The White Dinner (Diner en Blanc)

Last night I went to the first Diner en Blanc in Victoria. It was amazing!  Do you know about this kind of event?  You have to wear all white, you meet in various locations to then be chaperoned to a pre-determined secret location. Everyone sets up their tables and pulls out their picnic baskets and dines together.  It originated in Paris and has taken off all over the world.

One of my triathlon teammates (above) invited me to this 2 days before the event.  Now, can you imagine the first thing I thought?? "OH GAWD- I have nothing white!!" This, of course was the most stressful for me especially since white is also NOT MY COLOR!!

We ended up setting up the dinner on the grounds of St. Ann's Academy, a national historical site and very beautiful private grounds.  There was beautiful french music playing and balloons everywhere.  People had the most amazing food too!!

Since I was the 'date' my friend organized most of the details and all I had to do was bring the white chairs, an appy and some protein for dinner.

There were amazing outfits there as well.  This is one of my other girlfriends who was sitting at another table with friends.

Of course it was my chance to break out a big beehive hair do.  You can't really see it here but my hair was pretty big. I LOVED IT and would love to wear it like this every day!!

I found this linen jacket at a thrift store when I was madly looking for something white (and cheap) and I ended up finding a really nice designer jacket- however, I was joking that I felt like I should break out a KUNG FU move since it felt more like a karate jacket :)

Yes, I always TOWER over my friends... not easy being TALL.

We ran into our favorite bike shop owner- his shop does all our repairs and hosts many of our triathlon team's parties.

Our little table (below) was the smallest one there- it was 2 tv tables put together with a table cloth over. You had to pack light because you had to park in a central location and then walk with everyone to the secret location (so you had no idea how far you would be walking!!)

If you have an event like this in your city (check the link) I would highly recommend it. It was awesome and so beautiful with all the white.  I will for sure do it again next year and will organize a big group of people to all go together.  Now I have a white outfit too so I am ready to go :)

BY THE WAY: I am very proud of myself-- I did not spill one thing on my outfit!! :)

Happy Weekend. xoxo J

Meeting Day

Ouch. I don't know what happened but my pants felt annoying today. Like too tight! I went into work and then when I sat down my thought was "this is gonna be a LOOONNNGGGG day".  Here's my problem.  As I make my way through the training season, while I get more lean, my muscles get bigger which sometimes means my upper legs get bigger than normal and the muscles want to pop out of my pants like-- rip right through them. WELL. No exactly but you get the idea.   As I have said many a time before. Me and pants have been arguing for years. Sigh.  Sometimes you just can't have it all!!

Hope you had a super day. What clothing item do YOU fight with on a regular basis? Or do you?

xox J

All sports no Fashion

All sports no fashion these days. Sorry about this :)

At the last minute (Thursday night) fiance and I choose to jump in and register for this epic 270 km bike ride that we just rode on Saturday (June 22).  There were 60 people (50 men and 8 women) from all across Canada and the US on this epic ride that took us up island and all through very remote and hilly countryside- bear and caribou territory and little-to-no houses for at least 50% of the ride.  The volunteers were incredible and they set up support stations approximately every 40- 60 km with water, healthy food and bike repair guys.

I must say I am very impressed with myself to be able to ride 270km and feel good at the end. I was strong and happy the whole time which meant I managed my nutrition and hydration properly and had consistent energy for the whole ride.  We left at 6:30am and ended up breaking into a few groups of riders.  The strongest fastest guys did it in 8.5 hours. My training partner (on the far right) and I rode with 5 men from Alberta and we all finished it in 9 hours and 57 minutes.  Being amongst the 8 women on the ride I felt kinda like a superhero riding back into town knowing I had just conquered something that is known to be an extremed challenge.   I got home. Ate a HUGE steak and went straight to bed (YES I DID SHOWER FIRST :).

A Little Crash and Burn

Kids. Don't try this at home.  I am going against the rules here based on what the fashion bloggers layout as the way to keep a successful blog.  My photos don't match and my post is not about fashion. So there. I am not a real fashion blogger anyway :)

CRASH AND BURN. This weekend I started out competing in my first race of the season and I didn't make it past the swim.  Very disappointing indeed. What happened?  I swam about 50 m out and started having real breathing problems- as though someone was standing on my chest and I could only take really laboured, shallow breaths.  I had the choice of flagging down one of the kayakers on duty, or breast stroking the 1.9 km into shore. And of course, if you know me there was NO WAY I was getting a ride into shore!

