Where are we?

I feel as though somehow in the middle of the night, someone picked up Calgary and put it back down at the exact latitude and longitude of Vancouver.  The weather has been uncharacteristic here this June as it has been mostly grey, rainy and cool.  More like Vancouver!  It really feels as though the ELF’s post On Success has been the theme for this week!

Yesterday the rain and wind continued, but there was speed work on the schedule.  Time to suck it up and get out there in the rain!  I threw on capris, a long sleeve tech shirt, a rain jacket and a hat and met up with Kelly over the lunch hour.  For interval work I’m a big fan of setting up a workout in my Garmin so that it will beep at me at the appropriate times as opposed to me watching the time.  Finally the Garmin caught satellites and it was time to go.  The rain was nice and soft as we got started on our ten minute warm up.  I then had 8 intervals of 2:00 hard, 2:00 recovery.  The first interval felt pretty good and then I slowed it down for the recovery.  All of a sudden the recovery was over.  Was that really two minutes?  I wasn’t paying attention.  I ran through the second 2:00, then looked down when it was over.  Oops!  I had accidently set the recovery time for 1:00, not for 2:00.  Oh well, less recovery, who cares?

The intervals in the rain felt good, but as we finished up our last interval the rain was starting to get heavier and heavier.  Good timing to be done!

On Thursday night I had a practice swim at Lake Midnapore for my Chinook Olympic Triathlon on Saturday.  As I’ve mentioned, it has been grey and rainy all week.  I was a little scared of how the water would feel.  I struggled into my wetsuit, but luckily Brian from Tri-It showed up for his practice swim and he was offering to help people with getting wetsuits on and adjusted.  It is amazing the little tweaks you can make to the comfort of a wetsuit by pulling it up properly around your arms, shoulders and neck.  Luckily the good folks at Tri-It will be on hand race morning to help us out with wetsuit adjustments!

Ok, now the wetsuit was on it was time to suck it up and get into the lake.  It was supposed to be 18C…maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t?  Wow, I don’t know if I’ve ever been in water that cold.  My feet went numb within a minute.  A few brave souls dunked and started swimming right away but I wasn’t sure if I could get my head underwater.  I doggy paddled it for a bit, but that wasn’t going to help me at all.  Time to just go for it and dunk! 

BRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I started swimming I kept my breathing to one side as it seemed like my face didn’t have to get as wet that way, then eventually I was able to start bilateral breathing.  I swam along the edge of the lake for a bit, then picked a spot across the lake to swim to and practice sighting.

Once I got to that spot I decided that was good enough for me.  I had gotten in my wetsuit, gotten in the water and practiced swimming and sighting.  Staying in the cold water with the wind blowing wouldn’t help me too much more, so time to swim back.   It was good enough for 600 m or so.

So there we go….now time to race on Saturday!  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Brain is Ready for the Ride

My brain is ready to get back on the bandwagon!  It is funny, I used to feel that if I wasn’t continually training for something I was sure I would fall back into my couch potato ways.  These past few weeks I had no worry that would happen, I just knew I needed a couple of weeks to take things easy.  I would know when I was ready to get back at it.  So far this week I have gotten in some great workouts!  On Tuesday morning I was at the pool and I knocked out 2000m.  I felt fluid and efficient in the water.  My new pink amphibian camo print bathing suit might have had something to do with it.  Or maybe not.  Regardless, it felt good being in the water.

In the evening I went out to Cochrane to ride with my team…for the first time in over a month!  I was a bit late getting there so almost everyone had taken off.  I rode with my teammate Paddy and we just took it easy and chatted the entire way out.  Riding at this time of year is fantastic since it is so social and we just ride with no workouts to think about.  Sadly the shorter evenings are very apparent so despite what happens with the weather our weeknight ride opportunities are quickly dwindling.  Sigh…  I refuse to think about the trainer yet!

Today I got out there for some speed work over lunch.  I had a 50 minute workout on tap with 10 x 1:00 hard/1:00 easy in the middle.  I had a meeting that ran from 9:30 until almost 11:00 so I really didn’t have a great snack.  The hard parts went okay but I really needed to take it easy on the easy parts.  In theory I wasn’t supposed to walk…but I just wasn’t able to stick to that plan.  After the speed work I was ZONKED with a capital Z.  I’m either going to have to make a concerted effort to knock the workout out earlier in the day if I know it is going to be warm, or I really need to make sure I have a good snack to fuel me as I felt like I was playing catch up on nutrition after that run.

