Housebound

In Vancouver, British Columbia, we’re used to a rainy winter. It starts in October and pretty much rains until March. The up side is that it is usually mild. Not this winter. After a relatively dry November, and mild start to December, we got hit hard with the snow over the holidays (photo shows view from our front door).

West Coast snow is wet and heavy – twice as heavy as the snow that falls to the east of the Rockies. It is usually followed by alternating rain and sub-zero temperatures, leaving us with icy roads, slush, blocked storm sewers and finally, floods.

Needless to say, the snow, infrequent as it is, brought our fair city to a halt over the Christmas period. I couldn’t even drag the baby stroller down the street due to the snow banks. Hannah didn’t seem too impressed with the snow gear, as you can see in the photo, so we stayed home a lot.

Training has had to change gears a bit too. Luckily, the Peak Centre for Human Performance, with whom I am training, adopted out their fleet of CompuTrainers to clients. I’ve had some indoor-fun on the first part of the IM Canada course, and my husband raced against a cyborg cyclist on the Honolulu World Championship course (it was a bit of a nail biter).

Running has been better. I have done some workouts on compact snow and others on an indoor treadmill (painful but necessary for the speed work). Today, I swam for the first time because getting to the pool was nearly impossible given the level of motivation I have for swimming.

I’ve set up Mommy-and-me play areas so that I can do my strength and core work alongside Hannah, who just seems to do it naturally anyway (picture shows Hannah with the foam roller that is great for tight IT bands).

Even though I’ve been at it for 4 months, psychologically January feels like the real start of the training program for IM Canada (August 30, 2009). In a fit of hyper-enthusiasm, I signed up for the Oliver Half Iron to be held June 7, 2009. It’s a beautiful, relatively easy course that I’ve done twice before, so my performance will be a bit of a bellwether for my training post-baby.

With training being my main reason for getting out of the house, I’ve been feeling a bit cooped up lately. I had to laugh when it was my husband who said today that he was going stir crazy, after he’s had just a few days off of work. Whatever situation I may be faced with weather wise, I just remember that here, at least, it comes to an end and I’ll be outdoors in the sunshine before I know it.