SO far, SO good but SO tired!

2010 has continued to be a great year so far. The job search is keeping me busy, along with some coaching that I have picked up along the way.

With a little more "free" time on my hands, my lovely husband/coach has definitely been taking advantage of it on the training side of things. Ironman Canada is eight months away. However it is still an unbelievably daunting race and the thought of it has scared me into a consistent and intense training program.

In all my triathlons to date, I have always finished the swim in a great position, usually one of the first out of the water... but, that's when the race ends. The bikes starts, and I get passed, and passed and passed. In fact, I am pretty sure that I have never passed anyone on the bike... EVER. So, my "retired pro cycling husband" has made it his mission to make sure that doesn't happen (as much) come August.

A old picture of Mark representing Canada at some race!

For the past six weeks, I am have been on the bike - A LOT. Most of my riding has been on the trainer, thanks to all the lovely rain in Vancouver. But, as much as I love riding outside, the trainer has allowed me to do a lot of specific training without the worry of interruptions. My goal leading up to IMC is to be as prepared as possible for the 180km ride. After that, we'll see what happens...

Other bike related news - my new bike has arrived! Mark got me a TT frame for Christmas. Right now the bike is in a million different pieces on the floor of our condo. We are still waiting on a few more parts and then Mark can start building it. Also, next Saturday night, a group of us from the North Shore Tri Club will be learning to ride in the Velodrome! Should be a fun night!

Shan, Steph, Ally and I after a 100km ride on Saturday.
Enjoying a well deserved coffee break!

Happy New Year

This New Year has brought a lot of changes and Mark and I are excited about what the New Year will have in store for us. 2009 was a year of excitement, fun and friendship and we have no doubt that 2010 will be that much better!

I have a few personal goals for 2010 - in no particular order.

1. Keep a training log. It has been a long time since I have systematically written down my workouts and kept track of what I was doing. I miss being able to look back and figure out what works and what doesn't - along with all that I have accomplished in the year. I decided to start this goal early and haven't missed logging a workout since Dec 1st!

2. Eat healthier. Generally, I eat quite healthy. But, there are a lot of time when convenience outweighed eating the right food. With Ironman Canada as my main goal this year, I would like to fuel my body with the best foods and not the easiest foods. This will include planning out our weekly meals, bringing my lunch to work and having healthy snacks around the house.

3. Keep our home office organized. I have always prided myself of being extremely organized...ask any of my roommates in university :). However, this past year I have managed to neglect keeping things as organized as I would have liked. Over the holidays we have organized and sorted out our condo in an attempt to start this year off on the right foot!

4. Find a career that I am passionate about! Just recently, I have decided to leave my current role in search of something more. In the last two years I have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience. However, something was missing and I am on a quest to find that something. I know it won't be easy and I definitely didn't make the "easy" decision, but I know if I work hard enough, I will find the "right" fit for me.

What are your goals for 2010?

My New Home for the Winter

Thanks to my wonderful husband/coach, I have officially started Ironman training. Although the race isn't until August 2010, there are a lot of things I need to improve on - so I might as well get started. This year was the first year I did any type of legitimate training since I officially retired from swimming in 2004. Since then I have managed to stay in shape by training for local road races and a couple of marathons. When I retired from swimming, I was ready to move on and try all the sports I had to give up in order to focus on the pool. It wasn't until Mark and I moved West to Vancouver that I had the opportunity to try my hand at being a triathlete.

Our first summer in Vancouver I got back on my road bike and started to get back in the pool teaching Mark how to swim. We also started running together and found that between the two of us, we had 2/3 of a great triathlon! I competed in a couple of local sprint triathlons and found that I was itching to try something a little longer. This summer Mark and I put together a solid, but brief training plan to get me ready for both the Victoria and Vancouver Half Ironman races. The training plans worked out great and I had some really solid races with the limited amount of training I put in.

Since I definitely do not think I can "wing" an Ironman, Mark has started to put together a training plan that will work with my unusual work schedule as well as the local swim, bike and run sessions that are offered by our club.

