2011... the year of progress

I think it will be hard to top our 2011. Seriously, it has been a year of big changes. If someone were to tell me last new years eve how awesome this coming year would be I probably would have put in the effort and stayed up until midnight to ring it in; instead of passing out with Ben at 10:30 pm.

In fact, we have done 9 life changing things this year starting with getting engaged in March, then moving back to Calgary in June and Ben starting a new career, then competing in and finishing the Ironman in August, followed by our amazing wedding and honeymoon in September, the day after getting back from our honeymoon I started a new career… and just because we didn’t think that was enough for the year we bought a house, and I got my mutual fund license. WOW. It has been a good one. I have no idea how 2012 plans on topping this past year, but it is starting big with us moving on January 12th! woot!

Alright, I know I have no been the best blogger as of late, however I do have an excuse: Life has been busy! I promise I will get back to talk about my wedding, which was amazingly perfect by the way, but I just wanted to take a minute and update my life.

The big news.. We bought a house! Yep. We sure did! It happened pretty quickly. We had been planning on purchasing a house in June 2012 some time. However, we just got really excited and started looking at houses online. We knew we wanted to live in Cochrane (10 minutes outside Calgary) where we can get the small town living as well as the big city jobs. It’s also a perk that my mom lives there. So on our way out to my mom’s cabin for thanks giving we decided to stop and look at some listings. At this point we were thinking a townhouse or something of the sort. Well, we didn’t really like what we saw and headed back on to the highway. Only to find ourselves veering off the highway into a new development with brand new houses. We wandered into a show home, where this totally awesome sales guy got talking to us. We found out we could in fact buy a house sooner than June! Every excuse we came up with he could fix. "Oure lease isn't up until June".... "we'll pay for the lease break penalty;" "We don't have the whole down payment until December".... "you can pay half now, and we can push the move in date until January and pay the other half then." Plus they were in the last stage of this development and wanted to get rid of these houses so they were taking money off the purchase price, and throwing all sorts of perks our way. So we looked at a few places, and found the PERFECT place. Like seriously perfect. We didn’t want to jump into anything, so on our way back from my moms cabin we spent the day looking at more places but our minds kept going back to one in particular. And BAM not even a week later we were in the process of being approved for a mortgage and buying a house! We move January 12th! I can hardly believe it. So after christmas and new years we'll be packing up and moving.. again! for the 3rd time in 2 years! But this time.. for good!

So now we’ve been excitedly furniture shopping for our new place and needless to say Ben is very excited for our new 51 inch plasma TV that we got for half price; and my mother in law should be very excited for the new bed that we bought for the spare room; so that when they come to visit they don’t have to sleep on an inflatable in the living room. The universe just seems to be liking us these days.

Actually, my brother was so excited about the idea of buying a new house, he and his girlfriend just bought a new house for their little family. It’s being built and they’ll be moving in the summer! All these exciting changes on the horizon for our family.

The week of the wedding..

Ok, life has been busy the last couple of weeks while I have gotten used to being back at work, and hanging out with friends and family (who we have neglected for the most part of the year while we trained). Anyways, back to the long awaited post... the wedding!... well almost, the week of the wedding at least.

Well, if i can say one thing about our wedding, the planning process was anything but smooth. Pretty much anything that could have gone wrong through out the planning process went wrong, however, our wedding turned out amazing... incredible... I wish I could go back a month (and 2 days) and do it all over again!

So anyways, the tuesday before the wedding I was exhausted, sore, and realized that maybe everyone the last few months was right; maybe I am crazy getting married 6 days after doing the ironman. I could barely think about moving, let alone think about all the wedding stuff. My brain was mush, my legs were sore, and as for tuesday I laid on the couch for the most part of the day. It was the only day that week that I knew I wouldn't have to do anything, so i savored it. Well that is until my brother called to babysit... Of course I babysat my nephew in a pinch when my brother was pressed for a sitter (i love chilling with that little dude), but I wasn't too impressed with my newphew when all he wanted to do was walk, and walk, and then when we were a mile from home didn't want to walk anymore and I got to carry his 30 lb self. But I think in the end that was the best thing for me, my legs were feeling much better by wednesday.

On wednesday, Ben's brother, the best man arrived from London Ontario, along with my father's family from London ontario as well. And from then on in it was all about the wedding. I was supposed to go out with ben and his brother on wednesday night but I was tired and still not feeling 100% so they went out and I enjoyed a relaxing night at home.

On thursday, ben, his brother, my brother, and my cousin went out for a "bachelor day." Yes aparently they don't just do bachelor party's anymore, but entire days.. and they went golfing in Kananaskis. Since they were out, me and my sister decided to have a bachelorette day which included mani and pedi's, lunch, quick last minute errands, and then a quick nap at my house before another bridesmaid came over, ben and his beother came home and we started getting ready for our joint bachelor/bachelorette party . We had a great night. We went to a piano bar which is only a few blocks away, and it was sooo fun. The best part was it was pretty much just our family that was there, and the place was dead except for 3 other bachelorette party's. I loved that my 80 year old oma was the last one on the dance floor, and we partied until they turned the lights on and kicked us out.

On friday morning, we packed up all the stuff we needed, picked up my 2 bridesmaids and drove to fernie..Yep your math is correct; all 5 of us packed in to our little mazda 3 for 3 hours, with hangovers. We got to the lodge in the early afternoon, and started unpacking. However, there were some curveballs that included staind table cloths, no toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms,and lack of staff. I'm not sure if you remember, but a month before our wedding the owner of the lodge went out of business, so the new owner stepped up but had only taken possesion of the lodge 2 days before our wedding. Stuff was missing, I was stressed, overwhelmed, and just not a very happy camper. But, the lodge was beautiful, nothing could deny that. We headed over to my mother in law's house in fernie for the rehesal dinner and we had a great time. I had the honour of meeting a bunch of ben's aunt's and uncles who I had never met before, and my family got to meet ben's family. It was a great night.

After the "rehersal dinner," I have it in qutotation marks since we didn't actually do a wedding rehersal, we headed back to the lodge. The people who were staying at the lodge stayed up having some drinks, excitedly talking about the day to come. Nerves got the best of me, and I wound up falling asleep in my mom's room around 12. The last night before I would become Mrs Jen Rendle.

Anyways, that's a long enough post for tonight. I promise there won't be such a long delay before I finish posting about the wedding and the honeymoon.

Ironman Canada: Where pain meets glory

We left for Penticton on Thursday evening, after ben got off work. The plan was to drive to Revelstoke, camp, and then continue to Penticton on friday morning. Well we got to revelstoke by 8pm and since we were only 3 hours away we decided to keep pushing through to penticton. We were planning on camping all weekend, and when we got to a town just before penticton we found a campground. Exhausted and grumpy we pitched the tent and passed out for the night. Only to have a terrible sleep; we were right beside a river which was really loud, the other campers were loud, and the street lights were on all night. SO friday morning came and I was running on little sleep, and me on little sleep is bad news. Luckily we have relatives who have a cabin nearby, so after talking to them and arranging a room we packed up our stuff and headed to their cabin. Which was a blessing. We had a comfortable bed right on the lake front for the whole weekend, it was awesome. On Friday morning we headed in to penticton get our race packages. I was pretty nervous up to that point, but after we picked up the race packages I was very nervous. Just being around all the people talking about other races and what not really overwhelmed me. So we tried to limit our time in Penticton. We went back to my relatives house and just relaxed the rest of the day. On Saturday we had to get everything organized for our transistion bags, and get everything checked in at the race area. We took one last look at our stuff, made sure everything was there and left for a good pasta dinner with my mom in Kelowna, and a good night's sleep before the race.

