Monday, December 30, 2013

Good Riddence 2013

Well, I must say I am not going to be sad to see 2013 in the rear view mirror. It has been a trying year for the champs, however, there were some good things splattered in there.

We welcomed 2013 with open arms, I was focused on studying for my CFA level 1 and doing Ironman Coeur D'alene. However, I quickly realized that I may have spread myself too thin, and spent the next 6 months tirelessly studying and training. Luckily Ben was totally supportive, and helped helped me through my darkest moments of self doubt. We decided in March to take a break, and last minute we booked a wonderful vacation to Puerto Vallarta to relax and reconnect, which was well deserved and wonderful. The weather was perfect, we fell in love with Puerto Vallarta, and we found the most amazing resort.



A few weeks after returning form our trip, our klutzy dog impaled himself at the dog park. He was rushed into emergency surgery as the wood went about 6 inches into his thigh. We then learned that our dog is a houdini, he managed to escape his cone, pull out all of his stitches and the drainage tube. Back to the emergency vet. He was stitched up, the pieces of drainage tube removed, and was on the road to recovery.



Then we hit the CFA. It was a pretty grueling exam. 6 hours plus another 2 hours between the breaks and waiting time. I left the exam feeling pretty confident, but I had to wait 6 weeks to find out if I passed.



However, I didn't have long to dwell on the exam because 2 weeks later we were hitting the road to Couer D'alene. It was at this time that Calgary was hit with the devastating floods. On the day that we were supposed to leave after work, the news started flowing in about the flooding. We rushed home at noon, and packed up hoping to get out of town and make the race. It took 5 hours more than usual and an overnight stop at the Kalispell travel lodge, but we made it safe and sound to Coeur D'alene.



(That's the highway)



Ironman was amazing as per usual. Ben became an Ironman finisher, and I completed my second one. However, my day did not go quite as planned. It was a rough one, but I perservered... kind of like this entire year.



July, I found out I passed the CFA, breathed a huge sigh of relief.

August. Well, that was a good month. We headed to Goodsoil with my family and had a great time. We went backpacking with my brother and his girlfriend. And we welcomed the birth of 2 new nieces.


Then came the dreaded fall. The last quarter of the year has been challenging. Not paying attention I slammed the car door on Rudy's tail. Just the very tip of his tail, but it exposed a piece of bone. 6 weeks, 4 surgeries, and a serious infection, Rudy pulled through although with a very short tail.



In the middle of that, I crashed Ben's car driving to work. It was written off, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the insurance payment covered the remaining car loan, and was enough for a down payment on our new car, VW Golf Wagon TDI.

Then October 6, I went for a trail run after a fantastic weekend at my mom's cabin and I fell. I tore a bunch of ligaments in my ankle. I knew it was bad when I did it, but I did not expect to ringing in the new year still on crutches, but that's a story for a whole other post.

Later in October we celebrated my cousin's wedding in Kelowna. We had the greatest time, meeting up with relatives, and exploring Kelowna.



Then my Cousin, and one of my best friends gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.



We also lost 3 wonderful people this year, one tragically a week before christams. This year has definitely made me appreciate the people that are in my life. I am so blessed with all the love and people in my life. This year there has been highs, and there has been a lot of lows. My personal goal for 2013 was to pass my CFA level 1 and finish Ironman and I did both of those things which was a triumph, but the year was not without struggles.

For 2014, we're starting it right by heading back to Puerto Vallarta with my mom and step dad. Then, unfortuneately, 2014 is still up in the air. I dont feel very focused and quite frankly I feel a little burnt from our 2013. My ankle is still pretty messed up which is very frustrating, and I just can't think about cracking those books for CFA level 2 yet. So we'll just see what next year brings. The biggest thing will be what happens with my ankle. I am signed up for CFA level 2, so when we get back from mexico it will be time to start studying, and hopefully I'll be training for Ironman by march... that is if I can walk by then.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Hello Fellow Bloggers

I'm not entirely sure if anyone outside of my family reads this blog, but I have started a new blog over called When Money Doesn't Grow On Trees. It's a work in progress, but while talking to family and friends, and after working in the bank, I was very surprised about just how much people don't know and were never taught about money.

It's a blog about finances for the average person, mainly for 20 something year olds.

I plan on continuing this blog about our personal life aiming to post weekly, but posting about once a week over on my new blog about personal finance related stuff.

Cheers!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Cabin Time

"Family is not an important thing. It's everything."
--Michael J. Fox

My family has been had quite a lot on our plate lately. With a breakup, a long distance relationship, new baby, smashed car, and an insane dog, needless to say we all needed to relax.

This past weekend Ben and I headed up to my mom's cabin which is only an hour or so from our house. We headed up on Friday after work, and met my mom there around 8 pm. We had a late dinner of Tim's Pizza (seriously you have to try this pizza), and then sat around the fire until way past our bed time, drinking way to much wine.

Saturday we woke up to sunny skies and beautiful weather. We had a relaxing day around the cabin and walked down to the river. We found a four leaf clover hoping that meant our luck was changing. Around 5pm when my little brother was due to arrive, my other brother and his girlfriend and my newborn niece and nephew surprised us! We had dinner, and then once again moved up to sit around the fire, chatting, until way too late.



Sunday Ben and I decided to spend the whole day at the cabin since it is only around an hour to get home. My sister also drove up for the day since she had to work on Saturday night. The weather was beautiful and we lounged around by the river and on the lawn, reading, napping, and chatting. We had a delicious pot roast dinner (a real treat since I have made a handful of roasts in my life) before heading home. Rudy had a great time exploring outside cabin, his energy is finally returning and he is getting pretty fed up with his darn cone. Oh well, 5 more days until his stitches come out!


