Vincent's Ramblings

Day 114

2012-01-24T23:22:00.000-08:00

So I thought I was going to have to re-write my Myanmar blog post, I searched and searched my e-mail never finding the most recent update. Turns out I'm just an idiot and had deleted it. Fortunately I managed to hunt it down and found this e-mail which overlapped with my previous one of Thailand and Myanmar.

That was a little longer than I had wanted to go without
e-mailing... To make an excuse I haven't been somewhere with either
crappy enough wifi to require me to hit up an internet cafe. Or the
internet cafe's have been too expensive or non existent. Who would
have thought Myanmar would be the solution for me.

I left off a month ago in Sihannoukville Cambodia. I was sitting on a
beach, getting a tan, swimming, getting sick. All good times. After 5
days in Sihannoukville (my longest stay to date anywhere I took an all
day bus (3 buses actually) to Bangkok with hopes of catching the
overnight train to Chaing Mai. Unfortunately when we got to the border
and switched buses, the driver wouldn't leave until the minivan was
full. Having 10 people we waited around another 2-3 hours for the 11th
to show up and take off. We debated offering to pay for the 11th
person so we could just leave however we all agreed that the driver
wouldn't really understand this gift of money and would wait for
someone to arrive pocketing money for 12 people instead of 11. BONUS!

We arrived at Kao San Rd at 10PM instead of the supposed 7 meaning I
was now too late to catch the 10PM train. RATS!

It was alright, this would give me the day in Bangkok to try and get
my Myanmar visa sorted out. The next morning I discussed to great
detail the bus system in Bangkok. Mr iPhone said I should take the #15
west even though the embassy was east... And the hotel staff all
suggested other buses going east. I decided the iPhone didn't know
what it was talking about (my first mistake) and followed the hotel
staff's instructions.

After 3 buses and no bus fare later (no driver charged me because I
was only ever on for 3-4 stops while he explained I was going the
wrong way) I was blocks from the embassy. Getting there at 11AM
figured I was early enough to beat the rush. Turns out I was really
early. The embassy was closed. Uncertain as to why I asked if it was a
Thai holiday. He said no but that today it was closed. The
conversation went like this:

Vince: The embassy is not open today?

Guard: No (Smiling and nodding in a yes motion)

Vince: When is it open?

Guard: Monday to Friday

Vince: Today is tuesday...

Guard: YES! Still nodding and smiling.

At this point I am leaving for Chiang Mai tonight so will have to deal
with this when I get back. Unfortunately that falls on another
tuesday. After a few more conversations like the one above. I am
ensured the embassy will be open next tuesday so I take off.

The train north was uneventful. I got picked up at the other end by a
guest house who promised to take me to town just to show me their
place, no pressure. I got there, the wifi worked well, the place was
clean, they had the tour de france on TV for the last 2 mountain
stages and the time trial. I was set. This also turned out to be the
friendliest hotel staff I have had to date. They were amazing. Anyone
going to Chiang Mai I suggest staying at Junior Guest house in the old
city.

The first day I just roamed the city. checked out the temples and went
to a neat thing called Monk Chat where you can converse with the monks
and they get to learn about your life and practice their english all
the while you don't feel like a jerk for asking all the questions
you've been ignorantly hiding for the past 3 month seeing monks in
Asia.

My second day I took a traditional Thai cooking class and now know how
to make Thai meals! Only 5 of them I liked though.

Third day, Motorbike rental toured the area. As a cyclist this was
probably some of the most amazing roads I've seen traveling so far. So
many turns and hills. Would have been so nice to ride on. And smooth
pavement too.

Day four, massage course. I didn't learn much new, however now I have
a 90 minute massage routine. I was pleasantly surprised when in
Bangkok two weeks later and Corinne and I got massages that the
masseuse used the same routine that I now knew. So I'm pretty much a
pro now.

Day five. Go to tiger kingdom and then train back to Bangkok
overnight. I got some sweet photos of me with Tigers.

Back in Bangkok I returned a day earlier than originally planned which
saved me two hassles. Having to rush south to meet up with Erich and
Corinne, and the mysterious closed Tuesday embassy. Sure enough on
Mondays the embassy was open and I got my visa application in. Just
needed to pick it up 3 days later. On to the night train again I made
it to Krabi and met up with Corinne and Erich the next morning just
before noon. It was pretty lucky. I had no idea what hotel Corinne was
at so I made a wild guess (of the hundreds) and got a late breakfast
while using the restaurant internet. After eliminating the 39 junk
mails I found out Corinne was staying at a hotel literally 10 feet
from where I was sitting. Sure enough there she was in the lobby!

The three of us took the boat to Railay and begun out epic adventure
of rock climbing and living the beach life.

Railay is the rock climbing capital of SE Asia. It was amazing (except
for the shoes). After a long day and night, we went to bed at 10pm
ready for our next morning. Having had a long day with a lot on my
mind I wasn't able to sleep so decided to go for a walk down the
beach. I sat there for a while admiring the area and met a few other
foreigners who were headed swimming. Since I figured I wasn't sleeping
anytime soon, I might as well go with them. They neglected to mention
that there was bio luminescence in the water! I have never seen this
before but when you wave your fingers little lightnight bolts of blue
shoot from them. It was quite the experience. So much so that I went
back three nights in a row.

After 3 days Erich had to leave us so it was just Corinne and I left.
We loved Railay so decided to stay there instead of venturing to the
other islands nearby (Railay isn't actually an island but since there
are no roads to it and only accessible by boat it acts that way).

Corinne and I lounged and rock climbed until it was time to head back
to Bangkok for her departing flight and my trip to Myanmar. The trip
was fairly easy and uneventful except someone felt my bag was too
heavy and stole 400$ from me in my sleep. That was awesome. Budgets
from the previous 3 month kept flashing through my mind as I
calculated how many fruit drinks that would equate to in Laos. How
many sugar cane juice that was in Vietnam and how many more massages I
could have had in Thailand or how many km I could have motobiked
instead of walked in Cambodia. As a fellow traveler stated. I can't
think of that and just be glad the money was stolen peacefully and not
at knife or gunpoint. That would have sucked.

We celebrated Corinne's birthday in style. Although she begged me to
go to a ping pong show I told her that now that she was 25 she needed
to act like a grown up. Instead we went for 2 dinners and a massage
where I am sure the Thai masseurs were making fun of us the whole
time.

The next morning came too soon. Corinne flew back to Canada and I flew
to Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar. At the airport I do like all
other foreigners do in a new place. I looked for the only other white
person and started chatting with him. His name was Paul but went by
Paddy. He is in the special forces in the UK and we split a cab to the
city center and since we got along decided to stick together for the
next few days and make life cheaper. He was a really interesting guy.
He had recently (February) gotten divorced and I got the impression
wasn't able to share feelings too much with his alpha male special
forces friends because although he kept saying he barely talks or
thinks about his ex, she was the topic of most of our conversations.
That sounds really negative and boring, but really it was kinda nice
and allowed us to get to know each other much more than the other
travelers I've gone with. I think a big part of that is the laid back
nature of Myanmar.

The first two days I didn't see another white person. Very few people
harass you for anything and everyone is really friendly and grateful
for your service. There is a large temple in Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda, it was probably one of the most impressive single structures I have seen. It was beautiful and gold. Making the temple on the top
of the mountain in Chiang Mai look like garbage. This building was 92
meters tall, and covered in gold. And I mean LOTS OF GOLD. 60 tons of
it. I must admit, often I am a little tired of temples but this one
really impressed me. We capped off that night by going to a restaurant. I'm not too sure what it was exactly. It may have doubled as a brothel. We were never approached by anyone, but there were these weird dances followed by the girls sitting at the tables with old men. But this restaurant was right off the street and open concept. Not some shady back room. We were a little on edge to say the least so left fairly quickly following our meal.

We took an overnight bus to Bagan which got a flat so in the pitch
black they pulled over and a team of 5 guys started fixing and
changing it while I watched. Someone announced that because of this
delay there would be no rest break in an hour so if we had to pee,
women to the left of the field, men in the right. Made me laugh, but
it worked and no one wanted to stop again in an hour anyways.

Bagan was just what I had hoped. Peaceful, quite and incredibly
impressive with its temples. A little background. There are roughly
4000 temples over a 20km area most of which can be seen from a few
viewpoints. It was spectacular. We visited them by horse carriage. We
debated bikes however they would have been too hard to keep oriented
since no roads are straight and a lot of the temples look similar.
Getting lost was for sure a great possibility. Also, you can't feel bad hiring a horse carriage. This simple luxury was a huge help to the locals. Our guide, who waited for tourist every morning at the bus stop at 4AM was thrilled because we were his first customers in 10 days and that having us hire him meant his family could have chicken with dinner. I have really enjoyed Myanmar because it's really off the beaten path. Even at
the most tourist site, Sunset in Bagan, there were only 40 ish people
in comparison to the thousands at Ankor Wat.

We took an early night because we got up at 4 to catch sunrise from a
temple. Unfortunately the sun rose a little earlier than our driver
anticipated, but we managed to get some good views and photos
nonetheless. Unfortunately photos really don't do these temples
justice. Its the panoramic views that really made Bagan special.
Hopefully Paddy got some better pictures than I did. He was an amateur
photographer with a 2500$ camera and some of his were spectacular.

Leaving Bagan, I took a quazi overnight bus. For some reason it left
at 4AM... its an 10 hour bus ride. Why it didn't leave at 11pm or even
8pm and get us in early morning I will never know. That being said it
was the least comfortable bus I have been on yet. People were sitting
5 deep on the roof. I managed to get a broken bench chair in the
middle of the bus.

Arriving in Kalaw I now have one good nights sleep ahead of me before
taking off on a 3 day trek which passes through countless villages and
we spend a night at a monastery which I've heard is amazing!

So thats it. That summarizes my last month of travel. I hope I didn't
leave too much out and I'm sorry for the lack of photos. I will make
sure to put them all up when I get home and send out a special edition
email with just that.

Despite having a great time traveling, I must admit that I am feeling
burnt out. I find I am going to temples and thinking they are just
another temple. The activity based traveling I am getting more out of
now as the culture shock is wearing off. So hopefully the trek does me
some good.

Editors Note, That was all written August 10th. I will now finish the rest of the trip.

The hike was amazing. This was the 4th long hike I have done. And the first three were fairly challenging, Ascending and descending quite a bit. Hard on the legs. Sure this one was long (55k in 3 days) but it wasn't difficult. This allowed you to really enjoy the scenery and the day. I traveled with a couple who were really friendly and we got along great. I inquired before leaving and was told that the villages along the way in addition to needing school supplies also needed hygiene products. I was advised to bring toothpaste, soap and toothbrushes if I could, because families would buy food but not waste money on these products. With my bag loaded up with gifts I started the hike. Stopping at a village for lunch we got a fantastic home cooked meal. The meals on this tour were amazing. Lots of food and lots of variety as well. We stayed that night in a one bedroom house. I decided to be adventuresome and hang out with the locals rather than the other tourist. This proved highly entertaining. I smoked a cigar with them and drank some terrible whiskey like drink. Every time I put it down the host tried to refill it. I must have drank 4-5 ounces of the stuff before straight up refusing anymore. Needless to say I slept very well that night.

The next day was another long day of crossing rice fields and awesome mountain scenery. Nothing overly eventful other than some rain. Fortunately being Asia it was 30*C so that didn't really slow us down much. We stayed that night in a monastery. It was cool, but a little overdone. You could tell this was somewhat like a hotel. But the kids were cute. The last day involved hiking out of the mountains and down to the lake. It was advertised that we would have an hour long boat ride. I wasn't overly thrilled with this idea, I get bored on boats, however, this turned out to be a great experience. Seeing Inle Lake from the water, the fisherman, the huts, was really amazing. We were dropped off in town and I walked to the hotel where our bags were stored, and I ran into Paddy again! He had gone to Mandalay but then skipped the trek and went straight to Inle Lake. We got to hang out for another day, share stories before I took off the next morning for Yangon. While in Inle Lake though, I continued my theme of giving. After having dropped off all the books and supplies to schools and host houses along the way, I arrived in Inle Lake and learned that there was a large school there as well in need. Myanmar is super poor, significantly more so than the other Asian countries. So that 10$ spent on books for kids goes a long way. I managed to buy a book, pen, pencil eraser for every kid at a school (66) as well as some general supplies like a dictionary and calculator. It was a little awkward giving these to the teachers but they seemed very appreciative and the kids all said thank you as I left.

The trip to Yangon was fairly uneventful. I am now a pro at sleeping on buses. Getting to Yangon I travelled through the market and just killed my last day taking photos and walking around and found a good internet cafe. I flew out the next day to Bangkok after mailing some letters (3 cents per letter). The letters all arrived in Canada, however some took as long as late november to arrive.

From Bangkok I went straight south to Koh Tao, however my last week and trip home is going to be saved for another day.

Day 98 Railay/Tonsai

2011-11-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

I left of heading south on the train from Chaing Mai on my way to Bangkok. This overnight train got me in to BKK with plenty of time to spare before the next train to Surat Thani in the south of Thailand on my way to Railay/Tonsai.

During my 12 hour layover in BKK I managed finally to get my Visa application in for Myanmar and then walked around heading to the Palace and walked through the grounds. I was somewhat templed out and didn't really feel like spending 15$ to walk around and take more photos. Instead I walked back towards the train station and stopped in a park to read and watch old men do exercises. No one stepped on the grass the entire hour I was there. They simply jogged around the sidewalk over and over again or did squats and stuff in the wider parts of the walkway. Kinda funny.

Onto the train, and off to the south! Arriving in Krabi (jumping point to Railay/Tonsai) I wasn't sure where I was supposed to meet Corinne and Erich. Erich was flying in that day and Corinne had been there since the night before but unfortunately we hadn't managed to communicate where we were meeting. I arrived at a restaurant, ordered lunch and got the wifi password and learned where Corinne was hiding, some hostel which google maps showed being far and on the opposite end of town. I wasn't pumped about this. So I sat, ate my lunch and asked the server what the best way to get to this hostel was. She was confused by me question, because it turns out that the hostel was literally next door. The entire time I was eating, I wasn't more than 20 feet away from Corinne.

I walk the quick steps and we hang out and 15 minutes later Erich shows up. Success! Erich is super pumped:

First because of how awesome my beard has become; and

second because we are rocking out in Thailand!

We arrived in Railay which is more expensive than the further more remote beach of Tonsai, so packs and all we walk the beach and climb through the mini jungle to the second beach and find some pretty cheap digs for 6$ a night, No power during the day, padlocks on doors for locks. Pretty basic. Corinne and Erich bunk up and I grab my spot and we feast on a massive dinner! For anyone going, Tonsai has significantly better and cheaper food than Railay.

Railay beach is the right, Tonsai is the far left, and that green bit is the treacherous path we needed to hike through far too often everyday.

That night Erich and Corinne called it a night early, and I went back to my room to read. Not being in the mood to read and not able to sleep I decided to go for a walk. Through the treacherous path (in the dark using iPhone light) and across back to Railay where I could get wifi. While awkwardly lurking around one of the fancier hotels a group roughly my age (which I realize after writing that means 20-38 when I reflect on who was there) came through and were headed swimming! Seeing as how it was now midnight and I was wide awake, I could see nothing better to do with my time. Well, am I ever pleased I did. There was bioluminescence in the water! As you moved your arms and legs it looked like you were swimming on a cloud! Definitely an experience I did not expect to have that night. On my walk back towards Tonsai I noticed a lot of people on skype so I shared my experience with them and finally made it back to my room sometime between 4 and 5 AM.

Needless to say the 8AM meeting with Erich and Corinne came super early. Quick breakfast and we were off! What do you do in this area of Thailand you may ask? ROCK CLIMB!

Corinne had never really rock climbed before, she started out having trouble keeping up with the routes Erich and I were doing, but by the end of the week she was rocking them out no problem!

Shaving my beard. One of lifes big regrets

Some of the routes were HUGE! 30+ meters (which is tricky on a 30M rope)

No Bigs

Erich unfortunately had to leave us after only a few days. We mixed up our days by either rock climbing, or hanging out on the beach. It doesn't look too sunny, but believe me when I said it was HOT! Super humid. We went and discovered caves, Erich avoided monkeys so that they didn't steal his food again like they did in KL, and ate. Yes we ate A LOT!

Erich and Corinne cruising the beach

On Erich's last night we decided to go big. For years I've been heading Erich and Pat talk about Thai Buckets, booze concoctions so great that they don't even remember what they did those nights.

Needless to say, Erichs last night we purchased a few and people went missing. Sure there weren't the goodbyes everyone would have hoped for in the morning, but I think the story makes up for the missing people. I'll leave it at that. Another good night with buckets!

Now it was back to just Corinne and I. Corinne decided that my beard needed a trimming and unfortunately she did a terrible job! No just kidding, I was getting tired of it because it was getting really hot and itchy with all the moisture so I decided to shave. BIG MISTAKE! Surprisingly there weren't any dorky tan lines or anything of the such. But I was instantly cold! Corinne and I had big plans to visit other beaches on neighbouring islands, however, this place was so relaxing that we decided we really didn't need new adventures. This was Corinnes last week of travel and I was about to depart to Myanmar so relaxing was definitely a great plan. Our 3 days at this beach turned into 8 with nothing other than climbing, eating, drinking and swimming to report. It was fantastic! And this attitude wasn't just the two of us. Nearly everyone we met and hung out with while there also extended their trip from a few days to weeks. We met some fantastic people from all over. Some Montreal, Vancouver, California, All over Europe! Was great!

