First Ride

I hope everyone has had a great week!  Things as usual continue to be pretty busy around here.

On Thursday I met up with Kelly as we both had a tempo run on our schedule.  We ran our warm up together for 20 minutes, then it was 15 minutes at tempo pace.  The run went really well and it was no trouble at all to hold the tempo pace.

I opted to knock my long run out on Friday in order to keep my weekend free for other fun stuff.  Being a cut back week my long run was shorter and more intense.  At 11:30 I looked out the window and it was raining!  I have no issues with running in the rain, but given that I had to go back to work afterward it wasn’t ideal.  Instead I ate my lunch and started thinking about how I would rearrange my weekend.  When I looked out the window again at 12:30 there was sun peaking through the clouds.  Time to hurry up and change and get out there!  My run included a 10 minute warm up, 3 x 10:00 intervals at a steady state pace followed by a couple of 3:00 intervals in zone 5.  Unfortunately my lunch hadn’t fully digested by the time I started running…but luckily it wasn’t a burger so I didn’t suffer from the same issues as my Tuesday run.  I had no issues meeting my goals during my intervals and it wound up being a terrific run.  Plus the sun continued to come out, so that was a bonus!

As for Saturday?  That was a truly exciting day.  The weather around here has been fairly nice and I’ve been thinking about taking my Cervelo out on the road.  You see, by the time I got D’s bike back in November the snow rolled in and I’ve only been riding on a trainer.  I really had no idea how the bike would feel once we started rolling on pavement.  I spent Saturday morning cleaning my ride up, lubing the chain, replacing the trainer tire with an outdoor tire, checking my saddle bag that it still had all the required gear in it and got ready to go.  It was out to Horse Creek in Cochrane for a ride!  It was nice and warm at 13C, but the wind was gusting up to 35 km/hr.  Oh well, time to suck it up!  Right away I could notice that I was feeling fit riding out there.  The uphills weren’t feeling nearly as hard…and I didn’t have a tail wind so that couldn’t have been it.  I knew that all of the work I’ve been doing on the trainer at Angie’s spin class has really been paying off.  On the flats I let loose and felt so powerful!  I rode 20 miles out and back and just for fun it seemed like the wind really picked up on the way back.  I just hunkered down and pedaled to get back as quickly as I could.  All in all, a great ride!  I’m really optimistic about riding this year and I definitely feel as though I am coming out of this winter as a stronger cyclist.  And I am super excited about my new ride.  I know it is a great fit and I am grateful every time I get on it that I was able to luck out with getting this bike.  I am really and truly in love with this bike and I’m excited for the upcoming adventures I will have riding it!!

Hills and more hills, redux

There has been one theme this week it seems. Hills, hills and more hills! I rode hills on Tuesday, ran a hilly run on Wednesday…then had more hills in store for the weekend. Originally I had an 80K ride on my schedule but I had an invite out for a ride on Saturday that would be more like 110km. I double checked with Angie that she was okay with me doing the longer ride, and so long as it wouldn’t affect the quality of my workouts later in the week I was good to go! Four of us met out in Cochrane, Pam, Kevin and Susi. Susi was the only one who had ridden this route before so it was going to be a surprise!

We have really lucked out with the weather this week and Saturday was no exception. It was low to mid 20s (low to mid 70s) and amazing sunshine out. Where we didn’t really luck out was with the wind. It was crazy out! We made our way out of Cochrane and on to Horse Creek and I thought there were times that I might get blown over. Kevin and I wound up riding out Horse Creek together and he was trying to give me tips on drafting. Obviously you can’t do it in a race, but he was encouraging me to try and find the sweet spot behind his wheel where you don’t have to work as hard. Which is easier said than done when you have a wind trying to blow you sideways! Horse Creek has some good hills and I was powering up them. In hindsight…maybe a little too hard for the beginning of a long ride…oops! As we neared the spot on Horse Creek that I dread there was a welcome surprise in sight. There is a portion of the road that is just brutal with pot holes and it is so rough to ride. Not to mention that there are a couple of big hills around here… Well, they are in the process of paving it! As this is part of the Calgary 70.3 course that will no doubt make the racers happy!

