Happy New Year!

I'm grateful for old friends that have kept me around (and they didn't even try to get away).

I'm grateful for the opportunity to make new friends.  I'm a little in love with all the amazing people in my life.

I'm grateful for goals set out and accomplished this year and a new way of life.

I hope what you wish for, in the quiet of your heart is what you receive in 2011.

I am blessed. One more bit of sap for you, my favourite New Years Eve song.




I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.

**Y'all thought it would be Beth Hart, didn't you.

That's all I got!

So I was....

Craving nachos from Sneaky Dees, with Deeds and a frosty beer.  (commemerat (sp)...  that's where we were in the great black out of 200????) 

Wondering why it never feels like Christmas until I hear specific Christmas songs, Anne Murray (for my mom), ELP (for my dad) and Celine Dion (for Anna).

Contemplating a sick day tomorrow but I won't; I think they'd catch on.

Considering my options for challenge workout tomorrow.  There's been far too much walking to date.  I see a trainer session with music, TV, a full water bottle and no bathroom breaks!

Thinking about a dock, a lake, a glass of wine and a great sunset.  Spring is around the corner, it really is!

Hoping I can get on an early morning workout schedule starting in January.  I will have to channel my inner Runnrgrl.

Listening to this same song over again, it's not necessarily the words but the flow and the melody that have me hypnotised.  Sister Heroine ~~ Beth Hart.

Selecting more songs to listen to because you can only listen to the same one so many times.

Missing old friends and family from my past.

Searching for information about meditation.

Excited about January, my training schedule and spring getting closer.

Scared about July!!!!

Making stew in my new dutch oven (thanks MOM!).  Maybe some yorkshires to go with it.

Lost (losing)  my Garmin, AGAIN.  It's here somewhere.

Afraid my iPad will never sync with the movies I bought, it keeps crashing.  When am I buying my MAC?

Tweeting, but it might be overtweeting, you'd have to ask Carlos.

Reading a book on my iPad, Wishful Thinking.  I hope it's good.

Scheduling my January workouts in DailyBurn if I can figure out how to schedule them in the future.

Loving my life.

Laughing at this video clip.  Ron is a distant cousin although I don't know him well (I know his dad better) but considering the story he's telling I'm not surprised we are related. This may be one of the funniest things I have ever seen.



That's all I got.

Are you crazy!

how many bike pics are too many?  

Who rides OUTSIDE in the winter?  Well for starters there's Ian and Bryan and Rodney who have been known to suit up and go out riding and not just for a quick ride, these guys go for LONG rides! Obviously "Mountain biker John" is out there riding regularly and today I added myself to that list. 

It wasn't long and it wasn't fast, that's for sure.  This morning I saw a few tweets about people getting out for a ride and then I was asked by a new twitter friend if I was going to ride today.  I looked over at my bike, all set up on the trainer and then spied the sunshine and though what the heck!  Ummmm ok, I need to stop doing these things last minute because holy mother of .... it was COLD out there!  I suited up and then remembered that all I own are bike shorts.  No problem, I'll just throw on my running pants over the shorts.  My socks are ankle socks, hello cold ankles.  I did layer my shirts and two jackets which seemed to be ok but I still wasn't out long enough or riding hard enough to stay warm.  By the time I rounded my house the first time I called it, I was too cold and my front tire was looking a bit dodgy.  

BUT I did it. 

I have a list of things I need to buy so I can do that again because it is so much better than riding on the trainer.  In the right clothes I'd do it again in a heartbeat (on a sunny and dry day).  

I won't complain though, it just means more shopping!

That's all I got.. 


(Scott, I know you can't get on twitter so I posted for you but I couldn't keep it to 140 characters, sorry).

psssst go read John's blog, it's called Toe Tags and he said some really nice stuff about me there...   just wow!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

And even though I happen to know a few of you are on the naughty list (you know who you are), I hope Santa finds each and every one of you.

Hope is not a plan

This photo does not relate to this entry at all

I love this saying. I heard it (or may have even said it first myself) a few years ago in regards to work. I have come back to this again and again and even said it in my out loud voice many times since then. I work in IT, it's pretty standard around here at least in my lifetime.

It also applies to my triathlon training. I have a lot of hopes for my 2011 training season but until I make a plan that is all it is, just 'hope' and hope is not a plan. Got that?

So I am creating my plan for 2011. It includes tasks, which are training and races, resources, which are me, my coach, my training centre Millcroft, my nutritionist and effort, my boss would be proud!! I bet I could even put this all into MS project but that software doesn't work for me at the best of times! (yes I'm a project manager).

For coaching I have Nancy, she provides me with my training plan and 24x7 support. I'm not kidding, she emails me at 5am to check on me!

For training plans I have Nancy and the group training for the half iron. This will include group sessions for endurance rides and runs, plus I have Fran and John for those as well. There are also group training spin classes, bootcamps and yoga. Yes I’m going to do yoga if it kills me and it just might, I don’t bend that way.. yet. For tracking I will be using Daily Mile because I can sync my Garmin data and there are other bloggers and tweeters there for motivation. 

For nutrition I have Georgie and I start in earnest Jan 2 using the meal plans she has provided plus I have her awesome cookbook Dig In. She follows Precision Nutrition, this is where I met her origially and I find these principles a healthy way to eat and I feel excellent when I am on track, full of energy and not bloated at all. I will be tracking my nutrition at Daily Burn, they have a compatible iPhone app for me to use on the go as well. It costs money but it's less than $10 per month and it has lots of features and the interface is pretty… pretty is very important to me. Rather than focus on how many calories I'm eating per day I'm going to take some advice that I have received from a few and just focus on ensuring I have a calorie deficit every day. I think my BMR is around 1400. If I want to eat more, just means I have to workout more, end of.

