STORM THE WALL

Never thought i'd spend a week climbing a 12 foot wall.... definitely never thought that would be the most fun week I'd have since moving to UBC.  Storm the wall! What a unique event.  A long standing UBC tradition and allegedly the largest campus wide intramural event with over 2500 participants.  A race that consists of.... a 225 yard swim... a 450 m sprint... a 300m bike.... a 1km run... and a 12 foot wall.  "Storm" as it is affectionately called  by those who suffer it, can be run as a team of 5 or as an individual... mens, women, corec, just for fun; there is something for everyone.

 

I participated as an "ironwoman" (individual with one person to help me over the wall) and as the 'sprinter' on a UBC triclub co-rec team (all 5 racers help eachother over the wall at the end).

 

 

What an event, great practise for transitions... tons of fun, quite a few bruises and amazing memories.  For the ironwoman event my amazing friend (who also happens to be my boss) assisted me over the wall.  My first heat was a bit rough.. started off with the best swim of my life (flip turns and dolphin kicks, oh ya) and progressed onto the worst bike crash I've had to date. The storm bike course is 9 laps of a tight 300m oval on slick rock.  I had switched my bike pedals to flats and underestimated cornering... skid out, lost my chain, and ate sh*t.... err.. pavement.  Elbows, knees and back roadrashed, I was up, chain back on and on my bike in a matter of about a minute.  Still finished first off the bike but got passed on the run..... Made it to the wall second, but over the wall first!  Won my heat with a time of 19.12

 

Went on to compete in semi finals with the third fastest time of 18.12 (behind 2 tri club girls) and this got me a spot in the finals.  Ended up 4th overall in finals with a time of 18.02.  My time at the wall improved significantly each round.  My strategy was to stand on my wallmans shoulders and hoist myself over the wall up to my armpits, then swing my legs back and forth until they were high enought o hurl one over (this is where all the bruising came from)

What an insanely fun race J  Couldn’t have had more fun.

For the co-rec I was blessed to be racing with some of the fastest people I know and we cleaned up the co-rec division with a group time of 12.56, which included getting all 5 of us over the wall. 

 

Proud of myself for storming the wall so many times in one week! It was a bit intimidating because so many people were watching all the time! But the support of my lab friends who came to watch, and the amazing Triclub made the whole week completely unforgettable!  Can’t wait for next year!  Now back to intervals and eye on the prize.. shawnigan lake?

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to be good at something you have to practice – UBC triathlon race report

Finally getting around to blogging about my latest race experience: first race of 2013, first race as a Vancouverite, the UBC triathlon.  I was afraid to blog about goals prior to this race due to my injury that stopped me from run training for the past 8 weeks.  It was a big disappointment because I had felt that my run had improved significantly in the past 6 months, however due to IT band syndrome I’ve had 8 weeks off running, short of 3 dry practices (one of which was a small aquathon) prior to the UBC triathlon.  My goals were simply to PB in each of the three disciplines since my training volume has gone up so much since last year.  Spoiler alert: I succeeded in that J  I was hoping to do the Olympic length race but settled on sprint in case my pain flared up, didn’t want to have to DNF due to a 10km run.

Pre-Race.  No warm up since it was a pool swim, I didn’t even go for a jog, however I did ride my TT bike with a heavy backpack to the race site, so I think that counts.

SWIM – The UBC triathlon was held in a pool since it’s… you know… March… and really cold.  I was a bit nervous about a pool swim, I’m used to open water now, didn’t know how the passing would work, I can’t flip turn and my dolphin kicks leave something to be desired.  However I have been swimming coached twice a week with the amazing UBC triathlon club and often another time on my own.  I was more than prepared for the distance though, and all the training paid off.  I put myself in the 15 minute group thinking that the swim was 750m, but it turned out to be a 700m swim so I placed myself near the front of the line (they set people off 20 seconds apart).  Only 4 people went ahead of me in my heat.  I felt very confident in the water and was able to push myself and easily passed 3 of the people ahead of me.  My swim coach timed me wall-wall at 13:10 for 700m which was better than I could have hoped.  My official swim time which included my run out of the pool and out to transition was 14:03.

