Wednesday

Finally the day is almost here!

It's been a great year ladies and thank-you for that.

I leave for Penticton tomorrow and I am excited. Or am I nervouse, scared, petrified, happy... well I guess I am everything. All at once it seems aswell.

What will the rest of the week hold?? Who knows. But what I do know is that it is going to be an amazing Sunday and I can't wait!

2202 - signing out!

This past week.

Thank-you ladies for an incredible week. I ate a bigger variety of food then I ever have. I am usually just a chicken and salad kind of girl. I believe I drank more this past week then I have in the last three months. And it was great to spend all that time with you and not get tired of it as it was my first vacation with friends.

Things started off with a bang. Sunday night was alot of fun. The alcohol was pouring, the chatter was endless and then there was the other stuff.....(we know what that is)!!! Although I did miss the second dip in the lake the stories made me laugh my ass off. I am just not used to staying up to late and anything after 9 is late for me.

If I have any of the days wrong please change them.

Monday we did a run along the Peach course for a PB of 56:56 for me. I was super stoaked about that. Sorry your knee was sore Michelle. We also did a swim in the lake. The run was hot but really nice. The swim was a two looper and I actually really enjoyed it.

Tuesday's ride was amazing. I loved the grade of road going up to APex for the most part. The downhill to Yellow Lake was alot of fun, but I could of done without the the grasshopper attack. Yellow Lake actually wasn't that bad for me this time. I now have the hill broken up into sections of my mind. But then there was the road up to the winery. Hot, long and relentless.

Wednesday was a run along the KVR trail and a swim. I really loved teh run and I wish I would of had a camera. The views up there are amazing. Then it was a one loop swim.

Thursday was the IMC course minus the out and back for around 160km. Way to go ladies! I ended up with two flat and only one spot where I really hated being out there. The added surprizes of bananas, gels and sharkies in our cooler that Ang had planted was great. The bananas were really a great treat. So cold and refreshing.. I could have one now!

Friday was an easy swim. I didn't really feel like swimming so I didn't put my wetsuit on. But I should have. It was pretty choppy again and I actually had to kick and it made me tired.

Saturday was an off day. I was really bored by about noon no Saturday so it was really nice to get out and go and see a few of the wineries since I hadn't been to one before this trip.

Sunday was a two hour run for me with a bit of stomach issues. And then a LONG drive home.

Thanks again for an amazing week.

6 more weeks until IMC. Train well and smart ladies. Treat yourself kindly and don't do anything silly! I have enjoued training so much this year and it is definetly because of TFNB. You are all amazing ladies and I am greatful that we are friends.

me :)

Morning

New morning, New week and I am excited. The weekend was a it of a bust. Swam in the river a bit, walked around alot, but no running. But there was quite a bit of beer drinking. And I decided that I am off the alcohol now. Okay, for now, as next weekend is going to be something fun!!!

Have a great week ladies.

CANADA DAY!!!

Ok.. first off I would like to say what a beautiful day it was today! LOVED IT :)

This is going to be short and probable not so sweet. Thanks for the ride ladies it was GREAT. Especially a big thanks to miss Catherine for keeping me company. There was only a bit of time where I thought it sucked, and it wasn't even the hills. One wrong turn up Old Clayburn road which added an extra hill and a few more km's, one flat and not much else to report on. Sumas mountain didn't suck at all like I remember (thank gosh). And the flat headwinds were actually really good for me. I just tucked on down and peddled like hell. LOVED IT!

Big shout out to Lisa who crashed :( Sorry to hear, but no broken bones, no broken bike (nothing that can't be fixed easily), and you will be back to riding in no time.

Thanks again ladies for us all starting out together, but really there was no way I could keep up to the power houses of Michelle, Ang and Miranda. You are all super speedy.

Well again, thanks for the day it was great. And now I am going to go and drink my really cold beer!

She's here!!!

Well after much anticipated arrival, my GURU is here! Gorgeous, and PERFECT!!

This past weekend, TFNB slaughtered the IMC course and I got to ride my darling new bike. She was sweet and I had no issues!
I wanted to let all TFNB members know that you did fan freaking tastic out there on Saturday. I couldn't have imagined a better ride, and can't wait to see all of you succeed at all of your training and races this summer!
You all rock rockstars!!!
Looking forward to many more training weekends to come!
overnout.
M

TFNB Goes to Kona!

