Home Sweet Home...

I'm back in beautiful British Columbia and loving it! I could feel my spirit rise as soon as I was in the trees. It was a bit of a long drive out - eleven hours - due to construction happening. I had a great run workout the night before, but that coupled with sitting for so long had my hip flexors complaining a wee bit. Made for an awkward walk when I got home!

As I drove I took in the scenery. One show stopping sight I saw was this beauty... It was in a parking lot in Chase. I actually held up traffic as I stopped, drooled and took the photo. They just don't make them like they used to!

It's been great being home. For one thing it's super hot and sunny! I think it was 34 C when I got here. Oh, and I managed to get a nice burn on my left arm complete with white line where my seatbelt was. Doh!

This morning I got up for a bike ride. I am doing a long ride on Monday, so today would be a quick two hours. I figured I'd ride out to Pitt Lake like I did last time as that took me about two hours.

It was divine out when I started for my ride. I'm not sure if my spirits are so high because I'm home, or because I've been feeling much better about triathlon, but whatever the reason I was ear to ear smiling as I rode along my merry way. As I made my way along the roads that zig zag around all the blueberry fields I said 'Good Morning!' to everyone I saw. Some returned the greetings, others completley ignored me. I was in such a good mood I almost through in 'Good Afternoon and if I don't see you later, Good Evening!'

I actually scared one gal by saying good morning. I was moving at quite a pace and went zipping by this gal on a leisurely ride. I said 'GOOD MORNING!' as I rode by and I think I scared her so much she almost fell off her bike. Whoops. I made sure to say sorry very quickly.

As I was crossing over Lougheed Hwy I heard a car honking it's horn like mad. I wasn't sure what was going on, so just kept going. A little bit down the road a car pulled into the bicycle lane so I had to hit the brakes hard. I was thinking 'what the heck?!' I went by slowly and the fellow waved at me. At one point I thought it was a buddy of mine who lived out here, but it wasn't.

Instead this gentleman got out of his car and told me that the pack on my bike was open and something fell out at the intersection. He said he'd honked to try and let me know something was wrong. I took a look inside but didn't see anything of importance missing. So I thanked him for taking the time to let me know and said I'd check the intersection when I went back.

I got back into the groove of my ride and made my way to Pitt Lake. I had some great speed going as I made my way. I got to the turnaround point at about 50 minutes. Hmmm, I'm pretty sure this took me an hour last time. Nice!

I wanted to add time onto my ride, so headed straight down the one road then backtrack. As I made down this road I realized I had had a great tail wind on the way out because I now had a heck of a headwind! For some reason the wind doesn't bother me anymore. Likely because we have so much of it!

I got to the bottom of this road then turned around and headed home. I have to say I love the bike paths on the roads here. Even if I'm in a busier stretch of road I can still stay in aero because I have my very own lane.

I was almost back at the highway when I noted a rider ahead of me. Hmmm, wonder if I can catch up? For the last 1/2 hour I was to ride in a big gear so I switched gears and started pushing forward. Slowly but surley I was making ground. Finally I snuck into the riders draft. A fellow who was wearing a North Shore triathlon jersey. I might add that he had a very nice set of calves on him.

I stayed behind him every so stealth like. As we neared the intersection I deeked in behind some cars just as he was about turn to shoulder check. I felt like Ferris Bueller zipping in and out as he tried to beat his folks home! The guy never knew I was there!

I got to the intersection but it was super busy so I didn't bother trying to find what fell out of my pack. I just kept going. I felt really good on this ride even though I was pushing the hard gear on the way home. I focused on my form, put my head down, pictured the Tour fellas and went for it.

I was almost home when it slowly dawned on me what may have fell out of my pack. It was my fruit bar. It was the only thing that I didn't think I saw when I looked in. Also, I remembered hearing a crispy tinfoil type sound when I went across the intersection. Lastly, it would have been big enough for the fellow to see. Mystery solved!

When I got home I took a look at my bike computer before doing a quick change up into my sneakers. Well look at that....an average speed of 28.9 km/h! I have NEVER done that before. Granted this is a flatish ride, but still. I'll take it!

I put my sneakers on and went out for a 20 minute brick. I did 10 x (30s hard, 30s easy), then 10 minutes easy. I wasn't too sure how the hard would go but was willing to give it my best shot. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get my legs to go. Especially because I rode hard today. I was totally stoked about my ride and run. I'm definitely getting my mojo back. Hooyah!

When I got home mom gave me a bowl of freshly picked raspberries from her garden. Yum! It was an awesome post ride treat.

Today was a great start to my first day home. Tommorrow should be just as fun as I'll be going out for a ride (we'll see if I can get Mum to ride her bike beside me) then we are going to White Rock so I can do an open water swim in the ocean. I wanted to see what it's like to actually swim in the ocean, rather than frolic like I used to do. This should give me an idea of what Cozumel will be like!

Peace out my lovely friends.