Breakfast of Champions

Now that I’m working hard to get back into things I know I really need to pay attention to what I’m eating.  It all starts with breakfast.

I definitely eat breakfast every day, but I generally wait to eat until I get to work.  I want something healthy and filling because if I just have toast I’m hungry 30 minutes later.  I soak some oatmeal overnight in double the amount of milk, along with some cinnamon and a touch of dried fruit.  At work I pour the oatmeal over half a diced apple and some almond butter.It keeps me full all the way until my lunch time workout so that cuts down on my desire to run and grab a coffee.  I view that as a success so far!

I’m curious though, what is your favourite healthy breakfast?  Do you have any tips to share with me?

Flats of another kind

Tuesday night = Tuesday night spin at Bow Cycle with Angie!  Except tonight it just wasn’t meant to be!!!  I’m off to Edmonton for work tomorrow so I had to pick up a pool vehicle before heading home.  It is a pretty wicked Dodge Caravan…*cough, cough*  When I got the vehicle the low tire pressure warning light was on.  By the time I dealt with that and made it home it would have been tough to change, load up the bike and make it to Bow.  Instead I set my bike up on the trainer in my garage and ran through a great workout with a little bit of everything – single leg, high cadence and low cadence stuff.

If I learned anything tonight though, it is that if I got a bigger vehicle I’d have less space in my garage to spin!  It was a really tight squeeze next to that Caravan!

**And, just in case you were wondering…Debbie called my pumpkin and butternut squash dal in the top three of all the dishes I’ve made for her so far.  Woohoo!  I’d definitely recommend that you give it a try!

Healthy food needed, stat!

I think my brain has been feeling a bit overloaded on left over Halloween candy and take out meals.  I needed something fresh and healthy this evening! 

First up I roasted some parsnips in the oven with some olive oil, salt, pepper and some fresh ginger.  Parsnips are one of those vegetables that I really detested as a kid.  Now as an adult I’m trying a few new ways to cook them up to see if I can change my opinion on them.  After all, they are supposed to be good for you! 

While the parsnips were roasting up I made the other half of my meal – Tassajara Warm Red Cabbage Salad from 101 Cookbooks.  Red cabbage, raisins and feta cheese.  What’s not to like?  I followed the recipe, but added in a some sliced apples to the cabbage and sprinkled some pomegranate seeds on top.  Pomegranates just came into season so I’m going to have to see how else I can incorporate them into meals.

It was good stuff and just what I needed!  Happy Friday everyone!!

Wonderful Pomegranate

A little while ago the wonderful folks at POM Wonderful sent me some coupons to try out their pomegranate juice.  This stuff is chock full of antioxidants…so it is really good for you.  Besides all the benefits though, this stuff tastes amazing!  More tart and more taste than cranberry juice.  I picked up a bottle of cherry pomegranate juice to sip on this evening while making dinner.  Yummy stuff.  If the juice is too strong for you to drink straight then I highly recommend mixing with sparkling water.

Now sure, you can buy this stuff to drink, but you can also cook with it.  I’ve turned juice into pomegranate molasses before and cooked up an amazing Iraqi Lamb and Eggplant Stew.  Tonight I whipped up some molasses to cook up turkey in a walnut and pomegranate sauce.  The original recipe calls for chicken, but given that Thanksgiving is right around the corner (Monday to be specific) I was in the mood for turkey.  Boneless skinless thighs but I’m sure turkey breast would work well too.  I doubled the amount of pomegranate molasses that the recipe called for, but otherwise followed it pretty well as written.  I served it with a brown and wild rice combo and some cauliflower on the side (that I also drizzled with pomegranate molasses).

While the dish might not be much to look at the flavour was amazing!  Using pomegranate juice in cooking tends to give everything a really interesting and complex flavour.  In case you are looking for a little inspiration in the kitchen with POM Wonderful, then check out all of their recipes.

Hello October!

Wow…it is really hard to believe that October is here.  Where is the year going?  October in Calgary generally means that the snow will start flying, and luckily this year I left town just before the first snow fall of the year.  This weekend I flew off to Kelowna, BC for the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival! 

The first order of business on Saturday morning was knocking off a couple of workouts.  I had 8 x 2:00 intervals on tap.  I took off to one of my favourite places to run in Kelowna, the Mission Creek Greenway.  The greenway is nice and flat, and it is so quiet and beautiful out there.  Immediately when I started running I knew this was going to be a great run.  Maybe the change in elevation from 3900 feet to 1100 feet had something to do with it?  The intervals were great.  I was pushing but they still felt really good.  It was drizzling out and it just felt really nice and fresh.  A great 6 mile interval run, done!