For motivation I have my blog, your blogs and twitter and facebook, although I'm sure the facebookers are sick of me posting triathlon training stuff there. I have real life training friends through Millcroft, Nancy and my mommies in motion group.

I am going to do clean eating for a few months starting Jan 2. I typically go on the wagon at the beginning of the year for a few months, this will help me take the weight off, in fact with all this training and no drinking if the weight doesn't come off I may just lop it off myself… with a knife.

That's all I got.

How many??

I was going to call this entry 'Let's do the math' but then I was afraid you wouldn't read it.  

I added a counter to the blog, see it over there, ------> 
it's purty. Now I've not fully decided on which race I'm signing up for but they all happen in July. I am training with my group for Musselman and I would like to go with them but that race is the week before IMLP. I want to tag along @ LP with John and the Mrs because everyone is going to be there and being away two weeks in a row will not be doable. Add to that, I would really like to race with Mrs. LoTC. Honestly there is nothing like John cheering you on with the big blue hand screaming at you as you go by and the Mrs. kicking my ass (I'm coming for you on that old bike Fran!!). So it's likely Peterborough and if I'm going to race Peterborough that means there are:

199 days before race day and that means:

28 weeks before race day but let's face it I'm not hardcore training until Jan 1 so THAT means:
26 weeks before race day and that means:

78 runs until raceday @ 3 runs per week
52 swims until raceday @ 2 swims per week
52 cycling sessions until raceday @ 2 cycling sessions per week.

Obviously these are averages and of course there's going to be taper weeks and holy geez where did the time go? Did I say these next two weeks aren't going to be hardcore training? I might have to rethink that.  Helluva way to look at it, in fact this half may happen in 2012 at that rate!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a more personal note, my Great Aunt Helena who is 92 has had a fall and has been in hospital for a few weeks now, we've just found out. She is currently waiting on a space at a nursing home and we are waiting for more news on her condition but from what I understand she's doing ok. I believe I mentioned her legendary molasses cookies before.

In the summer of 2008 I went to visit her for a week with my mom. Now you might not think that spending a week with your 90 year old Great Aunt Helena and her 77 year old sister in law Kay would be any fun but let me tell you, there is nothing further from the truth. I wrote a few lines on my other blog when I got home from that trip and have pasted them here because they make me smile when I remember that trip and I'm missing her.  

I recommend you spend time with your 90 year old Great Aunt Helena . If you get her to drink a 'holf a gloss of beer' it'll PEP her right up and you'll end up in fits of laughing that cause you to snort whatever out your nose cause you just can't stop. Note: This also causes everyone else in the room to wonder what the frig you are laughing at. 

Aunt Helena and holf a gloss of beer

I recommend you eat Great Aunt Helena's peanut butter chocolate chip cookies til you burst. 

I recommend you drive your Great Aunt Helena and her younger sister in law anywhere they need to go cause it just feels good to help her out (plus you get cookies). 

I recommend you laugh til you cry at least once a week, this is guaranteed when you are visiting Great Aunt Helena. 

I don't recommend you tell your Great Aunt Helena that feeds you peas everytime you visit that you don't like peas or they'll end up in the cookies she sends with you on the plane.  

I recommend if you play rummy with Great Aunt Helena and the ladies that you make sure your great aunt is your partner cause she's kind of a cheater...

I don't recommend you leave your Great Aunt Helena that you love so much cause it will make you cry and make her cry (like Mary), or maybe it was her allergies. 

I recommend when you go away, you make sure you have toilet paper at home for your return, this is very important.

Aunt Helena get better soon!!
 
That's all I got.

Is it over yet? (+RoadID coupon code)

A typcial trainer session, otherwise known as 'thank goodness I live alone'. 

Is it over yet?

This thing is very loud, this can't be set up right. (I even said it after it was adjusted by John). 

I wonder if it would be quieter on the fake hardwood, tweet John. 

Oh yeah, I still need to buy a mat to go under it, that might help. 

I wonder if I should stop, my neighbours may be getting pissed.

If they do come over to complain I won't hear them knocking over the sound of this trainer! 

Ohhhh I'm sweaty, is it over yet?  

Crap I forgot my heart rate monitor! Contemplate stopping to go get it, decide no but also decide will definitely remember next time. (I decide this EVERY time). 

Riding outside is way better. 

Why can't I ever remember to save something good on TV for when I'm on this thing. 

Is it over yet? 

I am thirsty. Crap I forgot to fill up my water bottle, then contemplate stopping to get some water for at least 5 minutes. Alternately stare at the sink which is literally 2 feet away from me and try to convince myself not to think about it. 

Get off the bike, fill up water bottle, almost wipe out on the kitchen floor rushing back to the bike. Why am I rushing? NO idea.  

Where is everyone? No blog updates, twitter is quiet!! Post a status on facebook asking people to entertain me, one person responds.

Is it over yet?

Find a good TV show on TV, all quiet in my head until first commercial break but I have to turn up the TV really loud so I can hear over the sound of the trainer. Think now THIS is going to upset the neighbours then remember the night that Dede, Mike and I listened to music much louder than we should have, and the song was inappropriate AND we all sang along at 3am, giggle out loud at the memory and realize the neighbours aren't going to complain. 

Is it over yet?

Crap I forgot a towel, contemplate stopping to get one, decide no, use my t-shirt.

How long have I been on this thing? 

Wow, is it getting even louder? 

Contemplate putting the whole shebang in the basement for my next ride but there is no TV down there, decide no. Wonder how much it would cost to reno the basement, decide I can't afford it right now. 

I would LOVE to smoke right this second (honestly this thought occurs to me regularly DURING exercise). 

Is it over yet?

This TV show isn't that good.

Is it over yet?

I'm sweaty! I hate sweating! This is not necessarily a good thing considering I'm training for a triathlon and sweating happens.