RACE MORNING! We got up at 4:30 am, had a bagel and some coffee, and by 5:15 we were headed to the race area. It was awesome, ben and I got to be together all morning right up until the gun went off. We double checked our gear, sunscreened up, gave eachother a hug and kiss, and we were off. I was surprisingly calm on race morning. There was one moment of panic as we were standing in the water before the race, when i started to think about how lone I was going to be out here for, but I pushed the thought aside. All I could focus on was the next ten minutes. Making it to the next bouy while swimming and the next aid station during the run and swim. The concept of time just seems to disappear.

SWIM:

THe swim was crazy, seroiusly crazy. You get elbowed, kicked, pushed down, cut off.. it like a washing machine. My main goal was to stay calm, keep my heart rate under control, find any open space I could, and get out of the water as quickly as I could. The swim course is an out and back, and on the way back I managed to find some open space which was awesome! I was definitely so happy to get out of the water. I made it in 1 hour and 27 minutes, and I was pretty much on target for 13-14 hours.

Bike:

The bike, well I'm not really sure how to describe the immense ups and downs that I experienced during those 180 kms. The first 2 hours to oosoyos I was feeling great. It's relatively flat, and I was making really good time. Then you hit Rogers Pass... the 15 km hill. Even there I wasn't feeling to bad, I kept my heart rate under control, passed alot of people, and even managed to have a conversation with a fellow jennifer on our way up. What got me was the rollers after the summit of rogers pass. They say this is the hardest ironman course, and I understand why, after the pass tehre are another 10 mini hills. All I could think about was getting to kilometer 120 where our special needs bags were and I had coke and lays potato chips stashed.. mmm.. But kilometers 100-120 seemed to last forever, as you take a turn off the highway and start heading BACK To osoyoos.. where you just came from!
Anyways, I took a couple minutes to get those chips and pop in, and headed back out. By this point it was 38 degrees outside. Insanely hot. Infact, the aid stations started running out of water, which was insane. There were 3 aid stations that I hit that were out of water, but at least they had sports drink still.
Then, there was the yellow lake hill. What I like to call the hill of death. It is a steep and decent sized hill after 140 kms of biking. It was hot, I was out of water, and my entire body was aching from being on the bike, and then I hit the hill. About half way up I started weezing, then I couldn't breathe... I was having an asthma attack. So I pulled over, and tried to catch my breath so I could take my inhaler. Then a lady came up beside me, started rubbing my back, brought me into the shade, and tried to calm me down with sucess and I was able to take my inhaler. I got on my bike, and at the top of the hill I saw my Dad, my sister, and my uncle! It was pretty much downhill into penticton from the top of the yellowlake hill and they drove beside me cheering me on and taking pictures for a good portion of the bike back. I was still on track, the bike took me 6 hours and 30 minutes, under the 7 hour limit I gave myself.. I was pretty excited. And remember yellow from the oliver race?! I even saw him!

Run:

Pulling into the transition and getting off that bike had never felt so good. By this point it was 4 pm. The thought of "running" a marathon was daunting. But I pictured ben out there, and that kept me going. I kept my eye out for him, because the run course was an out and back and I expected to see him about 2 hours into my run. (Little did I know he had pulled out because of siezed muscles after the bike). But he kept me going. There were aid stations every mile, and my goal was to run between every aid station and to walk through the aid stations. That only lasted 7 miles. It was so hot, oppressively hot. I would get ice at one aidstation and put it in my shirt and by the next aid station (1 mile later) it would be melted. I remember counting down the miles, I was in survival mode. I kept looking for ben, and when I didn't see him I assumed we had passed eachother while going through an aid station. I took the race as 26 individual miles. There was a group of us that were playing leapfrog and we motivated eachother. I remember at the turn around and realizing.. omg I'm only half way. it was 6:30, spectators were eating dinner on the side lines, and I was still out there. I remember being 10 miles from the finish line and I just started crying; Wondering what the heck I was doing. Then I remember around 8 miles to the finish line, the sun went behing the mountains and it started cooling off, and I slowly got a second wind. My brother's girlfriend's grandpa lives right on the course, and I remember passing their house and seeing her family there cheering me on and her dad running out to give me a high five. I remember hitting the 23 mile marker and that was it. It was go time. I pulled way head of the group I had been playing leap frog with. I did not walk the rest of the way. Infact, that last 3 miles was the fastest of any of the previous miles. About a mile from the finish line I saw my family. I ignored them, I had to, I was too close to the finish to get emotional and have another asthma attack. As I was 200 feet from the finish line, I felt a huge blister on my foot pop. But nothing was stopping me. Then, the pain, the agony were all forgotten when I crossed that line, and saw my family. All the training the past 9 months, came to that moment and it was better than I could have ever imagined. My final time was 14 hours 26 minutes. Which was 26 minutes slower than I thought, but I was content, I didn't care. Looking back the heat definitely slowed me down. ( I have a video of me finishing but I'm not sure how to post it, so if anyone has any recommendations).

I got my medal, my hat, my shirt, Ben was waiting with roses, and sam with champagne. It was amazing to have so much support. My (now) husband, brother, brother's girlfriend, sister, mom, mom's partner, dad, uncle, great aunt, and great uncle were all there and aparently the rest of my family watched me on tv. It was an amazing moment.

That night, I hardly slept. Too much adrenelin I think. I had a epson salt bath, put on compression pants, ate as much as I could considering my stomach was pretty upset from gels and gatorade all day. And we drove home on monday and I started thinking about the wedding! .. but I'll write more about that another time.

We're back!

I'm not even quite sure where to begin. When I wrote my last post, I was not an ironman, I was not married, I had never been to mexico or an all inclusive, and I did not have a job. The last 3 weeks has been amazing, incredible, unbelieveable. So much has gone on and I have just been trying to absorb as much as possible. It's all much to much to write about in one post and it's getting late. So, now that life is slowly going back into a routine, and we have our computer back, I will finally have time to reflect on everything that has happened. But, I wanted to say one thing; I am so thankful for my friends and family. We have never felt so supported and loved than we have during the last 3 weeks. We have really realized how lucky we are to have such amazing people in our lives, and we are so thankful to have been able to share with them such momentous moments in our lives. The last three weeks have not been without hiccups but all along the way our friends and family were there to help out and support us in any way that they could. They are amazing people, and we are we cannot express how grateful we are to every single person.

Next Week!?!

So, I had to book an appointment for next week to get some new makeup. At shoppers they do a makeover type thing and show you how to do your make up as long as you buy some, so I called to book an appointment for before the wedding (since I am clueless with makeup and all mine is pretty much from the free gifts that you get when you buy foundation at clinique during bonus days). So I called and tried to make an appointment for Sept 1st, and the girl goes "so i'll see you next thursday," and I replied "OMG I'm getting married next week!" It has oficially hit me, I am going to become Mrs Rendle next week. MRS! seriously, that makes me seem sooo ooold! I remember called all my friends parents Mrs ____ when I was little.

Anways, 2 posts in one day, I'm on a roll. But now back to getting everything ready for ironman and the wedding!

Pre race reflection

So here we are, 6 days out from the race. I can hardly believe it. I remember a year ago, we were getting ready to go volunteer at the race and sign up. I remember driving the course and it seeming impossibly far. I remember voluntering 10 kms from the finish line and seeing some people in true agony but still going. I remember convincing Ben to sign up with me that morning. I remember starting our training on November 28th. I remember going to the gym at 5 am only for it not to be open. I remember going to the gym on christmas eve and christmas day.. that is dedication. I remember our first run outside in March when some of the snow/ice had melted enough for there to be a small shoulder on the road, and how amazing it felt. I remember getting pnuemonia and not being able to train for 6 weeks in May. It has been quite the journey, and it all comes down to this Sunday.