Corinne and I finally had to leave this beach paradise, and head back to Bangkok. This is where the first unfortunately event took place. Everyone always warns you of theft etc while traveling and I had encountered none. You are also told never to leave your money in the same spot in case of robbery. So I had a bunch of cash on me, and a bunch in the depth of my travel bag, and while on the bus someone must have been camping out in the storage compartment because I had roughly 400-500$ stolen from my bag, exact amount not exactly certain. As rotten as this was, I reassured myself by saying that at least it was stolen in a non violent way. I've heard of people being mugged, kidnapped and beat up for significantly less money while traveling, so a simple loss like this I could deal with. Not wanting to let this be a damper on my travels and Corinnes last night (which also happened to be her birthday), we went for massages and to a fancy dinner of mussels and chicken and then other items from the menu as we got hungry. Unsatisfied with dinner, while walking on Koh San Road Corinne found a food item she just couldn't say no to.

Roasted Grasshoppers or something like that. Tasted mostly just like roasted nuts but with a different crunch

For about a quarter we got like 20 of them, so Corinne and I had plenty of photo opportunities. We also tried to offer them to strangers as they walked by. Not many takers...

Thai money was really funny. my favourite was the 1000 Bhat which has the king of Thailand on it, he is acting photographer!

Corinne imitating the King

And here we parted ways. Corinnes last night in Bangkok and the next morning we went real early to the airport where she caught a flight home and I went off to Myanmar! But more on that later!

Day 85

2011-11-28T20:20:00.000-08:00

So I'm guessing by now its pretty obvious that my updates lost a little bit of steam while I was traveling. My last update took place in the south of Cambodia with just over a month left in my trip. I was holed up in Sihanoukville after having just been sick, but was recovered and on my way to Thailand!

I wasn't too sure what to expect from Thailand. It has a reputation that precedes it so I had high hopes. The adventure started immediately, we got dropped off at the border and had to switch from bus to van. Well, since there were 10 of us in a 11 person van headed to Bangkok we decided to wait 3 hours for the next bus to come through so that we could load in all the extra people and head to Bangkok. The unfortunate effect of this was that instead of getting to Bangkok at 8pm which I could hope to catch the last train to Chaing Mai, I only arrived at 11PM and had to stay the extra day in Bangkok. Although Bangkok has Kow San Road and a few other exciting parts, I just really wasn't in the mood for the big city. I spent the next day going to the Myanmar embassy, trying to get my visa (it was closed for a holiday but the guard couldn't explain this to me) and then just walked through China town before heading north.

Not a truck you want to get a delivery from, seen in Bangkok

Chaing Mai was a great change from Bangkok. Its a big small town. Everything is activity based. Either you go on hikes, check out temples, take a cooking class or massage. I decided my first day to renting a motorbike and cruising the mountains north of the city. It was AMAZING! If I had more time I easily would have spent a few more days cruising on a motorbike (or better yet my bicycle). These roads were incredible, hilly, and always winding.

Sweet Road leading to small hill villages

At the top of the mountain there was a temple. Big and gold, nothing extraordinary, however, there was a funny statue, Not sure what it was for, but it reminded me of you mom!

Just for you mom!

Day 2 in Chaing Mai: COOKING COURSE!

This was a highlight of Chaing Mai, I took a Thai cooking course where you could learn to make 7 different meals. There were groups of us so 21 different meals were made in total so if you were friendly to your neighbour you got to try a whole assortment of foods! I was apparently the only person who wasn't full by the end of the day. My favourites were Cashew Chicken and Pad Thai. Pad Thai has become a staple at my household now in Vancouver. Want to try it? Come on over for dinner!

My hilarious cooking instructor. He felt particularly sympathetic towards me because I was the only one not part of a couple taking the course. Either that or he just liked me

I realize neither of these photos are of Pad Thai or Cashew Chicken, but the spring rolls are the only photos I have of myself cooking

Day Three in Chaing Mai was spent taking a Massage class. Sure there were a lot of fun hikes I could take, but really, I figured this was a life skill someone from home would greatly appreciate. I can't remember the name of the course, it was Mrs. Tina's or something like that. I called from the hotel, spoke to a girl on the phone booked my class. There was supposed to be a full class in the afternoon, but the morning class still had space. I wasn't too sure what to expect (going alone without a partner). Well turns out the afternoon class being full meant there was already 1 person in it. These were 1:1 classes. Also, it was Mrs Tina giving the class. It was her brother. Nothing like a 4 hour massage course with a tiny Thai Dude. But in all honesty this was probably much less awkward than if it had been a 1:1 course with Mrs Tina due to the nature of the course, being topless was somewhat of a requisite and not sure how that would have fared otherwise.

Massage course finished I had one more day left in Chaing Mai before catching the afternoon train back to Bangkok. I spent a lot of time in Chaing Mai relaxing in my room in the evenings. We had cable TV and it just so happened to be the end of the most epic Tour De France in modern history! So between relaxing and doing pushups (because I stepped on a scale for the first time in month and realized I had lost 10 pounds) I just sat up and enjoyed the race and reflected on my trip so far.

Last day in the North was spent seeing TIGERS! Seeing the tigers wasn't actually all that exceptional, however some of the photos that came from it were easily worth the 25$ for the entrance.

Damn! Sweet Beard!

I got to see and snuggle up to an 18 month old (above) and a 2 month old tiger. Their fur is much more coarse than I would have ever imagined.

I got picked up from Tiger Kingdom and brought to a shopping centre to buy snacks, it was like Walmart, but the entire staff moved around on rollerblades.

I covertly snapped this shot!

Then it was on the train where I hoped I may meet Harry Potter on my way back to Bangkok while transferring to another train south to Krabi to meet up with Erich and Corinne!

Looking for Harry, must be on the wrong train

Long trip South

Day 76

2011-11-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

Always convenient, lesser known 6-Eleven

I left off in Pakse (Laos) heading to 4000 islands the next morning. One thing I have found really interesting traveling is how you run into the same people everywhere you go. The group I had been with in Luang Prabang and Veng Viang I thought I had left for good when I skipped a few days and headed down to Pakse.

Well the minibus to 4000 islands (Don Det) arrived and there wasn't a person in it that I didn't already know and getting to the islands ran into another few people.

For all the excitement i had heard about 4000 islands I must say I was a little disappointed. They were nice and all but being small islands on the Mighty Mekong there wasn't much to do. They didn't stack up to beaches since you couldn't really swim (for fear of floating away) and it was literally just a strip of guest houses and a couple bars. I understand it could be really relaxing but I think Corinne agrees with me that after 2 days there we had seen enough. Onwards to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor!

After a lengthy 14 hour bus trip including a boarder crossing into Cambodia (which included some lovely corruption; 2$ stamp fee, 2$ staple fee, 1$ photo attachment fee) we arrived in Siem Reap at fun guest house.

The first thing we did the next morning was rent 1$ bikes and head off to see Angkor Wat and the other more popular temples of Bayon and Ta Prohm. All in all it was about 30km of biking over the day, but on these terrible bikes I had had enough. Every pedal stroke between 3 and 5 the freewheel would slip. Lovely.

The temples themselves were amazing. despite this being a very tiring day I really enjoyed it. We got back fairly late and prepared for the next day which we would be waking up at 4AM in order to leave and catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat (the most famous and largest religious temple in the world). The sunrise was funny. Although we were instructed to enter and go left (North) for the best view, Corinne and I decided to go south and there were only a small grouping of maybe 10-15 people on the South side as opposed to the hundreds on the North. I dare say our view was significantly better because the sun rose over the temples rather than beside it.

Next up we went to further temples via Tuk Tuk (taxi). The rest of them were interesting as well however my highlight was the landmine museum which we passed on the way. This museum was created by a Cambodia who had been a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge, then forced to switch sides and fight for the Vietnamese at the age of 12. Following the end of the war he had extensive experience with Landmines (Cambodia has more landmines than any other country in the world) and the museum owner has single handedly diffused 60 000 landmines. Sometimes as many as 300 a day. That being said there are still an estimated 6 million left (mostly on the border with Thailand).

Sunrise at Ankor Wat

The museum was very informative but in addition, since many people in Cambodia are poor, the museum also functions as an orphanage for children injured by landmines whose parents don't have the resources or knowledge to help them. Currently there are 50 kids there and over time as the museum makes more money and grows the money goes to expanding the orphanage.

Other than the temple and sights, I really enjoyed Siem Reap. It was a nice city with cheap food and amongst the best fruit shakes I've had. We bought a lot! I also tried Black Panther Beer (8%). I don't recommend this to anyone. And Corinne bought a child dinner only to be told she was a bad person by the other children. It was a good deed that definitely wasn't appreciated.

Next up, Corinne and I headed to the capital Phnom Penh. Corinne wasn't planning on coming to Cambodia at all and here I had persuaded her to see two cities now. In PP we went to see the prison S-21 where the genocide started followed by a very rainy motorbike ride out to the killing fields. They were depressing learning of all the horrors that took place, however it wasn't physically jarring that I've heard people describe. Maybe because I had read up on it before hand so there wasn't as much shock factor. One aspect that did surprise me was the photos of the head bad guy for the Khmer Rouge at the prison (not Pol Pot but his second in command or something). A guy who went by the name Duch. What surprised me was seeing photos of him, he is a tiny little man and the least intimidating figure you could ever imagine. Maybe 5'3-4 and 100 pounds its crazy to think this guy is referred to as more evil than Hitler.

Sunset from Guesthouse

Corinne left that night for Bangkok and I stayed in PP for another day. I went to the Royal Palace and walked around the city. Phnom Penh is actually a really pretty place.

Following PP I went to Kampot. Its supposed to be a really nice town, but to be honest. I just didn't see it. I stayed for 1 day. Did an interesting but significantly overprice tour and got out. The tour was to the Bokor Hill station. A 1920 casino/hotel built as a french retreat from the heat (since it is up in the mountains) but since it had a nice view it was heavily fought for during the wars. As a result the hotel is shot up as are many of the sites around it. In addition there is famous fog here which rolls in and makes everythign white. I took photos of the road and the hotel and you can get a picture. I would never want to fight a war there. The enemy could be 20 feet away and you wouldn't see him. THe only warning of their approach would be the detonation of a landmine.

Casino in the Fog, Bokor Hill Station (Kampot)

I left Kampot and went to the beach resort of Sihannoukville. I heard bad things about this place. Busy, touristy and dangerous. But to be honest I really like it. THere is a good atmosphere. I doesn't seem dangerous. and the beach is really nice. The only downside is that it has rained and I got sick making it so taht I don't dare be further than 20 feet from a bathroom (FUN!).

Storm Clouds coming in to Sihanookville

And that brings me to today! I will probably stay in Sihanoukville another day or two relaxing and getting better. I really want to go for a swim and get some exercise and then head to Thailand.

Thats all for now. A little rushed but has the details necessary.

Day 69

2011-11-06T22:49:00.000-08:00

No real message today. Corinne and I were up at 4 to catch this moment over Ankor Wat. Pretty great day but now after our second 12 hour tomb raiding day I am tired.

Corinne may even be swayed to stay in Cambodia a few more days. But I won't say that too loud lest she hears me.

Vince

Day 62!

2011-07-03T07:57:00.001-07:00

Flooding in VV, on the day I arrived it went to the 4th green steps.

1.21$ all you can stuff on a plate mean

Rock climbing wall, about 100 meters above the ground

First climb of the day, having to shift from one hanging object to another 120m above solid land. Sweet!

Left side is route of 5'11 climb all the way to the shadows

Puffy hand from wasp sting (48 hours later)

Alright! I left off in Hanoi hung over and about to head to Laos. My trip over to Luang Prabang was failry uneventful. I met a canadian living in Hanoi who gave me a few helpful hints for Laos and was off. Fortuantely he was still around when we got to the airport because the ATM wouldn't accept any of my cards and I had to pay him in Dong (Vietnamese currency) and he paid for the tuk tuk into town. Getting to Luang Prabang, I found a relatively costly however very nice guest house. Being late decided to go with it. Luckily this was a good move. It was right next to the night market and also the food stalls. These were great! For 10 000kip (1.21$ CAN) you could fill a plate with as much food as possible. For another 10 000 you got a tall beer. I was set. Getting my fix of vegetables FINALLY after a 3 weeks in Vietnam I was set. Who knew I would be craving vegetables so badly. Eating in Vietnam wasn't great and my stomach agreed. However getting to Laos not 12 hours later my stomach was rock solid and thankfully has been ever since!

I was sitting at the food stalls and noticed a full table next to me roughly my age. They were all speaking with different accents so I decided to try my luck and introduce myself. Sure enough they were a group that had somewhat formed on the road (Laos really only has two routes people travel (North to South and South to North). I hit it off with this group (2 Austrian, 1 German, 1 American, 1 Dutch, 1 Italian) and these were the people I hung out with for the next few days.

Unfortunately that night it started to rain. A common theme for the next week. In Laos when it rains, it rains hard! A 20 meter walk and you are soaked. The idea was to go see waterfalls the next morning however when the rain continued this proved impossible. Tuk tuks wouldn't drive and there really wasn't any other way. This was a good relaxing day though. In the rain the group went to little cafes and somewhat just killed the day. A good way to offset the crazy pace that was Vietnam.

The rain continued and unfortunately once again the next day waterfalls were not possible. Speaking to some people who rented their own motorbikes and braved the elements to see them, they told us that there was a 20 minute walk through leech infested waters and the waterfall was brown from all the mud so you couldn't swim in the lagoon (which was this waterfalls major draw). Feeling defeated many of us decided to leave Luang Prabang and head south to the party city that is Vang Vieng (VV) where the legendary tubing takes place.

The trip down should be a 5-6 hour minibus ride. Easy. 4 of us from our international group departed in heavy rains. Rumors were ominously suggesting landslides. My roommate from Vancouver Corinne was strategically (or through poor planning) 3 days ahead of me in her travels through Laos and reported that heading south from VV was blocked by landslides but north was still clear.

After passing a half dozen landslides which covered 50-75% of the road and squeaking by after 4 hours of driving we had only gone 100km (of the 229). It was painful. I could bike faster than this. Then came the road block. At 2:30pm we ran into a large set of cars all waiting for a landslide to be cleared. The wait wasn't too bad. Locals sold food and beer walking along the cars and horns cheered as the excavator drove up the street. At 5:30 the road was clear and we piled back in the car. Sure we were 3 hours delayed (on an already slow day) but that part of the alure of travelling in Laos. Infamously slow buses. We get back into the car. Make it to km 102 and stop again. This time we can see the row of cars (not the 15 that had been previously waiting but 1-2km of them. A 30 meter landslide had been blocking the road since 9AM. To make the story short. We had a street party. Locals brought more beer and food and we played music until 10:30PM when the landslide was cleared. Unfortunately when you have 12+ hours of blocked road. There are a lot of cars. It was not until 12:30 that we moved and then there was a dense fog requiring us to drive 15-30km/h the rest of the way. I was thankful for this though becasue the roads were terrible. In some section sthere were large cliffs and the road had sunken 5 feet.

Arriving in the rain in VV at 5AM myself and a fellow bus rider found the first available guest house and went promptly to sleep.

VV was fun. The next day had no rain and we went tubing. Its exactly what its made out to be. Chaotic, a lot of fun, filled with lots of irresponsible behavior, loaded with drugs and a big headache the next morning. One day of heavy drinking was enough for me however some of the friends I had made decided to go a second and even third day. No way! Tubing was interesting though because of massive rainfal the city had the most flooding in decades. Great timing for Laos Vince.

My second day I went to visit some caves. They required a bike ride along VERY rural streets. I had to dodge cows along the way. THe caves were really cool however I described them as though I had had a cave on my land and charged admission. There was no public tourism. Once in the gave there was no guidance and getting lost without anyone knowing were you were was very possible. As a result myself and my american friend decided not to go too far in because we didn't really want to die.

The third day was by far my favorite. I have been rock climbing in montreal and vancouver for the past 10 years however had never been outdoor climbing. I signed up for a guided climbing day. The rock cliffs were apparently very similar to the famous areas in Krabi (thailand) however significantly less known. Climbing was hard. I managed to get stung by a wasp while tubing and also sliced my foot.This made climbing hard since my foot hurt in the shoe and I couldn't apply any pressure to my hand which had swelled to nearly twice its size. I've attached a photo but unfortunately it was once the swelling subsided and it really doesn't give a good image of the swelling, it just looks puffy.

I still managed a 5'10-5'11 climb for those of you who know what that means (it was actually a 6B+ using the french system so wikipedia was used to translate). What made this route hard wasn't the difficulty of the holds (which were hard) but the fact that the route was over 30 meters long. To do the route clean took nearly 5 minutes which in climbing terms (for me at least) is a marathon.

Deciding I had enough of VV after three great days I headed south again. Corinne (my roommate) was somehwere south of me and I thought that if I skipped through some caves and minority villages I could catch up. I took the bus to Vientiane (capital of Laos) spent the day sightseeing and got on a nightbus sleeper to Pakse in the South. The sleeper buses are funny. Although you do get to lay down, you have to share a 3X6foot spot with someone. Thats right, they aren't individual. At supper I met a family from Ireland also taking the sleeper bus. We had seen each other in VV and chatted quite a bit. They had two daughters traveling similar routes to me who I would assume were both doing their undergrads (or that age about).

