February 4, 2010

Other things that make me happy

Ever since I published my 10 things that make me happy list, I have been wandering around thinking 'OOPS!! How could I forget x, y, z, whatever???' I guess that's a good thing - way more than 10 things make me happy!!! Here are a few of them.

1. SLEEP!!!!!!! I do not know how I forgot this. I love sleeping. It is probably my third favorite hobby after training and reading. When I don't sleep enough I am super crabby, and when I sleep the perfect amount, absolutely nothing could go wrong!!! Last night I had a truly amazing night of sleep so today everything is amazing!! I feel like I'm skipping around with a bluebird on my shoulder!

2. The Food Network in general and especially Throwdown, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and Iron Chef America. I love that network. It is nice to have a channel to watch that you can always flip on and 90% of the time (excluding that ridiculous Food Network Challenge and Unwrapped) has something that I would like to watch. Last night I watched the brownie throwdown which was awesome. The winners are famous for their goat cheese brownie. OMG yum. I love goat cheese and I love brownies and the two together sound incredible!

3. Swimming well!!! Swimming is so frustrating for me sometimes but sometimes it is just so rewarding. I swam really well this morning so I am stoked.

I think that is about all in the way of other things that make me happy.... although I'm sure the minute I save this entry I'll think of something else!

I am going kind of insane this week trying to fit all my training in as I am going to the mountains on Friday after work and coming out of skiing retirement on Saturday. I hope it will be fun!! I have not skied in probably three years? I used to love skiing but in my old age I don't like being cold, and skiing is expensive, and most of my friends are beginner-intermediate snowboarders and skiing with those types is not really fun. I am excited to give it a try again though, hopefully I will like it!! Then again I have plenty of gear, so hopefully I won't like it enough that I want to buy new gear and ski a bunch next season! I am doing well fitting everything in so I am not stressed about missing training, which is excellent. I think the plan is to drive up Friday, have awesome Indian food Friday night (yet another thing that makes me happy!!), ski Saturday, run after skiing (I'm going with my friend Jason and his wife and Jason is an obsessive tri geek like me so that works out well), then sushi (I love sushi!!!), then drive back to Denver. That way I can get my long ride in on Sunday, hopefully outside as the weather is not looking too bad!! Oh what fun. This week has gone by slowly, probably because I am so excited for this weekend!!

Posted by barb at 9:35 AM | Comments (3)

February 2, 2010

is it spring yet??

I am so sick of being cold. Whine, whine, whine... I know, right?! I bother to blog once a week and all I do is whine about how cold it is, and how everything's crappy, and I am just no fun at all. Sorry my dear readers!! I will try to snap out of it by posting this entry a lot of others have been doing - ten things that make me happy!!

I was writing this and I realized I should put a disclaimer in, I think my list has a lot in common with other lists I have seen, I am really not a copycat, but apparently I have a lot in common with other people whose blogs I read. Which I guess makes sense!

1. Training!! I just love to work out. It is my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world. If I didn't have a job or something to do to make money I think it is pretty much what I would do all day long. I love doing triathlons now because I get to train so much more, it is awesome. Also, there are people out there who train even more than me, who make me sound somewhat sane and normal, which I appreciate. Check out this guy!! Wow. I train way less than him.

2. Bodie!!! I know I am biased but I also know for a fact that Bodie is the best dog in the world. She is so CUTE!! And little things make her so happy, which is a trait that I try hard to learn when I whine about everything. If she gets out for a walk she is positively delighted.

3. Cupcakes. I just love cupcakes. They are so pretty to look at, and they are delicious. Now that I am only eating two desserts per week, I like to make them count, and I often do that by making sure one of them is a beautiful, delicious cupcake. I am really into these cupcakes right now. OMG they are good!! My favorite cupcake flavor is the old classic, vanilla on vanilla, but really I love all cupcakes unless they have icky nuts in them. Yum!!

4. My insane little mother! My mother is away on a cruise this week and I think I realized that I take her for granted because 99% of the time she is available for me to call her whenever I want. She is awesome, she is one of my best friends and she totally gets most of my insanity (she does not really get my training but that's okay). Anyway, my awesome relationship with my mother definitely makes me happy.

5. Looking at my Bowdoin calendar. This is kind of a random one but every year I give money to my alma mater, Bowdoin College. In return they send me a calendar with snaps from Bowdoin scenes. I put it up in my cube so I can look at the gorgeous campus all year long and remember how great Bowdoin was!