And in other news I’ve committed to a few races.  Two are local 10Ks here in October – one for Thanksgiving on the 11th and the other one is the Halloween Howl on the 24th.  Should be fun!  Plus registration opened up for the Great White North half Iron distance triathlon on July 4th.  This was my first half Iron this year and I loved the race.  It works well timing wise as a “see where things are at” before Ironman, plus the majority of my team is racing so it is sure to be a fun event.

Another early swim is on tap for tomorrow, so time for bed!  Hope everyone is having a great week so far!!

Yakety Yak

I truly believe that it is only a matter of time before I have a barf inducing run.  Not that I am excited about this…but the nausea seems to be hitting me on these fast runs!

Today I had speed work on the schedule – 10 x 2:00 fast with 2:00 of recovery in between.  My chance to run was after work today, but as the clock ticked toward the end of the day there were some nasty looking clouds in the sky.  I shut my computer down and took off just in case the heavens decided to open up anytime soon.  I felt not too bad on the warm up and the first few intervals went not too bad.  Somewhere around interval #3 I got a bit of a stitch in my abdomen.  I probably noticed it more on the easy bits than on the hard ones though.

To keep my head in the game I’d try to pump up each interval.  “YEAH!!  Interval #6!!!  Woo hoo!!!!!!”  It helped me keep track and it did keep me motivated.  I cranked some half decent intervals out.  By interval #7 I developed a pain in my shoulder blade (nothing unusual, happens on fast runs from time to time).  And queue the nausea…  Yuck…  But I still keep running fast, just a bit more walking on my recovery to bring my heart rate down.

After interval #8 I am close to the YMCA so I detour there for a stop at their water fountain.  As I leave there is a guy walking out who drops his sunglasses.  I get his attention but I don’t bend down to grab his glasses for two reasons - #1) There would have been a good chance that we would have head butted if we both bent down.  I suppose it could have been the start to a cute romantic comedy, but I chose to avoid the potential knock out…  #2) It would not have been graceful, and I may not have been able to stand back up properly!  Anyhow, this guy looks at me with a very concerned look as he grabs his glasses.  “Oh my gawd, are you okay?” he asks me.  I must have looked like I was about to keel over!  I told him that I was in the middle of speed work and that it wasn’t always fun.

Two more intervals left to go…  #9 went really well but I was so tired by #10!  No energy left in my legs at all.  It was hard to believe that two minutes could feel so long…  Finally it was up, then it was a quick cool down run back to the office.  I can say without a doubt that this week’s speed session went a lot better than last week’s!

What’s Next?

Ah…so the triathlon season for the year is over.  What now?  It is a little early to start training for Ironman, so…what is on deck for the next little bit?  After the Goofy Challenge in 2008 and the Disney Marathon in 2009 I’m not really up for another marathon in January 2010.  My heart just isn’t in to the distance training right now.  So instead:

• Discover my inner domestic goddess: It is time to get back in the kitchen.  Taking the time to create delicious meals between all of my training this summer was really tough.  But I do love to cook, so it is time to get my nutrition back on track.
• Raid the wine cellar: If you have been reading this blog for any length of time then you know I love wine!  I had a few cases just sitting in my basement thanks to a lack of storage.  It was time to organize so I picked up a new (larger) wine rack from IKEA yesterday.  Going through my collection was fun as I filled up the new wine rack…but it made me realize that I need to start drinking some of it!
• Become one with the paint chips: Um…I’ve lived in my home for almost three years and I still haven’t repainted at all?  Maybe this fall I’ll have some time to put into that.
• Declutter: I still have moving boxes in my garage…that were packed up in July 2006.  Time to finally go through them!  (Although I think I’ve been saying this for awhile…)
• Say hello to a little speed: Endurance training is not conducive to getting faster.  So expect to see a lot of speed work on the run in the next little bit!  And some 10K racing (that Angie says will help me get faster)!
• Set a goal: Don’t mistake all of this cooking, wine consuming and decorating to mean that I won’t be training…  I am setting my sights on the Austin 3M Half Marathon on January 24th.  Why this race?  I have several friends in Texas that I need to visit.  A half marathon in January is a manageable distance to train for – less commitment than a marathon!  If you check out the elevation profile for the race you’ll notice that it is a whole lotta downhill…  So my goal?  To see if I can train to go sub-2:00 on a half marathon.  I still have to register and get a flight down to Texas…so it isn’t a sure thing (I normally wait to make an announcement until the cash is committed) but it is most definitely the plan.

