Summer 2008 Race Schedule

I've just spent the past couple hours planning out my race schedule for this summer.

It's tricky business: navigating midterms, finals, my sister's wedding, potentially camp... but I think I've got it all sorted out.

I've included this year's (or 2007's, when 2008's was unavailable) souvenir t-shirt designs, because that's clearly the most important factor in the race decision process. Right?

May 10: Storm the Trent
An adventure race that I'm doing with my dad.
Mountain Bike 20km
Trail Run 6km
Paddle 9km

June 1: Milton Sprint Distance Tri
The women's series I did last year canceled their first race of the season. Silly. So I'm doing this one. It's nicely local.
750m Swim
30km Bike
7.5km Run

July 20: Niagara Sprint Distance Tri
700m Swim
25km Bike
7km Run

August 17: Toronto Island Sprint Distance Tri
This is a fun location. It's a bit further than regular sprint distances, which is cool. My exams end on the 16 and so I'm sort of wondering if this is that great of an idea. Will I be training the 2 weeks before? Well, not as hardcore. But you're supposed to take is easy the week before, right? Right? I haven't registered for this one yet... I might not. It's the most expensive one, too. So. We'll see. And I'm doing Wasaga like 2 weeks later.
750m Swim
30km Bike
7.5 Run

Sept 3: Wasaga Beach Olympic Distance TriI did this one last year, and they had to cancel the swim portion. That sucked. But I want to do an Olympic distance this year (my first!) and I think saving it until the end of the season is a smart move.
1500m Swim
40km Bike
10km Run

Sept 28: Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon
I did this one last year, and it was pretty sweet.
Running 13.1 miles (21km)

My First Half Marathon

My legs are such whiners. Seriously guys- going down a single flight of stairs isn't really that difficult.

I guess that have a good enough excuse. Yesterday I ran my first half marathon (2:24:16). Holy smokes was it tiring.

I could go into details about how at the starting line I realized I hadn't had any water to drink that morning yet (bad mistake). Or how due to bathroom lines I didn't really warm up (my dad's technique is to save all your energy. Don't waste it on warming up! Get carried to the starting line!) Or I could even give a full account on my bowels that day (rough shape). Instead, I'll stick with just the high lights.

-Km 1: Shit, they're measuring in kms. I don't know how to pace kms. I want miles!
-Km 3: Water station one. I take my immodium (can't take one of those without water!), and a gel. Probably a bit too much water.
-Km 4: Water is sloshing in my stomach
-Km 5: watch reads a bit over 30 minutes. That's a bit quicker that I intended
-Km 6: Skip water station 2
-Km 9: Skip water station 3, remembering the sloshiness of first water station
-Km 9.5: Wonder why I skipped WS 2 and 3
-Km 10: last 5km was 32:44. Still a touch faster than I planned
-Km 12: WS 4. Took one cup
-Km 15: last 5km was 35:05. I don't want to go THAT slow!
-Km 16: only 5km to go! 5km! That's nothing! We can do this!
-Km 16.5: Knee has been hurting; decide to walk it off
-Km 16.7: Cannnn't start running again. Like, I'd do 3 strides and have no control- my legs would just stop. After 10 tries, I finally get going again. Pretty slowly
-Km 19: Feeling good enough to pick it up. Got back to the pace that I probably started at
-Km 20.1? Somebody yells out "ONE LEFT!" No sign though.
-400m to go. SERIOUSLY? THAT IS THE LONGEST DISTANCE IMAGINABLE. 400 METRES WILL NEVER END.

FINISHED! (last 6.1km was 45:13. Yikes!)

I can't wait to do another half! A full marathon might be in the cards eventually, but half is such a great distance! You should do one too!

A running realization

Yesterday I had the best brick session of my life.

A brick is a bike followed by a run. The transition um, kills... every muscle in your legs. But that's what you do in a triathlon, so that's how you have to train. It does get easier, though. Or at least, easier to go faster. Or at LEAST, it gets possible to at a reasonable speed.

The first time I went I had weird brake problems with my bike... yes the brake was continually ON. So I was super slow. So I came in late off the bike and was the last person to start/finish the run section. I got my bike tuned up and my lap time for biking improved incredibly, but my run still wasn't fast. I think I've been telling myself I am slow- and using that as a crutch. Not "these other people are faster because they are pushing themselves harder" but "these are people are faster because I am a slow person". And then I wouldn't push myself as hard.

