Monthly Archives: February 2012

12 hours in 3 days: Grumpy but not too Grumpy!

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Every so often at strategically timed intervals, which come around again amazingly fast, Coach Cal puts our triathlon training group through a short volume push. For myself, it is putting close to the same number of hours I usually train in a week into three days.

On Friday we started the weekend with a group video ride at the Olympic Oval. While most of the group did some epic vertical snowshoeing near Banff on Saturday, I opted to stay home and cross-country ski at COP, swim, and trail run in order to get more family time and not be gone all day – sometimes I’ve found I have to find the best alternative options to keep my personal athlete-mom balance in check and still get in the necessary training! Sunday we finished the weekend off with an epic 5-hour Brick back at the Olympic Oval – a final test of mental and physical endurance mixed up with bike sets, running, stairs, and swim band pulls.

Coach Cal in the centre to the left leading the 5h Brick

The weekend got me thinking about how physical and mental endurance builds in increments, and that I am way better at handling training volume than I was when I first switched to being a cyclist and then a triathlete. Since I’ve spent half of my racing career so far specializing in the 1500m run on the track, I remember thinking a 90 minute bike ride was long when I started mountain biking while injured one summer. After about my third mountain bike race that same summer at Nationals in Ottawa, I couldn’t believe my brother had the energy to go out on the town with friends, while I was so wasted tired!

When Coach Cal first told me to run 2h and then 2h30 at one time, I thought that was nuts, the longest I’d done as a pure track runner was about 80 minutes! Or to run zillions of mile repeats as fast as we could go! Or when I had to do my first ride longer than 4 hours. what ride for 5-6 hours, that is crazy?!…still a rare occurence but now I know I can do it! Or gradually building up swim mileage and speed in the pool, or even to race a half marathon, and then half-ironman, nuts and too crazy hard…but of course I got to thinking each time maybe I’ll try it…and so on. Though I still think of doing an Ironman as a little crazy, ha, I’m not there yet!

As our bodies learn to handle more training over time, we learn how to better mentally embrace it, prepare for it, and have strategies for how to get through it. The same for mental intensity. As on a typical Tuesday night last week, we finished a long night of speed work on the track, and I was done like dinner at the end, but somehow finding the mental focus to get through it has become easier over time with practice, I’m better at just breaking it down to focusing on one interval at a time!

The Olympic Oval with a running track around the outside of the Long Track ice, perfect for indoor winter track sessions, and Bricks with plenty of stairs to  up the hurt factor!

And now I can finish a weekend like this and not be too much of grumpalufagus with the family, and even have a little energy left over each day to enjoy and play with my kids – not like I have a choice on that matter anyway – ha! And of course, I always like to reward some solid training with a little sweet treat – today it was quinoa chocolate cake – try this somewhat healthy one for some good protein recovery…:) It was a hit with my entire famille ce soir!

Moist Chocolate Quinoa Cake

Bring 2/3 cup quinoa, 1 and 1/3 cup water to boil, simmer for 10 minutes, turn off heat and leave to cool. Combine 1/3 cup milk, 4 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract in a blender or food processor. Add 2 cups of the cooked quinoa and 3/4 cup melted butter and continue to blend until smooth. Whisk together 1 and 1/2 cups white or cane sugar, 1 cup cocoa, 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp or baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt. Add to blender and mix well. Divide batter into two  8-inch, greased pans and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

Gift from the Sea by Amy Golumbia

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Ultrarunning mom of twins and holistic nutritionist, Amy Golumbia, recently posted a great blog which is a great reminder of why moms need to take time away to themselves, whether athletically or otherwise. She writes about the book, Gift from the Sea, and her own thoughts on motherhood guilt, trying to do it all, and the importance of taking time to step away, regain perspective, recover and find balance.

She writes, “Of my friends and the women I know, there seem to be two general types. Most of the mothers I know fall into the first category. This woman is constantly on the run but never really fulfilled…..” And later “On the other side of the spectrum, I have a few girlfriends who have figured it out and are great role models for me. They truly walk around with a genuine smile on their face….”

Click here to read the full post, a highly recommended read with some great reminders!

Amy also did one of my athlete-mom interviews which can be read here.

Xterra Winter Triathlon Race Report

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Today was a super fun break from the regular winter volume training to compete in one of the shortest races I’ve done in a long time! At the second annual Xterra Winter Triathlon in Canmore I got to experience another one of Tony’s (www.smithevents.ca) amazingly run events!

Run-to-ski transition at the top of Main Street

The race began with a 500m swim in the Canmore Recreation Centre, a first experience for me as it was my first swim in a pool in a triathlon. The slowest swimmers started first, with a maximum of 4 swimmers in one lane at a time. It was a sold out race so while the first swimmers began at 2pm, I finally got to hop in the water over 45 minutes later after a short warm-up in the 10 metre long kiddie pool corner. Swimming 500m as fast as I could was a burner and I went out a little too hard! With a goal of swimming faster than 7:30 I was happy to hop out of the pool  7 minutes and 27 seconds later.

After transitioning into run clothes and putting on run shoes on the way out the door, we ran an icy 3.5km on the gravel path system that circles the north side of the town. Those that chose to run in studded shoes or with Yaktrax today (not I :() were the smart ones! For the few short, exposed gravel stretches in the run it was possible to get some leg speed going but otherwise it was dicey balance of running fast, small steps to stay upright especially through a few of the corners.

Then for the most exciting part of the race – transitioning to cross-country skiing for 5 laps of main street in Canmore for a total of 3km.  The snow was laid down on the Main Street as part of the 10-day winter carnival. Since it was only my second ski of the season I was a little wobbly at first but once I found my two-skate rhythm I was having way too much fun, and wanted to keep going when my 5 laps were up!

While I unfortunately had to leave with the family before the awards the rumour is I was the second women but I will have to confirm that. It was so short and fast, I think my transitions may have taken as long as the racing, ha! Either way, it was a lot of fun on a beautiful, perfect 2 degree winter day and would recommend this event to everyone! It was a total blast!