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!

Long Weekend = Long Ride to Elbow Falls

Ahh...the long weekend is here! Angie wanted to organize a long ride for us on Saturday to help celebrate. There would be an option to shorten it if you wanted to, or else you could try for the whole thing. I figured that a super ride would require some super fuel the night before! I stopped by Globefish on my way home to pick up a spicy tuna roll, a chopped scallop roll and my favourite, the Crazy Buster roll (spicy tempura roll wrapped with fresh tuna, served with fire spicy sauce, green onion and pieces of crispy garlic). I washed it down with some Anarchist Amber Ale from Cannery Brewing out of Penticton, BC. They are the official beer of Ironman Canada. You can bet that I'll be checking them out when I am in the Okanagan next weekend!

The plan was to ride from Cochrane to Bragg Creek, then continue out to Elbow Falls. The total possible distance was up to 120 km. I haven't ridden that far before I wanted to make sure I had enough nutrition with me. I asked Angie how much I should aim for and she figured that for a possible 4 hour ride that 800 calories would be a good number. I didn't want to just be downing gel after gel, I figured my stomach would appreciate some actual food. I went with one Honey Stinger Protein Bar (390 calories of pure yumminess in Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond) and two packs of Gu Chomps in Blueberry Pomegranate (180 calories per pack). This was my first time trying out the Chomps and they really are tasty!

We met in Cochrane and headed out south on Highway 22. This long ride was essentially all uphill on the way out. As soon as we turned on to 22 we were going up a big hill and Angie cautioned us to not hammer the hill or we may wind up regretting it later. I knew it was going to be a long day so I didn't really care how fast I rode, I just took it nice and easy up the hill. The kicker was that not only were we riding uphill, we were also riding into a headwind. Fun stuff! It wasn't super strong though so I was really just focused on riding and spinning.

There is quite a bit of traffic on Highway 22, with plenty of trucks or folks hauling trailers whizzing past you. Thankfully the shoulder is pretty wide most of the way. The only time it is really narrow is as you cross over the Trans Canada Highway.

We regrouped at the Cinnamon Spoon, then turned off on Provincial Highway 758 to continue on. This was where the scenery started to get amazing. Beautiful views of the Elbow River at times, the amazing mountains in the distance...it was gorgeous. This was also where you could tell the ride was going to get tougher as the rolly hills started. 758 dead ends at Highway 66, so we took a right to head towards Elbow Falls. After this point people started flatting all over the place. I passed the first contingent and continued on. There were plenty of knowledgeable folks to help out (and they were front of the pack folks), so since I was pretty near the back I just continued on. After I passed them I ran up to the first Texas Gate. The lady ahead of me was stopped just before the gate and I asked her how we negotiated it. She told me to just ride over it. I didn't see the other person ahead of me bike over it so I didn't really notice that there were a couple strips of metal over the bars that we could ride over...instead of riding over the round bars. Um...yeah...I wouldn't recommend biking straight over the rolly bars! It is quite the experience. By the time we approached the next Texas Gate this lady was ahead of me so I got to see how you really ride over these things...

A little farther ahead my friend Tara pulled over with her first flat. We wound up with quite the contingent to help her out...plenty of supervisors really... She had just purchased a CO2 kit and it had a nozzle on it for Schrader valve instead of a presta... It also didn't have a flow control mechanism on it and the first CO2 cartridge was lost to the atmosphere... I hung around to watch them change the tube, but took off when they were trying to fill it up with air. By then there were at least 10 of us on the side of the road. Since I was near the back for this ride I figured it would be best to ride on, so a few of us took off. A few moments later everyone was back on the road and I was passed by the speedy contingent again.

Just before the big uphill to the end of the highway they were pulled over again...another flat! Angie told me to ride on, but as I passed she shouted out that I needed to be in my absolute easiest gear and just spin since I was about to start the big long climb. These are great things to know! From here it was just climb, climb, climb... I was on my own at this point and just focused on getting to the top. It was tough...but it was feeling like the biggest accomplishment! Angie passed me singing along and shouted that I was doing awesome and to just keep up the great work. Finally...I was at the top! There was a bit further to go along the highway to the very end, but since we had lost a bunch of time to flats along the way Angie figured this would be a good turn around point (especially since about 3/4 of the group were already on their way back down by now).

We waited for the last few people to show up, then grabbed a picture before starting the descent. That's Sarah, myself, Tara and Angie there.