Once the run was up it was time to get on to the next order of business…a swim!  I still wanted to get in Thursday’s swim workout so I decided to check out the new H2O Adventure Centre.  While the facility is a part of the YMCA it is one of the few ones where you can’t use a membership from another facility to gain entry.  I paid my drop in fee though since I was keen to check this place out.  The pool is huge!  It is a 50 m pool that has moving bulkheads so they can section the pool off for different activities.  Plus there are water slides, a hot tub and all kinds of play areas for the kids.  The middle of the pool was sectioned off for 25 m lane swim.  I knocked out the workout which included a lot of drills and that was about it.  The swim was neither great nor bad, but the pool was definitely worth checking out.  I would have liked to get a trip down the water slide in, but I was running late so I had to hurry up and get out of there!

After that is was down south to Oliver for a the Tinhorn Creek Crush Club wine pick up party……then a wee bit of tasting at a few other wineries and a winemaker’s dinner at Sumac Ridge.Sunday was the See Ya Later Ranch pig roast…which was amazing!  (My apologies to my vegetarian friends…)

In the evening we went to an event at Cabana Grille called Gourmet and Grapes.  It was a pretty neat event where 6 different restaurants had food stations with little tasting bites, plus different wineries were pouring wines to complement the food.  In the mean time there was a bit of an Iron Chef style showdown happening between two chefs as they whipped up a few dishes centered around the secret ingredient, matsutake mushrooms.  Once the competition was over there were a few plates that were passed around so if you were lucky you may get a little taste.

The best part of the evening was probably the food station from El Dorado…the tastiest meatball ever, some lamb, and some seared tuna on risotto with a papaya salsa.

The weekend isn’t quite over yet…time to get out there for a long run.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

An Evening at Home

The wind was really blowing this afternoon.  I was taking a cardboard box to the garbage and it was almost blowing out of my hands!  Needless to say, no bike ride this afternoon!  I thought about maybe going to the gym and doing weights, but ultimately I decided on a quiet night in at home.  My fur ball Finlay will be off to stay with my parents shortly so I really just wanted to hang out with him.  (For those of you wondering, November and December are crazy busy times at work with lots of overtime, so Finlay goes to stay with his grandparents.  To top it off I have a big project starting in January, so busy times ahead as I close out the year!)

So anyhow, I decided to try making a delicious looking mushroom soup that I found here yesterday.  Check out the link for the main recipe, but I did make a few changes.  First off I sliced up some double smoked bacon and rendered it in a soup pot. 

I removed the bacon once it was crispy and the sweated leeks and onions in the bacon fat.  I deglazed the pan with some white wine instead of sherry since I accidently purchased sweet sherry instead of dry.  It wasn’t labelled either way, but it sure tastes sweet…oops!  I removed those from my pot and started cooking up my mushrooms – oysters, shitakes and button.

After adding the leeks and onions back in with the mushrooms I added the broth in the pot, some thyme and let it simmer away for 20 minutes.  While it simmered I figured I’d better taste test my wine…

Luckily the wine passed the test!  Once the soup was done simmering I blended the soup and added in just a touch of cream.  I topped it with a teeny bit of bacon and served it with a spinach salad, plus a piece of fresh ciabatta with a little goat brie on top.  Yum!

Maybe not the healthiest dinner ever, but it sure was tasty!  Hope everyone else has had a great evening!!

A Relaxing Weekend (of sorts…)

Did I train this weekend?  I was all set to get my 1.5 hour long run in on Friday after work but as the day went on I realized that my brain just wasn’t in to it.  I’m giving myself permission to slack just a teeny bit longer.  It has been a long year of racing and training so I’m not going to push things if my head isn’t in the game.  After all, I went from a marathon in January to a half Iron in July and August!  The next year is going to be a LONG one and I don’t want to risk burnout!  So apart from a nice 40 min run through the neighbourhood early Saturday morning here’s what else went on:

Friday:

I bailed on a long run in order to get some errands done.  I picked up a few paint chips and a roller from Home Depot, then put one of my Restoration Hardware colour testers on the wall in my spare bedroom.  After that it was off to Costco to price out tires and pick up some lamb chops and the new Jamie Oliver cookbook.  I tell ya, I sure know how to party on a Friday night!

