I just read about this product this morning and I'm wondering if anyone out there has heard anything about it or given it a try? Please let me know what you think! I don't drop my chain often, but it did happen during a race last year and I would love for it to never happen again.
I probably don't need to meddle into US politics again, but there's an extremely interesting article on the New York Times website today discussing how the country might come up with the money for a publicly funded healthcare system. If you want to read the whole thing (which I recommend), it is found here.
The article certainly has me shaking my head a bit. First off, I applaud the government for finally making it a priority to add public access to healthcare across the board. It is incredible to me that a country as wealthy and progressive as the US hasn't found a way to do this decades ago. Additionally, for full disclosure, I've been an advocate for a long time here in Canada that we should adopt some of the private healthcare options the US and many other countries have to buttress our current public system (but that argument is for another very long and winding rant).
What I find truly agonizing about this NYT article though, is that even though none are entirely without consequence, every single one of the options presented is promising and generally positive. Yet the politicians, under pressure from lobby groups like the sugar beet industry (seriously?!) will have to mangle the proposals to ever have a hope of getting one passed. It's an absolute travesty that something so vital to so many individuals can be held hostage by the makers of high fructose corn syrup, which is leading half of the people to need the healthcare in the first place.
I got a race medal this week! No, not this one ...
Though that was a nice reward for working so hard Sunday. Instead, I received this in the mail ...
More than a year after the debacle that was last year's World Championships in Vancouver, they managed to send a piece of paper - not even a whole piece of paper, but a piece cut haphazardly from the whole - that says " Congratulations on your participation in 2008 Vancouver Triathlon World Championships. Attached is your finisher's medal"
All I could do was shake my head.
And there was good news. Some days you hear something that makes your heart glow.
I was listening to CBC Radio 2 Morning show with Tom Allen's substitute (I love love love Tom's little tidbits and stories and this guy is pretty good too but he's no Tom) this morning. One of the new stories he shared was a recent study about whales. It turns out that whale watching has trumped the whaling industry. And this makes me happy. Score one for the 'eco' tourism industry.
I don't know why I liked this. I'm the person who shakes their head at the anti seal hunting kerfuffle. Not that I am a supporter... I don't think it's necessary to hunt seals but I do think the anti-sealers are spreading their movement based on lies and by leading people to wrong conclusions about the techniques and practices used. Anyhoodle... back to whales. I like whales. (And I do like seals even though they kind of freak me out when they are in the ocean near me). I just think it's neat that there is more value in keeping them alive then in killing them. I'm not saying we need to stop whaling, no, I just like the idea that there is value in their beauty.
Any how. It made me smile and really in a world where the news either makes you mad or sad or roll your eyes at the stupidity of humans this was a piece of news of the type we need more of.
That and the 90 year old former Olympian woman heading to the World Master's Competition for swimming in Sydney. You rock Noel!
While I was out racing on Sunday, Amy discovered the Sport setting on her camera and got a ton of awesome pictures! Here's the evidence ...
From a triathlon perspective, yesterday's Victoria Half Iron was my A-race for 2009. Obviously, Big Sur was a big event for me too, but after this I don't have a whole lot planned this season. I'll probably throw an Olympic race in somewhere, but mostly the rest of the year will be about building base for a potential run at IM Canada in 2010. So, with all of that in mind, I had some pressure on myself heading into the weekend.
I felt that training had gone fairly well. While it took a little longer than I had hoped to recover from Big Sur, I was able to spend four or five weekends really building up the bike fitness I knew I would need on the Victoria course. My run was in good shape from the marathon, though I needed to build the speed up a little. And my swim has felt reasonably strong this year, though I was a little concerned since during the two open water practices we did I wasn't super comfortable in the wetsuit. All in all, I was mostly prepared and I managed to convince myself of the old axiom that my body will perform better slightly under-prepared than over-prepared.
We headed to the island Saturday morning, which was good since it allowed us to spend most of Saturday afternoon shopping for all of the things I had forgotten at home. In my preparation for the marathon, I must have gotten used to not having to bring much with me. I completely forgot the stuff to make my drinks for the bike, my race belt, and I'm sure I would have forgotten more if Amy hadn't been there to take care of me. Frankly, she was amazing on Saturday keeping my head on straight when I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I don't really have any excuse for being so forgetful, just a huge amount of thanks that Amy made my life easier! We took in the pre-race meeting, though really just to make sure of the schedule for race morning. Spent a few minutes with the other LETC folks who were racing and then headed up to Amy's parents for dinner and early to bed. I was asleep by 8:30 and actually got a great sleep until the alarm was blazing at 4 am.
Race morning went smoothly (for me anyway - Amy will tell you that I was too early for everything). I was able to relax through getting marked and setting up transition, doing a short warmup jog, and getting into my wetsuit exactly as I had scheduled in my head. I got a few hundred meter warmup swim in and only had four or five minutes to hang around the start before the cannon went off. It was great because staying on my own schedule definitely minimized any opportunity for me to build up the anxiety level.
