Please don't pinch me! Let's keep on dreaming!

Photos from coach Dan Smith

Lifesport swim clinic on the beach.... giving out some of our secrets!

It is now Wednesday.... but I am still on Saturday. Since then, every day has felt like waking up from a wonderful dream. Savouring the memories from saturday has not been very hard as everything going on around me takes me back to the beginning of the week-end. –Congratulations on your run Mags-.....-thanks for bringing it up, want to hear more about it??!!- I don’t want to brag but I will re-live that race whenever I can! Hahaha.

It was Christmas morning on Saturday and I got to unwrap all my presents. How often does Santa give you MORE than you have wished for? I remember Lance a’ Clause asking me for my list at the beginning of the year...-what were my expectations in terms of performance- he asked. We had just started working together and I didn’t want him to think I was crazy.... I blushed and said that I would like to have a podium and some top fives in 70.3s ...and finish in the top 10 at worlds in Clearwater. At the time, that sounded like a VERY ambitious plan to me and just thinking about achieving that is what got me all excited an kept me pushing hard through training.

I knew the result at this race would be a surprise, I just hoped and prayed it would be a good one: I have to admit that I landed in Florida with both my escorts: The angel and the demon. As I sat on the bench at the airport pick-up zone for two hours and a half (hahahah, long story), the angel started reminding me of all the good work I had done in the last three weeks, took me back to moments at the pool where I got MAD at Lance for the first time, hitting my fist into the water at my first stroke as I had just finished a very hard set just to find him asking for more... The fastest had to be the last...at the end of a 1h hard practice? Insane....but correct, I got out of the pool that day with a smile! I wasn’t going to forget that –induced- personal victory.

In other moments of reflection, the Devil brought back the fight with the Flu that Amanda and I had two weeks earlier. That deep coughing between intervals....and all that sleeeep! Kind of scary before the world championships, not so nice of the devil to like to bring it up before the race.

Other times, I smiled, thinking about how it had felt to race in Boise, Vancouver and Calgary, where I had felt good, and tried not to think of tired Muskoka and Georgia. Races where it never got going and I was starting to wonder if I had raced too much for a first big season. Oh...and there was also that bike crash at the beginning of the taper that did not make me all so confident when it got on my mind. Early in the trip, it seemed like it would be an emotional yoyo game all the way to the start line! But when I got into the condo in Florida and found all my old habbits, it all came together.I chose my side. I was going to chase opportunity and felt so happy.

THE BIG DAY

I love how Saturday started in the dark. The night before Christmas, you never get that much sleep... I was up early (4:30) and soon laughing in the car with mom on the way to the adventure. Where were the nerves? I was just excited and focused on the task, just where I wanted to be. Before the start, it was a mix of darkness and bright lights, the set of a party. I made it to the swim start on time for a good warm up...sighted my buddies, got a nice pep talk with Justin, a huge hug from Amanda and her usual big smile, there was also mom running all over the place looking after some of my things. And where was Lance? Found him lined up in the croud, calm and reassuring. There was something magic and extremely comforting about him. He always is. So glad to have had him there.

The SWIM!

After a good swim warm up and I felt on task, I had just put on my new TYR Hurricane Cat 5 wetsuit and was trying it on for the first time. It was feeling FANTASTIC! We lined up in the bay on the new swim course they had changed the day before. Adding a bit of mystery to the adventure to come. There we were again, lined up at dusk....ready to make things happen, looking ahead into the rising sun. Oh and...may I ask who got the DJ? My favourite music was playing just before the start. This one had to be special.

So there we were, lined up at the buoys, nervous laughs all around, a delayed start, more nervous laughs... and then the gun!!! Girls pounding on my right side, pounding on my left side. A Big kick in the eye, emptying my goggles, catching the chase pack again. A couple of sightings to the lead pack, head back down to push. A nice, somewhat cruising swim, in a pack, getting kicked once in a while but also enjoying a nice constant rythm and an amazing feeling of efficiency that came from all of the good work done with Lance. Out the ramp to transition. At that point, I was proud of my swim effort and focus but still didn’t know anything about my ranking out of the water...

Aim for the Pirate ship on the way out!

THE BIKE!

Out of transition and on to MY NEW BLUE TRIAD!!! the war weapon!!!! My sponsor spoiled me with a sub 9 AND a 1080 for that ride...first time racing on those too...just flowing, feeling amazing. I had been nervous about the 1080 in the wind but Lance was right. Good choice!

