What!!?

Is this for real? Can you imagine someone actually thinking this is cool?

You can even take it on SWEET JUMPS! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwUCs0Qf6Mc

When Colin and I first met...

He told me he was "really into wildlife photography" and I can't stop bugging him about that, it always makes me laugh.

But then I came across some of his work, and I think he truly has a gift...



Is that a pigeon? I like the way he framed it with the subtle grass foreground.
Keep it up Colin! Love your work!

UBC tri, well that was interesting...

What an incredibly long day at the UBC tri!

The start of our wave was 12:40pm, so you spend the entire day either preparing for racing, racing then waiting around for awards. I prefer to race first thing in the morning, then you're not worrying about what you eat and when, and you can't really get anything else done.

So the swim went fine, but I thought like always, that I would swim faster that I actually did. I had put down that I would swim 19:00, and of course that was being generous for myself, but I wanted to make sure that I was placed in the first wave, so then it turns out that I had put down the 3rd fastest predicted time! Eeek! I looked at the guys behind me and was scared that they were going to be super fast. But it turned out fine. The guy behind me, passed me in the first 400m, but then he ran out of gas and I passed him back. So I came out of the water 3rd. BUT, then 2 guys ran by me in the run to Transition (we were supposed to be walking on the pool deck ... right that makes sense, ask people who type A triathletes to walk in a race!!) I swam 20min and change, but the Transition was like 500m away from the pool, and that time was added to your swim.

The the bike went really well. I felt good and strong. It was a 4 loop course, we had a good tail wind going south-bound marine dr, which turned into a crazy headwind on the way back. I came off with 1:08, and with lots of hairpin turns to slow you down to almost 0, I am happy with that. Colin biked 5min faster so that's good for me.

Then the run... oh the run... First 5k was great, I split it in low 20min, I had a lot of leg motion-range due to all my stretching. I did start to feel my IT rub, but not too badly. Then around 6k, my stomach took a turn for the worse. Very bad, good thing we were running beside a regional park, and I ducked into some trails and took a d*mp. Yep, I did, I had to! I think the reason this happened is two-fold: 1) the race was so late that you end up eating more throughout the day beforehand 2) dehydrated, didn't drink enough on the bike, barely half a small bottle. I get so focused I forget to drink!

One more thing to mention about the run - it was almost 1k too long. So my 48min run includes a pit-stop and an extra kilometer.

I ended up winning and got $100 gift certificate to a bikeshop. But we had to wait around to 5:30pm for the awards!

Colin came 2nd overall! I am so happy for him. Good training for Ironman. Good job Colin!

Excuses, excuses, excuses

This week, I have been building up in my mind reasons why I won't do the UBC tri (which is today).

Reason 1: I came down with a cold on Monday and felt tired and weak and fighting a fever with a small chest infection ...

Reason 2: My leg of course. My no running in two weeks and I'm scared to flare up my IT band again.

Reason 3 (which is closely linked to both reason 1 & 2): My lack of training this week. Now I know that there is no loss of fitness in such a short break, but mentally I felt badly about skipping my workouts, so in my mind "I blew the race!".

So I have been telling Colin all week that I wasn't going to do it, and I wonder if he knew I would do it all along.

Friday was my worst day, I definitely had a fever for a couple of hours at school , not sure if that is possible but I was shivering, weak, sore everywhere and I basically told the class that it was "Independent Grade Four Day" where they had to work quietly on their own, while I sat and shivered at my desk. They loved it, I pumped it up, like it was "practice for grade 5, where you will have to do your school work more on your own!"

But I woke up Saturday morning and felt way better, almost fine and today even better, pretty much normal except for a chest cough. I went for a bike ride to spin the legs and get the blood flowing in there and then went for a little swim with Colin in the outdoor pool at UBC - nothing like swimming in an outdoor pool in the beautiful sun!

So I'm feeling excited for racing, it'll be fun. And sometimes that's the thing that I forget, it's supposed to be fun.

Flip-flop

So I'm feeling a little better. The early part of this week, I had "quit everything", it's hard to stop running, I miss it a lot. But I want to make sure my leg is really going to get better.

Anyways I skipped swimming on Tuesday, I have been fighting a little cold since the weekend, then I tried to make up that swim in the evening at Killarney pool near my school ... big mistake! It was the worst 1300m of my life, I can't believe I even swam for that long! There were about 30 people crammed into one 25m lane, all of whom didn't know how to swim, and I'm not kidding, literally one guy at one point was drowning, his friend had to pull him to the side.

Then I skipped my Wednesday TT. Why can't I learn that if I don't do in the morning, it won't get done! After school I am wiped, and very hungry, and sometimes grumpy....!

So needless to say, I was in bad spirits. But then I swma Thursday morning, and had the best workout all year, there was a new very speedy girl in our lane, and I had to bust a gut to keep up with her. It was great to have someone to push hard with,she really had us pick up the pace. It makes me realize just how much I dog-it.