*Just a word about the new Jamie Oliver cookbook…love the concept!  He wants you to learn one recipe from the cookbook and pass it on to a friend in an effort to inspire more people to make good home cooked healthy meals.

Saturday:

I met my best riding gal pals Pam and Tara at Diner Deluxe for breakfast.  It was great to see these ladies wearing something other than spandex and the conversation was fantastic!  I relived my Lake Stevens race, the Ironman Canada weekend and we talked about plans for next year.  I feel so fortunate to have met such wonderful people through triathlon in this town, and I cannot wait to keep training with them.

After some amazing chocolate sourdough French toast with fried bananas I took off to Tri-It to check out their end of season sale.  I figured that since my old race shorts developed a hole in them I could probably use a new pair…  Then it was on to Team Aquatic for their end of season sale, where I managed to pick up a couple of Speedo Endurance suits at an amazing price.  I rounded it out with a trip to the Calgary Farmers’ Market to pick up some amazing fresh produce.

And thanks to the lamb chops from Costco plus my bounty from the Farmers’ Market I threw together a pretty amazing dinner:

Grilled Mint Lamb Chops:

Roast lamb with mint sauce is a quintessential British dish and this is my fresh take on the dish.  I concocted a paste of some fresh mint, one clove of fresh garlic, the zest of half a lemon, a little olive oil and salt and pepper:I seasoned two lamb chops with some additional salt and pepper, then spread the paste on and left it in the fridge for an hour or two.
As grill time approached I let the chops come to room temperature for 30 minutes, then I grilled them over medium high heat for 4 min per side.  They came out a lovely medium/medium rare.  Let sit for a few minutes and enjoy!  The flavours are subtle and complement the lamb really well.

I also prepared some baby beets as a side dish by tossing the beets (skin on, but sliced in half) in some olive oil, salt and pepper.  Add in a sprinkle of water and fold in to a foil pouch.  Grill for 10 minutes over medium high heat as well.  My mom deserves the credit on this one as she suggested it to me!I served it all with a bottle of Fox Creek 2004 Short Row Shiraz.  This shiraz is from McLaren Vale in Australia.  I have tried quite a few Fox Creek wines and they are all delicious, so if shiraz is your thing, then check it out!

I hope you all had a great weekend too!

What’s Next?

Ah…so the triathlon season for the year is over.  What now?  It is a little early to start training for Ironman, so…what is on deck for the next little bit?  After the Goofy Challenge in 2008 and the Disney Marathon in 2009 I’m not really up for another marathon in January 2010.  My heart just isn’t in to the distance training right now.  So instead:

• Discover my inner domestic goddess: It is time to get back in the kitchen.  Taking the time to create delicious meals between all of my training this summer was really tough.  But I do love to cook, so it is time to get my nutrition back on track.
• Raid the wine cellar: If you have been reading this blog for any length of time then you know I love wine!  I had a few cases just sitting in my basement thanks to a lack of storage.  It was time to organize so I picked up a new (larger) wine rack from IKEA yesterday.  Going through my collection was fun as I filled up the new wine rack…but it made me realize that I need to start drinking some of it!
• Become one with the paint chips: Um…I’ve lived in my home for almost three years and I still haven’t repainted at all?  Maybe this fall I’ll have some time to put into that.
• Declutter: I still have moving boxes in my garage…that were packed up in July 2006.  Time to finally go through them!  (Although I think I’ve been saying this for awhile…)
• Say hello to a little speed: Endurance training is not conducive to getting faster.  So expect to see a lot of speed work on the run in the next little bit!  And some 10K racing (that Angie says will help me get faster)!
• Set a goal: Don’t mistake all of this cooking, wine consuming and decorating to mean that I won’t be training…  I am setting my sights on the Austin 3M Half Marathon on January 24th.  Why this race?  I have several friends in Texas that I need to visit.  A half marathon in January is a manageable distance to train for – less commitment than a marathon!  If you check out the elevation profile for the race you’ll notice that it is a whole lotta downhill…  So my goal?  To see if I can train to go sub-2:00 on a half marathon.  I still have to register and get a flight down to Texas…so it isn’t a sure thing (I normally wait to make an announcement until the cash is committed) but it is most definitely the plan.

I’ll still be swimming and biking of course too, not to worry!

Postcards From the Road – Seattle/Everett

It has been a fun few days around Everett and Seattle. Everett is about 30 miles north of Seattle. It made the most sense to stay here for the race on Sunday, but there has been a bunch of going back and forth between.

