I know it has been a VERY, VERY long time! I apologize, I have allowed life to get in the way and keep me from getting the record I would like of my training. I have now completed a major goal in my life, that is the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco and I am ready to write about it. But in the interest of recording my training I realized I need to fill in the details of training between Aug. 23^rd (the Apple Triathlon) and Oct. 18^th at the Marathon.

So the chronicle of my adventures is following. Not very entertaining but a good summary for reference:

August 24^th – 30^th

Wednesday, Aug. 26^th – Aquaciser at MaxFit

• Time – 53:42, Avg HR: 119, Max HR:163
• Speed repeats up to 5.5 on the under water treadmill

Thursday, Aug. 27^th – Track workout with Robert

• Time – 51:56, 3.64 km
• Running bleachers and a lap with the weight vest on, crunches, burpees, squats, ball jumps, then finishing with 4 widths of the football field with 2 parachutes on.
• 3 sets of the above
• Avg HR: 140, Max HR: 169

Sunday, Aug. 30^th – 38km Long Run

• Time – 4:07:56, 38 km, 2474 calories burned
• Avg pace: 6:57 m/km, Avg HR: 133, Max HR:151

August 31^st – September 6^th

Rest Week

September 7^th – 13^th

Monday, Sept. 7^th – 32km Long Run, Faster Pace (Burnaby Lake trail x 3)

• Time – 3:09:45, 32 km, 2005 calories burned
• Avg pace: 6:36 m/km, Avg HR: 142, Max HR: 155

Thursday, Sept. 10 – Aquaciser at MaxFit

• Time – 51:46, Avg HR: 131, Max HR: 169

Sunday, Sept. 13 – 32km Long Run

• Time – 3:36:03, 32km, 2192 calories buned
• Avg Pace: 6:49 m/km, Avg HR: 143, Max HR: 167

September 14^th – 20^th

Wednesday, Sept. 16 – Tempo Run

• Time – 47:00, 8 km
• Avg Pace: 5:52 m/km, Avg HR: 142, Max HR: 163

Thursday, Sept. 17 – Gym workout w/Robert

• Time – 51:47
• Avg HR: `123, Max HR: 172

Sunday, Sept. 20 – 42km Long Run

• Time – 4:44:56, 42.1km, 2889 calories burned
• Avg pace: 6:52, Avg HR: 138, Max HR: 166

September 21^st – 27^th

Wednesday, Sept. 23^rd – Speed Intervals at Track

• Time – 55mins, 10km
• 10 x 1km repeats at ½ Marathon Pace
• Avg Pace: 5:29 m/km, Avg HR: 153, Max HR: 161

Thursday, Sept. 24^th – Swim lesson w/Rose

• Time – 1:20, lots of drills and repeats

Saturday, Sept. 26^th – 22km Long run

• Time – 2:36:33, 22.14 km, 1544 calories burned
• Avg Pace: 7:04, Avg HR: 131, Max HR: 161

September 28^th – October 4^th

Monday, Sept. 28^th – Hill workout on Treadmill (on the cruiseship, blech… talk about seasickness!)

• Time – 1:01:23, Avg HR 127, Max HR 167

Wednesday, Sept. 30^th – Swim practice, Drills

• Time – 1:00, 1100 metres

Thursday, Oct. 1^st – Hill Repeats

• 3-4% grade, 5 x 3min repeats, 6min walk/jog down for recovery, total distance: 7km
• Avg pace: 8:03, Avg HR 143, Max HR 168

Friday, Oct. 2^nd – Swim Lesson w/Rose and Valencia

• Time – 1:15

Sunday, Oct. 4^th – 19 km Long Run

• Time – 2:00, 19.06 km, 1316 calories burned
• Avg Pace 6:33, Avg HR 143, Max HR 168

October 5^th – 11^th

Tuesday, Oct. 6^th – Marathon Pace work

• 10 x 1km repeats at Marathon pace, 1 min walk recovery between each
• Distance – 10.50km, Average pace 5:45, Avg HR 145, Max HR 153, 1173 calories burned

Wednesday, Oct. 7^th – Swim Work Out/Drills

• Time – 1:00, 1100 metres

Thursday, Oct. 8^th – Marathon Pace Work

• 5km x 2 repeats at Marathon pace, Time – 1:08, 11.76 km
• 1^st 5km: Avg Pace 5:46, Avg HR 144, Max HR 148
• 2^nd 5km: Avg Pace 5:46, Avg HR 146, Max HR 150

Sunday, Oct. 11^th – 10km Long Run

• Time – 1:03, 9.98 km, 690 calories burned
• Avg Pace 6:14, Avg HR 137, Max HR 166

October 12^th – 18^th

Wednesday, Oct. 14^th – Marathon Pace Work

• Time – 45 mins, 7 km
• Avg Pace 5:47, Avg HR 140, Max HR 151

Sunday, Oct. 18^th – MARATHON!

