Exhausted

Exhausted…with a capital E!  When the alarm went off at 4:30 am for my swim I barely acknowledged it and fell right back asleep.  Ugh…

All day long of been drinking tea and water like it is going out of style.

As I drove home from work the exhaustion continued.  I could barely handle the thought of making dinner, let alone going home to sit on my bike for up to an hour.  Then it clicked.  My throat had been sore when I woke up.  There is a reason I’m feeling so exhausted….and I don’t like where this has the possibility of going.  I decided a rest day was in order as I’m worried I’m on the verge of getting sick.  I’ve heard rumblings of friends having some buggy stuff and I want no part of it!  I’ve had my behind parked on the couch all night, relaxing and drinking water.  Hopefully I’ll be able to jump out of bed tomorrow at 4:30 for that swim, but we’ll see how it goes!

Oh, and as an aside, I have had at least three triathlon related dreams in the last four nights.  The common theme seems to be forgetting about the race until the last minute.  The race is about to start and I haven’t even set up transition yet.  Think I may be a little preoccupied??

Get used to it!

On Sunday I had a 90 minute run on my schedule.  I met up with Tara at Edworthy early in order to knock it out.  Tara was keen for company so I was more than happy to oblige.  As soon as we got going I could tell my legs were flat.  The worst part is, as we headed out we had a tail wind and my legs just weren’t coming around.  Oh well, it has been quite a busy set of training, including some tough hill repeats on Thursday so I guess I’m not surprised.  I told Tara that I’d be perfectly fine with turning around early, so 30 minutes in we headed back and now into the wind. 

What is it with running in the wind?  When you have a tail wind it feels so calm around you.  You run into the wind and you can’t hear anything!  How come it is so different in two different directions?

While I never fully got that jump going in my legs they did start to feel better and I just didn’t want to call it quits one hour in.  We ran to our cars, took a quick bathroom break, then headed out just a bit further to make for a 1:20 run.  We both had places to be soon thereafter so 1:20 was all that was possible.

Angie told me that during Ironman training there will be a lot of workouts where I just don’t feel great.  Welcome to Ironman training!  As I’ll be tired a lot of the time I’ll have to get used to it!  Luckily this week is fairly light in anticipation of the Police Half Marathon this weekend.

Later in the afternoon I hit up the pool for a swim – a 1500m race distance swim, followed by some sprints and a cool down.  I worked to be very mindful of my wrists, keeping them straight throughout my stroke.  As I kept swimming it felt more and more natural.  I did a couple of stroke counts but no real change there, nor on my pace with this technique modification.  I’m sure as I keep it up I’ll start to see some changes soon!

St. Patrick’s Bullet Points

• I swam over lunch on Monday.  Well, it kind of wound up being a “just before” lunch swim.  I was in the pool a minute or two after 11:00 in an attempt to miss some of the major lunch rush.  My swim went fairly well, and it was really nice to have that workout taken care of sooner rather later.  My workout was allowed to vary between 1800 and 2500m, but I had to err on the side of shorter as I had to make it back to work.
• Calgary was forecasted to reach a high of 19C on Tuesday.  That’s 66F, which is on the verge of summer!  What to wear on my lunch run??  I thought about packing a tank top, but I opted for a short sleeve shirt, and the option of shorts or capris.  As lunch neared the sun was still firmly behind clouds.  In fact, it even looked like it was going to rain.  Dare I say it, but a cloudy 10C in capris and short sleeves doesn’t feel nearly as nice as 3C and sunny!!  Oh well, my 30 minute run was a good one regardless.
• Spin class continues to go really well.  Every single workout is a new experience in pushing myself on the trainer.  My legs are absolutely bagged from our power based workout on Tuesday!
• Today called for a 30-45 minute easy spin and a swim.  The only time to get the spin in is after work.  Unfortunately I had some errands to run first – Wal-Mart and Best Buy.  I spent five minutes staring at the various bleaches and stain removers trying to find colour safe bleach.  Then all of a sudden I clued in that the Javex 2 Stain Fighter and Colour Booster really is colour safe bleach…it just doesn’t exactly say it.  Yeah…I felt smart!
• As for Best Buy, I was on a mission to pick up The Princess and the Frog.  I wasn’t sure whether to get the DVD or Blu-Ray version.  Did you know that there is a coupon for $10 off the Blu-Ray and DVD combo pack?  It expires March 21.  Decision made, combo pack purchased.
• I ate dinner, then set up my bike in the garage for my spin and watched the first two episodes of Modern Family.  Have you seen this show at all?  Hilarious!!
• Sadly by the time this was all done there was no time to make swimming.  Seriously…where does the time go?  And how am I going to fit all of this in when IM training gets more intense?  Maybe I’m going to need to work on getting back into my early morning swims.
• Truthfully, I’ve been finding it so hard to get up in the mornings.  When I saw Sun Safety Barbie’s post on her new favourite app, the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, I knew I needed to download it.  I’m curious to see if and how this works.  Maybe this will be the key to me waking up more rested!

