Laura - live well, laugh often, run much

Four for Friday..the running, running edition

2012-01-27T10:20:00.001-05:00

1. I have been doing a different kind of speed work the last couple of weeks – 30 second all out bursts with 1 min rest. It’s fun though I totally feel like I am Phoebe-running. Tuesday I have a mini-victory where one of the repeats was 3:59/km. Never thought I would see a “3” on my Garmin as far as pace goes …ever….

2. Last night was round #2 of hill repeats. We busted out 4 repeats and once again…it was awesome. I am hoping to eat the hills up during the Around the Bay race in March.

3. Another fun addition to last night’s hill repeats were these puppies:

Knuckle Lights...way better than having a headlamp on for me. They are seriously bright. Another friend has these so you can bet we were doing some Jazz Hands when we passed each other. We be cool like that.

4. This morning’s run came complete with soaking wet feet from the tons of puddles and a facial from the ice pellets that appeared during the last 3km of the run. Of course now, it isn’t raining, ice pelletting and no wind. Figures.

Happy weekend all! I am ready for it…

A whole bunch of randoms

2012-01-25T07:59:00.001-05:00

Oh dear… I was tagged by a few of you for the 11 randomness…I couldn’t do 33 randoms…so you get this.

The hubs left Monday for work meetings in Las Vegas. I’m kind of glad as I keep walking around saying: “Vegas Baby!” 10 times a day.
I am secretly hoping said hubs took me seriously when I said: “Nike Lunarglides, size 8.5, please and thanks” as he was leaving.
Though only gone for 2 days, I have already had some spectacular conversations with the cats. They miss him even more.
I always put my right sock on first.
Nickleback makes me want to cut my ears off so I don’t have to listen to them. Or, you know, just turn the radio off.
Tim Hortons’ just introduce a new size cup in Canada and revamped their sizes to include a trough size:
The drive thru line up this week when this first took effect was unreal. I think there are a lot of over caffeinated Canucks out there…
I am horrible at Geography. I would probably have trouble finding my own country on a globe..if I ever bothered to do so.
I love love love Big Bang Theory.
I really hate it when I can’t do something right. I will do everything I can to try to do it..my mom said I would spend hrs as a kid trying to learn how to skip. I learned and was a jump rope queen (in my mind) in public school.
I think Simon Pegg is hilarious.
Outside of Canada/US I have travelled to: Australia (X2), Thailand, Malta, Spain, France, Italy, Monaco, Aruba and the Bahamas.
I’d like to go to England next.
I love Mondays as they are my rest day. Not going to lie…I get a bit irritated when people brush off the rest days as part of training. To me, rest is part of training.
I will at all costs avoid going to the dentist. But go I do…

An even further random-ization is a compilation of the questions Lindsay, Aneta and Lisa asked:

Brad Pitt or George Clooney? Clooney.
What is the last movie that you saw in the theatres? Haywire.
running, biking or swimming? Running for sure
Sunrise or Sunset? Sunset
Breakfast or Dinner? Dinner
Beach or Mountains? hmm…the beach I guess…except that whole wearing a bathing suit thing.
Early Morning or Late Night? Late night. I am NOT a morning person at all.
last text message you sent? Good night msg to the hubs in Vegas
do you prefer dusting or vacuuming? (and when are you coming to do my house?) I prefer the hubs to do this…but that’s a dream…
what something you love about where you live? I LOVE our kitchen.
something you don't love about where you live? our bathtub is too small. I want a huge tub that I can fully stretch out in. Ours is great if you are 4ft tall…

Vega Sports Line – Perform Because of Your Diet

2012-01-23T14:58:00.001-05:00

As much as I am Capt Planner, the hubs has full reign on being Capt Researcher. When we decided to move towards more of a plant based diet, he went the further step to looking into our training ‘food’. We started with Brendan Brazier’s Thrive book which led us to the Vega Sports Line. Vega actually contacted me after we had been using the products for awhile so giving them some love was easy.

Our Staples:

Prepare: Pre-Workout Energizer

I love this stuff. I truly find it makes a difference in my workouts..kind of like a pre-workout kick in the butt. I take it in with whatever my pre-workout fuel or snack is. At 70 calories, it isn’t filling but truly packs a punch.

Sustain: Electrolyte Hydrator and Endurance Gels

I sweat like no one’s business. I had yet to find something that worked for me – I tried tabs (gross and just didn’t work), other sports drinks just made me ill and really did nothing for me so I was dubious about the hydrator but it totally works for me. I thought it was too sweet when I first tried it so I use a bit more water so it ‘fits’ perfectly in my Nathan handheld which is 10oz.

Gels are a necessary evil in marathon training for me. I need them but really don’t like the taste of them. (unless there is a sweet potato fries flavour out there…) The Vega gels I like. My only complaint is they are kind of big to carry around. I need to come up with a solution to cart them around for my upcoming long runs. (Sherpa anyone?)

Recover: “Recharge and Repair so you can do it all again, sooner.”

Performance Protein (YES to the chocolate in our house!), Recovery Accelerator

I have always been a believer in recovery and how it aids performance so this was just a nice add-in to our training.

The great thing with this line now is that I am finding it in more and more places so we can easily pick it up instead of just being able to get it online. Our local grocery store is carrying parts of the line. Sweet…

So thanks hubs for your incessant need for research. However, if you come home with one of these, there may be a divorce.

So…what say you? What are your go to products?

“How do you get ready for your work outs, keep energy up during and recover after?”

Four for Friday – the crazy weather edition

2012-01-20T11:10:00.001-05:00

1. Sunday’s –20ish run changed to the plus temps for Tuesday’s speed work run. Mama Nature wouldn’t allow us to let our guard down so she added gale force winds into the mix. I lost my hat 3 times on the run and was at one point literally standing still when I was trying to run. Luckily…I did find this funny. (probably because I was on the cool down part of the run)

2. Last night was our first night of hills…and with it came more plunging temps, snow and yes…more wind. Our hill repeats are an ~ 2.7km out and back involving 2 ups/downs. One side was totally clear, the other snow covered and windy. We killed the 3 repeats though. Take that Around the Bay route!

3. Post run, I stuck around to help spot the rest of our group that came out to do repeats as it is pretty dark along the route. (it is virtually closed to traffic so no plowing and little in the way of street lights) When you aren’t running…the cold was brutal. I had on a hat, ear warmers, 2 sets of gloves, 2 thermal tops, jacket, tights, jeans, socks and boots and Hot Shots in various places on my person. And.was.still.cold. The best part was trying to change into all of the above in the tiny stall of the local Tim Hortons. You had to be Nadia Comaneci to get it done.

4. I did try to get some pics but my fingers were prohibited by the cold and my many layers of gloves. I did snap this beauty when I got home:

C’mon…you want to be my friend… you know you do.

Do you hill train? If so…how? (short repeats? gradual inclines?)

The Laundry of a Cold Long Run

2012-01-16T08:02:00.001-05:00

Yesterday’s long run was cold. Not chilly, not brisk, not nippy but F’ing COLD. With the wind chill it was –20C or –4F . There’s no way I was going to run 20km on the treadmill and it was supposed to be a sunny day so deal with it hearty Canadian.

I dressed for the full wind chill as we were running near the lake and it was a good thing I did. While I wasn’t freezing, I also didn’t want to pull layers off so I knew I was dressed appropriately.

Post run laundry:

in the layering was:

2 pairs of gloves. Of late my hands have been really cold so 2 layers it was and I was fine
1 base layer on the bottom and my Sugoi Firewall run tights
3 layers on the top: base warm layer, hooded top and my old trusty Adidas run jacket that rocks as it has a million pockets for my gel, phone, music and the billion kleenex I carried for my nose that ran faster than me.
Neck warmer and hat. My neck warmer is a love/hate thing. I use it to try to keep my face warm but can’t run with it over my mouth as I can’t breathe. Hmmm…

Look like a lot of clothing? Yes…it was. It was a Stay Puft Marshmallow kind of run but it ended up being a good one. My coach came out to meet me about 8km into the run and we did some tempo pick ups. It was hard to get the legs moving but felt awesome. I am thankful to have both my friend as company and the pick ups to change the run up a bit as it was really tough to get into a groove. I could not slow down which you might think isn’t a bad thing but I have to keep my training at the right zones. It’s a marathon after all, not a sprint.

Did you run in the cold this weekend? How many layers did you have?

Four for Friday

2012-01-13T09:43:00.001-05:00

1. I was all set for my easy (very early) 10km run this morning..until I woke up to howling winds and snow. I actually did start to head out until I slid down the driveway because of the ice. An icy easy run wasn’t worth it so I grabbed my gear and did the run at the gym on the toasty warm treadmill. Not going to lie…I initially felt wussy but it was the right call. Had I headed out, I probably would have been calling the hubs to come get me as the weather just got worse.

Post run leaving the gym…glad to done:

2. Winter is finally here. I.am.not.happy.

3. My friend is the Half Marathon instructor at our local Running Room. She asked me to do a talk last night to her clinic on goal setting, specifically on why you should assess your goals and make them truly your own. It was a huge group and I got pretty nervous when I saw them all there but I think I did a pretty good job. (I hope…I am all rambly when I get nervous)

4. I do spin twice a week with our run group. I love it but the music was unlove-y so I volunteered to put together playlists. It has been fun but harder than I thought. If you spin…hit me up with some songs…I need some help as they are now starting to all sound the same. (Dance Party Central!)

Do you re-asses your goals? Do you like Winter?

Keep on Keepin’ On

2012-01-10T08:49:00.001-05:00

2012 has been a ‘win’ thus far. I feel really strong and my workouts have been awesome. Of course…we are only 10 days into 2012 but you gotta stick to the positives right?

Sunday’s long run was a blast. It was 18km..the longest one in almost 2 months so it is easy to let it psych you out a bit. It was chilly but sun filled so there are no complaints from me. Since the Around the Bay race is quickly coming up, there was a zillion runners out pounding the route. Not going to lie..I love seeing so many people out running, walking etc. I don’t care how fast or ‘deliberate’ you go, just GO. This so called winter we are having is a win in my books as well. Some cold temps, a small amount of snow that is all gone and more sun that I remember in awhile.

Post long run: Foggy BB pic with bright shoes, no snow and SUN:

Today I am in our office that is an hr+ commute for me in meetings from 9am-4pm…which enough break to shovel some food in my gob. Tuesday’s are usually a double workout day of circuit training and a speed work run. I knew that getting a run in post crazy work day might be a challenge..so I just sucked it up and worked out for 95min starting at 4:30 this morning. Early? Yes but it was awesome. How can you not like having a facility like this all to yourself for a good part of your workout?

Now I just need to stay awake for my meetings and drive home.

COFFEE please!

Four for Friday – the goals and meatless purse edition

2012-01-06T11:16:00.001-05:00

1. Goals for 2012:

Ensure I help out with the house cleaning as having just one person do it isn’t a lot of fun
Don’t leave piles of stuff everywhere..and putting things into piles is not cleaning up
Put dishes into the dishwasher not just beside it
Chill the “F” out more

Whoops..those are the goals I secretly want for the hubs. Let’s get back to me…

2. From a fitness/well being perspective 2012 is MY year.

The marathon is the May goal. Period..no compromises
Keep up the changes I have made towards more of a plant based diet. I have never felt better and like knowing what is in my food.
Stick with the plan – following the run training my coaches have set (including keeping the easy runs – EASY – no matter how slow they are).
Keep up the weight training I have started doing again. It makes me feel badass.
Worry less and be happy more. I have a tendency to not let myself get too happy as I think that if I do..something ‘bad’ will happen – if not to me but to my family/friends. I can’t control this..so be happy.
Get lean, mean, fast. (TWSS)

3. 2012 Race goals:

March: Frosty 5km…yes a 5km race. I am running with my coach and she has some cracked time for us to beat.
March: Around the Bay 30km. Go for a PB!
May: Mississauga Marathon. Go for a PB and feel good about the race.

Post marathon, I am going to see what I want to do. Another marathon? Maybe…

4. My poor sister had her purse stolen just after Christmas. She is one of the funniest people I know and tends to get …. floopy when she is flustered. The following is the conversation she sent me when she reported the loss to the police:

Sis: “Can I just also add that everything was in this really nice Coach wallet? It’s value is likely more than my net worth, anyway.” The policeman laughed and had me describe it. Then he said: “Well while we’re on it, let’s get a description of the purse too. What colour was it?”

Sis: “Black”
Policeman: “Was it leather?”
Sis: “No”
Policeman: “So it was a cloth material?”
Sis: “No..well…OK see it’s made by this company called Mat & Nat and they’re vegan”.

The policeman paused and said “So..what are you saying the purse never ate meat?” That was the first time I laughed all day.

What are goals? Have you ever had your purse stolen?

All I wanted for the Holidays was…

2012-01-03T07:56:00.001-05:00

1. To enjoy some quality time with family/friends..and make it through the various get togethers relatively unscathed…

Dunzo. We had some great visits with the important peeps in our life. Not going to lie…at times it was hectic, loud, messy, full of ‘kid meltdowns’ and chaotic – all things that are way out of my element. I also didn’t miss a scheduled training session and had some awesome runs/workouts..including a 16km run on Jan 1st..as the hubs nursed his grappa induced headache.

2. Get A PB.

No…not peanut butter. But there was some peanut butter goodness for the holidays. These puppies have a ton of calories but are soooo worth it.

MY PB was for the Boxing Day Miler. I had a 1:26 min PB which isn’t truly what I wanted but felt I had a good race and oh so much fun.

A free beer post race? Yes.Please….

3. Ring in 2012 with gusto and set some goals.

I tend to be a plain jane – black tank dress, ‘sparkly’ top with jeans etc. but I branched out and took advantage of sales and got a great outfit…

… ate/drank/laughed our way through dinner:

..and apparently exhibited some new talents as DJ behind the bar:

And my goal setting? Stay tuned…

How were your holidays?

Year End Recap - 2011

2011-12-21T08:04:00.001-05:00

Well…11 days and 2011 will be dunzo. I tried to think up a year end recap post but this week has been a gong show (fried hard drive on my computer, serious traffic, stress etc) has left me with brain mush. Miss Zippy…came to the rescue with her format.

Best race experience? The New York Half Marathon was the most fun I have ever had in a race even if I had horrific shin splints from walking around NYC for 2 solid days prior to the race..

Best run? Hmmm I have had a few good ones but this one was fun as I still remember chit chatting the KMs away with my friends and doing drills later that afternoon.

Best new piece of gear? Duh…My new Garmin 610. True Love all the way baby…

Best piece of running advice you received? Remember to relax and enjoy running.

Most inspirational runner? Too many to choose from in my real life dealings (the hubs, Coach M etc.) but I’d have to say Ed Whitlock is a huge inspiration to me especially after seeing him finish the Scotiabank Marathon in October…at age 80 running a 3:15:54 marathon.

If you could sum up your year in a couple of words, what would they be? My life like my running this year has been: tiring, fulfilling, frustrating, joyful, sad, learning, challenging and loved.

Have an amazing holiday season peeps. Having all of you read this little blog makes me a happy elf and I wish you nothing but the best for the rest of 2011 and 2012. I will be back with a recap of my last race of the season The Boxing Day 10 Miler which I am pretty stoked about.

For me and the hubs to you..Happy Holidays!

Picture Fail

2011-12-19T08:11:00.001-05:00

I had lots of opportunities this weekend to have some great pics to post in an effort to keep this little blog interesting.

And forget to take any pics including:

the hubs and I gussied up for a Christmas party Friday night…and where we also were made fun of for leaving at 9:45pm as we had to be up to train early Sat morning. Geriatrics we are…
the epic cross training/bootcamp we did on Saturday – all legs. My calves still hurt.
the gluten free cookies and banana choc chip muffins I made.
the 15km run yesterday that while good weather wise considering it is December was still pretty cold at 7:20am when I started.
my friend who did her run in her Santa Suit and brought some joy into our hood.
the great brunch our run group had yesterday post run.

So….here’s a pic of our Christmas tree…that’s all you get peeps.

Four for Friday – the rambly version

2011-12-16T10:14:00.001-05:00

1. This morning was a very windy and mentally challenging easy 11km run. I did 6km around the neighbourhood and then out to my usual out/back point. It ended up being 11km as I headed down my usual path thinking I had 2 km out and 2 km back to do to make 10km. But I forgot that I had to actually make it back home not from where I counted the 2km out start point. Dork…I know…

2. Last weekend we were at a family Christmas gathering and I had my first backlash with my vegetarian/vegan diet. We were chatting and it came up that I wouldn’t be eating the meat lasagne that was being served….this led to a litany of questions about me and what I ate. I actually had a relative who said: “Boy do I hate people like you. I’m not inviting you to my house for dinner.” WOW…I don’t judge what anyone eats, believes in etc. and yet I am the rotten one apparently…

3. I handled the above situation better than I would have in the past by making a joke about it. My sister however has suggested that for the next family gathering I show up with a “Meat is Murder'” sign and hand out pamphlets about how terrible they as ‘carnivores’ are. We’ll see…

4. Including today, 5 more work days until vacay…YES! We have had a few gatherings already and are jammed on the 25-26th. The 24th is reserved for the hubs and me. We are spending it at the movies. Weird maybe….relaxing ..you bet.

