WEEK-END IN OTTAWA/GATINEAU & MY FIRST RIDE ON BIJOU!

My week-end was just awesome!! Rocky met a new friend, Jake, and he didn't bark or growl at him which is always good! =) He was also the start of the Running mania 3 year Anniversary party.

I wasn't sure if I was going to come back with him... after Andy gave him food, he was totally in love with him!

I went for a nice LSD on the Canal on Sunday, reminded me of Windsor with its waterfront, but this one is much longer! I got 4.5 miles in in 53 mins and it was a lot better than a week ago where I did 4 agonising miles in 50 mins.

Monday I did 45 mins on the stationary bikes, Tuesday was a run/swim/bike day with 4.4K/1.5K/4K while today was a brick workout. I was scared of falling off my bike due to the clips but I practiced on my street for 30 mins before heading out! My mom even went out with me as she was scared I would not survive without supervision lol

I ended up doing 45 mins/15K on Bijou, trying to get comfortable changing gears and going into aero bar position but I was still kinda shaky! I'm really happy to report, that I have not fallen and I'm getting more and more comfortable clipping in and out! =) Now I really want to find a place to go where there are going to be no red lights and no slow peeps! I followed the bike with a 5K run with my Dad.

Here's a picture of me and my Jewel!!

HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY TO ME!

2 years ago, I started this blog with the intention of recording my first marathon training. I was not sure if I would want to keep writing once the marathon was over but I quickly realised that I love to share my training and get feedback from other runners. Friends you make on the internet are valuable. I haven't stopped blogging since I started. I also had no clue that I would meet some fellow bloggers who leave comments here (Kenny, Francis, Shelley, Jelly and Laurel). It always felt like I was meeting old friends. =) I'm looking forward to meeting a new one in Quebec city at the end of August too!!

As far as training, everything is going well and I lost some weight this week so I couldn't be happier!!

Monday: Ride 20K in 47:11 (stationary bike)

Tuesday: Swim 1250m in 33:00, Bike 4K in 13:53, Run 5K 43:19 (With Dad)

Wednesday: Bootcamp video that kicked my a$$... 40 mins

Thursday: Swim 1150m in 30:00, run, Run 5K 42:20 (With Dad)

Friday: Brick workout. Long ride 15 miles in 1:10, Short fast run 1 mile in 9:48!! (woohoo!!!)

You will notice I am kinda undecided and confused in my distances. Sometimes I do it in Km while othe time it's in miles... I am definitely more comfortable for paces in miles but all the triathlon are in Km so I am trying to adjust!

Also, I went to pick up Bijou yesterday (that's my new bike's name!) but she was n't there. =( She got lost in shipping and I went all the way to St-Jerome for nothing. My friend told me he will get her next Tuesday, so I could pick her up Wed or Thurs.... this sucks, I was very looking forward to riding my new bike this week-end! Granny has no retired yet... and my long ride hurt my wrist. boohoo...

I'm off to Ottawa for the week-end celebrating Runningmania.com 3rd anniversary!

Have a good week-end everybody =)

INSPIRED BY IRONMAN FINISHERS....

A maniac friend, James, was doing his first Ironman on Sunday in Lake Placid. We tracked him the whole day on our forum and I ended up watching the live feed of the finish line online. While waiting for my friend, I saw Richard Clark a 70 year old man who they said finished MANY IM (13h33) and the oldest woman competing at Lake Placid, and alone in her AG of 65-69, Louise McGonigal. She is a 65 yeard old Canadian who finished in 13h38. She has beaten the World record too! Simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and I-N-S-P-I-R-I-N-G!

My friend ended up finishing in 13h47... the previous post is a video of his finish (thanks Fran!), they totally screw his name up but he looked happy and tired!!

I keep thinking one day this will be me! =)

James Finishing his first IRONMAN!

LONGEST RUN SINCE THE CORTISONE INJECTION

Very happy to have that done, only 4 miles but that was enough for me (and Rocky!) this morning. Close to 34 °C with the humidity, that literally killed us! We were Slow, 52 mins @ 12:58 min/mile, with a capital S but at least we were not sitting on the couch eating crap!!

I have put on 25 lbs in the last 8 months, combine the foot issues with finishing a Ph.D. thesis and that's what it does to you. I am working hard on getting back in shape and my brand new and shiny bike will be a big motivator for me.

