Sunday morning, we got up at 4:30am to leave for my race in Quebec City. We were out the door by 5, as planned, and we got to downtown Quebec in good time, around 7 or so. I was anticipating having difficulty finding a spot to park the car but Chris spotted an opening on a street right near the race site and it was free to boot. When we first arrived, the weather was kinda gross, drizzly, damp and humid. There were almost 1400 participants in the event, 800+ for the 11km and ~550 for the 16km. Because there were so many people and given the nature of the race (ie. with staircases), they decided to do a staggered start, with 6 people starting every 10 seconds. The 16km competitors got to go first, with the walkers starting before the runners. Then the 11km walkers went and then us. The first people got on the course right at 8am, but it was about 9 before I finally started and there were still tons of people behind me. The start was really slow and disorganized, but overall the race was fairly well run.
Once we got going, it was a great race. I think it's one of my best races of all time. The rain stopped and the temperature was pretty much perfect. There was no sun because of the heavy cloud cover and aside from being a touch humid, I have no complaints. The first 2km didn't have any stairs so I kept up a great pace. I decided to walk up the stairs rather than run for a number of reasons. First, congestion - with so many people on the course, it was difficult to move quickly and even more difficult to pass. Second, safety - because of all the rain overnight, the wooden stairs were extremely slippery. And third, fatigue - I didn't want to kill myself running up the first few flights of stairs and then not have anything left at the end. All in all, it was a pretty good strategy. I moved fairly quickly down the stairs and I ran at a quick pace anytime I wasn't on the stairs. The only time I walked was up an extremely steep (but short) hill. I passed a lot of people over the course of the race; I don't know how many of them were walkers, but I don't care.
In total, there were about 2000 steps spread out over ~20 staircases. The last one was the worst - a 300 step ascent on the Promenade des Gouverneurs. I thought it was never going to end. When I finally got to the top, there was only 1km left so I decided to give it everything I had. I kept checking the distance on my Garmin, increasing my pace every 100m. This backfired slightly as it turns out the course was 11.4km not 11.0, but nevertheless my finish was strong. In the end, I finished in a time of 1:24:14 which was over 5min faster than the average time. I finished 397/817 overall, 162/443 in my gender and 61/107 in my age group. I am extremely pleased with my results and I got a cool medal for finishing.
Immediately after my race finished, we hopped in the car to continue to Maine. We were out of Quebec City by 11am and we made it to Goose Rocks Beach at around 5pm. There was no line-up at the border and we crossed without any difficulty. We stopped at a McDonald's along the way to get some food and I was pretty gross-looking. I had changed in the car just before we left, but I was certainly not at my finest. So, I decided to wear my medal in the restaurant as justification for my grossness. As we were walking across the parking lot, I made some comment about us finally being able to speak English (and how we can't use it as a code anymore). While Chris was ordering the food, I went into the washroom and waited in line behind some other ladies. Wouldn't you know it but the three ladies saw my medal and asked me about it, in French (it says Défi des Escaliers on it). Here I was all excited to speak in English in the US and I ended up telling them about the race in French. I thought it was a little amusing anyways. The rest of the drive was uneventful but man were we exhausted when we arrived. The first thing I did was jump in the shower, then I washed my race clothes and took a short nap.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Off to Maine
Just a quick update. Tomorrow morning is the Quebec City Staircase Challenge (11km with ~2000 stairs). We're leaving at the crack of dawn, driving to QC City for my race at 8, then continuing on to Maine straight after. I don't know what the Internet situation will be while we're gone so this may be the last update until next Friday or so.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Bored, bored, bored
This whole unemployed business is really a drag. I remember being so anxious for my contract to finish and now that it has, I'm bored out of my mind. I think my biggest problem is the lack of routine. I don't really have any commitments motivating me to get stuff done most days. That's something I'll need to work on, but for the next few weeks it'll be tough. Once Chris has his surgery, things should calm down a bit.
Yesterday I went on a ride with Les Gazelles. I seriously considered not going because of the stiffness in my legs but I don't like missing the sorties so I went anyways. It was a long ride, about 60km, with rolling hills but nothing major. I could really feel the fatigue in my legs though. We were delayed considerably because one of the girls got a flat tire. After some fiddling, they got the old tube out and a new one in, but unfortunately the tube ended up exploding after they pumped it up. So they had to take it out and change it again. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue but the flies were eating us alive! I'm completely covered in bug bites. I actually have a welt on my head that looks as though I hit my skull off something. I was so happy when we finally got moving again.
As much as I enjoy the rides, I'm getting a little frustrated with some members of the group. There are different peletons that ride at different speeds for a reason. I joined the 26km/h group because I know I cannot sustain 30km/h for the length of the rides they go on - I'm just not at that point yet. I appreciate that at times we will go faster (ie. downhills, flats) and at times slower (ie. hills) but it should still average to about 26. I'm finding that we are racing the entire time at 30+km/h (and not just like 32, I mean 36, 38km/h at times). Last night's ride averaged 28.3km/h and that's after my group slowed the pace considerably on the way back (we split into 2 groups at the halfway point). I like riding with our group leader because she makes an effort to keep the pace reasonable, but when she's not there, I feel like there's this constant pressure to go faster. I'm also getting annoyed with the way that some of them talk to me. I don't know if it's because of the language barrier or because of my age, but at times they can be quite condescending. I'm not a child, so don't talk to me like one. It's very discouraging and frustrating too because all I can really do is internalize it and say all the things I'd like to say in my head. Sometimes I say stuff in English once we're riding so they can't actually hear it, but it's not the same.
Today was a fairly lazy day. I decided to skip my run today to give my legs a chance to recover. Instead, I mowed the backyard. I hate the push mower. It's falling apart, the handle is wobbly and it gets jammed every 3 feet. I hate, I hate it, I hate it. I hated it even more today because this was a job Chris was supposed to have done before he left and instead he left it for me. And there was one section with really tall grass that was almost impossible to do. I was planning on doing the front yard too, but after the handle broke for the millionth time, I said screw it, went inside and took a shower.
I'm noticing that one of the ways I'm coping with my boredom is by eating and that's not good. Today I went over my calorie limit by 300. You would think that with all this time on my hands, I would cook some good meals. Nope. To me, it's just not worth it to spend, say, an hour cooking something and 10 minutes eating it; I much prefer cooking for other people. Instead, I just graze all day and end up eating way more than I planned. I guess I'll just have to go to the gym tomorrow morning.
Yesterday I went on a ride with Les Gazelles. I seriously considered not going because of the stiffness in my legs but I don't like missing the sorties so I went anyways. It was a long ride, about 60km, with rolling hills but nothing major. I could really feel the fatigue in my legs though. We were delayed considerably because one of the girls got a flat tire. After some fiddling, they got the old tube out and a new one in, but unfortunately the tube ended up exploding after they pumped it up. So they had to take it out and change it again. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue but the flies were eating us alive! I'm completely covered in bug bites. I actually have a welt on my head that looks as though I hit my skull off something. I was so happy when we finally got moving again.
As much as I enjoy the rides, I'm getting a little frustrated with some members of the group. There are different peletons that ride at different speeds for a reason. I joined the 26km/h group because I know I cannot sustain 30km/h for the length of the rides they go on - I'm just not at that point yet. I appreciate that at times we will go faster (ie. downhills, flats) and at times slower (ie. hills) but it should still average to about 26. I'm finding that we are racing the entire time at 30+km/h (and not just like 32, I mean 36, 38km/h at times). Last night's ride averaged 28.3km/h and that's after my group slowed the pace considerably on the way back (we split into 2 groups at the halfway point). I like riding with our group leader because she makes an effort to keep the pace reasonable, but when she's not there, I feel like there's this constant pressure to go faster. I'm also getting annoyed with the way that some of them talk to me. I don't know if it's because of the language barrier or because of my age, but at times they can be quite condescending. I'm not a child, so don't talk to me like one. It's very discouraging and frustrating too because all I can really do is internalize it and say all the things I'd like to say in my head. Sometimes I say stuff in English once we're riding so they can't actually hear it, but it's not the same.
Today was a fairly lazy day. I decided to skip my run today to give my legs a chance to recover. Instead, I mowed the backyard. I hate the push mower. It's falling apart, the handle is wobbly and it gets jammed every 3 feet. I hate, I hate it, I hate it. I hated it even more today because this was a job Chris was supposed to have done before he left and instead he left it for me. And there was one section with really tall grass that was almost impossible to do. I was planning on doing the front yard too, but after the handle broke for the millionth time, I said screw it, went inside and took a shower.
I'm noticing that one of the ways I'm coping with my boredom is by eating and that's not good. Today I went over my calorie limit by 300. You would think that with all this time on my hands, I would cook some good meals. Nope. To me, it's just not worth it to spend, say, an hour cooking something and 10 minutes eating it; I much prefer cooking for other people. Instead, I just graze all day and end up eating way more than I planned. I guess I'll just have to go to the gym tomorrow morning.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Ride to St-Felix
Today was mostly a recovery day from my race yesterday. I taught a class this morning from 9-11 with one of my private students. She is working on her PhD in nursing and she explained to me the details of the disease she is studying, including its various symptoms and phenotypes. It was really quite interesting and I was extremely pleased that she was able to explain such complicated and technical material in English. Apparently, the Saguenay region has the highest incidence of this disease (myotonic dystrophy) in the entire world and its origin can be traced back to one specific couple from 1657.
