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.