6, 1991

~ North Shore News - 15

+ 2 oy

Confessions of a
triathlon addict

ONE SHOULDN'T gloat,
especially in a community news-
paper.

By Elizabeth Collings
News Reporter

But [’'m going to anyway —
and quick, before my reason to
gloat dissolves as quickly as fast
weekend's snowfall.

The story is this: On Sunday, at
a sports club that shall remain
nameless (to protect the identities
of those involved), a woman — a
very kind woman with a generous
nature and keen eye for skill —
told me in the change room that I
was a ‘beautiful swimmer.*’

Gloat? Hell, 1 almost grabbed
the poor woman to do a quick jig
around the locker room.

But I stayed cool. Sure, things
came together on Sunday as 1
practised the drills masters coach
Judy Aspinall gave me. It was the
most effortless and fastest swim
I've ever Zone.

But swimming is a cruel sport. 1
know now from experience that a
swim skill once mastered can
disappear at the next attempt. As
Aspinall told me, you get it right,
then you lose it again and get it
back and so on until, hopefully,
you finally keep it right.

So, it was a quick-lived gloat,
also cut short by my wisecracking
sibling's comment that the lady
must have been short-sighted.

Nevertheless, the training for
the May 20 North Shore Spring
Triathlon presses on.

The good — or bad thing,
depending how you look at it —
about triathlon training is that
there are few excuses for not
taining.

If you have a running injury,
you can hop in the pool; if it
snows or rains, you can hit the
stationary bike in place of a bike
ride; if you don’t want to run
outside for whatever reason, there
is always a step-master somewhere
waiting for you.

Now entering my fourth week
of training, I’ve tripled the time |
work out from my _ pre-training
days of cbout three hours per
week to an average of 10 hours

NORTH SHORE _
SPRING TRIATHLON

per week.

Even at 10 hours a week, Pm
not pushing the runnning, cycling
or swimming components very
hard in terms of distance and in-
tensity, focusing instead on tech-
nique and a slow buildup.

At the tiathton workshop last
month, clinic leader Paul Granger
told us about the dangers of
becoming obsessed with training,
leading often to overtraining inju-
ries and burnout.

‘Training is something
want to add to your life,
disrupt your life,’’ he said.

Of course, even if you are
moderate in your training, it does
mean a change in lifestyle.

Time management has become a
big factor in my life. I seem to
spend an awful lot of time pack-
ing and unpacking my workout
gear, planning workout schedules
and doing an inordinate amount
of laundry — rather tedious, as
you can imagine.

But there are compensations,
my two favorite being food, lots
of it, and the satisfaction after a
good, long workout.

The other change I've noticed
— and one Granger said is true
about most triathletes — is that I
love to talk about training and
hear how other people are train-
ing. It really is quite addictive.

Of course, you don't want to
tell the wrong people.

At one family dinner, a family
member commented that the
whole world is full of triathlete
wannabes, to which I retorted that
a little training wouldn’t hurt him.

But, he protested, I'm already
in training — training for the
eating, drinking and sleeping
triathlon.

Touche.

you
not

There is still room for people to
register for the level one cycling
clinic at recCentre Ron Andrews.
The clinic runs 9 a.m. to noon on
March 10, 16, and 23. For infor-
mation, call Trish Holme at 929-
7314,

Carson places second
at Prince George meet

DESPITE ITS small numbers,
Carson Graham managed to place
eight of the nine members on its
wrestling team at the B.C. high
schoo! wrestling championships in
Prince George last weekend.

The team also won second place
overall in the team standings after
Norkam of Kamloops.

Because of the North Van-
couver Teachers’ Association’s
work-to-rule campaign last month,
only about half the usual number
of wrestlers were able to qualify
for the provincial meet.

Nevertheless, the Carson team,
coached by Carson grad and
former provincial champ Giulio
Decotiis, still produced a B.C.
champion in Rossano Decoiiis,
who placed first in the 78-kg
weight category.

Meanwhile, two other Carson
wrestlers have been selected to
represent B.C. at the national
wrestling championships this
weekend in Calgary.

Sason Lee, who came second in
the 60-kg division, and Lach

HIGH SCHOOL
SPORTS

Ferguson who came third in the
57-kg division, were selected by
the B.C. Wrestling Association for
the national meet.

