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!

next up.. Ironman Coeur D'alene

So Ben and I decided to sign up for Ironman Couer d’alene about 2 months ago. We decided that an Ironman every other year is reasonable since it is such a sacrifice in every aspect of your life: Physically, emotionally, and financially. After taking the last year to get my body in working order again, I was eager to start training. We each took our experience from the last time round, and we each made our own training programs to suit ourselves. The funny thing is our training programs are COMPLETELY different. Not even a little bit the same. Which goes to show how those generic training programs on the internet are probably not the best approach. One major difference between out programs is that I have chosen to maintain going to Hot Vinyasa Flow yoga once a week. I went to my first hot yoga class when my chiropractor suggested it back in May, and I find myself seriously looking forwards to the class each week. If I miss a week my body feels it: my body feels tight, achy, and my asthma worsens. Hot Yoga is very addicting, and feels so good. Personally I think it has helped with my running a lot. Along with Yoga, I found my chiropractor this past year. I go once a month to get myself all aligned again, and seriously that is another aspect of my training that I think will become pivotal to my success. It’s been 2 months of base training where I’ve been working primarily on my running, with some biking and strength thrown into the mix, and I have NEVER felt so strong and so good. It is pretty exciting, and I attribute this to both Yoga and my Chiropractor.

I find that compared to the last time I started training, I have much more of a mental focus. I know how hard ironman is, I know my goals, and I know what it is going to take to achieve them. Also, Ben and I have both ditched the twice a day workout which I think definitely helps. Last time we trained for Ironman I think we just got way too burnt out in the first month and never really recovered. We learned there is a fine line between training and over-training and it is a tight rope that must be walked every day by every athlete, since normally we all just want to go out at the same intensity as the race every workout. But realistically that isn’t possible. I’ve learned rest days are important, and every training day cannot 5 km race pace. I find I have been relying on my heart rate monitor to hold me back, and I have really focused on warming up and cooling down.

I am really quite excited about this race. More excited than last Ironman where I was just SUPER nervous. I know I can do the darn thing, now I just want to do it better, and with less of a roller coaster.

Ironman Canada: Where pain meets glory

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

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

SWIM:

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

Bike:

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

Run:

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

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

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

Pre race reflection

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

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

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

Final Push

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope everyone else has a great long weekend!

and more of that training thing....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday Wishes

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

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

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

at bed, bath, and beyond


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

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

via

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

from amazon

It only took 10 months...

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

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

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

"Really?"

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

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

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

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

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

"Well good luck!"

"Thanks!"

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

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

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

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

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

The Two Week Curse

I am seriously cursed. I keep getting sick/injured 2 weeks before my races. Seriously. 2 years ago, 2 weeks before the alberta challange olympic triathlon I was coaching hockey and I tripped on the ice and landed smack on my elbow. While all the 5 year olds were laughing I was trying not to pass out. I went to the hospital and it turns out I fractured my elbow. So into a sling I went. I decided to do the race anyways since my elbow wasn't broken right through. The swim was interesting as I kept swimming sideways because my left arm had no strength. The bike was funny because if I was in the drops I couldnt put any weight on my left arm. The run was tough but that was just because running is always hard for me. Doing the race probably wasn't the smartest thing to do because to this day it still aches ocassionally, but I finished and I did my best.

Then there was the big disaster of last year. Where I fractured my foot 2 weeks before the osoyoos half ironman. And guess how I did that? getting out of the SWIMMING POOOL. Yes, my arms were tired, I slipped and I bashed my foot. Convinced I was fine I went through the entire day before finally going to the hospital, where they told me I was fine.. because I mean who breaks their foot getting out of a swiming pool right? Finally, a foot specialist and a bone scan later it was confirmed that I had fractured my cuboid, and had to miss the race. Then almost the entire summer since I was in a air cast and crutches until August.

