Suck It Up Buttercup!

I read a terrific blog post the other day – On Success.  I highly recommend you read the post.  Go read it, and come back.

Or if you are strapped for time, here’s a part of the post the really resonated with me:

Successful athletes step up – to the challenge, to the race, to the competition. The race director says no wetsuit, they say no problem. It’s just another obstacle to overcome on race day. They are confident they can overcome anything because they are prepared both mentally and physically. Many athletes show up to race day physically prepared. Few are mentally prepared. Perhaps because they don’t step up in training. It’s raining, I’ll run on the treadmill. So, will the race be on the treadmill too? It’s windy, I’ll ride the trainer. Will they cancel the bike if the wind exceeds 10 mph? Step up so you are physically prepared and so you can learn to be mentally prepared for dealing with whatever is thrown your way. 

The weather in June has been less than ideal.  Last week our Tuesday night ride was called due to rain.  Big, fat drops of rain.  This week the skies were cloudy, grey and nasty.  Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I pulled into my garage after work those big, fat drops of rain started to fall again.  Sheesh!  The rain drops fell off and on during the 30-45 minutes I had at home before my bike workout.  I thought there might be a chance the rain would end so I changed and loaded my gear and my bike into the car.  As I put the bike on the bike rack I noticed that I still had quite a bit of dust on my bike.  It picked up a bunch of dust as we drove away from our campground in Highwood a couple of weeks ago.  Hmm.  Must remember to clean that off….

Then as I pulled out of the garage I realized that there was all this stuff falling on the car.  Rain!  Drat!  Our meeting spot was only 10 minutes away from my house so I knew that the situation wouldn’t be any better on the bike.  The car had been loaded up though, and I had a few friends I needed to see at the workout so I forged on. 

As soon as I parked the car I was told to just hurry up and go, don’t stop to talk!  Wow, it was wet.  And kind of cold too.  On the plus side it was knocking off all that dust on my bike!

The workout was supposed to be bike/run repeats.  One 5K loop on the bike, a quick run, then repeat.  I set off on the bike and realized that there is a fundamental problem with wearing glasses while riding in the rain.  It is hard to see!  Oh well, suck it up Buttercup!  What if it is raining at the race on Saturday?  I can do this…  I rode fairly tentatively as I didn’t want to wipe out on a corner on the slick road.  Wow, seriously, this rain was getting intense!  Then….what??  Is that hail???

Yikes!  I made it back to my car, changed from bike shoes to run shoes and got running.  The rain was most definitely not letting up.  Where is the line between sucking it up and knowing when to call it quits?  I think we were there.  Luckily Angie felt that way too, so one bike/run repeat it was.  On my short drive home I felt like I was hacking up a lung.  Oh well, it was definitely a learning experience and character builder out in the monsoon and hail today!

Interval Loops!

Our indoor Tuesday night spin sessions are officially over.  Luckily the weather gods were cooperative this week and we were able to meet up for a ride tonight!  Angie decided to mix things up a bit and had us meet out around Bearspaw/Rocky Ridge.  This makes me happy as it is a very short drive from my house to the meeting spot.  In fact, I even debated riding my bike over.  I decided not to tonight, but possibly in the future I will.

We rode a 3+ mile loop around Bearspaw Golf Course.  We were riding mostly residential streets so it was nice and quiet for cars.  The plan was to ride the first loop easily together, then after that we were supposed to alternate riding the loops hard and easy.  The majority of the loop was nice and downhill, which meant that there was a big hill right near the end.  Fun!  The best thing about the loop was that it felt like we were pretty sheltered from the wind.  I rode the loop five times, hopped off and did a super quick brick, then home in an attempt to get things ready for my upcoming trip.

That’s right, I’m taking off!  The Wine Capital of Canada Olympic distance triathlon is on Sunday in Oliver, BC.  I’m not going to lie, I feel like the first triathlon of the season has completely snuck up on me.  I feel like I haven’t ridden outdoors as much this year, plus I’m still getting used to some aspects of the bike.  After all, today was the first time I attempted to reach for my bottle and drink while riding.  Yup, its true!  Plus I haven’t swum in the open water for awhile…  Oh well, this is just a chance to get my feet wet this year, so to speak.

