Harvest Half Marathon

Saturday I ran in the Harvest Half Marathon in Calgary.  I finished in just under 1:52.  I'm happy with that, especially considering I ran with a sore knee for the last 6 km and had to stop and stretch twice.  I know I could have been under 1:50 if it weren't for the sore knee.

I was kind of emotional when I crossed the finish line.  So much relief and joy.  Races can be a little intense: the preparation, the pre-race nerves, the visualizing, the doubts that try to creep in, the pleasure of pushing and racing, the suffering as it gets difficult....there's just a lot of emotion there.  I really doubted my fitness this race because I chose not to make this race a priority in my life.  I wondered what I could really do on the course and felt concerned about my knee because it had been bothering me in training.  I knew this would be my last race of the season and wanted to end the season on a good note.

I started the race at the front and ended up racing around some great runners.  Fish Creek park is SO beautiful to run in this time of year.  When we were descending into the park from Evergreen and our view took in the golden rolling hills surrounding the valley, I commented to the runner beside me, "isn't it so beautiful!"  She looked at me like, "why are you talking to me?"  My recent approach with races has been to really soak in the scenery as much as I can.  It helps pull my mind out of the racing and just breath in the beauty.

One of my favorite parts of the race was having all my family cheer me on at SEVERAL points along the course.  THANK-YOU!!  My other favorite part was seeing this guy run barefoot next to me.  I wondered how he felt about his lack of footwear when we hit some rocky path

Here's some pics from the race:

Doing things backwards.

It seems like with my racing I do things a bit backwards.  I did a full Ironman before I did a half Ironman.  I did a marathon and half marathon within triathlons before I ever did the run portion on it's own.  So this Saturday I will be doing a half marathon.  And for the many people who have said to me, "oh a half, that will be so easy for you."  Remember people, this is my first half marathon.  It will be my first experience at how to properly pace myself at this distance.  It may sound odd to you but I actually LOVE running off the bike in triathlons.  My legs are warm, I'm already psyched and in race mode and I know I'm on the last leg of the triathlon.  So, pure running races are very odd for me.  I'd like to keep improving at them though.

I've had a bit of a struggle to figure out how to approach this race.  It's my last race of the season and I'm already kind of in "off season" mode, so it's been harder to get pumped up and eager for this one.  I've wondered if I should just take it easy and not go full out but then I remember that's not really in my nature.  I get a huge thrill out of giving everything I have to give in a race and immense satisfaction when I pace it well and am able to finish really strong.  I love tapping into my deeper emotional and physical reserves in racing.  It's exhilarating.  But right now I just feel like being more gentle with my body (part of that off season mentality.)  Just one more race body....you can do it!!!  Then you get a nice, long break until the spring.

Good news is this race is in my beloved Fish Creek Park.  This is a place of peace and serenity and untouched beauty to me.  It's a place that I've bonded with, after the many training hours I've spent down there.  I imagine that racing down there will feel very natural and familiar and comforting.

Screen time.

If you know me well, you probably know that the past year I've been making efforts to reduce my screen time.  I've done things like putting my laptop in the den, so that I have to go there with more purpose.  (I used to keep it in our great room and I'd sit on my couch when I used it.)  I made a rule for myself that I'm not allowed to be on my computer when Riley comes home from school.  I have a snack and a visit with him and give him my full attention.  I've come to realize that I just don't feel very well after I've been on the computer for a long stretch.  I feel more tired, kind of down and fuzzy-brained, almost as if the computer has sucked out a bit of my zest and happiness.  Weird hey!

So I will continue writing my blog but it might be a little more sparse and sporadic. 

Second day of swim club went really well.  I was literally the slowest person there.  My dad would normally take that blessed title but he couldn't make it to swim club today.  I really don't mind being the slowest.  It means I have the most room for improvement and will probably benefit most from being there.  I love being surrounded by faster swimmers because it's inspiring.  I'm not sure they all love having me there though. I'm kind of like the "difficult" child at school who takes all the teacher's time.  I ask a lot of questions and probably get more of our coach's attention than anyone else.  Oh well.  Too bad for them that they're not as slow as me.

