Uh oh

Bit of trouble in both India and Thailand these days. Terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the closure of the Bangkok airport with anti-government protestors. Selfishly I hope it clears up prior to my departure, I am really excited to see those parts of the world and to change my plans at this point might not be possible and would definitely be a gigantic hassle.

Here's to hoping things settle down.

the countdown is on

16 days till I leave for India. : ) huuuaaaaa!!!! pretty excited

Pumpkin Butter

Martha Stewart I'm not however I gave canning a first try tonight anyway. I attempted to make my own pumpkin butter. I had to wrestle with a live pumpkin to cut it up into manageable chunks to cook first and that was an ordeal in itself. I was sweating. Perhaps I need a sharper knife.

Anyway I followed the canning instructions and recipe to a T and hopefully tomorrow morning I'll find some lovely jars, with the snap lids curving down, in my kitchen. I had a wee bit leftover so I dumped it into an unsanitized jar and I plan to eat it...after all what harm is a little Botulism? Botox I say! The butter is delicious if I do say so myself.

One jar, upon removing it from the canner pot thingy, lost it's bottom clean off. That sucked because the recipe was fully blood sweat and tears and produced only 6 jars so I'm down to 5 now. Urgh.

Apparently North America is having a hard time with the particular lemon crop that's used to make ReaLemon juice (new crop expected late 2009) and that's unfortunate because I need 2 tablespoons of it if I'm to make more pumpkin butter. And let's face it, I'm no whiz in the kitchen so for me it's practice makes perfect so it would be great if I could make some more soon! I even have enough pumpkin to make more.

Here's what blood, sweat, tears, 1 beer, some cursing, and some cheezy Christmas music produced tonight.

Mmm!

I swam with Masters tonight but it was such a boring workout that I quit 10 minutes early. We did a warm up then 500 metres of kicking and pulling then...2,000 metres of free with fins. 2,000 metres of just free, all with fins. Umm...fuck that, I think not. (I've decided to stop being so polite in my blog and be more like my real self. My real self uses salty language). I was bored and cold so I quit the workout in favour of the hot tubby!

Cheerio,

Foxtrot

My weekend & sort of Squamish tri race report

My weekend started with me taking Friday off work. Good call Fox. Slept in and made it to Whistler and rode my bike from the North end of Whistler to Pemberton where I stopped to chat on the phone, ate some almonds, quickly decided that there was no way in hell I was going to return to Whistler under my own steam. I continued my ride out to Pemberton Meadows way to the Hurley turn off where I turned around and rode back to Pemby. I hung out at the Pony for a coffee then had a yummy lunch at the Wildwood (nice patio, good food!) and then we made our way to Gates lake for a quick dip in the lake. Must remember to take more Fridays off!

Saturday morning went for a quick trail run. I felt like a bag of smashed bag of a**holes - I dogged it, big time. After le shitty run I popped over to the farmers market to meet a friend, we shopped a bit then I had to pick up my race package. Met some girlfriends after package pick up for coffee then found that I pretty much falling apart and so a longish nap was in order. Post nap I made my way to the lake for some skin damage and girly gossip, good times. Yummy supper prepared in part by yours truly then bedtime.

Up at at em this morning at a reasonable hour and off to body marking where I met the runner on our team. Off to the swim where I ran into all kinds of peeps then it was time to hit the lake. Did the swim, felt pretty cruisey and mellow, enjoyed myself as always. Came out of the water to hand the timing chip off and noticed there were still quite a few relay cyclists waiting for their swimmers. I took the bus down to the school and watched the racers and turns out our Squamish Titans did really well!! Most of us had a pretty great day!

Last I checked our female relay team placed 2nd - who knew? Certainly not me. Had I known that we even had a chance at placing I would have given it my everything in the swim. I'm such a slacker. Anyway my 1,500 metre swim was 26:19.

Had lunch with the girls and husbands after the race then squeezed in a nice 53km ride with Cathy this evening. I really love weekends!

I've come a long way baby

Saturday: drive from Squamish to Cannon Beach, Oregon
Sunday: surfing at Oswald State Park in Oregon
Monday: surfing at Oswald State Park in Oregon
Tuesday: drive home from Oregon & 30min road ride to get ants out of my pants
Wednesday: lake swim, then mega vomiting all night long!
Thursday: vomiting and recovering
Friday: vomiting and recovering
Saturday: lake swim
Sunday: 1 hour trail run (my bday!)
Monday: lake swim
Tuesday: group trail run, 1:15, hills
Wednesday: 5am hike up Chief, 5:30 lake swim
Thursday: day off, to VanCity for Monty Python's Spamalot

Surfing at Oswald over the long weekend was SO MUCH FUN. I'll post the few pics I have later. I sucked bad at surfing but plan to take a lesson in Tofino soon. I really enjoyed myself in Oregon and hope to return there!