I’ll still be swimming and biking of course too, not to worry!

Trying to find my inner speed demon

So after letting the cat out of the bag regarding my long term goal I haven’t commented too much on my short terms goals.  Don’t worry, I plan to reveal all soon…  I am actually racing a sprint tri this weekend, but in the mean time…

It was back to work today.  I was pretty bagged after a busy weekend full of early mornings and long days.  Plus a long drive home that saw me get in to Calgary around 9 pm on Monday night.

All signs were pointing towards disaster before I even started my run over lunch today.  Tired brain…  Tired legs…  I was hungry…  It was hot out…
And I had intervals on tap.  3 x 4:00 and 4 x 2:00.
Blech.

My legs felt sluggish from the get go.  My mouth was parched and I stopped at a water fountain right after the first interval but it was not enough.  There was no way I was looking at my Garmin to check paces or anything.  It was hard enough to not focus on how much time was left in my interval.  And I was not even running fast!  With two intervals I debated cutting to the cool down.  But something went in my brain.  I did not want to quit.  Somehow or other I knocked out my final two intervals at a respectable pace (compared to the other ones).  But by cool down my legs were done.  There was minimal running.  When I arrived at the YMCA I stopped my Garmin, grabbed a drink and walked back to the office since there was no juice to run an extra 5 minutes or so to get my back to the office.

This run put the crap in craptastic.
Oh well, tomorrow is another day!

Back At It!

Just in case all of my vacation posts are getting a bit boring, well never fear!  I’m back on a training program!

I woke up in Vancouver on Tuesday morning and was ready and raring to go.  I stayed at the Sunset Inn & Suites, a great hotel in downtown Vancouver.  Most of the hotels in downtown are super expensive, then they charge you ridiculous amounts to park your car while you stay there too.  The rates at the Sunset were reasonable, plus parking was included, plus they had a bike locker as well.  The hotel is a couple of blocks away from the Burrard Street bridge and the beaches.

Speedy Tuesday

I had speed work on the schedule and I figured that a run along the beach front towards Stanley Park would be a terrific option.  I had 8 x 2:00 intervals with 2:00 of easy running in between.  I wasn’t sure how speedy I would be since I’ve been enjoying plenty of good food on my vacation.  I just focused on the scenery and never paid attention to the intervals.  I just waited for the Garmin to beep at me to let me know what to do.  In fact, I got so lost in the scenery that I was surprised when my 8 intervals were up.  5.8 miles done in just under 55 minutes.

Wednesday Grind

My first ever “hike” was the summer after my second year of university.  A few of us working at the City of Vancouver got together one weekend to hike the Grouse Grind.  Honestly, the Grind isn’t much of a hike.  It is a workout!
Length: 2.9 kilometres (1.8 miles)
Elevation Gain: 853 metres (2,800 feet)
Base: 274 metres above sea level (900 feet)
Summit: 1,127 metres (3,700 feet)
Total Stairs: 2,830
The first time I did the Grind I thought…it is a hike…I need hiking boots.  Except I didn’t have hiking boots.  I had steel toed boots that looked like hiking boots, so I wore those.  Like I needed to make it any more difficult!  Now I know that you are best off dressing like you are going for a run instead!  Here is a shot of the beginning of the trail, while it is still easy:There are no spectacular views since you are under tree cover until you reach the summit.  You just go up and up.  I settled in to a steady pace.  I wore my heart rate monitor for fun.  I didn’t look at my heart rate at all…probably a good thing since I think I defined a new max heart rate for myself!
I had no real goal for the Grind since I can’t remember any of my previous times.  I figured if I went under an hour that would probably be pretty good though.  All done in 53 minutes! Grouse really doesn’t want anyone to hike down, mostly because it is so steep and narrow, and there are so many people coming up that it isn’t safe.  Instead you can pay $5 to ride the Sky Ride down instead.  I felt sorry for all the people packed in around me on the way down! 
Thursday Long Run

I didn’t have any specific instructions for a long run, just to run 1:15 to 1:30 and base the length of the run on how I felt.  I wanted to take the opportunity to run the entire length of the sea wall in Stanley Park.  From the entrance to the exit of the park the sea wall is about 9 km in length.  I figured that to get from my hotel and back would be the perfect distance.  I got going early at 7 am and it was beautiful out.  Crisp and sunny.  There are water fountains at various points along the wall, generally wherever there are kiddie parks, so I didn’t worry about carrying water.  Just my room key, my ID, and some cash for a coffee after.  Unfortunately I didn’t bring a camera either, so I don’t have any pictures to share with you from the run!