Getting to the bus station, my ticket didn't have a seat assigned. They quickly assinged me #48. The irish family had seats 45-48... Uncertain where to go I just kinda hung out for a while until a bus official told me I was to share with them. Cosy! There were 5 (small) spots in the back row (44-48, 2-1-2). The two daughters were in the first two spots and to make life not super awkard I didn't share the other spot with the mom. So I got to spend the night on the sleeper bus between two 20 something girls and their parents. It was actually a really funny situation and I think they were pleased that it was me there since we had met on a few occasions and I can definitely say I am pleased I wasn't stuck between a bunch of Laos who didn't speak english.

Getting to Pakse I toured the city and tried to hunt down Corinne. With no luck. I had no idea if she was ahead or behind me on the road until 10PM when I got an email from her surprised to hear I was in the same town. Today we went on a tour of the Bolivan Plateau which has lots of coffee and waterfalls. Apparently the coffee is amongst the best in the world. Our guide was a french guy who has been living in Laos and married to a local(kinda, you aren't allowed to marry a local if you are a foreigner, its illegal). He is completely integrated but still has to western perspective.

All in all I really enjoyed it. Now tomorrow Corinne and I head to 4000 islands and then off to Cambodia!

Wow, I thought that by doing shorter interval between post that it would be shorter. Instead I just remember more details.

Also funny side note. The guy sitting at the kiosk next to me is watching porn and has been for the past 45 minutes with no shame. Asia is funny.

Day 52!

2011-06-23T23:03:00.001-07:00

My suit!

Halong Bay

Fishing Boats we had breakfast on

View from room in Sapa

Bags loaded on bus to Halong Bay

Alright team! I've let another 2 weeks slip by since my last email. I blame shotty internet and an unwillingness to write e-mails on my phone.

I left off the last e-mail having just finished up my motorbike trip in Hoi An where I bought a lovely new suit! Photo attached.We left Hoi An and headed to Hue which is the old imperial capital of Vietnam. Hue was pretty interesting. We opted not to do a hotel tour because at 16$ they seemed expensive however his was probably a mistake because between paying for transport and site entrence fee's we probably payed almost that much and didn't get to see as much. In Hue it was really hot in the morning and we went to see the Citadel at the center of the city. It was nice, I thought it was funny that there was a modern tennis court in the center. Apparently one of the emperors enjoyed sports and played tennis. I would have preffered if they had left the old tennis court rather than this new 2008 version. Unfortunately a lot of the citadel was ruined from Bombing during the war (not too sure which one...). We left there and went to see a temple where the emporors are burried. Looking through the book it didn't tell us where they were so we chose the most appealing one based on description. Well turns out it was also the furthest (At 15km temples ranged from 2-15km).

Having completed all that we wanted in Hue we decided to leave a day early in order to get to Hanoi earlier so that we could get a good trip to Halong Bay before Colin left. We opted not to do the Demilitarized zone since we saw bomb craters, beat up bridges and tanks agent orange debris while on the bike trip. If there was anything else we would see in the DMZ I don't want to know.

Unfortunately being a national holiday there were no busses or trains to Hanoi so we ended up flying. It was only about 20$ more expensive than the train but much more comfortable. In Hanoi we went to the Hao Lo prison which was a french colonial prison used against vietnamese revolutionaries. Having just read the book Papillion which is about a frenchmen imprisoned at a colonial prison in south america it was interested to see the similarities between the two. Again it was another example of how the vietnamese have been abused by foreigners. We followed that up by going to see the Ho Chi Minh Museum which was less inspiring. Unfortunately we didn't know that you had to go see the man himself Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) early in the morning because its closed the rest of the day. The next morning we departed for Halong Bay.

We weren't really sure what we were getting into. Again the tours were expensive. 100$ for two nights so we opted to do it on our own. We made sure to book a bus that would get us the whole way there without knowing that it was a tour bus. So we managed to do the touristy route through the bay at a fraction of the price. SCORE! Halong Bay was beautiful. We saw some pretty impressive caves and then were dropped off on Cat Ba island. I've attached a photo of the islands in the bay. Out of this world! The once on Cat Ba one of Colin and I's funniest experiences happened. We went out drinking (Halong Bay also had 5000 Dong beers, or 25 cents) so we were a few drinks in and the table next to us had about 10-12 Vietnamese getting loaded.They kept coming over to Cheers us and eventually even refilled our glasses. At this point Colin and I were 5 beers in each and decided to join their table for a bit. Well they payed for all the beer but over the next hour was fighting not to throw up. I estimate we had in the range of 15-20 beers (they are smaller glasses, probably 250-300ml rather than the usual 355 to a can). Somewhere during that hour we were convinced to go fishing with them the next morning. Our understanding was that they were visiting the island on a fishing trip. So at 6:55 AM the next morning one of the guys Mr Nam knocks on our hotel room door. I wasn't feeling too great to say the least. I tried to explain to him that I was too hung over to go fishing so I kept saying "No Fishing" which he would then reply with a smile "No fishing!" Colin then infered that we were being invited to breakfast instead of fishing so we followed him and he leads us to the dock. I wisper to Colin that we are in fact headed towards a boat, so I repeat to Mr Nam for the 50th time "No Fishing" and he agreed no fishing but we get on the boat nonetheless. This is where the miscomunication took place. They were not on a fishing trip, they were fisherman inviting us to their boat for breakfast. So we went into the bay and had rice and fish with them. It was pretty good despite the hangover. We stayed on the boat for 3 hours while it poured rain outside so all in all it was a great way to kill the morning. The funny part was they were be chatting away in Vietnamese and then all of a sudden yell out NO FISHING! and all start laughing at me. I've included a photo of the boats. They did not live up to your typical reputation of fisherman. They were all very nice and polite and not crude at all (with the exception of an old man who showed Colin Vietnamese porn on his cell phone. We don't really know why he did that).

The sun came out and we spent the afternoon nursing out hangover on the beach. There was distinctly a white person section which was kinda funny.

The next day we did a kayak trip which was interesting. They took us out a km and just left us there. We had no idea where to go or when to get there. I yelled to them as they were leaving and they pointed at their watch and put up 2 fingers and pointed at an island. I assumed that meant we had to get to the island in 2 hours... hopefully. We left Cat Ba island for Hanoi that afternoon and the next morning finally managed to see Ho Chi Minh! The line was HUGE! well over a km. I'm guessing this was because of the holiday. We were fairly far back in the line which got cut off behind us probably 200 people back. Well funny thing happened. In Vietnam to move forward in a line you need to pass people. So before we knew it we were at the back of the line with 50 other white people. The spectacle of seeing Ho Chi Minh was more entertaining than the actual site itself since you only walk through the Mausoleum for 30 seconds while you see him through glass from 20 feel away.

Colin left that afternoon and I for the first time was on my own. I had a train booked to Sapa and having had success with Colin without the Tour decided to do Sapa on my own as well. You take a train overnight and are picked up and driven the hour to Sapa. The drive was spectacular. You see photos of the rice fields climbing up the mountain but you really can't appreciate it without seeing them. They are huge! The first day I rented a motorbike from the hotel (I've attached the view from my hotel room, it was steep at 6$) and spent 3 hours just cruising down the roads and taking photos. If anyone is going, I would suggest the south road. Northwest didn't have much to see and East is the way you come. I didn't know this road exhisted until later in my trip which was too bad but it was the most spectacular. All of the hotels offered the same tour for 15$ and I met a local who was willing to give me the same tour 1 on 1 for 7. I was pleased with my barganing skills so the next morning I embarked on a day treck. I immediately felt guilty for being so cheap. She spent 3$ on food for lunch and was only making 4 dollars on the whole day.

The trek was great. we passed through the mountains and she explaned to me the farming as well as how they make clothes out of hemp brining me to a huge marajuana field and she strips off the leaves, hands them to me and shows me who they make string out of the stalk of the plant. We got to her house were she made me a big lunch. More than I could eat. While she was cooking since there wasn't much for me to do I got a little bored. She noticed this and suggested I take a nap. I wasn't really tired but figured this was less awkward than sitting in the room watching her cook. I lay down and sure enough 5 minutes later was out cold. I woke up an hour later because her kids were throwing sticks and stuff at my beard. My beard is a hit in Vietnam. I can only imagine it will get better since its only halfway now. That being said. My beard hasn't been a hit all over. It did make a small child cry when I waved at her, but this did make her dad laugh a lot.

After lunch my guide (Ma) brought me to the road and said I could walk or motorbike. Since I hate taking rides off the lazy motorbike drivers I opted to walk. She said it was a 2.5 hour walk along the beautiful valley and relatively flat. Off I went. every 5 minutes a guy would drive by saying. Hello... Motobike? and I just kept walking. Turns out it wasn't flat. The signs on the way said 10% uphill. For 9km. it was like walking up to the top of Seymore. I was tired. Got back to the hotel in desparate need of a shower and food. The last day in sapa I just relaxed and saw the town and took the train back to Hanoi overnight.

Which brings me to yesterday. Chris Newlove (friend from montreal) is also in Hanoi coming from Laos and we went out last night. Much to my surprise there were also 4 other McGill friends all in different stages of leaving Hanoi, some for Canada, others heading South. Unfortnuately none headed to Laos. We went out, had another big night of drinking and that brings me to today. Sitting in the rain waiting for my flight to Laos!

Anyways. Congrats if you made it this long. Sorry for the length.

Day 40!

2011-06-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

I just realized I hadn't posted this one. Sorry team. I'll try and get a post of my last 2 weeks up tonight as I have good internet again in Hanoi.

I arrived in Vietnam on the 2nd of June and met up with Colin at the airport. By noon we were in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) and found a hotel to stay in. The rest of the day was spent walking. A lot, we went to the Ho Chi Minh city museum which was a little disapointing however the was War Remnants Museum was really interesting. They had a whole section about the bombings, agent orange and simpy the historical timeline of the war. Seeing as how I did very little research prior to coming, most of my knowledge of Vietnam came from watching Forrest Gump. It was a little embarrasing the amount I didn't know about. We followed this up by trying to find a theatre playing the new X men only to discover that it isn't showing yet in Vietnam (it was everywhere in KL and Singapore). This was probably a good thing as we settled in early and were up by 6:30 to head to see the Cu Chi tunnels.

The Cu Chi tunnels were again really interesting. There were over 200km of tunnels dug out using spoons and bomb shrapnel in order to prevent the advancement of the americans. This was probably one of my favorite days so far. Here we learned that Colin is in fact bigger than your average vietnamese since he didn't fit in one of the hideout holes. His shoulders wouldn't fit.

Back to Saigon in the evening we prepared once more to travel the next day to the Mekong River delta. One frustating thing about Vietnam is that even on highways you can't average more than 45-50km/k. So getting out to the Delta took all day. I will be brief with my description of the Mekong delta. I didn't really enjoy it. It was somewhat of a let down. Sure the floating market was pretty neat but going to fruit plantations and bee hives wasn't exactly the highlight of my trip. I tried to think of a different way to tour the area but since it covers such a large geographical area I couldn't really see a better way without having an extensive knowledge of it first.

We got back to Saigon at around 4:30 and were catching a night bus at midnight to Dalat so had some time to kill. We found a restaurant that showed movies and had cheap enough beer so we hung out there for a bit. At 10 we had to be at the tourist agent to be brought to the bus station. Getting to the bus station at 10:30 we found out that there wasn't a midnight bus and instead had to take the 10:30PM bus. Not a big probelm except I had just had food, water and beer and was somewhat counting on that 90 minutes to let my stomach settle.

The bus ride was an adventure. We thought we were being smar by taking a sleeper bus overnight. It cost an extra 3 dollars each but to be able to sleep through the night. Turns out the bus is more of a roller coaster. Constantly slamming on its breaks and swerving left and right. Being in the sleeper you really couldn't sleep. The fact that I didn't really fit in the bed didn't help either. Colin really didn't fit. Once again, turns out he is larger than a Vietnamese. The ride was capped off by the lovely sounds of a woman in the back vomitting the entire ride. All 7 hours of it.

Dalat was a really nice town. Its small and in the mountains so wasn't as hot as the rest of Vietnam. Unfortunately it rained all day but we managed to make the most of it walking around. A really pretty place. One thing that is funny about Dalat is there are motorcycle tours called Easy Riders. And the second you walk into the city they find out. We were originally going to head to the beaches following Dalat, but then got convinced to do a 5 day motorbike trip up to Hoi An and experience "the real Vietnam" with a local. The scenery was beautiful and the ride a lot of fun. Passing through the central highlands we saw so many nice rice fields, mountains and rivers and jungles. One thing that is incredible here is that there is no wasted land. Farms climb up steep mountains and down the other side. Terrain that would never be farmed in Canada.

Driving the bike really wasn't very hard and wasn't as dangerous as you would think. The only pain was the busses. In Vietnam there are different traffic speed limits for different sized cars. Tractors can go 30, bikes 40-50 (depending on the road), cars 60 and busses 70. The rest is that busses are constantly making the sketchiest passes. Blind corner going downhill, no problem, Doesn't even tough the brakes. Fortunately everyone in Vietnam honks roughly every 8 seconds so you always knew when a bus was coming to move over onto the shoulder.

We finally arrived in Hoi An in one piece with a lot of dirty clothes. This required the necessity for laundry and also a new wardrobe. Hoi An is where you can get really cheap clothing made. I got a suit and jacket made, Colin two pairs of pants. I just picked them up today and am really pleased with the outcome.

We spent the day waiting for the suit at the beach getting roasted. Vietnam is by far the hottest of the countries I've been in so far. I guess thats why I get heading towards the 20* of latitude in the middle of June.

Thats it for now. We are heading to Hue in 20 minutes and will check out the Citadel, some Tombs and hopefully the Demilitarized zone.

Hope everyone is doing well. Let me know what you are up to. All I've gotten as replies is "keep up the updates"

Miss you all
Vince

Day 33

2011-06-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

Wow so much to say, so little time to say it. So I will just do a super fast description of the past two weeks with the highlight of each few days.

Last time I left you I was in Kuta Lombok on the 17th fending off spiders for Steph. We left Kuta and headed to Sengigi for a day. It was supposed to be the beach of all beaches, claimed you could search for years and never come across a beach like this. To say the least Steph and I were unimpressed. We had just left Lombok where we had found paradise.

We only stayed in Sengigi a day going to the market at night and the next morning took off for Ubud in order to be closer to the airport in Denpasar (Bali). After a 4.5 hour ferry ride which took us 10.5 hours in total we made it to Ubud (the cultural center of Bali). We had quick dinner (I found a plethora of ants in mine, delightful) and then we walked around and went to bed after a LONG day.

The next day was in Ubud, a full day. We went north and saw some bhuddist temples and then came back and discovered a gem of South East Asia, ABC Special. Its a drink with shaved ice and sugar more or less with fruits. Delicious! After lunch we went to the monkey sanctuary. Should have been a blast, and at first the novelty of the monkeys was great. Until we realized monkeys are very nice. Steph was handing a monkey a banana and it ate it, then proceeded to search her bag. When she tried to stop it, it grabbed her arm and bit her. I once again came to the rescue, throwing a banana a few feet away so the monkey would leave her. Unfortunately I hadn't thought of this sooner. From that point we were a little tentative around monkeys and shortened our stay at the sanctuary. We found a cool market as well and finally tried Durian fruit (they stink and aren't very tasty).

The 20th was fairly boring. Just early flight to Kuala Lumpur and then I had Visa stuff for Vietnam to take care off. Steph wandered around the Indian quarter and we regrouped with Erich and Corinne at the hostel. Getting my visa was a fiasco, I forgot my passport photo in my larger bag so I had to rush off and get new ones taken at a mall, A cab driver took me and drove me around for the hour getting me back to the consulate with 10 minutes to spare and get my Visa.

Our only day in Kuala Lumpur was spent going to the Batu Caves. These are a really interesting rock formation forming caves in the middle of plains. At the caves are a few very rare species which only exist in those specific caves (such as a type of spider of which they estimated there are only a dozen exist). The night before I had been feeling really lightheaded and sick. And following the caves I started feeling the same way. I went back to the hostel while the group headed to China town and I slept from 5:30PM until 9AM the next morning and felt significantly better. The one highlight of the day however was Erich having his snacks stolen by a monkey. He was going to give them to the monkey however didn't have the chance.
The following day once again was a transfer day, we traveled to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. Not much to report. We spent the next day on the island of Sapi, I don't really recommend it. It was nice, however after the beaches of Indonesia it really didn't compare. However following the island we were dropped of in KK again and found the most incredible food market which we used to stock up on snacks for the climb of Mt Kinabalu (the tallest mountain in South East Asia at 4097M) which we were to start the next day.

The climb was entertaining and not nearly as hard as Mt Rinjani however it also didn't offer as many views. It was more like climbing the Grouse Grind for those who have done it. But with the four of us (Vince, Steph, Erich, Corinne), we made a fun climb out of it continuously passing groups who did not appear to be having as much fun as us. We arrived at camp around 3. Ate food and settled in to sleep around 6. Surprisingly no one had trouble dozing off after the long day. I had a lot of trouble staying asleep. Being my first time sleeping at 3300M the air was very thin and I kept waking up short of breath. Steph commented that I seemed to be having more trouble than most with this, I wondered if it was because of the sports I've done. I've heard triathletes don't make the best mountain climbers due to the oxygen dept. We woke up at 2:30 AM and attacked the summit.

