Maui Training Camp Video

This is my first try making a video so I need some practice.. but here's a little look into our training camp so far.

New Year Update

Rough life I have, 2 trips to Hawaii in the past 3 months! Lots has happened between my last update in Kona and our current training camp in Maui. Here’s a quick recap and some pictures from the past few months.

After Kona I took a trip to the Nike World Headquarters in Portland, Oregon. This was an incredible place and it was cool to see what goes on behind the scenes in the Nike world. We went to the employee store for a big shopping trip, which was super fun and I came home 3 bags heavier. I met some awesome athletes there too, like really really fast runner Shalane Flanagan who won the US Olympic Marathon trials today!

Next I went home to Edmonton to have Lasik MD eye surgery. I’ve had bad luck with my contact lenses falling out in races, either from getting whacked in the goggles during the swim, or having them pop out on the bike when my eyes get dry. I’ve had a lens fall out in 5 of the 8 WCS races I’ve done in the past few years, so this was important to get done and was honestly a huge life changer for me. 10 minutes in and out of the “operating room” and I can see 100% perfectly. Just had to wear these rockin' sun glasses around for a few days and not swim for a week. Easy.

A few weeks later I flew to Toronto for the Olympic Excellence Series and Media Summit. This was a great opportunity to meet other Canadian athletes from other sports and get a good idea of what the Olympic Games will be like. It was followed by 2 full days of media and interviews, which was a bit exhausting but important to do. I also went with Simon to the opening of the new Nike store in downtown Toronto where they put us on the wall! It was super cool.

I was back in Victoria after that for a good block of training before going home for Christmas break. I spent the holidays in Canmore and Edmonton, doing lots of relaxing and visiting friends and xcountry skiing. Nike generously gave me tickets to a few of the World Junior Hockey games over the holidays, which were fun to watch. The atmosphere in there was crazy exciting. If only Canada loved triathlon as much as they love hockey!

Now I’m in Maui for our January training camp and it’s been awesome so far. Training is so much easier when it’s warm and sunny, and there’s a great group of 7 girls working well together. I didn’t do very much outdoor riding this fall so it’s been good to get back on the bike for some longer rides. My body is sore and achy and tired, but it definitely feels good! We also got to swim with the U of A team at the end of their Maui camp and it was nice to see some old friends.

Hoping this kicks off a good year ahead. My number one priority is to stay consistent and injury free, which I've discovered it much easier said than done!

Thanks for reading,

Paula

Ironman

For the first time in my life I packed my bags and got on an airplane to go somewhere hot NOT for a race or a training camp. It was weird to travel somewhere just to relax and have fun but it was definitely needed! Specialized invited the team to the Ironman World Champs in Kona to help promote the release of the new Shiv. It was cool to have most of the Specialized athletes together, I got to know each of them a lot better and it was a really cool event. They also gave us each our own Shiv, so I got to try out a TT bike for the first time ever. I was nervous since it feels quite different than a road bike, but as soon as we got onto the highway I got much more comfortable. These bikes can fly!

I felt so spoiled and lucky all week long and a few years ago I never would have dreamed having such a unique opportunity. I was swimming the Ironman course with Emma Snowsill and Jan Frodeno, hanging out at the Oakley house getting a bunch of new goodies, riding the fastest triathlon bike ever made, having breakfast at Lava Java with some of the best triathletes on the planet and meeting lots of cool people!

Thanks to the Specialized crew for the amazing trip- I’m so lucky to be supported by such an enthusiastic and talented group of people. I definitely want to go back to Kona again, I can see why people get so hooked on Ironman. I just might have to do it myself someday!

Paula

Season Wrap Up

I was in full on catch-up mode after the London race. I felt motivated and confident that I could be back to my old self by Beijing, but I knew it would be hard work. I jammed in as much training as possible, ignoring that I was feeling tired and slow at every workout, and thinking that it was just part of getting fit again. I had a very disappointing race at nationals in Kelowna where my running just didn’t feel normal. My injury was under control, although I knew that it wasn’t completely healed. Still, I put my head down for 2 more weeks before our departure for Beijing, hoping that somehow everything would come together in time.

