A year in review

Well, this has been a great year and a sad year rolled in to one.

I did my first season of triathlon and duathlon and had a great time. I improved my Half Marathon time by about seven minutes, but I also lost a friend and a mentor (see the post below).

Hopefully next year will only bring positive things, then again you have to experience sorrow to know what true joy is - we were not meant to be happy all of the time and we cannot know ahead of time what the futre will bring.

One thing that I do know, I can't wait to see what next year brings! We are starting the year off right, with a family trip away from the snow and cold. Sipping a strawberry daquiri on a beach in the middle of January is the best...

Merry Christmas,

eme

PB baby!

Woohoo!

I did the Treherne Half Marathon last Sunday and I managed a 5 second PB. I am very happy with this, as Treherne is a very hilly course and my previous PB was at Manitoba (read flat) - I am going for broke and trying to PB again at the Winkler Half on Thanksgiving weekend. It should be fun, Maniacs will be there!

eme

A sad day in our running community

Yesterday, while running a Half Marathon a friend and mentor of mine collapsed and died.

Barry was a great guy and will be sorrily missed.

I spoke to him just prior to the start of his race and wished him a good run.

I ran the 5 km event that started after the Half Marathon and I managed to PB by about five minutes - I know that Barry would have been happy for me, as he always asked how my running was going and how my last race went.

It still doesn't seem real, but I know that he died doing what he loved and with friends at his side - hopefully this is the way that we all will go.

Rest in Peace.

eme

Do you know where my mojo has gone?

Okay, two weeks of holidays has officially killed my training plan.

I am actually looking forward to going back to work, in order to get back to the gym and training.

While being off has been nice, I slept in way too much and ate too much crap!

Back on track next week...

eme

Morden Appleman Tri

Thanks to my dear sweet hubby, who got out of bed at 5:00 am to drive me to Morden - I arrived with plenty of time to spare this morning. I must admit, it was kind of nice. That and having my very own gear sherpa was cool too!

Today's race was the one that I have been gearing up for since early May and I am proud to report that I successfully completed my race! This race consisted of a 950m swim, 30 km bike and a 10.5 km run. I decided for this race that I was going to seriously up my nutrition on the race course. I ended up having a gel about 15 minutes before the swim, one in T1, one on the bike and on the run. This may have been a bit of over kill, but I didn't want to risk bonking and it seemed to work well for me. At long last, I finally have photographic evidence of me in a wetsuit!



The swim itself went pretty well - I am by no means a fast swimmer and I am still fairly new to the whole open water thing but I did manage to swim front crawl for part of the race and I only went on my back once (due to a side stitch). My swim actually went a lot better than I thought it would. This was my longest open water swim ever - so I didn't know what to expect.

After the swim, I headed to T1 to get ready for the bike. Had my gel, some fluid, got the socks, shoes, gloves and helmet on and I was off! The bike course was an out and back down a highway. The out portion seemed like never ending rolling hills that only went up, with a headwind...luckily, the back portion was much more down hill and provided a bit of a tail wind - I had a bit of fun on the down hills. Back to transition to get ready for the run.

A quick stop, as I was not changing shoes (toe cages for the bike), grab a hat, ditch the gloves and off I go again. I have to say one thing about Tris, you are tired by the time that you get to the run - your legs are used to cycling and your head starts playing with you. I had never realized how hilly Morden is (it's only about an hour or so away from Winnipeg). The run course went from the race site, through a park area with an interesting gates setup for a really steep down hill portion (kind of like switch back gates, to stop people from riding their bikes down - more on those later) through a golf course (asphalt path) in to the residential areas of Morden. It was a very pretty course, but I wasn't paying much attention - I just wanted to see the turn around point. I had a bit of a problem getting in to a rhythm for the run during the first few kms, my legs just felt kind of dead. I had a gel at about 3 km and that seemed to help things. I managed to mostly run between aid stations (very well stocked aid stations). During the course of the run, I found out that ice is my new best friend (stuck it under my hat), as it was getting pretty hot out. I managed to make it back towards the finish line, but first I had to go up the now uphill with switch back gates - running up the hill was not an option, I could barely walk up it, that is how steep it was!

Finally, with the end in sight I had to try to fight off a rival (didn't realize that she was behind me until it was too late) DH manage to get a picture of me just before I crossed the finish line: I received my medal and I was done!

Official stats: 12/13 (age group) Total time: 3:05:35 Swim: 30:09 Bike: 1:19:11 Run: 1:16:16 I have to say that this was a great race. For $40.00, I got a technical t-shirt, race number belt, a well organized race, very well stocked aid stations (Gatorade, water, ice, GU gels, some had pretzels), a free BBQ bison burger, chips and pop at the end of the race, in addition to the usual post race food. I am definitely coming back next year!

eme

Another one done - one more to go!

What is it with me and getting to triathlons just barely in time? No sleeping in this time – I was just directionally challenged on my way to the race. I forgot which highway out of the city I was supposed to be on (I went out Pembina, Hwy 75 instead of Lagimodiere, Hwy 59). Luckily, I realized what I had done in pretty short order). Needless to say, a few speed limits were bent getting to the race once I realized my mistake. I got to race check-in just in time and managed to get all my stuff put in to the transition area, but they started the race briefing early and I missed most of it (got the info from some other racers that I know from the RR). Found out that wetsuits were not allowed (water was 22.5°C) . After this, I found Karen (KBO) and Lisa (NewFinnLoper) – yippee, Maniacs to cheer for me! Got a few pictures prior to the swim start.

