Recap

Been a few days since I posted last... and quite the week it has been.
First off,,, thank goodness for light poles!
Last Thursday after dropping my sisters off from a lovely dinner together, I get home, am sitting on my couch and about 5 minutes later some drunk idiot decided to smash into the cars parked on the street outside my building!! I don't think I have ever heard something so loud, no screeching of breaks just a slam! crash! Instantly I ran outside to see what had happened. A poor girl sitting on the steps of our building, lucky to be alive was the first person I ran to and check to see if she was alright, thank goodness she was more in shock than anything.
One of the pictures I took on my phone of the truck that crashed into the parked ones didn't load so you will have to make believe it was there. As for the white truck you see below; it was parked where I almost always park my little car, smashed into the silver car in front of it, completely totaling the back of it and then swinging around on to the pavement. The drunk trunk had so much force and speed it caused the white truck to spin off the road; if there had not been the lamp pole there the truck would probably have had so much force it would have flown down the pavement right towards the living room of my condo. Thank goodness no one was hurt including the drunk idiot who crashed. Who by the way had open alcohol in his truck.
I really don't get drunk drivers,, seriously you are an idiot!! Not only do you put yourself in danger, but everyone around you. He had better not ever get his license back is all I have to say!
Above is the divet in the ground from the drunk truck flying up on the pavement.

On a different happier note,,,,,
I'm in Toronto for our spring national, woo hoo!!! Taper is in full force and I am feeling speedy :)
Racing starts tomorrow, can't wait to race!
As well, on Sunday night, Grainne and I went to a dinner at Jane Roos (Can Fund founder) for International Women's Day. It was such a wonderful inspiring evening. Jane had us dress in black and white and when we arrived she had a photographer there to do a photo shoot with all of us. Sooooooo much fun!!! Dinner was delicious, cooked by Jane's lovely husband Conrad, the table talk was incredibly inspiring; being at that table with 8 other wonderful accomplished strong women was quite something. Just when you think Jane Roos couldn't possibly be more amazing, she goes and throws a dinner like this bringing great people together, has a wonderful dinner planned and then on top of all that she makes you walk out of there feeling like you are so special, unique, incredible and make a difference in the lives of so many people.

This is just one of the photo's from that night, when I get more I will post them. :)
Well I will keep you all informed with my results this week! If you want to watch, there will be live streaming Internet feed from the Swim Canada site. www.swimming.ca
Bed time for me :)
Toodaloo
xox

Here are my two races from the other weekend at CIS. I am in lane 4 the middle of the pool. Both were pretty great swims, so enjoy
xox

Have another great week of training down, taper is well..... ummm I think on its way. I sure hope so!! I think the week after a meet is one of the hardest weeks ever, your body hurts soooo much, yet you have to do all the same training and swim just as fast if not faster than before, cause you are trying to get better!! So needless to say I have been a little bit on the tired side. I love when its 7pm on a Friday night and I am getting ready for bed already. Ahhh 12 hrs of sleep is truly glorious!
In some exciting news... It was announced on Tuesday that any swimmers who break a World Record at our up coming nationals win a car!!! How sweet is that? Not that there is anything wrong with my old car, but a sweet new 2010 Pontiac Wave,,, I wont say no to that! :)
I have been trying to get my swim from CIS to post on here, but am having a few technical difficulties... Hopefully next week it will be up.
Well that's about all I can think of for now. So I am going to post some pics, of a few random things nothing in particular!The hot springs in Greece, that everyone was covering themselves with this mud, seemed like a good idea at the time... It wasn't,,, we were stained orange for the rest of the day.
One of my favorite places Ever! I have decided, and one of the most beautiful. Oia Greece!
Lynda and I in Ios, at Harmony Grill!! So delicious and wonderful
Erica and I in Singapore, pre Beijing, glowing like the angels we are :)My ladies, Jo, Vix and Shawna out on a walk xox

Toodaloo
xox

Pancake day!!!

Yummy yummy yummy pancake Tuesday today!! Probably one of my favorite days ever cause you get to eat pancakes for dinner. I mean ya you can do that whenever you want but you actually have to eat them today!!! This however means that I have to give something up tomorrow for lent.... This year my gal Sharon and I have decided that Shopping should be that thing.. This may be the hardest thing I will ever do, shopping is my love!! There are 2 exceptions that I am allowed to breech this pact, one... I have to find a bridesmaids dress for my darling Jo's wedding, and two... If I swim super fast in 3 weeks I am allowed to treat myself.
Yesterday I experienced probably one of the WORST days of my life. So I have this acid reflux problem, and my docs wanted to check out how bad things actually were. This meant that I had to have a tube shoved up my nose, and down my throat. Now apparently this isn't supposed to be that bad, the tube should slide smoothly and the numbing gel should make it not hurt too much, my nose decided to be the difficult one... The first tube he put in was one that was to measure how I swallowed, and see how my sphincters were functioning. Holy Crap not cool! The doc tried my left nostril first, and well the tube just didn't want to go, apparently there was not a big enough space for it to get through, so he proceeds to try the next side, which is even smaller so doesn't work either. Then he goes back to the first side; all the while saying well sometimes, not often but sometimes this does not work. SO I asked well what do you do if it doesn't fit, he responded we cant do the test, but then figures he just has to be a bit more forceful. Now I don't know if you have ever been punched in the nose, or had a nose job but Cheese Sauce... NOT FUN!! but I imagine that is what this felt like, someone was ramming something too big through my nasal passage and it hurt like hell. It didn't get better from there; the tube now had to go down my throat, all the while hitting your gag reflex, so now, not only does my nose hurt like hell, and my eyes watering like mad but you can now add to it cause I am heaving and barfing my guts out. I know know why they tell you not to eat before coming in. Finally the tube was in and the doc does the 5 min test with me swallowing little amounts of water with the tube at different positions in my esophagus. Hard part done.. The tube was then taken out (not easy either on my now broken feeling nose) and another one (a much thinner one) needing to be put in. This new tube was way smaller than the first, thank the Lord, and should have gone right in. NOPE, it was still quite large for my poor delicate nose. So more pain, and more gagging, but finally it was in. Now this new tube had to stay in for 24 hrs attached to a little machine that I had to record when I ate, slept had symptoms etc. Ugh, it wasn't too bad, more irritating than anything, but every now and again when I would swallow it would pull on my nose and send pain shooting through my head. Sleeping with it was too bad, I think I was so exhausted from the weekend I passed out relatively easy. The tube was slightly pulled out when I woke up, and I couldn't get it back in so just took it out myself. RELIEF! I still have a sore nose, but at least now they will know what is happening and can come up with a solution. :)
On the swimming front, taper is about to start!!! YAY!!!! I love taper, it means that slowly training is going to come down and I am going to swim like a rocket.
I will leave you with a pic that was in the Sun paper last week of me and 2 of my little sistas.
Toodaloo
xox

