The Weekend – Part II – Sunday

Whew…it has been a busy night and I need to get off to bed…  But first I have to tell you about Sunday!  Tri-It was holding a Spin-A-Thon on Sunday.  Up to 6 hours of indoor riding with proceeds going to help local triathletes reach the podium.  I love the sound of doing something good for a good cause.  Plus I may have also been swayed by the words swag bag, Spolumbo’s sandwiches and door prizes.  Since my longest ride to date on my bike has been just under two hours (both indoors and outdoors) I was a little nervous about the prospect of spending so much time in the saddle.  I was assured that I could ride for as long as I wanted, and that there would be the option to do some yoga as well.  So…sign me up!  I had the option to ride from 8-2 or 2-8 and I figured I’d go for the morning session.

I woke up to another crazy dump of snow Sunday morning.  Seriously, it doesn’t look like spring is ever going to arrive in Calgary…  Getting to Tri-It that early in the morning was a challenge.  The roads hadn’t really been ploughed yet and there were plenty of cars in the ditch.  Since I think folks were a bit delayed thanks to the rough roads we were a bit late starting.

I had picked my bike up from Bow the afternoon before and hadn’t tested it out.  But it sure looked so shiny and good as new though!  The bike mechanic had even cleaned up the wiring for bike computer by hiding the wires underneath the bottom tube.  Sweet!  I set up my bike next to a friend and started spinning.  I looked down at the computer and it was reading 0s.  I lined the magnets up properly and started spinning again.  This time the computer told me I was spinning around 250 rpm and going 5.5 mph??  I didn’t want to ride for that long and not have some estimation of how many miles I was getting in.  I thought maybe some wires got mixed up, but once I realized that I just needed to swap the sensors around that sorted things out.  By this time I’d already missed the first few minutes, but at least now I knew what was going on with my computer!

We had a new instructor every hour or so, with a break between each instructor so you could grab a snack or refill your water bottle.  Some of the gals even came by with nutrition or offered to fill up our bottles while we were riding, so terrific support!  Honey Stinger provided some of our nutrition and I just have to say that their dark chocolate cherry almond protein bar is amazingly tasty!  Definitely my favourite bar that I’ve tried so far.  Their organic energy chews are also really good.  We also had orange slices and bagels and cream cheese for snacks, plus HEED to drink (although I stuck with nuun and water).  And of course, the sandwiches from Spolumbo’s!

The first gal coaching us took us through what felt almost like an hour long warm up.  At least that was how I took it.  I knew I’d be on the bike for awhile so I didn’t think I should push it too hard, too early.  Our second instructor helped us visualize going through one loop of the IM Lake Placid bike course.  That was a pretty neat way to think of the ride on the trainer!  Coach Angie was our next instructor and this was the first time that I really got my heart rate up.  We ran through some single leg sets, some max rpm challenges and some sprints.  Richelle took over for the fourth hour and this was where at least half of the group decided to pack it in.  Richelle had a good workout for us though with a nice mix of low cadence and high cadence work.  Our final instructor was Luke Way.  Wow did he challenge us!  120 rpm for 2 min?  Gear pyramids building to our hardest gear and back?  Crazy stuff!  Part way through Luke’s set my right knee started to feel a bit tweaky so I stretched, got off the bike to chat with Richelle and grab a bite to eat.  I got back on the bike to finish the workout though…and it felt like such a good accomplishment!  There were up to 50 people there, but probably 15 of us stuck it out to the end?

Apart from the tweaky knee I felt surprisingly good.  My quads?  In great shape.  My sit bones?  Not sore at all.  Okay, it didn’t feel like I’d been sitting on a pillow the entire time, but all in all my new saddle is really comfy!  And my bike fit?  Also really comfortable.  I figured this would be a good test to make sure everything on my bike is set up pretty well.  I couldn’t have imagined riding that long indoors under any other situation, and switching up instructors and having so many people there made the time fly by.  Literally.  By the time I got the bike computer working I recorded 4:42:55 in the saddle, and the equivalent of 76.22 mi.  My longest ride before that?  Just over 32 mi back in September.

We had to hurry up and pack up so the afternoon group could come in and set up.  I grabbed my swag bag and here’s what we got:

Sam McGlone was also there for the afternoon session so I had a chance to tell her that I enjoyed her talk at the Outdoor Show the day before.  If I left Tri-It with one feeling on Sunday, it was that I cannot wait for all of this snow to go away so that I can get out on some really nice, long bike rides outside!

The Weekend – Part I – Saturday

Blessings In Disguise?

I had a plan for Saturday. It involved fitting in a 13.5 mi run. My parents left their car here in Calgary when they went on holiday. After they left the check engine light came on. I had an appointment to take it in to the dealership on Saturday morning to figure out what was going on. The car was due in at 9 and I figured I’d go for my run while they were looking at the car. I put the key in the ignition…and nothing…dead battery. With no way to boost the vehicle I called and canceled the service appointment and tried to figure out what to do instead.

I was pretty keen to go to the Outdoor Show if possible so that I could see Samantha McGlone speak. I figured I’d get my grocery shopping done, head to the Outdoor Show, then get my run done in the afternoon. The Outdoor Show? It was pretty small and was focused on travel agencies, fishing trips and ski resorts. There was a small running and triathlon corner with a few different booths and a stage set up for different speakers. I caught the presentation by Fresh Fitness on heart rate monitor training where they talked about the importance of endurance training in a low heart rate zone.

Sam McGlone was there to talk about how to balance training for an Ironman with work and still having a life. Apparently the saying is that you can race, you can work, you can have a life…pick two. She talked a little bit about her training throughout the year and throughout the week and how you can schedule things to try and achieve some balance. As you get closer to race day it becomes harder to balance everything, but at that point you’ll probably have to make a few sacrifices. It was great to hear her talk.

