Santa! is quite small these days...

So these past few weeks have been fairly eventful.  To start we finished off Movember, well Pat did..because thanks to a good pal of mine, I've promised to keep it going until our reunion in another 2 weeks...so the teen stash stays! Pat decided to 'style' his mo, creating a very John Waters-esque look if you ask me.  Google him, it's worth it.  Here's the evidence of how our final days turned out (including a few of Pats Canadian Strength co-workers..great look guys!).

Then since it's getting closer to that majestic holiday we call Christmas we decided to go Christmas shopping, which turned into self shopping (and a holiday dinner at the Bay, see below).  But more more importantly we made the decision that this was a great time to go visit Santa for a family household picture!  Somehow I remember Santa being a bit larger when we were younger.  I think Santa needs more milk and cookies (well maybe not cookies).  Not a bad little house I'd say.

Last Saturday was also the Ottawa Lions awards banquet, where Pat and I both picked up awards from the past 2 seasons.  Pat grabbed the Field Athlete of the Year and I won the Combined Events Athlete of the Year.  We were awarded some lovely certificates and those delightful mugs you see in the bottom left corner of the picture above.  For the picture we were just supposed to pretend taking a sip because our tea was extremely hot, but my hand accidentally slipped hence the triangle face I'm making.  Oh well thanks for the mugs either way Lions!

Looking good receiving our awards!  

Last practice Pat and I decided to video some of the pole vault hanging drills we had.  Take a look, if you have any others you think are a good please let us know!

I have been a bit hampered by lower ab pain so my training has been minimized significantly; but Pat however, went into beast mode the other night and had a PB clean, lifting 315lbs.  Not too shabby eh?...here's another quick video showing the magic moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ugSLmY1XqWE

So while Pat lifts heavy weights, I'll be sticking to my rehab exercises like they were going to win me the lottery.  It gets tedious but it's something that needs to get done.  So what I started doing, and I highly recommend, is writing in a notebook.  In it I write down everything I do (exercise, drills, etc.), if it hurts or not, and how much it hurts.  Then the next day I go back and write whether I was still sore or not.  This has been SO helpful, as now coaches and therapists are able to see what you think rather than try to probe you for info.  And honestly when you have a memory as bad as mine, you can very easily forget the degrees of pain you feel day to day.  Give it a shot if you're battling injuries, or even if you're not it's a great way to keep track of your body.

I'll end this by leaving you with my wonderful drawing showing two of the exercises I've been doing.  Pretty good think..So long!

 (and yes the second one makes you look like a dog at a fire hydrant)