paths cross

Cooking dinner tonight felt like the real west coast.

There's a special kind of warmth which comes from fire. It's different than water warmth, electric warmth, or air warmth. It begins and carries differently. It ends differently. It has it's own smell, taste, and feel. It can only really be described as fire warmth. Maybe you know the feeling I'm talking about already.

Combine that feeling with a few drops of rain. Fire warmth and cool rain. The feeling of cool rain splashing on your skin, then immediately evaporating from fire warmth.

Now add the smell of dinner roasting by the fire. In tonights case, it was predominantly citrus with ginger. You can taste the smell.

You hear and feel rain falling on your touque. If it's raining hard perhaps your poncho magnifies the sounds.

It was all here this evening.

Dinner is ready and it's time to know the food. I like to see food, taste food, and know food. Know what the food is, it's story and journey. The food arrived here, and has been combined and arranged in this certain way. Now our paths cross.

Thanks for the Nourishment.

Rest well.

No Man's Land

6 or so laps in, this is where I found myself at Newton Heights tonight, pedaling to close the gap. 4 Laps of solo pedaling and an almost x 2.

Spend a time thinking about emptying the thought tank. The thing about emptying is it becomes both active and passive. Actively emptying to a point, while passively allowing the river to effortlessly carry thoughts on their way. The organism takes care of the rest.

Crit racing provides a cool backdrop for this practice. At a relatively easy pace, the thoughts can be scattered and spun through eddies and currents. Then things start to build and fun begins.

The pace becomes faster and race altering decisions become impulsively instantaneous. At one point, the intensity grows to a level where there becomes less room for thought, perhaps due to reduced cranial blood flow, or maybe Science 10's flight or fight focus.

In either case, eventually there is room for only one thought. "Go Now!" Your body responds, and that is it, until one more thought can squeeze out of your head. "All Now!"

Tonight this was the best place to be. One thought, then free. Free of everything and anything. One thought to instruct, then it's left the body. Awesomeness.

Nice racing guys. AMac, as always an attack to remember. Scotty, pulling up front will be good practice for this weekend's Sri Chinmoy triathlon. A-Russ, way to hang in there. That was exactly the perfect way for tonights race to go.

Rest well.

JSA II

Great day of training. Great day of living. Great day of breathing.



Just simply awesome.

Rest well.

Apple Sauce Ketchup

Ketchup goes with basically everything, and sometimes leads to applesauce.

Ketchup with sleep, Ketchup with laundry, Ketchup with e-mails, Ketchup with workout log, Ketchup with the bank, Ketchup with the car, Ketchup with the vacuum, Ketchup with Vega(?) and most importantly, Ketchup with all the ongoing science experiments in the fridge and cupboards.

One particular Ketchup trip to the cupboard beside the stove led me to a large family of fruit flies. Ahhh I think we have a winner . . . there must be a good experiment going on in here.

That's where the bag of golden delicious disappeared to. Fortunately they have only been MIA for a little over one week.

What to do with the 73% of each apple that is still edible?

Apple sauce. Now the whole house smells of delicious cinnamon apple sauce.

Great recovery Monday.

Rest well.

Catalyst

What will be the catalyst?

It's a challenging one to predict, and many times near impossible. The important thing is awareness to the enzyme's presence once it arrives. This may be according to it's own time line, or ours as determined by readyness.

Keep the eyes closed and ears quite so you can feel it when it comes!

Today the catalyst came knocking. I missed it for a couple hours, then slowly started to hear something different, something worth listening to. Ok that's what you're here to talk about. Now I'm ready to listen.

Just like Peter Pan, we each have a shadow which follows us around. We can learn a lot from the shadow.

The shadow is darkness. The shadow is fear, a self-created, non-real fear. It is only real in our mind because we created it.

What is the fear? How do we dissipate it?

Just as we understand the shadow, we understand the fear. We surround the fear with light and it dissolves. It ceases to exist in our mind and in our world.