After I left the Outdoor Show I grabbed some lunch and headed home to change and set out for my run. But there was a problem. I’d been dealing with a sore ankle since Friday. And I wasn’t sure that it was something I should be running on. I called Angie and the first words out of her mouth were, “What’s wrong?” Angie advised not running, but I could try a water run or a stint on the elliptical instead. Turns out the problem was most likely due to some shoes that need retiring and Angie was pretty sure that since the onset was so sudden that if I took care of it, it should go away pretty quickly too. I headed off to the Y and knocked out 46 thrilling minutes on the elliptical. In hindsight it was probably a good idea that my plans changed and I didn’t get my run in first thing in the morning.

Getting My Veggie On

I came home from the Y and started in on dinner – some vegetarian lasagna. I worked with a recipe from here. I used whole wheat noodles, and put eggplant, zucchini, red pepper and mushrooms in the tomato sauce. I also added in a layer of chopped spinach in with the ricotta. It turned out really well! I had a big day planned for Sunday, so headed off to bed early.

Details on Sunday to come in another post!

In a nutshell

No real time to tell you all about the weekend quite yet, but here it is in a nutshell:

• Dead car battery
• Saw an Olympian and Ironman 70.3 World Champion
• Delayed run thanks to ankle pain
• Elliptical thanks to ankle pain
• Bike computer issues
• More than 4:42:55 and 76 mi on the trainer. In one morning.

Happy Monday all! (And yes, I really did post at 5 am...)

Hills and Sprints

First things first...yesterday I confirmed what I pretty well already knew. I won't be lining up with thousands of other women at the starting line for the Nike Women's race in October. I'm a little sad since this would have been a chance for me to see my gal pals from San Antonio, Suz and TK, my cousin who lives in Kentucky, and my best friend who recently moved out to San Francisco. But...I have run the race before...and I can always enter again next year.

Anyhow, back to Thursday. There was no swim class scheduled so I opted to sleep in slightly (sleep in being relative since I was up at 5:30 to get to work) and put my swim off until the evening. I also had a hill workout to do, which was perfect for fitting in over lunch. It was about -4C out and a bit windy in places, but the sunshine was terrific. I headed down to the river and warmed up for 15-20 minutes to start my hill repeats at the big hill by the curling club. I had 5 x 2:00 repeats on the schedule. There were a bunch of people out there with the same idea as me and it felt like they were just blowing past me all the time..! I kept my pace steady and strong throughout all the repeats and even managed to improve the pace on them slightly. Just as I finished off my last repeat and was taking off for my cool down run I ran into my teammate Michelle. She had 3:00 hill repeats on her schedule!

I headed off to the Y in the evening and got in the pool around 8:30. Angie gave me a 2200m sprint workout to do. I figured that since it is supposed to be spring break that maybe the pool wouldn't be that crazy. Hmm... I really need to remember to not swim at my Y in the evenings at all..! There were three lanes set up for swimming and I jumped in the medium speed lane. As soon as I got in the water I was feeling really good - so much better and more efficient than Monday! As I moved from the warm up and into my sets the lane got a bit busier and there were about 5 of us in there. I looked over at the fast lane and there was just one other guy swimming so I decided to move over. The only problem with swimming in the fast lane is that this is the lane next to the open area of the pool where the kids are there to hang out, horse around, play with anything that floats and cannonball into the water. No problem with that, but somehow noodles, kick boards, weights, pull buoys all kept ending up in the fast lane. Tough to sprint when you are dodging debris. I pulled it off though and had a really successful swim...so I'm starting to feel like I might be back to my old self!

I have a busy day today, and I really wish I had time to go to the Outdoor Adventure Show. Samantha McGlone is giving a talk entitled "Ironman Training on a Time Budget: How to Train, Race, Work and Still Have a Life." It would definitely be interesting!

In search of a little mojo

I'm not going to lie folks, this week has been a tough one. I'm getting the workouts in but I feel like they just are not going well. Life outside of training has been...interesting...this week and I'm pretty sure that it is affecting me mentally and might be contributing to me not feeling the workouts. Sometimes that can be fuel to fire me up and I'll really push through a workout, but right now it is leaving me feeling totally...meh.

Last night was a busy one. I got out of work a bit later than I planned and I had a few errands I still needed to run. I hit the grocery store, then dropped my bike off at Bow for a spring tune up. I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of owning my bike and the first tune up within the year is covered under warranty. So I needed to make sure I got it in on time. They were selling off last year's gloves for a good price so I picked up a pair, then headed off to the Y. I had a 30 minute run to get done and I didn't want to dodge snow and ice (or run in the cold) so I opted for the treadmill. I was running at a comfortable 6.0 (or 10:00/mi) but I bumped it up just a bit to see how it felt. I couldn't stop staring at the display and watching the clock tick down. Finally Welcome to the World came on and it fired me up. I changed my mind and figured I'd just run 3 mi and see if I could run a little faster. By the time I was into the last mile I was ready to keep pushing it and wound up finishing up at an 8:40ish pace. Plus I figured I might as well stretch it out to a 3.1 miler. I felt pretty good when I was done. Hopefully this can carry forward into my hill repeat run today!

I got home and finished up making dinner. I wanted to try N Her Shoes' black bean burgers. I modified things a bit by sauteing up my onions, peppers and garlic ahead of time, plus I threw in some mushrooms for good measure. I also copied the Granny Bee's Roughage salad that the Grizzly Paw in Canmore serves. Salad mix, shredded carrot, a small amount of shredded cheese, finely diced cucumber and beet and some chopped up hard boiled egg on top. I've never boiled an egg before last night. Seriously. Have you ever tried to google "how long do you boil a hard egg for"? There are a gazillion different directions and opinions out there. Who knew boiling an egg could be so tough?! Anyhow, dinner was delish, so hopefully DGB will enjoy it for lunch today. Speaking of which...I'd better head off to work!