Crossing that finish line will be amazing, however I am quite nervous about the other 14 hours before I get to cross that line. I know that there will be moments where I will just want to quite, I know there will be moments when everything hurts and it feels like I can't take another step, but I also know that I can do it. I know I have trained and I am prepared mentally and physically to finish this thing.

We are leaving right after work on Thursday, and only going as far as Revelstoke where we'll spend the night. Then we'll get to Penticton around noon on friday and go pick up our race packages. We are going to try and stay out of the hype as much as possible since that will only make the nerves worse. Between now and thursday there is quite a bit to do. When we get back there is only 2 days before people start arriving for our wedding, and wedding stuff starts so I am going to try and get as much done this week so that I don't have to worry about it next week. In the meantime, we are just going to try and enjoy the next couple weeks and take in every minute since we've got a whole bunch of life experiences coming our way.

Montana

Well we just got back last night from a great trip to montana! My mom, sister, and I went down there to do some shopping and we had a great time with alot of laughs and of course some adventure. On the way down we stopped in Fernie so that my mom could see the lodge where we are getting married in 2 weeks! ahh! It was good, we got a better idea of where we are going to put all the tables and what not. Then we kept heading south and ended up in polson montana. According to the website we were supposed to be staying at a nice hotel on the lake, but in fact it was quite the opposite. There was smoking allowed in the casino which was right in the main lobby of the hotel and so the hotel reeked like smoke. After changing our room because the sink didn't work and it wasn't clean we moved to another room which was better but still stinky. It was late, we were tired so we decided to stay there for the night and find a new place for the next night. We had a great mexican dinner and lots of laughs. After surviving a night of my mom's snoring we drove to kalispell to go shopping, and on the way we found a great bed and breakfast called the outlook where we wound up going back to for wednesday night! Shopping was successful, I needed some real clothes for my new job and ben needed some new work clothes so we stocked up a bit. It was fun, we also picked up more beer for the wedding because it was SO CHEAP! like seroiusly, half the price of Canada. Back at the bed and breakfast we just enjoyed the view and the lodge. It was beautiful and overlooked the lake. There was a honeymooning couple there so we had a fun night visiting with them (anc crashing their romantic hot tub time).

Thursday we went to whitefish, explored a little, mom shopped a little, and then we headed back to canada. All in all it was a great trip. It was fun to go away so close to the wedding. Monday last week I was starting to get stressed, and this trip was just what I needed. I can hardly believe there is only 9 days until ironman and 15 until the wedding! I have no idea where the time has gone~

have a great weekend!
Jen

Final Push

Well this past week has been the last push before the 2 week taper before our race. Last weekend we were in fernie to meet some of our vendors for our wedding. On Saturday we planned on riding for 5.5 hours on highway 3 from fernie to cranbrook. The ride went really well, or as well as 182 kms can go. I can`t really explain what it is like being on a bike for that long, but it really messes with your head. On our way out, I was feeling really good, and at 2 hours and 45 minutes we hit a sign that said 10 kms to cranbrook (and in fernie we started at a sign that said cranbrook 101 kms). I felt really good having biked 91 kms in 2 hours and 45 minutes! We finally bought salt tablets and those really helped the leg cramps on thew ay out. Then things took a turn on the way home, I realized that we had had a strong tail wind going out and now we were facing a strong head wind. It was miserable. Even going down hill we had to pedal because we were barely moving. When the wind gusted it would throw us around. Cars passing would throw us around. I was getting frustrated. And it was hot. 30 degrees hot. We also only had 1.5 liters of water/gatorade for the fist 4.5 hours which was not the smartest thing. As I started getting tired and dehydrated, we approached a major hill, and as I neared the top I proceeded to have an asthma attack. I was scared, nothing is worse than not being able to breathe. But thankfully I had my emergency inhaler on me. Once I calmed down and got my breathing under control we kept going, and I proceeded to have another small asthma attack but got it under control without my inhaler. We stopped in Jaffry for more liquids and inhaled a bag of lays regular potato chips (seriously the best thing for endurance events). Feeling a little bit better we pushed the rest of the way home. In the end, our ride turned into 6.5 hours. We were hungry and exhausted, but we were pretty pumped to have gotten the ironman distance in! We proceeded to fall asleep at 9 pm that night and slept 11 hours. But we woke up surprisingly fine and not sore!

The rest of this week we have been pushing. My legs have felt like lead, but I keep reminding myself that this is it. This is the last effort. Come Sunday we have to rely on all the hours and effort we put into training. There is nothing more we can do, except fuel our bodies and try to focus on this race. In 2 weeks from tomorrow, the 8 months of training will be worth it. We will {hopefully} be crossing that finish line. All the training, sickness, exhaustion, will be worth it!

As for the wedding, I cannot believe that it is only 3 weeks away! I am getting very excited for our big day. Hopefully the weather is nice so we can be outside. I can't wait to marry the love of my life. My training partner, my best friend, my everything. And with all the craziness of the last few months, we cannot wait to go away to mexico for a week! I've never been to an all inclusive, and I think after the ironman and the wedding we definitely deserve it!

I think the next 3 weeks are going to zoom by! Next week I'm headed on a road trip with my mom and sister to montana. They haven't seen the lodge so they wanted to head to fernie to see it, and fernie is only a stones throw from the boarder so we're going down for some shopping. I definitely need some fancy work clothes for when I start my new job on Sept. 12! It will be a great time! and i can`t wait for my mom to see the lodge. It is soo beautiful! She`s going to love it. Then it`s the week before ironman, then it`s the week before the wedding! Lots to keep me preoccupied (and perhaps a little stressed).

Anyways, have a great weekend! It`s going to be a busy one for us. We`ve got our last loooooooong bike before the race on saturday, and a looooong run on sunday. Then we have my cousin`s 18th birthday party, and my bridal shower thanks to my mom and sister!

A Career? .. I must be a grown-up

Well, big news over here. I got a job! and this time it's not just any job, it is a career! Starting september 12th, I will be working downtown with scotia bank as a personal banking officer. From there the sky is the limit, especially since there will be alot of opportunity coming up in the next few years because of the baby boomer generation starting to retire, which is good news to my generation.. I will have to dress like an adult, and actually put more than 5 minutes into getting ready in the morning, but I'm kind of excited about that. I'm also excited about working downtown. When I was down there for interviews, I was amazed how different downtown is during the weekday than it is in the evening and on the weekends. There is so much comotion, there are street vendors, it is a colorful and vibrant place to be. On the weekends, it is DEAD. I mean half of the restuarants aren't even open because no one goes down there. The thing is I will for sure be downtown at the main branch for the first 4-6 months but then I could placed anywhere in the city, hopefully it's not to far away from home or else we'll have to look at getting another car.

Getting the job was a relief, but it's been complicated since I need some time off at the end of august/begining of september so they decided that my start date would be after I get back from my honeymoon.... the day after I get back.. actually 12 hours after we get back! SO I have the next month off! I struggled with this a bit because I am the type of person that needs to be busy and feel like I have a purpose to my day. It kind of feels like my whole life is on hold while I wait for all these big life events to happen; ironman, wedding, honeymoon, new job. That's a whole lot of life changing events to cram into 2 weeks!.. and a whole lot of stress both on my mind and on my body. But i am excited. And in the meantime I am going to try and keep my day busy, and really focus on training, I mean who is lucky like me and gets to train all day and not have to work? I guess that is what the pros do.. so I'll pretend I'm a pro triathlete for the next month! ha! But there isn't much time left, there are only 2 weeks of hard traning left and then tapering and resting up for the 2 weeks leading up to the big race. EEK! It's already been 8 months of training! only one more!