Well TFNB represented on the Queen K Highway on Hawaii this April. Dylan and I did a two day ride. 100km each way from Kona to Hawi, and then Hawi back to Kona. We were EXTREMELY lucky and had a tail wind for the most part on both days. The last 8 miles on the first day was a full on head wind from Mahukona to Hawi, this is where the trade winds kick in and the Kona winds subside. HOLY SHIT!! I was plugging through, but thought I might lose Dylan for sure. WE had to stop reassess his fueling and get going again. Bonked, UP hill and Headwind.. not a good combo for Mr. Reece. All in all a fun two days, the course has nothing on IMC in my humble opinion. I find it a bit too flat, there was no place I felt I needed to get out of my saddle and somewhat deflating when you can pretty much see your 90 km course in front of you the entire way!! Dont' get me wrong I would not want to conquer that course in the winds and heat that are usually present!

We had a blast though, and can't wait until we all go to do it together one day and wrap it up with some Mai Tai's!!!

Overnout.

M

swim/bike/run then ride

Catherine, Judith and I went to the north shore athletic club this morning to try out a clinic. It was actually alot of fun. We did 10 minute, well closer to 15 minute, warmup on the bike. Headed to the pool and swam 150m. Came out of the water and road on the trainers for 10 minutes then headed off for a 5 minute run. Came back and rode lightly on the trainer for another 10 minutes and then did the swim/bike/run again. It was good and I realized that I take forever tying my shoes up.

Catherine and I then left and rode out to deep cove. We were heading back to N.S club and I suggested we turn around and head back into deep cove. So Catherine agreed and away we went. All was well, I was feeling good after the ride yesterday and our swim/bike/run earlier... then we hit the little hill coming out of deep cove. Oh man, the first time out felt great, the second, not so great. It felt like the very first time I did it and it started to hurt a bit. I told C. that I was going to bail after we got back to the athletic club becasue I really didn;t think I would make it out to H.S bay and back. Call me a wimp, but I really thought I may die if I did. So home I came and had a good nap with Mowgli.

I will post a few pictures later.

Tomorrow is the half marathon. I will let you girls know how it went. I am going to push it tomorrow and see how well I can do. This year we are going all the way up to prospect point. Here is hoping my legs don't fail me.

Thanks Catherine for a great day.

Friday May 1

It was a great long time in the saddle yesterday. I played hookie from work yesterday and Lisa and I went for a Zero ave ride. We went the same way we did last weekend but we did make it to the yellow barn which was just the next exit. It was a little windy along the ride but with all the directional changes it was fine.

Along zero ave we had a bit of an adventure. We were riding along and I wanted to take an action picture of Lisa. So I pulled into the middle of the road to get a good shot. There wasn't any vehicles heading our way and I didn't hear the truck come up beside us. He honked, I moved over, he yelled at us saying we should get our asses to the side of the road. I replyed with and oh, ok then. He drove off all mad, Lisa started waving, and then we got given the finger by a man who was atleast 50. Very mature I say. It was funny though.

We made it out to the yellow barn and had a little snack and got some cold drinks. It was actually really hot out for the ride and I forgot to put sunscreen on...oops..sunburn. Lisa now has cycling lines aswell. Guess we have to work on the tan lines already! The ride back was uneventful, hills felt alot better then last weekend, thank goodness. We actually came back up where the boarder crossing is. It is more of a long gradual climb, but that way we got a nice downhill on the way back.

Ride time was about 5:08 for 115km... a little slow but nice to be in the saddle that long.

Thanks Lisa.

Here is the link for the Ride on Saturday.

First off I would like to say thank-you ladies for the card about Mama and Mowgli. We really appreciated your kind words.

Second. Thank-you for a great ride last night. No matter how many times you do horseshoe bay it never gets easier. Especially riding iwth you ladies. I always have to push so hard adn for that I thank you.

Here is the link to the ride on Saturday. I really hope it works. I did send you the link in your
e-mail but let me know if it doesn't work and I will copy out the route for you.

My house, Zero Ave out to the yellow barn

ok doesn't work!

my house, left on 203, right on Douglas, left on 204, right on Fraser, right on 216th, left on zero, left on townline rd, right on huntingdon (turns into vye), left on potter (follow around), left on angus campbell rd, right on s.parallel rd, follow to the yellow barn and turn around.. just over 113km

Morning

I had a great run yesterday evening. Miranda wasn't feeling so well so I waited to run unitl after dinner. I ran from my house out to glover road and then out to 64th. Nice tail wind there and crazy headwind on the way back made for a longer second half. Ah.. what can you do. But I did tweek my right knee a little bit. It felt like it was locking up. See what happens with that.

