Backseat Training

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. My car getting broken into, my hours got cut back at work, interviews for a new job, and lastly getting the new job. Whew! This is waaaay more stress than I am used to...kind of puts the stupid little things I stress over into perspective.

Having said that I did get all of my cards replaced...they are in the mail. I did not get any of my stuff replaced yet, that will take time:) Chad arranged for his client Gerry to fix the lock on my car last Thursday....THANK YOU GERRY! YOU ARE AWESOME!

I am super excited about my new job. I know it will be a challenge but I am up for it. I have been looking for awhile now...things were going from bad to worse at my current job and my wonderful boyfriend Chad pointed me in the direction of this one.

SO

I am going to be developing outdoor programs for people who have disabilities. If a client comes in and they want to go skiing they can head up to COP and an instructor up there will be educated on how to teach them. I am going to be the person educating the instructors how to teach people with disabilities to do outdoor activities. Make sense??? I know it is confusing...but I will be developing community outreach programs. I love the outdoors and everything activity has to offer, I like to teach and work with people, and I am an organisational freak....perfect! I start on Monday! Soooo excited.

The downside is that I have to leave my clients at SFL. That is the sole reason why I stayed there so long, I will miss them a lot! When the work environment you are in goes in the crapper...it is time for change and change is good!

ALSO...look what I got...

There was a client at work who is a bit of a quilter and after ironman I asked her if she would make me a quilt out of my race shirts! I love it. A big THANK YOU TO GWEN! I love it I love it I love it.

Oh right...and then there was training. I missed my bikes last week. This is probably the first time I have missed bike group (other than being away or deathly ill of course) since I started with Greg last march! Holla! My legs hated me when I was biking on Saturday...they told me so the entire time...its okay I deserved it.

Running is good, swimming is good (finally!) and that's about it. I am racing sylvan this weekend. There are a lot of thoughts rambling around inside my head about this one....Greg we may need to have a race day chat...I'm scared. More on that in another post though.

That's it for tonight...I am off to bed...I hope you understood my rambling!

Happy Training!

Raining Cats and Dogs

Hey gang!

I really really need to post more than once a week. There is too much to remember otherwise! Here it goes...

Monday
I had really tired legs from my hilly and hot run in medicine hat on Sunday, so I set out to do a recovery run with Rexy at the dog park. This way she could go and snoop while I hobbled around! My legs were tired so tired that after 30 mins I just decided to stop because I wasn't having any fun at all. Normally it gets better as you run...not this time it started out okay and got worse!

Tuesday
I headed up to the church and it was about 6:15 when I got there. I got everything together and waited for everybody else to show up....no one came! I figured I had missed an email or something, I called up Greg, got a workout and I was off on my own to do some big gear, lower cadence intervals. I didn't ride with the group last year on Tuesday's so I don't know where a lot of the roads are in this area but I knew I would need more time than just out to cochrane and back so I turned on Lochend??? road and did another little out and back. There was a pretty good head wind going out (what else is new....seriously) but I was able to ride home at a comfortable pace. I liked the over gear training, it was something different so that was good. I tend to dread "pace work" nights! I am getting better at training at certain race paces but there is a lot of room for improvement! I guess I should look at the bright side...at least I can ride at different paces now rather than just trying to survive!

Wednesday
I went for a run for about 50 min with 20 min of tempo in there. I am in need of figuring out what "tempo" means cuz I tend to just run faster and faster and then I can barely hold on for the whole time...I don't think this is what I am supposed to be doing! Oops..live and learn hey!

Wednesday night was group swim and we did some longer distance stuff. I have been working on the "catch" of my stroke for what feels like forever now and it is finally almost a habit. This has been plaguing me for awhile so I was pretty happy with how the swim went....even though I did it all pull!

Thursday
Hill night! I like hill night. The weather was crappy so we went to do hill repeats at Edworthy park. When I got there I saw Darryl right away...we got ready and headed out to meet Greg. This was only my second time doing repeats at Edworthy...they are still hard! It starts out not so bad but as you get up to the top it gets a lot steeper and it hurts!! I did 12 all together...I was done after 11 but Darryl convinced me to do another one for a cool down. Only triathletes ride up and down hills and call them warm up and cool down...and make it harder in between. I am definitely stronger at climbing, not so much at bike handling! I was too busy paying attention to what everyone else was doing...turned on gravel and ended up on the road. Does it count as a crash if you were going less than 5 km/hr?? Anyway my leg now has a little road rash and bruising on it!

