Run, Cook, Bike

After a fairly active weekend I decided to take Monday of from running and give my body a much needed break. The weather while rainy was still pretty warm so I did make the choice to still get out of the apartment and go for walk. The park near my apartments is always great to have a wander round and even with a light drizzle it was a pleasant walk with the squirrels bounding around and do mock charges at you, still not use to that one, and the big Koi Carp type fish skimming the surface in the lake scaring the heck out of the ducks.

Tuesday started off with a full on down pour and the forecast looked like it was set to stay for the day. With running club in the evening I was already dreading a third run in a row of getting soaked. Through the afternoon the rain was on and off and when I left the apartment there were some pretty ominous black clouds hanging over downtown. But I'm glad to say after getting there and changed and actually out on the Tuesday club warm up, the sun came out and it was a great night for a run around the creek.

With 12 days to go until the Sun Run I'm trying to push hard on the club runs and my one speed work session a week and with some great runners in the club it is easy to find someone to push that bit faster. Due to the creek run being about 1K shy of 10K we added on an extra part to get closer to the 6.2 miles of the race. With the sun hitting the water and a cool breeze it was a good evening for finding that little extra motivation and even though we took a quick break at the half way point I'm really happy with the workout, especially as we almost did negative splits virtually the whole way round (each K faster than the last). The average pace was about 4:08 per K over the 9.6K distance, to get my dream result in the race I need 3:59 min per K. So still a little to go but I'm feeling positive that I will get close. And the best bit of the evening as always was having a couple of beers after and now that we finish before dusk we get to sit my the side of the dock and drink watching the sun set over the city, brilliant!

I've been looking forward to today for a little while now. Ever since I started my month of vegetarianism I have wanted to get Sukhi to show me how to make some authentic Indian dishes from scratch. Having finally got myself organised and found a time we could do, today was to be my cooking lesson. The first thing I have learned is just how many different things go into the dish. With Sukhi help I have know got more herbs, spices and seeds in my kitchen than ever before, they have even now got there own special box.

Not only did Sukhi show me how to get going with the base for a lot of Indian dishes he also showed me some cooking basics which I have been frighteningly lacking, things like how to dice an onion, up until now it has been more like a massacre than dicing.

After extensive not taking and Sukhi making it look so effortless I'm psyched to give it a go on my own. I have a suspicion that it will take a few attempts to get anything close to what I ate today but I'm up for the challenge and what's the worse that can happen, right? :)

And yes what we did today was vegetarian. A spicy mushroom dish which had a great kick and even made my nose run a little. With the meat embargo ending on Friday I shall be adding chicken to these dishes as well but also doing veggie ones as well, I have come to appreciate a veggie option every now and again.

With my cooking class over and a nice tingling feeling on my taste buds it was back to Costco to finally get off the fence and buy a bike. I have chosen to get a cheap hybrid option that will get me around town and then if and when I give triathlons ago I can get a specific road racing bike.

After doing a few laps of the Costco isles and taking pictures of me in different helmets, turns out I look stupid in all head wear, I have got the bike and helmet and weather permitting I shall cycle down to club tomorrow night to test it all out. I shall report how city riding goes shortly.

Finally, having received a fair amount of stick for NEARLY peeing in the Costco sink I will endeavour to get a photo to prove how easy an error it was to make. Only problem with this is finding a moment when the the place is deserted as people sort of get funny when you take a camera out in the restroom, go figure.

I know what I did this weekend!

Well to sum before I even start, this weekend lived up to and surpassed expectation.

I had been wondering whether or not to take part in a trail race this weekend as I have never done one and do enjoy the trails and wonder what the differences would be from running on the road and on the trails. This weekend saw the first of the Five Peaks series and I had thought about giving it a go. As it turns out I didn't, It cost to much and it was to far away so the story of my first trail race will have to wait for another day :)

Instead, Ross, PRR's esteemed president suggested doing an orientation run (means trial run, I think) for the ominously named, although I'm assured it's for a different reason, Iron Knee and Tender Knee races. So at 8am on Saturday morning Ross, Barry and myself were to be found on the North Shore lined up in the drizzling rain waiting to go for a bit of a jolly in the mountains.

