Twas the morning of race day...

'Twas the morning of race day and all through the year
Muscles had ached, loads of cash spent on gear;
The bikes were racked in transition with care,
In hopes that post swim we’d eventually be there;
Helmets and shoes were nestled all snug in their place,
While we prayed we’d finish this gawd awful race;

With us in our spandex, wetsuits and swim cap,
‘Twas the first open water swim, we must avoid mishap,
When out on the lake there arose such a clatter,
Was too late to worry now, ‘cuz it really didn’t matter.
Down to the beach we marched -- nay we trudged,
Knowing today our efforts would fully be judged.

The sun on the lake, shining off the buoys out far,
Would challenge me for sure, but not you, you’re a swim star!
When, what to our wondering eyes should appear,
But a whole lot of “pros”, with some pretty fancy gear.
With super fast bikes, that would make them ride quick,
Thank goodness we’d planned and done a good brick.

As quick as lactic acid these racers they came,
We were focused and nervous but determined all the same;
"Now, Faster! now, Quicker! no, whining or quittin’!
On, pace! on form! on, spandex tightly fittin’!
To the top of the hill! Without hitting the wall!
Now swim away! Bike away! Run away all!"

As I finished the swim and rubbed water from my eyes,
I saw that these wetsuits aren’t flattering on one’s thighs.
So up to transition I practically flew,
Knowing there might be a chance I could catch up with you.
And then, in a flash, you were gone on your bike
still one more sport left, ‘til the one you really don’t like.
As you put on your helmet, and were turning around,
You looked down the path and cursed something profound.
You were dressed all in gear, from your head to your foot,
Now if only your helmet would stay where it’s put;



The bundle of food you had put in your pack,
Would provide you with an important mid-race power snack.
Gatorade and water, were strapped to your chassis,
and I kid you not, you were looking real classy!
Three laps you would take and up a small hill,
that saddle rash was more effective than a contraceptive pill.
Before you knew it, you were back for T2,
you couldn’t bonk now, you had to pull through.
Out on the trail, you kept a good pace,
You may have stopped twice, but only to tie your shoelace.

You worked so hard, you deserve a gold medal,
You never gave up, even when it was SO hard to pedal.
You’re always so chipper with words of encouragement,
You should be so proud that you never “hit” the pavement.
With always a joke, but willing to work,
And endured all the time; while not being a jerk,
And even while getting water up your nose,
And trying out training tips with a very odd stretching pose.
You sprang to your bike, to your dog gave a whistle,
And away you both flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard you exclaim, ere you went out of sight,
"Happy training to all, it’s been a true delight."

Hunkering down....

Into week 2 of my structured/coached training, and clearly deep into winter!
This a.m. -38 with a windchill of -49 Celsius. That's just freakishly cold!!! Spending a lot of time indoors.

Yesterday's swim was pretty good, even though I was swimming solo (Stacey had something going on). In total 1000m. Today is a 50 min ride, which I'll be doing this afternoon. Have the day off, doing some "other" work, but will squeeze the ride in on the trainer a bit later. I had planned to do it this a.m. but when I woke up at 5:45 and saw it was -38 I voted to stay in my warm bed knowing I could do it later. Tomorrow is an easy run, resting up for our testing on Thursday.

Last night was Brynn's ballet performance. I volunteered during the first show and then was able to watch the 2nd. It was super cute and all the girls did an excellent job! The photo is pretty bad quality, but that's our little ballerina on the right, really cute mouse ears :)

Well I better get at it! I'll do an update once my workout is done.

UPDATE:
I'd planned to do my bike ride at 2, and then go get the kids. Of course it didn't happen. So, went to get the kids from school, had a few extra in tow (so cute!!!). After going to the post office and store, I put supper in the oven and then got on my gear and headed down for my ride (in the basement). At first I was kind of dreading it, as it can be so boring on the trainer. But Shawn had us doing all kinds of different combinations so the time actually went pretty quick. I was sweating like crazy, so was happy when my boy came down to check things out, got him to toss me a towel. "Thanks Babe" I got frustrated with the single leg drills.... I really need to get clippless pedals. I have the regular clips, but it's just so clunky and choppy doing the single leg drills. I could really see how much better my cadence was when I focused on pulling up and not just pushing down. When I finished my ride I finished up making supper, and we had a nice family dinner. Meat loaf, potatoes, broccoli and spinach salad. Funny, I had made salmon for myself, but just couldn't resist the meatloaf. It was homemade meatloaf, so at least I knew what was in it.

