That wasn't in the forecast!

Ah...life is funny sometimes...!!!

So today I finally got the bike out for my first commute in to work this year. I last rode in to work on September 8th. While the temperature wasn't forecasted to be super warm the sunshine has been really nice out and I'm jonesing to ride outside more.

It was a bit chilly this morning at -3C (27F), but I bundled up and had a great ride into work. It is downhill most of the way, with a net elevation loss of around 450 feet. A super easy ride, just shy of 13 miles... I was looking forward to the ride home in the sunshine, and to see how well I would be able to handle the uphill ride home. Around 3:30 I looked out the window and saw a big, nasty black cloud directly over my neighborhood. Hmm, that looked kind of interesting. As I checked the weather over the next hour the temperature dropped slightly. (Hmm, obsess much?) Fun times!

I bundled back off and headed home. The wind had picked up a bit, but I've been out in worse. I kept riding toward the black cloud...into the wind...and hoping that I would be able to avoid whatever that cloud was bringing with it.

To describe my commute home a bit, it is flat and easy sailing for about 4 miles or so along pathways by the Bow River. After that I turn north and start riding through various neighborhoods to make it home. Once I turn off the pathway I head up Home Road. You gain 80 ft of elevation over less than half a mile. This was my first test! The quads were burning as I rode up, but this is probably the strongest I have ever felt riding up that hill. Good times! From here on out it is pretty well a nice and steady climb home. A few minor reprieves here and there, but pretty well uphill the whole way. I was about 5 miles from home. I made a right turn and right then and there the wind picked up. Dust and junk was blowing about in the air and it got so dark out that the street lights came on. This is generally a tough part of the ride home for me regardless. The uphill is a bit harder and by this time the legs are tired, the quads are burning, and you are close to home, but not quite close enough. And just then, something started to fall...

At first I wasn't sure what it was. Rain? The beginnings of hail? Snow? As it started to pick up it was confirmed...it was snowing! That wasn't in the forecast for today!! It seems like I have some bad luck getting caught up in snow while commuting on the bike. Just check out what happened last year!

The snow picked up, but it wasn't sticking on the ground. Time to just gut it out and make it home! Just as I turned into my neighborhood the snow let up and the sun started to peek through the clouds. Oh well! You can't control weather conditions on race day so it definitely doesn't hurt to ride in a little bit of inclement weather.

***As an aside, on my way home I passed another guy on a bike. He was weaving and it looked like he was trying to look down and see if he had a flat. Before I passed him I called out to ask him if he was okay. No response. As I passed him I looked at him, he looked at me, and I asked him if he was okay. Still no response. He was wearing his iPod and couldn't hear me at all. Who wears their iPod while riding their bike in traffic?? Don't you want to hear if there is traffic around you or not??

Alright, I have to go pack for a weekend out of town! Hope everyone has a great Thursday night/Friday!!

Timex Time

As I mentioned yesterday, my workouts are totally up to me this week. I wanted to get out for a nice and easy run over lunch today. As I was driving into work I realized that I packed everything except for my Garmin and HRM strap. Truthfully, I'm pretty tied to that gadget, but I figured that this would be the perfect time to run without it. It was somewhat cool, but nice and sunny out, so it was a great day to be on the pathways for a run. My shins were a bit sore on the run so I took some walk breaks and wound up running for just over 30 minutes.

The weather tomorrow is looking somewhat half decent so I'd really like to try and ride into work tomorrow. The only thing is I have swimming on Thursday mornings! I figured I'd take my chances at my local Y for a late night swim. I got in the water just before 9 pm and had an hour. I actually really liked the swim workout from Tuesday. It was a 2500m workout that I had to cut 300m short. I thought I would see if I could get it all done tonight. It was pretty quiet at the pool and even though I was sharing a lane we all kept out of each other's way and I got into a really great groove. I wound up being the last one in the water. I was 100m short and they were taking the lane dividers down so I figured it was time to call it a night. So there we go...2200m on Tuesday, 2400m today!

***In hockey pool news, I won round one!!! We shall see how things shake out in round two.
***And...I'm sorry if I am behind on commenting on your blog! I've got 211 unread posts in my Google Reader!

Final Indoor Spin! (hopefully!)

This week I have no scheduled workouts. Whatever I do is up to me! I'll be taking it easy, but I won't be taking it off completely. Recovery is going well. I wasn't feeling too stiff and sore for the most part, but I did have a big knot in my right calf. I went in for some ART today to take care of it and it is feeling infinitely better.

Awesome swim this morning! I had a tough time falling asleep last night and thought that my 4:30 wake up might be tough. My eyes snapped open as soon as the alarm went off though, so it was no problem making it to the pool on time. The two super speedy guys weren't there today, so I swam with three other ladies in the lane. It was nice - we worked hard, but it wasn't some crazy, all out speedfest the entire time. The focus was an endurance swim and I felt strong and efficient in the water. 2200m done.

Tonight was also our last indoor spin class -- hopefully -- this evening. We had a one hour session, then followed it up with a pot luck. Since I raced the Police Half on Sunday I had permission to to take it easy since the legs are still recovering. Hanging out with my teammates after the class was awesome. You can tell that we are all ready and raring to go for training outside and racing triathlons. I feel very lucky to be a part of such a wonderful and supportive group of people!

Thanks for all of your congratulations on my race...and thanks for all of your supportive words about my break up with Beef. I'm going to miss Beef...but I'm pretty sure it is for the best. I've been doing a lot of thinking about nutrition lately, so this is just one step in the process!

It's not you, it's me...

Dear Beef,

This is a tough letter for me to write. Things just don't seem to be the same between us anymore. We've been through some great times...like every time we hung out at Burger Heaven, or Sunday roasts, or the brisket at The Salt Lick. The list goes on and on. We both know there have been some tough times too. I haven't held it against you that I am on the "do not donate" list with Canadian Blood Services thanks to our relationship in the United Kingdom in the 80s and 90s. Lately it seems like we just aren't getting along like we used to. I feel like you have been sabotaging every long run when you and I hang out together the night before. Maybe you aren't happy that I've been spending more time with Chicken, Turkey, Beans and Lentils. At the end of the day, the reasons why probably don't matter.

I'm sorry Beef, but I'm breaking up with you. I'm not saying we can't have a fling now and again...but don't call me, I'll call you.

All the best.

Leana

Police Half Recovery

After the hilly Police Half it was time to head home and take care of recovery! First things first, I stopped off at Tim Hortons to grab a little sustenance. Then it was time to hop on the bike for a 30 minute recovery spin. I grabbed a stool to set up near the bike so I could have easy access to my Tim's coffee.
I strapped on the new Shimano shoes to test them out.Spinning and hot coffee, with double milk. Yummy!After the nice and easy recovery spin was done I went upstairs to scarf down my lunch from Tim's - a turkey bacon club on whole wheat.After I was done eating I ran through some stretches and spent some quality time with my foam roller. That thing still makes me cry...!!

