The thing is this: working in the healthcare industry has it's ups and downs when it comes to workload and acuity. There are maybe two to three times per year when work switches from a somewhat manageable workload and acuity to a whole other beast that I call "Work 'till it Hurts" mode. During this time, it's ridiculously difficult to drum up enough energy to get anything done in your personal life. Although every unit in our hospital system switches into these modes, I suspect that my unit in particular sees more of these acuity spikes annually, and they tend to last longer than other units --likely due to the nature of our surgeries and our major lack of resources.
With any luck, compressing the province's nine health authorities into three will open up some funding that has been previously locked into the administrative level of our healthcare system. One prime example is the CEO of Capital Health, who earns more annually than the Prime Minister of Canada (over $300,000). Of course the other directors, VPs and CEOs that get the axe will probably be getting severance packages over several years. Therefore the savings that we'll get from cutting the fat won't be available for another three years (my guess) after the amalgamation.
Moving right along...
Winter is probably my worst season for slacking off, and watching the inches around my waistline increase substantially! The result is that, come spring, I'm completely deconditioned. In order to prevent this, I was able to snatch up a fluid-trainer from MEC.
This little fella has been excellent at keeping the ol' legs strong, and the belly-girth under control! I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of investing in bike-related, winter fitness equipment. Also, I think if this is your first trainer and you're used to throwing down some pretty long distance rides during the summer/fall seasons, a fluid-trainer is the way to go. Haven't been hearing such great things when it comes to air-trainers (not enough resistance), and magnetic ones can be pretty expensive and clunky.
I was also able to head out to Montreal recently to check out one of our larger Canadian cities, and also see how the bike infra is treated over the winter months.
 |
| Great snow clearance of a separated bike lane. |
To be honest, I expected a lot more from such a large city. Dedicated bike lanes were really nice to see, but a fair amount of the time they were snowed under or were really chopped up by icy patches that were over two-inches thick. In fact, even the sidewalks were in really rough shape. I was hoping to head out for a run at least once during my time there, but the conditions made that idea totally impractical. In any case, I'll probably try to head out there in the summer to get a good balance of what the city has to offer during the warmer months.
 |
| There's a bike lane under there somewhere... |
 |
| Brutal for pedestrians as well. |
I'll try to be posting weekly again. Don't expect much considering the season. It's kind of a head-down-power-through paradigm out there right now!
