It hasn’t really sunk in yet that my first HALF IRON distance triathlon is THIS WEEKEND!! I know I can swim 2000m, that I can bike 90K (56 mi) and that I can run a half marathon. The question is really putting it all together. And then throwing nutrition in the mix. This week I’ll be spending some quality time thinking about what I’ll be eating for breakfast, when I’ll be eating it, what I’m going to eat on the bike, and then what I’m going to carry on the run. And how I’m going to carry all of it.
This week is also a short one at work. July 1st is Canada Day and I plan to celebrate in style. Friday we have the day off for the Stampede Parade, but I’ll be dropping Finlay off at the kennel and making my way up to Edmonton in the morning.
Workout wise…nothing too exciting to report. Sunday I ran for 45 minutes with 6 x 1 min hard, 3 min easy. I left my run until later in the day and it was hot! Well…hot for here, and hot for me! The intervals were nothing to write home about, but at least the heart rate got up there. After that I was in the pool looking for a little 2000m redemption. I hit my first 500m interval over a minute fast than last week’s, and my second 500m came in within 3 seconds of the first. Unfortunately I was fighting a splitting headache and after 1200m I had to call it a day. Today I worked hard on my taper by relaxing on the couch watching The Bachelorette and Merlin. Gotta enjoy this laid back nights when I can!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Yikes!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Magellan I am not…
Woo hoo, bring on the taper! Yesterday I had a 40K ride on the schedule. I mapped out a nice little loop from the northwest of Calgary – out Highway 1A, north on Lochend Road, east on Big Hill Springs Road, south on Bearspaw Road back. It was one big box of a route. I have never ridden this route before, but it looked pretty fool proof so I never thought to download the route to my Garmin. Oops.
My friend Tara joined me and we got going nice and early at 8 am. It was sunny out, but a little windy. The route was going to have some good rollers. When we hit the intersection of Lochend Road and Big Hill Springs we rejoiced at being halfway done and that we’d probably have the wind on our side for the rest of the ride. I knew that we wouldn’t have to go far down Big Hill Springs before hitting Bearspaw Road…except somehow I missed the turn. All of a sudden Big Hill Springs Road ended at a T intersection with Symons Valley Road.
We figured we’d turn south since that would mean we’d be heading back towards Calgary. When the road started to jog farther east I wondered where exactly in Calgary we’d wind up. After a phone call to Tara’s husband we realized we’d out on the northeast of Calgary, riding on some really busy roads to get back to our starting point. We decided to turn back around and try to find Bearspaw. I had brought a gel with me “just in case” so I took that and we were back on the road. And now riding back into the wind up some big rollers. Ugh. This time we really paid attention for Bearspaw and lo and behold, we found it! We finally made it back to our starting point…just over 48 miles done instead of 40K. Oops! Thanks to a good breakfast and the gel I brought with me I didn’t bonk on the ride. It was a really good ride despite being longer than planned!
In the afternoon I hung out with my niece. We played in the park and I changed my first poopy diaper (yes, she is almost two and I’ve managed to avoid the poopy diaper until now). After play time in the park Avery was looking ready for a nap…and so was I! Now I’d better get on with my workouts for today, plus a little house cleaning. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
My Michael Jackson Encounter
Wow….crazy news about Michael Jackson, eh? I used to have such a crush on him when I was a kid, although he kind of lost me at the Bad album. Probably since I was still pretty young. Anyhow, I thought I would share my Michael Jackson story with you.
For Labour Day long weekend back in 2003 (I think…) my friend Cecilia and I booked a super cheap last minute trip to Las Vegas. We stayed at the utterly craptastic Westward Ho (which surprisingly no longer exists) because it was the cheapest option on the strip. It was wayyyy down on the strip next to Circus Circus. The only thing I remember about it was that they had 99 cent margaritas and advertised it with a big blow up margarita out front: 
My friend and I decided to go see the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. They had a drink special – some frozen concoction in a take home mug. I like beverages! And I like souvenir glasses too! Sign me up! I don’t remember what I drank, but my friend had a strawberry margarita or daiquiri.
After the show we wandered over to New York New York towards the bus stop. We were sidetracked by a small group of people gathering outside the magic shop inside the casino. We asked a few folks what was going on, and apparently Michael Jackson was shopping inside because he really liked magic! My friend and I looked at each other and figured how many times would we have the chance to say that we saw Michael Jackson? So we decided to wait. And we waited. And the crowd grew bigger. What was maybe 10 people to start with wound up forming into a huge group of people that were pretty well taking up the entire walkway past the shop.
Finally it looked like Michael was going to be coming out. I got my camera ready. As soon as the doors opened up and Michael came out the crowd just went WHOOSH!! and moved inwards toward Michael. Both Cecilia and I got pushed forward. I lost one of my flip flops. A guy a few folks ahead got pushed into a security guard and he got punched in the face by the guard. All of a sudden it was just a crazy melee and I tried to grab a picture of Michael as he went past:
Cecilia taps on my arm. She hadn’t finished her strawberry beverage and when we got pushed forward she accidently dumped the rest of her drink on to a lady’s white shirt. We’d better get out of there, fast! I scurried around to find my flip flop, then we made the long journey back to our hotel, amazed by the strange turn our night took.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Pointing in the Right Direction
The bike tire has been replaced! The sidewall of the tire had broken down, causing it to warp. How does it happen? First off, the bike tech asked me if my tire had been near the exhaust of my car. It hadn’t, but heat near the tire could be one cause of damage. Another possibility is wearing the tire down on the trainer over the winter, then the tire continues to break down as you ride outside. One other possibility…and this is just a theory here on my part… There is a little arrow on the tire showing you the direction that it is supposed to rotate:
It isn’t really obvious and I didn’t even know it existed until I was changing my tube out just before Wasa. It is entirely possible that I had the tire on backwards at some point, which would also cause the sidewall of the tire to break down (since it is stronger in one direction). Although I reserve the right to be wrong on that! So trust me guys, I’m learning a lot about taking care of a bike as I go along. After awhile you realize that cleaning and lubing a chain isn’t that difficult, and you learn who to ask for advice!