Anyways, I am still not certain I will race the UBC on the weekend. I keep waffling. My feelings seems to fly from one extreme to the other: really want to focus and do well, and don't really care anymore. I guess that's the way it is when you're not 100%, it's hard to stay motivated.

All that said I am off to get on my bike.

Sunday - sun run and ride

It was so great to watch the Sun Run. It's amazing how many people go out and do 10k, hopefully some will catch the bug and continue to run for fun and health (or competition ... whatever gets you going!).

So many people I cheered on did so great. There is always the two sides... one side = "I am so excited for you - go, go run fast!" other side = "I am so jealous of you - I want to run fast!". One whole week done without running, one more to go, I was told yesterday I should take three months off! I think two weeks is a good trial. Not sure if doing the UBC tri as my first tester run is the best idea, oh well. I won't be running that fast anyways.

On a better note, yesterday my ride was phenomenal. I always find that if one sport isn't doing too good, the others may be, I have never experienced a time when I was able to say that all three felt "awesome". Yes, even though my Saturday time trial wasn't such a success, my Sunday long ride felt great. Finally getting some power in my legs. Had a super good Cypress climb, just strong and steady. It made me pumped for that Cypress Hill Climb in June.

I will do another time trial this week, I think it sort of kicked me in the butt.

Happy Week!

One week...

Today:

1) Coffee with Rhys - always good times! Good luck tomorrow!

2) 10k time trial - not such a good time ... big wind + hard work = still not fast : (

3) Grade two first communion at my school ... very special time for all!

Tomorrow:

1) Watch and cheer Sun Runners (and make myself feel even worse about not running!!)

2) Long ride and Cypress climb hard, can't wait!

3) Go Canucks Go!

Some funny cycling lingo I came across today

AAA -- "When you need a tow....." The one guy in the group that can pull the rest of the group back home after a very hard training ride.

Aaaarg! Ahab! -- When your riding buy has just abused you by beating you on a sprint, climb or some other prime. Traditional response is "Captains got a wooden leg, (repeated)" (In a high pitch voice, similar to that of a pirate's parrot.) The meaning of the reply is that you have just been beaten souny and are spent and must now acknowledge the beating just administered.

Abdou', Doing an Abdou' -- Crashing while sprinting. (After 1991 final stage of the Tour).

All show and no go -- A not so good rider with a state of the art bike and gear.

Amateur mark -- Grease mark on the leg (like a Cat. 5 tattoo or a sprocket bite.)

animal -- Unhuman rider. Someone who rides up mountains in a 100 inch gear.

ate straw -- Lost the line in a tight corner.

Auld Wart -- (Pronounced: "Owwld Waaaaert.") Referring to the old, tough, wizzened guys who have been going out and doing 150 miles at a constant 8 mph every Sunday for the last 70 years. Believed to have been derived from "Old Stalwart", rather than warts of the carbuncular type!

autobus -- In the big tour mountain stages, the group of poor climbers, who stick together and help each other finish inside the time limit. Also called the gruppetto or the laughing group.

Azurri -- Members of the Italian national squad.

My personal favourite is All Show and No Go... but that may just be because I'm jealous of all their pretty gear!

2 weeks off running

Saturday, I was doing my 1 hour run (this was the long one for me lately, just a couple of 30min then try for about an hour on the weekend), and I had to stop and walk. Usually I start to feel the IT rub in the last 10min or so, and it's not too bad. But this time it was sharp and painful and I know that when you feel the IT rub, it's a bad thing, just stop.

So I have fully accepted that I need to take full rest from running for it to really heal. I will probably take 2 weeks, and just try to go for it at the UBC tri... why not? I was probably never going to run any faster than about 41-42min and with all the time away from intensity and volume, I was probably looking at closer to 43, now with 2 weeks complete rest form running I bet I won't be more than 1min slower. It's amazing how close you can continually be to your best times, but the amount of effort to get that last 1-2% fitness gain is quite substantial.

In all this crap from running, I have actually been feeling really excited. I watched the Vancouver marathon Sunday morning with Colin's dad, and I got the bug. I have that excited feeling you get when you finally know what you want. And I want to run another marathon. I think I will totally get this leg better, by really giving it some good time off and then set my sights on a marathon. I really don't understand why I think that even though I can't run now, I'll be able to train for a marathon in the near future?? Oh well, just gotta go with the gut feeling.

So I'm kinda not into the races I have planned this summer, it sucks enough that I had to pull the plug on my aspirations for a couple of fast 1/2 ironman, and content myself with the ol' Olympic distance. But now I may be throwing in the towel for the Olympic as well. Maybe way of not getting my hopes up, since my running is non-existent, is to just focus on something else, set myself a new goal to look forward to.

Oh well. There's is so much excitement for me coming up ... getting married ... going to Europe ... who can be too bummed about anything!