Ride to Conquer Cancer

I'm in a hurry, but if the title of this post doesn't say enough, this image will.... 200km ride in 2 days (June 26/27)!!

I'll be back later tonight to add more :)

OK, so it took me a bit longer to get "back" to this entry. Friday night I seriously could not keep myself awake. But I logged 9 hours sleep! Got up, did my "long" run and then got on with my day. It was an awesome day. We went quading/sledding/tubing! So much fun. Our neighbour, Kelvin is one of the nicest guys I know, and he'd arranged for most of us on our street to meet up over at the little lake in town so we could go out with the quads. It was a blast and perfect day (I think it was only -6). My butt was a bit cold, but we all had so much fun, not to mention the kids. Lar had a good time driving one of the quads (yup he was driving). It was just an all around good time.

Later in the evening we went out to Earls for dinner and for a date night. We finally saw "Avatar". It was really quite good. And I really enjoyed our night out. It was a great weekend, and today (Sunday I'm just catching up on stuff... including my blog).

This past week was a recovery week of training. At the beginning of the week I was kind of bummed about having to take it easy, but clearly by Friday night I needed it. Found myself getting grumpy during my "run" yesterday, as I couldn't go as fast as last week while keeping my heart rate around 125. Today was a rest day.... but who knows what tomorrow will bring. I don't get my next two weeks of training until tonight :)

Oh yeah... the subject of the post...recently I've been hearing about "The Ride to Conquer Cancer" on the radio and TV. It got me to thinking about how there are so many people that don't have the chance to do the types of things I am able to do (albeit I usually struggle through). My sister in law, Heather is currently battling cancer and it makes me sad as I think of her often. And my Mom is a survivor. So of course when I heard about the race, I wanted to find out more.

There's something about it that excites me, a chance to raise money that will stay in Alberta, to help patients in Alberta. The riding part will be challenging, but I would love to do it for Heather. I was only "playing" with the idea, and was even a bit nervous to bring it up with hubby, since it would require me to be away on our anniversary. The day right after I looked up more details, Tuesday, I found out that the Minister that married us in 1993 had suddenly died of acute leukemia. It was pretty much all I needed to push me forward. I was of course worried how it might interfere with my tri training, so I sent an email to Shawn and wondered what he might say :) He didn't scoff at all, and thought it might actually help with my cycling for the Olympic distance tri I'd be doing about 3 weeks after.

I'll be attending an info session on February 11th, before I officially commit, but as it is now, I'm feeling fairly convicted that I want to do it! Call me crazy, won't be the first time...but I am reminded by a song lyric "I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying". To be clear I'm not a country music fan... but those words mean something to me!

When I look back on my life, I don't think it'll be one of those things I look back at and say, "wish I hadn't done that".

So much to learn. (serious stuff)

I think an important part of being human is learning. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes. Mistakes like, not forgetting to charge your ipod before a long hard workout. Like remembering to double check the am/pm settings on your alarm clock. Like learning to trust your coaches instructions. All things I've recently re-learned the importance of. I've also learned that using the word "learnt" can really annoy dear friends :)

I'd like to think that as we learn lessons we grow, and that we'll do our best to improve. This is turning out to be far more deep than I had intended. So let me explain...recently my training instructions have included intervals and some long runs which require me to bring my heart rate quite low to the point where I have to walk, just to bring it back up again. Of course I wasn't happy and did a fair bit of grumbling because I'm from the school of "work hard for good results....work really really hard". If you aren't almost falling over in a pool of your own sweat.... you must not have worked hard enough. Now I'm not saying that I would always work out at that intensity (if I always had, I'd not be in this predicament right?!?!), but I like to push. I've been known to say/think... just one more km (or 3 or 5 more kms, and so on), just one more set, one really hard circuit. I like the feeling of absolutely draining the tank, when I have that feeling, I know I left it all out there and that I worked out hard. I guess I'm a bit "touched".

