306 sleeps

This weekend was pretty special.  I attended my first ironman as a volunteer.  Had a fantastic time with great and very special friends.  My roommate, 2 girls from the triclub and I signed up as wetsuit peelers, and 4 close friends were competing in the race, and 3 other tri club friends came down to spectate as well!

I went down Saturday to go the "volley" meeting and learn how to wetsuit peel, very hard skill :P  Met our leader John who was so nice, and the other peelers.... hehehe.

Simon Whitfield and his Olympic Medals

After our meeting I took advantage of being at ironman and toured and village, ran into Simon Whitfield, he let me wear his olympic medals and get a picture with him...















 that was pretty special.  Then I ran one loop of the whistler course (21km) to see what the athletes were in for.  What a treat, it was just a spectacular course, although I don't know how much you take in after an insane swim and bike.....

me heading out on the run course

We all stayed at one of the triclubbers condos in the village, had a group dinner, lots of laughs and lots of fun.

run course view

T1 at 6:00am

The next morning my ironmen were up at 4am and the peelers weren't far behind at 5am.  Out the door at 5:30 and we biked up to the race start.  Being a wetsuit peeler was truly the best job ever.  I was let into T1 so I got to see all the bikes, hang out with my friends getting ready and first row seats for the terrifying (treading water.... yikes) swim start.

T1 with my Ironfriends, pre-race pep talk

As for the actual job I had a blast, nothing quite like an athlete soaking wet running up to you yelling "I need a stripper" at which point I replied with "lay down on the ground".... seriously so fun, and most of the athletes were so gracious.... our volunteer wrangler thanked us about 100 times.  My triclub peeler ladies and I stayed to help with clean up and moving of the wet bags before heading out onto the bike course.

wetsuit peelers!

 Holly and I set up shop and managed to see Winstorm and Chris coming out of olympic village, we then moved up towards the end of the bike course and caught the first place athletes and waiting to see Brendan, Winston and Chris pass and head back into T2.  I lost my voice from cheering, so many athletes gave thumbs up and peace signs when you cheered for them, that made it extra awesome.

The rest of the day for me was spent at T2 watching transition and the start of the run and then watching wurtele take the win in a time of 8:39 and looking strong.  Just an amazing and fun day.  I hope to volunteer there again next year!

cheering on the bike course

Ironman winner

Now for my big news..... I got home super inspired, my legs are feelings amazing after a horrible post race season slump.... I signed up for ironman.  I have my confirmation.  I'm doing it.  306 sleeps away from Ironman Couere D'Alene in Idaho.  Winston and James, two awesome friends, have signed up as well, and a few others are strongly considering it.  My life as I know it ends now.  I have very specific goals for this race, but for now I'm keeping those goals to myself. After everything that's happened in my life in the "recent" past I am willing to sacrifice a lot for this specific goal. I am very excited though and very motivated to share my journey which will likely start with the Victoria Marathon..... stay tuned.

beautiful view of the swim course

Things that keep me going

Something I love about triathlon is how addictive it is, but also how contagious it is.  Since I've started and people in my life have watched me compete and grow, 3 people who are very close to me have done their first triathlon (one has done a second!) and 2 other people are training for them, because they watched me do them, love them, and want the amazing experience for themselves.  I love helping them and encouraging them, it brings me true happiness.  Training with people and watching them progress is amazing.  This is an email from one of my protege's after their first triathlon.  It makes me smile every time I read it..... He competed in his first triathlon after months of fun emails and facebook posts back and forth between us.  I mostly find this funny because it is so perfectly relevant to the new and experienced triathlete to go through these emotions and realizations.. Without further ado, a message from a close friend....

