The day before "the day"

Sorry for the lack of posts, I’ll write an extra long one to fill in some huge gaps.

I had some difficulty with the muscles in my upper back and serious stiffness in my neck after a very intense training session on Thursday. At this stage in the game, my body and mind are acting in unison and although usually in a positive way, they can also tag-team me once in a while when things are not going great and I get body-slammed with both emotional and physical plaque (not to be confused with injuries or a psychosis).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the other day I had an amazing training session and just expected that the subsequent ones would be as good leading up to my first race. It turns out that when you hit a peak, there really isn’t anywhere to go but down (even a little). The day following the great workout, I wasn’t able to hit that same top speed and I made the huge mistake of pushing harder rather than accepting that I was destined to have a 95% day rather than a 101%. During an all out sprint, I tweaked my neck and upper back and it got much worse sleeping on it funny that night. Over the past few days I had some massage and although it helped at the time, it’s continued to be stiff. The funny thing is that I’m still able to hit my top speed, just not comfortably and not for as long.

Today’s training was designed to be lighter yet still enough to prepare me for my 4oom preliminary tomorrow morning at 9am. Directly after my training I had some vigorous manipulation and massage followed by a healthy handful of Naproxen. I won’t lie; there was some crying and cracking going one.

According to the heat sheets, I’m in lane 6 (a great lane for me) and I’ll be in the same round as David Weir who is the current world record holder. I think that if I can keep him in my short sights, everything will be fine because I’ve never seen him run slow. The three factors that are in my favour for a good race are:
1- There is no wind which means it’s only the distance that’s tough and I don’t have to worry about a head wind when I’m already out of gas
2- The track is so lightning fast that I can cruise at my top speed easier and won’t have to pace my self for the first 200m.
3 – Based on the stagger between lane 1 and lane 6, I’ll be ahead of David (likely for the first 150 – 180 meters) and I’ll be shoulder to shoulder when it get’s tough going into the final straight which will be exhilarating.

The schedule tonight is pretty simple; hydration, a dinner with lot’s of simple carbohydrates and absolutely no coffee, even if the guy at the latte shop keeps taunting me.









As for the Opening Ceremonies, all I can say is crazy, there must have been about 70,000 people live which is pretty loud. With the hundreds of cameras snapping away and video feeds, I can only imagine how many millions more were watching at home. The opening ceremonies are a great way to judge the atmosphere just so you’re a little prepared for the lights people and the noise. I also took note that although there was tons of wind outside, there was nothing in the bowl. They needed fans to make the flags dance.

This ceremony started like all others with a lot of standing around and waiting for things to get coordinated. We were amused with an hours worth of fireworks and thousands of people just taking in the experience.

When we were given the 5 minute warning my hear rate started to spike. We walked into the bowels of the stadium still not able to see anything and as we neared the mouth of the stadium, I nearly lost it. In spite of all the things to be distracted with, I instantly found the Canadian Flag hanging in the rafters and was overwhelmed. The show was spectacular and I even received a text from my mom saying that they may have seen me during the march of the nations. I was truly impressed that the local spectators although obviously patriotic to China, cheered just as loud for everyone.

As everyone is walking all over, the track is naturally covered with a thick carpet. I kept looking for an open spot just to see that beautiful surface 12 hours before everyone else.

I guess that will be something to dream about tonight…….BYE FOR NOW

- Happy Birthday to both Tiffany and my Grandmother Evelyn, I wish I could have been there…..
- Congratulations to my sister Jenna for making the Varsity volleyball team