Moving along...

I've been really slack in posting updates recently - the summer rather got away from me, and while it's all well and good that I can mentally compose a blog post while taking a shower, honestly the iPad isn't going to cope too well with that environment! I'll break the updates into separate posts (like I'd actually done them at the right times) to make the reading a bit easier!

Lets start back in August. Just 2 weeks after the sprint tri in Ottawa it was time to tackle the Toronto Island "Give it a Tri". This was the first race I'd even done last year, and this year's goal was to see not only how much I'd managed to improve my times, but I had the added encouragement of being a finalist in the 7systems improve 7% contest. The morning started out well - I met up with the other couple of girls, Heather & Katherine, I'd encouraged into doing their first tri that day, helped them lay out their things in transition and walked through the in's and out's of the course. We headed down to the beach to get into the water for a warm-up swim before the race kicked off.

While that water may look relatively calm behind us, I can tell you this was actually the roughest water to date I've had to swim in. I was getting pushed all over the place, and got several mouthfuls of Lake Ontario while expecting a breath of air. All in all I felt like I'd had to push far to hard to get through this swim, and the times don't show a huge improvement over last year because of it - that and the timing mat was moved this year from the beach to the transition area that was up the beach, over the boardwalk and across the grass! Still, it was an ok time, so now it was onto pushing through the bike course.

Toronto Island is probably my favourite bike course out of all the races I've done. It's completely flat the entire way, well protected from wind and sun, and of course, no traffic either. I'd fitted a cheap speedo on my bike the week prior to the race so I could get an idea of the speed I was doing to make sure I had a higher average than last year. This actually helped me out a lot, and gave me a great improvement on my bike time, knocking 2 minutes off from last year, and boosting my average speed from 28.7km/h up to 31.6km/h. Taking into account the hairpin turn right near the end that you pretty much have to stop for, I'm really happy with that average speed.

Of course, what's any triathlon without my beloved run at the end of it. Thankfully this is a nice short 2.5km run - theory is you should be able to go all out on a run of this distance. Obviously I'd pushed hard on the bike, so the first few steps out into the run were challenging. This run starts on an uneven grassy field before you get onto the road - I found the grass to be remarkably tiring, and wasn't able to pick up some speed until hitting the run course. No speedo for the run, but I know my running pace is better than last year where I ended up walking some of the 2.5km. I also had Ian out there running with me shouting out words of encouragement and generally making sure I kept going. The photo is coming down to the finishing chute, and looking remarkably strong for how I was actually feeling at the time!

It was done - and I'd managed to hit my mark for improvement - I'd taken close to 6 minutes off my time from last year and put me at around a 9% improvement over last year - that'll do for the contest! Hanging around the finish line it wasn't too much longer until we saw Heather and Katherine come over the finish. Both of them feeling good, and so happy to have completed their first triathlon - both already talking about what races they were going to do next year now!

Standing around afterwards waiting for the official times to come up we were chatting about the race, talking about the challenges of the swim, and Ian came walking back to us after seeing some of the times go up - big grin on his face, holding 3 fingers up in the air and shouting "You came 3rd!". This took a moment to sink in - I what now? I'd come 3rd in my age group... at this point I'd like to go back in time a bit and lets pull up this blog post from last year - if you scan right down to the end of this post I was talking about having been entered in the Athena class (that's women 150lbs and heavier) and looking forward to racing in the Athena class again this year and hoping to place - the exact quote was "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." Now then, lets get this straight - I've just raced not in the Athena class (The series dropped the Athena and Clydesdale classes this year), but in with my age group of women 30-34 (I'm 34 which puts me right at the top of this age group also), and I've just gone and placed 3rd... I nearly fell over.

Everything from that point until the awards was a bit of a blur, and amazingly I was able to give a coherent interview afterwards for the 7systems contest. I tell ya, if you'd told me 100lbs ago (or any time in my life for that matter) that I'd be standing on a podium collecting an award for an athletic effort I'd have laughed for a month. But still, there it is - there's a bronze medal hanging on my wall. I see it every day reminding me of what I can accomplish - and what there is yet to still be accomplished.

