Category: Fitness

All things fitness related.

Day 038 of 2026

And Happy Saturday everyone!

Got up almost at my normal time this morning. I knew Res needed to go out as he didn’t do all of his business last night so I didn’t lay around in bed too long after I woke up. And, sure enough he was desperate. I did my normal routine of giving the dogs their morning snacks and then sat down to filter through my email, an endless project.

After Jesse got up I did the normal Saturday walks with Res and Climber. They get their lone walks on weekends. Res gets to go first and we do about a mile and a half walk.

And then I came back and got Climber. Climber is still a baby in her energy level so she gets a slightly longer weekend walk. Climber got to do 2.77 miles, I think it would have been a little longer but we had some other dogs I was trying to avoid. I normally try to do 3 miles with her on Saturday morning. Climber got to say “Hello” to the Prairie Dogs along Power Line Trail.

Her walk goes up the hill a little further, cuts through an apartment complex, then the power line trail, and then back down to Highland Meadows Park, and home.

After we had our late breakfast (Actually, brunch), and my second cup of coffee, I went over to Cherry Creek State Park and jogged (gasp, panted, walked, repeat) a section of the park I have never done before. I was bored with my normal route. I also really wanted to see if I could repeat the same heart rate drop that I have been experiencing over the last few higher intensity workouts that I have been seeing on the two treadmill runs that I did in Saint Louis. And…. Guess what? Yes, my heart rate dropped significantly and it should have been going up.

But, here is the interesting part; if you look at the above overlay of heart rate and cadence it appears that this may be a false reading of my heart rate, the watch seems to have locked onto my cadence and is miss-reading it as my heart rate. I did some online research and this is something that is a known problem with the heart rate capturing fitness watches. The only way to resolve this for running and walking activities is to use a heart rate chest strap that connects to your watch. That separates the HR and the cadence. Yup, I have one on order. This is the stuff that drives me nuts. If a watch manufacturer knows about this problem you would think that they would make this more public knowledge and warn you about it up front. Anyways, we are going to verify this problem with the heart monitor that I have been told is on the way (I just went and verified that it is actually on it’s way and have the tracking number. It is sitting in the USPS processing center here in Denver. Supposed to be delivered Monday afternoon sometime.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Total distance: 7.78 mi
Max elevation: 5706 ft
Min elevation: 5570 ft
Total climbing: 1089 ft
Total descent: -1086 ft
Average speed: 4.40 mi/h
Average cadence: 60
Average heart rate: 109
Average temperature:
Total time: 01:48:55

As I mentioned I took a different path today at the park and saw some of the pollution control that they had installed in Shop Creek as it appears to have some history. As a part of the cleanup they installed these concrete “Steps” in about 4 different places along the creek.

And also some other scenery along the way. Different view from my normal views. It looks like the little creek under the bridge in the wetlands area was almost washed away during one of our snow melts a month or so ago. Hope they fix that, it moved as I walked over it.

I am going to try and get in a longer swim tomorrow because I want to get the Garmin Connect Swim Week challenge for February done before the heart monitor shows up as once I have that sucker on I can’t swim for 11 days, it will be only dryland workouts.

I spent a little bit of time working on some radio settings for the KO4YAW station. I really need to figure out how to get the antenna up on a higher pole. I don’t think I will ever be able to get the full 40ft as I had in Florida but I would really like to get a little bit over the height of the house.

Dinner tonight was really good. Jesse cooked a turkey meatloaf with a recipe from Weight Watchers and that was with green beans and mashed potatoes. Of course there was a little bit of leftover ‘tatoes and Res got to enjoy some and Climber got to lick the pot. Potatoes are Res’s favorite meal.

Day 038 of 2026
18394 E Arkansas Ave, Aurora, CO 80017, USA

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2026-02-07
Day 029 of 2026
Started off the day working and trying to pack for today’s travels. I had both my office assistants for a while today.

