Dolphins Swim Clinic

"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.

Sunset

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!

Reminder Me Never to be a Race Organizer

The Troisport Joburg City Triathlon organizers are probably looking for new careers - click here for the story.

Summary:

• The police reneg on number of officers they will supply the race - from 15 to 9 and evenutally to 4 (huge deal when you're dealing with bikes vs. traffic)
• Before the event a cyclist (non-racer) is hit by a car, losing a leg and his life is in danger.
• An airplane crashes on the course. Seriously.

#16

Trevor Linden had his number retired tonight. For the past week, and in the hour long retirement ceremony, they talked about the effect he had on the city . I want to add my own story.

My coworker is not a sports fan, doesn't really care about hockey, doesn't follow it. She is a very hard worker with a huge pile stuff of stuff to do at the moment and she's been staying late every night for several weeks. I was telling her to go home early today if the snow got really bad and she initially she said no, she had too much work then she suddenly said it's Linden's retirement tonight so she had to leave work on time. At first I thought she was worried about traffic. No, she needed to be home by 6 so she could watch his retirement ceremony.

Yes, Trevor Linden is such a class act that people who don't care about the sport or the Canucks love him. If only more professional sports people were like him.

Satire

Despite the fact that I have a PoliSci degree, I can't stand elections. I keep getting the urge to roar "MENDACITY!" like Burle Ives in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but know I just can't deliver the line like he did.

What makes elections bearable is the satire that they generate. It's been frustrating waiting for the Rick Mercer Report's season to begin, let me tell you!

Youtube is also a saviour. If you're bilingual, Michel Rivard's "Culture in Danger" is likely hysterical, I've only got a smidgen of high school french remaining and this had me howling.

Hope the neighbours didn't mind

I've always been amused by people who scream at sports on TV, who's going to hear you? C'mon. Granted, I have thrown some comments at the tube during hockey, but the Canucks can be frustrating enough to elicit back talk from anyone. I have never, however, been one of those sports fans who screams at the TV, veins popping on their forehead.

Until last night, that is.

Yesterday was the men's triathlon at the Olympics. I've been following the blogs of Simon Whitfield, Paul Tichlar, Colin Jenkins and their coach Joel Filliol for almost a year and, like a true cyber-stalker, feel like I know them all. These weren't just Canadians vying for gold, these were my people,

For the swim and most of the bike I threw a few comments at the TV, and there were some nervous moments when the break away on the bike got more than 30 seconds lead. Then the run started and Simon kept dropping off the lead pack. My comments and encouragement got a little louder and he'd catch up. I'd quiet down and he'd drop off the back so I'd yell again and he'd catch up again. And the louder I was, the faster Simon went. Now I can occasionally be a bit clueless but I'm no dummy and I figured out what was going on, in pretty short order I was screaming at the top of my lungs . In the last 500m when he made that mad dash from the back I was jumping up and down in front of the TV screaming and yelling, veins most likely popping out all over (although I didn't dare look away from the TV to check). What an incredible finish! He didn't get gold but we'll take silver no problem.

In closing, I apologize to all the couch potato sports fans I've mocked over the years. The athletes can indeed hear you so go ahead and yell your heart out!

My Friend, the "STAR TREKER"

Each month, TREK celebrates an individual who has made a commitment to sustainable transportation. TREK wants to hear about the inspiringindividuals at UBC who bike, walk, carpool, bus or have found otherways to make their commute to campus more sustainable. The only criteria for this award are a positive attitude and a penchant forenvironmentally friendly transportation.

Joanne Fox - August 2008Instructor, Michael Smith Laboratories

Commute Mode: Transit, cycling...and running!

Joanne Fox is an instructor at the Michael Smith Laboratories who is heavily involved in the various science education programs of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory. Her work naturally takes her into teaching laboratories, science outreach sessions, high school programs, camps for kids and many different projects across campus including the Terry (http://www.terry.ubc.ca/) global citizenship project.

