Tri Thinking Pink

Vancouver Sprint Triathlon

2011-07-07T16:17:00.002-07:00

Bad Blogger Alert! I’m back with a race report though. Now, I know what you’re thinking: race report? But Brian, you’re not even training! Yeah … about that …

A friend of ours has convinced me to race the Self-Transcendence Olympic distance in Victoria at the end of July. Foolishly, I thought that sounded like a really good idea. After all, it’s a fun event with a good spread of food afterward (leave it to me to be convinced by food). Then the opportunity came up to do a “dry-run” with the Vancouver Sprint last weekend, so I decided to give it a go.

My prep was interesting. I’ve been riding the new road bike all spring, so hadn’t been on the tri-bike at all. The weekend before the race, I thought it would make good sense to try the Guru and try running off the bike for the first time all year. I drove down to the course start and did the bike course pretty hard and ran most of the run course, suffering immensely. It would appear that “speed work” might have benefited me this season, but what the heck – I can wing it, right?

With Amy away on a girls’ weekend (I think the title she gave it was marginally less delicate), it was the first race I’ve done where I was on my own. Race morning dawned too early as always, and I headed down. One of the nice things about the Vancouver race is that the Half Iron wave goes off way before the sprint wave, so even though I had to be there early just to get parking, I had tons of time to settle in and do a good warmup. As it turns out, I also had time to change a flat for the guy parked across from me in transition when he was panicking 10 minutes before his swim start in the ½ IM. I told him to just put his wetsuit on and get ready – I’d take care of it for him. I wish I had caught his name to check how his day went, but happily, he at least made the start in time and had air in both tires when he got into T1.

The race was quite a bit larger than the first time I raced Vancouver in ’08. The nearly 150 men were in the first wave. While that number isn't huge, it's cramped into a pretty small area and with just 150 meters to the first turn, the start was very hectic. The ocean current didn’t help either as several people missed the target and had to backtrack a little to get around the first turn. I got tangled up with a few others coming around the buoy and was even caught in the rope anchoring it to the bottom leading to a brief moment of panic. Released from this though, we were down-current for the next leg, which flew by. I made the turn for home and swam hard in some open space to finish it off. Swim: 07:58 for 500 meters (1:36 / 100 m)

T1 was pretty smooth. I didn’t get stuck in my wetsuit or do anything too stupid despite not having practiced at all this year. It wasn’t incredibly fast (ranked 45^th), but it was efficient enough. T1: 2:10

The bike course is one we ride all the time. Most of it happens to be the Leading Edge time trial course, so I’m even used to pushing hard on it. I managed to take in a little bit of food near the beginning before climbing up Spanish Banks and then just fought to stay close to the red line for as much of the ride as I could. I had a few people to work off of and leap-frogged with a few others in the sprint as we blew by the racers going at a far more sensible pace in the ½ IM. Most importantly, I felt that I had to lay myself out there on the bike course because I didn’t expect much from my run, and in that effort, I was successful. Ride: 44:55 for 26 km (35.4 km/hr)

T2 was fantastic. I had gone past Dominic from Leading Edge on the road in to transition, but then he passed me back as I was trying to get out of my shoes while still on the bike (apparently, he has practiced that part this year – he made it look far too easy). Once off the bike though, I got through transition really quickly. Just threw my bike on the rack, slipped into the shoes, and played with my visor while I was already running out. My transition time was tied for the fourth best in the field. T2: 0:32

Starting the run was painful. It is obvious to me now that practicing transitions on a weekly basis with LE in years past was a really good idea. I spent the first 2 km of the run sluggish and suffering as I watched half a dozen guys (and one woman) run by me. Once I hit the 2 km mark though, I started to feel a little better. Still didn’t have a lot left in the legs, but was able to fight through and keep turning them over. I managed to run a solid negative split and hold off most of the charge of people coming from behind. Run: 22:35 for 5 km (4:31 / km)

Final result was 1:18:09 against my goal time of 1:20:00. I placed 29^th out of 233 overall and 11^th out of 60 in my age group. Best of all, I only got chicked by two women, and since they were Suzanne and Stephanie, I knew it was inevitable. I’m pretty proud to have held off the rest of the women's field!

I learned from this race that I really should try to get out to a few run practices and push myself into more suffering each week if I want to be prepared for the race at the end of this month. It’s probably too late now, but I’ll get out to a couple anyway. More than anything though, the race was a huge reminder of what I’ve missed out on this year by going back to school. There was a huge turnout by Leading Edge both racing and cheering and it felt amazing to be a part of it. I can’t wait to get through October this year and be able to come back to that group of people that have been such a huge part of our lives for the last six years.

A window into my head

2011-06-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

So I've started many posts (in my head) but then have an epic fail getting to a keyboard and getting them on to the interwebs. To summarize what's been on my mind since I got mud in my tutu I thought I'd put it out in list form.

1. Peanut butter in oatmeal is awesome. Not a lot just about a teaspoon. Alison told me to try nutella. Which I did. But I perfer peanut butter.

2. Laziness has been the source of my new oatmeal obsession. For lunch. It's easy to take to work.

3. I'm getting jealous of other people's meals at work.

4. I tried crit racing and had my ass handed to me. But to be fair I was the smallest (all I could see was spandex clad butts and seat posts) and the only girl. And I wasn't aggressive enough in the turns. I know better now and next time will hang on a little longer. I'm also planning to start doing the Tuesday nighters where there is a race for girls like me.

5. I have gotten stronger on my bike in the last month. Biking almost every day (except Sundays and the 2 or 3 days where I haven't been working at the office) has been awesome. Especially with a big hill in between here and there. Without workouts I'm putting in 150k a week. Add in Tuesday and Thursday night workouts and Saturday rides and that's another 150+. Not too shabby! And toughing it out with the boys on Thursday will only make me stronger.

6. I haven't been running.

7. Fastlane Swim and Social Club Summer Session starts on Wednesday. I'm stoked. LE (we've dropped the TC) has been at Kits pool a few times on Sundays and it's been incredible. With less than 40 people in a giant 137.5m pool it's a slice of paradise. I'm also looking forward to Wednesdays at Viva and Fridays at Cafe Zen. Because it's all about the social and the eating after a tough swim. I swim for bacon.

8. I cycle for pie.

9. Brian's not going to be impressed with this one but I have a confession: I do know where the peanut butter has been going. My treat after my hard rides on Tuesday and Thursday is peanut butter on a rice cake. With milk chocolate chips. (Which reminds me: honey, we need chocolate chips).

Flaming Tutus

2011-05-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Spartan Race series FINALLY came to Vancouver. And it was awesome. I joined Frik and Frak (aka Vanity Spice and Kiwi Spice) to run as an unofficial team. We had signed up separately but ran together. In costume. Tutus. Pink tutus. And acted a bit like princesses the entire way. From "graceful" leaps across the fire to having someone carry your tutu while you crawl through the mud (for the record that wasn't me - that was Kiwi Spice. Vanity Spice covered her tutu with a clear plastic garbage bag. I dove in, tutu and all.).

And the forth member of our tutu'd elegance: Miss Thang. Brian didn't wear a tutu. He just cheered and snapped photos. And refused to hug me after when I was all dirty. Because he's a dirt-a-phobe.

Sonoma... I want to go back

2011-05-09T22:25:00.000-07:00

After it hailed this weekend and looking into the forecast of more freakin' rain this week I have this to say about Sonoma:

I WANNA GO BACK.

It was warm and sunny and there was wine.

And from our ride up and over the ridge:

Well it was sunny. Then we hit Golden Gate and The Fog.

And for those of you in the know, someone got up to their usual shenanigans and tried to steal a tractor.

Top of the world... ok not really but still...

2011-05-03T21:51:00.001-07:00

Here are a few shots from snow shoeing the other week. A perfect clear sunny day at the top of a mountain.

(If you click on the photo you'll get a pretty big version of it - the hiker in the first shot is pretty cool looking)

2011-05-01T18:48:00.002-07:00

It's been a busy two weekends for me. This anti-snow bunny went snowshoeing. Which is epic. As was the burn that I got. But it was worth it. Laying in the snow on the top of a mountain under a cloudless sky. Amazing. A week later and my forehead is still on the red side and shedding.

Because I'm an idiot and didn't think of sport sunscreen let alone reapplying and thus sweat off the sum screen I had applied within a few minutes of being out there. But it was still amazing.

And this weekend. Team Pink is on the road in Sonoma. Drinking. Riding. And cruising around in our convertible. So cliche but AWESOME. And I'm THAT girl who waves her hands in the air like she just don't care in her convertible.

We did sneak in some training during this trip. It started with a humbling climb over the ridge separating the napa and Sonoma valleys. I know. It was a challenging chewed up single lane road of 16k of climbing. But it was worth it. The rest of the ride was spectacular and fast with few cars and beautiful scenery. Riding around here is definitely a must do.

But the focus of this trip has been wine. And the question still remains of how we will get 15 bottles of wine over the border. Hoping for a cool border guard tomorrow. Come on lady luck.

So any how pictures etc to follow. I got a new camera and this was the first week d I've had to get it out and put it through its paces. I will post again soon. Promise.

And another thing....

2011-04-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

Related to what Alison said in her comment. Communication is hard. Esspecially when one or both of the parties are stressed or tired or frustrated. And as a coach trying to work with several people at once it is hard to keep everything straight. Some days we get into a rhythm and everything just works. Other days it's like feeding time at the zoo - everyone wants their meal NOW.

And please don't forget an athlete as a voice too. Feedback from an athlete is important. I would rather you speak up and let me try to help you work out the issue. And if you need to be left alone because you are saturated or overwelmed or something then let us know too. Communication is a two way street. Sometimes we don't know how to help. Sometimes we don't say the right thing. But 99% of the time it is coming from a place of good intentions.

I have learned that when my head is busy from work related stresses or a day where I have been exposed to some emotionally draining stuff I can't do a track workout. I just need to run in my own head. Or with music. Or with a friend. Or with Duke.

Another pointer I'd like to offer is that when you ask for feedback, pick something relatively specific that you want to work on or want feed back on. It is really hard to answer the questions "what do I need to work on".

Oh and sometimes hearing the same thing from someone else in a different way is exactly what you need. It took 4 or more people working on it before Brian got his head around not swimming like a polo player. It's taken 3 people working on me to get my head around climbing hills.

How coaching has made me a better athlete

2011-04-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

One of my goals this year was to post some info and reflections on my experiences coaching. So far I haven't been that great at it. In fact I haven't been all that great With the posting thing in general. But I had a beautiful run in the sun yesterday and I started composing this post.

I wanted to share with you some of the things that have changed for the 'athlete' me as a result of learning the coaching thing from Alan, Andrew and Barb. This is kind of a half baked/rare brownie style post but I am hoping to return to some of these themes soon.

1. The plan is a plan for a reason. There is a lot of thought behind it. Be respectful and show up on time and be ready to go. They are there for you be it 7am or 6pm after a long day at work.

     1.1. If they 'yell' at you about this or something similar it is their frustration coming to the surface. If you don't do the work to 100% then don't expect 100% results and don't complain about not getting it.

2. I'm putting a huge effort into leading by example. If I won't suck it up and do hill repeats til my legs want to fall off why should the people I am coaching do it?

3. You are only setting yourself up for failure if you set the premise for an excuse not to do the work before you have to do it. Make the time. Make the commitment.

       3.1. The cheesy "there is no try there is only do" is so very true.

4. The physical training is only part of the picture. I am not alone with my head games. Everyone has them. Watching others fight their demons and helping them if they ask has helped me fight my own.

      4.1. Observing and learning from Barb at the helm at spin practice has helped me develop a better mental approach to climbing. I finally get it.

5. Enjoying coaching has brought a whole new enjoyment to doing the training.

6. Celebrating other people's achievements gives me the warm fuzzies. I should allow others to celebrate with me because they really do want to.

7. Swimming, biking, running... all seem like individual sports but the power of being part of a team is invaluable. And although being a good teammate is a responsibility it is worth the rewards.

More on some of this to come later but I think it still needs to brew a bit before I put fingers to keyboard and fully explain it all.

A Run by Blogging

2011-04-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

This hasn't been a self imposed break from blogging. Not at all. I just haven't really wanted to come home from work and training and/or coaching and post. I'm usually way to pooped.

