After several months of base and strength training, speed work has officially started for me this week, and today I met my dryland coach at the hill up the street from my house for a workout.

Most people think sprinting hills is a little grueling, but this is one workout you won`t generally here me complaining about. I think running hills is a blast. It`s quick, hard and dirty. It`s like a race against gravity. I love it.

Okay, I have lived in the Vancouver/Lower Mainland/Sea to Sky Corridor for five years and in that time I have been witness to a grand total of three thunderstorms. We get a heck of a lot of rain here, but only in the form of endless weeks of drizzly showers.

Summary: Well, after a few weeks hiatus from the circuit, I managed to convince my ever-compliant husband to hit the driveways with me this weekend, seeing as my regular partner-in-crime, Kirsten, is vacationing in tropical Manitoba.

As you may notice, the photo venue for garage sailing finds has changed - the setups are no longer on the kitchen butcher's block (an $8 garage steal-of-a-deal from last season) ... they will now occur on our new, five-dollar (haggled down from ten) living room coffee table:

Okay. So I live in a little town. A little town that has no shopping mall. No Body Shop. No Bay. No Sport Check. No Lululemon. No Stokes that is permanently going out of business. No food court.

So, everytime I am in Calgary, I carve out time to go to the mall. Because for me, it's like going to an amusement park.

There are bright lights, and tons of people. There are line-ups and kids screaming. Food stands and snack bars. And even better, no admission fee and free parking!