After that I knew my legs would thank me later if I took an ice bath. One of the benefits of living here is you don't actually need ice for an ice bath. The cold water that comes out of my tap is absolutely freezing! I set up some music for a little distraction...Plus a little light reading...***By the way ladies...Philosophy body washes are amazing! You can find them at Sephora. They smell so much like the real deal and come in some fantastic scents related to desserts and beverages.***

After spending some quality time in some chilly water I pulled on the Zoot compression socks and some super comfy Lululemon sweats.There we go folks, there is my recovery from the Police half in pictures!

Calgary Police Half Marathon – Race Report

I picked up my race packet for the Calgary Police Half on Thursday. Here is a shot of the race shirt. I am quite fond of it!
And the back...This is a really popular race - it sells out quickly. There is also a 5K race (that I ran last year), that the shirts aren't nearly as nice for and it isn't chip timed. I had signed up for this race as a way to keep up some fitness over the late winter/early spring. I've had a bit of a tough time getting some of the long runs in though lately. This morning I woke up feeling pretty nervous. I felt like this was a test in high school that I hadn't studied for. I just really had no clue what to expect of this race. I headed off to the race start at Mount Royal College. I was running a bit late and missed the warm up with the team, but as soon as I got inside the college I ran into my friend Tara. I had enough time to hit the bathrooms, then we went and hung out at the start. Tara's goal was a bit more ambitious than mine so as soon as we started I wished her good luck and we split up.

Initially I really wanted to aim for a negative split on this run. When I checked out the elevation profile of the race I realized that may be a tough goal. The first half is somewhat downhill, but the second half is a whole lot of uphill! I decided to run the downhills at a pace that felt good and see what happened on the uphills.

About half a mile in I ran into my teammate Pam. We ran together for about a mile and then I pulled ahead. I was enjoying the downhill! We alternated with running the pathway around the Glenmore Reservoir and running on streets. I was a bit worried that we would bunch up anytime we were on the pathways, but we were all spread out quite nicely actually. After running the eastern part of the reservoir we turned and ran directly went on 90 Ave SW. This was where the fun started as there was a steady uphill grade all the way along. We turned and got back on to the pathway around the res near Weaslehead Flats. Anytime I run this part of the rest I find it is one of the most difficult parts of the run. For some reason I always manage to really slow down in this part and today was no exception. I was slowing down and it was feeling like the energy was seaping out of my legs. I needed to get past the people nearby as it felt like we were all slowing down together and I wanted to get past that. I hit the halfway mark around 1:01. If I could keep things up I would make a fantastic time but I was pretty sure that would be tough.

There is a huge climb out of Weaselhead. I've run this hill quite a bit, so I knew what to expect. I also knew that my friends Dawn and Karen would be there cheering runners on. As I got to the hill and climbed up I kept repeating in my head, "Karen and Dawn....Karen and Dawn..." since I knew I would get a huge boost seeing them! Dawn managed to grab a shot of me halfway up the hill.After the climb my legs were pretty tired. I was sort of in a "hold on" space of mind from here on out. Without about 2 miles left to go the wheels started to fall off. I had just finished thinking that I could do anything for 2 miles...no need to walk... And seeing the continuous uphill just got to me and I had to take a break to walk. I was disappointed that I had let the hills get to me... Time to start running again and just keep going. Uphill... Uphill...

As I neared the finish line at Mount Royal there was someone lying on the side of the road getting some help from the police. So close to the finish. I hope they are okay.

Just past there I saw Angie and the rest of the Team Tri Life athletes cheering the finishers on. Time to kick it in for a sprint to the finish! I blew past a few people and crossed the finish line! Done! My previous PR from the Last Chance Half was 2:07:41. Results for today?

2:05:22
Overall: 1055 out of 1833
Females 30-39: 145 out of 311

This course is a tough one, so I'm really happy that I managed a PR today...and after feeling somewhat unprepared for the race as well! Afterwards I cheered a few people in, but as I started to cool off I went inside and ran into Andra. We caught up on each other's races and she grabbed a shot of me.I met up with a few more friends, we grabbed some of the post race snacks and hung out for a bit. Then it was time to head home and get on with recovering... Stay tuned!

A Shoe Deal!!

I had a 90 minute massage scheduled after work. Once I was done I called in a take out order to my favourite sushi restaurant and I had about 30 to 45 minutes before it would be ready. I opted to wander around Kensington and visit Ridley's Cycle. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, I just enjoy wandering around the local bike shop. I stepped up the the cycling shoes and noticed some baskets full of shoes on the ground. Tons of men's shoes, maybe three pairs of women's road/triathlon shoes and maybe another three or four pairs of women's mountain biking shoes. All of the women's shoes were a size 40.

I picked up a pair and looked at the price tag. They looked like a huge deal! Unfortunately they were too small. I grabbed a different style to try on just in case. They felt like heaven on my feet. They are the Shimano SH-TR50, a triathlon specific shoe. Rather than my other shoes that have three velcro straps, this has one big strap. The big loop at the back makes it easy to pull these on. Easy on, easy off!
The front of the shoe is also really well ventilated. Inside at the ankle is nicely padded for a snug and comfortable fit. I think these will be really comfortable without socks.The shoes have a carbon fiber sole.There is also a little hole in the sole near the toes. I guess this is to allow for water to drain through after the swim? Pretty cool, eh?These shoes are a 2008 sample pair, which explains why every pair was a size 40. They look to retail for about $170 US, $250 Canadian. I got these babies for $59.99!?!? I got the cleats put on for a few more dollars. I love me a deal and cannot wait to try these out!!

General Randomness

Holy smokes...it was crazy in the city this morning! The majority of the snow last night was melting when it hit the roads. The temperatures dropped overnight though, and it turned the road and sidewalks into skating rinks. Scary drive into work this morning, and I was just thankful that I was driving in before 6 am and the roads weren't that busy. The City of Calgary really dropped the ball by not salting the roads. I nearly wiped out a couple times on the walk into the office too. Given that I bailed on my 30 minute run with strides over lunch. I wasn't sure what the pathways would be like and I didn't want to run the risk of wiping out. I debated doing the run on the treadmill after work, but ultimately I decided to do a little research for an experiment that I have planned for this weekend.

In other general news:

• Still no formal race plan for Sunday... I've got my pace goals down but that is about it. Oh, and I plan to take a gel every 45 minutes - chocolate mint Gu. I have no idea what I'm going to wear since the weather doesn't look too fabulous. I've also been afraid to write down my motivational phrases. I'm not sure what Angie would think when she read that I plan to say "suck it up sissy pants" to myself when the going gets tough.
• I picked up my bib for the race today. Definitely one of my favourite race shirts, plus this will be my first race with a D-tag!
• I tried my wetsuit on the other day. It was disturbingly easy to get on. Maybe that is because I wasn't struggling to put it on inside an itty bitty changing room on a warm day. And there was no major tugging and pulling of neoprene while swearing under my breath. It looks like it fits okay...but still... Ruh roh!
• Still out front in the office hockey pool. Yay me!
• Someone stole my last piece of string cheese from out of the fridge at work yesterday. i was very upset.
  