I need to use the bathroom, contemplate stopping so I can go to the bathroom. Decide no when I envision racing to the bathroom and wiping out in the hallway. I'm an adult, I can hold it.

Think to myself that I wish I had set up some music in case the TV and iPhone entertainment failed. Contemplate stopping to put my iPOD on the entertainment unit, decide no, I’m almost done anyway.

Watch the clock tick off every minute until I'm finished. 
Bring on SUMMER!!!
That's all I got.

**I ordered a RoadID yesterday and received a coupon from them for $1 off any RoadID order for anyone that orders using my coupon code at http://www.roadid.com/.

The coupon is good until Jan 21, 2011 and the code is:  ThanksAdena1503595

I survived the Kona party!

A pretty new bike pump!

I'm TOO old for this!  Friday was Bryan's Kona party.  Go check out his blog for really great pictures, my iphone sucks taking pictures!

Friday was fantastic!!  I was able to get out of work early and get home in time for John and Fran to arrive.  They are fantastic people and I loved them even more when they gave me a terrific 'hostess gift bag'.  It's good to have friends that are bike people because the prezzies were bike related, a new pump, a light, some nifty swiss army knifelike gadget.  There was even more stuff too, gels and protein bars and clif blocs and on and on!! John took my emergency kit and swapped out all the bad stuff and put in the good stuff. He also made sure my bike was set up on the trainer correctly, put on my new light and pump and told me my back tire was flat. You guys really ARE the best, thank you so much!  We also had a discussion and I might be going to IMLP, tagging along with them which would be so much fun because everyone is going!

Obviously we ordered pizza for dinner and had a couple of beers waiting on Rodney  to arrive (he didn't bring me any presents though), he was our DD for the evening.  It's funny because I hadn't met Rodney in person but I feel like I know him due to all the razzing on twitter and from reading his blog. Every single person I have met in person have been exactly what I expected, all good!  Even Rodney. ;-)  I didn't get a change to chat to Doru much, but I'm sure we will at the next party.  He was in what looked like a pretty deep discussion with Bryan and Carlos.  I got to meet Carlos and Fernanda.   Fernanda and I have been tweeting but I had no idea that she was married to Carlos, ohhh it all makes sense now! I still love Carlos even if he doesn't follow me on twitter.. something about me overtweeting.. He's not wrong.  I got meet the famous Jamie and Barb and the even MORE  famous John Barclay.  John can tell a great story, I could have listened to him all night long.

why is this so small?

Alice and Bryan were fantastic hosts and I really enjoyed getting to know Alice.  I would have loved to stay longer but the last time I was up past midnight I think I was a teenager so I wussed out around 2:30am (or so).  I'll have to increase my beer training/stay awake endurance for the next party. Thank you SO much for having us Bryan.  I did tweet some stuff during the party and it was funny to read the next day.  For those that don't have twitter or don't follow me (coughCarloscough) here are a few tweets from the evening.

I met @BDAraujo and she is amazing!! But I think she has something going on with @cdnet1 (sexy)
@ree_ti_ree ohhhhhhhh now I get it. derrr Apparently I was pronouncing his twitter name wrong all this time..
@rbuike fuck that, he's scaring me and now someone is talking about GU. Bryan was talking about how all women that like Oprah were.. well those of us that were there know what he said..
Omg the China conversation. 
@brybrarobry that keg is amazing!! You can pour a beer in less than 10 seconds.  I wasn't kidding he walked by me to the kegerator, and walked back immediately with a full beer.
Bay City Rollers?? Interesting. Satellite radio, S A T U R D A Y!!

I stole this from Bryan's entry

oh no she didn't
  

So I was

Wondering if my mom and friend Michelle will be offended if I hop on the trainer while they make Christmas cookies on Saturday afternoon. It's the only way I can get in a workout between the Kona party and pub night. 

Contemplating what workout I will do on Sunday considering there is a high risk of waking up with a headache. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCIABLE! Swim? I may drown but that might be acceptable.

Thinking I have laughed more in the last half of 2010 than I did in all of 2008 and 2009 put together. I like this trend.  (coughDedecough)

Wishing I never found out that people actually eat cookie dough as a snack.  (coughMatty&Emzcough)

Hoping the weather gets nice enough for me to ride outside soon, I miss cycing, that is weird. I'm not hardcore like some of my friends, I don't ride in crappy weather.   (coughBryan&Iancough)

Recommending you grab a drink and click every link in my blogroll because everyone is posting GREAT stuff. 

Talking to and getting to know the people at my new job. I quite like everyone so far. 

Listening to my 'drive' mix on my iPod but I'm looking for new music suggestions. Hit me up wouldya!

Dancing quietly in my chair to the music.. Shhhhhh

Laughing at conversations flying around my head from management, they are pretty funny (and inappropriate, I love it!). 

Writing a letter to my great aunt Helena, she is 90 and she makes legendary, yes LEGENDARY molasses cookies. Ok, I'm not writing it this second but I will before the day ends.

Enjoying my new Tassimo coffeemaker, even more than I thought. I haven't slept since I got the bloody thing! 

Missing my family that lives out of town. I need to make an effort to connect with them more. 

Searching for old tax paperwork, if you've seen my home office you KNOW this is not going to be easy. 

Excited to try the Double Chocolate vodka I bought the other day. 

Scared of the potential hangover after I try that vodka.  I might have to bring this to the Kona party to share.

Checking the class schedule at Millcroft, need to get my butt back to group training. 

Making beef stew for dinner on Sunday, I think.

That's all I got

PS - I got some great, reasonably priced wine recommendations from the Chef upstairs and I'm really looking forward to trying them. 

**Not all at the same time.

If I wanted your opinion, I'd ask for it

so i'm asking!!  Do any of you use Whatsapp or KIK messenger?  I hear KIK is like bbm and can be used across platforms (iphones, BB, android).  I have an iphone.  I have downloaded Whatsapp, it cost 99cents but I only know one other person on it.

