Saturday, November 29, 2008

Wines, Bricks and Records

Last night I got to go to a Chardonnay release party for Black Hills Estate Winery. The winery is in the Okanagan (in BC), but they were holding their release party here in Calgary. Everything I have ever tasted from them is really good, and because they make such a small amount it is very difficult to buy much of anything. It was quite the nice event - they handed you a glass of the new Chardonnay when you walked in the door, plus there were different wine and food pairing stations with a few of their other wines. For one, you could even taste 2008 barrel samples of their Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Ever wondered what wine looks like when it has only been in the barrel for a few months?

Looks like lemonade, and it actually tasted kind of like lemonade. The intense citrus taste was enough to almost knock you off of your feet. It was definitely an interesting and fun experience.

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Coach has mixed up my schedule a bit and has me spinning followed by a short tempo run afterwards on Saturday, and a long run on Sunday now. I got up early to go through my spin/stand/sit workout that lasted just under an hour. I pushed the gearing and my legs were burning, so it was definitely a good workout. While outside it was probably hovering around the freezing mark, my garage felt pretty comfortable inside. In fact, I was in shorts and a tank top and I was feeling a tad warm. As soon as I was done with my bike workout I threw some tights and a jacket on, put on my sneakers and ran off for my quick tempo run around the neighborhood. It was pretty short - 10 minutes at a tempo pace, followed by a 5 minutes easy run to cool down. I reconfigured all of my speed zones in my Garmin so I knew I was in my tempo range for sure. There we go, my first brick!

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I finished up with a quick 1.55 mile run, which brought my monthly mileage total to 94 miles exactly. I was pretty excited initially when I saw this because with tomorrow's run it will be the first time I run over 100 miles in a month this year. At first I thought this would be my first time breaking the 100 mile mark...but no... Last year I ran 110.62 miles in November. So I'm 16.62 miles away from equalling that total. Barring unforeseen disasters I'll be setting a new record tomorrow because I've got 18.64 miles (or 30 km) on the schedule. Exiting stuff!

11 comments:

Sonia said...

Wow 100 miles!!!!!!!! Intense training Leana!

I would really appreciate if you could send me some of the bike training your coach has you doing.... If I can ever set the bike trainer.... ;-)

Thanks in advance =)

teacherwoman said...

100 miles? Holy cow! :) Nice November!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

Great mileage! Congrats on a great month :)

RunToTheFinish said...

oh the wine looks way yummy. I think this is the first month since my injury that i'll be breaking 100 as well!

Marlene said...

Nice job on your brick. That is some awesome mileage for the month.

I hope the 30K went well!

Viv said...

Holy smokes a 100 mile month! Great job! In addition to the hill repaeats on Thurs plus the added ST on the bench. Fantastic!

Marcy said...

VERY NICE NOV!!

Man, they'd have to fill that glass up for me :P

Wes said...

100 miles in one month is just crazy talk!! Nice brick too, chica! Way to rock it!

Scott said...

Nice work on the brick! Congrats on the 100 miles, too :) I was slightly behind you at 96 this month, but no way am I doing 116 LOL.

VERY COOL wine experience there! I never knew the stuff was so "lemonady" early on in the process...sounds like a really neat tasting you had.

Marci said...

Great training, and the wine looks kinda yucky before its ready!

ShirleyPerly said...

Hmm, I had no idea wine looked like that when it's not been a barrel very long. I might actually like it since I like lemonade and other strong citrus drinks (but not wine).

Hope the 30K went well!