• Busy weekend in the works - massage, getting my hair done, have to do my taxes, racing on Sunday, plus a super fun scientific experiment is in the works!
• Friday is my two year blogaversary!
  

Have a great weekend all!

Peace and Quiet

I had a 20 minute run on my schedule today. Just a little, itty bitty 20 minute run. I took off over my lunch break, which turned out to be a fabulous idea. For the most part the run was completely uneventful other than:

• I had to break out the running tights and gloves because cold weather was blowing in.
• I managed to get stuck at every single stop light on the way out and back.
  
• About 15 minutes in I hit the wall.

Seriously... My legs turned to jelly and my hands were feeling a bit shaky in that kind of "I need some sugar now" kind of way. Completely odd since I had a snack before the run. Thank goodness it was only a 20 minute run! I got back to the office, drank a pop and scarfed down some food and felt better. Just after I finished eating it started to snow. Heavily. Pretty glad I managed to avoid that!!

I can't make it to my swimming clinic tomorrow morning so I opted to head to the pool after work today instead. I browsed through all of my swim workout cards in my little Ziploc baggie and debated between a 2300m sprint workout or a 2100m endurance swim. I figured that since every workout with the swim clinic is a sprint workout these days I'd go for the endurance swim instead. It was gloriously quiet at the pool. Just a few people swimming and no worries about getting conked on the head with a noodle like at my pool in the evenings. I shared a lane with one guy for awhile, but halfway through I was on my own. The workout was:

• 200m swim
• 200m drills
• 200m kick
• 200m swim
• 600m continuous swim, rest 0:20
  
• 400m continuous swim
• ...followed by a few sprints and a cool down

Since I didn't have to worry about keeping up I just stayed calm, thought about my breathing, and thought a lot about how I was moving in the water. Was I feeling efficient? Was I feeling strong? It was nice to have that quiet time in the pool to just swim and enjoy the feeling of how I was moving in the water. I needed that chance to get back in touch with that feeling so that I won't get quite as frantic when I try to keep up with my lane mates at the clinic. Yup, it was a good swim!

Canucks Sweep!!

I thought it might be a long night as the Canucks and Blues looked destined to head to second overtime, but the Canucks pulled out a win with 14 seconds left to go! Woo hoo!! My favourite team are into round 2!!!

Last night I went to bed a bit earlier and the little bit of extra sleep threw me since I first woke up at 3:17 am?!? I was up and out of bed when the alarm went off and into the pool right on time at 5:40. We ran through an interesting set that alternated 4 x 50 drills and 2 x decreasing 150s. I liked the 50 drills because it was pretty darn easy to hold on, but I'm finding it tough to continually bust my ass on the longer sets and I keep getting dropped. I look at my old lane and I know that lane is too slow for me. I'm just hoping that something clicks and it is going to be less of a struggle to hang on...

I had a mini-debate in my head this evening. Stay home and watch the hockey game or go to spin class? I was good and DVRed the game and took off for spin class. This was our second to last indoor session so that meant another tough workout. We did some gear pyramids, some hard efforts and a 15 minute simulated hilly time trial. Followed by an all out, gut busting session of pace line. I was downing the water but the high heart rate workout meant that my stomach was supremely unhappy with anything I threw in there. Luckily I made it through without an unfortunate incidents though! I hopped off the bike, stretched and skipped core to make it home for the rest of the hockey game.

Alright, time to head off to bed since I have an early morning! Night all!!

Yoga Incentive

We have a little hockey pool going at work. We all predicted who we thought would win each game, guessed what the winning number of goals would be and took a stab at who we thought would win the Stanley Cup. So if you guess the correct game winner and the correct number of winning goals you get bonus points, plus if your winning team gets a shutout you get more bonus points. I was pretty excited to see that I was winning as of this morning (mostly due to my predictions for the Canuck wins this past weekend)! No doubt it will all change by the end of the night this evening, but at least I was on top for one day!

My 5 card drop in pass at Bodhi Tree Yoga is expiring later this week. I had one session left on the card so I'd better use it up! I also picked up a new yoga top from Lululemon on Friday, so double incentive!
I went to the 4 pm Moksha class which felt so good. I could tell that my hips and quads were super tight though!

I'm still trying to come up with a race plan for Sunday.... I have my race and heart rate goals figured out, I'm just struggling with what positive things I'm going to say to myself when the going gets tough. Why is that so hard to figure out?

Snooze Fest!

There was apparently one theme for this weekend – sleep! And I probably spent most of those sleep hours on my couch! I had a blast at Michelle and Joel’s birthday party last night. I got home somewhere just after 1 am, sat down on the couch to watch a little bit of Cold Case, then woke up just before 5 am…oops! I headed up to bed and enjoyed a nice sleep in until 9:30.

I ate some breakfast, puttered around the house, and finally I headed out for my long run – half marathon taper intervals. I haven’t really talked about it a lot, but I am actually running a half marathon next weekend! I signed up for the Calgary Police Half as a way to keep my fitness up. I’ve had some troubles getting in the long runs at times, but I’m not too stressed about the race. I have a week to figure out if I have any goals for the race!

Anyhow, the run was supposed to be 60 to 75 minutes long with 2 x 10:00 at my half marathon pace. I ran the Last Chance Half at a pace of 9:42/mi so I figured if I aimed for somewhere around 9:20 – 9:30/mi that would be pretty good. I headed out to Edworthy to run by the river. It was so crazy busy out! That’s what happens when you get a sunny and warm day in Calgary! I ran…I hit the intervals…time to head home for some lunch! I put another episode of Cold Case on (I’m sensing a theme here…) and once again passed out on the couch, waking up just as the Canucks – Blues game was starting. Crazy! Apparently I just really needed a chance to catch up on some sleep this weekend.

A lot of you guys ask me how I fit everything in and how much sleep do I get? I’m averaging 5 – 6 hours a night during the week typically. Not enough, but I’m working to try and get a few more hours in since I know I’ll need it as my training ramps up for the half Irons. On the weekends I typically get 8 hours in, not counting those naps on the couch!! I’ve never been one of those “sleep until noon” people so I guess these early morning tend to work for me!

Best of luck to everyone I know running Boston tomorrow!!!

First Group Ride Outside!!

Last week after my first flat on a ride I made a comment that I needed to spend some quality time in the comfort of my own home changing a tire so that I could learn to get comfortable with it. Turns out that I had my first chance for that on Friday night. I was hanging out in my garage putting my new bottle cages on. I took a look at the bike tire and it was feeling really flat. When I tried to unscrew the little cap to pump it up, this happened:

It wasn’t too big of a deal changing it, but I’m not sure I’m in love with these tubes since the stems are a bit short. Once the tire was changed and the wheel back on the bike the Canucks – St. Louis game was starting up and I settled into the coach for the night. Wow, was it an amazing game last night with some fantastic goaltending! Highlights are here.