On my way home, I stopped at the pet store to see if the dogs' ID tags were ready. Apparently, they've been delayed because of the postal strike so who knows when they'll arrive. While I was there, I noticed that they had some stuff on sale for dogs. It's hard to explain, but they're basically educational toys for dogs. The one I bought is a food bowl that has secret compartments that they have to figure out how to open. There are some that flip back and forth and in the middle, there's a thing that they have to turn to get access to the food. I gave it to Kona first (she's not very bright, btw) and she had no idea how to open to secret compartments. I tried to show her, using both her nose and her paws, but she didn't get it. She did open a couple of them by accident, just by sniffing around, but then she jumped back in surprise when she discovered the hidden food. As for the circle thing in the middle - forget it. Mika, who is too smart for her own good, figured it out in no time. I was really impressed by how quickly she learned how to turn the circle in the middle and before I knew it, all the food was gone. Then she gave me this look, as if to say, "Really? You call that a challenge?" Kona just watched in amazement and she still doesn't know how to open the compartments. Hopefully with time she'll get it.
In the afternoon, my legs were feeling really tired so I decided to take a nap. Yup, I was up for 6 hours, then slept for 3. Thankfully the phone rang just before 4 or who knows when I would have woken up. Around 5, I decided to head out on my bike ride to St-Felix. My legs were still a bit sore, so I wasn't sure exactly how far I was going to go, especially since this route is rumoured to be hilly. Which it was. In total, I went for 52km and I turned around about 6km before St-Felix (mostly because there was another ginormous hill and I decided that was as good a time as any to go home). I climbed for 7km straight. 7km!!! Thankfully, with an out-and-back route like this, every hill you go up is one you get to go back down, so my descent was pretty easy. But the soreness from my race combined with all the hill-climbing meant that my legs were pretty much dead by the time I got back to La Baie. The last 10 or so kilometres home (which includes the big hill out of La Baie) were brutal. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't go on this ride before my race. I guess it's true what they say about things happening for a reason.
On my way home, I stopped at the pet store to see if the dogs' ID tags were ready. Apparently, they've been delayed because of the postal strike so who knows when they'll arrive. While I was there, I noticed that they had some stuff on sale for dogs. It's hard to explain, but they're basically educational toys for dogs. The one I bought is a food bowl that has secret compartments that they have to figure out how to open. There are some that flip back and forth and in the middle, there's a thing that they have to turn to get access to the food. I gave it to Kona first (she's not very bright, btw) and she had no idea how to open to secret compartments. I tried to show her, using both her nose and her paws, but she didn't get it. She did open a couple of them by accident, just by sniffing around, but then she jumped back in surprise when she discovered the hidden food. As for the circle thing in the middle - forget it. Mika, who is too smart for her own good, figured it out in no time. I was really impressed by how quickly she learned how to turn the circle in the middle and before I knew it, all the food was gone. Then she gave me this look, as if to say, "Really? You call that a challenge?" Kona just watched in amazement and she still doesn't know how to open the compartments. Hopefully with time she'll get it.
In the afternoon, my legs were feeling really tired so I decided to take a nap. Yup, I was up for 6 hours, then slept for 3. Thankfully the phone rang just before 4 or who knows when I would have woken up. Around 5, I decided to head out on my bike ride to St-Felix. My legs were still a bit sore, so I wasn't sure exactly how far I was going to go, especially since this route is rumoured to be hilly. Which it was. In total, I went for 52km and I turned around about 6km before St-Felix (mostly because there was another ginormous hill and I decided that was as good a time as any to go home). I climbed for 7km straight. 7km!!! Thankfully, with an out-and-back route like this, every hill you go up is one you get to go back down, so my descent was pretty easy. But the soreness from my race combined with all the hill-climbing meant that my legs were pretty much dead by the time I got back to La Baie. The last 10 or so kilometres home (which includes the big hill out of La Baie) were brutal. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't go on this ride before my race. I guess it's true what they say about things happening for a reason.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Weekend + Tour du Lac Brome Race Report
It's been a busy weekend.....
Friday - I barely even remember Friday, it feels so long ago. I'm pretty sure I did nothing of note all day (not even dishes). I know I went for a 6km race-pace run with Mika in the evening. It was really humid and more difficult than I was anticipating as a result. Mika was a great running partner. She usually gets too excited at the beginning and pulls a lot, but after a kilometre or so, she calms down. Towards the end, I think she was even getting a bit tired and I had to encourage her a bit. Maybe she's a bit out of shape. We arrived home about 10 seconds before it started to rain - talk about luck.
Saturday morning was supposed to be the ride to St-Felix with Les Gazelles; however, Friday night, the group leader sent out an email about the weather forecast. They were calling for thundershowers with heavy rain, so she decided she wasn't going, as did several other ladies. I also decided not to go, owing partially to the weather but mostly to my race on Sunday. But, when I woke up on Saturday, the weather was beautiful. No rain to be had. I was really annoyed, both with myself for not going and with the stupid weather forecast for being completely wrong. I'm going to try to make up the ride tomorrow, depending on how my legs feel. If not, it'll be Thursday. After Chris got back from his football game, we had some errands to run, then I left for Lac Brome. Chris wasn't able to come with me to the race because he had to leave Sunday morning for his sea survival course in B.C. In Lac Brome, I stayed with Chris' aunt, uncle and cousins, and I arrived at their house around 8pm. We had duck/chicken burgers for dinner (they raise ducks) and they were quite good.
This morning (Sunday), I was up at 6:30 for my race. The race organizers asked all participants to be there by 7:30 (even though the race started at 9), so I was there plenty early. I picked up my race packet, which included an awesome technical T-shirt. After a lot of waiting around, we finally got started. There were 1028 participants, so the starting line was quite crowded. I started towards the back because I didn't want to get trampled by all the hard-core superfast runners. One bummer, though - my Garmin wasn't working. It must have been turned on accidentally in my bag because the battery was completely dead. I was a little worried about not having it, especially from a pacing perspective, but there was nothing I could do.
The route for this race did not have any laps, thank goodness. Basically, you run around Lac Brome, as the name of the race implies. It was a beautiful course, the weather was warm and sunny and the atmosphere was quite friendly, with a good mix of French and English. The first kilometre flew by, but that's because we hadn't hit the hills yet. This course was tough. It's basically 20km of rolling hills with one killer hill at km14. Chris' aunt and cousins were at the half-way point to cheer me on and all the volunteers were very encouraging too. At 10km, my time was 1:04 and I was thrilled.
Unfortunately, I started to feel really dizzy around km12 and I had to walk for a bit. I think I was getting dehydrated because the weather had warmed up considerably by this point. I stopped at every aid station in the second half and grabbed Gatorade every time. I also took a lot of walking breaks because the heat was so exhausting. I think my pace in the first half may have been a little too intense (this is where the Garmin would have helped). I did finally make it to the finish line and the clock read 2:16. I was really happy that I broke 2:20 but I was kinda hoping to break 2:15. Turns out, I actually did. Because there were so many people at the starting line, there was a big lag between the gun time and the chip time for the people in the back. For me, it was 2:15:15 between when I passed the starting line and when I crossed the finish line, so that's the time I'm going with. After the race, I drank only water and juice for the first hour or so. I did not want to relive what happened last week (and it worked!).
When I got back to Bagotville this evening, there was a surprise for me (and not a good one). When Chris left this morning, he didn't close the back door. It's a good thing we don't live in a sketchy neighbourhood. Luckily, Kona was shut in her room, so she couldn't escape and I guess the cat (Jester) is too lazy to go anywhere because he was still here. But Mika was gone. Of course, it had to be the dog that likes to run away in the first place and of course, it had to be the week when her ID tag was broken and the new one hadn't arrived yet. I biked around the neighbourhood frantically on Chris' delapidated bike, calling her name, with no luck. One guy I talked to suggested calling the military police (MPs, as we call them), which I did when I got home. Thankfully, someone in the PMQs found her, caught her and called it in. I went over to their house and sure enough, there she was. She didn't get very far, but we're surrounded on two sides by 90km/h roads and I was worried she might have been kershmucked by a car. I gave the guy who found her a jam of my homemade strawberry jam as a thank you for looking after her. I have no idea how long she'd been gone since Chris left at 9am and I didn't get home until almost 8pm. I'm so thankful to have her home, safe and sound. And let me tell you, Chris got an earful when he called.
That's it for today because I'm exhausted and I want to go to sleep!
Friday - I barely even remember Friday, it feels so long ago. I'm pretty sure I did nothing of note all day (not even dishes). I know I went for a 6km race-pace run with Mika in the evening. It was really humid and more difficult than I was anticipating as a result. Mika was a great running partner. She usually gets too excited at the beginning and pulls a lot, but after a kilometre or so, she calms down. Towards the end, I think she was even getting a bit tired and I had to encourage her a bit. Maybe she's a bit out of shape. We arrived home about 10 seconds before it started to rain - talk about luck.
Saturday morning was supposed to be the ride to St-Felix with Les Gazelles; however, Friday night, the group leader sent out an email about the weather forecast. They were calling for thundershowers with heavy rain, so she decided she wasn't going, as did several other ladies. I also decided not to go, owing partially to the weather but mostly to my race on Sunday. But, when I woke up on Saturday, the weather was beautiful. No rain to be had. I was really annoyed, both with myself for not going and with the stupid weather forecast for being completely wrong. I'm going to try to make up the ride tomorrow, depending on how my legs feel. If not, it'll be Thursday. After Chris got back from his football game, we had some errands to run, then I left for Lac Brome. Chris wasn't able to come with me to the race because he had to leave Sunday morning for his sea survival course in B.C. In Lac Brome, I stayed with Chris' aunt, uncle and cousins, and I arrived at their house around 8pm. We had duck/chicken burgers for dinner (they raise ducks) and they were quite good.