Do you get backlash for your views?

Are you a holiday movie go-er?

Feeling Sorry for the 4hr Pace Bunny and Dead Soldiers

2011-12-12T09:07:00.001-05:00

Sunday capped off a great training week for me. I felt strong on all my workouts and was happy on the nutrition front. The only thing that is lagged behind is sleep. I used to love sleep. I joked that if there was a cult where sleep was involved, I’d join it. Now…I am beginning to dread it. I wake up at all hrs, I fall asleep just wishing it was morning etc. I don’t feel tired necessarily just irritated. (more than usual)….

Yesterday was our first really cold run: -12 with the windchill (~14F). The sun made an appearance so it wasn’t bad. I am still in the slowwwwwww pace for my long runs and end up running solo as no one else is running my pace. I thus have lot o’ time to think/dream about various things. Sunday was no exception:

-why are my hands so cold?
-why the hell are there people out on their bikes? It is freezing!
do ducks ever get cold?
-Why don’t some people acknowledge the ‘runner’s wave’?
-you know who I feel sorry for? The 4hr marathon pace bunny….you spend the whole race pacing people to 4hrs and they all ditch you at the end to get in under 4 hrs.

….and so on. The voices in my head make great company. Because I am out for so long, I am having to re-think my fuel a bit more as well. Sunday’s 13km run involved my latest brekfast obsession- Nature’s Past GF Cereal:

and Vega’s line including the PreWorkout energizer, electrolyte replacer and gels. In my previous unhealthy life, dead soldiers meant the empty beer bottles found post party…now it looks like this:

Yes…2 full gels in a 13km run. At the pace I run, I could have an entire meal and still be fine. If someone brought me a coffee during my run, I could drink it.

…and would…

Do you get enough sleep? If you’ve struggle with it, how did you ‘overcome’ it?

Four for Friday – the jolly edition

2011-12-09T06:26:00.001-05:00

1. The hubs and I put our giant Christmas tree up a little while ago. Since we aren’t hosting any dinners/parties, we debated putting it up but we went ahead and it looks great. There was some grumbling about the amount of work for just the two of us but I said we should just suck it up and be eff-ing jolly about it. We did, we were and I feel somewhat Christmas-y for the first time in a few years.

2. Last night was a FANTASTIC Z3 (tempo run)…I felt like I kicked the crap out of the run. It was our first ‘cold’ run involving temps in the ‘negative’ range. (~23 F for you non-metrics) Old Man Winter wasn’t too bad so I’ll be jolly about that.

3. This weekend is a time filled with Christmas visits and family. I love the fact that for our gathering on Saturday, I was asked to bring a salad as apparently I make interesting salads. It makes me jolly my family remembers this…but now I am under some pressure to come up with something unique. We are doing an Italian theme so if you have any vegan ideas…hit me up.

4. My new shoes are about to make an official appearance in the run rotation. They are bright so I love them and they make me jolly:

Are you a jolly Holiday person?

Are you a flashy or understated kind of person?

Marathon Training Cycle …. with TOYS

2011-12-06T09:12:00.001-05:00

First off…no one guessed 6 pairs of shoes as what I have in rotation. There were a few 7s…so maybe I should buy another pair…

Marathon training kicked off with a bang last week and it feels soooo goooodddd. As I mentioned I had a disappointing run test and the results proved it. This is TOTALLY my fault. I didn’t get tested over the Spring/Summer so spent lots of time running/training in the wrong zones. I truly felt like I had taken 50 steps backwards in my running when I got the results and was devastated….but I’m over it.

Run on…and learn from your mistakes.

The good news is that my long runs (called Zone1) are so slow that they really aren’t difficult, just kind of lonely. I am spending a lot of ME time on these runs and calling them my F*&K runs – as in: “F*&^K I am going to fast.” “F*&^K I am still going to fast.” But…I am sticking to the science….

This training schedule is similar to the last one but with a few additions:

Sunday: long run
Monday: REST!!
Tuesday: circuit training – new; Z5 (interval) run
Wed: Spin+Core (90min)
Thurs: Tempo run
Friday: 10km Z1 run; circuit training with Coach C - new
Sat: Satan’s Spin and cross training (90min…if we are lucky..)

My friend/Coach C opened a new gym that I now training out of and it is awesome – boutique style, amazing equipment, LIMITED MEMBERSHIP and lots of fun things to work with like the Woodway Curve Treadmill:

This thing is seriously cool though because there is no motor to it it truly feels like being a hamster on a wheel. The first time I used it I was scared to walk on it without hanging on for dear life. This morning…I ran on it and didn’t fall off. It is a Festivus Miracle!

The other fun toy is Jacob’s Ladder which you may have seen on the Biggest Loser:

2 minutes on it and I had some serious sexy beast breathing going on. Didn’t fall off it either. Booyah…

My other new toy is:

Yep..I bit the bullet and got it. Actually, the hubs cashed in a bunch of reward points for gift cards and now it is mine. All Mine!

Is your training starting yet? Do you have any fun new training toys? (keep it clean people…) :)

21 for Friday - the all-me edition

2011-12-02T08:55:00.001-05:00

Amy tagged me to share 21 things about me – I am not that interesting but here goes….

I worry – a lot…about everything.
I am not a real patient person, especially when it comes to common sense things. When I recently had to call my doctor for my ear infection, the recording told me the office was closed and to call back during office hrs…which they never listed. This resulted in much profanity on my part.
I have a potty mouth. (see above)
I am in awe of anyone who is a parent. I know I could not do it and will never regret not having kids.
I love humour, to laugh, to watch comedy and anything funny in general. Serious is overrated.
I was in French immersion from Kindergarten to grade 7 but really have lost almost all of it. (except probably the swear words and random fun expressions like “Zut Alors!”)
I bought more running shoes on our recent trip ….Guess how many running shoes I now have in rotation and I’ll send you a little something something..
I am a nester..when we go on vacation I unpack even if we are only overnight somewhere.
I love to plan, organize, arrange etc. I really wish I was more spontaneous but as quoted in the movie The Sure Thing: “Spontaneity has its time and place.”
I hate messes…our house is not spotless by any stretch of the imagination but I do like it to at least be neat. This is in direct contrast to the hubs who has piles everywhere…which I then consolidate into one big pile. See #3 for the next step..
I really love a good red wine. And sometimes a bad one.
I drink a ridonkulous amount of water…and not because of #11.
I say Awesome far too much.
I am not a confident person at all. I think I sometimes come off as aloof when it is really just my dorky shy self.
I still have my McMaster sweatshirt from XX years ago when I was in first yr university. It is 10 sizes too big but I can’t part with it.
I cannot sing or carry a tune at all. It is painful actually.
Since going vegetarian/vegan almost 4 months ago, I feel great and have thought less about food than any other time in my life. Total surprise to me.
I hate gardening.
I love nature…just not cleaning it. (#18)
I’m going to raise ire with this but I think the Twilight series was dumb, though I did want to like it. If I was beautiful, rich and eternal, I wouldn’t keep going to high school.
I’m a bad loser within myself and totally know it.

Happy weekend! Did anyone else feel like this was an exceptionally long week? Glad it is almost over…..

Healing and another Run-A-Versary

2011-11-30T09:25:00.001-05:00

As awesome as our vacation for Ironman Arizona was, it left me pretty beat up. I got an outer ear infection that basically left me completely deaf in one ear for over a week. For someone who has never had an infection of any kind, it was brutal. I ended up having to go to the ER in the US (which was a very pleasant experience) and had to deal with the pain of my own doctor’s office here in Canada. It is now totally cleared up and I am a happy camper once again. NEVER will I take my senses for granted again.

Getting all healed up set back my transition into full training mode a bit but I kicked off full force last night by having my run test. Not going to lie…I was disappointed – I just could not breathe so I didn’t make it to the stage I wanted to. Nothing I can do now except go over the numbers with my coach and follow the plan she comes up with for this session.

Speaking of this session…my new run clinic started on Tuesday which is also my 3rd year Run-A-Versary. Over the last year, Running and I:

set PB’s in the 16km, 10km and 15km distance
ran 4 half marathons and 1 marathon…but no PBs in any of them…
kept off the 25+ lbs I had been lugging around and lost a couple more for good measure
gained 2 more ‘official’ coaches …yes, it takes this much help for me to be a ‘runner’. I am very happy to be working with these awesome people and promise to limit my basketcase /introverted self to a minimum…

So there were highs and lows this run year. Obviously I am hoping for more highs for this coming year and will be busting my butt to get there….

Ironman Arizona

2011-11-26T08:31:00.001-05:00

I've been to a lot of different events as a spectator – half marathons, marathons, triathlons and of course the amazing experience at the hubs World Duathlon Championship. This past weekend was another exciting, nerve racking, tiring, fantastic and humbling experience:

Swim 2.4 miles
Bike 112 miles
Run 26.2 miles

Our coach competed in IM #10 and we went to support her. She does so much for all of us, it was the very least we could do. Ironman is a lonnnnngggg day starting before the sun comes up and ending well into the night. To see the athletes was incredible..We cheered, we cowbelled, I said: “Good job! Awesome work! Way to go!” about a million times and loved every minute of it.
Our coach did a phenomenal job just finishing shy of a PB. She trained her butt off and has more mental strength of anyone I know.

There are some hardcore spectators out there:

These guys were hilarious……

…and needed more cowbell…and less speedo…

The finish line @ IM is like nothing I have ever experienced. We again proved our cheering prowess by yelling and clapping like fools for everyone who crossed.

Done with the hardware to prove it!

A day I will NEVER forget and am grateful I got to experience.
Congrats again Jo. You.Rock.

It’s not all about oatmeal

2011-11-14T20:24:00.001-05:00

Since we have made these changes to our diet of late, one thing that has been a ‘bit’ of a challenge is brekkie. And by brekkie I mean changing the norm. I grew up with sugar/wheat laden cereals, bagels, eggs, toast and butter etc. - nothing wrong with that in moderation but when you are making the changes we are making it isnt easy..add in cutting back on gluten and the challenge gets a little bigger.
The obvious choice is oatmeal or fruit smoothies. Steel cut oats mixed with different fruit combos are my go to but it is all about variety for me. I like smoothies but I like them more as a snack than a meal. (probably more of a mental thing but baby steps people..) So I needed/wanted a change. For me, Cream of Wheat was one of my favs as a kid – cream of wheat mixed with tons of brown sugar and whole milk. How’s that sound? YUM!...How's that sound for vegan/gf? Not.so.good…
So I thought I would try something different – Quinoa Flakes.

Now…I am not a huge quinoa fan. Don’t know why but the nutty flavour at dinner just creeps me out a bit but I thought that at breakfast was more appealing. Turns out it was good: Quinoa flakes+raisins+soy milk+small amout of brown sugar = UN-oatmeal breakfast and a delicious option.

The hubs has been the bomb with trying/adapting new things but apparently this did not go over well. His trying it was the same reaction Buddy the Elf had to trying fruit spray perfume. or I am assuming how I feel about broccoli - gross and unnecessary.

Not going to lie..it was kind of funny to see his reaction. Makes me want to come up with some other combos.
Got any GF/Vegetarian suggestions?

Four for Friday – the resting up edition

2011-11-11T11:19:00.001-05:00

1. I have pretty done nothing but rest since Sunday’s race. I know I needed the rest so I am not complaining…though it was tough driving to work this week and seeing the runners out enjoying their Fall morning run. Please stick around a bit longer Fall…I am not ready for Winter running.

2. Our next training session starts Nov 28th. Yes, I am excited to start training. I am back on to give this Marathon thing another try. I am between GoodLife or Mississauga marathon unless some awesome travel marathon comes up on the radar for the May tmeframe.

3. Tomorrow I have the privilege to meet with not one, not two but THREE people will be my coaches this training session. I am blessed to have them in my life. And yes, it takes a village to make me even a decent runner. :)

4. Next week we are heading to Arizona to watch/support/cheer our coach as she will be completing Ironman #10 (TEN!!) at:

I am VERY excited to be able to share this experience with her. Another friend of our kicked the crap out of Ironman Florida last week and that was exciting enough and we weren’t even there. My head may explode. While she is resting and prepping for race day, we will be golfing/shopping and getting back into training mode.

BooYah.

Goodlife or Mississauga Marathon…what say you?

Still searching for the PB – Road2Hope Race Report

2011-11-08T08:10:00.001-05:00

Still not quite there yet… Sunday’s Road2Hope half marathon was a race filled with some victories and disappointment. I don’t dwell on the negative…I will analyze what went wrong but I can’t still an linger on why I didn’t get a PB. Wallowing ain’t this chick’s style.
The day started off cold. I knew it would be sunny and b/w 5-9 degrees so I was determined to not overdress. The bonus of this race is they open the local high school and you can chill there before the race. There were plenty of bathrooms/portapotties etc. and they have a ton of shuttles available. Apparently there was a ton of traffic at the finish line where the shuttles came in from so there was a bit of a delay with the start but everything else went smoothly.
Awesome run friends hanging in the gym pre-race:

Awesome run group: 3 huge PBs in the lot..

Desperately trying to chill..

Hanging will Hubs/Cheerer extraordinaire

Walking to the start line: Yes, we did do our drills.

Official photo running down the Red Hill..there actually might be a smile here!

Into the finish..hoping my legs won’t fall off…

So the good parts of the race were:

I PB’ed at 10km…I even beat my Downtown Dash 10km time from this past July
I PB’ed at 15km….I even beat my Midsummer Night run from August
I PB’ed at 16km (10 mile)….I even beat my Boxing Day 10 miler time from last December.

Then I tanked. The last 5km hurt…a lot. My poor friend who was running with me had to pull ever trick in his sleeve out to get me to the finish. My legs were concrete but I finished and bested my Scotia Half time to have a new “2nd” PB of 2:30:59.
Other good parts of the day include:

finally meeting IRL Marlene and Marie. My shy, geeky self was in full force I am sure.
The volunteer and police services were amazing.
overall organization of the race was great - Werthers candy in the swag bag? Brilliant!
good food post race but if you served GOOD coffee, you'd make a mint. I would have traded the hubs away for a cup of java...

I still hurt today but it’s that: “great, sore I worked my butt off kind of hurt” that I love and appreciate that my body can do.
And even not getting a PB will take away that accomplishment.

Yet Another Race Week…

2011-11-03T08:29:00.001-04:00

This week I have been stalking the Weather Network like crazy, drinking water like a mofo and falling asleep thinking of kilometer splits. (i.e. if I am at XX km in this time, then I have to average out this many minutes per km to finish in this time)

So it must mean that race week is here.

After the wee bit of a fiasco that was Scotia, I am looking for some redemption/validation this Sunday at the Road2Hope half marathon. My goals are all the same but for this race….I need to chill a bit more. I spent a lot of Scotia with my mind occupied on STUFF – I am running too fast, too slow, why is the pace bunny so far ahead of me, my hip hurts blah blah blah.

This time, the main goal it will be to truly enjoy the race. It is a local one so I know I will have some ‘cheerers’ out on the course and a bunch of my run group is doing the race as well. I am so thankful to have these awesome peeps in my life.

Other than the usual race week shenanigans, I have been really enjoying running this week:

Sat: 10km with Z3 thrown in
Sun: 8km with a couple of race pace km added in while running with my friend/coach
Tues: EARLY morning run post Halloween…no zombies which is always a plus
Today: EARLY morning run…like Tuesday I just ran. No worrying about pace, time, walking etc. And.it.was.fun.

If you are racing this weekend, have a good one. If you are racing Road2Hope, say hi to me…I’ll be the one chillaxing.

Four for Friday – the 300th post edition

2011-10-28T08:55:00.001-04:00

According to Blogger, this is my 300th post. (confetti time!) I have a giveaway in the works so stay tuned…

1. My fat/cut lip healed up nicely this week. The hubs keeps asking if I need help dressing so I don’t knock myself unconscious. Funny.Guy.

2. The weather turned late Fall-like for yesterday’s run. I had gloves on and non-capri tights on. In sorting through my fall/winter run gear, I realized I have a lot of stuff..so if you hear me talking about buying any new apparel, remind me of this post. I have more long sleeve base layer shirts than I can count apparently. (though I do actually wear them all)

3. It appears my Garmin 305 officially died this week. It has been sick for a bit but on yesterday’s run, it cut out 6 times, told me I had ran 5km, then 1km, then 20km and then stopped. I am going to try to revive it but fear after a loyal 3yrs and many many kms…it may be put to pasture.

