I haven’t missed a single workout yet and I certainly never miss a meal. I have no problem getting my heart rate up to 80% on the treadmill. My problem is keeping it under 80%. The first part of the run is no problem. Then, after about 30 minutes, my heart rate hits 80% and keeps on climbing gradually. I have to keep slowing down through out the rest of the run to keep my HR as close to 80% as possible.

I have the opposite problem on the bike. After a 5-10 minute warm-up, I have to really crank up the intensity to get my HR up to 80%. I can sort of balance my heart rate by slowing a little and then speeding back up a bit. It’s not like the run where I have to continue to slow down once I hit 80%. It seems like I really have to work a lot harder to get my HR up on the bike.

I’m not really sure what my heart is doing during the swim. After about 100 yards, I’m breathing pretty hard and I can feel my heart thumping. I guess I need to check from time to time just to make sure it’s where it needs to be.
Looking forward to the race, I’m probably the most anxious about the swim.

1. The water is probably going to be pretty cold.
2. I haven’t swam 400 yards at once yet.
3. I haven’t swam and then rode the bike yet.
4. How can 400 people swim together without serious carnage?

It’s probably time to call the coach for a few more lessons. It’s nice to have a coach tell you what’s out of whack. I think I’m improving with the drills, but I can’t tell so much on the laps. My guess is that I’m making slight improvements just by going through the drills and thinking about form. I seem to have a hard time finding a comfortable pace that I can do for longer durations. I can do about 200 yards at once, but then I need to rest for a couple of minutes.

All workouts last week were done indoors . We had a cold snap that pushed the temps below my comfort zone. The forecast for next week is looking better so hopefully I can get outside a bit more. The Race for the Cure is coming up this Saturday. I’m going to run it as hard as I can to test myself. I’m shooting for 24 minutes or less.

Swim practice was a lot different than I expected. I met my coach at 5:20am. After a brief discussion, I jumped in. He had me swim 25 meters to establish a starting point. I was very happy to hear a “not bad” as I grabbed the wall and caught my breath. I instantly started thinking about the triathlon being a 1/4 mile swim and I started do some math in my head while trying to listen to the coach. 1/4 mile is 400 meters - 25 goes in to 400 - 16 times - wait that can’t be right. As the coach said swim another 25, I realized that I had a lot of work to do. My coach gave me his assessment of my technique and started to correct my issues through a series of drills. I really never expected to be doing drills. I thought I’d just do a bunch of laps and the coach would correct my problems and tell me to keep swimming. As it turns out, swim practice is about 50% swimming and 50% drills. I completed 2 sessions with my coach last week. My plan is to do a few sessions on my own and then hire the coach again for a check up in a week or so. I think it makes sense to be practicing good technique rather than just continuing to reinforce my self-taught, inefficient swimming skills. Time will tell.

I also did a “Brick” for the first time last week. I rode my stationary bike for 90 minutes and then shuffled over to my treadmill where I learned that running legs are different than cycling legs. I felt very strange. I was telling my legs to get going, but they were a bit confused. After a minute or 2 or 3 at a slow walk, my legs started to work properly and I gradually increased the speed to about 5.5 mph which is a very slow pace. I think the brick served its purpose of experiencing a portion of the bike - run transition. I continued for 10 minutes at this pace and things seemed fine.

Overall - I think I handled the week well. I had some lower back pain over the weekend which was most likely caused from sloppy form in the weight room. My goals for week 9 are to do all scheduled workouts, eat according to my plan, and focus on strict form in the weight room.

Where am I at today? I can easily run 3 miles in 30 minutes. I can ride 25 miles in 1.5hrs. Swimming is the unknown; I haven’t swam laps since high school swim class about 16 years ago. I lift weights 5 days per week training 1 body part each day. I’m about 175Lbs and 20% body fat on my Tanita scale. I really need to get my BF percentage down quite a bit so I’m not carrying around a bunch of dead weight.