National Capital Sprint Triathlon

Well, another race weekend gone by, and another triathlon completed! Ian and I travelled to Ottawa to take part in the National Capital events - me in the sprint triathlon, and him in the sprint duathlon - his first duathlon ever! We'd both set a time of 90 minutes as a goal finishing time, and both managed to beat that time! Ian beating it by 5 minutes, while I beat it by 2 minutes. I'm quite pleased to see another 5 second per 100m come off my swim time and a whole 30 seconds per km come off my run time! I know I can do better in the swim also - I misjudged where I started from in the pack and was reasonably far back and spent the entire swim finding my way around other people's feet - the race started the men off 5 minutes before the women's pack, and I managed to pass some of the men in the water. There's nothing like the boost you get from passing the guys when you've started that far behind them - even if they are very splashy swimmers and what was supposed to be your gulp of air turns into a mouthful of water... still lessons learnt! The Toronto Island try-a-tri is coming up in under 2 weeks now, so at I know for that one, get into the front of the pack for the swim, and hold it there! I'm going to be training on intervals from now until then - this is the race I need to eek out as much speed as I can in to be in with a chance of winning the grand prize from 7SYSTEMS. The goal is for at least 7% off last year's time - I've got designs on a percentage much higher than that... always the overachiever and all ;-)

I won't be on my own out on the Toronto Island course either - I've been hearing a lot from folks over the past 18 months about how I've inspired them, and a few are putting their money where their mouth is and joining me in the Toronto Island try-a-tri. I've written more about this on the SUGOI Brand Champions Blog.

With any luck I should have some nice big numbers to post here after August 14th with the try-a-tri results!

Things I have to remember...

I'm a bit compulsive... anyone who knows me can attest to this, when I take to something I don't just do it as a hobby - I want to be the best at it. It's good to be compulsive at times, but can be quite deterring at times also. I forget sometimes how long other people take to get good at something, and wonder why I'm not excellent at it right off the bat. Let's take running for example! I haven't even been running for a year yet, and yet when I look at my results from my Welland triathlon I focus in on my results from the run and compare them to the rest of the field - it's slightly depressing... I know I'm not a fast runner, and I really should accept that and resolve to train more at running, and remember all those other people I'm looking at have probably been running for much longer than me, but these are things that are forgotten when looking at a bunch of numbers in a spreadsheet. Thankfully though, I have a husband that can put these things into perspective for me, and this is the result:

Welland is my most recent race, and T.O. is the race I did in August last year on Toronto Island. So, lets look at those pace times shall we... I haven't been doing much swim training at all recently, and I knocked 30 seconds off my swim pace, on a course double the distance - amazing what a bit of strength training can do for the swim - of course now that I'm swimming with a masters club through the summer I expect to see that drop even further now (incidentally, my first masters swim may well have been the hardest swim I've done since University - ouch!), the bike was only slightly faster, but take into consideration a course 3x the length, and I know coming off the bike on Toronto Island I was hurting, whereas on this race I know I was holding back knowing I had a 7.5k run ahead of me, so I'm pleased with that also. Now, lets take a look at that run pace shall we... an even minute knocked off the pace... yes, and entire minute per km faster over a course that's 3 times the distance from the Toronto race - okay, so while I may be a sucky slow runner, how cow what an improvement over the shockingly slow runner I was last year! Now if I can keep that kind of improvement up....

It'll be interesting to compare my results at the end of the Ottawa tri I'm doing at the end of July - it's a bit shorter on all the distances, so I'm hoping those paces are going to look even better then.

As for the "race report" - not much more than what I said above other than giving a lecture on checking your gear well before each race and when you do find something wrong - do something about it! Now speaking from experience - 4 minutes before the race starts is not the time you want to discover the nose piece of your goggles breaking... least they were old school goggles and the nose piece was string, so with a lot of help from the husband, and shaking fingers we were able to get them into a useable state - but that was officially their last time out - I bought a new pair 2 days after the race and before I next got in the pool - to put some perspective on the goggles though - I'd been looking at them over the past month and thinking I should probably get a new pair - I'd even vocalized the fact that I probably needed a new pair as they were looking a bit worn and I'd bought them as a student when I lived in the UK - and well, I worked in the UK after being a student, and we've been over here for nearly 10 years now... those were some well used goggles! Now if only all my gear could last that long.

Now of course, what would be talk of a race without photos of the race!

Hanging in out in line waiting for the time trial start...

Just out of transition and getting on the bike for the 30k ride

About 500m from the end - still running!

Upside-down Metabolism....

Back in December I posted about being diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. At the time everything in my blood work was within normal ranges and they were just going to monitor future blood tests and see how we go from there - well, wouldn't ya know it, things changed. While my T3 and T4 levels are still ok, my antibodies and TSH have shot up through the roof, and so in an effort to combat my thyroid gland looking like it should have it's own path to orbit, I've now been put on meds to control everything. Now, I'll admit by endocrinologist did mention that I'd probably see a change in my metabolism, I kinda shrugged it off - having lived with myself for long enough now I know my body doesn't do fast change, and well, I've always just had certain habits that have never changed... This past week has thrown me for a loop though - I'll be starving hungry, and then eat something but be stuffed within a few mouthfuls - and then starving again an hour later.... and then there's the sleep schedule. I've never been a morning person - let me just emphasize that fact - NEVER... anyone who's had to get me up before about 8am can attest that you don't talk to me, you find the nearest jug of coffee and just lay low until I come out of the fog and join civilization (and frankly, people closest to me will laugh at 8am even...). This past week I've had to be at a client office every morning for 9am, and I've been bike commuting, so leaving the house at 8am, which leads to my alarm being set for 7am... fine, I know I'm going to be grumpy, but by the time I get the the client site all should be fine right? Now riddle me this - every morning this week I've woken up at 6am bright as a button... nothing's been waking me up - the dogs in fact groan at me getting up and rolls over and fall asleep again. Come on, seriously? 6am? What good can come of this! Oh, and I've lost 3 pounds this week.... that's something I may have done over a year ago, but I'm lucky to lose a pound in 2 weeks at the moment.

