Race Reports

Greetings humble readers! Well, as you can see by the date stamp, it’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a post. Don’t assume that means that you haven’t all been in my thoughts, or that I haven’t been doing anything interesting. Quite the opposite! There’s big news on the Steve front of ActiveSteve.com. Specifically, I’ve accepted and started a new job since I last posted! As a result, there was a flurry of activity on my end, but a distinct lack of time to write all about it. Rest assured, I haven’t given up on my scribing duties, just had a slight lapse. Anyway, here I am, in time to write a little story about some training I did about two weeks ago. As you are aware, Adventure Racing doesn’t sleep in winter, and as such, I was trying to get in some cross-country ski training before my next winter race. Conditions were pretty much perfect, and I was supposed to meet with a team-mate of mine to do about a 20km loop in Gatineau Park. Read on for this gripping story 😉 If you’d like to see some pictures head over to Flickr for the folder of pics I took.

Many of you are no doubt aware that I’ve gotten a bit of a racing bug in the past couple years. Since joining the public service, I’ve had much more predictable hours in my work week, which has lent itself well to being able to put in a lot of extra hours training and racing. As a result, last year, I raced in a record-setting 15 different races in the span of 10 months! Not only did I greatly increase my race volume, but my results have been dramatically improving as well. On the adventure racing front, I managed to podium finish a few times, including 2nd place in the 48-hour Quest For a Cure (2-person male category). In the triathlon world, I decided to take a stab at a 1/2 Iron-distance race, and finished with a time of 5 hrs. 11mins, which was a great time for a first try! I’m hoping that this year will find me able to put in just as much passion into racing again, and I’ve decided to yet again try to raise the bar for racing. I don’t mean racing more often, but taking on greater challenges and trying to podium every chance I get 😉 It’s only February, and I’ve already raced in 3 different events! A leg injury has been somewhat hampering my podium chances, but I’m addressing that. So can you guess what the title of my posting means yet? Read on.

Well, this past weekend marked the official opening of Ottawa’s annual winter celebration, Winterlude. You know, ice sculptures, snow carving, skating on the canal, outdoor music events, etc. etc. But did you know that each year there is also an associated sporting event in the triathlon community? Yup, each year there is usually a Winterlude Triathlon, consisting of a skate, ski, then run. This event is put on by Zone 3 Sports, and is as much a part of Winterlude as the sculptures. Last year, I raced in it, although it was turned into a duathlon, with only running and skiing, due to ice conditions. And this year? Well, sadly, mother nature’s lack of direction on the weather front meant that this event was only an 8km run along the canal :-(. As such, I didn’t sign up this year. However, that didn’t mean I couldn’t take part in a new event, the Winter-Lewd Triathlon! Yup, this one was thought up by a few crazy racing friends of mine, and this little post will fill you in on the details of this little event. If you’d like, you can head over to flickr and check out the pictures from the day.

Hey there sports fans. As a few of you have been peripherally aware, I recently volunteered my body for science! I’ve kept some people in the dark as to what that meant, in hopes of compiling some fun pictures and writing up a blog post. Well, the time has come to tell you my little story. Hope you enjoy it. You can also feel free to browse through my little folder of pictures that I convinced people to take for me during the whole process. Head over to flickr for that folder.

How did I end up as part of a study you ask? Well, one of the websites that I read quite regularly (actually, it’s a daily email as well) is TriRudy, which is a website for local triathletes. Essentially, people post all sorts of things there, like discussions on sports, announcements regarding races, race reports, items for sale, etc. Another thing that pops up now and again is Master’s and PhD students from Ottawa U that are looking for test subjects for their theses. That is how I was lured into it. The ad promised a free VO2 max test and DEXA scan as compensation for taking part in the study. These are things I’ve been keen to have done, but never felt like forking over the several hundred dollars to do so. They were looking for males, aged 18-35, and I fit the bill. So call it a bit of selfishness if you will, but I heeded the call. Now on with the story.