Like a Fish out of Water ...

I felt like I couldn't breathe, move, swim. Yet this is how I was feeling in the water. Sure, I've had the occasional "bad" swim before, but I don't think I've ever had such a long dry spell (so to speak). The only way I can describe it is that I felt like I just couldn't make my body work in the water; my mind and my body felt completely disconnected. What started as a weird feeling in the water eventually grew to not being able to complete half a workout. So, I did the only thing I could think of - I talked to someone smarter than me.

This all started a couple of weeks ago after a challenging test set. By the end of it I had done 3000 m in just under an hour with my heart rate average in the 170s the whole time. Meyrick kept track of my times and heart rate and I'm so glad I have that information. With it I concluded (well, I guessed first and then someone smarter than me agreed) that I probably haven't been varying the intensity of my workouts enough. And it isn't because I wasn't told to vary them, I just wasn't giving myself a break (not on purpose!)

OK - I (we) figured out what I did wrong, but how to fix it? Obviously swimming more wasn't going to help so, I got out of the pool and hung up my goggles. At first, I thought 3 days would do it, but then I decided not to put a "deadline" on my return to the water. I decided that when the time was right, I would know. 3 days passed, 4 days, 6 days then today, day 7, I headed for the pool. What a difference! It felt effortless, I could breathe and most importantly I could swim.

It was a tough lesson; straying from my plan felt completely wrong and a couple of days ago I wasn't sure that I would ever get "it" back. In the past I may have tried to push through it, or felt guilty about taking a break. But, I've learned from my mistake and I'm sure it will happen again but now I know I can trust myself to get through it.

You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks!

A couple of weeks ago I was at my pool for an easy morning swim. It was a Saturday, and I don't usually swim until the afternoon on Saturdays but since I was heading out of town for the evening, I decided to go early. I was surprised to see a couple of swimmers I know from West Van Masters there - surprised because they were in the "wrong" place, on the "wrong" day and at the "wrong" time. It turns out they were doing a Starts & Turns clinic in preparation for the BC Masters Provincial Championships.

I started chatting with one of them and the conversation went something like this - Ursula: "So, are you ready for the race at Provincials?" Me: "Huh?" Ursula: "The 4 x 50 relay, you're on a team." Me: "Huh?" Apparently my name had somehow come up as someone who would be going to Provincials and would be on a relay team. Never in my life have I raced in a pool and I had no plans on starting anytime soon. To make matters worse (in my head) it was the SHORTEST and FASTEST distance possible - 50 meters. Sprinting is not my "thing" because I am not particularly fast. I prefer going at a steady pace over a longer distance.

Being the person that I am, I decided I couldn't let 3 other people's hopes and dreams of participating in a relay race at Provincials get crushed (OK, I may be exaggerating a bit) so I agreed to race. Ursula: "The entry fee is the same no matter how many events you do, so you might as well sign up for a couple more." Me (out loud): "Yeah, sure"; Me (in my head): "Not a chance".

As I registered for the meet, I discovered that you HAVE to register for a non-relay event, as relays are done separately and my name was already on the list, but to get registered, I needed to sign up for something. Crap. So I found an event that I might be able to do OK at (400 m) and signed up. Then I looked at the psych sheets. Then I scratched my name from the event. Based on my best guesstimate of my time, I would finish close to the back of the pack.

I suffered through my usual pre-race jitters, nausea and mind-babble - "What if I come dead last? Everyone will be looking at me. What if I look like an idiot? I can't do this. I'm too slow." When I left the house for the meet, I had timed it so that I wouldn't have to be at the pool too long, but the thing with swim meets is that they are ALWAYS behind schedule. So, I arrived about 3 hours early.

Here's the weird part - it was FUN! Nobody cares how fast / slow you are. Nobody thinks you look like an idiot when you're doing exactly the same thing as they are. Nobody is too slow when they're swimming their best. The last finishers usually get the biggest applause. It felt really good to be part of a team; not just the 4 of us who relayed, but part of a bigger team.

I left the meet both proud and annoyed - proud because I did something completely out of my comfort zone and annoyed because I scratched my name from the other event. I scratched out of fear, but doing the relay and watching the meet made me realize that it was a totally irrational fear. It turns out I would have placed not-too-badly in my age group if I had swum in other events.

