dailyabuce

Archive for January, 2010|Monthly archive page

Hello Kitty… Hello Caffein!

In Speed Skating, Uncategorized on January 13, 2010 at 12:31 am

GUYS!

Don’t look now but I’m in JAPAN!

Wooohoooo! As I’m slowly clawing my way back from the jetlag induced haze that characterized my day and blog post yesterday, I am feeling a tad more ambitious in regards to elaborating on my Japanese Adventures.

In my opinion, the ice in Obihiro is in great shape, albeit a bit peculiar. In some aspects I feel as though I can get a ton of grip/pressure, and in others, I’m afraid of having the ice break away underneath my skates. It’s a brand new facility and the ice surface is massive; the outer lane stretches out probably a good meter and a half wider than in Calgary… so it sort of makes you feel insignificant, like when looking up at the stars.

The building is also equipped with a good sound system that tends to blare out either Ne-Yo or Michael Jackson on repeat. I’m not complaining about the MJ, but after about the fourth time of hearing Ne-Yo croon out “So sick” I started to not only lose my mind, but also my complete understanding of reality. Hello Ne-Yo induced vertigo!

Unfortunately we haven’t gone for sushi yet, but I’m confident that we’ll be basking in its deliciousness sooner than later. The food at the hotel is good, and the waiters may be the cutest thing since Hello Kitty.

Perhaps the most bizarre and foreign aspect of Japan is their complete and unyielding love for vending machines. Man! Seriously. Canada really needs to step up our game when it comes to prefab, manufactured food edible products. My personal favorite is the tin-can, ready made, always hot, bottled coffee. It’s actually delicious! With just the right amount and blend of sugar/cream/coffee ratio… I’m sure even Clara Hughes the most hardcore of coffee connoisseurs would become instant fans!

Aside from the coffee, I was also impressed when I spotted a V-Machine that dished out respectable looking chicken nuggets and fries… which is funny, because personally, to me, chicken fingers and vending machines have always naturally gone together, like… Milli and Vanilli, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and Tonya Harding with pure ladylike high class.

Oh well. One things for certain: even if the Japanese are eating Chicken Nuggets from robot vending machines, their nation’s average BMI is still a lot more respectable than ours!

Long live the Japanese!!!

From Obihiro with love…

In Speed Skating on January 12, 2010 at 2:31 am

Hey guys!

So after a crazy day of travel, we’ve arrived in the beautiful town of Obihiro! I’m loving Japan… everything is so fresh, clean and fashionable! Everyone has been really respectful, friendly and eager to help… so we’re having a great time thus far!

Expect more tidbits to come!

Sittin’ in the lounge…

In Uncategorized on January 10, 2010 at 9:29 am

Well here I am. Sitting in the Air Canada lounge with my BFF YamTampura, sipping on a smooth and creamy grande latte. We’re currently waiting patiently to board our flight to the great land of Japan; joining us is my coach Mark Wild, physiotherapist Martin, and teammates Will Dutton, Matt Mclean and Tyler Derraugh. We will be meeting up with Vincent Labrie and Robert Tromblay en route to Obihiro from Tokyo, so we’ve got a lot of adventure ahead of us!

I’ve just been informed that there will be juice boxes filled with sake in vending machines within our hotel. I love Japan already.

I’ll update when we arrive; hopefully I’ll have something entertaining to rant about after our 20+ hour travel day. As I know that you will all be incredibly bored for this next update-less/fruitless day, I’m going to leave you with some of my favorite websites:

The following are websites of two of my teammates. Maybe you’ve heard of them? They aren’t coming on our trip to Japan, but I already miss them!

www.kristinagroves.ca

www.clara-hughes.com

The following websites are just plain filler. I visit them when I have nothing else to do, and as I’m sure none of you live busy lives, I hope you enjoy them as well! :)

www.vanityfair.com

www.lamebook.com

P.S. I really like this photo.

