A New Challenge
Week 30: September 22-27
Soap Opera Episodes: 14
Ben and Jerry Tubs: 1
Twilight Books: 4
As you may have guessed, the recovery from illness has not happened as quickly as I had hoped. My dreams of a long Saturday run were officially destroyed by a Friday night visit to the hospital and subsequent perscriptions. Friday night trips to the hospital are not advised, as Fridays seem to be a favorite for a plethora of injured/ill people. This has left me in a difficult position - my Doctors (and my lungs) are suggesting that a marathon in 2 weeks is not possible. In an unfortunate case of being too well prepared - I have already booked flights, hotels, and got the early bird price for the marathon entry; none of which I can realistically cancel. I also managed to convince my parents to join me in Victoria, and it's going to be difficult to place a pseudo-Sierra in my place. So I am heading to Victoria in 14 days with a new challenge ahead.
That's right, I've replaced the sub 4:15 marathon girl with something even more difficult. Joining me in this difficult task will be my Mother, the bronze medal walker in the Edmonton ING marathon. Anyone who has met my Mother or I will know that this will be one of the toughest races of our lives because we are going to try to NOT get a personal best. In fact, we are going to go above and beyond a worst time and shoot for something that will result in no sore feet, or achy lungs, or questionable joints. We will aim for the bottom of the finishers list and possibly enjoying a couple of lattes (to stay) on the way. We will keep a pace that allows for maximal gossiping and minimal heavy breathing and in the end it will do nothing for our training or racing resume You might be asking yourself why this is such a difficult thing to do. You might even say to yourself: "Sierra you are already naturally slow, why would you care about being even slower". But the truth is, I don't like to be slow. In fact, I secretly dream of being moderate...or even fast.
I'd love to tell you that my Mom was going to be there to keep the pace down, but this is the same woman who perfected the "Fake n' Sprint" - a clever move where you ski/bike/run with your family for a long race, before sprinting out the last 100 m and leaving everyone in the dust. If anyone catches on to the move, there are several variations that you can try - asking for a drink of water, then sprinting away when someone goes to hand it for you, grabbing your knee in pain and then knocking down the person who comes to help before racing to the finish - you got the point. I am keeping my guard up in the final 200 m, in fact I encourage anyone in Victoria to be at the finish line around 2:00 pm on Thanksgiving Sunday for a sprint finale that will rival the Men's Olympic Triathlon for excitement.
Although my sub 4:15 marathon girl is on hold, I haven't given up on it completely. I'm contemplating an end of November Seattle marathon as long as lungs and knees hold up. I'm determined to strike this one of the list before January 1 and I'm hoping my body will help me out. It seems like a silly thing to even consider when I can't bike to work without losing my breath. If anyone knows of good CHEAP accommodations in Seattle, please let me know!
What does someone do when they are stuck on the couch/bed for 7 days? As ashamed as I am to admit the truth, I feel like it is my responsibility as a blogger to share my experience. If it can save even one internet user from making the same mistake, it will be worth publishing the truth. I spent the bulk of the week reading the Twilight series. If you haven't read Twilight, you are probably thinking that reading anything is a good idea. The truth is that Twilight is cocaine infused words. I don't know what kind of crazy mind altering tricks they incorporated into that series, but after one chapter you can't stop. Chapter after chapter - book after book, it's impossible to curb the urge; and yet with every word you ask yourself why you are abusing your brain. Approximately 4 books and 3000 pages later, I still wonder why I wasted so many hours when there are fabulous books waiting to be read. At the same time, I just want more...more Jacob and Edward and Bella, more dazzling and forever and vampire love-making. I had to return the books to their owner this morning because I knew as long as they were in the house I wouldn't be able to keep away. Now I just search Wikipedia and IMDB for updates on the film. This cures some of the withdrawal, but I worry that going to Mac's Fireweed or Amazon will send me careening off the wagon and back into Forks, Washington.
