It’s still barely Sunday morning and the snow is still coming down.

They’d warned us all week. “It’s going to be a big one” was the word from the meteorologists and news stations. And we waited and expected and planned. In fact, James and I weren’t even sure we’d be able to attend Fashion Fight Night

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. But the Friday dump didn’t really start with a dump. It was more of on-and-off sleet, rain and sludge. Not the best driving conditions, but certainly not grounds for staying home. We went to the event (which was really quite cool and engaging although I’ve never seen such a well-dressed crowd in my life here in the Twin Cities).

Saturday morning, we awoke to a little more of the same. It wasn’t the 12-inches that were forecast and James and I got up late, had a casual brunch and our most favorite St Paul coffee house location

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(I love their potato cheddar pie!) and ran leisurely errands around town (a stop for videos, a stop for new running shoes, wine stock-up, groceries). As we went about town, the snow did continue to fall and the driving did get slightly more difficult. Still, it didn’t seem to be the blizzard of the century that everyone was predicting.

We got home around 5pm. James set about to making slow-cooked stew with Bison (something I eat maybe once a year — but it is farm-raised, organic and locally grown meat). I also started a loaf of French Bread in the bread machine. I then went upstairs to hit the trainer for a bit and follow-up with some yoga. These weren’t the workouts on my schedule, but the weather didn’t make a drive down to the club very appealing.

By 8pm, James and I had both worked out, showered and were both more than ready for dinner. We sauteed some green beans to go with the stew and fresh bread. There was a new Bonny Doon Chenin Blanc in our glasses. And we sat down with our gourmet meal in front of a taped-copy of Thursday’s CSI. Yes, we can be that lame sometimes.

There was an invite to go out and see jazz at the Artist’s Quarter. There was another invite to see some live rock at the Turf Club. But by this time, the snow was adding up and our pajamas were calling. Instead, we snuggled up to watch a movie. Which sounds very sweet and cuddly and romantic (there was even a shared dessert bar of dark chocolate and crystalized ginger), only we were watching The Departed

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. Um. Yeah. Far from romanic and cuddly…

The movie was longer than I’d anticipated. But I enjoyed more than I thought I would (so that’s always a good thing). My only beef with it was the end. Not sure I totally agreed with how it all went down, but it was an engaging film nonetheless. And I didn’t find it nearly as gory as everyone had warned me it would be. Sure, it was bloody. But I don’t think it was that much worse than other films I’ve seen recently.

At any rate, it was 1am before we hit the sheets and so this morning has been a slow-moving one as well.

The thing is, the snow did come. It’s not the blizzard of a century, but I do question whether or not we’ll be able to go anywhere today. The plows haven’t hit our streets. My neighbors are struggling to get their sidewalks uncovered. It seems the perfect opportunity to ignore it and drink more coffee if you ask me…

I do have book club this afternoon which is yearly attached to the Oscar night. We wear tiaras and feather boas and drink wine and make snarky comments after a high-brow discussion of literature. (hee). But this year, I may just have to pass. Not only will getting out of the house be difficult, but I also have a ton of work to catch up on and I could really get some stuff plowed through while watching an award show that requires 1/2 of my attention at best.

We’ll see. The bigger issue of the moment is when do we go outside and try to dig out? And do we bring out the snowshows. Sure, I maybe supposed to be running and swimming at the club today. But 10 inches of new snow? I think that’s winter outdoor activity weather.

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On the training note, I’ve been struggling. Work has been all-consuming as of late. It’s not a bad thing, but my schedule is far from conducive to 2-a-day workouts. It’s hard enough to get in just the one. This past week should have been 11.75 hours of training. I’ll get in only 8-9 hours when all is said and done. Next week is supposed to be 13. All I can do is laugh about that! I’ll try — but that’s all I can guarantee. My hope is work will let up soon once we get our staffing issues resolved. But it’s certainly making tri-training take a back burner…

That said, I did have a few good workouts this week. My long run on Monday was fabulous. The weather was so nice. Then, on Friday, I did a hill workout on the treadmills. It was both challenging and a blow to the ego because I wasn’t supposed to go over 155 bpm on my HR monitor and when I got up to inclines as high as 8%, that meant I had to lower my speed to 5.0 and even 4.8!! It felt so, so, so slow. But it forced me to concentrate on lowering my heart rate through breathing and lengthening my stride. And while I hate the fact that my speed may have said 4.8 in bright red lights while the woman running next to me was going 6.3 mph on her machine, at least I was up there with an 8% grade. She was at 0.0%.

