Latest Race Plans

Spring has Sprung? Let’s hope so….. ‘When it's cold like this the body is not moving like it should." That is what Festus Langat, the winner of this year’s Vancouver Sun Run, said when he finished the race. I have to agree with him. This past week will go down in my history books as one of the more challenging weeks of the year so far. I am going to chalk it up to cold weather not letting my body move like it should. (Maybe it was just that simple.) Training has been decent up until last week. I even went so far as to say, “this is the best week of training in a long time.” But after last Friday, I guess I spoke too soon.

I think a combination of factors led to me hitting a bit of a mental, physical, and emotional wall this past week, and I sort of blew up. The snow we had to deal with on both Saturday morning and then again on Wednesday morning made things even worse. Of all 10 years I have lived in Penticton, I have never experienced snow so late in the year. I think the last snowfall we had this year was in late February, but don’t quote me on that. The good news is I sorted through all my problems and had a really great training weekend with the help of a bunch of guys from town. But they are not just any guys, though, but a group very talented men - Tom Evans, Olly Piggin, Dave Matheson, Greg, Harold, Marty, Des, the other Tom, Scott and the list goes on. I am pretty lucky to have such high caliber local athletes here, and I am even luckier when I can manage to hang in since they don’t take pity on anyone.

I was planning on racing earlier this season, but things don’t always turn out exactly as you plan. Instead of traveling to far off countries, I decided to keep building my base fitness and put all my eggs in one basket in terms of trying to qualify for Beijing. My first World Cup race this year will be the Madrid World Cup, and then I will compete in World Champs in Vancouver. To have a bit of race prep before I hit those major races, I am doing a few local ones. Next weekend I will run in the Vancouver Half Marathon. I don’t have any expectations for this race except a really great workout. With only about six weeks of solid running under my belt, it will be interesting to see how a half feels. I always like to do the longer stuff because then it makes those 10 km in the triathlon feel like nothing. The following weekend I am going to take part in the Bare Bones Duathlon (5km run/32 km bike/5km run). This race takes place in Penticton. Ouch, I can feel the pain as I type this. It will be great to see how fast I can run those 5 km legs.

The other great thing happening this week is the arrival of my good friend and fellow competitor Samantha Warriner from New Zealand. She just won the World Cup race over in South Korea on the weekend. We always have a lot of fun training together, so I am excited to have her around for the month.

I hope you are all enjoying the longer days of spring. Jill