Fruita CO.

After a very long drive, made longer by a vehicle that is not getting anywhere near the gas mileage it is supposed to, I think we stopped for gas every 2 hours, we arrived in Fruita CO.

It took 21 hours to get to Fruita, but I don't actually mind the drive, I enjoy the time to sit and talk to Shawn, read for hours to the kids, tell/listen to stories and if the kids fall asleep, read a little myself.....and you arrive in a new land, with endless riding and adventuring!

I was able to get in a quick ride when we arrived Saturday evening on the Kokopelli trails. It was a beautiful evening and I climbed up Mary's trail for a bit, and then back down and did Wrangler's trail....not feeling awesome after 2 days in the car, but feeling really good to be riding!

The wide open trails here are so different than at home, they bring you along the most gorgeous views high above the CO River.

Shawn went for a ride the next morning, while the kids and I explored the beautiful State Park, this is a beautiful campground on the CO River, with endless exploring, but the highlight of the day...and the trip so far (even for us) was the Dinosaur Journey Museum, where the kids could dig up bones, get sprayed by the Dilophosaurus, watch a moving Utahraptor eat another dinosaurs head (with real looking blood and gooey parts being strewn about!) and experience an earthquake!

The kids said the missed Aunty Erin, Uncle Keith and Hayden.....and we are really missing you too!!!

More to come.......

Cranbrook---best riding in the WORLD!! Shawn says so!

Heading to Roller Coaster----My fave!
Alkali Lake
Looking at Cranbrook from the second lookout
Mayook Lookout---heading up to Big Tree

Sunday was a good day!!
Headed to Marysville in the morning for a quick 5km trail run/race, it was a gorgeous morning, and a torturous 5km out and back run along the Mark Creek. It was a slight incline for the 2.5km out and I guess it must have been a gradual decline on the way back!
I was excited about this race, as I have been running more this year than the last 5 years combined! I have put in many treadmill miles this winter! I have been loving the treadmill runs though, with the coaching, the runs are very structured and I feel fast and the time flies by! I don't even need to have the ipod...I need to focus too much!
I have not done any running to test my training though, and I was really hoping to be fast, like super fast! Even though I wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked to have been, it was an improvement for sure, and with having a very big training week leading up and tired legs...maybe it will be OK!
5km races are hard for me....like a looooong sprint! aggh!

Headed back into town to meet the kids at a bday pool party, so fun! My kids are water babies, can't get them out of the water!

NEXT!! Headed out on a mtb ride with Shawn, Sherri and Gary....aaah, it was SO nice out!
We headed up to the second lookout and down a new trail called DNA, (I think) a pretty fun little trail, with some loose tight corners, that connected on to one of the good little technical trails.
I had a long ride scheduled for the day, a little too long for everyone else, so after an hour and a half, I was on my own, I climbed back up to the first lookout, I love this climb, it is a lung-busting, steep climb, which over the years has been getting looser, more rutted and more challenging!
I criss-crossed all over the Community Forest, climbing every hill I could find!
Everyone laughs at Shawn, when he says that the Community Forest has the best riding in the WORLD....but I might tend to agree with him, other locations that we travel to our fun and awesome, but it's new, so it is always fun to do something new.
Then you come back to your own back round and whip around all these amazing trails, like Upper Coaster, Roller Coaster, DNA, Suck it up Princess, Your Cheating Heart...and so many more!! Some of these trails, especially Roller Coaster are just pure classic and FUN, just before you hit the College, you get to speed (feels speedy anyways) and twist through some single-track to end your ride! So exhilarating!
I am very thankful for all the folks that get out there and create new trails and take care of the ones that are there!!! Thank you!!

My Breakfast!