On Friday I had a meeting with a physiotherapist (for my job) and it was great because I knew he was into triathlons as I've seen him race. So we spent the first 10-15 minutes chatting about triathlons. (He was my physiotherapist for rehabing my shoulder after my surgery in '07.) What got me really excited was that I can book a 1 hour bike session with him, and he'll do the full work up, strength, power blah blah and a proper fit! I am especially excited about the proper fit, especially to see if he'll make any compensation for my shoulder. Although it hasn't really affected me, I can tell it is weaker, and when I'm riding for long periods of time it sometimes aches. He was quite amazed how far I've come with my range of motion in my shoulder, especially since it is such an "old" injury (20 years ago was the original "incident").

Going to go relax and stretch, before heading to bed. I have tomorrow as a work from home day too, but I learned my lesson today and will get my run out of the way first thing :)

First week with a coach

The first week of coaching is almost over!
So far so good :)
Swim workout on Tuesday was ubber hard for me, and as I tired I could feel my form getting progressively worse. I tried not to let it get me down (that was tough), but I am worried about the coached swim tomorrow morning. First I'll have to get up at 5:30 a.m. to make it, plus I worry about how bad I suck! But I know you are supposed to spend more time on your weakest sport, so I'm trying to view it as an opportunity. Was pleasantly surprised by my cycle session, as it was my first on the indoor trainer in months and months (seriously, since a late night catch up session in June!). I haven't had a lot of rides in on my new bike, so I was happy that I felt comfy. However, I am reminded how much I really want to get clipless pedal system ASAP.

Winter has arrived, so I'm accepting my "sentence" of running indoors. I'll try and get a few in on the indoor track, that should provide some interest :) The last few mornings I've really enjoyed listening to podcasts, they make the time fly!!! This week was the AgeGrouper and Milkthecowbaby, and I see that Kelownagurl has put up a new one. Always interesting stuff!!

OK, better get back to work, and oh yeah.... eat some lunch. Tilapia and salad yummy!

Trauma and Insanity

Yes, perhaps a little dramatic for a title, but let me explain.
On Saturday my son complained that his tooth hurt. So I had a quick look and to my horror it looked awful! There was literally a hole in it, so I could only assume a filling had come out. I've had this happen before so I knew it could be painful. First thing this morning we called the dentist to get him in. At 2:15 he went in, at 2:35 I had a call saying he had an infected tooth and they couldn't save the tooth, it would have to be pulled :( Shortly later, Lar called and I could hear Eamon in the background crying for me. He was literally hysterical! Poor kid, it took 4 times the regular dosage of Novocain and he was still in terrible pain. The only way to settle him for the 30 minute drive home was for me to sing him a lullaby that I sang to him when he was a baby.

My day was pretty hectic all around, and for some reason my ipod alarm didn't go off (I think I had turned the volume off.... doh! such a love hate relationship) so I didn't get in my a.m. workout. How about lunchtime? Nope, had to run a noon hour workshop... are you kidding me?!?!?! Sigh.

But on the training note, we met with our coach on Friday morning. How exciting. He's only giving us the 1st week of training, because we go for our fitness testing next week. Then after the "honeymoon" stage we'll be getting our training plans monthly, but will be meeting up for coached swimming sessions. Did I mention he's a fabulous swimmer?!?!?! I believe he was 2nd out of the water for Ironman Canada 2009. Just a bit intimidating. But ego aside, it can't hurt to get some help in the pool. Tomorrow is a swim day, by ourselves and then again Friday morning nice and early at 6:30.

So life with the kids is busy, pre-school snack day tomorrow, Eamon's 8th bday party on Friday (taking the boys to the climbing wall), and ballet recital next week, plus Christmas bake sale to get ready for. I'm also doing a few last minute contract projects (yes yes I do extra work on top of my full time job?!?!?! tsk tsk), and all the other things in life are keeping me on my toes.
Wish I could just train, it'd be hard but simple :)

On the road again....

Tomorrow I head out of town for a few days, should be fun though as I get to travel with a co-worker, that also happens to be my training partner. Coincidence? I think not :) Wondering how much training chat we can squeeze into the first 2 hours of our drive tomorrow! And also plan to get some Christmas shopping in.

For the first time in a long while, I managed to drag my butt out of bed this a.m. for an early morning workout! I know it's important to cross train, so I did my own mini circuit workout with skipping rope, pushups, crunches, lunges, squats etc. I'll pay for it later no doubt. By lunch time I was starving, but otherwise my energy level has been really good! So great to get it done and out of the way! And such a beautiful day today, hard to believe it is late November!

