A Rhinovirus combat and...a great reward

After I got back from Disney, I was attacked by a RHINOVIRUS! An elegant way to say a common cold got me!

I believe the intruder might have snuck into my organism as I was innocently savouring a reward (dark chocolate brownie and coffee) at the airport in Florida on my way back from the race. I ate sitting under a strong AC vent and was cold, that might have had something to do with it. I'm sure it was that AC vent! Or maybe the person beside me in the plane that was looking green and sneezing through her sleep!

That is why the last couple of days have required an extra effort for training. What I cought was nothing major, but it doesn’t take much to drag you down after a race! My cold stayed with me for a couple of days, and caused me to stare at a box of Kleenex placed on my profile on the Thursday trainer ride (I have to remember this, it will make me feel lucky next time Lance plans a torture session on the trainer). When the Rhinovirus was at it’s peak, it did cause me to have to dig deep in order to complete my trainings. I decided to fight through the training but to get alot of sleep to compensate: it worked.

I believe my secret potion had something to do with it. My grand-ma’s recipe! (I only like to take pills when I really have to). This is the potion that has always worked for me.
The idea is simple:

Boil some water
Chop some ginger root and lemon and let them infuse
Add some honey (if you are like me, you will put alot of it in there)

Worked for me more than once!

So today is tuesday night and here are the news:
1-I beat the Rhinovirus and got the first important trainings in to get ready for Boise
2-School is going very well this week.
3- I GOT MY NEW RIDE TODAY!!!

How do you like it!??

I was one happy girl!
I don't have the front race wheel yet though but I can't complain!
Remember how I said Marinoni did custom bikes? I got to choose every component of this one and discuss all the paint work with Simone Marinoni. She did a good job!

Philippe Arseneault, another friend from Marinoni, introduced the new wheel brand to me. The race wheels I will have on my new bike are -fast forward-. More popular in europe but an amazing brand. The disk wheel is very light and all carbon. Here, Philippe shows me the wheel that was designed for track cyclists. At first I thought it was my new front wheel...awwwww.

The boys worked hard to get my bike all put together today

Later, the very trusted Robert made sure I was positioned just like I was on my old TTC bike

I would have stayed there all afternoon riding it on the trainer....unless that is what I though BEFORE I TOOK HER FOR A SPIN OUTSIDE!!! This bike is half a pound lighter than my old mate and we have chosen a triathon saddle, which is longer and more padded in the front, allowing me to move forward very favorably in an aero position .
Some other things about the bike make it magic. They are just all the other things I felt when I took her for her first spin outside the Marinoni factory!

The revenge of number 55!

Florida 70.3 was quite an experience! Short and sweet!

It was a three hour flight into Florida with mom!

She enjoyed making fun of my compression sock golfer look but other than that, she behaved o.k!
:)



Bree!!You see! I followed your advice, here is mom as the luggage slave! hehe

5 hours after having left St-Sauveur, we were arriving at the gate at Disney world!



After getting lost in Disney for a bit and getting an involuntary tour of the place, we made it to the great caribbean beach resort. It really felt like an optimal set up for my St-Croix revenge! The concept of the resort was to make you feel like you were in the carribean islands.


Again, a steel band was playing in the hall for check-in. We were assigned the Aruba part of the resort, and were given the -finding Nemo-room, in building 55. Ah...number 55 was going to be with me for the week-end!

But the day was still young at that point and we still had to go to registration, get two short trainings in, talk to Lance and eat!

And things were not going to be so simple! Lance had warned me that getting in on friday would make things more stressful and he was right. Some unexpected things happened. It turns out they wouldn't let us in to go to registration, we had to go to a designated parking with that had the name of one of the seven dwarfs and were handed another map to get there. We got to the parking and hopped on a shuttle back to point A (the transition zone). At that point we had not found our secret parking strategy yet!


The good thing about taking the shuttle is that I met my old friend David Gagnon, a triathlete from Quebec I train with when I joined my first triathlon team (Université Laval rouge et or). He was on the waiting list for the Pan Am games but ended up doing this race because he too was so hungry to race!



At registration, I was a happy girl because I was handed my St-Croix number all over again, 55!

I grabbed my bag and we were on the way back to the resort where I got my two trainings done (this includes spraining my ankle running a loop in the grass around the resort and nearly having a couple of heart attacks trying to do laps in the wierd shapped pool, bombarded by kids doing canon ball competitions (actualy, I was told there was no other place to swim before the race, the lake was closed until race day and there were no serious swimming pools!).
Nevertheless, I was feeling good after those trainings, like a grass hopper eager to race.
After all that action I did my pep talk with coach. And that is always great before a good night's sleep.

Oh! How could I forget! I also had a message from the Lifesport team on friday saying they had just received the triathlon jerseys and were trying to get one to me for the race!

SATURDAY

Saturday went by in a blink! I got to make sure I knew the bike course, then get my bike adjusted, check into transition, do my trainings, go to the pro meeting and get some rest. (Yes, that was also in the schedule!)
I also finaly met Travis Blanton, my new friend who's mission is to help me work on a plan for sponsorship and work on some details to help me start up my new pro career.


