Summer

Wow, where to begin?

First off, I cut and pasted my last two race reports straight from Daily Mile so I at least have a written record of them here on my blog. How incredibly lazy of me not to have posted for so long.

What can I say - I've been enjoying my summer!  July was pretty busy with 2 races, and at least 4 trips to and from Osoyoos to ride, race, and visit family and friends.  Before we knew it, it was time to head to San Francisco for our vacation/race.  We spent 2 nights in Santa Cruz, then 3 nights in San Francisco, got to meet a whole bunch of online friends at two amazing tweetups, toured the coast, Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel, saw the sites of San Francisco including Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz (order your tickets at least 2 weeks in advance!), China Town, Lombard Street, and of course, the amazing race which had us run along the waterfront as well as across the Golden Gate bridge. An awesome trip!

Once back in Kelowna, it was suddenly August and the heat had finally hit. I had been hampered by a minor foot injury early in July and although it now seems to be healed, my long runs are behind putting my hoped-for October marathon plans at risk. In fact, I think I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't be able to run a full marathon on October 9. To try to build up my long run between now and then would be fool-hardy and would likely lead to further injury. So - I am now looking at a possible marathon on November 6th either in the Vancouver area, or possible, in Hamilton, Ontario, thanks to the generous offer from podcast listener and online friend, Sheryl and her husband.

At this point, I will take a 'wait and see' stance before I commit to either option.  Mainly, I will be waiting to see if my legs can handle the long training runs, but also, I will have to see what happens with my finances.  I return to school on September 6th having taken a strike vote last June, and in all likelihood, I will find myself out on strike for a period of time, at some point this fall. In some ways, this could work to my advantage because I might be able to stay an extra day or so in Ontario if I'm not working, but of course, it also means, I will lose several weeks wages and may not be able to afford to take the trip at all.

And so I wait.  That's ok, I'm used to waiting. :)

Mojo

I seem to have been struggling with serious training since my "A" race last June. That's the trouble with an early A race I guess.  I've had one excuse after another to not get my training back on a serious schedule. It seems like I'm much more interested in doing 5 hours a week during my summer vacation, than the necessary 10-12 hours a week for a good race.

I debated for several weeks whether I would sign up for the Apple triathlon this year but in the end, I couldn't bring myself to miss it, even if I knew if wasn't going to be a top performance. I decided that I'd much rather go out and have fun experienced the race, than I would skipping it just because I wasn't in peak shape.  And so, in a few days, I will be doing my 4th Kelowna Apple Sprint Triathlon.

Goal - finish with a huge smile on my face because I'm alive and I can do a race like this for fun, dammit!!  (Best time: 1:29:18 in 2010, Worst time: 1:33:11 in 2009 )

Swim: Under 20 minutes (Best time: 16:21 in 2010, Worst time: 17:30 in 2008)
Bike: Under 45 minutes (Best time: 38:18 in 2008, Worst time: 40:53 in 1010)
Run: Under 30 minutes (Best time: 27:39 in 2010, Worst time: 31:01 in 2009 )

Two exciting bonuses about the race this weekend - Erik signed up for his first try-a-tri on Saturday!  and Chad, from the Can Do Tri podcast is coming to race in Kelowna. Another tweetup!  How cool!

And so that's the Cole's Notes version of my summer so far.  Now that I have that pesky "first-post-after-a-long-time-away" done, I will get back into a more regular blog posting format. I miss it.