I'm outta here...

Well this is my last post before I leave on Thursday so I thought I'd do a quick update.

Erik did his amazing solo ride on Monday, June 29. Overall, he rode 292 km in 12:25 with over 8000' of climbing!

For more info about Erik's ride, you'll have to listen to episode #28 of my podcast (see link on the right). You can also go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih76L24XBh8 to see a 2 1/2 minutes slideshow of the highlights.

One picture I forgot to include in the slideshow was a close up pictures of a wolf that I saw walking alongside the road on the Bow Valley Parkway. At the time I thought it was a coyote. I was looking out my car window by the way. :)






Training and the Trip

Well, life continues to be hectic and I've found it hard to fit in all the training I wanted to do. :( I've been swimming twice, had a couple of rides, and been on 4 runs in the past 10 days or so.

My main focus continues to be on running. I've been trying to stick mostly to the hills behind my house so my time hasn't been fast but I'm really enjoying it and so far, my shins haven't been complaining. I've also been running further partly because my runs include a 1 km hike up to the flatter area. So far I've run 6km, 6km, 7km, and 8.25km. I am really loving it!

I've had some ITB/knee pain off and on lately - that's what slowed me down on the 5k race with my daughter - bu I've been stretching and using the foam roller and my last two runs have been pain-free.

Much of this week however, has involved shopping, cleaning, running errands, and packing. We leave Kelowna at 11:30 on Thursday and leave Vancouver at 7:30pm. We will be home on July 26th. There will not be a podcast episode during that time.

My son will be staying with his Dad and I have house sitters looking after the dogs and the cat and generally holding down the fort at home.

When I get back, I'm going to have to kick my training into high gear if I want to be ready to the Apple Sprint Triathlon on August 23rd. (I'm starting to feel more than a little nervous about being ready with my messed up training schedule....)

However, I will be riding (not seriously) for 9 days on my trip (20-50km per day) and will try hard to fit in a few early morning runs before it gets too hot. Most places we're staying at will have swimming pools although it's hard to imagine that I"ll be swimming sets... ;)

So - in the meantime, I'm going to put serious training aside and just enjoy my vacation!

I will have my (Erik's) itouch so when I have access to wifi, I will tweet a bit and I will try sending a few email blog updates. Unfortunately, I have no way to send pictures until I get back.

Thanks for all the well-wishes!

A bientot!

School's Out

Boy, it's been a hectic month and I've been very negligent in updating this blog. That is partly due to the fact that I have not done very much training at all in the past month. I got my bottom braces on two days after my tri and had severe headaches for over a week after wards. This was followed by a bad cold with a cough that lasted 2 more weeks. Top that off with the usual June school stresses, and I have BARELY had time or energy to train.

Work Update:

I applied for, and got a job, at the new school so I am very happy about that. And even better news was that 7 other teachers from my current school also got jobs at the new school so I will not be alone. They are mostly young, enthusiastic teachers, who are excited about the prospect of a new school so it will revitalize my own teaching as well.

As positive as the new job is, I am still very saddened to be leaving my current school. I have taught there pretty well my entire teaching career, 15 years, and my entire life revolves around that school. My closest friends, my husband, and my son are all there and now that is ending. I have so many memories that I will cherish. The fact that it is Erik's last year of teaching, and my son's final year in elementary school, also makes it difficult to leave now. But it is definitely the right decision for me.

Every June, we have a staff breakfast on the last day of school, where we gather to say goodbye to all the staff who is leaving. We always bring kleenex and tears are always shed. This year will be particularly tough as 10 teachers move on, many of whom have taught there for 10-15 years.

I have been on edge all week trying to finish up the usual year end things, get report cards done, create a class DVD slideshow, and pack up my stuff (35 boxes so far) on top of it all. By Friday morning, I will be completely wrung out.

So - I guess the point of this all is that it has affected my training.

UPDATE:

OK, I got busy again and didn't finish or post the blog. So now it's Saturday and school is done. It was a hard last couple of days and I felt really depressed when I got home yesterday but it's over and I need to move on. Today we did a bunch of errands to get ready for Erik's ride on Monday. We drive to Banff and stay over night tomorrow, then Monday he's going to ride 300km from Banff to Jasper in one day. I'm going to drive the SAG wagon (our van) and meet up with him every hour or two. The weather is looking good right now. Banff 22C and Jasper 18C for Monday and sunny! It'll be cold when he starts at 5:30am but should be nice by mid day. Episode #27 of my podcast has Erik and I discussing his ride plans and next week (#28) will be a recap of his ride.

