Triathlon Memphrémagog: Race Report

Before I go into the race itself, I have to tell you about the chaos that surrounded the packet pick-up on Saturday. We arrived around 3, an hour before they started handing out the packages, and it's a good thing we did. We couldn't find a single place to park. There was one lot that charged $6/day but since we would only be there for 2 hours max, it didn't seem worth it. So then we tried parking at the Auberge, but all the parking was reserved for guests. In the parking lot, we went around a corner and ended up in a dead end. I was driving Chris' aunt's van, which is much larger than the Aveo I'm used to, and after several failed attempts at a 17-point turn, I finally just had to back out straight, down the lane we came on. Then we tried parking at the grocery store but they had a security guard watching to make sure you were actually going into the grocery store, so that didn't work. Finally, we ended up parking behind a fry shack and hoping for the best. While we were waiting for them to start giving out the packages, we wandered around and I showed the cousins where the transition zone was, where the team exchange was, etc. For this race, they were giving out arm warmers as the free gift, plus technical T-shirts (short-sleeved for men, long-sleeved for women). As soon as we got our packet, we were out of there.
This morning, we arrived at the race site with not a minute to spare. There was a moment of panic when I realized I didn't have money for parking (the $6 lot) but thankfully it was free for participants. We got everything set-up as quickly as possible, got our chip, got marked then we actually had to run to the swim start for the pre-race meeting. We got there just as they started talking. Five minutes before the swim was scheduled to start, CB and I left to go get ready for our parts. That was the last time I saw N before he gave me the chip so I don't know how his swim went, but according to the stats, he finished in just over 17 minutes. As the cyclist, I was responsible for both transitions, so after I got the chip I ran to get my bike and then I was off. The course was mostly flat with some good hills and I think I had a pretty good time for 20km - 42:42. With the two transitions, my time was 46:26. After I dropped off my bike, I ran to give the chip to CB and off he went. He finished the run in 24:57 and our total team time was 1:28:30, which was awesome. We finished 10th overall (out of 17 teams) and 6th in our category (mixed teams). As a bonus, I won a door prize - a $500 gift certificate to a bike/ski shop in Magog. I was so surprised! I never win anything. So now I have to figure out what to get (maybe new ski boots for Chris) and it'll mean another trip to the Eastern Townships before the year is out.
Shortly after we got home, I went for this week's long run (14km). I left from Chris' aunt's house and went down one of the main roads until it ended (~7km) and headed back. It was very hilly and with my legs tired from the race, plus with the heat, it was a very challenging run. It was also a bit different running on gravel compared to pavement. Needless to say, I'm exhausted!

Home from Kingston

After a lot of waiting, Chris finally had his surgery yesterday. We were told to be at the hospital at 7am, with the operation booked for 9am. Unfortunately, there was apparently a car accident and a code red was called, so the surgery was postponed indefinitely. I was beginning to wonder if it would even happen, as Chris' name was written in pen at the bottom of the day's surgery list, but he finally got called around 11:00. I spent the time crocheting and reading in the waiting room and I finally got news around 1:00 when I happened to run into the surgeon in the hallway. Everything went well and Chris now has several staples closing the hole in his leg. After an hour or so in the recovery room, I was allowed to go in and see him, then shortly after that we went back to the hotel. Because of the possible after-effects of the anesthesia, Chris wasn't allowed to be left alone, so I didn't get to go on the Running Room group run as I would have liked. Instead, I read while Chris napped (for 6 hours!).
While I was reading, I came across a bit of a problem. I'm in the middle of The Girl Who Played with Fire and I was reading along, got to page 390, then the next page number is 311. I checked back and the text is the exact same as the first p. 311. The repetition continues, with duplicate pages until p. 342, then it jumps ahead to p. 423. Unfortunately, pp. 391-422 seem to be missing and of course this happens at a very exciting part of the book. I've been in contact with the publisher and they've been great about it - they're going to send me a free replacement copy!
We spent most of today driving and got home around 6pm. As soon as we got home, I took my bike in to get looked at because I still wasn't sure about the back tire. It's a good thing I went in because the tech said it would have eventually exploded . It was a simple fix, something to do with the valve not being pushed in; all he had to was deflate the tire and reinflate it. Done!
After some frantic laundering, I went for a 6km run around the neighbourhood. I was supposed to do my long run (14km) but I just ran out of time. That means I'll do my easy run tomorrow with CB and I'll have to do my long run Sunday afternoon after the race. Speaking of the race, for those of you who don't know, I'm doing a team sprint triathlon in Magog on Sunday with two of Chris' cousins, CB (run) and N (swim). So as soon as Chris is done at the base medical clinic tomorrow morning, we're off on another 5 hour road trip to Lac-Brome. Which means another trip through the park, my 5th in less than a week. Yay?!?

