A Total Body Disaster-fest

Last night at boot camp was a total body workout night and we had to partner up for the exercises. I worked out with a girl who is training for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront marathon so we had a good time...griping. I'm not sure if I'm getting burned out on boot camp or if it was an off night but it felt like such a disaster. Anything that required coordination was a total gong show and I just felt like I was lacking energy or motivation...not sure. That being said though, we did a ridiculous amount of suicide sprint drills and I totally ate those up and did well on them.

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I did get a terrific ride into work this morning and I'm looking forward to the ride home. It dawned on me that the nice days are going to run out pretty soon so I have to be sure to take advantage of it and try to ride my bike as often as possible. I'm thinking I'd probably like to get a trainer for the winter. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on what I should look for?

Some final thoughts on the race

1. I had three fears going into the race. Going commando, having massive high beams throughout the race, and being super stinky from having my deodorant wash off in the pool. Silly...maybe... As it turns out I didn't care about any of those three while I was racing...
2. It is true, you really don't notice that you are wet when you jump on the bike.
3. There was a couple at the race - obviously the guy supporting his girlfriend and I think her parents were there too. They were one massive PDA-fest as she kept jumping up on him and it seemed like they were almost permanently in a lip lock before the race. Seriously, no one wants to see that...
4. If I were still 29 I would have come in 5th in my age group. Apparently the 30 - 34 category is pretty competitive, although I still think coming in 13th in my age group was a pretty nice showing for my first tri.
5. I have to give a massive kudos to the volunteers. One spent 7 hours on Saturday sweeping the shoulder of Hwy 817 so that we wouldn't be riding over all of the debris from the silage trucks on the road. That shoulder was amazingly clean. I don't know if anyone flatted or not, but I did see two vans from Ridley's Cycle driving up and down the highway ready to help people out. I also really appreciated the lady at the water stop who pushed me on and encouraged me. That was what I needed to hear at that moment.
6. I do need to work on my set up in transitions. I laid out all my stuff on my towel, but when I came out of the pool and wanted to dry my feet off before putting socks on it wasn't the most efficient system.
7. This race was a fantastic one to take away some of the intimidation of a triathlon. They really promoted the idea that anyone can do this. This was especially evident with one mother-daughter-granddaughter team as the 79 year old mom finished her first tri. That was pretty awe inspiring. I'm pretty sure that most of us were tearing up as she went to collect her age group award.

Yesterday I was reminded of why I don't run in the evenings...it is just too easy for me to procrastinate and not want to get it done. I hummed and hawed on the drive home and I debated on whether I should just take a rest day. In the end I figured I'd feel better if I got the run in. When I got home I immediately put the running clothes on and made it out the door for a 3 miler after I finished tending to the pup. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. This morning I got in 1250 slowww metres back at the Y.

Have you seen this girl?

LOST

REWARD IF FOUND

What exactly is lost? My mojo. My will to run. Okay, I'm being overly dramatic...but I'm starting to feel like my heart isn't as into running as it was before. Getting out the door on Friday was hard... Granted, it was a Friday and I would have rather have still been at my hockey pool party. I went for a run on Monday over lunch and I couldn't get my stride into a groove until 3 miles in to my 4+ mile run. Stuff hurt. Running and I just were not jiving. Maybe I'm getting tired of running in the same areas all the time. Maybe it is because this week marks a big turning point in marathon training. 15 miles this weekend. 16 miles the next. I'm starting to stare those big mileage weeks in the face and spending 3+ hours pounding the pavement has me quaking in my boots a bit. Hopefully I have a solution to the problem. I'm off to Kelowna, British Columbia this weekend to spend some quality time with the folks. I'll be driving out on Saturday and saving my long run for Sunday. I'll be able to run somewhere completely new, so hopefully the change in scenery will do me good.