We are headed to kokanousa this weekend which should be fun. For the last 4 years my dad has headed there in the summer. Ben and I are planning to do lots of training, focusing mainly on swimming but we'll also do a fair sized ride (4 hours) and a couple of good runs. Then we just plan on lounging in the sun. It is supposed to be really nice this weekend and it will be nice to get out of the city!

Hope everyone else has a great long weekend!

and more of that training thing....

In 5 weeks from today I will (hopefully is all goes according to plan) be a ironwoman, and in 6 weeks from today I will be married to my best friend and we will be in mexico! ahh! I'm SO excited!

On the training front, we had a pretty productive weekend. Last week after getting home from the lake I felt like I was getting sick. You know the achy, feeling crappy feeling. So I took tuesday, wednesday, AND thursday off.. whoops. But I think it did my body some good. On Friday we hit the pool after work (it was a short workout though because we had tickets to harry potter!). Then Saturday was THE day. We got up, and and we got a longish run in... seperately of course. Actually I really dragged my butt and didn't get out until an hour after ben. But we both got 2 hours and 15 minutes in... Although ben of course ran like twice as far as me. But i felt really good. It was the first run in a while where I felt strong and focused. I think those days off did me some good. I got home around 11:30, we ate breakfast and then headed to canmore to climb ha-ling peak.

We motored up it, and we were back at the car within 2 hours. Starving, we went into town and had some lunch/dinner. When we got back to Calgary, we were pretty tired and we both had a solid 2 hour nap. It was awesome.

Sunday, since we had our 2 hour nap on saturday evening we didn't fall asleep until late (well midnight... but that is really late for us!). So we let ourselves sleep in on sunday. Then we drove out to highway 22 to polish our legs off on the road to nepal. We started biking at 10:30 and well, lets say I suffered through it. Despite my sore legs, being exhausted, and starving I did make the whole 60 kms loop. I jsut kept telling myself that i have to get used to keep on pushing despite being axhausted. But lets just say Ben had a very very grumpy Jen to deal with until she ate all the contents left in the fridge and had a peters milkshake later that day.

We have 3 big weeks left to push, and then 2 tapering weeks and then it's game time. I am already feeling pretty nervous for the race, but I know we will do great!

On the wedding front things are coming together nicely, and I just can't wait for the big day!

Have a great week! We're headed to Kokanousa this weekend to hang out at the lake with my dad!.. and of course do some more of that trianing thing.

Goodsoil

The past 5 days I have been in goodsoil saskatchewan. For those of you who are not my family (however limited that may be) you may be asking where the heck is goodsoil saskatchewan. Well :

It's pretty much a very small farming town up in northern saskatchewan... and it is a long ways from calgary. You may ask why the heck we go to such a place in the middle of now where? well because:

there is an amazing lake there... and because when my great grandfather immigrated from germany, he was given land there and was one of the founding fathers of this small piece of paradise Canada. We have been going there since I can remember, and my mom has been going there since she can remember.

We had a great time, but, sadly, I had to leave Ben behind. Since he is working and it is a 7 hour drive he couldn't even come up for just the weekend. So I got to be the 7th wheel all weekend with my mom and murray, my sister and her boyfriend, and my brother and his girlfriend. Actually we had a great time. I went for a longish run on saturday morning. The day day started out promising with not a cloud in the sky which lead to a very hot run. But, by the end of my 2 hour (22 km) run, the sky had started to cloud over and it proceeded to be a cloudy/windy day. So we set up the campsite, made pie irons for lunch on the fire and just relaxed. That night we had a couple of surprise visitors in the middle of the night, as a mama black bear and her two cubs decided to visit our campsite. It was quite the excitement at 6 am, but murray managed to scare them off before my siblings in the tents had a heart attack.

Sunday we were going to head to church, but after the bear excitement we wound up sleeping in. I was planning on going for a long bike, but I had forgotten about how TERRIBLE the roads are in saskatchewan. Like seriously, there are parts of the highway that are just gravel. In fact, 2 years ago I broke the suspension on my old car when I crossed from Alberta to Saskatchewan. SO, the bike stayed parked all weekend. It was a beautiful day, and we maneged to get a few hours down at the beach. However, the drama did not end with the bears. When we launched my mom's old boat it died in the middle of the lake. Like seriously its completely dead. Paul had to paddle the boat ashore. I was planning on swimming the 3 miles across the lake, but I needed a boat to follow me, so thankfully some relatives (thank you to chelsea, cassidy, feron, lisa, and michelle) followed me in their pontoon boat with my mom and murray tagging along for the ride. I have swam the lake before 10 years ago when I in grade 9 and it took me over 2 hours. However, that was kind of a sput of the moment thing. I thought, I could swim across there... so I did. Then we tired 2 years ago, because ben and my brother wanted to try but the water was tooo cold. This year I came prepared. I brought my wetsuit, and after squeeezing into it I was ready to rock. I made it in 1 hour and 25 minutes! I guess this ironman training thing is paying off. I spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach. Monday morning we woke up to pouring rain. But by the time we finished breakfast it had cleared up and turned into another hot beautiful day. I got a quick 10k run in then headed down to the beach to enjoy our last full day at the lake. My brother, his girlfriend, and I had to leave the hot weather and started the long trip home on tuesday.

Since Ben couldn't come to goodsoil, he headed to fernie for some training and a visit with his mom. He biked 160 kms on saturday! I was so impressed. The furthest we had gone previously was 140 kms. Then Ben had a chance to go over and see the lodge where we are getting married and it is beautiful!

Despite some of the drama that happened, it is going to be beautiful and perfect.

In other news, I have a final interview with scotia bank today. This could be an amazing opportunity for me so hopefully everything works out. Actually, I have already turned down one job just because I really want this one. So with me luck!

Wishing Wednesdays

I keep forgetting about this weekly post that is hosted by bright wishes. I guess when you're not working the days blurr into one another and every day feels like saturday. Anyways, this week I wish for:

1) I had a couple of interviews last week, and there is one job that I am really hoping for. So, I wish that I get it! It's with scotia bank and would lead to alot of exciting career oportunities!

2) That the weather is nice in goodsoil this weekend, so that I can do alot of training and lounging on the beach working on my suntan!

3) I wish that everything comes together for our wedding, its less than 2 months away and the last week has kind of been crazy and it has started stressing me out. But i think I have found some really great vendors now, to replace the one that is going bankrupt, and hopefully all is good.

4) That Ben and I stay healthy for the next month for the last push of training before IRONMAN! It will be the highest volume of training either of us has ever done. So we really need to accept that we're going to be tired, get lots of rest, drink lots of water, and eat properly. No more drinking copious amounts of alcohol for us!.. that is until after Aug 28th!

5) That this house will clean itself.... haha oh man.. I know it won't come true so I guess I better go do it now!

Cheers!

A normal weekend?

