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Thursday, December 20, 2012

New year, new goals.


This entry will mark our final post of the 2012 season;

It has been quite the year Mark and I have had. We both experienced ups and downs. However, for the most part our season saw more ups than anything. We saw some national medals both indoors and outdoors, we were both graced with the opportunity of representing our country in our very own city, we traveled Europe...and we had a few personal best's along the way. As we sit back and reflect upon our past 2012 season we begin plotting our assault on the 2013 season. Chen's short term goals remain on getting healthy and back into full training mode. He has had some good news of late, and all things are pointing to a speedier recovery than originally estimated. See, it pays to have a 3rd, 4th, and 5th opinion sometimes! Here is a picture of Chens reward for all his hard work into getting expert opinions and monotonous rehabbing. Enjoy Vic!


The 2013 indoor season is already upon us. I (Pat) just recently competed in my first meet of the season. I don’t expect much from indoors, as it is never a focus. My indoors serves more as a test of fitness and a reminder of what competition feels like. That being said, I had a solid competition at the Louis-Riel super Saturday series. I set a new dome record in the shot put with a throw of 14.67m (Seen below, video analysis!)
I also set a new personal best on my way to winning the hurdles with a time of 8.48 which eclipsed my oldest outstanding personal best of 8.51. Here is a blurry and a cut off video of the race this past weekend >
I have been working a lot on trying to fix my running technique as of late. Always more work ahead, but it is nice to see some results for the countless hours being put into the project. I also competed in some Pole Vault. I opened at 4.16m and this proved to be my only height, I will continue to jump from a short approach runway for the next month or so.

Indoors is heating up! But, we are already planning our spring time openers in Arizona. This time of year has provided Chen and I with a lot to think of in terms of goals and Decathlon opportunities. Just to be clear, there are 4 major competitions which we hope to each make. This list of international events include FISU (Russia), Francophone (South of France), Pan-Am Cup (being held in Ottawa again), and the AV Clytoneus meet (Holland).

Before we sign off, Chen and I would like to acknowledge the retirement of one of our greatest competitors in the sport of Decathlon. This week Jamie Adjetey-Nelson announced his retirement from the Decathlon (nice article about Jamie here>) http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/12/18/windsor-decathlete-adjetey-nelson-retires/. Jamie has one national titles, set one of the best scores in the history of Canada, and won Commonwealth just to name a few of his accomplishments. You never competed against Jamie as an athlete, you were always with him. It was an honour to have had the privaledge to compete with a man who was chearing you on the entire way. Chen and I both have memories of Jamie, one of which is his pre-1500m song he once oh so lovely serenaded us with at nationals. You cant ever help finding yourself wanting him to be the best he could at every run, jump and throw he attempted. Best of luck to a legend in the sport in his next chapter of life. If you live half as good as you competed your going to be just fine :)

We end our last blog of the 2012 season by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. Safe travels home for all, and to all a good night.

Yours truly, the Decathlon-Duo.

 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Santa! is quite small these days...

So these past few weeks have been fairly eventful.  To start we finished off Movember, well Pat did..because thanks to a good pal of mine, I've promised to keep it going until our reunion in another 2 weeks...so the teen stash stays! Pat decided to 'style' his mo, creating a very John Waters-esque look if you ask me.  Google him, it's worth it.  Here's the evidence of how our final days turned out (including a few of Pats Canadian Strength co-workers..great look guys!).

Then since it's getting closer to that majestic holiday we call Christmas we decided to go Christmas shopping, which turned into self shopping (and a holiday dinner at the Bay, see below).  But more more importantly we made the decision that this was a great time to go visit Santa for a family household picture!  Somehow I remember Santa being a bit larger when we were younger.  I think Santa needs more milk and cookies (well maybe not cookies).  Not a bad little house I'd say.

Last Saturday was also the Ottawa Lions awards banquet, where Pat and I both picked up awards from the past 2 seasons.  Pat grabbed the Field Athlete of the Year and I won the Combined Events Athlete of the Year.  We were awarded some lovely certificates and those delightful mugs you see in the bottom left corner of the picture above.  For the picture we were just supposed to pretend taking a sip because our tea was extremely hot, but my hand accidentally slipped hence the triangle face I'm making.  Oh well thanks for the mugs either way Lions!
Looking good receiving our awards!  

Last practice Pat and I decided to video some of the pole vault hanging drills we had.  Take a look, if you have any others you think are a good please let us know!
I have been a bit hampered by lower ab pain so my training has been minimized significantly; but Pat however, went into beast mode the other night and had a PB clean, lifting 315lbs.  Not too shabby eh?...here's another quick video showing the magic moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ugSLmY1XqWE

So while Pat lifts heavy weights, I'll be sticking to my rehab exercises like they were going to win me the lottery.  It gets tedious but it's something that needs to get done.  So what I started doing, and I highly recommend, is writing in a notebook.  In it I write down everything I do (exercise, drills, etc.), if it hurts or not, and how much it hurts.  Then the next day I go back and write whether I was still sore or not.  This has been SO helpful, as now coaches and therapists are able to see what you think rather than try to probe you for info.  And honestly when you have a memory as bad as mine, you can very easily forget the degrees of pain you feel day to day.  Give it a shot if you're battling injuries, or even if you're not it's a great way to keep track of your body.

I'll end this by leaving you with my wonderful drawing showing two of the exercises I've been doing.  Pretty good think..So long!

 (and yes the second one makes you look like a dog at a fire hydrant)

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Movember

This blog finds us 2 weeks into Movember, a time where our lip sleeves turn us into real men! Or atleast we like to think. Aside from our fuzzy moustaches trying to push through into the sunlight, training is continuing to grow in volume as well. We have dubbed our Movember as man month. A number of us have taken on the Paleo diet for the month. Essentially this is an emphasis on wild and game meats, lean cuts of beef, eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables and certain fruits. We have cut out any and all alcohol also. Man month also features a minimum of 5 workouts per-week. Here is a picture of how I kicked off my man month, 225lb plank for 60 seconds.
We continue to try and fit two workouts per day in when we can and when it is called for. Chen has been experiencing that nuissance of a lower abdominal pain again. He is taking the proper precautionary steps to avoid furter aggrivation, which unfortunately sometimes involves missing a workout or two along the way. My shin splints have all but gone away with a few weeks of monotonous exercises and biking. I am now able to spike up and complete a workout without pain.

Chen and I have been doing lots of hurdle work, focusing on cadence and being light on our feet. Especially with hurdles it is important to have a faster turnover rate in-between those 42" barriers. We continue to make small changes to older bad habits on our way to a competitive indoor season, where Mark hopes to improve on his record setting 2011 season. Personally, I have taken it upon myself to stretching for 20-30 minutes every day. I feel like it is a crucial part to my homecare which has taken a back seat in the past. No more, I will lift my knees when I run this year!

