This is what is going to get me over my speed bump. It isn’t a faster pair of Zipp wheels or a sleek Cervelo or a pair of Fastwitch racing flats – this is my IV antibiotics – my lastest ammunition against the bacteria which have decided to take up long term residence in my lungs for the past year!

As you may or may not know, I had planned to go to Florida to escape winter, to put on a few training camps, to train and to do my coaching and speaking work from there. But, we have not made it to Florida just yet!! . My lung health, as related to Cystic Fibrosis, has been very turbulent over the past year. For most of my life and professional athletic career, my lungs have been functioning at well over 100%. For the past 18 months, I have been growing a nasty bacteria called pseudomonas which is very difficult to eradicate.  Since then, I have been on and off a variety of antibiotics and inhaled therapies. Despite all of this, my lung function, which measures the usable oxygen levels in the lungs, has been decreasing. After a rough race at Subaru Muskoka 70.3 last September, the doctors were convinced that I had an allergy to a bacteria in my lungs and started me on another course of drugs. But those drugs did nothing and so the allergy theory was dismissed. Then for the past 3 months, they have tried to figure out why my once perfect lungs were now functioning at about 80%. Therapies continued but my lungs continued to deteriorate until on January 1^st, my symptoms worsened, my lungs were down to 72% and we began another course of antibiotics on January 5^th.

On January  14, I was still feeling less than stellar with a major shortness of breath while walking and eating and doing daily activities despite 8 days on this wonder drug. Meanwhile I was still doing what I could swimming, biking and running since all of my sports are great lung therapies for clearing mucous. Of course, I was struggling doing my exercise but I always say that you do what you can with your deck of cards and my deck, at the moment, involved a bit more huffing and puffing.  I went back to the CF clinic and despite 8 days of medicine, my lung function had dropped to 70% (from 72% on Jan 5^th and from 98% in July!!).  At that point, they wanted to admit me for IV antibiotics for 2 weeks. However, I was committed as a guest speaker on the Cruise to Run (besides, who would want to miss a Caribbean cruise) – so the doctors allowed me to go on the cruise while continuing the current course of antibiotics. I had to return to the CF Clinic on February 2^nd to see how I was doing.

The Cruise to Run was amazing. I was probably the only person who began the cruise not feeling great but I finished the cruise feeling so much better – rested and breathing so much easier.  The sun and the sea air and warmth and salt water made me feel so good. I ran  and swam and water ran everyday – slowly of course, as dictated by my lungs – but I could run and swim and I loved it!! Yes, even my undertrained, but incredibly gifted husband Dave, ran faster than me, but I didn’t care – I loved every single minute of each run. I honestly thought that I would return to the CF Clinic and see a rise in my lung function.

But instead, I returned and despite 3 weeks on the medicine, my lung function was 66%! So I was admitted to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto that Tuesday!! Essentially, the pseudomonas bacteria had outwitted the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin and had thrived instead of being killed.

The doctors inserted a PICC line in my arm which is a catheter leading right to the Superior Vena Cava which goes right to my heart!  It is a permanent IV line which can stay in place for 6 months to 1 year! They started the IV antibiotics on Wednesday. It is a 2 week course of IV antibiotics. They wanted to keep me in hospital for the entire administration of the drugs but if I could learn how to do the IV myself, then I could go home and have a nurse visit daily. So I learned the procedure (which was harder than I thought) and they released me on Friday.

So now, Dave and I flush the IV lines and hook up the IV at 6 a.m., 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. and we do chest physiotherapy and my inhaled medicine a few times per day – so it is about 5-6 hrs per day of healing.  As my friend Janet Fraser said –“ I am on a training camp that is all about ‘healing’ right now!!”

Today marked 2 weeks on IV antibiotics and a return to the CF Clinic. I am feeling so much better and happier and healthier but my lungs are not quite back to their baseline just yet!! The plan is to continue on IV antibiotics for a bit longer – maybe another 2 weeks so that we can really deliver the eviction notice to these bacteria.

