Chaos

Life is a little chaotic at the moment. Rach and I (with many thanks to HPR, Tony, Kathleen, Michael and Hee Jeong) are into our new place. Time to try and get some boxes unpacked and sort out my training stuff so I can get back to routine. I have signed up for a small local Olympic distance race this weekend so that gives me pretty good motivation to get back into routine quick.
I will post some pictures of the new place as soon as I find the box that has the camera!

Truth

Take a chance and you might lose, don't take a chance and you will lose for sure.
-Jens Voigt.

I might have gotten this one a bit wrong, but it is close (and extremely true).

You aren't old until regrets take the place of your dreams.
-?

I was out doing and long ride today and I heard this while listening to a TED talks podcast (Thanks for turning me on to these Jazz). Not sure who the guy was that said it, but I believe this one is true. I will keep dreaming in the hope that it is.

Some Random Shots of the HPR IMC Training Camp

180km in the bank/ time for a few cold ones at The Spanish Villa


Allan Boos on the way to a 6th place finish and an Olympic Distance PB at the Peach Classic


The Old Lion back in training!


MacLean Creek Road. 30 minutes into the ride and the fun begins.


The famous Jonny Caron put in a guest appearance on the Saturday ride.


Another weekend of fun in the sun with the HPR Gang

Busy Days Ahead

The next couple months are going to be extremely busy.
Training has started again, but there are a few other exciting things going on.
Rach and I will be moving into our new place at the end of the month. We bought a duplex in Vic West, one of the first neighbourhood's we lived in when we moved out here. It is a great area; close to downtown, a great park, the new bike shop, the Galloping Goose and a few great coffee shops.
This coming weekend I am off to Penticton for another HPR Ironman training camp.
The following weekend is the move and the weekend after that I will be doing a small olympic distance race here in town that always draws a great crowd. There is a bunch of other things going in September and October (like Ironman), but I am going to try and get through the next few weeks first. I will post a post camp re-cap next week.

Dad's Book List

Anyone who knows my Dad, knows that you will rarely see him without a book in his hand (usually with a coffee in the other). My Dad, the teacher/librarian, has probably read as many books as anyone I have every met so I bugged him to give me his top 25 books of all time; the must reads.
Here is the list. Of course my Dad managed to squeeze in about 50 books, but I hope to eventually get through them all.

Jim’s Best Books: 33 for the “Deserted Island” Bookcase!

Here’s Dad's list, with some notations.

First, I love a good Dystopian or Anti-Utopian Novel. For the healthy cynics;
1) Jose Saramago - Blindness
2) 1984 -George Orwell (Burmese Days is a great Orwell nonfiction.)
3) Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
4) Margaret Atwood - Handmaid’s Tale
5) Cormac McCarthy - The Road (also All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men)

I also love antiwar and social justice novels;
6) Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five (or any of his other books)
7) William Styron - Sophie’s Choice (Confessions of Nat Turner is also great!)
8) Joseph Heller - Catch 22
9) Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front
10) Pat Barker - Regeneration (Part of a trilogy, Eye in the Door and Ghost Road)
11) Elie Weisel - Night (also Dawn and Day)
12) Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
13) Ernest J. Gaines - Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman

I love banned books. It’s the highest form of literary flattery;
14) Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huck Finn
15) Richard Wright - Native Son (also The Outsider)
16) John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men (or Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden)
17) J.D. Salinger - Catcher in the Rye
18) D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Just like in films, I love quirky, unique characters with a message or an edge;
19) Roddy Doyle - Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha (any of the Barrytown Trilogy are fun;
The Commitments, Van, or Snapper)
20) Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
21) Alan Sillitoe - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
22) Edith Wharton - Ethan Fromme
23) John Irving - The Cider House Rules and/or A Prayer for Owen Meaney
24) Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea (The Nick Adam’s Stories are great too)
25) Bernard Malamud - The Fixer (The Natural is good too)
26) Kuzuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day
27) Graham Greene - The Power and the Glory
28) Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
29) Chang Rae Lee - A Gesture Life
30) Alastair MavLeod - No Great Mischief Elephants
31) Michael Cunningham - The Hours
32) Michael Ondaatje - In the Skin of the Lion
33) Jane Urquhart - Away Kindness)

NOTE: Some current books that might last
i) Sara Gruen - Water for Elephants
ii) Lawrence Hill - Book of Negroes
iii) Mariam Toews - A Complicated Kindness

Breaks Over!

2 weeks of fun with family, friends a few beers and an evening of Kid Rock! Back to work!

New Ride!

A am very excited to announce that I will be riding the Trek TTX 9.9 SSL on the lava fields of Kona in 2008.

A Very Nice Tribute To Tim Russert

As a Poli Sci major, I was a big fan of Meet the Press. It was a show I'd always watch before heading out for my Sunday runs. Tim Russert was the reason the show was so great.