Here's the new race target: Triathlon de Montréal an Olympic tri on September 13rd. I got a novice training schedule on the internet and this is what my plan will look like. Replacing the Tuesday with the Monday since the pool here only has lanes on Tuesday and Thiursday. Lots of fun to come =)

I SPLURGED...... BIG TIME!

Yep, my friends, you have here the owner of brand new and shiny TRI bike...... Spend a lot more than what I wanted... but I see it as an investment in my health and getting back into shape. I've come to peace with the fact that the foot cannot take too much concrete pounding right now so I had to find some alternative to get back in shape! And I defnitely got the TRI bug at the St-Lambert triathlon!

I got a really good price since one of my high school friend owns a bike shop and I got a model from 2007, they only had 2 bikes left!! He will get me fitted and teach me how to ride properly for 2h next week. I will get my new baby on Wednesday or Thursday! Very excited about this, no name yet. I gotta get a feel for it before I name it =) GOOD BYE GRANNY!!!!

It's a Jamis Comet 2007 (56 cm)

Here's all the 'SPECS'

FRAME: Aero 7005 butted aluminum frame with aero down tube, flat-oval top tube, airfoil seat tube with wheel cut-out, airfoil seatstays, rear entry horizontal dropouts

FORK: Aero road with Carbon fiber blades and 1" steel steerer

HEADSET: FSA Orbit integrated, 1"

WHEELSET: Formula X-Aero XPR-3 aero wheelset, welded 27mm aero profile rims, sealed bearing hubs, bladed spokes, 18H radial front, 24H 1 x rear

TIRES: Vittoria Zaffiro 700 x 23C

DERAILLEURS: Shimano "105" SS "105" braze-on front

SHIFTERS: Shimano Dura-Ace bar end 20-speed

CHAIN: Shimano CN-5600

FREEWHEEL: Shimano CS-5600 10-speed 11-23

CRANKSET: FSA Gossamer 53/39 172.5mm (54 56)

BOTTOM BRACKET: FSA Mega Exo external bearing

BRAKESET: Tektro dual pivot calipers with Tektro RX 4.1 levers

HANDLEBAR: Syntace Stratos 400 bar 40mm drop 410mm (54 56) with Streamliner bar extension & BioWing cups M (54 56)

STEM: Jamis 1" threadless 7D x 100mm (56) GRIPS Jamis gel tape

SEATPOST: Carbon fiber Aero 250mm x 27.2mm with seat binder

SADDLE: Selle San Marco Ponza Lux, Cro-moly rails

COLORS: Le Mans Blue/Pearl White

WEIGHT: 20.00 lbs

GUESS WHAT??

Little trip to the podiatrist today, where I learned that I have MORE foot problems, this is seriously getting old...

It has a huge name too: Neuroma of the calcaneal branch of the posterior tibial nerve. Some sort of cysts on the nerve which is pretty rare according to my podiatrist... they are going to adjust my orthotics to remove pressure from the cysts (putting wholes where the cysts are). I have 2 on the foot where I had the cortisone injection and 1 on the other.... If this doesn'T work seems the solution is a freakin cortisone injection!! I am so pissed!! This hurts like hell, is expensive and I don't want to have another one! I freakin' sucks that this problem was hidden by the PF too...

Today's workout
I went for a 30 mins jog easy this morning, 2.5 miles were done. It was almost 10AM by the time I got out so way too hot for my own like... Rocky tought so too!! I just came back from the pool, 1000m in 27 mins. I wasn't in the mood, it was really hard to get into it...

psstt I have started shopping for a new bike 'insert shameful expression'...

MY FIRST TRIATHLON IS HISTORY!

I've started thinking about doing a triathlon since I've been injured with plantar fascitiis (8 months ago!!). I am also very inspired by a close friend who is training for her first half IRONMAN and she inspired me to go forward with this sillyness! Lisa, you're the Best. =) Since I got back at my parents' house, I've worked hard on the bike and at the pool to be able to do this. Sorry, if this is long, like any other 'first' it is great to write a lot so you can remember it and see your progress as you move along!