The group that organise these events are called Mountain Madness, name says it all, and are very well organised at that. On arriving we were handed maps with a full list of directions on that the course would be taking. Unfortunately these directions mainly consisted of trail names such as Power line, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Old Buck and Mystery Creek to name a few. As this meant pretty much nothing to any of us we resolved to follow the trail run leaders instead, who make sure no one actually gets lost. There was a many groups to cater for most abilities so if anyone is tempted, you could do a lot worse than to try it out with theses guys and girls, and for once in running the girls seemed to outnumber the boys.

This would be Barry's first real trail run and while the temperature was cool and the rain coming down it did nothing to dampen his spirit of taking on the challenge. We all headed off and the order for the rest of the run was pretty much sorted straight off, Trail leader Darren in front, Barry close behind and Ross and I trying to keep them insight. The course was only 12k long but fairly soon into the run we were faced with the Power line Trail which is aptly named as it follows the power lines running up to the side of Mt. Seymour, raising over a 1000ft in elevation over nearly 3k of constant incline. After attempting to run the first couple of hundred metres we all pretty much switched to power hiking, then hiking, then walking and then using our arms to push our legs to keep them moving. I have to say it was a bit of a challenge. As always though, what goes up must come down and let me tell you it was a fun run down. I have said it before about trail running but there is something that makes me feel like a little kid again. Running heedlessly down a mountain jumping over rocks and trees and splashing through mud and puddles, it real is great fun. We eventually arrived back at the start after nearly an hour and half, coated with mud and all with big smiles plastered over our faces, although that could have been due to the fact that we could now change into warm dry clothing, you decide.

The fact that it was still only just after 10am meant we decided to grab some brunch and headed over to a place I first went to when I got to Vancouver, The Three Lions. A British pub where the football (soccer) was on the TV and we could grab some breakfast and an early beer, well we had been running we had earned it!

After getting home and soaking in the bath for a while to regain feeling in my toes I got the mundane weekend tasks out the way, clothes washing/drying etc and in between cycles, catching some welcome naps.

Saturday night and for once I had plans that didn't involve running what so ever. Ed had organised a meal at a restaurant called Chambar where Belgian Tapas was the theme, followed by a film and then a few drinks.

Trying to speed up this blog I will just say that while the food and drink at Chambar was amazingly cooked and presented I was left a little hungry and it was a tad expensive. I think that it is more due in fault to me than the restaurant. I get a little grumpy when portion size is small and to be honest I'm just probably not sophisticated enough for places like this, which the fact that I managed to drop a muscle into my lap attested to. Don't get me wrong though I did enjoy the meal, The different beers that the waiter kept recommending were great and I did try muscles for the first time which as long as I didn't look at it as I ate it, tasted lovely. The bits of bison we had while small were very tasty as well. Although I did draw the line at calamari, I have said it before and it is worth saying it again, I like calamari as long as it is not in it's original form, tentacles, I don't do tentacles!

It should be observed at this point that this weekend has not been a good one for the vegetarian challenge with several slip ups. I would however argue that I would have hardly eaten if I had stuck firm and frankly I have been very hungry all weekend.

The least said about the film the better. We saw Control Alt Delete and frankly while I try and find the good in most movies this was just horrendous from start to finish. It was a Canadian film, shot in Vancouver I wanted to like it but just couldn't. Not to spoil it for anyone but the basic blot is that it is set in 1999 and follows a stressed head programmer who is in charge of Y2K fixes for a major corporation. He finds the only ways to 'relieve' his stress is to drill holes into PC's and screw them. I kid you not. There were a couple of funny moments and good performances but nothing could make up for the scenes of him banging away at his desktop or in the big finale, the firms mainframe. Wrong, wrong, diddly wrong! Stop funding this rubbish, there are talented people out there, let them have a chance.