He has already helped me so much! He did a great job motivating me for the race too. He is also a great athlete and dad and was participating on sunday. That didn't stop him from making sure my bike was all set and giving me a short pep talk before the start on sunday!

Studying the course.....

I also received my surprise when I got back to the -Nemo room-(the beautiful jersey!) along with a note of encouragement. I am such a lucky girl to have my Lifesport team rooting for me in that way! And I still can't figure out how they managed to get that to me on time for the race!!


RACE DAY!

The alarm went off at 4:30 am but I was up and ready to go at 4:00. It was fun to see many of the pro women from the St-Croix race in the transition zone that morning, these included my teammate Lisa Bentley, aswell as Joanna Lawn, Nina Kraft and Erin O'Hara.


As we stood on the beach in the darkness, I was feeling strong and concentrating on the strategy I had planned to have a good swim. The music they had on was nice and loud and I got real pumped up!




Until the gun, it was still pretty dark and I kind of liked that! When the gun went off, I aimed for the group of swimmers I needed to chase. This time, I was able to hold them longer but at one point, I put my head down to push harder and when I looked up again I had lost them! I was on my own again for a while until the pack including Lisa Bentley pulled up to my left. We swam much of the distance together. At the end, I pulled away but not significantly. There was nothing to do but stay focused and stay positive and that is what I did.


Thanks to Louis Mc Neill for the wonderfull pics taken at the swim finish!



I ran out of the water as fast as I could. The run to the transition was long and we got cheared by the croud along the way, which always helps! After a -better than St-Croix-transition, I headed onto the bike course. Twenty minutes in, I caught a visual on Joanna Lawn and Amy Marsh and kept it to help me maintain a good pace. Slowly, I moved up and by the end of the bike, I was in second place and in the transition with Joanna and Amy.
It was great to get a visual on the other competitors at the turn arounds, the race was great in that way. Time flew by because there were so many things happening on the bike course (this even included distractions such as having to slow down to allow some very proud long legged birds cross the highway in a careless way. Those birds were bigger than me!), there was not so much wind and I was just feeling fast, trying to keep my cadence up and calories in!

Getting off the bike, I had never felt so good. My legs still felt strong and I thought I could take a chance and run fast right away. I had never felt so good coming off the bike so I went for it. I was second now and was going to go for it.




Unfortunately, I did not hold that pace and faded at each of the three loops. I am glad I went for it though....I got caught by Joana on the last loop, tried to hold her for a while and then she moved away, there was nothing I could do.
I really liked that run course! There was a long stretch in the grass that made me recall our baldwin park trainings in Maui and I was actualy able to use that for motivation during that part of the race!
I ended up crossing the finish line in third place and that was good!
That was a festive finish! I was greated with flowers and a bottle of champagne which we popped and sprayed all over each other. There were a couple of sips left in there for mom who had spent the day in the sun. Let's just say she had a taste....

Here is a picture taken with Joanna after the race! A really nice gal!

The awards ceremony!

Where my friend Laura Keefe, an amazing girl and Lifesport athlete, got her spot for Clearwater. Here she is with her husband and supporter, David.

A new plan!

There is one little thing I didn't mention in yesterday's post:
As I stared at the Beast with my gear hanging on the front of my profile, I realized I didn't know what I was going to do with all that hunger to race! I went on the run course and ran my legs out for a bit, but it was not enough. The only thing that was going to help me get rid of that feeling was to elaborate a new exciting plan and to start thinking about the next race plan. Several athletes in St-Croix had told me how they were racing in Florida next, but that registration was closed even to the pros.
The idea stayed in the back of my mind though....and once again, coach Lance was the echo that made it all happen. As I stood at the airport in Montreal, waiting for my luggage, I received a text: 'What do you think about racing in Florida?'. That was my signal! Once again, it didn't take much to convince me. I was going to get my revenge!

So here is the mental image I have of my next race destination:


Fun, no?? The race is taking place in Disney World! Florida 70.3 should be fun!
I leave on Friday and am taking along my number one fan (mom). I will have to make this a short trip because of school but it will really be exciting. We will be staying at the Carribean beach resort, in what apparently is a pirate like decor. (Right on for my St-Croix revenge!)
I am confident about the race. I have been feeling strong lately and I feel Lance has been holding me back on the really hard trainings (seems like he wants me to be even more hungry to race!!) It will help me to have mom there along with my homeys from Maui!! Remember Justin and Brent! They will be racing with me too!

St-Croix! Inspiring...

A cycling coach and friend (Pierre Hutsebaut) once handed me this piece of paper. I have always kept it, because bad days happen and a bit of philosophy can quickly turn a bad day into a day to remember.


My bike!

A short Island adventure

Within minutes of arriving in the festive St-Croix atmosphere, I had met a new friend. Ed Staats, my very devoted homestay greated me with a smile, looking as excited as I was about the race. Poor Ed, it must have taken an hour for the lay back island dudes to get our luggage across the 100 meters that separated the plane from the luggage belt. That was the first time I noticed that the concept of stress was relatively unfamiliar to the people of St-Croix.