I am good – I am content – grateful that there is a solution. I am totally confident that the antibiotics will work. They are working already. I do not act or feel unwell. I actually never thought that my lungs would ever return to their baseline of 100%  so this IV therapy is a true gift and blessing.  I figured that the incredible athletic success that I had been blessed with for 20 years would now be replaced with the realities of CF and I was ok with that. I have lost about 1.5 litres of oxygen in the past year and I thought that THAT would be the new me. I got used to huffing and puffing while swimming, biking and running BUT I held onto the joy that at least I COULD swim, bike and run. But now, I have huge faith that I am going to get back to either 100% or very close to it. Whatever the result is, I am determined to never let it get in the way of living full and doing my sport forever. I may be slower but I will be healthy and happy and ready to share my 20 years of triathlon with others and ready to instil hope to families with CF that there is health beyond treatment, there is joy in being treated and that we can all be the best we can be with whatever health we have. I do not wish that I did not have CF – I have it for a reason and I will be the best wife, daughter, sister, friend, athlete, coach, mentor and motivational speaker with CF that I can be at every step of the journey – the easy steps and the not so easy steps.

Thanks for your support – I will be great – I just know it!

The Cruise to Run (www.cruisetorun.com) has sailed away for another year but we are filled with great fun experiences and new friends and a few more running miles under our belts. Jerry and Jody Friesen of Instride Productions (www.instride.ca) are the organizers behind this amazing cruise which hosts a run in every port we visit. The first day was a running race in St. Thomas (photo above) where runner predict their finish time and the best predicter is the winner!

The next day, was the big mountain run in Tortola where a King and Queen of the Mountain are crowned. It takes approximately 15  minutes to run to the top. Bonnie won Queen of the Mountain this year – she showed such grit and determination beating out some spry young ladies and many men in the process.

This is Bonnie in the rear and Bob in the front of one of the early packs heading up the mountain.

Here is me running up the mountain – notice the ship in the background!!

And here is Davey boy running up the mountain. Honestly, it is a huge accomplishment to be able to run up. Lots of people enjoyed walking up. Here is Marc Roy from Sportstats walking up with his gorgeous daughter, Leah.

And what goes up, must come down! This is everyone walking down the mountain - Doug and Shelley and Mike from Regina (there are not many hills in Regina) and Davey and the Sharatta –  you have to walk!

After the big run up the mountain, we went back for breakfast/lunch and then headed to the most amazing island off of Tortola called Virgin Gorda. It was spectacular – we had to walk through caves to get to the beach. It was the best off ship excursion we ever did.

The next day was a 13 km run in Antigua which began with the runners donating books to the library in Antigua.

After the run, Dave and I gathered about 20 runners and we all went to the beach for a swim.

Thursday was our run in St. Lucia. Every year, I enjoy this run more and more. At this stop, we all donated a pair of running shoes to the runners in St. Lucia without shoes.

And finally, we did our final run – a 5 km race – in Barbados. Many local runners and students join us for this run which makes it extra special. Then, in the afternoon, we all go for a swim at Carlyse Bay and of course, that is really a great excuse to socialize!

I was fortunate to be one of the three guest speakers for our Cruise to Run. Dick Beardsley gave his amazing speech on Tuesday night, I did mine on Thursday night and Bart Yasso, the CRO (Chief Running Officer) of Runner’s World spoke on Friday night. There were also a few socials for all of the runners. And there were even the spontaneous socials when Eon D’Ornelleas sang “Sweet Caroline” and Jerry sang “I am a Cowboy” at Karaoke. There was so much fun to be had – honestly, I need to do some training for the fun stuff for next year’s cruise  (gotta get FIT – Fun in Training). Every night we would go to bed exhausted from enjoying our day and then wake up and do it again!

