As if training wasn’t hard enough already…

…..so on a Saturday I generally do my long bike ride which is usually 3-3.5 hours followed by a 20 min run.  Today was to be 3 hours then run 10 minutes fast followed by 10 minutes easy.  I usually average about 30kph for the 3 hours, but today it just wasn’t there!  It felt like I was biking through treacle and no matter how hard I pushed I just couldn’t get there – I put it down to the fact that I didn’t eat that much yesterday (we had a busy day, and food kind of got missed!), so was therefore low on energy.  Anyhow, I promised myself I’d eat properly today and from now on.  As I said earlier, my bike was to be followed by a 10minute fast run, I was debating whether to miss it if I was already feeling a bit bushed!

HOWEVER, after finishing my bike I thought “I’ll just check to see how freely my wheels are running” – the front wheel was not running AT ALL, as soon as I spun it it stopped! I’d just biked the return 45k basically with my brakes on – no wonder it felt hard!  I know exactly what happened – I know they were good at the turnaround point as I checked them – then I went over a pot hole, and as I’d only just put my bike together the day before (I did a practice dis-assembly and bike box pack ready for Aus), I obviously hadn’t clamped the front wheel in properly hence it going out of kilter when I went over the pot hole!

Sooooo….I decided I would start my run and see how I felt – if my legs felt like toast I’d can it!  Anyhow, low and behold I ran my fastest by a long way off a long ride – for those of you that numbers mean something to – I ran 6min 45 second miles for the 10 minutes (that’s a faster pace than my last race!) – so after grinding for an hour and a half with my brakes on I was pretty happy with that!  Having said all of that – I wouldn’t have done it out of choice as I’m now pretty damn pooped!  Easy night tonight me thinks   And of course, the moral of the story is……check your brakes when it’s feeling really hard as it MIGHT not be you!  (Lesley – you’ll relate to this I know – remember when me, you and Steve were cycling just before I flew to Canada?????)

We’ve just been into town to see some of the TransRockies finishers come in.  This is reputed to be the hardest mountain bike race in the world – it’s 7 days of hard mountain biking – and this year, the weather has been awful – yesterday it rained ALL day and these guys are biking up and down some pretty serious stuff!  One of Julie’s friends, Charmaine, was in it so we were trying to catch her finish but no luck!  Never mind!

A week in the life of my triathlon training

As I only ever tell you all about the exciting bit, the races, I thought I’d let you into my world of masochism triathlon training.  Before I start, just to say, I really enjoy my training – I’m not sure why really, but I do.  I like to see if I can push myself a bit harder, go a bit faster, feel  my technique improving – all those kinds of things.  It’s also a great way of switching off, cos generally I only think about what I’m doing while I’m out there – no to do lists, B&B planning, massage, finances blah, blah – just me and the road, or me and the water, or me and the trail…….just very simple.

So, here;s a brief look at what training in Catherine’s world looks like of this week:

MONDAY – swim 10 x 400m (400m=16lengths of a normal pool) – the first 4 are swim, the second 3 I use my arms only, the next 3 I have these plastic paddles on my hands to make it harder and the last one I tie a band around my ankles so they sink which means I have to work triply hard to stay steamlined!  I get 20 seconds rest between each 16 lengths.  I then had the afternoon off as I only raced the day before!

TUESDAY – in the morning I ran for 45mins, getting faster in each 15 minute block, so the last one was as fast as I could go.

In the evening I rode my bike for 2 hours just going nice and easy

WEDNESDAY – I swam this morning.  I started with 400m (16 lengths) normal swim, then 300m (12 lengths) arms only, then 200m (8 lengths) legs only, then 100m (4 lengths) with the band around my ankles.  After that I swam 20 x 50m (2 lengths) doing 2 x 50m fast and then 1 x 50m easy, until I’d reached 20.  I got 20 secs rest between each one so I could push it really hard.  I then swam 1000m (40 lengths) nice and easy arms only but with my paddles on too.  To finish off I did 6 x 50m (2 lengths) legs only, 300, (12 lengths) with the band around my ankles and then 400m (16 lengths) easy to cool down,

This evening I’ve just done a steady run for an hour along one of our trails (the one we all went snow shoeing on when the Dickos came to stay for CHristmas and New Year!)

