Training to Live

i had an extra long labour day weekend because of my work schedule and since we’d planned to have a bunch of friends up to the cottage that weekend anyway (the cottage is about a 3 hour drive away from here), we figured we’d make an entire week of it. as luck would have it, the weather didn’t really cooperate. it was cold and rainy all weekend long. after our friends left and we enjoyed the one sunny/warm day there was going to be, jon and i hightailed it to his parents’ farm, about 30 minutes away from their cottage, for the rest of the week. although the farm isn’t home for me, it sure feels like it.

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we didn’t have the relaxing week we originally planned (thanks, weather), it was wonderful to be at the farm anyway, as always. we ate loads of good super fresh, local food, worked hard at putting veggies away in the freezer for the winter [a great big pot of ultra veggified pasta sauce (which i'm calling my 500 metre sauce, since everything we put in it came from within 500 metres of the kitchen we cooked it in!, 2 gallons of crushed/stewed tomatoes for making chili with this week (and oh what chili we made this week!!! at least 17 quarts put away in the freezer), and a bushel of red peppers chopped up and frozen]. we went to a small town country fair, played with kittens, watched movies (and napped) and it was good.

i think this photo (taken on my iphone with the super fun ShakeIt app) really captures the beauty of the country (big open blue sky), fall, and the colourful energy of the fair. shortly after i took this, i proceeded to eat a big bag of cotton candy. ohhhhh was my tummy ever not happy about that! (it was certainly enjoyable to eat, however). i’d never been happier to see vegetables again.

we came back to regular-old-at-home life for a week, but come monday, the craziness begins again. i am flying off to the great city of winnipeg for a work conference and then immediately after i come back, i have a half marathon to run! my training over the last few weeks has been pretty abysmal (i blame the weather again.) i’m sure i’ll make it through, even if not super quickly! i’ve been to winnipeg once before, but only very briefly (i flew into their airport and had lunch at a quizno’s before driving out northwest to a wedding. not so exciting) so i’m hoping to have a bit of exploration time.

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in other, more creative news, i have been working on a lot of projects, art and otherwise. sadly nothing concrete to share yet though! in august i got an email about a super fun sounding workshop that one of my favourite bloggers (elise) was running on how to make minibooks (like a scrapbook but on a smaller physical scale {hence the “mini”} and with a much more casual concentrated or super stretched out approach). my dining table is covered in all kinds of fun new supplies so i can start making and doing. the workshop was 2 weeks long and i learned tons of neat tricks and ideas.

also, another favourite blogger (kal) is running a different kind of workshop right now, which i am also signed up for. it is called “nurture your creativity and be bulletproof”. i’ve been through a bunch of stuff at work over the past year and a half that i really could have been a bit more bulletproof for (who couldn’t!) so i figured the class would be more than useful just for that. the nurturing my creativity bit is a bonus and pairs perfectly with elise’s class that just wrapped up. i am really looking forward to the next 4 weeks!

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last month i finally joined the twenty-first century and ditched my ultra crappy super old pay as you go plan cellphone, which had a battery that only lasted a day (without use) and no other redeeming features (which meant that it was usually left at home, battery uncharged, with no paid time on it! not so useful). i bit the bullet and got an iphone4 (expensive but SO LOVELY), which i guess i was lucky enough to score right when they were released to canada – everyone is out of stock now. having the internet in my pocket has made things so fun and easy! i plan to do a lot more on the fly adventure blogging, once i find a good app for this. any recommendations? i’m signed up for posterous, so i might go that route, but it would have to be separate from Training to Live here. the wordpress app has left me unimpressed (photos only at the end of the text? no thanks!).

other favourite apps so far:

teuxdeux (amazing amazing. i went through a whole bunch of to do type apps before i settled on this one. i love that you can have multiple accounts. and that it automatically pushes everything you didn’t do today onto tomorrow. i also love that you can go back and see what you did on any given day. and that you can assign tasks into any day in the future). also it automatically syncs with the web version, so you can enter everything on your computer at home and have it with you on the go.

doodle jump – super fun and a great game to play when you’re staying put for a bit. i just downloaded tetris for an alternative for my upcoming trips.

