Saturday, May 30, 2009

Super Days & Super Star

Sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses....

Here is a photo journal of my last couple days in Victoria and Calgary....simply beautiful out here, spring has finally made an appearance!

The view from my fantastic homestays house in Victoria, thanks Bruce and Marsha for the hospitality! That is Mount Baker on the mainland US in the horizon, can't beat this view! A beautiful Calgary day, not a cloud in the sky, 27 degrees out, I had a kick-ass ride Friday!
The view along the Calgary Ironman 70.3 bike course; how great is this?!
The tree in our backyard in full bloom....pretty but my alergies are killing me!!! And finally, I've made it on you tube! Click this link to my Lavaman interview post-win (yes, I'm a dork!). The interviewer kept calling me Lisa Bentley and the final question he asked was if I was going to be racing Ironman's soon.

Have a great weekend, don't forget to stop and smell the roses!
Lisa

Monday, May 25, 2009

Victory Is Mine....

After another solid week of training out in Victoria that involved a bike TT, a ton of swimming, running hill repeats, a long run getting lost in the woods at Thetis Lake, and finishing the week of by racing the Subaru Shawnigan Lake Triathlon put on by Lifesport Coaching. This was my second half-ironman of the season!

To start the weekend off, Katya and I were given a brand-spanking new 2010 Subaru Forester to cruise around in for the weekend, courtesy of Saunders Subaru in Victoria, a title sponsor of the race series (nice wheels, hey Clarice!)! Thanks Bob and Edie for hooking us up!
The car was literally off the boat...when we picked it up it had 20km on it, I snapped a picture at 47km...sooo nice to drive!!!
Back to the race...after having 'plenty of recovery time' according to Coach Paul (that equated to friday and saturday before the race), it was up to beautiful Shawnigan Lake (~40' outside of Victoria) to race a Half ironman distance triathlon. Since the Rev 3 race is in 2 weeks, this was a good chance to see where my fitness was at. My race plan was to have a solid swim-bike and then run a 'tempo' half marathon(or zone 3ish heart rate, so at a good effort but not race pace).

The water temperature was quite pleasant, ~16/17 degrees, nice for this time of the year. I managed to swim the whole thing solo and go a bit off course, so it wasn't my quickest 1.9k ever but it was enough for a new swim course record! Onto the bike, a rolling 4 lap course with one climb, I had a few 'soft spots' where I let me mind wander and my HR drop, but it was a great improvement from my Oceanside bike! Once I rest my legs, I think I'll be good to go for the next half! I was passed by Vancouverite and great cyclist Rachel Keirs (last years winner) on the final lap of the bike-I think she got about a minute on me going into the run. Onto the run, which was on a rolling gravel trail, I re-gained the lead within ~2k and never looked back. Just ran a solid half and finished off for the win!

All and all a good day out at the races. It was a beautiful day on a fantastic course, can't ask for more than that!! Here is an article that was in the local paper, the Times Colonist.

A pic of me on the bike, not from the race, I'm working on getting some of those, will post once I find some!
Up next? A few more hard days of training and then resting up for the Rev 3 Triathlon in Connecticut on June 7. More info on that race to follow, it's the launch race for one of my supporters, Trakkers--you'll be able race along with me on the course!!
Lisa

Monday, May 18, 2009

A photo journal of the last week....

A few pics, felt I owed you since the last few posts have been rather boring...

Post ride last weekend in Calgary...we sent 3.5hours dodging rain storm after rain storm. Managed to avoid most, got the edge of one storm that pelted us with hail, but couldn't avoid the wet roads!
Maddy, after her first real ride, nice and dirty! Had to happen sooner or later!


Maddy, post bath! Note the sunshine post-ride!! Richard's bike got a good scrubbing too, I'm surprised it still shifted to be honest!

The flowers that I won after a local Victoria 5km race on the track....Here is the 'run-down' of how the 'race' went. Went out fast with Lucy Smith (I train with her, know I can run with her), fast but tried to keep positive.....uh oh, this really hurts....uh oh, there goes Lucy, that was one fast km...okay, just run your own race....my legs are really tired from this weeks training...how many laps left??!! Ok, just finish it....ok just keep running....good lord, how many more laps?? Just don't get lapped...hold on for 3rd...finally done...well, that time wasn't anything special...remember to tell Paul that I'm never doing a track race again....

The aftermath of this weeks training....I don't recommend, hill repeats & TT on the bike, mile repeats running, some swimming, a 4 hour ride with Brent M where you run out of calories, and a 5k track race in the span of 4 days!!Next post later this week if I muster up the energy to get to the coffee shop!
Take Care,

Lisa

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Who's that running across the top of the Viterra Ironman 70.3 Calgary site??
http://www.ironmancalgary.com/

Where Is My Mind?

Another short one, no pics...I won't be offended if you don't read it!! Not having internet access sucks!