• Swim: 46:39, 6:14/100m
• T1: 4:48
• Bike: 46:26, 25.8 km/h
• T2: 2:27
• Run: 28:24, 5:41 min/km
• Overall time: 2:08:42

At the flag people I hopped onto my bike and clipped my feet into the pedals… so far so good. Darryl and I had jimmied around with the clips on the shoes to try and get both shoes to clip in at the same place but I hadn’t tried them since we did our adjustments. It occurred to me that might have been a bad idea but so far I was ok.

I clipped in and took the first left turn and tried to slow my heart rate just a little before I hit the hill that was coming up. At this point I think I was still riding a “survival high” from the swim. I had a smile on my face from ear-to-ear and I was giddily thanking all of the race volunteers as I rode. I think a suggestion of letting the volunteers know you appreciate them was planted in my head the day before at the pre-race briefing and it seemed to be playing over and over out of my mouth! Oh well, they seemed to enjoy it and it didn’t hurt me at all.

Pretty quickly I was at the bottom of the hill and started shifting down onto the lower gears to start the ascent. All of that seemed good as well, I had had the bike dude perform a small adjustment at the bike check station the day before and it seemed to be working better than it ever had. I was feeling shaky but strong (I know it doesn’t seem possible but it was true) my heart was still racing but I actually passed some slower people on the hill and as you can see by the photo my “survival smile” is still glued to my face. The photo was taken just prior to the last 1/3 of the hill which was the steepest bit. I came up that portion breathing pretty heavy and took the turn onto the path that joined the route to the next street and all of a sudden up ahead I saw someone in a Merrell Tri-suit pulled over on the side wrestling with a bike! As I rode closer I realized OMG it is Valencia! The only thought that went through my mind was if she doesn’t finish this race due to some technical difficulty her world is going to end… As I approached her I shouted to find out what was wrong, she told me she had blown a tire – her rear tire of all things! Our tire change clinic was all on changing the front tire, the only thing said about the rear tire is that it is more difficult but happens very rarely, oh bad, bad! Valencia quickly told me that the guy helping her was from a bike shop and she would be ok, that I should keep going. I agreed b/c she was on her 2^nd lap while I was just starting my 1^st. So I kept riding praying that she got that thing changed and completed the bike portion.

Then I was into the super-fast-zoom-zoom portion of the ride, oh it was bliss but my heart still hadn’t stopped hammering at 100+ per minute. I came through the flat spot and up around the next corner and over the small hill when all of a sudden I saw Len (another Merrell tri-suit on the side of the road wrestling with his bike) off to the side of the road. I shouted asking what the problem was and he told me his chain had fallen off at which point I hopped off my bike b/c this problem I knew about! This I could at least help with. It also brings to mind the in depth discussion Sandy, Len, Geoff, Darryl, and I had at the bike store the day before. It was all about whether if one of us was in trouble the others would stop. The options were varied one view was that you shouldn’t stop b/c a triathlete should be prepared to deal with whatever comes up and shouldn’t need your help, and others were dead certain they would stop, and I was unsure, I didn’t know if I would simply toss the stuff to the person in need and maybe keep going or get off the bike and lend a hand. In this case I didn’t even think about it I hopped off the bike. Of course it wasn’t like I was going to win this race and the extra minutes helping Len were going to change much for me…

When I jumped off we started to put the chain back on but then realized the chain was completely jammed in between the 2 front sprockets – no amount of pulling seemed to be helping. Just at that moment the fellow at the house we were in front of poked his out from behind the hood of the old car he was working on and asked if we needed any tools! Uh YES! He came over and Len waved me on to keep cycling… he was also on his 2^nd lap so I hopped back on, clipped in, and took off. The rest of the loop was just smooth and easy. It was work but compared to what I had gone through with the swim it was simple. Some heavy breathing, tired muscles, exhausted brain – NO PROBLEM! Then I came around the corner to start my second loop and my people were screaming and yelling and hooting and cheering for ME!! It was sooo great, again I got all emotional. As a speedy biker passed me she commented on how great my fans were and she was absolutely correct they were fantastic. I didn’t even notice that she was passing me while she said it!

Onto the second loop, the hill was significantly harder the second time around but happily it is a short one so I just kept powering through it. Thankfully Valencia was gone and must have completed her bike portion, Len as well. I zoomed into the home stretch and zipped past my adoring crowds again, hopped off the bike and ran into the transition zone. Bike racked, helmet off, bike shoes off, cap on, runners on, swallow a gel and some water, and out the run exit!