What’s the plan? I’m not big on setting ultra detailed training plans since I find that life can disrupt the plan. My approach is going to be a very general and dynamic plan that will allow me to find a balance between work, wife, and training. My main objective is to keep the process challenging and fun. If it becomes stressful, I’ll bag it. So the plan is to swim, run, and ride 2 days a week each, continue lifting 5 days a week and do yoga 1 day each week. One day a week completely free from lifting and cardio. My cardio sessions will be in the morning before work or in the evening after work and I will lift during lunch. I’m shooting to do all my cardio in the AM so I can relax and enjoy time with my wife in the evenings (translation: work on projects around the house).

I’m also trying to work in as many organized events as I can. I’m doing 5k trail run races with DINO, The Race for the Cure, and many of the weekend cycling rides with CIBA. I’ve noticed that all the other people around gives me a slight motivation boost. They are certainly more fun than pounding away on a treadmill or stationary bike.

Nutrition is a huge factor in any training program. My diet is fairly clean already. I generally don’t drink beverages that have calories, no chips or candy. My weakness is the wonderful baked goods that my wife makes - yahum! I already eat lots of veggies and low fat proteins like chicken and fish. I’m fairly certain that I’ll need to boost my complex carbs a bit to keep up with all the cardio training. My supplements include protein, creatine, glutamine, and multi-vitamins.

This week should be interesting. I’m starting to work with a swim coach to get my swim training headed in the right direction. I plan on doing a few sessions with the coach and then just put in the laps. This will be the first week where I do everything - lift, swim, run, bike and yoga. We’ll see what my body thinks at the end of the week.

If you are looking for decent underwater photography from your snorkeling or diving adventures, take a look at Canon’s line of digital cameras and their underwater cases. I wanted something better than a disposable film camera and considerably less expensive than a pro level, purpose-built underwater camera. I think I found a very good compromise in the Canon SD700IS with Canon’s WP-DC5 underwater housing. The housing was about $160 which seems pretty reasonable considering the cost of underwater camera equipment. Canon has a lot of good info on their site.

There’s not much to the setup. Just follow the simple instructions for installing the o-ring gasket, drop the camera in and close the door. Make sure you know how to use all of the camera’s buttons before putting it in the case. You can’t really see the button labels after the case is on. I set the camera to manual mode and jumped in. The Image Stabilizer (IS) seemed to help out since your always sloshing about in the water. Some of my shots had a bit of motion blur, but most came out better than I expected. The SD700IS has just enough settings in the manual mode to match the conditions. It doesn’t support the RAW format which would make post processing a bit more dynamic.

I found that it takes a bit of practice to properly operate the shutter release underwater. Some of the sensation is lost from pushing on a spring loaded button compared to having your finger directly on the shutter release. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be set. Watch for the focus lock and then shoot.

Getting close to your subject also helps make the underwater photos look better. I’m not talking about micro close; just swim down a bit to fill the frame and show off some of the colors and detail. Steady yourself the best that you can and fire the shot. I found it difficult to see the screen while underwater. I could tell that there was an image there, but I couldn’t use it to critique my shot.

I wasn’t impressed with the performance out of the water. It worked, but not as well as I would have liked. My wife and I went on a kayak trip and I took it along. The main problem was that the lens housing would get water spots on it and the photos looked a bit off. If you can find a dry square of cloth to dry the lens first, it would make a big difference. I’m thinking that a dry bag is a better option for kayaking and fishing activities.

Overall, I think the SD700IS and the underwater housing is a great budget setup for snorkeling. It is a good compromise between cost and quality. Canon claims that the housing is good to 130ft, but I didn’t have an opportunity to test it at depth.

Take a look at my underwater photo gallery and judge for yourself.

My wife and I recently vacationed on Providenciales which is the most developed island in the archipelago. TCI is located about 575 miles southeast of Miami; its closest neighbors are Haiti and Cuba. The land itself is primarily flat limestone that resembles a cross between a limestone quarry and a desert.