THURSDAY -tomorrow I’ll be on my bike trainer in the morning.  I warm up for 20 mins, then do 5 mins hard 2 min rest, 4 mins hard 2 min rest, 3 mins hard 2 min rest, 2 mins hard 2 mins rest, 1 min hard.  Then repeat from 5mins hard again.  I then jump straight off the bike and run 6 x 2 min as fast as I can with 2 min rest in between.  I then cool down for 10 mins.  THat’s usually my hardest session of the week, but makes you fast in a race.

IN the afternoon I’m back in the pool – I’ll be doing 400m (16 lengths) swim, 300m (12 lengths) arms only, 200m (8 lengths) legs only, then 4 x 50m (2 lengths) with the band around my ankles.  I then have a 2 min break and go straight into 20 x 25m (1 length) doing 3 fast then 1 easy off 30 seconds, so I get just over 10 seconds rest at the end of each length. To finish off I do 200m (8 lengths) legs only and finally 200m (8 lengths) easy to cool down.

I GET FRIDAY OFF – YAY!

On SATURDAY I do a long bike ride for 3 hrs where I’ll do about 90km, I then get straight off my bike and run for 20 minutes, doing the first 10 mins fast and the next 10 mins easy.

SUNDAY – I do a nice steady run for an hour and a half.  I wear my i pod and just run along nice and relaxed.  Later on that day about 5pm I’ll do a swim and swim 20 x 100m (4 lengths) with 5 seconds rest after each 4 lengths.

So, in total for the week I’ll have swum 12,000m (that’s 480 lengths), I’ll have run for 3 hrs and 50mins so about 29 miles and I’ll have biked for just over 5.5 hours so about 170km.

In between all of that, I do all the stuff with the B&B set up, doing our last jobs and starting to make the contacts that we need to.  And I LOVE it……:)

So, there you go, a week in the life of Catherine Liversidge, training like billio to do the best she possibly can in Australia – whatever that race might bring (which is exactly a month today – bliminey!), I know I couldn’t have trained any harder that’s for sure…….really looking forward to it though with all the Dickos and my wonderful husband there too

I’m in the money…..

This was to be my last race before flying to Aus a week on Thursday.  I’ve been in heavy training these last few weeks, so it was good to take it a little easier the week before the race – come Sunday morning I was feeling in tip top form and ready to go.

The race was in a place called Lake Chapparel, just south of Calgary.  You may have noticed some comments from “Canadian Keith” on our blog – well, we met Keith and his wife Linda at the last triathlon – he’s a friend of Julie’,s and we call got on well at the last race.  Keith and Linda only live 10 minutes from where I was to race on Sunday morning and very kindly put us up on Saturday night.  We had a lovely dinner and a great time chatting about lots of different things – suddenly I noticed it was gone 9.30pm and as I was up at 5.45 figured it was time for some sleep!

Race morning arrives – Keith joined us at the race (Keith is also a triathlete and was going to enjoy this one as a spectator!)  After racking the bike, getting numbers written on arms and legs, it was time for the start.  All the women went together this time, which I really like as you get to race everyone then not just those in your age group.  I positioned myself a little off for the start so ended up having to swim a little further – oops!  Anyhow, I’m just about finishing my first lap, when I can hear lots of whistling and shouting and then through it all I hear one huge loud voice of Jason shouting “CATH” – I was going the wrong way!  Quick change and back on track – I was swimming along laughing to myself on how tuned in I was to Jason’s voice

1500m later we’re out of the water – I was second woman out.  Keith reckons the woman in front was half dolphin – she was 3 minutes ahead of me! I’d noticed her at the start mind – she was a sponsored athlete (you have to be REALLY good to be sponsored) and was not just sponsored by any 2bit company, but sponsored by Timex!