Sierra posted this on Sep 29, 2008 from the livingroom | | permanent link
Letting Go
Week 28/29: September 8-21
Bike: 80 km (more downhill than uphill...physically impossible if not for a shuttle)
Run: 200 m in the pool (which equals 3 hours of pool running)
Swim: 3000 m
Growing up, my Mom had a sign above the kitchen that said "Relax - God's in Control". Whether you believe in a higher power or not, sometimes it's nice to think somebody out there has got it all figured out, because I apparently don't. The past two weeks have involved putting my life into the hands of others (not God - but Kate, who as far as I'm concerned is pretty darned close)and ice packs/antibiotics/Ibuprofen. I prefer when I am completely in charge, but considering the circumstances, it hasn't been too horrible.
Following the glory that was the Klondike Road Relay, I decided to try my luck at the local 5 km Tuesday race. Thanks to a very low turn out, I managed to not only set a personal best and crack the 25 minute mark, but also win the women's side of the race. This was recorded in posterity by the Yukon News which graciously identified me as "marathon runner Sierra van der Meer". I found this an interesting description, as it is almost as accurate as saying "Red Sea diver Sierra van der Meer", which I've also done once. You have to love Yukon newspapers for helping bolster the self-esteem of all their lowly readers. While basking in my new achievement (and subsequent fame and glory), I failed to notice that my knee was not feeling nearly as happy as I was.
It appeared that a mere four weeks before the marathon, I was going to be temporarily unable to run. This meant that instead of running, I would have to spend some time enjoying the last weeks of fall and final days of mountain biking. With the colors changing, the bike riding became more like bike and click, than anything else. Tony and I enjoyed a trip down what is soon becoming my favorite Whitehorse ride - El Camino/Blues Brothers.
As you can see, Sheera is practically camouflaged in amongst the autumn leaves.
Even Starbuck looks classy against the multi-colored foliage.
After the El Camino ride with Tony I was feeling surprisingly confident in my new mountain biking abilities and decided to step it up a notch and try one of the more difficult trails. This is not something I would be capable of doing on my own, and recruited some friends to take me down the hill o' death (I needed back up that could call the ambulance if I went down in a horrible accident). The four girls decided to head up to Easy Money on the top of Grey Mountain. As you can see - 3 of the girls are excited about the trip and one (yes, it's me) is terrified at what could be her last fully mobile sports activity.
As promised, Monika, Kate and Jocelyn kept me safe and managed to get me all the way down the hill - on my bike! Logic (and physics) says that going down the hill should be faster than going up, but my hesitancy meant lots of additional waiting while I cried in fear. Despite my pleas to walk, Kate convinced me that I could (and should) go down on the bike, despite the insane grade. Eventually, we made it all the way down the hill, and while I'm not sure that I'll do Easy Money again, I certainly find everything else a little bit easier.
My newly acquired over-confidence convinced me that a trip to Carcross would be a great way to practice more adrenaline pumping downhill biking. I was slightly worried about being the slowest one in the group, but thought I should take advantage of the expertise of mountain biking experts like Monika:
And Paul Gowdie:
The day of Carcross fun ended with one broken wrist, one separated shoulder and four flight tires. Is it wrong that I'm happy it wasn't me? The rides down Montana included some hike and bike, but less hike and more bike than before. While I'm not hucking off any sweet jumps, I am slowly conquering my fear of the steep. I'm also learning all about the glories of shuttling - in theory shuttling ruins the purity of the ride - in practice in means no up and just down. Shuttling rocks!
While all the biking has been fun, I am still left with the slight problem of three weeks until a marathon that I've never run more than 3 hours, or 26 km in preparation for. Between unhappy knees and newly diagnosed tonsilitis, I'm feeling less than confident and more than worried. I had hoped for a sub 4:15 marathon, but now I'm hoping to finish. I'm still trying to figure out what to do: Option 1 is try to finish the Victoria Marathon, Option 2 is forget about Victoria and try for the Seattle Marathon at the end of November. I'll see if these antibiotics do me any good, and I hope to be running by Saturday.
Sierra posted this on Sep 24, 2008 from the gym | | permanent link
Trail of '98
Week 27: September 1-7
Bike: 46 km
Run: 35 km
Swim: 0...but I signed up for Master's Swim Class, so that almost counts as a workout
The darkness is setting in early and the crazy summer schedule of events is quickly coming to an end. To celebrate the fast approach of winter and the end of the midnight sun one of the biggest (and arguably silliest) events of the year happens - the Trail of 98 Klondike Road Relay. This event is huge (1200 runners) and ridiculous (180 km from 7:30 pm to 3:00 pm the next day), but I've already blogged about it's craziness.
