Quick Race Results!

I'm going to write something longer later (when I'm at a computer instead of a phone), but the freezing cold 5K went well this morning. Half- way time was 13 minutes, final finish time of 28:11. That's a full 2 minutes better than my previous PB. Whaddya know, training works!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

End of the madness!

So the lead-up to Christmas was quite insane around here. Last year business pretty much died in December, and I was expecting the same again this year - however - quite the opposite happened! I ended up working right through December, even so far as into Christmas Eve! Still, all is quiet now (except for the sounds of the husband playing Forza 3 on his newly acquired Xbox of course...) and things have a chance of being slightly more sane in January. I have at least been keeping up with the training through all the madness - fitting in what I could where I could, but what's been weighing on my mind is the weight plateau I hit in November and wasn't able to shake. It's tough when I'd been losing pretty consistently over the past year to hit a point where I'd changed nothing and suddenly the weight just stagnated. Course, the smart amongst you will have read that and gone - ah ha, you said it exactly - you changed nothing! Bingo. So a couple weeks ago I changed things up a bit, both in diet and in exercise. I'm taking a bit more notice of the types of carbs I'm eating and trying to keep as low GI as I can now (I may go into a GI post when I feel I understand it more... Santa brought me a book I have to read!), and my training sessions at the gym have been stepped up. I'm still aching a bit from the session I had on Thursday morning - something about doing 101 squats with a bar above your head angers the quads - and then to carry on with another hour of training after that! I've changed my interval training from being time based to heart rate based now also - so shorter bursts for the moment but at a higher speed (I do my intervals on the treadmill). I'm running a whole lot faster than I thought I could now though, so obviously something's working!

Speaking of running, my last race of the season is tomorrow. It's the Toronto resolution run, a 5K race, and is a couple of laps around Exhibition Place. The weather looks like it's going to be good for it, and it's also going to be my first race as a Sugoi Brand Champion. I'm aiming to get a personal best time for my 5K - the last one I did was the Zoo Run, which is full of hills, and I managed it in 30m + change. Plans are to break the 30 minute mark tomorrow. I'll have some help also, as this is the first run that my husband will be running along with me - he's faster than me (so is everyone for that matter, but I digress...), so he should be able to push me to beat the 30 minute mark!

I'll update with race results tomorrow, although probably not many photos this time given that my photographer is running with me!

A Challenge For You

As pretty much everyone and their dog now knows, I did my first Triathlon this past summer - it was part of the HSBC Triathlon series, and in particular I did the Toronto Island Try-a-Tri. So, here's my challenge to you - yes, I mean all of you! I want some company at the Toronto Island Try-a-Tri this year. Looseyfur already has it marked on her calendar - it will be her first triathlon. I want a whole team of us out there.

The event is on August 14th, 2010 - all the details are here - so there's lots of time for training.

This is my challenge to you - this time last year I was sitting on the couch doing nothing for myself, and I was able to compete in this exact same event. Trust me, if I could do it, you can most definitely do this. There were entries last year of everyone from pre-teen all the way up to a guy in his 80's.

I know I've been muttering about fancy bikes recently also, but you don't even need to worry about that for this race - I saw lots of people doing this race last year on mountain bikes - I did it on a $20 garage sale special.

I've heard from quite a few people how inspired they've been from reading what I've been through in the last year - now's your time to act on it and pass on the inspiration.

Tell me you want to do this, and I'll be sure to hold you to it. I'll encourage and help with your training where I can, and answer questions where I can, or at least point you in the right direction of somewhere to get your questions answered.

So hands up - who's inspired enough to stand up and do this?

10 Things I've Now Learnt About Cold Weather Running

1. The first 5 minutes of the run are just going to be cold - suck it up and deal with it.

2. Windchill sucks.

3. I've got my layering right for -4C with a -20C windchill (after the first 5 minutes of course!)

4. Headwinds suck.

5. Headphones don't fall out of your ears when you're wearing a hat (bonus!)

6. Gusts of wind suck.

7. While the thought was I'd get to look at everyone else's pretty Christmas lights I was so preoccupied with watching for ice on the ground I didn't really see any lights...

8. -20 windchill, headwinds and running up-hill really suck.

9. City of Toronto actually does a fair old job of clearing the sidewalks - there was only a couple of patches where I had to really slow pace for the ice.

10. -20 windchill, headwinds, up-hill and sudden side-ways gusts of winds suck the most!

700+ Calories and How I Love the Toronto Public Library

It's Wednesday - which makes it the one day of the week that starts with a nasty irritating noise coming from the side of the bed, followed by a groan and sounds of me walking around half asleep convincing myself that 5:15AM is an hour that people should be eating breakfast to be closely followed by a 6AM running class... really...

Compounded by the fact that we had our first snowfall of the season last night (yea, class is going to only be inside, boo, it's really quite icky outside) this morning was a particularly sluggish morning. Apparently I wasn't the only one affected as only 3 of us turned up for the group class this morning and we proceeded to run circuits of the building the gym is in, drills and sprints down the hallway, then lots of core strengthening (read bridges and planks - ug!). Still, just over 500 calories burned from that, and then I spent the next 20 minutes on the spinning bike getting out another couple hundred knowing I was going to be stuck in a server room through most of today!

