Now, what will I do with all of my spare time???

After 91 hours of swimming, 201 hours of riding, 118.5 hours of running, and 48.5 hours of lifting weights, training was over and I was ready for Ironman!  I think I was the fittest and fastest I had been for past Ironmans.

We arrived in Penticton on the Wednesday afternoon before Ironman, so I had plenty of days to play and rest before the race.  I had some training to do, but it was just to keep my muscles moving and stay fit.  It was good to be back.

We had a kitchenette so went grocery shopping.  We didn't want to eat in restaurants all the time, and at this stage of the game, I wanted to continue eating healthy.  Besides, we needed somewhere to make fruit salad with all the fruit we would buy.  Every time we are in Penticton, we go to a quaint little fruit stand called "Matheson's Family Farm" to buy fruit.  It almost feels like we are in Italy, what, with the grapes hanging on the vines overhead, the view of the lake, and all the vineyards around us.  If this is just a fraction of what it's going to be like when Arrigo and I go to Italy next year, sign me up!

Thursday

Athlete's Village opened at 9 am and I was there as soon as it opened.  I wanted to ensure I had a good choice of "everything-Ironman" to purchase.  By the time I had arrived in Penticton in past years, all the good stuff was gone, so we left for Penticton a day early this year so I would have lots to choose from.

Next stop - registration.  I showed my ID and signed my life away before I moved along the well-oiled assembly line to get registered for this darn race.  I ran into a lot of people I knew who were there for the same reason I was.

Friday

This was a day of relaxation.  Nothing to do until the welcome banquet.  We went to dinner early so I could buy an extra ticket for Arrigo.  To our dismay, there were no tickets to be had.  Whaaat!  Oh sure, we could have lined up for a possibility to buy an extra ticket, but didn't want to take the chance that none were available.  Some friends from St. Albert invited us to join them for dinner at Theo's Greek restaurant, so we took them up on their offer.  I'd rather be with friends, sitting down, ready to eat, than be in a line risking that no "overpriced-welcome-banquet-tickets" were available.  Besides, Arrigo has been with me all the way since I started training for this race in November, and I thought this is no time to ditch him.  I wanted to be with him.  We had a great meal, but Arrigo was flabbergasted when I broke the unwritten rule of not eating anything before Ironman that my stomach isn't accustomed to.  I ordered rabbit, and it was delicious.  I don't consider that to be a gastric unknown, since it's just meat.

Saturday

I have a lot to do today.  Arrigo wanted to go for a long run, so I dropped him off in Okanagan Falls - 16 km away.  He ran back to the hotel as I went for a short half hour ride to make sure my bike was in good working condition and all the gears were shifting correctly.  When I got back to the hotel, I was surprised that Arrigo had returned from his run.  I thought it would take him longer.  Apparently, I am very focused and have tunnel vision, because Arrigo told me that when I was riding towards OK Falls, he saw me and ran into the middle of the road, jumping up and down, saying "Hey, Green Machine," but I didn't hear or see him.  Not only that, but apparently, I swerved to not hit him.  That's too funny, because I was actually thinking "wouldn't it be nice if I saw Arrigo running!"  Dah!

I then went for a short run to get my legs loosened up and came back to start preparing for the race the next morning.  I had to pack all of my bags with the gear and nutrition I would need.  My "Swim to Bike" bag had all my bike gear in it, my Bike to Run" bag had all the running gear in it.  I also had two special needs bags - "bike special needs" and "run special needs" - in case I wanted anything part way through the bike or run (an extra tire tube, treats, old T-shirt in case it gets cold on the marathon, etc., etc.).

Once I finished packing the bags and taping all the gels on my bike, I was ready to take my bike and gear bags to transition.  I think Arrigo was more stressed than I was about getting there on time; afterall, we only had a few more hours to get there :-)

My number was 2892

After dropping off my bags, we drove to various places to draw on the road.

Seriously though, Arrigo was great.  He was so supportive and did everything humanly possible to ensure that I would have a great race.

So... what did you do this weekend

Remind me again ... why do I do this to myself??
They say no pain, no gain.  Well, after this past weekend, pain is the name of the game, and it's just what you have to endure if you want to do this sport.  It is what comes between a true athlete and a wannabe.

Training has been going really well and I am racing well.  I was in a little race this past weekend called the Great White North Triathlon - a half Ironman consisting of a 2 km swim, 90 km bike and 21 km run.  The swim was in Hubbles Lake; the bike was from Hubbles to Stony Plain and then to Genesee Power Plant and back to Stony Plain; and the run was on the walking path through the town of Stony Plain.

It wasn't a personal best for me, but a second personal best.  Considering the windy, rainy conditions on race day, I had a very good day.


