From the category archives:

Running

Summer is Here

July 6, 2010

After what felt like the worst May and June weather Vancouver has ever experienced summer seems to finally be arriving. We’re expected to get a minor heat wave this week with temperatures reaching 30c. I’m not a huge fan of hot weather but after the emo-weather Vancouver has been delivering lately I think I’ll live. The nice thing about nice weather is I can skate outside pretty much whenever I want!

Skating Update

I’ve owned my rollerskates for 3 months now and have logged a fair bit of time on them already. Raw Meat Skate Nights are growing in popularity with over 30 skaters at our last session. I’m actually finding the sessions a bit unwieldy and the overall tone changed somewhere between 23 and 31 participants. The novelty of a “free skate” wore off after our second session and it was clear people were interested in a bit more structure. During our last two sessions I’ve led the group through some simple stopping and knee-falling drills. Not that I’m even remotely qualified…

I'm demonstrating how to perform a snow-plow stop with a focus on using your thighs. My friends Dorian and Wendi are behind me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still having a blast. Raw Meat Skate Night is still the highlight of my week and I have a new circle of friends that I just love hanging out with.

PFM + FMW = <3

A couple of weeks ago I sent an email to PFM Practice Squad in Seattle. I have a friend in the group and they were my inspiration for staring Fresh-Meat-Wannabes Vancouver. I wanted to tell them what I was starting up here and to thank them for the inspiration. I must tell you that I did not expect their president to email me the next day thanking me for my letter and asking if a few of us would like to visit. PFM has been super helpful with every random question I’ve sent their way and they seem super eager to help our fledgling group in any way. Four of us are taking a road-trip down to Seattle this weekend to practice with PFM and learn firsthand how they run their successful organization. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am.

Skating Abilities

Two weeks ago I finally learned how to do a front to back transition as well as a tomahawk stop. It was amazing, as if all it took was a shift in perspective. I’ve been practicing transitions and tomahawk stops whenever I can trying to increase the moving speed at which I can perform them at. My raw skating speed has seen a gradual improvement over the last month. I use my seawall runs as a good barometer here. My best run so far averaged 16.2 km/hr over the 21k course with speed bursts around 23km/hr. My first attempt of the seawall averaged 14km/hr.

I’m doing my best to practice agility and technique as often as possible in the mornings before work. I’ve been pretty good at skating the seawall 2-3 times  a week. I still attend 1 public skate (2hrs) a week, as well as the Raw Meat Skate hour. So in total I’m logging anywhere from 6-9 hrs of skating time a week. This is on top of my current running schedule.

Running

I had a really strong 10k race a few weeks ago. I set a new personal best at the UBC Longest Day Run with a time of 48:33.75. I wasn’t expecting a personal best so this was indeed a very good race for me. I’m maintaining a half-marathon level of training which involves 2-3 9km runs a week, plus 12km-20km on weekends. If I can I’d like to gradual improve my running speed this year. I’m really really enjoying keeping my distances at this level as it’s far more manageable.

Gaming

I haven’t played anything lately… Too busy I guess. I also haven’t had much time to think about any of my projects either. There’s a mini-LD coming up in a couple of weeks… I think I might partake just to stretch those muscles a bit.

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Vacation Over

May 11, 2010

Well I’m back from a lovely week-long vacation in DisneyLand. The weather was excellent in Anaheim and we all had a very good time. But now it’s back to work! Ludum Dare #17 Results came in on Sunday night. Roller-Derby 20XX came in 31st out of 204 entries (132 discreet positions) which places me in [...]

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Spring!

April 18, 2010
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It’s really starting to feel like spring. This week I started running with short-sleeve tops which is a first for the season. Speaking of running, I only have 2 weeks before the BMO Vancouver Half-Marathon. I did a 20km peak run today and felt quite strong. Now I just have to taper before race day. [...]

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Running Update: Halves are Funner

April 12, 2010

The BMO Vancouver Marathon is officially out for me. I had been training for the full since January with my running partner Ali. Training was going decent and I managed to get a 32k run in early March. Unfortunately my left foot has been nagging me since I returned from San Francisco. Nothing too serious, [...]

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Victoria Marathon – Fail

October 22, 2009

On Sunday October 11th I attempted the Royal Victoria Marathon. I was unable to finish it. [Garmin Data Available Here] This was my second marathon. During the early 10 km, I ran at a solid clip working hard to keep the 4 hour pace bunny in sight. I was feeling generally strong though definitely not [...]

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Running Update

September 21, 2009

The Royal Victoria Marathon is less than 3 weeks away and I just peaked in my training routine with a 32km run yesterday. While I had ambitions of running this marathon significantly faster than my first, I doubt I’ll be able to shave off much time. The brutal reality is that training for a marathon [...]

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Running the Road My Parents Ran

June 9, 2009
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While I was back home in Thunder Bay I had the opportunity to run the Thunder Bay 10 Mile Road Race. This 76 year old race was a regular event my parents took part in during their running days. Most years my parents can be found volunteering at the finish line chute. But this year [...]

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