There is still good skiing to be had up at Whistler, but I’ve fully transitioned myself into summer recreation mode. The cherry blossoms are out in Vancouver and the nice weather has arrived.

Last weekend I bought myself a new bike and have started biking to work again. My old road bike just wasn’t up to the challenge of a 14 km commute with heavy saddle packs – I was getting flat tires on a weekly basis. Now I own a sturdy, steel KHS commuter bike. I did a fair bit of shopping around before I decided on a bike. I wanted something sturdy and reasonably fast, but not too expensive so I didn’t have to worry about it being stolen. Last week I biked to work 3 days and my new bike rides well. It was only $600, so some of the component are cheaper and heavier. I haven’t noticed the extra weight, but the front dérailleur has been a bit sticky and caused my chain to fall off once.

Ultimate Frisbee practises have started and the season begins in 2 weeks. I still need to buy new cleats and get myself back into shape. I’m looking forward to this year’s season. I’m only playing on one team (Mystery Cheese) because getting to the games (especially the ones at UBC) will be a lot harder from West Vancouver.

I’ve started running sporadically. Compared to year’s previous, our running group has been really dysfunctional. I think we’ve gotten together for Sunday runs 3 times this year. I blame it on the fact that Dan and I have moved out of downtown. Now we’re scattered around Vancouver and haven’t found a good place to meet – and we all seem to be lot busier. On Sunday I had my first race of the year, and was very unprepared. To make up for my undisciplined running, I did run to work once last week. It took my 1:20 to run the 14 km and I enjoyed the route – I’m thinking of making running to work a routine this summer.

My one run to work wasn’t enough to get me a good time in the Vancouver Sun Run 10km. None of us on Team HUG recorded stellar times, except for Dylan who was phenomenal. He shaved over 3 minutes off his time from last year and beat me by 1 second! 1 second! I ran the 10 km in 43:58. I’m sure I could have pushed myself a little harder if I knew he was breathing down my neck. Good job, Dylan. And good luck next year, you’re going down.

I almost didn’t run the race. I had a rude awakening at 5 am on Saturday morning when shooting pains on the right side of my neck interrupted my sleep. I managed to find a nearby message therapist who loosened up the muscles a bit and I spent most of the Saturday with a hot water bottle on my neck and trying to stretch out the muscles on the right side of my neck. Sunday morning was a bit better and I decided to run the race. Today I’m almost back to normal, with only a bit of tightness.