Done!

Look what I got this morning!

Just got home after a 7+ hour drive…all in all it was one AMAZING vacation on many different levels.  More to come later!

The Two Year Plan

Everyone has some kind of plan for their life, right?  Well folks, somehow or other Ironman became my two year plan.  Somewhere around the Strathmore race last year I decided that an Ironman seemed like a great endurance goal.  I found a coach, decided to race two half Irons this year, and even planned a race and a vacation around showing up for Ironman Canada in order to volunteer and sign up for the 2010 event.

Every time I talked to a teammate or friend on Saturday in Penticton they would ask if I was signing up for 2010.  I would grimace with nerves and shakily say, “yes.”

And somehow on Saturday night it hit me.

The enormity of what I was aiming to do, despite the fact that I’ve been thinking about this for awhile.

And I panicked.

I had the worst pre-race sleep ever last night as I woke up at midnight, 1 am and it is hazy as to whether I was asleep between 1 am and 3 am.  Rough when your alarm is going off at 3:50 am.  In fact, I even had crazy race nightmares when I was asleep, where I dreamed that I had forgotten to race lap 2 on the bike at Lake Stevens and only realized this after 1 lap on the run.  And I wasn’t even racing Sunday.

Why was I all of a sudden so scared, and afraid to admit what I had long been planning to do?

Maybe it is the $600 CDN race fee.
Maybe it had something to do with the sacrifices that I made over the last few months when I was “only” training for a half Iron distance race.
Maybe I was scared of how training for an Ironman would change me.
Maybe I was scared that it wouldn’t change me at all.

My mom reminded me of something this evening though.  That you will never know what you are capable of unless you try.  Back in grade 9 I was scheduled to take a clarinet exam in the United Kingdom just before moving away to Canada.  I was not very diligent with my practicing.  In fact, my teacher was so confident that I would not pass that she strongly encouraged me to not take the exam because she was worried it would reflect poorly on her.  My mom said that there was no way that I wasn’t taking this exam.  If I passed or I failed, it was for me to find out.  If I did fail then I would have to realize that for myself, instead of quitting without knowing how I would really do.

At the exam you usually have no indication of how you do until you receive your results in the mail a month or two later.  Since I was moving my teacher had asked if they could give me a hint at the end of the exam.  The lead examiner told me that I didn’t have anything to worry about.

When the results came, not only had I passed, but this was the highest mark that I had ever received on a music exam, EVER.  Just about gave my teacher a heart attack since she was certain I had flubbed it miserably. 

So how can I know what I am capable of if I don’t try?  And shouldn’t such a big undertaking involve just a little anxiety before committing?  So you can bet that I’ll be in line for registration Monday morning. 

Not that there was any doubt.

Sunday, Sunday…

Happy 40th anniversary Mom and Dad!! I’m off to volunteer at Ironman Canada! Good luck to everyone racing, whether it is IMC, IMKY or wherever you are!

Back At It!

Just in case all of my vacation posts are getting a bit boring, well never fear!  I’m back on a training program!

I woke up in Vancouver on Tuesday morning and was ready and raring to go.  I stayed at the Sunset Inn & Suites, a great hotel in downtown Vancouver.  Most of the hotels in downtown are super expensive, then they charge you ridiculous amounts to park your car while you stay there too.  The rates at the Sunset were reasonable, plus parking was included, plus they had a bike locker as well.  The hotel is a couple of blocks away from the Burrard Street bridge and the beaches.

Speedy Tuesday

I had speed work on the schedule and I figured that a run along the beach front towards Stanley Park would be a terrific option.  I had 8 x 2:00 intervals with 2:00 of easy running in between.  I wasn’t sure how speedy I would be since I’ve been enjoying plenty of good food on my vacation.  I just focused on the scenery and never paid attention to the intervals.  I just waited for the Garmin to beep at me to let me know what to do.  In fact, I got so lost in the scenery that I was surprised when my 8 intervals were up.  5.8 miles done in just under 55 minutes.

Wednesday Grind

My first ever “hike” was the summer after my second year of university.  A few of us working at the City of Vancouver got together one weekend to hike the Grouse Grind.  Honestly, the Grind isn’t much of a hike.  It is a workout!
Length: 2.9 kilometres (1.8 miles)
Elevation Gain: 853 metres (2,800 feet)
Base: 274 metres above sea level (900 feet)
Summit: 1,127 metres (3,700 feet)
Total Stairs: 2,830
The first time I did the Grind I thought…it is a hike…I need hiking boots.  Except I didn’t have hiking boots.  I had steel toed boots that looked like hiking boots, so I wore those.  Like I needed to make it any more difficult!  Now I know that you are best off dressing like you are going for a run instead!  Here is a shot of the beginning of the trail, while it is still easy:There are no spectacular views since you are under tree cover until you reach the summit.  You just go up and up.  I settled in to a steady pace.  I wore my heart rate monitor for fun.  I didn’t look at my heart rate at all…probably a good thing since I think I defined a new max heart rate for myself!
I had no real goal for the Grind since I can’t remember any of my previous times.  I figured if I went under an hour that would probably be pretty good though.  All done in 53 minutes! Grouse really doesn’t want anyone to hike down, mostly because it is so steep and narrow, and there are so many people coming up that it isn’t safe.  Instead you can pay $5 to ride the Sky Ride down instead.  I felt sorry for all the people packed in around me on the way down! 
Thursday Long Run

