Flagstaff > Nanaimo > Rotterdam

Where in the world am I? This last month has been a whirlwind of experiences and I wouldn't change it for the world. Last I checked in I was midway through my Altitude Stint in Flagstaff Arizona. Normally I am there alone (since my coach hasn't been able to join me for the last 2 years) so it was a nice change to be there at the same time as fellow Canadian Lanni Marchant (everyone knows who she is). Thankfully I had her there for the first 3 weeks of my trip, with the last week being solo.

It was quite the change to go from always running solo back home to having a daily run buddy but it was such a good change that it was then weird to go back to solo. Amy Van Alstine was very kind in offering me to join in with NAZ elite; however, none of our easy days seemed to match up. While in Flagstaff I was able to catch the Bagel Run each of the 4 weeks which was always fun. If you catch yourself in town on Thursday mornings, head to Biff's Bagels downtown at 8am.



Shortly after my last blog I had my longest/hardest workout of the marathon build. I arrived back to the house after with many text messages from my sister trying to get ahold of me. Apparently my Grandma (last remaining Grandparent) was failing and she wanted me to know in case I wanted to call. In the 2.5 hours I was gone, it went from Grandma having a few hours left to receiving an email from my Aunt that she had passed peacefully about an hour before I got back. Poor Lanni walked into my room to ask about my workout and I think it went like "how did your workout g......." as she saw I was in tears. Ultimately it was a good thing as my Grandma suffered for years with Dementia and simply was not the same woman anymore. She passed exactly 1 week before her 89th birthday. Rest in Peace Grandma.

 

Old Picture but this is how I remember her



The rest of my time was spent with too much time on social media where #RyanSnaps was trying to convince me to run the Barkley Marathons. Umm yeah no, especially not after watching that on Netflix. I do not care if I could be the first Canadian to finish it or even the first woman to finish it.

Day hike to Devil's Bridge in Sedona



I also caught up with the Team Run Eugene BBQ for a quick night out. Even though I think I only met a couple of the actual team members, thanks for having runners out.

Sadly though my time in Flag came to an end and I had to pack up and leave on March 30th. I know I have said it before but the running community in Flag is simply AMAZING. Even though I always know I am coming back, I am always sad to leave. Not to mention I simply suck at goodbyes. I'd prefer to sneak out of town then actually say goodbye or even see you later. I say goodbye and there's a HUGE chance of tears. Yep, I'm a suck. Some good people in Flag that's for sure. I'll be back.

Dinner at Diablo on the last night

The last 2 days in Flag were actually filled with tons of wind and some snow. Those runs were freaking cold. My hands took the brunt of it, even with gloves. The day before I left, I ran with Canadian (and Vancouverite) Natasha Wodak as she had just arrived to town. Natasha and I go WAAAAAAY back. My claim to fame is that I did used to beat her. Sure we were like 12 or 13 but still it happened. ;) We tried to take some pictures and my fingers were way too frozen to even press the button on the remote so I had to pass that job over to Natasha. I ended up with pictures of the sky, and my stomach etc. Apparently she went "button happy" and pressed it at random times. Haha. But we did end up with some good ones.

Good Pics with Tasha

 

Last Day, Last Run



March 30th I flew out from Flag to Phoenix and were on the same flight as Steph and Ben Bruce (plus their adorable kids) as they were heading over to Stanford where Steph CRUSHED the US Olympic Trials Standard and snuck in under Olympic Standard only 6 months after having her 2nd baby! HUGE congrats Steph. We talked in the airport about hopefully getting it out of the way so you didn't have to do too many track 10k's. Glad it actually happened. Also got to finally meet the famous Oiselle star Sarah Robinson and her daughter PJ.

Aug 2012 - March 2016 = 5 trips to Flag



I flew Flag > Phoenix > Seattle > Vancouver. The lovely Catherine Watkins picked me up at the airport at 8pm and I spent the night at her place because the 9pm ferry to the island was impossible to make and I really did not want to take the 10:45pm ferry which would have gotten me home at 1am. #islandlifeproblems

I totally travel is style aka Capri tights and compression socks



The next morning I hit up an 8x1k workout at the UBC track and while it felt great to be at sea level and have oxygen, the legs were definitely feeling the travel. From there, it was a quick shower and then off to the 12:30pm ferry home. Very thankful to my friend Jason who was able to pick me up at the ferry and take me home and also thankful to my chiro Dr. Abe Avender who was able to move my appointment from 3pm to 5:15pm as there was no way I was going to be able to make that 3pm time slot!