Since my bike needed some TLC this evening I decided to get my run in today. Have I mentioned that it is taper week? Just because there are no really long workouts that doesn’t mean that the workouts aren’t quality ones. And today’s quality workout involved speed intervals! It was essentially a repeat of Sunday’s run, except it was 8 x 2:00 speed intervals instead of 10. Given that I rode hill repeats yesterday I was actually really happy with how the intervals went. I was about the same pace range as Sunday on the intervals and felt pretty strong the entire way. Tomorrow? Bring on the bike!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Finally! Facing my fears…
The original plan for our Tuesday night group ride was bike and run repeats. The wind was pretty fierce though and there would have been a terrible crosswind on the bike intervals. Angie switched things up and it was going to be another night of hill repeats. The bonus with the wind was 400that it would be a tailwind pushing us up the hill. I wasn’t so sure I was keen on hill repeats, and I was a bit worried that the bruising on my left hand would make braking tough. But I was going to go up the hill, and if braking was an issue I would just head back.
Angie suggested that we get at least one ride up Cochrane hill – the big one! And she suggested that we ride it first, then we could ride Gleneagles for the rest of the way. While the elevation gain is the same regardless of the route, Cochrane hill is much steeper.
I took off up Cochrane hill. It was time to face my fears! As I went up and up I kept the effort nice and steady. Sure, it was a long climb, but I felt strong the entire way. I was doing it! I hit the top before I knew it. On the descent my hand felt good if I was reaching for the brakes from my drops. Good stuff, that meant I could turn around and keep going! I opted to go up Gleneagles for the rest of the repeats. I noticed that I felt a weird rhythmic thump, thump, thump from my rear tire. It wasn’t going flat… But I’ve been having issues with my rear wheel, so what was it this time? Turns out, my rear wheel looks like this:
Looks like it is time for a new tire!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Working on my power output
Wow, I did not accomplish nearly enough tonight. I had meant to fix the flat tire on the front of my bike (the first time the front has flatted in the 14+ months that I have owned it). I probably also really needed to finish up the laundry I started yesterday. Instead I got home on the later side of things, got sucked into Jon & Kate (I know, I know…terrible, I’m sorry), and fell asleep during the rose ceremony of The Bachelorette. Anyhow, time to catch up, right?
Last week was my final big week of workouts before Great White North, and Sunday’s workouts started off with a bang and finished with a whimper. My long run was accomplished on Thursday, so that left me with one last good quality run and swim to finish out the week.
I had a run with 10 x 2:00 hard intervals. We are talking zone 4, all out effort, "these should hurt really bad" intervals. The day after riding 120K. No problem! I started off with a nice and easy warm up for 10 min, then did 4 x 0:20 accelerations followed by :40 of easy running. Then it was time for the work to begin!
I tried to not look at my watch the entire time, but I’m really happy that my intervals were so consistent for pace. They ranged from 7:51/mi to 8:23/mi. I did a cool down jog for 10 min afterwards and finished up feeling really good about my run.
Afterwards I headed into the Y downtown to knock out my swim workout. It was a 2000m race distance swim, followed by 4-6 x 100m sprints and a 200m cool down. There was no warm up, just start right in on the 2000m. To keep things a bit easier I broke the swim up into 500m chunks and timed each segment. Holy smokes, was I swimming slowly… I finished up the 2000m in a whopping 51:43. Ridiculous. It was more than 5 minutes slower than I think I should have been. I really wasn't feeling the sprints after that and I called it a day.
My motivation has really been flagging when it comes to the swim lately. And as luck would have it, I had another swim on the schedule today. My swim classes are over for the summer and I'd like to try swimming downtown more often, so Monday and Wednesday afternoons seem to work best for that. I was headed to the Y and I passed a couple of pubs and thought that those sounded like much more fun than going to swim. But I was good and bypassed those and got my behind to the pool!
I had an interesting workout on the schedule. It was an endurance set with ascending effort and it was written in terms I could totally understand:
- 300m at a steady effort (75%)
- 200m at a harder effort (85%)
- 100m HARD! (95%)
Put things in terms of mathematical percentages and all of a sudden things make sense in the water. I realized as I finished up my warm up and tried to dial into my 75% effort that yesterday I swam my entire 2000m at a warm up pace. I never worked up the motivation to go faster. I had it in me, I just didn't tap into it. When I tried to increase the effort today I made sure to keep good form in mind so that I was still feeling efficient in the water, I was just working harder and I succeeded. I ran through the set twice, and including warm up and cool down I knocked out 2000m. When I went home and worked out the numbers I successfully increased my pace as my effort increased, and I successfully repeated those same paces during both intervals. Nice! Sometimes I guess I just need to see things from a more mathematical perspective!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Cochrane to Millarville (almost) and back
Saturday…the day of my longest bike ride leading up to Great White North. I had 120 km (74.5 mi) on the schedule. My friends Pam and Tara were all up for an adventure, along with a couple of Pam’s friends. Kate made our 120K ride part of her final long ride before racing a 200K bike race in Alaska in a few weeks, and another friend met up with us part way through as well.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how the ride was going to go. I still have some swelling on my palm and bruising is coming to the surface:
Putting pressure on the front brake and changing into my big chain ring is somewhat painful. Riding itself doesn’t bother things too much though.
We started off in Cochrane and took off south down Highway 22 towards Bragg Creek. It was absolutely amazing weather. Not too windy, a clear blue sky and a perfectly comfortable temperature. Since I knew it was going to be one long (almost continuous) climb to Bragg Creek I took it nice and easy. We stopped off at the Cinnamon Spoon in Bragg for a quick bathroom break – the only place for us to stop along the way and about 18 miles in. We rolled out of the parking lot and hit a stop sign to get back on Highway 22 to keep heading south. At the stop sign all of a sudden I heard a loud “pshewwwww.” I looked over at Kate and her front tire was quickly going flat. She must have accidently rolled over something as we approached the stop sign. The flat was changed pretty quickly, and then it was back on the road.
