Goodbye August

With tomorrow being the first of September I thought that I should post a little update about my season so far and my fall plans. August had two races for me, the SRI at the beginning of the month and the Kelowna Apple two weeks later in mid-August. The SRI was my break-through in my 10km run- I finally nailed the 45min mark... right on the dot to be exact! I am so happy that I have finally been able to reach that goal, as it has been nagging me for years to reach that point! With each race this season my 10k time has dropped bit by bit, which is great considering I am STILL having foot issues! When I raced Kelowna 2 weeks later my time was still 45:xx so I am happy to say that it was not a fluke!

More on breakthroughs, Kelowna was my breakthrough race this season! The swim was non-wetsuit and my first time ever swimming in a draft pack. Myself and three other girls broke away and swam in a pace line for the entire 1500m swim... it was awesome! I've never had so much fun during the swim! On to the bike I told myself to keep up to another Victoria local and not let her out of my site for the entire ride. I rode hard and hoped that my legs would have something in them for the run. Luckily they did and my run felt pretty good. Finishing 6min faster than the previous time I raced kelowna, I am very pleased with my performance. 

Now I am just finishing my last week of work and cutting back to Saturday morning shifts only until the end of October. I loved my job and fabulous co-workers this summer, but the early mornings and long hours definitely put a dent into my vigor for training. I've never been so exhausted in my life! I am really looking forward to balancing training with school work, and slightly more sleep than just 5hrs a night! I am in a hard block of training as I am gearing up for my first 70.3 race down in Grand Coulee, WA at the end of September. I am pretty nervous, but trying to keep an open mind and just wait and see what my body can do come race day! 

Time to start my day (I've already been up since 4am for work) and head into a long ride/brick and swim! Happy training and thanks for reading!

race report on race report

Since I fell off the blogging train here is a quick little race recap of both the Subaru Victoria and Vancouver races!

Victoria Olympic
The Victoria race was back in June, held in the beautiful venue of Elk lake. The lake was perfect- minus the nasty tasting water. The swim was a 1 loop 1500m course. Once again in T1 I had trouble with my wetsuit... a 2min transition is a bit on the long end. Looks like I'll be spending a large amount of time practicing getting that thing off! The bike course for Victoria was on a familiar route along W. Saanich and out towards the airport. Plenty of hills to go around for everyone made for a challenging ride, and my legs were certainly feeling them. About halfway through the 45km course my legs felt dead... no power and all I wanted to do was to get off my bike. Thinking that my dead legs would carry over to the run, I was happy when I started on the elk lake trail and my legs felt strong! The run was good and I focused on keeping a steady pace while slowly picking people to hunt down and pass. Overall I was happy with the race and felt that it was another solid addition to the season. For full results see here!

Vancouver Olympic
A more recent race, the Subaru Vancouver event was last weekend. A true Olympic distance of 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run, I wanted to use this race to see how much improvement I had since my last competitive olympic distance race at the Kelowna Apple in 2011. The swim was a 2 loop ocean course at Jericho Beach. I had my first beach start, which was a fun experience! The beginning of the swim was hectic as per usual and I received a few kicks to the face, but luckily my goggles stayed put! Near the end of the 1st lap I got a headache (probably from drinking half the ocean) and it just wouldn't leave me. Exiting the water at the end of the swim I had the lovely sensation of wanting to spew my guts... obviously I need to work on not drinking so much of the water I am swimming in! I attempted sitting down in T1 to take my wetsuit off- slightly faster and less hopping around like an idiot were all that resulted from sit-down take-off. More practice for sure! The bike course was awesome! Only one hill up to UBC made for a super-quick 40km ride. Off onto the run my legs were feeling fresh, but my stomach and head were not in the game. As soon as I stood up to run it was cramps galore. Flat bits of the course were ok, but any slight downhill made for one unhappy girl. After 5km things finally felt better and I was able to run without holding my sides. I ran next to another woman for the last 3km and it was so motivational to have someone to run with! That extra amount of competition made the tail end of the race fly by! Finishing in 2hr21min this has been my best olympic distance race to date! I am happy with my performance and now am eager to go LONG! 70.3 in September here I come!!
Post-race was spent eating the most amazing sushi and touring metrotown for some well deserved shopping. For full race results click here.

