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

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!

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.

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.

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!

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 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!

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.