The SMO's stories

After an adventurous day on the mountains last Sunday, I got to thinking about how much skiing has changed for me over the years. Growing up, my brothers and I were turned loose every weekend from roughly late-November to early-April at a tiny little mountain in the Eastern Townships. Regardless of the weather, we’d get dropped off around 8:30am and picked up at 4:00pm.

Where Glenners were born

What we did with the hours in between was up to us… Or so we thought. Our parents’ network of spies kept us relatively in line… That being said, no one ever got seriously hurt, lost or damaged and we learned some pretty awesome skills on that mountain. When we moved out and headed to CEGEP, University, work, etc. our skiing shifted to a mix of night skiing, racing, weekend days, week-long trips away. We started skiing shorter days and enjoying longer après ski times!

Fast forward SEVERAL years and I’d say that 85% of my skiing is done with our kids. Our kids are lucky enough to go skiing 2-3 times a week and be part of an incredible ski school program that has welcomed them since the age of 3. I’ve done the math… by the time Anja outgrows the Valley kids program, I will have done 7 years of ski school drop offs and pick-ups. But based on the skills they’ve learned, I’d say it’s worth it!

In the past, a typical ski day went something like this: Get up whenever. Eat. Ski a few runs. Go home.

Here’s what last Sunday looked like.

6:49am Rory’s up. Wanders in to our room. Mumbles: “I wanna snug dith you”. Move aside, let him in, in the hopes he’s going to let us sleep a little longer.

6:57am Will’s up. Wanders in to our room. Mumbles: “Can I come in, too?” So much for extra sleep.

7:00am. Give up and stumbles downstairs. Time to prep breakfast, make coffee, turn on cartoons and get ready for the day. Jay makes pancakes (or, as Anja lovingly refers to them, MANCAKES!) and I pack a lunch for the day on the mountain that could feed an entire elementary school class.

The rest of the morning prior to departure consists of getting everyone dressed, organized and in 1 place at the same time. Getting dogs out. Making sure we have the gear we need and packing the truck.

A few required bits and pieces

This is for 1 day of skiing, not 1 month.

I have no idea why she's cradling a football.

Departure!

First stop: 400m from home because Anja wants her coat off and her “tummy hurts”. Basically, she wants attention.

Internal dialogue on the way to Whistler: “Did I remember ski socks for myself? I dunno. I guess ankle socks will have to do if I forgot them. Ski pass? (Give self pat down, find in 3 layers away). I’m hungry. Oh right! I forgot to feed myself. At least it’s sunny. Did I remember sunscreen? I need to pee.”

External dialogue from Rory: “When are we gonna be there”?

External dialogue from Will: None. He has his head in his hands in the backseat. Not sure why, but he’s quiet so why disturb the peace?

Arrival at drop #1: Anja goes to Blackcomb daycare for the morning. Pouts but gets over it quickly.

Arrival at drop #2: Unload gear, kids, selves. Dress everyone: miraculously, we didn’t forget anything.

Begin ski day. First run down, Will takes off (I assume he knows where he’s going…) and Rory heads straight for the trees. Apparently, kids don’t believe in “warm up runs”. End up on Peak to Peak to go meet friends on Whistler. So far, so good (insert ominous foreshadowing music here).

Ski ½ of a run with no issues and 1 photo opp stop. Promptly lose 3 of 4 children in the trees on 2^nd half of run. Dispatch parents in various directions, try to keep a lid on panic (speaking for myself, here). 13 minutes later, all 3 kids safely reunited with parents, courtesy of a very nice ski instructor. Exhale. Decide now would be a good time for that warm up run and maybe some lunch?

Probably swearing at me internally.

Kleenex

The rest of the ski day passes relatively uneventfully. Rory does not stay on the trail – ever. Will skis as fast as he possibly can in the middle of the trail. Every run in a series of near misses.

We decide to head to the Valley and bring Anja back into the fold for her first day on skis. We pick her from the daycare where she seems to know what’s coming because she yells “SKI!” as soon as she sees us. She heads out the door with Jay and by the time I gather up her stuff she’s waiting at the door in ski boots and a funny yellow bike helmet.

WB needs bigger chairlifts

Meanwhile, the boys are enjoying spring skiing by shedding jackets, mitts and any non-essential layer. Will is lounging in the snow, vaguely watching Anja. Rory has beetled over to the magic carpet and is taking himself skiing.

Jay carries Anja about 40 feet uphill, I wait a bit anxiously to see her reaction when he puts her down and lets her go. 3, 2, 1… GO! She instantly starts laughing and saying “FAST”! She repeats this mantra as we push her uphill to start again… Success!

FUN!

We decide to head up the Magic chair – the universe’s slowest 3 person lift. I head up with the boys, Jay and Anja are behind us. All I can hear is her little voice calling “FUN!” The plan is to slide down to where the car is parked and head home. Rory and Will clearly have other ideas as they take off and ski on their own while we ski down with Anja (FUN! FAST! MORE!) We end up doing a couple more runs of ‘catch and release’ and calling it a day. Just imagine when she turns 2…

Success

Can’t wait to try it all again. Next time, perhaps without calling patrol.

