It's a triathlon, not a marathon at the end of a swim and bike.

Great advice from my coach that we need to look at it as one sport and not set our hopes on having an amazing marathon.  This may seem obvious to you but in the sprint and olympic distance triathlons I have competed in, I have typically had amazing runs...but I suppose at the ironman distance it's a different story.  Apparently athletes typically run their marathons 20% slower after finishing the swim and bike than they would run a marathon on it's own


I, on the other hand, can count on a personal best on my run, considering this will be my first marathon ever.  The furthest I have run in training at one time is 26 km.  The training is beautifully designed so that I am recovering and building properly, which does not include marathon distance training runs.

Thought I'd share some pics from the Ironman Cozumel website from last year's race.

Sorry the pictures are a bit blurry at this size.  In exciting news, I have finally found a shirt to wear for my race.  This was quite an ordeal and took me a LONG time but I have finally found it - I just have to test it out on a run to make sure I can maintain a cool body temperature in it.  I will show pictures of it soon.

A permanent fixture.

"A permanent fixture" in the spin room is what I've been labeled by one of the Gold's Gym spin instructors.  Upon leaving after teaching a spin class she often thanks me for sharing "my room".  Yes, I have spent many, many hours on the spin bike at my little station in the corner of the room.

Today I had a three hour ride scheduled and Adam had planned to work from home so that I could ride outside but the weather didn't come through for me so I resorted to my corner station at Gold's.

WHY THE CORNER??: 

- It's proximate the window ledge so I can lay out all my 'supplies' (water bottles, protein shake, snacks, sweat towel and books/magazines).

- For those of you who don't know, I sweat A LOT, so I like to keep my sweaty puddles to the corner.

- I am often in there during spin classes but because I have to stay on the bike and in a certain heart rate zone I can't participate in everything they do in the classes, so I feel less disruptive in the corner.

- Being next to the window is nice because I can pretend I'm outside.

With the weather turning colder, it looks like I will be spending even more time in "my room", as outdoor cycling is becoming too uncomfortable to bear.  So if you're at Gold's Gym anytime soon, stop by the spin room and say hello.  I'll most likely be there.

A special thanks to Adam for taking these lovely pictures and picking up our kids from child care to start dinner at home while I finished my ride.  I love you and think we make a good team.

Ice in my shorts.

Me and Adam met with our Calgary coach today.  (We have a German coach who designs and emails us our training programs and we have a Calgary coach who meets with us from time to time for various things.)  We discussed the details for the race and one interesting thing he said is that of all the places he's raced in the world (and he has raced in a lot of places as a pro triathlete, including Kona) Cozumel was the hottest.  He said if it says 30 degrees, it FEELS like 40 degrees.  Interesting.  Thanks for that intimidating imformation, coach.  I can't wait to swim 4 km, bike 180 km and run 42 km in 40 degree temps.  Awesome.

He said that he has raced well many times in the heat and the keys are:
- Hydrating properly
- Staying well within your aerobic heart rate zone
- And using ice at EVERY aid station on the run.  He says it needs to go everywhere (under the hat, in the sports bra in my case, hold it in your hands and especially down the shorts).  Apparently ice in the shorts really helps to cool the blood before it travels to the legs. My question to Adam was whether the ice is cubed or crushed...he said cubed.  Unfortunate.


Another one of his many great tips was to make sure to rinse off after the swim to wash away the salt water and thus prevent chafing from the salt rubbing against your skin the remainder of the race.  I wouldn't have thought of that one.

Here's a picture of the island.  The bike is three laps of the lower half of the island.

I'm feeling lazy.

I only had 5 hours of training scheduled this week, which feels like relatively NOTHING.  Some of my old fears have crept back in somewhat and so I've been sorting through those.  They have to do with the swim.  I've made some real progress in releasing those fears.  Thanks to my friends and family for talking me through them and thanks most of all to my Heavenly Father who hears and answers my prayers when I ask Him for help in my life's journey.  I know He loves and cares about each of us and wants us to embrace the future and have hope in the future.
Here are some pictures of the ironman swim the past couple of years and the beautiful ocean water that I will have the privilege of swimming in.....along with about 2,000 other athletes.

I love bruises.

I really do love bruises.  I guess I'm like a little boy that way.  I love proof that I did something risky and fun with my body.  I know that these remarks will serve to solidy in the minds of many of you the comment I hear almost daily that I am crazy.  I may be crazy but I'm having a good time.

I did it!

I have completed crash week.  Here are a couple of the highlights:

On Thursday I ran 26 km.  This is the furthest I have ever run in my life at one time.  It felt great.  My muscles were kind of throbbing and achy the rest of the day but they felt perfectly fine when I woke up the next morning.  I had no joint pain or foot pain.  I definitely could have kept on going...and I'll have to in the race.  I'll have to go 16 km further than that after biking 180 km.

