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

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

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

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

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

Is it friday yet?

The week has been tough so far. I am in survival mode trying to get through. Last weekend I went to calgary to see my GI doctor. I have been suffering from various stomach issues since I can rememder, however, over the past two years I have had such severe stomach pain that I have had to go to the emergency room several times. After months of seeing my family doctor and feeling like I am going a little crazy, I was finally referred to a GI doctor. They poked, proded, injected, scanned, and did all the most unpleasent tests that they could do. For those of you that have never had a colonoscopy, endoscopy, or never had to drink 4 liters of barium or colite.. you are most fortuneate. Anyways, after several trips too and from calgary to get these various tests, I finally got to see my doctor for the test results. Well, thankfully I do not have a serious condition like chrones, colitis, or cancer. However, they have diagnosed me with IBS- Irritable Bowel Syndrom. A condition that should be called "we dont know what the hell is wrong with you" syndrom. In fact my brother has been diagnosed with the same thing, however our symptoms are very different. When I first met with my doctor he reassured me that even if it was IBS, we would come up with a game plan to make me feel better which left me optimistic and hopeful. Well I left his office on monday with a much different feeling. It was pretty much a waste of time. He came in told me my tests were clear (thank goodness) and that I have IBS. Then he ratteled off about how they dont know what causes it, and therefore they dont know how to treat it. He explained that they could put me on medication but he doesn't believe in medication. He told me they could do food allergy/intolerance testing but often in IBS it's not always the same foods that makes you sick. Which I could have told him. I have driven myself crazy over the last few months trying to figure out if it is any sort of food that makes me sick. Poor ben listens to my "well maybe its dairy, or maybe corn allergy, or maybe soy, or maybe gluten.. blah blah blah." But none of those things really make me consistently sick... mind you alot of them are really hard to cut out of your diet without meeting with a nutritionist. Perhaps that should be my next step, along with keeping a food diary and recording what I'm eating and how i'm feeling.

Anyways, back to leaving the doctor. I felt very conflicting emotions. Obviously glad that I do not have anything life threatening or requiring surgery. But at the same time, I was deflated. I left with no direction of how to feel better or that I was ever going to feel better. Aparently the most diagnoised GI condition is IBS, and yet there is so little information about it.

So that is how my week started. By the time I got back from calgary it was 4:30 and I was exhausted. I headed to pick Ben up from work but his work schedule has changed. He is now working 10 hour days (7am till 5:30 pm) which has disrupted our training a bit too. We only had an hour after dinner to relax and wind down before bed. But now Ben's work is cutting into that precious hour and effectively cutting it in half. Now we're not home until 7pm after the gym, eating by 7:30 and in bed by 8! not to mention going to bed on a full stomach which makes you wake up feeling disgusting. Also, I'm walking home from work now and I'm home for a half hour before ben. Just being home for that half hour between 5 and 5:30 is a challenge to our training. The last thing I want to do is go back out to the gym, instead , I just want to eat dinner and relax. And when ben comes home he is tired and hungry and definitely doesn't feel like going to the gym. Discouraged by this we have skipped a few evening workouts.. actually all of them. Which has lead to a vicious cycle of "well start fresh tomororw and we'll take tonight off." Unfortuneatly it is now Thursday, and I have only done one of the workouts I was supposed to do this week. Darn. Oh well, its not like taking a week off over 7 months before our race is going ot make it or break it for us.. hopefully.

Like I mentioned before, it has been a rough week. The weather here is definitely not helping. It has warmed up, and instead of snowing it is pouring rain. Rain ontop of 6 feet of snow makes for a very messy walk in the mornings. It is gloomy, which is not helping the mood. Not to sound like an Eore. Here's to hoping that we force ourselves to the pool tonight.