Lately I've only had time to tweet. But you are welcome to follow me there for all the witty things I say (@asaariroth). Maybe I'll even take the 5 minutes right now to add the feed here.

In other news I got my hot new bike. Which I love. But who still doesn't have a name. She's the very hot new Orbea Onix (with the white and pink paint job of course). Jeremy did an AMAZING job on her. Waiting for a sunny day for a photo shoot with her but in the mean time here she is:

Other then work and coaching and training (and going to wine tastings) I haven't had much time otherwise. Not that that is a bad thing. Just means less time to get to things like the blog and spending time sharing all my new found wisdom in the world of coaching and training. But you know how it is: I'll make a commitment to post more and another month will go by and I still won't get a chance. And I'll come back here and apologize and we'll repeat the cycle. There has to be a better way! Is there an app for this? Apple addicts? Any suggestions?

Is This Thing Still On?

2011-02-22T14:36:00.002-08:00

It's me - Cactus - your delinquent blogger friend here. It's obviously been a while since I chimed in, but I have some good reasons for that. You see, back in November I made this silly decision to go get some more education because really, I can't have Amy prancing around with more letters after her name than I have! That just doesn't seem fair. So, I got myself enrolled in the Certified Management Accounting program thinking it wouldn't be too bad dealing with two night classes a week on top of working full time and trying to train enough to at least not get fat. Clearly, I have some screws loose.

Understandably, time has been at a premium for the last couple of months. I'm still squeezing in a bit of training, swimming with Fastlane during the week, and then with Leading Edge on Sundays. I get in a bit of riding on Saturdays and still commute to work on the bike every day. I run here and there when I get a chance, but that's not even once a week (I ran on Sunday for the first time in six weeks and I still hurt). All told, I'm putting in about 7 hours a week of training with no hope of staying really fit this year and only one race planned for now - Self Transcendence in August.

School, while taxing (pun entirely intended), is going well. I have my first exam of four for the program next week, so I'm nearly a quarter of the way through already. I'm trying to find ways to get the material into my head while spending less time and in the last couple of weeks I think that's been more effective - though Amy could tell you whether or not I'm just kidding myself. I guess we'll also see whether or not it's all going in when I write the exam! I haven't been super keen on the material so far, but it begins by building the foundation upon which we can start looking at interesting things, so I'll just bide my time until later in the spring and summer when we get to cover the better topics.

On top of everything, work has been really crazy lately. We've had a ton of interest in our products the last couple of months which has increased the load. Additionally, we've transitioned my role a bit so that I'm taking on more responsibility for driving the product forward and pushing for innovation out of our engineering and manufacturing teams. That all has made me quite a bit busier, which is a mixed blessing.

So, you can rest assured that I haven't abandoned the blog or fitness completely after Ironman. I'm just on a little hiatus and will be chiming in when I get a few moments.

What happens in Vegas...

2011-01-31T18:06:00.000-08:00

... goes on facebook (but not under my profile bawhaa haa)
... usually comes in a VERY short skirt
... and comes home with you in the form of a nasty cold

Of course I may also be one of the few people who have gone to Vegas with a husband and come back without one.

I was a good girl though. I did my workouts. Even with the post last night at the clubs shaking my butt on the dance floor hang over, sore feet from HAWT new boots. Yup. I'm that good.

Anyhow. I came home without a husband since the poor thing is still in Vegas for work until Thursday.

Unfortunately I brought home a knock you on your butt cold thing in addition to the aforementioned HAWT boots.

So that sucks. And Brian has it too. Only he's in Vegas and working the trade show thing. So that's got to suck big time.

Well the good news is that I have soup and a day off from training and it's recovery week.

Bad news though... no we didn't gamble away the house, vast amounts of money, or Pony; Still no new bike for me.

New Ride

2010-12-19T17:35:00.006-08:00

Captain Pants has asked a few times this past week for me to post about the new ride, and today I got some more pestering from others (I'm looking at you Wendy!) to get the news online. I haven't meant to be delinquent, I've just had a busy week.

But, here I am with a bit of time on Sunday evening and I can finally break the exciting news! Last weekend we picked up my new baby from Speed Theory. There's still a little bit of work to be done in getting the fit just right - after a couple of spins on the trainer this week I'm still feeling like the reach is a little too long - but I'm really impressed with the power numbers that I'm seeing on it. I'm seeing better power outputs than on the Guru without any extra perceived exertion. Obviously, it's tough to tell for sure on the trainer, but I'm really excited to get outside on it sometime when the roads dry out (which unfortunately probably means, like, May).

Undoubtedly, what you all really want to see, is some pictures. So, here you go!

Not fair!

2010-12-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

Brian got his new bike over the weekend.

And I didn't (yet).

I got rid of two bikes for this???!!! For Brian to get a new bike BEFORE me!?? That's right. TWO bikes. My old (and first) tri bike and my hard tail. And he has race wheels! And a LOT more sports equipment in the first place. My bicycle superiority was the one thing I had going. I was the Two Wheel Queen in this house. Now I'm down 4 wheels and he's up a frame (technically he didn't get wheels with this one since he has 5 - also odd but that's because one of his wheels is a power tap... yes ANOTHER bike related toy).

And just who wanted the road bike in the first place? That's right. ME!

I think Hillary is right. The only retaliation is a puppy. I should get a puppy and a bike for this injustice.

On speaking terms

2010-12-05T15:24:00.000-08:00

Today I started talking to running again.

And it wasn't that bad. An easy 35 minute run as 6 on 1 walk. Easy chill pace. It wasn't even raining or snowing.

And it was easy. Think I could have done more but easy does it right?

And nothing really hurt. Which I was scared of.

So hopefully in a month I'll be running about an hour again.

It's not fast. It's not super. But we are at least talking again. And we'll see if we are still talking come Wednesday when our next date is scheduled and when it is supposed to rain.

Oh the weather outside is frightful

2010-11-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

So here we are. November something something and there is snow on the ground. Ok it's that pathetic snow that you get in November that hides in clumps in dark corners but it's snow.

I hate winter.

It's Monday and it's below zero. In a part of Canada where below zero is a phrase that is rarely spoken. I moved here (in part) to get away from snow and below zero.

I hate winter.

And I heard a weird 'international' version of Frosty the Snowman in the grocery store. Not that I'm all bah-humbug about Christmas. I like Christmas in principle. I'd just like it more if it came in July. Or I was in the Southern Hemisphere. Otherwise it's just another sign that the chilly, dreary, no day light time of year is on us again.

Did I mention I hate winter?

I have been getting out in it on the nicer days to ride in the woods. And I did race last weekend in the wet sogginess of Aldergrove. Where half the course made you extremely muddy and the other half cleaned you off by being a few inches under water. And the barriers were in a puddle. It was a really fun race through. I'm just sad I missed Jeremy showing off doing a wheelie only to end up on his back. In a puddle.

I am loving cyclocross.

Despite my abysmal performances. Which probably has something to do with not going outside to ride and instead spinning inside. Where there is no snow and it's about 20 degrees. But the good news is there are very few citizen women out there so I can usually say I finished in the top three. Nevermind that there were 3. And one of them is 13. And kicking my butt.

I am OK with being whomped by a thirteen year old slip of a girl.

I'm still not running. I tried out P90X's plyo workout the other day but 30 minutes in my ankle/foot said "I don't think so". So I'm taking that as a sign to not run. And am thankful because that means I don't have to go outside and I can happily spin away or ride in the woods. Any excuse is a good one to not have to go out in the cold and yuck and instead stay by the fireplace.

Have I mentioned I hate winter?

Sunshine!

2010-11-03T15:38:00.004-07:00

It has continued to be a quiet fall training-wise around Team Pink HQ. I've been super slacker while Amy has continued to prepare for at least one more cyclocross race coming up. It's been kind of nice to keep it in a lower gear lately though.

With the weather generally starting to turn wetter and the darkness starting to come earlier, most of my cycling is now limited to riding to and from work and a bit of trainer time. Since my trainer busted right before we headed to Halifax though, I've even not done much of that. I have been running a little more the last two weeks though, getting out at least twice each week. And swimming is still going along as usual since we can't give up on that social meeting every Wednesday and Friday morning!

Not too much else to say except that today is a spectacular and gorgeous day and I'm thinking really hard about skipping the last couple hours of work to ride around. In fact, I just talked to the boss and she's in for some riding too, so with that, I'm off.

Happy Halloween Weekend

2010-10-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

Halloween in Vancouver is pretty awesome. Despite the rain. There are parties, and events including a Parade. (I know at least ONE person who likes a good parade). And this Parade is AWESOME. It has AMAZING costumes, fire eaters, fire jugglers, and it's at night. But we aren't going. We are giving out candy with at a friends house where they get a ton of kids. So excited. Haven't had a chance to give out candy in AGES. Woot.

But the really deal is tonight. LETC's Halloween party extravaganza. Theme: Reality TV meets triathlon. So You Think You Can Swim, The Real Triathletes of Kitsilano, Keeping up with the Kiefers (that super fast super mom Steph), and whatever other creative combos you can come up with. Pictures to follow.

Also on tap this weekend some good messy riding in the woods. Mud and yuck and fun.

Maybe in costume. With Candy. Like rockets (aka non chocolate smarties... still don't get that one)

But it's a good tired ...

2010-10-22T10:46:00.002-07:00

Following IM, I managed to keep riding the bike and swimming quite a bit, but the running fell off the radar. Since Amy wasn't running at all, and I was generally a bit worn out, I just let it slide because I wasn't motivated by any looming events or anything intrinsic.

But that motivation? Yeah - found something. It turns out that spending five days on the east coast eating and drinking far too much has a funny way of making you think you should get back on the wagon! And so, after bike commuting Wednesday and Thursday, I got home last night and decided it was time for a run. My first in several weeks. I knew that I'd suffer some, but it really was mostly bearable. I tried to keep the pace a little faster than my IM marathon pace, but still slower than my target 1/2 marathon pace. I held it together for a little more than 40 minutes and was then pleased to be done. My legs were definitely tired last night and it's going to take a while to get back into things, but I feel good.

To add to the fatigue, our swim this morning was epic. While we generally have several pieces with little breaks in between to catch your breath and recover a little, today's workout seemed to just continue on and on without pause. After 1,000 m of continuous "warm-up", we jumped quickly into 3 x 300 m without much rest and then just kept right on going. When all was said and done, we'd swum 3,100 m in an hour, and definitely deserved our Friday morning Mocha!

YVR rocks with its free Wifi and Vera's burgers

2010-10-14T09:10:00.001-07:00

Team Pink is Halifax bound for a few days of partying with Team Pink Super Friends Dan and Eileen as they chain themselves together in front of friends and family. Eileen is a Haligonian (seriously that's what people from HaliFAX are called... some how FAX = GON) so we are all headed there. Also they own a chunk of rock on the Atlantic a stone's throw from Peggy's Cove. Which they are getting married on... the land not Peggy.

So here we are at YVR. Vancouver's awesome airport. Seriously. Despite what Douglas Adams had to say on airports in the Dirk Gently novel Long dark teatime of the soul, this airport is awesome. It's pretty (or the bits that aren't under renos), it has a waterfall... on purpose. And Haida air and totem poles and awesome food. There's a Vera's in the airport. Which is only the great burger in Vancouver. Seriously so good. Our coach has advised us to eat burgers from Vera's (ok so only once in a while when you really want one and are in full training mode and need the beef and stuff. And we have found/caught him eating one.

It's 9:01. I can haz cheeseburger now???

It's 1:01 one in Halifax so I'm going to say yes.

And I do realize that we have been sorry excuses for bloggers (although not as poor as SOME people whose name rhymes with beggin' and might start with the same letter as muffin (mmmm muffin)). Although her Facebook statuses do (sort of) make up for the lack of posting.

So to appease you and to provide entertainment for Rachel here are some pictures from the cross race the other week and a few other things. I really like the last one. And FYI I took these with my trusty iPhone.

And one of the changing leaves outside my front door. Cause it was pretty and a plant. Two things I like.

Second verse. Better then the first!

2010-10-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

Apparently I am a sucker for punishment. After the sandy, twisted, bruising experience that was New Brighton on Saturday I headed out again with Goose the Cyclocross Bike to Vanier park for more dirty fun times. It only took a quick pre ride of the course to realize that Jeremy had been out to destroy me yesterday by encouraging me to do New Brighton as my first race.