There are a couple of fast girls. Yesterday one of them was riding with me. Actually she said "Lisa, let's ride" and I suppressed a giggle because that phrase is hilare- and started on the first loop. We were chatting nicely, and rode at an easy pace. On the second loop, I started noticing I was always at a slightly faster pace. I kept accidentally getting ahead of her. I decided I'd rather make a friend than finish the loop at a good pace, so I'd just stop pedaling for a bit every so often for her to keep pace.

When we transitioned, she was taking her time to have a Gu and stretch out some muscle that had been bothering her, and told me to go ahead- that she would catch up. We were starting with 3 hill repeats so it was really easy to see where I was in relation to the other triathletes. The "fast girl" never caught up. In fact, I started passing a couple of people. There were two new girls that I lapped. Suddenly, and I mean SUDDENLY, I realized something. All this time I've been telling myself I'm one of the slow ones. One of the inexperienced ones. The one who always finishes near the end of the group.

And suddenly? I realized. I. AM NOT. SLOW.

And I charged up those hills, arms swinging, sweat dripping, breath ragged... feeling terrific. Feeling my muscles contract differently on different slopes. Feeling powerful. Actually I think I was even a little teary because I was just... proud of myself. Realizing?- I'm good. Well not awesome, but I am good. I am better than some people who have nicer bikes than me. I am better than some people who have been racing for a few seasons. And I'm definitely better than everybody who isn't out there. Not being last- gaining on people, lapping people... it felt like high school sports, when I knew I was just "a good runner". And I forgot what it felt like to believe that.

Running always makes me happy. But now I am more motivated than ever. I can't WAIT for my next speed workout. I can't WAIT for my next long run. I can't WAIT to go swimming in the morning, or on a really long bike ride this weekend. I'm just SO PUMPED to be out there.

My First Brick

A brick is a session of biking followed by running (sometimes iterative). Yesterday was my first time going.

The coach is really awesome. I used to see him training people at the pool all the time so he's probably triathlon coach extraordinare. Now, when I go biking I usually do 3-5 loops of the park. (! loop=3.35 miles). John, the coach, is like "okay, we'll warm up with 2 laps then on the next one go hard for the final third, on the forth go hard for everything but the first third, and on the fifth go hard throughout. On the sixth take it easy and cool down." Sure, John! Why not?

I was the only girl (apparently others come sometimes) and expressed that I was really slow. One guy who's name I forget... actually okay I could only distinguish them by shirt colours because they all looked the same, pretty much. When you're wearing a helmet unless you have a giant nose or weird tattoos, it's hard to distinguish. Anyway so silver shirt did the first warm up loop with me. We're chatting nicely. Oh he's doing 20 triathlons this season. Oh he did an ironman last year. OH HE USED TO PLAY PRO SOCCER.

Our first warm up loop was like 16:30 which is embarrassingly slow. I usually do them in anywhere from 13- 14:30, 15 TOPS. (note: there is a really long hill, too). Anyway so silver shirt takes off. I end up only doing 4 loops, with my final being 15 minutes and the middle two being 15:30s. That's BAD. John was all nice about it and I ran my run session really fast to I might still impress somebody. (No need: it was quite flattering having the attention of 5 amazing triathletes all directed at me. "So you're coming back next week RIGHT?" "Sure, guys" "YES. I mean, cool." I love having that monopoly of being the only girl)

Anyway as I was carrying my bike back up to my apartment I noticed the back wheel wasn't spinning properly. If I was holding it up off the ground and spun the wheel, it would slow down really fast and stop suddenly. Yes, something was wrong with the brake. Basically, the brakes are stuck at a slightly on position. NO WONDER my quads were killing!

So next week when I go again I am going to take them all by surprise! And be so fast! Hooray! (That is... if I can fix this bike up! I don't know how!)

Running Blog!

I'd like to direct you now to Pheidippides Didn't Make It. It's a blog Justus and I are writing about training for a half marathon this September.

Add it to your RSS feed. Hope you like it!

The Triathlon

As of a couple minutes after 10am today, I am officially a triathlete.