Kingston

We arrived in Kingston yesterday afternoon after a long drive. In Quebec, this week and next week are what they call "construction holidays". In theory, as the name implies, it's when the construction workers in the province take their vacation. Apparently 1/3 of Quebec workers also take their holidays during this time with the idea that travel will be easier with no construction being done. Despite this, we drove through no less than 5 active construction sites in Quebec. Construction holidays, my ass. We were hoping to arrive in time for me to attend a hot yoga class at 4:30, but we didn't. Instead, I went swimming in the hotel pool for about an hour. For dinner, we met up with one of Chris' friends and we went to the Amadeus, a German restaurant downtown. I splurged a bit and had chicken cordon bleu, which was a lot of food but really good. After that, we saw Horrible Bosses at the movie theatre - hilarious, in case you're wondering.
This morning was Chris' appointment with the surgeon. We were in and out in about two hours, but the final verdict was more surgery. He wasn't too pleased with what he saw. We could wait for it to heal on its own, which would take a long time and Chris would have to keep taking antibiotics the whole time OR he could go in and fix it with surgery. Chris was supposed to have the operation tonight, but they called us and said it would be first thing tomorrow morning. Of course, we didn't get this message until Chris had already been fasting for several hours and had become extremely grumpy from lack of food.
After the appointment, I went to a hot yoga class at noon. I bought a week pass so I can go as many times as I like in the next 7 days. I've taken a couple hot yoga classes before, at Christmas with Chris' mom, and I really enjoyed them. However, this Bikrams class kicked my ass! It was so hot, I sweated enough to soak an entire bath towel (disgusting, I know). It was 90min of hell-like torture. The poses themselves were alright but the heat was unbearable. I kept feeling faint and there weren't enough breaks to drink and mop up sweat. The instructor was a little strange in that she administered the class like an auctioneer - literally. Anyways, I couldn't wait to get out of there. Now I'm debating if I want to go back for another class....On the way home from yoga, I stopped at the farmer's market and bought some strawberries and blueberries - so good!
In the afternoon, we wandered around downtown Kingston looking for a new purse (for me, obviously). No luck, sadly. People, I'm looking for a purse - not an overnight bag! What is it with these ginormous bags??? We also stopped at Lululemon where I bought an awesome pair of running shorts and an equally awesome pair of running crops (for cooler weather). A tad expensive, but I really like how they fit on me and it's really hard for me to fit clothes that I like, so I jumped on them. Last time we were in Kingston, I placed a custom jewellery order to replace my wedding ring, which was destroyed a year and a half ago (by a jeweller in Chicoutimi - long story). We stopped by the shop and it was ready! My initial reaction to it was actually disappointment because it didn't turn out quite how I envisioned it but it's growing on me. The stones are much larger and more prominent than on my old ring and since I'm pretty low-key when it comes to jewellery, it was a bit of a shock to see something so bold on my finger. It'll take some getting used to, but I'm sure it'll be okay.
In the late afternoon, I ran over to Fort Henry to do some hill repeats. For those of you familiar with Kingston, you know that the road up to Fort Henry is a long, uphill climb (approx. 700m, top to bottom). I ran up and down this hill 4 times, which is no small feat. I was actually surprised that I wasn't more tired by the end, but then I ran back into downtown for a total of 9km in 57:28 - not a bad time, considering the hills.
For dinner, we ordered take-out from Curry Original. One of the many things missing in the Saguenay is a good Indian restaurant. So when we come to Kingston, we always make a point to stop by. We got the usual - chicken madras, curried vegetables, rice, na'an and raita - and ate it on the floor of the hotel. I'm so full, it's not even funny! It was so good though!!!