This morning (Sunday), I was up at 6:30 for my race. The race organizers asked all participants to be there by 7:30 (even though the race started at 9), so I was there plenty early. I picked up my race packet, which included an awesome technical T-shirt. After a lot of waiting around, we finally got started. There were 1028 participants, so the starting line was quite crowded. I started towards the back because I didn't want to get trampled by all the hard-core superfast runners. One bummer, though - my Garmin wasn't working. It must have been turned on accidentally in my bag because the battery was completely dead. I was a little worried about not having it, especially from a pacing perspective, but there was nothing I could do.
The route for this race did not have any laps, thank goodness. Basically, you run around Lac Brome, as the name of the race implies. It was a beautiful course, the weather was warm and sunny and the atmosphere was quite friendly, with a good mix of French and English. The first kilometre flew by, but that's because we hadn't hit the hills yet. This course was tough. It's basically 20km of rolling hills with one killer hill at km14. Chris' aunt and cousins were at the half-way point to cheer me on and all the volunteers were very encouraging too. At 10km, my time was 1:04 and I was thrilled.
Unfortunately, I started to feel really dizzy around km12 and I had to walk for a bit. I think I was getting dehydrated because the weather had warmed up considerably by this point. I stopped at every aid station in the second half and grabbed Gatorade every time. I also took a lot of walking breaks because the heat was so exhausting. I think my pace in the first half may have been a little too intense (this is where the Garmin would have helped). I did finally make it to the finish line and the clock read 2:16. I was really happy that I broke 2:20 but I was kinda hoping to break 2:15. Turns out, I actually did. Because there were so many people at the starting line, there was a big lag between the gun time and the chip time for the people in the back. For me, it was 2:15:15 between when I passed the starting line and when I crossed the finish line, so that's the time I'm going with. After the race, I drank only water and juice for the first hour or so. I did not want to relive what happened last week (and it worked!).
When I got back to Bagotville this evening, there was a surprise for me (and not a good one). When Chris left this morning, he didn't close the back door. It's a good thing we don't live in a sketchy neighbourhood. Luckily, Kona was shut in her room, so she couldn't escape and I guess the cat (Jester) is too lazy to go anywhere because he was still here. But Mika was gone. Of course, it had to be the dog that likes to run away in the first place and of course, it had to be the week when her ID tag was broken and the new one hadn't arrived yet. I biked around the neighbourhood frantically on Chris' delapidated bike, calling her name, with no luck. One guy I talked to suggested calling the military police (MPs, as we call them), which I did when I got home. Thankfully, someone in the PMQs found her, caught her and called it in. I went over to their house and sure enough, there she was. She didn't get very far, but we're surrounded on two sides by 90km/h roads and I was worried she might have been kershmucked by a car. I gave the guy who found her a jam of my homemade strawberry jam as a thank you for looking after her. I have no idea how long she'd been gone since Chris left at 9am and I didn't get home until almost 8pm. I'm so thankful to have her home, safe and sound. And let me tell you, Chris got an earful when he called.
That's it for today because I'm exhausted and I want to go to sleep!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
A day in the kitchen
I was supposed to go on a bike ride today, but it was raining off and on with thunderstorms threatening, so I decided to cook/bake all day instead. By the end of it all, I made:
- 16 dinner rolls
- 10 jars of jam (two batches)
- 12 soft pretzels
- 2 13x9 + 1 8x8 pan of cheese-stuffed jumbo shells
Why did I do all this, you might ask. First, boredom. But second, I was preparing dinner for a friend of mine whose husband is deployed in Italy/Libya at the moment. She has two kids and works full-time, so I wanted to make her life a little easier, plus it's good company.
I started with the dinner rolls, which are super easy because I have a bread-maker (best cooking appliance ever!). All you do is put the ingredients in the machine and select the Dough setting, then it automatically mixes and kneads them at the appropriate intervals. 90 minutes later, your dough is ready. After that, you have to let it sit for 10 minutes, then shape the dough into balls and let them rest for 20 minutes, then bake for 12-15 minutes. I had a couple right out of the oven and man were they good.
While the bread-maker was doing its thing, I started cutting up the strawberries for the jam. This is something else that seems so difficult but is actually really easy. Cut up the berries, mash them, add the sugar and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then add pectin and lemon juice, stir for 3 minutes (it seems like forever) and pour into jars. Too easy. I made a double batch out of two containers of strawberries, which gave me 10 1-cup jars of jam. I'll probably make some more in the next couple weeks, so if anyone wants some, let me know. Too bad I can't eat any of it because of my calorie-counting.
After the jam, I started prepping for the pasta shells. They're not difficult to make, but it is laborious. First, I had to grate an entire block of cheese (the big ~$7-8 one), to which I added two containers of cottage cheese. After that, 2 eggs, some bread crumbs and some parsley, and voila - you have your cheese stuffing. As for the shells, you have to pre-cook them until they're firm but pliable. If you cook them all the way, they're too soft to stuff, plus they get extra cooking time in the oven, so it works out ok. I always buy 2 boxes of name-brand shells because I've bought no name ones before, but there are always so many broken shells and I end up running out. Stuff the shells, then put them in the pan on a bed of tomato sauce, cover them with more tomato sauce and parmesan cheese and you're done. Minus the baking, of course. My friend's son is a bit of a picky eater, as she warned me, so I prepared some shells without sauce so that he would eat them. I even built an aluminium foil barricade to ensure no sauce contamination would occur. Honestly, I don't think they would taste very good without sauce, but it didn't end up mattering because he only ate one bite (at his mother's insistence).
After the dinner rolls were finished, I immediately prepared the dough for the pretzels. I used the bread-maker for this recipe as well, so I was able to work on the shells while the dough was mixing. The pretzels required a little bit more work after they came out of the machine, mostly in that they needed to be rolled into long ropes before being folded into pretzel-shapes. After that, I boiled them in water for 10 seconds a side (like you do with bagels), brushed them with egg white and baked them. There were 12 pretzels in total and I salted 4 of them, so that I could make cinnamon-sugar pretzels with the others.
I took most of the food with me to my friend's (12 rolls, 2 13x9 pans of shells and 5 pretzels - I left the rest for Chris so he wouldn't feel left out). I think it went over really well, especially the pretzels for dessert. They were so yummy! I melted some butter, then dipped the pretzels in it, then coated them with a cinnamon-sugar mix. To die for! I wouldn't want to calculate the calories on those.....(FYI, I take one day per week, usually corresponding with special events, where I don't count calories. Today was one of those days.)
It was also fun to sit and chat for a while. They have a beautiful house, her kids are great and I love their dog! All in all, it was a pretty great (and productive) day.
- 16 dinner rolls
- 10 jars of jam (two batches)
- 12 soft pretzels
- 2 13x9 + 1 8x8 pan of cheese-stuffed jumbo shells
Why did I do all this, you might ask. First, boredom. But second, I was preparing dinner for a friend of mine whose husband is deployed in Italy/Libya at the moment. She has two kids and works full-time, so I wanted to make her life a little easier, plus it's good company.
I started with the dinner rolls, which are super easy because I have a bread-maker (best cooking appliance ever!). All you do is put the ingredients in the machine and select the Dough setting, then it automatically mixes and kneads them at the appropriate intervals. 90 minutes later, your dough is ready. After that, you have to let it sit for 10 minutes, then shape the dough into balls and let them rest for 20 minutes, then bake for 12-15 minutes. I had a couple right out of the oven and man were they good.
While the bread-maker was doing its thing, I started cutting up the strawberries for the jam. This is something else that seems so difficult but is actually really easy. Cut up the berries, mash them, add the sugar and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then add pectin and lemon juice, stir for 3 minutes (it seems like forever) and pour into jars. Too easy. I made a double batch out of two containers of strawberries, which gave me 10 1-cup jars of jam. I'll probably make some more in the next couple weeks, so if anyone wants some, let me know. Too bad I can't eat any of it because of my calorie-counting.
After the jam, I started prepping for the pasta shells. They're not difficult to make, but it is laborious. First, I had to grate an entire block of cheese (the big ~$7-8 one), to which I added two containers of cottage cheese. After that, 2 eggs, some bread crumbs and some parsley, and voila - you have your cheese stuffing. As for the shells, you have to pre-cook them until they're firm but pliable. If you cook them all the way, they're too soft to stuff, plus they get extra cooking time in the oven, so it works out ok. I always buy 2 boxes of name-brand shells because I've bought no name ones before, but there are always so many broken shells and I end up running out. Stuff the shells, then put them in the pan on a bed of tomato sauce, cover them with more tomato sauce and parmesan cheese and you're done. Minus the baking, of course. My friend's son is a bit of a picky eater, as she warned me, so I prepared some shells without sauce so that he would eat them. I even built an aluminium foil barricade to ensure no sauce contamination would occur. Honestly, I don't think they would taste very good without sauce, but it didn't end up mattering because he only ate one bite (at his mother's insistence).
After the dinner rolls were finished, I immediately prepared the dough for the pretzels. I used the bread-maker for this recipe as well, so I was able to work on the shells while the dough was mixing. The pretzels required a little bit more work after they came out of the machine, mostly in that they needed to be rolled into long ropes before being folded into pretzel-shapes. After that, I boiled them in water for 10 seconds a side (like you do with bagels), brushed them with egg white and baked them. There were 12 pretzels in total and I salted 4 of them, so that I could make cinnamon-sugar pretzels with the others.
