Paleo for Triathletes: Part 1

This is my 7th year doing triathlons...my very first race was a sprint distance in Strathmore, AB in 2004. I had literally learned to swim 3 months prior, and had purchased my very first tri bike at the same time. The next year, 2005, was the year I really got into triathlon and completed my first Olympic, 1/2 IM, and full IM.

For the past six years, I've become fitter and fitter, but my body shape and size never really altered at all. For someone who trains as much as I do, I expected my body composition to be a heck of a lot better than it was. You wouldn't know by looking at me that I had done multiple IM's!

I am passionate about the sport, but my ego would still get a little bruised every once in a while when I would compare myself to other athletes. Why can't I "lean down?" "I am training 16 hours a week for weeks and weeks on end, and am staying away from junk food and eating clean...What am I doing wrong?!?!" This conversation would play itself over and over in my head.

I was so frustrated -- I had tried so many changes to my diet and nothing worked. I even tried fasting and severely restricting my food intake (the good ole FALLACY of calories in, calories out belief) and you can just imagine how successful that was...

Then, a little over 6 months ago, I stumbled (completely accidentally) upon the Goddess of Paleo, Nell Stephenson's blog. At last, someone put forth a common sense approach to eating and fuelling -- a way of eating that was EASY. I didn't need to go out and buy a whole bunch of new spices to make recipes that I would only make once...in fact, I don't even really need to cook! (My kind of cooking is not having to cook. Heh-heh-heh.)

There are no recipes I have to follow. This was the biggest discovery -- that I didn't need to go out and buy a recipe book and make my life more complicated by following all these recipes. Let's face it, the LAST thing I want to do when I come home from a swim,bike, and/or run is to have to follow some recipe and an hour later I can eat.

When I am hungry, I want to eat NOW. Not have to dink around with a recipe...

My life is more simplified now, and my nutrition is stress-free: I don't follow recipes, I do meal assembly. I cook chicken breasts (that is the extent of my cooking), nuke yams, boil water (yes, this IS my kind of cooking!), and make omelettes. :)

The best thing about my conversion to Paleo? My body has leaned down completely on its own. I haven't had to restrict what I eat, I haven't had to go to bed hungry. I eat when I am hungry and my body composition has literally changed before my eyes. I have gone down 3 swimsuit sizes since March of this year -- without even trying. It's like my body is naturally doing this on its own. I've had friends not recognize me..and I was never a big girl -- always a size 6 at 132 lbs.

Now, here comes the disclaimer...(Hahahahahaha!)

I am not 100% Paleo. I do things that would probably make Nell's hair stand on end, but I am a thousand times better off than I was six months ago, and I am still a work in progress. :)

So what does it mean to eat Paleo? And how do you go about making the transition?

For those of you who have no idea about Paleo (like me) the biggies you need to learn is to eliminate ALL grains and ALL dairy. Let that sink in and terrify you for a moment:

• No bread, pasta, oatmeal, rice, quinoa
• No yogourt, cottage cheese, cheese, milk

I knew if I wanted to make a successful stab at changing the way I eat, I would have to make a plan. I decided to work on eliminating dairy first. I started by eliminating yogourt -- this was actually really easy as I always felt a little bloated after I ate it, but I never stopped eating it until now, as I thought "it was good for me." Next, I eliminated cheese.

I knew the whole eliminating grains thing was going to be an all-or-nothing affair however. There was no way I could get around do that half-assed...

So, I went to the grocery store and loaded up on bananas, carrots and yams. And I mean LOADED up. My BFF Charmaine came over to my house one day and laughed at my hoarder-like stockpile of yams and bananas on the kitchen counter. Hahahahaha!

Getting my carbs from carrots and yams -- especially yams , was the secret I'd been missing before in all my previous nutrition-clean up attempts. I would always try "incorporating more vegetables" into my diet in the form of salad...instead of a hearty veg like a yam or a squash. This was a key lesson for me.

I remember the first day I eliminated grains...I baked a butternut squash, then put some olive oil on it and ate it for dinner. I was satiated. SATIATED! For the first time in my life, I didn't feel bloated and heavy and craving chocolate cake like I would after eating 3 bowls of spaghetti. I was thunderstruck. And excited, as I realized I could definitely get used to this way of fuelling!

Now, I need to insert another disclaimer here...

