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Our Newest Feature: Kings & Queens of Strava

The Fraser Valley is home to some EPIC bike rides and running trails and even more EPIC athletes. In our newest feature “Kings & Queens of Strava” Fitspeek’s roving reporter (and Liv Cycling’s Ambassador) Crystal Lambert speaks with some of the people who are crushing it out there on Strava. For our first King of Strava, we need to go no further than our back yard…the Seventh Avenue Climb in Mission. All will be revealed by pushing play below.

 

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Program Five is out of the oven

 

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Chef Kevin Watt and myself have baked another edition of Fitspeek. This program may contain: traces of nuts, race results, spin queens, reindeer, Santa Shuffles, Lido Shuffles, cool down reasons, and to promote our new sponsor Wenting’s Cycle and Mountain Shop – FREE STUFF with the Wenting’s word of the week. Listen for it in the program and go to Wentings to claim your reward for listening to Fitspeek.

For more information on Marie’s Santa Shuffle visit Santashuffle.ca/abbotsford

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You better watch out, you better not cry

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Coming up next Saturday (December 3rd) is the ninth edition of the Abbotsford Santa Shuffle. In this feature interview with the ever-enthusiastic Marie Lashley, we talk about the course, the charity involved, and of course….reindeer! Start your festive season now by pressing play

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Podcast Number 4 – Ryan Clifton

In this week’s podcast we serve up a delicious mix of chewy race results, a tangy events calendar, an aural fit tip of the week, and a hoppy (?) interview with local swim coach Ryan Clifton.

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Ryan tells us about his background in swimming, his kinaesthetic approach to swim coaching, as well as his successes and frustrations in working with adult athletes. We also, on a sad note, pay tribute to local cyclist Brad Dean who died in that accident near Richmond 2 weeks ago. The latest edition of Fitspeek can be hear by pushing play right below this.

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Ramblings from the Left Coast

As I wrote in one of my very first posts here at Fitspeek.com, as much as I enjoy training intently and racing to win during  the “on-season” I equally relish the pure joy of just being active and doing cool stuff with cool people in the “dark-season.”

I had a chance to do that last week in my basement, as I led a small group of athletes from the Abbotsford Triathlon Club (www.abbytriclub.com) in a “softly-structured” bike workout. The workout itself was a bit of a no-brainer, with very few tempo fluctuations, so we could focus on the important stuff, which was chatting! A rainy afternoon spinning on a trainer with friends so we could all burn enough calories for the Saturday night festivities was the order of the day – and it was mission accomplished!

This weekend, intensity and purpose took another back seat to joy, wonderment, and adventure. My wife and I found ourselves at the foot of the Newport Bridge, jacked up on caffeine and perilously close to the Rogue World Headquarters.

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Delayed gratification won out and it was only after 90 minutes of non-structured walk/run/climb/scramble/repeat, that we rewarded ourselves with some lovely recovery refreshments. This sort of workout would not have happened during the “serious-training” phase in the months of April-September where specific heart rate and distance targets are to be met for peak race performance.

In the end, it was clearly an surplus abundance of calories for the amount of exercise we did but a big W in the column of life and relationship experiences. Share they joy!

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A canvas for digicreativity

The Fitspeek blogspot and podcast have been running for two months now. In that time, I have had a chance to meet some interesting people, hear their stories, and learn a whole wack of new skills!

Coming on board as of late are Kevin Watt from Maple Ridge and Bryan Wilkinson from the Agassiz area. Kevin Watt is the podcast’s co-host and social media guy, responsible for the development of the Fitspeek Instagram feed. Bryan is currently our Hope and Chilliwack correspondent. He will be bringing us updates on fitness, wellness, and endurance sports events in his area.  One of days you are going to hear his voice!

We are also brainstorming for other podcast segments.  The next two months are going to be exciting.

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Podcast #3 } The Terry Fox 360 ride

While many of us endurance athletes have done many amazing feats, it’s even better when you can share your experience with others, and better still when you can make a real difference while doing it. For decades that’s what the Terry Fox run was all about. Now Terry’s brother Darrell Fox is breaking new ground and including cycling as part of raising money for cancer research. The feature interview in this week’s podcast features Darrell Fox, along with the others from the Fraser Valley’s Cahilty Racing Team. They explain their motivations and stories regarding the Terry Fox 360 Ride that was held in September. That interview, along with our weekly race report, upcoming event schedule, and fit tip of the week, rolls right into your ears by pressing PLAY right below here!

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New podcast coming!

Been busy in the burrow/studio editing my brains out to get things sorted out for all of the interviews and segments for the podcast. Just when you think you know a thing or two about Audacity software – poof – a third of your podcast disappears! Thank goodness for backing up work. The new podcast featuring the story of the Terry Fox 360 ride should be hitting Fitspeek later today.

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The Terry Fox 360: Working together to outride cancer.

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On a rainy Saturday in September, 25 brave and accomplished cyclists from the Lower Mainland left Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops for the second annual Terry Fox 360 Ride. On the links below, we have interviews with some of the 25 riders. We will find out what their motivations were for doing the ride and some of the experiences they had along the 360 kilometre route. Happy listening!

The first guest is Yarrow’s PL Meindertsma.

The second guest is Terry Fox’s brother Darrell.

The third guest is Cahilty racing’s c0-founder Mike Rauch.

The fourth guest is Liv Cycling Ambassador Crystal Lambert.

The fifth guest is the unbreakable Simon Blythe.

The sixth guest is Langley’s Doug Bartel.

The seventh guest is Valley Cross organiser Matt Scott.

The eighth guest is Prospera Valley GranFondo board member Kevin Watt.

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The wonder of the off season

As we segue from fall into the “Dark-Season” here in the Fraser Valley, a lot of folks are scaling back their training routines. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but rather than totally becoming an NFL couch potato why not use this off season to try something new?

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On this week’s podcast, co-host Kevin Watt & I chat with Matt Scott with Valley Cross. He will explain what the sport is all about and let us know about his upcoming cycle cross races. You can register for the Mill Lake race taking place on November 20th by following this link http://www.valleycross.ca

As well, we have our race round-up, events calendar, and fit tip of the week. 20 minutes of pure Fraser Valley Fitspeek is ready for you to listen to below.