It’s go time!

I just started into a new block of training and you can definitely tell that things are ramping up.  Three swims, three bikes, and four runs.  Things are about to get busy, but I’m excited about the upcoming challenges.  I also feel like a switch has flipped inside me and I am hungry…all…the…time…  Interesting..!!

On Monday I went to the pool over my lunch break to knock out a 2300 m balance swim.  The workout included a lot of drills – head lead kick on my right side, head lead kick on my left side, six kick roll and three kick roll.  On my way to the pool I texted Angie to see if I could use flippers for my drill set and luckily she gave me the go ahead.  I managed to get to the pool before it got really busy and the workout went really well.  Well, up until the very end of it where I started to develop a rather massive headache.  I cut the last 100 m off the workout, and the headache never truly went away for the rest of the day.  Fun times…  But headache aside I felt really positive about my swim and I’m loving this early lunch swim!

Tuesday is normally spin night with Angie, but the community hall that we are spinning at accidentally double booked the building for tonight.  We had the option to spin indoors, or we could meet at Edworthy to ride hill repeats.  I have to admit that I was actually pretty excited about the prospect of hill repeats outside.  Crazy!  Despite it being 7C (45F) it was very windy, quite cold and it looked like the heavens were about to open up.  The beauty of riding at Edworthy is that you are never too far from your car in case the weather changes.  As I started getting prepped in the parking lot I turned on my Garmin Edge 305…and beep…then nothing.  Two weeks in a row of a dead battery for Tuesday rides?  Seriously?  I don’t know if I accidentally left the unit on again or if there is something wrong with my battery.  Hmm, going to have to keep an eye on it…and to test it before leaving the house again!

Oh well, back to the Timex and on to the ride.  Despite the threatening weather there were quite a few folks riding the hill.  For the most part road conditions were good although there was one section on the downhill side with a large patch of gravel.  I set a goal for myself to knock out 6 hill repeats.  I felt good and strong on the hill – I was passed sometimes, and sometimes I passed people.  I’m still a chicken on the downhills though!

First Ride

I hope everyone has had a great week!  Things as usual continue to be pretty busy around here.

On Thursday I met up with Kelly as we both had a tempo run on our schedule.  We ran our warm up together for 20 minutes, then it was 15 minutes at tempo pace.  The run went really well and it was no trouble at all to hold the tempo pace.

I opted to knock my long run out on Friday in order to keep my weekend free for other fun stuff.  Being a cut back week my long run was shorter and more intense.  At 11:30 I looked out the window and it was raining!  I have no issues with running in the rain, but given that I had to go back to work afterward it wasn’t ideal.  Instead I ate my lunch and started thinking about how I would rearrange my weekend.  When I looked out the window again at 12:30 there was sun peaking through the clouds.  Time to hurry up and change and get out there!  My run included a 10 minute warm up, 3 x 10:00 intervals at a steady state pace followed by a couple of 3:00 intervals in zone 5.  Unfortunately my lunch hadn’t fully digested by the time I started running…but luckily it wasn’t a burger so I didn’t suffer from the same issues as my Tuesday run.  I had no issues meeting my goals during my intervals and it wound up being a terrific run.  Plus the sun continued to come out, so that was a bonus!