Triathlon de Quebec: Race Report

This morning, I got up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am to go to my race in Quebec City. When the alarm went off, I must admit, I really didn't want to go. I was really nervous about the swimming because I haven't really trained for it. After eating breakfast and getting everything in the car for my race, we were out the door by 6:30. It was first of six drives through the park I'll be making in the next week or so. We arrived at the race site around 8:45, with my start time scheduled for 9:45. When I got there, I had to do the following things: pick up my race kit and timing chip, get body-marked, set up my transition area and go to the washroom. The layout was so disorganized that I had to ask a volunteer to get all of those things accomplished. There was virtually no signage and it was not laid out very intuitively - that is one of my chief complaints about the race.
Swim
Chris got himself set up in a nice shady spot by the lake and I went over to the race start. I was surprised how warm and pleasant the water was - wetsuits were prohibited because of it (they're only allowed if the water is below 22C). I started in the 3rd wave with all the women. As usual, I got kicked in the face a few times but after the first 100m or so, things calmed down. I got into a great rhythm, the water was fantastic and it hardly felt like work. I didn't want to push it too hard at the beginning and risk getting tired before the end, so I settled in for a nice leisurely swim. I actually passed people!!!! Of all the tri swims I've done, this was definitely my best - not necessarily my best time but certainly the best experience. It seems strange to say, but I think all my run training actually made me a better swimmer - the extra cardio helped so I didn't get winded at all during the swim. This has certainly given me more motivation to continue swimming and working on my speed. We'll see how it goes in the La Baie race in 2 weeks.
T1
The transition to bike was fairly painless - there was no wetsuit to take off plus I've done this transition so many times before and I keep my kit to the bare minimum. As usual, my legs felt a little funny coming off the swim but at least I could feel them (which is more than I can say for some other races). I was not a huge fan of the long distance between the transition zone and bike mount line (the point at which you're allowed to get on your bike and start riding), especially since running in clip shoes is not the easiest.
Bike
The first couple kilometres are always a little bit challenging as your legs adapt to the new sport but once I got going, things went fairly smoothly. On the website's description of the bike course, it advertised "quelques cotes" (several hills) - they obviously don't live in the Saguenay because these "hills" were comically pathetic. The first one was the overpass over the highway and the second was a mid-length, gentle slope upwards. That was it. The whole rest of the course was flat. What made it challenging, in my opinion, was the condition of the roads. I don't know how much time was lost biking on really rough surfaces, dodging potholes and deep cracks, and navigating around construction zones. The wind was a bit strong on the way out, but it made it easier on the way back. When I checked my bike time on the internet afterwards, I was really shocked because it was 4min slower than my reading (48min vs 52min). Turns out, they cheaped out on the timing mats and included both transitions (swim-bike and bike-run) as part of my bike time. Normally, they have timing mats and the entrance and exit for each event. Not here. There was one when you left the water and the next one was when you left for your run (and again, obviously at the finish). So the bike time on the website includes T1 and T2, which given my calculations took up about 2min each.
T2
Returning from the bike, I had the same issue as before - running a long distance with the bike. Not only did I have to dismount about 100m before the transition zone, I then had to run around the entire T-zone before I could get to my spot. I think that's part of the reason my transition times are so high. I usually find the bike-run transition very easy - rack the bike, ditch the helmet, change shoes, switch number to front, grab whatever food/drink you need and off you go.
Run
The run course was really nice. It consisted of a trail that looped around the basin and was mostly forested, which was great considering how hot it had become by the end of the race. The first kilometre or so is always challenging as your legs adjust to the running. However, I was having some stomach cramps and my legs felt really sluggish so I was having a hard time keeping my pace. Plus, my Garmin got all messed up in the forest so my pace alerts didn't make any sense. Another complaint about the race - lack of drink stations. There was only one in the entire race and it was located at the lap point for the run. So you basically had one chance to get water/Gatorade, at the 2.5km mark of the run, which of course I did. The second lap went much better though I was still off pace. One of my mental goals was the finish the run in under 30min, (sadly I did not), but I don't care because of how well my swim went. I sprinted (at least it felt like sprinting) the last 50m or so and guess what! I wasn't last!!! There were three DNFs plus I beat 4 people straight-up. Here's the link to my time, if you're interested (I'm #160, bib 250): http://sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=100498
Overall, the race itself was pretty good. The weather was perfect and Chris was able to go around to various points along the course to cheer me on. (He did fall asleep during my swim though). One other minor complaint, again a reflection of the race's disorganization: as part of the post-race meal, they had yogurt but no spoons. Yogurt but no spoons? Come on!

Another hot and humid day

Because it was so hot today, for dinner I decided to make something that required minimal cooking. I found a recipe in my vegetarian cookbook for linguine with artichoke pesto. It was the first time I've made my own pesto (using marinated artichoke hearts, fresh parsley, roasted pine nuts, olive oil and Parmesan cheese, combined in the food processor) and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I also have some pesto leftover so it'll be an easy meal some other night.
For my run tonight, I waited until the evening in the hopes that it would cool off a bit. Around 8:30, I got tired of waiting and decided to go anyways. Just as I stepped out the door, it started to rain. Before I knew it, I was running in a full-on thunderstorm. By that point, I was already soaking wet and I figured I couldn't get any wetter. It was actually kinda cool though. I did a 10min warm-up, then 10 Fartlek intervals (1min hard, 1min easy) like I did on the 11th. In the same time (30min), I managed to run ~220m further than last time (an increase of about 4%) - yay! As for my Gazelles ride tomorrow, I'm going to see how I feel in the morning when my alarm goes off and what the weather's like. I'm hesitant to go on a long ride the day before my triathlon; however, Sunday's triathlon is a C-priority race and I'm treating essentially as a training race, so I'm not really sure what to do. We'll see tomorrow.