Trying out the new stuff

On Friday I managed to whine my way through 10 miles. I was just not motivated. We had our hockey pool wind up party after work on Friday and after downing a glass of water and a coke, plus a couple of nachos and wings my stomach wasn't in the mood so much. I was still really thirsty when I got home so I knocked back a couple of glasses of water and my stomach just felt heavy after that. Even the thought of trying out my new Kayano 14s wasn't getting me excited. It was time for an attitude adjustment though so I hurried up and changed and got my gear ready, then was out the door. I decided to run into the next neighbourhood for a bit of a change in scenery. I didn't really care what my speed was and I didn't have a route mapped out, I just had a vague idea of where to go. It was kind of nice. The sun was blazing down still so I tried to stick to the shade as much as possible and was going through my water pretty quickly. Halfway through the run I pulled out my Razz Clif Shot. The texture was everything I feared it would be. Gooey...but at least it was easy to swallow. Sort of. Maybe the Razz wasn't the best flavour to try. It was kind of like slightly salty, really bad raspberry jam. I have to say I liked the ease of eating it though and my stomach didn't convulse in revulsion upon consumption. I've got a chocolate one and a mocha one to try, then a couple Hammer Gels as well, so we'll see how they fare. The run back had quite a bit of uphill in it, so it was a challenge, but otherwise the rest of the run was uneventful. 10 miles...on a Friday night...done!

Spirit of the Marathon

Yesterday I opted to drive in to work rather than do the bike - run - bike thing I did on Tuesday. I wanted a chance to bring a few things in to the office so I'd have less to carry with me on the ride in. I did get out for 4 miles over lunch and my legs were a bit tired. Maybe not biking in was a good thing. The run went okay apart from the tired legs and I still managed a fairly respectable below 11:00/mi pace. In the evening I headed over to the theatre to catch the one and only showing of Spirit of the Marathon. Tickets had sold out a day or two in advance so I was pretty happy I had gotten my ticket early. Once I entered the theatre I ran into Karen and a friend of hers, Leaha, who recently moved to Calgary. After chatting for a few minutes Dawn arrived as well. We made it into the theatre a bit on the late side and the only place we were able to find seats was in the second row. I saw a bunch of different marathon attire being sported - shirts from Boston, New York, Vancouver... Of course I wore something related to the Goofy Challenge! I have to say I loved the movie - it really encompassed so much of the emotions that I have felt along in my training. Deena Kastor had to overcome a stress fracture during her training, another fellow buggered up his knee and needed surgery. I remember being in the podiatrist's office and hearing the words "stress fracture" and the emotion I felt that I wasn't going to be able to make my first marathon. I was really impressed with Deena's attitude as she worked through her injury. (Sigh, if only I'd had access to an underwater treadmill...) I also loved that they profiled Lori, a woman who ran on her own all the time, versus the other first time participant that ran exclusively with a group. I see both sides of solitary versus group running - it made me laugh that the group runners thought that anyone who would train for a marathon solo was crazy. Pretty well all my Goofy long runs were solo - I think you learn a lot about yourself when it is just you and the pavement for 20 miles. Seeing the profiled runners complete their training and run the race brought back so many emotions that I felt as I finished my 26.2 miles on January 13th. I remember crying as I was talking to my Dad at mile 20 and then when I got my Goofy medal at the end. The marathon is an emotional event and I was getting misty eyed last night as everyone was finishing their race. It was a great movie and it has me excited for my next 26.2 event in Quebec City in August. I can't wait to do it again!

It's all coming back to me now

I got up and ran 3.17 miles this morning before heading in to work. I was hitting the pavement before 6:00 am and it felt great. I ran the same route as I did on Tuesday and I even managed to shave a few seconds off my time. I also tackled the big 0.5 mi long hill around mile 2 on the route and ran the entire thing - no walk break in the middle. It has been awhile since I've been able to do that. After having four great runs in a row dare I say that I think my running is coming back to me now? I'm finally enjoying how I feel on the road and I want to get out there. I've been missing that desire for awhile. I'm happy that I got all my midweek runs in before getting ol' wisdom teeth out today. It is so much better than the usual two runs a week I've been getting in lately. Wish me luck today....happy Thursday all!

