Mommy Running Through

Been thinking

2012-01-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

So I've done some thinking over the past week. I'm going to drop out of the Marathon clinic at the store and go to the half clinic. I thought I wanted to do Around the Bay and that I was willing to put the training in for it. After some further thinking and realizing that having to do the distance was making me dread my runs I decided to scale back. I kept thinking it was because of the cold weather. That I run at all outside right now but I've done runs outside at a shorter distance and while it hasn't been always great there has been more enjoyment in shorter runs than the longer ones.

It means having to see about selling my bib for Around the Bay and probably having to wait till it sells out to do so but I'm already happier. I'm already less worried about my runs and how they are going. I think I was getting to caught up in what I could do since I've met some of the distance goals but forgot to really plan and think it out and take the time to ask myself if I really wanted to do distance and the races that come with it because I did or because I proved that I could and honestly because my running friends were and I wanted to stay with them. Yeah it was the latter.

Though today after some talking earlier this week I met up with some running friends. We normally talk online and haven't run together even though we all live in the same city (and I found out one is neighbours with a friend of mine! Small world!). We decided to meet up and run 5k so it was distance everyone could do. It was cold and I couldn't talk for too long since my face was getting numb but they were a great group to run with. We actually got one of the girls running a touch faster than she normally does on her own. We've already promised to do this again since the run and the coffee afterwards were such fun. Can't wait!

Is time for back to normal yet?

2012-01-10T12:45:00.002-05:00

So I missed the 10k long run this past weekend.

My kids spent all of the two week Christmas break being some kind of sick. First Trouble and then Bug. You know what that means right? Then Mommy! I spent the weekend with a fever and miserable.

For once my Hubs was colder than me. Usually hes the kind of guy that can walk around in a t shirt while I'm in two layers of long sleeves. He couldn't cuddle with me LOL I was just that hot. Oh and the corny jokes that got passed back and forth.

But even better was that once the fever broke on Sunday, I woke up Monday with with Pink eye. Don't you wish you were me? I know its crazy exciting and fun over here. So got into the Doctors today and got some drops. On the plus side I was actually able to gross the boys out a bit when they saw my eye in the past two mornings. Usually its them grossing me out.

I feel like I might see about a short run today after Hubs comes home from work. Its going to be interesting since I have to wear my glasses all week and I don't normally run in glasses, even sunglasses. I mean I was thinking of getting some for the spring/summer so it'll help with that whole practise makes perfect thing right? Sure why not.

Now I'm just trying to catch up on things.
Like laundry, meal planning, blogs, cleaning.....
Oh and finalizing my race plans for 2012.

Nothing like a bunch of sickness to throw off everything. Fingers crossed life gets boring again.

Sssooooo......

2012-01-06T23:29:00.002-05:00

*sneaks in, dusts off some cobwebs*

Hey! What's up?

I know I know I have some explaining to do.

I apparently took a little running hiatus, which I hadn't really planned on taking but it happened. I fully admit it.

I
Got
Lazy.

Yeap. There were so many days that I woke up and thought I would run but found every excuse in the book and didn't. I will admit that I did enjoy the time off. Spent lots of time with the boys and did some thinking of heading back to work or heading back to school. It was maybe a small case of burn out. I'm not sure.

But now I am back. I've started signing up for spring races and I even started the Marathon clinic again yesterday. Mostly to help get me to Around the Bay at the end of March. I'm still debating the half or the full for spring but I figure regardless this way leaves my options open since the races I'm deciding between usually don't fill up and since they are on the same weekend this year I'm sure I can get into my desired distance easily at either.

So yeah Last night....

That wasn't fun. I paid for my lazy ways. We did 8k. I thought we were only doing 6k. I know 2k more shouldn't be a big deal and I did do a bit of walking. I didn't want to risk injuring myself, since its been a while since I last ran. It did show me that I could keep up a bit with those that didn't quite the break I did and I will be back with them matching paces the whole time again after getting myself back into my rhythms.

I promise a warning or something next time I decide to run away.

Santa Jingle 5k Report

2011-12-12T10:37:00.002-05:00

On Saturday a bunch of running friends and I ran the largest Santa race in all of Canada. There was just under 4000 people dressed as Santa running and walking this course.

I had to get up at 6am to make sure I was up and ready to meet up with friends at 7am for the 1 hour drive to the race. Thankfully we met at Starbucks so I was able to grab a coffee and wake up. The drive over was super fun with lots of joking and running mishap stories. Once we found a parking spot we got into our Santa suits. We then went off and met up with the other car of friends to head to the start.

Pre Race Group Pic I'm front and center

Once we got the start line it felt like forever before we got going. Thankfully there was no winds but it was still -2C(28F) and we were dressed for running not standing out in the cold. The suit did ok at keeping warm but even with my wool socks on my feet were frozen. They didn't warm up till the race was practically done and by that point, my toes just hurt from stinging every time they touched the ground from the warming up, that is how cold I was.

Finally we got to take off and it was crowded. It was insane trying to get around people and of course there was so many people not seeded correctly but we were just doing this for fun so I tried to not let it get to me. A couple of us managed to stay near each other and we kept picking up speed to get away from the craziness. Around the 2.5k mark where there was a water station I realized that it was possible (if I was willing to hurt for the rest) I could get close to PB. Well of course I went for it.

1km:6:13

2km: 5:50

3km: 5:41

4km: 5:07

5km: 4:55 (no wonder it was hurting)

It was hard to not slow down as it got closer to the end. I just kept having to tell myself that it just had to hurt for less than 10 minutes when I got to that last KM. Thankfully I ran (haha) into Bill and he helped pull me in.

Us sprinting to the finish

It was a great race and the whole group has plans to come back and even fancy up our outfits for next year. It took a while for everyone to get back together again and we headed back to Toronto. Of course we had to hit up a coffee shop and refuel with warm goodness, dressed in our suits still. We got lots of smiles and compliments from others getting their coffees.

Gun Time: 28:53

Chip Time:27.53 (52 seconds off PR)

Average Pace: 5:35

Overall: 494/3054

F25-20: 29/281

Gender: 158/1930

And check out my line!

Look at how frigging flat my running was! Normally I'm all over the place. I was smooth and I'm totally impressed. It took me an hour after seeing this to realize it wasn't elevation of the course but me.

Seriously if your in the area next year, definitely come do this one with us. It was crazy fun.

Happy Birthday Trouble!

2011-12-07T10:37:00.000-05:00

Today my baby turned 5!

Guess hes not such a baby anymore huh?

Dear Trouble

5 years ago you decided that you had to make a grand entrance and out do your older brother. He was early and little, well I'll be earlier and smaller! Coming into the world 6 weeks early and scaring the crap out of your parents with your 3lb 14oz little size and a hole in your heart, you've definitely proven that you are a tough one.

That you like to throw caution to the wind is an understatement. You're convinced that your older and bigger than you are and are always trying to push your limits. While I love this about you, I'm not loving the panic attacks and grey hair its giving me.

Your the only 5 year old that I know with more hospital bracelets than you are years. (I believe our tally is at 7) Yet you amaze me with all the things that go on in your little head.

You are determined and strong willed.

You always know how the perfect time for hugs. Of course you know how to work that adorable face of yours and twist my arm.

You love trying new things even if I'm not ready for you to take those steps, so you help me grow and push my boundaries as well.

So today is your day my little man.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful risk taking boy.

Happy Birthday to my boy who's not a baby anymore.

Who's growing up to be a fantastic person and I can't wait to see what you accomplish with what you've been give.

In the words of Dr Seuss

"Congratulations!
Today is your day,
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go."

Hope Endures Virtual 5k Report

2011-12-05T14:23:00.001-05:00

Courtney at A so Called Runner hosted a virtual 5k on behalf of her daughter Ashlyn who was stillborn in 2008.

I jumped at the chance to honour a little girl missed. I decided to run my "race" during my long run of 10k with friends. I mentioned that I would probably get quiet for a while and why.

We took off and I decided I would do a warm up, push it for Ashlyn and then cool down. The weather started off nice for December and we had hopes of sun. It ended up raining on us for a last half so clearly our hopes were dashed.

It was also a new route for me so it was definitely an interesting way to see more of the neighbourhood we run in.

Of course at the point where my warm up finished and the "race" started it was the dreaded Falling brook hill. Its a long gradual hill that is a pain but I figured the least I could do was power up this hill. I had lots of thoughts of what I know of Ashlyn during the run. How she inspired her mom to take control and take care of herself. There was quite a few times when I felt like walking or that I should cut the run short and forgo the cool down since its been over a week since I last ran at all. That it would be OK but it kept coming back to "Nope, being tired isn't enough of a reason for stopping".

I managed to get the 5k done in 29.32

1km: 6:16
2km: 6:18
3km :5:55
4km: 6.02
5km: 5:41

You can see where I was starting to push it and even where I wanted to give it up and stop but managed to keep it up.

I'm defintely glad I decided to join in on this run. It was great way to support Courtney and her family even though we live in different countries.

Figuring it out.

2011-12-04T19:33:00.001-05:00

Well I haven't really been posting but that's also because I haven't been running. Opps Bad me.

Thought I haven't been running since my stomach was feeling horrible. Totally TMI but it was horrible in a I'm wasn't sure if I could reach a bathroom in time kind of way. I went and look online (I know I'm not supposed to listen to Dr. Google) and found that a lot of my symptoms were similar to a dairy intolerance. Funny enough I had one when I was baby/toddler but grew out of it. I'm guessing it came back. Talked to Doctor at the walk in clinic and he suggested I try going dairy free first for about two weeks and if it doesn't improve at all in that time frame that then we'd run tests for other stuff.

So today was day 1.
Its been great actually. Its the first day all week that I'm pain free. I picked up some soy milk at the grocery store and I'll be careful this week to watch what I'm eating.

I'm going to miss my lattes though. We have a Tassimo machine and I drink those lattes and I muchly prefer them to regular coffees. So that's going to be sad and its going to a take a while to get over.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes and I'll decide from there what I do for the long term but today has me nicely optimistic.

In good news since figuring this out I decided to try a run today since I was less concerned with finding a bathroom and I managed to get in an almost 10k run with friends. It was great. It felt harder at the end but its been over a week of no running I'm really happy with how it went.

Me? a Speaker?

2011-11-29T09:16:00.001-05:00

So I've been for the most part enjoying my freedom. But I had something exciting to share with you all.

Last night I went to the other side of the city and did a motivational talk with the Learn To Run and Fitness Walking Clinics at the High Park Running Room. One of my friends is the leader of the FW and I guess she thought it would be nice to share my story and show off my bling. I figured "Sure, why not?" So I basically told them how I started right where they are and worked my way up. I think I did scare a few when we talked about the higher clinics and what they entail (the hill training, speed work, longer distances)

It was also great to see how encouraged some were from my I want to do that! story. I was nervous but it was great being able to tell others that I was where you are and if you want to further it is totally possible. That they should be proud of what they are doing now because as that saying goes...

Afterwards I joined the walkers for their workout. I helped my friend out and got the slower one in the back moving a bit by keeping her talking. We did 6k (4miles) in an hour and it was great. I even got to find out how the walking clinics work and help give them advice on where to get cheap tech clothes and my tips for being active outside in the winter. I would have loved to join the LTR but I was more eager to hang out with my friend (who BTW made me an awesome dinner).

Seriously some of the talks alone are one of the reasons I like the Running Room's clinics so much. There are some more technical talks about clothing and nutrition and stretches/phyiso and its always great to be able to get information straight from someone who knows it rather than searching online and in books that will usually have conflicting advice. So it was great to be able to share the (limited) information that I know with others and encourage them on the great effort they are doing.

Winter... Its a coming!

2011-11-22T12:53:00.001-05:00

For the past couple weeks when I run I've moved on to pants instead of capris or shorts. Long sleeve shirts from tanks and t-shirts. Today I've also added my windbreaker running jacket. While I'm thrilled that I have pockets for mitts when my hands over heat and a place to hold my tissues. I'm sad that I have to start bundling up more.

Honestly its pretty much because more clothes worn while running = more clothes to wash. I can handle the cold once I'm out there. Its the whole getting ready thing that shows my wimpy side.

I would like a new running jacket though.
I currently wear this

in the light pink. Had there been a brighter pink available when I got mine I would have gotten it for sure.
It NEEDS vents. That's the main reason I haven't changed it up yet. The one above has great vents. and it needs to NOT be black. I've been looking online but its hard to judge when your not touching it. I over heat easily and therefore don't go crazy on layers.

Maybe Santa will be nice and get me a new jacket. (I'd be doing a hint hint thing here but HandyMan doesn't read my blog I don't think.....But my parents do......)

Virtual Run! (hosted by a friend)

2011-11-21T18:29:00.000-05:00

An online friend of mine is hosting a Virtual 5k. Her name is Courtney and she posts over at
A So-Called Runner. Her Daughter Ashlyn passed away on Dec 2 2008 and she wants to honour her daughter with this run. So head over to her post HERE to read about the run and sign up! Let me know if you do so I can keep my eyes open for your post about the run.

Getting it off my chest.

2011-11-12T22:37:00.001-05:00

Its about my Marathon.
I need to move on. So I'm sharing this finally. I hadn't planned to honestly.