The day started at 5 am.  We awoke to what seemed to be a nice enough day, but by the time we arrived at Hubbles Lake, the rain had started.  Call me Miss Innovative because I made a raincoat out of the garbage bag I used the previous night to protect my bike from the rain.  Figures - there was no rain the night before, but on race day there sure was.  No biggie since we would be getting wet in the swim anyway.  There were about 1,000 swimmers in the lake and it was a dog-eat-dog world.  I got kicked, my goggles were almost knocked off and it was every man for himself.  Who knew triathlon would be a contact sport!  I was happy with my swim time of 43:23.

Now onto the bike...

Since it was such miserable weather, I decided I would put on my riding jacket.  Well...putting on a jacket while wet does not make for "slippery when wet."  It was a less than speedy transition because I couldn't get my arms in my jacket and when I did, I couldn't get my Bonk Bars in the pockets.  Spandex on wet skin just doesn't work very well.  I did however have my shoes on my bike to save some time clipping in.  I don't know how much time I really saved, but it will get easier with practice.  The bike was windy and wet - challenging conditions at best.  Good thing I put my jacket on.  You have to plan for these things.  For the most part I was over 30 kph, and at times over 45, but at other times, I was directly into the wind and down in the low 20s.  The roads were wet and I think that causes more resistance on the tires.  My computer said I rode the course in 3:05, but the results said 3:12.  The official time includes both transitions from the swim to the bike and the bike to the run. That doesn't seem fair.  Why can't they add two more timing mats - at the start and end of the bike - like in Ironman? I had to dry off my feet so I could get all the dirt off so I wouldn't get blisters on the run.  That slowed me down too.  On top of that, the winner of the race crossed the finish line while I was just getting my running shoes on.  I just laughed at that and didn't let it get me down.  Maaaan, that's just SICK!

NOW the rain decides to stop...

My coach said I was not allowed to walk on the run, so being the diligent athlete I am, I ran most of the course.  My legs felt really heavy for the first few km.  I knew that feeling would eventually go away, so I forged on and didn't stop.  I had the timer on my watch beeping on intervals of 5:41 to know if I was on target to complete the run in two hours.  I started out being way ahead of target, but as my legs grew more and more sore during the last half of the half, I decided to shut the damn watch off.  It was getting depressing and I don't need those feelings at a time like this.  In the last four or five km I started to walk occasionally - just for a few seconds - because it was getting too painful to run the whole way.  A lady in my age group and I were playing cat and mouse for the most part of the last half, and every time she would pass me when I started to walk, I would pick it up again.  Maan, it's hard to start running once you've been walking, but it's hard to keep running when your legs are so sore. When I got near the finish line, I picked it up even more and steadily accelerated to the finish line.  By the time I crossed, I was running like a woman possessed.  I guess that's what you call adrenaline.

Now for the best part of the race - the post race food.  The hamburgers sure looked good.  I was 25 cents short of the price of a cheeseburger, so I asked if she'd accept $4.25.  If you don't ask, you don't get.  After I ate the cheeseburger (oh yeah, I guess she felt sorry for me), I had a hard time standing up and I needed help.  It was hard to step down the curb for gawd sake.  It was worth it though because that burger was delicious.

I was happy with my results - 17th in my age group of 62 women.  I wonder how much better I would have been if I would have ran for 10 minutes and walked for a minute throughout the race.  That's what I intend to do for Ironman and my legs won't get so sore.  Here are my results.

Why do I do this you ask!  Because I can!!!

All sorts of stuff

Well, I think it's about time for an update.  I've been remiss with my blogging lately...so here goes.  It's a long one.

In the middle of April, Arrigo and I went to Penticton to do some training on the bike.  We departed St. Albert at 4:15 am on April 14.  We drove through all four seasons, which started off with winter, which then led to summer, leading back to winter, then spring.  The roads went from drifting snow to clear in a matter of minutes.  Too bad I couldn't snap my fingers to put my winter tires on as we drove.  By the time we got to the pass going from Merritt, BC to Kelowna, the snow was fairly deep in the ditches, but from that point on, it was clear sailing.

We arrived in Penticton, and the weather was, well, spring.  It wasn't very warm, but then again, it is spring.  We went for a very short run to stretch and prepare our legs for our 10km race the next morning in Oliver.

It's go time!

Up and at em at the (almost) crack of dawn.  Good thing the race didn't start until 10am.  We got up at 7 am.  When I'm on holidays, I don't like getting up too early.  When I get to sleep in, yes SLEEP IN, until 6:30 am, that's a welcome break.  The only exception to not wanting to get up early on vacation is for Ironman... I always get up at 4 am to prepare for that race.