Time just seems to be slipping away from me. How is it already the middle of July! We moved a month ago and I have no idea where the time has gone.
Our training is coming along really well. We are up to 12 workouts a week and 15-18 hours a week of training. This is really the last push before 2 weeks of tapering before the race. Two weeks ago we maneged to get a 140 km bike ride in, that's only 40 kms short of the ironman distance! That definitely raised our confidence! I felt really good until the last 45 minute when my feet started to ache. My biking shoes did not have a good insole, but we have put some new, more supportive, insoles in and so far they seem to be helping. However, last weekend we took a major step back. Both of us were feeling really burnt out and tired. So we eased off on the training and just enjoyed ourselves and lived a "normal life". Saturday we went hiking with my sister and her boyfriend. We had alot of fun, my sister is so funny and I love hanging out with her! The weather didn't look promising, but the rain held off and it was actually nice that it was overcast since it didn't get to hot. We hiked up lady macdonald, but didn't make it all the way to the top since it got soo windy it was too dangerous , but it was the first mountain my sister had ever climbed!

That night, we met up with my sister and her boyfriend again and we had some pizza and beers then headed down to the stampede. We were planning on going to Nashville north but the lineup was UNBELIEVEABLE!... like seroiusly 4 hours.. and there were people waiting in line that long! wow! we just went to the beer gardens, drank for a while, met up with my brother and his friends then went to a bar on 17th ave. Since ben and I are old we wound up catching a cab at midnight and headed home... it was past our bedtime.

Sunday morning we decided to walk the hour downtown to get our car. It was a gorgeous morning, and we stopped at nellies for some brunch (mmmm our favorite breakfast spot). We picked up the car then headed out to cochrane to help my mom and murray with their fence building. Now, I worked construction for a summer so I know how to use my power tools! It was actually a lot of fun, I love building stuff! We got a good dent on the fence building and even planted a few trees.

We didn't get home until 8 pm that night, and we were tired. We pretty much just went straight to bed. Even though we didn't really train, we still had a jam packed weekend!

This week has been busy, despite not working. I've just been busy running errands, and trying to pick up the pieces of our wedding explosion of last week. It seems as though everything is coming together. But it is also very different then we had origionally had planned, but I think this is actually going to be better!

I am headed up to Goodsoil SK with on Friday with my family. We've been going there every year since I can remember. It is a beautiful lake in just a little town in northern saskatchewan. Ben can't come since it is a 7 hour drive and he only has the weekend off. But I'm headed up for some serious training, lounging on the beach, and camping! woot! I'll be coming home on tuesday with my little brother! Can't wait!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Where to begin. I cannot believe that it is ALREADY JULY 8th! That means there is 6 weeks and 2 days until Ironman, and 7 weeks and 1 day until our Wedding!

Today, however, is also a special day. 4 years ago Ben and I each had a moment. A moment where we realized that we had met someone very special. Ben's moment was when he finished his first marathon and felt an urge to text me and tell me how he did. Despite the fact we had only known eachother for less than a month, and there were plenty of other people he could have informed first. The moment for me was when I woke up next to him the next day, and the first thing I thought was "you're going to wake up forever next this this person." Completely illogical, but it was true. 4 years ago, Ben and I both realized that we had met our soulmate, and it has been the most incredible 4 years of my life. Ben is my best friend, my training partner, my cheer leader, my strength, my confidant, my champ, and my everything. I am so lucky to have him in my life, and I cannot wait until I can call him my husband! So tonight in celebration Ben is taking me out on a date, and I have no idea where we are going! I'm pretty excited!

On another note, we had a little hiccup with the wedding planning, when I found out that the lady that runs the lodge and was doing all the organizing and catering was going out of business. Lets just say the stress level rose to an uncomfortably high level. Thankfully, however, it all seems to be sorted out now and the guy who is buying out her share is actually going to just employ her staff and it will be identitcal to what we had originally planned. PHEW. Other than that, everything seems to be coming together nicely! Infact, we JUST booked our honeymoon this afternoon! How about a week in the Mayan Riviera in a 5 star all inclusive resort. And the best part is we have gotten an AMAZING deal on it. We cannot wait! I've never been to an all inclusive relaxing vacation in my life. It will be a blast, and just what we need after ironman and then the wedding.

Yesterday Ben and I had the day off training. So, we bbq'd some chicken, had a glass of wine, and a skinny cow ice cream sandwhich for desert (which by the way is sooo yummy and only 130 calories!). It was awesome. But it was also only 6:30 by the time we finished, we didn't know what to do with ourselves with all the spare time. So we went for a walk. The walk turned into quite the adventure though when we thought we were taking a "short cut" and ended up on the wrong side of a golf course. We proceeded to try and bush wack through the trees around the golf course, and ended up smack dab in the middlf of the golf course, and we had to hop the fence and didn't get home around 8. Yep it was quite the adventure.

However, before that we did walk some of the douglas fir trail which it awesome, and has an aamzing view. I mean this is basically our back yard :)

Craziness

The last week has been very busy. Like SERIOUSLY very busy, even by our standards. I mean our normal life is busy by most people's standards, so this could be classified as insanely busy. It involved getting settled into our new place, babysitting my nephew for 4 days, the rundle's revenge trail run, and visiting with family and friends.

Last Sunday, my dad had 24 fresh lobsters. So, Ben and I headed over for a feast! It was delicious... that is until I had another one of my "episodes." I have had over a dozen of these now, and we're not entirely sure what causes it. Basically an episode as we call it is when my stomach goes hard as rock, I am violently ill, and the pain in unbelieveable. We used to go to the hospital for it, but they don't do much except give me a shot and usually by that point we have waited for 8 hours and it is feeling better anyways. This has happened after eating shell fish maybe 5 times, but it has happened without eating shellfish, and I have eaten shellfish and have been fine. So we're not entirely sure what the trigger is, but it is awful. Poor Ben, he feels so helpless. It only lasts a few hours and usually by the time I wake up I'm way better. So, that was our Sunday night, it was not fun.

Monday, wednesday, thursday and friday I had my nephew Jack. Who is adorable, but is oh so busy. He definitely tuckered aunt Jen out. We took him to the splash park, to visit my mom, to get a new tire, and for some walks.

Ben started his new job on Thursday, and it looks like it it going to be really awesome for him! He said it feels weird going to work and not physically working, like he did in construction. He said the people there are really nice and that the company really values their employees so that is awesome for him!

Saterday we met up with my friend jacque and went for a 3.5 hour bike ride, then Ben and I topped it off with a swim, and then some grocery shopping. It was a busy day, and I was asleep by 8:30 pm since we had to be up early on Sunday.

Sunday morning was the Rundle's revenge trail tun. Ben decided that he wanted to do the 50 km race, and I last minute decided to sign up for the 25 km. We woke up at 5:30 am to pouring rain. Not very encouraging. The race started at 8 am, and we were off. There was 400 m of elevation change per lap and each lap was 12.5 kms. That first loop I was very up and down. I would have stretches where I felt great, then I would slide down the hill since I did not have trial shoes, or I would roll my ankle. I did the first loop in just over 1 hr 35 minutes, and started the second loop. BY the time I made it to km 14, I decided to call it quits. My hip was bothering me, I had already rolled my ankle twice, and I didn't want to push my luck with Ironman Canada only 2 months away. So I walked back down the trail and pulled out of the race. I saw Ben after lap 2 and he was looking good, but wasn't sure he'd do the whole 50. But he did! He finished in 5 hours and 39 minutes! He was pretty pumped but he finished the race.

We drove home, lounged for a bit, then I went to the gym to make up for quitting the race early and biked for a while. I felt good, and I was happy I didn't push during the race and risk getting injured. Perhaps I am finally maturing and listening to my body.

Have a great week. I'm not babysitting my nephew today so I'm job hunting, then training, and maybe some shopping since I have a gift card to use up!

-jen

ps, my sister comes home tomorrow! woot!

Our Adventurous Saturday...