Since my schedule doesn't say we are riding tonight I think I am going to come home and workout here. Last weekend was a right off so this is only sort of a rest week for me.

Have a good day everyone.

Cypress Mountain...done!

  

Angela & I had a fabulous Good Friday ride in the sunshine!! to Whytecliff Park with the plan of heading to the second lookout on Cypress. I rode Precious (she likes sunshine) and she climbed like a dream :) I love her. Just not the saddle. Yet. Anyhow, after whipping by the first lookout thinking "eep! i have never ridden this far up" we climbed up towards the second lookout. Neither of us had any clue as to how many more kms we would have to climb. Angela mentioned something about it "being steeper". Excellent! I arrived at the Cypress Mountain Picnic Area and decided this must be the second lookout. Angela rolled up and declared it was not and that we needed to keep going. I encouraged her to pull over and re-consider as without the PILES OF SNOW it could very well be a lookout. Then...I said we should just keep going! I had not spent the time previous trying to keep up with Coach, so my legs were feeling quite fresh ;) So, off we went. The snowbanks on the side of the road kept getting higher and higher. It was awesome. And steep in bits. I looked down at one point to see my cadence was at 35. Hello! At one point, I could see the chairlifts and black dots shooting down the hill. GTs. We stopped one more time to re-group and then we rode to the downhill area parking lot. I was so stoked! We took the accompanying snaps. Had a snack in the cafeteria. And then began the descent. It was damn cold! The rest of the ride was uneventful and much warmer :)

Holy CRAP Lana!!

Okay so tonight we had a brik workout, and this morning a swim workout. I was sure it was shaping up to be a slow ride/run, but NOOOOOOO!!! Not according to Lana and Angela, hammerheads on the bike on Marine Drive!! They both rocked it down to Kullahun, and if I do say so myself both bums are looking great! (I was drafting like a mofo off them!!)

Then... the run.. so Lana!! She just guns it! NICE WORK LANA!!! Unstoppable!!! Kept a fantastic pace the whole time!

Nice work TFNB!!

M.

What a Great Night!

To start...today I actually got to the pool for a swim after work. It
wasn't long at all..to many people crammed into a lane. So I did 6*50m, 7*100m, 6*50m.... See not that long but I worked hard. So I thought that the ride/run tonight would blow... but it didn't.


The ride was good. Stayed with Miranda and Angela until Spanish Banks. They got ahead of me and it took me from the top of Spanish Banks to just past 16th ave and Marine Drive to catch them. Then down to Kalahun we hammered. Took turns drafting and just kept pushing the pace. It was killer. Teh ride back up to 16th was nothing exciting but then there was the hill. Normally I am going so slow but today I had a really high cadence for me and I pushed all the way to the top. The picture, that's Levi...That's what I want to be, aero and fast!

The run was pretty steller to!! I think we ran for about 27 minutes and man, I pushed hard. I just realized earlier this week that when I now run my feet actually are both off the ground. I don't shuffle anymore!! YEAH. I just had a killer run for me and I don't think I've pushed myself that hard before for the whole run. So, next time we run.. I call the stroller!! :)

Thanks again Ladies for a great night. Have a great weekend with your Easter adventures! See you next Wednesday.

Lana

Finally!!

Well, it has taken me 2 weeks to figure out how to log back in again!! I de "cookied" my computer and it kicked me out of our tfnb login!

Now, I guess I better have something to say!

Well let's start with a race report, tfnb rocked the party at the UBC Tri!! Lana, ass kicker Kuyvenhoven looked serious on the run as I saw here at 4.5km ringing it to the finish line, Michelle Dig Deep Daniels, was a podium award winner with her "precious" out there running twice!! And Angela "atta girl" Mccarthy was a show stopper on her long Olympic distance race, kicking it in to high gear on that long swim! I had a fun and fast day myself, with my first podium finish ever, here comes 2009 Ladies!!

This past weekend we all did the 100km Pacific Populaire! It was a gorgeous sunny day out there, and we all managed to pull it off without any problems! I had some very tired legs after Saturdays run, and felt very heavy for the ride, but was happy I did it! I realize how great it feels to increase only 10% and how I feel the additional volume both mentally and physically.

