At the Finish

A couple pictures from the finish

Always Improving.

Highlights; a new record time for a male amputee in the 10K, 38 minutes amazing. All the athletes that participated was phenomenal the biggest year to date. The top runners are always impressive slightly over 2 hours for a marathon and roughly 1:10 for a first place half is amazing. Parker told me that during the wheelchair marathon a female (I think) participant raced to the finish and once she was a few feet away she laboured her way out of her chair and walked across the finish line. That is the definition of inspiration, dedication and determination.

For me Sunday went really well including my time for my first half marathon 1:46:56. I was shooting for 1:45 to 1:50, so I am happy with the outcome and have a time to think about for next year. The atmosphere and race itself is so addicting.

Thinking of 2010 there are things that I have learnt in this year’s attempt that I will apply to my training and race next year. They are the little things that we learn to better us next time...

First major lesson; although I said no some events during my training there were a couple nights that I should have been in bed a little earlier. Although I made sure I had a rest day after those nights, my recovery the week after was hindered. Stricter next year.

Second; overall diet was good but realized that with while burning thousands of calories I sometimes over ate, and some choices were not 100% ideal. Another change for next year.

Third; I weigh 182lbs and am 5’8" not a long distance runner’s build. During training I dropped leg weights other then for injury prevention but maintained heavy and exhausting upper body training. This caused me to be over tired at times plus I was still carrying a decent amount of weight up top. Next year instead of dropping the weight and frequency of upper body training two weeks prior to the race, I will do it at the beginning of the 16 week program. This will result in slimming down by maintaining a crossfit style training for stamina and strength.

Finally; check your time. I started two pace times ahead of mine at the 1:35 pace bunny so when I saw my pace bunny next to me at the 18K I thought all was good and although I sprinted past him I came in at 1:46:56 and he at 146:10. This was a mistake I made as when I crossed the start line I was ahead of my pace bunny. If I had checked my time at the 18km I would have noticed that I was a little over 1:30 by a minute or two and should have started picking it up a little quicker then I did, that is if I would have the energy to.

Overall a great weekend and a lot of fun. I am addicted to the half marathon distance and learnt a great deal as I have stated and will attempt for an even faster time next year. Only 361 days to go!

RACE DAY!

6:10AM: wake up and shower.

6:45AM: Breakfast; Sesame bagel peanut butter, honey and banana. One cup of coffee and 10oz of water.

7:00AM: Stretch, pack, listen to music and go through mental prep until;

8:30: Depart for start line.

This is what my morning has looked like (it is now 7:15) and how it will continue from here on out. It has been a long 16 week training program with injuries (one of which flared up last Tuesday rendering me out of commission for the last week of training...lovely), illness early in the training and all the other aches and pains that come from the fun training. But overall it has felt great and I believe that I am ready.

It is my first attempt at the half marathon and it should be an interesting experience to say the least. I have a time but as usual it is something that I cannot say out loud for fear of a jinx (this is the only thing I seem to be superstitious of). I will say that anything above 1H 50Min, I won’t be entirely happy.

Well back to stretching and prep, so good luck to all those running today the weather looks perfect cool but sunny, and those in the marathon that started about 20 minutes ago, I hope it is going well.

Be Strong

Just last Saturday I was feeling sorry for myself for not getting off the couch. I spent most of my day watching two movies back to back and then a hockey game later that night, followed by another movie. This was of course due to a relatively late night the night before. It was also my rest day but even on rest days I do something i.e. work around the house, walks, light hike...

But after I thought of that I was reminded of all those times that I may have made excuses to not do something physical or challenging (be it mental, emotional or physical) and I am not proud of those moments. Luckily I don’t make excuses often as I get a great deal of enjoyment from pushing myself to do better, to succeed, to overcome... It is the reason we complete school. Compete for a career or position. Take care of our kids. Train for health. It is why most of us continuously push ourselves to meet all the little and big goals in all realms of life.

But there is a flipside to this, isn’t there? I have talked about it again and again; excuses. The other day when I sat on my couch, and did absolutely nothing, I was thinking of these excuses we create for ourselves and end up believing them, they become a part of our life.

Perfect example I asked a friend if she thought she was addicted to smoking or if she chooses to smoke. She was the first person ever to give me the intelligent and realistic answer without having succumbed to denial: "I suppose everyone who smokes is (addicted), including myself. I know it is gross and terrible for my health, but I make no attempt to quit.

