Great White North Triathlon Race Report

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I’d heard about this half ironman distance race up near Edmonton that everyone raves about as long as I’ve been in Calgary. So I was excited to finally take the opportunity to participate in the Great White North Triathlon in the small, cute town of Stony Plain this past Sunday. This race has had some super strong women winners over the past years with the long-standing course record set by the famous Heather Fuhr back in 1993. With great prize money (2500$ for the win) and 250$ primes for the fastest swim, bike, and run splits, I knew it would take a really solid race to come out on top against some motivated and tough competition.

On the morning of Canada’s 145th birthday, I lined up to celebrate Canada Day with roughly 1000 other participants on the beach of Hubble lake for an 8:00am 2km swim. In the biggest mass start race I’ve ever been in for a triathlon, I managed to stay out of the chaos and got around the first two buoys okay for the first of a two-lap swim. Considering it was a grey, cool, and drizzly morning, once in the water I felt amazingly warm in my wetsuit. I exited the water 52nd overall, and with at least 8-10 women in front ot me.

After adding arm warmers and a vest in transition to the bike, I was sure glad I had the added clothes, as the rain came down hard on the bike and hardly let up the entire time! I left transition with last year’s winner, Annett Kamenz, and knowing she is a super strong cyclist, my plan was to just keep with her as long as possible. WIth so many people I eventually lost sight of her but just worked on keeping a strong pace. Fortunately I was rarely feeling cold despite the rain and could focus on just riding strong. The bike course had few hills and is known to be super fast but with the heavy rain and wind the times were likely a little slower overall. Near to the 50 km turn around mark, I caught up to Emanuela Bandol, who let me know there were a few women 5-6 minutes up ahead, shoot I had some work to do to stay in contention! I saw Annett just ahead shortly afterwards, caught back up to her and we ended up going into T2 together 30km later. With plenty of fluid and Clif shot gels in me, I was feeling reasonably good for riding 90km in the rare time trial position for me.

I hit the run in 4th place and tried to find a good rhythm as my wet, numb feet and shoes sloshed on the pavement. A few kilometres into the run I saw my Coach Cal and the rest of the Critical Speed Racing team cheering crew. They told me I was 1:30 back from 3rd place. Turns out I was about 7 minutes back from the first two places but they didn’t want to tell me that yet. With three out and back turn around’s on the run I was able to check my own back splits and soon learned at the first turnaround that I was 6 minutes back from first. The leaders Tanya Salomon and Kelly-Lynn Marcotte looked strong to me so I would just go hard and see what I could do! No pace checking, I would just go by feel. I moved into 3rd place before the 5km mark. By the halfway point, I realized I had cut the lead down to 3 minutes, I just needed to keep up the same pace! Next time I saw Cal, I had moved into 2nd and was 1 minute back of first with about 4km left to go!

Coach Cal and the Critical Speed Racing Cheering Crew! Thanks to Kelly Frank for the photos!

After the last out and back turnaround Tanya was in sight. With 2km to go, I caught up and passed. I was ecstatic to take the lead but at the same time I had to keep pressing because she was fighting hard behind me. The last bit was slightly uphill and my legs were killing me, but I was finally able to celebrate around the last corner to the finish line, with the amazing announcer Steve King bringing us all across the line! To my amazement I had run a 1:24:13, and the 6th fastest run of the day for the entire race.

A great race, I would highly recommend it! I’d like to give it another go on a warm sunny day! Congrats to all my friends, and training partners out there who completed the race!It is so much fun to do an event when knowing so many people! Full results can be found here.

Train with a purpose, race for a reason!

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What keeps you getting out of bed or rolling out the door for a workout? Why do you race? Through some recent conversations, observations, personal reflections and my current streak of devouring athlete autobiographies, it seems apparent to me that the more we understand the purpose behind what we do, and have a reason to race or compete that is bigger than ourselves, the more focus, passion, enjoyment and “success” we’ll have – of course that depends on your definition of what it means to achieve success. As Andre Agassi wrote in his autobiography, Open,

“But I don’t feel that Wimbledon has changed me.  I feel, in fact, as if I’ve been let in on a dirty little secret: winning changes nothing.  Now that I’ve won a slam, I know something that very few people on earth are permitted to know.  A win doesn’t feel as good as a loss feels bad, and the good feeling doesn’t last as long as the bad.  Not even close (p.167).

