Bedlam in Belgium

A month has passed since my last post so I figure I’d throw out an update.

In the past month I haven’t done any exercise. Whenever I tell people this they ask about cross-training and I tell them nothing, nada. I don’t even walk to the grocery store because then I would have to carry groceries home. It’s been a huge lifestyle change for me but because I know it’s what I need to do I’ve embraced the lifestyle. I’m taking this rest seriously, as I would any activity that will eventually make me run faster.

Surely all this rest must be helping my body repair itself.  It’s tough to gauge though because I actually feel more sore at times (mainly when I wake up). I take that as a sign of healing. I also haven’t tested it with any exercise so I don’t know how it would feel with real strain.

I’m still going to wait another two weeks before I start any cross-training or running. It’s going to be a slow process to get back into shape and I’m ready to be patient.

In the meantime I’ve started to get acupuncture, for overall healing, from Brendan Cleary in Georgetown and I got some heel lifts from Applied Biomechanics in Guelph.

So far so good for Belgium in the World Cup!

I built my 3-D printer in a couple of days and then thought I’d just simply hit ‘print’ to make things. Turns out it’s a little more complicated than that… The software took a little figuring out and then calibrating the printer is a skill in itself. I finally got some items printed. It was a pretty neat project and it’s interesting to print harder objects.

I was a little intimated at first with all these pieces…

Getting there…

Finished printer – the spool of filament gets fed into the red extruder and melts it at 200C

Bottle opener and 4 of 9 pieces of a gun

Printer in action

I went to Vancouver the other week. My initial plan was to run the Scotiabank Half Marathon and then stay for my sister’s graduation. I still kept the same flights to watch the half, celebrate Rob Watson’s birthday and then spend some time with my family. My parents, aunt and Grandy came in from Michigan, my brother from South Africa and cousin from LA. I’m very proud to say that my sister in now a Naturopathic Doctor!

Family at graduation dinner.

Grandy imitating a sculpture in Vancouver.

My garden is coming along quite well.

Week one

Week 3

week 5