This is my breakfast most days, a smoothie with a banana, orange, blueberries, hemp oil, hemp bits, ground flax and water.....after a few sips (to make some room) I shove in some Kale!
This iron rich smoothie isn't necessarily good, but good for me.
Hemp is a complete protein, containing all of the 10 essential amino acids, and since I don't eat meat except for special occasions, this food has become a part of my regular diet.
It's amino acid profile helps boost the body's immune system and hasten recovery.
And this is awesome, hemp foods also have anti-inflammatory properties!!
It's raw, so your body can utilize it with ease---reducing digestive strain!
These are all amazing properties, perfect for after workouts and as a constant in an athletes body!
Hemp protein can be a good replacement for other proteins!
And it is an alkaline food!

Flax has the highest level of omega-3 , an essential fatty acid (considered essential because your body cannot produce it) that is rare in the plant kingdom. Flax seed is the most abundant source of Omega-3! Omega 6 fatty acid is easier to come by and is found in nuts, seeds and veg oils.
Omega-3 is very important to athletes;
Helps reduce inflammation--- yeah!
Important in the metabolism of fat- I have read that a tbs of ground flax/day will allow the body to more efficiently burn body fat as fuel (helping us spare muscle glycogen)
High in potassium (an electrolyte essential for muscle contraction, and also regulates fluid balance keeping the body hydrated)
Contains both soluble and insoluble fiber---soluble fiber controls slows the release of carbohydrates into the bloodstream, controlling insulin levels and prolonging energy!! Yeah!
Buy them whole and grind them as needed (or store in an airtight container in the fridge) if possible to help maintain all of the goodness!!

There are so many things I am trying to do right now to keep myself healthy and optimize all of this training.....this is the start of the day :o)

Happy Easter!!

What a fantastically long weekend!
We were only home from Kelowna for one day, before leaving right away for Slocan, for an Easter visit with Shawn's parents, his sister and her family.

We arrived early Friday, and had a nice walk along the river, a play in the park.....before spending the rest of the day stuffing my face with those cursed Mini eggs!!! Grrr...I thought I would be strong, but they were stronger than me!
We had a turkey dinner.....more mini eggs.....and then I think I fell asleep on the couch at 8pm.
It was beautiful on Saturday, the kids hunted eggs and played by the river.......then I got to ride!
I left a few hours earlier then the rest of the family and started a ride home!
I had a 3 hour ride planned.
I rode from Slocan-Castlegar and up and over the Bombi pass!! Yeah! I love passes. This was a 20km climb, but really not so bad of a grade. Legs sure felt tired though, right from the moment I left the house!
It was a chilly ride down, and scary. I really don't like road riding down the passes.....the roads were a little too gravelly, lots of traffic.....and I am not a huge fan of going that fast on my road bike!
I passed by Salmo and started heading up the Salmo-Creston pass....and although I would love to do this pass sometime this year, this wasn't the day!
My riding time was just over 3 hours at this point, and I was very much out of fuel, had been for a while! Thank goodness the family pulled up and that was the end!!
This was longest ride outside, but I have been doing many indoor rides that are this long or longer.....so I was thinking that I would be feeling stronger than this outside!

Oliver riding.

Well, I still don't have any exciting races to report, but we did have a great trip to Oliver and then Kelowna this past weekend!
We headed to Oliver on Saturday to celebrate Shawn's Granny and Grandpa's 70th Wedding Anniversary, can you imagine being married for 70 years?!
I love going to their place, an acreage just outside of Oliver, that they lived on since they were married, it is a beautiful, relaxing place.
We had an fabulous dinner with family on Saturday night, I love family gatherings!

I had to sneak out of the Anniversary party on Sunday as I had a 2 hour ride and then an hour run scheduled.
I LOVE having my training scheduled, it means on trips like these (which there is going to be many this year) I do what I have to do to get my workouts in!! I know what I have to do, and I do it!
I was hoping, actually expecting that there would be some nice warm weather in the Okanagan, it is the Okanagan, but we just can't escape this chilly wind and snow!!
I did an out and back from Oliver to Osoyoos and then a little ways up the Richter pass, with wind, rain and yeap....snow!!