It's been an 'off' week for me. The last 2 weeks have thrown me off a bit--the trip to Korea, being ill, kind-of racing, then flying home and trying to recover. I've done some solid training sessions out here but it's been up and down. I've been late for workouts (not very professional, I know), unprepared for workouts (one ride Brent M basically had to hold my hand on the way home because I was bonking so bad!), mentally not there, and yes, just plain grumpy! Not sure what's been going on, I'm motivated, excited to train, but I just feel a little off. I'm going to chalk it up to 'just one of those weeks'. I've reflected on the positives from last week, great rides, couple good run sessions, and have cleared my head, this next week will be better! I'm going to be my usual punctual, overly prepared self, I promise!! I get a roommate this week, always good to have someone to suffer along with you...Katya is here Tuesday!! You may even get a more interesting post next week...I'll pull out the camera!

That's all for now.
Lisa

Friday, May 15, 2009

Quick update

In Victoria training....limited Internet time....getting back into training, feeling better.
Will post more once I have a better connection.
Lisa

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Quarantine and Frank has a new friend!

Back in Calgary. Still sick and still hacking, it sucks. It was all I could do not to cough when I went through customs so they didn't put me in quarantine for Swine flu &/or SARS! I think Richard was tempted to quarantine me himself when he picked me up and heard my cough! Now, I'm fighting the jet lag, but yesterday was surprisingly productive, here is a photo journal of my day:

Vitamin C loading:
Domestic Diva: I cleaned, I did the recycling, I did my taxes, I cooked a delicious Greek feast, and I even baked banana-chocolate chip muffins (low-fat, healthy version of course!) with ripe bananas....yummy!
Oh yeah, then I did load after load of laundry!
And to top off my day, my new Team Timex Trek Madone arrived! I put it together yesterday and then went to Speed Theory today and had Cam, mechanic extraordinaire, assist me with a free-hub change (Campy to Sram for my Power Tap wheel) and taping the bars. Now Frank the Ferrari, my time trial bike (formally known as Frank the Tank), has a new friend, Maddy, my road bike!! Super excited to get out there and race her!

Frank & Maddy getting acquainted and enjoying the sun. So much Oranje!

Hopefully next post, I'll be back to normal and back at 'er training hard!

Lisa

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Dunking, Phlegm & Cherry Tomatoes

So, I probably shouldn't post right after that disastrous race but...here ya go, the emotional post (well, as emotional as I get anyway)...

Those who know me well, know that for me to DNF a race it takes more than a bike crash, blood & pain and unbearable blisters. In Hamburg, I ran 5k on a stress fracture before I pulled off the course, in South Africa it was a frantic/desperate dash to the bathroom due to a case of food poisoning, today I was coughing. Not just any cough, a deep-phlegmy-ab-busting one. I knew I picked something up coming over here, I haven't felt 100% since Wednesday, I just tried to deny it, took some vit-C, told myself it would go away, it's just a little head cold. It didn't. Doesn't sound like much but it sure is hard to run when you have to cough the whole way!


Here's how it went: the swim: brutal, and uncharacteristically slow for me, it was one big fight to the first buoy, I had successfully blocked out what an ITU swim was like, the memories all came flooding back after the start. I got punched in the face my first breath, lovely. I managed to work my way closer to the front on the second lap after losing time on the first. Mental note: need to work on start speed (Bart, get ready). My head felt like I was scuba diving and couldn't equalize my ears.


Onto the bike: again little slow to get going so I ended up in the chase pack. Started coughing but figured out that if breathed shallow, I was ok. Our group was scattered and we made up some time but held it to 45seconds, I'll admit I wasn't much help, so not like me, just tried not to bust a lung!


The run: went out of T2 fast, figured it was worth a try. At about 3k into it I took a deep breath and it was game over. I stopped just after 5k and coughed for 30min straight. The little Korean ladies in the recovery tent were torn between trying to keep their distance and trying to feed me water and cherry tomatoes (totally random, I know, but maybe they are onto something, I'll do some research and let you know).


Now, I'm just frustrated, I hate not finishing what I start and it was a long way to fly only to DNF. Ahh, the ups and downs of racing. I can almost here my coach telling me to focus on the positives, so here they are:

  • I got a really high-intensity workout for 1hour and 40 some-odd minutes
  • If I ran what I know I can run (and not had a brutal swim), I would have had a great finish
  • I felt really strong on the hills, thanks to hill repeats on the springbank hill
  • I stayed relatively calm while being thrashed, kicked, pulled, dunked in the water
  • I've been getting a killer ab workout out of this, so all is not lost.
  • That that don't kill ya, can only make you stronger. It also makes me hungry for more, I'll get this one back!
I'm going to take a nap, my head really hurts. Sorry to those who got up early/stayed up late to watch. You know I'll come back stronger at the next one.


That's all for now.

Lisa