Close to the Finish Line

  By Crystal Clarke | August 25, 2017 - 11:38 am |
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Each day is one day closer to the finish line. Each preparation step is one less thing to do. It’s hard to believe it is 2 days away from race day. I remember freaking out when it was 12 weeks away. Time didn’t stand still, it actually went by pretty slowly. There’s a meme that says, “Life is short, triathlons make it seem longer.” So true! A couple of weeks ago I raced in my last pre-Ironman race; it was a local race that I’ve done 11 times now. My race plan went exactly how I wanted it too. However, … Keep reading →

Peaked or Peaking and Last Race Before Ironman

  By Crystal Clarke | August 11, 2017 - 12:45 pm | , , , , , ,
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Emotions have been running high for me lately. Such is the way of the last weeks before Ironman (combined with other life and woman things). I know that this happens, but it is still difficult. This past week has been my “peak” week. However, I believe my body is done with the long training sessions. My last bike ride (last Saturday) was 150km and it took all I had to keep going. Not that I really had a choice. I knew that my partner would not come and pick me up no matter how much I pleaded. Even if I … Keep reading →

It’s the Little Things That’ll Drive You Nuts

  By Crystal Clarke | July 22, 2017 - 8:37 am | , ,
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I’m writing this as I watch the Tour de France and wait for the fog to lift so that I can safely bike on the highway. These are my musings of what I’ve been thinking lately. Long distance triathlon has many challenges. One of them is that the little things will drive you nuts. A small kink in your socks will turn into blister and hurt for the duration of the run and for days after. A loose water bottle will splash sports drink all over the bike, gumming up brakes. Since it’s been a long time that I’ve trained … Keep reading →

Race Report: SaskMarathon Half Marathon, plus 1km

  By Crystal Clarke | May 28, 2017 - 2:33 pm | , , , , , , , , , ,
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Race stats: 22.2km, 2:45, 7:27min/km I can’t believe I haven’t written in my blog since February! A former training buddy, who follows this blog, sent me an email a couple of weeks ago and was hoping that I hadn’t written because I was busy training. Indeed, that is what has happened! Today I was rewarded for my hard work. Pre-Race: I had no idea what to expect going into this event. I know the pace that I had been running this year (usually with a run-walk around 8:00 min/km) and thought that I could maybe do better if I walked … Keep reading →

Pain is not life

  By Crystal Clarke | February 13, 2017 - 7:30 am | , , , , ,
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Life is pain. That’s what some believe and in some ways it’s true, especially for me right now. The past couple of weeks I have experienced acute pain in my back. It is likely a combination of physical and emotional stresses. As if getting up at 6am isn’t hard enough already, but I have had spasms in my back every morning. The only thing that made getting out of bed worth it was that the pain meds were downstairs and I had to walk to get them. After a week of “ouch ouch ouch” my partner said, “Ummm… maybe you … Keep reading →

Being Tired and Pushing Through

  By Crystal Clarke | January 16, 2017 - 7:00 am | ,
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This week I pushed myself a bit harder than I’m used to. Not a lot, but a little. On Saturday I spent 90 minutes doing a bike workout on the trainer and I was dripping with sweat, my legs were burning and I had to use my fan. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. Realizing that I need some sort of structured workout has been a really great realization for me for indoor biking. I used to think that I’ll just put on a tv show and go. All that did, though, was make me hate the show … Keep reading →

Life is an Ironman

  By Crystal Clarke | January 9, 2017 - 5:30 am | , ,
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It’s Sunday night and I just re-read last week’s post. It feels like I wrote it a month ago. It feels like I swam 3.8km, biked 180km and ran 42.2km in the last week. Physically I did not do an Ironman. However, emotionally I think I did. Without going into too much detail I can say that this past week I witnessed a horrific and tragic accident, which left me reeling in a mix of emotions from sadness to gratitude for life. There are also a number of sad things happening to people in my life, of which I am on … Keep reading →

It Starts Right Here, Right Now

  By Crystal Clarke | January 2, 2017 - 7:30 am | , , , , ,
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I don’t really know how to start this post. My intentions are always so good, follow-through sometimes isn’t. This post will focus on my good intentions. I have done lots of planning and processing in my head in preparation for the next 8 months. I’m preparing for lots of training, lots of sleep and lots of eating. I think I have created a pretty good plan and schedule. Calendars are super important to me. I’m talking about physical calendars. We have a calendar on the fridge that we literally look at many times a day. Does Josh have hockey? Let … Keep reading →

3 easy ways to have fun on the bike trainer indoors!

  By Crystal Clarke | October 15, 2016 - 3:33 pm | , , ,
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This week is the first week in a long time that I’ve been following a training plan. I have created a plan and am slowly adjusting my life around work and training. For the next 10 months my fun is going to be swimming, biking and running. Luckily, I’m very much enjoying these again and actually think of them as fun. Isn’t that what sports are all about? Having fun! I’ve had to figure out how to make this off-season training fun. The biggest struggle I’ve had with winter training is the indoor cycling on the trainer. I’ve never minded … Keep reading →

Race Report: Frank Dunn Triathlon 2016

  By Crystal Clarke | August 18, 2016 - 5:30 pm | , ,
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Another year of the Frank Dunn Triathlon! This was my 11th year of completion. I had absolutely NO IDEA how it was going to go. I figured it wouldn’t be pretty, which is basically how it turned out. Something I haven’t done in many many years is race without my GPS watch. I forgot it at home so was left with just my regular ol’ wristwatch with the ability to time me at least. It was strange and I think affected me a bit. Pre-Race: A beautiful morning! Seriously, it was absolutely perfect. It was the best lake conditions I’ve ever … Keep reading →