Res and Climber

They didn’t help much. But, I did get caught up on a lot of pending tasks, got a number of pricing projects completed, and tested some app issues.

Then it was time to head out for my train, plane, and automobile adventures. Jesse took me up to the trains station to catch the A-Line to the airport. From the house it takes me less than an hour to drop bags and get through security. Love this airport, I think it is one of the easiest airports I fly in and out of. One bag of tools, one bag of clothing, and the backpack for all of my technology and medications.

Got through the security mess and then did my usual walk over the skybridge to the A terminal, they always have neat displays along the way where the used to have the old security checkpoint. Today was no different and it was a display of old style ice cream carts. All hand painted by local vendors/artists.

My fitness for the day on airport days is to walk the total walk-able public areas of all 3 terminals. It comes to about 4.5 miles of concourse when I am done. Made my steps, did not make my heart rate levels because I was unable to get the pace I needed due to all the people who have no idea how to get out of my way! All good, I will hit up the hotel gym over the next few days to make up for it.

Oh, word for the wise…. don’t leave your bags unattended at Denver International, they pick it up, paint it, and make it part of their display…..

In case anyone was wondering today’s destination is Saint Louis, Missouri. I have two appointments there tomorrow and then I move onto my next stop, more on that in a few days. I am typing this at 34,000 Ft someplace near Kansas City, KS/MO and I try very hard to think of one appointment at a time. At least today is a nice smooth ride (so far).

Of course I forgot my iPhone, I usually don’t travel with it, everything is on my Samsung Galaxy Android phone, but occasionally I need to test bugs and reports of bugs in our Alpine Intel Diagnostic Wizard app on the iPhone. Since I was going to be gone a full week and we are going into a release cycle, I meant to grab my iPhone off my desk and bring with. Well….. I sort of figured this out after I was through security at the airport. Not much I could do about it at that point. I really need to find a way to test iOS apps on my Windows machine or on my Android. Crossing my fingers that I don’t end up with a major problem that needs my attention.

Anyways, arrived at a totally dead Saint Louis, MO (STL) airport. I mean even security was closed and it wasn’t that late. Baggage came pretty quickly, and I was able to get out to the rental car shuttle. Got over to the car lot and picked my car, I love the Executive Aisle at National Car Rental, almost got to the exit booth and I looked down at the gas tank and yup, it was on Empty. A manager came out to the booth and I stayed warm in the booth while he went and filled the car. Finally got out of there.

I decided to use the Homewood Suites on this trip, I have done the Double Tree here before and ended up with food poisoning from their restaurant that caused a 10 day hospital stay a few hears back, so not staying there again. Now, once again here is my pet peeve as a frequent traveler. I get to the hotel, the parking lot is not plowed and I finally find a space I can “slide” into. Make the trek up to the lobby and even though I have a digital key I stop by the front desk to get my free waters. OK, I am told the water is in my room. And, I need a parking pass (for 10.00 per night) that I have to put on my dashboard or get towed. So I trek back down to the car, leaving my luggage in the lobby by the desk, and put the piece of paper on the dashboard. For 10.00 per night I can’t help but wonder why they can’t plow the lot?

Get back up, go to my room. No water. What a shock. Go back down to the desk to get my water and got a bit of an attitude from the desk clerk. Also wanted to pick up some food from their little store. I used to be able to charge these purchases to my room. Nope, not anymore. You have to pay using a little kiosk off to the side. There are no more room charges, pay with your credit card. This is becoming more frequent, what is going on is they have franchised out the “shop” to an outside vendor. I am not sure what the incidentals deposit at the hotel is used for anymore. I am really starting to question my allegiance to the Hilton Chain. Sometimes I wonder if I would do better at some of the other chain properties.