Oh!  Right!  I have a blog.

Where was I??  It’s been *crickets* around here lately, haven’t been very inspired to write.  Fell off the training wagon (that big THUD you heard a few weeks back).  Trying to claw my way back on, but it keeps rolling about 3 feet away like that annoying big brother would do when you were trying to open the car door to get in and all the cool kids were watching.

Anyway, moving on.  I was thinking about something to write and figured that if the expression”a picture is worth a thousand words” is still true, then I’ll do a photo post and be miles ahead.

Ever wonder if you can define your life in photos?  In 10 photos or less?  I pretty much can, I think these sum up my day-to-day nicely these days.  What about you?

Edited to add:  I wrote this post on Thursday of last week… On Monday I started a new job.  So!  Add a shot of a different deskin an actual office with humans and a water cooler and a boardroom and a shot of an alarm going off at 5:30am and there you have it.  My life.

Yesterday was the first race I’ve done since June of last year.  I rarely state my goals, but in this case I declared that my goal was to either run a personal best or blow myself up trying.

I did both!

Overall, I am super happy with how my run went despite the fact that I spent the rest of Sunday paying a hefty price.  Hello, post-race nausea!  Go away now, thanks.

I did a few things differently for this race and surely some of these contributed to a good race.

• I had a pacer.  Thanks Lizzie!  Unfortunately, her hamstring decided to have a picnic in Stanley Park at about the half way point, so from then on, I was on my own.  But I know for a fact that without her at the start there’s no way I would have made it to a PR.
• I ran with music.  Bad music!  Music that makes me want to sing along!  (confession: Lady Gaga, Maroon 5 and Florence and the Machine make me go faster, and mumble the words to all those around me.  Apologies to fellow runners).
• I did a proper warm-up (once again, thanks to Liz).
• I didn’t run with a watch.  Well, I did.  But I don’t know how to work the stupid thing so basically I ran with wrist weight.

A half marathon is a hell of a long time to spend inside one’s own head.  It’s generally not somewhere I like to hang out and at around mile 12, the mental Gremlins started to get the best of me.  Maybe I should just walk it in.  I managed to keep them in check and kept pushing it to the end.

Turned the corner to the finish line and saw 1:37!  I was so happy!  And also, in a bit of shock.

I felt great when it was over, my legs were fine but my feet were not (I’d post a picture but that would just be gross).  As per usual, my stomach had some nasty ideas of its own not long after finishing.  I’d welcome your suggestions to how to get through that without wishing death upon myself.

One last observation about ½ marathons…  Why do people carry enough water to hydrate a village?  We’re not running through the desert, it’s a supported race with water every few kilometers, in downtown Vancouver. Why would you do that to yourself?!

Thanks to Carlee for the support… and for driving my sleepy self home.

I’m in the motherland, enjoying some family time and a bit of R n R.  I’m happy to have a bit of kid-free downtime to focus on getting a few things done that I’ve been neglecting but also to rest and get ready for the upcoming half marathon.  I’ve accidentally caught a cold, so that’s slowing me down a bit but I’ll get over it.

My goal for the race is to either run a PR or blow myself to smithereens trying.  Maybe I’ll accomplish both! That being said, I’m in the market for a reliable pace bunny… Anyone?  Anyone?

I enjoy coming back to all my old running routes when I am back here.  I didn’t run very much when I lived here 10 years ago but in the times that I have returned to visit I have carved out some favourites that never get old.  It’s a nice change of pace from the Pemberton and whistler runs we know so well. Only a few days to go till race day.

In my humble opinion, there are very few redeeming qualities to the month of February. Possible exceptions are the skiing and the fact that it has fewer days than other months.  I tend to find myself willing the days to lengthen and surfing the inter webs for last minute travel deals to warmer climes, despite knowing I’ll likely never book one.  This winter has been particularly grey in pemberton, which isn’t helping my relationship with February.
This time last year I knew I had a are in Kona to work towards and look forward to.  Thinking about this the other day, I realized I have never posted the race report…which I wrote on the place ride home from that race!  I then considered posting it on the anniversary of the race but that seemed silly, even for me.  So without further delay… Kona 2011!

We’d been planning this race for about a year… So to finally get on the plane and head to Kona was a bit of a relief.  Training had been different from what I had hoped.  I am generally pretty good about following a training plan to an 85% “t”: I do exactly what I am told 85% of the time and the next 15% I either blow the training off completely or do exactly what I feel like it, which is frequently nothing.  This time, however, it was more like 60/40.  A combination of life, kids and some pretty atrocious spring weather conspired to make it a little harder than I had anticipated to get everything done that I had hoped.  That said, I know that when I race I pretty much never want to make a fool of myself or let myself down so I knew what I had to do come race day.

Our trip over was smooth and we were completely spoiled by the ultra fantastic accommodation thanks to Sarah allowing to share her beautiful Kona home.  W arrived, settled in and rested up.

