Saturday, September 13, 2008

shopping and sprinting

Thanks for the suggestions. I have enlisted someone else to do my shopping for me and that frees me up to do the sight-seeing. Although not very accessible, I think it will be the great wall.


Yesterday was very cool, as I raced early, I wondered around after and met a old racing buddy from Arizona that I would consider the next best thing to family, and we hung out awhile. Later that night we went to dinner and then the water cube and watched some swimming. I have to say that "the cube" was much more interesting on the outside. Inside it's just a pool (really)..As the stands are small and the paralympics are so popular, I had to buy scalped tickets. that was a great activity it's self.

- I had one guy want 50$ american for a pair of tickets that had a face value of $10
- There was a guy selling tickets really cheap that turned out to be the stub from last nights session
- I saw a guy yelling "TICKETS HERE", only to find out he was selling knock-off watches. For 5 bucks Canadian I could have had a genuine POLEX.
- I also got an offer to marry a chinese girl from her mother. She said that she's really pretty and smart too. I got the feeling that I had to agree without meeting her first.

I ran into a canadian swimmer and she explained why all the world records are broken here.

The pool has negative edging which removes all the waves very shortly after they are created by the swimmers. Normally the waves come from the water being displaced and boucing off the edge. With no sides the water stays calm and it creates a situation similar to a day with no wind on the track. - I had no idea.

At one point I went looking for a bathroom and went down a wrong elevator and wondered around before someone helped me. I was in the wong place so I got to wheel around the bowels of the arena to the proper elevator. We passed a car park where there were at least 50 Audi A6's. They were all black with tinted windows and squeaky clean. I nearly hit my escort because I was not paying attention. I may have drouled a little too.

As for the task at hand, today's training went very well. I had a very short session just to stay sharp on my few days off between races. It's very important to not sit around when faced with a few days between races, but also not to go crazy and break more muscle fibres the day before I need them intact.

In training today, I focused on starts and very short distances such as 30m, 40m and 60m. The feedback I was given by my coach Jean was that I was faster today than my fastest day in sherbrooke. I changed a slight place of my knees in response to not hitting my top speed last week and although it didn't help my top speed, it gave me a killer start. It's very strange to not be hitting a massive top speed yet still pulling in good times. I also noticed that in the past 5 days, there has been a headwind in the 100m straight. I thought it would be good to fabricate a fairing to help me cut through the wind if it's there.

I have no ilussions that I'll win the 100m on Monday, but based on my new start, I just want to have a great reaction to the gun and leave the line at the same time as everyone else. I think if the wind is nice to me, we may see a new canadian record in the preliminaries.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Colin,

I am so enjoying your journey. I can't begin to tell you how proud we are of you.

We send positive energy to you everyday and know this experience will be part of your life forever.

Good luck on your next races.

Love from the Fontaine family

Anonymous said...

Dear Colin.......remember that
"The purpose and value of competition is an exhilirating arena for overcoming bodily and mental limitations. The Olympic model is: faster, higher, stronger, - not: fastest, highest, strongest."
Love to you from Grandmother Bell