We bought a new car

Hey guys!

Yep thats right we finally did it and it is niiiiice. We now have a roof rack and we will be going back to the dealership to get a bike rack on the top. It is so much fun to drive!

Still training tons. Last week was really tough to get all of the training sessions in between getting stuff ready for the car and I had training all week at work. Not a problem back on track and getting everything in!

Monday I did hill repeats with rexy at the dog park. I don't think she likes them either because by like number 3 she is right behind or beside me and always keeps going straight at the bottom:)

On Tuesday I was over at edworthy doing hill repeats and I was flying back down the hill when a bug flew in my shirt. I thought it was a fly so I wasn' t too worried until it stung me! I have never been stung by a wasp but man the hurts. So there I was biking downhill trying to get a wasp out of my shirt that had just stung my boob. I ended up squishing it and waiting until I got to the bottom to remove it. ouch.

Wednesday I went for a swim and even though the water was freezing I king of enjoyed it. Then again I wasn't doing 25's or 50's so I am always more prone to like swimming when that isn't in the mix.

Thursday was rainy and windy and a little on the cool side so I biked on the trainer. There were some longer tempo intervals in there. I also did some weights...legs...hamstings hurt.

Friday I was lazy and took rexy for a walk and then planted my ass on the couch. Man was I tuckered out.

Saturday was a 3 hour ride...except that I got caught up running errands and didn' t get home until it was too late to bike outside. Onto the trainer for me, it was the longest 3 hours ever. Next week I will be doing a 4-5 hour ride and it will be outside!

Today I have a run and swim and weights on the agenda. I had better get to it.

Happy training and happy recovery!

Oh yeah, there was a weim walk yesterday - 20 weims in the park it was awesome!

Rexy and Duke (her brother) playing, oblivious to everything around themA few of the weims Duke (brother), Rexy, Addison (sister)

Another week done!

Hey guys,

So here's the training scoop:

Tuesday I biked all by my lonesome, but it felt great to be out there. I went out at around 7:00pm and it was just starting to cool off for the day. I am happy to report they are re-paving elbow drive so it was a much smoother ride than normal. This is the first time I made it to the end...which is Fish Creek Park...who knew?

I was also at the YMCA for work that day and squeezed in some easy leg weights with a lot of stretching, followed by rolling out the good ol IT bands. That always hurts like hell.

By Wednesday my IBS battle I had been having since the weekend got the best of me and I barely got off the couch to take Rexy out. I went to bed early, drank copious amounts of peppermint tea and I was feeling pretty good come Thursday morning.

Thursday was a busy one for me. I went hiking with 2 groups throughout the day at work. I told Chad I would walk Rexy for him since he didn't get home until late (3:45 am to be exact) from the ACDC concert up in Edmonton. By the time I got home from that it was 7:30. I took a quick rest...ate some grub and then hopped on the trainer. Thats right first trainer ride of the year for me. It wasn't bad except that I feel like I am incredibly out of shape! Blah! 95 minutes later I was happy to get off of the bike.

Friday I was gearing up to go for my run with Rexy and when I came through the door Chad was home. Weird I know. It turns out he cancelled some of his clients so we could hang out since I never get to see him anymore. I wasn't about to pass that opportunity up! Come to think of it he said we could do what ever I wanted I should have made him come for the run with me!

Saturday I went for my first actual long ride since the end of July! The head wind was just a givener to me all of the way out to Turner Valley. I was so very happy to turn around. I was aiming for 3:30-4:00 hours...but that wind was a little stronger than I thought so I ended up doing 3:20 hours. Good enough for this gal. I re-read my program a few times in search of the brick workout....it wasn't there so you didn't have to tell me twice!

Sunday I went for a longish run, 75 minutes. It is hard to believe that a month and a half ago I was doing intervals during a 90 min run. I felt okay throughout...my body is not very happy with me. I am sure this will go away in the next week or so but I feel like I took 2 months off not a couple of weeks!

