Rachel McBride Canadian Triathlete

Holy crow I haven't updated in a long time. To get y'all up to speed I'll give you the nutshell version of Rachel's life since January:

1. The biggest news that pretty much determines what the next 2 years will look like for me: I'm going back to school!!

Yes, grad degree numero 2. I have been accepted into the highly competitive Genetic Counselling Masters programme at the University of British Columbia here in Vancouver. It has been quite a journey to get to this point of determining and beginning to achieve my new career goals. Thanks to my amazing career counsellor Irene Giesbrecht, I have learned so much about myself, my values, and what kind of job is going to be truly satisfying for Rachel McBride! I am incredibly excited to start school in September and meet the other 5 women in my cohort.

2. The major theme for 2009 is life balance.

My husband has been an incredible support for the past number of years as I have worked towards my triathlon goals. Although we have been together for the past 5 years, it felt as if our lives barely intersected! So I'm slowing my crazy, hectic life a bit, and we're doing fun things together like deep sea fishing (267 lbs of salmon and halibut for our freezer this year!) and taking a kayaking course. By the end of the month we'll have our Paddling Canada Level One certification. We're hoping to get at least one kayak by mid-summer and foresee a long future of kayaking day/weekend trips. Something active and outdoorsy that we can do together!

3. Of course training and racing are still on the radar, but looking quite different this year and taking on a more organic, local kind of feel (it's all the rage and good for the environment! :).

Two factors influenced my decision to switch coaches this year: a) the necessity to reign in my financial commitments and b) the decision to decrease my time commitment to my athletics in lieu of spending time with my family (that whole life balance thing). So after a few seasons of being a tag-a-long member, I finally actually joined the Leading Edge Tri Club and have been training a bit with Coach Alan and his protege.

It was great to work with Mark Bates last year- I was sad to leave. He is an incredibly supportive and talented coach. The Vancouver RTC Juniors are lucky to have him!!

4. Injuries have been another theme for this spring and have put a damper on early season racing once again (see last year's struggle with the stress fractured foot).
This winter I crashed on my knee while snowboarding with hubbie- yes, I've heard "you should know better" from just about everyone. Then I attempted the Sun Run 10k run shortly after healing and ended up with the typical "too much too soon" Achilles tendonitis. Yay! So I'm on my second walk/run programme for 2009 already. It feels great to be back pounding the trails, but I'm determined to keep myself in check and ease back into it.

5) On to the question everyone loves to ask me: got any big races coming up, Rachel?

That's a tough one. We're just going to have to see how the cookie crumbles in the coming weeks/months. I definitely have some local cycling races on the radar- just did the Westside Classic and very soon is the Yaletown Crit on Canada Day. Superweek is also barreling towards us in mid-July. One of my goals this year was to actually try my hand at the half iron distance. Let's cross fingers I'll be half marathon ready for the Desert Half Iron!

6) Despite trying to take life slowly, it appears to be unavoidable to refrain from packing my downtime with things to do. Recently this has been through various volunteer opportunities including a few swim meets and a year-long commitment at both the Genetic Counselling clinic at the Women's Hospital (helping with medical genetics research) and Options for Sexual Health (as a contraception counsellor).

And finally 7) last year's sporadic coaching opportunities have led to a more formal gig helping out my friend and former coach Dwayne with his newly formed Kerrisdale Tri Club. We've got an awesome group of athletes, that is growing by the month. I'm very excited to be involved and working on my coaching skills!!

Anyway, my nutshell seems to have been a little long, but thanks for reading! I'll hopefully update again soon.

PS- if you're in the BC area, check me out on the cover of the spring edition of TriBC Magazine! Interview inside. Just a credit correction- the picture of Lauren, Kerry and I in Brazil was actually taken by a TV host guy and not my dad Garth!