Thanks to coach Noa for helping me have a successful season, my supportive friends and family, and of course CEP Canada for helping me look awesome while I recover!

Up next- the SRI in victoria! Happy training everyone!

Recover in style!

Where's my bike?! 

Perfect race venue

Starting the run in Vancouver

Travel partner & supporter extraordinaire Sean

My fave restaurant!

Shawnigan Lake RR

Being back into the swing of things, I thought that I should put together a small race report of Shawnigan Lake triathlon from this past weekend. This was my first olympic distance race of the year, and of course my nerves were sky high. Having not properly practiced transitions or the flying mount with shoes already clipped onto the bike, I was just hoping for a solid race overall. And I think that is what I got. Also, a plus- Sunday was my 21st birthday... so a little bit of birthday luck helped me out!

Swim 1500m: 23:32

The water was not nearly as cold as I had anticipated! A nice and comfortable 17 degrees C. The course was a clockwise two loop layout. All of the olympic participants started out together, but I found that this start was not nearly as crazy as some of my previous races. I felt strong on the swim and I think that in the future I can definitely push it harder out there. Overall I am super pleased with my swim time, as it is 40s off of my fastest from my last year of racing.

T1:

I couldn't get my wetsuit off quicky....

Bike 44km: 1hr20

The bike course was a 2 loop course around Shawnigan Lake. It was hilly, but nothing too difficult as most hills ended up as rollers. I felt strong on the bike, even though the cold was making me feel a bit sluggish near the end. My only complaint was the lack of control for the motor vehicle traffic let on course... with the sprint racers out on the course it became very congested and cars were stuck behind cyclists while impeding faster riders wanting to pass the car and slower riders. Maybe next year one lane of traffic could be closed to help alleviate this problem.

T2:

Faster than T1 luckily!

Run 10km: 47:11

I had been a bit nervous for the run, as I now have two neuroma's in my R. and L. feet... and they are aggravated by running off of pavement. The course was a flat-ish out and back along the Trans Canada Trail. Luckily the trail was flat and solid enough that I had zero foot pain! The run felt alright, but I know I was dragging my butt somewhere between 5-8km. In the end my time is a faster time that was I usually run at the end of a triathlon, so I am happy seeing some improvement there!

Post race: Celebrate birthday with my wonderful friends and family!!

Overall I am happy with this as my first race of the season. I know that there is a great deal of room for improvement throughout this season and I am looking forward to seeing how the summer months unfold.

 Nina, Danyel and I

 Last stretch 

 Mum and I

21st celebrations

'Hot dive into frozen waves'

Figured I would post another quick update on what has been happening as of late... the point of having a blog is to post and write down snippets of things I find relevant and interesting- so why not post?!

Lately (more like for the past 18 months) I've been having some second thoughts about my future as a medical student and ultimately a surgeon. It's not that I don't want to pursue that career path, as it would be one of my dream jobs, but it is reality that has got me thinking of plan B, C, D and maybe all the way to plan Z. My current grades are not going to cut it for med. school. It's a pretty simple fact and one that I need to face. I chose to study biochem/micro at UVIC because I didn't want to enter the kinesiology program as it was not geared enough towards medicine and science. Instead I chose biochem, thinking of it as a tie over until I got into medicine. I never wanted or envisioned myself with a career in that field, so finally, I've decided to get out of it and switch into something that I have passion for! Starting this summer I will be taking some philosophy courses (and maybe even a class on the history of vampires!!!) and preparing myself to write the LSAT and apply to Law school. I'm excited to take some courses in which I can have an opinion and some creative handle to my work. It's been a long 3.5 years of straight sciences. So I am taking a 'hot dive into frozen waves' and trying something new, hopefully finding something that will make me a happier person in my academic life.