4. Which means since yesterday I have been researching new gizmos. What do I really want?

THIS:

It’s a big investment and scares me a bit to change but change is good right? And I won’t have any change left if I buy this puppy… And this doesn’t count as apparel (see bullet 2), it is an accessories. Like shoes, you can never have too many accessories.

Happy Weekend! What do you run with? Garmin? Nike? Naked? Thoughts or recommendations?

The Veggie Chronicles Part 2 – What I’m Eating and How I Gave Myself a Fat Lip

2011-10-26T08:52:00.001-04:00

Veggie Chronicles Part 1

1. Mama Pea Recipes:

Chickpea, Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew: The hubs and I both loved this recipe. I actually brought it to my family’s Thanksgiving gathering expecting to take home a ton of leftovers. There was one tiny serving left.
Yukon Gold White Bean patties: These are very hearty so we don’t have them on a bun. GF buns so far have been a ‘dud’ with us anyway…
Wedding Soup: This was good but I had TON of meatballs…and they took a long time to cook. I’d suggest more nutritional yeast and try pressing the tofu first to get the extra liquid out. I added a boatload of spinach to this as well…

2. Pasta with white beans, kale and lemon zest: Drain 1 can of white beans and saute with 1 shallot, garlic and olive oil. Add Kale and cooked rice or corn pasta. Top with the zest and juice of one lemon.

3. Coconut Tofu with millet: Millet is a new fav of mine…I cooked it in veg stock and sauteed drained, press tofu in coconut milk with curry powder, ginger and cilantro. Mix together and top with peanuts if desired.

4. Other meals have been:

Oatmeal and fruit topped with Chia Seeds
Ezekiel Cereal with Chia and Almond milk
Kale salad mixed with chickpeas, garlic scented olive oil and pumpkin seeds
grilled polenta topped with sautéed mushrooms and white beans and maple scented Kale (or any other green)
Wild rice mixed with bok choy, green onions, soy sauce and peanut butter…sounds weird..tastes good.
Blueberry/Banana smoothies with Vega Whole Food Optimizer
Dates+PB…awesome snack…surprised even myself.
Black bean tacos topped with tomato, homemade guacamole and lettuce
Chickpea Spread – LOVED THIS!

So…nothing new fancy, nothing too crazy. I have tried to limit any ‘fake’ meats as they gross me out for the most part. Got Ideas? Leave ‘em in the comments PLEASE!

Yesterday I raced home from work so I could get my run in as we were going out to dinner (Run+Not Having to cook = the bomb). I was rushing to get changed and as I pulled my arm warmer on, my hand slipped off and I wacked myself in the face, resulting in a fat lip and a cut on the inside of my lip.

Welcome to My World…..

The Veggie Chronicles

2011-10-24T08:58:00.001-04:00

Since last weekend’s race did go quite as planned and I am now racing in Hamilton in a couple of weeks, last week was a continuation of training:

Tuesday: easy run on tired legs
Thursday: 4:30am run in the howling wind and rain..which was a little bit fun and a whole lot of crazy
Friday: 4 Z5 interval run. It wasn’t great but it was nice to at least try to get some speed work going.
Saturday: 20km LSD. I moved my long run to Saturday as we were going to be busy Sunday. I specifically kept it SLOW – no pickups, diligent 10 and 1s and just enjoyed the morning.

11km into the run:

Notice my new gel? It is from the Vega line and I loved it. It didn’t wreck havoc with my guts and tasted good. (relatively speaking..this is gel after all…do they ever taste GREAT?) I also used the Vega electrolyte replacer which was very sweet and a bit harder to get through. But I sweat like a mofo so I need to ensure I take this in.

I have made some significant changes in my diet over the last 2 months….and yes it involves the V word: Vegetarian/Vegan. In the past I have flirted with the V word but more as a ‘challenge’ and not truly as a lifestyle or to see how it would affect my health or performance. About 75% of the time I have been vegan and ddring the times I haven’t been, I had either cheese or eggs in a meal and maybe some fish but even that has been very limited.

To be honest…it really hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be. The bigger challenge has been that we have been cutting back on gluten so that has been more of an issue to work with. I don’t miss meat/chicken/pork etc. at all. I am still tracking my food just to ensure I am on track calorie/protein/carbwise and all systems have been a GO.

An added bonus? The scale for the first time in years, is the lowest it has ever been.

BoofreakingYa.

I will post some of the meals I have been making as they have been really good. If someone has told my younger self I’d be eating Kale like it is going out of style, I’d think you were nuts.

But then again…I am a little nuts. Glad I have a fellow (semi) Veggie nut in my life to run with.

Four for Friday – the grateful edition

2011-10-20T21:18:00.001-04:00

1. I am so grateful for the people in my life…especially my friends. *this doesn’t include the hubs who is in an awesome category in his own league.

I say this because your friends are the ones you choose to surround yourself with. Sunday I had two friends who came into Toronto to watch me race. Me – who didn’t PB and they still congratulated me. Appreciative doesn’t cover it. I also have one of the same friends offer to pace me at the Hamilton Half marathon in a few weeks. My gratitude doesn’t cover it….

2. I am grateful for my family. No…you don’t choose them so I am grateful we all get along. This weekend is my Grandpa-in-law’s 90th birthday. He rides his bike twice a day on the Burlington Beach path, has a busier social schedule than me and overall just rocks. To be 90 and really living life – that’s LIFE.

3. My SIL and BIL are in town from Australia. I haven’t seen them in a few years so getting to spend time with them…. Grateful.

4. I am so grateful for all of you who read the jumble of words I post here (and on Twitter). Thank you for your comments, especially on Sunday’s run. Chat me up..I love it….

What are you grateful for? Shout ‘er out!

Have you had a friend pace you? Am I being a goober…should I ask my (awesome) friend to pace me?

Scotia Half Marathon Race Report

2011-10-17T19:47:00.001-04:00

Race weekend started off with a bit of a bang..we checked into our hotel and were upgraded..to the 35th (top) floor and a named room:

This suite was (a lot) bigger than our first apartment and included dining room, living room, powder room, huge bedroom and another bathroom.

Race day dawned after a primo sleep, even with the people beside us who apparently got their party on the night before. We drifted off to sleep with the ladies yelling: “Shots! WooHoo!” down the hallway. I remember those days..now I go to bed at 10pm and run races.

I win.

My friend S and I walked down to the start line and made the completely wrong gamble of which side of street to walk on to get into the corrals. We went right resulting in a whole bunch of extra walking. Left for the win.

The marathon itself was filled with great stories:

2 Canadians qualifying for the Olympics
80 yr old Ed Whitlock setting a record for the marathon – in 3:15. 3:15 people!
100yr old Fauja Singh finishing the marathon.

and the awful in that a 27yr old died on the course. So sad for his family.

Other than the clusterf*ck that was the corrals, the race itself was great. Very nice course, amazing volunteers, great specators etc. The only tough part was the wicked wind that was along the first 10km of the course and the finish itself. The last 500m is a bit of an incline..enough that it tore my poor quads up. The hubs grabbed some icky shots of me with about 300m to go. Notice I am looking down AGAIN!

I didn’t make my PB goal. I kept going through the course thinking:
“I’m too fast..slow down..I’m too slow..speed up”. Around 16km I knew I wasn’t going to PB so I didn’t quit. My splits show I was trying to make up time but it just wasn’t quite enough. I finished in 2:33, my second fastest half marathon.

So with legs still sore, I registered for the Road2Hope half marathon on Nov 6th to give’er another shot.

I don’t quit, I just try again.

Four for Friday – Scotia Half Marathon edition

2011-10-13T21:12:00.001-04:00

1. Race day is Sunday…and I still have this lingering cough. It is now just pissing me off. I actually broke down and bought some Oil of Oregano to try to flush it out. If you have tried Oil of Oregano…you know this is not a decision to be taken lightly. It tastes like burning.
2. Race Goals:

a) PB…anything under 2:27

b) 2:25 is what I am gunning for

c) with a negative split aka “Don’t go out so fast you goober.”

3. I have no clue what I am going to wear on race day. The forecast (not that I have been checking for the last 14 days or anything..) is calling for a high of 14 with showers. I don’t care about rain..I’m not made of sugar and you can always start in a lovely cape of a green garbage bag like I did in a past Around the Bay race:

The bonus is when you don’t want it anymore you can rip it off Hulk Style.

(source)
4. I do know I will be sporting my red/black LunarGlides as they are next in the run rotation…and my friends say they are flashy and easy to spot:

‘Cause:

Hope everyone who is racing the Scotia Half/Full Marathon on Sunday has a GREAT race. I am hitting up the expo Saturday afternoon to get my bib which is an ‘odd’ number.
Sweet.
I will be the one before the race doing their A/B/C drillsas a warm up…I know – my coolness factor just went through the roof.

Race Day Countdown is on…

2011-10-11T08:51:00.001-04:00

Sunday’s race is coming up fast…I cannot believe it is the middle of October..especially after this weekend’s amazing weather. (shorts and t-shirts all weekend!)

I have some pretty big expectations/goals for this Sunday’s half (stayed tuned for Friday’s post on the specifics). I feel like my training has been going well, my nutrition has been really good (vegan/vegetarian diet – more on that later) and working with my coaches has given me some positive vibes. Our trip threw a bit of a wrench in training but not a lot..we actually did a ton of running while we were away:

Along the beach promenade for a 12km run:

Saw this sad/scary statue:

Ran up a lot of hills:

and were treated with just terrible views along the way:

This week was an easy (sweaty) 8km run on Sunday that was a blast, another easy run today and spin tomorrow and a final run on Thursday with one interval drill thrown in to remind the legs how to run fast.

I am eating ColdFx, VitC, water and vitamins to shake this last little bit of cold that seems to be lingering…..

Spain – Part 2 The Places

2011-10-07T11:36:00.001-04:00

Spain – Part 1

As mentioned, the first part of our trip was in Gijon, Spain. Gijon is located in Northern Spain and is a port town in the Austurias region. They tend to get a lot of rain there but we were lucky and only had 1 afternoon of rain. I was surprised by the city actually….for a population of 300,000, it was one of the cleanest cities I have ever been to.

There is the usual mixture of beautiful old buildings, new construction and a 3km promenade that borders a very busy beach in the summer.

There are also a ton of cafes and ‘siderias’ where you can get traditional cider…that tastes like feet.

After Gijon, we headed into the Rioja region (RED WINE region baby…) where there were terrible views. :)

And ended up in Elciego (known as the City of Wine) and the Marques de Riscal resort.

Unbelievable doesn’t cover it….

We did a ton of relaxing, wine tasting, running and enjoying life.

The highlight was an 8 course tasting meal we enjoyed…and ate until midnight..

On the way to Madrid to catch our flight home, we stopped in Rascafria for an overnight stay. This was a very rustic resort that is attached to a monastery. We didn’t have enough time to see the actual monastery. Next time I guess.

So, it wasn’t your typical trip to Spain – no Bilbao, no Barcelona etc. but it was amazing. Thanks Spain…we will hopefully be back.

Spain – Part 1: The Race

2011-10-03T07:50:00.001-04:00

Hola peeps! Other than my luggage being lost for 12 hrs and a nasty cold I brought home, we had a fantastic trip to Spain. (as documented by a bajillion pictures we took….)

The catalyst for the trip was so the hubs could complete in the World Duathlon Championships held in Gijon. I don’t think I mentioned this but he has been injured (tear in his hip) and had to limit almost all of his run training and had to drop to the sprint distance for the race. Anti-inflammatory meds have been a staple in his diet for the past month.

The event started with the opening ceremonies in the town square. There were over 1100 athletes who competed from around the world, approx 50 of which were from Canada. Our uniforms were awesome…post race, we had tons of people asking to trade their jackets for the hubs.

Canada of course had the beach ball out at the ceremonies:

Team Canada:

Race day dawned to cloudy skies and cool temps…perfect for racing in. The event itself started/finished in a soccer stadium so we had perfect seats for viewing the days events.

Race Venue – bike transition and finish line:

Duathlon: 5km run:

20km bike (including a 3km hill):

2.5km run:

Into the finish.

(side note about runners/duathletes have nice butts…especially this one but I am biased)

Finished!

The hubs did great…with no speed work, track work, intervals etc. he netted out at a 4:23 per km pace on his runs. He wasn’t happy with his bike time…but he never is so we stopped listening.

We were all very proud of him and it was an awesome experience. If you want to be motivated, go see an event like this. These guys are FAST. The guy who won the hubs age division ran 3:30/km pace or 5:30/mile. FAST I tell you.

Instead of a medal, they received a very cool small commemorative….plaque for lack of a better description. Yes, we have joked he should turn it into a belt buckle.

Next up…part 2 of the Spain recap: The places we visited: Gijon, Elciego and Rascafria.

Peace Out Amigos

2011-09-21T14:04:00.001-04:00

FINALLY! Something has gone right with this upcoming trip…the strike was averted yesterday at 3:30pm. If you heard someone squeal like a little girl…it was me.

So I am off to watch the hubs race:

Spend some quality time with him, my MIL and my awesome friends who are joining us on this journey. Paella…here I come. And my dear cats…please treat your house sitters nicely…(little demons that you are)

I’m supposed….

2011-09-19T21:53:00.001-04:00

I should be ‘basking’ in the glow of Sunday’s 22km run…with race pace no less… that started in the dark:

and ended with beautiful skies.

I should be wishing my lovely friend and coach a Happy Bday with yet another Mama Pea Bday cake:

I should be so so so happy for the hubs who left today for our trip to Spain complete with fancy schmancy bike box:

but I am STRESSED that I might not even be able to leave due to the Air Canada strike that MIGHT be coming.

and be MIGHT I mean….I can’t get a refund until they cancel the flight…and I don’t know if they are going to cancel the fight…and there aren’t many flights to where we need to go…and I still have a connecting flight to try to make.

oh…and there isn’t just me, there is also 5 other people who will need to make changes.

AND….this is after Air Canada changed all our flights a few months ago where we had to make changes at great expense to us.

Vacations are supposed to be fun …. right?

Four for Friday – the wicked edition

2011-09-16T07:42:00.001-04:00

(this would have been the awesome edition…but I’ve already done that…and “wicked” is fun to say…like “underpants” is to say.)

1. Tonight the hubs and I are having dinner with my ‘rents, siblings and MIL. We haven’t all gotten together in awhile so it will be an evening of good food and the usual nuttiness my family brings to the table. wicked.

2. Last night was my first session with my newest coach. It was wicked. We did a lot of the same drills we did on Sunday along with other balance/stability exercises. My left side is wayyyyyyyy weaker than my right. No wonder any issues I have had – knee, heel, psoas have all been on the left. One exercise I cannot do? Sit in a chair, lift one foot off the ground and raise yourself up balanced on one foot. Not.wicked.

3. Post workout, I went out for my tempo run and it was amazing. I have never done a run that fast and though it was windy, it was NOT wind assisted…I actually beat my 10km PB time. wicked.

4. Not only am I lucky for the family I have, I am very lucky I have wicked friends. The kind that go on vacay and think of my and buy me my favorite socks….in a rainbow pattern:

Go to race socks? Yes please! Thanks Kerry!

Have a wicked weekend be it if you are racing, relaxing, enjoying life or just being.

20km+run drills? Yes please!

2011-09-12T11:00:00.001-04:00

As cruddy as last Sunday’s run was…this week’s was awesome. I did 4+km to the clinic and then 16km with my run buds..the 20km flew by. Even my camera worked up a sweat apparently:

We had the most interesting range of conversations (as usual) on the run:

reflecting on Sept 11th – still so fresh in everyone’s memories
various races we are going to do …and more importantly where can we go to race and then do some SHOPPING!
digestive issues and the value of finding a brand new porta potty en route when you least expect it.
how porta potty toilet paper can stick everywhere when you are sweaty
and the weirdest conversation? A 10min one about how while Serena Williams is a great athlete…the girl needs a stylist. Random but pretty funny.

Later in the afternoon, I was lucky enough to get invited to do some run drills with the hubs training team as they had a guest coach in. It.was.awesome. We expanded on the drills we did a few weeks ago to include some indoor drills (trail legs, fire hydrants, up and backs etc) as well as As, Bs, Cs, fast feet and actual run drills. Then I recieved a great invitaion from one of my coaches asking if I would like to work once a week with their guest coach. WOULD I?! Of Course! I am very excited …. who would have thought when I first started with this group almost 3 years ago I would be doing drills, running stronger than ever, having THREE awesome coaches to work with when the first day I ran with this group….I cried.

