Brynn's first Triathlon

OK, so we are at WASA Lake, BC for the Gerricks Wasa Lake Tri 2010!
It is SO beautiful here....
We arrived last night and I was so happy to see that it was quite a lot warmer than at home.
Today couldn't have been a more perfect day... weather was great, and Brynn had so much fun at her race.

They really made the kids feel like the adults, so they got body marked, personalized bib numbers, and REAL timing chips, and swim caps :) The swim was hilarious. The water was a chilly 14.5 Celsius. So some of the kids, mine included, opted to run through the water instead of swimming :) hehehe it was more like an aqua duathlon (water run, bike, run).

As the swim was winding down, one of the volunteers cheered Brynn and told her to run, so she took off super speedy to the transition, was up a hill and through some grassy areas :) Got to T1 where she insisted she needed to wear her biking gloves, which took FOREVER to get on ;) oh well it was pretty cute. So she hopped onto her bike, training wheels and all, and went for 5 rides around the transition area. I have to say it was one of the cutest things I've ever witnessed. There were so many cute little ones just burning around like crazy. During one lap, Brynn decided she needed a drink, but didn't take her bottle off, she just bent over and drank while she rode :)

So fun :)
It was great to cheer on the other kids, everytime we'd cheer they'd go faster and smile!

The run was fun, as I got to go along with her for most of it...she was really hoofing it and got tired out...but she did it and ran the whole thing :)
It was super great that they had Steve King (you can see him in the background of the next photo) doing the announcing, so as she went through the finishers shoot he called out her name :) We were so proud of her, and I'm so glad she enjoyed it. Honestly, I was so wrapped up in the fun and excitement, I didn't bother to look at her time. Will have to check out her splits online later :)

So on the way back after the race she said to her Daddy "Daddy, when I get home I want to start training for next year!".

I'm so glad she got to experience it and I hope she will race again next year... just because it is so fun :)

I'm pretty tired.... and tomorrow's my big day. Gear's all ready to go, kids are in bed. So I think I'll do a bit of foam rolling, and then call it a day!!!

Lots of travel lately and a great Easter!

Well, Easter is over, and the kids are just finishing up their Easter Break. They have enjoyed their time off school and they decided to camp out in our home office, needless to say, it's nice to have a laptop for it's portability. (That's my girl, we were baking cookies. Delicious sugar cookies *gulp* If you can see it in the background, that white on the walls is not flour, it's the prep for the touch up painting that is in progress!)

I am pretty sure my last post was from the road, and it has seemed over the last while I've spent SO much time traveling for work. It didn't really cut much into my training, I thought I did good at planning to fit my work outs in. Tried out 3 different pools in one city!!! It wasn't always easy, and I did forget my HRM for one trip, which was highly annoying to me.

Just this last week, I packed up my suitcase for a day flight just so I could drag along my swim and running gear :) That day was TOO long though.

I have missed some training over the last month or so though, but because I was sick (maybe from too much travel?!?!). It was the head cold that would not end! I found that so frustrating, but in between there I did my first 10 km run and it could be that the extra rest I gained from being sick helped me to not be too tired for the race. I was really stoked with the race though, because it felt great :) Really good. I feel as though my goal for a 1/2 marathon in the fall is realistic.

Sadly, the sport that was hit the most from being ill was swimming. It is the one that requires the most planning for me, and usually very early mornings. But I also feel like I may have had a bit of a breakthrough with my swimming. First, Shawn has us doing some swim specific strength training with elastic paddles on the deck. I'm really concentrating on my pull and putting more strength into it instead of just thinking about my recovery and breathing, and I had my best ever 50 m time. It could have been a fluke, but I'm optimistic, and have been "enjoying" my pool time. I find myself calculating how long it'll take me at the various distances.

I've also been pretty diligent in doing my stretching, foam rolling and tennis ball "therapy". Including a few visits to physio, and a couple massages. Of course it's been a few nights now since I've done any stretching ;( I also want to start working in some leg strength and keeping up with core. Sigh...oh time where will I find you!

Now that the weather is getting better I'm anxious to get out on the road, and in particular I'm hoping to ride my bike to work in the next few weeks, since my first race is 4 weeks from tomorrow! Holy cow... just did the math on that!!!! Now I'm a bit freaked out. I know I should be doing it for the fun of it, but I really really really want to place top 5 in my age group.
Hope I didn't jinx myself now! I think my age group includes some pretty serious athletes, likely using this race as a warm up for their 1/2 Ironman races. Double sigh.

This post has dragged on too long and now I will really try to update again soon, so I'm not so far behind.

Really a whole month?!?!?!

Just happened to notice that it's been over a month since I posted. Shame shame.
Life's been pretty busy (bday parties, kids stuff, visitors etc.), and this month has me travelling a fair bit. I'm actually writing this post from my hotel room :) Which I'm happy to say I got upgraded to a King Delux suite :)

I'm getting pretty good at fitting my workouts into my travel schedule. Oddly, this week the workout I missed (Monday) was when I was at home (made it up yesterday). That was just poor planning... had the best intentions, but when I got to the pool at 4:15 p.m. I discovered that lane swim ended at 3:45. What are you going to do?!?!? So I'm trying out all the pools Red Deer has to offer (yesterday Michener Aquatic, today Rec Centre). My last trip here in February I ended up doing lane swim in a wave pool that was marked off with lanes, and I'm not convinced they were 25 m. The hotel has a nice fitness centre, so I can easily do my runs on the treadmill. But, I have to laugh because the treadmills are pre-programmed to stop after 30 minutes. That just won't work for me ;) Especially my 65 minute run scheduled for tomorrow. Sigh.

