Almost Race Time!

It's 3:30am and I'm doing the peri-menopausal "waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason" thing so I figured now is as good a time as any to get my blog updated as promised.

If you listen to my podcast, specifically episode #30, you'll know that for the past 3-4 months, I've been wrestling with the idea that the Apple Sprint is supposed to be my "A" race this year and yet, because of work and my trip to Europe, I'll be woefully unprepared compared to last year. How can I take 3 weeks off training in the middle of July and expect to compete at the same level as last year, particularly because my training was weak most of June due to job pressures?

At any rate, while I was away, I thought a lot about this and finally decided to give myself permission to just go out and have fun on this triathlon. Forget about the heavy training schedules when I get back, forget about trying to PR or get an AG placement - just train the way I feel each day, then do the race for the pure enjoyment of it. Do a triathlon for fun? My, what a concept? Not sure why it took me so much time to figure that one out. D'oh!

Anyway, I obviously put too much pressure on myself and it feels pretty good to relax a little and just go with the flow. I still have to fight the urge to compete, however unprepared I am, but I am enjoying the reduced training load and the pure enjoyment of doing whatever kind of training that suits me each day. I know for a fact, I could go into the race on Sunday, August 23rd and finish it just fine without doing one more day of training so I figure any workouts I do at this point are a bonus!

After I got home from my trip, it took a couple days to get un-jet-lagged, and then, quite honestly, I didn't even feel like even LOOKING at my bike for awhile. However, I was pretty anxious to get out there and do some running so on the next day back, I did a treadmill run at the YMCA. It was my first try at the treadmill but because it was still hovering around 38C (102F), I thought it might be a good idea to run indoors that day. The next day I did a fairly easy bike ride on my own and I've been doing various types of training most days since then.

We've had some fairly heavy smoke from local forest fires so that has hampered my outdoors activities a little and I've had to my use my inhaler before I run/bike so avoid wheezing.

Here's what I've done since I got back:

July

26 - arrived home, slept, relaxed

27 - 40 min treadmill run

28 - 60 min easy bike, 1500m swim

29 - 3o min road run, felt crappy, too hot

30 - off - (busy with family party)

31 - went to pool but they'd closed the lane swimming, played in wave pool instead. :)

August

1 - Brick Intervals. 5 min bike/800m run X 5. Felt awesome, ran fast (5:15-5:35 km pace)

2 - played 9 holes of golf

3 - 1200m swim, yoga

4 - off - side pain, too smokey

5 - 8km trail run, good for first 6.5k, then ITB/knee locked up. (too much, too soon)

6 - 2000m swim

7 - Bike hill repeats. Felt great! 5 X 6min with 3:30 recovery ride back down the hill. 4-10%. Stronger than last May!

8 - Off, busy packing for camping etc.

Throughout this time, I've also done 1-3 hours of yardwork and/or cleaning the garage and basement so I've been doing some physical activity in that sense as well. Also, I've been trying to get some core work done again as well, aiming for 15 minutes per day.

The next week:

So today - August 9th, I'm not likely to do any training. I had thought about getting up early and going for a run, but now that I'm having this long wakefulness in the middle of the night, I'm not likely to want to get up at 6:30.

At 9am, I have to pick up my friend, Janice, and we're heading up to Mabel Lake where we are spending the night with 9 of the 'houseboat girls." I suppose in theory, I could take my shoes and go for a 30 minutes run while I'm there, but I know that's just not gonna happen - too much fun, food, and booze to do any serious training. :)

On Monday, I've got to be back home by 4pm so we can pack up the van and we can be in Osoyoos by 7:30pm where we will be camping until next Saturday.

I will have plenty of time to get in some training while I'm down there, especially biking, but the intensity may not be there. I will probably try to do a brick again and do at least one serious swim since we are camping right on the lake. But again, it's family, food, and wine for a week too. :)

So that's my training update. What do you think? Can Kelownagurl do the switch from competition to tri-for-fun? Only time will tell. I can tell you one thing, no matter what happens, I will still give my all when I do my race on the 23rd so you never know - maybe none of the hardcore ladies from last year will show up! lol...

Have a great week everyone! I'll do an update when I get home next Sunday!

PS Hey Paul, if you're reading this, email me if you want to get together for a drink or a coffee! We'll be at Shady LAgoon and I'll have my Blackberry.

It's August!

Wow, this summer is going by way too fast! But what a great summer it has been so far!
Our trip was awesome, what can I say? I did the blog update once when I had a half-decent wifi connection one day (which was rare). There's a picture of me typing that last blog post here on my podcast website.

We rode two more days after that last post, and then took the night train to Florence. The train was fun and we paid a little extra to have our own two-person sleeping compartment. We slept well and arrived in Florence at about 8am. We left our bags at the train station and wandered around the city until the afternoon when we could check into our hotel/B&B, then we went back out to tour some more. We climbed up 463 steps to the top of the famous Duomo (below is a picture of me at the top) and had a nice dinner in the Piazza Republica complete with Italian music, and a merry-go-round. Italy was just as hot as France, over 100F every day.