Right, I've got that out my system. Thankfully the evening picked up again after that with us heading into Gastown and a great cozy little bar called Six Acres. With pictures on the wall of celebrity guests, ranging from Rowan Atkinson to Don Johnson and a shelf full of board games like Ludo and Connect 4 this was a great place to hang out, sample some more tasty beers and enjoy the conversation. With Victoria back from her trip to Australia and Barry, Ed, his friend Fiona from New Zealand and myself we covered most a vast array of topics thinking nothing of bashing our way through politics and religion, insulting pretty much everyone along the way, or I did at least, fun times :)

Sunday morning and again the alarm is going off before 7am. With only a week to go before the Vancouver Marathon and Half, this morning's Sunday PRR club run headed off the trails and back onto the road. We were running from the False Creek Community Centre where we meet on normal club nights and running up to the UBC campus and back with a round trip of just under 22k, perfect warm up for those running the half next week.

The run is basically a 9.5K 'ish flat run out to UBC where we climb a long but not steep slope into the UBC campus, turn around and retrace our steps back to the Granville Island. There were lots of runners out today getting in the final long run before next week and several times we saw people we knew along the way. The running community here is very friendly and it's great to have some one give you a wave when you are not feeling that into it. We also managed to run through a film location who seemed to be trying to recreate a carnival type scene at one of the many beaches along the way. I do still get a kick from seeing all the trucks and lighting and cameras although it is a fairly common occurrence here.

After getting to the top of the UBC hill and turning around the weather which had started off cold and windy decided to through another element into the mix, rain. It was a long hard slog back, running into the wind and rain I was soon drenched and frankly I was sapped of any energy I had left. The film crew seemed determined to get there scenes shot with background cast playing Frisbee and the like in beach wear while simultaneously shivering. The last 3K were really rough, with not a dry centimetre of clothing and cold hands and soaked feet I had to remind myself many times that I was doing this for fun. I think I can safely say we were all glad to get back and finish and in not a to shabby time considering the conditions.

A quick change into dry clothes and a hot drink and muffin at Pedro's perked everyone back up in no time.

Getting back home and again sitting in bath to warm up all the cold bits I found myself heading for what must have been the umpteenth nap of the weekend. I'm a napping animal!

Power nap over and done with, I awoke to find the sun had come out. I had promised Sukhi I would take a quick look at a PC problem he had and I took a walk in the sun over to his house. Thankfully I managed to find the problem fairly quickly, which went to fix some of the wounds to my ego that my issues earlier in the week had caused and in reward Sukhi came along to help me look for a bike. I have been thinking of getting gone since I got here as Vancouver is a very bike friendly place and it would not only give me a different form of exercise but also save me a little money on Sky Train tickets.

I'm still indecisive about getting a road bike or a hybrid but I'm leaning towards hybrid as it would take a little more punishment which as I haven't really ridden a bike in many years it would probably sustain regularly.

To top of the weekend I was even treated ti a magnificent home barbecued burger with freshly made spicy onions. I know, I know, I'm not meant to eat meat at the minute, but I have been hungry all weekend and have exercised more than enough to justify the calories and frankly this weekend I have been so low on energy that I felt that I need meat. I will say that this is my own fault as for the rest of the month energy has not been an issue but with a tough end to the week and a busy weekend I have not had the time it takes me to think of and prepare the proper vegetarian dishes. I have been lazy and that is the cause of lack of energy but it still doesn't alter the fact that I was drained and so fell back to what I know and that is meat. Sorry, I feel bad, I really do, but I want to be honest about these challenges and some are harder than others.

On the plus side on getting home and pottering around for as bit I discovered I was still hungry and even though the desire to fall back on my old friend McDonald's was strong I didn't and instead whipped up a fast vegetarian pasta dish which did the job nicely.

So while eating that meal I made another error by watching this weeks Doctor Who episode in the dark. For those that don't watch it you may think me foolish but I would put money on the fact those that do understand why after a few minutes the little voice in my head was screaming at me to turn on the light or at least pull the blanket up a little higher. Good to see the new Doctor return to form.

Oh and I nearly forgot, as near misses of death inducing embarrassment go the trip to Costco ranks right up there. Popping into the rest room I walked into the men's area to be faced with a fairly common sight, a big long chrome trough to pee in. As I stood up next to it and prepared to get out little David I started thinking how high this trough was off the ground, it was pretty much at my waist height and being 6ft (YES I AM!) I thought this a little odd. with fly down and getting ready to 'shake hands with the man' I finally realised one small detail I had previously missed. this particular chrome trough came with taps! Bugger! I had very nearly peed in the sink. As I subtlety relocated myself to the right location I did say a little prayer of thanks for the last minute revelation. May be a little more attention to detail is required on my part.

