Category: Fitness

All things fitness related.

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
Day 011 of 2026

And once again our snow has abandoned us here in Aurora, CO. Snow does not seem to like 50+ Degree F weather, it also does not like sun. And we are much closer the the sun here in Colorado then we have ever been anyplace else we have lived.

Took the kids out for their normal morning walk. Again each on their own but we did a 1.67 mile walk on each time, good for my “fitness hours’” for my logging (more on that later) and really good for Res and Climber as they need the exercise. Climber continues to radiate energy in ways only a young greyhound can do so. She doesn’t turn 3 until May. The interesting part is that Climber and Res have started to play with each other leaving the humans in the house with some “heart attack” moments. Especially when the chase involves three sets of stairs, the loop with the kitchen and living room, and then ends up with Climber on Res’s back with an ear in her mouth. I just don’t understand what it is with Greyhounds and wanting to catch the ears of their playmates.

On the positive side, Res has told her off a few times when she has gotten too rough, or when he is trying to sleep and she nails him with a flying toy. She just hasn’t figured out yet that him growling and woofing at her means, “Knock it off and leave me alone!” She thinks it means, “let’s rumble!” Oh, well, I hope she learns without a vet visit.

After breakfast Jesse started in on meal prep for the week which included making the puppy snacks (chicken treats and mackerel treats). I decided to go for my Sunday swim. It was a recovery day so I didn’t push too hard. I am probably going to miss a few days of workouts near the end of this coming week as I will be traveling to an area sort of “devoid” of public pools, so I am trying to get some distance in before I leave. I have a few “challenges” that I am trying to achieve.

Still not my best workouts, but it could be worse. I did manage to make 550 yards without stopping which is a good thing, I need to continue to increase that if I want to do my open water swims this Summer.

My Toy! Not hers, mine!

And with that I wish everyone good night and we will talk again tomorrow.

2026-01-11
Day 010 of 2026

As you can see I am making an effort to post a little something each day. Today is Saturday so I did sleep in a little until Climber decided to wake me up. An hour extra is all I am allowed to have.

I always get an hour or so of reading time until Jesse gets up. Then it’s out to walk the dogs. On weekends they both get solo walks. Res goes first and then Climber.

Temps were around 20 degrees F by the time I got them up and out. So jackets for all.

Res’s main objective on his walk is to stick his nose into and pee on as many clumps of grass as he can.

For Climber I really dont know what her goal is. But she enjoys her walks and has gotten so much better about her jacket since the first time we put her in it.

Got them both walked and then had a nice breakfast burrito, homemade of course.

Then off to the pool for a long swim. Remind me in the future to never go on Saturday morning. Saturday mornings at the pool suck. Swim lessons and way too many kids. But, once I got a lane I finally broke the 2000 yards I have been trying to break. It was awesome! My times suck, my stamina sucks, but I made my first goal. Now since I broke that I have to see about increasing the distance on my sets, and…..much as I do not like it…. I have to increase the use of freestyle rather than breaststroke.

I really want to be able to do the Mountain Lake Swim Series this Summer and I don’t think I can do it with Breaststroke being 50% of my swimming. Also, I need to try and get a 1 hour swim in for the US Masters Swimming 1 Hour swim competition, though I will never place it is a good activity.

I finally decided to sync my swimming with swim.com as I am serious about doing a few events this year, and of course that led me down the rabbit hole of the different events in US Masters Swimming. Yeh me. But that’s OK, it will help.

Dinner was Pork Loin and veggies. Really good.

Anyways time to wrap up today. See you tomorrow!

2026-01-10
Day 008 of 2026

My office assistant joined me in the basement yard (my office) today for most of the morning and some of the afternoon. He is sort of a useless assistant, good thing he is cute! Seriously he comes downstairs as it is pretty much quiet and no one bugs him. Very little sound in my office.

Started off the day with a few technician phone calls and some training tasks I needed to get done. Found, retested, and document a problem with our app. The afternoon was all about pricing requests and Cause of Loss Determinations (COLDs). This is where I need to review the photographs, readings, and notes that our field technicians submit and then determine a cause of loss and a resolution that will be sent to the insurance company (our clients) as a part of their final reports. There are two of us that do the more complex of these requests. I primarily work with the electrical side of things and one of my colleagues works with the mechanical side of things. Keeps us busy.

I did get out for an early lunch as was able to hit up the pool for some swim time. It’s sort of embarrassing that I am struggling with distances right now. I am the guy that used to swim 5K and 10K open water events. Now I am having trouble increasing my distances beyond 1.5K. I know I will get there eventually, but I am so out of shape. Today was slightly better and I was able to add a little distance, even though I was not feeling that great for some reason. May have been what I ate for breakfast.

Then this afternoon we took the dogs on their evening walk, it was a little bit cooler with some light snow so no one lingered.

Anyway the company I work for, Alpine Intel, has rolled out a new wellness app that is replacing the Coolleaf and Waliba that we used to use. Starting this week we are on Wellright. It’s going to be an interesting change. They are now basing everything on fitness activity time rather than steps. I am really glad to see the move away from steps as this whole idea of 10,000 steps per day was never scientific and the idea of 40 minutes per day of moderate to strenuous physical activity makes a lot more sense. We will see how this works out.

2026-01-08