Sweat Sodium test

As promised, I am giving some feedback about the sweat sodium test.
This test was administered to us yesterday, in order to determine our sweat rate and sodium loss during an endurance exercise. (Blood lactate and glucose were also controled)



We had to swallow a (very big) -pill- before the (hard) swim in the morning...
Apparently, this is a definition of the word pill:
Radio emission device disguised in order for the swallowing by the subject to be less challenging. (That thing had metal cabling it in! YA KNOW!?)

In truth, probably a tracking device for coaches to monitor locker room discussions or monitor our every training activities?
No, actualy, the purpose of this DEVICE (definitely not pill) was to emmitt a radio signal to the black box on the top picture to help track body core temperature during a three hours training ride we would have to do at the PISE lab, later in the day.

Here is the, umm....DEVICE.

So we swam first (I had another good one yesterday! I'm loving it! Starting to really feel good in the water lately!).
Then, we went to the lab and started emptying our body from the water we had in it. OUHHH!
o.k well not exactly...
we were allowed to take in a monitored quantity of drink during the three hours of the test. And considering this, our weight before and after the test helped the scientists track sweat loss.

Here, I didn't know the place I was sitting, beside my bike, would soon be covered with a puddle of my own water.

Brent Poulsen's arms are a good -lab rat- example of how they placed patches over our forearms to monitor salt loss during the test.

AND as the team river started tracing it's way on the lab surface...we drank more of that energy SYRUP (man!! That thing was the most concentrated sports drink I had ever tasted. I actualy think there may have been a 1:1 ratio of powder to water in that one. OUUUH. (They wanted to monitor sodium intake so there was no other choice than to make it so concentrated). I finished the test promising myself I would NEVER, EVER have dessert, EVER again. That was enough sweet stuff for a lifetime.
(Of course, on the way home, Brent Poulsen stopped at the gaz station and I downed a chocolate milk. So much for that resolution huh?) (and I had 3 pieces of chocolate also later)
DID I EVER TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVED CHOCOLATE!

New team member Cliff (still need to get his last name! grrrr...)

The Lab man! James Brotherhood (hope I spelled it right, not so great with last names as you may have noticed)

Nice job at looking pain free Brent!

By Brent's side, Bjorn (last name thing again), the new coaching manager for Lifesport and also Lifesport coach I believe.

Overall, the test was lots of fun. Riding for three hours with the crew. Lots of action around us and with a fun training session to do, three hours went by pretty fast. Oh and there was also my MUSIC. Got some new Trance on my Ipod. Sure helps keep the candence up.
Looking forward to getting the results of the tests and satisfy some curiosity!
Camp goes on now. Today was recovery, tomorrow....will be hard work. Not worried. Always works out great when you are in good company.

Triathlete also came for pictures, that also kept us busy. Fun!

Lisa went home last night though...will be missed, needs to do a trip for sponsors I believe. Was great to have you around Lisa, thanks for the great energy.
More on the camp a little later.
Cheers all! The season starts soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE FUN WORKING HARD!!!
Mags.

Flash Back!

Quick Flash back of the past weeks!


Ice bath moment last week in front of the Mouse Den...a 15minute record. Both my legs went completely numb after 5!!

Mom to the rescue!

What a pleasure it was to get to introduce my new life to mom! I couldn't wait for her and Lucas to step off the plane in Victoria. I would kidnap them, take them down to the beach and show them what they had been missing! My mission was to have mom fall in love with Victoria and have her savour my new life here as much as I do (and secretly, I hoped she would stay...at least for a little longer than the planned six days!). To mom, that was not so important, she was on her own mission: To check on her racer and make sure I was set up right, in my little place that would soon feel like home.

Mom's mission started at the moment she first opened her eyes on day one of her stay: That Bumble bee was sleeping when I left for my early morning swim and...when I got back, she introduced me to a completely re-designed home. I suddenly wondered how long I had been swimming...Ahhh....the angel of decoration had come into my home. It was wonderful and the -home makeover- had only just begun!

As usual, mom spoiled me during her stay, she turned my little place into a wonderful home, made sure I ate all my veggies, made me feel like a spoiled little girl, even took me shopping. Mom will always be mom. No matter how old I get.

Mom's stay went by in a flash and I wish we had more time together...I was very busy training and I wish I could have done more to turn her stay into a beautiful vacation. Unfortunately, the working bumble bee cared little about the word vacation and I just feel like I was the only one to savour the benefits of having a family member around. Still, I think she had fun discovering the beach with Lucas,

I think she also enjoyed getting to know Victoria while testing her new photography skills, oh and... meeting and celebrating with my Victoria family:

She also got along very well with Hillerie's family and the Champions. We were also invited to Lance’s place for an evening. The evening that mom discovered...Lucy’s amazing Chili recipe. The amazing Lucy even revealed her secret chili recipe on a blog post specially dedicated to mom! http://lucysmith.ca/runforjoy/

TRAINING update!

Training has been going SUPER!

Swimming:

Lance's magical feedback!

I have been doing a lot of technical work with Lance and some hard training session with Jasper’s group and it seems it is starting to pay off. I have been working on my swimming using visual feedback from a underwater camera that was sent to be by my friend David Keefe from UP My GAME http://www.upmygame.com/. Lance also brought his own camera to the pool and gave me some good cues. I have to say I even got a 20 minutes, unexpected private Clinique with Rick Say. He gave me a few helpful drills, that was great.

While mom was there, I PB’d on my 400 twice in the same practice. I was sooo happy. Swim is going well and it is one of my top objectives to swim faster this year! We are on the right track.

Running:

10K run!

I did my first 10 K a couple of weeks ago, again, on tired legs. It turned out to be my first win of the year! Had a great time. And actually, Lance also impressed me too.

I keep on pushing on the golden Thursdays. The investment Thursdays. The day I get to deliciously suffer through a hard swim followed by an even harder run that includes tempo AND hill repeats. OUUUH! That is definitely a confidence builder.

The top of the hill on which we do our repeats....we run up to: The CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE. I LOVE the idea!!

And now...

MY BUDDIES ARE IN TOWN!!!! IT's the LIFESPORT PRO CAMP and THE BOOT CAMP HAS BEGUN!!!! HEHEHEHE. IT'S TIME TO GET THE HARD WORK GOING!

Trainer sessions with the Lifesport group!

So welcome to Amanda Stevens, (remember? my pre-Clearwater camp buddy!!), Brent Poulsen (shared some great moments in Maui with the 09 crew (miss you guys!), awesome guy), Lisa Mensink (also in Maui and Kona together last year and definitely helping me push the run recently!), also some new friends, Steven Hewick, Cliff (still need to get his last name!). We are getting some serious work done guys. The last few days include a max bike test, 2 crazy interval run sessions placed two days apart (ouch), long runs, long bike, swim, swim, swim, swim...swim... and the best is yet to come.

Ice bath with my buddies (Brent Poulsen and Lisa Mensink)

Tomorrow is the sweat and salt loss testing. Never done it before. Will have to blog about this, seems quite mysterious. Will make sure to get some good footage tomorrow during that three hour test.

I have many many more things to say but in order to survive I shall now go to sleep.

I will make sure I report on the sweat test session!

Cheers to all! TRAIN HARD!!

Mags.