demanding week

This blog is a great means of getting all confessional with the 3 of you who occasionally read it (thank you). Today's confession (good for my soul, I think): I am lazy.

Oh yes, a life of lying on a couch, eating bonbons and reading magazines would be all too appealing to me. I don't care to have to buy a new set of fat clothes, though, and such a lifestyle would demand just such outlay of cash.

But really, I hate the gym, I'm useless at most sports (hand-eye coordination? What is that?), and I hate inconvenience. Which makes exercise something of a challenge at some periods of my life, despite what you might have read on here about marathons or other craziness. And really, I have no class reunion this year (oh, well, I do have the ten year anniversary of graduating from McGill - shoot! there goes that excuse), so who am I trying to impress?

This week, I did two things.

• I went to the gym. Twice. The tiny little ab muscles buried under my rolls are not happy with me.
• I swam a heck of a lot. If I have it figured right, in the last week I have done 13+ miles in the water. A hint of exercise sneaking in to my life.

The swimming is the easy one. I don't suck at it, for starters. It feels good - there's a weird thrill in nailing a turn and coming off that wall in a great streamline (Jossy-poo, I will never forget you making fun of us at BC Winter Games in North Van for our horrid streamline). Also, even though swimming is done in my own mental space, it's a team thing for me.

The workout this morning was substantial. 100 X 100 yards - 10,000 yards total. Each 100 was on an interval of 100 seconds. Super easy interval for the first 1000 yards or so. By 9000 yards in? Most welcome! A fun set of swimming, too - not all free. And, best of all, a very good group of people to swim with. Chris, our coach, organized the swim and Liz, another coach, booked the space for us. Carrie rejoined us after time off with a new, young son. Adam and Dan have been doing this from the start several years back, and Heidi is no stranger to it, having done it a few times now, I believe. Greg and Michael are new recruits, and Marcia is not only new, but not a Smelt (but she was part of our national champion open water team in 2008!). Alas, no Marty, no Matt. Next time!


My prep started Friday night. Carb loading? No, not really. My traditional pre-marathon dinner (because this was about endurance): sushi! Rice (for carbs), but protein and few sauces and little fat. Suit packed. Pull buoy packed. Extra goggles put together (I use the Swedes) just in case. Saturday morning, it was scones for Smelts, special 100 100s edition. And then? a big swim. A big, satisfying swim. And a great group to do it with.

I will be a little sore and stiff tomorrow, then Monday back to the pool and Tuesday back to the gym. One day, maybe, I'll drop the 5 or so pounds and broaden my shoulders. At least, for one demanding week, I have made a start!

b is for biscotti (and that's good enough for Conrad's office)

Good gravy! How long has it been since last I tried baking? My skills are rusty, I will own up to it. Somehow, though, I managed this tonight:

The cookbook calls them Cioccolato Paradiso, and I kind of agree. I'm actually a little indifferent when it comes to biscotti. Ever tried those revolting stale hard things that most coffee shops offer, wrapped in plastic so you have to suspect they were baked four years earlier? Ugh.

Look, not to brag, but these are better. Not baked as hard and dry, a little cakiness to them. No drizzles of chocolate to distract from the cookie itself. The flavours are a felicitous combination: orange zest, toasted almond slivers, chunks of milk chocolate.




Conrad's office will enjoy them, or so I hope.

steelhead

I'm in a rut, I fear. Easy dinners, meals I have made many times. One night soon I shall break free of all that. Not tonight, but one night soon.

(In fact, I have been eying some of the recipes in this lovely new cookbook I received for Christmas. Halibut with curry salt and green pea puree? Oh yeah, I think I need to give that one a whirl.)

Tonight I stuck with easy. A quick jaunt through Whole Foods and I was soon home with a bag of okra and a piece of steelhead salmon. And from there, dinner was a doodle. Lightly sauteed okra, red peppers, and onions seasoned with oregano, salt, and pepper. Add diced tomatoes with juices and some chicken broth and let it all simmer gently a while until tender.

