Shine on Susie, you crazy diamond
Susanna Lantz, a friend I haven't see for a few years, was skiing on the 18th of February in Chickadee Valley (Kootenay Park, B.C.) and was killed by an avalanche. I always expected to run into Susie again and maybe hear a small portion of her crazy adventures. Sadly, that will never happen. A website has been created dedicated to her life:
http://www.susannalantz.com/She was a unique, inspiring person, who lived life beyond what many of us can imagine. Do you have the guts to ride a bike from Calgary to the tip of South America?!? She did. Outstanding.
Sadly, I am unable to attend her funeral... the 4 hours to Banff... then back from Edmonton, would be too much. Somehow I don't think it would be in the spirit of her life to burn that much fuel to attend. Biking to Banff would be more appropriate! Shine on Susie.. you'll be missed by many.
Another great relay race has ended....
Theatre Calgary has ended their long standing Banff-Calgary relay race, citing concerns about the safety of the race on the Trans-Canada highway between Banff and Calgary. To replace this big fund raiser, they have created a 5km/10km/21.2km run and are partnered with the evil empire (the Running Room.) to put it on. What a shame. Despite the heavy traffic on the Trans-Canada.. this race was great. The post race party at the end was always a good time as well. On the plus side, our team last year will go down in history as the final winners! WOO!
I'm sure they'll get some entrants, but who wouldn't rather do the superior and well established Mother's Day race the next weekend instead?
Edit: Just Say No to the Running Room. Support your independent shoe retailer. Or if they can't get what you need then mail order from
Holabird Sports.
Run like an animal
Tips for cycling safe
Some dude posted these to Slowtwitch. I practice all of them.... do you? Oh wait.. most of us are stuck on our trainers until April. I had to learn (1) the hard way...
1. never ride within the 'door' range. I'll never be doored, ever. If it pisses off drivers behind me, oh well...
2. If someone passes you and is approaching a right turn, expect them to turn right in front of you, and plan accordingly (i.e., turn right with them). This is the most common cycling accident, so avoid it!
3. Shoulder riding: if there's a big shoulder, ride in it, to the right. If there's a very small shoulder littered with sewer grates, don't ride in it-ride to the left of the white line
4. If an oncoming driver is making a left in front of you, expect them to turn directly in front of you, and plan your escape route accordingly.
5. Always look through the car windows and see what someone is doing (putting on make-up, texting, etc.) Chances are, if you're riding in traffic, you'll see that car again. Be extra careful.
Woo, I wasn't kidding!
I think I jinxed myself with my last post. A couple days after I wrote it I hit the WALL. A couple nights of poor sleep, while trying to maintain all my sessions at 100%... and boom. I knew I had dug myself into a fatigue hole... and it would take me couple days to get out of it.
So.... last week became my recovery week. This is all fine though. Marc's program doesn't have any rest days or rest weeks... you just go, go, go. It's up to the athlete to listen to the body... and back off when needed. I ignored my body signals just a bit too long... and paid with extended recovery. Ah well.... we need to hit our limits to know them. :-)
The hard work is just beginning....
3 months into the new training regimen with Marc. Despite a week off from sickness in December, and a couple days at Christmas of downtime, I have been very consistent. Knocking out the workouts day after day is the easiest it's ever been.... and fun too!
Some thoughts on my progress...
Swimming has always been my weakest sport. A PB of ~23min for 1500m (wetsuit in open water) is nothing special. However, I am surprised at my progression in the pool. In the last three months I have managed to knock about 6-7s/100m off all swim paces. At this rate of improvement, I should be able to knock another 10s/100m by the summer... getting me under 20min for 1500m!
Cycling.. hard to tell my progress without a powermeter. I suppose it's a good sign then when I'm considering buying a computrainer because I need to create more resistance than my fluid trainer can give me, and I feel like I can rip the cranks off my bike. I even snapped one of my pedal cleats. HUGE! ;-)
I came into the winter with fairly good run fitness, clocking a tad over 30min at Winterstart, a PB. I was also well tuned from running the entire 7 races in the Wednesday x-c series.
After a slow build up in November, I swear I'm at life best fitness in running now. I've been doing most of my running on the treadmill, and my pace for all effort levels is up .6mph since November. Doesn't seem like much? Well... that's ~1:10 faster for a 10k.
And guess what? I'm doing weight training again! I've been an ardent opponent of weight training for many years, but when the coach says "here's your weight program" I listen to the coach. Well, it certainly hasn't impeded my progress.. and I'm even starting to believe it's HELPING! Blasphemy!
My "Phase II" program just arrived in my inbox yesterday. I'll start that in a couple of weeks and work through it until my first tri race in Lethbridge. There's a very interesting workout called the "BRUTALITY SESSION".... can't wait to try that one!
Time to get some sleep.. gotta swim in the morning!