As for Saturday?  That was a truly exciting day.  The weather around here has been fairly nice and I’ve been thinking about taking my Cervelo out on the road.  You see, by the time I got D’s bike back in November the snow rolled in and I’ve only been riding on a trainer.  I really had no idea how the bike would feel once we started rolling on pavement.  I spent Saturday morning cleaning my ride up, lubing the chain, replacing the trainer tire with an outdoor tire, checking my saddle bag that it still had all the required gear in it and got ready to go.  It was out to Horse Creek in Cochrane for a ride!  It was nice and warm at 13C, but the wind was gusting up to 35 km/hr.  Oh well, time to suck it up!  Right away I could notice that I was feeling fit riding out there.  The uphills weren’t feeling nearly as hard…and I didn’t have a tail wind so that couldn’t have been it.  I knew that all of the work I’ve been doing on the trainer at Angie’s spin class has really been paying off.  On the flats I let loose and felt so powerful!  I rode 20 miles out and back and just for fun it seemed like the wind really picked up on the way back.  I just hunkered down and pedaled to get back as quickly as I could.  All in all, a great ride!  I’m really optimistic about riding this year and I definitely feel as though I am coming out of this winter as a stronger cyclist.  And I am super excited about my new ride.  I know it is a great fit and I am grateful every time I get on it that I was able to luck out with getting this bike.  I am really and truly in love with this bike and I’m excited for the upcoming adventures I will have riding it!!

Spinning Naked = No Fun

I promise, I’m not turning my blog into an adult content one, nor am I talking about some strange training related dream.  Before I get to that though…

I had a 30 minute run on my schedule today.  I already had lunch plans, so I had two options: run early before work or run in the afternoon before spin class.  I did get up early enough to run, but I opted to push the run to the afternoon so I could take advantage of the warmth and sunshine.  For lunch I got together with some girlfriends at Milestones.  Yum, a burger sounded like a good idea.  As I started running that burger felt like a rock sitting in my digestive tract.  Blech.  And with about half a mile left to get back home I was very worried I was going to barf…so I had to do the walk of shame back home.  Total epic fail.  Spin class should be fun, right?

I got to class and set up my bike, chatted with friends, then finally decided to turn my Garmin Edge 305 on and hop on the bike.  Except the welcome screen came on, but then it turned off.  Ack!  I must have forgotten to turn off on Sunday!  Uh oh, so no Garmin to tell me my cadence or heart rate.  Naked spinning!  I grabbed a Suunto heart rate monitor so I could at least see my heart rate up on the screen at the front of the class.  While I think it is good to shed the devices from time to time, when you are spinning indoors those devises are guides to ensure that you are pushing properly, and doing the workout as you are supposed to since workouts are so driven by different cadences.

I still tried to push myself even without my aides.  My stomach was still feeling off the whole time though as I was burping and felt like I was growing a big ol’ gas baby inside my stomach.  In fact, we did some 30 second super high intensity intervals at the end of the workout and I was a little worried.  I think Tara was also a little worried that she was riding next to me for fear that I would barf all over her!  Well, luckily everything stayed down!!  And luckily no weird knee pain on either workout today as well.  Fingers crossed!

So what have I learned?  No burgers within 4-8 hours of a workout…although maybe that is really a no brainer?  :)

What’s that new feeling??

On Saturday I made plans to meet up with my friend Tara for our long run.  She was keen for company so I was game.  The plan?  1:45.  We shook things up by starting near the University of Calgary, running west along 32nd Avenue, south down Home Road, then east towards downtown Calgary.

The run is fairly flat with the exception of running down Home Road.  The change in elevation is about 150 feet over 0.3 mi.  Fun times!

It was a beautiful morning out.  Lovely and sunny, and I realized part way through that I could have opted for shorts and a short sleeve top instead of capris and a long sleeve.  Running with Tara pushes me out of my comfort zone a bit as she is faster than me.  I know she does slow down for me, but I do wind up speeding up too.  As we neared Edworthy Park I looked down at my Garmin and realized that we were running sub-10:00/miles.  I tend to average about 10:30/mi on my long runs.  I was feeling good though, so I didn’t say anything.  A bit later on Tara checks her Garmin and asks if I realize how fast we were going.  We talked about slowing down, but I think we wound up keeping the pace fairly even.  We ran almost to the bridge at Crowchild, we turned around and stopped in at Tri-It briefly to say hi to Richelle (and to borrow their bathroom).  I also downed an Espresso Love Gu.  This was my first time trying this flavour.  I love Hammer Gel’s Espresso, but I did not care for this one.  Chocolate Mint is still my number one favourite Gu flavour.

