Good news... bad news....Sidewalk art .... and a cocktail

[SaskAlliecat]

Well, it’s official. Both my events have been cancelled 😢. I expected the one in June but was hoping September’s event could still go as planned, but it was not meant to be. The government released the “Re-open Saskatchewan” plan last week and there is no way they can host an event if this magnitude in the provincial park in September. The good news though is that the Provincial parks are opening for vehicular traffic, fishing, hiking and mountain biking on Monday so my glorious trails will be open to explore again next week but it is still unknown if we will be able to put our houseboat in the water. The marinas weren’t mentioned in the 5 phase plan. Our fingers are crossed though. The campgrounds will be open and operating at reduced capacity by June 1 so here’s hoping that the marinas will fall into that category as well. At our end of the dock, we only have our houseboat and our neighbour’s houseboat across the dock for live-aboard boats. There is more than 6 feet between us and we usually just chat from the tops of our boats but it is a very long walk to our little piece of paradise so we will have to see what response the owner of the marina gets from the powers-that-be.

The other good news is that although my June HM has been cancelled, they are offering a virtual event which I promptly signed up for so I’ll just keep trucking along on my plan. I’ll run it at the lake (but not on my trails - I haven’t trained for those kinds of hills) and just enjoy the weekend for what it is - a nice run in a beautiful location, albeit not Banff 😢

It is a cut back week this week in my training, which was very fortunate on my part. I’ve been noticing a little niggle in my knees as the runs have gotten longer. I know my glutes are weak and I have been very bad at not doing my strength training exercises so I did a short leg workout yesterday. I thought I was being careful to not overdo it but my quads, and glutes are telling me otherwise. I went out for my 5 mile run today thinking that will loosen me up. Nope, just made it worse. Oh well. I had to get my son to crawl under the sink to grab me a new sponge when I did the dishes. There was no getting down there today. I guess tomorrow will need to be a rest day. I’m supposed to go help hubby out at the houseboat so hopefully there isn’t too much crawling up and down 😩.

There was lots of lovely sidewalk art today to entertain me and the promise of a lovely beverage once I got home and finished the rest of my chores. Now time to put my feet up, enjoy my cocktail (lemonade with Cherry whiskey, in case you were wondering) and wait for hubby to return from a day working on the houseboat. We’re planning a backyard campfire where will will roast hotdogs and enjoy some potato salad and s’mores, while treating ourselves to another cocktail or two since Spring has finally arrived! Yippee!!!

[Grannyhugs Graduate10]

Wow sounds like you are well on your way to exiting lockdown. That all sounds fantastic, running trails and houseboats. Go easy on those strengthening exercises- horrible if you did more harm than good. Good luck with your virtual half marathon. Happy running 🤗

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Grannyhugs]

The first 2 phases of our plan have dates, but the last three are still open ended. It will be a long time before we go back to any resemblance of "normal" but at least some businesses can start to think about re-opening. Of course just after they announced the plan, there was a resurgence of cases but they are all in the north and far north which are now closed for any outside traffic. Fortunately for the rest of us, they are allowing the majority (but not all) of the province to start re-opening. Fingers crossed people are smart about it.

I'm still quite shocked at how stiff I got after this workout. I'm still walking like tin man but feel like I'm loosening up. A short walk or bike ride will be in order this afternoon/morning.

[Grannyhugs Graduate10 in reply to SaskAlliecat]

The benefit of a giant country, you can reopen in stages. I wish you all well. Keep moving to prevent stiffness 😀 I’ve moved to kitchen to make fruit muffins and fruit and nut oats cookie🤣🤣 somehow I don’t feel the stiffness when baking, or when munching it afterwards. 🤗

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Grannyhugs]

Sounds yummy 😋.

That's the problem when I bake. It feels like I eat most of it 🐷😆.

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

Oh what a shame Saska but probably what you expected. Good news that you can run a virtual HM (bling 🏅😍) but bad news about that niggle. How irritating. Hopefully it’ll be just that and it’ll pass. I find I discover all sorts of niggles when I do longer distances and especially in training 🙄 its so annoying isn’t it?

You are much further along in Canada than here regarding the lifting so it’ll be interesting to see how it all works out. But spring is there 🤗 whoopee!