Substitute Teacher

Last night Richelle e-mailed me - "Help! I need a few more songs for spinning tomorrow night!"
Spinning with Richelle is always fun since I love the majority of the songs on her playlist (especially since she’s always asking me for new ideas for songs to add).  Angie was out of town so Richelle was filling in for her.  I think when Angie is away she worries that we’ll slack off so she always creates crazy difficult workouts for us to do.  Tonight was no exception, since this was apparently Angie’s hardest workout to date!  We had some long, hard intervals to do.  We ramped up from 3 x 1:00 to 3 x 2:00 to 3 x 4:00, then backed down to some short hard sprints at 3 x 0:30 and 3 x 0:15.  1:36 on the bike.  Good stuff!  Afterwards Richelle put us through a tough core workout.  The kicker was when we had to lie on our back, feet up in the air, and we had to spell out “Why are workouts always so hard when Angie is away?” with out feet.

---

In totally unrelated news (and “news” is debatable), I fell asleep on my couch on Friday night.  I woke up at 2 am to videos playing on Much Music.  One from City and Colour was playing, and this is one of my new favourite songs:

If you are a fan of Death Cab, The Tragically Hip or Rilo Kiley then this is worth checking out.

Off to a Flying Start

Last week's workouts? Practically non-existent. But today I was ready to jump back into my training plan. My swimming clinic is on hiatus this week for spring break so I'm on my own, although Angie gave me a couple of workouts to keep me going. One of my teammates was telling me that the pool at the Eau Claire YMCA is fairly empty before 5 pm. I figured I'd give a post-work swim a try instead of the usual early morning session. I had meant to get into work by 6 am...except I forgot to set one of my alarms and I finally woke up just after 5:30 am. Oops! I made it in at 6:30 though, so I was out of work at 3:30 and off to the Y. There were two medium and one or two fast lanes set up. I got into a medium speed lane with a guy and I guess he wasn't too keen on sharing so he ducked into the fast lane.

My swimming felt somewhat like Phoebe's running style but in the water. How is it that after a week off I feel like I've lost all coordination? At one point a lady and I shared a lane. I was swimming behind her and I got distracted by some guy that jumped into our lane and swam along the bottom of the deep end underneath us and I wound up bumping into her. Oops! Pretty well the rest of the swim was uneventful and I got 2100 m in.

After I got home I whipped up a quick omelet, then I had a spin workout to get done. Just under an hour with 10 x 30 second sprints. I put the rest of Twilight on and hopped on the bike. The spin went well and I finished up just as the movie was ending. Perfect timing! Now...time to head off to bed since I need to get to work early!

Weekend In Banff

Before leaving for Banff on Saturday morning I had a spinning workout to get in.  It was a 68 – 90 minute workout with 3 x 8:00 zone 4 intervals and some standing sprints.  I ran to Walmart early in the morning to pick up a few last minute items that I needed for the trip, plus I wanted to pick up Twilight on DVD.  I threw the DVD in and started in on the spin.  Those zone 4 intervals were tough…  I know I don’t get my heart rate up as high on my at home spins than I do at Angie’s class so this was good incentive.  Unfortunately I was running late so I had to shorten the workout.  I did all of my zone 4 intervals, but I had to shorten the number of standing sprints and my cool down.  I took a quick shower, threw my stuff in the car, and drove out to Banff.

My friend DGB was there for a hockey tournament and this was my first chance to catch one of her games.  It was great to see the ladies play and it made me wish that I knew how to skate.  It would certainly be fun to play!  DGB’s team won 3-0.

After the game a few of us headed out for a late lunch at the Magpie & Stump Mexican Cantina.  After some margaritas (or Dos Equis Amber), and some enchiladas we hit the town center for a bit of shopping.  We stopped in at lululemon and I would have to say, trying on stretchy, fitted yoga clothes when you feel like you are growing a food baby after Mexican food…not the best idea!  It was a beautiful day out – 15C and sunny out.  There were quite a few people out and about wearing shorts!

After that it was time to get ready for our cougar night on the town!  I have to admit, I did a terrible job dressing up as a cougar.  Probably because I didn’t have any animal print to wear.  Some of the ladies went all out though!  I’m not sure if we really came off as cougars or as something else…  Walking down the street we heard:

• Lots of honking.
• A mom telling her little 3 of 4 year old kid not to look at us.
• Folks assuming that we were part of a stagette (aka backelorette) party.

The night was an absolute blast!  We went for dinner at Melissa’s, stopped by the Legion for the hosting hockey team’s social, then went for drinks at Wild Bill’s Saloon.  I even got a ribbon that said that I was a welcomed guest of the Legion!

The girls had the next game in their tourney at 9:30 am so it was reasonably easy to call it a semi-early night.  Because…you know…I had an 11 mile run to get through the next day.  Sometime in the early morning a snow storm blew threw.  Luckily I came prepared with some warm running clothes and my Yak Trax.  I had a quick breakfast then headed out as the girls went off to their game.  It wasn’t too cold out, but there sure was a lot of snow.  I ran through downtown and for the first time I noticed the bus stops in town.  I think it is great that they have signs that give you an idea of how many minutes away your bus is.

I ran through town, then made a turn to run towards the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel.  Bits and pieces of sidewalk had been cleared, but for the most part it was quite the slog.  At one point I saw these guys ahead of me:

There were four of them that ran across the road in front of me.  The Banff Springs hotel is gorgeous.  There were a ton of folks heading out from the hotel to go skiing at different mountains.  I hit the main parking lot just past the hotel and turned around.

I was planning on running part of the Melissa’s half marathon route.  A big part of the run is along Glen Avenue, but as I started running along the road it felt pretty desolate out.  I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to head down that way too far.  And my legs were getting pretty tired from slogging through all of this snow.  Let’s not even talk about how slow my pace was…

I headed back into town and decided to run up and down the main drag, past the shops and the hotels and back.I knew there was going to be no way that I’d get 11 miles in.  My legs were just way too tired and I would have had to run up and down the main drag way too many times.  So I called it quits somewhere around 6.6 miles.  I changed into some dry clothes, stopped in at Starbucks for a warm beverage, then got on the road.

I decided to stop in Canmore for lunch at the Grizzly Paw in Canmore.  You can tell that Banff has a much bigger snow removal budget than Canmore…  The off ramp from the highway hadn’t been plowed yet (although I did see a wolf just as I was exiting which was pretty neat).   Lunch was great, then it was back to Calgary to pick up the kids from the kennel.