2 days down,,,, OH so Close!!!

Well 2 days of the meet are finished, and wow are Canadians doing a hell of a job out here! First race of the meet started with my great friend Erica Morningstar capturing the Canadian record in the 200 free, followed up by fellow Olympian Collin Russel in the men's 200 free. What else was I supposed to do? All these friends of mine swimming so fast I just had to go in there and see what I could do. 100 breast was the event, I felt a bit slow on the out but went into the turn with some great speed and rocketed home with my fastest 2nd 50 split ever. A new best time by 1.1 seconds and a new Canadian record to boot!
The night got even more exciting from there, our T-Bird men had a PHENOMENAL race in their relay against the Calgary boys and WON!!! In another Canadian record time, it was such an awesome race, the boys put it all out there and deserve everything they got.
Some other great races of the night, Scott Dickens tied the Canadian record in the men's 100 br, lil sista Hanna won her 400 IM for the second year in a row and made FISU games this summer, and even litteler sis Grainne was quite the little rookie star and had a fabulous 100 bk moving up to 5th, and relay having the fastest split out of all 4 of us!
Day 2!
200 breast was on the menu for me today, went in this morning just had a relaxed easy swim to make it into the finals. The real business was tonight.
I have had some great training as of late so knew it was going to be a fast swim. Race went pretty much as planned, was right on world record (yes world record) pace after the first 100. The crowd was awesome cheering for me as I powered home in the last 100 trying to get as close to that time as possible. 2.18.59 was the final time, that is 86/100ths off Leisle Jones' world record time! When I get to taper over the next few weeks leading into Toronto, things should be GREAT! It definitely wasn't the perfect race, had a few slow turn, which is good to know, there are things I can fix to be faster down the road.
Maybe swimming this fast will finally get some sponsorships knocking on my door. :)
Grainne told me I should write a letter to Mr. Christian Louboutin and ask him for a sponsorship if I do break this record, haha she thinks that I should tell him I will walk out at worlds wearing his shoes!! I fully agree, I mean what better advertisement would you want than that?? So if anybody knows how to pass that on?? Let me know. :-)
Once again our men's relay was one of the swims of the night, it was a 3 way battle between us, Calgary and Toronto. Colin Russel for Toronto had one of the fastest relay splits ever in Canada to give them a commanding lead, but our boys fought until the end, with Duncan Furer having the swim of his life getting the TBirds in for their second relay win of the meet!
So far I think there have been 9 Canadian records broken here! What a meet for us Canadians!
Well, one more day to go, 3 events left for me. The 50 br, 200 IM and medley relay. I think it is time for bed, I am feeling a little pooped and it's a big day tomorrow.
Toodaloo
xoxox

It all begins here!

Well we are on the eve of my last ever meet as a T-Bird! CIS starts tomorrow, wooo hooo!!!! First event on the menu is the 100 breast, I've had some pretty good 100's in the past few races, so I am pretty pumped to see how fast I can get it tomorrow.
My momma and dadda and sistas get in tomorrow to!! EEEeeeee that's the best part of this whole weekend, that and seeing my good friends who are here from around the country.
So good luck to all my T-Bird mates and to all the other swimmers out there. History is going to be made I think this weekend, Canadian records don't stand much of a chance. Just wait for it!
Till tomorrow
xox

Back home, in good ol' Vancouver, the best place on earth :)
It was quite the long travel day, but felt awesome to finally get home, see my little sista, some friends and get back to the everyday regular home schedule.
Spent Valentines day with some girlfriends, with the typical chick flick, and junk food. Always good.
We had a girls team get together on Sunday to make posters for CIS this week, such artistic folk we are (haha) Sticking to the pool is better for most on the team :)
To finish off the weekend I went and saw the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. Soooooo good!!! Almost a biopic of my life, but you know,,, haha it was hilarious, if you want a great laugh movie I suggest going to see this. At one point I was laughing so hard I almost fell out of my seat, and if I had to pee,,, well that would have been all sorts of bad news. It did however make me desperately want to go shopping and just spend like she does without conscience, the shoes alone ohhh especially one pair of Christian Louboutin's that I am pretty sure I would give a toe for. :) haha they are completely FABULOUS!!!! One day I will own shoes like this...
Oh they are what I dream about at night! haha What I wouldn't do for a pair of red soled Louboutin shoes.

Training this week is going to come down a little, definitely not a taper, but a few days rest is better than nothing. Racing will still be great! After all the hard training at camp there is bound to be some good results.
The other teams get here tomorrow, I think this will make things more exciting around the pool, and the meet starts Thursday.
Well until next time
toodaloo
xox