Ryan Cochrane is a feestyle swimmer who specialises in the 400 800 and 1500m freestyle. He brought home a bronze last Summer games and it looking to stand at the top of the podium this time around. He's a focussed swimmer with no time left for hobbies. He hails from Victoria B.C. His website is: ryancochrane.ca and his twitter handle is:@cochraneryan
Cindy Ouellet is today's featured female athlete. Her sport: Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball, her nickname: The Hornet. She only began playing in 2005 after a physiotherapist introduced her to the sport. 2 years later she was winning gold medals at the Canada games. She is considered one of the best defensive players in the game and is constantly pushing her opponents so that they make a mistake and then goes in for the attack. She trains with a mix of cardio and weights multiple times a day and plays 4 games on weekends, perfecting her skills. "She was a top flight skier and a provincial level soccer player before being struck with bone cancer in her hip at age 12. Cindy was named 2012 Wheelchair Basketball Canada Female Athlete of the Year (www.wheelchairbasketball.ca) .Follow her on twitter at: @SevenCan_CO.
Alexandre Despatie is a male diver who has been in the spotlight for almost 15 years even though this Laval native is not even 30. It's as though he's grown up before Canada's eyes.The 2012 games are Despatie's fourth time at the Show. I remember him as a 15 year old at the 2000 Games where he finished an amazing 4th place on the platform. He has since medalled in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Incredibly, he is the first diver in history to have earned world titles in all three diving disciplines (1, 3, 10 metres). He has also been named Canada's male athlete of the year (2005). It seems that Alexandre has some bad luck, before the 2008 Games he broke his foot. This time around- he incurred a concussion and head wound while training for an event about 2 weeks ago.He reports that he is recovering well and believes he will he ready to go for the London Games. You can find more information on his website at: alexandredespatie.ca or via his twitter account @adespatie
Rosie MacLennan is another major medal contender in trampoline at the London Games. She is another who has recently been conncussed and describes her recovery as 2 steps forward and one step back. She's been competeing internationally since she was 11 and is ready for the big show. She finished 7th in Beijing and since then has won a recent event in Mexico. She trains in Richmond Hill with her teamates and is a U of T grad. Find her blog at: http://www.rosiemaclennan.ca/
Below is the official Anthem for the 2012 Olympics
The Paralympics start just over a month after the Olympics but it's only fair to place these athletes in the well- deserved spotlight as well. This 28 year old athlete was born with club feet and competes as a swimmer for Canada doing freestyle and butterfly. 9 years ago he was the male athlete of the year with a disability according to the International Commonwealth Federation. He's experienced on the World stage winning 5 golds, and 1 silver at the 2004 Paralympic games. Benoit is a dedicated athlete and trains 6-7 hours daily, overcoming the weakness in his ankle by intensively weight training.
Paula Findlay is a Triathlete (I'm sure you're not surprised to see me featuring her). She's legit though, unlike me. She came onto the scene 2 years ago winning gold at Hyde Park- Which is the location of the Games' race. She started off as a swimmer and built her skill set to be a triathlete. At only 23 she is a definite contender at The Games. Her blog can be found at: paulafindlay.blogspot.ca and you can follow her on twitter with @PaulaFindlay. If you go to her most recent post you will find that she's recently trained in my very own hometown of Hamilton.
With t-minus one month until The Games begin I've decided to profile one female and one male athlete daily, leading up to the games. Today, Adam van Koeverden and Christine Sinclair.
This Oakville native (and McMaster grad! Shout out to my hometown) is a 30 year old kayaker. I'm not sure if he took up the sport because of his love of palindromes (kayak- spelled the same forward and backwards, as is Madam Im Adam, coincidence?) He races the 1000m and 1500m. He not only has previous Olympic experience he has previous experience medalling. At the 2004 games "Van Koeverden won two medals, including a gold in the K-1 500 m and a bronze in the K-1 1000 m. He was Canada's flag bearer at the closing ceremonies and was later awarded theLou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete of 2004"(Wikipedia, 2012) he followed his success with a silver medal in the K-1500 at the next Olympics (Where he was our opening ceremony flag bearer) in a photo finish where he was initially listed as 3rd.