I know a lot of athletes do just fine eating bagels and oatmeal..to them I say "Good for you!" But for me, my body responds well by eliminating them. I am writing this series of blog posts for those athletes who have struggled like I have in finding an effective way to fuel and train for IM races.

I have received quite a few emails about the changes I've made to my nutrition, so I thought it would be helpful to share my experiences about my Paleo journey.

I have to plug Nell's blog again, as I have learned so much from perusing her archives, as well as emailing her questions. I've asked questions via her blog as well and she responds with lightening speed. She is an amazing resource.

So...onto the nuts and bolts of a Paleo way of life...You can eat anything you want from this list:

• Meat (preferably grass-fed, but I am not there yet. I just eat meat from the grocery store: primarily chicken breasts and lean ground beef, sometimes a pork chop. :))
• Eggs (I eat 21 eggs a week. I am not joking. I was actually shocked when I realized this, LOL!!)
• Veggies
• Fruits
• Good fats (I eat A LOT of avocado, olive oil, Udo's oil)
  

That is the bare bones summary of what the Paleo way of fuelling yourself entails. There are a number of points to fine-tune things, but to get started I stuck with this list. Granted, at first I ate a bunch of cold cuts (really processed, bierwurst -- LOL!) but gradually, my body sort of made adjustments on its own and I moved away NATURALLY to less processed shit meat.

There is also the concept of timing your eating of fruits - say have an apple after a session instead of while sitting around...but initially, I found it better to just eat whatever fruit I wanted/craved. It is better to eat fruit than a frigging Pop Tart or a 100 calorie Thinsation piece of chemical (and honestly, now....those things are like the mini chocolate bars you get at Halloween -- you CANNOT eat just one.)

Again, over time, I naturally started to shift away from eating so much fruit and started to eat more veg...like a handful of baby carrots. Or a bunch of snow-peas. (Now I believe that the Paleo diet calls for an elimination of peas and beans, but I am a work in progress, and eating snow-peas are wayyyy better for me than eating a big bag of dill pickle chips.)

Another BIG lesson for me was the sheer amount of good fat I started eating. In fact, I noticed that when I consumed a hearty amount of good fat in the morning, I had no craving for sugary stuff in the evening. Again, there is a fine-tuning that goes on with the fat consumption...I now eat a lot of good fat throughout the day as well. "A lot" of fat = in terms of what I ate before I made the change to a Paleo-style diet. (Pure Paleo-istas, please forgive my selective way of adopting Paleo principles! Hee-hee!)

So, in a capsule, the things that really changed for me when I first made the shift to Paleo are:

• The amount of meat I ate increased (like A LOT -- like I would eat the whole rotisserie chicken as a snack, and I am not joking. But remember, I train A LOT.)
• I put avocado over everything.
• I started taking Udo's oil 2-3 times a day (I have 2 protein shakes a day, and I put a Tbsp of the oil in each shake. This stuff made my nails stop peeling! It took a few weeks, but sure enough, my fingernails are hard for the first time in my life instead of soft and peeling.)
• I don't take a strict all-or-nothing approach, I am not hard on myself -- I still consume whey protein, I eat snowpeas, I put Lipton onion soup mix in my meatloaf -- :)
• I am in more tune with my body -- I eat a lot LESS nuts than I did before, and for me personally, I found it better to stay away from nut butters too. Nut butters go straight to my ass. However, coconut oil, and coconut manna, my body responds to -- in a good, ass-reducing kind of way. :D
  

Stay tuned for Paleo for Triathletes: Part 2!!

:) :) :) :)

The Great Floridian Countdown

Not much going on here except training away...

For the first time in my life, my swimming is feeling great -- I look forward to it, and it doesn't exhaust me like it used to....especially post-IM. I am feeling the water people!!! I can feel it when I swim! My back muscles are sore after I swim. YAHOO!!! Instead of the wrong muscles being sore, the right ones are.

I've been swimming with my BFF Charmaine (also known as Charmers) in the lima bean pool. Some of you may recall the year I first met her. I saw her doing I don't know how many lengths of butterfly and decided that she was the perfect person to ask about swim advice.