That’s funny artwork, hope it doesn’t rain 🙀

Hope you enjoyed your cocktail and fingers crossed for those pesky niggles 🤞🏃‍♀️🙂

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Irishprincess]

Our province was the first to report a plan to reopen but our population density is a lot lower and spread out being an agriculture area so our overall cases have been fairly low. What surprises me are the provinces with huge numbers of daily cases and deaths still are talking about reopening as well. I guess time will tell if this is a good idea. We have very specific and strict rules in place - still very small gatherings (10 people) maintaining physical distancing, only household members in the same boat but we can now form "virtual households" whereby we are allowed to have backyard gatherings with one or two other families, as long as those groups are consistent and less than 10 people. It allows for easier tracing of cases if they occur. The struggle we've had is our son now connecting with a few friends on bike rides with the nice weather. In one case he extended an invite out to another friend who then brought 2 friends. We had to shut that down. He says they are very careful about maintaining physical distancing and understands the importance of limiting his friend group right now. At least his dad and I haven't been reaching out to any friends so we should be fine.

My cocktail was so lovely and went down so easily, I had a second, but then I was a good little girl and stopped. Although that third kept calling my name 😇

[Irishprincess Graduate10 in reply to SaskAlliecat]

It’s a tricky balance. I must say that if our government told us we could start resuming normal life tomorrow, I’d still stay at home! Nothing has changed since seven weeks ago, there’s no cure, “they” still don’t know a lot about it, etc.

I haven’t been out for over seven weeks apart from my running, hope I still remember how to drive!

On the alcohol side, I mormnally have four alcohol-free nights but in lockdown this has reduced to three nights, which I think is still pretty good 🥂🍷🍻

[BaddieThePirate Graduate10]

An exit plan! You are ahead of us. I hope you can put your boat in the water soon. Rest and stretch those sore muscles. Hope you are recovered very soon.

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to BaddieThePirate]

Hubby is working hard to finish the outside painting and deck so when we get the go ahead he is ready to launch. There is still a lot of work to do so a slight delay wouldn't upset him too much at this point.

I'm still quite sore this morning but feel like I'm starting to limber up a bit. A short stroll or bike ride may be in the cards. They are calling for rain this afternoon so I can't paint at the boat like was initially planned for me, so I guess I'll stay home and do housework instead 😟. I'm sure I'll be good to resume training Ina few days.

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to SaskAlliecat]

Just got confirmation the docks will be opening with Phase 2 which is May 19. There will be strict rules and measures in place but all very reasonable. Yay!

[MartinKH Graduate10]

Sounds good that your provincial parks will be opening up soon.

The street art is great, take care with that knee injury.

Feet up with cocktails sounds good 😊

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to MartinKH]

It has been fun seeing all the sidewalk art on my runs. You can definitely tell what some of the assignments are that some of the teachers have been giving. There was also a lot of mosaics and chalk exercises "courses". If my legs weren't so heavy, I may have tried a few of them. Maybe next time. I usually get at least one hopscotch course in on each run 😄

[ju-ju- Graduate10]

Wow that all sounds lovely..l how wonderful to have a houseboat. Great news you can do a virtual HM, and that your trails are open too.

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to ju-ju-]

Thanks. The houseboat is lovely. It was a dream of ours to have one and it became a reality about 10 years ago. Because it is an older one, it is a lot of work getting it ready to go in the spring and with repairs but it is so worth it. Waking up in the morning on the water and enjoying the peaceful evenings is heavenly. We used to spend a lot of time at the lake anyways but always missed these best part of the days when it is quieter and the wind has gone down. I just wish our season was longer.

The virtual HM will help to keep me running consistently for the next 7 weeks and I am glad they offered it. After it is done though, I'll likely just hit my trails again and enjoy running whatever meets my fancy. I haven't had a carefree summer in years where I wasn't following a training plan. I guess we'll see how that goes. I'll either love it or hate it and start some random plan mid summer 😂

[Hidden]

What fantastic news that you can get on your trails again Saskie. And run by the lake. Fingers crossed that you get to your houseboat too. Take care of that niggly knee. How about online pilates for those glutes? I'm doing two classes per week on Zoom and I have a permanently sore bum and slow runs as a result. Great art. Cherry whisky sounds yeuch

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Hidden]

I haven't done Pilates in years but that would be a good idea. I may have to try that as well. I should've just followed the plan my Physio gave me last year but thought this short class would be fine. Oops. It just goes to show how weak they were. Time to build up slowly.