However, the main focus for me throughout the winter is this (my new home):

I will be sending a LOT of time on the trainer, set up on our balcony as I try to develop my cycling legs. I will also try and get out on the road when the weather permits, but with the shortened daytime hours, most of my training will be in the comfort of our condo.

My goal will be to get on the bike 2-3 times a week and work through a series of drills and phases to improve my cadence as well as increase my power/speed. With Mark's experience I have no doubt that I will be well prepared to tackle the 180km ride next August!

NS Half Marathon Race Report

This Thanksgiving weekend was the third annual North Shore Half Marathon and the first half marathon race for me in 6 years. The last half marathon I ran was the 2003 Hogeye Half Marathon in Fayetteville, Arkansas!

I didn't really have a goal in mind when the race started but I knew that a PB was possible. I have been doing some great training with Steph and Shannon and have pushed myself much harder than normal with weekly tempo runs, hills and speed work. Thanks girls!

The race started off downhill, so I tried to take it easy and get into a good tempo. Although I was a little chilly starting off, I quickly warmed up when I hit the hilly section of the course along Dollarton Highway. I wore my Garmin and was a little concerned when I was averaging under 7min/mile pace, but I felt good and went with it. Around mile 8 I started to feel as though I went out a little too quickly and tried to settled into a more reasonable pace (7:20/mile) that I could maintain for the final 5 miles. As we neared the finish line I was quite surprised to look down at my watch and see that I would be finishing under 1:40. In fact, I finished in 1:30:31 which was good enough for 3rd in my age group, 6th female overall and a 20 minute PB. Not a bad start for Ironman training, eh?!

I am not sure what is up next as Mark and I are off to Jamaica Nov 9th for our "better late, than never" honeymoon. Depending on how things go, I may do the Seattle Half Marathon at the end of November. For right now I will keep training with the girls and start getting into a more structured Ironman training plan when we get back from our honeymoon!

Steph and I at the start line

Around mile 5

A new PB... but looking a little tired!

Women's 25-29 top 3!

I'm a sucker...

Let's just say.... I'm a sucker.

This summer I have met, become great friends, and trained with a fabulous group of people. Training has honestly never been this much fun. As much as I try to avoid getting up at 5am every morning, the lure of a killer run or tough swim with my training buddies, far outweighs the sleep. Morning after morning, I get "talked" into doing something.

Sunday was no exception. I got talked into doing a 26km trail race!

The Rubble Creek 26km trail race is by far one of the most beautiful races I have ever done, as well as one of the toughest. Although it is in its 25th year, the race is still relatively small and boasts no race numbers, aid stations or chip timing. The race organizer stood on a rock, said "ready, set, go"and we were off. The race started with a pretty tough uphill, taking us up 2600 feet, leveled out for a few km's before descending 4000 feet to the finish.

Here is the course profile thanks to Adam's GPS!

The reason why I am a sucker is because I hadn't really trained for this race... and got talked into racing it. Sure, I had started running a little more towards the end of the summer, but the longest run I had done was at the tail end of the 2 halfirons I raced! I was a little worried about finishing the race, but Steph assured me she would run with me and that it would be just fine. We started the race at a conservative pace, while Adam, Graeme and Shannon took off with the main pack. Once we reached the top of the climb, we stopped to take a couple of photos of the breathtaking view... we just couldn't resist!

Me - taking in the view of Black Tusk

Once we reached the descent, I was sooo happy/relieved. My legs were pretty tired and the thought of running up another hill was not very appealing. Steph and I took turns leading the way down the winding slope (she looked quite graceful, while I tried to not kill myself with my clumsy feet). After a good hour of running downhill, we were both very excited to see the parking lot and the end of the run. We were met by Shannon (who came 2nd!!), Adam and Graeme and the race organizer with a stopwatch calling out times.

Needless to say, I didn't exactly race the run. My goal was to get out and get a solid 3 hour run in with some great friends in the beautiful West Coast trails.