We turned south onto 762 and headed south towards Millarville. From here the scenery was just amazing. We started to hit rolling hills and we were riding past fields and farms and things were so green and beautiful. We also had glimpses off the Rockies just off in the distance. 
This seemed to be a pretty popular route for Sunday drivers and motor bikes. There were a couple of cyclists out besides us, but not too many. When 762 ended we had a choice. We were a few kilometres short of the halfway point so we could go a bit farther for an out and back, or we could add on a little extra and loop towards Millarville to come back to Bragg Creek. We decided to just go for an out and back as if we went through Millarville we’d be riding highway all the way back to Bragg instead of this more country road. Both options would be equally as hilly, but it was nice to ride on the quiet road. I felt really strong on the uphills on the way back, it was fantastic! Then just as we approached Bragg I saw two deer, just off the side of the road. Amazing!
As I approached the three hour mark for the ride my stomach was rumbling. I had brought along a Honey Stinger protein bar, a pack of Honey Stinger chews and a gel. I think the amount of calories was okay, but my stomach was crying for something to approximate lunch. I also brought along two bottles of nuun, but after the first bottle I was tired of drinking something with flavour and I really wanted just water. When we hit Bragg again I refilled with some water and Pam also suggested Coke for the final part of the ride. I also scarfed down a date bar from the Cinnamon Spoon as well to help quiet the rumbles. Then it was time to finish the ride up and head back to Cochrane!
When we hit the parking lot we were just a little bit short for the full 120K and I was keen to reach that milestone. I did another quick out and back(up Susi’s bonus hill) and back to the car. 120K done! My longest distance ride to date, and done in 4:30, with about 2400m of climbing. Here’s a map of our ride:
After that Pam and I took off for our brick run. The legs felt good on the run, although my brain was having a tough time getting motivated for the run. Ugh… Oh well, we got the brick done!
Afterwards it was time to refuel. I’ve been wanting to try the ice cream at MacKay’s for ages and this seemed like the perfect excuse. This place is super popular and it is easy to see why. The ice cream is amazing!! I had a cone with scoop of Saskatoon Berry and a scoop of Nanaimo Bar. A perfect end to a really great ride! Thanks ladies!!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday through Friday
Wednesday
Wednesday was just a total gong show. I saw a doctor in the morning who didn’t see a point in getting an x-ray on my hand. Then I went into work and my boss immediately said, “It looks broken to me.” It seems like half the people in my group have broken their wrist at some point or another. After spending the entire duration of a Society of Petroleum Engineers lunch and learn worrying I left work in the afternoon to get a second opinion. And an x-ray. After my x-ray I was just about ready to cry in the car on my way back to the doctor’s office. I was convinced that I was going to get bad news and I was trying to prepare myself for the fact that my race season might be over. Imagine my surprise when the x-ray delivered good news! I was supposed to have a bike ride on the schedule and was going to ride the trainer…but I was just mentally exhausted. Let’s just call it a rest day.
Thursday
It was my final swim class, but I had other plans and couldn’t make it. I had a 22 km (13.6 mi) run on my schedule. The best way to fit the run in would be to run from my house to work. I had left a bag of clothes and toiletries at the office on Wednesday so I wouldn’t have to carry anything with me besides water, nutrition, my wallet, cell phone and keys. The biggest bonus about running into work would be the net 353 feet in elevation loss. I had hoped to leave at 5:30 or so, but didn’t get out the door until just after 6 am. The run went really well though, and my splits were the most consistent they have been in awhile, ranging from 9:34/mi to 10:18/mi. Not bad considering this route was not flat. My plan was to pick up my gear at the office and run the final mile from the office to the Y…but since I had left left I was pushing it for what time I would be starting work at. I may or may not have borrowed a pass to shower at the gym downstairs…ahem… So I was short a mile, but the run into work was a great way to get a long run done on a weekday. I then took the C-train home to the brand new Crowfoot Station. I contemplated walking home from there, but since the skies were just starting to open up I hopped the shuttle bus to my neighbourhood.
Friday
There are not a lot of open water swim options around Calgary. All of the lakes around here are private and you have to be a resident of the community with the lake in order to get in (or you have to know someone who lives there who can sign you in). Luckily Angie was able to get a few of us in to swim at Arbour Lake this evening. The clouds looked nasty and I was worried it would start to rain, thunder and lightning at any time, but things held off. After struggling to get into the wetsuit it was time to swim. I went for one lap around the perimeter of the lake and didn’t feel too bad overall…until I stopped. I felt tight in my chest. Angie figured it was probably due to gulping air. This explains why I keep feeling like I have to burp during and after an open water swim. As I tried to burp Angie gave me some tips to help avoid gulping so much air, and sent me on a bit of extra swimming to try it out. Thank you Angie for giving us the advice, then making sure we used it right away instead of letting us out of the water, quitting and ending the swim on a sour note. When I really focused on making sure I was breathing all of my air out I felt a lot better. Just as I was about to swim away from Angie she asked me, “Leana, what is on the back of your head and under your swim cap?” Er…um…it’s my Garmin… I think I may have earned the title of biggest numbers nerd on the team now… All in all, about 1290 meters done! From there is was on home to kick back, enjoy some sushi, and put my feet up in some compression socks to relax for tomorrow. 
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A Quick Update
UPDATE: Went for a second opinion and an x-ray. Confirms nothing is broken...phew!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Not the ending I was hoping for…
I had hoped to have a great post to write tonight that would be all about facing your fears. Because tonight was hill climb night in Cochrane and I’ve been worried about this for awhile. We were riding up through Gleneagles instead of the big main hill. That equates to about 400 ft of climbing over 2.3 mi. My hill repeats were actually going quite well. I finished my second repeat and turned around at the top. I hesitated when I was going to make a left hand turn as all of a sudden a car turned onto the street that I was about to turn on. The only problem was I was clipped in. I tried to turn my wheel and unclip, but no dice. Down I went. I landed on my left hip and hand. My left handlebar was bent from hitting the ground. I had a couple of teammates around and they were wonderful about helping me up and making sure I was okay. (Thank you Kelly, Jeff, Paul, and the other lady who was there that I’m blanking on right now!!) I was a bit shaken but nothing looked overly wrong except some road rash on my palms and a skinned knee and elbow. 