Pre-race

I ended up having stomach issues yesterday and did not feel very well for part of the day, not sure IF it was due to pre-race jitters or just a bad spinach salad I had for lunch... LOL After 2 bottles of perrier water I was finally feeling better. Carb loaded on a wonderful chicken pasta recipe (yum make it!). I went to bed early but did not sleep well, kept dreaming of getting lost in transition or missing something to go on the bike and run... yeah everytime I woke up I told myself that's enough now! But would start dreaming the same thing again... I rarely get like that with running race anymore, seems the unexpected is frightening!

The cheering squad and I got up at 6AM, brekkie and we're out the door by 6:45AM. Here they are in all their glory! Thanks for coming out with me.

We got to the race site no problems, I went to get my race kit, my chip and get marked but the girl at the registration booth did not tell me there was a board where I could check which rack to put my bike on... I knew there was 2 waves of try-a-tri and she said to another volunteer: wave 1 red cap. So, I tought it would be written, Wave 1 Try-a-tri somewhere... We went the transition area and the bike racks were separated between Wave 1 to 12... so I had no idea which wave I was in really (I knew it wasn't the 'real' first one tough lol). I asked a bunch of girls at Rack 10 if they were doing the try-a-tri and they didn't even stop talking to answer me... only one guy turned and said he wasn't.... hum friendly! So I then ask someone who was in charge of transition area and he didn't know, so about 15 mins later and going back to check a board near registration. I knew which one was my bike rack (5th wave!!). I felt I looked so so clueless but this all new to me!

I meet up with a friend that I went to Université de Montréal with, Élaine, she was also doing her first try! It was great to see a familiar face and we went through this event together, it took some of the nervousness away. She said we were very lucky to be in the middle of the waves with a start at 9:10AM as they usually put the try-a-tri last, thank god because it was a HOT one today!

Off we went to the pool for a little warm-up and we anxiously waited our wave to start. We had a little race meeting and it turns out I was on the first wave of the try-a-tri. Most of the people in my wave we're doing their first one too! I was in Couloir 5 and Élaine went to Couloir 6.

Anxiously waiting for the start of my wave above!

Swim (300m in 6:52 with T1)

I believe I'm a good swimmer, my technique is not perfect but I am like a fish in the water so I knew this was going to be faily easy for me. My tryouts at the pool were close to 9-10 mins for 300 m so my goal was to go sub-9min, so I was delighted to see a sub 7 mins!!

I'm in the red cap, the girl in the green cap, asked me what my 300m time was and she tought she was faster so I let her go first... after 1 lap I had to pass her cause she was going to slow! This time included a run of about 200m =) It was a pretty weird feeling to just start running after you've been in the pool, I was definitely out of breath when I reached transition! I was 17th overall when I got out of the pool.

Bike (13.2K in 36:18 with T2 -garmin says 33:44)

After crossing on the mat, I reached my place and was pretty quick on putting everything on. Got the garmin on Auto multisports (thanks to Leanafor pointing that to me!). More running and off I went, hop on the bike. I had to do 3 loops of a 4.4K course. Élaine passed me about 2 mins in the bike ride! She has a neat bike =) It took me about half a loop to get my breathing under control, I think I pushed a little on the swim lol Granny was doing good, I had no clue of my speed as the multisport just says Bike and doesn't give you a speed... oh well, I went by perceived exertion. It was a flat bike course, great volunteers cheering too. I had lots of fun, one of the bike marshall even said to me it was great to see such a great smile. =) My goal was to go sub 40 mins so I'm very please with Granny's performance, however, she's still pretty old and rusty so I went from 17th to 35th but I'm ok with that. I knew my bike had limitations and I wasn't there to win any speeding contest! Off from the bike and run about 300 m again to my bike rack, I was out of breath really bad, I had to walk and take it easy there (as you can see in my exhausted face!).

Run (2.5K in 18:11 -garmin says 18:26 for 2.61K)

I knew I had hit lap too soon for the run so that explain the extra garmin time, guess what, I was excited to start running! Soon realised my legs felt like lead... oops Plus, I had loosend my shoelace A LOT so that it would be easy to put them on in transition but they were too lose... so yeah no time to stop and undo the crazy knot I did LOL

Heard my Mom cheering me a lot at that point and that really helped cause I felt I was going SO slow. First mile poped up at 11:22 and I was happy it was under 12 min/mile, I felt I was going much slower tough! As soon as I saw the finish line I speed up and heard my family cheering =) Total time 1:01:21!