I can see clearly now....

the warm up

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blogging about training (or lack thereof). I'm part of the 30 day challenge, in fact it was my idea. I am struggling to get the workouts in but thankfully I was smart enough to make walking acceptable. The whole idea was to get me off the couch. I even did a short trainer ride last night.  I'm prepping for weekend festivities which include the Kona party on Friday night where I finally get to meet a few other bloggers and I'm sure there'll be much fun. I promise to tweet!! John and the Mrs. are staying at my place and I'm going to try to wrangle John to make sure I've got the trainer set up correctly cause it's awfully noisy and feels weird. I probably just need to get used to it. Now that the tattoo has healed it's back to the pool for me I think on Sunday. I am equally dreading and looking forward to it. When I think about swimming the first thought I have is how nice it is to roll around in the water, maybe do the breast stroke at a slow pace and won't that be nice but sure enough when I get my butt in the pool and start doing laps I start immediately with 'oh my god this is exhasuting!!' My coached swim program this year is on Thursday mornings @ 5:30am (WTF coach) so I need to get some practice in before we start.

yay, a surprise 

Re the pictures. It was my birthday this past weekend and on Saturday morning I woke up and went to our local Santa Claus run. I did not run it, I was hanging out with my friend's son so that she and her husband could both race. This boy is completely adorable, he had me in stitches the entire time!! When I arrived home between the race and going out for my hair appointment there was a present on my doorstep, NICE!! My roomie has moved out but she dropped off a gift for me. I think she was sick of listening to me complain that there wasn't enough light for me on my kitchen counter so she bought me a lamp. I have to admit that when I first looked at it I thought, that is strange, who would put a lamp on a kitchen counter but then I put it up and I LOVE it! Looks pretty funky if you ask me. She is my decorator and I should learn to NEVER second guess her, it's because of her that my house looks so nice (when I clean it up).

New job is going good, am actually enjoying riding the train into work. I guess I was sick of sitting in traffic and I'm reading books again! I have to admit that it's a bit awkward to read my latest new book on the train, it's Jenna Jameson's autobiography, and there are pictures. I can feel the men stealing looks over my shoulder and I feel a bit pervy myself. Interesting story but I need to get a library card.

Mood lighting

That's all I got

Should I stay or should I go

The following post is informational only.  I don't want to get all dramatic but I am not sure what to do next. I think it's fair to say that I do not use this blog for personal drama. I have always wanted to keep it focused on training and my 'dramas' as they relate to my training schedule, injuries, good times, bad times and making people laugh where possible which is usually pretty easy when I'm talking about falling off my bike or better yet when I plain fall down on a run for no reason.

Sadly I have a stalker. I dated this guy for less than 8 weeks but I was not seriously interested after the first week or two. I told him that and said I would like to keep it casual and he agreed. Over time I became less and less interested so I finally said it was over around the end of October. By that time I had already deleted and blocked him on facebook. I didn't hear from him for a bit and had hoped that radio silence would continue but not with this guy. I knew he was still following my twitter feed and my blog - fair enough - they are public. He emailed me several times and my response was to ask him to leave me alone - DO NOT contact me again. Then I blocked his email and told him that was what I was doing, thinking that should have been the end of it. Nope. He created a fake profile and started commenting on my blog. It was very easy to tell it was him.

But, even though I have shut down every avenue of communication and stated very clearly 'do not contact me again' he just keeps coming back. He has even gone so far as to say 'you are responding to me, you MUST care'. (cue the really creepy music here because that is incredibly alarming).

Over the weekend he posted an inappropriate message directed at me on a triathlon forum and it was then that I protected my tweets and shut down my blog. It made me very sad to do that because I love my twitterverse being open to new people and as well as my blog. I have contemplated making my blog invite only but I have made some terrific bloggy friends and found others blogs because my blog is open (someone even told me they LIKE my blog and found it motivating which is funny cause I'm here because of you guys, not the other way around, but I digress). At any rate, I am totally creeped out to know that this person is not only reading my blog but then he clicks on all of your blogs and stalks my comments there too. In fact, I suspect that he's delusional enough to see this blog entry as positive to our non-existent relationship and feel that if I'm blogging about it that must mean I care about him. 

Now I'm rethinking the decision to shut down the blog because I am not going stop my life because of someone else's "challenges". I am now only concerned that he is contacting random people about me because all other avenues have been closed to him. So the main reason I am posting this now is to say that if a guy messages you and says he is my boyfriend, he is lying. The guy I am dating would not contact friends or blog pals. In fact, normal people just don't do that. So please, if he contacts you please just ignore him and his lies. I sincerely hope he finally leaves me alone. I am going to leave the blog up and hope for radio silence or I'm going to have to take this to the next step. His behaviour is harrassment and I'm done sitting quietly by hoping he'll just go away.

And now back to our regularly scheduled triathlon training posts. I appreciate your patience.

For Q

I'm just hanging out surfing the net and this guy is one of my favourites when I need a laugh.  When I saw this I HAD to post it for Q since he got me started on these videos.  I have no words.

Tomorrow I will return to my regularly scheduled posts full of triathlon training and injury photos, there'll be winter running so of course there will be injuries. In the meantime, this Bud Light's for you!

The toilet

I am not normally a toilet humour enthusiast but I DID pee myself when I saw these the first time.

Under pressure

the stencil

and it's not about the challenge, more on that later.  Well it seems that Mr. Payne has done a bit of a write up about my tattoo and when I looked at my latest entry I thought it would be an awful first impression for people that might actually stop by here.  It's like having people drop by unexpectedly at your house, I felt the need to clean up a bit.. now there's no telling if this entry is actually any better than the last one but I can at least say I tried.