I drove from Kelowna to Everett on Friday afternoon, crossing the border in Abbotsford. The crossing was pretty easy, although the immigration officer was interested in exactly how long I’d trained for this race. The Seattle portion of the trip was for a little bit of sightseeing and lots of shopping. Oh, and delicious Washington microbrews.

Friday

Hit up the Lululemon outlet in Burlington, where the clothes are still overpriced, but not quite as overpriced as at the store. FYI Alberta shoppers, you are exempt from paying state sales tax in Washington. This little nugget of knowledge has saved my oodles on this trip!

Once my parents made it into town we went downtown for dinner at Assaggio, a restaurant idea I blatantly stole from Rainmaker. It…was…amazing… Best Italian food I have had in a very long time. And some delicious Red Hook ESB.
Yes, I am wearing a dress..! We used to go to a great little Italian restaurant when we lived in London back in the late 80s/early 90s. Assaggio definitely brought back memories of some of the terrific times at that restaurant.

Saturday

Went for a pre-race dinner at Ivar’s Salmon House. Beautiful views. Delicious seafood. We wound up ordering the sockeye salmon family platter – 2 lbs of sockeye, mashed potatoes and veggies all for $60. We finished probably less than half the fish so this meal is an incredible value. I also tried Georgetown Brewing Company’s Manny Pale Ale. It was yummy. Yes…I had beer the night before my race. I’m sure it had nothing to do with what happened to me on the race course.

Sunday

Time to celebrate after the race!!! We went to Pike Brewing Company at Pike Place Market for dinner. I figured I deserved a delicious Pike Pale Ale. And I washed it down with an amazing burger. A beef burger. I figured that if my stomach was rebelling that day, then I was going out in style!

Monday

Time to check out some local brew pubs!! We went to Diamond Knot Brewery in Mukilteo for lunch. A really fun place where you can cook your meal on a hot stone. I added fuel to the fire by ordering the beef dip. Their ESB (Extra Special Bitter) was probably my favourite of the trip so far.
In the afternoon we hit up the Seattle Running Company. I was keen to get fitted for new sneakers since it has been a long time since I’ve had my gait analysed. At the Seattle Running Company they have a treadmill with a camera set up so they can film you and analyse how you pronate. What did I find out? That I have major duck feet when I run!! (You can actually tell that in many of my race pictures, but it was so weird to see it on film). And I overpronate. I’ve been wearing the Asics Kayanos for awhile now and they are apparently still a great shoe for me. They didn’t have any in stock, but there was no pressure to buy a different shoe. The guy fitting me was of the opinion that if nothing was broken, then don’t fix it. For dinner we went to Elliott’s Oyster House in downtown Seattle. Oysters…yum! A beautiful location with great food. And the Mac and Jack’s African Amber was delicious… Probably my second favourite beer of the trip.

Tuesday

And…another brewpub! This one was Scutlebutt Brewing in Everett. The beer wasn’t quite as good as Diamond Knot, but the food was terrific. A round of fish and chips really hit the spot. After that we took a tour of the Boeing facility where we got to see where the 747, 777 and 787s are assembled. The shear size of the facility is mind boggling. For all of the air travel I have done I have never put much thought into the assembly of the aircraft. Amazing. There aren’t too many 747s being built for commercial flight anymore. Very cool to see the brand new 787s being put together!! (No test flight on those planes yet, still sorting things out after a stress test yielded less than optimum results…)
In the afternoon there was some running around trying to find a pair of Kayano 15s in my size. Luckily I snagged the last pair at a Sports Authority store, and I managed to pick up a Speedo Endurance suit for cheap! It is pretty ugly, but at least it won’t fall apart on me quite so quickly!

Wednesday I leave the Everett/Seattle area…so stay tuned to see what is next!

*Thanks so much for all of your AMAZING comments from my race report. You guys brought tears to my eyes. You have no idea how much your words mean to me!!!

Words for the Week

There are two words that can describe my workouts for this week:

Fish

Wow, did I get some swim workouts in this week!  Swim #1 was Monday, 2000m of a mixed swim set.  Swim #2 on Wednesday, a 2100m swim test.  I also got in swim #3 for 2000m on Friday.  It was an interval swim, and I used the numbers I got from Wednesday’s test for my interval times.  Swim #4 was on Saturday, a fun pull focused workout.  I’m really enjoying swimming on my own at the downtown Y as I logged 8300m for the week.

Hills

There was a whole lot of up and down going on this week.  Let’s review, shall we?

