I am stepping outside my usual boundaries by writing a race report. For some reasons doing race reports usually freaks me out as I am wary of coming off as: 1. whiny / full of excuses 2. arrogant 3. narcissistic 4. combination of above But, my ahem, fan requested one. Yep, and I want to keep the fan happy. And in this day of self-obsession (I do have a blog, facebook and twitter), I think it is socially acceptable to be somewhat...

I couldn’t help but start to hum the old folk tune from the 60s “where have all the young girls (flowers) gone” today while working out at the gym.  It is not a new observation, but one that continues to baffle me: today at my temporary gym in Phoenix, there was a  noticeable lack of estrogen in the gym: at least 100 men lifting/grunting/swaggering around and including myself, one girl.  It could be easy to blame any undesirable...

One of my favourite things about going to a training camp is observing what other people do and exchanging training ideas.  Below  I share with you a few of my tidbits from my last camp, compliments of Canadian coach and physiotherapist Wynn Gmistroski and teammate Hilary Stellingwerff. One of Wynn’s greatest assets as a coach is his background as a physiotherapist.  Wynn promotes recovery and regeneration as a critical aspect of...

For the past month weeks I have been training my butt off (although with my recent weight room routine maybe I am actually training it on?) with my close running and personal friends, Hilary Stellingwerff and Alicia Shay in the brilliant blue-skied strip-mall haven of one of Phoenix’s finest suburbs, Anthem Arizona.   While Alicia is climbing her way back to her beastly fitness of past years, Hilary and I attacked a polarized...

The folks at Runnersfeed asked me if I could give the top 5 lessons I learned while at this past weekend’s Canadian National Endurance Conference; and although it won’t be nearly as entertaining as David Letterman’s Top 10 Lists, I hope it gives people who did not have the opportunity to attend an idea of what was covered. For me, the most important outcome of the weekend was the energy and excitement I gained from hearing the...

As any Northern climate runner or triathlete can attest, training through the winter months can take some creativity, commitment, and strategy. We were hit by an early winter last week and it was a reminder of the perils and challenges of navigating the snowy, icey and dark days that will be around for the next several months.  I was in the middle of a high mileage block of running and, boom, snow.  Suddenly my runs became jogs, and...

As long as I can remember, I have loved to race.  As parents often resort to bribing their children to meet certain goals (going to bed, eating vegetables, not screaming in grocery stores…), mine learned from an early age that I responded well to running competitions against my sister. And, since I was the eldest and my younger sister followed my lead most of the time, they really only need to manipulate me to get us both to...