Summer’s coming to a close, but by no means does it designate the end of my fitness journey. Until I achieve my goals, there will be no quitting. This past weekend, I attended a leadership retreat in beautiful Loon Lake with my university colleagues. Although I didn’t have a chance to do conditioning training, I had great recreational fun in the outdoors. Here are the details:

August 27 – Heading out to Loon Lake, which is just outside of Maple Ridge. The lake and air are amazing clear! That said, I used this day for muscle recuperation.

August 28 – Following a morning and afternoon dedicated to retreat discussions, the group enjoyed two hours of free-time. I used this time for canoeing and swimming in the lake.

August 29 – Back in the city again. Went for a half-hour evening run around Confederation Park.

August 30 – 20 minute upper body workout, focusing on pectorals, biceps, and forearms. Finished the day with “Ab Ripper X”. Definitely seeing a lot more muscle definition in my upper body now.

August 31 – 3 hour leisure swim with my cousins. Spent a lot of time in the hot tub to relax tense leg muscles.

Here’s a status update as to my progress in my re-conditioning, fitness journey:

August 24 – 2-hour leisure swimming at Hill Crest Pool with my cousins. Weigh-in at 154.1 lbs. Perhaps this gain in weight is an indication of greater muscle mass. As goes the fitness principle, gains in muscle must be made before any loss in fat. In the afternoon, I went for a light 1-hour jog. My day concluded with another P90X Ab Ripper X workout.

August 25 – 15 minute upper body workout involving 3 sets x 50 reps of military push-ups and arm curls. Completion of Shaun T’s “Cardio Power and Resistance” Insanity workout. Finish the day with P90X Ab Ripper X. Note: I’m beginning to see some definition around my abdominal area again =D

August 26 – Morning 2-hour workout at Renfrew Fitness Centre. This encompassed 50 minutes of intense cardio and 1-hour of upper body strength training with weights.

So I’ve been back in Vancouver now from my 5-week escapade in Guyana! I had a fantastic time, with much learned on international development, many new friends, and a greater global perspective.

That said, it’s also time for me to get back into shape =D Although I did manage to accommodate 1 run and minor upper body workouts while in Guyana, they have been insufficient to maintain my physique… a cause not helped by the many helpings of delicious, fried Guyanese “bakes” and lack of fresh vegetables. On August 14, I weighed in at an even 153.0 lbs. My fitness goal over the next month will be to restore my body to it’s original ~148 lbs pre-travel weight and acquire more lean muscle mass. I plan to tackle this challenge through a flexible program that combines Shaun T’s “Insanity” workout and my personal endurance training regime. We’ll see how it goes, here are the updates so far:

August 20 – Shaun T’s Insanity Workout #1 “Fit Test” – While only a preliminary fitness assessment, I was sweating VERY profusely by the end of the 30 minutes (potentially also a result of my time roasting under the unforgiving Guyanese sun).

August 21 – Leisure swim with my cousins. Weigh in at 152.4 lbs.

August 22 – In the morning I had an upper body workout comprised of 3 sets x 45 reps each of bicep curls and military push-ups. Later in the afternoon, I went for a 1 hour jog. I finished the day with Shaun T’s “Plyometric Cardio Circuit”.

August 23 – Same morning upper body workout as yesterday. Went for a 25 minute run. Completed the day with the infamous P90X “Ab Ripper X” workout. Feeling slight muscle fatigue, especially in the legs. Hopefully it’ll subside.

Today I returned home from classes and simply felt like running. Perhaps it’s been my recent lack of cardio exercise (other than cycling), but I followed my body’s instinct and headed out for a run. I began slowly and gradually picked up the pace as I ran around Vancouver and Burnaby. Once I reached 10 km I decided to use what remained of my energy in an all out run… I ended up sprinting 8 city blocks. So far I’m feeling good (and not just satisfied with my performance), but we’ll see how my body holds together when I wake up tomorrow.

Image Credit: http://runningshoereview.net/brooks_running_shoes_outlet-0354.jpg

Yesterday, my declaration of the importance in stretching to avoid injury was reaffirmed. While on a trip to the park with my younger cousins, we passed by a basketball court. Hoping to seize the moment and impress my cousins with some old b-ball skill, I attempted to jump and hang off the rim. This lack of ego-restraint proved to be a grave mistake. The moment my feet left the ground, I came crashing back down, with my calves inflamed and seizing.