It was a great experience and I'm very happy I went through with it. I liked it a lot, I do find it is a very expensive sport and that might prevent me from doing a lot of it... oh well, I'll have a job someday =)

Thanks for reading up to the end!!!

I FINISHED! I'M A TRIATHLETE =)

Swim/Bike/Run got done! 1:01:21 and very happy of my day! More to come later, after a nap and this nagging headache is gone!! Thanks for all the support guys!

GRANNY HAS WEIGHT ISSUES....

She does NOT fit in the car!!! AT ALL!!! I was near a major breakdown when my uncle who has big huge truck came to the rescue (thanks Fernand!!) MAJOR PHEW! I will be on the starting line tomorrow! =)

BORING DETAILS + STRESS...

3 days till my first triathlon and I'm getting pretty nervous about little stupid stuff:

-Do I wear my bra under my bathing suit?
-Do I swim without a bathing suit and with shorts and a top?
-How to I prepare my transition area?
-Do I bring a bottle on the bike ride
-Should I bother with the garmin?

For now, that's pretty much it, I have a friend who answered all the others (more stupid) stuff!!

Training so far this week:
Monday: 10K bike /1.6K run
Tuesday: 2K bike / 1750m swim

I asked the lifeguard if my technique was ok and she said it was good (I never took classes). I just need to adjust my breathing which I will work on next time. So, I'm pretty happy with that =)

I left 'Granny' at the bike store so it will get a much needed maintenance!! And new tires! Woohoo look at me, I'll be Speedy with Granny on Saturday! lol

Oh also, I have an appointment on Monday to the physiotherapist so I can get some laser treatment. My coverage ends on August 31 so I'm trying anything I can before that.... Thanks everyone for the good words on my last post. It's been really hard to not be down about this. I've had to deal with the PF since November last year...

SCRATCH THAT....

I was up around 5AM as my foot started to bother me... put on the strassburg sock again.. I really just want to cry, this is pissing me off. I've seriously had enough of this. I won't be running on it today like I had planned...

MIXED FEELINGS REGARDING THE "FOOT"...

It's been 12 days since I had the cortisone injection and altough I am not in pain anymore and I stopped limping when I get up in the morning. I can feel that the foot is not back to normal. As weird as this sounds, I have to learn to walk properly again! Since, November I had been dealing with the PF and switched my way of walking so that I would not put much weight on my foot... well, this brilliant idea is now biting me in the ass, because my ankle feels weird now that I can put all my weight on the foot again!! Anyway, not sure I am totally clear but bottom line is: foot is fuc*ed! LOL

I got up early this morning, 8AM is early for me these days (!!!), and did the Learn To Run (LTR) with my Dad. It was his 3rd time doing the 6 mins running and 1 min walking (5X). He's doing really well, I'm pretty proud of him, we're moving on to 8 mins next week! I'm trying to find us a 5K race in early August as I think he will be ready.

For the first K of the run, the foot was weird but it got better and I finished the 3.85K without pain. I think I will be fine! No limping so far yay! Tomorrow, I'll do a brick workout and see how I can handle the bike-run. I also want to practise my transition... Granny better old on! LOL

Hope everyone will have a great day =)

HBC CANADA DAY RACE: VOLUNTEER REPORT

I was up at 5AM in order to get to the Old Port by 6:15AM. Made my way to the volunteer tent where I waited for quite a while and finally got my shirt and signed in at 6:35AM as a Road Marshall. There were a lot of volunteers!! When you run a race you often have only a small idea of how many people are needed for things to run smoothly!

Me and 5 other people made our way to the 2K/8K mark of the course. At 8AM sharp the race started and 660 runners made their way to us. The first runners arriving in less than 6 mins!!

Since the course was on the Canal Lachine cycling path and we had priority on it, our job was to stop cyclists from going on that path. Sounds easy, right? Well some people were pretty nasty with us! Swearing and being angry at us or just not wanting to cooperate! There was the street right behind the path... Thank god not everyone was like that and some people were really nice.

3 of my friends were running the race and they all recognized me while they were running! I was pretty impressed since all the volunteers were in red and they had no clue where I was going to be! All around a very well organised race, I only wish I was able to run it... I'll be back next year ;-)

Here's a pic of some of the Canadian Athlete who actually ran the race. I have to say some of them were pretty slow... I mean they ran the 10K slower than I would have!! Made me feel good lol

All the pics are courtesy of my friend Andre!