So, I’m not too good at this blogging thing – I seem to take a while between posts!

A quick catch up then:

I’ve been swimming, biking and running – lol!  There’s a surprise!!  My last race was a few weeks ago, I came down with a bit of a bug, so the training’s been going ok, nothing to set the world alight, just steady training.  I have a couple of races coming up over the next few weeks, and then it’s head down for a good 6 week training block leading into the World’s at Budapest.  The thing that I’m really looking forward to though is supporting my husband Jase in his first 10k on Friday.  It’s role reversal time – just hope I do as good a job supporting as he does for me – yikes!

Our local pool closed for 6 weeks from the end of May to early July, so I swapped between training in the lake and heading down to another pool not too far away – it’s only small 20m pool and is salt water based.  So between the buoyancy aid of the wetsuit and that of the salt water, when I actually got back into my normal pool 6 weeks later I felt like one complete dead weight – quite funny really, if a little frustrating!!

I have to mention one of my sponsors, Gear and Training though.  I got my wetsuit from these guys – it’s a BlueSeventy Helix – I had the previous model and love the suit.  It’s great if you come from a swimming background or are a naturally strong swimmer – i.e. it has neutral buoyancy support but has GREAT flexibility especially around the shoulders.  Anyhow, the guys at Gear and Training helped me out with deciding which suit was best this time around and do a fantastic deal at the moment of 20% discount off all orders over $150, plus free shipping within the States.  You really should check out their stuff – they’ve got a great range to browse through – and if you need any advice, as they’re actually a PROPER STORE, you can call them to ask any questions – which, personally, I love

So, every Saturday I do my same ride up to Fording Mine here in BC.  I’ve posted about if before, and just love the ride.  I see very very few cars (maybe a handful in 3 hours), it’s beautiful gorgeous scenery, it has a good wind blowing up there, so you get good training and practice with that stuff – and often see some pretty cool wildlife.  Last week, I was biking along, this truck overtook me (giving me LOTS of room – nice chaps that they are!) – but then stopped, reversed a bit, and stopped again.  As I rode up beside him, I stopped to check he was ok (like I could do anything about it – haha!)  It was particularly windy at this point, so I had been in “head down and just get on with it” mode.  Anyhow, the guy says “Oh, I just wanted to check you got past the grizzly ok – there’s a big adult bear up there, and I wanted to check you were ok” – yikes!  As I looked up he’d gone by that point – it was actually my birthday and I didn’t see the bear – ho hum – but maybe it was a good thing!

Anyhow, something that made me smile today – after following a bit of the Tour, I was curious to see if the climb within my ride actually hit the “category” listing – and it does!  I checked a couple of different sources to make sure – but, it’s at the upper end of a Cat 3 climb and just under a Cat 2 climb – that makes me really happy!  If I did it for 3 times as long it’s the equivalent of a Cat 1 ride in the Tour – yikes!!  Made me smile )

So, hope everyone’s enjoying the sun when it’s there – it’s due back here tomorrow just in time for my sister and brother in law to arrive from the UK on Friday – happy family times to be had

Catch up soon

Cath