the up side i have a bike session planned for tonight that does not require any change room time, so take that old man bags!
Sean " Big Boy Running" Ryan

Sooooo, I have started to bore my face book friends with my constant posts about my fitness exploits as I, in the past, tackled a change in lifestyle when i was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 2011 and started to take responsibility for my health and fitness. I started with a learning  to run 5k program and started doing 5k races in 2011. The next year I worked up to 10k and eventually half marathon distance races. After my last half marathon in October of this year, I decided that my knees were not going to take the continued pounding required in long distance run training for to many more years so i needed to switch things up. 
I have always marvelled at the athletes that compete in triathlons in their dedication to 3 different disciplines and i thought well, no one would have thought that a guy my size ( 6'2" and bouncing between 285-295lbs) could or would run the distances that i have ( according to my running app over 1000km this year and counting) so why not give a Sprint Distance Triathlon a try?
I was a competitive swimmer in my teens ( now in 40's) so that part should be a breeze, i have a road bike that my dad left me and i bike around with the kids in the summer ( in a flat parking lot), and i can already do running distances so this should be a natural progression right? 
Well I am a month in and i have never been more exhausted haha.
Trying to manage workouts or at least get a system and times in place to practice 3 different disciplines has not been without its ups and downs. I feel like now i am on the right track, but anyone reading this and has some suggestions, please don't hesitate to shout them out my way. 
I am not a trained anything in terms of nutrition or fitness, this is basically me, a 40 something married dude, trying to stave off diabetes with exercise and better nutrition and stumbling around diet and exercise websites, picking out things to try and commenting on what has worked for me or what has gone horribly wrong. So if that sounds like your cup of tea, keep checking back and I will keep posting an update every couple of days or so.
Peas
Sean ' Big Boy Running' Ryan