As we approached going up Home Road I slowed down a bit in order to tackle the hill with a “slowly but surely” attitude.  I watched Tara pull away up the hill, which was fine.  I had run hill repeats just a couple of days before so my main goal was to just make it up the hill on my own terms.  About half way up I felt a sharp pain on the inside of my left knee.  The kind that they tell you that if you feel you should stop.  So I stopped, rubbed the area, walked a bit, jogged slowly…where was this coming from??  When I met Tara at the top I told her what was up.  We slowed it down for the home stretch, but the pain was there.  Not the same sharp pain, but a dull, tight kind of pain.  By the time we made it back to our starting point I was four minutes short on my run, but I didn’t think it really mattered.  I stopped and stretched and oddly after that it wasn’t bothering me.  Hmm…

On Sunday I had an 89 minute spin on my schedule – a strength workout with some squats.  Given the knee issue I dialled the gearing back a notch and upped the cadence slightly, typical if you have knee issues.  I figured that if my knee started to act up again that I’d be able to just hop off the bike.  Luckily the spin went well with no discomfort.  Time to throw on a jacket, swap out the bike shoes for running shoes and head out for a 15 minute brick run.  Success!  It went well. 

So…fingers crossed that pain in my knee doesn’t come back, but if it does I’m heading straight off to my physio therapist just in case!  So apart from that little niggly thing the rest of the weekend was a good one.  I even managed to score a fantastic deal on a new Specialized S Works helmet at Bow Cycle during their Blue Light Special weekend.  How was your weekend?

Three Things Thursday

Apparently I need to resort to lists this week, but what better way is there to string together a bunch of random thoughts? :)

1. Boy oh boy, do I wish I could wear sweat pants and yoga pants to work every day.  They are so comfy!  We do have a dress code at work though, so really…that would be frowned upon.  I firmly looked upon leggings with the same aversion that my thighs I had for skinny jeans.  Until I discovered the leggings and dress combo.  I kind of feel like I am cheating the dress code since it is so comfortable.  Given that I held out on the leggings bandwagon for so long I’m sure they will go out of style soon and I’ll have to wait another 20 years to wear them again.
2. I met up with Kelly today to run hill repeats.  It was 2C, overcast and incredibly windy and I swear that I stared out the window for five minutes trying to figure out what to wear.  I opted for tights, a long sleeve shirt and a vest which worked out to be the right combination.  We warmed up with a 15 minute run towards McHugh Bluff by the Calgary Curling Club, then proceeded to knock out our 5 x 2:00 hill repeats.  If one good thing can be said about the wind, it is that it was pushing us up the hill.  We took turns leading – Kelly really knows how to tackle the hills so I enjoyed chasing her, and it was also motivating to pull her up the hill too.  Company made a tough workout a lot more fun.  We did our cool down run and even ran through a few strength moves – squats, lunges, tricep dips and push ups.  These might not have happened if I was on my own!
3. Yesterday my dad called and asked me what day I was planning on leaving the Okanagan for home after Ironman Canada.  Hard to believe it, but I haven’t done any trip planning so far this year!  By this time last year I had all my hotels booked for my Lake Stevens – Washington road trip.  Guess it is time to start figuring a few things out…a trip to BC for the WCOC Olympic Triathlon plus maybe a DIY training camp, our Team Tri Life July training camp, and of course my IMC trip!

OK, time to get to the pool!

