Elements of Erin 337

On September 15th, Tim and signed up for the Chuckanut Century ride.  After finishing Challenge Penticton, I still felt like I had some more to give.  I was not ready to finish my season. We drove down to Bellingham, WA the morning of the event.  The weather this summer had been amazing but fall was starting to set in.  It was misty and foggy but we thought it would lift as we started the ride.  Well, that is not what happened.   The weather never really improved and it started to rain at one point in the ride.  We were moderately prepared for the cooler temperatures and rain but not so much.  At the 45 minute mark, Tim got a flat tire.  At the 1 hour mark of our ride, we came across a cute coffee shop where a few cyclists were sitting.  We figured "why not?" and stopped for an Americano European style with actual cups (not paper cups!) After about a 45 minute coffee, we continued on our route through Samish Island, WA .  What a great place!  The fog was still thick bu

After finishing Challenge Penticton, I didn't have any other races in the plans for 2013.  I usually suggest that athletes have a race planned after their 'main event' to avoid post race blues.  However, I hadn't taken my own advice. Frantically, I began looking for swimming, cycling, and running events to end my year.  After a lot of internet searching I decided to sign up for two half marathons.   My next race will be the Sprit Half Marathon in West Vancouver/North Vancouver on Sunday October 6, 2013.  Hopefully the weather will be as nice as it looks in their website photo. My final race of 2013 will be the New Balance Fall Classic Half Marathon in Vancouver on Sunday November 17.  Typically the weather for this race is terrible.  The year pictured below there was ice and snow on the ground.   Happy Training!

So it is October 2nd and I am updating my blog after giving it a long rest.   After my training camp in July, I regrouped, reviewed my training and racing plans for the remainder of the year and refocused on my goal of Challenge Penticton.   Needless to say, this took a lot of time and effort.  Training for any endurance race takes a lot of time and training and an iron distance race is no exception. Here is my race report, better late than never.  It is a bit choppy and detailed around nutrition ______________________________________ Wake Up -  3:15am Pre Race Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs Large White bagel with natural PB 1 banana 1 500ml bottle IMPerform Race Start  6:35am Swim:  1:13:44 Nutrition: none Morning was warm but windy.  Choppy on the water but no whitecaps.  Felt the chop on the way out. Sighting was challenging with the swells.  Eased up on the way back a bit.  Swam alone, the whole time.  Started at the front of my wave (40-44