There's something so very wrong about getting home before the husband has even gotten up to have breakfast yet though - although I'm letting him off easy today as he had his personal training session last night - it sounds like he only just lived to tell the tale!

Onto the library - I've not owned a library card since... well, University if you count my student cards there - but otherwise I had one growing up, and then not since. We recently got our cards for the Toronto Public Library and I've been playing on their website. The branch closest to us is a fairly small branch, but with a decent selection, but not a lot in the realm of triathlon training and organic gardening/cooking.... what I discovered yesterday is that I can search for whatever I want through the TPL website, put it on hold and they'll bring the book to my local branch and e-mail me when it's sitting there waiting for me... sweet! So, a few training books are currently on hold and making their way to my local branch so I can get some ideas for spicing up my pool training!

Back at it!

Well, with 18 days and counting until the Resolution run, I'm finally able to run again. I got back on the horse with some interval training yesterday - and running after two weeks off is nothing like riding a bike! I will admit I was trying a new interval program that is a bit faster, but shorter intervals, but once my heart rate spiked to 196 I decided to back off understandably! (Don't freak out, January last year my heart rate topped out at 206 from time to time!)

I still haven't decided on the whole bike situation - it's a lot of money to part with! I've seen a couple bikes on Craigslist that would come in around $1000 by the time all was said and done, but something about buying a 2nd hand bike from someone I don't know considering how long I'd like to keep this bike and what I'm going to be putting it through for that kind of money makes me uneasy. I have just found out that there is a Toronto Bicycle Show on in the spring, so perhaps that's the answer to be able to really compare and find a great show special...

I do need to get back in the pool also... I used to train with a team all through High School and University, so always had someone dictating my training to me, now that I swim on my own I find it hard to focus and stick to a plan - or even have a plan for that matter! Anyone know of a good source for some swim training routines that I can stick in a plastic sleeve to take to the pool with me?

"So, Do You Understand Japanese?"

I pondered about posting this, but thought that it may help others by making it public, so here it is! The Title is the first thing the doctor said to me this week when I went in to see him - followed soon after by a "Well, you will now." (huh????) He continued on to tell me I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (Oh, Japanese physician who first described the symptoms!)- short form is that I have antibodies in my body that are attacking my Thyroid gland causing it to be enlarged, and it can eventually stop your thyroid from functioning altogether - this would affect the 2 primary hormones the thyroid creates the T3 (triiodothyonine) and T4 (thyroxine) levels in your body and quite drastically effects your metabolism. T3s and T4s maintain the rate at which our bodies use the food we consume, and then also help maintain our body's temperature and control the heart rate.

Presently my T3 and T4 levels are stable, but I do get the joy of being stabbed with a needle more frequently than I'd like to check them now. I'm staying away from foods that are high in iodine also - which is essentially seafood - but I can take fish oil in capsules (on a side note, has anyone found a fish oil capsule that doesn't give you a salmon aftertaste? I'm really not a salmon fan!). My doctor has chosen to not put me onto thyroid medication - in theory less drugs in the body is a good thing - there was a 2001 study of people in the same situation as me where the antibodies were increased, but the thyroid was still functioning where half the group were given a small amount of the thyroid hormone levothyroxine - this half found that their thyroid decreased in size and the number of attacking antibodies significantly decreased, where the placebo group's antibodies either stayed the same or increased. There are some more natural solutions out there that I'm going to take a look at first though - like taking a selenium supliment and generally keeping away from things that have toxins in them (see my previous post about organic foods). And we'll see how those pesky antibodies like that!

In other news, the back is so close to being back to normal. I'm still waiting a few more days before getting back into running again, but I did do my very first ever spinning class this morning - 776 calories burned later - and I actually enjoyed it. I did have misgivings wondering how exactly sitting on a bike in a class for an hour could be anything but dull, but some good music, an entertaining instructor and the hour flies by - if this doesn't help with the bike portion of the tri's next summer nothing will!

When "free" isn't Actually Free...

I've spent the last 6 months or so really learning about and understanding nutrition, calories and how things affect our bodies. I'd have to say until 6 months ago I'd have said that I knew what "healthy" food was, but looking back now I know I actually had no clue! I've spent most of my life choosing "fat-free" or "sugar-free" or "insert bad food here-free" items under than assumption that this would help me lose weight, or maintain whatever weight I happened to be at at the time. Splenda was always out on the kitchen counter, there was always diet pop in the fridge, and anything we bought was low whatever, or whatever-free. With the reading and understanding I've been doing recently all of this "free" stuff was actually a way for manufactures to tell me how many more chemicals and fake stuff they were introducing into my diet. And sure while these foods (food in the loosest sense of the word here) may have been keeping down the amount of fat or sugar in my overall diet, it turns out they may have been wrecking havoc on my overall health and metabolism!