(Let me say here, that the excuses that are about to follow are not really excuses as much as they are supplemental reasons. I know I'm not amazing. Both Lin and Laura: good. They can aim to win. I know that I'm not as fast, even if I train equally hard. Or, at least, equally often. I'm not saying I would have won if it weren't for ____. I'm just saying, I would have finished a little faster, had it not been for______. That said, let's get on with the post!)

This title of triathlete comes not without trials and tribulation. It was just a super sprint distance, which means 375m swim, 10k bike, 2.5 k run. I knew I could finish that distance. Plus, it goes in order from my worst event to my best event (that is, swim-bike-run) so I wasn't feeling too, too bad. However, yesterday's travels (post not finished yet) put me in what can hardly be called good pre-race condition. We had to get up really early in order to get to Orangeville on time, too. So tired, and with a cold, we arrive at the race site.

The Swim:

So my race bib number means I'm fifth to leave the dock (it's not mass start. One swimmer every 10 seconds. NICE). However this also means that like 200 people will be watching me so I better use my nicest front crawl. I blow some snot rockets and everybody around me is either utterly disgusted, or utterly impressed by the sheer volume.

I jump in the chilly water and pop my goggles on. Off I go with quite nice front crawl. About 8 seconds later I'm like "okay, I can't breathe through my nose." so I decide to do breast stroke because maybe then I can do mouth breathing. My breast stroke might even be considered my best stroke. Well, my breaths are so quick that there is no glide at all to this stroke and I worry that I might start hyperventilating. After yesterday, this is a legit concern. (Again, the events of Saturday will be posted tomorrow. It includes an ambulance visit to the airport. Not cool.) So, I do what you would do: backstroke. Okay now before I tell you that I have a fast backstroke that me caveat (the same thing I told Lin earlier on the phone). When I say "good" and "fast" I'm really only comparing myself to Laura who- no offense Laur, is not the greatest swimmer. We both kind of suck, really. But I've been practicing, a lot.

Well I'm going fine until I'm like... hmm nobody has passed me in a while. I AM pretty fast. Hmm... how far till the turning buoy I wonder. I flip back over to look. Okay I have gone WAY off track. WAY. Fuck. Alright, so I flip back over and start calculating hypotenuses to estimate exactly how much extra distance I went (at least 25m!). I start flipping back over more frequently now to avoid going further off course. (Sarah, my younger sister who was the photographer, told me that somebody else in the crowd said "where is she going?", motioning to me. Fine, whatever.

So I'm nearing the first turning buoy and my glasses are foggy because I didn't wet them before starting. So I'm treading water and wiping my goggles down. Then I start doing my "head above the water" breast stroke so that I don't overshoot and miss the turn. The rescue canoe heads to me; the guy in front says "Don't worry! We've got you! We're coming hold on". Me: No, I'm fine! Him: Umm, are you sure? Me: Yup! Umm, okay see you.

I'm nearing the end of the swim now and okay the weeds were creepy before but now they are down right intrusive. Like, seriously. Wrapping around my legs so much that I feel like I'm hardly moving. But I make it! I slip on the algae on my way out but that's okay! If I can finish the swim, I can finish this race!

Total I passed: 0
Total that passed me: I'd wager... 60

The Bike:

I think I have a good bike. It's new and expensive. It's a cross bike leaning towards mountain. I like it. It has good gears, good brakes, and it about 1/4 the weight of my old "department store bought" bike that I got for Christmas when I was maybe 15. So. I think it's good. Lin told me that I'm going to get passed by people on road bikes, and I was like "um, Lin? My bike rawks."

Before we get into how wrong I was, lets start with: I forgot to adjust the seat. So I go running out of transition (seamless transition, other than that I couldn't get my shirt on part) and hop on my bike. You know that sensation when you think there is another stair and there isn't? That's me with my bike seat. I guess somewhere along the line it got lowered- maybe when my dad was loading the car for us this morning? So I pedal for a bit and realize that this isn't working. I stop to raise the seat, and decide to abandon logic. I just raise it wildly, saying nuts to measuring, and re-tighten. Hop back on. Okay, still not quite high enough, but I did succeed in off centering it! So now the front of the seat is rubbing against my leg as I go.