Brain not quite in game…

Final push through to big project due date on Friday, so here are a few thoughts in bullets:

• Hit up the Y for a run on the treadmill Monday night.  Still around –28C on this day!  My brain was apparently not capable of running on the treadmill on Sunday and Monday because wow…it was hard!  20 minutes.
• Got my H1N1 shot on Monday and I felt a wee bit icky on Tuesday.
• Brain so not capable of handling spinning on Tuesday either.  I probably wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t actually have to pick my bike up from Bow Cycle.
• Speaking of bike, derailleur has been repositioned, plus it has been spiffed up with some new bar tape and elbow pads.  Yay!
• Icky + preoccupied + tired = terrible spin.  If I was at home I would have gotten off the bike halfway through and called it a day.  But you can’t quite do that in class, right?
• At the end of the day it was worth sticking around though because we all went out for beverages and nachos to celebrate the last spin of 2009.  So much fun to hang out with the group!! 
• It is 0C out now…it almost feels like shorts weather after all this –20-something stuff!
• By this time on Friday I’ll be on my way overseas!  I have visions of warm weather runs in shorts and swims in outdoor pools in my head.  So can’t wait!

Sorry for the totally discombobulated post…catch up with you all soon!

Zonked!

Monday I took advantage of my last few hours in Kelowna by heading out to the Mission Creek Greenway for my long run.  The run was all about options.  Run on Sunday or Monday.  Run for 1:15 to 1:30, whatever felt good.  I started from the parking lot of the H2O Adventure Center and made my way along the greenway.  I figured that 8 miles seemed like a pretty good distance to aim for.  I was chugging along at a pace I was pretty happy with…something that has been eluding me lately despite the speed work I’ve been doing.  Just to make sure I could keep it up I took short walk breaks at the end of every mile.  I hit my halfway point…conveniently right around the bathrooms and a chance to refill my water bottle.  All in all, it was a successful run and the 8 miles felt really good.  Fingers crossed that this can translate into a great 10K race this Sunday!

After my run it was time to shower, pack, have some lunch and then jet off to the airport.  Sadly I went home minus one piece of checked luggage.  Finlay stuck around with my mom and dad. :(  My house seems so quiet without him now, but I’m sure he will be spoiled with plenty of treats and fun walks with Maggie.

This morning I was up early to knock out 2000 m at the pool.  The swim went really well, and I was amazed that I actually made it to the pool on time.  Gotta love those days when you feel fluid and efficient in the water, eh?

As for this evening?  Wow, I’m tired and not quite sure why!  Original plans for this evening?  Grocery shopping, picking up paint from Home Depot, pick up Snow White on DVD since it is on sale today…  Accomplished?  I ate dinner and took care of a few things on my computer.  Oops!  I’ll blame my lack of motivation on the crazy wind gusts of 50-60 km/h that were happening when I got home.  Who would want to go out in that?  Oh well, think it is time to finally call it a night!

Hills, hills and snakes

Last night we were back at Edworthy for group hill repeats on the bike. We went up the hill once and into the nearby neighborhood for a quick warm up. No surprise my legs were tired going up the hill... I figured I'd just ride...see what happened and take it slow. As I kept going up and up the legs felt better. I didn't ride as quickly as last week, and I got in the same number of hill repeats for a total of six.

My brick run was optional but I was feeling good so I took off with my teammate Pam. We were supposed to go out and back along the river for 15 minutes and we hit our turnaround point before I knew it. All in all, a good night of hill repeats and a great brick!