I took most of the food with me to my friend's (12 rolls, 2 13x9 pans of shells and 5 pretzels - I left the rest for Chris so he wouldn't feel left out). I think it went over really well, especially the pretzels for dessert. They were so yummy! I melted some butter, then dipped the pretzels in it, then coated them with a cinnamon-sugar mix. To die for! I wouldn't want to calculate the calories on those.....(FYI, I take one day per week, usually corresponding with special events, where I don't count calories. Today was one of those days.)
It was also fun to sit and chat for a while. They have a beautiful house, her kids are great and I love their dog! All in all, it was a pretty great (and productive) day.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
A day of firsts
This morning, I woke up feeling much better. Still not 100% but at least I was able to get stuff done today. I got caught up on all the chores that I'd let slide the last couple days and then in the afternoon, I met a friend to play golf. This was my first time golfing so I wasn't sure what to expect. We practised at the driving range for a while, which was so much fun - you get to hit stuff! I'm still not sure if I golf right- or left-handed, but the girl at the counter suggested I try right since I bat right. It took a while to get used to the whole "swing" thing but I did manage to hit it past the 100-yard marker a few times. Then we went to the par 3 course, which has 9 holes of about 100 yards each. It was perfect for my skill level. I actually managed to finish one of the holes in exactly 3 strokes. It was a lot of fun since we weren't playing very seriously (and we weren't keeping score, thank goodness). I learned a lot about the different kinds of clubs, what they do and when to use them. I was pretty good at the putting, though I discovered that I putt left-handed. Weird. Overall, it was a great way to spend an afternoon and cheap too.
For dinner tonight, I made a cheese risotto and a big-ass salad (yeah, that's actually what I'm calling it). This was my first risotto and it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. It took about half an hour to make (lots of stirring) and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. I was also surprised at its calorie value; now, it's rice so it's not exactly low-cal but it was much lower that I expected. For the salad, I basically went through the fridge and grabbed all the vegetables that needed to get eaten, chopped them up, then added nectarines and dried cranberries. It ended up yielding 1.2kg of salad (hence the name "big-ass" salad), so there's plenty leftover for tomorrow.
After watching the hockey game (not talking about that), I went for a run (6km). One of the features of my Garmin is that you can race against a previous run, so I decided to give that a try. I pulled up the route from last Thursday (my last 6km around the Q's) and it even tells you in which direction to go, in case you've forgotten the route. I beat my previous time by over a minute, finishing with a time of 34:16.
For dinner tonight, I made a cheese risotto and a big-ass salad (yeah, that's actually what I'm calling it). This was my first risotto and it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. It took about half an hour to make (lots of stirring) and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. I was also surprised at its calorie value; now, it's rice so it's not exactly low-cal but it was much lower that I expected. For the salad, I basically went through the fridge and grabbed all the vegetables that needed to get eaten, chopped them up, then added nectarines and dried cranberries. It ended up yielding 1.2kg of salad (hence the name "big-ass" salad), so there's plenty leftover for tomorrow.
After watching the hockey game (not talking about that), I went for a run (6km). One of the features of my Garmin is that you can race against a previous run, so I decided to give that a try. I pulled up the route from last Thursday (my last 6km around the Q's) and it even tells you in which direction to go, in case you've forgotten the route. I beat my previous time by over a minute, finishing with a time of 34:16.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Post-race recovery
Oh man, it's been a rough couple a days. I was fully expecting my legs to be sore for a couple days. Not the case at all. It's my stomach that's been the problem. As I mentioned before, I was quite sick immediately after the race and I've been having stomach pains ever since.
On Sunday, after Chris' parents came home from the air show, I was feeling much better, not 100% but better, so we went out for dinner at Rouge Burger Bar. The meal was awesome. We all shared a RBB poutine (they have excellent fries) and I split a burger with Chris' mom. A little while after we got home, I decided to go for a quick recovery run around the neighbourhood. I was planning to go for about 5km and I took Kona with me, just for fun. 2.5km in, I had to go home because I was doubling over in pain. These same sort of pains have persisted on and off since then and I spent most of today on the couch. As a result, I have not done any runs or bike rides since Sunday night and unfortunately, I missed my Gazelles ride tonight. I didn't want to take any chances with my stomach because knowing my luck, I'd have issues at the farthest point from home. I'll probably make up the ride on Thursday instead.
For dinner tonight, I made a buffalo chicken salad which I wrapped up in tortillas. It was quick, easy and tasty. I made a mistake in my calorie-counting throughout the day and I ended up ~150 calories over. Combine that with my lack of exercise these past couple days and I'm going to have to kick things up a notch for the rest of the week. I'm also preparing for another race this weekend, a 20km in Lac Brome. So far, the weather looks much better, low of 13, high of 23 with only a 20% chance of precipitation. Mind you, that can change at any moment but I'm crossing my fingers. I think I'll enjoy this race much more, not just because of the weather, but because it's a continuous race. In the Jonquiere race, it was an uninspired 3km loop, 7 times over and towards the end, it became just as much of a mental battle as a physical one. The Tour de Lac Brome is exactly what is sounds like - you run around the lake. No laps, no repetition. Plus, there are typically over 1000 participants so the chances of me finishing in dead last, like I did in Jonquiere, are fairly limited.
On Sunday, after Chris' parents came home from the air show, I was feeling much better, not 100% but better, so we went out for dinner at Rouge Burger Bar. The meal was awesome. We all shared a RBB poutine (they have excellent fries) and I split a burger with Chris' mom. A little while after we got home, I decided to go for a quick recovery run around the neighbourhood. I was planning to go for about 5km and I took Kona with me, just for fun. 2.5km in, I had to go home because I was doubling over in pain. These same sort of pains have persisted on and off since then and I spent most of today on the couch. As a result, I have not done any runs or bike rides since Sunday night and unfortunately, I missed my Gazelles ride tonight. I didn't want to take any chances with my stomach because knowing my luck, I'd have issues at the farthest point from home. I'll probably make up the ride on Thursday instead.
For dinner tonight, I made a buffalo chicken salad which I wrapped up in tortillas. It was quick, easy and tasty. I made a mistake in my calorie-counting throughout the day and I ended up ~150 calories over. Combine that with my lack of exercise these past couple days and I'm going to have to kick things up a notch for the rest of the week. I'm also preparing for another race this weekend, a 20km in Lac Brome. So far, the weather looks much better, low of 13, high of 23 with only a 20% chance of precipitation. Mind you, that can change at any moment but I'm crossing my fingers. I think I'll enjoy this race much more, not just because of the weather, but because it's a continuous race. In the Jonquiere race, it was an uninspired 3km loop, 7 times over and towards the end, it became just as much of a mental battle as a physical one. The Tour de Lac Brome is exactly what is sounds like - you run around the lake. No laps, no repetition. Plus, there are typically over 1000 participants so the chances of me finishing in dead last, like I did in Jonquiere, are fairly limited.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
It's been a while...Operation: Clean House + Half-Marathon Race Report
So here's what you missed in the life of Caitlyn:
Wednesday the 8th:
Workouts: none - I decided to let my legs recover from all the biking this week
Food Cooked: black bean quesadillas and cheddar and leek soup
Verdict: a lot of work for a lot of calories
Anything Else of Note: nope
Thursday the 9th:
Workouts: 6km superfast run after the potluck; time: 35:24
Food Cooked: farfalle with lemon, pine nuts and parmesan, for my friend's potluck dinner
Verdict: they told me to make it way before we actually ate, so it ended up getting cold and had to be reheated, so I was disappointed with the taste
Anything Else: Operation: Clean House has commenced. Chris' parents are coming to stay with us for the weekend and the house really needed a good cleaning. I spent a good 4 hours scrubbing the floor in the entrance and living room. This flooring is the cheapest crap out there. Apparently, it's laminate, but as far as I'm concerned, it's basically wallpaper on the floor. To make it seem more wood-like, there are textured grooves, which make it look nothing like wood and are great for trapping dirt. So every six months or so, I have to get down on my hands and knees and scrub the dirt out with a nail brush. Very tedious, very boring, but the floor does look great. Unfortunately, once you start, you're committed to doing the whole floor; otherwise, it's pretty clear where you stopped.
Friday the 10th:
Workouts: none
Food Cooked: none. Chris came home late, around 9, because of the air show prep. He was tired, hungry and grumpy, as was I from cleaning the house all day. So we went to Chez Paulo and had poutine and pepperoni pizza.
Verdict: best idea ever
Anything Else: After meeting up with a friend for coffee in the morning, Operation: Clean House continued all day. By the time we went to bed, I had gotten the house to an acceptable level of clean. I was caught up on the laundry and dishes, plus I vacuumed and mopped the house, cleaned all the marks off the walls, cleaned the bathroom, tidied everywhere (esp. my office) and got rid of a lot of garbage.
Saturday the 11th:
Workouts: Les Gazelles ride in the morning. We left from the Holiday Inn in Jonquiere and went for 75km down to Lac Kenogami, up to Larouche and back to Jonquiere via the 170. Everything was going fairly well until I got a flat tire about 35km in. I have a flat kit, but really no idea how to change a tire. Thankfully, our group ran into some guy (Eric aka my new hero) that one of the ladies knew and he tagged along with our group. He was able to change my tire and one of the ladies gave me a cartridge to pump it up. On Monday, I have an appointment to get my bike tuned up, so I'll have to remember to buy a new tube and some cartridges. As far as timing and tracking, I forgot my Garmin, which I was really annoyed about, but I figured that at least I had my bike computer. However, when Eric took off the back wheel to fix the tire, he must have bumped the sensor because I had no readings. After 5km later, we stopped at a depanneur so some of the girls could fill up their water bottles, so I had the chance to fix it. In the end, I figure we went about 75km in about 3 hours.