Nap Time!

Well the last few days have been a bit stressful. I discovered a nasty little error in my programming for work and have been pretty much awake since then trying to fix it. Well I have had a few power naps in between but you get the idea. Without trying to bore you, the problem was connected to something called Web Services which I have had very little to do with up until know and to be honest I'll be happy if that trend continues. In theory they are very simple little things that allow companies to exchange data behind the scenes so the service you get seems like it is all coming from one place but in fact could be getting information from all over the shop. In the end I put the call out for help and Martin went to bat for me and solved the problem, Basically some files were out of date on my machine and all I need to do was update to the new version, there were a few other minor things but that is what it boiled down too. Computers, Grrrrrr.

Luckily there have been some bright spots too. Thursday saw some very nice spring sun come to Vancouver. The club run was great, just what I need to clear out my head and since it was such a perfect evening, we ran out to Jericho Beach, allowing us to follow the coast line pretty much all the way out and back. People were playing volleyball on Kits Beach and the view across the inlet from Jericho was stunning. Snow capped Mountains behind sandy beaches with forest trails framing the picture, what more could you want?

After Martin sorted out my annoying little glitch today I decided to celebrate in one of my favourite ways, I headed to the movies. Today's' film of choice was The Losers. It is another film conversion of a graphic novel. After I saw Watchmen I felt quite disheartened by this genre but with Kick-Ass last week and now this one, I am coming back around to the idea. The Losers is about a group of soldiers who are betrayed by a shadowy organisation set out on world evil and chaos. It was a little like the A-Team but very cool and funny. It will be interesting to see how the actual A-Team film compares later in the year.

After a little nap when I got back I headed to the gym to carry on with my speed training for the Vancouver 10k Sun Run. After 6 reps of 1k at about 10-15 secs faster than my goal pace I am starting to feel that I'm making some progress. I'm hoping to run the course before race day so I have an idea of it and so I know what I'm facing and how the two bridges will feel.

I've actually got quite an action packed weekend hopefully so I should have some activities to report on soon. Right, off to bed, early start in the morning.

Past Few Days

To finish off my splurge of blog writing for the day I will just do very quick recap of recent activities.

Over the weekend I started off my 10k training plan for the Sun Run on May 9th. My first run back on the treadmill for a while went well and the speed felt pretty good so here is to hoping that the next few weeks go as well.

Saturday night was a trip to the cinema to see Kick-Ass. Definitely not a kids film. A touch of Tarantino-esque violence and some humour and action thrown in for good measure. A film I would happily recommend if you like that genre of movie.

Sunday morning had me up early again but not as bad as the last couple of weeks. Some friends from PRR headed out on the trails up in Lynn Canyon. It was my first trail run in a few months and my first real go with new trail running shoes, Montrail Masochists. The shoes did a great job and the weather turned out well, we did a lap around Rice lake and then up through the long Lynn trail. Going through the trees and streams and over the rocks was amazing fun and it would have been an awesome morning if it weren't for the fact that Ed who was just ahead of me, stepped badly onto a rock and turned his ankle. From my view point it looked quite nasty and from the colour of Ed's face he felt just as bad. Fortunately we weren't to far from the end and through a combination of people helping and Ed limping, we got him back to the car.

Tuesday's club run was fun, with me trying to keep up my pace not going brilliantly but still fair and the new guy Ben running us all into the ground. Also Sarah has caved and now joined Barry, Sukhi, Ross, Ed, Jackie, Bill, myself and others by purchasing a Garmin. With all the GPS going on in the club now, we will have all of Vancouver mapped in no time.

Today I popped out for the cheap matinee showing of How to Train Your Dragon 3-D. It is a good fun kids film but saying that there were only adults in the audience when I was there :)

While I'm still not 100% convinced by 3-D it definitely works well with this film and I'm just amazed at how far animation has come. Really amazing.