This was a pretty solid weekend of training. Our ride yesterday was the one stop shop for Kelowna preparation. Start with pack riding, cornering, 180 practice, accelerations, hills, attacks, and finish with tempo and more attacks.

After the 1st couple hill repeats I thought, man my breaks must be rubbing, this is hard work. Ahh forget it, probably just an excuse. More hills, and onto the tempo. Riding along Blenkinsop we were cruising along at what felt like a good speed. I looked down to see I was in the small chain ring. What? This is way to hard for small ring work.

Finish the practice and check out the wheel. It's shaped like a Taco. Thanks to Karl @ OBB for fixing that one today. Wickedness.

20 minute run off the bike and Saturday has been Saturday.

This morning was the Thetis Lake Swim for Multiple Sclerosis. Really positive event, and great swimming by a number of athletes from the group.

90 minute post swim trail run / bush whack through the trees.

Rest well.

90 minute steady state-tempo 5 fixes everything, except maybe the legs. Ice will take care of those.

Rest well.

Quinoa Explosion

Keep breathing and smiling; the rest will take care of itself.

Wow, it's great to be in Victoria putting in a solid training block. The past couple weeks of racing have left me feeling recovered and energized. (Truthfully). T-3 weeks to the Big Apple.

Today was a typical building Friday.

Swim in the morning with some fast 200's. The splits: first 4 on 2:33, next 4 on 2:34. Ok, that's fine, but 2:29 is well within logical reason. Remember a short 8 months ago the 200pb was 2:31? Times change.

Next 200's workout: 2:29's. Maktub!

Mid-morning bike of the rolling base variety and a little wheelie practice to start and finish. Cross is coming.

Track in the afternoon. Wow, the group is running fast. I overheard the girls were splitting sub 3:20. Wicked Fastness!

Scotty showcased some awesome speed on the 200s with a 25er to finish. Nice.

Sweet pacing with JP & AP. Nice sharing of the work. Dude, man, yo, that's some solid team training.

Perogies and 2L of Antioxidant juice blend for dinner.

Rest well.

Contrast

For a moment today, I was that bike rider. With a Moka House coffee in one hand, and the brake lever in the other, I cruised past the breakwater on my way to work.

Just to make sure the ocean was still there, I took the extended waterfront loop.

Ok good, the water is still blue, and the grass is still green. I can still feel a cool onshore breeze which smells of saturated driftwood and those tube-style seaweed things. The water still catches the sun, passing a light for open eyes to see. The moon is up in it's summer time way, and the mountains still own the horizon. The wind plays an everlasting game, and the birds still hop on for a ride. The trees join in for a dance or two, while grass keeps rhythm.

I'm still here catching the contrast.

Right, Left, Right, Left, Oak Bay Rec. Part of me is still with the beach, or perhaps the beach came with me for the ride. Either way, I am in good company.

Tomorrow will be a great day.

Rest well.

Great Day

Great day indeed.

It all began when Sharpie, JP, and I accidentally arrived to the lake 1 hour early, allowing us time to visit the Colwood Timmies. Thanks for that guys. It was sweet to start the day with lots of laughing. Definitely fuel for the body and soul. Good swimming fuel too.

Rotation is high on the list when I swim. It's funny how long some things take to sink in. For the past 18 months, I have been told to rotate more on my right side. Every time I hear this I think, "Ok, Rotate." In reality, all I have been doing is an exaggeration of the same technique. This morning however, after 18 months of being told to rotate more on my right side, I think I did it once, maybe twice. The important thing being recognizing the change in feeling. This must be what PK means when he says rotate more.

30 minute base run at the lake and home for a nap and lunch. Mid day naps keep the inner cat happy. Add tuna sandwich for lunch . . . inner cat is very happy.

The rest of the day was better than great. Must have been the cat saying thanks.

