A great weekend!

Weekends are meant to be enjoyed with friends and family, and this one certainly did not fail at all!  I am sitting writing my blog with a satisfied smile on my face after an action packed couple of days!
Yesterday we headed to Collingwood and spent the day with you winter friends.  What the heck are winter friends??  Well, many of the people that we ski with we only see from December until April.  So when the season starts it is like home coming, getting to see all of them and sharing stories of our summers and our goals over the course of this ski season.  It is a blast to hear what people have done and spend a day dong some lazy socializing.  And like most ski related activities, finish up with a beer or two out on the deck!  C an you find anything wrong with that?
Since I last saw my winter friends, I have dropped a few pounds.  It did not go unnoticed.  The reaction is a great passive motivation. People asking what the heck I am doing and how I lost all the weight.  Of course the discussion evolved to IM and my plans to compete at Wisconsin next year.  As most people are not in the IM world, hte reaction is quite interesting. It ranges from 'holy crap are you nuts'.....to absolute intrigue at the process to get there.  As I am on a great high these days sharing my excitement is great.  I tried to take a bit of the enthusiasm and bottle it,  I imagine I may need to take a big drink of it when in hte midst of heavy training next summer.

After our day with friends we headed out to check out our winter hang out.  We have a great cottage on Georgian Bay.  The views are to die for, with the water on one side and the hills on the other for us to enjoy.  Our group(Trish, Alex, Monica, Edward and myself) quite like the place.  It is very comfortable and does not feel like a rental property like other places we have had in past winters. I must say, one of the best features is the Scandanavian spa on the front deck that overlooks Georgian Bay.  After a great day of skiing and a long run, it will be a great luxury to jump in to the spa and relax.  Hanging out in a hottub when the temperature is -10 and it is snowing is something that everyone should experience.  The town of Thornbury is also a cool, quaint little town.  After the rest of the winter gang headed home, Trish and I( and our dog Karma)hung out for the evening  As we are only getting it ready, w had no food so we headed out into the village for dinner at the pub.  The pub we chose had a scotch list of over 350 choices. It almost makes you want to start drinking scotch.  I never thought 1.5oz glass could cost $1200.  That must be some good scotch!  We had an awesome meal in a very cool and relaxed place.  We will definitely go back to THE DAM PUB again.
This morning we called up Trish's mom and met up with her for some breakfast on the way home.  She is an awesome lady.  Any lady who loves to iron is has to be cool.  Yeah, she loves to iron.  she actually asks us to bring up our ironing so that she can do it for us. So, this morning I get back a bunch of my shirts that she had taken care of for me!  It was fun catching up with her and beginning to plan the Christmas season.
When we got home today, both Trish and I got our gear on and headed out for a run.  I kinda went a little longer than I anticipated today.  I planned on 18k and ended up just over 24.  I guess I can say it is miles in the bank.  I planned the first half of the route and the second half got away with me a bit.  Oh well!  It was an awesome afternoon for a run with the temperature being perfect.  Trish also ran a bit further than she usually would.  Who knows what she is training for????  She will not share with anyone what she might do(not even me) I will certainly encourage whatever race she may or may not want to do.
As I said at the beginning of my post, a great weekend had by all!  I hope that you all had the same experience!  Cheers and Happy Training! (or rest if you have recently raced)