I imagine things will settle down again once I get a bit more accustomed to the medication, but if you'll excuse me now, after getting full from my 6 mouth-fulls of dinner an hour and half ago, I'm now starving again....

Help me Win Stuff!

I've been selected by 7SYSTEMS in their contest to improve a race time by at least 7% over your previous year's time. While I did a couple 5K races last year, the race I really wanted to improve my time in is the Toronto Island Try-a-tri. The votes now will select the final 3 athletes to compete for who can knock off the largest percentage from their race times - and honestly, with the training I've managed to put in over the past year, and knowing how much I've learnt over the past year, I really feel I've got a good chance of pulling this off!

The voting does require registration so that each person is only voted for once, but consider it a favour to me that I'll be eternally grateful for! You can register to vote here.

Please pass on the word, and thanks for the encouragement and votes to push me to my goal.

Less than a month...

Well, May has been a hectic travel month for me culminating in trips back and forth across this great country using as many forms of transportation as I could find (I missed taking a boat anywhere - perhaps I'll have to take a ferry to Toronto Island this weekend!) - and of course writing this while on a train heading home. In total I've managed 1 week at home this month which has of course wrecked havoc with my training schedule - as much as I'd like to, I wasn't about to pack my bike a carry-on! Things have picked up since the dismal start to the month regarding running, and I'm finally starting to feel comfortable again without worrying too much about if my body is going to revolt. I had a fantastic run in Montreal this week discovering parts of town I'm now making mental notes to go back to when I'm not all hot and sweaty. I've not had much time out on my bike obviously, but the little I have done has been at a good pace, and I've clocked a significant number of miles on spin bikes over the past while. The swimmng however - this is where I need to step it up. I really don't like hotel pools - 3 stokes per length doesn't work for me... And trying to find a decent pool while you're on the road and working the pool schedule into the hectic work schedule just doesn't pan out either. So I'll be spending more time proportionately in my local pool this month getting ready for Welland on June 26th, heading out on the bike whenever I can grab the time, and just keeping up the pace with the running. Welland is a sprint distance tri, so the run portion is shorter than the road races I've been doing recently - and frankly I'm rather looking forward to a shorter run!

Oh, and can't forget that I need to practice getting on my cycling shoes and clipping in... Still so aware of how easy it'll be to crash and burn in a heap on the floor by getting that wrong!


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It's working...

So I've been working out in Vancouver this week - it's such a short visit that I haven't managed to acclimatize to the time zone change, so this morning when I woke up at 5:30am what else is there to do at that hour other than go for a run!

The hotel is right on top of Stanley Park, so it's the obviously place to run - I've run along the sea wall several times, but usually got for a few km, then turn around and head back. I've never done the entire wall around the park other than on a bike! Given I had some extra time this morning I set my Nike+ workout for a 5k, which is quite a bit longer than my gradual runs I've been doing recently, but I was interested to see how things were working out with the extra short runs and the digestion issues I'd been having on longer runs. I knew the entire wall was around 10k, so I figured I'd run the first half then enjoy the view walking the final 5k.

Around 3k in I knew I wasn't going to run 5k this morning - I felt great, no issues, great views, fresh salty sea air, I decided right then that I was going to go further than the 5k - in fact, it was time for a bit of redemption - this morning was a 10k day. The other thing that was different this morning, was I forgot to put my HR monitor watch on as I left the hotel - so no clue where my HR was at today and I had to pay a bit more attention to how I actually felt rather than just looking at my wrist to see what it was telling me. I got to 5k really easily, and just kept on going - none of the 5k issues I'd seen the Sporting Life 10k. It wasn't until 7k rolled around that the digestion kicked in, but no where near as bad as I've had in the past - none of the entire abdomen cramping up, just simply needed to stop, and as if it was perfectly timed, there was an open, clean, flushing public loo right at the 7k mark. So with that out of the way, on with the remaining 3k - still no issues, no cramping, just a nice easy run all the way to the 10k mark. And what do ya know, I got it done in 1hr 6 minutes - which is a good 12 minutes taken off the Sporting Life 10k from a few weeks ago - much closer to where I expected my 10k time to be - with a head wind off the water no less!