This coming weekend is Easter weekend, so TFNB is splitting up for the weekend workouts. We will have to resume next weekend for our recovery week!

MOST IMPORTANTLY.........

I have ordered my Guru, and have placed my full deposit on my tangerine dream today! I am sooo excited!

Look forward to tonights Brik Workout everyone!

M and Prez

SUN!!!

Today was a great day. I think I had the best run of the season so far. I am pretty sure it had alot to do with the sun. Started in a long sleeved shirt and about 25 minutes into the run I took of the long sleeve and just ran in my tank. I think it was only about 6 degrees but it felt alot warmer. And I will totally use the fact that I am from Alberta so that automatically makes me more able to not feel the cold. I am sticking to that fact ladies. The prairies make you tough! Not so much but it sort of sounds good.

We started the run from A&M's, over Burrard bridge, along hte seawall past athletes village, under burrard, past kits pool, to Alma, up to 8th and back to M&A's place. My run was 1:51 which was a few minutes longer then some because well, I am a bit slower and I am alright with that.

Running by kits pool was great. I really cannot wait for it to open. I don't know how peter will feel about me spending another night in town. But when a girl wants to swim outside what is she to do??

Well that is all I feel like writing. I just wanted to let you girls know that I had a great run today and I am excited about tomorrow. We just have to make sure to get a group shot before we all head off.

The hills are alive with the sound of muuuuuuuuuusic.

Today was an early start from Coach's house, out along Marine to 16th and then back along Marine to Iona. AM suffered a flat one minute before we were supposed to the leave the house but YAY she ended up joining us by fluke at the "Fraser Arms - is it still a strip joint?" stop. Then it was some sort of Iona-Steveston loop...turn left at the "church"! Sadly, we lost Catherine at Iona (damn rib!) and then Lisa somewhere on the way back from the "church" (damn Richmond!). Then the TFNB peleton shattered one final time just before the AL bridge as I need a pee stop (damn tiny bladder!) Somewhere after the "church", the temperature dropped about 10 degrees ("it's an arctic outflow!") and it started to rain. boo. AM and I had lovely ride back along the Cypress bike route to home (read - our fingers and toes were frozen little popsicles). A not so speedy change into running gear and then out the door to Speed Theory with AM running with her bike! Crazy triathletes & their multi-tasking! Speed Theory was mad busy so by the time we got out of there, we were DONE and ran the WHOLE FIVE MINUTES back to our house. Ha! Bricks are SO easy ;)

"Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of TFNB"

md

TFNB conquers Cypress!

So we finally got a group snap showing us all in TFNB colours from the 1st lookout at Cypress which we hit on last Saturday's ride. My ride up Cypress was much more controlled than our last attempt. That is, I didn't feel like puking, crying, driving my bike off the side of mountain, etc. While I love shattering my time from my previous attempts up Cypress, I also like being able to stay mentally intact. Plus, it's nice for Coach not to have to listen to that racket on the way up!!

Cheers,
md

hello

I haven't felt like doing anything this past two days. I did manage to get my ride in yesterday and my run today. A little off with things right now. Have to figure out what to about mama and that is all really I've been concenered with.

But.. I can't wait for tomorrow.. hills, hills and more hills.... I love hills.. They make you faster!!!

Night girls

First trip up Cypress today for me

So I am home now. Showered, relaxed and fed and I've had a chance to reflect on today. And I've come to the conclussion that I worked really hard (as did everyone!)

The begining of the ride was pretty average. Ride from M&A's place through Stanley Park and over Lions Gate bridge. It was nice not stopping all teh time and just riding with a few meet up spots. We met at the end of the bridge and decided that the next meeting point was Whytcliff park. Starting from there it turned into a complete hammer fest for me. The first hill out of West Van was good. We all seemed to stay together and then the hammering really started. I tried to stay with you ladies but damn, you are quick! It was a great ride out to Whytcliff and it seemed to go by very quickly. I remember the days when that would take me FOREVER. I really enjoyed the ride out of Whytcliff park today. The first time I rode that it seemed really hard and long. Today it was a quick and painless.