Kevin and I continued north on Horse Creek until the turn off for Bottrel. We debated between waiting for Pam and Susi here, or continuing on the general store in Bottrel. Just then a pick up truck pulled up to the stop sign. We asked him how far the general store was, and it wasn’t too far…only about 3K or so. Um…he was a pretty congenial fellow…he advised us to find the girl working at the liquor store in Bottrel because she sold great ice cream apparently. The Tiger Tail is supposed to be fantastic. (Tiger Tail is orange with black liquorice swirled through it and I absolutely love it!!) But it was a little early in the ride for ice cream. :( About then Susi and Pam pulled up, so on to the general store for our first opportunity to refill our water bottles and to hit the bathrooms. By this point in time you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere and the General Store is a total hoot. There is a super friendly dog and cat there waiting to greet you. The store’s motto is that if “We ain’t got it…you don’t need it!”

We took a quick break and then we were back on the road. We did a short stint along highway 22, but we quickly turned off and from there on out it was beautiful…quiet…and so rural. Amazing. There were a ton of horses, cows…you name it. And there were some itty bitty baby cows! The hills just kept rolling though…up, down, up down. We hit our second water stop at the Beaver Dam golf course, then turned around and headed back to Lochend Road to make our way back to Cochrane. Lochend Road…Susi said it perfectly when she said that the hills just kept coming. You’d see a hill, climb it and crest it, then see another one just a short distance away. This continued on the entire way down Lochend…about 19 miles! I didn’t really have a lot of oomph to power through the hills, but I was certainly climbing them steadily and that felt really good. I was pretty happy when we hit Highway 1A to head back to Cochrane. That meant the climbing was over and it was just a straight shot back to the finish. I took off down 1A, eager to get back because I had dinner reservations that I was a worried that I was going to be late for. When I hit Cochrane I chickened out on going down Cochrane hill and took the more gentle (but longer) way down into town by Gleneagles Golf Course. Then it was back to the car to load up the bike and hurry up for home and dinner! But first, check out the elevation profile of our ride. 2320 feet of climbing, somewhere around 67.5 miles for the ride.

I rushed home, took the fastest shower ever…and booted it out to southeast Calgary for dinner at Bolero. My sister-in-law and I have birthdays that are just over a week apart, so this was our chance to celebrate together. I’ve mentioned Bolero before – it is a Brazilian Churascurria that is amazing. Guys with different cuts of beef, chicken pork and lamb on swords come by your table to serve you. And one of the highlights is there grilled pineapple… So yummy! I may have had a one night stand with beef last night…but it was so worth it!

As for today, I had a 2650m swim and a 90 minute hilly run on the schedule. I wanted to hit the pool up early before it got busy, but I also wanted a bit of a chance to sleep in too! I got into a lane at 10 am and it was actually pretty quiet. I ran through my 2650m endurance ladder workout and it felt so good. I wasn’t fast, but I felt consistent the whole time. I like having these extra swim workouts on the weekend. If I time it properly at the right pool then it is nice and quiet and I enjoy the chance for quiet reflection in the water. It makes a nice change from my Tuesday/Thursday swim class where I am crazily trying to hang on to the swimmers in front of me all the time.

As for the 90 minute hilly run, I wanted to wait until the afternoon to get that done. I figured I’d give my legs as much time off as possible between yesterday’s bike and today’s run. I headed back out to Baker Park again since I knew I’d hit some good hills. My legs were definitely hurting on the uphills, but I felt strong on the flats and the downhills so I knew the legs were in good shape. I ran out 45 minutes…stopped, had a drink and realized I was almost out of water. It was hot out and there was no way I was going to make it back on just the couple of sips left in my bottle. I detoured slightly to the Shouldice Pool and found a water fountain I could fill up at. Then it was back to the car! All said and done I ran for 8.62 miles. It wasn’t fast, but I ran those hills strong and got the workout done!

As for refuelling…I decided to make good use of my barbeque today. I grilled up some fresh sockeye salmon marinated in a mixture of olive oil, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, horseradish, brown sugar and rice vinegar. I also grilled up some Brussels sprouts and garlic in a foil pouch (maybe for a bit too long, but this was my first attempt), along with some asparagus, eggplant and zucchini. I served it up with some arugula, tomato and balsamic vinegar…so good! Alright, time to get ready for tomorrow… Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Sunday Ride

Wow...it has been one busy weekend! Not necessarily full of fun stuff besides the training, but busy none the less. I was up at 6 am to accomplish a few things around the house before getting on to my bike. Thank goodness the weather was slightly more cooperative today for riding outdoors! I had a 1.5 hour ride on the schedule followed by a 20 min run. I drove out to Cochrane, leaving behind sunny skies and heading towards some ominous looking clouds. I hadn't noticed those before I was leaving, but I was already on the road and would have had to turn around and do some research on another route that would have eaten up too much time. I just kept my fingers crossed that I'd be able to outrun the clouds.