Rossano will not be eligible to
compete at the national meet
because of age requirements.

Ryan White, another Carson
grad, will also compete at the na-
tionals in the espoir category.

Other placings at the B.C.
championships are:
Morris Decotiis, 70-kg., se-

cond;
*Mehrdad Ershad, 45-kg., se-
cond:
oMatt
fourth;
Paolo Decotiis, 78-kg, sixth;
*Riley Johnson, 48-kg; sixth.
Balmoral’s Peter Kim and
heavyweight Sam Zoobkoff of
Carson Graham also competed at
the meet but did not piace.

Shaugnessey, 90-ke.,

NEWS photo Nell Lucente

DAWN MARIE Findley of Seattle, Wa. sets the standard with her long program on Sunday in the
junior iadies’ final of the North Shore International Skating Competition. More than 1,000 figure
skaters carne from the U.S. and across Canada to compete at the North Shore Winter Club.

Biues end season on sour note

THE CAPILANO College
women’s basketball team sang
theiy swan song last weekend —
but the tune was in the wrong
key.

By Guido Marziali
Contributing Writer

The Douglas College Royals
supplied the melody, and it went
like this: plant Carrie Cartsen or

Lana Evdokimenko in the
Capilano key — give Carrie or
Lana the ball — see Carrie or

Lana score. Victories of 88-48 and
67-46 on consecutive nights gave
Douglas a sweep of the best-of-
three semifinal playoff series.

The Royals’ inside game was
pretty much unstoppable this
season, and shows no sign of
weakening in the playoffs. The
Blues Jack both the size and, for
better or for worse, the nastiness
that give Douglas the edge over its
opponents.

Clothed appropriately in black
and speaking Saturday after the
Blues’ second defeat, coach Dawn
Schooler noted she had only
wanted to ‘*‘bug’’ Douglas Col-
lege, and had not expected to win.
Unfortunately, she added, her
players held unrealistic expecta-
tions based on a_ surprisingly
strong season finish.

The Blues had played Dougias
close in the two squads’ iast
meeting, and embarrassed na-

CAPILANO COLLEGE
SPORTS

tionally-ranked Fraser Valley Col-
lege to squeeze back into fourth
place. I1 seems that by playoff
time, Schooler’s crew had forgot-
ten its 4-8 overall record.

Leave it to the Royals to remind
them. Playing on their home court
Friday night, the New
Westminster women came out
sharp, animated, and physical.
The visitors, on the other hand,
looked as cold as the snow out-
side: not surprising, as one group
traveled to the game in the open
back of a pickup truck. Nothing
changed when they stepped on the
floor, as travelling violations and
bad passing cost the Blues several
possessions.

Substitute Zahra Haji finally
woke up her squad with some
timely defence, but Capilano
could not shut down both Carlsen
and Evdokimenko. Schooler
assigned Cheryl Kinton to mark
Carlsen, with some success, but
could find no one to control the
other. For her part, the stocky
Evdokimenko’s relationship to the
Blues on both nights was like that
of a logger to trees.

Carlsen and Evdokimenko
finished the night with 18 points
each, while the Blues’ Sandra
Madill led her nervous teammates
with 14,

More promising was the first

half of Saturday’s match at
Delbrook gym. The Blues guards
rediscovered the aggressive defence
that was the team’s main strength
this season, and they kept the
Royals under check for most of
the half. Despite a tate rally,
Douglas took only a moderate
lead of 10 points into the dressing
room.

What they took out of it was
something else. In the first six
minutes of the third quarier the
Royals tore off 16 unanswered
points to put the game in the
freezer.

Schooler, perplexed as anyone,
said, *‘We spent a lot of our time
(during intermission) talking about
making sure that we came out
Strong in the first two minutes and
didn't get a run on us.’’ The Blues
might have listened, but the task
was apparently too hard.

As the game waned, Kinton lit
up the gym with some creative
drives and passes, which her for-
wards could not convert. Allison
Snelgrove fell hard on one ankle
and had to be taken to hospital,
while Heidi Maida netted two
three-pointers in 20 seconds. The
three guards’ varying fortunes in
the dying minutes summarized the
Blues’ unpredictable season.

Said Schooler of her team:
“They showed a lot of guts at
various times through the season,
and won games they shouldn’t
have."*