Indoors is fast approaching, with the first meet held December 1st at Saint-Lawrence College, NY. Indoors is slightly more competive for Chen as he will represent the varsity team as a Gee-Gee at the OUA and CIS level. I on the other hand use indoors as competitive opportunities to remind myself what it feels like to compete and stay sharp. There will be no peaking for meets in this indoor season from my perspective.

Our training will continue to be strength acquisition for a few more weeks. This cycle fine tunes our joints and tendons to be able to stay in one piece when the loading becomes more intensely focused on accumulation. A fancy way of saying we will be lifting big things this winter :)

Last but not least. I would like to thank Sean Young, owner of Canadian Strength for sponsoring me this past month. Sean has provided me with the essential vitamins and supplements which were missing from my every day routine. I am a proud strength coach at Canadian Strength, come check us out and see how we can help you. Visit us at http://www.canadianstrength.ca/ or check us out on facebook http://www.facebook.com/Canadian.Strength?fref=ts

Just in case you wanted a glimpse of our staches here you go, just remember they are more lush in person. Much. More. Lush!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

No School = Train More!

It's been a few weeks since our last post, figured it was time for another! Sorry for all those adoring fans waiting anxiously by your computers...HA!

We've made the big move indoors now, and it's fantastic.  This feeling will most likely change come February, but for now indoors is heaven.  Mostly because it's dry and warm!  This will be a huge benefit as apparently (according to my mum) Hurricane Sandy is supposed to come-a-knockin' in the next few days.  Bringing some serious wind and rain.  Dry sounds real good now..  

This past week was reading week (only for uOttawa and one other school though) so sorry to all other uni goers, but it was awesome.  All we did was train, eat, sleep and train again.  I love that life.  But tomorrow we get back to school again; although, practices will keep rolling on as usual just with less sleeping in the middle of the day.  Not too happy about that, but what can you do..Will weights and all that good stuff getting serious here's a funny picture I found floating around the internet.  Zachy and Lou this is for you! haha


The combined events group has been and continues to work hard this fall and with the increased volume of this season building on last years workload, Pat and a few others have been suffering some lovely runner pains known as shin splints.  A combination of transitioning onto a harder surface and more mileage can sometimes have that affect on an athlete.  The minor aches can sometimes turn into major pains when not treating them proactively. There are also a few more hands in the cookie jar helping out with the group, making it ever more important that communication between athletes and coaches be a regular occurence.  On that note we are all very excited for this season both indoors, and outdoors.  Just in case you're suffering as well here's a few random stretches that may help.  




Lastly, Pat and I received a nice surprise the other morning getting mentioned in a video hyping the past 2012 Woerden Athletics Invitational that we went to in August.  Here's the video compliments of Henk Bakker and all the Woerden Athletics organizers:  https://vimeo.com/52226580
..Thanks for the mention Rachael!  

Well this was just a brief post, getting our feet moving again.  Stay tuned!



Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Welcome to fall training.

Fall has arrived, this means a few things for Mark and I;
1) Hills
2) Soreness
3) Weight circuits
4) Repeat 400's 600's and 800's
5)...more hills
6) Ice baths
7) Compression socks

So far we have been back at training for one week and are in our 2nd week back now. We have been rather sore and feeling mildly out of shape. I would like to follow this past comment with a direct quote from coach himself; "As I have mentioned, we are tweaking things fairly significantly in regards to volume. You will pretty much feel that right away."However, Coach James ensures us that we will be back to our normal fitness levels in no time and be further building upon the ups and downs from the 2012 season. Every season should be building upon the last, this is how we will make the gains required from us both.  Here's a video showing perfect example of how our group looks like right now. Minus the whole work part and substitute it for "have been training for 3 weeks, and first week back."  You get the picture, it's been a rough one.

Training aside, Mark and I both have big plans this summer with the hopes and training ethic to qualify for the World University games in Russia, as well as Francaphone games in the south of France. Furthermore, we have plans on opening at Jim Click in Tuson, AZ. Assuming there is another PanAm Cup team we are also hoping to compete there. That being said, these things continue to be funded from our own pockets (aside from Francaphone) and we have both deisgned a collaberative race resume in hopes of picking up sponsors for the 2012-2013 season.  Here's hoping!

As the fall colours begin to show and mother nature changes so does our training group. We have already welcomed a few new athletes to our group and we will be welcoming another to the heptathlon group shortly, she is from Mexico and was in Ottawa for the PanAm Cup this past summer.  Her name is Karla :)

As we sign off, I would like to leave you with this picture featured in the Fall edition for Intersport's catalogue.  Whose that good looking' dude on the right? (Colour commentary via Mark)


Friday, September 14, 2012

Dec's and Flights and Cliffs oh my!

Well after a months hiatus and our last decathlon completed we are back from Europe.  Thrown back into "real" life and the start of school for myself and work for Pat.  We are also currently enjoying the last couple weeks of our off-season and time off.  

We arrived in the Netherlands 4 days before the start of competition and spent those days with final training preparations and being complete tourists in the town.  Renting bikes and venturing around the town (Woerden), leaving no statue without a picture.  Here's an example of our fun with our great crew including: Jen, Rachael and Craig. 
We had to re-create the figure skating picture as our coach (James) told us it was a tradition.  Here is his teams attempt.
The actual decathlon was awesome.  Littered with talent and class acts, it's hard not to enjoy yourself.  Day one was a bit more wet than we would have liked and I think it showed in our performances, as all three of us had less than solid starts.  After day one, sitting back of our day one point pb's we knew we needed to step it up and compete.  This showed as our hurdles were near pb's for both Pat and I.  Although there was still a little disappointment as we had terrible starts, getting beaten handily to the first hurdle.  Pat went on to win the discus throw, throwing 45.xxm.  The next event proved to be the highlight for both Pat and I, the pole vault.  In this event I went on to pb and clear 4m for the first time in competition, and a new pb of 4.43m for Pat.  The dec finished off with solid 1500m as well, with both Pat and I getting pb's again.  Pat narrowly missing out (and I mean narrowly) on cracking that sub 5 minute barrier running 5:00.06.  Ouch!  I had a 2.5 second pb running 4:42.xx.  It was a great way to end our last decathlon with Pat finishing 8th with 7057 points, and myself in 9th with 6982 points.  Congrats to Craig on completing his first international meet as well finishing 13th!  All that was left was to round up  the boys for pictures and the closing ceremony, as well as trying to collect some very memorable gear.  Just like in international soccer matches it is common for athletes to exchange uniforms after competing.  
    Here is a shot of the boys (top), and Team Canada sporting a couple newly found singlets along side Sam our British competitor and photographer Bjorn.  (You can't see it on any of us but all three of the Canadians got our Czech singlets signed by previous WR holder in the Decathlon Tomáš Dvořák who was there coaching).  Special thanks to coaches Ingrid and Les for all their help and support over the week we were together.  You exceeded any expectations we already had, and we cannot thank you enough!