I parked at my usual spot to ride the Horse Creek loop. I wanted to ride it and compare it to the last time I road a few weeks back with the group. I saw a few different groups along the way in the beginning, a few of them wearing Team Tri Life jackets. Unfortunately with all that bike gear on it was hard to recognize who was who, so I'm not too sure who I passed!

I'm definitely feeling a lot stronger riding than I did at the end of last year. Must have been all of those amazing training sessions over the winter! Hills that I huffed and puffed on now seem less consequential. I also spent some time getting into my aerobars a bit in the beginning, as well as getting used to my water bottle out of the cage (something I still find a bit tricky).

Once I finished going as far north on my loop as I could go I made a westerly turn and smacked head first into some wind. At this point the road isn't super smooth either and the vibrations were crazy! I hoped that when I turned south I wouldn't be pummeled by the wind so much anymore, but that wasn't the case. I forged on, just kept spinning and tried to keep my cadence as close to 90 rpm as possible. With a few miles left to go in the ride a few sprinkles started to fall. I could tell I was riding towards sunshine so I was keeping my fingers crossed that it wouldn't turn into a downpour. Once I turned onto Highway 1A the sprinkles stopped and I was nearly back at my car. All in all, 26.5 miles down, and about 5 minutes faster than the last time I road the loop a few weeks back. I also decided to ride in tri shorts. I figured that since I'll be racing in them I would be best off getting my behind used to riding in them on a regular basis.

I had a 20 minute brick next, and the road that I park on for this ride is probably my least favorite place to run afterward. It is a combination of dirt, mud and gravel and it just sucks any energy out of your legs. Not to mention that you have to start out running uphill. My legs were trashed (ahem...probably because I decided not to down my gel halfway through the ride...) so I wound up running for a whopping 7 minutes.

I stopped by Starbucks for a mocha since I figured it was a good combination of recovery drink (you know, like hot chocolate) and caffeine. I came home, sat on the couch to check a few things on the computer, then figured I'd better get up before I laid down for a long nap. Still plenty more to accomplish! I guess that is what happens when you have a pile of laundry from two weeks or so and a house that desperately needs some tidying!

Anyhow, I hope you folks all had a terrific weekend!!

Glencoe Icebreaker 10K - Race Report

I debated whether I should write this up this evening since I am absolutely pooped...but here goes regardless!

April is here, and this is my most prolific racing month of the year. Three races in four weeks. Not nearly as good as my five races in four weeks from last year, but oh well... This weekend was the Glencoe Icebreaker 10K. I haven't run this race before and I didn't really know anything about it. One day Angie sent an e-mail around asking who was going to sign up because she would be collecting the entry forms at our next class. Sure...I'll sign up! There is no online sign up for this race. You fill out your entry form and drop it off at the Glencoe Club. Don't even bother mailing it in because it fills far too quickly.

I picked up my race packet on Friday after work. We got a nice long sleeve tech tee, a water bottle and some kind of air puffed chips. The race started at 9 am this morning, and despite it being somewhat chilly (-5C) the sky was clear and the sun was out. I got there about half an hour before the race, went for a quick warm up, then hit the bathroom and headed out towards the start line. We had quite a large contingent of Team Tri Life folks there and it was great chatting with them before we got going.

As soon as 9:00 hit we were off. No chip timing on this one. There was a big shmozzle of people for the first 1K or so, but then we started to space out a bit. I could see my teammates Pam and James up ahead and I wanted to do my best to keep them in my sight. When I said I didn't know anything about this race I meant it. I had no clue where we were running, or whether the run would be flat or hilly. When we hit our first hill I caught up with Pam. She was taking it pretty easy since she hadn't been running too much lately, plus she had another run to do later in the day too. From there I could see James and I was catching up to him. We ran together for a bit and then I pulled away. I hit the 5K mark around 28:29 or so. Hmm, time to see if I could keep this up. From there we turned into a neighborhood to run an out and back. It was great to wave at my teammates that I saw running towards me. At the turnaround for the out and back there was a water stop. I grabbed a cup and walked to down it, and at that point James passed me and took off. He expected me to catch back up to him, but maybe with the short walk break I somehow lost a bit of momentum. My legs were starting to feel a bit sluggish and catching up seemed like it would take too much effort. I kept James in my sights though a continued on. He was great motivation!