Overall, it was a great weekend, a little spur of the moment but exactly what we all needed. I am so blessed to have the family that I have. We're hopefully planning another weekend in October so that we all can go, all 13 of us! including my step brother, step sister and step dad. There is something about the cabin that is just so relaxing.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Ironman Mont Tremblant 2014

Well on September 4, 2013, Ben and I logged in to Active.com to sign up for Ironman Chattanooga, right at 12:00 when registration opened, and guess what... neither of us got in. This race is the inaugeral Ironman in Chattanooga Tennesse and we were really excited for it, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Luckily neither of us got in, the forums were all on fire about one friend/spouse getting in and the other one not.. That would have been brutal. So we quickly started thinking about other races. We didn't want to wait and try our luck with Florida or Arizona as those tended to sell out very quickly as well, and Ironman Lake Tahoe would be a pretty difficult race from what I'm hearing as it sits at a higher elevation than even Cochrane, and lots of climbing. We needed a later season race so that I can focus on studying, and not have the same struggle as this year when I was trying to do my heaviest studying and training blocks at the same time. I think they both probably suffered a little bit, however, I still managed somehow to pass the CFA and complete the Ironman. So we decided on Ironman Mont Tremblant. I have heard that this is an amazing race, and I have always wanted to head to Quebec since I went to french school in Junior High. Although it is 6 weeks earlier than Ironman Chattanooga, so I'll have to start training in April, at least my heaviest training will not be until June and July, after the exam.

So, on September 4th at 4 pm we signed up. Only to receive an email the next day from Ironman apologizing for the craziness of signing up for Ironman Chattanooga and offering preferred registration to Ironman Florida or Ironman Arizona. Oh well. By that point we had signed up, Ironman Mont Tremblant is our race for 2014, and we're excited!


The plan is that I'll start studying for my CFA level 2 in November (as i heard this is a whole new beast entirely and I want to have a dent in it so that I can take time off for Christmas, and our trip to Mexico for 2 weeks!), I'll start training for my Marathon in December, with 2 bikes a week, yoga once a week and 4 runs a week, then come April i'll start my Ironman training which as of right now will consist of rest mon, double workouts tues-thurs,recovery run fri, long bike sat, long run sun.

I have big goals for 2014, I think Ben and I are both Type A personalities as the next year is planned. We like to have something to work towards.

My 2014 Goals:
1) Pass CFA level 2
2) Calgary marathon Sub 4
3) Ironman Mont Tremblant Sub 14


PS an update on our poor dog Rudy. The infection cleared up, however, he was left alone for a couple hours on Saturday and Monday and he has managed to get his cone off no matter what we do. We even tied his cone to his collar, and then tied his collar to his harness, and he still managed to get everything off tearing his collar in half in the process. He needed another surgery to clean up the dead tissue, and get a clean incision to stitch up. He is now in Dog Daycare at a kennel for this week, and next week, the vet also put him on some mild sedation pills so that he will not go crazy to get his cone off. Here's to hoping in 2 weeks he's all healed up.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Rudy's unfortunate adventure.

If you don't own a dog, you probably won't understand. But, Rudy is our kid. Ben and I do not have nor are we planning on having kids. Rudy came into our life just over a year and a half ago and stole our heart. Every time he looks at you, all you can see in his eyes is absolute and unconditional love. His life revolves completely around us, waiting for us to come home, the pure joy and excitement that you're greeted with every time you come home (although sometimes overwhelming), and his walks/runs. He is my training partner on my long runs, my faithful companion on the cold winter mornings, laying faithfully beside me while I bike for hours on the trainer or study all day.

Although he is 55 pounds, he loves nothing better than to curl up on your lap and be carried on your hip. He is a trooper, and has fit right in with our family. He loves camping because we sleep on the floor with him, he's kept up on our 35 kilometer backpack trips and our 4 hour runs like a champ, and he turns 2 years old on Sunday.


Although he seems to take after me. The last year has not been without his share of bad luck. Back in April he was impaled at the dog park. He tends to jump/bounce through the bushes, and he jumped right on to a inch wide tree trunk which had been cut/broken. The stick went right into his belly, and he let out a loud yelp. Off to the vet het went, surgery, stitches, drainage tube later, turns out the stick went about 6 inches into him, luckily missing any major arteries and organs. The day after his surgery we stepped out for a bit and came home to Rudy with his cone off and his stitches removed. Off to the emergency vet at 11 pm in Downtown Calgary. They removed the broken piece of drainage tube that remained inside him, stitched him up and home we went. Luckily, he healed perfectly after that.



With a sigh of relief, hoping that would be all, a real nightmare began. About a month ago, for no reason whatsoever I decided to take Rudy with me to drop my nephew off. When we got home, I was a little stressed thinking about everything I was planning on doing that afternoon, and Ben was out helping my mom move. Rudy jumped out of the car, and with my hands full I hip bumped the car door closed only to her the most awful scream/whine sound come out of Rudy. I threw the stuff down, clawed at the door to open it, which had of course locked behind me. Frantically searching for my keys, Rudy decided to take matter into his own hands paws and pulled his tail out of the door, and then ran into the house bleeding profusely. It was only the very tip, maybe inch or so that was bleeding, but he was shaking. I went to try and stop the bleeding when I noticed a little piece of bone sticking out the end. So I wrapped it in paper towel so he wouldn't bleed all over the car, and got him back to the emergency vet since it was Sunday. They did surgery to remove the damaged piece of his tail, and he came home all drugged up. By Wednesday we had run out of pail killers and we came home to a very sore puppy, back to the emergency vet we went to get painkillers as our vet wouldn't see us so last minute before they closed. The following week, the day before he was supposed to get his stitches out, he once again decided to take matters into his own hands paws and ripped the stitches out him self. Thanks Rudy. The end of the bone popped out of the skin, as the vet hadn't left enough soft tissue between the end of tail and the incision, and it was infected despite the antibiotics, back to the emergency vet he went. They did another surgery, removing about 4-5 inches of his tail, they kept him over night and Ben got to go pick him up at 4 in the morning.