Handy Man tries to be supportive and I really appreciate him letting me complain (still) about this.

First off let me mention that I am VERY proud of what I accomplished. I did something I set out two years ago to do. I did something that many people won't even attempt.

But I am not happy with my results.

I know I know!

My main goal was to finish. But really even for your first time you kinda have time goals in your head as to what you think you are capable of and what you are training at.

I trained for a 4:30. Actually all my training runs were using the paces for that time goal. Lots of runs I was doing a time for closer to 4:15 but I kept 4:30 in my mind. Even my long slow runs were all done at a sub 4:30 pace. I was ready and I was going to nail my race.

Then my legs were achy from the start.
I was sooooo not ready for the pain that last 10k.
My stomach was done in that last 5k.
It was hard even more so because my running buddy was also in pain and we were so quick to take walk breaks for the last couple K. I'm also so happy I had her there since I needed someone to talk to and remember why we were putting ourselves through so much pain.

But I'm not happy. I was on target for around 4:30 for most of the race. It really Sucked watching that time slip away. The stars did not align the way they were in my training runs. Not every day is going to be perfect. There are way to many factors that need to be counted and it was a rough day. Even that first day I was more happy to be done than happy about what I accomplished once I got back home.

I'm pretty convinced that's why I'm even been thinking of doing this marathon thing again.
I want that 4:30.
I am more than capable of that time.

There! It is now out there and I can take the steps to make sure that when I attempt this again I will be ready.

Quiet on the Homefront

2011-11-11T08:41:00.001-05:00

I've gotten two runs in this week so far. I had to miss out on Wednesday since Bug had a dental cleaning in hte morning and then we have Beavers in the evening. I already have plans to meet up with friends this weekend so I'll get at least 3 runs in. I'd head out this morning but I'm finishing my cookie exchange stuff for tomorrow.

I'm making these babies.

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread. Yummy.

I've even signed up for my Santa 5k and Around the Bay. Now I can't complain like last year that I missed out on ATB because I took to long to sign up. I've even been thinking of seeing if we could make a weekend out of it sans children.... We'll see.

Maybe I'll start taking more pictures. I gotta find something to keep me blogging more until my next training cycle starts.

New Week, New Start

2011-11-07T11:09:00.000-05:00

Well the party was a success. Everyone had fun. I didn't realize how tiring the day was until after everyone left. Once I didn't have to be "on" I was exhausted.

Even thought I know I didn't hydrate enough (bad bad me) last week I still headed out this morning. It was hard and took some effort to keep going but I did it. It didn't suck but with some goals I have in mind it made me realize that theres some work ahead for me. Its all going to start with getting back to running regularly. I'd like to keep up with my 4 days a week.

Definitely talking with some of Handy Man's friends at the party helped. They're not runners but this one was amazed that two years I couldn't run down the street and as of now I've done a Marathon. What made it interesting to me was that I just kept repeating that I set a goal and I did the work to get me to that goal. I didn't do anything I consider speical. I started eating better(for the most part, if I'm being honest), I drank more water. I put in the miles. I took care of myself.

And I'm going to continue taking care of myself and putting in some distance, for no other reason then I like running and I like how it makes me feel.

Three Things Thrusday

2011-11-03T10:38:00.000-04:00

1.
I'm still around. Obviously.
This week has basically been a total write off. With Monday being a major write off and Tuesday being a catch up and yesterday being a birthday, today was the first chance I had to get a run in really.

But I only got just over 1.5k. I'm not even putting it in daily mile. I fought myself going out. It was more about the "I Should"s. I should run today. It wasn't a "I Need". There are a bunch of excuses I could use and some of them would actually be legitimate but in reality its was just that I didn't want to. I couldn't imagine going any further and having a whole run suck. So I stopped and walked home.

I knew better. This week was busy and I knew my runs would suffer, but there is always next week and a chance to be more into my running again.

2.
Speaking of Birthdays, Yesterday was Handy Man's birthday. He is now in a whole new decade. At 30 I made sure that he knew if he was a runner he'd be in a new age group and have a better chance at placing higher. He laughed at that one. We didn't do to much since we had a Beaver meeting after dinner but he got some yummy cake that Trouble and I made for him. This weekend is his birthday party. My house will be taken over for a fun night of family and friends.

3.
On Sunday I went out with some friends from the marathon group. We did just under 12k and it was great. While we were running we were talking about races we were thinking of signing up for. If I were to do a clinic again, the Half on started this week and would get me to Around the Bay but after that race the other half clinic and the full clinic would be half way done. So I'd have to pay for an extra clinic but miss most of it. A couple of them were mentioning that I should sign up for the Marathon Clinic again(in Jan) for my Around the Bay race in March. That way the training will get me back up to that distance(and I'd be running with friends) before the race and then if I wanted to I could knock out an awesome half in May or I could stay and work on my full.

The worst part about that was I was actually considering it! Seriously?!!!
People told me this would happen. One is never enough. I should know better since of how my personality is, but come on Jess!

Regardless neither May race I'm looking at sells out come end of March (or usually at all) so I could do Around the Bay and then decide my May race.

Man while #1 shows that running can be rough #3 shows that its still addicting. BTW Handy Man laughed at me and said "I told you so" after I mentioned the talk me and my friends had on Sunday.

Friday Funny!

2011-10-28T09:44:00.001-04:00

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Race Pics!

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

Finishline! I told ya I was ballin' like a baby

Highs and Lows

2011-10-25T10:42:00.002-04:00

First the High.

Last night I went for my first run since the race!
It was fantastic. I kept expecting it to hurt so when it never did I was up on cloud 9. It was also speedy. I did one of my 6k routes and decided to just let my legs go. Apparently they were antsy since we did it in just under 34 minutes. My 6k runs are usually 36 minutes. I will even admit to stopping for about a minute at the turn around point. I wore a cheap hairband and it wasn't staying put so I needed to fix it. That will teach me.

Then the Low.

I got the post marathon blues.

Its was even so textbook. Great race, runners high and crash the next day. Life went back to normal, I sent Handy Man off to work and the boys to school and that was it. Other than doing my race report there was nothing to really keep the high going. Sure there was the meet up with clinic Tuesday night. But the fact that there was really no one else to talk to about it was a let down. Most people didn't even know or care that a race had happened in our city. And even those that did I could have told them that it took me 10 hours to finish and the answer would have been "Wow that great. right?"

I'm not surprised at all though. The same thing happened after our wedding. I have a habit of giving a lot of myself to a goal. I worked my ass off prepping for my race. I made sure I was taking care of my body and I wasn't risking injury and then the focus of almost 5 months work was done. It just shows that there is a continued mental aspect of running even afterwards.

It probably doesn't help that I had no real plans after the race. Everything for the winter was going to be based on how I felt after the Marathon. Do I want to keep up my distance or go for speed. I mean I know I can technically do both. I'm debating Around the Bay in March. I'm signing up for the Santa Jingle 5k where you do the race in a Santa suit. You're not allowed to be out of the suit at all otherwise the site says they'll pull you out. Should definitely be interesting.

BTW- once I figure things out I have some really interesting race pictures coming. Think of your worst and these will put them to shame. Really.

Pain Free!

2011-10-19T14:34:00.000-04:00

Yeap today, 3 days (who's counting) after my race I'm officially pain free.
Monday was interesting to say the least and stairs were horrible. I did find that if I changed my position at least every 10-15 minutes I would stay unstiff. The worst was the hip and knee pain. Thankfully by yesterday it was just a ache on the back of my hamstrings and today there is still some stiffness if I stay to long in one position but otherwise nothing hurts!

Last night the majority of the clinic people meet up and we talked about the race and it was fantastic hearing all the stories. I even found a great use for my running shoe cookie cutter! and the cookies were a hit!

Some of other runners are apparently also trying to convince me to stay with (crazy)long distance. A lot of us are thinking Around the Bay and someone mentioned that with doing that race I could go either way towards a half or a full for the spring. A couple of the girls want to do Chicago next year as a girls weekend thing. Yeah at this point I'm waiting till I feel the itch for the marathon again. I think I'll need more pain free days before I can remember why a marathon sounded fun the first time.

Though I am excited about this weekend. I'm sleeping in on Sunday and am in charge of breakfast! For the whole of marathon training Handy Man has taken over pancake Sunday. It seems weird but I missed getting to do that. So I'm happy I get to this weekend. I'll see how I feel on Monday and might try an easy 5k. We'll see what the fall brings.

Marathon Recap!

2011-10-17T12:55:00.003-04:00

This in insanely long. Definitely make sure you are comfy before reading.

*********

How to put yesterday into words?

The night before I laid out all my stuff. Which included 3possible outfits. The weather was horrible on Saturday and thankfully the windscalmed down a bit for Sunday morning. I decided to not force myself to go to bedearlier and it worked well. I had a fantastic solid sleep. Of course my stomachstarted feeling the nerves once I was up at 6am. I checked my facebook andtwitter as I ate breakfast. The outpouring of “Good Lucks” I had received hadme crying a bit. I then got dressed and took a picture of my chosen outfit sopeople would know what I looked like. Igot a ride down with a friend (IR) at 7am and actually felt pretty calm. Therewas an OMG moment when we down at the race start and saw the amount of peopleand the set up. Bag check was a bit late but we found some of our other clinicfriends and chatted away. Once we checked our bags we went off to the Hiltonand met up with more of our clinic friends. It was great to see everyone insuch good spirits.

Around 8:30 we went to our corrals. It was a mad house. Ithink weren’t big enough to hold their people or something because there weretons of blue corral people standing outside and blocking the sidewalks. IR and I managed to get seeded in our corralbut we lost pretty much everyone else from our group. At 9am the gun went offand we waited for our turn to move up. It was basically a walk up to thestarting line and then we were off!

Note: I don’t have any splits since I forgot to set the lapson my watch.

The goal for the first 5k was to take it easy and just allowmy body to warm up. It was busy and I was getting annoyed with the 2:15 pacergroup that was doing 10 and 1s. While most would go off to the side noteveryone did so there was more weaving than I would have liked. IR and I weredoing great and it was hard to make ourselves take our walk breaks since wefelt fantastic but knew we had to take it easy so we wouldn’t blow up later.

It was about 6k when we saw the leaders and I yelled andcheered for our Canadian guys. They were looking great! After that I put mymusic on to keep me in the zone. I saw Marlene and whooped for her but shecouldn’t hear me with the band playing next to her. I was feeling great and just worked on notletting myself get to speedy. We hit the 10k mats at 1:04:26. Then we hit the12k turnaround and headed up for the division of half and full. I told IRaround 16k that I was feeling great and it didn’t feel like we had been runningthat far at all. We were on target for a 4:30 with a tiny buffer.

Around 20k we hit the divide where the half marathoners headup to the finish and I got all teary eyed as I went under the Marathon arch. Ieven made the comment that we were really doing a marathon once we turned downto Front Street.

21.1k split - 2:14:23

It was aroundhere that my legs stared to feel sore. Nothing bad but in a “we’ve been doingthis a while now” kind of way. My stomach felt off and so I stopped at a portapotty. It added 5 minutes to my time since there was only 1! Just before 25k Isaw my first support group and it really made my day.

As you can tell I gotteary eyed again and was trying not to cry.

The winds on the east side of thecity seemed to be worse than the west side. I’m not sure if that was justbecause I was getting tired as well. On the Lakeshore towards Coxwell I washaving to stop and walk a bit more than planned because the winds were makingit hard to catch my breath even though I know I was at a comfortable pace. Iwas so happy to be in the Beaches since to me it was home court. Seeingeveryone cheering was great. But the real highlight was getting to see myparents and my boys.

30k split: 3:18:14

I saw them aroundthe Neville Park turnaround. I actually went off course technically and pastsome traffic cones so I could hug them all. I SO NEEDED that.

I was crying abit again after my quick 30 second hug break. I got to see and hug them again as Iheaded towards the finish. On my way out of the Beaches I saw my Clinic Leader andwaved. She jumped in and ran with me in her boots for a couple minutes and wetalked. I told her my original goal was out the window but I for the most partfelt great and that I hadn’t hit the wall yet. She told me that I looked strongand she was so proud of me.

35k split: 3:54:08

Then we were headed to Eastern and by thatpoint we were running into the winds and it hard. My legs were so sore andtired. IR was feeling it a lot now too and we ended up taking longer walkbreaks and kept checking in with each other. The Don Valley flyover was a bitchand I complained about it. I ended up doing most of my slowing down here. Itwas literally just to finish with my legs and the crazy head wind.

40k split: 4:30:44

I saw my friends from 25k again around 41k andI ended up giving them my fuel belt. I couldn’t stomach anything from about 37kon. I would take water if there was some at station but I was worried mystomach was going to revolt.

IR and I tookone last walk break and I kept repeating to her that her family was waiting. “Yourdaughter is at the finish” She had pulled me through some rough patches earlierand I wasn’t letting her go down now. We were so close!

At 500m to goall of sudden my pain went away! It was like I was on cloud 9 and my legs wereon their own and just wanted to go. At 400m I realized that IR was behind mebut I couldn’t stop. I knew that while my endorphins had kicked in and I couldn’tfeel the pain I knew it was there. If I stopped it would be hard to startagain. The tears started coming and itwas hard to push them away.