Anyways, I am done of the night. I hope everyone has a good and peaceful overnight. See you tomorrow.
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Day 029 of 2026
8040 Clayton Rd, Richmond Heights, MO 63117, USA
  
 
 
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2026-01-29
Day 028 of 2026

Hey all! Busy day today, started off the day with a few cups of coffee and some breakfast egg/bacon/mushroom muffins. Then it was all out keeping caught up. Around 11:15 I had enough and decided to go out and take my lunch with a long jog/walk to get my steps in. I wasn’t feeling like swimming today, I have a tendon at the back of my left knee that is cramping and a little painful. It is in an area that gets a lot of strain when I swim breaststroke so I will take a few days out of the water (maybe).

Anyways, today was about 5 miles and I think I did pretty decently, especially since I had to wait for traffic a few times along the way.

I was able to see some neat scenery along the way, check this out.

Once I was home, got right back on the phone with several of our technicians who needed support, and then spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with cause of loss determination requests (what went wrong and why?). These are both interesting and challenging at times. Also had to try to figure out how to fit in another potential rather important inspection. More on that maybe tomorrow. Scheduling is sometimes very difficult due to the number of people and different goals involved.

Res would like to have a few words here:

Me: Res, why you hanging out in the livingroom?
Res: This bed is the warmest bed in the house.
Me: It might be
Res: I can’t figure out why
Me: It’s sitting right on top of the heat vent.
Res: Oh…. that’s why. Can you do this in the bedroom?
Me: Nope! I like heat too.
Res: Me share! Don’t tell The Thing about the warm bed.
Me: Don’t worry she is only searching out the sunbeams you ignore.

Anyways, this day is a wrap. Talk to you tomorrow.

2026-01-28
Day 027 of 2026

Another day in the books! Almost all the snow is gone and we got up over 50 degrees today here in Aurora, Colorado. Big temperature change from over the weekend and it looks like the rest of the week is going to be as warm.

Started off the day with a meeting to discuss how we can handle testing a truckload of solar equipment (panels, inverters, and other components) that turned over in CA and spilled it’s load all over the road, in pieces. OK, I can handle that, I may have a trip coming up to California. Not sure yet.

After doing a bunch of work this morning I took an early lunch so that I could hit up the Rec Center prior to an inspection I had early afternoon. The pool was way too crowded so I did a dry land workout. 35 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the indoor track and stairs. I am satisfied. I hate treadmills, but they do help me with maintaining a pace and building up endurance. The indoor track allows me a padded surface to walk on, and also I can take advantage of the steps down to the basketball courts, it’s about two flights of stairs each time I do them.

My afternoon appointment was at a fire investigators shop. A furnace caught on fire in the middle of a service call. Objective was to find the cause. The cause is not always the first thing that comes to mind. The original cause can be something different than the final cause. Can have two different results in terms of insurance payment. I can’t share too many details here due to privacy and rules I live by, but kids…. listen up! If you need to test a furnace, whatever you do, do not pull the high limit safety to prevent it from cycling on high limit during your testing. The best idea if you know a furnace is overheating is to remember there is only 1 thing that can cause a gas furnace to overheat: Lack of Airflow. Repeat that again, furnaces overheat due to lack of airflow. If you want to trace down the lack of airflow, turn the fan switch on the thermostat to “On” from “Auto” and find what is blocking air movement in the duct-work. Do not remove or bypass any high limit switch. Bad things can happen.

Anyways, I finished up with that, got my findings submitted from the inspection location, stopped in a nearby parking lot to log in and assist a technician with a few problems. Finally got home and still had about an hour of work to do. Had to do my summary write-up for my manager on the inspection so that he can get the report written. And also needed to clean up any urgent tech support issues and tags. Wrapped it up.

Did our normal 4pm evening dog walk, about 1/2 a mile around the park. Res and Climber both expect it, actually demand, their walks and know what time it is. It was a decent walk but it did get a little chilly along the way and there were still some patches of ice. Came back, fed them, and had dinner.