After having recently watched Food Inc. and The World According to Monsanto I've also learnt about how many chemicals end up in our foods - and how long these chemicals can stay in your body (10-15 years if you really wanted to know!) - it's changing how I look at food, and what I chose to eat or not eat.

So if you're wondering who that freak in the grocery store reading all the labels and ingredient listings is, that's me. I'm actively searching out organic meat, dairy and vegetables and hoping to kick my metabolism back into fighting form again. Now I understand, I have to wonder how anyone ever thought that eating a food that was shelf stable in a cardboard box for X number of years was a good thing...

On a side note, I've got a follow-up appointment with my endocrinologist tomorrow after a whole host of tests on my thyroid - the thyroid gland is located in everyone's neck and controls how quickly the body burns energy, makes proteins, and controls how sensitive the body should be to other hormones. A lot of information out there indicates that impaired thyroid function (hypothyroidism, or hashimoto's thyroiditis) is an autoimmune disorder and is generally inherited. However, adding to this it's estimated that hypothyroidism affects 1 in 10 women (1 in 20 men), and as it's a hormone based function it rather makes sense that all the chemicals in our fruits and vegetables, along with all the growth hormones we're feeding our animals would transfer into us and affect our hormones - yet another factor in helping us make the decision to buy organic where we can.

Ah, finally!

After over a week of taking is easy and not doing anything that might infuriate my back (it decided after a personal training session, closely followed by a running class to go *pang*) I'm finally back at the gym. I managed a personal session on Friday, followed it up with an hour long massage from the RMT at the gym (OMG that was luxurious...) and went in for the circuit class this morning. I'm keeping away from the back twisting motions for the moment, and will probably not doing any serious running for at least a few more days - maybe as much as a week depending on how things feel... But things are on the up again finally! About time!

Bike Overload...

I made the mistake of going to a few bike shops today... and now I'm completely overwhelmed!

Every shop had a different line of bikes - good to see a lot of different things, but it means that it's hard to compare between them - there's some good deals out there at the moment as these are the 2009 models they're selling off, and the 2010 models are just coming in - frankly I don't really care what year my bike was made in!

All the bikes I looked at were either all carbon frames, or mostly carbon frames, and all of the 3 places I went were quite knowledgeable.

I started out at Gears Bike Shop out in Mississauga - they are the bike shop sponsor for the triathlon I did last year, so I knew they'd have an idea of what I was looking for. They showed me a couple bikes from Specialized - the Tarmac Elite and the Tarmac Comp. The Elite is on sale for $1800 down from $2400, while the comp is on for $2250 down from $3000... yeah, this so isn't a cheap sport! There's not a lot of physical difference between the two, but the Comp has some better components in it - better brakes for example - and for me braking does seem like a rather important factor! Gears also offer free fitting of the bike - they've got people trained by Specialized to do this, as well as they offer free tune-ups while I wait on the bike for as long as I own it. Everything I looked at today had the Shimano 105 gears, derailleur etc, but the big difference the guy at Gears pointed out to me between the two was that the Comp uses a Shimano 105 chain, where the Elite does not - apparently this makes gear changes with the Comp smoother and faster. Is this and better brakes worth $450?

Next was into Wheels of Bloor where I spent some time chatting with Peter there. I've frequently walked past this place and eyed up the racks of Cervello bikes they have hanging in there, so it really should have been no surprise when the first bike he showed me was Cervello S1 - sitting pretty at a cool $2500... ouch... This is a full on pro bike though - we spent some time chatting about riding geometry - I was letting everyone know that I was going to be using this road bike for triathlon use, so he explained about how they have a different seat post for the S1 that would change the angle so that I'd be using the muscles in my legs differently when riding so that coming off it into the run wouldn't be quite so straining (you know, not straining after the 1500m swim and 40k bike... not straining at all there...) Dropping down in price a bit he showed me a couple other bikes, first the Devinci CX on sale for $1999, which may well be the prettiest bike I'd seen all day and then the Argon 18 Krypton (how's that for a cool bike name) which rings in at $1799 on sale - this is the bike in the picture above. Argon is a Canadian company who's really out to compete with Cervello apparently - so says Peter - he didn't think there was much functional difference between the Cervello S1 and this Argon - other than the massive price difference of course! When you factor in I'm still going to need pedals and shoes on top of all this, the numbers are starting to add up... Wheels of Bloor do the free fitting as well as a couple years of tune-ups - although Peter was a bit nonchalant about tune-ups - indicating that if a bike was set up right the first time round it shouldn't need any tuning up - I don't know enough about bikes to comment on this, but I suppose if you're riding regularly there is some sense in that?