I ran 21 km last Monday and it felt kinda brutal.  Our 10 day holiday really gave my fitness a kick in the pants.  It seems like my hamstrings and IT band tightened up and it's causing me a little knee pain.  Yep, I like to self-diagnose.  So I have 2 weeks to get my butt in gear and ready for the Harvest Half Marathon.  My fitness is not going to be at the same level it was for the Hawaii half Ironman.  At that race I ran the half in 1:55 after swimming 2 km and biking 90 km. Plus it was a tough, hilly course.  At the Harvest Half I think I'll be aiming to go sub 2 hours.  It's the off season for me, so I'm focusing more on swimming and strength training and well, having fun.

Swim Club

I started swim club today with my dad.  He sent me this picture last week, joking that he'd be wearing a pair of "skimpies" like this.  Those stripes are highly unflattering.

As we headed over, I felt grateful to be trying something new.  I had that blessed apprehension that comes when you put yourself outside of your comfort zone. I hope that as an adult, I am continually willing to do this.  I could see how my life could go either way: I could continue doing "comfortable" things that are familiar or I could swallow my pride and head out into the unknown for adventures.  Swim club is one of those unknown adventures to me.

I can already see that my swimming is going to improve by participating.  Our coach made us more aware of the 29 muscles in our core and the importance of firing these muscles to have correct body position.  I feel like that's going to be key for me.  The first Tuesday of every month (starting in October) we are going to do time trials of 500 m, 1000 m and 1500 m.  For the first month, she's having us work more on our kick to strengthen up our legs.  Now, I have never really attempted the dolphin kick previously, except in jest but apparently this is one of our coach's favorites.  I told my dad as we drove home that from now on if I ever need a reason to smile I will picture in my mind him doing the dolphin kick.  He said he noticed a few lifeguards gather on the edge of the pool, possibly to observe his attempts.  He claimed to have a hard time making it fluid.

Joking aside though, I am really grateful to spend this time with my dad and glad that he's up for an adventure with me.  I'm looking forward to spending more time together. I'm also looking forward to seeing my swimming improve.  Look out triathlon world, I'm going to be coming out of the water quicker from now on.

Me and my dad before the chinook tri a few years ago.

Olympic fever.

Any of you see the Nike commercial during the Olympics??

Well, it entered my subconscious and I've been thinking a lot about greatness lately.  What is greatness?  How do I achieve it?  What does it look like in my life and sphere of influence?  These questions have really been weighing on me.

These are big and tricky questions.  I don't have the answers.  I've just been doing a lot of brainstorming. I've been reflecting on the races that Adam and I have completed this past year.  We now have the title, 'ironman' but does that title make us great?  Perhaps in that area of life but what about the other areas? Greatness as a mother, as a wife, as a friend etc.  Greatness in these areas becomes a little more vague.  There isn't a race to complete and the process is ongoing.  The results can't be measured by a finishing time.  So how are they measured??  Even in my ironman race, the finishing time was awful but I overcame so much to finish, qualifying for a measure of greatness because of the enormity of the task. Also, every athlete knows that greatness isn't achieved in the race, it's achieved in the training.  It's day in and day out, putting in the hours and the time and walking up to that starting line PREPARED.  That is a measure of greatness.

I think it's a case of "Olympic fever".  At least that's what I'm going to label it.  Me and Adam have been such hard core Olympic fans.  We normally watch zero television but we ordered cable just for the Olympics.  Yeah, we're that hard core.  Watching all these athletes compete awakened in me the dreams that I have of being a world class athlete.  But, even my ever encouraging parents had to be realistic when I asked them if they thought I could make it to the Olympics.  My dad smiled and said, "in what event?"  "In triathlon", I responded.  Out of love he resisted bursting out laughing, as we both know that I'm too old to start down that path.  So that left me with a feeling of "then what??"  If not the Olympics, where am I going to find my greatness?

I felt a measure of greatness here.

But that greatness would be empty and short-lived if that's the only area that I felt like I was experiencing greatness.  So here are some of my thoughts...

Greatness is sometimes visible to many, sometimes visible to only yourself and God.  Some of my greatest moments in life had no applause or approval.  My only reward for these quiet acts was a sense of peace and a comfort that I had done something good.

I think greatness involves planning with wisdom and then having the discipline to execute that plan.  Sometimes wise planning requires relying on the wisdom of someone else.  There's no way I could have prepared well for Ironman without a coach.  Other areas of life require relying on the wisdom of others too....like in motherhood.

