Buntzen Lake Hike

Buntzen Lake is about 10 minutes from our new facility in Port Moody. The loop around the lake makes an awesome hike of about two hours if you are moving steadily.

Yesterday (pre-Superbowl) 22 customers and friends, 3 IF staff, 3 dogs and one baby took on the hike around the lake. It was a little rainy so I thought the turnout might suffer but nobody was deterred - great start!

We are one week into the facility Nutrition Challenge (essentially a cleanse combined with a challenge to increase your exercise) - it lasts 28 days. (Note: That's why the cakes pictured in the previous post were so torturous!) This hike was worth a solid 20 points, so 22 out of 40 Challengers were in attendance... solid.

The hike is approx. 10km and there are some steep uphill and downhill sections. Some great lake views, great people and lots of time to chat away from the facility made it a awesome start to the day.

I did the hike with Viggo in the backpack - he's getting a bit heavy for this type of distance... but it was a great workout! My glutes, quads and calf are all sore this morning. Feels good!

Enjoy the pictures!

Jen breaking down the route...

Off we go...

The trees are epic around the lake - moss covered and towering

Viggo's backpack... It distributes the weight really well... HIGHLY RECOMMEND to any parents looking to get out with their kids. Also please note V's olympic spirit - Quatchi hat and Team Canada jersey... he's a proud Canadian!

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Grand Opening Party!

This Thursday is our Grand Opening Party.

It has been such a journey to get to this point - a lot of sweat but a lot of fun too! We are going to enjoy ourselves on Thursday and take a moment to reflect before we put the head back down and keep working.

Please stop by and join us!

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Thoughts After Two Weeks

On Monday it will have been two weeks since we opened the doors of our sparkling new Innovative Fitness facility in Port Moody. It has been the busiest time of my life... There hasn't been much family time to speak of. That's why tonight's "Penguins vs. Capitals" game in front of our house was just what the doctor ordered. Penguins won by the way (as always.)

Some thoughts about the last two weeks:

- People: It has been a long time since I was meeting new people every day. I didn't miss it in my life because I didn't think about it... but it's one of my favourite things about the last two weeks.

Every few minutes somebody walks through the door - will this person end up being a great friend? Will they be beside me on a trip to Moab, Machu Picchu, the New York Marathon or the Himalayas this year? It's exciting - because I was that person walking through the door. When they sign on the dotted line I have a pretty good idea of what lies ahead for them.

The Port Moody IF community is growing fast, and already I find myself looking forward to seeing friends every day, watching them progress and celebrating the victories we all have along the way.

- Team: I love being on teams. I always have. It is so rewarding to be working HARD side by side with teammates - especially when the going gets tough. As one of the "team managers", I hoped we would all work well together, but you don't know for sure until the opening whistle blows and the team gets tested.

I remember being on my high school rugby team, preparing for games - the things people would say, the looks on their faces, and how much pride we all took in "doing our job" on the field. Before each home game we would play AC/DC's Hells Bells (loud) in the locker room to get pumped up. I loved it. This is as close as I have been in a long time - (we even play AC/DC from time to time!)

- Balance: <- A word I barely deserve to even type right now. An important goal for the coming weeks is to steadily begin re-activating all of the other parts of my life that have been on hold. It was important to put 100% into the business, but now it is critical to find a healthy, happy and sustainable balance. That should result in a little more blog posting in the coming weeks... no promises - but I hope so.

- Training: This week I started training again and it felt great (in that "I haven't trained for three weeks" way...) I have some exciting plans for the coming race season... but that's another post!

I hope you are having a great weekend!

Aia and her teammate Natalie...

Aia running after a loose ball...

Kris setting up Circuit Class this morning - Every Saturday at 9am by the way! Call us at 778-355-9800 for details.

One of our new signs... They came on Friday.

We did a Pinecone Toss competition for the Christmas event in our neighbourhood... There were probably 3000 people circulating through the streets - it was a blast!

Kids getting ready to toss pinecones.

Jen, Cathy and Sacha... They worked the crowds all night in close to freezing temperatures. Thanks ladies!

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The Start Line

If you've ever woken up early, brushed your teeth, and headed in to open the doors of a new business on day #1 then you are part of a small but hardy group. It isn't easy to get to the Start Line.

Let's say you have an idea. Almost everyone does...

Starting: The hardest part for sure. You have to have courage... and you have to find money (usually). Then you have to wade through tons of governmental bullcr&p... Now you have a bunch of paper (BC865446776 or something like that) and a bill from a lawyer. Congrats.

Time to get started.

Planning: Locations, sticky leases, irritating landlords, pesky holdbacks, confusing clauses, 80 page contracts, quirky lawyers, bearded accountants. And bills. Now you have an empty building. Congrats.

Time to get started.

Creating: Busy builders, tough negotiating, expensive designers, expensive millwork, better go with the less expensive computers, choose the lighting & flooring, order the equipment, delays, decisions, decisions, decisions. And bills. Now you have a concept for your empty building. Congrats.

