Author Archives: Crystal Clarke

Flipping Out

  By Crystal Clarke | September 10, 2014 - 8:00 am | , , ,
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Sometimes when I am doing my continuous swim my mind wanders. It is one of my struggles of long-distance swimming in the pool. La-la-land is easy to reach and thoughts float in and out of my mind. Recently a swim started up the debate around flip turns. It is a debate that triathletes and triathlete coaches have on a fairly regular basis. Personally, I do flip turns. To be perfectly honest I started doing flip turns because I thought they looked cool and made me look like a pro. Since I’m nowhere near a fabulous swimmer, at least I look … Keep reading →

More Consistent

  By Crystal Clarke | September 8, 2014 - 10:34 am | ,
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My biggest accomplishment over the last few weeks is that I am more consistent. I’m not completely consistent, but mostly consistent. Is that even possible? I’m doing about 85% of the workouts I intend to do, which is way higher than the 25% I was running on for a while. The biggest difference is that my body is feeling pretty good. My knee was really sore last week after a long bike and then a run the next day, which freaked me out. So I rested, stretched, and foam rolled. It felt better and my run yesterday was the best … Keep reading →

Long Training Day Review

  By Crystal Clarke | August 12, 2014 - 12:05 pm | , , , , , ,
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Prior to the race a local photographer, Bob Holtsman, promised me he would make me look good when he took my photo on the course. Sure enough, he did!

The night before the Frank Dunn Triathlon my sweetie asked me why I kept calling it a “training day.” I explained that it’s because it wasn’t a race. It wasn’t a race with myself or anyone else. My expectations were so low I literally just wanted to get it done. Since I haven’t done any races in three years it felt like I was starting all over. In the spirit of starting over, this was my first long brick workout. Here’s how it went. Pre-training day: There was some stress a couple of days before and I had been having … Keep reading →

Race #2 of 2014

  By Crystal Clarke | August 6, 2014 - 12:56 pm | , , , , , , , ,
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O'Malley and I this morning after our run-walk. Caillou is somewhere in the background.

In only 3 days I will be participating in my second triathlon this year. My training buddy and I were looking back at my history of the race, which is very varied. It will be interesting to see how Sunday plays out. This race has followed me throughout my triathlon life and I have loved every second. My times vary from sub-4-hours to sub-5. This year I’m being realistic and looking closer to the 4 and a half to 5-hour mark. That is, if my knees will stop freaking hurting! This morning’s run/walk was pretty painful. I have GOT to … Keep reading →

Pre-Race Jitters

  By Crystal Clarke | July 19, 2014 - 2:32 pm | , , , , , ,
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Ryan Gosling... swoon...

This morning I went for my pre-race swim with my training buddy, Blair. It went well even though I forgot my wetsuit. So I swam in my bathing suit, which was actually pretty good. It prepared me for the “cold panic” that I always get (and I think most get) when I first get in the water. The water this morning was clear and calm, even though it was pretty windy. I met another triathlete out there and we may even become training buddies! As I’ve mentioned before, training buddies are the shit! As I was driving into town this … Keep reading →

Reality Sets In

  By Crystal Clarke | July 6, 2014 - 1:37 pm | , , , ,
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Ironman Canada 2011 Finisher Photo

Yesterday I went for my first open water swim in a year. I thought it had been longer, but I remembered that last year I attempted to swim across the lake by my mother-in-law’s house. After I did that my back seized up because I had hardly swum and I was so out of shape that it felt like it rejected my effort. That was my reality call last year. I listened and spent a few months finding a decent massage therapist (actually I found an AMAZING one). The past year has been an interesting one trying to find a … Keep reading →

My Volunteer Experience

  By Crystal Clarke | June 30, 2014 - 10:48 am | , , ,
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collage_20140630090637264

This was my first time volunteering at Ironman, but being an athlete made me very prepared for all of my jobs over the past few days. Bike check-in I had the hardest job at bike check-in: traffic flow. It sucked. There were 2400 athletes stressed out and not really knowing where to go. My job was to direct them out of the area. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the other person did what they were supposed to do in directing them at a corner. I had to argue with people and try to give them directions “around the … Keep reading →

First Impressions the Second Time Around

  By Crystal Clarke | June 27, 2014 - 6:28 pm | ,
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Simple foods are amazing. No processing, no preservatives, no sugar or salt. Just food. This simple wrap is simply jasmine brown rice, refried beans, green peppers, tomato, and mushrooms. I used Braggs as seasoning. Delicious!

The trip to Coeur d’Alene was uneventful. Except for the 6-hour delay due to forgetting to renew my passport. It was a costly mistake that really threw me off, but I persevered and made it to the rental house I’m sharing around 2am. On the drive I listened to the audio book of Tyler Hamilton’s “The Secret Race.” It sure did keep me up and will probably change how I watch the Tour de France from now on. I want to “read” the rest of the book before I give my book review, but for now I want to say … Keep reading →

Another Ironman First

  By Crystal Clarke | June 23, 2014 - 8:31 am | , , ,
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IMCDA swim

This coming up weekend I am excited to be an Ironman Coeur d’Alene volunteer! It will be the first time I will have volunteered at Ironman. For the past year I have been stressed and beginning to train for this race. As you readers will know I pulled out a couple of months ago because I was just not ready. After transferring my registration to Ironman Silverman 70.3 (a half IM) in October, I knew that I was still going to have to go to Coeur d’Alene. On one hand I shake my head at myself because I rented a … Keep reading →

Consistently Inconsistent

  By Crystal Clarke | June 16, 2014 - 3:06 pm | , , ,
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I got my legs back!

Last week was a tough week. I actually wrote a blog post about being consistently inconsistent and it turned out to be a self-prophesying post. I was busy and tired and did the best that I could, but I didn’t get on my bike and I didn’t swim. I took the term “rest week” to a whole new level where I did so much resting, I did a whole lot of not much else. However, I went on my walks and I restfully recovered. This week is already off to a better start with a great swim today. This morning I … Keep reading →