What I Ate Wednesday!

Yippee! Another round of What I ate Wednesday Tuesday!

Breakfast was something I haven't had in FOREVER! Quick oats with brown sugar, topped with a fresh Ontario Peach!

 I was hoping to get a run in on my lunch break, so I snacked up around 10am. Un-pictured is my coffee. I bought a Contingo travel cup and am loving it!

 For lunch I enjoyed leftovers from Monday night! Beef meatloaf with peas and periogies. Can you say yum?

I did not have time to run over lunch hour due to a meeting which ran late, but I did get a quick 5k run done in between afternoon meetings!

 On the train home, I enjoyed two more Ontario peaches!

 Dinner was an amazing omlette that my husband made me with peppers and smoked cheddar cheese.

After dinner, I went to play softball (uh, not with the Canadian team).

We lost 4-1

After softball, I enjoyed some well earned treats. I did NOT enjoy the Blue Jays bullpen blowing a close game against the A's.

I hope your day is full of wonderful eats and great activity!

MidSummer Night's 30k Training - Weeks 5, 6, & 7

Well, I HAVE been running quite a bit, but I have not been blogging about it because things have been super busy. It just seems like there is much more to do in the summer and to be honest, by the time the kids are in bed at 8pm, I just want to sit on the couch and watch this guy go yard:

Getty Images

Week 5

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Treadmill Tempo day! I ran the standard 10 minute warm up with a 5:06/km 20 minute tempo and the rest to round out the run. The tempo felt super easy. Time to run a bit faster! 8k, 45:39.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday:  A short loop around my neighbourhood just to get my legs a bit tired before the long run on Friday. I was feeling a bit off as my stomach had some gas, and it was hot (I actually ran with water!), but I didn't look at my watch and ran a very decent easy pace: 6.1k, 36:10

Friday: I started the LDS at 0640 and it was already 25c plus humidity. It was hot. I was drenched with sweat within the first kilometre and my stomach was still mildly protesting. I stopped at Starbucks and used the washroom, washed my face and refilled a water bottle. That was about 6km into a planned 24k route. As soon as I started running again, I knew there would be no way I'd be able to finish and remain healthy. I made the decision to cut the run short and started to head for home. This allowed me to drink much more freely then I had been and I also walked whenever I wanted to. If there was a sprinkler, I ran throug it as well. This is my very first ever DNF, but I'm glad I made the decision. I ended up drinking all of my water in the shorter run so there is no way I would have made it through 24k. 14.65k, 1:37:54

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: I wasn't going to let Friday keep me down! With my husband's blessing, I headed out to the Running Room for the group run on Sunday and managed to snag a 19k route from my old clinic coach, Chris. There is no marathon program at the store this summer due to low registration, but luck was on my side having him there with a route. I was also lucky in that my friend Julie was there to run a bit of a shorter distance. We decided to run together for the first bit and headed out nice and easy. It was still a hot day but the humidity wasn't as bad as it had been on Friday. Once I left Julie, I decided to pick up the pace and ran 4 KM at 5:28/km which was very difficult in the heat. I ran through every sprinkler I saw and finished the run happy. 19.25k, 2:03:51

Total KM: 48, Total Time: 5:03:34, Average Pace per KM: 0:06:19

Week 6

Monday: Treadmill recovery run. I headed out to the gym at lunch time and watched Sportscentre while taking it easy. 6k, 37:20

Tuesday: Rest. I played fastball that night.

Wednesday: Neighbourhood loop to get the legs tired before my long run the next morning. I ran easy again, without worrying about pace and enjoyed clearing my mind. 6.1k, 36:44

Thursday: I had to be in the office on Friday for a meeting, so I worked from home on Thursday. This was a scheduled cut back week and I decided to run a Daniel's long tempo run instead of a LDS. 15 minute warm up, 3x6 minute tempo (5:12-5:01-4:53) with 2 minute jogs as recovery. Then 30 minutes of easy running before 2x10 minute tempo (5:05-5:04), 2 min job in between. The rest easy to get home. This was a fantastic run except I was running with my piece of shit blackberry for music and it kept asking me to "say a command." I almost threw the damn thing into the road. 18k, 1:43:19

Friday: I was at work and we were away camping all weekend so in order to maintain my new four run a week schedule, I did another recovery run over lunch on the gym treadmill. 5k, 30:31

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Rest

Total KM: 35.1, Total Time: 3:27:54, Average Pace per KM: 0:05:55

Week 7

Monday: After camping all weekend and a super busy workday on Monday, I was ready to clear my head with a neighbourhood run. While I should have done a tempo run, I decided to forego it and to just run easy instead. My mind cleared and I enjoyed myself. 7k, 40:51

Tuesday: Rest. I played fastball that night.

