Training Log Archive: nicki

A short run is always better than no run. Cruisey early morning jog through the dark neighbourhood to wake up the legs.

A bit of an afternoon gym workout, seems I slept in this morning!

This was supposed to be a 32km long run but apparently that is a little too optimistic the day after an AR and a very late night. Felt sleepy, dizzy, cold and just plain crappy right from the start. Went up over Nose Hill and the arctic wind was blowing right through the hollow parts of my bones. Thought about turning around a couple of times but forced myself to continue. Got down to the university and did a Forest Gump stop-run. Then realised I was a long way from home. And it was cold.

That's how long it took to drag my sorry ass home.

I think I'm going to go back to bed and sleep this one off.
Decided not to take it personally.

C • Crazy 1

Sometimes timing is everything and you get it all wrong. The two best hours of my day were spent sleeping after my failed attempt at a long run. Then I woke up in the middle of the afternoon to discover that the wind had dropped to nothing, and it was absolutely GORGEOUS. One of those days that you just HAVE to be outside. The fall colours suddenly look amazing and there is that hint of 'winter-coming' in the air, which isn't all bad. There is something to be said for the distinct impression that the season is about to change.

What a day!

I raced with 17-year old, Esther, who is a complete rookie and an incredible trooper. I promised her a fairly easy race for her 1st but it was LONG and tough.

OP 1-4 It started with a lemans-of-sorts score-O in the woods near the ski hill. It was mass chaos and we were definitely stuck in the traffic of middle pack.

Start - CP1 Food bank challenge - carry you max. 60 lbs of food donation to the Edmonton Food Bank across the river valley to the north side of the city. To make things a bit easier for Esther, I carried 44 lbs (!!!!!) of flour on my 2 handle bars. It made for very precarious balancing and careful cycling. No sudden movements or sharp turns. Or any kind of turn. And you should have seen me try to start on the hill at the lights. Esther had the remainng 16lbs in her pack for the full 60 minute time credit.

CP1-CP2 - Bike to Terwillegar Park. No dramas on this fairly lengthy bike section, especially now we were flying with 60 lbs less weight.

CP2-CP3 - Paddle to Grout Bridge. Beautiful. Peaceful. A bit head-windy in spots but the river valley was ablaze with fall colors. We were a bit slow on this section and we exited the water in 10th with 11th and 12th right with us.

CP3-CP4 - Trek/Run 15km back to Terwillegar Park via 12 orienteering controls. The semi-technical orienteering aspect gave us a HUGE advantage and even though Esther had never run more than 6 km in her life, we rocked through this section in about 2 hours and got back to CP4 in 5th spot. Made a killer route choice through the neighborhoods which resulted in us short-cutting through the unfenced backyard of some mansion. Very funny....and very effective.

CP4-CP5 - Bike to Argyle Velodrome. We again took a very efficient route back across town and passed 4th placed team and gained ground on 3rd. Goal was the beat the rain storm that was blowing in with the wind warning!

CP5-finish - Mtb-O section which proved VERY exciting. Caught 3rd place team at the first control, saw them again at the 2nd control, they pulled away into the 3rd control but we made a instantaneous decision to back track on the single-track, climb the hill up to the neighborhood and beeline for the final control on the roads. We overtook the 3rd placed team by about 10 seconds but arrived at the final control together. It was just 200 m to the finish from there. They had their bikes with them at the control and we left ours UPHILL on the road and had to sprint with all our life back to them. They were ahead and gunning for the finish but we were higher up on the ski hill and had gravity on our side to give us that little bit extra momentum to sprint to the finish. Overtook them in the final few meters and took the podium spot by about 3 seconds!! The most exciting and rewarding finish to an AR ever.

But most importantly, what an experience for Esther. 3rd overall, beating some very experienced teams and most of the guys, plus 1st all girl team. Sweet.
Plenty of swag at the end, big smiles, and definitely a new convert to the sport.
Mike, Wayne and co. pulled off yet another amazing RtR.

C • Way to go! 3

Fast. Pleasurable. Hilly. GORGEOUS crisp early morning in Calgary.

Long day.
My commute was the only sane part of the day.

An early morning "Kenyan run" as Pither calls it. Good tempo effort to wake me up on this beautiful day. Watched the horizon turn bright pink. Quick shower and then will get the sun rise as I ride to work.

It seems good timing that I will be teaching a lesson on climate change today to my grade nines: 5:45 am on September 23 (SEPTEMBER!!!!!) in Calgary and I was HOT as soon as I walked out the door in shorts and sleeveless shirt. It must be already 18 degrees.....on it's way to a record breaking 31 or something today. What I pity I have to work.

What a day to be out riding. More cyclists than cars to compete with today. 33 degrees.....if only it would last.

A quick visit to the gym to start my 'rest day'.

Yes, yes, YES....what a race! Apparently, only occasional training is working out really well for me at the moment. I had the BEST half marathon ever today. It wasn't a PB, but translated to a flat, paved course, it definitely would have been. It was about 80% loose trail with 2 big climbs, so I am pretty happy with the time. Mostly, I held around 4:15/km with the first AND the last km under 4 min/km. My pace dropped to around 7 min/km each time I hit the big hill and the hill was just over 1 km in length (x2) but I kept running. I can't believe how much I still had in the tank at the end. I felt great the entire race, and was always in control of my pace. Definitely a new experience for me.

Let's hope that my A-race is still to come though....in 3 weeks time!

1st in my age group, 2nd female overall. .

C • Good race! How is it to be ... 2

Course planning and setting down on the Sandy McNabb map for Run the Wild. It's going to stellar. Let's just hope the weather holds.