Our after dinner relaxation time had a brief interruption…… Res and Climber wish to take over my blog for a little while:

Climber: Hey HUMAN! He woofed at me!
Me: Was there a reason he woofed at you?
Climber: Nope! All I was doing was getting my bed ready for my nap.
Me: How were you getting your bed ready?
Climber: I was scratching at it. Making it softer
Me: And what happened?
Climber: He woofed at me.
Res: She Lies! Liar Liar Paw On Fire!
Climber: Shut it Res!
Me: Res…. does this sound like you are loosing? Be quiet!
Me: Climber, when you were scratching did you see Res laying nearby?
Climber: Nope when it woofed I didn’t see it!
Me: Why?
Climber: I don’t know
Res: The put the bed on top of me and I couldn’t see anything! She buried me!
Climber: I did not, it levitated on it’s own, you still Woofed at me!
Res: OK, next time I don’t woof, you will loose an ear or a tail!
Me: Nope, no vet bills!!!! Climber, back to your corner. Stop annoying Res.
Res: Yeh, Leave me alone!
Me: Res, stop annoying Climber.
Me: Back to your corners.

And that’s a wrap for today, see you tomorrow.

2026-01-27
Day 026 of 2026

Nothing of too much interest today, sort of a boring day, well from a blog perspective. The dogs did not get a walk until later in the morning, wanted to give it a chance to warm up a little. The temperature swings over the last two days have been amazing. Freezing, thawing, re-freezing, thawing again, and today if got up into the 40’s.

The dogs are so confused.

Spent the morning working, I was buried in the requests from the processing team today as well as our resolutions department to review quotes and other such fun things. This afternoon I wrapped that all up, stayed working later than normal so that I could clean out anything remaining in my queues. I also spent a bit of time this evening catching up on tech coaching/support tasks. My goal is to finally get caught up on initial contacts and then I can work on all my follow-ups. I got the new request down to one. Tomorrow or Wednesday I will start working on my follow-ups. I need to bounce a few things off of my manager first.

I did make it to the pool today, later than I wanted to, but I did get a 30 minute swim in, did a mile. I am working on my distance, not overall, but distance I can swim at one time without stopping. That is extremely important from an endurance swim perspective. I am somewhat happy with my progress but it is not where I want it yet. I have been hitting 9:15 for 500 yards, which is OK, but I struggle to get past 500 yards, and I really need to be able to do 10 times that comfortably.

2026-01-26 Sets

2026-01-26 Stats

Anyways, that wraps up my day. Now sitting down and reading and updating this blog. You will note that I haven’t posted anything political, and have been avoiding recent events. I am doing that for two reasons, first I have wanted to keep this a pure journal of my life, and second I do have some concerns about putting much of anything in writing these days. I wish I didn’t feel that way because I have a lot to say. Not sure what I am going to do about that in the future.

Have a good evening, we will chat tomorrow.

2026-01-26
Day 025 of 2026

OK, so I had opened my big mouth, I guess Florida is now participating in Winter 2026 – at least for a few days. It will all be gone by the end of the week. I am happy that I got Res’s and Climber’s morning walk in before the snow started to Fall. Hey Canada, your drunk weather is in my back yard, would you please come get it back?

Current weather – snow

Climber in her Sunbeam

Res ignoring Climber

Today was the day to take down Christmas and pack it away for next year. Jesse normally does the tree and it’s best if I stay out of the way, so after I brought the boxes up to the living room I went for an hour swim. I really wanted to get the full hour in because I needed to submit an hour swim to US Master’s Swimming for the first virtual competition event of 2026. I also needed a competitive event to submit to to WellRight to get credit for 1 out of 4 athletic events (it’s a work fitness/health/mental health sponsored thing).

I didn’t do the best, I probably will be at the bottom of my age group, but this was important to me to at least get done. I plan on (hopefully) doing all 4 US Master’s events this year. There is a 5K and a 10K swim competition that requires a 50M pool that I may have to figure out how to get done as I am not sure we have a 50 meter pool anywhere near me, but that can be done anywhere between May 15th and September 15th.

