Being a Bad Ass is busy work



I know – I should post more often but being a Bad Ass is busy work – no really I have been busy.
So I had mentioned that I did my very first ever swim meet in Feb.  I am not going to lie I was a little apprehensive as  I can swim forever but not at a “brisk” pace.  I was part of our Coast team that is made up of swimmers from our Masters club and well they all swim at a “brisk” pace and Coach Stewart put me on 2 relay teams.

Well I am happy to say I had a fantastic time and loved every second of it.  The people we “raced” against came from all sorts of backgrounds and skill levels and the vibe was inclusive and lots of fun.  Coach Stewart was completely right just like a running race- I would encourage anyone to  do one just for the experience if nothing else.  I signed up for the  400 and 800 front as well as the 100 back.  I was then added to 2 relays teams  one I was front and one I was breaststroke.   I will definitely sign up for another meet – plus it was nice to be one of the “young” ones.

So what else have I been doing?  The past 3 weeks I have had a race every weekend!  I told you I am a bad-ass.  I will also caution I use the word Race loosely – they are actually events….
First weekend of March was the MEC ½ marathon at Burnaby Lake – it was brutal cold at the start – my face hurt cold L - and there was large sections of Ice and snow on the trail.  However I had a great day,  in 2008 I was hit from behind by a car while riding my bike.  Since then I have been considerably slower – prior to the accident I was a solid  2:15 half marathon, after the accident a solid 2:30 half marathon.  I now know that this was far more mental than physical – as I was not racing, just running and I finished  in 2:17! Wow – I wonder what the time would have been if the path has been clear and clean.  Very pleased with that run.

Second weekend  - UBC Standard Tri:  1500m pool swim, 40km bike, 10km run.  I now remember why I stopped doing this race – the pool swim is always an exercise in complete frustration.   It is self seeded start and very popular for first timers who are anxious, don’t really know etiquette and or technique.  The frustration is that you get caught in “packs” and it is hard to do turns, pass, etc, etc.  Coach Stewart has a video of me where at one point coming to the end to do a turn and I was surrounded by 10 people.  I figure I lost 4-5 minutes in my swim peloton and then at transition – they gave me the wrong bag – I went back to get my bag and they could not find it for 5 minutes.  Not the end of the world and in since it is a training day you try to shake it off but for those that know me  I am a bit competitive so I had to reach deep to stay chill.  Bike was good but was my wake-up call – time to suck it up and start riding outdoors again – cold or not.  Run I was very happy with.  Overall time 3:30 and change – a good time for a training day with a bunch of hiccups. 

Third weekend – St Patrick’s day 5km.  This is a personal favourite not so much for the run but for the post party and I have run it every year since it started – 2005.  EVERY YEAR.  Had a great time –jogged down to the start as a warm –up. I had planned to do 10km before but decided that I needed to have a recovery week so just jogged down from the train (2.5km).  The run was awesome – my thoughts at the start were to see if I could do 6min/km and finish in 30min.  At the first km I checked the watch and saw 5:50 and thought ok – I am running a little hard but not sprinting let’s shoot for under  30min.  Final time 28:28 – very pleased with that – I have not run a sub 30min 5km since  2005 so incredibly pleased with that time.  



As I continue to train for the June Ironman I will start to put more time on the bike.  I have started commuting to work by bike again and registered for 100km cycling event on April 7 - http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/pacpop/ .   Should be good.

Oh and the running streak – still going strong – day 140 (today) completed. 
Quote to live by from How to be a Bad Ass : “ Believe Big:  Trust your heart, not your eyes”

Peace out
Shaun



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