Post race: Graeme, Shannon, me, Steph and Adam

Next up, the North Shore Half Marathon!

Cultus Lake Triathlon

It started off as a little bet and a chance for Mark to do his first triathlon. It ended up being a great weekend with some solid races from the NSTC crew.

This was a role reversal weekend for Mark and I. Normally I am the one racing, while Mark holds all my gear, and cheers me on from the sidelines. This weekend, however, Mark was going to try his hand at a triathlon.

On Saturday morning, we all drove to Cultus Lake to get checked in. As there weren't too many places to eat around the campsite, we ended up going to the Cultus Lake Pub with the whole crew. The night started with dinner and a few pitchers of beer and ended up with the boys on the dance floor and much more beer.... not your regular race ritual!

On Sunday morning, we all got to transition nice and early. My task was to find coffee while the boys got all set up. Luckily it turned out to be a really warm day and Mark didn't freeze to death without a wetsuit for the swim.

Mark had seeded himself pretty far forward for the start of the swim. When we first moved to Vancouver two years ago, Mark could barely swim and if we were in the pool together, I would kick along side him as he swam. Needless to say, he has made some HUGE improvements. As the swim came to an end, Mark was about 20th coming out of the water and looking pretty good.

I personnaly thought that as long as Mark had a good swim, he would be set to take down lots of people on the bike. For those of you that don't know, Mark is a former pro cyclist. That being said, Mark has only rode his ride about 10 times all summer and is still riding his steel framed bike that he last raced with in 2004!

As the bike course was an out and back, I did see much of what was going on until they got back to transition. Mark made up quite a lot of ground on the bike and came off in 5th place. At this point I wasn't quite sure what would happen. Mark claims he really isn't much of a runner, and like the rest of this summer, he hasn't trained much at all.

As I stood at the finish line watching the leaders come through, the next thing I saw was Mark coming in for a solid 4th place! Not bad for his first race, eh?!

In fact, all of the North Shore Tri Club that competed that day had a great race and it was so much fun to watch. We finished off the weekend with a swim in the lake, lunch, and mini golf before heading back home. Hopefully we'll see Mark back in action next summer!

One Busy Month!

Mark and I have had a really busy few weeks to finish up the summer. It seems like every weekend there is something going on. Here's a quick recap on how we finished up a fabulous summer!

• The first week in August Mark was busy organizing the World Police and Fire Games. He was in charge of directing all 5 road cycling events which were great to watch. We were also invited to the opening ceremonies - 10,000 police and firemen all in the same arena - so much fun!

• Next up was Allison and Ramsey's wedding. Mark and I had the pleasure of being the MC's for the evening and we got to meet and hang out with all their friends and family for the week. The weekend kicked off with a pre-wedding run and finished up with a post-wedding Grouse Grind! Congrats Allison and Ramsey!
  

• The next weekend we did a great canoe/hike with some old cycling friends of Mark's. It was a relaxing day with lunch at the waterfalls, a little cliff jumping into the freezing cold water and dinner at Shera and Basse's.
  

• We ended up the summer with fun filled weekend at Ironman Canada. Corey came up from Texas and we met up with Mandy and Fraser from Calgary for a weekend of camping and cheering. We arrived on Saturday and met up with everyone at the campground before going for a swim in the Lake and checking out all the pre-race festivities. Later that evening we met up with a few others from the NSTC and went for dinner. Sunday morning we woke up nice and early, stopped for coffee at Tim's before finding a great spot on the beach to cheer everyone on. The rest of the day was spent cheering/eating our way around the Ironman course. Everyone was having such a great race and it was so much fun to watch. A big congrats to everyone from the North Shore Tri Club - especially training buddies Steph, Shannon and Karen - you girls rock!

I have also officially registered for Ironman Canada 2010! Needless to say the next 365 days will be filled with lots of training as I work on getting stronger on the bike and run.... 180km of biking followed by a marathon is quite daunting! Better get to work...