PK Performance Coaching

It’s another for the crew. And what a weekend it was. Mother Nature decided it should feel like November instead of late May and she unleashed a torrent of cold wet weather that started early Saturday morning and didn’t let up until mid morning on Sunday. Hands down some of the worst conditions I’ve seen for racing in a very long time.
Not the best day to run an ultra BUT two of the PKPC Crew did just that at

Dina ran her first ever 50 km. 11 months after fracturing her femur at the same race last year. She was smart with her effort and walked / hiked a lot of the course and kept her HR in check - she finished with a smile and then promptly disappeared to warm up, LOL.

Andrew ran his first 100 miler. He did the 100 km last year and had absolutely perfect conditions. This year was the complete opposite. I honestly don’t know how he mentally managed to get that done. I saw him as he was heading out onto his 3rd lap and he looked cold but focused. I spent 3 hours in spectating in that weather and I was miserable, never mind 28 HOURS.

I am SO IMPRESSED by both of them. Never losing sight of the goal and making sure they had EVERYTHING they needed to get it done (last count I think Andrew had 6 bags of things he was bringing). The amount of mental fortitude it takes to keep going through conditions like that is not trivial.

Julie was in Ottawa for the Ottawa 10 km on Saturday. This was a stepping stone on her road to Muskoka 70.3. The goal was to get some time on her feet off a longer ride and she managed to do just that.

Amy H one of my strength athletes is in Mallorca for the Best Fest swim festival. She swam a 5 km on Saturday and set a new PB, swam the 3.8 km yesterday in choppy waters and will be swimming 10 km later on this week. She’s building to a 15 km swim race later this summer.

CONGRATS TEAM!

Stress in midlife doesn’t always show up as overwhelm. Sometimes it shows up as a quiet buzz running in the background….steady, subtle, and more draining than you expect. As someone who used to work in a “white knuckle” stress job, this feeling was new to me. And it completely took me out.

So of course I went down the rabbit hole to figure out why.

During the menopause transition, your stress system becomes more reactive, not because you’re doing anything wrong, but because your physiology is shifting under your feet. The “low‑level buzz” so many women feel in midlife isn’t imaginary, it’s physiology. Fluctuating estrogen changes how the HPA axis regulates cortisol, which means your stress response becomes more reactive even when life looks manageable. This is also why things like loud chewing, snoring and people not using headphones to have a conversation on the subway can set you off.

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It’s another MEGA MEDAL MONDAY. Yesterday was one of the most popular spring races in Toronto, The Sporting Life 10 km and SIX of the of Crew were at the start line.

Dina + Andrew started doing this race with their kids a couple of years ago. This year they had 3 of their 4 boys with them and all of them got PB’s.

Amy D came pretty darn close to a PB after a hard week of training for Muskoka 70.3. She kept her effort in check and raced smartly - I love to see this - it’s easy to get carried away in a race like that but she checked herself before she wrecked herself. She was also the unofficial CREW wrangler for post race photos, ha!

Paul is gradually building his distance up to race the TCS half in October so this was a stepping stone to that. He came in just shy of his 60 minute goal but he was still pretty happy overall.

Stephanie also raced and came away with a MASSIVE PB. Her last 10 km race (which was also her first) was 59:31. Yesterday she came in at 46:09. Things are looking good for her build to IM Ottawa in August

Jordan was also aiming for 60 minutes but came away a bit shy with some hamstring issues later in the race.

On the east coast, Jodi completed another race in her Canadian Quest running the Fredericton Half marathon. This after taking 6 weeks off of running due to getting her appendix out. We weren’t sure how this would go but she had a GREAT day.

Way to go CREW!