The ride out to the base of Cypress was a hard one aswell. I tried to stay in aero as much as possible on the highway. I was going to take off my jacket for the climb up cypress but it was far to chilly for me. Started my watch at the shed for the climb but I haven't downloaded my watch yet so I don't know how long it took to ride to the lookout. So, I was a little unsure if I could make it up to the lookout because I haven't ridden it yet this year. But Angela assured me I was close to the lookout and that I could do it and it was fine. The downhill was the best part. I forgot to start my watch on the way down so I have no idea how fast I was going. But man, it was SWEET!!! Then it was the normal ride down the highway to Taylor Way. I just dropped into my biggest gear, tucked on down and rode like hell to Taylor.

The rest of the ride was uneventful but good. My legs are shagged. I am knackered. I haven't felt this tired after a ride in a long time. Next time when we go to the second lookout I am going to try and sit more and spin at a higher cadence as I have a really hard time with a high cadence.

So once again. Thanks again for the ride ladies I had a great day.

Lana's Race Report

So here it is!

To start, I woke up at 4 am which was actually 3 am with the time change. Left the house just after 5am because I wanted to insure I got a parking spot at the pool. So there I am at the parking lot just before 6am on race day. Please note that my heat didn't start until 10:30! I walked around a little bit and just waited until package pick-up was ready. Rigth around 7 I picked up my race package, did my biek check and headed towards transition, (which wasn't ready yet), to get rid of my bike. All I wanted was either a nap or a really strong coffee. There wasn't any coffee shops open yet so I went to the pool and had a nap on the stairs. Around 9am I went in and could finally get some coffee.

Now the race.

Lining up for the swim seemed oh so simple. We all asked eachother our times and tried to seat ourselves correctly. Well, either people didn't time themselves or I swam faster then I should have. But I do believe there were alot of people who didn't go and time themselves as I passed about 10 people in the pool. It was not a relaxed swim at all, but not to bad for me at a 15:08 swim. I wish there was transition times but those are included in our swim and bike times.

Bike-not to eventful! Normally I can pull the big chain on the way down Marine to the turn around but not that day. Well I could but it felt really hard! There was a few people on mountain bikes, a few in shorts, and a few who just didn't understand passing either on the left or passing on the turns, we just all need to be careful. The ride felt like it was over so quickly and I was ok with that.

The run was actually good for me. 28 minutes for my run (yeah). I was a little unsure of how my foot would feel but once I started it was fine. Ran to the turn around all happy and having a good time and then realized I should probable run faster. I think I picked it up a bit on the way back. I ran nice and strong up the hill towards the finish line and then just gave my all. In retrospect I probable could of ran faster but I now know for the next race!

Anyone up for the Delta sprint on April 25th?? Sorry for no pictures. You can't take them off the website.

Race Reports??

Do you ladies feel like posting race reports?? I will put mine up tomorrow!

Riding

All I can say is it is GREAT! I am loving our rides. They do nothing but challenge me and I want to push harder then ever.

It seemed nice and quick to the Spanish Banks. The hill workout in the dark last night was so much fun.. as long as you miss the potholes along the way. 5 repeats seemed like a good number. But how about next time we do 3 repeats, then a quick ride up to almost Blanca, back to the hill for 3 more repeats? That's a good one to. Just a thought.

Today I rode from my work to Pete's work so I could get a ride home. I worked super hard and stayed in aero all along the Kent bike route and the road down to peters work. It was really windy but such a good ride. It was 44 minutes of solid riding.

That's all I got for you. Not so good at blogging.

Oh.. we still need a team picture. :)

Been Awhile

So this past week, recovery week, had been a bit of a right off for me. Monday was usual day off (guess I should of trained that day) Tuesday through Friday I had a crazy rash, which was apparently just hives, on my body. I was having crazy itch fits...not fun.

Saturdays ride was amazingly fun. I think we all worked really hard yesterday! WTG ladies! The paceline was quick and not painless. But if we keep riding like this I may have a good chance of a great ride at IMC.

Saturday night I stayed at home with Peter. So I slept in and went running later in the afternoon. Sunday Pete and I did some errands and just generally enjoyed eachothers company.

I am excited for next weeks training.

Lana

Butterfly

It was not a pretty sight in the pool today as we attempted to swim butterfly. On a positive note, I can do the dolphin kick like nobody's business. It's the arm action & the timing of it that blows ;) Last night was a evening run on my own - I did the "Two Bridges" run in reverse and it was quite lovely. And slow! I clearly need M. and A. to push me on my runs :) I am out for tonight's bike/run workout (dang!) as it's my pal's 40th bday dinner. Have a great workout and we will see you guys on Saturday!!

md

Brik Workout

Hey Ladies!


