Holidays Great... Find time to spend with family....

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays etc etc etc! I am currently in Panorama with my hubby and kids as well as my sisters family. We had a wonderful and busy few days over Christmas and headed to the slopes on the 27th. Something happens to me when I come to Panorama! Here I am, in the mountains and fresh air, and should be motivated out the ying and yang to get some fresh air and ski, and run and play! Unfortunately that's not the way the world turns when I get to the top of the mountain!

I like to do nothing. Yup... you heard it... nothing, nada, sit on my butt and do... well... nothing! Christmas Day we went for a wonderful run at 8 in the morning. There were 5 of us with Pete, Toni, Dave, Ken and I. We did a nice easy 7k in the bitter cold, and it was a wonderful way to start the day! I was motivated and not willing to give a day of training away to the holiday season! (Fortunately my girls were at my sisters so it was easy for us to get out guilt free!) Boxing day, we were out for the cookie run with the Red Rock Running and Tri Club at Pete's house, then Ken and I did an outstanding ride in the afternoon. (Mine was outstanding with some really hard but wonderful intervals! Ken's was more of a spin, but I was still impressed he got on!) The 27th before I left for Pano I attended day 1 of the swim camp and did an epic 4750m swim! I've done it in the past for 3 or 4 days in a row, and while I was happy with the mileage, I was a bit disgruntled with how poorly my body handled the big swim. I was sore that night and quite thankful I wasn't able to attend the rest of the camp.

So... training, holidays, family, life... was all balanced until the 27th, the day we left for the mountains!

Since then, not much to talk about. Sunday was a complete rest day; I didn't even do core. Monday I did a 1:15 endurance ride plus core, and that felt good, and today I have speed work to do on the treadmill and a hard bike workout to do this afternoon. I only need to find the motivation to get off the couch to get both workouts accomplished! Of course, there is also skiing right outside my door, and I might try to fit a few runs in! We'll see.

So... what is the motto of this long and winded story. I often tell my athletes to let missed workouts go during the holiday season. We spend so much of our year putting our workouts on high priority in the balance of life, that friends and family can feel neglected. Training for triathlon, working, and spending time with your family can be challenging, and when we are putting in big volume training, building to our key races, it's often family time that falls down on the priority totem pole. I think it's important to recognize that. So, during the holidays, I support, encourage, rally my team to take time away from training when needed, "log" some precious hours with the people they love. It's good for the body and soul, and we have a whole year ahead of us to force those selfish moments when triathlon and running are almost all consuming.

So, have a glass of wine or a beer, and enjoy the season! We'll be back hard at it in January.

Happy Holiday!

Another 10k I wish was 10k!

So yesterday I hauled myself to the start line of the Jingle Bell run against my better judgment! I woke up tired and grumpy (hard to believe but true!) and had ZERO interest in running. I'd ate poorly all week and had spent 16 of the last 48 hours at volleyball tournaments with Ali. I did not want to run. You're probably asking yourself (if you are actually reading this) why did I go? Well, I have this thing. When I say I'm going to do something, I really really really like to get it done. Sometimes I don't get to the grocery store when promised, and I might miss a load of laundry that needs to be done, but for the most part, I complete tasks when expected. This race fell into the same category. Plus, I had a few athletes there and I knew it would look bad if the coach faked sick! Could I go to the pool at 1:00 for a swim when I called in sick and missed the race? I figured it wouldn't look good!

So, Doug picked me up at 7:45, and we met Leslie Ann who graciously had picked up my race package at the Red and White club at 8:30. As we warmed up and got ready to start I was acutely aware of my whining. "I don't feel like racing." "I'll wait till the gun goes then see how I feel." It was pathetic, and I can see that I play the same card a lot of other athletes play before a race... I'll state all the things wrong with me before the gun goes so I have an excuse if the race goes poorly! Oddly, I don't do this in a triathlon or even an Ironman for that matter. I guess that's where I'm more confident in my abilities.

So, the gun goes off and I start running. I'm in a pack with 3 other gals, and I'm at the back. I foolishly think I'll be able to hold on to them and maybe even more up a few places. I'm thinking they started too fast and will die; little did I know they were just warming up and had way more gas in the tank on the second lap! I did pass one just before the 5k turnoff but my little celebration was cut short when she actually took the 5k turn off! We weren't in the same race!

We had no km markers and I didn't have pace, so all I ran by was heart rate. My last 10k it came up, and then it dropped. I didn't have the legs to keep it in race zone in the last few k. This one went much better. I was able to hold 170+ (which is really high for me) from about 3 - 4k on, and I was happy with that. I thought I was executing well, and was excited that this race would confirm that the speed work I've been doing would pay off.

I could see the finish line... I looked at my watch... what! 39 minutes? There is no way! I would love to be a low 40 min 10k runner, but let's be realistic! I crossed the finish line in 41:56. Should I celebrate or should I cry because there is no way that was 10k! I did my usual Garmin check and people had between 8.85k and 9k on their GPS units. (I really need to get a battery for my foot pod.) I came home wanting desperately to confirm I ran a good race, and spent the next 4 hours on google pedometer measuring distance. I contemplated emailing the race organizer, but this was a charity fun run. What could I expect. They have better things to do I'm sure than tell me how far their race was; I supect the didn't know.

After many phone calls and oodles of time wasted I confirmed, in my only mind, that the race was 9.3km. That, corrected to a 10k distance put me at 45:04 and a 10k PR! It's not official, or on paper, but I'm going with it. I think I executed my race well for a change; that's a new thing for me in a 10k!