The training drama continues

Hey Bloggers,

Well well well it has been an interesting weekend, I will start with the group ride on Thursday. Initially on Thursday I was supposed to be off work early because I had no clients booked in. Someone called booked in for 5pm, no biggie. Normally I go home during the day and get all of my biking stuff together so I can leave right after work to meet the group. I did not do this today because I had more than enough time to go home after work, get my gear and drive to the northwest......wrongo! My client was majorly late AND I had told her I had to leave by 5:30pm. So I waited and waited 5:30 rolls around and she still wasn't there, she did call and I ended up re booking her for another day. I was in full "hurry" mode by this time because I didn't think I was going to make it. Just one of the challenges of having a job that relies on other people's schedules.

I made it out there on time and headed off with everyone out to Cochrane. My legs and I were having yet another disagreement on the way out to the hill. We finally reached an understanding by the second hill repeat! Greg had said to do 4-5 hills, so I was game to get as many in as I could before everyone headed back. A bunch of the group decided to go back after 2, I saw Darryl on his way down for number 3.....I knew if he saw me coming back down the hill I could rope him into doing a fourth :) I was right, he took the bait and he managed to get Andrea down the hill again for another one! I knew he would be coming up behind me so I dug in and tried to hold him off, it was no contest really, he's an awesome hill climber but it gave me a little motivation to push harder on the last one than I otherwise would have. Thanks guys!

On Friday I had an easy day, all I had to do was swim. The talisman center was having a swim meet and so it was closed, but I lucked out and Foothills pool was having lane swim from 4pm-6pm on Friday (this never happens). I went there right after work and got my training session out of the way so I could relax for the rest of the night. This pool was soooooo warm compared to Talisman. The only time I am not cold at Talisman is when I am givener through the water, on those long sets I can feel the cold air sometimes when I bring my arms out of the water! ANYWAY, it took me awhile to warm up but once I got going it was smooth sailing. I swam for a full 60 min, which I hardly ever do....if I have the option of swimming 45-50 min that's what I do. What a slacker.

Saturday I was up yet again at 6:00am (as per usual lately!) to go to Sylvan lake. I have done this race for the last couple of years and Lisa was racing so I decided to go up there and watch. One of my girlfriends (Janelle) came with me and this was her first time ever watching a triathlon and she had never been to Sylvan Lake. We got there just as the first swimmers were coming in. After the swim was done Janelle hung out on the beach and I went for a run on the run course. I went for about 90 min, I wanted to go longer but I needed to get off of the course before the bike course was done! With all of the people in the way I don't think me on the trail would have made a big difference. I practised taking in food while I was running to see how my stomach would react and I was fine! I have come a long way with being able to take in food while running.

Lisa had a great race, first long course in awhile! She had a hard run but toughed it out and got a new PR! That's awesome!!!!

Sunday is where my training drama began. I had to do a long ride, so the plan was to go out to highwood pass. I was really tired and wanted to have a bit of a sleep in and relax in the morning. We should have made a plan because by the time we got moving it was early afternoon. I was up at around 10 am and got everything together but it still didn't work out too well.

We decided to change plans and go out to Crossfield and ride so that after we were done we could visit with the family. In typical Alberta fashion the weather was crazy. We waited out one storm and it got really nice so onto the bike we went and rode out to Madden. We were about 10 km in when there were more really really black gloomy clouds coming towards us. We decided to risk it and continue on the way. We turned around in Madden and had to giver back to Crossfield, we were racing against the storm coming our way. On the way back something went wrong with Chads bike. We stopped and tried to figure out what was wrong, his gears weren't working. The wind was getting really bad....getting blown off the bike bad so Chad rode the rest of the way back using 1 gear! We were almost back when his gear shifter fell apart. We were looking around for it when it started to rain. We went and got the truck and drove around in the rain looking for his bike parts! Somehow we found them after about 20 minutes of searching.

The original plan was to go out to Beisicker once we got back but good ol' mother nature wasn't cooperating. Which totally sucked because neither of us were ready to be done riding. I hadn't done nearly enough of my workout I was supposed to which sends me into freak out mode. Chad was trying to reason with me by saying one workout in 8 months of training wasn't going to make or break ironman. He is probably right, but for my piece of mind I want to know that when I toe the line I have done EVERYTHING I was supposed to to make the day a success. I am still dwelling on it a little bit, but I am working on it.

This is the hard part of triathlon, dealing with all of the unexpected challenges it throws at you. It isn't the actual training, while time consuming and tough sometimes the real challenge is the unexpected and being able to overcome what doesn't go according to plan. I have had 2 tires blow up on me this year, been caught in 2 severe storms, the added stress it puts on work, family and not to mention personal relationships. I get told all of the time how lucky I am that everyone is so supportive of me, more particularly how supportive Chad is. They can't believe he rides for 5-6 hours with me and he isn't doing it! So thanks to everyone for being behind me....even when I am grumpy and tired and sometimes a little sweaty and smelly :) Time to move onto a new week of training.

I am really excited I have some family coming into town this weekend!! I am sooo excited to see you guys!