The World Cup of Soccer

Well the world cup of soccer is big news over here – I only wish they wouldn’t call it the world cup of soccer! It was on the last time we were here for any period of time, and I remember a score on the radio – “in tonight’s game it’s Sweden v Tonga, and the score is currently zero, zero”. It’s like English, but not quite Anyway, the news is that, although the American’s on the whole either aren’t interested or actively hate the game, they want to, now, how did it go?, they want to grind England into the dirt. Well that’s a little uncharitable isn’t it?

Unfortunately we’ll not see the game because it’s Cath’s first full Olympic sized triathlon this weekend, and we’ll be in Wasa (a mere hour and 20 minutes away, so practically in our own back yard!) It looks like it’s going to be sunny, and there’s always a big turnout on this one. Cath was approached by the Fernie Tri group to see if she’d run for them, so she said yes. We’re all looking forward to see how she will do. We also have our friends Keith and Linda here this weekend as well. Keith is running too, and I think it’s his first race this year, so good luck to the pair of them!

Calgary or Bust

Well you’ll know by now if you’ve read Cath’s Blog that she did really well this weekend on her first triathlon of the season despite her new diving style (known in yoga circles as rampant bunny rabbit) not living up to expectations

A short one by her standards, it was meant to be a warm up for the season, but the below freezing temperatures at 6am meant that this would be metaphorically only. The triathlon was actually called TryATri, and was aimed at new nutters newcomers who have never tried a triathlon before as well as seasoned pros who wanted to get a jump start on the new season.

There were people of all abilities there, from those on “shopper” cycles and in bikini swimsuits, to those who had all the gear and evidently the training who flew through the water. It was certainly a great spectator’s race as you could really root for those who were obviously doing it to get fit – and you could feel for the potential triathletes as there were more than a few worried looks from then as they jumped into the water for the first time while being urged on by their families. There were a lot of people that day who would have run their first race since leaving school. Well done them!

A great race was had by all! More information on Cath’s Blog.

Talking about races, well done Colin as well! He ran his first Canadian 5k on Saturday in sub-zero temperatures in south Calgary! The course had a steep hill at the turnaround part which evidently wasn’t the most fun thing he or his running team have ever done. That said, the race against Huntingdon’s Disease was really friendly  from start to finish with everyone cheering everyone else. There were medals for first, second and third, but it wasn’t about that at all, it was about having a great time with friends.

Cath’s New Triathlon Website

Well Cath has a new website at www.catherineliversidge.com for her triathlon work. She’s been fortunate enough to get a second sponsor, so she’s decided to give something back and update it from time to time with information she’s found inspirational, and how she’s been getting on with her training on her road to the world championships in Budapest, Hungary. Even though it’s new, there are already a lot of photos up there of what she’s been up to, so take a look!

Well, I’ve seen some things…

Have a look at this amazon gear. Now that’s what I call making life difficult for yourself. If my grandad had been around to see it I’ve a good idea about what he’d have said!

Hmm, alternatively, you could just train in the pass; eh Julie?

Summer running

As you may remember, I’ve been running since the beginning of January after a visit to the doc who told me to get off my backside. It all seems to be going ok at the moment. I started with some random running about (where I did a couple of 10km runs and inexplicably fell off the treadmill at the end as if I’d been drinking large amounts of alcohol) before settling into a plan four weeks ago that would in theory get me ready for a 10k run at the beginning of May.

Now, I don’t have a 10k booked in May, but I will be going the Fernie 5k “fun run” in the summer with Cath, our neighbours Rob and Terri, Colin who is training up in Calgary, and hopefully Mick who has just returned from the UK where he and Angie saw their new grandchild for the first time. Following the 5k run I’ll be signing up as soon as I’m able for the 10k Sole Survivor run in the Pass later in the summer before finishing after Cath’s World Championships in Budapest with the Fernie half marathon on Oct 3rd. Ooh, just found the link, looks like they are taking bookings for this year!

The training is a bit fierce and not at all lackadaisical. Since starting I’ve run and biked for 181 hours and covered 152 miles. Separating it out, I’ve run 123km and biked 122km. And this is just training for a 10k. My biggest limiter at the moment is my heart-rate, but its getting better, and my blood pressure has come down no end – it’s below normal now! Anyway, all this running about it going to cost me a fortune in jeans. That said, there’s a few t-shirts I can wear now that I’d have been embarrassed to wear a few months ago.

So there we are, still hammering on, and when I reach 13st we are going to a newish restaurant in town called Picnic as it’ll be 6lb lighter than the day I got married. So something to look forward to

And that’s about it. Like I said before, this is certainly not going to become a training blog as I don’t find them interesting, but I will keep you up to date once in a while as I turn into the Fernie… well I was going to say Flash, but I know what some of you are like; those comments are easily hijacked.

Finally, cheers Flo for motivating me – you’ve come on leaps and bounds!

Now, where’s that ice?

It’s all good

A phrase we keep hearing over here. Well we were hoping that February was going to be busy, and it’s certainly turned out that way! We have now managed to get into a routine, and tasks that used to keep us busy half the morning have been streamlined – basically, we are starting to know what we’re doing! Of course our guests were kept unaware of the little crises that popped up from time to time, but yes, we can now say that we’ve settled into running a B&B. Guests are booking regularly, and we’ve even been filling up in the week as well, which is great news. Next stop is the summer trade. There’s not as much of this as the winter trade, but we will drum up as much business as we can!