Our race went well.  It was Arrigo's first race since high school and he did well.  The plan was for us to start running together and then separate when one of us felt the need to.  Well, that went out the window as soon as the gun went off.  He didn't even look back to see where I was.  His testosterone got the best of him and he just kept running.  He beat me by four minutes.  Whaaaat!!!  I've been doing this for years and he walks in and kicks my ass.  Well, I train for endurance, not speed.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Let's see if he can do an Ironman ha ha.  Oh, he's also a man too, so bigger muscles.

The rest of our week went well.  The forecast called for rain every day, but we planned our riding around the rain so my new bike wouldn't get dirty.  That worked well, and in fact, our last day of riding, which was supposed to be a five-hour ride turned out to be much longer ... seven hours, was so warm that Arrigo got burnt.  My butt was sore from a new seat and I couldn't get comfortable.  I kept standing up and shifting on my seat, so the ride turned out to be a painful one.  That's why it took seven hours.  Note to self - don't try a new seat before a long ride.  It's known that you shouldn't try anything new on race day, and although this wasn't a race day, it was still a long ride, so I should have known better than to try a new seat on this trip.  The first thing I did when I got back was put my old seat on my new bike.

We were so tired that by the time we got to Keremeos, Subway sure was appealing, even to me.  I don't like Subway, but I always say that hunger is the best spice, and in this case, add in exhausted to being hungry.  I was even hoping we would find a stranger willing to drive us back to Penticton.  I wasn't ready for at least two more hours of riding.  The concern was getting to the hotel before the sun went down.

When we arrived, I collapsed on the bed.

DON'T ask me to move!

I even resorted to Kentucky Fried Chicken, and for those of you who know me, I don't eat shit like that.  That's how I maintain my svelte figure ha ha.

The next morning, we started our long drive back to sunny Alberta.  Along the way we stopped in the Crowsnest Pass for a potty break and the snow was higher than my car, as seen in the picture below. 

Just beyond Golden, there was an accident of some sort (we couldn't see what happened), so we were delayed for at least an hour until we decided to turn back and go the other way, through Radium.  When we got to Airdrie, it was so late that we decided to go to Rotten Ronnies, yes folks, that place that claims to serve 100% pure beef.  I got this from Wikipedia for you McDonald's enthusiasts.  I believe this claim, because I have a hard time believing that anything at McDonald's is pure.

"A related claim is that McDonald's buys its meat from a company called "100% beef", making it possible for McDonald's to call beef by-products and soy products "100% beef".

Finally, we arrived back home about 1 am.  After a long day of adventures, it was nice to get into my own bed.

50th Birthday

Arrigo had single-handedly organized my 50th birthday party for the following weekend and it turned out wonderful.  He was planning it for at least a month and it turned out to be a huge success.  He booked the back room at Sorrentino's in St. Albert and invited family and friends to attend.  About 35 people showed up and it was so much fun.  He made a collage from pictures from my childhood to present, and it was fantastic.  He even bought a helium machine to blow up balloons floating to the ceiling.  Most impressive was that he didn't touch a drop of alcohol because he wanted everything to go off without a hitch, all the while making sure everybody was introduced to everybody else and keeping the music down to a soft conversational roar.  I don't think I could have planned it better myself.  For my birthday, he bought me a beautiful amethyst and diamond promise ring.

My beautiful amethyst and diamond promise ring

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday, or a better man for that matter.  I think he may be a keeper!

Training

I have been training since November for this small race in August called Ironman.  Maybe you've heard of it.  It's a 3.8 km swim, followed by a 180 km bike and then finally a marathon tops it all off.  I think of it as a long training day.

 Training is in full swing now and I'm starting my long bikes and runs. Well, actually, I've been doing long training sessions for a few weeks now.  On the May long weekend, we went to Drumheller to ride with 14 other triathletes.  Arrigo has now been introduced to some of my crazy triathlete friends.  It was a great weekend of riding, food, and most importantly, fun.  We rode at least 100 km each day.  On Saturday, I even did a run immediately after my ride. 

Dino and me

This past weekend, we did the Coronation Triathlon in Edmonton.  It was a personal best for me.  I took about five minutes off of my time the last time I did it.  I was pleased with my performance.  I placed 5th out of 14 women in my age group - not bad for an old lady.  Arrigo did very well for his first triathlon - a personal best for him too.  I think he's hooked.  Triathlon is an addiction you just can't shake; I can think of worse addictions though.  You can check out my and Arrigo's results here.

This coming weekend is a big one ... tomorrow I have a five-hour ride, followed by a 45-minute run off the bike.  On Sunday I have a two hour and 15 minute run followed by a light swim.

I'm getting tired just thinking of it.

Say tuned for more of my escapades...

Is it spring or not?????

