I'm blank because...

I was thinking and thinking about something to post about today, so I turned to Pinterest for some ideas. I found this post idea {found here} and thought I'd run with it.

I'm grumpy because...
It's currently snowing outside (well it was last night when I wrote this post)
It's still not Friday
I finished a great book last night and I didn't want it to end

I'm weird because...
I can't stand a cupboard being left open
I also can't stand clutter around the house
I used to never finish a whole can of pop
I love routines and struggle to deviate from them
I think farts and poop are hilarious
I can never leave dishes in the sink
I can never leave for a weekend away or holiday without cleaning up the house first

I'm currently...
Looking forward to a weekend with zero plans
On the hunt for a new book to read
Sitting in my pjs on the couch typing up this post
Excited for the summer and the travel plans that we have
Nervous and excited to run my first marathon
Struggling with my weight and how I feel about myself

I can't stand...
People who complain about something, but do nothing to change it
Driving in the snow
Girls who constantly call themselves fat when they are not fat
People who are never on time
The smell or taste of tuna
 
Join in on any of the ones above or make up your own :)

Run for L'Arche: training week two

The second week of training is done and it was good week. The weather cooperated and I had some good workouts. I have a feeling this training cycle is going to go by quickly!

Monday 1/21

• 5km walk with Harley

Tuesday 1/22

• 5.4km run {5:42/km pace} with Harley

Wednesday 1/23

• CrossFit class

Thursday 1/24

• 5.4km run {5:22/km pace} at lunch time
• 4km walk with Harley

Friday 1/25

• rest as we were traveling right after I finished work

Saturday 1/26

• 11km run {5:34/km pace} with Harley
• 3km walk with Harley

Sunday 1/27

• rest day

Totals:
Running: 19.8kms
Walking: 12kms

Overall, not a bad week for me workout wise considering I took two rest days. I normally only take one, but it was hard to fit workouts in when we were out of town and busy with family stuff.

Tell me: how was your week of workouts?

Recent reads

I have been on a big kick lately, so thought I would share some of the books that I've read.  You can find other books that I've read here, here and here. 

Miss Me Not by Tiffany King
If you don't like books about suicide or the idea of suicide, this book is not for you. It is the story about a high school girl that makes a pact with her friend to commit suicide. Suddenly something changes in her and she decides not to take her own life. She meets a guy who helps her see that there are actually good things in her less than stellar life.

Saving June by Hannah Harrington
This is another book that is based around suicide. Harper is the less than perfect sister, but when her sister June suddenly takes her own life, she is left with so many questions. Harper, her friend and a guy end up taking a trip to California where she finds answers and discovers things about her sister that she never knew.

Fragile by Lisa Unger
Fragile is based in a small town outside of NYC. A teenage girl suddenly goes missing and the disappearance is similar to one more than 15 years ago. The story is told by different people in the town that are connected to both of the missing girls. I really enjoyed this book!

If anyone is on Goodreads, find me! My name is under Leigh D.

Tell me: what have you read lately? Anything good?

Highlights of the weekend

Happy Monday everyone....another week is upon us. We were out of town this weekend and are going to be out of town for two weekends in February. Busy times!

This weekend, we headed to Mr.D's hometown because his grandpa unfortunately passed away last week. As sad as it is that his grandpa passed away, it meant that we were able to spend time with his family that came from out of town. His cousins came from Michigan and his brother, wife and two daughters came home from NYC for the weekend. It was nice to be able to see everyone.

Friday was spent driving to Mr.D's hometown, which is a three hour drive. We didn't get in until around 8:30pm, so we just hung out that night. Saturday morning I took Harley with me on a chilly, but sunny run. We ended up running just over 11kms and it was a great morning for a winter run. In the afternoon was the funeral and then all of the family went out for dinner. Lots of food was consumed! Sunday morning we went out for breakfast with Mr.D's family before they traveled. After breakfast, we packed our stuff up and made the drive home.

Tell me: how was your weekend? What were you up to?

Run for L'Arche: training week one

Well, week one of training has come and gone. Only nine more weeks to go :) Here is the break down of how my week of training went:

Monday

• 4km walk with my dog Harley 
• a CrossFit class 

Tuesday

• 5.4km run with Harley

Wednesday

• a CrossFit class and the workout was the 'Filthy Fifties' 

Thursday

• 3.2km walk with Harley
• a CrossFit class and the workout was 'Grace'

Friday

• 5.5km {5:42/km pace} run with Harley

Saturday

• a CrossFit workout 

Sunday

• 8km {5:47/km pace} run with Harley  

Totals:
Running: 18.9kms
Walking: 7.2 kms

Overall, this is a pretty typical week for myself and my workouts. And yes, Harley comes on a lot of runs with me. A tired and happy dog equals happy puppy parents :) Plus, it's nice to have 'someone' to run with.