Sounds attractive - huh? Why did we pick TCI?
1. Grace Bay Beach
2. Awesome water
3. Awesome weather in February
4. Low crowds (for now)
5. Easy flight from Indy

Now that we are back - How did it measure up?
TCI was exactly what we expected. The beaches were phenomenal; the water was gin clear and free from “floaties” and “ick”. The weather was mostly sunny with a few poofy clouds for character, and the crowds were light. We caught ourselves staring at the water trying to figure out how it could be so beautiful. It just didn’t look real! The palate of colors displayed on TCI is like no other. The range of blue and turquoise colors was unlimited.

Our room at the Alexandra was very nice, clean and conveniently located. We went through vrbo.com and found alex3303.com. We were very impressed with the responsiveness of the owner to our questions, etc. There was considerable construction going on 2/2007 and I’d expect that to remain the case for several months. The noise didn’t bother us since we were out and about most of the day. The noise from the beach was minimal, while the noise from the pool was considerable. We attempted to eat lunch at the on-site restaurant (Orchid) one day and left after waiting 15 minutes for a menu.

Snorkeling right from the beach was one of the most memorable moments of the trip. A 15-20 minute walk from the Alexandra is Bight Reef. By far the best “free” snorkeling that we have ever done. The coral is amazing as is the fish life. I was genuinely surprised to see so much life that close to shore. Eagle rays, turtles, barracuda, brain coral, etc., etc. More later.

Hits
Great snorkeling from the beach
Water is amazing
Beach is clean and gorgeous
Eco kayak tour with Big Blue
People at Big Blue (Donnie, Mark, Paul, 3 ladies)
Room Alex3303.com
Fried Conch from Barefoot Cafe (Jimmy’s Dive Bar)
Jerk chicken Wrap from Barefoot Cafe
Lamb from Caicos Cafe
Chocolate cake from Caicos Cafe
Grilled lobster from Smokey’s ($22)
Turks Head Beer
Crab Wantons from Coco Bistro (good but 4 for $13)
Atmosphere at Coco Bistro Restaurant was over the top
Bella Luna Restaurant

Based on our research we were aware of 2 things that had the potential of detracting from the perfect vacation. The amount of construction on the island is impressive for its diminutive size. Mid-rise condo/resort structures are going up like mad. There are a couple of main roads that are paved, but the side roads are primarily stone/dirt. In fact, the paved roads are relatively new. We were told that they were less than 3 years old. Some people call this progress while some declare that the island is being mined for its beauty. When the dust settles, all that will remain is a concrete coast devoid of anything indigenous.

The second expected deficiency was the food. While doing our research, we found as many people that were not satisfied by the food as there were rave reviews. Overall, the food was mediocre. There were some high points and some fairly low points. One thing’s for certain, food is expensive on the island. Oddly enough, some of our less expensive meals were much more satisfying than the so called gourmet places. More on the food later.

One unexpected disappointment was the fishing or more appropriately the fishing guide. I’ve been fishing since I was 5 years old. Mostly solo, but a fair amount of guided trips. I understand that there is nothing guaranteed when it comes to fishing. I hired a guide for their expert local knowledge of the targeted species, not simply a boat captain. AJ with Silver Deep was about 10% fishing guide and 90% boat operator. The entire experience with Silver Deep was disappointing and expensive. I made arrangements to fish with Arthur Dean and learned the morning of the trip that there were 2 Arthur Dean’s. Apparently, the father was unavailable; however his son AJ was available -surprise-.

Misses
Construction noise-dust, impact on island
Silver Deep charter Bonefish
Box lunch from Top of the Cove Deli ($50 for 2)
Price for food
Bay Bistro for Breakfast

Turks and Caicos Travelogue

Day one - Saturday
Travel day
TCI runway 1 strip – u-turn at the end
No paving, no signs around Avis

Dinner
Sharkbite, $63
Grouper sandwich and signature almond grouper
Conch fritters
Rum punch
Fair food quality
slow - laid back service