So it's working then - all these short runs building up and getting my body used to all the shaking around. My next few races now are all triathlons, the longest of which will be the Olympic distance in September - I was getting a bit concerned about the runs in the races given the issues I'd been having, but knowing that even after just a few weeks of working on it I've managed to add a couple km before my body cries out at me is certainly good news.

So far so good...

Just a quick update - Saturday was the start of the build-it-up runs... so 1K, 1.1K and 1.2K are now all complete - and best of all, no issues to be had! My pace is a whole lot faster at these lil' short distances - so perhaps besides getting the body used to all the moving around it'll help speed up this slow-poke of a runner while we're at it! Oh, and Ian's been keeping with it also - I think secretly he's kinda enjoying it!

Back to basics

It's been nearly a week since I completed my first 10k, so it's given me some time to think about how it went. While the first half went really well, at the 5k mark there was the need to join the queue for the porta-loo and it didn't get any better from there on in with cramping forcing me to walk the majority of the second half of the race, finally coming in with a time of 1:18 when I'd expected to be just under the hour mark.

Obviously this was quite frustrating, and after doing some reading I'm going back to basics. Theory is that while my cardiovascular is all up for running 10k, apparently my internal systems don't agree with being shaken up that much! So here we go, back to short and gradual - On Saturday I'm starting out with a 1k run, and I'll increase it 0.1km every day to try and teach my body about getting shaken up and learning to just deal with it a bit more gracefully than it did last weekend! Ian says he's going to join me on my running build-up to help his with his preparation for his duathlon in July, so that should be fun :-)

Still, road races are done for a bit now, it's triathlon season! Still with a bit of running, but I'm looking forward to getting something else in there - and especially getting that new shiny bike out for it's first race!

Just be happy already...

It occurred to me the other day after making a Facebook post bemoaning that shopping was still difficult as a size 8 that I'm looking at this all wrong. When I was at my heviest I wore a size 18/20, couldn't shop in "normal" stores and would have given anything to be a size 12. Size 12 was the smallest I could remember ever being even through High School and University and I don't ever really thinking I was too big then - I pretty much thought, when I was a size 20, that a 12 was as low as I could ever physically get... So here we are today at a size 8, and I see myself looking in the mirror and still critisizing the same things I did previously. If the size 20 version of me could hear me now I'd probably slap myself into next week. So while I think it's ok to try and strive to make things better, I also need to learn to relax a bit and appreciate what I've done to get here. Perhaps less stress will make the end of this journey just a bit easier. And the next time I moan perhaps just threatening to slap me into next week will be enough!

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Ups and Downs

Or should that be downs and ups?

So I've done race 1 on my long list of races to complete this year, that being Harry's Spring Run Off, the 8K race around High Park. Now High Park is my local park, we run the dogs there, and spend quite a bit of time there in all seasons. It's a great park with lots of fabulous scenery, but of course no scenery was ever known to be flat, pretty always has bumps and curves right? In the case of High Park this consists of a couple brutal uphill climbs, on at about 3.5k into the 8K and the other is the very last 500m of the race - yeah, what bright spark thought that one up! Not to mention the rolling hill paths as you get down around the bottom of the park. All in all it's quite a challenging course. It had numbers in my head of what I thought I'd be able to do the race in, but all my calculations were done in reference to my last few 5K runs which were all on mostly flat routes, adding to it this being the longest race I've attempted so far, I probably should have not been quite so ambitious with the finishing number I was looking for. Needless to say my 54:18 wasn't the time I was looking for, but looking back at the race overall, I managed to keep an even pace across the entire race, I didn't stop to walk at any point in time, and even fought my way up the brutal last 500m hill to the finish - my husband was there at the hill ready to start yelling and shouting at me if I looked like I was having signs of giving up on the final hill, and I think he was suitably impressed that he got to keep his voice! Still, it's a learning moment, and definitely a good preparation for the Sporting Life 10K that's coming up - there's hills in that, but luckily they all go in one direction - down!

In recognizing small accomplishments I know I'm finally getting faster at this running thing. Last August I did a timed mile with the run coach at our gym and I was a couple seconds shy of a 10 minute mile. I was suitably impressed by that at the time, although completely wiped out after doing it! This past Wednesday, with the same running coach, we had our group morning run. Warm-up was a 2K run from the gym to High Park, then it was a timed mile around the upper loop, this time the mile was 8:56, so I've dropped a minute in under a year - it's still slow, but I'm just not a natural runner, and well, June last year is probably when I first actually started to try to run at all knowing that every triathlon I wanted to do was going to finish with that pesky run! Still, it's getting better, and there's only one way it can keep going - no need for the Olympic runners to worry anytime soon though!