Time to get started.

Build it! Crews, electrical, plumbing, framing, drywalling, painting, debating, second guessing. Lots of bills. Bills. Bills. Now you have a business under construction. Congrats.

Time to get started.

Planning (yes, again): Marketing, studying, learning, networking, monitoring construction, counting the days, worrying, dreaming. Now the construction is done and you feel ready. Congrats.

Time to get started.

Preparing: Cleaning, arranging, shopping - Home Depot, Staples, Ikea, Canadian Tire, Costco, London Drugs, and more. Bills everywhere! This place is stocked! ...better mark this occasion with a celebration. Congrats.

Time to get started.

Celebrate: The IF crew, 1 jumpsuit, 1 wig, several beers, Browns, St. James, The Point. Taxis, tylenol, lost phones, a few hours of sleep. (Clean again.) Congrats (you're alive.)

Time to get started.

Opening Day! The doors swing open at 6. The music is on and our first customer is warming up on the bike. He is followed by one more - then the place is empty again - hopefully not for long. We made it to the START LINE. Congrats.

Now it's time to get started.

Epilogue:

We are doing really well. Four days in we find ourselves ahead of our projections for the first month - which is great - but we've barely started. We are the swimmer exploding from the blocks but yet to hit the water...

Other photos from Day 1:

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Fall Classic - I.F. Port Moody on the Board!

Yesterday was the Fall Classic out at UBC.

The last time I ran at the Fall Classic it was a small race - 5 or 6 six foot tables set up in the Student Union Building for registration - pretty minimal.

Nowadays it is entirely different.

• Three distances - 21.1 km, 10km, 5km
• Hundreds (maybe more than a thousand) runners
• A massive stage with an Elvis impersonator, TV personalities as hosts, and more...
• Chili after!!  (Best ever after a cold, wet race...)

As far as running events go the Fall Classic is pretty mega now.

But all of that was secondary compared to the importance of this event for Kris, myself and two important people that I'll tell you about in a moment.

This was the first official destination for IF Port Moody customers!  

Kris ran the half marathon with Julie.  It was her first in quite a while and despite the terrible conditions - cold, windy, rainy - she toughed it out to finish in an admirable time.  She'll be building from that in future events for sure!

I ran the 5km with Eric.  It was his first run of this type for several years.  We set a goal prior to the race and proceeded to DESTROY it by an entire minute!  Eric really dug deep and cranked it up in the final 2 km for a negative split.  It was a blast running with him.

Julie and Eric were pretty much our first customers out in Port Moody and it was awesome to see them getting results already...

Yesterday was also a great moment for Kris and I....  It's exciting to be helping people make progress and reach goals already...  that's why we chose this career.  There's a lot more to come and our doors don't open for another week!

  

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New Venture - Innovative Fitness Port Moody!

The space you see above will soon be a part of the training floor of Innovative Fitness in Port Moody.

If my post frequency has been down a little lately this is why....

For those of you who may not know, I am opening an Innovative Fitness franchise with a partner out in Port Moody, BC.  (That's about 30mins from where I live.)

We are scheduled to open on November 23rd, 2009....  which is right around the corner!

This venture is a really exciting step for me - it signifies the first time in my life that "passion" and "career" can be uttered in the same breath.  I intend to write a more thoughtful post on this in the near future.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have mentioned work in this blog...  "work", "career", "paying the bills" has simply not been something that excited me in any way for a long time.  I'm not blaming anyone - after all I have been an entrepreneur, so I only have myself to blame!  It was, however, something I wanted to change - in a big way!  You don't win the Game of Life by toiling away without passion every day...

Fortunately, that phase of my working life seems to be ending...  with this new entrepreneurial venture I am watching my passion and my career merge for the first time and it is very exciting.  Waking up for "work" in the morning has a totally different feel already!

These days there is a mountain of tasks to be seen to - Mt. Innovative.  New businesses need a lot of time and effort (whether you are passionate about them or not).  It has required a shift of priorities - a good thing really.  All of the most important things in life (for me) are now nicely aligned at the top of my priority list.

I look forward to sharing lots more about this venture, and its place in my "bigger picture", on these pages....  hopefully it will be of interest to my readers.   

For opening details, location, offers and lots of current news you can follow Innovative Fitness in Port Moody on Twitter....  CLICK HERE!

In other news...  I also have a new season of racing and training to plan!  That will be fun to do over the next few weeks.  You'll be the first to know!

Some photos from November!!!  (This is not normal November weather in Vancouver!)

Lighthouse Park with the kids.  Mattias is there too but out of sight.

Viggo is still small enough for this....  It's fun to hear his "dada" chatter in my ear...

Beautiful day with dozens of sailboats off Point Atkinson.

Timer shot....  not bad.  Had to photoshop it a bit but I liked the effect.