In an interview he recently spoke about putting the last games behind him and moving on. Some (aka jerks who should shut up) criticised Adam for not finishing better coming off of a great World's season. It's sport, people have bad days. I'm sure no one was more disappointed than he. Adam is also an ambassador for Right to Play (righttoplay.ca) inspiring hundreds. Adam has his own well written and interesting blog. It can be found at: http://vankayak.com/. His twitter handle is: @vankayak
I'm not objectifying, this topless picture is purely to demonstrate his athleticism.
Next up, Christine Sinclair. Canada's soccer (officially football) superstar. Last year during the FIFA Women's World Cup (where she played with a broken nose) this woman amazed me. Although some say that the World's were a debachle for the team, I was hooked. I watched every game and marvelled at the athletcism of the women.
Found this picture along with a comment,
"a player you wish was American"
Christine is considered the best Canadian soccer player. She has been a member of the national team for 3 World Cups and at the last Olympic Games. In addition, for the last 10 years she's had a a “Top-5 Player in the World” status (olympic.ca). Christine is the same age as me- 29! (and to think, I'm working up to a 10 K and this woman is Canada's 7-time soccer player of the year) and is from Burnaby B.C. She can solve a rubix cube and before a game everything goes on left side first. She's also a mama's girl citing her mom as her hero. She most recently played professionally for Western New York.
The Olympics officially begin July 27 but the soccer tournament starts earlier. Canada opens the Olympics on July 25 against World Cup champion Japan. The team is currently ranked #7 in the world and will also have to compete against South Africa (61) and Sweden (4). I look forward to watching these determined women face the world.
Christine's twitter handle is: @sincy12
Well, that is day 1 to the Olympics countdown complete. Only 29 more to go. Summer isn't traditionally our time to shine, Canada. As supporters we can though. Team Canada has invested so much into their respective sport. We can invest a fraction of that into cheering them on.
I am J-to the -azzed right now. I just got in from a cycle I think I prolly did about 8 or 9 K probably closer to the 8. My baby (he's a full man) brother and I went for a bike ride down on the waterfront this afternoon and I had a lot of fun.
We definitely had a tortoise and the hare situation happening. We had done about 3.5k arrived upon a somewhat deserted area that was mostly flat and straight and we decided to do a bit of a sprint race. Brother is a smoker, overweight and admittedly as active as a toad (I googled inactive animals cuz I didn't want to say sloth, thus appearing more original in my musings and toad came up. I felt I needed to explain in order to justify that toads are in fact, very inactive at least if MF Mason in 1939 has anything to say about it). During the sprint race we had a photo finish. He argues that he is more inactive and has smoker's lungs, whereas I argue I have Diabetes and did not sleep and had to take a wider turn in the last lap because of a CAR! (I know all you Canadian readers mentally shouted that as we- as a culture- are wont to do as a result of years of road hockey).
Regardless, we may have tied during the battle but I won the war because I finished the return ride faster than he did. My tortoise method won in the end. He really poured the steam on in the end and I thought he was gonna catch me. I glanced back and he was STANDING, it made me nervous. Nothing like a little sibling rivalry to kick one's training into high gear. I wonder if I can convince him that tri's are the way to go...probably not as he has an injury that prevents him from running.
A little bit of inspiration for me as I now have a strong desire to climb Machu Pichu. I am working on my brother to go with me in celebration of my 30th birthday.
Today I am going to allow myself to whine a bit. It's really hot here in southern Ontario and there's nobody forcing me to run but I did it regardless. I was also a little sore from doing weights at the gym yesterday. I worked my upper body and so my arms and chest hurt when I first started out. As per usual the ache went away once I got going.
I only did a short 3k today, I felt it would be unwise in these weather conditions to do any more than that. I drank a lot of water before I went and there was a breeze so it wasn't as terrible as I had anticipated it to be. I am surprised that my pace ended up being as good as it was. I did have some trouble with my breathing at the end and found myself really concentrating on controlling it. Also, by the end I had nothing left in the tank to give.
My Nike+ tells me when I have 400, 300, 200 and 100 m left in my run and I typically push it at each reminder. When the 400 m announcement came I was just starting a small uphill and wanted to quit, when the strains of All The Things That I've Done by the Killers motivated me to finish. The song starts off:
When there's nowhere else to run Is there room for one more song One more
song If you can hold on If you can hold on, hold on
So, I just held on for 200 more metres and finished 'er up.
