More Race Reports

Here are some pics from my last race in Edmonton;



After Des Moines I was just going to go in to Edmonton with an open mind and see how the race played out...although i was hoping for an easy bike :) Of course the one time I hope for this I end up in a break away of 7! This turned out to be a great thing though because I still didn't have to work too hard. The group pulled evenly so it wasn't costing too much energy. I felt really bad in the swim and bike but found my rhythm on the run. Emma, Annabel and I ran together almost the whole way. It was a comfortable pace for 2.5 out of 3 laps...then I started surging..but they were tough to drop! I tried like a million times and eventually it was just me and Emma. We were together coming around the corner to the finish just 50m away when I got the outside around the turn and that was it. I didn't want to leave it to a sprint with Emma because she is so strong but unfortunately I couldn't shake her before the sprint.. I am soo happy for her though! If I were to get beat by anyone I would pick her hands down! So thats that race...I didn't think about it at all before...even marching down to the swim start it was kind of like "oh yea, I'm about to race"! I'm usually relaxed but not THAT relaxed..maybe because I didn't have any expectations for this one. Either way, it worked out alright! Light training for a bit ..caught a bit of a cold but couldn't have picked a better time. Thats it for now.. (oh and "Mr" who commented about the last pics..I don't have your email address!)

who wants to go to the olympics anyways??

So as most of you know, I raced our first Olympic Selection race in Des Moines, Iowa last weekend. It also happened to have the biggest prize purse in ITU history. $200,000 for the win with a Hummer H3 tossed in. I traveled over on Thursday afternoon and after the 13 min flight to Vancouver my luggage had already been lost! Luckily not my bike, just the small suitcase. I was going to take it with me until I realized th big container of Nutella wouldn't make it through security...soo my Nutella cost me my luggage! So we arrived at the hotel in Des Moines around mid night on Thursday (and if you read Colin's blog about being the only one to get that package in his room..he's a liar, we all got them! :-) Some light training on Friday, then the race meeting and pasta dinner and a good nights sleep. Then Saturday was the usual lounge day with 3 short sessions. As for race day....

Des Moines wasn't going to give us that Hummer easily! It brought 94 degree temperatures along with humidity and crazy winds! I kept cool during warm up and waiting for the start. I got a great start position, 2nd from the left with almost all the best swimmers to my right. I had a clean start and I was set from there. I came out of the water in a group of 8 with 20 seconds up on the rest of the field. Once on the bike, the group of Anabel Luxford, Jessica Harrison, Sarah Haskins and McClarty, Laura Bennett, Joanna Zeiger, Julie Swail and myself got organized and starting putting some time on the rest of the field. Then lost time...then eventually brought it up to 2:45 by the time we entered T2. I worked pretty hard on the bike and I knew it was a risk but I was willing to take it, hoping that my legs would still feel good. I have had this happen countless times in brick workouts in training so I was holding on to that bit of hope! I felt fine starting the run. Nothing like Richards Bay but good enough. Laura, Anabel and I ran together from the start putting a gap on the rest of the field. It looked as if this would be the podium. I felt very comfortable and was waiting for the sprint. I didn't want to risk going ahead and then blowing and was confident enough in my finish that I could wait until the end. The laps seemed to go by really slow. I only remember 3 of them though because I collapsed in the last 1/2 km from the finish! Joel saw me run by looking zoned out. By the time he called Tom and ran around the corner, he found me lying on the ground with Kathy Tremblay's coach Phillipe holding me. He wanted to give me every opportunity to make it so I got up but I couldn't stand. I dragged myself along the barriers for about 15m with the medics following close behind until I couldn't do anymore and they took me to the ambulance...not where I wanted to finish the day. I got a couple IV's and then headed back to watch the men's race. I wanted to win so bad that I ran myself into the ground...literally. :-) I did everything right with nutrition and hydration details, it was just an extreme day. Only 26 of 49 women finished the race and 10 dropped on the final lap. I was disappointed that I didn't get that automatic Olympic spot (top 5 was the criteria) but I know I delivered on the day, I just didn't get all the benefits! It's sounds cheesy but I really like the saying "you get out of it what you put into it", it's something I think about in training a lot but this one was a little hard to handle because I put so much into it and didn't get much out of it! Although, I guess that's not true because I learned some lessons and gained some confidence which are valuable things.. but not an Olympic spot, not to mention $$! But the money didn't mean anything to me compared to the Beijing spot. Anyway... I was still very pleased with myself. It is very satisfying to know that I did everything I could..no regrets. Some people ask me, "well why didn't you just slow down?" ...well..if you slow down, you don't win... It's not a very complicated equation! (I know..if you pass out, you don't win either! But at least i gave myself the chance!)
In the mens race Simon went for the win as well. He was in 2 breakaways on the bike, coming off 1:10 up on the rest of the field that included the sports best runners. I thought he had it for sure (and was secretly hoping he would hand the Hummer over to me!) He took a risk an it ended up hurting his run a little in the end and he finished a very respectable 6th. But it was a BAMF 6th because he did what it took to win, it just didn't pan out like we hoped. So I was pretty proud of him! Cool to watch. The rest of our team didn't have too much luck either. There were a ton of suffering athletes out there. World Cup winners running 37 mins...like a million athletes lined up for IV's...it was a tough day.
After all that we got to the airport on Monday only to find out that our flights were delayed and we would have to stay over night. Sweet...well it actually was because I roomed with our massage therapist, Kim who kindly gave me a terrific massage before bed! I was in rough shape. Now I'm back home again but I will leave on Friday for the next World Cup in Edmonton...Take 2......

