winner winner chicken dinner

I WON! I WON!! No seriously I actually won something, what a shock. I read about Mandy’s contest for GU products but thought since I’m Canadian I wouldn’t be able to enter. Mandy is not prejudice against her northern neighbours and encouraged me to enter so I did and can you believe it, I won! I won!!

Mandy can now be an honorary Canadian. When are you coming by Ontario for visit Mandy?  Come do a race next year!!!  Seriously you are more than welcome, I’ll even make sure I’m stocked up with the yummy delicious mint chocolate GU and I’m betting we could give the kegerator a go, but let's pass on the beer bong.

My race is coming up this weekend and I can’t even think about it without throwing up a little in my mouth. Life has been just that, life and I’ve trained as much as I could and made some decent progress and gains but it also seems to be a lot about ‘the day’ as much as prep. I am scheduling a tattoo after the race, post nap, later in the afternoon. Nothing big, a saying that I read somewhere (maybe even on this blog) that meant a lot to me, that I have had translated to Finnish (for reasons that are far to boring to get into here). It’s my victory prize no matter how I do in the race, I just have to show up at the start line it doesn’t matter what happens after that.

Coach Nancy and I have been talking about some future goals to coincide with my recent stupidity and next year is already shaping up to be interesting. I am going to train for a 5km (or 10km) race in November to end out this season, I need some SERIOUS work on my running so I will focus on this during the off season as well.  I've signed up for Nancy's running clinic and her weekly tri clinic to keep me busy and she's already sent me my program for September.

2011 racing season:
Early season half marathon
May – Brian Smith charity ride, 140km
June – sprint tri
Sept – Olympic distance tri

There’s also the ‘@PedalmanTO 2011’ 160km ride and I may be doing a 75km ride in there as well with him and @thechefupstairs and a few other riders. I need to map this all out with Nancy to see how to spread it out so I can do them all.

And of course all of this work is preparing for a half iron in 2012 with @PedalmanTO, I'll be doing the half and he WILL be doing the full Ironman at the same race. 

That's all I got

Feels worse than it looks

I had my race simulation on Tuesday night.  I did a race simulation before with my coach back in June when I first started working with her.  At the time I did the try a tri distance (300m, 9km, 1.5km) and had a great time putting it all together but more importantly finishing.  This week I was going to do the sprint distance simulation (600m, 19km, 4km) in prep for my race on Sept 5.  (note to self, you might want to register for the race).   As the sim approached I was getting more and more nervous, I knew I could pull off all the distances individually but all together, this was going to be interesting.  By the time 'race day' arrived I was pretty sick at my stomach and could barely eat and couldn't keep a single thought in my head.

The days are definitely getting shorter and I kept thinking that I should probably cut the swim short so that I could finish everything before the cutoff time of 8:00pm.  Coach didn't want anyone on the roads after 8 because the drivers on Safari road are NUTS.  I talked to one of the other girls about it and decided it would be better to do the entire swim and cut the run if I had to.