This year was the second annual running of the "Moving at the Speed of Government" team. This team is made up of federal, territorial and occasionally First Nation government employees. We stay true to our name by making sure that we always fall in the bottom part of the standings - never moving too quickly or efficiently. Last year, part of our bureaucratic strategy was to miss a hand-off and take an hour and a half penalty. This year, we wanted to avoid those types of obvious time wasters and concentrate on having fun and looking good.
The distribution of legs for Klondike Road Relay is always a bit difficult. There are 10 legs which range in length from 9 to 26 km, and which run at all times during the day/night. Last year, I took the shortest leg, because I was in the midst of recovering from a cranky knee. This year, I was planning on being healthy (not completely successful), so I decided to take leg 6, a 26 km run into Carcross. I was joined on my mission by Polly and Melissa, two friends from work, who were running legs 4 and 5.
Our portion of the event started at 10:30 pm, when we hopped into the car and headed towards to Canada/US border for Melissa's leg of the race. We arrived at the start of leg 4 at around 12:30 am, just in time to start the two footed trek back to Whitehorse. Despite the insane hour in the morning, a combination of coffee, cookies and loud music kept Polly and I pumped through Melissa's 21 km run in the dark. Next up was the quick-footed Polly, who zipped through her 22 km in a little over 2 hours and had me ready to run just after 5 in the morning.
The appeal of running leg 6 of the relay, aside from an early morning 26 km relay, is that if you are lucky you get to watch the sun rise over Carcross. That would have been an amazing site, I'm sure, but I was unfortunately too slow to catch it. Thankfully, the sun did rise as I ran, and I was witness to a splendid fall display of yellows, reds and oranges that would have zipped by much too fast if I was sitting in a 4-wheeled vehicle.
The run went well, until the last 4 km going into Carcross. Normally a downhill is a fun way to end a run, but not an extended downhill on the pavement at the end of a long run. I could feel my knees starting to ache as I moved towards town, and I knew that the result might not be too good. I finished up strong, but went straight into Nares Lake to try to stop the swelling from getting out of control.
After limping out of the water, Polly, Melissa and I headed back into town just as the rest of the world was waking up on a Saturday morning. I got into my bed, just in time for Tony to get up and announce his intention to ride to Braeburn. I couldn't muster a response and just put my head on the pillow and shut my eyes. My rest lasted a couple hours, before I got up to meet Lisa on the final leg of the relay and head through Miles Canyon towards the finish line.
All things considered, it was an excellent race, especially because I had made my time goal by finishing the 26 km in just under 2:30 hours. I was feeling pretty chuff about the whole thing until I went to check the official time and saw that they had me clocked in at 2:35. It's not that 7 minutes is the difference between a world record or not, but 2:28 put me in the perfect position for the Victoria Marathon, and 2:35 meant that meeting my 4:15 goal would be pretty darn tough. In the end I'm not sure who had the right times us or them, but I'm trying to believe that it was us - even if it's a lie, I'm sure the confidence can't be anything but good for me!.
Sierra posted this on Sep 21, 2008 from the outside | | permanent link
Sierra and Sierra
Week 26: August 25-August 31
Bike: 35 km
Run: 33.5 km
Swim: 5.6 km of open water pain!
Every summer for many, many years, I packed up my bathing suit and head to Lac La Biche for a weekend of swimming, smokies and vicious ping pong games. These summers were spent with the Maccagnos, my pseudo-family, who kept me around (aka didn't drive by when I sat on my front yard with my bag of clothes for the week-end). Summers at the Maccagnos included pig roasts, Pow-Wow parades, poker and the ongoing conversations over the naming of tvarious pets. Every year there would be a new horse, dog, chinchilla, rabbit, crayfish or guppy and every year I would suggest Sierra as a perfectly lovely name. A few days after the new animal's arrival I would get a phone call saying: "Guess what - we named the
Upon meeting Sierra, it became apparent that aside from some fairly minor differences (age, height, vocabulary), we were basically the same person. The first clue of our similarity is the way Sierra II came into the world - Dionne was scheduled to be induced in the afternoon, but Sierra II decided that nobody was going to tell her when she should, or should not, make her debut into the world, so she decided to come out a couple hours early. That is only one of the many shared characteristics between the Sierras, others include: a tendency to get cranky at around 9:00 pm, the need for constant feedings, a preference for being in motion, and a habit of unleashing great rage when being unexpectedly awoken from an afternoon nap.