Food Cooked: Chris' parents arrived mid-afternoon, so I prepared some "chicken wings". You take chicken breasts, cut them into wing-sized pieces, cover them with Frank's hot sauce, then coat them with ground-up Fibre One crumbs. For dinner, I made spaghetti with a roasted cherry tomato sauce, topped with goat cheese. It turned out quite well and everyone seemed to like it. With it, I made a salad and for dessert, blueberries with chocolate frozen yogurt.
Anything Else: Once Chris got home, the four of us went to Parc Riviere du Moulin to go canoeing. I had bought passes on Friday but as it turned out, the boat rentals for free for the day. It was an enjoyable outing and the weather was really nice.
Sunday the 12th:
Workouts: Half Marathon de Saguenay. First, it rained. Not a nice mist or light rain - it poured. By the end of the first kilometre, I was soaked. The temperature was quite low so I was freezing throughout most of the race and it was a bit windy. The course was a 3km loop that you did 7 times. For the first 5 laps, things were going fairly well, all things considered. I maintained a consistent pace (20 min/lap). The 6th lap is when things started to go downhill. My legs and arms starting tingling from the cold and I was beginning to lose sensation. Thankfully, Chris' mom was able to give me a jacket to wear, which helped but I was already beyond soaked at this point. The 7th lap was brutal. I had to run/walk most of it because I couldn't feel my legs anymore. I ended up finishing in 2:24:39. Not a bad time for my first half-marathon, but if the weather had been nicer I think I could have broken 2:15. Afterwards, they served some food in the school. They had salad, Saguenay tortiere and cake. I was starving and the tortiere was really warm, so I stuffed my face. Big mistake. When I got home, my stomach started to revolt. I ended up puking up everything I ate post-race, plus I spent a lot of time in the bathroom, if you know what I mean. Instead of going to the airshow, I decided to take a nap on the couch. At one point, I woke up and Mika had jumped up on the couch (which she's not allowed to do) and curled up in the crook of my legs. Kona was sleeping on the floor beside the couch, as if they knew I wasn't feeling well. It was really cute.
Food Cooked: For dinner tonight, we're going to Rouge Burger Bar. Yay!
Whew. That's it for today. I'm tired.
Wednesday the 8th:
Workouts: none - I decided to let my legs recover from all the biking this week
Food Cooked: black bean quesadillas and cheddar and leek soup
Verdict: a lot of work for a lot of calories
Anything Else of Note: nope
Thursday the 9th:
Workouts: 6km superfast run after the potluck; time: 35:24
Food Cooked: farfalle with lemon, pine nuts and parmesan, for my friend's potluck dinner
Verdict: they told me to make it way before we actually ate, so it ended up getting cold and had to be reheated, so I was disappointed with the taste
Anything Else: Operation: Clean House has commenced. Chris' parents are coming to stay with us for the weekend and the house really needed a good cleaning. I spent a good 4 hours scrubbing the floor in the entrance and living room. This flooring is the cheapest crap out there. Apparently, it's laminate, but as far as I'm concerned, it's basically wallpaper on the floor. To make it seem more wood-like, there are textured grooves, which make it look nothing like wood and are great for trapping dirt. So every six months or so, I have to get down on my hands and knees and scrub the dirt out with a nail brush. Very tedious, very boring, but the floor does look great. Unfortunately, once you start, you're committed to doing the whole floor; otherwise, it's pretty clear where you stopped.
Friday the 10th:
Workouts: none
Food Cooked: none. Chris came home late, around 9, because of the air show prep. He was tired, hungry and grumpy, as was I from cleaning the house all day. So we went to Chez Paulo and had poutine and pepperoni pizza.
Verdict: best idea ever
Anything Else: After meeting up with a friend for coffee in the morning, Operation: Clean House continued all day. By the time we went to bed, I had gotten the house to an acceptable level of clean. I was caught up on the laundry and dishes, plus I vacuumed and mopped the house, cleaned all the marks off the walls, cleaned the bathroom, tidied everywhere (esp. my office) and got rid of a lot of garbage.
Saturday the 11th:
Workouts: Les Gazelles ride in the morning. We left from the Holiday Inn in Jonquiere and went for 75km down to Lac Kenogami, up to Larouche and back to Jonquiere via the 170. Everything was going fairly well until I got a flat tire about 35km in. I have a flat kit, but really no idea how to change a tire. Thankfully, our group ran into some guy (Eric aka my new hero) that one of the ladies knew and he tagged along with our group. He was able to change my tire and one of the ladies gave me a cartridge to pump it up. On Monday, I have an appointment to get my bike tuned up, so I'll have to remember to buy a new tube and some cartridges. As far as timing and tracking, I forgot my Garmin, which I was really annoyed about, but I figured that at least I had my bike computer. However, when Eric took off the back wheel to fix the tire, he must have bumped the sensor because I had no readings. After 5km later, we stopped at a depanneur so some of the girls could fill up their water bottles, so I had the chance to fix it. In the end, I figure we went about 75km in about 3 hours.
Food Cooked: Chris' parents arrived mid-afternoon, so I prepared some "chicken wings". You take chicken breasts, cut them into wing-sized pieces, cover them with Frank's hot sauce, then coat them with ground-up Fibre One crumbs. For dinner, I made spaghetti with a roasted cherry tomato sauce, topped with goat cheese. It turned out quite well and everyone seemed to like it. With it, I made a salad and for dessert, blueberries with chocolate frozen yogurt.
Anything Else: Once Chris got home, the four of us went to Parc Riviere du Moulin to go canoeing. I had bought passes on Friday but as it turned out, the boat rentals for free for the day. It was an enjoyable outing and the weather was really nice.
Sunday the 12th:
Workouts: Half Marathon de Saguenay. First, it rained. Not a nice mist or light rain - it poured. By the end of the first kilometre, I was soaked. The temperature was quite low so I was freezing throughout most of the race and it was a bit windy. The course was a 3km loop that you did 7 times. For the first 5 laps, things were going fairly well, all things considered. I maintained a consistent pace (20 min/lap). The 6th lap is when things started to go downhill. My legs and arms starting tingling from the cold and I was beginning to lose sensation. Thankfully, Chris' mom was able to give me a jacket to wear, which helped but I was already beyond soaked at this point. The 7th lap was brutal. I had to run/walk most of it because I couldn't feel my legs anymore. I ended up finishing in 2:24:39. Not a bad time for my first half-marathon, but if the weather had been nicer I think I could have broken 2:15. Afterwards, they served some food in the school. They had salad, Saguenay tortiere and cake. I was starving and the tortiere was really warm, so I stuffed my face. Big mistake. When I got home, my stomach started to revolt. I ended up puking up everything I ate post-race, plus I spent a lot of time in the bathroom, if you know what I mean. Instead of going to the airshow, I decided to take a nap on the couch. At one point, I woke up and Mika had jumped up on the couch (which she's not allowed to do) and curled up in the crook of my legs. Kona was sleeping on the floor beside the couch, as if they knew I wasn't feeling well. It was really cute.
Food Cooked: For dinner tonight, we're going to Rouge Burger Bar. Yay!
Whew. That's it for today. I'm tired.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Kona is so weird....
I forgot to mention this earlier.
While I was getting the rice out of the cupboard for dinner, a clove of garlic fell out (they're stored in the same spot). I didn't realize it at the time, but a few minutes later, Chris noticed that Kona was carrying something around in her mouth. Yup, it was the garlic. She wasn't chewing it or anything, just walking around with it. This is the same dog who has a bathroom fetish (ie. she drinks out of the toilet, she loves to chew on toilet paper and empty shampoo bottles, and she once put her Kong in the toilet), she's afraid of recycling as well as the chain we use to let her out in the backyard, and as I write this, she is lying on her back, completely still, with her legs straight in the air, her mouth wide open and her huge tongue hanging out to the side - I wish I had my camera. She is one weird dog.
While I was getting the rice out of the cupboard for dinner, a clove of garlic fell out (they're stored in the same spot). I didn't realize it at the time, but a few minutes later, Chris noticed that Kona was carrying something around in her mouth. Yup, it was the garlic. She wasn't chewing it or anything, just walking around with it. This is the same dog who has a bathroom fetish (ie. she drinks out of the toilet, she loves to chew on toilet paper and empty shampoo bottles, and she once put her Kong in the toilet), she's afraid of recycling as well as the chain we use to let her out in the backyard, and as I write this, she is lying on her back, completely still, with her legs straight in the air, her mouth wide open and her huge tongue hanging out to the side - I wish I had my camera. She is one weird dog.
What a ride!
Today I finished up my supply work on the base. No major problems to report. When I got home I had to call the tax centre to discuss one of my students with his manager (who was also one of my students who happened to be in the same class). I actually thought the conversation was going to be about the progress report I had written for him; this particular student had some serious attitude and effort issues and I made them quite clear in his evaluation. However, as it turned out, she wanted to discuss the negative comments he had made about me on his course critique. Basically, she wanted to apologize for his remarks, especially since she was in the same class and saw that his comments didn't make any sense. She had a meeting with him and as it turns out, they were the result of his bitterness about my refusal to move him to a different group. I discussed the myriad of reasons why I made that decision, which she completely understood and agreed with. The conversation was much less stressful than I was anticipating, even though it was in French. It was funny because normally I would speak with her in English, but now it was my turn to communicate in my second language.
