Wednesday, June 9, 2010

New Website

For everyone who supports me and takes the time to read my blog please from now on go to my new website. http://buddygreen.ca/ There's still lots of stuff that has to be added to it but for now there's a few things and you can continue to follow me on my new blog.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

New Pace Clock? Happy Anniversary!

I think I better start this one off by saying Happy 1 year Anniversary to Lea! I can't believe that it's already been a year since we got married. This year has seemed to just fly by with everything that has happened.
So for the past 3 years and a bit I've been doing all of my swimming out of the YMCA pool where I work. It's just been the easiest since I'm already there and I don't have to pay anything. The only thing is though that the pool is only a 20m pool and there's been no pace clock. So to do a 100m's I have to do 5 lengths instead of 4 or 200m's I have to do 10 instead of 8. That hasn't been the end of the world even though I am training long distance and the shorten lengths aren't ideal. Then the no pace clock has meant that I have to judge how fast I'm going just by feel. Lucky for me the years of swimming have given me a good idea but doing sets on a pace time has been almost impossible other than the few times I've managed to get Lea away from her work for a few minutes while I'm swimming to use a stop watch and tell me when to go each time. So I'm happy to say that last week after over 3 years of asking I finally have a pace clock that I can use!! It was like x-mas in May! So with this I must say that I'm pretty happy that I've been able to stay one of the best swimmers in the sport when most people have either a 25m or 50m pool, training partners, pace clocks, coaches writing practices...etc.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lasalle Secondary honours former student-athletes

Ten former Lasalle Secondary students are being honoured for their athletic achievements at the first-ever Lancer Sport Hall of Fame ceremony.At 7 p.m. on May 26, former Lasalle Secondary School student-athletes, who have played for the national program or have been all-Canadian or all-American in their respective sports, will be honoured.The athletes being honoured at this ceremony include:
Brady Bolan (basketball)
Tessa Bonhomme (hockey)
Paul Boyce (basketball)
Rob Esmie (track and field)
Buddy Green (triathlon- swimming/running)
Brad Hann (basketball)
Norm Hann (basketball)
Lisa Labrecque (Oullet) (cross country/track and field)
Kristine Lalondde (basketball)
Al Lekun (football

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Happy Birthday Molly!

A BIG Happy Birthday to my little sister Molly!! It was nice to have her over for supper last night to celebrate her birthday. We had a really nice supper thanks to our good friend Sig who brought over steak and shrimp for the BBQ!
The swim meet on the weekend went really good...my kids swam great! It's kind of funny to see a 10 year old swimming as fast as some of the "elite" triathletes. They have another swim meet this week here in Sudbury again. This is a big one for them with about 500 swimmers coming!
I got some good news yesterday when I found out that the Y were I do most of my swimming will be getting a pace clock. I've had to make due without one for a long time now. Thank god for all my years of swimming and being able to 30x50's at pace all within .5 of a second. It's helped because I can pretty much tell how fast I'm swimming just by feel. Sometimes I have someone on deck timing me but regardless I'm pretty excited about the pace clock!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Old Man Winter

We've seemed to have got one more blast of winter. Just as everything was starting to turn green and the flowers were coming out in the gardens we get dumped on with two full days of ice and snow. Last week I was wearing shorts, biking in nothing but my bike shorts and jersey for 3-4 days and yesterday and today I'm wearing my winter coat into work. It looks like starting tomorrow the temperatures are going back up and it should melt pretty quick which is a good thing.
I was asked my friends of ours this week if I will take their son to the Hedley concert here in Sudbury on Monday. I can't say I'm a huge fan but I'm sure it will still be fun.
Today was pretty much a day off for with just an easy 30min spin indoors on the bike and a 1500m easy swim right after. The pool was already pretty busier than usual when I got in but I was able to swim without any floaters bothering me. I don't know why but people just kept coming in and really don't understand why someone who already has a hard time swimming would want to get in right beside me when they would they could go in another lane with other people who are doing a form of side stroke. Then you get the ones who try and keep their hair out out of the water so that they don't have to redo it afterwards. Today was just one of those days in the pool and all I wanted to do was swim for less than 20minutes and get out!
On a different note I'm having a beard growing contest with one of my students at school. We let it grow for a week so that it was long enough and then everyday we have to do something different to it and then the person who comes to school without changing it to what we agreed on the previous day is the loser. Today was only day two of changing it so we'll see how long it goes for. I have a feeling though he's going to win because I'm already getting tired of it but it does make for a few laughs every morning.
Tomorrows plan is a 75min swim followed by an easy run after I get out of the pool and then weights. Then Sunday is a big 4.5 hour brick before the swim meet.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Damn Cold