And "as I go" do I ever! I have it in front gear 3, back gear 6, for the entire race. Despite this effort, every road bike just goes zooming past. ZOOMING. Old woman wearing a skirt. A woman, who is aged, who is wearing a skirt on a bicycle. A bicycle being ridden by somebody twice my age who was also sporting a skirt. Zipping past. At another time, I reached the crest of a hill at the same time as somebody with a proper road bike. She stopped pedalling, let go of one handle bar and starting stretching her back out. I bent down and pedalled my heart out. She reached the bottom of the hill in half the time it took me. Frustrating to say the least.

The best one was this one woman who's rump was maybe 5 times as wide as the seat she was sitting on. I mean, all the best and kudos to her but seriously? Seriously. That hurt. "Passing on your left." Oh hi.

Total I passed: 1
Total passed me: perhaps 20

The Run:

Ahhh. Running. My best one. A little sore coming off the bike. But ready to do this. I picked up speed the entire way until at the end I did a really strong finish. I realized I could have pushed it harder on the run but when I'm used to running MIN 5km, then doing 2.5 is hard for pacing.

Total I passed: at least 10, as many as 20
Total passed me: NOT A SINGLE ONE. So, the results haven't been posted yet so I don't know my times for each section. I do know that I finished 18th in my age group. I don't know how many in my age group, but I'd say at least 30, probably 40. So! I'm quite proud of myself! I can't wait to do another one! (Aside: never has I:tg seen so much topless action!)

Race goals for this summer

After a dismal showing of following winter running goals (seriously, guys, I couldn't run the Feb one because my hip was finally just feeling better and it wouldn't be a good idea to train really hard on it, then I couldn't do the March one because I was in the process of getting orthotics, ie I was adjusting to a heel lift, and then I couldn't do the April one because exams), and a relocation issue, ie I will not be in Ontario this summer, I have decided to refresh my goals and look into some new races.

So lets start off!
FOR SURE I AM DOING (because I already registered)
May 13: Storm the Trent adventure race
June 24: Orangeville Women's Triathlon (Super sprint distance)

Foggier- which ones should I do? Also, would I be a poser if I wore a wetsuit?
May 22: American Heart Association Wall Street Run (5k)
June 3: Tour de Brooklyn (18 mile road bike around Brooklyn)
June 3: Uphill Foot race (8miles)(kind of near Lancaster...?)
June 9: Women's Only in Central Park (10k)
June 2: Wawayanda Adventure Race (BEARS ON THE COURSE! 15-20 miles) (With Gillian?)
July 14: Coney Island Du/Tri
TBA: ExerDate (BECAUSE THATS HILARIOUS! WHO WOULD GO AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN A JOKE? Gillian and Brianna, I'd only go if you go!)
July 29: Harlem Valley Rail Ride. 20, 35, 55, 75, or 100 mile. (35 for me?)
August 4: Allamuchy Mountain Adventure Race (15-20 miles, no Bears, this one, G?)
August 5: Xterra Appalachia (triathlon. 1km swim, 11mi bike, 4.2 mi run)(how would I really get there...)
August 5: Coney Island Grimaldo's Mile (1mile swim in open water)
August 14: Merrel Adventure in Collingwood (Laura? Partner?)
August 18: Iroquoia Trail Test (32km, in Ontario)
Sept 2: Womens Only Milton Triathlon (and do Sprint distance this time?)
Sept 9: Bernard's Run (10k in Mississauga)
Sept 22: Hospice Half Marathon (in London)
Sept 30: Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon (Toronto)

Inspirational Day

I feel SOOOO inspired today. You know when you just feel eager to just... GO! EXPERIENCE! RUN! LIVE! thats exactly how I feel.