Bryan mentioned that I might be conservative and it's true in some ways, I have worked in insurance my whole life but what he doesn't know about me is that I also worked a downtown rock bar called Rock and Roll Heaven for many years (in my 20s), yes a very very long time ago. I doubt if my friends from back then would call me 'conservative' but it's true I have mellowed over the years for sure.  That's a way more boring story.  Anyway to prove that I was once less conservative, here's a pic of me in my 20's.  Yes, you can laugh, it's not my fault, it was the freaking 80's people!!!

I have wanted another tattoo for a very long time but tattoos are a huge commitment, obviously and I wasn't certain what I wanted and knew that in time I would know what to get and I also knew that if the time never came, no big deal.  I wanted one down my entire spine, nope, not kidding and am still considering that but based on how painful this one was, that probably won't happen.

I almost passed out at this point

Back when the whole triathlon thing started I honestly didn't think for a second it would last more than a week, hell ask my friends, my trainer, they'll all tell you I'm the queen of join and never finish!  Then on my first google search for 'triathlon' I found trainingpayne's blog and started reading.  From there I found more blogs and interesting people and then I found twitter and then I got involved.  Well as involved as "I" could be but then other people started involving me which was really scary and slightly exciting.  Before I knew it I was loaned a bike (a Pinarello no less) and there I was riding 2.5kms on Bell School line and wiping out.   And while my blog friends laughed they also cheered me on very loudly!

It's true I am not and never have been athletic at all so this was a big struggle to me but over time I really wanted to finish at least one race.  Then one day on Bryan's blog  I had made a comment saying that at 44 years old I really felt like I was a bit of a fraud, that the voices in my head were telling me 'it's too late for you, stop making a fool of yourself'.  It was meant to be just a statement but what i got back were words I will never forget and in fact, I posted them as an entry here. Over the last year those last words, 'Adena, what you want is in you' have played in my head over and over again and I knew that was it.  I have to say that I am often taken aback by the sheer size of it day to day but I love it more and more every day.  Even if I was to never do another race this journey has taught me more about myself and other people than anything in life.  PS - if you are Finnish and this does not translate to what I think it does, DO NOT TELL ME!!  It's impossible to change, let me have my illusion.

So yes, it's true Bryan did give me advice that I actually had tattooed onto my arm but I'm just joking, what it really  means is 'where did you put the beer bong!!'.  I actually just walked into the tattoo shop and asked them to put something on me that would cost me a very large amount of money and be excruciatingly painful.

finished, thank gawd!

That's all I got.

(and for those tracking the challenge, I zoned this weekend, between my roommate moving and my need to watch Season 2 of Sons of Anarchy in it's entirety today I did not train. Thank god I didn't bet anything BUT I'm moving forward and will continue, it doesn't stop here, in fact I have spin class with Mike tomorrow.. ouch! cause yea, there's that pesky 1/2 IM looming)

I am more important that John

This blog is posted so I can appear above JohnP in Daryl's blogroll (and everyone else that lists both of us).  I will be back to post a real blog later.  In the meantime go read how John is a quitter and Daryl is getting back at it!

More to come later today.

You spin me right round

Yesterday we had our kickoff spin class for the group that are training for a half ironman in July, Musselman.  There are about 20 people in the group and we have a great cross section of people. I know a few of the ladies from Mommies in Motion and even Daryl from twitter signed up.   I have not done a ride on the trainer yet so the spin class was a great way to start.  It's weird though, it feels like I'm riding on cobbles or something.  Hopefully it's set up right.  I got a bit nostalgic when I was taking George outside, I was wishing I was going to ride along the lake.  I have one more week off so maybe it will be sunny and warm(er) one day this week, I've left the bike rack on my car just in case.

In other news the speedometer in my car is broken.  I thought it was odd that it was reading over 140 while driving a main strip in town but I got really alarmed when I saw that I was going over 200km in a school zone!!  I dropped the car off at Canadian Tire this morning, there was a huge lineup of people getting snow tires on, probably because it snowed yesterday.  Now I wait for a call to find out how expensive this is going to be.

Bryan's got his slick new blog up and running and he added a forum section which is proving to be pretty funny already. Because I'm the queen of stupid I started a 30 day challenge.  I need to face it, with the holidays and my birthday coming up I won't be able to eat perfectly but at least I can get my workouts in.  I decided to do 30 workouts in 30 days so that I keep moving.   Walking counts as a workout, the idea is to just get off the couch and make sure I keep getting off the couch over the holidays.  My tattoo should be healed enough that  I will be able to get back in the pool next week and I'm almost looking forward to a change of pace.  Almost.  The fasting part of the cleanse went out the window pretty quick but I have been eating smartly and am down about 4lbs which I'm really happy with.  I'm going to keep eating well and try to keep the festivities to a minimum.

Finally, I won that contest through Emz's blog, I won the Punk Rock Racing shirt and it arrived in the mail this week!! I don't check my mail often enough but when I went by this morning it was there!  It's awesome, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  It's my new kick ass training shirt and I can't wait to wear it.  In fact I have a run to do today and it will be one of my layers.

I need to get to a running store and find out how to properly layer for cold weather running.  Any and all suggestions and/or advice appreciated here.

That's all I got!

I'm a copy cat

Yup, I'm a copy cat..  not real bad just kinda bad.  I have seen people adding the 'link within' on their blog and I like it so I added it to mine and that makes me a copy cat.  I'm also here to admit that I have borrowed the image over there
<------------------- from 'icanhascheezburger.com' cause it's cute and I needed an image.  I realized that I prefer to read blogs where there is a big fat picture related to the post so I thought I'd start doing that except it's not easy finding an image for every post unless you take your own photos and I don't have a photocopier here OR a cat but I digress, what the hell was I talking about?

