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.

The post about snow cheeks, a productive morning and Paleo banana bread

Snow cheeks!

• What was with all that overnight snow on Sunday night to Monday morning? I check the forecast RELIGIOUSLY for obvious reasons. We were supposed to get less than 1cm overnight. Imagine my surprise when I woke to 7.5 cm (3 inches) of snow on Monday morning. And I had to be in the office early for a meeting. I didn't get in till about 10:20 because I was driving behind a convoy of plows along the QEW.  The meeting should have been well underway. But alas, it was cancelled due to the weather. Now I am sure that I am the one who lives furthest away so WTF? I could have worked from home!!!!! I tell you, I never catch a break!
• Although I was tempted to run yesterday morning so I wouldn't have to run in the frigid temperatures of this morning, I ended up resting as planned. Had I run, it would have been my 6th run in a row. I ran just after 8 am this morning. It was a touch colder than what it says on the weather forecast above. Minus 25C, -27C makes no difference in the grand scheme of things.  I can't really tell the difference in 2 degrees.  I will say this though,it was so cold that the running app on my phone did not work. My GPS froze and it said I only ran 3K.
• I woke at 5am. Although the temperature wasn't supposed to get much warmer by sunrise, I just wanted to run in the daylight. It's hard enough running when it's -27C, but running in the dark in -27C is crazy!!!! I was supposed to run 6K, but wimped out at 5K because my lungs were on fire from the cold and I couldn't feel my toes anymore. There was another runner that I ran by twice during my run. I think he was doing the same route as me but backwards. He had a brown goatee which was completely white from sweat. My eyelashes froze together and my cheeks got snow/icicles on them from my sweat. I still manage to sweat in frigidly cold temperatures. I have to admit, miserable weather aside, I felt bad ass this morning.  I ran my best pace in a few weeks (6:32/K) and I deemed myself certifiably bat shit crazy. There's a real freedom in finally admitting that you have a problem.
• Although I waited around to run this morning, I got more done in that 3 hours, than I did over the entire weekend.  I cleaned up the kitchen mess from the night before, I made banana bread, I prepared the slow cooker for Bolognese sauce (for dinner tonight), I made Julien's lunch, I made hard boiled eggs for the week, I cleaned the turkey carcass (to prepare for soup) from Sunday, I cleaned up all the dishes again, I read blogs, answered some emails, tended to my cats and enjoyed a few cups of coffee. Then I ran, got ready for work and drove to Toronto, then Brampton for client meetings. Busy, busy day! 
• I decided not to take a break from my Tim Horton's drive-thru guy.  The young man who has a crush on me and works the drive-thru window was pretty much back to normal yesterday. I acted the same as I usually do and we exchanged a bit of small talk. As much small talk as you can in 30 seconds or less. I feel relieved because I felt badly for him. I know he was embarrassed, but he needs to know that I am incredibly easy going. So we are good and he seemed comfortable with me again. Yay!
• Sometimes I think I come off as very snobby to others. Today I was in Starbucks in Vaughan and there was a suit (business man) sitting at a communal table. I faced him as I lined up for coffee and he looked up at me, kept eye contact with me while he folded his arms across his chest and sat back in his chair, still staring at me. Now the first thing that popped into my head? Why is he staring at me? What's wrong with me? Then he smiled at me and I didn't know what to do so I abruptly looked away. And then I felt guilty because I felt like I was being rude. And I never looked at him again. Now I could have just smiled back and then looked away, but I panicked because I am who I am. I need to work on reciprocating kind looks and accepting compliments from others. Usually when someone compliments me, I counter that compliment with an immediate put down about myself. Example? "Your legs look awesome in those pants". Answer..."that's because they hide all my flaws". Why I can't just say "thank you" instead of putting myself down is beyond me. I am going to practice compliment acceptance as should we all because I know I'm not alone!
• I just baked my first loaf of Paleo Banana bread. My hubby actually filmed a bit of Julien and I making it, and he's uploading it onto his Facebook. I'll share it to my Poonapalooza Facebook page if you care to give it a look. It's 70% downloaded now, so it likely won't be up until tomorrow.  I'm heading to bed when I'm done this post. I have to be running by 5:30 am tomorrow. I have team meeting at 9:30 in Toronto,and there's always a lot of traffic on Wednesday mornings. I guess lots of workplaces have team meeting!  I won't be eating the banana bread until team meeting. If it's any good I'll share the recipe.  Egads! I just looked at the forecast. It's supposed to be -31 with the windchill tomorrow morning at 6am. That is just gross....

