.... I signed up for Ironman Canada 2011!
Date: Sunday August 28, 2011
Place: Penticton, BC
Wow, this is gonna be one helluva journey, so buckle your seatbelts and hold on tight.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Mountain Pics
Here's a quick link to some of the hiking photos from this summer, both Mt. Assiniboine (hiking) and Lake O'Hara (2010).
c.
http://graphixdiva.smugmug.com/Landscapes
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
XTerra Canmore Photos
Here are the official results:
http://smithevents.ca/Race_Results.html
To summarize my achievement:
34/61 Sprint Athletes (male and female)
12/32 Sprint Females
7/14 Sprint Females 30-39
Swim: 10:31 (24/61) (6/14)
Bike: 54:27 (31/61) (7/14)
Run: 32:18 (42/61) (10/14)
I'm not winning any podium spots, but I'm making progress and having fun in the process!
Cindy
As promised!
http://smithevents.ca/Race_Results.html
To summarize my achievement:
34/61 Sprint Athletes (male and female)
12/32 Sprint Females
7/14 Sprint Females 30-39
Swim: 10:31 (24/61) (6/14)
Bike: 54:27 (31/61) (7/14)
Run: 32:18 (42/61) (10/14)
I'm not winning any podium spots, but I'm making progress and having fun in the process!
Cindy
As promised!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
XTerra Alberta Race Report
Since finishing 70.3, we have hiked into Mt Assiniboine (where we hiked approx a half marathon for four days while carrying 30+lb packs), and I went to Edmonton and back for work. I'm tired! In a good way...so I decided to cut back at this weekend's XTerra Alberta triathlon. I've ridden the full distance course a few times, it's simply wonderful and technical, but I wasn't up to racing it just yet. Instead, after discussing with Richelle, I decided to dial it back to the sprint distance for today, but to keep Whistler at the full. Here's how it went:
My family decided to spend a holiday weekend on Canmore, we arrived on Friday night. The condo that we rented is amazing, it's got lots of room for the five of us plus it is close to downtown for walking and bike riding.
On Sunday morning, we dropped off my bike at T1 by 7am and were waiting around in the lodge talking with other athletes as they arrived. I felt pretty calm, ready for the day. Thanks to Aly for helping me fit into my wetsuiit! And then the sprint women were off! It was one of my best open water swims. Admittedly it was a short swim of 500m, but I had long smooth strokes, and was out of the water in 10:30. Nice!
T1 was okay, then off on my bike. I passed a few girls on the way up to the Nordic Centre, then watched ,y heart rate climb as I went up the big hill. Once at the top, it was a fun descent, a few more climbs, then I hit the pavement at full speed. T2 was very smooth, and I felt strong heading out into the run. Wow, my brick training has paid off this year, I'm much stronger at recovering my legs in the early stages of the run.
The run course was fun, and while I wasn't particularly fast, I enjoyed the trail. Richelle and I had agreed that on hitting the pavement I would give it everything I had and cross the finish line ready to collapse. Well, there were three gals ahead of me that I was watching on the
back half of the run, and I decided to go get them. It was a strong push to the finish and I managed to catch them all! Yay me! Thanks again to Aly for catching me at the line and walking me around. I was spent!
Overall, a.much better race than last year, I had a blast, hung out with some great new friends, what a great day in the mountains. Official results aren't posted yet, but I will add them soon, along with some photos. Promise!
My family decided to spend a holiday weekend on Canmore, we arrived on Friday night. The condo that we rented is amazing, it's got lots of room for the five of us plus it is close to downtown for walking and bike riding.
On Sunday morning, we dropped off my bike at T1 by 7am and were waiting around in the lodge talking with other athletes as they arrived. I felt pretty calm, ready for the day. Thanks to Aly for helping me fit into my wetsuiit! And then the sprint women were off! It was one of my best open water swims. Admittedly it was a short swim of 500m, but I had long smooth strokes, and was out of the water in 10:30. Nice!
T1 was okay, then off on my bike. I passed a few girls on the way up to the Nordic Centre, then watched ,y heart rate climb as I went up the big hill. Once at the top, it was a fun descent, a few more climbs, then I hit the pavement at full speed. T2 was very smooth, and I felt strong heading out into the run. Wow, my brick training has paid off this year, I'm much stronger at recovering my legs in the early stages of the run.