This first picture is looking up the pass with Oliver in the distance.
The second picture is looking over into Osoyoos
The third picture is my adorable daughter being a tough racer!!

This was the longest ride I have done outside so far this year!! I thought my long inside rides and my intervals were tough, but this felt hard! Legs felt tired right from the start, I thought I had a headwind on the way out.....but there was a massive headwind on the way back!!! So not sure why I felt so awful on the way out!! UGH!! But nice to be outside.
Shawn joined me for my hour run after the ride, which was great!! My legs felt light and fresh, and we were running along this gorgeous trail along a river!
More about Kelowna to come........time to go grocery shopping!!

Calgary

It has been a long stretch between now and Christmas without any get-aways, so last weekend we decided to take the kids to Calgary. Just for a quick trip, leaving Saturday morning coming back Sunday night. It was a FULL trip, with our Honda Pilot loaded with 8 people, full capacity, three of those were little people in car seats!! Every time we had to stop for a pee break.... and with 8 people, it happened often, 4 people had to pile out to get the culprit out. Pee breaks with 2 kids in the very back seat are not an quick task!

But we made it there, made a quick stop at Tri-it (first time in this great shop) ended up getting a new one peice tri race suit....really hate spending money, but I have never purchased a race suit, I have been racing in the old Synergy one that was given to me 4 years ago (and I hate everything about this suit!!) But with Jackson ripping around taking everything off the shelves and Avery and Zoe waiting in the car, I didn't get to do A good look through the sho.! Next we hit our hotel downtown, let the older girls loose (we have a 17 year old German student living with us for the year, and her friend was with us) to explore.

We went to Gord's running shop next, where I purchased, not one, but two pairs of runners! Newton's Terra Momentus ----good for both on and off road.

Saucony Peregrine...... a little more of an aggressive off road runner.

The service at this store was amazing!! I love good service, and I really didn't know what I wanted to buy, so I required a fair bit of time!! I got some free laces and a free pair of recovery crocs too! Again with the shoes, I have been racing for the last 2.5 years on the same Newton racers....and so I am just catching up with some shopping! I hope these shoes are fast!! :o) The next morning I had a beautiful run, I am a little negative about big cities sometimes, but I ran dowtown, across the river up around McHugh hill (or something like that) back across and down along the river. I wish I had my camera with me, it was that pretty!!! Big icebergs on the river, but gorgeous early morning sun shining down!! I was still quite sick, so it was an easy run, but with going easy, still feeling super lousy!

We hit that Zoo for the rest of the day, and then a very tired bunch of folks headed home!! I didn't have an ounce of energy to tackle the Ikea or Cosco for a few needed items. Calgary exhausts me!! (especially with being sick!!)

My favorite morning!

Wednesday mornings, for the last several years I have lead a spin class for an amazing group of triathletes, and although the participants have changed over the years, this group is mostly comprised of members of the original triathlon club!
This class that began back in October runs from 6am-7:30am, I am proud to say that we have atleast 7 consistent members joining us at this early hour (and sometimes a straggler coming in later on....Sherri:o) This may not sound like that many, but considering that for the first 7 weeks, there was only one person coming, that's my Rocke :o) 7 is awesome!!
I dislike getting up at this early hour, I make sure I have everything laid out and throw on my clothes and leave, (sometimes I sleep in my spandex, just to get another minute of sleep in the morning.....kidding!
You would think that you would get used to getting up this early, but it is never good :o( I drag myself into the gym, set up bikes....and then I get to torture Sherri, Jo-Ellen, Dave, Rocke and Adrienna!!
Just kidding, this group gives me so much energy for the early workout and we have so much fun....although Rocke did say something about dreading Wednesday mornings.....
hmmmm....
and Dave did say that I was trying to kill him this morning.....but he was kidding :o) They work hard and put up with me yelling at them for an hour and a half, and they keep coming back!
So, thank you guys!!
See ya next week!!