Chumbawamba had it right

Well I hate to say it but I'm still dealing with my little injury. My coach was very firm in telling me I will not be racing the Victoria Goddess Half this upcoming weekend. I'm pretty bummed out about it. I was really looking forward to running it with a great friend of mine (who happens to be a super hard core runner). I've been trying to figure out ways for me to still do it. Maybe run the 10km instead or even the 5km??? I have an Olympic distance triathlon in less then 3 weeks so my guess is my coach wants me to just get better before that race. Forget having fun we are getting down to business!

So the last week I've been slowly getting my running back. Just like Chumbawamba said: You get knocked down but you get back up again. I'll tell you it's only been a month of no running and I feel like I've lost all fitness even though I've been keeping it up in other ways like weight training, cycling and swimming. For some reason though it is super hard to get back into running. 

So this morning with a cool rainy morning My partner in crime "S" came over to help torture me in a crazy hour of Sufferfest. 

~We were on a break here~

Sufferfest is crazy hard and a wicked awesome windtrainer workout.

~We are so focused here~

After my bike session I put my runners on and went out for my run. Everything felt pretty good but I've still got something going on in my hip and I can guarantee the 1/2 marathon would break me. So I will slowly build everything back up!

This past weekend was the Shawnigan Lake Subaru Series Triathlon. I don't usually  race this one...

~It's usually bloody cold~

So I have decided to volunteer for this race. The last 2 years I have done it. This year I was a Marshal on the swim course and the Swim Captains Coordinator. Despite being at the race site for 5am it is always lots of fun.

As an athlete I think it is so important to volunteer at 1 or more events during the year. You definitely get a better perspective of all the planning and hard work that goes into these races. If there were no volunteers these races would not happen.

~last minute details of setting up the buoys, still dark out.~

~Transition is all ready to go~

~boats are in position~

~carpet is laid out~

~half iron distance get ready~

~and they are off~

I had a couple of friends racing this weekend and they all did fantastic. "Mr" from my "Mr. & Mrs." got second in his Olympic distance age group!!!! Another friend got 1st in her sprint age group. It was a bit of a cool drizzly day but they all seemed to have a fun time. 

On a last note I was going through some photos and found this great shot of myself with all of my fabulous training buddies. I love it!!!

Accomplishments and a fabulous gift from me to you

Hello friends, this morning I sit here on a cool dreary day contemplating what to write on the blog today. I know people come because it is a super fun, awesome training blog right? I have such great wit and humour and that is why you keep coming back right? Well today I have a great surprise/gift for you so keep reading...

This past weekend we had some damp weather so we had to get a little creative with what to do with our time. I am currently not running due to a weird injury. I don't like talking about injuries because they totally suck! I also seem to be a tad bit accident prone and yet again I am injured. I am currently getting treated with a super neat guy in Victoria who my training buddy "D" told me to go see and I am hoping to try a run tomorrow so please cross those fingers and toes for me.

So after a super wet Saturday "S" and I hit the pool. I love my saturday night swims. Usually my good buddies Mr. & Mrs. join me but they had company this weekend. "S" is working really hard on improving her stroke and I was just happy to help and I of course got some nice sprint sets in. I also spent most of my Saturday hanging out with my fab family at the Victoria Highland Games.

Sunday we hit the roads nice and early while we had a little sunshine. We decided to do a nice rolling hills ride today for 3 hours. I hate hills and "D" & "S" know this. Let me explain. I hate hills because I totally and utterly suck on them. However I am getting better and I am trying to embrace the hill climbing skills. Anyways, there is a crazy hilly area that my coach has been wanting me to do. Part of it has a 23% (It could be more) grade. This is the climb that I was under  the understanding we were doing. So between my injury from running and thinking we are about to do this ridiculous hill climb I was feeling a little cranky. So "D" & "S" told me to suck it up and I would be fine. So we head out and guess what? They forgot to tell me we weren't doing the 23% just the 15% ones and I made it! Know what else? It wasn't that hard. I did it. So the moral of this story is don't think too much about what you think you can't do. You never know if you can or can't until you try. 

~After our big climb~

I won't lie, I was a little tired that afternoon.

Monday we got up bright and early again and headed to the lake. We tackled a nice easy 2000 meter swim. The lake was pleasant. It makes me jealous that I'm not racing the Shawnigan Subaru Triathlon this weekend.

~Right before we dive in~

Now I don't know how many of you have worn a triathlon wetsuit but one of my fab co-ambassodors from See Jane Run wrote a super cute story of buying her first tri wet suit. You can see the story here: http://pleasurenotpunishment.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/the-one-where-she-buys-a-wetsuit/

Well, I hate to tell her the truth but getting the wetsuit on and off never gets any easier...