I had an optional rest day today, but since I won't have time to get my run in tomorrow I decided to do it today. I headed out to Baker Park for the first time this year for a 5 mile run. This probably wasn't my smartest decision since the pathway along the river here is hilly. I just sucked it up and made peace with the fact that this run wouldn't be speedy. At least it was gorgeous out and warm! As I was coming down the final big hill with one mile left to go I looked down...just a little too late...and saw a snake!! It was just a little itty bitty snake, but it still scared the crap out of me and I jumped and screamed like a total girl. Yeah, that was enough incentive to get me to pick up the pace for the last mile back!

The Fallout

After the ride I felt pretty good. I could have gone for a brick run, but by the time I got back to my car it was already after 4 pm. You can bet I was needing some real food besides the fuel I had brought along on the ride. I had an invite to my brother and sister-in-law's place. My brother had spent the better part of Saturday smoking a pork shoulder. Pulled pork, BBQ sauce, provolone cheese all on a cheese bun...plus a spinach salad...amazing stuff!Sunday morning I had a swim and a run on the plan. The swim involved a whole bunch of balance drills. Not really surprising, but I felt the most comfortable when I was on my left side, therefore breathing to my right. This has always been my most comfortable side for breathing. When I flipped on my right I noticed that my legs were more prone to sinking but this definitely helped me even things out. 2000m done and it was time to shower and head out for my run.

I really wasn't expecting amazing things from this run after my epic ride on Saturday. It really was not a big surprise to see my pace was over one minute per mile slower than usual. I thought my legs might shake things out as I continued on but my pace never wavered. I just had no juice in my legs at all. I was supposed to run for 9 miles but when I saw my pace wasn't improving I thought it might be a good idea to cut it short. After all, I do have a race on Sunday so I didn't see much point in gutting the distance out. I cut it back to 5 miles instead. No pain on the run at all...just no juice in the legs. Oh well!

Mondays are a bit up in the air on my schedule now. Angie had me down for just yoga on Mondays. I'm all out of drop in passes at my usual studio and I'm feeling too cheap to purchase some more. I floated the idea of switching Monday out to being an upper body strength day instead. I'd love to have some guns like Missy, I just don't want to swim all of those laps in the pool to get them! Since today was a holiday here - Victoria Day - I spent the majority of my day in pajamas puttering around the house. Finally at 5 pm I made it out to the Y. I didn't do anything fancy - I just ran through the upper body weight machines, did some bicep curls and tricep work, then followed it up with some core and stretching. I had to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner and my arms were so tired that it was tough just hanging on to my purse! Yup, I've got some work to do!

An Equation

Leana + Caffeine > 7:30 pm

yields
a Leana that cannot fall asleep

Last night I met up with one of the ladies from my swimming class at Starbucks. I had a London Fog, which is Earl Gray tea, steamed milk and vanilla. I needed to be up early this morning but I just wasn't sleepy. I guess I just am that susceptible to caffeine! I think I probably fell asleep sometime around midnight... Which meant that this morning's 4:30 am wake up was brutal!

I was planning on skipping swimming today because I had to give a big presentation at work this afternoon. I still wanted to get into work early, hence the 4:30 am wake up. As soon as the alarm went off I jumped out of bed and had one thought... Coffee!!

I never make coffee at home. In fact I very rarely drink regular coffee. But I do have a coffee maker and some beans for when my parents come to visit. I went downstairs and looked in the freezer. Thank goodness - I had coffee beans, but no ground coffee to speak of. Hmm. I took out my coffee grinder. I've used it once...
I brewed four cups and had a taste. In case you can't tell, it was horrendously weak. Yuk!
I thought it may be because of how I ground the beans so I ground a bit more (a little bit finer), added a bit more coffee and brewed again. Stronger this time, but still yuck!!
Oh well, it did the trick I guess.

As for our team hill repeat ride today? Canceled again. Stupid rain. Angie sent a trainer workout to do, but I'll be honest. I'm beat. I've also been sucked in by the Biggest Loser finale. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some better weather tomorrow. If so I'll go ride outside on my own, otherwise I'll do Angie's workout inside tomorrow.

So what does that mean? I haven't worked out since Sunday. I have a date at the pool at 9 pm with my friend DGB as well, so hopefully I'll get a little something in today! And then I'm planning on going home, falling into bed...and waking up slightly later than 4:30 am tomorrow...

Have a good night all!