"Highlights and lowlights in my raceday recap.
Lowlights, 
1- Waking up to a flat rear tire on my bike...... 
2- Waking up at 5am....
3- Worrying about my flat tire and forgetting my light breakfast....
4- pre-race dump.... 
5-during the swim, the guy who kept zig zagging in front of me so I kept tickling his feet. 
5.5- The run to the transition and out of transition. What's up with that!
6- after the swim, struggling to get my muffin top on then having the pin rip out of my bib and costing me precious seconds to re pin. 
7- All the freakin' hill climbing in both the bike AND run! Didn't factor that into my training regimen. 
8- All the turns they put at the end of the bike course that slowed me down. 
9- Getting stopped by the transition warden (I call them the tranny cops) to tell me to do my helmet strap back up or I couldn't go put my bike up, costing me precious seconds to do up. 

Highlights 
1- Tubes for sale for $9 bucks at the event! Score....although now I need a new tire pump to pump up my rear tire... 
2- Pre race jitters. Anticipation is awesome.
 3- Doing the swim non-stop. Although I got passed by a bunch of Lises, who although they started three minutes after the men, still managed to pass me before the end of the swim.
 4- Passing many people on the bike portion and not getting passed. Passed a couple of those Lises that beat me at the swim as well! 
5- Going downhill and just flying, although I was kind of worried that my back tire was going to fly off due to my incompetent tire change, but it didn't so I was flying. 
6- Doing the run non stop, passing a few people and not getting passed! Yes!
 7- High fiving the volunteers, good one coach!
 8- At the water station when the water dudes asked me if I wanted water and I replied "No thanks, I have cold beer waiting at the finish line." They laughed, and yes, I had cold beer after my race....at 10 to 9 in the morning...
 9- Finishing the race. How sweet it was! 

Now I'm going to have to do a few more to beat this base time I have set for myself. I feel I could've squeezed some more out of myself on all 3 portions, but, I didn't know how to gauge how my body was going to feel later on...although I did giver pretty hard on the bike portion. So all in all, good times. Thanks coach, I'm no longer a try a tri virgin and know what I need to get done to get better. Then I can do a Sprint...then I can do a fully.....then I can do a half ironman....then I can do an ironman.....maybe not. I think I'll stick with the little guys for now!"

oh ya, did I mention my above friend placed third in age in his second race!! #proudcoachandfriend:)

My Favourite Enemy

Article by Jens Voigt.  The man who coined the term "shut up legs"

All athletes go through bouts of pain that you have to push through.

I"m at a burnout crossroads in many parts of my life, including triathlon.  My legs just can't do it.  I'm just exhausted and drained and some days it's just hard to feel good enough.  But maybe it's that way for everyone

http://bicycling.com/blogs/hardlyserious/2013/07/30/my-favorite-enemy/

" I like the feeling because it proves you are still alive"

"I love you, more than you love your bike"

sad truth: I've said this to someone.  Something you can't really comprehend until you've dated a cyclist.

Actually now that Rosa is in my life I'd be pretty flattered if someone said this to me. 
Someone sent me this questionnaire and it kind of makes me feel like a deviant, as i can truthfully answer BIKE to almost all these questions.  I don't actually know if i've ever felt about a person the way I feel about the FELT.  Ok that's maybe not 100% true but hopefully this makes someone else giggle.

To find out something troubling about yourself, answer these 20 questions as honestly as you can. For each question, simply write down Bike or Spouse. If both apply, write both. If neither applies, move on to the next question. If you’re not married, for Spouse substitute Girlfriend or Boyfriend or Etc. At the end, calculate which entity receives more of your affection, then
hide these pages from everyone in your life—except your biking buddies.

