I'm packing!!!

Life is more adventerous when you are spontaneous!  So, I decided to go to Taiwan and race the 70.3 this Saturday!!!  I am leaving just past midnight and I am busy packing away.  Sooooo excited!!!!  I considered going to Taiwan earlier in the year but decided to pass on it for Cozumel.  Well, after some convincing and giving away three of my shifts, I decided to go to Taiwan as well!  Crazy!  But, why not?!?!  My bike is packed and now I just have to pack my luggage and hopefully sneak in a short run workout.  I already went to masters swim practice this morning and it was a good one.  Can't believe it!  Sure looks like a beautiful island!  After the race I hope on continuing IM training as well as sightseeing!  I do not know if I will have a chance to post while I am there but I will definitely update my blog with pics and a race report when I am back!

More weekend adventures in Parry Sound!

I just got back home from another fun weekend in Parry Sound!!!  I once again travelled north to visit/stay/train with my favourite triathlon family! :)  Although training in the fall is difficult at times, I do have to say that I almost enjoy wearing all the layers, warmers, etc as I feel like a real cyclist out there!  Ok...it's just the look but its fun!  I feel more hardcore! LOL! 

I arrived Friday afternoon and went out for a 40km ride.  It is sooooo awesome to train up there and it is sooo beautiful!  Out the door and you are in cycling heaven!  No stoplights or traffic to worry about!  Saturday was a great day training and weather wise!  I rode 90km with Marianne and then did a 15km run.  That was a good workout to get under my belt!  It wasn't easy and Marianne pushed me on the bike.  Cold and windy but the sun was out!  Sunday was a bit of a disaster as it was pouring rain and freezing!  I still went out with the intention of doing at least 130km but I froze out there!  I had a puddle of water in my shoes and booties and I got to the point where I couldn't feel my hands or feet and just thought that it was stupid to stay out there!  I especially didn't want to get sick again so I bailed after 30km and headed back.  I then joined some of the Nacho guys and David on the trainer for another 1.5hrs in about 30C temperature for some Cozumel training.  Overall a good weekend of training but I was hoping for more saddle time!  Right now I am just banking on having a good base from IMC training!  We'll see!

I do have some pretty amazing news to share but am going to keep you in suspense for a little while!!!  All I am going to say now is that Team Awesome is soon going to be in action!!!  Stay tuned!!! ;)

I guess I can't PB all the time!

Again...I've been bad in the posting department!  I also haven't been stellar in the training department which is too bad since this October is already sooo much nicer than last year!!!  I did put in another 20km run and I did some shorter bike rides with Ming under the gorgeous autumn sun!  I just wish I took more advantage of the weather and put some longer rides under my belt.  Although it has been difficult with my work schedule and with getting sick.  Ah well!  Last Sunday I also ran the Toronto half marathon.  I almost was going to pass on this but Marianne had pushed me a bit to run it and I did.  I was hoping to at least match my time from last year, 1:55, but I knew that it was going to be hard.  Last year I had the luxury of Marianne pacing me and she pushed me to my new PB.  This time around I haven't put in the runs I needed to and am still a bit sick and I didn't think I had it in me to match my PB.  I went for it nonetheless but I didn't succeed.  In fact, I did quite a bit worse.  Just over 2hrs!  Ugh!  Not happy with that at all!  Ming did point out to me that I did miss some key workouts because I got sick and not to worry about it.  Thanks coach for the little pick me up! ;)  I am finally off work for a little while and am going up to Parry Sound this weekend for some great training!!! Can't wait!!!

Back on the saddle!

I am almost completely over my cold now! Yay!  I still have a bit of a stuffy/runny  nose and a sore throat.  But I am sooo ready to get back into serious training even though work has been sucking the life out of me. Haha!  The weather today was just spectacular so I turned what was suppose to be a 1hr trainer ride into a 3+ hr outdoor ride on Limey!!!  I was sooooo happy to be out there under the autumn sun!!!  After my ride I fueled up a bit and then went out for a long run.  The run was the important workout so I didn't go balls to the wall on the bike.  I just focused on keeping a high cadence.  Unfortunately, I cannot get my Garmin 500 to read from the powertap so I have no power or cadence readings.  I need to fix this asap!  The run went ok.  I am still not running at the pace I want to be running at and I hope I can improve on this soon.  I ran 15km today so not too bad.  Just a little slower than I would like.  I am not sure what is planned for the weekend in the training department but I do hope I can take advantage of this gorgoeous weather we are having even though I am working all weekend.

