This feels funny

Today the schedule called for a long run of 20k.

Previously when I would hit this number it was the last long run before the race. It would be so close to the end. Two weeks from race day. Right now I'm 84 days from race day. That's still a long way to go. That's 12 more weeks of training.

So yeah it feels funny that I'm where I used to be almost ready to reap the reward for my training, but I'm no where near ready for my reward.

I did today's run on my own. Mostly for the fact that a bunch of people from my clinic signed up for the Beaches Jazz Tune Up
I didn't think to sign up for it so it sold out before I could and since enough were doing it the race route was the route even for those that didn't sign up. We were just encouraged to not use the water stations. I wasn't comfortable with that so I decided to do the route that takes me all around my area of the city. Its a nice mix of residential and store fronts with the rec trail at the end. I thought of sending an email to see if anyone wanted to join me but I only thought of it this morning and knew the clinic leader wouldn't be able to get it out in time since she was doing the race.

I did also try some shot bloks for the first time. I had the mountain berry flavour and these are way better than gels for me. With gels I need tons of water and it doesn't feel great in my stomach. These took a bit of chewing but way less water so I think I'll stick with these for now. I'm sure most of you get how much this excites me. Mostly since I did my halfs with gummy bears and I didn't think I could do those for a full.

Now I'm off the enjoy Handy Manny's last day of vacation before he goes back to work tomorrow.
Hope you had a great weekend.

We're Back!

Anyone try the breakfast scone recipe yet? I have an homemade animal cracker one I want to try once this heat wave lets up some.

I'll be perfectly honest upfront. I did 1 5k run the whole week we were up north. Part of that fact that we spent 4 of the 6 days up at Dad's camp. Its boat access only(well except for the winter when its ski-doo access only) but it was vacation. I'm actually quite proud that it only took us 10 hours coming home. It took 11 getting up there since they are doing major repaving work along the second longest highway in the province.

We hit the carnival that happened to be in town while we were. Did some fun rides

There was an attempt at fishing once we got to camp.

But all we caught was one little perch.

And it was hot so we then opted for some swimming at a neighbours dock.

Afterwards we came back to town and visited with more family. My Aunt and Uncle have this amazing garden and the snap peas were divine and the strawberries they had were better than candy. I'm so jealous. I would totally move out to the country if I could have that myself. Visits are never long enough when you're having a great time.

Clinic meets up tonight so I might go there for out run or get it in first thing in the morning. Considering today is going to be major record breaking heat. I'm pretty much planning on staying in.

Foodie Friday

Changing it up a bit.
I like to make easily portable food for when we travel or go camping. I usually make these when we go Thanksgiving camping because its a meal all in one basically. I just made these ones for our trip up north. Perfect for car rides where we're on the road right after waking up.

Breakfast Scones are your basic scone recipe with bacon, scrambled eggs, and shredded cheese. The best part of these is that you can use basically anything in them. Sausage, potatoes, spinach, chicken. Really anything that is either pre-cooked or doesn't need much cooking.

But heres my recipe

2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (I usually omit since I use salted butter)
1/4 cup butter, cut into cubes
2 eggs scrambled and cooled
4 slices of cooked bacon, sliced up
1/2 cup shredded cheese
3/4 cup milk
1 egg (uncooked)

-Mix the dry ingredients and add the butter and cut up till its crumbly like oatmeal.
-Add bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese and toss to mix.
-In a small bowl mix the milk and other egg together then add to dry mix until it all comes together as a sticky dough.(it will be lumpy)
-Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and knead 2-3 times until workable.
-Pat into about an 8inch circle or roughly 20 cm shape of your choice.
-Cut into pieces. This makes usually 6 large or 8 regular pieces.
-Brush with a bit of extra milk.
-Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!

Three Things Thrusday: Vacation Edition

1. After a crazy long car ride of 11 hours we made it to my dads. The main highway was having construction like crazy. They were repaving various parts of it. It is the second longest highway in the province and so they were working in sets every 50-75 kms apart I think. So having to go through all that added at least 45 minutes to our trip. Plus the breaks we had to take since Trouble didn't like the long car ride and his method of sharing his displeasure is to force himself to cough till almost throwing up. Nothing like doing something that would guarantee a stop.

