I was just thinking today as I was biking to work that moving has to be the hardest thing on a person who trains for triathlon (and probably everyone else). This morning I went on my first run since moving and the Half Ironman. Discovering a new neighbourhood and establishing new routes is not an easy thing to do, but it sure is fun! I had lived in the same area for years, so my routes never changed. I knew how long they should take me on a good or bad day and I knew exactly how long they were, but these new routes are uncertain to me… foreign territory. And now that I have a dog to go along with it, it’s been a big adjustment. However, this morning’s run was a lot of fun. I discovered a route along the river and both Clifford (my 5 month old puppy) and I enjoyed ourselves. Because Clifford is still just a “wee” pup (he’s actually quite large) and I am just coming off of an injury and am not 100%, we didn’t go for very long and intermingled running with walking and stretching. I definitely look forward to longer runs along that same route… and because my old routes aren’t too far away, I’ll be going to those for longer runs.

This weekend I went on a Saturday morning ride with my training buddies. We were supposed to meet at 6:30am, but I didn’t leave my house until 6:15 for my half hour ride to our meeting spot. I was worried they would have left without me, but they waited! This is why I love training buddies and mine are especially awesome. We went on a pretty good ride, but I turned around early due to running out of time and food. I also didn’t want to push it too hard on my first long ride after the half. It turned out to be a 72km ride in 2:53, which was pretty awesome.

Last Thursday I returned to my mountain bike club and went for an awesome cross-country ride with the gals. It was exactly what I needed and I’m committed to going for the rest of the summer. Mountain biking and cross-country skiing are my favorite activities that I do just for fun.

Last night my raw food group got together and we had another potluck. Thanks to them, I got to have raw food leftovers for my lunch today and it was GREAT! I am going to try to have raw suppers all this week, but realistically it will be 2-3 nights.

So now that things are starting to settle into place, I am in full swing for my triathlon in merely 2 weeks away. I won’t be in top-notch shape, but I’ll finish… and with my knee/hip/back injury, that’s a good thing.

Sometimes when I’m in “recovery” I sometimes use it as an excuse to be a bit lazy and eat a bit extra. This time is no excuse. With my favorite music festival coming up this weekend, I am in full “chill out” mode and I am enjoying it immensely. However, instead of eating more french fries and chocolate, I am getting back into raw foods!

I am so excited about this because I have been interested in it for about a year now. I am nowhere near being completely raw, nor even a little raw, but last night I held the first, of hopefully many,  raw vegan potluck that I have been trying to get together since last fall. It was a complete success and I am re-inspired to eat more raw foods!

In my newly inspired state, I have found some really cool websites and ideas. Once I get my dehydrator from my new raw vegan friend that I met last night, I will be having a blast making flax crackers,  pizza, and pancakes (that’s right, pancakes!).

There is a raw food distributor from B.C. that distributes food in BULK!

There is a raw food society in B.C. too… probably because of the cool raw food distributor.

So far those are the only two, but I hope to keep the list updated.

Yesterday I went swimming with my training buddies and I realized that I had no muscular pain anywhere. The only problem that I had was my knee… for the whole race. My neck didn’t hurt during the bike, my ankle didn’t hurt during the run, my shoulders didn’t hurt during the swim (maybe it was because the water was so warm), and my lungs were 100%. It is for this reason that I know that I have to fully rehabilitate my knee. That is my number one goal right now. I am only going to focus on the swim and bike until my last race of the season, a mere 4.5 weeks away. My training buddy might run for me at the race, if they let me, which works out well because she is concerned about swimming in that lake because it can be a very cold lake.

Tonight if my mountain bike ride is canceled, I’m going  to do a short road ride on a new route by my new house. This weekend I’m going to do a ride early on Saturday morning and a swim on Sunday. I was thinking of trying out the elliptical machine at the gym to see how it feels on my knee. I don’t have high expectations, though.

Recovery is fun. I have been eating ice cream and sleeping in and reflecting on the race. After the race I didn’t want to wear my medal. I was bitter and upset. I didn’t want to remember the race because all I can think of was the pain that it caused me. However, I’m slowly getting over it and I’m trying to be all right with what it was. I mean, I can’t change anything now and I have learned a lot from it. I am going to talk to my coach in a couple of weeks about the whole thing. Hopefully he will have some insight and guidance to give me (right, Dan?).

This afternoon is my post-race massage. Ahhh, I can’t wait!

This morning I am sitting here stiff, sore, and injured (both emotionally and physically). Yesterday’s race was great… up until the run.

It started out the night before the race when I went to bed early, in the campground that we paid way too much money for, and was woken up by fireworks only one hour later. It proceeded from there: parties, bad music, dogs, people screaming, and a huge thunderstorm. At 3am my partner got up and went to yell at some people partying. He came back saying, “I’m a good support person.” Yes, he is. So after only a few hours of good sleep, I wondered how good my performance could be. I was hopeful, though.

My pre-race routine was dead-on. The lake was warm so I happily got in to do a few hundred metres to warm-up. I was excited to swim, which is a new feeling for me considering I used to loathe the swim. When the gun went off I was in the middle laterally and close to the middle of the pack, which I really think was the ideal spot considering most people were off to one side (I’m not really sure why). I immediately started drafting and did that through the whole race. The first lap of the 2000m swim was a big hectic, especially at the buoys. At the first turn, I literally had to doggie paddle because I couldn’t get my arms out of the water and I didn’t want to do breaststroke because I might kick someone (all triathletes should learn that breaststroke has no place in a triathlon!). My second lap was great because I hooked on to someone who was a bit faster than my pace speed, so I pushed my arms a little harder. I kept imagining I was a sea turtle “riding the wave” as per Finding Nemo. The whole time I was swimming so fast, I was thinking about how much difference a little training and a good wetsuit can make and how I should post on my local triathlon website about how a good wetsuit is worth the money! I wish I had known 5 years ago when I started this crazy sport.