Day two – Sunday
beach - beach - beach
Bella Luna for dinner, $135 + tip
A glass of Chianti each and some flat water from Italy
Linguini Tuttomare - lobster and shrimp tossed in spicy marinara
Rizzeccho di Mare (special) - lobster, shrimp and Mahi in marinara
olives and pinenuts with a very tasty veggie medley
Delizia alla Banana per Due - Banana caramel pie

Day three – Monday
island touring via car
Chalk sound and Sapodilla Bay beach
snorkeling at Bight Reef - eagle ray, turtles
Tried to eat lunch at Orchid - Left after waiting 15 minutes with no recognition whatsoever
Dinner - Barefoot cafe – (Jimmy’s Dive Bar) $58
Conch fingers - awesome
Grouper sandwich
Jerk Chicken wrap - awesome
3 beers
Stars on the beach were amazing

Day four - Tuesday
Bonefishing trip with Silver deep
Box lunch rip off (wrap, chips, 1 cookie, granola bar, cole slaw 18.99 EACH)
Dinner - Da Conch Shack - $48
Cracked conch
3 rum punches

Day five - Wednesday
Island touring and photos
Smoothies at Smoothie Cafe at The Saltmills ($6 each)
Souvenirs at Mamma’s at Port of Call
Eco-tour via kayak with Big Blue – awesome
Dinner at Smokey’s on the Beach (thanks for the tip, Donnie!) $64
4 beers - lobster dinner ($22ea)
Ice cream at Island scoop - not bad, fairly cheap $3 each

Day six - Thursday
Island touring and photos - Long Bay Beach
Starfish, conch shells, The hole
Afternoon of snorkeling with Big Blue
Dinner, $150
Caicos Cafe - turned away from Coco bistro and Hemmingways (thanks again, Donnie)
3 drinks
Conch salad, Ceasar salad
Sea bass
Lamb
Chocolate walnut pie, flourless chocolate cake

Day seven - Friday
beach - beach - beach
breakfast at Bay Bistro, $26 - terrible
French toast - juice
Eggs, meat, English muffin, pancakes - juice
Snorkeling at Smith’s reef – (a little hard to find, looks like a construction site)
Descent for near shore
Sapodilla bay - not as nice as the first visit due to churned up water
Grace Bay beach to watch the sunset
Dinner - Coco Bistro, $160
3 drinks
Crab Wantons
Blackened mahi-mahi (NOTHING comes with this except a salsa)
Grilled lobster, rice, green beans
Chocolate crème brulee

Day eight - Saturday
Travel - long line to check-in, plane late - first flight, missed connection in Miami
Routed through Chicago - plane late - home around 9pm. Total about 7 hours later than
expected.

Overall impressions
Food at IGA and restaurants is very expensive
Bread, milk, beer (more than double from the States)
Service on a whole is ok, varies from place to place.
Some places have a $25 minimum for credit card usage (IGA, souvenirs)
Lots of construction
Water is unbelievable
Grace Bay Beach just edges out Siesta Key, FL
Rental car required (394 miles) $250 +taxes made the car $300 for the week (still cheaper than taking taxi everywhere)
Lots of road side trash; however, efforts are being made to clean it up
Dusty - due to lack of paved roads, construction, some commercial places
No paved drives/parking
Bugs were fine - tolerable and expected
Very little shopping
Mediocre food for the price
Tax and gratuity at restaurants – government tax 10% and sometimes the ‘service tax’ is included at 10-15%. We read this gratuity is shared with the kitchen, etc. so we
added more tip if the service was good. Not sure what the deal is with that.

Tips
Rent a car from Avis - 4×4 if you intend to go to NW point or do much exploring
Buy gallon jugs of water at IGA - bring sport bottle
Eat breakfast & lunch in room, splurge on dinner
Make reservations for the upscale joints
Use the map from the free real estate book and the dining guide to explore TCI. It included street names and made our navigating much easier

Would we go back? YES! We would definitely go back now that we know a little more about the place, food and how to get around. Remember to leave your watches at home; here, you don’t need them!