Onto Racer Sportif where I spoke with a guy named Kim. It took a while to get someone's attention in here to talk to, but Kim seemed to know his stuff once we got chatting. He showed me a couple bikes, the first being the Aquila Diablo. Their advertising says it's the official bike of the devil himself... I'm undecided if that's a good feature or not for a bike! Can we get devilishly fast without making like the devil on inclines? Anyhow, this was the first European bike I'd been shown - everything in Wheels of Bloor was Canadian made, while the Specialized bikes were American. Again, not sure that makes any difference at all - again it's a carbon frame bike, with the Shimano 105 gears. Kim did make a point of pointing out the width of the bottom point of the frame though where the seat tube meets by the chain - apparently this is quite wide on this bike which is supposed to give you more stability. The other two places didn't mention anything about tube width in places, but I would have assumed that the wider something was the less aerodynamic it was, no? He also showed me the Scott CR1 this one's on sale at $2190 down from $2890 - another nice looking bike, again with all the same apparent specs as everything else I looked at today - I was getting bike saturated by this point! Kim did chat with me a bit about shoes though - and how the clipless pedals improve your ride by allowing you to use the power while kicking back and up as well as on your down pedal. We looked at the difference between a nylon soled shoe and a carbon soled shoe - there wasn't a lot of difference in weight, but the nylon did bend slightly - you want biking shoes to be as stable as possible so you're using your whole foot to pedal with apparently - this explains why I get numb toes when doing a long ride in my trainers - I'm only using the ball of my foot.... Oh, and Racer Sportif do all the custom fitting included in the price as well - and Kim seemed to want to push their riding groups on me as well - they go out every Sunday and do long rides - I'm not sure I'm a long ride Sunday type person, but maybe as I get into more tri training....

So, the overall impression of what I learnt today is that with the right fit and shoes the ride is going to be significantly more comfortable, and efficient - all that equals to faster times, and a happier Dri by the time I get off the bike!

I also popped into RPM Studio while I was out - they specialize in spinning and gravity classes - we have 3 classes from the 8 minute path to fitness deal to use, and I was curious about what exactly gravity training was! The place was deserted when I went in, so the guy there had a lot of time to show me around and chat - he is actually on the racing team with Wheels of Bloor, so was able to give his opinion on the local bike shops too. I'm slightly more enlightened about gravity training - it's essentially using all your muscle groups while you're on a padded board that's affixed to an inclined ramp. You use a pulley system to complete the exercises they're asking you to do - it's an hour long group class and certainly worth trying once! He also relaxed me a bit about spinning classes - I've seen people in spinning classes - they look crazy intense! His words of wisdom were to make sure to let the instructor know it was your first time so they can help you set up your bike, then you control the intensity from there... easy huh? Yeah, ok, I'll try it and then we'll see! I think the biggest thing about why I find a spinning bike so much more challenging than a regular bike is that there's no coasting on a spinning bike - the pedals keep on moving - and you keep on moving... draw what you will from that!

That's some crazy post to talk about being overwhelmed by bike selection - does anyone actually HAVE one of these bikes - any opinions?

Thinking about Next Summer's Races...

The local series of triathlons have their event schedules up for the 2010 races. Last year I did my first triathlon, the HSBC try-a-tri on Toronto Island - it was a 400m swim, 10k bike and 2.5k run, and all that took me under an hour to do. My run was awful in that race looking at my times again - 20 minutes to do 2.5k... I know I could smoke that now! I was also learning about what competing was all about, and while I was physically and mentally prepared for that race, I didn't know enough about getting the right nutrients into my body before and during the race, so as a result my run was awful. I know I'm going to do the same Toronto Island try-a-tri again to compare against last year, but I also want to do some longer distances this year just to see how far I can push myself.

The first one I'll be looking at is a tri in Welland that's 750m swim, 30k bike and 7.5k run - the swim is the same as a sprint distance, but the bike and run are a tad longer (according to this wikipedia article!). This race is at the end of June which should have given me enough time in decent weather to get outside biking rather than inside on a stationary bike - I have no problem running on a treadmill, but more than about 10 minutes on a stationary bike and I'm ready to cry tears of boredom! (I will be trying a spinning class soon though, so more on that when that comes to pass!). With the swim being in the Welland canal also, I'm assuming (*hoping!*) the water temperature is warm enough to not require a wetsuit - I'm just not excited about wearing a wetsuit to swim, nor the thought of having to wiggle out of the thing in transition!

The Toronto Island tri is in August again, and then the big goal is an Olympic distance tri - that's a 1500m swim, 40k bike and 10k run. Specifically I'm looking at the Wasaga beach Olympic distance race. I know that part of the world is relatively flat, if there's any grade it won't be insane and it should be a scenic area also, so should keep me entertained - that 10k run at the end though sounds mighty threatening right now! I know I can physically run 10k without the swim and bike before it right now, so I don't think this is a ridiculous goal for this race in early September 2010 - right?

That's 3 triathlons over the summer then - only missing out July, but I think with what I'm going to need to do for the Olympic distance it's probably best to keep July open so I can focus on training.

I know I'm going to throw a few runs in during the spring also - there's Harry's spring Run Off 8K and the Sporting Life 10k I've got my eye on - yes, I am graduating from the 5k races... if all goes to plan the Scotiabank marathon may be my first half-marathon next year - assuming I don't find the distance longer than what will bring me to tears of boredom!

Wow that's looking busy... and hopefully attainable... it's good to have goals right?

