TRI'N FOOL

Kelowna Apple - Quick and Dirty Race Recap

2011-08-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Last time I did the Apple in 2008 my overall time was 2:47:28, and it was a PR that I haven't beaten since.

In 2008 I was determined to set a new run PR and was so disappointed at failing to do that it took me a while to realize I'd set an overall PR (I've put a lot of work into the mental side of things over the last three years because of this meltdown).

This year I again went in with high expectations for my run and was again unimpressed with it, but it did at least turn out to be better than 2008. The bike was on par with what I've done in the past few years but apparently this is the year of the swim!

2011 splits:
Swim: 26:54 (2008 - 31:11, no wetsuit)
Bike: 1:19:26 (2008 - 1:18:56)
Run: 51:48 (2008 - 53:52)

Overall:2:41:33

Now I need to figure out how to get the same improvement for my bike and run.

Osoyoos Half - Pre Race & Swim

2011-07-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

Three alarm clocks (iPod, phone and motel alarm clock) proved adequate to wake me up on race morning. I had debated setting a wake up call but forgot to see if it was possible. Luckily for me there wasn't a triple apple device/cellular/electrical failure, but in future perhaps I shouldn't push my luck.

I then proved that quick oats definitely cannot be cooked the same way as instant ones. It was difficult to decide whether stodgy or gluey was the more appropriate descriptive term for breakfast. Happily the coffee was excellent and, as a bonus, I didn't do a "Valencia" and dump it on anything.

After that the regular race morning ritual of going through the checklist one last time before packing my bag and heading out.

Being in transition in the morning and knowing very few people felt odd. I'm used to having an LETC horde in any race I do, plus I now know lots of other Vancouver area racers. That didn't stop me from talking to everyone at my rack, of course, but it did still feel a bit lonely. I eventually bumped into Andrew Graham on the beach, just in time for him to do up my wetsuit (thanks!) and shortly after my swim warm up I found Kristie. I stuck to her like badly cooked quick oats as I wanted to draft off her, or at least try, for the swim.

We watched the men head out then waited seven minutes for our turn. I started near the front and was jostled and bumped a fair bit, but having done a 1,500m battle swim time trial with Bronwyn, Clayton, Dr. Dave and Amanda in June it barely registered. The start put me in a good position to find a draft and I managed to swipe a good pair of toes from someone pretty quickly.

Nearing the first turn buoy I decided I'd give the turns we'd been practicing with LETC a try. At the buoy I did one back stroke then back to free and ended up facing the correct direction with a nice pair of feet directly in front of me. Normally I lose my draft on the turns so this was quite exciting. I executed the turn again at the next buoy and ended up hitting my draft amidship. Not only was I keeping up on the turns, I was gaining!

It was a two lap swim so after 900m we had to exit the water, run around a buoy on the sand then get back in. This turn I didn't execute so well. I cursed as the women I'd been swimming with gained several yards on me on the beach. Happily I had also mastered the dolphin dive in training with the club and quickly got back with my pack.

Two more fast turns, several upgrades to faster feet and we were on our way back to the beach. The pace picked up and the group I was with got strung out into a long line, I was second back but as we got out of the water it looked like there were at least six or seven of us.

On the beach I checked my watch and was stunned at my time - 35:40. I'd just set a 2km PR of 36:42 at the VOWSA Canada Day swim and didn't expect to match it, must less beat it by a minute. I headed to T1 feeling pretty amazing.

Osoyoos Pre-Race

2011-07-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

I watched the Vancouver Subaru sprint and half iron the weekend before Osoyoos and came to the realization that a half iron was a ludicrously long distance for a race!

I've done enough halves (halfs?) that I know the distance and how long it will take me, but as I've only done sprints this year it seemed like a long, long time to be racing.

I felt terribly unprepared in general. I don't know why as I've put in the time and distance but somehow it didn't feel like enough. That's probably a good thing as any race I've gone into cocky has inevitably turned out to be humbling.

Part of feeling unprepared is that I haven't been as focussed on my training as in past years. Work has been extremely stressful for quite a while and I really haven't been able to plan anything much in my non-work life. Stress has also had other fun effects. A bad day at work after a bad night's sleep and a kinked back lead to the mother of all taper tantrums/meltdowns on the Thursday before the race. As an FYI, a large, open plan office isn't a great place to lose it, I suggest you plan your breakdowns for more private locales.

Happily, that seemed to clear my nerves. I was still concerned about my back but a massage appointment on Friday morning fixed the worst of the issue and I felt I could complete the race.

In being "planning challenged" I was very disorganized in my preparation for the half: I signed up a week and a half out from the race, I found a hotel the weekend before and arranged a car rental on the Wednesday prior. So in packing on Friday before heading out I knew I would forget something. On Facebook I offered Okanagan cherries to the first person to figure out what I forgot. There were 40 replies, the most popular item was a race belt, an item I have yet to forget but apparently a lot of my friends have. Happily no one thought I was clueless enough to leave my bike behind.

The definitive list of things I forgot:
- bento box (I could have survived without, must learn to be a better roadie!)
- earplugs
- helmet number. OK, not something I packed but I forgot to put it on my helmet and only figured it out 70km into the ride
- instant oatmeal. Quick oats are pretty sludgy when you just add boiling water rather than cook 'em for 5 minutes

I stopped in Chilliwack on Friday night and had a short visit with my dad. Saturday was a mellow day, on my way up I drove the bike course then registered, napped at my hotel and did my short pre-race workouts and the pre-race meeting. I didn't see Andrew Graham but did meet up with Kristie briefly.

Then it was back to the hotel where I ended the day calm and looking forward to racing.

Iron Mountain Sprint Race Report

2011-06-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Another short triathlon, another small field and another podium finish. I could get used to that last part!

I had been warned the race might not be the best organized but was still surprised that it started half an hour late. My swim warm up went from reasonably long to way, way too long - I was in the water for 55 minutes before the race started. That was plenty of time to get chilled and lose all benefit of my warm up run. I guess I'm not used to doing the "second fiddle" races, like sprints seem to be.

It was a beach start but with only about 70 racers and a wide starting area it wasn't too crazy. From some reason everyone seemed to swim way off to the right. After the initial 100m the swimmers around me all swerved to the right and to get a draft I would have had to swim about 10m off course to get a pair of toes.

I opted to keep my line and try to get a draft at the first turn. Unfortunately the swimmers at my pace took the turn wide, I didn't get jostled but I also didn't get close enough to draft. Same thing at the next turn. Very odd. I spent the return leg just out of draft range from a pack of about 10, never managing to catch up.

Swim time: 15:39

I lost a bit of time in T1 cleaning off my sunglasses, it had been raining all morning and they were too fogged up to see through. The guy next to me on the rack took the time to towel off! Did I mention it was raining?

I spent most of the bike passing people, which was good for my ego. There were lots of beginners, so a lot of yelling "On your left!" so they'd move over. It was pretty spread out though, not s terribly crowded course.

One of my bike goals was to be passed as late in the ride as possible by Natasha. I'm a faster swimmer than her (for the moment!) but she's a very strong cyclist so I knew she was coming. She caught me 2/3s of the way through the third lap, so I was happy with that. I kept her in sight the rest of the ride.

Bike time: 48:20

A bit of a rookie move at the dismount, I got off my bike a too soon and had an extra ten seconds of running.

Quick change to run gear, to the cheers of LETC folk who'd done the Olympic earlier in the day.

I could still see Natasha in front of me but knew from her pace it was unlikely I'd pass. Not that I didn't try!

On the second loop Stephanie, who had her schwag from winning the oly women's race, told me I was probably the 4th woman. This gave me an extra push and as I passed a two women I had the urge to ask which lap they were on. Sadly they were on their first and I never caught Natasha so I finished 4th overall. Also, because the race had ten year age groups, Natasha was in my AG and took first.

Run time : 22:04 (4.6 km course)

Overall time: 1:28:41

Post Race Checklist

2011-06-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

- Bag full of wet stinky gear
- Jiffy marker on arm(s) and leg(s)
- Body Glide in hair
- Mud / sand / grass on everything
- That thing that your club mate forgot (medal, wetsuit, keys, child)
- Random bruises
- Sunburn(s) in bizarre spots
- Desperate need for food / coffee / shower / nap / trauma counseling
- Big grin

Oliver Wine Capital Sprint Race Report

2011-05-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

For my first triathlon of year I did the Oliver Wine Country sprint this weekend.

Normally I've done at least one race by this time of year but having done the Bahamas marathon in January and following it with a disastrous half marathon at the First Half in February, I was happy to take a few months off racing. Alan has said that there's no need to do Olympic distance races to prep for a half iron and I'm happy to stick with the shorter distances for now.

It was fun going back to the Wine Country Sprint (or wino race, as Alan has been calling it) as that was my first open water triathlon back in 2005 and my second ever tri. This was a very different race from 2005, that biggest difference was the lack of pre-race nerves. Well, that and the fact that I'm fitter and way, way more experienced. I lost track some time ago of the number of races I've done in the past six years, but I'm pretty sure it's over thirty.

Mary and I arrived Saturday afternoon and went to Tuclenuit Lake to test how cold the water really was. I proved conclusively that it was too cold to swim in without a wetsuit by swimming in it in just my bathing suit. Actually, once my arms and legs went numb it wasn't so bad! We also rode part of course to get in a ride and to familiar ourselves with the course.

With our workouts out of the way we got down to the important business - wine tasting! We hit a few wineries and came away with several bottles each. It was the Wine Capital triathlon, it would be bad karma not to sample some.

Race morning we arrived in time for me to do a short ride, run and swim warm up. The race start was crowded and chaotic but things got sorted pretty quickly. As usual, I didn't find anyone to draft off so did most of the swim on my own. On the return portion of the out and back course I started to get my rhythm in the swim and feel like I was going fast. For my next race I think I need much more time warming up for the swim.

Coming out of the swim I was happy with my time - 14:24 is close to my pool TT times and definitely not bad for my first open water swim of the year. It went from happy to confused when I got to my bike rack. It was full. I've never been the first to my bike rack in a tri. Ever.

I headed out of T2 happy that I was ahead and expecting to be passed as fast bikers made it out of the water. On my way to the first turn around I was exited to see Nicole in the lead. As I neared the turn I realized there weren't a lot of women between me and Nicole. Not a position I'm used to in races.

Close to the second turn around I passed Nicole as she was changing a flat. Noo! Her lead was lost. I counted the women coming back from the turn to see how places she had lost and realized I was third. Nicole passed me shortly after the turn and I told her her placing.

I was in fourth place and on my way back to transition. I'd never been close to placing well overall in a race and I started to stress about my transition time. It had never mattered much when I was merely racing against my own times and going for a personal best, but now I really, really wanted to place, at least in my age group, and a poor transition could cost that. I may have to pay more attention in transition workouts this season!

I was beat out of transition by a woman at my rack. I was now fifth. I left T2 with the goal of putting in as much space between me and women behind me as I could, fully expecting to be passed.

Near the halfway mark I saw Nicole was now in second but would have to put in an incredible effort to take first. I had just passed another racer and was in fourth but, shortly after the turn, saw Kristie from my club closing in. I decided to kick it up a notch and make Kristie work for it if she wanted to pass me.

With just under a km to go I yelled back at Kristie that if she wanted fourth she'd have to come and get it. Her friends and family were cheering near the finish and I yelled at her to come on, and then tried to put in a sprint. I managed to beat her by five seconds.

She was psyched when I told her she was fifth overall and at least third in her age group. Not bad for her first triathlon! I've decided I'm going to enjoy this victory over Kristie, which may sound unsportsmanlike as she's a rookie but I have a feeling that she'll soon be very fast and I likely won't be beating her ever again so I'm taking my victory now!

In checking the results I found out that I was first in my age group, and definitely fourth overall. I've never won my age group in a tri and never placed anywhere near that high overall so I was very excited. I'll come back to earth when I do a bigger race, but for now I'm enjoying the moment.

Quote for Today

2011-02-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

"If you are irritated by every rub,

how will you be polished?"

Rumi

I'm no Rocket Surgeon* - My 2011First Half Half Marathon Race Report

2011-02-13T14:42:00.000-08:00

Somewhere around the 8 mile mark in today's race I wondered "What was I thinking?" I had decided pre-race that a 1:50 or faster race was doable, and in fact a PR was well within my reach, however 2/3 of the way through the race reality was viciously kicking in.

For your edification, you may not want to aim for a PR half marathon when:
- you did your first full marathon a month ago
- you miscommunicated with your coach, who didn't realize you had the race on your schedule, but still followed your plan and didn't taper or adjust your workouts the week prior in any way
-your longest run in the past three weeks was nowhere near a half marathon time or distance.

Seems somewhat obvious in retrospect, probably not really anything I needed to learn the hard way.

One thing I was experimenting with was running without a fuel belt or water bottle, relying entirely on the on course aid stations. There were four aid stations, one we passed twice, so not a lot of chances to drink on course.

I definitely had issues with fueling, my mile splits got progressively slower up to 6 miles. I had a gel and downed it with water from an aid station then suddenly was able to run my target pace for a mile. After that my pace dropped precipitously, I'm not sure How much of a difference having my own water would have made but the sugar rush and then crash from quickly downing a gel didn't help me much.

My mile splits are telling (I was aiming for 8:23/mile)
1 - 7:57
2 - 8:52
3 - 8:35
4 - 8:50
5 - 8:37
6 - 8:39 (ate a gel)
7 - 9:02
8 - 8:27 (gel kicked in!)
9 - 8:52 (and the gel is gone)
10 - 8:41
11 - 8:56
12 - 9:20
13 - 10:25 (seriously!)

Final time - 1:56:21

* One of the best phrases I found on the interwebs in 2010. I'm also fond of "all intensive purposes."

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

2011-01-19T17:30:00.000-08:00

Finish photos are here.

Bahamas Marathon Race Report

2011-01-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

It was a pretty basic morning, I walked in circles a fair amount but managed to get everything I needed together in time. The half marathoners, myself and a couple of support crew headed out for the run.