So ... BC Masters Swimming Provincial Championships MAY be on the list for 2011. Stay tuned ...

Oh, and by the way my team came 2nd in our combined age category. Not bad!

Why I do what I do

If you were to lose everything right now - your home, car, job, savings, clothes, food, EVERYTHING - would you end up on the street tonight? Chances are you would not, and neither would I. And why is that? Why, with no place to live, no clean clothes to wear, no food to eat and no job to go to, would we not end up homeless on the street? Because we all have people in our lives who care about us too much to let that happen.

Most of us have a similar understanding of what poverty means - the lack of sufficient funds to provide basic living needs. Over the past few weeks, I have had several conversations with friends, colleagues and family about homelessness and poverty.These conversations had lead me to wonder if poverty should be only defined by money (or lack thereof)? Based on how I (and probably you) answered the opening question, the answer is obviously "no".

When I decided to become a teacher, it wasn't because I had an overwhelming desire to teach. Don't get me wrong, I had and still have a desire to teach. However, I knew I wanted to do something with kids that goes beyond teaching curriculum. Many of the kids I work with face huge challenges on a daily basis; learning, physical and intellectual disabilities; chronic health impairments; behaviour challenges and adversities at home. On paper (and in a very small nutshell), I am responsible for designing, supervising and assessing the educational program for any student with a special need. While I love these aspects of my job, it is what goes on on top of this that really and truly makes me passionate about it.

For me, the most important thing about what I do everyday is connecting with kids. Sadly, there are many, many kids out there who don't have positive relationships with adults. My heart has been broken many times listening to what some of our youngsters have had to deal with; many literally do not have anyone outside of school who cares about them. In a perfect world, I would be able to fix everything for them, but I know I can't. But that doesn't mean I can't be a positive influence in their life. I could go on and on about the things I (& many many other people) do to be "the person", but that is not the point of this post. I already know what I do and I feel pretty damned good about it.

So what is my point? Think back to the opening question. If it's not just about money, what is it about? It's about having positive relationships. I believe we are facing a serious crisis of relational poverty. Throwing money at the problem won't solve it (although I beg of you to NOT stop giving - it is HUGELY IMPORTANT!) But next time you give money to support less fortunate kids, think about what else you can do. Can you spare some time to become "the person" (or even a person) in a child's life? When a kid has someone who cares enough about them to shoot some hoops, or play a video game or even talk to them, their situation may not be "fixed", but their life will be better. And so will yours.

Brick Walls

If you've never had the chance to watch, or have never heard of Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, watch it. (10,689,701 views; 34,207 ratings, average rating - 5). I'm not going to get into details about it, because I simply wouldn't be able to do it justice. One of the recurring themes in the lecture really sticks with me: "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want something."

How many times have we come up against an obstacle only to look at it, turn around and walk away, tail between legs? If you've walked away from something, you obviously didn't want it enough. The thing about that brick wall though is that it's not likely going anywhere. So, even if it means turning your back on it temporarily, it will always be there for you to scale.

St Croix, USVI

Finally - a little bit about the rest of my time on St Croix.  More photos on my Picasa Web Album, updated as I get around to it. 

Getting there - This was a long journey. 4 flights, 141/2 hours in the air, 22 hours travel time.

FRIDAY - I spent my first full day on the island exploring the Resort. The Buccaneer is a beautiful 349 acre property set on the north coast of St Croix. It has a fascinating history that begins in the 17th century. Although it is expansive, there are only 149 guest rooms, so it never feels crowded, even when fully booked. I found myself at both beaches, once sitting and doing absolutely nothing, the other time swimming and reading. I had a delicious lunch at The Mermaid Restaurant, a pedicure and I organized my trips for Monday & Tuesday. Or rather the very capable Concierge Marsha arranged them for me. It was a great day!

