Just a quick note to let everyone know that I have had a couple of good weekends of racing - a second to legendary Lisa Bentley at the Muskoka Long Course on June 14th and a 3rd at the ITU race in Quebec on June 20th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzhtleBUfik

A couple of pics to share -

The first is of a race in To in early spring (were I podiumed! hello heeled foot!) and the second is of the Toronto Trek Store Women Who Ride club (which I have been honoured to lead this summer).

The problem with this blog thing is that I leave it so long to update and then I can't decide on what piece of news I should write about when I finally buckle down and write.

Should I write about how, when I was waiting on my bike at a stop light in downtown TO, and blind man got his cane stuck in my spokes and started screaming at me? Or should I recap my race in St Croix and include some pictures of other goings-ons?

I should probably recap the St Croix race.

I was feeling a little flat going into the race. Since this was my first 1/2 iron we could chalk this up to nerves, but it was a bit bothersome. I was used to feeling much more energized and ready to go.

As it was, I was there to explore the distance. To be honest, I was there to pace and not to race. I wanted to come away with a complete understanding of the distance. I did not want to DNF by racing too hard too early.

I liked the swim because it was technical and warm. The swim start was calm compared to ITU starts and this set me up for a decent swim. I have not spent a lot of time developing swim speed this year so I ended feeling steady, but not speedy. I came out of the water in 5th. I would like to improve this in the next races. l

My plan was to output a tempo effort on my Trek until I was past the Beast. And then I planned to gradually increase the pace. I stuck to my plan, closely watching my power and HR. It was REALLY frustrating to watch girls go by me in packs and not even try to latch on(yes, packs! I was told AFTER the race that "no one has ever been dq'd or been given a penalty at this Island race. hmm). I cruised along, hydrating and 'geling' until the Beast. Made it up the Beast - I had to work hard, but it was totally manageable. My home stay dad had completely freaked me out about the hill and asked me after the race if I had had to walk it. I am sure he was convinced that I was going to fall off my bike.

My back had started to hurt (I had been fighting a tweaked psoas) a little before the Beast and it continued to be uncomfortable through the rest of the ride. This was a bit of distraction, but I still managed to stick to my plan. The rough roads on the island didn't make it any easier on the back. I found once I was passed the Beast I started to get a bit bored. I think there were two reasons for this: First, I am soo used to have people around me in the draft legal racing and second, IT IS 90 KMS OF BIKING (just joking, the second reason is because I wasn't really RACING the race). Hopefully I will be more engaged during the next race!

Out on the run I felt great, but again I held back. I saw a bunch of people ahead of me that I could pass, but as my new run coach (Nicole Stevenson) told me, patience, patience, patience. I stuck to a tempo effort and the girls that were going to come back to me did. I had fun on the run - except for the blisters (see post below) - and I managed to squeak into the top 10.

I was racing in the newest technical suit from Sugoi that I got from Swim and Sport and it was super comfortable. I was worried about chaffing, but the material was super comfortable in all the right places ;). After talking to some more experienced racers I was also worried about the fact that it was a one piece uniform. Lisa Bentley and others say they race in two pieces to make pit stops a little quicker. As it stood, I didn't have any potty issues. Thanks to Kevin Jardine and some great nutrition advice! Phew.


All in all it was a great experience. Made better by a wonderful homestay, great weather and my sponsors. Special thanks to SpiderTech for their help with the costs of my trip.

And btw - the blind man was wearing headphones. Does this seem weird to anyone?

This is why I now respect the 70.3 distance.

Well, I am going to be honest - I am glad that is over. I did my first half iron man yesterday and finished with a respectable 10th in a stacked field. Everyone kept saying that I chose the hardest course to make my long course debut. My plan for the day was to go hard on the swim, cruise at sub threshold until I made it past the 'Beast' (the 'Beast' is a 1.1 KM climb with an average grade of 14% and a max of 21%), work the rest of the bike at threshold if I could and then try to hit 4:15 per km on the run. The only part that really went to plan was the 'easy' part of the strategy which was the cruise part of the bike! It was a great learning experience - I will make some adjustments to equipement, warmup, race pacing and bike nutrition. I will follow up with a more complete race report and picks in the next few days.

Thanks for all the support in getting me here! In particular I wanted to thankSpiderTech for sponsoring the trip, my great homestay for their hospitality, Mike -and my family for their encouragement, and the rest of my amazing sponsors- Trek Toronto Store, Asics, Swim and Sports and AltitudeTech.

Just over one week until I race the longest race of my life! I changed my race plans slightly and as one of my supporters SpiderTech is sponsoring my trip to race in St Croix 70.3.

The training has been going really well. Today I banged out 20X100 long course on 1:16 with 10s rest. I was feeling a bit uneasy about the progress of my swim, but I am happy with the workout this morning. I would like to get this down to 1:14 average by the end of the summer, but I have lots of time for that.

The speed on my run had improved huge since I started working with Nicole Stevenson (one of the best marathoners in the country). I threw down several sub 3:20 kms last week with some even faster(shorter) stuff this week in prep for the race next week. She has been forcing me to do a ton of pace stuff which I think will pay off (given my pacing mishap in Jan during the half marathon).

Mike and I just got back from Boston where he was running the marathon. More on that and other goings on soon.

Allo all! It has been awhile. All is well here in Toronto. Winter training has gone well...not having broken any bones is a 100000% improvement over this time last year. I had a little cry on the anniversary of my broken foot - only because I had an incredibly hard track workout that day and there was NO pain :)

Oh, tears of joy!

I will be doing some longer and non-drafting stuff this year. In prep for this new world of racing I did my first 1/2 marathon since I was 13 a couple of weeks ago. It went well for a first half - I went out too fast and crashed miserably at 13kms, but it was a great lesson. I managed to run the upper end of the pace I wanted, finishing in 1:28. It was way more painful that it should have been, but this is motivation to pace the distance better next time.


I have signed with the Trek Toronto Store and Asics again this year and I am super excited about the new equipement I will be using in 2009.