Change of plans (literally)

So I've decided to abandon my speedy 10km plan in favour of some half-marathon training. I'm registered for two more HMs this season (Aug. 28 and Sept. 18) so I need to focus on my distance rather my speed. I'll save the 10km plan for during the winter or something. Part of the reason for my decision was my disastrous 10km run tonight. 10km is actually a lie because I only got through 7.4km of it. My legs were feeling a little weak after my speedy run yesterday, so I shouldn't have been surprised but it sucked nevertheless. I have ~5 weeks until the Quebec City Half-Marathon and ~8 weeks to the Army Run in Ottawa. I've modified a plan from the Toronto Women's HM (http://www.towomensrun.com/images/2hr-215-17wks.pdf) to account for the shortened time-frame. I think I can get away with only 8 weeks of training because of the base I established for my races in June. I'm also trying to finish in the 2:00-2:15 range, rather than 2:15-2:30 which was my goal for the Saguenay/Lac Brome races. This new plan is scheduled to start on Monday, so tomorrow I'm going to redo the 5km Fartlek from last week, Saturday is Gazelles and Sunday is the Quebec City Triathlon.
Speaking of triathlons, I'm starting to wonder about my future in the sport. I really enjoy biking and running, but swimming - I really don't like swimming. In the pool, it's not so bad, but open water sucks. Part of it is that I'm not a good swimmer, so the workouts are hard and I'm more likely to skip them, which just compounds the problem. It's also difficult trying to find time for workouts because the pool schedules are terrible and it's so far to drive. Unfortunately, during the year, the base only offers 1 hour of lane swimming per week, which is just not enough. So I have to try to piece together pool time from the pools in La Baie and Chicoutimi and that costs money as well. Basically, it's a big pain in the butt and I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it. I haven't made any decisions yet, but if I stick to just biking and running, I can still do duathlons and running races and perhaps venture into bike racing as well. Thoughts?
On another note, I made quinoa for the first time tonight - Lemon Herb Quinoa. It tasted good but when Chris saw it, he said it looked like vomit. It turned out a lot darker than the pictures, so I'm not sure what went wrong. I'm going to research some more recipes, buy some more quinoa and try again next week.
Speaking of next week, we are off to Kingston on Monday. Chris has been experiencing some problems with his knee since the surgery, namely a giant blood blister that exploded then imploded or something. Warning - graphic details to follow. It started off as a bump of blood, exploded (blood everywhere), then looked like a dark-coloured bruise under the skin, then it started to grow again until it protruded about an inch. When Chris saw the physiotherapist on Monday, he did not like what he saw so he sent us over to see the doctor. She took a look at it and decided it needed to be cleaned out, so she removed the dead skin that was covering the bump and scraped out all the coagulated blood. At the end of it, instead of a bump, there was a crater, about the size of a quarter and about 1/2 inch deep. The doctor took some photos to send to the surgeon in Kingston to see what he wanted to do about it. She told us to be on standby, packed the wound with dressing and sent us home. Long story short, we have been at the clinic every day this week, getting the bandages changed and waiting to find out what's going on. At first, the surgeon was apparently on vacation until August, then today we found that he's back and wants to see Chris on Tuesday. It's also possible that we will have to see a plastic surgeon next week; to do what, I don't know but probably something about closing this giant hole. So we leave Monday, appointment on Tuesday, back on Wednesday. However, this does mean that I get the pleasure of driving through the park 3 times in about 24 hours (there and back on Sunday morning for my race in Quebec City, then Monday morning on the way to Kingston).