There turned out to be a number of Canadians in the race and we chatted with them while waiting to start.

The gun went off and we ran through downtown Nassau in the dark, doing our best to avoid potholes and speed bumps. After that we went over the steep bridge onto Paradise Island, immediately turned right and ran over another steep bridge off the island (seemed totally unnecessary to me). I ran strong over the first bridge and caught a couple of our half runners, John and Kelly, saying hi as I went by. On the second bridge reason started to show it's head and I tried to let people go and hold a slower pace.

The Bridges of Doom

Off the bridge we ran through a very poor looking neighbourhood. A number of the residents were up at 6:30 watching us race (some cheering, some bemused) which was cool.

The area seemed to sharply change from poor to hatch sales, then to big banks, then to big, well kept up homes. Interesting to seem the spread of income as we went. (And none of the residents of the mansions were out to watch us.)

We did a 180 and headed back through town. John passed me again and I started catching up with Kelly.

I thought about my predicted time and decided that I felt so good I should definitely go for a 4 hour run. It was totally possible!

Changing your race plan at mile four in a 26.2 mile race is always a good idea. Right?

I yelled ahead to Kelly to ask what her pace/goal time was and she told me sub-two. Uh oh. I was going way too fast. I dropped back and tried to let her and John go but had difficulty holding a slower pace.

They eventually disappeared and I caught up with Hank from our group. He looked like he was having some challenges at that point, I said hi and something encouraging as I passed.

As I neared the Breezes the half marathon turn around I kept an eye out for returning half marathoners from the group. First Annie, then Alex then Gustavo went by, all looking strong.

At the hotel Megan, who'd done her first ever running race in the 5km the day before, and some others were out and cheered me on. Megan took some photos and I told her she needed to get shots of me while I was still smiling. I wasn't sure I'd be so positive on the return.

Once I was past the half turn around point race narrowed out considerably. There were about 400 racers in the half and only about 120 in the full. I lost a my pace bunnies and it was very quiet for the rest of the way, but when I did get to an aid station or group of spectators they were super excited to see a runner.

The weather started to warm up shortly after we split from the half marathoners. I was worried about overheating wand whenever I was in the shade I took my hat off so my head could stay cool. I get sunstroke very easily so I kept my hat on in the sun however. And when I saw photographers - didn't want to have hat head!

I also followed Alan's advice for cooling and poured water on my wrists and inner forearms at every opportunity. Some of the volunteers thought I was weird for doing this, but as I never over heated it seemed to have worked.

Aside from the Bridges of Doom at the start and a low bridge about 15 miles in, the course was very flat. It was quite winding and I tried as much as possible to take the shortest cant on every corner as that can considerably cut the overall distance I had to run.

Once we left the resort areas we went past some strip malls then the road hugged the coast and we had a great ocean view. Lots of quiet beauty then every mile an enthusiastic group of volunteers handing out water and Gatorade.

Near the full turn around there started to be traffic on the road and running anywhere other the shoulder of the road became a bit risky. On the return there were quite a few cars on the road so I shoulder checked any time I got closer to the middle of the road.

Most of the drivers were very considerate and gave me lots of room however I was buzzed by two police cars and a couple of police on motorcycles. Not only was it rude and frightening, but as it was after 20 miles into the race it was quite dangerous - we were neither steady on our feet nor were we always moving in a predictable direction.

My pace had dropped considerably after I passed the halway mark, I had definitely gone out to fast and I was starting to pay for it. It was a struggle to keep a 9:20 mile pace, although I'd do the occaissional 9:05 for no particular reason. As I approached mile 20 I prepared to hit the wall, i was tired and my legs hurt and I was readying for everything to fall apart. I grabbed a gel from the aid station and downed it so I'd have the energy to push through. And I kept going on pace and didn't feel much of a change.

I passed the Breezes and saw Deanna, who kindly took my (nasty) Fuel Belt then saw a highly enthusiastic Megan again. It's always a big lift to see supporters on course!

At about mile 24 I started running out of steam. My legs hurt and it was an effort to keep running. I decided that a marathon was a ridiculous distance to run and from now on I'd stick to half marathons. No way I'd do another full. "One and done!" I decided. I may even have said that aloud.

The aid station volunteers were also hitting the wall - the 24 mile crew were mostly napping and the 25 mile crew were a bit out of it. This is NOT a criticism, I think it was awesome that they were out and I know how draining it is to stand around for hours, especially when you have so few runners going by. It was warm and this part of the course was the most boring, it would have been a long, long day for these guys.

I felt drained and desparately wanted to walk but knew I was very close to the finish so I kept running. As with the rest of the race, as my energy flagged I told myself "You're in the BAHAMAS! How could this be anything but good!" An unweildy but effective mantra.

As I neared the finished I could see half marathoners walking towards me, some cheered me on and even the ones that didn't were heartening as I knew I was so, so close to the finish.

Finally I could see the finish and the yellow shirts of my group. Wendi and Gustavo yelled and waved and ran with me for most of the last 200m. This was absolutely phenomenal, I was psyched to be finishing but their support made it so much more special.

After 4 hours, 7 minutes and 22 seconds, I crossed with a smile. Even though I was far off my dream goal of 4 hours, I smashed my goal of finishing happy.

I grabbed some food, said lots of incoherent things to the group members and we jumped on the bus to head back to the Breezes. At the resort we went straight from the bus to the bar for a celebratory glass of champagne and I stood in the ocean sipping it while icing my legs feeling pretty darned good about life.

This would be a great spot to finish the race report but the next day I got an email from my Mum. She'd checked the results online and informed me I'd finished 22nd overall and had won my age group! What a way to start my year. Made a very fun race even better.

Bahamas Marathon - Pre Race Report

2011-01-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

Just for Amy and Kathryn I'm working on my race report on my flight home from the race. (Nothing to do with not being able to sleep, nope this is all to keep you happy. Hope you appreciate my sacrifice!)

Despite being in the travel industry for eight years I've never been on a FAM trip so had little idea of what to expect. I was nervous about sharing a room with someone I didn't know and in general about the group dynamics.

At the Toronto airport I spied various people who looked like runners. One of them was handing out shirts so I guessed it would be my group. Right I was. I met a few people, chatted and tried desperately to remember names.

At the resort (Superclubs Breezes) we checked in and I ended up rooming with Wendi, a very nice and very cool agent from Toronto. She was very experienced both with running and with FAMs so an excellent person to be around.

The view of the Breezes pool

I was the only person from the group signed up for the full marathon, I was infamous before anyone even met me. I told people in the group the distance I was racing and they responded "You're the one!" When people asked what distances we were doing and someone said "She's the full" it sounded remarkably like "She's the fool!"

In the days prior to the race we did a variety of agenty things - site inspections of the Breezes property, the Atlantis resort and the Sandals resort; a Dolphin experience; wandering downtown Nassau. It was interesting and fun but not necessarily the restful type of things you want to do prior to a marathon (the Atlantis site tour was three hours of walking).

Hanging out with dolphins

At the aquarium at the Atlantis

View from the Executive Lounge in the Cove tower at the Atlantis resort

Just as difficult as staying off our feet was eating sensibly. We were faced with tempting buffets for breakfast then uncertain stretches with no food and a couple of seriously unhealthy dinners (but soooo good!). If you're ever in the Bahamas, go to Twin Brothers at Arawak Cay for the fish fry. Pretty sure deep fried conch (pronouced "conk") isn't recommended pre-race food but wow it was good. Ooh, and do brunch at the Atlantis and have dinner at the Sandals. You'll thank me for the recommendations.

Grilled red snapper at Twin Brothers fish fry

So after three days of doing everything wrong we finally came to the marathon.

I picked up a copy of the race program and looked at the race registrants. There were maybe 120 people signed up for the marathon. I joked to the other runners and to my parents and coach that I might actually place in this race!

It was good to know in advance that once the half marathoners turned off I'd be pretty much on my own. Running in a crowd is a very different energy than running alone so it was good to be prepared.

After a pasta dinner at the Breezes buffet, a good portion of which I managed to wear (no pre-race nerves!), we had an early night and tried to have a decent sleep. We set four alarms and of course I woke up five minutes before any of them went off.

Training, Procrastination and Nuun Slushies

2010-12-30T20:54:00.000-08:00

I had two decent workouts today.

This morning's introduced a new swim toy - the sponge. Imagine giving a 6 year old long strips of sponge and telling them to make an octopus. The result (less the poster paint, googly eyes and glitter) is then tied to one end of a long piece of string, the other end of the string goes around your waist and you swim with it tagging along behind you.

While it provides some drag the point of our workout was to use it to smooth out our stroke. It gives tactile feedback, if the string around your waist jerks and pulls unevenly then you aren't keeping a consistent speed. I discovered my kick is fine but on my stroke I slow down when I breath. I corrected it but it's a lot more work when you don't get a mini break every third breath!

I was dreading my run, the main set of which was two times 5km at my half marathon pace. I dreaded it enough that I employed as many procrastination techniques as I could manage:

- check my email (I wouldn't want to be late in replying to anyone!)
- wait until the last minute to figure out what my pace should be
- post on Facebook
- put away clean laundry
- search for my spare key
- check the weather online (cold)

I finally ran out of ways to put off the inevitable and headed to the track.

I haven't done as much track work this year as in the past and it really shows. I used to be a metronome, I could keep my 400m pace to the second. Now I'm all over the map.

I was completely off pace for my first 5km, the first km was a disaster and the following four were better but not by much. I managed to keep closer to pace for the second set, and was fairly consistent, but I was still slower than I wanted to be. I don't know how much the cold weather affected my speed or if I was having an off day, but the pace I was trying for was the pace I ran at the Fall Classic so it is achievable. Frustrating regardless of the reason but I do know now what my focus needs to be through my taper - nail my marathon pace.

As to the cold, it was definitely not warm this evening. After my second 5km I tried to take a swig from my water bottle only to find it had frozen. I've never had that happen at a workout before. It turns out, however, that cola flavoured Nuun makes a tasty slushy.

Be Prepared!

2010-12-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

After a week of "too much overindulging" over Christmas I'm trying to get myself back into some semblance of a workout routine that I can carry over into the New Year.

In mid-December I decided to sign up for a swim clinic in the week between Christmas and New Years. I figured that as I'd avoided the pool for two months I'd need a bit of a jump start for my 2011 swimming.

I opted for the Infinity Clinic, put on by the coach of my masters swim (can I call it "my" swim when I bailed on almost the entire fall session?). Until about 8:45 last night I thought this clinic was at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre. Turns out it's at the UBC pool, rather a significant difference as that's an additional 25-30 minutes biking. Annoying, and a bit embarassing, but at least I figured it out before I left for the pool this morning.

Also turns out the swim starts at 5:20, I'm not sure what was in the flyer (that came out, like, two weeks ago, why should I remember?) but that seems a bit early. Even just ten minutes later would be lovely! The coach sent an email stating that the pool wouldn't open until 5:15 and apologized to those folks who'd want to get in earlier. That made me laugh. My plan was to come screaming into the pool at the last possible second.

Signing up for the clinic gave me the impetus to finally get the rack put on my new bike and to finally use it to bike to swimming. As I put my paniers on last night, however, I realized that they don't quite fit the new rack, the s-hook is about 2mm too small to hook securely onto the bottom of the rack. Probably would have been useful to figure this out prior to biking the breadth of the city at 4:30am with fully laden paniers. It was a bit of a slow ride as I was anxious to avoid potholes or bumps that might send my gear flying off the bike but I made it to UBC with everything intact.

I was also slow as I'm getting used to the new bike and to mountain bike clips, as well as to riding with paniers for the first time in seven years. I vididly recall when I had paniers on for the first time and tried to take a corner at speed when they were full of heavy groceries. For your future reference, your ability to turn declines sharply when you have a lot of weight on your back wheel.

Much as I hate getting up at that hour, and despite my various trials and tribulations with the bike, I love having the road to myself. It's a super fast ride (even when you're being uber cautious to avoid flinging your belongings onto the street) when you don't have to stop for traffic.

And the clinic was well worth it. There aren't a lot of people in this session so I'm sharing a lane with just one other person. The small numbers also mean we get a lot of feedback from the coaches. Plus I got to try swimming on a tether and, just for added weirdness/geek factor, swim over a mirror while tethered so I could see what I'm doing when I swim. I move my head to much, on pretty much every axis, and my elbow is way to high in the water making for too shallow of a pull (the coach pointed this out, I'm not skilled enough to figure out for myself).

When the swim was done I had my proof I haven't swum in ages - I forgot to bring a towel. Happily the woman I share a lane with lent me a towel as she brings two. Yay for prepared people who're willing to lend things to strangers!!!

I expect to be somewhat more prepared tomorrow, although I just realized that I will have to bring two towels (mine plus the borrowed one) so my precarious paniers will be even more heavily laden!

The Long Run

2010-12-21T21:04:00.000-08:00

I was thinking back on my training this fall and realized that since the Fall Classic my long runs have been the following:

- a (mildly) hung over half marathon.
- an attempt to run with a cranked up back where I bailed after an hour.
- a poorly planned run route that resulted in me becoming dehydrated enough to be seriously loopy.
- a horrendous run after four days of GI distress where I had eaten very little. Had I not had company, and great company at that, for the first two hours I likely would have bailed.
- a nasty hangover induced from extending an LMDI (Last Minute Dinner Invite) that unexpectedly involved a significant amount of wine and turned into a late night.

Good thing I'm not going to the Bahamas hoping to set a world record!

Plan Your Race - Race Your Plan

2010-12-20T10:30:00.001-08:00

Or Fantasy vs. Reality

My training for the Bahamas marathon is getting close to taper time, one more wickedly long run then I get to back off the volume. I've put in the training and I think I have a good feel for my fitness level so now I need to work on the race plan.

I'm trying to separate what I want to do, to go 4 hours or less, from what I can do.

At my recent half marathon I ran 1:51 in less than ideal conditions so 4 hours may be an achieveable goal however the Fall Classic was my 7th or 8th stand-alone half marathon and the Bahamas will be my first full marathon.