Steph and I were smarter this time, taking our time so as to not get there too early and freeze at the top. It was not as windy as Rinjani however the temperature I would say was colder. We got to the top after managing the rope climbs and were rewarded by some truly spectacular views of the mountain. Unfortunately it wasn't the best sunrise, but the mountain-scape made up for it. The weather was unpredictable, we had a view one moment and then 30 seconds later everything was whiteout with clouds.

We descended the mountain telling jokes and mainly making fun of Corinnes dance moves then caught the bus to Sandikan on which they pumped some sweet Maria Carey and Celine!

Now for the highlight of my trip so far. On the 26th around Sandikan we went to two more monkey sanctuaries. The first, an Orangutan sanctuary. They are pretty cool beast, however not nearly as impressive as the proboscis monkeys. Borneo is the only place these monkeys exist. If ever you are in the area it is a must see. Skip the Orangutans if necessary. They were very timid monkeys and you could get right up close to them and they didn't bite (unlike those foul grey tailed monkeys). We followed up that fantastic day with some Karaoke and a few too many drinks.

We started the next a little late and prepared to head to Semporna the stepping stone to Mabul island for 2 days of scuba! The scuba diving was a lot of fun and I tried a night dive which was a new experience. You can't really describe scuba diving in an e-mail and give it justice. Just know that Mabul/Sipadan are supposed to be world class dive sites. We didn't manage to make it to Sipadan however Mabul made up for it with the assortment of fish and turtles. We also dove in Kapalai which is a resort build on stilts above the coral. Very cool.

Unfortunately on the 30th our trip with Erich and Corinne had to come to an end. Steph and I headed back to the mainland and Kuala Lumpur so I could pick up my visa. The next day we spent the morning doing some Christmas shopping and checking out the central market before heading to Singapore where Steph flew out the next day. On a sad note, we lost Steph's camera. And despite my best efforts have been unable to recover it. Hopefully it will turn out but maybe those photo memories are lost. Fortunately most of the photos we took have been on my camera.

Our last day together was jam packed. After sleeping in a little too late we had the arduous task of working out the expenses for past month then head to botanical gardens. We then walked along Orchard road and headed to china town. It was not the best china town but was once again unique to the others we had seen. We spent the end of our day repeating some of the things we did on our first day. Checking out Bugis market and a must, going to little India for some Indian and delicious mango lassies. We talked about those Mango lassies the entire trip and were very satisfied when they lived up to the hype we had given them. So good in fact that we bought seconds. We headed back to the room, packed and headed to the airport. Steph flew out at 1am for Calgary and I at 7AM for Saigon. We split at the airport, I was sad to see her leave after an unforgettable month.

I slept in the terminal and the next morning met up with Colin in VIETNAM!

I'll leave it there. This concluded the first quarter of my trip. Sorry for the length. I'll try and be more consistent in the future!

I have attached two photos, one of the beach in Kuta, and the second of a grey monkey before we realized they were the enemy.

Day 15 Kuta Lombok

2011-05-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, the last couple of days have been really relaxing. Kuta
Lombok is nothing like Kuta Bali, very quiet and a lot more surfers
but significantly less tourist.

Following my email when we first arrived, Steph and I settled into our
room, only to discover GIANT spiders! Very very fast as well. The
first one I discovered while Steph was in the shower and I debated
telling her about it. The spider was probably 4 inches across but with
a body. Not like daddy long legs either, more like dock spiders, big
hairy ones. The first I killed with a skilled flip flop throw. Steph
heard this so I had to divulge the cause the commotion. Upon seeing
the carcass of the deceased spider Steph proclaimed, "Your my hero!"
and proceeded to search the room for more of which we found 3. After a
little extermination effort on my part involving a few flip flops, a
broom and a head lamp I had killed the remaining spiders. One was
difficult. It was large enough that when it ran, it knocked over an
empty pop can. I was shocked to say the least. These heroic efforts
delivered me much praise by Steph. Similar to when I defended her from
monkeys, she was speechless by my actions. She is even speechless each
time I re-tell the tale.

We settled in to sleep a little tentative about our cheap lodging.
Tossing and turning with the feeling that bugs were crawling all over
us during the night I woke up at 3AM from my light sleep to something
brushing against my ear. I sit up trying not to wake Steph however my
stealth is not up to par after a restless sleep at 3AM. We take a
headlamp and investigate only to find a cockroach the size of my thumb
crawling around my pillow and then scurry off the bed. I took
confidence in the fact that the spiders and cockroaches seemed more
afraid of me than I of them, however I still didn't like them near me.

We woke at 7, and departed from this dangerous hotel and splurged an
extra 3 dollars for a ritzy hotel with no bugs. For my heroic efforts
I tried to get a back massage from Steph to easy my tense muscles from
the hike and a tirerless night, however she refused. My cunning was
able to get around this however by asking her to apply sunscreen to my
tomato red shoulders. A trick I have employed numerous times.

Things settled down after this first night. We rented scooters and
took off down the beach and discovered the most amazing little cove.
Across the 500m sandy perfect white beach there was only one other
couple and a few vendors. One of the vendors (his name was Andi)
selling sarongs approached us and was very nice. Instead of hassling
us, he simply started up a conversation. Eventually he persuaded us to
look at Sarongs which we bought a few (they serve as great beach
mats). Not having enough money on hand he offered to follow us into
town as we retrieved more. While Steph got money from the hotel I
chatted with him in the parking lot at which point he offered to bring
us snorking and spearfishing and invited us numerous times to his
house for coffee.

The next morning we debated his offers, was this a scam? We decided to
return to the beach either way and on our way he passed us as he was
dropping his son off at his mothers for the week at school. This made
it very difficult to say no to his offer for coffee. We followed him
500m past the beach and got to meet his entire family where his
brother climbed a tree and got us fresh coconuts to drink and eat.
Fortunately Steph and I had bought snacks for the beach we were able
to share. I think that the store bought wafers were a treat to them.
Andi the suggested we go back to the beach and go snorkling and
spearfishing. We were already headed to the beach so we agreed
thanking his wife for the hospitality.

Spearfishing was fun, however I was no good. Accidentially following a
fish to deep water and trying to get it, I shot the spear much deeper
than the water appeared then spent the next 5 minutes trying to swim
15 meters down to retrieve it. Andi had more success catching 5 fish
which he said we should come eat at his house. We tried to say that it
wasn't necessary and he took off. Only to return 30 minutes later
saying that they were ready. There was no real way out of it. Not that
we didn't want to try the food, we just didn't want to take food away
from him and his family. We arrived to fish, rice, beans, coconut all
set out and ready. We stayed there for an hour bought a few bracelets
from his friend made of seaweed and took off. It was a really amazing
afternoon. I couldn't believe how friendly he was. And he wasn't doing
all this to persuade us to buy bracelets, that was our decision since
we felt guilty eating all their food.

Yesterday was less eventful. We woke up and went surfing. The waves
were very big but it was a sandy bottom so no concern for coral
cutting us. I got tossed a few times and up a few times. I still have
a lot of work left.

Thats about it. We are headed to Sengigi today and will probably tour
around the capital of Lombok Mataram before heading back to Bali to
catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

Sorry I haven't been able to be on skype yet. There is internet
however no headsets.

Take Care everyone. Hopefully I will be able to come up with photos
one time soon.

Indonesia Travels Day 11

2011-05-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Team! Steph and I have survived climbing Mount Rinjani! It was AMAZING! However it was also really really hard. The first day was about 8 hours of climbing up to camp 1 at 2666 meters. That wasn't too bad but was nice and hot. The second day however was a doozie.

We went to sleep day 1 at 8pm on the mountain and woke up at 2 AM to ascent to the summit in time for sunrise. Climbing by headlamp for 2.5 hours we arrived at the top at 5:15 a little early to say the least. Facing 2-4*C temperature Steph and I sat waiting for the sun to come up. Claiming to be cold and faking shivers Steph snuggled up to me. I however wasn't cold so I can only assume this was a plot to get closer. Clever girl.

Finally when the sun came up it was spectacular. I have lots of photos and may try and get them updated soon. However without wifi I can't get them off my phone (and there is nowhere to plug in my camera).

Following the summit we made it back to camp only to find a family of grey monkeys hanging out at our tents hunting for food. In total I counted 28 of them. At this point I discovered Steph has a fear of monkeys so once again I came to the rescue and defended her from these 15 pound enemies. I really am a hero. At one point I even carried the communal water (which I only dropped once when I fell).

Day two was long, waking up at 2AM we hiked more or less non stop until 4pm having gone from camp 1 (2666M) -> Summit 3700M -> Crater lake 2000M -> Crater Rim camp 2 2600M. Big day.

We hunkered down and slept, asleep at 7pm as soon as the sun went down. We got up at 6AM and hiked the remaining 9km to Senaru and collapsed. The last hour it rained which was actually quite refreshing.

The whole experience was incredible. The most spectacular of all was the two porters carrying 30kg each tethered to a shoot of bamboo and our guide who couldn't have been more than 100 pounds carrying all 20 (1.5L) water bottles. They had our tent, food, snacks, pots and pans. And not only that, they did the entire hike in flip flops. I couldn't imagine how much you would have to pay someone to do that in canada, but apparently they made "good money" (we assume around 100 000 Rb which would work out to 11$CAD a day) as opposed to being in the rice field which make roughly 20-30 000 Rb. Steph and I wondered where the water was coming from until our porter, a 29 year old veteran of 12 years on the mountain pulled out the first of many water bottles for us. We felt guilty and continually tried to double up but they refused to make us do any more than the minimum amount of work.

Additionally I don't know how to work this into my story, but the food, we ate beyond comfort every single meal, 3 times a day. Today Steph and I pleaded not to have lunch because we were still full from breakfast (And the previous dinner).

The tour group (John's Adventures) was one of the more expensive at roughly 200CAD a person, however in seeing the service we were given over the other groups on the mountain, it was worth every penny (we had an air mattress in our tent which they had set up for us before we got to camp each night).

Following the trek, we were driven 4 hours to Kuta Lombok. We got in late so I haven't seen much of the terrain yet, but it is supposed to be the quiet sibling of Bali. Similar beach and surf but no crowds which so far seems about right.

We don't know how long we will be staying here, we need to meet Corinne and Erich in Kuala Lumpur on the 20th, so time will tell.

Tomorrow, we surf and do laundry which desperately needs done following that hike. I will be tipping the night off with a large Bintang, the only beer I can find in Indonesia.

Take Care everyone!

Indonesia Travels

2011-05-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

So this may be a surprise to many of you, but I am actually no longer in Canada. I am traveling for the summer in South East Asia and left last week. Internet is slow and not accessible everywhere, however, whenever I have it I'll post something quick about where I am on the blog.

Unfortunately there will be no photos since I don't have a way of getting them off my computer and onto these cheap ones.

Day 4
Steph and I have made it to Bali following Singapore. We were going to travel up towards Malaysia prior to meeting Erich in Kuala Lumpur however following reading the Indonesia section of the Lonely planet book, Steph really wanted to visit Lombok (next to Bali).

So our plan at this point is to stay in Bali today and maybe part of tomorrow then spend the week in Lombok. There are apparently some of the greatest beaches in SE Asia in Senggigi and then we are going to do a volcano mountain summit (3726m) (http://www.lombok-rinjanitrek.com/rinjanipackages.htm) over a 4 day span before heading up to Sumatra and then meeting up with my friends in Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore was really pretty however I honestly feel that 2 days was more than enough even with the second day just running around and getting to the airport.

The airport was chaotic. We arrived hoping to book flights to Bali and were sent to all 4 terminals before being directed to the proper kiosk. Each person telling us a different place to go. This included 2 bus rides and 3 express trains between terminals. We managed to get onto a flight at 4PM (it was 3:20 at this point) and fly through security etc. Then into Jakarta which was a stark contrast from Singapore. After 45 minutes of waiting in line for a visa we had to run for our connecting flight to Bali, We got the visa at 6:20 (bording time for flight was 6:15 and in another airport terminal) We go out after frantically running around and find a shuttle filled with people and we need to shout at the drive what terminal (1-3) we want to go to and prove that our priority is higher than those going to other terminals. Finally we got on the flight at 7 after cutting a few lines and skipping security by waving frantic arms. Getting last on the plane and running through the terminal was fun.

We arrived in Bali haggled a taxi from 5$ to 4$ for a 15 minute drive then settled into a really nice room for a drastic 25$. Tonight we hope to be much more reasonable with a 12-15$ room. None of this life of luxury.

Day 8
Hey Team, we are leaving Gili Trawangan around lunch time today. Before then I will try and get a little surfing in for the first time over here. The waves don't look very big but they are uniform. Hopefully it goes well.

Steph and I went scuba diving yesterday and the day before. The diving was really good however I dare say it was trumped by the snorking. While snorking we saw all the same fish at a fraction the price. Turtles, Moray Eels, Manta Ray, lots of clownfish, angelfish, lionfish, scorpionfish, sweetlips, butterfly fish, surgeonfish, trumpet fish, and a bunch of rocks.

We also went for a run yesterday, 6km in 55 minutes, it was a pretty blistering pace. But in our defense it was 35*C and sunny.

We leave today for the island of Lombok where we will be climbing Mount Rinjani. Roughly 1/2 the height of Everest (I am reading "into thin air" so everything is gauged to Everest these days. As a result I don't know if I will have internet until the 13th. We may have it tonight but that would be it.

Hope everyone is good. Skype isn't working on my computer right now unfortunately. We may try and go to a different internet station and see if it does any better.

SCIENCE!

2011-03-01T22:09:00.001-08:00

Science has taken over my life and I've been reminded that there should be more to it. So far at this point I have finished writing my thesis and have a date set for my defence. March 18th at 1:15PM! I booked it for later in the afternoon to insure that I can get over my hangover from St Patricks Day.

In all seriousness, I've finished my thesis, all 100 pages of glory, have already made my powerpoint for the defence presentation. And now all I have left to do is write a manuscript for my project and get it published before leaving UBC Masters program behind me.

In other news of life. Triathlon is going well. I have my first race this coming weekend. The UBC Triathlon promises to be a nice cold endeavour. I will be doing the double. Working for powerbar at the event as well as racing. My heat is at 12:40 though which is nice because I can be up early and setting up for powerbar and once things get settled down get ready for my race.

In recent news. The UBC Triathlon Club spring race series is underway, and knock on wood, for the first semester, I don't have an excuse (marathon, sprained ankle, concussion). So lets hope I can keep this up and it could be a good one! We have already raced the 5k and I achieved a new PB, 17:41!

And finally, I tried a new sport last week. Maybe this will be my true calling in sport. Does it meet the criteria?

Spandex - √
Endurance - √
Has in some part the word Athlon in it - √
...

Thats about it. I tried the sport of Biathlon and had a blast. My friend Ceilidh coaches the cadets and offered to bring me up to give it a try. As a result I may do my first race at the end of the month!

Kelly Said I look fat... I thought black was slimming? Does anyone have any vertical stripes?

4/5 Not too bad!

Growing Up

2010-12-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

I saw this photo today, and must say I agree. Question now, with graduation coming soon and a wide open future, now what? Guess I've got something to think about over Christmas

New Danny Macaskill Video

2010-11-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

There is a new Danny Macaskill video out!

Haven't had a chance to watch more than the first minute, but it looks good!

5K Run TT

2010-11-11T23:41:00.000-08:00

Just a really quick update, the tri club had our final event last night in the Fall Classic Race Series. The 5k Run TT. The event was a huge success, with weather holding out for us we had a semi dry course to run on. We had our largest showing with 35 people out and most made it out to the social afterwards as well.

I've felt pretty terrible running lately, however, on Monday I ran a mile which Matt helped pace me and I managed to pull out a 5:15. Nothing exceptional but at least I know that I haven't completely lost my fitness post marathon which is how it feels.

Starting the 5k, we took it out way too fast running a 3:10 first km so I slowed it down to around around 3:35-40 for the remaining 4k.

In the end managed to hold it together for a finish time of 17:55! My first sub 18 minute 5k since starting triathlon and a new PB that has lasted since 2006. Considering how I've felt lately, there is no doubt that once I get my running legs back that this time will drop even more. I guess the hunt is for 17 now, lets hope it doesn't take another 4 years.

And I wasn't the only one. I think about 2/3 of the runners who had previous 5k times managed to PB. I guess I'm doing something right as coach...

Not much else to report. Hopefully I'll have something more exciting in the weeks to come!

MOUSTACHE Updates

2010-11-08T15:04:00.001-08:00

Two important updates.

First, it is the month of Movember. A month where sporting a moustache is not only a thing of pride, but also trendy to do since it shows your support for prostate cancer!

I didn't really feel like starting up my own Movember page, and feel the pressure to compete with my friends, so instead you can donate to my friends page Tyler Porteous and mention in your comment that you think my moustache is better.

Secondly! In honour of Movember, my roommates and I are doing a push up challenge! I encourage all of you to take part as well. I have created a google spreadsheet here where you can update your numbers.

The rules, you need to do a minimum of 10 pushups in a row. Additionally they need to be quality pushups. We have a statistician on the team who is going to identify who was most consistent over the month as well!

