Four for Friday – the bread and yoga edition

1.  The awesome gym I belong to is on the 2nd floor of a historic building.  You know what opened on the first floor?  A bakery.  This morning’s run was filled with the scent of fresh bread and …..their signature cinnamon buns.  I may have to bring nose plugs with me or learn to be a mouth breather.

2.  Over the past month I have (finally) been incorporating yoga into my training.  And love it.  There is a hot yoga place near us so I have been going 1-2 times per week.  I know there is a risk of over stretching in hot yoga so I am pretty careful to ensure I don’t try to be all yogini in it.  And just sweat…a lot. 

3.  I didn’t like Wednesday night’s class.  It was later (8pm) and I had had a brutally busy but successful day at work so I really just wanted to go and get a good sweat/stretch/mind clear out of the class.  The guy who led the class was more ‘bootcampy’ in my opinion.  Yes he was helpful as he spent time with people getting into their poses but that just meant we were holding the poses a lot longer.  And we did planks, and other core work so along with him helping other the 60 min class was 80 min.  I actually thought I was going to pass out as it was just so hot.  That dude is off my list.

4.  We are well into taper and I am still sane.  I have done 2 yoga classes, 3 easy-ish runs and 2 weight workouts.  Way less than usual but still keeping me sane for the resting to come next week.

Do you do Hot Yoga? Fan Yea or Nay? 

Bday Recap

Thanks for the (forced) bday wishes.  Overall, it was a good one.  Sat night, the hubs and I went out to dinner.  I think there was food -I  know there was wine. 

We made up for said vino with doing  penance on Sunday with some  easy running.  Followed by some visiting, some food and of course cupcakes.

  

(note that we only lit 4 of those little candles…and I managed to blow out 3 of them.  My cardio is already suffering in taper.)

The hubs got me good with his gift to me:

Wrapped up in the toy airplane and skydiver from his childhood (the things his mom saves!) was a gift to go SKYDIVING!  It is something I have said for ages I would love to do and now I will.   It’s a good thing when the one you love tells you that you can/should jump out of a plane right?

Post marathon of course.

Have you been skydiving?  If not, do you want to? 

Four for Friday – the random a go go edition

1.  Having a busy weekend planned means getting my last long run of this session done this morning.  It wasn’t easy or pretty.  (twss) I managed 21.2km and decided that was as close to the planned 23km as it was going to get. 

2.  Hello Marathon Taper.  If you’ll be friendly, I’ll reciprocate.  I’m still not convinced in the wowie sauce you deal out however.

3.  Congrats to everyone who ran (survived) Boston!  You are truly amazing.  I was lucky enough to watch a lot of the coverage…with the volume muted however as the commentators were brutal.  I could have done a better job.  Except I swear too much …and am often inappropriate.  :)

4.  All week did you feel like you had forgotten something?  Must have been because you forgot to mail my Birthday card to me.  Don’t worry…if you express post it, it will still make it here for Sunday.

Steps to Running A Race Route on a Non Race Day

Step 1:  Print off unclear/confusing route map.  Fight with the Google Map version and try to zoom in/out to find all the necessary side streets.

Step 2:  Give up and make executive decision to stick to the main streets…the side streets will be a nice surprise on race day.

Step 3:  Drive the route with the hubs to ensure we can safely run the route when the streets aren’t closed like on race day.  Argue with hubs when he goes the wrong way but insists it is the right way.  Slightly gloat when you are right.  Ignore hubs when he starts saying things like:  “Make sure to tell them they need to stay Northbound/Southbound/West Side”…cause that means nothing to you.  Left and Right are good directions in my opinion.

Step 4:  Have awesome people in your life you totally rearrange their own training to do a long run on Friday so they can help out on Sunday.  And drive around for 4 1/2 hrs in the rain to ensure you aren’t lost/injured and are well hydrated/fuelled.  And cheer you on at every pit stop.  And drive everyone back to their cars post run.

Step 5:   Be grateful for your friends who agree to getting up even earlier on a Sunday to not only start running early but also drive the extra distance before running.  Enjoy their company and support.

Step 6:  Finish.  Drive self home and make pit stop for coffee and a bagel that basically never made it out of the parking lot.  Be happy that it was an “ok” 35.2km training run and learn from the positives of the day.

Step 7:  Ice bath, shower, hydrate, eat whatever isn’t nailed down, sleep. 

The End.

~ Good luck to everyone running Boston (both my IRL and ‘virtual”\’ friends).  Stay safe and enjoy every.single.moment.and step.

A Small Miracle of a Run and Caramel Chocolates

It has been crackers in LauraWorld of late.  Last week I had to be in another office for 3 days which added in a lot of commuting time to an already crazy schedule.  Luckily Friday was a holiday where we slept in until 8am.  A miracle in our little corner of the world.

Sunday was a ‘big’ day for me.  The first of our 2 really long runs before the marathon.  I really tried to not psych myself up about the run and I think I succeeded.  I stuck with my friends, took walk breaks when they did and ate very small amounts on every break.  The only area of I would improve on is taking in a bit more water than I did and not being as overdressed as I was. 

So…20.9miles /  33.5km done and felt good.  Not great, not bad but good.  Again, another miracle upon us.

Next Sunday is 22.4 miles on the race route.  Fingers crossed there are some more miracles then as well.

We escaped the Easter chocolate frenzy relatively unscathed:

I’m not a huge chocolate fan to be honest.  However give me chocolate filled with caramel (like the ones in between the bunnies) I am a happy camper. 

Kind of like a cat sleeping in the sun.

What were your weekend miracles?  Are you a choco fan?

March Recap

KMs Ran: 219km – slightly less than I wanted but with some taper for the 2 races and run test I did, I’m cool with that.

# of spin classes:  8

# of training sessions/cross training:  13

#Rest Days: 7

# of yoga classes:  1 – Sweet!  Finally some yoga in my life

Favourite March workout: There were quite a few really fun speed workouts this month.  I was going KM repeats which while tough are a good challenge for me. 

Favourite piece of training equipment: Spin was a lot of fun as usual this month.  Our Wed night classes are awesome and I am going to seriously miss them. 

Current Reads:  Like last month…nothing really except for Runners World.   Our subscription is via the iPad which I am still getting used to using it over good old fashioned paper.

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure:  Cinna…I mean Lenny. 

Current Song:  Feel so Close by Calvin Harris

Current Wish List:  Stay healthy!  I had a slight twinge in my heel post run this morning which I know is nothing but ..hello panic!

Current Bane of my Existence:   Now…this isn’t a complaint as I have worked hard at it but..none of my clothes fit right now and I haven’t even gotten to the summer stuff yet.  The changes I have seen with myself are great but replacing a wardrobe is $$.

Fav Recipe: The hubs made a killer tomato pasta sauce that included blended mushrooms, carrots and celery.  No recipe..just stuff thrown together. (and using a zillion pots/pans…)

Current Blessings:  Being able to run again with my friends now that my easy run pace is quicker than it was.  Sunday’s run flew by while chatting it up.

Current Excitement/Freak out:  The.marathon.is.32.days.away.

What’s your Song O the Month?  I need some new hits.