She immediately dove into the project (yes, pun intended) and proceeded to give me all kinds of tips. She was the one who decided that for the rest of that year I was to concentrate on kicking. Kicking fast, kicking slow, kicking fast and slow. She would swim underneath me and poke me (HARD) when she felt I wasn't kicking hard enough. LMAO -- that was the year I took 10 minutes off my IM swim time.

Well, we are back together again -- wreaking havoc in the pool. The aqua-aerobic ladies ganged up on Charmers the last time we swam, in an epic splash fight. Hahahah -- the energy is so good at that pool. :)

Anyways, Operation Make Julie Swim Faster has begun again. (Under the supervision of Coach Sara of course) -- Charmers has decided I still need to kick harder, but this time, she swims beside me and grabs the side of my bum really hard and shakes it if she thinks I am not kicking with my bum enough. OMG it HURTS! LMAO!!!!

I never know when she is going to appear either -- she is stealthy and she is fast. Hahaha!

Another thing she has suggeseted I start integrating into my training is breathing every 5 and 7 strokes. This is the second time this year, this has been suggested to me -- earlier this year, I took a series of stroke improvement classes...

Anyways, after presenting Coach Sara with the proof of how awesome my BFF is at swimming, she has integrated breathing work into my sessions. Except she went one step further and added breathing every 9 strokes as well.

9 strokes.

Well, my first attempt at this went pretty well, but I cheated a little. (Just a little. Hee-hee!)

I could do 100m of breathing every 9 strokes if I:

• didn't do any flip turns
• took a sneaky breath before I arrived at the wall
• took another breath at the wall
• took another sneaky breath on the first half-stroke after I pushed off the wall

All this in a 20m pool! Hahahahahaha! So, next time, I will stop the cheating and try some flip turns in there. And I'll be back to the 25m pool next week....

My last big race of the year is one month away!!! I'm still eating Paleo-style and am needing to buy new pants. My old ones are literally falling off me.

Back to Sparwood

The Pincher Creek pool is closed for its annual shutdown until the 25th -- boohoo!!

That means I'm back to the good old lima bean pool in Sparwood. The really shallow 20m lima bean pool -- good times! HAHAHA!



During my session this morning, a man entered my lane and I told him the rules -- lol. I know I was practically shouting at the poor guy becasue I had water in my ears -- it's the same when I wear ear plugs....I feel the need to SHOUT. Hahah!

I told him that he would stay on that side of the line, and I would stay on this side. Then I said, "But I make no promises that I will actually STAY on this side." Hee-hee!

I swam off with my pull buoy and paddles, and he stayed against the wall chatting with a mutual friend. When I returned to the wall, I paused for some reason and the guy said to me, "You swim like a warrior."

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I responded, "Well, I like to splash around a lot to make it look like I know what I'm doing." Hahaha! But seriously, that is the most awesome comment EVER. It is so awesome, I am making it my new swim logo: Swim like a warrior.

The next time I'm in the city, I might even get myself a tee-shirt made up with it. LOL!!

I was scrolling through Netflix yseterday and saw that Xena was now available...(heh-heh-heh!) I've not seen any of those episodes so I think I might take a peek this evening. Now that I have WARRIOR on my mind.

Yes! I am good...and I am fast! I am a warrior in the water! YES!

Ironman Canada 2011 Race Report

Well, that was my eighth Ironman, and I have to tell you, when you have done this many, your perspective definitely changes. I am a hell of a lot fitter than I was when I first started on this IM journey, for example. I remember after my first Ironman, I could barely move any muscle for a week without experiencing pain.

I remember standing in line the next day (that was when you still had to do that for Ironman Canada) and watching other athletes move around like they hadn't even raced! I wondered how in the world was that possible when I was hurting everywhere?!?!

This year, the day after the race, my muscles were sore for sure, but the recovery is like lightening speed compared to my first race in 2005. By Wednesday, I was able to run up and down stairs and I was swimming yesterday. I still marvel at the difference. Hahaha!

Onto the race itself...

In short, this race was a massive disappointment for me. I had a time goal of 10:48 and at around mile 6 of the run, my stomach wanted to upchuck. Walking hurt, running REALLY hurt. I would run, but then the vomit feeling would come and I even brought up a little bit. As soon as this would happen, I would start walking. Part of me wonders if I had forced myself to keep running and actually puked, if I would have felt better...

I did meet many athletes who experienced the same thing I did on Sunday. Some puked and still felt terrible, so I'll never know.

