Look out!

There was a high school cross country meet this past week at Beaver Lake in Victoria BC. There was this amazing little grade 8 kid (not grade 9), 4'11, who blew away the competition. Guess what.... that's my little sister.
http://www.cowichannewsleader.com/sports/176812521.html

Burnt Marshmellow

Hi everyone. I am procrastinating a bit on my school work so will do a blog post. Yesterday was Hallowe'en, and I'm sure it will not surprise you that I did not go to any crazy Hallowe'en party like most people my age. But I did participate in the University of Guelph's Trick or Eat, which was really fun. It is essentially like trick or treating, except instead of collecting candy, you collect food donations for the local food bank. What a great idea!! For me it was a win-win, I got to dress up and go trick or treating with my training buddies, reliving the glory days of childhood, and felt good about myself for doing some good for others in town. I was scrambling at the last minute for a costume, and needed something to keep me warm and dry (with the storm and all), so eventually just put on my huge puffy black winter coat and hung a sign around my neck that said "Burnt Marshmellow". It was the perfect costume.

I'm leaving on a jet plane... but I'll be back for christmas

I am about to start a fresh page in my life in Guelph, Ontario. I have transferred from UVic to the University of Guelph and am very excited about entering the Environmental Sciences program. I will be training with Craig Taylor and the RTC Guelph team, which I am also really looking forward to.
These last 2 weeks after Kelowna, I had some down time and a bit of a summer break, something that I've had the skip the last 2 years racing Junior Worlds. I really enjoyed the time off, and feel rejuvenated (I didn't need to go to the spa, I had to laze around for a few weeks!). Between moving out of my place in Victoria, cleaning everything, and packing, I managed to do a few fun things.
- went out in my Dad's boat with my little sister Desirae for the afternoon, one of my dad's prawn traps was stolen which sucked, but I enjoyed myself!
- went camping in Lake Cowichan for the weekend, went hiking and swimming, and saw a girl that I graduated with that has a baby (a little weird)
- went whale watching with Desirae with a gift certificate that my Mom won in some draw. This was pretty cool, we saw lots of killer whales, sorry Orcas, but it is just about impossible to get good photos. We have a million of the dorsal fin dissappearing into the water.

Tonight, there is a family farewell dinner as both me and my cousin Keiran are leaving tomorrow, and oddly enough, purely by coincidence, on the same flight! He gets off in Calgary, and I have a 3 hour layover there until I fly to Ontario. So for those of you in Victoria, now you know why you don't see me running around Elk lake anymore or swimming at the Commonwealth pool. I will be at my new home in Guelph with my 3 international roommates, two from China and one from Bangladesh. I sense some good cooking in the future!

Kelowna

It's September first... time to catch up a bit on what I've been up to.
The team drove out to Kelowna a week before the race. We stayed together in a rented house right on the lake and about a 5 min bike ride from transition. It was the perfect setup aside from two things... the lack of air conditioning, and the excess of bugs. But the pros still outweighed the cons.
Going up a week early really helped me prepare properly for the race. Given my past experiences in the heat, I knew I needed this acclimatization period. I was also great to practice the new bike course, including the hill. Every time I rode up the hill, I felt more confident and comfortable, erasing some of the stress I was feeling about it (I really didn't want to get dropped!!). My swimming and running were also feeling really good. Smooth, efficient, fast.
On race day I was calm. Woke up at 7 for an 11:30 start time, and did a run warmup early to allow my core temperature to come back down (I jumped in the lake to cool off). The weirdest part about having a later start time is all the waiting. You feel like "It's race day, why aren't we at the race site yet? Why am I lying in bed watching episodes of Modern Family? Why do I have so much time on my hands?". I kind of just want to get the race going and skip all the waiting!
I rolled into transition at 10:15, and had plenty of time to set up transition and do a good swim warmup. 15 minutes before the race I was feeling good, like I had nothing to lose, I was going to put it all out there and just enjoy it... this is my last race of the season, finish it off on a good note. I was not stressing about getting a top five placing to qualify for Worlds, not thinking about who might beat me and who I might beat. That was out of my control. I was simply happy to be there. An awesome feeling before a race.
The two lap swim was not a blistering pace, I felt pretty comfortable the whole way, and tried to always be drafting. Having gone the far left side of the beach to start, when all the top ranked athletes had lined up from the right, I had clear water right from the get go, and then we grouped together at the first buoy. I came out of the water after the second lap right behind Stevie, with Domi right on my heels. I knew Domi was going to bust it to transition so that's what I did too. Smooth transition, seamless mount, and I was off first on the bike, soloing up the hill, then grouping up with the pack at the top. I had been a little anxious about the hill on the first lap, I wasn't sure how it was going to feel or if the pack would really push the pace, so going up the hill ahead of the pack, I knew that even if they went faster than me, I would not be dropped. For the next five laps of the bike, I rode strong up the hills, and just stayed out of trouble for the rest of the loop. Hydration was one of my top priorities, and I finished one bottle every three laps. Along with taking my two gels, everything was going according to plan, no surprises. There was a mini breakaway on lap 5 at the top of the hill with me and the american Battiata. It only lasted a few minutes, but it got the pack moving faster.
I was first into transition with Alison right beside me. I had some trouble getting my bike to stay in the rack, I didn't want it to fall over and for me to get a penalty, so I spent and extra 5-10 seconds getting the wheel to stay. This fiddeling caused me to come out of transition nearer the back of the group. While a few of the girls took off right away, I was patient and ran a smooth comfortable pace the first lap. This paid off as I passed a few after the first kilometer. I ran really smooth for the first 2 laps, and was surprised at how good I felt. Going onto the third lap, I really focused on my pace and technique. I was starting to get fatigued, and starting to feel the heat a bit. Every water station a drank, not just one sip but a few (I think this really helped). When two Americans passed me on the third lap (running a much faster pace than I was), I didn't give them a thought. I knew that if I was going to finish and not repeat Magog (I died on the last lap and dropped out), I needed to wait a bit longer to really push the pace. Once I hit lap 4, it was go time. I picked up my strike rate, stood tall, and finished up strong. I was even smiling when I was running into the finish (not an "oh my god why did I do that" look with your eyes rolling back in your head and spit running down your cheek), much more flattering :).