shakeIt – just like your old favourite polaroids

mobile banking

mindbody (so i know what yoga classes are being offered where, RIGHT NOW). i’ve been missing from yoga since june and i’ve made a pledge to myself to try and get to class at least once or twice a week.

starbucks (mostly to seek out free wifi. when i was in chicago last month and didn’t have roaming data, i discovered that just being in the vicinity of a starbucks would give me the internet. it was awesome. plus, you never know when you’ll need a pumpkin spice fix! this is good for being in new cities). also, for newbs to the ‘bucks, you can create your own drinks!

alarm clock pro – my alarm clock that i’ve used for the last 5 years recently stopped working (sort of) and i have since been trying to find a good replacement that wouldn’t set me back a ton of money. i came up short. until the day i decided to try out alarm clock pro, for the low low price of 0.99$, it is everything i’ve ever wanted in an alarm clock without a) having to spend a ton of money and b) adding more crap to my night stand. perfect.

and of course, tweetdeck. i still heart twitter!

what apps do you go to?

in case you missed it, part I is here, II and III were eaten by the universe. i’ll fill you in – there were 13 cobs of corn one week and a watermelon (that was possibly the most ridic) another week. plus all the usuals, of course. peaches, plums, apricots, maybe a few zucchinis here and there, etc. jon had to reinforce one of my panniers the other day because the connection mechanism that holds it onto my bike was getting loose. oopsies! i’m back in business now.

this is how i do it. big panniers and a spare bungee cord just in case.

the loot:

-cable + padlock

-2 bags of cheese curds from thornloe

-some temiskaming cheese (also thornloe. best cheese place ever!)

-a purple bag filled with my work clothes and other sundries (deoderant, comb, etc)

-2X 1.5L of seedless concord grapes, for a raisin making project

-3L basket of delicious peaches

-a big bag of italian plums for some plumjum (i’m currently making the bellaeats plum cake that we loved last year with my last week’s bunch)

this week i actually managed to restrain myself a little bit. i didn’t get any veggies, so we will probably hit up the saturday market. it was the last day that thornloe was going to be at my market, so they had some killer sales and i stocked up. dill flavoured cheese curds are amazing. is this just a canadian thing? at the HLS, when i talked about eating cheese curds, i remember someone looking at me like i was crazy. also when i described poutine…. it’s delicious stuff! really!

for supper tonight, jon made burgers with some beef we got from his uncle’s farm. these burgers were definitely in contention with the epic burger from chicago.

vs

ok. they were both really really good – grass fed beef is where it’s at! i couldn’t tweet about the one on the left and have it displayed up on a screen like at epic.

i have to say that was a pretty cool thing for them to have. the top three posts on the left and right columns were my dining companions: stina, mary and dawn. i couldn’t tweet because i didn’t have roaming data on my phone but i did when i got back to the hotel!

i have some chicago posts to catch up on. they’ll come. soon. eventually. i hope. this week has been kind of crazy.

i ran a 15K race last weekend. i have a 10K this week! i’m hoping to splash my 56:08 time out of the water! one more week of work and then i have a whole 5 glorious days off to relax at the cottage and farm. i have some fun projects planned for while we’re out there, so hopefully also some good blogging will come of that too! in the meantime, i better get back to my cake.

out of the 13 races i’ve done in the last 6 years, there have been only two occasions when i have raced a distance and performed worse than i had in the past.

the first time was my 5th half marathon that i ran last spring – it was much hotter than i expected and i was unprepared. i wasn’t drinking enough and i likely hadn’t trained properly. i ran the course 4 minutes slower than i had the year before, and for some reason, it didn’t really bother me. by the fall, i bounced back to my old time (almost a minute faster) and a few weeks later, took 3 more minutes off.