I felt powerful as I chased Michellie Jones down the road at the start of the bike, I passed her at maybe 5 k into the bike , but she didn’t seem like the kind of girl that would let anyone get away. The bike ride was just about staying steady, at a good effort, but still keeping some for the run. I knew this race would be won on the run as the bike was very flat and not so challenging. Jones was strong on the bike, she was going at a good pace and I loved having her there, pushing hard and definitely challenging me. The big surprise of the race was when a HUGE pack of men went by us about a quarter of the way through...it was crazy, it felt just like a bike race for a couple of minutes and I didn’t know what to do! The train went by and it was over. It was the first time I had ever seen a pack like that in a race!...

The RUN!

Photo: Ramon Serrano (Thanks Ramon!!!)

Now on to the run...the magical part of my race. The run is the true surprise all the time. I never know what to expect. Again, in Victoria, I had some of my best runs ever and was feeling strong but then again...I had also felt that way before Timberman, where I had a disappointing run. SO there again, I had to have faith and hold on! I hoped off my bike and had a quick transition. I then actually had this thought: -Nice! Lance will be proud!!!- (ha!). The started the run OVERPACE. I was excited and feeling like I was going a bit too fast when....Laura Bennett passed me....going even faster (later told me she had recorded a 3:25 for her first K). People started telling me I was eight. I then thought to myself that is was good but didn’t even think about the podium. I just focused on the task and pushed forward. I hung on for a while before remembering my plan to keep some for the last lap. I was going to let her go but keep her in sight. After maybe 7K, I saw that she had slowed down and moved back up. Onto the bridge, I found myself feeling bouncy and great legs, and from there, things just kept on feeling better and better. The effort started feeling easy and girls kept popping up ahead of me....I was sixth, fifth, and the fourth.....the emotion got to me and made me faster and faster, I ran up that bridge so fast with everyone cheering. I felt bad but couldn’t help pumping my fist and celebrating with 3 kilometers to go. Then I got to the mile before the end....with everyone yelling that third was right there....I couldn’t see her..but coach had yelled that she was within seconds. I put my head down and moved into second gear, just as Lance had said. Little did I know, second gear would get me third place just meters before the end of the race!!!!!!!

JUST LIKE A DREAM. I NEVER WANT TO WAKE UP FROM.

I will shortly be putting up a special blog to tell you all about the amazing people that have helped me get to where I am today and that have made Saturday possible for me.

Talk more very soon!

Magali

P.S: Anders, we can't find your phone number!

Cherry on the sunday!!

With coach Lance and team mate Amanda Stevens....

HI EVERYONE!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR CHEERS AND COMMENTS!!!
I just got back to St-Sauveur, where I am spending a week with mom and family, finishing my thesis, relaxing and PLAYING THIS WEEK-END'S RACE OVER AND OVER IN MY HEAD!! It seems like there is a permanent smile on my face since Saturday morning. I am just so glad that I could end the season on such a good note. A podium at worlds is definitely what I had dreamed of for this year! I still feel like I have to pinch myself and keep on re-playing the last stages of the race in my head! I will report all about the race tomorrow, once I get some sleep!
Cheers to all!
Magali.

It's on!

I will use all of the good energy you have all been sending me since the beginning of this blog! I will use it to DIG DEEP. As deep as it gets. I will give it all. You are very inspiring.
Thank you.
Mags.

Opportunity

(Photo: My souvenir of this morning's EPIC swim. Courtesy of Clarke Rodgers of Sportzfoto.com. Thank you Clarke!)

Hello everyone!
I know... WHERE HAVE I BEEN? At this point, it might be shorter for me to start by....where am I now?





(HA!)

Well, as you might have guessed. I am back in the sandy, warm, festive environment of Clearwater, Florida.
This year, it is the feeling of opportunity that is driving me. I am reliving all the good memories from last year and having a second taste of everything I liked from the past: finding our same little beach condo, training in my same little secret spots, enjoying the same special dinners with mom, watching the scene of the BIG RACE get set up and ANTICIPATE a great day. I am quickly drifting back into my lovely pre-Clearwater –Habits-.....



But this time, I am enjoying making all things GREATER! All I can feel this year OPPORTUNITY. And that will give me all the energy I need to race strong!
I know I have a shot at this one and I will do everything I can to give my best effort on Saturday.
The weather has been very different out here lately. It has been rainy, windy and the waves are huge! The practice swim we had this morning with Lance and some of the team was EPIC. The hard work felt like play...specially the cool down, riding the waves back to shore. I have to admit that I hope the conditions stay this way. I think it would be easier for me to stay with the front pack in these conditions. Friends have said it would calm down for Saturday, I like to think that it will stay EPIC.
Another new thing for me this year is some new found CONFIDENCE. It comes from this year's hard work and good fights but also from amazing friends, family, a great coach (who will be on site!) and my great new sponsors. I am surrounded by great people that I owe much of this confidence to, people that believe and are helping me push forward.

