Un sport canadien pour les familles, les communautés et les champions

23 mai, 2012

Almost 4000 blue noses!

Julia Rivard

Well to say it was a success would be understating the participation at last weekend’s Doctor’s Nova Scotia Kids 4.2km run, an annual warm up to the Halifax Blue Nose Marathon. The youth run had the largest-ever number of runners, with 3,483 kids taking part – three of which were my great kids Oscar, Max and Phoenix. The initiative taken by Doctor’s Nova Scotia to partner on this event and others like the Kids Run Club, are fantastic proactive initiatives that help us have a healthy community – their vision as an organization is commendable.

Oscar has long passed my speed and Max was kind enough to slow down for me until he saw the finish line and darted away in a full out sprint. Phoenix ran with Steve in their first ever road race. The day was beautiful, sunny and full of fun, but best of all was how it set us up to feel great for the long weekend ahead.

In addition to gardening my way through the rest of Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I was taking time to follow the fantastic results of the CanoeKayak athletes who were competing at the first World Cup of the season in Poznan, Poland. This event was used by many countries to help finalize the selection of their Olympic team which means that the best of the best were on hand to compete. The final medal tally showed Canada and Germany on top with 9 medals; Belarus came in second with 6 medals followed by the 2012 Olympic host nation, Great Britain with 6 medals.

Canada’s Mark Oldershaw won gold in the C1 1000m event  ahead of Sebastian Brendel (GER). Ben Russell (CAN) followed in third place. This result by Mark earned him a spot n this summer’s Canadian Olympic Canoe Team.

This feels incredible,” said Oldershaw, an Olympic team member in 2008. “The last few months have been such a build-up and to get it done on the day feels so good. The headwind was strong and I tried to not let it get to me. I knew I was as good as all these guys and once I reached the 500 I made sure they weren’t going to get to me.

In another great Canadian performance, Adam Van Koeverden (CAN) finished with a bronze medal with Rene Holten Poulsen (DEN) and Eirik Veraas Larsen (NOR) who came in first and second respectively.

‘’It was good overall but sometimes early in the season I forget the pace a little bit,’’ said Van Koeverden, a three-time Olympic medallist. ‘’I knew Rene was going to be fast in the end so I just tried to stay relaxed and save some energy. I know my last 300 metres will be much, much better come August.’’

For the fist time since the start of my 224workouts challenge, I was able to follow the great results of all of our Canadian Canoe and Kayak athletes and see the results of their daily efforts. In a very small way, it helped me reflect on the effort I have put in since the start of the year and the benefit it has given me.

So today, in closing, is a special day because there are 100 days left of my 224 workouts challenge. I have started tweeting my workouts on a daily basis and plan to do so until the end of the challenge.

For those of you who have not yet joined (Rick Fair), now is the time! Let’s support our great athletes who are giving everything they have to represent us this summer in London…and all it costs is one hour a day of our time (never mind all the benefit we get back!).

To read more on the Doctor’s Nova Scotia run read the Chronicle Herald article: http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/98107-got-my-nose-blue-youth-runner-exults

For a complete list of the Poznan World Cup results can be found on the event website – http://www.kayakpl.com/2012/WC/index.htm

25 avril, 2012

Florida Training Camp again was the focus with lots of great paddling to be had!

Fully recovered from illness, I was able to really enjoy these final two weeks of camp. The training schedule was tough by anyone's standards. Two on water workouts before noon and a third paddle in the afternoon left very little time for anything else. Soccer games and runs were also added into the mix and as the only Master age paddler at camp, it was always a challenge to keep up with a workload designed for high energy kids without pushing myself over the edge.
I thoroughly enjoyed training with the kids, it's good to push hard and lots of fun to be a part of their unbridled enthusiasm for sport, competition and life in general.

My winter preparation paid off, I felt strong in the boat, appreciating my improved core strength and flexibility. Alternating workouts between outrigger and sprint canoe provided a welcome change in position that spared the knee and butt from too much early season abuse.

Running on the beach was brutal. I did achieve a personal best time in the weekly scheduled 1200 m. run time controls, but there is no other way to describe it, other than, I totally suck at running in sand!

I weathered the three weeks well with no injuries.

I was religious about doing the P90X stretch routine. The really hard training days would cripple me up, but that one hour of stretching would have me fixed up and ready to do it all over again the next day. I also continued with the weekly P90X Yoga session.

I'm now a confirmed advocate of daily stretching and can't encourage everyone enough, young and old, to include it in your training regime. It really does make a difference!

I arrived back to Canada on Sunday to a nice surprise. Our ice went out on the lake that very morning. Perfect timing!