In my half marathons, along with the runs from the 6 half iron triathlons, I've learned how to pace myself over 21.1 km. 42.1km is a whole different beast!

I had a very successful run at Ironman but the run is so far removed from a stand alone marathon I don't think it can compare. I didn't have to deal with a mass start, I came onto a course that was already quite spread out and I was generally amongst people the same speed as me. I didn't have to deal with a crowded run start (never my strong point) or being passed by speedsters taking off at full tilt (again, hard to hold back and be passed).

I also trained in weather close to race day conditions in 2007. I've been running through the fall/winter in Vancouver so I'm acclimatized to cold and wet weather. Apparently this time of year isn't generally super hot in the Bahamas but it will certainly be warmer than Vancouver. If, through some strange circumstance, it is 7 degrees and raining on race day I will so be rocking the course!!!

So, despite the fact that I want to run 4 hours, I'll be super conservative. I'll aim for a 2:05 first half and see how I feel. If I'm doing well I'll pick up the pace a touch. Just a touch, no sprinting or world record 5km pace! 10km later, about where most folks hit the wall, I'll reassess and see if I'm okay to pick it up a bit more.

Random Training Thoughts and Facts

2010-12-05T17:04:00.001-08:00

My back seemed to be okay with a long run. Yay!

Hangovers suck. Especially on long training runs.

Public water fountains are turned off in cold weather. This would only be mildly interesting except that my long run hydration plan depended on filling up at these water fountains.

Being dehydrated (while hung over and doing a long run) sucks. It also makes walking straight a bit of a challenge and gets me a little loopy. Oh, and it makes a pre-existing hangover worse.

Chocolate milk rocks.

The worst parts of an ice bath are the anticipation and the first 20 seconds in. After that it's just ten minutes during which I can't use my iPad.

Putting on compression socks when you can't feel your feet is awkward.

The warming up process from an ice bath has weird stage where my skin is warmer than the rest of me and it's chilled not from the air temperature but from blood flow.

Post run naps are awesome.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

How not to install an App

2010-12-02T23:05:00.001-08:00

I've been reading ebooks on my iPad, specifically slogging my way through 'The Idiot' by Dostoyevsky. I downloaded a bunch of free books from Project Gutenberg, which offers books whose copyright's have expired for free.

I'm still warming up to the idea of using an ereader so I'm not keen to start dishing out money for ebooks. 'The Idiot' hasn't exactly kept me up nights reading, but I was pretty sure that had more to do with the material rather than the technology.

The Vancouver Public Library has links to various free ebooks and articles, including BC' Library Online (bclibrary.ca). Seemed like a great way to access ebooks for free, all I had to do was download a compatible ereader App to my iPad and I was set!

Or maybe not.

My steps:

1) Download the Bluefire Reader App to my iPad
2) Go to BCLibrary.ca to sign out a book on my iPad - yay digital library!!!
3) Download won't work. Go to App help page to figure out why.
3.1) Realize I need to download books to my PC and need Adobe Digital Editions to do so.
3.2) Get a little annoyed.
4) Download Adobe digital editions to my PC/desktop (after booting up the computer, which of course takes forever).
5) Go to the BC Library website and sign out a book and (try to) download it.
5.1) Reread the obscure instructions then realize I apparently have to use Firefox, not Explorer (not because they actually tell you, but because it's in one of the illustrations).
5.2) Download Firefox.
5.3) Get serious about being annoyed.
6) Go back to BC Library online and download the book file to my computer.
7) Open iTunes. Which prompts me to upgrade. Why not? How long could it take?
7.1) Find out how long it can take.
7.2) Grrrr.
8) Connect my iPad to my computer and be prompted to update to the latest OS. Why not, I've been at this for long enough, might as well make it truly epic.
8.1) Discover that it takes a long time. A really long time.
8.2) Get an error message that the device has gone into recovery mode.
8.3) Swear loudly.
9) Learn a great deal about recovery mode.
9.1) Learn how long it takes to for an iPad to recover.
9.2) Swear. Not quite so loudly though, I'm a bit tired and really just want to go to bed.
10) Once everything has rebooted, recovered, rehabilitated and what have you I go back online to transfer the book to iTunes then to my iPad.
10.1) Yay! That was a lot of work but worth it. I feel the satisfaction of having figured it all out.
11) The books don't show up on my iPad. Anywhere.
11.1) Swear halfheartedly.
11.2) Give up and go to bed.
12) One day later realize I'd downloaded audio books, not text.
12.1) Feel like an idiot.
12.2) Download a text version book.

Granted I messed up a few things (audio books - doh!) but the process was still a major hassle. There are some good books available at BC Library but the selection is fairly limited. Presumably this will change as the library gets more use.

I found the BC Library website unwieldy and poorly organized. Again, something I hope will improve as the site gets more use.

That said, I'm really enjoying 'Breakfast of Champions', Vonnegut is way more readable than Dostoyevsky.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Curse of the Blog?

2010-12-01T19:02:00.001-08:00

As I fight what hopefully is not the start of the cold I'm beginning to wonder if getting back to blogging about training was such a great idea!

I'm hydrating like crazy, just ate a meal heavy on garlic (maybe avoid me if you see me tomorrow!) and am planning on going to bed super early.

Who's dumb idea was it to run a marathon in January??

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Interruptions

2010-11-28T17:52:00.001-08:00

Sometimes life gets in the way of training. I wasn't expecting to get in a run this weekend but thought I'd take my runners to Calgary with me just in case. Then I managed to tweak my back bending over to put something (not my runners) into my suitcase. One solution to the "to run or not to run" question.

After a bit of panic, I managed to find someone able to see me on Friday on short notice and I had a quick physio session that made it possible for me to sit for the flight to Calgary. Straight from physio to airport.

The reason for the trip was to attend the memorial service for my Uncle Andy, who passed away the week before last. There was no question of staying home to nurse my back. The ceremony was very casual, as is fitting for a celebration in Andy's honour, with some great stories.

It was definitely a sad reason to visit but was really, really nice to have the Thompsons and Russells all together. We need to meet up more often (perhaps Maui could be the new Shuswap?). We do need to get together at the very least to get into the legendary scotch bottle.

I have a very cool family. We're a small crew and don't really do drama, which is fine by me. I think I'm doing another road trip next summer to see them all.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Long Lost Calgary 70.3 Race Report

2010-11-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

I found this in my drafts on my blog. It's a bit rough around the edges but it'll do.

I had a great swim - took over two mintues off last year's time. I started way further to the front than last year and had no issues with the washing machine for the first third. Kept ending up behind swimmers who couldn't sight and ran into them when they stopped to look for the bouys, annoying but fun to pass people. It was a bad decision to wear my blue goggles, have had trouble sighting the red bouys all summer with them but in the gloom at 6:30am it was impossible to see them - I looked where the swimmers in front of me were and aimed for the middle of the pack, assuming the swim support would herd the outside stragglers.

After a great swim had a stupid T1 and set out on the bike about the same time as last year - I was a bit spiny after the swim and not moving straight plus it was super muddy and slick after a night of hard rain so hard to move quickly without going down.

Wet roads and a slight headwind made for a slower bike. I raced the first 60 or so km as usual - found a pace group and leap-frogged with a few people. On the second big hill it started to fall apart, I couldn't keep up and suddenly everyone was passing me. The last 10 km was a slog and all I wanted was to get off the bike.

Decent T2 then a horrible run. I had nothing in my legs and my lungs weren't cooperating, I just wanted to quit and finally decided I'd do 10 and 1 and ignore splits as by 4km I was already off my target pace by 5 minutes. I couldn't push the pace as my breathing would get out of control, and halfway in I had nothing in my legs. The upside was that I didn't "catastrophize" and managed to keep positive and adjust my game plan to suit the reality of the day.

Lot of little things I did wrong - didn't adjust sleep patterns in advance (late-ish nights and slept in), not the greatest diet, more alcohol than usual - but I think it was the throat infection that killed me as I've been knocking out long rides for months and while I can see a bad run from the above I don't see why I'd die on the ride. I think my big mistake was not opting for a slower bike pace to account for being sick. I could be deluding myself.

My feedback on the race - the pre-race logistics are a serious pain in the butt. Made for a long Saturday, I was pretty tired and cranky by the time I got to the hotel on Saturday afternoon even though I'd drank lots of water and eaten well. Also the post-race food was nasty - a can of pop, small bag of chips and a subway sandwich. That's it. For $230.00 I expect a bit more. Think this is my last time at this race.

Fall Classic Race Report

2010-11-23T21:16:00.001-08:00

Even before the mercury and snow both started falling I had low expectations for the Fall Classic half marathon. I hadn't done any timed runs since the Calgary 70.3, I'd taken a two month break from running and my most recent track workout was a gong show.

On top of this I spent the day before the race on my feet walking around the Circle Craft fair then a good four hours that evening towering over guests at Valencia's wine party in a pair of five inch heels. I only had a little wine though. A little of this wine, a little of that wine, a little of ...

Needless to say I didn't arrive at UBC on Sunday morning expecting to break any world records. The thick ice on the ground around the SRC didn't do anything to inspire me to greatness.

The race start was delayed because the organizers wanted the salt they'd put down to have some effect. They were very clear to let people know the course was slippery and to put caution above speed.

I did a warm up run with Clayton and Chris and got to the start just in time. We were told that today was not the day for a PR but to have good race and to be careful. The guy with the starting gun obviously had had his wheaties - he was wildly hyper then shot the gun at least four times just for fun. It was nice to start the race with a smile.

I took it out super easy, partly because I was worried slipping on ice but mostly because I didn't have a good feel for my pace and didn't want to start too fast then blow up.

There were lots of icy patches but the volunteers were awesome and made sure everyone knew to be careful. I didn't see anyone go down, although I'm sure people must have.

As we neared the turn around on Marine we saw the leaders coming back. Rachel and Amy we're running shoulder to shoulder, it was great to see and to cheer to them both.

I was at about 55 minutes at 10km but missed the hallway mark so I didn't get proper splits.

I finished the first loop just as the 10km race was starting so I got caught up in the chaos of the start. That was annoying but after about a km I got back into my rhythm.

As we saw the leaders of the half coming back at us I saw Rachel and Amy again, this time Rachel had about a 15 metre lead. I yelled like crazy at both of them, which seemed to annoy the runners around me. As we started seeing the 10km runners coming back at us I yelled just as loud for the people I recognized, figuring the runners around me were all 10km'ers and as I was running twice as far as them I had the right to be annoying. Not quite sure on how the logic in that works but it made sense at the time.

I was feeling good with five km to go so picked up the pace a bit and again at four. My hamstring had been tight for a good chunk of the race so I didn't want to push too hard and didn't speed up after that. I was feeing comfortable and was chatty with the other runners, which is a sign I'm in a good head space.

Coach Drew and Clayton, looking quite fresh despite having having just finished the half, were cheering at about 500m from the finish, a good push to pick it up just a bit.

I finished in1:51 according to the official results. My watch has gone on strike after an evening run in the cold, but I timed myself at 1:53. Not sure if my watch was incorrect or if the results are. Either way, I was hoping I could pull off a sub-two so I'm very happy with how I did.

I think this bodes well for the Bahamas marathon.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

All Right Already!

2010-11-23T17:30:00.000-08:00

Apparently people do read my blog and a few of them even like it. I always thought it would be great to have adoring fans but it turns out they can also be demanding. So fans, here's a post for you - now leave me alone!

What's happened since my last post?

I did finish the Calgary 70.3 - blew up on the bike (I'd been sick, remember), had a slow run and a long day and came away generally unimpressed with the race. The raison d'etre for the whole trip to Calgary turned into the least fun part, happily the rest of the trip was a blast. Next year I'll do a race first then head out across the rockies.

I then decided to take a break from running to give my foot a rest and I focussed on biking and swimming.

Swimming with Fast Lane at Kits pool was phenomenal and I felt that I made huge gains in the water. I've built on those gains in the fall by signing up for Dolphins and, um, mostly sleeping in. Something about getting up at 4:30am in the off season is just plain wrong. Various people have tried to point out the error of my ways, none have come up with a suitably compelling reason.

I had fun doing long rides with the IMAZ crew, building up distance for the Gran Fondo. I got sick with a horrendous cold the week before the ride and wasn't 100% (not even 75%) on the day of but still did the ride. It was tough grind at the very end, everyone seemed to have issues at about the 100km mark, but fun. I'm not sure it was $250.00 worth of fun, however, so I'm passing on doing it next year.

Apparently riding 120km mostly uphill while suffering from a cold is not a good way to kick said cold. The cold took another week to go away then a cough settled in that lasted for almost two months. The upside was that I discovered you can get cough syrup with codiene without a presciption and that the stuff gets me seriously high!

In late September, after not having run for two months, not having exercised in almost a month and with my plantar faciitis issues unchanged, I decided it would be a good idea to sign up for a marathon. There was a ridiculous travel industry deal for the Bahamas Marathon, I figured even if I crawled the marathon it would be worth the trip.

I went back to phsyio and figured what my issues are. Basically I'm an idiot - a weak core and unstable supporting muscles were causing the problems. This was bad in that the plantar faciitis was caused by neglect but good in that there's a workable solution. A week of doing the plank and various exercises from Janet and I was doing great. I'm not 100% but getting there.

I got back on the bike, riding with Barb Zimich's group. She's a fantastic coach and I'm really enjoying riding with her. Her surgery and the cold weather has put an end to that for now but I'm really looking forward to riding with her in 2011.

So that's where I'm at. I will publish my Fall Classic race report soon. I promise. Really.

Calgary Pre-Race Report

2010-08-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

Last year the pre-race logistics were a pain. Staying out of town, and with one car between my Mum and I made it even messier this year. I needed to register and pick up my race package at the Westin downtown then truck all the way out to Ghost Lake (about 90 km out of Calgary) to drop off my bike and my T2 bag, then head all the way back to the hotel.