But no... seriously? I love you Jeremy: you rock! And it really was a good idea because I went in way over my head and still had fun on Saturday and that experience only made Sunday that much more fantastic! Seriously. The suffer fest of fun that was Saturday was the PERFECT thing to make Sunday so much better. I don't think I stopped smiling that entire course! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's back up. To the morning of. When I got up. And looked in the mirror. I was COVERED in bruises. I had no idea where half of them came from. And holy hell did my right shoulder feel tender from hucking the bike through the Sahara. But I grinned, made my tea and whole wheat english muffin (mmmm toast... Brian must be away or something), watched some cartoons and caught up on the Daily Show. These cross races? So civilized! They start at 11 and registration is at 10. That's the way to race!

I went over to Vanier around 9:30 to ride the course and meet up with some peeps. And now we are back to where we started.

This course was a cake walk compared to the day before! There were switch backs but none of the cambers were killer. There were stairs to climb but no sand to run through. There were barriers of course and a token steep hill (of chewed up mulch but it was totally climbable). It was a little longer but that just meant that I didn't get lapped by the lead citizen men until the last lap and only saw the Cat 4 guys once despite their 2 minute head start! And I wasn't DFL in the women's division! I was 4th or 5th of 8 or 9. SWEET! And I was a head of quite a few men. Jeremy's better half got some great shots. And I can't wait to see Leeny's pics. Although I always look like a SuperDork in bike photos.

I have sand in my socks

2010-10-02T16:46:00.001-07:00

So begins my first race report of the year. (Pictures to come when I get time to get them off my phone and when they get posted)

That's right folks. Who has two thumbs and tried cyclocross for the first time this morning? This Girl.

Who has two thumbs and had her ass kicked? This Girl

Who had fun even when wanting it to end? This Girl

Yup.

There were cambered sections and switch backs and cambered sections with switch backs and the usual barriers and such. And there were two stretches of sand. Hence the sand in my socks. Running on/in/through sand not so fun at the best of times. Running on/in/through sand in bike shoes with a bike on your shoulder? Um yeah. Try it some time. Nice deep sand. Not the sand at the waters edge. The deep loose stuff. Good times.

So rode the course twice before we were called the line. And all I could think was: what the hell am I thinking? But there were only three citizen women (my category) so all I had to do was finish.

And so we started 1 minute behind the Cat 4 men, with the Citizen men and U17 kids. And it was OK. For a few hundred meters. Until the first switch back when one of the U17 kids missed their turn (cambered of course) and cut me off and I had the choice of tree or ground. And I picked ground with an attempt at unclipping. Which wasn't pretty. And twisted my ankle and wacked my knee with my handle bars. The rest of that lap SUCKED. Couldn't turn the pedals over.

At this point I was think: what the hell am I thinking?

Over the barriers. Now in DFL. Through the sand. Up the hills and over the dales and through the sand (again) and then back to the start. Still DFL.

And so it continued. Round and round. And oh! I passed a citizen man! No longer DFL. Just 3rd of 3 in my category! Cool! And round. And lapped by Cat 4 guys and then a few Citizen men. And through the sand and up the hill... and lapped by one of the other two women. Perfect. Just perfect. And then it was over. Not DFL. If you count the men. And on the podium by default. KICK ASS!

Truth? It sucked. It was hard and hurt and I stopped doing proper flying mounts after the first lap because I was too damn tired. But it was fun. Really.

I learned a few things. Like to practice my mounting when tired and icky from running through sand or up steep hills. Like to practice my turns for uphill switch backs. Like taking the water bottle cage off your bike makes it easier to shoulder (luckily I caught on to that before the race). Like shouldering your bike will leave your shoulder bruised. And riding for 30minutes on grass at balls out effort is a lot harder than on the road. Balls out stamina? I have none.

And having Dan and Leeny on the side lines cheering you on no matter what? Vital. (Thanks you two for sticking around for my big moment o' glory on the podium!)

But!

Who has two thumbs, a new t-shirt (from my 3rd place prize), new socks (ditto), lots of bruises, a sore foot, and is doing it again tomorrow?

This Girl.

Running

2010-09-27T13:23:00.002-07:00

I got a good smile this morning. One of my Monday morning priorities during football season is to read the Monday Morning Quarterback column by Peter King on the Sports Illustrated website. Earlier this year, he foolishly made a statement that if the Cincinnati Bengals signed Terrell Owens he would run an ultramarathon. Well, they did, and he half-balked at the idea. While he says an ultra would likely kill him, he compromised (with himself I guess) to do a half marathon for the first time in his life - more than twice as far as he had ever run.

Among the benefits of being a semi-celebrity sportswriter apparently are the connections you can make. Last week he received an invitation from Runners World to get connected to Amby Burfoot, who won the Boston Marathon in 1968, and to go for a run around Boston. He joined Burfoot for that run on the weekend and, of course, asked for some advice to running a half marathon. To the usual "start slow", "run your own race" type instructions, Amby added these words of wisdom:

"And get behind a really attractive woman runner,'' he said. "Women are great at keeping up a pace, so you won't have to worry about your pace. And, you know, there will be some other benefits.''

Words to run by.

Yicks!

2010-09-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Has is seriously been 10 days? Ooooo I feel terrible. I didn't mean to ignore you. It's just that it's September and while September usually means fall days with some riding on the weekends before the rainy season hits, this year the rainy season hit several weeks early and so we went straight from Ironman training to tapertantruming to Ironman in foul weather to never getting better weather into raining cats and dogs. We seemed to have bypassed fall riding weather and went straight into wellies and umbrella season. Damn it! Not happy about this at all.

The general fall ickiness has settled in faster too which means more cases of accidental napping by yours truly and the desire for warm food with a side of spaezle. Mmmm spaezle.

So we haven't been riding outside as much and have slowly given into the late evening rides on the trainer. Especially since running and I are still not talking and if I don't do SOMETHING I become one cagey ansty anxiety ridden cat. And no one likes a cagey cat even if they are prone to spontanious fits of napping (because they walk up all grouchy and sleepy and pouty and no one likes that although I think SOME people find it fun to bug the sleepy kitty). Hmmm that doesn't really make much sense written out but it pretty much describes me at this time of year (and for the next few months). Lucky Brian!

I am gearing up (or as geared up as one can be in rainy, spaezle desire inducing weather) for my first race of the year: a cycle cross race. For which Brian WAS going to be MY sherpa. But he's going to Seattle to play golf with his dad and I'm solo for this adventure. We'll see how it goes. I have been practicing the dismounting/mounting aspect of this sport and am pretty handy at it now. I can do the flyign squirrel type mount without impailing the more delicate bits which is important. The secret is to use the inner thigh and then scoot the rest of the way on once the gravity aided portion of the move is over. Looking forward to putting this into action and hopefully will have a race report next weekend.

So yeah that's about all around here: rain, food, naps, and some riding dirty style. Fall is here. Like it or not.

2010-09-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

I guess you can kind of guess what has happened to Pic o' the Day. It's done. I couldn't keep it up. I'm sorry.

I will keep trying though. I won't just give up. I liked it. Just every day was getting a bit much.

I have learned a few things though in the 6 or 7 or 8ish months that I did keep it going.

1. It's freakin' hard. Finding something that is appealing not only to myself but that I thought that you'd like too. And also finding something that is interesting and that has potential to be artistic.

2. I'm fussy. Too fussy. Which made it harder. I refused to take a picture of just anything. It had to be interesting. It had to have appeal and had to be artistic.

3. It's time consuming. Finding the thing to take a picture of. Getting the composition right then processing it to get it to it's final form.

4. It's not all negative. I did learn to look for art everywhere. I learned that what might look really cool in person doesn't translate to "film". I can't quantify this but I now have a feeling for it.

5. I like being on the photographer side of the camera. Keeps me out of the front. Which I don't like.

6. I like photographing flowers and plants.

7. I'm attracted to simple - repetitive patterns or single colours or colour families.

8. The iPhone is pretty awesome for taking photos and then processing them. All in one place. Very handy. But the screen is small so it can be tricky. An iPad would solve this issue for processing as you can get the same apps just in a bigger formate.

9. Challenges like this shouldn't be taken on lightly.

Post Game Show

2010-09-05T09:45:00.002-07:00

Some final analysis to wrap up my IMC report. As before, you can follow these links to see the previous parts if you haven't read them yet: the Pre-Game Report, the Swim & T1 Report, the Bike Report, and the T2 & Run Report.

I've had a week to reflect on the race now and have come to many conclusions. I'll start with the immediate aftermath. Sunday night after I crossed the line, I made my way pretty quickly through the catching and food areas and got out to see Amy and the family. At that point, I was still moving okay, but I mostly wanted to get my stuff and get back to the house before I got too cold or had my body cease up. In retrospect, we had a whole bunch of friends - Erin, Andrew, Susanne, and Wendy - all finishing in the next 45 minutes or so and I wish I had stuck around to see them, but all I could think about was getting home, cleaned up, and just sitting down.

I was surprised that the finish itself wasn't particularly emotional. I've had shorter races (1/2 IM and 1/2 marathon distances) that yielded far more emotion at the finish. I think a big part of the difference is that in those events, I was able to drain everything out of my body on course, but in this case, I was afraid to let it all hang out for fear of not making it to the end. That I could possibly have left a little more out there is a lesson learned for the full IM distance, though I'm not sure I'll ever need to draw on it. In the week since the race I've been asked by everyone whether I'll do another and the answer really is that I don't know. I loved the experience - of that there's no question. It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in devoting so much time and effort to a single goal and then actually achieving it. But it's such an enormous undertaking not just for myself, but also for Amy. I'll be the first to admit that I was a handful to deal with for the last couple of months and it wouldn't be fair of me to make the decision to take that on again on my own. Additionally, I question what I could gain from another that I didn't get from this one. Sure, I would have the chance to lay myself out there a little more and see if I could improve - maybe go sub-11:30, or have other victories like breaking 6 on the bike. But there are also so many variables in it that none of those targets would be certain. My swim and run went so close to exactly as planned, that it's hard to think everything would be so smooth again. I told myself that doing Ironman was really about finding out what I'm made of and what I'm capable of, and I've learned that now. So I guess the short answer to whether or not there's another one in my future is that someday under the right circumstances I would consider it - but it's not something I plan on thinking about anytime soon.

Another question I've had repeatedly, is how do I feel? Sunday night, I actually got a pretty good sleep. I woke up stiff and sore, but feeling not as bad as I thought I might. I was tired through most of the day and headed to bed early Monday night, but it was that second sleep that didn't go well. I tossed and turned and ultimately woke up very early Tuesday morning just too sore to sleep. Unfortunately, with the lack of sleep, I also felt way more fatigued. Generally, Tuesday I just felt awful. We were trying to hit a few wineries in the area and do some touristy thing, but I just had nothing in me. I was achy and completely out of gas and I'm afraid I wasn't very good company. The only thing that saved me was a brief nap in the afternoon before heading out for an early dinner and then early to bed. I got a good sleep that night and Wednesday felt quite a bit better. Gradually, I've bounced back and I'm now at a point where I'm feeling pretty good. I tried riding yesterday and the legs don't have much in the tank, but it was really nice to be out on the road again. I'm fortunate to have come through the whole thing injury free and I'm very pleased that I'm not completely burnt out by it either.

The last thing I have is a long list of "thank you"s for everyone who helped me accomplish this. First I have to thank Amy for being a saint. I said above that I wasn't easy to deal with the last couple of months and that is absolutely true. The race weighed on my mind constantly. The training took me away for long periods. I wasn't much help around the house. I think you get the picture. Any spouse who takes care of someone training for Ironman deserves sainthood for what they put up with. And Amy went above and beyond. Not only did she just deal with me, she encouraged me every step of the way. She talked me out of the trees when I was worrying. She made sure that whenever I came home from the epic workouts, I had recovery food ready to eat as soon as I walked in the door. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind, that without her love and support through this adventure, my race could not have been the success it was. This was a team endeavour and I don't think there's enough thanks in the world for me to offer her.