Wednesday: I hit up the gym treadmill and decided it was time to increase the tempo pace. I ran 10 minute warm up, 24:27 (3 miles) minutes at 5:01/km and the rest to cool down. This felt great! I love getting faster! 8k, 44:03

Thursday: A scramble golf tournament with a cart. I golfed okay for having not set foot on a course in over two years.

Friday: Although I worked from home, I had childcare duty in the morning and had to drop my oldest off at camp. I managed to squeeze in a short run before the work day: 7.5k, 43:48

Saturday:  My in laws were at our house for a weekend visit, so my husband was happy to have me get my long run done in the morning. I started just after 6am on a beautiful, sunny, breezy day and executed a lovely LSD run. I didn't watch my pace too much and ran by feel. I didn't need to walk at all and only took one gel about 12k into the run. 24k, 2:24:30

Total KM: 46.5, Total Time: 4:33:12, Average Pace per KM: 0:05:53

I am really glad I decided to be okay with running only four days a week in the summer. It is making my training plan much more reasonable and enjoyable and I'm not feeling any ill effects of missing a middle distance run. I just hope that I will have strong results to back it up come race time.

What I Ate Wednesday!

I know, I have been absent from the blogosphere as of late because work has been soooooooo busy and we went camping last weekend! YAY! I'm back today with one of my favorite posts to write:

 The day started at 0720 at my desk with a nice breakfast of coffee, cantaloupe and homemade pumpkin and chocolate chip loaf. YUM!

 This is how bad and busy things are. Lunch was a crunchy peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread.

 My yogurt was over a week past its date, so I treated myself to this peach froyo instead!

 Crazy, busy Tuesday night dinner due to 7pm fast-pitch. White pasta with bottled marinara and fresh parm.

 On my drive to baseball, I took a popsicle (and a moment to tease poor Fergus - who had just eaten a popsicle!)

 FITNESS! We won 14-7!

Post baseball - cool ranch Doritos.

And that is my day in meals and fitness for Tuesday, July 17th! We have a rare weekend at home this weekend and my in-laws are visiting. I'm planning to hit up the farmers market and get some Ontario peaches which are ready! YUM!

I'm still running - hitting 4 days a week with one long run. I will have to update about that soon as well.

I hope you're enjoying your summer and if you're in the east, dealing okay with the HEAT!

What I ate Wednesday

Sweet! This month's WIAW is one that I should have DOWN!

This post is actually brought to you by what I ate during the Canada Day Long Weekend!

Of course, I started with Breakfast! This is Canada Day breakfast (Sunday). 3/4 cup of Kashi Go Lean with 4% milk fat vanilla yogurt and farmer's market strawberries and blueberries.

I went for a 6.5k run after breakfast to get my fitness in!

Lunch from Saturday: Bakery croissant, deli ham, cheddar cheese

My best friend since highschool had a some friends and family over to celebrate Canada Day. It's not a party in Binbrook until the goat from next door comes over.

There was beer!

And swimming!

There were sparklers (and fireworks!)

I made these two items to bring to the potluck table (Pumpkin loaf and Butter tarts). I also made a veggie, feta and quinoa salad, pumpkin cheesecake squares and lemon-blueberry custard squares

We spend the night here:

Our new-to-us, pop-up trailer!

And then we enjoyed a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, tea biscuits, waffles and coffee.

On the way to our trailer storage place, the kids fell asleep so we took advantage of a longer drive and enjoyed these:

Saturday night dinner was amazing! Fresh made farmer's market chicken and veggie pot-pies, fresh, shell-your-own sweet peas and oven fries!

