February Recap

(I spell February wrong every.time.  Glad the month is over and for spell check)

KMs Ran:  234km. 

# of spin classes:  8

# of training sessions/cross training:  15

Rest Days: 5

Favourite Feb workout:  5km ‘time trial’.  Hello sub 30min for the first time.

Favourite piece of training equipment:  Garmin Love.  I can’t quit you….

Current Reads:  Nothing.  Weird for me. 

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure:  Angry Birds…though it really should be called Angry Laura as it drives me nuts.  I waited to even try the game as I can get obsessed with them.  Hello obsession.  Stupid pigs, stupid birds. 

Current Song:  Lonely Boy by the Black Keys.  This video just kills me.  Sweet moves.

Current Wish List:  Nothing big..just a PB in Sunday’s 5km race and Around the Bay 30km at the end of the March. 

Current Bane of my Existence:   Our eldest cat who insists on waking us up at 4:49 every day.  (and yes the exact same time)  Nothing like waking from a deep slumber by a caterwauling feline.

And the fact that I am 0-9 on Tim Horton’s Roll up  the Rim to Win. 

Fav Recipe: Black beans cooked with tomatoes, cilantro, corn and spices served in GF wraps with avocado and salsa. 

Current Blessings:  My hubs, my health, my family, my friends.

Current Excitement/Freak out:  See the wish list.  Can’t wait for the 5km and 30km races…am freaked out about doing well in them. 

How did Feb pan out for you?  Are you a pro at spelling February?

The positives of Sunday’s 30km run

Sunday we ran the full Around the Bay 30km route.

It was a great.day.  I truly hope race day has at least a hint of how nice today was – no snow, sun, virtually no wind and just a great day to be out.

So the wins of the run:

• I only carried my hand held with my water/electrolyte replacer.  It was fine.  I hydrate at ton so for race day, I can still have some water at the stop but not be freaked that I will shrivel up.

• I kept up a faster pace than I have been training with. 
• The sun was out in full force for about 20km of the run. 
• I ran with just me the whole run..and didn’t go insane.  I succumbed to music around the 21km mark because the voices in my head have the same bad singing voice as I do.
• I have one small blister as a result of the run.  The Blister Queen thanks you Injinji socks and Everstride. 
• I didn’t let the route beat me up at all…I attacked the rolling hills like they were my job.
• My small race belt that has built in gel holders worked perfectly.  Now I don’t have to wear my giant Batman fuel belt on race day.

So it wasn’t perfect – I still struggle with that ‘heavy’ leg feeling that I get but I am hopefully I will just throw it all out the window on race day and prove these solo slowwwwwww training runs are paying off.

How was your weekend?  If you run, do you get that heavy legs feeling and how do you combat it?

The Tortoise and the Hare – a tale of two runs

The Tortoise:

Sunday’s long run was 28km along the Bay route again.  It was a great day – no snow, a brief appearance by the sun and just a bit chilly.  (Let’s hope race day is like that as it would be the perfect race day)  Overall I felt good – I kept my pace at my usual sllllloooowwww speed except for the hills which I pounded a bit.  (felt good to get the legs moving) 

No snow?  Sweet….

I snagged another pic at my fav part of the route.  I don’t know why I like this part…maybe because the hill that is after it is really evil so this one is just kinder:

The Hare:

I have a 5km race coming up in March….I haven’t raced a 5km race since….2007 from what I can tell from doing online searches for my times.   Because I am a planner crazy, control freak, nutbar, I wanted to do a true ‘time trial’ just to see where I was at as well as get used to being the pain zone prior to race day.  My friend/coach agreed so off we went last night.  We just basically ran a route where we didn’t have to stop…and stop we didn’t.  I booked in @ 29:40…apparently a 5min+ PB for me.  Who knows what will happen on race day but at least I know I can run sub 30 min for a 5km which I never thought this non speedy body could do.

Post run grin…and woozy hair.

Today I feel fine..I thought my legs would be a bit sore but I think the 3km cool down run helped zap out any lactic acid.  Let’s see how I feel tomorrow though…

Do you ‘practice’ for races?  Please tell me I am not alone…

Four for Friday – the orange and 4 day weekend edition

1.  I’ve been eating a lot of orange food of late.  I made a huge batch of Mama Pea’s carrot, cashew and ginger soup for Sunday’s dinner and then eating the leftovers through the week.  Add in some kale and millet for a great at work lunch. (3 days this week..)

2.  I have been eating these like candy:

Seedless clementines..that look like eyes in this picture.

or boobs.  :)

3.  I discovered on this morning’s run that my orange Nikes and rainbow Injinji socks compliment each other very well.

Serious runner coming through!

4.  Monday is a holiday in parts of Canada (Family Day is the official term).  Since I worked last weekend I have a lieu day owed to me which I am taking on Tuesday thus…4 Day Weekend! 

Other than the usual training and Sunday long run, we are spending some time visiting family and friends and hopefully sleeping.  Sleep is a lost commodity in our house of late so it owes up big time.

Happy weekend all!!