Unmotivated

I don't know if it's because of the weather, but I have been extremely unmotivated this week. I'm still getting my workouts in, which is good, but household chores and cooking are taking more of a back burner.
Sunday was my long run (10km). With my new speedy 10km plan, the challenge for me is not the distance but the required pace. After my disastrous 5km a few days earlier, I decided to do my run in a more controlled setting, ie. on the treadmill. Things were going reasonably well, I had just settled into a comfortable rhythm when the power went out at the gym (only for a second though). Of course, all my data was lost and I had to wait for everything to reboot. I did my best to approximate the time and distance already covered, but it was really frustrating. I finally got back into my groove and the power went out again. Again, data lost, rhythm gone. I finally made it to the end but it was way more challenging than it should have been.
After the difficulties from Sunday's run, I decided to forget about pace for my 7km on Monday - I just went by feel. I did push myself for the last kilometre and I found a good song for pushing the pace - Lose Yourself, by Eminem. Not my usual taste in music, but the beat is good and the lyrics are pretty motivating too.
Tuesday was a double day with swimming at lunch time and Gazelles in the evening. For my lane swimming, I started off with 750m continuous, which I did in about 22 minutes. This is key for my race on Sunday. I spent the rest of the time doing drills, especially ones for arm strength. In the evening, I went with my bike group to Bec-Scie and back via Laterriere. The route is not terribly challenging, except for the hill coming out of La Baie, but the wind on the way back made it quite difficult. We narrowly avoided a collison when the peloton leader had to slam on her brakes because a pickup truck almost turned left into us. In all, we covered about 60km.
Tonight's run was a 7km at the same pace as last week's disastrous 5km. I was a little worried about it and because it was raining all day, I decided to do this workout indoors as well. Surprisingly, I managed to keep up the pace for the entire distance and it was actually a lot of fun (and the power didn't go out!). I finished in 37:51!
On another note, here's the blanket I'm working on right now.

Blanket (and 1st attempt to upload a picture)

Here's a blanket that I recently finished and gave to my friend Jasmine, who has just been posted away.
It was a bit of a rush to get it finished before she left, especially with the kids here last week and the insane heat wave we've been having, but I got it done and delivered it the night before she left.

What a week...

Phew. It's been a while since I posted, but it was an intense week. Here's a brief summary:

Workouts
Monday: 5km Fartlek run (10min warm-up, followed by 10x [1min hard, 1min recovery] - great run, btw)
Tuesday: ~200m acclimatization swim in the river in Jonquiere with N in the afternoon plus a 65km Gazelles ride in the evening
Wednesday: 7km tempo run in the afternoon plus ~1200m of lane swimming at the pool
Thursday: no tri sports but we did go horseback riding - man was my butt sore at the end
Friday: brutal 5km run at 4:55-5:25min/km pace - running at this speed is definitely going to take some getting used to

Activities with the Kids (in no particular order)
- mini-golf
- horseback riding
- swimming at the pool
- lunch at Chez Paulo
- ice cream at Chez Paulo (not as good as I was hoping - still looking for a good ice cream place)
- canoeing at Parc Riviere du Moulin
- breakfast at Cora's
- triathlon training (running with CB, swimming with N)
- jam-making
- smores in the backyard over the BBQ
I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff because I was up at 7 and going to bed at 12 or 1am every night. I don't even remember how we filled the days, but they were packed. I also had to go to the base clinic with Chris twice, plus I got to go on another Purolator adventure that involved me going from Jonquiere to La Baie to Chicoutimi. Friday morning, I drove to Quebec City and back to meet Chris' aunt to drop off the kids - 4 hours in the park on the same day is not fun, especially when you get stuck behind a house. Yes, a house that was being transported on two trucks through the park. Very slow indeed.
This morning, I went on my Gazelles ride. I left the house at 7am to meet the group in Shipshaw, which ended up being way too early and I was the first one there. I'm so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow! We rode about 75km from Shipshaw through both St-Charleses, through St-Ambroise towards Begin and back. My legs were pretty tired from my run last night so things were a little rough; thankfully, the terrain was mostly flat. About 10km from the end, I got a flat tire after going down a debris-covered hill. After an extensive fiasco about the tube size, we got it patched up enough to make it back to our cars. (About the tube - a couple weeks ago, a girl in our group got a flat and didn't have her kit, so I gave her my tube, which promptly exploded when they pumped it up. At the time, why it blew up was a bit of a mystery, but now I know why - the tubes for my tires are smaller. A little later, she gave me a replacement tube, which turned out to be too big when I went to use it today - hence the fiasco.) When I got back from the ride, I promptly went to Ultra Violet (sweat, grease and all) to have my tire checked out and to buy replacement parts (a new tube and CO2 cartridges). Everything seems to be ok, so hopefully it won't happen again.
In the afternoon, I went to the mall to buy new shorts (my shorts from last year are all way too big because of the weight I've lost). While I was there, I noticed a new newstand in the mall and they have lots of English magazines, including Runner's World so you can guess what I spent my afternoon doing. After thoroughly enjoying this issue, I finally caved and decided to get a subscription. As well, I started reading a book on teaching pronunciation which will hopefully prove useful in my future classes. So far it's really interesting and it's written as a textbook, so I'm highlighting as I go - I miss reading academic texts! I also planned my teaching book purchases for the coming year and as a result placed a rather large-ish Amazon order. Mwahaha.

What a day....