Ok so as promised yesterday I went out for a run. Wow, I am not smart.  When I left the house I realized the battery in my Garmin was dead, 10  minutes into the run my ipod battery died which really pissed me off cause I had some new music I had downloaded just for the run. Around 2km in my new shoes started to hurt and my left hamstring started to feel like it was pulled so I slowed down and walked it home.  Tomorrow I have my kick off spin class for the 1/2 ironman training group and if that doesn't get my butt back into gear, I dunno what will.

This morning over coffee I was catching up on some blogs finally and over at Life of an aspiring triathlete and there is a giveaway (go sign up) and a movie review for 'The Distance'.  I did not sign up for the giveaway  atlhough I should have cause I've had all the luck these days but I did go online and order the movie anyway. The review was good and I think the stories of real people will be good ones. I had bought a book before that was called "17 hours to Glory" and it was stories of people that completed Ironman. I thought that the stories of real people in the real world would be really good to read but was hugely disappointed that it turned out to be stories of all the champions.  Maybe they should have named the book '8:15 to Glory'.  Anyway I hope the movie will be a real life view of training.  As if I don't get enough of that view from the blogs but that is the most motivating part for me and usually the most fun to read/watch.

Since I'm still on vacation I drove into Toronto, not ALL the way in because you know I don't drive in the big city, to meet a friend for lunch and go for a walk.  She just got a new bike from the bike show and it's really purty and we are excited to do some riding together this upcoming season. She told me about a bike maintenance course that is held over a weekend, all day Saturday and Sunday where you can learn how to do basic repairs and maintenance and you can practice on bikes other than your own which in a way is good because I don't want to be pretend messing around with George.  It's reasonably priced and local, well fairly local and they have it every other month.  What does this mean for you?  Well you won't see any hysterical blogging or tweeting if I have to change a tire (god forbid) anymore.  I know one guy that will be happy about that.

And finally in more organizational news I have created a new email address to link to my blog, twitter and facebook.  It will be nice to have all the notifications for them (and facebook) to go to another account and stop clogging up my inbox.

I know you're jealous of my exciting life.  That's all I got.

testing, testing

Hi guys, can someone please comment on this post.  I have changed my email address to the blog and added it to my profile and I want to see if the emails from comments go there now.

thanks!

I'm VIP, true story

Today John mentioned on twitter that I had been quiet and he might be worried about me.  He also made a crack that 'I smell', wtf dude, I thought we were friends?  Anyway I thought I'd poke my head in for quick hihowareya.

In life news, as of Friday I resigned from my position at my present (old) employer as I had accepted another position.  My old company treated me well and I met loads of amazing people but this new position looks to have alot of good learning in it and I'm excited for this new challenge.  I'm less excited about commuting back to the city but I'll get over that bit.  So I'm on vacation until I start the new job on Dec 6 which means I have ALL  the time in the world to sleep in AND train AND catch up on blogs AND cook good healthy food, NONE of which I have done. To be honest the events of the last week have fried me a little bit and I'm feeling a bit sick at my stomach but I'm going to get over it and fast. The best thing I can think of to cure this is to get off y butt and do something, anything!  Tomorrow.. hahah I keep saying that but this time I mean it.  I'm even promising here and now on this blog to get out for a good run tomorrow.  If weather does not permit then I'll take a class at Millcroft but I think I'll be ok.

So instead of doing all that great stuff I have been puttering a bit around the house and getting some paperwork done for the new job and listening to far too much of The Heidi and Frank show. These guys had a radio show that I started listening to a few years back but then talk radio went to hell and they were off the air, then they went to AM which just sucked but now they are podcasting daily.  I became a VIP member of their site and have been catching up on the shows they have done since they started in October.  My new commute into work will work out well because I will be able to download their shows and listen on my ipod or iphone on the way to and from work.  These guys are highly inappropriate and make me snort coffee out my nose at least once a day, they are gonna love me on the GO train!

Then Bryan had his BIG announcement on his blog today, he's moved it here and it's the colour of beer!!!! He is charging a small monthly fee now but I would have to say, (even if I didn't have a free lifetime membership) that it's WELL worth the small fee he's charging.  I have been a faithful reader for almost a year now and my days are not the same if I'm not reading what he's up to, if only to feel better about myself.  I would also have to say that if not just for the blog but the comments are worth the monthly fee alone!  Anyway, if you don't believe me, he has over 1000 free entries  you can read through that are still available and then decide.  His best entries are the ones where he mentions me directly.. haha just kidding!  And if you think you won't like the blog because it's just about triathlon stuff, believe me, it's not.

So I have some running and reading to do tomorrow and I'm excited for our half ironman training kickoff ride on Saturday this week.

That's all I got!!!

ps, to those that copy parts of this blog, I guess one could say that imitation is the highest form of flattery OR one could say, get your own life... kthnxbye 

Fast fail, and I DO mean quick

Ok, obviously I did not complete 2 days of fasting so I thought I better hop on and just get that out right now.  Why obviously?  Umm have you met me?  Yesterday I had a salad when I got home from work which I think is ok.  They did list leafy greens, apple and almonds among the things you can eat if you felt too hungry.  Yeah yeah, so I morphed that into a pear and blue cheese salad but I went super easy on the dressing.  All in all the day was good though, I felt light and not overly famished and more in control.

Today started off well but landed me at another salad by noon.  I am going to continue with the cleanse, moving onto the shake days starting tomorrow.  There are two more non-food days next Thurs/Fri and I'm hoping for more success.  In the meantime I got some news yesterday and made a rather large shift in my life and that kicked off a flurry of events which I can't write about now but I can say it's all good on that front so don't worry.  If you really want to know what's going on, feel free to email me and I'll spill the beans.

Did I mention I'm on vacation?  For 2 weeks?  No where to go except out for rides on George and to Millcroft for some Yoga and maybe a bootcamp or two.  I would like some good weather please.

