Meech Lake added to the line-up!

I have continued training and hope it will pay off in a week and a half when Georghia and I attempt our first Olympic distance triathlon in Ottawa. The water is supposed to be warm, so hopefully we won't experience hypothermia like we did last year!!

I just signed up for the Meech Lake Triathlon (in Gatineau). Georghia and I did this race last year and we both found it quite enjoyable. The distance is slightly odd so it isn't a sprint or an Olympic distance, it is somewhere inbetween. It is 1.2 km swim, 24 km bike, and 6.4 km run. Last year it was quite a shock for me because the hills were quite grueling. After swimming through some fairly choppy water my poor legs found the hills quite a challenge. At least this year going in I know what to expect! Sadly, it will be my first triathlon alone. Georghia is quite occupied that weekend and won't be joining me! I guess I will have to supply photo evidence to really prove I was there! I also remember this time last year I took quite a tumble on my bike and was very timid coming down the hills at Meech Lake because I was terrified of falling off of my bike. Hopefully this year I can be a little more relaxed and hopefully make up some time. My goal is to better my time from last year which came in at 1:56.59. Better get to sleep, a tri athlete needs her beauty rest :)

10 km Run - Defi du Printemps

Well well, I should be careful what I wish for! Early last week Jen informed me that there would be a 10 km run in Maisonneuve Parc which is very close to me and which I run in all the time. I thought it would be a great opportunity to fix my pace and to try to run a comfortable race. The weather was supposed to be rainy and cold so we planned to decide on the morning of whether we would race or not. Jen and I talked around 8:30 (the race started at 10!) and we decided we should just do it. So we did. We showed up, signed up and tried to keep as warm and as dry as possible before the race. I was a little nervous about racing because we had just ran the 10km in Quebec City less than a week ago and I had trained pretty hard on my bike Tuesday, ran 10 km up Mont Royal on Wednesday and had done 4 km swim on Thursday. I felt a little sore and not "in the zone." My goal was to start the race very slowly and if I had more energy at the end I could take it up a notch. Jen started out faster than me and was ahead of me for about the first half of the race. It was pouring raining, cold and windy. I managed to catch up to Jen just before the 5 km mark which was the same time my ipod shuffle decided the wind was enough to change songs and play lists. Luckily I was still mentally focused so this small set back (although doesn't seem like much, but trust me can really get to you if you are already experiencing frustration) didn't get to me. I checked the clock and found my 5 km time to be about 26 min, not such a bad pace! I continued running and felt more energy coming to me and I realized I could easily finish the race and this comfortable pace. I decided to pick things up a bit after I passed the 8km mark. After the 9 km mark I pretty much sprinted to the finish line and was able to finish just less than 1 minute slower than my Quebec time, but trust me, the race was wayyyy more comfortable and if it adds less than a minute I'm prepared to take that! Thanks to Jen for getting me out to another race and I am really looking forward to the next one!

Info from SportStats:

http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?racecode=46213&first=KRISTIN&last=DAWSON&city=MONTR%C9AL

I also want to thank everyone in the lab for their awesome support!! I just counted the money we have raised from bake sales and other items and was able to add another $74 to my fundraising goal! Thanks everyone!