Got in to the water and thankfully, it wasn’t too cold feeling. The swim was much longer than I have done in open water, but I was happy that I did not panic. My goggles leaked in the first couple of strokes, so I had to keep my face out of the water most of the swim – or I would have big time issues seeing anything at all. There had been some movement of the buoys and it turns out the swim course was short – 665m instead of then normal 750m, but who am I to complain ? I was never so happy to see dry land before! Swim time 22:35 – dead last but I don’t care! Ian (clocker) arrived just after I started the swim and got some shots of me leaving the water.

Some more pictures coming out of the water and I was off to T1. I took a little longer in T1, as I wanted to make sure that I got a gel down and some fluid in me – the temperature was starting to warm up and I wanted to avoid any problems. The bike went well and I managed to pass a decent number of people (even people on road bikes!). Bike time 51:18.

Manage to be much quicker in T2 than I was in T1 and off I went on what felt like the longest 5 km run of my life – I thought that the turn around point would never appear. Actually, it was a very nice run course – a mix of asphalt and gravel, with lots of shade. I was getting pretty tired at this point (I should have taken a gel on the bike) and I took a few walk breaks but I managed to finish the run in 33:23.

Total time: 1:47:17 16th out of 18 in my age group. Not dead last, so I figure it was a good day! Ian kept my company during the prize draws and we had a great chat – he still had the camera out!

Thanks again to my Maniac cheering squad - you absolutely made my day! Next up – Morden Appleman – 950m swim, 30 km bike and 10.5 km run (and from what I have been told, wetsuits should be allowed – fingers crossed!)

eme

Up next...

Well, I have signed up for another Try a Tri in preparation for Morden.

I am going to do the St. Malo event next weekend. I have already registered on-line, so no panic issues like last race ;)

It is another 300m swim, 15km bike and 3 km run - so a little more on the bike and run - which I think is a nice build up to Morden, slow and steady.

I would like to see an improvement in my swim time, so that being said I hit Pan Am today and swam a really good 1000m in the 50m Training Tank. I had forgotten how nice it is to swim in a 50m pool!

Marathon day tomorrow - I am not racing (may fit a short run in early am) but the boy is doing the relay again this year. We'll see how he does, he is too speedy for me!

eme

First Triathlon ever, done!

This morning did not start off well - I managed to set the alarm clock for 5:15 PM by accident last night. Good thing for dogs - I woke up at 6:15, thinking that it was really light out. Jumped out of bed in a panic (Race Day registration closed at 7:15 and I had to drive ~45 km) - good thing that I had set out everything last night.

Since I woke up so late, I wasn't able to wait for DH and son to get up and ready - so no race pics .

I got to the race with time to spare and got registered, body marked (the body marker gave me a compliment on my RM Black Betty). After that, I set up my gear in transition and went to watch the Olympic and Sprint Tri swims (Try a Tri was last). While the Sprint folks were finishing up their swim, I decided it was time to wrestle myself in to my wetsuit - luckily I am starting to get the hang of this, it was much easier and better adjusted this time.

For the swim (300m) - was I ever glad that I brought a wetsuit. The water was COLD, I think that they said it was 17.4°C. I was pretty nervous prior to getting in the water - this was my first open water swim (didn't have a chance to get out earlier). Because the water was so cold, I decided against putting my face in the water when I swam (I didn't want to lose my breath) - so I kind of did freestyle minus putting my face in the water. For next time, I have decided that I need new goggles (mine fogged) and I need to look at getting contacts again - swimming somewhat blind sucks!

T1 went pretty well, no major wetsuit issues, got some Gatorade on board, socks, shoes, helmet, gloves and off I went on Baguette(thanks again Natalie).

The bike went well, an out and back 12 km course - kind of different doing and out and back, but it made sense because the race needed less volunteers that way. The ride was over before I knew it and I passed some people along the way!

T2 went pretty smoothly, I didn't have to change shoes since I was using toe cages and just had to rack the bike, ditch the helmet and gloves.

The run was a little tougher, I was starting to get a bit tired and it was getting hotter out. It was a 2.5 km out and back with and aid station at the middle. I took some water at the aid station and had a walk break while I had a drink.

I finished the race according to my goal - upright and smiling and my whisper goal of not being DFL! My time was 1:01:08 and I was 6/8 for female Try a Tri. Here are my official stats:

(6) eme Total 01:01:08 Swim 00:10:18 (8 ) Bike 00:34:54 (4) Swim+Bike 00:45:12 (7) Run 00:15:55 (5) I know that I seriously need to work on my swim (especially open water), but I think that I am hooked :) .

eme

Day two

It's Wednesday and I have managed to get all my workouts in this week (yeah, I know, it's only Wednesday) - but I am tired already and it is only 6:15 pm! I knew that this was going to happen for the first while, especially since I am getting back in the pool.

On top of my workouts, I have homework for a uni course and this current assignment is driving me nuts (can't stand the required reading) - I'll just keep plodding along, at least the rest of the assignments look interesting.

Off to the pool and a run again tomorrow - is it the weekend yet?

eme

Time to get accountable

Well, I have taken the leap and started a blog.

I want to focus my training (running and multi-sport) and I figured that if I start blogging my progress it can't hurt!

My goals for racing this year are a couple of Tri's and a Half Marathon (depending on how the knee holds up!).

Here is hoping that I can manage to keep this fairly up to date!

eme