By the time we got home my yard hadn’t been plowed yet and both Maggie and I underestimated how much snow there was in the yard.  She jumped off the step and landed in snow that came up past her armpits!  She was a bit shocked at first, but then she caught her bearings and started to eat the snow.  Finlay, being the little Texan dog that he is just took one look outside and ran back inside!

First Workout of the Week

I wanted to run after work, but I had a few errands I had to run first. I needed to stop by the vet as Maggie was out of food. Ever since Maggie got really ill back in July 2007 she's had to be on special food or else it can really disrupt her stomach. It it somewhat ironic that she can munch on bark mulch or chew on toothbrushes and be just fine though! Yesterday I had to feed her Finlay's food and she wound up getting ill at 2 am this morning...

I figured since I was out and about that I'd head somewhere out of my neighborhood for my run. First I thought about going to Edgemont since I hadn't been there in awhile, but the pathway was completely covered in snow and ice. I guess they don't clear the snow there in the winter? I went with the backup plan and headed over to run the river from Edworthy instead. I actually had a trainer workout on the schedule but I figured I'd take advantage of the nice temperature instead. With no real gameplan I thought I would aim for about three miles.

When I got started I felt about as coordinated as Phoebe from Friends when she runs.

And it sucked. How is it that I had a great run last Thursday? And set a PR at a race on Sunday? I looked down at my Garmin at one point and my average pace was 10:44/mi. WTF?

After I hit one mile I stepped off the pathway and stretched a few things out and thought about what was going on. I was probably being a bit hard on myself... I continued on and I managed to pick up the pace at some points but it still felt like a pretty tough run overall. 3.4 miles done. It wasn't pretty, but at least I got out there!

Found!

Luckily they found my results for the race on Sunday! They had just missed scanning in the bar code on my bib. When they were updating the website for a brief moment it looked like I came in first overall! That will most likely be the only time we see that happen, so I had to grab a picture of it. The results have since been updated and my gun time was 57:32, 353rd overall.

Otherwise....not a whole lot to report... Didn't run yesterday...didn't swim this morning... The temperatures are supposed to get up to 13C (55F) today, so I'll probably aim for a run after work. Finally it feels like I've nearly kicked this thing...knock on wood.

Wow, I can't believe it is Thursday already! Better get in to work though, eh?

Happy St. Pat's!

First off...talk about a St. Patrick's failure! The official results were posted for my race on Sunday and I am...conspicuously absent. Somehow or other it looks like I didn't race. I e-mailed the race director but I am not overly hopeful that I will be added in to the official results. Sigh. From what I can tell I placed 353rd overall out of 540, 45th out of 94 in the female 30-39 category.

So yesterday I took the day off of work to rest and try to kick this nasty cold. As the day wore on I realized I was hungry, plus I needed to cook something up to bring for lunch today since it was my day for the Great Lunch Swap Project. I figured I'd try to make something festive for St. Patrick's Day.

My dish called for Guinness, plus I am a big fan of Smithwick's Irish Ale, so I stop by the liquor store. At the check out the man behind the counter asked me for my ID. This is somewhat amusing since the drinking age in Alberta is 18. And I am a few years past 18. The guy looks at my ID and says, "Wow! Congratulations! Keep up the good work!" That was a nice boost!

I needed a snack before cooking...so I had some Irish cheese:
I decided to make Dublin Coddle. It is a dish that contains potatoes, onions, bacon and sausage. I was even able to find some British style bacon, although back bacon (or Canadian bacon depending on where you are from) would work well as a substitute.
There aren't a lot of veggie Irish side dishes, but I cooked up some cabbage. And I had a little bit of Guinness left over by the time the coddle was ready to eat.
It was tasty stuff!

Last week I wasn't feeling great and I worked out and I just wound up feeling worse. So I've decided a few rest days are in order. I bailed on both swimming and spinning tonight and I probably won't run tomorrow either. I need to kick this nasty stuff!

And as a complete and total aside, Saturday is a girls night out and there is a theme. We are supposed to dress up as cougars. Seriously...I have no idea what to dress in. So guys, any ideas for things to wear so I can look cougarrific?

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

I am a big, fat liar.

All of this time, I've been lying about my 5K PR. Within the last few weeks I've discovered a whole bunch of friends on Facebook that I knew circa grade 5 and 6. So one night I dug through old photo albums trying to find fun pictures to scan in and share. In the back of an album I found this:
After the race I had the wisdom to write down my race time from my watch on the back of my bib, since it was significantly different from the gun time on the results website.30:03...just a few seconds shy of reaching that sub-30:00 goal. It was a pretty neat race. My university co-op department put a team together and we got to run around Science World in downtown Vancouver. Because my gun time was so off (30:29), and that is what shows on the results online...I'd kind of forgotten about it. All of this time I thought that my 5K PR came from my very first 5K ever, a 30:28:
And yup, that is Nikki of Slow is the New Fast who came in at 30:27. I thought I beat that PR at the Calgary Police 5K back in April 2008.
Apparently I was wrong! Bring on the Spring Trio 5K - I've got a new PR to set!

St. Patrick's Day 10K - Race Report

The St. Patrick's Day Road Race, put on by the Calgary Roadrunners, is quickly becoming an annual tradition for me. This was my third year running the race. I like this race because we get to run around the University of Calgary (which is a different route from most of the races around here), plus you get stew and rolls at the end...plus you have your chance to win your weight in beer at the awards ceremony. Who wouldn't want to win their weight in beer?

The last two years the race has been chip timed, but apparently there was a bit of a snafu with the timing company changing hands shortly before the race, so no chips today.

I've sort of felt so so this entire week. Not necessarily really sick, but not entirely 100% either. Waking up this morning I could tell that this was the worst I felt all week. I was getting winded going up the stairs in my townhouse. Oh no... So I rooted around my bathroom and finally found a thermometer. 100.1 deg. Enough to qualify for a low grade fever. I debated my situation. I could throw my pyjamas back on and crawl back into bed. I could run with the fever. Or I could pop something and see if it did anything to my slight temperature. My choices were Tylenol PM or ibuprofen and I went with the ibuprofen since I didn't want to get sleepy in the process... A recheck told me that I was down to 98.7 deg when it was time to leave the house. I was running late for meeting my team for the warm up run though. Oops.

