Last week I headed out on my bike for the first outdoor ride in awhile. With temperatures raising and dry roads, I had to get out and ride to one of my favorite destinations, Cultus Lake. Looking at the forecast before I headed out, I though I better bring my camera along for the ride.
::Taste of sun::
::I love this tree::
::I thought there was a lot going on in this picture::
::Almost felt like summer::
::Little ounce of sun this week::
This is probably the longest time I’ve been outside this week…to shoot pictures. Its been snowy, cold and very windy this week making running and biking outdoors not really possible. I headed out to one of my favorite local running and biking spots to grab some photos of this crazy weather system.
::off zero ave...one of my favorite running spots. It's a little windy and cold to be running along here this week::
::probably my favorite once out of the set::
Headed to one of my secret training spots, roughly 90 kms from my door in Washington state @ the Fidalgo Bay resort RV park. After a fun little adventure at the boarder we finally got settled in Thursday night with our fingers crossed for some good weather.
After waking up to some serious rain and wind we headed into Anacortes for breakfast and food shopping for the weekend. That ended up being most of the excitement. Didn’t do a ton of running, biking or any swimming for that matter but did try to enjoy it as much as I could despite the wind, rain, more wind, mixed with some cold and rain. Got one good 7-8 mile run wind run in, and a short crappy exercise bike session…but its the off-season, right?
With all the weather systems coming in and out, it ended up being a good chance to grab some interesting photos, so I obviously took full advantage, secret training spot ended with not a lot of training…
::One of the few breaks in the sky::
::Moon came out for a bit...::
::Of course once we leave it looks like it wants to clear up::
::Fogg slowly lifting::
::more morning sun::
::I always liked coming up this hill on my bike or running little peek @the North Mountains, this is way out on 24th ave and 216th::
::One of my favorites on the trip::
::From the boat::
::Times sqaure::
::Another yankee stadium shot...35m::
D7A3TG2CH4RX
I probably should have gotten a new camera before I went to New York, but it wasn’t til i got my film developed that I knew the camera I have been looking at for a long time is on sale. So long story short, I hope to get some more good shots, but will also be shooting a bit more in video…
I’ve stuck with the Olympus brand, and the new camera is the first of the Digital Pen camera series. I’ve been looking at this camera for almost 2 years, and it finally has come down to a price that I thought was reasonable. I can use all my DSLR lenses with an adapter , as well as have full manual control, and lastly the biggest plus is that it shoots video in a small compact camera. With the recent release of the Pen 3 at price over double the Pen1- made it a pretty easy decision for me. Not much difference between the Pen 1 and 3 other then high video quality and a larger video screen…. I love this camera and hope to get more shoots on the go with it being so compact.
::Had a sunny day after work, and had to get out and ride. Was out for over 2 hours riding and shooting with the new camera.::
::Loosin daylight, getting tough to get a good solid bike ride in before it gets dark. ...makes for earlier sunset rides.::::The last shot before I had to make it home before dark::::Last one before I had to pack it away to get home before dark.::
::Last one before I had to pack it away to get home before dark.::
This video is compressed by Youtube, but I can still see some pretty good quality. This is shot raw from the camera and obviously not edited either. If your in the market for a new camera and want a bit more flexibility, I would recommend looking at this camera for sure, This article has a bit more background on the camera for those that are interested.
::This was about the 4th photo on the trip, thru the plane window. Sunset ::
::Our Drive in from the airport, 1am. Fuzz sheep on the review mirror::
::This is New York in a nut shell::
::Brooklyn Bridge boat ride..:::
:: U can Download this pic for 2 bux::
::...E S ::
:: U can Download this pic for 2 bux::
::My favorite pic in time square. This was at like 12am...they never stop out there.::
:: U can Download this pic for 2 bux::
This was the Condo we stayed at on W48th, half way down between 8 and 9th Ave. Just a few blocks from time square.
Yes I’ve got more…
Some shots from this week… Spent a lot of my time at this house on River Rd out in Ladner, BC. An amazing piece of construction. This is the display unit that is around 6, 000 square feet that is right on the Fraser River. There is a parking spot for you yacht right in front of the house. The materials used on this structure are simply amazing, from the steel beams, air tight siding, quadrupole pane windows, the list goes on and on. I really want to see what it looks like when its done, especially with the stained floor I just finished on 2100 square feet on the main floor.
I could haddle having this coming off my backyard and walking on to my yacht
::Probably one of the crasiest houses I've ever seen in term of material technolgy. The time and money spent so far is crazy.::
::
:: the flats around the river::
I wish I had a bit more time before I had to jump in the ocean.
Pretty busy weekend with Friday morning starting off early with an open water race at one of the main staples for open water swimming in the lower mainland, Sasamat Lake. There has been a long tradition of having this Canada Day swim put on by the Vancouver Open Water Swim Association and this year I finally made it down. It was it’s 20th Anniversary, with 3 distances you can suit up for: 1km, 2km, and the iron distance of 4km. I decided to go after the 2km, racing Sunday made me choose a lesser distance.
