-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.

Surprise! The Augusta Candy Race!

SO WHERE WAS I???

The build to Clearwater…Day 14??

I will explain, but first, I really want to say...

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR GREAT MUSIC SUGGESTIONS, I was so amazed with all of your ideas and there were some great new songs in there. I have selected many and loaded them onto my Ipod that I took...on the road to the AUGUSTA 70.3.

What race? That wasn’t on the plan!

Well, let’s just say that at day 1, 2, 3 of training after Muskoka, I realized that I felt particularly good. With the last disappointing race in the back of my mind and good legs, it was going to get dangerous...

And, long story short...I GOT CARRIED AWAY..happens to me sometimes! I did my run practices a bit over pace last week and after I crossed the fictive finish line of my 2 hour run, I thought to myself how nice a real one would feel.

I was thinking: -No pressure, no matter what the outcome, I just REALLY WANT to race, I LOVE IT and I AM HUNGRY- Part of me knew I was not in the best shape ever YET and another part of me thought, that the feeling I had could make anything happen. So I gave it a shot.

On Wednesday, mom and I packed the tri-stuff and, of course, the weiner dogs and migrated south! I was a happy girl. It was the first time in my life, really, that I felt so free about going to a race. I just wanted to go down there, rip my legs and heart out no matter what.

Yes, we DROVE a LONG WAY . The plane tickets were crazy expensive at that point in time and we just figured we would drive and stop on the way to train. We turned it into a road trip and I got to study too! We had fun. Lance had me promise I wouldn’t drive that far to a race again....(I told him a bit late)

Mom is my hero, she didn’t want to let me drive! I really tried, I promise. I had it easy and we arrived in Georgia really relaxed. It actually felt much better than it would have felt getting off a plane. No kidding. It must have been our stop in Christiansburg on the first night. (Pretty funny considering my mom’s name is Christiane!).

THE RACE:

Time flew by and soon, I was standing at the start line. DIVE START! NO WETSUIT!!

Exciting! But not familiar at all! (Laura Bennett on the start line, one point for her? No, I had to fight that! I just had to concentrate and stay RELAXED! Just because I am the one who can dive and immerge without goggles with a silly grin after 20m of the 100m dive sprint sometimes, I had to prove to myself that I could do a good job!)

I am so proud of my race start (so funny, there is a picture of it in the paper and I got to check out my technique!). I knew my main problem was that I always go out too fast and tensed on the swim, and I never swim times like I can do in the pool. So the golden rule for me this time was to just relax and go for long strokes. And I did! It felt so good, almost too safe, but everything was lined up fine! Oh and my time is fast BUT...we were with the current, that helps you know??!!! AMAZING FEELING, try racing that one, one day, YOU WILL LOVE IT!

On to the bike, I still had to catch up with Pip Taylor and Laura Bennett and they had a head start. I got a visual very fast (I went out much too fast) and almost reached Pip when I started to fade. I came off the bike second, maybe one minute or so off Pip. During the bike ride, I thought it would be she, Laura and I for the win. But when I hopped off my bike, I had a bad surprise. All my magical feeling started drifting away slowly as I realized I didn’t have my legs, I thought they may come back and tried ...and got passed... and tried but the legs were gone....I felt like I was in one of those dreams where you run like crazy but go no where!

It was not easy getting passed like that after having been so certain that I was having a good race. I held on the run and ended up 5^th, I think five minutes or so down from the lead. A deception because my best training these days have been on the run and I was about 8 minutes off my goal time for that one.

THE WRAP-UP:

I left Georgia satisfied, in a way....This race is the key to the rest of the build up. First it allowed me to see that my harder last two races were not a result of being tired from the season. It is more that I need to bring my watts back up on the bike and get some fitness back from all those tapers I have been doing lately. I figure once my watts are up on the bike, I will get off a good bike split with legs left for the run. There is a week link I need to get rid of!

SO this is what I have to do. Now there will be no more races before the big one and that is a promise.

It was a nice day out there, a day I got to re-live some nice feelings of fast racing (well, until I started running that is!), and where I got to race along side people that put some sunshine in my day: My team mate and –big brother- Justin Parks was there ( no, he was far ahead, don't get me wrong!) Sara Gross, from Victoria was lots of fun to be around. I also really like Desiree Ficker, it seems like she is a great gal! I saw her cheering for a friend after the race, she has a great energy about her. And how can I forget the magic man, Travis (the one who helped me get all my sponsors!), who was there to support me before the race, it really felt great to have him there. He helped me feel reassured and confident just before the start.

SO WHAT'S NEXT???

Next week, I head out to Victoria to settle there for good!!!! Lance and I figured I should make my move now, so I can get the optimal training environment before Clearwater. I will be moving into my new place there on Monday! (I will be living on the beach! I really think I will like that!). More news about that plan a little later.

Once again, thank you to all for following and posting your comments. Your support has been so helpful...

CHeers guys!

Magali.

The build to Clearwater: DAY 1

I have recovered well from the race and am ready to go!
It feels like the race -woke me up- from a little shut down after my week off and some down time and I am back in business. We shall see!
We had a fun ride back home that helped me get some frustration off my mind. The best way to do so was to feel that I was back to work and starting to train for Clearwater.
Never look back, not only on the course.