What I do know, was that it was very hot on race day. So hot, that when I reached one aid station, a volunteer said, "Ok, I am going to put these cold sponges on your neck. You are going to feel a shock and inhale sharply." When he squeezed it on my neck I didn't feel anything. That scared me. The volunteer was so awesome, he went into superman mode and started squeezing water again and again until I cooled down.

Most of the marathon was spent standing, doubled over at aid station with my head hanging down. I am so grateful for the many volunteers and fellow athletes who offered help and words of encouragement/advice. Only in Ironman, will a fellow competitor stop running and walk beside you, hand on your back and ask if you are OK. To everyone who asked, I tried to respond without vomiting, "I'm Ok - you go have a good race. You look strong."

I wanted to quit so many effing times. The only relief I would feel was by doubling over and curling around my stomach. I wanted to curl up in the fetal position. There were actually only two things that kept me going:

1. The athletes still heading out to the run turn-around. They were hurting and still moving forward, so it would be terrible if I just gave up.
2. That damn finisher's medal, t-shirt and hat. I paid for them and I better get them.

At 9 miles to go, I was like, holy crap, I don't want to walk all frigging day. I would try jogging, have to stop, then walk. Repeat over and over again.

I had dropped my salt tabs at the beginning of the run, but had no issues with my usual dizzy, light-headed, tunnel vision experiences. It was stinking hot outside, and my mouth would become so dry instantly. I couldn't swallow -- couldn't feel my tongue. It was very odd. I knew I should keep drinking water, but every time I would, my cramps would start again. I contemplated drinking nothing else until the end of the race, but decided that maybe that wasn't too good an idea.

At about 7km left to go, I was able to *run* if I held my stomach with one hand. When that arm got tired, I'd hold it with the other one. I started making grunting noises and heaving noises once in a while and would bring up a little spittle/other stuff.

As I approached the final mile, my very good friend Susi popped out of nowhere and ran the rest with me (outside the run course, through the crowds.) She shouted out encouraging words -- OMG, I was feeling so terrible I couldn't even respond. Every time she would hear me about to puke, she would say, "Just breathe, Just breathe." Thank God for Susi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I crossed the finish line in 12:57:58 -- almost an hour slower than the last two years. For those of you who have done more than one IM and start to get time goals, you will totally understand the massive disappointment I felt. Couple that with the physical and mental depletion an IM race requires and you can just imagine how truly $hitty I felt.

But.....I got over it. :) Onwards and upwards. Had many good conversations, email chats with good friends which helped me put things in perspective.

I have another iron-distance race in Florida on Oct. 22. And I am VERY excited about it!! :) :)

And next year, is the year of the non-M-dot race. :) I am really excited about checking out other iron distance races!

In the mail yesterday, I received a card from The Great Floridian Race. A personalized card saying they hope my training is going well, that they hope the next two months of training go well, and they included a bumper sticker. Now that is pretty cool! Hee-hee! A little bit different to an IM race already! :)

Here are my times from IMC:

Swim: 1:09:28 -- fastest swim yet, pleased with this!
Bike: 6:09:55 -- fastest bike yet, I regret not changing back to my 12-27 cassette and leaving my 11-25 on, but it made me stronger! :) :)

Run (Not run, but standing around/walk): 5:33:23 -- nothing more to say here.

Yes I am happy to have finished, but for me, that is no longer good enough. I make no apology for it. I have big goals and I am on my way to achieving them. :) In my mind, the race is like a big piece of furniture with all these drawers in it. I took out the feelings of disappointment, frustration, and anger, felt them, and then put them away. I'm over it.

Now for the FUN stuff!!!!!

• The day before I left for the race, I stood up from the couch and I couldn't stand on my foot. My ankle felt like it was broken! HOLY CRAP!!! After a tearful converstation with my coach, I headed out to Penticton the next day anyways and headed to the ART tent after I checked in. They were closed, but were soooo kind enough to take a look at my ankle anyway. It was a tight ligament! They sort of rubbed it around, pulled on my foot and presto! All done. How frigging weird is that? The foot rubbing did make me drool a little. There is something about people handling my body that makes me relax. LOL.