I actually had a spare 20 minutes this morning and couldn't resist the incredible warm morning air and sun rising yet again. Jogged over to soccer fields and did 3 x sprints of approx 250m.

50.34
51.72
48.51

C • I am getting quite excited ... 1

C • CBC 1

Today was just one of those incredibly lucky days. It just happened to be 30 degrees and gorgeous in the middle of September on the exact day that I had a meeting in Airdrie from 9.30-11am on the exact day that my grades nines were on a field trip from 10.30 am until 2.45 pm. I had to order a sub for the morning, who inadvertently ended up having to stay on the field trip until the afternoon which means I had from 11.00 am until 2.45 pm to get to school from my meeting. So I rode my sweet new road bike.

Here's how my day went:
Put on sleeveless shirt at 8.00 am (in September) because it was already hot, ride north from my house and quickly exit the city and enter wide sweeping fields of brilliant yellow and orange against very clear blue sky. Ride and ride and ride at full speed with big smile on my face all the way to Airdrie. Get free breakfast at Ricky's and sit through easy meeting, then get back on bike and ride back to Calgary and all the way south to work. Enjoy hammering along the river bike path with the downtown lunch crowd who are also relishing the sunshine. Arrive at work at 1.30 pm. Try to make myself not smell after riding for nearly 3 hours already. Teach Pure Math 10 to 3 students for exactly 40 minutes then get on bike and ride home, fire up BBQ and enjoy beer with friends on back patio.

I hope it stays like this until Christmas. Imagine!

C • Sounds nice 1

There is NOTHING better than riding to work in the early hours of the morning and watching the sky turn from black to pink to orange, and then the gigantic ball of sunshine rise between the buildings of downtown Calgary and splay gorgeous light across the entire city. It's going to be a stellar day.

C • Cowtown 2

A LONG day at work means I didn't get away until 5:45 but I got to enjoy less traffic and a GORGEOUS late afternoon ride home across the city.

Back in the gym. Feels like the old days.
That'll be the last time I'm indoors for the rest of this week though.....+29 on Wednesday??? I don't know what's going on with the weather but I'm NOT complaining.

I'm just glad that in amongst my bad training days or lack-there-of training days, I have days like this that remind me that maybe, just maybe, the Chicago marathon will be OK.

From 5km-22km I picked up the pace and held around 4:45. Last 2km was at 4:30s.

Big run, hot day, lots of climb, mondo loop of NW Calgary
I even got to join in with the Terry Fox runners for a few kilometers.

C • What a great route! 1

I'd like to say that the reason why i haven't run all week (despite the fact that my marathon is only 4 weeks away) was because I was tapering for the 5-peaks race. But actually, I was just over-tired, over-worked, under-slept, and over-stressed from the shock to my system that comes with going back to a full-time job.

So, as it turns out, I was well-tapered for today's killer 5-peaks run. I felt good the entire way, only had to walk up one VERY steep hill during which time I actually kept up with the heroes who were running it, danced across the knarley single-track (of which there was TONNES), and screamed down the super technical, narrow and steep descents with a BIG smile on my face. One of them was bordering on harrowing, actually.

And still had something in the tank at the end to put the hammer down and pass two girls in the final 1km to get on the podium in my category and 5th girl overall. Pretty happy. Pace seems slow but it was either very up or very down so probably an OK time in the end.

What a magical day to be out in the mountains.

A nice speedy ride today. Felt like powering both on the way to school and the way home. Might have something to do with blowing off steam from work.
Then I realized I forgot my house keys at work. So had to ride to my sister-in-laws to get spare set. Sigh!

C • Keys 1

Up Sulphur Mountain and back.

Gong!!!

Out and back from the Nordic Centre along Banff Trail with J.

Sweet early morning run. That's two 4.30 am starts for me this week. Love running in the morning. Love watching the sunrise. Love feeling bouncy and energetic before heading into work. One more day of teaching and then the LONG WEEKEND!!

A clean race, but definitely lacking leg speed. I think I came 2nd so that's good.

I was definitely glad to be riding north on my way home from work today. With wind gusts of 65 km/hr directly at my back, I hardly had to pedal. Very fun.....except for having to dodge flying objects from time to time. At one point, I was racing a rubbermaid container UP the 10th street hill.

It was like an early reward for all the times I'm going to be riding home into a driving arctic blizzard this winter.

Urgh.....

Walking home from very unsuccessful run, legs dragging, head dropped, very forlorn. Felt dizzy and completely empty. Might have something to do with a very stressful first week back to teaching after 14 months of vacation.

Mt Yam. grade 9 hike
Hard to know how much time to log as it was about the slowest hike up Mt Yamnuska ever. I think I exerted more energy trying to cajole kids up the mountain. And then more energy again from the stress of being responsible for that many teenagers scrambling up the scree to the high point (not the summit as I TOTALLY vetoed that). A long day that I wish not to repeat.

What a strange morning! I was up at 4.30 am in order to welcome a CBC radio journalist into my home at 5.00 am so that she could interview me for a series about "extreme commuting". Apparently riding my bike through the dead of winter and running 18 km to work with a backpack is considered 'extreme'. I'd like to differ, but anyway....

Had a stellar run, easy and slow, but exceptionally enjoyable as the air was warm and the sun was rising. I love watching the city wake up. I spent 30 minutes trying to justify my 'insanity' to this lovely lady (and the rest of the listeners) and then spent the next 1.5 hrs running along saying to myself, "See.......this what I mean.......this is why it is worth it.....I'm not a nutcase".

Not a training run, but definitely a good way to start the day.