1. Commie Supper speaker today. INCREDIBLE! Okay I will try to stop typing in capitals but I can HARDLY help it (Seriously Lisa, enough). He was the most real person, um, ever. He (Mark) used to be student council president of Grebel, eventually going on to be part of FEDS (thats an acronym that is supposed to be in caps) and etc. Oh and then becoming a Rhodes Scholar and Oxford, the usual, you know. So just his "quick bio on tonight's speaker" was impressive enough, right? He was wearing a very good argyle colourful sweater over a collar shirt and a pinstripe jacket (sounds strange but it was really cool looking all put together). This guy spoke so from the heart. His topic was basically "making bold decisions" which then, along with a Mike Harris jab, mentioned that after all his work with government that sometimes that means "making real decisions". He talked about three "bold" decisions he has made. The first two were academic related (at one point he talked about how kids are just always told to be engineers because parents want their kids to be successful and well off) but how that really isn't for everybody. Its not a matter of if you can or cannot do it, but if you do or do not want to do it. This was really thought provoking because sometimes when I'm all "why? why engineering, why?" my answer is "if I CAN, why wouldn't I?".
Anyway, his third bold decision was coming out at Grebel. Now, mix "everybody knows everybody's business" with a couple of ultra conservative and out spoken people... and Grebel really does not appear to be the best place to come out. Yes 90% of the people are entirely welcoming and accepting and defy stereotypes and want to be challenged, but those other 10%... just can't face change or any variation from the norm, I guess. The way Mark spoke about this time in is life actually made me cry. He kept adding little jokes so it was kind of embarrassing to have tears in my eyes while everybody else was chuckling, but I couldn't help it. He briefly mentioned his struggles with both his parents and the Mennonite church, and I was just smitten with such resilience. I have his email address- I'm definitely going to contact him to try to start a dialogue. He just spoke so achingly from the heart. I wish I had taped it so that I could watch it again and again. His character, choice of diction, tone of voice, and overall deliverance was really good. But it was more importantly charmingly honest, and entirely entirely real. I'm so inspired.

2. Okay I guess the next two kind of pale in comparison to the inspiration of the first, but my second inspiration of the day is a talk I had with a senior resident here at Grebs. He does ultra runs and his first 100 miler is in less than two months. He's doing the Massanutten. I so badly want to be able to do ultra marathons. I mean first I have to do my first marathon and before that I have to, oh, right, be able to run more than a mile without my hip acting up (side note: I am seeing a physiotherapist these days). But I think sometimes when we hear of people who can complete these types of races (and he's really good!) you can idealize them to the point where they lose their humanity. He's so cool, so dedicated, so real. Okay this post is about real people. I love them. My goal in life is just to be real. And to complete a 100 miler. Wow.

3. Finally, this evening (after a surprise student council meeting) (Side note again: I am on student council for next year) I watched What It Takes. This is a movie about the 2005 Ironman World Championship that I have wanted to buy since forever (since when it came out, last fall). Anyway I finally caved a couple weeks ago and ordered it off the internet, and it arrived rather promptly in my mailbox today. I actually watched it with the person from inspiration number 2. Go watch the trailer on the site- it gets my heart rate going. Overall rating for the movie is "don't buy it, borrow it from me" but still, geez I love watching these movies. I love watching pure athleticism. I had gone for a run today that didn't go well. This movie was exactly the inspiration I needed.

Hooray for being inspired!

Back on track

I went running for the first time in for a while. My previous three runs are:
3rd last before today: the time that when I stopped I could hardly move, and the next morning I couldn't walk so I missed work and went to the ER
2nd last run before today: the 4 mile race I did that weekend because I couldn't resisit. (bad idea)
most recent before today: a time I went to the Resevoir and tried to run but ended up leaning against the railing crying for half an hour (not because it hurt physically that that much, but because I knew I had to stop running for a while if I ever wanted to be pain free again).
So the good news is running club had it first meeting today (I am a co-founder of "Lasties and Fasties" with my sister). We only did about 4km or so, but I'm feeling GREAT (re: hip). So hooray!

Running Goals for 2007

* February: Refridger-eight-er (8km) This one will be fun since its in Waterloo. I'm trying to get all sorts of Grebel folk and Mech Ten's to run it with me.
* March: Around the Bay 30k relay . 10kms each with Laura and my dad.
* April: Crossing Borders 10k. Only this MIGHT be right around exams.
* May: Sporting Life 10k. Its HUGE! I love big ones!
* June: a fathers day 10k. I dont know which, theres a lot. Whichever my dad wants to do.
* July: Baranga's Beach. 10miles, to prep for a half, plus, fun prizes and good course.
* summer time: the 2 or 3 beginner super sprint triathalons Okay, so first I will have to get a really good bike

Summer Half Marathon possibilities
* Ottawa, end of May. (I bet we could convince Aunt Sandy to do it too, shes so up for things like that)
* Aug, the Waterloo endurun, the day of the half only. Imagine doing the whole race!
* Sept, get to the point in Leamington. Only too bad Leamington is far, and kind of boring.