Never mind, I digress, but I got home and helped Jesse with taking down the rest of Christmas and packing it all away down in the basement for next year. At least being out of Florida I am less concerned about mice getting into stuff as we were in the Florida house’s attic. It’s time to get the basement ready for Spring planting in a few months, though looking outside right now I am not thinking about Spring.

I guess the kids (Res and Climber) are not getting their afternoon walks today. And of course that will mess with their dinner, greyhounds are creatures of habit and routine. Res has a tendency not to eat well if his routine is messed up. And…. his routine is messed up with this cold weather.

Jesse has been slow cooking broccoli cheese soup today. Hopefully it’s almost ready, it’s soooooo good.

Anyways, I think that’s a wrap for today. I am going to sit here and read for a bit, maybe go on Facebook for a bit. I also really need to figure out what to do about my Linkdin profile. My resume on there is tailored for a specific position I was trying for over 6 years ago. It does not represent over 40 years of working life. I had a deposition a week or so ago for an insurance case I was asked to be a witness for and I was disqualified as an expert in that base based on my Linkdin resume. I am wondering if the safest bet is to remove my resume from Linkdin. I keep an accurate copy of my resume here and I would rather people have a current resume than a really old one and one that has been shortened to fit the needs of a specific employer.

Good Night and I will talk to you all tomorrow.

2026-01-25
Day 021 of 2026

A busy day today believe it or not. Work, fitness, dogs, etc.

Started off the day at my normal time, logging into work about 6:45am Mountain Time (8:45 Eastern). Started off the day with a significant number of requests, be it Cause of Loss Determination (COLD)s, technician support requests, and pricing/invoice review tags the first thing in the morning ones receive priority. Once I get those done I can start whittling down the list of other requests that I have inherited. I can never finish it all in one day and it is sort of good for me to realize that.

I was able to get out for a lunch break today, decided it wasn’t a swimming day for me, I just didn’t feel like it, so I got outside to get a walk in. It wasn’t bad, didn’t push it, but did get in a little over 4 miles. I also was able to finish the book on “tape” that I have been working on. I read the print book, loved it, and now the audio book was good as well, “Heated Rivalry” is a must read book. I hear the movie is good as well but I have never seen a movie that is as good as the book. Also saw my Prairie Dogs today, I call them the Neighborhood Watch!

Got back from lunch and then worked another couple hours. As I work for an East Coast company I try to wrap up my workday by 2:45-3:00pm MT and then I have some downtime in the afternoon before the regular evening things of dog walk, feed, food,

You would think that would wrap up our day, but no, I am right now trying to figure out why Climber is trying to push every button I have. She is not settling down and she is going to end up back in her crate again….. And she is in jail again. Everyone deserves some rest and relaxation time and Climber has to start realizing that she needs to settle down. She is not getting out of food mode and this is becoming a major issue.

This is Climber starting the destruction of the next toy. Below is Res protecting his favorite toy.

And then we have Climber pondering out of crate time…. will she be good…… will she be bad…..? It’s a 50/50 toss up.

Anyways, see you tomorrow and I will see what I can do to add something exciting to tomorrows post.

2026-01-21
Day 014 of 2025

What a difference a day makes! Yes, I had a much better day today, I think yesterday was due to the Tylenol PM that I took on Monday evening. Yeh, remind me not to do that again. For some reason it hits me about the same way Nyquil does and just makes me a miserable zombie the next day.

Of course my day started off with work. Not a bad morning, was on standby for a presentation about our companies online technical education, this is where we mix my background in education into my current role. My manager says that the leadership team was impressed. I think we will see what happens moving forward. There are six other organizations owned by the parent company. I would like nothing better for my role to bend in the direction of education.

Anyways, finally got out of the office for an early lunch and surprises of all a lane opened up at the pool as soon as I showed up, it was almost like they were waiting for me. Yup, that was awesome. I had a nice swim today, some of my times increased. I didn’t totally get the distance I wanted, but that’s OK, I felt good when it was done. Next up is an hour long swim that I need to complete US Masters Swimming competition. Maybe over the coming weekend I can do that.