Skiing vs. Training

So we have been getting pounded with snow here in revelstoke. We had a winter storm warning from wednesday through saterday last week, and got hit with over 75cms of snow. My dad and brother were coming out for the weekend and they were stuck for nearly 9 hours on the highway because of avalanches. Now we have another snow warning today through saterday again, and it has already snowed 20cms since it started early this morning. If you're a skiier all this snow is fantastic! We skied powder all day saterday even tho the snow had tapered off by then. Since Ben and I work monday through friday, we can only get out to ski on saterday and sunday. The issue is that those are also the days of our longest workouts. Last saterday we were supposed to have a 3hr bike and a 30 minute run, and on sunday we were supposed to have a 80 minute run and 30 minute bike. We would do those workouts befor we went skiing, but there are 2 problems: 1) the gym doesn't open until 10am, so if we want to do out workouts we have to wait until then and 2) there is powder to ski!! So why don't we just go after skiing? well, for those of you that ski you will understand why we dont. After skiing all day you are tired, your legs are tired and dead,and you haven't dranken nearly any water all day so you're a little dehydrated. The last thing you feel like doing is hitting the gym. Rather you want a beer, dinner, and then to lounge on the couch before bed. Which is what we have been doing. We justify it with the fact that at least we're doing SOMETHING, i mean we're working our legs and getting our heart rates up skiing. And I think skiing is a good substitute for sitting on a spin bike for 3 horus. But i dont think it can count as running. Running is my weakest discipline, so i really need to make sure i get those long runs in. Since I have been missing them because of skiing, I tried to get it in this week by doing it on monday night after work. Well there is a reason that long runs are first thing in the morning. I was very ill after that workout. When the alarm rang at 4:30am the next morning to go back to the gym to run again, well i coulnd't do it. I had just been there not even 10 hours earlier doing a long run. I was dehydrated because I ate then went to bed and didn't have time to drink enough water to replenish the liquid i had lost. Needless to say I reset my alarm until 7pm and enjoyed the extra sleep.

So that currently is our predicament, and i know many of you are thinking "oh what a rough life they are skiing instead of training". But the joke will be on me in March when the skiing is over and I'm trying to catch up on my long bikes and runs! :S Less than 8 months till Ironmamn Canada!

Merry Christmas, here's the flu.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from both of us! I hope everyone had a great holidays! Ours were busy but it was awesome to spend some time with my family.

Over the holidays we were determined to keep our training going, even if we had to adjust it a bit to accomodate traveling and the gym being closed. We thought we had it all planned out. However, we hit our first road block on christmas eve when we arrived at the gym at 5:30 am only for it not to open.. argh. With some disappointment we drove home and finished some final packing for the weekend. I had to work 8am-12pm which went by painfully slow. Then ben picked me up and we drove straight to calgary. We got there just as people were arriving for my Dad's christmas eve party. After a great meal, a couple of drinks, and some carolling we were convinced to go to midnight mass. We did not get home until 1:15am (waaay past our bedtime) and had be up since 4:30 am so we were beat. We managed to squeeze in our run on christmas day inbetween heading to my Aunt's house and opening christmas presents (I think the new heart rate monitor that I got for christmas gave me some incentive to get out there). After dinner at my Aunts house we headed to my Mom's house for our own little christmas morning at 10pm. It turned out to be another late night, and I could feel like I was starting to get run down.

Boxing day we were planning on relaxing a bit and enjoying our last day in calgary. After a huge brunch we tried to squeeze in a bike workout. Needless to say it was pretty rough on a very full tummy. After the gym we headed to the outdoor rink for some hockey with my family which was a ton of fun. Before we knew it we were finishing another great meal and heading to bed.

We left calgary early on monday morning because there was a snow warning in revelstoke and we didn't want to get stuck on the highway. By the time we got back to revelstoke we were exhausted and missed out swim workout. I was supposed to work on tuesday, but with the snow coming I called in to get it off. So on tuesday we enjoyed a day of skiing, and I started feeling pretty lousy. We went home and I'm pretty sure ben tried to go to the gym and I just laid on the couch. In the end I caught my brother's flu and the next 3 days were pretty rough. Fever, chills, aches, stomach upset, the whole works. I had to work, but as soon as I got home I would park myself in bed. No training for me. Ben was not feeling 100% either but he still tried to get a couple of workouts in but he was exhausted after skiing all day since he had the week off.

By the time Friday came, I was finally feeling better. We were up early and it was going to be my first workout back at it. But since it was New years eve again nothing was open. Oh well, at that point I dont think one more day off would have meant anything. That night since it was New Years Eve we went out and enjoyed a delicious dinner at one of our favorite restuarants in revelsotke, then headed home and both of us fell asleep before midnight. Mind you we made it until 11 so we just pretended we were in Calgary. The gym was closed the rest of the weekend, so we didn't get our training in, but we did ski!.. i think that was our only consolation.

I had Yesterday off of work so I went and trained earlier in the day and then made meals for the rest of the week so we don't have to worry about cooking. It is something that we should try and do every week on sundays, but often the day gets away from us and we end up scrambling for dinner during the week. Our saving grace here is a place called Mountain Meals that have homemade, organic soups and sauces/stews. For 10$ we can feed each of us an awesome meal and only have to heat it up when we get home.