1. I’ll never forget the first time I saw you

___ Bike ___Spouse

image i saved from the day I saw this bike onlne

2. I wanted you instantly

___ Bike ___Spouse

3. I often find myself daydreaming about you

___ Bike ___Spouse

4. There’s more than one photo of us together on my desk

___ Bike ___Spouse

5. I love showing you off to my friends

___ Bike ___Spouse

6. My friends often remark how attractive you are

___ Bike ___Spouse

7. In a typical week, we spend five or more hours of quality time together

___ Bike ___Spouse

8. When you’re around, I often look at you with admiration and longing

___ Bike ___Spouse

9. In the last three months I’ve spent more than $250 on you

___ Bike ___Spouse

my new zipps for rosa

10. I desperately want to take you to Italy or France

___ Bike ___Spouse

11. Our last ride lasted more than an hour

___ Bike ___Spouse

12. It’s thrilling how you respond beneath me

___ Bike ___Spouse

13. I would never let anyone else ride you

___ Bike ___Spouse

14. You make my heart beat faster

___ Bike ___Spouse

15. You make me feel young

___ Bike ___Spouse

16. You have taken me places and shown me things I never thought I would see

___ Bike ___Spouse

ride up mount baker

17. When I’m alone with you, I’m at peace with the world

___ Bike ___Spouse

18. You were made for me

___ Bike ___Spouse

first time i sat on her

19. I can’t live without you

___ Bike ___Spouse

20. I will never upgrade to a newer model

___ Bike ___Spouse

does two halves make a whole?

Well hello there, I’m a half iron lady now.  Two halves in this case don’t make a whole, I don’t feel whole yet but I do feel like a bad ass.  I had a nice blog about my first ever half ironman experience all done…. The Victoria half ironman but alas, the computer in this case kicked my ass (or I didn’t hit save and fell asleep…nobody can be sure) but in anycase, it’ll come.  It was very special because my mom came down from Ontario and was there with me!  I was thrilled with my result of under 5:30 (5:29:45… oh ya) especially considering I was coming off 6 weeks of a no running injury and had to run 20km to finish it.

Stats for that race

Swim: 36:22 -1:50 min/100m

Bike: 2:56 (86 km) - 29.3 km/hr

Run - 5:38min/km

 

Half ironman two was the Vancouver international triathlon.  My first “urban triathlon”, thus I Had home court advantage.  I’ve been swimming weekly in the ocean with VOWSA the local open water swim group and I had been biking the course.  I also serindipidously came into a sick pair of ZIPP808 tubulars so I knew this race was going to be special.  It’s also my last official race for the season so I knew I was leaving it all out there.

Race day – a nice 5:30am transition set up is always nice, got a decent sleep and breakfast into me and took my handy dandy Car2Go down to the race site.  Setting up for a half is so different than the sprint, the nutrtion and water bottles… and socks… yes socks on the run… I was sure I Was going to forget something! I’ve invested in the dual cell aerobottle on board hydration system and I love it, I also have taken to taping my gels to the bike.  Had my fingers crossed my brand new tubulars weren’t burst and that I wouldn’t get a flat (although I did carry pit stop with me, I really had no good idea of how it would work)

SWIM: worst swim start of my life! And others agreed! It was a beach run into the ocean and about 700 participants.  Drowning almost ensued.  It took a loooong time for the pack to spread out.  The first buoy was probably about 400m out and the turn was just an absolute whirlpool.  I took it easy here and didn’t really catch my stride or an opening until about 800m into the race, almost time for me to run onto the beach, around a marker and head back into the ocean!  Second lap felt amazing, the ocean swim, coached swims and everything else is paying off with a solid swim time of....

T1: I improved from Victoria because I was brave enough to again try having my shoes clipped onto the bike and had my gels ready this time (Victoria I had to stuff them in my pocket).  Had my forerunner ready to go attached to my bike, tossed my helmet on and off I went.  Shoes went on so smoothly this time.  All my transition practices at Jericho beach have paid off.

36 min - 1:54/100m

BIKE: Here I was in my element and I wasn’t going to hold back this time.  Fast course and a course I knew.  New wheels that sound amazing and made me feel even more amazing!  4 loops f 22 ish km.  I just felt so good the whole time, one big climb right at the start but that meant the bike ended on a downhill which was a nice rest for the legs before the run.  This was my biggest gains, averaging 29.5km/hr in Victoria (notably a tougher course) to 33.5km/h here! Got my shoes off no problem and a fast run into T2.

