Swim, bike, run - How Bad ASS can I be?

Ok so anyone who is a Facebook buddy/acquaintance will look at the title and say what?  I seem to like to have epic crashes/accidents on my bike on Thanksgiving Weekends. You will recall when me and Shazam rode the hood of a Jeep in October 4, 2008 - I came out fairly unscathed a lot of soft tissue in my hips/legs and behind/lower back and a brand new bike - Isis.  Well on Oct 5, 2012 on my ride to work I suddenly found myself bouncing my head and backside off the pavement at about 30km/hour.  I came out a little worse for wear on this one.  After I landed and thought holy sh*t that hurt!  I realized nothing was broken gathered my front fender up and continued to the bus loop - oh be quiet - at this point I thought I would have a nasty bruise on my back and well sure my head was a little sore but I had on my helmet so off I went. When I got to the bus I loaded the bike up thinking crap I am really hurting and wondering if my phone had survived me landing on it when the bus driver

Well it seems silly to be doing my first Tri Race report for 2012 in September but at least I have one.       Registering for the Cultas Lake Tri was really a last minute decision My leg is slowly healing and I can honestly say that this is by far the most frustrating injury I have had to date and you are talking to someone who has fractured her heel and been hit by a car! The process of recovery is very slow and well honestly I have been quite tentative because I am not quite sure how I tore it so I find myself being much more cautious and pragmatic in my training – my confidence has been shaken which has meant increasing my distances and adding intensities to workouts has been very tentative. Which for those who know me know is not in my nature.     I registered for the Sprint Tri at Cultas lake because I needed to prove to myself that I could do a race, that a catastrophe would not happen,   my calf muscle would hold up and that I was going to be able to still do the

Hi All  - yes I know I have been remiss in posting but being so busy with yoga and all now ( she says tongue in cheek) I just have not had time.  Seriously though  - I have been maintaining my yoga. The weather has just been so awesome here in Vancouver that I have not wanted to miss a second of it before the rain comes back. This post is courtesy of my "SO" - Joe who had the adventure of a lifetime this summer with his dad riding the Trans Alps Mountain Bike Race. He originally wrote this for IMPACT magazine at their request - after submitting they have changed the story to an interview with his dad and him - to be published in the next issue.  So I thought I would "publish" his version for you all to read - since I have no intention of EVER doing this race and thus will never do a race report on it that I am aware of....   I never imagined what I was getting into when my Dad decided that he wanted to mark his 70 th birthday by participating in the tra

Hi peeps Well summer has finally arrived in Vancouver thankfully - I was about to put the place up for sale and move if this went on for much longer. I know I live on the "wet" coast and that from November to May it rains - I get it.  I am even okay with the moody May and June but last month was over the top and then when it was pouring on July 1 and 2 my meltdown became official - but mother nature must have felt the collective freak-out and turned it around and we have for at least the next 2 weeks summer. So in my ongoing recovery - fyi don't ever tear a muscle - it takes forever to heal -  we thought  I might have reinjured it.  Fortunately after meeting with the specialist all is well and I can keep moving forward in my very gradual return to running and cycling. However he suggested that Yoga may be something I would want to do.  BAHAHAHAHAHA  - I tried a yoga class once - hated it.  Nope not doing Yoga.   I have avoided doing yoga for 12 years and been just

Since I have clearance to ride again - I asked for the parameters - rules and regulations from my Physio - how far, can I add tension, can I get out of the saddle and how often. No still keep tension off - hmmph No do not get out of the saddle - hmmph How often - lets try  twice a week and if that is okay  then you may add a day - yeah How far - lets look at time - okay - how long - NOT 4 hours - 2 hours should be good - okaaaay So riding to work ok - yes but that is included in your twice a week - okay. Very exciting!!!! So yesterday I got my stuff together and me and Isis set off - since I leave around 6:15 am in the morning my ride in is pretty non-eventful. The ride home - whole other story.... If you want to hit a hot button topic - talk about cycling in Vancouver - at least once a week a talk show host gets on line and bashes cyclists - it does not help that City Hall keeps shoving bike lanes and such down taxpayers throats without thoughtful discussion - but that