After the meet the local club (AV Clytoneus) put on a feast and get together right at the track to share some laughs and say goodbye to the other athletes.  Great hosts, you can always count on them to show you a good time!

Then we were off to Amsterdam with Craig for a couple days before our flights to Ireland to visit my sister. We were even lucky enough to meet up with a few of my old training partners in Amsterdam (Maggie, Claire and Casey), who were in Belgium competing in their final meets.  Great times!  Then we said our goodbyes once again and headed off to the airport with Craig where he was flying back to Calgary and we were off to Ireland..or so we thought!  Turns out leaving plane tickets to the last minute is not a good idea financially or timing wise; although it did give us time to stumble across one of Hollands greatest cities (in our opinion), Zandvoort.  This place was insanely beautiful, it had some of the best beach restaurants around and was only a short train ride from Schipol airport.  After our short-lived stay in Zandvoort, Pat and I trained back to Schipol where we caught our early morning flight to Cork, Ireland.  

Once we arrived in Cork we stayed with my sister who lives in a small town about an hour outside of Cork.  We were only at her house for nights before we went off on a 5 day tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland.  Venturing up to Dublin, Belfast, Portrush, and finally Galway before heading back to the farm.  Along the way we stopped at every scenic or touristy spot as well as checking out some local hotspots.  In Dublin we obviously had to check out the Guinness Storehouse and factory, then just spent the next couple days cruising the Irish pub scene and enjoying the whack of Gaelic Football fans in town for the big match.  After Dublin we went for a quick visit to Belfast then continued on up to Portrush in Northern Ireland.  Stopping along the way at the Carrick-a-Rede, a 100ft high rope bridge over the ocean.  This was absolutely stunning and a little nerve racking as the Irish don't believe in fences or rails preventing you from climbing to the edge of the cliffs.  Not a good idea when Patrick is with you (Sorry Audrey!).  
The next place we visited was the Giant's Causeway.  This is an area of weird looking rocks that were said to be made by a giant connecting steps from Ireland to Scotland.  We just thought they looked like a cool place to run around and do handstands (you tell us which is better, I'm top right and Pat is bottom left).  On our way leaving from Giant's Causeway we stumbled upon this awesome castle (which are everywhere in Ireland), sitting dangerously on the edge of a cliff.  Needless to say, once we saw it we ran out to check it out.  Too bad it was closed; although that didn't stop us from taking a quick look around.    
After Portrush we continued down to Galway, stopping at the Bushmills Irish Whiskey Distillery on the way.  This was a very cool experience and I would have loved to take pics.  Too bad because of the alcohol content in the air we weren't allowed.  Insane!  After a nice early start to our day we road tripped to Galway, which is a cool little port city.  While there we took a ferry ride over to the Aran Islands.  Well just one of the islands, Inis Mor.  Here they had an old barbaric fort situated once again on the edge of a cliff about 100m high.  After Galway we were heading back to my sisters house, but on the way we were going to show Pat the Cliffs of Moher.  These are a small 200m+ set of cliffs with some spectacular views (usually).  Too bad when we got there it looked like this.  Next time I guess.
  Back in Clogheen (my sisters' town) we hung out and got ready for heading home.  All that was left was one last touristy expedition.  We were on our way to Kiss the Blarney Stone.  If you don't know just google it.  This is one of the coolest castles, with all the things you'd ever think were associated with a medieval castle: caves, secret passages, dungeons, witches and mystical forests.  Once again we were like little kids running around having the best time.  
After kissing the Blarney Stone we were back to Clogheen for the last time.  We said our goodbyes once again to my sister and hopped on our flight home.  Making a couple of connections we managed to hit 4 countries on our journey home (pretty cool but took forever!).  Now it's back to reality and back to routine.  The trip was a blast, I'm sad to see it's over.  Again we cannot thank everyone enough for all they did, we would probably be left somewhere in Europe cold and afraid if it were not for your help.  I can't wait for the season to start again and start all new adventures over again.  Until next year!

    
 

Monday, August 20, 2012

AV Clytoneus

Today (the 20th) Mark and I leave for the Netherlands.  We will be on our flight at 6:45pm and arriving in Holland around 2pm on the 21st.  Training has been going very well, we are both injury free and the tapering has us both in form for personal bests regardless of how late we are into the season.  The startlist is out and there will be 33 men lining up to start the decathlon come next saturday. This is very exciting news for us, as it is the largest competition we have ever been in with athletes coming from all over Europe to compete.

Here is a link to view the startlist "http://woerden.dichtbij.nl/sport/startveld-bijna-bekend-woerden-athletics-2526-augustus-2012

Chen and I have new running shoes, so we have that going for us...and it's nice!  Being two relatively heavier guys and putting the amount of time we do on the track, we tend to demolish our flatts quicker than the average 150 pound track athlete.  While were on the note of packing lets show you how decathletes pack and what we go through having to compete in 10 events, from the shoes to the clothing we go through. #packinglikeadecathlete


Other than that not much has changed as we head overseas for 20 days, the competition will be followed by a nice visit to Ireland.  Chen's big sister lives there, so we will check out the sites and see how we can leave a little bit of Canadian flair on the country side!

As we head off for our last Decathlon of the year, we would like to thank the Coaches who helped us along the way to some great performances (James, Ryan, Lou, Jeff) and all our therapists your help has kept us able to compete this long!  Lets finish this season off on a strong note, got nothing to lose.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Olympic Fever

It seems the Olympics have come and gone.  There have been so many ups and downs for not just the athletes, but what seemed to be an entire nation. From the womens soccer to the mens 4x100. World records fell, and Olympic records were eclipsed.  The average age for the Canadian athletics team was 24.5 years, a young team that still managed to "inspire a generation".  Hats off to all athletes and friends.  Derek Drouin won our only medal with his 2.29m high jump, placing him 3rd.  But what would this be if we didn't single out fellow decathlete Damian Warner on his 2nd best all time Canadian performance with 6 individual personal bests and a massive 300+ point overall best.  Mark and I feel as motivated as ever to continue training and get to the next level for Rio 2016.