The run course was fun, and while I wasn't particularly fast, I enjoyed the trail. Richelle and I had agreed that on hitting the pavement I would give it everything I had and cross the finish line ready to collapse. Well, there were three gals ahead of me that I was watching on the
back half of the run, and I decided to go get them. It was a strong push to the finish and I managed to catch them all! Yay me! Thanks again to Aly for catching me at the line and walking me around. I was spent!
Overall, a.much better race than last year, I had a blast, hung out with some great new friends, what a great day in the mountains. Official results aren't posted yet, but I will add them soon, along with some photos. Promise!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Ironman Calgary 70.3 - August 1, 2010
All week preceding the race I was calm, ready for this event, actually looking forward to it, time to put it in gear. I didn't have the nervous tummy or the anxious butterflies, just calm, but excited to get it going.
In early July my family took holidays, and I'm proud to report that I did all of the prescribed workouts, even a swim in a rough and choppy lake and a long HOT run with mosquitoes and blackflies nipping at me. Then our family all got sick with the flu and I missed some key workouts, I was a bit upset with missing the workouts, but c'est la vie. My point? I think that I did everything in my power to be ready for this race, both mentally and physically. This was my "A" race for 2010 so I didn't want to jeopardize my performance.
Race day arrived extra early. A thunderstorm woke me up around 2a.m. Ugh. Not only would my bike get wet (my baby!), but there was a good possibility of rain all day. I tried to doze back to sleep, mixed success, until the alarm rang at 3:30a.m. Yes, that number is correct. I needed to make my bagel, get dressed, and Ryan drove me to meet the bus to the Ghost by 4a.m. A sleepy group of athletes boarded the bus, instant friends, bonded by the ridiculous circumstances and a crazy hobby.
The scene upon arrival at the Ghost Lake Reservoir was encouraging. It was dark, but big flood lights illuminated the area. Our bus was early enough to beat the rush and long lines that developed within the hour. I was relieved to see my bike, albeit soaking wet, and gave her a quick check, all was in working order. Whew. I organized and double checked that my bike and nutrition was in place, then headed for the portapotty line. Lucky for me it was only 2 people long - it would later grow to enormous lengths. As I came back to the main area I spotted Tara. She was in great spirits as a volunteer for the aid station on the bike course, she gave me a big smile and a couple of hugs, enough to start my good-nervous feeling and get me pumped up for the day. We hung out with her friend Jacque and Angie Anderson and a motley crew of others who has assembled in the wet and drizzle to prove themselves at an Ironman event. What a cool bunch of people, how special we are to be involved in a sport with so many amazing and inspiring people. Tara helped me onto my wetsuit (she truly is the best wetsuit fitter I have ever met) and waited around for the start. We didn't wait long, and before I could sneeze I was in the water for a quick warmup.
The swim started! My plan was to be smooth, follow some feet, and stick with the middle of the pack. The first 100 m were a bit chaotic, but not intolerable, I hung in well, focused on my strokes being long and relaxed. For some god-forsaken reason, my goggles got water in the left eye. Hmm. It kept getting worse, so I had to adjust them. I was still in the pack, no worries. But the problem persisted. They're newish goggles, never had any problems with them before, I swam with them the day before, what the ????? The problem kept getting worse. I kept losing time and position, and I ended up swimming with gals who were slower than me. The leaky goggles plagued me for the balance of the swim, as every 6 or 8 strokes I had to release the water. By the time I swam around the final buoy I had caught up to some of the men's wave, in blue swimcaps, and some of the men's wave behind me, in yellow caps, had caught up to the women, in red. Result: happy with my ability to swim, very, very frustrated with equipment malfunctions.
T1 was chaotic. Good wetsuit strippers, thanks ladies, off to find my bag, well organized in numerical order. The grass was wet and FULL of mosquitoes, I got eaten alive! Oh well, motivation to push me to go faster. I think the transition went smoothly, that was my goal, although I was in there a lot longer than anticipated. It just took time to get socks on wet feet, get into the bike area, get out of the bike area, and get to the mount line. I didn't fumble anything, it was a smooth T1, just a long process.