In addition to those lovely habits, Sierra and I actually share a lot of physical features as well. We both have white round thighs, a big noisy mouth, and a nice round booty (although Sierra II did have the excuse of wearing a diaper, whereas my round ass is pure ice cream and cookies).
Although having a mini-Sierra is a huge honor and generally a pretty wicked thing, I didn't realize the benefits of having a fairly unique name. I spent much of the weekend confused as to why people were talking about my sleeping and urinating habits. It took about a day to stop myself from perking up every time I heard my name.
In addition to meeting Sierra II, I used my weekend at the lake to practice the one Ironman event that I wasn't feeling very confident about - the 3.8 km swim. I decided to try some long-distance lake swimming to see how close/far I was away from being able to complete the first leg of the Ironman. Sierra II's dad Alan, was kind enough to canoe with me and make sure that I wasn't the victim of an errant motorboat, or overzealous Sea-Doo. I had no idea how far the swim would take me, but I knew I wanted to swim to the Island in front of the Cabin. The swim to the Island was pretty good, and took me only about 35 minutes. Unfortunately, what I didn't realize is that the reason it was fairly quick was because of a nice wind pushing me along. The swim back was definitely more challenging and it took me 45 minutes to get back to the cabin. I was happy to see that the swim was 3.75 km, only 50 meters short of the Ironman distance. I'm not sure how ready I was to do 180 km on the bike after finishing, but I am feeling a little more confident about my swimming abilities.
The week-end was capped off with a long run through Lac La Biche, and an important lesson from Tristan, Erin's 4 year old son. Before heading out to my run, Tristan asked if he could join me. I told him he could come along, but I just needed a few minutes to get ready. Tristan watched inquistively while I got all my running gear together, including my: visor, running skirt, running shoes, iPod, and Garmin. After getting geared up Tristan asked me why I needed so much stuff to run - a question I didn't really have an answer to. Then asked if he could just wear what he already had on. I had forgotten in all my running-related purchases that all you really need to run is a pair of shoes...
Sierra posted this on Sep 14, 2008 from the outside | | permanent link
Ironman-arama-ding-dong
Week 25: August 18-August 24
Bike: 42 km (12 km on mountain)...I've been a bike slacker lately!
Run: 23 km
Swim: Zip, zero, zilch...although I did frolic in the Okanagan Lake
Winery stops: 7 - which resulted in 12 bottles of vino
It's only fair to warn you before you start reading, that this is a very long post. But, lets face it, this is a post on Ironman, so having anything shorter than an endurance read would be contrary to the very spirit of the event.
As most people know, I have been training for the 2009 Ironman. If you don't know this, you've been probably pretty stumped by the blog structure and wondering why I keep talking about exercise. At the end of August, I headed down to Penticton to move the 2009 Ironman dream a little closer to reality, by actually registering for the event. I also used the opportunity to watch my first Ironman and plan a race strategy for next year (race strategy = survive).
I was lucky to have a friend, Nadele from Whitehorse who was participating in Ironman and willing to share a room with me. Thanks to some over-eager planning on my part, I'd managed to secure a bed and breakfast (Spiller's Estates) last November at a nice little winery uphill from downtown Penticton. The Ironman weekend started early Saturday morning when Nadele and I headed downtown to the Athlete's village to drop off bikes, pick up bags and look at all that Ironman had to sell. The only downside to Ironman (besides the long swim, bike and run) is that it can sometimes seem more like a store than an athletic event. You can get any piece of clothing imaginable, water bottles, cups, shot glasses and even mouse pads nicely decorated with the Ironman logo. In addition to the Ironman logo-ed paraphernalia, there are plenty of sponsors showing off their wares - all of whom are guaranteed to improve your Ironman time and experience. The one sponsor of interest to me was Cervelo, who was demo-ing various road bikes. I knew it was a bad idea to try out a new bike, but couldn't resist the sweet appeal of a Cervelo RS. I just may need a road bike for next year (54 inches if anyone is looking to buy me a gift).