I cannot wait to go to bed. I am so exhausted, both mentally and physically. This morning started off with a 90km bike ride from Costco in Chicoutimi out to St-Felix-d'Otis and back. I did an abbreviated version of this ride a couple weeks ago and it is no walk in the park. This time, I left from Costco instead of the base, which added about 20km total to the ride. We also went right into St-Felix, almost to the other side of the town (not that it's that big of a town to begin with). The big challenge in this ride is all the hill-climbing - there's an overall change in elevation of about 275m and according to my Garmin the total ascent was 897m. Because of all the climbing, this ride took forever as people (myself included) got tired towards the end (there was also a flat tire, which added about 10 minutes to our trip). In total, we spent over 3 1/2 hours actually biking.
On the way back to Costco, just as the 170 turns into the 70, I saw two dogs running along the side of the highway. I didn't want them to get kerschmucked by a car, so as soon as we got back to the parking lot, I drove straight to the Refuge des Animaux. I told the guy there what I saw and he said he would go do something about it (since it's his job), but I got the feeling he wasn't actually going to do anything. I just hope they made it home safely.
When I got home, I was hoping to take a nap. No such luck. I had to help Chris shower and change his bandages, then after that I made lunch for the kids. When we were done eating (~3pm), we discussed the plans for the afternoon. We decided to go mini-golfing (sans Chris), but as we were getting in the car to leave, it started to rain. So we went bowling instead. We've been to this bowling alley twice before and it's always dead - we were pretty much the only people in there the entire time. My first turn, I got a strike but everything went downhill from there. I got a lot of gutterballs and a couple spares, and even between the 4 of us, we didn't even come close to 300 (not even after 12 frames). The scoring system that the alley uses is quite old and the graphics that show up when you get a gutterball, strike, etc are really hilarious. The first time we went two summers ago, we made up dances that went with these graphics and so anytime you get one of these animations, you have to do the action that goes with it. Yeah, we're weird like that, but like I said, there was no one else there.
In the evening, we made homemade pizzas. On the first pizza, we had half ham and pineapple (ham on top of the cheese), a quarter pepperoni (on top of the cheese) and a quarter chorizo (on top). On the second pizza, we had half orange pepper and pepperoni (under the cheese), a quarter pepperoni (under) and a quarter chorizo (under the cheese). I actually had to diagram this so I would know what to put where. The biggest problem was the meat over vs under the cheese debate. I personally prefer the pepperoni on top so it gets a bit crispy but the kids like it under the cheese. We also made another batch of raspberry jam. In addition to all this, I somehow managed to squeeze in two loads of laundry and dishes from two meals. Did I mention I was tired?

Invasion of the chidlers

Yesterday, we left Montreal and drove to Lac Brome to pick up Chris' cousins CB, N and S. The drive back to Bagotville was pretty uneventful with not a single moment of silence. CB, in particular, talks and talks and basically never shuts up, no matter how ridiculous the topic (ie. how he, as a champion pellet gun shooter, would survive in the middle of nowhere by shooting deer through the eyeball and into their brains. He would also make a little extra cash by teaching pellet gun sharp shooting on the side). We also had to convince N that buying and living in a Westfalia van was an unrealistic life plan. We did, however, see a baby black bear in the park in the median between the two sides of the highway.
I was supposed to have a Gazelles outing this morning, but it was postponed until tomorrow. I'm getting a little frustrated with the disorganization and lack of communication in this group, but hopefully it'll get better over the summer. The plan for tomorrow morning to leave from Costco and bike to St-Felix and back (~85km). I'm really not looking forward to it because, if you recall, it's an intense hill ride. I'm hoping it'll be better in a group and my legs should be able to handle it a little better since I won't have done a half-marathon the day before.
Today was the first full day of having the cousins here. After making smoothies for breakfast, S and I went to pick up the puppies and check the mail. I received all the course critiques from my classes at the tax centre. I spent some time reviewing the comments and overall they were positive. There was one, however, that really irked me. According to one of my students, I have a mauvaise connaissance (poor understanding) of French. I don't know why, but that comment above all really pissed me off. We also made some plans for activities for the kids and meals throughout the week. Their mother, Chris' aunt, sent up lots of food that she had prepared (lasagna, meatballs, brownies, cookies, etc) so we basically have to take care of breakfasts and lunches. Because we were in Maine and then Kingston, we didn't really have a lot of food in the house so we did a big grocery shop.
After that, S and I did some errands, including a stop at Sports Experts to get some new water bottles for my bike, where we had a really strange experience. As I've previously mentioned, the staff at Sports Experts must be paid by commission because they pounce on you as soon as you enter the store. Buying a water bottle is not really a purchase that requires employee assistance, so when the guy asked me if I needed help, I said no. I spent about a minute looking at the selection, checking prices and capacities, when another guy told me (in French) that the bottle I was holding was a "heating bottle". Now, this was extremely perplexing to me because I understood the words that he said, but they didn't make any sense because it was just a regular bottle and what's a heating bottle anyways?. After I looked at him funny for a few seconds, he said it was just a joke because he thought I was having trouble finding what I wanted. I told him, no, I just needed a couple minutes to decide. Then, the two guys start laughing at us, right behind us! I couldn't believe it. Anyways, I got what I needed and got out of there as quickly as possible. Next, we had to stop at Loblaws for a few particular things and as it turns out, it was sample day! S and I got to try salmon, blueberry/orange salad, gum, granola bars and ice cream.
When we got back, I went for my first run in a week. S and CB joined me on the run since it was a 5km, and CB is doing the run portion of our team triathlon at the end of July. I completely underestimated how challenging it would be. I figured, phft it's 5km, no big deal. I didn't take care to eat properly before and I paid for it during the run. I'm going to have to get with it because I'm starting a new running plan in the hopes of increasing my 10km time. It's going to be quite demanding in terms of pace plus there'll be 5 runs per week. I also registered for the Quebec City half-marathon at the end of August, so I have to keep training for that as well.
After a light dinner of toasted tomato sandwiches, we went and saw X-Men: First Class at the base theatre. Aside from the chaos at the concession stand (I gave each kid $5 to spend as they wish), the movie was pretty good. When we got home, Chris decided to put some A535 on his legs because of the soreness caused by crutching around all day. Well, CB and N, who are not the brightest bulbs in the box, decided they wanted to try it too. Despite warnings from both Chris and I, they slathered it all over their bodies, claiming they didn't feel anything. Sure enough, a few minutes later, they started hopping around and squealing about how much it burned. It was so funny!!!

