one more week of school

ONE MORE WEEK OF SCHOOL!! That deserved caplocks. I still have exams after that, and I think they are going to require some madstudying, but all I can think of is ONE MORE WEEK OF SCHOOL!! yessssssss....

On a different note, I am almost a real triathlete again. I Ran Tuesday, Thursday, Friday this week, biked Wednesday and Today (saturday), and half swam in there as well.Oh ya, and weights twice and yoga once! I say half swam because even though now I can swim with both arms, it sometimes starts to hurt my collarbone, so I revert to one arm. I am doing stretchcords with both arms though, so I think I'll be able to swim properly soon.

I did my first real run workout with the team yesterday. It consisted of 20 minutes warm up, 10 min fartlek, 15 min ss, 10 min tempo and then cool down. I felt like my legs were going to fall off by the end. My hamstrings were completely locked up! It was fun though.

Anyways, that's my update. Can't wait till Christmas break!
Peace

TODAY

Today I went to weights at 8:30. ( I may have been there at 8:34... I have trouble being exactly on time). Then I biked for 75 minutes at PISE on the trainer until my butt couldn't take it anymore. Then I went home, ate, danced, and went to Swimming!
Today I swam ( one armed) for the entire practice! I did 2500 m one arm!! I am the fastest right armed swimmer ever! Or so I like to think.
Then I went straight to accupunture. It was more painful than usual today, but it sure helped. Then I ate some dinner and headed out to meet my dance team. We practiced on our dance for two hours! It is awesome. I think it has a lot of shock factor for what is supposed to me mostly a cultural dance (don't tell the rest of the class!). I'll try to post it after we perform of Friday. (for anyone who doesn't know- I am in EPHE 109 for Kinese, and it is a dance class, in case you were wondering)
Then I came home, and now I am sending out some sponsorship letters so that hopefully some kind soul/company out there will decided to help me out!

That is what I did today. It is more activity than I have done since I flew over my handle bars a month ago.

Later!

Thetis Lake Pics

Our Thetis Lake Relay teams did awesome! Our Men's A team came first, our Men's B team placed 2nd and our Women's team did really good- I don't know the exact position, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was first for Women. All four guys on the A team ran their 5k's under 15:45! Crazy! Here are some pics

Small- not very interesting- post

I'm entering (almost) into week 4 of broken clavicle, and I can now put my arm mostly above my head. I can't wait for two things: this semester to be over (3 weeks now??), and for my training to get back to normal. Being a broken, extremely stressed out- student really sucks. I've been following my Weights program, developed by Lowell Rockliffe, and I've been doing a fair amount of stationary biking and water running, but it'll be nice to start doing real work again.
Not going to lie, i am nervous about how hard it is going to be to get back into it.
Today Kyla and I taught our PE dance class the Hula! I think it went well, we'll see how well it went when we get our peer teaching mark back at the end of the semester. As for reading break this week- I think it'll be spent completing my mountain load of homework.

Good Luck to everyone who is racing! Our high school gang out in Vancouver doing Provincials for X-country, Austin who is supposed to race the cross bike tomorrow, and Andrew Russell doing the World Cup in Huatulco.

Pumpkins and Pectoral Girdles

So with two midterms tomorrow and practically zero studying done for them, I thought I would update my blog! I'm not training right now because I broke my collarbone last wednesday during our first cross ride of the year. I was riding around our little obstacle course, and I was getting cocky because for the first time ever I was clearing the little wood plank with BOTH wheels. ( I suck at cross biking if you haven't already guessed) I was going too fast, and I don't remember anything except jumping, screaming (unintentionally) and landing. I think I landed with my front wheel turned and got thrown over my handle bars. The funny thing is that the log was small enough you could just ride right over it. The ironic part of this story was that I had just finished writing a test on the pectoral girdle before going biking!

So I haven't done any physical activity for a week minus my armless water running which was painful. I did go to Jasper for thanksgiving which was amazing. Kyla and I won a pumpkin carving contest - I'll post our winning pumpkin! I'll also post our family thanksgiving picture- Evan looks funny in it because he looks funny in 90% of pictures (sorry Evan, it's just the truth)
Later

A day in the life...