Training

So my goal this month has to been to keep up my running and I've done that. I've been running 5k at least twice a week and last week I started trail running up behind my house. It's starts off straight uphill for 1.3 km so I walk as warm up for 10 minutes or so, then I can run 5-6km out and back on a relatively flat route. It's quite pretty up there, wide double track, mostly dirt, not many rocks etc so not too much chance of hurting myself. It would be fun to do an Xterra I think. :) I wonder if there are any around here that aren't too hilly for the run?

I also ran the Women's 5k with my daughter Carly this month. It was her first 5k so I didn't race it and it was just as well because my ITB knee attachment locked up and I had to walk/run the last half. We had a great time and I think she caught the race bug - hope she keeps it up! There are some pics on the podacst blog - Episode #26 I think.

Vacation

We're going to be leaving on July 9th for our trip to France and Italy and we have just about everything booked now. We fly to Paris and stay over night, then take the train to Avignon where we will drop off our bags and pick up our bikes for our 9 day cycling trip around Provence. Once back in Avignon, we take the night train to Florence, spend a day touring the city, then two more nights at a B&B where we'll rent a car and tour Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Pisa. Then it's the train again for less than 24 hours in Rome before flying home on the 25th. I can't wait!

Well that's all for now folks. I have to go finish packing and get ready to take off tomorrow.

Have a good week!

Oliver Sprint Tri Race Report

Wow, what a weekend!

I was super stressed out and nervous in the few days leading up to the race, and I eventually figured out that it was mainly because I had not had no opportunity to swim in the lake since last August and it was still a big unknown.

Saturday morning I got up and settled into packing up and getting the house in order. We left around 2:00 and drove the 1 1/2 hours to Oliver where I first went for a swim, and then picked up the race package. The water was considerably warmer than it had been two weeks earlier and the air temp at the time was about 32C (90F). Water temp was about 19C, or 66F. It took me about 5-10 minutes of swimming to settle myself down and feel comfortable. At first my heart was pounding and I found it hard to breathe properly but eventually, that feeling went away, and I swam far enough to know I was going to be ok the next day.

I went to the race meeting at 5pm and then drove 20 minutes to Osoyoos where our hotel was located. (Coincidentally, our hotel is at the bottom of the hill where my avatar and podcast photo was taken.)

I had some chicken and rice and a banana for dinner, and then relaxed and took it easy for the evening. I was tired so we were asleep before 10.

I got up at 6am and got my stuff organized. I had also brought my own breakfast food - the usual - yogurt, banana, and a handful of oatmeal, but I was pretty nervous and had a hard time getting the food down. I also began to sip on a bottle of nuun/carbo pro.

We checked out and left the hotel around 7am, got to Oliver and set up transition. I also got body marked - #103 - and picked up my timing chip ankle band. My friend Paul, who is recovering from a hamstring injury, was not able to race, but met me in transition and we chatted a little before he had to head out to do his volunteer duties. It was great to see a familiar face!

I met some of the women in my age grou, 6 of us in all for the sprint, and then put my wetsuit on and headed down to the beach when transition closed at 8:30. This is the first year they had an Olympic distance in addition to the Sprint, so there were two waves. The Oly's left first, at 8:30, and then we started when the last Oly had started their second swim lap, at about 8:55.

Everyone was really spread out waiting in the water so I got myself into the middle of the pack, figuring I was less nervous this year and wouldn't have to swim way in the back like last time. I have never swum with men before so I wasn't sure where I'd fare with them. As it turned out, I found myself having to swim around quite a few people, and as usual, I got stuck for awhile behind some breast strokers. I think that is fairly common in a sprint race because there are so many beginners. Next time, in a similar kind of race, I'm going to get about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way back of the front. I think I can handle it ok now.

I felt fine the whole swim, very little in the way of nerves, although my goggles fogged up a lot and I could hardly see after about 250m. It was quite windy and the waves pushed me off course a few times, but overall, I swim fairly straight and managed just fine. Once I passed the turn around bouy, I kicked it up a notch and started to swim faster, especially the last 200m.

Erik was close by as I got out of the water, and although I didn't see him, I heard him yell out 15:45! I was stoked, it was a great swim time for me. I was still a ways away from the timing mat though so the time was not official.