St. Patrick’s Bullet Points

• I swam over lunch on Monday.  Well, it kind of wound up being a “just before” lunch swim.  I was in the pool a minute or two after 11:00 in an attempt to miss some of the major lunch rush.  My swim went fairly well, and it was really nice to have that workout taken care of sooner rather later.  My workout was allowed to vary between 1800 and 2500m, but I had to err on the side of shorter as I had to make it back to work.
• Calgary was forecasted to reach a high of 19C on Tuesday.  That’s 66F, which is on the verge of summer!  What to wear on my lunch run??  I thought about packing a tank top, but I opted for a short sleeve shirt, and the option of shorts or capris.  As lunch neared the sun was still firmly behind clouds.  In fact, it even looked like it was going to rain.  Dare I say it, but a cloudy 10C in capris and short sleeves doesn’t feel nearly as nice as 3C and sunny!!  Oh well, my 30 minute run was a good one regardless.
• Spin class continues to go really well.  Every single workout is a new experience in pushing myself on the trainer.  My legs are absolutely bagged from our power based workout on Tuesday!
• Today called for a 30-45 minute easy spin and a swim.  The only time to get the spin in is after work.  Unfortunately I had some errands to run first – Wal-Mart and Best Buy.  I spent five minutes staring at the various bleaches and stain removers trying to find colour safe bleach.  Then all of a sudden I clued in that the Javex 2 Stain Fighter and Colour Booster really is colour safe bleach…it just doesn’t exactly say it.  Yeah…I felt smart!
• As for Best Buy, I was on a mission to pick up The Princess and the Frog.  I wasn’t sure whether to get the DVD or Blu-Ray version.  Did you know that there is a coupon for $10 off the Blu-Ray and DVD combo pack?  It expires March 21.  Decision made, combo pack purchased.
• I ate dinner, then set up my bike in the garage for my spin and watched the first two episodes of Modern Family.  Have you seen this show at all?  Hilarious!!
• Sadly by the time this was all done there was no time to make swimming.  Seriously…where does the time go?  And how am I going to fit all of this in when IM training gets more intense?  Maybe I’m going to need to work on getting back into my early morning swims.
• Truthfully, I’ve been finding it so hard to get up in the mornings.  When I saw Sun Safety Barbie’s post on her new favourite app, the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, I knew I needed to download it.  I’m curious to see if and how this works.  Maybe this will be the key to me waking up more rested!

Grassi Lakes

Sunday brought another opportunity to get out to the mountains to enjoy a fantastic spring day.  The destination for today was Grassi Lakes, just outside of Canmore.  Grassi Lakes is another one of those popular hiking trails, so this is a great time to get out there for a bit of extra solitude.  There are two routes to hike Grassi Lakes, an easy route that follows a fire road, or a more difficult route with better opportunities for views.

Which way to go?

As the trail along the more difficult route looked to be fairly well worn in the snow we headed off that way.  The route continued through the trees, but then all of a sudden they broke and the views were amazing.There were tiny rivers that were starting to flow down the mountain side. The water started to roar louder and louder, and soon we saw why.  A waterfall!Unfortunately at this point the trail wasn’t quite so easy to see.  The slope increased and there was quite a bit more ice out there.  At that point we decided we’d be better off returning to the split in the trail to tackle the easy route to get to the falls.  You can see in the picture below, the hard route is on the right side.  We were pretty close to the lakes (on the bottom left of the picture)…who knew?!The easy route was a good uphill walk in the snow, made easy with some Yak Trax.  It wasn’t too long…and then we were at the lakes!  The water was an amazing colour.  Unfortunately my pictures didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped given the somewhat overcast sky on the snow, but you get the idea.On the way back down we saw several people hiking up in Converse All Star sneakers…dress shoes…you name it!  It isn’t nearly as icy out at Grassi Lakes as it was at the Ink Pots, but it still baffles me that people head out to hike the Rocky Mountains in March without proper footwear!

Total Distance: 4.19 mi (to hike almost all the difficult route and all the easy route)
Time: ~2 hours
Elevation Gain: 1650 feet

St. Patrick’s Day 10K – Race Report

Saturday was my first race of 2010 – the Calgary Roadrunner’s St. Patrick’s Day 10K.  This was my fourth year in a row doing this race.  I like the route through the University of Calgary, seeing everyone dressed in green, and the Irish stew and beer at the end of the race.  Plus I keep hoping that one of these years I’ll win my weight in beer!