Ed at the airport

After having waited for a while, I turned to give an apologetic look to Ed and found him still smiling and chatting with friends, as a St-Croix resident, he too had forgotten about the concept of stress long ago! There was a local bar tender surving drinks to my right and an Island steel band lightening up the atmosphere to my left. I was now in the place where an hour of waiting can just become a blessing.



Ed took me –home- to Mount Welcome. The house was located just 5 minutes out of Christiansted, where the transition was. Upon my arrival, I met his lovely wife (and triathlete!) Linda and their two cats.



The Island attitude

On the days leading up to the race, I have to say, I felt something was different. Racing on an Island was not going to be an ordinary experience and I would actually have to work hard to get my stress level up and ready for the race!




Shame on me!I felt so guilty! I was feeling too relaxed! I somehow turned into one of those-cool Island dudes -myself and didn’t quite feel the nerves usually experienced before a race. It might have been the heat that lead me to that appreciative attitude. How could I have felt the stress when I woke up every morning perched on Mount Welcome, admiring the swim course I could see so well. The delicious food Linda cooked didn’t help me find my stress nor did the informal way things were organized in general. The race organizing reflected it all: I recall a Pro race briefing with a lot of laughs on lawn chairs. The perfect blend: Organized yet somewhat informal. Let's call it Island efficiency.



St Croix festivities

In the two evenings leading up to the race, Ed made sure we (housemate Fernanda Keller and I), were invited to the Island race related parties (yes, in St-Croix, you have the option to party before the race, after the race or throughout. It was a great opportunity for me to meet other athletes.

The most memorable party of them all was the–JUMP UP-. The evening of the jump up (Friday night), Christiansted came to life in a celebration of the race. I had a lot of fun as other members of the lifesport crew were also there. Here are some shots taken at the Jump up.



I loved the way the race was put on, old school style. You would show up with your bike on the morning of the race. Everything flowed so simply, again, no stress there.
So there I was, on the morning of the race, waking up from my reoccurring pre-race dream that I missed the start, lying through the wonderful feeling of a second chance. I love having those dreams, when they happen, I can show up at the race feeling so lucky I am at the start line!

I had talked to coach Lance the day before and felt prepared, everything was on track. (Talking to Lance is a must before every race, I need some Lance magic. It just seems he knows exactly what to say so I am really motivated! It’s always different but it always works.)
So I rode down mount pleasant to my hot Island race that morning. In transition people were smiling and friends from Quebec waved and wished me luck, the atmosphere was still so relaxing! I needed some stress at that point! Somebody wake me up!

Friends, luckily for me, the sound of the gun woke me up! When the first alarm doesn’ t do the job, you can always be sure that one will. A couple of kicks and slaps in the face from fellow competitors, two or three sea lice bites and salt water breath intakes were my cup of coffee and I was on my way to fight.


Well awake and fighting at this point, I got out of the water, hungry for that bike course, so curious, anxious to see how I could do on a hilly course, how my heat training sessions were going to pay off and how it was going to feel to climb the legendary BEAST.

THE EVIL FORCE



After a transition I rather not talk about (coach Lance might not have been so proud), I was on my way. At mile 10 of the bike, I was feeling perfect, I was comfortable yet pushing hard, hydrating and eating as planned and ready, soon to discover the legendary beast. That is when the evil force hit me!
I started to hear the rattling of a loose screw on my bike. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from and tryed to stay-focused on my effort. Then the gears started downshifting alone in a ghostly manner: I would hold on to the shifter at the end of the aerobar with all my strength and the moment I let it go a bit it would shift all the way down to the hardest gear in a brutal manner! It really felt spooky.
Fast enough, I realize that if I wanted to finish the bike course, I was going to have to do it on the aerobars 100% of the time, pulling on the gear so they stayed at the one I had selected. I convince myself that it was possible to do it (I had no other choice).



The gears shifted down in a moment of distraction, I faught them back up, lifted my head, turned right and realize it was time to attack-THE BEAST-. BAD TIMING!I started climbing, holding on to my shifter like it was the most precious thing in the world and convinced myself I could climb it sitting...a couple of meters later...I was convincing myself that there was a way to stand on my pedals AND hold on the the shifter at the end of my aerobar...another couple of meters later, I realized that I was unfortunately not a contortionist and that the shifter was no longer sitting at the end of the aerobars. It was dangling at the end. Bang-bang-bang...downshift to hardest gear, my eyes direct themselves to the 21% grade indication on the floor. OOPS I’m TOAST. My race is over and there is nothing I can do about it. That was definitely a hard moment. I had to sit at the bottom of my beloved beast and look at athletes attack the hill as I waited for a truck to pick me up.




Luckely, the Island attitude came back to me as the men that picked me up were having a party in the pick-up. It really helped me try to get my smile back, in time.

That was my race day at the St-Croix 70.3. The climb of my beast, the run fight on the golf field at the buckeneer hotel, and the finish running through the stilts of those humongus Island dolls will be for next year. I WILL BE BACK. AND I know how hungry I am for that race now!

Thank you to my new friend, Ramon Serrano (from Ramser1photo.com), for the beautiful pictures!