What's Cooking?

Hello!

So I did some cooking and baking on Sunday and I made 2 of my favorite recipes and 1 new one. I will start with the burgers first. These are delicious, they are made with spinach, tomatoes, dill, green onion, pepper, and ground turkey - yummy!

I also made banana oatmeal muffins (I add cranberries and blueberries in mine). This is a recipe I got from a friends mom and they are the easiest muffins to make and they are the yummiest muffins - Chad even eats these ones and he is super picky!

My girlfriend gave me a quinoa cookbook for Christmas and everything I have made from it so far is delicious! This week I tried a bean salad, and it is really good and also really easy to make. For all of you non-cookers out there, it took me less than 2 hours from start to finish to make all of these things...dishes and kitchen cleaning included.

Training has been going well this week - biking and running a lot. So happy it has gotten warmer out. I went out for an 80 min run on Sunday when it was still like -30. I had so many clothes on I was kind of uncomfortable the entire time! It wasn't really bad, but the last 20 min I had a head wind, so that sucked and I was pretty cold when I got back to the car.

On Monday night I was out running with Rexy and I saw a great horned owl. It was dark out so I couldn't see it too clearly, but he was perched up in a tree - and it looked like he was hunting. That is one of the things I like about being out training all of the times. I have seen some pretty cool things and have come across all kinds of wildlife - awesome.

Last night I did a quick bike - only 70 min, but I did the TV workout. I was watching The Biggest Loser, so during the show I did an easy gear - 90ish cadence and then when the commercials come on I would go into a hard gear and make my legs hurt. It is a good, simple workout when you are not motivated!

Today I went running on the trails by my house and discovered a new trail system closer to the river and it was awesome. There are a lot of trails in there and I love exploring them - so does Rexy.

I have not ventured to the pool yet this week - hopefully on the weekend I will get into the chlorine infested waters :)

Happy Training everyone!

My Training Partner is Injured....

Hello,


So I woke up on Jan 2nd at 4:30ish in the morning to Rexy bleeding everywhere! Ahhhhh! There is a little bit of a story here...

A couple of months ago Chad and I noticed this little tumor thing on her ear. We waited for awhile to see what it would do and when it started getting bigger I took her into see Dr.Sean. It turns out it is a benign tumor that will go away on its own in about 3 months. Whew! He did mention that her lymph nodes were going to swell as her body fought off the tumor.

When we were in Edmonton over New Years it got bigger and bigger and it was the size of a tennis ball. I was going to call the vet on Monday and ask what this thing was and if I needed to bring her back in, but Rexy had other plans. SO I woke up to the giant tennis ball thing on her neck bleeding. We tried to stop it for about an hour, but we ended up taking her to the CARE centre. Turns out it wasn't a lymph node, (they think) it was an infected salivary gland and they grow and eventually burst. They still were not 100%, so after 4 hours we were sent home with an expensive vet bill, not REALLY knowing what was wrong, painkillers, antibiotics, and a cone.

She is feeling much better now but I sure missed my training partner for a week and a half while she recovered. I did not realize how handy it is to have her to run with over the winter months while it is dark outside all of the time! We have run a couple of times now and the giant lump is pretty much gone.

Last week I was worried and did not sleep much, which affected my training for a day or two. That and a friends birthday on Saturday night, there was wine and there was a very hungover triathlete who did not brave the cold and go running on Sunday! I am going to do my best to lay low and get focused on training over the next few weeks - I need to get swimming in the mix and I will be ready to start coaching again with Greg :)

I did spend some time in the saddle this week as well. I tried to do a workout from last year over the holidays and almost died. It was so hard - I have work to do! I also did a brick workout, this run was on the tready (man I hate that thing). Good times.

I went running on Monday. It was about -19 out and a wind chill, so somewhere around -25ish I think. I layered up and headed out (as did Rexy her her plaid sweater:) It wasn't too bad, I was warm the entire time and didn't find the wind bad at all. So I did it again today. Today was waaaaay colder. I have not been that cold running outside in the winter in a very long time. When I got home I noticed that my lips were even blue! It wasn't that much colder tonight (so they say) -20 before windchill, but it was frickin cold and frickin windy. Blah. It is going to take some serious motivation to head out there again until it warms up a little.

Well until next time - Happy Training