Rim OK!! Mavic makes them tough!

I took my bike into Gord's today to make sure I didn't destroy my rim -- and guess what? After a bit of tweaking it's fine!! LOL!! Who knew? The biggest thing for me was to control my fear and deal with the problem instead of freaking out! Whew.

Gord looked at my tire and it was my own fault -- a rookie error: pinch flat. Two of them. He sat me down and had me change a tire 5 or 6 times in a row -- without using a tire iron to get the tire back on. He can change a tire in less than 30 seconds -- it's awesome to see. He showed me some tricks,like how to roll the tire on with the heel of my hands instead of forcing it in with the tire irons. I'm not as fast as Gord, but I'm a hell of a lot faster than I was yesterday!!! LOL!! And a lot more confident.

Charmaine came up to the Pass today as we planned to hike Turtle Mountain. It was bloody cold and windy, but we headed up chatting as usual. This woman is unstoppable!!! She charged on up like a mountain lion -- is there anything this gal cannot do?? LOL!! About 45 minutes into the hike, she suddenly stopped and turned her head. It turns out being out on the boat for 5 years has made her hyper-sensitive to any shift in the weather. She looked towards the horizon and pointed out a weather system that was going to reach us before we reached the top.

Therefore, we went for about another 35 minutes just to see if the weather was going to turn to crap. It got SO windy and the air was like an arctic blast. My eyelids were aching -- weird! We climbed up to this one point that overlooked Frank and sat down for a few minutes. I pointed out my house and the different roads, and then we decided to head back down as the wind was just BLASTING now. We joked that it would not be cool to have to be rescued from a piddly little mountain like Turtle!

We descended quickly and quite suddenly it was much warmer -- tree cover!

For those of you who don't know yet - I've been toying with the idea of running an ultra as my next goal, and I am planning on doing one next year. There is a race that is coming through the Pass this year: The Sinister 7. You can do it as a relay or alone -- of course, next year I want to run the whole 135km on my own. I've made a couple of posts on www.runnersworld.com and have made a couple of connections with people who are willing to mentor me. One guy made the transition from Ironman racing to ultras too -- so I am so excited about this!!

I figure if I hike/run/crawl either Turtle and Crowsnest Mountains once a week, I will boost my tri fitness as well as get a head start on training for my ultra. Charmaine told me how she used to train by running up mountains with a pack of rocks on her back. She started off running for like 1 minute and walking for 10, and then gradually built it up to running right up. Holy Crapola!! This girl can move -- I just have to laugh -- she is in such great condition and still says she is so out of shape!! Hahahahaha!!

Tomorrow's agenda? Mountain biking in Fernie with Char and her hubby. Oh yeah, that is my other big news!! Madge has a new baby brother... Crash!! I'll have to post some pics of my new mountain bike!! YAHOOOO!

Thanks for all the positive comments in regards to my adventure guys -- it really means a lot!!! :) :) :) :)