As the Olympics captivated and consumed all of our free time we managed to squeeze in our own training. As we prepare to leave to Holland in 8 days our workouts have taken on a higher intensity with lower volume overall. We are in our final week of workouts, lots of technical and short sprints with a one or two humdred meter that should get a bit of a lactic burn in there....yay!

Tonight the Olympics came to a close, very bitter sweet. As the torch is passed on so is the dream. The games may be done but the spirit is very much alive and well. Congradulations again to all the athletes in all sports for Canada. Congrats also to the new world records set by the Jamaican mens 4x100, American womens 4x100, Rudisha of Kenya in the 800m, and finally Elena Lashmanova of Russia in the womens 20km race walk. Mark and I sat here and watched you all compete whether that be live on tv, or streaming on our computers.  At times we had 3 sources going.


This is some serious dedication.  Not to mention every time we saw someone we knew we had to shout out their name, as if the other didnt already know who it was. It's just part of the Olympic spirit if you ask me.

Go Canada. You have represented us well.

Yours truly, Ottawa's Decathletes.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Move in Complete

After that long week of painting and renovating, Pat and I are finally all moved in to our new place.  Even begun to make it feel a little bit more "homey"with a few trips to Ikea.  Pat wasn't thrilled with that as he hates going to the Ikea store in Ottawa (Largest one in North America I hear).  Although he had a good laugh when as we were walking in he saw the kids play area and noticed they are all numbered and kept saying "I'll take a number 12 please".

Here's a cool photo from the Men's 100m final at the finish line (Medal winners: Bolt 9.63s, Blake 9.75s, Gatlin 9.79s)


The only down side is that during the transition to the new house we have been left without cable and internet.  This makes watching the olympics very difficult, although we still managed to see Usain repeat his gold medal in the 100m in a new Olympic Record.  We've also been trying to keep track of all our Canadian Athletes and friends competing at the games.  Shout out to, Inaki Gomez on a new Canadian Record and 13th place finish in the Men's 20Km race walk, and Ryan Cochrane on his Silver medal in the Men's 1500m Freestyle.  Congrats to all others competing at the games, you are all champs!

As for our training, we're really gearing up for Woerden putting in a few more miles than in the past couple weeks attempting to work on our sprints and 1500m pace (which I've come to learn I have terrible pacing, Pat can attest to that).  On Saturday we had Pat's boss from Canadian Strength Sean Young hop in our workout (300m, 600m, 300m 90s rest, then 8 mins 500m), which was great as he helped keep us on a consistent pace and even pushed us huge in the last few runs..Thanks for the push!  We end this cycle with a twilight meet competition on Wednesday, our last chance to compete before we leave.  It looks like we're both tackling hurdles, pole vault and a potential 300m.  TBD.

Thanks!


Monday, July 30, 2012

#London2012

This past week marked the start of the 2012 Olympic Games accross the pond. I think we can all agree on Mr.Bean being the saving grace for the opening ceremonies.  The second highlight had to be the youth lighting the flame.  Lastly, it was great seeing some familiar faces in the parade of the the athletes; Melissa Bishop and Curtis Moss were looking mighty fine! The rest of the team was in Germany doing final tune ups and races, missing out on the ceremonies. But in bigger news, Chen and I have begun two a days with coach Lou!

We now have morning speed sessions and are throwing a bit more weights around.  Chen is feeling good, he had a nice one-on-one training block with our Vault coach Jeff Edwards on Saturday. My ankle is still a tad swollen given the fact I have not had much time to rest it.

The flights have officially been booked and we leave for the Netherlands on the 20th,  where we will be ready to compete on the 25th of August!

Segway to the next point of discussion, the new house.  As you may or may not already know, Chen and I are moving into a new house in the next week and have been doing way too much painting for how bad we are at it. There are new floors being put in, a basement finished and an entire house to be painted. All of our spare time has been spent working on this project.  We have become rather seasoned painters at this point.  In fact, we are such effective painters we decided to have a tutorial for all the up and coming painters. Sit back, grab a pen and pad and take notes folks. These are not stunt actors, we are professionals.  Enjoy!



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Havin' Fun

This was a low volume week gearing up for the next cycle leading us into our Woerden competition.  It involved some light speed and jumps workout, ending with Pat competing in a Twilight meet where he continues to prove his consistency in the vault jumping 4.20m once again.  Making it look easier every time.  While warming up for the vault, Pat managed to thrash his ankle on a hurdle leaving it swollen and bruised, causing him to miss out on one workout but continued with training a few days later.

As Pat and I wait out the remaining weeks before we leave for Europe we have decided to "play" around with a few drills we saw in a video.  Some went well, while others...well just watch the videos!


This is an alternating hurdle drill which we ended up really enjoying. 


Speed hurdle hops are not as easy as they sound! Pat had an attempt too but his included a high pitch squeal..not sure which one is better

Also Pat and I spent a long day yesterday at our new place painting and ripping up the remainder of the floor boards Pat started on, getting it set for a sexy new face lift.  Can't wait for it all to be done so we can move on in..by the way if you're ever considering pink paint or wallpaper, don't!  Make it easier for those after you.

later!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

AO Championships.

This week brought Chen and mines recovery week to an end with the athletic Ontatio championships. Well, lets just get into the results then eh! I (Pat) competed in 7 events. First up on saturday was shot put where I threw myself to 7th place, followed by discus where I placed 4th, and then hurdled a new pb of 15.30 qualifying for the finals in 6th and apparently false starting out of the final. I am claiming this to have happen..."I DID NOT MOVE!!!"

I took it like a champ and went and pouted by myself like a big boy? I then ran my first ever relay against the Canadian A team and B team, that was humbling to run as an anchor and only pass the 3rd leg runner Jarrod 15m before the line...sweet deal.

Day 2 of the champs had Chen competing in his first 200m in a long time, he held his own against a few Olympians and beat Coach James 200m pb, congrats on the 22.54. While he ran I threw some Javelin, two season bests over 61m and won the event. We both then went to pole vault. Chen vaulted 3.80, I predict 4m in Woerden in August. I went 4.20 which ties my second best vault ever. So that was suppose to be our last event, but being decathletes comes with its perks! Like getting put on a sprint medley relay for club points. Chen and I ran the 200m legs of the race and guess what, we actually won the race!!!! Go combined events!

Now its training as usual for another few weeks until we leave.
PS. Its been real hot in Ottawa for all you West Coasters #bigshoutout!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Victoria Visit

After a well deserved and much welcomed visit home, both Pat and I are finally back in Ottawa.  It was  a short visit but we had to return and get back into the routine of training and preparing ourselves for the next meet.  We compete this weekend in Ottawa in our provincial championships.