Well, the race organizers last year were understanding and postponed my race until this year, and it happens to be in 2 weeks from today. Remember how I was super sick and was put on antibiotics. Then I thought I was either getting sick again or having terrible allergies. Well, turns out I was getting sick again, and the cough came back. Then this past week I was SOOOO exhausted. Like getting out of bed was a chore. I was light headed, and was short of breath even just chewing food and walking around the block. Finally friday I decided to see the doc. Well he listened to my lungs and decided that the bacterial infection I had 2 weeks ago was back.. and that it wasn't just any bacterial infection it was pnuemonia. Aparently when you have pneumonia but can still somewhat function it's called walking pnuemonia... which gives me the mental picture of a bunch of infected zombies walking around (which is pretty much like how I felt.) So he put me on some MEGA antibiotics. The kind that is going to kill pretty much anything in sight, including good bacteria so the pharamists also put me on probiotic pills to take as well. Ugh. The doctor ordered me to rest. SO what does rest mean to a triathlete? cutting your 3.5 hour bike into a 2 hour bike of course. I did get 2 hours in yesterday but I had to make sure my heart rate stayed pretty low so that I didn't start coughing up my lungs.. literally. Then today I tried to run, but that only lasted 15 minutes because my breathing became very laboured and I was coughing hard. Not the best thing for your ego when you have a race 2 weeks away. For this coming race I have no expectations except finishing the darn thing.

So there you have it. I am cursed. 2 weeks before my races something always interfers and I dont think I've ran a race healthy/injury free.... ever? Oh well, that doesn't mean Im' going to give up... I'm just going to do the best I can. That's all anyone can ask for. Ben asked me the other day if I enjoy training, and the funny thing is I do. I love going for those long runs and bikes. But aparently my body disagres.

Slow and Steady

So this week I have slowly been trying to get back into training. Tuesday I attemped to run in the morning, and well... it didn't go great. I pretty much felt like a asthmatic smoker who was trying to race a 10k without any training. Seriously, I did a small loop that I can typically do in roughly 25 mins and tuesday morning it took me over 30.. ugh. But, I did it that's all that matters. Tuesday evening Ben and I decided to go do some weights at the gym, I didn't have much energy so after a short warm up bike I did a quick circuit. Wednesday I headed out on the bike since it was sunny, and my lungs felt alot better and was feeling pretty good, even thought about attempting to run after. But by the time I got home I was freezing and ben was already home, so motivation to run waned quickly. Thursday we were supposed to swim, but the pool has changed their hours and they aren't open after work anymore until 7:15 so we took a rest day. This morning we got up early and I hit the pool for a swim at 6:30. I was feeling a bit run down and could feel my lungs so I only lasted 25 minutes. But, that was the first swim in 2 weeks and it felt good to get in the water. As you can see this week I haven't done much but it's more than the last 2 weeks and I don't want to jump right back in and end up way sicker. However, I do have the half ironman in a month from tomorrow, so I better ramp this up quick and get back at it. The longest bike I have done to date it 60 km, the longest run was 18 kms, and the longest swim was well over 2000m. So I only need 20 more kms biking and 3 more kms run to complete the half ironman... piece of cake. Last year I was training really hard for a sub 6 hour half ironman, but this year since it's not my main race I'll be happy with more like 7.

This weekend we are headed to Calgary. We were planning on bringing our bikes out and biking the 70 kms from my Mom's house in Cochrane to my Dad's hous in far SW calgary on saterday for dinner and then bike back on sunday for brunch, but it's supposed to be pouring rain so we're just bringing our running shoes. Hopefully we'll get a couple good runs in on our old stomping grounds.

I'm also going dress shopping with my mom and my cousin this weekend! I have a dress that I've been eyeing online, but I want to try some on and make sure that I like the style before I go getting it custom sized and shipped! So that's exciting. While I'm off doing that, ben's got a list of errands such as FINALLY putting some summer tires on the stealth fighter (our car) and then hes hoping to hit up the Zoo with our adorable nephew and my brother.

Have a great weekend! and make sure you spoil your mommy! because mom's awesome! don't know what I would do without mine!

Wednesday Update

Lately I have been lacking inspiration to write, although we have not been without news. Everytime I write something it seems just so boring and all over the place. I think there has just been TOO MUCH and it seems it would be all over the map if I wrote it in one post. But Here I go, I'll put it in sub-headings to organize myself.