6. Swimming in an outdoor pool all year long! This is so awesome. People think I am nuts for having such a fancy gym, and I agree it is a huge waste of money. That being said, the fact that I get to swim in an outdoor, 25 meter pool, all year long is priceless to me and it will always be worth it to keep my membership. There is nothing cooler than hopping into an 80 degree pool and swimming outside when it's 15 degrees out and I can't do anything else outside all day!

7. Speaking of wasting money, clothes really do make me happy! I love clothes and fashion and especially jeans. Wearing a great new outfit makes me feel so fancy and excited. Speaking of overpriced clothes, I love my lululemon apparel the most!! It is so flattering and comfortable. I have seriously thought about wearing pants from lulu to work. Luckily for my career I have also not done it.

8. COFFEE. I cannot believe it took me to number eight to wax poetic about my love of coffee. Oh, how I love coffee!! I love how it smells, I love how it tastes, I love how it makes me even more energetic and hyper than usual, I just love it!! I don't drink booze or soda, so basically my liquid diet is made up of water, coffee, and the occasional Kombucha. Coffee is my favorite of all three beverages, by far. It is so delicious and especially this time of year when it is so cold outside, a nice warm cup of coffee is the perfect thing.

9. Cooking!! I don't think I really blog much about cooking so this may surprise my long time readers. In spite of the fact that I probably only cook real food once or twice a week, I really love cooking and sometimes I wish I could go to culinary school and become a chef. Especially after a long stressful day, cooking is so nice and relaxing. It's dependable - when you follow a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, it will undoubtedly take 90 minutes, but it will taste delicious. Cooking is probably the only creative thing I enjoy, so I try to relish it, because otherwise I am not creative at all!

10. And the last thing that makes me happy is planning!!! I am a weirdo, I admit, but I love to plot and plan all kinds of things, like training, and vacations, and trips to races, and random stuff like what I am going to eat for dinner. Oh how I love to plan. I have recently been chatting with one of my friends about possibly running the New York City Marathon and in honor of this potential possible plan, I have been planning!! What fun.

Wow, it's amazing how focusing on awesome things that make me happy lifts me out of a funky mood and makes me super excited for whatever comes next. I think after all this listing of happy things, I will be going home and riding my training watching the Food Network which could possibly be number 11 :)

Posted by barb at 3:38 PM | Comments (1)

January 28, 2010

Camp!!!

I just realized the other day that it had been a while since I had blogged. Oops!! I swear, sometimes I am just on my own planet. Also, I read so many blogs now that I get very busy staying up to date on other bloggers and forget that I have responsibilities to keep other obsessive blog readers busy!!

Anyway here is the biggest news right now - I am going to camp this year!! I went to a tri camp last year that was a ton of fun, most notably because I finally met Beth and Chad, two of my teammates, in person!! That said I wanted to do something new and different this year, so I have decided to go to cycling camp with a few girls. I am super excited, the camp is in Solvang which sounds gorgeous. I have always wanted to go there. Here is the camp I'm doing:
http://www.solvangtriathloncamps.com/wcc.htm

Doesn't that look like fun?? I cannot wait. I wanted to do a big tri camp in March but it's a week long and you have to take your own bicycle which is such a headache. This camp provides bicycles which is just so much easier. My drama will be fitting in some running and swimming but luckily I like to stay busy, and I know they should have a nice pool there as they have tri camps.

In other news I am transitioning to running in my Newtons. It seems to help my IT Band, so that is awesome. It is still jacked and I really should go see my PT but I am super busy at work right now so it's tough to get to Boulder for an appointment. Last Sunday I went for a run with my friend Cathy and switched into my other shoes for the last 1.5 miles of the run, the difference was CRAZY!! Wow. My old shoes felt really heavy and just awful. I did run in them today and they were fine so I think it was the straight juxtaposition of Newtons versus my old shoes that made it seem like such a dramatic change.

And in yet more news I love swimming!! I am not sure what is up but I am continuing to swim well. That is very exciting for me. Swimming was an endless source of frustration for me last year, so hopefully this year I can see some improvement! Now I am off to lift and get FULLY JACKED, have a great fully jacked day!!!

Posted by barb at 10:55 AM | Comments (2)