Here are a few race photos:



Swim




T1




I retouched this one for all the sickos out there who commented on the last pics!!

Boo Ya!

Yesterday was the Vancouver World Cup and a great day for my BAMF training partners! The break away group of 7 included 3 canadians Simon, Colin and Tich along with Andy Potts, Matt Reid and Brian Fleischman from the US and a young Russian who has just come out of juniors! These guys had a 2min gap on another break of 2 and 4 mins of the main pack!! Simon had his usual killer final k and won at home! Paul finished his best ever at a world cup in 5th and Colin had his best ever finish aswell in 7th!! Kyle and Andrew had some bad luck with cramping. AP just misssed the pack but had a promising run split. Lauren and Jill finished 8th and 13th. It wasn't exactly great weather but we WERE in Vancouver! Although Stanley Park in a beautiful venue for Worlds next year. Here are a few pics that Dano took of the races..(my battery died while taking the first picture...of course)



Colin celebrating his pay day!



AP warming up after the race



Lauren waiting for the start

inside tri

http://www.insidetri.com/portal/news/news.asp?item=109403

training update

It's been a little too long since my last entry to go through ALL my training but I'll go through the last couple days..
Last weekend was a tough one with our usual brick at Uvic on saturday. 3 laps group paceline/attacks/covers...then right into 2 laps TT then 4x1k on the track off the bike followed by a 3 lap 3.6k effort building. The bike was good..happy with my TT'ing right now. The run was also good..bit heavy from the ride but managed to pull out 3:12, 3:11, 3:10, 3:12..haven't really done any 1k's yet this year so nothing to compare to but I think it was alright. Iced, stuck to the couch...ran easy pm, iced, walked...ready for sunday.



Me doing a bad job of advertising my Power Gel (it's backwards :P) between then bike and run...

We ran 2 laps of Elk Lake building. I ran with Colin and AP for the first lap until Colin hopped on the fast moving Simon and Kyle train. Pretty good run..little achy but good effort. Then did an easy spin and back to the pool for 5k with longer intervals of pull and then 16x100 on 1:20/1:15 all swimming in a row...rolled through 15's and 11's and the week is done!

Monday easy swim, iced, easy ride, iced, massage.

Tuesday we started with a pretty hard swim. 4.2k main set of 8x100 on 1:30 best av., 2x50 ez, 7x100 best av, 2x50 all the way down to 2x100. Despite a crappy warm up, I swam pretty well. 13's on the 8. 12/13 on the 7. 12.5s on the 6. 11-11.5's on the 5. 10's on the 4, 9's on the 3 and 8's on the 2. I still can't seem to get that smash-it -at-the-end-of-the-set kind of speed but 35 100's under 1:13 is a good set. Then met Joel for some solo motor pacing and TT'ing at the waddling dog loop. Tied my one lap record from last week inside a 2 lap effort. Surprised myself because i was like getting lactic warming up at like 130 watts! Went 26:11 for the 2 laps.. watts around 280. Then a run off the bike 30 mins with 10 strong. Then to the ocean to ice.


Wednesday was an open water swim at Thetis. 1 big loop (approx 1400m) easy, 1 big loop effort, 1 small loop (approx 900m) effort and 1/2 small effort. Pretty good swim..closing gaps the whole time..i brilliantly picked the fastest guys feet (Jenkins)so when he zipped up to the front whenever he felt like it, i was left hanging off the back with a 5m gap.. but i held on..tough workout. Then an easy ride home and back to the tready for round 2. Last week the treadmill gave it to me but this week i returned the favor! Finally felt good on the treadmill. The set was 6x5mins at tri 10k pace..didn't sound that hard but watching the group in front of me go, it looked like a tough one. Ran at 10.3mph, 10.4 and 10.5 at 2%..next time i say we start at 10.5...iced and home.

Thursday was a lazy morning then a 3hr ride and a 30min run off the bike and thats it!

Friday was an ez 50 min run in the morning with some pick ups then a swim at Durrance Lake where it was ALL ON...funny antics going on for some reason... then I picked up Emma and Matt from the airport from their long trip from Australia, went for a ride and relaxed. Today we have a good run in about a 1/2 hour..better go!

oh and Stuart..I have Deda bars...old ones but you can buy new carbon ones.