My Attempt at Living a Life

Tweet So here is the question: Does stretching matter before a run? I've been having shin splints. It hasn't slowed me down. But not much does. When I want to run, I'm going and that's then end of that. Still, I want to be able to run without the pain and I think that if I start stretching, then I'll get rid of the pain. So I started researching. I've known how to stretch for years; by playing hockey, soccer and just keeping fit I've learned so many different warm-up and cool down techniques that I don't really think that I need help. But with the shin-splints, I'm open to suggestions of how to get rid of them. I started to look at some websites and I found a few interesting things: Suffering From Shin Splints? Try This (fitsugar.com) Ways to Prevent Shin Splints (fitsugar.com) I’m getting shin splints. What workouts can I do? (theglobeandmail.com) Then when I started thinking about stretching before running, I looked into a few things. T...

Tweet "My attempt at living" has given me a lot of time to be introspective about what I learn through the weeks. This week, my mind has been on a trip that I am planning with students for March Break of 2012. It is set for us to go to Rome and Paris and I want to make sure that I get enough kids. But our minds never stay in one place... or at least mine doesn't. So I've also been thinking about why I started this blogs, shin-splints and online contests. So first things first. I started this blog to talk about how I am trying to live my life the best I can. I want to accomplish things. I want to leave this world a better place than when I found it. I want to make a contribution. And today I judged an Elementary School Drama Festival. Somehow, in the course of my career as a teacher I became the Theatre Arts guy. I teach Theatre Arts. I don't have special training for it. I just used theatre in my classroom as a teaching tool for years and someone gave me a sh...

Tweet Image via CrunchBase Here is what I've learned this week: 1) Twitter is a great fitness tool. 2) Fixing a roof in winter can cause some issues. First off, I'd like to say that on my fitness journey, I'm in a lull; a rut if you will. I've run 3 times this week and had one weight workout. That may not seem so bad, but before I started training for a half-marathon I was doing a weight routine and a cardio workout four times a week. So for me to go from 8 wourkouts to 4. I'm not feeling all that accomplished. So why have I slowed? I'm finding that while I'm running good distances: 4,5, or 8 miles, I'm not getting as much of a burn in the time that I run. I don't sweat as much. My joints also hurt more from a long run than say a Beachbody Insanity workout. I could do the "pure cardio" workout after a full chest and back weight routine and then still feel good to go the next day. Not only that, but I was getting sculpted. With runn...

Tweet There have been quite a few changes in life this week.  I've been starting to run again, which is something I posted about in my last blog. But, you never can tell when you are going to "start something" and then you find that without realizing it, you've abruptly stopped. I've been learning about Twitter; how to use it mostly. But along with that, I've been revisiting some movies and tv shows that I've already seen. It's been an interesting week so far and it's not done yet. I've had to make a decision about what I want out of fitness. Do I want to have muscle? Or do I want to have cardio? Some people say that you can have a balance, but I'm finding that hard to believe. When I made the switch from P90X to Insanity, I didn't notice it but I lost a lot of muscle mass. I had been doing over 300 push-ups, but after a month of the Insanity program, I'd lost it. So from there came the realization that I'd actually gotten in...

Tweet There are so many things that have happened in my life since my last post. I've been married for over half a year, and have put on another successful play. I've seen more movies; most of which were terrible. But I have developed a fondness for a few new things and am re-devoting myself to some others: 1) Running : I have reset my fitness goals and plan to run my first half-marathon in 8 weeks. It's now April 2nd and I'll let you know how it works out. I did 8.5 miles today and it felt good. Related articles How to get Motivated for a Half Marathon?  (myfirst5k.wordpress.com) 2) Reading : I am keeping track of the books I've read on Facebook this year. Emptying my otherwise useless collection of information about the books I've read in my life and filling area of my "info" section may just prove to be useful. I've read 5 books so far this year and I am half-way through 2 more - I am Number 4  and Nocturnes . 3) Snowshoeing : My wife a...

Tweet The bachelor party was a hit. I just want to write something quick about it before I start on the wedding. We went to Treego in Mactaquac  NB(click the link to see some treego activities), and I have to say that it was an amazing way to spend a morning. We overcame obstacles - swinging logs in trees, high-wire tight ropes, and zip-lines - and I don't think I could have had more fun. Golf was great. It was one of those times when every shot seems to go right. And, I'm a duff golfer. Or at least that's what I like to call myself. I get a lot of bogies and double bogies and every few holes I really suck. But it was one of those days where I was hitting almost everything straight and long. I had so many chances at par, that I felt good about myself. And that is the amazing thing about golf; you don't have to be good to enjoy yourself. After that it was dark and we started a fire to cook our steaks. My cousin's husband had come along to the golf and dinner ...

Tweet Cover via Amazon I'm getting married. I'm 28... soon to be 29... not that it matters. I find that age just sort of blurs after a while. I may as well say I'm 30 as 25... Though there is a definite difference between 30 and 20, I don't feel that there is much difference after you get to the point at which I find myself. So as I was saying... Married. Or at least getting there.  So I'm faced with the inevitable bachelor party and I've had to give it a lot of thought. What do I really want for my party? I'm a movie fanatic, so I've obviously seen " The Hangover " and I know that I don't have enough money to do anything remotely like that. Travel is out of the question.  I also know that I don't want to go too crazy. I'm feeling like I'm past the age where strip clubs are appealing and I'm not sure that I want to be so drunk that I wake up feeling like I've swallowed a trash can.  So what does that leave for me as...