However, our dog is Houdini, and managed to remove his cone nearly every day while we were at work and get at his tail. Finally last Tuesday, my lovely sister went to check on him and he had gotten at his tail again, but it wasn't looking so good by this point, so she took him to the vet. The vet recommended that he get his tail docked since it had been a month up to this point, then they forwarded us a quote for $1600.00, over what the other 2 surgeries were combined. Now we knew that our vet was very expensive and we had been meaning to find a new vet but we just hadn't gotten around to it. Well that was the last straw, and we found the Cochrane Animal Clinic, who have been absolutely fantastic and were nearly half the price. They did the procedure on Thursday, but then on Monday I picked him up from the Springbank day care who had been keeping an eye on him while we were at work, and I knew something wasn't right. He didn't want to move much, and appeared to be in tremendous pain. I phoned to see if they had given him his pain medicine and they had. So I went up to change his bandage, and as soon as I saw his tail I knew it was bad. The very end had turned black, the rest was quite red and bleeding, and he nearly puked he was in so much pain. He wouldn't walk, and was shaking. I phoned the vet, and despite them closing in 20 minutes they brought him right in. As soon as the vet saw the wound, my heart sank. He now has a very serious, and aggresive infection, he had a very high fever and the end of his tail has turned necrotic. They gave him an injection of pain meds and antibiotic, sent us home with double his pain meds, and additional antibiotics with instructions to get his fever down, and the swelling out of the tail. So here we are, Ben and I are alternating days off as Rudy is too sick to be left alone or go to daycare. He has a schedule of drugs to take, his temperature has to be checked religiously, and we have to run his tail under ice cold water every hourish. He'll have a spurt of energy, followed by hours of not wanting to move. All we can do right now is keep him comfortable and wait. Luckily we had some vacation days left over from last week so we're using them up to be with him.

What we learned from all of this:

1) Shop around for vets. Seriously that may sound bad, and trust me the first vet certainly tried to give me a guilt trip about going elsewhere and the care he'd receive. But we have found the most amazing vet, and will probably never return to his old one.

2) Tail docking, while it's pretty controversial, I think there is merit. In fact while I was emphasizing how bad I felt as this all started with me not paying attention the vet talked about how many dogs this happens too.. maybe not to this extent, but how many get their tails caught in doors, and tail injuries are THE WORST!

3) It's hard to take time off of work for your dog, but sometimes it is necessary.

4) Post surgery, or if your dog needs monitoring see if you can find a day care that can make special arrangements to keep him quite and keep an eye on him. We used a kennel/daycare combined facility that worked well.

5) It's ok to ask for help. My mom took Rudy to the appointment to get his tail docked, and my sister would periodically check on him. It's ok to not be able to do it all.

So I'll leave you with Rudy, where he was happy on our 3 day backpacking trip, and a prayer for him.


Heavenly Father,
You created all things for your glory
And made us stewards of this creature.
Please restore Rudy
to health and strength (as he want's to get back to our adventures asap!)
Blessed are you, Lord God,
And holy is your name for ever and ever.
Amen.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Oh Jasper, you fool us every time....

I'm not sure what it is with Jasper, whether the locals like to mess with visitors or they just simply do not know the hikes, or Jasper is in some weird time warp. But it seems both times we've visited things have gone sideways. The last time we were in Jasper was 6 years ago, we were first dating and headed up for the September long weekend. We stopped in at a local cafe for breakfast one of the morning and asked the Barista of a good hike. She recommended Pyramid mountain, saying it was only a 2-4 hour hike. So we picked up some water and food and headed on our way. Now, keep in mind we are pretty fast hikers, this hike took us over 6 hours to do! And we even passed a guy riding up on a bike!



Well 6 years later we finally returned, and it tricked us again. This trip will be remembered as the time we accidentally ran 32 kms. Our weekend didn't start out as planned as our lovely Dog managed to choke his way out of his cone.. again.. and decided to rip the stitches out of his tail for the 3rd time. So we were off to the vet.. again.. Luckily this trip didn't entail (no pun intended) another surgery, they bandaged him up and set up an appointment for the next morning to make sure the wound was closing, otherwise they would have to make a clean cut and put in some more stitches. Frustrated, we postponed our trip by a day, and I spent the evening holding my beautiful week old niece at my mother's new house.

Saturday morning we packed up the car, took Rudy to the vet, and luckily he didn't need any stitches, phew! so we hit the road. Since we were a day late, and we didn't have any reservations we were just hoping to get a spot. The first 4 campsites were full, and one was hard side trailer only, so we kept driving until we hit Pocahontas right by Miette Hotsprings, about 50 kms east of Jasper. It's a first come first serve campsite, and even though it said that it was full we thought we'd take a drive through and we managed to snag a spot! WOO HOO! We went for a little walk to stretch our legs, cooked some pizza on our grill, had a few drinks and sat by the fire.


