Wednesday, December 16, 2009 
Sunday, December 6, 2009 
We're all hoping Florida will regain it's reputation as sunny and warm this week, putting an end to this cold, rainy, windy nonsense. I've only got a few more days of Fall training here in Florida, and it's always more fun when the weather suits.
Saturday, November 28, 2009 
Greetings from the Pines Resort! Fall camp 2009 is well underway, this year's installment includes; kayaking, a new gym called Flex Fitness (RIP Melbourne Athletic Club), mega-hard causeway runs, and... this photo from Bernard "elbow-grease" Irvin. Check the RTP boat!
::NEW IRUN MAG::
There's a new issue of IRUN magazine on the shelves, and I had the pleasure of contributing once again... so if you're interested click and read! Also, a supplemental 4-part winter training guide for the first 10 clickers!! Okay, vankayak.com doesn't have the technology to control that, and I doubt we'll be hittin' double digits on the clicks so that's a jk... (just kiddin'!)
::AL GORE / DAVID SUZUKI DINNER::
Last week I had the privilege of attending a dinner which included lectures by David Suzuki and Al Gore. Suzuki is a childhood idol of mine, and of so many Canadian kids interested in science and the environment, plus he's wise and rad and funny and he doesn't give a crap what anybody says - original CBC punk rock. Al Gore was iconic, insightful, and inspiring. He is absolutely incredible, actually. Al Gore fought in Vietnam, Al Gore was the vice-president of the United States, and as he humourously puts it, he was the next president, too. Al Gore won an Academy Award, a Grammy, an Emmy, and the Nobel Peace 
Prize. Al Gore used to throw the discus while he attended Harvard, which was, incidently, the only college he applied to after highschool. He sits on the Board of Directors for a company called Apple, and is a senior advisor for another one called Google.
Al Gore is generous with his time, he took a photo with probably 200 people after the dinner, and he's generous with his books too, cause he gave each of us his new one called "Our Choice - a plan to solve the climate crisis". You can borrow it once I've read it.
Oh yeah, and that guy with me and Suzuki up there is Johann Olav Koss, he started Right to Play, and yesterday the Norwegian Speed Skating team named him as their assistant coach for Vancouver 2010. Congrats Johann!
Check back soon!
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Friday, November 13, 2009 In case anybody needed another reason to exercise on the regular, it's here now; it makes you smarter. Recent research has shown that physical activity in a variety of forms has an acute positive impact on school grades. (My guess it that there's a chronic effect too!) Click the link to read a great article from last weekend's Globe.
What splendid timing! It's the dawn of the announcement of our successful 2015 pan am games bid, the games are coming to Toronto, meaning provincial and municipal funds will be earmarked towards sports infrastructure and facilities. Now instead of headlines about closing pools and skating rinks, and no time for phys-ed in elementary schools, we should be reading about an adoption of a new attitude towards activity. It's not an extra thing to do everyday, it's not too hard or only for those who are sporty and spandex clad. Daily exercise is for everyone, and instead of prescribing drugs for type II diabetes, ADHD, cholesterol, high blood pressure and myriad other lifestyle related illnesses, we need to consider what choices and lifestyle practices can make our communities healthier, fitter, and now - smarter and more productive too! I don't think prescription-exercise is the best solution. Then it becomes work, another obligatory to-do, and not something we're inclined to enjoy, maintain, and pass on to our kids. It's time for an attitude shift, instead.
Build facilities and hire good coaches to run them, they'll get filled because kids like to play.
Phys-ed isn't a privilege for kids lucky enough to attend a school with a yard, gymnasium or proper funding. It's a right, and certainly just as important as math, science, english and the humanities, including the recent headlining "how to be the CFO of kindergarten" save the future economy scheme.
In fact, sport and play opportunities are not just "as important" as every other subject in school, we now know that they're complimentary and symbiotic. Get kids active and you won't only watch their grades go up, watch them become more motivated, productive, proactive, happy, and healthy too.
The bad news is, there is competition. I'm not referring to the variety found in an opposing team, I'm talking about all the reasons not to exercise. There are more out there now than when I was in grade school, and astronomically more than when my parents were. The tv, x-box, and laptop machine is winning this battle, unfortunately. Sure we had video games in the early 90's, but they were pretty boring compared to the ones out there now, you could finish Mario 3 after dinner and still have enough daylight for a rollerblade around the block. Now kids live in these games; they actually are a mercenary killing aliens (illegal and extraterrestrial), they can do impossibly sick skateboard tricks, they can thieve grand autos and drive a Lambourgini Legerra at 200mph, in high def and online. No matter how many hours I logged on sega genesis, I didn't actually think I was a blue hedgehog capable of supersonic velocities - cause it was only 64bits!
Help change our attitude problem; encourage healthy and active living by leading as a good example for our youth. Encourage play, if your school or your kids' school isn't teaching and encouraging phys-ed, complain! At the very least, read that article from the Globe or check out this book.
TV sucks, go outside and ride your bike!
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Sunday, November 1, 2009 
