AFib Asian: September 2018

Family, Fitness and Food

Well this post is really just about more birthday celebrations, but at the same time it's been a whirlwind Birthday weekend. I guess this is my year so the celebrations continue.

My day started with my second visit since returning to OrangeTheory Fitness and met up with Gym Mom Angie who is also an OTF convert.

Sweat Session with this Mom of 3

After consuming a ton of delicious pot luck food I had to hit up OTF and it just happened Angie was there 😅. I had taken a couple of months off since I was told to take it easy, but after listening to my body and consulting with the professionals they said I was ok to continue with my excercise if I wish to stay fit. I just had to be careful and not hit the high intensity so instead of the tread I move to the cycle so it keeps my Heart rate within reason.

Today was an ESP workout which means Endurance, Strength and Power so it means inclines, hills, pushes and heavier weights. Definitely what my body needed to burn off the calories! #BirthdayBurn

Near Perfect Pyramid

Overalll good workout and it started off with a birthday shoutout by Coach Leon!

Birthday Dinner with my ladies

It's beginning to be like tradition we go to the Keg. It is even better when it is right here in Stittsville! Great meal and we were even served by one of our neighbours daughter Courtney! Great meal and service. No complaints. #eatallthefood

Pina Colada

Prime Rib Classic

Birthday Billy Miner Pie (Shared)

Overall, I had a very relaxing day and read all my social media posts and officially announced this blog to explain my heart condition and of course celebrate the next 50!

#ThisIsFifty

#ThisIsFifty #ThisIs50 #HappyBirthday

Today I celebrate a milestone! I am 50!

50 and it was official as of 5:18 am ET
and yes when I was born my last name was Wong!

Saturdays and pretty much each weekend I have a meet up of sorts with my people with the Bushtukah Trail Running crew. It is always nice to see this crew out and enjoying the fall temperatures. I even had the pleasure of running with a former co-worker Erin. She's getting into trail running through our mutual friend/group leader Kate. Since Kate was away our co-leader was Therese who always bring us treats and coffee!! She takes really good care of us also! I only wanted to do 5K while the others did around 9-12K which was out at Old Quarry Trail P5 across from Hazeldean Mall. I left the crew I was running with and the remainder when on to another trail while I took the other loop of B23 back to P5, but wanted to make sure I got my minimum 5K in the books. A couple of runners had already returned and I had some cookies and an apple. I had to balance out the calories! 😁 I stayed to socialize and stretch a bit, but as I was cooling down I was getting chilled so I left my the crew and headed home as I needed to be back before 11a as I had a date!!!

My oldest decided she wanted to take me to see the Broadway musical School of Rock at the National Arts Centre. She knew I enjoyed the movie with Jack Black and said GnG (Grandma and Grandpa) would love for me to take the tickets and see the show!

We left to have an early lunch at le Café; however, when we arrived the resto was closed. They were only open for the dinner hour. We were seeing the matinee show. She was disappointed as she wanted to treat her old man for a lunch and a show. So we did the next best thing and went out across the way to Nando's. She doesn't remember having the chicken there before when we went to Vancouver, but she decided to give it a try. Also it was close and we didn't want to get rained on in case the weather changed as they were forecasting showers.

Nando's Tabouleh Chicken Sandwich

If you have never eaten at Nando's its not your typical restaurant as you go in and you get seated, but you get menus and then you order as if you are at a fast food restaurant so the premise is that there is no need for an actual waitress/waiter to serve you as you serve yourself, but there is staff that bring you your meal. You just have to remember your table number when you place the order. As well you are left to get your own cutlery, non-alcohol drinks and sauces (if you like extra spice or garlic).

Lunch out was just as nice as long as I was with my date. 😇

The musical is about a washed up band member who is hanging out with his best bud and his girlfriend and mooching off them rent free. He was being mocked daily by his friends girlfriend as his BFF had gone into supply teaching (babysitting) as Dewey was mocking his career choice. The ultimatum was laid down that if he didn't get rent soon he would be out! Then a call came for Ned his BFF about a potential supply teaching job at a private school that would pay him a large sum of cash if he could look after a bunch of 11 year olds. Well I won't reveal much more but these kids/actors are extremely talented singers and musicians! They play their own instruments! It was an amazing show!

Obligatory shot with the musical poster

Intermission

Waiting for the show to start!

We had our own private box!

I can't re-iterate enough how talented the cast of kids were. Even the adults were amazing in their roles, but really who are we kidding the show is all about them!

After the show we headed to the car as we needed to get home for the party. It was meant to be a surprise but there were too many clues and subtle hints that were too hard not to notice. Whenever your house is de-cluttered you know something is up. Let me just say I was more than happy to see all my friends and co workers mix it up in my different social circles that I am in. It was all my oldest Mei-Ling who orchestrated the surprise and my wife Kiera and Lia that executed the party while ML was out distracting me.

