Sunday, November 21, 2010

Beer Mile 2010 Penticton

What a Performance!! Jeff and Wade threw it down! Here is a little video to help explain. I hope to participate next year and break my personal record of 14:50*.





* I can't hold my liquor at all.

GW

Saturday, November 20, 2010

the first flakes!

There was a buzz in the air yesterday at school. It was snowing! You know when kids can't do anything else but look out the window, that was yesterday. Fortunately, I had a strong coffee yesterday morning that made me bounce off the walls too so the energy was there! (I think I was more excited than the kids!!) When I finished up at work I dropped by the Bike Barn to say hi to the crew and then I went home and waxed my skis, in preparation for a ski this weekend!
It was been a good fall, I did a few xc races and was happy with my running. I did Provincials in Aldergrove and came 17th out of 22. It was a frickin' hard course, 5 loops and 3 significant hills in each. I ran 40:48, a slow time but the winner only went 33 mins and he can run around or under 30 mins. Plus, I felt great!! That night I went out in Vancouver with Sam and his GF Katherine as "Allan" from the Hangover. Awesome times!!
Turns out, the hills or the dancing did in my right calf. I ran a few times after BC's but pulled up lame walking up some stairs at school. I'm currently on the mend and taking it easy. I would gather that this is the best time of the year to be injured, so it's R&R right now.

I can't wait to ski!!


GW



ps: yes that is a " man-beard"



** Correction to a previous post. Thanks to DBD (was TBD), ADB, and KBD. :)

Friday, October 22, 2010

Socialization

We saw "The Social Network" the other night and I've been thinking about it all week. I've spoken to a couple of my classes. About what a friend is, how we communicate or rather how "they" communicate and what it means to be a friend to someone.

The more we (my classes) talked and the more Katie and I talked about it, the more questions we started to ask. For example, what will happen to society in 5 or 10 years or even 50 years when the teenage generation doesn't know how to talk to other people?

They can text to each other across the room or while sitting/standing beside each other, but they can't talk to each other in person. I don't think it's facebook's fault or textings fault - people passed notes to each other for a long time. It's not even the kids fault,(I sound like my dad saying that) really its no ones fault. But, eventually we need to connect with people in person. Think about the most recent best night or day you've had. I bet it was with a person, not sitting in front of a computer.



I think I better go watch the first karate kid (thanks Chris), then Jerry Mcguire.


GW

Saturday, September 18, 2010

A little inspiration!

We'll it's been a whirl wind of a couple of weeks! I have a great posting at Pen-hi teaching Math and Science. I'm also helping coach the cross country team! We have 31 students running cross country and a few of them are absolutely flying! We're looking for big things! I stumbled upon this video, If anyone finds this cheese in Penticton, let me know.



GW

Monday, September 6, 2010

Summerland Triathlon

So this past weekend I decided to race in my hometown of Summerland. It was an amazing day all around.

The day started with the 5-7 year olds. They were so inspiring, they had to do a 50m swim, 1.5km bike and a 500m run. I was amazed at the sheer determination and how much fun most of them were having. Albeit there were some tears but after some sympathy from a mom the kid got going again.

I remember my first triathlon, I think I was 7. I came dead last but it didn't matter, I had picked the most dandelions out of everyone and I won a Waterman pen set, which is still in my parents basement today. What does a 7 year old do with a pen set?

On to the race. I had a good/short dip in Okanagan lake and was out on to the bike.



I led for about 7km and was caught by Scott McMillan and Fraser Cashion eventual winner). We were separated by about 20 seconds. Coming into T2, Scooter led in and I followed, Fraser made an error on the last corner and got caught up with another racer.

On to the run, I was the first to get caught by the fast moving Fraser Cashion (him and his brothers can frickin' run like the wind -Braedon ran 36:22 at the peach Classic this year) He went past me and eventually beat me by 37 seconds, but the real race was for 2nd. Scott and I ran side by side until the short downhill into the last 300m of the race. I was confident that I could take him in the sprint as we had sprinted in a cross country race about a year ago and I had some good wheels then. So I led it out and put in a surge and then a final kick to the line. It was super fun racing and hats off to both Fraser and Scott. Great times!!

Check the photo out below. Oh yeah and that is thee Jeff Symonds in the background. What a grin... everyone loves a sprint!!





Take care

GW

Monday, August 23, 2010

Nationals - The exam

Yesterday was the National Triathlon Champs in Kelowna.

I'm going to preface this post with an analogy. Triathlon or sport in general for that matter is like school. You spend a lot of time and energy preparing for an exam, making sure there are no holes in your knowledge so that when it comes time to write a test you can handle anything the prof throws at you.

I felt like I had studied appropriately and was prepared, apparently I was studying the wrong material! This exam kicked my ass. Big shout out to the guys in the 25-29 age group, they were frickin' solid. Rob, Ryan, Ramzy and Clarke great races guys! I look forward to next year already!!

I had a good swim warm up, and got the position I wanted on the beach, far right with a straight line to the first bouy. The gun went off and I was smooth, I found Ryan Smiley's feet right away and felt comfortable. The swim went as planned, 19:40.

Out on to dry land, My wetsuit wouldn't come off, I think the zipper got caught up in my racing suit, then as I got it off by my bike my left hamstring cramped up nice and tight. I didn't want to let this phase me so I spent the first 10 mins on the bike stretching it out taking in some fluids and a gel. Meanwhile I lost touch with some fast cyclists. I salvaged the bike ride and got my legs back on the 3rd loop and got my mind ready to run fast. Just a point, Rob Eakin went past me like I was going backwards, it was awesome to see!

My running has been very promising lately. Through T2 I picked up my feet and tried to run under 40mins (which was my goal) The first 3km were tough but I found my stride for the final 7km. Just kept trying to build. I finished 13th in my age group, not good but I don't want to be a whiny little bitch. It wasn't my day. Thankfully though I had a bunch of fun still.
Next year I want to be stronger and it will happen, just gotta keep my stick on the ice.

I would really like to thank all the people that have helped me out this year. Andrew, Chris and Ginny from BPR, Will from the Bike Barn, Mark Kildaw, Marc Nicmchuk, and the guys that I look up to and am fortunate to train with DBD, ABD and KBD. I'm very fortunate to have all these people that help me out so much! Also to my girlfriend Katie for being a big supporter of my training.

Is it time to ski?


GW

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Bacon and eggs


So this morning I got home from a nice run with Jill and decided bacon was in order. I figured Jordan, Jill's husband seems to do pretty well eating bacon so why couldn't I? So I popped over to T-bones and picked some up. It was glorious! I paired the bacon with fresh/ripe avocado and tomatoes and a couple of eggs.


Bacon and Eggs it's whats for breakfast!!

GW