Dear Abs, See You Soon? Your Friend, Pete

I haven't seen you in a few years, where have you been?

2 posts in under 24 hours?

It was after 1 when I published the last post, and I was debating on shutting 'er down and going up to bed, or to go for a run.

I had to psyche myself out to do it since it was so late and I was pretty tired, but I'm more grateful for doing it. I told myself that this is the year that I make a return to the ring, but I've got to get in shape first and I've still got a long way to go. Skipping out on my run would mean another day that I'm not closer to the target.

I think that the last time we saw eachother was that time when the whole gang was together - 10k Run, 10 Rounds Pads...and Brown Rice and Grilled Chicken was there too!

I found that once I was a little warm, I didn't know what I was holding out for the whole time. Man, Nike's slogan of "Just do it" is so simple but holds true. So, I did it...and I feel better now. But I've got this runner's high that isn't going away anytime. Hope I start to crash before the sun comes up.

Will we see eachother before the summer? I know that you've been busy hanging out with your friends Cheeseburger, Pizza and General Tao, but I was hoping that we can get together and hang out awhile.

June, seriously?

That was the last time I posted.

In short, a big WTF for me...so many things have happened since then.

In sum,

Lex is now 11 months old, I'm on parental leave until the end of February (afternoon naps!), I turn 30 in a couple days, Southside still kickin' ass, Wes won another belt last October, Chilean miners, American Idol is back, Dre and Detox this year (!), and it's 1 in the morning and I am f'ing tired.

Zzzzzzzz......

Like Father, Like Son.

The title of this post reflects my activity as well.

I keep saying that I'll be more active.

Here's an update -

Lex is 3.5 months old now.

He's just starting to learn how to use his hands to grab things.

Southside's doing it up big. We won 4 US National Titles last month in Dayton, Ohio.

New Champions - Daniel Chen (125lbs), Theo Eastmond (165lbs C), Wes Arcalas (165lbs B), and Carlo Balagasay (145lbs).

Cat Macedo has been tearing it up on the mats lately as well. She recently won a gold medal at the Copa by submitting a much bigger and heavier opponent by guillotine choke.

She put that guillotine to good use again yesterday at the ADCC North American trials, as she won another gold medal and advances to the next stage of the tournament.

I'm really proud of our competition team as of late. They put in serious time at the gym, and their hard work shows come gametime.

Lots of fighters debuting this summer too - Drew 'The Slim/Angry Dutchman' Stevens and Tony Bruno for Muay-Thai, and 'Stone Cold' Steve Bewcyk and Jeff 'Party' Punz for BJJ.

I promise the next post won't be months from now.

Alexander 'Lex' Arcalas - Born Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 13:42

That's my baby boy (taken Mar2/10 - 5 days old).

So I guess the purpose of this blog is to now document anything really, and not just training and dieting (since we all know how that turned out).

For this post though, I'll talk about the best thing that's ever happened to me.

After 30+ hours, our baby finally came into this world, 4 days early and with a head like the aliens in "Alien" - this was due to him being stuck for so long.

For the rest of my life, I'll never forget the look on his face when he first came out. He had the most 'What the fuck?' face I've ever seen on anyone, and I smile whenever I think about it.

He's almost a month now, and he's already gone through so many changes. First off, he doesn't look like so much of an alien anymore, and he's gained so much weight already.

He came out at 5lbs, 15oz - just shy of 6lbs. When we brought him home, none of his 0-3 month clothes fit, so we had to get him some preemie clothes (which were still a little big for him).

My guess is that he's about 7lbs and change now, but we won't know until his next doctor appointment later this week.

His grip strength has increased significantly (excellent for when he starts judo and wrestling), and he's becoming more and more aware every day.

After taking 2 weeks off, I came back to work reluctantly, and I miss my boy every second of the day. I can waste some serious time just looking at his pictures on my phone.

I always said that I wish that I could fast forward and just have him talking and hanging out with me and have us doing activities, but that's not the case now. I'm cherishing every moment with him, cus I know he'll never be this size again.

Whenever I'm carrying him, I keep whispering to him that he's my little baby boy. And he always will be. I made a promise to him that I'll try to stop calling him that before he starts going to school. But no matter what, no matter how old he is or how big he gets, I'll never forget these days. Lex will always, always, always, always be my baby boy.

FELL OFF!

Just checked that my last post here was in July...WTF?!

I can say that it was because I forgot my gmail password and couldn't keep up to date, but let's be honest...it' cus I ate myself to 190lbs (!)

That's right, that's the heaviest that I've ever been, and I feel like the biggest sack of shit for it.

I'd gas out when walking up stairs or trying to run for the subway.

However, without getting into too much detail, I'm in way better shape now and have been training my thai, boxing, weights, long runs and intervals at a set schedule these days.

I've joined a fitness gym which I hit up on my lunch break and actually have more energy for my classes now.

I've even got a fight booked a few months down the line, and am working towards improving my skills.

In other news, we're at about 17 or 18wks now, and we find out the sex at our next appointment.

Getting there...

Went for a 40min run last night (approx 6km)...took it nice and easy and explored the neighbourhood.

I've lived there exactly 11mos to the day, and I'm still not familiar w/ the side streets of the area like I was when I lived w/ my folks.

I hope to build some sort of routine w/ my evening runs now, if my running buddy MF can stick to a set schedule.

My legs are still sore even after light workouts, even though I'm stretching like crazy these days. I'm stretching in the morning, on the subway, at my desk, on the subway on the way home, at the gym, watching TV and still...

I'm aftraid of pumping out a hard legs day for fear of a long recovery.

Stone Cold Steve recommended to me that I try putting seran wrap on them overtop some cream like A5-35.

It's a little uncomfortable and it makes squishing sounds when I walk, but it's all for the better, right?

I've also been applying the guasha shark tool after workouts. I guess you could say that it's working somewhat, as I'm able to pinch a little more off of my legs each day.

I started working out again and my weight was 180lbs. I'm sitting steady at 174lbs. Not too bad.

Unrelated topic, but we went to a cottage in Collingwood this past weekend. My first time up there, and I guess you can say, my first real time away from the city into the country in general. It was a lot of fun, and very relaxing. I can see why ppl loving getting away to them so much. I was able to get a lot of reading done as well as a nice mentally cleansing run.

I would love to sneak in another cottage weekend before the summer is up, or in September or October.

Nothing else too much exciting going on here.

Big weekend coming up - Dave and Victoria's wedding on Saturday, and UFC 100, which will be viewed post wedding reception thanks to PVR.

Fallen Off Track

To sum it up quick, I've sort of fallen off keeping track on the bloggage cus my legs aren't cooperating w/ the training that I want to do.

Tried to do sprints awhile back (I think last Sunday the 21st), and I paid for it the next day.

When I woke up that morning, my legs felt like really heavy pillars. I had to take the day off of work cus walking around just wasn't happening.

Either way, I'm getting 2x/wk treatment now.

The Doc advised of chilling it out for about a month and to stay low impact during treatment so it's not that '1 step forward, 2 steps back' scenario that I always find myself in.

What's really great is that I was recommended to this place - www.etdinc.ca

They sell these plastic Graston-like tools that I can use on myself.

Happy early Canada Day everyone!

142 years....whoooooo