My husband andstep-daughter were at the last turn before the finish and the tears couldn’t beheld back as I waved to them. I cried and held my hands up as I crossed the finishwith a time of 4:44:59(chip).

I stopped andlooked for IR and she wasn’t far behind at all and we hugged and fought backmore tears. Of course once we stopped all the pain came rushing back and Ithought I was going to throw up. I got my medal and space blanket and got mybag. I found my husband and stepdaughter easily and we went straight for home.The idea of food grossed me out and I knew if I stopped for anything at thispoint I wasn’t starting again.

Having givenbirth twice med free I can honestly say that to me this was harder. It was oneof the hardest things I have ever done and it’s also one of my proudest. Yesterdayranks right up there with the birth of my children and my wedding day.

Gun Time: 4:55:52

Chip Time: 4:45:59

W25-29: 172/231

Gender: 971/1400

I'm a Marathoner!!

2011-10-16T17:33:00.000-04:00

Just a quick pop in to let everyone know that I finished my race and I'm now a Marathoner!!

I did 42.4k in 4:45:58 according to my chip time.

Thank you so much for the support, from here, Twitter, Facebook, emails. It met so much to me knowing I had people from all over cheering me on.

A race report will be done in the next couple days as I come off my runners high. Its truly been a roller coaster of emotions and I can't wait to share all about it with you.

I want to do that!

2011-10-15T09:30:00.000-04:00

Most would think that the path that has taken me to my first Marathon started August 1 2009(That would be the first day of my Learn to Run Clinic)

Nope. That day I went into it thinking that if I could do 5k a couple times a week then that would definitely help me stay healthy.

The date that I believe led me to here was September 27 2009. Just a couple weeks later. I know I've mentioned this before but humour me. The Learn to Run clinic had finished our run and I don't even remember the intervals that we did that day. What I do remember is that when we went back to the store a staff member was at the door telling us that the leaders of the Marathon would be coming through here in about 30 minutes. It was the first time Scotia would bring the Marathon through our part of the city so it was exciting so of course I stayed.

The lead car came by and the runners weren't far behind at all but I watched them speed past me. I got teary eyed and cheered them on. It was amazing to see the speed they had and that they were so far into a race and clearly pushing it but they looked so fresh still. I was awed. Simple as that.

I talked with some people around me about what we all just saw and slowly more runners were running past us. They were fast too and as time went on they were less fast, more of a pace I thought I was doing (though with far less distance). But

They were regular people!

They weren't going for prizes and cash. They were running and had trained for months just to run a route and get a medal at the end. I cheered harder for them than I did the leaders. I tried to encourage those that were taking walk breaks. I high fived a couple people. I saw Marlene in there at some point and was excited that I "knew" someone in there.

Though the sore hands from clapping, the getting sore throat from cheering, I realized something.

I wanted to run the Scotia Full. I wanted to run the Marathon down in the Beaches like I saw others do that day just over 2 years ago.

I want to do that!

Tomorrow morning, I'll be wearing a Marathon bib and at the starting line ready to take the first steps to being a Marathoner.

Track Me!

2011-10-13T12:47:00.001-04:00

So as we all know I've got plans on Sunday. You know just a little thing called the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Last night bib numbers went out. I had already set the post about Trouble to go up for today and was going to leave this till tomorrow but really? I'm just too excited and want to share!

I'm bib # 3818.
If you are not in the area and want to cheer me on, live results will be up on the SportsStats website during the race.
If you are in the area you should really come down and support all the runners.

Invested!

2011-10-13T11:00:00.002-04:00

So last night was a pretty important night in our Beaver Colony. It was Investiture night. All the new kids officially became Beavers with the #115 Seton Group. Trouble was one of them.

At this meeting they got their scarfs and woggles(that would be the little blue thing that holds the scarf).
He was so excited that he even did a break dance.

Now we fully have a Scouting family. and we'll even be able to get a good picture of it all since this weekend is Apple Day! Shorty will be with us and shes going to help us sell some apples. So if you see anyone from Scouts and their apple baskets please PLEASE donate. 100% of the apple day donations go right to the Colonies.

The Irony

2011-10-12T15:20:00.001-04:00

So I currently sit here impatiently waiting for my bib number to be emailed to me.

Laundry and other cleaning isn't very distracting, Neither really is playing games with Trouble where he makes the rules up as we go and I seem to always get it wrong.

It brings to mind that I'm not a patient person. Believe I'm fully aware of this. I am an instant gratification kind of gal. Which brings me to the irony. I'm running a Marathon in 4 days. A Marathon isn't an instant gratification kind of thing. Neither is the training for it. Yet I've done one and an in a couple days time about to do the other. huh.

So like I said I'm currently waiting for an email that might not be here till later on tonight (when you think end of day is? That's what FB said, emails should be received by the end of the day). So I guess I could use this as practice for Sunday right?

Thanksgiving and running

2011-10-10T11:27:00.000-04:00

First off

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend with friends and family.
Yesterday we went to my parents and enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner. But first we had to make some room. We hit the local pumpkin patch for their karting, hay rides, corn maze and pumpkins of course

Because after dinner there was lots of lazing around. I had made two pies (apple and pumpkin) neither of which I remember to take a picture of and I doubt either one will last the day today. Later today we're hitting up a Chinese buffet with some of HandyMan's side of the family. What? Chicken balls and rice totally go with Thanksgiving......

So about my running this weekend. The plan called for 16k on Saturday with 6k on Sunday. The original plan was to head to the store with some others for 8am. But my bed was too comfy and Saturday is my usual sleep in day so I slept in till 8 instead. I did manage to be out the door by 9:30 and I'm glad I changed my plans. It was a wonderful run. You know those ones where you only feel like you ran as far as you did because you listen to lots of songs on your Ipod and your watch shows that you were out for a hour and a bit? Yeah it was one of those. By the end I knew I had done 16 but honestly it felt like I had just did 5.

Then before we hit up Guelph, I did 6k with some friends. One of them was coming back from a hip flexor issue and was going crazy. So since it was supposed to be long run pace and 10 and 1s we decided to do just a slow continuous pace and see how her hip takes it. She did great and we ran the whole thing just chatting it up. She feels good about the race now.

Which is currently

6 days away!!!!

So the plan for this week is to hydrate, eat well, organize my play list, and get me my shot bloks (our store is out of my favourite flavour) and oh yeah get some rest in there.

BTW- Huge Congrats to Cindy who did her first Marathon yesterday in 4:40:56!!!!!

Good Luck Friday!!!!

2011-10-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

Cindy at Foodie at the Finish Line will be running her first Marathon at the Victoria Marathon! She got sidelined last year attempting her first due to an injury and we've been talking throughout our training cycle about our races. I'm super crazy excited for her to do this race on Sunday. Lots of fun and Lots of Luck!

A couple friends from my clinic will be running the Chicago Marathon and I want to wish them lots of luck and fun, espeically for Maureen who be doing her first!

You will all Rock it! and I can't wait to hear all about the races!

Three Things Thrusday

2011-10-06T12:12:00.000-04:00

1.
Well my Wednesdays are going to get interesting. I volunteered to work with Group with Scouts. The levels I believe are
-National
-Provincial
-Regional
-Area
-Group
-Section(where the kids actually are)
(feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, btw)

Handy Manny is already a Leader with the boy's section and kinda volunteered himself for Area. I then was talking to the Section Leader and they needed help with more of the administrative stuff and an additional leader since Beavers enrollment really jumped up this year. Yeah so I volunteered for that. So now our whole family will be at Beavers Wednesday nights.

We are definitely an Scouting family.

2.
Its our last clinic night tonight. Its hard to believe we are so close to done. I think our guest speaker will be talking about recovery stuff. Then we'll do 10k recovery. Its also hard to believe there's only

10 Days!

left before the race. Tomorrow its single digits. Eeee.....

3.
You'd think that once I'm done training for a Marathon my schedule would open up more right? Apparently not. Its actually getting busier. I don't mind at all but it just feels that people weren't inviting or asking me about things while I was training. The closer I get to race the more the calendar seems to be exploding with activities and coffee dates, volunteer stuff for afterwards.

Solo Sucks

2011-10-05T15:01:00.002-04:00

I'm starting to think running with my clinic has somewhat wreaked my solo running.

I've noticed that if I have a bad run, its generally when I'm running on my own. Apparently I do well or at least I'm don't wimp out when I have others with me. Yesterday I had a 6k tempo to do and my Ipod was dead but I figured it was 6k and doable without. My legs felt heavy the whole time and it took a bit of distractions to keep me from wimping out. So for today's 10k tempo I made sure my Ipod was ready to go. My legs felt ok but today it was mentally challenging.

I figure a good chunk of that was because I usually run Wednesday evenings with my clinic group. I planned to run this morning on my own since I would be helping out at Beavers with the boys tonight. Was it because I switched up my routine? Or maybe that I kept thinking of other things I needed to do today? It was just hard. I ended up cutting it short at 7.5k and walked the rest of the way home. I was literally with the thought process of...

Get to the next light and you can walk a bit
Get to the next street......
Get to the next pole.....
Finally when the get to the next.... was things that were 10 feet apart, I just accepted that mentally I was done and it was ok to stop.

Hopefully tomorrows run WITH my clinic group will go better.

Spirit

2011-09-30T12:21:00.000-04:00

Well after a week of taking it easy for the most part, my legs wanted to keep going. Last night was supposed to be a recovery run and I decided that I would just go. My watch wasn't keep tabs properly as it didn't find the satalites fully before we took off. So I had the time and I knew when I generally hit certain distances so I figured I'd just go with it.

I managed to keep a good pace that was going but wasn't hard. Its been interesting to see how the whole group is taking it easier. We're all being less risky. Like Wednesdays run, we had two options: speed or tempo. I think 3 guys picked speed. The rest of us picked tempo and even then some of us were being careful since injuries so we warmed up to a tempo pace for the last couple km instead of mostly tempo.

A good chunk of our group is doing Chicago next week!!!! and it was really exciting to see that they got their bib numbers after our run last night and see that its really setting in for them. I kinda can't wait till I'm in that spot next week!

But what makes me still excited is that this morning instead of cleaning I watched this.

It was amazing. I cheered the runners on and I got emotional at parts (I'm sure no one is surprised at that one). Even though it was for the Chicago Marathon in 2005, it was still wonderful and uplifting to watch others that have gone through the training, know what its like to get to race day. I can't wait till I get to the starting line at Scotia.

I already get emotional when I think of the fact that I'm going to run my first Marathon in 16 days. Its still a bit away but its still so close. I fully believe the tagline above

"When you cross the finish line, it will change your life forever"

Regardless of how my race goes, I know I've won and that I'm better for all the training I've put in. That the hardest times of my training where I felt like giving up and switching to the half (btw its too late now Half is sold out so no changing for me now) will be worth the chance to cross that starting line, seeing my family and friend cheer me on and crossing that finish line and being a Marathoner.

Best Before

2011-09-28T12:39:00.001-04:00

Check out the best before date on my yogurt!
Hahahaha. Good thing I don't plan on eating any on race day.

Marathon Challenge

2011-09-28T11:12:00.000-04:00

Some friends of mine from my running group were talking about this program the other day.
It's called Marathon Challenge (duh) and its aired on NOVA in 2007. Its about a group that takes 13 people who want to run Boston but don't run at all and see if in 9 months they can go from couch to Marathon.

So of course I had to check it out. I cried at points in it but really is that surprise to anyone? It was just amazing to see the effort and hard work these people put in. Just how important their goal was to them. As I'm getting ready to embark on my first marathon as well its really just so motaivating to watch. Its about 1 hour long but well worth it.

I can't link the video right on here but here is the link (below) to the page with the story and video on it.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/marathon-challenge.html

Let me know what you think!

Last Long Run

2011-09-26T13:49:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we did the last offical long run. 32k. Now taper will start.

BTW- 20 days to go!

Yesterday's run wasn't the great. We did loose verison of a chunk of the Marathon route. Link HERE. The reason the run sucked? My calf started acting up around 22k. I was constantly stopping to stretch and had to take it easy so I could finish. As soon as I got back home I stretched more, rolled, iced, and today its more of the same.

Thankfully my new CEP compression sleeves came in the mail today. I ordered them so I'd have them for after the Marathon. Well one is currently in use on my calf and I must say having to go up and down the stairs doesn't hurt a bit now. I've decided to cut out speedwork this week. I'm not about to risk months of effort and hard work. The plan this week is to take every run easy.

Three Things Thrusday

2011-09-22T09:21:00.003-04:00

1.It's Curriculum Night at the boy's school. We'll get to go and hear the teacher talk about whats going on for the year. We'll get to see classrooms and see where they sit. The boys are really excited. Handy Manny is excited since we're going to his favourite sushi place for dinner before hand.