Ooooo and were my legs and feet protesting! HOLY! I didn’t have the heavy brick feeling (or maybe I did, but I couldn’t tell b/c it was completely masked by the crazy cramping in my shins and feet) unbelievable nasty feeling! I kept running and wishing/waiting for the cramps to stop, each step was pretty excruciating but I managed to keep a good pace in that first km despite the cramping. I was still riding the high with the big, silly-ass grin on my face as I ran through that first section around the convention center when one of the volunteers actually told me “If you can smile that big you can run faster!” Yeah, and if I can smile that big I can kick your ass too! Smart ass! That was as bad as the guy way back at the Vancouver Marathon yelling “don’t leave anything behind, give it everything” over and over again. I wanted to punch him as well, I don’t actually care if they are speaking the truth!

When I got to a section where there were hardly any spectators (b/c I still had some level of pride left) I stopped for 30 seconds and quickly rolled out my ankles and stretched my foot to try to stop the cramping, it may have been the key b/c the pain started easing up soon after, or it maybe would have anyway. Who knows?! I did stop at a couple water stations briefly to throw back some water (the gel was sticky sweet in my mouth and I needed to dilute it a little more) and slowly I was calming down and into a better running mentality. As I looped around the track at the farthest south portion of the run where you move across to the pathway along the water I passed one of the volunteers who looked at me with pride and admiration while she shouted “you are the first woman to go through!!” I shouted back “I’m still with the sprint wave, not the Olympic!!” She looked so disappointed, poor thing.

I kept running and suddenly realized that I was getting really close to the finish line, I was now running along the walk that skirted the swim course and was coming up over the little bridge. Now I started pouring it on and it felt so good (note to self, there was a lot left for the run – start that sooner!) I ran into the finisher chute and I could hear the cheering begin! There they were again, all my friends and husband, it doesn’t get much better than getting cheered through the gate! I went through, they took my timing chip and I moved into the food area. Got myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich and a cookie and went to find the best fans a triathlete could ever have. I found them at the finish line where I last heard them screaming their heads off and Darryl and I both shared an emotional moment! I was so pleased to have him there; it was fantastic to know he was watching me the whole way. I love him; he is the best husband and friend anywhere! DMack is my hero! Then there were the triumphant hugs with my fellow competitors and congratulations from the other friends and supporters. What a rush it all was… and did I mention I lived??? Fantastic!

• Swim: 46:39, 6:14/100m
• T1: 4:48
• Bike: 46:26, 25.8 km/h
• T2: 2:27
• Run: 28:24, 5:41 min/km
• Overall time: 2:08:42
• Rank 167

And here we are at race day. Unbelievable! It seemed when I took the first swimming lesson at the end of March that the Triathlon was a long, long time away and for sure I would be a fantastic swimmer by then. Well, I’m a swimmer that much is true…

We had everything ready the night before, packed our transition bags and went through all the possible things we might need. Everybody was far more subdued than the night before when we were joking about our electrolyte “high”. I think everyone even got to bed by 10:00. The alarms were set for 4:30; and the plan was the competitors were leaving the house at 5:30 for marking and transition set-up, while the support crew would leave at 6:30 to meet us prior to race start.

We were all up and having our various pre-race breakfast (although some weren’t really able to eat anything). Valencia rounded us all up and into the car. Once we were in the car and turning around in the driveway Valencia turned to us and said “ok everyone, last chance to make sure we have everything, everyone has their helmets, shoes, goggles… goggles OH MY GOD I FORGOT MY GOGGLES!!” Unbelievable, the most amped up over-organized, keener had left her goggles on her dresser in her room! She raced back into the house and grabbed them. But because of that (the totally organized one forgetting such a key piece of equipment) all of us were shaken and had to get out of the car and visually check our bags for all the important items. After a slight delay we left the house and headed down to the race.

We managed to find a primo spot 1 block from the marking tents, grabbed our bags and got into the line up to get our numbers written on our arms and legs. The line was pretty short and we were all a little giddy with the early hour and the excitement… there were a few too many pictures taken with our arms and legs flashing the “official race number” over the course of the pre-race hours.

Right after marking we went back to our bikes and set up our transition areas with all our gear. Since it was still pretty early (and pretty chilly) we kept on our jackets. Our wave (Valencia, Sandy, and I) was scheduled for 0730. Len and Ed were just before us, and Geoff and Nancy were after us. Our plan was to get in the water in the “warm-up zone”, what a nasty misleading name that is! Nothing “warm-up” about it! None-the-less it is recommended to get in the water to adjust to its temperature and make sure your face has been in (helps prevent hyperventilation at the beginning of the swim).