The second half of the race was definitely flatter, but I slowed down just a touch. Since I didn't know exactly where the finish line was I wasn't quite sure where to kick it in for the finish line. Finally I could see it, but there wasn't a lot of time for that last push. Within the last few feet my teammate Nola came out of nowhere and blew past me. I sprinted over the line and stopped the Garmin - 57:25. Exactly the same finishing time as for the St. Patrick's Day 10K. Afterwards Nola congratulated me on my race and exclaimed that she couldn't let someone younger than her beat her!

If there was one thing I heard about this race, it was that the post-race breakfast and draw prizes were amazing. And they were right! The post race spread included muffins, danishes, muesli, fruit salad, scrambled eggs, potatoes, ham, waffles (with your choice of syrup or whipped cream and fruit syrup), yogurt, milk, and coffee. I loaded my plate up and reconnected with my teammates. It was great to hang out with them - my teammates are all such fantastic people! The draw prizes were great too...a couple of mountain bikes, a Garmin, $100 gift certificates for Ridley's cycle, $100 gift certificates for a local wine shop, a trip to Vancouver... and TTL were having no luck! Finally on the last prize of the morning - a stay at the Fairmont in Banff with a gift certificate to the spa - my teammate John won. Nice! I had a blast doing this race, and I would definitely do this one again for sure!! Maybe I'll have better luck on the draw prizes next year..!

After that I headed home. I had a 60-90 minute recovery spin on the schedule. The thought of riding indoors was not thrilling at all. James had driven Horse Creek in Cochrane the day before and had mentioned that the road was clear of ice and gravel. By now the temperature was up to 6C so I figured that the temperature wouldn't be too bad. So I figured a trip out to Cochrane was in order! I loaded the bike up in the car and headed out. As I pulled out of my garage I looked down at my left index finger. I must have caught my finger while loading up the bike somehow because I had a small blood blister on the tip.

By way of background...I wanted to go into medicine and become a doctor. But I have zero stomach for blood and guts. The blood blister? Oy... Just thinking about it or looking at it was grossing me out and making me a little lightheaded. Good thing I didn't go into medicine, eh?

There must have been a ton of folks with cabin fever that were just waiting for a nice day to take advantage of. Plenty of cyclists on the road out to Cochrane! I parked just off of Horse Creek (pictures here) and there was another guy unloading a bike too. As soon as I got out of the car I discovered that it was a bit windy out. Yikes! We chatted about the weather and whether it was going to make our ride a bit rough or not. I took off and headed north on Horse Creek. I wasn't sure how far I'd go, but it felt so good to be riding outside! My legs were a bit tired from the running this weekend and I wasn't feeling nearly as strong on the hills as much as I would have liked. When I first turned west I got my first inkling that the wind was pretty strong. The wind was coming from the south... The jaunt west was pretty short, then it was back north. I rode about 12 miles to the stop sign and turned around. In hindsight I wish I would have hit the lap button to know how long it took me to ride out. As soon as I turned around...there was a huge smack... That wind was ridiculous!! Normally the out is a a bit tougher since it has more uphills, but even the slight downhill trend on the way back didn't help. I was stuck pedalling in my granny gears unless I had a steep downhill. As soon as the downhill would start to flatten out I'd have to get back to my granny gear. I probably averaged 18 mph on the way out, but now I was averaging about 10 mph. I'm pretty sure that this was not the easy recovery ride that Angie had in mind! It was a tough slog and I was so happy when I finally saw my car. I threw my bike in the back, chatted with the fellow who was also parked off of Horse Creek and finished up a few minutes behind me, then took off to Starbucks to grab a hot chocolate. I came home and contemplated going to bed pretty soon after arriving home...at 6:30..!!! I was wiped!

Anyhow, in case you are in the Calgary area and looking for a good clean road to ride on, then Horse Creek is in great shape!