I understand the principle of interval training, but until today, I didn't really understand (an expert I'm not) the principle of anaerobic thresholds. This is new learning for sure, and tomorrow I have a follow up appointment to go over, in detail (I hope) my fitness testing results, and get the real meaning behind the numbers. I love numbers, I like to "obsess" about the little details, so I still can't quite wrap my head around how I can get better by being slower in my training. Anyone that knows me, would agree I like the numbers.... they totally motivate me. (Can you imagine the day I discovered I could plot out, online, an animated map of my run/ride from my Garmin??!?!?)

I'm pretty sure it is this type of detail that attracts me to multi-sport. I like the challenge, how far can I push. I want to be good. I want to be good "so bad" that I'll even walk a recovery interval on the treadmill, *sigh* if I must.

I'll also be getting some sport nutritional guidance, hopefully I can focus on reducing my % body fat to improve my VO2max score :)

Happy New Year!

Seems fitting to take time at the beginning of the year to set goals. I haven't really thought too much about what goals I'd like to have for 2010, other than my racing goals already set out. More of that later.

Christmas was lovely, and I'm finding myself having to "talk" myself out of feeling sad that the holiday is almost over and that I'll be returning to work! It's been great to just relax and take it easy, and do some fun things. Like get the backyard rink finished! Tried it out today, not too bad. A bit bumpy in areas so it could use a few more "floods", but it is SO windy out today. Also did some bowling (I was sore.... crazy!!!).

As for training, I'm happy to report I didn't miss any workouts over the holidays and even managed to get up early on both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve to go to the pool and get back home before I was barely missed. I also was spoiled by "Santa" as I received my new pedals and got my new cycling shoes as well as a fair bit of athletic wear. Will put in a picture later. Also, thanks to erin337 I heard about a online sale at Sugoi, awesome!!! So I'm patiently waiting for my new purchases :) Swim suit, cycling shorts, visor and arm warmers :) All that from the comfort of my home, I love online shopping!!!!
Stacey got all geared up over xmas, new bike (Kona Dew Drop..... very nice indeedy!) a new indoor trainer, a garmin, and a swim lap counter.

There's a 100km trainer ride going on today started by kelownagurl and other folks I've been following on Twitter. I would have liked to join them, had my bike been ready. But, that's a good goal to set for next year. Hope to get my bike fitting in this next week (hope hope hope), my last few rides have been BRUTAL. I've been super uncomfortable, can't quite get the seat angle right, or it could be that my riding shorts are a bit too bulky these days, and I get hurty in parts that should hurt :( Plus using the pedal cages is impossible for doing drills, and also seems like the pressure on my hands is pretty intense, so I'm guessing my handle bars need to be adjusted too! And of course the infamous Garmin bike computer. I love it!!! I really do, if I could just get it to stay in place. The sensor doesn't seem to want to stay put, and the magnet on the pedal shaft doesn't want to stay either :(

Speaking of my bike, couldn't believe it! The other day when I took it in to the shop to get the pedals put on, the helpful fellow filled up my rear tire as it was low ..... BANG!!!!! he wasn't too impressed, as he had to give me a new tube. Then after putting the tire back on he discovered a large rip in my tire (probably half the size of a dime!). That was very surprising. So I needed to get a new tire, but since I'm only going to be using the indoor trainer I purchased a tire that is specific for trainers and won't wear down. It is pretty blue, and now I won't have bits of black rubber everywhere in the basement :) So, in the spring before I head outdoors, I'll need to get another road tire.

I started using my Triathlon training diary, to record my workouts etc., it'll take a bit of getting used to, since I'm so used to just typing things out. Ah, maybe that's a good goal for 2010, to journal my training!

Haven't received my next set of training plans, but they are expected to arrive on Sunday. Tomorrow is a long "SLOW" run, not sure about that. Supposed to keep my HR in the mid 120's!!!!!!!!!!!!! Going to be boring...have to download some podcasts! Why so slow??? So confusing.

OK, better run and get the roast in the oven, thought I'd do up a nice garlic roast for dinner, with mashed potatoes and carrots. YUM.

It was so yummy! The colour of the gravy was gorgeous!!! But I do feel sluggish now.