Time to dust off the cobwebs on my blog…

As I’m evolving away from a tri geek, I’ve decide to change the name and look of my blog… new look to go with some new thinking.

In the new year I plan to try some new challenges, revisit some old ones.  I will still be racing triathlon, but if the budget allows, I’m finally going to pick up a road bike and do some road racing. I have met a bunch of the guys from ERTC here in Edmonton so will likely join them in the Cat 5 ranks… with my first race being the Velocity Stage race… which starts only 30km from my front door in Josephburg.

The only triathlon I have on the schedule so far is the Oliver 1/2 Ironman on June 6.

Due to the return of El Niño, we have had some incredible snow here in the capital region.  The ski areas are in great condition and I have managed to get out 3 times already… last year my total ski days was 6!

On the Sunday before Christmas I was tasked with trying to teach skate skiing to Naomi and our friend Lisa, who just purchased her skis.  Skate skiing to me came pretty easy as I had to learn how to skate on downhill skis on the flats.. and my I can skate on ice skates pretty well too… years of hockey as a kid and I never lost that skill.  However, to teach skiing… I don’t know how to break down the technical elements…. nor do I understand skiing on a technical level. I’ll leave the lessons to others…

A couple of weeks ago, when we received our first big dump of snow, Naomi really wanted to get a pair of snowshoes… to enjoy tromping around the golf course next to our condo complex.  MEC has incredible selection this year and we picked up some Atlas Elektra 9 series snowshoes for her.  I wasn’t sure I wanted snowshoes… so I decided to wait and research which pair would suit me best.   I decided on the Atlas running shoes, and this week went in and purchased a pair with my Christmas present money from Naomi’s parents.  Eager to try them out… I skipped my planned spin session on the bike and drove out the Waskahegan Staging Area of the Cooking Lake/Blackfoot Provincial Recreation area… which has awesome classic ski trails (site of the Canadian Birkie) and some incredible snowshoeing terrain.  Loads of fun! However, I need to get some warmer shoes or figure out how to keep my feet warmer… I was only able to last 30mins in the -14C temps.

The guy who runs the Xterra Canada page on facebook just announced an epic showshoe race at Sunshine on April 11…. I think that may be my a training focus for the next couple of months!

The past week with the back to back stat holidays, I took my first  vacation day from work in over a year and a half… and we traveled back to SK for Christmas (read Naomi’s post here). It was great to see the family again… but alas we were unable to make time to catch up with friends this year.  Hopefully this summer, or in the fall we can get back for a couple of days. Naomi doesn’t know what Saskatchewan is like without snow and -30 temps (-38 windchill)! The summers are quite nice… if you have mosquito repellant… and don’t mind scrubbing dead grasshoppers from your car grill.

For New Years we plan to lie low, maybe have some friends over… or go to a movie. New Years day we will be out at the Strathcona Wilderness Centre for some skiing, snowshoeing… and all sorts of winter fun… if the weather co-operates that is… forecast is for cooling temps into the new year.