Traditions and Conditioning

First off, I haven't posted in a while.  I have been over-the-top busy!  Long story made short - we had a sudden departure of our senior boys basketball coach at work, and a new coach was found but wasn't a school district employee.  Therefore, a sponsor from the school was needed, and I volunteered (as in, answered the phone and agreed).  I didn't know exactly what I was agreeing to... and as it turns out that's almost all I've been doing for the past several weeks!  My life now consists of: 
- wake up
- possibly get a workout in
- go to work
- training after work
- back to school and hang out in the gym (Sometimes even bringing my bike and trainer to practice and riding in the corner.  I imagine the boys think this is weird).
This is my new routine. Every. Day.  But it's all good; they're a great group and we're having lots of fun.  I am, however, looking forward to the end of the season!

All this time watching basketball has made me nostalgic, as basketball was "the" sport at my high school.  However, my old high school gym had a different tradition than the school I work for; the gym floor was absolutely sacred and you didn't step onto it unless you were playing a game or in PE class.  You walked around the playing surface, and if you accidentally stepped onto it, the entire student body would yell "GET OFF THE FLOOR!" - pretty traumatic as it happened at least once to almost every grade 9 student.  You lived in fear of being yelled at.  But, you also had respect for the tradition of preserving the gym floor and showed reverence for it, the players, and the games.  

LCHS basketball game, 1986.  Notice the pristine gym floor.
And how no one is even close to stepping on it.

It's not quite the same at the school I teach at.  There is not a tradition of respect for the gym floor, and people walk across it in outdoor shoes, shoot hoops at half time during a game (absolutely unheard of at my alma matter), and pretty much do anything they want.  I understand that each place has it's own traditions so I'm not lamenting this lack of reverence for the floor, but it's just different.   However, I must be pretty conditioned to the idea of staying off the floor.  Even though I only went to high school for 4 years (and that was more than 25 years ago) and have been teaching at Cowichan for over a decade, I still cringe when I see people cutting across the floor.  I find I still walk around it most of the time, and brace myself in preparation to be yelled at whenever I do cut across.  Funny how something fairly minor, so long ago, can still resonate.  

I wonder if my old high school still upholds the tradition of not walking across the floor?

A New Beginning

This was the first week with my new coach.  I know I said I was going be self coached this year, but I changed my mind.  Truth is, I didn't really want to coach myself.  I don't really want the responsibility.  Not that I think I can't handle it, but I honestly want to try new things, and I knew I'd just maintain the status quo if left to my own devices.

I am sooooo excited to be working with Noa (PT Performance Training)!  She is someone I really admire, and I know she is going to challenge me.  She already has me doing things differently and it's only been a week.  This is absolutely the right thing for me right now.  My race schedule is a hodge-podge of running, cycling, and triathlon events... so she has her work cut out for her.  Not only that, even before we officially started I was peppering her with questions by email, and hoping she wasn't regretting taking me on after all that!  I did warn her that I always have a lot of questions.

You know it's been a good training week when your
laundry room is a hanging garden of technical fabrics.

I'm looking forward to my new journey!  I'll keep you all posted.

The Wild Side

We rode out to the "wild" side of the island today.  A nice ride on cross bikes on the Galloping Goose trail (something tells me I should learn the history of where that name comes from).  Nice winter weather, and even the rain held off until about the last half hour.  I love Sundays spent with friends and enjoying the outdoors!

Our route: follow the dotted green
line to Roche Cove.

We should have brought the SUPs... perfect conditions.

Good friends, good ride!

Yep, living in a rainforest!

  

Jason's self portrait.  What a prince.

50 Shades of Clear

The candidates.

I have decided I need a new drink.  Water gets boring after a while, soda is pretty much in the negative category when it comes to nutrition, and you just can't drink wine all the time.  Right?  So, in keeping with my image of myself as a sophisticated, dazzling urbanite (ha ha), I thought I'd give sparkling water a try.


Sparkling water, seltzer, soda water, carbonated water, fizzy water... is basically just spring water (usually) with carbon dioxide dissolved in it to make it effervescent.  I tend to over-think things in general, and my search for a sparkling water was no exception.  I went to a few local stores and grabbed all the brands - if I don't try them all, how will I know what I like?

I divided them into two categories: regular sparkling, and mineral.  Taste tests were performed over a series of evenings.  The verdict?  Of the mineral waters, I preferred Gerolsteiner.  Of the regulars, I guess Voss was the crispest.  But to be completely honest, they all pretty much tasted the same.

The regular line-up.

The mineral waters.

However, they are a nice alternative to plain water.  You get fun fizzies in your mouth (that also helps you to feel a bit more full - for those of you on the Tyler Hamilton diet plan of a bottle of seltzer water and go to bed), and you seem so refined sitting with a glass of bubbly.  Which is oh-so-important when I'm sitting on the couch in sweatpants, hair still sweaty from a run, watching Wipeout on tv.  Pass the sparkling water!