I didn’t have any specific instructions for a long run, just to run 1:15 to 1:30 and base the length of the run on how I felt.  I wanted to take the opportunity to run the entire length of the sea wall in Stanley Park.  From the entrance to the exit of the park the sea wall is about 9 km in length.  I figured that to get from my hotel and back would be the perfect distance.  I got going early at 7 am and it was beautiful out.  Crisp and sunny.  There are water fountains at various points along the wall, generally wherever there are kiddie parks, so I didn’t worry about carrying water.  Just my room key, my ID, and some cash for a coffee after.  Unfortunately I didn’t bring a camera either, so I don’t have any pictures to share with you from the run!

The sea wall has been one of my favourite spots in Vancouver for ages.  Back when I was a kid and we would go to Vancouver for vacations we used to rent bikes and ride the sea wall.  I just marvelled at the scenery and didn’t pay attention to pace or anything.  All said and done I got in 8.35 miles and I felt great the entire time.

I do have some shots of Stanley Park from some previous trips though, so check out the scenery:After my run it was time to pack up and hit the road out of Vancouver.  I’m now back in the Okanagan, in time for Ironman Canada this weekend!  I’m taking today as a rest day…since I haven’t had one in over a week…  Happy Friday all!

Change of Plans!!

As I was riding along on Monday morning I started to wonder how I was going to spend my day.  After all, I would have the entire afternoon and evening ahead of me now!  My plan was to drive from Winthrop through the North Cascades National Park and stay in Marblemount, about 88 miles away.  Apparently there is phenomenal hiking in the park…but since I wasn’t so interested in solo hiking I wasn’t sure how I would spend my day.  I started to think that I could actually make it to Vancouver in plenty of time instead…

The drive through the North Cascades was beautiful.  Such different scenery compared to the southern route.  There is actually a town within the park, Newhalem, that is owned by Seattle City Light.  The only people who can live in this town must work for the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, or in local county, state or federal agencies.  Interesting, eh?

Ultimately I decided to keep going toward Vancouver.  The hotel I had booked had enough availability that I could arrive a night early and I got here just in time for dinner.  Now where to go for dinner?  It was a toss up between oysters at Joe Fortes, or some possible Iron Chef winner Rob Feenie cuisine at Cactus Club.  Turns out that pints of Udder Ale are on special at the Cactus Club on Mondays, so that sealed the deal.

The place was packed, but I managed to snag an awesome table at the bar.  Shortly after this arrived…
…a lady approached me to ask if I would mind sharing my table with herself and two other folks.  They were teachers in town for a BC Teachers Federation conference and I wound up having a blast chatting with them all night.  One of the ladies, her daughter is racing Ironman Canada this weekend, plus will be racing Clearwater in November.  Turns out her daughter and I live just a few blocks apart.  Weird coincidence!

So the moral of the story is that sometimes a change in plans is a good thing.  You never know where it may lead you!  For me, it was a terrific night at the Cactus Club, plus something fun on Tuesday morning…

Postcards from the Road - Winthrop

It has been a busy few days…let’s catch up!  Sunday morning I left Leavenworth and continued on the Cascade Loop towards the Methow Valley.  The scenery changes quite dramatically as you go from mountains, to more dessert terrain with orchards and wineries everywhere as you continue east.  I went as far east as Wenatchee, then headed north from there.

I had a few ideas for places to stop, but one place that caught my eye as i was driving past was the Rocky Reach Dam.  Being a civil engineer (by degree anyway) I find dams to be pretty fascinating things.  Rocky Reach has some terrific exhibits open to the public.  You can stand by viewing windows and watch for different fish to make their way along the fish ladder for the dam.  You can see the turbines where all the magic happens.  (Although ultimately you can’t see a lot since all the action happens below the concrete surface)It was actually a beautiful spot, and everything was free to the public.