Thanks for a fantastic Brik workout on Sunday!! It was a challenging ride, followed by a surging run thanks to Daniels!


Another great ride, another great run.. and most importantly another great brunch afterwards!



Picture is of the Half Iron with team " knocked up and seriously undertrained" from 2007.

overnout.
M

Hey

Yesterday's ride, I would just like to say ladies, was an amazing ass kicker. And thank-you for that. I felt as though I worked my ass off. And I think I did as I can feel my bum muscles today. It was ALOT of hard work trying to keep up with you guys. This is how hard I thought I was working --------->

(ok, really I just like pictures of him..lol).

So thanks again everyone. I feel that everyday I get stronger and stronger and that is thanks in part to you!

Keep up the training, everyone is doing great and I look forward to the next 6 months of great training!

L.

I'm Back!!

Well Ladies, after much soup ass, plenty of aches and pains, some chills and a few hundred hours of sleep.. I am ready to rock! Back 100% today!!! I was happy I reeled myself in yesterday from going for a run. I took the practice what you preach motto, and glad I did! I swam this morning at the Aquatic Center and did my 800 benchmark swim, from a cold start no warm up, and did it in 15:01, not so great seeing as my swim time in 1999 was 13:41.. I must be able to beat that!! Anyhoo, I have a few weeks to reel that in and work on some speed! I am ready to rock for the ride tonight. I am getting a new drive train, and chain on my bike today, so hopefully it will be ready to go for tonights ride. yahooooo!!! It feels great to back in the land of the living again!

The president will not be available for coffee after our brik workout this Saturday as her Tutu Mumu is visiting from Hawaii and stealing her for the day.

Image attached is from IMC a few years back, thought it was funny.

rock out rockers.

M.

Running and swimming

Okay, Lana...I will post something ;) Yesterday was a run day for me & A. We did the "Blenheim run" which goes right up Blenheim from our house and is one of Angela's favs. Me...not so much. I easily fall back on the hills even though I have working on my "weak bum" since August . Hopefully by August 2009 I will have a strong AND nice bum! And to make my run even more difficult, my legs were shagged as I decided to not go to gym in the a.m. like I usually do but wait until 1 pm. Not a good idea as my legs were not recovered for the run. Doh! So I just plodded my way through the run and Angela was kind enough to wait for me at intersections :) Git 'er done was my motto!!! On to swimming...today was recovery day in the pool for Angela & I. Not recovery as in take it easy and float around on your back, but as in the recovery portion of your stroke. Plus we got to use fins! Yee haw! Looking forward to tonight's ride, ladies!

Ola ladies. Why am I the only one posting??? lol

Well lets see...Today was an alright day. I needed to go for a run and by lunch I NEEDED to go for that run. I sometimes get a little stressed and the afternoon run is the perfect solution. So today I ran around the seawall, first starting from athletes village, and following the seawall around and over Burrard bridge. (I don't ever remember that bridge being as easy as it has been feeling) Ran back along Pacific Ave and back to work. I needed a few more minutes so I went past athletes village and turned back. Noramlly I would of just called it a day when I got back to where I started. But not today... I got in my whole hour.

I had planned on going swimming tonight aswell but I got home late.

How is everyone else's training going??

Trails.

Did a great run today with Ang, Michelle and my friend Tracey. All in all it was really good. We went from Miranda's place , through the trails, crossed 16th ave and then 10th ave. Ran for 1:49 today and felt alright. I slowed near the end but kept on going. We all finished strong up the hill to Miranda's place again. I had to leave right after because Pete phoned while we were running and wanted me to take him to the Dr's because of his sore shoulder. Well I got home and he didn't want to go anymore. So, I totally rushed home to clean the house. Yeah!! lol. I can feel my legs a little bit tonight but it is a very subtle fatigue and I love it. I believe I am staying in Vancouver starting next weekend for a couple weeks. That means lots of training with you girls (hopefully).

Have a great night.

Today's ride.

Today's ride was pretty good. Lisa, Catherine and myself met Ang and Michelle at Park Royal. We went down to Deep Cove (although not all the way). Went up Seymour Mountain and boy was that tough. Great job Lisa for pushing hard up Seymour. You did great and everyday it will get easier!