Sunday Ride

Wow...it has been one busy weekend! Not necessarily full of fun stuff besides the training, but busy none the less. I was up at 6 am to accomplish a few things around the house before getting on to my bike. Thank goodness the weather was slightly more cooperative today for riding outdoors! I had a 1.5 hour ride on the schedule followed by a 20 min run. I drove out to Cochrane, leaving behind sunny skies and heading towards some ominous looking clouds. I hadn't noticed those before I was leaving, but I was already on the road and would have had to turn around and do some research on another route that would have eaten up too much time. I just kept my fingers crossed that I'd be able to outrun the clouds.

I parked at my usual spot to ride the Horse Creek loop. I wanted to ride it and compare it to the last time I road a few weeks back with the group. I saw a few different groups along the way in the beginning, a few of them wearing Team Tri Life jackets. Unfortunately with all that bike gear on it was hard to recognize who was who, so I'm not too sure who I passed!

I'm definitely feeling a lot stronger riding than I did at the end of last year. Must have been all of those amazing training sessions over the winter! Hills that I huffed and puffed on now seem less consequential. I also spent some time getting into my aerobars a bit in the beginning, as well as getting used to my water bottle out of the cage (something I still find a bit tricky).

Once I finished going as far north on my loop as I could go I made a westerly turn and smacked head first into some wind. At this point the road isn't super smooth either and the vibrations were crazy! I hoped that when I turned south I wouldn't be pummeled by the wind so much anymore, but that wasn't the case. I forged on, just kept spinning and tried to keep my cadence as close to 90 rpm as possible. With a few miles left to go in the ride a few sprinkles started to fall. I could tell I was riding towards sunshine so I was keeping my fingers crossed that it wouldn't turn into a downpour. Once I turned onto Highway 1A the sprinkles stopped and I was nearly back at my car. All in all, 26.5 miles down, and about 5 minutes faster than the last time I road the loop a few weeks back. I also decided to ride in tri shorts. I figured that since I'll be racing in them I would be best off getting my behind used to riding in them on a regular basis.

I had a 20 minute brick next, and the road that I park on for this ride is probably my least favorite place to run afterward. It is a combination of dirt, mud and gravel and it just sucks any energy out of your legs. Not to mention that you have to start out running uphill. My legs were trashed (ahem...probably because I decided not to down my gel halfway through the ride...) so I wound up running for a whopping 7 minutes.

I stopped by Starbucks for a mocha since I figured it was a good combination of recovery drink (you know, like hot chocolate) and caffeine. I came home, sat on the couch to check a few things on the computer, then figured I'd better get up before I laid down for a long nap. Still plenty more to accomplish! I guess that is what happens when you have a pile of laundry from two weeks or so and a house that desperately needs some tidying!

Anyhow, I hope you folks all had a terrific weekend!!

It's Friday...

If you've looked at my Buckeye training log on the sidebar you can see that I haven't been up to too much this week. At least not exercise wise. After 60 hours of overtime in the past two and a half weeks reserves are done. I have eaten more soup and toast in the last two weeks than I did in the past year, I've averaged 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night and have barely had contact with the outside world. My brain has reached a whole new level of exhaustion, but I have to admit that the work that I was doing was so incredibly interesting. It felt really rewarding to put my reserves project to bed this afternoon.

The weather has been downright arctic here. We had a slight reprieve on Tuesday when the temperature came up to -10 deg C. It might as well have been +10 because anything felt better than the -20s we've been in. I went out for a 45 minute run over lunchtime around the river and there were so many people out. We must have all been suffering from some wicked cabin fever! It was a bit slow going because of all of the packed snow and ice on the pathway, but that was just fine.

I didn't make it to the final spin class before Christmas on Tuesday night, but I did make it out for the social at the pub afterwards. It was great to chat with a few more teammates and it also gave me a chance to talk to coach about when to get my final long run in before the marathon. Because it is way too cold to run outdoors here this weekend and running over 20 miles indoors is just insane I'll be running on Wednesday when I'll (hopefully) be someplace slightly warmer.

I did manage to get in a run on Thursday night on the track at the Y. I had a speed session that consisted of a warm up and 8 x 1:00 hard, 1:00 easy, followed by a cool down. I was exhausted and didn't expect the run to feel too great, but thankfully I was wrong! I think busting out some speed helped me to release a bit of tension, and then I went home and slept like a baby.

