Globeandmail.com introduces Olympic triathlon champion Simon Whitfield as a regular Right to Play blogger leading up to the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer. In addition to being one of the top triathletes in the world, the Victoria native is also an Athlete Ambassador for the international humanitarian organization Right To Play. Headquartered in Toronto, Right To Play uses sport and play programs to improve health, build life skills and foster peace for children and communities in the most disadvantaged areas of the world. In their roles as Right To Play Athlete Ambassadors, Simon and dozens of other top Canadian athletes inspire children, are role models for healthy lifestyle choices and help raise awareness and funding for Right To Play projects

Here's his first entry:

"It's all about the process, if I prepare relentlessly the outcome will take care of itself".

A blog for globeandmail.com by a guy who runs around in his swimsuit for a living . . .

Running a treadmill session while watching the Habs verses the Flyers -- it's the closest I'll come to playing in the NHL. I finish my workout just as Steve Downie of the Flyers trips up the Habs goalie Carey Price and all hell breaks loose. The camera focuses on the punching and grabbing (along with the WWE-style take-down the commentators seem to miss) but I'm watching the melee. I'm watching the corner of the screen where Carey Price, the habs 20-year-old rookie goalie stands with his Ken Dryden-inspired helmet, regrouping and mentally preparing himself for the next Flyer attack. I can't help but be envious of the pressure he's under, the hockey-crazed city of Montreal and Habs fans across the country (that's you Adrian Leslie) riding on the shoulders of a 20-year-old. (As I finish writing this blog Carey Price is now sitting alone on the Habs' bench having let in three goals on 20 shots..... he'll be back, just not tonight).

What I would do to have that opportunity? I love triathlon because it's an incredible endurance sport with a great grassroots following, but I sure wish I got to compete more, pissing off some crazy orange army of Flyers fans by scoring the game winner in OT. Ted, Adrian, Jesse and I used to play street hockey on Couper St.  (if you asked me, we never played long enough, I guess that's how I ended up in triathlon). At the time it was the golden years for Edmonton, and we all wanted to be No.  99.

Twenty years later, my version of street hockey is doing 10 times three minutes at faster-than-Race-pace with 90 seconds of jog recovery while the boys skate  back and forth looking for an open shot.

My version of crowd noise is our daughter Pippa cheering for daddy when Jennie brings her into the training shed to watch me train. Jennie pointed out the other day that I tend to really bump up the speed when the action heats up -- which means if the game starts with a bang I'm in for a tough workout.

Coach Joel and I are trying to take my running to a new level, so the more action-packed NHL playoff games the better. We're focusing on strength right now which means hills, hills and more hills. We've added "the flag pole loop" to our arsenal of Beacon Hill run loops here in Victoria. It's a repetitive loop of deceptively steep hills that run up to the Beacon Hill flag pole, run over 20 metres, down, over, and up then again. We run five to six loops with five hills per loop on six minutes. The workout starts out fairly steady but by loop number three I'm counting down the hills and I'm telling myself: "Javier would do an extra loop" (Javier Gomez, the world #1 from Spain).

Last year I wasn't able to teach Javier any lessons. He gave me six Spanish lessons in a row, so I'll chip away until August and start with some Canadiana I learned from Don Cherry on a recent edition of Coach's Corner.

"Smarten up, eh. It's a sweater not a jersey. It's a dressing room not a locker room. There are no lockers in a dressing room. We're Canadian, come on."

Javier, Don would like to speak to you in his office.

S