Summer's ALMOST Here!

Well one more day until my first triathlon of the year!  Tomorrow is the Guelph Lake triathlon and I'll be doing the Olympic distance race, which is a 1500m swim followed by a 40K bike and a 10K run.  Earlier this week I found out that our local triathlon store here in London, Multisport Zone, are closing their doors at the end of the month.  What a bummer…it really made me sad to see this as it is a great shop and Jeff, Alex and Donnie are all good guys.  They were the only Tri shop in town too, so now I need to either make a 2-hour drive to Toronto or buy stuff online.  Online is a pain because of the sizing of so many triathlon items.  I ended up picking up a new swimsuit for Michelle as well as a new one-piece triathlon suit for myself.  I also was able to get their advice on where to take my bike for any service needs as their shop is where I would have gone.  Sad day for London small business.

On Wednesday night I was able to give my new tri suit a trial run before this weekend's race at the Splash n Dash.  There were storms in the forecast but they held off long enough for us to start the swim.

I'm the guy in the yellow swim cap .  We were set up to do two 850m loops on the swim, but the rain started coming down and it wasn't too long before Coach Sheri made the call to bring us in.  I was met by a canoe just before the final buoy on my second loop and told to head back into shore.  Fine with me, I still got a good 1500m swim in, and my swim felt like crap.  Onto the rainy run.  I set out at a decent pace despite having already put in 5 miles earlier in the day on my lunch break.  The legs felt good and I was moving quick.  As I came through to finish my first loop Sheri was there sitting on a covered tailgate trying to keep dry…she yelled at me to keep my shoulders down and to stop shrugging.  Funny enough I was already telling myself the same thing!  Her words helped though and I think I managed to implement her advice.  I ended up finishing the 5K in 20:14, which was the fastest run of the night.  Still not quite fast enough to catch the stronger swimmers, but the gap closed up a bit.  I finished in 50:30, 2 minutes faster than last week and almost 5 minutes quicker than our first week.  Yay for progress!

As I mentioned earlier this week, Jackson learned to ride his bike on the weekend and as part of the deal he got a new bike for at the house.  Needless to say, he's been riding non-stop from the moment I get home from work!  He mastered riding in a straight line on Sunday and his turning was okay.  Stopping has since been overcome and he conquered his final challenge last night, the ability to start all on his own.  Now the entire street (well, the sidewalk) is his domain.  He is riding all the way to the end of the block and back all on his own and he is loving it!  It's great seeing him being excited about going outside to ride his bike instead of wanting to sit around playing PlayStation or iPad'ing.

With tomorrow being the first official day of summer, the kids and I decided to get the top down on the Jeep on our way to swimming lessons…Kennedy decided to capture the moment by taking a sweet wind-blown selfie, although Jackson did a pretty good job of his own to photobomb her!

So excited that summer is finally here…it seemed like it would never arrive!  And what better way to welcome it than by doing a race…lucky me!

How will you welcome summer?

Thursday Thoughts

On a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...ok well...that's a lie - I'm currently flying high in the sky on my way to Florida for a few days for work, and I'll be heading home late Sunday night.

A few weeks ago I came across a post that I kinda tucked away and saved...so I thought I'd share it with you today. I came across this in an article - sorry I forget the website - and it just kinda struck a cord with me, as emotionally there are a lot of tough things going on in life right now...anyhoo...without any further ado...I present to you today's Thursday Thoughts.

One night stands and other sacred containers not always meant to be breached.

I was in Mexico with a friend, we were drinking margaritas at an outdoor cafe. “A smoke would go good with this tequila,” I said. So I asked the woman at the table next to me if I could bum one. She and her husband had been chain smoking for the past hour, so at that point I was also thinking, If you can’t fight ‘em, join ‘em.
“How goes the holiday?” I asked. And, dazed-but-factly, she said, “We had a baby last week, he died mysteriously after birth.” The husband lit another smoke, “We’re here to numb out.” That horrible truth-sharing sealed us. We sat in silence — but not the silence of shock, the silence of unity. The sun was going down.

“What did you name the baby?” I asked. I wanted to make it real, not flinch and create distance with sympathetic formalness like, I’m sorry for your loss. (Tho’ sometimes, I’m sorry for your loss is the most beautifully familiar thing to say.)
She told me what they named him. Without us asking, more poured out. The colour they painted his room. How the hospital nurses cried when he passed over, “Which is surprising because nurses never cry, you know.”

IT SEEMED LIKE THE COMPASSIONATE THING TO DO
We figured out that not only did we all live in the same city, we lived two blocks apart. And I immediately thought, “That’s too close, I know too much now, they are not going to want to run into me at the farmer’s market.” Too close.

And then I did it. To be polite, to be attentive and social… I gave them my phone number as we parted. It seemed like the compassionate thing to do. But actually, it felt gross. The more conscious act would have been to leave gracefully — let it be the interlude it was meant to be. Instead, I breached the sacred container.

SACRED CONTAINER BREACHING
This kind of over-stepping happens a lot after personal development workshops. People share, and weep, and move in profound ways and naturally, the group bonds in that intimacy. Then the workshop wraps and half of the room wants to be friends for life, and the other half can’t wait to get in their rental cars and peel outta there. And too often — out of social decorum — and the genuine high of connection, somebody says it, “Let’s keep in touch!” Or worse, someone wants to set up a fucking Facebook group so everyone can keep in touch every day forever and ever.

Sometimes, you cry in a stranger’s arms precisely because they are a stranger.
You let your secrets be witnessed because the witnesses are outside of your every day reality.

You get spiritually naked because it’s a moment that’s only ever going to be a moment.

You dance like no one is watching because they won’t see you again.
One night stands — sexual, spiritual, emotional — can serve a divine purpose.
Healing happens in protected space. Sometimes that protection comes from fleeting encounters.

So let it be fleeting — it takes a kind of courage to pass in the night, exchange sorrows and float away. Bless it instead of anchoring it to obligation. Something sacred just happened, allow it to be just that."

Source -  www.daniellelaporte.com

 

What are your thoughts today?

Happy Runner Is Back

I am happy to report I have been back out running this week. I got 2 good runs in so far this week and it feels great!

It also felt really great to take that week off from running! I enjoyed having more time to clean, organize and spend time with my family!

Saturday, my sisters all came over and we just did whatever we felt like doing. We walked to a nearby roof top patio and enjoyed some quality chatting…

Had some good food….

and took turns cheersing (that’s totally a word) to what we were thankful for in life!

It was definitely some needed time spent together!

Sunday was Father’s Day, so we took my dad out for supper to the restaurant my one sister works at so that in a way we could all be there, since she had to work. She was our server so it worked out great!

Yesterday I received my first Luxe Box in the mail!

Full of lovely items that I can’t wait to use!!

Happy Hump Day everyone!!

How is your week going so far?

Ever take a week off of running and actually love it?