Taper Week - Ready to Race!

Wow, I can't believe it's already here! One week to go and I am getting so nervous as usual.

I've been going back over my posts from last year to see how I set things up in transition and to remind myself of all the things I need to do this week. Things will be a little different this time because I am racing out of town and have to take all my stuff in the car the day before. Sleeping in a hotel and eating away from home will be other wrinkles I have to consider.

Good news is - I get to wear a wetsuit this year. Bad news is - the lake is freaking cold. 16-17C (60-61F) at last check (thanks Paul).

Transition:
Pink Towel
Bike Shoes (worn barefoot)
Running Shoes with s
Socks rolled half way down, tucked into each running shoe
Sunglasses
Hat
Race belt with number
Full water bottle
Full bottle of Nuun/Carbo Pro


It'll look more or less like this pic (from last year) although I'm wearing different running shoes now, and I'll take two bottles I think. I won't have the epipen either.



Small hand towel (in case)
Puffer
Shot Bloks or an extra Hammer Gel??
Jersey? (jacket or raingear or ??)

On Bike
Bento box - kleenex (no laughing), hammer gel, puffer
Garmin on bike - power on before the swim
Aerobottle full

Underseat Bag
Spare tube
Tire levers
2 gas cartridges
Bike tool

Wear
Tri top
Tri shorts
Flip flops
Wet suit
Goggles
Swim cap(s)
Track suit if cold

In Back Pack (with Erik)
Epipen (just in case!)
Chocolate milk (for after)
Camera
Recorder
Blackberry
Sun screen
Body Glide - for under wetsuit, calves, wrists, neck etc.

Pack in car for the trip

All of the above PLUS:

Bike
Floor pump
Tri top, tri shorts and extra set of clothes in case

Dinner food
Snack food
Breakfast food

Alarm clock
iPod
BC Triathlon Membership Card

OK, that's all I can think of right now. I will be adding more as I remember things.

Goal Times?:

I don't really have any because I haven't ridden this route much and can't really tell how I'll do BUT I will make some guesses.

Swim: 18 minutes (assuming it's the same distance as my last tri)

T1: 2 Minutes

Bike: 30.5-32 kmh = 34-35 min if it's actually only 18km.

T2: 1 minute

Run: tough to guess. Under 30 minutes. Maybe only barely tho.

18+2+34+1+28 = 1:23 - 1:26

But who really knows? If it's windy, forget it. It took me 45 minutes to do that bike route in a strong wind a few weeks ago.


Here's a link to the race:

Oliver Sprint (and Olympic) Triathlon (Wed 7:30am, currently this site has been hacked. Hopefully the link will be working soon.)

Swim and Transition Map

Bike Route Map


Run Route Map

Busy, busy, busy...

**Just ignore the weird look on my blog right now. I am in the middle of changing the size of the columns and haven't quite figured out how to change the corners. lol...**


Oh my, do I need to update my blog! I have been so busy these past couple of weeks that I barely got my podcast out last weekend, and never did get around to updating the blog.

But I am doing well.

Work update (for anyone who doesn't listen to the podcast and/or follow me on twitter)
~ here's what's been going on.

A couple of weeks ago, I was declared surplus (as expected), and was first on the recall list.

Last Thursday, someone retired and I was offered a full time position but it was Music Prep. I thought about it for awhile and then accepted the job with the plan that I would attempt to post out into a primary position elsewhere. There are seldom many primary jobs close by so I took the music job in case nothing else turned up. A bird in the hand so to speak...

On Friday, the postings came out and I applied for the 6 primary positions at the new school. I have an interview on Monday. There is no guarantee that I will get a job there so I am also getting my head around going back to teaching music next year. Either way, there will be big changes in store.


My Training

I've had a few heavy weeks of training and it's been hard to get it all done, on top of work and the job stress, but I've managed fairly well.

After my test week:

April 20-26
9+ hours of training
(3 runs, 5 bikes, 2 swims, 1 rest day)

April 27-May 3
9.5 hours of training
(2 runs, 6 bikes, 2 swims, 2 elliptical)

May 4 - 10 ~ Crash Week - 12 hours training, 2 rest days
I don't know a lot about crash training but it seems you double your workouts and throw in more rest between, to over tax your system and show big gains later. Interesting. We are monitoring my fatigue levels carefully. So far, so good.

Mon - rest day
Tues - Swim 1:30, bike hill repeats, 1:30. (I had to stop swimming after 1:05 pool closed)
Wed - Run :45, Xtrain :45 (did rowing and weights)
Thu - Rest day
Fri (today) - Swim 1:30, bike intervals 1:30 (calf cramped at 1:10 swim, had to quit early)
Sat - Brick 1:30 (5 min hard bike 800 m run X 4)
Sun - Bike 3:00

I've done everything except I had to cut both swims back to 1:10.