Now how about some big accomplishments. Today was the quarterly fitness evaluation. I get weighed, pinched and measured, then tested in distance ran in 12 minutes, strength and isometric endurance with wall sits and the plank. It's a tough test - we start off with the run on the treadmill, now in January 2009 I managed 0.78 of a mile, today it was 1.17, as I said above, I'm not a fast runner, but I'm running, and that's more than I could say before! My strength numbers were good, nothing extraordinary, but still showing improvement, but my isometric endurance is doing some great stuff, in January 2009 I held a plank for 15 seconds, today was 2 minutes 6 seconds, add that to the wall sit that was 1:12min in January 2009, and was 3:19min today - yeah, I'm pleased about that.

As for all the weighing, pinching and measuring, since January 2009 here's some crazy numbers, overall I've lost 246.5mm of pinchable body fat - yup, just shy of 10 inches that is... Next, My body fat has gone from 57.6% down to 21.5%, that's from obese down to a "fitness" percentage according to Wikipedia. Looking more at that body fat, My first testing showed I was carrying 146.3lbs of pure fat - about 1.5x my lean weight at the time, I'm now carrying 36.9lbs of fat, yes, nearly 110lbs of fat evaporated there! It turns out that my diet may not need quite as much tweaking as I was thinking it may need either, over the last quarter I lost 11 lbs, which doesn't sound like much, but take into consideration that the pinch tests show that 9lbs of that was fat lost and not lean weight, so I'm maintaining muscle and taking off the stuff I don't need which is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing - fabulous! The thought is that there's probably another 20lbs floating about this body that I can shed - perhaps by the end of the summer - then I'll be some force to be reckoned with... oh, right in time for an Olympic distance triathlon.... er, what happened to that force again?

Swimming & What's Next

So I had my assessment swim for the Masters club I'm looking to join yesterday. It was a hard hour in the 50m pool - which itself was a bit new as most of the pools I get the opportunity to swim in are 25m, but it went well none the less. The swim felt good, the coach worked on a bit of technique with all of us, and generally I was pleased with how everything went. Met another girl there who's pursuing the triathlete route as well - she also started last year, but already has 3 races under her belt and is looking to complete a 1/2 IM this year - something I'm not sure I'm ever going to attempt! After all was said and done they assess what lane you'd best fit into in their club, and then let you know when a spot opens up - with 1 being the slowest, and 8 being the fastest I got put into lane 4. I'm perfectly happy with that, I've always been a middle of the pack type, and it leaves a lot of room to get better too! Here's hoping for a spot in lane 4 soon now!

Ian and I have registered for another race this summer - it's the first Toronto Great Urban Race. You register as a team, and then the race consists of the team deciphering local clues, getting items off the list, taking photos of specific things, and generally running around town like mad fools - seems somehow appropriate for us! The top 25 finishers get invites to the championship Great Urban Race - in Vegas... I've walked Vegas - it's a lot larger than it looks... but how much fun!

My first race of the season is coming up this weekend - Harry's Spring Run Off. It's an 8K race around High Park, so nice and local, and also my longest road race to date. The weather forecast is boding well - they're even talking about 20C for Saturday, which will suit me just fine! I also know a lot of people doing this race, which should be fun - they'll all be passing me, but I'll still wave and smile as they go past!

What do I really need?

I've got a group going on Facebook for folks I'm encouraging to take part in the Toronto Island Try-a-tri with me this year. This was the first triathlon I ever took part in, and for the people in the group it's their first triathlon also. (Do feel free to join the group even if you're not going to do the race, but want some training encouragement none the less!). I posted an article up there a few days ago about the gear you need for doing a triathlon, thinking this may help out a few people to start thinking about what they've got, and what they may need to invest in before August. After reading a blog post from one of my committed followers (committed meaning I know she's registered for the race already!) I figured it may be useful to the others doing their first try-a-tri to know what you don't actually need to stress about!

As this race was my first triathlon, and I didn't know anyone else who'd actually done one of these races last year all my knowledge gathering and learning was online. I was so stressed about the transitions I'd play them over in my head over and over when I should have been sleeping. I spent hours on Youtube watching videos of other triathletes doing transitions, and what they were wearing and why. I spent hours in running shoe stores figuring out what was the best for me - and then spent weeks touring every running shop in the local area looking for elastic no-tie laces because that's what all the triathlon websites told me I needed... Oh, and the bike, I knew I wasn't going to spend a fortune, so make that another few hours, who am I kidding, weeks on Craigslist looking for something better than my pretty bike with a basket that I used to get groceries!

In the end none of that mattered. For the length of the this race you could wear your swimsuit for the entire race - or just pull on a pair of quick-drying shorts after the swim if you need to. The bike ride itself is only 10K - it's over in no time flat. You don't need padded bike shorts for 10K, nor do you need clip pedals. There were many people out there last year on their mountain bikes with knobbly tires - yes they were slower, but they were still getting it done! I was there on my $20 garage sale special 1980's road bike and running shoes and it all worked out just fine. Heck, I was passing folks on much nicer bikes than mine!