The bike was wonderful - I knew it would be. But I had to remember my race plan: keep my HR under control. I set the goal of under 160BPM for the bike, and unless I was going uphill, this was a success! Last year at GWN I let my HR climb into the 170's for a sustained effort and it blew up my run. I was determined not to let that happen again! The first 10k to Ghost Lake were to get some nutrition into me, spin my legs, find my rhythm, and generally settle down. Several ladies passed me, and I let them go; I later blew by them on Grand Valley. I surprised myself on Grand Valley - it's a lot of UP to get to the turn, and I anticipated a struggle with the big hills, despite my training on these roads earlier in the year. I mentally steeled myself for the hills, and guess what? I ended up passing people! Even dudes! One guy berated himself for getting "chicked," and two others complimented my even, smooth pedal strokes! Me! I was pleased, surprised, happy! The hills were okay, then it was onto the rolling descent of Horse Creek. The TTL water station on Horse Creek was a fun spot, lots of volunteers (THANK-YOU SO MUCH!!!!), and lots of cheering, I felt like a superhero! Thank-you!!!!! The ride into Cochrane was awesome, a bit worrisome with the ambulance treating an athlete, but a great ride. The hill out of Cochrane also had me worried, but again, I may not have been fast, but I passed a LOT of people on that hill! Nutrition was going well, tummy was feeling good. The ride into the city was uneventful, people were pretty spaced apart, worrying about drafting was nil at this point. All the volunteers and police at intersections did an amazing job, another big thank-you. Overall: great ride, in spite of the rain and road mud, I loved it. My HR averaged 154. Over a 94km distance v. a 90km distance at GWM, I ended up only 1 minute slower on the bike. I guess all that extra training, the mtn biking, and watching my HR paid off!!!
T2: very smooth, I had a great volunteer who helped me get my shoes on and handed over my visor. I saw Maureen cheering, thanks for that. Interesting that Mirinda Carfrae was opening her winning bottle of champagne as I exited T2 - I heard the announcement at the finish line area. Damn she's fast.
The run: I started out okay. I always have trouble in the first 2km finding my legs, or going out too fast to sustain. Again, the goal was to control my HR, and to run, not walk, the entire race, it didn't matter how slow that run could be, but no walking. Caveat: walking allowed under 3 circumstances: aid station, 1 min every 20 min, or uphill. Over the first 5km I kept getting passed by girls I passed on the bike, which was a bit disheartening, but I kept to my plan, and started passing other girls and some of the guys, too. My Garmin kept beeping every km and I noticed an average pace between 6:40 and 7:00. This would creep up to 7:15 towards the end, but overall, I hovered around 7min/km. My legs were heavy, my butt was starting to hurt, but I kept moving, kept turning over the legs. Two people commented on my soft footfalls, and I took that as a huge compliment, as I've been working on my pelvic tilt and running form all season - I may not be fast, but I've been consciously trying to have better technique. I saw lots of familiar faces, thank-you for the words of encouragement, from both friends and total strangers, you kept me moving forward. The turn-around point seemed a long time coming! The run back seemed faster, although I didn't negative split, it was pretty even. I saw Ryan at the bottom of Weaselhead hill, he walked up with me, then went ahead to give Emma and June notice to cheer for me. Wow, it felt great to see the cheering squad, even better than being a superhero, this was goddess time! Then the long 4km out and back to the finish line - what a crazy idea, to run past the Finish Line at that point in the race, how demoralizing! At this point in the race I was having trouble concentrating, I was exhausted. And, despite following my nutrition plan, my tummy was starting to get cranky. I've been terrorized by GI issues in endurance events since before GWN last year, and have been diligently experimenting to get this under control. Lindy Kennedy of FitNut Consulting and I have discovered that it's a combination of calories in, sugar content, and exhertion. Now, at 17km in the race, I stuck with my race plan and began to accelerate to the finish, I didn't want to leave any extra energy on the course. Consequence: I absolutely had to find some bushes, apparently I was already max'ed out. I picked up the pace again, passed two more people and could hear people cheering for me, but I couldn't concentrate on who they were, so to those of you at the finish line, a big thank-you, I heard you but couldn't acknowledge you at the time. I crossed the line, accepted my belt-buckle (super cool), and got a big hug from Tara and my family.
I can't say it enough: THANK-YOU for all the cheering, the smiles, the volunteers, everything!
Overall: I went out on the course with a specific idea of how I wanted to race: be smart about nutrition, keep HR under control, run a steady race. From where I sit today, I think that those goals were achieved, and I know that I've learned a TONNE from the experience that will serve me for 2011 season. Bring it on!
Thanks to Richelle for her great workout schedules, for accommodating my crazy work schedule and hectic family life, thanks for putting up with my crazy ideas, like mountain biking three days before the race, among others. I'm looking forward to 2011 with you!
Richelle probably won't like it if I post this next bit, but it's the part that everyone outside of triathlon asks: how long does it take?