The sea wall has been one of my favourite spots in Vancouver for ages.  Back when I was a kid and we would go to Vancouver for vacations we used to rent bikes and ride the sea wall.  I just marvelled at the scenery and didn’t pay attention to pace or anything.  All said and done I got in 8.35 miles and I felt great the entire time.

I do have some shots of Stanley Park from some previous trips though, so check out the scenery:After my run it was time to pack up and hit the road out of Vancouver.  I’m now back in the Okanagan, in time for Ironman Canada this weekend!  I’m taking today as a rest day…since I haven’t had one in over a week…  Happy Friday all!

Pointing in the Right Direction

The bike tire has been replaced!  The sidewall of the tire had broken down, causing it to warp.  How does it happen?  First off, the bike tech asked me if my tire had been near the exhaust of my car.  It hadn’t, but heat near the tire could be one cause of damage.  Another possibility is wearing the tire down on the trainer over the winter, then the tire continues to break down as you ride outside.  One other possibility…and this is just a theory here on my part…  There is a little arrow on the tire showing you the direction that it is supposed to rotate:
It isn’t really obvious and I didn’t even know it existed until I was changing my tube out just before Wasa.  It is entirely possible that I had the tire on backwards at some point, which would also cause the sidewall of the tire to break down (since it is stronger in one direction).  Although I reserve the right to be wrong on that!  So trust me guys, I’m learning a lot about taking care of a bike as I go along.  After awhile you realize that cleaning and lubing a chain isn’t that difficult, and you learn who to ask for advice!

Since my bike needed some TLC this evening I decided to get my run in today.  Have I mentioned that it is taper week?  Just because there are no really long workouts that doesn’t mean that the workouts aren’t quality ones.  And today’s quality workout involved speed intervals!  It was essentially a repeat of Sunday’s run, except it was 8 x 2:00 speed intervals instead of 10.  Given that I rode hill repeats yesterday I was actually really happy with how the intervals went.  I was about the same pace range as Sunday on the intervals and felt pretty strong the entire way.  Tomorrow?  Bring on the bike!

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!

Trying to Stay Awake...

I am excruciatingly tired right now. It could be due to the lingering fumes in my office from when they replaced a window yesterday (up on the 30th floor...you couldn't pay me enough money to do that). Or it could be a byproduct of speed work and post-lunch digestion. Anyhow, in an attempt to avoid landing snoring and face first on my keyboard I thought I would quickly tell you about my last two days of workouts while I wait for the caffeine to kick in.

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Wednesday:

So coach has mixed my schedule up a bit and Wednesday is now an optional running day. 30 minutes of easy running while trying to stay in zone 2. I had someplace to be at 6 pm so I headed out to the river over my lunch break. It was absolutely amazing outside! We've been spoiled with some fantastic fall weather lately so it was great to get outside. My legs were actually feeling a bit tired (so maybe I didn't sand bag my spin class quite so badly as I had thought?), but my heart rate stayed pretty low so I just hung in there and tried to ignore the tired legs. 3.03 miles. Good stuff.

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Thursday - Swim:

Swimming has been feeling pretty....ugh...lately. I want to love swimming. But it just isn't there. Maybe that's because I'm always swimming so early in the morning and I'm not loving the waking up at 4:30 am to make it to class on time. But today I really wanted to put forward a good attitude and a good swim. The class was pretty empty and I got a lane to myself and I worked hard to concentrate on what I could be doing better, then put it into action. When I climbed out of the pool I actually felt like I had gotten somewhere.

And in the vain of "wow, triathlon is a small world" I was chatting with one of the ladies after class while getting ready for work. I asked where she worked and it turns out she works with my sister-in-law T! T has told me about her - how she raced Ironman Canada this year and placed well enough to go to Kona, then apparently had an amazing race at Kona as well. Crazy coincidence!