We did get in the water in the warm-up zone and b/c the air was so cold it didn’t seem too terribly bad. We did notice that MANY of our fellow triathletes had wet suits on, smart ones they were! Valencia and I found another woman without a tri suit and huddled with her under the water until it was time for us to get into our carrel. 0720 and we moved into the carrel and waited for the wave before us to head out. Then it was us lined up on the beach… aacck! Valencia and Sandy and I hung to the back of the pack and we waited for the gun to go off. The water was a little choppy looking but I didn’t really think about it too much since I had swam the day before and managed ok in the swells.

The gun went off and the front of our group rushed into the water, I waded in slowly and started to swim. First off my goggles started leaking, I stopped to fix them and tried again only to find them still leaking, I was now at a depth over my head and had to tread water to adjust them. Finally I got them set up and started out in earnest. Immediately I realized that the water was different than the previous day. Rather than being a regular swell it was choppy, irregular, and coming from a number of directions. It threw me off and I couldn’t get into any regular rhythm of swimming. I felt so useless and ineffective; I was short of breath and felt like I was starving for air. My heart was racing, and my swimming was like plowing through a solid thing rather than liquid. I rolled over to take a break and hopefully calm myself down.

As I was floating and supposedly calming down the waves continued to splash around and over my head. After a while I decided to roll over and try the front crawl again. Again I was out of breath, my heart was racing and I felt like I was suffocating. It was like I had never learned how to do the front crawl in the first place. When I tried treading water waves would hit me and I would start coughing and spluttering. I rolled on my back again and tried to breathe and catch my breath. I felt so annoyed with myself and disappointed that the first 100m were going so poorly. I realized that I was at the very end, there was no one behind me and there was a lot of empty water ahead of me, the rest of my group had already pulled far ahead. I kept hanging onto the fact that eventually I would settle down and be able to swim effectively I just had to keep plugging through until I reached that point.

The safety people in the kayaks were staying pretty close and checking in on me frequently. I assured them that although I appeared to be unable to swim – I was in fact ok. Then suddenly I noticed Sandy resting by hanging on a kayak just ahead of me. I swam over and asked if I could do the same and it was really helpful, finally I could just rest and let my heart rate calm while I was able to breathe easily. I was expecting Sandy to head out again while I was resting but she appeared to be waiting longer yet. Finally she told me she had decided to pull out of the race and the boat was coming over to get her now. I was shocked and suddenly realized that might happen to me; I might have to pullout if I couldn’t get myself under control. Or maybe it just occurred to me that I could pull out, that was a new possibility that wasn’t actually very helpful. I told Sandy I would see her later and I set off again. I still hadn’t gotten to the first buoy – which was I believe at the 250m mark.

I slowly floated and free styled my way up to and around the first buoy. I started swimming to the next buoy remembering that the day before it was this second buoy that was the point where I finally was able to relax and swim. But in fact, I was having a really hard time swimming in this back area, the chop was worse and there was some swell with it. I spent a lot more time hanging off the kayaks to try to get my breath. By the time I arrived here I was feeling pretty demoralized.

Between the first and second buoy I spent a lot of time with the kayaks. I was having such a difficult time swimming and then the next waves of competitors started catching up with me. This was the Olympic distance first and second waves. I was hanging off a kayak trying to catch my breath and all of a sudden I saw churning water and arms and legs coming towards me. We were directly in the swimmer’s path, the kayaker started frantically paddling backwards to get out of the way but with me on the tip it was very difficult for him to maneuver, I let go and swam like crazy to get out of the way while he paddled backwards but still a swimmer who wasn’t sighting almost swam straight into the side of the kayak. Once we were out of the way I caught a hold of the kayak again and realized that in fact with that last move we had actually moved farther away from the next buoy.

Damn! I know I’m not allowed to advance while resting on something but please, oh please don’t take me backwards! Every meter is hard fought and I am NOT going to lose even one of them! The kayaker did advance back to an approximate of where we were before, and frankly I’m pretty sure at this point of my swim no one was going to penalize me for cheating by moving on a kayak… in fact the race organizers might encourage it in order to get me out of the water!

I realized it was going to be regular packs of swimmers coming up on me and that the best way to deal with that would be to get swimming, but swim along the outer edge of the path most will take. So I continued along, swimming, resting, swimming, treading water, and stopping at a kayak a couple more times to get my breath. Between the 2^nd and 3^rd buoy I noticed how cold and tired I was and at that point it became very real to me that if I didn’t get moving I might have to pull out of the race simply because I was too cold and exhausted to actually make it back to the shore on my own steam.