Yoga was the best it's ever been. Do you feel the stretch? Yep, most of the time.

Today it was about something other than the stretch. It was just a matter of placing the body in the desired position. Cool feeling.

We raced the Caleb Pike Crit this evening. Fun race, just a matter of allowing the body to perform the desired operation (pedal fast).

AMac & Kelly saw the asphalt up close on the final lap. Take care of yourself and you will recover fast guys. Up until that point it was a sweet race. Thanks Kelly for the coaching / encouragement on the flats. Nice attack from AMac to break things up!

Big time shout out to the rest of the crew who controlled the B group race from start to finish. Nice racing all around.

JP off the front in a 2 man break . . . wickedness dude, absolute wickedness.

Scotty & Sharpie . . . I have a good feeling you guys were pulling the pack through the entire race. Way to make it a real workout.

Aaron . . . Racing tonight definitely took some guts, especially having spent more than your share of road time less than vertical the last few weeks.

Kyla, Alex, Christine & Gaby . . . you guys stuck in there for the entire thing with energy for a sprint finish! Sounds like a one million fold improvement too me. Absolute awesomeness.

Time for sleep. Rest well.

own pace

Back to our beautiful paradise island in the South Pacific, well North Pacific, but still very much a paradise island.

Returning to the pool deck yesterday morning was great. It's always nice to see the welcoming yet ready to work faces of our group. Within the next day or so Andrew and Kerry, our very own World Cup racers will be back. Outstanding work in the Euro tour guys! It's pretty sweet to see your names on results next to the big guns like Gemmel, Vasiliev, Docherty, Warriner, Hewitt, and Tanner.

Upon your return, the group will be whole again.

Yesterday was a catch up day. In the training department it was a day for allowing the body to catch up with itself: reduced intensity and volume on the swim, and ride at your own solo pace on the bike. The run was off and the legs are grateful.

In the rest of things department it was a day for catching up with some friends and family, catching up and checking in. Feel grounded and at home. Thanks for the nourishment.

Today will be a great day.

Rest well.

Apricots

Apricots. Delicious Apricots.

Today I ate 3 of the most delicious apricots of my entire life. It was really close to a transcendental experience. With one bite you could taste the Okanogan sun, fertile soil, farmers care, and clouds rain.

Imagine all the energy that went into creating one of those Apricots. All that energy could have been used to create anything, and here's this apricot, this delicious apricot. It's really amazing.

Everything from swimming with Coyotes in the Similkameen, to the race itself made this an absolutely awesome weekend.

Let's go train and race again!

Rest well.

Observation

Preflection begins as we plan the future. What will the body feel, see, hear, taste, and smell?

Forward to a new moment, and we observe the body in the exact same matter as we expect to experience. This is what will be; and as far as present thought is concerned, this is what is.

Now is, as we are now. What does the body feel, see, hear, taste, and smell? Ok, that's the bodies now. What is my now? Where is my now? My now is right now, right here.

Reflection begins as we return to the past. What did the body feel, see, hear, taste, and smell?

Back to a previous moment, and we observe the body in the exact same manner as was experienced. This is what was; and as far as the present thought is concerned, this is what is.

The experience is the same whether observed before, now, or after. The key seems to be awareness of our presence in the experience.

Our race was yesterday morning and I have yet to bother finding the results. Eventually I will find them online, but before the experience is impacted by numbers, the plan is to understand a little more. After all, each of us were there for the duration.


We had a solid bike warm up and some good drills / strides on the kicks. I like to spend at least 30-40 minutes on the bike to allow the big logs to catch fire. Adding a little speed and stretching in the run warm up seems to prepare a few sparks for later on in the day. Keep the body cool, loose, and relaxed.

Swim warm up. . . Well, I did manage to throw on the wetsuit before the starting whistle, but that was about it for an upper body warm up. Big time oops.