Sunday = Biking + Wind

Sunday's prescribed ride was supposed to be an easy 40 minute one. It was the first time I was going to attempt anything technical outside though as it involved 4 x 2 min spin ups with 2 minutes of easy spinning in between. I could have ridden inside, but I really wanted to be outdoors despite the cool temperatures and gusty winds. I headed out to Cochrane at about 4:00. It was 3 deg C out and nice and sunny. I definitely dressed for the cold, so riding outside was comfortable. The spin ups on the way out were pretty uneventful. On the last two I wound up hitting a hill during my spin up so my cadence fell off part way through, but otherwise it went pretty well. It was the way back to the car that was some serious work. I couldn't believe how windy it was out there. Riding felt like a fight as I was going head on in to the wind. I just wanted to be done in the worst way. I guess the bright side was that it made me focus on riding efficiently - I was concentrating on my pedal stroke and cadence and found ways that made me feel like I was biking pretty efficiently. On the way home I stopped off at Starbucks to get something hot to drink. Have you tried their new salted caramel hot chocolate? I am sure this drink is probably ten different kinds of wrong, but oh...it tastes so good! Once I was home I whipped up a zucchini musakka dish with chickpeas. The recipe calls for lamb, but I swapped it out for ground turkey breast so I made sure to season it well with some salt, pepper and paprika while it was cooking. I also added in some eggplant just to throw another veggie in there. Having a Benriner mandolin helps to make short work of slicing the zucchini and eggplant so it didn't take too long to prep. It was good stuff!

Thanksgiving Weekend - Day 1 and 2

I forgot to mention that this weekend is Thanksgiving up north here. Today is actually Thanksgiving Day, so happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm currently sitting around in sweats contemplating my 3 mi run and weight lifting routine on my schedule for today. But anyhow, let's talk about what I've already done this weekend:

Friday:
I headed out to Speed Theory to pick up some more Hammer Gels. I also needed some bike shoe covers and a bike computer, so because I didn't feel like running around to a bunch of stores I picked up the one that the fellow at Speed Theory recommended - the Sigma BC 1606L.

Saturday:
The day of my 12.5 mi run. I had the alarm set to go off at 6:30 am and I just could not drag my behind out of bed. I finally rolled out somewhere around 8 or 8:30 and proceeded to putter around the house. It was sunny outside, but still cold and I was waiting for it to warm up. I also had an invite to Thanksgiving dinner at my sister-in-law's mother's and her husband's place at 4:00, and I was responsible for bringing a dish. So I sat around perusing recipe books trying to decide what I wanted to bring. I settled on a baked butternut squash recipe so I made up my grocery list and headed out to Safeway. While I was there my sister-in-law called to let me know that we weren't arriving at 4, we were eating at 4. I'd wasted so much time that with baking squash there was no way that 12.5 mi were going to happen that day. So I got my squash ready, then headed out for dinner:Yes, that might be a Kylie Minogue CD in my side pocket door there. Please don't make fun. Here's the finished dish - creamy butternut baked squash:
Dinner was fantastic - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, coleslaw, Ambrosia salad, my squash, and carrot cake. Good stuff! My brother and I had to leave around 7:00 though because I'd managed to score tickets to the Calgary Flames home opener that night. Yeah...we were sitting very high up. I think you could get altitude sickness up there. I made up for not running my 12.5 miler by walking up and down to our seats a couple of times. The Flames were playing the Vancouver Canucks - my favourite team! My brother cheers for the Flames so I figured there would be some good ribbing depending on who was winning or losing.The game was a really good time. The Canucks opened the scoring but at the end of the first period it was 3-1 Flames. The Canucks came back to tie it, only to go down by a goal again. The Canucks tied it up and we went to overtime where the Canucks pulled it out and got the game winner. Good times! It was then time to head home and I wasn't in bed until well after midnight.

Sunday:
So all of a sudden I had a 12.5 miler and a 1 to 1-1/2 hour bike ride on my schedule for the day. Good thing I didn't have anything else going on! I just could not get out of bed at 6:30 again and I wound up leaving the house for my run at 11:30 am. It was really sunny out, but still kind of cold and the wind was pretty fierce. I started off in capris, a long sleeve t, and a midweight top over it. I had to lose the top pretty early on as the sun was making me heat up. About 2 mi in to my run I noticed a loose German shepherd in on one of the side streets I was on. He didn't have a collar on and truthfully, he didn't seem all that friendly. I didn't have my cell phone on me, so I tried to talk to a few residents to see if they knew who he belonged to, but no one had ever seen him before. There wasn't too much I could do, so I just kept going. I sort of wound up running 19:1 intervals, except I would mostly only stop and walk to drink some water, and then start back up running again. Every mile was in the low 10:00s so I was running really strong, even on the uphills. After 6 miles I stopped to take a chocolate mint Gu. Oh...my...word... This is the best flavour ever! It is kind of like eating a soft After Eight mint. If I would have kept running to 13.1 miles I would have set a new PR for that distance today, so yes, my running is most definitely getting faster!