I was quite cranky about the T2 bag, a change from last year, although on reflection all I needed to put in it was a hat, running shoes and a gel so it wasn't that big a deal. Unfortunately I hadn't planned ahead - I only had one hat with me and was suffering from terrible, terrible hat hair. I had to buy a hat at the expo so I didn't spend the remainder of the day terrifying small children and old ladies.

At Ghost Lake Mum left me to drop off my bike and headed out to take pictures. Things took a bit longer than planned as when I went to let the air out of my tires (the sound of exploding bike tires made the volunteers' suggestion to deflate mine much more convincing) the valve on my back tire broke. Changing the tire wasn't an issue but put me in a bit of a panic as I had decided, from some unknown reason, that I only needed to bring one spare tube for the race. A stupid decision, in retrospect, but easily solved.

Once my bike was set up, deflated and ready to go I left it with the minor panic I always feel when I have to drop off my bike a day in advance.

I wanted to do a quick swim and reacquaint myself with the lake. Putting on a wetsuit is a pain and I wasn't sure if it would dry out in time for the race the next day so I went in in just a bathing suit. This confirmed for me that the water was perfect for a wetsuit. It was very cold but I was only in for about 15 minutes and all the comments from racers struggling to get into their wetsuits made it worth it. I'll take my ego boosts wherever I can get 'em, thank you very much!

After that we made a quick detour into Cochrane to pick up spare tubes (I bought 3, taking my pre-race flat as an ominous sign) then back to Calgary.

Mum dropped me at the hotel, where I had to deal with nervous energy entirely on my own and in a foreign environment.

I figured I'd do take out from the hotel restaurant, the Keg, and had the following conversation:

Me: Can I order takeout?
Keg Phone Person: Absolutely!
Me: What kind of pasta dishes do you have?
KPP: We have no pasta.
Me: No pasta?
KPP: There is no pasta on the premises. [Obviously I wasn't the first person to ask.]
Me: You have a hotel full of triathletes and no pasta?
KPP: That's correct.

To be clear, this was the restaurant in the host hotel for the half iron. Hence my surprise.

Turns out there was an Old Spaghetti Factory behind the hotel to save the day. I got my pasta dinner, and paid a lot less than I would have at the Keg.

I was in a foul mood when I got back to my room, which went away as soon as I started to eat. I had tried to stay hydrated and fed throughout the day but obviously hadn't managed very well. Not a particularly good sign for the coming race but not surprising considering the logistics involved in the day.

Sated from dinner, I starting doing some math. My wave started at 6:30 and I wanted to get to transition by 5:30 which meant I'd have to catch the shuttle at 4:15 so I'd have to check out by 4:00 and I'd have to get up by (yikes!) 3:30. I laid out all my gear for the following day and made it a night at 7:30. Ooh the excitement of the triathlon lifestyle!

Race Day ... To be continued!

Quick Update

2010-08-09T13:00:00.001-07:00

All right, all right a race report is coming. Just not quite yet.

I'm digging myself out from under laundry and various things left undone at home plus absolute chaos at work is leaving me a bit tired at the end of the day. Our server got tempermental while I was away and the day I got back it died entirely. Nothing like trying to deal with two weeks' worth of work plus a technology crisis (I'm to go-to person for tech stuff, however anything that requires more than a reboot is beyond my abilities to cure).

A quick summary of my trip:
Stayed in:
- Chilliwack
- Penticton
- Rossland
- Turner Valley
- Calgary
- Sorrento

Got lost leaving Phoenix, saw the house I lived in from 3 months to 3 years old, drove through the Crowsnest Pass for the first time in at least 30 years, discovered how truly beautiful Southern BC is, lost count of the number of passes and summits we drove through (are all passes summits and vice-versa??), was shocked by the extent of the forest fire smoke, and almost never ran out of things to talk about with my Mum.

I discovered the depths of rage my mother harbours towards slow moving motorhomes that don't move to the right when there's a passing lane. I'm not saying this isn't justified, but it was a bit surprising.

I visited with 14 relatives, 6 of whom 11 or younger. Swam with 4 of the six youngsters. Remarkably few of my 300+ photos, however, are of any of the relatives.

Stayed in a hotel, motel and B&B plus various spare rooms.

Got a throat infection, which sucked for many reasons - bad timing before my race, I didn't want to infect everyone we visited, and I didn't want to miss out on any of the visiting. Had respritory issues from the smoke once we passed Kamloops and I'm still not breathing normally (there's smoke in Vancouver too).

Somewhere along the way I also did a race. Despite the fact that the whole point of this trip was to get me to the race it ended up being the least interesting or fun part of the whole trip. Despite that, yes, you'll still get your race report. Just not today.

One week out

2010-07-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

One week away from my A race for the season and I have a vicious
throat infection that's gone to my nose and ears.

After four days of antibiotics I still feel like death warmed over,
hopefully they kick in soon. Terribly frustrating not to be able to
train - I tried a 30 minute swim this morning and it knocked me flat.

My race plan might go from a PR attempt to just finishing. Thoughts of
DNS have been going through my head - hopefully it doesn't come to
that.

A billion dollars of bridges

2010-07-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Quick recap - the plan for the weekend was to do the Peach in Penticton as my last race before tapering for Calgary. Without going into the whole gong show, that didn't happen and instead I had the brilliant idea to spend the weekend with a bunch of folks training for Ironman.

For Saturday's ride Teresa's friend invited us to ride with him then come back to his place for beer. I was so enamoured with the idea of beer that the part about 120km route (later changed to 140km) or 5 hour predicted ride time didn't really sink in!

It was a fair bit longer than would have been in my plan, if my plan didn't have me in Penticton readying for the Peach, but sometimes you have do stuff that's fun rather than smart. Hmm, that didn't sound as meaningful as I'd intended.

Most of us, being diehard West Side or Richmond folk, were pretty much lost as soon as Clement took us past Port Moody. "Where are we?" was the most common sentence uttered. I'm not entirely sure of the route, but we did ride over the new overpass leading up to the new Pitt River bridge and then the new Golden Ears Bridge - over $1B of bridges in about an hour!

Places I do know we got to:

Fort Langley - the countryside out there is lovely and the coffee shop we stopped at was excellent.
Entrance to Allouette Lake Park - not a good place to be on a bike on a sunny weekend afternoon. Valencia called it a "Goat show" - I'm a city girl so not quite sure what that means but the traffice was nuts.
Pitt Meadows - flat, pretty, llamas and horses.
Top of a ridiculously (as in "are you kidding me" ridiculous) steep hill that George's Garmin pegged at a 13% grade. This was about 90km into the ride.
Presumably lots of other places - 143km is a long way.

Other random ride notes:

We all got very good at counting to 9 - everytime we regrouped we counted heads. Had someone else inadvertently joined us we would have likely left one of the group behind.
I really don't know much of the Lower Mainland East of Burnaby.
Peanut butter on a bagel is about the best food ever on a long ride.
My Sugoi bib shorts are great for about 100km. Which I figured out on the 145km Mt. Baker ride then for some dumb reason I wore them again on this weekend's ride.
I need to clean the lens for my cell phone camera before taking pictures.
Heavy traffic when I'm tired stresses me out.
I train with a really good group of folks.

A couple of fuzzy pictures taken at the top of "Ridiculous Hill":

Baker Baby!

2010-07-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

See below for photos.

A day after telling someone I didn't think I'd make it up Mt. Baker this summer I got invited to ride it with some friends. To be truthful, I invited myself ("please, please, puh-lease can I come?"), and the crew my friends were going with were kind enough to take me along.

I would like to go off topic for a moment and say I don't think I'll win the lottery this summer. (Can't hurt to try!)

We parked by the Sumas border crossing and biked across. I had it in my head that the ride to Glacier was a gentle uphill and had somehow managed to wipe from my memory the nasty hill out of Sumas. Nothing like feeling like your legs are fried when you're only 15km into a 140km ride!

The hill split up the group and I was riding with Clayton and two guys from Dean Stanton's group until I got dropped. Eventually another rider from Dean's group caught me and we either chatted or pacelined into Glacier.

We regrouped in Glacier - had coffee (surprisingly mediocre for Washington State), snacked, refilled water bottles, and had pit stops. The stop seemed to take a long time so we decided the "slower" riders would take off first ("slower" = impatient to get going).

Teresa, Bronwyn, Clayton and I rode together through the first few hills then it was just Clayton and I. The first 20km or so from Glacier are tough but with flat or downhill sections to break it up. When you see the warning sign that there are switchbacks for the next 10 miles that's when the real work starts. It's very hard - relentless uphill with no flat or even easy spinning sections until you reach the top. If you've ridden Seymour it's like all the hard bits but with more corners. At one point I rode around the edge of a viewpoint pullout in the hopes I could get my cadence up. No luck.

Clayton stuck with on the ride up, I'm sure he could have been far, far ahead, but he's a nice guy. Or he didn't know the way. Nah, I'm going with the former.

Paul Cross, who we'd seen at the store in Glacier, caught up with us at the round about at the top and Clayton put in a sprint to try to beat him to the top.

For us the top was the building with the pop machine - the only food source open in the summer. That cold bottle of Mountain Mist was about the tastiest drink I've ever had!

A bit of a delay before heading down as one rider who'd started in North Van, and had done about 150km more than us, was not feeling so well. He recovered after about 15 minutes then proceeded to smoke us all on the downhill. We regrouped at the bottom and pacelined to Glacier.

The people I drove out with both had functions they were in danger of being late for so this second stop in Glacier was briefer - we said our goodbyes to the rest of the crew and carried on.

What I was hoping would be an easy ride back turned into a hard core paceline. I was good up to about the last 45 minutes then ran out of steam. I'd pull at the front then get dropped by the group. I was fine with that but then they'd all wait for me to catch up, ride at a sensible pace for a bout two riders then speed up and I'd be off the back again. At the time I just wanted them to let me ride my own pace and go away, now I realize that considering how tired I was it was smart, and very kind, for my friends to keep an eye on me. Big time bonk on my part!

Aside from running out of steam at the end, it was a great ride. Hopefully we can go up again in August.

Clayton shooting Cliff.

Clayton forgetting that he's not the one who's supposed to be posing.

Teresa ready for the ride down.

Bronwyn and Clayton.

Me at the top.

Fast Lane Summer Masters – Pros & Cons

2010-07-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Dolphin swims ended last week so I'm signed up for the first time with Fast Lane for their morning sessions at Kits Pool.

When my alarm goes off staying in bed always seems like a much better option than swimming so I've decided to come up with a list of the Pros and Cons of getting up for the Fast Lane swims.

Cons:

Getting up at 4:30am.
Extremely hungry at 7:30am.
Stunning sunrises can make it difficult to see when swimming East.
Scenic North Shore mountains and ocean vistas distract you from paying attention to the coaches.
Post swim sneezes at work.

Pros:

No traffic at 5am – best biking ever!
Kits Pool!!! 137.5m of Awesomeness.
Swimming in Kits before all the crazy people show up.
Tons of cool people to chat with before the swim, between sets, mid-length …
Great coaches.
Second breakfast.

Longest Day 10km

2010-07-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

One last catch-up post then I'm off to bed.

Longest Day 10km - 48:26 - Mega PR

My goal was to beat my 10km time from 2006 (50:10) and to break 50 minutes.

Natash also wanted to break 50 so we decided to run together. She usually beats me right at the end at track workouts so I knew she might be abe to out-kick me.

The run started on a false flat on East Blvd then quickly turned to a fast downhill on 16th Ave. I let gravity do the work and just tried to turn my legs fast enough to keep upwith my controlled fall downhill. I surpressed the urge to yell "Wheeee!" the entire way down.

We regained the elevation in a small but painful spurts and there was a dead zone just past the Main Library turn around where it was really hard to keep going.

Natasha was pretty much glued to my side for the whole first loop. At the start of the second loop I told her "This is where it starts to hurt" then did my falling-downhill-disguised-as-running trick on 16th again and gained a few meters on her. I was worried that this meant I was going too fast but I felt I wasn't redlining so kept up the higher speed. At some oint I passed Chris Manore, which again worried me as he's generally significantly faster than me (he's training for Ironman so focussing on a totally different pace than me).

The "dead spot" past Main Library hit me again but I really didn't want to give up on a sub 50 run so I kept going.

I got within 10 meters of Joyce but never managed to catch her. After the race she talked about the heavy breather behind her at the end of the race and I had to tell her it was me!

I was super psyched at end, even more so as Natasha broke 50 and hit a PR and Valencia and Kathy smashed their previous best times.

There was a major feast and a beer garden at the end of the race, never a bad way to finish!

My race reports are now up to date, I'm going to bed!

Canada Day Swim 2010

2010-07-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

While I'm posting race results I should add in the Canada Day Swim.

2km open water swim - 37:34

My goal was a PR - I'm going to make you read to the end to find out if I did it!

I wasn't sure I'd get to do the swim this year as I missed the online sign-up and had to show up stupidly early to sign-up on race day. Valencia, my chauffeur, is a hero for being willing to get me there on time. I was the second person to sign up!

No issues at the start, the crazy drills I'd done with the club (beating up Dominic, Natasha and Clayton two weekends prior) helped as the crowding didn't faze me at all. I surprised myself by getting on Bronwyn's toes and holding on to the first turn. I lost her there, found another set of toes, lost those toes at the next turn then suddenly found myself with no one anywhere near me. Not sure how that happened!

I finally started catching up with someone at the first of the two turns by the camp, by the second bouy either she slowed down or I found my turbo gear and I blasted past her. On the last leg to the beach I kept thinking that the Dolphins swims of 3,000 - 4,000 m meant I had no excuse and had to power through to the finish.

I was okay with my time, I figured I was close to previous times so didn't get too excited. I just looked up my previous times tonight:

2008 time - 40:02
2009 time - 40:06

Holy smokes! 2.5 minutes off my previous best, not too shabby. I guess there is a pay off to getting up at 4:30 for the Dolphins swims.

