Still Alive

I'm still alive. Still suffering through the Saskatchewan winter. Keeping up with my marathon training.

Mostly, I haven't blogged in forever because I spent a week in Costa Rica earlier this month. E and I ended up with a pretty nice tax refund courtesy of our tuition credits, so we booked a last-minute trip to an all-inclusive resort on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Costa Rica was nothing less than paradise. Luckily for you blog readers, I kept a journal while I was there so that I can still write about our escapades there in detail later.

For now, I just wanted to make sure the few people that actually read this page know that I intend on updating it sometime!

My newest favorite thing

Vodka tonic. With lime.

I'm not sure why these things are so delicious. I really love them though. I love them so much that I rode my bike for an hour on the trainer today just so that I could drink a couple of vodka tonics tonight. I guess that exercising specifically to drink probably isn't the most healthy way to go about things, but whatever it takes, right?

I'm going to go enjoy my drinks right now.

The first of my favorite things

I am not what you would call a girly-girl. I don't do my hair or makeup on a regular basis. For this reason, I have little skill in styling hair or applying makeup.

Enter the first of my favorite things: my CHI straightening iron.

The CHI works magic. My hair is naturally fairly straight, but left to its own devices, it flips at the ends and is prone to fly-aways. In about 2 minutes with the CHI, it lays flat and looks shiny and healthy. The effect is even better if I really get my act together and use the fancy hair products I got with the iron for Christmas.

I probably never would have splurged on a high-end ceramic iron for myself, so I'm thankful that my mom did! Even though I only use it a few times per month, I would definitely replace it were I to break it tomorrow.

Love my CHI.

Skiing with My Besties

I went skiing at Eb's Trails with my friends S and E yesterday. Eb's is a trail system maintained by the Saskatoon Nordic Ski Club. It's located about 50 minutes away from the city in a beautiful Provincial Forest area. We had a great time - good company, gorgeous weather. In fact, the weather was so nice that trail conditions were pretty crappy. I refuse to complain about nice weather here, though!

All in all, we skied about 7 miles in about 2 hours. It was pretty slow due to the sticky snow, but who's counting anyway?

I also just finished up the first 'official' week of marathon training. Only 15 to go! Feeling good so far.

Around and around and around we go

We had super weather here from Sunday through Friday morning. I skied! I ran outside! I enjoyed my bike commutes! Unsurprisingly, things took a turn for the worse for the weekend. -40 wind chills type turn for the worse. Since that is just too flaking cold to be outside for any period of time, I had to go to the gym today for my run.

I hate the gym. Especially running at the gym. Let me break this down. I can't run more than about 30 minutes on the treadmill without getting vertigo. Thus, I mostly avoid using the treadmill for safety reasons. The only other option for actual running at my gym is the indoor track. The 200m indoor track. Running on the track is better than freezing to death, but that's just about the only positive thing I can say about it.

So, I went to the gym today. I ran around in 200m circles for an hour. I sort of wanted to shoot myself. But I did it.

I'm hoping the weather forecast holds, because I should be able to run outside again later this week.

Winter Wonderland

I did lots of x-country skiing this weekend!

Saturday, E and I went to Little Red River Park in Prince Albert. It was so stinking cold that we didn't take any pictures, but I included a couple below that were taken on previous trips to Little Red. It's an absolutely gorgeous park with something like 50km of groomed x-country trails. We ended up staying there most of the day and skiing a total of 10.8 miles. We had fun even though the temperatures barely topped 0F!



Sunday, I stuck around town and skied at one of the city's golf courses with my friend S for her birthday. We did 4.9 miles before the previous day's ski caught up with me. It didn't help that the weather made a spectacular turn-around overnight Saturday so that it was 37F by 11AM Sunday. The temperature was warm enough to make the snow sticky. And me really sweaty. Sweaty enough that I got blisters on the tops of my toes from my socks rubbing!

All in all, it was a great weekend of skiing. I'm looking forward to getting some more time in on my skis before the season ends, especially since the weather seems like it might be decent in the near future.

I also decided to add an 'event' to my schedule. I'm doing a for fun winter triathlon at Little Red on February 6. The 'triathlon' consists of 4K of trail running, 8K of mountain biking, and 7K of x-country skiing. I think the short distances really fit well with where I'm at in my training right now, and it should be a fun way to spend a day!

You can never have too many bikes, right?

I put a deposit down on a new touring bike this week. After lots of research, I decided to go with a Rocky Mountain Sherpa. As far as complete touring bikes go, there isn't really a whole lot of choice, but I made sure I looked at each and every one that I could feasibly buy in Saskatoon. I went with the Sherpa for a variety of reasons. When I first started looking, I had already decided that the tourer was going to be steel-framed since my aluminum road bike buzzes and drives me batty after about 3 hours. Not only is the Sherpa steel, it's also a better quality and lighter steel than that used for some of the other popular touring models (i.e. Surly LHT, Jamis Aurora, Trek 520). The Sherpa also has slightly better components and wheels than the other tourers. As such, the Sherpa is quite a bit more expensive than a LHT or an Aurora or a Trek 520.

I think all the touring bikes (with the exception of the aluminum ones, not a fan) I looked at were good bikes that I would have been happy with. So, the actual deciding factor in my decision was the bike shop where I would be buying said bike. IMO, the hands-down best shop in Saskatoon is Bruce's Cycle Works, and they just happen to be a Rocky Mountain dealer. Decision made.

I love BCW. Everyone that works there knows who I am, what kinds of bikes I ride, and that I'm a crazy, dedicated winter bike commuter. The guys there have fixed a bike that a different shop broke, helped me through a frame warranty, converted my hardtail to a winter bike (Frankendale!), and helped me deal with some nasty saddle issues. They also offer free lifetime adjustments of brakes and derailleurs on any bike purchased there, so my bike always shifts well. The shop just happens to be located about 4 blocks from my house, so it's also super-convenient and walk or ride-able.

BCW is definitely one of the things I will miss the most when I move away from Saskatoon!