Click here to read more.

Quite possibly the best race report ever

Found on Slowtwitch, the report from a race director who managed to keep a race together through seriously insane weather this past weekend.

Part 1
It all started on Friday. Things were going smooth. Getting to the park the portopotties were already there. The waste company was bringing the extra large dumpster and dropped it off. The local grocery story Logili (Schnuks) delivered a 52 foot refrigerated truck to keep our 9000lbs of ice, 2200 bottles of water and many thousands of other Pepsi products for the folks who were coming out to play. The folks with the 20 x 40 tent got there, they first dropped off the two gas powered carts for moving people and items, one could move six, the other had a flat bed for moving coolers and food.
Click here to read more.

Part 2
The rain started to come down and the sirens were audible in the distance, I think that I am one of the few who heard them – and understood what they were. Blake, Zach and some twenty + others were already on the run course but the mass of people were on the bike course. Folks were rolling into transition as I see some of our banners fly across the park. I head out onto the run course as I hear that our volunteers are running for cover, I need to be sure that aid stations are up.
Click here to read more

This actually makes me want to do this race - not because of the insane weather but the lengths to which the RD will go to keep the race running.

I Know Fast People!

Triathlon Canada announced their Athlete of the Year Awards today. In reading the news I was thrilled to find not one but two people I know who were named, one is a full club member and one is an honourary club member:

2007 Olympic Distance award winners include ... Vancouver’s Rachel McBride, who won in the Age Group 18-39 category

In Off-Road – Triathlon ... Kristina Bangma of Vancouver won the award in the Age Group 18-39 category

I'm thrilled to be associated with such greatness! Congratulations ladies.

Can you imagine hitting 81 MILES per hour on a bike!

"BECAUSE REALLY, THIS IS NUTS"
by Tim Keown

What do you get when you pair an inspired sculptor with a fearless bike racer? Only the fastest human-powered vehicle on earth.

SEPTEMBER 2003. Sam Whittingham, a national team track cyclist from Canada, is inside this contraption that he and his buddy insist on calling a bicycle even though it looks more like a homemade cruise missile with two tires peeking out from underneath. He's lying back on a recumbent frame inside the eight-foot-long sculpted faring, squeezed so tightly into place that he can't move his head; his position resembles that of someone hiding in a pipe. The only parts of his body that can move are his legs, which madly pump the pedals to propel this thing as fast as humanly possible. Literally.

Click here to read the full article.

Women's lib arrived on bicycles

From CNN.com
By Christopher Connolly

Susan B. Anthony once said, "Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world." A woman on a bicycle, the equal rights champion observed, presents "the picture of free and untrammeled womanhood."

Susan and her fellow 19th-century women had been severely trammeled their entire lives. Forget the glass ceiling; women in those days were trapped under the glass floor. Battles like "equal pay for equal work" were decades away. The Victorian woman's cause was more along the lines of, "We'd like to leave the house, sometimes ... please ... if it isn't too much trouble."

Read the full article here.

My Sympathies

Man killed in shark attack at San Diego beach
Associated Press
April 25, 2008 at 1:00 PM EDT
SOLANA BEACH, Calif. — A shark attacked and killed a swimmer who was training in the ocean off San Diego County Friday with a group of local triathletes, authorities said.

To read more click here.

I don't usually comment on news items like this here but for some reason I feel the need to say a few words about this.

First off, I have to express my deepest sympathies to his friends and family. This is a terrible loss for them.

Secondly, his friends who pulled him to shore knowing there was a shark in the area are absolute heros.

Finally, shark attacks always receive vast amounts of sensational news coverage but they are remarkably rare. Your life is in far greater danger driving to the ocean than it is swimming it. And once you're in the ocean, motor boats are a far, far great greater threat to life and limb than creatures of the deep (I lived in the Okanagan and figured this out pretty quickly).