At this point all the people waiting for me at shore came up in my mind, and funnily enough the other thing was my transition zone set-up! I felt it would be so sad to have it all set up like that and it would remain there untouched for the rest of the race if I didn’t swim the rest of the race. I was feeling embarrassed for being so slow and frankly useless in the water, exhausted at the continued effort and realizing I still had a long way to go, frustrated that for all my hopes of having a good swim it wasn’t happening. While all of this was roiling around in my head I just kept going, little bit by little bit. For one 150m section it felt like I simply swam from kayak to kayak. **GROAN**

Finally I came around the last buoy out on the back side of the loop and started on the straight stretch back toward the finish line. This area was a little more protected and the chop was far less. All of a sudden I could swim again, thank god! That last 100m was probably the best part of the entire swim for me. I did get a little anxious once I started seeing the weedy area but I kept telling myself things like “look at the cute little fishes” and “this is no different than swimming over coral”, and “think about how cool this is, IT IS NOT scary!”

Then I realized I was almost at the place where I could stand, over the sound of my splashing I could hear a general din of screaming and I realized: that is my people, they are still there and they are cheering for me!! When I finally stood up I could hear the announcer saying my name and something about “determination getting through the swim”. HAH, I would say stubborn stupidity but for the crowds, determination works!

My people cheered and screamed while I staggered out of the water with a HUGE smile on my face, I was definitely emotional and when I saw Darryl standing there with this fresh look of relief and pride I welled up and ran past into the transition area. I don’t have a very clear memory of T1, I managed to get my socks and shoes on and helmet, grabbed my bike and started heading out. The entire bike rack was empty and I was determined to try to catch up some of the time I had lost. I ran out of the transition zone and out into the lane approaching the flag holders (which is the point at which you can get on your bike). As I came through the lane all my peeps were there too! They were cheering and hoot-hooting, fantastic! Then I was off!

On to the bike portion, check out the next entry for that story…

Today the plan was to swim the course, get a feel for the temperature of the water, get used to the course and the distance, and practice sighting on the buoys. We got there just as the races for the elite juniors were wrapping up and they were setting up the course as it would be for our race the next morning. As I watched them dragging the buoy’s out and placing them I just kept thinking how far it looked and caught myself muttering “I’ve done that, yep that is how far I swam, it looks a lot farther but that is just a visual trick…” and such like useless rationalizations.

The fact was it looked like a really, really long way and it was hard to believe that I had swam that before. We got into the water and a lot of people started out pretty fast. Valencia and I took our time and I had to battle the usual breathless feeling and air-anxiety. I just kept taking rest breaks and calming myself with assurances that eventually I would hit the point where I would settle in and it would be ok. The difficulty was that for the first time I had to deal with swells/waves and that was a very strange new experience. All the Sasamat swims had been completely calm. Okanagan Lake was not too choppy but instead had these regular swells that made it a little freaky, it felt like it was hard to take a breath without getting a mouth full of water, but in fact I think that most of the time I did ok with the breathing none-the-less I felt like I couldn’t get enough air — same old, stupid same old.

There was another woman who was swimming around the same speed as me and she suggested we swim out to the first buoy together. I agreed and we started out in earnest. I was still much slower than her but caught up at the buoy. She decided that she would head straight back into shore and I decided to round the corner and head out to the next buoy. I really wanted to get to the place where I could feel relaxed and get a little confidence in my ability to do this thing before I got out of the water.

I continued to roll onto my back and take breaks between intervals of front crawl swimming and then all of a sudden it switched. I started to swim easily, THANK GOD! It is so incredibly rewarding when it happens and so incredibly frustrating when it isn’t happening. If only I could figure out how to make it happen…

At that point I started to feel good and I decided to cut through the buoy’s and head back towards the shore in a straight shot for the finish line. Then I could finally swim, I could think about my stroke, my form, my kick, all those useful things rather than thinking about suffocating. I don’t know what the secret is going to be to get over this business…

I came back into the shore and everyone else was already back, I wasn’t very surprised at that, I know I am going to be the slowest swimmer out there, but I shared with them that I had managed to push through it and I was feeling pretty good. Geoff on the other hand was more shaken that confident and he told us later that the practice swim was really brutal and served to make him far more nervous that he had ever been. As it turns out his experience was more relevant to my race day experience then mine… but that is for the next installment.

I figured the practice was a really good idea, I had a chance to swim in some waves and get a feel for how to manage and also get to experience breaking through the nervous-ness into the comfortable place and reinforcing the idea that this will happen tomorrow at the race as well.

Now all that is left is the race day swim itself… !

