Sunday, February 1, 2009

Wind Swept

It’s has been a wild and windy weekend of weather weirdness, here in Banff. And yes, that’s a long winded alliteration. Whoa.

We had wind storms and were pounded by gusts relentlessly for the last 2 days. At one point, I thought my canoe in the backyard was going to blow away. It was lifting away from the fence with each wind gust and I had visions of me chasing it down the street. It was a good day to sit in the sunbeam in my favorite chair, with a cup of herbal tea.



I enjoy this little room each and every day, it’s my favorite spot in my home. Of course, I couldn’t just sit there and eventually I headed out the door for a little windy adventure. On Friday, I enjoyed a nice 3 hour run and was surprised to find this little viewpoint completely scoured of snow.



On Saturday, the evil wind continued and I decided to stay in and do something completely different. I did a brick workout, with my friend Michelle the Iron-Woman-In-Training. We have an outstanding set-up of bikes, trainers and large screen television in our basement garage. We pedalled like crazy for an hour and a quarter and then went outside and braved the wind for a short, sweet, windy 30min. run. Fun!

The wind let up for a little while yesterday, long enough for me to enjoy my long run. I went up and down Sulphur Mountain for 2 hours and than ran out on the Spray River for another 2 hours. When I hit the flats after the 7km descent off the mountain, the transition was a little tough. This should be a great training run for Diablo. It starts with 8 miles uphill, followed by almost the same downhill. It certainly is nice to be able to do these things out the back door!

This week should be a bit of a whirlwind. We got some working and pre-holiday organising to do. We are off to Sorceror Lodge for a one week backcountry trip, leaving on Friday! Woooohooo!
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12 comments:

  1. Whoa, that is a gorgeous room! I can see why you love it. You know that hat you have on? Oh, excuse me, that toque you have on? Every time I see it, I think you got bonked on the head and it's blood coming down the sides. Gory, huh? Please, don't ever let that come true! And, you know, sailing branches in big windstorms can be a problem...

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  2. The photos from the lodge look amazing. Enjoy your time up there!

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  3. Michelle - That's Leslie's Sonny Bono Toque.

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  4. i miss sitting in this chair having a coffee / tea or even a glass of wine with you! Can't believe its year this week!

    We are renovating my kitchen right now - and the first thing i said to Volker was that i wanna have chairs like keith and leslie :o)

    Enjoy your backcountry trip!!!
    hugs
    anna

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  5. Geez, is yer house always that clean?

    Have fun at The Sorcerer!

    Leslie, awesome email you just sent and yipster to that! We'll talk more about it when you get back from this ski adventure. :)

    Meghan

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  6. Have fun out there this weekend. May the good weather Gods bless your trip.

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  7. Thanks Anna, Meghan and Evan! I am looking forward to my little backcountry ski holiday. Should be sweeeeeet.

    Anna-
    Has it really been a year? Ya, everyone looooves the Muskoka chairs, Adirondack chairs. They bring a little outside, in!

    Megs-
    I have been obsessing about your little idea since we talked. I need to make it happen, it really is such a huge opportunity!

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  8. I was thinking of you and Keith last night as Dave and I were enjoying the Banff Film Fest World Tour in Burlington! I haven't missed a showing in 9 years. It is so awesome. We had a great time.

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  9. The lodge looks of the charts, have a great time!

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  10. Pics are awesome as usual - have you seen this ad on Trail runner mag's page looking for photos from your area?
    http://www.trailrunnermag.com/news_detail.php?id=174

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  11. Hope you are having a great time! Those photos are gorgeous as usual. As for the toque, Eric's comment made me spit out my kasha (laughing). Should never read with a full mouth.

    I really missed you at Orcas last weekend - there was a real coffee pot this time with decent coffee, though I still pressed my own home roasted beans...

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