2.
So we did our second round of speed work last night. I took off the auto lap thing and remembered to hit the lap button as I finished each interval. My numbers were ~~somewhat~~ not really consistent but since it was raining and dark out, I was trying to see my interval numbers by the street lamps and to me it looked like I was going slow for the last 2 speed intervals and I couldn't really figure out why I felt like throwing up after that 3rd one. Well I plugged in my watch after I came home and saw this

Warm up 5:59
Speed #1 4:39
Recover 5:55
Speed #2 5:02
Recover 6:05
Speed #3 5:01
Recover 6:07
Speed #4 5:10
Recover 6:14
Speed #5 5:16
Recover 6:28 (had to fix shoelace at one point)
Cool down back to store 6:24

Yeah what I thought I saw out there was so not what was above. I'm guessing its because I kept the average pace window up so I couldn't see how fast I was actually going. I'm slowly figuring this stuff out.

3. Saturday we're off to the Farm! We get our beef from a friend of ours who obviously owns a farm and we're going to see it today. The boys will get to ride a tractor and we'll go play in the woods, Maybe the barn too if the cows are out of it. We'll do a nice lunch and hang out with some great friends. I'll definitely have some pictures to show you aftewards.

Getting Closer!

2011-09-18T20:55:00.001-04:00

Today was my second last long run. Eeek. Shit is getting real.
I think I'll actually lose it for a couple minutes when I get my bib number.

So today's run went really Really well.
Seriously.

It took up back up to Edward's Gardens. There's lots of shade from trees in the parks. There's a couple bathrooms if pits stops are needed and of course a good couple water fountains. Honestly the only thing I don't like about this run is that around 5-6k and 23-34k we run basically next to my house. Its so close and its hard to have to run away from it on the way back to the store.

Today was also Terry Fox Run day. So we got caught in one and ended up walking a bit more than normal but it was good. The weather was great. It did get hot in the end with the sun but it was to be expected it was around noon by then.

My main goal for the long run was to try and keep it around race pace again like I did last week. I did a 6:22 and I need a 6:24 to get my top goal time. So its looking doable. Granted 10k will be brand new on race day so imagine I will end up slowly down a bit in that last while.

Next week we're doing our last long run 32k. We'll be doing the Lakeshore and covering some of the actual race route or as close as we can to it. Then we taper.

Eekkk. Its getting real!

Speedy Me!

2011-09-15T10:14:00.002-04:00

Who needs a Three Things Thursday when you can talk about speed!

Last night was the clinics first night of speed work. There was actually an option of doing 5 x 1km speed intervals or doing a 10k tempo. I double check what my speed pace was and gulped when I saw the 5:37 pace. Yeah I don't know how to convert that for any American readers. I actually spent a good chunk of my day internally debating with myself.

-Speed work, it'll help with lactic threshold
-Tempo, what if I get injured during speed
-Speed work, it'll be useful come race day
-Tempo, but that pace is fast
.......

Seriously that debate went on for what felt like forever.
But of course when it came down to it. I choose the speed work. And not just because the cool kids were doing it. Actually more people opted for tempo that speed. I talked to the B and she said to just do what I can. If its 2 intervals then great, all 5 great. That if it hurts in a way it shouldn't to stop. Simple as that.

So I set out a goal of at least 3 intervals. Now I'm not sure exactly what I did interval at. I know it was the area of my goal pace since the average pace number on my watch was are around it. But I forgot to take the auto lap off. So while it was marking every KM, It took us over 2km to get to where we were doing the workout and I didn't reset it. I think twice my watch lined up with the start of either a speed part or the recovery part. and it showed my paces where I wanted them to be. Mostly I went on feel.

Some of the faster runners in the group doing speed decided to do 800s with 300 recovery. (and I love that I kinda sound like I know what I'm talking about) so they finished when I was finishing my 3rd set. So I stopped and talked to them for a couple mins. B was nursing a tender foot so she was running our route but not doing speed work and I mentioned to her and M that I was debating doing a 4th interval. They both said that they'd do it with me, otherwise they were going to stop too. So I said fine lets go and while that was the hardest one since they are both a bit speedier than me and I didn't want to let them get to far ahead, it felt great knowing that I could keep up with them for that bit. M actually thanked me for pushing her to get that last one in, because she wasn't going to without the peer pressure and she was glad she did it.

My legs actually don't feel bad this morning. I know after some long run and the hill workout my legs feel a bit heavy the next day and today I'm not noticing that. I am noticing a black toenail developing on my left foot.But that I think is more of a sock issue.

So next week I'll set a goal of 4 intervals.
I'll take the auto lap off my watch so I can get a better idea of what I'm doing out there.
Am I weird in that while the workout sucks in the moment, afterwards I think that it (I'm) awesome? Wait don't answer that.

Look at me go!

2011-09-12T15:24:00.000-04:00

My long run yesterday got me to 1006.24 kms for this year so far. That is the distance from Toronto to Duluth, Georgia. (thanks Google)
Marathon training does really ramp up the distance. Last year I was under 900km for the whole year. I still have months of running to go and I'm excited to see how far I'll get.

Why Hello there,

2011-09-12T09:41:00.001-04:00

Well the first week back to school was busy. Whew.

I still managed to get all my runs in.
Wednesday was the grand hill finale the Marathon clinic dubs "Tour de Hills". We did the 10 hills that I posted other day. You know it was hard but it was good. Some of the hills were steep, others were just long gradual ones(I hate those ones the most). But afterwards I always feel great. You were supposed to pick a estimated finish time and one of the guys from the store was keeping track. I figured it would take 1:30 to finish. I actually did it in 1:21. So that was nice. I got a running hat and some deodorant samples.

On clinic night we had a talk from an area runner who has run Boston a couple times, who has done Iron mans. Hes also a realist. He'll be honest with you if he thinks your goals are too lofty. But he was also great for race prep. It was just a couple small things that made you think "oh yeah, that makes sense". The only issue we had with his talk was that he can talk forever about this stuff and by time we got out for our run it was getting dark and I didn't really realize how quickly it was getting dark till I was in the peanut running and since it doesn't get lit at night it was woah getting dark. So my recovery run was less so of one since we had to get out of the unlit paths.

But even with that I still felt great with Sundays long run. It was a fall back week with 23k. I actually did just about that but we did a water station break and I stopped my watch and it took me over half a KM to realize I forgot to turn it back on. But I did manage to keep my entire run above my marathon goal pace by a bit and match my half time with my fastest half so that caused a happy dance at one point.

Now I'm getting set for the new week. I must say I'm looking forward to the couple hours of freedom in the mornings now.

WW: 10 Hill Edition.

2011-09-07T16:35:00.000-04:00

<p><a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/49359534">A run mapped on 09/05/2011</a><br/><a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/?location=Toronto, ON">Find more Runs in Toronto, ON</a></p>

Most wonderful Time of the year!

2011-09-06T10:29:00.000-04:00

Its the first day of school. The boys were excited to see everyone again and check out their new classrooms.

Bug is now in Grade 1. Hes full day now. Its going to be weird not having him around in the afternoon.

Trouble is in SK.

Really?

2011-09-05T22:19:00.002-04:00

Ok I get. Not everyone likes running.
Those who don't get it, don't have to.
But some that don't also don't have to ridicule those of us who do love running.

I was going to post about my hitting the wall in my long run this weekend but since a conversation I had on Sunday brought up these feelings again I knew I had to post about this instead.

Someone who has no desire to run told me that she sees running as a form of punishment. That those that run like to torture themselves since there is noting good about running. I should point out here that she knows I'm a runner. That I'm training for a marathon right now. I found myself getting defensive and after a bit some of the comments from those that thought of running differently than me was getting laughs so I let it go and just kinda laughed along with everyone.

But in all honestly it pissed me off. I don't ask that those in my life love running or know what the hell I'm talking about when I'm getting into it.
My parents have a motorcycle, couldn't tell a thing about it other than that its a Harley and its red. Handy Manny has a room full of tools for his woodworking that I have no clue what they do. And quite honestly I don't really care. I still am supportive.

I just want to be supported in what I do. I know I have people I can turn to for that support. I shouldn't have to explain that running is somewhat cheaper than therapy and that it is my therapy. That my weight has been within two pounds for the past two years and my clothes size is getting smaller because I'm fitter and eating well. I have more energy and stamina for lots of things now. I know that I've kinda lost friends in part because of running. I'm not one to go out for drinks on weekend because I'm training. I can't get together last minute because this training thing is tiring so I do very few late nights now.

There is really no need at all to put down someone else's activities. It doesn't make you look better to insult what someone else works hard at. It actually makes you look jealous and petty. If its not for you that's fine, it doesn't have to be.

Oh and I for sure asked for a BIG piece of cake since I ran 30k the day before and was eating well this week. I could afford a good piece of cake rather than having a sliver of cake cause they were watching their weight. Neener Neener!

Three Things Thrusday!

2011-09-01T04:00:00.000-04:00

1.
Last night was hill again. It was our second last night so we did 9 of the suckers. I hate them but I get the why of doing them and apparently I'm strong on hills. I'm usually in the back when we start off but as we progress through them I get faster(which I think we're supposed to be doing) or others are getting slower. Usually I've noticed that if I pass someone from the group usually they don't get the chance to pass me back. Occasionally I'll play back and forth with one or two people but for the most part I usually end up in the middle of the group by the end. I kinda love that.

2.
Speaking of last nights run.....My segue are awesome I know. Anyways that run obviously finished off the month and brought me to a new distance PR! In August I ran a total of 205.21 km. My last highest month was 150 in May. Yeah Marathon training really puts the distance in. Also right now I'm about 90km short from hitting 1000km for the year so far. How freaking amazing is that!!!!? Last year I got to just under 900km total and I've already passed that and there is still 4 months worth of running to add. I've seen other bloggers post a end of the month thing, I should really start doing that.

3.
Other than just running a lot I've been canning!
We bough 3 bushels of tomatoes this year. So far I've made tomato sauce out of 1.5 bushels and I have 13(was supposed to be 14 but 1 broke) wonderful jars of homemade deliciousness. Last year on a whim we saw that our grocery store was selling bushels so we figured "hey why not grab one and make some sauce, we've talked about wanting to do stuff like that before" so we grabbed one and made about 8 1 litre jars of sauce and it was great. Honestly we were sad when we finished the last jar so this year we planned to get 2. Handy Mandy decided at the last minute to grab a 3rd for salsa and soup. I promise there will be pictures of all this craziness.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-31T07:00:00.000-04:00

Sweet Redemption!

2011-08-29T09:30:00.002-04:00

That's whats today was.

We did our second 30km(18.6miles) run yesterday. I did take all that I learnt from Midsummer and did so much better this time.

I kept my pace manageable the whole time.
I didn't start out to fast so therefore on the way back I still felt great.
I took my Shot Bloks at regular intervals.
Thankfully the weather was amazing for running this morning and I didn't feel the need to gulp large amounts of water/Gatorade.

There was no I feel sick.

No I just want to sit down. Ok there was that, but it was just to give my legs a rest since I had been moving for 3+ hours.

Yesterdays run while tiring really helped restore my confidence that I can finish the Marathon and finish well. I'm not nervous about 32k next week anymore.

50

2011-08-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

50 days till I run my first marathon.
50 days till I propel myself the further I've ever been on foot.

I've been working towards this goal since mid June. Its hard to believe that its been such a long time frame that I've devoted to training. It doesn't even really feel like it at all though. I know I've been putting in the time and the distances but in all honesty it doesn't feel like its been months of this. Which I guess would be a good thing since that means I'm obliviously enjoying running.

In the clinic people are talking more and more about goals, what they're thinking of wearing on race day, what they plan on gorging on after race day. I'm really excited that my finish time at Midsummer aligning nicely with my approximate goal time for Scotia. It shows that my training is working and I'm pushing myself properly. I never thought that would be something that would excite me, but I've learnt that it doesn't have to take much to make me happy most days. I'm still working on race day clothes but believe me I'm dreaming about lots of ice cream and crappy TV or old movies to enjoy as I partake in the rest days after the marathon.

50 days till my first marathon
51 days till relaxation mode.

Three Things Thrusday

2011-08-25T11:42:00.000-04:00

Less than two weeks till the school year starts back up. Trouble will be in SK and Bug will be in the big change of Grade 1. They are both really excited for the year. Bug a bit more so since now he gets recess and can do the pizza days that he's heard about. I'll admit to being a touch sad that he'll be in school all day so I'll get less time with him but this way I'll get more one on one time with Trouble. We have to finish clothes shopping for the boys since their school moved to "dress code" this year. It just means everything has to be white or navy blue. No writing, pictures, logos, or holes/tears. Its something that's being put in place across the whole TCDSB so thankfully finding clothes has been really easy.

After my 30k race I felt good. The next day I ate like crazy. I could not believe how hungry I was.

Though after sitting down and doing some figuring it out, I am MORE than happy with my results. I'm going to take the lessons I've learnt from that race and apply them to my marathon. My finishing time for Midsummer line up in the range of what I'm training for with Scotia. So I'm thrilled that it showed that my training is working and the effort I've been doing is good. There are a couple things I need to work on more, like more water and being better with my vitamins.

(I have some pics coming, I ordered two, a finish line one even!)

I picked up The Athlete's Palate at the library last week. You know this one.

and I've really only tried 1 recipe out of it so far but I have a couple others bookmarked. It was a chicken carbonara and it was really good, and definitely healthier than the one I've usually made before. My Father in Law even looked through it and copied out a couple recipes. I really liked how they marked the different recipes whether they'd be best in training or recovery. My only issue from just looking through it is that some of the recipes are what I'd call fancy and take things that not everyone keeps in their home or lots of pots.