Last week I was having a great week of training until about Thursday when I started to cough. It wasn't too bad at first and I decided that I would still do a workout Friday morning before leaving for North Bay to visit my aunt and uncle for Easter who just returned from Florida. By the time I got to North Bay my cough was much worse and I had a hard time sleeping that night. I ended up taking all of Saturday and Sunday off because I knew my body needed it and training would of only made things worse. I'm feeling much better now and yesterday was a double run with a swim in between. My visit in North Bay was really nice like always! I always enjoy getting to see them whenever we have a chance.
I'd like to say congrates to my best friend Jesse who decided to call me while I was sleeping last week to tell me that he's been accepted into teachers college. Now he has to decide which school he's going to go to by the 15th. Not much time to decide I think!
Through work we are planning a weekend triathlon camp in June. It's sounding like its going to be a lot of fun staying at the camp, training and helping others learn the ropes of the triathlon world.
My sister's birthday is in about week and she's going to be 21! I can't believe how old she's getting...it seems like just yesterday we were kids playing in a tree fort or swimming in the lake. I need to think of something for her b-day quick cause I'm running out of time!
This early spring has been great for getting outside for biking earlier than we are used to. This week looks like rain for most of the week but after that right back to run and temperatures in the low teens which is great for training. I find it funny though to see some cyclist dressed like it's still winter out. I passed a group of them last week and the only thing extra I had on were some arm warmers and all 8 or so of them had jackets, pants, booties over their shoes...I had a good little chuckle as I rode past them.
This week will just be getting back to 100% healthy again and getting my training back up. This weekend there's a Top Fish swim meet for the little kids in town that will be a lot of fun. It's always really cute to watch the 4 year olds compete for the first time doing their 25 Fr and 25 kick.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A little extra motivation

Last Friday came and went just like every other day. Thanks to some help I'm starting to realize that it's a time to remember the good times and not so much the negatives of the day itself. Thursday night last week we had a really nice supper with some close friends at our place. On the weekend Lea went to North Bay for a funeral so it gave me the chance to hang out with my best friend Jesse for a few hours Sunday evening.
Training has been going really good this past week. I'm feeling really strong in all three individual sports. I think I have to credit that to just being healthy the past month since Ottawa and I've also started adding in some weights to my training and I can already feel a difference. In doing so it's also made me realize something pretty scary that although my shoulder feels 100% when I do certain arm exercises I can right away see the difference in strength and stability between the two. It's a work in progress though and even though I thought it was back to full strength I've found out otherwise.
I've been getting in some longer runs lately 15-21km's. Last night was a really good 7km tempo in 24:10. Biking has been a ton of fun lately since being able to do all my rides outside. Some of the better sets I've done in the pool over the past week have been:
4x500 Paddle @6:30 holding between 5:50-5:55
5x400 @5:15 D1-5 from 4:55-4:28
6x200 @2:30 2xP/PDD 2xP 2xswim all under 2:20
20x100 @1:20 1xFr 1xFly
The extra motivation towards my training has come from some of the change in feelings I've had towards my dads death. Also things have just been going really good lately and I've been finding that I'm just happier and very excited about whats to come this summer. Tomorrow is also a big day and we will be getting some pretty big news tomorrow evening!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Five Long but Short Years

