Running the Sahara - Winners!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered my Running the Sahara movie giveaway. You guys left me some really fantastic inspirational phrases and I really appreciate it! A few highlights:

• Greg, aka Road Warrior said, "Since I run so I can eat, my mantra is pizza and beer at the finish." Hello, I can relate since I'm often chanting out various beverage concoctions I could pick up at Starbucks when I'm done.
• Ryan said, "I'm so glad I'm not Canadian!" since that meant he could actually enter the contest. Ryan, you crack me up! If you haven't checked out his blog yet, you really should go do it. You can congratulate him on his super fast marathon this weekend.
• RoadBunner likes "Pain is temporary, pride is forever." Yup, that is a good one!
• My friend Aloha Jeff uses this mantra to get him out the door: "Fitness can't be stored, it must be earned over and over, indefinitely." Ted Corbit. I love it Jeff. I'm going to remember that for days when I just don't want to go.
• Jess loves the quote from Meet the Robinsons: Keep Moving Forward. I love it too. It is actually engraved on my RoadID.

So thanks again to everyone that entered! If you want to see what everyone wrote, here's the link. I have 5 downloads to give away, and thanks to the wonderful Random.org the lucky folks are:

• Laurel @ A Brand New Life as a Runner
• Badgergirl
• Jess @ A Picture a Day
• Audgepodge
• Roadbunner

Send me an e-mail at runnerleana at gmail dot com and I'll get you your prize. Be sure to let me know how you like the movie! I'll be waiting for the day that it is available in Canada...

Running the Sahara - Movie Giveaway!

Folks, I have a giveaway for you! I think a lot of us have heard about the three amazing men that set the challenge to run across the Sahara. They did the run to raise awareness for the water crisis in Africa through the H2O Africa Foundation. Their incredible journey was captured on camera and you can now download it off of iTunes.

But...I have some free downloads off of iTunes to give away free to some lucky readers! If you want to enter for the chance to win:

• Tell me in the comments what inspirational phrase gets you through those tough times in a race or training- at mile 20 of a marathon, or pushing up those hill repeats, whenever. Those inspirational phrases have always escaped me, so I'd appreciate a few ideas!
• Become a follower of my blog and you'll get two entries!

Everyone who leaves me a comment by the end of Saturday, February 14th will be entered. My apologies my Canadian compatriots, but unfortunately this is only available for folks in the US. Fingers crossed, it should be available for us within a month or two!

Spread the word, and good luck!

Brrr!

Snow started blowing in yesterday and we had near white-out conditions. The drive home was particularly nasty as plenty of vehicles were having a hard time making it up hills and were spinning out all over the place. The drive in to work today was not much better, but I drove like one scared...er...cautious Vancouverite/Texan and gave myself plenty of room around other cars.

A few weeks ago when I posted about my new trainer set up in my garage Wes was musing over how cold it would get in my garage. Wes, I am happy to report that even with temperatures in -20s outside I was still plenty warm in my garage! I did a 47 minute workout focusing on 8 x 2:00 hard spins while finishing off the end of 27 Dresses and starting in on Charlie's Angels Full Throttle. Say what you will about Charlie's Angels but it has a fantastic soundtrack to spin to while watching along!

Tuesday Spin Night Bullet Points

• After telling Marcy that I avoided Walmart like the plague I stopped by on my way home to pick up Prince Caspian. Wanted was no where to be seen though.
• I was reminded as to why I dislike Walmart. Busy...no shopping baskets to be found and I didn't want to be navigating the aisles with a cart...mothers letting their kids dump their orange juice on the floor then slyly moving away, pretending like it wasn't their kid that just made the mess...
• I might have made a few other DVD purchases... I am pretty sure that 27 Dresses and The Devil Wears Prada will be for my viewing pleasure only.
• I was so excited about my DVD purchases that I might have played the first bit of 27 Dresses...in my DVD player in my garage...while I packed my bike and trainer up before heading to spin class.
• Spin class was intense! We did a lot of strength work and my legs were burning. Single leg is some of my favourite stuff...not sure why! Maybe because I've seen a big improvement in my ability to do single leg drills lately.
• During some of the major strength portions my heart rate was not increasing very much, despite seriously burning legs. Apparently if your heart rate doesn't rise during pure strength work then you need to get stronger...
• This was our longest "ride" to date - just over 30 miles, and almost two hours on the bike!
• Class ran a little long and I was hoping to make it to Best Buy before it closed. I pulled away from Bow Cycle around 8:45 pm and arrived at the Best Buy parking lot at 8:55 pm. Five minutes to shop!
• After finding Wanted (for the bargain, one day only price of $19.99) I was perusing the aisles. Why is it that you can buy Catwoman on DVD, but I can't find the first Charlie's Angels movie anywhere?
• Apparently Best Buy is now open until 10 pm for all of your holiday shopping needs. Seriously? I guess I didn't need to rush.
• I found The Devil Wears Prada for the bargain basement price of $6.99. I suspect it was mislabelled.. Regardless, that means I'll be back at Walmart today, returning my other copy there.

I'm Clipless!

Given my extraordinarily long history of falling asleep in movies/movie theatres I probably should have not gone to see Hellboy II at 10:15 pm on Sunday night after hiking 12 miles that day. But...I did...and I fell asleep. Like three times. What I saw of the movie was pretty good though, but evidently not good enough to keep me awake the entire time. I knew that running before work on Monday, then biking in probably wouldn't happen unless I wanted to stroll into the office at 9 am so I decided to sleep in until 5:30, then ride in. The ride was glorious! I caffeinated up pretty well in the morning, then hit the river for a 4 mi run over lunch. My calves were sore from the hiking, but since I'm not one to take it easy I opted for a run from the Bow River, up the Centre Street bridge, and up to McHugh Bluff. You gain something like 120 ft over 0.4 mi. The hill felt great, but after running on flat ground at the top my left shin got a bit tender so I stopped to stretch and it was all good for the rest of the run. On my way back down to the river I nearly got taken out by some kid speeding down the hill, on the sidewalk, on his BMX. No bell, no warning... There were no other major incidents and the 4 miler felt pretty good despite those rock hard calves. The bike home was pretty good as well as I tackled the big hill up Home Road and felt a lot stronger going up.

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Once I got home and fed my pup I took the bike off to Bow Cycle to get my new clipless pedals put on. Afterwards I asked one of the guys to see if I need to have any adjustments made to my bike and he talked me through clipping in and out. He raised the seat a bit and otherwise nothing else needed to be tweaked. Interesting...he said that he would have put me on a larger frame. Sheesh, you think that the original fitter would have said something. Given that the guy yesterday was just holding on to my bike and letting me spin backwards rather than setting it up in the trainer to watch me I'm hoping he was slightly off in his assessment. I guess the good news is my bike is pretty comfortable to ride so I'm not too worried that I bought the wrong bike... When I got home I spun some laps around my townhome complex and practiced clipping in and out and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. We'll see what happens when I take it out on a real ride!

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And in case you missed it, I added in a shot of me trying my hand at the chain ladder on my hike on Sunday at the end of the post below. Scroll down to check it out!