Just some of the folks at the party

5-0

My Run Buddies

Decorations by Lia and Devon

The cake by GnG

Balloons!

Decoration committee aka Lia & Devon were hard at work

One of the required hats for the party!

Yes there was cake! A lot!

Thank you friends for all the cards and well wishes!

My new #olddude hat

For the Bling

To all my friends who made it out last night,
I 😍 you all for making my party special!

Medication and LAGS

Medication update and the LAGS

A relatively short post, but I've been doing more with the cycling and running and having the break from OrangeTheory to focus on something like my health has been different and allowing me to spend time on a different sport.

So what is LAGS well if you're in IT like me then it stands for latest and greatest syndrome as you always have to have the latest gadget!

But before I digress at my last appointment before the duathlon my BP wasn't low enough for him so my focus is to try for 130/80. That is going to be a huge challenge for me. My BP has never been able to get low enough on a consistent basis. I attribute it to my diet. I'll be honest, but also warned by the doc to have a healthy balance of sodium. So until then he's increased one of the doses for my BP and to see if that has any effect. WE shall see in about a month near the end of October if more adjustments are required. Only time will tell.

Now back to the LAGS. So as you know I've done my Duathlon and once that was done it was one of the hardest cycling the three of us did as I had a mountain bike and the ladies had their hybrids sooooo doing a duathlon road race and NOT on a road bike was a challenge in its own. So I've been looking around and seeing posts from people on what to do. Do I go used, end of season, new??? Then I remembered the term LAGS and of course is this just a phase? I'm really not sure so at the moment as I type this I don't have any desire now to invest a ton of money into an actual road bike, but even if I get a used one and try that at another duathlon I will be in a much better zone then pushing with the resistance of a giant tire versus the speed of an actual road bike.

However, I did invest on the mountain bike or rather the sport a new headlight as some of our rides did go in the wee hours; some cycling shorts as my butt was really starting to feel it; and some cycling gloves. A small consolation for NOT buying a thousand dollar bike! 😏

next post road to Canada Army Run

Canada Army Run 2018

Canada Army Run 2018 edition

If you people know me then it's apparent I thrive or rather succumb to peer pressure 😄 but truthfully I could have ignored all of that and said no way am I doing ANOTHER Army Run commander's challenge after two stinking hot years in a row. In fact when I signed up I didn't even realize I had a heart condition. I was actually training to PB in my fall races. Of course all of that came to a screeching halt.

I was left with either sell/transfer my bib or just do the race. There were really no conditions on doing this challenge wellll other than not doing it but then it would have been money not very well spent. Part of the ego was I didn't want to DNS (Did not start) OR a DNF (Did not Finish) those are acronyms a runner hates to admit to doing, but it happens.

If you don't know the Commander's Challenge is doing two races in one day. In fact the transition between one race and the start of the next one could be about 40 mins. The challenge consists of first running a 5K at 8a and then doing the 1/2 marathon at 9:30 so in theory if you run fast like some of the elites then you could have a nice long break between races. OR if you were strategic you used the 5K as a nice tempo run to guage your pace and then do the 1/2.

But I'll put my link to my usual race report that I posted on FB.

Canada Army Run 2018

So far I only have the 5K finish line video, but free! Thanks Zoom Photo and for the pics!

Run Crew and Support

I'm not sure how I would have coped without my run community around me. Whether it's my loyal crew of Run Buddies I met through the marathon clinic to the folks at Run Ottawa; Bushtukah Trail Running and of course my fellow Team Awesome 2018 crew who I shared my story to them on social media and some of the folks who know and run with me to keep me grounded. I'll post the recent pics from some of the social runs and even my first Ottawa RedBlacks game! Thanks Wendy!

I appreciate you all for your support from emails or posts on social media or just those painful slow runs I have to endure to keep my HR low.
So here are photos and there are many more but these are the most recent ones. 😍

Gatineau Park

Well some other adventures I've undertaken is hiking in the Gats. Other than doing one trail at Camp Fortune I have never hiked in Gatineau Park. We've taken the girls to MacKenzie King Estate, but I've not done any of these infamous trails around the NCC.

I had this idea and decided to drag a couple of the work wives with me. In fact I don't recall exactly how this came to be, but it started with an idea and from there it became a fun way to hang with the work wives outside of work. So Heather, Lyne and I went on some epic adventures in the Gats.

It's hard to put into words the euphoria one feels doing something like this as the elevation and just the scenery is beyond words. It means that much more when you have good company to share these adventures with.

I think the pictures below explain the adventures we go on as Lyne is our tour guide while Heather and I seem to take turns pushing our limits.