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Thursday - Speed:

Hill workouts have been replaced with speed intervals now. I had 4 x 3 min intervals on the schedule. I warmed up for 15 minutes, then started in on the intervals. I ran the first one at a 7:42/mi pace but I just couldn't hold the other three below the 8:00/mi mark. Those came in at 8:04/mi, 8:05/mi and 8:07/mi so all pretty consistent. Afterwards I cooled down and finished up with a total 4.89 mi of running.

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Alright, the caffeine has kicked in, so back to work!

Speedwork and Socializing

Karen invited me out to the Calgary Roadrunners Tuesday night speed session at Edworthy Park last night. They were organizing a big BBQ for afterwards. Since I'm currently on hiatus from boot camp between the spring and summer sessions my Tuesday night was free all of a sudden. How could I say no? I made it down to Edworthy just in time. The workout? A warm up, followed by 6 x 800m repeats and a cool down. Since I haven't done speed work in months and months 800m seemed like a tall order. Oh well! I was keeping up the rear fairly well, but still managed to post some good numbers for me. The final repeat was into a wickedly strong wind that gave it a bit of an extra challenge. The group is great about waiting for all the runners to come in before heading off on the next repeat. I only wish I had more free Tuesday nights that I could run with them.

1X: 0.50 mi in 4:11:65 (8:20/mi)

2X: 0.41 mi in 3:40:62 (8:55/mi)

3X: 0.50 mi in 4:24:65 (8:49/mi)

4X: 0.50 mi in 4:17:15 (8:38/mi)

5X: 0.50 mi in 4:21:37 (8:47/mi)

6X: 0.50 mi in 4:29:45 (8:59/mi) into the wind

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Afterwards we headed off to one of the BBQ pits where hot dogs, burgers and salmon were grilled up. Folks brought all kinds of goodies to eat and it was great socializing with everyone afterwards. They were still going strong at 9 pm but I needed to head home and get some rest so I'd be ready to complete the full ride from my house to downtown in the morning.

The Garmin Must Be Lying...

So first off....last week I came to my little conclusion about high heels and tight calves being responsible for my shin splints. On Saturday I went for a massage and did I have some serious knots in my right calve. No wonder things were hurting on the run! Hopefully the massage has bought me a few weeks of high heeled bliss as I tested these babies out today:

I hummed and hawed on going for a run over lunch today because the temperature was a bit colder than what I had planned for: 3 deg C (37 deg F) and I only had capri pants, a short sleeve top and a long sleeve top. I figured I'd head out anyway though and hopefully the sun would make things feel warm enough. Thank goodness I did head out though because I had an AMAZING run! My Garmin was slow to catch a signal. Once I started running I looked down and thought it must be off because it said I was running way faster than what is usual for me. I settled into my stride and I hit the one mile mark right where I figured - at 9:47. I rarely talk about my training run pace on here because...well...I'm slow. I get excited when I run below an 11 minute mile. Anyhow, when I thought maybe my Garmin might not be off I wanted to see if I could keep this up. I walked for a quick 30 seconds and took off again. I kept checking my pace and I was still on. Mile 2 - 9:42. One mile left to go....a ramp up to a foot bridge took a bit out of my legs right at the end but I managed to salvage it on the final stretch. Mile 3 - 9:59. Good enough for me - all three miles below a 10:00/mi pace....total run done in 29:30...my fastest paced training run yet. And this after my insane hilly run yesterday. As for the shins - they felt great the entire way.

Back for some speedwork with the Roadrunners

Last night I was back out at Edworthy, ready for some speed work with the Roadrunners. Tamie came out to join us after she heard me talk about how much I enjoyed those pyramids last week, so it was great to have her join in. This week we'd be running 8 - 400 m repeats instead...gulp! We jogged just over a mile to warm up, and then it was time to go. The pathway has painted marks on it showing 100 m intervals, making an ideal alternative to running repeats around a track. As usual the fast folks took off and Karen and I were bringing up the rear. The best thing about being in the back was you knew where the end was as all the fast folks were waiting there for you, and they were great about cheering you on. What a supportive group! After resting for about 1:45 or so it was time to start up again. I should have been aiming to keep my splits consistent, and around 2:00 or so, but I didn't have my watch set up properly to watch that, so I was only able to see what I had done after the fact:

1 - 2:10 (included a tad of warm up still, and the first interval)

2 - 1:54

3 - 2:02

4 - 1:59

5 - 2:10 (detour off the path due to some construction, and the final one to the turnaround - boy this one was tough!)

