Moving & Grooving & Some Snow

Christmas:
Christmas morning didn't start off like any other day, Shadow Boy & I were up early, like 4:35am early, to chauffeur the shuttle to the airport. The rest of the time before the sun came up was spent vacuuming & dusting the furniture. All the happy planets received a soaking of h2o. The smoker was up & running by 11:30am. Well, I set up the smoker & started the briquets by 11:30ish. My friend Renee stopped by w/a wonderful granola treat & a cutting off her Christmas cactus. Last time I was over to her place, I commented, hopefully complimented her plant & by gosh she was paying attention & hooked me up for Christmas. We invited our friend Kim over as well as he & his wife are taking a break & my brother was looking at about a 3pm arrival. Renee didn't stay all that long as her family was having a dinner & our plans were to head for the radio station & socialize for the evening. I pulled the Pork Loin Roast & Ribs off the Smoker by 4pm & served all the fixings. Wild rice w/veggies, mashers, & a fresh that day picked salad goodies. After eating like kings, maybe more than your average kings, we headed for the radio station. My brother had whipped up an apple OJ cider mix in the crockpot & pulled out some of his homemade kahlua that set the tone for an evening of music & story telling. The night was capped off w/a few games of cribbage & Willy Wonka Mashed Up Primus Factory.

Training:
While I was born w/long-limbed, thin build, but far from a world class athlete, I have been playing w/my technical efficiency. Stride Length has become an important issue for me. I know that I was an over-strider this season by just the sound of my foot strikes. Like I had posted before, I was hitting the brakes, my strides were just too long. My Cadence was way too low because of my longer strides & heel strikes, i.e. THOSE DAMN BRAKES!!! I have worked on quicker steps & shorter strides & hope to start targeting about 90 strides a minute. I can tell that my body position has improved dramatically because I find myself loosening my shoulders quicker, walking taller, & much stronger legs under my frame. I know that my body as a whole will be much faster & stronger in 2015 because of the Boy Dog on his leash. I know he pulls me sometimes & we have to wait on cars if we do our no excuse loop instead of a trail run. I read an article while I was at the library address arm motion & matching hip rotation & I realized how I really never play w/this. I can recall back in August hiking w/my bro & pumping my arms up some climbs. This test of arm motion will come into play when I head back to Stoker Stadium. Something else from that article that caught my eye was Leg Recovery?!?! Not even on my radar!!! Get This, I Don't Just Yet, But I Will Soon, a slightly bent leg requires less power to bring the leg through the recover phase of a stride. Which means, I Think, is the faster I run, the higher I lift my heel on recovery. Something I am going to play w/this week & hopefully have a better understanding of it. With the core routine that I have been using, BTW, fit mommy deleted her post, the shedder abs routine, what a bummer. After two weeks of practicing her layout, I had to modify from what I could recall, my windshield wipers are coming along nicely & I am able to do 3 full sets of 10 now. I really like laying on my back w/ my legs in the air & push up hips up towards the celling. I do these very slowly & controlled & sometime I forget the count. I can flutter kick for over a minute now. My planks aren't that impressive yet but my push ups flippin' rock!!! The burpies are coming along & so are the mountain climbers. I also do them very slow & controlled. Still stretch, some yoga, & high knees every morning. Overall, I pretty damn pleased w/how my body is reacting during & after each workout.

Goals:
My goals for this week are very simple & totally achievable!!! Monday is quite the full day w/a a 6am radio show, 10am meeting w/John from MAD Racing, & not one BUT two new clients at the office. SCORE!!!! Also this week I want to reevaluate & log my schedule on this blog regarding my training from this week ahead. I will also clean off the 8GB drive so that I can record Monday & Thursdays show. And as always, pick up another new client from a referral & on my own merit. And depending on weather & time & head space & other excuses, I should hit the pool at least twice before the year comes to an end.

Commuter Bike:
Still riding my commuter w/my helmet on. That means that I have successfully remembered my helmet for over 2 months. I was still hitting 100 mile weeks until the week of Christmas. I will bring those number back up but I have enjoyed the time in the car the last few days. I was even at a Boxing Day Open House Party & a friend of mine asked w/an eyebrow up," Did you ride here tonight?" And I didn't ride on Christmas because I cooked & my brother offered to drive Shadow Boy & I on down to the station. But no fear, I will be riding Monday, I refuse to drive to work, always have.

Radio Shows:
A big heads up about the next couple of shows that I will be subbing for!!!! This Monday Morning I will be hosting the Morning Muse from 6am - 9am Mountain Standard Time Zone. I will be playing some more chill & lounge type of music as folks will be most likely easing into their work week. Plus, it is a cool time slot & I know a lot of listeners follow that program. Then, January 1st 2015, will be my 1st show of the New Year!!! Hell Yezzzzzz!!! I will be subbing in for Uncle Karl Thursday Night at 6:30pm - 9pm. I really enjoy hosting the Yellow Dog Radio for sure. I dig that time slot & the general public seem to engage during that show. And as always, I will be updating the NFL schedule, weather reports from around the globe, & upcoming events for New Years Eve entertainment. Tune In & Turn It Up


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