In other words, if we’re only striving for the next “win” or high that comes with completing our next goal, with expectations that we’ll finally feel satisfied, happy, or that its all been worth it, then maybe we’re missing the point. And if we don’t understand the purpose of what we’re striving do to on a daily basis we won’t get the most out of what we’re doing – and yes, I’ve personally learned the value of quality of training, intention, and focus, over quantity since my children have come into this world!

In my world of triathlon training the purpose behind each work usually includes one or a few simple goals. Some days I leave the numbers behind (e.g. heart rate, watts, cadence, speed, distance etc) and fully focus on listening to my body, going the pace it wants to, and enjoying letting my mind wander, or being social (a mental break as well!). On the other end of the spectrum, for some workouts, it is all about hitting the numbers with maximal efforts requiring every ounce of physical strength and mental focus. While other workouts are somewhere in between, the bottom line is that if I understand why each workout fits into the overall plan and how it is preparing me for my next race, then I will get the most out of it!

If you’ve trained with purpose, you can arrive at a competition confident you’ve done your best to prepare and race to your potential that day. But racing is often full of pain and plenty of discomforts when you’re pushing your personal limits, so why keep lining up season after season for another sufferfest? Long-term perspective on what you are trying to achieve can bring a bigger meaning to it all. On the broader perspective I race for my children, to be accountable to staying healthy and promote a healthy lifestyle, to be able to give back to the sports I love, to enjoy the outdoors, for those who can’t or don’t have the choice to compete in sport, and (half jokingly) for professional development towards my own mental toughness training 🙂

Xterra East Championship Race Report

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After missing the Xterra East Champs the past two years, I was excited to go back to one of my favourite venues on the James River in downtown Richmond, Virgina this past weekend.  With J-F on his own with the kids for the first time for four full days (fingers crossed :)), I flew out to Richmond two days before the race, and enjoyed soaking up the warmth during pre-race prep, especially as cold, rainy weather hit Calgary, and even snow hit Canmore in the mountains!

The mountain bike course was longer, consisting of two loops, with the majority of it in the opposite direction from what I’d done before. Despite having raced in Richmond four times previously, it always takes several times to remember what is coming up next on the fun, twisty, technical trails. It is 100% pure single track, and super fun! Katie and I got two laps in on Friday, and ended the day coaching a women’s mountain bike clinic for the local Luna Chix team, along with my Luna Pro team teammate, Suzie. I might have had a bit too much fun in the pump track, as my upper body was still feeling pretty beat up by the time we were swimming in the James River for the race start at 8:00am on Sunday.

Looking back at Richmond from Belle Isle

Swim start and exit under the railway

Pros had their own race start, which was a treat on such a tight course, with the amateurs starting an hour and half later at 9:30. The swim started by crossing the James River, getting out for a short run on Belle Isle, and diving back in with a few zig zags around buoys before heading back to shore. I dangled in no man’s land behind Katie but managed to swim pretty straight despite the current, occasional rocks, car axels, bicycles and such distractions on the bottom of the river. Shonny, Katie, and I left transition together. Shonny soon rode away, and once I’d passed Katie in the single track, I didn’t see much of anybody for the rest of the race. With the goal of riding smooth, I was having fun riding my Maxxis Aspen tires for the first time, a fast tread and light, perfect for the hard packed trails, with occasional rock gardens to navigate!

Some great cheering support out on course!! 🙂

The temperature was really heating up by the second lap of the bike, and after 1h and 40minutes of riding, it was full sun into the run on pavement for the first few miles. After about a mile I saw my teammate Suzie ahead, and slowly reeled her in just before the “Mayan Ruins”, a steep railway ties climb (pictured below). I kept a good turnover but never felt super speedy in the heat. After getting slightly lost on the rocky river crossing, I made it through the woods and back over the bridge to the finish in 5th place. Not amazing, but solid for me on this course with the competition, I ended the day 2nd fastest run by 10 seconds, 4th fastest bike, and 6th fastest swim.

A look at the Mayan Ruins with Conrad, the men’s winner climbing up

Fellow Canadian, Melanie McQuaid, who was back in Richmond for her 12th time (wow!), took the win, with Renata Bucher (Sui) in 2nd, Lesley Paterson (Gbr) in 3rd, and my amazing teammate Shonny Vanlandingham in 4th.

After the race there was time for a shower, lunch, the podium, another stop at Bev’s ice cream shop (yum!!), bike packing and a little relaxing at our wonderful homestay, Audrey’s house (conveniently located right up the street from the bike course trails!) before heading to the airport for my 7:30pm departure to Toronto. I touched back down in Calgary after 1:00am, a LONG day, which I’m still recovering from!

