I'm a cat person

Rest day today! And I'm thinking probably tomorrow too… I'm kind of worried about my knees since they've been pretty painful since the long run on Sunday. I've probably just been increasing my distance too fast but I really don't want anything to stop me from running on the 19th so I think I am going to take a couple of days to rest, ice my knees, as well as pick up a new pair of running shoes. I am going to get a pair that offers a bit more support and maybe this will help with the knee pain. I will leave it up to the experts though and see what they recommend :) I think wearing a small brace during the run may not be a bad idea either.

I had a pretty busy day today starting with driving Matt into work at 6:30am since he's going to work in Liverpool for the week and this way I can keep the car (yay!). Then I worked at the lab until 3pm followed by a doctor's appointment and now I'm volunteering at the Canadian Cancer Society Lodge That Gives unit 9pm. I will be glad when this day is over and I can watch the new Game of Thrones, that's for sure ;) So since I have no run to talk about today, I thought I would post some pics from the weekend that I forgot to post! Disclaimer: they are mostly of my cats...

{This is the anchor my Dad put in the front yard with some Virgina Bluebells growing beside it. Probably one of the things I like most about our house (beside the HUGE veranda my Dad built a couple summers ago – more pics on that once it's Summer, it looks beautiful :)}

{What a cutie – Ripley (after Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien – she had a really tiny head on a big body when she was a kitten) looking at me curiously in the living room. She is seriously the craziest cat I've ever met. Every time I'm home she picks up any clothes I have lying around and drags them all around the house! Last weekend she even picked up my ENTIRE bag of clothes and dragged it into the hallway before removing specific pieces she liked. What a weirdo ;P}

{Afterwards I was fooling around on Aviary and thought I'd add some hipster glasses because Ripley would definitely be a hipster if she was human – don't ask lol}

{Darwin and Ripley – aren't they adorable!? They often sleep all cuddled up with each other}

For all you greek yogurt lovers out there, I recently tried some Oikos Coconut Greek Yogurt and it is absolutely delicious! I usually stick to the 0% Plain Greek Yogurt and just add fruit, nuts, honey, chia, etc. to it as a snack or dessert. My mom had some of the coconut yogurt at home and mixed it with pineapple and melon and it tasted just like a pina colada! The coconut adds just enough flavour that it doesn't need any other sweetener and tastes great with some fruit on top. A nice change from the usual plan with still 0% fat and only 80 calories :)

{A little snack while volunteering}

S

P.S. I added a section on the left hand side bar that lists the blogs I follow so if you're bored you should check them out!

Time For Some Ultimate

So here's an update from the past couple of days:

On Wednesday I took a running break and a friend from my lab (Maxine) and I tossed around a frisbee for a bit. We wanted to get some practice in since we joined an Ultimate Frisbee League for the summer! We both wanted to join a team sport and thought it sounded fun. We put our names on the "free agent list" and were recruited by a team called the Raging Rambos haha. We're both pretty excited and the guy who contacted us sounds super nice and made us feel okay about not having too much experience, saying we'll put in some practice games before playing other teams. Practicing throwing the frisbee yesterday was such a relief since we wanted to make sure we actually COULD do it. Turns out we don't completely suck after all! I have seemed to get the hang of throwing the frisbee in the relatively right direction and Maxine is great at catching it even when I throw it crazy so I think we make a great pair :) I can't wait to actually learn how to play!

{The frisbee I won at James's birthday for coming in 3rd in the "Best 90's costume contest" for being Spike from Degrassi – I dressed as her unintentionally but it worked out nonetheless! Gotta love jean vests :D}

Yesterday I went to the gym after work for a run, 4.87 miles/58:03 mins. To be honest, my legs were still kind of stiff so I took a lot more walking breaks than I should have. I think I may need to get some running shoes with a bit more support for my ankles and knees since they seem to be giving me trouble (just a little bit). I love my New Balance Minimus shoes but I'm not sure they provide enough support, at least for while I'm starting out. They stiffness seemed to subside half-way through the run though and they felt like normal which I was happy with. I think I'm still getting over taking a bit of a break when I got all those blisters since I feel like I'm just getting back into the flow I had before, therefore I must have been out of the flow!