Training
Training hasn't really been going for me. Infact I have not trained since my last post (that's 12 days ago). After my last post the weirdest thing happend, my foot (that I broke last year) started aching. Then it swelled, and was really painful. Getting nervous I called Ben to drop by with some ice and advil. Within an hour I couldn't walk, so we decided to get checked out by the doctor. Well she was convinced I had a stress fracture and insisted I go back on my crutches and into my boot, and wait for a bone scan. UGH. Well that lasted a day. I blame it on my grandfather, I'm pretty sure the doctor had to threated a cast to make him rest a sprained ankle. It started feeling better and now it's fine so I have nod idea what happened. Then, not 2 days later I caught a real bad cold while my brothers were visiting. I haven't had a cold this bad in a loooong time, and I dont want to drag it out with training so I am relaxing and resting. Which is probably also good for my foot. But I am finally starting to feel better so I am hoping to get back to it hopefully tomorrow.

This weekend marks the 4 months mark! ahh!! that's only 3.5 months of intense training and 2 weeks of tapering. SO Ben and I need to get our buts in gear, stay healthy and really dedicate the next few months to training. Now that the ski hill is closed, and the snow is nearly melted I think this should be easier to do.

Wedding
Ben and I want to get married this September, so we have started trying to navigate through this wedding planning thing. We want September because we will be finished the Ironman and we normally aren't training for anything in the fall. Originally we looked into ALL the options, I mean everything from in Calgary to renting out a lodge in lake louise for the weekend. And after some consideration we decided two things were the most important to us 1) that it was in the mountains because that is where our souls are and 2) it doens't cost a small fortune. And thus we decided on Fernie, BC. Ben's mom lives there and we have spent alot of time in Fernie, plus it is GORGEOUS and much less expensive than Canmore and Banff area. So when we were down in Fernie last weekend visiting Ben's mom for Easter we looked at a couple of venues and are toiling with either a more causual backyard reception since Ben's mom generously offered their beaufitul backyard to us or a reception at the Best Western. Both have pros and cons that we're considering, but I think either would be great. Hopefully we have that figured out this week. But I think we have decided on a ceremony location:

That's us practicing. I think it looks like a pretty awesome spot. Obviously things wouldn't look quite so dead and brown in September. Rather all those trees in the background will have yellow and green leaves!

Moving
I think it's time to oficially announce that we have decided that we are moving back to Calgary! It's just a matter of when. We're thinking possibly as early as June, and by August at the latest. We realize that we moved to the mountains for a reason and it was our dream, but over the last year we have learned that there are things that we miss in Calgary. Such as my family, a career, and the convenience of having all the stores that you need right there. Although we love the mountains, I have stopped noticing them as much. We used to make plans every weekend, and look forward to going to the mountains and getting away every weekend. Planning all week kept us going. But now that we're in the moutnains all the time, we don't have that anymore, it's not a big adventure since they're right there. Also, the training facilities here in the winter are.... well.. not great. We dread going to the gym becasue it is hot and gross. The pool is typically INSANELY busy in the evenings because they only have one single lane for all the lap swimmers and there is this one guy that just KICKS for half an hour and doesn't wait at the end to let you pass him if you're right on his butt (so so so anoying!). Finally,the hours that the pool and the gym have been a struggle since they open late on the weekends. I think every place that you live has it's pros and cons, and Revelstoke just doens't seem to be working for us. Although the mountains are important, and the skiing was amazing, we're at a point in our lives where our Careers and family are just more important. So I am on the job search in Calgary. I've started casually applying for jobs, but I think it's hard to do when you're not physically in Calgary. If anyone knows of any potential employers in Calgary let me know!

So that's probably the biggest news. Wedding, moving and training. Phew. There we go trying to do everything at once. But I think it will all be worth it.

This weekend the rain is supposed to clear up and we're going to train hard and have some quality champ time. Even have a date night planned for friday night. Then next weekend we're headed to Calgary! Forzani puts on the mother's day race every year, and with that is a HUGE sale on running shoes so every year we stock up. So that was the main reason but we're also excited to see everyone, and talk wedding stuff with my mom!I haven't been to calgary since January, and Ben hasn't been since Christmas, I think that's the longest stretch yet! perhaps that is why we are getting homesick! -

-Jen

ps.. just thought I'd leave you with a picture of my adorable nephew.. incase you needed a pick-me up to get through the rest of the week.