My first training after Muskoka was in this beautiful lake we found along the road!





I am writing on day 1 of training before CLearwater, ready to put my running shoes on and head out the door. I am so motivated I had a hard time finding sleep yesterday, I kept on thinking about how I wanted things to go in Clearwater and maybe I shouldn't have looked at my next four weeks of training and watched those Steve Prefontaine running clips on Youtube just before going to bed (bad idea)!
P.S: I never say this but thank you so much for your comments, they really help so much. Thank you particularly to one of you for reminding me about the angels on my right shoulder, the people that support me, cheer for me and follow. You are right, that energy is an amazing source of motivation.
Speaking of comments, I would love to know if you have any ideas of some great training music. I am looking into it. Need to find some new, powerful stuff.
CHEERS. And to those that are also in a final stretch, LET'S GET GOING AND MAKE IT COUNT! Yeaaahh!
Out the door now! Ciao!

The devil on my left shoulder...

These are the thoughts that make me feel good this morning:

How can you get strong without ever facing adversity?

Facing adversity has you face yourself.
Facing yourself is getting to know yourself.
Knowing yourself is what helps you grow.

Now I can even say that, in the long term, I am glad that I had a tough race yesterday. (?). No really!

Yesterday, at Muskoka 70.3. I faced myself.
I am making this look dramatic now. I shouldn't! It was not that bad, I didn't crash, get insured or feel sick. I just had a tough, disappointing day on a beautiful, sunny, race course.
I placed 4th but was a ways from the lead and my times were not at all representative of what I can do in either sport.

I learned so much yesterday though, it is always on those days that you learn the most. I am not happy about certain thoughts that crossed my mind from the moment I came seventh out of the water to the moment I crossed the finish line. I constantly had to re-focus because part of me was very disappointed. I wanted to win and did not want it to go any other way.
I feel I should have been fighting harder, looking ahead and never looking back.
That is the athlete that I want to become. And I do believe that I will be changed by races like yesterday's. I will become tougher.

Swim exit and 300m hill run up to transition.

Getting ready...

With team mate Brent Poulsen.

It is like everything at that race was pointing me in that direction. I was lucky to race along side Lisa Bentley, the greatest example of determination and mental strength. The woman who's strength and determination have never let anything stand in her way and a person who would fight against all odds. I am just getting to know Lisa and am very impressed.
Also competing was Laurel Wassner (Rebecca's twin sister), who overcame Lymphoma some years ago and is now back to racing pro and racing well. Our sport is made of people with such strong minds. It is a big inspiration, it is beautiful, and it makes it the perfect sport to help grow as a person.

To get back to yesterday,

Moments before the start of the race.

Before the race with sister Ariane and her husband Sean St-John.


Dave Cracknell, Husband of Lisa Bentley, was of great support and did a very good job with race organization.Coming out of the water.

Every race is a battle between the angel on your right shoulder and the demon on your left. The thing is, on some days, circumstances have the demon on your left get pretty excited!
Next time I have a day like this, I want to be re-focusing on the task, putting my head down, thinking about moving up, making every second count, believing in nothing else than the power of the effort. The most important thing in the long term.
The truth is, on a given day, as Justin (Parks) would say: - it is what it is- and now I know the real champion is the one who can just -suck it up- and keep on pushing AND keep on believing no matter what.

David McColm an amazing photographer (www.davidmccolm.com) and great guy!!! Sorry David, I didn't represent you in pictures as well as you did with me.


Starting today, I am going to do exactly that. I had a bad race so I will SUCK IT UP and keep on pushing. I am actually very motivated and hungry after yesterday. Hungry to race and train well and hungry to test not only my body but mostly my mind. I should have a great chance to do that very soon as I start my build up and another hard training bout before the big race.
A good race in Clearwater will taste that much better now. BACK TO WORK!!!!

On the road again!

On my way to another Canadian 70.3 and already having some fun in the forest!
Feeling happy, free and starting to be race ready!


The ice baths of nature do not only sooth the body....


There is nothing better for the mind.


The Ice bath was definitely a good idea. Training this week has been demanding since I was given a week off after Timberman. It is always scary when coach Lance takes me off the hook. It is always because he is preparing an evil plan for later. Friends, I did not get back into training this week, I was WHIPPED back into it! And now, I get to savour a little reward for a good week!

It takes at least two to tango. Mom is coming along on this one too , she was part of party number one, by the river somewhere along our 6 hour drive from St-Sauveur to Muskoka.


You can't keep mom away from her wiener dogs, it was clear the deal was that Simeon and Evita would not be left behind!


So yesterday was a day off training, a day of traveling, playing and getting the mind ready to race!

I am waking up this morning on site. Ready to go ride the run course, swim and discover the race site.

There is some good luck and good vibes in the air this morning! Linsey sent me this pic of her Kona Gecko for good luck. She is back to training hard in Hawaii, getting ready for the BIG RACE! GO LINSEY!


Stay tuned for more news from the Muskoka pre-race party!
CHEERS!
Magali.