After Nadele got most of her gear ready and I realized I couldn't afford anything they were selling, I headed to Skaha beach for some surf and sand. Ben and Jill, my friends from Edmonton, were in Penticton watching a friend compete and were my beach buddies for the day. My over-eagerness to enjoy the sunny beach resulted in a very burnt back, a necessary, but painful consequence of my vitamin D doping pre-winter darkness. After ice creams and iced lattes, I headed back to the hotel, knowing that Sunday would be a very long day.
Ironman started in the early hours of Sunday morning as Nadele woke up to eat her pre-race meal, and I prepped for a heavy day of spectating. We headed into Penticton at stupid o'clock in the morning, and I dropped Nadele off and combed the packed streets for a parking spot. Despite the fact it was only 6 o'clock in the morning, thousands of spectators were already cramming the shores of Lake Penticton, craning their necks to spot family and friends in amongst the pink and blue headed swimmers.
As the clock ticked down, the swimmers migrated towards the start line. When the gun went off, the pink and blue swim caps disappeared into a swarm of splashing water.
While the swimmers started off on their 4 km trek, the crowd's attention span quickly expired. I snuck away and ducked behind a big bush, squeezing myself between the branches and a chain link fence. Like a prepubescent Peeping Tom, I stared lecherously at the abundant bike porn laid out in front of me.
Rows upon rows of Zipp wheels, carbon fibre frames and aerodynamic water bottles stood in front of me. It only took 55 minutes for the bike show to begin, as the first pro came out of the water and grabbed his bright orange Trek bike and started on his 180 km bike ride. I stuck around to watch all the pros pick up their bikes (mostly Cervelos, with the occasional Scott and Guru joining the ranks). After almost an hour, I decided to move to a better place to watch riders head down the street and onto the highway. I managed to cheer Nadele through on her bike, then hopped into her car to see if I could catch the cyclists partway through their race.
It didn't take me long to realize a major flaw in the spectating plan. Not only did I have NO clue where the bike race ran, I also had no idea what the road system around Penticton looked like. Thankfully, I'm a very resourceful girl and realized that all I needed to do is follow one of the many other support vans. I tucked in behind a maroon minivan adorned with Go Paul Go! and other messages of supports from some guy from Alberta. About 15 minutes down the highway we turned into a charming hotel parking lot - oops...I guess I followed the wrong car. I turned around, headed back down the highway, this time following a car until I reached a pylon - a sure-fire indication of a race course. I got to Okanagan Falls just in time to watch Nadele's spandex shorts go tearing by. Fed up with my poor spectating strategy, I decided to alter my observation schedule for the rest of the day.
My new plan took me to the Main Street of Penticton, on the corner of Starbucks and Weenie Wagon. A mere 5 hours after hitting the water, the first cyclist came tearing down the street, with me perched on a garden box at the corner. I had managed to find myself in the perfect place to watch cyclists finish, runners start, and exhausted competitors reach the final 2 km. It only took a couple minutes until I realized that the number of spectators was creating some real chaos, that wasn't adequately being controlled. The chief volunteer was looking for some help, so I jumped off my garden box, grabbed a volunteer shirt and started one of my favourite activities - bossing people around. Truthfully, telling people to keep off the street is not my idea of fun, but it did give me the greatest viewpoint possible. The highlight was watching Belinda Granger leading the women back from the marathon. The only person looking happier than Belinda were the hundreds of women along the street - thrilled to see a girl "chicking" most of the competition.
After volunteering for a couple more hours, I started my personal Ironman event. The folks at Ironman are serious about endurance and have decided to take it to the next level by making waiting in line a serious endurance activity. Everywhere you went at Ironman there was a line - and these weren’t little piddly 10 km lines, or even marathon lines, these were serious Ironman lines where you could expect to wait for hours, so you better bring your Gatorade and power gel. Thankfully, unlike biking, swimming and running, line standing is an event that I have the capacity to win.