So, now that I am in context, I can speak more freely of WHERE I have been!!
The answer is simple: IN VICTORIA, WORKING MY BUTT OFF!


It has been a three week mini Clearwater training camp. An intense set of efforts, pursued with our very devoted coach, Lance Watson from Lifesport and with great training buddies such as fellow team mate Amanda Stevens, Kerry Spearing and...Curtis (THE CYCLIST!).



Those three weeks brought me so much. I got some very hard trainings done that will definitely stay in the back of my mind come race day when I have to fight. I have been happy and loving what I do, training with an amazing partner. Amanda has helped me push and get the best out of myself everyday.


You know.....when a very hard training block followed by a freezing ocean ice bath feels like a party and is full of laughter, it is always because you are on the right track.
There has also been some adversity to spice it up. We had to overcome the flu while in intense training about three weeks ago and I also had a bike crash while getting a bit carried away at the beginning of the taper, but amazingly, none of this has really affected training. I feel so lucky.
Now, all I have to do is stay confident, stay happy, stay inspired and think about my new, golden feeling of OPPORTUNITY.
THE WORK IS DONE!!!! LET THE PARTY BEGIN!!!!!!
To all of you racing on Saturday: Good luck! Make it count! Put on the show!!
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT! THIS ONE IS FOR ALL OF YOU! HERE I GO!
Mags.

-Courage, Madame, Courage-

Hey everyone! It has been so busy out here in Victoria and I love it!

I have everything here: Great friends, amazing autumn weather, a charming little place on the beach, the ocean, my coach and some of the Lifesport crew to help me push in all trainings before the big race!

I am getting used to my morning sunrise on the ocean! I have even seen some surfers out on the little waves further down the bay on a stormy day. That’s just incredible to imagine I could just walk out of my little place, grab a board or kayak and head onto the ocean! I need to get a kayak! ...now I am having the visual of myself hoping on the kayak at the end of a big day of training and paddling into the sunset…ahhhhh!

Training has been going so well since I got here. I am feeling great and definitely getting some hard work done!

It would be long to describe how amazing the quality of training is here, but here are some flashes from the last weeks that I would love to share!...

Riding, riding, riding, hills, hills, hills!!

Photo recently sent by photographer and friend David McColm.

Perfect weather....Outside in the sun with just shorts and arm warmers!

Long rides on the highway that takes you up the Malahat, with great partners, through beautiful mountains....ocean views from the hills (the good thing about overgearing workouts in the hills is that you get the gain and can also see the view!!)

A five hour ride, where we were pushing it and just playing hard! Ending a big day, drafting off cars with my buddies along the ocean drive, also one of my favourite rides!

Trainer sessions too: Instead of staring at the garage door, here I do them at the pool with friends. We put some loud music on, and push for hours at a time. In the last of Lance’s magic trainer sessions, a friend even came to cheer me on and Lance came to push me through the last part of the workout. It was so hard, I was just trying to get the pedals to turn and he would comment on my technique and force me to get back on the aerobars!!! Hahaha.

Working hard on the trainer by the pool with coach Lance!

Running, running and more running. The crazy one was off a really hard trainer session with Lance riding his mountain bike beside me, just flowing, through the trails around Elk Lake. In those trainings, Lance acts as my positive conscience. Unfortunately, I have to stop bringing out the devil sometimes too when it gets real hard. That is still my challenge!

The other hard training was my mistake! OUCH. Low calory 2h30 run. I kind of faded...just kind of...in the last five kilometres, I prefer not to mention how many gels I dropped on the run. Enough to make me kind of lye down on the ground for a while when I got home. Before I desperately reached for some food sitting on the kitchen counter.

Oh AND there is the swimming! That always hurts the most. Kerry and I have been working the pull-paddle sets recently... it seems there are only BIG FISH around here so I just HAVE to hold on for as long as I can! I even got to join Brent and Simon Whitffield in a practice. Simon has been really nice, made me feel very welcome. But boy...does he swim fast....even..on his easy (my tempo crazy) swims!

Goodness. If my Victoria inspiration doesn’t make me faster, nothing will!

Tomorrow is a HUGE brick session at Lance’s place…there is a new sentence I keep on repeating to myself when I am working very hard now: -Courage Madame, Courage!- and I will use it then.

Let me explain: My friend Josianne Pusterla, has told me that she would be watching Clearwater from Burkina Faso! She has told me about that expression often used in Western Africa in order to encourage female athletes during their effort. It is my magic sentence now.

-Courage- to all of you!

Magali.