(this was taken at that race, early on before things got really rough)

the second time was this weekend. half marathon #8. it was on a course i had never done before (this year i purposefully sought out new, interesting races to do. i’d seen this one on angela’s blog – she did the 10K last year). the race was super small (only a few hundred people) and not as well organized as most of the other races i do (my race kit had 4 boxes of triscuit crackers and a whole bunch of wrist and menstrual cramp tummy heat packs. random!). there was no elevation map on the race website, so i had no idea how many hills there would be! i knew it would be hilly-ish, but i wasn’t ready for steep hills in kilometre 2. at kilometre 16, it started to POUR. thunderstorms. i was soaked in an instant (squishy shoes), which didn’t help my defeated attitude. i made the same mistakes i’ve made many many times in the past: i didn’t drink enough and i didn’t take in enough calories, and you better believe i hit the wall. my splits were getting slower, i was getting tireder (is that a word?), and i just wanted the whole thing to be over! i had enough energy at the end to sprint the last kilometre and pass a bunch of people, which made it obvious that i hadn’t run hard enough during the rest of the race.

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gretchen rubin says that people feel happier when they are improving and this is true for me! she talks about how having an atmosphere of growth is important. i don’t have any more races until august, but i will take this lesson and work towards growing and improving, not only my time, but my attitude and outlook on myself too! i know i can’t get faster each and every race forever because that is obviously unsustainable. from now on, i will embrace my body for what it can do, even if it’s not always as fast as i wish it were!

although i’ve had a lot of fun with a busy spring racing season, i am happy that i have a few months of “breather” time to refocus and really work hard on my speed and hills without the pressure of getting a long long run in every single weekend.

until then, here are some funny pictures.

i am wearing a bondi band that says yoga on it and has a stick figure in tree pose. i am trying to imitate that here.

although these were taken pre-race, this pretty much sums up how i would feel after!

can you see the pain in my eyes? my legs look so slow, i may as well be walking (oh and i did half to stop and walk a few times up parts of those killer hills). i look a tiny bit deranged on the right, no? it kind of felt awesome passing some people at the end.

pretty things around the web:

new favourite website/blogs that make my days better

1) [i] Lovelife

written by artist, photographer, and ray of sunshine, kal barteski

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2) enJOY it

written by artist, crafter, designer and creator of beautiful things, elise joy (what a perfect name!) blaha

the posts on her wedding are STUNNING. also, she has an etsy shop, and i want one of everything.

3) young house love

an absolutely beautiful home design blog, written by husband and wife team john and sherry. this makes me super excited to completely design/decorate our new home sometime in the next year or two.

4) tea and cookies

the intersection of food and life, written by tea! i don’t need to say any more. this blog is glorious.

i’m excited that the world cup has rolled around again. i’ve been watching (and loving) international soccer since 1986, when i was just 4 years old (cheering for argentina at the time). although i don’t have the patience (or the time or the cable) to watch entire games, i have had fun making my bracket and watching/reading highlights.

today is my monthly day off from work and boy do i need it! i ran a really hard race on saturday (SO. MANY. HILLS) and we spent all of sunday doing chores inside and outside the house. i woke up early this morning to go to hot yoga and then took a nice lon g epsom bath, which have both really helped with my sore quads. i’m planning to spend the rest of the day doing a mix of more chores and fun, relaxing things

last weekend, for the third year in a row, i went to a 24 hour bike race with jon. i was the team’s support crew, although this race doesn’t require too much in the way of “support” because cabins, showers, bathrooms and meals (even sports drink if you’re interested) are provided! i was mostly just there for moral support.

jon had a team of 4 men. there were about 7 mens teams, 1 all women team, a bunch of solo male riders (including 1 adorable 12 year old!), 2 solo females, and 5-6 tag teams. it was really laid back and ended up being an awesome weekend. they had an 11km course set up on the trails and over the 24 hours, the team members took turns doing laps. we started off with a round of single laps, switching to doubles and then doing triples overnight (giving the other team members more sleeping time!). different teams had different strategies- the team in the cabin next to ours stuck to singles. our friends that were a tag team of 2 did 5 laps on, 5 laps off. any way you look at it, racing for 24 hours is kind of insane. the solo riders are by far the most hardcore – the top 3 riders probably rode for about 20 of the 24 hours (stopping only for eating and bathroom breaks). yikes. nutrition is definitely a challenge, as you don’t have much time to really eat OR digest (and you are taking in an excess of carbs for race fuel), so it kind of does a number on the tummy.

