Photos - Some Favourites

Batchelor Bay - my favourite photo of one of my favourite places.

If you stop by here from time to time you know I like photography. Well, I just finished organizing about 6 months of photos on my computer (6,000+).... it was an epic project that I hope will convince me to organize them better each time I upload.

Anyway, I decided to reward myself by putting together a quick photo post with a few of my favourites.

Many of these have graced these pages already... but a few have not.

Click to ENLARGE...

Enjoy!

Will Routley and Nic Hamilton at the Yaletown Grand Prix. I took a bazillion shots there - this one was the best. This got published - once online (can't remember the site) and once in the 24Hours Newspaper.

Viggo and our big wooden pear.

One of my favourite photos I have ever taken... I love these bikes and the gritty wall, the shadow and the green crates... all behind Habit Coffee in Victoria. Missy even asked if she could have this for her wall which was quite an honour!

The smiles say it all - priceless!

Ha! Soon they won't let me do this sort of thing to with them... because it will be "uncool". Until then, they are my favourite 'models'.

Lighthouse Park on an amazing weather day - sunny AND black clouds = camera time!

First day of school. She was SO excited.

Sacha pushing the kids on the swings - summer evening in the city, out late.

Steph @ the Bay Challenge... I drove the boat and took photos, Steph and Susie put on a masterful display of swimming.

The Look... he's intense for a little guy.

Tweet this!

Open Water Swim Video

This morning's swim was pretty exciting - choppy water, some decent waves, a stiff wind.... the water looked angry!

6 of us headed out:

Mick, Elspeth, Marty, Rod, Deb and myself.

At my insistence, Deb brought her Olympus "Tough" which is waterproof. I used it to capture this video which gives you an idea of the conditions...

If any of you are shopping for my Christmas present already, the Olympus Tough would look good under the tree ;)

Tomorrow is the Vancouver Triathlon - I will be down at the Tri BC VIP tent taking in the festivities. If you are in the neighbourhood stop by and say 'hello!'

Best of luck to all Innovative Fitness (and otherwise) racers.

Cheers!

Tweet this!

Canada Day Swim

Canada Day Swimmers (left to right - CLICK TO ENLARGE):  Jill Costantino, Elspeth McGregor, Vincent Lavallee, Kevin Parenteau, Jordan Back, James Greenwood, Karen Birkenhead, Caroline Greenwood, Shannon Back, Mark Shorter, Rob Elliott, Sandy Treagus and behind the camera:  MJ.

What a great swim today!

The last minute invite I sent out a couple days ago actually resulted in 13 swimmers which was pretty awesome...

There is something really cool about breathing left and seeing a few friends, then breathing right and seeing a few more.  The ocean was relatively rough today - with healthy rollers to navigate - but it was nothing we couldn't handle.

We did the usual 2.5km route, which, with today's low tide, might have been more like 2.3 or so.

The best part is that I now have several new open water swim buddies (which was my hidden agenda with this impromptu swim).

Some photos:

Blue Seventy/Ironman dominated the wetsuit count with 6 out of 13...

Vince deserves special mention, not just for his speedy swimming but for his theme haircut.  Can we expect to see a disc wheel on race day next week? 

 

More prep...

Also deserving of special mention was Elspeth, who took to the Batchelor Bay waters sans wetsuit!!  I didn't know Elspeth prior to today and on her way down to the chilly (ok, cold) water in a one-piece, I thought to myself, "Oh, here we go...  I wonder if she'll make it 200 metres?  I hope nobody has to save her."

Turns out I underestimated Elspeth a tad (click that one) based on her ocean-swim attire...

The route...

Our post-swim destination...  omelettes, pancakes, french toast, bacon, sausage, toast, coffee...  hell yes!

Thanks for coming out everyone!  Let's do it again soon!

Tweet this!

Canada Day Swim @ Batchelor Bay

OK.  Tomorrow is Canada Day!  To celebrate our nation's birthday there will be an open water swim in Batchelor Bay tomorrow.  Currently we have about 15 confirmed.  Here are the last minute details in case you are interested:

Where:  Batchelor Bay is in beautiful West Vancouver, BC.  Check it out on the map HERE.

When:  July 1st (tomorrow) @ 6:30am.

What:  Open Water swim of between 2 and 3.5km.  There will likely be a "long swim" group and a "short swim" group.

Who:  So far there are about 15 people confirmed - men and women - of varying abilities.

How:  With wetsuit, cap and goggles, crocs for the rocky beach, and a stomach that is ready to accept coffee and breakfast after...