Tell me: how was your last week of workouts? Are you training for anything?

A little late weekend recap

Happy Tuesday everyone! My mom flew into town this weekend and left yesterday morning, so I wasn't around my computer much at all this weekend. It was a quick visit, but it was great seeing her :)

Highlights of our weekend:

• a CrossFit class together on Saturday morning
• shopping at Cross Iron Mills in the afternoon and finding some great deals ($2 for a really cute dress!)
• watched Django Unchained and This is 40 (don't watch this one! So, so bad)
• a neat view of the Calgary Tower on our walk back to the car

•  hanging out and people watching at the Devonian Gardens

Overall, a low key but great weekend! Thanks for visiting Mom!

{happy friday}

Phew, this week is finally over! So, so glad that the weekend is finally here. Was it just me or was this week super long? Oh well, it's Friday!

 This week I had some awesome workouts at CrossFit. On Thursday, I did the "filthy fifties" for the first time. Dang, that was quite workout! If you don't know what the "filthy fifties" workout is here is exactly what it is:

1 Round for time:

50 Box Jump, 24 inch box

50 Jumping Pull-ups

50 KB Swings, 1 pood

50 Walking Lunges

50 Knees to Elbows

50 Push Press, 45 lbs

50 Back Extensions

50 Wallballs, 20/14 lbs ball

50 Burpees

50 Double Unders

I had to modify some of the exercises and finished in 32:18. Then last night, we did "Grace" which is 30 clean and jerks for time. This was my second time doing the workout and last time I used 70lbs and finished in 5:48. This time I used 75lbs and finished in 4:58. Definitely excited about the improvement!

My mom is flying in to spend the weekend here, so I am looking forward to seeing her! We don't have anything planned yet, but I am sure shopping will be involved.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Run for L'Arche: winter training tips

The first week of training is currently under way for me and we've been lucky so far in Calgary to have warmer weather. While the nice weather is fantastic, it unfortunately won't be sticking around for long. As the race takes place on March 23, 2013, that means training in the middle of winter. Here are some of my tips for surviving the winter training runs:

1. Invest in a good pair of trail shoes or traction aids for your shoes
 Last weekend, I was at Costco and noticed that they were selling traction aids for your shoes for only $12.99. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try them for that price, and they did not disappoint! I used them for my run last weekend, and it was so nice to have a grip on the snowy pathways instead of feeling like I was moving no where with every step. Another option would be a good pair of trail shoes that have lots of grip. The traction aids are definitely a cheaper option.

2. Layer, layer, layer
As the temperature drops, it is important to dress for the weather. Wearing the right things for the weather mean you will be warm on your run and won't be focused on how cold it really is! Pieces that I would recommend buying:

• Winter running tights: I have this pair of MEC and definitely recommend them for the price
•  A base layer: I actually borrow one from Mr.D, but it's similar to this one. Might have to buy it for myself! It's important that your base layer is not cotton because cotton will just collect the sweat and not wick it away from your body making you colder.
• Outerwear: I have a jacket from North Face that my mom bought me a couple years ago, and is perfect for running in the winter. It allows me to wear layers under it and keeps the wind out.
• Head and hands: It is also very important to keep your hands, head and ears covered in the colder months. I have a hat and gloves from Running Room that were both under $25, that I would recommend. I would also recommend a balaclava for the really windy and cold days.

3. Be okay to readjust your training plan
For the really cold days, it is not the smartest to spend three plus hours in the cold to get your kilometeres in. Instead of spending the whole time outside, why not cut your run in half and finish the second part either on a track or on a treadmill? Neither of those options are close to running outside, but it will mean that you will be warm and not in the cold. 

4. Find a friend
When the temperature drops, it's easy for your motivation to dwindle to get out the door and run. Making plans with a friend means you are less likely to ditch out on the run if you know they are waiting for you. Plus talking through the run will make it go by quicker.

Tell me: what are your tips for running in winter?

Random thoughts for a Tuesday

My brain just wasn't working when I trying to come up with something to post about today, so you are getting a bunch of my random thoughts. You can thank me now :)

{one} Is winter over yet? I know it hasn't been that bad so far this year, but I am sick of the cold, snowy and dark nights. I am ready to have the windows and blinds open not just on the weekend.
 