Chris' knee surgery

Just a quick update to let you know that we travelled to Kingston on Tuesday for Chris' knee surgery. The hotel we stayed in was really nice and it had a lap pool on the 4th pool. I had planned to go running twice, go swimming at least once plus go to a hot yoga class, but sadly none of that happened. After we arrived and got settled in, we went to Lonestar, which is a tex-mex restaurant downtown. I love their frozen margaritas and Tuesday was the perfect day to sit on the patio, have a strawberry margarita and eat chips with queso dip. Tuesday night we met up with one of Chris' good friends who lives/goes to school in Kingston and we went out for dinner with him.
Chris' surgery was scheduled for 8am Wednesday morning, which meant we had to be at the hospital for 6am. We got bounced around from waiting room to waiting room until it was finally time for him to go in. I brought a running magazine and my crocheting with me to work on. I was fully anticipating being there all day, so I came prepared. Last time, they called me in around noon and they let him go around 3. This time, however, I got the call before 11 and he was out of the hospital by 12. It was a slow and painful process to get him down the elevator and into the car, but we made it. Our hotel room was on the 9th floor and we parked in the 2nd level of the underground parking garage, so we had about 11 floors to go up in the elevator. Unfortunately, this caused Chris to feel extremely nauseous and I tried to get him into the room as quickly as I could, but we didn't make it in time. I couldn't get the stupid swipe key to work and he ended up puking in the hallway and on the door, so the janitor had to come and clean things up. Chris spent most of the rest of the day in bed so I took the opportunity to take a nap.
Chris' parents decided to come to Kingston for dinner to see how Chris was doing. We also called Chris' friend and we all went out to dinner at a new pasta place downtown. I thoroughly enjoyed my cheese tortellini. However, Chris began to overheat in the restaurant and he started to feel sick, so he went outside and puked in the street. Poor guy. The problem was that he was taking his pain killers on an empty stomach but he wasn't able to keep any food down because of the after-effects of the anesthesia. I got him a chocolate milkshake afterwards and that seemed to help. After Chris' parents went home, we went to see the movie Bridesmaids (a good, minimal-movement-required activity for Chris). It was so funny! I think Chris enjoyed it more than he let on.
Today, after checking out of the hotel, we went to the base hospital in Kingston to have Chris' sick leave paperwork sorted out. We also stopped by The Goat to pick up some coffee for some friends of ours who used to live in Kingston but live in New Brunswick now. After a quick lunch, we headed out for Montreal. Thankfully, Chris' stomach had settled down and we didn't have any problems during the drive, aside from ridiculous amounts of construction. When we arrived, we spent some time with almost all Chris' aunts, uncles and cousins on his mother's side. The only relatives we didn't see today, we will see tomorrow when we pick up Chris' cousins in Lac Brome. It was great to see everyone and they all signed Chris' cast. He is getting lots of attention from his relatives, especially his grandmother, so he's being well taken care of. He said he feels better today than he did the day after the surgery last time, so that's promising.