Quebec City 10 km run

Man, I have been falling behind on blog posts again! Since I have reached my fundraising goal training has taken centre stage in my life! I won't post all of my training outcomes since they are quite long now but I did want to tell everyone about our awesome Quebec City run last weekend. While in Cuba Jen mentioned that there was a Quebec City run in the beginning of May and since I didn't want the half-marathon in October to be my first official running race I thought the 10km would be a perfect way to introduce myself to the wonderful sport of running. First of all, wow, what an experience!! I have competed in triathlons before so I knew the awesome energy you experience from being in a long distance event - people are awesome and cheer you on, fellow tri-ers push you to continue and the thought of eventually crossing the finish line after all your hard work compels you to move forward. Therefore I will admit I was quite excited that I would "only" be doing the run and not also a swim and bike (that will follow in June in Ottawa when Georghia and I attempt the Olympic distance tri!). I have learned all about rookie mistakes, so my goal was not to start out too fast, die half-way through, and then be unable to finish. Therefore I started the first km or so running slightly behind Jen since I knew she would be a good pace buddy. However, after about km two or three I couldn't contain my energy anymore (and my ipod chose that vital moment to play a great song) and I sprinted ahead. This strategy worked well until about the 5-6 km mark when I looked down and saw my heart rate was an astounding 186 bpm. I must emphasize the highest I have ever gotten it in training sessions (running UP mont royal) was 180bpm. Therefore I KNEW I would not be able to sustain that heart rate for another 5 km. I was right. Around the 7 km mark I wanted to die. I felt exhausted. My lungs couldn't fill with air fast enough, my legs felt like mush, and the desire to stop and sprawl on the grass was overwhelming. This was when the mental fight began. Its very interesting how fast you physically deteriorate after your mind has decided its too much. I almost felt panicky. I had to force myself to focus. Kristin, this is ONLY 10 km! Think of the marathoners! They would find it hilarious you are struggling through a 10 km. I knew if I started walking it would be the beginning of the end. Therefore for the next km I repeated over and over and over in my head, Kristin Anne Dawson you will NOT walk, you can run slow, but you WILL NOT walk. No walking. Keep running. Then I started to pressure myself. You think THIS is hard?! Imagine running for your life. Would you stop running and say I'm tired? I don't think so. You have to keep going. You have to keep fighting. I must point out those sneaky event planners decided it wasn't worth marking the last 1 km. Therefore after I saw the 2 km mark I thought I was running the longest km of my life. It went on, and on, and on, and on. When I saw the finish line I wanted to cry. I almost thought it was a mirage - too good to be true. When I finally crossed the finish line I wanted to hug the people cutting my timing chip off of my shoe. I DID IT!!! I had won the physical and mental battle. It felt awesome. I was hooked. I may have to add more races now! Oh ya, my finishing time was 52.33. Not bad for a first try I don't think.

Info from sportstats:

http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?racecode=46164&first=Kristin&last=Dawson&city=Saint-Leonard

REACHED FUNDRAISING GOAL!!!!!!!!! :) :) McGill Bake Sale #2

THANK YOU GRANDMA AND GRANDPA MOROZ!!!! I am ecstatic today!! I have reached my fundraising goal of $2,500 and can now officially participate in the Ride to Conquer Cancer!!! It has taken me just over a month to raise this enormous amount of money that I honestly didn't think I would be able to. I have been overwhelmed with people's generosity, words of encouragement, and help! I could NOT have done this without each and everyone of you!! So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you and THANK YOU!

Today Jen and I hosted our second McGill Bake Sale. We had generally the same things as last time and after a slow start, which had me quite worried, we managed to raise $285.96. It was under $20 less than what we raised at the last bake sale which brings us to a grand total of $587.73 from two bake sales. Not bad! I want to thank my parents for supplying the majority of the baked goods, it was a great donation because it had a high return on investment, thank you! I want to thank our helpers once again - Jen's Mum, Mona, Georghia, and Tina. And thank you to everyone at McGill who supported our cause.

Training has and will take a back seat until Thursday when I hope to resume in all hardcoreness. I will definitely keep you updated on that, Jen and I have less than 2 weeks before our 10 km run in Quebec City!

Once again THANK YOU to everyone, you are awesome and I can't thank you enough!

Mad Hatter's Tea Party!