I pulled into the parking lot for McMahon Stadium and headed over to the Red & White Club where all of the runners were congregating. There was a shoe drop for the Mustard Seed and I took the advantage to donate four pairs of gently used sneakers - 3 pairs of Nikes and 1 pair of New Balances - that were all purchased around the time I thought my feet were a size 9 until a running store told me that I was actually a size 10. So no sense keeping those around... I was also able to exchange my t-shirt for a smaller size...whew! I also ran into a teammates and friends milling around. Then coach Angie found me and told me to head out for a warm up run...then it was time to start.

The route has been adjusted this year and they had us starting on top of a slight incline behind the stadium, running down a pretty icy road. As we got going there were people elbowing and jockeying for position and I just wanted to not wipe out on the ice. Once we got out onto University Blvd I was able to settle in to my pace. Because I was obviously not my healthiest I didn't want to focus on racing a PR, I would just run and see what would happen. And I didn't want to look at my heart rate because I figured it would be pretty sky high.

At one point about 2 mi in I was trying to run past a couple of girls decked out in Lululemon gear and wearing their iPods. First there was room on the right between one girl and the curb, but as I made my move she drifted towards me and I very nearly tripped her. Oops! I was finally able to get past them, but they surged back ahead. Not that I have anything against girls in Lululemon gear wearing their iPods but I wanted to pick them off. I wasn't feeling too bad as we neared the point where the 5K folks were supposed to turn off. My pace was dropping, and finally on a hill I got past the Lululemon girls and never saw them again. They may have been 5k runners but at least I succeeded in picking them off! When we hit the 5K point a lady caught up to me and asked me about what pace we were running. It looks like we hit the 5K mark around 28:40...so that was pretty good. The trick would be if I could keep the pace up or negative split. As we started on the second loop I was really feeling any incline in the road a whole lot more, and I wasn't able to generate as much momentum on the downhills. My pace dropped slightly, but I was still going fairly strong. I didn't want to pick it up too much for fear of tapping out before the end. Anytime I looked down at my Garmin I noticed that my heart rate was in zone 5 so I figured a complete blow up may be possible.

Finally we hit a turn towards the stadium and there was some glorious downhill. I saw Karen and found more room in my legs to really pick it up. As we hit the parking lot for the stadium we were routed around it for the extra distance thanks to the route change. I really wanted to try and keep the pace up but the road was extremely icy. I figured I'd rather slow down a bit rather than run the risk of wiping out, but I was able to kick it into a higher gear for the final straight shot into the finishing chute. No idea what the clock said but my Garmin read 57:25. 6.26 mi. A brand new PR (on a slightly long course). On a morning where I probably shouldn't have been racing. No negative split, but I'm okay with that.

After finding Angie and a few teammates (and running into Dawn) I grabbed my sweats from the car, then headed indoors to get my stew and roll. I ran into my old favourite Bikini Boot Camp instructor Sheena, and it was really great to catch up. I also noticed Susan's husband and kids cheering her on, but by the time I saw Susan she was leaving the hall to head home. Susan, sorry I didn't have a chance to meet you!

I stuck around for the beer drawing and sadly I am 0 for 3 on winning my weight in beer. Shucks. Maybe next year!

Shaken, Stirred

Do you ever have a moment where you wonder what on earth you are doing, and what you have gotten yourself into? That moment hit me this morning in the pool. I was running late and was probably a little bit flustered when I got to the Y. We were doing an open water swim simulation. I warmed up for 10 minutes, then we started a 20 minute swim in a circle around the pool. We had two buoys set up that we were supposed to corkscrew turn around. As soon as we started the anxiety hit and I wasn't breathing very well. My breaths were very shallow and it was almost like I was holding my breath, then doing a quick exhale and inhale when I turned my head out of the water for air. I was so frustrated with the situation and with myself. I have never wanted to quit something quite so badly in my life.

All of a sudden I started thinking...I've signed up for all of these triathlons and I've never done an open water swim...what happens if it is disastrous?

What if I can't do it?

Honestly, I wanted to cry. But that wasn't really the solution. I knew I needed to get my breathing under control. Finally about five minutes in I started to calm down, concentrated on exhaling and felt a bit better. But pretty well the damage was done, I was miserable and unhappy with myself that I got so anxious.

I had a good chat with Angie about it. On the plus side...better that this happened in March as opposed to in my first race of the season on May 24th! So at least I know I have something I need to work on.

I wasn't able to get a run in over lunch since I had a lunch and learn to go to today. Instead I hit the pathway at Edworthy after work for my run. I had some intervals on the schedule, which was great since I may have had a little bit of frustration to work out... I ran out for 20 minutes, turned around, then ran 4 x 0:30 hard, 1:30 easy. And then back to my car. I got in 4.1 mi in just over 40 minutes and it felt really good out there. Yay for daylight savings so that I can now run in the evening more!

Nutrition Lessons

For a rest day today was pretty jam packed. After work I ran over to Costco as one of my swim teammates had let me know that they had Speedo suits for $20.99. Since I binned two suits last week I figured it would be worth checking them out. Sure enough, they had suits, but none of the more sporty kind that I was looking for. After a quick run through the store and realizing that I didn't quite have the burning desire to buck up $55 to renew my membership yet I headed home to whip up dinner/lunch for the Great Lunch Swap Project. I had a Moroccan dish picked out - chicken with tomatoes and honey over couscous. I'm not sure that this turned out too terribly exotic but it was reasonably tasty. After quickly scarfing that down I headed out to my favourite tri store in town, Tri It, for an information night being put on by Hammer Nutrition. Of all the brands of gel I have tried Hammer and Gu are my two favourites for taste. But apart from their gels I wasn't too familiar with the rest of their products.