The next morning, we picked up our rental car, a little Fiat Panda, and headed out onto the CRAZY Italian roads. It was nuts trying to figure out the road signs and the traffic circle exits without a city map, and we came within an inch (literally) of an accident within 5 minutes of being in the car. Erik was an excellent driver though, and after about half an hour of crazy highway driving, we managed to find a side road that took us to Pisa.

Again, we had no city map, and for some reason I had just imagined that Pisa would be a small town and the tower would be obvious. After a while of aimless driving in town, we parked and headed off to find someone to give us directions. It turned out we were only 3-4 blocks away so off we went to see the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was pretty amazing to be there in person and see something so well-known.

It was well over 100F though so we grabbed some cheap pizza and headed back to the car. By now, it was getting late in the afternoon and we realized there was NO way we'd get to Cinque Terre so we sadly, we had to bypass that plan (next time...) and we got back on the highway.

Somehow we found our way to our B&B, (but not before we got lost in Poggibonsi), and we were soon checked into our lovely suite.

The place was amazing with a gorgeous view of the rolling Tuscan hills and the beautiful town of San Gimignano in the distance.

We relaxed for awhile, then drove 1km down the road to have dinner in a lovely little Italian restaurant.

The next day, we drove through the Chianti region to Castellini and had another nice lunch, and then back to the B&B to laze by the huge pool and have one final, fabulous meal in Tuscany.

In the morning, we had leave early to get back to Florence in time to drop the car off before 10:30 and catch our train to Rome at 11:30. Although it was supposed to be a 35 minute drive, it took us close to 2 hours including time getting lost and time stuck in road construction.

The train to Rome only took 1.5 hours and we were soon checked into our very nice, clean hotel close to the train station, which was chosen for a quick morning getaway to the airport. Soon we were doing a walking tour of Rome - first stop the Colloseum! It actually brought tears to my eyes to turn the corner and see that building in the distance. We took a lot of pictures, then headed off through some ancient areas to find Trevi Fountain. It was so incredibly hot that I began to get heat exhaustion at this point. My fingers were swelling and I was dizzy so I was lucky to find a kiosk with gatorade and I rested in the shade for a bit. From there, we tried to find shadier streets and eventually we got to the famous fountain where I was able to cool off a little.

We continued our wandering back to the hotel, taking in the site as we went and then relaxed in the lovely a/c for awhile before having our final Italian meal at a nearby cafe. The nex morning, we took the train to the airport and did the mandatory 3 hour wait before taking off at 2pm. Because we had a stopover in Barcelona, it was a 14 hour flight so we arrived in Vancouver too late to catch a flight home so we didn't arrive home until noon the next day.

As much as I LOVED our trip, it was wonderful to be home again, sleeping in my own bed, eating familiar food, and speaking English. :)

I have a 10 minute slideshow of our trip highlights on youtube if you want to check them out. The resolution's not great but you'll get the idea.


So - what's up with training and racing you ask?

Check in tomorrow when I have time to do another blog update. :)

or listen to my podcast!

Bonjour from France!

I am doing a test blog update via email to see if it's possible. We
are having an awesome time do far but the biking has been very
challenging so far. My loaded hybrid probably weighs about 50 lbs and
we've been doing tons of climbing everyday. We ride about 3-4 hours
per day, with plenty of rest stops, but the temps have been around
35-40C (100+F) and we always seem to ride in the hottest part of the
day. It is more humid this time too so that makes it harder as well.

We've climbed from 1500-2500' feet per day. Longest climb was about
10k. Steepest climb was about 20%. My quads are screaming ;)

The food has been wonderful, the wine is too. I've been sticking
mostly with rose because it is cooler in this heat.

We've stayed at some nice B&Bs but today we are splurging on or
gorgeous place in Apt, France. Google Le Couvent in Apt if you want to
check it out. Sigh...

We are staying here two nights so today we can do a shorter ride in
the Ocre hills without out panniers. There wa a sto yesterday so it is
cooler and very windy today.

Yesterday was our longest ride- 72km with a sting headwind as storm
arrived. It started out hot as usual but rode the last 30 minutes in
the rain and wind, it felt very refreshing after 6 days of oppressive
heat.

We have 3 more days until we are back in Cavaillon to catch the night
train to Florence. I'm looking forward to Italy!

Please excuse any typos as I type this on the itouch. I have tweeted a
few times but it's often in the middle of the night for north America
so check ny Twitter stream to see what I've been up to.

Au revoir pour maintenant!

A bientot!

Barb

I'm outta here...

Well this is my last post before I leave on Thursday so I thought I'd do a quick update.

Erik did his amazing solo ride on Monday, June 29. Overall, he rode 292 km in 12:25 with over 8000' of climbing!

For more info about Erik's ride, you'll have to listen to episode #28 of my podcast (see link on the right). You can also go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih76L24XBh8 to see a 2 1/2 minutes slideshow of the highlights.

One picture I forgot to include in the slideshow was a close up pictures of a wolf that I saw walking alongside the road on the Bow Valley Parkway. At the time I thought it was a coyote. I was looking out my car window by the way. :)






Training and the Trip

Well, life continues to be hectic and I've found it hard to fit in all the training I wanted to do. :( I've been swimming twice, had a couple of rides, and been on 4 runs in the past 10 days or so.

