An ode to my Jetta

Oh Volkswagen, we had some glorious times...we had our trying moments, it's been an interesting 5 years...
I remember looking all over Ottawa for you, it was a very specific search. After a test drive we did up the paperwork and I was SO excited! I traded in an old Jeep Grand Cherokee and attempted to drive you home...attempted. Paul was away so it was just the two of us. I had driven the Land Rover but not in the city...the manual transmission thing was sure interesting! It took us 2.5 hours to get home...but by the time we got there I had it!
It was so nice getting 1000km to a tank of fuel...even when the cost of diesel went up to 1.45$!!! You never failed me in the rain, snow, sleet, or freezing rain...always reliable, always warmed up my bum with your heated seats.
We drove all over eastern and southern Ontario...comfort, german engineering, and the sound of a 200 Tdi engine. When it came time for us to drive home to Alberta you still preformed wonderfully...it was a long 3 days.
We battled our first Alberta winter and drove to Jasper a few times...the check engine light came on shortly after one trip. And then it started...the never-ending headache of trying to diagnose the fault. After about a year it was decided your turbo was beginning to fail...but since no oil was being used, the fuel economy stayed the same, and my acceleration was relatively normal we left it alone...2 years later still nothing was going wrong.
So today I left you at the Ford dealership...kind of sad because it's not where you belong. but with over 225000 km on the clock it was time for something newer, bigger, with 4x4...and a sunroof.

Farewell my Jetta....thanks for the good times...

2011 Alberta Challenge race report

Most of you already know that I competed in an Olympic distance triathlon this weekend...it was my first distance longer than a sprint...even though the Canmore Tri was a long distance sprint of 1000m swim, 30Km bike and 7Km run.

1500m swim:
I was nervous, feeling like it was a really long ways and like maybe I hadn't prepared enough. The swim isn't my strongest event. Everything started off as planned, I waited a few seconds for the fast swimmers to go ahead and began my own, as I reached the first turn, somehow the swim buoy got blown into my face when I sighted...I gasped and took in some of that icky, salty water...I coughed, sat up...composed myself, and kept swimming...
The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful...lots of time to think and ponder just how long this was going to take...36 minutes apparently. I thought I would be near the very end of the swimmers but apparently there were about 20 people behind me...even better.

40Km bike:
After a relatively smooths transition, out on the bike I go...the first 4 Km feeling like my legs are full of cement. good time to get a gel and hydrate. The rest of the bike flew by...the only down fall was when I tried to snot rocket that icky lake water from my sinues that was driving me crazy I got it all over my shoulder! ick...so including my transition from swim to bike, the 40km, AND my transition from bike to run....it took me 1:46.

10Km run:
I started slow...bike legs to blame...but got my pace back about 1km in...then came the hills. The trail was a mix of grass and gravel and BIG steep uphills...more like a trail race than a triathlon! I allowed myself to walk up the bigger hills to save my quads then speed up going down and on the flats. 2 laps of 5km...seemed like a long way. Middle of lap 2 my knee began to twinge and ache...but really this is my hip acting up. (confusing I know, so my tight hip pulls on my IT band, causing my knee to strain...the pain comes from the knee but the injury is actually the hip). I made an out-loud decision to pay no attention to it...what I said was "you do not exist." And somewhere along the way I realized I had passed a lot of people on the course. I finished strong...as always, and extremely happy with just finishing.

I went to the results board and they hadn't posted the run times yet, but the swim and bike were up...at the time I was sitting last in my age group...competitive me was slightly bummed but got less bummed when I won a door prize of a free pair of runners from The Tech Shop! WAHOO! I went and checked the results afterwards and during the run I moved up to 4th place in my age group...awesome! The one part of the race I had been dreading the most because of my hip and I ROCKED IT! According to them I rocked it in 1:11...not too bad considering it was the end of a long tri, the heat, the trail and hills...my 10K PB is 53min.

So my new shoes have been secured...New Balance 880's...went for a 15 min jog on the treadmill today...they feel fantastic! (and so does my hip!)
Another goal met for this summer...so what's next...a half ironman? more olympic distance? another half marathon....the possibilities are endless!

Me rocking the 40km bike...

Balance...or an athletic teeter-totter

It's been awhile since my last post, I blame life...work, training, friends, family, I could probably make an entire blog post about why I couldn't make the time to update my blog. I'm not sure where i'm going with this one yet so that just may be what it's about!

So how does one learn to balance their job AND their social life, especially since one's job is very demanding right now. I love my work and I love helping people reach their goals even more but I do need to work on saying "no." Which, oddly enough is one of the first things a co-worker said to me when I began this position.

I began squeezing in yoga classes whenever I could...trying to find this balance between a job and a passion that is always on the go and making myself slow down and simply enjoy the moment. Somewhere between tadasana (mountain pose) and virkasana (tree pose) I always seem to find this balance. Quite literally actually. In that yoga studio I am able to let go of my crazy life, the bills, the training runs, the bike maintenance, scheduling clients, squeezing in professional development, making time for friends, family and trying to keep my sanity.

But my life isn't in a yoga studio...what can I change about my life to make it more yoga-esque and less hectic? The truth is I can't...so sometimes little stresses become larger than life and feelings that I had managed to keep down in the past begin to show themselves. This results in very off days...off days being the nicest possible way of putting it.

So what happens when you can't hold it together anymore? I escape. To the trails on my mountain bike, to the long country roads on my road bike, to the streets in my running shoes, to the weight room to clean, snatch, deadlift, chin up and sweat my worries away. I have to wonder if fitness will always be the escape...what happens if one day it's not enough to crank out a good 10Km run or do the 3 bars of death workout? Or maybe someday there will be a day where I don't need the escape...i'll simply be one of those people who can "fun run" or will one of my nagging injuries get the better of me?

I had an interesting discussion with my physiotherapist, Anne, at our last treatment session. We were talking about how some people "drop out" of a boot camp half way through a set or stop mid-triathlon and DNF....what kind of pain does it take for your body to say "no" or just "no thanks." And where do we draw that line? I know for me that line is a long way away, I will run through pain until my body stops working all together. But someone else might get a side stitch or a hangnail and not finish. Does that mean I have a high physical pain tolerance or a highly evolved mental pain tolerance? Does my brain not allow my body to stop moving or does it block out minor pain until it becomes overwhelming? And lastly, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

New goal: teach my body to find the point just before an "athletic discomfort" turns into an injury...the truth is, I just can't stop training. I won't let my body lose strength and tone. So maybe this goal has to wait...stay tuned for more thoughts.

*I am currently receiving IMS therapy from Anne Edwards at CSA Physio in Edmonton, AB, She's amazing and I highly reccomend CSA for any sports injury!*