Florida Rev 3 Half Ironman

Yesterday I raced the Rev 3 Florida Half Ironman, my first long distance race for this year. My race season didn't exactly go as planned but I was happy to squeeze in the last North American Half Ironman of the year. Following my foot surgery at the end of March (for removal of a large neuroma and repair of a torn plantar plate ligament), I had a few months of rehab, and then in an over ambitious attempt to get back to racing, I strained my hamstring at the Boulder Peak 5150 in July. To make a long story short, I had another couple of months of rehabbing my hamstring, and finally got going again with my run training in late September. Phew, just in time before the 2014 race season came to an end!

The Rev 3 Florida Half Ironman was an age group race with a prize purse for the top 5 men and women overall. The swim was one of the roughest swim conditions that I've ever swum in. It was a point to point swim against a strong current, and the general consensus from talking to athletes after the race was that swim times were about 4-5min slower than normal. I came out of the water in 29 minutes, slow for me but about 3 minutes ahead of the next female. It had been raining through the night and early morning, but thankfully the rain stopped halfway through the bike, which made cornering on the "etch a sketch" bike course much easier than the first half of the ride. I entered T2 with a 5 and a half minute lead on the second place female, and then head out on the 2 loop 1/2 marathon run course. Although fading on the second half with limited run mileage in my legs leading up to the race, I extended my lead by the end to finish 7 minutes ahead of second place and 12 minutes ahead of third.

So now it's time for a little bit of an off season break before I start gearing up for next year. What started with a question mark racing season after my surgery in March finished on a good note, and I'm happy that I could squeeze in this late season race. Now it's time for a vacation day in Florida before heading back to San Diego tomorrow. Onwards and upwards!

How Do Skratch Labs and Osmo Stack Up Against EFS?

Recently, First Endurance was called to stack up its own EFS electrolyte hydration mix against the low calorie offerings from Skratch Labs and Osmo. What came from it was very interesting: by cutting the serving in half, you can get more electrolyes from EFS, with less sugar and more amino acids than either Skratch or Osmo.

Check out the data below. Pretty impressive!

http://firstendurance.com/2014/08/11/efs-vs-skratch-labs-vs-osmo-an-electrolyte-hydration-drink-comparison/

Boulder Peak 5150

Last Sunday was my return to racing for the 2014 season with the Boulder Peak 5150 (5150 race series meaning the total miles in an Olympic distance triathlon). It was a bit of a last minute decision to enter the race as I had been rehabbing since late March from my foot surgery (neurmoma removal and plantar plate ligament repair). My training had been going well since I came to Boulder the end of May, and a local race seemed like a good chance to get back in the race of things.

After focusing on 70.3 and Ironman racing for the last 6 years, I went into this race thinking it would be a walk in the park, but I was quickly proven wrong! I realized about 200m into the swim that a 1500m all out swim is a whole other world of hurt compared to a 4km Ironman swim. And a 40km bike timetrial followed by a fast 10km run? I would have to say that most days I would pick the 180km bike and 42km run of an Ironman!

Anyway, back to the race. Despite having to wear running shoes for both transitions (running barefoot is still yet to be checked off the rehab list), I was happy to finish 10th in the pro women. With the 10km run being my longest in 10months, I'm sure it didn't look pretty, and I'll likely be recovering for another couple of days yet!;) As happy as I was to finish top 10, I was even happier to be back racing again, and to have a happy right foot for the first time in almost a year. So it's back to training now and back to planning the rest of my season. Onwards and upwards!:)

Off On The Right Foot

This is my first blog in a couple of months, and as I write this, I’m on my way to Boulder to train for the summer, but first I should back track to where I left off in March.…

I had been struggling since last August with pain on the ball of my right foot, and after an inconclusive MRI in November, 5 weeks off running in December, and  months of  therapy, I finally decided in March to get a second opinion and a second MRI which would show a more localized area of my foot. To make a long story short, the MRI showed a large neuroma between my second and third toes, and a partial tear in the plantar plate ligament at the base of my second toe. A week later, Dr Carriero removed the neuroma and repaired the plantar plate ligament. 10 days in a walking boot, 4 weeks off biking, 9 weeks off running and a record number of swim practices later, and I’m back on the road to starting my 2014 racing season. A little bump in the road, but thankfully, not too big a setback.:)

A BIG thank you to Dr Carriero at Core Orthopaedic in Encinitas for diagnosing my foot injury, and giving me a happy foot once again. Also, a BIG thank you to Pam Cloud, my PT for putting me through endless lunges, jumping and bounding drills of every kind – I’m ready for the circus now if this triathlon thing doesn’t pan out.

Onwards and upwards to a great summer ahead!

Boulder bound and looking for luck.

March Running Tunes!

Here are my four latest downloads to my running iPod. Enjoy!

 

2014 Sponsors and Groundhog Predictions

For 2014, I'm happy to announce that I've returned to Cervelo as my bike sponsor. Growing up in Canada, I had close ties to this leading edge bike company early in my triathlon career, and was sponsored by them from 2008 through 2010. I'm very excited to be back with Cervelo for 2014, and grateful to continue my sponsorship with some of the best companies in the sport who have supported me over the last few years : TYR, First Endurance, FuelBelt, Cobb Saddles, Zipp, SRAM, and Saucony. I'm also excited to be wearing D2 Shoes.

I love this time of year because it's the time to put in base miles on the bike and run, and there's nothing I like better than going out for a long ride or run. Living in Southern California, it's sometimes easy to forget that it's winter when it's 70 degrees and sunny in February, but as Mr Groundhog reminded us today, there's actually six more weeks to winter. Not good news in other parts of the country I'm sure, but a happy reminder that there's still time to get out and enjoy those long days on the bike, building up a solid base before race season starts. As one of my favorite poems reminds me,

"The heights by great men reached and kept
 Were not attained by sudden flight
 But they while their companions slept
 Were toiling upward in the night" -Longfellow

Onwards and upwards!

HAPPY 2014!

Out with the old, in with the new! Best wishes for a great start to 2014, and a year filled with good health, happiness and success!