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

Yesterday was the 4th in the 5 Peaks Series - Whistler.  I did not run it......  now hold on - I have some good reasons.  This was supposed to be a down year and well I came to the realization that I am pretty much training as hard as I did last year for Ironman - just minus the swimming.  I am training 6 days a week in preparation for the Gran Fondo and the New York Marathon.  It is taking its toll on me. For those who have not trail raced it is a double-edged sword - the course are stunning - when you get a chance to look around.  They are fun, exciting, terrifying and super challenging.  There is no down-time or auto pilot on a trail race- you are in the moment the whole race.  I love it.  I am not great at them but am getting alot better and look forward to the runs as exhausting and difficult as they can be.  The thing about trail running is you have to trust your feet.  Your brain already reads and tells your feet what...

Okay so maybe the climb was not Avoriaz but it was tough enough. I have mentioned that there is a new bike race this year the Whistler Gran Fondo. http://www.rbcgranfondowhistler.com/ This is a 120km bike ride from Vancouver to Whistler Ski resort along the Sea – to- Sky highway. We have put in a women’s team and a few of us decided to ride the Squamish to Whistler portion this past Saturday. The plan was to meet in Squamish – the halfway point of the race – ride the last 60km to Whistler, coffee and then ride back to the cars in Squamish. This would give us a bird’s eye view of the last 60km of the race where most of the climbing will be. Saturday was a hot one and of course it gets hotter the higher and more inland you go. I realized as soon as we started riding that I forgot to put on Sunscreen. – Ah what are you going to do? The first bit was not bad and being a climber I was like this is not too bad. Overall the ride up was not bad there was a lot of wind so it helped t...

I know I have been remiss in posting but it was with good reason. My lawyer asked me to stop posting and go off-line till I had settled with ICBC. It was the least I could do since I insisted that I wanted this finished and to move on. I am happy to report that I have settled and now no longer have to worry about being followed and such. Not that it really stopped me before but it is just nice to close the door and move on. So what’s been going on since April/May lots!!!! Some triumphs and some frustrations and in between a whole lot of training. I was a pace bunny at the Vancouver Half Marathon and promoted myself up to 2:15 as my recovery has been going well. I am pleased to report that I did 2:14:34 a smidge fast but what’s a bunny to do? In April Special K, Pam and I started doing trail running clinics in anticipation of running the 5 Peaks trail race series and possibly putting in a relay team in to Stormy. The clinics are run by Tom and Duncan from Solomon Flight Cre...

During 2010 olympics some of the news reports indicated that some athletes might have felt the pressure and not been able to perform in clutch.  While no where near their potential or ability as an athlete I can sort of understand and the tool to cope with this is visualization. I know, I know - whatever Shaun and up to just over a year and a half ago I would have thought the same.  But then coach Larry, Zimich, did this visualization exercise with us at the start of the spin class. He talked about energy, he talked about pain, he talked about the race, the spectators, the great moments the bleak moments right to the end of the ride.  THEN we did the workout and it was amazing - I was still in rehab at that time but the gains I got that day and the abillity to visualize the pain and work through it was amazing.  I came away with a big lesson that day - see it, believe it, live it - the biggest hurdle we overcome is our mental selves.  WOW - talk about an epi...

Dogmatic: 1. characterized by or given to the expression of opinions very strongly or positively as if they were facts 2. Of or pertaining to or characteristic of a doctrine or code of beliefs accepted as authoritative 3. based on assumption rather than empirical observation 4. tending to force one's opinions on other people So why would I list all of these different definitions for dogmatic you ask? I lead half marathon clinics out of one of the biggest stores in the lower mainland. When I originally started doing these 5 years ago we had about 70 - 80 people that would register. This current clinic as an official registration of 113, in actuality there are about 121 committed to the training program for Sunday long runs and then there are the drop-ins - folks that want the group run and the distance but feel they don't need the structure of the clinic - this makes up about 30 - 60 other runners that join us on Sunday runs. You can see that the groups now become mass...

I was asked the question and so I went on to the internet and googled it.  Well as you can guess I received 22,000,000 hits.  Now being a person with self professed ADD I quickly reviewed the first 10 hits and came to the conclusion that they all said similar things - Dedicated, knows thier sport, continues to educate themselves, ability to encourage athletes to strive to be better, encourages fair play, the list went on but you get the gist of it.  So then I thought about my coaches - I have 2 - my athletic/cycling coach and my life coach. Both amazing women in their own right. I hired Barb because of her street creed - she came highly recommended to me.  I did a lot of research when I was looking for a cycling coach and her name came up every time.  What I liked about her was she had a great resume and that encouraged me to approach her. I was intimidated by it and was honest that I might be too novice for  her but after sharing emails with her...

Well I am not going to lie - I have the doldrums.  The olympics and the paralympics are gone and I am sad.  For those that were not here it was truly one of the most amazing experiences.  I loved and cherished every moment - literally every moment and am so grateful that I live in Vancouver/lower mainland.  The energy was amazing and it was so incredible for people here to not only embrace both events but to embrace being Canadian.  I am a fanatic about being Canadian for those that looked at my photos from Ireland, Joe and myself are both wearing Canada memorabilia not because we thought people would be nicer to us - I mean we were in Ireland -  they are nice to everyone, but because we were proud to be Canadians.  I remember my stepdaughter saying to me - you can't wear that hat - people will know you are a tourist and mug you.  We both looked at her and said we understood the risk but were willing to take it - trust me - my husband ...