I remember a few years ago my number one concern was finishing and therefore warm up was out of the question. "Are you kidding me? That's just a waste of my energy." Now I am quite sure I can swim 1500m without stopping, and know how important a proper warm up is.

Yesterday was a pre-race timing miscalculation.

The 1st 750m taught me a lesson I will always remember. WARM UP YOUR SHOULDERS AND ARMS!!! Lesson learned.

I settled in pretty well for a ride. I think I was a little conservative on the 2nd 1/2, knowing the run would be hilly. Next time leave a little more out there.

The run was decent. I felt good turning around at 5K and was able to open the stride down towards town.

As always, Penticton hosted a great event. Thanks to all who were involved to create a fantastic day. I am already looking forward to next years race.

Great dinner yesterday evening with 2 local celebrities: the one and only Jonnyo, and this years Peach Classic winner, Jeff Symonds. Sweet race buddy. Thanks for the hosting hospitality.

Time for a flush swim and drive home.

Rest well.

The Pen

Welcome back to "The Pen!" DudeMan, I love it up here. It is always easy to feel at home in the Okanogan.

Scotty and I made the trek yesterday, driving onto the 1pm ferry having arrived in line at 12:35, just like the olden days.

We made it a relaxed trip, soaking up the coastal mountains through Hope, and rolling by the Princeton valley. Shoot North for a little ways and there's a comfortably familiar sight, Skaha lake. Almost there.

Okanogan Lake. Ahhh Pen, here we are.

I love it up here.

Perfect pre-race day. Sleep in, mount a tubular, swim, register, package pick up, run, ice, hair cut, plan the race.

The tubular mounting was definitely messy. Definitely very messy. Defintely the most messy mess I have ever created. By the time the tire was on, I had the both sidewalls entirely smothered with the most sticky of all stickiest glues.

Uh oh. I think I just wrecked my wheel. Seriously, this is the end of my friend Velomax. 360 degree coverage of the braking surface. Uh oh.

Ok. Breathe in. Breathe out. How are you going to fix this? Just start scrubbing and hope for the best.

1 hour later, 2 litres of sweat lost, 1 T-Shrit covered in glue, 2 hands stuck together, 3 Bike Barn mechanics silently laughting histarically, 1/2 a bottle of acetone, and 1 perfectly round tubular on a clean rim.

Wherever you are this weekend, enjoy the perfect suchness of each moment. I'm looking forward to the next opportunity we have to connect.

Rest well.

Awesome Encouraging

From the moment I woke up yesterday, I knew it would somehow be an especially important day. It began with baking and some early morning deck thoughts.

The day continued from 5:30 to 9:30, prepping vegetables and peeling off layers for the perfect Ratattouli.

Now it's almost time to swim and there's just enough time to say Thanks to all the encouraging friends and family. Thank You.

Peach Classic this weekend and another beauty day is upon us.

Rest well.

The Beat

Waking with the Rhythm,
Flowing as a Breeze.

Waking with the Pulse,
Growing like the Trees.

Breathing with the Rhythm,
Try to catch a ride.

Breathing with the Pulse,
Lasting like the tide.

Resting with the Rhythm,
We can feel it come.

Resting with the Pulse,
Another day is done.

Thanks to Cedar Hill running trails. You were the training highlight.
Thanks to Elizabeth, our Yoga Guru, for another great session and encouraging conversation.

Rest well.

Almost?

Is there such a thing as almost? Almost what? Almost where?

It all comes down to perspective.

My first reaction to this weekend's race was, "almost." Almost had a great swim.

500m in the swim, right there, in the mix of the main group. Sweetness. Here it is. 1000m, still there and the green Tache suit swims up beside. Sit the hip. This must be good if I was ahead of him. 1100m feet escape. 1105 sprint to catch. 1150 feet escape. 1155 sprint to catch. 1200m feet escape. Sprint. Sprint again. Sprint again. Feet are gone. Pack swims past. Three more past. 300m slow solo.

Almost the swim. Almost.