Doesn’t really look too serious, eh? I also have a bit of road rash on my hip from where I landed on the ground. I made my way back down the hill and as I went to get into my big chain ring I felt some pain in my palm, the meaty part connected to my thumb. At the bottom of the hill Angie’s husband Ken was able to fix my wonky handlebar. My hand was swelling up though. One of these things is not like the other…
I rode back to my car with Kelly and Joanne. I am going to get an x-ray tomorrow just to make sure nothing is broken in there. So keep your fingers crossed for me that things are okay!!
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Sports Bra Experiment
Sorry boys, this post is going to be all about sports bras. You may want to skip this one. You have been forewarned!
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Just when you get things figured out for the clothes that you need to wear on long run and during a marathon, things get thrown for a loop when you enter the triathlon world. When I did my first two triathlons I picked a top with a built in sports bra because that seemed like a better idea than wearing a separate bra, intentionally getting it wet, then biking and running in it. Then I joined Team Tri Life and our kit included a top without a built in bra. Hmm, time for the scientist in me to find the perfect bra for triathlon!
The Criteria
1. Excellent support. I’m not super well endowed, but I still need a pretty good amount of support for the girls.
2. Would lock and load my heart rate monitor strap under the bra band. After suffering some wicked chaffing (that I still have the scar for) where the HRM band bounced around I knew this would be key on a long day in a triathlon.
3. Wouldn’t absorb a ton of water in the swim and that would also dry quickly. Well, it may not dry quickly, but I didn’t want to feel like I was carrying a couple of sponges strapped to my chest.
4. I also wanted a bra that was high cut, so that if I needed to lower the zip on my tri top I wouldn’t busting out a bunch of cleavage. Mind you, I’m single…and cute guys race triathlon. Maybe that wouldn’t have been that bad of an idea altogether…
The Contenders
1. A medium support bra that I picked up from the Gap a few years back. This one has always been a good standby bra, but sadly they don’t make it anymore. It is a double layer of fabric, and comes in as the lightest bra at 64 grams. You’ll recognize it in the pictures because it is the fuchsia one.
2. Under Armour high impact that I picked up from the Under Armour outlet in Orlando. This one is also a light weight at 65 grams. The support isn’t too bad, but it seems to work mostly by the smooshing method which isn’t always the most comfortable.
3. CW-X Sport Support Bra, a medium support bra. This one definitely meets the HRM criteria, and despite being billed as medium support it handles my 36B girls pretty well. 74 grams that is super comfortable. This is an expensive brand, but you can sometimes find a good deal online. I’ve managed to get a few CW-X deals from Team Estrogen from time to time.
4. CW-X Firm Support Bra. This one also does a great job of leaving enough room for a HRM strap, but as is typical for me with most firm support bras this one feels a little too constricting on my chest. 106 grams.
5. Moving Comfort Diana A/B bra. By this point in time I was tired of buying black bras and bought this one in white…which I somewhat regret now. This one is a completely different fabric from any other sports bra. It is quite lightweight, but it is a stiffer kind of fabric. I was convinced that I needed to try this bra when I saw it was billed as the ultimate marathon and tri bra. I would say this ranks equally for comfort with the CW-X Sport bra. 74 grams.
The Experiment
I needed to know how these bras stacked up for absorbing water, then how quickly they would dry. The most accurate way to know that would be with the help of my handy dandy kitchen scale to measure the change in weight:
I got the contenders wet in the tub
then hung them outside to dry for an hour.
I’m sure my neighbours must have thought I was nuts… But this was in the name of science! After an hour I weighed them to see how how well they had dried. Here’s a breakdown of the results:
Water Absorption (least to most)
1. Moving Comfort
2. CW-X Firm
3. CW-X Sport
4. Under Armour
5. Gap
Ability to Dry (best to worst, by measuring the difference in air dry weight to wet weight)
1. CW-X Sport: shoulders and top half nearly dry, still wet near the band
2. CW-X Firm: shoulders dry, body and band still very wet
3. Under Armour: still overall a bit wet
4. Moving Comfort: still overall a bit wet
5. Gap: overall very wet
Field Tests
After my backyard experiment I saw the Moving Comfort and the CW-X Sport bras as being my two best options. The real test would be to see how each one would hold up on race day.
I wore the Moving Comfort bra at the WCOC triathlon in May, then I wore the CW-X bra this past weekend at Wasa Lake. The best thing I can say about both bras is that I never thought about either of them during the race. Neither felt wet or heavy after the swim, and my HRM strap was kept firmly in place during both races. No chaffing at all. I’d highly recommend either bra, whether you are looking for the perfect piece of race day triathlon gear, or just a great bra to wear during training.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Wasa Lake Olympic Triathlon – Race Report
What a day at the Wasa Lake Olympic Triathlon!!
The Day Before the Race
Wasa Lake Provincial Park is in British Columbia, just north of Cranbrook in the Kootenays. I drove out to Wasa Lake first thing Saturday morning (which is about 4 hours away from Calgary), met up with some friends for swim in the lake, then headed off to Cranbrook. I had an important matter to take care off. My bike! Friday night my rear tire was flat AGAIN!! I really wanted to take it into a bike shop to have them look at it as I was really worried that something was wrong and that I’d flat on the race. I dropped my bike off at Gerick’s, headed to grab my race packet, wandered the town, picked up my bike and went off to the pre-race meeting and carbo load dinner. Then it was back to my hotel, the Elizabeth Lake Lodge. This place is a great, small, family run establishment. It backs on to the Elizabeth Lake Conservation Area, and the beds are super comfortable. I went for a walk around the conservation area, took a ton of pictures of geese, ducks and things that look like chipmunks? 