Vancouver Sprint Triathlon

2010-07-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

Overall time: 1:32:06
Swim (500m): 10:12
T1: 4:11 (Yikes!)
Bike (26km): 51:27
T2: 1:25
Run (5km): 24:53

The swim was nuts, but everyone was in the same boat (that boat most likely the Titanic). It was a beach start, we lined up about 10m from the water and when the gun went off we ran to the water. It was the craziest swim start I've ever been in, a total washing machine to the first bouy then it got worse!

The current was extremely strong. We watched the half iron swim start and saw how much even the strong swimmers at the front were pushed to the West, most of them undershot the bouy and had to backtrack to get around it. We planned our swim accordingly, start to the right of the beach and aim far to the East of the first turn. Despite aiming wide I got to the first bouy slightly to the left, which wouldn't have been a problem except that most people had missed it by a far greater margin and there was a mass of people almost at a stop trying to get around it. I was boxed in and couldn't swim around or over anyone, it took me about a minute to get past. Apparently one of the men from the earlier wave was clinging to the bouy, which was causing some of the problems.

The second leg of the swim wasn't much better. The swim bouys were small and hard to see and just for fun one of the lifeguard boats was in the line between the bouys and made it impossible to see the bouys anyway.

I made it out of the swim close to my predicted time of 10 minutes and then had to get out of my westuit. I'm happy my A race has wetsuit strippers!

My instructions were to go all out in this race. It was hard to do so in the chaos of the swim so the bike was where I could start doing this. Teresa got out of T1 just ahead of me so I chased her to the hill and caught her there. Then she passed me back, and the trend for the bike was set - she and I leapfrogging the whole way (she won the race to T2). It was fun having her push me on the bike, the idea was to all out the whole time and she kept me honest.

The run was hard to get started and my breathing got a bit out of control but I didn't panic so I'm considering that a victory! I also ran through a stitch (passed two people while doing so) so I think I was reasonably tough!

I figured 25 minutes or less would be good so I certainly hit my goal.

There were a ton of LETC'ers racing (lots of AG podiums; the women took first, second and, as we consider Stephanie's sister an honourary club member, third overall; and RJ came 2nd overall). Actually I knew a lot of the people taking the podium, one of the fun parts of being in the tri community for five years.

There was also a ton of LETC folks volunteering - great to see the club well represented and all of them cheered us on as they went by so that was a big boost.

Final note - chocolate milk as post-race food was the BEST IDEA EVER!!!

Shawnigan Lake Race Report

2010-05-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday wasn't my greatest showing at 3:07, but it was supposed to be a training race so I'm being philosophical about it. Or trying to be.

Exec Summary: So-so swim in cold water, excruciatingly slow and cold ride on dead legs, decent run with a big negative split.

Take aways: 1) Cold really saps my energy. 2) Not sure if doing the Vancouver Half is a good idea, wondering a fast oly be better than a slow Half IM? I want to do another tri prior to to Calgary, just trying to think what would be best.

Long version:
Ended up without enough time pre-race to do a real warm up for anything other than the swim. Would have liked to have run but that wasn't in the cards.

The water was very cold. I had a neoprene swim cap (purchased last Tuesday - yay!), which likely made a big difference, I definitely didn't suffer as much as most people. I got into the water about 15-20 minutes before race start as 1) my watch was fast, 2) I didn't run so my whole warm up would be in the water (in retrospect I might have had time for a short run but everything after that would have been a panic) and 3) it was very cold so I wanted enough time to acclimatize to the temp. After about five minutes I was comfortable in the water and quite warm, however I totally froze during the 2-3 minute wait at the shore for the race to start.

The swim was unspectacular. I had difficulty drafting as either the people I was drafting off couldn't swim a straight line or I couldn't. I kept losing the toes in front of me so gave up and swam my own line and took the draft when it presented itself. About 30 min for the swim, not great.

T1 was a gong show. I lost the use of my thumbs and the rest of my digits didn't work too well as my hands were numb so getting out of my wetsuit was interesting. I also opted to wear a jacket and gloves, which slowed down T1 but definitely helped on the bike (an Elite racer was taken off the bike course in an ambulance due to hypothermia - it was cold). My legs were totally dead - mostly due to my long rides earlier in the week but also my thighs were frozen from the swim and didn't warm up until halfway in.

I tried to keep a high cadence, especially nearer the end of the ride, to get blood circlating to my feet but that didn't work. I got passed a lot on the bike, didn't like that but managed (mostly) not to get agro and try to re-pass everyone. The course was hilly, wet and full of potholes/uneven pavement so not easy to stay in aerobars.

T2 was faster - less need for opposable thumbs.

The start of the run was tough - uphill on tired legs and numb feet. I got feeling back in my feet at about 2km in, then immediately wished I hadn't as the pins and needles were terrible. I finally felt comfortable at about 3 km.

I was well over my target pace of 5min/km so I stopped taking splits and concentrated on form. I'm still working on headspace for the run portion, keeping positive is currently more helpful to me than killing myself to stay on pace.

At the turn around I felt strong and picked up the pace, repeating my mantra of "Easy", and started to reel people in. I didn't take my split at the half but as I was at 16:50 at 3km and I finished the run in 52 & change I can extrapolate a negative split.

My overall and AG ranking are lower than usual for me. Not thrilled about that but it's a training race.

Happily others in the club had great races: Marie came second in her AG in the Oly, as did Dominic in the Sprint. Not sure how Chris or Jeff did in the half, however Jeff's time was 5:05 and I believe Chris' was under 5:30, so they both had a good chance at the podium.

I have plantar faciitis, it didn't bug me in the race or last night, but my heel hurts a today so I definitely did some damage. I'm off to physio after work to get Janet's assessment.

May Day Ride

2010-05-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

These are posted a bit late as I had some issues with downloading the pictures from my phone (I hate the phone with a passion, but that's a post for a different day).

I rode with the club on May 1st out to Deep Cove but left them at the Second Narrows and came home on my own. As it was a lovely day and I was on my own, I stopped along the way to take some pictures.

The view from the top of the bridge. To me the picture captures the "big sky" feel the day had. I also love the roiling water. I probably should have cropped out either the sky or the water to make this more balanced, but I like them both too much to remove - artistry be damned!

One of the grain elevators,looking freshly painted.

I'm not sure if this is a grain elevator but it's picturesque. The section of Wall St. along the bike path is one of my favorite parts of the city.

Finally, a view back towards the bridge from Wall St.

EEEEWWWWW!

2010-05-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

After an unhappy gastrointestinal day (you do not want more details) on Thursday last week I decided I'd de-germ my waterbottles.

I didn't quite get around to it, however, until I saw the gunk on Teresa's Fuel Belt bottle on our run yesterday. I looked at the same spot on my FB water bottle and it too was gunky. A useful training trip, when you are 40 minutes into a 2 hour run on a warm day it is a bad idea to become revolted with your water supply.

At home I filled the sink with hot water & bleach (not at all eco friendly but kills bacteria real good) then disassembled my water bottles and threw them in. I know that gunk likes to hide in the lid so I removed the nipple (yes, I said nipple - grow up!) so everything could soak and be scrubbed. On the water bottle I used on Thursday I found some seriously nasty grime - it was black, slimy and hard to scrub off. In fact I couldn't get some of it off at all. It irks me to toss an otherwise perfectly good water bottle but I think it's off to the recycling bin for this sucker.

Hopefully I've fixed the source of my GI issues from last week. If nothing else I have a whole lot of squeaky clean waterbottles

Quick Update

2010-05-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

Since my last post we had time trial week.

Swim: 1500m - 28:17
I've never done a 1500m time trial in the pool so no idea where this puts me in terms of training. I'm usually about 30 minutes in a tri but that's open water so I'm not kicking off the wall every 25m.

We'll just hold onto this number for reference!

Bike:
16km TT - 31:28
Not a good time for me compared to the last year's time I can find - 28:50 from August and 29:41 from April. Something to work on, I guess.

Run:
5km - 24:15 (pace - 4:51/km)
3km - 14:24 (pace - 4:48/km)
This workout was nasty. We showed up expecting a 5km TT, but arrived to find out that would be followed by a 10 minute recovery and a 3km TT. I thought I was going as hard as I could for the 5km but somehow I managed a faster pace for the 3km rather than the 5km.

Alan said we weren't pacing properly. I think I just take a long time to warm up!

This week things are feeling solid. I'm finally feeling in the groove, I'm feeling strong and focussed and fit! It might have something to do with just coming off a recovery week, but I also think I've adjusted to my training schedule. Regardless of the why, I'm happy to be happy!

Down From the Trees

2010-04-14T11:01:00.001-07:00

I spent a good chunk of the spring "in the trees," as Amy put it, but seem to be back on solid ground now. Although if Team Pink builds a tree house I want to be in the club!

Having a definite schedule really helps (I am so not a spontaneous person - I need a plan!). I'm feeling more on track and in control now.

I've signed up for the Dolphins masters/tri swim classes so I have a good group to swim with. They're great but holy hot tamale it's early. My alarm went off at 4:14 am yesterday and all I could think was "seriously!?" I glared at my alarm clock for a good minute before turning it off.

The first class I went to was quite the comedy of errors:

I got up earlier than I ever do, and managed to make enough noise getting up and out that I woke up my landlady. She was, understandably, unimpressed (but quite nice in expressing her unimpressed-ness).
I biked to the swim (haven't commuted by bike in years).
I swam for longer than I ever do both in terms of time and distance.
I somehow (i.e. was totally impatient and took off first) lead the lane for the first 30 minutes and killed myself to keep my place, then whimpered my way through the next hour.
I forgot to bring water. 2+ hours of exercise and no water. Brilliant!

Yesterday was my second swim and I managed to get out of the house quietly, place my self appropriately in the lane and stay hydrated. Sadly someone walked off with my fins so it wasn't a perfect morning, hopefully they'll return the fins tomorrow when they realize their mistake.

Tomorrow. Ooh, that'll be a fun one. The only way I can get to swimming is by bike so I'll ride in. However, to get to the club run I either have to 1) ride home, change and rush to the bus, then bus or scam a ride home or, 2) ride directly to the run and ride home after. Option 2 has the disadvantage of making for a long and tiring end to the day but I waste less time in transit and rely a bit less on the kindness of my East Side clubmates for rides.

I may be cranky on Friday, probably best not to talk to me until I've had my coffee!

Pool Stories 2 - The Big Show!

2010-03-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

Monday saw our intrepid explorer (me!) travelling into another dimension - one of early morning hours and and inexplicably happy swimmers.

Wednesday involved different dimensions, decidedly larger ones.

Yes, that day would see me heading to the big show, the serious pool for serious swimmers, 50 metres of poker-face intensity, swim hard or go home - the Vancouver Aquatic Centre. This is where the serious swimmers go, I was a little nervous as I'd heard people could get impatient with slow pokes and I'm not the fastest swimmer out there (except at Percy Norman
Pool from 6:17-6:22 am).

The day started poorly and my original plans had to be put aside due to technical difficulties (i.e. hitting the snooze button too many times). The morning swim got shuffled to an afternoon swim, with grand plans to spin after.

When I arrived at 4:30 it was lap swimmers nirvana. There were four 50m lanes: slow, medium, medium (although presumably a faster medium) and fast. FOUR LANES! I'm sure I heard angels singing when I saw this.

I jumped in and it was glorious. Five or six folks in my lane, all a little slower than me but I timed my intervals to avoid them and it worked well.

Then lane four was closed and those folks pushed into my lane. No worries! They should all be ahead of me so no problems. A little tight for space but all good.

About 400m later I finished my length to the site of a "Lane Closed" sign. Now we had to shuffle into lane two, about 20 people doing 20 different paces. Suddenly it got annoying. Especially as I was doing a pyramid (100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, 100 - my fallback mainset when I have no real plan for a swim) and was about to do the longest sets.

I survived, and realized that after being afraid of cranky faster swimmers that that turned out to be me (I'm sure there's some new age-y conclusion I could reach about becoming what you fear). Instead of being annoyed, I mostly managed to treat is as training for crowded tri's and that I was adding mini-sprints every time I passed someone. At the end of the workout I was in a good mood and had not attempted to use any pool toys as a weapon, generally the sign of a good swim.

Various observations from my swim:

At masters I am a slower swimmer, in tri's I'm mediocre but in rec centre lap swims I am apparently a speedster. There is no glory to being the fast swimmer in a crowded lane, just a fair amount of frustration.
VAC is not home exclusively to elite, super-fast swimmers. Or at least they don't do the Wednesday afternoon lap swim.
The wall is my friend - compared to a 25m pool, when swimming 50 meters my stroke count was embarrassingly high while my 100m times slowed by 5-10 seconds.
Getting lost in a change room is really distressing. And sort of embarassing to admit to.

If I manage to conquer the snooze button tomorrow morning should be the sequel - "Big Show 2 - Swimming at Sunrise!"

Uncle!

2010-03-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from the photo challenge. It became work and stress and something I couldn't deal with so I'm on hiatus for March.

Spring pretty much always brings me down. I can't remember a year when I approached my birthday (April 1 - please mark your calendars) in a good mood. It's not that I mind birthdays or getting older, half the time I can't remember my age anyway, it's just the time of year. Maybe allergies are to blame - lack of sleep and oxygen can definitely get in the way of joie de vivre. Perhaps my version of Spring renewal is more like a really painful case of pins and needles in your arm as sensation returns after you fall asleep on the couch in an odd position. Or maybe I just don't like March? It certainly doesn't seem to like me.

Regardless of the cause, the effect is that I'm easily overwhelmed and pretty low in terms of energy and attitude. In order to keep both my sanity and my friends (been a wee bit cranky lately) I'm simplifying - no photo challenge, doing workouts at home when I can rather than trecking out to join the group or skipping workouts entirely in order to cook a decent dinner.

We hope to return to regular programming in April.

Pool Stories 1 - The Twilight Zone

2010-03-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

My pool (YWCA downtown) is closed for three months so I’m experimenting with finding another pool that’s convenient. A little frustrating to deal with mid-season, but I’ve decided I’m taking a tour of the Vancouver Rec Centres.

