New Venture

I'm collaborating with fellow bloggers Amy and Joanne on a cooking blog. We all love to blog, cook, eat and share so posting our recipes and anecdotes made perfect sense.

Check out Racing 4 Waffles.

Back to it?

I had a decent ride yesterday, 1:15 when my schedule called for 1:45. I got cold and a bit tired so decided not to run afterward. When I'm coming back from an illness I'm always torn as to whether I'm taking the smart route or being a wimp, hopefully yesterday was the former!

Today's swim was time trials. A long warm up then 100m free, 50m kick and 1,000m free. I had low expectations, especially for the short stuff, but did okay:
100m free - 1:35
50m kick - 1:01
1,000m free - 19:33

I was shocked by the 100m time - I really didn't think I'd be under 1:40 considering the state my lungs are in. I'm thinking Lord Byng is either a short pool or the YWCA is long as I've only ever once been under 1:40 in Masters (of course we do two sets of 3 x 100m on TT day so maybe I don't go as hard?). The kick set hurt start to finish but a minute is pretty decent for me. The 1,000m was a bit slower than I would have been happy with if I was totally healthy, I'd like to be able to hold a 1:55 per 100m pace, but as swimmeister Bronwyn did 19:03 I'm thinking that goal might be unreasonable!

In non-training news - I had a fantastic afternoon at Joanne & Torbin's yesterday. Joanne threw an open house to celebrate Torbin's 40th and I headed over with the triathlete wave of party goers and, in typical me fashion, stuck around for most of the day. It was great to see a bunch of the ulti folk I haven't seen in ages - you stop looking for a couple years and they start to reproduce!

Today's post workout routine was coffee and a bagel-wich with Marie & Michelle at Solly's then a nap. Now I'm onto the laundry part of the weekend - live the excitement!!

Rock My World

I am in possession of a $50 iTunes card and really, really want some new music but don't know what to get. Just to be annoying, I seem to have different taste in music from the majority of my friends which means 1) I can't raid their CD collections and 2) it's hard getting recommendations. Not that I don't like my friends' music, I do, it's just that the tunes that really rock my world don't tend to do it for my friends. For example, Beirut and Devotchka may be a little too much tuba for most people.

Happily Jason generally comes up with great suggestions for me. Today he suggested I check out this. Wow, some seriously interesting artists.

I want to work through this list the way people read through the Pulitzer and Noble Prize winning novels lists. I actually own a few of the albums and there are bunch I've been meaning to check out (Neutral Milk Hotel being one) but the majority are new to me or artists I hadn't really considered before.

Same old wheeze?

I got fed up this morning with my lack of access to oxygen and hit the medical clinic. Told the doc I know the post-cold/flu cough can last forever but I would really, really like to be able to breath. Happily she took me seriously, however she also gave me a laundry list of drugs to take (no, no antibiotics). The multiple drugs with multiple doses to be taken several times a day begins to sound like, well, one of Alan's workouts.

I'm afraid I might get confused, take two puffs, run 400m, rest 3min then take one puff, run 800m ...

March - In like a lion, out like an emphysemic lamb

The month started off well. Then the allergies kicked in. And then the allergies either weren't actually allergies but a virus or they morphed into one. Regardless, I've spent the last week sick and seriously annoyed about it.

I had the brilliantly stupid idea of trying to run on Friday. Exercising in the cold with hardcore chest congestion - not so smart. After that I gave up on anything more energetic than trying to keep up with my nephews. Tonight I will join the club for a track workout, probably a good thing I forgot my watch as that should encourage me to go slow(er).

The good news is that I spent a great weekend with the family out in the 'Wack. My Mum acted as my spending enabler and I ended up leaving the city with a lot more than I came with. I loaded up at Anita's Organic Mill, picking up two kinds of quinoa, nuts, raisins and cranberries. We then hit Chilliwack River Honey so I could replenish my buckwheat honey (dark as molasses and seriously yummy) and pick up a bunch of samples. We went to the eco clothing boutique and I grabbed some bamboo shirts, one for me and one for each of my nephews, then we tried to go to the new art gallery but thankfully it was closed - no telling what Mum would have encouraged me to buy there!