With 9 days to go with the vegetarian month I have been putting some though tin what May we hold in store for me, I have some ideas and will let you know when I have chosen a good option. Although if anyone has suggestions I will gladly listen. I did like the idea of having done a month on no meat maybe I should do a month with no vegetables :)

One last thought for the day is that I'm toying with the idea of trying to set-up my own 5k race near to where I live. I have been thinking about it for a while and I'm intrigued to see what is involved. Will update you if I pursue this idea.

April Fools' Run - Half Marathon Race Report

With all my bluster about about not racing ant long distances for a while and concentrating on the shorter 5k and 10k races the other weekend I headed over to the sunshine coast for a quick half marathon.

The Friday morning I had placed some remark or another on Facebook about facing a quiet weekend and stepping up to the plate was Sukhi with the suggestion that I might fancy ago at a relatively local half marathon the Sunday morning. I do love the fact and I hope I never take it for granted that the suggestion of running a half marathon in under 48 hours time can be offered and accepted with little thought of the fact the race distance is 13.1 miles. It took me nearly 6 months to train for my first Half and I do feel very lucky that through a little hard work and a lot of just getting out there week after week has paid off to the point where this is possible.

Adding to the fun, Barry decided he also fancied giving it a shot and after some slight cajoling and bare faced lying ("21k is only double what we run on a club night, it will be easy") Sarah was persuaded to join in to. This is even more crazy as the furthest she had run to date was 15k and that was only a few weeks before in the Birch Bay race the club attended.

The location of the run was Gibsons to Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia which is on a sort of peninsula off the coast of Vancouver. We would be taking an early morning ferry from Horseshoe Bay over to Gibsons to be there for just before 8am to sign up and be ready for the 9am start. Due to the early start and having to be at the dock by about 7am, Barry arranged to pick us up at about 6am and so an early evening would have been a good idea.

Frankly I had decided to do a last minute half and get up at 5:15am on a Sunday morning , good ideas were obviously not in abundance that weekend so when Steve asked if I would like to watch the UFC fight happening that Saturday night, I readily agreed.

Steve's neighbour hosted the evening and what a great evening it was. We yelled at the TV, got a few good fights, some not so good and some just plain stupid and got to drink beer, eat pizza and gorge on M & M's late into the night. Perfect pre-race preparation. So when midnight was beckoning I thought it was probably best to head out and at least pretend to get some sleep so by the time I had navigated the very good public transport of Vancouver and got home and sorted out kit for the morning, I was still going to get a solid 3+ hours sleep.

About 2.5 hours later I was bolt upright awake. Pre-race nerves even one in which you have put no training or expectation into can make sleep a very slippery customer. Breakfast, dressed, lubed and ready to go I headed out into the still dark Sunday morning. With a short drive to the harbour and time for a quick slice of lemon cake and a cup of tea which I'm sorry to say had a tea bag in it which couldn't have looked more like a scrotum if it tried, we got on to the dawn ferry and set sail.

The journey was beautiful with the sun coming up over the mountains behind us and the day looking to have perfect weather for the run it was already proving worth while getting up at that time. The ferry was full of runners heading over and a there was an excited atmosphere on board. Sarah started having doubts about this being such a great plan but we all told her that "... it's only 6k further than you raced the other weekend, you'll be fine!". 45 minutes later we docked and and were shepherded off the boat and onto a waiting yellow school bus to take us to the start line.

The race was a point-to-point race starting in Gibsons and ending next to the beach at Sechelt, 21.1k away. Signed up and ready to go we got to the start line with time to spare and due to the fact that this race only recorded your gun time (from whe n the gun goes off to when you cross the line) we got as near to the front as possible. While waiting we did bump into a few characters, one who was wearing a full Darth Vader helmet and cape and another guy running barefoot. We also managed to touch base with the other PRR club members and friends running the race including Mike Palichuk who only the day before had race din a 50k trail run and had come fourth.