Almost what? It just was, and now has been.

The external emphasis is almost, while the internal locus is.

The external emphasis can create expectation, which in turn leads to an externally influenced outcome. Or, we choose the internal emphasis. This is us. This is. Are we the emphasis? If we are, then we control the outcome.

The origin is ultimately from our choice of source, which requires conscious focussed thought. The other is a pre-packaged, pre-programmed, particular prescription. Our choice.

Our expectations clearly lead to outcome. Why do we so often choose to expect the externally expected?

It's there. It's easy. It's microwavable and ready right now. It has 85% of your RDI for 16 essential vitamins and minerals.

Who cares about your pre-determined RDI? It's absorption that matters.

We control absorption.

Almost what? Almost nothing. All that is, just simply is, and that is the internal locus, the internal emphasis.

So, initially the reaction was almost. Now it just was, and next will be according to choice, as always.

Great 3h with Sugar Cane through the fields today. Lots more learned this weekend which will sort itself in the next few. For now a thank you to Geneva, the Finger Lakes region, and all the cool people I've met in the past couple days.

Make the choice, and Rest well.

Home is Peace

Breathe in. Dark blue sky, rustling branches, cool summer air, warm wool sweater, sheepskin moccasins, cool face warmed with the steam of hot tea. Breathe out.
I am at home.

Breathe in. Waves breaking, sand rushing, pebbles sliding, onshore breeze, green mummy bag. Breathe out.
I am at home.

Breathe in. Cold snow squeaking, slightly damp feet, roaring stove, ice melting, dinner cooking. Breathe out.
I am at home.

Breathe in. Weightless, rocking, tipping, steady, Dip in the fingers and toes. Cold. Air dry. Breathe out.
I am at home.

Once again, sitting at the lakes edge I was struck by the infiniteness. How old? How far? How Long? How?

Driving back to town, a new feeling emerges. It could be described as feeling "At Home."

This is it. Here I am. I am at home. The amazing part of it was the feeling that home is everywhere.

Think back to where you have felt "home," and each time and place may share one thing in common.

Home is created. We create a home in which we rest, recover, and breathe. We can share our home with whomever we choose, and spread it wherever we travel.

For the past month Jazz, Jude, and Finn have shared their home with me. Thanks. I definitely feel at home.

Feeling at home is the ultimate in readyness and preparation. We all feel the most rested, recovered and race ready when at home.

Make yourself at home, and know your readyness.

The whole group is ready for action this weekend:

Andrew is continuing his World Cup tour in Tiszaujvaros. You are a World Cup racer dude! Inspiring for certain. Keep up the stellar work.

Kerry will make her World Cup debut in the Tizz. You're ready for this one Kerry. Have fun with it!

JP, Aaron, and Sharpie will be offering lessons to all who participate in the Gatineau Sprint. Bro's . . . make it so!

Alex, Kyla, and Christine are race ready for the Sprint. You know what you will do!

Scotty will be signing autographs after the Squamish Triathlon so be ready with your book of famous people!

I am back on the Olympic Distance train with some fun in up State NY, Musselman style.

Updates upon arrival.

Breathe deeply and enjoy being alive every moment.

Rest well.

Nourishment

From Wednesday there has been time to consider food, and I suppose the underlying question which remained unwritten, "What truly is the food which feeds and nourishes us?"

Our body is nourished through multiple elements: thoughts, emotions, reflections, friends, family, earth and air. These are of course just a few.

Triathlon happens to be an effective canvas on which we can test the various colours and forms of efficiency and nourishment. A wise friend told me, "Change your thoughts, Change your life." I like this, how about, "Create your thoughts, Create your life."

Thoughts can be amazing nourishment. A single ounce of thought is powerful enough to create an infinity. It can manifest anything in the cosmos, real or unreal. It can nourish each aspect of one to one million bodies from then, to now, to tomorrow. Thoughts are full of nourishment similar to emotions.