To sign up you will need to ask permission for access to the spreadsheet. I will gladly grant that!

There are 3 great prizes for the winners! First prize is an autographed photo of me potentially with a personalized message at the end of Movember with all my moustache glory.

Second prize is the same, but a photo of Matt Reeve! And third, although her moustache is quite unimpressive, will be a signed photo of Kaley, our third roommate. But I don't think she's disappointed with the fact that she can't grow a moustache...

So there you have it. Keep yourself fit by doing pushups and adding them to the spreadsheet each night! Contest ends Nov 30th at midnight!

Day 6!

Reality Check

2010-11-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

I've had a pretty miserable week, with my thesis looming over my head, my inability to run thanks to my foot still hurting since the marathon, and some other issues I won't go into, it has been pretty easy for me to complain a lot lately.

Then this afternoon I got a reality check. This past weekend was Halloween, a weekend of fun, or at least what should have been. In Gastown (area of Vancouver) early Sunday morning there was a shooting where a crowd of people were shot at for no reason. 4 completely innocent individuals who were just enjoying their night out. One of these individuals is a friend of mine. Before I get to dramatic, I want to state that thankfully she was alright. I don't know the extent of the injury but it wasn't life threatening, but that doesn't diminish the fact that she was hit with a bullet and hospitalized.

This is someone who on Friday when being in lab was too stressful for me and I needed a break took two hours out of her afternoon to talk and then came over and enjoyed dinner with my roommates and I. Not 24 hours later, the shooting occurred.

I called her today asking if she wanted to come out with friends from school Tuesday night when she explained what had happened and that she wouldn't be able to make it. And then she asked how I was doing. I couldn't believe it. After everything that had happened in the previous 24 hours, she was still concerned for me and I realized that despite everything going on in my life right now, I'm really a very lucky person, for my family, my friends and for my health.

When she asked how I was, all considering, I had to admit things were going very well.

I finished today by doing my first run since the marathon. It hurt from being out of shape not running for three weeks, but my foot was better. And I couldn't say I've ever felt luckier to be running.

BOOM!

2010-10-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Victoria Marathon Complete

2:58:14!

Race report to come, but fortunately someone got a good video of me finishing.

Funny... I don't remember being so skinny.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Learning to Run

2010-08-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

I just read this on Brad Cunningham's blog. An elite runner from the Vancouver area. He is coming back after a year or so off of running.

The road back to feeling like a runner is 50 hours long.

The road back to feeling like a runner is 600km long.

The road back to feeling like a runner costs 46,000 calories.

It is not a long road, but it is one that requires patience, perseverance, and consistency.

And the road back to feeling like a runner just gets you to the start of the longer road to becoming a runner.

Next step.

I like this because I feel this is where I am at right now after the concussion and the ankle injury. I am finally able to run again and work on improving. I don't think I am running at the same level as Brad, therefore it won't quite take me that long. Yay for shortcuts!

Weekly Updates - SCUBA!

2010-08-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

Not all to much new. Thesis is coming along well, I have more or less finished the intro and am making good progress on the methods and results.

In other news, my friend Mike Duncan is a certified scuba instructor and this past week he taught myself and 6 others how to scuba dive!

It sounds like a simple task but we had to read an entire book along with about 20 hours of class/pool time over the span of 5 days. It was all worth it though. Over the weekend we went to Whytecliff Park and Porteau Cove and did two dives at each site. The dives were in the range of 30-40 minutes each and went to a max depth of 60 feet.

I wasn't overly excited about scuba diving before this trip and signed up for the course more because it was available and at a reduced price than because I had a passion to try scuba diving but in the end I am really glad I did. There was so much to see, it was really cool. One thing I found funny. Fish act like cats. They might let you get up close to them but you get the impression you are just really pissing them off. I kept hoping that a fish would dart away and do something impressive but instead they just moved a few inches out of reach giving me a look of hatred.

Lingcod, we saw lots of these!

In other news I head to Ironman Canada this week and depending on how that goes I may have big news next week! And no, its not that I am going to register, thats just a terrible idea for me.

Training news, I did a pretty fantastic run last night. Hopefully that means things are coming back. Now just to find time for my long runs...

The Year in 4 Minutes

2010-08-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

I saw a video like the one below this morning and decided to throw one together. I simply took all my iPhotos from this year and without real editing put them to music. I like the idea and may in the future try and put together something a little smoother.

My Summer so far in 1600 photos!

This weekend, Scuba diving!

Active Weekend

2010-08-16T14:31:00.001-07:00

No great weekend is accomplished without a little stupidity to make it fantastic! That describes my weekend pretty well.

Friday night was uneventful so lets skip straight to Saturday morning. Vancouver is a pleasant 26*C by 8AM and the apartment is easily 30+. Glad I'm sleeping with a down comforter! Mel was racing the Kits open water 3k swim race at 8:45 so after a quick breakfast we head down to the beach. I normally would have done this race, however, I wasn't sure if I would be around when the registration process was taking place and in the end it slipped by. Considering how much swimming I have done this month I am not overly upset by not competing. Mel raced well, the conditions were great, however from looking at the results I would say the course was a little long.

Mel about to start the swim

After socializing a little more after the race we headed back to Mel's because she had some chores to take care of (Med applications) so I made good use of this time and took nap #1 for the weekend. I've learned that when trying to nap, don't do it in a 35*C apartment in front of a window. When I woke up I was a little parched to say the least. Conveniently though Mel and I only had a long run on tap for the afternoon. After much persuasion (I don't like running in new places) I was convinced to run around Stanley Park instead of through the endowment lands at UBC. This turned out to be a great idea. Although there was very little shade and it was blistering hot outside, the seawall does offer water and bathrooms every mile.

We got back to Mel's around 6:30, got cleaned up quick and were out the door to meet friends for dinner. My friend Becky from McGill was visiting and flying out the next morning so we did what all smart endurance athletes do and drank heavily! Keeping in mind that I have barely been drinking all summer, Matt hasn't drank at all and Mel even less. We were a pretty lightweight group. After a good night and a new marathon goal set, we all stumbled home for what was sure to be a painful Sunday.

Although I'm a grown man with a lot to say, you would think I could hold my own against 100 pounds of persuasion, but apparently Mel has mind powers. About a week ago she mentioned the urge to ride a century ride (100miles/160.1km) at some point this summer. Since we have the scuba course next weekend (more on that later) and she leaves right after, this was our last weekend available before school starts up again.

Waking up joyfully hungover on a day with a humidex reaching 32*C I decided to ride my TT bike since I was too lazy to switch over the pedals. Immediately yesterdays run was felt in the legs. Not pain, just sluggish. We met up with a group totalling 8 at UBC and took off. Matt was sporting his brand new Argon 18 E112 and Winston had out the new P2. I wasn't the only one on a TT bike.

Bike Route

We ticked off the miles slowly and after only a few detours along the way managed to inch our way closer to 100 miles. Sure the legs go significantly more tired as we went, but on the plus side the hangover subsided with every pedal stroke! By 80 miles I could barely even remember I felt like vomit.

Just as we reached 80 miles we arrived in Steveston where we enjoyed some fantastic fish and chips at Pajo's! I had salmon, have never had a battered salmon before. It may have been the 6 hours of riding prior but it tasted FANTASTIC!

PAJO'S!

After a refreshing hour break we had the final hour back to home.

Upon arriving home I managed to take a quick nap on the couch on route to my bedroom to get changed. Roughly 45 minutes later (nap #2), I got up and made it to my room. Got changed and succumbed to my second nap of the night (nap 3#). This time being an hour long! Finally at 9 I got up for real, had a shower and proceeded to go directly back to bed.

Weekend total, 24k run, 162k bike 9 hours of training!

Considering how tired I was and I've done all this distance before, I can't imagine how tired Mel must have been since she also had a 3k ocean swim this weekend, missed a nap on Saturday and completed her longest bike ride! Hung over...

I'm impressed

BONUS JOKE!

Why did the cyclist ride to Steveston?

Just for the Halibut!

HA HA HA!

Training Like a Pro

2010-08-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week Rachel Kiers (elite ironman athlete) asked if anyone wanted to go do intervals at Iona on Thursday morning. Since I have decided that intervals are pretty much the aspect of my training that is really lacking I decided to take her up on this offer. That and the fact that she is a nice person and makes good company to ride with!

The plan: Meet at 8:30, ride to Iona and start intervals

10X5minutes race pace / 2 minutes easy

2X20 minutes just lower than race pace / 10 minutes easy.

On paper this didn't seem like such a hard ride. Race pace is for 2 hours 30 minutes of riding. I can easily make it 50 with breaks.

We started and for the first few I was feeling pretty good but then as I started to tire, the race from the past weekend was still lingering.

To say the least I was drafting pretty hard most of the ride. For the 5 minutes on, Rachel was holding a steady 37-42kph depending on wind direction while I drafter my best! Impressive!

After the 2X20 minutes I split off from Rachel and did the last 10 minutes of the ride home realizing that I had just completed 85km of riding in 2:35. Not bad for a practice day when you consider that had rest intervals and some cruise riding to get out to Iona and on the way back.

What I learned today though was that I don't push myself hard enough. These raises in intensity nearly killed me. I got home, made a shake and sat on my couch. Next thing I know I've napped for 80 minutes. Oops. Glad I decided to work from home today!

It was a good ride and hopefully my legs will appreciate it in the long run. But one thing is for sure, if I plan on training seriously this winter I will need to get my act together and learn how to suffer in intervals.

Sooke Race Report

2010-08-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

It hasn't even been one year since I raced Sooke, however, I've complained about that race enough that it might as well have been 10. To put it lightly, Sooke didn't go well last year, and I spared nothing in describing my distaste.

My track record at Sooke has been less than stellar. My first year, I ended up skipping it due to injury. My IT band was really tight and I decided the marathon was too important to risk it.

Last year, After a great summer of performances, I had let my fitness somewhat diminish, got to Sooke and expected a great performance which just wasn't within my ability. Mix in a few bike technical difficulties (chain getting stuck, wheel falling off) and it wasn't the best day.

As a result, it was difficult to get pumped up for Sunday.

Driving over to Victoria and Sooke on Saturday the weather was miserable, dumping rain. Fit nicely with my feelings for the race, however, after a very relaxing ferry ride and a casual trip out to Sooke the weather and my mood started to change.

Mel and I stayed at Nick's place after going to Boston Pizza with Winston, Andrew and Derrick we settled in a Nick's for the night.

Sunday morning the sky had cleared. It was still cool but the roads were dry.

We got there plenty early and set up. Mel was racing the Olympic which started 90 minutes after my race, so she had plenty of time, even getting in a bike ride warmup.

I got down to the start line with a positive attitude, prepared to make this my best race of the summer. Goggles on, standing waist deep in water, its announced that there is 10 seconds until the start. I splash water in my face and SNAP! Goggles break right across the nose. The old man beside me was very concerned. I swear had I not stopped him he would have tried to find an official to delay the race. Instead, I tossed my goggles back over everyones head to the beach and dove into the water like an amateur.

Mass starts without goggles... Not too much fun. I ran into EVERYONE! This swim was very reminiscent of my first years in triathlon. Unable to swim straight, hitting weeds because I realize I'm all the way to the left on the shore. Good times. To sight I had to do this fancy head whip to get the water out of my eyes before I could open them! Looked good. Mel ran into one of her friends at the start line and announced that her boyfriend was approaching. At seeing my spastic movement in the water, no goggles or cap (took off my cap because it was falling off due to the goggles having been under it), Mel decided it was wise to point out the swimmer behind me as her better half.

I came out of the water in 32 minutes... Pretty slow. I figured I should have been able to swim around 29 in the lake since it is calm with no current. Oh well.

Onto the bike. I wasn't able to see too well out of my right eye. It kept watering which made the first lap fun. The bike went well. Not much to report. Got passed a few times, and passed a few people. Fairly uneventful. The only big thing that happened was Katya Meyers caught me with 1/2 a lap left and I decided to try and stick to her because I knew she would run well off the bike and it would be nice to have a pace bunny.

2:36:44 for the bike, not bad considering the course. It was really windy and hilly.

Came into transition about 10 seconds back, flew through transition having the fastest T2 of the day, AGAIN! and was out on the run course. My legs still felt pretty good. Katya took off. We went through 2k in 7:45 which is much faster than I normally run off the bike. I weighed my options and decided that if I tried to stick to her I would probably blow up and really not enjoy the second half of the race. So despite having a Model/Pro Triathlete to follow, this just wasn't tempting enough to keep me on her heels.

Katya Meyers, she's on an elephant

I ended up finishing with a 1:36:20 Half. My legs felt pretty good, I was simply lacking intensity training this year due to the ankle injury. Had I been able to put in more intensity it wouldn't have been so foreign pushing the pace.

Finished the day in 4:45:47. Good enough for 9th place overall. The overall winner was way ahead, however, the race for 3rd was tight. Between myself and 3rd was only 6 minutes for 6 spots. I am pretty confident that without the swim issues, I really could have been a contender for the podium. I would have been that much closer to the front and that much more motivated to push.

The others on the team had a great day as well. Winston had his fastest run split in a half iron finishing in 2nd for the 20-24 age group in a time of 5:04 and Andrew finished in 3rd in the age group having had his fastest swim.

Mel had a great race in the Olympic achieving her first sub 50minute 10k off the bike which considering the wind and hills on the run course is impressive. Her time of 48 would have been much closer to 45-46 on a flat course! Unfortunately because the age groups are split up 20-29 for the Olympic distance she finished in her favorite spot: 4th! Otherwise she would have won or come 2nd in the 20-24 category.

I don't have many details of Derricks race, however, I know he was quite pleased with having the 11th fastest bike split in the Olympic!

Winston getting his medal

Andrew and I atop the podium

The boys were so overjoyed with the days events that they broke out into an impromptu dance party!

WOO!

Progress

2010-08-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks, at work my focus has been on writing my thesis. Its lots of fun!

I find it really hard to get started so as a result its the job that keeps being pushed back. PHD Comics has had a funny string of stories lately which describe my life quite accurately.

I've learned not to make to do lists...

Maybe I'll clean behind the fridge... Again.

Matt offered to give me the third book from the Millennium Trilogy. Only catch is its on computer so I could only read it on my laptop. This would be a BAD idea.

I get this question from Mel almost every day. I don't mind it, keeps me somewhat accountable, but at the same time I wish I had more to report...

In other news. Biking is feeling GREAT! I've ridden a lot the past two weeks and done nearly no running or swimming. Sooke this weekend should be interesting. Hopefully fitness carries over from one sport to the next. There isn't as big of a group going over this weekend which is a little disappointing, however, hopefully that means that it will be more relaxing.

This is my last half of the year, also it went terribly last year, so I'm hoping to take something back.

TRIPLE CROWN REPORT!

2010-08-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned this before many times, the Triple Crown! It finally arrived and did it ever meet expectations.

Quick recap. 175km of riding, climbing 3 mountains on the way! Don't be fooled by Grouse in the middle. It may be short but it still packed a punch.

In total we had 24 riders take off from UBC. Mostly from the UBC Tri Club, however, we had a few new guest take part in the ride as well!

Unfortunately the day was riddled with bad luck. Almost from the gun we encountered flats. Elliot Holtham got a flat requiring him to not only change tubes, but get a new wheel. Fortunately this was near his house so a small group of us waited for him while the majority of the group continued to Horseshoe Bay. This wasn't the best plan. It took nearly 15 minutes to get the wheel dealt with, 15 minutes which we made up all in the 30km ride to Horseshoe Bay. We were moving.

Getting to Horseshoe Bay we met up with the group and enjoyed our first rest stop.

Mel at first stop

The bad luck didn't stop with the flats, as Nathaniel who made the trip over from the Island in order to do the ride sat in bird poop!

GROSS!

Jump three weeks of forgetting to write this post!

Leaving Horseshoe bay and heading up to Cypress after a short regroup!

Mel riding along the highway

After a quick regroup at the base of Cypress and instead just went straight for it!

Leading the way

Jesse breaking away

We managed to get a group photo of everyone at the top. Unfortunately due to bathroom breaks we were missing Claire and Kory. Oops

Almost all of the group

Waiting for Flat at the base

Skip forward 50km to the top of Seymour. It was a hard ride up. A further few flats later and many bottles of water and in the end we had 14 people reach the summit!

Winstorm looking like he has the wind knocked out of him

Kim: "Mountains, where? I could do this all day"

All in all it was a really fun day. Legs were a little tired by the end but I think everyone who took part was definitely happy to have been involved and felt it was an achievement. The only downside to the day was the 8 flats we had between 24 people. Statistically that was far too high!

Tour de France Pool 2010 Results!

2010-07-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

As the tour has now ended. I am left with a significant lack of sleep and a feeling of emptiness only the Vuelta can begin to alleviate. The Tour is filled with so much excitement and just like that it is over.

I am pleased to say that I don't think I had a single stage ruined by spoilers giving away the results! I guess that what you get from waking up at 5:30-6:00AM every morning to watch!

Onto the Pool!

The PRIZE:

Bragging Rights.

Spoils of Victory - The winner will also receive a soon to be prestigious (and highly sought after) custom "TdF Pool 2010 Winner" image to display on blogs or websites - if you don't have a blog you can print it and put it on your refrigerator. Your friends will all be jealous!