The weather seemed pretty indecisive on Saturday morning.  It was about –2C and sunny, but just as I was trying to figure out what to wear I saw a few snow flakes floating around in the air!  I opted for tights, a long sleeve and a short sleeve shirt.  I also brought along a vest and an extra long sleeve layer just in case. 

I met up with my teammates and we headed out for a quick warm up – just a simple 5 minute out and back, followed by a few quick pick ups.  I decided that I’d be best off just wearing two shirts otherwise I thought I may get too warm on the race.  By now the flakes had stopped and it was back to sunny but very windy.  It wound up being the right choice for me though!  As I headed back to the start line to chat with my friends Keith came up and said hello.  Keith, it was nice to finally meet you!  Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to chat as the race was about to start.

If I made one mistake at this race, it was right in the beginning.  I didn’t push my way to the front, and instead I started far in the back of the pack.  I then started the race too slow and had to push my way up along the crowded first few kilometres of the race.  Eventually I found my space and I settled into my pace.  Honestly I didn’t look at my Garmin too much, I just ran.  I was afraid to push the pain barrier and ran just below the line between comfortable and uncomfortable.  Oh well, it was what it was!  I felt like my effort was pretty steady throughout the race, but next time I’d like to try and push things a bit more.

I had no visions of setting a PR at all, I just wanted to come in under and hour.  I feel like I haven’t been that speedy lately, so as long as I came in under and hour I would figure that I hadn’t lost too much speed.  I crossed the line in 58:29.  Mission accomplished!

Chip Time: 58:29
Overall: 441 out of 653
Women 30-39: 65 out of 117

After grabbing my stew and a beer I hung out to watch some of awards and wait for the draw to win my weight in beer.  Sadly it was not to be my year again though!  Maybe I’ll have better luck next year? :)  All in all it was a great day racing with friends!

Working Lunches

I feel like I’m in a bit of no man’s land when it comes to finding the time to swim.  Early mornings just aren’t working and I’m still finding nights difficult. 

9:00 pm is definitely the witching hour for me!  In university I had to quit studying at 9 as I just couldn’t comprehend things anymore.  Going to the movies after 9 pm?  I will, without a doubt, fall asleep.  Talk to me on the phone and I feel like I’m having difficulty holding up my end of the conversation. 

So yesterday I gave lunch swimming another go.  It was a great way to break up the day and my swim went really well.  Loved it!  It does take quite a chunk out of the day (15 minute walk each way, plus the one hour workout and the time to shower and get ready).  Thankfully we do have some flexibility in our hours at work, so it is great to know that a lunch swim can be a great backup plan.

In other lunch workout news I met up with Kelly to knock out a 30 minute run today.  I wanted to test out my legs to see if they still knew how to run sub-10 minute miles.  Luckily they responded and the run in the sun was great!  I have my first race of the season on Saturday – the St. Patrick’s Day 10K – so I wanted to push the pace a tiny bit more than I have in the last few weeks.  I’m not expecting a PR on Saturday, but I think I should be able to crank out a half decent time.

Who else is going to be racing with me on Saturday? :)

Johnston Canyon and the Ink Pots

A few of us had kicked around the idea of going cross country skiing on Sunday.  That was a good idea…until we had warm temperatures almost every day here for two weeks straight!  The snow for cross country skiing is not great at the moment.  Couple that with a forecasted high of 13C (55F) and there you go.  No cross country skiing!

But there was no way we were wasting this amazing day though!  A few of us opted to drive out to Banff National Park to hike through Johnston Canyon and on to the Ink Pots.  This is probably one of the most popular trails inside the park for hikers, so this is actually a great time of year to go out there.  One advantage of this being a busy trail is that you are less likely to encounter wildlife, but I’m not a huge fan of super crowded trails.

