College Number TWO!

Greetings from lovely, and rainy Mountain Home Idaho. We are about 40 minutes south of Boise and this will be our main camp for the next 4 nights! It's a town of 11,000 people and has a Wal Mart, so were ok with it!

The drive today from West Yellowstone was pretty tiring. Rain, sunshine, rain, sunshine, rain.... you get it. It was a 5 hour drive but we managed to make it 6 because of a brief stop, in Pocatello Idaho, home of Idaho State Bengals! University number two, DONE! We got there in the pouring rain, so the visit was short and sweet. A drive through campus, a picture at the stadium, a trip to the bookstore, and out!

Yesterday, we hit Yellowstone. It was truly, not all exciting. Have you been to Banff, then you have been to Yellowstone, but smaller scale. We drove into the park to see Old Faithful, which lasted about 5 minutes after a 1 hour wait. We stopped to let Rexy run around in which she ate a boatload of bison crap. Then she ran through it. That was fun, it was fresh. Then she got to see her first bison, and boy did she NOT like it. She was practically jumping out of the window trying to eat it, as it strolled by the truck. Apparently they have a pretty big problem with wild bison just standing on the road. It actually happened twice to us, we had to stop and wait for the bison to move but they don't. They just stand there. Weird.

I was going to bike back from Yellowstone to the town but I decided not to as the weather was pretty rough. About 6 degrees and pouring rain all day. We finished the night with an Imax show on Yellowstone (which also kind of sucked; I'm starting to think I'm hard to please or something). It was pretty cheesey and dry.

Today I finally did get a bike ride in! As soon as we got to Mountain Home I jumped on the bike and started towards the Air Force Base which is 10 miles outside of the town limits. It wasn't more than 25 minutes until I saw thunderclouds and lightning bolts and decided to head back into town. I think I ended up riding a short 45 minutes and 22 km. Later tonight we tried to find this little lake to go swimming in but got lost in the Idaho back country. I think I'll have to get those directions from Sunny, the KOA guy again tomorrow!

Bright and early in the morning we head into Boise! It is registration, pre race meeting, and bike check day for Leslie and downtown shopping and Boise State University day for me! It should be a early night back at camp as Leslie gets a good sleep for Saturday, which is race day!

Later!

Chad

Some pictures from Montana and Yellowstone!

Wyoming, Montana, I don't know which???

Hello, Americano!

So here we are in West Yellowstone, Montana. I believe. Yellowstone National Park is mostly in Wyoming, but I don't know where it switches, hence the blog title.

We got here last night at about 8:30pm. We ended up leaving Calgary on Tuesday morning instead of Monday night like we planned. It turns out Leslie and I were a wee little bit disorganized and couldn't fit everything in the truck. I blame Rexy. Anyway, we left at about 8:30 am yesterday. I apologize Dad for not updating last night, I knew you would be checking to see if we made it here, but I couldn't get the Internet up and running, they gave me an invalid password.

The drive went well. Rexy was actually the best I have ever seen her in the truck. I made her a big bed out of all of our pillows and blankets and she just slept the entire way. Well, except at the boarder. There is an interesting story. Since I have the bike rack on the back, the 3 guards opened all the doors without warning and Rexy doesn't know what to do. Usually she tries to jump out, but the two guards on the side were jumping in! She was so confused. Then she tried to jump out of my diver window over my back while Leslie's is helping search her purse and the glove box! The main guy I was talking to liked here though, he was giving her treats and petting her like crazy, no questions asked!

We did manage to go out of our way a tiny ways to make it to the first University of the trip, Montana State, home of the Bobcats in Bozeman, Montana. For most of you that don't know, I'm a little obsessed about college sports in the US. It is just amazing to see how much a 'team' can really depict the culture of an area. It's just like the movies, they live following these teams. I always make a point to go out of my way to see the schools, the stadiums, and the souvenirs!

The plan for today when we ever get out of here is Ol' Faithful, stroll downtown West Yellowstone, go for a bike, and an Imax movie tonight! I'll try and get some pictures up later!

Until then...


Grizz!

Vulcan Tinman Sprint RR

Hey!

So this weekend past was the Vulcan Tinman Sprint Triathlon. It was to be my first ever REAL distance triathlon, and would officially elevate me to 'triathlete' status. The only problem was the expected 3 degree temperatures with 10 cm of snow and rain. I wasn't too excited.

All week I debated what I would do if it actually was that crappy. I want to race but I also want to enjoy the race and not get a cold with it before we left on holidays the week after. I talked to some clients, Leslie, and tried to figure it out with no luck at all. I decided to go to Vulcan on Saturday and see, besides I had to pick up my race package anyway, and they had a free bike inspection!

It rained for pretty much the whole drive out. Cold, windy, and wet. When I got to Vulcan, I wasn't into it. Not at all. Maybe it was the snow that was falling as I walked my bike to go and get registered, I don't know. I picked up my timing chip, walked into transition to set up, then turned around and walked back out with my bike still. I decided it wasn't worth it. It wouldn't be fun or smart. I headed back over to the registration tent to return my chip while I was shivering.