First Stop – The Twilight Zone
On Monday, my first YWCA-less day. That morning it seemed I was traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, Percy Norman Pool!

The pool opened at 6:15 and, as usual, I messed up my bus timing and got there ridiculously early. Walking in I was dismayed to see a crowd already waiting. Even more dismaying, none of them looked like speedy swimmers. I seemd to have hit the seniors swim and was upset that I’d likely spend my entire time stuck behind geriatric breast strokers.

As I was thinking these thoughts, I noticed something weird. Seriously weird. These people were happy. Cheerful. Smiling. Chatty. They seemed to know each other well and all said good morning (in one of at least three languages). When the staff member showed up they asked about her vacation and teased her about her tan.

In the change room there was no glowering over bench space, people moved aside to let me in and smiled. Smiled! Did I mention it was 6:15? In the morning?

On deck it got even stranger. While I was looking for somewhere to drop my towel the lifeguard approached and asked if I was new to the pool. She gave me the goods on everything (dive tank, slow to fast lanes, no flags so be careful with backstroke) and told me to come to her if I had any issues or questions. Proactive lifeguards - what universe is this?

The lanes weren’t as slow as I expected but I was still continuously passing all but one person in the fast lane. However, there was plenty of space to pass and the slow swimmers would stop at the wall and let me by, even the men (at the YWCA, a woman passing a male swimmer is generally viewed as an attack on his virility).

I couldn't get in as long as swim as I would have liked as I had to get to work (couldn't they just pay me for not showing up??), less than an hour of swim time but about an hour of commuting doesn't quite add up to a good morning workout location. Hopefully when the new pool opens someone will start a masters class that begins earlier in the day.

My conclusion: a pool full of happy, chatty, cheerful swimmers and staff early in the morning – quite possibly the strangest swimming experience I’ve ever had. Not sure if I'll back before the new pool opens, however, as the location unfortunately doesn't quite work.

Next up - Vancouver Aquatic Centre.

The week in review

2010-03-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

"Week in review" sounds much better than "I'm totally behind on posting."

I blame drugs and alcohol!

Robaxicet on Wednesday, and no photo that day. I put my back out changing my bike brakes the previous Sunday and that threw me off from workouts and life in general for the week. The back is mostly better but I'm still babying it a bit.

I did get in a good ride out to Iona with the crew on Saturday and the back didn't protest until right near the end. I did my first post-bike run of the year regardless of the back.

Vast amounts of Malbec on Saturday night made for a fun evening but I forgot about getting in even a last minute shot. The Malbec also made for a painful start to my Sunday a.m. swim. The upside was that the workout would have been hell regardless (all out sprints interspersed with core work) so I got all the pain out of the way at the same time. By the time we ran I was feeling vaguely human and knocked out 1:20 reasonably easily.

And then the allergies kicked in Sunday afternoon:

Defunct playground equipment by Lord Byng Pool. sort of how I felt during the swim!
Sakura!
Rainbow seen in the a.m.
Cherry trees on the banks of the Fraser. I forgot my camera but the light was so fabulous I took the shot with my phone. It didn't turn out half bad.

Over

2010-03-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

O Canada

2010-02-28T20:45:00.000-08:00

Final day of the games. And what a finish! 68 incredibly stressful minutes of hockey, I don't think I've ever been that tense watching sports before.

A whole lot of flag waving this afternoon. It was an incredibly fun ride home from Joanne and Torbins' - I was high-fived, honked at, yelled at, cheered at. All in good spirits and good fun as the city, or rather cities (I road through Richmond & Vancouver), were ecstatic over the win.

Now we have to adjust to going back to normality, say goodbye to all the visitors, and get used to the mundane.

This is going to be a rough week!

Dim Sum

2010-02-28T20:35:00.000-08:00

Hiroki at Dim Sum. He was amazingly skilled with the chop sticks, he hit someone square on every time he threw one.

Cat's Meow

2010-02-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

My neighbourhood is overrun by birds, mostly starlings ripping up everyone's lawns, but also a good dozen robins, lots of itty-bitty songbirds and, of course, the inevitable crows.

I assume that's why my neighbour's cat is 1) licking his lips and 2) so fat.

Rainy Days on the Bike Route

2010-02-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

The Central Valley Greenway has already featured in my photos but here are a few more shots:

The mosaic stairs (Tuesday). I'll have to try to get these on a sunny morning when they're covered in dew. Stay tuned for more shots!

Hole in the wall (today).

Monday's Photo

2010-02-24T21:10:00.001-08:00

And after all the Olympic picture taking, this is my favourite shot:

I laughed when I saw Amy's picture for the 19th as the building reflected here is the one doing the reflection in her shot. Great minds think (almost) alike.

Day at the Olympics - Highlight Real

2010-02-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

Executive summary of my day with Mum:

Early start at the cauldron (lots of pics from the fence)
Checked out lots of long lines (Cdn Mint, zip line) for things we opted to miss
Checked out Robson Square sans crowds
Picked up curling tix
Lined up to view the cauldron from the viewing area. Took about 20 pics, none as good as the ones I took from the fence!
Found more long lines (200 ppl at Russia House two hours before it opened, no thanks) and discovered, at 10am, that most of the houses open at noon.
Right to Play House was open and full of kids - fun.
Introduced Mum to babka buns at Solleys. I couldn't get her to commit to whether she liked them more than their cinnamon buns.
Went to curling and watched the Canada women beat Sweden 6-2.
Checked out Robson Square with crowds.
Watched "Mascots on Ice" solely to get a picture of Sumi for Oscar. One-year old crying for Miga, sort of cute but mostly creepy ("Meeeeeeeega")
Saw the line for Irish House. Didn't go in.
Visited Live City, saw more lines for houses we didn't go into. Watched a bit of Canada vs. Finland womens' hockey on the big screen.
Took the ferry to Granville Island - saw the ridiculously long line for Atlantic House. Got lots of second hand smoke in the process, good thing we don't have to go through doping control!
Dinner at Noodle Box

Photos (more to come when Mum sends me hers):

My best cauldron shot. Not taken from the viewing platform!

Apocalypse Now moment (very happy not to hear Ride of the Valkeries).

Maison du Quebec - didn't open for another two hours.

The Sochi Teletubbie.

Curling.

Sumi & Fans

Langley Half Marathon

2010-02-24T19:33:00.001-08:00

It was a stunningly beautiful morning on Sunday. It was also very cold - Shannon thought I was nuts because I wanted to take pictures when clearly the intelligent thing to do was to go inside the visitor centre and stay warm. I think the pictures below were worth a little bit of chill.

The run wasn't my best half marathon, but I knew going in that I wasn't in peak shape. The course is also the hardest half marathon course I've ever done, one very steep hill and one that was less steep but kept going up without let up for three km.

I was confident I could break two hours and hoped I could get close to 1:50 (my PR).

I felt comfortable in the first 10km, enough so that I had visions of a PR dancing in my head. Some logical part of my brain realized that this meant I was actually going out too fast, but of course I didn't slow down. About halfway the two hour pace bunny passed me. I knew I was on pace to break two hours with time to spare but it bugged me to be behind the bunny! Especially as I was slogging up the long hill and not feeling overly spectacular.

After about 11km I started to tire and at 13km, the start of the long hill, my legs felt like they were made of cement. I got a bit upset and my breathing was slightly out of whack but I talked myself out of a bad head space and just kept going.

I desperately wanted to beat the race bunny (not sure which definition of "beat" applied at this point) but sadly I wasn't even close. I did, however, finish in 1:55:12. Not bad.

Unfortunately the course was one of those hard ones, like the Peach (where I still feel I have something to prove), that's probably going to draw me back next year.

My pre-race shots:

Golden Ears out of the mist. My picture of the day.

Yes, I'm an arboriphile.

I totally copied a shot my Dad took earlier this month. Not on purpose though, it just looked pretty!

The Fraser with Golden Ears lost in the mist.

Four Days Behind

2010-02-24T19:31:00.001-08:00

Oh geez, I have some catching up to do It's been a busy four days (half marathon, Olympics, tiredness) and I have over a hundred phtots to sort through.

Updates coming soon.

Magnolia

2010-02-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

The weather is annoyingly nice right now - there's no good excuse to stay inside and watch TV all when it's spectacularly warm and sunny. I want to watch the Olympics darn it!

Today's workout was a short ride. As Louis is in need of new brakes, rather than do bike repair I rode Ruby and did errands. I may have ridden for more than an hour but it was nice to be outside.

The short ride is because of tomorrow's endeavour - the Langley Historic Half Marathon. I'm not feeling overly prepared, I haven't put in the distance in my long runs and running has felt difficult in the past few weeks, but this isn't supposed to be a world record pace for me. I'm hoping for 1:50, less would be nice but unrealistic, especially as the course is quite hilly. 5min/km pace is the goal.

I just figured out this evening that one of the race charities is Mountain View Farms, run by my employer from my last job. Hopefully I'll get a chance to say hi to Gordon.

I now have to try to get myself away from the TV so I can get to bed!

Good Day (just not where training is concerned)

2010-02-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I woke up tired and cranky so skipped my swim. I'm never sure if I'm being smart by listening to my body or wimping out by not doing the workout in these situations!

The evening was great. Met up with friends at Granville Island to eat at Swiss House. I had perfect timing and arrived just before the crew that had been waiting two hours got in to be seated. The cheese fondu "for two" was more than the five of us could eat but very good. The strudel, which people were waxing poetic about, was nice but didn't hold a candle to the strudel I had when travelling through Texas with Helen and Jane (and the name of the town was ...?).

We went downtown after, into the total craziness that is Granville Street on a Friday during the Olympics immediately after Canada had won a gold medal. We'd missed seeing the medal and had to rely on ebulient, hive-fiving drunks for details. According to them the medal was for "doubles" skeleton. I think this is how new sports are born - alcohol and misunderstandings. After watching all the macho guys being so excited about the skeleton gold I now really want Virtue & Moir to win, love to see them hi-fiving each other and singing O Canada because we won a gold in ice dance!

We got half a block away from Robson Square before the crush of people made it impossible to move. Again my timing was perfect as the fire and light show started just as we got there.

When it ended we tried to head West on Robson but it was impossible to get through the crowd so we head down to see the flame. Tons of people and lots of couples - apparent it is the official "canoodling couples" area for the Olympics.

I wimped out and headed home after that while the rest of crew headed back to Robson.

Track Workout

2010-02-20T11:53:00.000-08:00

Thursday's run was at the track at UBC. I arrived on campus as the very happy US womens' hockey fans, and subdued Finish ones, were making their way home. I didn't need to ask the result!

I also didn't have to who was playing the next game - the flags (Canadian & Chinese) told the story. In front of the arena, many excited Chinese fans were taking their pictures holding their flags up high. I was neat to see, especially as China and hockey isn't exactly a combination most of us are used to thinking about.

The workout was a tough one for me. I was still tired from Tuesday, my brain wasn't functioning and my body wasn't doing too well either. The workout was 5 x 200m at slightly faster than 1/2 marathon pace (for those of us doing Langley), 5 x 1km at marathon pace and 5 x 200m at slightly faster. Through the warm up and up until the 3rd 1km piece I was dying and miserable. Somehow everything clicked and I got into form and had a good finish to the practice. No idea if it was mental or if I just need 30 minutes longer than everyone else to warm up.

A good day

2010-02-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

Short of time/ideas today so this is it. I like how the hologram on the ticket turned out.

New Friends

2010-02-17T21:05:00.000-08:00

Through work (and an invitation from a very generous supplier) I got to join the "A List" and take the Alberta Train to Whistler yesterday. It's a leisurely way to get there at three hours one way but very pretty at least it is once the sun actually rises and you can see the view. The rest of my photos are here.

Whistler was crazy busy but with a very different energy to Vancouver. Getting to Whistler is so restricted and so difficult that almost the only people there are involved with the games: watching, competing, volunteering, media. And the cranked up prices for everything felt par for the course for the village.

Trip highlights:
- Train to Whistler.
- Breakfast with pro bull rider and pro chuck wagon driver (promoting the Stampede). The bull rider lives in Turner Valley so I'm sure my Aunt knows who he is. I'm used to being able to impress people by talking about my hobby. Not so much yesterday.
- Free tickets to biathlon ($25.00 standing area tickets so not quite A list anymore, but more fun!)
- Watching biathlon with all the crazy Europeans. I need a significantly weirder hat to be a true fan.
- Cheering for the Canadian in the mens' 12.5km pursuit.
- Hanging out with Clayton, who is up there volunteering but had the day off .
- Being in the village when Canada scored its second gold (of course we were watching a different sport at the time, but we were there!).
- Getting interviewed. Amazing how I normally just blather on about nothing in particular but put a camera in my face and Voila! I blather on about nothing in particular. I haven't checked yahoo sports to see if they actually used the clip.
- Trainride back (would have been awkward if this didn't happen)

It was a long day, up at 4am and back home at 10:30pm, and I was pretty wrecked at work today as I'm a totally wimp when I don't have enough sleep but it was an amazing day.

Crepuscular (thanks Amy)

2010-02-15T20:29:00.000-08:00

I live under one of the great crow commuting paths in the Lower Mainland. This is my best attempt so far at catching the crepuscual rush hour, sadly it's not that great.

My fallback shot is my new mittens. My mother very kindly picked up a pair for me and shipped them out (seems almost coals to Newcastle, but I won't criticize as I like them very much). I will proudly, and warmly, wear them for the rest of the games.

On the topic of evenings, they're getting lighter later, enough so that I could fit in a ride outside after work today.

Multitasking

2010-02-15T20:26:00.000-08:00

On Sunday afternoon I set up my perfect Olympics viewing environment. Then promtply fell asleep.

In my defence, that morning I'd had a solid swim workout immediately followed by a thoroughly evil hill running session. Furthermore, naps are written into my schedule by my coach. ("Nap" and "eat" are two instructions I have no problems following.)

Craziness in a pan

2010-02-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I took a second crack at cinnamon bun french toast. Cook at a low temperature to avoid burning , and be tortured by the scent of slowly carmelizing cinnamon bun.

