Congratulations Buttermilk!

Most of my blog followers know that two of my greatest passions in life are running and triathlon, as evident in most of my blog posts.  But my close friends and family know that my third passion has to be ultimate frisbee, an incredible team sport that I've been playing regularly for over a decade now.
However, I don't seem to post enough about ultimate, and I'm going to try to make a point of posting more blogs for people interested in learning the sport and for athletes interested in increasing their training for the unique demands of this fast-paced, dynamic team sport.

So stay tuned for more regular ultimate frisbee focussed training tidbits and development advice from myself, an experienced trainer and player, throughout the summer and fall.

That being said, I want to take this moment to congratulate my ultimate frisbee team, Buttermilk, for winning the TUC winter league championship last night at Monarch Park.  We all worked really hard this season, and the results reflect that.  Special kudos go out to the co-captains Dave & Rhian for all your hard work and effort organizing this herd of ulty goats.  Way to go 'lil Goats!!

I'm looking forward to the upcoming summer season, and playing outside on the grass once again with all of you fine goat-folk.  Here's to another successful season in 2015.

For more info on the Toronto Ultimate Club (TUC) or if you're looking for a team to play with check out this link: http://www.tuc.org/

The 2015 Yonge St 10km

My first road race of the year was Sunday, April 19, 2015.  Despite the blustery chill in the air for the early spring run, the Yonge St 10km remains one of my favourite races for many reasons: it signifies the unofficial start of running season in the city, it allows pedestrians to take over one of the busiest streets in an urban jungle, and its a fast downhill course which sets runners up to aim for personal bests.  This year there were 6009 participants registered for the event.  A fine crowd to run in, and any chill felt when starting out was soon lost in the sea of bodies and the quickness of pace the course sets you up for right from the start. 

(http://www.canadarunningseries.com/toronto10k/)

Last year I did the course in a time of 46:57. This year my goal was to run a sub-45min 10km.  

The beginning of this race is easy, as it starts on a lovely downhill slope just north of Yonge & Eglinton, and because of that I had a nice 5km split time of 21:45 as I ran past Yonge & Bloor.  However it doesn't stay that way the entire race and levels off after 6km. I started to fatigue at the same point in the race as I did last year, right at the 7km mark where the course turns west onto Richmond St, but I didn't let it get to me this year like it did last year.  I definitely believe this is where all the work I did on the mental aspect of my running helped me out.  Sure, I was suffering as I ran across the Bathurst St bridge at 9km but I was bolstered by the sight of the finish line which came into view at the 9.5km point and I gave it all I had left then, more terrified that I wasn't going to make my sub-45min goal time than anything else!!

I cut it closer than I'd like, but I’m very happy to report that I made my sub-45min goal time in the end. Pacing an average of 4:27min/km, I shaved 2min 24sec time off last years run, crossing the finish line in 44:33.   This moved me up solidly in the rankings, placing in the top 5% for both my gender and age groups. (http://www.sportstats.ca/)

2014 Race Stats

Official time - 46m:57s

Overall place - 914/5698 (top 16%)

Gender place - 185/3139 (top 5.8%)

Age category place - 29/440 (top 6.5%)

2015 Race Stats

Official time - 44m:33s

Overall place - 595/6009 (top 9.8%)

Gender place - 102/3339 (top 3.1%)

Age category place - 22/495 (top 4.4%)

I feel like I’m off to a great start this racing season. My next race is May 3, where I’ll be running my first Half-Marathon (21.1km) at the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon event.  I’m taking a couple days off this week, and treating myself to a massage and burger, but will be sure to do a few taper runs over the next couple weeks to ensure I’m back in fine running form again for my next challenge.  

First official TTF training event of the year

Well its that time of year again - April - the start of my racing season. Hooray!!  While my first road race of the year is this coming weekend, the Yonge Street 10km (Sun, April 19), this past weekend (Sun, April 12) I had a more formal triathlon training event - a TTF Gold member event held at Steamwhistle Roundhouse in downtown Toronto.
http://www.torontotriathlonfestival.com/race/about-ttf/

It was the first meet and greet of the year, complete with a seminar and Q&A session, followed by a training run lead by the elite triathlon development team based at Guelph. http://www.triathloncanada.com/en/athletes/dev/ 

I took the opportunity to shamlessly fill up my sports bag with all the free Clif bar samples ;) and also to listen to the words of wisdom from Olympic champion - Simon Whitfield, Head Coach - Craig Taylor, and Registered Dietitian & Sports Nutritionist - Jen Sygo.  All of whom provided me with many tidbits of info that will no doubt help with my training.  I especially appreciated the amount of time they spend talking about nutrition where they emphasized clean healthy eating, focussed on whole unprocessed foods, cooking more at home, and not buying into all the hype of the products and supplements.  I've always been a big believer in simple is best and was happy to hear all 3 levels (coach, athlete and dietitian) reinforce the tried and true basics of water, bananas and gatorade for building the base of the athletes fuel.  I can only wonder how many pounds of bananas I've eaten in my athletic pursuits over the years!

Following the discussion panels several members of Team Canada's elite development team (including Alexander Hinton, Joanna Brown, Dominika Jamnicky) lead the TTF Gold member participants in a training run.  We ran ~7.5km from the Steamwhistle Roundhouse along the Martin Goodman Trail until we reached what was/will be the transition area for the TTF this June 21 at Ontario Place, where we turned around and ran back to the Steamwhistle (for water/beers).  We ended up pacing at about 5:08, so I had no trouble holding my own with these elite athletes (a big relief).  I must admit I always get a little nervous when running with such great athetes, even if it is just a training run, but finishing strong is such a great confidence booster going into the racing season.

Attached are a couple of photos of us at the training run.  Wishing everybody who attended a fantastic racing season with lots of PBs: Swim, Bike, Run everyone!!

                           Dominika Jamnicky (L), Joanna Brown (C), Kelly Barrington (R)

TTF gold member athletes and Team Canada development triathletes getting ready for a training run on a bright and sunny spring day.