Since I am not very good at photoshop. It will be last years image with some shotty altering to say 2010!

Also, local prize. We will go to All you can eat Sushi at BC Sushi sometime and winner gets paid for by the rest of the attendees. If I am the only person who shows up with the winner, well then it could also be a romantic date.

Without further ado...

The Questions

1. Lance is getting old, he just announced his retirement will be official after this years Tour. Predict Lance Armstrong's final placing in this year's two individual TTs. Add the numbers together. What is the sum? (ex: finished 1st and 3rd = 4)

(1 point)

A. 2-5

B. 6-9

C. 10-14

D. 15-20

E. 20+

2. Will Lance end up ahead of Frank Schleck in the GC? (1 point)

A. Ahead

B. Behind

3. How many stages will Cavendish win? (1 point)

A. 0-1

B. 2-3

C. 4-5

D. +5

4. What will the winning individuals avg speed be in the Individual time trial Stage 19 in km/h?

(ITT Stage details are HERE)

Fabian Cancellara 51.2kph!

-Within 1 km/h = 5 points

-Within 2 km/h = 3 points

-Within 3 km/h = 2 points

-Within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by >4 km/h = deduct a point

5. Who will win the polka dot jersey for King of the Mountains? (1 point)

Anthony Charteau, who would have guessed?

6. How many riders will be banned, fired for suspicion, or otherwise ejected due to doping related issues? (1 point)

Only during the race are riders counted (July 4th to Finish in Paris)

A. 0-2

B. 2-4

C. 4-6

D. 6+

7. Which team will finish the tour with the most riders? (1 point)

ASTANA

CAISSE D’EPARGNE

FDJ

LIQUIGAS - DOIMO

TEAM RADIOSHACK

BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM

8. What will the average speed bein km/h for Stage 17 finishing on the Col du Tourmalet.

Andy Schleck 34.4kph

-within 1 km/h = 5 points

-within 3 km/h = 3 points

-within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by 4+ = deduct a point

9. What will the margin of victory be in the GC? (The margin in minutes and seconds between winner and runner-up.)

(1 point)

A. 0-1 minute

B. 1:01 - 2:10

C. 2:11 - 3:20

D. 3:21 - 4:30

E. 4:30 - 5:40

F. 5:41 +

10. Who will win the GC? (1 point)

ALBERTADOR!

11. Who will win the Green Jersey? (1 point)

ALE-JET

12. Which OLN broadcaster will win the competition they have each year to predict winners? (1 point)

A. Paul Sherwen

B. Craig Hummer

C. Phil Ligget

D. Bob Roll

13. Will it rain during any of the TTs? There are 2... (1 point)

A. YES

B. NO

14. Who will end up being the team leader for Saxo Bank? (1 point)

A) Frank Schleck

B) Andy Schleck

15. What is the second longest stage of this year's tour? (1 point)

Stage 1 or day 2

16) Will Fabian Cancellara ride away from the competition again for a stage victory. (1 point)

17) Will Jens Voigt bring the pain? (1 point)

Can Vince lick his elbow?

18) How many useless full day escapes will Sylvain Chavanel from Quick Step be involved in?

... 0 This wasn't even an option. What a Tour for Chavanel!

A) 1

B) 2

C) 3

D) 4

E) 5+

How did you do?

BAM!

Dave Stephens	15
Jared Penner	15
Winston Guo	13
Melanie van Soeren	11
Nick Gottfried	11
Matt Reeve	11
Barry Claman	9
Sherwood Plant	8
Lauren Sagadore	6

Since I and the others don't want to pay for Sushi for 2 people, the award will be shared! Half off All you can eat Sushi! I'll make a facebook event to organize.

Thanks for playing everyone and I hope you enjoyed the Tour.

Next Challenge

2010-07-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

What have I gotten myself into?

This will be my 2nd attempt at a marathon, there are quite a few members of the Tri club doing this race, so it should be pretty fun.

I'm not even going to pretend that I don't have goals already set out, last time I didn't train enough, and tried to go for 3 hours. Well this time I guess I will need to get my act together.

Guess its time to start running again...

Surviving the Triple Crown

2010-07-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt that the biggest challenge on Saturday is going to be the HEAT! With the forecast being for 28-30*C (humidex 33-35*C), while this isn't too scary for the rest of Canada, I know a lot of people in Vancouver are sweating figurative and literal bullets at the potential of a hot day in the saddle. When the thermometer passes 20*C that is usually considered "hot".

1) Heat: The first tip for surviving the Triple Crown battling the heat. Hydration will be key. We have 4 planned stops en route: Horseshoe Bay (36km), Cypress (60km), Seymour (111/139km). I would expect everyone to try and go through 2 bottles between each of these stations. If you are concerned that this is not enough, bring a 3rd bottle and keep it in the back pocket of your bike jersey. This will sound ridiculous, going through 11L of liquid in a day, but believe me, it won't be hard to get through it.

As a little pre-emptive strike, freezing your first bottles isn't a bad idea either.

2) Sun protection: The sun will be out and we will probably have a clear blue day. Sunscreen on your ears and face is a smart ideal. A tan looks great, but a big red nose isn't exactly sexy.

3) Nutrition. In addition to hydration, this is going to be a 180km ride. Burning a conservative 600 calories an hour, be prepared to be hungry. Everyone should have a plan for a minimum of 2000 calories to be consumed during the ride. It will be next to impossible to carry all of this, so bring money to buy food from a bakery or gas station. In addition to this, carb load. That isn't just for races. So starting today, you should be upping the carb intake to make sure all your fuelling needs are met.

4) Endurance: The last is more just common sense. This is going to be a really long ride, anyone thinking of hammering up the first climb is going to get taught a lesson come the end of the day. Pace yourself and don't be shy if you need to sit on someones wheel.

Triple Crown: Saturday July 10th 2010

Leave at 8AM from Team Office at UBC outside the SUB.

Race Reports!

2010-07-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

Boy! So BUSY! What has been preventing me from writing my blog? Is it too much time writing my Thesis that I am fed up with typing? Unfortunately no. But on that note, I have started writing and have a group of pages started. Hopefully more to be written in the days to come.

Back to business. I didn't write a race report for Shawnigan or Victoria, because, well quite frankly, they didn't go all that well.

In a nutshel: Shawnigan, coldest race I have ever done, feet frozen the entire time I was on the bike and until 5k into the run. Had a decent considering the amount of training I have done swim and bike. Came off bike in 8th and decided to quit the run because my ankle wasn't doing great. Smartest race decision of the day. Also my first DNF. Shoot. On the plus side I did get to run in with Mel since she was just finishing up the Olympic race as I quit the half.

Hey, its Mel! And who is that good looking guy behind her? I swear I'm just watching my footing, I did have a sprained ankle after all.

On to Victoria. Quick and simple; Painful. I woke up Friday before the race with the start of a cold, and it just kept getting worse. By Sunday, I was congested and coughing and had a sore throat. This cold was bad enough that I actually took Monday-Tuesday off from work (Making them my 3rd and 4th sick day in 3 years).

Knowing that with zero training since Shawnigan, and a week of drinking at home that this wasn't going to be a great race, I had a fairly relaxed attitude towards it. When we were late leaving Sunday morning and only showed up to the race 30 minutes before the gun, No problem! When they called 1 minute to go before the start and I still hadn't started putting my wetsuit on, no problem! The cannon went off and I quickly got a very stressed spectator to zip up the suit and off I went. The swim as expected, not great. I had to manage my way through 400 people to get up to my pace. The bike, ouch. Just had nothing. Was 14 minutes slower than last year on the bike. Was coughing up a lung. The run, stopped and sat in transition to put on my ankle brace while my friends heckled me, and then started the slow jog. Mel training for a marathon ran the second lap with me, it went something like this:

Vince km 11: Mel, you set the pace, I don't want to go at a speed that is too fast for you since I am just jogging this for training

km 14: Vince realizes he is actually slowing down Mel and not the other way around.

km 15: Vince has to walk for a minute while Mel is forced to wait.

Despite how grumpy I was, it was nice to have company on the run.

Finished the race in 5:02. Slowest Half Iron in the books, but finished which I guess was my best result of the year...

I got over the cold and managed to get a few training sessions in, physio once or twice, and then before I knew it, Vancouver!

I'll put a little more details here. Had a great morning. Race site nice and early, got in the water for a warm up. It was a beach start which I have only ever done twice (Vancouver past two years). There was a false start, this made everyone take a few steps run and then stop and come back. In doing so, I went from 1-2nd row to 4th. Not ideal since despite my being a slow swimmer this year, I am still decent and shouldn't start behind too many people.

Moments after the false start

This was by far the roughest swim I have ever done. I was getting pummelled. The water was wavy and people were thrashing. I got to the first buoy and someone walloped me in the face. Nice! After 300m it started to spread out and despite swallowing half the pacific, I had a great time. At 600m I noticed that Amy Kirkham was right next to me and I decided to keep her at my side for the rest of the swim, I knew she was going to work hard, and it was nice not to focus solely on chasing people down.

Getting punched by a girl in the swim

Onto the bike, I felt terrible. I always do for the first 20-30k. After 1.5 laps (of 4) I started getting into a groove and was working well. I lost 80 seconds on Amy by 40k and managed to catch up that 80 seconds by 80k and we rode into transition more or less together. She had an awesome race finishing 3rd overall in the Women's pro field. My bike splits were nice and even. Fastest lap 34.6kph and slowest lap 34.48kph. Not too bad. There was a girls relay team from the club who very modestly stated that they were going to pass all the guys doing the Half. I would be lying if I said this hadn't kicked my ass in gear when I saw Kim closing down on me after the first lap of the bike.

Getting to the run I decided that I wasn't going to hammer. Amy caught up to me by 1k and was really moving (running is her strength). Normally I would have tried to stay with her, but with circumstances this year that just wasn't in the cards. Trying to avoid what happened in Victoria, I kept it controlled but mainly just focused on not twisting my ankle and getting in enough nutrient. Finished the run in a respectable 4:41 pace, for a half iron time of 4:42:##.

This was a really fun race because we had lots of teammates from UBC at it. The whole time I was running I rarely went 5 minutes without seeing someone I knew who was cheering me on. Especially the group of girls who had raced earlier in the morning who were all at the finish line. A guy I was running with made a remark that I sped up each time we went by.

The positive note of the day. I am able to run again. My ankle didn't feel great, but gave me no real problems, so after 10 weeks of nothing, I am finally able to try and rebuild again. I have 5 weeks until Sooke, and lets hope I can bring that 4:41/km pace down closer to 4.

If I had more energy I would mentioned everyone who raced. There were a lot of UBCTC first timers, and a lot of new PB's. So I will just group you all together and congratulate everyone at once on making it an awesome day!

Also, check out 5:10 into THIS video!!!

Hope this wasn't too boring. And maybe now that I am caught up. I'll post more. And if not, I'll blame it on my Thesis!

Greg Lemond

2010-07-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

Boy Greg Lemond is a jerk sometimes. He really can't get over the fact that Lance Armstrong was better than him:

Greg Lemond Prediction of Lance in the upcoming Tour de France:

"My Lance Armstrong prediction? Either he will not start or he will pull out just before the race enters France. I have a feeling that the world of cycling is about to change for the better."

Tour de France starts tomorrow!!!

Tour de France Pool 2010!

2010-06-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

As winner of the Tour de France Pool 2009 held by Meyrick Jones, I decided to step up and copy all of his questions from last year and apply them to this years tour! Very original I know.

How to play:

1. Answer the 18 questions below in an EMAIL. They are mostly multiple choice... easy peasy...

2. Send the e-mail to me at the address below:

vlavallee @ gmail.com

3. Lay your smack talk down in the comments section below if you wish....

4. Watch the Tour and enjoy!

5. Winner is the respondent with the most points after the final stage on the Champs-Élysées.

6. Have your votes in before the first racer starts on Saturday.

7. Anyone who tells me the results of a stage before I have been able to watch it, is automatically disqualified.

The PRIZE:

Bragging Rights.

Since I am not very good at photoshop. It will be last years image with some shotty altering to say 2010!

Without further ado...

The Questions

(1 point)

A. 2-5

B. 6-9

C. 10-14

D. 15-20

E. 20+

2. Will Lance end up ahead of Frank Schleck in the GC? (1 point)

A. Ahead

B. Behind

3. How many stages will Cavendish win? (1 point)

A. 0-1

B. 2-3

C. 4-5

D. 5+

4. What will the winning individuals avg speed be in the Individual time trial Stage 19 in km/h?

(ITT Stage details are HERE)

-Within 1 km/h = 5 points

-Within 2 km/h = 3 points

-Within 3 km/h = 2 points

-Within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by >4 km/h = deduct a point

5. Who will win the polka dot jersey for King of the Mountains? (1 point)

6. How many riders will be banned, fired for suspicion, or otherwise ejected due to doping related issues? (1 point)

Only during the race are riders counted (July 4th to Finish in Paris)

A. 0-2

B. 2-4

C. 4-6

D. 6+

7. Which team will finish the tour with the most riders? (1 point)

8. What will the average speed bein km/h for Stage 17 finishing on the Col du Tourmalet.

-within 1 km/h = 5 points

-within 3 km/h = 3 points

-within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by 4+ = deduct a point

9. What will the margin of victory be in the GC? (The margin in minutes and seconds between winner and runner-up.)

(1 point)

A. 0-1 minute

B. 1:01 - 2:10

C. 2:11 - 3:20

D. 3:21 - 4:30

E. 4:30 - 5:40

F. 5:41 +

10. Who will win the GC? (1 point)

11. Who will win the Green Jersey? (1 point)

12. Which OLN broadcaster will win the competition they have each year to predict winners? (1 point)

A. Paul Sherwen

B. Craig Hummer

C. Phil Ligget

D. Bob Roll

13. Will it rain during any of the TTs? There are 2... (1 point)

A. YES

B. NO

14. Who will end up being the team leader for Saxo Bank? (1 point)

A) Frank Schleck

B) Andy Schleck

15. What is the second longest stage of this year's tour? (1 point)

16) Will Fabian Cancellara ride away from the competition again for a stage victory. (1 point)

17) Will Jens Voigt bring the pain? (1 point)

18) How many useless full day escapes will Sylvain Chavanel from Quick Step be involved in?

A) 1

B) 2

C) 3

D) 4

E) 5+

Good Luck!

Catching Up

2010-06-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

I had a great Victoria Day weekend and decided I didn't want to let it slip by without describing.

Ride 1) 50k

The weekend started off with the now customary hammer ride Friday night. We had a newcomer this week with Derrick Lee. I think he enjoyed it despite the screaming pain in his legs and the screaming in his ears (HAMMER RIDE!).

Ride 2) 75km

To follow this up did a great bike ride Saturday morning. A group of 7 of us headed out to Horseshoe bay/ Whitecliff. It was a little cold of a morning, however, I opted against jacket and legwarmers and apart from a few short moments didn't find the cold too much. This was a great ride and Winston guided the way as the group of us followed. This turned out to be the longest ride ever for a few people. The group somewhat shattered on the way back as people turned off to go home or do more mileage.

Group arriving in Whitecliff Park

Winston posing at the Cliff

In the end it was only Mel and I riding through Stanley Park and along Beach road. As long as I have been in Vancouver I don't think I have done a Saturday morning ride without passing the hot dog stand on my way home and wishing that could stop and get one. Well this day Mel made a passing comment about the hot dog smell and that was all the excuse I needed to stop. After 3 years in Vancouver I finally stopped for a hot dog.

Mel and I with the most delicious hot dogs ever!

Tip, want to make food taste good. Ride 70km before eating

Ride 3) Cancelled, it was raining and I didn't want to get wet.

Ride 4) 162km!!!

On the Monday holiday a group of 6 of us attacked the north shore. Starting with Seymour, followed by some Indian River road and then a quick jaunt to Horseshoe Bay. As I was heading home over the Burrard Bridge saw Mel and Brittany heading the other way and decided to meet up with them and finish of my century ride. I was pretty surprised at how good my legs felt. I took Seymour pretty strong (dumb with lots of surges but strong) and by the end of the day my only problem was leg cramps however my muscles felt great and refreshed.

Weekend total: 287km. Pretty good.

When I add up all my mileage for the month of May I did 900.5km of riding. Not bad for a month with two weekend races!

A little excessive..

2010-06-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

So I came across this on Bruce Schneiner's blog. A lot of interesting facts there, however, this seemed ridiculous.

The Canadian government disclosed Tuesday that the total price tag to police the elite Group of Eight meeting in Muskoka, as well as the bigger-tent Group of 20 summit starting a day later in downtown Toronto, has already climbed to more than $833-million. It said it’s preparing to spend up to $930-million for the three days of meetings that start June 25.
That price tag is more than 20 times the total reported cost for the April, 2009, G20 summit in Britain, with the government estimating a cost of $30-million, and seems much higher than security costs at previous summits the Gleneagles G8 summit in Scotland, 2005, was reported to have spent $110-million on security, while the estimate for the 2008 G8 gathering in Japan was $381-million.

These numbers are crazy. There simply isn't any justification for this kind of spending.

By comparison, the estimated total cost of security for the 17-day 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was just over $898-million.

This, too. Think of all the actual security you can buy for that money.