What makes these stories news worthy is that they are rare. Deaths per year from shark attacks worldwide are in the single digits. If triathlete had been hit by a car and killed on the road leading to the beach, it would not have garnered the same attention as, sadly, that kind of loss of life is far too common.

Again, I'm not sure why I feel the need to comment on this. Maybe because I know non-triathlete friends and colleagues will bring this up, "Hey, did you hear about the triathlete in California?" I guess they ask because I am a triathlete and have a connection to the sport and possibly an insight into what happened, but sometimes I detect a glint in their eye and intuit (rightly or wrongly) that they're trying to scare me or prove what I am doing is dangerous.

I'm also sad, I never met the man or the people he trains with but we're still part of the same community and I know how devasting such a loss would be for my club.

Sports Weekend

There are two big events going on in the world of sports this weekend, neither of which has anything to do with hoops, balls, pucks, nets or, unfortunately, live TV coverage

First off there's Ironman Arizona, I'm always a sucker for a good IM race. One of the blogs I've been following, Jonnyo World, is written by a pro triathlete who's competing in IMAZ so I have someone to cheer for. Happily the Ironmanlive site usually has reasonably decent coverage. If I figure out the time difference I may actually manage to catch the swim coverage (I said this for the past three IM's I tried to watch and have yet to be successful).

The second race is the London Marathon. I haven't been a marathon enthusiast until the past few years when I actually got to know some marathoners. It also helps that the guys at The Science of Sport, one of my current fave blogs, have dedicated a lot of space to race predictions and general hype for London. Apparently this is one of the big pre-olympics marathons so most of the top names will be there (as opposed to non-olympic years, when most of the top names will be there).

There is the option for Americans to watch the coverage live online but:

1. as I can't actually figure out when the race starts this may be difficult. According to the web countdown clock it starts at 9:00am our time, therefore 5pm in the UK. That doesn't make sense to me.
   And
2. it's likely to actually start about midnight Saturday my time, I'll be in bed.

On the topic of big races, I signed up for the Sun Run for the first time ever. I'm not good with crowds or having people in my way so it should be a fun day! Okay, I may have become reconciled with the idea and I may actually be looking forward to the race, just don't tell my coach, I'm still playing up the reluctant athlete who's grudgingly following coach's orders. I've never done a stand alone 10km when I'm in good running shape so I don't really know what I can do, it should be an interesting day.

Inspiring from Macca

Someone on the Slowtwitch forum posted a link to a forum post by Chris McCormack, aka "Macca". His career in point form, I thought it was pretty cool:

* First heard of triathlon in 1986 when my Friend Clinton barter started doing them.
* First watched a triathlon on TV in 1987 when Dave Scott beat Mark Allen in the Hawaii Ironman. My first thought was wow, that looks really cool.
*My entire life i wanted to be a Marathon Champion like Deek and Moneghetti.

For the full post, click here and scroll down to post #6 by cjmacca.

Slowtwitch Article on Adult Swimmers

Slowtwitch has just started a series asking top swim coaches about common errors adult swimmers make.

I liked Tim Sheeper's article, and not just because he ignored the intent of the series! He has four behaviours "late in life" swimmers should develop:

• Perseverance
• Confidence
• Passion
• Play

Click here for the full article.

What I've Been Reading

So I haven't posted much recently. I actually started a post on why I'm not posting but I never got around to posting it.

Nothing's wrong, in fact training has been great. It's just that training has become part of my regular routine, up there with brushing my teeth and catching the bus to work, so it doesn't feel terribly exceptional or blog-worthy.

I haven't been posting much but I have been reading a lot of blogs lately. I set up a google reader account so I can follow a number of blogs - mostly triathlon but some other stuff in there too (gotta try to be a well-rounded individual!). As that's what currently turning my crank I thought I'd link some of the articles and posts that are catching my eye. Maybe I'll throw in a training update or two while I'm at it.