I finished in 8th place, and was very proud of how I raced. I was smart about conserving energy in the swim and bike, I hydrated well on the run, and I beat the heat! Haha, take that sun! A very good way to finish up your season.

in need of a little ray of sunshine

Feeling a bit down in the dumps today... so thought I would try to cheer up a bit with some good quotes.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle
Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.
Johann Gottfried Von Herder
Men's best successes come after their disappointments.
Henry Ward Beecher
You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.
Author Unknown
Believe with all of your heart that you will do what you were made to do.
Orison Swett Marden
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
Wayne Gretzky
They can because they think they can.
Virgil
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
Thomas Jefferson
The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.
Frank Loyd Wright
The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Everyone has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases.
Jeremy Collier
To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.
William Shakespeare
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
Robert Collier
If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?
Joe Namath
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
Napoleon BonaparteYou are the handicap you must face. You are the one who must choose your place.
James Lane Allen
You are never a loser until you quit trying.
Mike Ditka
Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is.
Vince Lombardi
If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.
Yogi Berra
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
William Shakespeare
Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.
Napoleon Hill
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.
Elbert Hubbard
Our greatest glory consist not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Oliver Goldsmith
Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow.
Doug Firebaugh
No road is too long for him who advances slowly and does not hurry, and no attainment is beyond his reach who equips himself with patience to achieve it.
Jean de La Bruyère Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
Benjamin Franklin
The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.
Seneca

Time to fill in the last few weeks (briefly)

1. Attempt 2 at olympic distance triathlon: Dallas, Texas Continental Cup, extremely hot and surprisingly humid. The race didn't quite turn out as I had hoped. I had a good swim, made the lead pack on the bike, the second pack caught us and the pace picked up. The heat started to get to me on the bike, and I dropped off the pack in the last 2 laps of the bike. I struggled into transition, jogged the first lap of the run, was really overheating and called it a day. Kind of a disappointment. Attempt 2 = fail.
2. Attempt 3: Victoria Triathlon at Elk Lake on June 17. I was excited to do this race, but not nervous as there was no pressure and I was going into it tired, just looking to complete the race and put in a strong effort. The race went surprisingly well. I had a very relaxed and controlled swim, got into a good rythm and pace on the 45 km non drafting bike, and stayed smooth and relaxed on the run. I finished the race with a huge smile on my face and massive blisters on my feet! Attempt 3 = success!
3. 11th FISU University World Championships in Taipei, extremely hot + humid. Redemption for Dallas, this time I was going to beat the heat. Training up to the race I did not feel very good, but on Friday things started to come around, and by race day I was feeling ready to go. My focus was going to be to stay conservative, keep my core temperature down, and finish the race. No one stayed cool for very long as we started the race swimming in 30 degree water. I had a solid swim and came out in the second pack of girls with three girls about 20 seconds in front of us. We came together in a pack of about 10 at the end of the first lap. I stayed with the pack for the whole bike this time despite the pace being a bit faster than I wanted considering the heat. On the first lap of the run I went out at a conservative pace, but then really started the feel the heat on lap 2. Had thoughts of not finishing, but our coach Alan Carlsson and my team mates kept me pushing through. Lap 3 was painfully slow, had to walk at the water stations in order to hydrate. Lap 4, came back a bit, was relieved when I crossed the finish line. I didn't find out that I had placed 24th until the next day... at that point I didn't really care, I was just happy it was over and I had made it through.

So that's about all. Next up, U23 National Championships in Magog, Quebec on July 21. Stay tuned.

