Sidelined. This wasn’t part of the plan.

My fall 2015 season was going okay, despite a nagging left glute/hamstring issue that was exacerbated by my “trick-or-treating” injury (unknowingly stepping hard off a slippery leaf-covered curb in the rain and dark). At the same time, my left calf/foot issue from the summer was coming back. It was hard to tell if the glute/hamstring and calf/foot were two problems or all one problem, with possible nerve entrapment. I was starting to get suspicious of my position on my time trial bike; hard bike efforts seemed to cause problems the following day. I was frustrated by all of this, but was going to physio and continuing to train, although in November Coach Mark and I decided to knock the effort down to easy on the bike and run, while increasing my swim to 3x/week, with lots of pull buoy use to rest my legs. Then, in December things got worse, which didn’t make sense, at first.

On Dec 4th my entire right arm from my shoulder/armpit to hand went numb in the middle of a continuous 1000m swim. I was so focused on my ongoing left leg pain that I assumed the two things were connected, trying to visualize some nerve pathway in the body that would connect left leg and right arm. In reality, I had no idea what was going on.

The arm numbness didn’t last long and I finished the workout, but I had some under arm and shoulder pain so I assumed I’d injured my right rotator cuff. I’d recently increased my swimming (given I was doing less on the bike and run) and I was working on a more aggressive hand entry in the water so it seemed to make sense that I’d done something to my shoulder. I admit that I also had thoughts of “over-training” syndrome and just general burn-out and I decided my body was trying to tell me something. So I cut back on swimming too. In fact, I stopped all my training for 1 week over Christmas. You can imagine I was a lot of fun to be around. Ha.

Here is where things got really confusing. During my 1 week of no exercise over Christmas, my shoulder got worse and I wasn’t even swimming! I started getting excruciating burning pain across my shoulders, back, and right arm plus bizarre pin pricks that truly felt like electrical shocks. Since my glute/hamstring seemed to be improving (rest + physio = recovery), I was now certain this new upper body pain was unrelated to the leg issues. At this point I stopped being upset about my limited training and started being scared for my overall health.

There is something I haven’t yet told you. I missed a HUGE factor in all of this. It is so big I’m embarrassed to say, but here it goes. On Nov 30th, I took a hard hit to the head in the pool when another swimmer switched directions without telling me [she started circle swimming when a third swimmer joined us, but I didn’t know this (!!!); I was swimming a hard 50m at the time]. It was a hard impact to my head. It hurt. I cried into my goggles, but, after a brief rest, I finished the workout and then jumped in the hot tub. I had a headache that day, but otherwise I felt okay. To be honest, it is difficult to remember [but not because I hit my head (!) just because life is busy]. When my arm went numb 4 days after the pool collision, I didn’t connect the dots. Let’s blame it on the busy end of the  semester, Christmas preparations, etc. I just didn’t see the connection. Since I thought I was fine, I continued to bike and run (easy efforts) and even swim for the next 2-3 weeks.

Two weeks after the pool collision, I had bad chest and shoulder/arm pain and, combined with my then ongoing calf pain, the after-hours doctor sent me to the ER to get checked for a pulmonary embolism. Scary. The appropriate tests were all fine, no blood clot. However, there was obvious wheezing in my chest (no stethoscope needed!). I didn’t even think to mention the hit to my head (I know, I know), but, in hindsight, the injury was starting to show itself. This is a fairly typical timeline for a whiplash-type injury.

As I mentioned, over the Christmas holidays things got much worse with the arm/shoulder/back/ burning pain that seemed indicative of a nerve problem. I saw my family doctor in early January and have had many tests since then. In fact, I’m sort of a regular at the Guelph General imaging department these days. I’ve had cervical spine x-rays (all normal; no fractures or breaks) and a shoulder ultrasound (also normal; no torn rotator cuff or tendonitis). I’ve had a lumber spine MRI (this goes back to the leg pain, which has now cleared up with lots of rest) and a cervical spine MRI and there is swelling and a hematoma around my cervical spine. There is no obvious nerve compression, no fractures, and no disc degeneration. Unfortunately, there was an unusual finding in my thoracic (mid-back) spine that may be related to the trauma or may be an incidental unrelated finding. Thus, MRI #3 was of my thoracic spine with contrast dye and it confirmed a fluid-filled cyst at T7-T8 but with no identified cause. The implications of this are not clear and I will see a neurosurgeon in May to learn more. In the meantime, I have a repeat cervical spine MRI in a couple of weeks to ensure that there is improvement in the swelling and hematoma caused by the injury.

I had a full physiotherapy assessment in early January, which confirmed that my brachial plexus is unhappy; there are a lot of irritated nerves in there, which is understandable given the trauma and inflammation in the area! I am on both anti-inflammatory and nerve pain medication and this is helping; I am sleeping better on most nights, which is vital to the recovery process. I’ve been going to physio 3x per week plus doing my home stretching and strengthening exercises and making good progress. You know how sometimes it is hard to fit this in? Not any more! I had muscle/nerve function testing done at the Toronto Rehab Institute and thankfully there is no permanent muscle or nerve damage related the cervical spine injury or related to my brachial plexus. So, with physiotherapy and time to recover, this injury should heal. The unknown is still the thoracic spine cyst, but I’m trying my best not to dwell on this until I know more in a few months.

So, there you have it. I am currently focusing on recovery and pain management. In early January, I couldn’t even walk for 10 min without unbearable pain and now I’m well over an hour of walking as fast as I possibly can without breaking into a run (running remains a big unknown right now) plus I’m up to an hour of easy/moderate effort cycling (using my mountain bike on the trainer provides the best posture at the moment). I’ve been back in the pool a bit (swimming entirely with a snorkel right now), but usually my hot tub time is longer than my actual swimming time, and last week I went back to pilates for some one-on-one sessions with my amazing instructor at Pilates in Guelph. If you add in my physio stretches and strength work, I’m getting back to some decent hours per week, but these sessions are far from training workouts; there is no intensity in anything right now. I haven’t seen my Garmin in weeks, I can’t remember my Trainer Road password, and the other day I laughed out loud when I felt an odd sensation on my skin and realized it was….sweat! Ha. Without a doubt, even with the pain, I have significantly better days when I’m active and it even helps me feel more like my old triathlete self to fit in a swim, bike or walk in a busy day (just not at 5 am; don’t be crazy, there has to be some perk to this rehab!). I am just very grateful to be moving. Baby steps.