The swim start was far less chaos than I expected with nearly 500 people going in a single wave. While there was a little jostling, I have to say there was less than during those 30-person LETC swim starts at Sasamat! I guess those Leading Edgers are just more aggressive. I went out at a pretty good clip and just as I was settling into a pace slightly slower, another swimmer went by just a tiny bit faster than me. I managed to take in the lessons of our coaches and jump onto his toes for a draft, which I held for the better part of 800 or 900 meters before he pulled away at the last buoy. The swim course appears to have been a little bit short because all the times are fast, but whether it was 1,800m or 1,900m, I had a great swim clocking in at 30:41.
After a relaxed T1 (1:52), I headed out on the bike determined to just ride my own race and not letting all the crazy fast people passing me get into my head. I was feeling pretty good though, and accomplished this "ride your own race" thing a little less well than one would hope. I ended up attacking a few of the hills pretty hard on the first lap and by the time I was coming through the half point I realized that the pace was way too high. Talking to her afterwards, Amy knew it was too fast too as she calculated my bike split coming in around 2:40 for the 87 km if I had continued on at that rate. Fortunately, as the bike went on and racers spread out more, I was able to do a better job on lap two of reigning it in. I geared right down on a few of the big climbs and tried to make sure I was spinning through the tough parts instead of grinding away with the big muscles. One of the best parts of the ride came just when I was starting to suffer the most on the ride during one of the worst climbs up at the northwest corner of the course. As I was suffering up the hill, I spotted Joanne at the side of the road ringing her bells and yelling encouragement. It was amazing how that friendly smile and yelling gave me a physical shot that propelled me on through the last 35 minutes or so of the ride and into T2. After that 1 hour, 20 minute first lap, I had calmly held 30 km/hour on the second for a total ride time of 2:47:59.
My T2 had a slight delay as I struggled to find my spot, but with a deep breath and turning the brain back on for a moment, I still passed through in 1:06. The Victoria Half run is two 10 km laps of Elk and Beaver Lakes which is a trial that we love, having run it several times both in training and in the Self Transcendence race that Amy and I have done the last few years. I started the run with frozen hands and frozen feet that finally began to thaw around the 3 km mark. As my body warmed up, I felt that I had taken in a little too much fluid near the end of the ride and had to stop for a quick trip to the bushes around the 4 km point. During my pause, a bunch of people ran past and once I started running again, I picked a girl who seemed to be about the right pace to try to outrun. I caught her just after the 5 km mark and when she was still hanging around by the 7 km mark, I started up a conversation because I figured it would be easier to keep this going with a partner than an adversary. Our pace had been just a shade over 5 min kms to that point and my new friend Susie didn't show any signs of slowing down. Running by the finish line the first time, it was great to hear the encouragement from Amy telling me to stay strong and that I was looking great. The energy from the crowd was fun as well and I actually commented on how big the crowd seemed. Through the beginning of the second lap it started to get harder to hang onto the 5-ish minute pace and, still running side by side, Susie and I gave away a little bit of time. Once we hit the 15 km marker though, the pace started picking back up again to bring it in. At the 18 km marker, she managed to find another gear that I didn't feel ready to give yet with two km to go, so I played it a little safer until I came into the clearing on the far side of the lake. I knew that with 1,500 meters left, I could lay whatever I had left on the line and still stagger across the line. I managed to pick it up and pass a couple more people in that last kilometer and a half and as I came into the finishing shoot, I had ten seconds to cover the last 25 meters or so and break 5:05. I managed to pull it off, with a run split of 1:43:20 for a total time of 5:04:57.
I still can't quite believe it. I know that the swim was a bit short, but I came in twenty minutes below the time I had set as my "if everything goes right" goal. Aside for a couple of brief moments while climbing on the bike, I stayed in a massively positive head space the whole race. I suffered on the run, yet I never gave up for even a moment. I'm just so pleased that I was able to leave everything I had yesterday on the course and blow my expectations out of the water.
Thanks to everyone who came out to cheer and congratulations to everyone else who race yesterday too! LETC had another fantastic showing and I'm proud of you all! Thanks especially though, to Amy, who put up with me being spastic and out of sorts on Saturday, put up with me getting her up too early on race day, made the perfect pre-race dinner on Saturday evening, cheered all over the course, and generally made me feel like a million bucks out there. I couldn't have done it without you sweetheart!
One seal suit for sale.
Seriously.
It's three years old but there are no cuts or rips or broken zippers. It's in great shape. Mostly because I hate wearing it and so I don't if I can help it. I'd swim naked if it was allowed (Naked Triathlon... hmmm no... not so much thanks).
So I'm selling off the seal costume.
I'm serious about never peeing in it too.
So if you are in need of a woman's medium/small blue seventy synergy (mid range of 3) wetsuit I'm your woman. I'm 5'4" and medium build and it's a good fit. $175 or best offer. If you are interested email teampink (at) trithinkingpink (dot) com.