Tuesday: Hill repeats on the bike at Edworthy.  1779 ft of climbing.
Wednesday: Bike ride from the car dealership home, 762 ft of climbing.
Thursday: Downhill 2:00 run into work.  -968 ft.
Saturday: 1:00 hill run downtown.  741 ft of climbing.
Sunday: 100K hilly ride on tap.  This ride is so special that it gets it own post!

Saturday’s run was a good one!  One hour of as much up and down as possible.  I wasn’t feeling too inspired for a hilly route, but thanks to my friends on Facebook the suggestions came pouring in.  Since I was planning on swimming the winner was a route around downtown.  I started at the Y, ran up Center Street Bridge, up and down McHugh Bluff a few times and back.  It wasn’t a fast paced run at all, but I knew I worked my legs hard.  After running in the heat and humidity it felt great to jump in the pool for my 2000m pull focused workout!

In other news, I finally tested my BBQ out for the first time tonight!  I grilled up some delicious sausages I picked up from the Calgary Farmers’ Market, along with some fresh veggies.  This BBQ works so much better than my old one!  This is the first time I haven’t completely overcooked sausages on the grill before.  Yay!

Where did the week go?

Wow…where has the time gone?  I can’t believe the weekend is almost over.  This week was somewhat of a fail on getting workouts done…  I know, I just raced a half Iron last weekend, and even though I was recovering that didn’t mean that I would get the whole week off.  Here is the breakdown:
- Cycling: 2 rides scheduled for a total of 3 hours.  I rode once for just over 2.5 hours.
- Running: 2 runs scheduled for a total of 1:45 hours.  I ran twice…for a total of 50 minutes.
- Swimming: 2 swims for 1:30, but I only swam once.
So what have I been doing if it wasn’t really working out?

Friday was rodeo day at the Calgary Stampede!  I caught the afternoon show with barrel racing, bronco riding, bull riding and a few other fun activities. Once the rodeo was over we went to check out the food available at the midway.  Warm beef sundae anyone?  (No, I didn’t eat it, I just took a picture of someone random stranger’s.  I swear I wasn’t the only one to do that!)

How about some pizza on a stick?
A guy gave me a $10 food voucher which I put towards some deep fried Oreos…
After we were done damaging our arteries it was on to an event offsite event at Fort Calgary – Glass Tiger and Tom Cochrane with Red Rider!!!  This was a super fun event.  Sleeman is the sponsor here (as opposed to Budweiser who sponsors the Stampede) so the beverages are better…  Plus your ticket includes a dinner of beef on a bun, baked beans, coleslaw and a fruit cup.  Tom Cochrane was fantastic and was a really fun night. 
Saturday was a busy day of errands.  Off to the hairdresser, then a quick drive to Balzac to stop in at Bass Pro Shops to pick up a birthday present for my brother.  As my hairdresser put it, they did a good job keeping a taxidermist in business with that store! 
I was supposed to have a long run of an hour that afternoon, but when I got home I was bagged.  A nap in front of the Tour sounded like a much better idea. 

Sunday Pam and I rode a portion of the Calgary 70.3 bike route.  We basically rode the Grand Valley – Horse Creek loop portion.  The weather was terrific and it was a fun ride.  We capped the ride off with a 20 minute brick and a trip to MacKay’s for some ice cream!  I tried Infinit for the first time on the bike today.  I had brought one bottle of Infinit and some gel to round out my nutrition for the rest of the ride.  I only drank my one bottle of Infinit, so I definitely didn’t take enough in on the bike.  It made for a fairly painful brick run…  Lesson learned that I need more on a 2.5 hour ride.

In the afternoon I went out grocery shopping…and came home with a BBQ!  I’ve been thinking about upgrading to a larger BBQ (I have an itty bitty Patio Caddie at the moment).  I thought I found a good deal at Superstore, but opted to check Home Depot out before I committed, and found a really good deal there.  But it was 6 pm and the sale ended at 8 pm…and they didn’t have the one I wanted in stock.  Cue the running around to another Home Depot to locate my dream BBQ.  I lucked out, somehow managed to get it into my front yard (?) and spent the rest of the evening assembling it.  Isn’t it beautiful?
As soon as the BBQ was together I went inside and made myself a peanut butter sandwich for dinner and sat down in front of the Tour.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!  Be sure to check out Marlene’s giveaway!!