The big thing is the season is just around the corning. This week, we enter March. That’s only a few months away from my first race. So while the snow outside makes me want to just lay around and eat and eat and eat, the calendar is telling me another story. Time is ticking down, kids. Race season will get here whether I’m ready or not…

So, my girlfriend Kristy and I took our first x-country ski lesson today and it was awesome.

I wish I could go into all the awesome-ness that is was — but my blogging time is minimal right now. The truth is, I’m finding the work/life balance thing a little rough right now. So, when I’m not outside having fun or inside working, I’m don’t want to really be on the computer.

That said, maybe I’ll give you the down-low tomorrow.

But the summary: man-made snow is a life-saver when you want to learn how to Nordic ski and your damn, freezing cold Minnesota weather doesn’t help much.

I think my ass is going to be really sore tomorrow.

And that makes me happy. :)

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I don’t know if is the Minnesota winter or what, but I find it very hard on weekend mornings to get up at 7am and get right to it with the workouts. I always plan on it. I think, “How awesome would it be if I get out on the road (or in the gym) by 7:30 am and I’m done early enough to still enjoy morning hours with a cup of coffee and some blogs and The New York Times…”

Of course, most weekends this winter, I haven’t gotten my behind out the door before 10:30 am. Some days, I’ve actually pushed the workout to 3, 4 or even (gasp!) 5pm in the evening. I’m just slow moving in this weather. Not to mention, flannel sheets and PJs are just too alluring.

However, I’m happy to report, *this morning* was different. It was made easier by the fact that the boy had to leave the house by 8am. And I went to bed early. But when I saw it was already 15 degrees outside, I knew I had to get out there and run!

[15 degrees, I know, sounds ass-damn cold -- but considering the subzeros we've had for the past couple of weeks, this is welcome relief]

So, I was out there by 8:30 am with a low key run on tap (only a few farklets thrown in to keep things interesting). I loaded the Splendid Table on my iPod (I’m a dork, what can I say?). And I headed out for what I figured would be a relaxing and enjoyable run.

The run was just okay. It wasn’t bad. It didn’t suck. But it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, either. For some reason, the 15 degrees still seemed bitterly cold. I’m not sure what I was expecting. And most of my body was fine. It was just my face that bothered me. I wore my combo face mask/scarf. And when I ran with it on, it felt too warm. But when I would pull it down under my chin, my face will get dreadfully cold. It also kept messing with my earbuds which made me a bit cranky about that as well.

So, I ran. I futzed with my mask/scarf. I’d wear for a bit, pull it down, rinse, repeat. I felt slow, too. I practically had to force myself to do the 5 speed bursts (they were only 20 seconds long each). And when I was at my recovery pace (135 bpm on my monitor), I didn’t feel as relaxed as I typically do at that HR.

Whatever. When I got back to the house, I hit stop on my watch thinking my pace would be sad and depressing. Luckily, this WASN’T the case. I’d still managed a 10 minute mile pace even though my HR was fairly low and I felt uber-slow. I’m chalking it all up to the cold and the winter blahs…

After my run, I put in a yoga tape and THAT I enjoyed much more. I should have hopped on the trainer or maybe gone to the pool for a few laps, but I was yearning for a good stretch and 50 minutes of hard yoga was just what I needed. My legs were craving the lunges and stretches. My abs and back and shoulders dug into each up and down dog. I won’t even go into how wonderful the dancer pose felt. It was good.

To make it even better, I set the coffee pot the start brewing so that the coffee would be ready when I was done. During my final stretch and relaxation, the aroma of Guatemalan Peace coffee Pervert! movie began to make its way to my nostrils. Mmmmm… heaven.

After Yoga, I drank my first cup and prepared a nice fruit salad with gatherings from the co-op the day before: cantaloupe, red pear, navel orange, banana, kiwi. I mixed in a little honey and lime juice and served that alongside some Franklin Street Bakery

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The only thing missing is James.

So, while getting up is hard, I have to admit how good it feels to have it still be before noon with my workouts out of the way and good food and coffee by my side. Makes getting out of bed worth it in the long run (hah! get it: run?), that’s for sure…

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In other news, I’m super cranky because the pool at my club is broken. That’s right: BROKEN. About two weeks ago, I swam on a Monday morning and then, when I called in to the club for Hydrotraining class that evening, the pool was “closed.” And now it’s been completely drained. I have no idea what is wrong with it — but the only word we have from the club is that it will be *at least* two more weeks.