My main line standing event started at around 4:00 pm on Saturday, when I joined a fellow Yukoner, in the registration line. At this point we were third in line, and ready to spend a rainy night, camped in a small tent outside of the Ironman tents in downtown Penticton. In keeping with the endurance theme, I worked at staying awake and warm throughout the entire night. I was lucky to get a break from my line waiting duties to watch Nadele cross the finish line in all her Ironman glory, and got a real sense of the overwhelming crowd support at the end of an excruciating 42 kilometres. Ultimately, it was the cheering, music and announcer that convinced me that Ironman would be worth all 1019 minutes it might take.
The race director woke us up bright and early on Sunday morning to start shuttling the line up into the main area and get us ready for registration. Because I volunteered I was shuttled into a separate line and found myself set to be the very first General Entry of Ironman 2009. That’s right - I already won something at Ironman! Sure it wasn’t the swim, bike, or run portion (or even the transition part), but first is first and I was the first one to put my name down and commit to $658 worth of pure pain! The picture shows all those people who didn't win first in line to register (or as I like to call them, the losers). When I watch them all pass me next year, I'll hold on to my small victory on August 25, 2008
Post-registration, Nadele and I enjoyed the other big tourist draw of Penticton - wineries. We cruised up and down the road to Naramata sampling fruit wines, grape wines and anything else people were willing to give us for free. I ended up with a box load of treats that Nadele was nice enough to bring back to Whitehorse for me.
The registration is done, the money paid, the wine tasting over, now I have 52 weeks to get my body ready for what might be the most physically demanding experience of my life!
Sierra posted this on Sep 10, 2008 from the gym | | permanent link
The Fall Frenzy
Week 24: August 11-August 16
Bike: It's all a blur, but probably only 32...plus the purchase of 1 bike
Run: 21 km
Swim: Do baths count??? If so 4 inches
Once again, I find myself 4 weeks behind in blogging. The excuse this time, is a combination of visits, holidays and the impending arrival of winter. In keeping with the blogging format that I have gotten so many compliments on (and by compliments I mean nobody’s complained…yet), the 4 weeks of activities will slowly, but surely be posted in the coming weeks.
This August, Tony’s Mother Norma and her friend Lee came to visit us in the Great White North. Although they were only here for one week, Tony and I tried to show them what a true Yukon summer was like by packing in as many activities as hours in the day. The culmination of the week was a trip to Dawson City, Yukon and the fabulous Bombay Peggy’s Hotel.
Bombay Peggy’s may be my favorite hotel in Canada. There are two main reasons for this: free port and an awesome bathtub. Over the course of three days I managed to take 8 baths in the Bombay Peggy bathtub, often sipping my free port while lounging in the bubbles. After a hard week at work, this combination was the perfect way to shed stress and get my muscles ready for the final 8 weeks before the Victoria marathon.
Although Dawson City was largely an exercise in relaxation, I did manage to do one long run down Bonanza Road towards Dredge No. 4. I also managed to inadvertently buy myself a nice Dawson treat for the winter:
The beautiful piece of jewellery around my neck is a Surly Pugsley frame and the beginnings of my winter bicycle. As you can see by my hands, this is my sixth bike-child, and although it’s the runt of the litter, it’s guaranteed to be a husky thing.
In and amongst the running and bike buying, I was able to partake in my favorite fall-ish activity (I use the term “fall-ish” because I’m not ready to accept the truth that summer is coming to an end). Although my berry picking skills are questionable – actually it’s more like my berry finding skills – I managed to pick 4 liters of cranberries with Beth, Lusia, Diana and Ken up in the secret Dawson berry spot. It only took us a couple of hours to get 16 liters of berries off bushes that were just waiting to become sauce.
On our way back to Whitehorse I visited the one Yukon site I’ve been missing for the past 5 years – the Tombstones. The Tombstone colors are as gorgeous as advertised – with ever kilometre taken straight out of the Yukon Landscapes coffee table book. The brightness of colors was spectacular and although we only managed a small hike through the fall foliage, it has convinced me that a more substantial Tombstones adventure is a 2009 requirement.
No, I did not photoshop that image in anyway...it was that colorful!
Sierra posted this on Sep 08, 2008 from the outside | | permanent link