If you let it, work at it and embrace it, life is pretty sweet.

Four for Friday

2011-09-09T08:51:00.001-04:00

1. I realized that the pic post cruddy run on Sunday:

is very similar to the angry monkey logo on my new water bottle.

2. So here’s a happy monkey pic post tempo run last night…it was a good one. I had the same great run on Tuesday (early) morning as well. My heel is acting up again but I continue to tape the crap out of it in the hopes it will go away again…..

3. As much as I don’t want to think about Winter running, I am always on the hunt for a good deal on running clothes. Last night I scored a great one on a Sugoi Firewall Zip jacket….$34.99 @ Winners.

4. In two weeks..I will be on vacation…in Spain. I am cramming every bit of great tough training in before my Oct 16th race as I can. I will be trying to train while we are away…really trying…..

Have a happy monkey weekend!

5 day weekend

2011-09-06T08:12:00.001-04:00

2 vacation days+a weekend+1 holiday = 5 blissful days off.

We had 2 dinners with family/friends we had not seen in awhile which were great.
Made some great vegetarian/vegan dishes courtesy of MamaPea’s recipe book. Addicted to it? Yes.I.Am.
Had a fantastic 11km tempo run on Thursday night…and yes I did my drills before hand making look like an even goofier runner than I already am. My neighbours must not get us at all.
Had a good recovery run Friday morning which I stupidly started at 9:30am..when it was already 100% humidity and sun-tastic. I was a sweatfest and then I played golf where I walked the course. Beat doesn’t cover how I felt that night.
Sunday’s long run was blech..there is no other way to describe. I wasn’t feeling great on Saturday (potentially a carryover from Friday’s sun filled day). I headed out to get a few extra KMs in by running to our clinic. The view @ 6:10am of our street…I think.

The first 4km was brutal. I met up with the group and did another 6 with them which were ok. I really wanted to do the full distance with them but I knew it wasn’t going to happen so I headed back to the clinic for a total of 16km. The last km wasn’t pretty…I may have walked it all.

Monday was a rest day but I still played golf/walked the course. The difference in temperature from Friday to Monday was unbelievable. It appears Fall weather is here. Don’t be overjoyed….that means Winter is around the corner people.

So overall it was a great long weekend full of (some) rest, running, outdoors, great healthy eats and being shocked that it is SEPTEMBER already!

Did you take the long weekend by the balls and enjoy it? :)

We can rebuild (her). We have the technology. We can make (her) better than (she) was. Better...stronger...faster.

2011-08-31T14:02:00.001-04:00

Most of you aren’t old enough to remember the Six Million Dollar Man/Woman. I am and do…I used to watch it after school and am pretty sure I had a lunchbox with Jaime Sommers on it. In a twist of fate, the hubs had a Steve Austin one…and still has it as it houses his old hockey cards. (packrat much..)
During this brief run career of mine I have never spent a lot of time thinking about HOW I actually run. More time is spent on thinking WHY I am doing this. I did some gait analysis with our coach but it has been more the race videos from 3 races that show that I just don’t look like a runner. (heavy, heel striking plodding movements don’t conjure up the fleet footed cheetah I want to be)
Now…I know looks aren’t everything but if I really want to speed up, stay (relatively) uninjured and be more efficient, I gots to work on form. Enter in our run talk from last night with our clinic. Our ~~handsome~~ knowledgeable guest speaker is an amazing athlete who is also a coach. He initially started talking about angles and form. You lose me when you start to through math in the equation and just talking to me. Me no learn unless me do. So out we went to do drills…..and you know what the drills were? A’s, B’s and C’s.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-267-268-266-0,00.html
or here
http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/drills-to-improve-running-form
If you are a runner, you should know these but I have usually done them in some evil combination around a track at breakneck speed hoping to not fall down or look too stupid.
But if you do them properly – which I was not doing at all at first- you can see how much they can help. In just doing them the right way, I could get that glimmer of not heel striking and not plodding but maybe gliding and being the efficient engine I want to be. So before every run, I am going to incorporate these to get the feel I want before I start my usual ~~plod~~ run.
So I have the tools, I have have access to the knowledge and technology…let’s rebuild me.
And maybe the hubs and I can get some wicked velour suits to run in as well….

source

Long Run DNS and Happy Bday Hubs!

2011-08-29T07:37:00.001-04:00

The weekend started off right with a 50 min Z5 repeat run @ 5:30am. It was a great morning to run and overall I felt really good. I then hit up the golf course for a crap-tacular round. At the 13th green, I somehow stepped funny and it literally felt like my hip flexor or psoas snapped. I actually stood there for a minute wondering if I could walk. The pain subsided but then continued through the night. I figured it would be gone in the morning so I did my usual 5am wake up for Sunday’s long run.

That didn’t happen…as soon as I stood up my leg locked up. Now, I push myself in training – I run easy, I run hard, I cross train, I ran with this stupid heel taped into oblivion but I knew that running with this kind of pain was a bad idea.

So I went back to bed. :) Overall it feels a lot better today (as I thought it would) so now I just have to look through my week to try to figure out where to fit in a 15km run along with the usual training. Hmmm..

Today is the Hubs Bday aka Capt Hard to Buy for. He keeps saying that the bike he bought is his bday gift but I did get a few things for him….and made a seriously amazing cake from Mama Pea’s cookbook. (which ROCKS)

Vegan German Chocolate Cake…not.kidding…

Happy Bday B…love you lots.

Is your significant other hard to buy for? How do you deal with it?

Four for Friday

2011-08-26T07:38:00.001-04:00

1. Mother Nature went haywire this week. Tuesday was a tremor stemming from an earthquake in Virginia and Wednesday was a slew of tornado warnings. (because of my job, I have to keep on top of things like this in case we have to invoke any emergency procedures) Wed night, we were actually in our basement as my city was under a tornado warning and there was quite a bit of damage not far from us. Luckily, it doesn’t appear that Hurricane Irene will directly affect us but for those in the path – stay safe!

2. Last weekend, our coaches were at CanFit Pro learning ~~new ways to torture us~~ new fitness techniques. Key points I learned from them after cross training on Monday and Wednesday:

- 2 lb Pilates balls are evil – my triceps still hurt

- I have been doing push ups wrong for years…I tend to ‘lead’ by lowering my butt and not my arms. I can barely do 5 ‘perfect’ push ups. They are now my homework. And my triceps still hurt.

- my core is getting hella strong but my upper body strength is way wimpy. Hence the homework.

-their spin classes are going to kill me I swear.

3. Last night was our final hill/stair repeat session….YEAH!! While they are effective they hurt like no one’s business. I did 5 last night for a total of 2890 stairs and ~11.5km of running. See ya next year and I won’t miss you stairs.

4. Because of last night’s fun, I didn’t hold out a lot of hope on this morning’s run but it ended up being a great 9.5km easy run. And I’m not going to lie…I did it this morning EARLY to get it over with. Chill - axing on a Friday night sounds good to me.

Did you get hit my Momma Nature this week? Is she messing up your plans?

Check out this awesome new forum: http://www.active.com/running/first-race

I am spending way too much time there….

A Midsummer Night’s Run – 15km Race Report

2011-08-22T10:11:00.001-04:00

Sat night was the Midsummer Night’s Run in Toronto. This was my first time running this race…overall I really enjoyed it. You can either do the 15km or 30km. Since I am Capt Short Distances this session, the 15km fit in perfect with my training. The race is a 6:45pm start and thankfully, it was overcast as it was Hot and Humid….as summer should be. :)

I have never done an official 15km race – my closest comparison was December’s Boxing Day 10 Miler. I was hoping to be faster than that (ave km/hr) and ended up being exactly the same. For whatever reason I just could not get ‘comfortable’ during the race. And my Garmin was all over the place…I kept thinking I was running relatively ‘fast’ and would look down and the Garmin said: “No Way Dude..you are slow”. Don’t know what it was but it took a whole lot to not just give up and say that this was a training run. I booked it the last km and ended up 1:45:50…50 seconds off what I wanted. Lessons learned: Eat more for evening races…I know I didn’t eat enough.

Overall, this was a great race with a great medal and shirt:

The 15km route is challenging in that you are running different surfaces and ….there was a seriously lack of race etiquette. The path is not that wide and slower runners were not keeping to the right, people would just stop in their tracks so I was trying to pass people and getting hit in the face by the weeds on the side of the path. Nature close up I guess. The last water station ran out of water…all the more reason to carry your own in a race!!

The costumes people had on were awesome. My friend ran with this on the whole race and raced fast:

Other race pics:

Ready to race ….and sweat… a lot.

Me with my coaches who I pay to torture me.

Hands up.

Finished…up close and sweaty.

How was your weekend? Sweatastic?

Four for Friday

2011-08-19T10:17:00.001-04:00

1. Yesterday was hill/stair workout #3. It hurt… a lot. We were actually supposed to do 5 repeats but because we are racing on Saturday, we just did 4. It was brutal – split wise they were consistent but my quads/lungs/calves/hams were screaming.

2. One thing I found with this hill/stair workout (other than it making me completely exhausted) is the RUN-GRY I get from it. Do you get RUN-GRY? That stomach growling feed me now feeling that goes on all day. I spent yesterday feeding myself while trying to stay awake. That’s always fun.

3. Today is my first true rest day in ages. NO: running, spin, core, cleaning, golfing, gardening, yoga….nothing. The most exhausting thing I will do today is get my hair cut. I don’t think that’s aerobic.

4. Saturday is race #2 of the summer season:

I am doing the 15km run…and am hoping to actually meet up with some of the awesome bloggers who are also running. (to prove I exist Marlene) Problem is ….. I won’t be there until after the 30km’ers have started and most of you will probably will finish before me. If you pass me at the finish…say hi! I’m sure I’ll be easy to spot from the back.

Happy weekend and Happy racing to anyone busting a move.

Wicked Run and Using your Garmin

2011-08-15T13:28:00.001-04:00

Yesterday’s run was just ….awesome even though I almost missed it. For some reason (i.e. don’t read your weekly group email properly) I thought our run yesterday started at 7:30. I did my usual easy 4km run down to the clinic to meet up with the group. As I came around the corner, I saw everyone leaving…Run started at 7am. Whoops…I made a quick pit stop and then did race pace to catch up to everyone else. We then threw in some race pace and I ended up with a GREAT 17km run…It was tough but made did it feel good.

Post run pic with my run buds:

After the run we had a friend come in to do a talk on Garmins – how to use them, set them up, common issues, tricks etc. It all just made me realize….I don’t use any of the features on my Garmin…I mean, yes I use it for keeping laps for speedwork/interval training and obviously distance/pace per km. But I don’t set up workouts, set up alarms, use the virtual racer etc. That would probably involve reading the manual.

And this chick and instructions don’t always jive….

Did you have a wicked run/workout/sweatfest recently? Do you use your Garmin to its fullest potential?

Four for Friday

2011-08-12T15:02:00.001-04:00

1. A couple of friends joined me in an early morning workout - hills/stair repeats…at 5:30am on Thursday. It was a tough, tough workout but running over 2300 stairs and almost 10km before 8am is pretty sweet ….and kind of bad ass. The second and third repeats were both faster but the fourth repeats was a hang and survive kind of deal….

2. Be jealous of my mad photo skills that early in the morning:

(My friends G and M and me being blinded by the light.)

3. The more blogs I read, the more I get reminded of how Yum FroYo is….BUT it is still sugar and fat…so I have been eating banana soft serve with blueberries like it is going out of style. (1 banana, 1/2 tsp cocoa powder and fresh blueberries) I need someone to come and clean out my food processor however…

4. We have been treated this week with cooler temps and lower humidity. Can I get an A-Men? Sunday’s run is supposed to be rainy but….puddle jumping is partially cross training right?

Have a great weekend..make it count.

Shutting up the “VOICE”

2011-08-10T10:33:00.001-04:00

(not the TV show…I’ve never seen it but I am down with CeeLo so I won’t diss it)

The VOICE tells me:

It’s too hot out. You know how to run safe in this weather but still….
Aren’t you tired? It’s not a rest day but let’s rest anyway.
Let’s run tomorrow instead…doubling up workouts is fine. You did nothing but commute/sit at your desk all day but sitting watching TV would be FUN!
You were busy at work…don’t you deserve a break?….even if you did nothing but commute/sit at your desk all day.
Your eating wasn’t great today so what’s the point of working out/running? Let is slide….again…
You have to do 4 Zone5 interval repeats…it’s going to be hard and it’s going to hurt and you probably won’t make your time goals anyway so let’s just chill out.
It’s going to be hard and it’s going to hurt
It’d going to be hard and it’s going to hurt

So instead of listening to the VOICE – who talked nonstop like a Chatty Cathy my whole ride home and when I got in the door….

I put a gag on the VOICE and didn’t listen…

source

… and knocked out a GREAT 10km run in the sunshine and (relatively) nice weather. I actually had 2/4 repeats in the sub 5min/km mark…this is nothing short of a miracle for me. I think the other 2 were actually faster than Mr Garmin recorded so I blame the telephone wires on Upper Middle Rd for running interference.

So suck it VOICE…I know I am stronger and louder than you.

Cleaning Cross Training and a Slimy Run

2011-08-08T07:32:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned, last week was a good/tough week of training. I actually took Friday off as a vacation day in order to get some semblance of order back to our casa. There was dusting, laundry, gardening, dish washing, vacuuming, mopping and general cleaning up leaving a happy house and tired homeowner. Does house cleaning count as cross training?

(a clean kitchen.makes.me.happy)

I still had my 4th run of the week to do and knew that it would not happen Saturday so I took my tired self out and did a 9km run. Not bad, not great but happy it was done.

Sunday we woke up to rain..at times heavy rain. I like running in the rain so I didn’t care but what we didn’t count on was the humidity….it was like running in soup – we dubbed it the Slimy Run.

Nice.

On the way back the hubs passed me on his bike as he headed out to do workout #2 of the day for him….Photo Op:

It wasn’t as fast as I wanted but a solid (sweaty) 15km is fine by me.

This week is another doozy training week including FOUR hill/stairs repeats. Get ready legs…

Do you have to take days off to get caught up on ‘life’? How do you keep your house in order?

Four for Friday – the workout and nutrition edition

2011-08-05T08:31:00.001-04:00

1. This was a good training week..and I have the DOMS to prove it. Overall I am really happy with my running right now. I am faster and it isn’t quite as hard as it used to be. Tuesday was a Zone5 interval run – tough but solid run and Wednesday was a 45min spin + 45 min of Satan’s core training – pushups, side planks, back extensions, abs, abs, abs, lunges, squats, etc etc. Last night was:

2. The return of the hill/stair workout. 2km hill repeat at our local golf course and then a 289 steep stair climb, a .5km sprint at the top and then a 289 stair climb descent equals 1 repeat. We did 3 last night with each one getting faster. It was tough and my hams are screaming. There is still another run in the plan that I am hoping to do this afternoon…cause right now my legs don’t like me.

3. This afternoon I am going to pick up:

I have followed Mama Pea for ages and just love her humour and reciPeas. (if you haven’t tried her toffee bars you are missing out.) I have been trying to be more diligent with my food of late and eating whole REAL foods for me are key.

4. My nutrition boost was enhanced by these RokitFuel samples I won from the awesome Kovas.

Good?…You.bet and the ingredients rock.

How is your nutrition going? Do you consciously work on eating real foods?

Happy weekend!

Run, golf, run, golf, golf

2011-08-02T08:02:00.001-04:00

….sums up my long weekend. We started the weekend off right with a trip to the new local DIY Yogurtplace…it delivered and I want more…

Since Sunday was going to be an early start, my long run was Sat morning – 13km starting at around 6am and it was awesome. I mapped out a new route from our place and found another great little running route..apparently this was the week of new places to run. Then it was off to golf Day 1 of our tournament. By the time I teed off it was about a bajillon degrees..long run+golf+sun = bed at 9pm.

Sunday I really didn’t want to miss my 4th run of the week so it meant getting out at 5:15 for an 8km run that was again in a bajillion degrees. Luckily for my golf playing partners, I did grab a quick shower before we headed out for Day 2 of the tournament.

Monday was a ‘rest’ and let me tell you sleeping in until 6:30 was awesome..and yes I remember the days when sleeping in meant 10am + ….oh how things have changed. I headed into our tournament being 2 shots out of 3rd in my division..and ended up winning 3rd by 3 shots. Wee! The hubs was out so got some ‘action’ shots of me:

Notice my attire? Yes that is a RunningSkirt…they work awesome on hot days on the golf course as well….

Needless to say I am exhausted today. The thought of speed work today is not appealing but it will get done…

Are you exhausted from your weekend? Energized? Comatose? Lively?

