Hey

Hey there,

Sorry I've been away for awhile. Just haven't felt like bloggin again, like usual. Lets seeeeee where shall we start. Ok, I attended the Legend Penticton camp during May long. It was great, although my fitness def. wasn't as good as the year before. The first day I was a little cranky cause I couldn't keep up to the first grp, oh well for the 2nd and 3rd days I checked my ego at the door and rode MY pace. Well not always, we still had some good hard efforts, but I seemed to feel better each day. It was like I was gaining fitness as the camp progressed. I still got dropped on the climbs, but I was ok with it and the flats I nearly always kept up. Leslie was sick during the camp, I still don't know how she got through all that, I doubt I coulda done what she did.

Anyways we all came home after that and Chad and my immune systems decided we could not take it so we got sick. I've had a nasty cough till about 1.5 weeks ago?? I took maybe a full 8 days off of training from that, still had the cough for another 2 weeks maybe. Boy did that ever suck training through it. I just made sure to keep the training mostly aerobic, and I think I had to take more running time off.

Lately I've had some good tues/thurs sessions. My fitness/speed/power is coming back. Tuesday is for fast intervals, somtimes 4-5 min or even 10 min intervals one tues. Thursday we do hills, Cochrane hill 3 times each tuesday. The last tuesday we had a head wind going up, man that was tough a real character builder. The faster guys usually drop me, but I don't loose contact and while they're waiting at the top I quickly turn around and zip down for a head start on the next one. Last tuesday I nearly stayed ahead of Greg on the last one. I rode for all I was worth to keep ahead, but just before the last section he came by. lol I nearly spit on him I was concentrating so hard I didn't notice him come up. Sorry Greg :(

The weekend of the Calgary marathon I wasn't racing so I did a long ride the day before, rode out of the city on Glenmore trail with Chad and Leslie. They were a little pissed at me for taking them out on that road. It is a little narrow and there were more then the usual amount of semi's on it. We still had a good ride, well not really I was still sick and coughing like a 2 pack a day smoker. Every stop the people would stare at me hacking away as I walk up to purchase my water at a particular gas station. One lady took one look and hustled out of the store muttering somthing about swine flew??? lol j/k As long as I kept riding I wouldn't cough, when I stopped I hacked. It almost took more out of me then the actual riding. We did have a hard cross wind. But I secretly like the wind..... somtimes. I rode aprox 130km, I wanted to go a little further but with the cold that is all I could manage. I still came home and did a 20 min transition run. Ended off at the river and splashed some cold water on my legs after. Then sunday was the marathon, I wasn't entered, but Cam and Curtis were doin the full. So I decided to go out and support them while getting my long run done. So I parked near 10th st. but on the downtown side and ran to shag hill, up the hill and waited at the top for them to come. I had estimated their arrivals pretty good cause I barely got there and here comes Cam. I picked the hill cause there weren't too many fans there and thought they could use the boost at about the 30k point. I still remember how I felt like going through 30k, hitting the wall, etc. Here comes Cam, he looked great and was in his usual chatty spirits. I've never seen Cam not willing to chat, the guy is so social that's actually how I first met him, talking in a marathon. I believe it started out with somthing like, "nice sideburns, does that make you run faster?". Curtis and I both had wicked side burns for that marathon. Anyways I ran with Cam down the hill then wished him well and ran back up the hill to wait for Curtis/Trevor. I didn't know but they had decided to run together much of the way so I met them both and chatted with them as I ran down the hill. I needed to run back to the car so I kept going with them. They split up after awhile so I did some accelerations running back and forth between the two. I ran past my turn off point and continued in with Curtis all the way to the finish. Hung out with them after the race. Boy that brought back memories. I'd like to do a marathon again somtime, but I don't want to run another crappy one. My last two weren't good and man can they ever hurt if your day isn't going right. I actually fear the marathon more then the Ironman. If your reading this and haven't done a marathon, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE it a marathon in some ways is more painful then a Ironman.

That leads me up to this week, I've been averaging over 2 hours a day. I always feel good if I can do that. Did tuesday's ride on my own, did the springbank loop on my own. Greg's grp was doing hills elsewhere, I didn't get the email so I set out on my own. Half way to Cochrane I saw a critter I haven't seen for a long time, or at all?? I can't remember if I've actually seen one in the wild. I was riding along and saw a big fat badger sprinting through the ditch. These animals are amazing, when I got home I did some research on my critter friend. Some random facts that you might not know. 1. They are the biggest of the wiesel family. 2. They are vicious creatures and can defend themselves from coyates, wolves, and even bears. 3. They dig faster then any other rodents and actually catch most of their preys by digging after them. 4. Don't try to out run one cause they can sprint up to 25-30 km p/h. See you don't need long legs to run fast. Maybe we could all learn a lesson from our badger friends..... faster turnover!!! Anyways I did intervals of 4/3(4 min hard, 3 aerobic) including pusshing the hills. I managed to beat my loop record and just went under 2 hours for the 61.5km loop. 32km average.

Yesterday I had an interesting day. Went swimming with Greg and Brad earlier. It was odd swimming with the sun shining through the windows and actually blinding us in the pool. I usually swim at night. Greg is swimming faster every day, he is gonna BLOW the cda swim apart and set himself up for a nice lonely bike ride. Goooooooo #770. I could not keep up, we were doing 100's on 2 min. This gave me maybe 10 secs of rest? Our lane was congested, last swim in short course I could hold 1:40s or faster(even did a 1:35) but now with long course I think I was probably 10 secs slower. OUCH!!! Anyways went for a run later with Curtis, he came over so we did a fav hour loop of mine. We were going to go have coffee with Cam who was in town again on buisiness. But it wasn't to be, I had a asthma episode on the run which made me walk for a bit. I was able to run home, but soon after I got bad muscle soreness/achiness and then the chills(it wasn't cold). I'm really weird, anyways I was in now shape to head out so I took a warm bath and hit the sack.

Today was a first for me. I took the morning off and attended Lisa's citizenship ceremony, that was cool. There were maybe 75 people from 27 countries??? So needless to say I'll be sleeping with a Canadian tonight. ;) They had a judge, some political people, held it at a school with the kids and they even had to swear in allegence to Canada. Oh well time to work, over and out,

DP