---

This morning we had our first team group ride outdoors. We met up at 11:00 just outside of Cochrane. I was pretty nervous driving in – there are a few Canadian flags at the turnoff and they were really blowing in the wind. I had visions of my ride from a couple of weeks ago that was just miserably windy. I never counted but I’m guessing that we probably had 20 people or so show up. Some of us were teammates, there were a couple of girls from the Canada Junior team (?) that Angie is working with, and a few other friends of Angie’s. Angie wanted us to spin high cadence above 90 RPM as much as possible and just get comfortable being on the bike – reaching for your water bottle, moving around in your handlebars, that sort of stuff. I was feeling really good riding – way better than a couple of weeks ago, although to be fair, that ride was after a big run weekend including a 10K race. As we started to hit the rolling uphills I was feeling strong on those hills. It was windy out, but luckily it felt like a crosswind most of the time. At one point a peloton of probably 10 riders zoomed right past us. They were riding in a big pack really close to one another, taking up the entire road with. When they were right behind me it almost sounded like a car was passing. They flew past almost like I was standing still.

Before I knew it I was up near the front of the pack and having a blast. We turned on to the road where the rolling hills became a bit bigger. Last year this spot was my nemesis and I always struggled and huffed and puffed my way along. I was expecting to get dropped like a hot potato by the riders around me, but to my surprise I stayed strong. Why had this stretch felt so difficult last year? I even powered my way up this hill really well too:

The picture really doesn’t do it justice, but it always looks scary and big to me. Anyhow, it looks like all of the riding indoors is paying off! When we hit the stop sign we regrouped and I took the opportunity to down a vanilla Hammer Gel. All of the tough uphill riding was behind us. We continued on in a loop rather than doing an out and back. I took off with a couple of teammates, Karen and Leslie Ann. These ladies are such a hoot and I loved riding with them. We hit another stop sign and turned to head back towards Cochrane. From here there were some rollers, but it was pretty well a net downhill. We were just flying back!! We finished up a loop back to our cars and rode for 26.5 miles.

I threw the bike back in the car, swapped out the bike shoes for some running shoes and took off on my T2 run. I ran an out and back along a gravel road and my legs felt dead. The crazy uphill along the road didn’t help much either! Despite feeling like I’m going nowhere I am always surprised at my pace on these post-bike runs. I ran just short of 20 minutes, then hopped in the car and headed home for some lunch.

After scarfing down my lunch I settled in to watch this past week’s episode of CSI. Hilarious and interesting episode (loved the crazy sci-fi TV show story line) but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open and I wound up napping for three hours…in my bike clothes and ball cap!!

---

Anyhow, time to run since I’ve got to eat (again) and head off to a friend’s birthday party – happy birthday Michelle!! I just saw this on TV though. Apparently some yahoo stole a stick out of Alexei Kovalev’s hand through the little hole in the glass for press photographers. How crazy is that?

Anyhow, hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Oh so tired..!!

Wednesday

I had a 30 minute run on the schedule and I knocked it out over lunch. My legs were tired from Tuesday's spin class. Not much to say about the run really, I just got it done!

Thursday - A Painful Swim

Today's swim was labeled an endurance one. On the warm up I realized my entire body was tired and hurting. There were five of us in the lane today and I could hang on to a couple of them, but it was tough. The entire 2200m workout felt like one gigantic speed session for me. As somewhat of a blow to the ego when I was leading and I turned at the wall I noticed one of the guys in the back was breast stroking since I guess I wasn't going fast enough for him. So much for thinking that I was busting my behind!!

Intervals

Given my tired and painful swim I was a little nervous about running intervals over lunch today. I had 5 x 3:00 intervals to do. It was one of those amazing spring days here in Calgary. The sky was blue and it felt so amazing outside. The theme of today's run seemed to be how many people I recognized on the pathway. I saw my aunt and a coworker, plus I ran into Karen and Dawn a few times too! Here's how they went down:

• 1 - 8:02/mi
• 2 - 8:14/mi
• 3 - 8:14/mi
• 4 - 8:05/mi - Karen was cheering me on for this one!
  
• 5 - 8:30/mi - Oy...that was tough...

I finished up with 5.5 miles. I went back to the office, ran through some lunges, squats, push ups and some core.

Shopping Spree

After work I stopped by Tri It to check out their sports bras. I wound up picking up one from CW-X that I'm looking forward to trying out. Once I get a chance to try it out I'm going to look at pulling together a review! I always love stopping by Tri It. Richelle and Rose are a lot of fun. That's the great thing about triathlon in this town - there are some amazing people involved in this sport!

After I left Tri It I headed over to Bow Cycle. I needed to pick up a new bottle cage so I could carry more than one water bottle on longer bike rides. They didn't have the exact cage that I already have...and since I wanted them to match I grabbed two... I also picked up a CO2 kit as well. I was carrying a small pump, but I think CO2 may be a better way to make sure that if I do flat, I am able to pressure my tire up enough. Then at the checkout I spied that they still had some chocolate mint GU! Love that stuff...!!
Distractions

There is a new distraction...playoff hockey!! Last night I knew I needed to head to bed but the Vancouver Canucks were playing the St. Louis Blues and I couldn't not watch. I love, love, love the playoffs, especially when the Canucks are in it!

Spin Ups Paid Off!

It looks like the consensus seems to be Body Glide is required to help prevent chaffing from a heart rate monitor strap. I'll probably poke around Team Estrogen a bit to see if any of there are any other bras out there that might be worth a try though. I bailed on riding with a heart rate monitor at spin class tonight. I think it is going to be at least a week before this little bit of chaffing manages to clear up so I'll have to get over knowing one less number for all of my workouts for a bit. Angie worked us hard at spin class as we went through a bunch of low cadence strength sets. My legs were ready to work though! I am sure that yesterday's spin up session helped to clear up any remaining lactic acid in the legs so I was feeling pretty strong on the bike tonight.

Hmm, what else... I'm thinking...hoping...that I am in for good with the faster kids at swimming. I love having them push me, but I am noticing that my form gets completely shot by the end of the class as I tire out. There was a little bit of drama this morning as one lady wanted to do her own thing which included passing the group as we were all turning at the wall. It got a little messy...probably not the best time to pass... And it will make my friend Angry happy, I tried the butterfly stroke for the first time today!

And finally, here's a question for my triathlete buddies out there. One of my girlfriends wants to prepare for her first tri this summer. She wants to race the Strathmore Women's Triathlon. She asked me if I could point her in the right direction for a training plan. I looked at the freebie ones on Beginner Triathlete and they all looked pretty interesting. Does anyone else have any other places to look for some good, beginner friendly sprint triathlon plans?

Opinions ladies? And a tag!

Wow...today I was hobbling around like an old lady..!! My quads haven't been this stiff after a long run since the Disney marathon. Luckily I had a 45 minute spin session with spin ups to help flush the lactic acid out of the legs a little bit.