That's all I got.

I may not be smart

So last year I tackled a sprint tri and quitting smoking.  I succeeded at both, go ME.  We are still in 'last year' because last year is still this year but I feel like my year ended after the race, you get my drift. right?  I am 113 days smoke free, no small feat and thankfully I did not cave last weekend thanks to my awesome twitter and facebook friends but that's beside the point. 

Today's point is that now I need to tackle the weight. I would be happy to lose 30 pounds, ecstatic to lose 40. I don't even want to be a size 6 anymore, I want to be fit and HEALTHY and race faster.  I am an emotional eater, always have been, it's not pretty.  Now I am fit AND overweight, my worst nightmare.  Lately my stress levels have been high, work and life so my eating has not been great and worse it's just getting more and more out of control.  I need(ed) to put the brakes on.  Since apparently I am incapable of simply eating smart and clean for even a single day I decided a more strict effort is required.  So, I started a 9 day cleanse, go big or go home right?  Have you not seen my gigantic tattoo??   haha  Now before ya get all 'don't be drinking the lemon maple syrup drink' on me let me say, it's only 9 days and 4 actual days of fasting.  I fast for 2 days at the start and 2 days at the end and in the 5 days in between you do eat real food and some yummy(?) shakes. If you get too hungry they have a list of good options to choose from. 

 So I'm half a day into day 1 of the cleanse and I'm starving!  That is to be expected but just so you know, if you ever decide to do a cleanse, I do NOT recommend visiting any of the following sites:

The Pioneer Woman
Kayotic Kitchen
Trashy Eats

and for the love of gawd DO NOT visit The Daily Bacon dont' click it.. no don't.. oh wait YOU can, I can't.

We can all start to see why I have food issues right?  OY  So, for those asking I'm on the 9day cleanse by Isagenix, I have done this one before.  For those betting, I have made it approx 6 hours so far.  Is noon too early to go to bed?

You can bet that I will not last the full two days OR that I will flip out before the end of day tomorrow, it's a crap shoot really.

That's all I got.

oops, one more thing, I noticed that I have 40 followers which to me is just astounding that people would stop by to read and then take the time to follow me.  So in the words of Matty_O, thanks for reading!!!!  No really, thanks!!

American Beauty

I was out for dinner with a good friend, she's amazing. She's very zen and I learn alot from her. There's loads more to tell about her but I'll save that for another post.  We were chatting over dinner about what we've each been up to lately and the changes in life.  Maybe we weren't even talking about that very thing but in my mind it was the evolution of my life over the last year.  She makes all things in my life feel very zen.  I am surrounded by these thoughts constantly these days.

Driving home I realized I might be Lester Burnham.  You remember him from American Beauty.  Ok, I'm not Kevin Spacey and I'm not in an unhappy marriage with Annette Benning, but his transformation in the movie is how I am feeling in general.  You finally find the courage to just not care anymore, you do what you want and screw everybody else.  I'm not there yet but I'm in the car.



Except I don't smoke pot.  I'd try it but I need to lose weight, I don't need a reason to eat more!

That's all I got!

Did I win the bet? Did I win the bet??

Well who's betting?  It took less than a week and guess who's back?  Actually I'm not completely positive it's really him but I CAN confirm a Training Payne sighting today, earrings and all.  More on that later.

As you know I have been slacking something awful lately, SIU October turned into Sucky October and I've been on a downward spiral ever since.  Finding out about the cookie dough thing didn't help either, thank you Matty and Emz.  I have done a few training sessions but even those were lackluster.  Even my brand new tattoo is mocking me.   Thankfully I have some really great friends and a super coach and the fire is starting to come back. Today I did a spin class with Mrs. LoTC.  I met her hubby through Twitter and it's true, once you meet her love her immediately.  We have done a few spinning classes together and she's been really motivating.  I've had alot of fun and laughs getting to know her.  We are thinking about doing the same half iron this year, either Peterborough or Welland I'm excited to have a training buddy even though she kicks my ass.  My goal is to kick her ass on the bike at our half this summer, all in good fun, I expect to lose but I may have a chance if John stays firm and never buys her a new bike.

This morning we met for our usual Sunday spin, or what is becoming our usual Sunday spin, then off for some retail therapy and then to the Y.  I had to break a few laws to get in as I'm not a member of the Y but Bryan was there to be a guest speaker with the tri training group and no way was I going to miss out on that.  We all rip on Bryan alot and it's always well deserved but I have to say his talk was really terrific.  He brought his road to Kona book and told everyone his story, the pictures really put the points home.  I could tell they were all really interested in what he was saying, he's a great public speaker and was highly entertaining.  I kept my heckling mostly to myself but I did make him strip.. ok pull up his pant leg and show off the tattoo.  The talk and question period lasted much longer than usual, I'm not sure if the group were that thrilled because they were spinning through the whole thing.

I had to laugh at a few things, his first big piece of advice, "never DNF".  He swears he'll only ever be physically pulled off the course. This after talking about his DNF in China because of food poisoning. Way to scare the crap out of them Bryan.  Oh and my other favourite, when he said he only ever does 2 types of training in a day.  One girl said 'really?', I think she was a bit alarmed because the group do swim, bike AND run every Sunday.  WTG Bryan.. lmao

 I am happy to say that when I met Bryan this time I was not in the 'hurt locker' on sideroad one.  It was great to have time for a chat and next time there will definitely be beers involved.

Tomorrow I have spin and yoga classes lined up and I start a cleanse on Tuesday for 9 days to give me a kick start.  I'm drinking the last beer I have in my fridge right now.  I'm on the upswing folks.

That's all I got.

I'm IT!!!!

I got tagged, by Matty_O!!!  I have to admit I feel a teensy bit famous. 