To the race was great. After struggling with LA and a few other races I have done recently, this was exactly what I needed. The weather was cool with a slight breeze which stopped me overheating, the scenery was postcard worthy to keep my mind occupied and the fellow races were chatty and friendly with everyone enjoying the run. I have the goal this year of running a sub 1:30 half marathon and after getting a good start and feeling great I started to think that maybe today was the day. The course was not flat by any measure but I even enjoyed the hills and actually managed to overtake a few people going up them which is unheard of for me. My Garmin showed I was safely on pace to achieve my target time and even with the big hill at about mile 9 of the 13.1 I was still on pace at the top with just a nice swooping down hill and then flat finish to the beach. Here is the problem, Garmins are a great training tool and I wouldn't be with out it, but boy can they get you into trouble during a race. For one reason and another my garmin had recorded I had run further than the race markers were showing that I had and to add to the problem I believed my Garmin over the markers so when I go to where my watch thought the end was I still had another 550 metres to go. This meant that while I finished in a personal best time of 1:31:29 it wasn't the 1:29:17 my watch led me to believe was going to be mine.

Straight after crossing the line I was a tad grumpy but this soon faded as I took in the surroundings and realised how much fun I had had at the race. The finish line was at the beach and a beautiful mountain packed sky line was clearly visible over the ocean. Barry finished his first half in just over 1:28 and Sukhi and Sarah came over the line a few minutes apart in the early 1:40's. I even beat Mike who was 30 seconds behind me. All it takes for me to beat him is to get him to race a 50k the day before, sorted! We all had a good race and after a quick paddle in the very cold ocean to cool my calves down we watched the prizes be given out and headed back by bus to the start area.

Having got back to the start a little after a ferry had left we had some time to kill before the next sailing so we found a nearby pub and grabbed some lunch. Unfortunately speedy service was not on the menu and after wolfing our admittedly nice food down we raced back to catch the buss to the ferry only to find we had missed by a couple of minutes. Taxi's were not to be found and thankfully with the next ferry departing shortly, the very nice gut at the leisure centre reception desk offered to personally drive us down to the ferry and getting there with a couple of minutes to spare.

After a relaxed crossing back and a few light suggestions that Sarah may want to look at a marathon next as it was "...only the distance of that race again", I got back home around 4 ish just in time for a very pleasant and well earned afternoon nap.

Thanks to Steve, Anne and their neighbours for putting up with me for the pre-race evening and to Sukhi for kicking it all off, Barry for driving and the race director for putting on a great and well organised race. Not a bad way to spend the day at all.

Hurley Curley

Last Thursday was my first go at curling. Having been in Canada over a winter period I thought I should have had at least one go at this by now so when my friend Ed sent out an invite I snapped up the opportunity right away.

We were lucky enough to be going along with a member of the Australian B curling team who would be watching over us and providing us with much needed hints and tips. And after meeting up at Ed's work place there were 32 of us heading off to the Richmond Curling Centre.

A quick aside from the curling is that the evening also saw me eat my first ever veggie burger. I always thought this was some sort of evil trick having vegetables shaped into resembling a burger and was really on the fence about renouncing my life long refusal to eat, what in my mind, was comparable to the Snake offering Eve the apple, only bad things could happen. So while all around me were tucking into a variety of cheese and bacon covered delights I sat I dubiously eyed the 'Veggie Burger'. To my shock and amazement it was actually very tasty and surprisingly satisfying. If nothing else this month has opened my eyes to a lot more culinary options and it might stop me judging food before I try it, although those of you who have known me longest my know this to be more of a challenge than you might expect.

Back to the curling. We headed off to the side of the curling sheet (ice) with beer in hand and were given a quick safety lesson. To sum up, whilst on the ice be aware of stones heading towards you, they are heavy and collision with ankles will only end badly for you, the stone is fairly remorseless. A quick lesson in how to deliver the stone (check out all these buzz words) and how to try and curl it left or right and we were let loose. I won't lie, I'm not a natural curler, due to male pride/ego all of my first few stones went long, way long, quickly, way quickly! It turns out a touch of finesse was needed for this game. I was in trouble.

With 4 on a team we all separated off and started our own little battles. Ed, myself, Amber and Mike teamed up against an equally skilled team (3 girls and 1 guy who new what he was doing) and started delivering stones one after another. And one after another either went long or fell short until Mike seemed to get his eye in and then Amber who both started to get within the house (target thingy).

Due to Mike and Amber both getting the hang off it we took 1 point in each of the first 2 games and we even started to get the hang of sweeping in front of the stones to give them a little extra distance if required. Ed was having a few balance issue with one or two falls on his backside to keep the evening entertaining, whilst I also went sprawling on occasion while delivering the stone.

