Filling in the blanks…

Sometimes you don’t realize how much you would really like something until you aren’t sure if you can have it.  Take Ironman for example.  My good friend Tara realized that she really wanted to race it next year when all the community fund spots filled up at the end of October.  All of a sudden 147 new spots appeared online a few weeks ago…no idea how or from where…but all of a sudden the opportunity opened back up and now Tara will be racing next year along with Kelly and I.

When I first bought my bike back in April 2008, a Kona Lisa road bike, I wasn’t sure how much I would even use the thing.  I hadn’t ridden a bike in ages, so I had no idea if my bike and I would be occasional friends or if I would really fall in love with it and want to ride all the time.  Ha, as soon as I brought my new bike home I took it out of the car and promptly went on an 8 mile run…  It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with my bike though and somewhere between April and August I started to think sprint triathlon…half Ironman in 2009…Ironman in 2010.  And colour me surprised that the bike is my strongest of the three events.

So to be perfectly honest with you, I had no intention of looking at a new bike for Ironman next year.  For how hilly the course is I wasn’t sure if I would see a benefit out of a tri bike.  Maybe after Ironman I’d think about a fancy new tri bike.

And then on Monday I stopped by D’s blog.  D is selling her bike…an absolutely beautiful 2008 Cervelo P2C.  51 cm.  Hmm, I fit a 51 cm bike…  We exchange e-mails, but since I’m in Calgary and D is in New West I can’t exactly test ride her bike.  Maybe I can find the same bike to test ride out over here?  On Tuesday I e-mail Kelly to let her know that I brought my gear to run in case she would be interested in meeting up.  Kelly and I never run on Tuesdays, but we both have our gear and are keen to hit the pathway.  Swiftly the conversation turns to bikes and I ask Kelly what she rides.  A 51 cm Cervelo P2C.  Really?  And oddly enough, Kelly actually has it downtown with her that day, on the roof of her car.  She wouldn’t normally have it with her, but today just happens to be my lucky day.  I see her bike and I fall in love…  At a bike shop I am able to confirm that this would indeed be the right size for me.

As I thought through the idea of a new bike, I told my parents that I figured I’d get a new bike after Ironman.  My mom asked me, “Why wait?”  After all, there is no question as to whether I’m going to use a bike now.  Pretty safe to say that I love biking!  It all just felt like kismet, from Kelly having the exact same bike with her for me to try out that day, and for D having the “perfect for me” bike.  Someone threw their name into the hat for the bike before me…so I waited in anticipation…  I figured if it was meant to be it would happen, and then I got the good news this evening that I lucked out!!  Thanks D, I promise to take good care of your girl!!  Training for and racing Ironman Canada is going to be fun!!!

Preoccupied

Things have been ticking right along this week.  I have no structured training this week, so anything I want to do is up to me.  Or perhaps anything I don’t want to do is up to me…hmmm…

I took Monday as a rest day after the Last Chance Half.  I was actually expecting to hurt a whole lot more on after the race but I think that the swim and putting my feet up on Sunday helped a lot.  I navigated the up and down of stairs with ease.  Good times!

Tuesday I met up with my friend Kelly over lunch.  I was interested in an easy recovery run.  Kelly wanted to work on her technique for race walking.  While we aren’t working out together I love the chat on the way to the pathway and the motivation of just meeting someone for a workout.  I was originally going to head out for 30 minutes, but holy smokes the wind was whipping around!  In fact there wound up being wind warnings issued that day.  I figured 20 minutes would be a good goal for a run in such windy conditions, and the legs felt great on the run.  I was especially keen to get a run in since I couldn’t make it to spin class that night.  A good friend of mine and former coworker from San Antonio is in Calgary on business.  We haven’t seen each other in about 2.5 years, so we got together to catch up.  I was also in charge of finding some good local food for her to try, so I took her to Spur Gastropub.  It is a pretty interesting spot downtown and the bison dry ribs, PEI lobster mac and cheese and the beef sliders were fantastic…

Wednesday I met up with Kelly again for another run.  We both aimed for about a 40 minute workout.  Rather than sticking with a fairly flat route along the river I went with something a little more hilly in the neighbourhoods along the north side of the river.  It was a lot less windy, the sun was out, and it felt great to run.  After Kelly and I were done we ran through some step ups, squats, and dips.

So that has been my week so far!  My mind has been a little preoccupied with something or other this week.  I’ve made a big decision…hopefully I’ll have some interesting news to share with you soon…

Last Chance Half Marathon – Race Report

First off I have to say that my coach Angie deserves a huge congratulations.  She had a stellar race at Clearwater yesterday, coming in 7th in her AG!!  Way to go coach!!!

So…the Last Chance Half…  Given that I really didn’t train for this race there was no way I was running for a PR.  I didn’t want to risk getting injured, and despite the fact that I am uber-competitive with myself I knew trying for a PR would not be a good idea.  There was something that I did want to focus on though.  During too many races I have allowed negative thoughts to creep into my mind and have let it affect me.  I’ve placed a lot of expectations on myself this year in races and I’ve had times when I’ve cried and times when I’ve wanted to quit.  I really need to find those positive mantras that will get me through tough times, especially as I approach Ironman!  So my goal was to stay positive the entire race!