None of this recovery process would be possible without daily support from my husband, Glenn, and our children who are putting up with my less than stellar mood on some days! Let’s be honest, an injured triathlete doesn’t make great company. Ha. I am also incredibly grateful for an amazing assortment of talented health care professionals: my physiotherapist at the University of Guelph Health and Performance Centre, my family doctor, the Toronto Rehab Institute, and my RMT.  I am also very thankful for family support from my brother (a neurologist) and my sister-in-law (a physiatrist) who have taken time to discuss all of this with me and who provide ongoing encouragement. Other colleagues with expertise in an assortment of areas have also been invaluable. My parents, family and friends deserve extra special mention  – thank you for being there for me in-person, by email, text, phone, for a walk or for brightening my day with flowers or coffee. I won’t name names as I’d hate to miss anyone, but I have some incredibly supportive and caring friends; you know who you are and I love you for all that you do.

I’ll be honest, I am VERY up and down with my feelings about this drastic lifestyle change that I didn’t ask for; replacing training with medical appointments and pain medications is hard to deal with, but I am trying my best to stay positive. I have good days and bad days, related to physical pain (apparently recovery isn’t a linear process, who knew?) or  emotional issues. I certainly didn’t ask for 2016 to be my Year of Recovery but that is the current outlook and I’m trying to come to terms with this change of plans. As I joked (trying hard) to Coach Mark on the day I had to quit my triathlon club, teamLPC, and his excellent coaching, “at least I’m 44 in the 40-44y age group; it isn’t a bad year to miss I suppose”. It isn’t easy though.

Thanks for reading and best wishes for health and happiness in 2016.

Swim safe!
Lindsay

 

 

I am excited to share my first Olympic distance (1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run) triathlon experience! While I tend to note what needs work (Type A, yes?), I am overall VERY happy with my first race at this distance. I know there are improvements to make, but that’s what keeps me motivated for the hard training ahead!

Swim: 32:14 (2:08/100m, includes run up the hill). I had some major anxiety in the days leading up to this 1.5 km swim. I had recently done a 1500m continuous swim in the pool, but the pool has walls you can push off from after each 25m. Oh, and a lifeguard. The lake is different (however, a huge shout out to the many kayakers who help keep us safe out there) and I haven’t always had good experiences. My goal for this race was to complete it without any “panic-induced-middle-of-the-lake-I’m-quitting triathlon-forever-thoughts” (see my Woodstock report). To achieve this, I knew I would have to stay relaxed and keep my effort moderate/steady (on an effort scale of very easy-easy-moderate-steady-tempo-hard-very hard, this is, admittedly, closer to the easy end). I struggled with this; keeping the effort moderate in a race wasn’t really my thing, but I made myself commit to this. When the horn went off, I counted to 5 (okay, 3) and then started behind everyone else in my wave. Guess what? Best. Swim. Ever. I swam from buoy to buoy, did some drafting (although she really didn’t like this and her intense kick made me move on ahead), and I was actually (wait for it…) a bit disappointed when I swam by the last buoy! I could have kept going, which is a sure sign that my effort was on the low side, but as Coach Mark wrote in Training Peaks “relaxed = fast”, “not-relaxed  = slow”. Absolutely true. I didn’t exactly swim fast, but my time was right where I expected it to be (~30-31min in the water) and arguably my most relaxed, effort-controlled swim yet. I came out of the water smiling as I started the run up the hill to T1.

T1: 1:48. Compared to Woodstock where I had to sit down from dizziness and disorientation, I was breathing well and got out on my bike in an okay time.

Bike: 1:13:44 (32.54 kph). I’m new to riding a TT bike with a power meter. I love it, but I’ve had some inconsistent watts (power numbers) and for someone who likes data (me!) this is annoying because the &@^# numbers are driving me nuts! I had a goal wattage in mind but when I got going, my numbers weren’t even close to this and when I tried to push up to those numbers, the effort seemed too high. After about 5 km I realized my watts were going to be a lot lower than the goal I’d set out for myself, but I felt like I was riding well, doing a lot of passing (typical for me as my swim is slow) and the effort based on breathing and my legs seemed right. All that training based on effort was about to come into play. In hindsight (never really that accurate?), maybe I was holding back on the bike worried I’d blow up in the 10 km run, never having done this bike/run combination before. Add the 1.5 km swim to the front of this and I was in brand new territory! Overall, I was happy with my ability to ride in aero most of the time (downhills still need work), to drink from the built-in system (although I ran out of water) and to have a gel while in aero. Overall, it was my best (and longest) bike in a race yet and I know there’s more to come. I’m still not sure about the effort and watts; if those watts were correct (and, really, why wouldn’t they be?) then I know I can go harder, but that will come with Oly tri experience I think.

T2: 1:22. Strangely, as I was bent over switching bike for running shoes, I got an intense knot in my stomach, like it was being twisted. For a brief second, I thought my race was done, but I straightened up slowly and jogged out of transition as it loosened up again. Weird.

Run: 50:13 (5:01 min/km). Heading out on the run, I felt like I had a good amount of energy (plus I quickly had another gel) and my legs felt pretty good. The course starts off a bit hilly and then flattens out somewhat, before some trail running (and some small hills, which Coach Mark seems to think are flat?! I’m thinking we have different definitions of flat!) with two different turn-around spots (which makes a great course for cheering on other athletes) and then back through the campground and those same hills, ending with a nice downhill to the finish. I was hovering around my goal pace for the first 5 km (for some reason I had the km auto-lap turned off, but I was glancing at overall pace, although mostly going by effort), but fatigue was setting in and I knew my pace was slowing on the trail sections; admittedly, my brain was cutting me some slack (and I was letting it…), saying “finish happy and strong” versus “go till you puke” and I was definitely playing the “it’s my first longer race” card. I had a good last km and indeed a huge smile at the finish! My running off the bike in a race isn’t where I’d like it to be yet this season, but I will continue to work on this!

In my pre-race number-crunching I figured that 2:35 – 2:40 was a reasonable goal for my first go at this distance. At the finish line, the clock said 2:45 something, which, minus the 6 min for my wave start, is a time of 2:39:22.

A few minutes later I checked my phone and texts from Glenn showed my swim, bike and run splits and that I’d come 5th in my age-group. The top 3 overall women in the race were all in my age-group and I was thrilled to squeak onto the podium with such amazing company!

Overall, I really enjoyed the Olympic distance and I am looking forward to another one later in the summer at Wasaga Beach!