2:43 - 33.1 km/h

T2: nothing to report, bike racked, shoes, visor and watch on and off for the run

RUN: The run has become torture for me.  I was coming along so far and so strong before the injuries, but the minute I stop running my body hates it.  I knew this would be 20 tough km, about 4km shady/loop and 6km along the beach in the blazing sun.  It was all mind over matter.  I had a bit of a disspointing run time and got confused on the course.  Was smashing salt pills and gels trying to ward off the cramping and have never been so happy to see the finish line, couldn’t believe the time read 5:09…. 20 minutes faster (and 4km longer on the bike) than my previous half ironman.  I finished in pain but quickly had the biggest smile on my face.

1:45:40 - 5:17 min/km

My final time landed me another world qualifying spot for long course, but I think I’ll stick to short course for this year.  Can’t wait to improve my run and finish in under 5h next year.

This has totally prepared me to conquer ironman next year.  I’m still leaning towards IMC in whistler, but I’ll see how my volunteer experience goes before I decide.  No more races right now, I’m taking rehab time and working with my physio in hopes of getting trained up for the Victoria marathon in October, I think its important for me to mentally do a marathon before ironman, but I’m going to have to listen to my body on this one and right now it’s not too happy about that idea!  Some more fun short races, sprints and Olympics maybe at the end of the summer, I’d love to road trip out to Banff, but again, gametime decision.

It has been quite a year of ups and downs.  New job, New city, New triathlon distance…. New lifestyle.  Training and racing has gotten me through so much in my life and it just makes me so happy, but this year the people I’ve met because of it has made it that much more special.  I am finally settling into Vancouver and getting pretty excited to see what the next year holds in all aspects of my life…. Stay tuned J

I've been pushing for this for so long

I've been slacking on my blog!  I was meaning to update on many things including an awesome few weeks of training including

Bike ride to whistler.... longest ride to date!

Early year open water swims at the beautiful sasamat lake!

First mountain climbs including seymour and grouse is one day!

And of course my first half marathon which was a total blast!  A gorgeous day!  I failed to run a negative split (possibly because the first part is all the downhill) but managed to exceed expectations with speed.  I was aiming for 1:45 and managed 1:43! (4:56/km pace) It took me longer to recover from that than I expected, but I ran fast and hard.  I've been playing with ice baths for recovery but it hasn't been working too well as I have a slight injury again... femoral anterior hip impingment is the latest.  It's a weird injury that causes random pain throughout my upper leg.  Working with the awesome people at Dunbar Physio to get that sorted out.


The main event of this blog is the shawnigan lake triathlon! What an amazing weekend with amazing people.  It was my first road trip race being part of a club and it just made the experience that much cooler.  We left on saturday afternoon and took the ferry over to the island.  Good banter and fun on the ferry as about 15 of us made it on the same one.  Got to the course in lots of time to check in and ride the loop.  Made me really pumped up as it was a very fast course.  First time I had to check my bike in the night before, I was sad leaving her in transition :P

Had a meal together and more fun at the camp near the race site and got to bed by around 11am.  I got up early to have breakfast with my friends doing the half and saw most of the race starts before getting myself sorted for the 9:51 female sprint start.

feeling pretty good to start the race, nerves aside, and shitty weather aside.  I got a bit creative and fashioned toe warmers out of socks and electrical tape since the 22 and sunny weather they were calling for turned into 12 and rain.  Did a 500m swim warm up since I know my first 500m of swim always sucks.

SWIM  - it was a short swim for a sprint, whch i don't really mind because my swim is weak, but I actually posted my faster 500m time ever so I'm pumped.  It didn't feel like a good swim... it was really crowded, I've never felt so smothered in the water but I just held my position as well as I could trying not to get run over by other swimmers. My sighting is improving and swimming straight.  All those late night swim practises are paying off.

pace 1:47/100m

T1 - Came out of the water feeling pretty good, had a fast T1 which included ripping my wetsuit off thats to tri-slide.  Just an incredble product.  I was really cold and didn't put my bike shoes on, they were attached to my bike like a boss... unfortunately this is where the race went a bit off plan.  The T1 entry onto the course was really crowded and slow.  I got knocked around a lot and actually had to wait to get onto my bike.  While this happened one of my shoes came loose and the velcro actually came out of the hole.  I hopped on my bike and tried to slip my foot into my shoe but it was impossible because of the velcro so I actually had to pull over, rip the shoes off my bike, put them on and clip in.  I couldn't get the velcro back in the hole fast enough so I rode with the strap out and shoe undone.  All a part of the joys of racing!

