Interview with Kathryn Bertine

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Jessica

We literally are all the way back to Friday again.

I could not be happier. This week has been utter and complete madness for me. I will not lament but rather focus on awesomer things.

So a while back, I gave away a book. Yes, I am STILL on about Kathryn Bertine. The woman is a legend.

If I can have half of the drive or resilience this woman has in her baby finger, I will be a super star.

Regardless, I have been sporadically sharing this link, which is a environmentally bent interview with her that I did a while back. What I didn’t share is that I have a more “Laces And Lattesque” version of the interview. I may do this forever: go into interesting interviews with about 10 more questions than necessary and hound innocent people about their favourite post workout meals, deodorants, [anything really] as long as I think I can throw it up on this space. (Which sadly, is almost anything…)

Anyways. Here are the bonus interview questions:

JK: You talk about your early morning training schedule in your book. Any tips for those of us who find it hard to get out of bed at 5 AM to hit the road?

KB: Well, I am currently in the biking offseason, but I find that if you have a specific goal in sight, then it all comes together. If you are lacking the motivation to train, you need to ask yourself why? It can often be burnout for an endurance athlete because it is always go-go-go. A suggestion to find motivation in training is to throw in a mid-season race so you have something to work towards. Another big motivator is to train with a friend; it is hard to skip a workout when you know someone is waiting for you.

JK: Since you are in your off-season right now, what are your favourite cross training exercises?

KB: I go back to my triathlon roots! Normally I ride twice a week, I swim twice a week and I am going to have to use the word “jog” twice a week.

JK: I’ve seen your times, it is definitely running.

KB: Ha! No really, I just do short stuff, like 25 minute jogs, an hour swim and not counting laps and bikram yoga once a week. I do something 6 days a week because there is a difference between resting and getting completely out of shape. Oh! And I love hiking!

JK: What about strength training?

I lift twice a week and I have a trainer in Tuscan helps me with strength training specific to cycling. He targets muscles that are neglected on a bike. Your back muscles are strong, but your chest and shoulders don’t necessarily counterbalance so you can get some pretty funky posture going on and imbalances. It is really fun for me!

Side note: Add her to twitter: @KathrynBertine because her trainer’s name is Jesus so she has tweets like this:

JK: With all the training you do, how do you keep a balance between your personal life and training life.

KB: This is an important one. When you are balanced, you do your best! This has been a journey for me. I feel most balanced when my writing and cycling career are in sync but in freelance, that can be tough. I have been married for a few years to my husband, an amateur cyclist and he has been very supportive in the moral aspect of the sport because he realizes I won’t be able to do this forever. If you have someone in your life who provides you with emotional support and truly mean it, that is a huge factor in going out and facing your training head on.

What music to do workout to?

KB: I actually don’t train outdoors with music because I like to day dream and I need to keep my wits about me otherwise two or three of my senses are missing! Also, as a writer, I use my riding time to think in that capacity. However, if I am on an indoor trainer (which doesn’t happen all that often), I need music! I love The Killers, LMFAO, anything that has a good rhythm. O! And the new Rolling Stones album!

So. If you want to learn even more about Kathryn, head on over to my work blog to read more of the interview and enter to win her book. Because the giveaway ends today.

That’s all I have for today. I am headed off to enjoy the Guelph Organic Conference and celebrate my baby sister’s baptism this weekend. I will see you all on Monday!

Who is your favourite athlete?

If it’s up to me, it all comes down to you or What I’m Loving

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Jessica

Good morning, everyone!

I hope your week is going smoothly as we head straight into the weekend. This week has been a blur of car shopping (more later) and the first full week back to work since the holidays.

Over the holidays, I said that I am wanting to start some regular features on the blog. Let me introduce my new Wednesday feature:

The way it works? I share something, someone or well..anything that I am loving in particular that week?

Why? Because it is one of my favourite things on other blogs, whether it is something brand new that I tried or something tried and true, it will be here. I am hoping to use it to shine a light on other bloggers as well, and will work out a system that I will instigate as we go on.

But let’s start with the obvious, shall we?

