Slacker!

Many apologies!

With all the craziness of the first week of classes this week has flown by. I am looking forward to having some time to catch my breath over the weekend.

The race was amazing! It was bloody hard, but amazing. I can't wait for next years season.

Before I start off telling about race day I want to thank a few people.

Thank you Tanner for all your support and wake up calls though the last few weeks. You are wonderful!

Thank you Kate for all your support, guidance and friendship. You made the ordeal much less scary. Thank you and big hugs!

Thank you to Dan and Ryan who came down to the race to cheer me on! You guys are so sweet. Thank you for your support and your friendship. Oh, and thank you for the celebration pints Dan!

I woke up at 05:00 on race day feeling pretty good, but my bed was comfy and Tanner was going to give me a wake up call in about a half hour and I had another alarm set for 06:00. Or so I thought. I went back to sleep. The next time I opened my eyes it was 07:19! The pre-race meeting was at 07:30.

Oh, stink...  Both my and Tanner's alarms were both set for Monday through Saturday. We both felt pretty silly.

I raced around the house getting this and that together, jumped straight into my trisuit then gym pants and  the shirt that came in my race package then made a quick protein shake, thinking back I should have made Tanner one too... He was driving like a lunatic form his place to mine.  I had just finished pulling all my gear out to the end of my driveway and getting my bike out when he pulled up. We threw it all in and raced off to Spruce Grove.

I had on of the flavoured energy gel thingys. It was nasty as expected, then I promptly forgot to do the things that I told myself to remember, i.e. attach my race number tot he race belt Tanner so sweetly picked up for me (Thanks Kate,) untie my runners and other such knowledge that Kate had passed to me.

We got there with plenty of time. I was in the third swim heat and they where running a bit behind. I drank a ton of water, stretched and nervously walked back and forth from the place all us ladies where gathered to where Tanner was standing.

In line I ran into a girl I swam with in Peace River, small world. My three lane buddies and I chatted a bit and discussed our times. We all thought we would be swimming between 15-16 minutes. I expected to slow down from my back injury. I was wrong. My swim time was exactly 15 minutes, I lost time as I had to pass each of my lane mates once, and got stuck behind two of them for a short while. I flew out of the water and skittered off through to the transition area. Tanner passed me a protein bar as I passed him. It was cold outside for being soaking wet!

This is the point where I realized I had forgotten to do most of the things Kate had told me. I voiced this to Tanner. I don't know if he laughed at me but I would have laughed at me.

The bike was long, and there was three mean hills. Girls on road bikes where flying past me, they all said nice things as they went by. "good job" "keep it up, good work" and such. The turn around point took forever to get to, but the way back seemed better, I actually passed people! Only two I think...

I couldn't feel my feel after the bike. It took about 2kms of running before I could. I shouldn't say running, it was more a death jog. After the first lap I thought I would die. Another racer grabbed my hand at one point and pulled me along for a bit, giving me a pep talk, it helped a little. Thank you who ever you were.

When I finally went over the finish line it felt amazing. Most every one had finished already. I came in 101st out of 124. With a total time of 1:47:39. Tanner was right there, so were Ryan, Dan and Dan's nice Girlfriend. I was so happy I didn't throw-up, someone did and the evidence was still there.

Dan took us for pints. It was awesome, I felt like rubber.

this is the link to the results
http://www.resultscanada.com/results.html

One more sleep...

Well this is it. I am tucked into bed and as ready as I will get. I picked up my race package today. My number is 386. 


I took it easy today. Went to acupuncture, then to Element Cycle to pick up the rage package. They had a few tri-suits on sale, I found one that fit perfect, thank gawd it was also marked down about %75. The T-shirts are actually pretty nice. I managed to get to the farmers market to grab some veggies, coffee and chocolate brownie goodness which somehow disappeared... 


Did I write about the gel power packs yesterday? They are odd things. Its like a almost liquid power bar. I hope they help tomorrow.


When I am finished I will shoot off an entry as soon as I can tomorrow. For now, its time for bed. 


Thank you all for your support. 


JW

Two More Sleeps

My nerves have started up hard today. My last day in the office full time before classes start and only one day left to prepare as much as possible for the race.

Physio went great yesterday and today. I went to the Kingsman Sports Therapy Clinic. Lauren helped me out a lot. I should send her a thank you note when this is all over. I will likely go in after the race to help recover.

I feel confident that I will be able to race, but as I said before, my times may suffer. I just want to finish it. I can work on times next triathlon season. For now I will just stretch and stretch some more. Oh, and drink tons of water. I think the flexerall is giving me dry mouth. I am always thirsty.

There is a running room in the Kingsman Centre. I went in today to grab some gel energy packs. I tried the chocolate one and it is pretty gross. I can handle a little bit of yuck though.

I have made a list of everything I need to do and have ready for tomorrow. I have to keep reminding myself to take a deep breath, relax my forehead and stop clenching my damned teeth already.

Race packages are ready and I am stoked to pick mine up tomorrow. I feel like I have so much to do tomorrow but I don't really. I need to relax. Woooosaaaaa...

It is bed time. I am very very sleepy. There is one last thing. I found a really fun theme for my next blog. but I am not going to tell you until Sunday night. Ha ha,

Hugs, good night

Twitter

Follow me on twitter too!

jennwright83

Donuts, explosions and dilemmas

I want to eat an entire box of donuts. And by eat an entire box of donuts I do mean all to myself. If you want to eat donuts with me you will have to bring your own box.