The Brain is Ready for the Ride

My brain is ready to get back on the bandwagon!  It is funny, I used to feel that if I wasn’t continually training for something I was sure I would fall back into my couch potato ways.  These past few weeks I had no worry that would happen, I just knew I needed a couple of weeks to take things easy.  I would know when I was ready to get back at it.  So far this week I have gotten in some great workouts!  On Tuesday morning I was at the pool and I knocked out 2000m.  I felt fluid and efficient in the water.  My new pink amphibian camo print bathing suit might have had something to do with it.  Or maybe not.  Regardless, it felt good being in the water.

In the evening I went out to Cochrane to ride with my team…for the first time in over a month!  I was a bit late getting there so almost everyone had taken off.  I rode with my teammate Paddy and we just took it easy and chatted the entire way out.  Riding at this time of year is fantastic since it is so social and we just ride with no workouts to think about.  Sadly the shorter evenings are very apparent so despite what happens with the weather our weeknight ride opportunities are quickly dwindling.  Sigh…  I refuse to think about the trainer yet!

Today I got out there for some speed work over lunch.  I had a 50 minute workout on tap with 10 x 1:00 hard/1:00 easy in the middle.  I had a meeting that ran from 9:30 until almost 11:00 so I really didn’t have a great snack.  The hard parts went okay but I really needed to take it easy on the easy parts.  In theory I wasn’t supposed to walk…but I just wasn’t able to stick to that plan.  After the speed work I was ZONKED with a capital Z.  I’m either going to have to make a concerted effort to knock the workout out earlier in the day if I know it is going to be warm, or I really need to make sure I have a good snack to fuel me as I felt like I was playing catch up on nutrition after that run.

And in other news I’ve committed to a few races.  Two are local 10Ks here in October – one for Thanksgiving on the 11th and the other one is the Halloween Howl on the 24th.  Should be fun!  Plus registration opened up for the Great White North half Iron distance triathlon on July 4th.  This was my first half Iron this year and I loved the race.  It works well timing wise as a “see where things are at” before Ironman, plus the majority of my team is racing so it is sure to be a fun event.

Another early swim is on tap for tomorrow, so time for bed!  Hope everyone is having a great week so far!!

The Best Team Ever!

Seriously folks, there are some fantastic people on my tri team!  I love how supportive everyone is.  This will become apparent later in this post, and later this week!

Tuesday Night Group Cycle – Bike/Run Repeats
We were out in Cochrane for bike/run repeats last night.  The premise is pretty simple.  Haul ass on the bike on a little 4 mile out and back.  Drop your bike, get your run shoes on and do a super speedy 1K run.  Take a minute or two to get your bike shoes back on and repeat.  Fun stuff!

My teammate James knew all about my chain debacle thanks to the wonders of Facebook.  He was super surprised that my LBS didn’t think that I needed to replace my chain after it snapped.  So even though I told him I thought I was in okay shape he brought out a spare chain, a measuring tape, some tools and a bike stand.  On repeat number two I heard my chain creaking.  It had creaked on hill repeats last week but I chalked it up to my chain probably needing a clean and a lube.  After the repeat was done James grabbed his tape measure and sure enough, my chain had stretched at least 1/8”.  Given that I’m hitting my final push to Lake Stevens (and racing really soon!) I knew I couldn’t ride with this anymore.  He swapped my chain out for me – what a great teammate!!  Thanks James!

I only made it through three repeats thanks to the impromptu bike mechanical incident, but it was such a good workout!

Wednesday Long Run – How About Some Intervals?
I had an 1:30 long run on tap for today.  It included 2 x 15 minute intervals at around my 10K pace.  I just set Garmin up to beep me if I strayed outside of a tempo pace.  Good enough I figured!

