I did a cycle then swim it went well, I was motivated for the try tri. Cycling is just my nemesis, I know that. I don't know how to get along better with it. The compromise is that it's sandwiched in between two things I quite enjoy. I swam at Gulliver's lake and did a ride down Safari Road. Like I said, it went well. Even MORE motivating however, was the following day when I was on twitter and the amazing Simon Whitfield, our flag bearer and all-round inspiration, posted a pic on twitter saying that he'd just done his swim AT GULLIVER'S. I was totally jazzed and off by one measly day to swimming in the same lake as an Olympian and my hero.
Antoine Valois-Fortier is a competitor for team Canada in Judo. He did not place last year in the worlds. He missed all of 2009 in competition due to injury, trained hard and won the national championship the next year. This will be his first time heading to the Olympics. His parents signed him up for judo to channel his energy. His now coach and Olympic Silver medalist, Nicholas Gill, is an inspiration to him. He's ranked 21st heading into the Olympics.
Roseline Filion of Laval Quebec is competing in the 10m synchronized diving event as well as the individual event. Always bubbly she's earned the nickname Miss Smile. She has won several medals with her partner in the synchro event. She was inspired to start diving after watching Annie Pelletier win a bronze medal in Atlanta. This will be her second time heading to the games with a 7th place finish from the last Games under her belt. You can follow her on Twitter: @Roselinefilion
Mario Caron, Goalkeeper: Goalball. Nicknamed: The Heat. Why? The Heat - Can hurl a ball at 60 kilometres an hour with complete precision (my friends who play dodgeball, perhaps you should try recruiting him). He's visually impaired but that didn't stop him from participating in adaptive sports. This is his 7th Games. He does 2 gays of goalball, 2 days physical, and 2 days cardio. Plus a little yoga (that's what I like to hear).
You may be wondering what Goalball is and here's an explanation from canadianblindsports.ca:
Goalball is a
fast-paced, Paralympic sport played by athletes who have a visual impairment or
are blind. Played three-on-three, on a volley-ball size court, players track the
ball by sound as they use their bodies to defend blistering shots upwards of 80
kilometers per hour.
Clara Hughes, Cyclist with the thousand watt smiles and definitely one of my personal favourite athletes. This is Clara's sixth Olympic appearance. You may be thinking wait, what? She doesn't look that old. She's not been attending the Olympics since she was a toddler but, she is a dual athlete She competes in the winter as a speed skater. Clara's only the 4th athlete to ever win medals at both summer and winter games and she's the ONLY one to have won multiple medals at both. She, along with Cindy Klassen is the most decorated Olympic athlete this country has to offer. It does my heart proud knowing that our two best athletes are women. Clara's website is: http://clara-hughes.com/ where I grabbed the following from:
"After winning gold in 2006, Clara donated $10,000 of her personal savings to the Right to Play programs. This donation challenged Canadians to support the cause, raising over half a million dollars for the international humanitarian organization that uses sport for development. In 2010, she donated her $10,000 medal bonus to the Vancouver inner city school program, ‘Take a Hike’, which uses adventure based learning to give youth at risk a better direction in life.
She is the National Spokesperson for Bell Canada’s Mental Health initiative and the ‘Let’s Talk’ campaign. By sharing past struggles with depression, Clara has helped break down the stigma associated with mental illness.
She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Member of the Order of Manitoba, holds honorary doctorates from various Canadian Universities and has been awarded the International Olympic Committee’s prestigious ‘Sport and the Community’ award for her commitment to promoting the values of sport and play around the world. Clara also has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Clara was given the great honor of being the Canadian Flag Bearer for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, proudly leading the home team to its historic medal winning performance."
She's just an all 'round amazing person, never mind athlete. I have to admit I got a little emotional doing up this post. She's just so gosh darned inspiring!
In other news which ties in nicely to Clara- I cycled to work for the first time ever yesterday. It took just about as long as the bus. I just ended up getting there a heck of a lot sweatier than I would have via other means. It was ok. As we all know cycling is a struggle for me. The weather is not helping and I think at this point that I will barely finish that try tri, if the weather stays like this. I am finding it difficult to train. I think it important to note: I only cycled TO work. I took the bus back up the mountain, where a man asked me where I got my helmet from. My fancy dancey Yakkay helmet. So I told him it was a specialty store in Toronto and told him to google the brand. I shall make it easier for you guys: http://www.yakkay.com/Webshop/23-Paris-Herringbone/. That's the helmet that I have. I will not be wearing it during my race, I may not do the greatest at playing the part but I'm gonna have to at least LOOK it. They've got all kinds of other great, stylish covers if you browse around the site more.
I went for a run yesterday. It was really difficult for me. I don't know if it was the weather or what but I did a really short distance of 2.5k (at 7'29) and was exhausted and barely keeping my pace time. Heading into the tri this has me alarmed and desperately needing to step up the training, or is it ease off? From what I've read you're supposed to take it easy before a race, but I am sure that is just for intensive trainers
I ran with a friend of mind who's doing a walk to run program right now and thank goodness she was there or on an uphill at the beginning of the run I would have just gone home. She did a fantastic job running pretty much the whole route and faster than me nonetheless! I think I am working on convincing her to do a tri.
Brent Hayden is a 100m freestyle swimmer who has a shot at medalling this summer. He was Canada's 2007 Athlete of the Year. He's participating in and individual as well as the 4 X 100 relay. This is his third Olympic appearance. I do remember him from the last games because he unfortunately did not qualify for his event last time around. He's most recently earned a silver in his event at the World's and is hoping to challenge Michael Phelps in another sweep of the podium.
"Eight years ago, Hayden was beat up, literally, when his disappointing performance in the pool was nothing like the nightmare he encountered in the streets of Athens when he emerged late a night from a bar and found himself in the middle of a riot. Greek police used their batons on protesters and Hayden, young enough to fit the profile, suffered an elbow injury serious enough to force him out of the short-course world championships that fall" (Vancouversun.com).
In his personal life, following the Olympics he plans on wedding his fiance Nadina Zarifeh, who was also a swimmer. Personally we have something in common as we both attended UBC! His website is: brenthayden.com where you can also find his photography.
Cristy Nurse is a part of the Women's 8 rowing team that have won silver medals in both 2010 and 2011 in the worlds. She's put her studies in law on hold to compete in the Olympics. In the March 12, 2012 issue of Sportnet Magazine, she was named of the “30 Most Beautiful Athletes on the Planet.” Having grown up on a farm Cristy became familiar with competition at a young age showing sheep. She will be using her competitive spirit in a few weeks against the world's best.
I hope that everyone's having a great Canada Day and that we can carry this pride through in support of our athletes!
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.
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!!
Antoine Valois-Fortier is a competitor for team Canada in Judo. He did not place last year in the worlds. He missed all of 2009 in competition due to injury, trained hard and won the national championship the next year. This will be his first time heading to the Olympics. His parents signed him up for judo to channel his energy. His now coach and Olympic Silver medalist, Nicholas Gill, is an inspiration to him. He's ranked 21st heading into the Olympics.
Roseline Filion of Laval Quebec is competing in the 10m synchronized diving event as well as the individual event. Always bubbly she's earned the nickname Miss Smile. She has won several medals with her partner in the synchro event. She was inspired to start diving after watching Annie Pelletier win a bronze medal in Atlanta. This will be her second time heading to the games with a 7th place finish from the last Games under her belt. You can follow her on Twitter: 