I mean how cute is he!

I can't wait to cross that line

I found this video the other day and it gave me some motivation. Normally when you watch ironman videos you always see the pros. The people that are shredded, train for hours every day, and win these races. This video, however, shows everyone else that does the race. People of all shapes and sizes. People that you would never think could possibly compelte an ironman. Although this video is long, the 2 minutes is amazing, with people crossing the finish line. The emotion is incredible. Then they show the very last finisher of the race last year coming in at 17:58:56 with just 4 seconds to spare until the 17hour cutoff, and what amazed me is that the crowed was cheering just as loud for the first as the last athlete. Wow. I can't wait to cross that line.

"Training Camp"

Last weekend we did a little "training camp" in Osoyoos. I called it training camp because that is literally what we were doing; camping and training. I had friday afternoon off, and we have been itching to get our bikes on the road and get some sunshine so we decided to head to osoyoos for the weekend. It is only 4 hours away, so after work I went for a quick swim, we loaded up the car, picked up our freshly tuned bikes and hit the road. It is amazing, as soon as you drive half an hour out of revelstoke there is NO snow, where as we STILL have 2 feet on our front lawn. We were determined to get some vietnamese for dinner in Kelowna, but unfortuneately the GPS on my phone led us astray, so after some driving around we settled on some thai food, which was alright. By the time we finally got to Osoyoos it was 8pm and dark, and yet it was still plus 10 outside... ahh warmth. Since the office was closed we had to find the security guard to check in, and he was mighty concerned that we were sleeping in a tent, asking if we had a heater to keep warm. We just laughed considering the himelayan hotel (our tent) is meant for the base camp of everest and can hold 4 feet of snow on it, and our sleeping bags are good to -12. However, I responded with a "I think we'll be fine," and he left us to set up.

The next morning it was a little chilly, so we let it warm up until we hit the road on our bikes. We had some breakfast, explored the campground, and just relaxed. We finally hit the road around 10:30, and I was aiming for a 3 hour ride. Coming right out of osoyoos you hit the start of Richters pass, which is a 10km hill and is part of the ironman canada course. My only goal was to make it up without stopping, and 30 minutes later WE MADE IT! woot! Although it was pretty uneventful because it's not like there are signs, banners, or fireworks congradulating you on making it to the top. Infact, when we got to the top we weren't even sure if that was really the top. Anyways, Ben looked down at the hill ahead of us and realized that if he biked down it he would have to bike back up, and since he had been sick all week he didn't want to push it so instead he turned around and headed back to the campground. While I continued on, down the backside of the rogers pass, and turned around at 1.5 hours, then I realized how smart ben was. Biking up, then down the backside, then up the backside, and then back down rogers pass is brutal. But, on my way back up I just focused on getting to the top since I knew there was a pretty awesome 10 km downhill back into town. Needless to say when I got back to the campground I was pretty tired and my butt was VERY sore. After a hot shower, some lunch, and a nap I started feeling better and we decided to check out osoyoos. We treated ourselves to some pizze and a bottle of wine, and a walk along the beach before packing it in for the night.

We woke up on sunday to what looked like a threat of rain so we packed up all our camping stuff before we went for our run. We managed an hour run, and although my legs weren't sore they were definitely tired, no fuel in them. So the run was a struggle. When we got back to the campground we showered, ate some breakfast, and hit the road.

We had SUCH a great time that we decided that we needed to do another "training camp" soon. So we booked the campground again for the May long weekend, and also for the oliver half ironman in June. It was clean, was right on the lake, had great showers, and even had a club house with a pool and tv if you wanted to get in from outside.

