All posts tagged with: summer

Photo credit: Jay Minter

The mercury is starting to rise and that means it’s time to change running patterns and habits. Hot temperatures are dangerous for endurance sport and marathon runners. Understanding the risks and how to avoid getting into a serious situation, or even worse, death, is important.

Training for a marathon is significantly easy in the cooler months like fall or spring. As the temperatures rise, the body isn’t used to the hot weather and hasn’t been conditioned. This is when marathon runners run into serious complications, such as cramping and heat exhaustion, that can hamper their race time or end up in a medical tent with a DNF. Understanding how to avoid these dangers is important.

It is important to help the body adapt to the significantly warmer temperatures. As muscles and internal organs heat up, blood moves the heat to the skins surface. On the surface, skin begins to sweat, which cools the body back down. In as short as two weeks of training, the body can adapt to the warmer conditions, dramatically improving circulation and sweat capacity.

During this transition time, training runs may need to be shortened or done at a slower pace. More importantly, the body will require a dramatic increase in both water and electrolytes to stay hydrated so your body has the fluids it needs to keep sweating. You may also want to change your training times to earlier in the morning when the temperatures are at the daily low.

Get out and enjoy the summer sunshine and remember to adapt your training program to build your strength and exercise.

As spring comes to a close next week and the dog days of summer begin, evening cocktails become part of the normal routine. Simple, easy-to-make, and packed full of refreshing flavour, the Grapefruit Rickey is a summer staple. You can feel less guilt on your summer diet with this cocktail because it’s not packed with sugar calories.

• 1.5 oz Vodka
• 1 oz Grapefruit Juice
• ½ oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
• ½ oz St. Germaine

Pour all ingredients into a martini shaker half full of ice. Shake for 20 seconds, until the shaker begins to frost. Pour into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a slice of fresh grapefruit. For an additional grapefruit punch, add a few drops of grapefruit bitters.

While the weather is still nice and sunny and before summer officially closes, it’s time to get one last push in at the beach, weekend on the boat, and sipping summer cocktails on the patio with a group of friends. This martini celebrates summer. It’s like a twist on a Starbucks blended coffee drink – made just for adults. One thing is for sure, you’re likely to get pretty tipsy, pretty quickly, after just a few of these. You’ve been forewarned.

• 2 oz chocolate milk
• 1 oz Kahlua
• 1 oz Bailey’s
• 1 oz Frangelico
• 1 oz Espresso Vodka

Fill a large martini shaker half full of ice. Pour in all ingredients. Shake hard, until the outside of the shaker is frosted. Pour into a chilled martini glass.

The staff at Global Collection are always coming up with special and unique new cocktails. Chris Ballas of Vancouver’s Coast Restaurant came up with Requiem for Summer. Here’s a slightly modified version of his original cocktail. It features a late-harvest wine from the Okanagan’s award-winning Quails Gate Winery.

• 1.5 oz Vodka
• ½ oz 2009 Quails Gate Optima
• ½ oz Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
• ½ Fig
• Dash of Bitters
• Dash of Simple Syrup

Muddle fruit with lemon juice. Add liquid ingredients. Shake well. Strain over crushed ice into a rock glass rimmed with vanilla sugar (optional).

A botanical garden is a living museum. Botanical gardens are a collection of plants that have been carefully documented and scientifically organized and presented in a beautiful display for visitors to enjoy. Vancouver is blessed to have a 55-acre site dedicated to preserving the wonders of nature, just moments from downtown.

The site of the VanDusen Botanical Gardens has a rich history. Orginally owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway, the area was logged at the turn of the 20^th century, harvested for its valuable timber. The Shaughnessy Golf Club took over the site from 1912 until 1966. For five years the Province of British Columbia, City of Vancouver and the VanDusen Botanical Gardens Association worked together  to preserve the site and secure it to become the home of a special garden. In 1975, the first visitors were welcomed and it’s been open to the public ever since.

The gardens are open year-round, and change with the seasons. During the summer months visitors to the gardens will find summer perennials at their peak, tranquility in the woodlands, a bounty of vegetables and herbs and a wide variety of usual annuals throughout.

There are both guided and self-guided tours, or just wonder where your senses take you.

During the summer months it’s easy to head to a patio and throw back a few brewski’s. But alcoholic beverages add a lot of extra calories into your diet and can throw you off track and cause you to eat more too. Here are some tips to help you get through the summer months with smarter, healthier options:

1. When you order an alcoholic beverage, also order a glass of water with lemon or lime juice.
2. Instead of a vodka or gin drink, order a cranberry juice and soda.
3. Always carry a bottle of water with you when you’re out and about to keep you hydrated and feeling full.
4. Start your day off with a nutritious smoothie – it’ll kick-start your metabolism, feed your body and start burning calories quicker.
5. Avoid fizzy and sugary beverages like ciders. Instead choose diet or sugar-free beverages.