The Sugar Mill Rooms - my home-away-from-home

The Grotto Beach & Pool

View from my room

The Mermaid Beach

The Greathouse

SATURDAY - After the Open Water clinic / talk with Misty Hyman & Alex Kostich, I went into Christiansted. Like most Caribbean Islands, St Croix has changed "ownership" many times. At one point or another since its "discovery", Spain, The Netherlands, France, Britain and Denmark have all laid claim to St Croix. Since 1917, it has been a territory of the United States. Its main industries were sugar, rum and slave trade. There are no sugar plantations on the island today although Cruzan still makes rum on the island. Hovensa is the largest private employer in the Virgin Islands and is one of the ten largest oil refineries in the world. Christiansted is a pretty small town and everything is on "Island Time" there. It was well worth visiting. Fort Christiansvaern  dates back to 1738 and was an informative side trip.

SUNDAY - Coral Reef Swim Race. My race report has the details. Aside from swimming, I spent the rest of the day with some great people I met through the swim. The Buccaneer hosted a fantastic BBQ (not a vegetarian-friendly event!) and let's just say that when a rum distillery sponsors an event the atmosphere is festive and the beverages are pretty tasty!

MONDAY - Tan Tan Jeep Tour.

Our trusty steed for the day. The black one wasn't so trusty

and needed to be replaced early on in the day.

This trip was off-the-beaten-path and took us to some great destinations that you wouldn't be able to get to without a 4-wheel drive. Click to enlarge photos.

View from Blue Mountain, highest peak on St Croix

Carambola Beach (I think)

Northwest St Croix aka "No-Mans Land"

The "trail" into the tidal pools

Relaxing in the tidal pools

The Domino Club, featuring:

I can't say that the beer-drinking pigs (it's non-alcoholic beer, by the way) was the highlight of my day, but it's one of those things that you have to see to believe.

The two people I shared the Jeep with are sisters and they invited me out for dinner to Duggan's Reef; famous for their local lobster dishes. Delicious!

Tuesday - For my last day on St Croix, I took a catamaran trip out to Buck Island. The island and its barrier reef are a National Monument. The Coral Reef Swim is actually a fundraiser for the Nature Conservancy's East End Marine Park. Many of us look at the ocean almost daily and it is incredibly easy to forget that there is a lot of life under the surface of the water. It is a very delicate and stunningly beautiful ecosystem and reminds me that we need to give the ocean the respect that it deserves.

 

The Wavedancer

Under way to Buck Island (in background)

 Don't try to smile with a snorkel in your mouth.

 SHAAAAAARRRRRK!!!!!

 

 Coral Forest

 Fish are not easy subjects

 

St Croix from Buck Island Beach

Good-bye Buck Island ...

Good-bye St Crox, I'll be back!

Coral Reef 2 Mile Swim Race Report

I've had my eye on this race for some time now although I can't really remember when / how I found out about it. This race has been running for 14 years and has been a popular event since day one. Last December I decided that 2009 would be the year for me to do it so I found my ticket on points and put the wheels in motion.

I arrived on St Croix Thursday night, a little more than 2 days ahead of the race. It was a long journey; 14.5 hours in the air and waiting in airports / airplanes. The Buccaneer Resort is a spectacular place, and it has been involved with the event since its first year in 1996. More on the Resort later.

I managed to adjust to the time difference pretty quickly and I only really felt some travel fatigue on Friday. On Saturday morning Olympic Gold Medalist Misty Hyman and Pan American Gold Medalist / Open Water guru Alex Kostich offered a clinic / presentation for first-timers. It was helpful to get some insider information on the course and a few pointers on Open Water swimming in general. I spent the rest of the day wandering around Christiansted (aka "town"), which in hindsight may not have been the best idea as it was really hot and humid.

Race registration at the hotel was very smooth and painless, followed by a very informative presentation on the race "course". They used Google Earth to show us what we would be seeing during the swim, which is huge, as knowing where you're going is a very important thing in the ocean. One wrong turn and you could end up in Puerto Rico ... we were told where each buoy and boat would be and how to approach them with the final buoy being the most important; keep it to your LEFT as you head back into The Buccaneer beach or you may get DQ'd. Sure enough, when I got back to my room, I noticed that the final buoy was already in position (click to enlarge - it is the TINY orange spec above the palm on the left)

I've tried a couple of times to recreate the Google Earth show but it is still a little too complicated for my attention span. But, I can at least show the approximate "route", going from right (east) to left (west):

Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30 am. As we weren't scheduled to start until 8:15, I wanted to make sure I had a decent breakfast - a bagel, some pineapple, yogurt and a coffee. The weather looked good (sun with clouds) and the conditions looked interesting; windy, whitecaps and very definitely a strong current. As I ate my breakfast I noticed that that last important buoy was, well, gone.