I also want to thank both my and Amy's parents for all of their support. I was extremely lucky this year to have both my mom and my dad come out to watch races that I did. With Amy and I living so far from Windsor, this whole triathlon thing is something I don't really get to share with my parents, and so it means a huge amount to me to have them come out and see what it's all about. My dad and Ann came out in June to see me race in Oliver and then my mom and Brian as well as Amy's parents came out for Ironman. Them being there to cheer me on made both of the races more special than they could have been otherwise. It's hard to explain the feeling you get when you see your loved ones on course cheering - there's no question though, that it makes you stronger.

Lastly, I want to thank all of our friends in the triathlon community for seeing me through along the way. We're enormously lucky to have our club, Leading Edge, and all of the people in it to encourage us along the way in all of our endeavours. The coaches helped me this year in creating my program and the number of other athletes we have who I was able to lean on for advice was tremendous. I was lucky, also, to get to finish the longest of my training weekends with Andrew and Erin and share this experience with them this year. Also, I want to thank Wolfgang for some of the advice he offered through the year, especially his guidance on nutrition and how best to get through the day successfully. Finally, I want to thank everyone who was out there cheering last Sunday. The energy I got from the people I know as well as all of the crowd who simply read my name off the race number and offered encouragement was amazing.

I can't recall ever before having taken on a challenge so large that I really doubted whether or not I was capable. I look back on the whole process quite fondly now though despite times when it was tough to soldier on. It's a funny thing that the mind has the ability to block out the bad parts and focus on the euphoria of accomplishing something so big. I'm very proud to be able to say that I am an Ironman.

T2 & The Run

2010-09-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

As before, if you missed the earlier sections, you should catch up with those first. Here you can find the Pre-Game Report, the Swim & T1 Report, and the Bike Report.

Bike to Run Transition

As I approached T2, all I could think about was getting off the bike and getting my neck back into a comfortable, relaxed position. Well, that and wondering how many miles I would run before I might feel my feet again. Yeah, it was that cold. Thankfully, when I was packing my transition bags on Friday, Amy and Rebecca had encouraged me to add an extra pair of dry socks to my T2 bag. They said I'd probably never need it, but it would be better safe than sorry. They were sooooo right. It took me a little while to fumble with switching socks because my hands were frozen too, but I got them on, made another stop at the bathroom, and headed out onto the run course at a total time of 7:26:50.

The Run

I got a little jolt of excitement leaving T2 as I realized that despite my struggles on the bike, I was still on the road ahead of my target of 7.5 hours. The race plan all along had been to get myself in good shape to the run course needing to break 4.5 hours for a sub-12 race, and I was proud of myself for setting it up.

The first two miles of the run course in Penticton is completely lined with people, which was amazing. The risk in that is feeding too much off of their energy and blowing the pace. Realizing this, I did several pace checks through the first portion of the run and did have to rein it back in a little early on.

Once I passed the three mile mark, I could finally feel my feet again and I really started to settle into a good rhythm. I focused on keeping both my form and my pace right, while managing to keep taking in nutrition along the way. It was just after the three mile sign that I saw the race leaders coming back into town - the top two guys running shoulder to shoulder. For them, it came down to the final mile to settle things. I would love to have seen such a close finish, but I had other things occupying me at the moment.

I reached the edge of town on my way out and saw Wolfgang heading back in to finish in seventh spot. I know he was hoping for even better, but I'm super proud of him on a day when a whole bunch of other pros didn't make it to the finish line at all. At this point, my pacing was averaging just a hair under 6 min/km which was the target for the first half. I was allowing myself to walk part of the aid stations as necessary to get nutrition in, but I made a deal with myself that I could walk the big climbs on the way back if I ran everything on the way out.

The mile 6 marker sat immediately in front of an aid station at that point. Apparently, there was a photographer there waiting to grab a picture of us all checking on our pace.

In the first two miles, I had seen Andrew ahead of me by what I figured was about 10 minutes. Seeing him there, I assumed that he was going to stay out ahead the whole run and I was excited to see him pass the other way on the way back. Unfortunately, I saw him earlier than expected when I ran up to him during that aid station at mile six. I haven't heard the whole story yet, but it sounded like he had some stomach issues. Part of me felt bad going by, not because I was passing, but because I really wanted for him to have the best day possible.

From there, the run continued on strong for me. I felt my left hamstring start to cramp around mile 11, but I threw back another salt tablet the next time I could get water and the cramp dissipated enough to be comfortable. This would happen two more times over the next couple hours, but taking in more salt helped quickly each time.

I held a pretty constant pace through the whole first half, and reached the turn-around in about 2:06. Having run all the way out, I was allowed to walk up the biggest climbs, of which I knew of three on the way back along Skaha. The only other walking I allowed myself was the aid stations, though those became walking from start to finish, rather than just while I took in some nutrition.

The run got a little tougher on the way back because of the wind blowing out of the north. After having ridden into the teeth of it earlier in the day though, this wind didn't feel too bad. It certainly didn't blow as hard as Amy and I suffered through in Big Sur. There were some pretty exposed sections along the lake though where I took every opportunity to draft off the people I was passing. I know it doesn't help too much, but psychologically, it was great to be getting a little help out there.

As I made it back towards downtown Penticton, I was a little overwhelmed by how it was all coming together. I had run it in far enough at that point that I knew I was going to break 12 hours no matter what happened in the last couple miles and I started to think about everything that had to come together to make it happen. When I then came around the corner onto Lakeshore and saw Amy and my mom cheering me on, I just couldn't wait to come down the chute and celebrate. I think the photographer captured how I felt pretty well as I entered the final 100 m.

With a final few steps and one last cheer from Amy just before the line, I crossed with a run time of 4:22:09 for a total of 11:48:56.

What we did on holiday

2010-09-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

Other than Ironman of course.

Here's my photo essay of the week that was.

August 26: we were met at the house by some really cute white butts.

August 27: I rode the bottom end of the course. Spotted Lake looked pretty cool.

August 28: Yellow Lake is not exactly yellow but I guess Green Lake was already taken.

August 29: Ironman Morning: but of course you can read all about that from Brian's report(s) below...

August 30: Day one of wine tasting

August 31: Winery dog on day two

Sept 1: Last full day. We did a few last wineries with Team Pink Friend the most Awesome Wendy.

The Bike

2010-09-01T16:58:00.009-07:00

If you haven't yet read the Pre-Game report and the Swim & T1 report, you should probably start with those links. However, if you're up to speed already, here comes the epic report on one hell of an adventure ...

The ride started off wonderfully. It was a beautiful morning in Penticton, and I was so excited about swimming 1:04, that I couldn’t help but ride out with a smile on my face. The first little bit of time after the swim was awesome because of how many people I got to see. Running out of T1, I saw Rebecca yelling for me and then Amy and the family were out by the turn onto Main St. As the road left town at Skaha, Coach Andrew was there cheering us on, so I got another big cheer there. Not long after that, I passed both Wendy and Ali as I was climbing up MacLean Creek Rd.

With all of the excitement of seeing people I know, it felt like I was very quickly onto Hwy 97 heading south towards Oliver and Osoyoos. The weather was still looking good at this point and I was feeling strong. There really isn’t a whole lot to report about the ride south. The wind was coming from our side a little, but was really quite calm. I chatted with a couple of people around me as we leap-frogged back and forth, all commenting that things were looking really promising for the day. My focus was primarily on nutrition at this stage and taking in all of the right things through the first two hours.

What quickly became a recurring theme of my day, was that with all of the fluids I was taking in and the generally cool temperatures, I had to pee a whole bunch of times. The first stop for me, since I have no ability at all to pee on the bike, was at the aid station right before climbing Richter Pass. With that out of the way, I started climbing up Richter. The climb actually went really well for me as I just geared down and spun by a lot of people. It was good for my mindset to know that I was riding as strong as the folks near me on the course and by the time I crested the climb, I was anxious to rip down the back side and get into the rollers.

As I tucked into my aerobars and sped past more people on the descent, I hit my peak speed of nearly 77 km/hr. Before I knew it, I was starting the climbs through the rollers and working my way towards the red building that marks the last one. It seemed to me that the wind was starting to pick up a little and had shifted into our face, but the temperature had warmed and I was starting to wonder whether I should ditch the arm warmers.

When I came over the seventh roller and saw that red building ahead, I was super excited about the time I was putting in. I was only at the three hour mark of riding and had cleared more than half the ride. I was still feeling strong, and things were looking great. Unfortunately, passing that last roller led us into a further increasing headwind. The 15-20 km to get into Keremeos ended up being pretty tough. My pace dropped under 30 km/hr as I fought into the wind and it took me longer than I had hoped before I could make the turn onto the out-and-back portion of the course.

Prior to racing, I spent a lot of time asking for advice from people who had raced here before. Almost without fail, they told me how mentally tough the out-and-back is. While they were right that it’s a tough stretch, I think they had all planted so much fear of it in my mind that I didn’t think too badly of it. With it running parallel to the highway that had just brought us to Keremeos, the “out” section was straight back downwind. It worried me that I was going to have to ride back into it again, but for the time being all I could do was tuck in and take advantage of having the wind helping for the first time all day. The worst part of the out-and-back, besides the going back the way you came thing, is that the pavement seemed to keep getting worse on the way out, which made for a rough ride on hard tires.

At the turnaround of the out-and-back, you hit 120 km and pick up your special needs bag. I made another quick pit stop, grabbed the Red Bull and gels I had packed, mourned the fact that I forgot to pack my frozen Snickers bar, and started making my way back towards Keremeos again. I rolled over the 4 hour mark of riding at that point and the wind in my face was starting to drive me a little crazy.

I finished the out-and-back and made the turn up towards Yellow Lake and could see ahead that we were going to have trouble. What had been beautiful blue sky and sunshine for most of the day so far was replaced ahead with some vicious looking clouds. I could tell that it was pouring rain up ahead and I wondered whether the crowd would be out or heading for cover. For the 12 km from the Bear Fruitstand to Green Mtn Rd, the wind reached epic proportions. I have heard varying accounts of the wind speed from about 45 km/hr to 60 km/hr, and it was directly into our face. Early in this stretch, it started to rain on me as well. In fact, saying it rained doesn't nearly do it justice. The temperature dropped to barely over 10 degrees (or 50 F for our US friends) and the rain was monsoon like. I only had a little come down on me, but I'm told up just ahead of my arrival at Yellow Lake, there was a ton of hail as well. I was suffering into that wind and despite climbing, I started to get pretty cold, which would haunt me a little later. This next picture isn't of me, but rather of someone about 20 minutes ahead. I would have been in the middle of the stretch up from the Bear when Amy took it.

Feeling completely miserable with the weather, I still actually was excited for the Yellow Lake section of the course. As I approached Green Mtn Rd, Amy, my mom and Brian, and Amy’s mom were all by the road among the well-soaked crowd cheering like crazy. That first stretch of the climb was incredible with the energy out there and I fed off it pretty well. Here's the shot Amy took when I arrived. You can see that the hail has stopped and the monsoon has turned to a mere drizzle.

I kept climbing and as I crested at the lake, I spotted Tall Jeff from LETC helping out with the aid station and got another big cheer. Again, it was great to see a familiar face. Unfortunately, three bad things weighed on me over the next 20 km. First, the rain picked up again a little. Second, with reaching a slightly higher elevation and the fact that I sped up as I started descending, it got even colder. Finally, with the combination of cold weather and me having spent so long in aero with my head up, I started to cramp through my neck and shoulders and the cramp started to give me double vision. Coming down the steepest sections, where I had pictured myself just ripping it up in my aero bars and maxing out my speed, I had to actually ease off because I was shivering so hard and I couldn't focus my vision. For a few moments, I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to hold it together back into town.

Once I hit Hwy 97 again though, the rain ceased and the road dried out. I even managed to convince myself that there was going to be some sun up ahead and that it was going to warm me up. I’m not entirely sure if I was seeing that or if I was just trying to be positive, but once I stopped descending into Penticton, I began to warm back up a little. I still couldn’t spend much time in aero because of my neck, but with only a few km left through the city, I soaked the energy up from the crowds and just cruised it in. I couldn’t have been any happier to hand my bike off to the volunteer and finally be able to stand upright without any tension on my neck.

My total bike time with three "natural breaks" was 6:09:39. My bike computer says that I averaged 29.6 km/hr while actually riding, and I beat my 6:15 goal, so I’ll call the ride a success.

The Swim & T1

2010-09-01T15:18:00.005-07:00

Before I get into this second phase of my race report, it's probably a good idea to add a link to the Pre-Race portion of my story. Also, if you saw it yesterday, I've now added a couple of pictures. Now on with the show ...