T1 – Right out of the pool they hand you a bag with whatever you wanted post swim in it.  It was only around 6 degrees out so I had a wind breaker, my race number, towel and flipflops.  I abandoned the towel and flipflops because adrenaline was running high and sprinted barefoot the 200 or 300m across the pavement to the bike transition area.  I left leg warmers at my bike but abandoned these as well.  I threw on my gloves and helmet and took off, shoes pre-clipped in, and attempted my first ever “flying start”.  Getting on the bike and getting going was no problem, but getting my feet in my shoes was a bit tough since they were wet and a bit numb, but I finally managed…. Good thing I practised my transition a bunch before the race!

transition practice at jericho beach

T1 ready

BIKE – Not much to say, I can’t say enough amazing things about my TT bike.  I love it so much and this was my first chance to really stretch her legs.  I blew by everyone, felt invincible, first time I’ve never had anyone pass me (not even the boys).  Bike time including transition to run was 40:29 for a 22km course, so averaging probably a bit better than 33km/hr (I reaaaaallly need a garmin).

T2 – Since I also managed to get my shoes off while on the bike my transition was faster than ever.  Got in, helmet, gloves and jacket off, my new slip on zoot shoes on (still no socks) and jetted out of there.  I can’t imagine my T2 was more than 1 min. (including putting my IT band strap on)

RUN – Again, not much to say about this.  Usually during the run I can’t wait for the race to be over.  Not this time.  I was a bit tentative for the first 1-2km testing out my knee, once it felt pain free I picked up the pace as much as I thought I could sustain, but once I got to the crowd and the finish I found another gear and absolutely annihilated my previous race PB and came in at 22:40 for the 5km run (average around 4:30/km).

Running with IT band syndrome :P

Finished the race 1/43 for the female 25-29 AGE.  2/151 for all females in the race (until today they had declared me the winner, but the timing chips were all messed up and now apparently a U19 was faster than me :P) and overall 13/330.  Final time 1:17, by far my best finish!

The training is working, my knee is getting better and I couldn’t be happier and more excited for the season!  Can’t wait for VOWSA open water swims to start, planning on running a bunch of running races, bike races and other fun things amidst my triathlon journey so stay tuned for more adventures and training!

Lise and Tiffany, Triclub winners!

Tears are not a sign of weakness, they are a sign of fruuuussstraaation

IT band syndrome has now plagued me for 8 weeks.  It has been extremely frustrating.  My course went something like this - initial injury on a run, after that couldn't walk or descend stairs without pain.  Went to physio, got diagnosed, excercises, foam roller etc.  Did my excersices everyday, foam rolled, I kid you not, for an entire episode of sex in the city almost every night.  Stretch, strength yoga and no running.  After about 4 weeks of this no pain walking anymore, but instant pain running.  Another 2 weeks off running... could jog for about 15 minutes before the pain kicked in, but once it did it was game over, could slow to walking with no pain, pick up a jog again and was in pain.  Kept going to physio, but at this point, we decided a new approach..... Physio suggested KTape and I bought an "IT band - band"  The tape allowed me to run an easy 5 km on the flat pain free, band wasn't quite as effective... but I put the two together and I've had 2 decent pain free runs (one set of intervals)  In the mean time I have taken up water running...... I've heard positive things about it keeping up your running fitness, although I don't feel quite up to speed.... guess we will find out.  Race next weekend.... ahhhhhhhhhh

IT band tape job  - effective when you're almost healed

KTape + IT band band.... works for me

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Guess it was time for me to become a real athlete and suffer my first sports related injury.  Badass? Nope. Just sucks.

On a regularly scheduled Wednesday night run I got a bad pain in the side of my right knee.  I carried on but it got worse not better.  Bad sign.  Post run (and post ab ripper) it was painful to walk.  The next day I had shooting pain in my knee and high up in my IT band so I took a few days off...(and by off I mean I only swam, although there was some pain kicking off the wall).  A few days later I was able to walk again, pleased with myself for curing my injury I went on a run through the forest.  About 2km in the pain came back with vengeance.  Took another 2 days off and continued to feel discomfort walking so I was immediately off to physio.  The therapist quickly diagnosed me with IT band (Iliotibial band) syndrome.  He performed some painful procedures (ripping my IT bands apart with some weird suction cup things) on my thigh and gave me exercises to do to help strengthen my butt to support the IT band..... and of course prescribed me the foam roller.  I then googled my inury and convinced myself my sports career is over.  Never google your injuries!