Tonight was my regularly-scheduled Tuesday Gazelles ride. While we were getting ourselves organized, the rain clouds started to roll in. We were originally going to go out to Bec Scie and back, but the group leader decided to head down Talbot instead so we would be closer to our cars in case the weather got too bad. Sure enough, we got a few kilometres out and the rain began. By the time we got to Ch. du Boulevard, we were all completely soaked and one girl had to dump the water out of her shoes. When we left Costco, I was in a 28 km/h group with 7 other ladies. At the depanneur, 4 of them decided to head straight back and the rest of us went up Rang St-Pierre. It was a challenging ride and I had difficulty keeping up. With the rain, I was so soaked and I could barely see out of my glasses, plus at one point we were riding at 36-38 km/h. I just couldn't do it. Thankfully, I was saved by a red light, which gave me a chance to recover. One of the ladies suggested I work on upping my cadence so that I don't get as tired. Right now, I average about 60-75 rpm, but she suggested I aim for more like 80-100 so that the bulk of the work is absorbed by my legs rather than my cardiovascular system. I'll definitely keep this in mind on my next ride. I was pretty thankful when we reached the Costco parking lot. We only covered 22km but I was glad to be done. I was a mess when I got home, completely covered with mud and chain grease. Straight to the shower for me!
Tonight was my regularly-scheduled Tuesday Gazelles ride. While we were getting ourselves organized, the rain clouds started to roll in. We were originally going to go out to Bec Scie and back, but the group leader decided to head down Talbot instead so we would be closer to our cars in case the weather got too bad. Sure enough, we got a few kilometres out and the rain began. By the time we got to Ch. du Boulevard, we were all completely soaked and one girl had to dump the water out of her shoes. When we left Costco, I was in a 28 km/h group with 7 other ladies. At the depanneur, 4 of them decided to head straight back and the rest of us went up Rang St-Pierre. It was a challenging ride and I had difficulty keeping up. With the rain, I was so soaked and I could barely see out of my glasses, plus at one point we were riding at 36-38 km/h. I just couldn't do it. Thankfully, I was saved by a red light, which gave me a chance to recover. One of the ladies suggested I work on upping my cadence so that I don't get as tired. Right now, I average about 60-75 rpm, but she suggested I aim for more like 80-100 so that the bulk of the work is absorbed by my legs rather than my cardiovascular system. I'll definitely keep this in mind on my next ride. I was pretty thankful when we reached the Costco parking lot. We only covered 22km but I was glad to be done. I was a mess when I got home, completely covered with mud and chain grease. Straight to the shower for me!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Double day
This morning I worked on the base from 8-12. It went pretty well. The group was energetic but not so much so that it was difficult to manage. I'm back tomorrow morning with the same group, so that's 8 hours of paid work plus some prep time (1.6 hours - a gift from the teacher whom I'm replacing). It'll be nice to have a little bit of extra money, plus it keeps my foot in the door - who knows what my employment situation will be in the fall.
In the afternoon, I went for my interval run. It was really hot, but I decided I needed to do some outdoor practice and who knows how hot it'll be during the race. I broke the work-out into 800m chunks: 800m warm-up, 4x (800m fast, 800m recovery) with an 800m cool-down for a total of 8km. After I download my workout data from my Garmin, I can get a break-down of speed during each of the segments and I'm really pleased with how well I stayed in the designated speed zones. When I got home, I showered and immediately went to bed for a nap, to recover in preparation for my bike ride.
For the bike ride, there were 4 of us and we met in Chicoutimi-Nord. The weather was still quite hot but it was starting to cool down. With the breeze and the wind resistance, I never felt overheated. We went 25km out and back on the same highway (~50km total). It's an area of Saguenay that I've never been to before, so I was extremely surprised to see what I will call "RV Land" just before St-Ambroise. I'm not really sure what's going on, but there was a huge RV store on one side of the road, plus several RV-related stores and services, and a giant (as in 700 spots) RV "campground" on the other. This "campground" was owned by some company whose name had "Floride" (Florida) in it and at the entrance to this campground, there were 2 giant plastic palm trees. I'm not kidding - giant plastic palm trees in the middle of St-Ambroise. It was laughable. During the ride, I also learned a new French word. One of the ladies asked me a question about my hill-climbing and I had no idea what she was saying. She repeated it and I still had no clue. Eventually, I figured out that the word she was using, "plateau", has another meaning other than "flat area". Apparently, it can also be used to refer to the front chainrings on your bike. After that, her question made a lot more sense. It was a fairly quick ride, averaging 28.4 km/h and there only a few hills along the way. According to my Garmin, between my run and the bike ride, I burned over 1800 calories. Sweet!
For dinner, I made tandoori chicken with curried vegetables. As I mentioned yesterday, I prepared the marinade, put it on the chicken and let it sit overnight. When I got home, all I had to do was bake it in the oven for 25 min and prepare the vegetable curry in the meantime. For the curry, I used carrots, broccoli and potatoes. Unfortunately, between the highly-caloric potatoes and the butter used, I wasn't able to eat much of it. But, I must say, everything turned out great!
PS An update on my fall from yesterday's bike ride - I have two good-sized blue bruises on my left hip. Ow.
In the afternoon, I went for my interval run. It was really hot, but I decided I needed to do some outdoor practice and who knows how hot it'll be during the race. I broke the work-out into 800m chunks: 800m warm-up, 4x (800m fast, 800m recovery) with an 800m cool-down for a total of 8km. After I download my workout data from my Garmin, I can get a break-down of speed during each of the segments and I'm really pleased with how well I stayed in the designated speed zones. When I got home, I showered and immediately went to bed for a nap, to recover in preparation for my bike ride.
For the bike ride, there were 4 of us and we met in Chicoutimi-Nord. The weather was still quite hot but it was starting to cool down. With the breeze and the wind resistance, I never felt overheated. We went 25km out and back on the same highway (~50km total). It's an area of Saguenay that I've never been to before, so I was extremely surprised to see what I will call "RV Land" just before St-Ambroise. I'm not really sure what's going on, but there was a huge RV store on one side of the road, plus several RV-related stores and services, and a giant (as in 700 spots) RV "campground" on the other. This "campground" was owned by some company whose name had "Floride" (Florida) in it and at the entrance to this campground, there were 2 giant plastic palm trees. I'm not kidding - giant plastic palm trees in the middle of St-Ambroise. It was laughable. During the ride, I also learned a new French word. One of the ladies asked me a question about my hill-climbing and I had no idea what she was saying. She repeated it and I still had no clue. Eventually, I figured out that the word she was using, "plateau", has another meaning other than "flat area". Apparently, it can also be used to refer to the front chainrings on your bike. After that, her question made a lot more sense. It was a fairly quick ride, averaging 28.4 km/h and there only a few hills along the way. According to my Garmin, between my run and the bike ride, I burned over 1800 calories. Sweet!
For dinner, I made tandoori chicken with curried vegetables. As I mentioned yesterday, I prepared the marinade, put it on the chicken and let it sit overnight. When I got home, all I had to do was bake it in the oven for 25 min and prepare the vegetable curry in the meantime. For the curry, I used carrots, broccoli and potatoes. Unfortunately, between the highly-caloric potatoes and the butter used, I wasn't able to eat much of it. But, I must say, everything turned out great!
PS An update on my fall from yesterday's bike ride - I have two good-sized blue bruises on my left hip. Ow.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Sunday bike ride
To make up for my missed ride yesterday, I decided to head into the park myself. I went down through Laterriere, during which time I noticed that I had forgotten to hit Start on my Garmin. I reached over with my right arm to hit the button on my left wrist and in the process fell over. And of course, with my clip shoes, I couldn't get my feet out fast enough and I crashed hard on my left side. No blood, but I'm confident I'll have some nice bruises tomorrow. It takes about 20km to get out to the park and I was planning on going 10km in (for a total of about 60km). I did the first few hills but man, they are tiring. After a good 5km, I decided to turn around and come back because I didn't want to be too tired to make it home. In total, over 50km, I climbed about 300m - not a bad ride.
In the evening, Chris' La Baie football team had a game, so I took Mika with me to watch. Mika was so excited and bouncing all over the place - she was driving me crazy. Thankfully, she calmed down a bit in the second half, but I was ready to take her home. At one point during the game, a player got ejected. I don't exactly know what started it, but it was ugly. One of the coaches got involved and he got ejected too. The player's mother was making a big stink over it too, so she got kicked out (thank god, because she had an actual car horn that she was using as an annoying noisemaker). The game was stalled for probably 15 minutes because of it and I think I heard every single French swear word used. There were also countless penalties, so the game stretched out to over 3 hours. It was cold, wet and buggy, plus with Mika jumping up on everyone, I was definitely ready to go at the end.
When we got home, I received an email from a fellow Gazelle, asking if anyone was interested in going on a ride to St-Ambroise. We were supposed to go to St-Ambroise last weekend, but it was cancelled because of a thunderstorm warning. So there's 4 of us who'll be heading out tomorrow evening for a ~50km ride.
We did our meal planning for the week and on the menu for tomorrow is Tandoori Chicken with Vegetable Curry. To season the tandoori chicken, you have to marinate it overnight in the fridge. So tonight I prepared the marinade, which is yogurt mixed with lemon juice, garlic and a handful of spices. It smells great already. I also decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies because my calorie count for the day was really low and I had lots to spare. Even after 3 cookies, I still have almost 400 calories left.