Updates: Ankle / Sun Run / UBC TRI

2010-05-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

Lots of updates so I will make this brief. My ankle is slowly getting better. I can now bike on it more or less 100%. Going up steep hills still sucks because I can't ankle with my left foot, but oh well, fortunately this only means I don't win the King of the Mountain sprints with my friends out on hammer rides.

There is still some swelling, however, I am able to put full pressure on my toes which means I can bike and run more or less naturally.

As such, I had the Sun Run last week. Upon telling my physio this, she was not overly excited to tell me that I could get back to racing right away. With plenty of nagging I was told provided I went out and bought an ankle brace, that I could jog it but not push it and risk more injury. With Shawnigan Lake only 3 weeks away, this was an acceptable compromise.

This actually worked out really well. Because in not racing, I was able to run the race with Mel and pace her to a new PB! She wanted to go in the range of 44 minutes, but her previous PB was 45:XX so anything below that would obviously be a success, especially with having run the Vancouver half marathon the week before in 1:39:14!

This was definitely the most enjoyable 10k race I have ever done. Don't get me wrong, running a pb is fun, but that HURTS! Being able to encourage Mel through the run and take a race casually was a nice change.

In the end we ran 44:21, a huge PB for her, and I managed to finish the run without any pain which was a huge plus for me!

Many of our friends thought it was fun to joke that we matched. The shirts was on purpose, the shorts and shoes was somewhat accidental though.

Silly Sun Run people thinking that by putting writing on the photos that I won't steal them

After a week of training, mostly in the pool, putting in my biggest week of the season at 9.4km (Including the race) WOW ALL PULL! I was feeling a little more ready for the UBC Triathlon. I was given the same instructions as before. I could race but don't take any stupid risks on the swim/run.

PUMPED!

The swim sucked. I was really slow and had in my head that I was just cruising so as soon as anyone touched me, I slowed down and let them pass. My swim time was roughly 24:25, but this includes easily 30 seconds of me waiting for people to pass while I stand at the wall.

Check out that consistency! (note sarcasm) Also, read from bottom to top, 15 being my last 100

15- 1:38:20
14- 1:38:10
13- 1:48:10
12- 1:36:80
11- 1:36:20
10- 1:36:10
9- 1:29:60
8- 1:37.9
7- 1:38:30
6- 1:40:20
5- 1:37:3
4- 1:35:40
3- 1:42:00
2- 1:33:40
1- 1:22:70

#13... Yikes, don't know what happened there.

I opted to race in a speedo because I don't like swimming in a tri suit and decided that since I was cruising the swim, what was a few extra seconds in transition really going to cost me. This turned out to be a mistake as there was some minor (MAJOR) discomfort after about 30km on the bike. But on the plus side, swimming in a speedo did offer for photos like this:

No big deal

The bike was uneventful. I wasn't in as good of shape as I would have hoped, but the only thing that hurt here was my pride. Averaged in the range of 35-36, haven't gotten my exact time yet.

Then onto the run! I decided early that the run would be a cruise and I would only up the pace if my ankle felt perfect. I started off running quickly but not overdoing it. Thanks to a few poorly marked first km I thought I was flying! Went through 4km in 14:30!!! As a result, and seeing as how I was still making up quite a bit of ground on people I decided that my ankle was doing great and it was time to put on the pressure. I really upped the intensity and managed to run down 3-4 people ahead of me, finishing in 11th place overall and 6th in my age group (Why oh why did I have to get older!) But the surprise of the day was my run. The course according to multiple GPS was 10.7-11km long. As a result this means I was hovering in the 40 minute range for the run on a 10k. I have never run sub 40 on a 10k in a triathlon, and considering I ran the first 4k easy I was quite pleased with this. Shows that despite the injury and no running for 3 weeks that I haven't lost too much.

You may not be able to tell from this photo, but I am actually quite pleased with the race!

Best move of the day: Getting water at 500m to go and styling my hair!

Many other UBC TC members raced today.

Mel Nathaniel and Mike in their first Olympic distance triathlons both winning medals in their age group and mocking me for only finishing in 6th.

Along with Karin, Tiger and Jesse racing their first triathlons!

And Jared in his first SHORT! I knew you could do it!

PHOTOS! In no particular order!

Jesse and Tiger coming off the bike

Myself, Nathaniel and Mike getting ready for the ELITE heat!

Nathaniel pre race setting up transition

Storm too fast for the camera again!

Karin and Rachel

Mel Running down to her bike after the swim

Mel post race. Still having fun?

I'm sure I've missed some people, sorry about that. And big thanks to Scott and Eddy for taking all the photos!

Suffering

2010-05-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

This morning Andrew Wight and I went for an early morning ride. Although it turned into a beautiful day in Vancouver, it started out pretty cold (1-2*C). Seeing the sunshine I was unprepared for this which resulted in some painful fingers. While out on the ride I just had to keep reminding myself of a quote that I jokingly mocked a friend with a few weeks back:

"There is no bad weather, only soft people"

With that in mind, I just plugged along trying my best not to complain. As I arrived home despite the 8 minutes it took me to get my keys out of my back pocket and the following 4 minutes to open my front door, it was a good ride. I was satisfied with having gotten out of bed early (6:15) and accomplished my ride before work.

Sure enough I got home and checked my e-mail and google reader, and this was the first listing to pop up.

I've quoted the best part below:

After the finish all the suffering turns to memories of pleasure, and the greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is Nature’s pay back to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you.’ Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few suitors these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms she rewards passionately.

-Tim Krabbe (excerpt from The Rider, 1978)

Good timing.

BLERG!

2010-04-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

So everything was going well with training, did a LONG run on the weekend and body was feeling confident and strong. Then Tuesday I had to go and be a clutz and roll my ankle. Details not necessary, but from the photo below you can see the outcome.

Nice and Puffy, and Black and Blue!

For comparison of my normal ankle, see here

I was having a conversation with my mom not 20 minutes before this happened saying that I wasn't planning on racing much this summer, and with yet another setback in my training, that seems like a good idea. This just sucks because I had told Mel that I would run the Vancouver Half Marathon this weekend with her to pace. Won't be doing that now... And my chances of winning the beer mile this weekend are also significantly decreased!

Got X-Rays done yesterday, they came up with nothing broken which is good, and am going to physio tomorrow morning.

BLERG!

Wake Up Call

2010-04-23T18:55:00.001-07:00

Last night went out for a ride. Was going to be a quick and easy 25k before doing a short run. While out on my ride a friend of mine, Eric Suess who I have mentioned before FLEW by me on his bike. He was doing intervals so I decided to stick with him in his draft for as long as I could. Well, that didn't last too long. Last summer we were pretty much tied on the bike. It would appear as though that is no longer the case. I guess I need to get myself back in gear or else it will be a long summer.

In other news, my friend Kory is running his first Ultramarathon (50 miles / 80km) this weekend in Olympia Washington. Myself, his wife and a friend from the states are all going to watch/cheer on and crew the race. I'm pretty excited. Full report when I get back!

TEST WEEK!

2010-04-22T15:36:00.001-07:00

I have many times mentioned the UBC Tri Club race series which unfortnuately I had to miss much of due to ~~stupidity...~~ my concussion.

As a result I decided to make up all the events I had missed out on in one action packed week!

Event #1, Monday evening, 5km run Time Trial:

I was going into the 5k with high hopes right before the concussion. Unfortunately those goals were no longer anywhere near realistic as a result of 6 weeks off. I started off fairly strong, probably too fast running my first km in 3:23. I quickly settled in and ran 2k in 7 minutes and then 3k in 10:40 meaning I was holding nice steady 3:40 pace from there. Unfortunately this is where it started to hurt. 3:50 for my 4th km bringing me in at 15:30 and the wheels started to fall off. I managed to scrape it together and finished in 18:26. Last semester 5k time: 18:08

I'm pretty happy with that but looking at my pace times it shows two things. First I went out too hard... And second that I completely fell apart. I want to give this another shot in a few weeks time when I am feeling more in running shape.

Event #2, Wednesday evening, Mile Run:

Weather for the mile was terrible. Dumping rain, cold and REALLY windy. This was the night when all the boats washed up to the shore in Vancouver. Not exactly ideal conditions to be running a mile in. I knew this one was going to hurt. My legs were still really stiff/heavy from Monday's effort, but I gave it a go anyways since the rest of the club was running it that night.

Lap 1 (72) Lap 2 (80) Lap 3(81) Lap 4 (83) Total 5:17

Matt and Vince Running the Mile

Again, my last semester time was 5:13 so not as good, however, conditions were significantly worse, and considering I had run the 5k only two days prior I will take it. Just to show the difference in my legs. my opening km in the mile was in 3:22 where as my opener for the 5k was 3:23. I feel as though i could put a lot more into this as well. Again, another task for a sunny day in a few weeks.

Event #3, Friday Evening, 10.2km Bike TT

I can't complain about conditions at all this time. They were great. Minor headwind heading out to the spit at Iona but then a great tailwind on the way back. Sum it up. went 16:22. Last semester I went 15:47 but that was fully decked out in triathlon geekery (disk, aerohelmet) whereas this day I was on my TT bike but riding in normal attire. So all considering happy and thing this was a good sign that my riding hasn't suffered too much.

Event #4, Saturday AM 8.2k Bike - 1.8k Run

This event was again another team one. The bike was somewhat of a gongshow as it started out with a mass start and so was just a hammerfest for the entire 8k. I think we finished the 8km in 11-12 minutes to give an idea of the pace we were holding. I was pretty happy, I came off the bike in 3rd just behind Matt and Barry. Onto the run I never caught up but also didn't give up any spots. Realizing I wasn't going to catch Matt and Barry I shut it down into control mode making sure that no one caught up from behind. Finishing in 19:18, good enough for 3rd.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the week and I'm confident if I had spread out the events a little more that they would have gone even better. But that being said now I know if I want to have a test week again in the future, I will have a reference for my ability with little recovery time.

Thats all for now. My next post will be describing a fundraiser I just took part in and will be a little more Risqué

Concussion, 2 Month Later

2010-04-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

As I demonstrated last week with Storm the Wall, my concussion is pretty much gone. I am able to train full time now and haven't had any symptoms for a few weeks now. That being said my fitness is lacking.

A few days after getting my concussion I missed out on a 5k run TT at the track. I was really hoping for some good numbers that day. With the UBCTC race series wrapping up this coming weekend I really wanted to get my 5k in.

Net result, coincidentally on the 2 month anniversary of my concussion, Lauren and I went out to the track and I ran a solo 5k while she timed me.

The weather wasn't too bad, temperature was good, no rain, and a descent bit or wind, but nothing to complain about.

I started off feeling good, 3:22 first km and managed to hold steady 89-90 second laps up until roughly 2.5k.

I went through 2k in 7:00 and 3k in 10:50. I wanted to beat Matt Reeve's time of 18:28 which meant I needed to run two 3:50km. Should be easy, however, my lungs and legs decided otherwise. My lap times were slipping up to 95 seconds for a couple of them. Hitting 800 to go at 15:30 I just wanted to pull out a few sub 90.

In the end I put together a pretty solid 18:26. Pretty happy considering the training I've done since the concussion, however, its upsetting because I feel that prior to the concussion this would have been an easy task where as last nights run nearly killed me.

I hope to do another one in a month or two and really gauge my fitness. Hopefully this is just the beginning.

Thanks to Lauren for coming out and timing and cheering me on.

STORM THE WALL - Athlete Profiles

2010-04-01T00:58:00.001-07:00

With the finals in both the Ironman and Ironwomen division only a dozen hours away, an athlete profile seems appropriate, as such the daily recaps will be a little delayed. With the largest UBCTC showing in Storm the Wall history, a few podiums are guaranteed along with a strong potential for the top spot in both the male and female division. As mentioned previously, the girls have out-performed the guys with 5 advancing to the finals where as in the mens division only three made it forward.

As such, I shall profile the girls first!

Yup, everyone here looks female

In no particular order, I will begin by profiling the SWIMMERS:

RACHEL SCHOELER: Strength clearly in the swim. Expected to be the first to exit the water. Rachel will need to put together a strong bike run combo in order to maintain her lead. Demonstrating that she has the legs two semesters in a row in the UBCTC Aquathon, Rachel is a strong favourite for the win.

MELANIE THOMPSON: A swimmer turned triathlete could almost be characterized as an all rounder if it weren't for her dominant swim. Although she may be a few strokes back from Rachel out of the pool, her triathlon experience on the bike and run will show to be a fearsome adversary to all challengers.

Next we move into the second category of competitor: THE ALL ROUNDER

At the elite level potentially the largest threat. Will this be the case in STORM THE WALL?

BRITTANY BUCHANAN: Sneaking up on her competitors, Brittany is strong in all three events slowly stalking the leaders until reaching the wall she is upon them. It has been mentioned that Brittany is the silent hunter as her shoes create no sound as she runs surprising many as she come up behind them. Not a Storm the Wall freshman, Brittany will put together a strong race.

MELANIE VAN SOEREN: After a few quick lessons on cornering from Sherwood, Melanie demonstrated that her bike does in fact follow her line of sight two weeks ago on the crit course. Working on the technical aspects of the bike has made her a real threat on the bike. Put together with a solid swim-run and a most spectacular wall execution could put Mel ahead of the rest.

And finally the RUNNER:

CLAIRE H: Running people down is her specialty. Coming out of the water in the tail end of a race would typically worry most triathletes, however, Claire has such a dominant run that she easily catches up much of her deficit on the first uphill sprint. Coming in with the fastest UBCTC female time to the wall, Claire will be running with each other girl in her sights, hoping to pick them off one by one.

The woman's champion could be any one of them. With only 23 seconds separating these five in their semifinal, its sure to be an exciting race!

Nice Legs Ladies

The mens field is more simple, there are only two types of competitor in the mens field. The Swimmers and the all rounders.

THE SWIMMER:

NATHANIEL JANZEN: Main hopes ride in his ability to demolish the field in the swim. Match to that a huge improvement in his biking and running over the past year and he is a sure threat. Having reached the wall the fastest all week, Nathaniel will just have to make sure he makes his way over the wall. With his 4th place finish last year, he definitely will be looking to move up.

THE ALL ROUNDER

MATT REEVE: Matt is a workhorse plain and simple. Although his fitness may not be at its prime, you can pretty much guarantee that he will bring the hurt when the time comes. This mental toughness is what won him second place in the Aquathon as he broke Vincent's spirits on the run. Will the same be done in the final by putting together a strong swim/bike/run combo?

VINCENT LAVALLEE: NUFF SAID!

After tomorrow, will these three men still be friends?

364 days of smack talk, finally realized!

Also, is Nathaniel smacking Matt's ass?

Storm the Wall - Day 2

2010-03-30T21:05:00.001-07:00

Note: I apologize for the terrible grammar, this post was long and has not been edited.

With the weather being the focus of most peoples attention, it was hard to get psyched up for a good race when hypothermia threatened the athletes. A few teams were fortunately enough to race early in the morning before the downpour really came.

After a disappointing Sunday of no racing, Melanie van Soeren, on her female team raced early in the first heat of the day to avoid the terrible weather. Although there was more wind in the morning, the sideways slanting rain was not yet a factor. With this, Melanie put together a strong bike portion of the relay, helping her team reach the wall in first. Demonstrating that she had learned a few tricks from her cheerleading Ironwoman partner, Mel's team Victorious Secret put together a nice pyramid and managed to get over the wall in first place advancing to the semi final on Wednesday at 1:45pm.

Another UBCTC member, Jesse Chao raced on a mens team, Bio Gangsters. Having not witnessed this races, I don't have too much to report, however, they successfully advanced to the semi finals on Tuesday.

Once these morning races were out of the way, we moved onto everyones favourite part of Storm the Wall; ~~Vincent in an ill fitting speedo...~~ the Ironperson races. The UBCTC had a very large contention of athletes in the preliminary rounds of the Ironperson races with 18 athletes taking part.

I will begin by explaining the woman's heats. And why might you ask? Because they KICKED ASS! I will give away the punchline. EVERY GIRL moved on to semi finals!

Showing some UBCTC teamwork, Celeste was privileged enough to have a Majestic wall guy in Scott Chris! In doing so, Celeste along with Karin and Rachel showed the first heat of woman what it means to be a triathlete! Rachel finishing with an impressive 2nd place finish.

The Majestic and Celeste

Rachel running down the finish

Lauren Sagadore was without UBCTC members in her heat, yet this didn't prevent our domination of the field as she finished comfortably in first place despite spraining her ankle little over a week ago. How did she sprain her ankle? You'll have to ask her yourself.

In the third woman's heat there was a most exciting duel among the woman as Melanie Thompson and Claire Haddock traded off first place. Melanie winning easily on the swim, was caught up on the run up to the bike, however, manage to overtake Claire once again on the 9 laps of the bike. Finally with 400 meters left in the run Mel was still out in the lead, being caught only as she cornered out towards the wall. As a result of an unfortunate tumble on her head, Mel lost some precious time at the wall, ensuring Claire with the victory.

Mel with the girls team

I have no details of this race...

The final female race of the day had two more UBCTC members. With Melanie van Soeren and Brittany Buchanan racing. These two along with a surprising unknown made for an exciting race. Brittany put together a strong swim/bike combo in order to hold off the chasers, as Mel managed to pull back the gap arriving at the wall shortly after. With a shaky attack at the wall, precious seconds were lost, however, a UBCTC sweep was possible here as well.