{two} So excited that Shameless started again last night! Love this show. If you haven't seen it, I would definitely recommend checking it out.
 
{three} Go to Lindsey's blog and tell her that she should run the MEC hot chocolate 5/10km in two weeks. And make sure to tell her that I will run it with her :)Plus it's only $15.
 
{four} I can't handle the overuse of exclamation marks and smiley faces in tweets or posts. I got the point with the first exclamation mark and smiley face.
 
{five} I wish that companies would stop giving all of the free products to the "big" bloggers and instead gave it to the smaller bloggers. Maybe that's just me being whiney, but after seeing all of the posts with the Old Navy workout gear, I won't be buying it. Okay, I'll stop whining now.

Let me hear your random thoughts for this fine Tuesday!

Weekend highlights

As I sat typing this post last night, I realized that I failed at taking many pictures this weekend. I wish I would have taken pictures from the dinner party because Mr.D had an awesome costume. What a bad blogger I am!

This weekend, we:

• went to Costco on Friday night. I found a few goodies for myself 
• took Harley with me on my run on Saturday. We ended up running 10km on the pathways along the river, which was nice. It was a bit windy and cold, but otherwise a great run
• spent the afternoon getting my hair cut, baking cookies and hanging around the house
• went to our friend's for the murder mystery dinner party on Saturday night. It was actually a lot of fun! We only knew one of the couples there, but still managed to laugh at a lot. 
• Slept in until 10am on Sunday morning and it was delightful.
• Spent the rest of the day getting groceries, making muffins and watching Pitch Perfect

 All around a great weekend!

Tell me: how was your weekend? What were you up to?

{happy friday}

Well Friday is finally here and I couldn't be happier! So ready for the weekend. We got hit with a big snowstorm starting on Wednesday night that left us with 20cm of new snow and cold weather. Ah, I love Canada. Fingers crossed we don't get another big dump of snow anytime soon.

Random thoughts for your Friday:

• going to get my hair cut tomorrow, and I can't wait! It's long overdue for a cut
• I just finished reading a book called the The Peach Keeper and loved it! I definitely recommend it
• we have plans to go to a friend's house tomorrow night for a murder mystery dinner. I have never done anything like it, so it should be fun
• I am really wanting to sit on the couch with the fire on and catch up on all of our shows tonight. I think that sounds like a mighty fine Friday night
• The active side of me did a 20 minute HIIT workout last night that Jen sent to me last night, and it kicked my butt!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Run for L'Arche: training plan

You can find my first post about blogging about my training for the Run for L'Arche here.

The weeks are slowly starting to tick by and it's almost that time again. What time? Training time! It has been awhile since I've been training for a particular race, so I am excited to get back into it. Today, I am going to be talking about the training plan that I will be using. 

This half marathon will be my seventh one, so I have been able to figure out what kind of training plan works for myself. I personally find that running three days a week, CrossFit the other days, and then one day of rest is perfect. I have used plans that had me running four to five days per week, and I was burnt out by the end of it. But it is important to figure out what works for yourself. 

My plan is also one that I made for myself combining a couple other plans and it brought me a PR last year.  I wouldn't recommend doing this for your first half marathon as there are some fantastic plans out there such as those from -Hal Higdon or Runner's World.

Here is my plan:

**edited to add: Nicole kindly pointed out to me that the race is on Saturday (silly me!), so I've corrected my training plan. Thanks Nicole!

If you haven't signed up for the race yet, there is still lots of time. Early bird pricing ends on January 15, 2013. Go here to register!

Training officially starts next week for me, so if you see me out on the pathways, say hi :)

Whatcha watching?

Mr.D and I have been getting into some new shows lately, and I know I always like finding new shows to watch.  Here are some of our current favorites.

The League

 

 When we were in NYC, Mr.D's brother had Netflix and had started watching this show. We watched many episodes over the five days we were there, and it is freaking hilarious. None of the people in it are big name stars, yet still so funny. It is based around a group of friends that is in a fantasy football league. 

Bomb Girls

 This is a Canadian show and the second season just started. It was originally going to be only a six show mini-series, but it has turned into a full series. It is set in during Second World War and the girls obviously work in a bomb factory. I know some people didn't like this show, but we quite enjoy it. 

Shameless

We started watching this show last year, and can't wait for the next season to come out! Mr.D and I both agree, that we've never watched a show which made us hate the parent's so much. The family is the most dysfunctional family ever, yet hilarious at the same time. A definite must watch.

Tell me: what have you been watching lately?

Weekend highlights

After being so busy and on the go over Christmas, having a quiet and doing nothing type of weekend was perfect. Plus I haven't been feeling so hot for the past couple of days, so it was nice to sleep in and not have to do anything. 