It was supposed to be 8C (46F).  I prefer to underdress rather than overdress, so I went with capris, a long sleeve tech top and a short sleeve top.  What I wasn’t expecting was the wind though!  I stopped to get gas on my way to the race and was surprised by how windy it was.  Hopefully the wind wouldn’t be too cold and I’d be dressed okay!  I got to the race site, managed to exchange my medium shirt for a small with another racer, and hung around waiting for the race to start.  People were dressed to the nines!!  Running tights, jackets, gloves, woolly hats, you name it!  Oh well, I was committed to my outfit and it wound up being the right call for me.

We took off from the Eau Claire Market and headed west along the south side of the river.  Just as the race started the winds really picked up from the west.  They were gusting up to 50 km/hr (30 mph).  My goal was to keep my pace in check for the first 3 mi and the wind definitely made sure that happened!  We crossed the river, went a bit farther west, then turned around to run east along the river.  I planned to take advantage of the wind at my back and I was feeling awesome!  I sucked down a mint chocolate Gu and it definitely gave me an extra spring in my step.  When we got to around the zoo…probably about 7.5 miles in…the pathway got to be a bit more hilly.  We hit another turn around at 9 mi and my energy was starting to flag.  Probably no surprise given that my longest distance in awhile was 8.5 mi.  Time to really turn on that power of positive thinking!  I imagined the finish line, and thought that there was a big string extending out from the finish that was tied around my waist and pulling me back in.  I kept thinking that I was so thankful that I was out running today and enjoying the race.  Just one foot in front of the other…that string was pulling me in…I was doing it and I was feeling great!!!  (Or at least that was what I kept telling myself…)

So sure…definitely no PR…but I felt like I really did work hard on positive thinking and it helped me out a lot today.  After I stopped running I did feel like my body absolutely hated me though!  My legs were functioning…barely…and when I coughed it just hurt all throughout my torso (there is something about exercising in cold weather that seems to induce a bit of a cough once I stop moving).  I put some sweats on, grabbed my breakfast, then headed over to the Y to stretch.  And since I haven’t been to the pool for ages I then swapped out sweats for a swimsuit and knocked out 1500m.  Then home with my feet up for the rest of the day!

Congratulations to my teammate Sharon who came in third in our AG, plus I saw Jordan and Susan out there.  Great to see you ladies!!

Chip Time: 2:12:47
Overall: 355 out of 452
Females 30-39: 79 out of 107
Females Overall: 177 out of 257

**And in addition…this was actually my second fastest half marathon of the year.  Although the two slower halfs were at the end of a half Iron distance triathlon…so….  And sadly my ankle was a casualty of those nasty timing bands.  I have a wicked wound on the back of my ankle from where the timing chip cut in, along with a few spots where it looks like I’m allergic to the band.  Pretty, eh? 

Never Say Never!

One of the things I love about the industry that I work in is that you meet some really interesting people.  When I was working as a field engineer in Laredo, TX one of my favourite characters was a company man called Frank.  He is just how I would figure a lot of oil field guys in Texas would be.  10 gallon hat, chewing tobacco, gruff and someone that you didn’t want to piss off.  But for as scared as a lot of guys were of Frank I enjoyed working with him.  He worked for a small company and every once in awhile he’d bring his wife and little Dachshund Jorge (pronounced George) out to location and he just doted on that little dog.

On Tuesday I had a big meeting with some partners regarding a project in the works for next year.  One guy is a super straight talking kind of guy.  I’ve been a little intimidated of him in the past but in this meeting I felt like he really listened to what I had to say and respected my opinion.  At one point in the meeting he said to me, “Leana, never say never as an engineer because as soon as you do you’ll be wrong.”

So, never say never my friends.  I had written off running the Last Chance Half.  Longest run to date in the last few weeks?  A 90 min 8.5 mi run.  In fact my last run was the Edworthy Park XC race on Saturday.  I had spent the 11:00 hour this morning convincing myself that it was too cold to run outside.  I had finished up lunch and had just swallowed a fun-size Snickers bar when the e-mail came through.  All of a sudden that little Snicker bar felt like a rock in the bottom of my stomach.

“…Leana is the next person on the waiting list so you can sell your bib to her…I’ll let the two of you work out the financial details but send me an email to confirm the change…”

Um…excuse me?  My name just came up on the waiting list for the Last Chance Half?  GULP!!!  What to do?  Well, here are the reasons why I think I should run it:

• The weather…knock on wood…is supposed to be really nice on Sunday.  And a race is a good excuse for a long run, right?
• I have a ton of Gu in my inventory right now.  This is a good opportunity to use some up, right?  (Yes, I keep my Gu in a massive beer stein.)
• The breakfast after the race is phenomenal.

So…guess who is running a half marathon on Sunday?  Within 4 hours of finding out I was running I had my race packet all picked up.  Wish me luck!!