This weekend is a busy one...and it isn't. I've got some workouts to make sure that happen - a swim and a 10K run on Saturday and a 2 hour run on Sunday. Otherwise I plan on taking it pretty easy the rest of the time, just puttering around my house and letting my brain recover. Anyhow, that's about it for me...I think I'm ready to get to bed! Have a great weekend all!

Nearly There

Wow...I am absolutely knackered. I have logged 49 hours of overtime working on reserves so far, most of it within the last week. Finally I had the "there's a light at the end of the tunnel" moment today at about 2:30. That isn't to say that all of my work is done - not even close - but I can fathom finishing everything in time for my Friday deadline. I am so happy that Finlay is at his grandparents' right now. I definitely made the right decision.

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On the running front I kind of felt like a wuss this weekend as I heard that a bunch of people I knew ran outside. I was freezing on just a 5 minute walk to the mall yesterday so serious kudos to my friends who braved the cold weather here. However, in my defense, I had a 45 minute run with strides to do, and who wants to run strides on a snowy, slippery surface? So I hoofed it to my Y to run inside instead (feeling ever so grateful that I did decide to join a gym this year). The track at my Y is pretty tiny...15 laps equals 1 mile. I got a little dizzy after running 71 laps yesterday. I ran at a warm up pace for 10 minutes, then ran a 30 second stride followed by 4:30 of regular ol' easy running to finish out the 45 minutes. I loved the striding part. I felt so speedy and I definitely got the heart working.

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So...the bad news is this cold snap seems to have no end in sight. Temperatures for the weekend aren't looking like much of an improvement. Coach has told me that it is downright insanity to run 35 km (or 21.75 miles) indoors. Thank goodness, because I would have a hard time trying to mentally suck it up for 155 laps (or 326 laps depending on which track I went to). And I'm not even sure if I could run and count that high. If I can't run outdoors then I'll most likely aim to run on December 24th when I'm in Kelowna. So if anyone in Kelowna can suggest a nice 35 km route for me, I am all ears. I looked at the running route maps on the Running Room website, but it sends me through the park on the same route that I got lost on this summer. So apparently I need something that is extraordinarily simple - i.e. doesn't involve veering off on to trails.

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I'm not one to make an official announcement about anything until I've financially committed to it, but it seems like everyone wants to know what I meant about Lake Stevens being good prep for my future plans. It's true, I want to race Ironman Canada in 2010. The seed was planted in my head way back in June. I met and chatted with Ray Fateaux at the Footstock race expo. He's the author of Ironstruck and we talked about his decision to go from zero fitness to racing an Ironman. At this point in time I was still throwing around the idea of just entering my first triathlon! I specifically started looking for a coach because I wanted to go from 70.3 next year to 140.6 in 2010. I almost signed up for IMC in 2009 when I heard that spots were opening up for online entry...but I knew 2009 was not the year to attempt it. I will be in Penticton in 2009 though, cheering on my friends and teammates and getting ready to commit to 2010. While Penticton is a tough course (with plenty of hills), it is supposed to be one of the most amazing. The entire town really supports the race. It isn't too far from where my folks live so it helps out with logistics, plus they will be able to come cheer me on when I toe the line. So there we go folks, I have a plan all of the way until August 2010. This is definitely one evolution...

Let's Talk Uncomfortable

My thoughts feel so discombobulated that I'd love to do another bullet point post, but really...that's just copping out.

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Yesterday's run called for a nice and easy 30 minute jaunt. It was -7°C (19°F). Why is it that your Garmin takes forever to catch satellites when it is cold out? I thought I dressed pretty warmly, but I was freezing...my tummy off. It looks like all of my running tights are a bit big and even the drawstring doesn't help adjust enough to keep those babies from riding down while I'm running. And my long sleeve shirt was a bit on the short side so it came untucked. And it was windy. And my stomach was freezing. I was so happy to turn around and get that run done. 3.34 miles in 31:50 and I never really warmed up again that afternoon. Yes, I think we could say that was uncomfortable.

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The traffic to get to Walmart after work was ridiculous! I was pretty shocked to see no line at all for Customer Service so that I could return my DVD. Somehow or other it still took the three people behind the counter several minutes to help me out. I was absolutely knackered last night so I wasn't even going to attempt to get up at 4:30 this morning to try to make it to swim class. I gave myself an extra half an hour and woke up well rested. I have a scheduled rest day tomorrow but if all goes well I might try to hit the pool instead. I will feel guilty if I don't swim at least once this week!