3 Things Wrong with Sunday’s Long Run

There were only 3 things that were wrong with yesterday’s long run.  Unfortunately, they were:

1. the beginning
2. the middle
3. the (almost) end

1. The beginning – I started out Sunday @ 7am being very sleep deprived.  I worked all day Friday, then again that night from 11pm-5am, slept for a few hrs and then worked again from 11pm-1am into Sunday.  While I don’t think I need a lot of sleep this kind of disjointed slumber kills me.  It has also snowed a ton on Saturday so the footing was brutal.  I left from our place and broke the run into increments – make it to Lakeshore (~7km out) where the footing should be better…

2.  The middle...arrived on Lakeshore where the footing was better because I could run on the road.  Unfortunately the 35km/hr wind picked up and it was all in my face.  Then when the wind died down as I hit the hilly part of the run…it started to snow again and the once clear-ish road became slippery and snowy.

3.  the (almost) end.  I just kept going and for the last 5km it got a bit better.  But that could have been because I knew I was almost ‘home’. 

The whole run was done in my training zone and I got the distance done but it was a run where I kept feeling like I used to feel when I first started running – slow, fat, unable to keep up, un-runnerish.  There was no running manta that gave me some inspiration for this run.  At the lowest part of the run, I didn’t care that “quitting was forever” or that I would regret not running.  I guess it was a good mental training exercise as I had lots of chance to bail on the run but didn’t.  So…I guess that is the positive. 

And I got to wear my gaitors which kind of look like legwarmers:

C’mon …sing it from Flashdance:  “What a feeling!”

Four for Friday – the Crazy Town edition

1.  What.a.week.  Tired doesn’t even cover how I feel.  Work is really busy (not complaining…just commenting…) and training is going really well but things just felt like they caught up a bit more with me this week.  Mayor of Crazy Town?  You bet and I have to work all day today, overnight tonight and part of Sat night/Sunday morning as well.  I miss you sleep not that you have been very kind to me of late anyway.

2.  Last night was the last of our hill repeat sessions. 6 repeats = 14.3.km total of running at an overall pace of 6:58.  It was really, really tough but I am truly happy with how I did on the the hills this time around and how I feel today.  (Other than the whole tired thing..)

3.  This morning I ran.  Early. Really, really early.  Had I been sleeping, I would have ignored the run after last night’s workout but when you are awake from 3:15am on, you might as well get up and go for a run before 4:30.  Right?

4.  I had yet another close encounter with a skunk.  This one was real close..luckily neither it nor I were moving very fast so I was able to back pedal fast enough to make a non-smelly getaway.

Are you living in Crazy Town?  2012 is swooshing by….

Four for Friday – the hills and rock edition

1.  Last night was hill repeat X 5.  It was a good one though we had to work for every repeat last night.  Usually I find the steeper part of the repeat easier but last night it was just tough.  12.4km of hills at a sub 7min/km pace…yes.please.

2.  Apparently I went for the bright look last night: 

Red/orange shoes and blue/green top.  I gots the primary colours covered off apparently.

3.  I stuck around again to help spot and encourage the rest of the group after my run.  It wasn’t freezing but when you have already run and there is a breeze and you are right beside the cemetery, it was cold..and kind of creepy.  I hung out looking all thugish with a big yellow sign I used to stretch:

4.  For those of you that know the Around the Bay Route, you go past the Royal Botanical Gardens, past the cemeteries, high5 the little person and cross a wooden bridge before you make your way up Valley Inn Road 4 km from the finish.  Since the road is now closed to traffic and to ensure no one drives on it, there is a big rock at the end of the wooden bridge blocking ~ 3/4 of the entrance.  Part of our spotting duties is to yell:  “Watch out for the rock!" which just sounds weird.  Hope there isn’t too many people on race day trying to get across the bridge.

Is anyone else glad it is the weekend?  I am ecstatic…especially since in between training, there will be a lot of chillin’ with the hubs. 

January 2012 - Recap

KMs Ran:  216km…my highest since April 2011. BooYah.

# of spin classes:  8

# of training sessions/cross training:  17

Rest Days: 5 – every Monday baby. 

Favourite Jan workout:  My fav this month were the combos from this past Friday and Saturday:

• Friday:  pre-work 10.5km run; killer training session where we worked back, chest, arms etc.
• Sat:  Tempo and interval spin class; cross training session that consisted of a million pushups (ok…100), planks, squats etc..

By Monday, DOMs had set it hard and my back/upper body was so achy I actually thought I had the flu.

Favourite piece of training equipment:  My Knuckle Lights.

Current Reads: Trying to read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre.  I just feel stupid as I read it. 

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure:  This is actually the hubs doing, but he bought me a beauty of a bag back from Vegas:

Current Song:  Stronger (What doesn’t kill you) by Kelly Clarkson.  Now…this isn’t a song that is usually in my wheel well but I like it…

Current Wish List:  For winter to keep on keepin’ on.  Last night and this morning, the temp  outside was:

Also to stay injury free (duh) and try to get more quality sleep.

Current Bane of my Existence: My interval (Z5) speed workouts.  I know they are supposed to be tough and I know that in marathon training, speed isn’t the end goal but these workouts are my least favourite ones to do. 

Fav Recipe:   African Peanut Stew.  When the hubs was away I ate this either at dinner/lunch almost every day.  Apparently when I cook for one, I am a lazy cook. 

Current Blessings:  The ongoing support/encouragement I get from not only the hubs but my friends and coaches.  I would be hard pressed to do all of this training without them….

Current Excitement/Freak out:  Officially registered for my Spring Marathon.  Yikes. 

How was your January?  Are you happy/disappointed with how Winter currently is in your neck of the woods?