Fightin the Flu

After Ben's epic day cat skiing, he came down with the flu. The flu has been going around town and I dont think I have ever seen Ben that sick. Ben is not the type of person to lay around and not feel like doing anything all day. Infact, come 9am on a saterday morning he is bored and needing something to do. But from Sunday through Friday he laid in bed and slept pretty much the entire time. He was one sick guy. Somehow, I have not managed to catch the flu yet (knock on wood), so I continued training and working last week. I skipped a couple workouts when I started feeling run down and I was worried I'd come down with the flu, and in the end I only hit 7 out of the 9 workouts, but that would have to do. Infact, last Wednesday I just couldn't get my butt out of bed, and I knew I had an early day at work (it was my afternoon off) so I decided to do both workouts back to back. Well it was rough, going straight from biking for an hour to swimming for an hour from 5-7 in the evening was tough. But it was my punishment for sleeping in, and it definitely motivated me to get up early so i don't have to do that again.

The CFA course is coming along. There are 6 books to get through, and I am already near the end of the second one. Which is good, because the first two books were on statistics and economics which should be more of a review for me anyways. So i'll have 3 months to get through the other 4 books and get a solid review in. My employer has been awesome, and I am able to work on the course during downtime at work, as well as having one afternoon off a week and on the weekends. So I am finding I definitely have 15 hours to squeeze in a week, even though I dont really have much time for anything else.

Other than work, training, and the CFA course, we had some visitors over the last couple weeks. Ben's mom and bill came out 3 weeks ago, which was awesome. They loved skiing revelstoke, and we had a great visit. Then my little brother and his girlfriend came out last weekend which was fun. Although a little bit of an adventure since my brother's girlfriend got stuck TWICE on her way out here and spent the night in a grey hound bus depot. It took her a total of 24 hours to take the bus here from Vancouver and until she got here on Saterday Evening we weren't sure she was going to make it. We had had a TON of snow, and it warmed up which was the perfect storm for avalanches and the highway was open and closed all wekeend. Then last weekend my dad came out. It was fun skiing with him. It was a blue bird sunny day (which is unusual here) and the snow was soft, the three of us had a great time. Then we went to the "revy stomp" which was a country and western dance and silent auction. . Ben went home early because he wasn't feeling good, so Dad and I had a little date nigh. It was alot of fun. We two stepped the night away, and I tried to teach dad the cadillac ranch line dance. Needless to say the last month has been busy. We're looking forward to this coming weekend since we do not have any one coming and we're not going anywhere so we'll have some quality champ time.. It is my newphews 1st birthday in calgary, but we have decided not to go so that we can really focus on our training, and I can get a bunch of school work done.
anyways thats all for now!

Cat Skiing in the Monashees (Revelstoke Mountain Resort)

For my birthday, i got the sick gift of a day of cat skiing in the backcountry of Revelstoke. I had been twice before, but both times had been early season in another mountain range and because this was already a riddiculously deep winter, this was sure to promise some sweet turns. I found out on friday that I would be skiing on Saturday (a gift from champ, kim and murray), and as the snow fell and the snowfall advisory increased, it was looking like it was going to be a sick day of pow! i knew that it could possibly be the best snow I have ever skied and as surfers in hawaii are always searching for the 'ultimate ride', I have been searching for the 'ultimate run'. For those not familiar with cat skiing, it is like going heli skiing for half of the price, and you can ski in virtually any condition (you are not shut down due to heavy snowfall, wind, or anything else, and will probably end up skiing some steep trees). instead of flying to your destination in a helicopter, you ride up a road in groomer that has a 12 person cab in the back. On average, you get between 7-9 runs during the day, and although you might not be skiing waist deep powder, most operations will guarantee that you are skiing fresh, untracked lines. I had a very hard time falling asleep on friday night, knowing that the snow was coming down hard and that tommorow could be epic.............I met at guest services at the resort for 8:00 AM, and already the lift for the gondola was past the parking lot. no worries for us though, as we proceeded to cut into the front of the line up at the resort which was hillariuos, because we got pelted with snowballs from some of the suckers who had to ski in bounds hahaha. we got off the normal chair i ski and the guide told us to ski to the boundary line, duck under it and ski to to the road where the cat would be waiting to take us to 'disneyland'. it was a good group of pretty fast skiers which included 3 freeheelers, including me and after a brief safety schpeil we were ready to shred some turns. We ended up getting 8 runs overall, and after 2 people dropped out after the first run, we were on top of some nice steep ridges, and skied some deep powder for the next few. On the 3rd run, I was getting out of the cat, and could only find one of my skis. The driver said that our guide had placed it on the snow, and it had taken off. lol. Fortunately, it only slid about 100 feet and landed in a tree well, so i skied down to meet it and the guide, and was relieved that I didnt have to ski the day on 1 ski (especially telemarking lol). We ate snacks, and lunch in the cat during the rides up, and didnt stop so that we could maximize our skiing time. The morning was fantastic, and by the end of the 5th run, we looked up at this ridge laden with pillows, cliffs (small ones), and deeeep snow. the guide said, "benny boy, were going to take you up there so you can play in that".......besides permanantely smiling all day, i couldnt help but chuckle about the videogame-like fun I was about to have. we sacked up, drove up the steep ridge, and were instructed where/how to ski this ridge by the guide who quickly descended to the bottom so he could watch us all. I was the first one to drop in and the first turn was blowing up all over. I launched a nice pillow, landed in pure powder, and proceeded to hit 2 consecutive drops further down the run. Its official name was "short but sweet", but it did not dissapoint whatsoever. i was elated. i was "in the zone" as the guide said, because I was cheering, and hollering the whole way down. The next 2 runs were just the same. pure pleasure. North facing slopes that had loaded up from the wind over the ridges provided us with some epic conditions. The last run was taken all the way back to the resort, and 'back to reality', meaning the conditions were a little bit different after hundreds of people had thrashed it. lol. i chose to ski some secret stash trees that i know, while the rest of the crew took the groomer back. We finished the day with appys, and beers at the rockford bar, and talked about how fun our day was and how lucky I was to have skied it. I have been waiting for 3 years for a day like that. Jen and I have had a fantastic year of skiing so far, and the inbounds terrain at the resort is unreal. Im so lucky to have been able to get out and ski the kind of terrain that you see in the ski movies. I cant thank these wonderful people enough.

