Summer running

As you may remember, I’ve been running since the beginning of January after a visit to the doc who told me to get off my backside. It all seems to be going ok at the moment. I started with some random running about (where I did a couple of 10km runs and inexplicably fell off the treadmill at the end as if I’d been drinking large amounts of alcohol) before settling into a plan four weeks ago that would in theory get me ready for a 10k run at the beginning of May.

Now, I don’t have a 10k booked in May, but I will be going the Fernie 5k “fun run” in the summer with Cath, our neighbours Rob and Terri, Colin who is training up in Calgary, and hopefully Mick who has just returned from the UK where he and Angie saw their new grandchild for the first time. Following the 5k run I’ll be signing up as soon as I’m able for the 10k Sole Survivor run in the Pass later in the summer before finishing after Cath’s World Championships in Budapest with the Fernie half marathon on Oct 3rd. Ooh, just found the link, looks like they are taking bookings for this year!

The training is a bit fierce and not at all lackadaisical. Since starting I’ve run and biked for 181 hours and covered 152 miles. Separating it out, I’ve run 123km and biked 122km. And this is just training for a 10k. My biggest limiter at the moment is my heart-rate, but its getting better, and my blood pressure has come down no end – it’s below normal now! Anyway, all this running about it going to cost me a fortune in jeans. That said, there’s a few t-shirts I can wear now that I’d have been embarrassed to wear a few months ago.

So there we are, still hammering on, and when I reach 13st we are going to a newish restaurant in town called Picnic as it’ll be 6lb lighter than the day I got married. So something to look forward to

And that’s about it. Like I said before, this is certainly not going to become a training blog as I don’t find them interesting, but I will keep you up to date once in a while as I turn into the Fernie… well I was going to say Flash, but I know what some of you are like; those comments are easily hijacked.

Finally, cheers Flo for motivating me – you’ve come on leaps and bounds!

Now, where’s that ice?

Now breathe out

February was busy – very busy – and that’s just how we like it! This morning was the first morning since the end of January that we have been able to get up after 7am and not worry about missing the alarm, whether the bread rose or not, and what on earth I’m going to cook for breakfast.

We’ve had a great time though, and wouldn’t have changed it for the world. On the way we have met a lot of new friends and have had invitations to pop in and see a number of them if we are passing by. It’s funny, at the beginning of the season we were checking and rechecking everything. It took us 20 minutes to write our first email to a potential guest, and Cath was always pulling me up for missing something when I went up to clean the rooms. Now after only a few months we are in our stride and we’re finally getting a system going. Oh, and I’ve added a few new breakfasts to the list such as breakfast burritos (mmm) and breakfast flan (sausage, bacon, mushroom, tomato flan in puff pastry). We even had one lady make a repeat booking because she enjoyed our porridge so much! While I’m talking about breakfast, we got through 200 eggs, 3kg bacon and 35 loaves (two of which we had to buy) and 2 huge bags of porridge.

Our guests have even been stoic about the fact that their legendary powder has been on the limited side (i.e. none at all for a few weeks), and we have entered the spring skiing season a bit early. That said, it snowed a couple of centimetres last night, and we are expecting some more before the end of the week, so fingers crossed on that one.

So, we will take advantage of the house being empty for a few days by getting up later, hitting the hot tub, catching up on ironing, and sorting out websites for CBL and a friend’s site back in the UK, and learning about book-keeping (Cath’s a “bloody student” again).

But first, we are going to breathe out.

Cath’s new make-up

So yesterday, I decided to get the mountain bike out (we have an old one given to use by a friend a couple of years ago!) – anyhow, our back dirt road (the road to and past the dump for anyone that’s visited) is good enough to take the mountain bike down at the mo for a few miles before it’s snow rather than ice (the bike tyres still grip pretty well on the ice).  Well, as this is my first ride outside since October-ish, you can see I was pretty happy to get some fresh air against my face as I biked – that was one bike ride of pure fun!  After getting home, Jase and I then ran for an hour – the weather was gorgeous, the mountains looked fantastic – what more could a gal ask for!

