Category Archives: life in the way

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 →

Week 14

  By Crystal Clarke | April 8, 2013 - 10:29 am | , , , , , , , , , ,
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14 weeks. 14 weeks until my A-race of 2013. Holy S**t. When I counted the weeks this morning I had a little jump of panic. Why? Well, let me just tell you why. The past few months I have been more active than I have been since the marathons last spring. That really isn’t saying a lot since I did almost zero activity from June to December. The reasons for that were numerous: burn-out (2 years of straight training will do that), a knee injury, a lot of various family issues from my brother being in an accident to my … Keep reading →

Yesterday’s Disaster

  By Crystal Clarke | September 23, 2010 - 9:31 pm | ,
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Well, disaster is probably too harsh of a word to use for yesterday. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster, Chernobyl was a disaster… yesterday was a personal disaster, I guess. And even for that, it wasn’t really THAT bad. So, what’s this all about? Well, the moral of this story is that sometimes life gets in the way of training and being a good vegan. The other moral is that it is awesome to have a good partner/friend/other in your life to support you when “disaster” strikes. Ok, where do I start…. Wednesdays. I’ll start with Wednesdays. Wednesdays are always a … Keep reading →

Things that Get in the Way of Training for Ironman

  By Crystal Clarke | December 19, 2008 - 10:31 am | , , ,
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As I was laying in bed, listening to my alarm clock sound at 5:30am I couldn’t help but swear at the Triathlon Gods who have cursed me to love this f-ing sport. I promptly turned off the alarm clock, swore at the Pool Gods, and slept for another hour and a half. When I finally dragged my butt out of bed at 7am, I thought about the “things” that get in my way of training. 1) Weather – it is currently -30 degrees Celsius. How, praytell, am I supposed to run for 15km (1.5 hours)?!? Sweat starts to freeze after … Keep reading →

Time Flies

  By Crystal Clarke | December 8, 2008 - 11:44 am | , , , , , , ,
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I can’t believe it has been a month since I have updated this. In my head, while I’m training, I keep thinking, “*Subject* would be a great thing to write about,” but then it leaves my head as soon as my workout is done. The biggest reason/excuse for not updating this blog is because I have been seriously lacking in time and motivation to blog. In the past month, I have been going through some emotional turmoil about an ended relationship and a friend who decided to take his own life. This has left me reeling a bit and has … Keep reading →

Last week was a bust, but this week is looking up

  By Crystal Clarke | October 28, 2008 - 11:50 am | , ,
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Last week I had to take time off of everything so that I could deal with some personal life stuff and felt bad about it everyday. In fact, I made two (TWO!) attempts to get to the pool, but the one time I forgot my swimsuit and the next time the pool was closed due to a swim meet. I figured that it just wasn’t meant to be. As for biking, the wind was too much and I was hardly motivated enough to get on the trainer. This is definitely going to be changing soon enough. This week’s 2-hour bike … Keep reading →

Rewards

  By Crystal Clarke | June 19, 2008 - 10:50 am | , ,
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This morning I slept in through my run and decided that I would go for a run this afternoon. To ensure this happens, I’m going to reward myself with an awesome vegan peanut buster parfait. Good ol’ soy ice cream, peanuts, and a vegan chocolate sauce all in layers will be perfect to top off a nice 1-hour run. Tonight I’m mountain biking with the gals, which I’m excited about. I move in merely two days and I’m excited and sad about it. I’ve lived in my current house for almost three years and I know lots of my neighbours. … Keep reading →

Water, Water, Everywhere, not a drop to drink… only to swim in!

  By Crystal Clarke | April 9, 2008 - 5:25 pm | , , , ,
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I have really been focusing on my swim for the past couple of months. I’ve always considered it to be my weakness because I use my legs a lot and have little upper body strength. However, with my coaches help, I’ve been increasing my strength through calisthenic exercises and through freestyle pulling. With my foot being sore (but is healing now!) and my trainer not being appealing, the swim is all I’ve had until now. However, it is now nice enough to bike outside, which is exactly what I’ll be doing next week. I’m so excited to get out onto … Keep reading →

Simplicity

  By Crystal Clarke | March 26, 2008 - 7:57 pm | , , ,
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Sometimes life can see so complicated – work, relationships, nutrition, and training. Then there’s housework, bike maintenance, massages, chiropractor, movies, music, volunteering, and life stuff that just pops up. Right now it all seems so simple to me. There have been times over the past few years when doing this much really did overwhelm me, but right now I’m taking it all in stride. Maybe, just like my running stride, it gets longer with more practice and I have learned to adapt. For instance, tonight I went running with a running group. I haven’t run with this group for at … Keep reading →

Going Long

  By Crystal Clarke | April 17, 2007 - 1:14 pm | , , , , , , , ,
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I can’t believe it has been so long since I updated. Sometimes blogging just slips my mind. Easter weekend was basically a write-off. Between family, moving, and relaxing, training was minimal. I did do a lot of lifting and reaching – I’m sure that can be counted as weight training. I did go on some long walks with my partner and my family’s dog, but it was really cold that weekend and it was Easter. A good time for some time off. The week after Easter was crazy. I did do some biking on my trainer, but I have been … Keep reading →