If you can see past the cheesiness of it all, we celebrated our 2 year anniversary this past holiday season and I felt as if he deserved a bit of recognition.

Recently, some of my friends and I were hashing out “The Moment” where you realize you have it bad for that special someone in your life. Let me tell you about that moment with Jesse.

It was over 2 years ago. He was working in Rentals at my father’s store.

I needed to go over to Rentals for one reason or another and I walked in on him digging into one of those huge, trough-sized pieces of Tupperware which was overflowing with dark, leafy greens covered in home made salad dressing.

I tried to be cool.

“Nice salad.”

He looked at me, grinning from ear to ear. “I love vegetables!”

And that, gentlemen, is how it is done.

Anyways. It has been an amazing two years. We have traveled Europe together.

Adopted a cantankerous, angry, bitter Yorkie that we love.

Wilson

He has been there for all my biggest moments:

True love is sitting through a 2 hour convocation.

and he has taught me a new sport:

Thrilled to be teaching me how to cross country ski

He can always make me laugh.

There are a thousand other moments, and things he has done, said and given that I could mention here. I was recently talking to a friends and commemorating the two years of us and I remarked at how much I have grown as a person in the two years I have been with Jesse. She asked if I thought that would happened without Jesse in the picture. I decided it didn’t matter – the fact that I can grow and be confident in my own strengths, interests and goals show that he is an incredible person to have at my side.

So grateful for the the past two years.

Some other things I am loving:

1. Uh – that you can WIN Kathyrn Bertine’s latest book on my article from Alternatives. Enter and win!!!

2. This blog. Belonging to our editor, it is his journey across India in a rickshaw to raise money for charity. Check it out – so, so inspiring and incredible.

3. My new car. That’s right. I bought a brand spanking new car and it is SO much better than you can imagine! I pick it up on Saturday and I will reveal what it is on Monday. Stay tuned.

What else I love? All of you! Have a marvellous week!

Doping Scandal and a Giveaway Winner!

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Jessica

Happy Friday, everyone!

Hope you had a marvelous week – I know I did, despite the fact that it feels more like it should be Wednesday instead of Friday.

Today I am giving away “As Good as Gold” by Kathryn Bertine and I am so excited to share it with you!

The winner is NR! I have contacted you and am so excited for you to read it!

I was quite impacted, although not shocked, this week as I read about the doping scandal of Lance Armstrong. Rather than “gift” you with my own two cents, I thought I would weigh in with some thoughts that actually have some klout in the competitive cycling world: Kathryn Bertine herself. I thought I would focus on a particular passage in the book from Kathryn that resonated in the news this week:

Tired of doping scandals altogether, be it baseball or cycling or track and field, we can get rid of them two ways. The media can step up their game and cover clean athletes and USADA and WADA can enforce new rules. The penalty system must be revamped. Enough of these one and two-year “soft” bans, these tiresome lawsuits and the time and energy spent on “punishing” cheaters. As long as there are sports, there will be cheaters. But there will be fewer if we crack down on them with more than a slap on the wrist. Here’s what USADA, WADA and all sports federations should agree to when it comes to catching cheaters:
1. Enforce a lifetime ban for a first offence.
2. Impose a minimum one-year jail sentence.
3. Make athletes perform a minimum 1,000-hours of community service in hospital wards where EPO and steroids are used for their true intention — to treat cancer patients and the terminally ill.
4. Force athletes to repay or reimburse their annual salary, prize money and endorsement contracts.
5. Forfeit all titles and medals earned during a career. Asterisks are for writers. Not athletes.
To read more, check out this link.
What was your reaction to the scandal this week?

A Giveaway: Pave It Forward

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Jessica

Not too long ago, Pavement Runner decided that he had too many books. He bought a new one that was so great that he needed to share it and thus, the Pave It Forward Giveaway was formed. The premise is simple: win the book, read the book, review the book, and give it away to another blogger.

And what a book.

I was so excited to get my hands on As Good as Gold by Kathryn Bertine that I won from the giveaway on Angela’s blog. I knew that it would be an incredible story because of Kathryn’s interview with Angela, but honestly, I had no idea how much grit this woman was made of.

