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!

An attempt to get back at it

Last night I skipped boot camp because the focus of the evening was lower body endurance. I didn't think I needed to test my lower body endurance ability quite yet so I got together for dinner with family one last time before my mom heads back home. This morning I thought I would head out for a nice and easy run just to see how things felt. And yeah...my legs are still pretty tired so I only went for 1.5 miles. My legs were stiff and sore all of Monday and Tuesday, but things finally started to loosen up Wednesday. I have some pretty big knots in my right calf though that really need a work out, so I'll head to my chiro later this afternoon to get them worked out with some ART. Tomorrow is a massage to help some more. Like the nutter that I am, I am off to Edmonton this weekend to hang out with friends and run the St. Albert Sprint Tri on Monday. I doubt I'll be doing too much activity between now and the race so hopefully I'll be nice and rested up. With that said, I'm just racing to have fun so I won't be pushing myself too hard on the run.

---

I have a dilemma about the race though folks. Apparently September equals the start of fall weather around here and the forecast doesn't look too wonderful for this weekend. On Monday the forecasted low is 3 deg C (37 deg F), the high is 17 deg C (63 deg F). What are your suggestions for how to handle coming out of the pool and hopping on the bike in such cold temperatures? What should I wear? Do I wear a long sleeve tech shirt that won't be super warm, but will allow me to dry off (maybe)? Or do I throw on a long sleeve bike jersey/jacket that may not allow for much drying off?

Getting my mojo back

Saturday morning I had an invitation to a BBC session at Edworthy Park on the NW side of town and the group run was going to be at the Glenmore Reservoir on the SW side of town. The locations were a bit too far away to make both so I opted to run 6 miles on my own at Edworthy in order to finish in time before BBC. I started running east towards the city and about half a mile in I realized I was a bit too overdressed, plus all of a sudden I really had to hit the bathroom so I turned around. All of a sudden I was running into some crazy wicked wind. After dropping by jacket at the car and what not I decided I wanted the first half of my run to be into the wind rather than having to deal with it on the back half when I would be a bit more tired so I headed west. After I had been running for awhile I realized that this run was feeling effortless...no more huffing and puffing and looking at my watch. I was feeling so good I even inadvertently missed a walk break. Hurrah, my running mojo is coming back! I wasn't being particularly speedy, but this is the best I've felt running since the marathon. I turned around and headed back towards the car. With a mile left to go I wanted to test myself to see if I could pick up the pace to finish. I kicked it into another gear and kept running without looking at the watch and I ran a minute and a half faster than my average pace up till this point in time. I had a quick walk to cool down, changed out of my sweaty tops and headed over to meet Instructor S and some of the other BBC gals. All of a sudden I was FREEZING....I had a short sleeve tech shirt on, a long sleeve mid-layer and a windbreaker on and it wasn't enough. I had to run back to the car to grab my fleece jacket as the temperature was plummeting. Just as everyone showed up for BBC there was an odd type of hail/snow that started to fall... Once we got moving by running a lap around some picnic tables we started to warm up and the snow let up a bit. BBC was tough...step ups, tricep dips, knee ups, grade 7 dance, jump rope and abs....it was quite the workout. My abs were so sore yesterday that it hurt to cough. Luckily I think they have recovered enough for what will likely be an intense Fit Ball session tonight though. The abs in the park were my favorite part. We were doing various sit ups on a mat lying in the park and you could still see the odd snow flake coming down. It was kind of a neat, surreal experience.

---

On another note, run on over to Iron Bob's page (a.k.a. Bob Almighty) to congratulate him on a fabulous finish at his first ever Iron Man in New Zealand this past weekend. Good job Bob!

10 miles = ow, ow, ow....

This morning I had my last long run before the Calgary Half Marathon next weekend, a 10 miler. This was a first for me - my longest distance so far! I went back out to Glenmore Reservoir again as I really like that pathway and the scenery around there. This time I started near the rowing club which was a pretty busy place for this Saturday morning. My whole way around the reservoir I could hear the rowers out there which was really neat. It was really starting to warm up, and not quite half way through my route I was running low on water. Luckily I was right near the Glenmore Landing shopping center, so I took a break to run into Good Earth and replenish my fluids. I discovered that I really seem to dislike running on flat ground for an extended period of time. I noticed that I would really slow down on these portions. Of course the downhills are speedy, but I'm really starting to find the uphills really motivating and I made some good time on most of the climbs. I felt like I really pushed my pace today, and as a result I averaged 00:17/mile faster than last week's long run. I'm not sure if I could have sustained this another 3.1 miles, but I guess we'll see what happens next weekend. I went with the Lemon-Lime Clif Shot Bloks this time around. The flavor was slightly better than the black cherry, but I think I still want to try a few more flavors out. However for next weekend I'm going to stick with a flavor I've tried since I know it agrees with my stomach!

For the first time in awhile I could tell I was going to be sore after this run. Last week I felt great, but even with a bunch of stretching I knew I was going to stiffen up in the car on the way home today. And yup, I was right! I should have come home and gone with an ice bath, but I opted to eat and have a nap instead even though I knew this wasn't the best option...and as a result I'm definitely a bit stiff. On days like these I wonder why I thought a 4 level split townhome was a good idea....!