Cultural Olympiad.

Concert two of my Cultural Olympiad is tomorrow night!!  Rolling stone recently named Phoenix's "Wolfgang Amadeus" album one of the best albums of the decade.  I scored last minute tickets for their show which I'm super excited for.

This week has been a good training week for me I'll recap it and the concert over the weekend.  But I plan on finishing it off with spin class tomorrow AM and the Grouse Grind après work as a pre-concert warmup.

21 sleeps until the Vancouver Olympics!  Happy Friday.

Photo taken a few weeks ago in North Vancouver while mountain biking.

2010 Olympics.

With 25 days to go until the Vancouver 2010 Olympics I have caught Olympic fever.   I am so excited about all the changes that are happening in my city and about the buzz that is building.  I can't wait!

With my knee injury still on the mend my week still didn't involve nearly as much running as I would have liked.  However I'm trying to stay positive, here is the break down of my training for the week:

Monday - Rest day and Transrockies info night at North Shore Athletics
Tuesday - Morning strength building and cardio at gym
Wednesday - Morning light cardio at gym and an hour run on North Shore after work and then abs class with Tim
Thursday - Morning strength building at gym and spin/yoga class after work.  This is the first time I've done this class with Sara it was awesome.
Friday - Rest day and appointment with my sports med doctor (MRI on order - fingers crossed for positive results)
Saturday - EPIC powder day at Blackcomb (official Olympic Venue)
Sunday - Recovery day

Here are some pictures of Blackcomb from Saturday.  They received 70cm of fresh powder and we were on one of the first chair lifts to the glacier.  The conditions were prefect; -3, low wind, no clouds and sunny, not to mention waist deep untouched powder.  Days like these don't happen often so we rode hard.  Often hiking 30 to 45 minus up past the last chair lifts so we could ride the back side of Spankys for even more untouched fluffy white stuff.

Mostly Rain Free.

Saturday I ran for an hour at Pacific Spirit Park. My physio therapist will be so happy when he learns I obeyed his orders, continuing a gradual return to running. This entails shorter runs in enduration and a walk/run combo. He wanted me to alternate one minute walk with one minute run. I did run three minutes with a minute walk and for the most part felt pain free.  Post run I was pain free and there was no residual pain the next day! Playing on my ipod was Phoenix.

Sunday Pricey, McGregor and I hit up the North Shore trails for some mountain biking.  Its been a couple months since I had my bike on the trails over there.  Definitely noticed my hill climbing isn't where it was at the end of last season so its time to dig deep and get some hill training going again.  We were out for four hours and got to check out most of the Dirty Duo bike course.  It felt so good to be on the trails enjoying the beautiful Vancouver weather, which was rain free and plus 9 today!

32 days until the Vancouver Olympics.

Game Plan for 2010.

I will do run my first 100km race and a multi day stage race. Other races on the roster include:
Dirty Duo 25km run (but hopefully as part of an all girls relay team)
Chuckanut 50km and/or Diez Vista 50km
Tender Knee Trail Run 25km
Knee Knacker 50km
Trans Rockies Run Multi Day Stage Race
First 100km race - TBC

I will complete both Momar Races and a multi day adventure race
Momar Squamish 50km
Momar Cumberland 50km
Multi day adventure race - TBC

Aside from a lot of running and training for my adventure races. Vancouver will be hosting the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and I've scored tickets to a couple events which I'm thrilled for.

I also hope to fit in some travel with my brother who is currently in Afghanistan. I am hopeful that September 2010 will bring an epic trip to somewhere incredible and allow us an unparalleled experience together to celebrate his return to Canada safe and healthy.

Best wishes to you and your family for 2010. I know it will be the start of an unbelievable decade.

Getting Back in the Spin of Things.

Wednesday marked a big day on my road to recovery.  

I went to the gym at 5:30am, did 25 minutes on the stair climber, completed a 25 minute circuit workout and then did 15 minutes on the treadmill.

In the afternoon I got to see/meet Tegan and Sara perform live at the The Peaks intimate lounge; they sounded awesome.

The day continued to be exciting as I marked my return to my Wednesday night spin class with Tim.  It was the first time I've been able to really push myself during a workout in weeks.  It felt fantastic and I'm craving more.  The best part, most of it was pain free and even better... I woke up the next day - still pain free. 

After spin I went to the Tegan and Sara concert which as I expected was excellent.  A great day filled with exercise and music.

Waiting.

Got stuck in traffic this afternoon and missed my physio appointment.

The good news they can fit me in at 5:20 instead.  The bad news I have one hour and thirty minutes to kill at Starbuck's.  (And I don't drink the coffee.)

So I thought this was a prefect time to give the Napster a shout out. She won two tickets to see Tegan and Sara tomorrow night at the Orpheum - and she's taking me!  WOOHOO

If you don't already listen to them - check out these songs:
Feel it in my bones
Back In Your Head
Hell
Arrow
North Shore
On Directing
Walking with a Ghost
Alligator
Downtown
My Number
Where Does the Good Go

There's so many more, this is just a small taste.  Listen, relax and enjoy.

Pouring snow.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, one of my favorite ways to spent New Year's Day is to head up to Whistler Blackcomb and get in some wicked snowboarding.

This is the 3rd (or 4th) year in a row that I have stayed home on New Year's Eve opting instead to ring in the New Year feeling great on the mountain.  Historically (at least in my experience) this day receives a dumping of snow and there is not that many people on the mountain because everyone is hung over from the party the night before.

Friday morning I woke up at 5:00am got dressed and headed to pick up my friend Bryan.  We met up with my other friends Rich & Jules and the four of us were on the road by 6:00am.

It's so funny how technology has changed the world, I remember when I was little we would wake up and call the snow phone from home before making any decision on heading to the mountain now we were already driving there and we were all in the car checking our sources for the best snow report for the - twitter, facebook, Whistler website, snow phone, weather network - you name it we checked it.  They all echoed a similar story - POWDER!

We made one quick stop at McDonalds in Squamish to fuel up (note to self - nothing is opening at 6:00am on New Year's Day).

Shortly after leaving Squamish it started snowing but the roads were in really good condition.  We arrived at the base of the mountain just before it opened and were able to make first tracks which was our goal.

We decided to ride Whistler instead of Blackcomb just because we normally ride Blackcomb.  The winds were pretty high so some of the mountain remained closed but it didn't affect our experience too much.  I bought myself a new pair of Burton boots which were heat moulded to my fit using Burtons "TrueFit" technology, this was the first time I've used them.  I'm really like them they super reactive and still comfortable not too stiff.

By 10:00am we'd already managed to get some awesome riding done; mostly on untouched runs and they were virtually no chair lift line ups.  The fresh snow was knee deep in places!  And it was still snowing heavily.

I was also able to meet up with my friend Sheryl who was my companion last year on for New Year's Day snowboarding.  She has just returned from a fabulous month long trip to New Zealand so she has able to warm my mind with her amazing stories on the chair lift.

We stopped for a brief lunch and then headed back out to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.  I was so full from lunch that it hurt to put on my bindings, but the warm food felt so good going in my tummy.

By the afternoon the snow had gotten a little heavier but it was still really nice.  The best thing about a day like this with so much new snow is you feel fearless. I tried out lots of jumps without fear of falling and hurting myself, we did tons of runs thru the trees which is my favorite terrain to ride in and we ripped down some black diamond runs to get our fill of speeding.  All in all a great day on the slopes.

There was mad traffic on the highway heading back to Vancouver, so we went to a friends place on Green Lake for some tea to warm up and then went to Earls for a tasty dinner.  Looking forward to more powder days on the mountain in the coming weeks!