From there I drove past Lake Chelan to Manson.  Wineries and orchards are in abundance here, plus it is a popular spot for all kinds of water sport related things.  Can you believe it, I actually didn’t stop at any wineries?  Where I did go was to Blueberry Hills Farm in Manson.  They have a great spot for lunch and the pies are fantastic.  Since people will apparently drive 400 miles for the beef dip sandwich I decided to give it a try…and it was mighty tasty!After I left Manson I drove through the Methow Valley to my next destination for the evening, the Mt. Gardner Inn in Winthrop.  Winthrop is a pretty cute little town – it looks like you have stepped into the wild old west.  I arrived in town around 5 pm…so unfortunately a lot of the shops along the main drag were closing, but it was still neat to wander around.For dinner I drove a short distance to Twisp as I had heard good things about the Twisp River Pub.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and order their bacon cheddar burger since apparently all of their ground beef is sourced within 100 miles of Twisp.  I have to say…the burger was a heavenly experience!  Their ESB (extra special bitter) was pretty darn tasty too!

On Monday I had planned to laze about in the morning, check out of my hotel, go for a bike ride, then hit the road for my next destination.  As there wasn’t a whole lot of distance between my two stopping points this seemed like a pretty good idea.  Unfortunately I woke up before 6 am as the person upstairs was stomping about.  There was no going back to bed, so I decided to hurry up and get ready, ride, then be back in time to shower before checking out.

I had planned a nice route from Winthrop, south to Twisp, on to Carlton and back.  There are some roads that parallel the main highway with minimal traffic, and even better scenery.  Plus the route is essentially pretty flat.  Starting this early in the morning meant that it was still pretty brisk out – thank goodness I had brought my arm warmers along!  As I rode along I started thinking that I might change my plans since I was now riding a fair bit earlier than expected…  I got a fantastic ride in though, just over 36 miles. 

Postcards from the Road - Leavenworth

Leavenworth is one big ol’ tourist trap..but it is so cute!  After industry had left the town and it was dying community leaders decided to promote tourism as their main industry.  The town was converted into a Bavarian style village.  I stayed at the Bavarian Lodge, a place I would definitely recommend.  Beautiful rooms, comfy beds, and the most amazing breakfast spread I have ever seen (included in your room rate).  Breakfast included omelettes, potatoes, ham or sausage, homemade biscuits with country gravy, plus your usual suspects of cereals, toasts, waffles and fresh fruit.  I’d show you a picture but it looks like pure gluttony on a plate.

When I got in on Friday I grabbed a bite to eat, then was off to take in a performance of the Sound of Music.  Leavenworth has a great summer theatre, and seeing the Sound of Music outdoors seemed like a terrific idea.  I should probably admit that I have never seen this show, either on stage or the movie, ever before.  Seeing it live with the mountains in the back might be hard to top.

On Saturday I decided to head out for a ride along the Chumstick Highway to Lake Wenatchee State Park and back.  It would be about 45 miles or so.  There weren’t a lot of road riding options around Leavenworth in MapMyRide, but this one was listed a few times.  This ride was kind of similar to riding Highway 1A to Cochrane and back.  You slowly build elevation and it really isn’t an exciting ride.  When I was about 7.5 miles into the ride the scenery wasn’t the most amazing in this direction and it was just a boring ride overall.  I decided to cut it short and head back in to town.  I sat on a bench in the town square and ate my peanut butter sandwich and some cantaloupe and felt pretty content with my decision.FYI…better riding would be to go out Highway 2 (Cascade Highway) in either the east (flatter) or west direction.  More traffic for sure, but much better scenery!  Of course I know this in hindsight now, but that’s okay!

In the afternoon I wandered around the tourist shops and had dinner at an AMAZING place, Munchen Haus.  The menu is simple with several types of sausages to choose from.  They grill them up, then choose from a wide variety of mustards, plus relish, onions, ketchup, horseradish and sauerkraut for toppings.  Seating is in an outdoor biergarten that is pet friendly.  Plus they have some terrific beers on tap, my favourite being the Alpine Amber. This morning (Sunday) it was time to test out the legs and see if they remembered how to run!  I didn’t want to go very far, so I just did a loop from the hotel along Highway 2, up to the ski hill, then back down.  Just over 3.5 miles.  Of course, running up to a ski hill implies that this run won’t be all that flat…but it felt good to get the blood pumping running uphill.  I got going early to beat the heat, grabbed breakfast, then packed up the car and hit the road to continue my journey along the Cascade Loop…

Postcards from the Road – Stevens Pass

On Friday it was time to continue on the Cascade Loop and head inland. I left Whidbey Island via the ferry between Clinton (on the south end of the island) and Mukilteo. I took a detour on my way out of town via Redmond. I was keen to fill up a growler (a half gallon glass jug) with some Mac & Jack’s African Amber Ale.