Got to shore and walked up to transition barely able to breath. Sat down by my bike. Put my sunglasses on so no one could see me have my quick little cry.  Dried off. Packed up my stuff and luckily had a little pocket camera in the car so got to take photos of my teammates and cheer them on as they came across the finish line.  Of course each one of them was surprised to see me there all cleaned up and they asked what happened.  That's the worst thing- people ask because they care but then you have to either try to change the subject or tell your story again.

Anyway, I had my pity party and then pulled up my BIG GIRL BRITCHES and am focused on the next race coming up.  My coach told me its good to have a broken rear view mirror and I asked him what he was talking about. He said " if your rear view mirror is broken then you can't see what's behind you- you can only look ahead".  I think that was one of the highlights of the day- was hearing an analogy like that. Oh, and that fiance placed 3rd even after not being able to run for almost 8 months previous.  Amazing!!

Long post. Some unplugged Jodi thoughts. Welcome to my world :)
PS the last photo was taken to send to fiances' uncles in the UK-- they sent the sheep poo home for me as a gift so I wanted to send them a photo.  I cracked open the package to help me drown my sorrow :)

XENA girl Crusch

I have a race this weekend, and I am always inspired by my hero (secret girl crush)- Caroline Steffen (also known as XENA). She is a top triathlete and I actually photographed her last year at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.  She is the one athlete that I can compare myself to in terms of body: height and overall shape.  Most of the fast women are these little 5 ft things with bodies like 13yr old boys (no offense to anyone) but my body is NOT like that and not the typical triathletes body.  Finding someone like Caroline to be inspired by is awesome for me.  Not to mention I think she is gorgeous and a nice, humble person (I got to meet her last year)-how cool!

Saturday is race prep so I will organize all my stuff, go and pick up the race package and then fiance and I always make homemade sushi as our pre-race dinner.  Will stay off my feet as much as possible too. This is my first triathlon of the season. Wish me luck!

Happy Weekend. xox J

Planned Obsolescence

Good early morning! I am up and out early this morning and came into work for 7am to get stuff done since I'm not at the pool.  Its one of those days where I'll be at my desk all day so just grabbed something comfortable and have that "I don't care what I'm wearing" attitude.  Sitting at my desk all day requires something comfortable so this is one of the go-to's.

I have also made a pact with myself that I won't be buying anymore new clothes this summer since I have a closet full of stuff and really don't NEED more.  Instead I am investing in getting a new camera- woot woot!.  I think the key trick for clothing is buying items that are classic and timeless so they last and you always look fashionable- not like those people wearing shoes that are so obviously not in fashion (don't you LOVE that planned obsolescence (worth watching this little 3 min video).

Have a super day!!

The Interview

Today: up early. Work from home from 6:00am- 8:30am.  Teach my spin class. Quickly shower and get to work to conduct interviews.  Interviews are always fun. It's so interesting to be the one conducting the interview.  My goal always is to have the person be at ease and feel relaxed and not worry about 'getting it right' but rather speaking from the heart and being themselves.  I was initially going to wear a pencil skirt and fitted top kindof like my outfit from Tuesday, however, I choose the fun and frilly type of look instead. Not sure what first impression I made but there was alot of smiling and laughter during the interview so that's a good sign!!

Hope you all had great days!! J

Wide Jeans

Busy day. 5:45am at the pool. Swim for 90 minutes, change, get to work.  After work ride my bike home, had about 5 min to have my man snap photos and then quickly get changed in to my run gear to go to my run clinic. We are training with a really well know runner in town and we are seeing so much improvement in our running form and performance so its really encouraging.  I did a half marathon on the weekend and am pretty happy with how my race went especially considering I did the race on tired legs ( I have been running between 20-30 km every sunday for the past 4 weeks).  This was my second running race this season and in 2 weeks I have my first triathlon of the season. Looking forward to it as I am feeling stronger every day!!

Hope you had an awesome day.  How bout you? What form of regular exercise do you get?

Pink Top Pencil Skirt

Yes. I rode my bike to work in this outfit.  The skirt did, however, ride up almost around my waist by the time I sat on the seat and pedaled a few blocks. I got many looks from many men.  Looks which entailed big smiles I must say. That's my excitement for today.  Off for my brick workout which means I am doing a bike ride immediately followed by a run.

Hope you had a fashionably awesome day :) J

This old rag

Happy Monday. Quick shot of today's outfit. This old rag (skirt).  Sorry I don't have more photos today and you see the blast of white of the dishwasher. Insider information on me: our house is only 900 square feet.  We use the dishwasher as storage space rather than as a dishwasher. There. Now you know. I  do not live in a big fancy mansion.  I know you are shaking your head in disbelief and that you thought I was a princess with a fancy sports car and furs and diamonds.... sorry to mess you up with this information :)xo  J