So yesterday, mid-afternoon, I headed out on my run. I ran up cook street, around beacon hill, and back home. While I was running down cook street, I joined up with this guy who was running barefoot down the sidewalk, and carrying a backpack. I thought he was just a wierdo who was late for an appointment, but after a couple blocks with the sound of his slapping feet behind me, I realized he was actually on a run. So at an intersection I asked him if his feet hurt.
Nope.
Had he ever tried barefoot running shoes?
A couple.
Didn't like them?
Not as much as real barefoot running.
Cool, see ya. And I accelerated off not wanting to be slower than the guy with a backpack and no shoes. I got to Beacon Hill and ran up to the top, where I stopped to stretch my iliotibial tract (i'm in anatomy this semester) and look at the ocean. It was sunny, the water was sparkly, and there was absolutely no clouds. Quite amazing!
Then I ran off through the gardens, where I ran beside a peacock for awhile and I looked at these insane flowers that looked like huge upside down bells.
And then I ran back home, passing all the little coffee shops and cute stores.
Yup, Victoria is pretty sweet.
Then I went out for sushi with some pals (sushi in victoria is also amazing just so everyone knows), and then we hit up the climbing gym. Apparently Victorians have much better things to do on a Friday night, because it wasn't very busy. Like Kyla pointed out, "the city did invest in public street-side urinals..."

I have way too much homework to do.

Elite Nationals really late race report

The Kelowna apple is always my favorite race, and this year was no exception. No matter what happens in the race, you are in Kelowna afterwards!
This race was different for me this year, because it was my first Olympic distance race, as well as being elite nationals. I was pretty nervous because I hadn't been feeling very good in training and I didn't know anyone (other than the three ladies who came first, second and third of course) that I would be racing against. My biggest fear was that I would exit the water last, and then have no one to draft off of, and then ultimately either get lapped out or come last. Luckily that didn't happen!! Whew



My race played out pretty well. I moved my way up in the swim and although I somehow managed to smash into the ground while diving in for my second lap, overall the swim didn't hurt too bad. Somehow I was first girl in chase pack out of transition, and it wasn't really until THE hill that I was caught by the rest of the chase pack. The hill hurt a lot, but it was definitely my forte. I mostly hung on to the back of the pack, and I did a lot of sprinting after corners, because I was at the back and my cornering sucked. On the third lap I believe I got dropped on a corner, but luckily I got swallowed up by the second chase pack, and even luckier we caught right back up to first chase pack! From then on my cornering improved drastically. On the 5th lap I tried to take my gel and I dropped it! Big mistake number 2 or 3....



Onto the run I felt amazing on my first lap. I was trying to hold back, but it just felt so easy! I began taking my second gel, and somehow I managed to drop that as well! Biggest mistake yet! By the second lap I was already bonking. On the third lap I actually stopped at the spot where I had dropped my gel, picked it up and ate it! I think it kicked in in the medical tent after I finished, but hey, I finished! I was disappointed with my run, but I was pretty happy with the rest of my race. It did feel long, but not too bad really. I'm excited for next year. I also wasn't too disappointed with my result. I came 13th overall, but I was also surprised to find out I got to go on the podium, because I was 3rd U23! It definitely made the race worthwhile.



After the race Austin, Terral (Austin's older brother), and I spent 5 or 6 days climbing the Skaha bluffs, then we went to Squamish and did some more climbing, and then we finished of the vacation with surfing in Tofino. It was awesome.

Good Luck to Paula and Andrew M. and Andrew Y. racing U23 worlds tomorrow in Australia, and then good luck to our National team guys and of course good luck to Matt and Ian and Connor and Kyla and Rachel and Alison in Junior worlds on the 13th! Which is the 12th here in case anyone wanted to watch the race on triathlon.org.

ps. first day of school was today. I was late for my first class. classy