Next Race - Resolution Run 5K

My next race is a 5K run on December 27th - it's the 25th Annual Resolution Run

On December 27th last year I was posing the question to Ian, my husband, about maybe finding a gym. I couldn't run for more than about 30 seconds without having to stop and walk. This will be my 4th race, and my 3rd 5K so far. My 5K times have been getting faster, with the Scotiabank 5K sitting around 31 minutes, the Oasis Zoo Run at just over 30 minutes (including all the hills at the Zoo!), so my goal for this run, which I know is going to be on mostly flat ground is to break the 30 minute mark - ideally I'd like to shave another minute and be in the 29's for my actual time (not gun time). I will have a bit of a push on this one - Ian is running in this 5K also - it'll be his first race ever!

Why am I doing this?

I didn't have a big ah-ha moment when I started losing weight - in fact, for the first 3 months of changing my life around I didn't really change my diet that much. I ate what I thought was healthier food, but to be honest, I just didn't know what a healthy food was, or even what a healthy portion size was! Now that I look back at pictures like this I wonder how I was so blind when I obviously looked in the mirror every day - how couldn't I see that I needed to do something for myself - and now!

My family has a history of type 2 diabetes - amazingly my glucose levels never showed the onset in me, but I'm sure if I'd kept heading down the path I was on, it wouldn't have been long before I was in for trouble.

So, onwards several months down the road and here we are - here's a before and after... I'm down just over another 10lbs since these photos were taken, but I'm saving the next before and after shots for what I think my goal weight is going to be - with any luck I should be there in January/February this year.

It's certainly not been an easy or pretty journey, and I'll post more later about what it's taken to get here, and what I'm doing to keep it going.

Recap from the Toronto Island Try-a-tri

In August 2009 I completed my first ever triathlon - this was about 7 months into my weight-loss and fitness quest and I'd dropped about 30lbs at this point...

Well it was still dark when the alarm went off - who knew time existed before 5AM - well to tell the truth it's not like it had been the most restful night of my life - I'm not sure I actually slept at all to tell you the truth! It was time to get in some breakfast - I was going to need some fuel for what was in front of me today. Whole grain toast, peanut butter, blueberry jelly, and a super-strong shot of espresso - that ought to do it! A quick look in the mirror revealed the restless sleep from last night all too well, time to get dressed and get everything together though. On with the specially purchased tri-suit - the top is nice and long, and has zippered pockets in the back to keep any fuel you may need for the race, and the shorts have a slightly padded saddle area, and sticky grips around the legs to keep them from riding up on the bike, so now I look the part for this race! A couple layers over top and I'm on my way downstairs. With a bit of help from the handy husband (he so kindly pumped the tires on my bike, got my bike into the car, and filled my water bottle for the bike) I gathered together everything else I was going to need - socks, running shoes, bike helmet, sunglasses (even though it's still dark out!), a change of clothes, towel, race belt with number attached, swim goggles, the green swim cap I'd been given the previous day when I picked up my race kit - what else would I need? Standing there for a moment I wondered why I hadn't done this the night before when I would have been thinking a bit more clearly - surely I must be forgetting something... Realizing I couldn't stand at the door wondering what I'd forgotten all day, it was time to go. It was 5:28AM getting into the car, and we were off downtown. The race was over on Toronto Island, and the only way to get there was on the ferry that the race had specially laid on. The first one left at 6AM and I was planning on being on it.

We had no issues finding a parking spot right by the ferry docks - not all that surprising before 6AM on a Saturday morning really - the only other people in the same parking lot were busy getting bikes out of their cars, and pumping up tires, and generally looking like they were going through all the same mental checklists I was doing. With that we make the walk over to the ferry docks to wait with all the other athletes waiting for the 6AM ferry. There was some chatter from the people around me about how they'd done last year, and how this morning felt warmer than it had the previous year - of course I didn't know the meaning of the word "fitness" this time last year, so had no comments to offer to these conversations. The ferry showed up, and we all walked on with our bikes - such a range of bikes - as this was a "try-a-tri" race, it's a race designed for beginners and athletes who want to do a short distance race - there was everything from BMX to mountain bikes to the $5000 Cervello bikes surrounding me. I'd opted to not ride the touring comfort bike I'd gotten last year, and instead picked up an old Norco road bike in a garage sale for $25 earlier in the summer - if this bike got me through this race it was going to be the best $25 I'd ever spent!

Crossing lake Ontario over to the island took about 10 minutes - the sun was just starting to rise behind us, and the Toronto skyline was still shrouded in darkness. We followed everyone else off the ferry an over to the transition area. I've been watching lots of You tube videos all about the transition area, so knew I was going to rack my bike with the front of the saddle over the bar, got out my folded towel and laid it on the ground next to my bike and lay out my helmet, sun glasses, shoes, socks and racebelt. I fished out my swim cap and goggles and realized that indeed I'd not forgotten anything (that I knew of yet!). Time to get marked up.