The roads out to Banff are perfectly clear, but as soon as you pull into the parking lot there is snow all over the ground.  The safest way to hike there right now is with traction – Yak Trax, MICROspikes or STABILicers.  The trail is covered with packed snow and ice the entire way.It isn’t a very far hike to the lower and upper falls.  The frozen falls are absolutely amazing!  We spent quite a bit of time at the upper falls goofing off and taking pictures.(at the lower falls) (at the upper falls)

Along the way we also saw some other amazing sights, including a set of falls that we were convinced we could see Cookie Monster in.  Can you spot him? Eventually the catwalk and trails around the falls end and you continue up and up through the trees on packed snow to the ink pots.All of a sudden it opens up and you are in a meadow by the ink pots, surrounded by mountains.  Amazing!The ink pots are pools of mineral water that stay at a constant 4C year round with quick sand at the bottom of the pool.  I found that my pictures weren’t able to fully depict the amazing colours of the pools, but I tried! My friend even grabbed a photo of me…taking a photo of my shoes! We hung out around the ink pots, eating lunch and taking a ton of pictures.  We were the only ones there the entire time we were up there!On the way down it was a lot busier around the falls!  There were a lot of people out there without traction on their shoes and I have no idea how they were doing it.  We even saw a couple of people crawling on all fours to make it up a slope, so I had no idea how they were going to make it!  These are the Rocky Mountains and it is early March and there are still winter conditions out there.

That being said, this was a fantastic hike!  I don’t know if I’d want to tackle the crowds out here in the summer.  The extra bit of solitude and the amazing winter scenery made for an incredible experience.  Combine that with sharing the day with a couple of amazing girls and it was a day that will be tough to beat!

7.64 mi with 4,035 feet of elevation gain
~4 hours with plenty of picture taking stops, but not including lunch at the ink pots

Enjoying the Sun

It has been an amazing week in Calgary!  With tons of sun and spring like temperatures it hasn’t been too hard to get out and enjoy it.  While I didn’t get off to the best start with my workouts this week I managed to pull up my socks throughout the week.

Wednesday I met up with Kelly for a 30 minute run over lunch.  My legs were pretty tired from my Tuesday night spin class.  I hung with Kelly and we ran a nicely paced loop around the Bow River.  While it wasn’t all that sunny out it really was warm and it felt good to just run and chat.  In the evening I made it out to Cochrane for the first time in a few weeks to swim.  The swim went alright…but boy oh boy am I lacking a serious amount of efficiency in the water!  I did swim golf for the first time and this was a serious eye opener as to just how many strokes I’m taking to get from one end of the pool to the other.  One of my big goals will be to work on that!  I try to not get discouraged in swimming, but it just feels like I have so much to work on.  I think I feel the same way about swimming that I feel about skiing.  Shouldn’t I be picking this up faster?  Why is it so technical?  I know I have slacked off with going to my Wednesday night lessons so I really only have myself to blame for that.  While I know I can do the distance in swimming it would be nice to do it better, ya know?

On Thursday it was time to get reacquainted with hill repeats!  This was my first shot at hills all year.  Kelly also had hill repeats on her schedule, although her workout was slightly different.  We ran our warm up together, arrived at McHugh Bluff for our repeats and got to work.  The hill was crazy busy with bootcamp classes, walkers, lungers, and other runners.  People were really taking advantage of the sun and 12C weather.  I ran 4 x 2 min repeats, and while 2 minutes may not seem like a lot it goes by ever so slowly when you are running up a hill!  I did a great job on running each repeat consistently.  There is something about running hill repeats that really gives you a feeling of accomplishment.  Maybe it is the blood pounding in your head, the burning lungs, or revisiting your maximum heart rate, again and again.  Whatever it was, it was a great workout!!  Kelly and I tried to encourage each other along the way, then we wound up running our cool down run together.  A few tricep dips and push ups later, we were done!  It was great having my friend on the hill for motivation and support.  As our run paces do differ this is one workout that we can accomplish together.