I'm heading home to the Bay for the weekend tonight and I am very excited! It's been a couple of months since I was last home which is the longest time without a visit in a while! I'm looking forward to some delicious wheat-free meals (which I will cook my fair share of, of course) and some Rummy games with my parents – our family is obsessed with cards. Euchre is our preferred choice but unfortunately it will only be the three of us this weekend (need four to play) since Matt has to work this weekend :( I'm hoping the weather will be nice so I can do one of my last long runs before the Bluenose Half Marathon. It's getting so close, where did the time go!? My trip to Baltimore to attend the 2013 Annual Sleep Society Meeting is coming up fast too so I am busy getting my poster ready :) I leave on June 1st (my birthday!) and will be there for 5 days. I'm excited to go to and present at my first conference! I'm looking up some stuff to do during some downtime while I'm there (not that there will be too much time for sight-seeing). I'd like to visit the Edgar Allan Poe Museum which is in the house he died in, in Baltimore. Sounds pretty cool to me!

{I used to enjoy reading Poe when I was younger and lately watching The Following has reignited my interest}

Side Note:

Within our HSHC Bluenose Marathon team there is a competition to see who can get the most new pledges by next Monday, May 13th! The winner gets a gift card to Niche (one of my fav places!) so if anyone can spare just $5 or $10, it would help me out a lot! You also win bragging rights too which is always fun :P All of the proceeds from my run (and the others running for HSHC) goes towards the conversion of an old office into a new treatment room at the Halifax Sexual Health Centre! Upon its completion, they will be able to see many more patients on a daily basis as well as decrease wait times for their critical services! Any little bit helps for this amazing organization!

Happy weekend everybody!

S

And her face was as red as an apple

Update from last night: went to the new Moksha studio that opened in Bedford to try hot yoga for the first time. I must say, I really did enjoy it. It was definitely a new atmosphere for me having to "practice silence" in the class room and "leave all my worries at the door", but it was very refreshing. I'm often constantly worrying about this and that so it was nice to focus on relaxing and strengthening my muscles. Concentrating specifically on my breathing will be especially useful for my running as I think breathing too shallow is what is causing me to often get the dreaded runner's stitch. The dripping sweat was a tad distracting as I had to stop multiple times to give my face a wipe and take a swig of water but the temperature difference did help you feel AMAZING when it was over and you stepped into the cool outside air. Ultimately, I think it's something I could definitely get used to and I may take it up as a cross training exercise to help strengthen my core and learn deep breathing. I didn't bring my phone so I wouldn't have any valuables to leave unattended so, to much disappointment I'm sure, there are no pics of me after the class was over looking like I stepped out of hell :) Don't get me wrong, an enjoyable hell!


I reluctantly will admit, I didn't get my run in today :( The weather is still disgraceful, my muscle are quite sore from last night's yoga, and today is going to be hectic as right after work I'll be meeting up with my parents and sister to see Jurassic Park 3D (can't wait, it's my Dad's fav movie and something my sister and I grew up watching repeatedly!) followed by a friends house party and seeing the Town Heroes play at Michael's. I know, I know, I'm full of excuses lately. I'll get back in the groove, feels like it was a weird week or something. Anyways, I had a nice wheat-free lunch of some Campbell's chicken and rice soup and some Pop Chips. Love the crunchiness and light flavour of the chips which don't feel as heavy as regular potato chips. Low in calories too which is always a plus!



I also forgot I took a couple of pics of my friend Adelle's cute-as-buttons (does that work plural? lol) cats, Loki and Luna. Their colouring is so unique and reminds me of a jungle cat! They are also super friendly and all around fun to cuddle :)

{Loki}

{Luna}

Enjoy your weekend, I know I will! (Even though I will probably be working at the lab both Sat and Sun, but oh well!)

S

A nice surprise

So I guess I have a lot of catching up to do! It has been such a busy week I haven't had any time to write up a decent post. So I'll try and make up for that today.
Took a rest day on Wednesday, the day was very hectic with class and a tutorial on top of an 8 hour work day so I didn't make it home until late. I experimented making wheat-free tortillas which turned out not to bad, not too good either though. Still tasted good but much thicker than the usual tortilla which made them a little hard to eat.

Great run yesterday evening after work. Another 6.5k/46:12 mins. It was ridiculously hot in the Y cardio room though, probably due to the sun streaming in through the windows that line the back of the gym directly behind the treadmills. Needless to say I was mopping sweat off my face left and right yesterday! Felt really good after though and shaved off a couple of seconds from my normal run.
My parents also came up the city yesterday to take Katie and I out for lunch. We were celebrating me getting my official acceptance into the Masters program in Anatomy & Neurobiology at Dal (woohoo!) and also to give Katie a break from her ridiculous Architecture school schedule. I think we will all be glad when she is done for the semester – she'll be glad to be done her work and we'll be glad to have our Katie back!