Most people I ask that question usually state: I chose to smoke because I like it. No you chose to smoke because you are addicted to it and the addiction tells you, you like it.

So the point is that when I thought of this in great detail I decided to think of how I inspire myself to stay healthy and active and often it comes from within, or those around me or sometimes I seek the inspirational lives of others. I decided to search for others who have overcome far greater challenges and see what they have accomplished

Thanks to Crossfit CDA I came across the post, aptly titled, No Excuses. It begins with

"I’m tired. I’m getting over a cold. I’m too old. I’m too fat. Working out makes me sweat. It’s too cold. It’s too hot. I’m sore. I don’t have enough time. I have 2 kids. My job is too stressful. The gym is hard.

The blog showcases athlete and author of; No Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life, Kyle Maynard. Born with congenital amputation of the forearms and lower legs. Kyle has accomplished a great deal and as his autobiography states; "he excels: as a champion athlete, inspirational speaker, college student (who can use a cell phone, type fifty words a minute, and maintain an A average), and male model.

So the next time you start reminding yourself of those excuses take some inspiration from this man;

Having a hard Day? I know I am Bored as Hell...

Meeting my time for the 10 last year I decided to tackle the half marathon, 21K, and although I had a week off of training from an injury and another from a slight cold, my training is coming together. I have 3 more weeks of speed training as I finished hills last week and started speed this past week. It is amazing what proper training will do as yesterday I ran my 18km run and from all the weeks of increasing by 2 km and then going back down I was moving rather quick right till the last K. Mind you my legs were finished after but that is expected after running 18km, close to race pace.

I love cult films and find they are far superior to the crap that comes form the mainstream Hollywood, think that is why I prefer shows like Sopranos over movies as well. Anyway a great portion of cult films are Horror and slasher flicks. I enjoy both genres based on a decent story and/or unique story (the grind house collection for example) and the ones that are truly well done and watching a director get better and of course the ones with a decent amount of cheese that just makes it entertaining (especially the 70’s and 80’s stuff).

Now as far as progression; Rob Zombie. He started with House of a 1000 Corpses and I must admit I was not expecting much but was hoping there would be something there and there wasn’t. Then I was blown away by the jump he made in Devil’s rejects just amazing movie, really well done. Then came his Halloween remake and again the progression was there a terrific movie, not to mention his wife Sherri Moon Zombie’s progression as an actor.

So I have been downloading a great deal of these types of movies from Night of the living dead 1968 to Dead Air 2008 (featuring a Zombie cast member, Bill Moseley who was great in TDR). Great site for everything evil and scary http://www.horror-movies.ca/ just don’t get caught watching trailers of horror movies at work, it is difficult to explain why you are watching Zombies killing humans and so on…The pic above is from High Tension a remake from an earlier French slasher film. High Tension pays homage to the 70’s films as well.

Some fun at work. A great prank for your colleague, in my case my supervisor, use clear packing tap and tape the top portion of their receiver to the base of the phone. I could not stop laughing this morning as I watched the phone almost fly across the room and miscellaneous items being strewn about during the chaos. Good thing he has a sense of humour…it was also pay back for a few things he had done to me.

Education we all need it.

Please be thoughtful and caring people that I hope you all are and watch this, and not just a minute of it the whole thing. I hope that you will...and of course comments are welcome. Link below;

Education

Thanks

Shane McConkey 1969 - 2009

Only a few days prior to me posting my ‘driven’ blog, the extreme ski world suffered a horrible tragedy. While filming a new ski movie Shane McConkey (who appeared in the Steep film that I discussed in Drive) fell to his death during one of his scenes.

Shane skied off a cliff in the Dolomites Mountains in Italy and was supposed to transition from a double back flip into his wingsuit. He was having trouble getting one of his skis off and began to spin out of control. During this time he had been falling for 12 seconds and it was just to close to the ground for the suit or chute to do anything...he never go the chute deployed.

Shane was a highly respected skier and his awards and accolades built a resume of skiing that could not be matched by many and held him in the group of an elite few. He will be missed by those in the community and of course more so by his family, including wife and 3 (I think) year old daughter, and friends. He was only 39 years old but he gave his passion his all and like any, was well aware and I am sure, accepted the risks. He inspired many and changed his sport for the better. He was one of the main individuals that inspired me from Steep and Warren Miller's Higher Ground, just to name a couple.

This video is well worth looking at. It was posted by a fan in his memory. It showcases what Shane did best. And as one other person posted so appropriately R.I.P. Rest In Powder. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUfF-kyKdGU)