Yes Greg I did get my butt into the pool yesterday. I didn't feel half bad until the last 400m set and I could tell my arms/body had had enough.

Today was another run...hills again. This time went much better than last week, I was a little sluggish at the start but I was getting going by the half way point and feeling pretty good.

Congrats to everyone who competed in Ironman Canada yesterday! You all rock! Especially you Darryl ;)

Back at it...

I am finally gearing up for Ironman Cozumel.

Last week I was back with the group for a 95 min ride...in the wind of course! Ahhhh....felt like I never left, other than the burning in my legs that started after about 75 min!

I did a long run on the weekend and Greg managed to get me back in the pool for a swim. I also did a little Yoga on the weekend so I am slowly getting back into the groove of training!

Today was a hill repeat run which got the best of me. Man it was hard. I was so happy when I was on the 6th one because the pain would soon be ending!

Stay tuned more swimming, biking, and running to come!

I'll let the pictures do the talking

Changes

Hey guys!

I have been away from blogging for a couple of weeks now and it has been busy! I will start with Sylvan Lake Half Ironman.

We got up bright and early on Sunday morning (July 26th). The forecast said sunny and 24...not so much. While we were on the way up all we could see was lightning and dark glumey clouds. As we rolled into transition they announced that they were going to delay the race in hopes of keeping the race a triathlon. So I had tons of time to get ready and wait.

They ended up changing the swim course and making it 2 loops. If you have ever been to Sylvan you will know that it is very shallow for a long way out. So for the start of the swim we were swimming into the waves (which is never fun even if they are small ones) and running half of the way out! The turn at the first buoy was pretty rough but after that it was smooth sailing until we headed back into shore. We were up and running through knee high water again...which is actually very hard. Second loop went better than the first and as I ran by Greg into transition I heard him say better than boise...yesssss.

Transition went smoothly and I was out on the bike course in no time. The first 45 km of the bike my legs felt like they were cased in cement or something. I was getting frustrated as people continued to fly by me. Once we hit the out and back I was starting to feel a bit better and by 60 km I hit the rollars and never looked back. I would pick someone in front of me and catch them and kept doing that until I got back into town.

The run was awesome. I felt the best on the run than I had all day. The sun had come out and it was starting to get hot. It was a different run course this year; two loops with tons of little out and backs. I thought that they were going to have HEED out on the course but I found out right before the race that it was going to be Gatorade. I hate Gatorade with a passion. So I decided to have one drink of Gatorade and dilute it with water every 3-4 aid stations. This is not a lot of calories or electrolytes but it did the trick and I didn't feel sick at all on the run.

Here are the overall results:

Swim - 36:32
Bike - 3:33
Run - 2:04

Total - 6:14

My transitions are included in the bike time so it looks a little slower than Boise - my bike in Boise was 3:26. I thought I had a bike PR but it doesn't look that way!

On Monday I started my new job with Prospect. There is a lot to learn but I think that I will really enjoy working here. They seem to be a great team trying to get clients out in the community more by doing outdoor activities and exercise! Everyone has been great to me so far. I have been super tired though...whoa...learning a new position sure uses more brain power than I am used to.

Last weekend Chad did his 70.3 and it was a crazy busy weekend running around for that. It was a little disorganised in some parts so it made a lot more work for us! He had a great day and finished his first half! Now we just need to convince him to do another one! Chad also got a new job working at the Kirby Center so on Monday we went shopping for the day because he had to buy some dress clothes. He hates shopping so I dragged him around the mall and made him try stuff on!

I have been doing some light training, not a lot of biking lately due to the crappy weather. I am okay with that because Lucy and I will be spending a lot of time together at the end of the month as I gear up for Ironman Cozumel! Oh and Greg booked our trip and I have the time off so we are good to go!

I do have pictures from the races that I will post. Happy Training!

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!