The swim was better than I thought and I wasn't the last one out of the water.  My endurance is getting much better, there was alot more front crawl and alot less breast stroke.  The bike started out fantastic, I was tired after the swim but feeling pretty good as I pedaled.  The bike route was a circle, I love those, turn right, turn right, turn right, no thought required, you can just enjoy the scenery and the wind.  Nancy had mentioned that on the final stretch along Safari Road there are three hills called "the three sisters", also known as the three bitches and said that seasoned cyclist probably rate these hills a 7 out of 10 difficultly.  I thought ok, I'm a badass (haha) but at worst I will try my best and walk if I have to.  Going along  Brock road and highway 5 things were going great.  My legs felt good and I was averaging between 28-30km per hour most of the time.  I even got up the nerve to take a drink of water while cycling which I have never done before.  Getting close to the turn at Safari road or I thought I must be close I looked ahead and saw a behemoth (sp?) of a hill, a mountain really and said out loud, "you have GOT to be fucking kidding me!!.  I wasn't even on Safari road yet!!  Another girl was ahead of me and we made it up to the top of the hill.  We stopped at the top to catch our breath and looked down, STRAIGHT DOWN at the descent, it was steep with a nice left 'jog' at the bottom.  She said "I'm not doing that" and all I could think was "how the F*(& am I going to do that!".  I said to her well I've got to try it and off I went.  Heavy heavy on the brakes about halfway down I felt a bit steadier and let it go.  I was flying at about 52km/hr, I didn't know it at the time I was just holding on for dear life.  There were more hills on the way to Safari road (really? really?  how many bitches are there?) and I was finally humbled and had to walk the last one.  On Safari road I made one hill, had to walk halfway up another, on another one I had to walk but about halfway up it seemed to flatten out and I thought I could make it up the last half.  I clipped in on my left side first and started to pedal to clip in my right side but couldn't get the clip secured and then I couldn't actually pedal so I lost any momentum I had and down I went.  I fell on my left side, knee to the pavement first, I fell into and onto the handlebars, smacked under my chin, the list goes on. I got up pretty quick because I was afraid a driver would come flying over the hill and not see me and walked up to the top.  I had my cell with me and contemplated calling Nancy to come and get me but I figured I must be close to the end and if it took too long she would come find me.  I got back to transition, put on my runners and a baseball hat and went for my run.  At the gate Nancy stopped me and said I couldn't run the road, it was too late and I'd have to run a lap of the lake. Surprisingly the run was great, really relaxed easy breathing.

I knew I was in some pain when I got home but it wasn't until I woke up in the middle of the night I realized how much pain it was.  My past knee injuries have been scrapes and surface, this was much less blood and hurt to touch anywhere around the knee plus my chest hurt pretty bad.  After being awake half the night and then pretty nauseous the next morning I called my chiro.  He's a great guy and I knew he'd assess it and know what to do.  He said I have a strained sternum and was pretty impressed with the overall bruising on my arms, legs and knee.  He did some adjusting and told me to come back if I'm not feeling better.  Yesterday I felt better as the day wore on, ice is my friend.  Tonight MORE cycling.  My parents are going to be so happy when cycling season is over.

It feels worse than it looks

my bitch

Tonight I trained with my mommy tri group.  The route was the same one from my Thursday group which always kicks my ass!!  With MIM (mommies in motion) we start at Appleby Line 407 carpool and headed across sideroad #1 to Walkers, up Walkers to sideroad #2, over to Appleby Line, then up Appleby (or is that down) to Sideroad #4, back over to Walkers and back down to Sideroad #1.

Now I will tell you and I'm sure you've heard me whine long and hard about sideroad #2, in fact I whined as recently as my last post, I always have to walk at least one hill on that road.  Well not tonight, tonight SR#2, YOU were my bitch.  I have never done the trek to SR#4 because of the scary hill on Appleby Line to get there, tonight, hill on Appleby Line YOU were my bitch!  SR#4 was a  pretty decent trek but sadly I had to walk 2 of the hills before I hit Walkers Line.  Next time, those hills will be my bitch!

I got to Walkers and SR#1 where coach Nancy was hanging out watching our bikes while we headed out on our run to Guelph Line.  I turned back early because I didn't want to be too long past the group.  So there I am running, well shuffling along being egged on by my awesome team mates and I had a sudden thought absolutely out of the blue..  wouldn't it be weird if I saw Bryan run past us..  and sure as shit no less than 5 minutes later a dude is running towards us, I squint in the distance thinking wouldn't it be cool if that was him right now.  This guy is running by all the ladies smiling and saying hello...Holy shit if it isn't him!  I yell "HEY TRAINING PAYNE!", he smiles, yup that's him..  I point to myself, "It's Talluleh!" as we pass each other, we both turn around meet in the middle of the road for a quick sweaty hello and a hug and we were off again.  SOOOO funny.  I mean it was bound to happen one day or another I just thought I'd be less sweaty and have better hair..  Bryan it was great to finally meet you!! No one (and I mean no one) has been as supportive of my journey than you and I felt good that at least I was jogging when I saw you (as opposed to crawling or crying or something). I almost wished I had been on the bike, I feel like I would have looked much cooler on the bike.

