Spin Studio: Resurrected

Ages ago I had set up a little spin studio in my garage.  I had a TV in there, a DVD player, a small player to plug an iPod into…  It was pretty sweet.When the husband moved in the spin studio disappeared as his moving boxes needed a place to reside.  When we had a garage sale a few months ago we took the opportunity to get rid of the TV and DVD player since I didn’t actually like watching TV while spinning.  Eventually all of our bikes just lined up on the side of the garage…the tires going flat from disuse (*tear*).I’ve still got my Ironman Canada number on the bike.What on earth is in this bottle?  I’m afraid to find out given how long it has been in there (luckily it was just water).My old spin studio.  Time to clean up!I found my old gear check back from Ironman, with my bike helmet, gloves, CO2 cartridges, deodorant, Body Glide…I swapped the rear tire out with my trainer tire.  I forgot how hard it was to do this!Finally the bike had been cleaned up, set up and ready to go.  I picked a short but sweet workout and I had forgotten how good it felt to be on the bike.  All done!It is almost hard to believe that fall is here and spin classes at Bow Cycle start up this week.  Bring it on!

Mental Health Day

I woke up around 7 on Sunday morning.  The sun was streaming through the blinds and I could tell it was beautiful out.  A quick check of the temperature on my iPhone confirmed it.  It was already 10C out.  I shuffled downstairs and started to get rolling on making coffee.  I was almost out of ground coffee so I grabbed the coffee grinder and the beans in the freezer.  Peet’s Coffee – Major Dickason’s Blend – best stuff ever that I picked up in Seattle.  As I shook some beans out of the bag and into the grinder a big clump came out, splattering beans on the countertop and on the floor.  Oh no, not my precious Peet’s coffee!!  I bent down to clean up the beans off the floor and then I saw it.  I saw it all. 

Salt, dust, itty bitty pieces of food.  Yuck.

Then I stood up and saw the mess on the countertop.

That was it.  I just couldn’t deal with it anymore.  The coffee spilling on the floor was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Sure, originally I was planning on doing my 2 hour long run, but I felt like this took precedent.  I needed to clean for my sanity as I was tired of feeling overwhelmed by how dirty my place felt to me.  So instead of running I vacuumed, mopped, cleaned the carpet on the landing (thanks Finlay for making that polka dot for me!), dishes, shredded some of the piles of paper that were piling up on my desk, cleaned the bathroom.  And when it was done I had a moment to breathe a sigh of relief, then it was off to meet Kelly to see SATC2.

So was it a good training day?  No.  But at least it lifted a weight off my shoulders.  I came home from work today and knocked out that 2 hour run today instead.  It was actually about perfect out.  It was overcast and about 13C with a slight breeze.  Perfect for running long!  I took the run fairly slow – I am racing on Saturday after all!  That’s right, the Chinook Olympic Triathlon is almost here!

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!!

What were you for Halloween?

I dressed up as a handyman for Halloween.  Like an honest to goodness one as opposed to when I was a stud finder a few years ago. 

Yes folks, anyone can give their living room a facelift in one weekend if I can!  I’ve been wanting to replace my living room carpet for quite awhile.  No doubt this action will not please Finlay who has been working really hard to make this solid carpet a polka dot one instead…ahem. So that’s the before shot.  Just your generic beige carpet.  A couple of weeks ago I found out that my uncle (? ex-uncle? family friend?  not sure what to call him…) would be willing to come out to Calgary to help me install some flooring.  So I went on a hunt for the perfect flooring and put an order in.  I went for a really nice Pergo laminate that comes with underlay attached already.  Sure, it is more expensive, but by the time you add in the cost for purchasing separate underlay it evens out at the end of the day.  So Uncle A made it out to Calgary just after 4 pm on Saturday afternoon.  Once he got here we got to work pulling up the carpet and underlay, pulling the staples out of the floor and removing the base boards.  Luckily we were able to salvage the base boards to reuse once the new flooring was in.

Sunday morning was all about laying the floor and it actually went really quickly.  Since my room is pretty square it required minimal special cuts.  After that the baseboards were reinstalled, along with a new transition piece between the laminate and existing tile by the front door.

By 3 pm today we were all done!  I spent the rest of the evening reassembling the room and there we go…

This is actually phase one of the project.  I need to repaint the base boards and paint the walls.  Since my living room has a pretty high ceiling that will probably wait until the new year sometime while I figure out how to tackle it.

Sadly I missed out on seeing my niece as what I’m sure was the cutest little ladybug ever and handing out candy to all the trick or treaters, but such is life!  Hope you guys had a great weekend!

Aimless…

Last week life conspired in my ability to get workouts in.  Thanks to a holiday, a course, and a trip to the field I had one day in the office last week.  By the time Friday rolled around I had gotten in two…whole…workouts.  A half hour swim and a 30 minute trainer ride.  I got back from the field on Friday evening to find out that the temperatures had warmed up and the snow was melting.  I still had some daylight so I threw on some running shorts and a long sleeve top and managed 3 nice and speedy miles around the neighbourhood.  Only in Calgary does the weather change so quickly that you can run amongst melting snow in shorts at 6 pm!

Saturday morning I decided to look at the Last Chance Half Marathon website.  When I signed up for all of my 10K races I didn’t sign up for this one.  I wasn’t sure if I would race it, but I’ve put the idea of the Austin 3M Half on the back burner.  I thought I’d better look into it the Last Chance…and sadly learned that it is all sold out.  I’ve put my name on the waiting list…but I’m not too hopeful that I’ll get in.  I’ll still train for it regardless, but I feel a bit aimless without some bigger goal to train for.  Maybe more speed work and some track workouts will be in order??

