Time To Think Of Nothing But Family

Amber and I have had a wonderful Christmas so far, other than some stomach cramps AD is feeling today. No more popcorn with butter for her, it happens every time. We arrived in Jasper Thursday night and were exhausted from some white-knuckle driving. I'm used to it but Amber seemed a little tense; she's not used to driving at night and throw in some icy roads and big semi's and she was pretty nervous. We had a little wine at the apartment in Jasper just to unwind (a little too much for me) but woke up feeling okay. I had to work on Friday so AD spent the day walking/running Harley, it was brutally cold -30+ but he always has fun no matter what the weather. I finished up work and felt a little stir crazy so I took him out for an hour run on some of the awesome trails around town. He was having a ball but when he's off-leash he tends to do his own thing and I spend half the time calling out for him and trying to get him to come back. It was a spectacular run though, we climbed for 30 minutes and got to the top of a lookout overseeing the entire town and an incredible mountain view. I didn't realize how cold it was because when I got home the tip of my big toe had some serious frost bite. It's still a little numb but there shouldn't be any long term damage.

The rest of the weekend we had a fantastic time exploring some of the x-country ski trails and thoroughly wore out Harley. He was in his glory, off-leash and running from side to side, in the woods, out of the woods, running with us, looking for other animals to terrorize. The only time we really had any trouble was when we saw some other skiers with a dog that he had to go bug. We know he's only wanting to play with them but he's SO ROUGH that other dogs get a little scared when he's around. We'll learn to socialize him with other dogs, it's just going to take a little time.

Tuesday we made the trip to Calgary to spend Christmas with my family this year. It was nice to see everyone and spend a little time in our old home town. My family hasn't changed, they are still as happy as ever (the exception being my niece Natasha, she's 14 and just a little hellion). Christi (my sister) says she is going for counselling to try work through some of her issues. We spent some time with Emma (my other niece) and Jake (my little 14 month nephew), he's really strong and is running around getting into everything! So cute though. It was a great Christmas and made me realize that as much as I can get caught up in training, racing, working and travelling, the most important thing in the world to me is my little family. Getting Harley has really made me think of our little household as a "family" and I've made a lot of new-year's goals but the most important one is to make sure Amber and Harley know how much I love them everyday.

Let Go Of My Lungs!!!

It's been well over a week now and this cold just will not release it's hold on my lungs. I took the entire week off and decided to go out for a little jog on Saturday morning with Harley just to see how I felt. I've been coughing like crazy all week and this weekend but I just needed to get moving again. We started out okay and Harley was running beside me at a good pace but after the first mile I felt myself slowing down. I was struggling to breathe and my muscles felt like they were being suffocated. It was the strangest feeling I've ever had, I was moving slower than I ever have before but every step made running harder and harder. I was running through water and breathing through a straw. I finally slowed to a walk after 4kms and I think Harley was disappointed in me, he normally loves running at my pace but today I just didn't have it.

I decided to skip our group ride as well, the last thing I needed was a tough Coach Troy session while not being able to breathe but Amber had fun with a couple other hardcore riders. They were "bending crank arms" while I laid on the couch, arrgh! I hope all this rest means I'm going to come back stronger in the new year.

After they finished Amber and I watched the IM world championships, we both wished we were back there and relived the experience again. It was such a great race and incredible to see so many strong athletes especially considering we both know how hot and humid it was. We know what it's like to race in conditions like that, Kentucky was very similar, although without the trade winds which made it A LOT harder for the athletes on the bike out there. Great race for Craig Alexander and Chrissy Wellington, two phenoms that found something special that day.

A Little Under The Weather

I just arrived back from TO late Friday night and after three days of travelling and meetings it was really, really nice to see Amber and Harley again. We normally have our national conference or western conference during the first week of December and this year was no different. A lot of boring fund managers and a lot of trying to explain what's happening in the markets and how long they think it will last. I guess everyone has their own opinion but I think that once Obama is officially inaugurated things will start to pick up again. Slowly at first but things will get back to normal in the markets again.

Amber and I had our usual bike session in the basement and this one was tough for me to get through. I woke up feeling really rough, I could barely talk and my throat was killing me. It was a fairly easy session but after two hours my knees were really hurting, that's when I knew I needed to take it easy. I obviously picked something up on the plane or in TO somewhere. At least I'm back home with my happy little family, I can handle anything with Amber around.