So...if you check out the elevation profile you can see what we climbed... And that would make for one crazy descent! Honestly folks, I am quite the fraidy cat on descents. I am trying to embrace them now and make sure I feel comfortable and in control (without riding my breaks the whole way down). For the most part I felt really great on this one, there was just one patch where there was quite a bit of gravel on the shoulder that had me feeling a bit nervous. Maximum speed recorded by Garmin - 38.56 mph (62 kph).

Once we were past the steep section and cruising the downhill back to Bragg Creek it was awesome. We had a tail wind and I was really happy with how I was riding - high cadence and nice and speedy. Just before we hit the Texas Gates on the way back Tara flatted again...same tire. She was out of CO2 and had only brought one tube with her. Luckily I had two tubes that are the same size as hers. I figured this may be a good opportunity for me to try out my CO2 thingamajigger. I've got the Ultraflate Plus which is trigger operated and has a locking feature so you can be sure that you won't accidentally discharge your CO2 at the wrong time. This worked like a charm and the tire inflated in about a second or two. Nice stuff.

Back on the road...just as I turned left off of Highway 66 I dropped my chain as I tried to change gears in anticipation of the hill ahead. I lost the speedy folks ahead and the last two gals pulled over to give me a quick tip for getting the chain back on. They went ahead since I knew I'd catch up to them. As I was coming down a hill and going around a corner I saw a truck pulled off to the side and a few bikes in the grass. I couldn't really see anything because of the truck and it wasn't until I passed them that I realized the people off to the side were part of our group. I caught up to the girls in front to ask what had happened and they weren't sure. I wondered if we should go back but they had been told to continue into Bragg and wait there.

We aren't really too sure what happened since no one saw it happen, but one of my teammates took a tumble over her handlebars. There were three cracks straight through her helmet. Thank goodness for the helmet because otherwise those cracks would have been in her head. She'll be okay, but if she hadn't been wearing a helmet it would have been a completely different story. I know there are people out there that won't wear helmets...I see them all the time...and my ex was a staunch "I don't want to wear a helmet" kind of guy. If you go down on your bike it doesn't just traumatize you, but it affects the people that are with you too. So please...wear a helmet...

Once our teammate was on her way to the hospital we started taking off from Bragg in groups. We still had a tailwind and I was feeling pretty good...until I hit the intersection of Highway 22 and Highway 8. The wind shifted and all of a sudden I was now riding into a headwind. And sure...it was downhill on the way home but this was one strong headwind. I had to stay in the big ring just to keep some kind of cadence up. Just before I was at the overpass of the Trans Canada I decided to pull over and grab a drink. With the crazy wind the cars whipping past I didn't feel comfortable trying to do that while riding. When I put my foot down I realized my leg was a bit shaky. My muscles were running out of fuel so I took the opportunity to down a few more Gu Chomps. Back on the road... After passing the Trans Canada I knew I didn't have much longer to go but the wind was really sucking the life out of me. Every once in awhile the wind would abruptly shift directions and you'd have to counteract the forces as you were being pushed from side to side. As I pedaled on I took stock of what was happening with my body. Really...my legs were feeling good after I had eaten. Plenty of juice still left in them. I had a big knot in my trapezius, but nothing that should really impede my riding. Anything that was going on was all in my head. Knowing that I knew I could pick up the pace from where I was at and just bring this thing home. When I got back at the car I was pooped...but I felt amazing! I felt a real sense of accomplishment for riding that far and really at the end of the day, feeling good about the ride.

My bike computer says I rode 70.82 mi...MapMyRide says 69.24 mi. I had some Garmin errors (like forgetting to start Garmin up after pausing at the side of the road) so that number is a bit off. Anyway you slice it...69 or 70 miles...that was a long way especially when you consider my longest ride to date has been somewhere around 26.5 mi or so.

Hope everyone else is having a fantastic weekend!!

An Equation

Leana + Caffeine > 7:30 pm

yields
a Leana that cannot fall asleep

Last night I met up with one of the ladies from my swimming class at Starbucks. I had a London Fog, which is Earl Gray tea, steamed milk and vanilla. I needed to be up early this morning but I just wasn't sleepy. I guess I just am that susceptible to caffeine! I think I probably fell asleep sometime around midnight... Which meant that this morning's 4:30 am wake up was brutal!