On Sunday morning we headed back in to Jasper. The plan was to do the Saturday night Lake loop which is labeled everywhere as a 24 km loop with 700 feet of elevation. We thought it would be the perfect trail run. So we set out, I remembered reading that the loop was called the Saturday night lake loop/20 mile loop. So when we found the trail head for the 20 mile loop we set out, Ben mentioned that he thought it was weird that the trail was called 20 mile loop and yet it would only be 24 kms, and I responded with "well, the internet said...." and since the internet is never ever wrong we ignored that early warning sign and continued on. It was a beautiful morning, and we passed a few beautiful lakes. We figured the run would take around 2 1/5 hours. So when we hit 2 hours and it felt like we were in the middle of the forest we realized something wasn't right. But at that point we had no choice, we were committed, our options were to keep going and hope the car would be just around the corner, or turn back and know that we had another 2 hours to go. So we kept going. Alas 3 hours and 52 minutes we were running down some switch backs and the car came into view. Phew! We're not sure if missed something and were supposed to turn somewhere, or if the map just totally lied to us. But it definitely was not 24 kilometers, rather 32 kilometers with quite a bit of climbing. I know that when we stopped at a sports store in town to figure out where this trail head was the lady working there pointed us in the clockwise direction, which according to online is the WRONG WAY, so maybe if we had gone the proper way we would have seen where we should have turned. Oh well, we got through it, we were together and it was a beautiful and challenging run.


Needless to say all 3 of us were very tired, thirsy, and hungry. Luckily all of our food was in the car so we had a feast, drank a gallon of water, picked up some beer and headed back to the campsite. We hung out for a bit before putting Rudy in the tent for a much needed nap and heading up to the Miette Hotsprings. These are probably our favorite hotsprings. It's far enough outside of Jasper that alot of people don't bother to go, or don't know that it's there. They have cold tubs and hot tubs. So we alternated between the 2, and it felt like bliss on our sore legs. After the hot springs we showered and headed in to town for some Sushi! It tasted amazing! We didn't get back to the campsite until after 9, and we were both exhausted so we just headed to bed.



Monday was very uneventful, we just packed up the tent, stopped at a cafe in Jasper for probably the most delicious breakfast wrap I've ever had (cafe mondo) and headed home. It was a fantastic weekend.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Northover Ridge... Third Time's a Charm

This past weekend we took my Brother and his Girlfriend on our favorite backpacking trip. The weekend can be summed up with Spectacular Views, Great Company, and Perseverance.

We set out for the first 10 kms to Three Isle Lake on Friday after work. We got to the trail head at the interlinks parking lot on Upper Kananaskis Lakes at 6 pm, got our packs on our back and started out. We passed a couple of other hikers who were stopping at a closer camp. The first couple of hours are fairly uneventful, treking around upper kananskis lakes and through the forest. It was amazing to see the effects of the flood in this area. Places that had bridges were completely washed out, as was part of the trail. By 8:30 we approached the final kilometer which is basically straight up. It was starting to get dark, and windy so we knew we had to hurry up it as fast as we could. Part way up, it started to rain. Looking back down the valley where we came from you could see the rain pouring down. Getting a little nervous we pressed on, and luckily the rain stopped shortly after. We got to three isle lake just after 9, found some beautiful sites, set up camp, and proceeded to enjoy some wine by candlelight before heading to bed.

Saturday morning we were up around 8, and we headed down to the lake for coffee. By 9:30 we had packed up camp and set out on day 2, a 12 km hike up and down Northover Ridge. This is definitely a BIG day, but the views make the climbing so worth it:


We got to Aster Lake around 3pm. We found beautiful sites right on the river. We set up camp, and then proceeded to have a 2 hour nap. When we got up we had a delicious 3 course dinner of Freeze Dried Katmandu Curry, Freeze Dried Beef Stroganoff, and Freeze Dried Berry Cobbler for desert, and we washed it all down with a couple bottles of wine. We were back asleep by 9 pm.


Sunday morning we were up around 8 again. By this point we had woken up sore and tired, but we knew we had another 13 kilometers to get to the car. I think this is the hardest day of the hike. Although you are rewarded with some amazing views of waterfalls, and lakes, but you're fatigued and just want to get home. Unfortunately you still have another 4-5 hours to get to the car, with some fairly difficult terrain. We had some coffee and breakfast and packed up camp. We were hiking by 10am:



We were back at the car at 2:15. The last hour was very quiet as we were all very focused on getting back to the car. I must give a major shout out to my brother and his girlfriend as I don't think they knew quite what they were in for, but they made it! Although we're all tired and sore, it was an amazing time. This was the first time that I've done this trip without getting injured! Also, my knee seemed to feel ok. I had it taped up with KT tape, to keep my knee cap in place and give my patella tendon a break and it seemed to work like a charm!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wild Rose Review

Ok, it has taken me along time to write this. At the time I didn't think I felt THAT much different by the end of the detox. A little less bloated, sure. However, I must admit the biggest changes have been permanent changes to our diet, and self awareness to our eating patterns. We now concentrate our diets on whole and unprocessed foods. I mean I think we ate healthy before the detox but we have made some permanent changes and I feel a lot better.

We no longer eat dairy, ever. Well, unless I really want some pizza, but then I pay the price. If I eat diary now, I get very sick. I've known forever that I have an intolerance to dairy, but this just illustrated how much it effects me. We used to snack on cheese, and have cream in our coffee. Which we have cut out. No wonder I used to feel bloated and sick all the time.

We have also reduced our sugar consumption. I now enjoy my coffee with just some almond milk, or black. I'm not sure if I have an allergy to sugar, or if it is just how everyone feels after eating suger, but I now find if I have some sugar I crave more and more of it, my eczema gets worse and I end up with a stomach ache, and sometimes a head ache. However, sometimes those fuzzy peaches are calling my name... and then when I inevitably feel sick I know it was all my fault.