I seeded myself about four or five people back from the front, relatively close to the middle. I knew full well that this area would be complete chaos for the first little while, but I wanted to be in the thick of things to avoid swimming extra length and to take advantage of some of the fastest draft areas. Looking back I think that this was a pretty good strategy. Without question, the first 300 or so meters were insane.

I was prepared for that though and I kept my head together. I had a tough time even getting any breath swimming normally, and so I spent a good portion of that initial stretch sighting every second stroke just to get my face out of the water and catch a breath, as well as try to find a hole in the humanity to swim towards. After about the third buoy, I was able to find a small amount of space to swim in, but throughout the 1,600 m stretch to the first houseboat the pack continued to squeeze in at each buoy, spaced 130 or so meters apart. It was around a few of these buoys that I got banged around more than I expected and had a couple of brief moments of panic. The worst was an elbow to the eye that made me stop briefly to adjust my goggles, but just simply getting swum over and having to swimming over others was a challenge.

When I got to the first houseboat and made the right turn, I breathed a little sigh of relief. The mass start and the first turn were the two points I had been truly afraid of in the lead-up to the race. I worried that I wouldn’t handle getting banged around and that with there being nearly 3,000 people in the field, this would be where it all went wrong. While those 25 minutes were among the worst I’ve ever experienced in racing, I got through it. I joked afterwards, that now I feel like I’d probably be fine if I were ever caught up in a brawl!

As I rounded the second houseboat at 2 km, I felt like I was moving pretty quickly. I was really pleased to be more than half way through the swim and on the final stretch back in. As Chris had mentioned when we were standing around at the start, you can’t see anything on the shore from as far out as the houseboat except for the two tall buildings on Lakeshore. I was pleased that I really didn’t need to do much sighting though – I just followed the feet heading generally in the right direction. Every 50 meters or so I’d confirm that I was right on track to tuck past close to the next buoy and continue right along. I felt as though I slowed a little in the final half a km or so, but even with that I couldn’t have been any more excited to stand up out of the water and hear Steve King announce that I was out with 1:04:47 on the clock. I was 522nd out of the water.

Swim to Bike Transition

The wetsuit strippers did a great job of getting me out and on my way quickly. I was lucky to be early enough out of the water that transition wasn’t complete chaos yet, and the volunteers were able to communicate my number back through the crowd and get me my bag without any searching. Into the change tent, I was able to get socks and shoes on with no trouble, but trying to get arm warmers onto my wet arms slowed me down. Eventually though, I made my way to grab the bike and hit the road at 1:11:33, slightly ahead of my 1:15 target.

Pre-Game Show

2010-08-31T20:19:00.003-07:00

I started writing my race report this evening and found myself a page in on MS Word before even beginning the swim. So, this will a report in parts. Tonight, the pre-race details. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll get to the swim. By the end of the long weekend, I promise I'll also have the bike, the run, and the post game show. Without any further adieu, I present the pre-game show ...

The hardest part of writing these race reports is getting started and knowing exactly where to begin. I haven’t done a fantastic job of updating on the blog throughout the process, unfortunately, but I can step back at least a couple of weeks here to set things up.

I felt pretty good finishing the last of my building and starting to taper. The first couple of weeks of taper still involved a fair bit of training, so I felt pretty comfortable continuing on through it. As the last two weeks approached though, anxiousness set in more and more. It was escalated by things like the race numbers and the Athlete’s Guide being released. For some reason, those things made the whole thing seem suddenly very real (as if it wasn’t before?!). Luckily, Amy was there over and over again to talk me down out of the trees and keep me organized.

Finally, Thursday before the race, we made our way up to Penticton. I got registered Thursday afternoon and then we settled into the house. Friday involved driving the bike course just to get a last look at it and then hitting the pasta dinner / race meeting. After checking my gear in Saturday, all that was left was to try sleeping a little before the alarm came screaming to life at 4 am.

Race morning was a little unexpected in terms of how much time I had. Amy drove me down and we arrived a little after 5. After dropping my special needs bags and getting body marked, I did the checks on my bike – running through all the gears, setting up the bottles, etc. It felt strange that I was through all of the details and I had even made my trip through the honey bucket by a little before 6, which left me more than an hour to kill. Fortunately, I was able to connect with Andrew and Erin to chat a little bit before heading into the change tent to twist myself into my wetsuit and head out to the lake around 6:30.

The first order of business at the lake was to find Amy, my mom and Brian, and Amy’s mom and dad in the mob of spectators surrounding the lake. That wasn’t too difficult, thankfully, and I got lots of good wishes from them all. I did a quick couple of hundred meter warm-up and headed back towards the start line. Just before the pro start, I was able to catch Wolf’s attention and wish him luck, then off they went, leaving 15 minutes to our mass start. I was far calmer than I expected with so little time to go, which really pleased me. I stood with Ali and Chris from LETC through O-Canada and the final countdown and with the blast of the cannon, my Ironman adventure began.

Ferrous Roth

2010-08-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

He killed it. 11:48. With the coolness, wind, hail, rain, sun, locusts, flying monkeys, and everything else IM Canada threw at those athletes today. He'll write his story at some point. He has cereal to eat and beers to eat. And wine to taste and buy. You know how it is.

August 25

2010-08-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

Riding with Rebecca before we hit the rode to the OK valley

August 18 - Today

2010-08-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

So I owe you a PILE of photos. Like so many that I don't think I can make it up in one post. So I'm going to work backwards. Starting with today and working back to last Wednesday in this post. Then last weekend will be it's own post (blackberry adventures). And so forth. So here we go:

Today: a peaceful lagoon

Sunday:

Wednesday through Saturday: The Playground Collection

Alright. 6 down... WAY too many to go. Let this be my lesson. Keep on top of things (or face Rachel's unvoiced disappoint).

Ohhh... look! pickers!

2010-08-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

(Auntie Marnie will get that)

Last, last weekend in the HEAT Brian and I went blackberry hunting.
We drove around UBC and saw the really cool log booms:

We finally tracked some ripe ones down at the airport. And so we picked. And picked and picked. And after cleaning them and freezing them, on Sunday got to open the freezer to this:

(Flower interlude for Monday)

And on Tuesday I made blackberry scones. For us. And for our wonderful peeps at Speedtheory. Because they rock. And so I bake for them. And we take them beer. And in turn they take really good care of us and Pegs and Felicity.

They were AWESOME! The recipe is from one of my favourite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen and can be found here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/the-north-fork-and-its-scones/

August 11 to August 13

2010-08-23T18:53:00.001-07:00

OK just a few more photos tonight. I have to do some more editing for the last bunch to take us all the way back to July 29. Yikes! I almost got a month behind. I can feel the icy disappointment all the way from Ontario!!

Smoky sunset:

Smoky sunrise at the pool

T-Minus 6 and Counting

2010-08-23T16:17:00.002-07:00

Six days and counting. There's not much more I can do at this stage except pick up the last few things I need to take with us. The waiting, I think, is worse than anything. I basically can't think about much other than IM, which is a challenge because I'm actually really busy at work and it would help enormously to accomplish a lot of things before going away. With that in mind, I even spent most of Saturday afternoon actually working and accomplished a surprising amount.

The rest of this past weekend was very nice. Friday evening, Amy and I left work a bit early and went for a ride with Andrew and Erin. It was the last ride of any considerable time on the schedule, and we put in just over 80 km in about 3:15 around Richmond and UBC, just managing to beat the sunset on our way home. After working for an hour or so in the morning Saturday, I met Erin and Andrew for a 13 km run before spending the afternoon working again. Saturday evening Amy invited me out on a hot date - we went to see Inception and have popcorn for dinner at the theater! If you haven't seen it yet, I definitely recommend it. Take that with a grain of salt though, because I'm very easily entertained. Finally, Sunday morning we met E & A again for a short swim at Kits Pool (Amy swam longer though) and then spent the rest of the day relaxing on the couch with a couple of movies.

Overall, a very chill weekend for the last weekend of taper. The taper hasn't left me completely antsy like it usually does, but I'm certainly feeling rested and fresh. I look forward to running the engine a couple more times easily this week and finally getting to the start line Sunday morning!

Yikes

2010-08-18T11:26:00.004-07:00

Race numbers were released this morning. It all suddenly feels very real - as though I have to do this thing in a week and a half. Eek! Without any further adieu, here is my new lucky number ...

Taper has been coming along somewhat according to plan. I've hit all of my schedule training and the workouts have been at the right pace. I've felt pretty sluggish though. It's taking me longer and longer to feel warmed up. For example, last night I did a 45 minute run and the first 30 minutes felt terrible. At about the half hour mark, I finally felt like I was rolling again and running was suddenly easy. Similarly, my ride last weekend took almost an hour before I felt strong and fit, but everything was good after that, including a strong run-off. I'm going to take this all as a positive and say that once I rest up through this coming weekend and next week, I'm going to hit my stride on race day feeling great!

2010-08-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

So this break up dealie is going well. I'm riding about 6 times a week and swimming 2 or 3. And the rides have been great!! Some on the road, some on the trails. This weekend will be the biggest "combo" ride weekend yet and I'm interested to see how my body handles it. Right now I'm slightly dehydrated from the ride this morning despite 5 big bottles of fluids (yes Alan they had calories and electrolytes) and then a bunch of fluids after. Ick. And I have been peeing since I got home. Just so you know.

I guess this afternoon's adventures didn't really help. As we spent an hour blackberry picking out by the airport. It was hot, dry, dusty, hot, and spiky. Very spiky. And there were snakes. Wee ones but snakes. Did I mention it was spiky? But we were VERY successful. We got several buckets of sweet fresh blackberries. I'm freezing a bunch now. And will make blackberry scones this week. And there will blackberries on cereal. And in water. And in mojitos. Mmmmm mojitos.

If I didn't have another 2+ hours on the bike to do tomorrow I could total down a jug of tasty tasty mojitos.

Still Hanging In

2010-08-04T13:19:00.003-07:00

I have nothing particularly profound to report these days. With my biggest training weekend behind me now, I began the gradual process of tapering it down a bit. I'll still have a big weekend with 5.5 hours or so on the bike and nearly four hours combined running between Saturday's run-off and Sunday's long run, but compared to what I did this past weekend, that should come as some relief!

There were a couple of interesting parts to last weekend's workouts. During our ride Saturday, Amy and I were heading east through North Van, when we came across a dead skunk in the road. Normally, when either of us sees road kill, we yell, "DEATH!", to warn each other not ride over it. Unfortunately, this dead skunk happened to be right in front of a cemetery where a service was in progress. Wisely, I bit my tongue.

The other "interesting" portion of my training was nearing the end of my run on Sunday. I was doing 3.5 hours, so I headed towards Stanley Park to do a couple laps around and added a couple zigs and zags to add extra time. On my way out, I noticed that a lot of people seemed to be milling around for early in the morning. When I hit the 2:45 mark and started heading back I figured out why - Sunday was Pride Parade down Denman and Beach streets and what a raucous party it was! Music was blaring, the crowd was cheering like crazy for all the floats, catcalls were getting thrown around like they were going out of style, and boobs were out everywhere. Let me tell you - with tired legs and mind after 30km on my own, all of the energy and craziness sure helped get through that last half hour. It actually made me look forward to IM where there should also be a lot of excitement in the crowd as I come back into town and approach the finish ... I'll just have to get through some of those lonely stretches by the lake first.

Computerless

2010-08-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well not completely (obviously). But TP's computer has had to go to the computer doctor as it has stopped recognizing its power cord. So we are computer less at home. And the computer I have at work (I usually bring in the TP computer) is S...L....O....W and often refuse to recognize it's own self let alone my iPhone where all my pictures are. So there will be a shortage of pictures for a few days (two weeks tops). But when we get the computer back I will post ALL of the photos I owe you (starting with last Thursday) as one photo extraveganza. Oh baby!

Regular posts on training and life and such will continue during this time. And Brian might find it within himslef to include a photo or illustration. (hint hint).

All's square again

2010-07-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Pictures and posts are up for Saturday and Sunday so you'll want to scroll down to see what the non-ironman training portion of Team Pink has been up to.

And here is Tuesday's photo:

And today's (Wednesday): a guest at this morning's Fastlane Swim and Social Club morning meeting

Now I can start stressing about tomorrow's photo...