Thanks to the organizers of the Subaru series and all the volunteers, as well as LPC Coaches, Mark, James and Alex for supporting, cheering, and for making this such a fun team. Thanks to my usual crew of family and friends for always supporting me, and to you for reading.

Cheers,

Lindsay

To say I was excited for my first sprint triathlon of 2015 would be an understatement.

Coming off an off-season of personal best times in the pool (still slow but, progress is progress!), lots of quality time on my bike using virtual power in Trainer Road (including two FTP tests where a goal was improved mental toughness, as well as fitness), both indoor and outdoor track sessions, plus an incredibly awesome full week of training with fantastic athletes and coaches at Team LPC Florida Camp, I couldn’t wait for the triathlon race season to start! Add to this a recent 10K PR on a hilly course at the Bluenose race weekend in Halifax and things were shaping up nicely! or so I thought…

Two weeks before the Woodstock Sprint Triathlon, things started to go south. First, an eye infection left me unable to wear contacts for two weeks and feeling overall quite miserable (and a wee bit sorry for myself). I got through some bike and run workouts wearing glasses (progressive lenses, not exactly ideal for exercise) and survived the pool without hurting myself (or anyone else), but my energy level was unusually low and about to get lower. Three days before Woodstock, a trip to the doctor indicated strep throat and an ear infection. Combined with my recovering “pink eye” I felt like the poster child for common toddler sicknesses! I couldn’t even blame these three (3!) infections on my kids; these ones were all mine. Ugh.

Nonetheless, I was headed to Woodstock!

Here’s how it went.

750 m swim: 16:04 (2:08/100m; 8th/21). After some pretty typical chaos at the start, I found some space and settled down, feeling pretty relaxed and swimming fairly straight towards the first turn buoy. Turning, and heading across to the next buoy, I felt really good and even caught a bit of a draft for a short while. Unfortunately, after turning at the next buoy to head into shore, choppy water caused some problems, which I let turn to panic and ultimately breathing issues, leading me to stop and tread water in an effort to calm down. Somewhere between here and solid ground I decided I was “never doing this again” and we all know this is not a good place to be in a race, or in the middle of a lake for that matter.

20 km bike: 39:48 (30.14 km/h; 4th/21). Nothing new on race day, right? But I had a brand new-to-me time-trial bike with a power meter that I was dying to use in a race! I’d been on it a handful of times, but I hadn’t mastered reaching for the water bottle and it hadn’t been properly fitted (and I knew the seat height/position was far from ideal given I could only really reach the gear shifters with my fingertips) but I figured it would be okay for 20 km. Repeat after me: Nothing new on race day. Actually, the bike itself went pretty well in terms of my watts and overall speed (especially given its a slower bike course with the timing mat positioning and uphill start), but I think my inability to eat and drink and some cramping in my left leg were setting me up for some trouble ahead.

Run: 24:18 (4:51/k; 3rd/21). I felt quite good for the first half and I even got down around my goal pace by the second kilometre.

Then, near the turn-around, my legs seized up. I’m still surprised at how quickly this happened. My legs just wouldn’t turn over fast enough. I spent the next little bit moving slowly and trying to analyze the situation – was this from no hydration or nutrition on the bike? Over-kicking in the swim plus bike not quite comfortable so legs cramping up? Day 3 of antibiotics for the strep/ear combo? Forgetting that 5 km after a hard effort swim and bike is not the same as 5 km flat out? Just not my day?

Somewhere in the last km, I bounced back a bit, but a little too late to catch the 3rd place woman in my AG (she finished 16 sec ahead, having passed me somewhere around 3.5 km).

Overall, I finished 4th in my AG in a time of 1:22:47 with a finish line photo that likely won’t make the family Christmas card! However, this photo sums up my attempt to gut it out to the end.  I left it all out there. Literally.

Apologies to the volunteers taking off my timing chip and a huge thank you to the medical tent for being within stumbling distance. One chocolate milk later while hanging out with LPC teammates, my thoughts of “never doing this again” started to fade…next up, Guelph Lake 1 Olympic Tri!

Thanks to MultiSport Canada and all the volunteers at Woodstock for such a fantastic event and to Coaches Mark and James and all of team LPC for making training and racing so much fun. An extra thanks to Coach Mark for his excellent training plans, support and patience as I continue to work toward my goals for 2015 and beyond!

Thanks to Glenn, Alice and William and my family and friends who continuously encourage me and to you for reading.

Cheers,

Lindsay

I have now been with team LPC (Loaring Personal Coaching) for one year and I love it. In January 2014 I met with Coach Mark, got introduced to Training Peaks, and began a new schedule of swim, bike, run workouts. The year was an incredible experience; fun, challenging, frustrating at times (a swim video analysis showed that my swim stroke was helping me to swim backwards!) and overall very rewarding with some age group podium finishes in sprint triathlon

and personal best times in the 2 mile, 3K and 5K road race distances

and an overall 1st place in the my age group in the Subaru triathlon Ontario sprint series.

2015 has just started and I’ve set goals of improving my time in the 10K road race, completing my first Olympic distance triathlon (1500 m swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run), and competing in various other triathlons and running races throughout the year.

The most common question I get asked is: How do you find time to train for triathlon with a full-time career at the University of Guelph, a husband with a full-time career (and who also trains for triathlon with Coach Mark), and two young children who have their own activities and agendas!

There are countless blogs, articles, posts, etc on this topic, and I don’t expect my contributions or comments to be game-changing by any means, but I will add my honest two cents worth.

It is not easy to fit it all in. So why do it? I absolutely love to train for triathlon; the energy I get from it helps to fuel my family activities and to focus on my career and work. I love the reward of reaching my training and race goals, but I also enjoy the challenge of fitting it all in, the logistics of planning, and the people I meet and get to train with and learn from.

One important development over the past year is that I am now using the early morning hours to train, at least a couple of times a week. This is still minimal compared to many triathletes, but it is progress for me. Now that our kids are a bit older – I can count on a solid night’s sleep most nights and this has helped a lot. A lot. I can now set my alarm for “dark-o’clock” and be confident that I won’t be a total zombie by lunch time.

My training week is typically something like this:

2-3 days a week I do an early morning workout (bike on the trainer or swim or maybe run outside if there are no other options that day). My early morning workout days vary with Glenn’s commuting schedule – some days he leaves the house very early and only once did I get on my bike at 4:15 am so I could be finished before he left. Once was enough. I’m dedicated, but I’m not totally crazy; there must be other ways! Like others, I need to be done my workouts in time to get myself ready for work and the kids ready and off to school so I time things according to this. I really enjoy Friday mornings when I swim with team LPC at the University pool; if you’re going to train early it helps to have company and it is nice to be a short walk to my office.

