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!