As a nice surprise my Mom took me to Lululemon after lunch for some treats! Spoiled much am I? :P I was thrilled to get another pair of Run: Inspire Crops II in Wee are from space indigo/ink well (what an awesome name), a Run: Swiftly Tech Short Sleeve in pop orange (one of my fav colours) and another Cool Racerback in fresh teal. Beautiful! Thanks mom :) I've been wearing the crops around the house tonight and they are so comfortable. Can't wait to take them running.





I'm working on teaching myself Dreamweaver at the moment so I can make my own website for my blog. I love doing design work so I though creating and designing my own website would be a great hobby. I'm just finding it hard to find the time. When I'm not at work, I'm at class, studying, running, cooking, doing laundry or hanging out with friends. There is not enough time in the day to do everything I want to do! It's frustrating but at least I'm keeping myself occupied. Things should settle down in the next week or two once work is less hectic, classes will be over and the nice weather (which hopefully will join us soon!) actually happens. Anyways, I will let you know once I have the website up and running. Hopefully it will turn out pretty cool :)

I'm looking forward to my run tomorrow, going to attempt 13k! And now I've got some new running gear which makes me even more excited :) Found this very cool article in the Chronicle Herald (thanks Dad) about a 75 year old man from Bedford who'll be making the trip to run the Boston Marathon on April 15. Very cool and inspiring.

Have a great weekend, I know I will.

S

Update:

Tried out the brown rice pasta I bought tonight. Tastes exactly like regular whole wheat pasta, same texture. I did it really basic tonight (it's already 8:30pm so I was looking for something quick). I added black beans, corn, onions, garlic, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce which I mixed greek yogurt into for some protein :) With a little cheese on top (the photo makes it look way cheesier than it, sadly, actually was) and a glass of wine it was perfect! I also added some fennel which was a surprisingly nice touch.

Mellow Monday, Trendy Tuesday

No run on Monday, I took a day to rest my legs from Sunday's run. It was also a crappy day because of all the rain outside. I thought we were heading for some nice weather finally! Today seems to be a lot nicer with the sun shining this morning so hopefully it truly is Spring time!

{View from my window at work, wasn't looking forward to going outside at the end of the day}

Plus I had to be up at 5:30am Monday morning to drive Matt into Bedford. They are working on a foundation in Liverpool again this week so if I drive him in I can keep the car while he's away in case I need it. It was HORRIBLE getting up that early but worth it I guess. Got to go back to sleep for an hour or two when I got home but I made it an early night, after watching Game of Thrones of course! What a fantastic show. It's times like this I wish I had splurged for cable so I can watch it with everyone else. Oh well, I didn't run into any spoilers before watching it so that was lucky :) Great first episode, can't wait for the rest of the season (literally, I can't wait, I need it now!)

Made myself I yummy meal last night of quinoa with shrimp, edamame and mushrooms with cilantro and a touch of sesame oil. Delicous :)

I've been really into quinoa lately and looking for different ways to cook with it. For this, I first toasted it in a dry pan then cooked it by simmering it in vegetable stock. It was much more flavourful this way than just cooking it in water.

Yet again made it to the gym this morning, I honestly don't know how I'm doing it! I'm literally the worst morning person. It's just so nice to have it done and not have to worry about fitting a run in later in the day and the gym is much less busy in the mornings (although the YMCA is generally not too hectic which I love). Did 6.5k/46:16mins which is an average 11:34/mile pace, a bit faster than usual. I was a little stiff this morning so my run did feel a bit strained but my muscles seemed to loosen up by the end. Tried out my new Run: Swiftly Tech Short Sleeve shirt that I just bought (@fledgelingx I'm slowly adding to my collection!). Super comfy and light and dries very quickly. It's the short sleeve version of my Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve which is great for running outside during cold mornings. I'm slowly expanding my running gear collection and loving it :)

Look good, feel good

Afternoon! Having a rest day today, I have a lot of things at home/school work I've been neglecting so I thought I could be productive on my day off training and get some studying and housework done after work. It's amazing how things can pile up! I also need to raid the Dollar Store for stuff to celebrate St. Patty's Day on Saturday (Wooo!). I plan on getting my long run out of the way Saturday morning so I have the rest of the day to clean/prepare.

The weather was kind of crappy today so I kind of don't mind not running this morning but I think unfortunately this is going to carry on for the next couple of days. Oh well, morning run in the rain tomorrow! Might be refreshing :P

I'm thinking I might squeeze a little work out in tonight – maybe try some Pilates moves?

Can't wait to try out my new Lululemon gear on my run tomorrow :) Look good, feel good!

S