Only a few more days...

I only have a few days left in the sunny south. It's been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. I've had a mixture of weather from tornado warnings to bright sunny days where I got some nice sun burns. I've had some great training at an amazing pool with a great coach who has pushed me really hard and even finished off today's workout with a 400m LC Fly which I came in at 5:20. The area that I'm in has some of the best places for cycling in the state with some amazing things to see. We've done a little bit of travelling around visiting some friends who also spend the winter down here. Played a game of mini put on a pirates ship with real live alligators around. We even managed to get in a little shopping today.

I'm excited for my last few days here before heading home to the snow and cold. I am excited though to get home to Lea and my puppy Cricket who miss me and have had a rough go at things since I've been gone with the furnace breaking four different times and having to wait for someone to come fix it while the house gets colder and colder and then the fire department coming to our house because the CO detector went off because of the work being done. I wish I was there to help her with this especially right now

Just under two weeks now until I head to Ottawa for swimming nationals. I'm excited to see what I can do after this little training camp. I have some goals in mind but I will keep them to myself until after the meet.

Good swim and a little lost in Florida

Today I had a great swim at the GT Bray Aquatic Centre. It's a great facility with a 8 lane 25m pool and 6 lane 50m pool. All of my swimming has been done in the 50m pool though. My coach is great and is really pushing me hard. He used to swim for many years with Mark Spits and put 6 people to Olympic Trials for swimming for the last summer Olympics so he really knows what he's doing.

Today my practice was:

300Fr

3x1000 1xkick 1xPaddle and band 1xswim

5x50 A.O. + 150 mod @ 2:50

100 easy

12x50 Fr @ :40

100 easy

400 A.O.

400CD

After that I went for a bike ride in a part of that I didn't know very well but I thought I could find my way back alright....was I wrong!! I went up and down this long street a couple of times because I was sure I was on the right street and there was supposed to be this 4 way stop and it just disappeared! I was getting pretty frustrated and it was a good thing I had my cell phone with me. So I got directions but I was still having a hard time finding my way back and then I came up on a cop who was stopped behind a broken down school bus so I thought I would ask him directions. Bad idea...don't ever ask a cop in North Port for direction. You would think I interrupted a homicide investigation or this cop was just having a really bad day!!

Tomorrow I have a run in the morning then its back to the pool for 11am and then I'm meeting a cycling group at 4pm for a hard ride. Should be a good day!

RBC Bio

http://www.rbc.com/sponsorship/olympics/bio/buddy_green.html
Here is a link that will bring you right to the RBC Olympians website and my bio. This years athletes were just put up on the website.
Training camp is going good. The weather could be a bit better but you gotta take what you get! I'm just heading over to the pool in a few minutes and coach says were going long today so we'll see what that means when the first two swims were 6000m each.

Florida

So it's definitely been awhile since I've done a blog...since I got back from the torch relay basically which is pretty bad! Not too much is new since then...it was Jesse and Sig's birthday that we celebrated this week. At work I was asked to go to Sears and give a presentation to a bunch of pregnant ladies about physical fitness while you're pregnant. That was a little different!
I'm now in Florida for a little while getting some training in. I got in last night and right away put my bike together. This morning I went for a 2.5 hour bike and it was so nice to get outside and off the trainer in the basement back at home. The pavement was so nice also compared to back home. There isn't potholes every 10 feet that I have to dodge! We just have some eggs and ham for breakfast and then I'm heading over to the pool for noon to swim.
I'm going to keep updating my blog while I'm here so keep an eye out for some more post of how training and everything in Florida is going.

Home Sweet Home

This picture was taken on my last morning on the relay in Winnipeg before heading to the airport. This was truck we were travelling in!

I had a good trip home even though it was a long day a travel. It was nice to get picked up at the airport by our friend Sig who drove me home and then had supper with us.

As fun as the trip was it was really nice to be home and sleeping in my own bed and back to my regular schedule today. And after limited training over my trip it was good to get in a solid 3 hours today. Tomorrow I will be back at the pool coaching as it seems like forever since I've seen the kids I coach with the holidays and then being gone the first week back. Jack stopped over tonight while his daughter was had cross country skiing practice at the trails by our house. It was nice to see him and he gave me a few tips on the room we are remodelling.

Last day on the Olympic Torch Relay

Today was my last day on the Olympic Torch Relay before flying home tomorrow. It was a great day over all as we didn't have to travel too far with only about a total of 3 hours of driving. This morning we were in Steinbech Manatoba. They bussed in about 50 bus loads of kids from local schools so Jared, Jill and I were none stop signing for over three hours. The whole time though we were really looking forward to the evening celebration in Winnipeg as it was supposed to be one of the biggest of the relay.

Winnipeg sure didn't disappoint tonight as the number of people that turned out was incredible. We each also got to take turns going over the hotel that was next to the celebration to mingle with a bunch of RBC clients at a party RBC was putting with food and drinks. I got to see my first protesters tonight! They were pretty innocent though tonight as they was just a small group of them and they were just yelling some stuff at us but they got moved along pretty quick.

It's been a great trip on the Torch Relay but I'm tired and it will be good to get home, get some rest and see Lea. I just want to thank you to Kat for taking such great care of me while I've been on the road. Kat has gone more than out of her way to make this one of the best experiences ever and I hope that her and I can keep in touch. Also a big thank you to RBC for giving me this amazing experience.

Day #3 Olympic Torch Relay

Well we got the disappointing news on the way to Dryden this morning that our celebration wouldn't be on the lake and that it made been moved indoors because of the wind shield factor. It was kind of upsetting because I had really been looking forward to be on the Ice Road but ever since a couple days ago when they had to bring 6 people to hospital because of the cold they aren't taking any chances. I was really surprised at how big both Dryden and Kenora are. I thought they were going to be really small communities but there was a lot of people at both celebrations and the cities were very nice.

Lea told me yesterday that she was talking to her aunt who lives in Hearst and she was saying that there's this really cool store on the side of the highway that we should stop at where everything is made of sheep fur. So I told everyone about it and next thing you know I've got a whole ton of RBC and Coke SUV's and Transports stopping at this little store to check it out. Some people were spending hundreds of dollars on clothes, mits, hats, boots...you name it! All because of Lea's aunt who said I should stop if I can.

Tonight's celebration in Kenora was outside and as you can see in one of the pictures they made these really big hollow ice cubs and put candles in them. There were hundreds of them and they marked the way for the torch. It was really cool!! A couple thousand people turned out tonight in Kenora which was great considering it was so cold and there were so many young kids. And that is the real reason why I'm doing this is for the kids and to see their faces when they see the torch and the few seconds I get to spend talking with each one trying to inspire them to reach for their dreams in sport or whatever they do in life.

Tomorrow is my last day on the relay when I end in Winnipeg tomorrow night before flying home the next day. It's supposed to be a huge celebrations in Winnipeg tomorrow and I can't wait.