For the record books, here it goes:
611/805 women.
47/63 women age 35-40
Swim: 46:10
T1: 6.26
Bike: 3:16:55
T2: 2:44
Run: 2:32:32
Overall: 6:44:45
On a longer, more challenging course in crummier weather, I was just over a minute faster than GWN. Now that's progress.
In early July my family took holidays, and I'm proud to report that I did all of the prescribed workouts, even a swim in a rough and choppy lake and a long HOT run with mosquitoes and blackflies nipping at me. Then our family all got sick with the flu and I missed some key workouts, I was a bit upset with missing the workouts, but c'est la vie. My point? I think that I did everything in my power to be ready for this race, both mentally and physically. This was my "A" race for 2010 so I didn't want to jeopardize my performance.
Race day arrived extra early. A thunderstorm woke me up around 2a.m. Ugh. Not only would my bike get wet (my baby!), but there was a good possibility of rain all day. I tried to doze back to sleep, mixed success, until the alarm rang at 3:30a.m. Yes, that number is correct. I needed to make my bagel, get dressed, and Ryan drove me to meet the bus to the Ghost by 4a.m. A sleepy group of athletes boarded the bus, instant friends, bonded by the ridiculous circumstances and a crazy hobby.
The scene upon arrival at the Ghost Lake Reservoir was encouraging. It was dark, but big flood lights illuminated the area. Our bus was early enough to beat the rush and long lines that developed within the hour. I was relieved to see my bike, albeit soaking wet, and gave her a quick check, all was in working order. Whew. I organized and double checked that my bike and nutrition was in place, then headed for the portapotty line. Lucky for me it was only 2 people long - it would later grow to enormous lengths. As I came back to the main area I spotted Tara. She was in great spirits as a volunteer for the aid station on the bike course, she gave me a big smile and a couple of hugs, enough to start my good-nervous feeling and get me pumped up for the day. We hung out with her friend Jacque and Angie Anderson and a motley crew of others who has assembled in the wet and drizzle to prove themselves at an Ironman event. What a cool bunch of people, how special we are to be involved in a sport with so many amazing and inspiring people. Tara helped me onto my wetsuit (she truly is the best wetsuit fitter I have ever met) and waited around for the start. We didn't wait long, and before I could sneeze I was in the water for a quick warmup.
The swim started! My plan was to be smooth, follow some feet, and stick with the middle of the pack. The first 100 m were a bit chaotic, but not intolerable, I hung in well, focused on my strokes being long and relaxed. For some god-forsaken reason, my goggles got water in the left eye. Hmm. It kept getting worse, so I had to adjust them. I was still in the pack, no worries. But the problem persisted. They're newish goggles, never had any problems with them before, I swam with them the day before, what the ????? The problem kept getting worse. I kept losing time and position, and I ended up swimming with gals who were slower than me. The leaky goggles plagued me for the balance of the swim, as every 6 or 8 strokes I had to release the water. By the time I swam around the final buoy I had caught up to some of the men's wave, in blue swimcaps, and some of the men's wave behind me, in yellow caps, had caught up to the women, in red. Result: happy with my ability to swim, very, very frustrated with equipment malfunctions.
T1 was chaotic. Good wetsuit strippers, thanks ladies, off to find my bag, well organized in numerical order. The grass was wet and FULL of mosquitoes, I got eaten alive! Oh well, motivation to push me to go faster. I think the transition went smoothly, that was my goal, although I was in there a lot longer than anticipated. It just took time to get socks on wet feet, get into the bike area, get out of the bike area, and get to the mount line. I didn't fumble anything, it was a smooth T1, just a long process.