Some forced rest...

My body finally gave out on me and I got sick.  Luckily, just a cold and not a really bad one either!  I do not feel crappy but I am quite congested with a sore/scratchy throat which makes it difficult to train.  I blame one of my coworkers for getting sick as he was coughing all over the place when I was working with him one night.  Not even a week into the official start of my IM Cozumel training and everything is halted and I am forced to rest a bit more.  I still have been trying to put in some sessions just not long or hard ones.  I did a run interval workout last Tuesday which went ok for it being my first interval session since IMC.  It was hard and it wasn't pretty but I did it.  That was my last workout before I got sick.  Then I attempted a couple of runs and a ride as I had 3 nights off from work.  I ran just 8km on Thursday and this one was a bit of a struggle because I was feeling unwell and it was hard to breathe while being congested.  Friday I passed on my ride and did a 45min ride on the trainer and went to swim practice.  That went well as the pace times were generous and I didn't have to overexert myself.  Saturday I tried to run again and it went a bit better but I stopped after 12km as I was caught in the rain and it was getting cold outside.  I didn't want to make my cold any worse so I headed home instead to dry up and stay warm.  Sunday I attempted an outdoor ride.  I was planning on a 90km ride but about 10km into my ride I decided to head back home.  It was surprisingly cold outside and I wasn't that prepared for that.  So again, for the fear of getting worse, I just returned home to warm up and rode another 30min on the trainer.  This past Monday I was back in the pool for the masters swim and had another good swim workout.  I am now just hoping that I become symptom free relatively soon so I can get back into ironman training! 

Let the training resume!

I have to apologize for my lack of posting lately.  Work has been killing me so I've come home exhausted and then pry myself out of bed for my next shift!  Oh joy! 

But...I do have some good news to report!  I got a commuter bike!!! Yay!!!  It actually is a little nicer than I expected, actually, it's a pretty sweet ride!  I love my new bike!  It is a Trek Soho single speed urban bike that rides sooo smooth!  David got the bike all set up for me so I can zip to and from work without having to deal with the stupid bus!  I couldn't stand waiting for the inconsistent bus anymore!  I love riding this bike! 

Here is a pic of my new ride:


Trek Soho Single Speed


Ironman Cozumel training officially began as of Monday!  I did go out for a ride on Saturday on Red, my road bike.  Although Limey is back home, I don't have my tools to switch my cassette off the Zipps to my training wheels.  I only did about 70km but it was a decent ride.  I did get quite uncomfortable on the road bike with lower back pain and I think it may be a saddle issue but I also rarely ride this bike!  Today after I wake up from my night shift will be an interval run, I'll see how that goes!

Some crazy triathletes!

I did my first longish workout yesterday after work and I felt pretty good!  AJ, Ming, and I went up to Lake Wilcox to swim and bike. Yes, that's right...open water swim in the middle of September and it was cold! Whose bright idea was that?!?!  Ok...so I went voluntarily so I am just as much to blame.  LOL!  I wasn't too bad with my wetsuit, double silicone caps, and some booties.  After the initial shock of the cold water it was ok.  I swam 2km....a slow 2km, and I was done.  AJ went on for 4km.  But Ming....ohhhh.....poor Ming!   He forgot his wetsuit so ended up swimming in a speedsuit that AJ had with him.  Not too sure how long he swam for but he turned back early and pretty much froze to death.  When I got to shore Ming was shaking uncontrollably!  Got to admit, it was a bit funny!  After Ming recovered and AJ was done his swim, we went out for a ride.  We rode for about an hour and I was on my road bike as Limey is not home yet.  I am not as comfortable on the road bike but it wasn't too bad.  It was an easy ride for the guys and I hung on just fine until the end when I was starting to get a bit tired.  The combination of coming off a night shift and working so many nights in a row was getting to me.  But it was great to ride outside as this was my first time on a bike since IMC.  Hmmm....wonder if we are going to open water swim next week???