Concert

This Saturday, Small Ritual is hosting an fundraising concert that I helped put together. If you're in White Rock on Saturday night and have a few hours to come hear some original music from some brilliant independant singer-songwriters, we'd love to see you.
Above is the poster I put together for the event using a free trial copy of Corel Picture-Paint, which was roughly the equivalent of giving the keys of a Ferrari to a toddler. What a complex, amazing piece of design software. Light years beyond what I had used for my last foray into 'graphic design' when I very slightly enhanced an other wise completely legitimate photo of me pipping a certain female triathlete in the finish chute. 

Happy Anniversary!

Hard to believe that it has been exactly one year since my last post. It doesn't feel like nearly that long and I don't even want to think about how long it has been since Boston.
Lots has happened over the last year but very little of that has been training. I've struggled to come up with a reason why training fell off the wagon. Partly it may have been Boston burnout, which I'm sure is very common. Part of it was having an 8 month old daughter who was a very light sleeper and the desire to avoid waking her up with my alarm clock. Training leading up to Boston had me as quick as I had ever been and feeling like a shot at a sub 3hr marathon was a realistic goal. Now, whatever the factors might have been, Boston 2010 + 16 months mostly finds me more Fatdad than Fitdad much to my chagrin.
That said:
Surrey, the city where I live, announced that next year, almost a year from today speaking of anniversaries, they are holding the inaugural Surrey Marathon. Surrey was recently designated as the region's next metropolitan center (Vancouver is the other, for those of you unfamiliar) and have started to built a legit downtown core in what was/is one of the Lower Mainland's rougher neighbourhoods including a new library (Google it, it's beautiful), a new City Hall, Courthouse, University, Brew pub! etc. The race is a coming out of sorts and a chance to showcase what Surrey City Center (forever known to Surrey residents as Whalley. Don't Google it, it's NOT beautiful) has become.
I have lived in this city all of my adult life and the idea of achieving my last remaining marathon goal in the first ever marathon in my home town holds tremendous appeal.
Beth's post today reminded me of blogging and training days gone by, when the interweb was a place to un-self consciously post goals, successes, failures, workouts and any other inane thing that was on my mind at the time I sat down at the keys. I've missed the encouragement, accountability and inspiration of a community of people whose dreams are, for the most part, even wilder, and crazier than my own.
It's my hope that one year from now, I'll be looking 6 days forward to another marathon attempt and back on more than just one post here.

For JW

Short post, and really would be a tweet if I had a mobile phone. Just wanted to throw up a little something for JW: I scored four free tickets this Sunday to Seahawks and CHARGERS!
Real post and pics to follow.

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.

Perspective

A great two video companion set with Lauren Fleshman. This should be Lucho's new coach. 15 minutes for both videos, then and now. Well worth the time.

I'll take my chances

Took down most music a while back after a visitor with ties to the music industry and a law degree stopped by. My desire to share this band's music with you has compelled me to break the silence. As always, comments/suggestions/thoughts are welcomed.

Fang Island - Daisy.mp3

Fang Island - The Illinois.mp3

Summer Fun

Just a quick post to keep the blog alive after realizing that my last post sounded somewhat final. It's been about a month since Boston and I've run about 4-5 times. It's been good to have a break but I'm getting a little tired of sleeping in and eating chips. If you can believe it.
Started riding my bike to work on a challenge from Gunner to see who could get to work under their own steam for the most consecutive days. I get one 'free' day a week to drive to take stuff back and forth: my suits, laundry like towels etc.
I should have asked for odds as his round trip is approx 3 miles and I'm 6.5 one way.
Weather here has been good. Dry for Vancouver this time of year and relatively warm as well. It's made for good cycling.
Not sure what I'll do through the summer. I've got my eye on a Cross Country series that runs in Fall which could be just the ticket to keep me motivated to train through BBQ season.
Regardless, should be a good summer and I'm hoping to head to Puerto Vallarta in October rocking decent 'fitness' read-abs! haha