I got my race number marked down my arm and age on the back of my calf in black permanent marker, and picked up my timing chip. With a bit of advice from the officials I put the timing chip on my left ankle so that it wouldn't interfere with the chain on my bike. Now it was just time to wait. It was 6:30AM, the sun was still rising, and then we realized what we didn't have with us - there was no way of knowing this one either - apparently before sunrise the island is owned by the mosquitos - there were swarms of them telling everyone they encountered that this was their place. I was so please I'd put on long pants and long sleeves over my tri-suit, but they were even managing to bite through my top! People wearing shorts were covered in red welts all down their legs. All I could do was just keep moving in the hope that they wouldn't land on me that much!

Announcements were starting telling everyone there to get their numbers marked on them, how to rack their bike, and describing the general course. I took a walk over to the beach where the swim was going to take place to get a feel for the water - it was around 20C, which is a pretty good temperature for Lake Ontario, especially considering the weather we've had up until now this year, but the walk from the transition area to the beach was all loose sand, and it was quite a trek - visions of running over sand after completing the swim were daunting to say the least! Still, nothing could be done about that now, and everyone else was going to have to deal with it, so time to just suck it up and get on with things!

We walked back to the transition area, and I went over my setup one last time, took of my extra layer of clothes, put them in my bag, and moved my bag out of the way. Time to grab my swim cap and goggles and head down to the water again. Luckily the sun was well onto it's way up, and the mosquitoes had all but vanished!

I was in the 3rd wave to get going, so I managed to get a bit of a warm-up in the water, it was a nice calm day, so that water was flat, and clean, then stood back to watch the first two waves get going. Such a scrum when the air horn goes off with arms, feet and water going everywhere - some folks hanging back so they don't get kicked, some people going out really strong only to lose it all about 100 meters in. The lifeguards looking on intently but no one's had to wave their cap in the air yet! The 2nd wave left looking a lot like the first one, and now it was my turn to line up in the scrum of people...

I chose somewhere near the centre front of the pack, I'm a strong swimmer, but I wasn't planning on going out fast - I just didn't fancy having too many feet kicking me in the face! I'd read about setting up your goggles under your cap so there was no chance of them getting slapped or kicked off unless someone really kicked me in the face. A few more pre-race announcements reminding us not to draft on the bike course, and then time had arrived and my air-horn went off. People everywhere - the only thoughts in my head were of how did I get here? Why was I doing this? Can I do this? Once I got out to the first buoy the mass of people had scattered and things were calmer, I could concentrate on the swim now, just a steady pace, that's all I cared about. I was remembering to look where I was going, remembering to breathe out under water to make use of the time when my face was out of the water to get a full breath. The water temperature was perfect, and I was pleased I hadn't panicked too much about not having a wetsuit - I didn't need it. Rounding the 2nd buoy marked the furthest point out, it was all back to the shore from here. I was now alongside another swimmer - she and I kept pace for the rest of the race, and dodged the lifeguard that was helping out someone from the previous wave. Lake Ontario is reasonably shallow at this point, so when the bottom became visible again I knew I still had a bit more swimming to go, but I was going to make it, a steady pace throughout, no need to stop, and I was feeling good. Getting to the edge my husband was there yelling encouragement - I was the 17th person in my wave out of the water - I had no clue I was that far up - well that's hopeful, maybe I will do ok at this race!

Then the best news of the day - that loose sand run I was dreading turned out to only be the walk down to the beach - the run back to transition was a different route and was mostly a boardwalk until you made it back to the grass - result! Again pleased to not have a wetsuit to fight with, I took off my goggles and cap while running and found my way over to my bike. All the bikes were racked by age group - my rack was abandoned - lots of bikes and no people, so I had lots of room, and a nice calm area. Managed to stay standing to get my socks and shoes on (I know so many people talk about doing tri races without socks, but I just couldn't face the thought of getting blisters!), got my race belt on with the number in the back, on with the sunglasses (I learnt my lesson a couple months ago what biking and getting a bug in the eye felt like) and finally on with the helmet. Grab my bike and I was off. I'm not the most natural type at getting on and off a bike - I'd been practicing in a quiet area near my house getting on while pushing off with my other foot - I'd got the hang of it, but was still a bit apprehensive, and I hadn't bargained on there being people coming out of the transition and stopping in the middle of the road to get on their bike! So, I half committed to doing a push start, then saw all the people and made the biggest mistake I could - I put the brakes on... this landed me (literally!) on the side of the track with the bike on the ground... drat.... still, I was fine, if not a little embarrassed, but simply give up hope of a rolling start, get on my bike and that was it, I was off - and passed two people while I was at it....

Passing people turned out to be a continuing trend in fact - I was amazed at the number of times I was shouting out "On your left!" as I went past people. Most were on fat tires with their mountain bikes, but there were a few serious competitors out there that I was passing too. What a pretty track it was also - we were riding the entire length of the island and back, and I was pretty relaxed through the entire journey, of course I was keeping up a good pace, but managed to wind up the onlooking EMS squad by asking them if they were enjoying the scenery today... They did admit it was better than normal! I yelled a few words of encouragement to the other cyclists letting them know they were nearly half way. Nearing the end of the 10Km I was starting to get a bit sore - obviously my $25 bike was doing the trick, but I knew I wasn't in the greatest position for any distance riding on this bike, but that was 2 out of 3 of the disciplines done! Getting off the bike was nowhere near as eventful as getting on the bike, nice and calmly I ran back into transition with my bike.

