The Cold Place

Many of us who grew up in church were warned about fire and brimstone; eternal punishment for our sins.  Have the divine powers that be ever thought of a deep freeze as a counterhell?  Well, I guess not because that kind of hell on Earth was the last almost 10 or more days in Calgary.

Temperatures were well down the thermometer.  I am talking minus minus 100 degrees F (okay, exaggeration, really it was lower than minus 25 degrees F/ minus 31 C).  It was so cold that you could feel your nose hairs freeze to your mucous membranes with every inhale.  Any bit of exposed flesh instantly freezed to a numbness that made you feel like you were living in a phantom body.  It was cold to bloodc**t.  If I didn’t have to go outside, I didn’t.  I stayed inside and annoyed the cat.

But triathlon training must go on.  Thankfully I have my indoor bike set-up and Netflix full of mindless entertainment to keep my mind off the tedium that sometimes comes with indoor training.  But seriously, I would have run outside, I have run outside in the cold before (but not this cold), but I am nursing a couple of injuries that I need to go away, like yesterday.   However, I left the house for a session in the pool and a short run on the track. Walking there made me realize how much I missed running outside, even in the cold.  I would have slathered my face with some vaseline (some would say that petroleum jelly is bad for the skin…

Digression 

When we were little, “blue seal vaseline,” as my mother would call it, was a winter staple.  After feeding us with a warm bowl corn or oat porridge, Wheatena, or Cream of Wheat, she would make sure that our faces “shined like a dollar-piece” and put a little extra on our lips and noses before sending us out into the cold.  So, I grew up rubbing vaseline on my face and my skin is good ;).

Back to the main blog 

I walked along the path that I usually run in order to get to the Y and I was lucky to first spot a bald eagle.  S/he was sitting on a branch, chilling and enjoying a nice view of the downtown cityscape until accosted by a couple of magpies. (Magpies are more gangsta than New York City rabid rats, I saw one flying with a fluttering sparrow in its mouth.  They are very intelligent birds but I wouldn’t want to mess with them. They gang up!).

After I finished with my swimming session, I walked along the other side of the river and came across a waterfowl spa!  I found the duck rave  during an early morning run, so this is where they must go after a long night of “turning up” to relax in the Bow River Spa.  So many geese, mallards and a lone merganser.

So, as a reminder of the slower days of summer, when you don’t have to walk fast to both keep warm and get out of the cold, here are some pictures of a sloth I met at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum on my last day in Brooklyn for the holidays.

Sloth’s ears. Oddly human looking!

New Year New Goals

It’s been a while.  Over a year.  I am back with new goals.  But a brief recap.

2018-2019

I began 2019 with a dip in the cold ocean at the annual Coney Island Polar Bear Swim.

Brooklyn Half Marathon

While I did not get my sub 2 hour half marathon goal, I came close with the Brooklyn Half Marathon.  2:11. I’ll take it.  It was a great run, hot May morning so a post-race dip in the cold ocean was glorious.

Open Water Swimming

I did my first open water swimming race in a long time, my first in a wetsuit.  It was about a week after the half marathon and after a couple of months of practicing swimming.  Thankfully a friend of mine’s got me a nice Roka discount so I was able to quickly get a wetsuit and a pair of goggles (as I left mine’s in YYC).  I got the wetsuit in time for a trial at a Coney Island FEMSS (Friday Early Morning Sunrise Swim).  Getting the wetsuit on was like getting on really tight jeans in the days before good lycra.  It was a challenge and once on I felt like a fat seal.  I jumped into the ocean and the cold was shocking, I could not bear to put my face in the water so I paddled like a dog.  However, the race conditions, about a week later, were different, it was in an estuary in New Jersey and the water was a bit warmer.  With the wetsuit on, I felt like I was floating and required minimal effort to swim.  It was a 1.2 mile race and took me a little under an hour.  I started back (still intimidated by the crowd) and I went off course a bit but I’ll take it.

Triathlons

I remember sitting on the itchy carpet in my parents’ bedroom watching and Ironman race.  A woman, approaching the finish line, could barely walk straight and her shorts were soiled.  “I’d like to do that one day,” I thought to myself.  I reflect now and think only a lunatic would look at that image and be inspired.  But inspired I was. However with the number of people who are engaged in trialthons, I am not the only lunatic out there.  I am with good company.  I promised myself that 2019 would be the year that I start ramping up my triathlon effort.  I started my ramp-up with joining a “Learn2Tri” class at the Repsol Center.  Each class had about an hour of swimming, a “transition,” and 30 minutes of spinning and 30 minutes of running.  It was a good introduction to the basics of triathlon–the swim, the transitions and nutrition and to begin to connect with a community of people who are interested in the same.  I completed my second indoor triathlon during the course. Now I was ready to take it to the road.

I did my first Olympic Distance triathlon in June (0.93-mile (1.5K) swim, a 24.8-mile (40K) bike and a 6.2-mile (10K) run).  It would warrant it’s own post but just to recap, it was hard. The swim was great, lake swim. The bike was the most challenging.  I wanted the experience of riding a road bike so I rented one.  Not the best idea as the chain was worn and the pedals were slippery and the gears did not shift smoothly (and I know the minimum about gears).  Nonetheless I hoofed through the almost 25 miles on the bike and was happy to get off and run.  I finished.  I’ll take it.

I finished my first “season” with a sprint triathlon. I used my hybrid bike, Green Grandma, which was not fast but much smoother and more stable than the rental.

I bought my first road bike, a Trek Emonde and named her Purple Lightning (in a nod to Purple Rain, but I needed a faster name), and I signed up for a Half Ironman in June–my first Ironman.  I have designs on doing a full in the near future but wanted the feel of a longer race before.

So my triathlon journey begins and I will be blogging about this newish adventure!