Sad day in lab

Today was a sad day in lab. As the semester is approaching to a close, many changes are taking place.

The lab numbers are going from 4 grad students, 3 post doc's, 3 technicians and 2 undergrads, down to 1 post doc and 1 technician and a bunch of grad students. The result of which being that today was one of my best friend, Paul's last day.

The celebration of his last day was somewhat anti climactic, however, we went out for a friends birthday and had a good time nonetheless.

My main fear is that without the everyday exposure, my connection to Paul will fade which would be unfortunate because he has been a great friend over the 2.5 years I've been in BC. Hopefully this post will catch his attention and prevent that from happening.

I decided to write this post to congratulate him on moving on from the lab and wish him the best of luck in whatever he decides to do in the future.

See you soon Paul!

Tri BC Gala

This past week a group of the UBCTC and I went to the Annual Tri BC Fundraising Gala at the Stanley Park Rowing Club.

I wasn't too sure what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. All together we had 10 of us from the club, who get along really well and had a good time.

The atmosphere of the Gala wasn't as much "Party" as it was "Socialize and Mingle", nevertheless it was a good time and it was nice seeing some people I raced against in the summer and haven't seen since.

Paul Regensburg and Meyrick Jones

Meyrick encouraged us to come out and I'm glad he did. There was a great talk by Triathlon Coach and Commentator Paul Regensburg. He told a great story about the 2000 olympics and how he announced for CBC Simon Whitfields win.

A few things that would have been a nice addition for future years would be recognition for the racers over the year. I personally have never been to the Tri Quebec Gala, however, I know that they give out awards for the Age group Athletes of the year in each age group along with club awards etc. I think this is a big motivator to get more people out, whereas here in BC although there is a provincial race series. There is never any mention of it.

I personally have been 2X BC long course champ but other than an e-mail haven't had it mentioned anywhere.

Anyways, thats my 2 cents on how to improve Tri BC and the Gala.

Winston and I dressed somewhat similarly

Following the Gala, the group of us went over to Matt's place for a few more drinks and games.

All round it was a pretty fantastic Thursday night if I may say so myself and hopefully we can have a lot more team outings like this in the future.

Can anyone say Fondu?

Fantastic Weekend!

Teaser Post

This past weekend I was in Victoria for a friends Bachelors party. It was a blast, dinners, fishing, a few beverages, late night adventures!

Pictures to follow.

Oh, and I have a new favorite song.

Half Marathon Photos

Photos are up, and thanks to Winston and SI Photography I got a few.

The start line ones make me laugh because I went out way too fast.

And who knows why my time was 1:26:27, clearly the clock says otherwise.

Oh well.

And who knows why my time was 1:26:27, clearly the clock says otherwise.

Oh well.

Since UBC REC goes with the cheapest timing system around, my ankle was all cut up by the timer, I had to take it off and perform a classic move at the finish line.

Wet, tired and cold.

Wet, Windy and Cold Half Marathon

I had been debating for a while as to whether I would run the half marathon this past weekend for a while. With my mom in town, and she hasn't seen me race since 2006, I decided to enter and see what I could do.

Weather predictions didn't bode well for the race. As would be expected for the fall classic, the forecast was calling for rain. As luck would have it Thursday-Saturday were next to perfect days and then come Saturday night the sky opened up and the rain started.

Waking up Sunday morning at 6AM I took a quick peak at the weather network and this is what I saw

Now I realize that says Nov 16th, but today and yesterday have had the same weather

It was about 4*C and raining pretty steady for Vancouver. Fortunately though the entire course was always sloped in some direction and the result being I never found the puddles too hard to avoid. Don't get me wrong I was soaked, but at least my feet were never squishing around in my shoes.

I dressed pretty well for the race which made the rain and cold not an issue. The hardest obstacle yesterday was the wind. Being a smaller half marathon than the Victoria half (1000 people vs 5500), I found myself running alone a lot and out along Marine drive the wind really picked up. It would have been smart for me to put in the extra effort to keep right behind people for this section but heinsight is 20/20 right.

All in all I had a good race. Slower than victoria 1:26:29 but considering the conditions I'm pretty pleased with myself.

I could have done a little better with the pacing, I have been running a lot of mile/5k runs lately and when the gun went off, I shot out like a bat out of hell. I ran my first km pulling back at 3:26 pace and was in first place for nearly 800m. Oops, I probably paid for that a little. Live and learn.

I had a lot of trouble seeing the km markers, some of them were hidden in the bushes so I only have a few of my splits.

1km - 3:26

3km - 11:11 (7:44 2k)

8km - 32:01 (20:50 5k)

9km - 36:07 (4:06 k)

10km - 40:19 (4:12 k)

12km - 48:50 (8:30 2k)

18km - 1:14:23 (25:27 6k)

21.1km - 1:26:29 (12:06 -3.1km)

Average pace 4:06 YUCK!

To see how the rest of the UBCTC did check here

Whole lot of Nothing

Not all too much going on these days. Still training as per usual, swimming and running are actually feeling really good. Biking... well I haven't done much of that. I've more been focused on work these past couple weeks. I'm putting in a lot of hours but not really getting anywhere with it.

Warning, not triathlon related.

However I have hope for this next experiment, and boy is it a doozie. I've tried this method before (and the chemist I work with swear by it), however, I never got great results. Turns out I was rushing it. Normally when I run a column it takes 1-2 hours to prepare and about 8 hours to run. Makes for a long day but you can fit it all in.

This new column, takes 2-3 days to prepare and then on top of that will take about 18-24 hours to run. And the kicker, I can't leave it running alone, I need to check on it every 3-4 hours.

Fortunately, we got rid of the old ratty couch in the Triathlon club office and have replaced it with a remarkably comfortable futon. And last night, I gave that futon a test run. Its only about a 5 minute bike to the lab so I went to sleep there and woke up at 2AM and 6AM to come check on the column. Good times.

I know this isn't triathlon related, but figured I would share what I do with the rest of my life.

Does the life of a grad student sound like fun? The nice thing is I've got lots of waiting time to read and do my own thing. Last night I challenged Tony (who was also having a long night) to a race and see who could eat a full Cantaloupe first. I WON!

I'll probably have another post up soon, since I've got too much time to know what to do with.