Well, it has been pretty crazy around here the past couple of days, moving and getting all settled into our new place. We had a very crazy day on Saterday:

We started the morning in Revelstoke and ended it in our new place in Calgary. Saturday morning it was pouring rain, we didn't sleep well, and we were pretty grumpy. We went out for a big breakfast to hold us over for a while and then we set off with a Uhaul packed to the brim with the contents of our apartment. It was a baby Uhaul, but we managed to get everything in.

We said goodbye to our home for the last year, and drove away from the house. Only to go a couple of feet because we forgot to close the back of the Uhaul and some of the boxes went flying out. Whoops! Thankfully nothing broke!

We stopped in Canmore for a bite to eat, and we got to Calgary around 3. With the help of my brother and his girlfriend we had the car and Uhaul unpacked within an hour! It was speed moving! My older brother and my newphew aldo stopped by for a bit and helped unpack a bit, well jack "helped.". And by the way we LOVE our new place! It is fantastic! We are finally not in a basement. Everything is clean and new. We are so Happy. But I'll tell you more about that later.

We took my brother and his girlfriend out for dinner as a thank you for helping us, and met up with my dad. After dinner Ben and I hit up Superstore quick to get some necessities while Sam and his girlfriend went home to change since we decided to head out that night! We reconvened back at our house and had a couple of drinks.

Then we hit the road to head to the Blues Can to meet back up with my dad again who had scoped out the place with the best music. However, once again we didn't make it very far. We were driving along, it was pouring rain, and the next thing I know what I thought was a puddle was in fact a MASSIVE pot hole. Seriously MASSIVE. I didn't have time to get around it, and BAM.. we hit it square on. A couple minutes later the car was driving really funny, so we pulled over. We had a flat. So Sammy and Ben were out there in the pouring rain changing our tire. Don't they look happy.

It totally reminded me of a christmas story. Angie and I found it pretty amusing. They had it changed pretty quick, and we eventually made it to the Blues Can. Where we enjoyed great music, great company, and had a great time. Ben and I have missed the live blues music. We love going out and dancing.

It was a busy, but great day. We are so happy to be back in Calgary.

This is it, Goodbye Revelstoke

Well, this is it. The last night in Revelstoke. I have no idea where the last 5 weeks have gone. They have just flown by. It really hit me that we were actually leaving when I came home last night. The place is in shambles, we have little food left in the fridge, and the stress level started creeping up. We were supposed to go to the gym, but I stayed behind and got some more stuff in boxes. By 6:30 my stomach was in knots, and I realized I needed to go for a run to get rid of some of these nerves. So I went for a hard 30 minutes. I came home soaking wet and out of breath, but feeling much better. Then we headed out for a date. There is one restaurant in revelstoke that we have never tried becasue it is pretty pricy. The other day I noticed a promotion they had going on which was "two can dine for 59." It included a 3 course meal, and a half liter of wine. I thought it was a pretty good deal and a great way to celebrate our last couple nights in revelstoke so we went! Salad, steak, and desert! It was a great evening, a good way to catch up before the craziness began. We were there for a couple hours and really enjoyed our night out. We cheered our year in revelstoke, Ben's last day of construction, and new beginings.

Today I'm am trying to tie up any loose ends at my work. My boss is in Boston, so I will not be seeing him before I leave so I want to make sure he isn't left high and dry with anything. We just got back from picking up the Uhaul, and Ben will be packing that up this afternoon. We plan on having everything packed tonight, sleep on our blow up matress, and then hit the road after a run tomorrow morning! Ben doesn't start his new job until the 23rd, so we'll have a few days to get settled and get ben some work clothes!

Take care!
Jen

Pride.

Well, I am very impressed with Ben and I! The pool isn't open to the public until 6:30ish, and it has been a struggle since that's an hour after Ben gets off work and an hour and a half after I get off work. We are tired and hungry when we get home from work. So the delimena is whether to eat and wait until 8 to swim, or not to eat and wait until 7:30 or 8 to eat.

Well yesterday, Ben got off a bit early from work for the hockey game so he was able to pick me up from work. We were both starving so we decided to head to Subway and grab some dinner (since our fridge is pretty bare as we are moving on saturday). We split a foot long tuna sub.. toasted.. with cheese.. lots of veggies.. and hot sauce.. mmmm, and headed home. We watched the hockey game, and by 7 I was not feeling the swim. I was tired and freeezing, so I hoped in a nice hot shower and put my jammies on. Around 7:30 after much debating Ben decided that he wasn't going to the pool either and he showered and got his jammies on too. Then at 7:50, after an internal debate I said "Ben, lets get our lazy butts to the pool." So without thinking too much about it we grabbed our swimming gear, drove to the pool, and got a 30 minute swim in. We TOTALLY were not going to do it. We were all ready for bed, but in the end we went! I was so proud of us! These small victories will definitely help come race day! We were pretty stoked.

Then, when we got home the TV was still on (since we left for the pool in a whirlwind) and I could no believe my eyes!

via

Cars were on fire in Vancouver. The riot police was out in full force. Tear gas was being deployed. Businesses were getting looted. It was absalute chaos, completely unnecessary and ridiculous. I hope the instigators are arrested. This was a city that represented Canada to the world last year and last night they were a total disgrace. I can only imagine the hefty bill that will come with cleaning and repairing all the damage. Can you imagine if Canada had lost in the hockey finals of the Olympics last year in Vancouver and something like this happened? The disgrace? Thankfully, this was not the Olympic Finals, but the world was still watching and the few who caused the destruction have brought shame to a great game and an amazing country. Common, have a little pride in to your team and your city.

Wednesday Wishes

I'm linking up again with Brooke for her weekly wednesday wishes. I have seemed to have pretty good luck the last few weeks with getting my wishes as I finished the race, Ben got the job, and we got the great apartment that we wanted. So this week, I thought I'd throw in some big wishes and see what happens!

1) A smoooth move back to Calgary. We're doing the Uhaul thing, and its a little stressful but I think we'll be fine.

2) This duvet cover... we need new sheets since we have worn through ours.. literally, there is a gaping hole in our sheets. We're not even going to pack em, just toss them come saturday morning. So while looking for new sheets I stumbled apon this duvet and I love it.

at bed, bath, and beyond


3)During my race, there was this guy who I named "Yellow" as he was on a yellow bike and wearing a yellow shirt (he called me blue for the same reason). I would pass him going up the hills, but he would fly by me on the downhills. We played leapfrog like that for the majority of the race. At one point he turned to me and said "You are a way better biker than me... I just have a better bike. If you had a bike like mine you'd be way ahead of me." so with that... I would LOVE a cervelo p3.. although I would settle for a p2 :). Maybe one day.

4) A honeymoon somewhere tropical and all inclusive where we don't have to worry about anything... or any honeymoon. With getting new jobs we're not even sure we will get time off for a honeymoon right after our wedding. If not, I'm sure we'll go on one eventually. Perhaps for Ironman Florida in 2012?.. although that is the oposit of an all inclusive relaxing vacation ha!

via

5)The athletes plate cookbook! and time to cook from it! Ben and I eat, for the most part, super healthy. However, we're often eating the same things every week. Also, with our busy training/work schedules we often rely on frozen/quick foods (although of the healthy variety.. low fat, low sodium) or leftovers during the week. With some planning, and an aresnal of healthy recipes geared towards atheltes I think we may be able to change out habits!

from amazon

A little something I thought up while on my morning run this morning, thought I would share.

It only took 10 months...