I am fighting off a cold, so I plan to try and get a nap in later this afternoon as tomorrow is going to be a very busy day, and then a long drive home.

Training has been pretty good, am really enjoying my cycling. I suppose that's a good thing given my plans for this summer! I've been going to physio (also a triathlete) for my left hip, in hopes it doesn't get too crazy, it's so tight and causes me trouble especially during my long runs. Was "ordered" to do a therapeutic massage.... didn't take too much convincing :) I was seriously bruised after! Also have some exercises and was shown a few other purposes for a tennis ball. GENIOUS!

I feel like I'm on "reporting" overload. I've been logging on beginnertriathlete.com then in my triathlete's training diary, and then in my spreadsheet for Shawn, plus uploading to garminconnect.com so I can see the charts etc.. TOO much... have to figure out something a little less redundant.

Anyway, have to get dressed and head out for my next meeting (45 minute drive away).

Just for fun!

So today's run was bound to be fun. I'd programmed my Garmin to indicate to me the different intervals.... so this is what my workout called for...
10min warm up
4 X (4min pick-up/2min easy)
6 X (30 sec fast/1min easy)
5 min warm down

But I'm also supposed to be recovering my HR down to 120, so some of those "easy" were a bit longer until my HR got there. Here are the HR results...
Looks like a roller coaster ;)

So in total it took 51:19
So of course I was disappointed in the distance, but I have to factor in a fair bit of walking, that would be depicted by the "valleys".

Feeling good overall though, even though we've got an extra swim booked in for next week!
Today is "hump" day, and 1/2 of this week's training is done.

I keep going online to check out blogs for work (how cool is that?!), then I get distracted, and want to do a quick entry into my own :) Keeps my mind fresh!

Ride to Conquer Cancer

I'm in a hurry, but if the title of this post doesn't say enough, this image will.... 200km ride in 2 days (June 26/27)!!

I'll be back later tonight to add more :)

OK, so it took me a bit longer to get "back" to this entry. Friday night I seriously could not keep myself awake. But I logged 9 hours sleep! Got up, did my "long" run and then got on with my day. It was an awesome day. We went quading/sledding/tubing! So much fun. Our neighbour, Kelvin is one of the nicest guys I know, and he'd arranged for most of us on our street to meet up over at the little lake in town so we could go out with the quads. It was a blast and perfect day (I think it was only -6). My butt was a bit cold, but we all had so much fun, not to mention the kids. Lar had a good time driving one of the quads (yup he was driving). It was just an all around good time.

Later in the evening we went out to Earls for dinner and for a date night. We finally saw "Avatar". It was really quite good. And I really enjoyed our night out. It was a great weekend, and today (Sunday I'm just catching up on stuff... including my blog).

This past week was a recovery week of training. At the beginning of the week I was kind of bummed about having to take it easy, but clearly by Friday night I needed it. Found myself getting grumpy during my "run" yesterday, as I couldn't go as fast as last week while keeping my heart rate around 125. Today was a rest day.... but who knows what tomorrow will bring. I don't get my next two weeks of training until tonight :)

Oh yeah... the subject of the post...recently I've been hearing about "The Ride to Conquer Cancer" on the radio and TV. It got me to thinking about how there are so many people that don't have the chance to do the types of things I am able to do (albeit I usually struggle through). My sister in law, Heather is currently battling cancer and it makes me sad as I think of her often. And my Mom is a survivor. So of course when I heard about the race, I wanted to find out more.

There's something about it that excites me, a chance to raise money that will stay in Alberta, to help patients in Alberta. The riding part will be challenging, but I would love to do it for Heather. I was only "playing" with the idea, and was even a bit nervous to bring it up with hubby, since it would require me to be away on our anniversary. The day right after I looked up more details, Tuesday, I found out that the Minister that married us in 1993 had suddenly died of acute leukemia. It was pretty much all I needed to push me forward. I was of course worried how it might interfere with my tri training, so I sent an email to Shawn and wondered what he might say :) He didn't scoff at all, and thought it might actually help with my cycling for the Olympic distance tri I'd be doing about 3 weeks after.

I'll be attending an info session on February 11th, before I officially commit, but as it is now, I'm feeling fairly convicted that I want to do it! Call me crazy, won't be the first time...but I am reminded by a song lyric "I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying". To be clear I'm not a country music fan... but those words mean something to me!

When I look back on my life, I don't think it'll be one of those things I look back at and say, "wish I hadn't done that".