It's now 5 days post physio-session 1.... all rest except for a daily swim.  it isn't better, it's still causing me pain, although less on a day-day.  Walkng down stairs in the worst, but seeing as I hate stairs it's giving me good reason to take the elevator at work :P  tons of stretching and tons of painful foam rolling.  I'm hopeful this will be short lived.  I really need triathlon in my life right now.  I'm considering trying a spin tomorrow and see how that goes, but no pushing it.  One girl in the tri-club is going to teach my water running on Sunday as well.  Being in pain and feeling out of shape grows tiresome quickly.... I have learned that no matter how much pain you're in swimming is a great outlet cause nobody can tell you're crying in the pool.  So time to focus on my swimstroke (for which I am finally feeling improvements) and time to get myself better in every way possible.  Hopefully I'll have some good news soon and I'll be ready to kick butt in sports and life.

And sometimes you just gotta have fun

Friday night I participated in my first ever Beer Mile.  For information on the event check out www.beermile.com.

Basic rules are Chug a beer, run 400m repeat 4X and if you puke you have to do a victory lap.

After the triathlon club ran a fall race series that is taken kinda seriously, they finish it off with a Friday night beer mile.  I was surprised how many people showed up, maybe 30?  I was not surprised that i wasn't the only one secretly training for this event.  I chugged a beer every night for a week as training, a friend of mine attempted chugging two beers and then running for 5km....makes me laugh every time.  Another one of the guys in the triclub organized an interval run for before the beermile, can't take a day off.  Love the commitment of these guys.

Siblings at the Beer Mile

Annnnyways, cutting to the chase, it's the only event I've been able to squeeze out a win (in the female category)!!! :) 9:07 min.  Just under my goal time of sub 10!! Reed was in town, visiting from Calgary and beat me by 10 seconds!  We had a blast.  Sweet race, sweet after-party.  Most fun night I've had since I moved to Vancouver.

Beer Mile Format

STEP 1: CHUG

STEP 2: RUN

STEP 3: DON'T PUKE

Being good enough isn't good enough anymore: Fall Classic 10km race

Got my first race in BC under my belt, and probably my last race of 2012... unless we count the brick this weekend as part of the UBC triathlon clubs fall classic.

Anyways, the fall classic race is held on UBC grounds and features a half or 10km.  Since I"ve never done a legit running race I opted for the 10km.  Was kinda feeling sick the day of the race so it wasn't a great start, it was cold and a bit rainy but the weather wasn't too bad. 

Not much to report for a running race.  I had my heart rate strap on with the timer going so I could ball park my speed.  My goal was to come in under 45 minutes. 

I ran as hard as I could on the way out and at the turn around point I was at 22:12, on pace for the 45.... but the return run was more uphill and I just couldn't quite keep it up.  I was actually disspointed with my official 46:22 finish.... which is kinda crazy now that I think about it, since I never would have imagined finishing this fast. 

I came in 96th overall, 13/127 age and 27/507 women....so I really can't complain.  My running has improved so much and I'm looking forward to my first half marathon this spring in preparation for 70.3.

Direction is more important than speed. We are so busy looking at our speedometers that we forget the milestone

When I started training I was obsessed with speed, tracking my workouts to a T, calculating my average speed........worrying about my average speed.  Recently I've ignored all that and just more enjoyed the process.

That brings me to all my current milestones.

The triathlon team at UBC runs a fall classic race series, including a bunch of swim, bike, run events against other club members.  I had no idea what to expect for my average times in these events but they have led to some new milestones.  My best improvements has been in my run for sure, i've come in at times I never thought would be possible for me, but give me new marks to shoot for in the future.

5km - 21.17 min

1 mile - 6:04 min

10km TT on the FELT - 17.18 min avg 34.5 km/hr

onwards and upwards.  Itching for a race and signed up for the fall classic.  Can't wait to see what my 10km time is.  GOAL: 45 minutes.

My direction is the half ironman distance races this summer, I actually can't wait for these challenges.  I'm actually starting to feel a little bummed I didn't sign up for ironman whistler, but I really want to be ready for that, so i'll have to stick to the halfs for now.  

It's so funny the specific events in my life that brought me to this place.  Things that at the time seemed life-altering and terrible led me to this new love and passion.  If those things had never happened I would have never even come close to reaching my potential in all aspects of my life.  I love this place I'm in, I'm so happy this sport is such a huge part of my life now.  I love the people and the kinds of people its led me to meet.  There really is nothing like pushing your own limits over and over and over again, setting new goals, conquering them and starting over.