Back to the race – I had the worst transition ever!  I really need to practice these, cos that’s 3 races on the run now where things have gone wrong!  Suffice to say I had to put my helmet on twice, then as I was running off with my bike realised I still hadn’t put my race number on, so had to stop to do that and in the process dropped my bike!  Oh well – it’ll all be sorted for the next race.

The bike course was 5 laps of a technical course (read into that lots of turns so you can’t get your speed up) – the longest stretch before a turn was 1.5k!  The problem with the bike bit was that the marshalls at the corners weren’t directing you, so on lap 1 I went wrong, not a lot but enough for the girl behind me (who was 40secs behind) to catch me up.  Then on lap 2, I’m about to turn left, I’ve overtaken this girl again by this point, and she shouts from behind “no, straight on” – I thought yeah, she’s right.  The volunteers didn’t say anything, so off we both went…….it should have been left!  BY the time we’d realised and got back to where we should be we’d lost another couple of minutes!  But no word from the marshalls – not good!

Anyhow, after that, no more wrong turns! The course was held in a community called Chapparel – suffice to say I don’t think some were happy with all these bikers around – one guy drove right in front of me down the hill at 40kph – now I could descend this hill that at 55kph, so I’m quite sure a car can too!  Then just as I was passing Jase and Keith on one of the laps., this car pulls out in front of me – not great!  No accidents though, just irritating!

The woman I mentioned above and I were together for most of the bike, holding 2nd and 3rd spots.  ON the last lap she bombed it, I kept her in sight, but didn’t want to flog one lap and kill my run.  So at this point, she was about 45 seconds ahead.

Quick change into my running shoes and just 10km run to go.  I was feeling good, and set off comfortably – within about 3k I’d caught her, stuck in a bit of extra speed at that point and dropped her.  I could hear her breathing was really strained and hard, so I knew she was struggling.  It was 2 laps so got see Jase and Keith half way, and was feeling just fine.  I looked behind at this point and couldn’t see anyone behind me so knew I had a pretty good lead, so the last lap I could just enjoy.  I knew the one in front was wwwaaaayyyy ahead.

The finish line approaches – with Jase and Keith cheering as I come through.  The one that came first was there too, so we shook hands.  And that was it!  The organisers hadn’t quite thought the logistics through – the final wave was still to start as the first women finished – so they and the photographer were at the swim start!  So, to be honest, it was a little bit of an anti climax coming through the finish!

A great race though, but with even better supporters(!), and I felt good throughout, so a great one to head off to Australia on.

So, the results were:

1st in my age group (next person was 12 minutes behind!)

2nd women overall (out of about 85) – the one that won was in her twenties, so I’ll give her that!

19th out of all men and women (out of about 200 I think)

But the best bit was the prize – for coming second overall, I won $275, which is about £150 – wehay!  I’m in the money, I’m in money…….

Post race, we hung around for the awards (we had to wait 3.5 hours – eek!).  We then then headed back to Keith and Linda’s where I could shower (how lovely not having to drive home all smelly!) and Linda had prepared a gorgeous lunch for us too

So, all in all, a great weekend.  A HUGE thank-you for Keith and Linda for their wonderful hospitality – we really enjoyed it!

Jase will some pictures up later today.

Next stop – Australia – gulp!

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Running about and stuff…

…I’ll give all the details tomorrow, but I was racing over in Calgary today.  I’ve got to go to bed now, as I have a 4k swim set to do at 6.30 in the morning (no rest for the wicked!)  Suffice to say, we had a great time and enjoyed a lovely weekend under the wonderful hospitality of Keith and Linda……as I say, all details by end of Monday UK time!

Team Canada

Well, would you believe it – I’ve gone and booked a spot for Team Canada for the 2010 World Championships!  Blimeney!  Today’s race was near Banff so Jase and I decided to make a weekend of it – it’s very beautiful around there, so would be rude not to really!  So, after spending a day relaxing around Canmore yesterday, we were up at 5 this morning, ready to get sorted.  The race was a little different to most in that there were 2 transition areas – made set up and sorting with Jase a little interesting!  But, as team liversidge does, we sorted it!

