Back in business

Almost two months since the last post. Longest stretch without a post since I started this thing.Probs anyone who had been reading this has long moved on.

It's been a great and busy summer thus far. Training has been sporadic to say the least since Boston. Ran a 19:57 5K a month ago and dragged it in because of bad pacing. Ran a 3 mile tempo in 20 min yesterday and felt great. Shrug. Who knows.
Getting back to it for real this week and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at XC this year. I'm pretty sure it's mostly cause I want an excuse to buy spikes but whatever. Running over the hills on the grass. Good times.

Spent a bunch of time hanging with the family getting outside and it's been rad. Did a little camping in Squamish just this side of Whistler. It was great times with a pile of families from church. First trip out with my new T2Plus from REI and it was a solid tent. Got a little rain, no leaks. Happy for the rain when it arrived, first few days were dang dusty. Group site had a huge dirt pile in the middle and the kids were pumped. And dirty.

Violet loved it. This was about 15 minutes after she woke up on Day 1.

Rolled over to Alice lake for the day for a little swimming and a lot of beach time. Lucy bonked hard and needed a boost.

Headed over to Parker Isalnd where Jamie's brother Jared and his wife Annette were kind enough to host us all for a few days at Annette's parent's oceanfront cabin. I brought Gunner's wetsuit and had my first open water swim from Parker Island to Galiano Island. The red arrow is my house. I live in Surrey. It's near Vancouver. BC. In Canada.

Parker Island is the 'A'.

The blue is water.

Tons of boat traffic in the little channel so Jared agreed to paddle support in the kayak. He's all kitted out. I can't tell whether he looks super cool or a little retarded in this photo. I'm OK to remain undecided.

The iPod did not survive the crossing after getting dropped in the sea. Salt water plus electronics...not cool.

Good swim, about 1000-1200 meters maybe? The little dots are boats. The swooping white lines are also boats. I'm the red line. Started at the dock in the lower part of the page, swam to the point and then booted it across the channel. The water was only about knee deep at the tip of the point and it was covered in starfish, er sea-stars. Had to watch where I stepped when I stopped there to rest. Awesome.

One thing to note in this photo is the total lack of icebergs, walrusus, Olympic mascots, or snow. Although a pod of about 22 killer whales went through this same channel the next morning. So I guess there's that for you folks hoping for some Canadiana.

First time in the water since......two years I'd guess. Made me think maybe after XC it might be fun to race some Xterra next summer. Thats a long time away and I'm just riding out the remainder of the good weather before the rain comes back. Good times up here.

Sorry for the long delay.I'll pop back soon.