Should have no trouble doing brick tomorrow but bike 3:00 on Sunday will be hard because Erik is racing tomorrow and won't want to ride with me. 3:00 is a looong time to ride alone.

I guess it will be mental endurnace as well as physical.

So far I feel ok. I was really tired on Thursday and thankfully it was a rest day.

Haven't figured out what caused the calf cramps when I was swimming. I've been using the electrolytes and staying hydrated....

Although 12 hours was planned, I'll only get in 11 hours if I do everything I'm supposed to this weekend.

Next week is much easier. Mon and Tues are day off. Wed is an easy swim and a 30 minutes TT bike. Thursday is another day off. Friday, Sat and Sun are bricks and transition practice.

The week after that? Taper!!!!

Gahhhhh!

Lake temp is currenlty 15 degrees... Brrrrrrr.... (thanks for that Paul. ;)

Tomorrow, Erik does his first duathlon! Good luck honey!!!

Boston Marathon, and Test Week!

First off,

I want to make a list of all my twitter buddies who are doing Boston on Monday. Wow, congrats to you all! If I've missed any, please email or tweet me and I'll add them to the list. The list will hopefully include bib number and start time.

Finished!!!

Josh (SpeedySasquatch) #4385, 10am, 3:00:58
Craig (CraigMacfarlane) #2655, 3:04:02
Justin (Mangorunner) #1985, 10am, 3:08:59
Chris Russell (cyktrussell) #10798, 10am, 3:36:08
Shelly Centis (Smellycents) #16071, 10:30am. 3:37:24
Steve Wisner (Runnermaniac) #12776, 10am, 3:45:01
Megan (Veganrunningmom) #16139, 10:30am, 3:45:20
Mark Ulrich (Texasrunner) 3:50:30
Dennis (Dennisfromohio) #11833, 10am. 4:01:21
Steve Runner (Phedippidations) #27361, 10:30am, 5:01
Mary MacManus (Gracefullady) 22,786, 7:50:43

To tweet live during the marathon, go to http://www.tweetchat.com./ on Monday, log in with your regular twitter ID, and go to room #TCS (for Triathlete's Coffee Shop). There you will see a steady stream of people chatting about our friends doing the marathon (using the hashtag TCS.)

Thanks to Coach Adam and Triboomer for setting that up!

*******************************************

Test Week Results:

Bike Time Trial - 3 miles - April 15, 2009

	08m 55s 4.84 kms 32.57 KM/hr	Min HR: 80 Avg HR: 172 Max HR: 181
4:30 PM

4.84 km = 3 miles,
32.57 kmh = 20.24 mph

Mar. 17 - Mile 1 - 2:59 avg HR 161, 90 rpm.
Mar. 17 - Mile 2/3 - 6:10, avg HR 176, 91 rpm.

Apr. 14 - Mile 1 - 2:49 avg HR 164, 95 rpm.
Apr. 14 - Mile 2/3 - 6:05, avg HR 176, 94 rpm

*************************

One Mile Test Run - April 17, 2009

	08m 26s 1.60 kms 05m 16s/KM	Avg HR: 169 Max HR: 180
4:00 PM

For you non-metric folks - that is 1 mile 8:26 seconds.

*************************

1000m Test Swim - April 19, 2009

Had a few ups and downs for the swim but it worked out ok in the end.

First of all, got to the pool and tore my swim cap (I had put a small hole in it last time when one of the lifeguards had suggested I tie my key around my ponytail. Don't try it.).

I decided to swim without the swim cap and headed out the pool which was set up for 50m instead of 25m. I specifically had chosen a swim time when it was supposed to at 25m so my time comparisons would be similar. Oh well, will swim anyway.

Did 200m as warm up and the lifeguard asked me to get out. Apparently they had decided to switch the pool to 25m now. (It was supposed to have been done 2 hours earlier.) OK, get out, glad I hadn't already started my test swim.

Decided to go home during the 20 min wait to get another swim cap. Got changed, dressed, drove home (5 min), put on dry swim suit and got cap and headed back to pool.

Did another 50m warm up then started test. 500m, 11:05. Good time - I'm ahppy with that because I'm not going as hard as possible yet. 750m checked watch, too fogged up to see so briefly stopped timer, checked the time, 16:45 - still happy with that, faster than my tri swim time, then turned time back on and finished swim. went harder, hopefully faster.

1000m, still at 16:45. Hmm, guess the timer didn't turn back on. I hate this watch. It has no memory for laps or anything. I'm guessing I was faster but I assumed I kept the same pace which was 2:13-2:14 per 100m. I was kind of hoping for 2:10 but was happy it was still under 2:15. Will keep working on that....

After swim, went out an bought a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch with 30 lap memory. Yeah.