On the way home we had some errands to do, so we were prepared for a long drive. However, we were not prepared for the 10hours it took. It turns out a there was a huge accident on the highway the day before and it had comprimised a bridge. Meaning, they didn't know it the bridge would hold up to cars being on it. We sat for hours, until we finally decided to hop on a side road and ended up budging hundreds of cars, but we were stil not even close to the bridge. Eventually they started letting a few cars across at a time, and we managed to sneak across, getting home after 9pm. We were tired, hungry and grumpy. We ordered takeout from the nearby pub, ate and headed to bed.

Training this week has been going good. On monday I felt like I was getting sick so i took the day off and relaxed. Which was a good idea because i felt much better the next day, and managed to bike tuesday and swim yesterday. Ben managed to get to the gym mon and tue but took yesterday off. So a swim is due today, and a run tomorrow and we've made it through the week. We're not doing double workouts right now. I think if we are still healthy after 2 more weeks of doing one workout a day, then we'll ramp it back up to 2 workouts.

We just found out that my brothers and my nephew jack are coming to visit tomorrow. So we are VERY excited! We haven't seen jack since christmas, and he has changed so much. It should be a great weekend. We're hoping to squeeze in a couple workouts in the morning before everyone gets up. Then next weekend we're headed to fernie to visit ben's mom. Very excited about that too, should be a great lond weekend. We also will hopefuly have a look at couple of places and get started on this wedding planning thing!

have a great day!
Jen

Digging Deep

The other day I was doing bike intervals at the gym, which involved 10 minutes at 85% max heart rate followed by 2 min recovery. Now, when biking that hard, those 10 minutes feel like they are slooowly ticking by and you're constantly battling to keep your feet moving, your cadence up and your heart rate up. Then this song came on on my ipod:



it's pretty much the greatest moticational song EVER! When that song came on i had no trouble keeping my feet moving. I just kept picturing myself cruising up ritchers pass.
I mean what better describes the Ironman as the following lyrics:

This is 10% luck,
20% skill,
15% concentrated power of will,
5% pleasure,
50% pain,
And 100% reason to remember the name

On the training front, the training schedule that we have been following has been just too demanding. Twice a day workouts every day, we felt like we were always playing catch up and missing workouts. According to the schedule only one of the workouts was critical and the other one was more of a short light aerobic ride. So this week I have only been doing the critical, longer and harder workouts after work and happily sleeping past 5am. I'm hoping this leaves me with enough energy for the crazy brick workouts this weekend, instead of running out of steam by thursday.

Ben has been sick again this week, so he is taking the week off. He has been sick on and off since he got the flu in February. Every time he starts feeling a little better the tries to make up ALL the workouts he missed, which probably makes him sick again. So, under doctors orders no training this week and hopefully he can get back at it this weekend.

This weekend, we were planning on going to penticton to camp and train. My afternoon off this week is friday afternoon, so we thought we'd take advantage of being so close to the race course. Instead of Penticton we've decided to drive the extra 45 minutes to Osoyoos. Osoyoos is going to have 15 degree and sunny weather, I can't wait! It's also on the race course as well, but closer to ritchers pass, so hopefully we'll hit that up a few times and see where the weekend takes us. Our bikes are in the shop right now getting all tuned up and they should be ready to hit the road!

Rainy Revelstoke

Wow, it is already April.. APRIL! that means we have been living in revelstoke for 9 months, the ski season is more or less over, and Ironman Canada is under 5 months away! EEK!

One of the consequences of having such an amazing winter of skiing, is that it turns into rain in the spring, and rain it has been for the last 3 weeks. Seriously. In the past 3 weeks we have had MAYBE 3 days of sunshine, and these are not FULL days of sunshine. Rather, an hour here or there inbetween more rain. Ben and I both do not do well with rain. We need sunshine, and it was not more obvious as last week. We were both not feeling great, we had low energy, we were not in the greatest mood and we had NO motivation to train. Perhaps we both suffer from SAD (seasonally affected depression), or we need to take more vitamin D. But, we got our butts into gear by friday and hit the gym, skied and went to the gym on saturday, and went for a 2 hour run together and got to enjoy the 1.458 hours of sun for the week. We're hoping the weekend momentum of training carries through this week, first up swimming after work today. Just take it day by day. We are aiming at camping and training in penticton/kelowna area this weekend. It is only 2 hours away so pretty easy to get there from here. We're hoping to get our bikes out on the road and do a looong bike, maybe hit up ritchers pass, and hopefully get away from the rain. Although the snow is slowly melting here in revelstoke, there are PILES of gravel still on the roads and over 2 feet of snow still on the ground, making it difficult to get out on our little road bikes. We haven't biked outside since last summer and long indoor training sessions at the gym are TORTURE which has equated to not doing our 2-3 hour long rides, whoops. Hopefully this weekend we get back at it.