6 - 2:07 (hey, I saved 3 sec when I turned around)

7 - 2:03

8 - 2:02

Final mileage for the night was 3.28 mi. I see some potential for improvement here. Wow, this was a tough run, but I know this speed work will help me in the long run. Check out Karen's version of the evening here. It will be a few weeks before I'm out with the Roadrunners again as I'm going to hold off on speedwork next week since my half marathon is that weekend. After that I'm out of town for a bit. I'll be back for more work with the Roadrunners for sure though!

Running fast with the Roadrunners

Last night I finally got my act in gear and met up with Karen and the Calgary Roadrunners in Edworthy Park. It was speed night and pyramids were on the menu in intervals of 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 minutes. We ran a quick warm up for about 10 min and then it was time to get going. There are some speedy people in this CRR group, but Karen, Lisbet and I all ran about the same pace so we were able to keep each other company. Even though the speedy folks took off in their intervals they always walked back to meet up with us during the breaks so that we could all start off together. It was good motivation trying to keep those speedy folks in sight, and I ran some fast intervals! 4.39 miles in 40:45 for a 9:17/mi pace - including warm up and cool down..!! Everyone was really welcoming and I had a blast, plus I got a great workout in. I truly believe that the best way to run speed work is with a group as it helps to have company even though you don't talk that much during the run. It really helps you push yourself more. Here I thought I was more of a loner runner and now I'm turning into a groupie. Karen is convincing me to try some of the CRR cross country races to shake things up a bit once I'm done with the Goofy in January. I may start with the 12-Mile Coulee Cross Country Race on January 26th since I can walk to the start line from my house..!

BBC #16 - Speed and cupcakes to close out the session

Well, last night was the final official session of Bikini Boot Camp. I am so sad that class is over! We do have an extra bonus session on Tuesday, but I am still mourning the end of BBC. Instructor S put together some great workouts and I pushed myself pretty hard. I was amazed, not only at the fitness level that I started at, but the level I got to at the end of the 8 weeks. I really feel that BBC has helped improved my running, not just from the conditioning, but also because of all of the tips from Instructor S. I have a feeling I'll be seeking her out for other fitness classes and more BBC sessions in the future. I am definitely excited about her Fit Ball class that starts September 10. If that class is anything like Tuesday's workout with the stability balls I know I'll be getting some great workouts in.

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Session 16 of BBC met at Confederation Park for some speed training tonight - a nice compliment to the hilly run from last night. There is a 600 m loop of pathway that we were going to go around and around. We warmed up with a jog around the loop, then gathered in for our instructions. First up we were going to do some Fartleks - 30 sec of slow running, followed by 30 sec of speed. Repeat 5 times. That was a good one to get the blood pumping. After the Fartleks we gathered in for some plank work for our abs. We held front planks up on our hands for 30 sec, moved down to our elbows, then on to our left elbow and did 5 twists down into the center. We then moved to the right elbow, 5 more twists, and back to center on our elbows. All in once continuous motion, never dropping to our knees. We did 5 repeats of that sequence. I know my abs will be feeling that later on today. After that it was back to running for speed pick ups. We ran 1 min slow, then sped up for another minute, then sped up even more for one more minute. We took a break for some bird dogs to strengthen our lower back, then another round of pick ups. We finished things off with a few hill intervals. Instructor S found a huge hill for us to run up - so we ran up once, came down, and jogged on flat ground. We then ran up and down twice, jogged it out, then repeated three times. That was a serious leg workout, and honestly the final three repeat felt amazing. We had a short jog to start cooling down and a stretch. At the end Instructor S had some Crave Cupcakes waiting for us to help celebrate the end of a great session - chocolate or vanilla with pink frosting and the BBC logo on top.