Sea level!



The day I got home was busy. So much so I was barely home. I walked in the door, found my delivered shoes from Asics, went through my mail oh and of course said hi to my cats even if they were apparently snubbing me for leaving them for a month. I had a proper shower and then was off to my chiro appointment and then to give a quick talk to the Running Room half and full marathon clinic. After the talk I did their 3.5k warm up and then hung around while they did their own workout of km repeats. Some food and then a few groceries on the way home meant I really didn't get home until after 9pm.

I was then home Friday, Saturday and Sunday (filled with errands, running and chiro) and oh right, finding out that I was being laid off from my job as of September 30th once again. April 1st, 2014 my entire work was fired and we were able to re-apply for our own jobs as a reduced rate with reduced benefits and loss of seniority etc. I was hired back and then bam, April 1st, 2016 it happens again. This time they are selling the building and contracting out the workers, so even if I wanted my job back, I'd have to re-apply with another company and have my wages and benefits reduced even more. 8 years there this August, so it's slightly disappointing; however, I am trying not to worry about it until after the race. My Grandma, the layoff and other major stuff going on in my life, this is NOT the time for it. Ugh.

Unpack the bottom 2 and repack the top 1





Anyways I was able to also catch up on Dragons Den and see my sponsor Stoked Oats get a deal! Not surprising as it's a yummy product! Then Sunday night I found myself finally unpacking from Flag and repacking for Rotterdam. I left Nanaimo again at 8:10am on Monday morning (Thanks for the ride to the airport Mom).

Stoked Oats Getting the Deal

 

Ready to Leave Vancouver

 

 



This time travel took me Nanaimo > Vancouver > Toronto > Amsterdam. Travel was pretty uneventful. The nice Air Canada attendant in Nanaimo was able to get me an exit row seat from Toronto to Amsterdam (Glad I never paid the $100 upgrade the night before when checking in). I was hoping to sleep from the Toronto to Amsterdam flight as I left Toronto just before 9pm Eastern but I think maybe I slept only 2-3 hours of broken sleep.



The lovely Air Canada flight attendant was great and she did her best to get me comfortable with bringing me 2 extra AC blankets and then a nice AC duvet but who the heck can sleep sitting up on airplanes. It wreaked havoc on my back after too long. It was great to have the legroom but I would have preferred an empty seat next to me like a few people had a the back of the plane. Oh well, I survived and landed in Amsterdam shortly after 9:30am local time Tuesday. We then had to wait 10-15 minutes for our gate to open and then the slowest customs process ever (clearly chose the wrong lane).

From there I eventually met up with fellow Canadian Leslie Sexton who had landed not long before me from her flights. We were able to figure out how to catch the train to Rotterdam only with a minor error (apparently we sat in First Class instead of regular). How dare we sit in red seats vs blue. We got to our initial hotel shortly after noon and had an hour to kill before we were able to check in so we grabbed some lunch (thankful for English menus). We did a bit of walking around before our eventual run later that afternoon and boy did that feel awful. Plus we got a little lost trying to find a local park which we both found the following day.

Rotterdam



My goal was to stay up until bed time which I managed until 10pm and then I crashed (on and off as usual) until 8am when the noise outside the hotel kept waking me up. Wednesday we grabbed our Athlete passes so we could have our food covered and just laid low other than our final workouts at Kralingse Bos. I apparently picked the wrong time of day to go do it, has for my actual workout I was hit with a downpour and crazy winds. The workout went well considering.

Post last workout

Thursday after we changed hotels and checked into the race hotel (Hilton) and celebrated how we finally had a proper flushing toilet, an actual good shower, facecloths and internet that didn't cut out (can you see our first hotel was low budget?) we did some touring around and checked out the Erasmusbrug Bridge and Euromast which gave spectacular views of Rotterdam. You go 100m up where you can then take the Euroscoop to the top which is 185m.

Easy Run

 

Erasmusbrug Bridge

 

Euromast

Friday all we did was check out the race expo and eat carbs, lots of carbs. The race expo took probably 10 minutes to walk to and from and I think we spent about 10 minutes (if that) in the actual expo.