Tomorrow morning (and Tuesday morning too), I'm working on the base, doing supply work for one of the English teachers there. All the planning is done for me, which is great. That being said, I'm off to bed since I have to get up early.
In the evening, Chris' La Baie football team had a game, so I took Mika with me to watch. Mika was so excited and bouncing all over the place - she was driving me crazy. Thankfully, she calmed down a bit in the second half, but I was ready to take her home. At one point during the game, a player got ejected. I don't exactly know what started it, but it was ugly. One of the coaches got involved and he got ejected too. The player's mother was making a big stink over it too, so she got kicked out (thank god, because she had an actual car horn that she was using as an annoying noisemaker). The game was stalled for probably 15 minutes because of it and I think I heard every single French swear word used. There were also countless penalties, so the game stretched out to over 3 hours. It was cold, wet and buggy, plus with Mika jumping up on everyone, I was definitely ready to go at the end.
When we got home, I received an email from a fellow Gazelle, asking if anyone was interested in going on a ride to St-Ambroise. We were supposed to go to St-Ambroise last weekend, but it was cancelled because of a thunderstorm warning. So there's 4 of us who'll be heading out tomorrow evening for a ~50km ride.
We did our meal planning for the week and on the menu for tomorrow is Tandoori Chicken with Vegetable Curry. To season the tandoori chicken, you have to marinate it overnight in the fridge. So tonight I prepared the marinade, which is yogurt mixed with lemon juice, garlic and a handful of spices. It smells great already. I also decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies because my calorie count for the day was really low and I had lots to spare. Even after 3 cookies, I still have almost 400 calories left.
Tomorrow morning (and Tuesday morning too), I'm working on the base, doing supply work for one of the English teachers there. All the planning is done for me, which is great. That being said, I'm off to bed since I have to get up early.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Progress reports: finished!
It's been a busy few days.....
Thursday night I made cod and fennel stew. I wasn't so sure about the fennel because I absolutely hate the taste of licorice and as I was cutting it up, I was worried that it was going to taste like crap. But I was surprised - once it was cooked, it just tasted like mutant celery. I wasn't a huge fan of the stew but it used up the cod that had been in the freezer plus it gave me an opportunity to try fennel. I don't know if I will use fennel again, but at least I know now where to get it.
Friday was a busy day. I was down to my last few progress reports but I had to go into town to do a few errands in the morning: a piece for the dog leash at Rona, pop was on sale at Zellers, I needed some things for the BBQ at Loblaws and I wanted to investigate arm warmers. Arm warmers are another piece of cycling equipment that I thought was completely ridiculous until I discovered how useful they were. For example, a morning ride - the temperature starts out cool, but heats up over the course of the ride. A jacket is really bulky to deal with after you take it off; arm warmers will keep you warm when it's cool and then when it gets too hot, you can take them off and easily put them in your jersey pocket. However, as good an idea as they are, they're damn expensive, as in $35-45 for small pieces of spandex. I almost bought some at Sports Experts, but ever since they've started giving their employees commission, they jump you the second you walk in the store and they hover until you buy something. It's really pushy and I don't like that kind of pressure. And of course, as I was looking at the arm warmers, an employee came up and tried to "help" me, but it ended up driving me out of the store. I may purchase some at a later date, but it likely won't be at Sports Experts.
Friday afternoon, I finished the last of my progress reports. In total, after 81 evaluations, I figured I probably wrote about 30 000 words (average of 180 words/paragraph x2 paragraphs per student). That's like 120 pages, double-spaced. Insane. I was relieved to finally send off the last batch of them. When Chris got home, he had a short football practice in La Baie, so I decided to do my run there. I ran along the river for a while, which was a nice mix of terrain (pavement, gravel and grass). I found running on the grass really nice and it seemed like a lot less effort. After I did the whole path, end to end, I looped through the city and down to the waterfront path along the bay. I couldn't believe how quickly 11km flew by. Towards the end, I was so energized that I decided to tackle a long hill on the way back to the practice field and I actually enjoyed it. It was one of the best runs I've ever had.
Friday night was a BBQ at my friend's house. Nothing fancy, just a bunch of girls hanging out and talking. Unfortunately, I ended up staying out way too late and it was close to 2 when I got home. I had to be up at 7 for Gazelles, but I figured 5 hours of sleep was manageable. But I couldn't get to sleep. I saw 3, 4, 5 o'clock go by and I think I got about 2 hours sleep total. So when the alarm went off, I was in no condition to go on a ride bike, let alone one through the park. (For those of you who don't know, "the park" is the Parc des Laurentides, basically what fills in the gap between Quebec City and Saguenay, and it's quite mountainous.) 60km through extremely hilly terrain on 2 hours sleep did not seem like a good idea. So I went back to bed. I think it was the right decision, but I really wish I could have gone because the weather was beautiful today. In the future, I'm going to have to be more careful about Friday night events - I need a self-imposed curfew or something to make sure I get enough sleep before my bike rides.
This morning (late morning, really) we went to check out the community garage sale. We didn't find anything of interest, probably because we got there a little late, but we did buy hotdogs and lemonade. In the afternoon, we sat outside reading for a bit, then we tossed the football around for a while. I did some laundry but I was getting bored. As I mentioned, the weather was really nice today, warm and sunny, so we decided to go the Parc Riviere du Moulin. There, you can rent canoes and kayaks and you can paddle down the river to some waterfalls and back. It's a really cheap activity, $4 for the two of us, and it was a fun way to kill an hour or so. However, after all this time outside, I got really sunburnt. I didn't notice until I changed out of my tank top, but man, am I red. Personally, I really hate sunscreen, but with my complexion, I really do need it. So I think I'll buy the spray-on kind and hopefully I'll actually use it.
Speaking of kayaking, there's a triathlon at the beginning of September in Ottawa where instead of swimming, you can kayak/canoe for 4km. It's an intriguing idea, especially since I'm not a good swimmer. The only real drawback is that I would need a kayak, but then I realized that since I'm a MEC member, I can rent equipment from them. And luckily enough, there's a MEC in Ottawa. But of course, I'd still need to practise beforehand (season pass at Riviere du Moulin?) and I'd somehow have to transport the kayak from MEC to the race site and back, but I might be able to make it work. Any thoughts?
For dinner, I made a pasta dish out of my vegetarian cookbook, Farfalle with Parmesan, Lemon and Pine Nuts. It's exactly what is sounds like. I made a "sauce" with fresh parsley, olive oil, lemon rind and lemon juice, then when the pasta (bowties) was ready, I mixed it with the sauce plus some of the cooking water, a bunch of parmesan and the pine nuts. I'm really happy with how it turned out - it tasted like something you might find in a restaurant, so it's definitely on my list to make again sometime.
And finally, an update on my Amazon/UPS saga. I checked the status of my order this morning, the one they told me was supposed to arrive Friday/Monday, and apparently it's being returned to the sender. This, after I've spoken with them almost everyday this week, trying to figure out how to get this package into my possession. UPS's customer service department wasn't open so I called Amazon. Long story short, I have to re-place my order. I'm not thrilled about it but she did give me a $10 credit, so it could be worse. Hopefully, it'll arrive sooner rather than later, because I really want my Indian cookbook. Anyways, I hope this is the end of the saga and I will let you know when I actually have the books physically in my hands.
Thursday night I made cod and fennel stew. I wasn't so sure about the fennel because I absolutely hate the taste of licorice and as I was cutting it up, I was worried that it was going to taste like crap. But I was surprised - once it was cooked, it just tasted like mutant celery. I wasn't a huge fan of the stew but it used up the cod that had been in the freezer plus it gave me an opportunity to try fennel. I don't know if I will use fennel again, but at least I know now where to get it.
Friday was a busy day. I was down to my last few progress reports but I had to go into town to do a few errands in the morning: a piece for the dog leash at Rona, pop was on sale at Zellers, I needed some things for the BBQ at Loblaws and I wanted to investigate arm warmers. Arm warmers are another piece of cycling equipment that I thought was completely ridiculous until I discovered how useful they were. For example, a morning ride - the temperature starts out cool, but heats up over the course of the ride. A jacket is really bulky to deal with after you take it off; arm warmers will keep you warm when it's cool and then when it gets too hot, you can take them off and easily put them in your jersey pocket. However, as good an idea as they are, they're damn expensive, as in $35-45 for small pieces of spandex. I almost bought some at Sports Experts, but ever since they've started giving their employees commission, they jump you the second you walk in the store and they hover until you buy something. It's really pushy and I don't like that kind of pressure. And of course, as I was looking at the arm warmers, an employee came up and tried to "help" me, but it ended up driving me out of the store. I may purchase some at a later date, but it likely won't be at Sports Experts.
Friday afternoon, I finished the last of my progress reports. In total, after 81 evaluations, I figured I probably wrote about 30 000 words (average of 180 words/paragraph x2 paragraphs per student). That's like 120 pages, double-spaced. Insane. I was relieved to finally send off the last batch of them. When Chris got home, he had a short football practice in La Baie, so I decided to do my run there. I ran along the river for a while, which was a nice mix of terrain (pavement, gravel and grass). I found running on the grass really nice and it seemed like a lot less effort. After I did the whole path, end to end, I looped through the city and down to the waterfront path along the bay. I couldn't believe how quickly 11km flew by. Towards the end, I was so energized that I decided to tackle a long hill on the way back to the practice field and I actually enjoyed it. It was one of the best runs I've ever had.
