Hold me under water, teach me how to breathe

I had a productive week after the Scotia Vancouver 1/2 and training is progressing nicely.  The day after the 1/2 I had a nice recovery day with one 8km run and then proceeded to get in about 36km a day for the rest of the week.  Thursday’s workout was pretty long and the next day I was dead tired.  I thought Friday morning’s 20km run was a struggle, until the afternoon 16km run.  Throughout the last 8km of that run my thoughts kept wavering between “this is stupid” and “it will make me stronger.” Let’s hope for the latter.

On Saturday I was feeling better but I wasn’t moving that quick, until I kicked a beehive.  There was a beehive the size of a softball under a drinking fountain and because kids will be using that fountain come Tuesday when day camps start I figured I should get rid of it.  After I hoofed that thing I probably did my fastest stride of the marathon prep.  Now my plan is imagine kicking a beehive with 2km to go in London.

What an entertaining week of Track and Field!  The Canadian trials, US trials and European championships.  There were some clutch performances at the Can and US trials with people hitting their A standard at the 11th hour.  Unfortunately achieving a seasonal best at the Canadian trials in events longer than 800m is pretty much out of the question due to altitude.  It would be so frustrating to have your last attempt to qualify for the Olympics at the trials knowing you have to race at 3500 feet.  Complete BS if you ask me.  AC should let athletes chase standards for one more week if they are going to host the trials where the evidence is clear times in distance events will be slower.

Congrats to Speed River teammates Hilary Stellingwerff and Alex Genest for fulfilling their Olympic requirements (had to finish top 3) and booking their tickets to London. A tough break for Malindi Elmore and Taylor Milne who have shown Olympic level fitness this season but just didn’t have that race where everything clicked.  Chris Winter has also been ripping it up lately but with so may PB’s I think he has to be happy with how his season is going (hopefully more PB’s in Europe in the coming weeks).  And what about the women’s 100m hurdles where both Perdita and Priscilla failed to qualify? Crazy stuff. My mouth dropped when Perdita false started.  I’m glad she ran under protest anyways to prove that she could have finished in the top 3.

Remember that French athlete (Mekhissi-Benabbad) who threw punches after a race in Monaco last year? Well he got into it with a mascot (apparently a 14 y/o girl) at the recent Euro Champs

I guess pushing mascots is his thing (Euro 2010 Champs)