Why:  To mark Canada's 142nd birthday and to justify a big breakfast immediately upon H2O exit.

So there you have it.  Late notice I know... maybe some of you Americans want to drive all night to mark Canada's birthday? We could swim again on July 4th if you come all this way...

It's starting to feel like I am running a swimming blog these days.... my leg really needs to heal up soon!

Tweet this!

Open Water Swimming

The photo is from last week - it's the point we use as the first corner of our Batchelor Bay swim course.  The water was pretty rough that day...

Kevin and I swam 3.5 km at Batchelor Bay at 6 this morning.  In the rain, which is kind of nice.  You feel extra connected with the earth.

As mentioned in my last few posts, swimming is what I do when my leg is not cooperating.  I am LOVING the open water this season.  Though I love the West Van Masters there is something about the ocean you just can't duplicate in a pool.

Here is my latest invention:  100 Stroke Drills.

Warm-up - maybe 10 minutes or so... then:

100 strokes hard (just go hard, concentrate on maximum effort to get the heart rate up)
10 strokes long, slow and easy (chill out)
100 strokes hard (this time concentrating on long, smooth, powerful arm technique)
10 strokes long, slow and easy
100 strokes (with all of the above AND nice tight, powerful kick)
10 strokes chillin'
200 strokes (all out with best form possible - will likely break down toward the end but try to keep it)

REPEAT - Do this as many times as you like depending on the intensity and length of your workout.

Warm-down - 10 minutes or so...

The workout portion described above requires between 500 and 850 metres of open water depending on your economy and skill.

Benefit: I find it is too easy to just cruise and lose all focus in the open water.  Next thing you know you are swimming at 75%, staring at eagles and multi-million dollar homes, while your technique goes to $h!t..... With this technique you are 'present' the whole time, dialed-in and working hard.

Anyway, try it some time and let me know how you like it. 

HUGE bald eagle I shot (photographically) at Batchelor Bay from a little boat we rented on Father's Day.

Tweet this!

Bromont Camp Wrap

Sorry about the delay....  It's always pretty hectic when I get back from a trip like that...

The last two days of camp were spent on the track.  We did a lot more motorpacing and threw in some all-out efforts.  I do have some pictures but they are on my laptop and I have not switched them over yet...

The most challenging workout involved laps at 40km/h behind the motorbike interspersed with 1 or 2 lap bursts of all-out efforts.  

You take your turn, alternating behind the moto until Eric Calls out, "Meyrick!!  Deux tours!" or "Meyrick!! Un tours!"  [Meyrick!! Two laps! or Meyrick!! One lap!]  

Then you sprint off the front, accelerating as fast and as hard as you can from 40 to whatever max speed is.  This also meant that recovery occurred at 40km/h and efforts were 45-55 or so....  It was pretty challenging.

We did several 20 minute sets like that and one 30 minute set.

On Friday morning we did some start practice.  I did about 6-8 standing starts and got faster on each one - that was good.  Below you can observe a world class standing start - since I have no video you will have to trust me that mine is relatively dissimilar at the moment...

 

That guy is a machine...  

In general I would have benefitted a lot from riding my own bike during all of these practices - the bike I borrowed from the centre was significantly too small - especially for out of the saddle sprinting which there was a lot of.

My final thoughts on the camp were this:

Positives

• It was good to meet Eric.  He is the new coach of the ParaCycling program and therefore someone I need to know and who I want to know me.  He will be a great resource for me to be able to call upon as I continue to work away towards my goals. 
  
• The riding.  It is always great to focus on riding and have top-notch coaches to put you through your paces.

Negatives

• These camps are great for riding (duh) but they don't work very well with the rest of my life.  As a father of three, husband of one, and a business owner it is a challenge to be away from everyone and everything this way.
  

Having said that I remain very excited about entering some bike races (Nationals in a few weeks) and laying down some baselines.  You have to start somewhere to get anywhere....

Back Home

The first order of the day was to reconnect and spend some time with Sacha and the kids.  This was achieved with a super fun day-trip to Washington State where we visited Fairhaven, Chuckanut Drive and Larrabee State Park.  I am already planning the amazing ride I want to do along Chuckanut Drive, through Sudden Valley along Lake Whatcom - combine it with an open water swim at Larrabee and it will be amazing!!!  Let me know if you want to join me.

Larrabee State Park

Cooked up this route on Map-my-Tri...  It is an amazingly beautiful ride - especially along the lake and ocean.