3 Years of Bliss.....

2011-08-23T06:00:00.001-04:00

Today marks our 3rd Anniversary. We got married after being together for 8.5 years.

Oh sure there have been upset moments and some fighting in there but that's what make the sweet and happy moments all the better. I couldn't ask for a better partner in life. My husband is a wonderful father to his children. He is always willing to go with most of my crazy ideas(running a Marathon for example). His laid back attitude is much needed to balance me out. I can honestly say that I can't imagine not sharing all of this with him. I'm looking forward to seeing our lives continue together on this wonderful path we've set out.

My legs kept no Pace with my Desire

2011-08-21T10:21:00.004-04:00

You might want to sit for a while and grab a coffee for this one. I get its fitting that its so long since the race was so long. :)

************
A Midsummer Night’s Run
August 20, 2011

I met up with a friend at the Running Room and we took the street car over together to the start/finish area. After we checked out bags we met up with a bunch of people from our group. It was funny when we realized we “knew” pretty much all the pace fairies. I got some advice from those who’ve ran this before since it was going to my first 30k ever. Like not just my first 30k race but my first time hitting that distance. Most of us were planning on doing 10 and 1’s and I decided to settle in with Ann. She was the pacer for 3:15 run/walk. The plan was to stay near her for the most of it and definitely use her when it started to get hard.

Finally it was time to start and we all settled into where we wanted to be. I had a quick hello and good luck with Marlene when she passed us to get to a faster start. We started off a bit ahead of our pacer but we knew the path would get really narrow around 5k. In all honesty I don’t remember much for the first 10k. I remember seeing a friend that none of us were sure was going to make it out, getting weird looks from the drivers we passed down on Cherry St.

By 12k we entered the Spit (or better known as Tommy Thompson Park). Before we hit the next water station there was a bridge to cross. It was downhill towards it on gravel. A friend of mine who was running next to me stumbled or something on some loose gravel and it looked like she was going down head first but then she rolled to her side. She was banged up and bloody so another girl and I stayed with her and helped for about 5 minutes. When we started again we had lost our pace group and decided to run together and estimate our 10 and 1’s since neither of us at set our watches for those because planned on running with the pacer. We went around the lighthouse and hopefully got some pictures. I commented that we probably wouldn’t have gotten any from there if we were with the group. LOL.

I had to hit the port o potty for the first time during a race around the 21k water station. I was still feeling good at this point. By 23k I was feeling really hot and tired. I had realized that I was off my nutrition plan and that kind of threw me. The last bit of turnaround had changed since part of the route in Ashbridge’s Bay was fenced up so we had to run along the boardwalk for a touch. By this point it was dark. And by 26k I was feeling really done. I was taking lots of walk breaks from here one and I kept telling the girl I was with to go on ahead. She had us running a bit more than half a km and then we could walk some more. By the end we were going 3 and 1’s to just get to the finish because I was holding back tears and wanted to walk off around 28k. We got the finish and I really don’t want to see that picture because I was trying to not bawl my eye out so I’m sure it’s bad.

Ann (our pacer) was actually waiting for us at the finish line. She wanted to make sure that we and my friend that we helped made it in. Some of my other friends found me and I literally felt like crap. I wanted nothing more than to just sit on the ground and not move for a bit. No one would let me and honestly if this happens again I’ll tell them to piss off since once I did get to sit for awhile in the car ride home I was feeling better.

It was a rough night but I learnt some things about letting things roll and adapting when plans change. I learnt that if I need to stop for a minute or two and set up a new plan in my head it’s ok. I need to work a bit more on mental toughness since I will need that to get through adding another 12k to this new distance.

Garmin Time: 3:13:30
Official Time: 3:18:16
Chip Time: 3:17:28
Place: 605/834
Category (Women 20-29): 61/86
Gender Place: 272/432

Pictures to follow(well maybe not the finish line one)

Three Things Thrusday!

2011-08-18T09:15:00.000-04:00

1.
We did hills last night. 7 of them actually. We did the route that's called the 4 fingers. I think I mentioned it here last year. I'm not a huge fan of them. They're longer than the Fallingbrooke ones were doing but they are less steep. I kinda prefer the steeper ones. Its harder but you're pushing for less since they are a touch shorter. Plus I find I go up better when I can't quite see how much farther I have to go. Fallingbrooke you pulled your hat down and stared straight ahead and it was manageable. These ones you can't help but see a plateau since there is a road that crosses most of them around the halfway mark. It drives me crazy with that there.

2.
This weekend is the A Midsummer Night Run I'll be doing the 30k race with most of my clinic. It just happens to fall on the weekend that we hit 30 for the first time so we all figured we should sign up.
A long run with bling?
A Saturday night run and getting to sleep in Sunday?

YES PLEASE.

3.
60 days till Scotia!
The freaking out about it has apparently started and its still easy to calm myself back down. I imagine it'll get harder to do so as it gets closer. Its one of those things where my head knows really that I'll be fine but my emotions are all over the place.

Pictures from Algonquin

2011-08-14T15:59:00.003-04:00

Better later than never right?

From the starting point. The Portage Store

Our Canoe and two packs

One of two beaver dams we had to cross

Me with the food pack, Like my jugs?

Rocking the race shirt even on the canoe!

I love this picture.

Horrible terrible place to swim

Seriously! Who wants to spend 4 days with this as their view?

Rocking the lifejacket!

We're back!

2011-08-11T22:22:00.001-04:00

Things have been busy but we got back Tuesday night.

It was a fabulous trip and I'll post pictures soon.

On our first day we saw a moose. Got 3 feet from a loon. And got lost a bit, which took us almost an hour extra in the canoe. There was even a chipmunk that reminded us of Trouble and kept trying to get into our food bin.

On day 3 we saw a snapping turtle and a seaplane go by our site.

We had 2 days with rain and one crazy cold windy night.

Overall we portaged about 5k I think and paddled around 20k.

Again it was fantastic and we're already making plans for next year.

Algonquin bound

2011-08-06T11:02:00.001-04:00

Well the kids have been dropped off with the grandparents. We're on our way for 4 days of hiking and canoeing. I'll be back with pictures and some wetlogged stories I'm sure. See you Wednesday!

Three Things Thrusday

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

1.
The clinic did 5 hills yesterday. I had issue with the 2nd hill last week and and had to walk up part if it. I made it my goal that this week I would make it up it all the way. Actually I made it up it twice. I've learnt that even though its recommended that when running hills you're supposed to look up at the top of the hill. Yeah when I do that I can't make it all the way. If I look just ahead of me and kinda down, then I can do it. Something about not seeing how much more I have to go or seeing the steepness of the hill makes it more bearable.

2.
My shoes need replacing. I've been wearing Saucony ProGrid Jazz. I've been looking all over and it seems that its been discounted. Its not even on their website anymore. So next week I'll be getting new shoes. I lucked out picking out these ones since I got them from Foot Locker and picked them because they looked good. At the time I didn't know better but thankfully it worked out. So it going to be weird getting a different one. I'm thinking I should stay with Saucony, though its tempting to try something different.

3.
I'm very excited/nervous. This Saturday Handy Manny and I start our Portaging trip in Algonquin. We'll be doing 3 nights and 4 days. Its actually going to be our first time away from the kids since we got married. I'll have some pictures and a post up after we come back.
The boys are looking forward to spending the time at my parents.They've got a countdown going on and Bug has it written on every calendar "To Nana and Papas".

Runniversary!

2011-08-01T14:19:00.002-04:00

Today marks my 2nd anniversary of running.

Two years ago today I walked into the Running Room's Learn to Run clinic. There was a group of us that had no clue what we were getting into. Most of us had no idea about the Wednesday and Sunday runs. We barely understood the difference in shoes and the importance of wearing the right shoes. I remember the WTF was I thinking after doing the first couple sets of 2 minutes walking-1 minute walking. I couldn't even imagine getting to 10 minutes of running with 1 minute of walking we supposed to do at the end of the 10 week clinic.

Yesterday I was running.
I was running with the Marathon clinic.
We were running 24k. and we're about half way through our clinic on the way to my first marathon. I've learnt a lot from other runners, blogs, websites. I've grown from someone who would have called you crazy to do anything phyiscal to training hard for races. I've even kind of considered all this training and being on my feet for hours fun.

Today I'm proving to myself that I can do anything once I set my mind to it.

And so is Bug. Yesterday he said he wanted to go running with me. I asked him to wait till today so we went and did 2k around the neighbourhood. Before today he'd only ran up to 1k. There was a couple walk breaks in there but it was great sharing my love of running with one of my children.

This feels funny

2011-07-24T11:23:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-07-21T09:14:00.005-04:00

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

2011-07-15T09:50:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-14T11:23:00.003-04:00

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

2011-07-13T09:08:00.001-04:00

Bad Long Run

2011-07-11T09:50:00.003-04:00

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?

2011-07-05T19:08:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-03T12:15:00.002-04:00

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.

Still here

2011-06-29T08:48:00.001-04:00

I'm having issues getting blogger to publish my posts. That button has apparently decided it doesn't like me. I'll try to keep up with posts from my phone till I figure out whats going on.

Something to Remember

2011-06-25T11:20:00.001-04:00

Three Things Thrusday

2011-06-23T12:51:00.002-04:00

1. So tonight I'm attending my first Marathon Clinic night at the Running Room. It actually started last week but I was being silly with thinking that everyone else would be faster than me. That I wouldn't have anyone to run with. I'd be the only one doing their first marathon, so it'd be all old hat for the rest. I decided to suck it up and just do it. I mean so what if I end up being the slowest? Someone has to bring up the rear. If they all have done mulitple marathons who better to get advice from? The other clinics I've done from The Beaches RR were great, mostly because of the people I met. I can always use more running friends.

2. This postal strike needs to end. I'm still more on the union's side but its getting hard. Handy Manny is ok with it since he knows it means I can't do any online shopping. I want to order some Bondi Bands. I had requested a sample box from Gen UCAN just before the lock out and the halt of USPS accepting stuff for Canada.

Plus my BIL and SIL just had their second boy on Father's Day (What a gift huh?) and they didn't find out what they were having so I didn't get a present and I was going to order something from Etsy, but now its looking like theres no point. Ok that's dramatic but I wanted something to give to them soon after he was born. But most places won't even accept orders till the strike is over. I get why. It just sucks on my end.

3. This time next week we'll offically be on hoildays! The boys finish school next Wednesday and we're looking forward to lots of Zoo trips, Beach trips, ROM trips, Island trips and of course super fun fishing and camping with Grandpa in about 3 weeks time! I'm sure once the end of July hits I'll be begging for school to start again.
Plus Shorty will be graduating grade 6 next Tuesday and getting ready for Middle School come September. When did she get so big and I'd like to know who gave her permission to grow up and be an almost teenager. Eeek.

GULP!

2011-06-21T08:34:00.002-04:00

So last night after talking once again about my nerves and how unsure I was of signing up for a marathon. (I mean I'm only in Week 2 of training and some of the long runs to come look a little scary) Handy Manny told me to check out the Site again and said he wanted to see some stuff on it.

I thought he was just trying to show me that I've done half of this route before. That I'll have support in the hard 30+km parts with friends and family.

Nope, he got up and tossed his credit card at me and told to basically to shit or get off the pot. In his mind whats the point training and not giving yourself an actual goal to get to. Mostly I think he didn't want to hear me complain if I dawdled to much and it sold out.

So Ladies and Gentleman, I'm registered to run Scotia Toronto Waterfront Marathon come October 16th.

Its all exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. I kind of like that.

Sometimes all it takes

2011-06-19T20:09:00.001-04:00

Is "hmm I wonder whats over there"

Today's run went well. Overall my pace was slow but when I was running on the paths I was around 6:15. There was two really slow kms but thats because from a run I did some time last week I saw this trail that went off on the other side of the river and I've never seen anyone go on or off it. Its around the 3k mark so I decided to check it out.

At first it was just a simple trail that was simple. But then it really wasn't. I really wished I had brought my camera it was so cool to see. It was hilly since it followed the sides of the ravine. The uphills were mostly impossible to run up but of course you still got a great work out having to kinda speed walk while trying to not fall off the edge. At points where the was an incline some people had put small ramps. Finally I clued in that this was made by bikers. Clearly not the spandix wearing, energy drinking ones on their road bikes. Finally I saw some guys with their bikes and it was with me at the top of the ravine and them most of the way down. Yeah no way did I want to have to come back up that.

It was at that point I figured I should head back. I need to finish 10k. So I had two really slow kms but man it was great to see stuff that I didn't even think of, like just never on my radar. I've known of that there was more woods on the other side of the city made paths but didn't even think that people had made their own trails in there.

All it took was me taking a break during a run and walking off to the side of the river and looking literally through the trees.

Today's post brought to you by

2011-06-18T10:43:00.002-04:00

The number 500!