They split the women’s race into 2 – the 39 and under and the 40 and over (read “the oldies”!)  So, obviously, I was in the latter!  The swim went well, and within about 20m of setting off I had clear water all around me – by the finish I was about 150m ahead of the second person and she was about another 100m or so ahead of the others.  It was good to see Jase right there, and he ran beside me to transition.

Off we went on our bikes – 4 laps of a rolling hilly-ish course.  I felt good on the bike and passed quite a few from the wave in front of me.  Unfortunately, due to the set up, jase couldn’t watch any of the bike, which was a real shame, but he set off back to the run area ready for stage 3….

….so the bike ends and there’s my super buddy waiting for me to come in- yay!  The run course was held in the Nordic Ski Centre of Canmore.  It’s where the Canadian national cross country ski team train, so was a rolling run course too.  I passed quite a few on the run too, so all looking good.  It was 2 laps, and towards the end of each lap you double backed on yourself which meant I saw lots of Jase – yeha!

Before the race, we’d met one of Julie’s friends, Keith and his wife Linda, which was lovely.  Keith and I saw each other on the run just as Jase was there, so a great photo opportunity!

I already knew that if I finished in the top 2 in my age group I had a spot booked for the 2010 worlds, and by this point I knew that unless a disaster happened I had it (not quite like last time where I was running my heart out til the last!)  What I hadn’t realised though was that the second person in my age group was 24 minutes behind!  Now, I did have a good race, but it wasn’t quite world record pace as that difference suggests – but, thanks very much, I’ll take the gold medal!

So, spot of lunch and the awards starts and yep, as the photo shows that Jase will put up in a bit, I’m getting a bit more practice at this podium stuff – yay!

The best bit though was ……. at one point they thought the swim might have to be delayed as there was a moose drinking in it, and the first sign you saw on the run course was “beware – bear in area” – not something you’d normally expect!

Just 2 races left this year – one in 3 weeks near Calgary and then THE BIG ONE is just 8 weeks away – bliminey!

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Team Dillon

As you know, Cath is a part of the Team Dillon crew run by the Brisith Olympic triathlete,  Michelle Dillon. Well gosh darn it but Cath’s just taken ownership of her new Team Dillon outfit. With go faster stripes and flowers on her top she’ll go faster and look my girly than ever before (in fact, all she needs now is a pink bike!)

What do you recon?

London to Paris via Madness

Well you won’t be surprised to hear that I got into doing this bike ride via triathlons. Steve (who I think has shares in triathlon PLC) is forever trying to convince people of the benefits of doing triathlons. As you can imagine given that I live with him he tried to convince me on a fairly regular basis. I always said no, but one day I made the mistake of saying what I would do – something that was about endurance rather than speed – like a bike ride for example. Well what Steve actually heard was that I was actually going to DO a bike ride. So when we went to my friend Anna’s birthday party a little while later he told her I was off on the London to Paris bike ride. I pointed out that I had said IF I was going to do something it would be along those lines, but my protests seemed to fall on deaf ears. Anna got very excited at the prospect and said she was up for it too. So by the time we left the party we’d both agreed to do it. It might have ended there had Anna not been the hyper organised, focussed person that she is. By the following evening she had found a bike ride for us, sent me the link and before I knew it I was signed up!

So that’s how I got into it; so how has it been. Well, over the winter, I went out when it wasn’t pouring with rain and spent some time on the turbo trainer, but probably didn’t do as much as I should have done. Over the winter we also had some bad news; you’ll remember that was when we found out that my Dad has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. In our family we know that cancer can be beaten – my Mum was diagnosed with lung cancer over 10 years ago and is still here to tell the story, but nevertheless it isn’t the kind of news that you want to get. So at that point I decided that I would do my bike ride for the prostate cancer charity – not only for my Dad but also in memory of my Uncle Eric. So I got my just giving page set up (http://www.justgiving.com/lesleydixon1 in case you’re interested)!