My cousins, as young as they were, noted that I had not warmed up first. One day later, with a heavily bruised -but still intact- ego and pulsating calves, I finally admited they were right. Thus, I learned two lessons:

1) Warm-up the muscles you intend to use (especially for explosive activities) prior to using them, and

2) Cockiness is often more detrimental than not

Image Credit: http://www.pulled-muscle.com/images/calf-pull.jpg

Fast Food Eating Rats Behave Like Heroin Addicts.  I came across this article on the Vancouver Sun and thought it would be useful to share.

A lot has happened since the Olympic and Paralympic Games, in which, if I may proudly say, Canada has done brilliantly well. Things have slowed down in Vancouver, but Olympic merchandise (now sold at greatly reduced post-games prices) still seems to be quite the hype in Vancouver. In fact my cousin left the Olympic warehouse last week with several bags full of Olympic products…

Unfortunately I haven’t had much time to make updates to my blog, so I feel slightly obliged to make a post now… Specifically, I want to discuss the value of sleep. After 3 weeks where I’ve averaged 5 hours of sleep a night… working on a multitude of assignments, midterm exams and other projects, I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m inadvertently falling asleep while standing (leading to some comical and not-so humorous moments). Accordingly, I’ve decided its time to prioritize my sleep, if only for one night before tackling the next mountain of work. I must say, a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep has done wonders… I feel both more cognitively awake and physically refreshed… both which were lacking in last night’s kendo practice.

That said, I think it is appropriate to recognize that I need to make some major overhauls on my New Year’s resolution to get more sleep. Perhaps it’s the considerably longer commute time to UBC now that I’ve moved back home, but nonetheless I’ll have to find some way to tackle this issue… I think for now I’ll just have to resolve to better time management (ie. creating a better schedule, capitalizing on commuting time by reading, etc). Feel free to post any other suggestions.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympic Games are on! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the Opening Ceremonies (which was fantastic to watch … on the television), but I do hope to attend some of the venues scheduled. I think this is an excellent opportunity for everyone to support and be inspired by our Paralympic athletes. Ah yes… Congratulations to the men’s sledge hockey team yesterday for a 4:0 victory over Italy!

Credit for Image: The Province / Getty, Getty

In other news… After 34 years since the Montreal Olympics, Canada has finally won its first Gold Medal on home soil in men’s moguls today! Congratulations to Alexandre Bilodeau for his achievement at Cypress!

Also of note, Canada’s Kristina Groves won bronze in the 3000 m speed-skating and Jennifer Heil won silver in women’s moguls. Good work and keep on doing Canada proud!

Image Credit: telegraph.co.uk and GETTY IMAGES

Sorry for the late update, but here it is… my adventures and misadventures yesterday at Canada Hockey Place (aka GM Place to local Vancouverites). Since I had only just received my work schedule, I began the day with a trip to the Olympic Accreditation and Uniform building up at Hastings Park to pick up my ID card. After seeing the waves of people heading to the Colosseum, I also discovered I made the right choice in walking rather than taking the bus =).

My shift as a cleaner began at 2:30 pm and lasted ’til 9 pm. Although the job itself was quite uneventful, except for some spills every so often, there were quite a few perks attached. Notably, I got to watch the highlights of the women’s Canada vs Slovakia hockey game in between my work tasks Admittedly, I did take a longer than intentioned break to watch the final 5 minutes of Canada’s victory (18-0). The second incentive came in the form of some yummy food. I didn’t quite expect the Thai curry rice, chicken onion soup, and shepard’s pie to be part of my employee dinner menu, but I didn’t regret it. =D Here are some snapshots of the event:

@ Mainstreet. Across the street from the Ruskky Dom (Science World).

Outside Canada Hockey Place / BC Stadium. I saw some interesting rock formations I believe were set-up to look like the Inuit Inukshuk Olympic logo:

Pre-game. Preparing the ice:

I believe this was taken during first period. Canada scores 3 goals within the first 6 minutes! What an amazing crowd… It was nearly a packed stadium. Go Canada Go!

Post-game – the Zamboni cleans the ice for tomorrow’s game. I kind of wished I asked if I could tag along…

That’s all for now. I do have more photos, but I’ll probably upload them at a later time.

I’m scheduled to work for more hockey games at Canada Hockey Place (and potentially the gold medal matches), so what out for more posts! In the meantime, I think that I’ll be exploring Vancouver Livecity to check out its many Olympic venues.