I was planning on skipping swimming today because I had to give a big presentation at work this afternoon. I still wanted to get into work early, hence the 4:30 am wake up. As soon as the alarm went off I jumped out of bed and had one thought... Coffee!!

I never make coffee at home. In fact I very rarely drink regular coffee. But I do have a coffee maker and some beans for when my parents come to visit. I went downstairs and looked in the freezer. Thank goodness - I had coffee beans, but no ground coffee to speak of. Hmm. I took out my coffee grinder. I've used it once...
I brewed four cups and had a taste. In case you can't tell, it was horrendously weak. Yuk!
I thought it may be because of how I ground the beans so I ground a bit more (a little bit finer), added a bit more coffee and brewed again. Stronger this time, but still yuck!!
Oh well, it did the trick I guess.

As for our team hill repeat ride today? Canceled again. Stupid rain. Angie sent a trainer workout to do, but I'll be honest. I'm beat. I've also been sucked in by the Biggest Loser finale. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some better weather tomorrow. If so I'll go ride outside on my own, otherwise I'll do Angie's workout inside tomorrow.

So what does that mean? I haven't worked out since Sunday. I have a date at the pool at 9 pm with my friend DGB as well, so hopefully I'll get a little something in today! And then I'm planning on going home, falling into bed...and waking up slightly later than 4:30 am tomorrow...

Have a good night all!

Jinx!

I speculated that last Tuesday night would be our final indoor spin. Looks like I jinxed myself! Some ugly clouds rolled through around 2:00 and we looked destined for a good storm. Just as I left work it started to rain, and just after I got home it started to hail!! Apparently the wind was wicked out in Cochrane, plus there was some lightning too which never makes for a good ride!

Angie e-mailed us a trainer workout so I set the bike up in the garage and hopped on. It was a tough one! There were all kinds of good exercises to simulate hill climbs and I tried to push hard. It is tough to work as hard at home compared to at class, but I think I did a good job today. By the time I was done the workout I was starving!!! Time to head in and throw together some dinner.

I also had a good swim this morning. I have been a bit hard on myself, thinking that I could not keep up the folks in my lane. Today it hit me - I can actually hang on to the toes of two other folks in the lane, there is just one guy who is super speedy that seems to get away from me. I think we are so quick to beat up on ourselves if we cannot meet whatever standard we have set (i.e. not getting dropped ever on the swim) versus seeing whatever progress we have made. So never fail to recognize what you have achieved!

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As a total aside, the Biggest Loser just started up over here this evening. I CANNOT believe they are going to make them run a marathon!!!! Even making them run a half marathon seemed a bit mean since they had not trained for it, but a marathon is just ridiculous...if you ask me...

First Group Ride Outside!!

Last week after my first flat on a ride I made a comment that I needed to spend some quality time in the comfort of my own home changing a tire so that I could learn to get comfortable with it. Turns out that I had my first chance for that on Friday night. I was hanging out in my garage putting my new bottle cages on. I took a look at the bike tire and it was feeling really flat. When I tried to unscrew the little cap to pump it up, this happened:

It wasn’t too big of a deal changing it, but I’m not sure I’m in love with these tubes since the stems are a bit short. Once the tire was changed and the wheel back on the bike the Canucks – St. Louis game was starting up and I settled into the coach for the night. Wow, was it an amazing game last night with some fantastic goaltending! Highlights are here.

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This morning we had our first team group ride outdoors. We met up at 11:00 just outside of Cochrane. I was pretty nervous driving in – there are a few Canadian flags at the turnoff and they were really blowing in the wind. I had visions of my ride from a couple of weeks ago that was just miserably windy. I never counted but I’m guessing that we probably had 20 people or so show up. Some of us were teammates, there were a couple of girls from the Canada Junior team (?) that Angie is working with, and a few other friends of Angie’s. Angie wanted us to spin high cadence above 90 RPM as much as possible and just get comfortable being on the bike – reaching for your water bottle, moving around in your handlebars, that sort of stuff. I was feeling really good riding – way better than a couple of weeks ago, although to be fair, that ride was after a big run weekend including a 10K race. As we started to hit the rolling uphills I was feeling strong on those hills. It was windy out, but luckily it felt like a crosswind most of the time. At one point a peloton of probably 10 riders zoomed right past us. They were riding in a big pack really close to one another, taking up the entire road with. When they were right behind me it almost sounded like a car was passing. They flew past almost like I was standing still.

