Mid-Vacation Update

I'm home alone for the evening and have nothing (much) to do so I thought I'd ramble here.

First off, the camping trip has been wonderful so far. The weather has been hot but not stifling, although this afternoon was cloudy and relatively cooler (low 80's). I went for a short swim on our first day just to get the 'feel' of the lake. It is much murkier than Okanagan Lake and there are more weeds. I spent most of my time getting used to it and I haven't done any significant swimming as of yet.

Erik's 140km ride from Kelowna to Osoyoos went well and he made great time (5:15 hrs). Because he thought he'd be a bit tired, we decided not to do any climbing on Monday morning, so we rode to Oliver for breakfast (about 25km each way). My legs were still tired from my brick two days ago and I tried to go for an easy run in the morning before we rode, but my legs were not into it. I ran a little over 2km and then walked back. Our ride to Oliver took us 50:30 minutes, avg speed 28.8 kmh. On the way back, I led and I rode as hard as I could the whole way. My heart rate was 168 (LT more or less for me), average speed at 30.5 kmh and time was 47:57 - Yahoo!

I've been working hard on the tummy tan challenge and made some serious headway yesterday. To celebrate, I went out a bought an actual bikini - yikes - and actually wore it on the beach - double yikes! I have to be careful how I move or sit in it (LOL) but it's fun to wear when I'm not in my own town.

While we were shopping in Osoyoos, we stopped in to "Fast Photo" and visited with the owner and my internet buddy, Paul. He is the triathlete we watched in the Peachland tri a few weeks ago. (If you are in the area, be sure to stop in for all your photo needs! :)

This morning, we rode up to Anarchist. As always seems to be the case, I didn't sleep well last night and wasn't feeling 100% before we left. I contemplated bailing but couldn't bring myself to do it. My legs were still tired but I made good time and beat my last best time by about 3 minutes.

Overall time from the campsite office to lookout was 45:04 and my time from the windmill to the lookout was 33:54. (Last year it was 48:30 and 36:15). Erik beat me to the top by a little over two minutes I think.

Yogi and another friend on a hybrid also came up with us but Yogi stayed with the friend so he didn't have to ride alone and we waited for them at the top.

Here's all four of us at the lookout.



Maybe I should use the picture as my new blog banner?

Update: Trying out the new banner. At first the words went right over my face but I added a little html coding and I think its ok now. I'll keep it this way for awhile and see how I like it. If anyone knows how to centre the picture on the banner background, let me know. :)