Halfway through todays run(I know I ran on a saturday) brought me to 500km so far this year. I didn't hit this mark till mid-July last year and I'm really impressed considering this year I had to take Janurary off, so techically I couldv'e hit this number in May. I love that I'm keeping track because its amazing to see literally just how far I've come over the past year or so(I didn't track in 2009 when I started running, but I started Jan of 2010). I can definitely see me hitting 1000km this year.

and for fun I looked up when I did my first run on this shoes and added those numbers from last year to this years number and these babies have carried me for 741.7km so far. Yeah I think its time I suck it up and get me some new shoes.

Hello Again.

2011-06-17T09:24:00.002-04:00

This past week sure felt like a long time.

I was going to run 10k on Sunday but I got a last minute invite to see Glee in concert so of course I went to that. It was awesome. My computer is getting replaced. Handy Mandy just has to transfer files over to the new one. Our current one is older than Bug whos 6, and its definitely been showing its age. So between that and the issues trying to post with Blogger this week I just gave up trying to post.

Anyways...

Tuesday I started the training cycle for a fall race. You know that BIG SCARY distance thats in October. Yeah I'm not even signed up yet but I'm almost done week #1 of training. And even though it started last night I'm thinking I'm going to sign up for the Running Room's Marathon Clinic. 42.2k is a L-O-N-G way to go without others. Don't get me wrong I have great support in my husband, family and friends but I want some people who will be actually out there with me on long training runs and who get things in a way that friends and family who don't do this wouldn't fully get.

Wednesday's run made me realize that early morning runs like 5am early have to happen now. I did 10k and it got way to hot and even my water got hot and it was hard choking that down. I had to stop at my best friend's house for a water refill and a break because I was sure it be horrible to try and finish without that. Of course it'll be interesting since the RR clincs run at night after most people get home from work. I think I'll be freezing lots of water bottles over the weeks.

Foto Friday

2011-06-10T07:43:00.001-04:00

Seeds the boys are growing.
Trouble's bean, 2 lychee pits, Trouble's purple bean, Bug's corn.
Not pictured- the 2 avacado pits in the kitchen.

Three Things Thursday

2011-06-09T07:19:00.001-04:00

.1. Early morning running.
I actually got out there this morning. Going to bed last night after a storm stopped a run from happening I decided to set my alarm and figured we'll see. At 5 I was up and out the door by 5:30. I actually saw about 4 or 5 other runners out there, so that was nice. I feel great now. Kid's stuff is ready for school, Handy Manny's lunch is ready(I know how spoiled is he huh?)

2. One of the main reason I wanted to get out early this morning is because Trouble class is going on a field trip and I'm one of the helper moms. I'm really excited since its my first time getting to help out really at this school. Last year I couldn't do much since I had Trouble at home. We're going to a garden thing at the harbourfront.

3. I've been dying to decorate some sugar cookies and work on my piping. Its generally too hot to bake so last night at 9:30 I made some finally. I'll decorate them this afternoon with a couple going towards my little helpers. I got some daisies and some circles. Beachballs maybe? We'll see.

Running in Shorts

2011-06-06T14:38:00.004-04:00

I'll be honest in that I was worried about running in shorts. The pesky Burn left me with a not so pretty looking leg. There were times that I honestly couldv'e and shouldv'e worn shorts instead of my capris but I was being vain and didn't want anyone really to see my leg. There was one run at the gym in March where I wore my shorts but other than that I've kepy my leg covered.

Last nights 6k run? I wore my shorts.It was hot out and I didn't even think about it at all till I was putting some body glide on. I figured I could head out anyways and see what happens. If it looked worse than I thought then hey I'd probley have a clear path and not have to weave around others(Gotta look for the postives right?). I kept getting looks from mostly guys during my run and in my head I was parnoid that they were WTF happened to her leg thoughts. Then I decided to take a picture this morning and share my leg here. Left leg BTW.

From like 3 feet away

The front up close(everywhere its spotty is where a blister was. Ouch.)

The back and side

Welll.... theres really nothing to see. I mean there is but from a distance its not noticeable. It has to be up close to see the damage. I've since let myself think those guy.... yeah they were total checking me out.

Yummy Way to End the Year

2011-06-02T18:02:00.004-04:00

So what does one do with themselves (other than talk in the 3rd person) in the days after a race?

They make cakepops!

Last night was the last meeting of Bug's Beaver Troop. So we had a potluck BBQ. It was great and kinda sad since we made a bunch of great friends there and now with the summer its going to be hard to see everyone.
I brought in some cakepops that I made with a bit of Handy Manny's help.

We even put the tails on the beaver hats. The cuteness! (Though Handy Manny wanted to see what each beaver in the troop's tail colour was and give them all their own pop, yeah that was crossing the crazy line for me)

They were a hit considering we made all the kids wait for the dessert stuff and I still only had 2 of 48 left over by the end of the night. I think the closest I got to one was eating the last bite of Trouble's because he wanted to go play.

Toronto Woman's Half Marathon Recap

2011-05-31T09:08:00.002-04:00

I went to bed at my normal time and actually slept well till 4am where I woke up thinking I missed my alarm and then just couldn't fall back fully asleep. Finally at 6am I got up and started getting ready. I had everything laid out the night before so all I had to do was get my water and gaterade out of the fridge, eat and get dressed. I had a hard time eating due to nerves but I knew they would calm once I got to the race site.

The plan was that I would take a taxi in by myself and then all the boys would come by later on so that way they wouldn't get to bored nor would we have to wake them up early and screw with their sleep. I got to the park and wandered around for a while. At 7:30, about 30 mins before the start I hit the bag check and the porta potties. Then I went over and stood in the corrals. I was in corral #2 which would start 2nd at 8:03. Finally my nerves calmed down. I'm always so panicky prior to that point but once I'm in place I'm set.

We listened to the announcers and I chatted a bit with those around me. A couple of us made the same comments about how if you're in the first wave don't wait till the last minute and then have to push through the other packed corrals to get to the front. Then we all added that we didn't see ourselves up in the under 2:00 group any time soon. Finally it was 8:00 and the first wave went off. Once they were gone we got to move up and get ready.

The gun went off again and off we went. It was crowded but nothing to bad. I decided to keep it easy for the first couple K just to warm up and get ready to keep a good pace the rest of the way. As we were coming up a little hill there was a photographer at the top and someone said to smile! I mentioned Marlene and her ability to know how to get great race pics. A couple of the ladies around me asked for her secret. The first water table wasn't until about 5k so with the humidity that we were getting I was happy that I decided to bring my own water. And it was the fireman one, though they were all wearing t-shirts the first time we went by. We turned into the Lower Don and heres where it got interesting since all the rain we had was still on parts of the path, and the path had narrowed. NO one wanted to get wet or muddy if we didn't have to so every so often we'd all have to slow down a bit and get around the huge puddles. The small ones were no big deal and I'd say all of us got mud splats up the backs of our legs. It was around 6k that
Barb saw me and we waved at each other. I tried to keep an eye for her at the turn arounds (there was techically 4 in total) but it was a sea of runners so I didn't spot her again.

Of course we headed back to the fire fighter water station and wohoo some of the younger guys took their shirts off. Yummy! We passed them for the second time on the way into Taylor Creek. And thankfully the race orgainziers had covered up a really muddy part of the route with some stones so no bottle neck at that point. I was feeling good for most of this, other than regretting not wearing shorts rather than capris. I started taking some of my gel and got a 1/3 of it before the 14k mark. We did the turnaround by Vic Park and it was funny that it was the base of the hill where I did my hill training and now that the trees had foilage on them I hardly reconized the spot till I saw the signs around it. Not even thinking when I got to the next water station was that I grabbed some E-load apparently that was in a water cup, and took a huge drink before I realized it wasn't what I thought it was. I should have spit it out but didn't. I've never tried that before and its why I made sure to bring my own gaterade. So now I had a new drink and my gel sitting in my stomach and it didn't feel good. by 16k the nausea had kicked in full force and all I wanted to do was throw up to get it all out but couldn't.I did notice though that more fire fighters had taken their shirts off by my 3rd pass. By 18k I felt like crap and just wanted to be done. I was trying to stop myself from mental kicking myself about what I did and to just focus on finishing. I wanted to be done and even thought of just walking the last 3k. The only reason I didn't was because running slowly would still get me there faster than walking and then I could be done sooner.

Coming to the finish line I saw my boys. I almost cried at seeing them cheer for me. I put on my biggest smile and had Bug not been eating I would have brought him up to run that last bit with me. And then I saw how close I was to the finish and I gave it all I got. I didn't care of I threw up I just wanted through that arch. After getting my necklace I grabbed some water and sat down since I wasn't sure if I wanted to be sick or pass out. Once I was feeling settled I went and hung out with my boys and cheered some more runners in. We saw another family from Beavers who had a family member(the kid's aunt) running and they had come to surprise her. It was great to see her face light up at seeing them. Finally the boys were bored and wanted to head home so we headed to the car after I got my food and my stuff. Of course I had to stop for an offical picture with the back round.

It was great event. I'm kinda kicking myself for it not turning out like I had planned and hoped for. But I've gotten a great lesson in paying more attention to things(Like just because they are annoucning water at the water station and the drink is in a water cup, doesn't mean its water and its ok to go off to the side and spit it out.) and sticking to the plans. I would definitely do this race again and maybe next time with a friend.

I'll post pictures when they post them if theres any I like. :)

Done!

2011-05-30T09:29:00.002-04:00

So....

Yesterday was the Toronto Woman's Half Marathon

Garmin Time : 2:16:52 for 21.05k (6:30pace)

Offical Time

Gun: 2:17:29

Chip: 2:17:08

Pace: 6:32

Overall: 567/1116

25-29: 65/105

Race Report to follow!

Foto Friday

2011-05-27T16:48:00.004-04:00

If you see me come and say Hi!

Three Things Thursday

2011-05-26T12:39:00.002-04:00

1. 3 more days till my half! I'm even starting to think there is the slightest tiniest chance there might even be a PR there. I'm thinking of asking Handy Manny to come home a bit early tomorrow so I don't have to bring the kids to packet pick up.

The weather has changed and now they are calling for a high of 26. Last week we were hoping it wouldn't be to cold at 8am now we're worried about it being too hot. I'm even looking at changing my clothing plans. I'm going to leave it kinda open for now.

2. In anticipation of the race and the fact that I'll not have to run the week after I'm getting lots of cleaning in now so I can literally spend at least 2 days on my ass watching movies or cheesy shows on Netflicks before the training starts up again. I fully believe all this cleaning is helping keep the nerves at bay. Especially since I have two young and active boys and there is always something that needs cleaning.

3. Saturday night I'll be checking out some Roller Derby! Thanks to Netflicks we finally saw Whip it and knowing that Toronto has a league we googled it and found out that a not for profit less serious league
GTA Roller Girls has a game like a 10 min walk from here so we're going with a friend of mine. I'm excited to check it out.

A home of his own

2011-05-24T11:16:00.004-04:00

This is why I love my husband (well one of the reasons).
Bug asked him if Appa could have a house. 10 points to anyone who knows where Appa is from!

Handy Manny said sure, cause really who could say no to this face?

This weekend it was done!

The front

BTW That's Appa in the doorway.

The back

And then of course we had to paint the house in Appa's favourite colours.(if you didn't know that we're in Canada those last two words just gave me away huh? LOL)

Now we just have to find the place to keep it. Oh and now apparently Trouble's baby doll needs a house too.

Taper Time

2011-05-23T09:41:00.001-04:00

Its kind of surprising that its here already. Granted I only have 1 week of taper so thankfully I should be ok about going crazy. Its funny that I've been tracking my runs on dailymile and even in an excel file and I keep watching that number for the distance covered go up, but yet now that the race is 6 days away I'm kind of in disbelief almost.

Did I really do all that running? Of course I know I did. But this time around for some reason I expected to feel different. Like more running evolved I guess.

Not more sure of myself. I do know that I can run the distance. I've done a half before. I've put in the training. I'm ok in that front.

Its I guess just the disbelief that race day is almost here. Now its time to check the weather(a couple dozen times) so I can make sure I'm dressed ok. Check(and double check, triple check, you know) that I have the stuff I need.

Oh fun! Can't you wait to see what I'm like before my first full? Hahahaha.

So that's what happens

2011-05-21T10:00:00.002-04:00

Me and running in nice sunny warm weather have this thing so far this year.

I head out the door and run and it feels great... amazing... fast.
I check my watch and see I'm going faster than normal (ie anything faster than 6:00/km). After that last attempt at holding on to the pace and getting a faceful of wind for 2kms, I decided that well lets see what happens.

Well a just over a 2 min PR kind of thing happens. Talk about getting some speedwork in.

And now I know what some people mean when they describe running so hard they feel like throwing up.

Going Mental

2011-05-19T11:32:00.002-04:00

I push yesterday's run to today. Thankfully since I only run 4 days a week I have that extra day to play with. Yesterday I wasn't a fan of the winds. In my neighbourhood regardless of what direction I was going there was a head wind. So I came back inside and just did a DVD instead. With the thoughts that regardless I was getting out today.

I did and thankfully no crazy winds. Bunch of humidity that I paid for since I totally didn't think of "hey its foggy out and getting less so as the morning was going. hmmm what lifts fog up? That would be humidity." Yeah that never crossed my mind till I was out to far to want to return home to change into shorts and to lose the light jacket.