Today was New Student Orientation Day at CFAC today. It was very busy on campus. We did manage to wrangle a few volunteers out of the day. As they came in to the SA office for their UPasses we would ‘encourage’ them to fill out the volunteer application. It was nice to see and hear activity in the halls. I suppose I should enjoy the relative silence that I will have tomorrow. It will be the last day for a long while that I will be able to just hide in my bat cave.

My back is much better today. I slept with a bunch of pillows behind me last night in a reclined position. It seemed to help quite a bit. My physio appointment also helped considerably. I am going again tomorrow after work. I am feeling pretty confident that I will be able to race on Sunday. I wont be able to train anymore, but at least I can still race.

A book bomb went off in my office. It is rather frightening as I am sure one would imagine an explosion of self-help and wellness books to be.  All the little teetering towers of titles make me feel both empowered and inadequate. It also makes me feel like a total slob who can’t keep her office clean. This isn’t so though. I just need help moving the shelves around. I am currently having an inner debate about whether or not I will call someone to help now or leave it until the morning… 

Ouch

Yesterday morning when I woke up I thought I was going to have to pull out of the race. One little voice of sensible me was saying “know know Jennifer, don’t push your body too hard blab blab la wonk wonk wonk…” it was promptly drowned out by the determine fierce voice of me saying “quit your wining and walk it off. You made a commitment and you will keep it.” Funny, determine fierce me sounds like a drill sergeant with smokers cough. Anyway… Whatever I did to back returned in full force. I called in to work and told them I wouldn’t be in until the afternoon when I finished up at the massage therapist. I also booked in to see my doctor again. I was about ready to find a chicken for a sacrificial ceremony to the gods of back pain and triathlons.

Getting a good night’s sleep seemed to really help last time so that is what I have been trying to do. Along with icing and switching from ice to heat. I brought a heating pad and bottles of frozen water to work to use throughout the day. The Dr. gave me a stronger dose of Flexural and an anti-inflammatory cream for my back. The pills take the edge off but mostly just make me into an even more absent-minded dolt than I usually am when I am in pain.

I should take this moment to thank and apologize to anyone you has had to deal with or work with me while I am either over tired, medicated, in pain or any combination of the above. You are all truly wonderful and patient souls.  

Back to business.

I discussed my situation with a few of my trusted advisors and have concluded that I will still race so long as my back improves by Friday. To avoid irritating the injury further I will not be training anymore. The most I will do is a couple mellow swims. My times will suffer a bit but at least I will still race. And as Kate mentioned, the slower one is on their first race the better one will beat their time next year. 

I go to physiotherapy tomorrow. I am also doing a few stretches. I am confident that I will be fully recovered by Friday. Please be confident with me… send some good energy my way.

Work was nice today. Our new manager started today. I gave the team a rough overview of my plans for the year and two of the things I was hoping to do where approved. The Breakfast Club, which Steph did last year as well, was approved and so was the fundraiser concert. The concert date has been pushed back a couple of months but that is okay because it will give me more time to prepare. Also, the larger timeline will give me time to volunteer with other events throughout the campus to gain some more experience. The other plans and proposals I have will be reviewed tomorrow.  

Speaking of tomorrow, we are doing the New Student Orientation (NSO) tomorrow and I will need to be at work a little earlier than usual. I best hit the sac.

Buenos Suenos

Sweet dreams

Six More Sleeps... eek

The weekend went well. I managed to get a little rest on Saturday before we left for Chestermere. We had a wonderful time with Kate and the crew, as always. I did, however, forget to take my back pills before bed and was in pretty stiff shape the next morning. Luckily I had a couple hours to recover from that silliness while Kate was in a hair appointment.

Kate called as she was on her way home and asked if Tanner could load up the bikes on the bike rack on her truck. Tanner being the helpful handy guy he is got right to it, then promptly broke the rack. Now in Tanner’s defense, the bolts were rusted pretty badly and the plastic bits had seen some weather.

Plan B. Lorrie grabbed Ashley’s truck and after a few “oh I just forget this or that I’ll be right back” trips, we were off to Strathmore and ready to give it our all.

We arrived all geared up to find that it was public swim… oh stink. We were lucky though. There were only two boys about nine-years-old there. We politely asked the young man who was on as the lifeguard if we could put a lane in and promised we wouldn’t be more than 15 minutes. I was surprised at how willing he was to accommodate us. Kate and Lorrie swam the rope down and then they wrapped the center rope that divides the deep and shallow sections around the lane rope. Fantastic.

Now after taking it easy all last week for my backs sake I was not feeling it in the water. Also, I left my music in the locker. I need to get used of not having it. And yes, I am very upset about that. The swim took 16 minute. Ouch. But we did stop a few times to discuss technique.

We hurried out of the water to get on our bikes. Kate gave me a few tips on transitions and I think I am convinced to get a tri-suit as soon as I can. I really don’t want to bike and run in my bathing suit.

The bike was a little rough with wet hair and the wind. The first 10k wasn’t to terrible, yet it did have a down hill slope to most of it. Coming back, yah, that was a lot of up hill. I am afraid. I was frozen stiff from the wind and the rain by the time we finished up. It didn’t help much that I also missed the turn to go back to the truck and kept on for a few hundred more meters. Silliness. The weather was pooh and we where cold and stiff, so we skipped the run.

It was great to have Kate and Lorrie to train with. They are awesome women.

This morning was a little hard. I was pooped. I had a hell of a time sleeping last night and getting out of bed I found that my brain was still asleep and not completely functional. I pulled my sorry butt to gym and a tried one of the techniques Kate suggested. Ten minutes on the bike, then ten on the treadmill. After a few rounds of that I hit the water and did my 750 in 14:50. Not my best time but better than Sunday. I’ll time tomorrow and aim for 14:00.

Nighty night.