That is when I met up with Leslie. She layed the guilt trip pretty bad on me and when I asked her what she would do, she said 'are you kidding, I'd do it.' So there I go back to transition, still doubting it.

I set up transition and went to go get changed in my tri gear and what do you know, the snow turned into rain. Great! Not really. I went into the pool and found out that since so many people didn't show up, that you didn't have to start in your designated heat, you could start whenever you wanted. Great! Get it over with!

Swim:

The swim was weird. You didn't start swimming and start timing; you have to start timing, then run to your lane, jump in without knowing the temperature of the water, then start swimming right away. This means no warm up. It was 5 degrees outside and my shoulders usually take about 400 m to actually start feeling good. Luckily when I jumped in the water was super warm although it was salt water which I also wasn't ever in before.

The swim went pretty well. Of course my shoulders and triceps were burning, but the salt water actually seemed to make me float a bit more. Since the heats were all random, I had in my lane a young kid who was doing breast stroke the whole way, and an older guy who wasn't really a speed demon. They finished not long in, maybe 250m and the next two in were actually faster than I was, so that made it easier on me, in the crammed 25m lane. While I was swimming, the sun actually came out!

My goal time for the swim: 10 min

My actual time for the swim : 10.57 including the run, jump in, jump out, and short run.

Rank: 83 of 347 overall

Bike:

Since it was so cold, my transition took forever! Dry off, socks, shoes, shoe covers, shirt, jacket, toque, gloves, and helmet. Then I was off. The bike was a 20 km out and back. Out went really well, I was pushing about 45km/hour the whole way down in aero and felt great. WOW! I can sure pedal hard if I really want to, I remember thinking. Then the turn around came, and things got ugly.

It turns out the reason I went so fast was the strong tailwind I had. When you turn around, that tailwind apparently turns into a headwind. I tried to keep above 25km / hour on the way back, that's how strong it was! After about 10km, that's when the hail storm hit. The hail was small but man did it sting! I couldn't even see where I was going, I had to shield my eyes to even look up so I didn't hit anyone! It stopped about 2 km later and the rest of the ride went pretty well. Pretty much flat, and only one corner back into town.

Bike goal: 30 min

Bike time: 33.23

Bike rank: 38 of 347 overall

Run:

Transition number two from the bike to the run went ok. The sun was starting to poke through a bit so the second transition was pretty much stripping EVERYTHING I spent 3 minutes putting on.

The course for the run was 5km and was just a little tour of the outskirts of town. By the graveyard (which I thought was kind of ironic), past a golf course and through some streets and back again.

One guy that passed me with about 3 km left on the bike was about 1km ahead of me on the run. I tried to push to catch up to him and almost did by the end of the race. If I had another 1 or 2 km I would have got him I think, but that's what got me through the run. My calfs were pretty tight and sore from the 1/2 marathon last weekend but it was only 5km, if I made it through all this other crap today, I can make it through the rest of the run!

Goal Run time: 25 min

Actual Run time: 22.42

Rank: 30 of 347 overall

Overall I was pretty happy with the day. I did it. I didn't want to, but I did. The hardest part was just getting to the start line, after that I felt pretty good. I definitely need to work on a little bit more race preparation and some nutrition issues again, but the three sports seem to be fitting together pretty well. I'm not great at any, but I'm not awful at any either. Win, win, right?

Overall goal time: 1 hour 5 min

Overall actual time: 1 hour 7 min, 1 second

Overall rank: 34 of 347

Gender rank: 29 of 145

Age group rank: 3 of 15

That's right! 3rd in my age group!! I was pretty happy to see that! I don't know if you get medals or anything, but we left before the awards anyway. I will try emailing the race director to see! Not too shabby at all, for a first ever REAL distance triathlon!

This next week should be great too. We leave on Monday night to head out to Boise, Idaho for Leslie's Ironman 70.3 Boise on Saturday. We are going to make a pit stop in Yellowstone National Park for a couple days, and Missoula, Montana on the way home as well. The interesting part is we are taking Monster (formerly known as Rexy) with us. My parents are going to meet us in Boise as well to help cheer! It should be great! I will definitely update when we get there in the mid week!

Have a great week workers!!!!

Grizzle

The perfect fit for my Vulcan Tri this weekend

Julie, this totally reminded me of you! Thought it was funny and the perfect ad for the Vulcan Sprint Tri this weekend!

Grizzzzzzzzzz

HSBC Calgary Half Marathon

Hey!

Well, my only half marathon for the year is done. It was good. It was a nice test for me to see how biking a lot really translates over to running. I expected my general fitness to be higher than it ever has been from the biking, but I didn't know how my legs would handle the race with the limited amount of training I got in running lately.

Race morning came early. Really early. My first alarm went off at 5:30. No shower, ate a bagel while Leslie dropped me off at a LRT station, and a cool bottle of water. The LRT they said was free to ride for all participants on race day, but what they didn't tell you is that the LRT's were few and far between. It took me a good 35 minutes to get from the LRT platform to the Bridgland station which was about a 30 minute walk away. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh. Disorganization number one for the day.