2-3 days a week I use time around the lunch hour to swim, bike, run or to go to a Pilates class. Since I don’t have a set lunch break at work, I can take an hour to exercise and then eat at my desk before or afterwards, or both. This gives me flexibility, depending on my teaching schedule, meetings and other work commitments on any given day. This is tremendously helpful and I am very grateful for this. It means blocking off my training time so that nothing else gets scheduled then – I try to do this a couple of weeks at a time in advance and then adjust as needed (this happens all the time; flexibility is key). It also means working later in the evening to prepare for lecture, work on a research paper, or respond to emails, but I’d rather do those things after the kids are in bed then try to train then.

2-3 days a week I use the time at the end of the work day to get in a short run or bike before I get the kids to go home for supper, homework, play time and bed time. I then finish off my work day in the evenings after the kids are in bed. Sometimes I will use the evenings to train; typically this will happen if things go astray during the day (e.g. the overly long meeting that led me to miss the pool hours) and of course evening sessions in the spring and summer are more common with Guelph Victors track or team LPC brick workouts or swim/bike/run sessions at Gulliver’s Lake. I also aim to go to David Brooks’ Victors Boot Camp one night a week, which helps immensely with strength, motor conditioning, flexibility, running form, and its social too!

On Saturdays and Sundays I do my longer running and biking sessions. Since Glenn often has similar weekend workouts we plan this out ahead of time based on what else is going on at home, with the kids, etc. Sometimes we need to be creative but that is part of the planning that I love to do. Sometimes we even get to ride together if we can organize a babysitter.

As you can see, there is nothing earth-shattering about any of this; just a lot of organization (perfect for my type A personality), blocking off training time in advance, and being committed to getting it done. Do I have to miss some workouts? Yep. Kids get sick, meetings pop-up, Christmas concerts run long, deadlines loom. Sometimes I can re-jig things on the fly, but sometimes I just have to let it go. I’m still working on this.

So, while much of this is common sense, there are some things that have made this past year of triathlon training possible (in addition to the fantastic coaching and support from team LPC):

1) My husband, Glenn, is ultra supportive and an awesome husband and father to our children. Glenn takes care of most of the meals, which is beyond helpful, especially since I don’t know how to cook much more than pasta (that counts right?).

My contributions are along the lines of kid shopping (Mom! My boots are too small!), appointments, house tidying, organizing activities (Mom! Did you get a present for the birthday party?), and all the things that go with that, including many laundry loads of kid clothes (Mom! Is my Star Wars shirt clean?) and workout gear. It is very much a team effort at our house; it just wouldn’t be possible any other way. Oh, and “tidy” might mean something different to you than it does to me, but I’m okay with that.

2) Flexibility in my schedule so that I can use early mornings, mid-day or late afternoons to train as needed, or, on the flip side, work at odd hours as needed. My work has busier and less busier times and triathlon has training, race season and off-season. The kids are always busy, but as long as I can juggle the other parts, I’m making progress. During the busiest research grant writing time my most productive work hours were 9 pm – 2 am for about 8 weeks. I did very few early morning workouts during this time, but late afternoon workouts gave me the energy to work late. During my busiest teaching semester, I park on the other side of campus near my class, quickly change after class, drop my stuff at my car and get my run in before picking up the kids. I often park the car where I need to end up for the day as I find it is more relaxing to walk across campus to my office in the morning then to madly dash across campus after class – if the car is close by when I need it, this seems to save time somehow.

3) Creativity with workout times and places. Recently, both Glenn and I attended the Friday morning LPC swim (thanks to my Mom visiting us for a few days and staying with the kids), which was great. It was my 1 year LPC-versary plus my 43^rd birthday; the main set was 50 m x 43. The rest of the day was busy so my only chance to run was to run home from the pool, which worked out well, especially since Glenn had some birthday errands to finish up!  When I plan my week I look for the first opportunity in each day where I could swim, bike or run and I block that off. If I have two workouts in a day sometimes my only choice is to do them one after another (this limits showering time) but I also work very productively if I know I have another workout coming up later in the day. Every day is different, but I like that. One of my best tricks is to bring an old bike (that both Glenn and I can ride with minor adjustments) and our trainer on  holidays so we can set it up anywhere if it is not easy to get out on the roads.

It is also fun to involve the kids

and to make family weekends out of races

or to have the kids participate in races!

4) Texting with my best friend, Sara, who lives on PEI. Sara is a runner and we encourage, support and congratulate each other on workouts achieved and goals met, especially if it meant heading out in the wind/rain/snow/heat, getting up at dark-o’clock, or just plain fitting it in among full-time career and family stuff. We can also vent when things come up that keep us from our planned workouts!

5) Keeping my gear ready to go. In our basement gym we have our bikes, trainer and gear. The evening before an early ride I set up everything, including making up Gatorade and keeping it in the fridge, loading my Trainer Road workout, setting out my clothes and, most recently, my new iPod.

I keep different gear bags by the door for swimming and running so that I can grab one, or both, on my way to work. These are little, easy things, but they save time. Sometimes I drag my feet when I have to pack my gear at 10 pm but I’m happy about it the next morning as I’m fighting with snow suits and searching for matching kid mittens or socks (where DO they go?!). Along with keeping my gear ready to go, I have also doubled up on things (contacts, running gear, towels, gels) at work and at home for those days when I’ve been forgetful. However, I only have one Garmin sports watch so if I forget that, I get cranky and Sara (see #4) gets an extra venting text from me!

6) Staying healthy. Getting adequate sleep and eating well are big priorities, as well as the over-used, but well-intentioned, “listen to your body”. Do it!  In 2014 I think I set a new record for food consumption. Peanut butter on toast, chocolate milk, nuts, apples and cheese, Greek yogurt and dark chocolate are hard to keep in stock at our house. One thing I’ve been amazed about in the last year is my ability to recover from a hard workout. While this is great (and hopefully means my fitness is improving) I know I’m not invincible and I will go to bed just after the kids if I’m feeling run down. I’m also a big fan of ice packs, compression gear and post-workout nutrition (my students in  Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism know that chocolate milk is my favourite recovery drink). I love triathlon training and racing but if I get injured then I can’t do anything and being active, staying healthy and aging well are most important to me. Hey, a year from now I likely have to swim 50 m x 44!