Here’s the current rundown…
CMS: WordPress
Theme: Cutline theme optimized for WPG2 by Alywin
Plugins: WPG2, WP lightbox-js, code markup, subscribe to comments, wp-contact form
Photo Gallery: Gallery2
Theme: wordpressembedded

Widen from 770px to 900px
There are several places that hold width information. You have to change them all or some parts won’t look right. First make a copy of every file that you will modify. Basically you are looking for 770px and replacing it with 900px in the following sections of your style.css file.
#container
#content_box
#footer
#masthead
#masthead a
#header_img
ul#nav
You’ll also need to change the width from 770 to 900 in the header.php file.

Fix Spacing
Once you’ve made the page wider, you need to adjust the spacing so everything looks evenly spaced. The spacing that I like is padding: 0px 50px 0px 30px in the #content section and padding: 10px 0px 0px 0px; in the #content_box section.

Widen the Sidebar
I prefer a wider sidebar instead of a wider content area so I made the following changes to style.css. #sidebar goes from width: 230px to 290px as well as two sections that start with ul.sidebar_list. Again you can search for 230px and replace it with 290px. The key to the spacing is make sure that it adds up to the new width. If you add up all the parts across the width of the screen it should add up to 900px in this case. 30 + 500 + 50 + 290 + 30 = 900

Add a Border to Cutline/WordPress
Make a backup copy of your style.css file. Edit style.css and make the following changes. Don’t replace what’s there, add or modify accordingly. I like the look of a border width of 4px; however, you can choose whatever width you’d like.
#container border-left: 4px solid #000; border-right: 4px solid #000; border-top: 4px solid #000;
#content_box border-left: 4px solid #000; border-right: 4px solid #000; margin-left: -4px;
#footer border-right: 4px solid #000; border-top: 1px solid #000; border-bottom: 4px solid #000; margin-left: -4px;
ul#nav border-left: 4px solid #000; border-right: 4px solid #000; border-bottom: 3px solid #000; margin-left: -4px;
#header_img border-bottom: 1px solid #000; border-left: 4px solid #000; border-right: 4px solid #000; margin-left: -4px;

Working with Backgrounds
Now that you have a border around the site, you may want different color backgrounds to make your site stand out. At the top of style.css you’ll find a line that starts with body. Change the color code for background to whatever you like. This will be the background that ends up being behind your site. After you make this change it will set the background of everything. Make the parts of your site a contrasting color. There are background tags in several sections. Once you decide on the color and have the code, make the change in the following sections of your style.css file.
ul#nav
#content_box
#header_img (I had to add width before the background setting would work. I also needed to change the margin to 0 0 0 0)
#masthead (add background after width if no graphic is used for your masthead.)
#footer

Do Away with the Text Title
If you use an image for a logo in the masthead, you’ll need to turn off the text title. I found that if you simply just delete the title from the options page, you’ll also miss the text in other locations like the footer copyright. I found two pieces of code that needed to be remarked or removed. masthead h1 section doesn’t need to be in style.css and h1…/h1 on the line that begins div id=”masthead” in header.php and wpgheader.php. I’m not sure if the div part is still needed, but I left it anyway.

Change the Green Highlight
If green isn’t your color then it is easy to change. Edit your style.css and find the line that starts ul#nav li a.current in the header styles section. Enter an new color code and you’re all set. ul#nav li a.current, ul#nav li a.current:visited, ul#nav li a.current:hover { color: #fe8733; text-decoration: underline; }

Make Gallery Menu Highlight when Current
Since there are two header files with a WPG2 integrated site, you need to make the gallery item look like the following in wpgheader.php. It will not match the code in header.php.
li> a class="current" xhref="http://janusit.com/garage/%3C?php%20bloginfo('url');%20?%3E/wp-gallery2.php" mce_href="http://janusit.com/garage/%3C?php%20bloginfo('url');%20?%3E/wp-gallery2.php">gallery

WPG2 Alignment Classes
Another problem that I fixed was the alignment of multiple images next to each other on a single line. Every time I entered the code, it would put one image on each line. I added div.one-image {display:inline;} to the bottom of the style.css and the series of images stayed on one line.