Bringing Pat back to the west coast to meet my family and friends was awesome.  He had never been that far west before and I think he enjoyed it.  Our first outing was to show him the Pacific Ocean,  where we dug to find Geoducks or "Gooey Ducks" on the sand bar.  They are actually quite challenging to catch..crafty clams!  
 They feel kind of gross eh Pat?
Then over the week we enjoyed a few scenic tours as Victoria graced us with rather untypical summer weather, being anywhere from 20-25°C and Sunny We also hiked up Mt. Doug, which is full of fun activities and I'm pretty sure I took what has become Pat's favourite picture of himself..
That's my dog Cambie trying to sneak into the background..

On the last day we enjoyed a walk around downtown and checked out Chinatown and the narrowest street in Canada!  Then we had a great final dinner with the family and relaxed with a few of Mamma Chen's (or more like Laura's) famous Sangria.  Make that Sh*t!
Fantan Alley in Chinatown (Thanks for taking the pic Ali!)

Other than that it was great seeing friends and being back with the family, even though I'm sure Mamma Chen and my sisters are glad to have us gone!  I wish we could have stayed longer I really miss the coastal living... until next time Vic!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

2012 Olympic Trials

     Where to begin, where to begin...This was by far the biggest meet of the year for every athlete in Canada thus far. Athletes congregated in Calgary this past week for 4 days of gruelling competition, hoping to punch their tickets to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Lets just get into it then shall we! Chen and I met the new WR holder on Tuesday while we performed our competition warm up. I (Pat) initiated the hand shake with "Man, I gotta shake your hand, I just love you!" He wished us luck, talked to us for a bit (no big deal) and I have yet to wash that hand after soaking up some of his points from his 9039pt performance.

Reid entered these Trials knowing he would be competing in his final Decathlon ever. He has been fighting hamstring injuries and wanted to take the days event by event. Check this awseome story though. Reid opened his long jump with a SB attempt, and says "well im not jumping like an idiot so im starting a clap!" and then the event music they were playing came on and Reid says "man I wish that played when I jumped!!" *all sad and frowny. Next jump, starts the clap and lone behold what comes on?

 (skip to 1minute in for the magic) and then Reid takes off and jumped his furthest distance in over 2 years of 6.86m! Reid held it together for his Dec and scored 6599.

Chen, feeling good and ripe to perform came out hard and fought for points all day. He seemed less than pleased with his day one performance yet sat in 3rd through 5 events. He placed 3rd in a fast heat of 100's and 2nd in the 400m. With the late start on day two, the three of us took to the pool for some aquarobic warmup fun time. Hurdles proved a struggle running into a 2.4 headwind, not ideal for a rhythmic event. He threw himself to a SB disc and the ground at the same time, literally fell on his bum in the circle, class act. His vault work this year paid off again with a consistent 3.80m. Chenery then gutted out a 4:48 1500m to finish up with 7001points and a 4th place performance. This marks his 3rd time over 7000 this year and qualfied him for the Woerden invitational in Holland and PanAms next year. Two teams in one year.

I on the other hand, went about scoring 7000 points in a quite different way, deciding to come out with a below average day one score which placed me in 7th place after 5 events. I ran a pb 100m (11.55) and my second faster 400 ever to keep me within striking distance for day 2. Feeling good the next afternoon  I ran a pb hurdles race by 0.01 seconds into what felt like a hurricane head wind. I kept rolling on the steam from that race all day with a pb vault by 10cm of 4.30m. By the time the 1500m came around I had clawed my way from 7th back into a medal position. I had to hold Chenery off for roughly 30 seconds. I now have my second national medal and a 2 point better decathlon pb of 7088, woop! This marks my 3rd time over 7000 this year also. The program is working James! I will be joining Chen in Holland come August as well, back to the motherland! Can not wait!!!!!

                                          Three cowboys being all cowboy like ^

                                         (Dipping for the line, Chen far right, me far left.)

The Decathlon was over, but I still had to throw the next morning in the open discus. It went ok, and I came 9th with 47.19m. After the competing it was time for us to call it a week, get some sleep and read bedtime stories to one another and be good little angels. While everyone else partied we played scrabble and solved world hunger.
Reid is back in Ottawa now and Chen and I have gone back to his home in Victoria. I am overly exited to check out the sites and he is overly exited to see his puppies and spend time around the Ocean he misses oh so much. Theres alot of pictures being taken as I have never ventured this far out before, its all so new and pretty to me!
Huge shout outs to new Olympians and good friends going to London later this year. Can not wait to watch you all in those new sexy uniforms being all Olympian like!!! HIGH FIVE!
Check this super sweet article out also about Chen and I from before the trials. Getting some #geegeeslove.
http://geegees.ca/node/374&sid=36&nid=2082

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Go Time!

Well here we are, it's finally the Canadian Olympic Trials and National Championships.  All the work we've put in this season is about to pay off.  The majority of our group including Coach James, Pat and our heptathlon girls Krech and Jojo have already arrived in Calgary and are staying in style at James' place in Canmore, AB.  Reid and myself are set to fly out tomorrow morning to reunite with the group and prepare for Wednesdays showdown.  We are all extremely excited and cannot wait to witness the results coming out of the trials.

The decathlon is set to start Wednesday afternoon and for live results check out: www.2012trials.ca or follow @Trials2012 on Twitter for updates.  I also believe CBC will be doing a 2hr summary of the entire meet on the Saturday to recap.  Maybe you'll get to see some of our pretty faces on TV!

In other news (and BIG news), the USA is currently having their Olympic Trials right now and yesterday was the conclusion of the men's decathlon where world superstar Ashton Eaton just broke the  World Record with a massive score of 9,039pts (surpassing the legendary Roman Sebrle's 11year record of 9,026pts).  In doing so he broke 2 individual decathlon WR's with a 10.21s 100m and an 8.23m long jump all in the pouring rain...insane!  This is incredible as he is only the second person to break the 9K barrier.  Plus it is rumoured he will make an appearance at our Trials to support fiancé Brianne Theisen in the heptathlon.  Keep calm Patty!  What a way to get amped up for our own championships!  

Here is a clip of the final event the 1500m.  If you just want to see the finish skip to 4mins and witness the magic! 

Well it's about time to get packing and figure out my life before we leave...here is a list of songs we'll be listening to pre and mid dec.  It's in 8tracks for those of you who have it.  (FYI majority of the songs are definitely not PG so earmuff''s youngsters!)   Keep things moving'!



Dec Love 


Sunday, June 17, 2012

Bye Bye Holland

This week we continued with our taper for Nationals with high intensity work and low volume. This included some over-speed early in the week, which is running while being propelled forward by a strong coach and pulley pairing. It gets your nervous system used to running faster than you ever have before and gets your body ready to handle the feeling of running a PB 100m. The rest of the week was filled with mostly technical work.