Ok, it seems that some things are just so obvious but still we don’t seem to take it in… things like: one should train for the bike portion of a triathlon if one is planning on competing in a triathlon. So obvious, yet apparently unheeded since on the Friday before the triathlon when we decided to do a quick run through of the bike course I realized that it would be my 4th time on my new bike EVER. Yes, yes it was.

As we were getting our stuff together I realized that perhapsI should have ridden a few more times… I realized that (as I have on each ride) I would need to relearn all my gears and clipping in and out, sheesh. Some days I’m smart and some days not so much! There just isn’t enough time to train for a marathon AND a triathlon, even if it is a sprint. Remember that, especially when Valencia is trying to talk me into doing some crazy new sports event!

Anyhow, onto the bike and up and around the course. I was very pleased to see that it wasn’t too bad and I seemed to remember how to clip in and out — without falling on my butt — and change gears pretty easily. In fact I kind of liked the bike ride, even with the harsh steep hill right at the outset. I’m really glad we did it, it was very helpful to have seen the course and to know that I can do it, just being familiar takes some of the anxiety out of the deal.

Then we were off to see our rental house and settle in. Darryl, Carolyn, and myself were on dinner duty that night. A little cooking and then we were off the hook for the rest of the weekend! Woo hoo! Oh, and I get to look forward to a practice swim tomorrow, then… race day!

Just Valencia and I were able to make it to Sasamat Lake for a final swim before we left on Thursday for Kelowna. Carolyn and Ed were thinking of coming but in the end it was just V and I. We decided just to swim out 1/2 way to the big green box (we used that for sighting practice) and come back, thinking it should be about 800 metres. I had my usual struggle in the beginning with breathing and anxiety. I took quite a few breaks of floating on my back and treading water on the way out, we took a quick break at the middle (Valencia got there quite a bit before I did) and started back. After about 30m I took one break and then swam the entire remainder of the way in to the shore. I could tell that I had entered the “flow” zone because all of a sudden I have this feeling of ease; I’m not starved for air, I can simply swim and know that I can get air any time I like. It is such a different mind set for me and the difference between the usual state and the easy place is so obvious and such a relief.

I was so happy that I was able to experience that feeling on this practice swim just before the tri, I felt more confident knowing that it is possible to get to that place after some time in the water and therefore I could count on a similar experience during the triathlon. I was definitely pleased with myself and my performance and felt ready to try things out at the race on Sunday.

Kelowna here I come, Apple Triathlon history may be changed forever!

All right, so going back in time a bit to capture the moments… I was sure I would have time to blog about this before 2 ½ weeks went by! But none-the-less I want to be sure to capture this on blog before it fades.

Becky and Nicole and I showed up for the epic run which was scheduled for the TNT group for 30 km. I knew my goal was to add on 8 more after we got back to Granville Island. I was feeling really good and felt very confident that I would be able to do this. It’s interesting b/c the last time we ran up Prospect point hill and over the Lion’s Gate Bridge I felt pretty spent, it was very challenging and I didn’t end up adding on the distance. The planned run for this day included both, and I still started out feeling certain that I was going to accomplish my goal. The day was absolutely perfect for running, it was beautiful and sunny but not too hot – just gorgeous.

We started out going around Granville Island and over the Burrard bridge then down along the seawall. Into the park, by the lagoon, down Pipeline Rd and up Prospect Point Hill. Over Lion’s Gate Bridge, along the West Van seawall to Dundarave, and back the same way to Granville Island. I dropped the girls off at G Isl and continued to Science World and around the other side. I was beginning to get tired and stopped at a park in Yaletown to refill on water. When I came out it was like I had somehow recharged! I felt strong and running felt much easier than it had in the last 15 km’s. Wow, I don’t know what that was but it definitely got me going through the last 4-5 kms. I turned up to the Burrard Bridge, over it,and went down the driveway at the Planetarium returning to my car approximately 4 ½ hours after starting out! HAH! I completed 39 km!! AND a very hilly 39 km at that!

I was so proud of completing 39 k and feeling pretty damn good doing it! Ok, at this point I will go along with the adage if you can run 39 then you can definitely run 42.2! Mind you after I drove home, getting out of the car was like some new crazy sort of torture, who knew that unbending from the seat would be so excruciating! I promptly plunked myself into an icebath (and it felt soooo good) I was revelling in the numbness. After the icebath it was on to a shower then food and usually a nap. In this case my Dad was at the house and I wanted to spend time with him so I decided to stay up instead. I wasn’t too sure how that would work since the usual routine has been to have a nap and get the legs horizontal. I solved it by going with Dad over to Valencia’s house and stretching out on her couch while she and Dad discussed the upcoming bathroom/kitchen reno. It is impossible to describe how fantastic it feels to wrap on the sexy compression socks and stretch out on a flat surface, pretty close to pure heaven!

