Take A Step Back, Jump Forward.

After a season there is always a short but extremely needed break where you allow the legs to recover and give the liver a lil' punishment. Jokes, gotta stop thinking bout booze all the time.. But during this short break what seems to go through my head is all the things I did wrong, or the things i didn't do, or the things I could/should have done. It's really quite a horrible stress on the mind. This year after CIS our guys team had a very somber meeting back on Bernies Farm. We all (the whole team not just the CIS squad) sat around in a circle and said how the race went, how the season went, what could be improved, what worked well. Both tears and laughs filled the room as we went around and shared. In the end we worked out a couple things.

1. focus on CIS
2. take workouts seriously
3. race less (if possible)
4. just like both DC and AP mentioned, do all the little things.

The little things, a term often used, but is it really understood?
what are the little things? From my understanding they are ABC's, strides, abs, sleep, and pool running if you are going to be hard core about it. So, thats what I am gunna do, the little things.

Now I would really like to share all the things that I did wrong and didn't do etc etc but the break ended and running again ensued and something weird happened... Something that has happened before but can only be described with one line:

 I'm not sure what to do with my hands....

Its weird. Hopefully it happens to more than just me.

rj

Winter is coming

Well we just had our first real snowfall over here, you know how sometimes you get those ones where it snows for 15 minutes and none of it stays, or it blizzards for a good 20 and it only stays for a day at most, but not this one. This one was a solid full day of flurries, the weather man says that it should be similar every day this week ( I think it would be a stressful job being the weatherman, if you get it wrong everyone would have their hate on for you)  anyway snow always puts everybody in the Christmas spirit. Went for a yog this afternoon and noticed how many people were putting their Christmas lights and  Christmas trees up which led me to remember that rj and dc are coming home in like less then a month, that's crazy, so excited to see them, it also led me to think about eggnog, damn that stuff is good... I guess where I was going with this is ski season is almost here! I've been waiting for snow since the minute after Ofsaa cross and now it's finally come! There's going to be nothing like getting those skis all waxed up and hitting the trails or in dc's case getting those shoes that would be in the form of some racket on and hittin' the trails.

Well the off season is over, started going for 3 or 4 jaunts a week, doing a lot of strengthening and leg power work I think it's paying off because man does it ever feel good, my legs feel fresh but my stride feels super awkward, it's almost like I've forgotten how to run, I'm debating whether it's just all the power work i've been doing without running over the off season or if it's just the fact that I haven't been running either way I'm guessing that'l fix itself after a few strides, abc's and miles.

Anyway I'd like to wish rj a happy belated birthday because I don't think I ever got around it so umm happy 19 years and one month birthday! oh yeah and dc to happy 19 years 2 months and 2 days birthday!
-AP

They Are So Hot Right Now

All Tied Up

I guess I'll start things off with a pre race story, the team went to the mall on thursday night cause the girls wanted to go shopping. All in all had a great time, bought a fancy vest and sweater, solid trip to the mall. Now what made it fun was the time I spent with BT, him and I have the same ideas in malls, get in, get what ya need, get out. From my understanding this is how must men operate in malls, unless they have one of those girlfriends to worry about. And just my luck, my shopping buddy BT has one of those girlfriends. So we found ourselves in a jewellery store for days trying to find(hopefully she doesn't read this) earrings that dont make peoples ears black. Needless to say after about hours of looking at earrings and flirting with the lady helping us and calling his girlfriends friends we finally buy the pair that I picked out after being in the store for 5 minutes.

Once I had picked out the earrings I thought he should buy her I went over to the wedding rings and started checking em out, figured eventually I'd need to do this, so starting looking at ones I'd like.

This brought me to thinking about the famous AD 4 YEAR PLAN.

Year 1: find a girl
Year 2: date the girl
Year 3: move in with the girl
Year 4: Marry the girl.

Anyways, week off is coming to an end, gotta start being fit and stuff. All the little things are going to matter this time around.

rj

WELCOME TO CIS

Im only showing this picture because this was the only good thing to come out of the weekend in London, as well as some good stories, but those will be shared another time. Time to be depressed for a week, and try to enjoy the week of sin.

enjoy.

rj

p.s. it was empty in the morning.

Between Seasons, We Reminisce

Well unfortunately the cross country season is over, but oh man was it a good time! With a summer full of miles, wine chugs and dinner for two followed by a season of hard workouts, even harder races and loads of hardware, I really enjoyed myself! So I decided I'd make a list of the most memorable moments of the season.

Movie Monday!

