Swim, bike, run - How Bad ASS can I be?

Cole's notes version Joe CRUSHED his 2011 time by 1 hour and 39 minutes. - Final time 12:19:06 Team Gets Better with Age rocked the course finishing 29 minutes behind Joe  12:48:04 Okay for those interested in details here they are. Joe and I got up at 4:45 am so we would have time to eat and digest before going in the water.  The weather reports had been sketchy all weekend calling for rain, thunderstorms, wind, sun - it was changing from hour to hour so we had no idea what we would get.  We were hoping for calm water and warm to hot temperatures with no wind.  Thankfully when we headed out the door at 5:45am the lake looked  calm, the sky clear of dark clouds and it was nice and warm.  We made sure to wake up Joe sr before leaving and I reminded him I hoped to be out of the water around 8:40 am so be there for the chip handoff.  It was quite a bit quieter walking down to Transition than previous years but with only 1400 athletes in all...

Only 6 more sleeps until Challenge Penticton - aka the original Ironman Canada.  Yes for all of you that think the Penticton race is no more you are wrong.   SO VERY WRONG it is alive and going strong.  Without bringing up all the drama and yada yada basically the folks in Penticton rebranded their race.  They wanted it to be about the community and athletes again and not so corporate which is where it had been going in the last few years when IRONMAN became a brand and a corporation. The group that won the contract is CHALLENGE - not well known in North America but huge in Europe and elsewhere in the world.  Their mandate is athlete and community first.  They run the biggest Iron Distance race in the world - Challenge Roth which is my dream to race in but that is another story. So back to Penticton - the course is the same as the old course,l the volunteers are, as always, amazing and yes the iconic Steve King is still calling the finish line....

I have been "racing" in half marathon, marathons, short, middle and long distance triathlons as well as cycling for about 14 years now. I say "racing" because the leaders/winners are in no way threatened by me.  For those that know me I am a smidge competitive.  This is more for me and maybe the 5 or 6 people in my time zone on the course but yep I am competitive. I don't quit, I train religiously and I race hard.  My friends will tell you I am different animal when the gun goes off in a race as opposed to a training day.  I am intense and the I push - I always say there is no such thing as a "training race"  It is a race- throw it down and go! 2012 was not a great year - I had a torn calf muscle, I bounced myself pretty hard off the pavement and got a nasty concussion out of it and the start of 2013 was not going much better.  I had registered for Challenge Pentiction - just a renaming of IRonman Canada, Penticton - same course, same distance so...

Ah lets just admit it I am not very good at this blogging stuff but I will try again to be more consistent in my blogs.  I guess I just feel like I don't really have a lot to say most of the time. SO lets see since Oct 2012 what has happened. Had an epithany at the Oliver Half Ironman in June of 2013 Finished another Iron Distance Race - the inaugural Challenge Penticton - 2013 - it was awesome. Travelled to N. Ireland and Amsterdam and fell in love with the cycling culture in Amsterdam.  Met my step-grandson and generally got to catch up with family in Belfast. Ran some great trail races.  Lost my running partner - Bishop after 13.5 years  :(   but gained a new running partner in training Blue.  Still miss Bishop - always will but love Blue more and more each day.  Lost my mother-in-law to cancer at Christmas back to Belfast for the funeral.  I hate Cancer!  Because we want a well adjusted puppy I have been low key on t...

Ok so anyone who is a Facebook buddy/acquaintance will look at the title and say what?  I seem to like to have epic crashes/accidents on my bike on Thanksgiving Weekends. You will recall when me and Shazam rode the hood of a Jeep in October 4, 2008 - I came out fairly unscathed a lot of soft tissue in my hips/legs and behind/lower back and a brand new bike - Isis.  Well on Oct 5, 2012 on my ride to work I suddenly found myself bouncing my head and backside off the pavement at about 30km/hour.  I came out a little worse for wear on this one.  After I landed and thought holy sh*t that hurt!  I realized nothing was broken gathered my front fender up and continued to the bus loop - oh be quiet - at this point I thought I would have a nasty bruise on my back and well sure my head was a little sore but I had on my helmet so off I went. When I got to the bus I loaded the bike up thinking crap I am really hurting and wondering if my phone had survived me landing o...

Well it seems silly to be doing my first Tri Race report for 2012 in September but at least I have one.       Registering for the Cultas Lake Tri was really a last minute decision My leg is slowly healing and I can honestly say that this is by far the most frustrating injury I have had to date and you are talking to someone who has fractured her heel and been hit by a car! The process of recovery is very slow and well honestly I have been quite tentative because I am not quite sure how I tore it so I find myself being much more cautious and pragmatic in my training – my confidence has been shaken which has meant increasing my distances and adding intensities to workouts has been very tentative. Which for those who know me know is not in my nature.     I registered for the Sprint Tri at Cultas lake because I needed to prove to myself that I could do a race, that a catastrophe would not happen,   my calf muscle would hold up and that I wa...

Hi All  - yes I know I have been remiss in posting but being so busy with yoga and all now ( she says tongue in cheek) I just have not had time.  Seriously though  - I have been maintaining my yoga. The weather has just been so awesome here in Vancouver that I have not wanted to miss a second of it before the rain comes back. This post is courtesy of my "SO" - Joe who had the adventure of a lifetime this summer with his dad riding the Trans Alps Mountain Bike Race. He originally wrote this for IMPACT magazine at their request - after submitting they have changed the story to an interview with his dad and him - to be published in the next issue.  So I thought I would "publish" his version for you all to read - since I have no intention of EVER doing this race and thus will never do a race report on it that I am aware of....   I never imagined what I was getting into when my Dad decided that he wanted to mark his 70 th birthday by participating in the...