PIH - Thetis Lake Relay

November 11, 2009

This is the third year that I have participated in the Thetis Lake Relay.  It's a fun event that transforms an individual sport into a team event - with teams of up to 4 people completing 4 laps around upper and lower Thetis Lakes.  The total distance is approximately 20 km (each lap is just under 5 km).  This year I entered with a team of 3 other fast PIH women: Julie Van Veelan, Camie Bentham and Claire Morgan. I was looking forward to the event, knowing that we had a chance of placing.  It's amazing how popular this race is - there were 149 teams with 600 people participating.  It's great to see such a low-key event (where everyone is responsible for timing themselves) see so much interest.

About a week before the event, I went for a run at Thetis Lake in the pouring rain.  It was an incredibly soggy run, and there were puddles everywhere. If the day of the Relay was anything like this one, I thought, it would be one wet run.

Luckily, the day of the Relay was beautiful. I woke up and was amazed to see the sun shining outside.  Shane and I got to the race just barely in time for the start.  I wasn't running until the second leg, so I wasn't pressed for time, but as Shane was running solo, he barely had enough time to register, get into his running attire and down some liquid before the start.  5-4-3-2-1- and they were off.  I jogged over to see the start, and then I headed out for a warm-up run.  I'm not always consistent in doing a warm-up before a race, but I usually do them before either a short race or a hilly one.  As I'd been battling some tiredness in the past few days, I was curious to see how my body would feel.  I did a 15 minute warm-up and didn't feel too tired.  I had just enough time to make it to the start line to see Julie bounding along the beach to the transfer point.  Then, I was off.

I knew that out of my team, I was the slowest runner, but I hoped to be able to push hard and have times not too far off of theirs.  Immediately, my breathing became laboured, as I pushed to get into a rhythm.  One young boy passed me during the first few hundred meters of the lap, but shortly thereafter I passed him back, as he had slowed down quite a bit.

I enjoyed the first half of the course.  The trail winded around, with a few small undulations up and down- it  wasn't too mucky, although there were definitely a few muddy sections.  I kept pretty consistent with the other racers around me as I rounded the lakes.  I passed a few people, but wasn't passed by anyone else during this first section.  I knew these trails fairly well, but I was still surprised to see the half-way mark sign.  At that point I thought that for sure I was further than half-way.  I already felt tired, and think I went out too fast, as I didn't feel that I would be able to sustain that pace for the rest of the loop.  It's a short loop, but it still provides the possibility of a start that is too fast to maintain- especially since the last part of the course is the hardest.

As I rounded my way past Upper Thetis Lake towards Lower Thetis Lake, I knew that the three bugger hills still lay ahead.  While these aren't particularly large hills, they are steep and definitely take something out of you at the end of your race.  During this loop, I had managed to pass a few people, slowly decreasing the gap between myself and them.  It was fun to spot someone up ahead that I thought I could pass, and try to narrow the gap and finally pass them.  Near the end of the race, I had been running near one other woman, although I hadn't been able to pass her.  As we crossed the last bridge, I gave a little push and made my way past her.  However, next came the first of the three hills.  The first one nearly took it out of me and I felt like I might vomit.  The woman who I'd just passed ran past me up the hill.  On each of the subsequent hills, I would catch up to her on the downhill and she would make up some distance on the up hills.  After the last hill, there was a nice amount of sustained downhill.  I was able to let my legs go as I descended, and made my way past her just at the end of the loop.  I ran onto the sand and knew that my loop was almost over.  I passed onto Camie, and made my way to the side to catch my breath.

I was pretty happy with how I'd run - finishing in 21.22 - and I was especially elated that I hadn't felt too tired during my lap.  After finishing, I headed out for a second lap, at a more controlled pace.  It was interesting to watch the other racers from a non-racer perspective.  I was surprised that during my cool-down lap I still managed to pass a few people.  It was interesting to observe my competitive spirit - even though I wasn't racing, if I observed someone up ahead who I thought I could pass, I would pick up the pace to get by.   Even going at a slower pace, the three hills at the end still took it out of me.  I was happy to see the beach up ahead, as I finished my run.

I went and stood in the lake for five minutes, as I waited for Shane to finish his race.  He came by in just over 1:10, good enough for first place in the solo category.  Then, we waited to see Claire finish it off for our team.  Overall our total time was 1:21:08.  Good enough for second in our category of Senior Women.  It was a fabulous day - no rain, fairly mild, and not too muddy on the trails.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and I was happy to have raced a solid race with such other speedy women.

Now I have a couple of weeks off of racing, and then three in a row to finish off my racing season for the year: PIH Gunner Shaw, Gunner Shaw in Vancouver and PIH Stewart Mountain.

Training - and the importance of sleep

This fall I decided to get more structured about my training.  For the past few years, I have been active most days: running, biking or using those horrible machines in the gym. However, I did not have any kind of training schedule - my workouts just fell into place, without much thought.  I increased my running from 1-2 days a week to 3-4 days a week, but again this was done haphazardly.  I had a speed session that I completed on Tuesdays, runs on the weekends (usually about 1 hour in length), and maybe one other run thrown into the mix [in the winter this was often a shorter run on the treadmill, in the summer I was more consistent about doing another run on the trails].

Last year, I saw some good improvements in my running, and achieved personal bests in almost all of my races.  But, in the last 8 months or so, my training has not been regimented and my speed has not changed.  My desire to build my speed motivated me to get more serious about my training, mix things up a bit and develop more of a program to guide my training.

Now, I'm no expert in developing training plans, but I did some searching on the Internet for examples of plans, thought about the goals I want to achieve, and based on this, started putting something together.  The essential elements of the plan are: to run more often, to specifically include recovery days of easier running, and to include 3 good efforts each week: one speed session, one tempo run (of at least 1 hour in length), and one long run (at a consistent effort, not too easy).

Taking this step has re-ignited my passion for running and gives me hope that if I can stay consistent in my training, I can become a faster runner.

In the past, the one element that has hampered my training is tiredness.  This is something that we all struggle with at some point (unless you are one of those amazing individuals who only needs 4-5 hours of sleep). Myself, for optimum performance and strenght I need about 9 hours of sleep each night.  However, this is sometimes difficult to get.  When I was younger, I used to be very structured in my sleep regimen, and my frirends knew not to call me after 9pm, as I would be in bed.  However, in recent years, my sleep schedule has lost its structure, my body has lost its ability to always sleep well - thus resulting in less than optimum sleep.  After weeks of sleep depletion, my body begins to break down, and I am no longer able to push hard on my efforts and my runs feel like a waste of time.  Although I am going through the motions, I don't feel like it's having any benefit.  Running becomes a struggle. 

I've been going through one of these bouts lately, and it's always frustrating.  I want to put in a hard effort, and nothing comes.  I'm hoping that I can get over it soon, and get back to my rested state.  I'm running the Thetis Relays this afternoon - so we'll see how I feel.  Hopefully I'll be able to push hard throughout.

We all know that as athletes sleep is essential.  We need to feed our bodies well through good nutrition and proper rest.  However, while we usually are better at feeding our bodies, sleep and rest often don't get the full attention they should.  Life often gets in the way and sleep gets pushed off - or because of stress, our bodies can't fully relax.  It's a lesson that I'm still trying to learn.  While life will continue to get in the way and push on my sleep needs, being cognizant of what my body needs to perform well (in terms of sleep) and trying to stick to that as much as possible will help.

Here's to a good night's rest for everyone!