The cherry whiskey was yum. It is a liqueur so not very alcohol tasting...which is dangerous in itself. I'm not much of a drinker anymore (I'm not actually sure when the last time I had a drink was) but enjoyed this little treat. I've always used the excuse of training to not really drink much anymore, but with no scheduled training plan after this HM is done, we'll have to see what this summer brings 😂. This will be the first time in3 years that I haven't had some training plan to follow in the summer.

[Hidden]

Wahooooooo!

Sounds great to me. Well done on remaining positive. This is key and you are still keeping going. The virtual run sounds just the tonic too. The cocktail looked terrific by the way. Best of luck recovering from aches and pains too. Hope the campfire went well!

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks GTFC.

The campfire was great. The wind died down and it was a very calm peaceful evening. It cools off pretty quick at night so we didn't keep it going too long but it was nice to sit around the fire with my husband and son and reconnect. With the kitchen table covered in a model car my son and husband are building and the dining room table with schoolwork, I find we haven't been sitting down to eat together in one place unless it is in front of the tv. It might be time to finish the model or make the effort to move the schoolwork over so we can get that all important family time together again.

[Hidden in reply to SaskAlliecat]

Definitely. It's a really important time if you could get back to that. Maybe keep the model and move the school work. I wish you all a mindful week ahead. I love this. Hope you do too. Just short reminders...youtu.be/XmfX2NWezKM(Not working as expected?)

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

I’m glad that winter is over for you Allie, and that you will be able to return to your lovely houseboat at weekends.

It’s a shame about your races. I have had one cancelled and am still waiting to hear about the one in September. Do enjoy your virtual run and collect that bling.

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

I’m hoping that the nice weather and the virtual HM will keep me on track with my programme. It has been really hard lately to stay motivated but the warmer weather is helping. And now knowing there is bling to be had... well, you know how that goes 😁

[Fabulous450 Graduate10]

Ooh SaskAlliecat.....it’s really so nice to hear about plans to re-open 🥰🥰, albeit that your event in September will be virtual, it all sounds pretty wonderful. Parks, fishing, hiking, 😋!! And I haven’t even done any of the latter two before!! 😂😊

It all sounds beautiful....including the cocktails😉!! Rest well and enjoy!! 🤗❤️❤️❤️

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Fabulous450]

I'm definitely looking forward to some isolation at the lake. We used to fish a lot but haven't much in the last few years. Perhaps we'll take it back up again this year. It is a peaceful way to spend an early morning or evening.

[Fabulous450 Graduate10 in reply to SaskAlliecat]

🎣 🚤 in the beautiful open air, while on the water! Sounds glorious!! I’ll stop drooling now! 😂🥰🥰🥰 ❤️

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10]

Missed this you! Wow!!!

What wonderfully positive news and all round cheerfulness! (Apart from the aching bits... ) Maybe head across the the S and F forum for some ideas to help loosen things up?

It will be so good to have some of your wonderful photographs to keep me and us happy in our lockdown state I hope that you can get the House boat back on the water for a change of scenery

Take care you xxx

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Oldfloss]

We got confirmation yesterday that the docks will be open May 19. Yay! We still have lots to get done before then but we should be in by June for sure.

I'm starting to loosen up a bit now but will definitely head over to S&F for some ideas. Thanks!

[Jell6 Graduate10]

Another lovely post🤩

We have to see the positives, and one huge aspect of lockdown is, that it's making us realise how much we used to take for granted.

I hope that when we all return to the new normal, we remember that.

Great that you will soon get back to your trails and house boat. I will look forward to your posts.

Cherry whisky sounds interesting, but along with my sense of smell I have also lost any interest in drinking alcohol.

I wonder if that will return?.....

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to Jell6]

As tough as this pandemic has been, there have been some positives that we must focus on.

I wonder how long your sense of smell will be gone. That is such an interesting side effect. How unfortunate this time of year though with all the lovely smells of Spring.