I also wound up with some wicked chaffing from my heart rate monitor yesterday too! Yowza! Ladies, does anyone have a recommendation for a really good sports bra that:

• Locks and loads the girls and the heart rate monitor.
• Is lightweight enough that it will dry quickly in a triathlon.
• Won't be so constricting around my rib cage that it feels like I'm being suffocated?

I've tried CW-X and Under Armour but I'm not sure that I'm in love with them.

In other news, Marlene at Mission to a(nother) Marathon tagged me, and I'm always game to play along.

The rules are:
1. Fill it out
2. Change one question with one of your own
3. Add an additional question
4. Tag 3 other people to do the same

1. What are your current obsessions?

Cute swimwear. Like this one, or this one, or that one, or finally, my favorite!

2. Which item from your closet are you wearing most often?

I have the same cotton V-neck sweater from Express in five different colours, so chances are good that I'm wearing that sweater at any given time. Black, purple, blue, teal, and fuchsia. Surprisingly enough, I also own many other brands of v-neck sweaters. I'm sensing a pattern here.

3. Last thing you bought for myself?

I bought four bottles of wine on Saturday... Is that the sort of answer that we are looking for? I found a wine shop here that carries Houghton's White Classic from Western Australia. I have consumed copious amounts on recent vacations to Australia, so I was pretty enthused to find it in a wine shop here in Calgary.

4. What’s for dinner?

Hungarian cabbage rolls with sauerkraut, double smoked bacon and some smoked Hungarian sausage. If only you knew how amazing it smells in my kitchen right now.

5. Say something to the person who tagged you:

I love Marlene and her blog! She's one of those people that I wish didn't live on the other side of Canada because I would love to meet up with her for a run or a race sometime!

6. What is one item you could not live without?

From a running standpoint - my Garmin!

7. Vacation spots you must visit before you die?

The eastern part of Australia and New Zealand. Alaska as well.

8. Three things to do before you die:

- Race an Ironman
- Get my Spanish back to being fluent again
- Be in a financial position to travel when and where I would like

9. What are you reading right now?

I just finished New Moon on Saturday and have moved on to Eclipse. It is so hard to put the Twilight series down!

10. What is the last movie you saw and enjoyed?

Marley and Me. I cried and cried and cried... Just like when I read the book.

11. What’s your guilty pleasure?

Wearing Smartwool socks and comfy pants, sitting on my couch and eating ice cream, while watching some trashy reality TV (like Ru Paul's Drag Race...I loved that show!)

12. What’s your favorite smell?

A really good red wine.

13.If cost wasn't an issue and you could run any race in the world what would it be?

Marathon du Medoc. Wow, I really want to run this one! 26.2 miles through the Bordeaux region of France, with aid stations every mile. The aid stations offer water, Gatorade, and a different wine from one of the chateaus around. Red at every stop except for one. And I want to be able to taste at every station.

14. Do you have a goal that you are trying accomplish before 2009 is over?

Run a sub-30:00 5K, which thankfully happened on Sunday! Otherwise I'm looking forward to training for and completing two half Irons this year!

15. Describe one of your happiest moments.

Finishing the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge back in 2008. I set an endurance goal, and while the marathon wasn't perfect I trained for the event, and I finished it.

16. What was your best Halloween costume?

I honestly haven't dressed up for Halloween a lot. Mostly because I grew up in places that didn't really celebrate Halloween. The last time I dressed up was in 2006 for my friend Susan's annual Halloween party in San Antonio. I was a stud finder. Here's me with the chick magnet from the party...

17. What do you have an addiction to?

Checking my e-mail.

18. What do you do that you would be embarrassed for others to know about?

That I still like to watch 90210. Sigh...

19. Do you have a favorite training tip?

Get fitted for the right running shoes. Yes, they will be more expensive than the ones you might buy at the outlet or your run of the mill sporting goods store, but it is worth it to know that you are running in the right shoe for you!

20. What is the biggest mistake you have ever made (running-related)?

Thinking that I could go from zero running to running a marathon in the space of five months. Yeah...that didn't work out so well...

If you want to play along, then tag, you're it!

Spring Trio 5K - Race Report

Ah...the monkey on my back...trying to go sub-30:00 on a standalone 5K race... I've been trying for awhile, but it just hasn't happened! My first chance for this year came today, at the Spring Trio 5K race.
I actually had 20K on the schedule so I figured I would run a nice and easy 5K, race my 5K, then go out and finish off the last 10K. I seem to race better on tired legs so this seemed like it might be a good strategy. I drove out to Eau Claire and got going at 9 am. I wanted to keep my pace above a 10:00 mile. I had plenty of racing to do later and I didn't want to waste my speed quite yet! I ran the 5K...finished in 31:45...then made my way to the start of the race. I picked up my timing chip, hit the bathrooms and found a few of my teammates who were racing . My parents were signed up for the 5K as well.

There was a 5K, 10K and a 15K race and we all started at the same time. It was slightly congested for the first few minutes but pretty soon things spaced out. I settled into a pace where I felt like I was pushing it, but that I thought I could still sustain. I hit the turnaround for the 5K before I knew it. We had to climb up an overpass to a bridge and the effort up the bridge caused something in my stomach to knot up. I ran along the bridge, and back down a hill to get back on the pathway and passed the one water stop. I ran past it. I didn't feel like I needed it, I didn't want to slow down to drink, and I didn't know what my stomach would think of it. At this point the pathway was pretty empty of racers. I wasn't sure how many people were racing the 5K but I didn't see a lot of people ahead of me. From here on out it was flat to the finish and I just wanted to sustain things. I turned the corner and put in the final kick to the finish...

When I woke up this morning for some reason I had the time of 27:55 come into my head. I figured if I could run somewhere around a 27 or 28 minute 5K that would make me pretty happy.

The final results?

Net Time: 26:46.0
Gun Time: 27:03.2
Females 30 - 39: 4 out of 12
Overall: 15 out of 53

I'm blown away by my time! I never figured that I'd be able to run it this fast! And fourth in my age group too? I wasn't really a contender for 3rd place since the lady ahead of me beat me by 1:23...

I hung out and cheered my teammates and my folks in. Everyone raced really well! My parents even placed in their age group! Talk about a good day for the Runner Leana family.

My teammate Tracy raced the 10K in just under 45 minutes (and she placed third in her age group!), then she had another 10K to run as well. Even though our paces don't really match up she offered to run together and having the company made the run fly by. I knew we were running at a pretty fast pace (for me) but I didn't want to look down at the Garmin to confirm that. I thought knowing would start to affect me mentally and that I wouldn't be able to hold up for the full 10K. We wound up running the 10K route that Tracy had just raced. The water stop at the turnaround had been taken down, but there were still cups and an open bottle of water. We hadn't counted on the morning heating up quite so much so we stopped and grabbed some water since we weren't carrying any. As we hit the back half of the 10K we got a bit more silent, but I never thought about slowing down.