I had a blast with the boys. My cupcake kits were a hit and everyone got into the act decorating them. Dad went minimalist (one smartie to prove he tried) while Oscar's approach seemed to be more about eating the decorations than putting them on the cupcake. We hit the pool, the cool new park, Oscar tried riding without training wheels, both boys showed off their roller blading prowess, and Mopman was foiled. A pretty good weekend if you ask me.

Consultants

It's pretty awesome to have a variety of friends with a variety of interests and experiences: it keeps conversations interesting, I can add to my store of little known facts, and I can get advice on all number of topics.

Say, for example, I needed to know the best way to create a ceremonial headpiece, why I'd call up sistersola. Or if my life depended on knowing something about bioinfomatics (like, what is it?) I would shoot penneydog's Mom a line. And if I somehow lost my life by not knowing about bioinfomatics, well then Captain Pants could figure out how it all went down, who was to blame and whether or not anyone gets a settlement.

So yesterday when a prospective roommate who seemed like a great fit in all categories except for one looked at my place, I took a lifeline and called friend. "Captain Cactus," I queried, "what does a hockey player who lives in an apartment do with their stinky gear?" "Not," I was quick to add, "that I am implying or in any way suggesting you currently have, previously had or ever will be in possession of stinky hockey gear." From his answer I deduced that a hockey player could share an apartment without 1) stinking out his roommate or 2) ticking off the other residents.

Yes, I have a Stinky Hockey Gear Consultant. The best thing about friends is they don't charge consulting fees!

Allergic

Despite the fact that for the last week the average temperature in Vancouver has been at or below freezing I have spent the last seven days dying of allergies. What kind of stupid plants bloom in this weather!!

Just for fun, because allergies alone are so 2008, I have a mild sinus infection. Yay me!

I've never been great at getting out of bed and when I feel like I'm suffering from the worst flu in world it's even harder. Both Saturday and Sunday this weekend it took a serious effort of will-power to drag my sorry butt out of bed. After the standing up spins died down and I got a bit of water and breakfast into my system I felt more like it was just regular ol' flu, maybe with a dose of strep throat thrown in. It was not the death's door experience I had when my alarm went off but it was certainly not something that left me fit enough to exercise or, for that matter, to leave the house.

By the time I got my bike set up or my swim bag packed and I was heading out the door it was more like a nasty cold, limited risk of it leading to pneumonia but definitely something that should be coddled with warm tea and chicken soup, not a workout.

Half an hour into my bike or swim I felt fine (except for trying not to be lapped by Joanne & Kristina in the swim) and forgot how miserable my morning was. On Saturday I had a great 2.5 hour ride with some folks from the club, followed by a short brick run. I was pooped when I was done and allergies came back in full force in the evening but a batch of crepes with raspberry jam, lemon and sugar made it all okay. Sunday was an awesome 3,100m (3,200?? I didn't count) swim workout with an 1,800m main set followed by 1:15:00 run. Once we lost all sight of the fast folk on the run our group's speed became reasonable and we had a nice LSD pace run. I had a couple of kids from the club over for brunch as my crepes craving was still strong - with various contributions it turned into an impromptu feast.

Ignoring the first couple hours, both days were great! My coworkers don't understand why I come into work when I'm sick only to turn around and go home 30 minutes later - it takes me about 2 hours to figure out if what's killing me is allergies or a virus.

Hopefully the early start to the allergy season means an early end!

I have awesome friends

Thanks to everyone for putting up with me as I have my little housing meltdown. Diane talked me off the ledge on Sunday and I decided to rescind my notice for my place and redouble my efforts to find a roommate.

Aside from convincing my landlord I'm a flake, it seems to be working well. I realized that more people look at housing ads with pictures so I added a bunch to my Rentsline and Craigslist ads and have had a lot of responses, mostly from people who don't seem to be crazy and one who seems like a good match. Either it's the pictures or more people want to move in March than in February. Diane might say it's also the power of positive thinking.

Keep sending those positive vibes!!!

Lost my zen

I haven't posted lately because I've been focussed on non-tri stuff.

My roommate's moving out (no surprise, it's been a long time coming) so I decided to stay here and find a roommate - hardly anyone even responded to my ads and no one wanted to take the place. Now I'm stuck with paying double rent and trying to find a place to live - so far the pickings are slim so I'm feeling pretty down as to my chances to find a places.

I don't want to move. I don't want to pay double rent for March (too late). I can't afford to live alone. I'm seriously stressed.

Kindly send some good vibes my way.