This light volume left us with some spare energy. With this energy we exploited the great weather we've been having and went cliff jumping in an old quarry. The water was really warm and I'm trying not to think of what chemicals were lingering in there to make it emerald green. We also met a friend in the water named Franklin who you can see at the end of our video.




In other news, Pat is upset with the qualifying round of UEFA EURO 2012 as his team got sent home after losing every game. It is unfortunate that Holland had to be in the group of death along with Portugal and Germany, but still, they lost to Denmark... Mark and I are happy as we're Germany fans and they've won all three of there games so far. Next they face off against Greece. I'm not too worried about that.

We also had the pleasure of having Marky's lovely lady friend in town for the weekend. She came to visit from Sault St. Marie and he is elated that she made the long drive down for the weekend.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, later days!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Gearing up for Trials

     This week marked the start of our final 4 weeks of preparation leading into nationals at the end of the month. The training is taking on a new form of intensity, with longer warmups, shorter and more event specific workouts, and long cool downs with muchos stretching. The three of us are really trying to be more proactive when it comes to recovery and stretching in this crucial cycle.
     I (pat) went to my nieces kindergarden end of year presentation at her school. Check her out getting really into showing off her art.

     Reid is feeling a bit of hamstring tightness, and is working on getting that healthy for Trials.  Furthermore, he is getting into the Euro2012 fever, we are equally dissapointed with the KNVB losing to Denmark (1-0).
     Chen is still the fastest kid in the world, shocking. Chen spent the weekend in westboro at work, home of westfest. He got asked out by a 10 year old girl and that really pumped his tires. He kindly informed the young -and bold- girl that he may be a touch too old for her and she should consider asking him again in a few years. Watch out Andrea!!
Other than this, there is not much going on. Just heads down and staying out of trouble for the Ottawa Decathletes who look to impress in Calgary.

Oh wait. Did I mention I bought some art, feast your eyes on this bad ass Native Eagle hybrid thing!

...its going to stare at people in the washroom.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Teach me how to Dougie..

This past week has consisted of getting back into the "routine", as it's back to workouts gearing up for the Olympic Trials June 27/28th in Calgary.  Still recovering from last weekends decathlon, this week was filled with rehab and R&R finished off with a small technical competition last Saturday where we contested Pole Vault and Javelin (Pat and I) and Reid took on Pole Vault and the 100m.  This meet according to James was to "not let you forget how tough these events can be".  Insisting that after a successful decathlon, competing in less than perfect conditions (painful ones!) is ideal for keeping us focused on things we need to work on and fine tune in the next 3 weeks. Pat hit a SB (Season best) javelin throw, breaking 60m for the first time this year.

This meet also brought one of our close friends and fellow vaulter Dougie from Toronto to compete.  Despite the cramped conditions, he crashed at our place and brought a few good laughs with him.  Unfortunately Dougie's competition didn't go quite as planned as he ended with a NH (No Height) after a freak and quite puzzling attempt where he landed safely on the mat but his pole was launched 30ft in the air flying ever so gracefully until finally crash landing in the long jump pit and nearly decapitating Reid!  Reid might have an alternative opinion to this event but I thought it was AWESOME!  It looked a little something like this...

We also found out that apparently Dougie is not a very productive packer, as on his way home he made it nearly an hour and a half away before he realized he left his poles at our house.  After a quick happy meal and a shameful drive, Dougie was back in Ottawa.  Once again he was ready to set off, and after a quick chirp to him about what we should do if we find any more of his things Dougie replies "burn it!"  Probably not a great idea as we then proceeded to find a T-shirt, competition singlet, track pants and a few random socks.  Dougie they are still safe, for now!


Finally, Reid came up with a very accurate and honestly pretty funny joke for me on account of my tendency to fault my first two attempts at long jump... and discus... and vault.  New profile pic?

Stay classy my friends...

Monday, May 28, 2012

Pan Am Cup - CASH MONEY!

The highly anticipated Pan American Cup has come and gone. It completely lived up to the hype as Mark and Pat both scored over 7000 points and won some decent money on some huge cheques.



 Mark went into this weekend with the goal of making coach James nauseated as many times as possible. I think he succeeded in this goal by faulting his first two jumps in long jump, his first two throws in discus, and his first two attempts at his opening height in pole vault; leaving success in all three to the third and final attempt. Long jump was a HUGE success with a 17cm PB (Personal Best) of 7.18m. He also had strong races in all the running events getting very close to his PB in all 3 sprints and PBing  in the 1500m where he ran a ballsy race where he lead and fought the wind the whole way.
Pat also had strong running races with a PB in the 100m and a near PB in the hurdles. His success in the running had one exception: the 400m which I didn't have the pleasure of seeing. I am told Pat took it out like a champion leading the pack to 200m at PB 200m pace. At this point, considering competitors seeded more than 2 seconds faster than him hadn't past him, Pat knew he was in trouble. He grinded through the rest of the race and wasn't thrilled with the time but is now stronger for having run it. Fortunately he did not die the same way in the 1500m and he finished strong tying his PB. Pat was also happy with a very strong shot put of 14.78m.



With their combined scores Canada won the team title and won a trophy. Like a boss!

Check out the full results here:
http://athleticsvideos.com/Live_Results/2012/Combined_Events/

As for myself, I competed in the Ontario open category. This was my first decathlon of the year and was a decent opener. No PB's but I got a nice little video of my long jump.

We finished off with a fun night of team bonding. Next focus: National Championships! Until next time, later days!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

May long weekend.

     This has been the nicest weekend of summer, we finally saw the sun for more than 1 hour at a time. Chen and I (Pat), took this opportunity to bask in the glory of a 4 hour workout saturday morning. The saturday workout was a mock day 1, it was Chen's first full workout since his back injury thingy that he had going on. He now remembers what it feels like to run at full speed. In other track news the Pan-Am team was announced this week, Chen and I will be representing Canada! I am very excited for this opportunity, as not many people get to represent their country in their very own hometown.  The PanAm section is going to have 4 countries: USA, Cuba, Mexico and Canada. Not nearly as many countries as the females :( but still an awesome mix.
The open section is very competitive also, seeing athletes congregating in the nations capital from BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. There will be national champions and a few americans raising the competition to a level not typically experienced at the Provincial level.

     Reid has continued to enjoy his time on the left side of the country, seeing friends and getting in his own training. Reid is feeling recharged and ready to open up his season this weekend. His flight is arriving tonight at 10:35pm, yahoo! The threesome will be complete once again. We are ready to have him back.
   