I'm tired now, so rest and regeneration are on tap for a couple of days. Our docks go in tomorrow, the boats will come out of storage and the next phase of training will begin on beautiful Trout Lake in North Bay, Ontario. ... Happy days!

6 avril, 2012

Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod (and Buck)

Julia Rivard

Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod. If you are Canadian and were able to access television in the 70s, 80s or 90s, I would put money on these two names being forever a part of your psyche.

I thought about Hal and Joanne a bit more this week after having the absolute pleasure of having a conversation with Kelly Murumets, President & CEO of ParticipACTION. Conducting an informal poll in my office among very savvy marketing and communications prowess, there was unanimity the BODYBREAK campaign must be the most successful television marketing campaigns of our personal history.

I give this next video a special shout out because of its highlight of CanoeKayak

It can’t be riveting production or special effects, nor is it award winning copy that pulls at your heartstrings or makes you fall off your chair in hysterics. I don’t think it is the uniqueness of the recipes or the special guest stars (like in the public service announcement below)…no, I figure it must be because of three things:

The lovable Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod

The consistency of their message

And our deep down belief in the importance of physical activity

We all know that physical activity and healthy living should and must be a part of our lives and Hal and Joanne made it so simple in their series of PSAs produced over three decades. They made us see that healthy eating and getting active was easy and fun with no barrier to entry.

Officially the production of the segments shut down on 2001 but we can still find them playing on tv today for a new generation to appreciate.

The more I continue on this challenge, the more I am inspired by my productive state of mind and just feeling overall great that was evangelized in the BODYBREAK, and it has often had me thinking about what is lost when we don’t stay active. Before taking on this challenge on January 1st, I had really fallen off the wagon of being physically healthy. It wasn’t that I was running less or hitting the gym only a couple times a week, but I was going weeks, months even, without so much as a 30 minute walk.

As with everything in life, it is hard to gain perspective until you have moved on from a point in time or circumstance and for me in 2010, I had no grasp on the effect lack of activity was having on my life. Some specific examples that were not all consuming but have since all but disappeared are:

making excuses for why I would prefer watching the games the kids played rather than participating,

not sleeping as well as I had in the past,

losing motivation by the end of the day to do anything productive,

being a bit short tempered at times and feeling frustrated,

inspiring positive thinking and general creativity about problems and opportunities in my life.

This last one is a big one and probably the biggest benefit I have had from being active on a daily basis. My 224workouts have turned into my thinking time and there is something about being physical that makes you feel like you can take on any challenge. When my running shoe hits the pavement, my neurons start connecting and without direction, I seem to start thinking about exciting opportunities and how to tackle them. I have even at times taken an iPod to record my thoughts when I think they are really good  fyi…when exercising outdoors, I have chosen to never listen to music and I would suggest it to anyone as the key to this great thinking.

The first person to suggest working out music-free to me was a great man who had a big impact on my early life, Mr. Buck Dawson.

Buck established the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida but for me he was the heart of AKOMAK, the swim camp I attended of 5 wonderful summers as a kid. And since there is no way to do justice to how wonderful of a man Buck was to I have linked the story of his life posted on the Camp Chikopi website (it is better than the one in the New York times).

At camp I wore a silver bathing suit and he liked to call me the silver bullet. I was never short of time to listen to what he had to say and much of his advise sticks with me today. Buck lived sport and physical fitness and right up until the end of his life he would be out at the crack of dawn to hike the trails in the Ontario woods as the swimmers hit the water for their early birds swims.

I remember Buck stopping me one morning as I was out for a run. On his face there was a look of seriousness he would present if he was not at all happy with what he was seeing. I was told to take off my earphones and put my disc-man away because I would never be able to truly appreciate the birds and the trees around me with all that noise. I listened to Buck, and I still listen today and when I see people run past me with their music pumping, I wonder if they can hear through the noise.

When writing this blog I took some time to look back at some old camp pictures and read some pieces on line, all which gave me some smiles. I know there might be some of you reading this who had a chance to know Buck so I thought I would post a tribute video I found online. And for those of you being introduced to Chikopi and it’s sister camp AKOMAK (the greatest sports caps of all time), I have posted a “day in the life” video just to give you a taste.

This Sunday, Steve and I head to Mexico for one week!… I bought a new bathing suit (thank you 224workouts). This trip will be a true test of will as the morning choice will be 1. workout a the resort gym vs. 2. Drinks at the pool. But, I am committed and will update the blog with any interesting workouts worth sharing.

so….Until next time, keep fit and have fun!