I had a gel before we started which I think was good for me. Except it was strawberry/banana which I now find horrible. I had a few bites of a powerbar about 40 minutes in and then didn't have anything else until the bottom of Seymour. I am slowly learning when to start eating so I don't feel like crap, but then I forget, I get hungry, and that hunger never goes away. Even right now after we have eaten dinner I am still hungry and trying to fill the hunger with water.

Lisa and I went back to just under the bridge but we needed more time. So we turned around and pushed hard the other way. We had to make up time and we needed it not to be an easy time. We (I think) rode hard and strong for the final 20 minutes of our ride. Although the distance wasn't very far it was a great ride, tough enough for the day.

So thanks for the ride today everyone and I can't wait for the run in the morning. Miranda I hope you are feeling better. And we still need a picture of all of us together!

Riding.

So, last night had an amazing ride with M&A. (well, Catherine to start) Worked really hard on the warm up trying to stay close to M. The hill on 4th, lets just say, not my favorite. But was really happy with my ride. I resisted the urge to shift into my grannie gear! Yeah me :) And I had a really hard time shifting up very far. I started to feel as if I was going to fall over if I shifted to a harder gear. But the down hills... SWEET.

Today:

Went from my work down main, up Kingsway, down Fraser and along Marine drive to Peters work. I went down fraser for tow reasons. 1) it is less busy than Main and 2) I thought forsure it wasn't as hilly. I was wrong on only one of those. The incline of the road was just as bad as Main and I felt every little incline differnce of the road. I worked hard to Peters work and the riding to his work on Thursdays is going to be happening all the time now. Pretty stoked!!

Well have a good night ladies. I'm sure I'll think of something clever to say soon. ;)

L.

Benchmark Day

Nice work on yesterday's midday run, L&M! Angela & I put a solid "two bridges" run much later in the day. Today was benchmark day in zee pool for me & A (I have included a pic of me taken pre-swim. HA!). It was timed efforts on 25 m fly (yes, fly); 50 m kickboard; 6 x 100 m free (with rest/recovery in between the 100s) and then 25 m all out "swim like there is a shark following you" effort. I have to learn that a 200 beat kick does not make me go faster, just hypoxic;) Looking forward to tonight's hill workout out in the nice weather!!!! P.S. It was me that changed the blog colour. Got a little carried away :)

Yay! Blog Time!!

Hi TFNB!!

I am stoked we have this site now!! I sadly missed my swim this morning due to the Presidents nap...so I will have to make it up tomorrow I guess! Had a great run with Lana yesterday and am stoked for our hill workout tonight! Can we ride in Langley next weekend (Valentines weekend?) I will have Nooo time restrictions, as the pres will be with her Tutu (gramma) alllllll day!!! And it's a brik workout next weekend too!!! I have attached a pic of the prez with Angela and Michelle and I at the Victoria Half last year!

Good times!!

M.

Run Today

Thanks Miranda for a great run today. You always make me run harder. We met at Science World and ran around the seawall, over Burrard bridge and back along seawall to athletes village where I left to go back to work and Miranda headed back to her car. It was just what I needed in the middle of my work day. :)

Side note: Thanks to whoever changed the colours to match TFNB nice work. See you guys tomorrow for the ride.

Lana

Groundhog Day

Love the blog, ladies! Now what can I add...Miranda & I went for an hour run yesterday after much indecision as to whether were going to ride or not. The run was solid even though I felt like I was breathing through a straw ;)
Today was a masters' swim session at the YW today. Breaststroke day which is a fav of mine as I believe I can breaststroke faster than I can front crawl. Doh! I even got bumped up to the middle lane! Looking forward to lots of workouts with Coach this week now that Dylan's mom is in town to look after the President :) And maybe a Langley ride this weekend???

MD

Snow today

We bailed on the ride this morning after our ladies night. It was snowing this morning and looked horrible out. Miranda, Angela and Michelle were going for a run and I was to ride my bike today. It's 5:55pm and I've yet to get on my bike. But I will.

Saturday Run

We did a quick hour run this morning. There was myself, Miranda, Catherine and of course our president Rowan. It was a good run along the river by Miranda's place but the way back was killer. The hills back up Dunbar are steep and with pushing the stoller made it even more difficult. But I do like running with the stroller. Not sure why though.

I just made this blog so I hope the girls and I continue with posting about our training and racing and posting pictures.

Lana