My main focus continues to be on running. I've been trying to stick mostly to the hills behind my house so my time hasn't been fast but I'm really enjoying it and so far, my shins haven't been complaining. I've also been running further partly because my runs include a 1 km hike up to the flatter area. So far I've run 6km, 6km, 7km, and 8.25km. I am really loving it!

I've had some ITB/knee pain off and on lately - that's what slowed me down on the 5k race with my daughter - bu I've been stretching and using the foam roller and my last two runs have been pain-free.

Much of this week however, has involved shopping, cleaning, running errands, and packing. We leave Kelowna at 11:30 on Thursday and leave Vancouver at 7:30pm. We will be home on July 26th. There will not be a podcast episode during that time.

My son will be staying with his Dad and I have house sitters looking after the dogs and the cat and generally holding down the fort at home.

When I get back, I'm going to have to kick my training into high gear if I want to be ready to the Apple Sprint Triathlon on August 23rd. (I'm starting to feel more than a little nervous about being ready with my messed up training schedule....)

However, I will be riding (not seriously) for 9 days on my trip (20-50km per day) and will try hard to fit in a few early morning runs before it gets too hot. Most places we're staying at will have swimming pools although it's hard to imagine that I"ll be swimming sets... ;)

So - in the meantime, I'm going to put serious training aside and just enjoy my vacation!

I will have my (Erik's) itouch so when I have access to wifi, I will tweet a bit and I will try sending a few email blog updates. Unfortunately, I have no way to send pictures until I get back.

Thanks for all the well-wishes!

A bientot!

School's Out

Boy, it's been a hectic month and I've been very negligent in updating this blog. That is partly due to the fact that I have not done very much training at all in the past month. I got my bottom braces on two days after my tri and had severe headaches for over a week after wards. This was followed by a bad cold with a cough that lasted 2 more weeks. Top that off with the usual June school stresses, and I have BARELY had time or energy to train.

Work Update:

I applied for, and got a job, at the new school so I am very happy about that. And even better news was that 7 other teachers from my current school also got jobs at the new school so I will not be alone. They are mostly young, enthusiastic teachers, who are excited about the prospect of a new school so it will revitalize my own teaching as well.

As positive as the new job is, I am still very saddened to be leaving my current school. I have taught there pretty well my entire teaching career, 15 years, and my entire life revolves around that school. My closest friends, my husband, and my son are all there and now that is ending. I have so many memories that I will cherish. The fact that it is Erik's last year of teaching, and my son's final year in elementary school, also makes it difficult to leave now. But it is definitely the right decision for me.

Every June, we have a staff breakfast on the last day of school, where we gather to say goodbye to all the staff who is leaving. We always bring kleenex and tears are always shed. This year will be particularly tough as 10 teachers move on, many of whom have taught there for 10-15 years.

I have been on edge all week trying to finish up the usual year end things, get report cards done, create a class DVD slideshow, and pack up my stuff (35 boxes so far) on top of it all. By Friday morning, I will be completely wrung out.

So - I guess the point of this all is that it has affected my training.

UPDATE:

OK, I got busy again and didn't finish or post the blog. So now it's Saturday and school is done. It was a hard last couple of days and I felt really depressed when I got home yesterday but it's over and I need to move on. Today we did a bunch of errands to get ready for Erik's ride on Monday. We drive to Banff and stay over night tomorrow, then Monday he's going to ride 300km from Banff to Jasper in one day. I'm going to drive the SAG wagon (our van) and meet up with him every hour or two. The weather is looking good right now. Banff 22C and Jasper 18C for Monday and sunny! It'll be cold when he starts at 5:30am but should be nice by mid day. Episode #27 of my podcast has Erik and I discussing his ride plans and next week (#28) will be a recap of his ride.

Training

So my goal this month has to been to keep up my running and I've done that. I've been running 5k at least twice a week and last week I started trail running up behind my house. It's starts off straight uphill for 1.3 km so I walk as warm up for 10 minutes or so, then I can run 5-6km out and back on a relatively flat route. It's quite pretty up there, wide double track, mostly dirt, not many rocks etc so not too much chance of hurting myself. It would be fun to do an Xterra I think. :) I wonder if there are any around here that aren't too hilly for the run?

I also ran the Women's 5k with my daughter Carly this month. It was her first 5k so I didn't race it and it was just as well because my ITB knee attachment locked up and I had to walk/run the last half. We had a great time and I think she caught the race bug - hope she keeps it up! There are some pics on the podacst blog - Episode #26 I think.

Vacation

We're going to be leaving on July 9th for our trip to France and Italy and we have just about everything booked now. We fly to Paris and stay over night, then take the train to Avignon where we will drop off our bags and pick up our bikes for our 9 day cycling trip around Provence. Once back in Avignon, we take the night train to Florence, spend a day touring the city, then two more nights at a B&B where we'll rent a car and tour Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Pisa. Then it's the train again for less than 24 hours in Rome before flying home on the 25th. I can't wait!

Well that's all for now folks. I have to go finish packing and get ready to take off tomorrow.

Have a good week!