The folks at Hammer seem more about education for fueling and they believe in their product, but if it doesn't work for you, then that's okay. In terms of fueling for a marathon you can down some gels and be in pretty good shape, but nutrition for longer distance triathlon is something that boggles my mind. I know I'll have to learn about it, and I know it will require some good experimentation...but I really don't have an idea where to start. So tonight was a great night. Some interesting points that I took away:

• If you are exercising over three hours you should take in some protein too.
• Your digestive system likes liquid fuel a whole lot better than solid fuel.
• You need to replenish electrolytes in any weather, not just in hot weather.
• You need to try and refuel your body as soon after you exercise as possible. Rainmaker likes chocolate milk for his recovery drink, although there are many different ways to get that recovery drink/snack.

Something not to do? After spin class on Tuesday I got home and found some chocolate sundae syrup in the fridge (supposedly it is good until sometime in 2010??). I had some vanilla ice cream in the freezer...some raspberries...and I was hungry. So I threw those three things together in a bowl. Plus I had a mug of hot chocolate milk, made with Ovaltine because somehow it sounds like it might be more nutritious than Nesquick. And it is supposed to be the ultimate recovery drink. Anyhow, to make a short story long I then updated my Facebook status as "Leana is refueling with hot chocolate and ice cream after discovering chocolate sundae syrup in her fridge." And Richelle totally called me out on it tonight as we talked about there being good ways and bad ways to refuel. So note to self, don't advertise your crappy refueling techniques!

(The ice cream was so good though...and it wasn't all bad...was it?)

Sniffle, sniffle

I have no one to blame but myself.

After not getting a lot of sleep last week it probably would come as no surprise that I now have the sniffles. Yuck. It all resides in my head though, and not in my chest which is probably somewhat good news.

Despite feeling kind of "meh" on Monday I went to the gym and rocked a run on the treadmill and I felt fantastic. Then I came home and by the time I went to bed it was kind of tough to breathe through my nose. I debated pulling the plug on swimming but for some reason I bolted awake at 4:01 am on Tuesday, well before my alarm was scheduled to go off. Not even Maggie was interested in waking up that early, but I figured that since I was so awake I should get to the pool. And I had a fantastic swim! Because I had gotten up so early that I had a chance to eat a bit of breakfast before going, then knocked out a 2100m workout.

After having such a good run and swim I wasn't sure what to do about my spin on Tuesday night. Ultimately I knew I wanted to get it done and I figured I could just take it easy if I wasn't feeling quite so top notch. I didn't wear a heart rate monitor just in case I did wind up not pushing that hard. Angie's workout though? Not one that was easy to coast through! We did loads of low cadence stuff. Hard work, but it felt really good. The last thing we did was start 6 gears up from our lowest gear, pedal above 100 rpm, drop a gear every 10 seconds for one minute (so you wind up in your hardest gear) and try to keep the rpm as high as possible as you drop down. That was insanity. But of course I was glad I had gone!

Today is a rest day. I get an extra one this week since I'm racing on Sunday. Despite it being a rest day I have a lot of stuff going on, but fingers crossed I'll be able to get to bed early!

I Love New Things

It was a ridiculous -25C this morning. Seriously, I am so over this cold weather... I had no desire to go outside at all so I bucked up $25 to park in the parkade across the street from my office building that is connected by a pedway. If I couldn't even walk a couple of blocks from my car to the office in the cold there was no way my 30 minute run was going to happen outside today. So to the Y and on the treadmill it was.

I had a couple new gizmos to try out on this treadmill run which gave me something to look forward to. I was looking at the mileage on my couple pairs of Asics Kayano 14s and I figured it might be time to break out my brand new Kayano 15s that I picked up at the WDW marathon expo. What isn't readily apparent on the picture is that they have changed up the lacing system on the shoe. The bottom of the laces are offset, so rather than centred over the toe box it is closer to the big toe. I'm not sure how this will work out when I swap out the regular laces for my Yankz, but it is an interesting concept. I guess it is supposed to help relieve pressure from...somewhere..?? I can't remember what the shoe salesman told me. Anyhow, they felt pretty comfortable so the Kayano still remains my absolute favourite shoe.

Second up, I had a brand new playlist on my iPod to listen to. And new music is definitely a good way to get fired up for the treadmill:

• Flo Rida - Right Round (I blame this song choice on this America's Best Dance Crew routine)
• Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
• V Factory - Love Struck (I have no good excuse for this song, other than it is rather catchy. But it sounds so boy band...)
• Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (this song reminds me of when I lived in Laredo, TX for some reason)
• Kevin Rudolph - Welcome to the World

The Kevin Rudolph song is the BEST workout song ever! This got me running so quickly that I had to keep bumping the speed up to avoid running into the front of the treadmill. And yeah...I was totally lip syncing along. So if you were at one of the Y's in Calgary and saw some girl on the treadmill lip syncing like a nut and wearing gray shorts and a pink top...that was me. 3.21 miles done in 30 minutes, and it felt like I could have kept going and going...

I had another cool gizmo I was trying out, but I'll tell you about that later once I've played with it more.

After the run was done I ran through some abs, foam rolling and stretching. I think the foam in the rollers at the gym have lost a little bit of structural integrity. I'm guessing this is the case because I didn't want to whimper like a little puppy while I was rolling my IT band tonight and I'm sure it hasn't gotten that much better.

Alright, time for me to head to bed since I have a 4:30 wake up and a 5:30 date at the pool in the morning!

Super Sunday Intervals

Last night a blizzard blew in.  This was what I woke up to this morning…  Tons more snow!

Maggie was one happy girl.  She loves the snow.  Leave her to her own devices out there and she could spend hours eating the snow.

I had a 90 minute ride on the schedule entitled Super Sunday Intervals.  There wasn’t anything overly technical about the ride, I just had 5 x 5:00 intervals that I had to ride at a higher heart rate than my rest intervals.  I rented WALL*E which was about the perfect length for my ride.

The movie is super cute…and pretty insightful…and at parts it makes you feel pretty thankful that we live in a society where activity is a part of a lot of our lives.  It maybe isn’t the best movie to spin to since I think I need a little more action and noise, but it is a really good movie.