Top: My very painful and appropriately placed paper cut.
Bottom: Paleo Banana Bread!!!!

The post about running, boredom, food and the drug LSD...not necessarily in that order

My POV while making dinner Saturday night.
I posted this on Twitter, that's how bored I was!

• So this post promises to be gripping and attention grabbing. Not so much. I have little to tell you about my weekend.  I do promise to be a whiner and a killjoy in a few moments. Stay tuned. 
• Yesterday was boring, boring, boring.  Weekly chores. I spent way too much time on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. That is all.
• I did run 5K yesterday morning. It wasn't so cold, only -9C, but it was snowing pretty steadily. Made for a very slow run because I had to contend with blowing and drifting snow. I only had to wear two layers though. A nice change from the 4 layers I have been wearing of late. 

The temps from today's LSD, my pic from yesterday's run.

• So here comes the whining part. My spirit is slowly crumbling. I am so done with winter it is not even funny. Now I know what you're all thinking. I should just join the gym and run on a treadmill. I ran on a treadmill once and all I thought the entire time was how much I hated running on a treadmill. I vowed never to do it again unless absolutely necessary. It's not the running I hate. It's the running in sub-zero temperatures that is getting to me. And I can never catch a break on my long run days. 
• Today was cold (-21C with windchill) when I headed out for my 14K run and my feet were wet the entire time because I stepped in a slush puddle about 500m into my run. It sucked badly. Not only were my feet wet, but my toes cramped badly at 10K and the last 4K was spent running in some pretty substantial pain. It frustrated me so badly that I almost burst into tears when I got into my house. Prior to breaking my ankle, I was running much further distances before my toes would cramp (about 20K). Now I'm only running half that distance and I'm in pain. Makes me question my ability to finish the 30K at the end of March. I'm questioning my ability, but I'll never give up. I will still head out for my 16K next Sunday and deal with the pain because that's what I do. I pray that the temperatures will be warmer and that it won't snow again. I ran in snow both days this weekend and I am feeling it in my calves. I'm not feeling hardcore, bad ass or epic anymore. I'm feeling beaten up and abused. Mother Nature is a BITCH!
• I ran 5 days in a row. Tomorrow is my rest day, but I'm tempted to run my 6K for Tuesday because Tuesday's temp is supposed to be -30C with the windchill. I may just rest, then suck it up on Tuesday and layer up. If I rest tomorrow and skip Tuesday's run, I'll have to make it up on Friday again which means another week of running 5 days in a row.  Runner problems!

My eats from the weekend. Clockwise from top left, sausage and chicken
ratatouille, cappuccino made with unsweetened almond milk, turkey dinner with
rutabaga and sweet potato mash, sauteed red cabbage, cumin carrots.

• A few people have asked about what I'm eating lately. Since it was a very slow weekend, I'll show you what I ate this weekend. I had a few sausages, I had a bit of chicken breast, so I put them together and made sausage and chicken ratatouille. Genius, I know.  I roasted a turkey today and made sides of sauteed red cabbage, sweet potato (and rutabaga) mash and cumin carrots. It was very yummy and very filling. After dinner I headed out to Domestique Cafe in Dundas to have coffee with Tanya. I ordered a cappuccino made with unsweetened almond milk. Paleo cappuccino!
• I was in a mood yesterday. I spent the day staring at Julien's messy toy room and wanted to grab a garbage bag so badly and throw everything out.  That would have been wrong. So I restrained myself and opened some Merlot instead. Red wine makes everything better. The good news is that today he cleaned it up on his own. I did bribe him with a loonie ($1), but that is inconsequential. He got it done!

Yesterday and today...

• I haven't mentioned him in a while, so I will tell you all that I'm thinking of Finn a lot lately. He's never far from my thoughts. Every night when I walk into my bedroom in the dark, I step over the place he would normally be sleeping. It's still a strange feeling to come home and not have him greet me at the door. I have two cats,but it is just not the same. They can both be prickly at times. Finn was just full of love for us. I miss my beautiful boy like crazy and it still feels surreal that he's not with us anymore. And no, I'm not getting another dog...
• Other than my afternoon wine date with Elin, that pretty much wraps up my weekend. Boring! At least I got to see Elin and Tanya. Both those women rock and raise my spirits:) I'm off to bed. I'm tired and I have a meeting early in the morning. If I wake at 5am, I'll run. If I don't, I won't. Or maybe I'll consult my Magic 8-Ball. The answer? Outlook not so good:(

Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!! Funny, but let's be clear that I'm
not suggesting anyone take drugs to lose weight!