Our set up in Beijing was absolutely perfect, and we had an awesome group of staff helping us with everything we needed. Still, I was stressing all week about not being ready, and I really wasn’t excited to race. Our group had a big crash while riding the bike course a few days before the race, leaving me with a giant bruise on my hip and a sore shoulder. I tried to be optimistic and positive all week as that was all I could do at that point, but in the back of my mind I was terrified. Not the nervous-excited that I usually feel, but actually scared of racing.

The race itself was a disaster from the start. No energy, sore shoulder, and tired. Just like in training for the past 4 weeks. I was about a minute back out of the water, but I reminded myself how many times packs come together on the bike, so I started chasing hard. I got to the giant hill and had ZERO energy. I was getting dropped by the girls around me and I couldn’t do anything about it. Frustrating! As I came in around the first lap I couldn’t even fathom getting up the hill again. I actually would have tipped over. So I made the awful and embarrassing decision to pull over. Rode back to the hotel, called my mom, and cried for about 10 hours. I changed my flight from Yokohama to Edmonton, and came home to decide if I had the energy or desire to train for 5 more weeks for the Pan Am games. This situation looked very familiar to my panic catch-up after London, which clearly did not work out well for me. I decided that it was not worth the risk of failing again, I couldn’t mentally deal with another bad race, and my body was telling me that it needed a break.

I did have some great races this season and next year is much more important, but I’m still really sad about such a disappointing finish to my season. At one point I had a realistic chance of finishing on the podium at the World Championships, and I slowly slid down the rankings after every race. I received a really nice message from Malindi Elmore, an Olympic track athlete in Canada who I’ve always looked up to. “You have proven you can be the best in the world and you need to believe that every day now. Every champion has setbacks, raising from them is what makes your successes even more meaningful.” I haven’t won anything for a while, but I’ll appreciate it so much more now, if I ever win anything again! Despite the disappointments, I’ve learned so much in these past few months and I think that it has left me even better prepared for 2012. Plus, it has taken some of the media pressure and attention away. No one wants to interview a DNF ;)

Not to make it sound like I just won an Oscar, but there are some very important people that I’d like to thank. My wonderful therapists who I’ve worked with this year, Kim, Sam, Joelle and Marilyn, thank you for working hard to keep me moving! Michelle, I couldn’t have gone through this year without you. Linda, my strength coach, Bill, my swim coach at U of A, and of course Patrick, my patient and understanding coach who deals with my grumpiness every day. My sponsors, family and friends, you are all awesome. Triathlon Canada, thanks for supporting me and believing in my potential. There is a big team behind me and I know don’t always give them the credit they deserve.

I’m off to Kona in a few weeks to hang out with the Specialized crew at the Ironman World Championships, which I’m excited about! After that, I’m back in Victoria to start getting ready for next year.

Through the ups and the downs, thanks to everyone who has been a part of my rollercoaster year. Actually, it was more like a water slide. Started off high and ended low. But anyways, I appreciate the support through it all.

Paula

London Report

A little late but here it goes…
The hip injury that forced me out of the Edmonton world cup ended up sticking around for our entire pre-London training camp in France. Pulling out of Edmonton was a good decision, but it didn’t miraculously cure my hip. I still had a frustrating injury to deal with, and I foolishly thought that a few days rest would have me back up and running again. My body had other plans, and I went through a difficult 3 weeks of highs and lows, seeing very little progress forward. I like going to training camps and working so hard that I go to bed exhausted every day, but this camp was very different. Almost every ride I did was “easy”, and my longest run was just 2 days before we left for London. 5 x (2min run, 1 min walk). Fantastic.

