I’m going on week 7 of being here in St. John’s Newfoundland, and I’m making the most of spending time up here in my old hometown during this super cold Canadian winter. Last weekend my climbing buddy Lori (who visited me last year for our Yosemite Climbing trip!) and I went snowshoeing around Pippy Park.
Lori already owned snowshoes, and me being illprepared for how long I was going to be home, didn’t have much snow-gear besides a winter coat and hat. So just like old times, she brought over everything for me to wear to snowshoe.
I wore her Arc’teryx snow pants, and her two shell jackets that were super warm, along with a buff to put around my neck, and I even wore her mittens. Man, what a pal… let me tell ya. I had a time! I didn’t even have proper footwear to wear (I leave my UGGs at home, and I only brought my riding boots which aren’t insulated). So I popped on my Mother’s winter boots and went off for a bit of snowshoeing.
At Pippy Park you can rent your gear whether it be cross country skiis, or snowshoes + poles by the hour. They keep your ID and once you get back you pay your fee. It’s so inexpensive too: $5.00/hour. We ended up doing all the loops of the trails (about 4 or 5 loops) and we were going at obviously a walking pace, stopping to take photos, and to chat – and it still was only about an hour to do it all. So for $5.00 and a bit of fun, it was well worth it!
I filmed some footage of our adventure, but I don’t have the software here on my Mom’s computer to upload it to YouTube, so that’ll have to wait until I get back to California.
(By the way, had a family friend ask me if anyone in St. John’s was paying me to shout out to local companies. They are not. No one knows I am writing about them … and I don’t get paid for ANY blogging I do – so I suppose you can honestly say you can trust my judgement when I mention places? Lol)
I’ve been keeping a not so secret secret from you. I usually like to tell you guys in order to keep myself accountable. But this time, I’ve let my husband in on it, and we’re in it together. How cheesy does that freakin’ sound?
My husband has been amping up his mileage and speed, as he is training for the Boston Marathon this April. Where as I have absolutely no interest in running more than an hour. Alfie has been going with us once a week (we don’t like to take him any more than that), here we are about to go for our Valentines Day run and he’s rearin’ to go.
I love a clunky watch on my pinner wrists, so I didn’t mind sporting it, however I did watch it like a hawk on my runs. I can see how people become addicted to their pace, wearing one of these. My runs used to be “stop whenever you want“, and “slow it down to speed walking pace.“ Now I’m all “I AM THIS SLOW? Let’s speed’erup man!” Again, self-competitive talk it’s all in my head. I complain a lot on my runs to try and get some empathy from the husband. Which, if you know him — clearly doesn’t work. HAHAHA.
Oh running. Nobody said it would be easy. But it’s well worth it. Most times I hate it, but that feeling after the run? Euphoric. As I blog about climbing, yoga, running, and The Guy’s Ironman triathlon training, I’m trying to promote a healthy lifestyle and to stay on course. I’m not sure I’ll be blogging about my running adventures all the time, since I’m no pro. But if you want to read some of my favourite Canadian running bloggers who keep me motivated to run on my own when The Guy is at work, check out 
So you won’t be seeing me in any races anytime soon. But I’ll continue to join my husband on his shorter training runs or going on hikes with our little Pom! Stay active my friends, and #GetOutAndGo.
8:50a //Pretty proud of my $7 Google purchase. A black and white mug perfect sized for my cuppa tea in the a.m. Along side, toasted everything bagel with bell pepper, mushrooms, cheese and tomatoes. Spread was mayo + chipotle mayo. All the fat. All the tasties.
12:40p //Â Because when you want a lot of things but are too lazy to cook all the things, you make a delicious snack plate for lunch. Here we have a honey crisp apple, grapes, raspberries, strawberries (that were gross and crunchy so I decided to freeze them for smoothies), homemade cheese crackers, plantains, coconut flakes, pea things, homemade raw trail mix, hummus and crackers.
4:05p // Coffee date with my Canadian friend!
8:25p // I overcooked the salmon. Still good though. Seasoned with Mrs. Dash original, and a sliver of lemon. On the side, a baked russet potato (smothered with butter and garlic), carrots, cauliflower and a silly little spinach salad. So healthy.