Quick look over here!

In Random Rant, Speed Skating on January 9, 2010 at 1:45 pm

Okay, alright already!

You can all stop your moaning and complaining… ahem, Jamie Gregg. I get it. I haven’t written in like, forevskies a whole week. I know, I know… it’s called the daily A-Buce, I’m SORRY. I’m only human, alright? I actually do a number of things outside of skate around in circles and write on this here lil ol’ blog.

So. I hope you’ve forgiven me, and if you haven’t, I hope the following update and rant will change your mind and soften your heart. I know the following is going to upset quite a few people, but I need to address this very serious matter.

So, first off, let me update you with all the fascinating happenings swirling around my life.

I had a hard week of training, and I’m really happy about it. I started off with some starts, solid weights, and then transitioned into some quick aerobic intervals. On Wednesday I had one of the hardest practices I’ve had for probably three or four  months: breakdowns. Now, for those of you that don’t know what a “breakdown” is, look no further than Winona Ryder, just know that they aren’t very fun.

It’s very likely that skating breakdowns (for a sprinter) is one of the most destructive and humbling programs known to our thunder thighs and central nervous systems. To give you a subtle hint, after skating my first (of two) breakdowns, I tried to put on my guards and ended up falling down like a newborn bambi because my legs had simply had enough. Under no circumstance did they want to hold me anymore. Ha. Just another Wednesday at the oval…

I then was granted a nice and relaxing Thursday in which I just had a ride and stretch. Friday was an abstract form of pre-race as my legs still didn’t want to cooperate from Wednesdays destruction and the ice (at 7AM) was looking more like the Calf Robe bridge at 4PM on Calgary’s first snow fall. (AKA, it was slow, sketchy, and scary.)

So… with such an interesting lead up to a “training” race, I polished off the week with about two handfuls of Bridge Mixture too many, which I believe may have influenced my weight by 5 to 10 lbs. Hurray! Perfect racing, here I come!

I went to the Oval today with somewhat of a lacklustre attitude. It’s not that I didn’t want to race, I honestly just felt unmotivated. I won’t lie, I didn’t step onto the ice with racing in my heart. I wasn’t feeling absolutely terrible physically, but mentally, I was lacking from all of the commotion last week and this week’s intensive training. I wasn’t aggressive, and I was flat the whole race. Understandably, everyone has races like I did today- if you don’t, you’ll get bored with skating, realllllly quickly.

Although I’m feeling pretty meloncholy right now, I’m happy that today I was granted a first hand experience of how much faster I believe that I can skate. I had a crappy race today. Thats it and thats all. It showed me that even when I’m off my game, I can still be “alright“, but that I never want to settle for being just “alright.” I dedicate too much of my damn life to this sport, and I’m hella stubborn in that sense.

Oh well, live and learn I guess; I’m going to take my fire from this race and apply it to my racing next week in Japan. I’m excited for the trip- I’m looking forward to gaining some much needed experience for my 1000m.

So there’s the update. And now for the rant…

I hate crunchy peanut butter.

I know, I know. Half of you are probably fist pumping and dishing out high fives left, right, and centre because you wholeheartedly agree. The other 1/4 half of you are most likely cursing at your screens and ripping out your hair.

I understand that this is a touchy subject. Not many people have the balls to bring it up, as everyone knows that whether you like crunchy or smooth peanut butter is directly correlated with the core of one’s soul. Such a subject is anything but a grey area. It’s simply a black or white question. You’re either in or you’re not; good vs. bad, capitalist vs. communist, honest vs. cheat, smooth vs. crunchy.

Now, don’t play me for a fool, I know that thousands of you are thinking to yourself, “how stupid is this girl? Crunchy is obviously superior because it’s better for you, it’s crunchy because it’s less processed and fabricated. She’s like soo stupid because she’s compromising her health. Look at me, I’m  sewwww smart,” (p.s. the above is obviously meant to said in a Valley Girl accent.)