When we moved in to our place, there was this family that lived down the street. We would see the mom out running every morning and biking every evening. We figured she must be training for something. Then when we volunteered at Ironman Canada we saw her in the race! I wanted to mention something, but it never seemed to be a good time. I walked past her house every morning on my way to work, we would do the friendly wave thing, but I never said anything. She would come into my work buying dog food and I'd want to mention something but didn't. I used to be really outgoing, but in the last 10 years that has changed alot. I haven't really had to make friends since I have my best friend around all the time and I guess I've forgotten how. Then as more time passed I figured it had just been too long since the race to say anything and if I did it would be all awkward because I had seen her tons since and never mentioned anything. So the awkward waves to eachother persisted for the last 10 months, until last week. We both happend to be walking, on the same side of the street, she was without kids. I bit the bullet and stopped her and asked "did you do ironman canada last year?"

"Yes?" she replied, somewhat cautiously thinking I was a crazy stalker.

"That's awesome! we volunteered and I thought we saw you! We were about 10kms from the finish line."

"Really?"

"Yeah we volunteered so we could sign up! My finance and I are doing it this year!"

"That's awesome! have you done many triathlons?"

"Ummm, well not really just an olympic and a sprint when I was like 14, but I do have the oliver half ironman this weekend!"

"Really! I did that one last year! it's really fun"

"Really! I was supposed to do it last year but then I broke my foot, so they transferred me to this year."

"Well good luck!"

"Thanks!"

And that was that, we had had finally had our first converstation. Something that I should have done along time ago. I had a zillion questions to ask her about the race, but I had to get to work so we said goodbye.

Then I was walking to work today, and she pulled out of her driveway, and I saw her reverse down the street. I wondered what was going on and she stopped beside me and rolled down her window and asked "how did your race go!"
I explained to her that it went really well and I was pretty happy with my time.

"Congradulations!" she replied "but Ironman is way different than the half. It is way slower. So if you were dead like I was after the half just don't worry, you'll do fine in Ironman."

She went on to ask if I wanted to go for some training rides with her to which I explained that we are moving on friday. She stared at me in shock like most people do when they hear we're moving away, but I explained that it is a good thing. She wished me luck in the Ironman and moving, and said she'd keep an eye on the results to see how I did and we went our seperate ways.

It's just one of those things. I should have said something months ago! But I'm glad I eventually did, even if it was 10 months too late.

Weekend Blurr

We spent our last weekend before we moved, in Revelstoke. We had three whole days off together (something we treasure.. the more time together the better!), and I honestly cannot recall what exactly we did each day. They days all seemed to flow into eachother. Friday morning, Ben and I went running. Although not together. We have tried to run together and it is just too hard. We are just completely different abilities. Ben runs a 3-3.5 hour marathon... where as I'm part of the 4 hour group. So we end up at a pace that is too fast for me and too slow for Ben and I just end up getting frustrated. I had a great hour run though, and it was a great start to the day. The rest of the day was spent packing, hanging out, and we walked into town and visited a friend who works at a coffee shop; all while trying to avoid my boss because I was supposed to be in Calgary hence the day off. That night we ordered indian food as a treat and watched the hockey game.

Saturday morning, we got up, squeeeezed into our wetsuits and swam in williamson lake. The water was a little chilly to begin with but we managed an hour open water swim. I was pretty impressed since that is the longest open water swim we have ever done. It was funny though because there is a campground right on the lake and everyone was watching us go baaack and forrth, they must have thought we were crazy! It's a fairly small lake so we managed to get in 4 to the end and back in an hour. The rest of saturday was spent packing, lounging, ect. Actually we watched a canadian movie called "Saint Ralph" about a 14 year old boy back in the 50s who decides that he is going to win the boston marathon, We found it pretty entertaining. We got our grocery shopping in, a walk, and had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner mmm! (Whenever we have spaghetti and meatballs now it reminds me of the night we got engaged!) Then we headed to the hot tub at the pool to streth out our muscles, and wound up playing a pretty intense game of pool basketball... which, ahem, I won 14-5 although Ben will dispute this. It totally felt like a Sunday since we already had 2 days off together, but it wasn't!

Sunday morning, Ben got up early and headed out on his bike. I got up at a more decent hour for the weekend (7 am) and relaxed letting breakfast settle. I finally hit the road at 9 am and headed down hwy 23 S, aiming to make it to the ferry and back (100km). Now this highway is CRAZY! It is just massive hills and sometimes you don't even realize you're going up a hill except that you're only peddaling at 5 kms/hr and can't figure out why until you're on your way home and you're flying! The sky started clouding over, and I started getting cold. So once I made it to the highest point on the highway at the mountain lake I turned back and my 3.5 hour ride turned into a just over 2. But that was enough. I was pumped, and grumpy because I didn't make it to the ferry. I think I pushed my luck so soon after the half ironman. I proceeded to spend the next 3 hours on the couch, in a state of semi-consciousness; sleeping, watching tv, staring at the wall. Then it was time to make dinner! We had a delicious stir fry, packed a little more, I FINALLY watched tangled (which is awesome), and then it was bed time! And that was the end of our last weekend in Revelstoke.

I have a feeling this week is going to be pretty busy. Although we have packed alot, there is ALOT of stuff we can't pack yet because we are using it. So we will be in a packing and cleaning frenzie, along with training, before heading out on Saturday morning. We have rented a U Haul since we have more stuff then we came out with, which we're picking up and packing on Friday. That alone will be an adventure!

Recovery week

This week I have been totally taking it easy. Although my muscles are no longer sore, they feel fatigued, as though there is no energy left in them. So I don't want to push it and get burnt out.

Monday was my birthday! My dad had stayed sunday night before heading back to calgary, so we went out for a birthday breakfast and we had some yummy eggs benedicts! We packed up his truck with a load of stuff, and he hit the road by 10 am. I had the day off, I was super tired and sore so I laid on the couch pretty much all day. I napped and watched half a movie until the power went out.... for over 3 hours! It was super hot outside, and after being in the sun all day on sunday during the race i did not feel like going outside and enjoying it. So what did I do for those powerless 3 hours? I have absalutly no idea! At one point I unpacked the car which took maybe 20 minites. Other than that, I just laid exhausted on the couch. By the time I picked ben up from work at 5:30 the power had JUST come on. I picked ben up from work and we had tacos for dinner with strawberry rhubarb pie topped with cool whip for desert mmm! Followed by a nice walk outside to start moving my legs. All in all it was a great birthday despite being so exhausted and sore.

By tuesday I was feeling much better, so after work I went to the gym for a super light bike for 30 minutes and then a good stretch. Yesterday, I went for an easy 750m swim, and today I am taking off before I gear up to get back to training this weekend.

My Boss is heading to boston this weekend and isn't going to be back until the sunday after Ben and I leave, so he took me and my coworker out for lunch yesterday which was super awesome. I am so excited for his trip (perhaps even more excited then he is) since I LOVE Boston! I think it is my favorite city. I have been rhyming off all the different places that they have to visit. Ben and I would love to go back there someday. Perhaps when I qualify for Boston? ha! That will take some serious speed training since running is not my strong suit.

I have tomorow off and we were going to go to calgary this weekend because of a career fair, but it turns out the career fair was on wed/thurs so I missed it (I thought it was thurs/fri). We were also going to borrow my dad's truck but we decided to rent a U-haul instead. So we are not going to Calgary anymore and we are just going to enjoy our last weekend in Revelstoke. It will mostly involve training, relaxing, and packing. I can't believe it only 9 more sleeps!

We also FINALLY got our wedding invitations out despite the postal strike, which is awesome. For the most part everyone should have recieved them so that takes a stress off. I can't blieve that it's already less than 3 months away! I haven't really been in wedding planning mode lately with everything else going on, but I guess I'll be getting back into it soon. I think the next 3 months are going to fly by!