Tomorrow will bring some fun and excitement, I will share as it’s happening. Send vibes for good weather across the country.

See ya tomorrow!

2026-01-14
Day 013 of 2026

Much as I hate to post it, rough day today. It was a workday but I feel I got nothing accomplished. I did not sleep well last night for some reason. I had a little shoulder pain from the PT appointment yesterday, and I took a Tylenol PM which really knocks me out, but the side affect of that is that I am groggy and not myself for most of the morning.

Spent most of my day on cause of loss determinations and pricing. We joke about “Trash Tuesday” at work sometimes and today was a classic example. Seemed to be the catch-all day of claims that needed a lot of investigation before making determinations. These Tuesdays happen about once a month and I don’t understand why, but always takes twice as long to do come to conclusions and/or pricing. A lot of background training also happens on these Tuesdays. And, one of my colleagues was in the field today on a large inspection and some of his work comes my direction as well. Teamwork is all part of the job. I don’t really mind as he handles a slightly different line of business than I normally do and it keeps me fresh on that line as well.

I finally got out for my swim today, which went about as well as everything else has today. For some reason my watch missed a few lengths of the pool, left me with some odd numbers. I think I know why, I did not hit the wall hard enough on two turns. But, I did manage to get in my 1800 yards, probably more like 1850 had everything counted. Of course because I wasn’t feeling all that great I just didn’t have the energy to do more, or move faster.

As you can see, not the best, I am not happy with it. But, I did finish a few of the Garmin Connect challenges today, which was sort of cool.

The next one I am doing is an actual event with US Masters Swimming, the 1 hour challenge. How far can I swim in one hour? Need to find an hour to get in the pool.

Anyways, had dinner, did the normal afternoon stuff, logged back on to make sure nothing “appeared” in my in-box for work. Tomorrow is another day. In the photo at the top of this post Res (left) and Climber (right) have the right idea….. nap time. See you tomorrow.

2026-01-13
Day 012 of 2026

Started off the day with a physical therapy appointment at UC Health. Yes, that’s right, I did go for a PT appointment. I have been having pain in my left shoulder for years. It’s an old swimming injury from the days of “no pain – no gain” that has given me issues for years. The doctors in Florida were like, “if it hurts don’t do it and we can give you some medications to mask the pain.” I am not a fan of meds so I went back to the doctors here in Colorado a few months ago. They did a few x-rays and found the source of the issue, calcification on one of the tendons in my shoulder. My biggest fear was a torn rotator cuff, and I was very happy not to have this problem, so the current plan is to do some stretching and strength building exercises and do a monthly session with the PT. We talked about my swimming and I was encouraged to continue but I do have to cut back on the breaststroke as it could be putting extra stress on that tendon. I guess I will continue to work on that change.

I missed my workout today. The PT appointment took up my free time for the day and my lunch break. I will make up for it tomorrow.

Spent the rest of the day working. Had a lot of pricing to do, some very interesting claims showed up on my desk and I had to dig in deep to find some solutions. Sent a couple back for an additional inspection to gather some additional information. It happens occasionally at no fault of anyone’s. I am also spending some time on tech development and training. Most of this involves sending email reminders at this point, and also resetting passwords for people that can’t seem to remember their own. I do need to write a few additional courses but that may wait until after an upcoming trip.

Took the dogs out for their regular afternoon walk, it was a nice 54 degree day. They got to sniff and smell all over the park. Something is going on up the street from us, we think someone hit a natural gas line or power line since the utility company has emergency trucks all over the area. We have power and we have gas, so it can’t be too big of an issue.

Over the weekend I moved my Ham Radio station over to receiving SSTV images, this is slow screen TV on the Amateur Radio bands. I have received some really awesome images over the last day or so.

I know! Everyone says, “so what you can do this with the internet and email!”, but there is some magic in sending and receiving over radio.

Anyways, that’s it for tonight. See you tomorrow.

2026-01-12