Four for Friday –the new discovery edition

2011-07-29T08:19:00.001-04:00

1. This week has bordered on insane. 12+ hr work days, dealing with a ton of people/clients and trying to fit training in as well. But…it is now LONG WEEKEND! For non Ontario residents, this is the Civic long weekend so not everything is closed and I actually have to use a personal day to have Monday off but I don’t care. 3.Days.Off.

2. I have worked in the same area/office for YEARS. This week in trying to fit my runs in I found there is a great place to run right behind my office that includes a bike trail, some wooden paths, gravel and even a local track. (there’s even a mini ski hill where I could do repeats. HAHAHAHAHAHA…) So glad I pay so much attention to my surroundings.

Thumbs up after my Zone5 intervals on my newly discovered path.

3. I also discovered that this heel pain thing is seriously bizarre. Yesterday it hurt like hell so I taped it out before my tempo run. Post run with the tape off…it didn’t hurt. My body is weird I tell you.

4. This weekend is also my golf club’s championship tournament. I have been playing pretty ‘ok’ this year but the main goal this time around is to actually ENJOY it. I get pretty stressed/competitive with myself which then means I can barely swing a club. Like running, you perform better when you chill the F out.

If you are a Canuck, do you get Monday off? If yes, Happy 3, if not Happy 2!

Fixing the foot and the art of NON customer service

2011-07-25T09:29:00.001-04:00

This stupid heel is still giving me grief…while I did have an amazing run yesterday, I still felt pain and had taped the crap out of it in order to run. I had another massage treatment on Sunday…these treatments are a work out alone…nothing like spending 45+ like this:

The thinking is that this is not an issue with the fascia but potentially tendonitis. Whatever he did yesterday wiped me out completely – he worked through all my ITbands, hamstrings, calves (holy soleus pain) and the foot itself. I was baked and have some nice little bruises to show. So far, the heel feels … ok.

We had some a lot of unfun this weekend with our lovely airline that we are using to fly to the hubs race in Sept. They outright moved our flights by a full DAY on both sides. This meant having to change connecting flights, fight with said airline (coughAIRCANDAcough) to get the proper dates somehow restored and now paying more for accommodation changes. In total, the hubs probably spent about 10hrs on various phone calls dealing with this as well as a ton of different people….and yet to actually find someone who was helpful.

You know…I can deal with changes but to have this level of NON customer service is shocking. We will avoid everything we can to EVER use them again.

This week is another nutty week at work..Pray for me over the next few hellish day. The upside? A LONG weekend coming up for us Canucks.

Sweet.

Four for Friday – the I’m not complaining about the heat edition

2011-07-22T07:22:00.001-04:00

1. Yes..it is hot. And it hurts but I still remember winter…vividly…

2. To get my run on this week, I ran Tues/Thursday at 4:30am. Sometimes I feel like hot weather running is even more taxing mentally. By this I mean, you have to NOT use the heat as an excuse to get the run in. You have to be safe and judge how you feel but not be slack as a just in case. Does that make sense? I don’t mean to push it to a point of being sick …Maybe the Heat is getting to me…

3. Overall they were good runs this week. The heat wasn’t the problem for me, it is Stupid Heel that is still an issue. My PT is on vacation so I went for a massage treatment on Tuesday. Remember when a massage was relaxing? Oof…this hurt – a lot. Outside of the pain in the one spot on the heel, there is a lot of scar tissue in the rest of the foot as well that we need to work out . AWESOME!

4. We have yet another weekend full of training, golfing, friends and family. Today is a vacation day for me as I have to take the hubs in for an MRI…where they inject dye into his hip. I am cringing even thinking about it.

Happy weekend…Keep Fit and have Fun!

Gravenhurst Du/Tri recap – a HOT weekend

2011-07-18T09:22:00.001-04:00

This past Sat was the Gravenhurst International Du/Tri races that the hubs and a friend competed in. I knew I wanted to keep my running easy in order to recovery from Thursday’s run so my Sat/Sun runs were 10km each of easy running at the hotel:

Ugh…this just reinforces how much I am loving running outside. I thought I would go crazy on these things even with a TV in them. And it was probably as hot in there as it was outside…

In the same fashion as last year, it was hot on race day. There is basically ZERO shade on the course and the 10km run (for both the DU/TRI) is one of the toughest ones that are part of a race course. There were people on the course walking (which in a race like that is unusual), puking and lots of people in the medical area post race. Like I said…HOT.

10km run:

40km bike:

5km run:

equals a 3rd place AG finish for the hubs:

Our friend won 2nd in her AG and had a great race:

Despite the 3rd place finish, it was not a good race for the hubs which is upsetting to see. He is a strong athlete and can do way better on the bike but it just isn’t coming through right now which is tough and I don’t know how to help….

How do you deal with a bad race? How do you help others deal with race disappointment?

This week is a super hot one here in South Western Ontario. My goal is run in the morning both Tuesday/Thursday in an effort to beat the heat….and enjoy the early morning sprinkler systems in my lovely neighborhood.

Four for Friday – the 10km Race edition

2011-07-15T06:44:00.001-04:00

1. Race #1 of this run session is in the books. I ended up having an ‘emergency’ PT session on Wednesday after as my heel as really bad by the afternoon so I was a bit worried about how I would feel on Thursday. PT helped is considerably but it was still sore so going forward, it will be taped for all runs.

Considering I couldn’t walk Wed, I am pretty pleased with the race.

2. My time goal was b/w 1:04 and 1:07. I squeaked in at 1:06 … after losing a minute with having to stop and rearrange some of my taping job. So I am happy…a 4 min + PB and my first km was the same pace as my last km. I haven’t figured out my splits yet and though it is a double loop, there isn’t a 5km split. Weird…

3. A huge thanks to Kristen for giving me my race mantra:

HTFU – Hoogerland the F Up. Don’t follow the Tour de France? Well, Hoogerland is a Dutch rider who was involved in a horrific crash this week. (I can’t even look at the pics anymore) He got back and finished the stage (bloodied and battered) and then went to the hospital post race for 37 stitches. Think about that the next time a workout is hard.

4. I actually liked doing a shorter race – it is a totally different kind of racing and I think I will be throwing a few more of these in the mix going forward. And yes….it hurt for the whole race.

Happy Happy Almost weekend. The hubs and a friend are racing this weekend and I am NOT part of their race team but am Capt Sherpa and photo lady. Have a good one!

Summer Race #1 – Goals and Hopes

2011-07-13T10:24:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow night is my first race of the summer and this run session – The Eaton 10km Downtown Dash.

The funny/ironic thing with this is that this is the Ontario 10km Master Championship so there will be even MORE fasties than usual. Cause you know, I’m not nervous or psyched out enough as it is.

Up until last night, I was feeling pretty good about the race. I had a great run on Sunday and felt strong despite the heat. Last night started off as a good run until about .5km to go where it felt like my heel/fascia exploded. It was the first run I had done without taping it like I usually do so today I am massaging, heating, stretching etc. It feels better so…. Game On Downtown Dash…Game On.

Goals
1. Negative split. I haven’t done this in a race so that is goal #1. The good thing with this race is it is a double loop so that is relatively easy to manage.

2. Bust it. My ‘official’ 10km PB is 1:10 from …awhile ago. The goal is to RACE the entire race..both pace and mental wise.

3. Time goal. Because of stupid heel and heat, I am setting my goal as between 1:04 – 1:07. Slow to you…fast to me.

There you go…See you at the finish line…

The end of the jungle, runner’s highs and a Team Canada uniform

2011-07-11T08:56:00.001-04:00

There is no longer a jungle in my backyard. I actually wish I had taken a picture as at one point, the entire middle of the yard was COVERED in weeds, bramble, branches etc. that I had picked/cut away. Sorry gardening..you are not fun and I have the scratches to prove it.

It does look way better though…

The weekend was filled with some amazing and very hot running. Sat was a solid easy run with the intervals through in before golfing and yesterday was such a good run, I am still on a runner’s high from it. 12km of sweaty running with 3kms of race pace thrown in that was like the 3 bears: One was too fast, one was too slow and one was just right.

The most exciting part of the weekend was that the hub’s Team Canada uniform arrived on Friday…it took everything I had to NOT open the package up before he arrived.

It’s real dude…it’s real.

How was your weekend? Do you open other people’s mail?

Four for Friday

2011-07-08T07:55:00.002-04:00

1. Less than a week away for my first race of this training session. It is ‘only’ a 10km so the distance isn’t problem….it is the speed I am started to get freaked about. I want to race hard and know it is there..I just have to channel it. I haven’t actually done a 10km race since…..2007? Before I even started running seriously.

Yet another high quality race photo from the Mississauga 10km years ago…

2. 2 days after the 10km race, we are in Gravenhurst for the hubs’ duathlon. Since he is still injury ridden…I may be doing the run portion. Nothing like a little last place on the run section. And this isn’t me being modest or ‘down’…this is me being realistic as it is 10km + 5km on a hilly course and last year was a sweat fest. At least it is a beautiful place to race….

3. Training wise, it has been a good week:

Sunday: 9km LSD – slow but done.
Monday and Wednesday: really tough spin and cross training sessions
Tuesday: 10km interval run in some serious heat.

Last night was supposed to be Tempo Thursday but I was beat so it became my rest day. I AM heading out for a run soon….wish me luck.

UPDATE: It was a rough start but a pretty solid 9.6km run. Me=Happy.

4. This weekend is shaping up to be a pretty ‘chill’ one (except it is supposed to be really hot/humid). Other than training, we don’t have a lot of plans except to tackle the gardening. Unless it tackles us first. I can’t even take a pic as it is embarrassing the state we have left it in. Ugh.

What are your weekend plans? Any races coming up?

Long Weekend Rewind

2011-07-05T07:51:00.001-04:00

Long weekends rule…there should be more of them. Period..end of story. Ours flew by as usual.

There was 3 runs – 1 great tempo, 1 ok interval, 1 rough long run and lots o’ sweating due to sun and humidity. I may have sweat out a small child over the last few days.

There was golfing – 1 good round, 1 ok round, 1 not so good round and Canada Flags on some of the holes and Canada on my head.

There were new socks courtesy of Molly…which I LOVE:

and most exciting-ly…new wheels!

My old car I think was a lesser version of Christine…while not necessarily trying to kill me, it caused me more grief than good so I am happy to have something safe, fun and hopefully long lasting.

How was your long weekend? (Canada or US…or somewhere else I am too duh to have missed)

Four for “Friday” – the Canadian Edition

2011-06-29T07:55:00.000-04:00

Since July 1st…today is my Friday. YeeHaw!

1. July 1st is also Canada Day …Canada’s Birthday. The occasion marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. (thanks Wikipedia) This Bday marks # 144…looks pretty good from my point of view.

2. A few years ago, Molson Canadian came up with a whole promo about how awesome Canada is…this is my favorite of them:

Here's to You

Here's to you Canada
Here's to your hockey hair
Your long underwear
And multi coloured money
Here's to saying please
Your ducks and geese
And always being funny
Here's to open spaces
Away from rat races
And a beer that quenches the thirst
Here's to being proud
And saying it loud
Even when you don't come first
Here's to your pretty girls
Your black coloured squirrels
And a flag that stands so free
Here's to different races
From different places
Who love this country - like me
But most of all
Here's to standing tall and saying it like a true Acadian
"I love this land, I love this country", and
"I am Canadian!"
Cheers!

3. I am lucky enough to hang out with the hubs this weekend while also running, golfing and FINALLY tackling the gardening that desparately needs to be done.

Us last year on Canada Day:

4. As Canadians, we don’t often brag about ourselves …but I think Canada is pretty great and am glad to live here.

Happy Canada Day…and because I am the polite Canuck I am, Happy Upcoming 4th of July to my American friends.

Sweat Your Thorns Off Race ReportSssss

2011-06-25T17:53:00.001-04:00

Today Adam hosted the Sweat Your Thorns Off Virtual 5k. My plan was to race this as part of my 8km training run this morning. The race did not start off well – the alarm didn’t go off. I sprang out of bed @ 5:30 and was out the door by 5:40.

Post race pic:

I also didn’t get my bib in time so here is the post race Canadian version – I don’t think I say “EH” a lot but others may disagree:

Race #1: 32:40.

Knowing that I would never win this race with my un-fast time, I decided to create my own category: “The fastest 5km after running 8km in the morning and carrying golf clubs as part of an 18 hole round”.

Race outfit #2 – taken at the golf course..this isn’t my hideous wallpaper….

I attached my Garmin to my bag (activating Auto Pause) and off we went:

We saw deer on the course…did you?

Race #2: 1:01:29

…and played a pretty good round.

Thanks for hosting Adam….and it was actually a bit chilly in this part of Canada on race day…but no snow. :)

Four for Friday – the random edition

2011-06-24T07:29:00.001-04:00

1. Last night was the first tempo run I have done in ages…it was awesome, tough, sweaty, mentally challenging and I am sore this morning. YEAH!!!

2. Next week we are full swing back into training as our spin and core classes are starting back up. Back to not being home until 8-9pm Mon-Thurs, sore abs and butt from core, 2 a day showers and eating late. Another YEAH!

3. Our lovely friends had a baby recently. While we were in NYC for the half marathon, we picked up this one-sy for him. Apparently, the Beastie Boys were wrong:

4. Sunday I am going to be up super early but not for ‘ME’ reasons. I am volunteering at The Healing Cycle event which the hubs and our friends have been raising funds for. Who knew when you volunteered for finish line duties you still have to be there at 5:30am? It is all for a good cause so I can certainly sacrifice the sleep in order to raise money for palliative care. Cancer sucks. Period.

Happy Friday and weekend. Make the minutes and moments count.

New Run Clinic a la Princess Leia

2011-06-22T08:55:00.001-04:00

Our latest run clinic started back up last night. Hallelujah! It was so awesome to see tons of people out and some new people to the group. Wait till they drink the Gatorade…no going back now. :)

I was feeling a bit…cranky last night and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do run wise. Since the hubs was going to the clinic to bike then run I decided to run down to the clinic. Apparently a BondiBand plus my Sony Walkman makes me look like Princess Leia.

Once I got to the clinic we went through an intro session…it was as usual awesome to hear everyone’s run experience and # of races..I am very excited about this session. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go out for more running but felt great so I did another 5.7km with some of my peeps for a total of 11.7km…..Not bad for a Tuesday night. I like this idea of running more from home to the clinic. If I don’t do any detours, it is about 5km so for the early part of the clinic I am probably going to run to the clinics on Sunday to get a few more kms in. For me…it is something I need to do.

(I managed to stay off the scale until this morning…and saw the numbers went down. BooooYahhhhh!)

A weekend of AG placing, Sun and Family

2011-06-20T08:28:00.001-04:00

The hubs first race of the season was a good one. 3rd place in his age group. There is room for improvement and I can’t wait to see where the next race takes him. I am so proud of him…especially since post race while he was feeling like a truck ran over him, he cooked a great meal of steak, lobster and veggies. Yum.

(thanks Coach Mari for the pics!)

The group he trains with (and I run with) did amazing at this race so I am super proud to be associated with this amazing team who are also some of the best friends you could ask for.

The rest of the weekend was filled with sunshine…which for me meant running and golfing. And I already have the weirdest tan lines on the planet. I am being really careful with putting on sunscreen this year but my feet are pure white and I have a VNeck tan on my upper body. Nice…….

We spent Sunday visiting the Pops in our lives and thinking of my Pop In Law who is surely enjoying some lobster and scotch in the afterlife.

Pop In Law Nova Scotia ~ 2002?

My Dad got basically the same gift from me and my sibs – new golf shirts and books. Creative we aren’t apparently and we suck at taking pics as yet again, I didn’t take any of our family. Geez….But I do have this awesome one showing my Pops love of the Leafs…not cool in a family of HABS lovers….

This week our new run clinic starts – YeeHaw! Give me my run/spin/core/coaching torture and I will be a happy camper again.

Four For Friday – the racing and running edition

2011-06-17T07:33:00.004-04:00

1. The hubs has his first race of the year tomorrow. He has worked really hard all winter and struggled with more issues with his hips/butt than I can even count. I am VERY proud of him and know he is going to give ‘er. He was recently on our local news as part of a segment promoting the charity he is very involved in, The Healing Cycle. Because I am a geek, I took a pic of him on TV:

Kill it B! And prove to me this fancy schmancy bike was worth it… :)

2. I went to physio this week to see about the heel…Nothing major – tightness of the fascia so he did some ART and laser. I have to ice and stretch – specifically my calves. Please remind me to foam roll MKay?

3. The two runs this week were pretty good – I am still taping my heel which Mr Physio guy is fine with..he said keep running as long as it isn’t sour pain. Fine by me. I was Mrs Crabby on last night’s run with the hubs…I really did not want to go – I was exhausted. But with a little goading off we went and it was all good. You never regret the runs you do, just the ones you don’t….

