I missed the memo...

...for some reason after 3 years of living here I still haven't clued into the fact that Stampede week in Calgary also means dress like a cowboy/Daisy Duke at work (and this is no conservative Daisy Duke look either people)...seriously, this is no joke...people are nuts in this city...wellll woopity doo! I don't do that. Bah Humbug! I'm actually shocked at the amount of people living here that actually own cowboy boots. By the amount I saw today on the streets I'd say 1 in 2 people in this city own em! Here's what I will do to celebrate Stampede...I will take advantage of not having to dress up for work this week and I will wear jeans each day...but that is as far as it goes!

And now onto more important things...

This was a tough weekend of running for me...both mentally and physically. I'm glad I got through it as they say that kind of stuff makes you stronger...but really...who are "they"?...and does it really? I dunno but I hope so...i'm completely bagged from this weekend.

The weatherman forecasted heat for Vernon this weekend...and that's what we got. It was a blazin hot one from the moment I arrived on thursday evening till the time I left yesterday afternoon.

Friday's run was to be an evening run as my brother was working and then had a friend visiting in the afternoon. We had a fun afternoon with a walk to the beach for a swim. Logan must have been pretty hot as I've never seen him swim so far out from shore before.

By the time we started our run in Kal Park it was almost 7pm. It was still 30 degrees and I could feel it, despite the shade we were in during much of the run. I didn't feel good from the very beginning...my legs just felt like lead and I could not lift them for the life of me. On one particularly hard climb we were on I finally had to stop for a break and I got swarmed by mosquitoes...and when I get bit, they turn into giant welts...my arms and back probably have at least 30 bites...not cool at all.

I finally started to feel a little better once the really tough climbs were over and we got to do some fun downhill singletrack stuff! We get to about 1km to go and stop dead in our tracks as a rattle snake is on the side of the trail rattling and hissing away...and looking pretty pissed. He wouldn't even budge when Steve started throwing stuff at it. Steve ended up just trotting by which it didn't look to happy with and I followed suit wondering how far those things can lunge at you? Luckily it was all talk and no action :) That was my first time seeing a rattler!

We finished 17km with some pretty sore muscles. I'm not used to feeling sore after a shorter run like that but the heat definitely messed with me for sure. All I have to say is how much I love my compression socks lately. My legs feel like a million bucks putting those on after a run!

Saturday started with 2+ hours infront of the tv watching the first day of the Tour de France. Damn is that ever addicting. We wanted to leave for our run by 10am but Day 1 was close to finishing so we ended up delaying our run till around 11am. It was already 25C degrees by this point...our own fault but hey, you've gotta get used to running in heat too...you never know what race day will be like right?

The first half of this run again started out really tough for me yet my brother was a rockstar...i am not used to running in heat and the climbing in the beginning was so tough. I felt guilty that I was having such a hard day and kept apologizing but i've got to learn to stop doing that. We're both going to have tough days at Transrockies and have just got to deal with it and not let it get you down mentally as well. He's very good at keeping optimistic and motivating me along though when i'm having a tough time which i'm pretty thankful for.

We knew there was a lake up there that we were going to cool off in and when I needed it most is when it showed up at around the 18km mark. Wahoo! It was fabulous and we felt frigging amazing after that! The rest of the run up to the 32km mark was pretty decent and there was a river that flowed all the way down so we got to stop lots to dunk our heads. I was pretty thankful for that!

At 32km we were out of the trees and back down to the road for the rest of the way home. Steve had used up all of his 3L of nuun he brought with him so we made a stop at Esso and asked if they had a sink we could use to fill up our hydration bladder. After having to explain what we needed it for the lady agreed! I thought it was fairly obvious why we needed water but apparently not!

Back out on the road...not fun...it was 35 degrees in the shade...but we had no shade! Ugh! According to Google Earth we measured that it would be 10km to get home from here...this was not the case. A little bit further and we see a sign that says "Vernon 13km"...I was like WTF?!? That's going to be over 50km!! Finally at about 36km we decided to call Kira to come get us and she arrived when we were getting close to 40km. I'd had it...that was enough for sure!! This was a long hard day and a blizzard has never tasted so good to me as the one I had that night :)

Sunday was a relaxing morning of watching Day 2 of the Tour, cherry picking in the backyard, and the end of a super exciting Wimbledon final!! I was also happy to get to go to Kira's babyshower before the long drive back to Calgary...i'll be Aunt Deb in less than a month! :)

The rest of the week will be fairly easy running as I do a mini taper before race day on saturday! Wish me luck!

Deb