• Susi. The most amazing friend in the world. My kindred spirit. How do I even list all the wonderful things about Susi? I will do my best....I stayed with Susi and her boyfriend, Marco for IM week. She bought me a book. :) She gave me all her positive energy at the end of the race. SHE UNDRESSED ME AFTER THE RACE. That's right -- when I couldn't move let alone bend over, Susi took off my pee-clothes, and my pee-shoes and put everything in The Pee Bag!!!!!!!!!! She said, "Lift your arms." And took off my top and put on a fresh one. I kept apologizng and wanting to cry that she was willing to touch the pee-clothes!!! Now that my friends, is a TRUE FRIEND. Susi --- I love you. I eagerly await the day when I can sherpa for you in any race/endeavour you choose.

• SHE HANDLED THE PEE BAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  

• My partner Mike and my parents who support me 100% in pursuing my goals -- Mike puts up with my Taper Bitch attitude and all the green stuff in the fridge (which by the way he is actually eating and REQUESTING more of!), and my parents who mow my lawn, baby-sit my cats, pick up my crab apples (oh sweet geezus it's THAT time of year again), and make Mike spaghetti since I've gone paleo. :)

• My friends...I have met the best, kindest, most thoughtful, generous people through triathlon. You'll see the best of humanity during the marathon portion of a hot iron-distance race.

• http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event_video.asp?EVENTID=75725&BIB=2594 Check out the video clip -- LMAO!!!! I come from the left side of the screen, body check a guy in the middle and exit the right side of the screen from 1-5 seconds of the video. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kept watching it again and again. I didn't bump into him on purpose!! I was just scooting through! Sorry, guy!! It was not intentional!!! :) :)

• My next race, I am using all real food -- no more gels and carbo pro for me. Yams, dates and homemade energy gels made out of chia powder, agave syrup etc. I am convinced that eating well all year and avoiding sugary shit, only to dive into piles of sugar on race day CANNOT be good for my stomach. I am very excited about trying this new way of race nutrition! During races, my teeth start to ache and hurt after a certain number of gels. And, two days after IMC, I broke out in so many zits it was disgusting. All that sugar coming out. Not for me. No more. I always thought it was weird that as triathletes, we do our best to eat well, rest, train well, be healthy, but then on race day, consume as much sucrose, dextrose, whatever-ose, and high fructose corn-syrup as we can....
  

My most awesome friend, Susi! Right before my stomach problems.

Ironman Canada 2011 BABY!!

Alrighty folks!! It's HERE!!!!!!!

Track me live on Sunday, August 28 at www.ironman.com. My numero is 2594.

Any and all positive vibes and virtual cheering WILL be felt and appreciated!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love to everyone --

Julie :)

Myths of Triathlon

All kinds of information trickles down from pro triathletes to the masses of age groupers. This info can be found in the many online and hard-copy triathlon magazines, forums, and advertisements. I've noticed that over time, a lot of this information has assumed a homogeneous blah-ness. Where the same information is repeated over and over again using the same descriptive language. And while some of this information can be beneficial, some of it gets warped/dumbed down/altogether transformed into pithy one-liners that are far removed from the truth.



Repeat something often enough and pretty soon, everyone believes it to be true. The real crime, is that eventually, these false truisms are passed on to people new to the sport of triathlon.

Well, I am here to clear up all this nonsense today!! LUCKY YOU!!! Hahahahaha! Here is a list of my four favourite myths -- ones I've subscribed to, challenged, and finally realized WERE myths.

Myth #1: The Myth of "Race Weight"

This one is a doozie. I am going to keep things simple here -- Take two athletes: Athlete A and Athlete B.

Athlete A -- pro triathlete. Played sports as a kid, swam on university/college swim team, ran track at same university/school. Years and years of fitness right there alone...Then, he/she gets into triathlon. Training load and intensity increases -- he/she already knows how important nutrition is -- he/she is very fit, lean, and an aerobic machine.

Athlete B -- average age grouper. Played sports as a kid, learned how to swim as an adult (ie learned in their late 20s, 30s, 40s, etc), may/may not have ever run a marathon...you get the idea. Reads a book about race weight and thinks, "If I lose 10lbs, I will be so much faster."

You see the faulty logic here? To be fair, although certain books do not espouse this over-simplified theory, THIS IS THE MESSAGE THAT IS OUT THERE. Couple that with the North American cultural infatuation with skinny anorexic-looking models (even if you do not buy Cosmo or magazines of that ilk, you can't get away from it -- this $hit is everywhere and if you think it doesn't colour your perceptions you are lying to yourself), and you have a hot mess.