I was definately using the warm salty sea air (and antibiotics) to try to get over a chronic CF related chest infection that has plagued me for about a year. I did feel better as the cruise went on, but unfortunately I returned to a lower lung function than when I left. I will fill you in on all of that in my next post. But for now, check out www.cruisetorun.com for more info – I have been invited back again next year – so hopefully we can get some new athletes on board! And thank you to Mitch and Janet Fraser for sending me these amazing photos and for lots of fun!

Oh yes – the red mitts – an affordable collector’s item – if you can find them. Dave and I bought red mitts for everyone at Christmas but we couldn’t find a large for Dave. So we sent the real shopper for them – mom!  She looked under racks and tables and finally found a pair and wrapped them up for Dave for Christmas!

And this is a wonderful picture of my team – the Clean Air Champions. Look closely – you may see some current or former Olympians. As I said, the best VO2 max on the relay!

Lisa and the owner of Spoon and Fork

Now, it is back to normal life post Torchbearer Relay Fun. We celebrated New Years with some friends at our favorite restaurant – Spoon and Fork – in Oakville. It is a long way to Oakville from Caledon, but the food (Thai and Japanese) is amazing! And since then, it has been all about finishing the 2XU inventory for our accountant to balance the books. Stay tuned – Dave has set up online sales on www.2xushop.ca – I am not sure when it will be up and running – maybe it already is – but it will help you find the closest retailer with the 2XU items that you want and if that retailer doesn’t stock the item, then it will be shipped to you from the warehouse. So for all of you online shoppers that shop via US websites, now you can shop in Canada and not pay the duty!  And then, I will have less merchandise to count for next year’s inventory!

Happy New Year!

Yes, it is official – I am an Olympic Torchbearer. It was quite an experience. If I were to describe it in a few words, I would say “family and friends and team” – that was what made this experience so special.  I was so proud to be able to share this opportunity with so many people – Dave, mom and dad, sister Teresa and Luanne and hubby Mike and their friends, Dave’s family – Sue, Ray, Brittany and Braedan, our friends Bob,  Karen and Ashley Rose, Don McCormick – my Muskoka family and then neighbors on our street.  It was a ‘village celebration’.

My team, well that was the Clean Air Champions – CAC – a group of Olympic, Para-Olympic and National Team athletes who are all ambassadors for our environment. We were the biggest team to carry the Torch on the relay so far. We ran together for 1 km – and we each had our moment with the Torch for about 50-100 m. I kept teasing my teammates that we likely had the highest VO2 max and Anaerobic Threshold of any group so far to carry the Torch!  We should have just kept on carrying it from Muskoka to the day’s final destination in North Bay.

Oh yes, and the very fact that I got to carry the Torch in Muskoka was so sentimental for me. I have raced triathlon in Muskoka since either 1990 or 1991. I have raced the National Champs, the World Champs, the regular Trisport Muskoka event (which was Royal le Page, Teleglobe, President’s Choice and now the Subaru Series), the Subaru Muskoka Chase and finally the Subaru Muskoka 70.3 event. And that history came full circle with my tiny little trek through Huntsville for 1 km!

And the family and friends part – well that was so special. We all came up the day before and enjoyed a few family hours playing at Deerhurst. My nephew and niece and their Uncle David and Bob and Ashley and I had some fun snow tubing – and my mom was even going to try it – not bad for a 75 year old woman!!  We ran out of time so mom will do it next year since our visit to Deerhurst and Muskoka will become a yearly family fun holiday!  Enjoy the photos!!  Happy New Year!

Sorry about making our Subaru Muskoka 70.3 run up this hill in the race – remember the golf course .. here it is in winter .. perfect for tubing!

Oh yes – and two photos of the Subaru Muskoka 70.3 swim course!!  Looks cold!

These are my Olympic cookies – little “Saucony” shoes made by Karen Rose and her daughter Ashley Rose – to celebrate the Torchbearer fun we are going to have tomorrow in Huntsville!!

