About Me

My photo
Milton, Ontario, Canada

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Not much running to report

Of course, it is only Wednesday.

Monday I went to Curves and yesterday I played golf and baseball. Today, I am stiff. STIFF. And S T I F F! (first foursome of the season will do that to you).

Tonight the hubs is not home and the kid is not going to bed easy, so I hope to squeeze in at least 5k outdoors, but we'll see what plays out.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The one where life gets in the way

I set up the treadmill at 8:30 tonight to run just over 7km in an effort to gain more miles and work my way up to a 10k race sometime at the end of the summer. This was my first time back to any kind of running since the Bread and Honey 5k because last week just left so little time for running.

I couldn't get on the treadmill until that time for two reasons: 1)the kid is not going to bed as easily as he once did at 8pm, so we are allowing him to stay up until 8:30 and 2)the husband was out shopping.

With 1.8km to go, the husband came down to the basement and asked if I was almost done. I let him know that I'd be at least 10-15 mins (I had a horrid/tiring run tonight) and he gave me puppy dog eyes. He had said he'd head over to a buddy's house for a beer, so I cooled down, ran the time to 45 minutes and completed 6.1km. Not bad, not what I wanted to do either.

I have found a race that I will be doing for sure next year. The GTAA Runway Race . How cool would it be to run 5k down the runways at Pearson while fighter jets and commercial airlines are buzzing overhead? Having grown up at the edge of the airport and having spent a year there working in Customs, I must do this race next year!

Plan for the week:
Monday: Curves, Baseball (we won!)
Tuesday: 6.1km - treadmill
Wednesday: Curves
Thursday: 7km - outside!
Friday: Curves/Treadmill (I'm booked in solid meetings on Friday so I may not get Curves in)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 5km run with my ladies running group

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

It's almost like a trend

Yet again, a week after a race and I've yet to get back to the road or treadmill. Monday saw me hit CURVES at lunch and then play baseball at 9pm - no time for running in there. Tuesday, I ended up with tickets to the Dave Matthew's Band concert in Toronto and it was AWESOME! My plan was to get out for a city run right after work, but my husband ended up downtown about an hour early and that put the kibosh on that plan. Today... we'll let's just say that I had a few (or four) tallboys last night courtesy of the sales rep who was entertaining in the box I was in and that, combined with five hours of sleep meant no exercise today.

Tomorrow the plan is to hit CURVES (am going out with friends post work) and Friday I have off as we are camping. If the kid naps, I will put at least 7k on the treadmill. If I'm up for it, I will run at the campsite.

Sigh. I'm trying to get a minimum of 15k in a week (a teeny, tiny number compared to all of the other running blogs I follow), but it seems that life works against me and often.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

RESULTS! Bread and Honey 5k!

30:11

I. Can. Not. Be. Leave. It. (If you have a kid who likes the Little Einstein's you'll know that quote!)

I guess I was much further off of the start that I thought.

So, after a great night with friends last night (which included loads of yummy cheese, dips, veggies, chips, BBQ pizza, salads, lemon mouse, yummy strong coffee and drinks - 1 Creemore, 1 Perry's Cider and 1 port for me), and a Catch Phrase loss for the girls (just call us the Penguins!), I went to bed at midnight.

I was awake around 3 when the kid called out from his sleep, but neither of us had to go into him and I quickly fell back asleep. The alarm went at 6am and I decided to let myself snooze, but was out of bed before it went off again. I had no idea what to wear so I put on a t-shirt with the technical shirt over it and my capri pants and grabbed a light sweater. Breakfast was two timbits and half a pita with peanut butter.

I drove to Streetsville and made my way to the start area to pick up my timing chip. It was cold, crowded and I felt odd being alone. I got my chip (which was on a velcro anklette) and put my water belt and Ipod on and went for a test jog to see what I thought about all of the gear. It was fine (or so I thought). At 10 minutes to, I decided that I'd keep my light sweater on (it was 12 degrees celsius, but threatening rain - which never happened), so I had to re-pin my bib. The chute got really crowded as it is a mass start with the 15 and 5k racers all starting at once. I hung out in the backish part.

Hazel was there to give a speech and shoot the gun, but I couldn't hear her (even with my earbuds out), so when I heard the count down but didn't see any movement, I wasn't sure what was happening. It was then when I realized that I was way in the back and I had to wait a bit before I could actually start running.

Once again, the Ipod totally helped me keep pace and not get roped into starting too quickly. I also got some great advice from my friend Rob last night (he who ran the Mississauga 5k in 19 mins with no training), he told me to just pick some runners in front of me and stay with them. I did this.