Once we finished up with the hills we went back to our cars, I opened up my truck and all of my stuff was gone. I couldn't believe it! They had taken everything...my purse (which I normally don't have with me when I am biking), my clothes, my bike bag, and I had just bought $70.00 in bars, gels, and chomps at Tri-it, all gone I was soooo pissed. They broke the lock on my car too and did some damage to the body. Darryl checked and some of his stuff was missing too. Ironically I am more mad about my bike bag, nutrition, and clothes. My credit cards etc are all easily replaceable but they took all of my stuff that is now probably sitting in a dumpster somewhere. I am still more than a little bitter about this...

Friday night we went out to Medicine Hat for the weekend. A HUGE thank you to Becky, Dave and the boys for being such great hosts to us over the last couple of weekends! The feed us and we steal Logan's bed all of the time! I really appreciate you guys being so supportive...even if you think we are crazy for biking and training so much!

Saturday
I headed out from Becky and Dave's and headed out on Hwy 41. There was one hell of a head/crosswind which made me hurt thats for sure. Greg had given me some upper zone 2 work to do for a couple of hours as well as 1/2 IM pace for the last hour. It was windy, hilly, and hot...gotta love it! When I got back I went out for a quick transition run for 25 min.

Sunday
My plan was to get up at about 9 to go for my run...that didn't happen. I ended up sleeping longer than I intended and I learned my lesson running in 29 degree heat the weekend before. So I put my run off until I got home. I also had 2 beer on Saturday night, it has been about 2-3 years since I had a beer so I had a wee bit of a headache on Sunday.

Once we got home I was tired and headachey and didn't want to run. I dug deep deep deep into the motivation pool and headed out the door. I could feel my bike ride in my legs and they were not happy. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it took me a good 25 min to feel okay but once I got home I felt like I could keep running if I wanted to!

Today I have an easy recovery run and swim (that I missed last night...sorry Darryl we suck when it comes to planning sometimes :) Hopefully this rain cooperates and lets up a little, I don't think my rain jacket stands a chance it this downpour!

Until next time...happy training guys!

Home at Last!!!

Hey Friends!

Holidays are over until November...it is kind of bittersweet. Nice to be home to get back into a routine but kinda sucks that I won't be going anywhere until Cozumel. My mission now is to hunker down and get focused on this thing called Ironman!

Training while we were gone for Chad's ride was hit and miss, I did get some riding and running in though! After being the support vehicle for him for three days I now have even more appreciation for the volunteers and spectators...it is a long day! I think that racing is easier than this! It was fun though and it went by pretty fast and I only got a little bit of a sunburn.

I think that Rexy is the happiest to be home, she more so than us loves routine! Bringing her to Boise was a good idea because she is so good in the truck now; she just curls up and goes to sleep!

Here are some highlights of the trip:

- Chad is not good at pacing himself....this lead to a very fast 90 km on the first day and a very slow day 2!
- Everyone in Saskatchewan waves to you; even if you are sitting on a cooler on the side of the road (more like a ditch in Saskatchewan though) reading a magazine!
- Chad's Grandma is the cutest...watch out when she figures out your favorite foods, every time you turn around she will be there with some for you!
- It is stinking hot in Medicine Hat, there is no aerobic zone 2 when running there.
- I had to re-read my bike workout 3 times to make sure I was actually supposed to be in Zone 4! That was a tough one.
- People have nothing better to do in Brooks than drive around and around and around. I saw the same vehicles 3-4 times while biking. Also there was a lot of road kill on the road there...not pleasant....maybe they should drive around a little less and more animals will live???
- when you eat copious amounts of raw veggies for 5 days your tummy doesn't like it...or at least mine doesn't!
- Lastly Chad did an amazing thing for a great cause! He may not be ready to get on a bike again for awhile though!

Until next time.....Happy Training!