August 25, 2012

Tomorrow I will be competing in Ironman Canada; my first IM in 7 years. The last one I competed in was The World Championships in Kona in 2005. I guess you could say that I'm starting all over in the endurance field. I am nervous, excited, and ready to see what I can do with the training that I've put in over the last few months. I think my average cycling miles per week has been around 150 miles, running around 45-55 miles/week, and swimming 15,000 yds/week. The training has been very different having had Gabriel, who just turned 2 years old two weeks ago, and I am fine with that. This trip is the longest that I've been away from Gabey and thank goodness for video chat!!

My dad decided to drive up with me, so we've had a fun adventure so far. It took us 3 days (2.5 days really) to make it up to Penticton, BC, Canada. The first night we made it as far as Redding, CA and stayed in a hotel there. Day two we drove to Bend, OR and met up with my client who is also competing in Penticton. We did some training in Bend, which is a great place for exercise. We stayed there for about 3-4 hours, had lunch then continued our journey up to Vancouver, WA where Scott G. from Oomph helped us with finding a place to stay (Thank you Scott). We ended up at The Heathman Lodge. A beautiful place to stay if you are ever in the Vancouver, WA area. Day 3 we make a little bit of a round-a-bout detour to meet up with my friend Erin F. from The Dalles, OR for a run. It was great to catch up with her and I'm so glad she had the time to meet us (Thank you Erin). After our run we continued our drive through the Canadian border and to our home stay's house in Okanogan Falls, BC. Diane and Doug are wonderful hosts and very nice individuals. They are also housing a male pro from New Zealand and another female pro from the U.S.; both are very nice and I'm glad I have had the opportunity to meet them.

The town of Penticton is lovely and the people very nice. The course looks great and again I'm excited to see what unfolds tomorrow.