That's where the cramps started - stomach cramps to be precise. I knew I'd been hydrating myself, so that wasn't the issue, and now wasn't really the time to try and figure out what was going on, just hope they were going to pass, and get on with the run. The first few hundred meters were over rough wet swampy grass - really bad ground for running on, but the pavement came soon after. The first 1/2 km was really painful - I was running, but it was slow - really slow - if people had to yell "on your left" in the run I'd have been hearing a lot of that... I walked for about 50 meters, and watched my heart rate monitor, waited for it to drop about 20 beats, and then picked up the running again. I still had those cramps but I was just going to have to power through it. The second km got better and I was able to run through to the end - slowly, but it wasn't walking at least!

I crossed the line, took off my chip timer and gave it back, then grabbed some water, and walked a bit. The race organizers had laid on some fresh fruit and bagels for after the race, so I grabbed some food and finally started thinking about why I'd come down with cramps for the run - I wasn't overly physically tired, and I knew I'd been taking in water... It then came to me what may have been going on - I'd read last week that one of the major causes in cramping is lack of electrolytes and salt - we have a relatively low salt diet as it is, and indeed, I'd not had anything on race day that had any salt in it - even that peanut butter was natural peanut butter, so no salt and no sugar! The cramps continued on well into the afternoon, but they passed, and I felt good. I'd completed a triathlon! I can call myself a triathlete now... granted it was a super-sprint triathlon, but it was a race none the less. As for where I placed - I was classed in the under 40 Athena class women - that's women over 150lbs (hell, my goal weight is still over 150lbs!), and I came 5th - without falling on the bike, and if I'd not had the cramps there's a good chance I could have placed in this race - I was only 2 minutes off the 3rd place finisher... all this in my very first race - insane!

So, here's the stats - the race was a 400m swim, 10km bike and 2.5km run. There were 33 people in the Athena/Clydesdale class - that's all women over 150lbs, and men over 200lbs. Out of those 33 I came 16th with a overall time of 54:42 - that time put me 191/280 overall.

I was 11/33 in the swim, 12/33 on the bike and 28/33 on the run in the Clydesdale/Athena class and 124/280 on the swim, 114/280 on the bike and 264/280 on the run overall

Swim Time 10:46 with a pace of 2:42/100m
T1 1:44
Bike Time 20:53 with an average speed of 28.7Km/h
T2 1:08
Run Time 20:13 with an average pace of 8:06/Km (that's really slow for me.... ho hum....)

In other words, time to work on my running - I'm fairly impressed seeing as the past January I just could not run - maybe 30 seconds was what you'd get out of me, but that was it.... so in that respect this is somewhat of an achievement!

I've certainly learnt a lot from this, and now I'm just looking forward to the next one - oh, and the end of year sale on those fancy schmancy bikes - my $25 special is great, but boy do I envy those fancy bikes!

A New Life

I posted this a few days ago on the Sugoi Brand Champions blog to introduce myself there - A New Life - it's an overview of where I've come from, and where I'm hoping to go. This blog is going to detail my thoughts on this journey, as well as talk about the training I'm doing, and other things I'm finding that help with this pursuit of a new healthier me. Really what I'm hoping to do here is to help or motivate other people to do the same thing.

I wanted to introduce myself by telling you about a journey I started in January 2009 that has completely changed my life.

When I started this journey I weighed 270lbs, and even for a girl who’s 5′11, that’s a lot of weight to carry around - but I hadn’t always been that way. All through High School and University I’d been very active but when I started working full time, I stopped swimming, stopped walking to school, stopped doing anything more than sitting at a desk. I didn’t even notice at first that I was putting on weight. When my clothing started to get tight I assumed things had shrunk in the wash - I was so blind to what was healthy the alarm bells never went off. Now, more than 10 years later, and significantly unhappy in my appearance and health I knew I had to do something. Something positive for me.

My first step was finding a gym that I felt comfortable at, and knew I was going to continue going to - I wound up finding a gym at the top of my road that specialized in personal training. This was an excellent choice for me as the guilt of not having done anything for a week and going back to see a trainer after that would be too much for me. I knew that this was going to keep me honest. Those first couple weeks of workouts were some of the most gruelling and painful weeks I’ve ever had, and to top it all off one of the first things my trainer did with me was a body evaluation and fitness test. With measurements, fat fold tests, flexibility tests, strength tests and of course, the 12 minute run - while I say run, at this point in time I was lucky if I could run for 30 seconds, let alone 12 minutes. I would watch other people run and wonder how it was they managed to just keep going like that - any more than a minute and everything in me hurt, my lungs felt like they were going to explode, my shins were screaming at me. How did I get like this, and how was I going to get back from this? I got an e-mail the next day from my trainer - he knew I saw those numbers on that page, and of course he knew what was going through my head. He gave me some great encouragement, and he was right, I had already taken that first step.

