Winterman2010

Yes, today was the annual challenge that makes your stomach turn and your "nacho" shrink. I'm talking about Winterman2010, this entails a long ski* and some sort of run or showshoe either before or after the ski. DBD, Jonny-O and I undertook this endeavour at 8:12 this morning. Tom stopped off at Starbucks because he was already worried about the impromptu "Grudge" match he would submit us to.

Once at Nickel Plate I waxed quickly and got going. We started with a Loppet loop(when I say we I mean Tom and I because Johnny-o took a short cut at the upper meadow - I'm just saying is all) A quick pitstop was made for refueling and then we headed off to Panorama, Buck's Trek, Winter's Creek, Motherlode and back for our 2nd refueling session.

We then went out to Silverside to get our 3 hours in. At the bottom of Silverside DBD, threw it down. A grudge match for the ages, approximately 6-8 minutes up Buck's trek. Johnny-o and I were given a minute head start. This proved to be a costly miscalculation by Evans.

I went out hard to demoralize Johnny, and to make DBD think twice. I managed to feel strong and made it to the predetermined finishline approximately 20 seconds in the lead and about 1 minute ahead of Johnny. I'm not tooting my own horn here, just saying that they both looked into their suitcases of courage and found there was none.

After we got in, I went home and they like the champs they are went for a 10km run, to finish off Winterman2010. Thanks for the great training day guys.

GW



*I didn't do the run, I only did the ski. Just so no one is confused.

keys, money, mobile.

Life has been pretty good, I'm on Christmas break right now. That means spending time with family and friends, some skiing, squash, and some riding inside. Sometimes when you are out there the mind wanders, possibly even reflecting - (I guess that's where New Year's resolutions come in!) So, I got a new cell phone yesterday, nothing too fancy but it provides the ability to communicate with others, some apps and the selling feature -- free and my monthly bill should be approx $25 a month. I wanted an iPhone but I just couldn't justify it. This made me think about why cell phones are so useful. I was on my bike this afternoon and watched the lecture below on www.ted.com, check it out.




Also, this graduation speech from Steve Jobs was also really motivating.



Naps are probably worth more than gold.


GW

When the pool closes

Hi everyone (mom), it's been a long time since my last post but on the darkest day of the year, I've realized that when the pool closes in Penticton for renos (lets be honest for way more than a year). We can keep our skills up by danger swimming. There has to be someone with a pool who would be up for this. DBD, don't your neighbours have a pool?



keep your head up out there.

GW

Synergistic!

I saw this, and I thought............... I can do this.



GW

I can't wait..............

Borrowed from Andy Russell's blog, I'm so stoked for skiing! The training has begun.



GW

Campbell Mountain X-country!

Well it's been a while since I last posted. It's been a busy September with trying to get a teaching contract and subbing and mountain biking! ha! After Nationals I was at the Bike Barn for Ironman, it was awesome! I got to see the sweetest bikes and some really fast people. Turns out the fastest people were in town for a while. Jordan absolutely demolished the course. It is so inspiring to see people achieve their dreams!



So this morning I raced at the Campbell mountain cross country race, #3 of the interior cross country series. It was a very challenging course and a few really strong athletes showed up. (as usual) I had a good start (the first 2 km were straight up)and saw my heart rate get up to 176. I was in 4th at the top of the hill, and was joined by Scott McMillan for the rolling 3 km or so. It was really fun having him there to key off of, I tried to stay with him and just tell myself it didn't hurt that much. With a kilometer to go Scott put in a surge and I managed to stay with him, then it was my turn and he stayed with me (I also didn't want to blow up so it may have been a bit conservative) then he went and I attacked right after that with about 100m to go. I was happy with the race because it was so much fun and my legs felt really good (IE: no niggles!)



Check these photos out!

Keep it real.

GW

The Big One

What a weekend!! We just got back from a fantastic weekend in Parksville on Vancouver Island. On Friday afternoon, Katie and I and our friends Marc, Marcia and her sister Laura who was visiting from the St. Louis area headed down in search of the elusive "big one".

After a "Pro-d day/morning" we caught the 7:00pm ferry on Friday night and headed over to Marc's Mom's place in Parksville. With a stop at BP for pizza we hung out and got to know each other a bit before bed.

On the Saturday morning, Katie and I woke up a little early so we could get a run in. Yes we were those people running on the highway, but just for a little bit before we found the route up this very very steep hill called "little mountain road". Katie said "it doesn't sound daunting, but it was", and I agree, it had to be about 2km of over 10% grade. No word of a lie!!

We got back and then spent the rest of the day kicking it old school, we went to Cathedral Falls for a hike, and then Coombs to see the "license to print money" Goat on Roof market and then we went to an old growth, very cool!

The next day us guys (Marc, Jeff (Marc's cousin), John (Marc's Step dad) and me!) were up at 5:30am and out on the water at 6:06am. We headed off and once we got our lines in, it was on!! Maybe 2 minutes later my line got a strike and I was instructed :) to reel'er in. In pure amateur fashion I did just that. The fish went under the boat a couple of times and I had too much pressure on it but I managed to fight it into the net. It took all of about 5 minutes. It was pretty damn cool!!

We had our lines in for a few more hours and got one more bite but it got away, then the weather came in so we had to head it back into shore. I do have to say there was about a 3 hour period there where I thought I was going to huck my breakfast -oh huh that was about how long we were out there for!! hahahaa. Yeah I pretty much had a queasy stomach for the rest of the day.



We're now back in Penticton getting ready for the first day of school.

Taking names and kicking ass!

GW



A big thanks to Jean and John Pickford for having us this weekend and to Marc, Marcia and Laura for being such good travel buddies with Katie and I.