The Clean and Jerk

So I made it through the Olympic Weightlifting course!!! I learned a ton and definitely will be using the knowledge I gained. The body was a little sore, but nothing compared to the pain I endured on Monday. I ventured out on a 6 hour hike with Tim, Denise and Denise's boyfriend, Jamie. We decided to hike up Buntzen because we thought it would have less snow than Golden Ears, and yeah we were very very wrong. There was a ridiculous amount of snow after the first lookout and we were literally cutting fresh tracks for hours in runners and hikers. The snow was coming up to my hips and at one point I decided that crawling across the top of it would be easier. The four of us took turns cutting the tracks, but we were all pretty cooked at about 4 hours in and decided we needed to turn around and abort out initial intentions of doing a loop. It was a great day, but I am feeling a wee bit tired today!!

Olympic Weightlifting

So all weekend I am taking a coaching course on Olympic Weightlifting. I came into the course thinking the majority of the day would be spent on theory and taking notes etc., and this was SOOOOO not the case. We literally did the lifts and parts of the lifts for the entire day. When I say lifts, I am referring to the Clean and Jerk and The Snatch. We also did some front and back squats, which I have a short video of. My thumbs are raw from the "hooked" grip which is when the thumb is hooked between the bar and the last joint of the forefinger and middle finger. Tomorrow I am going to be evaluated on my lifts and I will also be doing some evaluating of my fellow classmates. Wish me luck!!!

Snowshoeing!!!!

It may only be November, but there is snow and when there is snow, there is snowshoeing. Some friends and I decided to venture to the top of the third peak on Seymour and we couldn't have lucked out with a better day. The sun was shining and the snow was abundant which made for some soft landings. Heading into the third peak there was one section that I was not too fond of. The fact that I could see some rocks and a rock ledge/dropoff didn't appeal to me so much, call me crazy haha. Unfortunately, Denise went down like it was a slip and slide having the time of her life, damn 20 year olds, and there were several strangers watching at the bottom telling me to "go, come on just do it," so I really had no choice. It actually wasn't bad, but it looked freaking scary!!!! I am excited for more snowshoeing and skate skiing ahead. I will need to work on my skate skiing skills because I am pretty sure it is supposed to be a lower body workout and not an upper body one ha. Along with some fun weekend adventures, I also got certified in FMS which is Functional Movement Screening. It is basically a screening process that enables the trainer to asses ones body movements in some basic functional movements and determine whether or not they have any mobility or stability problems. I would love to screen a handful of cyclists because I can almost guarantee the majority are one step away from a serious injury, whether it be lower back, hip, shoulder, or knee issues. My plan is to take this knowledge I have gained and continue learning in hopes of helping my fellow athletes out. I will keep you posted on this!!!!

More Hiking and Adventures

This past weekend I decided to go exploring a little further into my backyard. I went on a great hike with my roomie Tim and cycling buddy, Denise and it was good times. We had set out to do no more than 6 hours because Denise had a school assignment and we would have had to wake up a lot earlier than 8am if we wanted to get in the 10 hour option hike. We ended up doing the Lindsay Lake loop at Buntzen Lake and it would have had some amazing views had it not been so misty and foggy- oh well looks like we will have to do it again :). There was actually a fair amount of snow at the top too which made for some slipping and sketchy descents, but it was much better than all of the wet puddles we had to truck through prior to the snow. Good thing I have gortex runners, Tim and Denise are not so lucky :) Surprisingly we ran into a fair amount of people on our hike, I thought I was the only crazy one, but no there are others like my kind. We met a couple that drove in from Vancouver and once again I was reminded that I love where I live. We didn't run into any wild life which is good, I would like to think this is because I kept the noise levels up the ENTIRE hike since my friends were in a state of lethargy haha. Okay I must admit my quads were burning as we began our descent and I was struggling to not fall into the mindless trance where you can't even remember how you made it down the mountain. I am determined to go back up there, but this time I want to do the longer loop. I am really hoping the rain stops soon, some sun would be ideal, but as we like to say Harden the F**** Up Princess. Tomorrow is gym day and that means deadlifts and squats and DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). I am wondering if the DOMS will ever go away? My plan is to get stronger than my sister, you know the olympic rower haha. Just because she is almost 6 ft tall and has about 30lbs more of muscle mass doesn't mean she can beat me in the gym right? By the way, my sister just won Silver at the World Championships in the women's 8, not too shabby if I do say so myself. I told her I am thinking of becoming a lightweight rower again :) Focus Leah, Focus. And while me and big sis are working on our quads, little sis is singing up a storm. She is going to be doing a concert I believe in December so I will keep you posted on the date and venue. She is killing it right now and is on her way to some big success. So much excitement in my family, I love it!!!!