I made it to the start at about 6:30 am for the 7 am start and right away got in one of the three bag check line ups, and waited. And waited. And waited. The lady behind me says ' I hope we are going to make the start of the race in 10minutes' Still we waited. Bang. The gun goes off and I am still in the friggin' bag check. Finally we get to the front of the line, about 5 minutes after the race started then book it over to the start line, which was still barely moving. I think in the final numbers I actually crossed the line about 8 minutes after the gun. Disorganization number two for the day.

The first 6 km's of the race were slow. Painfully slow. My goal was to a maintain a 5 min/km pace for the first 17kms or so, but I didn't even see a 5.00 pace until about 6 km in. 5000 people (with most of the walkers up at the front?????) running sharp dog leg's for 6 km did not make me very happy. Disorganization number three.

After 6km thing finally spread out enough that I could actually set a pace. I guess it wasn't too bad that I had to start slow. At least I got a warm up in since I was stuck in the stupid bag check for 30 minutes. I kept rolling along, stopping to say hi to Rexy and Leslie on the side of 17th ave. We kept running up 17th, headed north on 14th st, then a short trek west on Memorial until we turned around and headed all the way back east on Memorial to the finish in Bridgeland.

There was not too much to report about the run. Lots of people. I managed to follow a bit of a nutrition plan and seemed to last pretty good until about the 18km mark when my right quad and calfs started to ache.

By the time I got to the finish I was hurting. The last 7km I picked up the pace to try and balance out my slow 6km at the start and to make my goal time of 1h45min.

In the end I finished with a time of 1 hour 44 min 50 sec. Exactly 10 seconds below my goal time and a new personal best in a half by about 5 minutes! I was happy. It was great to see the benefits of my training this year, even though it hasn't been running too much. It was a tough race to really run hard in though because of all the people and the sharp corners where everyone would funnel together. I finished 60 of 163 in my age group, and 349 of 2846. Wow, that sounds cool. My pace was 4.59 per km, which was my goal to keep as well. Yeah, me!

Other than than the limited train, long ass bag check, and stupid dog leg's off the start, the race seemed to be well organized once again and full of excitement.

Oh, another question I have, is why do they rank the official times as when the gun goes off and not from your chip. My gun time was 1h 52 minutes or something but my chip time was 1h 44 min. However, for the rankings they use the gun time. Weird. Just out of interest sake, why? If they would have used my chip time instead of the gun time, I would have finished 32 in my age group instead of 60! Stupid bag check!

Everyone from WOW! did amazing too. Sharlene ran her first 10km race and completed the whole thing without stopping! Peter Cutting, my 72 year old client did his first 10km run and finished a wonderful 3rd place in his age group!!!! Peggy had a strong 10km run, as did Stacey and Gary! What a great day!

There are probably a few pictures Leslie took and I'll try and get them up, but for now, I'm pooped. 'Night!

Grizzly G.

Thanks Leslie...

So it's been a long week. I feel like crap. Darryl and I, both of which shared the room in Penticton with Leslie I might add, seem to have caught the same awful deep lung cough that Leslie has had for a few weeks. Aaaarrrrrggghhhhhh.

Needless to say it was a pretty slow week of training last week and only now am I well enough to actually do more than walk without coughing up my lung.

I got to work today feeling like a bag of ...... rotten banana peels. Just spent and discarded. I had a couple hours off and finally just said to myself, screw it, bike. Off upstairs in the gym to the spin bikes I went. An easy ride for the 30 minutes I had to spare I figured was better than nothing.

After I finished, it turned out that I had another hour off from a no show client, so I did something I haven't done in almost 2 months. Weights. Yep, the powerlifters at the gym nearly had a heart attack (not from lack of cardio, which is could have been now that I think about it), but they thought I had converted back to heavy weights and less than 5,000 reps up a hill. I managed to get in a few sets for every muscle group, and boy was it hard. Since starting to really get into tri training I feel really, well, weak. I bet off my squat I have easily dropped about 150lbs, and a good 75lbs off my bench press. I have to lift up 45lbs plates all day at the gym and they are starting to get kind of heavy. I decided that I am going to try and get 2 or 3 easy, high rep, whole body training sessions in a week just to feel better. It was good to be back today.

Later on I had a another hour off and I wanted more biking. I was feeling really good by now so I thought I would take a chance at a spin class at the gym. I could only stay for the first half, but that was enough. I had some mixed feelings about how well 'spinning' actually translates over to cycling and I kind of questioned the whole 'stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down' part of it, but it was a really good sweat. My conclusions, good for cardio, bad for cycling for sport. Kudo's to all of those chicks I was with though, they are in fabulous shape!

Finally after work, it was swimming with Darryl, Greg, and Leslie. I'm glad Leslie had a good swim while Darryl and I were stopping mid set to cough our brains out. We didn't do too much. Longer sets, easy pace to get back into it. Not too much to report.

I have some time off tomorrow again, so I think I am going to head out to Strathmore on the bike from work. We'll see, but right now that's the plan. About 45km one way, I think. Maybe a 3h 30m ride. I'll let you know!

Stay strong!

Grizz.