Yesterday Sara turned the BIG 4-0!! Despite a desire to edit everything I post on my blog, I am overruling her and posting some fun pics in celebration of this milestone birthday. 
Edit: The bottle is empty - it's just a joke!!
In her happy place - at the beach.
With her precious one.
Couldn't go without some race pics. These are from Gravenhurst 2015. Coming out of the swim.
Bike.
Run.
Happy Birthday Baby - getting better every day!!
Happy Belated New Year!! I'm a little late but that's ok. 2016 is a milestone year in the Turnbull household. This is what Sara and I refer to as our "50-40 Year". What that means is that Sara turns 40 in 9 days and I turn 50 in May. Not surprisingly, from a mental standpoint, I'm a child and Sara is an adult. We also "age up" to the next age group when racing! This is probably the only time one gets excited about getting older. In theory we could be the speedy kids in the age group however, currently, my scale says otherwise.
This pic says it all, am I right?! I really don't have any resolutions this year. I'm enjoying training, making new friends and look forward to some racing - the distance of which I'm unclear of at this point. I read a quote from a elite coach that basically states "if you need a specific date to make changes to improve yourself then you haven't worked hard enough to make yourself better over the past year." Kind of makes sense eh?! Resolutions can be a jumpstart in mindset and get people excited about the potential for the coming year so that can have impact so I'm not entirely against it.
So with that said what are my goals? First off I'm looking at a race per month between June and September. There will be varying distances involved but the spacing will be ideal to allow for recovery, a life, and doing some cool family things like camping and going to the beach which we love. Secondly, get some projects done around the house - these things never end of course. Finally, and most importantly, Sara and I will get married after 18 years - better late than never! On this front, we have NO plans, I mean NO plans. We've thrown out ideas but nothing has stuck. We have that real sense of urgency! haha
Last year I did say I wanted to go surfing. That didn't pan out however Logan really likes boogie boarding (which I'm stoked about!!) and we got some in on Lake Erie. I picked up a nice board late in the summer from a surf shop so I'm pumped to try the out with him this summer. I also plan on doing some stand up paddling. It's something we can do as a family so that makes more sense.
Finally my training totals from the past 2 years are as follows: 
Well it`s Christmas time, I`m still riding outside and I did not freeze my twig n` berries putting up the lights. Sara got into the outside decorating this year - here she is sporting the traditional Hammer outfit of a lumberjacket to get things going.
We always pride ourselves on being `loud` in the neighbourhood for the holidays. We definitely do not focus on coordination - instead we try to use everything we have. I`m not sure why but there aren`t a lot of homes with lights up this year - maybe people feel out of sorts because of the mild weather. We`ve not done any shopping to date and Christmas has come up rapidly. 
This puts things into perspective with regards to the weather. This past week I was in Thunder Bay for a couple of days. The pic above was taken at 9:00am and it was 4C.
Whenever in Thunder Bay I try to visit the Terry Fox Memorial - it`s always inspiring. Beautiful shot with the sun coming through the trees.
The memorial is really well done and a fitting tribute.
The Thunder Bay area from the air.
Heading towards Toronto this is cool shot of the clouds below. Equally fun was flying through them - a bit of a rollercoaster!
Friday nights we go to a special needs soccer program with Logan. There are several levels of needs and the kids are amazing. I can`t say enough of Coach Frank and Coach Joe - truly amazing human beings. We go to Players Paradise for the session and parents and kids do drills and horse around the field for an hour. It`s always a great start to our weekend.
Post soccer Logan and I watching some Star Wars - bliss!
This is honour of Sara who's had the great pleasure of listening to me whine over the past 48 hours while she does the Christmas baking and keeps the household running!
We've been having some beautiful weather this fall. We've been trying to do active family things as well. For Logan we do different activities so that he is exposed to as many things as possible. We bike, swim, he does gymnastics (more like trampoline), occasional hike.
We went for a walk by the rail trail and tried steps with him. He did surprisingly well. We make sure not to go overboard but it was good for him.
In other Logan news his Mosasaur statue arrived from the U.S. He used his birthday money to purchase it. It actually is very detailed and quite heavy. He proudly has it on his computer desk.
Yet more Logan stuff. As you can guess from the pic Logan went out for Halloween. Not sure how many more he'll do but he just turned 12 so he's into it. He went as Indomitus Rex from Jurassic World. Arrghh!!
Sara and I got out for a "date" aka a workout together. We went for a beauty run in King's Forest. The fall is amazing here and trails and hills here are awesome.
The Hammer from atop the escarpement.
Sara post run. She decided to bring out the neon for the run. Pink, orange, lime green, purple - I think she pretty much got it covered. And no Sara, I will not be removing this pic!
Took some customers out to the Red Wings game - Tampa vs Detroit. Always a good time.
Finally - watched the NBC coverage of the Hawaii Ironman. It was well done as usual. I especially was floored by this man Derek Fitzgerald. Derek battled cancer for almost 10 years and also had a heart transplant!! He finished Hawaii in 16:36 to become the first heart transplant athlete to finish. That is absolutely freakin' amazing!! He said on the broadcast that the biggest honour he can give to his donor and donated heart is to use it. The journey this dude's been on is incredible. As I write this I have a bit of a cold - perhaps I need to HTFU! I'm sure Derek would laugh at my whining!!