     Check out this hunk with his new GoPro camera and cliff jumping. No wonder he missed home, look at this! Lets see how creative things get with this new little toy of his. First person vaulting?

                                                     (Great hang technique from Reid. Beauty!)
                                                    *Thanks P.Little for the hooks on the pics :)
                       
     Now, back to this weather we are having. I bet you are all wondering what we did with it...right!? Of course you are. Well heres a nice couple shots of Chen and I enjoying a walk up the Ottawa River, literally.


     After our long saturday workout we went for some all you can eat sushi, I then had a 4 hour movie nap with Wedding Crashers and Old School on the tele. Chen had to work and battled the urge to vomit all the dead fish he just ingested, too much info?

     Today we spent the day outside, we played some frisbee golf, lounged in the river for a while, made some AMAZING sandwiches, they were massive triple deckers. We then had a nap and went back out to play some american football. Just such a great weekend. Very relaxing! Sorry to those of you who had to be indoors this weekend, my most sincere condolences.



   







Checking out this view. Lazy Sunday was a success. Must revisit again this summer. There was a constant flow of people sliding, sitting, and enjoying this crossing all day long.

Monday, May 14, 2012

A Very Happy Mother's Day

This week was a long and somewhat frustrating week of sitting out practices or doing modified workouts and numerous visits to RE:FORM.  Pat was a bit more successful in workouts although had to nurse one of those nagging/annoying pains that comes with the territory.  So for both of us, it was nice to end it all with a trip out to Pat's parents place for Mother's Day weekend.  We had a fun-filled day of canoeing, crayfish hunting and finished it off with a fantastic meat filled dinner (lamb and steak!). 

Here's the crayfish with a very cautious Pat (taken with my new favourite app Instagram!) 

We even found what Pat and I think is Osprey remains.  The kids loved it!


Then Sunday we travelled to visit Pat's Oma who has made an unbelievable recovery over the past few weeks.  Those resilient Dutch!  Pat and I even found a way to train for javelin by using his Oma's clothes line as a throwing implement.  Shocking that the thrower beat me, but it was close! 


Reid spent Mother's Day back home in Vancouver with his mum (very excited I'm sure), sisters and his little nieces and nephew.  He followed it up by completely a brutal hill workout with buddy and fellow athlete Mike, that apparently puts hill workouts here to shame (I guess those mountains really do make things harder, who would have known?). While home Reid has been training hard and seeing as much of friends and family as possible in his remaining days there. He even went skeet shooting yesterday with close friend (and shotgun) Tatum...That's right, he named his shotgun!  


It's always fun to see families get together and made me a little bit jealous of Reid getting to see his over the weekend.  Either way it was a great way to relax, get healed and rejuvenate before the upcoming Pan Am Cup in 2 weeks.  Until next time! 
    

Monday, May 7, 2012

Heading Home

This week I (Reid) was feeling homesick. With the help of my amazing sister I was able to come home on a spontaneous trip to surprise my family and friends. Me and my good friend Mike worked out a plan to surprise our friend Erik with this news. Mike and Erik both got in Mike's car. As Mike backed out of the driveway at a seemingly reckless pace I hid around the corner at the bottom with a bike. When he got to me I slapped the back of the car and he slammed on the breaks. I lay face down on the ground as Mike told Erik that he hit someone. After they stood over my body and Erik panicked for a minute I rolled over and showed my face to a stunned Erik.    IT      WAS     AWESOME.
Now that I'm here for the next two weeks I can spend some time with these funny kiddies


Pat also headed home for some family time this past weekend to recover after a tough week of training. For Saturday's practice I was already in Van and Mark was sitting out with a sore ovary (or hip or something) so our coach Ry Row decided to pace Patty's running by riding next to him on his bike. All of this tough running is geared to get us fit for the Pan American Cup at the end of the month in Ottawa. The Canadian team was decided yesterday, but won't be officially announced until later this week. We're hoping that we all get to put on Canada gear together for this one: fingers crossed.

Mandrea's better half is also heading home today. She is spending the whole summer working in her home town of Sault St. Marie. She had better be planning on coming back to Ottawa once in awhile!

Until next time, later days!
Here is a picture featured on the sports experts web page of Pat playing Mr.Model.

Monday, April 30, 2012

ROJO in Cornell

Hello to our lovely readers, #visitors :) I got twitter this week (@arbsy). It has been a very exiting time in my life. I am already at 48 followers, no big deal. In track news Chen and I had a short lived recovery week. We kicked off our weekend with a not-so-pleasant speed endurance workout. 4x120, 250+120, lactic much. As our month comes to an end, we soon begin the month of the Pan Am combined events meet here in lovely Ottawa. We're all feeling good and are excited as hell for the meet!

Friday was a relaxing day for all as Reid and loyal girlfriend Jojo (Reid+Jojo=ROJO) enjoyed a double date day with Chen and beautiful girlfriend Andrea (Mark+Andrea=Mandrea). ROJO and Mandrea went to see 21 Jump Street, and apparently had quite the laugh. I wouldn't know though because I was not invited... Following this Reid cooked up a storm in the kitchen and hammered out some amazing eats to the hungry peasants, complete with entrees and a desert.

All fuelled up, Reid was ready to attack his first meet of the year in Cornell, Ithica. Opening his outdoor season with the 110 high hurdles, a little bit of Pole Vault, and some 4x4 action. Reid has been recovering like a champ from his set back and as Coach Jamesy says: he has been training "angry."
The conditions in Cornell were not ideal as strong winds made for a tricky competition. On the bright side, the sun was out (pun intended). Reid hurdled himself to a 16.56, not too shabby for a cold windy day. Competing in an open Vault meet, the starting height was a respectable 4.20m. Unfortunately Reid was unable to make a clearance as the wind at his back made his poles too soft and mark inconsistent. Finishing off a long day at the track Reid split a 50.2sec.
Check out Reid's new look >



That sums up another week in the decathlon lives of your 3 most adored athletes :P
Look foreword to our next blog entry as we continue to look foreword to leaving the dome for the beautiful Mooney's Bay facility, #PanAmCupDecathlon.

Heres some dec love to get you through the week, so long!




Sunday, April 22, 2012

Not so SUNY Cortland

Another week down, and we made it a good one.  A few members from our training group including Pat, Zachary, JoJo, Michelle and myself travelled down to SUNY Cortland (State University of New York) for our first decathlon and heptathlon of the year and Pat's second.  

A helpful tailwind started off Day 1 and kept rolling for the remainder of our events.  Sending me to my second best 100m (11.10s) and Pat a PB (11.63s).  After running myself into a bit of trouble in the long jump starting off with two fouls, leaving a very important and very nerve racking last attempt where I mustered a 6.97m jump!  Sadly this is not the first time I've done this to myself this year...I must help myself out a bit more and get jumps in on the first attempt!  The rest of the day went along smoothly and ended with a surprisingly calm evening for the 400m.  Wish that could be said for Day 2..