This falls in line with "if you lose x number of pounds, you will run x number of minutes faster per mile." FALSE. You will run said number of minutes faster if you TRAIN and log lots of hours (and mileage) running. Simply losing weight is not a magic pill that will deliver unto you fleet feet and perfect, efficient running form. Time invested in training, racing, and resting and recovering -- these are the things that make one faster.

It is the YEARS and YEARS of training and racing that makes a body lean and efficient at burning fat. The training creates the body...Yes, diet is extremely important, but *being good* for 2 weeks - 6 months in an attempt to get down to some kind of magical race weight is a misappropriation of resources. Starving yourself before a big workout because you read somewhere that so-and-so professional athlete doesn't eat before he/she swims, bike, or runs, is not the way to go. Through years of training, your body changes. Your diet changes. You change.

For an elite athlete -- they can 'lean down" in two months or more or less or whatever the time frame is, because they have the YEARS of training behind them. Their bodies respond differently to leaning down than the average age grouper's. Yes, losing weight can be a good thing, but in my opinion, the focus for the average age grouper should be on getting stronger by swimming, biking, and running consistently. You train consistently, you get faster. Period. The more you train; the more aware you are of the things you put into your mouth. Focusing on losing weight is the wrong thing to do -- focusing on what you SHOULD eat and the things you CAN do in training is wayyyyyy more effectual!!

Myth #2: To run faster, you must run faster.




I am not a sports scientist or a physiotherapist or whatever -- if you want hard data and evidence, go elsewhere. I will tell you this -- I talked to my coach and asked her, "if I want to run a marathon at a 6:00min/mile pace, should I start forcing myself to run that pace on the treadmill for longer and longer periods of time?"

After all, that is what Myth #2 says...

(Any errors in the paraphrasing of our conversation are mine alone -- NOT my coach's, Here is the gist of it...)

If I were to go out right now and run 6:00min/mile, I would be in Zone 5. Right off the bat. Zone 5 means I am going all frigging out and will not physically be able to hold that pace for very long. While adding speed work in doses will help me get faster, it is running at the pace where I am pushing myself but not tipping over into chaos and madness that is the sweet spot. THAT pace will push my threshold and enable me to run faster over time. It is putting the training in -- putting the miles in OVER TIME -- this is where I will make significant gains in running and then will be able to run faster paces with a lower heart rate. As opposed to training to run at a faster pace for a shorter period of time at a faster heart rate.

The biggest nuisance about these myths, is that they conveniently exclude all the "buts." For example, "In order to run faster, you must run faster," BUT...that does not mean running fast all the time for all your runs...

Myth #3: You Must Cycle at a Certain Cadence




There is no magic pill. There is no magic RPM number. Every one of us is different and that is one of the many reasons why triathlon is the greatest sport on the planet. :) We can all celebrate our differences -- some people spin higher cadences and some push harder gears at a lower RPM. Whatever floats your boat, dude. As my bike guru, Gord is always telling me, "Don't over-think it." Hahahaha!! :) :)

Myth #4: You must "suffer," "destroy," "smash," "bonk," crash," in training and racing. Then, you are tough enough and worthy.




This is a big load of bunk. When I use negative words, I feel negative. That's how I roll. from my coach, I have learned to use pain as an indicator that I am performing a session with appropriate intensity. I look at pain as a good thing -- not as a bad thing. To me, pain (this is training-pain, NOT injury-pain to be clear!) is another rung on the ladder to growing stronger and faster. Like watering a plant, I am dousing myself with training to get stronger. Not dousing myself with pain to "hurt" or "destroy" myself.

Another thing I've learned from my coach, is that words and language are very powerful forces. What we say, often manifests itself in what we do....Choose all your words wisely.

That's all of my deep thoughts for the day...

;)

Please vote for my video!!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a recovery day and used the time to shoot this little video for a contest about southwestern Alberta....

It's only 53 seconds long, so if you have some spare time, please follow the link and vote for my video!! Hee-hee!!

You can vote once a day until August 27 -- so keep the votes coming!!!

http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/123664/voteable_entries/27412757

Thanks everyone!! :) :)