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Hallow's Eve Recap

The Hallow's Eve 10km on Sunday was a lot of fun.

It's been quite a while since I ran a race with over a dozen people I know so that made it different for sure. Here are some of the IF crew... many not pictured.

I went into the race with no plan whatsoever other than to enjoy myself. I knew I wanted to check in on the group from lululemon and that I wanted to run with some of the IF folks for a bit but that I also wanted to run a few sections "for myself".

So that's exactly what I did. At the start I ran with some friends from IF including my old coach (from a year or so ago) James. Then I slowed down and waited to run with the lulu girls for a while. Then I sped back up and ran with Virginia and Antony (who was in Moab with me)...

The course was pretty challenging (do I ever NOT say that?) There were LOTS of stairs, and lots of wooden walkways that were wet (this is pretty sketchy with my running leg). There were lots of uphills and some really fun downhills too.

I was having a blast running with a group of about 6 runners for several km until I caught my leg on a root and actually dislodged it! That has never happened to me in any race... it was actually off for a second... somehow I didn't go down - just hopped and reattached.

That broke my momentum, I lost my group, and though I got the leg back on, it was very sloppy - the liner had been pulled down a bit...

Fortunately I was only a km or 2 from home and didn't need to do a full reset.

My next post may have to be a prosthetic leg make-over... my running leg is in ROUGH shape after the last two or three trail runs and also the 3 Peaks... It is definitely in need of some TLC.

Congrats to everyone from IF and lululemon!!

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Innovative Fitness Canuck Place Adventure Race

I spent the morning down in Deep Cove with Mattias, Aia and Viggo watching the Innovative Fitness Canuck Place Adventure Challenge.

As usual, it was an astounding success - some numbers:

- Over $280,000 raised for Canuck Place (which is a care home for children with life-limiting illnesses and their families.)

- 4th Annual Event

- Over $800,000 raised in 4 years.

- $1,000 - The amount each racer has to raise. MANY raise far more.

- 80% - My guess at the percentage of racers affiliated with Innovative Fitness

In previous years I have raced (once) or volunteered (twice)... this year I was simply supporting and watching my own kids which was a handful :)

There are now several race options for kids, so next year we will definitely have the whole family involved (except for Viggo who might still be a tad young...)

Congratulations to everyone - the race and all of the $ for Canuck Place is something to be VERY proud of!

The photos can be found by clicking the picture below:

Canuck Place Adventure Challenge

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Making Lemonade

I spent a good chunk of the weekend on my butt resting the leg.  It seems odd to 'rest' an unidentified swelling that is pretty much invisible to anyone who isn't familiar with the geography of my leg.

It can be a frustrating process that's for sure...  when something this minor becomes so major simply because you have to put it inside a prosthesis.  On the other hand it is no different from an injury anybody might get - it keeps you from doing what you want to do.

The trick, if there is one, is to find the things you CAN do and DO THEM.  All while trying to repair, rest, and recover from whatever the problem is.  So that is what I have been trying to do.

Progress:  X-ray - done.  Ultrasound - booked (July 25th what a joke...) and re-booked with begging (next Thursday).  Blood test - done.  Results of any of them - not yet.  On two different drugs - one an anti-inflammatory the other an anti-biotic.  Amazing how you can go from very healthy to all of that in a few days...

Training:  Kevin and I hit up Batchelor Bay at 6 yesterday morning.  We did the usual loop and enjoyed the warm water temps.  Usually it takes me 30-45 seconds to get comfortable in the cold water around this time of year, but right now it is instant comfort.  

You can see it is now around 16° or 17°c (62°F) which is a LOT better than the 9° (48°F) a few months ago.

ALSO, I am flying in the new wetsuit!  Looking back I should have realized that my old suit was 1. too big and 2. had two or three too many holes (that's a disastrous combo for speed.)

Innovative Fitness:  I have continued going to my sessions at Innovative.  I learnt a long time ago that I can't stop everything when I have a leg problem.  I just adapt and do what I can.  It's at times like this that I AM SO LUCKY to have the coaches at IF on my side.

On Friday Jeff Iwanaka devised a dastardly core session - all the hardest core exercises back-to-back-to-back for most of the hour.  It left me tired and happy and my leg untouched.

Yesterday, Dylan worked me over with bands, cables, swiss balls, posture etc.  

Riding:  I tried out the leg on a quick 1 hour ride at 5:45 this morning. Kevin and I ran the bikes out along Marine Drive to the industrial part of North Van and back...  we took it pretty easy but worked occasionally.

It felt ok-ish... on hills and out of the saddle I can definitely feel pain but it's relatively fine when I just spin. I am now waiting to see exactly how much I will have to pay for the effort in the way of swelling.  It's encouraging I guess - though TTs and track events are all about pushing HARD start to finish.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I am doing what I can when I can.  It's not easy right now but then again, who ever said it was gonna be easy?

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