Things started to turn around on the last few days of the camp. I could walk and bike pain-free for the first time in a long while, and my mini-runs didn’t aggravate anything. I’m not sure what made me think that I could possibly race a full triathlon on Saturday, but my competitiveness and love for racing made me determined to at least start the race. Of course my expectations were much lower than usual, and I promised to pull out of the race the second that I felt that I was making the injury worse. For some reason I thought that just maybe I could squeeze out a top 8 to secure a spot on the Olympic team. The truth is, coming into the most competitive race of the year severely underprepared is a bad idea. Also, going into a race uncertain if you’ll be able to finish makes it very hard to mentally prepare for success. Still, I wanted to be familiar with the course incase I’m back for the Olympics next year and take as many positives out of the experience as I could.

So I started. And I finished. My hip was pain-free on the run so I was determined to finish the race, because dropping out at this point would have only been because I was doing badly, and this is not a good reason to pull out of a race. I heard someone say as I ran by “I’ve never seen her run that slow before!”… Yes, that’s how slow I was running. I could hear people’s full conversations as I passed by. I absolutely hated being passed by the other girls and watch them pull away from me while my legs wouldn’t respond. This is not something that I’ve experienced before in a triathlon, and it’s very mentally defeating! I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay with the leaders, but in all honestly I didn’t think that I’d do THAT badly, and naturally I was upset and frustrated after the race. Only 8 points separate Barbara, Andrea and I, and a few places higher would have put me back in the lead. So close!!

I decided before the race that regardless of the outcome, I needed to walk away from the experience happy with my decision and with a positive outlook on everything. I certainly didn’t want to leave London with a bad taste in my mouth, as I hope to be back here next year and I want to be excited and as best prepared as possible for this event. I’m now familiar with the course, the transition area, the layout of the venue, our accommodation and our logistics coming into the race. I also learned how to deal with media attention surrounding an upsetting and unfortunate circumstance, so this was good practice too. Another major positive is that my sister was in London for my race, so it was lots of fun to hang out with her and explore London after the race.

I’m back in Victoria now with 5 weeks to get my running legs back. Thankfully the race on Saturday did no further damage and I’m cautiously building up my running again. I always thought that having good results was the best motivation for me to keep training hard, but I was wrong. Having bad races is the best fuel for the fire, and I’m extremely determined to be back at my best again in Beijing.

Thanks for the support, as always.

Paula

Tough Decision

Well this is a lot less fun to write then a post-race victory report!

I started feeling some pain in my right hip on a run last Thursday, but didn't think much of it. I did the usual ice, roller, massage to keep it under control. I trained for the rest of the week with the pain not going away, but not getting any worse. I arrived in Edmonton and took a few days off running with the hopes that it would settle down. My dad arranged a precautionary MRI, just to confirm that it wasn't a stress fracture. The MRI was completely unnotable. No fracture, not even any inflammation or irritation visible in the muscles or tendons. I was relieved that it was nothing serious, but confused as to why "nothing" could be so painful! Certain that I'd be okay to race, I spent the next few days getting treatment and resting. I had an ultrasound the day before the race to see if there was any tear in the muscle that was not visible in the MRI, and they found a tiny 0.5 cm strain. Again, nothing major, but enough to cause some pain. I decided that I would wait until race morning to see how it felt, but I think I knew in the back of my mind all along that running would not be a smart idea.

I had a whole city excited about my recent success and looking forward to watching me race at home, and I let them down. My friends came down with T-shirts and signs, and I let them down too. I've been so touched by how understanding everyone has been. It really is about the big picture at this point, and I need to be healthy for London in August. This feels like a big deal today and I'm so sad, but hopefully I can look back in a few weeks and be happy with my decision. It's a small bump in what has been a pretty awesome road so far.

Thanks for understanding everyone, and thank you to everyone who worked so hard to try to get me ready in time. I'm in very good hands!

See you on the start line in London, healthy and ready to go.