I actually skipped swimming last week. I was too lazy to come up with an alternative and I’d (stupidly) hoped the pool thing might be fixed. But this week, I knew I needed to get my swim back on so I went to the downtown MPLS location before work on Thursday morning.

I’d been kind of avoiding trying out the MPLS club in the mornings. I’m a creature of habit. I have my mornings down to a science and I wasn’t sure how crowded the MPLS club would be: if I’d have to share a lane at the pool; if I’d find a blow-dryer to use. You know, the important stuff.

But, I forced myself to go on Thursday — and I feel like a dork for putting it off for so long. The club was empty — at least compared to my St. Paul (and suburban) morning experiences. The pool had plenty of open lanes. The locker room had plenty of open showers and hair dryers. The best part was the fact that, when done, I didn’t even have to hop a bus to work. I just walked the block to my office. So, there you go. It appears that my schedule is going to change a bit and on Mondays and Thursdays, I’m going to be a MPLS girl.

All that said, the plan was to hit the MPLS club over the weekend to get another swim in.

Umm.. Didn’t do that.

I just didn’t feel like driving. It’s one thing to head down there on a workday when I know my office is next door. But it’s super hard to motivate myself to drive 10 miles (sad, I know) to the other Twin City downtown for a weekend workout. That’s why I still need my pool back!

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This week was my recovery week. I only had to train 6.75 hours. I liked this week a lot. :)

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I have things I need to do on my house. But I think I may just sit my ass on the couch and watch the 1st season of Weeds The Incredibles dvdrip Children Shouldnt Play with Dead Things buy download The Master of Disguise movie . Would that be bad?

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Final note: James and I are celebrating Valentine’s early with a special gourmet dinner at Birchwood

tonight. It’s a Five Course, Fair Trade, Fancy Pants dinner. I’m soooo excited.

I love food.

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Lake Superior in the winter is deceptively beautiful. The steam rising off the great lake and the icy rocks below were mesmerising. Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative. The same atmospheric conditions that were responsible for the beautiful view were also the cause of frigid air temps that made the outside world almost uninhabitable.

Of course, that didn’t stop us from taking off and heading up to Two Harbors, Minnesota for a little rest and relaxation. Sure, some may think that “sane people” would have opted for Mexico — but James and I have never been ones to do the “sane” thing. No, the truth is, life has been a little crazy and we’ve both been desiring an opportunity to break away. We’ve also wanted to try our hand at cross country skiing and when the weekend started to approach, we both found ourselves available with some vacation time to spend.

We booked the trip midweek. We knew it was going to be cold. Predictions were for 5 degree high temps. But we also knew we are hardy, we have good outdoor gear. What’s a little single digit temperature weather going to do?

We found Larsmont Cottages in Two Harbors. They had a discount, off-season offer for their cottage suites complete with jacuzzi tub, fireplace and access to indoor pool, wood-fired Finnish sauna, outdoor all-season hot tub and on-site massage cottage. It seemed the perfect opportunity so we reserved two nights (with the option for a third) and a pair of skis and boots from REI.

On Friday, we headed off — only after first attending a 90-minute spin class. James was teaching and, while he took off from his full-time job on Friday, he still had to show up for class. We figured this was also a good thing because we’d get the opportunity to burn a few calories before heading off on vacation.

The trip up to the North shore was good. We stopped at Tobie’s for some “world-famous” carmel rolls. (They were seriously spelled C-A-R-M-E-L, and they were seriously good). We also ran into a coworker who was also headed up to Two Harbors for the weekend (how crazy is that?).

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As we got closer and closer to our destination, the temperatures didn’t seem as forgiving as we thought they’d be. A steady zero degrees showed up on the gauge in our car. But that didn’t keep us away.

When we finally got to Two Harbors, we were about an hour early for check-in. Therefore, we decided to try out our skis. We found a local snowmobile trail that had an adequate amount of snow. The temperature registered about 4 degrees and we headed out.

For my first time on x-country skis, I think I did okay. I really need an offical lesson, but I did my best to get by with the limited guidance that James could provide. I did my fair share of falling, but I had fun. The scenery as pretty and I didn’t feel as cold as I thought I would. We spent about 90 minutes skiing out and back before we decided to call it a day. The sun was setting and we didn’t want to tempt fate.