Well since spring has arrived I’ve been doing much more training. It is so much nicer cycling outdoors. We live just outside York and most of the time I am cycling through beautiful countryside. Bit by bit I’ve been stepping it up and last week I did my first 100km bike ride and then went out and did another 100km the next day! The comments on my just giving web page have helped as has the increasing level of sponsorship (now standing at over £2600). Lots of people have been really supportive. Anna & I speak and inevitably wonder how all this happened – but Anna I’m looking forward to doing the ride with you, Helen and Danielle. Jason has done the whole route from London to Paris on the turbo trainer for me; so far I’ve only done the UK bit but soon I’ll cross the channel! Catherine has given me lots of advice on gels and energy drinks and has been an all round source of encouragement. My Mum & Dad have been really supportive and are coming to Paris to see me arrive – given the cause I’m riding for I’m really pleased about that. And finally there’s Steve. Well he got me into it in the first place and whilst there have been times I could happily have knocked his block off I am glad that he encouraged me to do this. Whilst sometimes he has moaned at me for not doing enough he has spurred me on and has come out on lots of bike rides with me and if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have the pending sense of achievement that I have right now.

So one new bike, proper bike shoes and lots and lots of miles later I will soon be off to Paris. I’ve just got a twitter account and will update it through the bike ride. So if you want to know how I’m doing you can find out via my tweets. My account name is lesley_dixon.

Thanks for letting me have my own spot Jase

Surveyors and Silver Springs

We took a break this week from the hurly burly of life in the fast lane. I think it’s the first time Cath and I have been on our own for quite some time, so we were really looking forward to it. First things first was to buy a tent and such like from Mountain Equipment Coop because our old one really was, well, old, and on it’s last poles.

The first place we went to was Surveyor’s Lake. This is where Cath and Julie practiced their mass start a while back, and is where she carried on with her training again this week while I took photos of the ospreys that were nesting by the shore and gophers that used to join us at breakfast time. Weeeell, it’s something to do! On the way home, we stopped by Silver Springs again so I could show Cath around the lake – absolutely beautiful all over again!

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This podium thing is catching…

Anyone recognise the big smiley face on the left of the picture?

it’s our wonderful canadian buddy Julie having come third in her age group in her half ironman triathlon over near Vancouver.  Julie has been training like a demon and knocked a huge 20 minutes off her previous best time – way to go, Julie.  Apparently the girl on the right is from Fernie and Julie (thinks) has a British accent – fancy that!

Well done, Julie – you’re a star!

Way to go!

Well Cath, I always knew you had it in you! It isn’t often I’m happy to be woken up at 5:30 am (after having some deranged woman call me only an hour and a half earlier – you know who you are), but I was ecstatic to find out that Cath had not only qualified to run for Great Britain in the Sprint Triathlon, but she had qualified to run in the Olympic Distance Triathlon as well! Not only that, but the icing on the cake was that she had actually come first in her age group – the person who came second was a full two minutes behind Cath! Already in the news, Cath came in at 2hours and 24 minutes, a fantastic time, well done, I’m really proud of you!

Also racing were Steve and Liz. This was Steve’s first Olympic Distance and by all account he raced his proverbial behind off. Shirley said he was looking really fit as he came out of the water (steady Shirley), and played a blinder on the bike and run, looking comfortable all of the way through the race. From the photo it looks like he ran in flip-flops! Well done that man! Liz, what can I say? You only took up triathlons in earnest this year and have managed to put in a couple of great performances. I don’t think you will ever stop competing in them now; I think you have the bug, and it’s worse than swine flu I’m told.

Finally, well done to the supporter club. Apparently you drowned out the prize giving ceremony and definitely made yourselves heard. Cath has asked me to thank everyone that made it either on the day or the day before, and in fact she’d like to thank everyone that has turned out on both sunny and soggy days over the last couple of years. You made the difference. Thanks from me as well for cheering her on this year. I’ll probably get a chance in Australia at the World Championships! Gulp!