i can ride for miles and miles and miles and miles

Yes, it's been a long dry spell between posts. Turns out it's not really less time consuming trying to please 2-1/2 employers rather than one.  Go figure.  But I am enjoying the new challenges.  It's just requiring me to develop some organizational skills (not my strong suit).  And negotiation skills can not be underestimated either.

Oh, and of course....a little thing called IronMan training is also in progress.  And except for constantly complaining, tired legs it's going well, but again...time consuming.  Last weekend I spent about 12 hours training.  The weekend before that wasn't much shorter.  And don't even ask about this weekend.  Oh, alright....Saturday will be a 2.4 mile OW swim event, followed by 115 miles on the bike, then a quick :15 run off the bike.  Sunday will be 2:50 of running.  2 hours 50 minutes.  So basically I'm just a couple hours shy of a full Ironman for the weekend.  One. Day. At. A. Time.

And since I'm not writing much, here are some pics to distract you.  (****All photos courtesy of Molly!****)

7Jul2012: 

I rode with Molly, her husband Jeff, and their friend George up a couple of mountains.  Think I'm kidding?  Luckily it was *mostly* shady.  And although I might have been swearing a storm up some of the climbs, it feels good to have tackled it.  And to know that Canada has roughly HALF as much climbing.

See...I told you there were two mountains.

The scenery was beautiful...and there were some nice shady parts.

George, Molly, moi (with a bottle growing out of my butt).

Ahhhh....shade.  Too bad it's on a climb.

Molly's transition.  My transition.  BFFs for the day.

Did I mention the climbing?  I think George was attached to my hip.
Not that my 1mph pace was giving him much of a draft.

See....beautiful.

DONE.with.this.climbing.&$^#&.

14Jul2012:

I arrived home at 11pm on Friday from 2 days of meetings on the east coast.  12 hours of travel on Wednesday, all day meeting on Thursday, all day meeting on Friday plus travel home.  Ouch.  I tried not to be too crabby when meeting up with Molly, George, and Nigel on Saturday morning at 7:40-ish. We were doing a route close to my house (bless you Molly for that), so I didn't have to get up *quite* at dawn, altho I was running late.  We headed out one of my 'well-worn' routes, and then onto some roads I haven't ridden in quite a while, then continued on to a road I've never ridden.  Again, I'll just distract you with the pics.

Climbing...but almost entirely downhill on the way back.
Like, roughly 40 min negative split downhill. 

First pit stop to get water.  I think I'm toasting with my Perform.
IM training makes you do crazy stuff.

Some flat road before hitting the climb.

Pretty, but in a very different way than last week.  Very dry.

Starting a climb.

Yep, we're going up *there*.

Moi, George, Molly and Nigel at the turn around pit stop.
I think my bike weighs about 10 pounds more after filling all the bottles.

Heading back home....I think....

Proof of not being crabby...or at least faking it well.

And after that big day on Saturday, I slept in slightly on Sunday and then climbed back in the saddle for 2-1/2 hours.  Then I followed that up with 1-1/2 hours of running.  Maybe you can see why my legs are less than thrilled with me?

BUT.....only a few more (big) days in this build cycle, rest for a week, have another big week, then we TAPER!  Which means Canada is rapidly approaching....*gulp*.