Leslie and I



That brings us to now, Saturday at 10:30am where we have eaten breakfast and are now chilling before we head out on our final short shakeout run. The rest of the day will be spent lying around and resting up (other than meals and the Tech Meeting today at 5pm). In 24 hours I will be 30 minutes into the race (eek).

Goals? Some people know and I'll leave it at that. There are times being posted on social media and I will NOT confirm those times as my goal. Enough said. Alright, time to chill and try to keep the nerves in check.

 

 Think these will work for the race?

 

 

SnapChat, Netflix and 7000ft

Here we are the middle of March already. This past Sunday marked 4 weeks until Rotterdam and made me think where did time go. Good news is that I feel fitter and healthier than I did in September prior to when I ran the Victoria Marathon. Definitely a good sign of things to come. 

The middle of March also marks the halfway marker of my latest altitude training stint in Flagstaff, Arizona. Anyone who knows me probably has realized I tend to disappear off to Arizona prior to my main goal races so to most it was expected. This is my 5th time here since my initial trip back in August 2012. Each time I fall more and more in love with Flagstaff. It's so nice to pass other runners out on every single run and this is the time of year when everyone arrives in flocks. With spring marathons coming up and outdoor track season about to begin, Flag is the place to be. 

The difference this time is that the timing of my trip corresponded well with when Lanni Marchant is in town and since we stay at the same house, that has meant many many runs together. Coming from training pretty much 100% solo back home, it's been a nice change to have someone there. While our workouts don't match up (obviously due to different goals), we coordinate as much as possible for everything else. Whether it be simply be like today where I do a warm up with Lanni and then when she does her workout, I continue on my easy run or vise versa. I will say, that one of us tends to dress much warmer than the other (hint: not me). I actually find it quite amusing, though I give her a bit of an excuse with her having just come from Kenya.

Training stints tend to be pretty relaxed. A lot of time is spent on the feet running but is counteracted with a lot of time lying around. Netfllix and SnapChat seem to keep us entertained (when Lanni isn't working on a case). Call us weird, but yes we have been known to send SnapChat's or texts to each other, even though we are in rooms to each other. Thanks to SnapChat for updating the filters daily. 

Aside from SnapChat, training has been going well. One of my coaches favourite workouts to do up here is 10 x 3 minutes (with 90 seconds jog) at around 10k effort. I am sure I have done this workout each time I have been up here and while time has obviously been progressing to faster results each attempt (due to obvious improvements fitness wise), I finally rocked the sh!t out of the workout this past Wednesday. 

By that, I meant I kept the splits fairly consistent, the fastest I have run the workout and also didn't feel like I was dying or having my heart explode through my chest. I have one big workout left this weekend and it is a repeat of one I did last September that had me e-mailing my coach and telling him that I hated him. It's a brutal workout and I am somewhat dreading it, but I hope I can rock the sh!t out of that one too (stay tuned). 

Position after my almost 22 miler last weekend on Walnut Canyon Rd

 

The only downside of Flagstaff in the spring is the wind. It's hit or miss. Sometimes if you put up with the cooler temps of the morning, you can get out and avoid the wind. In the later morning the wind picks up and can get quite gusty. Many a times Lanni and I have told the wind where to go. Still, the crappy wind aside, I am loving the sunshine (other than the minor attempt to snow one day) and am glad I missed the wet coast storms that blew through home the last few weeks. 

Just over 3 weeks till Rotterdam....... oy vey! I've included a few more photos below. 

Round and Round I go

Cool mornings but once the sun comes up it warms up fast

First Fartlek Workout

 

Dinner Time (yes that's Cards Against Humanity- stupid Ghost Hand)

I don't want to preach and annoy people, but reminder for those interested in purchasing Sundog Sunglasses, discount is good until March 31st, 2016

Anyone Remember February?

Life, no scratch that, procrastination has gotten in the way of updating my blog, so here goes! Let's go back to February and begin the catch up there. 

For the last 11 years, the Nanaimo Sport and Achievement Awards are held annually in February. Each year the committee goes through nominations and chooses 3 finalists for each category and for the past 4 years I have been chosen as a finalist for the Individual Female Athlete of the Year. I took home the award the first year I was nominated and I was honored to again be selected as the winner for 2015. 

The awards were held at the Coast Bastion Hotel on February 12th and it gave me an excuse to get dressed up (thanks Sis for the dress). As usual it was a yummy roast beef dinner and I was able to enjoy the night sitting with members of the local Nanaimo Track and Field Club. Thank you to those who took the time to fill out the nomination form. 