Tomorrow marks the Five year anniversary of my dad's car accident where he was taken from all of us way too early. It's been kind of a tough week to say the least. I've only been up for about two hours now and already this morning I've found myself in tears over pretty stupid things as my emotions seems to be running wild. It's hard to think that it's already been five years and yet looking back at those five years so many things have happened. Unfortunately so many of those great things that have happened in my life and those that were close to him I've wished he had been there for. He was truly someone I looked up to and I try and mirror so many of his characteristics. He was the best dad to my sister and I and I can't wait to be the same to my child. He supported my sister and I to the best that he could in everything and was our biggest fan. Dad we miss you from the bottom of our hearts but you are in a better place now and there isn't anyone more suited to be up there looking over us. I love you.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sunday Long Run

Training has been going really good this past week. I've been getting in some good workouts all around and I finished off the week today with my first bike ride of the season outside. It's hard to believe that there has been people riding for at least a week now outside but I decided to give it a little bit longer just to let some of the salt and sand wash away so that I didn't have to completely clean my bike after getting home. This afternoon I met up with my friend Jocelyn that I was talking about who I'm helping train for a marathon and we ran one loop of her course for a good 21km's. The wind though today was really bad, almost stopping us dead in our tracks once. We got it done though and after a little stretch it was time to get some fuel in the old body.
This week I have off from teaching in the mornings at the high school as it's March break this week. It will give me a chance to work on a few other things around the house and put in a big week of training!
I'm still waiting to hear back from the meet manager if they will take my short course times for a long course meet at the end of the month which is the 10km open water world championship qualifier. I'm hoping they do because I feel pretty good in the pool right now and I've always wanted to do just an open water swim where I don't have to bike and run afterwards so why not start with 10km!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Opps...I guess I'm way over due!

So after getting crap from just about everyone for not posting for so long I figured I'd get my butt in gear and get something up. I think this was my longest stretch since I started blogging that I haven't post anything.
Things have been going great the past month, I've been keeping crazy busy with just about everything!! After coming back from Florida I was feeling great in training and I went to a swim meet in Ottawa. For some reason though I didn't swim the way I wanted! A few things contributed to my poor performance but what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I came away from the weekend learning some new things that will only make me faster in the long run so it wasn't a total waste of time. The best part about the weekend was that I got to spend my time that I wasn't at the pool with my grandma. She is 86 years old and anytime I get to spend with her is very special. She's one of the few relatives I have left and I think about her a lot especially since on the 19th will be 5 years since I lost my dad who was her son.
It's a rough time right now with a lot of memories that come back. I'm just trying to stay positive and spend some time with my little sister who isn't so little anymore and other close friends!
Working at the high school the past month has been great! It's been a totally different experience and I'm loving every minute of it. I've also been working with someone I met at the Y who was looking at running a 1/2 marathon in May but since I've started working with her we've decided that she's going to run the full marathon. Jocelyn is a supper hard worker and she's been doing great with all of her workouts. She's really dedicated and has gone from never running a 1/2 before to running the full in about a month and a half. I'm supper excited for her and I'll be running the second half of the marathon with her on race day just to push her a little!
I might be heading to Quebec in a few weeks for another swim meet. The World Open Water Championships is there this summer and they are having the trials for it in a couple weeks but even though its been really nice out lately we still cant swim in the lake anytime soon so we are going to have to do 10km in the pool! I'm a little scared about swimming a 10km race in a pool...not too sure what I'm getting myself into but either way it will be another great experience.
Today I had a photo shoot at the mall for their upcoming add campaigns. It was a lot of fun! Brenda is a great person and I love working with her. There was about a dozen different people there for the shoot and we took so many pictures!! I got some taken with my bike though which will be really cool.
So since I've been getting harassed about my blog lately I will be posting more often so stay tuned for more regular updates.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Long Weekend