*As a total aside, can I just say I love this growler culture? There are so many microbreweries around Washington and the best way to take larger quantities of beer home is via the growler.*

Stopping off in Redmond gave me a chance to do something I missed out on earlier on in the trip – lunch at Chipotle! My favourite fast food joint that sadly is not up in Canada… From there it was time to drive up into the Cascades through Stevens Pass. I stopped for two wee little hikes (if you can call them that). The first was a little one mile loop to see Deception Falls. Beautiful, and a pretty little hike!The second was the Iron Goat Trail. This trail is about 9 miles long and follows an old abandoned railway grade line. I got about half a mile in and I realized that this was not a busy trail. Most hikers prefer less busy trails, but when you are on your own…hiking isn’t really a great solo activity. Not wanting to become part of a news story that you would see on 20/20 I decided to practice my trail running skills and hightailed it out of there. But check out the amazing concrete wall that was erected to support snow sheds. This thing was long, didn’t make it to the end before I turned around! I would have like to see the snow tunnels, but it was still over a mile away from this point.

A short while later I arrived at my destination for the next two nights, Leavenworth…

Postcards from the Road – Whidbey Island (Day 2)

Thursday was day two on Whidbey Island, and I planned to do some more exploring on two wheels. I had mapped out a nice little route to take me towards the south part of the island and back, seeing both the west and east sides. I can’t imagine packing in a whole lot more on one ride than I did this day.

I took off out of Coupeville…
…and headed towards State Park #1 – Fort Casey. The big attraction at Fort Case is the Admiralty Head lighthouse. This was the perfect spot to sit down, look out at the water, and enjoy a peanut butter sandwich.
I wasn’t sure they would appreciate me stomping around the lighthouse in my cycling shoes, so I enjoyed looking at the outside, then took off. The cycling was beautiful, with such varied scenery. Beaches at one spot on the island, then forests on another. For the most part even though I was riding close to the water there were so many trees between the road and it that I could barely see it. I rode through State Park #2 – Whidbey Island State Park. I didn’t stop here at all, I just marvelled at the trees while riding through. It is a pretty small park and I’m not sure what is here besides a few walking trails.

As I was making my way towards Freeland, what would be the southern-most part of my ride, the traffic was starting to back up. A truck was out painting lines on the side of the road. Not wanting to get mixed up in the traffic I darted down a street with no outlet, and found a nice spot to sit and finish off my sandwich and wait for the traffic and truck to move on.
At this point I realized my legs were getting tired and I was ready to head back. Rather than taking the scenic roads by the water I decided to head up the main two lane highway down the middle of the island. Less scenic, maybe slightly less hilly, but unfortunately more traffic. The shoulder was nice and wide though for the most part.

I passed through Greenbank and decided it was time for a snack break at Whidbey Pies. They make an excellent Loganberry pie!
I continued up the main highway and shortly after could hear some very noisy aircrafts up ahead. As I approached the Navy outlying field I could see what was going on. There were four planes all practicing their “touch and go” manoeuvres. They would land, touch down for a second, then take off again. Fascinating to watch! People would be driving down the highway, then stop and pull over to see what was going on.

After that it was back on the road back to Coupeville. Almost there!
It wound up being a nearly 45 mile ride. Absolutely beautiful!!! I had to head in to the biggest town on the island, Oak Harbour, in the afternoon to take care of laundry, then it was back in the evening to relax and enjoy my last night on Whidbey Island.

The only thing missing on the ride was that I didn’t see any wildlife! As I was wandering around Coupeville in the evening I did catch this guy – he was having a snack in someone’s back yard!

Postcards from the Road – Whidbey Island (Day 1)

Greetings from Coupeville, WA on Whidbey Island! Yesterday it was time to pack up and leave Everett and bid adieu to my parents. For the rest of my trip in Washington I am exploring the Cascade Loop.

There are two ways to get to Whidbey Island. You can take a ferry from Mukilteo to get to the south side of the island. Or you can go north and cross the Deception Pass bridge. I really wanted to see the bridge, so Deception Pass it was!
They have sidewalks on either side of the bridge, and here I discovered that I am somewhat afraid of heights, particularly when big trucks are rumbling past so close to you. I grabbed a couple of shots and hightailed it off the bridge.

From there I drove to Coupeville where I am staying in a great bed and breakfast, the Anchorage Inn. Once I unloaded the car I turned my computer on, uploaded a bike route to my Garmin and took off. I wanted to do a bit of exploring on two wheels! I decided to ride a loop from Coupeville to Oak Harbour and back that would let me see both the east and west sides of the island. Just over 20 miles. There are a lot of rolling hills here. I just took the ride easy and the legs were feeling pretty good. Here’s a shot of the east side of the island, looking at Penn Cove:
And the west side of the island:
After the ride it was time to shower up and grab some dinner. I was on the hunt for some Penn Cove mussels! Toby’s Tavern seemed to fit the bill – a big bowl of mussels, some good beer, and a great casual atmosphere with some awesome 80s hair band music.
Time to do some more exploring I think…