We hit the finish line and I stopped the Garmin. 10K in 58:10. That's practically race pace for me! This taught me that I could sustain a fast pace over a long distance and that I could run strong on tired legs. I've had trouble mastering the art of the negative split on a 10K and this taught me to place a bit more faith in my legs and to keep pushing no matter what. So a huge thanks to Tracy for running with me!!

I met up with my folks for lunch, then came home and had an easy recovery spin on the trainer for just over 30 minutes. It is amazing how much that easy recovery spin helps to keep the legs loose!

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!

Cycling to Cochrane and Back

I originally had a 54 minute indoor ride on my schedule for Thursday. It looked the weather was going to be pretty stellar on Friday so I figured an outdoor ride a day later might be a better idea. I was thinking about driving out to Cochrane to ride my usual route so I asked a friend to join me. He's been doing the triathlon thing for quite awhile (and he's really good at it) so...I was a little nervous... And he wanted to ride out to Cochrane, not drive out there.

The ride out to Cochrane is along a highway and you always see a ton of cyclists riding there and back. But Cochrane is at the bottom of a big hill that I have yet to tackle. Next month our team will start doing regular hill training out there so I'll have to get over it pretty soon. Plus, I need to start practicing for the Lake Stevens 70.3 in August: But, number one, I'm a total scaredy cat on downhills. Number two, what if I couldn't make it up the hill? I know...I'm a wuss... But I agreed to it anyway.

We headed off down Highway 1A, and thanks to a nice large shoulder it isn't too daunting with the traffic speeding by. Some parts of the shoulder are clearer than others and at one point I looked down and saw pieces of broken beer bottles. Crap. A few seconds later and I heard tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump. There was no denying it, the back tire was flat. We pulled over and I completely blanked on everything that I knew about changing a tire. Thankfully I wasn't on my own though, and we were back on the road a short time later. We took the somewhat more gentle hill down into Cochrane, rode up to Horse Creek, then turned around. We had been riding into the wind the entire time, but it changed direction on us when we turned around. We were looking forward to the wind pushing us home but we were back to riding into the wind again. Thankfully the wind was nowhere near as strong as last weekend though! We rode through Cochrane, then time to tackle the hill climb. I opted to take the more gradual hill - same elevation gain, just over a slightly longer distance. My quads were burning, my speed was nothing to write home about, but it actually felt really good to climb. I hit my highest heart rate on the bike ever. After that it felt like we were flying on the way back, despite the wind. 31 miles later and I was back home!
It was really nice to have some company out there for the ride, and I was so grateful to have the help with the tire too. (Thanks Greg!!) I did learn a few things from this ride:

• I need to spend some quality time in the comfort of my living room, getting comfortable with how to change a tire. Let's put that on the to do list...
• I need to add another bottle cage on to my bike because one bottle isn't going to be enough for my longer rides, especially as it starts getting warmer.
• In hindsight I probably should have downed my bag of Sport Beans before we headed back.
• I need to remember my T2 runs after long bike rides. I forgot all about it until it was too late...

Tomorrow is a big day - I race the Spring Trio 5K! I'm hoping for a huge PR here. I actually have 20K to run, so my plan is:

• Run a nice and easy 5K as a warm up.
• Race the 5K.
• Run the last 10K after I've had a chance to enjoy some post race refreshments.

I'll be back tomorrow with a race report. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

**Oh, and hooray for the Vancouver Canucks, who clinched the NHL Northwest Division title this afternoon after they won their final game of the regular season against the Colorado Avalanche!!

Visions of HTML in my mind

Wow...I can't believe it is after 11 pm already! I spent way too much time fooling around with blog templates and playing around with HTML coding...I tried 8 different templates and I decided I liked my original template the best (partially since it went so well with the header that Runner Susan worked up for me). It is still somewhat a work in progress, so please pardon the dust.

Yesterday we had a forecasted high of 12C, and that to me meant that I could bare some leg and wear capris to work. Since my parking spot is about a 10 minute walk to work I typically wear some type of comfy shoe, then change into something much cuter (but decidedly less comfy) when I got to the office. Turns out that yesterday I would have been better off just wearing heels the whole time as my "comfy" shoes did some good damage to the backs of my ankles.

I had a 3-5 mi easy run on the schedule as well yesterday. And 12C means that I can break out the shorts for a run outdoors. I hit the river pathways at lunch, started off easy, and kept building my pace throughout. All in all, a pretty good run.

This morning it was back to swimming. I was a bit late getting in the pool since I got caught up chatting with my friend Janelle in the changing room. I wasn't sure whether to get in my old lane or the fast lane. Being late, and out of sync, I wasn't sure about going in the fast lane. Rhonda encouraged me to jump in regardless and I'm glad I did. We had a whole bunch of 100m sets to swim and I can tell that I need people to chase after. Or maybe there was a drafting advantage..?? When I was swimming with the group I was hitting 1:56 on each 100m interval consistently. Since I had a few sets left while the rest were cooling down I was on my own for a bit and I was a good 5 to 10 seconds slower.

While jumping in with the fast kids is nerve wracking, I know this is the best way to get faster. Sometimes you just have to face your fears, right?

It turns out Janelle is also planning on racing the Wine Capital Olympic race as well. It will be so great to have a friendly face there!!

Tuesday Wrap Up

I have a little bit to say about a lot of things...so...here goes another bullet point post!

• So far I seem to be adapting to the 4:30 wake up call a whole lot better now that I'm in week two. I woke up straight away and was at my swim class on time. I asked Rhonda if I should move up a lane today. She asked if I wanted to push myself and I got a bit nervous...er...ummmm...yes..?? She thought that was a terrific idea so I hopped in a lane with four speedier folks. The best thing about the workout was that everyone in the lane worked together. We stayed on the same sets and took turns pulling. I now understand what people are talking about when they say that they swam so hard their arms almost fell off. Yeah...that felt like me today! Thankfully we were running short sets, but...whew...anything with some longer sets and I think I may have trouble keeping up. But it was great to push myself!
• Angie had another tough bike workout for us this evening. Lots of 2:00 hard sets. I was having a tough time getting into my big chain ring a few times. Angie's husband Ken took a look and the only way to get into the big ring in the front by the end of the class was to be all the way in my smallest ring in the back. So...I'll have to go back to Bow and get it tweaked because that is annoying! It will be a simple fix though! I also forgot my bike computer at home so I was cycling blind. It is amazing how you start to rely on a tiny bit of machinery after awhile. And despite the rest day yesterday my legs were trashed... Weird...
  
• Angie raced Oceanside this weekend and she got a spot for Clearwater!!! Congratulations Angie, I'm so happy for you!!!
• I'm a winner! Angela at Oh She Glows was holding a giveaway for POM Wonderful and I won! That stuff is fantastic so I can't wait to make good use of my coupons. Thanks Angela!