I’ve been running on the treadmill in my spare time, and I’m now at 13st 6lb; the lightest Cath’s ever known me, and I’m determined to get it down further. My blood pressure has also dropped from 145/95 to 120/68, so I’m very pleased about that. Mind you, I’m still partial to the odd bit of cake – it’s difficult not to be when Cath cooks about three cakes a week not to have the odd slice. I actually cooked a cake last night (cakes are generally Cath’s thing, not mine). Allegedly it was Parkin Cake, but I’ve a feeling James Martin might have taken liberties with his recipe. That said, it tastes great, and of course, having ginger in it, it’s good for you – yaay!

Cath’s having to slow down the training a bit at the moment. She’s doing the same number of hours etc as before, but she’s having problems with the latex that’s in her shorts, swim cap etc, and might be allergic to it, so the doctor has told her to reduce the intensity until we have been to the allergy specialist in Calgary. A bit of a shame, but it’s like I said last night when we were talking about this and her back, at least she’s getting it all sorted now, and come the summer it should all be behind her – and when it is sorted she can only be better!

Colin is enjoying himself. I pooted him up the hill this morning so that he can make a mess all over the hill with his board. The skiing has actually been pretty good even though there hasn’t been much in the way of snow. I found some loose snow that everyone had missed the other day when we had a foot of the fresh stuff.

Right then, best get on. Hopefully we’ll be too busy to post again for another week, but you never know

Flight Update

Calgary Airport has free wifi! Nice. Had an easy journey up with the irrepressable Bob Gammell. The mountains were beautiful this morning with a brand new dusting of snow. Boy, was it stormy last night! At one point yhe wind and rain were beating at the garage doors so much that I was sure they might buckle! I got most of myjobs done, but I did manage to leave a carton of milk on the side (thanks for sorting that out Rob). So all I have left to do is stay awake long enough to catch the plane th

Southbound and down

Well I’m about packed. The housesitter turns up tomorrow morning, and I’ve a feeling there will be no end of people passing by checking up. The bags are packed, the flight ticket and visa are printed and I’m about ready to go. In 23 or so hours I’ll be in Brisbane ready for sand sea sun and… Ah, that’ll be swim, bike and run I’m thinking of there.

Running fast and being extremely proud!

Well, as Jase finished in the dead of the night last night with his photos, he didn’t quite make it to the track – I don’t blame him!  But, I did surprise myself with how fast I was running!  Today was a sprint session day – on paper it always looks so easy, but oh boy does it hurt!  I do 2 x 90 seconds fast, followed by 4 x 60secs followed by 4 x 30 followed by 4 x 15 secs fast with equal rest in between.  By the end my lungs and legs are exploding.  ANyhow, today I hit an average of 19.7 kph and hit a handful over 20kph and a couple at 20.8kph – yikes, are they really my legs!  By the end I was flat on my back on the grass recovering for 5 minutes in the sun – it’s HOT today!  It does always surprise me though when I run what seems fast to me, as I only started running 2 years ago and running properly 18 months ago!

And why am I extremely proud – well, not of myself of course, but of my husband.  We’re on our way to Freshies to put his pictures up – I’m wearing a skirt especially for the auspicious occasion

As if training wasn’t hard enough already…

…..so on a Saturday I generally do my long bike ride which is usually 3-3.5 hours followed by a 20 min run.  Today was to be 3 hours then run 10 minutes fast followed by 10 minutes easy.  I usually average about 30kph for the 3 hours, but today it just wasn’t there!  It felt like I was biking through treacle and no matter how hard I pushed I just couldn’t get there – I put it down to the fact that I didn’t eat that much yesterday (we had a busy day, and food kind of got missed!), so was therefore low on energy.  Anyhow, I promised myself I’d eat properly today and from now on.  As I said earlier, my bike was to be followed by a 10minute fast run, I was debating whether to miss it if I was already feeling a bit bushed!

HOWEVER, after finishing my bike I thought “I’ll just check to see how freely my wheels are running” – the front wheel was not running AT ALL, as soon as I spun it it stopped! I’d just biked the return 45k basically with my brakes on – no wonder it felt hard!  I know exactly what happened – I know they were good at the turnaround point as I checked them – then I went over a pot hole, and as I’d only just put my bike together the day before (I did a practice dis-assembly and bike box pack ready for Aus), I obviously hadn’t clamped the front wheel in properly hence it going out of kilter when I went over the pot hole!

Sooooo….I decided I would start my run and see how I felt – if my legs felt like toast I’d can it!  Anyhow, low and behold I ran my fastest by a long way off a long ride – for those of you that numbers mean something to – I ran 6min 45 second miles for the 10 minutes (that’s a faster pace than my last race!) – so after grinding for an hour and a half with my brakes on I was pretty happy with that!  Having said all of that – I wouldn’t have done it out of choice as I’m now pretty damn pooped!  Easy night tonight me thinks   And of course, the moral of the story is……check your brakes when it’s feeling really hard as it MIGHT not be you!  (Lesley – you’ll relate to this I know – remember when me, you and Steve were cycling just before I flew to Canada?????)

We’ve just been into town to see some of the TransRockies finishers come in.  This is reputed to be the hardest mountain bike race in the world – it’s 7 days of hard mountain biking – and this year, the weather has been awful – yesterday it rained ALL day and these guys are biking up and down some pretty serious stuff!  One of Julie’s friends, Charmaine, was in it so we were trying to catch her finish but no luck!  Never mind!