By the end if the evening all of us had gotten much better with us all getting inside the house at least once during the evening. We also had won 1 point in all of our games so we actually even won our little match. I wouldn't say it is something I'm going to take up as a hobby but it was definitely a good evening and with a group of you a lot of fun can be had.

Thanks to Ed for helping organise the evening and for inviting me along and to Mike and Amber who barley even winced as another one of my stones went flying across the line nearly taking them out.

Bite Size Blog

In my attempt to shorten my blog entries to make them a little more concise and quicker to read I'm going to try updating with more frequency so not to have information overload when I do update. I would say this though. The reason my entries are on the wordy side is that I don;t just want you to know what I've been doing but what I was thinking at the time I was doing it, that to me is normally the most interesting part :)

This week I have decided to drop the idea of running in the Vancouver Marathon. Towards the end of my training for LA I was just burning out a bit and had started to not enjoy my runs. I have already got a couple more marathons lined up for later in the year and so before I start training for them I decided that I should spend the next few months having some fun and doing shorter races which will help me increase my speed while decreasing my weekly mileage for a while.

I have the Vancouver Sun Run 10k coming up in the second weekend of May and would like to start working on my target of breaking the 40 minute 10k. I have achieved my first target of the year by breaking 20 minutes for 5k at Birch Bay so now I just have to do that twice, easy. My personal best (PB) for the distance at the minute stands at about 41:07 so I have a bit of work to do.

To this end this week I have just gone out and ran at the PRR club nights without having to think about training the next day and I have had great fun with it. Tuesday was my fastest Macdonald & 3rd Ave run I've done and tonight my fastest False Creek run. Now the times are okay nothing crazy but for a change I wasn't thinking as much as just enjoying it which was great, even when the high winds were pummeling us coming over the bridge.

So between now and May 9th I will be doing a lot more speed work, trying to drop some weight and for the first time training for a 10k. This should be new and fun.

Today marks the 1 week stage of my month of vegetarianism. It has been an interesting challenge so far but one I have enjoyed. I have definitely not gone hungry and in most cases I'm concerned that I may have been eating more. I have found it difficult finding things to eat for lunch, where before I would just have a chicken sandwich or a small portion of what I had cooked the night before it has not generally worked like that for veggie meals. Before anyone suggest a cheese sandwich or tuna I would remind them I'm not eating fish and cheese is a topping not a filling. I have been informed that humus will rock my world so I will try that but I remain dubious. I was taken to a great Chinese restaurant called Wild Rice, I had a great meal and even tried tofu for the first time, it is in no way a meat replacement but saying that I have had meat that tasted a whole lot worse. The challenge continues...

For those in Vancouver, on my way home tonight I did stop in to the Bay and look around the Olympic store, massive discounts on everything. I have snagged myself a bargain bamboo running shirt for $15 and lots of stuff still available at 50% discount.

Good luck to my friends running in Rotterdam and Paris Marathon this weekend and look forward to hearing about your adventures.

I'll leave you with a sign I saw on the Sky Train this week. Am I the only one who sniggered childishly when I read this?

Back to reality, or near enough

I've been back in Vancouver for a couple of weeks now and it is nice to be home.

While it was great seeing family and friends in the UK, living out of a suitcase for 5 weeks was a little tedious after a while. Although when I did get back it took a more than a little while to get all my washing done and I am embarrassed to say some of it is still laying around the apartment, I really must sort that out.

The highlights since I've been back are first and foremost getting back to running with my friends at PRR. Strange how you come accustomed to the abuse and mockery, sorry I meant advice and support of course :) While I was back in England I was lucky enough to be invited to the local running club for an evening to see how it was ll done back there. I have to say I was shocked. Mandatory warms-up and cool-downs were involved and even star jumps! It was a great evening and looking at the results that the Wellingborough and District Athletics Club (WDAC) achieve their methods definitely work, but a big departure from what I'm used to where tying your laces is considered stretching and the cool-down is done at the pub.

