Victoria

I went to Victoria June 26-30 as part of my 7 days off. I was sitting on the fence because I knew Victoria would be amazing, but I wasn't keen on training on my own in a new city. Westjet had a seat sale for $49 which pushed me to comitt to the trip.

Luckily, after buying the tickets, Amy and Kjell told me that they'd be driving out and could meet me on the Big Island of Hawaii (I wish). My flight landed at night, so we settled into the Gaunt's place which was next to Elk Lake. In case you didn't know, Elk Lake is notorious for Rowing. National teams, and our very own olympic team row out of Elk Lake. In fact, the Gaunts were hosting two rowers, One was going to school in Princeton and the other at Toronto (i think). They were both on the Junior National Squad.

I'm pretty obsessed with Simon Whitfield and Kirsten Sweetland. I was DYING to randomly run into these two during a training ride/run. But no luck :( I was reading Bree Wee's blog last night. She's been in Victoria the past week and was running mile repeats with Mr Whitfield himself. They were doing loops around Elk Lake!! Darn it! i missed them by two weeks.

Anyways, here's a summary of the work outs and a few photos.

Victoria, Tofino, Uclulet Training including:
-140km ride Victoria to Salt Spring Island and back
-20km rain forest trail run along the ocean
-80km ride from Uclulet to Tofino and back with a stop along Long Bach
-1hr Swim in Thetis Lake which was WARM!
-15km run to the top of Mount doug (210m elevation gain) for a GREAT view of the Peninsula.
-40km ride through farmland riding pass Butchart Gardens.

Good food, Better Seafood, Great friends, and fun!

The majority of the trip was out on the WEST COAST by Tofino and Uclulet. Both were AMAZING little fishing/surfing towns. The weather worked out perfect and I couldn't have asked for more!