Paula

Kitzbuhel Race Report

Kitzbuhel was my very first WCS race back in 2009. I went into it feeling way over my head and more nervous than ever. It was a great learning experience and I finished in 16^th place, relieved and satisfied. I was back in 2010 just 3 weeks after my breakthrough win in London, wanting to prove to myself that London wasn’t a fluke, but with no expectations to win again. Having some success in this race 2 years in a row, I was excited to compete again on the very familiar course. I recovered quickly after Madrid and was feeling back to normal within a few days, so we had a pretty hard week of training between the two races. This worried me a bit when Wednesday rolled around and I was feeling extremely tired and sore, but I took a few light days and was feeling okay by Saturday. Just in time!

I chose to start on the very far right, which looked like the shortest line to the first buoy. Unfortunately some of the faster swimmers decided to start about 20 spots away from me. The gun went off and I had clear water, but no fast feet to latch onto. I could see the girls on my left pulling away and I desperately wished that I had been closer to them. I tried to make the best of it and sprint the first 400 meters to the buoy, but I arrived there with about 40 friends, and the familiar washing machine began. I was pulled and dunked, but kept calm and slowly made my way around. I was working really hard for the whole 1500 meters, feeling very uncomfortable and having a hard to time finding feet to draft on. I swam most of the time on the outside by myself, which is definitely slower, but a little less chaotic. I came out much further back than I would have liked, but knew that I had a good bunch of girls around me to help bridge any gap to the leaders.

I got on the bike and immediately the pace was ON. The packs came together within a few minutes after some pretty hard chasing. At that time I had no idea that there was a 30 second break away with Sarah Haskins and Helen Jenkins. I could hear the coaches yelling “Jenkins 30 seconds!” but I thought that she was 30 seconds behind, not ahead! It wasn’t until the 3^rd lap that I realized that they were up the road, and I felt very guilty for not being more aggressive in helping with the chase.They were reeled in on the 4^th lap, which was a relief as I know those girls can run fast. I admittedly was pretty useless on the bike, I wasn’t feeling 100 percent and I was uncomfortable on the very technical course, so I spent most of the time at the back of the pack. I wish I could be a super-human Alistair Brownlee, dominant in all 3 sports, but my swim and bike were feeling off so I was being conservative with the hopes saving some energy for the run.

The skies opened up in the middle of the ride and it started hailing on us! The forecast predicted rain and cold so everyone was prepared for a wet day, but this was more than we had been expecting. It really hurt, and it was really cold! I was starting to shiver and my hands were going numb, so I tried to work a little more of the last few laps to keep my body temperature up. Although the hailstorm was short lived, it left big puddles and wet roads, so water was spraying up on us for the rest of the ride. I was SO happy to get off the bike.

I struggled a bit in transition with cold hands, but was running at the front within the first few minutes. The run was very similar to Madrid, fast paced but I felt in control. That is until the last lap, when Helen put in a surge that I could hardly respond to. It hurt a lot and I was running near my maximum for the whole final lap, knowing that I would get dropped if she had another gear. I wanted so badly to settle for 2^nd, but I talked myself out of it and reminded myself that she was hurting too. I tried to put a few stride lengths on her on the last turn around to see if she could respond, and saw that I made a small gap. The last 800 meters was all out, and I was hurting, but made it to the line just ahead of her. Kudos to Helen, she worked her butt off in a breakaway on the bike, and she made me work my butt off on the run. She’s dangerous!

After doping control and a very good dinner with the Specialized team, I packed up my stuff and tried to get a few hours sleep. I'm finally back in Victoria, stiff and tired and sore, but I really couldn’t be happier with the past 5 weeks. Thanks to the amazing support from Bobby and all the Specialized guys, Patrick, John, Kim, Kyla, Jeff and Matt- I couldn’t have had a better group of people helping me during this Europe trip. Also thanks to my mom for flying out to Kitzbuhel at the last minute to keep me company and watch my race... and make my dinners and do my laundry and clean up after me. The usual.

Next up is Edmonton World Cup on July 10th, my hometown race. Come down to Hawrelak Park and watch the action if you’re around!

Thanks again for the enormous support everyone. It's what keeps me going.

Paula