Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Random bits and pieces for the week so far

On Sunday the family all went out to Bolero, a Brazilian churascurria here in town. $35 gets you a parade of seemingly endless young men past your table carrying swords with big hunks of meat on it (although they do have some grilled pineapple that comes by from time to time as well). It is good times! On Monday we all got together at my brother's to celebrate Avery's actual birthday with some good Hungarian food. Truthfully I'm not sure if I'm eating to get ready for my marathon or if I'm preparing for hibernation.
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Apparently NBC didn't broadcast the men's triathlon, but CBC up in Canada did and my family was nice enough to let me watch the event after dinner on Monday. I have to say...what a race! If you want to see the highlights go here, then flick through the list of clips to page 10 of 30 to watch it. The commentator was interesting. He kept exclaiming that he didn't like how Simon Whitfield looked, how he was going to be the first to drop off of the pack in the run. He was kind of negative... Two of my favourite lines from the night included:
  1. "They look like cyclists just going out for a run..." (commenting on how the two lead guys off of the bike didn't have very good running form)
  2. "These two guys are going to be cannon fodder in about another two and a half to three minutes." (once the next 40 men or so ran out of T2)

Congratulations to Simon Whitfield on his silver medal and a fantastic performance from his teammate Colin Jenkins. My brother and I were jumping up and down, yelling at the TV and cheering Simon on across the finish line. It was thrilling!

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I got in 1500m at the pool yesterday morning. I was on deck at about 5:45 and the place was busy! All three roped lanes had 2 people in each lane already, plus the unroped area had 3 folks swimming up and down as well. No one in the unroped area wanted to share swimming space. Am I missing something on pool etiquette? Do you not swim circles if the lane is not roped off? I managed to carve out a bit of space and swam some really good strong laps. Last night was a cardio intensive night at boot camp and we lucked out with some slightly less warm temperatures and some cloud cover. There was a fair bit of running involved and I tried out a heart rate monitor for the first time. I asked my mom if we could swap Garmins (since she had the 305 and I had the 205 but she wasn't using the heart rate monitor). I'm interested to see if I learn anything from tracking my heart rate. I won't wear it during the marathon though since I think I may need to tweak the fit a bit more. It was pressing against my breast bone and is kind of sore in the area now and I really don't need that to happen for 26.2 miles on Sunday. I thought about running this morning as well, but at the end of the day I decided to sleep in, all in the name of the taper. Tonight I'm taking my mom to Corteo so it will be a full on rest day!

9 comments:

ShirleyPerly said...

Your mom has a Garmin? Wow, that's cool! But, yes, I wouldn't recommend running a marathon with one if you're not used to it. I have a lot of chafing problems wearing a HRM strap and don't usually do so for runs.

I too was bummed NBC didn't cover the triathlon events. Thank goodness for online highlights!

Tea said...

Don't worry...we didn't get to see either triathlon even on tv, but we DID get to see the TRAMPOLINE competitions....so all is not lost.

After watching that, I'm SURE trampolining will be the hottest sport in the US.

Viv said...

The chest strap on the Garmin is way too brutal on me. I hate it with a passion. *OK stepping of soap box*
I heard the announces for the Mens triathlon were terribly rude. I am kind of glad it did not dvr over here or I would be supah angry. Thanks for the hightlight links.

Speed Racer said...

Grrrrr! I'm so mad about missing the triathlon! And the online footage NBC put up (I haven't checked your link yet) is only for Windows Media Player. I HAVE A MAC!!! We can watch all the volleyball we want, but no triathlon. And how many 400m dashes can they have, anyway?!

Hot young lads with giant hunks of meat on swords? Sounds like my kind of dinner! It just wouldn't be a Leana post without some interesting food reports. Fuel up, whether it's for your marathon or that Canadian winter, you're going to need it!

Danielle said...

Oh I love those Brazilian Steak houses...hot men with meat!! It's $45 for the one here but it's SOOO worth it...yummy salad bar and great sides too.

I haven't been able to watch most of the Olympics due to being tired, but that does suck about the tri...seems nothing good is broadcast when you want it is it?

Unknown said...

Tee hee. Meat swords.

Sonia said...

The triathlon was totally AWESOME!!! What an exciting race, Whitfield really pulled through in the end. I kept yelling at the screen too. =)

I just sent an e-mail with my friends to see if they wanted to come with me, so if they say yes than we could meet Saturday after we pick up our race kits, and go for lunch maybe! I'll send you another e-mail when I hear from them.

Have a safe flight! =)

Scott said...

I tend to stray from men with swords, big hunks of meat, or any combination of the two....

And oh yeah, NBC aired the triathlon live...but it was on at 2am LOL

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