We Are More

2010-02-12T21:35:00.000-08:00

"We Are More" by Shane Koyczan
When defining Canada
you might list some statistics
you might mention our tallest building
or biggest lake
you might shake a tree in the fall
and call a red leaf Canada
you might rattle off some celebrities
might mention Buffy Sainte-Marie
might even mention the fact that we've got a few
Barenaked Ladies
or that we made these crazy things
like zippers
electric cars
and washing machines
when defining Canada
it seems the world's anthem has been
" been there done that"
and maybe that's where we used to be at
it's true
we've done and we've been
we've seen
all the great themes get swallowed up by the machine
and turned into theme parks
but when defining Canada
don't forget to mention that we have set sparks

we are not just fishing stories
about the one that got away
we do more than sit around and say "eh?"
and yes

we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One
who inspired little number nines
and little number ninety-nines
but we're more than just hockey and fishing lines
off of the rocky coast of the Maritimes
and some say what defines us
is something as simple as please and thank you
and as for you're welcome
well we say that too
but we are more
than genteel or civilized
we are an idea in the process
of being realized
we are young
we are cultures strung together
then woven into a tapestry
and the design
is what makes us more
than the sum total of our history
we are an experiment going right for a change
with influences that range from a to zed
and yes we say zed instead of zee
we are the colours of Chinatown and the coffee of Little Italy
we dream so big that there are those
who would call our ambition an industry
because we are more than sticky maple syrup and clean snow
we do more than grow wheat and brew beer
we are vineyards of good year after good year
we reforest what we clear
because we believe in generations beyond our own
knowing now that so many of us
have grown past what used to be
we can stand here today

filled with all the hope people have
when they say things like "someday"

someday we'll be great
someday we'll be this
or that
someday we'll be at a point
when someday was yesterday
and all of our aspirations will pay the way
for those who on that day
look towards tomorrow
and still they say someday

we will reach the goals we set
and we will get interest on our inspiration
because we are more than a nation of whale watchers and lumberjacks
more than backpacks and hiking trails
we are hammers and nails building bridges
towards those who are willing to walk across
we are the lost-and-found for all those who might find themselves at a loss
we are not the see-through gloss or glamour
of those who clamour for the failings of others
we are fathers brothers sisters and mothers
uncles and nephews aunts and nieces
we are cousins
we are found missing puzzle pieces
we are families with room at the table for newcomers
we are more than summers and winters
more than on and off seasons
we are the reasons people have for wanting to stay
because we are more than what we say or do
we live to get past what we go through

and learn who we are
we are students
students who study the studiousness of studying
so we know what as well as why
we don't have all the answers
but we try
and the effort is what makes us more
we don't all know what it is in life we're looking for
so keep exploring
go far and wide
or go inside but go deep
go deep
as if James Cameron was filming a sequel to The Abyss
and suddenly there was this location scout
trying to figure some way out
to get inside you
because you've been through hell and high water
and you went deep
keep exploring
because we are more
than a laundry list of things to do and places to see
we are more than hills to ski
or countryside ponds to skate
we are the abandoned hesitation of all those who can't wait
we are first-rate greasy-spoon diners and healthy-living cafes
a country that is all the ways you choose to live
a land that can give you variety
because we are choices
we are millions upon millions of voices shouting
" keep exploring... we are more"
we are the surprise the world has in store for you
it's true

Canada is the "what" in "what's new?"
so don't say "been there done that"
unless you've sat on the sidewalk
while chalk artists draw still lifes
on the concrete of a kid in the street
beatboxing to Neil Young for fun
don't say you've been there done that u
nless you've been here doing it
let this country be your first-aid kit
for all the times you get sick of the same old
same old let us be the story told to your friends
and when that story ends
leave chapters for the next time you'll come back
next time pack for all the things
you didn't pack for the first time
but don't let your luggage define your travels
each life unravels differently
and experiences are what make up
the colours of our tapestry
we are the true north
strong and free
and what's more
is that we didn't just say it
we made it be

Catching Up

2010-02-12T15:40:00.001-08:00

A note from the coach this week:

"The final days of hard week should be mentally tough and have you spending some time thinking about throwing in the towel after the last few workouts. If you breezed through it with a smile, fully stocked fridge and neatly folded clean laundry you may need to work harder (or write a book about your secret!)."

My fridge is bare, the laundry pile is demanding the right to vote (if it allies with the dirty dishes I'm doomed) and my backlog of pictures to post is huge. Nice to know I'm doing things right!

I've been doing all sorts of Olympic things but I haven't mastered art of the quick shot, or even the non-shakey shot, so sadly no good Oly photos.

My fridge may be empty but that doesn't stop me from thinking about food:

On Tuesday I went to a event at Canada's Northern House put on by the Northwest Territories. The food was lovely, even when mispronounced (Arctic Char was offered to us as something sounding very close to "artichoke"). Above is a platter of house smoked muscovy duck breast, bison bresaola, muskoven mipkuzola, and venison salami. Apparently the North is not a good place for vegetarians.

Just before going to bed on Wednesday I realized I hadn't taken a picture so snapped a shot of the first colourful thing I could find.

When I said I had no good Olympic shots I lied, I have one good shot. But I didn't take it:

Helen caught the torch in motion out at UBC last night. She used my camera - does that count for anything??

I'm anticipating the answer is no so here is a list of all the things that can kill you in Helen's lab:

That brings us to today. I could see the torch procession from my office but couldn't get any decent shots through the glass. A stunning number of people were downtown. I was expecting the crowds but it was exceptionally strange to be on the skytrain first thing in the morning (6am, I swam before work) with people who were happy and excited to be heading downtown. Madness!

So instead of a torch relay photo I'm posting a picture of the second most amazing thing I saw today.

Leek

2010-02-08T18:20:00.001-08:00

I was extremely tired and extremely cranky today, a result of my blow up on the run yesterday, so I'm treating myself with roast leek.

It's pretty and tasty but you have to rinse it very well as there tends to be lots of dirt in the crevices.

Despite being cranky I managed to have a decent swim this morning. I wasn't sure if swimming four days in a row would kill me but I seemed to have a good workout. We worked on pull, with lots of fist swimming. The last piece was supposed to be 400m with a 25m sprint every 4th length. I decided, however, it was going to be a time trial. I did the 25m sprints every 4th length except that when I hit 300m I went all out for the last 100. I didn't tell Mauro, who is usually the same speed as or faster than me, as I knew he'd stick to my feet regardless of what pace I held. I was trying to make him blow up (and to get a good 400m time), which is mean but I know he'd do the same for me.

Oh yeah, my 400m time was 7:10. I'm somewhat impressed with myself!

Sunday Trifecta

2010-02-08T17:55:00.000-08:00

A perfect Sunday trifecta: - swim, run, EAT.

Swim
It was kick day in the LETC house of pain. 45 minutes of kicking: with fins, without fins, with kickboards, without kickboards, one fin only ... pretty much any combination the coaches could think of. I'm surprised we didn't have to balance them on our heads for 100m.

We then did half an hour of increasing intensity, finishing with 200m at all out pace (or some technical term that almost but didn't quite mean all out). I predicted 3:40 and did 3:32 so not bad.

Run
I had 1:45 on the schedule and intended to go out easy but got caught up in an interesting discussion with some of the newer folks. The wheels came off 40 minutes in, not my smartest moment but I'll take it as a learning experience.

After the run I had to scoot home so that I could complete my prescribed post-workout nutrition (like I'd forget that!), ice bath and nap in time to get dessert and head to Amy & Brian's for their Superbowl bash.

While delaying getting into the ice bath, an activity I'm highly skilled at, I took pictures of the birds that have invaded the neighbourhood with the coming of spring. These suckers are LOUD! They're also tearing up everyone's lawn in their search for grubs.

My picture of the day, however, is of one of the East Van locals who can be found in the neighbourhood in any season of the year.

Don't mess with guys - they're smarter than most people and they hang out in gangs called murders.

EAT (aka watching the Superbowl)
The game was good to watch but, as usual, took second place to the company. And the food.

Amy & Brian put on a fantastic spread, as usual, and the other guests brought great food too. I was too disorganized to cook something impressive so I just brought cookies (they were really good though!).

I may not have wowed 'em with my cookies but I stunned everyone with the tale of my culinary adventure of the previous evening. Apparently I'm the only one who'd heard of cinnamon bun french toast. I'd seen this delicacy in a Denny's type restaurant in the States years ago and filed it away in the "ridiculous but potentially yummy recipes" part of my brain.

This weekend I had cinnamon buns that had gone a bit stale and decided to slice them up, dip them in eggy milk with a splash of vanilla and fry them. I was a little leary of what they'd be like. Holy smokes they were good! Even better smothered in maple syrup.

Goosed

2010-02-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

I rode a bit later than usual today due to the swim clinic. I forget how crazy traffic can be as I generally do most of my rides early in the day.

I went past various Olympic venues (the Skating Oval, curling rink, Trout Lake training centre) but this was the scene that made me pull out my camera.

A park on the way to Teresa's house was overrun by snow geese. They normally head North in the spring, need anymore proof we're having a crazy winter??

I guessed there were at least 500 when got there.

And they just kept coming, giving me my shot of the day.

Dolphins Swim Clinic

2010-02-06T13:29:00.000-08:00

"A goal is never fully defined by just one number. The number is always set in a context, and it's the overall context that endows the number with its true value."
Gregory Bassham

This morning I went to a clinic put on by the UBC Dolphins with coaches from the UBC varsity swim team.

There is so much involved in swim technique, much of which I'm not doing correctly, that it's hard to cover much in an hour but the session was very good. We worked on kick, (apparently if you want to have a good kick you should stop running!), recovery and pull. We didn't have time to get to breathing (we had to go for an hour with no air! okay, maybe not) but the notes they gave us have some useful tips.

I'm looking forward to getting back in the pool tomorrow to see how much I remember and if it has an effect. By Monday I'll have four days in a row of swimming, that should have some sort of positive effect!

On a different topic, I've been reading "Running & Philosophy." Not quite what I expected, I get the feeling the philosophers are trying to dumb things down for a general audience, but there are occasional gems and good quotes, such as the one above. I'll try to post any others I like, and maybe build my own database of inspiring quotes.

Banner day

2010-02-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the pun but I'm tired and feeling unorginal. I'll also apologize for all the spelling and grammatical errors that I'm sure I'm about to make.

Today I got back to swimming on Fridays. I quite enjoy a swim with no coaching - I have three coached sessions a week so it's nice to get in the pool and just swim. I did 2,000m continuous, with 5 stroke accelerations off the wall and drills every 200m, a good way to keep it interesting. Add on 100m of back and breast at the end and I was out in well under an hour.

One thing with always swimming in a group is that I forget about all the crazy people who swim. When I showed up the lane was absolutely full with either slow swimmers or people with no real clue, plus one decent swimmer who had a look of resigned forebearance. Suffice it to say it was an interesting 20 minutes (after which the crowd thinned considerably). Even "angry fins and paddles" guy showed up, always a banner day when that happens.

Aside from the crazies it was a good swim.

I had dinner with friends who live just over the Cambie Street Bridge so I walked over so I could check out BC Place and the Athletes' Village.

I like the blue on blue on blue (on blue, if you also count my blog wallpaper). I need to figure out how to flip this photo, however, so I get the mirror image and you can read the writing. Sadly the lighting didn't work nearly as from the other side.

Kaboom!

2010-02-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

My day started off with this view:The picture doesn't do it justice, it looked like the city was made of burnished gold.

Then at work I received a suspicious looking package. I opened it to find this:

My mother knit me a beautiful scarf and couriered it out so that I'd be able to wear it while it's still somewhat cold outside and so I'd have red to wave around during the Olympics. She's great!

A nice start to the day.

Then I went to the track workout.

The workout was 3 x 1 mile on 8:45 (as in you go every 8 minutes and 45 seconds, if you finish the mile in 7 minutes you get 1:45 rest, if you finish it in 8:30 you get 15 seconds rest). I could have gone in the 10 minute group but figured as last year I got close to breaking 7 minutes when I was at my fittest that I might survive.

The first mile was hard but okay - 7:35. The second mile was tough but I managed to descend (go faster) - 7:30. The third mile was a disaster. Two and a half laps in all I could think was "Kaboom!" as I blew up. 7:52. I really should be careful with explosives what with all the security in town for the Olympics!

I guess this is the price I pay for taking four months away from the run.

However, as I had butter chicken before the run (dairy + running fast = BAD) I'm a considering the workout a victory as my dinner stayed down.

Crosstown Traffic?

2010-02-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

Unlike Amy, I decided to take a picture of BIG things today (she's doing small stuff for the whole month).

Lots of big stuff in town what with the Olympics coming. Most of it is advertising:

I think we officially have to call the city McVancouver-a Cola for the duration of the games.

There's also some very conspicuous (and very big) displays of patriotism:

Of course coming up with an idea for a theme means that my favourite photo today had nothing to do with it.

Traffic in front of Vancouver Film School. A litte busy but I like the fact that I was trying to take a picture of a cool building and got a neat effect by accident.

Dregs

2010-02-03T22:02:00.000-08:00

The "Oh shoot! I need to take a picture today!" shot. Luckily I hadn't done the dishes on Monday.

Attention Deficit ..... OOOOH SHINEY!

2010-02-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

I was trying to take a macro shot of my keyboard. After messing with the keyboard angle, fighting for the right focus and figuring out the lighting I finally got the shot I wanted but the extreme close up showed every speck of dust on the keyboard.

I dug through my box o' computer bits and found my dust blower and rotary cleaner (stocking stuffer from several years ago). The blower worked, and holy cow was there a lot of dust on my keyboard, but the rotary doohicky seemed to have dead batteries.

I figured I must have batteries somewhere but couldn't find any so tried to take the ones out of the blower to put in the rotary thingy but couldn't get the case open. I gave up and pushed the button one last time before putting it away and guess what? It worked!