Well, all I have to say to you people, is that you’re about as bad as those people who count peanut butter as a great source of protein. I hate when people say, “Wow, I had sooo much protein in my breakfast today because I had both eggs and peanut butter.”

Why would you count peanut butter as a protein? That’s like counting tap water as a great source of calcium. It’s butter with peanuts in it. It’s a sandwich spread; a spread in which makes toast pretty. One little tablespoon is the equivallent of one serving of fat- so why would you try and make yourself sound so high and mighty granola-esque (that’s right, I just made that word up) by bringing up the fact that crunchy is less fake, manufactured, and thus “infinitley” healthier? You’re missing the point entirely. Peanut butter is in the Canadian food guide’s category of delicious, so stop justifying it as a protein.

Give me a break.

Crunchy > Smooth

enough said.

P.S. I only got 76% in Math 30… and I forget what the “greater than” symbol is. I don’t know if the above mathematical equation makes sense, but the bottom line is that Crunchy sucks!


I’m alright! The 1500m didn’t completely destroy me!

In Speed Skating on January 2, 2010 at 11:01 am

ATTENTION!!!!!

I survived the 1500m!!!!! Wooooohoooo!

Call off the search dogs, flyers, and missing persons report because I AM NOT DEAD! I repeat, I survived!!!!

The 1500m is a funny race, especially if one has a clear and green mind going into it. Those who do the 1500m regularly tend to become confused and argumentative when discussing such a distance. They regard anyone who doesn’t race it on a weekly basis as a baby or just a silly “sprinter.” Or, in all truth, the best is when someone says “It’s just like 3 500ms!” Or my personal favorite, “It’s just a 1000m and then you only have to do another 500m!” Such regards are usually followed by a playful punch thats just a little too hard on the shoulder and a toothy, stupid mess eating grin. NO. TO A SPRINTER, ITS REALLY NOT LIKE THAT YOU EMBOLUS. To a sprinter, the 1500m is terrifying! And instead of comforting us and giving us constructive criticism and pointers on what to focus on, they shrug us off and laugh at our suicidal race plans.

Now, gentle viewers, don’t get me wrong. I am a baby and arguably could be classified as just a silly sprinter, but in my heart, I know that I’ve got to start racing more 1500ms.

This unquenchable thirst for lactic and lung pain eludes my reasoning and better judgement, but I seem to have convinced myself that such pain will eventually help my results within the 1000m.

Now, gentle viewers readers gentlewhatever you are, please don’t get me wrong. I do not necessarily like the 1500m, this is true. I’m certainly a sprinter in the respect that I believe a race should just be ready set GO! and you sprint your little heart out until the finish line and then that’s that.

I’m not a huge fan this “90%” easy speed feeling… within 500m of my race I thought to myself, “yup, this race is definitely peculiar,” but I managed to keep my feet moving for at least a few hundred more meters. A training partner of mine, I won’t say her last name as its not my place to expose her to you, the loving public, came up to me after the race and congratulated me with a swift pat on the back. This training partner… we’ll call her… Tobey B., then went on to say “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your legs move so slowly within the last 100m of a race.”

Yikes! I thought I was doing a GOOD job of keeping up my rhythm… hell, if that’s the case, I can’t imagine how I use to skate the 1500m! It’s not every day that you almost get a four second PB! So needless to say, I’ve got a lot of work cut out for me. I guess I’ll have to get started but not today, today I’m having crepes and watching Buffy because it’s been a long -amazing- week, and its my rest day!

In all seriousness though, the 1500m yesterday was undoubtedly the most inspiring and jaw dropping day of competition. Everyone raced with their heart and soul and genuinely gave all that they had within their 3 3/4 laps around the Oval.

Kyle Parrot. Baby, all you gotta know is that name. Kyle Parrot.

Happy Caturday!

In Inspiration on January 2, 2010 at 10:19 am

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