Monthly Archives: June 2007

Inspired by the Pros

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Today, I watched the elite women race at the ITU world cup triathlon event in Vancouver. I watched them shaking their arms before the swim start. Then, all the arms suspended tensely as the toes moved up to the start line. women's startTwo groups formed right off the swim start each taking slightly different lines to the first yellow buoy.

As I jogged along the seawall, I could see that a couple women out front followed by the main pack. Coming out of the water, these women were sprinting. If you’re a pro, you’ve got to race the whole thing going like stink. That’s a big difference from age groupers – that, and the build of their bodies. These ladies had some serious pipes.

Watching the pack riding on the bike laps was exciting. Two women made a break for it and managed to put 30sec on the main group. Samantha Warriner from New Zealand had a great run (33:16 10km), catching them both and finishing first. It’s inspiring to watch the pros in action. winner

swim
30min @ Kit’s pool
run
~1hr or so, run between watching parts of race

Bike to Brunch

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This morning’s solo ride in the rain was the complete opposite of Oliver. Wet, wet, wet. But I’ve got the right gear, so I wasn’t really cold. I took my route from Richmond, up Cypress, across to the coffee shop and then around Stanley Park. No one was at Cuppa Joe’s, because of the rain and the ITU worlds preview race on Sunday. After checking out the set-up for the ITU event, I finished my ride at Aphrodite’s cafe for brunch with Deb, Amy, and Cass.

Brunch with good friends is always a great way to spend a morning.

bike
2h:20:05, 53.1km
Avg HR 128, Max 150
Avg Sp 22.7km/h, Max 48.9
Avg Cd 84, Max 120

Recovery Vacation

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I’ve been on vacation all week – from work and from training. No work, lots of sleep, and a light recovery week of training make for a happy, rested and relaxed soul. For all of you retired folks out there, let me tell you, “I am seriously jealous of your lifestyle.” I could easily entertain myself without working (I have a great job – and an even better one on the way BUT I’m just saying … )

I was just talking to a friend about having the summer off work and she can’t stand it. That’s not me. I’ve always got so many projects on the go and I love it. Cooking, visiting, knitting, reading, playing squash, hanging at coffee shops, dog walking, biking, gardening, organizing the house, blogging, going to the spa, and the list goes on.. These are all things that I love to do if I can steal some extra time.

Recovery week
Monday – OFF
Tuesday – swim 30min @ Kits pool
Wednesday – bike 1h15 w/ Mum
Thursday – run 30min easy

Oliver Half Iron – Race Day

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My Oliver race day started with an early morning wakeup from an Oriole at our bedroom window; with 4am Oriole calls who needs an alarm clock. After the 45 min drive from Summerland, we arrived in transition. I hooked up with Bronwyn, Colleen, Stan, et al for a ten minute warm-up jog. Coming back to my bike, I discovered that all of my transition gear had been pushed aside and a new towel, shoes, and helmet had taken it’s place. “Who would move my stuff?” I declared with an appropriate amount of disgust.

The women across from me starting blabbering and looking at me with stress in her eyes. I felt for her. She had a serious case of the pre race jitters. She had set up her transition area behind her own bike (moving all my stuff in the process). She was not feeling the same confident calm that I had going. I explained that she probably wants to put her gear at the front of her bike so she could just pull out her bike and go. Even in her pre-race panic, she could see the logic in that. As she moved her stuff (and I put my stuff back exactly where it had been), you could almost feel the collective sigh of relief from the other four women on my rack. As everyone moved their transition gear to more logical locations, I escaped to put on my wetsuit.

Waiting for our turn, I enjoyed joking around with Deb. The swim start was insane. In retrospect, Bronwyn, Deb, and I started in the stupidest spot: right up at the front and in the middle. Bodies, arms, punching, kicking. At one point, a hand grabbed my foot and pulled me right under water and I thought, “I’m going to die!” Yup, I freaked out. Once I realized I was freaking out, I turned 90o to my left and swam over top of everyone to get to the edge. Once on the outside, I started breast stroking and tried to convince myself that I WASN’T going to die. Continue reading →

Oliver Half Iron – Saturday Pre Race

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Torbin and I headed to Oliver on Saturday afternoon for about 1pm. I went quietly about my pre race routine. We picked up my package, then parked in the shade. It’s damn hot in Oliver. The heat is going to be a serious challenge tomorrow.

I put my race numbers on my bike then headed out. About 2min later, I returned to move my numbers. After heading out again, I returned to adjust my bike. A few more mini loops and I finally had my bike ready to ride. This is why it’s so important to do the pre race routine. I rode for about 30 min in the heat checking out the few turns in the course that I wasn’t familar with. I saw Brian and Amy on Sawmill Road out for a run, and most of the LETC gang at various points during this pre-race routine.

After the bike, I ran for 10 min around the grass field at the elementary school. Then I headed to the lake. Wearing a wetsuit in mid day Oliver heat is stupid. I was so hot. I did one full loop of the swim course figuring out what landmarks I could use for sighting.

After checking my bike into transition (the F30-34 age group was totally screwed with the worst spots in transition for this race), Torbin and I then headed to a local deli to have the best sandwiches ever and drink many many glasses of water. After that we joined everyone else for the race meeting at the high school and then hung out with the LETC gang for a pre-race pep talk from Coach Drew.

View the Oliver Half Iron – Saturday Pre Race Pep Talk photo album.

Oliver Half Iron – Friday Travel Day

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After my late night, I was a little short on sleep. We managed to get everything packed and leave by 10am. Once the coffee sunk in and I woke up, I started to have fun. I’ve been looking forward to this Oliver weekend for a while now.

The Okanagon is hotter then anticipated. It’s looking like it’s going to be a whole weekend of mid 30oC temperatures. Great practice for IronMan. We stopped at Bromley Rock for a swim, but the flood waters were too high for anything more then a dip. With the heat, Penney enjoyed the cool water.

We arrived in Summerland around 4pm and enjoyed a relaxed evening. The plan is to head to Oliver around noon tomorrow to try out everything in the mid day heat.

You can view the whole Oliver Half Iron – Friday Travel Day photo album.