Over the next few months I continued to work hard, I was in the gym 4-5 times a week, I had a training plan and I was sticking to it. I was already starting to feel better, even though there wasn’t a lot of weight coming off. My next fitness evaluation rolled around 3 months later, and while I’d only lost 10lbs, my body composition had completely changed, I’d replaced so much fat with lean muscle, and I was stronger - and that 12 minute run? I still couldn’t run the whole thing, but I only took a couple minutes walking break in the middle - this was still super tough, but I was getting fitter!

Up until this time I’d not focused on my diet a lot - I was trying to eat what I thought was healthy, but I wasn’t reading labels and counting calories. I realized if I really wanted to drop this weight I was going to have to start thinking about what I was putting in. I was already using a heart rate monitor to see what I was burning at the gym, and now I started counting what I was eating. I had a huge wake-up call on portion sizes first - what I thought was a healthy bowl of cereal in the morning was 3-4 times the serving size I should have been having! Within a week or two of watching my calorie intake carefully I was finally dropping weight.

When I was a kid, and on the swim team at my local pool, one of the lifeguards and coaches there took part in triathlons through the summer. I used to see him training for the races, and I’d see him after a race coming back with his numbers marked all over him. I really looked up to him, and thought that a triathlon was something I’d always want to try - but I never got any further than that - the run always scared me. I swam like a fish all through my childhood, and living out in the country I rode a bike everywhere - even the 20km into the city for my lifeguarding summer job when I was old enough - but I never learnt to run. All through my childhood I was the last one walking in on the Canada Fitness testing. All this was changing now though, I was starting to run, and not only was I running, but I actually liked it. By June of 2009 I’d dropped 30lbs from my starting weight, and I knew I was ready for a challenge. I’d been eyeing up a triathlon series in my area that ran try-a-tri races. There was one on Toronto Island in August with a 400m swim, 10k bike and 2.5k run. 2.5k was going to be a challenge for me, but I thought I’d be able to make a go of it, so I entered myself. I had a laugh filling in the registration when I put myself in the Athena class seeing the weight range started at 160lbs - this was even below my ideal goal weight! All that was left to do now was start training - oh, and buy a bike…

I wound up finding an old road bike in a garage sale by chance one day as I was coming home from the gym - it’s tires were completely flat, and it had certainly done some time, but at $20 I couldn’t go too far wrong - it only needed to hold up for this one race while I decided if this triathlon business was really for me or not! I found a wave pool that offered a lane swim with the waves on. I knew my swimming was still strong, but I’d never swam in open water, and this seemed like a safe place to start. The bike training went well also, I’d not ridden in quite a while, but well, it was just like riding a bike! I continued with my running training, but certainly out of the 3 it was still my least favourite. I knew I needed to dedicate a lot of time to improving my run though, so I persevered. I set out a training calendar for myself, and even worked in some brick workouts. I submerged myself into as much triathlon information as I could find. I read recounts from other people on how their races went, I watched youtube videos on how to set up your transition area and go through the transitions, I asked questions on forums about what you’re supposed to wear, and how do women handle swimming in sports bras!?! I would run through in my head at night while trying to fall asleep exactly how my transition was going to go, and everything that I was going to have to pack in my bag. I was getting nervous about the race as the day drew nearer, but quite excited as well. I knew I could do this. One of the final checkboxes on what I was going to need for the race was something to wear. I’d read some girls just do the race in a swimsuit, but I’m not one of those girls, there was no way that was going to happen. I went in search of a trisuit. I tried on several different suits, but wound up falling in love with one particular brand - a brand I’d never heard of before, but it just fit and looked good. Of course this was Sugoi stuff I was trying on, and I wound up with a separate tri-short and top. I was ready for this race.

There’s a whole story about how the race went down, but aside from a slight mishap coming out of T1 getting on the bike (bike met ground, and I nearly went with it!), the race went really well. Even though the run at the end was tough, I persevered. When I saw the results go up I nearly fell over - I’d done well -really well! In my age and weight class I’d come in 5th - and overall I was in the top half of competitors. Me, the girl that only started going to the gym 7 months prior to the race had placed in the top half of finishers. What an amazing high, what an amazing sport - what an incredibly expensive bike I’m going to have to go out and invest in now… I’m wholly and completely hooked.

In transition 1 - the swim went well, onto the bike!

Finishing the Toronto Island Try-a-tri

I’m still working on my running of course, I’ve even run in a couple 5k races this fall, and I’ve got another one coming up in December. I can feel I’m getting faster and stronger with every run now - I’m nearly up to running 10k continuously in a training run now. How huge a difference is that from nearly collapsing after running for 30 seconds! Oh, and of course the weight has come right down now - I’m now sitting at around 185lbs, and getting dangerously close to the 100lbs lost mark.

Looking at that same triathlon series for next year, it’s certainly going to be more than one triathlon for me next year - I want to do the sprint triathlons next - but I have a goal. That try-a-tri on Toronto Island, I’m going to do it again, and this time I’m going to be the one walking away with a medal for my age group.