As always, thanks to my family and friends for your support and interest (I know it is not always the most exciting read) and to Coach Mark and team LPC for the motivating training sessions. A special thanks to my Mom who will come to Guelph to help with the kids so that I can go to my first LPC Florida camp this spring!

Wishing you all the best in health, happiness and whatever passion you choose to pursue in 2015 – enjoy.

Thanks to you for reading.

Cheers, Lindsay

The day before this year’s Guelph Lake 2 sprint triathlon (750m swim, 30K bike, 7K run) was our son’s 5th birthday, which we celebrated with a trip to the movies followed by homemade pizza, birthday cake and presents at home with friends. It was a busy fun-filled day of dragons, Chima, Pokemon and StarWars that took my mind off the race, which is always a good thing!

Part way through the birthday festivities, the news came through Facebook and Twitter that, due to high E. coli counts in Guelph Lake, the swim had to be moved from the main beach to the pit, or camper’s beach. A huge shout out to the Subaru Triathlon Series organizers for relocating the race and revamping the bike and run course, transition area, and finish line on short notice – a truly impressive and amazing job! Another shout out to Mother Nature for giving us no rain and manageable winds, although some high humidity and heat!

I got to the new race site early so I could check out the transition area, swim/run exit, bike mount/dismount, etc. I was the first to rack my bike in the 40-44 y group, but somehow I didn’t choose the best spot. I realized, too late, that I would have further to run with my bike, and this part was already long enough!

I had a good warm-up, taking my bike out through the park so I could see what the new route was like with speed bumps, etc. I also checked out the start of the run course, since it seemed to be a maze of orange pylons but really it was pretty straightforward. I then put on my wetsuit and did my swim warm-up. During this, I realized I’d forgotten to have my usual pre-start gel! Luckily, with the swim so close to the transition area, I easily resolved this issue and seeing as my wave start was at 9:12am it was maybe a good thing that I’d consumed the gel a bit later.

Swim: If I’m disappointed in anything today, it is with my swim, but that’s par for the course this season. I thought I swam quite a good line (for me) keeping tight to the buoys, and I was working hard effort-wise, but my time was slower than I’d hoped. I can’t blame the slow time (15:42 on SportStats or 2:06/100m) on the “run up” as this re-vamped course really had no “run up”; it was the shortest run ever to the mat that marks the end of the swim/start of T1. In hindsight, I think two things went wrong: 1) I started too fast. I’m sure Coach Mark is not surprised by this! Somehow on the beach with all my nervous energy I get it in my head that THIS TIME I can swim fast, in the front. This is just not true, but I fall for it every time. I can, however, swim faster than 2:06/100m so it is frustrating and something to work on.  2) I stood up too early. I’ve gotten good (not today) at swimming in as far as possible but today I just couldn’t wait to stand up (my gasping for oxygen may have had something to do with it) and I did it too early, before I could run in the water. I don’t wear a watch in the water so I had no idea of my time at this point, which is likely a good thing as I’d worked hard and that’s all I could do. I was, however, disappointed when I saw my swim split after the race, but I am more determined than ever to figure this out and to come back better in the water next year!

T1: 1:36: I was at my bike before I knew it. The long part of T1 was running with my bike up (UP!) a hill to the mat that marked the start of the bike, but then more running up (UP!) to the bike mount line. I remembered to start my bike split at the mat and not when I mounted the bike…that way I would be more in-tune with what SportStats would tell me. I regret this now, as I’d like to see my actual bike pace without the run up/down to the mat pushing my bike. Anyway, obviously I’m obsessed with numbers, but you knew that already 🙂

Bike: My best bike in a race yet! For the first time in a race, I used my aero bars as much as I could, even with others close beside me. I think the best part of this was that I was much more comfortable and had no soreness in my back during the bike. I also improved my nutrition on the bike with more drinking and a gel at 20K. With more of the bike course being in the park than usual, the buzz seemed to be that the bike would be slow getting in/out of the park due to the speed bumps, etc. I averaged ~ 31.5 kph for the 30km bike course but this dropped down to 30.9 (and YES that 0.1 is bothering me..I like numbers remember!) with the run down hill (pushing my bike) to the mat.

T2: 1:07: Slow. I got my bike racked, shoes changed, helmet off and then, wait for it…I grabbed my bike again…while my arms were reaching for my bike, one part of my brain was saying “this doesn’t seem right…”..luckily I realized, dropped my bike (gently) back on the rack and took off towards the mat, vaguely wondering what caused that mental lapse…low blood glucose? the head cold I’d had for 2 days now? early Alzheimer’s? Jeez.

Run: 33:26 (4:47/k): I knew that the revamped 7K course would be more or less the same as the original course and anticipated that it would include more of the trail section in the middle, which it did. I started out a bit slow, averaging 4:55/k for the first 3K partly due to the rolling hills and trail and partly just getting my legs going. At the turn around pylon, I figured we couldn’t be simply retracing our steps, as the math wasn’t working out. Sure enough, there was a loop in the campground on the return trip. I found this loop the hardest with the sun/heat and the mental aspect given that I hadn’t really been expecting it, but once I got that done and started up the incline back towards the finish, I felt better and my last 4K were faster overall, giving me a nice negative split run and hitting my overall goal pace. I found it helpful to repeat what Coach Mark had told me, “trust your fitness” over and over in my head and I even passed someone in my AG in the last 500 m, which gave me a boost to hold a strong pace through to the finish line, which came up more quickly than I’d expected as the course was ~100m short by my Garmin. I still need to work on getting to my run pace faster, but given I’d had my best bike I was happy with my run off the bike today, especially as last year’s run pace at Guelph Lake 2 was 5:07/k so I knocked 20 sec/k off my pace.

My time was 1:50:05, which is 6 min faster than last year (although the course was not quite the same) and just a bit faster than my goal time from Coach Mark (1:50:45). He’s pretty amazing at race predictions/goals, eh?

This was my 5th race of the season, including the Milton try-a-tri in early June followed by 4 sprint (of somewhat varying distances) triathlons: Guelph Lake 1, Valens, Orillia and Guelph Lake 2. Although I executed my race plan and had a solid race, Guelph 2 was my only race this season where I wasn’t on the podium. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed (who doesn’t like a shiny medal?), but of course you can’t control who shows up on race day (thanks Coach Mark!). There were some amazing athletes in my AG, including the overall 1st place woman!

Overall, I finished 6th (of 26) in my AG and 19th (of 158) female overall. It was a fantastic last race of the season and I am super excited for 2015!