The men started first with the ladies coming in after. I think over 300 swimmers come out to jam the parking lot of this roughly 1km square lake. 2km distance was a single loop with the 4km going for a double dip. I ended up coming in 4rd in the men, and 6th overall, with a time of just over 27 minutes. This set me up for a nice little Sunday in Vancouver.
Headed down to Vancouver Saturday afternoon to pick up my race package and drop my bike off for the Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon. I had to be careful on my expectations since I packed a pretty large weekend up in the interior the week before. The main goal was to finish with a strong run and feel good at the finish.
Its a bit of a pain with a 6:30 start in the morning coming from Abbottsford/Langley area but its a lot faster at 5 am on a sunday then on a Monday. Got to the transition just after 5:40 and suited up for the swim after a bathroom search. Took a few quick pictures, jumped into the ocean to take the shock out of the heart stopping start plunge. It was an amazing morning with a light wind and the sun starting to burst through to set everyone off.
On the way back up for another climb
I felt relaxed through out the whole race, so relaxed that I was a little worried. Swim felt good, having just raced in my wetsuit a few days before made it feel a lot easier. Body was use to the motion and restriction of a suit which also took away from the lactic acid build up. Popped out of the swim apparently 5th which it seemed like a was behind a huge group, got to the transition and of course got past by a large group because I fought with getting my wet suit off.
Jumped on to the bike for a 4 loop course that I am not a fan of. 4 climbs made it clear that my 6 hour training ride used up a lot of my legs as well as an area I have been avoiding on training rides. They felt fine but didn’t have the push that they had in Oliver. I still felt relaxed, and it probably worried me the most at this point. I continually got pasted by groups as normal and was really starting to get frustrated with my bike. Just on the last lap I finally had enough as a group of 5 past and thought I better just worry about finishing this off and go after the run. I ended up getting a bit of jump at the end to finish the bike off and was pretty hopeful that my run will be better. I passed a few people that got me up around UBC on the way back to transition and had a really quick transition to the run. After a quick pee I was feeling good. Ready to run, and so happy my bike wasn’t under me and still feeling relaxed.
Up that this point my fueling seemed to be perfect. I took out a lot of the “sports” drink this go around and just used water. I had 5 gels on the ride with one that was caffeinated, and went through one and half bottles of water and half of powerade. I grabbed my powerade off my bike and finished it off on my way out on the run. Then I threw two GU gels blocks in my jersey full of bike shit I forgot to take out that were also caffeinated for fueling on my run. My run felt great, wasn’t tried, wasn’t felting sugar loaded and my legs had bounce. I didn’t take much water or powerade on the run, but did use a lot of water on my head as the sun started to warm up. I kept my pace through out the whole run and felt really good, past a few that got by me on my 4th loop of the bike. About 13kms my hip started to let me know that it was still sore from falling on it to week prior. I kept relaxed and didn’t need to stop, a few tweaks here and there that would give me a bit of a scare, but all in all, fought it off. I had one GU gel on the whole run, half at 30 minutes and the other half at one hour, five.
Was a strong race with alright ride. My swim was the same as last year, bike was 6 minutes faster, and run was 2 minutes faster. turned in a 4:41 which still has a large room for improvement still. Now I be working on the next 8 weeks for getting all three in sink. One more open water race up in Kelowna and then Ironman Canada time.
6:30 am!
Beer at the Jercho sailing center after the race. Tough to beat that padio.
Headed to one of my favorite spots for a mini training camp and some fun out on the beach. Took the Creeper out to the usual campsite at the Sandlake sand dudes just outside Tillamook and used this as the in and out for my training.
One of the three Capes on the scenic route off the 101.
Road thru Pacific City both on Saturday and Sunday. Just before the road joins back up with the 101 hwy.
We were able to drive onto the beach without any problems about 10 minutes from where we camped.
Just about to head home, all packed up.
Did my long run in Portland and was great run along the banks Columbia River. Could have gone forever, paved trail that goes from Jantzen Beach all along the Columbia and past the airport. Went out for about 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Did my 100 mile ride on Sunday and couldn’t quite make it to Newport but was a great ride none the less. Apparently I missed a bike race by one day…didn’t know it til I got there. Reach the Beach, Portland to Pacific City. Something I’ll have to keep in mind for next year.
I was using my phone camera for these shots, had some interesting photos from Thursday. From Work to Running. Solid little day.
Started the Day working at Bevo farms in Langley. Was wishing I had my SLR camera with me...some really interesting things going on in there.
One of the houses with all the plants lined up.
First mid week daylight run in Months. Ended the day with a 14km mission bridge chuck.
About 7km into the Run