On the training side of things everything has been going well! I raced the Bazan Bay 'world championships' 5km this past weekend. Results here. Overall, I am satisfied with my result because it is 30s faster than last year... but I am frustrated that I still can't get that elusive 20min mark yet. Time, patience and hard work will eventually get me there, and in the mean time that's all I can focus on. Having goals and benchmarks are some of my great motivational tools. Speaking of goals, I have decided that I want to make the BC Swimming 'A' 800m freestyle standard. It is slightly faster than the TriBC provincial elite standard of 11:45 for an 800m in SC, at 11:38 in a long course pool. If I am going for one benchmark, I might as well try and push for the next! Not that I plan on doing anything with the BC swim standard, I just think that it is a good goal to have... maybe then I can officially believe that I am a swimmer, not someone who jumped in the pool 3 years ago and started swimming!

With that, I should probably go get ready for a ride in the bike cave. I'll leave you with a song that's been stuck in my head for weeks

CEP Canada

Big shout out and many thanks to CEP Canada for selecting me to be part of a great team of talented athletes for the 2013 season. I am honoured to have my name up there with some of Canada's best athletes! Check out who's who here. I started using CEP compression back in 2010 when running with SFU. My physio noticed some adema in my lower legs and suggested that I try compression... it also helped that every other girl in the distance squad also wore compression socks. I figured that if I was going to wear knee high socks and pair them with shorts then they had better be some awesome looking socks... go big or go home right?! I found my CEPs at a great running store in Spokane, WA- Runner's Sole. My calves were measured and I decided to pick out the hottest of hot pink socks possible. I've used those socks ever since, and I can definitely say I have noticed a difference in leg freshness after workouts and recovery time! After three years it is far past due to get myself a new pair... I'm thinking the neon green this time! CEP also offers more than just socks, and you can head on over to their website and do some shopping: http://cepcompression.ca/.

That's my big announcement for February! Thanks CEP Canada- looking forward to a stellar racing season!

I can't think of a witty title for this post

Seeing that it is already mid- January, I'd like to post about goals. No, I am not the New Years Resolution type. Frankly, I think that the concept of making resolutions for the New Year is dumb. Why do we need a specific day to make resolutions (that most of us hardly keep) for an entire year? Shouldn't we take each day to look for ways to better ourselves, and set smaller, more realistic and attainable goals that we can accomplish everyday? At least, that's what I think... I try and use each day to better myself. But to be truly honest, this really only happens in my training. Making each swim stroke better than the last (seeing videos of my wonky hand/arm position has really helped this) and focusing on keeping stable running and bike forms are just some of the thoughts that go through my head when I am training. Sometimes it gets frustrating when I can't find a quick fix to the problem. For example, my b-e-a-u-tiful run form and my shoulder/arm/hand position in swimming, when I see videos of my form and the obvious problems I get a bit mad at myself that I can't suddenly change the problem. Luckily, I am working with my awesome chiropractor and coach, and we are taking the slow but sure road of fixing these form issues. Already I feel as though my running is in a better place and things like hill repeats are now starting to get a bit better because I have developed some strength in areas like my hips/glutes to help me through. I am happy to spend my 20min a day to go through my hip series and back exercises because I know that it is helping me become a better athlete. When I first started the hip series in November I could barely get through 5 repetitions of each movement before my legs were shaking uncontrollably... now I'm up to 10 reps of each!

Going back to what I wrote earlier about goals and resolutions, yes I do have them- but they are more like a set of goals that I have had for years on end. I am hoping that by the fall of 2013 I will have accomplished my biggest goal of competing in a half ironman. I've always wanted to race longer distances, and I have it stuck in my head that the 70.3 will be the perfect distance for me. I've never had any desire to race ITU or any draft-legal triathlon. I'd much rather ride my cervelo in a non-drafting setting. So, now that I am 20 and a bit more developed of an athlete I've decided that I can safely compete in the 70.3 distance without wrecking havoc on my body. After talking with coach Noa about plans for my upcoming race season, we decided that trying out the distance in the fall would be a wise idea. I will be staying in Victoria for the summer, taking one or two courses, working (if anyone has a job for me, please contact me!!!!) and racing. I am going to race most of the Subaru Tri Series events starting with the Shawnigan Lake Triathlon on my 21st birthday. I'm aiming to have solid races this season and improve over all three disciplines. Another huge goal for me is to stay injury free. After having to sit last summer out due to my neuroma, being sidelined is the last thing I want. I am doing all I can to recover properly after workouts and prevent little nags from becoming huge issues.

Until next time-