The bike was wonderful - I knew it would be. But I had to remember my race plan: keep my HR under control. I set the goal of under 160BPM for the bike, and unless I was going uphill, this was a success! Last year at GWN I let my HR climb into the 170's for a sustained effort and it blew up my run. I was determined not to let that happen again! The first 10k to Ghost Lake were to get some nutrition into me, spin my legs, find my rhythm, and generally settle down. Several ladies passed me, and I let them go; I later blew by them on Grand Valley. I surprised myself on Grand Valley - it's a lot of UP to get to the turn, and I anticipated a struggle with the big hills, despite my training on these roads earlier in the year. I mentally steeled myself for the hills, and guess what? I ended up passing people! Even dudes! One guy berated himself for getting "chicked," and two others complimented my even, smooth pedal strokes! Me! I was pleased, surprised, happy! The hills were okay, then it was onto the rolling descent of Horse Creek. The TTL water station on Horse Creek was a fun spot, lots of volunteers (THANK-YOU SO MUCH!!!!), and lots of cheering, I felt like a superhero! Thank-you!!!!! The ride into Cochrane was awesome, a bit worrisome with the ambulance treating an athlete, but a great ride. The hill out of Cochrane also had me worried, but again, I may not have been fast, but I passed a LOT of people on that hill! Nutrition was going well, tummy was feeling good. The ride into the city was uneventful, people were pretty spaced apart, worrying about drafting was nil at this point. All the volunteers and police at intersections did an amazing job, another big thank-you. Overall: great ride, in spite of the rain and road mud, I loved it. My HR averaged 154. Over a 94km distance v. a 90km distance at GWM, I ended up only 1 minute slower on the bike. I guess all that extra training, the mtn biking, and watching my HR paid off!!!
T2: very smooth, I had a great volunteer who helped me get my shoes on and handed over my visor. I saw Maureen cheering, thanks for that. Interesting that Mirinda Carfrae was opening her winning bottle of champagne as I exited T2 - I heard the announcement at the finish line area. Damn she's fast.
The run: I started out okay. I always have trouble in the first 2km finding my legs, or going out too fast to sustain. Again, the goal was to control my HR, and to run, not walk, the entire race, it didn't matter how slow that run could be, but no walking. Caveat: walking allowed under 3 circumstances: aid station, 1 min every 20 min, or uphill. Over the first 5km I kept getting passed by girls I passed on the bike, which was a bit disheartening, but I kept to my plan, and started passing other girls and some of the guys, too. My Garmin kept beeping every km and I noticed an average pace between 6:40 and 7:00. This would creep up to 7:15 towards the end, but overall, I hovered around 7min/km. My legs were heavy, my butt was starting to hurt, but I kept moving, kept turning over the legs. Two people commented on my soft footfalls, and I took that as a huge compliment, as I've been working on my pelvic tilt and running form all season - I may not be fast, but I've been consciously trying to have better technique. I saw lots of familiar faces, thank-you for the words of encouragement, from both friends and total strangers, you kept me moving forward. The turn-around point seemed a long time coming! The run back seemed faster, although I didn't negative split, it was pretty even. I saw Ryan at the bottom of Weaselhead hill, he walked up with me, then went ahead to give Emma and June notice to cheer for me. Wow, it felt great to see the cheering squad, even better than being a superhero, this was goddess time! Then the long 4km out and back to the finish line - what a crazy idea, to run past the Finish Line at that point in the race, how demoralizing! At this point in the race I was having trouble concentrating, I was exhausted. And, despite following my nutrition plan, my tummy was starting to get cranky. I've been terrorized by GI issues in endurance events since before GWN last year, and have been diligently experimenting to get this under control. Lindy Kennedy of FitNut Consulting and I have discovered that it's a combination of calories in, sugar content, and exhertion. Now, at 17km in the race, I stuck with my race plan and began to accelerate to the finish, I didn't want to leave any extra energy on the course. Consequence: I absolutely had to find some bushes, apparently I was already max'ed out. I picked up the pace again, passed two more people and could hear people cheering for me, but I couldn't concentrate on who they were, so to those of you at the finish line, a big thank-you, I heard you but couldn't acknowledge you at the time. I crossed the line, accepted my belt-buckle (super cool), and got a big hug from Tara and my family.
I can't say it enough: THANK-YOU for all the cheering, the smiles, the volunteers, everything!
Overall: I went out on the course with a specific idea of how I wanted to race: be smart about nutrition, keep HR under control, run a steady race. From where I sit today, I think that those goals were achieved, and I know that I've learned a TONNE from the experience that will serve me for 2011 season. Bring it on!
Thanks to Richelle for her great workout schedules, for accommodating my crazy work schedule and hectic family life, thanks for putting up with my crazy ideas, like mountain biking three days before the race, among others. I'm looking forward to 2011 with you!
Richelle probably won't like it if I post this next bit, but it's the part that everyone outside of triathlon asks: how long does it take?
For the record books, here it goes:
611/805 women.
47/63 women age 35-40
Swim: 46:10
T1: 6.26
Bike: 3:16:55
T2: 2:44
Run: 2:32:32
Overall: 6:44:45
On a longer, more challenging course in crummier weather, I was just over a minute faster than GWN. Now that's progress.
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