It's a multi-task life

It's not quite the week of the 26th, but at least it's only the next week. This is going to be harder than I thought. There is just too much to do and too little time. I'm still multi-tasking like crazy with work, wedding planning, training for the 10k and all the other little things that come up along the way.

Last Tuesday I participated in filming a documentary to promote hiring people with disabilities. It was a really interesting experience. The film crew came to my office, and they were there from 9 to 1:30 filming me work; doing an interview with me and my reviser, Monica; and shooting a messaging session with a white background. They aslo came to Mooney's Bay Park after work to shoot me training. We were not finished until 8 p.m.! Who knew filming a short took so long! I was exhausted the next day. I think the film will be a really powerful advocacy tool for people with disabilities, and I am proud to have been a part of it. The finished product will be ready at the end of this month and will be available online. I will provide a link to it as soon as I have it.

I have also been asked to do two speeches in June, one for Relay for Life, apparently in front of 700 people (Agh!) and one for a women's leadership group that is part of Bank of America. I am honoured to have been asked but totally terrified as well. However, doing this can only make me stronger as an athlete and a person and teach me valuable public-speaking skills. I did my first speech at the CNIB a few weeks ago, and it wasn't all that scary, but it was only a small, very friendly audience - actually it was a great place to start my "public-speaking career." Haha!

The wedding planning is going well too. We have booked our honeymoon: we're going to Hawaii! We're so excited about it! Can't wait! The wedding is only 2.5 months away: wow, I didn't even realize till now how close it was! It'll all be good though, I'm sure.

My 10k training is going well too, though sometimes it gets pushed to the back burner with all the other things going on. I have done a couple of 6 km tempo runs (sustained-pace faster runs) that were under 30 minutes (under a 5 min/km pace). Today I am doing a 7 km tempo: since the race is only a few weeks away, I need to start getting closer to the race distance.

Well, it's just after noon and I have my horseback riding lesson at 4, so I'd better get going for my run. Happy Mother's Day from Ottawa!

I'm still alive!

No, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth, though it may seem that way. I've just been settling in to what passes for "normal life" around here. Well, I'm still as busy as ever, what with the wedding planning, work, catching up with my oh-so-neglected friends, and suddenly being wanted by everyone for speeches and documentaries! No wonder I haven't updated my blog in a while. But I wanted to assure you and myself that this blog is not a thing of the past - I love it too much to let it pass into obscurity like that. After all, it's the only chance I get to practise the creative side of my writing, considering that all I translate at work is legal stuff.

So I have come up with a proposal (with the help of someone from the Kanata Nordic Ski Club). I will ensure that I do at least a bi-weekly update of this blog, unless something big and blog-worthy comes along, such as the Ottawa Race Weekend. So my next update will have to take place the week of April 26. I hope this works!

Now for a little update. April is the month that skiers normally have off training. That doesn't mean that we do absolutely nothing; it just means that there are no formal group workouts and everyone just does what they like to stay in some type of shape.

However, I'm training for the 10 km run in the Ottawa Race Weekend, so I'm in full running mode. I'm starting off slow though, since I haven't run all winter. I was running every other day and now have started doing two running workouts in a row before taking a day off. All in all, it's still a much more relaxed schedule than usual. And I'm enjoying it. :)

I've also started horseback riding again. Last Saturday was my first lesson after the winter, and it was a lot of fun! I got to do lots of cantering in the hope of getting the body position right, but I still haven't got it. Oh well, more practice works for me! Also last weekend, Cliff, Jon and I went to the Nickelback concert at Scotia Bank Place. And it was great as usual. Pictures to follow (I hope).

Well, that's all for now. I have to go to bed - I've got work training tomorrow in Gatineau. Good night from Ottawa.

Introducing a new mini-series of posts...

So I'm off work now until after the Paralympics.  Thanks to the Canadian government's International Sporting Event Leave policy, I can be off work in order to train and compete in international competitions for three months with pay. Pretty awesome deal!

So now I'm able to get my 8 hours of sleep and put in extra hours of training. I'm able to go outside in the daylight and keep my house clean and my fridge stocked with real food (those are the things that get put on the back burner when you have to work full time and train). I feel so much less tired and actually have energy when I hit the trails, even if I still have to do a lot of my training at night because my guide still works full time.

So I thought that while I'm in Ottawa and there's not much to report on, I would do a few posts explaining how things in my sport work. I could also answer questions about things in my blog or in my sport if anyone has any. Ask away!

I hope to post my first "how it works" entry later today.

Good morining from Ottawa for now!