Thursday Stampede Induced Thoughts

• It is Stampede time here in Calgary!  This is where a large number of Calgarians pull out any cowboy apparel they own.  For me that basically means jeans, a t-shirt and some cowboy boots that I picked up four years ago for $28 at an Aldo outlet in Texas.  Authentic, eh?
• Stampede also means a plethora of pancake breakfasts around downtown.  My first breakfast was Tuesday morning.  Maybe not as impressive on the food front compared to others, but I rather enjoyed the champagne and orange juice…
• Tuesday we did have a recovery group ride out in Cochrane.  We’ve had some crazy, very non-July like weather and it looked like it was going to pour as I was getting ready to leave work.  When a co-worker mentioned that a few folks were going for drinks it didn’t take me very long to decide that a beverage would be more ideal than a ride.
• Of course it was ridiculously sunny out when I left the pub Tuesday night.
• On Wednesday it was time to get my legs moving again.  I went out for a super easy 3 mile run over lunch.  It started off easy (sort of), although it took a good 20 minutes for my legs to not feel heavy. My legs picked the right time to come around because a few minutes later it started to rain.  Big, fat drops of rain.  That made for a sprint kick back to the office!
• Today it was back in the pool for a good workout.  My swim volume is going to pick up with a good focus on building strength.  I had a reasonably short 1600m workout using a pull buoy and paddles.  First time using paddles and it really made for good workout.
• After three days of pancakes I think I may have had enough pancakes for a year.  Well…at least a month.
• For lunch today our social club at work held a Stampede lunch.  It was a good excuse to hang out with some co-workers outside of the office and we chowed down on beef on a bun, chicken legs, baked beans and some salads.  I apologize for the poor quality of the picture, but we may be able to attribute that to one of the other items in the picture.
• Friday promises to be a fun day…  Stay tuned!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
• And yes…I know this is just one big nutritional blow up…  Thank goodness Stampede isn’t very long…  And I promise that I don’t eat like this every day!

My Canada Day

Tuesday evening I checked the weather out my front door.  It was sunny and hot.  I left for our group ride in shorts and a short sleeve jersey.  As I drove towards Cochrane I noticed that I was driving towards storm clouds.  And the wind was picking up…  Angie gave us our workout – 3 x 8 min intervals with 8 min of rest in between.  As I started riding I felt like I was going nowhere and this was supposed to be the warm up?  The wind was intense and it was really cooling off.  A group of super strong cyclists up ahead of me pulled off the road and we all debated whether we should be riding in this or not.  We decided to keep going for a bit but it wasn’t long before we turned around and called it a day.  What took 7 minutes riding out in, took 4 minutes to come back in.  That is how much of a difference the wind was playing.  The wind was gusting up to 40 km/h (25 mph) and the temperature had dropped 6C (11F) within an hour.  That just doesn’t make for a fun ride…

Since I had Wednesday off of work to celebrate Canada Day I figured I would make up my bike workout Wednesday morning.  Angie wanted us to cut the workout a bit short since we were that much closer to Great White North.  I went out for a 45 minute ride with 4 x 4 min intervals.  The intervals went really well on the way out, but once I turned around I was riding back into the wind.  Not nearly as strong as yesterday…but I just rode the hills hard and didn’t concentrate on the intervals that much.  After I dropped my bike off back at home I went out for a quick brick run.  I felt good on the run but didn’t have a ton of speed.  Oh well!

I had planned on going to the pool later but I much preferred doing a few things around the house and relaxing.  Pretty soon it was time to head to my brother and sister-in-law’s place for some Canada Day BBQ.  Dave had picked up some wood chips that were made from old oak barrels that were used to age Jack Daniels.  Just sniffing the bag of chips was enough to make you feel like you had just downed a stiff drink!  Dave smoked a pork shoulder that was amazing!
We devoured some pulled pork sandwiches with some sweet and spicy BBQ sauce and coleslaw on a cheese bun.  So good!  A Thirsty Beaver was just the thing to wash it down.
After dinner I headed off to Ranchman’s to get a head start on the Calgary Stampede at Bull Bustin’.  This is an up close and personal invitational bull riding event.  I’ve been to bull riding events before but I’ve normally been way far away so this was completely different!  It also gave me a chance to try out my sport continuous shoot mode on my new camera: It was one fun night, that’s for sure!  I’ll be looking forward to Stampeding when I’m back from Great White North!
Happy birthday to my Dad on Friday, and I hope all of my American friends have a great 4th of July!!