On Saturday I biked for 150 km and did 100 of these with Adam, while his mom watched our kids.  This is the furthest I have ever biked consecutively in my life.  We were both really concerned about the cold weather.  A high of 8 degrees is really chilly for cycling.  So we improvised.  Our feet were our big concern and we only own one set of toe warmers, so I got to use those and I also put plastic bags between my two pairs of socks to hold in the body heat.  Adam cut holes in the bottom of a pair of wool socks and put these over his shoes, so that he could clip into his pedals.

Oh and I should mention that I fell twice that day.  I know; twice, can you believe it??  The first fall I was on my own and I was trying to make a u-turn in some gravel and caught an edge.  I didn't even have time to think about unclipping.  I scraped and bruised my knee and elbow a bit but it's not serious.  Second fall was with Adam when we were climbing a hill by C.O.P and I accidently geared into a harder gear and came to an abrupt stop.  Luckily I fell over into some long grass and with all this great falling practice, I have learned not to try to break my fall...just to let my body take the impact.
So there I was, laying on my side, with one foot still awkwardly clipped in and I started to cry because I felt so frustrated and annoyed.  Then almost instantly I saw the humor and started laughing pretty hard, so by the time Adam came back to check on my he couldn't tell if I was laughing or crying.  Once he learned I was laughing we had a really good laugh together.

So here's the summary of my crash week:

• 9 km of swimming
• 344 km of biking
• 47.5 km of running

  P.S. I had a short run scheduled after my long bike and I ripped off 6 km in 30 minutes.  My legs felt fresh and responsive.  Looks like I'm ready for the Ironman.  The training has paid off.

Just run.

              (This is the incredible view from fish creek ridge I get on my evening runs.)
Ok, so for those of you who live near me, did you know how beautiful it is up on the fish creek park ridge when the sun is setting?  As beautiful as that view is, I did learn that it is creepy running down by the river after the sun sets with only moonlight and little animals scattering nearby....very creepy.

So, I wanted to share my story of how and when I fell in love with running.

It was when I was living in Geneva, Switzerland and working as a nanny.  We were having a friendly little family weight loss competition, so I woke up before work and ran almost every morning. At first, I ran with the outcome prevalent in my mind. For example, I wanted to run for a particular amount of time without stopping and my mind was consumed with this desired result. I also wanted to lose a certain amount of weight and I worried whether or not this would happen. I was discouraged when I started to feel pain because I doubted my ability to keep running and  I was weighed down by the discrepancy between where I was at and where I wanted to be.  Essentially, the discrepancy between the moment and the desired result brought despair to the moment.

One day, while running along and commencing my habitual obsession with how much longer I needed to run and how much it hurt, I had these clear words come into my mind, "JUST RUN".  That was the key for me and I have experienced running differently ever since.  I have learned to enjoy being in the moment when I run, without obsessing about the future.  I have learned to relax into my running and allow myself to be mentally present.  I have learned that in running, as in life, the future will be what it will be but worrying about it only holds the present hostage. I am not perfect at this but that's ok too.

I learned this lesson nine years ago but this morning while biking at the gym, I read this same principle stated differently in my book, "The Triathletes Guide to Mental Training".  It states
"Many triathletes believe that by focusing on the outcome, that is, on a certain result, they're more likely to achieve that outcome.  Having an outcome focus, however, actually hurts performance and makes it less likely you'll achieve your goals.  Every time you shift from a process focus to an outcome focus, your performance will decline."

I believe in setting goals.  I also believe that we need to live in the present, even though the long term goal will always be in the back of our mind.  When a goal feels overwhelming, it needs to be broken up into smaller, more manageable goals so that we can do what needs to be done in the moment and live in the moment and most of all, enjoy the moment.

Crash Week.

Next week is crash week for me.  Adam will have crash week the week after.  This is the week with the highest volume of training and afterwards our coach will taper us until race day.  Finishing crash week will be a huge accomplishment because it means 'the hay is in the barn', to use a farming analogy.  Basically our bodies have the aerobic base necessary to complete an Ironman.  Tapering will include shorter but higher intensity workouts, to add speed to the aerobic base.

This is seriously exciting for me.  I'm just hoping and praying that my body holds up through crash week.  I have definitely been pushing my body to the limit and my feet in particular have been hurting more and more lately.

Here's what crash week will look like for me: 3.5 hrs swimming, 13 hours biking, 4.5 hours running and 4 hours strength and stretching.  Wish me luck!!