Up next, it is time to get out on my TT bike a bit in preparation for the Great White North Triathlon east of Edmonton (a half-ironman distance race) on July 1st! Oh Canada…

Calgary Half Marathon Race Report

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I’m hobbling down stairs today and with a racer’s short-term memory I am shocked again at how sore every muscle in my body can feel after pounding the pavement for 13.1 miles (21.1 km). A little while back when I saw there was decent prize money for the Calgary half marathon, I thought it might fit well into my race schedule and be a good chance to go for a personal best time. After all, my only other three half marathons that haven’t been at the end of a half-ironman distance triathlon have been the Calgary Policeman’s half, always at the end of April, and pretty much always cold, rainy or snowy!

The start!

Well even the end of May can still be chilly in Calgary, and at our 7:00am race start it was cool and cloudy but at least dry. Sporting my first Luna team race singlet with a wool shirt underneath, shorts and gloves turned out to be the perfect choice (no camera with me but hopefully I will find some pics to add soon). The marathon and half marathon racers, meaning well over 4000 runners started out together from Stampede Park – it is pretty amazing to do events with that many people – a very cool part about road running races! I started in the second row, and went out with the plan to follow whoever was to lead out the women. I noted Lisa Harvey in front of me (a 1992 Olympian in the 10km, also a mom of two, who is still flying at the age of 42!). She took out the pace and was slightly ahead of me along with a blonde girl in a purple tank top. You never know who is going to show up! I was dangling slightly behind them along with Nadia Fry (last year’s second place finisher) as we went through the first kilometre in 3:30….hmmm, a little quick I noted but it feels OK. I was slowly bridging up to the two leaders near the first mile mark where I man yelling out splits said 6:02. Perfect. Just need to hold this pace from now on. Lets see if I can – Cal said trust in your fitness so I would. After passing through the zoo, I was feeling good enough to take over the lead near the 5km mark, which we passed through in 18:02.

I’d eaten a pretty big bowl of oatmeal at 4:15am and it was still feeling pretty heavy in my stomach. I’d forgotten how little I should eat before a pure running race! I was carrying a gel but didn’t think I would have any room to stomach it! On the amazingly flat course with a few tiny rollers, we headed west on 11th Ave downtown, it was cool to have all the streets completely closed off for the race. There was a headwind so I was happy to tuck in behind for a draft as we passed through the 10km split in 36:43, technically a 10km PB for me as my last 10km road race was a 38:19, which I ran at 16 years old – haven’t done much of this road stuff at all over the years!

After Coach Cal’s warning about bonking I forced down half my gel before we headed north on 14th and then west again on Memorial. There was a turn around at the 13km mark, and I was happy to see J-F had made it there with the kids in the Chariot – pretty impressive since normally the kids are still sleeping until closer to 8:00am. A small wave was all I could muster. Sometime around 14km I think Lisa dropped back a bit, and shortly afterwards, a guy we were running with started to pull ahead. I felt good and started to go with him but soon realized I was pushing it too early. I backed off and let purple tank top girl come back to me and decided I would just stick to her pace. Turns out this girl was Grace Kary, a young runner for the U of Calgary Dinos doing her first half marathon.

As we ran under the Centre Street bridge with about 17km to go Grace was pulling ever so slightly ahead and I was starting to lose contact with her. I was determined to just stick to her but my legs weren’t letting me! Shortly after we merged with the 10km racers which was a bit of a gong show for the last couple of kilometers trying to weave in and out of them, keep my pace, all the while trying to keep at least eye contact on the back of Grace. With about 500m to go we got our own finishing lane and I was able to just run as straight as possible – although that was even tough as even my eyeballs were starting to hurt and seeing straight was hard!

While I realized I would have to settle for 2nd I was also happy knowing I was going to get my goal time of a sub 1:20 time for the day. I crossed the line in 1:19:08. A great day, and fun seeing lots of friends out for the race as well. And nice to make a cool grand cash prize for the first time in a running race! Yeehaw, the top five were all awarded some nice cowboy hats as well – very fitting!

Here are the top five women overall, full results at www.calgarymarathon.com

1:18:37.63  Grace KARY F2024  Calgary AB

1:19:08.35  Danelle KABUSH  F3539  Calgary AB

1:21:04.13  Lisa HARVEY  F4044  Calgary AB

1:21:24.14  Nadyia FRY  F2529  Invermere BC

1:23:31.37  Rosemarie GERSPACHER  F3539  Calgary AB

ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship Race Report

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On the day of my son Nico’s second birthday I was miles away getting ready for a 1:30pm race start at the ITU World Cross Champs at beautiful Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, Alabama. But it was time to focus because celebrating and eating the Thomas the Train cake would just have to be postponed one day! This race was also the Xterra Southeast Championship, one of the US Pro points series races, so a two in one race, with a fun change up in the time and format (multiple laps and elite men and women separate starts, the latter would be great to have every race!)