Mom, Dad, sister Teresa, Dave’s family – Sue, Ray, Brittany and Braedan, our friends, Bob, Karen and Ashley Rose and of course, Dave and I, have all descended upon Deerhurst to begin the pre-Torchbearing festivities! Karen said she had a surprise and she was not kidding – they had made these sugar cookies – they had painted the Olympic rings on each and every cookie – 80 of them – what an unbelievable treat. Yes, the Rose family are the cream of the crop – beautiful and kind from head to toe!!

After settling into our rooms, we went for a walk and found a tubing hill on the golf course – yes, the golf course that we all ran on in the Subaru Muskoka 70.3 event in 2008!  That was one heck of a fast, steep tubing hill – sorry athletes we made you run up it in the race!  The kiddies (and Dave) had a blast snow tubing and I even did 3 runs on it!  We had some good family fun in the -15 degrees celsius! Then it was back to our hospitality suite for some fun and then out for a family dinner at Swiss Chalet! Fiona, Nigel Gray’s sister, popped by for a great visit as well. Being at Deerhurst is kind of like having your family over to your house but it isn’t your house!! So far, this has been a terrific family celebration. My sister Luanne and hubby Mike drive up on Wednesday. Can’t wait until I get my hands on the Torch! More later!

This is my official uniform as Torchbearer number OTR062-070!! On December 30th at 2:24 p.m., I have the honor of being an Olympic Torchbearer in Muskoka!  How ironic is it that after racing so much in Muskoka for the past 20 years, that I would have this incredible opportunity. Apparently, I start on the path at River Mill Park and finish at the McDonalds – quite fitting so that I can dash inside and grab a quick burger and fries – NOT!!! Most of my family and a few friends are coming up for the big run – likely the shortest run of my life. I am doing this Torch Run as a member of Clean Air Champions – a group of environmentally conscience athletes who are ambassadors for a cleaner outdoor living experience.  In fact, I did a PSA commercial for Clean Air Champions a few weeks ago … here it is (not completely TV proof yet – still waiting for a few final touches):

… wait .. I will keep you in suspense until it is a finished product – stay tuned!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas .. more from Muskoka in a few days!!

The champion team was Jen Cooombs and hubby Mike Amaral – we picked them as the team to beat and sure enough they were on fire. The team of Tyler and Jody were 2nd. The Bob and Bryan squad stole our mountain bike and so they were demoted to 4th! Cracker and I were last but moved up to 3rd after the Bob/Bryan naughtiness but in reality we were  ”the munters” .. but thankfully still ahead of the baby jogging duo of Heather and Rich.  

Then it was back to the house for some chili and to watch the Grey Cup and re hash strategies for next year.

And by the way, the 2XU and Lisa B Sale went off well last weekend. We were able to raise $500 for the Adult CF Clinic at St. Michael’s hospital. Look for a 2XU sale in the spring with jackets, running gear, sublimated bike gear, tri suits and some wetsuits for sale at great prices.

Last weekend, I was invited on behalf of Subaru Canada to speak at the Triathlon New Brunswick Awards Banquet.  Subaru Canada is the sponsor of the East Coast Series which makes Subaru the dominant triathlon sponsor in Canada with support of races from the West Coast Triathlon Series, our Ontario Subaru Triathlon Series (Trisport), the East Coast Series, Quebec’s races, as well as the king and queen of Canada – Subaru Ironman Canada and Subaru Muskoka 70.3.

The hospitality was unbelievable as we planned out my trip. Peter very graciously picked me up at the airport; Vincent Lee arranged for me to drive the new 2010 Outback; John Russell planned for Carter and his family to attend and then Peter facilitated a run with over 50 runners from the Moncton Running Room. 

I landed at 4:45 p.m. and once I settled into my hotel, I quickly walked over to Carter’s hotel for a short visit with his family. I had not seen them since our finish at Kona 2007!  Then it was off to the banquet at 6:30 p.m. to meet the New Brunswick athletes.

I helped to give out a few awards and then did my slide show presentation and motivational talk. We finished off the evening with some autographs and photos!