I'm back home now but I'm not to sure about this cold weather. I guess it's good for the Pond Hockey Tournament this weekend on Ramsey Lake. I will be there Saturday morning for a few hours helping out as a member of the Skate Exchange Committee. We will be giving out used skates that we've collected throughout the year to those who need them. This is our 5th Skate Exchange this winter and we've already given out hundreds of skates to families.
This weekend being family day weekend is free ice fishing so after coaching Lea and I are planning on heading out to Skead where I used to live and do a bit of ice fishing for the afternoon.
Before I went away to Florida I had been going in to the Lively High School every morning and working with a couple students who will be doing their co-op with the YMCA as a "trainer". I had a meeting with the teachers at the high school today and it looks like everything is good and we will be starting on Tuesday for their official co-op. I will be spending the first two periods of the day with them in their weight room working with other students in their school and creating workout plans for them.
My brother in law got an interview with the Sudbury fire department coming up in about a week. I think it's pretty cool and it would be awesome if he got the job as it would be nice to have them closer and around more.
My trip home from Florida was pretty uneventful except for the lady sitting beside me who wouldn't stop talking to me even after I put my ear phones in to listen to the TV. I just want to thank all those who support me and made it possible for me to go down to Florida and take the time off work to train. I had a great coach while I was down there that I learnt a lot from. Thank you Lea for taking care of everything while I was gone...you did a great job!
I did get some bad news though on Monday before coming home. I was talking to my little sister and one of her very close friends was killed in a snow machine accident on Sunday. I felt really bad for her as she literally got off the team bus after their oua's swim meet and spent the rest of the night in the hospital with his family. 17 is just too young and my thoughts go out to his family.
I'm excited to see my grandma next weekend in Ottawa while I'm there for my swim meet. I never do get to see her nearly enough and it will be exciting to see her now that she just recently found out she's going to be a great grandma!
It was great to get back to coaching last night. I missed all the kids. I always look forward to working with them everyday and being part of their development and seeing them grow as athletes and young boys and girls. Except while I was gone I think they decided to forget everything I've taught them so there was a little bit of restarting of sets yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow morning they will have had time to remember everything.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

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.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

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.

Saturday, January 30, 2010




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.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

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.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

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.

Monday, January 4, 2010

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.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Day #2 of Olympic Torch Relay















Today started with a 3:30am wake up to be on the road at 4am. Before we got on the road we were informed that one of the trucks travelling during the night hit a moose and was pretty much totalled. The first part of the drive was done in the dark as we went through Wawa. After that the sun started to come up and we were able to see all around us. I've been to some pretty cool places around Canada and the World but there is nothing like good old Northern Ontario. It was some of the nicest country I've seen and it made for a great drive! I took a couple picture as we got into out first celebration town of Marathon. The people of Marathon were great and were supper pumped about us being there and really enjoyed the show. After is was back on the road and this time I took a turn behind the wheel to Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay sure knows how to have fun as thousands of people came out for the celebration. I'm pretty sure I didn't stop signing autographs the whole two hours we were there.
The food on the road has been lets just say AMAZING!! We have full buffets everynight in the hotel just for us. You can pretty much have anything you want! My kind of a meal for sure....
I know I said today one of the celebrations was supposed to be on a lake but I was wrong and it's actually tomorrow when we get to Dryden. Then we finish off the day in Kenora. Looking forward to travelling to this great places I've never been before and getting to meet the people of these towns.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

My first day on the Olympic Torch Relay










Wow, what an experience! Today was my first day on the Olympic Torch Relay. It started this morning when I was picked up by my team in our fancy Yukon Hybrid. From there we headed straight downtown to the celebration. As you can see from one of the pictures I have my own little tent where people can come and meet me and I sign autographs for them. It's been such a great experience so far as the celebrations themselves are something else with all the music, performances and stories.
After we were done in Sudbury our team packed up and before we left Sudbury they wanted to see the Big Nickel so I took them over and they all got their pictures taken beside it. After that it was on the road to the Sault.
Tonight's celebration was indoors at the arena which was nice because I didn't have to worry about my hands freezing while trying to sign every ones autograph. Tonight the final person to carry the torch into the arena was a girl I know from the Sault who used to swim and went to the 2000 and 2004 games.
This torch relay is such a great experience for me and really every Canadian because it gives everyone the chance to be part of the Olympics that are going to be happening in Vancouver in just over a month from now.
Tomorrow we are on the road at 4am but I believe it's tomorrow that one of our celebrations are on a lake!! Stay tuned for what is going to be lots more great adventures.