And well, the run - it's 2.5K. I decided 2 months before this race that I was going to do it, and the only running I'd done leading up to that was a few interval workouts on the treadmill at the gym - and I hated them. I was still 50lbs over my goal weight when I did this race, and I still got it done. I was running with a woman for a bit who looked significantly fitter than I was at the time, at the end of my second loop on the run course I was surprised to see her loop back again - this woman who was outwardly fitter than me was half of the run course behind me.

The real list of what you need is:
Goggles
Swim Suit
Running Shoes (& socks if you need)
Bike
Bike Helmet (They won't let you race without one)
Towel (somewhere to put your stuff, and dry your feet after the swim)
Water Bottle w/ water - even then, water and energy drinks are available on the run course, I just kept mine on my bike and only used it in transition.

race belt (it's a bit of elastic that your race number attaches to - round the back for the bike, and swing it round the front for the run - much easier than safety pins on the t-shirt!)

That's it... The race gives you a swim cap, so you don't even have to worry about that. You can add sunglasses into that list if you want - I used them more as bug-out-of-the-eyes protection than for the sun. Even a cap for the run isn't too necessary - it's an early morning race, and the sun isn't anywhere near overhead by the time we're running.

I stressed way too much about all this last year, but then again the first race is a bit daunting. I completed in just under an hour last year - and I know I can better than this year - but it's good to remember that this is a try-a-tri, not an Ironman - it's designed for first timers new to the sport. Everyone putting on this event wants you to enjoy yourself out there, and not get stressed about it - even other competitors on the course are really encouraging. I've done several road races since this, and by far the best experience was this try-a-tri for it's organization, support, and general camaraderie. This race was the impetus for me being signed up to do 4 more triathlons this summer, and many more in the future I'm sure!

It's merely a flesh wound...

So I got my bike fitting today. We've gone with a relaxed fit for the moment, until I get used to the bike and need a more aggressive fit for more power - and I'm just fine with that! I knew I had to get some running in today also, so seeing as the gym was around the corner from the bike shop I went and did a few intervals on the treadmill (which actually went really well) and then ventured out for a first go on the bike.

We went through how to get into and out of clip pedals in the store - of course this isn't a big deal when your bike is stabilized for you - this task gets a bit more daunting when you're out there on your own steam! I decided to play it safe getting onto the bike, and walked into a park in the residential area to get on the bike - amazing this all went well with no issues at all. It's quite a hilly area and I was amazed at how easy it was to just push through the hills - getting power on the pull as well as the push is a novel concept for me! So probably a bit full of joy at this realization I figured I'd ride home from here - only catch being that there was a major road between me and my quiet road home. I knew the theory of pushing out to the side to release the clip, and had done it on a stable bike in the shop, but not in practice yet... didn't help that the first time doing this is at the intersection of the major road at the top of a hill, so I wasn't able to coast into my stop - you can see what's coming here can't you...

Thankfully only one person saw this happen and was kind enough to ask if I was ok, rather than just stand there laughing at the whole situation. I landed palm first, so a bit of road rash on the palm, and a bit achy through the arm now (I know, not the smartest way to land either...) but apart from a bit of scratching on the side of the pedal the bike is unscathed (Huge sigh of relief there!), and I'll keep playing over the voice of the bike shop guy, that everyone falls their first time using clip pedals.... if you tell me you didn't I'll simply assume you're lying to make myself feel better!

It didn't discourage me enough to stop me getting back on again though - on the other side of the road of course! The ride home was easy, and with a down-hill coming to my house I was able to think a bit more clearly for this second un-clipping, and it went off without a hitch this time.

So, now I'm all learned in the ways of falling and not falling off a bike... oh boy, I'm never going to hear the end of this from Ian, my husband - he still hasn't let me forget falling off my bike coming out of the bike transition in last year's triathlon.... maybe there's hope yet for him to be kind! (Not likely - I know what I'd do if I were him!) :-)

Bike!!!!

So I went to the Spring Bike show this past weekend - never have I been so overwhelmed by so much terminology I had no clue about - I'm used to lots of acronyms and tech talk from working in the IT field, but obviously I have a lot to learn about the bike field - if I want to of course! Anyhow, mission was accomplished!

I'm now the proud, excited, pleased, happy, delighted, gratified, thrilled owner of a Louis Garneau Axis 4.0 (perhaps didn't know where to stop with the adjectives there, but that's just how excited I am!). As you can see from my photo it's missing pedals at the moment - which given how gorgeous our weather has been at the moment is quite frustrating - but with any luck I should be getting it fitted for me tomorrow. From all the bike shops that showed up, I in fact ended up buying it from the vendor whose store is at the top of the road from where I live - about a 5 minute walk from me. Makes getting fitted and tune-ups mighty handy!

