hi, i'm jenn

I’ve now learned that signing up for a race doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily run it (Chilly Half, 2010). But unfortunately I hadn’t learned that lesson when I signed up for the Toronto Women’s Half Marathon on May 30th. And I don’t like making the same mistake twice, so have decided that I have just enough time to train and run – though probably not race or PR which is fine with me!

Last week I did two runs – a 5km and then a 10km with the Nike Runner’s lounge in Toronto which is 5 minutes from my house. Funny enough, the 10km felt really good. I wasn’t even sore the next day.

Now I’m toying with how I’m going to spend the next ~7 weeks of training. I can go the Long Slow Distance route, or put my faith in CrossFit and try to follow a CrossFit Endurance Program. I have a lot of great information from the CFQ Crew, but have yet to print and read through it in detail. Also, it requires me to think and actually *fill* in the specific workouts, so I’m tempted to be lazy do what I already know (LSD). But hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out.

And to think, 3 years ago I was gearing up to run my first ever 10km and really quite freaked out.

I have a tendency to get sick before/during vacations. So it was no surprise that I was coughing the week before I left to Mexico. I thought I nipped it in the bud with nasal spray and asthma meds, but lo and behold ended up sick in bed with a full blown sinus infection while away. At least my mom forced me to go to the doctor to get anti-biotics just in case – was able to start meds straight away.

And while that isn’t the most fun, you know what’s way *less* fun? Getting stung by a scorpion and spending a night in hospital. In Mexico. Which is what happened to my friend on the second part of the trip.

So now instead of being annoyed for getting a sinus infection, I’m thankful it wasn’t anything worse.

Last week my host mom, Mika, sent me a link to a commercial with my host sister, himawari. It’s for a grocery store called Life.

Go to http://www.lifecorp.jp/. Click the first image of the man with the little girls at the top to launch the commercial (the image changes every few seconds but will go back ). Himawari, my host sister, is to the right of the man. She is in the second row and has a side pony tail.

I’m still working on learning the dance!

This weekend N and I headed to my cousins’ ski chalet up north to play in the snow. We were given the garage code and told to let ourselves in that way when we arrived. Unfortunately, we discovered the door into the house from the garage was locked (turned out a maintenance guy had locked it while doing work that week).

I didn’t have a cell number for my cousins (who were away at the olympics – lucky them!) so called various family members to track it down. My grandma was the first to answer. She laughed, and then explained the situation to her husband. They gave us the phone number we needed and told us that if we couldn’t get into the place, her husband says we should call a locksmith. I pointed out that the locksmith might think we’re breaking in and besides we were happy to check into a hotel.

But they insisted – if the locksmith is concerned we’re breaking in, she said, we should have the locksmith call and speak to them.

Ohhhh-kay.

Anyway, the cousins were able to locate us a key so it never became an issue.

But as my aunt said to me, checking into a hotel probably would have been cheaper than jail…. I wonder…

I was so busy tweeting and facebooking my excitement that my blog ended up sadly neglected on Friday when the fantastic news came out that Barbie’s Next Career is as a Computer Engineer! You better believe that I voted more than once so I consider myself responsible for Computer Engineer coming out on top!

I do not, however, take any responsibility for that t-shirt, nor for her choice of leggings with a short-ish shirt.

Oh well, you can’t win them all, right?

When I posted once a day for an ENTIRE MONTH? Now it’s been nearly a month since the last time I posted. Oops.

And just in case you were worried I have not had food poisoning since. Also, I have not had sushi since. Though I sat in a sushi restaurant on Saturday and watched folks eat it (I couldn’t get myself to quite yet) while I had a salad. Baby steps, right?

Anyway, nice to see you again blog. I promise to not neglect you quite as badly this month!

Did you know that if you have a case of food poisoning in Toronto you’re supposed to report it? No? Well, neither did I. But N did and so when I got sick and told him I wasn’t planning to file anything, he called them on my behalf.

It was super awkward when a health inspector called me at work to talk about my poop and barf. I giggled like a 4 year old and had to go into a meeting room to not gross out my coworkers (several of whom are probably reading this, oh well).

Anyway, one thing they asked was a food history of the 72 hours before the event. Have you ever had to recall everything you’d eaten in the past 3 days? While on holiday? And pigging out at a cottage? And making 5 course meals from scratch?

Yeah. Not easy.

Anyway, I chose key points from the previous days like the lamb and ice cream

 

But chose to leave out things like the home made beef cheek ravioli with a sauce made from chicken livers and butter! And the pretty yet delicious Halibut. Afterall the 5 other folks were fine, right? Not to mention, who’d believe we had pasta AND lamb AND fish AND homemade ice cream [and a bruschetta course too – not pictured] so no harm done

  

I also left out the dozen or so cookies because I was still in denial.

The other thing that was funny to me was the fact that they picked up left overs. No, I didn’t keep them because I wanted to eat what had made me sick – but once again N had suggested I take the leftovers (which I had planned to bring for lunch and tossed in the AM) out of the garbage and keep them. Lo and behold they actually picked them up from my place to test for, well, I don’t know. Anyway, if they find whatever it is they’re looking for they’ll let me know in about 3 weeks.

And yes, this post was an excuse to post food porn. This meal was all out of a Mario Bitali cookbook and more complicated than everything I made in 2009 put together so I was pretty proud to be a sous chef!

I love Pepper. I put it on almost everything, and always on my eggs. So it’s no surprise that I had the urge to Pepper up this fluffy frittata from Sarabeth’s in NYC.

Only thing is I didn’t know that the lid of the pepper shaker was not screwed on correctly. Result: a mound of pepper on my plate. I was laughing so hard, as were the folks sitting next to us. Even the server laughed as she took away my plate and had a new one brought to me.

And yes, I did add pepper to the replacement one too.

today is the first monday of 2010. was supposed to be my first day back at the gym and at work.

instead i had food poisoning last night so have spent today sick. hrmph.

here’s hoping things get better from here!

Nope, I ain’t tripping – just doing some Long Slow Distance running. Okay, a long slow distance run. But I’m still proud – it was my first one in weeks and was made fun by the presence of one Kathleen Trotter, a friend and butt kicking training (also, an Ironwoman). We busted out about 8km this morning – don’t know exactly how many since I didn’t reset Genki the Garmin before I started, so the run I did is recorded as having started on November 29th. Oops.

In any case, just got word from Matt, the no meat athlete, that I won a pair of Sigvaris Recovery Socks! It’s like there’s running Karma or something.

Anyway, YAY!