Day 2 began as a beautiful but overcast day. It quickly darkened during the running of hurdles (coming from indoors 10 hurdles is far!). Shortly after the long day of rain began, making the throwing events especially challenging. Despite the less than ideal conditions Pat still was able to hold onto the discus long enough to throw it a PB distance of 48.83m. Luckily the kind people of Cortland State moved the pole vault into their repurposed airplane hanger that is now an indoor track facility.  This proved quite beneficial as both Pat and I had PB's in the vault with Pat jumping 4.20m and myself 3.90m.  Next was the absolute worst conditions for a javelin competition we have endured.  It was raining, a cool 6 degrees and on GRASS!  Not to mention grass with potholes, rocks and divots making full runways absolutely out of the question leaving room for only muscling it out there.  Needless to say we were all way off our normal throws.  However, it was an experience and an obstacle we dealt with and got through, now anything will be better and absolutely welcomed compared to that.  

And then all that was left was a rather uneventful yet still exciting 1500m.  Prior to the race Coach James told me I needed a 4:51.00 to reach 7000pts, and after crossing the line seeing 4:51.xx showing up I was quite nervous that I missed the mark by mere points.  Then he proceeds to tell me about a time he scored his PB 6999pts. He told how awful it was to have this PB stand for a year.  At this point I'm fearing the worst and accepting the loss.  Then he tells me that he was a big fat liar and all I needed was a 4:54.00. I actually scored 7033pts...needless to say I got James'd (a slogan we coined for being smeckledorfed by James).  Very funny coach!  Pat finished with a solid second decathlon of the season with a third all-time best 6910pts.  Congrats!

Overall a very solid decathlon for all and a new experience, as all decathlons are. 

As for Reid, he spent the weekend finishing his last exam of the school year and began celebrating his summer with a trip to the casino winning himself a handsome $70. With some of his winnings he made a trip down to Chinatown to a shady little acupuncture store. He walked away with his own set of needles so he can practice unlicensed acupuncture on his and Pat's legs. He's seen it done in movies and is convinced it's easy enough. Nice work all around this weekend I'd say..Until next week!      


For all those interested here is a link to the results!
http://www.leonetiming.com/2012/Outdoor/Cortland/   

Lastly, a big congrats to our teammate Zachary Kevlar for his pb in the dec. 

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Summer is Almost Here

This week Pat took full advantage of the weather as the summer sun made its appearance. It is still not quite hot enough to train outside, but that didn't stop him from playing the very legitimate sport of frisbee golf this Saturday.

I on the other hand was trying to stay awake and study. I don't know which reason made it more difficult to stay awake: the brutal 1500m workout that all three of us completed earlier in the day or my realization that I don't care whether or not the Real Business Cycle predictions reflect the actual deviations observed in the economy. That reminds me, I have good news for all of you. On Friday I write my last final exam and commence a four month summer vacation, so that was the last random economics reference you will have to endure for a very long time :)

Mark has been in much the same situation as I with writing finals. He wrote 2 last week and only has 2 more to go.

This coming week will have Pat already preparing to compete in his second decathlon of the year alongside Mark who will be contesting his first. The destination is not nearly as exotic as Arizona this time unfortunately, instead the forecast is for just above freezing temperatures with rain. I will be continuing to transition back into as much training as my rib will allow.

Last thing I want to say is CONGRATS to our awesome coach James and his lovely wife Vero for celebrating their 2 year anniversary last week!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Weekend.

Hi there everyone! Happy Easter to everyone and their families from your three favorite decathletes!
In news this week, nothing happened to Chen...absolutely NOTHING of note, quite boring week for him, aside from the end of classes for the year (about time!).

Reid is continuing to heal and has really cool finger toe shoes -_-. He can run on his hands and we wouldnt know the difference, sporting his new VIBRAM shoes Reid kind of feels like this...
Reid has joined me at le Chateau Casa del Arbour. We enjoyed the closest most intense game of Bocce ball coming down to a 1" victory on match point. We will let you figure out who won ;)

I on the other hand am nursing the small aches and pains of the post-decathlon. The most notable of which being a fast fading tan. I miss Arizona :(
Thanks to Jen Cotten I have my day 1 and 2 recaps from the season opening decathlon. See below
 .

Have a good week everyone, and stay tuned!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Fine Start, Fine Art..

This was an exciting week for us as Pat he contested his first decathlon of the season in Arizona. It went extraordinarily well!  He began by running the second fastest 100m of his career and jumping a seasons best in the long jump.  The next event was the "builder" as Pat had a massive throw of 14.65m in the shot put. This was the first time in the 14m range outdoors (although his PB is 14.86m).  This clearly pumped him up as he tied his PB of 1.90m in the high jump.  This momentum carried Pat to his second best 400m to finish off with a day one PB of 3570.  

This mojo then carried over to Day 2 where Pat started off the gruelling day with a 0.2s PB in the 110mH running 15.38s. He followed that with a 37cm PB in the Discus, throwing 47.47m.  Now it was to the event Pat was really looking forward to, the pole vault.  Despite not continuing on the "PB Train" Pat jumped 2cm off his PB which he recorded a couple weeks ago.  Pat finished off the decathlon throwing 58.98m in the Javelin and 5:05.8 in the always painful 1500m, concluding his OPENING decathlon with a PB decathlon total of 7086pts.  Congrats to Pat, Damian (7977pts) and Jamie (7706) on an exciting start to our 2012 season!


This week was much less exciting for Reid and myself who, enjoyed a "lovely" one week period with no internet (because Bell sucks).  While Reid was still recovering (although he is back this week!) from a rib injury, and I was still enjoying a reduced work load, we had plenty of time to create our own fun.  Inspired by a great British improv show we decided to create an interpretive dance to a hit 90's pop-rock boy band song. Take a look at how the pros do it.  



Now take a look at our attempt. We encourage you to attempt our "masterpiece" on mute and see if you can guess the song.  If anyone is able to guess it I applaud you; you are one of the smartest people in the world...Fact!  





Reid also had a lovely visit from his mother this weekend and I benefited from a couple of dinners and a fully stocked fridge: score!

On another note the University of Ottawa Gee Gee's held their annual Athletic Banquet on Saturday night with a fine showing by Track and Field members.  Most notably Michael Robertson (400m) who won the coveted Male Athlete of the Year Award beating out some tough competition.  Congratulations to all Gee Gee's team members on a fine season.