Summer heat

2010-07-26T09:33:00.001-07:00

This colour blue and the reflection of the water on the bottom of the fountain and the the "feel" of the picture makes me think summer and the heat and the sunshine.

PS Saturday and Sunday pictures and post coming soon. They involve a bit more writing to tell you about my adventures.

Breaking up is hard to do

2010-07-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Running,

I think we need some time apart. It's not you it's me. Really. I just haven't been connecting with you lately. It's been a rocky few months with you. You've done a number on my head. I feel slow and incompetent around you. And I know it's me. I know because you and I used to be good together. I felt good with you. I felt positive about me. But lately I haven't and so I am trying to find out why. And to do that I need some time away. I think I need to spend more time with Cycling and Swimming. I need to get my confidence back and my happiness too. So I'm setting you aside for a while. I'll be back eventually. I can't stay away from you.

Take care of yourself,

Pants

Draw the line

2010-07-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

So I was all about training with Brian. That is until it got hard and no longer fun. Then my goal became HAVE FUN! And that's what I've been doing. I've been going on adventures on my bike to try out new routes or go on rides where the goal is a cafe or a bakery. Fantastic!

This weekend it was a ride I had heard of but never done: 0 (Zero) Ave out in the valley. 0 Ave runs right along the border between the Great White North and the US. And when I say right along I mean the road edge is about a meter (aka a little over a yard for you Yanks) from "The Line". Which is a ditch. Seriously. All that protects our igloos and prize winning sled dogs from those gun toting yahoos over the border is a ditch. And a few cameras here and there. In fact at times there w ere two roads: one on either side of the ditch. And the differences were kinda funny: a US house was advertised (on the Canadian end of the property) as for sale for $125,000 and was a good size and had some good land and a great view (of Canada) while a few kilometers along the road there was a new development (no where really near a major town) on the Canadian side of slightly larger houses with the same view and a half acre of land for $599,000. Then further along there were raspberry fields where the machine operators in Canada were mostly Sikh while over the ditch they were Latin American. (Incidently the raspberry harvesting machines are my new favourite piece of farm equipment - they remind me of the Wonkamobile - they shake the ripe berries off the bush)

Anyhow back to the ride. Which was awesome. Have I said that yet? AWESOME. And having Rebecca as company only made it better. 0 Ave was so quiet and empty. And even smelled good. Like raspberries. Or blueberries. Or horses (I love that smell) (OK so some of the country roads further along that went by hog and cattle farms weren't such an olfactory delight). We talked. We stared at the scenery. We could see the US from our bikes! It was fantastic. It was hot. Really hot. And on the way back it was headwindy. And hot. And there was a long up hill portion. And it was hot. And there may have been some heat stroke affects. But I put on my pinkest big girl panties and soldiered on. And 135km and around 5 and a bit hours later we were back at the car and ready for the air conditioning and some good drinks from the Mack's.

(In the photo the power lines line up (almost) with the border but I think they are actually on American soil)

Time Flies

2010-07-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago this weekend, my journey began. I didn't really know it at the time and it's taken a lot of twists and turns in between, but it was the second last weekend of July, 2000, when Dave (a university friend) and I took a road trip from Waterloo, ON to Lake Placid, NY to watch and volunteer at Ironman USA (as it was known then, before the creation of IM Louisville, Wisconsin, Arizona, et al). We had both been convinced by Wolfgang (also going by a different name at the time, right Kyle?!) to try out this triathlon thing and had signed up for the sprint race in Orillia later that summer **. In our excitement about training for triathlon, we thought a road trip was called for and we ended up in central NY State for the weekend.

** If you're really interested in seeing how terrible I was despite training all summer for a sprint, you can click here (I had to do some digging to find that).

I can vividly remember standing at the lake watching the start and thinking, "how on earth can anyone swim that far?!" Some days I still wonder, but I credit Amy pushing me to swim when we first met as one of the best challenges she could have given me. I can't tell you how much pleasure I now get from swimming with our group of friends and breakfast with them all on Friday mornings is one of the highlights of my week.

Dave and I were late signing up for volunteering since everything happened kinda last minute, so we ended up helping in the change tents during both T1 and T2. It was there that I feel one can really start to understand what people are experiencing during IM. We got to see the top pros come through and help them with their gear in a whirlwind. And at the far end of the spectrum, we got to see the last couple of swimmers and riders as they just barely scraped in under the cutoff times. It was all of those late afternoon riders who really opened my eyes and made me think that this kind of event would never be a possibility for me. I didn't have that kind of determination or strength. I was floored by their ability to just keep going.

Before our volunteer shift even ended, I got to poke my head out of the tent and see Cam Widoff run in to victory ten minutes ahead of everyone else. Tony Deboom is who everyone expected to win when he came off the bike in first and looked great, but he had a complete explosion and handed an hour back to the other top pros on the run. We were super excited to see Melissa Spooner, a Canadian, win the women's race and then we were shocked later in the evening to see her bouncing up and down the finishing shoot, full of energy, cheering in the midnight finishers!

After 2000 I dabbled in racing a little, doing one or two duathlons a year around Ontario until I moved out to Vancouver in 2004. After crashing in the Vancouver race in '04 and then starting my Masters program, all physical activity took a backseat for nearly two years until Erin convinced me to come for a ride with LETC one night in the earliest stages of the club. It was just weeks thereafter that I met Amy and she "threw me in the pool" so to speak. With her encouragement, I began to stretch the distances that I imagined possible to an Olympic distance that first summer, then half irons in '07 and '08. Finally last August the itch caught up to me and I made the commitment for the big show in 2010.

With three big training weeks left, I think about all of the hours of training this summer and how "long a road" it's been to get myself ready. But in reality, this summer has all just been the last few steps on something started a long time ago.

Return of flowers?

2010-07-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

I fell back on flowers last for Wednesday and Friday out of desperation. I resolve (again) to keep this trend to a minimum. My mantra will be: there is more beauty in the world then just that found in flowers. My other July photos have taught this to me.

Wednesday July 21:

Thursday July 22

Friday July 23

Yikes! Behind AGAIN

2010-07-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

I owe you two (kinda three) photos.

Monday:

Tuesday:

And I will take one more tonight to get us back to square again. You peeps are DEMANDING. Geesh! (Jokes... I know truly only Rachel will give me a 'hard' time on my slackitude. But that's because she's got all of July off from school and gets to go fishing, ride her bike, and hang out in her bikini all day. Oh that's right... I'm stalking you on Facebook.)

We'll swim to there...

2010-07-18T22:28:00.000-07:00

I was the "stuff sitter" for the Sunday morning ocean swim. I don't do 'oceans'. I don't have a wetsuit. And there are seals in there. And at least one whale. And it smells funny. I prefer the pool. Which I did after our run. Much more civilized.

July 17th

2010-07-17T10:26:00.001-07:00

Another pool shot

2010-07-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

Pool pictures are the new flower shot apparently.

July 15th

2010-07-15T16:56:00.001-07:00

July 14th

2010-07-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

137.5m of glorious pool in the sun with a back drop of mountains and ships. I love summer swimming!

July12th and 13th

2010-07-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

Monster Weekend

2010-07-11T19:43:00.003-07:00

As Amy indicated in her last post, she stuck around for IM training until it stopped being so much fun. That would be this weekend, when after a couple of epic efforts, I am about ready for the race to just come and give me some relief. I'm a bit early to be feeling that, but thankfully this was the end of hard week and I now have a week to recover a little before three last weeks of building.

While Amy and friends headed south to ride for cinnamon buns, I felt that it was time to get both North Shore mountains under my belt in a single ride and add some extra time to make up the distance. I started by heading towards UBC for a little 20 km warmup before going through downtown, over to North Van, out to Deep Cove, then up Seymour, across and up Cypress, out to Horseshoe Bay, and finally back home. 6:45 and 165 km later, I had covered this ...

It was a tough day. Spending that much time in the saddle on my own with lots of time to just think and talk myself into continuing on was an interesting challenge. I've downloaded and gone through my power data and it definitely showed the suffering that I was feeling on the second mountain. The ride didn't give me a ton of confidence for IM, but it also didn't hurt me too badly since I recognize how much harder the local mountains are than what I'll have to go over in Penticton. It wasn't so much that I suffered too badly, but that I was worried about my average pace being pretty low when all was said and done.

What made me feel a lot better yesterday was that I was able to do a great run-off. I put in just under an hour to cover 10.5 km around False Creek and felt strong the whole time. I recognize that it's far more important for me to be strong on the run than to have my best possible ride time, so I'll take yesterday's total workout as a victory.

Today's run was pretty tough as well. I had three hours on my schedule and manage to put in every minute of it, despite having wanted to quit about half an hour in. My legs were pretty lethargic the whole time, but thanks to Amy joining me for the last 1:20, I was able to keep it together and the legs actually got a little bit better as it went along. This afternoon brought a very welcome ice bath both to make the legs feel better and to beat the heat that we have lived through here all week. Now on to a day off and an easier week to come!

July 11th

2010-07-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

Risotto, asparagus, scallops and shrimp. Good meal to end a great week of training. (See I can cook things other then treats!)

Chuckanut ride

2010-07-10T16:51:00.001-07:00

Brian and I set out on separate rides yesterday. In separate countries no less. I went down to Bellingham with some friends and strangers to ride while Brian stayed here to do the two mountains and a lot of milage and some running. So I don't really know how Ironman training is going - I stayed until it was no longer fun. My new goal is to have awesome fun. And that's what I did. Starting with hoping in the car at 5:45 to go get a stranger (friend of a friend), drive for an hour and a half and go for a little ride in Washington. A little ride of 135km. Not shabby. And it was AWESOME. OK well it was 20k of suck followed by 115km of AWESOME. Lesson of this ride: don't make me warm up and wake up with lots of hills right away. There was a bit of "oh god what have I agreed to" and "oh crap they are doubting including me... shit shit shit" thoughts for those first 40 or so minutes. But once we got out of that section and my legs stopped feeling like ass and I got back with the group it was all good and I held my own. So I was pretty pleased. And when we hit the rolly bit back to the cars (the last 20k return) I was nicely warmed up and made those hills my bitch. Woot.

Then it was splash time at the splash park for the six adults and dozens of kids who looked at the adults in their king kong bundy shorts and laughed and pointed as we ran around like we were three. Good times. Back into town and post ride dinner of smoked and bbq meat and Pimms. My new favourite summer bevvie. How did I not have this before!!!! S0 good. Right up there with mojitos. Seriously.

Anyhow. Picture of the day is of the return trip from The Town With the Cinnamon Buns aka The Reason We Are Doing This In the First Place. Lovely field with the mountains in the distance. The tall one to the left side (still covered in snow), that was very clear in real life, being Mount Baker.

Friday morning at the pool

2010-07-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Seriously AWESOME. This is our pool at 5:40 in the morning. With the sun coming up over the city.

July 8th

2010-07-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

Does Bamboo count as a flower?

July 7th

2010-07-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

PAD - 6 days of no flower power!

2010-07-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

PAD - Flower free for 5 days and counting!

2010-07-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

July 5th 2010 from Team Pink Headquarters in Vancouver this is Photo a Day with Captain Pants. (I think I've been watching too many back episodes of the Daily Show).

July

2010-07-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Oh dear god. July is here. Which means for the next three weeks we will be late for work. And then we will spend the rest of the day trying to avoid all news sources and facebook and twitter so that we can run home and be glued to the TV til the bitter end and the dust has settled. It's time again to open your suitcase of courage, load the torpedo and time your natural breaks to coincide with commercial breaks.Oh baby! Tour de France time! I am excited for tomorrow's stage with it's cobblestones and promise of crashes and excitement and "game changingness". Might have to move the TV into the bedroom- bike porn and men in spandex first thing in the morning is a beautiful thing. The PVR is a definite blessing during this month.

And on top of that summer might actually be arriving in Vancouver this week (touch wood!) and the urge to get out and ride is greater then ever. I just want to hurry up and get my work done so I can escape early and go hit the road for a few hours.

Damn you July for being just so damn AWESOME!

Best game EVER

2010-07-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'm a nerd. A big nerd. I love word games and puzzles. Scrabble, cryptic crosswords, jumbles, Bookworm, Boggle. Love them. And I thought I was happy. Then Hilary had to introduce me to Bananagrams. I love bananagrams. It comes in a banana. It involves tiles and letters and speed and skill. I have the bananagrams app on my phone. And now I have the real thing.