When I got back to the group they all wanted to know 'who was that guy and why was he hugging you?!!'.  I told them he's my blog/twitter buddy, which just sounds weird and explained how he qualified for Kona and he's like TRI blogging royalty or something and since they are all local girls that are interested in triathlon all of them remembered seeing him in the paper.  I may be the slowest in our group but damned if I ain't the coolest now.

I practically flew back to the parking lot on the bike, I love the ride home and was sad to realize that it's getting dark out much earlier now.  What a great time tonight!  I think I will get up early on Saturday and do that same route for my cycling session.  Look out SR#4, I'm coming to get you!

I forgot

Back in June I posted a blog after my first experience cycling hills on Sideroad #2.  I called it "Like I'd Forget". I called it that because I didn't think for a minute I would ever forget the pain and humiliation of that ride. I probably have early onset alzhiemers or something because I totally forgot.  I went out with the Thursday cycling group and quickly remembered why I hate the Thursday cycling group.  Back when my Tues tri group did Sideroad #1 between Appleby Line and Guelph Line I asked one of the coaches if this route was as hard as Sideroad #2 and she said 'it's worse, even the downhills are uphillson Sideroad#1!!'  She lied.  Sideroad #1 is great (if you don't count that ginormous hill at Guelph Line), Sideroad #2 sucks. The hills are huge and the downhills while fun scare the hell out of me. I hit 49.9km/hr coming around one bend and was afraid the bike was going to go out from under me, thank god there wasn't a car coming at me.. jeez!!!  I did learn NOT to look at my computer when speeding down a hill, it's better if I don't know how fast I'm going at the time. 

Once again I was humiliated, I did not make the entire loop.  When Nancy told me that SR4 hill was twice as big I decided to just practice where I was going back and forth. I still had to walk two of the hills but got further up each time before having to stop. 

On the upside, I didn't wipe out, that's about the only upside to that ride.

**UPDATE UPDATE**  I need to link to a super awesome contest on Mandy's blog where she is giving away all kinds of GU products!  Now please do not go there and enter cause I wanna win something for once in my life.. ok ok, go there and enter, enter a jillion times, just share with me.. how about that??

Click here for the contest and all kinds of awesome GUformation

Inspiration in my group

As you know I am training with Nancy Hastings of Second Wind Conditioning. I train with her on my own as well as with her triathlon training group “Mommies in Motion”. I’m not a mommy but I act like a baby quite often so it’s good to be with the group. Anyway there is a story in a local paper regarding one of our team members who had a heart attack (at 28 years old) last year while training for a 10k race. She’s back at it this year after being cleared by her doctor (yay) and will be doing the try-a-tri distance at our group tri on Sept 5. There is a video link in the article if interested of Laura and Nancy talking about the incident. I’m happy to know that Nancy is well versed in CPR and kept Laura alive until help arrived.  She rocks!

shut up shut up shut up shut up

I never said I was smart, I may have also neglected to mention that I’m easily caught up in a moment and don’t think about the consequences of my big mouth. So, for the record here’s how it went down (on Twitter no less):

Note: I have rearranged some of the content for dramatic purposes(haha) and easier reading but none of the content was changed
PedalmanTO My buddy who will soon be a PFG just shook on the deal. This is going to hurt! So we both did triathlons when in school. Since then he's gained 60lbs+ and no exercise. I showed him PFG site and that started the deal. By Aug. 3, 2011 he will en roll and finish a Olympic distance triathlon with me. If he does and keeps up (w/in 2mins)or beats me... I do an Iron man! The gauntlet has been laid down. I actually trembled as I shook his hand. I hate running, much less a marathon! There you go my friends. @rbuike @talluleh @cdnet1 and especially @brybrarobry. Thanks for your website Bry, I think it just bit me in the..
@DonaldJones It started as fun, but I may have actually bitten off more than I can chew. I also refuse to go back on the deal.
@rbuike I don't have to do the Ironman if I win.