I also sat down on Tuesday this week and started laying out my training plan for the June 26th triathlon - turns out I should have started training on the Monday before I laid out my plan... ah... and then to add insult on top of that, today was a planned swim, so checked the online schedule for my local pool that indicated they were open from 8:30-9:30 this evening - got there on the dot of 8:30 to be told they've changed the schedule for this month and lane swim actually started at 6:30 and finished at 8:30. *sigh*

I do have some glimmer of hope on the swimming horizon though - I've got an assessment swim lined up for the end of this month with EOMAC - the Etobicoke masters swimming club. It's not a guarantee that there'll be a space in the lane that I'm most suited to with them, but it's a chance at least, and that's a whole lot closer than I'd been getting previously!

At the same time at the end of this month the ridiculously early Wednesday morning running group starts up again. It's always hard getting up when the alarm goes off at 5:15am, but the group is good, and the run pushes me a lot. So, painful, yes, but satisfying all at the same time.

So in summary: swim = hopeful, bike = happy, run = devastatingly early, but satisfying

Traveling, Training & Sustenance

(Yeah, you try finding a word that means food or eating that starts with a "T" - it would have been such a better title though...)

So I'm traveling for my job at the moment, and will be heading down to Florida at the end of the month for a bit of vacation time. At the same time I'm trying to keep up with all my regular training. I'm in Montréal at the moment, and while the hotel I'm in doesn't have it's own gym, they're right next door to a Gold's Gym that they have a deal with. You buy your day pass, and then you're in for any of their classes and using the gym. They have a full spinning studio, yoga room, cardio/step room, a cardio theatre (room full of eliptical and treadmills, dim lights and a huge screen they project movies onto), more cardio machines than I've probably ever seen before, and a full weights area also. They have a "Women's gym" also which made me laugh - it's a tiny cramped area with a couple treadmills, and a very limited amount of light weights... I suppose it's somewhere to start! It's seriously the sort of place that you could get lost in it's so huge. After a bit of cardio on Sunday, I had a weights session scheduled for Monday, but thought I'd throw in a spinning class before that as a warm-up - especially seeing as it was all in the price of the day pass! It may have been the most surreal spinning class I've ever experienced. To start with there must have been about 50 spin bikes in the room - and it was full. The instructor caught me on the way in to make sure this wasn't my first class ever, and then we were off. I knew I was in for trouble when the music started up - apparently this was the "latest" from Miami... the only way I could best describe it was as jungle beat house music, and it was loud! Instructor dude then yells something unintelligible in French (I presume!), and a number of other class members whoop and yell back at him... huh... The instructor had more energy than anyone I've ever seen on a spin bike - seriously, he was pushing so hard he was constantly pushing himself out of the saddle! Lots of really long hard sets, with more unintelligible French - I managed to catch a few countdowns which I can confirm were in french in there we got the first "break" half way through the class. Apparently instructor dude wasn't impressed with the "latest from Miami" and wanted to go back to his music... I'm not sure I entirely noticed the difference.... a bit more yelling from instructor and we're off again - he waves to a girl in the corner by the light switch, she kills the lights in the room, and in the wall behind him is another switch for his multicoloured disco lights... so to recap, 50 people spinning like mad in a darkened room, disco lighting, crazy jungle club beat and over-energized instructor shouting random instructions in French.... yeah, that was some class... After that the weights session was completely uneventful!

So I'll be making use of the classes and the gym here over the next week I'm here in Montréal, back home for a bit, then off for a bit of sun. Only a couple of the places we're staying on our roadtrip down to and around Florida have gyms in them, so it'll be improvisation outside - which I'm actually rather looking forward to - honestly how can running on the beach in the sun be bad! Yeah, you can envy me now ;-)

One of the hardest things I find with traveling is dealing with my diet. I try to find places to stay that have kitchenettes, but no such luck on this trip, so it's a week of educated choices! Even without a fridge I still manage to stock up on bits and pieces for in the room, and snacks while I'm working - things like fruit, raw unsalted nuts, and bottled water. Dinner is always the meal that causes me most issues though, I've done ok so far in discovering the "Delicious Alternatives" menu from Boston Pizza, and a create-your-own meal off a pick and mix menu in an Asian kitchen. It's more the temptation of the not so smart choices staring me in the face on each of these menus that threaten me - will power is winning so far though - that and the fear of wearing a swimsuit on the beach in less than a month!

Huh, swim different....