I <3 new bike toys!!

I fully admit it, I’m a numbers nerd.  I love my Garmin.  I don’t live by the numbers during a workout, but I do like to know how far, how fast at the end of the day.  I did have a Sigma bike computer earlier, but it went belly up back in July.  Then I picked up the Garmin cadence sensor so I could use my Forerunner 305 as my bike computer.  After all, GPS, cadence…what’s not to love?

But the battery life on the Forerunner would be sketchy during an Ironman.  Typical life is 10 hours so between the bike and the run it may be touch and go.  I was originally wowed by the flashy new 310XT.  Waterproof?  A 20 hour battery life?  Sweet!  But for a retail price of $400 Cdn it is a little tough to justify for just a bit of extra battery life.

Enter the Garmin Edge 305.  A slightly nicer price point, and it is bike specific.  It attaches to your stem or handlebars so it is easier to read and it records cadence, heart rate, speed, altitude…  Awesome!  And thanks to *cough, cough* eBay *cough, cough* I got a pretty good deal.  It arrived in the mail earlier in the week and I set it up.  Quick and easy!  Isn’t it pretty?

I really wanted to take the Edge out for a spin, but not just any old spin on the trainer.  I wanted to take it outdoors!  And since Saturday it was sunny out I decided I could brave the chilly wind and bundle up for a ride.  By the time I got going I didn’t have a ton of daylight left, but I managed just over 15.5 mi in an hour.  I haven’t ridden outdoors since maybe September but it felt so good to be outside!  Sure, the wind was chilly and seriously a bear (up to 35 kph or 22 mph).  Going up and down the hills north of my neighbourhood was a lot of fun though.

And the Edge?  I love it!  Everything I love about my Forerunner, but just better for the bike.  I need to play around with the display a little more though.  If you pick four fields to display the two on the bottom are fairly small to read, especially if one of them is cadence.

Sunday I hit up the Y to do a little strength workout.  It has probably been a year since I actually did some strength training at the Y??  It felt good to pump some iron (haha!!!).  What didn’t feel good?  Finding it next to impossible to pull up my emergency parking brake in my car this evening!!!  Hello DOMS!  Alright, it is 9:30 pm…I may have skipped swimming thanks to working late tonight, but now I need to get to bed!!

Edworthy Park XC Race

When fall arrives, so does the start of the Calgary Road Runners Cross Country series of races.  I’ve been wanting to try one of these races for ages but I always seem to be training for something that prevents it.  With no marathons on the horizon there are no excuses, so I showed up for the Edworthy Park XC race today.

We’ve been fairly lucky with the weather in Calgary as of late (knock on wood).  No snow for awhile and sunny and dry all week.  This made for some fantastic conditions on the trail as it was dry out, no snow, and just one icy patch.  And since it was supposed to be up to 8C (46F) I figured capris, a short sleeve tech shirt with a long sleeve on top would be perfect.  And it did feel nice outside…when the wind wasn’t blowing!  The wind was positively icy, but I figured as soon as the race started things would be okay.

I ran into Dawn and Karen at the race start, chatted with a few other runners and soon enough it was go time!  There are two options for the race, a one loop 4K or a two loop 8K course.  I decided to go for the 8K.  This being my first XC race and all I lined up near the back and vowed to not look at my Garmin.  The course was a whole lot of up and down and it sure was fun!  There was one flat section when we were running along a field and wow…it felt like all energy was being sucked from my legs.  Definitely prefer the up and down trail as opposed to flat.  There was one big hill that we got to hit twice where I didn’t even attempt to run, I figured I was best off just to walk it.  Sure…I came in somewhere near the back of the pack, but no matter.  It was still fun!  I can see how these races are addictive and it would be fun to get better at cross country!

After the race we all head to the nearest community hall for a social.  Bring a bowl, mug and spoon for soup and coffee, plus bring a dessert to share among all the racers.  I had a bowl of black bean and pasta and chatted with friends.  For $10 for race entry you can’t beat this as a way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Garmin Time: 53:00
Gun Time: 53:04
Overall: 97 out of 103
Females 30-39: 7 out of 7

Healthy food needed, stat!

I think my brain has been feeling a bit overloaded on left over Halloween candy and take out meals.  I needed something fresh and healthy this evening! 

First up I roasted some parsnips in the oven with some olive oil, salt, pepper and some fresh ginger.  Parsnips are one of those vegetables that I really detested as a kid.  Now as an adult I’m trying a few new ways to cook them up to see if I can change my opinion on them.  After all, they are supposed to be good for you! 

While the parsnips were roasting up I made the other half of my meal – Tassajara Warm Red Cabbage Salad from 101 Cookbooks.  Red cabbage, raisins and feta cheese.  What’s not to like?  I followed the recipe, but added in a some sliced apples to the cabbage and sprinkled some pomegranate seeds on top.  Pomegranates just came into season so I’m going to have to see how else I can incorporate them into meals.

It was good stuff and just what I needed!  Happy Friday everyone!!