This is the great cake my aunt made for our Christmas Eve supper. It was beautiful and delicious!
We also built gingerbread houses. We had a 3-way contest; my 2 boys vs my oldest daughter and niece vs my youngest daughter and husband. Here is proof of their hard work.
(I did take pictures of my youngest daughter and husband building their house but only when I looked back at the pictures did I see that she has a breath right nasal strip still on her nose. We decorated them around lunch time and I guess it was a slow morning for her. I know she would not appreciate the picture going public. It is funny though.)
It is a tradition in our house and no matter how old the kids get, it never gets old. Especially when there is candy and chocolate involved.
Yesterday, my daughter tried out her new cupcake maker and made gingerbread cupcakes. They were just the right size and so yummy.
Now that the hustle and bustle is kinda over- it is time to recoup and relax. Usually that occurs at the lake cottage where we are usually heading to as quickly after Christmas as possible. So why aren't we there yet? One reason and only one- COLD. Now not just cold but blistering cold. Today the high was -28 Celcius and with the windchill, it was -44 Celcius which is close to -50 F. This is what how the next few days look;
Now, not trying to come across whinny, but it sucks when you can't get outside. We are usually cross country skiing or tobagganning or skidooing through the holidays. So hard to do a lot of that with these temperatures. So, short bursts of activity outside before coming back in to warm up. Lots of games, dancing with the Wii, reading and bike trainer/treadmill workouts. There are many great aspects of living where I do, but this isn't really one of them. Oh well.
Speaking of reading, I got some great books for Christmas. One is a cookbook called The Feedzone Cookbook so I am so excited to try some new dishes. Another is a devotional which I have dived into. So many great books to read right now!
I am currently reading Triathlon for Every Woman by Meredith Atwood and am enjoying her humourous storytelling and advice based on her experiences with triathlon. The book is filled with answers to many questions that those new to triathlon want to know but don't ask. And because she has participated in every triathlon distance from sprint to ironman, her advice concerning the small things is invaluable. The next book on my list is A Life Without Limits by Chrissie Wellington. My husband has already read it and has great raves so excited to get to it.
And finally, a training update. This is an athletic blog right? Training has been going so good. There has been a lot of base training with no speedwork at all. I have run on the treadmill at an incline but have run slowly. I am still embracing the Mafetone training routine right now, going by heart rate with all my workouts reflecting this by maintaining my heart rate below a certain level. I will be kicking it up into base 1 next week which will include tempo and speedwork to both the running and cycling. I have had issues with my right knee and IT band but have had huge improvements in the past 3 weeks. I have 3 exercises that I have been doing not just a couple times a week but a couple times a day. This is the key to the success I think. I have been foam rolling like crazy as well. It has taken a lot of consistency but it has made my glutes so much stronger! The only thing that still seems to aggravate it is squats. Hopefully, if the glutes are stronger and the knee is less irritated, the ability to perform squats without problem will also come.
I have been trying to run shorter distances more frequently right now and building up my bike mileage. I have run so many half marathons that I know I can manage the distance. I am entered to run a half the beginning of March so running that distance is in the near future. It is a planned run but not a competitive run. I have no concerns about my time. I have not biked much past 30 miles though and want to increase that right now. I am so proud of myself for getting in so many longer rides. In December, most of my training rides are between 10-25 miles on any given day but I have done 5 rides that have exceeded 25 miles. In the month of January, I have plans to see the other side of 40. My goal is to stay healthy and injury free so I am trying to build distance but also to be smart about it.
One of my goals in the next week is to get my training plan all worked out so I have things structured a bit more. I like the impulsiveness of training on feeling, but also know that I need structure within the training to give me guidance and balance. I need to see the big picture, work backwards and plan according. I also want to start registering in some events so I need to see the year ahead and how these various events work together to register for some and hold off on others for another year. I have read about the priortizing the A, B and C events but this is the first year I have really been proactive about it. I am not the typical triathlon personality which is sometimes seen as the "A" type that has the stats, data and their yearly plan at their fingertips. I like being a bit unstructured and especially to be mindful of why I am pursuing the hobby of triathlon. With that said, it will be nice having some structure to my training. That is the great part (I think) about having a coach. You get structure, expertise and knowledge without figuring it all out yourself. I'm just not ready to jump into that yet.
Well, Happy New Year to you all! I will be at the lake enjoying the fireworks with my kids and maybe getting in a midnight cross country ski with headlights and a million stars!
ps
My husband's side of the family had a group picture taken at Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving in October) and I have seen the proof and ordered my pictures. I think they turned out so well and wanted to show you the group photo.
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