As mentioned in the last post, I ran with the new water bottle belt full, which was a mistake. I needed something to hold my car keys because I was all alone, but I didn't need the water. The belt pack was positioned all wrong and by 3k I was fighting with it bobbing and bobbing. Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure it out.

I took the first and second K's fine. Right before I saw the 2k mark, I saw the elite running racing by. It was AWESOME! The winner did it in 14:22!!!

3k was a water stop and I walked through it, least I snort water up my nose a second time. I likely paused for 15 seconds. I kept running, watching the older guy in front of me for pace and rocking out to HUMAN by the Killers (air drums and all!). The route was relatively flat with mild hills... one of which was right before the 4k mark. I ran it and started to think about walking. I argued with myself for a few seconds and then dropped into a walk for about 10 seconds before I basically told myself to SUCK IT UP! By that time, I had rounded a slight curve and could see the finish and so I headed for home. When I judged a few hundred meters to go I picked up the pace and told myself, "This is what you do at the end of every treadmill run! You CAN do this". I also saw the clock which was at like 30:15 (my gun and chip times were 54 seconds off). I pushed hard to beat 31 minutes but did not do it. I crossed at 31:05 and was happy, expecting a 30:55 or so time. The 30:11 AMAZES me! I can't believe I'm 11 seconds from my New Year's resolution! Now, I just need to find a July race. Yippee!

Stats:
Time: 30:11
Pace: 6:14
Category: 17/39
Gender: 158/351
Place: 367/621

No results... waiting, waiting

I ran the Bread and Honey 5k this morning and totally beat my last time as I crossed the finish line at 31:05 and was at least 10-20 seconds from the start. I'll wait to write up the race report when I get the official time, but I bought this:



and I ran with it for the first time today, full of water and it was a mistake! More on that later (once the results are in).

In other news, the girls lost the best of seven Catch Phrase Championship 4-1 on Saturday evening. Boo!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Friday Night

5.5k on the treadmill with the Jays game as company. I felt slow and sluggish, but slogged through the run. Now, I will have a beer!

I think I'm mistaken in thinking that the course on Sunday is flat, I seem to remember some gradual hills, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. I think I'm just going to target running the entire thing. Hubs and the kid won't be there at the finish line so I'll be all by my lonesome, but I'll be sure to bring a victory Timmies home for my hubs. :)

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

I did it!

I signed up for the Bread and Honey 5k race on Sunday at 8am! Yippee! I'm having a tough time trying to decide what to target: either a time close to (e.g. no more that 32:00) my Mississauga Marathon 5k or a full 5k run (which I can breeze through on the treadmill, but have yet to do outdoors). I know that the Mississauga course was all downhill, but this course looks very, very flat . I really don't want to set myself up for disappointment, especially seeing as it'll be a 8am start and I'll likely have a late night the one before, but at the same time, I don't want to go into it with NO goals whatsoever.

Sigh!

I did manage to get 6.4k in on the treadmill tonight (man, but SYTYCD is amazing for treadmill runs!) and the rest of the week is pretty solid in terms of exercise. Oh well, I'll just see what Sunday brings!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Do I or Don't I?

Run the 5k race on Sunday? The reason I’m debating at all is because we are having friends over for dinner on Saturday night and I know the evening will go late. I can handle limiting my booze consumption, but with this group of friends, we usually sit around playing Catch Phrase for a few hours and it leads to a pretty late (and awesomely fun) night!

Either way, I’ll be running 5k on Sunday… it’ll just be where and with what goal. I’ve joined a new chat board and within 30 or so posts, have enticed a few women to come out on Sunday mornings at 8am for 5k runs! Last weekend only one lady showed up (Hi Karen!), but we had a nice leisurely run with lots of walking (admittedly, she’s just getting back into running at 3.5 months postpartum while I’ve been pretty steady at it since January). So, either I pay $40 and try to at least match my unbelievable 5k time of 31:02 on Sunday or I join some lovely ladies and explore my lovely town a bit more. Either way, there will be limited boozing on Saturday which may or may not lead to me PBing in Catch Phrase (har)!

GAH! What to do?

Plan for the week:
Monday: Off (TweetUp instead)
Tuesday: Curves, Baseball
Wednesday: Curves, Run 6-7k
Thursday: Curves or run (depends on Sunday)
Friday: Run or Curves (depends on Sunday)
Saturday: Run or off (depends on Sunday)
Sunday: 5k