As always, the biggest thank yous go to my husband Glenn and kids for putting up with my adventures in triathlon!

and to Coach Mark Linseman for his awesome training plans and support throughout the season, as well as all of team LPC for the fun group training sessions! Of course, lots of thanks to all the volunteers and race organizers for making the 2014 version of Guelph Lake 2 a great experience!

Looking forward to training hard in preparation for next season!

Thanks to you for reading!

Cheers,
Lindsay

The inaugural Valens triathlon (750 m swim, 25 km bike, 6.5 km run) was July 13, 2014. The venue was Valens Conservation Area, off Highway 6 south of the 401, in the Cambridge-ish area. An easy drive from Guelph for a 9 am start.

One thing I didn’t expect about becoming hooked on triathlon is that I have also become a frequent checker of the radar/weather map. The simple hourly forecast will no longer suffice; I must SEE the weather patterns in the area. A bit ridiculous, I know. But, the difference between a thunderstorm at 8:40 am (over and done before the horn goes off, no problem) versus 9:10 am (exactly when my wave group is swimming to the first buoy) is significant. Luckily, the radar map showed no major active weather in the area until about 10 am and I knew all swimmers would be out of the water by then. So, it was likely that the swim would go ahead as planned, and it did.

Swim: 16:54. Slow, but various factors were at play here. I had a good swim (for me) and if the pace/100 m was calculated over the 800+ m that I likely swam (instead of the 750 m that I was supposed to swim) I’d be quite happy as I felt fantastic in the water.  Poor sighting by me near the start meant that I went off to the right, very (VERY) wide of the first buoy, covering a fair bit of extra distance in the process (and you don’t get rewarded for this; Sportstats divides your total time by 750 m regardless of how far you might decide to swim that day). I knew things were less than ideal when, on breathing to the right, I saw a) no other swimmers (who had previously been there) and b) a race volunteer in a kayak gesturing me to TURN! Not the start I was hoping for. But, there is an upside to this. I gained a ton of confidence as I swam hard when I realized I was off course.  Less than two years ago, this mistake would have sent me into a panic, possibly tossing my swim cap in the air as a signal to the kayaker to come to my rescue. Now (although annoyed at myself), I’m confident enough to carry on, picking up the pace to  catch-up to other green swim caps and even some red caps from the previous wave start. I won’t lie, I noticed the extra effort when I finally stood up in shallow water and my run up to T1 was more like a fast jog. Given all of this, I was quite shocked coming in to T1 to see that most of the bikes in my age-group were still on the rack. My swim was 4th (of 17) fastest in my age group.

T1: 1:29. Thanks to a Google search (“tips for triathlon in the rain”) the previous night, I had my bike shoes under a plastic bag to keep them dry (although it hadn’t yet started to rain) and, in my haste to retrieve my bike shoes (I am not yet at the shoes-pre-clipped-on-bike stage), I didn’t replace said plastic bag over my running shoes. See T2 for how this turns out…

Bike: 48:53 (30.7 kph). I am happy with this given a) I had never been on the course, but had heard that the “relatively flat” 25 km course has some short/steep hills in the last few km, b) the WIND, and c) the RAIN! Oh and I especially liked how the hilly section and the rain started at the SAME TIME (at least for me, given where I was on the course at that time)! Before this race, I had never biked in the rain. Not even a drizzle, let alone a downpour…and did I mention the wind?  It is a funny feeling being tipped at an angle where the ground is coming up to meet you…now I know (one of many reasons) why Coach Mark puts “core/strength” training in my schedule. If I ever feel like skipping these exercises, I will remember the effort to keep my bike upright using a strong core. Phew.

I was grateful for my photochromic (sun)glasses (shout out to Sara Purcell for “making” me buy these at the Ottawa Race Weekend expo!) that change with the light conditions. If only they had little tiny wipers on them as when that rain pelted down I was b-l-i-n-d and speeding down a hill. There is an upside to this. Any impending fatigue was overshadowed by a rush of adrenaline that carried me back to transition. I want to send a special shout out to the guy in the Pearl Izumi jersey. I focused on him (PI, as I was referring to him in my head) and we traded up places on and off over 25 km until we eventually parted ways on the run.

T2: 1:44. S-l-o-w. Soggy running shoes. Ugh. Apparently, the plastic bag only works if it is covering your shoes. Ugh.

Run: 32:40 (5:07/k). At first, I was really disappointed in my run (during the race I eventually stopped looking at my watch and just ran, remembering the workouts where I’d practiced running based on feel, not the numbers). I knew my effort on the bike had been hard in order to stay over 30kph in those conditions and maybe I was paying a bit for that, but I also under-estimated how much a wet, slippery trail run would slow things down (my 4:45/k pace was nowhere to be found today). Single file at times was kind of fun (I was running with a line of 4 or 5 guys and thinking how we were all choosing to spend our Sunday morning like this..la de da..losing focus!) but I quickly snapped out of it and realized that precious time was ticking by as I was stuck on this s-l-o-w trail.

There was a turn around (not a true turn-around as it wasn’t an out and back course) at one point and I started counting women coming towards me (i.e. ahead of me, if they were in my age group/wave start). Since age is written on the back of the calf, I couldn’t tell who, of the oncoming athletes, was in my age-group. If I’d been thinking clearly, I should have remembered that the bike rack in T2 had been quite empty when I put my own bike back and I hadn’t been passed by anyone on the run, but these thoughts don’t come easily when I need them to!

I crossed the line in 1:41:37, which was a good 3 minutes slower than I’d hoped, but I knew by how I was feeling (not well, as my friend Wendy Cudmore can attest to!) that I’d pushed hard to the end.

It turns out that only one 40-44 y old woman was ahead of me so I placed 2nd (of 17) in AG, 12th (of 117) woman overall.

As I always tell our kids, “You can’t control the weather, but you can still have fun”. Today was a perfect example of that. Overall, this was a great experience focusing on effort and staying calm when things go wrong (swim) when you have a new experience (rain on the bike), or when the course is slow for other reasons (wet trail/grass/gravel/boardwalk run). I worked hard, learned a lot, and am excited for my next triathlon later in August. Next up, holidays! While on holidays on the east coast, my next race will be the 108th Dartmouth (Nova Scotia) Natal Day 2 mile run and possibly the inaugural 1K BrigaSwim in Halifax Harbour, just for the experience of swimming to George’s Island and back!