Before I knew it I was up near the front of the pack and having a blast. We turned on to the road where the rolling hills became a bit bigger. Last year this spot was my nemesis and I always struggled and huffed and puffed my way along. I was expecting to get dropped like a hot potato by the riders around me, but to my surprise I stayed strong. Why had this stretch felt so difficult last year? I even powered my way up this hill really well too:

The picture really doesn’t do it justice, but it always looks scary and big to me. Anyhow, it looks like all of the riding indoors is paying off! When we hit the stop sign we regrouped and I took the opportunity to down a vanilla Hammer Gel. All of the tough uphill riding was behind us. We continued on in a loop rather than doing an out and back. I took off with a couple of teammates, Karen and Leslie Ann. These ladies are such a hoot and I loved riding with them. We hit another stop sign and turned to head back towards Cochrane. From here there were some rollers, but it was pretty well a net downhill. We were just flying back!! We finished up a loop back to our cars and rode for 26.5 miles.

I threw the bike back in the car, swapped out the bike shoes for some running shoes and took off on my T2 run. I ran an out and back along a gravel road and my legs felt dead. The crazy uphill along the road didn’t help much either! Despite feeling like I’m going nowhere I am always surprised at my pace on these post-bike runs. I ran just short of 20 minutes, then hopped in the car and headed home for some lunch.

After scarfing down my lunch I settled in to watch this past week’s episode of CSI. Hilarious and interesting episode (loved the crazy sci-fi TV show story line) but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open and I wound up napping for three hours…in my bike clothes and ball cap!!

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Anyhow, time to run since I’ve got to eat (again) and head off to a friend’s birthday party – happy birthday Michelle!! I just saw this on TV though. Apparently some yahoo stole a stick out of Alexei Kovalev’s hand through the little hole in the glass for press photographers. How crazy is that?

Anyhow, hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

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 Day When Everything Just Clicked

I already told you about my swimming breakthrough, but yesterday it felt like I had a cycling breakthrough as well. It was Tuesday night group ride, and while it was sunny out the wind was pretty fierce. Seven of us showed up, although coach caught up to as a little while later, making for a nice even number of riders. We all seemed to be in a quandary about what to wear. I had some cycling knickers on, like a couple of the other gals, our lone male was in shorts, and a few opted for tights. I had brought a long sleeve jersey and a jacket with me, but wound up going for the jacket just in case the wind was fierce. The goal for the ride was that every time we saw a road sign we needed to sprint for it. I started off in the middle of the riders and I also made it my goal to keep the lady in front of me near by at all times, LA. I did not want to be fighting to catch up to the back of the pack like I have the last few rides. Initially my quads were just burning and I wasn't sure how the ol' legs were going to hold up to sprints. Thanks to the burning quads I finally figured out how to pedal more efficiently on the uphills by pulling and pushing at the same time, giving my hamstrings a fantastic workout as well. I was surging on the uphills a lot better and I even passed LA on a hill. From then it was game on, she would catch up, we'd ride together for a bit, then play cat and mouse and one would surge ahead and the other would try to follow. I was having a blast. We looped back to pick up the last two ladies and that was when coach caught up to us. We had a bit more daylight so we kept going. Finally at one point LA and I managed to catch up to the lead three riders. I'm not sure...they might have been taking it a bit easy yesterday but LA and I were working our tails off. The way back was wicked though, the wind was absolutely freezing. On the way out I felt a bit hot in my jacket, but on the way back I was glad I had it on, and kinda wished I had tights on as well as my lower legs and feet were frozen. I think I need to look at getting some booties so I can ride without freezing my toes off. We made it back to our cars just as daylight was dimming. After the ride coach complimented me as she figured I had worked pretty hard, and that I was a much better cyclist than I had lead her to believe. Nice! The hard work is starting to pay off! Hopefully I have something left in my legs for five hill repeats tonight...

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I had the heater going full blast on the way home, but I was still pretty cold by the time I got home. I swapped out my cycling gear for cozy sweats and these absolutely amazing Smartwool socks.

I was feeling warmed up in no time - those socks are amazing! I then grilled up some chicken that had been marinating in yogurt, lemon juice, garlic and some spices...threw together a spinach salad...and settled in for a little guilty pleasure...90210. It was a great night!