If you could eat anything without any health repercussions or guilt, what would your meal be?
Oh man, that is hard!! Would have to be a steak dinner with ‘frites’ and red wine OR anything from here

If you could meet anyone living or dead who would it be and why?
I’d like to see my grandfather again. I was too young to appreciate him when he passed away and never got to know him on an adult level. I already know he was the best grandfather on the planet but I’d love to be able sit down and have a good chat over a beer and ask him about his story. 

Why did you start blogging and what did you expect when you started?
I have had a personal blog since 2004 on livejournal but it’s locked down to a small group of people, it can get racy. My blog here is of course, because I needed a fitness goal (thanks Tawnya). This whole idea of triathlons and blogging would have died inside of a week but then I found other bloggers (Bryan, Johan, Matty, Rodney and everyone else) and it’s been going ever since. Now I have an entire community of people that keep me motivated and make me laugh til I snort coffee out my nose.

What is the one book you could read over and over again?
Replay by Ken Grimwood. I dunno why I love it. After I read it the first time I bought copies for a bunch of my friends. It’s just an interesting story.

If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?
I hate traveling, I know weird right? I hate the packing and the getting there and coming home and the laundry. BUT I would like to go on an Alaskan cruise and I do dream of warmer places in winter. Lately I have been dreaming of running away in general, to a much warmer climate. Arizona maybe? Anyone got a job for me there?

If you could have a TV show on the Food Network, what would it be? 
Kitchen disasters” also known as “How to drink too much wine and ruin breakfast”

What was the best meal you ever had?
No way I can pick a favourite here but a good steak dinner is always at the top of my list. OR egg salad sandwiches, made by my mom (on white bread). 

Who has been the greatest influence on your love for food and learning to cook? 
My mom is a great cook. My sister and brother are also amazing cooks and I just try to keep up with them.

I was also tagged for another meme and I think I am supposed to include this pic but I'm not postive.




Here are the rules
1) Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog...

Thank you Matty_O!!!!!

2) Share 7 things about yourself
3) Pass the award to other bloggers






Soooo here goes:
1) I was named after both of my grandmothers

2) I got my driver’s license (G) when I was 39 years old.

3) I start listening to Christmas music in October but I don’t decorate my house for Christmas at all. 

4) I love bacon and jam sandwiches. It has to be on white bread and strawberry jam. 

5) I bungee jumped on a dare, I’ll do just about anything if you dare me to, just about. 

6) I don’t like wet or cold feet. I will only wear sandals if it’s the height of summer and has been dry for a week. If it looks like there might be the slightest indication of rain, it’s shoes and socks all the way. 

7) I have a VERY weak stomach. You can’t talk about anything gross around me. I watch Grey’s Anatomy with both hands over my eyes and sometimes I have to sing loudly to drown out the gross sounds or dialogue.

Now I have to tag people for these but I bet everyone has already done it.

I have to tag Bryan even though he claims he's not blogging anymore
I  need to tag John and also tell him to BUY HIS WIFE A BIKE ALREADY!!!
OBVIOUSLY I have to tag Johan just because
And I want to tag Rodney cause I haven't seen a post from him in a while
And cause I hope she's reading this I have to tag my VAN AWESOME MIM pal.

That's all I got.

Whole lotta Rosie

I was going to title this blog a whole lotta nothing but that’s boring and I much prefer the AC/DC song so what the heck. Despite the lack of anything interesting going on in my general life re training or otherwise there have been some goings on in my world.

Hot on the heels of Winner Winner Chicken Dinner I won another blog giveaway!  If only someone would give away a million bucks...  This one was hosted by the amazing Emz. She had posted some cool prizes on her page and I commented on the post  to out Matty-O about the fact that he eats cookie dough by the tub and guess what, I freaking won!!  So I won the best prize ever which is a Punk Rock Racing t-shirt. How cool is that! This girl is hardcore!! She even ran a FIFTY MILE trail race, go read her race report, it's spectacular. In fact here entire blog is fantastic so grab a coffee and start catching up, TOTALLY worth the time.

In other news in case you haven’t heard, Bryan has announced that he is going to stop blogging.

He’s giving up blogging.

He is

GIVING

UP

BLOGGING

WHAT
THE
FUCK?

That doesn’t even make sense to me, how can I possibly start my day if he’s not posting something crazy or inspiring or completely inappropriate? I am really hoping that he is going to be the “WHO” of the blog world, you know, ‘say’ he’s retiring but then he’ll keep coming back anyway.  Or was that Cher?  A girl can dream and in the meantime there's always twitter.

Many of you have asked what my tattoo means. It's funny because I had the phrase translated to Finnish so that people wouldn’t know what it says but apparently everyone wants to know. Despite what ree_ti_ree googled, it does not mean “Cheap what is inside you”. Thank you typo… It does mean “What you want is in you”. For years I knew I wanted a tattoo and I knew I wanted a meaningful phrase but I had never heard anything that I wanted scraped painfully into my skin permanently. Then several months ago I was struggling with training, I do that a lot, but back then someone said this to me, “what you want is in you” and it stuck. If you dig far enough into my blog you’ll even find the entry. Over the months when something seemed hard or I didn’t feel like doing something I would hear this mantra in my head and it kept me going. I knew once I finished my first sprint tri that this would be the saying I would put on my arm. I had it translated to Finnish for a few reasons. Mostly I didn’t want the English words just hanging out there, don’t ask me why I just didn’t. My grandmother was from Finland and my grandfather was from Denmark so I figured it would be a nice tribute to them if I got it translated to one or the other. Well the Danish translation was UGLY so Finnish it is.   And by the way, yes it still hurts..  I had been contemplating a few other tattoos but after the pain of this one, I think I'm done.  Except when I do the half ironman, I'll get the unofficial 70.3 Mdot for that.

That's all I got!