Here is a brief synopsis of the book:

Meet Kathryn Bertine, elite triathlete, former professional figure skater, and starving artist. Just as her personal and professional dreams begin to crumble in the summer of 2006, ESPN stakes her to a dream: Take two years to make the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. As Good As Gold is the heroic, hilarious account of Bertine’s serial exertions in the realms of triathlon, modern pentathlon, team handball, track cycling, road cycling, rowing, open water swimming, racewalking, and—fasten your seatbelts—luge.

On her journey, the obstacles range from jet lag to jellyfish, flat tires to floundering relationships, repeated rejection to road rash. But, as time is running out, Bertine doesn’t sweat the small stuff, only the large—like scouring the globe for a tiny nation to adopt her, and pushing her body and mind as far as it will go. Maybe all the way to China.

Between harrowing, often laugh-out-loud episodes of triumph and humiliation, Bertine takes short “Water Breaks” to contemplate the ins-and-outs of fan mail, failure, rehydration, nasal reconstruction, and how best to punish steroid users.

Kathryn Bertine swims, runs, and rides—and writes—like a champion. In As Good as Gold, Bertine proves she has something more valuable than an Olympic medal. She’s got Olympic mettle. When it comes to the human heart, she takes the gold.

Trust me, this is a book you want to read. Kathryn’s spirit and drive leaves you with the feeling of “well if she can do THAT, I can do something great too!”

Something great, like win this book!

All you need to do is answer this question in the comments:

If you could go to the Olympics for any sport, what would it be?

Contest winner will be announced next Friday.

Favourite September Things

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Jessica

September is one of the busiest months of the year for me. Rather than being run ragged, I am celebrating the wonderful things this month holds for me and I wanted to share some of them with you all!

1. I was the winner of Eat Spin Run Repeat’s Paving it Forward contest. The whole idea behind the giveaway was to read the book, then pass it on (or pave it forward) to another lucky person. It is the story behind Kathryn Bertine, an elite triathlete, pro cyclist, and ESPN columnist.

Here is a glimpse of what the book is about:

At the age of thirty, elite triathlete Kathryn Bertine had no job, no home of her own, no direction, a canceled wedding, and just over $200 in her checking account. Just as she was about to renounce her athletic dreams, the phone rang. ESPN The Magazine made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: Bertine would have two years to make the 2008 Summer Olympic Games – by any means necessary – as long as she survived to tell the tale.

The result is As Good As Gold, the wise, witty, and epic story of one woman, nine sports, ten countries, two years, one unbreakable heart, and what it really takes to be the best.

Exactly the kind of book I eat right up! I am almost done Born to Run and was looking for another book to read.

Keep watch for an upcoming giveaway, after I am done reading it, I will be passing it on to one of YOU!

2. It is the best time of the year for runners – fall! I have just started as the new assistant coach of the varsity cross country team at my University and I have settled into my teaching routine at the gym. (Although I don’t think I will ever get used to 6 am spin class). I absolutely love teaching the classes and help coaching the workouts and it makes me feel awesome to be putting my CanFitPro certification to use! My Saturdays, when not full of multiple weddings, will be spend on the racing with the university. It feels good to be back training with the team and I cannot wait to see what the season holds!

Last year with some of the girls

3. This:

4. Planning a trip! Fellow blogger, Gerbs and I are hitting the road in November to go to Nashville to see Noel Gallagher (from Oasis) and Snow Patrol in action! It is the perfect thing to get me through my crazy fall and I can tell you – Kaitlyn and I in a car for 12 hours straight is bound to create some incredible stories. I absolutely love spontaneity and when she asked me to join her, my response was something along the lines of “You know I cannot say no to a trip to a part of the world I have never been!”

5. Cycle for Sustainability: Jesse and I are gearing up (no pun intended) for our 33 km cycle to raise funds for Women In Action and World Accord.

I am headed into a weekend full of weddings and work events.

What are your September things?

Tag Archives: Kathryn Bertine

Interview with Kathryn Bertine

If it’s up to me, it all comes down to you or What I’m Loving

Doping Scandal and a Giveaway Winner!

A Giveaway: Pave It Forward

Favourite September Things

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