After the ride it was time to whip up dinner.  I knew I wanted to make something with lamb in it and I found a really interesting sounding dish – Iraqi Lamb and Eggplant Stew.  It calls for pomegranate molasses which I didn’t bother to look for, but it is easy enough to make your own.  This is definitely what makes the dish.  I modified things a little bit – I used lamb leg steaks instead of shanks and cut back the volume of water in half.  This helped the dish to cook a little bit faster.  Thank goodness, because I started cooking at 6:30 and then saw the cook time was 3 hours…and this probably cut off an hour just by using a different cut of meat.The picture definitely doesn’t do it justice…but I would definitely make this again.

Otherwise, this week is a bit of a cut back for me since I’m racing the St. Patrick’s Day 10K on Sunday.  In some ways…thank goodness…because it looks like it is going to be miserably cold for most of the week!  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A Windy, Windy Day

Yesterday I had 9.3 mi on the schedule with 2 x 2:00 hill repeats at the end, with 1:00 of squats or lunges at the top of the hill. Because my run last weekend along the river was so successful I opted to go that way again. This time I started by the curling club since there is a massive hill there that I could use for the hill repeats at the end of my run.

It was 2C (35F) and sunny out, but absolutely crazy windy. Wind gusts were up to 50 kph. (31 mph) As I started on the pathway along the Bow and ran towards Edworthy I was running into the wind. And it pretty well sucked. The big payoff would be once I got to the turnaround and would have the wind at my back. I had no preconceived notions that I'd be able to run at a similar pace to last weekend's 9.3 miler and as I got more and more tired running into the wind my pace slowed down more and more. I hit 4.5 mi at 47:46.

The way back was pretty uneventful. My pace picked up a bit, but I was still pretty tired from fighting that wind before, so not by a lot. The last 4.5 mi took me 46:48, so a slight...improvement...

After that it was on to my hill repeats. The hill by the curling club is one crazy hill and it felt like I was doing more of a walk than a run going up it. But I got it all done and wound up finishing up with 9.65 mi for the day. Then I did a few different lunges, some more squats and some push ups, then headed off to Starbucks to grab a really big hot chocolate and head home.

Also, a huge congratulations to Iron Bob for his IM NZ finish - in the top ten of his age group! Way to go Bobby!

Miscellany

• I'm in the lottery for the Nike Women's race. After putting some good thought into it (i.e. thought that doesn't happen when I'm running) I knew the half marathon was the right choice. This was also confirmed by coach Angie. She wants me to work on my speed and a full marathon isn't the forum for that. And I don't want to enter a marathon just to run one, I want to do well. Anyhow, fingers crossed that our group gets pulled in the lottery!
• Yesterday was our last day of nice weather for the next little bit. I got a run in around my neighborhood in the afternoon. I was supposed to go for 5 miles but my route was slightly off and I finished up with 4.5 miles. Oh well. The run went pretty well - nice pace that I managed to hold on the uphills.
• I have been totally sleep deprived this week. No bueno.
• Despite the sleep deprivation I rolled into the Y on time...for the first time in weeks!! My IMLP lanemate was back and we rolled through our workout together. We had a ladder to do - 11 lengths, 10 lengths...down to 1 length...with front crawl on the odds and our choice on the evens. Since I was pretty tired I kind of copped out a bit and did a breast stroke when I had the option. When we had one length left to go my friend turned to me and said, "Wow, you really go fast on your breaststroke! I look up and you are half a length away from me!"
• After I got out of the pool I was looking over my swimsuit. Sheesh! Swimsuit integrity issues for the second time this week! This time it was in the rear end of my suit, and seriously...this may not be a spot you want the suit to be threadbare!
• I was chatting with a couple of gals today and actually used the word y'all. Wow, where did that come from?! It has been awhile since I activated my inner Texan.
• Tonight was a 54:30 spin on the bike with hill repeats. I propped the front wheel up under a couple of phone books and knocked the workout out. I loaded the iPod up with some old school songs. Well...old school for me...and had a good workout. Finished up and ran through a quick strength workout.
• Tomorrow is a rest day and lunch with an old friend of mine that I knew from Texas. We both live in Calgary now and are off for Indian food tomorrow! Can't wait to catch up with her.
• I have 342 unread posts in my Google Reader. My apologies if I haven't been around to comment on your blog this week, but hopefully I'll catch up with y'all soon!
  

Hope everyone has a good Friday!!

Fear Is A Good Motivator

Well, I can honestly say that I wasn't going to do it on my own. Someone was going to have to make me.

Do what?

Swim in the lane with the fast guys.

Seriously. I have to say that I am really thankful for my swim coach because she is definitely pushing me. Encouraging me to do a 1500m timed swim instead of 750m to see how fast I can go. Including A LOT of speedwork in our workouts. This morning I woke up to big, fluffy flakes of snow. (Yes, after 12C weather yesterday, there was a huge amount of snow falling this morning...) Inclement weather like that always results in a pretty small group for swimming. Swim coach Rhonda wanted me to swim with someone so she asked the two fast guys to move over into my lane. And yeah...fear is a good motivator because I was so worried about getting run over by these guys. After a warm up we had a timed 300m swim. After that we broke it down:

• 2 x 150m
• 4 x 75m
• 6 x 50m
• 12 x 25m

I failed miserably on trying to keep up on the longer sets, mostly because I would lose them at the turnaround at the wall. Once I started in on my 50m sets Rhonda told me to just try to hang on and to really try to be efficient at the wall so I wouldn't lose them. And yeah...guess what? I was able to hang on! Some of it may have been to the benefit of drafting...but it felt good to be able to keep up half decently. So will I move into the lane with the fast kids? Um...probably not unless Rhonda makes me... I was really thankful that she pushed me this morning though!

One other interesting note? I got out of the water, looked down...and noticed some weird white stuff on my suit. What happened? Upon closer inspection my suit was starting to fall apart! I threw it out right away at the Y since I don't want to forget and wind up wearing that one again!