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I wasn't going to miss my run today, that was for sure! I had a 50 minute VO2 max run scheduled. It contained 15 minutes of :30 fast and :30 easy in the middle. The description from my coach? "This should feel really uncomfortable Leana. Be prepared." As if the -10°C (14°F) temperature outside wasn't going to feel uncomfortable enough, this was going to throw it right over the edge! I tucked in a longer shirt today and threw a vest over my mid-weight top and this felt a lot better today. My warm up was nice and easy, and I have to say that I loved the VO2 max intervals. There's something about busting out those intervals that makes you know that you've worked really hard. And running fast made the temperature outside seem not too bad... Anyhow, that's about it for me. I've got strength, core and stretching tonight, then we'll see about the pool tomorrow. Have a good Thursday all!

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

That would be the work end and the play end of the candle that are getting burned at both ends. So where is the athlete end of the candle? Sheesh. So my Saturday was busy. I put in some solid time at the office, attempted my long run only to be plagued by nausea, then ran some errands at the mall and at Ikea. Sunday I was up at 6:30 and doing stuff from the word "go." I had important things like laundry and grocery shopping to take care of, not to mention you saw my little garage project. By the way - I *love* my garage set up. I haven't actually ridden the bike in it since I put everything together, but I know it is going to be great. It took me slightly longer to put together my TV stand mostly because the box came devoid of instructions. By the time it was all together I opted to eat, then hit the grocery store in order to give my food some time to digest before attempting my run. I was responsible for bringing poutine to the Grey Cup party so I needed to pick up fries, gravy and cheese curds. All of a sudden I'm heading out the door at 1 pm for my 2 hour run, with more errands and a spinning workout required, and kick off at 4 pm. You probably don't need a calculator to realize that there just wasn't enough time to do it all, so first things first, I mentally geared up for a shorter run. An hour and a half, but still with my 3 x 15:00 marathon race pace intervals.

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I used the McMillan Running Calculator to figure out what my marathon race pace should be based off of my Last Chance Half finishing time. 10:17/mi. Fair enough, except I was warming up at what felt like a slow and easy pace and coming nowhere close to getting my heart rate toward zone 2...and I was running sub-10:00 miles. As soon as I hit my first interval my Garmin was regularly shouting at me to slow down. I was frustrated that my Garmin was beeping so much and that I didn't have enough time in the day to get everything done, and that this run wasn't really working out like it was supposed to. On the plus side the weather sure was fabulous though..! Anyhow, I got my hour and a half run in, showered, got the errands done, and showed up for the part at 4:22 pm. Not too bad...

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As for the game? It was terrible. Not exciting at all, although the Calgary Stampeders won. But the food was good! Because the game was in Montreal and it was Montreal vs. Calgary we themed it up. Montreal smoked meat sandwiches (with meat direct from Montreal), my poutine, sausages from Spolumbos (a gourmet sausage company started by three former Calgary Stampeders), and beer margaritas (mostly because they are tasty, not because they go with the theme). I did have a random thought that I would get my spinning workout in after the game, but after all of those beer margaritas somehow it just didn't seem like a good idea..

Mission Aborted

Yesterday the plan was for a 2:00 run with 3 x 15:00 intervals at marathon race pace. I didn't run first thing in the morning because it was still pretty cold out, and I wanted to knock some work out at the office first. I got so into the groove of things at the office that all of a sudden it was noon and I hadn't eaten lunch yet and I still needed to run. I'd purposely brought a light lunch - some soup and toast - so I figured that if I ate then digested for a bit I should be good to go. Well, I was wrong...

I headed off to the river and from the word go I felt like I was going to toss my cookies with every step. To top it off I wasn't just nauseous, I felt a whole world of GI distress happening. I just was not ready to fight this for two hours because I knew I wasn't going to be able to put in a quality run and really give those intervals a good go. So I crossed back over the river at the next foot bridge and headed back to the office. Mission aborted at 17:40.

I had a few errands I needed to run at the mall and at Ikea and I intended to do my spin workout instead when I came home. When I got back at 7:45 I was so amazingly tired that it just didn't happen. Back up mission aborted. So...it will be a busy day today as I now have lots of stuff to get done before Grey Cup kick off at 4 today. Guess I'd better get on with it! Good luck to all my friends racing in Philly today!