Hills and more hills, redux

There has been one theme this week it seems. Hills, hills and more hills! I rode hills on Tuesday, ran a hilly run on Wednesday…then had more hills in store for the weekend. Originally I had an 80K ride on my schedule but I had an invite out for a ride on Saturday that would be more like 110km. I double checked with Angie that she was okay with me doing the longer ride, and so long as it wouldn’t affect the quality of my workouts later in the week I was good to go! Four of us met out in Cochrane, Pam, Kevin and Susi. Susi was the only one who had ridden this route before so it was going to be a surprise!

We have really lucked out with the weather this week and Saturday was no exception. It was low to mid 20s (low to mid 70s) and amazing sunshine out. Where we didn’t really luck out was with the wind. It was crazy out! We made our way out of Cochrane and on to Horse Creek and I thought there were times that I might get blown over. Kevin and I wound up riding out Horse Creek together and he was trying to give me tips on drafting. Obviously you can’t do it in a race, but he was encouraging me to try and find the sweet spot behind his wheel where you don’t have to work as hard. Which is easier said than done when you have a wind trying to blow you sideways! Horse Creek has some good hills and I was powering up them. In hindsight…maybe a little too hard for the beginning of a long ride…oops! As we neared the spot on Horse Creek that I dread there was a welcome surprise in sight. There is a portion of the road that is just brutal with pot holes and it is so rough to ride. Not to mention that there are a couple of big hills around here… Well, they are in the process of paving it! As this is part of the Calgary 70.3 course that will no doubt make the racers happy!

Kevin and I continued north on Horse Creek until the turn off for Bottrel. We debated between waiting for Pam and Susi here, or continuing on the general store in Bottrel. Just then a pick up truck pulled up to the stop sign. We asked him how far the general store was, and it wasn’t too far…only about 3K or so. Um…he was a pretty congenial fellow…he advised us to find the girl working at the liquor store in Bottrel because she sold great ice cream apparently. The Tiger Tail is supposed to be fantastic. (Tiger Tail is orange with black liquorice swirled through it and I absolutely love it!!) But it was a little early in the ride for ice cream. :( About then Susi and Pam pulled up, so on to the general store for our first opportunity to refill our water bottles and to hit the bathrooms. By this point in time you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere and the General Store is a total hoot. There is a super friendly dog and cat there waiting to greet you. The store’s motto is that if “We ain’t got it…you don’t need it!”

We took a quick break and then we were back on the road. We did a short stint along highway 22, but we quickly turned off and from there on out it was beautiful…quiet…and so rural. Amazing. There were a ton of horses, cows…you name it. And there were some itty bitty baby cows! The hills just kept rolling though…up, down, up down. We hit our second water stop at the Beaver Dam golf course, then turned around and headed back to Lochend Road to make our way back to Cochrane. Lochend Road…Susi said it perfectly when she said that the hills just kept coming. You’d see a hill, climb it and crest it, then see another one just a short distance away. This continued on the entire way down Lochend…about 19 miles! I didn’t really have a lot of oomph to power through the hills, but I was certainly climbing them steadily and that felt really good. I was pretty happy when we hit Highway 1A to head back to Cochrane. That meant the climbing was over and it was just a straight shot back to the finish. I took off down 1A, eager to get back because I had dinner reservations that I was a worried that I was going to be late for. When I hit Cochrane I chickened out on going down Cochrane hill and took the more gentle (but longer) way down into town by Gleneagles Golf Course. Then it was back to the car to load up the bike and hurry up for home and dinner! But first, check out the elevation profile of our ride. 2320 feet of climbing, somewhere around 67.5 miles for the ride.

I rushed home, took the fastest shower ever…and booted it out to southeast Calgary for dinner at Bolero. My sister-in-law and I have birthdays that are just over a week apart, so this was our chance to celebrate together. I’ve mentioned Bolero before – it is a Brazilian Churascurria that is amazing. Guys with different cuts of beef, chicken pork and lamb on swords come by your table to serve you. And one of the highlights is there grilled pineapple… So yummy! I may have had a one night stand with beef last night…but it was so worth it!

As for today, I had a 2650m swim and a 90 minute hilly run on the schedule. I wanted to hit the pool up early before it got busy, but I also wanted a bit of a chance to sleep in too! I got into a lane at 10 am and it was actually pretty quiet. I ran through my 2650m endurance ladder workout and it felt so good. I wasn’t fast, but I felt consistent the whole time. I like having these extra swim workouts on the weekend. If I time it properly at the right pool then it is nice and quiet and I enjoy the chance for quiet reflection in the water. It makes a nice change from my Tuesday/Thursday swim class where I am crazily trying to hang on to the swimmers in front of me all the time.