Swim time: 16:26 (goal was 18:00) 56/113 people, 12/50 women, 2/6 AG

I had my wetsuit half stripped and my goggles off right away, and I went straight to my bike and put on my shoes (no socks), my helmet, sunglasses, and grabbed a quick guzzle from my bottle. I also tore the top open from a gel and shoved into back into my bento box. Then I headed out on my bike.

T1: 1:55 (goal was 2:00) 25/113 people

It was still fairly windy but for the first 4 km, the wind was behind me. My HR was fairly high and I tried to eat some of the gel, but couldn't get it down. I also tried to drink some of my water/nuun/carbo-pro but had a tough time swallowing when I was working so hard.

I felt strong going up the first hill, which is fairly steep, and I was able to pass a few people right off the bat. Once at the top, I hammered along the plateau to the turn around point and then had to face the wind for about 9km. My speed down the big hill only hit about 52kmh, when weeks earlier I had hit 68kmh, so the wind was definitely a factor.

I saw very few women on the bike course, and for the most part, I played leap frog with about 5-6 men. And the 2nd turn around point, I knew I had only 5km to go and with the wind behind me now, I went as hard as I could. I left several men behind me at the point. I was watching my time and was pretty disappointed that I was not going to meet my time goal of 34 minutes but I figured the wind had seriously affected my time. Soon I was at T2, ready to begin the run.

Bike (18 km): 36:36 (goal 34:00) 32/113 people, 6/50 women, 2/6 women

T2 went quickly. All I had to do was rack my bike, and there were only 37 bikes in the area so it was easy to find my spot. I changed shoes, grabbed my hat and a drink, then took off.

T2: 1:16 (goal 1:00) (33/113 people)

Right away, I had a hill to climb and my legs felt heavy. I tried to shake it off, and loosen up as I ran but the feeling continued. I could see I was running really slowly, slower than a 10 min mile.

After about 1 km, my left ankle began to hurt. Not only was the timing chip band rubbing it raw, but the ankle itself was aching and hurting. When I eventually began to favour it, I stopped and tried to loosen and stretch it and then walk a bit. I did this about 3 times until I was at the 2 km mark. At this point, I decided to loosen the band a bit to at least alleviate the rubbing a bit. I then realized that the band itself was too tight and the constriction was causing the pain.

I took a few more walk breaks until I reached the turn around point, then things started to feel a bit better. However, I was feeling pretty frustrated by this point. Quite a few people were passing me, although most of them were men, and there was no way I could keep up. My goal time came and went around the 4km mark and I was able to start pushing it a little harder. I doubt even then that I was able to run much faster than a 10 min mile though. It's amazing how your body just won't do what you want it to do sometimes.

As I got closer to the finish line, I pushed as hard as I could to try to at least come close to a 1:28 time and I was able to make that last small goal. Erik was there at the finish line, taking pictures as I ran down the short steep hill. I was content with my overall time, but not particularly happy with the way the race had ended.

Run: 32:09 (goal - 29:00 min) 83/113, 28/50 women, 3/6 age group

Overall time:

1:28:20 (goal 1:23-1:28) 57/113 people, 17/50 women, 3/6 age group


So I beat my swim goal.

I met my transition goals.

I met, and perhaps beat, my bike goal considering the wind.

I did not come close to meeting my run goal.


What did I learn?

1. Start myself closer to the front of the swim.

2. Eat my gel before the swim. Drink more if I can. Maybe carry a water bottle on the run if it's hot.

3. Somehow learn to run faster. I really believe that will happen. It's still early in the season and I've had a number of injuries to contend with.

4. Don't be afraid to pass men on the bike. I'm still hesitant to pass them, especially if they look like roadies. I'm getting better at it though. :)

5. Wear my timing chip looser!!!!

I think that is all. I've analyzed it to death! :)

Erik and I both recorded some audio before, during, and after the race, and that is now available in Episode #22 of my podcast if you want to hear it.

Kelownagurl Tris Podcast Website

There is also a slideshow of my triathlon photos that Erik took.

Slideshow of Photos

Both can be found on my podcast blog, as well as on itunes.

I want to thank Brian Grenier who has coached me for the last 10 weeks, and to Darin Booten at Kona Endurance Pro who sponsored me. I appreciate all you have done for me - thank you!!