My new home

Hi!
I have safely made it to my new home and training paradise! I am now a (very proud) -Victorian-!
I am so happy about my new situation here. And I knew it at the moment I got off the place and suddenly started feeling strange to be carrying my big white, furry, winter coat around. In Victoria, it felt like summer. And it seemed like it was giving everyone something to smile about.
Waiting for Curtis (remember, my homestay) to pick me up, I was now standing in the sun in a t-shirt and knew I was home.
Almost all of Lifesport has gone to Hawaii, it would have been great to see them again!
But I got such a warm welcome anyways. It started with Curtis picking me up (and later admitting he had missed school just for that!!), then reuniting with the homestay family, going for a visit to Hillerie and John s ....and then there was also what happened the next morning at my first, back to Vic, swim workout with Team mate Brent McMahon!
We had planned to meet at 9a.m, right after the national team training session, and go for that 40x100 killer set. When I first got to the pool, not only did I see Brent, but Lifesport athlete Samantha Mazer was also there with her usual smile and great energy and so was...Simon Whitfield and the national team athletes. As I said, they had just finished their swim.
Simon greeted me to Victoria in his own, very original way. When I mentioned that I was staying for good, he pulled out a card board box he had with him, grabbed my swim paddle and started forcing that box open. He then handed me a -house warming present-....a beautiful vase...well, not only a beautiful vase. A particularly memorable one, the trophy of the Hyvee triathlon!
He didn t have to insist much for me to except this kind offering and KEEP IT for my house on the ocean. I was taking it home for sure!

The first swim I did that morning (on Tuesday), was BRUTAL. Oh, now I remembered the feeling, the -all you can sweat fest- had begun!!! And coach was not even there yet! Yikes, imagine what it will be like when he takes out that whip!
It was so good to hear a familiar voice give me encouragements during the set, to do the warm up side by side with Sam and to use a bit of Brent s draft before seeing him disappear in the distance at each of the 40 of the 100ms we did. Ha! I am definitely getting my share of motivation now! Just at the right moment too!!! I need to step it up and get those swim times down too!
This place will be perfect to train before Clearwater!
That great new feeling has not left me. Training, so far, I have gone on a crazy 3 hours bike ride today, where I rediscovered the beautiful, hilly trails all over again (I did not see time go by!). I then went for a fast hour run off that bike around the lake trails. Happiness is definitely an amazing training fuel!
And then there is the rest of the fun stuff! I got into my beach house, and had quite an adventure getting the mattress there on the top of the car with Curtis. I still need to go shopping for some more furniture and Pierre arrives tomorrow with my car and the rest of my things. I have not slept at my new home yet (I was staying with my homestay until things were set up) but I think tonight will be the night!
But first, to the pool! (yes, it is getting late but it seems that here, pool time is unlimited! )
Tonight is an easy swim so I am walking to the pool with homestay mom Denise, she will be joining me on that one! Sure that will be a great way to end the day!
Then, my first sleep at my new place.
Cheers everyone! I will do a special effort to keep you posted on my new adventure!
Cheers!
Magali.

Inspiration of the day

This morning, as I was having breakfast, MANUEL DE LOS SANTOS
popped up on my TV screen. It was a short interview that brought me so much inspiration into my day.


Like many children from his native country,( the Dominican Republic), Manuel dreamed of becoming a world class baseball player. His determination drove him to be recruited as a development athlete for the Blue Jays at age 17.
It is at the moment the young athlete saw his childhood dream become a reality, that he would have to face tragedy. His dream of becoming a baseball superstar was shattered when a motorcycle accident left him without his left leg.

But it seems, not much can stop a champion from becoming a champion. Manuel figured that all he needed to do was....to find another sport in which to exert his passion. And this man didn't waste any time!

After having seen an inspirational movie about a golfing champion (yes, really, it was THAT simple!), he figured it looked like fun and his baseball skills might suit the game (hey, kind of like a baseball version of Happy Gilmore?). He went to a driving range for the first time and IMPRESSED. To him, each shot felt just like a home run! And from that moment, he was on a mission.
Manuel De Los Santos started playing golf in 2003, he now has an outstanding portfolio and has recently placed second at the European Handigolf championships. He is also competitive at the non-handigolf category and his aspirations are high...how high? I think we will see very soon.

Why do sad things happen to good people? Probably because they are the ones strong enough to make the whole world smile and dream. They are examples to all of us, they are there to show how strong a positive mind can be. I remember the way his interview ended: With a huge smile on his face, he said: -When it goes well, I smile, when it doesn't go well, I smile too!- he then laughed. It sounds so simple! I guess that is the secret to becoming a champion.

Have a great day everyone!

oh and.....TRAIN HARD! YEEEAAAAHHH!

Magali.