We got marked with our race number, loaded into cabs and headed to the starting point. Before we knew it, we were off. We had to swim a couple hundred meters out to a boat and then make a hard left (west). The prevailing current in this area is from east - west, so the current was in our favour. However, with the wind there were some pretty big waves blocking my view and I ended up going off course on this section as I couldn't even see the next boat. After a few minutes of swimming, I was completely alone (or it at least felt that way).

I knew I was headed in more or less the right direction (just a few degrees off) so I kept going. My blueseventy Element mirrored goggles proved to be the best equipment choice I'd made; dark enough to prevent eye strain but not so dark that I couldn't see. Once I spotted the "aid station" boat I was able to get myself back on track (and find some more people). After this point the waves seemed to really pick up; at times it was great body surfing and at other times I was inhaling great lungfuls of very salty water. I think all my swimming around Vancouver really helped as I felt right at home in the rough conditions. I found out later that a number of people got seasick.

The final buoy (the one that we HAD to keep to our left) was replaced with a sailboat - again, not easy to find a skinny mast from several hundred meters away but I managed to keep it in my sights. I knew the last leg into the beach was going to be a fight as we would be swimming perpendicular to the strong current so I decided to save my legs for that stretch.

As I rounded the final boat, I was able to take a quick look back - there were still a lot of people out there! I couldn't rest too much as I was in fact getting pushed to my right (east) almost as much as I was moving forward. I ended up right over top of a fairly shallow reef which made me really nervous a few times. The swells were quite big and I was worried that I was going to get dragged along top of it. I had little choice but to make a hard left and swim directly into the current for a few meters. This turned out to be a good decision as the water was a bit calmer away from the reef.

Heading into the beach I spotted another female swimmer and I decided I needed to get ahead of her. With her as my target and the constant push from my left, I had great motivation to swim hard. I had what I felt was a strong finish (I finished a good 3 -5 minutes ahead of my "target"). The finish chute was amazing; I think every Resort guest was there cheering, a steel pan band was playing reggae, a photographer captured every finisher, and there was water, fruit and poweraid at the ready.

I wasn't wearing a watch, but I could tell from the number of swimmers finishing after me that I had done quite well. I had to wait until the awards banquet to find out my official time & placement:

Time 1:19:06

Overall place: 11

Female place: 8

Age group (19 - 39) place: 4

35 - 39 age group place (had there been one): 1

My time was not quite what I'd expected, but as the winning time was over 1 hour and I was only 14 minutes behind an Olympian, I'm feeling good about the outcome. The conditions were challenging as well; Alex Kostich has won the 5 Mile race 10 out of the last 11 races. His time this year was almost eight minutes slower than his fastest.

This event is amazing - the location is stunning, the race is very well organized and supported and the atmosphere was both relaxing and tense (hard to explain how it was both). I hope to come back in a few years to do the 5 Mile race! Anyone care to join me?

Destination 2010

I have been thinking about this for some time now, but it was only relatively recently that I solidified my goal for 2010. Here it is (the opening montage gives me goosebumps every time I open it)

The event in particular will be the Open Water 3km on August 7.

In the past, I have been known to keep my destinations a bit of a secret. I suppose it is a bit of a protection mechanism; if nobody knows I am doing it, nobody will know if I fail. I've never really been one to enjoy limelight either. This time, I'm putting it out there for a number of reasons:

• I'm excited about this, so I want to share my excitement. 
• I can switch my competitive spirit on and off and it has been in hibernation for a little while now; time to kick it into (high) gear.
  
• I have a pretty lofty goal for myself; I don't want to just swim, I want to swim well and I'll need some pressure to get this done. This part of the goal will probably remain between me and a few others - I don't want to intimidate my competition too early! 

I will be heading off to the Caribbean in a few weeks for a 2 mile swim (fingers crossed that I get the time off work!) which will serve as my baseline for the 3 km swim next year.

So, back it is into the water for me and I couldn't be more excited about it. It has been a while since I've been able to get excited about a destination, so I can hardly contain myself!