Thanks to Coach Mark Linseman for his awesome coaching and encouragement and all of team LPC for the support and fun times in training and racing. As always, thanks to my amazing husband, Glenn Parsons, for all that he does for me every day and to many friends and family members who support me from near and far. Lastly, thanks to the amazing volunteers for braving a not-so-nice weather day and making the inaugural Valens triathlon a truly memorable experience!

Thanks to you for reading.

Cheers,
Lindsay

 

 

Last weekend I competed in my first sprint triathlon at the classic sprint distance: 750m swim, 20K bike, 5K run. The race venue was Guelph Lake 1, which also served as the 2014 Triathlon Ontario’s Club Championships. I was excited to be participating with team LPC!

Race day was beautiful. Gorgeous, in fact.

My home support crew dropped me off about 7:20 am, lots of time to prepare for the 9 am start time. Since having kids, I’m late for many things, but a race is not one of them. That would just add unwanted stress to an already energy-charged situation!

I got a great bike spot in transition, arranged my stuff (although I would later re-arrange at least twice, okay four times) and headed to the registration and body marking area.

I’m never sure where the time goes on race morning (chatting to friends? bathroom line-ups? re-arranging my stuff?) but soon it was time to warm-up. I fretted over this as I wanted to do a bike warm-up but that meant removing my bike (obviously) from the rack and what if someone took my awesome spot? and when did I become so competitive? Yikes. I stared at my bike for a solid 5 min before making the decision to do it. I spread my stuff out over my space (thereby undoing all the set-up I had done) and put my wetsuit over the bike rack before doing a quick out and back ride to check my gears, brakes, etc. Next came a run warm-up of ~5 minutes on the run course trying to reign in my nervous energy. More transition organization, a GU gel, sport drink, and it was time to put on my wetsuit and head to the water, with a stop at the LPC tent to wish good luck to everyone racing, borrow some PAM for my wrists and ankles, and thank those who came out to cheer.

I had time for 5-10 min in the water, which is very helpful for calming the nerves. I was in wave 4, so 9:09 would be my start time. These 9 minutes felt long. I used to spend such time thinking of how I could get out of what was about to happen (who would notice if I just snuck off to the side and let the race happen without me? Of course I know that this would strike fear in the hearts of race organizers thinking that a swimmer had gone astray or worse). Now while I wait for my wave to go, I’m still nervous, but I just want to get swimming! I worry instead that my goggles will leak when I put them back on or that they are too foggy. 9 long minutes.

Finally, the horn!

I’m happy with my swim. I could not have asked for better conditions. I started way to the left (thanks Coach James!) and it kept me out of congestion, at least until the second buoy where I had clearly moved in towards the pack as expected. I had no problems at the buoys in this race, I fought through head down and hard strokes and then re-gained my rhythm on the other side. I had practiced this hard/easy/hard in a swim workout and it gave me confidence, knowing I could settle back down after a hard effort. I picked off one buoy at a time until I was soon heading into shore. I was pretty sure I was on-track pace-wise, although I really had no way to tell until Coach Mark yelled “You are right where you want to be” so I took that as a good sign. As it turns out, I was even a bit under my goal pace. It is hard to tell from SportStats as, if you truly want to know your swim time (and your pace/100m), you have to subtract the time it takes you to run up the hill (assuming you kept track of this on your own) and then recalculate and this is all assuming that you swam a perfect 750m and not a few extra (or more) metres, which, for me, is doubtful. Regardless of the numbers, this was my best swim yet by a long shot! Swim/run up hill time: 15:42

I sprinted up the long hill to T1. The day before at a practice session, Coach James had said “Don’t try to impress us by sprinting by the LPC tent, you should be catching your breath from the swim”. Oops. It was the first time I wasn’t hopelessly winded from the swim (this is good and bad; I’m more fit? I didn’t swim hard enough? Likely a bit of both) so the sprinting just kind of happened. Admittedly, I was a bit winded in T1 itself so next time I’ll slow down on that hill.

T1 = 1:47. My fastest yet. PAM works.

After almost wiping out at the bike mount line (getting on, which is a first even for me), I was on the bike course. My biggest achievements over the next 20 km were as follows: I drank some sport drink ~4 times, I didn’t unclip at the turn-around despite being close to other riders, I passed others going up the 2 biggest hills without blowing the effort budget, and I held my overall speed over 30 kph (SportStats had initially credited me with 32kph but given that the course is in fact only 19 km, not 20 km as advertised, this was a generous overestimation). The downside of my bike split? I would say I biked tempo/hard effort, but not hard effort the entire way. I’m a bit disappointed in this, but I was really focused ahead to the run and trying to be patient. Regardless, I was 2-3 min faster than last year on this less-than-smooth bike course (in the sprint duathlon) and I’m not done improving yet! Bike time: 37:29

 

T2: 1:11. A bit slow. I remembered to grab my Garmin off my bike and my hand-held water bottle so I could drink while moving rather than taking time to drink in T2 or wait for a water station.

I love to run off the bike. I think it might be my strength in this sport. Then again, it could just be that when I get to the run, I can relax a bit as I have made it to this point without a mechanical failure of some sort (goggles, tires, chain, etc) and I know I can just run. The 5K run course at Guelph Lake is rolling hills, far from flat and the first/last kilometre is the hardest. I gradually brought my pace down to where it should be (hitting goal pace at 3K) but then, as they say, I ran out of real estate. I was still very happy with my run; a negative split run on a non-flat 5K course and just under my goal run pace overall, at 4:44/km. My best run off the bike in a race yet (knocking 3 minutes off my time from last year’s duathlon, same bike/run course). I know I’ve got more in me and will work on getting to race pace more quickly next time. I’m especially happy that the mental demons didn’t even enter into this run. Not once. Again, this is good and bad: I’m better at shutting down those negative thoughts? I wasn’t going hard enough to get to that place? Likely a bit of both. Run time: 23:40

I had prepared myself ahead of time (because quick math is not my strong suit late in a race) that if all had gone well, the finish line clock should say ~1 h 29 min because my wave started 9 min late. So, when I saw 1 h 28 min and change, I knew I was in good shape and I crossed the line with a time of 1:19:47, 4th (of 36) in my age-group and a high-five from Coach Mark!

All in all, this race was about execution of a plan and patience early on so that I could hit my run pace and finish strong. Mission accomplished. Could I have gone harder? Maybe. Am I happy? Absolutely. With the confidence from this race, I can go forward, push harder and see what happens next. Up next? Valens sprint triathlon, July 13th.