Upon my return I was pumped to see a package in the mail....  a new TT helmet (just like Vince's).  The kids have been modeling it for a few days now:

I was also extremely happy to be eating Sacha's cooking again - I survive cooking on my own but she is the superior chef in this family...


In other news... today was Aia's graduation from Pre-School. Next year kindergarden! Congratulations Aia!!

Tweet this!

Busy, busy, busy...

Getting ready to take off on Monday...  lots of preparation.  I'm also trying to spend as much time with Sacha and the kids as I can because I'll be gone soon.

Doesn't leave much time for blogging but I do have time to post a few pictures from the last week:

Aia had her ballet recital.... Ballet recitals for 3 and 4 year-olds are pretty fun(ny) to watch. She did really well and Sacha and I (and her grandparents) were all very proud.

Enough to make any Papa proud...

Mattias' team (The Giants) had a road trip to Bowen Island.  It was pretty exciting for them... They held a lead into the 4th inning then got totally shelled by the Bowen Island Mariners. Alas, it was the closest they have come to a win this season...

Viggo celebrated his first birthday - we had a pretty big party here and as usual Sacha totally had every detail dialed in.  Check out the cakes:

and cookies....

I got the wetsuit I won at the Kelowna Apple Triathlon finally....  actually the hold-up was all my fault - I was procrastinating majorly.  Happy to have it now though!  Blue Seventy Helix....  it is awesome!

The suit fits totally differently from my last suit (Nineteen).  It is much tighter, lower neckline, backwards zipper.  It all adds up to faster....  there is WAY less water sloshing around inside the suit.

The ocean is heating up - no need for gloves, booties, squid lids etc.  Kevin and I hit it up old school earlier this week...  just a cap and wetsuit.  We were in the water at 6:30am when the sun came up over the mountain - it was rad.

(Perhaps could use a bit of that sun on my body.... )

Last weekend my lululemon Run Clinic concluded with the Eagle Harbour 5km.  My ladies and my two youngsters, all performed admirably.  It was awesome.

(Not sure why I look like a giant in that photo....)

My Masters swimming buddy Sandy (#512 in the pic) even took the win....  I can't claim he was one of my clinic students though....

Have a great weekend!!!

Tweet this!

First Open Water Swim of 2009

Kevin and I once tried to swim in the ocean in March...  that time I wore dish gloves to try to keep my hands warm.  We lasted about 60 seconds.

You may have picked up on my eagerness for the open water after some of my posts last week...  the "Call of the Ocean", as Kevin likes to refer to it, has been strong.

Unfortunately, Batchelor Bay is FREEZING (well, not literally, but close...) as you can see from the chart below.  (Halibut Bank is the closest Marine Data Buoy).

9°c is 48.2°f.... that's pretty freakin' cold. They cancelled the swim at World Championships last year because the temp was 12°c and people were getting hypothermia.

Any triathlete knows that when faced with any problem in training the "fourth discipline" is the answer....  no, not nutrition.... SHOPPING!

New Blue Seventy socks and a thermal swim cap.  As always - CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTOS!

These socks are awesome....  and I can wear them both on one foot making them even warmer....  who ever said there was no silver-lining to being an amputee?

See how the chin strap fits my 11 month old son...  didn't bode well for the fit on his dad...

The chin strap was WAY tight... vomit-inducing tight.  I thought long and hard about cutting it - or wearing it differently.

More equipment... these are A LOT warmer than the dish gloves but they are pretty heavy. It's like lifting weights and swimming at the same time.

Bright and early...  It's "go time"...


Where the hell is Kevin?  I hope nobody sees me taking pictures of myself...


Kevin donning his new socks....

Batchelor Bay is pretty spectacular....  I would like to own that house on the right and dive off the rock for a swim every morning.

Time to get in.... 

And post-swim...  

We lasted about 30 minutes.  The cap and socks were GREAT.  The gloves were super heavy but maybe if I tuck them under the cuffs it'll be better.  The hardest part was putting my face in the water - I did a fair amount of backstroke and breaststroke during the first 400-500 metres just to keep my face out of the water.  Once my face adjusted (sort of) I still had a hard time with my teeth getting painfully cold...  

There was a bit of slurred speech and uncontrollable shivering upon exit but for the most part we were pretty good.  With all this coldness I didn't even notice the chin strap being too tight.

Home for breakfast.  Finally stopped shivering.

There are few better ways to start your morning than swimming in the ocean - even when it is that cold.  I think we'll try again next week - hoping for double digit temperatures!

Tweet this!