PedalmanTO If he backs out or doesn't do the Tri- at our school reunion next Sept. He has to dress up in full drag and not tell people about the deal.

talluleh @PedalmanTO that's awesome! How can we help him??!! (and have u do an ironman, hehe). Would that be 2011 or 2012?

PedalmanTO @talluleh My Ironman, if he were to win would be in 2012. I couldn't do the tri and then do an Ironman within a month. BUT- he won't win!

talluleh @PedalmanTO I might do a half iron in 2012 we could sign up for the same one!! Who is he? Get him on Twitter. Haha

PedalmanTO @talluleh Help him?! Real nice, and I thought we were friends. Haha Which one? That would be awesome!

talluleh @PedalmanTO no def plans yet likely late season. Agree to do half iron with me and when you lose do same race only full. Would be fun!

Note: at this point I’m simply thinking that having a person to race with would be a good plan, keep me focused on the goal cause if it’s just me alone I’m less likely to finish it and 2012 is a long ways away

PedalmanTO @talluleh so now I'm doing two races regardless of the first outcome? This isn't my fist time at the rodeo, you're trying to get me to do 2.

talluleh @PedalmanTO well if it were all about you then yes but it's all about me and I want company for the half. I just want you to fulfil your ironman dream. ;-)

PedalmanTO @talluleh I see how it is, you're trying to get me going as well. I'll check with him and see if he'll choose a half iron for the bet.

talluleh @PedalmanTO no no. What I mean is you agree to do half regardless. And if u lose just change to full. Then I have company for my half

Note: Now here’s where the stupidity comes in, he’s not said NO yet, I could have just kept pestering him but NO, I say THIS (shut up shut up shut up)
talluleh @PedalmanTO If u do a half with me I'll do a 100km bike ride with you?

Note: immediately followed by this
talluleh @PedalmanTO wait. Nevermind. Forget I said that.

Note: and here comes the peanut gallery
rbuike @talluleh If you do a half a 100KM bike ride will be a training ride
talluleh @rbuike SHHHHHHH

PedalmanTO "@talluleh: @PedalmanTO If u do a half with me I'll do a 100km bike ride with you?" - This is getting interesting. What about 160kms instead

Note: oh crap he was paying attention. Now I figure I can probably do 100km with some good training and as Rodney pointed out this would likely just be a training ride for a half iron but 160? But I can’t back down now… right? So MORE of my big mouth

talluleh @PedalmanTO hmmmm this IS getting interesting. When? I'm gonna need better pants
(note: it’s true, I AM going to need better pants)

Note: here’s the freaking peanut gallery AGAIN
rbuike @PedalmanTO @talluleh You should sign up for the conquer cancer back to back century ride :)
talluleh @rbuike you should too!!!

PedalmanTO @talluleh Why so quiet? I'll do a local half with you that you chose and you do a local full century with me that I choose.

talluleh @PedalmanTO see my last question. When would it be? Me quiet? U wish

PedalmanTO @talluleh what distance is your tri coming up?

talluleh @PedalmanTO 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run. Oly next year.

PedalmanTO @talluleh I'll do a local half iron with you after your first Oly but you have to agree to my local 160kms ride. We have lots of time.

talluleh @PedalmanTO 160km ride in 2011 and half iron in 2012. You're on. I'm sure my coach can work in the long ride into my training.

PedalmanTO @talluleh Deal! Time to call MAO!

talluleh Yup! We have a deal!! RT @PedalmanTO: @talluleh Deal! Time to call MAO!

Brybraroby @talluleh @PedalmanTO Awesome.

For the record, I blame @Brybraroby for EVERYTHING!!