Friday night was a BBQ at my friend's house. Nothing fancy, just a bunch of girls hanging out and talking. Unfortunately, I ended up staying out way too late and it was close to 2 when I got home. I had to be up at 7 for Gazelles, but I figured 5 hours of sleep was manageable. But I couldn't get to sleep. I saw 3, 4, 5 o'clock go by and I think I got about 2 hours sleep total. So when the alarm went off, I was in no condition to go on a ride bike, let alone one through the park. (For those of you who don't know, "the park" is the Parc des Laurentides, basically what fills in the gap between Quebec City and Saguenay, and it's quite mountainous.) 60km through extremely hilly terrain on 2 hours sleep did not seem like a good idea. So I went back to bed. I think it was the right decision, but I really wish I could have gone because the weather was beautiful today. In the future, I'm going to have to be more careful about Friday night events - I need a self-imposed curfew or something to make sure I get enough sleep before my bike rides.
This morning (late morning, really) we went to check out the community garage sale. We didn't find anything of interest, probably because we got there a little late, but we did buy hotdogs and lemonade. In the afternoon, we sat outside reading for a bit, then we tossed the football around for a while. I did some laundry but I was getting bored. As I mentioned, the weather was really nice today, warm and sunny, so we decided to go the Parc Riviere du Moulin. There, you can rent canoes and kayaks and you can paddle down the river to some waterfalls and back. It's a really cheap activity, $4 for the two of us, and it was a fun way to kill an hour or so. However, after all this time outside, I got really sunburnt. I didn't notice until I changed out of my tank top, but man, am I red. Personally, I really hate sunscreen, but with my complexion, I really do need it. So I think I'll buy the spray-on kind and hopefully I'll actually use it.
Speaking of kayaking, there's a triathlon at the beginning of September in Ottawa where instead of swimming, you can kayak/canoe for 4km. It's an intriguing idea, especially since I'm not a good swimmer. The only real drawback is that I would need a kayak, but then I realized that since I'm a MEC member, I can rent equipment from them. And luckily enough, there's a MEC in Ottawa. But of course, I'd still need to practise beforehand (season pass at Riviere du Moulin?) and I'd somehow have to transport the kayak from MEC to the race site and back, but I might be able to make it work. Any thoughts?
For dinner, I made a pasta dish out of my vegetarian cookbook, Farfalle with Parmesan, Lemon and Pine Nuts. It's exactly what is sounds like. I made a "sauce" with fresh parsley, olive oil, lemon rind and lemon juice, then when the pasta (bowties) was ready, I mixed it with the sauce plus some of the cooking water, a bunch of parmesan and the pine nuts. I'm really happy with how it turned out - it tasted like something you might find in a restaurant, so it's definitely on my list to make again sometime.
And finally, an update on my Amazon/UPS saga. I checked the status of my order this morning, the one they told me was supposed to arrive Friday/Monday, and apparently it's being returned to the sender. This, after I've spoken with them almost everyday this week, trying to figure out how to get this package into my possession. UPS's customer service department wasn't open so I called Amazon. Long story short, I have to re-place my order. I'm not thrilled about it but she did give me a $10 credit, so it could be worse. Hopefully, it'll arrive sooner rather than later, because I really want my Indian cookbook. Anyways, I hope this is the end of the saga and I will let you know when I actually have the books physically in my hands.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
What a day...
Yesterday, I went on my Gazelles ride in the evening. I decided to join one of the 28km/h pelotons, just to see how it was. Holy man. They may have called themselves a 28 group, but we averaged 30.3km/h over 55km. I was pretty tired when I got home, but I still had a bunch of progress reports to write plus I needed to make dinner. As per Chris' request, I made a pot roast with baked potatoes and roasted asparagus. The baked potato was amazing - it's been a long time since I've had one (mostly because they're ~250 calories apiece). The roasted asparagus was also good, but unfortunately I mistimed when the pot roast would be done, so it was quite overcooked. The piece that Chris had seemed to be ok, but mine was really chewy and I ended up giving it to the dogs. I wrote progress reports until about 1, 1:30 but I finished all the ones that needed to be done, edited them and sent them off.
With those ones finished, there are 2 groups worth left to write (21 reports). I was planning on getting up this morning and spending most of the day writing, but no such luck. I woke up with a wicked migraine, which knocked me out for most of the day. I slept until about noon and I woke up when Chris came home. I decided to take one of my migraine attack pills, since sleeping it off didn't seem to be working. Unfortunately, this pill makes me feel really dizzy and fuzzy, so when Chris went back to work, I went back to bed.
While I was up over lunch, I decided to take care of a problem I'm having with an Amazon package I ordered. Normally, Amazon packages are sent via Canada Post, so they go to our post office box, where we can pick them up. However, for whatever reason, they decided to send it by UPS, which gets delivered to the house directly. I didn't know this when I placed the order, so I didn't add the house address. I checked the tracking information and it said that the package was in Jonquiere but that I needed to contact UPS (likely to give them the house address). So I called and they gave me the option of picking it up myself in Jonquiere. They said they would call me to let me know when it was available; I received a call at lunch that it was ready to be picked up today before 6pm. When Chris came home, we drove over to Jonquiere to get it, with the appropriate documentation. However, the lady at the depot was a royal bitch to me. I tried to explain the situation to her (in French, of course) but she refused to listen to me. She was convinced that she knew what was going on (which she didn't) and I got the impression that because my French wasn't perfect, obviously I didn't know what I was talking about and I couldn't possibly be right. She went on about how it would be ready tomorrow, something about a fax and 24 hours notice, none of which made any sense, especially since I had received a call saying it was ready. I tried to press the issue and explain the situation again, but she ignored me and started helping the other customers. Oh man, I was so angry. When I got home, I called UPS again and they confirmed that the package was there, ready for pick-up. They said I could go back tomorrow and try again, which I told them I wasn't going to do for 2 reasons: a) it takes ~45min to go there and back and with the price of gas, I'm not wasting my time and money again, and b) I'm not dealing with that woman again. So they're going to try to deliver it again tomorrow. Except that I'll be gone in the morning, so I have no idea when I'll actually get my books. I also called Amazon to let them know what's going on. They apologized for the inconvenience and hey, I get $5 off my next order.
After all this, I decided to go to the gym for a run; Chris dropped me off on his way to football practice. I did 11km in about 66min then walked home in the rain, which was surprisingly nice. On the menu for dinner tonight was vegetarian chili, which I prepared in the slow cooker before I went for my run. Nothing special, but it was really satisfying and it yields lots of left-overs.
As for my progress reports, I still have 21 to go. Because of my migraine, I didn't get anything accomplished, so I'll be writing all day tomorrow. I have a class from 9-11am, so it's going to be tight. If I submit them on Friday, I don't think it'll be the end of the world. But they certainly have to be done before the BBQ on Friday night. I'm not going until I finish them.
With those ones finished, there are 2 groups worth left to write (21 reports). I was planning on getting up this morning and spending most of the day writing, but no such luck. I woke up with a wicked migraine, which knocked me out for most of the day. I slept until about noon and I woke up when Chris came home. I decided to take one of my migraine attack pills, since sleeping it off didn't seem to be working. Unfortunately, this pill makes me feel really dizzy and fuzzy, so when Chris went back to work, I went back to bed.
While I was up over lunch, I decided to take care of a problem I'm having with an Amazon package I ordered. Normally, Amazon packages are sent via Canada Post, so they go to our post office box, where we can pick them up. However, for whatever reason, they decided to send it by UPS, which gets delivered to the house directly. I didn't know this when I placed the order, so I didn't add the house address. I checked the tracking information and it said that the package was in Jonquiere but that I needed to contact UPS (likely to give them the house address). So I called and they gave me the option of picking it up myself in Jonquiere. They said they would call me to let me know when it was available; I received a call at lunch that it was ready to be picked up today before 6pm. When Chris came home, we drove over to Jonquiere to get it, with the appropriate documentation. However, the lady at the depot was a royal bitch to me. I tried to explain the situation to her (in French, of course) but she refused to listen to me. She was convinced that she knew what was going on (which she didn't) and I got the impression that because my French wasn't perfect, obviously I didn't know what I was talking about and I couldn't possibly be right. She went on about how it would be ready tomorrow, something about a fax and 24 hours notice, none of which made any sense, especially since I had received a call saying it was ready. I tried to press the issue and explain the situation again, but she ignored me and started helping the other customers. Oh man, I was so angry. When I got home, I called UPS again and they confirmed that the package was there, ready for pick-up. They said I could go back tomorrow and try again, which I told them I wasn't going to do for 2 reasons: a) it takes ~45min to go there and back and with the price of gas, I'm not wasting my time and money again, and b) I'm not dealing with that woman again. So they're going to try to deliver it again tomorrow. Except that I'll be gone in the morning, so I have no idea when I'll actually get my books. I also called Amazon to let them know what's going on. They apologized for the inconvenience and hey, I get $5 off my next order.
After all this, I decided to go to the gym for a run; Chris dropped me off on his way to football practice. I did 11km in about 66min then walked home in the rain, which was surprisingly nice. On the menu for dinner tonight was vegetarian chili, which I prepared in the slow cooker before I went for my run. Nothing special, but it was really satisfying and it yields lots of left-overs.
As for my progress reports, I still have 21 to go. Because of my migraine, I didn't get anything accomplished, so I'll be writing all day tomorrow. I have a class from 9-11am, so it's going to be tight. If I submit them on Friday, I don't think it'll be the end of the world. But they certainly have to be done before the BBQ on Friday night. I'm not going until I finish them.
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