Triathlon du Saguenay - Race Report :(

On Saturday morning, I participated in the Olympic duathlon of the Triathlon du Saguenay. Notice that I said participated, not completed, because sadly after 5 years of racing, I had my first DNF (did not finish). How did it happen? First, I'll tell you about the race itself and how it ended so disastrously. I wish I could say I crashed or I got a flat tire or something easy like that, but no.
An Olympic duathlon consists of 10km of running, 40km of biking, followed by 5km of running. In previous years, the Triathlon du Saguenay run course has been very difficult, with several steep hills and one really long one. This year, they announced that they changed the course, making it easier, which I was thrilled about and this factored into my decision to try the Olympic distance instead. As I discovered Saturday morning, yes the course was easier but easier is a relative term. There were still a ridiculous number of hills and with the 28 degree heat at 10am, the first 10km were absolutely brutal (1:04:44). I basically counted down the steps until I could get on my bike, while dreading the fact that I still had 5km more to do at the end.
The bike route consisted of 5 laps of a hilly 7.7km loop (for a total of 38.5km). I have done this race twice before, plus practised on this loop several times, and I HATE IT. I don't know what it is about this route, but I absolutely detest it. (As a sidenote, if they don't change the bike course next year, I'm not doing this race again. That's how much I hate this loop.) The first lap out of transition is always the most difficult as your muscles adapt to the change in sport. There was a fair bit of wind on the way out to the turnaround, which made the ride challenging, but on an out-and-back loop like this one, it meant that the wind was with me on the way back. The first 3 laps were okay and there were still lots of other riders on the course, but by the fourth lap, I got the feeling I was one of the last ones left. Which was true. On the 5th lap, one of the race volunteers was creeping along behind me in his pick-up truck, cleaning up the course and picking up pylons. By this point, I had been going for almost two and a half hours and I still had ~5km of biking plus 5km of running to do. Timewise, it was close to noon and the temperature was well over 30 degrees. Up until now, my mind had been telling me to stop but I kept talking myself into continuing, despite being completely embarrassed that I was in dead last by a huge margin while they were cleaning up behind me. However, a couple kms into my 5th lap, everything started to fail. You name it, it hurt. My calves started cramping, my hip flexors were shot, my hamstrings were exhausted, my back seized up which sent shooting pains into my right knee and I started having difficulty breathing. At that point, I decided it was in my best interest not to continue. So I signalled to the guy in the pick-up truck, he stopped, put my bike in the back and he drove me back to the T-zone. I was so humiliated - I didn't know how I was going to face Chris and the other people who came to watch my race. I also had to give back my timing chip and explain that I couldn't finish. At that point, I think the emotional pain was worse than the physical, which is really saying something.
So what went wrong? Here are the factors I think contributed to this disaster:
- first, I have never attempted an Olympic distance race before (up until now, I have only done sprint distance races) and while I can easily do each running/biking leg separately, I have never done them back-to-back-to-back; I also anticipated finishing in ~3 hours, which would have been my longest race ever
- second, I have done the bike-run transition a million times, but I never practised the run-bike transition (I was working on the assumption that my strength in biking would carry me through - wrong!)
- third, it was freaking hot and there was hardly any shade on the course, so I'm going to work on running/biking in the heat to build up my endurance
- fourth, it was my 4th race in 4 weeks, with only 6 days to recover from the Staircase Challenge, so I think I was perhaps a bit burnt-out and not in peak form

After a couple days of beating myself up, I have accepted my DNF and I'm going to try to take what I learned from this experience and apply it to my future training. Even the best athletes have DNFs on their record. Looking back, I probably should have taken the safe route and tried the sprint duathlon instead, but Chris is proud of me for challenging myself and taking a chance on this race.

Maine

Our stay in Maine was short, but pretty good. The weather was beautiful for the most part, so we spent a lot of time lounging on the beach (and eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream). Monday evening, I went for a 10km run in the direction of Cape Porpoise. It was one of my fastest runs at 58:41 over a fairly hilly terrain and in some serious heat. I was fully expecting to be unable to walk on Monday, after the Staircase Challenge the day before, but I was fine. However, Tuesday was another story. I woke up and could barely get out of bed because my hip flexors were completely shot. I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday limping around and moving very slowly. Standing up and sitting down were huge efforts and the only way I could cross my legs was to actually lift my leg up and put it in position. I had been planning on joining the local bike club for a ride Tuesday night, but that was out of the question. Instead, I went on a leisurely ride into Cape Porpoise to get food for dinner with Chris' parents for about 15km total. Wednesday, I was still too sore to be productive, but by Thursday morning, things were better and I went on a ~38km ride. All in all, it was a good trip but as always, too short.