Its for the kids! 6 hours of swimming!

I swam 18750m or 750 lengths. Haha, yah in a 25m pool too. Sooo many flipturns. In the end we raised 1000ish dollars for economically disadvantaged youth in my community and money is still coming in.

I swam for 6 hours – First two hours were awesome – on track to hitting 20+ km. Then breathing problems settled in from poor air quality. Coughing fits made it really hard to swim longer than 300m continuously. That lasted for about 2 hours until the guards opened the exterior doors and I could start breathing again. When swimming freestyle I was holding under :45 per 50m, so my body (except my lungs were holding out just fine). Nutrition was great too, my DIY nutrient mix was awesome – maybe more caffene next time (oh there won’t be a next time though).

 

A huge thanks goes out to my dad and Renee Kinnear for helping me keep count of lengths. My mind was a mess at the end, I wasn’t thinking clearly at all. To Don MacIntosh for keeping me company by swimming the last hour and a bit with me. Also a gigantic thank you to PoCo (staff and community) for making the entire thing worthwhile. The support I recieved from the lifeguards was enormous – taking care of me by making sure I was ok the whole way through, and to the community for coming out and cheering me on/donating to the cause.

Keep on… Keep’n on!

RUN – SWIM – SURF: Everything that makes a good post

Vancouver First Half was today – I’ll have to admit, I was a bit worried going into the race because I had disappeared from the running world last year to focus on graduating, and after the thesis defense I had gone off and disappeared for a few weeks. Suffice to say, I was not in the greatest shape at the end of 2011.

I had started training again, but was SUPER careful with a build up, which really only lasted for a few weeks before the race. I went into the race with no idea of where my fitness was, and what I could pull off. Pleasantly surprised! I started off, super conservative becasue I was afraid of falling apart, which I did (in the last km, I had to stop 3 times to stop the legs from cramping).

5k – 18:31
10k – 35:37 (17:05)
15k – 52:38 (17:01)
20k -1:09:52 (17:13)

Total time- 1:16:40

Hot damn, I can run two consecutive 10k’s in under 35min (give or take some change)! I’ll just keep on keep’n on. Also! I had the pleasure of bumping into a lot of the runnners that I used to run with today! They all had awesome races, it was good to see them!

.

I also made the front cover of the local rag! On Friday, I’ll be attempting to swim 6 hours to try to raise funds for economically disadvantaged youth in PoCo. The funds will go towards subsidizing their aquatic training in courses such as First Aid or their Lifeguarding tickets. What started as a joke, ended up being a reality. I guess its easy for managers to push things through when they’re not suffering.

The support I’ve recieved in the last few days has been overwhelming! I hope that this swim helps at least one kid get the chance to experience the benifits of being a lifeguard (maybe make post-secondary education a bit more of a reality for them because of the wages that lifeguards make).

.

My friend showed me this at work, now I’m hooked. Super chill, and the video makes me want to surf so badly.

In the process again

I had a very distinct and familiar feeling on Tuesday that I hadn’t felt for a long time. It’s a sort of overall sense of fatigue coupled with the urge to eat all the time. My mind was alert, but my body was sort of in a delayed response mode – a kind of grogginess. Then I realized what it was – I getting back in shape!

I did my first double in a long time, with 3500m-ish in the pool and a 18k progression run on the tready. Combined with an 8-hour shift at the end of the day made for a very groggy Hooch. Similar deal today, except it will be a track session with mile repeats.

Things are finally coming together – a season plan seems to be falling into place, training is picking up, and injuries are not occuring. So far, the race season is still in flux, but it’s looking like:

Vancouver First Half Marathon (Feb)
MSABC Nationals (April)
Times Columnist 10k (April)
Oliver 1/2 Iron (June)
Edmonton Triathlon (July)
Kelowna Triathlon (August)

Still pretty flexible, as well as I’m waiting to see if I will get the chance to race anything more exotic. I guess this all leads up to Ironman in 2013. Looking at maybe something in November or December 2013. Arizona, Florida, Cozumel, Western Australia, but I’ve also been told that a 70.3 could get me to Kona as well?! More research to come.

Back to that feeling I had on Tuesday – I guess its satisfying in a way to feel spent from working hard… I won’t say it’s ‘back to the grind’ as that sort of has a connotation of unwanted tough labour, whereas this is much more pleasurable.

Hello Tready! It’s been a while…

Beauty… Not so awesome for running though. Tready, you and I are spending some quality time together!

Swimming is progressing alright:

50′s fast long course are now consistantly under :35 , even when consecutivly done. Holding 100′s at 1:22-1:23 long course comfortably-hard.