Totally exhausted

This weekend I drove up to Penticton with my dad to race the BC Duathlon Championships. It was a good opportunity to gain some fitness for my first triathlon coming up on June 3 in Dallas, Texas. I also figured it would be kind of fun to do something other than a triathlon for a change, and it was good father daughter bonding time :).
We left Friday morning, and arrived in Penticton at about 4 pm that night. It was fun to travel somewhere, even if it was not as far as other ventures I've been on in past years. I'm not sure why, but I really like Penticton. There is something about the Okanagan Lake, and the small town feel that I love.
I raced at 2 pm on Saturday, so had quite a bit of time to kill that morning. At about 9:00 am, I went out on my bike for a little spin and wasn't able to shift out of my big chain ring.... obviously something kind of undesirable on race day. I took my bike in to the local bike shop, the Bike Barn, to get this looked at. The mechanics were really nice (one guy even offered us gingerbread cookies), and in about 20 minutes my bike was good to go, and I was feeling relieved that I wouldn't have to ride 32 km in my big chain ring.
The race consisted of a 5 km run, 32 km bike (nondrafting), and 5 km run. I felt good in the first run, which made it difficult to not go out too hard. I think I paced it pretty well, but it was still a solid effort. The first half of the bike was brutal as we were riding into a pretty powerful headwind. The race wheels I was riding also made it challenging to control my bike as I kept getting blown from side to side. On the plus side, we had an awesome tailwind on the way back to transition and I was really able to motor along. Starting the second run, my legs felt awful... I don't think I have ever felt that drained in a race. Thoughts of not finishing definitely crossed my mind, but then I thought of all the time I had just spent in a car driving up here, the fact that I was the first woman, and that first place won $150 (and a bottle of wine... although for me that wasn't very motivating), and knew that I couldn't just stop when I had less than 20 minutes left in the race. So I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, staying relaxed, and just finishing the race no matter how horrible it felt. I was the first woman to finish in a time of 1:41.
This race was a good learning experience for me, and I'm hoping that the more I race the better I'll be able to handle the longer distance. Next step... add in a 1500 m swim and another 8 km of biking :)
So now I am back home after 7 hours of driving and 2 hours of ferrying, and I am really exhausted. I think I will just continue to lie on the couch....

TC 10 k

I ran the TC 10 k on Sunday, the first time I've run this race and the first 10 k I've done in 2-3 years.... so I was pretty confident I would get a best time. My goal was to have a really good run, pace it well, and finish strong, the result would take care of itself. The course was challenging, with false flats both up and down, but I really liked it and I achieved my goals for this run. I went out strong but conservative in the first 5 km, I had lots of people to run with and really focused on my own pace, trying to ignore what the other 14,999 people were doing! Once I hit the 5 km mark, I picked things up, I wasn't going to play it safe and just worked hard for the second half of the run. Thinking about keeping my form together allowed me to forget about how tired I was or what I was feeling, and just run. I was very happy that I was able to hold everything together right to the end and finished with a time of 38:31. I was really relieved to have a good solid run, as I feel like things have been a bit up and down over the last few months of training, and this was a bit of a confidence boost.

A solid week

After studying 24/7 for exams last week (which inevitably meant doing minimal training), I got back into the swing of things with a solid week of training. It is always a bit of a shock returning to hard training, even after only short breaks. Getting back to hard workouts was frustrating as my body had to remember what this feels like (and it didn't like it at first!), and by the end of the week I was totally exhausted.
On Sunday I entered the Windsor park crit race, my first crit race in about 2 years. I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was a short (900 m), flat square that we rode around for 40 minutes plus 5 laps to finish the race. I have no idea how many laps we ended up doing, but my corners got pretty good by the end! It didn't start quite like I had hoped... the pace was high right from the start, and I hung on to the back of the pack for about 3 laps, then got dropped : ( . For the next 20 minutes I was soloing and suffering through, and being lapped by the lead pack didn't exactly help my confidence. But, when a group of 3 riders came by me I stuck on their wheels and worked with them for the remainder of the race. Once I had someone to draft, the race became a lot more enjoyable and I wasn't struggling to keep their pace. This race was a good eyeopener for me and let me know where my bike fitness currently is. It was also good practice for olympic distance races in terms of racing hard for an hour and riding with unfamiliar people. I am looking forward to doing more crit races and am hoping each one gets a little better.

And awesome job Ellen, who did her first crit race ever, and Hilary, who lapped me twice!!

(picture by Brian at Oak Bay Bikes)

First day of "summer"

It is officially my first day of summer today! I had a crazy week of exams, having all 4 in a row from Wednesday to Saturday. It is always such a relief when final exams are over... no matter what, you walk out of the last one with a big stupid smile on your face that you just can't get rid of! So today is the start of summer for me, although, it is a little dreary out.
I'm looking forward to being able to focus more on training now. I am running the TC 10 k in two weeks and am excited to have a good run and start gearing up for olympic distance. My first triathlon is in Dallas at the beginning of June, and this will also be my first completed olympic distance race. Last year, I raced an olympic distance in Sooke, but got a flat tire half way through the bike and wasn't able to finish. So I still have that first one to get under my belt. I'll admit, the idea of racing hard for 2 hours seems a little daunting... but lots of other people have done it and survived, right??

A fresh start

Ok, I really failed at the whole blogging thing last year...so I'm going to try again! Stay tuned... hopefully I will actually have something interesting to say...