On the plus side, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing.  Work has really picked up as I am prepping for an exciting project to start in January and all the work on reserves will be starting up very soon.  I’m also working hard to finish off decluttering, painting, and I’ll be replacing the flooring in my living room.  Crazy, eh?  Here’s the flooring I ordered…

And just for your enjoyment, here’s a picture from the Wine Festival this weekend.  I think I tasted more beer than wine.  Perhaps the size of the pour might indicate why…  Sure was a fun night!

Catch Up!

Ah, let’s catch up, shall we?  We had a three day weekend up here in Canada as Monday was Thanksgiving.  I had a lot going on!

Saturday:

Off to the hairdresser for a teeny tiny change up in the morning, then back home to paint my master bedroom!  I had the Kona feed playing on my computer as I painted and I managed to finish up the first coat in time to see Craig Alexander cross the finish line.  Here’s what the room looked like before…after I had already started moving furniture around to paint:

Finlay is an interesting dog.  He always runs upstairs with toys and hides under the bed with them.  So when I moved the bed I could finally access them all.  All 13 of them (or 14 if you consider that the giraffe body and the head are two separate toys now): 

Sunday:

Up early to race!  Then back home for coat #2 in the master.  As soon as I was done painting it was time to quickly shower and change, then head over to my brother and sister-in-law’s for turkey dinner!  Everything was so yummy!

Monday:

It was time to start putting my master bedroom back together!  I took a long break in the afternoon to get together with friends for another turkey dinner.  It was so good, but after all that food I felt like I needed to be rolled home!!  Good thing I had furniture to move around to help burn off some of the turkey and pie I consumed.  But here we go, here’s the completed room.  From “builder’s beige” to “sparkling spring.”  

And for those of you wondering what I’ve done with my medals…

Conspicuously missing from the wall are my Goofy Challenge medals from 2008.  I’ve been procrastinating for awhile since I’d like to put together something nice complete with pictures and all.  I just have to get around to it!

Tuesday:

Up early and off to the pool!  Well, not quite as early as I would have liked so I had to cut my workout down from 2000m to 1000m.  Oops…  What I didn’t realize when I left the house was that it was blizzarding out!  The great thing about leaving early to go to the pool was that I missed the traffic snarls from all of the snow.  This probably would have been a good day to bring out my winter boots for the first time, but too bad I left them at home!

In the evening I got a welcome surprise!  A couple of weeks ago I bid on a “new to me” pair of aero bars on eBay and they arrived today!  My old aero bars were okay, but they don’t accommodate a drink bottle so this was something I wanted to switch out.  I got my new Profile Design T2s installed but didn’t have a chance to try them out on the trainer since I had a few other things going on this evening.  One of these days I’m going to have to face reality and set the bike up on the trainer!

Sayonara Blue!

First off, a big congratulations to my mom who raced the Maui Half Marathon yesterday!  My mom is turning into a racing machine.  I have no idea where she gets it from…  Nicely done mom!!

This weekend was a busy one.  Not with training…I had a spare room to tackle!  I have disliked this room from the moment I bought my house – baby blue with a blue patchwork feature wall.  Me and specialty painting techniques?  Not my thing.  I never hung pictures on the wall or did anything to it, besides let junk clutter it, because I was always planning to redecorate.  Um…three years later and it is about time I did something about it!  Here are some before shots: And now after…  The blue is gone and replaced with a warm, buttery yellow.  I finally have some pictures on the wall! 

Plus I had a chance to properly display a few things that are important to me.  I have a collection of Harrods Christmas bears (you know, the big department store in London that the Queen likes to shop at?).  These guys span from 1990 to 2000 and have been sitting in a box in my garage.After I finished putting everything together last night and admiring my handiwork I went across the hall to my bedroom and my heart fell.  Boy that room needs some decluttering and decorating of its own!  The good news is I am motivated to get it done.  A colour has been picked out (ironically, it is blue) and a date has been set for the painting.

Oh…and I promise to get some workouts in this week.  After all, I am racing this weekend!

Ask…

…and ye shall receive!!  A few of you asked for links whenever I do something amazing in the kitchen.  I make no promises for the level of amazingness, but I have compiled a bunch of links to recipes – both posts where I talk about making them, and where I found the recipe online.  I’ll be updating regularly, so just look for the DOMESTIC GODDESS link in the purple box on the right hand side of the blog – right between my link to race reports and product reviews.

Speaking of domestic stuff, I plan to be proactive on the painting and decorating front.  I stopped off at Restoration Hardware to grab some paint chips and pick up two sample pots of paint.  Mission – to paint my spare room next weekend!  Stay tuned!

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!

A Spinning Side Project

On Monday night I was spinning in my garage and staring at my garage door thinking about how boring it was. I was too lazy to lug my bike and trainer up the stairs in to my living room though, and the temperature in the garage is much more friendly for spinning sessions. All of a sudden a light bulb went off in my head. I had a spare TV just sitting in my garage that I had no idea what to do with. I also had a spare DVD player in my basement collecting dust. This weekend one of my projects was to turn my my garage into a place a little more spinning friendly. As you can see, it was kind of messy as I've just been piling my helmet and other things in a heap on the floor.

I reorganized the moving boxes on the right side of my garage to make room (yes, I've been living in my house for over two years and I have not fully unpacked yet). After all, who wants to be spinning near a garbage can? I can also park further to the right so I won't be set up so close to my car. I set up a TV stand that I picked up from Ikea on Saturday night. Setting up the stand tested my engineering skills since it came without instructions... Ah, who needs instructions anyway?I also picked up a nifty little shelving unit to hold my helmet, shoes, spare tubes, shoe covers and all the gear that had just been piled up on the floor of the garage.Right now the TV is only hooked up to the DVD player, but I should be able to run cable through, so that will be another project sometime in the future.