Then it was back to the room to relax and get things ready for tomorrow. As I was laying all of my stuff out I could not find my race number belt! I thought about just pinning it on to my top, but then I worried it would rip (or rip my top) when I took my wetsuit off so I need another alternative. Walmart to the rescue! I drove over there, picked up some elastic and then made my own race belt out of it. I watched the end of S.W.A.T. on TV, then called it a night.
Race Day
Or so I thought…I woke up at 10:45, 2:20 and 3:45. Sometimes I was waking up thanks to my stellar hydration the night before, but for the most part it was just nerves. Finally the alarm went off at 5 am and I was up, showered, got my gear together and the car packed up. I must have had to pee at least three or four times before leaving the hotel. Nerves? I felt really bad for waking up the hotel owner at 6 am so I could check out… I figured that a coffee was definitely in order for this morning so I was pretty excited to see that Starbucks had opened up just a few minutes before I drove past. See, don’t I look happy? Plus, they had a bathroom, and I mysteriously had to pee again.
It was a 30 minute drive to Wasa Lake and I parked my car shortly after transition had opened up. Even though my wave wasn’t starting until 8:55 am we had been warned at the pre-race meeting that there wasn’t a lot of parking and I figured I didn’t need to stress over that. I’d just get there early and take my time setting up. As soon as I parked my car I had to pee again. Sheesh! I walked the 1 km to transition with my stuff, and started getting set up. As soon as I started unpacking my bag…I found my race belt! Hurrah!
After things were set up I hit the porta-potties, got my chip and got body marked, hit the bathrooms (again, and again, and again), then headed out to check out the beach we’d be starting from. Pretty, eh?
There was a pretty long run up the beach, along a path and over some grass into transition. Two kiddie pools were set up so we could wash our feet off before going into transition. I looked at the water and debated long and hard over whether I wanted to use them or not.
I watched the sprinters take off at 8:15, then it was time to hit the bathroom and wriggle into the wetsuit. By the time that was all taken care of the men’s wave had already started. I got in the water to warm up, but soon saw the men coming straight towards us, and figured I’d better move over. As soon as I started waiting around for the race to start…I couldn’t believe it. I had to pee again. I’d already been 5 times since I’d arrived at the park, but I figured this was as good an opportunity as ever to “christen my wetsuit.” Which reminds me, I need to take it upstairs to rinse it off. I managed to find a few friends in the water and then all of a sudden, it was go time.
The Swim – 1500m (well…maybe not…)
We had a one loop swim and the Olympic women were the last to go. I rather liked that idea because it meant that I wouldn’t be clobbered by any men out there. When I started I was feeling really good. My new wetsuit is absolutely fabulous. I was just swimming consistently. There was a bit of crowding and contact in the beginning, but as we settled into our pace (i.e. as I drifted towards the back of the pack) things were a bit more settled. I hit the first buoy a lot quicker than I had anticipated. My sighting was a lot better on this race than it was in Oliver. Maybe it was the calmer water, or maybe it was that I can see better out of my Aqua Sphere goggles. I’m not sure. The second buoy that we would turn at seemed farther away than I realized initially. Despite feeling good I started to question why on earth I was in the water. I’m not sure why I hit that low point in the swim. Hopefully I can work on loving the swim the entire time I’m in the water.
As I was swimming along I accidently kicked a lady next to me. Not hard, but it felt like my pinkie toe hit something on her and all of a sudden…wow…it hurt! It wasn’t until I was almost through with the swim that the pain went away. I found out later in the day (on the drive home actually), that the skin where my pinkie toe and foot meet actually split. Ouch…
Once I hit shallow water and could grab the sand I stood up and started the run up the beach, along the pathway and towards transition. Well, I started off running but I was feeling dizzy and quickly decided that walking would be a better option. And I decided to take a dip in the kiddie pool (remind me to disinfect my wound). I looked up and saw the clock as I went into transition. It said 28:xx. What? Either I just bought a miracle wetsuit from Cindy, or else the swim was short. Or both.
28:25 – 376 out of 504 overall, 178 out of 259 females
T1
Getting the wetsuit off my ankles was hard. 3:23 (back calculated from the bike split)
The Bike - 40km
As I got going on the bike it became a game of “let’s see how many people I can catch.” The bike course is for all intents and purposes flat. Sure, there is a general trend of uphill or downhill in certain areas, but nothing to differentiate the cyclists out there. So that meant that there were large packs of riders out there. And since I had come out of the water towards the back I had plenty of those packs to pass. Drafting? I don’t know if everyone was really paying attention to how close they were to people in front of them. As soon as I got close to someone I’d yell out “on your left” and pass them. I didn’t want to be riding close to anyone. There was the odd woman who didn’t want to get passed so they would speed up as soon as they realized you were going by. And then there were some ladies that were in no hurry to pass and all of a sudden there is a group of 6 women or so, taking up the entire lane. I just played my own game, kept my cadence at 90 or above and tried to stay in my own space. At one point I passed a girl on a mountain bike with aero bars..?? I also passed a guy (they started 25 minutes ahead of us) just before the turnaround. The only guy I’d pass on the bike, but that’s okay!
The bike was a straight out and back for the most part, and once I hit the turnaround to come back I decided this would be a good time to down a gel. The gel went down fairly easily, and I grabbed my bottle of nuun to wash it down. As I reached down to put the bottle back in the cage I fumbled it and it launched down the road. 15K left to go and no more hydration. Oops. The rest of the bike back was uneventful, but I did manage to maintain a pretty sweet speed over the duration of the bike, and I think it is fair to say that I really made up some good ground (like 93 females worth).
1:13:45 (from the Garmin), 249 out of 500 overall, 85 out of 257 females
T2
As I finished off the bike I felt like my bladder was bursting. I was debating whether I should hit the porta-potties after putting my run shoes on but before leaving transition. After the bike was racked all was forgotten. Time to run. 1:26.