2. After getting here and unloading the car we headed out for some late night dinner. Nothing like ice cream and then some pizza at 9pm at night. That is how you know you're visiting the grandparent.

3. My chest is feeling better and I would hope so after not running for 4 days so far. I've been really taking it easy. After doing some reading I highly doubt it was a bruised rib since everything I've read shows that it would take weeks, not days to heal. But regardless I'm hoping I'm basically better now.

I did bring my running gear and I'm looking forward to getting a chance or two to hit the trail that goes around the lake. Nothing like a run in cooler weather with a wonderful view. There will be no running at the camp but lots of fishing and exploring. Believe me when I say there will be lots of pictures to come.

Wordless Wednesday-trip starting edition

Bad Long Run

Bad....

First off I know I made a really supid choice in finishing my long run. My time and pace were crazy slow. I thankfully wasn't alone and was walkrunning with another girl from my group who was coming back from mono. Actually she needed the walk breaks more than me but I wasn't about to leave her alone and hey it let me take more breaks than I would have willing took had I been alone or with my ususal pace group.

Really early Saturday morning like 4am-ish Trouble decided to crawl into bed with us. Ok no big deal. But while in bed he decided he needed to basically bodyslam us. When he did it to me I was lying on my side so the 30lb heavy weight champ got both my back and front. I didn't realize he got more than my back till I went running with my group yesterday morning. My ribs hurt like a constant side sitch kind of pain. Annoying but totally runable. I had thought that I should call it quits and not finish the run 1.5k in but for some reason felt that it would make me a wimp.

Now it doesn't actually hurt except for running or speed walking. It doesn't hurt to touch my ribs so I'm questioning any possible bruising. I know more than likely just need to rest and let my body heal.

So how does one recover from a really bad long run?
They hit the zoo for 5 hours!

Yeah my brain is wired weird.

Anyone Else?

I love like LOVE the days where I get an early morning run. I'll be honest in that its hard getting up at yuck o'clock (that'd be 5am) but regardless of the actual run it feels so great knowing that I'm done my workout. That the whole day lay ahead. I'm actually more motivated to get things done and am really on the ball those days.

Its one of the reasons I almost didn't sign up for the clinic. Who wants to run at 6:30 at night when 5 in the morning is so much nicer? Well apparently I do but thats more for the friend factor.
Now if only I could convince the others to move the long run up an hour at least I'd be set.

Another Week Done

This is really going to be all over the place. Bear with me.

The humidity has me questioning the whole point of running a fall marathon. So I'm very thankful for my clinic group. There is really nothing like having a couple other people always running near you to help keep you going and vise versa. We keep telling ourselves that if we can run through the heat of summer than while it won't be easy, the weather will at least be more bearable come October.

Today we did just over 14k. Next week we start going more in distance. At our clinic talk on Thursday we were told that we'll be basically doing the same route more or less with just some added distance to it for the majority of the weeks. Mostly so we can focus on keeping ourselves going and this is when we need to be trying out fueling options. Before we start getting to far away from the store. I picked up some shot blocks since while I can do gels I'm not really a huge fan of them. Think I could do gummy bears and Gatorade the whole way? Probley not.

We took the boys yesterday to Chinatown here in Toronto. It has some of our favourite stores. Tap Phong has almost every kitchen gadget or dish that you could want. Once we get a proper china cabinet we're going to stock up on some nice different shaped plates and bowls. After there we hit up a noodle shop and OMG their broth is amazing. Seriously I want to bring everyone there. They even have the best hot pink chairs ever. If Handy Manny would let me I'd totally get them. Bug even had some black sesame ice cream afterwards and gave it a thumbs up. It is an amazing place to check out in Toronto if you have the time.

We had an amazing Canada Day with some friends and checked out the fireworks. I hope any American reading this has a wonderful 4th of July as well.