we set up a tent next to our cabin for working on bikes in in case it rained. we ended up not needing it at all! (i did use it to get away from the bugs for a bit though)

they always do something a little bit different for the start of the race. the first year we did it, it was a le mans style, with helmets on the bikes. last year was just a regular start. this year they did le mans but helmets were on the racer’s heads. jon is good at these things, and got a spot near the front of the pack, giving his team a bit of an edge.

jon is in the yellow and black jersey.

i wore my vibram five fingers on the first day and ended up making tons of friends! everyone wanted to chat about my shoes. it was pretty awesome. they are definitely a great conversation piece.

some reps from IMBA (international mountain biking association) were there. i love their vehicle!

some pictures from the weekend:

jon on the left // xavier on the right

second solo female and her 12 year old son who rode with her // the two solo females

three solo male winners // female team

mixed team // third place men’s

second place men’s team (team doppler effect!!!) // first place men’s

youngest (and cutest) rider // 3rd place tag team

second place tag team // first place tag team

what i loved most about this race was the sportsmanship. so many people had mechanical issues with their bikes. on our team, jon’s fork was not working 2 days before the race, part of jeff’s fork was damaged the night before the race, jon’s seat post was not staying up during the race, then right before one of his laps, the collar holding the seat post in broke, one of jeff’s pedals came off, some guy on another team cracked his frame, etc, etc, etc. it was awesome to see everyone step in to help each other out. competitors offering up spare parts so other teams could go on – quite inspiring. also, it makes me happy that in my sport, there isn’t much chance of a mechanical failure ending my race.

it was a fun but exhausting weekend. i was happy to have monday off from work to recover and sleep! three years ago, the guys entered a 5 man team and missed 3rd place by a hair. last year, they had a 4 man, 1 woman mixed team and placed 1st in the mixed category (which had 3 teams last year) – they would have been 3rd in the men’s category with the number of laps they did. this year, the 4 man team they put together came in 2nd. improvement is good!

blast! ecto just ate the post that i spent more than 3 days writing. boooo

so. i’ve been “doing” yoga for just over a year now. i say “doing”, because it’s been somewhat half hearted, 20 minutes of yoga for runners here, a half pigeon there, etc. more practiced yoga people always say that it’s important for beginners to go to a real class to get feedback and guidance on their form, but i never took it that seriously. all the yoga studios i had vaguely checked out online were far away and pretty expensive, and when i could do yoga at home for free by myself, why go anywhere else?

i never really enjoyed yoga that much though. sure, the stretching felt good and i’m sure my muscles appreciated it, but doing audio classes on the living room floor was kind of boring. i only did it because i knew it was good for me. sometimes i couldn’t even make it through the 20 minutes!!! (i wondered how anyone could do a 90 minute class). i do love the pants though, and i have always kind of joked that i lived the yoga lifestyle, even though i didn’t really *do* yoga)

cue the happiness project. april’s theme is money, and the resolution for the the week before last was to spend some money to buy some happiness. i thought about what area of my life i could splurge a little on and i thought of 2 things. yoga was the first. i did a bit of research and found a studio that is about a 7 minute bike ride from my house! this is convenient. having to take a bus and a subway to get downtown to pay $20 for a yoga class probably wouldn’t actually happen often. this place had some good reviews online (yelp and others) and they had a good rate for new students. i bought a 2 week unlimited pass and decided to try out studio yoga to see if it would make me happier.

i have so far been to 4 different classes (a gentle hatha, 2 different restorative classes, and a reduced heat flow class) and i am in love!! the studio is beautiful and spa like. since i don’t belong to a gym and do all my exercising outdoors or in my basement (or at the community pool!), it is a lovely change to be somewhere with fancy facilities. i have one more week left on my pass, and plan to try out a real hot class (i am a little scared!! if i like it, i’ll do a couple more classes before i decide to splurge on the yogitoes), iyengar (yoga that focuses on proper form), and go back to the classes i liked best before i figure out how often i want to be going back. i think i can afford at least once or twice a week. it’s a really good compliment to the running, biking and swimming that i do and it’s good for my soul too. yoga has made me extremely happy.

