CANFund: A way to support Canada’s athletes.

Hi everyone: Good to be back on home soil and focussed on my goal  of representing Canada at the  London Paralympic Games. From what I’ve read over the last few weeks, these  games should be great in terms of competition and the preparation the host  country is going through before all of the athletes arrive.  I’m really looking forward to it! My  training continues and the hard work is paying off.  Just trying to make sure I stay healthy  for when it counts…during qualifying events. I had my first outdoor 400m race of the season recently and it proved I am still making good progress as I finished almost 2 seconds faster than this time last year.  I had a little too much left in the tank so I will build off of that experience.

By the way, I wanted to let you know about a program the great  folks at CANFund have come up with, as they continue to their part to support  Canada’s athletes, like they helped  me in 2011. You can donate your unused, unwanted, or broken gold jewellery which  can be turned into gold to help our athletes! 

For more info, visit http://gold4gold.ca/

Share this with your friends to get the word around! Thanks! Rick

 

I be fast run club

Thanks to Mike Dodd for the article in the Simoe.com newspaper.

I continue to train hard to get faster. I have added a couple of important things in order to do this including yoga and by adding another sprint coach to help me with my starts and running technique.

Thanks to Misha for taking the time to introduce me to yoga so that I can do it properly. I have noticed a big difference with this. I never thought I would ever be doing yoga until I talked to some other sprinters and athletes and found out that they are doing it too. You get so tight with the running and strength and conditioning and I think the yoga compliments it well to loosen things up.

I am really excited and very fortunate to be coached by former Canadian Olympic 400m runner Craig Blackman from I be Fast run club. I met Craig for the first time at a training camp in Windsor, Ontario where he was helping out as a coach. We were watching without limits the story about Steve Prefontaine and his coach Bill Bowerman who later co created Nike. I started talking to Craig outside and found out why it was so painful for him to watch that movie. I learned that Craig had trained with those guys in Oregon. How cool is that!!

Mac Wilkins left - Vince Buford - Steve then Craig Blackman

I got to work with him again in Mexico for the Parapan Games. Although my coach Roger DePlancke trained me leading up to the games Craig was a huge help in getting me to reach my personal best in the 200m while there. He knew the right things to say and do to motivate me to run my best.

Craig and I at the Parapanam Games in Mexico

This guy knows his stuff! I started training with him last week and already I have learned a great deal from him. I am still working with Roger as he knows my body so well and things are working but I am super excited to be working with Craig to get a fresh look at some other things that I can work on to help improve.

CPC School week

A couple of weeks back I spoke at a local school on behalf of the Canadian Paralympic Committee for their school week. The cards and support that I received from the students was overwhelming. Below are a few pictures of the many cards I got from St. Ann’s school in Penetanguishene. Thanks to all of the students there as this really helps to pick me up and train hard especially if I am having a bad day. I know all of you are behind me and it makes me feel good!

Thanks to the Orillia Packet and Times for their  article.

poster by student (Brian)

Government of Canada pledges additional funds on road to London 2012

After coming back from York University from a really great workout I heard about this awesome news. The Honourable Bal Gosal, Minister of State (Sport), today announced that the Harper Government is providing additional enhanced excellence funding for a number of summer sports, in preparation for the upcoming 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gosal in Mexico in November during a handover ceremony for the Pan American and Parapan American Games to Toronto for 2015 . He was also there to watch some of the para-athletes compete for Canada. I was excited when I heard that he watched one of my races.

 

Honourable Bal Gosal, Minister of State (Sport) and myself at the handover ceremonies.

 

This support is very welcomed and it certainly helps me so that I can live this dream of mine to train and compete at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England. Thanks Canada for this much needed support!!

The Big Mazungo

Check out this really inspiring video on Craig Mottram. My fellow team mate Evan Porter showed me this while I was in Mexico for the Parapan Games. Craig Mottram…one of the best Australian distance runners of all time and at 6′-2″ he didn’t have the typical runners body either. Amongst some African runners he is known as the Big Mzungu (Big White Man). The guy has some serious guts. Enjoy!

 

 

Sandals Foundation school talks

After over a year of sprinting I can’t believe how well my body has transformed. I am able to do much more intense workouts than before without having to back off. No more sore calf muscle or achilles screaming at me when I throw on the spikes. It sure is a good feeling having my body able to keep up with what I want to do now. I am looking forward to my 2012 season and remain fully committed to reaching my goal.

I went for a week of paradise to Turks and Caicos and spoke to a couple of schools on behalf of the Sandals Foundation last week. It was great to share my story with the kids. Thanks to Zoya Faessler Wiv news for coming out to the school. You can view their interview here.

speaking at Clemont Howell High school

I went to their local track to do a workout and couldn’t believe the excellent facilities. It turned out to be their local sports day for the kids in the private schools and they were all racing. The lady at the gate didn’t want to let me in and I convinced her that this would be a good opportunity for the kids to see someone like me running with a prosthetic leg. The kids were very interested in me especially when I took my leg off and started passing it around. One kid asked “are you faster than Bolt” no I laughed, he is way faster than me and he has the world record. Then the sports director asked if I would be interested in running a heat in a 200m race against some boys. The kids in my group where being razzed by their friends who joked don’t let that guy from Canada with the one leg beat you. I tried to explain to the kids that this was just for fun for me and that I just wanted to show the people how fast someone like me with one leg can run. I did tell them that if they wanted to beat me they would have to earn it though. I wanted to teach them the right thing. The race started and I took off in lane 5 and I could here them catching up to me, I pushed harder went around the corner hitting a wall of wind and finished. The crowd was great and roared. Thanks to Jody Harvey of Wiv News,  The race can be seen here.  (3:30).

Elanor Finfin Krzanowski from Sandals Beaches, my kids and students

Enid Capron Primary

 

TrackField97

Check out this new website called TrackField97 which is based out of the UK. I met Stewart while in Antigua headlining the Sandals Foundation Trans-Antigua Half Marathon and he did an interview with me. It features lots of great stories on different athletes and I like the fact that he has started up a Para-Ahtletes section. It’s a great message to his viewers to show what Para-Ahletes are capable of in the world of sports!

Sandals Grande Antigua Hotel manager Matthew Cornall and Stewart Davis (right).