Feb 17th, I’ll be swimming 6 hours straight for a fundraiser. Any interest in joining me?

 

I also went for my first trainer ride this year! Lots of work to be done – very exciting!

Living in Vivid Colour

Why can’t I seem to dream in colour? When I recall dreams, they’re always in black and white. Even when I remember memories of things past, they’re almost always void of colour.

I was up on the mountain doing some bday week riding, when the light from a setting sun created a radiant white-orange in the clouds on a backdrop of brilliant blue. I stared at it for a while on the chair trying to commit it to memory, but now, when I attempt to recall it, it’s quite bland. Only the words I used to describe it to myself give it some semblance of its blinding colours.

This leads me to wonder – in my attempt to dream-big, and live-large, are my dreams so bland and devoid of vividness that when I achieve them, they are actually nothing like I originally envisioned them to be?

While i’m at it, either I’m mindlessly coasting through life again, or I am truly forgetful. I’ve seen a lot of photos over the last few days that I don’t recall taking or being a part of. But photos don’t lie – or do they?

I don’t remember taking this with my brother

Oh look, pretty colours, I’m going to chase them for a while.

New Years and Birthday Week!

It’s been a good time since New Year – 2011 was a huge year and I’m standing here wondering how 2012 will be better than 2011.

2011 ended with a trip to Mexico to unwind and relax but LOTS of highs throughout the year – finished my Masters degree, road tripped with close friends, experienced a lot of new things, found a sister I never knew I had always wanted, had an absolute blast living with a good friend for the summer, met some awesome people along the way and reconnected with some old friends.2011 has set the bar pretty high – I’m looking forward to how much can be experienced in 2012.

Started things off with a new years day SUP session to watch the penguin plunge, and then a paddle/SUP trip to Deep Cove with Martin and a long lost friend, Amanda.

My birthday came and went and now I’m a year older, and hopefully a year wiser. 27′s a werid one because I think I’m technically late 20′s, a time that I thought people were supposed to be responsible and have jumped head first into life with careers and mortgages. Good thing I thought wrong! (I recently read ‘Stumbling on Happiness’ and would recommend it to anyone. An eye opening book on how we’re so terrible at pursuing happiness and what happiness means to us)

There’s still a huge amount of stuff to be accomplished in all areas of my life, and as healthy as it is to stop and look back at the path I’ve taken to get from there to here, and to evaluate the decisions, I find myself not doing it enough to truly appreciate the good things that have come my way and the good people that I have been fortunate to have crossed paths with.

I lost my way with my athletic pursuits as I focused entirely on getting the MSc done. I’m convinced that I need to go back to Ironman to right some wrongs, and finish what I set out to do 3 years ago. I don’t normally go public with goals as I only really share them with my closest circles, but I as I’ve been told by a very wise man – “How can you get married with something (reffering to emotional baggage) that on your shoulders”. And with that, you can now know that have every intention to be treading water with the best of the best in Kona, with my family and friends on shore, all waiting for the start of World Champs for Ironman. For sure, this will be a multi-year plan. To start things off I’ll be at the Vancouver First Half in Feb.

To those of you that have made 2011 speical, thank-you and I only hope that I had a similar impact in your life. See you around in 2012 – and dont be a stranger. 

Christmas Time

Went to the Christmas Wish Breakfast at the Pan Pacific. That was fun, except couldn’t track down santa long enough to get a picture.

Training is picking back up (finally). I don’t feel so terrible in the water any more. Only thing is that I haven’t been able to kick the dry cough for over 2 weeks now.

How are you so awesome?

Cause you’re delicious, that’s how.

True confections – I’m coming back for more.

Other than that, I’ve been sick and struggling to get over a flu/cold. Soon, very soon I’ll be running again!

Adventures! Victoria and Beyond

Spur of the moment trip to Victoria! Left last night at around 4pm, rolled into town at around 10… ooo sorta dark and cold. My first ferry ride as a cyclist, and my first night ride.

Also, got to meet up with a good friend who’s there for business! Very fun!

Woke up this morning to super bright sunshine and a very crisp and chilly Victoria. Blue Fox – such a good breakfast! Rode back, but missed the 1 o’clock ferry, so had to ride the 3, ended up getting home after dark tonight.

That plus I’ve been into the UBC research forest to visit an old field site. Clearcut has finally shown some signs of life. Crazy 6 ft ferns.

Looking for more adventures to go on soon. Training is starting to show signs of progress too! Swim 2x a week, and running again. Feels good to be getting back in shape.