I was unsure how that would go for the rest of the day – to not have a nap following the run — but in fact I felt pretty good coherent and everything! I couldn’t do anything that required a lot of leg work or time on the feet but mentally I was alert and awake and able to enjoy the evening. Again, I noticed an increase in my ability to cope with the demands that the extreme distances seem to require. There were definitely a few factors that I put into play this week that have influenced how I coped.

The first being nutrition. I realized I was attempting to eat a bar while running and what would happen is it would take me about 20 mins to actually get the whole bar in and by then I was depleted and not replenishing very quickly. So for this run I switched to gels and brought along 5 of them. I made sure I had one every 50mins, usually it was easy to remember b/c my body actually would get hungry right before the time to take them. This allowed me to get the carbohydrates in within a minute and my body could start using them within 10mins which seemed to work better. Also, the Power Gel Double Latte (which is my fave) has 55mg of caffeine in it and that definitely adds a little kick to my stride.

The second factor that made a difference is the hydration; now that I had all my nutrition in the gels in my belt I filled all the water bottles with Eload electrolyte solution with a little baggie of powder in my other pocket to use to mix more in the bottles later. I drank all those bottles twice, maybe even a couple of them 3 times. I’m pretty sure both of these factors made an enormous difference for me on this run.

I’m finding that the benefit of running the full distance both for mental preparation and nutrition/hydration planning is invaluable. I realize that most people shy away from it b/c of the risk of creating an injury or condition that may lead to an injury; but that hasn’t been the case for me. I have been very careful to listen to my body and do what I feel like I can handle each time. Also, I think the intense training with Robert has made an enormous difference to my strength and resilience.

So, 2 months before the race I have completed my first marathon (or pretty much completed)!

I arrived at the track with nasty clouds overhead threatening to dump at any moment. Robert arrived a couple minutes after me and told me to start stretching. He headed off towards the storage box at the end of the track and I knew I was in for it… he was going to get the tire! Last week he had asked me if I had ever done the tire workout and I told him “no” (that was unwise) but I felt safe b/c I knew the tire was at the Surrey track not here.  Again, in hindsight you’d think I would be smarter than that! He then had muttered something to himself about hiding a tire here at Mercer as well – I probably should have been scared then! So when he went off in the direction of the trees I got a little nervous…

Sure enough he came out a little later with the tire and a long piece of rope looped around it and dragged it over to the edge of the grass in the centre field. He hooked the belt up to my waist and told me I was going to have to run down the length of the field to the other end and back 10 times. I needed some clarification here; down to that end is one, and back here is two? No, there and back is one.  So then I started bargaining with myself “How bad can it be?” I ran laps with the parachute a while back and survived. Surely this can’t be as bad, there and back is only 200m, right. I can do this!

Off I went for the first run, and it didn’t feel too bad! As I was running I heard some of the teenage soccer players yell “Look at the tire chasing that woman!” oh ha ha, very funny boys! I turned and started back, and at around the ½ way point I started to wheeze and it felt like the air had thickened and moving my legs and arms was like swimming in jello. The next couple laps the rain came – and it pounded down! At each recovery period I would stand with Robert under the umbrella and catch my breath. During the 6^th round the slow down started during the last 1/3 of the first leg, and it felt the same as those stupid dreams where you are trying to run but you can’t seem to get going. Or more like a cartoon character when they are starting to run and the legs are spinning but nothing is happening.

One thing that helped was when Robert mentioned to pump the arms faster. He said “what the arms do, the legs will follow”. Interesting, b/c I knew the importance of pumping the arms on hills but hadn’t thought of it otherwise. Although since I don’t usually have to worry about going fast it isn’t surprising that I haven’t applied the concept elsewhere. And it works! He was right, move the arms fast = moving the legs fast!

After the 6^th there-and-back the football team arrived and was standing all over the area I was running in so (thinking myself very clever) I suggested to Robert that I run there and back on the line marking the end (width) of the field. He was onto my cheating strategy and informed me that it if I ran the end line it would be there, back, there, and back again! The last 3 rounds almost killed me! The saving grace was right at the end when some friends of Robert’s who were chatting with him mentioned that they were surprised when I described it as hard b/c I made it look so easy! REALLY?? Did you hear the wheezing and gasping for air?? Anyhow, I loved that they told me I made it look easy, at least I can cling to that!

Robert mentioned that it was like the feeling I had way in the beginning and I had to agree. It was tough. What was most surprising was that I was incredibly winded, gasping, wheezing and feeling like it had pushed me further than anything else I had done but still my max HR never got over 160, I had expected to see it >170 for sure… I’m puzzled by how my breathing can be so harsh but the HR stay steady around 157-160 the whole time for all 10 rounds. Curious.