This evening was our first spin session at Crestmont. We moved here since Bow is now open later in the evenings so spin sessions there aren't possible. Angie warned us that tonight's workout was going to be 1:40 long. My legs were feeling dead when I got home from work and I really didn't know how this spin class was going to go. I figured I'd probably perk up once I got there though. Thankfully the energy just flowed once I was there and I knocked out a really great spin workout. Thanks Angie!

As a total aside...I got sucked into the vortex known as The Bachelor last night and didn't get to bed until almost midnight. I have avoided The Bachelor for so many seasons, but I got sucked into the finale with promises of a shocking ending and a leaked story that he was going to change his mind. Anyhow... Getting up at 4:30 sucked... Then I sat in a training class all day, broken up with a lunch and learn on a piece of software I want to start using at work. My brain was so sore...

Outdoor Run in Shorts!

I was in a training course all day today, and I looked wistfully outside over lunch today. Such bright sunlight...such warm temperatures... But my lunch break on the course was too short to attempt my run. Sigh... I was ecstatic while I drove home to see that it was still 12C (54F). That is shorts weather in my book! I quickly fed the pups, changed, and rushed out the door. 3.22 rolly hilly miles done at a 9:41/mi pace! I saw a few other runners bundled up in track suits and toques, but it was so comfortable out there in shorts around the melting snow.

So Suz and I are going to enter as a team for the Nike Women's Marathon. Is anyone else interested in joining our team? There isn't a lot of information on the website for a team entry. It almost looks like there is only one entry for the team, so adding people doesn't increase your chance of getting picked. But...hopefully once the lottery opens on Wednesday morning that will be more clear. So, if any of you gals are interested in going in for a blogger meet up, then let me know. E-mail me at runnerleana at gmail dot com and we'll go from there!

The Weekend Wrap Up

Since my Saturday morning was pretty well shot I procrastinated on my spin workout until sometime after 5 pm. I had a 72 minute ride on the schedule called "crest the hill." The idea is to spin hard in your low cadence section as you go up the hill, then keep the momentum going as you "crest the hill." It is definitely a good workout, and I'm hoping that these spin workouts are really going to help for when I can get outside to ride again.

After the workout was done I had a 20 minute T2 run on the schedule. It was getting late...it was -13C...so it was dark and icy out. But I got out there and got it done. Well...okay...I went for just under 17 minutes, but who wants to quibble over three minutes? With the warming, then the snowfall, then the freezing the sidewalks change day to day and they were brutal last night. I'd definitely be running somewhere else for my Sunday long run.

After the run I whipped up dinner. I'd found an interesting recipe in a magazine while I was waiting for my massage and I was keen to try it out - stuffed poblano peppers. These sounded like a great alternative to chile rellenos. I lucked out in finding some poblano peppers and queso fresco at a Mexican grocery here in Calgary, and this dish turned out so well. I'd definitely recommend it! Because I'm all about the pairing I figured some Dos Equis Amber would work out pretty well.
After dinner I went through my stretches from my PT and whipped out the foam roller. Holy...flibberdijibbet... That thing just about made me cry...

Sunday was more procrastination. The weather was supposed to warm up so I took care of a few things in the morning, had some lunch, then decided to head out for my run. I had 15K (or 9.3 mi) on the schedule. I've been running around my neighborhood most of the time and I needed a change of scenery. Not to mention that I wasn't keen to be dodging a lot of the ice on the sidewalks here. So I drove down to Shouldice and ran the pathway along the river towards downtown since I knew the pathway would be cleared well.

It was +2C (35F) when I was leaving my house. After the crazy cold weather this past week that meant capri weather in my books. Plus a long sleeve shirt and a midweight top. It was somewhat overcast and luckily it was nice and calm out. Since the pathway is pretty flat I also wanted to try and keep my heart rate in zone 2 the entire time. There were a lot of people really bundled up for their run, but I felt pretty comfortable. It just felt so good to not be bogged down in so many layers. I really can't wait for spring!

While I was running I was tossing and turning my fall race schedule around in my mind. The lottery for the Nike Women's Marathon opens this week so I had a lot going through my mind:

• Do I want to enter the half or the full marathon in San Francisco?
• Is two months enough time between Lake Stevens and a possible full marathon?
• Is San Francisco the place to go for a sub 4:30 marathon?
• If I do go for the full...that means I'd probably wipe the 2010 Disney Marathon off the slate. This is where I'm fence sitting mostly. While I'd love to go and meet up with friends do I really want to kill a full week of vacation at Disney World for the third year in a row?
• If I don't get into the Nike race, what's my backup? The more Suz (my friend in San Antonio) and I talk about meeting up, I think my backup race may be the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Race in November. It would be a great chance to hang out and to see friends back in SA. A race in November would really nix the Disney Marathon for sure. But anyhow, we'll see...
  

Anyhow, lots of stuff was running through my mind while I was out there today! I ran an out and back and it was pretty easy to keep my heart rate in zone 2. Slightly tougher on the way back. After I hit 8 miles I gave myself permission to just run without worrying about heart rate.

So the interesting thing is, I was trying to run easy...didn't feel the need for a walk break at any time...and I finished up in 1:33:46. That is a solid 6 minutes faster than the Minnie Marathon 15K last May when I was trying to race. Yay for progress!!

Getting back to my roots

Hair is a funny thing. I can definitely say that I’ve been through some interesting times with my hair. Like back in grade 8…the spiral perm. Come on folks, no judgement, it was the thing to do back then!

When I first started fooling around with my hair I went blonde. Really blonde. This is at the Engineering Ball in my final year of university in 2001.

I’ve had my hair pretty long, and a combination of light and dark…

I’ve also had it quite short, although it is hard to tell in this picture. Sorry, it is the best one I’ve got…

I’ve also had the “my hairdresser says this is chocolate brown, but in sunlight it looks suspiciously red” colour…

Then most recently there was the “wow, it is nearly black” colour at Christmas…

Ever the one to mix things up I decided it was time to move away from the dark and try to get back to my natural colour, which is sort of a medium blonde. Well, it isn’t quite there yet since this is still quite a bit darker…but I did change things up slightly too…