Spring Fever

After returning home & a long chat with the coach, I've been on a 10-day mini-break. Meaning, unstructured on-my-own training sessions. It's been good chance to clear my head and rest the body. Luckily the weather in Calgary has been cooperating! It's been 18-23 degrees and sunny for the past week and I've taken full advantage of the early spring weather!

I've cleaned the garage, done loads of laundry, BBQ'd up a storm, steam cleaned the floors, pulled out the deck furniture, started my taxes (got bored part way through) & raked the lawn....this turned out to be a 2 person job....below is a pile of pine cones from 1/4 of our front lawn.....I guess our 50+ year old pine trees decided it was time to drop ALL their cones at once! That and it's been a dry year in Calgary....I have been doing some 'training' too. The weekend involved heading to the mountains to cycle Elbow Valley--one of the roads closed during the winter--makes for some great early spring cycling. This one is on highway 66 west of Bragg Creek (closed until May 15th)...how often do you get to ride in the mountains on a paved hilly 2 lane road with NO CARS??

The view from the back of my helmet on one of the climbs, still pockets of snow on the sides but the road was clear all the way up & over the pass! It's a fast decent!

I had such a good time on the weekend that I headed out solo today to do some hill repeats. Blue skies, 23 degrees, no cars, just me, the road, and nature! Seriously, I didn't see anyone out there until my way back to the car!

One more shot of the view....ahhh....love those mountains!!!

Up next: Round 2: Summer racing prep-training. I'm feeling refreshed (except for the sore back from raking!), motivated and eager to get back at it! Bring on round 2!

Lisa

A rough day at the office...

I'll make this one a quick one, cause I need a shower!

It started with a punch in the face and ended with a needle (after 3 tries) in the arm. Not my best day out there. I salvaged a horrible swim with a strong bike to get myself (and a couple other girls) back on the lead pack. I decided to spot everyone a few seconds in T2 and started the run off the pack of girls at the front. I had some up & down moments running, feeling the heat and the liters of harbour water I decided to drink during the swim...it was sloshing around! Then I went too soon for the sprint for 20th and finished in 22nd spot. They grabbed me at the finish, strapped me in some Hannibal Lecter chair and wheeled me to the medic tent before I knew what was happening and stuck me with a needle....apparently I didn't look so good...

Not the result I wanted but there were some positives, so I'll focus on those. Plus, the IV made me feel fantastic after! Guess I have to give them more local emergency contacts too...Richard couldn't make it to the medi tent in time...

Off to enjoy a few hours in Sydney. Home Monday. Back to the drawing board...

Lisa

Boomerang

Race time 5:50pm MST Saturday night. Watch live: www.triathlon.org/tv

Sydney is awesome, just wish I had an extra day after the race to tour around! That's alright, I'll be back. Peter's roommate gave me the nickname Boomerang, 'cause I just keep coming back!'

Til after the race!
Lisa

A Wise Old Blind Man Once Said....

My last full day in Noosa went like this:

An early wake up call and off to my last surf swim session. Since it is "fall" here, the days are getting shorter, so it was still a bit dark as we entered the water at 5:45. After watching an episode of my favourite Aussie show last night, Bondi Rescue, about a shark sighting (turned out to be a seal!), my imagination was in full swing this morning! We started doing some intervals in the water when the sun came up. The sunrise over Noosa National Park was amazing...I wish I had my camera. Then on the very last interval, I caught a nice wave and rode it all the way into the beach. I left my last surf swim satisfied!

Then it was back home for brekky and a quick rest beofre heading off to the track for some intervals. First I had to stop at the used book store to swap out the books I'd finished for one for the trip home. On my way out, I had my head down reading the back of my new book when I looked up and a smiling old blind guy (complete with white cane) was walking briskly towards me. I had to make a quick move to jump out of his way and he must have sensed me, cause he smiled and said "You have a happy day!" and walked on. I said "Thank you, I will!" With that positive greeting, I was off to the grass track for my intervals/steeple chase (the track was wet & full of obstacles like sand and thick grass!). Here's a pic of the sand trap in Lane 1:

My intervals went awesome, mainly because whenever it hurt, I just thought of the blind guy and it made me smile!

Then I had to say goodbye to Red. I was a little sad but he served me well. Till next year Red!

Next, I finish off my last full day in Noosa with a massage. Ahhh, doesn't get better than that! Off to Sydney tomorrow and race day on Sunday!

In the words of a Wise-old-blind Man in Noosa:

You have a Happy day!

Lisa

8 Days

I’ve finally started to feel like I’ve recovered from the Mooloolaba race. Think I was a little more dehydrated from the race than I thought. I had a rough couple days there but now feel like a million bucks. A couple hard training sessions and massage seemed to have done the job!

Here’s a pic from the ITU site: that’s me leading the bike pack:


Only 8 days left in Oz. The last week of a training camp is always the hardest. Usually your mind/head is ready to get back to home after 6 weeks. I miss Richard, my friends & my family (missed my nephews B-day AGAIN). On the other hand, I really love it here in Noosa, so I’ll be sad to leave. I’m onto my ‘lasts’….the last Saturday group ride, the last surf swim, the last Sunday trip to the market for tropical fruit, the last poisonous snake encounter, the last ‘bush rat’ living with me….

This will be the site of my last swim session on Thursday morning:
I’m determined to make all my ‘lasts’ the best yet. My last mile repeats were again epic, a little lonely without my training buddies, but I dedicated every repeat to them (this time it was hot & sunny and not a bush turkey in sight girls!). I can’t wait for my last surf swim session on Wednesday…watch out waves, here I come! Then it’s off to Sydney on the 8th, race on the 11th (evening of the 10th for NA), and then HOME on the 12th!

This time it they should have VIDEO coverage of the race: www.triathlon.org/tv

Til my next sporadic update…
Lisa