Thinking back....

Hey guys,

So on Thursday we braved the wind and headed out to Cochrane to do hill repeats. Seriously when is this wind going to slow down a little bit??? My legs were DEAD by the time we got there and I even stole a draft from Greg and Mark on the way out.

What was cool was that I tried to do 1 gear harder for repeats and was able to do it. Don't get me wrong I was slower, but you don't get stronger unless you make it harder on yourself....right Greg??? I was so happy I was able to do 3 repeats in a harder gear which reminded me of where I started last summer...

The first time I had ever done hill repeats was in June last year (yes I know 5 years of triathlon and only started last year, scary isn't it!). It was pouring rain and I was on the phone with Greg going "you seriously want me to ride up and down a hill in this?" His answer was "yes."

So I got lost going to Edworthy Park which is 2 mins from where I work (if you know me and my sense of direction this will make sense). Once I finally made it there I warmed up and started up the hill. I was in my easiest gear and barely moving....not kidding...I wasn't about to break any climbing records anytime soon. After a couple of repeats Greg was riding beside me telling me about climbing technique. Every time I would look over at what he was telling me to do my entire bike would sway...I am lucky I didn't fall over...I was going slow enough to. AND I could not talk...not even able to form words trying to haul my ass up this hill. All I could do was nod to let him know that I was listening and somewhat understanding what he was saying! After about 6 of these we stopped at the top and I almost fell over! Greg caught me the nice guy that he is and then told me to do more! Ha!

When I think back to everything I have learned over the last couple of years I am surprised that I even finished a triathlon before then!! Needless to say my ability to climb hills has gotten a lot better in 1 year!

Saturday I slept in, what a beautiful thing sleep is and then I went out to do a 3 hour ride (which was supposed to be 4 but due to the sleeping in got changed to three :) It was still windy but compared to what I rode in over the last week I guess you could have called it a light breeze. The ride was uneventful, I did miss a good section on my back of sunscreen and needless to say I have a wee bit of a painful burn!

Sunday was one of those days where nothing quite worked out. My plan was to get up and run before we went out to Sylvan to do an open water swim. Then Chad said he wanted to swim early so he could ride later. No problem, I was going to run while he rode. Well, neither of these things happened. We didn't get out to Sylvan until 3:30pm...which was fine lots of time left in the day to swim and run right? Wrong. When we got to Sylvan there were GIANT white caps. It made my swim in Boise look like peanuts! My mouth dropped open and I looked at Chad and promptly told him there was no way I was getting in that water! We sat and waited for about 45 min for the wind to die down when Chad said screw it I am going in. I stood at the end of the lake...FREEZING...humming and hawing (sp?) about whether or not I should do this. Chad went so he could experience what swimming in rough conditions were like....me not so much. Maybe I am still scarred from the boise race but I wasn't going to spend 15 mins getting into my wetsuit to go for a 15 mins survival swim and not be able to work on my stroke. Probably should have got into the water...ah well you win some you lose some!

We headed back to Crossfield for a family BBQ. I still somehow thought I was going to run at like 9pm after everyone went home. I should have known better with the chatters in Chad's family!!! I finally said screw it, had a glass of wine and probably ate more than I should have (all good things of course!) and enjoyed visiting with everyone! We don't get to see everyone at once very often and it was great to catch up.

On a total side note, being lactose intolerant sure helps with the desert thing, I would have been in there like a dirty shirt having an ice cream treat...but I can't do it anymore and so it was berries and grapes for me! Don't get me wrong this is a good thing since ice cream doesn't help my training any....but this didn't stop me from staring at Chad's buster bar from DQ!

Today it is an easy run and bike. Chad and I are going for a spin tonight around the reservoir; something I have never done...weird I know.

In more important news than my rambling about training; we are leaving on Wednesday for Chad's Prostate cancer research ride! I will be doing a lot of driving and waiting Wednesday thru Friday as I am driving the support vehicle! I will update you from the road!

Happy Training