First let me just say, "WOW"!!! Last night Jen and I hosted our Mad Hatter's Tea Party. It was a FANTASTIC evening and I think I can safely say we all had a great time. It wasn't all just fun and games though, we managed to raise $408 for our ride. I must do my thank-yous. Thank you Mona and Amir for baking an amazing cake (our centre piece!), thank you Tina for bringing wine and a veggie platter (to delay the sugar coma at least a little), thank you Rox for bringing A TON of alcohol, thank you Georghia and Chris for helping with the decorations, baking pizzas, making potato wedges and bringing extra chairs! Thank you Jen for also helping to decorate and for having such an amazing costume! Thank you Mum for providing the sparkling wine, thank you Mrs. Wright for the amazing tea cups for which we couldn't have had the party without! Thank you Amy for the kick ass costume and decorations that really pulled the party together! And lastly, thank you to each and every person that came out last night and generously donated to our cause!

Jen has kindly posted all of our pictures from last night here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/117930013981631912894/MadHatterFundraisingTeaParty?feat=directlink

My training has taken a back seat lately due to all of the baking and planning we have been doing! I will post more updates when I get back to training!

Tuesday we have another McGill bake sale where hopefully we can meet our fund raising goal!! Thanks to this party I am now at 95% of my goal and have less than $200 to go until I can officially do the ride to conquer cancer!

Thank you!!

McGill Bake Sale #1

Last night my apartment was filled with the wonderful smell of baked goods! Myself along with Jen, Mona, Tina, and Georghia baked ourselves silly for our first McGill bake sale. The bake sale was a resounding success!!! We had 36 large cupcakes, tons of mini cupcakes, 24 double chocolate muffins, 12 cinnamon bran apple muffins, 1 banana bread loaf, pan of rice krispies, pan of triple chocolate brownies, 18 chocolate chip cookies, pieces of maple fudge, 15 bags of mixed nuts and a tub of lollipops!! We opted to run the bake sale by "donation" so people would give what they felt was appropriate for what they took. Although we figured most people would pay about $1 per item we were very surprised and pleased when we realized most people were giving double that - $2 an item or MORE!! Needless to say we essentially sold out of everything and made a grand total of $301.77!!! Jen and I split this right down the middle (to be fair and honest I got a penny more than she did!) so that I am now at 87% of my goal!!!! A giant thank you to everyone who baked and an enormous thank you to everyone who bought our items at the sale! Our next event is the Mad Hatter Tea Party! I have put our tea cups (thanks to Mrs. Wright!) on the table and it looks awesome! I can't wait!!!!

I have currently put my training on hold because after Sunday's outing my left leg was giving me extreme pain, even to walk, so I figured my body was trying to give me a signal ... My leg is fine now, but just to be on the safe side I thought I would take an extra day off. Injuries are the LAST thing I want! Hopefully tomorrow I can resume! Will keep you posted!

Training, Training and more Training

Friday - Swim

3.8 km

1 hr 20 min

Saturday - Day off, the legs were still a little sore from Mont Royal run! Plus, Jen and I went bike browsing (Thanks GM and Chris!) ... you know, just in case we need bikes ....

Sunday - Holy moly was it windy today - Weather Network said 40 km/hr winds with gusts clocking in around 50 km/hr! (Therefore, the bike was a little slower ...)

Bike - 1:01.24 Hrt Rate: 155 bpm average

25.24 km

24.6 km/hr avg.

Run - ~ 9 km Hrt Rate: 165 bpm average

55.51 Avg. Speed: 9.7 km/hr

I was quite pleasantly surprised, because after the bike my legs were burning and my heart rate was very elevated through out the whole run, but I managed to run the 9 km in the fastest time yet! Yay for improvement!! Lets hope I can do it faster without the wind and the bike first!

I just wanted to thank the wonderful Mona Aflaki for baking double chocolate muffins on Friday. Thanks to everyone in the lab I have raised almost $50! Thanks everyone! I am still sitting steady at 81% of my goal ($2,015) but we have the McGill Bake Sale this Wednesday, our Mad Hatter Tea Party this Saturday, and another McGill Bake Sale on the following Tuesday. Lets hope Jen and I can reel in the donations!!!