The Squamish triathlon is this Sunday; I'm doing the swim as part of a relay team. Apparently we now have a very fast runner who wants to "get together" the day before....I sincerely hope she doesn't take this business of relaying a tri too seriously 'cause I don't and am there to have fun! I'll have to see how it goes but am feeling good about my swimming and am having lots of fun with it these days. I even swam by myself last night. Let me repeat, I swam byMYSELF in the lake. I didn't even freak out once! I've come a long way baby!

5am departure for the long weekend

Amy and I are heading to Oregon tomorrow morning at 5am, we have 4 days off work!!!! We're off to Oswald State Park to surf! She surfs but I've never surfed so this should be an experience!

Wish me luck. Will post details/pics when I get back next week. Happy Canada Day!

NB 1/2 Iron RR

Dad at 5:00am, race day. Looking pretty chipper!

I think I'm due to provide a race report so here goes!

Last Friday I drove to my cousins place where I met up with my Dad who came over from the Okanagan to race too. He and I relayed the New Balance 1/2 Iron in Victoria. I swam, he biked, I ran. My cousin did the whole thing solo. A bunch of other friends did the race too so we were in good company.

Friday night consisted of pizza from the Steveston Pizza Co (soo yummy!) and Guitar Hero. That's right, Guitar Hero. It really should be part of everyone's pre-race prep. At one point I was worried that the cramping in my hand might have a negative effect come race day but I played on. I got Torb and I booed off stage once. Oops. Guitar Hero is fun and I want my own!

We were up and at em early Saturday morning for the ferry boat over to Vancouver Island. When got there we drove a good portion of the bike course (I napped and at one point woke up with my gob wide open...classy as always) then ate some lunch at the Blue Fox. Off we all went to the race venue to sign in, pick up our stuff and sit in on the "mandatory" pre-race meeting. Hmm.

After the meeting we checked ourselves into the hotel and then we had dinner for 10of us 'athletes' at the Macaroni Grill. We all went to bed pretty early due to ridiculously early wake up at 4:30am.

OK ok here's the meat portion of this post: I hop in the water about 1 minute before the friggin' cannon goes off (I near shat my wetsuit it was so loud and scared me so badly) and then off we went. As always I stayed on the edge of the crowd. I don't like people all up in my space when I swim and I'd hate to have to rip somebody's goggles off. I found a pretty sweet spot and just cruised the entire swim. I was comfortable and daydreamed most of the way, it was very enjoyable. At one point I did think to myself that perhaps one day I'll actually race a race. You know, give it my all and leave nothing in the tank. One day soon actually. Right towards the very end of the swim I had another thought and that was "hmm...people were talking about how warm the water is and how there's a ton of geese shit in the water...I wonder how much goose crap I've consumed so far...I wonder if I should have been more careful about keeping my mouth shut up tight...damn...I just swallowed some goose poo I bet.....I hope this doesn't give me the runs on the run". I found myself at the end of the swim and out I get to run up to the bike transition to tag my Dad off. Oh what's this? I'm at the bike, but Dad's not! Umm...this is a friggin' relay Dad, you're supposed to be here. I spot him, I yelled "Dude, get over here" and we manage to get the chip transferred to him and off he goes. He told me that he wasn't expecting me out of the water so soon. Harumph.

So Dad's off on the bike and since he did a 600km bike ride the weekend previous and based on his IMC bike times I had calculated 3 hours to chillax before the run. Nice. I change, eat, and indeed I chillax. I parked my ass on Cathy's beach blanket and gossiped with T & C and read my book and just rested up. At one point I was feeling like it was time to eat and pee so I put the book down, turned around and happend to glance up. Ahhh...what the? "Wait, is that my DAD?! Oh my god that's my Dad. OMFG. Oh Fuck! Oh FUCK!" I tied up my shoes, stripped my hoody and put my running shirt and race number on, swiped a gel and holy shit I was running. I was running. I was running down through the bike transition and onto the course. I kept thinking "I can't be here, I can't be running NOW. I'm not ready. I didn't pee or eat or tie up my pony tail or anything". I started sucking on the gel and just kept running. My heart rate was way high. I ran faster than I normally would and it was b/c I was all pumped and full of adrenaline due to the shock of being out earlier than expected. By about 20 minutes! Yeah Dad had a stellar bike. Too bad I can't run fast otherwise we would have done quite well! That, I expect, was the first and only time I'll be out running with those fast bastards. It was a fun experience and I'll remember it for some time!

Me at the very end of the run, rather happy that it's over.

A few minutes into the run all that I could think was "what the hell am I doing here with these fast people, this is sooo wrong, I don't belong here". Still I kept running and got passed over and over and over. The first 10km was fine and I felt good. The second 10km felt crappy. My stomach was having none of it and so towards the end I was just jogging along at the only pace I could manage. I saw a snake too, so that sucked. A 70 year old man and I kept playing leap frog which I must admit keeps me more than a little humble. There was also a 30 something year old man who kept passing me so I'd work to catch up and pass him and that helped me finish when I really just wanted a crapper and some tp all to myself.

Joanne being a happy after the swim!! She raced a PB this race!