I realize that there is a heat advisory and the air quality is probably not the greatest but I also have been slacking in the training department over the past week and a half. I had set my alarm to go for a ride at 5 AM knowing that today was supposed to be very hot. I was still up at 3:40 so that was a no go. Instead I did a few sun salutations and was finally able to fall asleep. I got up and went out early this afternoon. Yes, it was hot but with cycling you create a little bit of your own breeze which I appreciated. Also, I made sure that I was sufficiently hydrated prior to my ride successfully as I was not thirsty post ride.
Up until this point I'd done all my cycles in the comfort of the gym fooling myself into believing that I was working hard enough. Last night I worked out a 10 K (the distance I'll be doing in the try-tri) route with the help of google. Setting out, I knew I would be unhappy with this endeavour when I reached the bottom of my driveway and already felt a solitary bead of sweat drip down my leg. After a mere quarter of the distance I was contemplating if I would be able to back out of the tri. It was a really difficult ride. I really really wanted to turn around and head home, what honestly dissuaded me was the fact that there is a bit of an uphill on the way back and I was too tired to face that.
I reached my half way point and turned around. MUCH NICER I hadn't realized it but I was on a slight incline for most of my ride. Not to say that I wasn't out of breath and incredibly sweaty when I got home but I did feel a bit better when I got home knowing that I could at least do the 10. The fear is that cycling is post swim and pre run. I have no idea how I am going to do all 3. Officially my goal is just to do all 3 without taking a break. I just want to finish without pausing. I've still got over a month to go. I just have to commit more to training. I think I need to work it into my lifestyle more somehow.
exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?"
I did my first open water swim yesterday. I went to a local park with a friend. I was kind of nervous about doing an open water swim. I really felt that the conditions would be quite different from my laps in a pool. Additionally, I wasn't sure that I would be able to practice in open water as Lake Ontario isn't known for it's cleanliness.
I had browsed the Internet for a Tri club in Hamilton and in doing so found one that does their open water swims at Gulliver's Lake (http://www.gulliverslake.com/). My friend and I headed there and gauged the distance between floating docks and swam laps. I went with the friend who's also registered for the tri that I'm doing. It went well, nothing is ever as bad as I make it out to be. My legs weren't too shaky after and I am definitely able to complete the distance.
The only challenge that I had was veering off course; which adds metres to your swim. I had watched a video from the library about doing freestyle swimming hoping to pick up some tips on technique. They said when doing a race in open water to remember to do "peeks". This is where on your breath you look forward at your target to remain on track. This is difficult for me because I am used to doing lane swims. I remember when I used to do swimming lessons I used to lift my head forward then to the side, was chastised for this and now only do side breathing. The action of looking forward is very unnatural for me. It gives me something to practice, though that can save me time and energy.
I have a vehicle this week throughout the day as my mom and brother are away on a fishing trip. It makes it a bit easier to get to the gym. Yes, I realize the irony of driving to the gym to ride a stationary bike. It's worth it for me though because I would probably not get onto a bike at all otherwise. I wouldn't get into the 'saddle', as it were in cycle-ese.
I get a good sweat on in cyclefit. Today I rode 11 miles I did the 10 K in about 20 minutes. I did more standing up this class. I am still nervous about a repeat incident of my first class where I worked so hard I couldn't walk for days following the event. Last time I did every other standing position today I did two on and sat out one. Although, my tension wasn't as high. I wasn't really into this class as I didn't really like the instructor, or his choice of music. I still worked, I still sweat but I did not smile. I also had a squeaky bike.
I still consider myself a newbie to working out**. I know I've said it before but when you're starting out you really need to find that thing that you enjoy doing. I started running years ago just because. It was the easiest thing for me to do. I just needed shoes and I could go anytime. I honestly don't even remember what on Earth actually motivated me to do it 8 years ago. I just went and did it. I think what had happened was I was kind of sick with my pancreas over the summer and had decided I was going to do EVERYTHING the doctors had suggested. So I started a low(er) fat diet, I stopped drinking and I think I had lost about 15 pounds so I was feeling pretty fit and decided to start running. I was (and am) still over 210 pound (which is obese for my height). My point is this, you've gotta commit and find something that you don't hate, no matter how much you weigh or what your fitness level is. When you're starting a fitness routine EVERYTHING is difficult. You are not going to LOVE anything right away.
