Slip my wheel on!

So, it's been a while since I last posted. I just figured nobody actually read my blog but it turns out 2 people do, Olly and my mom. The past 2 months have flown by, I've been very busy with school, on May 9th I travelled to Winnipeg for the National Science Fair where I was a chaperon to 6 fantastic kids! This was a great opportunity as I had participated in 2 national fairs in 1996 and 1999. Let me tell you it was tremendously different being there as an adult. The meeting on Sunday night from 8 until 10, was a sneak peak to the meetings to come. Lets just say I learned a lot, and met some really cool people along the way.



This past weekend I competed in Oliver at the sprint triathlon in the self proclaimed wine capital of Canada. I placed 3rd behind two very strong athletes. Jordan Rapp who is a really nice guy and who is now living in Penticton won the race and spanked me good - he's gonna be up there at IMC. More importantly, I got beat real bad by a guy named Joel Johnson. He is 15 and he will go to the Olympics.

Now onto this week, I just got back from a ride with TBD. Let's just say I took an untimely pull (read: I should have just gone straight to the back) and DBD and KBD reminded me that they can distroy me at any time. Thus, I'd like you to take a look at the clip below :)






sleep well.

GW

My eyes are up here!

I guess you could say that I'm getting tired of people talking about and looking at my rack. We had a group ride today out to Oliver (the self proclaimed Wine capital of Canada) and then up past the White Lake observatory**. I took out my Cannondale instead of the winter steed. Right away people were making lude comments about my rack, wondering where it was, and how big it was, how much beer my rack could hold. Heck they even wanted to touch it! You can look but you can't touch. I'll be keeping my rack wrapped up from now on in a pair of Paniers for commuting to work, and the 'Dale for the more 'serious' rides. All I can say is I'm looking forward to this weeks threshold Thursday at the Naramata Dipper.

Remember, look at the sun and then look away.

GW

** I was doing well, but just like Olly, Dave and Tom dropped 3rd period French in high school, I as well got dropped like 3rd period French.

Spring break!!!

Spring Break!!! Well Spring break is upon us, I'm on the second week of a great Spring Break, I spent the first week at Apex with Sam and his friend Carolyn. We had several Kenny vs. Spenny episodes on the ice and on XBox. Fortunately, we're at 2000m up there so I was able to keep the hockey casualties to a minimum. Sam would shoot the puck to the other end of the ice so that he could recover while I went and got the puck. Unfortunately for him this didn't help his cause as I've been at altitude several times this year! It may have been the spanky new skates Sam got me for my belated birthday present! As for the Xbox, Sam dominated like the champ he is.

Now I'm back at home and procrastinating very well at getting to work (marking and planning). I have been riding quite a bit too. I'm excited for the season!!

Take a nap, you've earned it.

GW

Trifecta Completed!

What a weekend! I (Team Big Deal*) had a very interesting weekend of high octane activities. On Saturday morning we were greeted by a brain freezing blizzard at Sovereign Lakes in Vernon where we competed in a 30km loppet. It was pretty nuts, almost a foot of snow fell right before the race so we had to lift our legs pretty high, and the groomer went over part of the track which made it super narrow! This narrowness caused a hard fall when I caught a tip in the snow beside the trail! While I was licking my wounds an older gentleman (58) passed me and continued to put the hurt on me for a few more k's. Luckily, age was on my side as I had to out sprint him for 14th place overall! I know, but he was tough! After the race, as per Dave's recommendation we hit up Moxie's in Kelowna. bunch of tired looking guys sitting in really nice leather chairs.

The following morning we raced in a 5km, this was fun but not at the same time. It was a freezing northerly wind and I elected to wear shorts! This race probably turned out to be a mistake for me as I have been nursing my left calf ever since. At least I'm keeping our "team" Physio in business!!

As for that afternoon, we competed in a Master's swim meet. It was so much fun and my times weren't that bad, I was especially stoked about my 100m free time as I was only a second off my lifetime best, of 1:03!!

After a weekend like that, I was pretty wrecked for a few days and now the "sore" calf/ankle is a bummer. But, the good thing about getting an injury is that it reminds you how lucky we are to do this and be so active.

Go take a nap.

Geoff

*I am merely an honourary member of TBD, as I have not completed the criteria to be an offical member.

Highs and lows

Well isn't life interesting, one day you can be like a well oiled machine and the next you can be a snot factory with the wheels falling off. I had a great ski this past Saturday, I classiced for 30 km, with Tom, Dave and the president of Nickel Plate himself Mike Bartier or Mr. President as he prefers to be called. It was a perfect day, the sun was out and the snow was fairly quick. The first lap felt great I went 59:45 for 15km, with an average heart rate of 138. I just tried to stay steady and not work too hard. On the second lap I turned it up a little bit and attacked all the up hills and sharp corners. I went 58:15 for the second 15km with an average heart rate of 143. It felt a lot harder than that. After I finished I think this is where the grease turned to snot, I didn't get enough post-effort fuel in and I was cold even though I changed clothes. Now being Monday and having taken yesterday and today off I'm still feeling under the weather. Hopefully tomorrow brings a little more health.

This leads me to some thoughts. It's funny how we (we - meaning people in good health who are active and eat right and get enough sleep) take our health for granted. I couldn't imagine living with an extra 25kgs or some sort of cardio respiratory disease. So with this feeling of "ok I'm sick but when I do feel better I'm going to really appreciate it" I'm going to continue doing work for the upcoming week and get to bed early, so that I can fully appreciate my glorious predicament of being fit, healthy and happy.

wash your hands

Due to "Them's fighting words" comments left on the blog about what is and what is not "montage" training, the previous post has been altered. In doing so I hope to not get 'remined' again by any other members of TBD. It would be a bloody day if I were to meet them in a back alley after a triathlon, considering we can all run pretty fast and they are all way bigger than me.

Snow Shoeing in the Sunshine!

This post is a little late, but as they say in the world of Assessment for Learning (AFL) better late than never. So last weekend Katie and I were up at Apex with our friends Crystal and Dan who were up from Vancouver. It was a great time of skiing, skating and snowshoeing. Oh and some beverages were consumed and some games were played (Blokus and Crib) We shared the dinner making responsibilities, we made a nice chicken stirfry with rice noodles and Dan and Crystal brought massive Halibut chunks for our consumption. I have never tasted fish that nice before.

Fortunately, for all those concerned the weather cooperated as well. When I say cooperated I mean plus 12 and hot, getting our winter fix of vitamin D. Here's a couple of shots from a balmy snowshoe.