Last week I had the privilege of a pretty cool conversation on the impact of emotion on sport. Emotions have the ability to nourish the bodies aspects. They can create wonderful things, and achieve magnificent feats. They can also destroy, which is why some emotional energy also requires a fee.

Reflections are free and nourish the body just as their name suggests, through mindful awareness and understanding. Reflections nourish from then, and on forever. We view reflections within our Self, and also through friends and family.

Friends and Family have the ability to create nourishment & also magnify it one billion times. They can provide a sounding board which both reflects and amplifies. They can share the most powerful of all energies, and reciprocating nourishment. They can provide a single spark to re-start our own deep fire within. We can effortlessly reflect all this in return.

Much like we are impacted and fueled through friends and family, we receive nourishment through our relationship with earth and air. The earth provides all of which the organism could ask. Each and every of the trillions of cells within the organism has its own relationship with the earth and air, as do each each organelle within every cell. Through mutual understanding the earth nourishes the cell, just as the cell nourishes earth.

There are clearly multiple rivers and streams through which nourishment enters our body and Self. In the body as in nature, the same water runs through each river, both originating from, and returning to the same ocean.

The choice remains with us, here and now, to open and allow the river to flow with nourishment and infinite energy.

Thanks for the nourishing dinners. I hope I can reflect it back.

Let it flow, and of course,

Rest well.

piece

It was just before dawn on a beautiful Sunday morning; and as one of the biggest clouds you've ever imagined woke up, she received a call from the rain master. Today would be a monsoon day.

"Perfect." Thought the cloud. "I have been waiting to rain for almost a year!"

The rain fell all day & all night. It fell for the next day, the next night, and continued for 5 more days and nights. The clouds were happy to ran, and each and every drop of ran was happy to fall back down to the earth.

Much of the rain fell onto a rice field where it saturated the carefully seeded earth. Each drop of rain found it's perfect seed match.

The seed-rain pairs were happy to meet, because they new this was just the beginning of their journey together.

The perfect pairs shortly met with two other friends, Mr. Golden Sun, and Earth. The four thrived as a team and worked endlessly and effortlessly to grow the perfect grain of rice.

Before long it was harvest time, and an old farmer carried his trusty sickle to the field. They would work together, collecting the stalks.

The farmer was happy to do what he loved, as was the sickle. After all, they were now close to the earth, from which they were both once born.

The happy farmer & his sickle harvested many 1000s of grains of rice together, each with it's own purposeful adventure to come.

Where does our food truly come from?

What truly makes up our food?

Where does the energy in our food truly come from?

There is an infinity which goes into each and every piece of our lives. It is all one, as a perfect web, which is our Universe.

Consider all that went into just one of the grains of rice on our dinner plate this evening.

BLOWN AWAY! with Awe and Amazement.

And now, here it is, on this plate, before us . . .

Could it be that each piece has fulfilled one purpose, in order to be here, right now?

Our turn to continue the story. We decide what happens next.

Swim, Run, Sleep, Velodrome . . .

Rest well.

almost breakfast time

In the last year or so, I have found myself questioning things and wondering much more about all sorts of different things. I have been told and found through mindful reflection and awareness, things eventually become clear; however, the time line often seems out of ones control.

At the same time I am amazed how interactions and events seem to occur at the perfect synchronistic moment.

Last week I posed a question to myself during an OYO (on your own) base ride. It was one of those times where I almost became irritated through lack of understanding. Stuck.

Arms up in the air, fingers stretched towards the perfect bluish gray evening sky, I rode through a waterfall. From then on the ride, the evening, and everything else changed. First 4 steps complete and content with here now.

30 minutes later the answer to my now unstuck question arrived. Thank You.

All the questions, each answer waiting for the perfect moment to be revealed, each with their own perfect time line.

Thanks to all the awesome encouraging friends.

Now it's breakfast time.

Rest well.