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.