Does it get better than this?

In addition to the picture of me on my cycle trainer from our training session last Sunday, I have included the view that I had from my bike. You can understand why find I find training in a gym so boring when you can work out with a view like this. The session was quite a hard one nonetheless. We did three cycles of 20 minutes on the bike followed by a 10 minute run, and topped it off with 45 minutes of core training.

Testicular implants for pets

The internet is a wonderful thing. It always amazes me how you can start out in one place and end up finding your way to somewhere rather bizzarre. He is a point in case. I was reading the Guardian on-line and ended up at www.neuticles.com. This is a company that produces testicular implants for pets. Apparently, Neuticles allow your pet "to retain his natural look, self esteem and aids in the trauma associated with neutering." Over 100,000 caring pet owners cannot be wrong! Neuticals come is several sizes and models. There is a version made of polyprophylene which cost about $80 / pair and another in silicone which cost from $150 / pair. There are even versions for cats! Be warned they have a US patent so don't try this at home!
The reason why I stumbled on this page was because I was led to the Improbable Research web site (www.improbable.com) by an article in the Guardian about the effect of masterbation on attention (conducted at the University of Pittsburgh). The Improbable research bunch award an annual Ig Noble Prize awards for acheivements that makes you laugh but subsequently makes you think. Neuticles was a recent award winner.
What has this to do with my training? Not a lot but it made me laugh, and then I found myself thinking about how many cats there are in my neighbourhood with artificial testicles.

Aquatic Park - Open Water Swim!

Today was our second open water swim which was held at Aquatic Park. I am grinning like a maniac because I had already tested the water and determined that it was freezing. One of the exercises of the day was practising mass starts. Although there were only about 50 of us, it was quite an experience with all of us charging into the water at the same time. It is quite challenging trying to swim in amongst so many limbs while maintaining the right direction. At several points the guy behind me managed to swim over me. It was an interesting experience. However, I guess that it will be a little more difficult when we have to start with 2000+ people.

Work - Training Balance

I spent the last 4 days working at the annual AASLD liver conference in San Francisco where I reviewed the latest data on treatments for chronic hepatitis B. My task was to review all of the new data and put together a summary presentation for a review meeting on Tuesday. I have done this before but there was a lot more information this year which made for some late nights. On top of this I had to train! Saturday wasn't too bad as we had a lecture and only spent an hour spinning but Sunday was something else. After spending 1 hour 45 mins in the pool, we then spent another hour or so on the track doing drills, and then topped it all off with some core training. It was a tough few hours after which I had to scurry off to the conference. I didn't get to see much of Raj which was the hardest bit. Saturday's lecture on nutrition was fascinating. It has been described as the fourth discipline and is clearly an area where I need to do a lot of work. A couple of big take home messages: 1) no artificial sweetners - they are neurotoxins, and 2) it is time to decrease or maybe eliminate caffine from my diet.
Finally, I got a heart rate monitor. More to follow on this once I have figured out how to use it.

One month down, nine to go!

As I start week 5 of my training, I thought that this might be a good time for a quick bit of reflection on my progress to date. It has been an interesting period of adjustment. It is stating to feel normal to train nearly every day. In fact, it feels odd not to. Today is my rest day and I feel at a bit of a loss. I have made significant progress with my swimming. Previously, I was only swiming up to 200 m at a time however, yesterday I swam for 45 minutes in open water without too much effort. It seems like all those hours in the pool are making a difference. Curiously, I have not lost much weight. I was a little disapointed by this but I have toned up somewhat, and I guess that I developed more muscle and have less body fat than when I started. Raj has commented that I have much bigger shoulders and pecks.
Our training load will build up significantly over the next few weeks. We are on a 4-week cycle where we build up our training volume over three weeks and then have an "easy" week. Things step up noticably at the start of the next cycle (this week!).
I have also made my first fundraising goal of $1000. Thanks to those of you who contributed! I still need to raise another $6500 so please sponsor me if you can.

Barney for Supreme Court

Hot off the press:
Alito is history. Barney is in.

Source: Steve Bell, The Guardian