This past weekend was the Oliver Half Ironman.  Joe and I have been doing this race for the past 5 years.  It is a favorite of ours and makes for a nice holiday. Now calm down - I did not race I was able to get a deferral to next year.  I went up to watch Joe race, do some light riding  and to do some wine tastings :).  There are so many amazing wineries up there and because I am always racing I never go so this was my opportunity. I would say I had a rather successful weekend and came home with 10 bottles from various wineries - it is going to be a good summer!  The wineries I hit in Oliver are Wild Goose, Oliver Twist and Hidden Chapel.  I also hit a few just outside Penticton on the Naramata Bench - Blue Ruby and Black Widow.  I like to go to the smaller wineries because I feel like they are not so commercial, their wines are very nice and the owners are usually the ones running the tasting room so you get to have a wonderful conversation about the history of their winery and su

For the last 6 weeks or so I have been dealing with  my injury - torn calf muscle and it has been a bit of a roller coaster for me. I lead an incredibly busy and full life and my coping skills for stress is to run or ride and well I have not had that to help me vent.  This is also how I socialize with all my friends - runs and rides - so to put it bluntly I have been pretty self pitying and while the rational part of me is like - get-over-yourself it is not that big a deal.  The emotional - I am a LEO after all - is messing with my psyche alot. However over the last week a lot of things have happened that quite frankly put my little injury into perspective.  In the last week a friend has had to put down her adolescent dog very suddenly - if you are not a dog owner or lover then it is a little hard to understand but it was upsetting and I gave Bishop a big hug when I got home on Tuesday.  Some people I know have just been diagnosed with cancer - always unsettling and upsetting and t

As you all know I have been recently sidelined with a pretty serious running injury - torn soleus muscle.  To say it has sucked is the understatement of the year. Now in my civilian life I work in health care in a hospital. This means that I have been  traipsing around the hospital for weeks in a gray aircast and more recently replaced it with a pink compression sock.  I have been asked over and over again what happened and invariably at least once a day someone says to me - you should not run it is bad for you. Now congratulate me here because I have not had a total melt down or freak out on these people or even lectured them I just smile and walk way.  Some come by this belief because they have had a medical "professional" tell them this.  Using such phrases as it is bad for your knees or other joints and it is too hard on your body.  Some have suffered injuries that do not allow them to comfortably run, some may have structural issues, bone density issues or asthma and

Next week is the Vancouver BMO - I was SUPPOSED to be doing the full.... (not bitter at all).  However I am now on the grey boot spectator team - and it looks like we have added another member - our popularity is increasing.  My friend Diane is now sporting one along with June-bug and I.  This is not a group I would encourage others to aspire to join... So with everyone in full taper mode and finding themselves with spare time on their hands, getting antsy and over thinking all aspects of their race I would advise you to take that excess energy and use to work on visualizing your race day - Start to successful finish.  It is a great way to focus that excess energy. One of the talks that I get tagged to do for the clinics is the visualization talk.  I started giving the talk 3 years ago when I was leading clinics.  After working with Coach Larry and benefiting immensely from doing visualization with him I decided that I would do it with my clinics.  Now that I not leading anymore I

sorry I know I should have been posted sooner but well I have been holding my own pity party. If you recall i was all like - I cut my runs short when it started to hurt and have been working with physio - it is all good.  Well IT WAS NOT GOOD! grrrr  After the 23km run where I had some pretty bad pain and pulled out at 16km I went for my my next physio and he was like  no running  for a week to let it settle down and get my orthotics looked at.  He then proceeded to go and get a a calendar and show me what exactly he meant by a week - including  with start and finish dates?!?!  Yeesh - ok in his defense the last time he said a week I left the week up to interpretation - I took a week it was just he meant at that moment and I started the week 3 days later so it did not mess with my long runs.  My husband told my old physio who tattled to my new physio so hence the careful explanation of week.     Sounds good -no running for 1 week and off I toddle to my podiatrist. He asks what

Most runners, at least the ones I know have a little OCD mixed in with Type A characteristics. This is not meant to be a negative – as a triathlete I tell everyone I have ADD, OCD and triple TYPE A – try being me!?!   It is exhausting some days.      So how am I relating this all to the mileage versus time debate you ask?   Well as endurance runners – yes if you run anything over 5km, in my book, you are now an endurance athlete.   There are levels but yep you have definitely moved past the 20 minute after work run – and if you can do 10 km in 20 min – well I dislike you a little bit.   Again back to– see the ADD thing I am not kidding – tying this together.   Once our mileage goes up and we start doing half marathons, full marathons, ultras and such we start to become more obsessive about our mileage.   Especially those who are new to long distance running.   There is this fear that if you do not get the exact precise mileage down that the schedule says great catas