We've significantly reduced the amount of wheat that we eat. As an athlete you always hear "eat your carbs." So we would eat bread, pasta, and crackers like nobody's business. This habit is gone. We don't even purchase wheat products at the grocery store any more. Granted when we're camping we'll eat a hot dog in a bun, and sometimes we'll have a hamburger in a thin bun, but other than that we stick to rice, quinoa, and sweet potatoes. We sometimes eat regular potatoes too, but I find those make me sick as well.

Lunches have changed. Gone are granola bars and sandwiches. They've been replaced with natural peanut butter on rice cakes, fruit, veggies and salad.

Snacks of cheese and crackers, have been replaced with kale chips, nuts, and popcorn.

Dinner of spaghetti has been replaced with lean meats, grilled veggies, and rice/sweet potato, which is especially easy int he summer months with our BBQ, we'll see if that changes in the winter.

We've basically removed all processed food from our diet, and it feels so good!

Thank you wild rose!

Now to get my knee back in order so that I can start training again!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Life Lately.

Nothing the past week has been particularly blog worthy, no grand adventures for the champs. In fact, we haven't had the best of luck lately.

I am currently taking a unwanted hiatus from running and biking. Which I am really struggling with. Since we got back from Ironman I have been dealing with some pretty major knee pain which can be characterized as Runners Knee or Jumpers Knee. Basically it's knee pain right under neath the knee cap where you patella tendon connects, and it is the most annoying and sometimes extremely painful thing. I get pain when I walk up the stairs, down the stairs, running, biking, and when I sit with it bent for too long (like when I commute to work). I was told I could continue to run on is so long as I was running pain free, the problem is I would be running pain free but then it would be excruciatingly sore the next day. So, I've decided to take at least 2 weeks off, if not longer. I am very disheartened as I got back from Ironman with grand plans, I was planning on working on my running and racing a half marathon in the fall, trying to get it down to 1 hour 50 minutes, all with the goal progressing instead of starting over again for Ironman training next year. But, as per usual, an injury has me sidelined. To add to the issue, my beloved chiropractor, who kept me pain free through the last year, has retired. Unfortunately her replacement has not seemed to help. So I am off to meet a new chiropractor on Monday, who is apparently a runner and biker her self and has helped my coworker. Hopefully she can help me out so I can get back to training, because ask anyone if I don't exercise.. LOOK OUT!


Then there was the accident with poor Rudy. Last weekend, while running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I was getting out of the car with Rudy and I slammed the car door on his tail. I have never heard a dog scream before until then, poor guy. He didn't wait for me to reopen the door, rather, he yanked his tail out. It was bleeding profusely and he ran inside and laid on the carpet shaking. Home along, feeling terrible, I was trying to stop the bleeding when I noticed there was some white stuff sticking out. I phoned the vet not realizing that dogs had bones in their tail, but turns out they do, and the white stuff was his bone was sticking out! I basically went hysterical. I loaded him into the car and headed off to the 24 hour Vet downtown Calgary (seriously wishing we had bought that pet insurance). The poor guy had to get just over an inch or his tail amputated. They took him in, did the surgery while I waited down town, 5 hours later we were back home with a very sore and drugged puppy. He's doing alright, but you can tell his tail is bothersome. If he wags it I think it starts hurting because he tries to bite off the bandage, and he is super cuddly.

So what have I been up to since I haven't been training, studying, or do any crazy adventures? Well, I've been catching up on some reading. I just finished the third game of thrones and now I'm half way through Roots. Also, I am catching up on some TV shows via Netflix. I've been loving Orange is the New Black, and Homeland. We took my nephew for a sleepover last weekend too, so my brother could spend some time with his spouse before baby #2 comes. We went to see the new disney Planes movie in 3D which was fun. Ben has been helping my step dad every day this week with moving, while my mom has been out of town. This coming weekend is the first weekend in a long time we don't have any plans, mind you we didn't have any plans last weekend either until thursday and it turned into a whirlwind!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Goodsoil Vacation

Where were we this weekend? Goodsoil Saskatchewan! A place that we tend to migrate to every couple of years. It is on a beautiful lake, and this trip we were surrounded by lots of sunshine, laughs, and love. So many memories up there, and this trip was nothing other than wonderful. It was fun to think that I started to go when I was my nephews age and it was the one time a year that we really got to hang out with out extended family, aunts, uncles, even my great grandpa. Which I realized is exactly what it is like for my nephew now. His great grandparents were up there, it was so precious to see my grandpa right in the sand with my nephew loading up a dump truck with sand.

It's been a couple of years since I've been up there, infact last time I went without Ben since he had to work. I was in the middle of training for Ironman so I had to haul up all of my stuff. It was really nice to trek up there this year and not have to worry about squeezing training in, or feel guilty about missing a workout. Ben and I had the opportunity to totally relax. Absolutely nothing was on our mind. Ben bought a fishing rod before he left, and turns out he absolutely loved it, so he was out with my step dad nearly every day while I filled my days reading, napping, and visiting on the beach. It was a great time.

Now it's August, and I have no idea where the time has gone. We don't really have any major adventures for the rest of the summer. We have a backpacking trip planned with my brother and his girlfriend in a couple of weeks, and we're debating a couple of camping trips with some hikes thrown in there. Nothing too major though. I haven't been able to really run or bike lately as I have developed jumpers knee from overuse so I'm taking a time out and hoping that it heals up as I have big plans for next year! Come January after our trip to mexicp we start in fulls swing as I have the calgary marathon, an Ironman in the fall, and my CFA level 2 exam on my plate in 2014. So in the meantime I plan on relaxing!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Meandering Through the Forest

On the weekend Ben and I had the pleasure of going for a hike with my younger brother and his girlfriend. Although our plans got derailed as hwy 66 to moose mountain was still closed because of the floods, we went for a hike through west Bragg Creek, which turned into a 14 km meander through the forest, with our conversations carrying us along. Although there was no destination to our hike, no "OH WOW" moment like you get when you summit a mountain or hike to a waterfall, we still had a great time (and I can't wait for our 3 day backpacking trip next month together!!).