3/3 During the Week

This week I successfully got in my three midweek runs. I ran Tuesday over lunch as previously reported. There was no lunch time run in the cards yesterday as DGB and I were taken out to lunch at the Seven Restolounge instead. Interesting place....they had chocolate sushi on their dessert menu. Think rice pudding for the sushi rice, kiwi, strawberry and pineapple for the raw fish and chocolate for the nori. It was served along wasabi sorbet and it was...interesting. Needless to say after lunch I felt like a basketball that could be rolled around so my 4 miler around my hilly (and extraordinarily windy) neighborhood was not that pretty. Apparently my body has forgotten that it used to like running hills. At least I can say that the final mile actually felt good though. Last night I packed my gear to bring to work so I could run over lunch but overnight it dumped a huge bunch of snow.

I realize I shouldn't complain because I've been running in capris the last few days while everyone else has been freezing their tails off, but I almost debated not running given the scene outside. After reading Amanda's post on "When Are You a Runner?" I knew I needed to get outside. After all, Hal Higdon was telling me I only needed to run 2 miles today, so why put it off? I headed down to the river, ran to Eau Claire, over Prince's Island, up the big hill to McHugh Bluff and back. It felt good to finish up...I think I need more hills in my diet!

A cure for cabin fever

Last night I had the best intentions to go to Fit Ball, but I didn't make it home until 6 pm which is precisely when class starts. Oops. The cold snap took a bit of a leave of absence and since it was 0 deg C at lunch time I thought a run would be in order. Apparently a big chunk of the runners in this city must have been suffering from some serious cabin fever because the pathways were packed today. I saw one crazy guy layered up on top but only wearing shorts on the bottom. Then he didn't look so crazy when I saw a guy running in just a short sleeve shirt and shorts a ways on. Yikes, I didn't think it was that warm yet... The run felt pretty good - not bad considering last week I was huffing and puffing after climbing one flight of stairs. Chalk up three miles for my second post-Goofy run.

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As I was lying in bed this morning, contemplating waking up and thinking about what running gear I needed to pack, I realized that this is the least active I have been in probably a year. Granted, I can attribute my lack of activity to resting post-Goofy then recovering from bronchitis but it brought about some interesting thoughts. Everyone says it takes 21 days to create a habit, but after a year of running regularly I'm not sure I've completely conquered my inner couch potato. I love being outside, feet pounding the pavement and the feel of my heart beating in my chest while I am out running. On some level I think I still need that Excel spreadsheet mapping out my training program, carrying me from one race to another, advising me how far to run and when because otherwise it is too easy to say - "let me see what is on TV tonight." Then again, maybe it is just my engineering, type A personality that likes a little structure.

One of these things is not like the other...

I did get my 4.5 miles in over lunch yesterday. My legs were tired from Fit Ball and the first 2 mi felt kinda sluggish. When I hit my turnaround point I said to myself, "Come on Leana, tired is a state of mind and you are not tired." The back half felt much better after I said that! It was a busy day on the pathway over lunch as tons of people were out trying to enjoy the last of the nice weather before winter arrives. I ran into three coworkers along the way. Fall is definitely here - the leaves are all changing and the pathways are strewn with them. Luckily the temperatures are still nice enough to give the ol' running skirts a few last glimpses of sunshine before having to be packed away and replaced by the running tights.

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The hockey game was okay last night. Preseason....what can I say? It looked like it was going to be a rough night after San Jose scored two goals in the opening minutes, but Calgary fought back and won it in a shoot out. Hockey made for a late night and it was a serious rush out the door this morning. Apparently I was so rushed that I grabbed two shoes and put them on without paying attention. I was a block from work when I realized that those two shoes didn't match.... Yeah, who is acting their hair colour today? Thank goodness for my runners in my gym bag, and at least I have been able to provide my coworkers with a good laugh this morning. Today I'm aiming for 4 mi over lunch. With the post Fit Ball run, yesterday and today I'll hit my 10 midweek miles. Yoga tonight, and who knows what tomorrow... Hopefully matching shoes at least.