Last Friday when we (Ed, Valencia, and I) were swimming at Sasamat we decided we would return for more swimming practice on Wednesday and Friday as well. So in preparation for that Valencia sent out the email to invite our other team-mates as well. Much to my surprise EVERYONE was keen on Wednesday and decided to come. Carolyn also pointed out that it would be a good idea to wear our new Merrell tri-suits and get an idea of how they feel to swim in. It seemed everyone was in agreement and in the end not only the tri-team came out but also much of our fabulous support crew!

We all arrived at the lake and found Rose (swim coach) who helped us prepare for our swim and decide where and how far we would go. One of the things we wanted to practice was the sighting so we chose a route that would use a large green metal box as a landmark to sight off of, and determined that if we stopped part-way and swam back it would likely be 800m. The water was still pretty warm and wasn’t too hard to get into (thank goodness)! What was really funny was the reaction to our set of matching suits. The group of kids at the beach thought we were some sort of pro athletes, they were taking pictures of us, and one of them was in the water yelling to his friends “I’m going to swim with them! I’ll try to keep up!” OMG! How funny, as we started out the boy was definitely way ahead of me and eventually he gave up (maybe in disgust?) and went back to shore. When we came back in there were no pictures or autograph requests…

But back to the swim: I was annoyed b/c my usual anxiety came back right away and my breathing was shallow, short, and erratic. That makes it really hard to relax and try sighting, I tried to take some breaks to calm down but it didn’t seem to help. I kept going and eventually caught up with everyone at the turn around point. Of course, that meant they had all been there for quite a while and as soon as I arrived they started out on the return leg! Argh!

When I’m in the water for the first 10-15 mins all I can do is battle with the irrational experience that the water is suffocating me. I know I can take a breath at any time but I think the problem is that due to the anxiety my airways clamp down and so when I do take a breath it is very small and so in fact I am starving for air the whole time. It is so frustrating though b/c I really had hoped that would stop by now. I realize that I’m so much better than I was but I would like to be able to just swim! I like swimming (when I finally settle down) and I’m really happy that through this whole deal I have discovered this – thanks Valencia – but I’m disappointed it has taken me so long to overcome the fear and trepidation. Not that I am stopping but damn I would like to just go for a nice relaxing swim!

On the trip back it was a little easier but I still had to take frequent breaks and catch my breath. The saving grace was that I remembered you are supposed to get out of the water smiling and with your stomach sucked in for the pictures! So no matter how hard it was I made sure it looked easy when I came out of the water! The only thing that spoiled it was that I made a newbie mistake and left my tri suit top unzipped a little when I went out so when I came back in it had unzipped and was showing off my sports bra, total newbie mistake! No serious triathlete would do such a thing and sacrifice speed for sex appeal!

We messed around for a while and did some crazy, fun, staged mass starts and had Rose video them for us. Our hope was that it would be funny enough for You Tube… it wasn’t quite but it did make it to Valencia’s facebook page! After the videos a few of us went for another swim and this was definitely better than the last. I was much more relaxed and easy in the water. We didn’t swim quite as far but at least I was able to swim longer with only one break on the way out. By the time I was on my way back I saw Darryl on the shore and used him for my sighting target. It was really nice to come up on the beach and have him there.

Now we are planning Friday’s escapade! The idea is full swim followed by short ride and short run. That will give us a chance to practice transition and see how our legs feel going from riding to running.

Ah, yes another session with Yvonne, always humbling… We started out feeling good and making good progress but we were also discussing the ongoing discomfort in my knee. At the beginning of the session it was fine but I had described what I was feeling prior and asked Yvonne to watch my gait and let me know if I was doing something sloppy and problematic.

After talking about it Yvonne decided that it would be wise to change up the session a little and have me do longer intervals at lower speeds. That seemed to work for a little while. I felt the knee twinge once in a while but not often. When it did act up I would let Yvonne know and she would try to see if there was anything obvious that I was doing to cause it. Mostly it was imperceptible.

We kept moving up on the speeds and assessing the reactions. I believe we managed to get to 5 when I started falling apart. All of a sudden I couldn’t keep up with the treadmill and was constantly losing ground, I was hanging on to the handles once in a while to keep myself steady but I noticed as the speed and my effort increased I was getting more consistent knee pain. Plus I could feel the ankle/outside of my foot kicking in as well.

Yvonne said that it looked as though I was getting more and more tired sometimes I was landing my foot out in front of me with my leg bent and not under my hip which would likely cause increased impact for my knee. At this point we cut the session short to make sure we didn’t cause any further problems and I will go and see my chiropractor this week to see if we can discover what is causing the problem and treat it!