Extreme Sheep

One of the great bonuses about running a B&B is meeting people who can tell you about new rubbish that we can show you!

Allergies, hospitals and things like that…

A little update from me.  So, first off, I’m fine and no-one’s to worry!  The steroids are doing their job, the forehead has lost its clingon look and the eyes are looking pretty much like normal (lost their puffed up, black eye effect).  We have a REALLY good doctor here, which I’m very grateful for   As a lot of you know will know I’ve had pretty bad hayfever for years, which comes complete with wheezing and stuff all the time.  I also react pretty badly to mozzie bites (and we have lots here in Fernie) – if anyone’s seen the hideous swollen after effects they know what I mean (it’s a Dixon sister thing, hey, Lesley!) – I’m also allergic to spider bites of a particular spider that lives here in Fernie and with each bite it gets worse.  So, I guess I’ve known for a while that it’d be handy to get this sorted and understood – but I’ve never had the time or to be honest the enthusiasm from a doctor to get it sorted too.  So, along comes our doc here who wants to get it all done – yay!  Sooo….I’m getting checked in to a top notch allergy specialist in Calgary (3 hrs from us) who can then tell us what I’m allergic to and to what extent.  It normally takes months to get in, but hopefully I’ll be in in 3 or 4 weeks – good eh!  Until then I have my epi pen – so should I have a severe attack this will reverse it and I’ll be just fine.  I may need to keep it after the results, or I may be able to deal with it differently – but it’ll give us the information we need.

Next……so, my doc also thinks I have asthma.  Wouldn’t surprise me – again, comes back to the point of not having the time to sort before.  So, I’m off to Cranbrook (1 hr from us) for a full test there too – to see if there is asthma there, and if so, is it all the time or is it exercise induced (not to worry anyone if it’s the latter, it’s quite common and easy to deal with – and actually the current Olympic triathlon champion also has it, so hey I’d be in good company!)

So….together with my CT back scan a week tomorrow, I’ll have 3 hospital visits – kind of feels a bit crazy, but it also feels VERY good to be dealing with the things that I’ve known for years haven’t been quite right – and to have such a supportive doctor is fantastic – I really can’t complain.  Until we get the results, I’m ok to keep training, but I just need to bring the intensity back a bit, to make sure I don’t bring on any kind of an attack.  My coach, Michelle, is completely supportive and behind me as ever, the absolute priority No 1 always being my health – can’t say that about all coaches – that’s why she was recently voted Coach of the Year across GB – not bad eh!

So, I’m very happy with everything, it’ll all get sorted and I’ll come back stronger than ever – so no-one’s to worry a jot

xx

It’s all good

A phrase we keep hearing over here. Well we were hoping that February was going to be busy, and it’s certainly turned out that way! We have now managed to get into a routine, and tasks that used to keep us busy half the morning have been streamlined – basically, we are starting to know what we’re doing! Of course our guests were kept unaware of the little crises that popped up from time to time, but yes, we can now say that we’ve settled into running a B&B. Guests are booking regularly, and we’ve even been filling up in the week as well, which is great news. Next stop is the summer trade. There’s not as much of this as the winter trade, but we will drum up as much business as we can!

I’ve been running on the treadmill in my spare time, and I’m now at 13st 6lb; the lightest Cath’s ever known me, and I’m determined to get it down further. My blood pressure has also dropped from 145/95 to 120/68, so I’m very pleased about that. Mind you, I’m still partial to the odd bit of cake – it’s difficult not to be when Cath cooks about three cakes a week not to have the odd slice. I actually cooked a cake last night (cakes are generally Cath’s thing, not mine). Allegedly it was Parkin Cake, but I’ve a feeling James Martin might have taken liberties with his recipe. That said, it tastes great, and of course, having ginger in it, it’s good for you – yaay!