Spring has sprung, or has it????  I got my new bike a few weeks ago and it has been sitting in my den gathering dust.  Arrigo and I are anxiously awaiting clean roads and warm, or at least semi-warm, weather so we can get out riding.  He is also anxiously awaiting the arrival of his new bike.  I guess I'm a good influence on him because suddenly the word 'training' is in his vocabulary.  Who knows, maybe he'll leave me in the dust, but I doubt it, for three reasons:  1) my bike is built for speed, 2) I can't let a boy beat me, and 3) I'm the green machine.  I've got a bike with green accents, a green helmet to complement my green sunglasses and on top of all that, jersey and shorts in what colour you ask - you guessed it...green!  Arrigo says I look like a pro.  I hope I can ride like a pro.  My motto...'If you can't be fast, look fast!'


We're going to Penticton in a couple of weeks for a week of riding and if Arrigo's bike doesn't arrive by then, he'll be forced to ride my old bike.  A few things will have to be modified, but it will work in a pinch so at least he can get in the saddle and try out his new pedals and shoes.  The forecast calls for rain, and just for a brief moment, I caught myself thinking "maybe I should take my old bike because I don't want my new bike to get wet and dirty," but then what would Arrigo ride.  A bike can always be cleaned.

Last night we registered to go on a bike trip where good times will be had by all.  Destination: Drumheller.  When: May long week-end.  The trip is with the Edmonton Triathlon Club, and I certainly hope the weather will be nicer than what is expected in Penticton next month.  The week after that is Coronation Triathlon.

Today is a good day for a ride, with the temperature reaching 11 degrees.  Arrigo and I were going to go riding, but my knee is sore, so I'm going to give it a rest.  I have to get to Ironman healthy.  It's better to go into Ironman under trained than injured.  I can't wait to get on the road with my new machine with my new man with my new helmet and new matching sunglasses.

That's about it for now.  More to come...

The Best Valentine's Day Ever

February 14 has come and gone, but it was the best February 14 I have ever had...

The place ... La Casa Mia in St. Albert
The time ... 6:30 pm
The dress ... casual

The plan was to arrive at Arrigo's house and we would go from there to this mysterious restaurant called "La Casa Mia" in St. Albert.  I arrived at 6:30 on the dot and was greeted by Arrigo, dressed in his Sunday finest.  What! I thought this was supposed to be a casual restaurant, and then to my surprise, I saw the dim lighting, the red heart-shaped balloons, candles everywhere and the small round dinner table, complete with wine and martini glasses, as well as a candelabra.  A hand-painted picture of Venice and soft music topped off the ambience.  One word ... WOW!!!!  Is this for real I asked myself.

Arrigo, being the gentleman he is, took my coat and escorted me to the table, where he pulled out my chair for me.  After he sat down, out comes the waiter, his 11-year-old son, Michael, with mango daiquiries in martini glasses.  He was so cute dressed up in a blue shirt.  He was taking the job so seriously and having fun with it.  Michael (I called him Mickail) suggested the bruschetta, and it was delicioso.  It was nice how Arrigo involved his son in our romantic evening.

While we were eating our Bruschetta, Arrigo presented me with a beautiful card, and inside were several romantic italian phrases he had written.  Of course, he had to translate some of them for me.  I'm getting to know some words, but I have a long way to go.  Oh, I can't forget the bottle of wine Arrigo brought to the table.  Inside the gift bag he gave me were some candles and a box from Ben Moss Jewellers.  Inside the box was a beautiful necklace with multi-coloured stones.  Colour - he knows me so well.  It is my favourite necklace and I wear it with pride.  Now that I have a new necklace (did I say it is my favourite necklace), I ditched the one I was wearing.  Arrigo took it and put it around his neck - no doubt, to look like a chain-weilding Italian.  I'm so glad that he isn't one of those guys.  I couldn't stand dating a guy who has more jewelry than I do.  Here is a picture of him at his best.

I gave him a triathlon outfit so he can look the part when we do his first triathlon together in May. 

After we finished our appetizer, Mickail popped round to our table again asking if we were ready for our main dish and suggested the chicken with rice and stuffed tomato.  We had a choice of teriaki or sun-dried tomato chicken.  I chose sun-dried tomato and it was delicious.  Mickail makes a mean sun-dried tomato chicken dish.

While we were eating our main dish, we played a card game that Arrigo gave me.  It was kind of like the Newlywed Game, testing how well we know each other.  Considering we have only been dating for a couple of months, we did pretty well.

Oh, out popped Mickail again, wanting to know if we would like dessert.  He suggested the Creme Brulee.  I had never had Creme Brulee, so I answered with an emphatic YES!  It was absolutely delicious.  Well done, Mickail.  I think he has a future as a head waiter in a fine Italian restaurant, and he deserved a big tip.

February 14, 2012 was the lovliest evening I have ever shared with anyone and I have Arrigo, amore mio, to thank for that.