4. This morning’s run was good – early but good…It was humid at 4:30am so I am glad I got it done this morning. Random things I saw this morning:

a Mr and Mrs Duck (mallard and duck?) out strolling in the middle of the street. Do they do this all the time? Aren’t ducks supposed to be near water? Weird.
TWO skunks this morning..luckily on the other side of the street from me…
Seven bunny rabbits. Apparently we are now buds as they didn’t even really move when I went by them. I must be so fast now that they don’t even detect me.
As I was finishing, a lady was out power walking…wearing ankle and wrist weights. Dude…not good….

Happy, happy Friday and early Father’s Day!!! Has this not been the longest week ever?

Wednesday’s Confession

2011-06-15T08:55:00.001-04:00

First off…. The heel has felt pretty good since Sunday. I am going to see our physio guy today just to see what he thinks – I am the queen of self-diagnosis (hello WebMD!) but I am not taking any chances with this. If getting faster in the plan for this summer, that means tough workouts/speed training so better safe than sorry.

My confession for the week/month/year is I bought something I always said I didn’t care about:

A scale, specifically one that measure BMI:

As much as I know the scale just shows ‘numbers’ and doesn’t define me….I need something more to keep me in check even though:

my clothes fit fine – for the most part
once we are back in training, I will be running 4 X week, spinning 2 X week and cross training 2 X week. (I usually golf where I walk the course but this I don’t ‘count’ as exercise…except an exercise of new swear words I make up)
I am healthy
I eat well..but don’t keep track of it properly…especially of late. Whoever invented Marble Slab Ice Cream…and opened one near my house should be ~~hugged~~ jailed. I have been in denial of late as to the total # of calories I eat…Healthy food in ‘more’ quantities still equal calories!

So deep down, I knew I was probably weighing more than I should and my BMI was too high which it was. I am feeling pretty squishy right now… Since this is the Summer of Speed and I plan to work my butt off…I need a ‘truer’ starting point to see how much of that butt I need to get rid of. And while of course some of this is a vanity thing…it is also a better runner thing and THAT is the greater motivator. The numbers on sportstats.ca mean more to me than being a size 2/4/6/8/10/12.

So there you go…A fancy scale has taken up residence. I won’t be a slave to it but will be checking in with it weekly.

And I will do what I can to be friends.

Weekend rewind

2011-06-13T07:56:00.001-04:00

…and it’s Monday already. I feel like Friday was so long ago and yet the weekend was a whirlwind.

Friday started off like the rest of the week did – unable to sleep and awake @ 4am. This time though, Mother Nature was kind and I was able to get my run on. 8km to start the day. That night we went to see Super 8:

Loved it….I didn’t know much about the movie and thought it was excellent.

Saturday dawned and yet again I was up and running by 5am…this time though because I was playing golf @ 7:30am. (another 8+km) Needless to say by 4pm that afternoon, I was baked. For some reason of the last couple of days, I have had some weird soreness in my one heel. By the time I was done walking/playing golf on Sat, I was limping. I spent Sat night icing it and applying Traumeel as I really have no idea what is up with it. (DONT BE PF!!)

Sunday the hubs and I went out for a run together. He is usually Chatty McChatty everyday….except for when he runs apparently. He ‘thinks’ when he runs….well, how does that help me when I want some distraction? :) I ended up taping my foot to see if it made a difference – it totally did:

The hubs and I split up as he needed to get some extra KMs in. Post run photo apres stretching:

I went to go find the hubs to get an ‘action shot’ of him heading home. I found Captain Blister apparently unable to keep his fancy bright shoes on anymore…..I can relate dude:

Then off to play more golf:

So ~25km of running and ~22.5km of walking the golf course over 3 days. My house is a mess, the garden not touched but….I be happy.

Four for Thursday – What I love right now – the non running version

2011-06-09T09:16:00.001-04:00

Apparently Mother Nature is ticked at me as she has been playing serious havoc on my running of late. The last 3 mornings I have been up to run (at an ungodly hour..) only to be turned away by lightning twice and a huge wind storm. Good thing my official training doesn’t start until the 21st!

So because running has been scarce, let’s talk about some stuff I am loving right now:

1. Dresses/skirts: I am not real girly but of late I have been all over dresses/skirts for work…probably because it has been so hot, they are easy to throw on and look somewhat put together: Like this one from Esprit:

Even on the golf course, I have been looking Sporty Spice in golf skorts:

I really like this one as well but don’t think my introverted personality can carry it off…

2. Franco Sarto Peep Toe wedges in red:

There are no other words…except they are pretty comfy!

3. Watermelon. I can eat a whole watermelon easily in a week. The hubs doesn’t like it so it is up to me to finish it off…and I do. Can you OD on watermelon?

4. Coconut Mocha Frappachinos. I am a total Starbuck moron. In fact I order my coffee the same way – hot with milk. So when Amy (damn her) mentioned these babies, I had to try one.

Of course I order it like this: “Can I have a Coconut Mocha ice coffee thingy and can you make it non-fat?” ‘Cause I am all cool like that. It was awesome…except at $4.15 per tall and 200 calories..it will be a treat not something regular..even though I inhaled it and may have muttered about it being soo gooooddd about 100 times.

What say you? What do you love right now?

Four for Sat- the memememe edition

2011-06-04T07:48:00.001-04:00

Oooff…it has been a nutty few weeks with work. I had a bit of burnout this week so used a personal day yesterday and for a change did non-chore things…

1. I got in an early 9km run (which was awesome!) and then played golf. 9km of running + 7.5km of hilly walking the golf course makes for some tired legs….fyi….

2. After a heatlhy lunch, I gots me feet done. My poor neglected runner feet…I think they actually sighed with relief.

3. I met up with the hubs for a chat, sunshine and downtown views. (he isn’t cranky here..just his pic is..)

4. and then home for baked sweet potatoes, chicken burgers and one o’ these…

I then proceeded to crash before 10pm…..guess having it all be about me is just too much to handle. The rest of the weekend is more running, more golfing and getting together with friends tonight.

Are you a pedicure person? Or even take a memememe day?

Back at ‘er

2011-05-31T09:14:00.001-04:00

So post marathon, I have been resting, working like a fiend, playing golf and running a bit. Now I want to run a lot. Well not a cuckoo a lot, but more. I have my races picked up and an even racing a 10km in July. I haven’t raced 10km ….since I actually started running so this could be interesting….

Sunday’s run was just.so.awesome. I had to work over the weekend (Friday – midnight – 2am and Sat 11pm-2am) so my sleep was completely screwy. It would have been easy to loll around in my jammies but instead I went out for a ~9.5km run….and felt so much better – no way would I have felt like that if I had taken the easy road.

Because Ontario is just so much fun with its weather, we went from snow/hail to tons of rain and cold temps to having a Heat Alert issued. (meaning with the humidity, temps will run over 35C…HOTZO) That meant back to the early morning running today where it was me, the road, the neighbourhood bunny rabbits and the local paper delivery guy. 8.5km before the sun came up and still a sweaty mess? Yes please….

(don’t mind my Mr T necklaces…I added a new Lift Your Sole necklace to my run wardrobe essentials….I pity the fool who makes fun of me…)

How do you beat the heat? Does it bug you?

I don’t really handle heat that great (hellllllooooo Pittsburgh Marathon) so I have to be careful when I am in the danger temp zone.

Four for Friday – the what’s next edition

2011-05-27T08:53:00.001-04:00

1. Our next training ‘season’ doesn’t start for a few weeks but I am already in the planning stage. I was always on the fence about doing a Fall marathon as we are going away for a BIG RACE in September which is going to cut into training a bit. So this session is going to be the Summer of Speed and Half Marathons. Realistically the only thing that will change training wise is that I don’t have to run a bajillion KMs on Sundays. And don’t think it will mean training will be any easier….we don’t call our coaches Satan and Satan JR for nothing…

2. Race #1 will be The Midsummer Night’s Run Aug 20th:

I hope the race is better than how I registered….I messed up my.own.name on the entry. Goof much? Geez…

3. I’m not 100% set on the other races though I am leaning towards the ScotiaBank Half Marathon Oct 16th as I have never raced it.

I am not sure what others are in the plan yet…I will see what the Satan Coaches think…..

4. While we were in Pittsburgh, the hubs was nice enough to pick these up for me:

Injinji….I LOVE you…. Being me, it took me about 10 minutes to put them on and I was very aware of my ‘toes’ but once I got running…it was all Happy Toes and Happy Feet.

What are your summer racing plans?

Pittsburgh Marathon Recap – the fun one with pics!

2011-05-24T08:13:00.002-04:00

I haven’t been sitting here brooding about my deep dark race. The hubs is a little slow with getting pics to me so ….. I blame him. :) I have moved on from the race, I have made my race plans for the summer (more on that later) and have started training again.

‘Nuff said.

Race weekend started with the usual couple-y self portrait at the border crossing:

and some playing/shopping in Erie:

Batman here:

Superman here:

We hit up the (awesome) expo on Friday and Saturday. I had forgotten that I put my nickname on my race bib. It was fun to hear people yell: “Go Lo!” on the course…

Since Nike is a sponsor, there are some pretty cool things there like your name on the giant race wall and yes…we got pics of all our names.

and Nike Pittsburgh shoes…

The local paper also prints everyone’s name in the Sat morning edition…of course, we took photos of that …and photos of us taking the photos of our names…

Race day dawned early…and humid…and rainy.

Not relaxed but fakin’ it.

The full and half troopers:

We had a great team of ‘athletic’ supporters (hubs and wives) out on the course. The hubs got some actual ok pics of me on the course….thankfully not at the 25km mark where the pukefest occurred..

These nut bars ran the whole marathon like this:

Want to see pain? Here it is:

I couldn’t even make the walk back to the hotel..the poor/amazing hubs had to catch a cab for us. He rocks.

So thanks Pittsburgh, we had a blast and I would recommend this race to anyone.

Pros:

-great expo. The race bag included a bunch of samples, a running light and a pair of Nike socks. SOCKS RACE DIRECTORS!!! WE LIKE SOCKS!

-great tech shirt and meda

-amazing on course support - tons of water, Gatorade, gels, even chips at the 25mile mark

-the cheer squads and bands each mile were phenomenal

-good route - if you are doing the half and want to PB...you may have to elbow people out of the way..it is crowded. The half and full all start together and split at the 11 mile mark...it got really lonely for us marathoners but the on course spectators made up for it.

Cons:

-the start corrals were difficult to get to and some of our group were fence hopping to make sure they got in on time.

-if you like 'official' race photos...don't look for them here. They bit.

-if you don't like bridges...don't run here. You get to go over 5 of them.

Even though it was the worst run of my life, I will wear my shirt and medal with pride and think of you fondly…

mostly after I have had a drink.

Pittsburgh Marathon Recap – the short, dark, downer post

2011-05-17T09:22:00.003-04:00

I wish I could write that I came out of Pittsburgh with a PB and feeling like a ‘true’ marathoner after marathon #3.

I wish I could say that all my efforts in training, resting, cross training, nutrition and hydration paid off.

I wish I could feel like the marathon weight was lifted off of me and that I felt like a deserved to say I am a marathon runner.

But I can’t. Sunday’s race in Pittsburgh was my worst race yet. To be honest, I am not sure what to chalk it up to other than the humidity. It completely sapped everything out of me.

I even puked at the 25km mark.

I so wanted to stop. There were some very dark moments for me out there. It would have been so much easier to DNF and not have to keep going and not have to report back another 6+hr marathon.

But I didn’t stop. I didn't quit. Quitting would have been so easy and felt so good for a short period of time.

I am not laying any blame on the race, the course or that I did something stupid like not eat/hydrate the way I trained to.

My coach who is wiser than me put it best when I said that my regret was that the race didn’t reflect my training:

“Regrets are the hardest things to deal with because we can’t go back. Believe me when I tell you that from my perspective, it very much does reflect what you did in your training – you trained to go as hard as you could over that distance on the day of the race and NOT QUIT! That is they way I look at this. You never quit in training and you never quit in the race. The “time” may not have reflected what you did in training but everything else including your mental training was well represented in this race. I am very proud of you – more so – given that it would have been very easy to quit and no one would have faulted you for it. Instead you chose to do what you were trained to do – get to the finish line. That is what should define and propel you to the next challenge.”

I’ll be back with a better, sunnier recap full of pics and highlights from a great race weekend…except for the whole 42.2km part.

Laura

Five for Thursday – the Pittsburgh Marathon edition

2011-05-12T07:20:00.000-04:00

1. Sunday is the Pittsburgh Marathon – already. I can’t believe that Marathon #3 is just around the corner. It was a rough training cycle this time around with almost every Sunday being lousy with snow, wind, bitting cold and WIND. I put in more KMs this training cycle and did many of my training runs faster than before so let’s hope there are some pay off. Like the Flying Pig last year…here’s the weather forecast:

Sweet. Awesome. Wicked. Whatever..I can’t change it so let’s embrace it shall we?

2. This week’s taper week has been …restful. There has been an easy 7km run and today will be a 6-7km run with one 2 min FAST interval. I have rested, eaten well, drank more water than you can imagine and apparently gotten very Zen about this upcoming race. I am not nervous but actually looking forward to it. Go.Figure.

3. Packing for a ‘destination’ race is a feat unto itself. I have more crap with me than you can imagine: bandaids, vaseline, moleskin, roadID, Garmin, Ipod, bodyglide, watch, chargers, safety pins, race belt, water bottles and belt, KT tape, gels, etc.. My race bag is full:

and I have yet to pack all my clothes.

4. Speaking of clothing…since a lot of rain and warmish temps mean soggy-ness so less clothing the better meaning my tried and true running skirt is my go to for race day. The other options so far are:

I know the red hat doesn’t match the shirt..but I like this hat….

Packing ‘light’ is not my style.

5. For everyone racing this weekend, race hard and race well. If you are in Pittsburgh…well you know what I’ll be wearing so say Hi! And Marlene...Rock it in Mississauga!

Weekend Recap – The Sun! The Moms! The Thor!

2011-05-09T08:09:00.001-04:00

Friday was a fun night out with the hubs and a friend to see Thor. I loved it ….. and it had nothing to do with this guy being in the film:

Image Credit: Zade Rosenthal

or him being shirtless at times in the movie…

Saturday was a bit of a tough 10km run. It was way warmer out than I thought so I was totally overdressed. Not having had nice weather in awhile, I have to remember to bust out the shorts. I also tackled some much needed housework …cause it won’t be happening during Taper Week.

Sunday was a glorious 10.5km run in the sunshine! And no wind! It was a fun run as all of us who are racing in Pittsburgh (NEXT WEEKEND!) were there so we did an easy run together. Did I mention it was sunny and no wind??

Mother Nature must have been appeased by her kids apparently to give us such a nice day for Mother’s Day. We had lovely visits with our respective moms and family and enjoyed the Vitamin D. The hubs does the cooking, I do the dish clean up in these kinds of scenarios. I was struck but how some things don’t change and totally remind me of the Moms. My Mom always uses J Cloths for washing the dishes…ever since I was little:

My MIL uses Palmolive dish soap – the original green scented one.

Other things remind me of them as well: Mom’s BBQ sauce and carrot casserole, MIL’s cherry jam and her serious giggle, both of them make wicked pies and so many other small things. It was lovely to time to visit with everyone and enjoy each other’s company

How was your weekend? Do you have a Mom/Dad/sibling/friend favorite reminder?

Four for Friday – Taper running and Moms

2011-05-06T08:13:00.001-04:00

1. Since spin/core is done I have some flexibility with my running this week. Tuesday was a scheduled run but it was raining and gross. So I moved it to Wednesday..and I am so glad I did. It was warm and sunny and I ended up having a great interval run…Anytime this chick see a ‘4’ in front of KM/Hr on the Garmin is nothing short of a miracle.

2. Last night’s run wasn’t so great. It actually went by quickly and it was tempo-ish but it was TOUGH – to the point where I wanted to bag it after 3km. But I used my mental toughness reserves and made it through another 6.5km. NO MORE TEMPO UNTIL RACE DAY!

3. Speaking of race day…it is now 8 days away. Wahhhhhhh!!! I have only stalked the weather forecast for Pittsburgh twice. Once it showed sun and wind the next it showed rain and wind. I’m not looking again until next week for fear of seeing snow…or locusts.

4. Sunday will be a nice easy run with the group and then off to spend the day with the Moms – mine and the hubs. My sister is making homemade bread for Sunday brunch. HOMEMADE BREAD people..the week before a marathon? It doesn’t stand a chance…..

Happy Mom’s Day. If you are a Mom, have a great day and I am in awe of you. I have trouble keeping track of me and a hubs….