Photo a day is back!

2010-07-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

So far so good. We were away until today so I back dated the 1st and 2nd of July pictures (with posts and bonus photos as a reward for your patience). And here is todays:

Something A Little Different

2010-07-03T16:14:00.007-07:00

In an effort to mix things up a bit, we made plans with friends Liz & Craig this weekend to go up to Whistler to do some riding and just get away. We got things started on Thursday by stopping half way there to do a hike called the Chief, which involves climbing more than 500 m (1,650 ft) of vertical over the course of 6 km, including sections at the top with chains and a ladder to scale up the rock. Think: two hours of climbing big, uneven stairs. It was the first time Amy or I had done it, and we both loved it. When we've got people in town now who are up for a challenge, it'll be another activity on our list for sure.

Friday brought beautiful sunshine to Whistler for us to start riding early. The plan, well executed for the most part, was for Liz, Amy and I to ride to Pemberton where Craig (broken elbow and all) would join us for some of the flatter sections. From Pemberton, we would all continue east until Duffy Lake Road took its sharp turn up toward the heavens. Once the climb began, Liz and I would be on our own with Amy and Craig wisely heading back towards Pemberton. Liz and I then climbed all the way up and past Joffrey Lakes, over the top of the pass and then down to Duffy Lake before turning around and riding all the way back to Whistler. The profile of this adventure looks a bit ridiculous:

The ride was really amazing. It may have been some fatigue in my legs from doing the Chief the day before, but I think without question that it was the toughest ride I've ever done. That climb up Duffy Lake Road, which rises 1,100 m (3,600 ft) over 13 km with some pitches up to 11% was crazy hard! It took Liz and I 1:15 just to get through that 13 km stretch of the ride, though it only took 16 minutes on the return trip. Making the top of the climb was awesome though and I still felt pretty good at that stage. It was only once we'd returned to Pemberton, leaving about 35 km back to Whistler, that I started to struggle. Finishing off 157 km by climbing 425 m (1,400 ft) over 15 or 20 km is not a particularly good plan. It was for that last hour and a half that I was forced to go to my happy place in an effort to forget about the suffering and just make it back to where we were staying.

Today, my legs are hurting pretty good and I'm wondering how I'm going to run for nearly three hours tomorrow, but I guess that's the point of Ironman training. It's all about finding out how much I can suffer!

Finally, I got a few good pictures while we were riding. Here they are ...

Craig, Amy and Liz on the way from Pemberton to the Duffy Lake Road climb:

Turn around point (where Liz and I could finally see Duffy Lake):

The view climbing back to the summit on the return trip:

Liz with the warning sign for the ride back down:

There was no sign for that

2010-07-02T21:24:00.001-07:00

There were signs for horses on the road. And we expected cattle. And dogs. And deer. And really the bear was no surprise (well a little surprising for both Brian and Liz and the bear at the time I'm sure). But a llama? No there was no sign or warning of that a head on the highway between Pemberton and Duffey Lake Road:

OK so that road isn't the highway (which isn't much more highway like really). We were so shocked to see the llama that none of us could react fast enough to get a picture so I road after it down the path. I couldn't get any closer. It was a 7 foot llama, rather scruffy, and timid. Anyone know who it belongs to?

I also got these two pics of the lake at the base of the Duffey Lake climb. Yeah the ride was seriously that beautiful.

Happy Trails

2010-07-01T21:10:00.002-07:00

Dear Diary,

For Canada Day we went on a hike with Craig and Liz. Something we don't normally do. The hike started with this:

We should have realized that this was no normal hike. That was abundantly clear after The Endless Staircase From Hell with risers that we WAY higher then the standard riser hight. And we continued UP and UP and UP some more. Diary, I thought I was in shape! But I don't train for UP or stairs or strambles, or inclines along the face of a cliff which requires the use of a chain for help. Yes a chain bolted to the face of a cliff:

I got to the top of that but then saw what was coming and stayed with Craig until Liz and Brian got back with a photo of the view:

Then we had to go down. Which induced geriatric knee pain in all of us. And left us with the shaky unsteadiness at the bottom. And I think this picture might only just do the steepness of the decent justice. There was much use of the "third foot" aka my butt for getting down drops and boulders.

This hike ROCKED! We are so doing it again and it will become a go to thing for visitors we dub up to the challenge.

PS That last photo is the photo of the day for July 1st. I'm back on the photo a day challenge! Booyah!

And the AWESOME continues

2010-06-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

With a great Saturday morning ride. 115 k for me 155 for Brian. Not too shabby. I had requested a flatter trip for this week so we went to Richmond. Where flat doesn't begin to describe the terrain. And where a head wind is ALWAY guaranteed for at least two and a half of the four points of the compass. I know that seems to defy the laws of, well, everything. But that's just how it is around there. So I spent much of my ride with this as my view:

Not a bad deal really. I got to stare at a nice butt and legs and have some protection from the nasty headwind. And even with the headwind we were able to haul ass around Richmond in good time. So it was an AWESOME ride!

Not so awesome? The degree of stickiness of the Clif Shot Blocks Cran -Razz flavour. Part way through the ride Brian put in a request for a less sticky flavour of Block.

Freakin' AWESOME!

2010-06-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

This morning actually felt like summer. Sun was out. And the pool was perfect. At 5:45 AM. It was a great workout. Got the whole thing in. All 26 lengths. Each 137.5 m for a grand total of 3575m by 7am. Didn't want to get out. Made Brian a little grumpy. See Fridays are breakfast day at Fastlane. And at 22 lengths he wanted breakfast. But I wasn't pruny so I wasn't getting out. It was the longest swim I've done in a while and it felt AWESOME. Totally earned my poached eggs, bacon and home fries.

Photo a day hiatus continues...

2010-06-25T12:48:00.001-07:00

One of our favourite places to take people who come to visit is the aquarium. Weird and wacky fish. Dolphins. Scary seals. Cute otters. It has it all. And you can see it without having to get into the water with it. Which is a bonus when it comes to scary seals. We'll go swimming at Kits pool after. There are more weird and wacky and scary things to see during public swim.

Picture a day update

2010-06-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm a wee bit behind. I know. And I'm sorry to those of you who were enjoying ~~watching me suffer and scramble to post~~ my photos. I have decided to declare this a bit of a hiatus. Only 'til July 1st at which time I will return with new photos. Until then I will dig through my collection of photos of old and post those so that you can have something to look at. We'll start with this one. Although not taken by me (obviously - I'm the one drinking from the hose. Cousin Megan is the one looking like trouble as she still is) it is still one of my favourites.

Bad case of vuvuzela

2010-06-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Saw this on my way home. I had to chase him down the block to get this photo (all while laughing and giggling). It was so worth it.

There is no artistry to this shot. Just a bad place for a vuvuzela (the red plastic horn for those of you who have been out of the football loop for the last few days).

Ouch

2010-06-16T08:25:00.003-07:00

I'm pretty sure your wheel is not supposed to do this ...

For more on this crash, check out this article with video

What goes up doesn't have to come down

2010-06-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Let me get something straight first: I am not a climber. I do not like hills. Hills like not do I. Evil things those hills.

So naturally I decided that this year I would make hills my bitch. I have gone out of my way on my Friday cross rides to find them. I have do lots of repeats of Spanish Banks at least once a week. I have even started requesting that our rides are to the rollipolli north shore rather then the flats of Richmond.

And it is paying off. I can climb a little faster and harder. I can do 6 repeats of Spanish Banks and keep smiling and keep going if dinner wasn't calling. I am improving. Slowly. Marginally.

After the failure (on my account) that was Saturday's ride (the one in which I started pedelling squares at kilometer 6 of 12 on Cypress I requested that our Monday night ride be up Cypress. As a confidence boaster.

I have to say I am pretty pleased with myself. I was well under my target time. And I know that next time will be faster. And there will be a next time - Saturday if the weather cooperates.

So that was the good part of the ride. Yes the UP part was the good part. As we were heading up Brian looked back and said "uh oh". Uh Oh turned out to be a WALL of rain. Torrential rain. Out in the Georgia Straight heading to the bay and towards the mountain. The sun was shining on downtown and on Burnaby but it was cloudy where we were. No pictures. This was a no stopping just pedal kind of ride. Pictures at the top. That was the plan at least.

On the way up a few rain drops fell at the beginning but stopped as we road on. And on. And on. At 11.5 km the rain drops came back and started to get a little more persistent. That wall of rain was coming. So at the turn around it was a quick move to put on the arm warmers and get going again. No pictures. We had rain to beat.

It was not to be. The few rain drops that had started only minutes before had rallied the troops. And they came with knives. Going 50+ in the rain turned fat happy rain drops into vicious knife wielding villians. And so by 10 km (2 km into the ride back down) I was on the breaks, trying to see through rain soaked glasses. Did I mention I was on the race wheels. 'Cause that just makes it even more fun. The jet engine powering down sound combined with squeaky wet break sound combined with daggers. Good times.

By the 9km marker I was down to 30 km/h. And starting to shake. Hands cramping. Butt cramping. I had The Fear. At the first look out (at 5.5 km) we were in the heart of it. That angry grey mass of rain had hit land and was pissing down to it's little evil heart's content.

That was it. I was tapping out. Hands were so numb I couldn't break. I was shaking so much that it was like an earthquake on my bike. And the race wheels which had been a blessing on the way up were making me nervous. I stopped. I stood under the little map kiosk thingie and shivered.

Brian played the hero and got the car. This Princess waited.

And in return Brian got a steak dinner on the BBQ in the rain. Because I reward my heroes with meat. And asparagus.

I realized two things on this ride:

1) It's not me who doesn't like to ride in the rain - you see I happily ride my cross bike in the rain and mud - it's Pegs. Or Princess Pegs. She doesn't like the rain. It's not me, it's my bike. She doesn't 'do' rain. (Although I still don't 'do' snow or winter).
2) And physics is wrong: what goes up doesn't have to come down; it can stop and wait for the car part way.

Recovered? Not so much.

2010-06-14T12:59:00.003-07:00

As I knew I'd still be recovering to some degree, the plan was for this past weekend to be fairly easy. As Amy discussed in her last post, we made plans with a friend getting into cycling to take him up to the first lookout on Cypress for the first time. Amy and I decided to add a little extra time and distance before hand with a loop out towards UBC. With it being such a spectacular day, I really didn't want to get off my bike even as we drew near four hours and home.

Sunday, however, was a different story. I thought that 1:30 - 1:45 of running would be nice and easy with a swim afterward in Kits pool. Wrong. Clearly not recovered yet, my legs and hips started aching around 45 minutes and all I could think about was going back home. Pushed by Amy, who seemed to be feeling pretty good, I soldiered on to 1:20, but it felt absolutely horrible. After a quick shower, sitting down had never felt so good, and I quickly came to the conclusion that I would not be swimming later. Instead, I decided that letting the body rest and heal would be the best since this week I need to get right back in and begin all the real work for August.

Tonight is going to be an easy climb up Cypress and tomorrow will just be a short, cruisy run. Fingers crossed that things feel better by Wednesday when I need to start pushing it hard again.

Be glad I DIDN'T get a picture

2010-06-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

So I just walking in the door from our Saturday ride (it was an afternoon ride as we had a special guest who couldn't do a morning ride as he had to take someone else's kid to T-ball). I am still gritty and salty and sweaty and my eyebrows are starting to fail in their roll of keeping the sweat out of your eyes and as such my eyes are starting to sting from the mixture of sweat and sun screen. Pretty eh? But that's NOT the picture you should be glad I didn't take.

Oh no. It gets better.

So yeah we headed out and up to Cypress to break Nick's Cypress virginity. We got to the first look out so he's half way there. Kind of like third base... not all the way for the pie (as you get pie on the way home from Cypress when you make it to the top for the first time... mmmm pie!) but tackled the 255 m to the base and then the 300 and some odd to the first look out.

And we managed to live through our travels on the Upper Level. Special shout out to our bestest buddy in the red dodge 3500: SHARE THE ROAD A$$HAT!! That big yellow sign with the bike on it? That's the equivalent to "here there be dragons" but instead of dragons there are bikes and on those bikes are people who could be your sister or cousin or the person who will one day be your surgeon and save your life! Or could be a lawyer and we know what one of those can do to you (ahem Greyhound???) So yeah... The shoulder? That's OURS!