Having some FUN

So my goal is to get back to blogging and start sharing all of my amazing experiences with my friends and family. I have been thoroughly enjoying the off season. It was a rough start, as my body was only capable of sitting on a road bike and turning the cranks around for hours on end. My first gym workout led to some very unpleasant pain the next day, as did my first 4 hour hike. As a Kinesiologist and personal trainer, I would highly recommend not doing what I do haha. After a couple of weeks, my body has been adjusting to the new stresses I have put upon it. My weights are increasing in the gym and I just got back from a weekend of hiking for 12 hours. I went and hiked Black Tusk and Wedgemount Lake in the Squamish and Whistler area. The snow is starting to accumulate now on the top of the mountains so I think I need to dust off the snowshoes. It is so nice to be home in Port Moody and I am loving training for fun and purely because I want to. Although, I must admit I did go for a road ride yesterday and it felt like home. Well that's all for now, I need to run some errands and get ready for my appointment this afternoon with a man specializing in structural integration, should be interesting.

Lots of chamois time

Since the cleanse has been over, I have been feeling much better!!! I am continuing to watch what I eat and I am hoping to get some food allergy testing done soon. However, in the meantime I will just be careful and take note if certain foods affect the way I feel. This week has been a solid week of training with my good old Dad. The week started with some 20 minute efforts where I left my Dad in the dust :) The winds were super strong and being the little pip squeak he is, he couldn't hang. Sadly, our next interval session involved 10 second efforts. My coach, Dan Proux, gave me 5 to 7 efforts; however, due to a battle between father and daughter it turned into 9 efforts. My Dad annihilated me 6 to 3, although I don't really count the 9th one. The next couple of rides were long hours in the beautiful Palm Springs sun. It has been super hot here lately and my tan is starting to get very interesting to say the least, but I promise (FAMILY) I am wearing sunscreen every ride. I think I need to purchase SPF 70 or something like that. My Dad and I did a 4 hour ride through Box Canyon which is now all cleaned up after all of the flooding which created heaps of sand dispersed throughout the roads. We rode to the top of the Canyon where it meets HWY 10 and tried to continue on this remote road to where I thought was a look-out, but clearly I was wrong and we were just paralleling HWY 10 oops. The ride went quite smoothly until we were about 30 minutes from the car and boom, my rear ZIPP blew. Yeah I know you are all thinking who trains on a freaking ZIPP, but my power tap is in the shop getting fixed and that was all I had to ride on. Good thing I was carrying a spare tubular; however, that doesn't do one much good if you can't get the super-glued tire off the WHEEL. So my Dad had to leave me stranded on HWY 111 and go retrieve the car. By the time he got back I had the tire off and the first and second layer of skin off of both of my thumbs :) The next day we both signed up for the Tour de Palm Springs which is quite the big event. There were thousands of riders of all different levels and from all over the place, I definitely met my fair share of Canucks- GO CANADA GO!!! I also got the opportunity to talk with Kristin Armstrong (2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Individual Time Trial) who is in Palm Springs with a group of guys from Boise, Idaho doing some training. The Tour de Palm Springs is a casual, fun, family event for some and for others it is an opportunity to get in a solid workout with some hard efforts. Naturally, my Dad and I chose the solid workout group and we were both pretty cooked at the end of the day. Aside from feeling like I had heat stroke it was a super fun event that I would recommend to anyone. Today I had another 4 hour ride with the Tram climb in the middle of my ride. The Tram road is a very steep climb that takes you to the bottom of the Tramway which takes you to the top of the mountain. I am not sure of the stats of this climb, but all I can say is that it is very steep (over 2000ft elevation gain in a short??? distance) and very hard. I started the climb feeling OK and then I started delivering mail as Ben Travis from Palm Springs would say. I couldn't understand why my cadence was so slow and I could barely turn the cranks around and then it dawned on me. I was using a spare wheel from the bike shop with a 23 on the back, I actually stopped and counted the rear cog cassette to confirm that I wasn't going crazy. Yep it was a 23. I made it to the top, barely, and I was pretty much standing and doing the full body bob to the top, but hey I made it!!! Well that is all I got for now. GO CANADA!!!

THE CLEANSE

So Dr. Mom and Dr. Dad have arrived and they are determined to make me feel better, as my stomach has still been giving me grief. They brought with them this book called "The Ultra Simple Diet" written by Mark Hyman which is basically a book about eating very clean and kick-starting your metabolism. It entails no sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol, no wheat, no gluten, no dairy, no eggs and um oh wait no fun. Since I have to endure this wonderful cleanse for 7 days, I have convinced my parents that it is only fair that they endure this week long cleanse with me. While my mom, a non-coffee drinker is quite happy to be on this cleanse, my father and I are suffering from some serious caffeine withdrawals. Everywhere I look all I see is a Starbuck's logo, it is insane, no wonder I am an addict. Coffee is everywhere you go and I think this cleanse will either prove to me how much I don't need coffee or how much I will never want to let it go ever again. It is kind of like a relationship, but we don't need to get into that right now :) So I have 4 more days left of this cleanse and I will definitely continue to practice a lot of the healthy habits I have learned along this journey. I am enjoying the process of optimizing my health, as it plays a huge role in being a professional athlete. Wish me luck over the next four very long, caffeine-free days!!!