Oh and the other thing we did this long weekend was get haircuts:

He wanted a "real life Mohawk," but settled for the faux variety.

And I decided to go blond for the summer! (see my raccoon eyes? That's from my 23k run on Friday morning. FITNESS!).

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Canada Day weekend if you're Canadian. If you're from the US, I hope you enjoy the fourth of July today!

June Recap!

I totally missed recapping May! Oh well. In May I ran the marathon and then pretty much just ran however I wanted to. The end.

On to June!

# of runs: 18 (I missed a few due to work/life)

Longest run: 23k This was just a LSD run this past Friday. It was a nice day and a nice run!

Races: 1! The month started off right, with a sweet 5k PB at the Bread & Honey 5k Race (24:37)

Total KM: 180.72 – Not my largest distance, but pretty good as I started a training plan this month and missed  two 10k runs due to work/lfe

Total time spent running: 18h08m39s

Average pace per KM: 0:06:01


It was a good June. I was happy to get back to a training plan and did have some moments of panic when I didn't hit every single run I had planned or every speed session, but now that I'm four weeks in, I'm realizing that I will be able to hit my goals if I just stick with what I've been doing. Four solid days of training per week is better than not having a plan at all. My speed and endurance is improving. I'm getting better at my cross-training for my core. I'm a bit worried about my lack of hills, but I'll deal with that come race time. I am still toying with a fall marathon or another fall half marathon, but I want to see what my running friends are doing (and what my husband thinks) before I commit to anything. For July, I'm going to keep this positive attitude as I ramp up the higher mileage (alone, gulp) toward the 30k race.

How was your June?

MidSummer Night's 30k Training weeks 3 & 4

Another two weeks in the books toward my next race!

Week 3:

Monday: Tempo on the treadmill. 10 minutes warm up, 20 minutes at 5:06/km pace and the rest to round out the 8k. 44:34

Monday and Tuesday night I had baseball.

Wednesday, I invited some girlfriends over to hang out in my back yard with some drinks and snacks.

Thursday: I just did a loop around my neighbourhood to ensure that my legs were a bit tired before my long run in the morning. This is a trick that my marathon clinic leader, Chris said was key. I had great success in my marathon following this plan, so I'm sticking with it! 6k, 34:57

Friday: Work from home, so I was out at 6:15am for my LSD. It was a perfectly beautiful morning and a wonderful route. I'm still amazed how short 10k and 12k seem now. 20.3k, 2:04:06

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Track work! I ran over to the highschool and then hit the track for 6x400s with a 200m jog in between. McMillan says I should try to hit 4:18/km pace. I ran 4:19-4:07-4:19-4:15-4:21-4:19. I'm happy with that. 10k, 59:08

Total KM: 44.3, Total time: 4:22:45 Average Pace per KM: 0:05:56

Week 4:


Monday: Tempo run. It was a windy run and I started with the wind in my face. I was also tired and my legs were sore. I ran 12 minutes warm up, 11 minutes at 5:08/km (target 5:06), 1 minute walk/recovery and 10 minutes at 4:58/km (wind at my back!). I realized I much prefer the treadmill for tempo runs. 8k, 45:22


Tuesday: My son and I had to visit the dentist for our checkup which meant I didn't have to commute in the morning so I took advantage by running an easy 10k through town. I played baseball later that night. 10k, 1:01:35 


Wednesday: Rest


Thursday: A workday easy treadmill run. 6.44k, 40:08


Friday: Work from home morning LSD. Out again at 6:12am. I was running easy, altering my route slightly just to keep things interesting. I got to about 10k in and decided to take some chomps and had to stop for a bit to get the darn things opened. Somehow I turned off my watch and it wasn't tracking me for about 1km. I kept running until I hit 22k per the plan and looked up what I had missed when I got home. I've estimated 23k, 2:24:00


Saturday: Rest


Sunday: Canada Day! We were headed to my best friend's place for the afternoon/evening and sleeping over, so I skipped track work and just ran a nice and easy 6.5k. I'm glad because my knee was bothering me a bit on Saturday, so I don't want to cause problems. 6.5k, 39:19


Total KM: 53.94, Total Time: 5:30:24, Average Pace per KM: 0:06:08


A great two weeks of training. 7 weeks to go!