Set atop a generous spoonful of this on each plate was a simply seared piece of fish. And it was nicely cooked fish, if I do say so. Flaking apart, but moist and a little rare inside. Seasoned with cumin, salt, and pepper.



Simple as that, our dinner. I was pleased.

And now to get those darn biscotti back in the oven...

I (heart) my team

Ah Smelts. Tasty fish. Good teammates. I spent several hours with a bunch of them yesterday and made it through to the other end, deeply grateful to be one of them.

A swim meet in Evanston had me out of bed a little early after a very good dinner with a wee bit more wine than normally I have. Ah well. I had said I would coach the swimmers, and, in fact, I rather like doing so. It's a good way to pull together as a group but also to find time to talk with individuals and know them a little better. Also, to mentally compose the list of future dinner party guests.

I have to say a few things about the meet:

Some fast swimming there.
Some nasty turns by a lot of swimmers. "Janky" was how I described them to one friend.
Some definite eye candy - nice to see some good looking non-Smelts in Speedos. Oh, don't look at me that way.

The team won the meet (well, as I understand it, the large and powerful Evanston team considers it tacky to win their own meet), and well done to them all. I'm utterly proud of them. And no, it does not inspire me in the least to put on a suit and goggles, get up on the blocks, and make a complete ass of myself in front of everyone. I'm altogether skilled at doing that without having to race, thank you very much.

Post-meet, we headed for The Glenwood where the beer flowed and the pizza fed ravenous swimmers (and coach). I got home at around 5, having barely seen Conrad all day. Ah well, he knows the life of Smelts himself, of course.

Just a super job, though, team. I can't wait until Ruth sends out her massive missive to our team list - that will be fun, reliving the enjoyable Sunday with Smelts.

Meet photos:

Adam

Andrea

Billy and Liz

Brian

Lauren

Michael and Bjorn

Luis and Heidi

Mark and Dana

Liz, Adam, and Ruth

Bjorn and Brian

Luis

With Luis

With Ruth



The Glenwood photos:

Liz and Adam

Bjorn, Brian, and Dana

Scot

Michael, Dan, and Lauren

Patrick, Daniel, Bjorn, and Brett

Ruth and Greg (last two photos)

Scones for Smelts: 2010 program

Up at 6:45 this morning, in the car, and a quick dash down to Jewel. In my exhaustion last night after the one-hour timed swim, I didn't think to pick up buttermilk while we were getting a late bite of dinner at Whole Foods. To Jewel, then, and buttermilk. A new year, and a resumption of the Scones for Smelts program on Saturday mornings.

Two types today, simple ones: currant (on the bottom in the photos) and dried cranberry with walnut (on the top)
. I had them baked well in time for practice.

Easy practice, too. After the 4625 yard swim last night, I didn't push anything this morning, and headed to Whole Foods for breakfast with Conrad well before the end of practice. After some time, other Smelts joined us. Not all of these teammates got scones from me - it's always kind of arbitrary whom I give scones to - but some did, and the others are sure to at some point. Good group of people, we have a nice team vibe going, I think.

salt of the earth

So here I sit, a bit of coffee and food in me, thinking of all the things I need to catch up on but reading news stories and obituaries about the passing of Kate McGarrigle. Thousands died in Haiti, but this hits harder for me. I'll be listening to the McGarrigles a lot in days ahead, I think.

Cheer up Peter. Consider this post a distraction from the sad news. I should comment more, but I'll instead simply post photos from a Boston restaurant where Conrad and I enjoyed dinner one night with CG, her colleagues Missy and Beth, and her former colleague Josh, and then drinks the next night with Martin and TK. Sel de la Terre is the name, the waterfront location - it's a sister restaurant to L'Espalier, it seems. Fine food and a good drinks list. Enjoy the fuzzy iPhone shots.