Thanksgiving Weekend - Day 3

My body was apparently really tired all weekend because I just wanted to sleep in until 8 am every day. And yesterday was no exception. I had a tough time getting motivated to get in my workout yesterday, but by the time I finally arrived at the Y I didn't have nearly enough time to get everything in. I started running on the treadmill and I expected my legs to feel awful, but surprisingly they wanted me to keep speeding up. I was torn between running my entire 3 miles, or cutting the run short to get some weights in. I opted to cut the run short. Maybe I should have gone with the entire run since it was going so well. The weights... Not so much... I could tell immediately that my legs were still feeling the effects of my long run and bike from the day before and I couldn't lift anywhere near as much as I did on Thursday. I cruised through the weights then hurriedly showered and changed, but then found out that I wasn't needed to babysit my niece that afternoon. So I grabbed some lunch, went home, then fell asleep watching Pleasantville on TV and woke up to a ringing phone and Mean Girls on instead. Yeah...apparently I was tired. In the evening I went to hang out with my brother and sister-in-law where we closed out Thanksgiving weekend with some grilled turkey and cranberry sausages. Yum. All in all, it was a great weekend.

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As a total aside, today I swam 600 m with flippers on for the first time. Wow! Do you feel like a speed demon with those on!!

Random bits and pieces for the week so far

On Sunday the family all went out to Bolero, a Brazilian churascurria here in town. $35 gets you a parade of seemingly endless young men past your table carrying swords with big hunks of meat on it (although they do have some grilled pineapple that comes by from time to time as well). It is good times! On Monday we all got together at my brother's to celebrate Avery's actual birthday with some good Hungarian food. Truthfully I'm not sure if I'm eating to get ready for my marathon or if I'm preparing for hibernation.

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Apparently NBC didn't broadcast the men's triathlon, but CBC up in Canada did and my family was nice enough to let me watch the event after dinner on Monday. I have to say...what a race! If you want to see the highlights go here, then flick through the list of clips to page 10 of 30 to watch it. The commentator was interesting. He kept exclaiming that he didn't like how Simon Whitfield looked, how he was going to be the first to drop off of the pack in the run. He was kind of negative... Two of my favourite lines from the night included:

1. "They look like cyclists just going out for a run..." (commenting on how the two lead guys off of the bike didn't have very good running form)
2. "These two guys are going to be cannon fodder in about another two and a half to three minutes." (once the next 40 men or so ran out of T2)

Congratulations to Simon Whitfield on his silver medal and a fantastic performance from his teammate Colin Jenkins. My brother and I were jumping up and down, yelling at the TV and cheering Simon on across the finish line. It was thrilling!

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I got in 1500m at the pool yesterday morning. I was on deck at about 5:45 and the place was busy! All three roped lanes had 2 people in each lane already, plus the unroped area had 3 folks swimming up and down as well. No one in the unroped area wanted to share swimming space. Am I missing something on pool etiquette? Do you not swim circles if the lane is not roped off? I managed to carve out a bit of space and swam some really good strong laps. Last night was a cardio intensive night at boot camp and we lucked out with some slightly less warm temperatures and some cloud cover. There was a fair bit of running involved and I tried out a heart rate monitor for the first time. I asked my mom if we could swap Garmins (since she had the 305 and I had the 205 but she wasn't using the heart rate monitor). I'm interested to see if I learn anything from tracking my heart rate. I won't wear it during the marathon though since I think I may need to tweak the fit a bit more. It was pressing against my breast bone and is kind of sore in the area now and I really don't need that to happen for 26.2 miles on Sunday. I thought about running this morning as well, but at the end of the day I decided to sleep in, all in the name of the taper. Tonight I'm taking my mom to Corteo so it will be a full on rest day!

The after effects of DST

Is anyone else having a rough time after the time change yesterday? Most of my floor at work here has already copped to feeling like walking, talking zombies. Interesting that the whole "clocks foward" thing can have such an impact.

Upon arriving at work I noticed a poster on the wall trying to recruit for our next blood drive. Here's an interesting factoid for you all...I cannot donate blood. At all. Ever (at least in the forseable future). Why not? Because I spent a cumulative total of more than three months in the UK between 1980 and 1996 so I could possibly have contracted variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (aka Mad Cow Disease). In fact I lived there between 1982 and 1983 and 1988 to 1993. The same policy applies in both Canada and the US. Interesting, eh?