I enjoy watching Dolphins perform amazing acrobatic feats at the hands of skilled trainers. They’ll leap through the air as if rocket propelled. Their massive tail can generate enough force to push them through the water at over 20 mph. It’s pretty amazing what a Dolphin will do for a smelly morsel of fish. If you haven’t had the opportunity to observe Dolphins and other sea creatures at a zoo or an aquarium, put it on your to-do list now.

Better yet. Spend some time out on the water observing these majestic creatures in their natural habitat. There’s no one directing the show, there’s no bucket of smelly treats, no glass wall or bleachers full of tourists. This is the real deal. There’s no predictable time limit. The show may last 2 seconds or several minutes. If you are lucky enough to see a real dolphin show, it will surely put a smile on your face.

The canal system making up Punta Gorda Isles in southwest Florida is a maze like waterway that connects thousands of back yards to Charlotte Harbor. The harbor is a 270 square mile estuary sandwiched between the Gulf of Mexico and the Peace and Myakka rivers. As the temperatures start to fall at the onset of winter, many species of fish pack their bags and head for the warmth of the canals. Fishermen and Dolphin are both pretty smart when it comes to eating. That’s why you’ll find both navigating the canal system of Punta Gorda Isles in the winter.Take a look at some of the other shots I was fortunate enough to take.

There are very few things that will get me out of bed at 5am on a cold fall morning. Every year, the tributaries of Lake Ontario come alive with an amazing feat of nature known as a Salmon run. Huge King Salmon that have been living in Lake Ontario instinctively swim back to their birthplace fueling the cycle of life. While in the lake, they are focused on one task - eating. They feed with such voracious vigor that they grow to 20+ lbs in 3 years. Their mouths are huge and capable of ingesting vast amounts of rich Omega-3’s in one rush through a bait pod.Everything changes when the temperatures begin to drop in the fall. Massive numbers of King Salmon stack up at the mouths of rivers and streams that flow into the lake. It’s as if they’re teenagers piled up outside the door anxiously awaiting the opening of a rock concert. As soon as the stars, moon, water level and temperatures are within spec, they make a run for it. The Salmon’s brain switches from eat to breed as they propel themselves up river with a grace an elegance that must be seen to appreciate. The survival of their species depends on this mission so they rely heavily their natural camouflage.

As the Salmon’s brain switches from eat to breed they also transition from predator to prey. Hungry sportsmen have been hunting Salmon since this great natural phenomenon started a long, long time ago. It is something that you can count on year after year. Salmon don’t have the benefit of generations past to bring back advice following their journey up river. Those that successfully navigated the gauntlet die and never get to pass along their knowledge of how to outwit thousands of heavily armed fishermen.

The Salmon’s determination to push upstream is solidified by watching their amazing and unnatural acrobatic and swimming feats. These huge beasts can rip through two inches of water, slither among the boulders of the rapids, and leap over waterfalls like jet propelled torpedoes. Their superhero feats of propulsion are nearly as amazing as their ability to lie motionless in a rushing rapid as if they are attached to the riverbed.

The focus and mental determination of these creatures is beyond belief. They have completely turned off the part of their brains that says “I need some food”. If the Salmon’s favorite meal was a T-bone steak. You could tempt it all day long with a prime cut and it wouldn’t eat. They won’t even take a taste. They might get mad and bite it out of frustration, but they have no plans on eating it. This characteristic seems a little like one of those defense mechanisms like camouflage for the Chameleon.

My favorite places to hunt Kings are the smaller tributaries to Lake Ontario. The fish are plentiful; the people are friendlier and more sporting compared to the shoulder to shoulder fight for your life action at larger rivers. There’s nothing like big Salmon in small water. When you hook one, the stream explodes with action. Sometimes they run upstream, sometimes they run downstream, but usually they run up and down and side to side a few times before you’re able to land them. It is hard to comprehend the power that these creatures can pull together after not eating for so long. They can run against the current spinning your drag out of control for 100 yards and turn around and rip downstream for another 100 yards.