So, first swim last night since August. I slacked off with the whole City of Toronto strike, and then started focusing more on my running for all the road races I was doing. Given that my first triathlon of the season kicks off in 5 months I figured it was time to get in the water again! The pool at the Swansea community centre (which is attached to the Swansea public school if that gives you any insight on size and quality here) was actually reasonably empty. The fast lane had 4-5 people in it, which was completely acceptable for me, we were all about the same sort of pace also which helped. The slow lane emptied out early and apparently I was the only one who noticed, so got an entire lane to myself for the last 15 minutes of the swim. It would appear that anyone who made a New Year's resolution to swim wasn't there last night, or has given up on their resolution already - the lifeguards looked very bored - one of them took to singing while watching us all swim back and forth... What I did notice on this swim though was that with the changes in my body composition swimming is different. The obvious change is a lack of buoyancy - my legs were falling... what's this, I have to kick?! You're kidding right!? I'm noticing my strength in my pull as well though, so I suppose it all evens out in the end! Either way it was still a good swim, but I still don't find swimming to be a high cardio exercise for me - even on the 50m sprints I threw in at the end of the swim my heart rate was only getting up to about 70% of it's peak. It's good to know though, as it should mean I'm potentially a bit fresher getting out of the water for the bike on a race... theoretically... we'll see!

I had my personal training session this morning also - lots of work on dead lifts... so every muscle in my body has given up working for the rest of the day now! I do have a brag though - our gym runs a challenge of the week and posts the results for everyone. I did this week's challenge right at the end of my session - yes, after all those dead lifts, and a whole routine of boxing drills. The challenge was a standing jump for height (then calculated out based on your height and body weight), then followed by a 500m row for time. My jump was ok - we all know I don't do up in any way shape or form, but here's the brag - I smacked the 500m row! My session is right at the end of the week, so pretty much everyone else has gone before me - the best time so far this week was 1:58 - I did 1:53. Pretty damn pleased with that - I don't think I've ever won a weekly challenge... too bad there's no prize!

Busy Busy!

So, first, update on the fitness test from last Friday - body composition is good, strength is less than good... The 12 minute run improved marginally, but I know last time I did it I was dying at the end, and this time felt a bit better - so I'm calling that an accomplishment, oh, and I ran further of course! My training program is focusing a lot more on strength now so I'm not so worried about the strength numbers being a bit sucky this go round, however, on the body composition yet more body fat lost - so much so that I'm now at 25% body fat. Yes, 25% - something about me is finally in the "normal" range! Considering it started this time last year at "obese", we meandered through "overweight", and finally here we are "normal". Stunning!

I've pretty much given up on finding a masters club to swim with - I'm going to have to set a calendar reminder to do this search all over again in August when apparently all clubs start up, and then they stay full for the entire year! So, back I go to the tiny pool around the corner... tonight in fact... their lane swim is thankfully quite late at night, which works well for me after dinner.

Last weekend we spent our time up at Touchstone Resort on Muskoka lake. If you're looking for somewhere quite luxurious to get away for a weekend I'd highly recommend it. Nice staff, has a spa, good gym onsite, good upscale restaurant onsite, some gorgeous views, and the actual accommodations are phenomenal. Full kitchens in each suite, including espresso makers, and half of their units are dog friendly.

Tomorrow is Fitness Test Day!

This time last year I was just starting at the gym, and one of the first thing we did was a fitness test... 12 minute run, push-ups, plank, weight limits etc.... Also included is weight, measurements and body fat composition though. Always a fun event! Of course they happen quarterly, but this is the one that'll show what I've managed to accomplish in a year. Results tomorrow!


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So much for that...

Apparently it's too hard to put on a website that your Masters swim club only accepts new members in August, oh, and your club is currently full, oh and there's already a waiting list... great... thanks for that... next...

Least the running intervals were good today!

Oooh, that's a full summer...

I've just done all my registrations for my summer races... after a hit to the credit card, this is what's on the list.

April 3 - Harry's Spring Run Off - 8K

May 2 - Sporting Life - 10K

June 26 - Welland Triathlon - 750m, 30K, 7.5K

July 31 - Ottawa Sprint Triathlon - 500m, 20K, 5K

August 14 - Toronto Island Try-a-Tri - 450m, 10K, 2.5K

September 11 - Wasaga Olympic Triathlon - 1500m, 40K, 10K

September 26 - Scotiabank Waterfront 1/2 Marathon

I know I'm definitely pushing myself here, but that's what it's all about isn't it - no point in taking the easy route! Although, 4 tri's in a summer - really ought to think a bit more about this whole new bike thing... oh, poor old credit card... No one warned me being fit could be so expensive!

I may have finally found a masters swim club close by that swims at decent times of the day - with any luck I should be in the pool this evening - I'm prepared for it to be painful, it's been a good 15 years or so since I had a coach pushing me with a swim... Oh, and it's interval running day today... short but painful!

Resolution Run & Resolutions

I've updated the Sugoi Brand Champion blog today with my Resolution Run 5K results, and my resolution/goals for the upcoming year. You can read it here - All that was, and all that will be

Happy New Year to all of you, and good luck with attaining your resolutions and goals for the year!