That got pretty much all of the dust off my keyboard, the rotary whatsit is a pretty nifty toy. And it looks sort of cool too. As it seemed that I'd left my camera out, I took a picture.

January Photos

2010-01-31T19:46:00.000-08:00

Having fun with the collage feature in Picassa!

Swim, run, sight see?

2010-01-31T19:29:00.000-08:00

Today was time trials day in the pool. Seemed ominous but wasn't actually that hard as we had lots and lots of time to rest.

My times, if you care to know:

50m kick - 58sec

100m free - there was a dispute between the gun time (Alan) of 1:40 and the timer's time (Dave) of 1:36

400m free - I only timed the second half (3:45) so I have no idea! I'll ask Alan

Everyone is on an easy week but as I only have three weeks and one more long run until the Langley half marathon I ran for 1:35. Irene was happy to run further with me so I had some company and, equally important, someone who knew the trails. Six years and I still have no idea where I'm going!

I was pretty spent after my longest run in half a year but had made plans to check out some of the free Olympics stuff with Helen so instead of passing out on the couch I had a quick shower and snack and headed out the door. I wore compression socks though in the hope that might be as effective as an ice bath.

Today's photo is of a sculpture from Canada Northern House (well worth the time to visit):

Saturday!

2010-01-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

I started off today a bit cranky, probably should have ridden on my own rather than inflict myself on others but everyone came out alive so I guess that's all good.

Rode about 2.5 hours then ambitiously decided to invite friends over for dinner. Considering how sick I was earlier this week I probably should have taken it easy for the rest of the day.

On my way out to pick up dinner fixings I got a couple of good shots.

Crow in a tree:

Apologies if you're getting tired of the tree shots butI love them as photo subjects.

West Coast bragging shot, snow drop in the rain. In January:

This is my picture of the day, btw. And no, Mum, I did not spray the flowers with water, I found them like that!

When I got home from shopping I realized what I'd gotten myself into. I like my apartment very much but it is most definitely not set up safely for one of these:

I thought I'd reasonably kid-proofed my place but Hiroki quickly found all the breakable and sharp things I'd forgotten. Happily he managed not to kill himself or wreck the place. Too badly:

Wontons with garlic & pepper (hot)

2010-01-30T14:07:00.000-08:00

My new favourite food. It hurts (spicy) but it's sooooo good!

You can taste the kale!

2010-01-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

Eating veggies that are colourful is good for your health and for photo ops. Sadly I was busy formatting this photo and over cooked the chard a wee bit. However the roasted pine nuts I added made up for the slightly crispy chard.

2010-01-27T19:56:00.000-08:00

I was talking with my Mum this evening (looking for sympathy, of course) and told her I was using my "gimme" for the month and not taking a picture today. She said today should be easy for picture ideas as it's international family literature day (or something along those lines). Which gave me an idea for a photo:

I originally bought the book for my nephews but somehow it never made it out of my house (I love pop-up books!).

She also wanted to know where my "What is it?" photo album is, so Mum click here to see it.

Now I'm heading back to the couch where I will attempt to stay awake through the rest of the Canucks game.

No Picture Today

2010-01-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

Since yesterday's post things went downhill quite a bit. Or the pseudoephedrine wore off. Regardless, any photo that documented my day would be, well, gross (sinus infection, remember). Also, there's a warning on my antibiotics that the drugs "may alter taste". I'm afraid of what that might mean aesthetically and that I might end up taking pictures that are the equivalent of Celine Dion ballads.

So instead I'm posting a shot that I took over Christmas, Skaha Lake on a calm, clear day.

Feed a cold, starve a fever ...

2010-01-26T18:35:00.001-08:00

... but what do you do for a sinus infection?

I've decided to take a carpet bombing approach and hit it with all my most powerful weapons: drugs (prescription and OTC), sinus rinse, bad afternoon TV, steaming and, the most potent of all, jewish comfort food from Solly's. The antibiotics haven't done much, the rinse hurt, the claritin got me stoned and too hyper to nap (darned pseudoephedrin), but the pizza bagel, chicken soup and babka bun were great. Wonder if I get my medical plan to pay for bagels??

Camera

2010-01-26T14:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's photo (idea from dailyshoot.com)

Cheating!

2010-01-24T18:47:00.000-08:00

I went to the later swim today - we have so many people we now have a 7:30 and an 8:45 session. Last week I was a keener and went to the "fast" session at 7:30 but as my bussing options are pretty lame (1 hour on transit - boo hiss) I figured I'd try the later session today. I'm on the cusp - slowest of the fast and faster of the slow - and can do either so for now I'll stick the later swim.

Alan wants us to write down the stuff we need to work on immediately after our swim otherwise we won't remember by the next time we swim. I have enough trouble getting to the run on time so that's not going to happen! So what he wanted me to work on was ... um ... slower but stronger kick and more time gliding on my side. Yay! I remembered.

The run was a bit tough as we had a couple of speed demons running with us who pushed the pace and, of course, everyone tried to keep up. Not exactly an easy pace but I got in 1:20.

I didn't have an opportunity to take a picture so today's picture is a "cheat." I chatted with Cassandra on Skype and her very loving (i.e. hungry) cat decided to give her some affection to remind her it was dinner time. In this screen shot you can see the cold calculation in his eyes "If I make her think I love her she'll give me food!"

Anyone know how to change a .png file to .jpg so I can put this in my Picassa 365-10 album? Photo programs don't seem to like .png.

Recovery Drink

2010-01-23T13:27:00.001-08:00

Had a fun ride with the club today. A small turnout, all women and one-to-one newbies to "old-timers" but a nice group. We got heckled/hit on by a male runner who told us we needed a guy riding with us. Marie might have got his phone number if we'd stuck around!

The major excitement was when Emma (?) had a flat and I got to show off my tire changing prowress. I like changing tires. Yes I'm weird, but I think that's been firmly established already. Turns out the issue was the tire itself (rubbing from the fender), but of course I didn't figure that out until right at the end. The Cheung brothers serendipitously appeared right when we needed someone with tools and know how and they patched the tire and rode with Emma back to somewhere she could buy a new tire.

This is my post-ride nutrition. I'm experimenting with smoothies. This was a grand idea - banana, frozen peach, frozen blueberries and milk. Then I added cocoa and it wasn't quite so good. Sad to realize that cocoa doesn't make everything better. Next time I'll try a bit of honey.

"So Much Beauty It Could Make You Cry"

2010-01-23T13:25:00.000-08:00

The Daily Shoot has suggestions for folks doing the 365-10 challenge. Yesterday's was the name of a song or lyrics from a song.

At the risk of being sappy a lyric from Modest Mouse's "So Much Beauty in Dirt" fits with how this challenge is making me see the world around me.

This is from the VAG's Offsite Gallery by the Shangri La.

Post-it

2010-01-21T21:36:00.000-08:00

View from the (almost) top

2010-01-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

Photo Dilema

2010-01-19T18:43:00.000-08:00

Today I was stumped. After 18 days I'd run out of ideas for pictures. No clue of anything even mildly interesting.

Sometimes when all seems lost fortune decides to favour you. Or, in this case, fortune (disguised as KT) calls you on your cell as you're about to leave work and says he's just outside the building with his wife and child and would you like to say hi?

Everyone else in the photo was blurrier than HT above so sorry Mum & Dad but you got cropped.

Trees! Too bad they make me sneeze.

2010-01-18T20:04:00.000-08:00

My allergies are kicking in, this may be the culprit.

Even if the subject is responsible for my stuffed up head, I really, really like this picture.

Recovery Drink

2010-01-18T20:02:00.001-08:00

Biking is good for my sanity

2010-01-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

I rode on my own this afternoon as I had a work commitment this morning. I'm very glad I did as I had a chance to clear my head and get a bit of perspective.

Biking is good for that - you have to pay attention to traffic and the world around you but this doesn't take your full concentration so you can let your mind wander. It's my version of meditation, instead of saying "ohm" I keep a consistent cadence.

Today was a wonderful clear day and the views on my ride were stunning. Initially I kept wishing I had my camera but then decided just to soak up the beauty. For a good chunk of the ride I had such deep and intellectual thoughts as "Ooooh!" or "Pretty!"

This helped to clear out the mental cobwebs and somehow while thinking of nothing very much I managed to figure out something from work that's been bothering me for some time and I may even have come up with a potential solution.

Glad to be back on my bike.

Information Underload

2010-01-16T14:35:00.001-08:00

Had to skip the morning ride and go to work. Less crowds and more time gave me chance to notice things that I usually miss on my weekday commute.

Now I have to go for my ride!

Sunset

2010-01-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

The sun came out in the afternoon and made for a lovely end to the day.

I wanted to get a shot of the evening crow migration but I but missed them and had to make do.

I'm finding this a challenge, not just in coming up with new shot every day but then picking one I like best (notice the number of posts with multiple pictures?). Picking between crow shots tonight was quite tough! Here's the whole set, you tell me which you like best!

I'm tired, cold and wet

2010-01-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

So this picture isn't the most artistic.

Wednesday Spin

2010-01-13T21:01:00.001-08:00

Rainy Day Run

2010-01-12T18:26:00.000-08:00

Morning Routine

2010-01-11T18:58:00.001-08:00

It's important to have breakfast, especially before a workout, but it's also key to refuel after your workout:

Breakfast bagel and coffee - perfect post-swim snack!

Ice Bath - In Pictures

2010-01-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

A photo essay on what is required for an ice bath.

Fill a large receptacle with cold water:

and add ice:
Brew up a cup of something hot:

and sweet:

Then get something warm to wear:

something to read:

and a watch so you can time it:

Now jump in!

Sunday!

2010-01-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

The first 90 minute swim of the year! It wasn't as painful as last year's first, I recall looking at the clock after 45 minutes and the dread sinking in as I realized we were only halfway through.

Today wasn't so bad largely because there was a fair bit of talking before hand (swim ettitquette, coach introductions, etc.) so we lost 15 minutes of swim time. The main set, however, was appropriately brutal. : 8 x 100m on 2min. After 45 minutes of warm up, including push ups, crunches, vertical kicking and 5 x 50m kick, this was a bit tough.

I tried taking some pre-swim shots but the lighting was poor and they didn't turn out. I'm sure Amy will be very happy about that. (Apparently there is a rule that I'm not allowed to take pictures of Amy. I'll review the official "365-2010" rulebook to see about that!).

So here are some shots from the end of the run. As I can everyone survived, which is always a bonus, and we all looked pretty satisfied with our workout. My shot of the day is final shot.

The post-run stretch.

Deb showing off her slick ner running style, Chris stretching and Clayton ... we won't ask.

A little blurry but I like the composition.

First ride of '10

2010-01-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

Today was the first club ride of 2010. The folks in the lead had obviously eaten their Wheaties, Teresa and I got got dropped right away and at points along the way we found various others who had been spit out the back of the pack.

Teresa and I had a nice easy ride, eventually the rest of the crew will settle down and remember we're not doing a stage of the Tour!

Here is my morning in pictures:

Fuel for the ride. Only two hours so Gatorade is all I need.

Just me, Louie and the open road!

Post-ride road grit!

Complaints (for Kathryn)

2010-01-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my 2010 goals post that I was trying again to do the Complaint Free World challenge of going 21 days without complaining.

Foxtrot, one of my loyal readers (I have at least three), thought it sounded like a good goal and is in on it too. Pretty challenging since she's working full time while going back to school - she should have lots to complain about!

One of the ways to help notice when you complain (step 1) then stop complaining is to wear a bracelet and move it from one wrist to the other every time you complain. Last time I tried this I used a rubber band, not the classiest way to do things I'll admit. The official bracelets look like this.

If I was going to upgrade from a rubber band, however, I wanted something a little more elegant. Which leads us to today's photo of the day and my suggestion to Kathryn: Isn't this challenge a good reason to buy jewellery??

Rest Day

2010-01-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

While the rest of the club was at the first running practice of 2010 I was watching this:

with Captain Cactus (also skipping the run):

Brian had the great idea that I should take a self-portrait of ourselves drinking beer with the game in the background, which would fit with my theme as this would perfectly illustrate my (complete and total lack of) training for the day. I somehow forgot, blame the beer or the excitement of Burrows' hat trick.

I'm going to forsake my theme,however, and instead go with my favorite shot of the day because I really, really like the effect. So, without further ado, presented for your viewing pleasure is "Sunrise Reflections":

Best laid plans ...

2010-01-06T21:16:00.001-08:00

It was a fun idea, sadly my execution was lacking.

The idea was that Amy, photo-a-day co-conspirator, and I would take a picture of ourselves taking pictures of each other.. Fun idea but my picture was blurry and the flash did bad things. Here it is anyway:

My other idea, to get a picture of the admin side of things at the start of the club, was at least in focus but it was too crowded and there wasn't enogh time for a good shot.

So, today's picture is my "safety shot" from this morning - pre-swim. I swim again on Friday but won't take another picture involving a swim cap (should have been my January theme!). I do have an idea for Friday's picture, hopefully it turns out.

Run Home

2010-01-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

As with Amy, I'm doing a theme a month for the photo a day challenge. Not sure how I'll come up with 12 themes but I can't think of anything I want to take 366 pictures of. At least I know what I want to do for February (I live in Vancouver - take a wild guess what it'll be!).

January's theme is "Start of Training Season." Today's shot is from my run home:

I'm still figuring out my camera (part of the reason for doing this challenge) and am having issues focussing on what I want to be the focal point of a picture. Apologies for the fuzziness.

The run was great, and I managed to get home in time to catch the end of the first period of the Juniors final. Yikes! Second period just started, gotta go!!!

Shock to the System

2010-01-04T12:54:00.000-08:00

Pre-swim breakfast cooking at oh-dark-hundred.

First day back at work today after two weeks of doing very little - it was a bit rough. Probably shouldn't have thrown in an easy treadmill run and what was supposed to be a short, easy swim before hitting work. When I got to the pool a couple of folks from my masters class (which starts next week) were doing a reasonably intense set so of course I had to join in.

By noon it was very hard to keep my eyes open! Hopefully tomorrow will be easier.