So for the rest of this week . . . should be able to get in a swim tomorrow, as for Wed/Thurs. hard to say, although both hotels have exercise facilities, but maybe a run on Wed. or Thurs.
Friday, meeting with Shawn to start training planning :)
Have I selected my races?!?!?! Yup.
May 2010: Splash Pedal Gasp
June 13, 2010: Wasa Lake Tri [open water]
July 2010: Swam the Dam (Magrath Tri)[open water]
August 2010: Lake Chaparral (Calgary)[open water]

Sept or October, 1/2 marathon, haven't yet selected.

I've also called to schedule the fitness testing, just waiting to hear back. I hope I don't throw up, Lar keeps mentioning how the pro hockey players are just puking their guts out after their V02max testing!!!

Cleaning House

Confession. I paid to have my house cleaned.
How is it that I can take something as wonderful as coming home to a nicely cleaned house (that I didn't have to do), and feel guilty about it??? The inner monologue was something like "I suck, I can't even do my own house cleaning". So, I was feeling a bit like a failure yesterday and to top it off my run was also crap :( I set out for my long run yesterday and had to cut it shorter because my left hamstring is really tight and sore and it just wasn't "working" itself out. GRRR I hate stopping a workout, even if I know I should. But I did find a cheaper alternative to massage therapy .... having my son walk on my sore hamstring :) He thought it was fun, and I thought it felt great :) I'm also full swing into a cold, so my sinuses are waging war. Sigh. Sniffle. Sniffle.

I've confirmed a meeting time with Shawn to set up my training plan (next Friday) and have the go ahead to set up my fitness testing. Hope my attitude is better by then. Reminds me of lyrics to "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus (yeah a teenie bopper song, but great lyrics). "A little voice inside my head, saying, you'll never make it".

One of my assignments before meeting with Shawn is to decide on some goal races. Should be fun :) Will be traveling for work next week, so I'll have a fair bit of time to plan that out and think it through. Oh, and yesterday I was chatting with two people I know that are going to be doing Calgary Ironman 70.3, it was so exciting! I told them I'd be volunteering so I'd watch for them on the course. I think it's awesome how many people are crazy about triathlons.

Well off to drive home, get supper and get the kids off to their activities...have to admit, it'll be great to go home to a nicely cleaned house :)
Feeling better already ;)

The road to hell....

...is paved with good intentions. I thought that would be a fitting title for my blog today. I had planned to get up at 5:50 this a.m. to do a cardio circuit (skipping, pushups etc.). I had my workout clothes all set, my freshly synced iPod, water bottle etc. It's almost funny, because I've joked before that if my kids are going to get sick, it always happens at 4:00 a.m.

No word of a lie, at 3:59 Brynn comes in because she wasn't feeling well (and when I saw the time, I actually laughed). After a short while she went back to bed without incident. I had a hard time going to sleep in the first place (my head wouldn't turn off) I even listened to all of the newest "Milkthecowbaby Triathlon" podcast, and I think by then it was 11:40 p.m. :( Still couldn't sleep! Needless to say, I shut the early alarm off!

I packed my gym bag and plan to do some speed work at the track during lunch. Speaking of that, I just wanted to say how lucky I am. Here at work we have a brilliant athletic facility!!! Huge weight room with lots of cardio equipment, an indoor climbing wall and a 200m indoor track!! Love it. Plus, with a locker and towel service, it's quite convenient. Errr maybe too convenient when the alarm rings so early, although I do prefer to do my workouts in the a.m. as then I have more time, plus it starts the day off great.

Will report back when I'm done .... snack time first.

So I'm back. Great workout, was a bit pressed for time at the end and would have liked to get in more stretching because my left hamstring is bugging me a bit. I did a slow warm up, and it was SO hard, others on the track were trotting quite well, and it took almost all I had in me to not start off running :( Silly competitive nature (s'okay, got to blow past some runners when I was doing my sprints). I did a 5 minute quick walking warm up (sigh), then did a moderate 1km, then I did 200m of super quick sprints (of course a relative term) and then 200m of walk, and I did that 5 times, and then a 1km cool down, followed by some stretching and rolling on a foam roller. I LOVE that thing!!! So hey "Santa" I really really really want one for xmas.
I was thinking I might do a "Dear Santa" blog post, with photos :) hehehe