the second thing that i’ve been wanting for a while now but haven’t gotten around to picking up (maybe partially because i couldn’t justify spending the money…) is a bondiband. caitlin posted a coupon code (FIVE, five bands, $25), so i ordered a bunch. LOVE THEM!! i’ve worn them running, under my helmet, to yoga class, and just around (they are cute). they seem to stay put (especially the wicking ones) and they keep my hair out of my face, which is awesome. two days after my order arrived, i ordered a few more wicking bands! (jon wanted to know how many headbands a person needs. the answer to that is MANY)

so if you thought that money can’t buy happiness, you might be wrong.

i’ve switched my hours at work, so i have the day off tomorrow. i’m extremely excited about this as i haven’t really had a day off to myself in ages! all of our weekends are booked up with activities and the last two holidays (easter and christmas) have been somewhat hectic with lots of driving around and seeing people, etc. i’m planning to hit two morning yoga classes, do some fun grocery shopping, bake cookies, make ice cream, possibly try out some of ashley’s granola, go for a run in my vibrams (if my legs aren’t too sore from yoga) and watch an excess of tv! luxury to the extreme. i will also try and blog the rest of the post that got eaten up. i have a pot of steel cut oats on the stove now, and it needs my attention.

happy sunday night!

p.s. heather, i am on board with your invite to be a happy living blogger!

sunday was spent having brunch with a few lovely ladies at a vegetarian restaurant in the fashion district (not kensington market, sadly i was mistaken) at a great meetup that angela organized. the restaurant (fressen) was only just so-so – the food was a little meh, pretty expensive for what it was, and the service was just ok. i’m not sure i’d go back, though i’m not really their target demographic, being carnivorous and all. the company was far more enjoyable than the food, and i really loved getting to chat with people that i already knew i had things in common with.

(picture from Angela’s camera – I failed to take actual photographs at the event)

Kristin, Kristen, Christina, Steph, Kelly, Nienke, Morgan, Alex, Julie, Karly, Jaclyn, Noelle – thanks for a great sunday morning!

After brunch, I headed off to MEC for a bit of shopping. (Clearly i am not fashionable or trendy enough for the Queen West district, but I do appreciate a good cycling jersey, some new running tanks and a season’s supply of sharkies!). Passed this condo-to-be on the way

so ridiculous!!

The work week was not super eventful. My manager did announce that she is going away for a year to do a different job for a while which is surprising, exciting (for her) and sad (for us, as she is an amazing manager). I also discovered that someone that I have been dealing with over the phone and through emails for the last year and a half, under the very clear impression that the person was male is actually female! How embarrassing! Luckily I never sent her any letters addressed to a Mr! (At least I hope I didn’t…. I kind of don’t want to go back to check, just in case)

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I finally ordered my vibram sprints! Ashley and Kelsey have been raving about them for months and I’ve been waffling on if I could pull them off. I finally gave in and put in my order. I wasn’t able to try them on first (MEC had none in stock), so hopefully the size is right. I should have them in a few weeks.

squeeeee. I also ordered a couple pairs of injinji socks in case it is still chilly when they arrive. i couldn’t decide between the colour above and the bright blue/grey like ashley’s, but they were out of stock in the blue/grey, so i thought it must be fate and got the aboves!

i’m working on a visual art project to hang up in my room that will make me smile whenever i see it. these pictures are part of my content. they were all found at the pursuit of happyness, which is a new website i recently discovered and absolutely adore. the editor basically aggregates awesomeness from around the web in the form of photographs, drawings, notes, quotes, music and videos. pretty much every entry makes my day. this is a sneak peak. i hope to start work on my project next week some time, though it is competing with christmas art projects and my mission to organize my life and my house. a little bit at a time.