Cath’s having to slow down the training a bit at the moment. She’s doing the same number of hours etc as before, but she’s having problems with the latex that’s in her shorts, swim cap etc, and might be allergic to it, so the doctor has told her to reduce the intensity until we have been to the allergy specialist in Calgary. A bit of a shame, but it’s like I said last night when we were talking about this and her back, at least she’s getting it all sorted now, and come the summer it should all be behind her – and when it is sorted she can only be better!

Colin is enjoying himself. I pooted him up the hill this morning so that he can make a mess all over the hill with his board. The skiing has actually been pretty good even though there hasn’t been much in the way of snow. I found some loose snow that everyone had missed the other day when we had a foot of the fresh stuff.

Right then, best get on. Hopefully we’ll be too busy to post again for another week, but you never know

Reduction

Well, since being here I have now lost 1st 2lb. I’ve a doctor’s check-up on Friday to tell him what I’m up to and to make sure it doesn’t cause any problems. I’ll probably have to remind him how many lbs are in a st. I’ve just looked up stones – did you know 8 make a hundredweight? Wow, I was only a stone short of 2 hundredweight when I landed – now that sounds very heady. Actually, I remember when I was a kid, bags of coal weighing a hundredweight. Apparently “The stone was originally used for weighing agricultural commodities. Historically the number of pounds in a stone varied by commodity, and was not the same in all times and places even for one commodity.” Now that’s the sort of weight measurement I like  – vague.

Anyway, must get on, got Lincolnshire sausages to buy today for next week, a quick trip to Freshies (for a cuppa, that’ll throw them), and then back here to strip the beds, clean the bathrooms, etc. Glamour? Heard of it

The dangers of Piriton!

So, last might I had an allergy attack in the middle of the night, not sure what caused it, but had the usual effect of tightening my chest to a wheez, itchy throat like you wouldn’t believe, eyes gunged up (lovely!) etc etc etc.  So I got up about 2am for an anti-histamine.  The problem was we didn’t have the ones that I normally take and only had Piriton.  In my “middle of the night slumber” I totally forgot that although they’re supposed to be non-drowsy, it’s not like that in my world – and not only did I take one but due to the bad allergy attack thought I’d take 2, just to make sure!!

The result? – I woke out of bed at 11.30am – yes, nearly lunch time – can’t remember the last time I did that – got up, had breakfast, then as I still looked awful Jase told me to lie on the sofa – I woke from that at 5pm!  I’d been awake for about 15 minutes!   For me, Piriton is V dangerous and wipes me out like you wouldn’t believe – very bizarre for 2 small tablets!!

They’re now in the bin to be on the safe side…..

The calm before the storm!

So, we had a pretty busy weekend this weekend – quite literally a house full.  They were one big party and great fun – their the kind of customers we like!

We now have a few days off B&B’ing (gives us a chance to catch up on other stuff) before our friend Colin arrives on Saturday.  Colin and Jase worked together in Leeds, and he will actually be landing permanently here in Canada – he’s joining the emigration brigade, and will be staying with us for 10 days or so before heading out for work.  Jase and I agreed yesterday that we’d keep the weekend clear (we have stuff to do in Calgary which would be handy to do before Colin lands) but also, WAIT FOR IT, with the exception of 2 mornings, we have at least 1 room booked for the rest of February, 3 weeks solid – blimey!  Not bad for a couple of first yearers (that’s a new word I just made up!)

So, there you go, a week of calm before a full on period – as my coach, Michelle, would say – bring it on…….hahahahaha!

Full English anyone?

I just cooked a whole load of full english breakfasts (egg, beans, (Lincolnshire) sausage, bacon, mushrooms) in double quick time and I’m knackered! Two were finished after the others, so they got a piece of fried bread each. Dad’d be proud of me.

Have to think about what I’m going to do tomorrow now – no flour, no milk, no fish and no kiwi. I think some sort of hash is looking favourite.

Meantime, Cath is clearing rooms and hoovering away like a whirling dervish