Anyways, the point of this post. The question was asked if things really change once you get married. Which is a very good question, because to be honest I didn't think things would change when Ben and I got married, I mean we had been living together for 4 and a half years before that, and yet our relationship did change. Subtle changes, nothing life shattering.. changes that you may not even notice until you take a moment to think about them, the kind change that makes you feel more secure and love your partner even more, because they have chosen you forever. They have promised to love you despite your faults through thick and thin, those vows are not to be taken lightly. Its kind of hard to explain, it's just like you feel more settled, you're no longer preoccupied with when, where, and how you'll get engaged, you don't have to plan the wedding, and you're no longer thinking about what would happen if you break up.. Youre relationship becomes a constant. Which is also why you have to make a little bit of an effort to have dates and celebrate the little things once you're married. It is way too easy to get into a routine and let life pass you by.

I have found that one of the biggest differences is in arguments. There is an understanding that we're both in this for the long haul so we better figure this sh*t out so that we don't continue to have the same argument tomorrow, next week, or next year. Arguments turn into opportunities to learn and try to understand where the other person is coming from, and to work on compromise.

There you have it. I'm sure for people that haven't lived together before getting married there would be major differences, but if you already live together I would say it does change a little bit, but definitely for the better.

Also, just to keep you all in suspense... I found out on Tuesday that I PASSED MY CFA LEVEL 1! WOO HOO!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Wild Rose Detox

Ever since I can remember I've had stomach issues. It feels like I have tried everything to try and relieve the troubles that I have. After a plethora of unpleasant medical tests in 2010, I felt as though I was abandoned by the medical system with a "diagnosis" of IBS. Then I sought out a naturaopath last year, she did a controversial allergy test with electro-accupuncture. It came back that I was basically allergic to EVERYTHING. I tried that diet for a little while, however, when she later falsely diagnosed me with low thyroid and put me on some weird supplement that totally messed with my body I abandoned it. I toyed with the idea of paying hundreds of dollars for a blood allergy test, but after much research I decided not to. So alas, here we are. My mom tried the wildrose detox about a month ago, and she suggested I try it once we were done training. So we started the 12 days on Sunday. We thought we had timed it perfectly since we didn't have any plans this coming weekend, and it would be complete before we go camping to goodsoil, however, my brother is now having a Diaper party (an excuse to get drunk) with the guys on saturday and Ben is now unable to drink anything fermented (which leaves beer basically out of the question) and he has to stick to the super strict eating schedule. This will be a test for him that's for sure.

What is the wild rose detox?
Well you take a bunch of herbal supplements and eat a very specific diet that eliminates wheat, sugar (and anything sweet), dairy, tropical fruit, and fermented foods. For me, my meals didn't dramatically changed except for yogurt in the morning for breakfast. Ben, however, had to do a total 360 eliminating his typical sandwich at lunch time and replacing with salads.


How are we doing? Well we're 5 days in. I can't speak for Ben but I'm not finding it to bad. The first couple of days I had fairly low energy but I think that has mostly returned. With all of the horror stories you read of detoxing I have fortunately yet to experience most of the more disagreeable symptoms.

What do I miss?
The biggest thing that I personally miss is coffee with a little cream and sugar. I need coffee int he morning, but this black coffee is pretty gross, and I think coffee with almond or soy milk is even grosser. I also really miss salad dressing, this lemon and olive oil thing is getting pretty old pretty fast. Ben and I don't drink much, but sometimes I like a good glass of wine on the weekends so I'll probably miss that this coming weekend. Oh and peanut butter, Almond butter just doesn't quite replace it... and sauces...I am really sick of this fairly plain boring food I miss soy sauce on my rice, bbq sauce on my bbq'd chicken, and Ketchup on my eggs.

Things I don't miss?
I don't really miss cheese, or bread at all. I thought I would really miss them but I find it doesn't bother me. Actually, right now, the thought of eating a safeway pizza like we used to kind of grosses me out.

My go to snack?
Well right now my favorite desert is a rice cake with almond butter and fresh rasberries on top, mmm. Crunchy, sweet, and nutty, and the closest to a pb and j sandwhich that you can get.

What about dinner?
Well since it's BBQ season it's pretty straight forward. Chicken, Steak, or Fish on the BBQ with brown rice and veggies. If it was winter I think this would be alot harder (unless you're hardcore and BBQ in -20).

Overall, I haven't noticed the moment where you feel so much better. But I hear that it is coming. I am hoping that we can continue avoiding foods that I know don't treat me well such as wheat and dairy even off the detox.. however that may be difficult as we love pizza and they just opened a new pizza place in Cochrane that we are dying to try. Would I recommend this detox? I would say yes, if you can avoid social situations for the next 12 days, or have super amazing self control and won't cave on the glass of wine on that dinner out. I'm only on day 5, 7 more days to go so we'll see if this magically moment of feeling amazing comes my way.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Waiting Game

Wow, July 15, where has the time gone! The last few weeks since we've been home have been filled with stampede events, a baby shower for my soon to be niece, errands, planted out first tree in our back yard, a wedding, and even a broadway musical thrown in there with my sister and sister in law. Busy, and yet I feel as though I'm just sitting around waiting.

Our bodies have been slowly recovering from Ironman. It has been a little bit of a frustrating process. We started back at hot yoga last week, then tried to run a measly 10 k the next day to no success. I think I ran about 2 k and Ben made it 4 or 5 and we both wound up walking home. I'm suffering from runners knee and the plantar fasciitis from the Calgary Marathon. So heating pad, ice packs, and advil have become a staple in my daily routine. I know that there is no point in rushing the process back to working out, but it is hard to hold ourselves back. You get home from Ironman so exhilarated, excited about the sport, looking for your next race, wanting to jump back in to training to improve your time only for your body to hold you back. So we're doing more yoga, taking more rest days a week, and taking Rudy on alot of walks.

Then I've been waiting for the results of my exam, the results are next Tuesday. It has been so painful to wait this long. The anxiety I feel towards next Tuesday increases every day. It will dictate how I spend the rest of the year. As of next Tuesday I will either be completely elated and relieved, and I don't have to start studying again in January for level 2, or I will be surprised, depressed, and I'll have to crack open my books and start studying again for the december re-write. I have found the past few weeks I have turned very superstitious. Thinking things like "If I make this green light then I will pass my exam," and "if the stamps win tonight I will pass my exam." So far, all the signs are pointing to that I should pass my exam, but we will see next week. However, I have not put my books away yet, they are sitting on my desk just in case I have to get back to the grind, but it would feel so good to burn put them away next week if I pass.



Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Post Race Adventures

After the race, I grabbed a couple pieces of pizza and went to my family who was waiting. They had already grabbed all of my gear. I was pretty pumped so we said goodbye and Ben and I just headed back to our hotel.Ben, however, decided to stop at Burger King first, I dont think we've eaten fast food in the 6 years we've been together! He got a burger, french fries, onion rings, and chicken fingers. We went back to the hotel and while Ben ate I had an epsom salt bath and passed out. We woke up the next morning moving pretty slowly, our legs were pretty sore. We met my dad and switched our tri stuff with our camping stuff, and then we decieded to go down to the Ironman grounds. We checked out the overpriced finisher apparael, grabbed our special needs bags, and had the free breakfast. We headed back to our hotel to check out and figure out where we were going to go. We were planning on camping around couer d'alene for the week, but it had started to rain, so we started googling places. According to the weather network if we drove south we would hit sun. So we drove, and drove, and 5 hours later we arrived in McCall Idaho, a super cute lake town... that was supposed to look like this:


but instead we ended up like this:


So we quickly set up our tent and went in to town in search of beer and pizza. Which we found at a cool pizza place where we got the flamethrower pizza which was a combination of elk sausage, jalapenos, and crasins... weird combo but AMAZING. We went back to the tent and slept hoping that the weather network hadn't steered us wrong and it would clear up the next day.
Nope, it rained... poured in fact. We set up tarps and hung out by the campfire praying for it to clear up. By 8 pm, our camp site had pretty large puddles all around, and the inside of the tent was damp. SO we made the decision to sleep in the car, with Rudy. It was a little squishy but at least it was dry. We made a deal that if we woke up on Wednesday and it was raining then we would head to Fernie. Wednesday morning came and guess what, we woke up to pouring rain!! We packed everything up soaking wet, and started the LOOONG drive to fernie.. 9 hours. We would have been better off to have just stayed and camped in Coeur D'alene since it was raining there to but at least we would have been closer to home.

We had made it 6 hours when we stopped at a walmart in Sandpoint to load up on alcohol before we crossed the border only to come back to a flat tire. UGH! nothing was going right! It was totally ruined, but we scored a used tire for 40 bucks to get us home. We got to fernie around 8 pm that night. Where we were greeted with Nancy, Bill, beer, food, a shower and a nice warm and dry bed. Ahh bliss!

We stayed in fernie until Saturday. The weather was beautiful and it's always nice to visit with my in-laws. Our legs were feeling better so we climbed castle moutain on thursday.


Friday and saturday we did alot of walking, went to sureveyor lake near kokanoosa, napped, drank some beer and just enjoyed being off. Then it was back to calgary to get ready to return to reality.

Monday, July 8, 2013

6 Years

I know we're married now, so the only anniversary you're supposed to celebrate is your wedding. But 6 years ago today was a very important day; Ben ran his first marathon, and we started dating. Since then training for for running or triathlons has become an important part of our lives. I can hardly believe that it has been 6 years since I got a job at COP and I met Ben. 6 years, that's nearly a quarter of my entire life, and definitely the best quarter! He has encouraged me to go after every dream that comes my way, no matter what. With him by my side I am now a 2 time ironman finisher, I graduated from Economics with distinction, we own a house, along with many many other adventures (Peru, mountains, marathons, Revelstoke, roadtrips) and we continue to dream about our future. I am so thankful every day to have Ben in my life. He has taught me so much, he understands me, and I love him more than anything. I love our life together. So here's to 6 years, and another 60!


July 2007 -- I'm pretty sure that's our first picture together


July 2013


Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Ironman Coeur D'Alene 2013

Well, we're finally back home from our adventures, and I am now a 2 time Ironman Finisher. Although my day did not go according to plan at the end of the day I persevered and finished the darn thing. Our trip started going sideways before we even left Calgary. Unless you live under a rock, you would have heard about the flooding in Calgary. We planned on leaving for Fernie right after work on Thursday to break up the drive, but Thursday morning we woke up to flooding in Canmore, followed by all the cities and towns downstream of Canmore. The main highways were starting to flood, and I started to Panic. We had to be in Coeur D'alene by 4 pm friday or no race! Well with some major detours, 16 hours of driving, and a 6 hour stop over for sleep in Kalispell and we made it with 3 hours to spare.. PHEW!

Saturday was spent running errands, getting our gear checked in, and relaxing. We ate some pasta for dinner, dropped Rudy off with my Dad so we didn't have to worry about him the next day and went to bed around 9. Unfortunately that's also when my stomach started acting up. The alarm went off at 4, I drank some coffee, ate my peanut butter on bread and a banana, and sipped on some water, but nothing was sitting well. We got to the race around 5:30 am The organization at the race was top notch. No line ups for body marking, signs where to drop off our special needs, a quick stop at our bikes, and we were off to wrestle ourselves into our wetsuits.



I heard that the water can be really cold, so we went down to the water 15 minutes early to dunk ourselves, and boy was it ever cold. We swam around a bit, and I lost Ben. So I spent the next 10 minutes trying to find him again to wish him luck, which was nearly impossible since everyone looked the same with their swim cap and their wet suit. But alas with 2 minutes before the gun, I found him, gave him a big kiss and went back to my place in line. Only to hear someone yelling `Jen!` when I looked up I saw my Dad standing there, which was a treat before the race started. This is the first time they had a "safe swim" start. Which we LOVED. You line up like at a marathon in corrals according to how fast you think the race will take. This kept all 2700 participants from rushing in to the water at once and swimming on top of one another. It was WAY better, it took me 7 minutes to get across the timing mat, and I think I only got kicked once!.. which is a miracle in triathlon. It took me a few minutes to get my stroke going, and to warm up in the water, but I had space and I just kept swimming forwards. The first lap only took me 42 minutes, which was basically bang on to what I thought, but then I started to struggle. My leg cramped, my stomach was sick, and I came out of the water at 1:38, so happy that the swim was over.

Transition was very organized. It took a bit for the charlie horse to work itself out of my calf, and I couldn`t bring myself to take any of the nutrition down that I had planned. On my bike, it took a while to get my heart rate down, and I could feel my chest so I took my inhaler to try and prevent an asthma attack. About 20 minutes in to the ride, my chain fell off.... little did I know this would be a problem throughout the race. We had brought our bikes in to be tuned right before the race, and they adjusted my derailleur incorrectly. I had planned on a gel every hour, and chews on the half hours. But I when I went to take my first gel I nearly vomited, so I sipped on some water hoping my stomach would get better. The bike course is challenging. According to Ben`s garmin it is 6000 feet of climbing, more than Ironman Canada. There are 3 big hills, that you get to climb twice! what a treat! The first lap went well, I was passing alot of people who got out of the water faster than me. But around Mile 60 I started to feel light headed, probably from not taking in enough nutrition. My chain fell off my bike for a third time, and I stopped by the side of the road for a few minutes seriously debating whether I should keep going. I sipped on some coke, trying to get something in to me, feeling a bit better and digging deep I put my chain back on and carried on my way. 10 miles later I had gone up the first major hill on my second lap and I just was so sick. I pulled over at the aid station at the top of the hill and ran in to the bathroom vomiting the coke I had just taken in. I came out, sat by the side of the road seriously debating with myself whether I should continue or not. I sat there for a solid 15-30 minutes. Watching everyone that I had passed zoom pass me, which was very frustrating. However, it was probably the best thing, since I took in a LUNA bar and some water, and slowly the lightheadedness subsided and I hoped back on my bike. I had made a decision at this point that I was finishing this darn race. I started to think about how if I didn`t finish, and I didn`t pass my test then I would fail at everything I had worked so hard for this year, and since I don`t have control over the results of the test, i do have control over this race. The rest of the bike was fairly uneventful, and I let go of any time goals since the day had turned into survival, perseverance, and just finishing even if it took me the full 17 hours. I was off the bike after 7 hours and 21 minutes.

At the transition, I saw my Dad which cheered me up. I was happy to be off my bike, and set off on the run. It took a few minutes for my legs to start moving and I was running. I took my inhaler again as my chest still wasn`t feeling 100%. The run course was very beautiful, and 2 loops of out and back so I got to see Ben 4 times! But also very challenging. They decided to change the course last year and have you run up and down a pretty big hill 4 times. At around mile 3, I had just seen Ben on the way back on his first lap, I was so excited that I saw him since i had been searching for him on the run all through Ironman Canada and never saw him, and then I had a massive asthma attack. I dropped to my knees, and I couldn`t get my inhaler in. I was starting to panic and the medics nearly pulled me off the course. But I managed to calm myself down enough to get my inhaler in and slowly my breathing returned. However, after that, any time I got my heart rate up my chest would start tightening. So my marathon turned in to mostly walking with some light running. But there were lots of people around me who had been beaten up by this course and we chatted along the way. 15 hours and 7 minutes later I crossed that line. It was perhaps even sweeter than the last time because of all the struggles I had throughout the day. Also the finish line, it is seriously amazing. You run down Sherman Ave, which is slightly down hill. You can seee the finish line way off in the distance, and the entire road is lined with people cheering. It is seriously what makes the entire day worth it.


We have already decided to sign up for another one next year, but a late season one so that I dont have to do my heavy training and studying at the same time. I have some seroius goals for this one, and I just plan on continuing my training, since taking 2 hours off my time seems daunting. We were flipping back and forth between Arizona and Florida, however, we`re now thinking about perhaps Lake Tahoe. We dont have to sign up until the fall so we have some time to figure out our game plan. We also plan on getting some new tri bikes for next year too! That will surely take some time off right?

Much love! We went on some crazy adventures after the race, but more on that later.