~This is my leg stuck in my wetsuit~

So today we have yet another rainy day and I have to take daughter 1 to her ballet rehearsal, go to a triathlon meeting for a race that I'm volunteering at this weekend, clean the house for company that arrives tomorrow and bake a cake. So I guess I'll be on the windtrainer at 9pm tonight. I like to think that I'm not crazy, just dedicated.

SO I promised I had a surprise for you. Now that I am a Jane I will have a lot more contests and gifts for my readers so make sure you follow me and like me on facebook too. 

Today I have a gift code for you to get 10% off of the See Jan Run Seattle Half Marathon & 5K!

All you do is go sign up for your race here: http://www.seejanerun.com/t-See-Jane-Run-SEATTLE-Half-Marathon-and-5K.aspx

and use this code: SJRSEAAMB13

Dreams do come true

I have been bursting at the seems to share my exciting news...

I am officially a See Jane Run Ambassador. I have to be completely honest. I have never viewed myself as a runner. I only did it because I love triathlon so much and well, you need to run the last leg. This past year I have worked extremely hard to improve my running. I have been working with an amazing elite runner who graciously offers running clinics in our area. I hired a triathlon coach who has emphasized the importance of my running to improve my triathlon. I've been embraced by the best of friends and family who have encouraged me to no end and finally I can call myself a runner. I don't know if it was when I completed my first 1/2 marathon (April 2013) or that I have a new 10km PR. I'm guessing that it is because I am now a Jane!!!! For those of you that don't know about See Jane Run they are an amazing company that is owed and operated by women!!! They also put on some fabulous races that serve up chocolate and champagne!!! Yes, they do know women!!! I am so honoured to be a part of this fabulous community and I hope I make them proud.

Now what have I been up to this week?

That's right, my awesome training buddy and I got our first open water swim in. You know what? It was actually quite pleasant. I think the water was warmer than last year. We did a ride right after too but I felt a little chilled on the ride. 

I am on a rest week now so the family took me camping for Mother's Day.

~My 3 crazy girls~

I had a nice relaxing few days. Some lovely walks on the beach, sitting around the campfire roasting vegan marshmallows and putting my feet up to read a book. My coach even called to wish me a Happy Mothers Day and ensure I was indeed taking it easy.

Happy Mothers Day to all you fabulous Mom's out there!

The faster you run, the faster you get home.

If I have learned anything through my journey to my first 70.3 is that not all training days are good. In fact I have quite a few days that haven't been good. Don't get me wrong, I love the training, I love being outside but there is nothing worse then feeling defeated by the elements. I've been battling the odd injury. It seems every other month something creeps up on me. I've have shoulder pain, knee pain, hip pain. Fortunately it's not always the same spot. As a massage practitioner that is great news. It means I'm not doing anything funky that is affecting something specific. All of these injury's are just due to lots of hard work. 

This past weekend we had absolute amazing weather.

This was on my way home from my 7pm run. It was still terribly warm. I guess I need to start getting used to the heat.

I got in 2 fabulous bike rides one of them being an 80km steady state. It made me happy. However Sunday I had to get in a long run. I was supposed to do it right after a short bike ride but it was so stinking hot I waited until 7pm. It was still stinking hot. I headed out with my legs feeling a little heavy but I got into a grove. My best bud drove by and I got a 5minute break to chat. I started at it again and realized I should not have taken that 5 minute break : (

I just felt off. Then 6 km in my knee started hurting so I backed off a bit. Felt not too bad so I picked up the pace again.Then my knee hurt. This is how the entire run went. However, I did end up just walking home the last 2km. I was hurting. I was mad. I was disappointed, and I ran out of water

Barely a drip left.

I hate that feeling of disappointment. I felt I just didn't get in a good workout. Was I wasting my time? Am I on a downward spiral? It's less than 3 months away until my Ironman and all of a sudden all of these weird injuries are creeping up. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty low until a friendly face was wandering down the street as I made my way home:

She sure brightened my day!

So, what do you do when you have a bad training day? You go home, put your feet up and ice that injury, call your physio and hope it was just another hiccup that will pass just as fast as it came on.

Stay tuned I have some exciting news!!!!

Training so hard he split his pants!

I think I may just have had the best training week EVER!!!! Both Thursday and Friday I got to enjoy 2 spectacular rides. Nothing of great distance jut 50km and 70km but my legs felt great. I didn't feel like I was struggling at any point and I felt like I could just keep peddling forever. Saturday I got back into the pool after a week and a half of a break due to a very strange sore shoulder. I took it pretty easy but I think I will be ready to swim with the Masters club tonight. Yesterday I participated in the Victoria TC 10km. I've never run it before but my friend convinced me to be on her team and it was all just for fun so I thought why not? I didn't expect a very fast time because it is sooooo busy. Well boy was I wrong. I just ran my fastest 10km ever. I beat my previous PB by 4 minutes. 