Local athlete and friend Byron Trajan and myself with our awards.

  

The following morning, I headed over to Vancouver to compete in the Pacific Road Runners Vancouver First Half Half Marathon. Training since Houston had actually been rough. After the race I spent a week cross training. It's always hard after good races to stop and take a step back, but it was what both coach Matt and I felt was necessary in order to get me to my end goal (the marathon in April). Not to mention leading into Houston my SI/lower back area was acting up and I was nearly begging for some cross training. It's not often I am the one that says "after Houston I think I might need a week of cross training." After a few injuries I would like to think that I am getting smarter about listening to my body (currently knocking on wood).

I also started back up with strength at Island Optimal Performance Center. Initially it felt really good and then my easy runs started to slow down.  Re-introducing strength to my routine just took all the "pep" out of my legs. Workouts were less than ideal and I struggled to hit paces that were easy a month before that. I've been through this before though. Each time I start back with strength I find it takes me a few weeks for my body to adapt. 

 Getting it done anyway.

I headed over to Vancouver early so that I could spend the day with my nieces (and sister and bro in law I guess). It had been awhile since I had seen them and wow are they ever growing fast! It's fun to see how much they gave grown and what new skills and words they have acquired each time I see them. 

The next morning I was up early to have some breakfast and then off to the race site. The weather was less than ideal. Typical Vancouver weather. I had hoped that it had rained itself out the day before but apparently not. I arrived downtown to the race pretty early and met up with my fellow friends in the elite room. We headed off for our warm up as a group and found that the temperatures weren't that bad. It wasn't raining too bad at the time, so when we got back to the elite room many of us decided we could do buns/shorts and crop tops. Boy was that silly. When we headed out to the start line, the rain started to come down harder and there was wind. Still, we all hoped we would warm up as the race went on. 

Headed to the start!

We'll warm up right?

That didn't really happen. The race started off and we all had a good laugh as the "gun" was delayed. The count down went, we started and were a few meters off the line when the gun went. Right away we were dodging puddles. It didn't take long for the shoes to be soaked. Dayna took off like expected as she was going after a spot on the World Half Marathon Team (sub 73') whereas I hung back and stayed with Krista. Since Krista and I had been fairly close in Houston until I ran into gut rot basically, I figured she would be good to key off of. 

First few km (pc: Frank Stebner)

(pc: Dave Burroughs)

Krista created a gap a few times over the first few km but I always came back. We hit the seawall and were pretty much side by side. It was windy on the seawall and to be honest I am not an ass. I can't sit on someone and draft off them unless I put in some work too. Each time I tried to pull ahead, I wasn't able to, so I would stay side by side. 

Side by side on the seawall (pc: Mark Bates)

After 10km, there was a bit of a gap, but I would pull even again and then another gap was created. As we hit the other side of the seawall there was more wind. There was probably a 20m gap at one point, but by the lagoon (in the last 5km) I again caught up to Krista and another guy. I tried my best to hold on but another gap was created and Krista pulled away and the guy fell off pace. Up the final hill there were some good cheers but my legs were frozen. I tried to push the final downhill but actually felt my legs nearly give out at one point. I did get to see some nice surprise cheers from my sister, bro in law and nieces just before the final turn though! 

Before the Lagoon

 

I rounded the final corner to see the clock already ticking over 1:16 and thought "wow what the heck".  While I had heard "38:xx" at half way, I remember thinking late in the race, "38? really, that means 1:16" but I actually felt like the pace had picked up so I was hoping for at least 1:15:xx. 

Headed around the final corner (pc: Frank Stebner)

Headed to the finish (pc: Rita Ivanauskas

 

While it wasn't the time or race I had been hoping for thanks to some "wonderful" weather, I was able to hold on and finish 3rd behind Dayna and Krista. It took all of minutes for all of us to become absolutely freezing due to being soaked. As usual though, the race organizers did a wonderful job and I highly recommend the race. 

Post race soaked muddy bums (was that a road race or XC?)

 Other side of the photo (pc: Rita Ivanauskas)

 Reflecting on our results....

Results found here. 

In other news, anyone need sunglasses? I am sporting my Sundog Sunglasses 95% of the time (unless it's dark or raining). My awesome sponsor is offering a good deal to all of you. 25% off and they will also kick back 15% towards my upcoming Rotterdam Marathon costs.