The Run – 10km
As I got going on the run I felt like I was moving so slowly. I was just trying to run at a comfortable pace, go out slow, and ease into things. Imagine my surprise when I looked at my Garmin and saw I was at a sub 9:00/mi pace! How did that happen? I was determined to not look at my heart rate. Maybe that’s silly…but I didn’t want to know if it was high or not since I might freak out and question whether I can maintain what I’m doing. So I really just focused on being comfortable. And I was for the first 3 miles…8:52…8:52…:8:56. I hit the 5K point at 27:33. And as usual, I couldn’t quite hold that great pace for the final 5K. But here’s the story….
When I got off the bike I thought my bladder was having issues, but as I started in on the run it became readily apparent that my stomach was the one with issues now. Things were a' gurgling and it was not a happy time. There were no porta-potties on the run, and when I ran past a park bathroom I debated ducking in (although it was being cleaned, so it wasn’t available). I was about 4.75 miles in though and I did not want to give up a PR because I stopped to hit the bathrooms. I’d be okay with missing out because my body rebelled, but unless I spontaneously combusted I was pretty sure a PR was still a good chance. So I slowed down…9:21…9:33.
At 5 miles in we ran right past transition…and kept going. Steve King was announcing the folks coming in and we kept right on going. (If you have done Ironman Canada recently, besides last year, he has been the race announcer for I’m not sure how many years.) We ran over grass and over sand and up a little hill, then out on to the street to do an out and back. Oh that was cruel. That out and back felt so long… Finally I turned around and headed back towards the finish…9:19…
I passed one girl on the final uphill to the finish but couldn’t catch the guy in front of her. And then he kept running in front of me as my friend Tara tried to grab a picture of me crossing the finish line. I didn’t remember what the clock said for my finish time…but for sure this would be a PR over Oliver!!
56:32 - (a brand new 10K PR!!!), 330 out of 495 overall, 134 out of 256 females overall
2:43:30 (a PR over Oliver by 14:54!!)
303 out of 495 overall finishers (9 folks quit the race somewhere throughout)
115 out of 259 females
27 out of 43 in the F30-35 category
Post Race
Ugh, I was not feeling good as soon as I stopped. The issue in my stomach had subsided a bit and all I wanted was to get something to drink…fast… Thank goodness for water and Coke. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to eat anything, but after hanging out for awhile I thought it might help things, so I grabbed a veggie burger, some pasta salad and some watermelon. Luckily it all sat well, but my head was still feeling a bit off. Not much to do about it other than start the 4 hour drive back to Calgary.
On the way back through Kootenay National Park we saw a bunch of cars pulled over to the side of the road. That can only mean one thing in the park – animals!! I pulled over, rolled the window down and got the camera. Two black bears were across the highway.
That’s all well and good, but I couldn’t believe it when a large group of people who had gotten out of their cars for a better shot, then started moving closer to grab an even better shot!! Seriously folks, do you want to become dinner?
Anyhow, I am super happy with my race. Yes, the swim course was short, but it would still have been a huge PR day for me regardless. I’m going to have to figure out what caused such major stomach upset on the run…and fast…because the Great White North is only a few short weeks away. Yikes!!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Testing Out the Wetsuit
Tonight Pam, Zoe and I decided to brave our first open water swim in Calgary this season. If you remember correctly, we had off and on snow, hail and rain on Saturday. It was still pretty cool on Monday, then it warmed up on Tuesday but it was a pretty cloudy day. So…who knew what the lake would have in store for us today! Luckily it was warm and sunny all day here. One of Pam’s friends lives in a community with its own man-made lake. Only residents are allowed in, although they can bring in a few visitors. We were signed in, then headed off to the bathrooms to shimmy into our wetsuits. Since both Zoe and I had new suits (well, new to me anyway), we were both keen to get in a bit of open water practice.
First thing I realized…must trim my fingernails before the race this weekend! Fingernails and neoprene are probably not a match made in heaven. Pam taught us a trick that if you put plastic bags on your feet it is a lot easier to get your feet into your suit. I timed how long I needed to get into my suit and yeah…15 minutes is about the time.
Once we were safely ensconced in neoprene we made our way to the lake. It was so beautiful out there! So quiet with picnic tables, tall trees, even a small beach. 
I decided to try out Rainmaker’s suggestions for swimming with the Garmin. I wrapped my Garmin up in a Ziploc bag, tied it into my ponytail and pulled the swim cap over. We all had neoprene caps as well, but opted to give things a try with just swim caps on. Finally we decided to brave the water.
It felt cold initially, but as I was treading water I realized that I actually felt really warm under my wetsuit. We picked a dock across the lake to swim to and took off. The aim of the game was just to practice sighting and to see how the wetsuit fit. My swim experience in this lake was so different than the lake in Oliver. The water was clear and I could see all of the green stuff growing up out of the lake bottom nearly the whole time. It was amazing! I realized that I need to make sure I’m really pulling up my sleeves to make sure I have plenty of mobility in my shoulders and the chest doesn’t feel too tight. When we made it to the dock Pam helped me adjust a sleeve, then we picked the edge of an island across the lake to swim towards. I felt like I was sighting pretty well to here and the small adjustment in my wetsuit made a huge difference. When we were about across from the beach that we started from we decided to head back. According to the Garmin we swam about 670 metres.
I was worried about how cold the lake would be, but it turns out the lake felt so good! And I am SO happy with how my new wetsuit fits. This one is definitely so much better! Will it make a difference in my swim time at Wasa Lake on Sunday? I guess we’ll see!
*In case you aren’t reading this in Google Reader, scroll down to the post below. I’ve been a prolific writer tonight!
Splitting Things Up
What a busy day today!! I had a 15K run on the schedule and the real question was when I was going to fit that in. It is too long of a run to attempt over the lunch hour, and I had other plans for the evening. So…could I fit 15K in early in the morning before going to work?
I set my alarm for 4:30 but it was just asking too much to be out of the door by 5:00. Oops. Ahem, finally at 5:40 am I was on the road and running. The great thing is it was really light out so it felt rather surreal that there were barely any cars on the road. I just ran loopy sidewalks through my neighbourhood and about 3 miles in I realized that I needed to hit a bathroom. I detoured to Starbucks. Thanks goodness they are open early! After I was on my way I was running past an open field and about to cross an intersection. The car approaching me had a stop sign and they were far enough away that I made the decision to step off the curb. 