We checked in to our cottage about 5:30 pm. Soon afterwards, we headed to the wood-fired Finnish sauna. I figured, what better way to warm up from a cold outdoor activity than a hot sauna? Unfortunately, the fire needed a lot of stoking (luckily James was there to help with that). And we kept cooling off the rocks too much with the water that was left in the outer entrance. Oops. We did warm up some, but it wasn’t the sauna experience I was looking for. We headed back to our suite where a jacuzzi tub soak was a much more successful way to warm-up. After the soak, we ordered delivery pizza and sat around watching bad satellite TV and drinking red wine.

A funny thing happened at 9pm, though. The power in the entire complex went out! James and I just sat there in awe. We worried the temperature in the room would plummet. We called the front desk — a fix was on its way. We appreciated how dark it gets up north without the city lights. And, within an hour, the power was back. Weird.

The next morning, we took our time getting up. The rest was needed. And by 9:30 am, we decided to head out on our next cross country skiing adventure. Unfortunately, the weather was being even more uncooperative. While the forecasts where showing a negative 5 degree high, our temperature gauge in the car was showing a much colder reality. As we headed inward to Isabella, the tempature continued to drop hitting -19, -20, -21. At this point, I got scared. James and I both agreed that this wasn’t probably the smartest thing to do — so we headed back out towards the shore. At least there it was registering only negative 15…

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Our second location choice was Tofte. James stopped at a local outfitter shop and got maps and advice. We headed towards a few beginner-rated trails and set out with the goal of only going out for an hour at a time in order to prevent frostbite or disorientation. The 1st kilometer out was tough. As good as we felt in the 5 degrees the day before, the sub 15 was much harder. My fingers hurt from the pain of the cold. We actually turned around to head back the car because they hurt so bad — but then, a funny thing happened, my fingers warmed up — so we turned around again and re-attempted the loop. It was 4 kilometers total and the cold was unrelenting. But aside from my fingers going cold on and off, the rest of my body felt good and it was nice to get a go on a groomed trail. Soon enough, we were back at the start where we popped in the car, turned the head up as high as it could go and drank down some fluids and fuel.

James offered that we didn’t need to go back out. That the hour it took us for the 4 kilometer loop (I know! We were slow!) was enough for the day. The car was still registering negative 15 degrees. It didn’t seem to be warming up. But I figured we were out there. We should give it at least one more go. So, that we did.

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Again, my fingers hurt crazy-bad in the first 10 minutes. But after that, I warmed up and we were faster this time. We did 5 kilometers in an hour and we both felt smoother. We even passed a group of other skiers — so we didn’t feel COMPLETELY insane.

We got back to the car about 3pm to warm back up. That was our last go. It was still negative 15 degrees. We’d been crazy enough.

We got back to our suit about 4:10 pm. It gave us both enough time to shower and warm-up before our 5pm massage appointments which we were smart enough to book ahead of time. There is nothing like recovering from a sub-zero ski than an hour long massage complete with heating pads and hot towels. Num.

After the massage, we relaxed with some smoked fish, brie, crackers and walnut pate. There was bad TV, too. We also drank tons of water, a sip of wine and headed out to dinner to re-fuel even more from the day.

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Dinner was just okay. It was an upscale restaurant at the resort. But they screwed up my risotto and didn’t comp us all that well. But what can you do? It was still a good day. We headed back to the suite, watched a movie and fell promptly to sleep.

Sunday was check-out day. We slept in, took our time packing up and left the cottage shortly after 11am. We slunk around town a bit, grabbed a coffee and then opted for lunch at Betty’s Pies.

Oh, boy — was THAT a good idea.

I had a smoked salmon sandwich (cream cheese, smoked salmon, onions and tomatoes on toasted rye). James had hash. We shared a five-layer chocolate cream pie slice. It was all heaven-on-a-plate.

Then we drove home watching the temperative gauge the entire way. It was still in the negative double digits. We’d made the right decision not to stay another day. As much fun as we had on Saturday, I’m not about to repeat skiing in those conditions anytime soon. The drive home was lovely. We stopped for one view — but it was too cold to spend anymore than 5 minutes taking picture.
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Without much warning, the boy and I took off for the North Shore on Friday. We’ve been holed up in a cottage with fireplace and jacuzzi tub. We x-country skied in minus 15 degree weather. We got simultaneous massages. There was the wood-fired Finnish sauna (that turned out to be a better idea than reality). And some naughty, naughty pizza and carmel rolls (not car-a-mel, carMEL. I swear to God).

Stories and photos to follow.

Unfortunately, now I need to pack…

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