After the run it was home to make lunch and to try and set up my bike computer. The speed sensor is supposed to be on the front wheel but the wire was just long enough that I was able to get it to the back wheel. This way I'll be able to have some speed information while I'm on my trainer. Once I was set up I pumped up my tires, threw the bike in the back of the car and headed out to Cochrane for a ride. Clouds had started to roll in towards the end of my run and it wasn't looking so pretty as I drove out there. There were even a few sprinkles. I wasn't even going to aim for an 1-1/2 hour ride, I was just going to go for an hour.

I was well bundled up from the cold wind and I felt pretty comfortable out there. I couldn't even feel the sprinkles. I took it easy on the speed though because the roads were definitely slick and I didn't want to run the risk of wiping out. I gave my new shoe covers a try and they were fantastic for keeping my feet nice and toasty warm:
I got in just over 15 miles, and then it was time to head home and make something appropriate for Thanksgiving. I had a boneless, skinless turkey breast that had been marinating in a rub of black pepper, cumin, chili powder, sage, lime juice and olive oil that I grilled up. I made up some Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts and some broccoli for the side. It was delicious!The wine was pretty good too...Alright, time to stop contemplating my run and weight lifting routine as I'm babysitting my niece this afternoon. For everyone celebrating Thanksgiving today, I hope you have a fantastic day!

Final Tuesday Night Group Ride

Just when things were getting started from a group ride perspective, now they are over. Last night was our final Tuesday night ride out at Horse Creek as we now move indoors in anticipation of the changing weather. We were rewarded with a pretty fabulous night last night though. It was 26 deg out...amazing! There was no plan, but I rode hard and attempted to play catch up with the group in front of me. I pushed the uphills and flew down the other side of them. I was on my own for most of the ride until the very end, when LA caught up to me. We had a sprint war for the final few minutes to see if we could catch the folks in front of us. It was absolutely exhilarating. Average speed for the ride? 18.6 mph, or 30 km/h. My out and back speeds were so close that I know I'm really improving on my uphills. Before I flew a lot faster on the way back than the way out.

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This morning's run? Boring. I needed to get it done in the am, and truthfully, it is so dark in the mornings now that I didn't want to run in my neighborhood. So I headed to the Y for 3 music filled miles on the treadmill. I'm all about music-less running outside, but on the treadmill I need the distraction!

A Photo Tour of Horse Creek

I promised some pictures from my next ride out at Horse Creek, so on Sunday afternoon I headed out with my camera for a nice easy ride. We'll be riding from one stop sign to another and back again.
Check out the bus in the field here:
Alpacas I think? Llamas maybe?
That is one heck of a hill off in the distance! Not to mention the added bonus you get trying to dodge all of the ruts in the road...Finally! At the stop sign!
Part of someone's gate to their farm...Stopping for a self portrait:
A horse on Horse Creek Road:
More wildlife! Cows!
This is where all of the deer hang out:
Then that was it, I was back at the car 23 miles later!

A Good Solo Ride and a Bad Run

On Thursday the weather was too nice to not do something outside. I rushed home from work, changed, and threw the bike in the back of the car. I made my way out to Cochrane for my own solo ride on Horse Creek. As soon as I started riding my legs felt tired from Wednesday night's hills. Since I didn't have to worry about catching a group I figured I'd just ride and not worry about things too much. I figured I wouldn't get too far because I didn't want to be out on the road as the sun was setting. I opted to ride to the same turnaround spot as on Tuesday so that would give me a 15 mile ride or so. The leaves are changing colour up here already and it was absolutely amazing out. I wish I had thought to bring my camera to take a couple of shots. If the weather cooperates next week for another ride I'll try to snap a few pictures. On my way back there were a bunch of deer out, including one that was standing right in the middle of the road. I slowed down since I wasn't sure which direction he would want to go and he wound up bounding off into the field on my left. I finished up just in time as the sun was getting lower in the sky. When I uploaded my Garmin I realized that I actually rode faster on my own than when I was in the group trying to catch up on Tuesday. Weird, eh?