The tapering has begun with my not being able to get to last night's workout, which was intended to be my last hard one. Instead, my last hard one will have to have been Wednesday night's TT climb up Cypress with the club, where Jeff hammered me into the ground, but got me to the top in a new PR time of 47 minutes.
So what's on tap now that it has to be easier? I'm thinking about 1.5 hours on the bike tomorrow with a bit of a run off. Around Stanley Park and then out around UBC should do the trick on the bike ...
For the run, probably just four km or so to get the legs feeling good. I'll head down to the seawall and it'll be nice and flat. It all will have to start early tomorrow though, because afterwards we get to spend the day with mom and have a look at some townhouses around town!
Now, if these next few hours could just pass so that the hockey game can start, maybe all of my nervous energy will go away.
Uh... hi there.
Remember me? Yeah it's been a while I know. But I've been um, well, not exactly TOO busy to post... just, well, um, not doing much and not really wanting to talk about it. So yeah. Maybe I've been avoiding you but not because I don't care. I do. I really do. And I miss y'all and everything. But well it just bums me out to report that I have nothing to report.
Because I haven't been doing anything. Seriously. Nadda. I haven't been on my bike in over a week. I haven't run since two Sundays ago. Ditto with swimming. I walk. And I did yoga tonight. But yah, not much else. I've lost my mojo.
You see that run from last, last Sunday knocked me on my butt for two days. A 45 minute run. Two days. Yeah. Seriously. WHAT THE HELL???? So I elected to take some time off. Completely off. So yeah. Not much to report. Except Firefly was good. And I've been reading lots. But on Sunday I'm gonna swim. A nice easy swim around Sassamat. Then maybe a walk. Next week I'll get back on the bike.
I seriously don't know how people do it. How do you get through a day without it? Man oh man. I'm starting to go cabin crazy.
With apologies to Peter King for stealing the tag line, here are Ten Things I Think I Think after a weekend of training hard and then relaxing the rest of the time away ...
1) I think ... Cypress Mountain is a bloody big hill. Especially once you've come all the way down and you've told yourself that you have to ride back up to the first lookout again!
2) I think ... I must be hard on water bottle cages. I can't understand quite why, but I keep breaking the cages off the X-Wing behind my seat. At least this time I didn't lose the bottle with it.
3) I think ... climbing up a mountain - hot. Riding down - cold. I should really try just carrying up things like arm warmers for the ride down.
4) I think ... new shoes mean that the footpod for my Polar is calibrated wrong. I thought I was working awfully hard for 5:35/km pace. Turns out I actually averaged about 5:15.
5) I think ... new shoes apparently mean a huge blister on my baby toe. But they didn't do any damage to my nast second toe, so I guess it's a tradeoff.
6) I think ... I am a giant suck. I just had to have Amy drain my blister because I couldn't face doing it myself.
7) I think ... while the pace is a little faster on my own, four hour rides without Amy are WAY less fun than when we get to go out together. I missed her today.
8) I think ... a good bottle of wine (or two) at the end of a tough training weekend is simply beautiful!
9) I think ... I loved watching Detroit lay a beat down on Pittsburgh last night. I sure hope they can squeek out one more win, because it's sure not going to come as easy in the next game or two.
10) I think ... with just two weeks to go and the majority of the work done, I think I'm ready for the race. There's a huge difference in my mindset this year going into the half iron distance. I finally feel like I can try to race it, and I'm excited to give it a go!
Here's a quick catch up on the last few days. Saturday brought an early start (well, I guess we weren't THAT early) and spectacular weather for the first ride of the year over to the North Shore. It's hard to believe that we nearly hit June before getting across, but at least we finally made the most of it heading out to Horseshoe Bay, then up onto the Upper Levels and over to Cypress for the climb up to the first lookout. After cruising back home from there, I did a little 5 km jaunt off the bike to see how my legs would respond. I think "poorly" would be the word. My pace was good, but it was only near the very end of the run that I started to smooth things out and feel like I could actually do this whole bike-run thing.
Sunday was our first trip out to Sasamat Lake this year for practice tris with the club. We did some work on swim starts, which was fun and horrifying at the same time, and then I got in two swim-bike-run repeats that were about 600m-11km-1km each. I don't remember the hills out there being as nasty as they were on Sunday, so clearly I've lost a bit of my climbing fitness, but overall both training days went well. Especially considering Wednesday and Thursday evenings were both tough workouts.
With four high intensity and/or high volume workouts in five days, my body told me that the start of this week was time to take a little breather before the final 8-10 days of building for Victoria. I took Monday and Tuesday completely off except for my bike commute to work and with the rest, this morning's swim felt fantastic. Put in 3,000m in the pool and I'm excited for more bike-run repeats with the club tonight!
In other news, I enjoyed watching the Wings roll through the weekend to a 2-0 lead, but had a few rather choice words for the referees during last night's game. Hopefully Detroit will get the next one so that they can win the cup at home this year!