As for the 90 minute hilly run, I wanted to wait until the afternoon to get that done. I figured I’d give my legs as much time off as possible between yesterday’s bike and today’s run. I headed back out to Baker Park again since I knew I’d hit some good hills. My legs were definitely hurting on the uphills, but I felt strong on the flats and the downhills so I knew the legs were in good shape. I ran out 45 minutes…stopped, had a drink and realized I was almost out of water. It was hot out and there was no way I was going to make it back on just the couple of sips left in my bottle. I detoured slightly to the Shouldice Pool and found a water fountain I could fill up at. Then it was back to the car! All said and done I ran for 8.62 miles. It wasn’t fast, but I ran those hills strong and got the workout done!

As for refuelling…I decided to make good use of my barbeque today. I grilled up some fresh sockeye salmon marinated in a mixture of olive oil, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, horseradish, brown sugar and rice vinegar. I also grilled up some Brussels sprouts and garlic in a foil pouch (maybe for a bit too long, but this was my first attempt), along with some asparagus, eggplant and zucchini. I served it up with some arugula, tomato and balsamic vinegar…so good! Alright, time to get ready for tomorrow… Hope everyone had a great weekend!

The Fallout

After the ride I felt pretty good. I could have gone for a brick run, but by the time I got back to my car it was already after 4 pm. You can bet I was needing some real food besides the fuel I had brought along on the ride. I had an invite to my brother and sister-in-law's place. My brother had spent the better part of Saturday smoking a pork shoulder. Pulled pork, BBQ sauce, provolone cheese all on a cheese bun...plus a spinach salad...amazing stuff!Sunday morning I had a swim and a run on the plan. The swim involved a whole bunch of balance drills. Not really surprising, but I felt the most comfortable when I was on my left side, therefore breathing to my right. This has always been my most comfortable side for breathing. When I flipped on my right I noticed that my legs were more prone to sinking but this definitely helped me even things out. 2000m done and it was time to shower and head out for my run.

I really wasn't expecting amazing things from this run after my epic ride on Saturday. It really was not a big surprise to see my pace was over one minute per mile slower than usual. I thought my legs might shake things out as I continued on but my pace never wavered. I just had no juice in my legs at all. I was supposed to run for 9 miles but when I saw my pace wasn't improving I thought it might be a good idea to cut it short. After all, I do have a race on Sunday so I didn't see much point in gutting the distance out. I cut it back to 5 miles instead. No pain on the run at all...just no juice in the legs. Oh well!

Mondays are a bit up in the air on my schedule now. Angie had me down for just yoga on Mondays. I'm all out of drop in passes at my usual studio and I'm feeling too cheap to purchase some more. I floated the idea of switching Monday out to being an upper body strength day instead. I'd love to have some guns like Missy, I just don't want to swim all of those laps in the pool to get them! Since today was a holiday here - Victoria Day - I spent the majority of my day in pajamas puttering around the house. Finally at 5 pm I made it out to the Y. I didn't do anything fancy - I just ran through the upper body weight machines, did some bicep curls and tricep work, then followed it up with some core and stretching. I had to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner and my arms were so tired that it was tough just hanging on to my purse! Yup, I've got some work to do!

Okanagan Spring Wine Festival - Sunday

Sunday morning was absolutely amazing out. I had only planned on running on Saturday so I just enjoyed hanging out in the morning. Check out the view from the balcony..!

We took off to Peachland to have lunch at Gasthaus on the Lake. This is a great German restaurant and pub that makes a mean schnitzel. They also have a gorgeous patio. It is worth checking out if you are in the Okanagan! From there it was on to more wine tasting. We hit up See Ya Later Ranch where they have a fantastic Brut and a Riesling. From there it was on to Inniskillin...where I got carded! Haha! She looked at my ID and just said, "Wow..."There are a ton of marmots along the road to Inniskillin. They normally run away whenever a car approaches, but I actually managed to get a few half decent shots.From there it was on to our final stop to taste - Road 13. I hadn't actually tried any of Road 13's wines before, but it was a fantastic surprise - they had some really tasty stuff! In addition, they also had the cutest pair of weiner dogs - Meg (for Nutmeg) and Fil (for Filbert). They were absolutely adorable. Here's Fil:Dinner was an amazing evening at Quails Gate Winery. It was a fantastic end to the trip! I wasn't flying out until early Monday morning though... Finlay did not look too impressed at being woken up at 4:30 am...

Then on home!