ABC's of Me!

Since theres no running this weekend (Gee darn! and with all the fresh snow we got) I figured I'd might as well jump on the bandwagon.

Age: 28 (birthday in April!)
Bed Size: Queen
Chore You Hate: Washing floors
Dogs: not yet, but in the next couple years probebly
Essential Start to Your Day: Coffee
Fave Colour: Pink
Gold or Silver: Silver and/or white gold
Height: 5'2''
Instruments: haha no
Job Title: I've been deemed the Cruise Director
Kids: Bug 5(turns 6 on Friday) Trouble 4, Shorty 12 (Thats my step-daughter who within a year will be taller than me :( )
Live: Toronto, Ont
Mom's Name: Debbie
Nicknames: Jess, Jessie, MOM!!!
Overnight Hospital Stays: When the boys were born and Trouble was at Sick Kids
Pet Peeve: Slow and late people
Quote from a Movie: This just made me realize I don't watch many movies at all.
Right or Left Handed: Right handed
Siblings: Older Brother, younger step sister
Time You Wake Up: Weekdays 7, weekends closer to 8
Underwear: yes
Veg You Dislike: Brussel Sprouts
What Makes You Run Late: Children
X-Rays You've Had Done: Dental
Yummy Food You Make: My apple pie is amazing!
Zoo: Giraffes are my fav.

Foto Friday

So we've become quite the Lego fans at our house lately. We even each have a little Lego person.

This morning it turned into this.


Thats my Step-daughter cheering for Bug as he wins a race, Hubby waving the crossing line flag. Trouble's legs don't separate so we'll pretend hes running.

Anyone else notice I'm in last? My form is all sloppy too apparently.

Three Thing Thrusday!

1. We sent a total of 8 canned goods with Bug to Beavers last night. I had 6 comments and the boys each wanted to pick something out as well. We'll see next week how well the whole section did (in our section there are beavers, cubs, scouts, venturers, and rovers spanning ages 5-26)

2. This weekend Bug and Hubby are going camping! Ok well they'll be in a cabin along with the rest of the Beaver troop (or is it lodge?). So that means Trouble and I are on our own. I'm actually looking forward to it since Trouble doesn't get much fun one on one time with me. Usually our one on one stuff is doctor appts or speech therapy. You know the boring stuff that has to get done because its the rules, not for the fun of it. I've got a couple ideas in mind and we'll see what he picks.

3. Now because half of our family is going away and I usually do my long runs on the weekends I had to get it in either today or tomorrow. Apparently roughly 2km into my run I decided it was going to be today. I went into it thinking we'll see. When I got to the road where I would have turned to do a 6k I last minute decided to keep going. so long run of 10k done! Tomorrow I'll do 5k and take it easy.

I've been thinking of moving my week around so my long runs are done while the boys are in school. I have 3 hours of little boy freedom and I'll be at the most over just 2 hours for my longest run before the half (barring any injuries). This would completely open up my Sundays where I'd be doing my shorter tempo runs then.

I didn't want to

Really I didn't.

I have no desire this morning to go running. I was tired, I apparently didn't wash my favourite long sleeve shirt yesterday like I thought I had.

Every part of me said stay home. Relax. Its not a big deal to run 3 days this week instead of 4.

So I made a deal.
I'd get dressed up.
I'd get out the door.
I'd give it a go.

And if I felt like crap after 1km I'd come home.

Well it felt great. There was basically no winds. It was cold but I easily warmed up nice. I had some great paces.
1km- 6:19
2km-6:08
3km-6:12
4km-6:54 (ok this one had lots of weaving around people and stop lights)
5km-6:19
6km-5:38 (!!!!!!!!)

I've been feeling so slow since I started back up again after the leg thing. I gave up on the chance at a PR at my half. I basically still have and am hoping to at least keep it near my first half time of 2:12. But this run helped me realize that I'll be back to the old normal of 6:00/km pace. I'm not going to be slow (to me) forever.

And to think I almost didn't go.

New Song!

Hey you

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! or regular weekend depending on where you are.

We stayed at home and played with lego and did some baking. (Ok I did some baking and the kids played with lego) I did manage to get my Sunday run in. My calf was a bit sore so I rolled it. Apparently since I do most of my running during the day while the kids are in school they don't really see me roll. They found my little noises from that quite funny.

Currently my house smells like wood. Hubby is in charge of a project for Bug's Beaver camping weekend. They are making Inukshuks so hes cutting the wood. The beaver troop is going to leave them like markers when they go on their hike. They leave on Friday and its just me and Trouble till Sunday afternoon. So the plan is to run my long run on Friday while the boys are in school so I can get it in without having to hire a babysitter.

I think its catching.

This is the art that Trouble made. Its about what you like doing with your family since this Monday is Family day and we here in Ontario and couple other provinces get 3 day weekends.

Apparently I got an other runner in the making.

Cans for Comments!

So Tuesday February 22nd 2011 is World Thinking Day.

Bug's Beaver Troop will be partnering with Campbell's Let's Can Hunger Challenge. The goal is for the group to bring in either can donations or cash donations. I've noticed my blog has been quite lately so for every comment made from today till Wednesday February 23rd (when they bring their donations in) I'll donate a canned good.

So come on and comment!

Tell me about the weather where you are.
Tell me about yourself!
Give me songs to add to my running playlist.
I'm looking at getting a running vest recommend one.

Morning Pick Up!

Today it was a balmy -3 at bus time so I decided to run outside. The sidewalks were icy in spots but it was mostly clear. Haven't checked out the trail yet to see but I'm sure its either icy or a puddle at the moment.