Horsing Around

I have said that I was not an athletic kid while growing up, but that doesn't mean that I didn't earn some medals along the way. Back in the day, circa the mid to late 1980s, I used to be quite the horse rider. I earned a few gold, silver and bronze medals for my show jumping prowess. Here are a couple of shots of me in action:

I haven't ridden for a good 17 or so years though! Wow...I can't believe it has been that long... Anyhow, this weekend it was time to get in touch with my old horse riding self and my inner cowboy. A friend and I signed on for an afternoon of horseback riding followed by a steak dinner and a bonfire complete with marshmallows. Yum. My friend got held up in traffic, and long story made short, she wound up missing the horseback riding part of the day. So...it was down to me and a few other strangers. Our guides picked out horses for us. This guy was not for riding, but he sure was cool as he had his own cowbell around his neck!
Here's me, eagerly anticipating my horse:
Yes, I decided to cowboy it up with my classy Lone Star beer shirt (courtesy of a friend of mine who worked for the brewery in San Antonio), cowboy hat, and cowboy boots straight from Aldo. Authentic! I was paired with Tonto. Things between Tonto and I were all good in this picture:
Once it was time to make our way out of the corral and on to the trail Tonto and I got squeezed between two other horses. I guess Tonto didn't like that so he backed way up and wasn't so sure he wanted to be a part of this adventure. At this point I was warned that Tonto was new to the ranch and would likely get picked on by the other horses. Oh goody... I reigned him in and attempted to set off on the trail. We got a bit of the way out, but as soon as we approached a mud bog he decided to throw a fit and would not cooperate. Luckily one of the folks working the ranch asked if I would like to swap horses so I bid a hasty farewell to Tonto and made my way over to my new trusty steed, Pistol Pete. Here is a shot of the back of Pete's head:
Pete and I got along much better. We mostly walked, but every once in awhile the horses had a chance to gallop for a short ways. I can't remember what I used to do during the gallop as I was bouncing in the saddle a ton. Ow... The scenery was pretty fantastic out there though. Unfortunately I couldn't get too many good shots, and the one below doesn't even do it justice. But we really lucked out with some amazing weather and having a chance to see the trees just as the leaves are turning colour.I was pretty proud of the fact that I got to wear my Aldo cowboy boots to do something relatively cowboy-ish. So far they have only been used to hit the rodeo in San Antonio and to wear around downtown during Stampede here in Calgary. So here we are, a shot of my cowboy boots in action:Afterwards it was back to the ranch to socialize and enjoy our steak dinner. Then we gathered around the bonfire to roast some marshmallows. Delicious! It was a really fun day, however my saddle has forgotten how sore a saddle can make it, so needless to say it is a wee bit painful to sit!

Taking Advantage of the Nice Weather

This week is feeling more like summer around here, so I was pretty excited for my group ride last night. It was back out to Horse Creek in Cochrane, and we had a pretty good sized group show up. We were a bit late taking off as we had some flat tire issues to contend with first, but the aim was to ride as far as we could without losing daylight on the way back. As per the last few rides I wound up being on my own on the way out. I'm not sure how the group manages to get so far ahead...? My legs were feeling pretty tired and I expected to ride it out after a few minutes but it never really did go away. I just kept plugging along and enjoying the scenery. There was a group of deer out in one field, in addition to the usual group of horses and cows. At one point the group looped back to pick up the stragglers and I wound up riding with a lady who works about a block away from me, and is now training for her first Ironman. Once we started riding together and chatting I was able to keep up quite a bit better on the hills. Today we didn't make it to the stop sign before having to turn around. Boy, the days are getting noticeably shorter, day by day. With the sun going down the temperature was cooling off as well. I rode back most of the way with another girl that just finished her first Ironman. Her enthusiasm was amazing, she had the best day and really enjoyed the experience. Apparently her Ironman marathon time was 35 minutes faster than her stand alone marathon time..! We were back at the cars before long, and clocked just over 15 miles for the ride. I loaded the bike up in the car and took off home.

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This morning when I woke up I looked at my hands and realized my engineering ring was gone. You can see my engineering ring on my right pinkie in the picture below (as I'm drinking from a bowl of alcohol that is larger than the size of my head):I lost my ring a year ago, and since I only take my ring off to swim I was worried that it was lying on the side of the road in Cochrane, most likely haven fallen off while taking my gloves off. I ran down to check my gloves anyway, which were still in the back of my car...and lo and behold, my ring was sitting in the trunk of my car... Phew! Sounds like I may need to take it off not just for swimming, but for biking too...

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!