The run ended. I found the porta pottie and felt better soon after that visit. A quick handful of pretzels, a half a banana and a drink and I got changed into dry clothes and was dropped off at the ferry to head for home. I fell asleep on the ferry and even with that little nap I managed to miss a turn coming off the ferry. I ended up in friggin' Delta and New Westminster. Duh Fox. Cripes. Must pay attention to signage!

I

Dad and I on race morning at 5am.

So thanks to Dad for racing with me, again. Thanks Joanne & Torb for having us over, again, and hanging out with us and showing us the ropes.

I'm due to swim the Squamish tri in a few weeks and I'm thinking that perhaps this time I will give the swim a real effort and not worry about having anything left in the tank after. We'll see!!

What the EFF

Wednesday - our office went out for a "social" and most of us got completey hammered AND we all had a fantastic time. We started with mini golf (actual greens, no clowns or windmills) at 1:00pm and we ran out of booze pretty quick. We then went to an actual golf course where we proceeded to drinks many many shots and other drinks. We were eventually cut off of shots when some of the Squamish contingent started chanting a Squamish chant that had words that I shall not repeat here...so you know if I won't say them here, then a fancy pants golf course was definitely not the venue for the chant. So we got boozey and moved on to one of the staffs homes where the partaaay continued...someone barfs, someone passess out and the rest of us party on.

Thursday - The next day half the office came to work very late and the other half didn't make it in at all. Nice work folks. I for one tried to work but after half an hour of the spins at my desk I relocated my ass back onto a couch until 6pm. Then I caught a ride home and went back on the couch until bed. Everyone had fun at our social, it was a success and just what we needed! I for one partied my ass off and put the "No Fun K" nickname to rest for a time. I'm now working on EFF. Extra Fun Fox.

Friday - Hangover almost gone, back to work. Excellent trail run Friday pm, then home to bed. (that's 2 good runs in a week!)

Saturday - Woke up at 4:30 am couldn't go back to sleep so cleaned up my house. Met up with the girls for a swim in Alice Lake. Spectated thes Test of Metal for an hour but was in a daze and required a nap so went home to do that. Walked some dogs in the afternoon and had dinner with a friend.

Sunday - Skipped the long run in favour of a shorter easy run. Came home had some breakfast and then it was nap time because I didn't sleep well at all Saturday night, my clock is all messed up and I keep waking up at wonky times. Spent the afternoon reading at Alice Lake, lovely day and had to be outside. Went for a walk in the evening and made dinner (yes I made it myself!!) for a friend who so far has not reported in with food poisoning.

And now it's Monday. Ick.

please don't send the bear our way

New animal count: 18 bears, 14 deer, 1 coyote, 2 dead snakes

Long run today, mostly dirt road and trail. 2hrs5 minutes. Probably about 17km or so. There were some hills. Some rather big ones actually.

At one point we came across a black bear, he was about 200 metres away. On the other side of the bear an equal distance away were a group of people and dogs. We yelled but the bear didn't move. Then one of the dogs started towards the bear....we took off because it looked like the bear would end up running from the bear towards us!! It ended up heading into the bush so we continued on our way, though there was a spike in heartrate. I am sooo done after that run. I hurt. It was great.

Marvelous!

Friday afternoon I had a brutal trail run. I wasn't expecting 30 degrees for one and I think I was wicked dehydrated so I felt like a bag of smashed assholes the entire run. I drank and drank and drank water but I had a severe headache still. Later on that night someone convinced me to drink some gatorade...worked like a charm and I felt better soon after. I'll be making note of that for future runs/bikes/hikes etc. in hot weather.

This morning I had a 40km road ride in the sunshine. It was a truly perfect sunny day and a gorgeous day to ride a bike. For the 2nd time in 3 days a man who passed us in his truck (he was going the opposite direction) turned around, drove back to us just to let us know that we were heading towards a juvenile bear. What a nice guy! We kept riding but didn't see the bear. Prolly cause I was yodelling my head off the for the rest of the ride.

Total animal count to date: 17 bear, 14 deer, 1 coyote, 2 dead snakes. I hate snakes and dead's how I like em.

After my bike I spent the rest of the day outside in the sunshine (with sunscreen on of course). It was marvelous and I really love Squamish even more when the sun shines.

Sumfing just brushed my leg!

I stole this from somebody else's blog but it made me laugh so much, I just had to share it. The caption is "Did I mention that the World's swim is in the ocean...."





This is ME in any open water. That's exactly how I feel when I'm swimming in a lake and it's even worse in the ocean. JUST. LIKE. THIS. SEAL.

zzz

Last minute I came to the Okanagan for the weekend and unlike most people who head up here for their bike rides and runs...I come here to catch up on sleep. That's right, I sleep. I go to bed early, I wake up late and I even nap. I don't usually nap (maybe that's why when I get here I need to sleep a lot). Anyway that's what I'm up to this weekend...zzzz. It's Mother's day too so I'm hanging out with Mom : )

This was taken a few years ago when I was not having a nap.