The heat and humidity weren’t bad at all, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Without the usual early morning start, it was a very relaxing race morning. It was exciting to have our very own race as the elite men started after the women at 4:00pm. It was also great having our Luna team mechanic, Chris at the race to get our Orbea 29er bikes working perfectly and to have a relaxing shady place under the Luna tent to chill out in beforehand.

LUNA teammates pre-swim, L-R: Shonny, myself and Suzie

After some formal introductions, we dove into my favorite kind of open water swim, a calm lake at 76 degrees, just right! For less than 30 women it was a really rough start but we finally settled in and I worked hard to get on some feet, and stayed on them until just near the end of the second lap. I exited the water in 13th position.

Elite women mingling before the start

The bike course was three 10km loops and I knew it wasn’t a great course for me, almost entirely flat and constant cornering. My fitness has come a long way since Vegas but my power on the bike isn’t quite there yet. My back was sore by the end of the first lap from the constant accelerating out of corners but it was still a super fun course to ride, and mainly in the shade which was nice!

I went out onto the run in 11th position and had some serious catching to do!! As I left transition I heard Conrad’s voice over the loud speaker saying I would probably run through the field – hmmm, guess I better do that then, ha!! I was hot and I was cramping a bit at the end of the bike but tried to find a good rhythm right away. I caught Emma in the first lap, and halfway through the second lap came upon Renata, Shae, Brandi, and Michelle from Mexico. I got by them and kept up the pace knowing the finish wasn’t much more than a kilometer away. I came across the line in 6th place with the second fastest run behind Lesley’s, the race winner. Not the overall result I’d wanted but I’m still confident in my fitness and looking forward to improving over the next few months of racing as summer finally comes to Calgary!

Here are the results for the top 10 women:

1. Lesley Paterson GBR GB 02:24:39
2. Melanie McQuaid CAN CA 02:27:15
3. Carla van Huysteen RSA ZA 02:28:34
4. Suzanne Snyder USA US 02:29:13
5. Shonny Vanlandingham USA US 02:29:15
6. Danelle Kabush CAN CA 02:33:03
7. Michelle Flipo MEX MX 02:33:14
8. Shae Vaughan USA US 02:33:27
9. Brandi Heisterman CAN CA 02:33:50
10. Renata Bucher SUI CH 02:34:56

Over the weekend I was back for the third time at a wonderful homestay, at Jerry and Kathy’s house. They opened their large home to seven of us for the weekend including my Coach Cal (who unfortunately didn’t make it far into the bike portion of his race before flying into a tree and injuring his shoulder bad enough that he had to stop, big bummer!), and Brandi Heisterman, another Canadian racing in the Elite race. Brandi and I first met running track against each other at 12 years old. She is also a mom of two now so it was great fun catching up on each other and all the people we’ve known in common over the four days we were there!

Do your acting skills help or hinder your athletic performance?

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As an athlete, when you enter a competition, do you ever think of yourself as giving a performance? In a great little classic book called, The New Toughness Training for Sports, the author, James Loehr, makes the connection between great acting and “performing on demand”, a common catch phrase in sports these days.

When the best actors and actresses show up for work to do a scene, if they feel off, tired, have a headache, or are just under the weather, they still have to bring all their physical presence and emotions to the part they need to play! Great performers can act their way to the precise emotions they need to portray. There is plenty of research showing that by simply moving the muscles of your face in the direction of the desired emotion, genuine emotional responses can be elicited.

I’ve personally experienced this when mountain biking. As a beginner, I would often tense up when riding something that scared me. While I didn’t feel like it, if I forced myself to keep smiling while riding, my body would soon follow by beginning to feel genuinely more relaxed and happy and in turn ride more smoothly and more confidently! In other words, the physiological changes from acted-out or faked emotion are the same that occur in spontaneous, genuine emotion!

