Vacay: Beaches and Volcanoes

I'm on vacation.  I'm sitting on a big balcony/patio thing, I'm covered in sand, I have a proper tan for the first time in years and I'm a maybe a little bit sunburned but I'm feeling really good.  It's important to note that I have never been on a proper holiday.  I have a cottage, we once drove to a resort for my grandparent's 50th anniversary but I have never flown somewhere for the sole purpose of having a vacation.  I know that I mention this always and it's getting old but this season was hard, it was hard to deal with on a few levels and when we recently started training again I felt like I really wasn't ready to think about training again.  So I'm on vacation.

the view from the balcony

I'm spending a lot of time on the beach which is great but because I'm also one of those super annoying active people I'm doing things like hiking a volcano.  We had to drive up crazy switchbacks up to almost 10,000 feet where we then hiked down and then back up.  There were incredible views and the the coolest thing was that because of the volcanic rock etc. very little (including plant life) could live up there so it was almost eerily quiet.

volcano view

I'm not doing nothing training-wise while I'm away, I'm doing what I can but at this point I don't feel too bad about what I'm missing.  After thinking about skating all day every day for an entire season I don't feel like 2 weeks was enough time off for me to get myself in the right headspace to go back to organized, group training full time.  I'm hoping that this way I can get myself into a place where I can be positive about training instead of dragging myself and my bad attitude to the oval every day.

sunset at the beach

not the most flattering picture but figured there should be at least one with my face in it

Canadian Open Selections 2015

As I mentioned in my previous post I recently had my final competition of the season.  Now if I'm being completely honest this season has not been my best; I didn't get the results I wanted at National Qualifier and I didn't make Canadian Open like I have the past two years, but guys, it went so much better than I expected.  Now I'm not saying I was pessimistic or had a negative attitude going into the competition but I did go into it with no expectations because I had basically no results I had nothing to lose.

The first day was preliminaries and I had a couple good races and made it through to the 1500 semi finals.  I got a little bit lucky in the 1500 when a bunch of people fell and I ended up in the A final with a 6th place finish. I also followed that up with some good results in both the 500 and 1000 to place myself in the top 16 and into the 3000m final for the first time (only the top 16 ever get to skate the 3K). 

That weekend I finally got back the feeling that I've been chasing all season and was reminded why I liked skating because honestly in the middle of the season I was reconsidering my whole skating career (although after skating a few long track races for fun the week after I have decided it might be time for me to retire from long track).

I finished with a 12th place overall which is my best Canadian Selection result to date and now it's time for the much anticipated and oh so short off season before we start up training again in April.  I'm a couple weeks into the off season now and to be honest I'm kind of bored?  I'm sure I will be wistfully looking back on these lazy days once summer training starts up but for right now I'm almost looking forward to training and skating again.

All photos property of Bill Christ

Winter Rescue

We've been having some really nice, warmer, weather lately and it seems like we're finally (fingers crossed) getting to the end of winter.  Although it is a little warmer it has still been ridiculously dry and my skin and hair has been suffering for it.  I feel like I've just barely gotten to a point where my hair no longer feels like straw and my hands no longer feel like they're going to crack and start bleeding (ew) so after a lot of trial and error I thought I would share what worked to save me from this horrid dry climate.

The product that has probably made the biggest difference for me lately has been the Ultra Repair Concentrate from First Aid Beauty.  This (very thick) cream can be used anywhere you have dry skin but I've been using it as a night cream for my face.  I simply slather a bunch of it on my face, go to bed, and then I wake up with smoother, healthier looking skin.  It hasn't caused me to break out at all I've actually been breaking out less and it healed up a pretty nasty acne scar almost overnight.  It's a little bit too much for an all-over day cream but you could definitely use it just where you needed it if you had dry skin around your nose or something.

A body moisturizer fave is of course the body butters from The Body Shop.  I do find them a little greasy so I don't reach for it all the time (although I have a bunch) but they are excellent for dry or scaly legs and feet. (Also if you can still manage to get your hands on a cranberry scented one I highly recommend it sooooo good)

Also at The Body Shop I picked up this mango scented Beautifying Oil.  I originally got this with my hair in mind and it does a great job of making my ends look shiny and not dry and broken although I would be careful because if you have fine hair this might weigh it down and look greasy if you use too much.  I've also used the oil on my body when I'm feeling lazy because it is much quicker to put all over than a body butter and because it's a dry oil it's not greasy and dries quite quickly (although not as moisturizing).

The Blistex Lip Medex is pure a simple a great lip balm.  I've tried many other but nothing's as good as this; it works quickly and it works well and that's really all I could ask from it.

I don't know if it's because I wear gloves to skate all the time or if it's because I work in a coffee shop and wash my hands a lot but they are always, always extremely dry.  The Body Shop Hemp Hand Protector is not the most glamorous or nice smelling hand cream but it works extremely well.  Instead of having to apply hand cream constantly I can use this once and my hands will be gross and scaly no more!

We're almost there guys, it's almost spring and then it will be summer, just a few more months.  Let me know if you have any products that really work for you because I'll take all the help I can get when it comes to dry skin, I hate that feeling. 

The last and most important competition of the season for me is this week so no matter what happens next weeks post will be the review of that (fingers crossed it's an upbeat post).