About

Striding

Running Strides

I come from a family of runners, so I have been running for as long as I can remember. My first race was at the age of 4 years old and was 1 km; I've been hooked ever since. My favorite distance is 10 km and I am currently training for my first half marathon and a 10km race in the spring.

Hiking Strides

I live in a city that has the Rocky Mountains as it's backyard. When the summer hits, the husband and I try to get out to the mountains as much as we can to hike and backpack. Mostly we go for day hikes ranging from 5-20 km, but we also try to get out backpacking 4 or 5 times per year to explore the backcountry as much as possible. We even went backpacking for part of our honeymoon.

Gliding

Hockey Glides
When I was a younger my parents tried me out in various sports to see which one I would pick up; unfortunately for my mum, my favorite was hockey, not dance or gymnastics. I played hockey for the next 20 years, taking it to a competitive level playing for my University team. Nowadays I play in a competitive recreational league, which is really just a league of ex-University players who still take the game seriously but drink beer after (or before) the game.

Skiing Glides

I live in a country with a lot of snow (yay Canada!) and I absolutely love it for all the activities you can do in the fluffy white stuff. By far, my favorite snow activity is cross-country skiing. I do both styles, skating and classical, and love that I can get an amazing workout while enjoying the scenery of snow covered mountains. If I can't get out of the city for the weekend, I have been known to hit up local golf courses and ski around them just to get another ski in. 

Food Background

My experience in food has come simply from enjoying it and experimenting. When I moved out of my parents house, the only thing I could make was mac and cheese. Since I got tired of that pretty fast, I started experimenting in the kitchen and trying out new dishes. In the past few years, I have been trying to cook healthy wholesome meals that can also provide enough fuel for my striding and gliding activities. Through trial and error I have started to better understand the relationship between what I eat and my performance. I still have a lot to learn, so hopefully I can use this blog to better understand the balance. (Side note: My knowledge of food and nutrition has come from reading articles online, magazines, and cook books, so I wouldn't consider myself an expert by any means.)

Jen (that's me)

And finally, here are a few facts about me:  

• I recently married my favorite person in the world, Bill, after 6 and a half years of dating. It snowed on our wedding in May.
• I have an identical twin sister, Allison, who is my fitness challenge buddy. We do challenges together to help us stay on track.
• I'm a hockey playing Canadian (just fitting the stereotype)
• I classify myself as a "fair-weather" bike commuter to work, as in I only bike in the summer. Bill bikes year-round and makes fun of me when I'm sitting on the bus for twice the amount of time it takes him to get home. 
• In my professional life, I am a Project Coordinator for an interactive marketing company. 
• I drink 4 cups of coffee a day
• My favorite food is peanut butter. mmmm Peanut Butter.