Looking forward to the New year, we have a few races leading up to the main event. We're both planning on doing the vancouver marathon in May, then I have the Oliver Half Ironman in June(which I was supposed to do last year but I broke my foot 2 weeks before), then Ironman Canada in August. Ben was toiling with the idea of doing an Ultra as well, but we'll see how the ironman training goes and how he could fit the training for an Ultra in. Other than training, we're just planning on enjoying where were at right now. We are loving revelstoke.

The Kid Factor

Yesterday morning while dragging our butts to the gym for our morning 45 min bike workout we realized that it was not even 12 hours since we were at the gym last biking. Yep, and in those 12 hours we jammed eating dinner, getting grocery shopping done, doing the dishes, and 8 hours of sleep. That is probably one of the hardest things that we have found since starting our training program is the lack of time at night. We are up between 4:45 and 5 am to get to the gym right when it opens, therefore we are asleep between 8:30 and 9pm each night. We work until 5pm, are at the gym again and not home until 6:30ish and have to make, eat, and clean up dinner. That precious hour in the evening between 7 and 8 isn't even enough time to do the laundry which I discovered last week when I went to bed and left the washing machine going.

Last night, as we were going to bed at 8, talking about how exhausted we were, we got talking about how hard it would be to try and do this with kids! I just want to take a moment and give props to any mother or father out there who are training for something! It would be so difficult! YOu would defintely have to consider the kid factor when signing up for ironman and committing yourself to all those hours of training. Ben and I have the luxery of a full nights rest and being able to go to bed at 8pm. We don't have to worry about who will watch the kids as we go train in the mornings and in the evenings. If we are tired and grumpy and all we feel like doing is sitting in a corner and staring at the wall in the dark, we can do that! You could probably do that with kids too, but I think they would get very concerned about mommy. But most of all, if I am tired and grumpy and I bark at Ben over something stupid he knows that it is just because I'm tired and hungry and in a few minutes I will realize how stupid it was and apologize. We have that luxery to be grumpy without hurting anyones feelings, since there is complete understanding because the other person feels just as tired. Perhaps that is why most people that do ironman are males 30-50 and females 40+. The males don't have to worry about their kids because their wives will take care of them while they're training while the older females may have kids but perhaps they are older and understand that mom is training for the ironman.

Other than training, last week was a little hectic with people visiting. Infact a friend of ours was in town from Calgary and we didn't even get a chance to see her! Which is really too bad. Ben was getting adjusted to being back at work after a few months off. Ben's mom and her partner brought dinner and stayed the night on thursday. In fact, we walked into the house after training and Ben's mom was there cooking a delicious dinner, we were pretty spoiled. Then Friday night my best friend from high school and her boyfriend came down for some skiing. They didn't get here until around 11pm at night, and let me tell you it was a struggle staying up for them. I was pretty jealous of ben when he headed to bed around 9. On saterday we skiied allll day. It was awesome! It was a great day, there was lots of snow that week so the hill still had some sweet powder stashes left. We were supposed to bike for an hour and a half that day but we figured skiing all day more than counted for that. Then saterday night it started snowing, no more than snowing but completely blizzarding! Infact there was a snow warning here which never happens because they always get lots of snow! Well ben was like a little kid on christmas morning when he woke up on sunday. He was up at 5am going for coffee and checking the snow report and was ready to head to the hill!(and yes the hill does not open until 8:30 and we are only a 10 minute drive from the hill). My friends decided to be responsible and hit the road before itclosed, and ben and I headed to the hill for 745am (that was the earliest I was getting up there).

That day I skied the deepest snow of my life! like seroiusly. It was up to your waist! And that hill is amazing, we did not wait in a single line for more than 5 minutes all day! Infact, our first run we had an entire run top to bottom of untouched snow. Seroiusly, not a single person had skied it yet. Amazing. By the time we got home the power was out, so even if we had the energy to do the hour run and half hour bike we couldn't since there was no power! Instead we had a nap on the couch, went for a walk, and waited for the power to come back on so we could cook dinner. It's amazing how much you can't do when the power is out! That is the seccond time it has happened here. You cannot cook anything, there is no heat, it's even hard to shower by candle/flashlight! But it eventually came on by 5pm, and we were asleep by 8:30 getting ready for anther week of training.

One week down..... only 35 more to go.