--Ben

I want to do it all... hopefully that's not my downfall

So, last friday we did not end up going swimming after all. But Saterday, despite 20cms overnight, I got my butt to the gym. We weren't expecting any snow, so I hadn't planned on skiing and ben and I were both going to get both these weekend workouts in. Well, when ben woke up to 20cms fresh on the ski hill it was a no brainer, he was heading to the hill. I, on the other hand, was not feeling great and had it in my head that I was training. So i dropped ben off at the hill and headed to the gym for 2 1/2 hours of biking and running. It was a great workout! I got the entire thing in and was feeling strong. After, I picked ben up, we were pretty burnt out and so we had a relaxing evening at home. Then in the middle of the night I woke up to a screaming headache radiating from my ear. I had had an ear ache all week, but I didn't really think much of it. Well, I think my ear was finally telling me to get it checked out. Turns out I had an ear infection that spread to my sinus'.. ouch. So they loaded me up on pain medication and antibiotics and I proceeded to sleep for the most part of sunday. That is until I decided that I should get my run in at around 3pm. I was feeling guilty cause I had missed the majority of my workouts last week and I was determined not to miss anymore.. So mom if you're reading this, I am sorry. I did go to the gym for a run on the treadmill, against your strict instructions to use all my energy to get better. And guess what.. you were right I felt worse after. Monday I was not feeling well at all and so i listened to my mom's advice.. maybe just a day too late.. I missed work, skipped training, planted myself in my -12 down sleeping bag on the couch and watched the entire first season of greys anatomy inbetween being passed out... mm.

Other than training, I got some really great news. Since graduating I have been trying to figure out what career path I want to take. Although my job is fine, it's definitely not a career path. So, after doing some research I decided that I want to get my my Chartered Financial Analyst. Which involves 3 exams, and self study at home. I was keen start the course except it costs a fair chunk of change. That's when I discovered a scholarship that pays for all of it except for the books! Well I thought I'd throw my name in, and if I didn't get the scholarship then I would just wait another year. That was back in December, and last friday I found out that I was selected to recieve the scholarship and that the exam is in June! Well I was ectastic! I enrolled, paid for my books and was keen to start as soon as possible!Then realization set in and I thought.. hmm.. I already dont have very much time with training, working full time, and trying to get some skiing in. How am I going to find the 250 hours that they estimate are needed to study for this exam in the next 4 months. That's 15-20 hours a week! Luckily I have an awesome employer who is willing to give me one afternoon off a week to study, and I'll set at least one full day on the weekend to planting myself at my desk and studying. If that's not enough time, I'll dedicate both weekend days to studying. I mean come march skiing will be over and with all the snow on the ground there won't be much to distract me.

The other thing I realized after I signed up for the course, is that the exam in June is on June 4th in Kelowna. Well, I have the Oliver Half Ironman on June 5th! Luckily this is not my big target race. It is a race I was supposed to do last year, but wound up breaking my foot 2 weeks before and was able to transfer my regisration to the following year. I guess it'll just be a good way to blow off some steam after the big exam.

So the CFA scholarship was a blessing and I am so thankful to have been selected as a recipient. However, it may also have been a curse since my hectic life may have just gotten even more so. So like the title of this post, I want to do it all.. but hopefully that's not my downfall and I don't end up burnt out or crazy come June.