My last blog was 2 weeks before I gave birth to Lucas. Now Lucas is 11 months old. So much has happened since I last wrote on my blog. In this post I will share with you my experience of trying to qualify for the Olympics.
Before we found out that I was pregnant my goal was to qualify for the London Olympics. When we found out I was not sure if I would still be able to try and achieve this goal. However I decided with my coach Ian Babe that I would attempt to qualify. From end of November to the end of March Lucas, Gabriel and I went to New Zealand to escape the Canadian winter so I could train effectively. After Lucas was born the plan was to come back very slowly and I did a lot of cross training with water running and elliptical. I started to run again about one month after Lucas was born and slowly added mileage and intensity week by week. Early on I had an issue with my hip where I had to take about five weeks off and do cross training. After that my buildup was solid and I was in the best shape I have ever been in. I got up to running about 160km on land and then another five to six hours in the pool.
The Paris Marathon on April 15 2011 was the marathon I chose to try and qualify. Six weeks before this I ran my personal best time for the half marathon in Wellington, New Zealand running 1:13.20. This race gave me confidence that I could run my personal best. However 3 weeks before the Paris marathon I injured my sacroiliac joint. I tried everything I could to get it right from physiotherapy to acupuncture to sacroiliac joint injections. Through all this I tried to remain positive and cross trained very intensely to stay in shape. Unfortunately my joint did not come right. I did try to run the Paris marathon in the hope that the joint would come right. In the beginning I felt good but by 20km I was in excruciating pain and I had to pull out.
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| Lucas exploring Paris while I was racing the marathon. So lucky to have this little guy :-) |
I was very dissapointed and still am but I am now looking forward to future races. My goal now is to qualify for the World Championships marathon next year in Moscow and long term the 2016 Olympics marathon. At this stage I am looking at running the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront marathon on October 14 to use as a qualifying race for the World Championships. I have to see how the buildup goes after coming off the injury and then decide if I race in October. So far the buildup has been good. I ran Emilie's run which is a 5km road race on June 23 where I ran my personal best time of 16.08. I am really enjoying running and am excited to push myself hard to see how far I can get.
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| Photo of me crossing the finish line at Emilie's 5km run |
Before I finish this update I have to say a big thank-you to my coach Ian Babe and Mizuno for all their support throughout this journey. Not to mention my husband Gabriel and my little man Lucas.
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| My two favourite boys :-) Te Amo x |
Below are some photos from the past year.
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| Lucas 2 months old |
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| Lucas 6 months old and Great Grandma |
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| Lucas 11 months old |
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| My training grounds while in New Zealand and water stop |
Hi there. I would like to subscribe to your blog by email. Can you either put me on the list or add a subscribe by email button? I'd really appreciate it! Thanks. :) Nomadtoes... at the gmail.
ReplyDeleteAnd congrats from Saturday!
Hi. Thanks for the comment. I added your email so you should recieve one each time I post a blog. Let me know if it works. Thanks again.
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