• Everyone has been talking about their favourite nut butters all over the place. One that hasn't gotten a mention is Peanut Butter & Co. I found their peanut butter at Community Natural Foods here in Calgary and I picked up a jar of Cinnamon Raisin Swirl. Now I understand why people like to eat peanut butter directly out of the jar by the spoonful! This stuff is great with my hot cereal in the mornings, or spread on an apple. I can't wait to try some of their other flavours.
• Tonight my dad asked me what was in the tea I was drinking yesterday... I don't know Dad, but I actually wound up returning it today. I got a bag of Russian Caravan instead - a black tea that tastes nice and smoky. Yummy stuff!
• Holy exclamation points Batman! I counted 17 exclamation points in this post...but it is just after 10:00 pm so there is a good chance I miscounted. Still, that is a whole lot of exclaiming! (Okay, make that 18...) Anyhow, I need to head to bed.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Special Tea

I have three rest days on the schedule this week...and the first one is today! I might wind up moving a few thing here and there so it won't quite be three days, but we'll see how that plays out later in the week. With a rest day (and a general lack of training to talk about), how about a random post?

• I am trying to make a 4:30 wake up a regular thing during the week. Which means trying to make a big effort to go to bed between 9 and 10 every night. That's the challenge. If I get used to waking up at 4:30 it will be that much easier to make it to swimming on time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, plus I have some flexibility to work 6:30 to 3:30 on the other days if I want. Coming home at 3:30 is nice!
• I picked up the niftiest to-go tea cup ever last week from Totalitea in Bankers Hall here. It has a strainer that screws on to the top of the tumbler, so you can brew loose tea in the mug and drink straight out of the cup. So much handier than the Bodum press that I was using before. No picking tea leaves out of my teeth in the middle of meetings now!
• This morning I was drinking a new loose tea - black and green teas with apple, almonds, cinnamon and flavour. As I was drinking it I started to feel a little dizzy and nauseous. At first I thought it was just me, but after the second cup I knew it was the tea. Maybe there is something in the "flavour" that I'm allergic to? Or maybe there is something "special" in the tea? I passed the tea along to my tea lover coworker and it turns out it affected him too. Weird... I'm going with the "special" angle...
• I've been feeling like I could use a weekend away. On Saturday I found a cheap ticket to Kelowna for the Spring Wine Festival the first weekend in May. You know how much I love my wine festivals! I'll be back a few weeks later for my first triathlon of the season, but this weekend will be all about fun! (Plus no doubt a nice run or two...)
  

Glencoe Icebreaker 10K - Race Report

I debated whether I should write this up this evening since I am absolutely pooped...but here goes regardless!

April is here, and this is my most prolific racing month of the year. Three races in four weeks. Not nearly as good as my five races in four weeks from last year, but oh well... This weekend was the Glencoe Icebreaker 10K. I haven't run this race before and I didn't really know anything about it. One day Angie sent an e-mail around asking who was going to sign up because she would be collecting the entry forms at our next class. Sure...I'll sign up! There is no online sign up for this race. You fill out your entry form and drop it off at the Glencoe Club. Don't even bother mailing it in because it fills far too quickly.

I picked up my race packet on Friday after work. We got a nice long sleeve tech tee, a water bottle and some kind of air puffed chips. The race started at 9 am this morning, and despite it being somewhat chilly (-5C) the sky was clear and the sun was out. I got there about half an hour before the race, went for a quick warm up, then hit the bathroom and headed out towards the start line. We had quite a large contingent of Team Tri Life folks there and it was great chatting with them before we got going.

As soon as 9:00 hit we were off. No chip timing on this one. There was a big shmozzle of people for the first 1K or so, but then we started to space out a bit. I could see my teammates Pam and James up ahead and I wanted to do my best to keep them in my sight. When I said I didn't know anything about this race I meant it. I had no clue where we were running, or whether the run would be flat or hilly. When we hit our first hill I caught up with Pam. She was taking it pretty easy since she hadn't been running too much lately, plus she had another run to do later in the day too. From there I could see James and I was catching up to him. We ran together for a bit and then I pulled away. I hit the 5K mark around 28:29 or so. Hmm, time to see if I could keep this up. From there we turned into a neighborhood to run an out and back. It was great to wave at my teammates that I saw running towards me. At the turnaround for the out and back there was a water stop. I grabbed a cup and walked to down it, and at that point James passed me and took off. He expected me to catch back up to him, but maybe with the short walk break I somehow lost a bit of momentum. My legs were starting to feel a bit sluggish and catching up seemed like it would take too much effort. I kept James in my sights though a continued on. He was great motivation!

The second half of the race was definitely flatter, but I slowed down just a touch. Since I didn't know exactly where the finish line was I wasn't quite sure where to kick it in for the finish line. Finally I could see it, but there wasn't a lot of time for that last push. Within the last few feet my teammate Nola came out of nowhere and blew past me. I sprinted over the line and stopped the Garmin - 57:25. Exactly the same finishing time as for the St. Patrick's Day 10K. Afterwards Nola congratulated me on my race and exclaimed that she couldn't let someone younger than her beat her!

If there was one thing I heard about this race, it was that the post-race breakfast and draw prizes were amazing. And they were right! The post race spread included muffins, danishes, muesli, fruit salad, scrambled eggs, potatoes, ham, waffles (with your choice of syrup or whipped cream and fruit syrup), yogurt, milk, and coffee. I loaded my plate up and reconnected with my teammates. It was great to hang out with them - my teammates are all such fantastic people! The draw prizes were great too...a couple of mountain bikes, a Garmin, $100 gift certificates for Ridley's cycle, $100 gift certificates for a local wine shop, a trip to Vancouver... and TTL were having no luck! Finally on the last prize of the morning - a stay at the Fairmont in Banff with a gift certificate to the spa - my teammate John won. Nice! I had a blast doing this race, and I would definitely do this one again for sure!! Maybe I'll have better luck on the draw prizes next year..!

After that I headed home. I had a 60-90 minute recovery spin on the schedule. The thought of riding indoors was not thrilling at all. James had driven Horse Creek in Cochrane the day before and had mentioned that the road was clear of ice and gravel. By now the temperature was up to 6C so I figured that the temperature wouldn't be too bad. So I figured a trip out to Cochrane was in order! I loaded the bike up in the car and headed out. As I pulled out of my garage I looked down at my left index finger. I must have caught my finger while loading up the bike somehow because I had a small blood blister on the tip.

By way of background...I wanted to go into medicine and become a doctor. But I have zero stomach for blood and guts. The blood blister? Oy... Just thinking about it or looking at it was grossing me out and making me a little lightheaded. Good thing I didn't go into medicine, eh?