One week down, and only 35 weeks left... and no unlike most of the other people with a 9 month count down I am not counting down a pregnency. Rather, we have made it through one week of training! Last monday was our first official day of ironman training! Last monday we were in calgary for me to get some tests done and I was not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight. So Ben hit the pool at 6 am (5am our time) while I slept cozily for an extra hour, mmm... However, joke would be on me when i had to swim after not eating/drinking all morning and a 5 hour drive home. I was very tempted to just skip it, I mean it was only a half hour swim. But I wanted to start this training program right, so I got to the pool and made it through the first workout. The next morning we were up at 5:30 am and hit the gym for a bike, then again at 5:30 pm for a run. Wednesday we were at the pool for when it opened at 6:30 and then were at the gym again at 5:30 for a bike. I can safely say that wednesday at work I was a zombie. I had to be extra careful to make sure that I was not inverting numbers and charging someone $934 instead of $349 for fuel. Thursday we had another pool morning and then an afternoon run. Although all week we were asleep by 9pm, by the time thursday afternoon hit I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 7:30. On Friday we had an optional day off or the choice to swim... we opted for the day off. Ben had not started his new job yet so he got to hit up opening day at Revelstoke Ski resort (lucky guy) and I worked. It was so nice to just enjoy sleeping until 7 and not having to worry about working out. Saterday we went out to ski for the morning but the conditions weren't great (especially since Ben had skied all the fresh snow the day before) and we had over an hour of biking to get done, so we left at noon and headed to the gym. That night was my company christmas party, which was a blast but we did not get home until 1 am (incredibly late for us, like seroiusly, even when we're not training we have a hard time staying up past 11). Luckily we didnt have too much to do on Sunday, except for a 30 min bike and 55 min run. We went out to look at an old truck west of town, hit the gym, got our shopping done and pretty much passed out. And that was the end of the first week, with only 35 more to go..

This week Ben started a new job working on 2 new schools that are being built in town. They are supposed to have steady work for the next 2 years so it looks like we'll be able to stay here (in paradise) at least until then... hopefully forever.. But training yesterday was rough on him and has shifted out entire training routine that we got going last week. Ben now starts work at 7am, so we're not able to swim in the mornings at all anymore since the pool only opens at 6:30. And we now have to make sure we're at the gym when it opens at 5:30. Then ben eats a quick breakfast and heads out while I get to enjoy the morning for a bit and then walk to work. I have actually quite enjoyed the past 2 days of walking to work. I just pop in my earphones, and enjoy the beaufitul scenery of revelstoke. I still have my moments of awe when I look up and see the mountain towering over me. I have found this second week much easier so far (although it is only tuesday). But Ben has been pretty burnt out. He went pretty hard last week and he is now working 7-4:30 days outside in the cold. So I think it will definitely take some time for him to adjust to working again and training. Especially since his job involves lots of lifting and what not.

That's all for now!

Ironman 2011

Ever since I was in grade 8 I have wanted to do an Ironman before I was 25. Therefore in order to do this I had to sign up this year! Grade 8 was a tough year for me, like many I think. I am not sure what happens in junior high school but for those 3 years girls go a little crazy and can be just plain mean. I had short hair and liked sports so needless to say the teasing had no end. But I did have some really great teachers and a great family who helped me throughout those 3 years. One of which was Mrs. Dunne; she had done Ironman Hawii the world championships and became my inspiration to do an ironman before I was 25. However, after my first kids triathlon in grade 9 my dream was kind of forgotten about until I met Ben 3.5 years ago. He was weeks away from doing his first marathon, and having just quit playing hockey I felt I needed something to train for too so i signed up for a half marathon later in the year, then the next year a full marathon, and after getting sick of running every day I convinced Ben to do an olympic distance triathlon last summer. The plan was to do a half ironman this year and a full next year, but I broke my foot weeks before my race and didn't get to compete. After not racing this season and only having 2 triathlons under my belt (one of which was 10 years ago) Ben and I went down to Penticton to volunteer this year and sign up for next year. Well it was a pretty emotional weekend with doubt filling my mind after a whole race season without doing a single race and never even having done a half ironman. Espcecially after working at a running aid station 5 kms to the finish line and seeing hundreds of people in pretty rough shape. Up until I was signing my name on the dotted line I didn't know if I was going to be ready. . But we paid the money and at the last minute ben signed up to! So we are both doing Ironman Canada 2011!

I have to remember why I signed up because I know that this race is a huge sacrafice both financially and with the time committment. November 28 is the first day of our 9 month training program which entails twice a day workouts. And there will be mornings where it is blizzarding outside and the last thing we want to do it get up and hit the pool at 6 am and that is when I have to remember grade 8 and Mrs. Dunne and why I am doing all of this. Ill have to remind myself on those days that this is something I have wanted to do for the last 11 years and this is the last shot to do it before I'm 25. Why 25? I have no idea.. maybe in grade 8 that's when I thought old was haha. I'm just luck to have a very supportive training partner, best friend, and boyfriend who will be up at 6 am with me.