I may not remember the moment when I decided to start running those 8 years ago but I DO remember the moment I fell in love with it. Of course, it was snowing. It was night time and I was alone with the crunch of my feet on the snow with huge fluffy flakes falling all around me, just like I was in a snow globe. I remember feeling so good that I ran farther and faster than I usually would.
Maybe running isn't your thing. Try spinning! You don't need any special equipment other than the bike and spin studios/gyms supply those. You will definitely need a towel! Just remember to take it easy!! (as with any new workout). I do not like cycling but spinning is growing on me. I did not leave feeling as resentful towards the instructor as I usually do. The official Spinning website offers a great explanation of what it is and what to expect: http://www.spinning.com/en/spinning_program_faq
**In proofreading this post, I realize that I am not really a newbie as I HAVE been running on and off for almost a decade now. I just never really "worked out" in that I have goals and a training schedule.
Do not be a blind and deaf tenant." - Dr. George Sheehan
3K @ 7'16
On my run I saw a car that had driven into a bus shelter.
Today's run was wonderful. I had a great play list motivating me.The weather is more appropriate for this time of year it's cooled down and it was overcast today. I felt really good running and that's great. I think my blood sugar is becoming better controlled. Physically, I have also noticed that through doing my sun salutations that my abdomen is stronger. My actual running stance is much more upright and when I consciously tried to pull up more and tighten my abs I didn't have to adjust very much.
I'm beginning to finally feel the effects of my training. I think I am finally at a point where I can start pushing myself. I had to wait for my body to balance out. Having been sick, I find that I am quite in tune with my body and she's ready to go. I have been frustrated with my slow progress but I think I may see a bit more now. In addition, a couple of people this weekend commented that I looked like I'd lost weight. I don't really weigh myself but they said they could tell in my face and legs. My legs. So strange. Maybe my metabolism has finally kicked in. All I know is that I am feeling great, regardless of the cold that seems to be lingering. I'm ready to amp it up! (Until I get hot again...)
400 m is one time around a track. I hate that distance because it seems so short but when you're doing it, it seems endless. I know that in moments when I am exhausted I will think of Matt and his classmates.
I've been neglecting cardio in favour for yoga of late. Too bad triathlons don't consist of mountain pose, forward bend and downward dog...
I did a strength workout today and worked my arms. I followed this up with a swim. I am not a fan of doing weights, I find them incredibly boring. It does afford one the opportunity to people watch, which is always a favourite past time of mine. Today the guy working out in skinny jeans with the Versace wife beater was my personal favourite. The swim was lovely. The pool at the Downtown Y is cooler (temperature-wise) than the one that I typically attend and I appreciated that.
I also found out that the Y in Burlington offers a triathlon training group. It requires that you register and I missed it. I will have to keep it in mind when the registration opens up again. I think that my best friend may register to compete in the try-tri. It will be nice to have her cheering me on at the finish. She did a sprint tri last year and didn't much care for it but the shorter race may be more to her liking. She is more fit than I (she just hiked Machu Picchu) so I have no delusions of being able to keep up with her in the race.
In other news: I got stung by a bee today. I was sitting on the grass waiting for my bus and it flew up my shirt and stung me on my back!! I haven't been stung by a bee since I was 14 and in Quebec. I get stug by a be every 14 years!
In other other news: This is awesome.
Also, May 31st was World No Tobacco Day. To all the non-smokers and ex-smokers in my life- Way to go!!
Ryan Cochrane is a feestyle swimmer who specialises in the 400 800 and 1500m freestyle. He brought home a bronze last Summer games and it looking to stand at the top of the podium this time around. He's a focussed swimmer with no time left for hobbies. He hails from Victoria B.C. His website is: ryancochrane.ca and his twitter handle is:@cochraneryan.jpg)
Cindy Ouellet is today's featured female athlete. Her sport: Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball, her nickname: The Hornet. She only began playing in 2005 after a physiotherapist introduced her to the sport. 2 years later she was winning gold medals at the Canada games. She is considered one of the best defensive players in the game and is constantly pushing her opponents so that they make a mistake and then goes in for the attack. She trains with a mix of cardio and weights multiple times a day and plays 4 games on weekends, perfecting her skills. "She was a top flight skier and a provincial level soccer player before being struck with bone cancer in her hip at age 12. Cindy was named 2012 Wheelchair Basketball Canada Female Athlete of the Year (www.wheelchairbasketball.ca) .Follow her on twitter at: @SevenCan_CO.