Greatness sometimes involves doing something different or unusual and it something involves doing something very ordinary.  Some may see greatness in my races and athletic pursuits but I see greatness in a friend of mine who, from my perspective, excels as a mother.  Greatness can be ordinary, or not.

Greatness might have something to do with fulfilling a divine mission.  I believe that God has a plan for our lives. There will be callings that will come to each of us, some 'official', some very unofficial and personal.  When we embrace and fulfill these callings, that is greatness.  Some of these callings will only come into our lives as we have an open mind, are willing and are courageous.

I have wondered whether to continue with this blog.  The only reason I do it is to inspire and help others.  I have a journal and I enjoy writing in it, so that's not why I blog.  I try not to be a prideful boaster, so that's not why I blog.  I love people. I want to do my eensy weensy part to help others, so I figure a blog can help me do a bit of good in the world.  I want others to dream and set goals.  I do not think everyone should do triathlons though.  Two reasons for that:  then the sport would get more competitive (wink, wink) and I would have a hard time getting a top finish AND greatness looks different in every person's life.  What I hope for you is that you will take a look at your life, have a conversation (or many) with God and try to figure out what greatness means for you in your life at this time.  Be open to things you may not have considered.  Be willing to dream. Be willing to do things that are amazing.  Be willing to do things that are simple and receive no applause.  Be willing to be great.

Sometimes mom whines too.

In the past three Saturdays we have biked for over 150 kms as a family.
The first Saturday, we biked from Canmore to Lake Minnewanka to Banff and back.  Wow, the scenery was incredible.  The climb to Lake Minnewanka was challenging, as it was a pretty long uphill but then it was a tonne of fun going back down.  When we asked our kids what their favorite part of that ride was, they said it was the ice cream we had in Banff.  Not the world-class scenery, it was the ice cream.  All right.  At least they appreciate a good Mcdonald's cone.  It did taste pretty amazing but most things do when you've worked up an appetite by exercising outside.

The next Saturday we parked up at Pierce Estate park and biked over to the Stampede grounds, around behind the Talisman Centre and then down to the Glenmore Reservoir and back.  A good reminder that you really haven't seen the beauty that Calgary has to offer until you've hit the trail system.  It is so incredible.

This past Saturday we decided to start from our house and ride over to the Glenmore reservoir and back.  My legs were tired to start with because I had been doing weights all week and had run almost 2 hours the day before.  It was a 58 km loop and as you can imagine, Adam and I end up doing most of the work pulling the tag along bikes.  The kids do pedal but it's kind of a casual rotation of the crank, rather than a real driving push.

As we got closer to the turnaround point, Adam seemed like he wanted to go for the yellow jersey and I had a hard time keeping up.  This annoyed me somewhat, so I may or may not have done some whining about that when we stopped for our snack.  Then Adam noticed that Riley's front tooth was looking gray-ish.  It's been loose for weeks but he has resisted our attempts to let us pull it out because he wanted it to "fall out on it's own."  We've respected his agency, trying to give him control over his own body but we reminded him that the tooth needed to come out.  So he turned away, gave it a pull himself and out flew the tooth into a pile of gravel.  Hmmm....that's great, but now we need to actually find it.

After finding the little item, we headed back.  This time I was determined to win the jersey and asked Adam if Kyla and I could lead.  We make it back to the Ranche (25km) in an hour.  After another snack/washroom break we started on the last short leg home. Adam thought we should loop around to the north bridge but as we started that way I realized my legs were shot and I was officially a whiny momma.  Adam said, "if you stop whining I'll give you a foot rub when we get home."  He also reminded me of the quote by Jeffrey R Holland that I always remind him of when he's the whiny one.  "Nothing is so bad that whining won't make it worse."  My mature little four year old was also buoying me up from behind.  "Mom, don't worry, we're almost there.  Just enjoy it."

Sometimes mom whines too.

Oh and we've decided that we are now the touring Mexicans.

Adventures and Strength Training

Adam and I have had some great adventures this past year.  

Now I want to have some great adventures with my kids.  Even at their young age, I think there's so much we could do together as a family, especially if we think creatively.