A huge thanks to Coach Mark for the detailed and challenging training schedule, awesome feedback and all-round support, as well as Coach James, fellow LPC athletes, and my family and friends for tremendous support and encouragement, and to the many volunteers who made this day happen.

Thanks to you for reading!

Cheers,

Lindsay

 

I’ve recently become hooked on triathlon. I love the training, the racing, the camaraderie (and competition!), and the logistics of executing a good race plan, while challenging yourself to be the best that you can be on any given day. As a relative newbie to this sport, I’ve spent much time reading about the experiences of others and have enjoyed endless race reports by both professionals, elites, and age-groupers (like myself, competing against those in the same sex and age category, e.g. Female 40-44 years). Race reports can be inspiring, fear-inducing (do I really want to know that the water can be so cold that you lose feeling in your hands for the rest of the race?), calming (good to know that there will be 100 in your swim start, not 500 fighting to get to the first buoy), funny, and just plain useful. I enjoy writing so I thought I’d start my own race report blog but then decided that now is not the time given that life is busy (ah, the dreaded “b” word) and maybe I’d get to it in 5 years or so when I (magically?) have more time. As you’ll see below in my inaugural blog post, this concept of “maybe in 5 years” has emerged as a central theme.

Bottomline? Why wait? Starting now, here is my first blog post: my backstory to becoming hooked on triathlon.

My first triathlon, Guelph Lake 1 try-a-tri in June 2010, was at the suggestion of a neighbour who, like myself, had 2 young kids (then ages 3 years and 10 months) and a busy career. I took it as a challenge to ramp up the exercise and get some fitness back after the birth of my second child. I’d been running on and off for several years, had done a fair bit of mountain biking in the pre-kid days, and had taken up swimming during my two pregnancies (although as my triathlon training took-off I would soon realize that I really knew nothing about proper swimming technique!) so it seemed as good a time as any to try a triathlon.

I can’t remember well enough to do a full race report of that day, but I remember two things: 1) I almost drowned (or choked, I can’t be sure which one was actually going to do me in) wearing a wet suit for the first time (despite reading this VERY warning in all the newbie triathlete literature; I understood it, I just didn’t think it applied to me!). I survived by doing head-out breast stroke for most of the 375m swim, never so happy to reach land!

2) by the time it was over, I knew I would do it again some day! I was 15/75 (53:31) in my age group (AG) that day, having bombed the swim, but made up time on my bike (albeit, a heavy mountain bike without clip-in shoes) and the run (although I vastly underestimated that “run off the bike” feeling and had never heard the term “brick workout”, referring to practicing running after biking). Although I enjoyed my first triathlon overall (and, admittedly, my type A personality was drawn to the challenge of this 3 sport event), I decided that now was NOT the time to pursue this. With a young family and a busy job, I put triathlon on the back burner, hoping I would be able to return to it in maybe 5 years time.

I spent the rest of 2010 and the 2011 season focusing on running, aiming to become faster over shorter distances. At the time, this decision was based out of necessity (the dreaded “b” word: busy job, busy family life, etc); I refused to give up exercise entirely so I found a way to make the most out of limited time by swapping longer distances (I’d previously enjoyed half marathon training) for speed work. I see now that this decision was pivotal in how things would play out.

With huge thanks to weekly track workouts with the Guelph Victors running club, all was going really well and I ran a then 5K PB (22:27) in October 2011. Unfortunately, it was the same day that I felt my toes “snap” (okay not quite, but not good either) underneath me.  Ignoring this for as long as possible (until the day I had trouble standing and walking while teaching my undergraduate class), I finally got the diagnosis in January 2012. A bone scan showed multiple stress fractures in my toes, undoubtedly brought on by over-training in a single sport (running) and, wait for it, no cross training (i.e. swimming or biking). Finally realizing that time off from pounding the pavement was essential, I bought an indoor trainer so I could ride my road bike in the basement, reacquainted myself with the campus pool (for water running and swimming), and stayed away from land running for several months. I knew it wouldn’t be smart to return to running exclusively (even when I was fully recovered) so, as my best friend Sara Purcell would say, “I made lemonade out of lemons” and decided I’d give triathlon another go, sooner rather than later!

In summer 2012, I registered for two try-a-tri races on the pretense that I couldn’t run much yet so I should keep the run distance short, but really it was the swim that terrified me most so I was more than happy to stick to the short race distance.

Later in the summer, I improved my overall time on the same course and came home with a medal for 2nd in my AG.

In all honesty, my stress fractures were not completely healed and even the little amount of running I was doing was becoming uncomfortable. I would eventually take a good SIX months off from land running (October 2012-March 2013, with the exception of a short New Year’s Day run, as I couldn’t break THAT tradition!) at which point I jumped into triathlon with both feet and haven’t looked back!

In the 2013 season, I completed Victoria’s Duathlon on a super hot May long weekend…

and then Guelph Lake I Sprint Duathlon (at the last minute I bailed on the triathlon, not ready for the water just yet!).

My attitude towards the swim changed while on our yearly holidays in the Maritimes where I got lots of open water swim practice and learned to love my wetsuit (and to put it on without exhausting myself in the process)! After we returned from the east coast , I did my first two sprint triathlons where I successfully swam my first 750m freestyle in the open water without panic! YES!

My first sprint triathlon was Orillia (750m, 33K, 7K). I enjoyed the swim so much I swam an extra ~100m by sighting for the wrong buoy. Rookie!

Next up, 2 weeks and 1 miserable chest cold later, was Guelph Lake II (750m, 30K, 7K)

Overall, 2013 was a fantastic season, completing my first two sprint triathlons and remaining injury free! I felt strong and healthy and excited to train over the winter months.

Fast forward to my birthday, January 2, 2014 and the most amazing surprise birthday present from my husband, Glenn Parsons. I was signed up for coaching with Coach Mark Linseman of (James) Loaring Personal Coaching!

I was going to be part of team LPC! This was something I had hoped to do maybe 5 years down the road, but it was happening now!

Best. Present. Ever. Thank you, Glenn!

The LPC coaching, structured workouts, group and solo training, use of excellent training venues in and around Guelph, and the support of awesome coaches and teammates have been outstanding. I was worried I’d have to find many more hours in my day and week, but that hasn’t been the case. Focused, purposeful training, diligent planning (and commitment to the plan), and a supportive family are key. Oh, and you can’t be afraid to let the laundry pile up or the garden get a bit overgrown!

An emerging theme of this backstory: Why wait? We all know life is short, so get out there and enjoy!

I’m excited that the 2014 race season is underway!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Lindsay