Hooray for Speed

OK, three posts in one day, I know that is a bit much. Tomorrow I'm off to Red Deer all day for a meeting (that's about an hour and a half north of town) and I didn't want you guys to worry that something terrible happened to me during speed work this evening if I didn't get a chance to blog about it. Not that I blog at work though. Ahem, where was I? Right, speed work this evening. I was super intimidated to run with these women again after they blew me away last week, especially considering we were going to run longer intervals. 1 km intervals to be exact. The good thing about running a longer interval is that you don't run quite as all out, and this time I was able to keep up with them with no problem. I even held a conversation with them in the speedy parts. In fact, I felt like I could have done another interval or two (which is great, because next week we are supposed to run 5 - 1 km repeats...). So anyhow...I finished up the night with another 3.88 miles under my belt. In order to bring my mid-week mileage up to 10 mi I may aim for a quick run before BBC tomorrow night. I'd like to try and keep my weekly mileage increases in that 10% range, hence the reason for squeezing that small extra bit in.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop - miles and BBC #13

Yesterday I got so caught up in work that I lost track of time and left the office later than I intended to. I rushed home, fed the fur balls and changed, and rushed out the door, but I still wasn't leaving myself much time to get a run in before BBC. I hoped for 5 miles, but it was looking like 4 or 4.5 would be more likely. I started out running and looked down at the Garmin....I was flying. I knew I was starting out too fast but I wanted to see where this would go. The first mile was amazing, but in mile 2 things started to hurt a bit and I slowed down a touch. I'm hitting the end of the line with these running shoes and I'm going to have to take them out of rotation soon - that's where I figure some of the hurting was coming from - although things went back to feeling good in mile 3. I wound up reaching my car at 4.82 mi...I looked down at my watch and I still had a few minutes before BBC so I finished out the 5 miles, and knocked 1:00/mi off my regular pace. Time to boot it to BBC.
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I arrived with just a couple of minutes to spare. Instructor S wanted us to run a big circle around the park that we would be working out in at a nice easy jog or speed walk. I flew around the park and S started to give me a hard time for going out too fast, but I explained that I had already warmed up. We wound up doing a crazy, complicated circuit in the shape of a flower...which I won't bother to explain. We wound up doing the following exercises: jumping lunges, high knees, side to side jumps, front planks on a Bosu ball, skating side to side, one arm row with a weighted bar, with the forward leg balancing on a kind of mini-Bosu ball, curtsey squats, ab twists with a medicine ball, grade 7 dance, a sort of reverse burpee with a Bosu ball and tosses with a medicine ball. We went around the circuit twice and did some sprints, horse and buggy work, and some ab work to finish out the night. After the run I wasn't sure how BBC would feel, but I really pushed myself hard. Which means that I'm now scared about speed work tonight. After a couple of great runs (not really including last week's speed work in that list) I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. That could very well happen tonight as here is the plan:
- 10 min warm up
- 3 x 1 km repeat at speed pace
- 2 min rest between each km
- 10 min cool down
Wish me luck.

How about a little cake with your speed work?

Tonight I met up with Instructor S's running group for a little speed work along the Bow River pathway starting at Edworthy park. The plan was to do an easy jog for 10 min to warm up, then do 10 repeats of 2 min fast, 1 min slow, then another 10 min easy jog to cool down. During the easy jog I was thinking to myself, "This is great...I can keep up with these girls. This is going to be awesome." And then the speed work started. I think I discovered something about myself this evening. I really only have one speed. Sometimes I'll be slower on uphills, sometimes I'll be faster on downhills, but on flat ground....there is not a lot of differentiation between my fast and my slow running. At least that is what it felt like towards the end... I hung with the front girls during the first three minutes, but in the second pick up I lost them and wound up playing catch up the entire rest of the run. There were a couple of ladies a ways behind me, but otherwise I was alone with my thoughts on this speed workout. Here were my thoughts:

• Minutes 0-10: Hey....this is OK....this is going to be a great run.
• Minutes 10-13: Hmm, this speed work thing is tough.
• Minutes 13-15: Oops, I'm too slow...on my own.
• Minutes 15-25: Speed work sucks. Why did I think this was a good idea?
• Minute 25: Hey, I just remembered that I totally forgot to put Body Glide on.
• Minutes 26-50: Oh...dear...for the love of...why did I forget to put Body Glide on???
• Minutes 27 - 40: Oh...hey...I think I feel some lactic acid in my legs...
• Minute 40: Thank goodness for the cool down...I hate speed work.

One of the gals in the group was celebrating her birthday today, so another gal brought cake so we could all join in the fun. This group running thing isn't so bad if there is cake afterwards! So we put the tailgate down on the pick up and stood around chowing down cake which made for a great end to the evening. And then...bonus! Another lady in the group works for IKEA and she happened to have a bunch of coupons for money off. Looks like someone is taking a trip to IKEA this weekend.... And the fact that I hate speed work probably means that I should be doing more of it. Maybe I should be alternating hills and speed work..??