Conclusion of the girls race, They rocked it! And are all competing Wednesday at 11 and 11:05. Come see if the 8 girls can take over qualifying for the final in awesome UBCTC fashion.

On to the men's race:

Unfortunately due to the poor weather, nearly no photos of these heroic attempts were documented. First time ironmen Winston Guo and Andrew Wight were in the first heat along with Vincent Lavallee. Along with these three, Ironman finisher #6 from 2009 and one time UBCTC beer mile participant Drew Senay was also in that first heat. Rain was falling strong and this made for some precarious corners on the bike. As these four left the bike, they were placed 1-4 in the field. Winston managing to hold his own, despite being on crutches on Friday, only 3 days earlier.

Vincent and Drew heading into one of the last laps

Andrew Wight Dismount

Unfortunately, due to the poor weather, only Drew and Vincent (who many claimed cheated by using Kory as his wall guy) managed to get over the wall. A sign of things to come.

Andrew Wight JUMP!

Kory's reach

In the second heat, the UBCTC Men had hopes in a single athlete, Nathaniel Janzen. Nathaniel planned on "killing the swim" and then cruising from there. He was pleased when he exited the water. This amphibious triathlete has no problem with being wet, as such was excited to get into the rain. Just look at the speed in which he ran out!

Lightning Fast!

Nathaniel managed to lap every athlete in the pool, and carried that lead to victory, being the second UBCTC member to lap the field by the end of the bike!

Next up was Matt Reeve. Matt was attempting a new race strategy. After losing to Vincent last year, he claimed it was simply because Vincent "bought his speed", something we have clearly never seem him do before. As such Matt did a full triathlon transition, changing into his newl y acquired triathlon biking shoes. Did this make a difference? Well, he became the third UBCTC man to lap the field in his heat. I would say it didn't hurt. Matt managed to reach the wall in the fastest time of the day in 15:34 beating out all other men and most relay teams.

There was a short intermission when the women and more teams went and allowed everyone to get rained on a little more. Finally the last of the UBCTC men raced. This included Scott Chris who demolished the field (lapping most if not all?) and reaching the wall well ahead of second. Standing in the crowd, this spectator overheard two girls talking about his massive lead, to which they said: "These triathletes have been killing it all day!" Well done UBCTC.

Unfortunately, with the relentless rain, our beloved Majestic Eagle was unable to connect and get over the wall. A disappointment for all. Andrew Wight was Scott's wall guy giving his best efforts, but with the rain, it was just too much to overcome.

The Majestic gazing at the wall

In an impressive show of fitness, Derrick Lee, once again reached the wall first in his heat. Using a different technique than many, he showed up with a chalk bag and dusted up the wall along with his hand. After a few very close connections, he managed to connect with his wall guy and knowing Derrick's rock climbing background you knew he wasn't letting go, becoming the 4th UBCTC member to advance to the semi final.

Unfortunately, Dan Clouston raced later in the day when this blogger had to return to work, and as such knows very little about his race. I can say however though that among the field, he continued the streak held by UBCTC and reached the wall first, however, due to the worsening weather was unable to make it over the wall. This is no discredit to him however, for in the last two heats of the day only a single guy made it over the wall and his time was NOT impressive.

All in all, the wall claimed 69 victims allowing only 21/90 men to get over. A historically the worst advancement in Storm the Wall preliminary round (Statistic unverified and most likely fabricated by Vince).

In the final event of the day, a UBCTC mens team, the Trisexuals composed of Nathaniel, Matt, Barry, Sherwood and finally Vincent took on the men's relay.

With a strong showing in each event, the Trisexuals managed to finish in first in their heat, posting the 2nd fastest time on this new course. We will see how they fend off the rest in the men on Wednesday!

A Storm is Brewing!

2010-03-28T23:31:00.001-07:00

Today marked the first day of Storm the Wall 2010! And with that, the first of the UBCTC domination.

First to compete today was Lauren Sagadore (Spazzy) in her girls team made up of her roomies. After a solid swim by Lauren, they managed to hold off the chasing packs for the win in their heat!

Oh Spazzy

Next up, was the much anticipated Majestic Eagles. A team of very good looking triathletes, dressed in colours ready to take on the opposition.

Karin, nailing down a heat winning swim tagged off to Claire, who camera in hand sprinted up to Celeste on the bike. Here Celeste put together a strong ride keeping her team in the lead, ready for the handoff to the Majestic himself on the 1k. Derick, being the final member of the team put his rock climbing skills to use as they flew over the wall winning their heat by over 2 minutes.

The Majestic Eagles, with the Majestic Himself!

After a quick rest, the guys had their second heat racing on behalf of the Killer Pace Bunnies. A team made up of Scott, Andrew, Derick, Eddie and Winston. Unfortunately due to injury, Winston has had to sit out todays races, and Grant subbed in for him as the alternate.

Killer Pace Bunnies in Action

Scott in a once again UBCTC Heat winning swim donned a horrifically pink speedo leaving very little to the imagination and passed off the torch to Eddy who carried the team up to the bike in the lead. After a few rough negotiations on the corners Derick passed the line for Andrew to start running in strong contention for the lead. Starting a little fast, Andrew pulled into the lead, but slips back a position finishing the 1km sprint just behind the lead runner. The Killer Pace bunnies hit the wall and quickly climb over finishing second in their heat but comfortably moving on.

Good Lord

Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts with other UBC REC activities, Melanie VS was not able to compete this afternoon resulting in either an automatic advancement, or a surprise placement in a heat tomorrow, requiring her to show off her skills in up to 3 races in one day.

Barry Claman raced with his fraternity brothers, and unfortunately was too quick on the bike that photo documentation was not possible, could this be a sign of things to come? Also, they won their heat easily.

Finally, unofficial UBCTC swim coach Liam raced in a co-rec team, catching up many spots on the bike along with battling a few minutes of hail. My only complaint, why wasn't he wearing bike shoes?

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the individual races, along with many more team efforts.

With this weather warning, anything could happen!

Stay tuned!

Back At It!

2010-03-21T12:31:00.001-07:00

I know I've been lacking on the blogging front lately, but its for a good reason! I'm finally able to get out and do things without headaches and I have been taking full advantage of that.

It feels SO good to be back training. I took the beginning of the week pretty easy and built throughout and have realized that my head is pretty much good to go for intensity work.

Managed to squeeze in nearly 10 hours of training this week and maybe a little more if I do anything tonight. What pleases me most however, is that at yesterdays bike practice I brought my heart rate up to 188 without any strain on my head, and then today the UBC tri club had the aquathon (500m swim / 2.7km run) and despite the pain of lack of fitness I felt confident pushing myself hard the whole way.

With that, I am declaring the concussion behind me. Now don't get worried mom, I'm still being careful, not drinking and managing my sleep, but as far as training is concerned I am going strong and confident with it.

Breaking down that Aquathon to evaluate my fitness, the 500m swim took 7:45 which is not ideal. The weekend of the concussion I swam a long and strong 500 in 7:12 feeling like I could have gone faster. So I have clearly lost a lot of strength in the pool. The run however, right before the concussion I was running just ahead of a teammate Matt Reeve, and today I was able to somewhat hold it together and ran just behind him so my running fitness is much better than my swimming.

Finished 4th, behind Elliot (guest appearance), Nathaniel and Matt. Was a fun race.

The team did well today, a lot of impressive races, Nathaniel held off Matt and I quite easily, and Scott showed huge improvement in his swimming. Unfortunately I don't know how many of the others did because I didn't really see them, but people seemed pleased. UBCTC will be hard to beat at Storm the Wall next week!

Long story short. Storm the Wall, 8 days away, 11 days until the final. Bring it on!

This is why I ride

2010-03-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

Sure a few reasons were left out. Such as the speed, or wind in your hair, or shaving your legs. But I do like the spandex reference.

Green Light

2010-03-09T12:17:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to announce, that this my 200th post carries with it good new!

I've been given the green light to start training again starting this weekend. Unfortunately "training" is going to have to be pretty relaxed for now, but at least it means I can get on my bike guilt free and stretch my legs. The Tri club is doing a 10k bike TT this weekend, I won't be able to participate, but at least I can ride out to cheer people on and help organize. A step in the right direction.

The reason for all the caution is because Storm the Wall is coming up in 3 weeks and in order to be able to go 100% there, then I need to make sure not to overdo it too early.

I'm still a long way from being perfect (on the health front at least) although I'm sure people would argue against that, but at least this is progress.

Concussion Update

2010-03-08T23:25:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow I go to the Doctor to find out if I'm clear to resume my normal life again. It has been 4.5 weeks since I got the concussion and the headaches are going away. For the most part I feel as I always did, and only notice a difference when there are pulsing lights (bulb in the kitchen was going out so was flickering) or I have to concentrate on something really hard (like simple math). I haven't tried my luck with exercise, however, keeping my fingers crossed I will get the green light.

Wish me luck!

Mental Toughness

2010-03-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

Pro Cyclist Jan Ullrich

This is probably the best article I’ve read yet on how to improve your mental game. The website also has great information on power, training and cycling. Check it out here.

Found the article posted on another blog

If you don’t read this whole clip at least take this in:

I once asked a champion cyclist how they went so fast for so long. They didn’t mention anything about training, nutrition or recovery. Their reply centred around, “I go as hard as I possibly can, until the pain becomes unbearable, then I back off half-a-turn until it subsides, and that’s the pace I know I can sustain. Because I know I can hurt more if I have to and I now know the pain isn’t as bad as it was; and that makes me happy.” A pro looks at pain as something to be embraced not something to be avoided.

Could I live the life of a pro cyclist?
Let’s turn that question on its head. Could a cycling pro do your job? Whatever job you do today, with all its intricacies, nuances and traps that only you know about because you’ve learnt from years of experience that you won’t find documented in any procedures manual or handbook; could it possibly be done as well as you do it now, by someone practicing for a couple of hours, two nights a week and a bit of a longer session on a week-end morning? The answer is probably a resounding, emphatic, NO!

So, that nails that then. Re-align your expectations to match the efforts and sacrifices you can make. Please don’t think you can go out and buy the Lance Armstrong or Chris Boardman training manuals, follow them to the letter and make yourself a better cyclist. At best you’ll become overtrained; at worst you could make yourself seriously ill. Thinking you can do it and actually doing it are two completely different things. While you’re at work Lance was on his bike or sleeping, that’s the difference.

We’ll never be as fit, as fast, as strong, as durable, or as focussed as a professional cyclist because our next salary cheque doesn’t depend on it. But just as we can buy and ride the same equipment as the pro’s we can learn some mind techniques and tools to help address one of sports biggest factors that’s importance is often overlooked. The mindset.

Changing your mindset is free, it’s capacity to expand is unlimited, it’s something you can’t buy as it’s something you already have. The mindset is something only you can control. It’s the one thing that you can adopt from the pros that will make much, much more difference than duplicating their equipment, training regimens or nutrition strategies.

How a pro thinks

A pro never loses a race; they just ran out of time. “We’d have stayed away if the others had worked.” “We were catching them but we started the chase too late.” “I wasn’t going for the win, this is a preparation race.”

Someone else may win the race but a pro, never loses it. Although attributed to pros, these factors are highlighted in the main by team leaders. A team leader has that extra mental toughness. A pro thinks they’re super human; a team leader believes they are super human. That’s why they’re the team leader.

There may be riders as physically gifted in the team (the super domestiques for instance) but they don’t have that final killer instinct that sees them get stronger as the pressure mounts. I’m not the world’s greatest fan of Lance Armstrong but even the most hardened cynic has to admit his mental strength was beyond question.

Never mind cycling, what about other sports? Senna and Mansell, Schumacher and Hill in F1? Fergusson and Wenger in football? Australia and England at cricket? Sampras and anyone else at tennis? When all of these aforementioned people were on the top of their game the one thing that stood out was their mental strength and fortitude, despite any physical evidence to the contrary.

Even when the odds were stacked against them, they’d find a positive to cling to that they would use to lever open a tiny nick, from which they’d create a gaping hole in the confidence of the opposition. Once inside the head of their opponents it was as good as over.

Motivation

Is your motivation intrinsic or extrinsic? You may not realise the difference first off, but the answer has a massive influence on the success of your expected outcome.

Intrinsically motivated athletes, compete because they want to and because they enjoy the competitive element of pushing their body to its limits. Extrinsically motivated athletes compete because they have to and because they enjoy the external rewards of trophies and fame. Intrinsic athletes are capable of self-motivation, extrinsic athletes require external stimulus (the reward) to gain motivation.

For intrinsics, the prize was never the ultimate aim anyway; it was there as the icing on the cake. If it’s won, it’s won, if not at least they tried their best. Trying your best isn’t in a pro’s vocabulary. To reach your full potential it can’t be in yours.

Keep the persona and attributes of an intrinsic person, because invariably they are nicer people, but when training and preparing for an event flip your mindset to extrinsic. When you throw your leg over that bike youmust become extrinsically motivated. Learn the difference and learn to switch. You cannot begin to imagine how much difference it will make to your training, preparation and success. Extrinsics don’t “go for a ride” they train!

Effort & Intensity
Motivational drive is what gets you through the pain of sustaining race winning efforts and intensities during the non-reward phase of your competition preparations; or training as we call it!

Lance Armstrong always made a big deal out of the six-hour training rides he’d do in the rain, when everyone else was sitting indoors. Do you honestly think that the other pros don’t ride in the rain? It doesn’t matter whether it was true or not, Armstrong believed it. I’m out in the rain, Ullrich’s eating pies, here’s another success in the Tour. An equation that’s as simple as it was flawed. But it’s what kept Armstrong on the bike and it’s what kept him focussed on the prize.

It doesn’t matter what it is or how true or accurate it might be. Find something that you can latch on to that will get you through the effort and intensities you need to prepare for success.

We all have off days and sometimes think I’ll not go out because it’s raining, it’s going to rain, it’s cold, I’m tired etc, etc. Never decide if you’re going to go training until your in your kit and ready to go. Prepare your bike, get your bottles ready, get dressed, put your shoes on, then and only then decide if you really should go out.

Try to convince yourself to at least complete the warm up phase of your session before coming to a final decision. If you still don’t feel fully committed, then go home and use it as a recovery ride for preparation for your next big session! Turn the failed ride in to a positive ride!

Training and Competing

Make an absolute distinction between training and competing. Identify training races or events and use them as preparation for your big day. Don’t ride a series of races or sportives thinking you’re going to win them all. Because if you don’t you’ll enter the failure mindset.

Start your non-objective, preparation events with a preparation mindset. Ride them looking for weaknesses on which you can work to become a better, stronger, faster rider. Identifying a weakness, or under-developed strength(!), is a positive thing. Finding out your climbing could be better is a good thing because now you can develop a training plan to climb better.

Suffering Strategies

Pro’s don’t feel pain the way we do. That’s probably a lie, a better way to explain it is that pro’s don’t think about pain the way we do.

If a pro rider and a non-pro rider, without any external indicators like heart rate monitors or power meters, rode at 90% of their physical capacity, you’d get a different level of perceived effort from each one. The non-pro would indicate that they were flat out, 100%, and couldn’t possibly go any harder. The pro would tell you they were at 80% and could give more if they need to. Same effort, same suffering, different perception.

A pro rider trains very, very intensely or does a recovery ride. Non-pro’s often train in the “dead zone”. Where pro’s ride at 30 mph or 15 mph, non-pro’s almost always train around 20-22 mph. Non-pro’s don’t ride for sustained periods at the extreme levels of their pain threshold. Therefore when they do suffer, the suffering seems more intense.

Instead of going for a three hour, steady, flattish ride, go for a one hour ride screaming up short hills; do some high-intensity speed work, do some sprint intervals. As Dave Whitt says, “hurt in training, enjoy the race.”>

The same level of pain can have two completely different perceptions depending on how it’s being dished out. Consider you’re on the front of a 30-strong group, riding at 25 mph, with your heart coming through your chest, the sweat burning your eyes, the lactate screaming in your legs, a finishing sprint coming up, and the man behind you can’t hold your wheel and everyone is being strung out and getting dropped.

Now imagine all those sensations but you’re the last man of that 30 strong group. The same level of pain has a completely different feel depending on whether you’re dishing it out or having it dished out to you! And that, dear reader, is all to do with the brain.

The Message

Don’t just think differently, perceive differently.

As I said before this is a massive subject and one to which I can’t really do justice in one article. Start to believe in yourself and your abilities then adjust your objectives to the time, equipment and abilities you have available. Whether you’re trying to achieve an Island Games Medal or completing your first sportive, the effort may be different but the rewards and total satisfaction for an objective well met are exactly the same.

I know a lot of riders that have the physical attributes to be a winner in their category or discipline, they just don’t believe in themselves enough to close the gap between where they are and where they could be. To realize your potential, sometimes it really is as simple as changing your mindset.

Don’t let the Thought Police and your inner voice control your results. Thinking like a pro may not make you ride like a pro but it will make you a better, stronger, happier rider. And it’s a lot easier than an hour on a turbo!

Olympic Experience Recap

2010-03-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

Soon, as in REALLY SOON, I'll have an Olympic Recap ready. Life has been really busy but lots of fun. With my post concussion lifestyle I haven't really kept up on the blogging. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon.

New Workout

2010-02-23T15:52:00.001-08:00

This is how I workout, but instead of mouse traps I use Bear Traps to work my glutes.