Again not the picture.

No the non-photo opportunity came on the way home. You see it's bike month and one of the crown events of bike month (as side from the GIANT critial mass at the end) is the naked bike ride.

I'll let you process that. Naked. Bike. Ride. Think of the chaffing! No... actually don't because then you will picture what I got to see: a few hundred semi clad or completely naked people on bikes riding over the Burrard Bridge in all of their glory. Or non-glory. EEK! Boobs and penises (peni?) and fixies and banana seats. And a few helmets. Because I'm all about the helmet (right Justine????).

So that was the picture I did not take. Be glad. But be afraid. They might be in your town. So use caution this bike month. There are a lot more bikers on the road and they just might be naked.

Oliver Race Report

2010-06-11T15:38:00.002-07:00

So better late than never, here I am to throw together a race report about the Oliver 1/2 IM last weekend. It was an interesting race and having had a bit of time to think it over, I've learned a few things and hope that this all sets me on the right track for August.

The short version is this: good solid swim; fast bike - probably too fast; strong first half of the run; giant blow up into horrible last 7 km.

Swim: 35 minutes for 2 km
I seeded myself at the front, but off to the side a bit, because my confidence in the water has dramatically risen over the last year or so. The first 400 m of the swim was pretty rough with a lot of contact, but after that everything settled right down and the only real action was around the two turns. There's almost nothing to report from the swim really since my target was 35 minutes, and it's exactly what I did. No surprises, just a good solid performance.

Bike: 2:47 for 93 km
I was targeting a 2:55 bike split, and so clearly, I went a bit too hard. I felt really solid for most of the bike and got some help on the first into-the-wind stretch by falling into a bit of a herd that no one could create separation from. At the aid station after the first lap and a half (54 km), I found my pace a fair bit ahead of where I should have been and thought I was likely going to be in some trouble later in the day because of it. However, I was still feeling really solid except for some tension in my back and shoulders from being aero for so long. On the final lap, I did my best to back off a little, but I still made my way to T2 with a bike split that was a couple km/hr too fast.

Run: 1:57 for 21.1 km
Hitting the run course I managed to get my legs turning over pretty smoothly within the first two kms. I then let myself just turn them over at a comfortable pace and found myself knocking of the kms during the first lap in right around 5 minutes each. Throughout the first lap I was taking in calories in liquid form with Gatorade at the aid stations and feeling really good (I had taken in a gel with a couple of km left in the bike to prepare for the run). Then, right near the beginning of my second lap, around the 12 km mark, I ate another gel, knowing that I was going to need the calories. Unfortunately, within five minutes of taking it in, my stomach cramped up badly and stopped me in my tracks for the better part of kms 14 through 16. When the cramps finally let up, I had gone for half an hour or so without being able to put anything in and I was still afraid to try getting anything else down for fear or cramping up further. Ultimately, this led to total bonk because of the deficiency and a very slow final 4 km.

Lessons learned:
First, I figured out that I can hang around near the front of the swim and not be too bothered by the washing machine. I was quite pleased to come out of the water where I did. That said, I also need to be really careful not to get so excited about being with the fast guys at the beginning of the bike and follow them off ahead of my own pace. It's going to be difficult for sure, but I am going to need to just let people go and ride my own race at IM. I'll set the target pace and stick to it instead of letting myself get carried away. Second, even though I took in the calories I had planned on the ride, it may not have been quite enough and I definitely didn't take enough early in the run when I was still feeling great. I'm going to have to practice eating more early in my run-offs over the next couple of months and continue taking in as much as I can stomach through the whole run in order to avoid running out of calories with too much real estate still to cover. I'd like to think, too, that the stomach cramps were unique to this occasion, but I also had them in Delta, which is a bit of a concern. Over the next few weeks, I'll also have to be a little more observant of what sits well and what doesn't on any given day.

My final reflection on the day is that I am pleased that I managed to break 5:30. My total time of 5:27:01 was a huge improvement on 5:48:xx the last time I raced Oliver and I'm proud of those gains. I was a bit embarrassed, though, at how badly I let my run fall apart on that second lap. While the cramps and the lack of calories are a clear reason, I feel like I should have done of better job controlling the variables in order to get it right, and for that I am disappointed in myself. Unfortunately, there's not a damn thing I can do about it now except learn from it and don't let it happen again. Now, it's on to two good build cycles and a long taper into the big show!

June 10

2010-06-10T14:11:00.001-07:00

Yeah yeah. More flowers.

June 9

2010-06-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

June 8

2010-06-08T14:03:00.001-07:00

This is the coolest flowering plant in my neighbourhood. It's all mixed pastels. I love it.

June 7

2010-06-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

While we were waiting for the wineries to open I went camera crazy. The colours up there are intense.

Then it was winery time!

Hitting the trails

2010-06-05T13:49:00.001-07:00

Well I tried at least. It's a wee bit too sandy for cross riding. The sand wasn't really the issue on its own. Add in some hills and yeah... not going ANYWHERE. But I still got some riding in so it was good.

Weekend in the vines

2010-06-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

Photo for Friday June 4

2010-06-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

June 1st and 2nd - in the city

2010-06-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

Eileen's handy work (the braces on the underside of the bridge). Good job Leeny!!

I have no idea. I just liked them:

May 29 to May 31

2010-05-31T20:46:00.001-07:00

I managed to stay away from plants for a few days at least. Then it rained and I'm apparently a sucker raindrops on things. This first pic looked awesome in real life with rainbows shining from the drops. Didn't come through in the photo sadly.

This was the planter my mom made me for my birthday. Sometimes I wonder if I really am her daughter... I am short and curvy with a tendency to "plumpness" if I stop working out, a a brown thumb... thumb of death really. She on the other hand can look at a tree and it will bloom and grow right in front of you.

Ohhhhh more raindrops!!!! OK I'll try to quit plants again. Next round will be urban I hope.

Mile Repeats

2010-05-28T14:49:00.002-07:00

Last night we were off to the track for mile repeats on minimal recovery. I wasn't super keen to do that workout, but coach limited me to five repeats at a little faster than the target race pace in Oliver next week. Since my goal for the run at Oliver is to be between 1:50 and 1:55, the target pace is 5:12 / km. With that in mind, I set the mile repeats at 5:00 / km or 8:00 miles.

I'm very pleased to report that the repeats went really well. By the fifth one, I was starting to feel fatigue in my legs, but the pace never changed and I certainly could have continued on for a while. Looking back on the week, I had done a hard 1,500 m TT in the pool followed by a solid two hour run on Sunday, then a hard 94 km ride Monday with a 20 minute run off, an up-tempo 10 km run Tuesday and both a hard 3 km swim and easy spin on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure that the fatigue building at the end of the mile repeats was built earlier in the week. The best part is that my head was in exactly the right place as I pushed through and finished off all five on either 7:58 or 7:59.

I'll obviously have to wait and see how I feel coming off the bike in Oliver and what kind of day it is, but I feel confident now that I can take the run out at 5:15 pace and then make any necessary adjustments as I get deeper into the first loop. Meanwhile, this weekend, I get to play around with everything for the swim and bike as I'll be testing out the wetsuit for the first time this year, throwing on the race wheels, and generally getting my shit together so that my mind can just focus on racing next weekend!

May 26 - May 28

2010-05-28T09:41:00.001-07:00

May 26

May 27

May 28

More to follow. Still need to process the pics from the weekend and take one for today. I will make it up to you this weekend with LOTS of pics from the OK valley.

May 25

2010-05-25T12:01:00.002-07:00

May 24

2010-05-24T11:59:00.001-07:00

Trying to move away from my obsession with flowers

2010-05-23T17:41:00.001-07:00

Really nerdy cool park

2010-05-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

We went for a wander around a small park beside the Olympic Village. Now that we can actually walk up to it. And in a few more weeks we might be able to wander around the village itself and I will have shots of more arty things there... like the giant birds and the cool fountains and the converted salt building. At the "Grand Opening" of the show homes (they are selling the condos - starting at a cool 439k for a 700sqf condo) they had the giant floating beavers from the closing ceremonies! I didn't get to see them but Brian did on his ride last weekend.

I love the look of this: how Dan, Eileen, and Brian look like miniatures in a miniature landscape. The hill has a series of troughs with a push button water dispenser that will send water through them and around the hill.

And I love the bridge.

The two chimney stacks of the bridge made pretty cool shots.

everyone else is content with the cocoa sugar...

2010-05-21T17:19:00.001-07:00

... While Geza goes for the Fancy Pants Mocha:

2010-05-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

Today's Muffins

2010-05-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Banana Blackberry Muffins

So I confess I made this up a bit on the fly. They worked out pretty good though!

Combine in a bowl:
1 1/4 c Whole Wheat flour
1/2 c Regular flour
1/4 c oat/wheat bran (I had this in the cupboard otherwise I would have gone with oats or more flour)
1/4 c of sugar (I used honey and added it with the wet ingrediants)
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp baking soda (combo seemed to work out ok so I'm sticking with it)
pinch of salt
Break up a package of blackberries (or raspberries) in to the dry mixture.

Combine in another bowl:
3/4 cup of vanilla yogurt (or plain with a splash of vanilla extract and some extra sugar)
2 riped bananas mashed
1 egg
1/4 canola oil

Add to dry ingredients 'til just combined... might have to add a splash of milk to get it to the right consistency. Don't over mix. Make into muffin form in a muffin tin (with cup liners).

Bake 20 minutes or so at 350 or 375. I'm a rule thumb kind of cook so really I go with what feels right. Stick a toothpick in them to check if they are done.

Fingers crossed

2010-05-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

I got a strawberry plant from Joanne and Torbin for my birthday. Hoping for one strawberry. Come on strawberry!

Monday May 17th Photo

2010-05-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

Can I really be up to date? Yup!

Now will I maintain this? I'll try. I have a few hours left today to get in a photo.

Weekend adventures

2010-05-18T14:35:00.001-07:00

So I went a little camera happy during our adventures on the weekend. The iPhone doesn't take the best "scene/landscape/long distance" photos but oh well. You get what I give you... and when I'm prepared to lug out a big ass camera with a zoom to Deep Cove on my bike hell will have frozen over and pigs will have taken over the skies.

Saturday May 15 - Deep Cove

Sunday May 16 - After our long run we went and stood in the ocean out at Locarno.

Brian being a drama queen about the cold

Brian sucking it up after a few minutes

So what is he looking at? from west (Bowen Island and West Van) to east (Downtown Vancouver) you can see them better if you view them in a new window.

Tide was out so we had to walk through the mud flat to get back to the beach.

Fun beach fact: barnacles have the world's largest 'wedding tackle' based on body mass

No fun facts about crabs... just that they are tasty... I could go for a big crab feast...

Photos for Thursday and Friday

2010-05-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

As promised!

May 13 (Last Thursday) ROCKETS! This is the random rocket sculpture by my house. One of these weeks or months I should do a feature of the random art around town.

May 14 Spring cleaning - and what a job it was. The before pictures do not do it justice. It was NASTY.

Before: ICKY!

After: SHINY!

Better late then never

2010-05-16T19:51:00.001-07:00

So here are the first 12 days of May (minus one - sorry). I'm going to try out the "page break" jump thingie part way though otherwise this will take over the first page of the blog. So those of you who like the photo of day thing and for those of you who are all "enough with the photos lets hear about the training and life thing since this IS a triathlon blog" you can scroll down and read the other stuff on here. OK without further ado the photos:

May 1: Dinner for two on the patio

May 2

To see the other 10 days keep reading here...

May 3

May 4

May 5: Breakfast of champions after swimming: homemade muffins and mochas and strawberries

May 6: Two for the price of one

May 7: Wasn't me...

May 8: Looking out from first lookout on the way up Cypress

May 9: Another beautiful weekend another barbecue dinner

May 10:

May 12: Best freakin' muffins yet - pecan cranberry with a bit of oatmeal

More to come. I have 4 days worth to process. It's just been too freakin' nice out to be editing photos. Excuses excuse I know but seriously it's like heaven out there. Got some good ones though: a rocket, a dirty then clean drive train (sweet jeabus that was one DIRTY chain), some Deep Cove, and some beach shots. Multiples for most days. I hope that makes up for some of the delay.