I had to move my long run to Friday, but considering I only had 45 minutes on the schedule I didn't think it would be too bad. I had planned to run in the afternoon, except that I forgot how much running and Friday afternoons don't agree with me. Of course, I hadn't had a day off since the last Friday, so no wonder my legs were tired. Those 45 minutes felt like they took forever, and it was some of my slowest running in a long time. I was approaching almost 12 minute miles. After the run I showered and ran out to meet a friend for sushi and some Kirin Ichibans which helped to make me forget about how bad of a run it was luckily!

Riding Horse Creek

The weather was scheduled to be absolutely gorgeous today, so coach called a social group ride out in Cochrane for 11 am today. I had hummed and hawed between an 8 hour hike in the mountains or the group ride. I was keen to meet some more of my teammates and get some more time in on my bike while the weather was cooperating, so the group ride won out. We met up at a coffee shop, then headed out Highway 1A to Horse Creek Road (where we rode on Tuesday night). We were going to ride part of the loop from the Calgary Ironman 70.3 course, about 50 km. Now that there was plenty of daylight and the weather was a lot more pleasant I really had a good chance to enjoy the scenery. It is so quiet and rural, with cows, horses and hay bales all around. Folks were good about looping back to pick up stragglers and would wait at most of the intersections for people to catch up. There was barely any traffic so we were able to take up the entire lane most of the time. There are patches of road that are pretty bumpy and filled with pot holes, then there are some patches that have brand new paving on it so all in all it was pretty good riding. I felt a lot stronger on the hills than I did on Tuesday night, which was interesting. I still have some work to do to make sure that I don't get dropped on some of the uphills though...! After the ride we all met up at Starbucks for some socializing. What a fantastic way to spend a beautiful Sunday! 32.2 miles done.For anyone thinking of the Calgary 70.3 event I can definitely say that this part of the bike course is amazing. For an FYI on the elevation chart, we rode the loop in reverse.

Check out my super cyclist's tan from today. It is really only pronounced on the top part of my right leg. Nice, eh?

My First Group Ride

Tuesday night is group ride night with my team. I was really hoping to meet up with them last night, but the weather was pretty suspect with some dark clouds and light drizzle. The ride was happening all the way in Cochrane and I had no idea what the weather was doing out there so I decided to throw my bike in the back of my car and drive out there to see if anyone else came. It turns out that four of us were there to brave the elements. Two of the folks just finished Ironman Canada, the third is signed up for next year.

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It was probably about 6 or 7 deg C so I had on a short sleeve shirt, long sleeve top, bike shorts, tights, a jacket, wool socks, bike gloves and long gloves over them. I was layered up I tell you! We started off riding and I felt pretty comfortable. It was really windy though, and we were riding straight into the 20 km/h winds. The hills were pretty rolly but it definitely felt uphill more than downhill. I lost the group on one of the climbs, then my bike started having issues shifting into the big chain ring so it was hard to catch up on the downhills and flats. We were riding to the stop sign on the road and I started to wonder where on earth this stop sign was! After climbing a big hill I finally saw it, and everyone was waiting at the sign for me. We turned around and had the wind pushing us along and plenty of downhill. It felt glorious! I rode with one guy the entire way back and we talked about what got us into triathlons and he told me about his great experiences with coach and how great of a team it was to work with. When we hit the uphills my legs were spent but I really just wanted to push hard and ride hard and not drop off to ride on my own again. When we got back to our cars my legs were a bit shaky from riding so hard (and I probably should have scarfed a gel before riding too). We made it back just before darkness fell and it never rained a drop on us the entire time. Total distance - 23.33 miles.

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On the way home I blasted the heater in the car to avoid cooling down to much. I was beat and didn't want to bother with cooking at home so I stopped off at my favourite quick food joint, Edo. I bundled up before going outside, but as soon as I got out of the car the cold air hit me and I was shivering cold. I could not stop shivering and shaking while I was waiting for my food to come out and I was getting some really weird looks from one of the couples eating in the restaurant. I promise, I was just shaking because I was so cold, but I'm sure they thought otherwise...

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Anyhow, all in all, a great ride! Too bad those will be few and far between for awhile now!