As an athlete, you may have many descriptions for how you are need to feel to perform your best such as confident, energetic, relaxed, excited, positive and challenged. If you are a bad actor on the athletic stage you probably just act out whatever emotions you happen to be feeling at the moment even if they are detrimental to your performance such as anger, frustration, disappointment, helplessness or high nervousness. On the other hand, if you have worked hard at mastering your “performer skills”, you can act out the positive emotions you need bring to the performance regardless of circumstances. And this takes practice, as James Loehr writes, “Emotions respond much as muscles do. The ones you stimulate the most become the strongest and most accessible.”

Just remember if you feel like doing this…

Act like this, and you will feel AND perform better…

Finally an acting quote, that highlights peak performance, regardless of the arena:

The difference between nailing a scene and turning in a mediocre performance is all about “being present in the moment” while “really being outside of yourself.”   – Judith Light, Actor and Activist

Paradoxes of the Athletic Life!

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Listen to your body but don’t listen to your body. This is the paradox every one of us who strives to discover our potential as an athlete must live.

In the last month, despite the fact that I actually enjoy swimming the majority of the time, I had to spend a lot less time in the pool due to a sore shoulder, it was the kind of pain that was saying something is wrong here versus just “feeling it” due to the usual muscle aches or soreness from training fatigue. After making time for some physical therapy I have been back on track, fingers crossed for a little while longer! Being sidelined, even temporarily, from my normal training routine got me thinking about the fact that no matter what your sport or your goals, if you are trying to go faster, stronger, higher, or longer than your previous best, consider that you have to be smart enough to deal with the many parts of the athletic life that are paradoxical….

1. The Physical Paradox: You need to learn and know the difference between when to push through your training and when to back off if you may be edging dangerously close to injury or illness. You need to be open to pushing your limits so you’ll improve, but also how to pace your overall progression over the long-term to avoid over training or injury. There are times when you need every ounce of focus and mental detemination to overpower your body’s screams to slow down and stop like during full out interval training or a race, and other times when you can just let your body decide on and set the pace such as recovery workout or a long, easy distance training!

2. The Recovery Paradox: You need to know how to eat well enough so your muscles can recover and rebuild after training. If you are a cookie monster like me it takes the ongoing goal to practice awareness of the difference between my muscles’ need for increased calories and my body’s craving for unnecessary fat, sugar, and salt – everything in moderation is my motto! It is also being able to read your body well enough to know it is okay to push it close to its limits for training volume, but also being disciplined enough to throw an occasional training day out in order to avoid injury or sickness and recover properly!

3. The Mental Paradox: You need to know the difference between temporary (normal!) slumps in motivation and feelings of burnout. Sometimes you just need to kick yourself out the door and get going and other times you need to be aware that you need a serious break with activities that are restorative mentally and physically,things you find relaxing and fun! And ultimately perhaps the toughest point for some athletes – being aware enough to recognize when the competitive fire has burnt out and it is time to move on to something else in life and/or change direction in some way!

4. And of course I can add The Parenting Paradox: Listen to your kids but don’t listen to your kids: give them unconditional love, listen to their needs etc but don’t give into every demand and want for candy, toys, or every outburst for attention!

Of course, navigating all of the above apparent contradictions takes plenty of trial and error, patience, and self-awareness but the better you become at perfecting the balance, the more fun you’ll have discovering your potential while staying healthy!!

Thinking of getting active again? Thoughts on getting back in shape after having kids

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Reasons not to start exercising again:

I’m not getting enough sleep yet, my baby might need to nurse while I’m gone, I might miss a critical developmental “moment” in my child(rens) life, I should really take the little extra time I have to clean the house, do laundry, cook etc instead, it will be depressing to see how much fitness I’ve lost as compared to pre-kids, what if I still don’t lose the baby weight, I’ll feel guilty taking more time to myself on top of work etc, I might not fit in my workout clothes yet, I’m a mom now and my priorities have changed, I want to be available to my kids and family 24-7, I can’t afford a babysitter, I can’t afford a gym pass, I don’t have time, I’ll wait until the weather improves, I’ll wait until the kid(s) are just a little bit older, what if my body has not fully recovered from childbirth, it might hurt my milk-filled boobs, I feel guilty leaving the kids with anyone else but me, what if I can’t keep up to my previous training partners, kids take every last ounce of my energy, when it comes to exercise its all or nothing for me, baby steps are for babies, I’d rather take a nap

Reasons to get out the door and exercise again:

I just want to get moving! ! Healthy mom = happy mom = happy family!

My Xterra West Championship Race Story

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With the kids once again well taken care of at home by Papa and Grand-mama, I flew down to join a house full of Calgarian fun at Lake Las Vegas on Thursday! Lake Las Vegas weather has not been good to me on race day – there for my third race in 12 months, all three times the temperature has dipped well below normal to brrrrr racing temps!