Race Recap: Oliver!

Well, it's official I have finally completed a half ironman! Infact it was 3.5 kms over a half ironman since it wasn't an "ironman" sanctioned event they had to change the distance a bit.

The day before the race I was super nervous. We camped in oosoyos (20 minutes away from Oliver) and I put my wetsuit on to test it out before the race, and the water was freeeeezing! So I was concerned about the swim since it is my least favorite part anyways. Ben and my dad both went on a bike that morning; Ben's which was nearly 4 hours long up Ritchers pass. When he got back we hopped on the boat and enjoyed the afternoon on the lake, relaxing, before heading out to pick up my race package and checking in my bike. We also walked down to the water to check out the swim course, and oh man it seemed SOO FAR! It was pretty overwhelming. I know that I swim 2 + kms every time I hit the pool, but seeing it laid out like that it seemed like 100 kms. So i tried to imagine the 80 lengths of the pool that makes up the distance. That night we had some pasta, double checked my bike and gear, and I was in bed by 8:30.

4:30 am came pretty quick, and I was up and ate a quick bagle and did a triple check of all my gear. By 5:45 we were in the car driving to Oliver! We got there by 6:10, once I got into the transistion I headed straight to the line up for the washrooms. Unfortuneatly at 6:45 I was still waiting in line! and I still had to squeeze into my wetsuit and get down to the beach. I was getting stressed. So I had to abandon the pre race pee.

It was a staged start, so I was in the second wave with the females aged 19-44. Luckily the water was alot warmer than the water in Osoyoos, and I wasn't cold at all. A couple of minutes into the swim I started getting overwhelmed, and my chest tightening, but I just focused on making to each of the bouys and 46 minutes later I was done.. phew! I was so happy to get out of the water.

I then headed out on to the bike! It was a 2 lap course with some rolling hills, and it was really pretty. Mid way through my second lap my knee started aching, and I couldn't hammer on the pedals as hard so I took it back a notch for the last 20 kms. This is about where ben pulled up behind me on the highway! It was totally a fluke since Dad and him went to pack up the campsite and he was on his way back to the race, but it was awesome seeing him. Despite my knee I still came in waaay faster then I thought with 3 hours and 10 minutes!

Starting out on the run I was pretty light headed, and I didn't know how i was going to run 21 kms. It was also a 2 loop course, and the first loop was rough. I walked about 1-2 kms total on the first loop. It was soo hot by this point with a stifling 30 degrees. I started to get a killer headache, which I thought it was from the heat. But after I had a gel I started to feel better, so it must have only been low blood sugar. It was tough, I just concentrated on making it to the next aid station where I would dump 2 waters on my head and drink some gatorade. I saw ben as I came around the turn around at 10.5 kms, and I started to get emotional... then I started wheezing and having trouble breathing. The same thing happened when I saw my mom and dad late in the calgary marathon a couple of years ago. So I had to ignore him and concentrate on getting my breathing under control before I had a full blown asthma attack that could have ended the race for me. Then I saw my dad, luckily I had gotten my breathing under control by then and had to ignore him too for fear of it starting again. The second lap was WAY easier then the first. I think the big part was getting gels into me for some energy, since I hadn't had any gels in the last 45 minutes of the bike, and hadn't had any for the first 45 minutes of the run. I ran the entire last 10.5 kms and finished with a run of 2 hours and 34 minutes! Although that is alot slower then my personal best half marathon, I was pretty happy with that after biking 93 kms and swimming 2 kms. And boy, did it ever feel good crossing that finish line and hugging my champ and dad!

I jumped in the lake after the race to cool down, gathered up my stuff, and we headed to the post race bbq for some burgers, which have never tasted so good! On our way out I thought to check my official time, and I finished with an official time of 6 hours and 36 minutes and I placed 3rd in my age group! I was shocked! Last year I had been training to do it under 6 hours, but this year with being so sick for so long I had no expectations and was thinking more like 7-8 hours, so placing was even more of a surprise! So Dad and I stuck around for the award ceremony and I got a wine glass with "women 19-24 3rd place" inprinted on it with the oliver half iron logo, which i drank champagne out of yesterday ha! I was pretty stoked. Then we hopped in the truck and drove alllll the way back to revelstoke, ate some dinner, then passed out. It was a big day for all of us, spectators included! Now to get ready to do twice that distance in 3 months!

I learned a three big things from this race:
1) Nutrition!- on the bike I was getting gels into me every half hour, but on the run I didn't take anything for the first hour or the last hour of the bike and that killed me. Late in the race is when the energy is even more needed. It is amazing how fast those gels get into you too, within 10 minutes my headache was gone!
2) Keep my inhaler on me, and try not to get emotional when I see people I know. I truely appreciate having people there supporting me, but if I ignore you it is just because I am so happy to see you and I risk having an asthma attack. It was pretty scary for those 2 minutes when I saw ben and then my lungs constricted and I couldn't breathe. I thought I was done for sure. Thankfully I got my breathing under control. But just incase, I should have my emergency inhaler on me.
3) I like races where there are 2 laps. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle 2 laps of the bike and run in this race, but it turns out I loved it! The first lap is like an adventure, you don't really know what's around the corner, but then on the second lap you know exactly where you're going. You can pick points out and concentrate on just getting there.

Final Thoughts

Well, I'm leaving for Osoyoos in about an hour. I am both excited and nervous, which equals a very upset stomach. I prepared for this race last year, then was devastated when I broke my foot 2 weeks before. Then, this past month has not been without its struggles as I battled pnumonia for a month. But I have learned that all I can do is my best despite any obstacles that may come up. However, I think that will make crossing the finish line all the sweeter, overcoming all the hurdles and doing it anyway. My mom isn't gong to be able to be there this weekend but I can hear her in my head with something that she has told me a million times:

VIA

So, with that, my nerves ease little. Have a great weekend!

Countdowns

I've blogged every day so far this week, I am very impressed with myself. So I thought I'd keep the streak going. I don't have very much to say, so... Here's a countdown of all the exciting things happening!

- 2 days until the CFA exam that I was supposed to write, and am SO HAPPY I
am not
- 3 days until the Oliver Half Ironman.. eeek!
- 4 days until my birthday!
- 17 days and we're moving back to Calgary!
- 26 days until my sister gets home from Australia!
- 36 days until the Calgary Stampede!.. we missed it last year because we
moved and it's always a good time. There is some awesome music lined up at nashville north!
- 36 days until the Champs have been together for 4 years! That is crazy!
- 86 days until Ironman Canada!
- 93 days until we get married!

So in my sister words "WOOT!"

Wishing Wednesdays

Well since my wishes have been coming true lately I thought i'd keep this going. So this week i wish:

1) To finish the half ironman this weekend, yep I'm just focusing on finishing the darn thing since I have been riddeled with sickness the last month. Just going to be a good experience and a good training day for the big event in august.

2) That my googles don't leak/fog on the swim. I just bought some decent ones because my dollar store speedo ones were already fogging in the swimming pool. And that I dont get kicked in the head during the swim, as it feels like a washing machine! Probably my least favorite part of the race.

3) That my bike doens't break during the bike, such as a flat tire or broken chain. I am not mechanically inclined and it would be the end of the race for me. I'd look like this guy:

4) That I don't get injured and my lungs hold up.

5)That I get a niiiice huuuuge beer after to celebrate being done and my birthday which is on monday!

As you can see all my wishes are regarding this race on the weekend. I may be just a little bit nervous, but I'm also excited at the same time. That's just part of why I love racing! But I cannot wait to get across that line on Sunday! Ben and my Dad will be there cheering me on!