I got out of the water at 40 minutes (approximately). My transition was smooth and I was quickly on my way after a quick shout-out from my partner yelling “Go Crystal, Go!” and taking pictures of me putting my gels in my pocket (I can’t find the box that goes on my top tube since the move, which is just one reason why one should never move while in the middle of the racing season). I knew that I was behind my 30-minute goal, which was a way lofty goal anyway, and my partner reminded me that last year the swim was significantly shorter due to a problem with the buoy.

On the bike I experienced something that I was not used to experiencing – I got passed. A lot. It was quite demoralizing. I remember a friend who was always one of the first swimmers out of the water saying that it really hurts ones spirits to spend the rest of the race getting passed. Now I understand what she meant. Very early on I could tell that my legs didn’t have the punch that they usually do. They felt tired and dull. However, I raced my race and it ended up being about the same as last year, coming in at around 3:15. My transition was fast, but I knew that I needed to walk off that bike ride.

My partner and my puppy, Clifford, were waiting on the run course, so I walked with them a bit and talked about how my knee was sore already. They were sympathetic, but let me go on my way with my sore knee. I had decided that I would run for 9 minutes and walk for 1 minute, but that quickly degenerated as my knee started hurting within minutes of starting. I went 8:2 for a while and then I just walked whenever I could. My knee was in pain, but bearable until the halfway point. At a water station I stopped running to take some sports drink and I almost fell because my knee gave out. I couldn’t walk. So I stopped at a tree and did some stretches. I laid down and did some more. It helped, but I knew the rest of the run was going to be a battle. At the turn-around point, I was at a point where I could have beat my previous half marathon time during a half IM. However, it was not to be. The only way I can explain the feeling that I had when walking or running through the last half of the half marathon was knives jabbing under my knee cap and twisting around. At times the pain was excruciating and I grimaced and just breathed through it. Later, my partner said that childbirth will be a walk in the park after this race. By the end of the race I was running like Terry Fox with a terrible limp, which I’m sure didn’t help my other leg. I’m not sure if it was that my mind was so focused on my knee, but no other part of my body hurt during the race and it doesn’t today, either.

Coming into the end was the worst part of all. My pain was shown in my face. I just couldn’t hold it back. Luke and Clifford ran me to the finish area and the whole time all I could say was, “It hurts. It hurts.” I couldn’t even sprint across the line, my signature move. It was all I could do to not burst into tears for my Finisher’s photo. After crossing the line and after getting my medal for the race I never want to remember, I started crying. Holding in my tears for over two and a half hours was just too much to bear. I let it go. Luke took my hand and asked me questions that I couldn’t answer. I laid on the ground and it only when Clifford licked my face that I laughed and could talk again. The only thing that stopped my knee from hurting was not moving it. So I laid there for a while, relaying the story to my partner, not moving because it just felt so much better.

My final time was 6 hours, 45 minutes… quite a bit behind my unrealistic 6-hour time goal. However, I have hope for breaking the 6-hour mark in the near future. I know that it is possible and I know that I’m capable of it. For now, though, I really have to work on my IT-band problems.

Things I learned at this triathlon:

• Camping, while being fun and my preferred way of spending the night before my race, is just not going to happen anymore. Sometimes a hotel is worth the good night’s sleep for.
• Never, ever camp at Mink Lake Campground.
• Cheering other people on made my knee hurt less.
• A 6-hour half IM is definitely possible for me.

Pictures:

Pre-race stretching:

 Ready to Rock!

Partners:

Pre-Race kisses!

So cute!

 A Sea of Green and Yellow swim caps

  And we’re off!

 In Transition

 Mounting the bike (yes, I said “mounting!”)

 Last smile on the run

A forced smile after the run

Sleeping on the way home

Because he’s so funny

For the past few years, my attitude going into a race is “Just do my best and finish.” This year, however, I have set some goals and I have worked towards them with a more regimented schedule than I have ever had before, thanks to my coach and buddy Dan. This weekend is my A-Race: the Great White North Half Ironman Triathlon and I have high hopes for my times and goals.

A few weeks ago I had the swim of my life at a local race and I would like to do that again. At Spin off Spadina, I took 9 minutes off of my PB swim time. I hope to take more than that off for this one (more like 13). I would also like to take about 10 minutes off of the bike. The run is where things will get challenging because of my knee problems. I’m working on icing and massaging my IT band. I think that if I do a 9:1 running schedule, I should be able to make it in the 2:30 that I did last year. All told, I want to take off 33 minutes off of my previous Half IM PB. I know that it doesn’t add up, but if I have a good day it is possible. In actuality, I will be happy with anything under 6:30, but closer to 6:00 would be great. That being said, if my knee is killer sore and I have to walk the whole half marathon, obviously all of my goals are going out the window and my goal will go back to “just” finishing. I’ll be very happy to have my partner in crime taking pictures and taking care of the dog while I’m out there… and of course, meeting me at the finish line. )

Previous years, plus my high goals: