Que Sera Sera

Well, I wrote the CFA level 1 last Saturday. How do I feel? Relief. Like an enormous weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Relaxed. I don’t think I completely realized how much this exam preoccupied my every task until it was done. How did it go? Well... it went really well.. I think. I know for a fact I made a few errors, and there were a handful I didn’t even have any idea where to start, but that is normal for the enormity of these exams. It was very similar to the practice exams that I took, and I was consistently scoring well enough on those so I am cautiously optimistic, but I will find out for sure in 2 months. There is nothing I can do about it now except wait. I put in my best effort, and if I happen to fail I would definitely be disappointed; but I have realized in the last couple of days that I wouldn’t be as devastated as I thought. This is something that I want, and I plan on going after it. If I happen to fail, I will just jump right back in to studying in September and re-write in December. Since the bulk of the material will still be fresh it will become more practice and review instead of re-learning. But we shall see, we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

This week is the last week of training before we cut back for our taper. The weather has been brutal, raining for the last 2 weeks which has made training outside rather difficult. I have had too many rainy, cold, and windy rides in the last couple of weeks. As long as Ironman is relatively nice, I think it will just feel easier then these last few training rides. As the race approaches I have started to second guess how prepared I am. I have done more running, but less swimming and around the same biking as 2011. I feel as though I have had a more solid training season than Ironman Canada, but we’ll see what the results say. I am aiming for sub 14 hours, but I think i'll be excited to cross that line no matter what the time. So much can happen throughout the day, that it's impossible to know the result of the race. However, I think knowing the pain I will be in, how long the day is, and the emotions that will come in to play will help make the day run a little bit smoother than 2011.

Finally, Ben and I are heading to Kananaskis Delta Lodge this weekend a much needed mini vacation. Training is starting to wind down, so we’ll train a little bit, eat some awesome food, hike around the mountains with Rudy, and get massages… just a weekend away to relax and reconnect since I have been so busy and preoccupied with this CFA thing. We booked the entire weekend on airmiles, and even got some gift cards through airmiles for our meals. We figure it is about a $1000 weekend, for free! Can’t go wrong with that.

Calgary Marathon Weekend

Well, 5 years ago I did my first full marathon with my 16 year old brother and Ben. It was a tough day for my brother and I, while Ben happily danced across the line. We aimed to complete the marathon in 4 hours, and we finished in 4 hours and 37 minutes. We went out too hard,so we wound up walking a lot the last 12 kilometers, and my little brother vowed to never ever do a marathon again. In training for Ironman, I decided to do the full marathon, and it was very fitting as it was 5 years later. Instead of crossing the finish line near tears, I crossed with a big smile. I didn't expect too much from myself. I had 2 goals, 1) to get a solid training run in and get used to running on sore legs, and 2) not to walk. As I mentioned before I hadn't run over 21 kms in training, so I knew that my legs would hurt, and they did. From about kilometer 17 until the finish line my legs were sore, but I still managed to maintain a fairly consistent pace throughout the entire race. When my legs starting aching, I just reminded myself how much more they will hurt come Ironman race day. I was so proud of my self for accomplishing my goals for the day and beating my personal best marathon time was just icing on the cake. My dad came out to cheer us on, and seeing him at kilometer 17 was awesome, and then him, his girlfriend, and Ben at the finish line made crossing that line even better. It was a good course this year, the finish line is into the Grandstand stadium so you kind of feel like a pro athlete. Ben did amazing as usual, 3:26, he is seriously a machine. I have no idea how anyone can run that fast.

Studying is progressing, the exam is this week. I have one practice exam left, so I'm holding off on writing that and I'm just reviewing some weak areas that I have consistently stumbled upon on the practice exams, and now that some of the important formulas are sticking in my brain I'm trying to commit some more obscure ones to memory as well.. just in case it is asked and I can get one more question right and it makes or breaks passing.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. To all the American's I hope you enjoyed your long weekend. Here's to one more week of insanity.

May Long CFA studying Ironman Training style.... high on exercise and drunk on formulas.

May Long... oh how that phrase used to mean getting drunk and camping in the snow/rain. Unfortunately not this one. It was spent with 10 hours of training, 12 hours of studying, and chores. But, on the bright side my practice exam scores have trended upwards significantly, and I am slowly finding it easier to sit and concentrate on the exam for 3 hours. My practice exam scores are now hovering around what I hope to get on the actual exam which is making me feel more confident by day... but not to confident. I am still rehearsing formulas on my runs, and zoning out mid conversation with Ben preoccupied by the material I just covered, trying to make it stick in my brain. I was trying to quantify how hard these exams are to Ben today, and how I put it is I graduated with distinction from university, and now I am working harder then I ever did in university and I am scoring around 70s. Yep, these exams are no cake walk.

Training is also going well. Despite the depressing weather forecast for nothing but rain this weekend, it didn't rain once at our house. I hit the road on Saturday for a long 5.5 hour bike. It was tough. I did 2 loops of a route that I scientifically calculated on google maps (yes very precise I know) to be 80 kms each, but I forgot that google maps doesn't show elevation and it turned in to a very very very hilly 160 kms. oh.. and windy. But I actually felt really good. The indoor spinning on our trainers all winter definitely helped my legs since you can't coast on the trainer. I also had a run Sunday, and I went to yoga this morning, and my body seems to be recovering well. In fact my legs were completely fine on my run. This week I plan on pushing until Saturday, then either take Saturday off completely or doing a little bike to keep my legs moving.

Sunday is the Calgary marathon. I'm not too nervous at all about the marathon, since I'm not looking at it as a race. Instead, I'm looking at it as a training run, a training run surrounded by a lot of running partners and getting cheered on and a medal at the end... sounds good to me. My only goal is not to walk. I don't care if I'm running so slowly that I'm being passed by speed walkers I want to run the whole thing. My marathon goal in Ironman is 5 hours, so if I'm around 4-4:30 for the Calgary marathon I'll be pretty excited (and I'll have beaten my time from 5 years ago which is always a bonus). Considering I have not ran over 2.5 hours this year, I have a feeling that it could be painful, I'm hoping all of the biking has carried over.

How am I approaching the rest of studying? Well this week I am just going to review some weaker areas, and drill down some formulas. I have 2 more practice exams left (so in total i'll have done 5 before the actual exam). I plan on doing one on Saturday, then the other on Monday. After that it's just major review time and cramming for the rest of the week and then it is go time.

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!

Nerves...

Alright, the nerves are starting to kick in. Officially 2.5 weeks until the exam. Which is 17 days.... or 408 hours of which I'll be sleeping for 136, working for 72 (thankfully we have a long weekend this weekend, and I have a 3 days off during the exam week, so I've only got 8 workdays), commuting for 16, training for 36 hours.. which leaves 145 hours left of which I will be mostly glued to my books. In fact, I am pretty sure i have a CFA text book in every room of the house, ready to pick up no matter what I'm doing. This is total cram time. This is seriously the hardest thing I have ever done. Harder than university, and ironman training... and I'm only on level 1! Thankfully I have the best most supportive Husband who is picking up the slack at home as I am frantically trying to study. I give major kudos to people who are attempting these exams with children! However, I am starting to feel more comfortable than a week a a half ago during that first practice test. The practice exams and hundreds of questions that I have done this far have definitely helped drill down some of the more important equations and concepts. Although every sentence in the 5 text books are fair game, there are definitely some prominent key points that have been tested multiple times.

As for Ironman, the Athlete Guide for 2013 came out yesterday... that got my nerves going. But more excited nervous compared to the CFA. Training is going well despite some back issues last week. My bike got some new shoes and has been taken off the trainer and I plan on hitting the road for the first time tonight! SO SO excited. Outside biking is a million times better than inside biking, even with the entertainment of tom cruise in all the mission impossible movies...

So, to sum it up, it is go time... the next 3 weeks are my highest intensity training and studying. I've been mentally preparing for this since January because I knew it was coming. So now it's time to just put my head down and take each minute as they come. My focus the next couple weeks will be to stay healthy and injury free, get plenty of sleep, keep my nerves in check, and to train and study like hell!

One. More. Month

Well, it is exactly a month until the exam. This past weekend i wrote a practice exam. How did I do? well exactly as I was expecting. So that's a good thing, I am exactly where I expected to be at this point in time. I have one month to intensely review for this exam and then it is go time. I am going to approach it with writing practice exams on the weekends, at home, and reviewing my week areas during the week. What I found the most difficult with the practice exam was just sitting and focusing for 3 hours. At around 2 hours I started to get antsy and shuffle around in my seat. The exam is 2 three hour chunks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. So I am going to separate my practice exams in to their 3 hour chunks and sit down and write it like the exam, just to get used to writing for that long without loosing concentration.

I also have one more month of pushing with my training until I start tapering for Ironman. I had a really good brick workout this weekend with 2 x 2 hour bike and 30 minute run. I felt strong, even through the last 30 minute run despite a slower pace. I feel completely different about this Ironman, instead of nervous I'm excited. My training isn't to finish, but rather to improve my time and not be in so much pain during the run. I feel as though we have been training a lot harder this time around, so we'll see that the race brings. I have read some blogs about the race last year and the hardest part of this race is the freezing cold water with potentially large waves if the wind picks up. But hopefully they're getting this warm weather that we're getting right now and it's warming that lake up! Unlike Ironman Canada this entire race is 2 loops (2 loop swim, 2 loop bike, 2 loop run). Other than the swim (because I don't think i'm going to want to get back into the water), I like 2 loops. The first loop is an adventure, you don't know what's ahead then on the second loop you know exactly what to expect and you're ready for it.



So here are 2 pictures to sum up my next month:

Progress.

Well, it is May 1st. Although the weather feels more like January, we even got more snow last night. But the days are getting longer, and I know that May will bring warmer temperatures, the trees will start to bud, and I will start itching for summer. As of today I have 4.5 weeks until my CFA exam and 7.5 weeks until Ironman Coeur D’Alene. Currently, I am tired. I more than recognize that I should not have endeavored to take on both the CFA and Ironman so close together, but that is my personality, I push myself to my limits and then try to push past them. However, I used to dread my long painful runs, now I actually find solace in them, as it gives me a much needed break on Sunday afternoons from sitting and studying. It gives my brain a chance to turn off and my legs a chance to move, progress step by step.

I think being an athlete and my training for Ironman has helped me study for the CFA. I have approached studying much like my training, and they both started at the same time. Push too hard/study too long and you will burn yourself out. It is all about consistency, just like my training, my studying approach is very similar: an hour every day, long days on the weekend, and treasuring my day off. I take Friday’s off of studying. It is wonderful. Ben and I love going on a date out for dinner on Friday nights (you have to celebrate getting through another week). Also, like Ironman, you only get what you put in. You cannot control the questions they are going to ask on the exam, just as you cannot control the weather/flat tires/other obstacles on race day…. You can only count on the hours of studying and training that you put in and have faith in yourself that you are ready. Then if/when you start to doubt yourself, I like remind myself that "you can do all things through he who strengthens you."

A week in the life....

So, I haven’t been blogging much, and there is a reason for that! I am super insanely busy. I am studying (again, but for real this time) for the CFA exam in June. I am in such a better place than 2 years ago when I tried to tackle this beast exam. I have my securities liscence, and I am working in the industry. I haven't mentioned it on here but 10 months ago I left Scotiabank got a job at an investment firm as a Client Servies Associate where I work with a Portfolio Manager. Now I can relate the information I am learning to what I do every day,and I have way more of a foundation to work off of. Also, I am surrounded by people who are supportive and encouraging and many have written the exams themselves. What is the CFA? It stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. It is a series of 3 exams that you take over 3 years (hopefully, if you pass each one on the first try). Each exam is 6 hours in length with a pass rate of 34% and covers about 6 text books of 500 pages each. It is painful, but will be worth it if once I pass all of them. It will just be a rough January-June for the next 3 years, but then I'll have it. However, unlike this year, I have promised myself definitely no more Ironmans until I’m done these exams. Next year I’ll probably just do a half ironman (my favorite distance), and an Olympic for fun. It would cut the training down SIGNIFICANTLY and give me a little more time to I dunno… see my wonderful husband!.

So what is the Typical week of a CFA studying working Ironman Training Person?
Monday : Leave the house for work at 6:30, arrive home at 5pm. Cook and eat, study 6-9. Bed/Read.
Tuesday: Leave the house for work at 6:30, after work 30 minute run followed by Hot Yoga, get home 7:15. Eat dinner, study 8-9. Bed/Read.
Wednesday: Leave the house for work at 6:30, arrive home at 5pm.Train 5-6:30. Cook and eat, Study 7-9. Bed/Read.
Thursday: Leave the house for work at 6:30, arrive home at 5pm.Train 5-6:30. Cook and eat, Study 7-9. Watch Greys anatomy and the Big Bang Theory. Bed.
Friday: Leave the house for work at 6:30, hit the pool 5-6. Drink some wine, have a nice dinner… relaaaaaax. Unless I haven’t gotten what I needed to get done, then guess what… I get to STUDY. Ugh.
Saturday: Wake up, relax until 8 or 9. Bike for 2-6 hours. Then every second week I work for a few hours, or else I have the afternoon free… which we usually get to do chores.. and maybe some relaxing.. ahhh relaxing.
Sunday: Wake up, relax until 8 or 9, study 10-12, lunch, study 1-3, train 3-5. Cook and Eat, study 6-9. Bed.
Repeat.

Basically I study roughly 16 hours a week, train 11 hours a week, work full time, and work very part time 2-4 hours every other week. The longest Saturday bike yet has only been 4 hours.. but it will get up to over 6 at the peak. Yep. It’s busy. You can see my “bedtime” is around 9. Well, that is about right. I stop studying at 9, but by the time I let the dog out and get ready for bet it’s 9:30. And If you know me… I need my sleep. If I get less than my 8 hours look out, especially with this schedule.Luckily I have the most supportive husband in the world that lets me just put my head down and go. We did take a week away in March which was amazing. We went to Puerto Vallarta Dreams and it was just what the doctor ordered. A week without any training or studying and just being together in 35 degrees was perfect. We had an amazing time. We absolutely loved that part of mexico.




Then it was back to reality. So here we are, 2 months until the exam, and 2.5 half months until Ironman… Its time for the final push... but then we’ve got the ENTIRE summer. We can get back to the basics of hiking and camping… and beer.. stuff that we haven't been able to do for the last few years because our races have always been in August, so we were training all summer. Alas, we are looking forward to re-enacting our first summer together full of mountains and camping and just simply being together.

Crash and Burn

Ok, well yesterday I had the whole day off. I usually get one afternoon off a week since i work 9 hours a day with no lunch break, but since my boss is going on a caribean cruise (lucky guy) I would not be getting my half day off next week so I got the whole day off this week. I had some errands to get done in the morning, doc's appointment, eye doc appointment (for the first time in 9 years), sending off my passport renewal, ect. By the time I got home it was 11:30, so I grabbed some lunch and thought I'd start doing homework at 12:30.. then 1.. then 2.. I kept pushing it as I found better stuff to do such as cleaning the house, watching the sex and the city movie, and reading my book. When I finally sat down it was 3 pm and I sat there staring at the pages trying to read, but instead I kept thinking "what the hell am I doing," and "why am I doing this" which eventually turned in to tears. I have been crying alot lately, and I think it is just because I am so burnt out that it makes me emotional. I really do not have much time to myself, and when I am relaxing I feel guilty because I should be studying. During the week I am up at 5 am, at the gym by 5:30 then working 8-5 straight, then back at the gym for 6, dinner by 7:30-8, and bed by 8:30-9.. then repeat. It's pretty busy. By the time the weekends come, Ben and I are so exhausted and our friday nights are typically spent on the couch watching TV and then in passed out in bed by 8. When saturday comes around we still have training, skiing, and often company visiting. Cramming in time to study ensured that whenever I was home I was studying. Even if I was exhausted from my long run, or my eyes were tired from reading so much. So after talking to Ben and my mom yesterday I have decided that now is not the best time to be taking the CFA and here are the list of reasons that I have come up with:
1) Time or lack of it. As explained previously training for the ironman and working eat up alot of my time. But there is another aspect of time which is that I am cramming it into 4 months. I applied for the CFA scholarship in November, and didn't find out I got it until January, and it took another 2 weeks to get the books. That is almost 3 months of studying that I could have had. At the rate I'm going at now I would only have a week of review, when they say you should have at least a month.

2) It's a 3 year comitment. It would be one thing if I could just hang in there until June and get the test done, but it's not like that. That is only the first of three exams, which take place every June. Essentially I would be dedicating myself to another 3 years of schooling, which has felt like an endless dark tunnel with no light at the end of it.

3) Money, aparently there are alot of really good programs out there that help cut the studying time, but they are 500-1500 dollars. Considering I couldn't justify spending that to take the course I defnitely can't justify that to help me complete the course.

4) Employability, I thought that taking this course would make it easier to find a job. But with much research and job searching I have found that most analyst jobs expect you to have 3-5 years of experience, which I do not have. So I think I need to first find a job to get my foot in the door, which would also help me figure out if this is actually what I want to do. I mean I have an economics degree with distinction, I should be able to find some sort of job.

5) Isolation, just with where we are living right now it is tough. I don't know anybody who is taking the course, I dont work with anyone who has or is taking the course, I don't work in a related field. It's just me battling through the large books and formulas.

6)Then there is Ben. The poor guy has put up with 4 years of stressed out Jen trying to finish her degree and doing homework on the weekends. He deserves some attention. Not to say that he complaines, he has been so supportive through all my endeavors and I have been so lucky to have him in my life. But I want to spend my weekends with him, just enjoying our life for a while, and enjoying what maybe the last few months in revelstoke.

7) And finally, I am only 23. I don't have to do EVERYTHING right now. I have my whole life ahead of me and I will have lots of time to go back when I am ready to really commit myself to to this course.

Basically, I think the bottom line is that I am capable of doing this course right now. I mean I am not having a particularily hard time with the material, but I don't want to put the required time and effort into it. I am not willing to sacrafice my weekends, training, and happines. When I made the decision last night it felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, and with that I knew that it was the right decision. I just have to accept that perhaps I'm not superwomen, and maybe I can't do it all right now. So here's to focusing on training, and time with my champ and our adventures.

-Jen

Reminiscing

So training last week started slow, but in the end we got through it; we even got our weekend workouts in! We attempted to ski on saterday morning but the snow at the hill was nothing compared to our epic day last saterday, and the top had 50+ km winds, so we took one run down from the top back to the parking lot, headed home, and hit the gym for our long bike. We got the darn thing in, but it was tough. The gym is so hot, even with our heart rates only at 75% we were dripping with sweat, and we didn't have music. So we decided that it was about time we purchase 2 new ipod shuffles (hopefully these ones last a while :s). SO we left revelstoke and headed to vernon, where we spent the afternoon doing errands and getting out of snowed in revelstoke. On Sunday, we got up and did our long run outside with music. It was awesome. Then I hunkered down and did some work on my CFA course while ben lounged, and that was the extent of our weekend!

The CFA course is coming along. I have already read over 1800 pages and writen over 60 pages of notes. I have no idea how I am going to remember everything, but I think practice problems will be the key. I have been making sure I do all the questions at the back of the book, and I have found an online question bank that I have also been using. I am a little bit freaked out though because only 30% of people passed this test in December. But I am going to do my best and that's all I can do.

Last night, while laying in bed trying to fall asleep despite the time change, I started to go through all of our old photos, and I couldn't stop smiling.It's pretty crazy, in nearly 4 years we have gone on some pretty amazing adventures and racked up some pretty cool pictures. So I thought I'd do a top ten of my favorites. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, until it got down to only choosing 10 because they are all so awesome! Anways, here are a few that I picked out:

Number 10:

This picture was taken this past summer (2010) when we climbed up Mt. Begbie and camped just under the glacier.

Number 9:

This picture was taken the first summer we were together (2007) and it was our first time in Fernie. This was on the top of Mt. Fernie. The view wasn't great because of the smoke from BC forest fires.

Number 8:

This picture was taken out in kananaskis by Black Diamond in 2008. We eyed a cool hill and decided that we wanted to camp on top of it. It was cool because that night we could see the city lights in the distance

Number 7:

This picture was taken while snowshoeing up Mt. Revelstoke a couple of weeks ago. It was so beautiful and peaceful.

Number 6:

This picture was just taken this past new years day (2011). This was climbing up the sub peak on the ski hill with an inversion in the background.

Number 5:

This picture was taken during a 3 day backpacking trip of North Over ridge in 2009. This is in the morning after our first night.

Number 4:

This was on the same 3 day trip in 2009, this is the view from on top of the ridge!

Number 3:

This was on top of Mount Temple in 2007. I was pretty excited!

Number 2:

Ben on top of Mt. Temple. Pretty amazing.

Number 1:

Sunrise while camping on top of Mt. Proctor in Fernie in 2007. Wow.

The song that came into my head while I was looking through all these pictures was "I still do" by Paul brandt. So this is to my champ, my other half :

It's in the way you move me
The way you look right through me
Still brings me down to my knees
Every time you smile
And after all this time love
It's still hard to get enough
From the very first time I thought you were the one
Who'd make all of my dreams come true

I still do
I'm still amazed every time that we kiss
I still do
I'm never gonna stop feeling like this
Like the first time that I fell for you
I still do

They all might say we're crazy
Sometimes I think we may be
When I think about the way we
Live like life's a dare
I'd lay my life down for you
I'd do anything to prove it's true

--Jen