As I ran in front of her I was staring at the car and realized, “Holy crap, she’s not looking straight ahead at the stop sign, she’s looking to the left to make sure no one is coming so she can roll through the stop sign.” I’m not sure if she turned her head enough to see me, or if I ran fast enough so I was finally in her view, but all of a sudden she saw I was there and came to a stop. I gave her a “what the heck were you thinking look” and pointed to the stop sign. She mouthed “sorry” and I could tell she felt bad. Yikes though.
As I continued on I was close to my home and just over 5 miles in. It was 6:45 am and I realized that if I tried to run the full distance that I would be pretty late for work. So I made the executive decision to split my long run into two and finish the rest up over lunch. As for the rest of the run? Pretty uneventful and boring, just 4 miles, out and back along the river. But it was really warm!!
As for what was happening in the evening? I think that deserves its own blog post!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
24K Time Trial Night
Thank you Mother Nature for giving us an amazing evening tonight!! The clouds were threatening earlier in the day, but by the time I was heading out to Cochrane it was beautiful. We had a 24K (15 mi) time trial planned. We warmed up, then headed out Highway 1A towards Ghost Lake, turned around at the gas station, then headed back in. As far as cycling around Calgary goes this was reasonably flat and we had an excellent shoulder to ride on.
We went off in 30 second intervals with the speedier cyclists going at the end. The name of the game was to pass as many people as possible and try to not get passed yourself! My personal goal was to pass someone before I got passed…mission achieved! When I hit the turnaround I was surprised to see how close behind so many of the speedy cyclists were..!! Unfortunately we were also going smack into a nice headwind! I just kept my cadence nice and high the entire way back. I did get passed but I was still passing a few of the people ahead of me. I finished up the time trial in 43:46, a 20.5 mph pace. I was really happy with that!
I’ve been thinking about nutrition a lot lately as I get closer and closer to Great White North (25 days left to go!!!). Yesterday I really wanted some chocolate milk, but not the super bad for you kind from most of the coffee shops. So I headed out over lunch to pick up skim milk and Ovaltine from Safeway to keep at work. My storage area over my desk now looks more like a pantry than anything else!
So here are a few of my plans for the coming weeks:
- Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Really focus on drinking water throughout my day.
- Consume plenty of fresh fruits and veggies each day.
- Fish, chicken and pork only for my lunch and dinner protein sources.
- No caffeine after noon. This should help me get to bed earlier in the evening.
- No alcohol Monday through Friday. I debated cutting it out altogether, but this seems much more reasonable..! (Thanks Pam for the idea.) Our Stanley Cup wrap up party will be excluded from this rule though.
- Plan ahead snacks and cut out the sweets. I’m giving myself a buy after Tuesday night bike workouts though…
Speaking of getting to bed earlier…I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be an early one, and a busy one!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Crazy Calgary Weather
Wow, Mother Nature is working hard to keep me away from biking outdoors! The weather looked pretty nice all day today, and as I walked towards my car after work it looked like this: 
Ugh… I remained optimistic on my drive home and even changed into gear to ride outside. I took Finlay out for a walk and I felt a few raindrops. My bike workout was to ride for an hour at high cadence, and I had absolutely no desire to get caught in a potential downpour. After this weekend it was apparent that the weather can change so quickly here. So I bagged the ride and decided to get on the trainer.
My bike was making this weird creaking sound and I just could not figure out what it was. I kept getting off and on trying to listen to what was causing it. Eventually I figured out that my skewer in the rear wheel needed to be tightened just a bit more. After wasting all of that time I decided to call it a day 30 minutes in. Wouldn’t you know it, it was sunny when I finished up…
And in other random stuff:
- I’m doing a happy dance because I sold my wetsuit on Saturday! Phew, it feels good to take care of that!
- Angie watched my swimming stroke during the aquathon on Sunday. She noticed that I’m not following through on the end of my stroke properly and I’m pulling my hand on the water too early. Must focus on getting my thumb to brush my thigh during the stroke. Without that I am losing a lot of power…which probably explains a lot.
- I was at the pool on Saturday and I had a few sprint sets on the workout. I think that when I see “sprint” I just churn the water quickly, but I don’t think I have that much more speed. I really need to pay more attention to my form..!!
- I may have a chance at an open water swim this week, plus I’m racing this weekend. Woo hoo!!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Pool to Path Aquathon
The weather here was absolutely dismal this weekend. On Friday afternoon it started to snow. There was talk of what would be an amazing bike ride on Saturday, but when I woke up in the morning there was still snow coming down. So…no ride… The weather alternated between snow, rain, hail, sunshine…repeat. Talk about some ridiculous weather for June, but that is Calgary for you!
On Sunday Richelle and my coach Angie organized the Pool to Path Aquathon in Cochrane. It was a 500m swim followed by a 5K run. It looked like it was going to be a cool one, but at least it wouldn’t be snowing! There was some crazy fog out there though, and it was about 3C (37F) when I got to the pool. Brr!! 
My friend Susanne joined for the race as well. It was her first multi-sport event ever! She’s racing the Strathmore Women’s Triathlon in August and she was keen to get her feet wet with a multisport event before that. I was a bit unsure of what to wear. Originally I thought about wearing bikini bottoms and a tri top, then throwing shorts on before the run. Somehow running in wet bikini bottoms did not sound comfortable though. I wound up going to tri shorts with the thinnest padding in them with a trip top, then I could throw a long sleeve tech top on during the run. I also made a key decision to go just off of my Timex and leave the Garmin behind on the run.
It was a pretty low key event. I was in the first heat to go so after I got my stuff set up in transition it was time for body marking…
Then time for a quick meeting. And then time to get out on the pool deck! 