So this Saturday we are going on a bike adventure.  There's a beautiful paved path that's about 60 km round trip.  We'll have two tandem style bikes, so that we do the majority of the work but it's still a team effort and a family accomplishment. When I presented the idea to the kids Kyla said, "I better do my morning stretches that day so I have enough energy." 

Here's our little athletes in a fun run they did a few weekends ago. 

This weekend I designed a Triathlon Strength Training Program.  It's based on some ideas from Mark Allen, who is an Ironman Champion.  This morning I went through the exercises and figured out my starting weight for each move.  I realized how much I love strength training.  It's been awhile, so I've forgotten the feeling of strain, effort and fatigue that come from it.  I loved how achy and tingly my body felt afterwards.  I also love that by incorporating strength training into my workouts I will be a faster triathlete.  One of my favorite moves is a hip flexor cable thrust.  Such an important muscle for both running and cycling, that often gets overlooked.

I am pretty sure that I'll be doing a half marathon in the fall.  We are just working out the details of our family vacation plans, so once we figure that out I will register.  Adam wants to join a master swim club and I figure I probably should do that, since the swim is my weakest of the three.  The thing is, I just love running so much that I'd rather focus on that.  Hmmm....what to do???

Magrath Olympic Tri

Driving over to the race I started to feel nervous (yep I still feel nervous for every race) and I thought, "why do I do this to myself".  It was 6AM and I could have been at home sleeping in my comfortable bed.  But instead I was about to put my body through a short and intense triathlon.  I must be such a succor for punishment.  Even well I thought that, I knew that as soon as I started racing I would be having the time of my life because I love to race.  Even though it hurts, it feels amazing to push yourself that way.

Putting on a wet suit is such an attractive experience:

The first lap of the swim was kind of rough.  People seemed more aggressive that usual.  I was kind of jostling for position with this guy next to me, when he stroked hard near my face and ripped off my goggles.  I grabbed them and thought to myself, "hmmm...I've been wondering what it would feel like to have your goggles ripped off.  That really wasn't so bad."  Then almost as soon as I got them back on, someone else punched me pretty hard in the head.  So I decided to look for some room and quit trying to jostle so much.  The second lap I got into a beautiful rythym.  It's kind of magical when that happens.  I felt relaxed.  My stroke was strong and smooth and my breathing was full and relaxed.  I was loving it.

Then I pulled strong on the last stretch and came up out of the water to the sound of the cheering crowds and noticed this tall man next to me who looked familiar.  "Is that Adam? No, it can't be? Wait, it is!"  So I shouted, "Ad!" a few times as we jogged over to transition and he looked around confused, thinking it was a spectator calling him.  Finally he saw me and looked stunned, saying nothing.  I was like, "are you ok?",  thinking something must have gone wrong.  He responded, "yep."  So I started thinking back to whether or not I had rounded all the buoys.  We said nothing else cause we were both trying to hurry but when I stopped at my transition spot Adam grabbed my wet suit zipper and pulled it down.  A nice gesture considering he was in a moment of great defeat at having his wife match him on the swim.  My swim time: 30:57.60.  Adam's swim time: 30:57.95.

It drizzled rain through the bike, so the conditions weren't ideal.  The first segment of the bike was an out and back, so I counted the women ahead of me.  There were 9.  I wanted to pass them all.  I pushed hard and could feel the lactic acid building in my legs, especially as I climbed the hills.  I didn't care though.  I was hoping my body would flush it out before the run but that didn't happen.  I finished the 40 km bike in 1 hour 10 min plus a couple minutes for transitions. 

After running the Raymond 10km race in an aerobic heart rate zone and experiencing how uncomfortable that is, I decided to race the first half of the run aerobically.  My legs felt like lead, so I quickly realized that because I had pushed hard on the bike, there was no chance of a sub 45min run.  I adjusted my goal to be a sub 50 min run.  I ended up making that goal (barely) and had an overall time of 2:32.56.  Wasn't quite what I had dreamed of but it's still a personal best for me.  I was the 5th overall female.

Adam finished in 2:19.46 and was 7th overall.

We are so grateful for all the races we've been able to do this past year.  It's been an amazing adventure and we're both really proud of each other and grateful for all the adventures!!

I LOVE having friends and family to race with.  Macey and Sheryl, you both did amazing!