So much to learn. (serious stuff)

I think an important part of being human is learning. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes. Mistakes like, not forgetting to charge your ipod before a long hard workout. Like remembering to double check the am/pm settings on your alarm clock. Like learning to trust your coaches instructions. All things I've recently re-learned the importance of. I've also learned that using the word "learnt" can really annoy dear friends :)

I'd like to think that as we learn lessons we grow, and that we'll do our best to improve. This is turning out to be far more deep than I had intended. So let me explain...recently my training instructions have included intervals and some long runs which require me to bring my heart rate quite low to the point where I have to walk, just to bring it back up again. Of course I wasn't happy and did a fair bit of grumbling because I'm from the school of "work hard for good results....work really really hard". If you aren't almost falling over in a pool of your own sweat.... you must not have worked hard enough. Now I'm not saying that I would always work out at that intensity (if I always had, I'd not be in this predicament right?!?!), but I like to push. I've been known to say/think... just one more km (or 3 or 5 more kms, and so on), just one more set, one really hard circuit. I like the feeling of absolutely draining the tank, when I have that feeling, I know I left it all out there and that I worked out hard. I guess I'm a bit "touched".

I understand the principle of interval training, but until today, I didn't really understand (an expert I'm not) the principle of anaerobic thresholds. This is new learning for sure, and tomorrow I have a follow up appointment to go over, in detail (I hope) my fitness testing results, and get the real meaning behind the numbers. I love numbers, I like to "obsess" about the little details, so I still can't quite wrap my head around how I can get better by being slower in my training. Anyone that knows me, would agree I like the numbers.... they totally motivate me. (Can you imagine the day I discovered I could plot out, online, an animated map of my run/ride from my Garmin??!?!?)

I'm pretty sure it is this type of detail that attracts me to multi-sport. I like the challenge, how far can I push. I want to be good. I want to be good "so bad" that I'll even walk a recovery interval on the treadmill, *sigh* if I must.

I'll also be getting some sport nutritional guidance, hopefully I can focus on reducing my % body fat to improve my VO2max score :)

Happy New Year!

Seems fitting to take time at the beginning of the year to set goals. I haven't really thought too much about what goals I'd like to have for 2010, other than my racing goals already set out. More of that later.

Christmas was lovely, and I'm finding myself having to "talk" myself out of feeling sad that the holiday is almost over and that I'll be returning to work! It's been great to just relax and take it easy, and do some fun things. Like get the backyard rink finished! Tried it out today, not too bad. A bit bumpy in areas so it could use a few more "floods", but it is SO windy out today. Also did some bowling (I was sore.... crazy!!!).

As for training, I'm happy to report I didn't miss any workouts over the holidays and even managed to get up early on both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve to go to the pool and get back home before I was barely missed. I also was spoiled by "Santa" as I received my new pedals and got my new cycling shoes as well as a fair bit of athletic wear. Will put in a picture later. Also, thanks to erin337 I heard about a online sale at Sugoi, awesome!!! So I'm patiently waiting for my new purchases :) Swim suit, cycling shorts, visor and arm warmers :) All that from the comfort of my home, I love online shopping!!!!
Stacey got all geared up over xmas, new bike (Kona Dew Drop..... very nice indeedy!) a new indoor trainer, a garmin, and a swim lap counter.

There's a 100km trainer ride going on today started by kelownagurl and other folks I've been following on Twitter. I would have liked to join them, had my bike been ready. But, that's a good goal to set for next year. Hope to get my bike fitting in this next week (hope hope hope), my last few rides have been BRUTAL. I've been super uncomfortable, can't quite get the seat angle right, or it could be that my riding shorts are a bit too bulky these days, and I get hurty in parts that should hurt :( Plus using the pedal cages is impossible for doing drills, and also seems like the pressure on my hands is pretty intense, so I'm guessing my handle bars need to be adjusted too! And of course the infamous Garmin bike computer. I love it!!! I really do, if I could just get it to stay in place. The sensor doesn't seem to want to stay put, and the magnet on the pedal shaft doesn't want to stay either :(

Speaking of my bike, couldn't believe it! The other day when I took it in to the shop to get the pedals put on, the helpful fellow filled up my rear tire as it was low ..... BANG!!!!! he wasn't too impressed, as he had to give me a new tube. Then after putting the tire back on he discovered a large rip in my tire (probably half the size of a dime!). That was very surprising. So I needed to get a new tire, but since I'm only going to be using the indoor trainer I purchased a tire that is specific for trainers and won't wear down. It is pretty blue, and now I won't have bits of black rubber everywhere in the basement :) So, in the spring before I head outdoors, I'll need to get another road tire.

I started using my Triathlon training diary, to record my workouts etc., it'll take a bit of getting used to, since I'm so used to just typing things out. Ah, maybe that's a good goal for 2010, to journal my training!

Haven't received my next set of training plans, but they are expected to arrive on Sunday. Tomorrow is a long "SLOW" run, not sure about that. Supposed to keep my HR in the mid 120's!!!!!!!!!!!!! Going to be boring...have to download some podcasts! Why so slow??? So confusing.

OK, better run and get the roast in the oven, thought I'd do up a nice garlic roast for dinner, with mashed potatoes and carrots. YUM.

It was so yummy! The colour of the gravy was gorgeous!!! But I do feel sluggish now.