For the mental aspect, my legs felt heavy but surprisingly I've been finding that they feel less so if I'm going a bit faster than normal..... but my mind today was just tired. I've been feeling like that a lot lately. Not phyically tired just mentally. Today, when my body was wanting to push it and pick up the pace even though it meant being a bit more tired and of course the heavier breathing my mind keep wanting to hold back.

It kept equating pushing it as hard and that I should stop.

Take a minute.

Catch my breath.

A couple times I did. Most of the times I told myself "Lets just make it to the next light. I can go a bit more before I really need to stop. It was definitely a battle. I even had to push away the thoughts that if this is so hard, maybe a full in the fall is too much. Talk about setting yourself up for failure.

Thankfully there was the smart part of my brain still there.

You can do 10k.

Hell you've done 21.1k AND felt great after.

With hard work and training you WILL be able to do 42.2k

Going the distance (literally and figeratively) can be harder on your mind than it is on your body sometimes. But really what a more perfect time to read THIS and remember how awesome it was.

First marathon stories?

2011-05-16T16:17:00.003-04:00

Got Any?

Actually everything but my nerves are telling me to go for the orginal plan of trying for a full in the fall. Theres that small but LOUD part of my brain thats making me question my sanity.

So I need stories. If you have it on your blogs links would be amazing. I need to see what craziness I'm thinking of getting myself into.

Eek!

Last Long Run

2011-05-15T17:45:00.004-04:00

Done!

But before I get into that first go say Congrats to

Marlene for both her and her hubby getting BQ's at the Mississauga Marathon!
Siobhan did the Goodlife Half.
Aneta did the Mississauga Half.
Katye did the Preakness 5K.
(I don't know how they did yet since they have lives and all so haven't updated)
Cindy got a PB at the Oak Bay Half Marathon.
Marica got 1st in her AG at Run for the Fields 5k.

This was rainy weekend. Me and all my boys spent most of the day enjoying Netflix. I did get some household stuff done but my main goal was to make sure I got lots of water. This morning it wasn't really raining when I got up and even when I headed out the door it was ok. The drizzle was so light I totally forgot about it. When Toronto was the around town feature in Canadian Running maybe a year ago they showed a 20k long run that basically went around East York. I remember when I first saw it I wanted to do it but I wasn't at this distance yet when I started half training last year. So I did it as my last long run of that training cycle. So of course I had to do it again. For no other reason then that's its a great mix of city streets and the Rec Trails that are surround by trees and the Don River. The only real downside to this route is that on a Sunday morning you're going to be running along Queen East for a couple of kms and there are lots of yummy smelling breakfast places there.

Once I got to the part that brings you to the "trail" it was a surprise to see some of the people running the Goodlife Marathon. Since I wasn't running it, I didn't really pay attention to the route they take. All I really knew that was that they went down Yonge. So I cheered for them a bit as I was going off in the opposite direction. The winds and rain still hadn't really picked up yet and I was hoping it could hold off for another hour before going crazy so I could be at home first. Didn't quite make it and had some spots where the wind was being a pain.

The other issue I had was that I had 1 gel with me and I apparently lost it at some point when I'm guessing I was getting tissue out of my belt pack. Thankfully I had a couple sour patch kids in there as well so I used those for a pick me up. I probley could have keep up my pace more had I not lost the gel but its still feels good to know that I could make the distance without the extra help. **Yes I know that the candy could have helped too but since I'm a candyholic I doubt 3 little candies did too much**

Of course I remember my mistake from last week and I did take an ice bath when I got home. I still felt tired for a good chunk this afternoon, but still better than last weekend.

Two weeks to go. I have my distance in, and just have 8 shorter runs left til the big day. I just have to keep up my water and good eating and I'm sailing. Plus some ~~constant~~ occasional checking of the Weather Channel.

Some days it’s just not there.

2011-05-13T15:47:00.000-04:00

I’ve heard lots of people talk about how the first 10 minutes of a run isn’t fun. It sucks and we make agreements with ourselves that if after those first 10 and it still sucks we can stop and go home. Usually once I’m past that 10 minutes or really even just that first km I’m ok. I’m good. My body in is the groove and we’re going. Rarely do I feel the need for my music in that first bit where I’m reminding my body what we’re doing. To make sure my pace is ok, my posture.

Today was not one of those days. I kept getting side stitches that I was having issues running through so I’d walk or stop and stretch but as soon as I started up again, the stitch would be back. The plan today was 10km. By time I hit 1km I pushed it down to my usually 6k loop. Figuring at least I’m getting out there. I was doing anything in my head to convince myself that I didn’t need to walk. I didn’t need a break.

Then I remembered that pushing myself through a crappy run where I’m hating every step isn’t a good idea, and that I could stop. I could call it and go home. Not every run is going to be a good one. You need to have a bad one every once in a while to remind you why the good ones are so fantastic.

I run more for my mental health than anything. I enjoy the perks of running on my body but losing weight and getting fitter isn’t my main goal. As much as my body craves a run some days, my mind needs it more. That’s when I can take the time to think things through. My to-do lists get done then, I figure out meals, what we’re doing on the weekend. I can bitch to myself about the things are stressful or just bugging me. I can just sing along with some great songs. I’m free to think of whatever I want. But when my mind isn’t in the place that allows me to enjoy my run I know I need to take a break. Call it a day and move on.

There will be other days, there will be better days.

Three Things Thrusday

2011-05-12T10:23:00.000-04:00

1.

So I've signed up for the Acura 10 miler. It takes place August 14. Its going to be interesting seeing as how the week before I'll be portaging in Algonquin with Handy Manny. But it will help make sure I keep my distance up and not let it plumpt like it did after my last half.

2.
Last night Bug's Beaver troop had rocket night. The leader in charge you ask? Why that would be none other than Ringtail aka Handy Manny. We've done rockets before with just our family but this was the chance to introduce it to a large group.

3.
I'm getting to the point where its going to be time to pick up some new shoes. I'm a bit under 600k on my current pair. After the half(two weeks to go!) I'm thinking I'll see about what to get. Should I stick with my regular ones or should I give it a try and check out another brand? I always figured everyone was very brand loyal regarding their shoes and I see from other blogs thats its so not the case. I was thinking of trying a minialist shoe. Mostly for the summer, since a bit less bulk is a good thing when its already hot out at 5am.

Picking Up Speed

2011-05-11T10:34:00.002-04:00

Well yesterdays run didn't happen. I had a dentist appointment where she was 30 mins late to which totally messed up the point of me having the first appointment of the day. I could have gotten my run in but oh well. The plan was for getting it when Handy Manny came home. Well he had to work a bit late and then he wanted to head over to the park after dinner to do the test flight of the rockets the Beavers are doing tomorrow night. So no run for me. I mean techically I couldv'e, but Glee was on and well I wanted to watch and we don't own a PVR.

But thats ok because I got out there this morning and did my usual 6k loop. I knew I was going fast but decided to just see what happens and how long I could keep it up for.

1k- 5:54
2k- 5:58
3k- 5:43
Then I turned a corner and wham Wall of Wind!
4k- 6:38
5k- 6:34
Finally got to turn and only have the wind on an angle and Wohoo
6k- 5:24

I really wish now that that wind wasn't so bad out there for those 2k. I can just think of how great it would have been to have held on to that speed. Oh well another day.

Why hello there.

2011-05-09T10:23:00.002-04:00

Things here are going well. Just nothing really exciting to post about. Aside from our wonderful 15C(59F) weather we're having right now. And we're not even at the high today yet!

We've been taking advantage of this wonderful and doing lots of parks and walks. I did take some pictures with my cell but apparently they didn't save since I can't find them. Boo. I had some cute ones of the boys feeding some ducks.

I've been getting out and running. Last weekends missed actually got me out there 5 times for this past week so that gave my milage a real boost. I'm 20 days away from my half and I got my 18k run in yesterday. I felt pretty good thoughout it all. I did my run on a race course and seriously of you can do that, do it! I was able to go up the hills and manage well so I'm really happy with that. My only issue is that I kept getting stitches after taking a water break(I would do one break = water, next break = gatorade) for the last half of my run. I don't drink a ton during my runs but I'm curious if this means I wasn't getting enough water in me before hand?

I also need to learn to just do what I need to first. Basically after my run yesterday I showered, had a snack and off we went to TCAF(Toronto Comic and Arts Festival) I'm pretty sure we did around 5k of just walking between that and looking for a late lunch. I had my first Korean hot pot and it was kinda cool. But by time we got food my legs were killing me and I regreted not taking the time to get a quick ice bath in before we headed out. Oh well lesson learnt. Otherwise it was a fanstastic Mother's Day.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! What did you do?

One step back, Two steps forward.

2011-05-03T11:30:00.003-04:00

Trouble is doing well now. Honestly not long after the first dose of his antibotices and he was back to normal.

I had the crazy idea of trying to do my long run yesterday instead. Then I looked at my dailymile and realized it had been 4 days since I ran last and that kind of jump would be bad. So I did a nice and easy 10k to get back into things. It was drizzling for a bit of the run but then it was just nice and cloudy. Today I got back out there again and just did 6k. Mostly since it was raining more and I was worried it would be windy. Had the rain eased up it would have be great running weather.

But I need the sun. Honestly its so hard to NOT be in a funk when it looks cold and miserable outside and its May! I don't even need Summer to come. I can wait. I just want a few less rainy days. I want to be able to take the kids for walks. I want to start getting my backyard ready for it to become our living room.

But on a happier note. Yesterday we got the offical email about our portage trip this Summer. You know Handy Manny and I so alike when both of us when we saw it both thought "Shopping trip to MEC!" #1 on our list is a waterproof camera. If you're going to spend 4 days around lakes, knowing me I could lose a regular camera there.

Mommy of the Year Award

2011-05-01T16:03:00.002-04:00

Right here! and no the good kind.

The boys have been battling one bug or another for a while. Fevers have been crazy in our house. Bug had a fever and signs of a virus for a over week and then Trouble did. The nights were crap. The lack of sleep not fun. Both children who don't normally nap, were napping fitfully. I even came down on Thursday with something that had me with fevers, chills, sore neck, and a dizzy hungover/dehydrated feeling in my head (Thought I knew it wasn't a hydration issue). Today I was down to sore neck only and was going to attempt my long run today.

Instead Trouble started saying his ear hurt. All parents generally know what this means. So off we went to the crazy overcrowded children's walk in clinic. To find out that not only did Trouble have a ear infection it was a dozy. It had clearly been there for almost a week and needs aggressive amounts of meds.

Now I feel bad for being so upset with his clingyness. His want of mommy, his need to sleep next to me every night. I'll get over it and I know it was a mistake that it went unnoticed for so long. But man for that first little while after walking out of the clinic I was hard on myself.

Trouble really won out though. We stopped and got a treat(some cookies). I called Handy Manny(Hubs suggestion for his name on here) to let him know. He and Bug were getting groceries and apparently they decided to get Trouble a treat too (big pretzels!) We even let him pick the rainy afternoon movie.

Needless to say I think he's going to be fine.

Catch Up

2011-04-27T19:15:00.003-04:00

We are back! Things are starting to calm down again. I think I'm finally caught up on reading everyone's blogs.

Easter weekend was wonderful. We all had a great time at Geek's parents (Gonna try that nickname for Hubs for a while). The boys absolutely LOVED spending all that time playing with their cousins.

I even got my long run in. 16k done in humid weather. It was a gorgeous day on Saturday and I had totally forgotten that when it gets warm it also get humid down there. We ended up coming home much later than we planned for Monday but I think we all missed our beds since once everyone was asleep (myself included) no one made a peep till alarms went off in the morning. Which kinda surprised me since the boys had some rough nights while we were away.

I've missed ohhhh what? two weeks worth of hill runs. I'm thinking I'm going to tweak my schedule yet again and see about just alternating speed work and hills for the next couple weeks. I know speed is important but I don't want my legs to forget how to handle those couple hills.

ohhh and April is a major high! as in high distance. Its my first (and hopefully not only) month with over 100km of running in it this year.

Three Things Thursday

2011-04-21T07:50:00.001-04:00

1. Anyone else have a hard time drinking water when the weather is crappy out? Summer time or nice warm spring is no issue and I'm downing 3 litres no problem. Winter and cool(cold like today) spring and fall and I'm struggling to get 2 litres in me.

2. I'm insanely proud of Hubs. Today he got an email from Scouts Canada telling him to go to their site and pick a gift from there. They had the usual like travel mugs, pocket knifes, mini flashlights. Whatever he picks he'll be given next Friday at the troop section banquet. Its their way of acknowleging the effort he(and I'm assuming the other leaders too) put forth helping out the beaver troop.

3. I'm being tagged teamed. I had the wonderful taste of freedom yesterday. I got my run in and I got some errands for Easter done. It apparently was just a tease. Bug threw up during the night. Low grade fever as well. No school for him = me having to wait for Hubs to get home from work to run and get the last stuff ready for our trip. Even though I'm not a super fan of treadmills I shouldv'e asked for one for my birthday. That I could get my short runs in as planned.

Hope you all have a good day!