As the mileage starts to increase the aches and pains increase and the chance of injury as well. Recently I started listening to Podcasts .  One podcast I am enjoying immensely is IM Talk.  They talk about everything to do with Ironman, triathlon training, racing, nutrition, and so on and so forth.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in triathlon. One of the topics on their most recent podcast was Injury and how to not become depressed and stressed out while rehabbing.   As soon as they started talking about it I knew I was nodding my head and thinking Bingo.  We all know what it is like - we start out training and then it becomes part of our life, it defines us and it is what we do. The sense of pride and accomplishment that we get after we finish that 29km run on Sunday morning.   Especially as we decide to get into longer distances - marathon, Ironmans and Ultra's.  Things go great and then all of the sudden boom injured.  Most of us freak out - go

About 4 - okaaaaay maybe 5 weeks ago my right foot/inner heel/ankle starting hurting.  I was able to keep running but it got gradually worse and started going up my calf muscle so I went to see a physio.  Now before you all become judgmental I did go get it x-rayed about 3 weeks in and confirmed there was no fracture but yet it kept getting worse!?! Hmmm - time to go see a physio I guess - see progress before I would wait till I was completely hobbled.  However at the risk of suffering another lecture by my regular physio I got her to refer me to a new physio closer to work. Well he looked at it and said nothing major but no running for a week - WHAT - no road running you can water run, ride and swim but no water running for a week.  Okay - no running for a week - now he did not specify which week - rookie mistake on his part :). I am not  a total brat that was a week ago Friday so I ran the next Sunday and did not run all week on pavement.  And this morning I went down and ran w

I love being active.  I love all sports - team and individual - with the exception of downhill skiing.  Seriously - what is up with that death sport?!?   I am originally a flat lander and any time I have tried to careen down a mountain on 2 teensy pieces of wood attached to my feet bad things have happened. After being taken from a local bunnyhill on a stretcher I called uncle and decided to just be good at apres Ski. But I digress... Back to my pontificating about how much I love sports with the big 3 obviously being: running, swimming and riding. I love registering for races and going out to train most of the time.... Oh come on - that's right I will say it out loud - sometimes I don't want to! (insert collective gasp)  And that is where the great debate comes in.  The internal discussion that starts first thing in the morning and goes on all day back and forth, back and forth.  Until finally you decide to go or not - in my case it is usually a go.  I started thinking wha

So the last couple of years, I guess really after Ironman, I have kind of felt like I am just going through the motions. Register for a race, train for a race, do a race.  Repeat.  I have not really been excited it just has been an ends to a means.  I mean I have been excited about the locations but the actual distance or type of race - not really. That : wow how do I go about doing this, holy crap am I seriously thinking about doing this, I feel kind of sick, seriously HOW BAD CAN IT BE feeling.  It just has not been there.  Well it is back and it feels awesome!  I feel anxious, a little worried and excited all at the same time.  You ask - what is it, what is it?  Background first - my very first running Coach - Louise. .  She was so inspiring and really touched me and helped develop my passion for running.  She was/is an amazing athlete and her passion for running was contagious.  She really cared about us and encouraged us no matter how fast or slow and well when I lead clin

Happy New Year!  Since Vegas I have been taking it easy - still running , but no cycling or swimming and way too much turkey among other things and well I can feel and see it.  My clothes are a little snugger around the middle than they have been in a long time.  Not to worry though I have registered for some races as I find that is always a good way to motivate me to stay true to my workouts. Vancovuer BMO Full Marathon - yep I know I said I would never do this one again because I had done it a few times and it was old news but this year they have changed the course.  Now this was not enough to convince me because I am not a big fan of running on the seawall due to the canter but Judith decided that since the start line was a 6 min jog from her front door it was time to run her first full.  Sounds wierd when she has walked one and done 2 Ironman's but yep it is true this will be her first time running a full marathon.  So with the new course, me not leading any clinics, and