BIKE - I was kinda bummed out about the bad start of the bike and figured my race was over, but decided I came all the way out to the island better and it was such a fast course that I better just see what I could do.  Bike felt great, course got busy at parts and a few times I got stuck behind cars (Wasn't a closed course) and had to brake at the bottom of a couple hills where I didn't really want to.  Asides that I TT'd the whole thing in aero and only got out of my big ring for one climb.  I yo-yo'd back and forth with a fast team canada biker and finished strong.  Got my shoes off on the bike without a lot of trouble and a fast run back into transition

Official 33.5 kph, but according to my polar which didn't include my stop to fix my shoes I was at 34.4kph

T2 - all good except numb feet (even with my awesome toe covers) meant it was really tough to get my shoes on.  Thank god they were race shoes.

RUN - the run started off on a hill which was no good for me.  I was in quite a bit of pain due to my hp injury and uphill runs are the worst, so I'm sure the first km was slow.  I chugged along high fiving the other UBC tri club members running the other races, didn't stop for any water, actually only drank once the whole race.  At the turnaround I realized there were VERY few women infront of me and none of them looked my age, but close behind me there were quite a few so I attempted to pick it up despite the pain.  Just past the 1km mark I heard members of my club yelling at me that there was someone right behind me and looked back.  Sure enough there was a lady of the same age within 100m and gaining, so I turned on the engines I had left and sprinted for the finish (downhill thank god) and managed to cross 3 seconds before the girl behind me....

I was a minute slower than UBC tri but we will chalk that up to injury

4:46/km

the kicker to this whole race is that is was a world qualifier.  Thats why I decided to race the sprint distance.  Figured I had a shot because of my result at UBC tri.  Set out to win, and in the face of adversity still managed it.  Feel pretty over the moon right now.  THis means I"ll get to wear a team canada race kit and race in the worlds next year!!!!!

Had a fun trip back, ferry buffet with awesome company to discuss our races.  20 club members total went and I think 10 got on the podium!!

Next race is my first half ironman if my leg holds up...
Stay tuned~!

Destroy Yesterday. Vancouver Sun Run

Last weekend was the Vancouver sun run.  The largest 10km race in Canada... this year over 48,000 people ran it (including simon whitfield and sean astin...so cool)  What an amazingly fun race.  I ran as part of my work team.  15 people from my work of all abilities entered the race.  Of course it was also well attended my the amazing triclubbers.  I was skeptical about this race being very good with so many people but figured it would just be a cool event to be a part of, but I was wrong.  During this race they seed you based on time for where you start and I was in the second group.  I arrived an hour early and got near the front of the second group.... glad I did... here is why (that's 40000 people behind me)

Our group started 2 minutes after the elites and celebrity groups, after a minute of silence in respect for the losses in the Boston Marathon bombing.  I spent about 1km dodging people and then that was it, wide open road for running.  What an amazing race community wise, so many people out to watch, an amazing route across so many of the downtown bridges (made for a few steep climbs).  High fives all along the course, it was SO much fun.

  My goal was simply to beat my fall classic time of 46.22, I was hoping for somewhere in the 45 min. range.  I destroyed it.  43.49  faster than I ever imagined being able to run.  I ran blind, no pacing, no watch, no garmin, all feel.  My training, and water running has been paying off, and probably just the exhilaration of such an epic event.  I know a lot of triathlon club members PB'd as well, and all my work friends exceeded expectation!  My time also means I can start in the elite group next year!  I couldn't be more pumped!  Blue bib for me!

This race has got me really pumped up for the BMO half marathon in just two weeks!  AFter the race we ccelebrated in a friends yaletown condo with good food and drink and watched more people pouring in across the granville street bridge.  Go Vancouver!