On Friday it was time to make up the swim that I missed on Monday thanks to a massive headache.  I walked over to the YMCA after I finished work…soaking up the sun.  I ran through a great workout with plenty of drills in it to help me improve my efficiency in the water.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that it comes together.

Saturday was long run day!  I wasn’t able to get out until after lunch for my run, so by then it had warmed up to a lovely 11C.  I decided to go out on a limb and run in capris and a tank top.  Initially the wind made it feel a bit brisk, but as I ran on it just felt amazing.  The pathways along the Bow River were quite busy with families on bikes, roller bladers, people out walking their dogs and other runners.  I started at Edworthy Park and ran towards Eau Claire and back for 9 miles.  The run went really well and it was terrific to be out and enjoying this amazing weather that Calgary had.

I’m Gorgeous!

The lovely Alisa at Ambitious Aspirations tagged me with the Gorgeous Blogger Award!  Thanks Alisa!!

Apparently I need to share six random things about myself.  Hmm, let’s see what I can come up with…  Well, honestly I am astounded at the things that make me cry these days.  Maybe I can find six random things that make me cry?

1. The official song of the 2010 Olympics was titled “I Believe.”  Without a doubt, anytime I heard that song playing I would tear up.  It didn’t matter if it was just the song, or if it was the song set to a montage of images of our athletes doing amazing things.  Click here, and I bet you that it just might make you a bit misty eyed too…
2. This Tim Horton’s commercial:

   
3. The trailer for Letters to Juliet.  The trailer, for goodness sake!  I better pack a box of Kleenex when I go see that movie.
   
4. I think it really goes without saying, but definitely anything related to Ironman!!  Watching any of the Ironman presentations on TV, no matter the race, results in crying like I’m watching a chick flick!
5. Sad to say it, but skiing makes me most certainly want to cry!  I really want to pick it up faster and to trust myself, but it is hard to not get frustrated every time I fall and have problems getting up!
6. Joannie Rochette’s bronze medal performance, in particular her short program.  When she was awarded her bronze medal I will admit to bawling like a big baby!

So there we go, that is my unique take on telling you six random things about myself.  So, now I need to pass this along…

Missy, Nicole at Geek Turned Athlete, Heather, Badgergirl, Nikki at Slow is the New Fast, and Marlene at Mission to a(nother) Marathon!  Tag, you ladies are it!

Starting the week off…

Well, this week did not exactly get off to the best start!  After the gold medal hockey game on Sunday I was downstairs in my basement and noticed a puddle of water off of my hot water tank.  Uh oh.  My house is only 6 years old so I was surprised that I may have a failing piece of equipment.

Cue much frustration with a plumber and my hot water tank manufacturer all day Monday.  Luckily there isn’t a problem with my hot water tank, but with my humidifier.Calgary’s water is really hard, so it caused deposits within the humidifier that affected the water level float.  The float stopped working and the humidifier just kept filling up and up and up.  It then overflowed and started dripping onto the hot water tank.  Luckily the problem is a really easy one to fix (as opposed to the plumber who barely looked at it and told me I needed a new one for $680).  Come on people, don’t assume that you can pull a manoeuvre like that one on me!

By the time the great water leak debacle was sorted out I developed a massive headache that only got worse as I watched Jake the Bachelor pick Vienna, who then slow danced to a live version of “On the Wings of Love.”  I honestly thought I might be ill after that!  (By the way, if you do watch that show I highly recommend the recap that I linked to!)  Anyhow, with that massive headache there was definitely no going to the pool!  Yikes, not getting the week off to the best start…

Today I had a 30 minute run on the schedule.  Considering that the forecasted high was 8C I was pretty excited for this run!  But as I looked out the window before lunch it was foggy, almost like it was snowing.  And it was actually colder at lunch than when I had driven into work in the morning!  I definitely had not packed for that kind of weather!!  Oh well, at least I had spin class to go to tonight!!