500m swim: 10:53
T2: 1:05
From there I headed out on the pathway for the 5K run. It looked pretty familiar as I have run various parts of it during Footstock before. Even though it was still cool outside I didn’t notice it thanks to being so warm coming out of the pool. I realized that when I started running that I must have hit my watch badly because when I hit the lap button it didn’t work. I still had my overall time, but had no real idea for my run pace. I was trying to catch the ladies in front of me but I wasn’t doing a very good job of closing the gap. Sigh… Just as I was approaching the turnaround I finally saw a few of the ladies running towards me. On my way back I caught up with Leslie Anne. She’s been dealing with a brutal case of Plantar Fasciitis and it was rearing its ugly head on the run. She cheered me on and I ran past her. It was then on towards the finish.
5K run: 28:12
After I was done racing I went back to cheer Susanne on in the pool, then showered and changed while she was out on her run. We stuck around for the awards ceremonies where Susanne came in 3rd in her age group. Not surprisingly I rounded out the rear of the 30-35 group coming in 4th place.
There is a part of me that is disappointed that I didn’t push myself harder, but at the end of the day I still have more races to come, and this one was more about getting out and having fun then anything else. I had no real goals for the race apart from that.
Overall Time: 40:09
Pam and I had talked about meeting up after the race to ride out in Cochrane, but the weather forecast looked iffy so we cancelled that idea. I was still feeling pretty chilled from the race in the morning and I don’t think I ever would have felt warm enough on the bike. I’m a little disappointed that I missed the workout, but sometimes things happen…
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Front Brakes Are Good
Normally I swim on Thursday mornings with my group at the Y, but I also had a 45 min bike on the schedule too. With this week being the Commuter Challenge I really wanted to ride my bike to work today. I figured I’d ride and then swim on my own later. I was way overdressed for my ride, but it was feeling great to be outside. At one point during the ride I heard a little metallic ping of something hitting my bike frame and bouncing off. Wasn’t sure what it was, and it barely registered. When I got to work I noticed that my front brakes did not look right. It turns out that what I heard was the back nut coming off of my front brake calliper and winging off my bike:
Luckily there is a bike shop a few blocks away from work, so I dropped it off as soon as they were open at 10 am. I got a little worried when at 3:30 I hadn’t heard back from them. Apparently they hadn’t located a replacement yet… So much for my good intentions for the Commuter Challenge! Debbie gave me a ride home, and then later in the evening…phew! A replacement part was found. Thank goodness. Now I just have to hope that it doesn’t snow on Saturday because I’m hoping for a long bike ride!
Yesterday was a sad, sad day… My beloved sushi suit bit the dust as the rear end of the suit was all of a sudden…somewhat see-through! I had a thought this morning that I still have swim suits from years ago that I could probably still wear, yet most of my competition suits seem to conk out at 6 months. (Okay, I could wear these old suits, but it doesn't mean that I would.) I mentioned this to Debbie…and that I had some of these swimsuits from circa 8th grade or so… I don’t actually use them anymore, I just have them in a drawer somewhere. Debbie really thought I should throw them out:
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Creative Commuting
When I first moved here I used to drive to the train station and ride the train into work. About a year ago I landed a parking spot downtown so I've been driving in ever since. I've never actually navigated the bus system. So I poured over the Calgary Transit website figuring out what bus I would need and what time I would have to catch it at. Riding the bus was quick and easy, but where I dropped the ball was on the logistics slightly. As I walked towards the bus stop with my running gear and my purse in my hand I realized that I hadn't really thought about my purse! I was carrying all this stuff to work that I'd need tonight...tomorrow...but I certainly wasn't running home carrying my purse. Oops! Luckily I was able to pass a few key items off to Debbie (like my glasses) and I could pick them up at her place this evening.
It was a warm one here...for us at least! Sunny, not a cloud in the sky and 23C (73F). That might not be hot to some of you, but around here, that is definitely warm. I headed out on the road around 4:30. It was a bit hairy getting out of downtown with all of the cyclists heading home, but no big deal. I was at Edworthy before I knew it - 4 miles down. That gave me a chance for a bathroom break and an opportunity to fill up my water bottle. I'd already used up half of it and I still had a ways to go. There was a couple having a picnic out there with a boom box, head bopping to some Lionel Richie. Yeah... It was a short jaunt to Shouldice and then the work started. Bring on the uphills. And there was no shade. There was a whole lot more walking and I was slowing down. My mind was playing games with me...your running isn't as good as it used to be...these hills are eating you alive...you can't run distance anymore...how are you going to run a half marathon at the end of your half Iron? It wasn't pretty.
I hit a neighborhood called Silver Springs 8 miles in and passed by a little strip mall. I was out of water so I stopped in at Mac's. I sussed out the Gatorade section and settled on a bottle of blue stuff. Honestly, what flavour is blue? I can't exactly tell. All I wanted was to pay for my bottle and finish this run off. But there was a guy at the counter who was trying to hit on the lady at the till and it was taking forever...!! Finally he had to go so I was able to get my drink, refill my bottle and get back on the road.
Gatorade...you were my saviour! The cold, blue drink felt so good going down, and about 10 minutes or so in I started to get some vroom vroom back in my step. Never has something felt so good, yet so indescribable. An amazing thing happened. My brain wasn't back in the game, but my legs sure were. They were picking up. The only bad thing that happened after that was that I failed to duck low enough under a tree and I bumped my head but good. Finally...finally...I was back home. 12.15 miles later. So the plan worked out not too badly.
And now I'm exhausted, so I'm off to bed!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Today’s post is brought to you by…
Today’s post is brought to you by the colour purple and the letter F.
The colour purple? My poor digital camera has really taken a beating from being carried about on the race course. The shutter doesn’t close properly anymore. It takes half decent pictures, but camera technology has come a long way. So yesterday I stopped by The Camera Store to pick up my birthday present – the Nikon Coolpix S630. In purple of course!
I didn’t have a lot of time in the evening, but I wanted to get some upper body strength training in. I pulled out one of my old videos from The Firm and got to work. 
Finlay kept me company while I worked out.
Then I headed out to hang out with my adorable niece for the evening. We had a blast reading before bed time. I pulled out Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book just before bedtime. Avery was hilarious, fake yawning with the book and laughing every time there was a picture of a character yawning. We had a great time last night.