The first weekend after getting back the club took part in the Birch Bay Road Race down in Washington state. The were 5k, 15k and 30k distances and I'm proud to say PRR cleaned up. Barry won the 15k with Sarah coming in 3rd overall female and there were many over placed runners in there age categories. Due to me having done the LA Marathon the Sunday before I stuck too the 5k race, and yes I know Ross and others had raced further the same weekend as I and they did the 30k distance but hush this is my blog. In my completely valid 5k distance race I came 7th overall and 1st in my age group, unfortunately as the race organisers didn't seem to realise the validity of the distance I got a thick cotton t-shirt unlike the nice technical t-shirt that the others got and I didn't get a medal unlike the others got, but am I bitter?


The main reason for us all crossing the border for this race is that it is a club event and one in which historically we have done very well, winning the club trophy for the previous two years. This year was no exception to doing well but due to some silly point scoring system where clubs got 2 points for each member running we lost out to our rivals who brought out 35 people compared to our 16. With this in mind we started out with a 38 point handicap and we only lost by one point, maybe, there is some discussion on this point as well, mainly by me, but am I bitter? :)

It was a great day for the race and after all of our runners had tremendous personal runs we all headed back up into Canada for our celebration meal and after that our celebration naps, as getting down to Washington and crossing the US border had called for a far to early Saturday morning.

Easter has also been and gone and finally over the long weekend I got to get up to Whistler for some skiing. Barry kindly drove us up there and after warning me several times about having to accept a certain level of cloud at Whistler we got there to a beautiful day. I am completely sold on the place, the snow was great the runs were brilliant and we only covered some of the slopes on Whistler mountain, not even touching Blackcomb. We got to tryout the Olympic downhill slope which was insanely icy and fast which called for so much scrubbing of speed that my legs were practically on fire when I got to the bottom. I need to get my skis sharpened before I try that again and also another 5 years of practise.

Towards the end of the day the deep powder had taken some toll on my legs and I had started to fall with some frequency so it probably wasn't my best plan to go into the terrain park and introduce Barry to ski jumping. But never let it be said that common sense has stood in my way and with the thought of 'how hard can it really be' in our heads we plowed on in. After the first jump I was very concerned that I may very well have broken Barry :( But like a trooper he carried on and we finished the day in one piece more or less and with a panda face tan to show for it too.

Even tough it may come as a shock to some of you I have also been to the cinema a few times since I have been back. Quick reviews as follows:

Clash of the Titans - Meh, not my thing, 3D seemed an after thought and just didn't grab me.

Bounty Hunter (ROM/COM, Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston) - Was fair, didn't expect much was disappointed, very formulaic but passes the time.

Repo Men (sci-fi/thriller, Jude Law, Forrest Whittaker) - Was okay, interesting idea but felt it went for more gore than necessary, ending was a bit pants too, reminded me of Total Recall quite a bit but not the good bits.

Chloe (drama/thriller, Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried) - Good film, strange but good. Acting is great and nice cinematography, also odd how they make the love scene between JM and AS more disturbing than sexy. Nice twist and turns as well, the plot not the love scene.

After having a month of no fast food in January, due to over eating at Christmas and a month of no alcohol in February, due to that fact I can't remember most of Karen's party. I decided that April was the month of no meat due to gorging myself back in the UK. That is right I'm being a vegetarian for a month. Initially I was still going to be eating fish but due to some well raised points, fish has also been cut out for now. After mentioning this on Facebook, friends have risen to the challenge and supplied me with many fantastic sounding recipes for veggie dishes. I'm a week in and so far so good. I have enjoyed cooking the new foods and while a a lot of the dishes I have been doing have been quite spicy to make sure of flavour I have had quite a good variety of things. Mood has been a little funny once or twice and I wasn't sure if that was to do with low iron levels but have taken steps to address that if it was the issue and will look forward to the next few weeks.

Last thing to mention that after seeing the film Chloe, Ed and I had been left to grab ourselves a drink we happened to end up in the Revel Room in the Gas Town District where I'm 99% sure we were sat next to Laura Vandervoort, not a hugely well known actress but she has started in Smallville and has now got a large role in the new remake of 'V'. I love Vancouver! With that and seeing David Hasslehoff in LA, I'm on a role. :)