i am feeling better today. my right arm kind of feels like i was vaccinated and the bruises have started to materialize into purpleness. i’m going to try an aloe vera / massage trick that i read that is supposed to help heal bruises tonight. (i read it on the interwebs! it must be true) the bike ride home today was uneventful (thank goodness)

sorry for such a cop out post! my day was kind of boring.i did get a supersurprise midweek visit from the boy, which was awesome. we had dinner together (triple bypass bacon cheddar mac and cheese), watched the latest top gear, had some cocoa and then he was off. have i mentioned that i can’t wait till he’s done school? 1 more month and a bit! 3 more days until i see him again. hurray! i’m going to load the dishwasher and go watch tv in bed.

we’re having kind of a quiet day here. got out for a nice walk in the neighbourhood this afternoon, but the rest of our time has been spent doing relaxing things around the house, including reading books (julie and julia), napping and playing some of our favourite online puzzle games!

i love games, but i lack the attention span required for most serious computer (and video) games. i got spore for my birthday last year, and while it is an awesome game, i just can’t get into it. online games are usually very low on the time commitment scale. plus they are free! they can be quite addictive though!

these are a few that we enjoy a lot:

1) Fancy Pants Man, World 2

you become fancy pants man, and you go through worlds, defying gravity and other universal laws, playing golf with that snail (to collect colours for your pants), killing spiders, collecting squigglies (which give you health. every 100 will get you another pair of pants, or a new life), and finding the door to the next adventure as you try to foil the angry rabbit that is out to get you.

2) Shift

I actually haven’t played this one yet, but i have been watching jon play and it looks really fun. you have to solve puzzles by figuring out how to get through a level from where you start to where the door is. you can flip the screen upside down and rotate barriers. you have to avoid the spikes because they kill you.

3) use boxmen

you have to use your boxmen friends (clones of yourself) to help you solve puzzles and move through levels (do you see a pattern here?). the music is pretty bouncy. plus who wouldn’t want to pretend to be able to clone themselves to be able to really multitask? i’m not very good at this one yet. some of the levels are hard!

if you’re into this sort of thing, newgrounds is an excellent place to find fun little games to kill some time. until tomorrow!

if there has been anything that i’ve been awesome at the past month or two, it has been neglecting my poor little blog. that ends here. instead of waiting until january to make resolutions and work on self improvement here, i’m taking november by the horns and grabbing control of my life. in my last post, i discussed my house clean up project. i have a few other things i’m working on that i hope will make me a little warmer, a little happier, and hopefully a whole lot less stressed out (since there is no reason for that). on my list of resolves is to be a better blogger. the first step on that path is to post more, and post more i will.

enter: nablopomo (see widget on right). national blog posting month. 30 posts in 30 days. can i do it? you betcha. many many novembers ago, i signed on to the original nano project: nanowrimo. the one where everyone writes a novel in a month. coupled with a full time job, living entirely on my own for the first time and figuring out life in a new city, it was a failure for me. 1000 words a day was just too many words! too many words when you don’t have a real plot to use them in. this time will be different. this time, i have a plan. i also decided that it was time for a change up. i was tired of the blue and pink and just wanted things to look different. so there you go.

this is why i should not be allowed to get newspaper delivery. luckily these three months were free. i just don’t have the time to keep up! one of my tasks for this week is to sort through them, extract crossword puzzles and recycle the rest.

the weekend was nice. i loved having the extra hour and i am totally surprised that it is almost 11pm (midnight old time!) and i’m not asleep yet! whoa. we attempted to give out candy to kids on saturday night but epically failed. a) my doorbell does not work. we forgot about this and did not sit in the front living room near the window so we could see kids coming. b) only one of the lights outside actually still works (i really need to get on changing those bulbs), so i rarely remember to turn them on. saturday was not a night that i remembered to turn them on. c) aside from my uncarved pumpkin on the front steps, you couldn’t really look at my house and tell that it was halloween, so no kids stopped by. we have a bunch of leftover candy. blast!

then we went to see where the wild things are. although it was lacking a bit in the plot area (come on. the book only had 9 sentences in it! there wasn’t much to work with), i loved it. it was visually beautiful and made me very happy and sad and nostalgic all at the same time. i still wish for my own wild thing. they look quite cuddly.

here is a sneak peek of something else i did on halloween:

more tomorrow! for now, it is time to hit the hay. i’ve got clean sheets and everything. what a glorious way to start a glorious month.