So after all of these great workouts it hit me that my training is paying off!

Back to my Saturday swim though...

I have a great group of friends whom I do almost all of my training with. D who is this crazy 59 year old who is super hard core. He keeps me up to par with lots of fun rides and many running drills. Then there is S who I have mentioned before. She is a badass cycling chick who makes me want to cry when she hammers up hills. Luckily I'm only slightly better at swimming so that we even out the playing field. Then I have the Mr. & Mrs. Mr. is a super duper Ironman. He is full of amazing information and tips leading up to my own Ironman even if it is only 70.3. His wife is the most amazing Naturopath in the whole wide world and the two of them combined equals major cuteness!!!They are my main crew. They are the ones I spend many hours on the road and in the water. I love them all dearly and they are the reason I am achieving such great goals.

Anyways, Mr. & Mrs. almost always spend Saturday nights in the pool with me. We usually get 3 lanes to ourselves and the rest of the pool isn't too busy either. Well, after a nice swim we hit the hot tub and Mr. is sitting on the side probably lecturing me on my nutrition on the bike as he always does when all of a sudden his facial expression changes to concern. Mrs. and I look at each other wondering what went wrong when Mr. announces he just split his swim shorts. I have no idea what got over me but I looked right at him and burst out laughing. Actually I think I had uncontrollable laughter. It's a good thing Mrs. is so nice and thoughtful. She ran and got a towel for him. Lucky for him we were there. Otherwise I think Mr. may have had to sprint to a change room while the lifeguards hunt him down for running on deck. 

So once we got out to our cars We got a closer look of the damage:

He was such a good sport letting us laugh at his expense. 

The crazier thing is I have another friend who had the same thing happen to her. She wasn't as lucky to have friends laugh at her but some stranger had to tell her the bad news.

Before I go today I just wanted to share the latest thing on my wish list. I'm still not sure I'm worthy of an aero helmet but if I do get good enough to warrant one this is the one I would pick:

I think it would suit me just fine.

All this paperwork is tough

Again I have to apologize for my lack of blogging. Keeping up with all this paperwork is tough business. First up...

I won the underwater ipod!!!! I have had it for a few weeks now and it really does help me get into the pool. I absolutely LOVE it!!!!

Next up is all of this training. I have to say I actually really enjoy it. Lots of ups and downs. Overall though, it makes me happy. I'm just coming off of a rest week and I believe I will be getting into the more core part of my training plan. My coach has warned me. Yikes!!!! The good news is I think I'm on track and my coach is happy so this means all is well. As long as I don't injure myself I think it will all pan out nicely. 

My new bike is working out fabulous. I honestly had no idea that a better bike does help your riding. I still totally suck on hills but I don't suck as bad as I used to.

My next big news was I completed my very first half marathon. I did the Comox half at the end of March and was pleasantly surprised with my final time of 2:03:12. It was a great race. Lots of my friends were there racing especially my favourite vegan...

Sandra and I are both vegan athletes not that we boast much about it. She is a total rockstar though. I am so happy to have her in my life. This was when we were 1/2 marathon virgins (about 10 minutes before we started the race).  The best thing about this race is I finished strong. I actually sprinted the last kilometre. So now that that's under my belt I am definitely ready for my 1st half Ironman!

Now I am taking a small break from racing. Come June first though I will be a busy girl. I promise to keep you posted ; )

Looking good

I just got a special delivery this week...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   My brand spanking new custom made Berg bike!!!! I have been waiting for this beauty for quite some time. It took a lot of convincing for my husband but once he say the look on my face when I started riding it around my house (yes I rode it in my house) he knew I was one happy chick!                               I got to take it out on the rode yesterday and all I can say is WOW!!! That is one awesome bike. Custom is definitely the way to go.                                                                                                        Some other good news is I got back in the water Monday night after avoiding the pool like the plague from my terrible triathlon swim. I'm still upset about it. I know I just need to move on but there is always that how could I have done better instinct. Well for one if I had been doing all of my training with the Underwater Audio ipod shuffle I would have been first out of the pool ; ) I wrote a post about this the other day and one of the questions was how did I find out about the Underwater audio ipod shuffle  and I thought it was through my friend and Mentor Gillian Clayton. I was wrong. I had googled mp3 players that work in pools last year because I was getting sooooo bored in the pool.  It was around Christmas time when I was checking out Gillian's blog that it reminded me how much I wanted a Underwater Audio ipod shuffle  so then my wishlist began. Underwater Audio has fabulous reviews so hopefully someone is listening to my wishes and will grant me a fabulous Underwater Audio ipod shuffle to make my swimming complete!!!                                                                        Now that I am training for my first Ironman I need this more than anything. So is anyone listening to my wish????