So I head out in roughly the same direction the boy's school bus goes but they do some turns and stuff in residencal streets. Well at one point I was coming up to a light and a school bus stopped. There were my kids! One of their friends pointed me out since they didn't see me and suddenly I had 5-6 kindergarten kids waving like crazy at me.

Nothing like a cheering section that travels!

So planning is in swing for Bug's 6th birthday (March 4th). I'm not sure exactly who gave him permission to grow up but it wasn't me I know that much. Right now the issue is loot bags. I really want to stay away from the dollar store junk that gets thrown out by the next morning. I know I'm going to head down to the St. Lawerence Market this weekend and check out the cookie cutter guy and see if he has any race car cutters. Its a Lightening McQueen themed party and since we're big sugar cookie fans in this house, Bug wants to share the love.

I have the Canadian Running Series on Facebook. The other day I saw that Harry's Spring Off opened up a kids run for the first time. Well since Bug has been bugging (haha) me about finding him a race, I jumped at the chance to sign him up for something. So we'll be in High Park on April 2 for Bug's first race of the year. Its a 800m fun run. They get a shirt, bib and a ribbon at the end (I think hes most excited about that one).

I got my "long" run in today. It was 7km. It doesn't seem long since I'm usually doing 5s during the week, but I figured I should follow the training plan and not risking injurying myself again. The best part of it? My pace was so much better than it had been in a while and I was flying... at least it felt like it. My left calf was feeling tight for most of the run. I run again tomorrow so I'll see if it was more than likely because I've been on the treadmill all week so it was a bit different than running outside.

No longer a virgin....

Treadmill virgin that is.

So I had finally signed up at the gym where I won that cheap membership. Well the day I did that I wasn't sure how much time I would have to do anything so I didn't bring anything. Well today I went for the first time so I could avoid the cold wind chills we currently have. Well there was a couple newbie mistakes getting started but I got on the machine and got it going no problem. It works on miles so that had me confused for a minute. Thankfully the plan was 5k and I knew that was 3.1 miles. I went slower that I normally run outside but since I was running consistently and unless I was pressing buttons to slow that sucker down I was basically at a set speed. So it was hard to keep it up for that long because I refused to let myself slow it down till cool down time.

And you know what? I liked it. The only thing I didn't like was that I didn't have control of the TV in front of me so I was stuck with something I didn't really care for. The treadmills that had food network or comedy in front of them were all taken and I didn't think it was good to watch from an angle. OK I did try but I could feel myself veering off the side and that would have been embarrassing.

Now I definitely know I'll get all the miles in for this training cycle since crappy weather isn't going to be able to stop me now.

Of course!

Well Bug is now sick. It started Friday night. Same as Trouble so far. Lack of energy followed by throwing up twice and days of fever. He was complaining of his eye hurting yesterday afternoon and a couple other things that would mean eye infection. Hubby tried to take him to the Children's After Hours clinic but got there just after it closed. Of course the eye stuff seemed to stop on the way over there and hasn't returned so we'll see.

I'm going to get in 7k today as my first long run of the plan. Its funny how in the nicer weather I have no issue waking up early to get out there. Last night it snowed (not much really, just enough to make it more slippery and slushy, fun fun) and I was hoping the plows or something would make it easier.... apparently its not enough to warrant anything like that. So slushy run it will be.

Meal Plan for the Week
(If you want any of the recipes, just let me know!)

Monday- Beef Enchilandas
Tuesday- Veggie Cobbler with Cornmeal crust
Wednesday- Cannelloni with Sausage
Thrusday- Beef Ragout
Friday- Fish Stew
Saturday- Leek and Potato Flan
Sunday- Leftovers (I have a bad habit of making big recipes, like most of the above is for 4-6 people. My kids will eat very little of the actual dinner, just picking out what they like so I have to eat for lunch most of the leftovers or freeze some so they don't go to waste)

Three Things Thrusday!

1. Half Training starts today! Ok well it started yesterday techically but it was snow day. I got 6k(4 miles) done on crazy slippery, slushy snow. I was debating hitting the treadmill at the gym but today Trouble has speech therapy so I needed my morning to also run some kid free errands.

114 days to go!

2. This morning its -10(14F)) and feels like -16(3.2F). So did you know that a really big burn (about 1/3 of your leg) gets really cold when you're out running.? And feels insanely tingily to almost hurting when you grab a nice hot shower after said run? Well if you didn't now you do!

3. One of my New Years resolutions was to meal plan. Like everything else that got dropped in Janurary. But I'm picking it right back up. I always thought I prefered cooking as to my mood, or the weather. I was for whatever reason worried about weird things like what if I plan something and its a cold day kinda meal and the weather changes and its warm and no one would want to eat the original meal I planned. But I know we were having to much food waste. This week its gone over so far quite well. I'm going to start posting our dinner plans each week. Something else to help keep me accountable.

Back to the Pavement

Trying this again.

This morning I got outside for a run. It was cold. I was debating hitting the treadmill at the gym, instead of facing the wind, but figured I could handle it for 30 mins. (It was actually 32mins but whatever)

So I did 5k(3.1 miles). It was hard. I'm not going to lie. It was tough and I wanted to stop a couple times. I wanted to turn around a couple times. But I had been getting worried about my running with the H U G E break I took off and wanted to make sure I was ok.

Plus I really really needed the stress relief that comes with running. I've been finding myself getting snippy with the boys. Thats not a good thing with this weather we've been having. We're even supposed to get hit with a storm tomorrow (EEK!)

So I was definitely tired after running and was thinking along the lines of "crap, its going to take forever to get back to where I was". But of course that post run high came and made that all better. It turned my thoughts more towards "But I got out there, I couldv'e said no and stayed home but I got out there."