Here's the data from my BT log.

	21m 20s 1000.00 meters 02m 08s /100 meters
12:30 PM

Had to guess final time. 500m was 1:05, 750m was 16:45. Not bad. Faster than last year.

Another Week Goes By...

Wow, I'm finding it hard to keep up with family, work, training, podcasting, and blogging!

I've had a good week over all and although I did get my pink slip on Monday, it was not a surprise.

Here's a quick training and life recap.

Mon: Rest day (planned due to stress)

Amazingly enough the line was drawn just ABOVE my name so I was the first to be declared surplus, but also the first on the recall list. The chances of being recalled before the end of June are fairly high because people are likely to retire and/or post out of my current school. However, this will not happen until after May 1st so I will be in a holding pattern until then. All of the available positions in our district will be posted on May 1st so I will go thru the process of applying for other jobs and being interviewed. At the same tine, I will likely be offered a position back at my current school. I may have a difficult decision to make. Life is like that. I won't worry about it until/if it happens. So many possibilities, no idea how it will turn out in the end...

Tue: Did a hard 1 hour ride and an easy3.7 km run. Ran 5 min with 1 min walk breaks.

Wed: Easy 1:20 recovery ride, 22km. Missed swim.

Thu: Supposed to be rest day but moved yesterday's swim to today, 45 min, 1200m. 3X100m sets. 2:00-2:10 per 100.

Fri: 45 min run in am, warm up, 2X10 min run with walk break. Also 1:50 min ride down in Oliver, 48 km. Rode the Sprint Tri route as well as the Oliver Half Iron bike route with my friend Paul and his daughter Stephanie.

Sat: 45 min swim, 1200m 3X100m sets 2:01-2:07 per 100m. Also 1:37 easy recovery ride, 29km

Sun: Easter Sunday. Family brunch, too busy to get to the gym/pool before it closed early.

Mon: Still on holiday. Rest day in prep for test week coming up.

Upcoming plan:

Tue: 3 mile TT exactly the same way I did a month ago.

Thu: 1 mile test run

Sat: 1000m test swim.

Not a lot to do, but what I have to do will be hard. ope to see some improvement since last month.


I was really tired today. Had an awful sleep last night - think it was from eating a big dinner, really late. Going to bed eraly tonight - ate really well today and drank lots of water too.

Oh yeah, and I was down to 121.4 on Saturday. Right now, hovering around 121.8.

Hope to get down to 121 by next weekend.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well I had a great birthday weekend and got tons of good wishes on Twitter, Facebook, and several social networks. My best 'gift" was a birthday poem written for me by Gracefullady, aka Mary from the Just Finish website.


Happy Birthday to Kelownagurl
A spirit that really shines
Indulge in your favorite pleasures
Dark chocolate some tasty fine wines.
May today be filled with happiness
Get out and cycle or swim and run
Enjoy every moment remember
You're always number one!
And when this day is over
and the celebration is through
May the year that lie ahead
Be a personal best for you.

I am honoured to know so many wonderful people in real life and online and I appreciate all the good wishes about my birthday, as well as my current job situation.

For anyone who doesn't follow me on twitter and/or listen to my podcast, I got my 'pink slip' on Monday. I am not too worried about it because I am first on the recall list for my current school and a lot can happen, plus I am guaranteed a job in the district so I WILL be teaching someplace in the fall. Nevertheless, it's still a stressful situation with all the waiting etc and I'll be glad when everything is finalized and I know what I'm doing next year. I'll keep you posted as new events arise. :)

Training

I had an awesome week of training and managed to get my running mojo back - yee haw!

Last week (March 30 - April 5)

Mon - 1 hour hard bike, and plyometrics in the evening.
Tue - 1 hour easy bike, :45 hard swim
Wed- 30 min easy walk/run (felt good)
Thu - 1 hour bike Zone 1-2
Fri - :45 elliptical (had to skip :45 swim)
Sat - rest day
Sun - birthday! 4.9km pain-free run, 2:30 49km med. bike

Totals for the week:

Time: 9:36 hours
Bike: 115 km
Run: 7.9 km
Swim: 1200m
Ellip: 7.6 km


This week - planned: 9:45 hours

Mon - rest day (stress day)
Tue - 1:00 hard bike, :30 easy run

Planned for rest of week

Wed - 1 hour easy bike, :45 hard swim
Thu - rest day (will do :30 weights)
Fri - 1 hour bike zone 1-2, :45 run
Sat - 2 hour zone 1-2 bike, :45 hard swim
Sun - :45 swim, :45 elliptical

And now, I must sleep. I have only had 6 hours of sleep for the past two nights and I am bagged. I came home and did my hard ride, then I fell asleep on the living room floor for 20 minutes. Work up and went for my run. *yawn*