Thursday, January 30, 2014

The post about looking my best on camera, a new ThinkPad and #peachreps

Top left: all that was left of the banana bread after team meeting.
Bottom left: My new ThinkPad...property of my work place:)
Right: The banana bread before it was devoured.


  • Yesterday was team meeting. I made a loaf of Paleo banana bread. It actually turned out much better than I expected. I made it specifically for my boss and I because we are the only two people on the team with dietary restrictions. He's gluten free, and I'm also gluten free because I'm Paleo. Everyone on my team ate it and everyone said it was delicious. I wouldn't say it tasted like my regular banana bread, but it was still pretty darn good. It was dense but fluffy if that makes any sense. I got the recipe from George, the Civilized Caveman. The link is here.  The only thing I did differently is I added walnuts.  I won't be doing too much Paleo baking in the future. And definitely never stuff that stays in my house. I ate too much banana bread yesterday.
  • My husband wondered why I would allow the video of Julien and I making the banana bread get posted to Facebook. He said I did not look my best in the video. That is true. I have on no make-up, no contact lenses and I'm wearing my jammies. And the opening shot of my ass is huge. But Julien is super adorable in the video with his Beatles hair, and I actually don't care how I look. I may not look my best, but I look way better than I did 2.5 years ago.  You can watch the video on my Poonapalooza Facebook page here. And how many times did I have to say Paleo banana bread? Someone want to take a count for me?
  • Yesterday was an exciting one at work. We got new ThinkPads.  They removed my desktop computer and this mobile unit is mine to take everywhere with me. I am not very computer savvy, but I have been playing with it for the past day, and I'm getting better with it.  I now have a mobile office and other than team meeting (every other week), and supervision (every other alternating week), I have little reason to go into the office. Unless of course a client is coming to see me. This suits me just fine. I became "one of those people" today. I was in Starbucks for hours doing work. I just wanted the coffee. I can't log onto their wireless network as I have my own MIFI (for security reasons). But I felt all important and business like.  I had to sign a waiver at work saying that if my ThinkPad gets lost or damaged, my workplace will take $2000 from my pay. Yikes! That's some pressure to take super good care of it.
  • I worked late last night. That meant I could wait till sunlight before heading to the McMaster overpass to run my hills this morning. Six hill repeats and -19C with the windchill. Doesn't matter what the temp is. By the time I finish my warm-up, I'm sweating like nobody's business. It was busy on the Mac hill this morning. I was there just before 8 am classes. Lots of students rushing to class. So there was some skill needed while running the hills this morning. It required my undivided attention because lots of manoeuvring around people was involved. And even though I was sweating while I was running, as soon as I was done, I was freezing cold.  The Running Room wasn't opening for another hour, so I had to go and shiver in my cold car instead of shooting the shit with Ben while I warmed up. I'm definitely in need of that jumper that you offered to send me Jan;)
  • I remember when I started hill repeats a month ago. The first hill I ran was BRUTAL. By my sixth hill today, I felt strong. I think my glutes are definitely getting stronger. I have a little joke with a couple of my Twitter friends. We call hill repeats #peachreps because my goal is to have my ass look like a nice firm peach by the time I'm done hill repeats in another month. Fingers crossed I end up with a peach butt:) That's not likely going to happen, but may be a more realistic goal for when I join the gym in the spring. I'm going to embrace the next month of #peachreps. After that is speed work (I hate speed work) which is a necessary evil:(
  • Wednesday morning I dropped my run. It was -31C (with windchill) when I woke up, and I couldn't get motivated to run at 5:30 am in the dark in extreme cold. Call me lilly livered. I'm hoping I'll get to bed early tonight and get up at 4:45 am tomorrow to make the run up. It's going to be a balmy-11C with the windchill at 5 am. I have court in the morning with a client, so I have to leave my house by 7 am. That means I have to run no later than 5:15 am to get my 6K and some stretches in.  That is my plan, but if I don't make it, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I've only dropped 3 runs since I made my running come back in November. That's 94% compliance (51/54) and all dropped runs were weather related (1 b/c of the ice storm, 2 b/c of temperatures). Last month I missed zero runs even though I was sick with a cough for the entire month. That's not too shabby if I do say so myself. 
  • This has been a hard winter to run in for sure. Even though I have gotten lots of supportive comments about running on a treadmill or at an indoor track, I just can't. I'm an outdoor runner. If I used an indoor track or a treadmill, I'd hardly be hardcore, bad ass or epic anymore. And I would lose the title bat shit crazy. Hmmmmm, tempting as that is, I've become fond of bats. There's a definite status in owning that label. May not be what everyone strives for, but if I got to be known as that bat shit crazy winter runner on the Mac Hill, I wouldn't be too disappointed. I know that's what all the Mac students were thinking this morning with their raised eyebrows and sideways glances. Cool right?


Top left: Yesterday's weather and why I dropped my run:(
Bottom right: Today's running stats
Right: Looking dazed and confused on the Mac Overpass.