Movie Monday was probably the day that I most looked to forward  in the week, there was never anything better then going for a good ol' yog, meeting up with the jets,  grabbing a few brew and enjoying whatever film we have chosen to watch said evening, for example LOTR extended edition, Batman, The Men who Stare at Goats, the list goes on! It was on these days that plans were made, songs were sung and chirps were well, chirped! The only other event that I looked forward to as much as movie Monday was.....

Settlers 

Yes Settlers! Well at least some may know this game as settlers while others know it as "The game that destroys friendships". Every so often through out the summer, someone from the jets would blow the conch, the conch of the Facebook machine to unite us all for a heated match of settlers. These moments were taken so seriously that we managed to turn planned nights of fun, crochet and beach olympic events at Benabus's cottage to heated battle in a matter of minutes. Anyway DC kept track of the total wins on his mobile device and I think Benabus is in the lead but not for long if I can help it!

Beach Olympics

This summer the jets had their first annual beach Olympics, except for first annual doesn't really apply here because it's not quite annual yet so it would be more like the first to be annual beach Olympics, anyways the events this year included the men's individual crochet, won by rj with an astounding lead over the rest of the field, The men's team ladder toss event, won by rj and I and finally the men's team Bocce Ball in which Benabus and I proceeded to win. I had loads of fun!

The beach Olympics definitely deserves a spot on the best memories of the season list, this one will have to become a tradition.

Dinner for two

Dinner for two marks the best workout I have ever had in my life, a perfect mixture of hills, tempo, fartleck and speed. Rj's fast pace killed me but I never felt so good after a workout as this one here. During our very needed cooldown rj and I decided to visit sm at boston pizza. There was only one problem with our visit... We didn't have any money but we proceed to be seated none the less. That evening we had a dinner for two, a dinner of 2 tall, thirst quenching glasses of water. We ended up finishing our meal by giving a tip of mints that we received from the front desk. It was a memorable night!

"That Night''

Anyone who has participated in ''That Night'' won't need an explanation but for all those who didn't have the chance to participate... let's just say there was a whole lot of wine, ping pong, just dance 3 and sign changing. Nuff said...

Anyway these were some of the most memorable moments of the summer and now that the season is over all I can do is go stir crazy from the lack of running and reminisce on all the good workouts and fun I had. Between seasons we reminisce.

-AP

Contenders NOT Pretenders.

A cool breeze flows through the crowd of people, every one stripping down to there respective school colours and myself wearing the blue and white and the big block X. It was a long journey to get to this starting line and getting here is not the end, for there is 10 more kilometres. This race is the beginning, the beginning of something amazing. To my left and right are the boys that mean everything to me, and I would sacrifice myself for them, for the team. Its race day, its cool, crisp, the sun is trying to break through the clouds but the rain is winning.  "LETS GO BOYS!" We chant. "GO X GO" We scream. Nothing but pure adrenaline flows through my veins, and then there was silence, a calm creeped over the entire field, nothing stirred. We leaned over the line and then a BANG. A stampede ensued and the silence was broken to thousands of screams of which none can be made out for the noise hits you like a tidal wave. The race is on.

WE ARE CONTENDERS NOT PRETENDERS,

Look out.

rj

So Young, So Perfect

Now don't misinterpret the title, I'm not some crazy child loving runner, just a runner who happens to be crazy. Today, the morning after Ofsaa cross, my mother woke me up early and asked me if I could walk my little 8 year old sister to her soccer practise, begrudgingly I agreed. With stiff legs filled with lactic acid from the probable lack of cool down from the previous day I walked her to where she needed to be. So there I sat, on the side of the gym cheering my sister on like Will Farrow in the movie kicking and screaming when I realized she had phenomenal heel lift, absolutely no heel strike and a beautiful lean from her ankles. Now I've been told running was in my blood but never thought that you could be born with a perfect stride! So I decided I'd examine the strides of every other 8 year old child playing soccer at the time, and turns out I got the same results! So young, so perfect! Every single one of them chasing the ball without a care in the world, just running for fun, unknowing of what a good or bad stride is not caring whether or not they were heel striking or if their cadence were quick enough, just running. What made it so that people these days can't run so innocent, so perfect. Is it that we've been tainted with the large heel of our shoes or is it that we just don't run enough anymore. I think a little carelessness is just what we need, we need to just get outside for the sake of running, let our bodies take us for a ride and enjoy it, just have fun. Maybe for once, we should learn a lesson from those we try so hard to mold and teach and let them teach us to feel innocent and perfect once again.

By the way congrats to the panet lads for the Ofsaa gold and remember ''Any run can be an adventure'' (quoted from rj previously on NPS)

-AP