2010 Clearwater 70.3

Clearwater 2009 on NBC. Watch us race!

This sunday June 11th, at 4:00pm eastern, NBC will broadcast the Clearwater 2009 half IM world champs. This was the race that Ryan Van Praet and myself participated in, and he came 2nd (in his category).

Should be interesting to watch! Set your PVR if you can't be there to watch.

What's going on.

Real bad at updating recently. Just busy, and lazy. Training is going OK. Doing the WIN marathon in Whitby in a few weeks. My body has really decided that it doesn't like running. Lots of niggly pains all the time. Funnily, I am feeling great on the long ones, but not to good on anything less than 10km. Guess I just need to run more!

Ryan and I are going to run the Marathon together. More of a training run for Placid than anything. So that is good. We will hopefully pace ourselves so that we don't do much damage.

Loving the cycling right now. Teaching in Port Perry is fantastic. I am able to ride my bike in 3 days a week (when I am not swimming!:>). Usually do 17km on the way into work, and closer to 30km on the way home. I love being able to commute again. Also, I am teaching strength training in the morning and am able to get some good circuits in which has raised my general fitness alot.

Preparations for the baby are pretty much done. Now it is just a waiting game. Excited to see the little rascal. We have the chariot so that I will be able to train. Kinda looking forward to it. I have set a goal of running the chilly 1/2 in sub 1:40 pushing the kid.

This spring has gone in a flash. Can't believe it is may! It will be July before I know it. Between track meets and outdoor ed trips I will be missing huge amount of time at work, and having the races starting in May will also make it seem impossibly quick. Will have a kid and be doing another Ironman before I know it!

So that is me. I hope to be better at updating, but who knows!

Kestrel in race trim

Here is the Air Foil in Race trim. Minus HydroTail.

Kinda crap Pic from my phone, but still I am happy with how it looks.

Pissed off people.

Made a trip into the big smoke today for a Haiti fundraiser run. Things went great and had a fantastic time with some of my awesome running free peeps, and some of the other runners out for the cause.

After the run (since I came all this way! :>) I figured that I would make a stop at MEC for a bit of perusing. In front of the store (or near the front of the store) there was a (for lack of a better term) hippy. Lecturing on to anyone who would listen about how we are selfish and rich and should share our wealth and success more with the rest of the world. That we don't need all of our possessions and would be happier without.

This got me thinking. I agree with this gentleman that we are a consumeristic society (as I stare at my $4000 bike) and really don't NEED 90% of what we have, however would that really make us happier?

For instance, this young man whom, since he was lecturing me, I assumed didn't own many possessions. He definitely didn't look happy! I am all for activism, but it seems as a majority of the activists are pissed off about something most of the time! Now by my reckoning, this is no way to live. Yes, fight for a cause. But don't let it become all consuming in your life, and don't let it affect how you feel in your own life. Live how you choose to live, and be content with that. Part of what makes this country great is your freedom to do so. If you want to live like a pauper, you are free to do so. If you want to live a luxurious lifestyle your free to do that as well.

I believe it is human nature to want more. This dates back to our ancestors who had little and strove to better their life and the life of their offspring. Now, it has been taken to perverted levels by some in our society, but most just want to live as their neighbours live. I don't think that a rich Canadian, living amongst other rich Canadians is any happier than a lower income Canadians living amongst their peers. Happiness is not related to wealth. It is related to how you view your situation.

If you are happy with who you are and where you are then you will be a happy person. If you continue to strive to reach another level, or bring others down to yours, you will never be happy. If, for whatever reason, you cannot be content with your place in life at any point, then you will never be "happy". You will always be looking for something else to "enrich" your life. This is human nature.

Ok, done ranting. Just look around and take a second to appreciate where you are and what you have. Compared to many in the world we are doing well. Don't piss yourself off for no good reason. Be active, share your views, but don't get frustrated and irate when others don't share your zest for your chosen cause. We all have cause's. Whether it is doing the best for your family, or supporting the poor and homeless in Haiti. Just remember. People are happy everywhere in the world, whether they are rich or not.

Yeah, did a lot of driving with time to think! My 2 cents!

Sable Goggles. The best.

Ok, I don't normally do reviews unless I find a product i really like.

I heard of sable goggles about a year and a half ago. As most of you have probably heard by now the rumblings were good. So I decided to dump the change and get my first really good pair of goggles.

My first pair were the RS101's. When you put them on the first thing that you will notice is that there is absolutely no distortion. They are by far the crispest sighting goggles I have ever tried. Unfortunately my face has always rejected most goggles. These ones fell under that category. I couldn't get them to fit to my face properly.



This brings me to why I REALLY like sable. I got talking to a rep at one of the races and he spent probably 20min. trying to get me fit properly with the existing nose pieces. Still didn't work. However, I was told they were working on making a larger nose piece for people with bridges like mine and he would get it too me. The service has been second to none. He was honestly concerned with getting those goggles to fit my face.

I now have the RS922's as well to train in. They are equally as fantastic when it comes to vision quality. These however fit my face perfectly on the first shot. No fiddling necessary. They are super comfy and don't push too hard on my face as I have found many other goggles do. As well adjusting these is a snap with the new buckle design.



I realize why so many top pro's are in these goggles. They are the best I have seen. After 20+ years of swimming I haven't seen anything comparable. They are worth the extra money. Sighting is a breeze with them.

Oh yeah! The best part. You cannot get them to fog up!! Even if you put your fingers in them (which isn't recomended) You can get the anti fog back with some dish soap. Fantastic!

Running Free "Training for Solidarity" Haiti Fundraiser

Join me a ton of other GTA folk for a 'training' run in Toronto. There are going to be many run distance options as well as pace bunnies and support.

For more information and to register check out:

www.runningfree.com

Really hope to see you there for this great cause!