Taper Time and a bunch of 'stuff' that is breaking..luckily not me

2011-05-03T08:23:00.003-04:00

Sunday's 23km run means for me...I am officially in taper. Good thing..'cause it wasn't a real pretty run. Granted I ran Friday and Sat morning and played golf on Sat but Sunday was just a not fun run. The overall pace ended up pretty good but that is partially because the hubs met me with about 2km to go and forced me to keep running. I thanked him/cursed him.

Stuff wise...it was not a good week in the Laura household:
-Wednesday the hubs came home to some flooding in our basement as the water line in our fridge broke and leaked.
-I managed to put a ding in our stainless steel fridge.
-Sunday my laptop died..it didn't get sick it just died.
-Our TV exploded...well it let out a loud pop and that was the end.

Said fridge is now fixed however it looks like there is something wonky with our water heater and dishwasher. Ahhhh 'Stuff'...you complete and complicate my life! Over the past few days, I have been on a tear to get rid of some stuff - books, magazines, old clothing etc. It is a combination of giving things away and recycling and shocks me to see how much I can easily get rid of.

The hubs is still around..I can't get rid of him that easy though he is now sharing 'my' TV space. If he thinks I am giving up Glee for hockey...he has another think coming.

Marathon runners: How much do you cut back in taper?

Four for Friday – the non Royal wedding edition

2011-04-29T10:16:00.001-04:00

1. Apparently there are a lot of people in my ‘hood who wanted to see the Royals get married..either that or they saw my awesome Ninja running skills at 5am and want to join me. There were plenty ‘o TVs on when I went for my run this morning…I even saw a house that had to have been having a party…either that or they are starting to Get Down around here.

2. I admit when I came back from my run, I did watch some of the coverage when I was stretching..Congrats to them but I just don’t get the fascination. At.all.

3. Want to see what I wore on my wedding? It was very un-bridey:

4. This weekend marks the beginning of golf season. Or as I call it: “Walking around with sticks hitting a white ball sometimes well and swearing a lot”. I have some SaWeet pants to wear for our opening tournament…red/blue plaid. Seriously….don’t let me forget to take a pic.

Did you watch the Wedding coverage? Why were you interested?

Bday weekend with a 35km run and cupcakes

2011-04-25T07:46:00.001-04:00

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes…you guys are the best! Friday was a great day – easy run with the hubs who is the easy run pace-Nazi: “Too Fast! Slow down! Why are you running so fast..this is an easy run.” Irritating but he was right and it was nice to get out and run with him. Dinner Friday night was just.awesome and the hubs and I chatted away as usual the whole time.

Sunday was the ‘big’ one…35km run which is my nemesis. I went into this run vowing to not let it defeat me…even before I had started it. 35km is a long way….period. Deal with it km by km and suck it up. My run buddy and I went out early and did ~11km and then met up with the rest of the group that were doing ~23km run. (I made up the difference once we were back at the clinic to get an even 35km) I am so happy we did it this way…I am not great with an out and back of that kind of distance so breaking up the run in different routes was great.

To be honest this was the first time I truly felt like I might be able to get this marathon thing down…I hope.

Post run was our family Easter dinner and it was awesome. We had treats for our guests:

and cupcakes – a bday tradition…

and anytime there are leftover cupcakes and you are going into marathon taper..is a good thing in my books.

Do you like out and back routes? How about cupcakes? :)

(early) Four for Friday – the Bday edition

2011-04-21T08:45:00.001-04:00

1. Tomorrow is my Bday. (and a day off!) Woop Woop! It was another year filled with love, laughter, tears, stress, family, friends, running, playing, working and life in general..and I loved it all. I am grateful for what I have, what I can give others and for everything I have learned.

2. The hubs is taking me out on Friday night to my fav restaurant. I have plans to decimate the freshly baked bread to carb up for Sunday’s 35km run. He will have to get his own. Since it is Easter, there won’t be many people around so a friend and I are going out early and then looping back to meet with the rest of the group in the hopes of finishing the run with the half group. Strength in numbers people….

3. Last year’s bday involved cupcakes and wine:

Nothing wrong with that. Should the same happen this year, it will be a great post Sunday run treat as we are having the family over for dinner. I should be great company post run so wine and sugar may be the answer.

4. My inner run geek was out in full force on Monday watching the Boston Marathon – me with my laptop in our lunchroom. My coworkers have no idea what to make of me anymore. It was so awesome to watch…except for the 2 announcers…they were seriously irritating. Congrats to everyone who raced…I have LOVED reading your race reports!

Happy LONG WEEKEND! Let’s hope to see the sunshine and get rid of this forsaking wind …the wind blown look on me is not a good one.

Sony Walkman Giveaway - winners!

2011-04-18T09:21:00.004-04:00

This is my Birthday week (coneffeti!!) and I get to start it by not being sore from yesterday's 'seasonal' run and announcing the Sony winners: Via randmonly putting the names in a spreadsheet and giving power to Random.org, the winners are:
Caroline
ajh

Congrats!! Shoot me an email (lrm2112 @ msn.com) with your mailing addresses and I will ship them to you. Thanks to Sony for this giveaway! Now to stalk the Boston Marathon liveblog and take coffee breaks to watch it live on TSN..

The Four Season 32km run

2011-04-17T15:03:00.001-04:00

Today marked the end of my highest training week yet. For someone who only runs 4 times per week…I am happy about hitting a high number, having a great cross training week and feeling pretty good. You know what didn’t feel “pretty good” this morning?

The weather – we got all 4 seasons today. I was not impressed with the forecast, especially @ 6:30am:

I have some awesome friends who went out early with me @ 7am. Apparently that was the nicest part of the morning as it was sunny and not too cold though the wind was ridonkulous. We got 8km in and then went out with the rest of the group. The first 10km weren’t bad but then we turned around…where the wind took our breath away, there was hail that exfoliated our faces, it rained, the sun came back out for a bit and then …the wind….my god.the.wind. But we stuck with it and got ‘er done.

Post run, sweaty face, bad hair, wind burned, coffee craving portrait:

The LAST thing I wanted to do was the ice bath routine but I did as I know it helps me a lot. The essentials:

Book, coffee, Epsom salts and ice both in the convenient ginarmo size.

Did you gut it out in bad weather today? Did you tell Mother Nature to suck it like I did…on several occasions.

Giveaway winner to be announced tomorrow. Weeeee!

Four for Friday

2011-04-15T08:31:00.001-04:00

1. This was a really solid week of training for me. (1interval run, 1 tempo run, 1 spin+core, 1 recovery run) Two of the runs this week were rabbit runs – not those oh so fun track workouts – but runs where you go out so early the only out are the rabbits. They are my cheerleaders. If I can get through Satan’s spin+core tomorrow and Sunday’s LSD unscathed..I will be a happy runner.

2. Sunday is a 32km run….and Mother Nature is up to her usual tricks – 45km/hr winds and potential rain. Nice. Bite me.

3. Having forgot breakfast (twice) this week, I tried out Tim Hortons’ mixed berries oatmeal. It was awesome and according to the nutritional info…210 calories. I don’t know if I truly believe that but it was a good alternative when you are forgetful.

4. Monday is the Boston Marathon…I have no chance of ever BQing but that doesn’t mean I am not so excited for everyone running it. We had 2 people we know who are going (one of whom got her BQ last May – in her very first marathon.) Last year, I remember being in my work lunch room watching some of the marathon coverage. A coworker asked what I was watching:

me: “This is the Boston Marathon”

coworker: “You mean the running thing? So…you are watching people….run?”

me: “ Oh yeah, its great!”

coworker: “………”

I plan on doing the same thing Monday.

Don’t forget, the Sony Giveaway is almost over…since there are two to win, you probably have better odds than in roll up the rim to win….Seriously.

Are you watching/following the Boston Marathon? Want to come watch it with me? :)

Pulled off the run route ….

2011-04-11T09:21:00.002-04:00

We have run through it seems like everything – snow, rain, sleet, winds, freezing temps, bugs – as long as we are safe, we run. Sunday started out great – Weather Network said that it would be b/w 6-12 degrees for the run and no rain until later. Off we went excited for a 29km run that didn’t involve a ton of layers!

Other than my one shoulder being a bit sore (I blame the evil side planks we did on Saturday) I was feeling great. I am lucky enough to have a friend who is also doing the same run distances as me so we ran together. We chatted away for the run and didn’t really notice the weather too much except for the bit of rain that did fall. When we hit our last water stop with 8km left, we started to hear the thunder rumbles and we were told we were all getting picked up. The thunder had picked up and we saw a few lightning strikes…when you are running on a route with Lake Ontario on one side and tons of trees/telephone poles on the other, safety comes first. The temp also dropped and it started to really rain. Dear dear Mother Nature….quit messing with my Sunday running!!

So in the end, it was disappointing to not be able to finish the run but …it is better to say: “I had a great run” and not “I had a great run except that whole getting hit by lightning thing happening.”

So…if you don’t have an awesome run group like mine that keeps an eye out for these things…and are probably smarter than most of us, what do you do?

"If you can see it or hear it, flee it" say many lightning safety experts, so head for cover immediately. A storm may seem far away, but lightning can strike up to ten miles away from the storm center.
If you get caught by surprise, and begin to feel your hair standing on end, act fast. Move away from tall trees and poles. In a forested area, crouch under a group of the shortest trees you can find.
If you get caught in the middle of a field, crouch on the balls of your feet, cover your ears with your hands, and tuck your whole body into the shortest, smallest mass you can. If there is a dry ravine or gully nearby, crouch in it. Avoid wet places. Do not lie down on the field.
If you are a part of a group in an open area, assume crouching positions at least fifteen feet away from each other.

Source

Do you think/worry about lightning? Have you ever been caught in a storm?

Four for Friday – the non freak edition

2011-04-08T09:28:00.001-04:00

1. Thanks for your nice comments on my freak out…I had a bit of a health scare so the craziness wasn’t just some random ‘Runner’s Brain’ neurotic ranting. Well some of it was but whatever…All appears ok so my mental state is much better…So anyone who left a comment gets another entry in my Sony Giveaway. ‘Cause that’s how we roll in this blog.

2. For Sunday’s run the temps are being forecasted to be between 8 degrees and 20 degrees – Booyah! Someone made a comment that is might rain on the run…Umm WHO CARES? Do you not remember when we ran having to wear all this?

3. I also get to break in some new shoes and they happen to be what Kara Goucher is wearing in the new Runner’s World. I know it will be hard to tell us apart…

4. Sunday also marks the start of ‘kickoff’ for the last 3 lonnnnnggg runs before taper. 29km, 32km, 35km here I come. I’m not scared of the distance anymore (though I totally respect them) but I want to use them ‘properly’ – this means starting out and finishing at the same pace and eating properly. I am fresh out of gels so time to experiment with some new GU flavours I think. Espresso Love hasn’t been giving me a lot of love lately.

What’s your go to GU flavour?

Don’t forget to enter the Giveaway…I seriously love these things and think you should too.

Freak outs

2011-04-06T08:25:00.002-04:00

I am a pretty clutzy person and not real girly girl (except for my shoes)…I regularly bang into things and fall down resulting in some spectacular bruises / bumps and have had some doozy blisters. The fun thing for me is I always point these out to the hubs ‘cause it totally freaks him out.

Fun for me…not for him.

Case in point, I have the weakest nails on the planet (don’t suggest anything..I have tried ‘em all.) so when I break a nail it tends to be right at the quick. Or else serious hangnails:

(bandaged to protect any weak stomachs out there)

And of course I show the hubs as in: “Hey…look at this!!”

Post Hamilton Marathon, I had a blood blister the size of a loonie (a dollar coin for you ‘Mericans out there). I of course showed the hubs who may have screamed like Ned:

Lately though, I have been having some of my own freak outs that are bringing out some hidden neuroses and weighing me down:

-Our hotels/restaurants are booked for the Pittsburgh marathon. What if I get injured/fail miserably in the next few weeks of training/want to quit/it snows/rains/hails/hurricanes on race day?

-The next few weeks involve our longest runs and I need to be able to finish strong..not limping along like I usually do.

-my concentration levels are rapidly dwindling.

- I actually said: I am NOT Running last night …all because I didn’t want to. It took some prodding from the hubs (i.e. the silent treatment) to get me out the door and of course I had a great run.

-everyone around me seems to be healthy/happy…but I still worry about everyone….

I have some other stuff going on personally that is causing me to be on the borderline of a major freak out zone. We’ll see how it plays out…but I have learned that freaking someone else out isn’t as fun as I thought.

So a Sorry hubs for freaking you out.

…I’m still going to show my blisters..they are in a league of their own….

Giveaway – Sony W Series Walkman

2011-04-03T17:39:00.001-04:00

I was as giddy as a school girl when this showed up on my doorstep this week:

The fine folks at Sony asked me if I wanted to test these bad boys out: The Sony W Series Walkman:

The Walkman W-Series is cord-free and designed to be lightweight and wearable, with a water-resistant frame that fits comfortably behind the neck. Additional features such as Content Transfer software, a quick charge function and up to 11 hours of full battery life make this Walkman a dream musical companion for a run of any distance.

I am the Queen of not reading instructions (well)…ask me what I can actually do on my Garmin…But charging this and getting music loaded was super easy. We are MAC people in our house so all I had to do was plug it into the Mac and drag music onto it ..Easy.Peasy.

This guy wears them:

I said to the hubs that if I wear them, maybe I can run as fast as Meb. He asked if Meb would be carrying me…He’s here all week folks. Comments aside, I gave them to the hubs to wear while indoor bike training:

He gave them a “bikes Up”. I took them for a spin on today’s 23km fast run:

I had some doubts about these…though I do run with music my ears sometimes get sore from the buds. I didn’t notice these at all…I was initially worried that they might actually fit too well and I wouldn’t be able to hear properly even with the volume down low but that was not the case at all. I really loved having no wires in the way and the sound quality was excellent.

So…does someone want one? How about two of you?

Yes, one giveaway, two winners. In the words of this blog..awesome.

How to enter: (leave a comment for EACH that you do)

1. Leave me a comment that you want one

Extra entries for

Following me
Shouting this giveaway from the rooftops, Twitter, blog, Facebook, or whatever other social media you do.

Random integer will pick the winners on April 18th..probably around 9am if you really need to know.

Other stuff for you:

More great news: Sony Electronics has created an exclusive section within our SonyStyle.com online store where you can receive a special discount on the Walkman W-Series. Click on the link and you will have an opportunity to purchase the W-Series for just $48.99 (originally $60). Discount link: www.sony.com/runningmate

Thanks to Sony for this giveaway….though I received this in exchange for a review, the positivity is mine as are the humour of said hubs.

Four for Friday

2011-04-01T08:06:00.001-04:00

1. Since Sunday’s race, I have recovered really well. Monday it only hurt to sit, stand, walk, lie down, breath etc. Tuesday was a beautiful day out and I had an unexpected tempo run – I ran, it felt good so I kept upping the pace for a good 9.5km run. Wednesday spin+core was tough but awesome, last night’s 9km tempo was ok-ish and this morning’s 10km run was kind of fun. TGIF!

2. One thing I am trying to be more diligent with is actually taking my recovery post hard work out. For me, this is a mixture of Amazing Grass, beta-alanine and creatine:

From Racing Weight:

Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid that formulates the antioxidant (carnosine) believed to help muscles fight fatigue, improve results from speed training and increase lean muscle mass.

Creatine: can help endurance athletes perform better and get more out of their speed and strength workouts. (also can assist in increasing muscle mass and decrease body fat stores)

I dunno…it helps me so I take it. I mix it all up in my super fun pink shaker with water and soy milk…ready to consume on the way to work after this morning’s 10km run:

3. So now not only post race do I have crappy ‘official’ run photos to look forward to, I have finish line videos? Both the NYC half and ATB had video posted for your finish. Dude…I don’t want to see myself at the end of a race…how about the beginning when I still look sort of alive?

Seriously…all I can see of myself in these videos is that it looks like I am wearing concrete shoes and I am a total heel striker. Not.good.

4. Though I won’t buy any, I am happy that one of my race photos captured the fact that I was running up Valley Inn Road. The hubs pointed out it looked more like plodding than running. Funny guy…..funn-ie…….

Happy Friday…

how do you recover? Do you use any recovery products?

Around the Bay 2011 – Race Report

2011-03-27T20:28:00.001-04:00

Today was the Around the Bay 30km race. I spent a lot of this morning what the hell to wear. The Weather Network was claiming temps of potentially –17 to –10 with the wind chill … but it honestly didn’t feel like that to me. I went through 2 wardrobe changes and settled on what I thought was a good comprise and honestly thought I might still be chilly..

I was wrong.

I lost my gloves within 5 min of running and sweated my way through the a lot of the race. Less is better Laura…less is better….No one needs that much dried salt on their face from sweat when they run.