There must have been a ton of folks with cabin fever that were just waiting for a nice day to take advantage of. Plenty of cyclists on the road out to Cochrane! I parked just off of Horse Creek (pictures here) and there was another guy unloading a bike too. As soon as I got out of the car I discovered that it was a bit windy out. Yikes! We chatted about the weather and whether it was going to make our ride a bit rough or not. I took off and headed north on Horse Creek. I wasn't sure how far I'd go, but it felt so good to be riding outside! My legs were a bit tired from the running this weekend and I wasn't feeling nearly as strong on the hills as much as I would have liked. When I first turned west I got my first inkling that the wind was pretty strong. The wind was coming from the south... The jaunt west was pretty short, then it was back north. I rode about 12 miles to the stop sign and turned around. In hindsight I wish I would have hit the lap button to know how long it took me to ride out. As soon as I turned around...there was a huge smack... That wind was ridiculous!! Normally the out is a a bit tougher since it has more uphills, but even the slight downhill trend on the way back didn't help. I was stuck pedalling in my granny gears unless I had a steep downhill. As soon as the downhill would start to flatten out I'd have to get back to my granny gear. I probably averaged 18 mph on the way out, but now I was averaging about 10 mph. I'm pretty sure that this was not the easy recovery ride that Angie had in mind! It was a tough slog and I was so happy when I finally saw my car. I threw my bike in the back, chatted with the fellow who was also parked off of Horse Creek and finished up a few minutes behind me, then took off to Starbucks to grab a hot chocolate. I came home and contemplated going to bed pretty soon after arriving home...at 6:30..!!! I was wiped!

Anyhow, in case you are in the Calgary area and looking for a good clean road to ride on, then Horse Creek is in great shape!

Someone Needs A Haircut!

Poor Finlay was starting to look pretty scruffy! I had an appointment to drop him off at groomer nearby that we haven't been to before early this morning. As I brought him inside the girls were joking around that Finlay looked like he had some serious bed head.

Once Finlay was off for his day at the spa I headed down to Edworthy to meet my friend Tara for a run. We met at Angie's spin class back in January. It turns out that we both ran the Disney Marathon, plus we are training for some of the same races this year - Police Half, Wasa Lake and Great White North. We've talked about meeting up for a run before and finally it worked out.

Angie wanted me to run 14K (8.7 mi) today. I also have a 10K race tomorrow and she wants me to practice racing on tired legs in preparation for the Police Half in a couple of weeks. Tara had 18K on her schedule so she ran her extra distance before I got there, then we headed out.

It is always a bit nervewracking to run with someone new. You don't know if your pace is going to match up well. Are you going to hold them back, or are you going to be too fast for them? Are you going to be able to think about interesting things to talk about? Are you on the same page for walk breaks (or lack thereof)? I've found it tough to find someone that is typically training for the same event so even matching up distances you need to run can be tough. I really enjoyed running with Tara this morning though. The company was great, and hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in some more runs or bike rides together in the future.

I came home, had some lunch, and then Finlay was ready. He's looking pretty cute now, eh? Time to carbo load and figure out where I need to go for my race tomorrow!

Running Errands

On Monday night my brother helped me to jump start my parents' car, drove with me to the dealership, then gave me a ride home. They worked on the vehicle on Tuesday and I needed to head over and pick it up today. I also had a 5 mi run with 6 x 0:30 hard/1:30 easy intervals. I figured I could run from home to the dealership to get the car. The most direct route was even shorter than I figured so I had to run a big loop through one of the neighborhoods in order to bump the mileage up to what I needed.

I prefer to run my intervals downtown by the river since it is pretty flat. And my route to get the car? Reasonably hilly. I ran 15 minutes as a warm up then started in on the intervals. I wasn't expecting too much since my legs were still pretty tired from yesterday's spin, but I managed to pull out some half decent intervals. They were over before I knew it, and then it was time to finish the rest of the run out at an easy pace.

There wasn't a sidewalk available the entire way, and it looked like the sidewalk was disappearing as I ran past the Ford dealership. I opted to run off the path and on to the dirt...except I didn't realize that it wasn't just dirt...it was a mud pit! My Kayano 15s that had less than 20 miles on them? Not so shiny white anymore! I finished up the run and wound up across the street from Toyota and in front of a big pile of fluffy white snow. If there is one thing that a big pile of snow is good for it is to clean mud off your shoes! Here's what they look like now after a good snow cleaning:
I picked up the vehicle, then headed off to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute ingredients for tomorrow's Great Lunch Swap. I cooked up some Indian red lentil dal with tomatoes, cauliflower and spinach over rice (with some mango chutney on the side).

Alright, time for bed since I have an early morning date with the pool!
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Check out the Goodie Bag Giveaway at Run to Finish!

Not So Hot Yoga and More Hills

Good morning everyone! I'm struggling with Windows Live Writer a bit. I love it for uploading pictures and videos, but the paragraph formatting seems to get messed up for me. What looks good when it posts in Firefox looks terrible in Internet Explorer. Has anyone else experienced the same thing?

Thanks for all of the notes of concern about my tweaky ankle. Knock on wood, but it is back to normal. No doubt it was due to running hill repeats in shoes that need retiring.

After the marathon spin session on Sunday I figured I would be best off if I took it reasonably easy and went to hot yoga on Monday. My choices were:

• A 4:00 Moksha class (you run through the series of 40 postures)
• A 5:30 intermediate class (probably more intense than what I wanted), or
• A 6:00 foundation class (which is notoriously busy).
  

I opted to work from 6:30 to 3:30 that day and I high tailed it to the 4:00 Moksha class. Unfortunately they were working on the boiler so the room wasn't fully heated until over half way into the class, but it was just what my body needed. We did a lot of great poses that really helped to stretch out my legs and hip flexors.

Tuesday was a pretty busy day. The triathlon swim clinic at the Y started back up for the spring session. A bunch of new people in the pool and a few of my usual lanemates were gone. I swam with a couple of new guys who were a bit slower than me so it may be time to put on my big girl panties and jump in with some of the faster folks..?? I had a great swim though where I was feeling really smooth and efficient in the water, so good stuff!

I shifted my 30 minute easy run to Tuesday over lunch. I could tell that my legs were still really tired from Sunday. I took it easy on the pace, but apart from the tired legs things felt good. As the run went on my legs felt less tired and my pace sped up and I finished up with just over 3 miles.

In the evening it was back to spinning with Angie. I was mostly worried that my sit bones would be extraordinarily unhappy with me as soon as I got on the bike, but they felt really good! Angie is racing Oceanside this weekend so she didn't ride with us, but she certainly put us through the ringer! We warmed up, then ran through 5 x 10:00 hills. Each hill was different:

• A gear pyramid through our last five hardest gears, with 2:00 at each gear (60 - 70 rpm)
• A rolling hill with varying gears and cadence
• Picking a gear and holding it throughout the 10 minutes, but changing cadence from 60 to 80 and back throughout
• A gear pyramid through the last 6 hardest gears, 10 seconds in each gear, pedaling as fast as you can
• And I can't remember the specifics on the other hill...

It was quite the workout and I was bagged when I got home! I had a quick snack and some chocolate milk and crawled into bed and was asleep early.

Have a great Wednesday all!