Photo Credit: Machua Photography

This summer, be ready for beach weather and have fun doing it. Here are 8 tips to get you started on a sexy, summer body:

1. Set Goals. Goals are specific, measurable and attainable. Write them down and put them somewhere you can see every day.
2. Make A Plan. Block one hour per day in your schedule. Put together a weekly plan with a mix of cardio, core and weights. Each routine will target different muscle groups and help you shape up faster.
3. Join a Group. Working out in a group environment is motivating. From running clinics and boot camps, to yoga classes and soccer teams, each will have professional coaches and instructors to help guide you and provide great tips along the way.
4. Shoes! Go to a store that has professional and knowledgable staff to help you select the right footware. They should feel perfect from the moment you put them on. If there’s discomfort, then they aren’t right for you.
5. Nutrition. Remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time, stick to a clean diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, proteins and lots of water. Stay away from complex carbs, sugars, and fats.
6. Reward Yourself. Going to massage, the chiropractor and having an Epsom salt bath are all important recovery methods to relax your hard working body. When your training hard you need to help connective tissues, muscles and tissues to rejuvenate.
7. Schedule Rest. Get a good night sleep every night. Lack of sleep leads to low energy and lowers the immune system. Remember, rest days are separate from cross-training days. It’s ok  to take a day off.
8. Love Yourself.  While you are working out every day, remember your doing it because it’s fun and you’re doing it for yourself – not to look like “that guy”. Train for you. Push your personal limits and enjoy the journey.

Eating well, training hard and looking after yourself will pay dividends long-term. Love it, enjoy it and be proud of your accomplishments.

Lite and summery… Effervescent.

• 1oz Orange Vodka
• 1oz Raspberry Sour Puss
• 1oz Apple Sour Puss
• 1oz Cranberry Juice
• Squeeze of Fresh Lime Juice

Pour all ingredients into a martini shaker half filled with ice. Shake. Pour into a martini glass. Pour into a martini glass.

A martini perfect for a warm summer evening on the patio watching the sunset. The herb-flavoured gin compliments the natural flavours from the earl grey tea. Squeeze in some fresh lemon and it’s just like a glass of iced tea!

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon Earl Grey tea leaves
• 2 (1.5 fluid ounce) jiggers gin
• white sugar, for rimming
• 1 wedge lemon
• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger fresh lemon juice
• 2 fluid ounces simple syrup

Directions

Sprinkle the tea leaves over the gin in a small glass, and set aside to steep for 2 hours.

Pour 1/4 to 1/2 inch of white sugar ont a small, shallow plate. Moisten the rims of 2 martini glasses with a wedge of lemon, dip the moistened glasses into the sugar; set aside.

Strain the infused gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup into a cocktail shaker over ice. Cover, and shake until the outside of the shaker has frosted. Strain into the rimmed glasses to serve.

Put a little spring in your step this summer with this summer cocktail.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Raspberry Sour Puss
• 1 oz vodka
• 2 oz cranberry juice
• Club Soda

Pour raspberry Sour Puss, vodka and cranberry juice into a martini shaker filled with ice. Shake. Pour concoction into a highball glass filled with ice. Top off with club soda and garnish with a lime.

This summer’s latest martini creation is the ‘Refreshing Raspberry Celebrity’. It’s made with vodka that has been infused for three weeks wish fresh, BC grown raspberries.

There’s a bit a prep-work to making this amazing martini. First, fill a pint jar half-full of fresh, BC grown raspberries. Fill the jar to the top with your favourite vodka. Seal with a fresh lid and refrigerate for a minimum of two weeks.

1. Fill a martini shaker with ice. Add:
   1. 1 oz raspberry sour puss
   2. 1 oz blue curacao
   3. 2 oz raspberry infused vodka
2. Shake. Pour into a sugar rimmed martini glass
3. Add 2 whole vodka-infused raspberries
4. Add club soda

Sharing these delicious martinis with your best friends on a hot summer afternoon will have you all feeling like celebrities in no time!

Looking for a refreshing way to cool down this summer? I highly recommend making some fresh-squeezed, homemade lemonade. It’s quick and simple to make too.

The secret to making great lemonade is starting off making simple syrup. Simple syrup will mix the sugar into the lemonade better and most consistantly than just adding sugar on it’s own.

Here’s how:

• Start by making the simple syrup in a small pot. Bring to boil 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water. Stir until all the sugar is completely dissolved. You can let it cool down and store it in a re-sealable air-tight container in the fridge.
• Squeeze the juice from 4 – 6 lemons. Here’s a great tip – before you cut the lemons, rolled them back-and-forth on the counter  - it will release the juices easier. You should end up with about a cup of lemon juice.
• Final step – pour the lemon juice, simple syrup and 4 – 6 cups of ice cold water into a large pitcher. Stir it together. Add ice. You can even add some extra lemon slices if you wanted into the pitcher as garnish.

Serve your homemade lemonade in sugar-rimmed glasses, with a straw and lemon slice.

There you have it – fast, easy and delicious homemade lemonade. If you want to give it an adult kick, I highly recommend gin!