It was my first time in Kona and it was pretty great to see the infamous ironman sites that I had seen so many times in magazines and on tv.  Lava Java did not disappoint!  The days leading up to the race were spent getting race ready, getting in a few last minutes sessions,  taking in some of the scenery, getting Sarah immersed in the world of triathlon and basically turning her into a tri nerd.  2 things during the lead up stand out: my most favorite was without a doubt swimming next to some dolphins at the pier ( this despite the fact that when I first saw them I thought they were sharks, oops.  Swallowed a lot of water there).  Next was attending the pro meeting which Chrissy convinced us we would enjoy and “blend right in!” Uh, yeah.  We didn’t exactly blend in (hi, Chris Lieto! You’re pretty cute) or learn much but it was fun…

Race day morning came, as it always does, much too early for my taste.  I always have to fight the desire to roll over and say ” meh, I’ll just race later”.  We did eventually all pile into our sweet minivan and make our way to the transition in the dark.

A few last minute tweaks, load up nutrition and check the bike and it was finally down to the beach for body marking and the swim start.

I dazzled with my focus at the start.  So much so, in fact, that I was so intent on looking at my watch that I didn’t even notice the big wave that rolled in and literally knocked me into a sweet backwards somersault!  Awesome.  That certainly took the edge off.

It’s no secret that I am not exactly Summer Sanders and I did not disappoint!  I came out in a nice casual time of that which shall not be mentioned in print.  If you care, you can google it.  I certainly didn’t care, I was just so damn happy to be done (and see my friend Danny and his son Tyler!) That swim was rough!  Crowded and messy.  Oh well, I managed to run up the long hill to transition and get to my bike relatively quickly.

Once onto the bike I knew it was important to stay conservative until the turnaround and I did.  I didn’t particularly enjoy the ride and found it hard to kick my own ass on the way to Hawi.  I saw Sarah on her way home from Hawi and decided I should probably put my head down for a while to try to catch her.  I finally caught her on the hill back to the Queen K and was happy for us to ride back to the transition together.

Handed off my bike in a rather disorganized fashion and put on my shoes and grabbed some sunscreen to start the hot-very-hot run.  The first 2 miles felt amazing.  I can do this!  I am winning this thing!  And then… Miles 3-7 not so much with the winning… I was hot, kind of over it, my mind was wandering.  Saw Chrissy running just back of Bree and cheered her on, it was great to see her running strong.  I was also quite jealous that she was almost done.  By the time I hit mile 8 I got some energy back and had quite enjoyed weaving up and over and through the golf course.  5 miles? Pshh.  I got this.  So easy. And then, I went to what Danny affectionately calls “hell’s kitchen”.  Yeah, pretty much the most miserable stretch of pavement anywhere.  A brutal 2 or 3 mile out and back that seems to never end.

Well, end it finally did and I made it back out onto the golf course and could taste the finish line. However, not before a lovely little Japanese racer passes me whilst running in his crocs.  Sigh.  That was humbling.

Finish chute!  So long! Such a teeny finish arch!  So happy to take off my damn shoes!  Race done and dusted.  I was happy with my time but not ecstatic.  Pleasantly satisfied?

I did thoroughly enjoy the post-race-beer-and-chips-lying-on-an-ocean-side-massage table.  Doesn’t get much sweeter than that…
So there you have it.  That was the last real race I did in 2011!  That was a bit unusual for me, but I was ok with it.  After several years of racing, it was time to give my mind and body a break and focus on doing sport for fun.  Which isn’t to say I didn’t miss it somewhat because I’ll be back out there this summer… As tanned as ever!

Whistler Blackcomb’s Queen of the Storms needs your vote to take the stars of her show heli skiing.  How awesome would that be?

To view the contest details and to vote, visit http://www.tiipz.com/c/deepwinter/join

If you haven’t seen Robin’s fantastic show, do it.  It’s very much worth your time.

http://vimeo.com/35178361

A quick note about my header photo.  Local Whistler photographer and general excellent person David McColm shot that photo on the evening that Sarah died.  He shared it on his FB page.  Go take a look, it’s stunning…

Moving on, after this not so fantastic week, it’s time to dwell on a new topic.  I have notoriously terrible taste in music and given that I spend a lot of my running and triathlon training solo, it means I listen to a lot of it (hello, Beyonce!  Why, yes!  I’d love to listen to you on repeat!)

I’m expanding my musical horizons and listening to lots of artists that are new to me and, well,  so far so good.  My ears aren’t bleeding and I haven’t listened to Rick Springfield in weeks.

So c’mon people, what’s on your iPod?  Fire away your best play lists, preferably ones with songs that are fast and furious.

In other news, I discovered that my treadmill tops out at 16 km/h.  I guess that’s a good discovery?  I didn’t even fall off the back of it!

Training ticks along… slowly getting back into the rhythm of it.  Running’s consistent, swimming still sucks and I haven’t fallen off the rollers.  Yet.  Half-Marathon in 20 days…

Spare time around here is taken up by keeping up with these:

And negotiating with this one:

If you are familiar with toddlers then you’ll know which activity I’m having more success with.