Oh, and I've decided to moderate my comments for the next little while....I was getting so many ridiculous spam comments lately, so just trying to get rid of them. I promise I'll approve your comments as long as you aren't a spam-bot :)

A hard WOD on Saturday. I can't do knees to bar (it's exactly how it sounds), so did knees to elbow instead. Used 135lbs for the deadlifts 

1. Harley basking in the wonderful sunshine

2. I made cookies that a student had given Mr.D for Christmas

3. Also baked banana muffins using this recipe

 

1. Harley and I went for a sunny walk on Saturday

2. Some of my purchases on Saturday. There were some pretty good deals!

3. Harley begging me to throw his ball while I read on the couch

 Tell me: how was your weekend? What were you up to?

Christmas holidays 2012: NYC {part two}

You can find part one here. 

Day four

The weather was definitely not cooperating with us this day, so we spent the morning doing some shopping on 34th Street. For lunch, we went to the famous Carnegie Deli for lunch. Just wait until you see the size of the sandwich that Mr.D had! We got there around 1:30pm and there was a line up down the street. We decided to brave the rain and wait in line, and it was worth it!

That's a SERIOUS sandwich

Day five

The sun decided to come out, so we decided to squeeze in as many sights as we could. We saw:

• the NYC public library
• the financial district
• the Brooklyn bridge

The NYC library

The very, very crowded Brooklyn bridge

After the day of exploring and sight seeing, we headed back to the apartment to get ready for dinner.  We went to a restaurant called Dinosaur bar-b-que after my BIL had heard good things about it. It definitely did not disappoint! Mr.D and I split a meal called the sweetheart deal, which was a full rack of ribs with four sides for $29.99. It was so delicious.

The cool view across the street from the restaurant

Day six

On our final day, we had the morning to do some last minute exploring before our late afternoon flight. We took a final walk down to Times Square, Central Park and Grand Central Station. This day was New Years Eve and it was crazy to see people lined up in Times Square at 9:30am for the ball drop already. I couldn't imagine sitting there for that long!

Overall, we had a great trip to NYC. The weather wasn't the greatest while we were there, but we still had fun sight seeing, shopping and spending time with our family. I had so much fun hanging out with my niece and can't wait for them to move home.

Mr.D, myself and M

Miss E

Christmas holidays 2012: NYC {part one}

On Christmas day, Mr.D and I flew out to NYC. We are lucky enough to have his brother, our SIL and two nieces living there for a year, so we had a place to stay. We hadn't seen them since the end of June, plus we hadn't met our new niece yet, so we were excited to see them. Mr.D and I decided not to plan anything ahead of time, rather just go with the flow and spend time with our family. It worked out perfectly.

In the five days that we were in NYC, we managed to do a lot of stuff and eat lots of food! Mr.D's brother lives a couple blocks from Central Park, so it was easy to walk places or hop the subway if needed. I have a terrible sense of direction, so luckily Mr.D was there to navigate us around. 

I don't want to make this post too long, so I think I will break it up into two posts divided by the different days and the different things we saw and ate.

Day One

Outside of the MET

• walked through Central Park
• went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can pay whatever you want to enter, but they do provide 'recommended' entrance fees. We spent about an hour wandering around looking at the different exhibits
• walked through the Columbus Circle shopping centre

Day Two 

Radio City music hall

Rockefeller plaza

Myself in Grand Central Station

Mr.D & I in Times Square

Times Square

• walked down 5th Avenue to look at all of the high end stores
• went to Times Square and was amazed at how many people were there!
• went to Rockefeller Plaza
• went to Grand Central Station- such a neat thing to see!

Day Three

It was my niece's 3rd birthday, so we had a special day for her. We:

Birthday girl and her special treat

View of the buildings from the park

Mr.D and M

 

M and myself at Starbucks

• went to Sugar & Plumm for lunch
• tried to go skating in Central Park, but the line up was super long, so we went to the park to scoot on her new scooter and play on the slides
• stopped at Starbucks for hot chocolate to warm up after the park
• after the park, went back to their apartment for a special dinner and birthday cake

To be continued tomorrow...

What a whirlwind!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a fabulous Christmas and a great New Years eve! I swear I blinked and it was all over....it went by too quickly!

I will be doing a full recap later this week, but here are some highlights of our Christmas holidays:

Harley hanging out in a too small for him bed

My niece M and I

Mr.D & I and Times Square

Hanging out with the sights in NYC

Tell me: How was your Christmas and NYE?