Nordicgirl Adventures 2019 Part 2 - March & April

March and April, I became a slave to my ultimate goal. Nobody said training would be easy and with May 31st just around the corner this would become my biggest challenge of my life. When I did my first triathlon, i nearly died, being that it was a very small sprint size, what's all the fuss I thought. For me being the fully motivated and sometimes crazy person, I thought, forget the Olympic size, lets head straight for the Half Iron .. needless to say i put everything into being able to survive that day, more on that in Part 3! 

My schedule was somewhat of what a hamster would endure on the wheel.. going around and around, and it felt like there was no stopping at all. Every single day.. don't stop ! keep moving.  

My swimming became my place to work out all my emotions, days of frustration, happiness and just general work computer related problems.  Only an IT person would understand this !

Keith, my best friend and my training partner.. did his best to keep me moving, but he had his own goals, and sometimes, it was hard to keep the momentum going, cause there was no one pushing me along. Days of slacking off came, usually, I crashed every 5 weeks, getting sinus issues and the odd cold.. but i managed to get back up on the horse and keep moving.

Keith and I did a practice run as a relay of the UBC Triathlon. Worst event ever ! Will never do that again.  I did the swim and bike, Keith did the run. You see after 3 years, i have been suffering with IT band issues, so running has been put on hold in my life, and still today, i don't dare go back to it anytime soon.

The day of the UBC Triathlon, i was freaking out. We left, it was hard to tell where I needed to be, what to do, once we arrived, I was able to check in and figure it out, but the lack of organization had befuddled me, as this is suppose to be the highly anticipated event to start the triathlon season.

When I started the swim, i placed myself in where i thought i should be able to hold pace. As soon as I hit the pool, i panicked, I was passed by many people, my heart rate jumped up way too high, the water was very cold, and to top it off, i had never swam in a 50 m pool !  somehow i made it through, my time was horrible and i was already disappointed in myself.  When i got out of the pool, we had to run outside and change in a tent on the cold cement. That was not pleasant. As Keith reminded me, go for comfort, so take the time, and put on the best clothes for the next leg.

The bike was next. that was OK. I can ride a bike, no problem, and luckily the snow had been gone for a day or two prior, so riding was good. Small hills and 2 loops. I managed to get a good timing on that. When i finished my first loop, i came barreling around the corner, and saw my co-worker and my work dog, standing there. I felt so empowered at that point, so i took off as a quick and went for loop 2.

The last leg, was up to Keith !  thank god for that... He left with a smile, and i went and stood and waited at the finish line for him. And as usual he arrived with a smile.  We were done! I felt relieved, but I was so pissed off about the swim, it took me days to get over that. 

Nordic Girl Adventures Part 1 - February

Well we are at December of 2019, this year has flown by so fast ! As I sit here and think about the year, I have embarked on so many adventures in my life.

Not only has my life been filled with athletic training, it was filled with travel, meeting new people and exploring new aspects of my life, i never thought would be possible.

I started out the beginning of the year, signing up for a race in California ! I figured driving to California not so far away, winter months, should be nice weather.. right ?   ah no... farther from the truth of what my naive thoughts would be.

February's journey took me through a 2 day trip through Washington, Oregon and finally landing in Crescent City. This was the start of the Redwood forest. Spent one night there, and one morning, cruising around the city on the bike.  Nice place, too cold, but we weren't staying, so it didn't matter all that much...

The next day took us to Fort Bragg. Small town, not sure what it had to offer, but we cruised around by the ocean side, where i was able to smell the salt air take some photographs of the beautiful rock cliffs of the shore. This is truly a  place I would like to revisit again.  When we got back on the road, we took the coast down and finally headed inland towards Orville and final destination was Gridley.

Well, Gridley was a iconic little american town, with big historic homes, orange groves in front yards and wild turkey's. Surrounded by the Buttes.  A beautiful rolling hillside covered in Almond farms, orange groves and grazing cows, horses and others

The town was originally discovered by Spanish & Mexican's in the 18th century, until a grain farmer named George Gridley, who owned a 960 acre farm moved in town became the largest landowner, so the town was named after him.

We rode the 100 km ride and it was a cool day, high of 12 C and wind gusts up to 100 km per hour. the wind was so bad, cyclist needed to tandem to break the wind. For the most part I was on my own, as there were fewer people in the 100 km ride.

We explored down in to San Francisco for a day. Met my cousin and his wife, and Olive. Olive the dachshund who gets to travel around ! She completely stole my heart.
The day in San Fran was interesting as i reflected on where my Great Aunt would have traveled and what she would have seen there in the early 1900's.

We saw the ' Little boxes on the hill side' after that famous song,  Lands End park, the Golden gate bridge and other interesting hilly neighbourhoods. Lunch at the pier, where Olive was able to join us, but had to sit in the carrier. She was good with that.

Going home back to Canada, was done in one day through the Shasta Mountains, back to Grants Pass, Oregon, Washington. Once we hit Redmond... SNOW.... that's a dirty word for something so pure and white !  Driving most of the night through Seattle and Bellingham was the worst snow, i had seen in a few years, and i was glad, i still had snow tires on.

It was a long haul, but after 18 hours on the road, we finally reached home.

to be continued.....

The struggle is real..

Guess it is time to get back to my writings here... Lots has happened since I had last made an entry here.
I have managed to complete a number of events between March 2018 until August 2019.
Stykeproven in Norway, 140km race.  Tour de Victoria in Victoria BC in August 2018

After that, i started in with some strength training and in November 2018 started working with a  Triathlon coach, to work through to my next journey.

My goal for 2019 was to complete a Half Iron.. or some variation of one.. so I chose Aqua bike.  Aqua bike was a 2 km swim, and a 89km bike ride.. no run. Great event for me, as I suffer with IT issues, and have for a very long time now. 
It went as good as could be expected, it was tough.. and I didn't feel all that well prepared for it.
I had lots of anxiety going into the race, but I had my best friend on my side through out the whole event, and that really helped alot. I totally appreciated that support.

After the Half, I moved on to swimming events.. 2 endurance swimming events. The first one was July in Kelowna, and that was 2.1km swim. I was accompanied by paddleboard with my friend Kelly. It was good, and i did very well time wise on that event. 
and being who i am ... i decided... heck ya.. lets do an aqua bike the next day !!!

This was the peach classic triathlon and aqua bike.  I struggled with the swim, it was choppy and shallow, and it was like competing with a bunch of salmon spawning up a river. 
The bike was good, hilly ....  and i really went through with no expectations.. i just figured... ah... what ever happens, happens... and what happened ?  Well I took 3rd in my age class... got to love
that !

August, i had signed up for another endurance swim 7 km, but after all my practicing on the lake, i realized my body was having a hard time getting through to 4 km ... so i cut it back to the 3.1 km version... and because of the wind, i ended up swimming about 4.3km... so that's over 1000 meters more, then i should have gone.
Again I had my best friend beside me in a solo canoe.. and it was pretty calming event for me.

This past week, i took another crack at Tour de Victoria... i had a record time... i cut back to the 60 km distance, and did not stop through out the whole ride.. and managed to come in under 3 hrs... i was pleased !

Well that's my recap for 2018-2019

I would like to explore more on swimming for next year.. and little less focus on aqua bikes...