Running in the Unknown

2011-04-20T15:12:00.003-04:00

Ok not completely the unknown.

For Easter weekend we'll be headed to the Burg where DH and I both lived before we moved to Toronto for college. His parents (and half of his siblings) still live down there. So I do know it. But I've never run down there before.

Thankfully there is MAP MY RUN. I went and looked and found a ton of routes. The only real issue is that most of them head out of town onto the county roads. Yeah I didn't want to do that. So I found a 10k route and improvised it to get my 16k in. Even got a cheat sheet made up with street names on it so I don't get to lost. Plus my phone has GPS so I'm sure that'll come in handy. (In case you can't tell I'm horrible with directions)

It'll be interesting but I have just over a month left before my half and I really don't want to miss anymore long runs. I need them. and Thankfully I don't plan on doing any hill training there. According to the elevation chart on the site there isn't any. So thats a thumbs up compared to my normal long run route. The only downside is the fact that The Weather Network is calling for 60% chance of rain.

Restless and teary eyed

2011-04-19T10:04:00.004-04:00

So no running since Friday. Long run Sunday didn't happen thanks to the crazy weather we had here. It was literally a rotating cycle of rain, hail and snow. Plus Hubs was working and before he got home Trouble was feverish and cranky with Bug's virus. Booo.... We're currently on day 3 of it and I'm praying its over soon. We're supposed to go down to my Inlaws for Easter and I need Trouble to be well for then.

So yeah 4 days of no running so far. I'm getting ansty. I'm getting worried about what this means for my training, mostly I think because I'm ansty, since I know I'm fine. But when you're stuck on the couch with an feverish clingy 4 year old who needs to be touching you in some form to sleep for hours at a time, you're mind starts to wander. Today Bug has Karate and Hubs (I really need to get a nickname for him) has the dentist so if I run tonight it'll literally be a last minute thing.

Thankfully for a while I was able to watch the Boston Marathon yesterday. Please someone tell me I wasn't the only one who was getting teary eyed watching them start and finish. When I was telling Hubs about the amazing 2:03:01 finish he asked if I cried. I think he knows me well. In every race I've done since my first in October 2009 I've gotten teary eyed at the finish. Actually for my first half I did cry a bit after I crossed the finish line. I'm forcasting when I do my first full I'll be bawling like a baby. Maybe I should get a shirt with "Its my first Marathon" on the back so everyone will know I'm just being emotional and not injuried.

Fingers crossed Trouble feels better today and goes to school tomorrow. I need to get out there.

Foto Friday!

2011-04-15T11:02:00.002-04:00

Since I missed TTT yesterday I figured I had to get in for this one.

Bug had a fever for the past couple days so I didn't get out as planned but thankfully my schedule is pretty easily moved around and I still got my runs in. Wednesdays Hill training got moved to this morning.

and the hill?
Here it is.

and that's not even all of it. It curves more after that initial turn and gets a bit more steeper.I tried to get a picture of all of it but I would have to be on the road next to it and there would be a bunch of smaller trees in the way. I am crazy and do prefer short and steep to long and gradual any day.

On the path I like to run on there is a bunch of spray painted stuff written on there. Nothing bad just a bunch of names and there is a happy birthday too. But my favourite is this one.

I always feel like I need to step on it at least once in my runs.

Do you see any graffiti while out that makes you smile?

Last Day of 28!

2011-04-11T10:10:00.002-04:00

That's right. Yesterday was my last day as 28.

Today I woke up to the joys of 29!

It was a great weekend. First Hubby's brother came by with his family. My newphew is adorable. And they are expecting another little one is June so I can't wait for another little baby to be around. After they left Hubs best friend came over and we enjoyed some yummy pizza. With lots of water.

Sunday started off great too. I woke up and saw that it was supposed to be thunderstorms and not just regular rain so I got out there to get my 16k long run in. I'm loving that the rec paths are all clear so I'm doing all my long runs on the actual race route for May. I'm going to own that course. As I was headed out after 3k I came across a water station and pilons. Ohhhh theres a race. I got to about 7k and there was the start of a 10k/5k race. I went passed the start another 1.5k before I had to turn around. Thankfully the 10kers had already taken off by time I got back to the starting line. But as I was going by the 5kers started. So I ran the first 3k of a 5k race.

It was interesting since they had to go through parts of the path in certain ways while I didn't so when I would try to go different someone would stop me and I was constantly having to tell them that I'm not in the race. Just a regular run. But it felt great that for a good chunk (about 5k) of my run I was keeping it near a 6:00/km pace and it felt ok. It was heavy breathing but it wasn't exhausting me like it ususally would. That made me feel great since I was getting bummed that I was doing that pace most of last year and this year I was slower. Just as I was finishing up my run the first claps of thunder came so I made it home at the best time.

After I showered and changed we headed out for brunch and went back to Dr. Generosity. The yummy place we went after Bug's race. Yes we went to other side of the city for food. And it was so worth it. Both Hubby and I had the blueberry/banana stuffed french toast. *Cue the angels choir please* The rain stopped and it turned into a wonderfully warm and sunny afternoon. We walked around and just enjoyed hanging out.

The only downside is that I wasn't drinking water for most of the day so I ended up with a killer headache by time we got home. So my eveing was watching tv and slowly getting more water back into me.

So 28 ended wonderfully and today its off a great start for the last year of my 20s!

Hills = Ass Kicker

2011-04-06T10:37:00.002-04:00

Literally.

Today's plan was 5 hills. Gulp.

I did the usual and sent the boys off to school. and started out towards the hill. I bring water with me for when I'm at the bottom of the hill and since I do my warm up run in the opposite direction of the hill in the Rec paths I usually drop my water off behind a small rock. I'm debating needing to get a sticky label and write something cute like

"Leave me be, My owner is coming back for me"

See how clever I am, even before I get my coffee. So far no one has taken my water and I'm assuming I don't really need the label, but for some reason I'm convinced one of these days I'm going to get to that little rock and find my water gone.

Anyways....

I got to the hill and ditched the gloves, jacket and water and set upwards. While going up that hill is tough and my legs hate me for putting them through it, nothing quite feels like the big ball of muscle my ass feels like on the way down. Its only for that first downhill and after that I don't notice it but man it literally feels like you could bounce a quarter off that thing.

I ran into (not literally) two people on my way up as they were walking down. The lady gave me a weird look. I'm not sure if it was because I was running up a long steep hill or for the fact that as I exhaled, the word "UP" kept coming out of my mouth. The guy with his two dogs I think was just trying to keep his dogs from getting too excited and from jumping on me. That was during the 4th hill and I'm sure it distracted me since about just over 3/4 of the way up I stopped. I just couldn't run up it anymore and wanted to go home. I did walk up the hill to my little pile of pine cones that marked my turnaround spot and I jogged back down. I did manage to convince myself to do that last one and a proper cool down.

Of course, now my nice warm cup of coffee feels extra special. I'm even tempted to ask Hubby if my ass feels stronger to him. I'm sure I'll get a weird look over the request but I'm very sure he'll oblige.

Bug's Race

2011-04-02T17:31:00.002-04:00

As you all know Bug ran the Kid's Fun run at Harry's Spring Run Off yesterday. They started at the 5k start and ran around the corner basically to the 8k start. It was 800 meters. Not a full kilometer but they wanted to use what they already had set up.

At the start

While running (I really commend those who do the whole running and take pictures thing, cause its hard.)

Crossing the finish line.

I had jumped up on the curb so I could get this shot and he had started to follow me I had to go back a bit to tell him to go under the arch.

My proud boy

They didn't time it and I forgot to set my watch so we're not sure how fast, but we do know it was lots of fun.

We saw that some kids around his age were doing the 5k with their parents and he asked if we could do that race next year. Espeically when he heard that the 5kers get medals. Looks like I got plans next spring.

Three Things Thrusday

2011-03-31T12:00:00.002-04:00

1. So apparently you can hand me a sharp knife and I can work wonders with it. Mostly thanks to my awesome culinarly training skills. But ask me to wash the cheese grater in the sink? Not to much. My middle finger on the right hand is missing a bunch of skin off the top and man it hurts. Typing can be tricky not using that finger to much.

2. I'm signed up again to do the Daring Kitchen's Baker's Challenge. Its a site that has monthly food challegnes for Savory Meal stuff and Baking. You find out what you make on the first and you have to make it and post it on your blog no earlier than the 27th each month. You can make it whenever in month but no posting earlier. I've made

A Dobos Torte

Covered Marshmellow Cookies with Homemade Marshmellows.

and Milan Cookies

Can't wait to see whats in store for April.
I'll post my stuff here.

Cooking Blog and I'll link here in case anyone forgets.

3.Hubby's and Mine Portaging trip is offically booked for early August. We'll spend 4 days togther in Algonqin Park hiking and canoeing. Major Kudos to The Portage Store. Thanks to them, us newbies at this can show up with our clothes and other needs and they make sure we have everything else. Tent, canoe, food, a route(You can plan your own but we had no clue). Very excited can't wait!

Great Aspirations

2011-03-29T10:01:00.005-04:00

We all have them.
Sometimes they seem these out in the stars, impossible to reach things, that you think wishfully about.
Sometimes they make you realize that you want to do something else with your life, and put the wheels in motion.
Sometimes they are totally attainable but are just downright scary enough to make you hesitate to take those first steps.

It starts young. We ask little children what they want to be when they grow up. Currently my children are not aiming to high. Well Shorty is, she's debating a couple thing really. Like she wanted to be a paleontologist for the longest time. Now she's thinking geologist. The boys? Well I mean they are younger so it'll probley change. Right now Bug wants to be a Taxi driver, because they get to drive cars around all day. Trouble, wants to work with the cement truck on construction sites. Now that one could easily stay the same.

I wanted to lots of things. A teacher, a photographer and a chef topped my list. I even went to culinary school and worked in kitchens. I even met the Dali Lama, when he was speaking here years ago.

But right now my main aspiration is to run a marathon. Its that last one in the top paragraph. I Love watching the elites at races. I dutifully watch Boston every year, even thought there was never a thought of me running it. They don't air New York here but I spent $5 to stream it live on my computer last year. I even get teary eyed watching them cross the finish line. But imaging me doing that distance scares me worse than seeing a bunch of spiders(If I know theres a spider in a room, I cannot/will not be in that room). Its attainable through some hard work, taking care of myself. So scary but doable. I might end up bugging all the marathoners here with questions in the coming while. I apologize now in advance.

The boys also have some interesting goals. Bug wants to be as tall as daddy and fast as mommy. I'm sure those are a given. At 6 he's currently 3/4 of my height and its looking like he takes after daddy's side of the family for height. At his first race last year, he did his 1km run in 7:11. Yeah he'll be zooming by me in no time. Trouble wants to get to 7 and be tall like Shorty. The getting to 7 thing might be interesting since when he injures himself he seems to like getting hurt in the head the most. :P

I'm clearly going to be the shortest in the house once the boys hit puberty.

This is from last summer. Look at Shorty, shes not even standing straight in this picture.

Do you think I could aspire for Hubby to buy me more heels?

What aspiration do you have right now?

Done and Ready

2011-03-28T12:45:00.003-04:00

So true to my word I got my 12k in yesterday. I didn't head out as early as I originally planned but it worked out well. I decided to try an out and back on the trail. I'd say it was about half clear of snow/ice. My only real issue...ok well two issues... were that its an awkward time of year for me to pick out running clothes. I wore what was usually appropriate for the weather but didn't take into account that the sun is getting warmer while out. So at one point I took off my headband/ear cover thingy and had to take off my jacket since opening the vents on the side AND undoing the zipper were not enough. Of course it was still chilly out so that lasted just under 2km. The other issue is that I didn't bring water with me and while it was fine, with about 3k to go I saw that someone left a bottle at one of the parking lot picnic tables and I realized I really wanted some. Never crossed my mind until then. Hmmm.

Saturday is Quinn's first race of the year!
He's doing the kids fun run at

He's very excited.
I even found a kids technical long sleeve at Walmart of all places for $6. Its a bit big on him, but I couldn't pass up that deal.

Some "practice runs" in his new shirt.

Doesn't he look awesome?

Bad me.

2011-03-25T14:37:00.002-04:00

So yeah today was long run day. 12k.

Yeah didn't happen.

Hubs is heading out right from work for a beaver leader training thing that goes till late tomorrow. Its out of town so he has the only car :(
And of course there was errands to be taken care of while the boys were in school so I wouldn't have to be dragging them along with me this afternoon.

I do really need to get over the dislike of using a babysitter while I run. Especially since running during March Break didn't work out, and then today with lots of things to do but so little time to do it in sans kids. We have this lovely lady around the corner who watchs kids and she has watched the boys before. She mentioned she likes having the boys over even just for little bits to play with the other kids there. Bah. Slowly I'll get over this. I just have to remember that when people offer, its not putting them out.

I'm be doing my long run Sunday morning instead. Route is already planned, as is that Daddy will be in charge of making the pancakes for breakfast. Nothing like hot food fresh and waiting for you after a run.

So its movie and popcorn night here tonight. Still not exactly sure what we'll watch. Tomorrow the little men want to go to the Science Center. I'm sure I'll get a few KMs in just ~~chasing~~ following them around.