A Fan of Silver Hills Bread

Check it out!!
I like Silver Hills bread and now Silver Hills loves me!!!
 So they put me on their website :)

http://www.silverhillsbakery.ca/our-fans/alison-jackson

Bikes with Baskets

It is that time of the year again when my husband and I travel back to Alberta for spring planting, summer farming and milking the bison….?!

On our way through the Rockies we stopped for a free night stay at the Paintbox Lodge B&B in Canmore.  Last year I won the Canmore triathlon and this was the main prize!  It was wonderful!  The Paintbox Lodge provides guests with cruiser bikes to travel around town: Bikes with Baskets!   

So I wore a dress :)

1538 Calories Later

3 and 1/2 hours of cycling with the BEST TEAM EVER will do that to a girl!

It's been WAAAAAAAAY too long since I went for a ride with the boys in Phoenix Velo, but what a great ride to squeak in on!  A warm - but not too warm - day.  NO RAIN!!!  And lots of fun conversations, hill climbs and getting to that 100km mark.

Mmm...and when I got home the chocolate milk tasted mooooost delicious.

Bike with Tow Rope

Let's do it again, ok boys?  Maybe I'll even let one of you beat me up the Glenmore hill ....NAH!! 
With this SCOTT bike I sure can destroy!
Happy, happy girl.

ACTIONjackson.
TEMPO!  NIGEL, TEMPO!

Great SCOTT! I've been FOILed!

 We all know who is excited to send me to New Zealand to the 2012 Triathlon World Championship!  It is the people who make up the Phoenix Velo Cycling Club!  Wentings Cycle and Mountain Shop hosts this Fraser Valley team in Mission, BC.

It was in the fall of 2011 when my friends on the team contacted me with a keen interest in supporting my journey in any way possible.  I wasn’t much help and didn’t offer any ideas, I mostly just agreed – with a dropped jaw – to everything they said. 

I am still amazed and so very blessed that a group of people believe in me so very much – or maybe they were sick of me wearing the team jersey with a crooked helmet on my head, and others were wanting to borrow the Black Angus wheelset!  Well, now I look goooood riding my own wheels on a beautiful 2012 Scott bike: the Contessa FOIL! 

(Now, I just have to convince the team to change their colors to black and purple :]  Wish me luck!)

A BIG BIG BIG! Thank you to the guys of Phoenix Velo!

(especially Black Angus :], Nigel Thompson, Bruce Wenting at Wentings Cycle and Mountain Shop, Geoff Oram and all you spandex-wearing Phoenix jerseys!)

Shifting gears is easier when:

1) you are riding a Scott FOIL!

2) the bike is a gift from AMAZING people!!

3) transitioning between running focus and triathlon knowing that you get to ride a RIDICULOUSLY GOOD-LOOKING BIKE!

I have now ‘shifted the gears’ from a running focus to a 7 month build up for the 2012 Triathlon World Championships.  Although I often feel very alone in pursuing this triathlon dream amidst only runners, only swimmers and only cyclists but really it is just a VERY LARGE TEAM!!

In no way am I alone

...when my cycling team of friends rally together to get me the newest Contessa Scott FOIL.  It is their most aerodynamic road bike and for a girl like me racing Age Group now, but pursuing the switch to elite, it is the PERFECT FIT FOR ME!

In no way am I alone

...when I’ve got coaches at TWU working me hard and allowing me to have my ins-and-outs as a triathlete.

In no way am I alone

...when my husband and family do all that they can to make sure I am in the best environment possible to attain this goal.

In no way am I alone

...when I have Athletes in Action (AIA) triathlon group traveling with me to New Zealand in October and encouraging me that God loves athletes and wants to teach us and unite us through our sport.

In no way am I alone

...when I believe God has a plan for me and right now we are headed for more triathlons.

P.S. Want to watch a video presentation that I made for school about my bike??? :]

TRINITY canWESTERN UNIVERSITY

This is where my CIS track season ends for 2012.  We were looking for some best times and a top 2 finish but the energy levels were low and my determinant power was also low.  I needed a mushroom rocket booster or a gold star or some banana peels to drop on the track behind me - but it is winter in Saskatchewan, and even the Saskatoon berries are hiding!

4 Highlights:

1)    Ma and Pa Farkash and sister Nicole came all the way out to watch! Woooo!
2)    Melissa Breland!!

3)    The Rad Relay Team debut! TWU 4x800 girls rock :]

4)    Rooming with an amazing teammate and friend Nikki Bell

Congratulations to my TWU teammates who did have best times, tried a new race for the first time ever, and those who are travelling onto Manitoba for CIS Championships!

3000m: 10:25.36 (about 7sec off PB)

1500m: 4:53.19 (about 7sec of PB)

4x800m:  9:37.86

Full Results

Running Lesson #1: OBEDIENCE

The Master Plan: 3K in mid 9:50’s to get a time to qualify me for Nationals

The Action Plan: Use teammate to pace and lead me for 2K at

My Job:  Follow teammate closely for 2K then let her go.

Big Fans :)

How the time ran out:  

- We were about a second or two off the goal pace

- I’m on the outside, coach says get to the inside

- I do.

- I’m boxed in, coach says get outta there

- I do.

- My teammate drops our pace by 9sec (a huge speed jump) mid-race

- I hang on.

- 1K to go – she goes and I die.

- 10:19.98.

I am proud of myself that I was obedient and I truly believe in my training, my coach and the plan – but that fast sub-pace lap killed me!

Where else do I pursue obedience? As a disciple of Jesus Christ I pursue obedience to God’s Living Word and purpose for my life.  It is easiest to be obedient when you know who you are following and that the one training you has gone before you and certainly believes in you.   

Praise God! And thanks for Coach Bomba.

Bison: A Classic Question

Q: Can I run faster than a Bison??

A: Yes.

In fact on Saturday, February 4, I fan faster than 2 bisons!  However, the miss who beat me by less than a second was a bison.  I ran 4:45.70 for the 1500m at the 2012 Bison Classic Indoor Track Meet in Winnipeg coming second in my heat to a 4:44.84 bison.

A BIG thank-you to Jasmine for the wonderful hang out morning, good food, lots of laughs and prayers :) Friends Forever!