The next morning, I was due to run with the athletes at 8:30 from the Running Room but with my flight at 11:30 and wanting to spend a bit of time with Carter, I started to run at 7:15 and then met up with the crew. There were around 60-70 runners assembled. We had a nice 10 km run and then I was off to shower and then a short visit and goodbye with Carter and his brother Fraser and mom and dad and Lightning the dog. It was a very full 20 hours but an amazing 20 hours celebrating sport, meeting new people and treasuring old memories.

In other news, on December 12th, Dave and I are planning a “clean the house and warehouse” sale. I donate most of my slightly used or ‘too small’ gear to a local youth triathlon group but I have a few treasures that need a home. And Dave will clear a few years worth of 2XU samples that need a home and other gear that he cannot sell to his retailers. A portion of all sales will go to the CF Foundation or to a particular family with CF that needs assistance. I am waiting to hear from the CF Clinic which families need some extra support over the holidays. It will take place at the Margaret Dunn Valleywood Library. I will make a little advertisement soon that people can print off and bring to the sale to get in. It is by invitation only.  During the sale we will also be taking orders for our new LBT jerseys, cycling shorts and jackets and race singlets. Everything is cash only since we won’t have the hook up for Visa or MC.

Enjoy the mild weather!  Happy Thanksgiving to our US friends – Lisa

I will be posting some stories from my fun weekend (actually 20 hours) in Moncton, New Brunswick soon. I am still recovering from the whirlwind trip and fun run with  the Triathlon New Brunswick crew and the gang from Moncton Running Room!  But for now, some news from Richard Pady. Rich is a well respected coach in Ontario (Healthy Results) - top age group athlete, former pro athlete and father of two beautiful kiddies. I coached him last year en route to his win at Triple T, 2nd at Lake Placid and qualification and gutsy race in Kona. If you need some winter indoor riding tips, then keep reading. He has created a non-glitzy but very motivating and informative tool to keep you company on your trainer this winter.

Richard Pady has created Indoor Rider.  Indoor Rider is a series of cycling video workouts for you to download from Indoorrider.com once a week. The program builds you slowly, safely, and in the most time efficient way towards success. When you join, you are provided with a new video every week, each approximately one hour in length. You will increase your fitness and power while staying excited about your training and not getting bored this winter.

By following the program, you will train smart and avoid overtraining or burn out this season. The sessions allow you to work at your own level and progress at your own pace.  Everyone has something to gain and learn from training with Coach Pady.

On top of the weekly videos you get the opportunity to workout with Olympic Gold and Silver medalist Simon Whitfield. Simon’s videos will be available to members with an annual subscription only.

Check it out.

Here is a little explanation of the bits and pieces ..

First, the  name.  It uses my initials ‘LB’ and the ‘T’ is also part of my name. But the “T” is what I do .. Triathlon!

The name is Live Breathe Tri and will be the name for our coaching business which has been happening for a few years but we have decided to make it official.

Why Live Breathe Tri. For me, sport has always been about more than winning. It has allowed me to live full and love life. I have taken a lot of breaths during my career and each breath has brought me closer to my goals of personal excellence. And I use my breath for CF as I try to do as much as I can for families with children with CF and for adults with CF who are choosing to become active.  And triathlon – well, that is what has driven me for the past 20 years. It is my lifestyle, it is Dave and my lifestyle and I hope it is your lifestyle as well.  So there you have it – Live Breathe Tri!!

The colors. Blue and white with a green stripe on the sleeve. First the green stripe is for our friends in Regina – a Regina man was the first person I began coaching about 5 years ago. Now, Dave and I coach a great little Saskatchewan crew – go Riders!!!  The blue represents the ocean which is freedom and energy and air and life.  Dave and I love the ocean. The white is for the purity in our sport which I hope we never lose sight of .. you swim, you bike, you run – go play triathlon! Live Breathe Tri – LBT!!!