The awesome hubs and my extended family was on the Beach strip for some cheering:

At this point (14-17km) I was actually right on track with what I had hoped to do which was average 7min/km. Looking back for me this was to aggressive for a longer race…and I paid for it.

The hubs and a friend were awesome enough to catch me around the 23km mark:

The finish was a 2+ min PB over last year (not the 4 I originally thought..) and I wasn’t real pleased as the hubs captured on camera:

After really thinking about it, I was ok with the run today. It was the first race where I completely paced myself – everyone else was running their own race so I have to rely on ‘me’ to keep going. The pace for the first 22km were good but overall too fast for me. The next 4 weeks before the marathon involved long runs of 29-35km so I will be concentrated on starting slower and keeping the pace. A plan is set….

Some great aspects of the race today:

- the Sun! Out for the entire race and NO SNOW!

-the Spectators – this was the most amount of people I have ever seen out cheering and it was great to see. At the church on Plains Road, the choir was out cheering in their choral robes – awesome.

-the volunteers, police etc – they make a race so THANK YOU.

-all of the runners who participated..you.are.wicked. Congrats to everyone who raced this great course.

- the hubs and my run group. I love them.

Post race there was coffee, ice bath and a burger. But I hurt… a lot right now. A white Russian cocktail should fix that or knock me the hell out…

Four for Friday – the Around the Bay edition

2011-03-25T08:12:00.002-04:00

1. Sunday is the Around the Bay 30km Race…one of my favs:

-it’s 30km…not a marathon but still a good racing distance and they are cocky enough to play up the fact that they are “Older Than Boston”.
-the first 17km are flat (and boring) but the last 13 are rolling hills and nice scenery.
-I have family that live on Beach Blvd so someone is there to cheer for me...as I find this section the toughest part of the course.
- you get to high 5/low 5 Stan the little person who plays: “We Will Rock You” on his ghetto blaster (in frot of the cemetery) at the 25km mark.
-the Grim Reaper telling you to “give up” and “you’ll never make it” at the 28km mark
-finishing in Copps Coliseum..even if the ramp into the finish is scary
-running over the lift bridge..and hoping it is down when you go by..
-even Bart Yasso in his book My Life on the Run says it is a must to race.

2. After Sunday’s race, I came into this week more than a little beat up. Not from the race but from the tough training over the past few weeks …. and the marathon of walking we did in NYC. So much walking my shins were sore until Wednesday. This week thus became a self imposed taper week. Let’s hope that translates into a good race this weekend. All that walking did translate into the purchase of 2 fab pairs of shoes in NYC:

Hey… they were a post race celebration gift….

3. The SUN is supposed to make an appearance at the Bay race after an absence from the last few years. Unfortunately….it is going to be cold. Screw you Winter…

4. I have a time goal for this race and even a pace band. I have done the route a ton of times so there are no surprises and I personally don’t mind the hills as the back part of the course is the nicest/best part. I want to challenge myself, run hard and beat last year’s time.

Oh yeah and have fun and all that.

For anyone racing, hope to see you at the start line…or if you have nothing better to do, hang around Copps after…you guys will be done wayyyy before me. :0

NYC Half Marathon – race recap

2011-03-22T09:57:00.002-04:00

What an experience at the NYC Half Marathon! The race experience started at the expo..which was….underwhelming. We did figure out how to have some fun:

At the expo, we were told we had to wear bracelets on race day..and they attached them at the expo. No one ever asked to actual see these things but they made for a great fashion accessory for us – if we were SuperHeroes…which maybe we are..

Race day started early with a meet up in the lobby and cabs to Central Park:

The race started in Central Park which was just an great way to see the whole thing. I did think it was funny with people saying it was hilly…the Bay route is hilly..this was … rolley.

The hubs was able to get a few shots of the elites…as they were coming out of the park at 9 miles..and we were still at about 2 miles…

After leaving the park, you head out onto 7th St and into Times Square where we found the hubs hanging out with the local PD:

Time Square was fun but also tough..my Garmin went haywire and had no idea of what pace we were running…and we were booking it at that point. There was even a sing-a-long in the heart of Time Square so we belted out Katrina and the Waves..not kidding. It was a blast:

After that it was onto West Highway and finish into Battery Park:

A 10 min walk, 1 missed line and freezing under our space blankets we hit the subway home:

Overall it was one of the best races I have ever done – the volunteers, race officials, spectators etc were amazing. There were more porta potties that I have ever seen in a race, tons of water and Gatorade , entertainment at every mile and an amazing course. This was a training run again so I was happy with a 2:35 finish. More importantly, I felt really strong during the run.

So thanks New York….I (heart) you.

..and your cupcakes.

(early) Four for Friday – the Shamrock and Concrete Jungle edition

2011-03-17T20:38:00.001-04:00

1. My Irish Grandmother would be ashamed but I had no green this morning to Shake My Shamrock in Aneta and Lindz’s virtual run this morning…Then I remember these (old) babies:

It was a lovely and sweaty 7km out of a 9.5km recovery run I did today. Note my bib number I picked: 667 – evil and then some. :)

No Irish cheer for me tonight …I will celebrating on Sunday as:

2. We are heading to NYC this weekend for the NYRR 1/2 marathon. I have ZERO time expectations for this race – the first 13km are all in Central Park which is pretty hilly but I am going to give it if I feel it. I am running with 7 of my friends from our run club all of whom are faster than me so the day will bring what the day brings….

3. It is supposed to be sunny for a Sunday run. I’ll believe it when I see it.

4. I packed/organized for an hour before I realized I hadn’t packed any ‘real’ clothes…this flying and racing thing is harder than I thought…

Have a great weekend! Get your Irish on and enjoy this (finally) nice weather we have.

Around the Bay 30km route #2

2011-03-13T16:08:00.001-04:00

This morning started early…as in a 4:45am wake up call which was really 3:45am post Daylight savings. I am nodding off as I type this.

I was a little anxious about this run…last night when I was getting all my gear together it felt like I was getting ready for a race. I was worried about the early start, the loss of hr sleep and the affect of the brutal spin and Satan’s cross training on Saturday. (complete with skipping, lunges, squats …)

So off we went at 7am. We did our usually chattiness and enjoyed the morning until we hit about 6km…not sure if you ‘hood is like this but the roads around here are full of potholes and heaving from the winter weather. One of our group tripped on the heaved road…while she is ok..she did incur a road badge:

She made it until about 18km and decided to stop – we were sad and so was she:

The rest of the run was thankfully uneventful. I felt strong pretty much the whole time. The usual lead feeling I get in my legs for some reason wasn’t there…maybe the extra gel I had? The loss of the hr sleep? Insanity? We may never know.

As we were coming along the homestretch, my friend pointed how far we had come:

See the bridge wayyyyyyy in the distance? That’s the halfway point in the Bay and we ran all around it.

By the end of the run, I finished strong, felt (pretty) good and was as usual thankful for our group for their support and encouragement. Any doubts about a “Runner’s High” were erased and I was one happy, sweaty runner.

The worst part of the day was the ice bath after..I was feeling pretty wimpy in it. My strategy is to sit in the tub while it fills with cold water. The hubs then brings the ice up…he thought it was funny to throw/dump the ice in instead of gently placing it into the water.

Funny

Fun-Ny.

Four for Friday

2011-03-11T08:01:00.002-05:00

1. Another stress filled week including a couple of mini meltdowns. I am lucky to not only have the hubs in my life to keep me sane but also this whole running/spinning/cross training thing. In the past, I would have dealt with stress or unhappiness with food, wine and TV. Now I crave the feeling exercise gives me. Last night was an awesome tempo run where I just ran – I jumped over puddles, didn’t care if my feet were wet, got splashed by some cars and truly enjoyed that I get to do this.

I’m no saint that is for sure – there WILL be a hugo glass of vino after our long run on Sunday - but at least now I know what really does feel good and what is good for me – body and soul.

2. Amongst the ton of stuff that happened this week was that someone hit my car in my work parking lot leaving a HUGE dent in the side – no note, nothing. How can someone do this and not acknowledge it? Karma is a bitch people….. And I GOT to go to the Dentist this week as well. I am sure I am their ‘fraidy-cat-iest patient.

3. I’m all for Daylight Savings..except the whole losing an hour of sleep..especially when you start you long run @ 7am…and have to drive 20 min to get to the meeting spot…and have to be up to hydrate and eat as you are doing the 30km (+) Around the Bay Route again. If I make it to 7pm Sunday I will be surprised….

4. If you think I’m not already looking at the long term forecast for the NYC half marathon on March 20th…you’d be wrong. Right now, temps are in the plus range…I will take that. And any race that posts the deals I can use post run? Awesome…..

Make it a good Friday and weekend peeps. Take care of yourselves and those around you.

Chilly Half Marathon – 2011 Race Report

2011-03-06T15:14:00.001-05:00

Well….first race of 2011 done. We woke up to a crap load of snow after having about 40cm of rain the day before. And it was cold. And it was windy. I decided to NOT necessarily dress for the wind but split the difference with the actual temp and wind chill:

chillin’ with the minion before we left:

We met our run group before the race…but apparently none of us got a picture. I looked in vain for some fellow bloggers but again…didn’t see anyone. Bummer..

The race was supposed to be an easy training run for me as it isn’t my goal race. The first 6km I found hard – the footing wasn’t great and it was windy. I then became warm – REALLY warm. I didn’t wear throw away stuff as I didn’t think I would be like that so I was toasty the whole time. Except for my feet which were wet..trying to dodge puddles when there is ice on the road until the turn around is un-fun.

Overall I felt pretty good…once I knew I really wasn’t going to race it I just tried to settle into an easy pace which I struggled with a bit. The hubs was able to get some actual ok race pics for a change:

So 2:34 for my second best half in kind of cruddy conditions and another medal for the collection:

Next up….the NYC Half Marathon. If Mother Nature follows me there I am going to punch her..seriously.

Congrats to everyone who ran so well today..you are my heroes…

Four for Friday – the icing/racing/stress edition

2011-03-04T09:22:00.001-05:00

1. Wednesday I channelled my inner Marlene and did a lunch time run. It was freezing cold and seriously gusty winds..but it ended up being a great 8km tempo run. I was able to clean up pretty well and apparently my ‘neutral’ BondiBands can actually be work appropriate. (when I don’t have live meetings or anything) I will definitely be doing this again. This was my first run post knee issues on Sunday and it felt ok. I have been stretching, rolling and icing all week so I hope it has made a difference. Nothing says runner like an ice pack with boots, skirt and tights at your work desk:

2. Sunday is my first race of 2011:

Weather for Sunday is currently forecasted as being Suck-tacular as in cold, windy, snow, ice etc. Good thing almost every Sunday run this year has had shades of this! I know I will be prepared in that respect.

3. This is supposed to be a training run for me though I obviously want to beat last year’s time. I have a lot going on personally again this year (same situation) so my stress/anxiety/worry level is high again. Happy early Bday Dad – get better and hugs to you Mom! Things will look up I promise…..

4. My run group is meeting at City Hall at 9:30ish for our usual pictures/good luck high5’s and hugs. If you are around, say Hi…I am usually the stressed out looking chick probably dropping the FBomb because of the weather. I am also hitting up the expo Sat morning – if you are downtown and want a treat, go to Castelyn on Brant Street – awesome coffee, chocolates and mochas made with Belgian chocolate shavings. My husband considers this place his temple.

Good Luck to everyone racing! Have fun, run strong and give Mother Nature the finger for me. I will.

2km short of a full Around the Bay

2011-02-28T08:50:00.001-05:00

Well, well…quelle surprise…it snowed on Sat night/Sunday morning just in time for our long run. All these snowy, slippery, blustery long runs better pay off on race day.

Sunday we had our long run in Hamilton where we did the full Around the Bay Route:

We are lucky enough to have a member of our group own a company downtown so we were able to park there and leave all the stuff us runners have. It started off ok – sun was shinning and because of a 7am start (!) there was no traffic so we were able to be on the road. At ~9km, there is a house on the route that has these ‘horses’ in the front yard which we always say we would get a pic with…and yesterday was the day:

My awesome run friend, the horsies and SNOW!

It did get worse and worse as we went along the most boring part of the run from km 10-19km. Oh and the wind picked up as well. Sa-Weet.. I think because of the cruddy footing and zig zagging to avoid puddles, my knee started to hurt..by the time we hit the hills at 20km…it really hurt. I didn’t want to stop and could have as we have an awesome support crew out who rove the route to make sure we are ok. I let the group go ahead of me as I knew I was going to slow down but did not want to stop. To make it scenic, I cut through the huge cemetery and ended up adding a bit of extra distance as I got a bit..lost. Only I can do something like that…

With all of the extra mileage add-ons we had – different starting point, washrooms breaks etc., my Garmin ended right on 28km when I made the decision to stop. I am proud I didn’t take the outs and stop but am not happy with my knee right now.

Ice to the rescue!

First race of 2011 is next Sunday….goals and plan to be part of Friday’s post. Is anyone doing the Chilly getting their race kit on Friday afternoon??

‘26’ for Friday

2011-02-25T08:55:00.001-05:00

This was a weird week for me. Post run Sunday I felt good but Monday through yesterday I felt burned out so took some time off from exercise. This has passed and I am looking forward to a treadmill run tonight, Saturday’s usual torture (100 push ups are now the starting point……) and a 30km run on Sunday on the Bay route.

To that end, here is some fun on Friday that has been floating around the blog-o-sphere: The ABCs of me. (plus I am in writer’s block today…)

A – age: old. Deal with it.

B – bed size: queen. Like my title.

C – chore you hate: Is all of them too broad? OK – gardening, vacuuming, dusting, windexing…..

D – dogs: Still miss our buddy Maverick but know that we are just too busy to have another one in our lives:

E – essential start of your day: Water….how boring is that?

F – Fav colour: black, red

G – Gold or silver: both but prefer silver

H – Height: 5ft 7in..though I think I am shrinking. (see A)

I – instruments I play: nada…I can’t even whistle…the hubs says it hurts his ears when I do…

J – job title: Business Continuity Analyst (in training for queen of the world…)

K – kids: zipppoooooo…..do hubs count?

L – live: Burlington Ontario CANADA..

M – mom’s name: Janet

N – nicknames: Lo; Lola (more like Copacabana no the Kinks)

O – overnight hospital stays: only when I had my tonsils taken out many yrs ago…

P – pet peeve: waiting. I seriously hate it and yet I am early for everything..meaning I end of waiting a lot.

Q – quote from a movie: “Hey, maybe there's a little man in there... who looks just like you, but he's really good at running.” (Run Fat Boy Run)

R – right or left handed: right

S – siblings: one of each

T – time you wake up: 5:30…basically every day. I could ‘sleep in’ until 6:30 on Saturdays…but usually don’t.

U- underwear: I prefer to call them underpants – it’s funnier

V – veg you dislike: broccoli. Dislike may be too gently a term

W – what makes you run late: of late SNOW…but usually that I am double checking to see if I have forgotten anything.

X – x-rays you have had done: …I don’t think I have had an x-ray. If I did…it wasn’t very exciting apparently.

Y – yummy food you make: Kung Pao chicken, pumpkin bread, chilli

Z – Zoo, favorite animal: I don’t like the zoo….it makes me sad actually…

Since we are running the full Bay route on Sunday starting at 7am (?!#@) my Friday night and Sat are revolving around resting up for that. Hopefully you are doing something more exciting than me!

27km good run and some pretty things

2011-02-22T08:25:00.001-05:00

Sunday was FINALLY a good long run day. I have been struggling with running for a couple of weeks and beginning to get anxious about it. It didn’t help that:

Thursday’s run was my last hill training session. I had the day off so I went to do them in the morning..right when we had a flash freeze. I didn’t wipe-out but did a lot of ‘arm windmilling’ to stay upright. 10.5km later…the hills were done and so was I.
Friday’s run was done in beautiful sunshine …and up to 70km/hr wind gusts. I may have travelled more km backwards than forwards..

After Saturday mornings usual spin/core torture, I mentioned to our coach of my struggles, specifically that my legs were baked after a long run. She put me on the clinic’s treadmill to do a gait analysis. NOT surprisingly, I am a ‘quad runner’ – meaning I got no kickback. So my goal on Sunday was to lengthen my stride (a bit), focus on pulling with my hamstrings more, bending very slightly at the waist and not tilting my pelvis. It wasn’t easy but my legs weren’t totally cooked at the end…even with us running the hill part of the Around the Bay route.

I received some awesome pretty things from the very cool NeilZee and his wife last week. Mrs Neil has a great ETSY shop you should check out: GettaGift

Earrings and matching bracelet:

Barefoot sandals…I seriously love these…non pedicured feet and all…..

Have you had your run gait analyzed? Have you tried changing your running stride?