Monday, March 17, 2008

A Little Help, Please

This past week I enlisted the help of an online coach for the first time. Though I have lots of friends that have run ultras, adventure races and more I just needed someone to help me put together a program for the next crucial 7 weeks as I work towards the Miwok 100k. Though I had lots of suggestions and much loose guidance, I just needed......A Little Help, Please!

Francesca was awesome! In a one hour and a half phone consult, we got a program figured out, she answered all of my questions and more importantly, she reassured me that everything I had been doing up until this point was right on track. She had also run the course before, which was a bonus and told me what I could expect! Thanks for the help, Francesca-and maybe we will see you on race day. Francesca will be down in San Francisco on Miwok weekend supporting her honey on race day.

Also, my dear friend Alana phoned on Tuesday and asked for A Little Help, Please. She is a member of a cycling club and they were having a fundraiser on Saturday night for one of their elite athletes. The fundraiser had the potential to be a complete flop if she didn't round up some extra teams to compete in their event. The event was a four hour stationary bike race with Teams of Four.....so we put together a Team Banff Trailtrash. The event was a total success and lots of fun - with a great meal and great prizes to finish off a fun night!

I needed to do a hill workout on Friday, bicycle to nowhere on Saturday and then do a 4.5 hour run on Sunday. No problemo! The hill workout was wicked - a beauty of a day on Sulphur Mountain, but I forgot the camera. Saturday, the bike workout was going to be just a spin, but it turned out to be a LOT more arduous than I had expected, as they put us through the paces on the bikes. My legs were a wee bit tired the next day!
My long run in the city was a nice change of pace, but the asphalt really beat me up. I did 29k with a group on the asphalt and then hit the trail for an hour and it hurt. Time to get back on the trail, I missed it this weekend!! I also forgot the camera. Doh! The highlight of the run was when stopped in the forest for a little walk break and had a chickadee land on my hand. I love chickadees, I always try to make friends with them when I hear them. Just call me the chickadee whisperer.


Anyhow, we did take a few photos of Team Banff Trailtrash in action this weekend. The race was full of lots of Triathlong geeks and Bicycle geeks, so we were shooting for DFL (dead fucking last) and to keep everyone entertained. My friend Brenda actually got out her knitting while she was spinning and knitted just for fun. We achieved our goal, helped our friend out and were in fact, DFL.



A Little Help, Please!

Brenda, Shawn and myself in Action

Yiiiiiiiiihaw! We're Bicycling to Nowhere!

5 comments:

Laura H said...

Finally - a workout you can do and knit at the same time!! I've been looking for this so I can get that sweater done. Time to get out the bike trainer...now if I can figure out how to run and knit too!

Leslie said...

My friend Brenda put a solid dent in the toque she was knitting - she was rockin' the bike and the needles!! Now that takes talent!

Deanna Stoppler said...

You banffians, I tell ya, what fun!

I really liked your post on risk. Well said.

Journey to a Centum said...

When I saw the hats I expected pictures of you riding the mechanical bull down at some Banff Pub. Nice work, and congratulations on your DFL.

Did you inject your brain with Novocain before doing the bike trainer event?

Leslie said...

I tell ya, the things we do for our friends....

Leslie