Other than training, we had some great company the past couple of weekends. My mom, murray and wilson (their dog) came down for the weekend last weekend, and we had a great time with them. We skied with them on saturday and then went out that night and had a great time at a 80's band that was playing in town. This past weekend my sister came with her boyfriend Paul. She is leaving for Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand tomorrow for 3 months (lucky girl) so it was nice seeing her before she left. They went to the halcyon hotsprings on saturday while Ben and I skied and trained. After dinner we went out to a couple of bars that had live music and had a great time with them. I learned my lesson after the weekend with mom and murray so I offered to be the designated drive, no hang over for me this weekend.

That's all for now!
--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

6 months out

So last sunday officially marked the 6 month mark until Ironman Canada. It's hard to believe that 3 months have already past. It has definitely been tough, but we are doing the best that we can. We are now just focusing on getting the next workout down. Last weekend was the first weekend in a while that we either weren't headed to calgary for doctors appointments or people weren't coming to visit. So we were kind of excited to have an old fashioned "champ weekend." Since we haven't had any snow in the last 2 weeks, on Saturday Ben and I decided to go snowshoeing up the Summit Trail, which is a 10 km trail up Mt. Revelstoke, instead of skiing. I figured it was a nice alternative to running on the treadmill for 2 hours (which it painfully boring at the best of times but even more so now that we have both lost our ipod shuffles.. again.) We went about 6 kms up.. and I mean up.. there is no flat parts on this trail. Then we had a quick break and came back down. It was gorgeous! there was so much snow! We were on top of well over 5 feet of snow, if not more. We didn't see a soul. SO peaceful. When we got home we were pretty tired, had a nap, relaxed, grocery shopped, amde dinner (and froze the left overs), rented a movie and just hung out the two of us. It was awesome. Sunday we were disappointed to not wake up to any new snow, since there was some in the forcast. So instead of skiing we decided to try and get an olympic distance triathlon in to celebrate the 6 month mark. Well, it was alot more then we were supposed to do that day. We got through the biking, and most of the running, but never made it to the pool. We were pretty tired and hungry. The gym doesn't open until 10am here on the weekends, so after running and biking it was after tweleve and our bodies were wanting to eat. So we headed home, I worked on the CFA course, and ben lounged. We finished it all off with a yummy dinner, froze the left overs for dinner that week, and then I made pate chinois (french sheperds pie) for another dinner. So by Sunday night we were organized for the week with our dinners made and frozen and were all set to train and hit all the workouts.

Then monday come, and we hit the pool like we were supposed to. Then we had a solid ran tuesday morning, but then things took a turn. When we showed up at the gym tuesday night all the spin bikes were taken. So we left and decided to post pone the workout until friday, no big deal. You have to be a little bit flexible. We ate dinner and relaxed. It was funny because last night when 7:30 came around and I "thought OMG we would JUST be getting home from the gym.. that's crazy!" This morning we dragged our butts to the gym, and it wasn't open. This happens about once a week, and is SO SO frustrating. You drag your butt to the gym for 5:30 am, and the girl who was supposed to open decides that she wants to sleep in. Don't they think that maybe I'd want to sleep in? Anyways, we waited until 5:45, watching the precious minutes that we have tick away, and decided to drive home. So, we had to miss ANOTHER workout. But we are focused on getting every workout in so we have just adjusted our schedule so that now we're doing the bike we were supposed to do yesterday today, then moving the workouts from today to friday. Friday is supposed to be our day off, but it has turned into more of a flex day, where if we miss something during the week we can make it up then. Here's to only another 6 months of this!