I set my alarm for 4:30 am.  I figured I’d drive downtown, run around the river, then shower and get ready for work at the Y.  When my alarm went off I was so disoriented.  What day was it?  Why was I getting up so early?  Was it to bike?  Swim?  Oh right…to run!  Given that I was starting out pretty early I decided to run the same loop around downtown, over and over.  Okay, well only three times.  Some parts get a bit sketchy as you get towards the outskirts of downtown so I was trying to avoid that.  I had a 20 minute warm up run, then started in on the first interval.  A few minutes in I looked down at my watch and it said that my pace was “Steady State.”  What?  How come Garmin isn’t yelling at me?  I picked it up and finally it clicked into “Tempo.”  I guess the legs were a bit tired from yesterday’s bike workout because I was a few seconds off from my 10K pace, but close enough!  When it came time for the second repeat I had a hard time picking the legs up and getting my pace down.  This time Garmin was yelling at me…all the time..!  Finally, I got there!  An hour and a half, done!  It felt great to get the run done before work, before it got too hot!  That gave me this evening to relax and fire up the BBQ to grill up a little fresh Sockeye salmon.  Terrific!!

Letting Go

Tonight we had hills at Edworthy on the schedule for our Tuesday night group ride.  Oddly enough, in some weird, glutton for punishment kind of way I was really looking forward to it.  So why were my legs not ready to ride tonight?  After all, I didn’t keep up with my scheduled workouts last week.  I mostly relaxed, drank beer and ate pancakes.  As I rode towards the hill I kept looking down to check and make sure I wasn’t in my big chain ring.  Nope.  Tires fully inflated?  Yep.  No excuses, my legs were just not there.

On one repeat Angie saw me and asked what was wrong since I didn’t look like my usual smiley self.  I told her that my legs just didn’t have it today and I didn’t know why.  She reminded me that I did just race a half Iron last weekend and fatigue would still be normal.  Once I said the words aloud to Angie I was able to let go.  Sure, I was tired…but these were hills and they aren’t supposed to be easy, right?  But they certainly are good for me!  The next time Angie saw me she yelled that my whole demeanour had changed.  I was attacking those hills!  Was I faster?  Not really.  But my mind was in a happy place!  Pretty important to find that for hilly Lake Stevens 70.3, eh?  Afterwards I had a good 20 minute brick run.  Now?  Time for bed!

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!!

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!

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.

As for the letter F? F is for FLAT!! I was running a bit late for our group ride this evening and as soon as I looked at my bike in the garage I realized the back tire was completely flat. Uh oh! I pumped up the tire and the pressure held…so I threw the bike on the rack, the pump in the back of the car, and headed out. We were doing bike/run repeats – a 6K out and back on the bike, with a 5 minute tempo run. Repeat. Things were going well until I started in on my third repeat and my back tire was looking pretty flat. I turned around early and made it back, but it was a good thing I didn’t try to do the entire distance. I went for one last repeat and that was about it. Kind of a disappointing end to the biking this evening, but oh well!

The fun was far from over though! One of my teammates was selling her wetsuit – a Blue Seventy Synergie in medium. Why on earth would I be interested in her wetsuit? Because unfortunately I found out that my wetsuit is way too big for me now. :( It took at least 15 minutes and 2 people to get me into the Synergie wetsuit, so that was my biggest key that this suit fit me much better.

So, if any ladies out there are looking for a Blue Seventy Reaction in medium large I officially have one for sale. Just send me an e-mail at runnerleana at gmail dot com. It is practically brand new!

Edworthy Hill Climb Night

Saturday and Sunday were amazing around here, but the weather completely turned yesterday. We are talking just about freezing and plenty of rain. Sigh... Angie was adamant that we would get some hill repeats in tonight. Rather than planning to meet in Cochrane we met at Edworthy Park in Calgary instead. This way if a downpour started we'd be closer to our cars.We headed across the river for a quick warm up, then went up and down the hill into Edworthy Park. Up and down, again and again. Luckily the rain held off for us, but it was chilly out.I felt good on the hills - but there are some definite strong climbers in the group that would pass me like I was standing still. So the hill repeats went well, but I can see plenty of room for improvement! 12.81 mi done, including 6 repeats, and 1827 ft of climbing.

After that it was time for a quick brick run. My toes felt somewhat frozen and like I was running on stumps. After about 8 minutes or so the blood was flowing to my feet and things started to feel normal. All in all, it was a great workout!