Before the race I got in a few laps of the bike course and a short run. With the water temperature at 59 degrees and the air being cold and windy, I wimped out of a pre-race wetsuit swim and instead got in a few laps of our rental house pool, heck I could do 4-5 strokes across and flip turn at each end!

On race morning we woke up to rain and 7 degrees Celsius outside! I was sure the swim would be cancelled, especially once I heard the water temp had dropped to 57 degrees with all the heavy rain overnight! I felt like this kind of weather might send me into early retirement – why am I doing this again?! Either way, I decided I would ride down to transition in my wetsuit just to keep warm and noticed the 8:30 start half-distance sprint race was underway and racers were indeed in the water!! When I racked my bike with 25 minutes to start time, I figured I’d better start getting out of swim denial and get my head in the race and the water! Thanks to my new Luna teammate’s request, our team mechanic, Zak met me at the water’s edge with a big pail of hot water which we poured down my wetsuit front and back….ahhhhh!

Lingering on the dock until the last possible second to get in the frigid water!

With a few minutes to go I plunged off the dock and put my face in the ice bath as I paddled over to the deep water start. The Pro men and women started together in the first wave. I successfully got on some feet and was able to draft for the first two-thirds of the race. With my lips feeling blue, I tried to imagine the feet bubbles in front of me as hot tub jets relaxing my muscles….it helped for a while but the cold eventually caught up to me and the last five minutes were a bit of struggle as I lost the draft and the first group of yellow caps from the next wave were plowing through me. But finally I was on the dock and running on my numb feet to transition.

Exiting the swim feeling like a popsicle!

With no feeling in my fingers I really struggled to get my wetsuit undone, but was finally underway on the bike with wet tights I had worn under my wetsuit and an added jacket in transition – a great call as I was never cold on the bike!! I was near the back of the Pro pack and at least 2 minutes down from the leaders after the swim so I had a lot of work to do….

Heading out onto the bike course on my Orbea 29er

I thought I was feeling pretty decent heading out onto the two-lap red dirt moonscape course, but as usual in the early season, I struggled a bit to find the extra gear and power necessary for top speed on this fast rolling course, with a few sustained and steep climbs, and crazy fast open descending. With only a temporary stop of the bike to yank out some major chainsuck I made my way up to 6th place by the start of the run.

Nice start to the run course!!

I was feeling good from the start of the run and was determined to catch some people! After chasing down some men, I eventually caught up to my new Luna teammate, Suzie Snyder (who had a solid day finishing 6th). Then I caught Melanie McQuaid in the last mile to finish 4th. Meanwhile, up ahead the reigning Xterra World Champion, Lesley Paterson ran down Renata Bucher with about 200m to go, and they had an incredible sprint finish which you can watch here

Thanks to our Luna team mechanic, Zak, who drove out from California to support Suzie, Shonny (who opted to just ride the relay as this race due to a sore knee), and I for this race. He takes most of these photo credits! And thanks to him, my bike maintenance for this race was a dream, and I was able to fit in a shower, some food, make it to the podium, and get my bike packed all in time to get to the airport after the race and catch my flight home to Calgary!

Podium (L-R): me (4th), Lesley Paterson (2nd), Renata Bucher (1st), Emma Garrard (3rd), Melanie McQuaid (5th)

Team Luna Chix Week!

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Every year at the end of March, my racing team, the LUNA Chix, gets together for a week, and between eating, sleeping, and random blocks of training, this is roughly what we do for the week:

1. Meet any new teammates and catch up with the ones we don’t see so often…

New team members Teal Stetson-Lee (L) and Suzie Snyder (R) with Georgia Gould

2. Get new gear for the year and break it in (Christmas is actually in March, not December, if you’re on this team!), thanks to our team mechanics Chris and Zak for getting our bikes ready to roll, and team manager Waldek for all the rest!

3. Admire the new decals and team vans…

4. Take some photos (usually in freezing locations) for the media guide etc…

5. Go visit Clif Bar in Berkeley, CA, the coolest company ever to work for….

6. Finish the week with the Luna Chix summit – What is this?? Watch this 2min plus long video for the best explanation…

Kicking off the LUNA summit on stage at Clif Bar, team members L to R: Shonny Vanlandingham, Katerina Nash, Jane Kibii, Catharine Pendrel, Terra Castro, Suzie Snyder, Teal Stetson-Lee, Georgia Gould and Moi

Watching our big boss rock it out on the trumpet