Wednesday Run

I really dont see how anyone can have time for the 3500 calories a week and the 35 km a week I want to run ;) between work and kids and stuff Im just thinking unrealistic hahahah.

7.2 km today 47.13 minutes on hills; did fartleks with only somewhat increased and decreased effort; effort rather than speed because there were a lot of hills. its slowly getting easier to maintain a faster speed. Really slowly.

25.6 km done, 1474.4 to go.

Why I run with others

LOL I actually like running alone and setting the pace and going where I want and thinking about what I want and listening to my really loud music. Sometimes its monotonous and sometimes I get lonesome; but I really do love that "alone" time.

So why do I want to run with others?

Accountability. Plain and simple.

Take last night, for example. It was a damp, chilly day. No not cold, Im not complaining about cold. hhahaha just damp. Bone chilling damp. I came home after picking up the kids, climbed into cozy warm clothes, and since the house was chilly and I hate making fire, I got a blanket and snuggled in.

And would have stayed there til morning which would have gotten no exercise done, and would have played havoc on my back which doesnt love laying around as much as I do. I would have fallen asleep, missed the hockey game, gotten no "work" done for the next day, and missed all that quality time on the couch with Scott while he yelled at Team Canada to "come on".

But I had made plans. I planned! a run with Coralee. We are going to go at the least once a week I think. I cant cancel on a planned run. I cant leave her hanging. This worked really well last year with Tonya; we ran a lot of evenings. But so far she's been no show (dig dig) and Ive made a new plan.

So I dragged butt out of bed, put on the running attire, and drove to town. Where there are lights and sidewalks of course lol. Coralee was already there waiting so we took off and although yes it was a little slower than I usually would have run, it was also better than laying on the bed, better than sleeping through the evening, and I added Wood Street repeats....yeah 2 of them hahahahah yuck. And got the workout in. All runs cannot be "go til you puke" runs. Some need to be fun.

So another 5.4 km in, 18.4 total, and only 1481.6 more to go this year.

And a plan to run not only next day, but another date with Coralee on Friday night.

Run Run Run

brr. Running through the winter may be possible but that doesnt mean its always pleasant. And today, was a warm day, relatively. Im not sure I can do another winter of -20. It was like 2 plus today. But damp; very wet and raining at some points. But I got my butt out there and did the run.
8 km today; up in Bible Hill on the sidewalks. Fun. Time wasnt great; 54 minutes. But with the ice and water I guess I will take it.
Hockey and soccer games on the past weekend will have to be sufficient. Taylor has a swim meet in the city this weekend and Im going to miss Sat morning hockey. Im thinking tho on Saturday I will see if there is somewhere at Dalplex that I can do the run. There was at the Dartmouth Sportsplex an indoor track if I had been thinking and taken things to run in. Ok I checked it out; there is a track and I can get a day pass and get access to it all! More than the track ;) I can handle that hahahahahahh
Tomorrow Ive a planned run with a friend; maybe I will hunt up some other friends for the rest of the week. I need to get in 22 more km before the weekend to be on track for a great year end total ;)

New Years Post

Im not training for anything at the moment so its been a little bit difficult to motivate. Hopefully the New Years Resolution will help.
Last year I wrote down almost 900 km of run. I didnt include all the runs and I didnt always get them accurately but when it matters I will have a secretary to do that for me ;) until then I will wing it.
In 2010 I intend to increase distance to 1500 km. Maybe a little bit optimistic but it breaks down to less than 5 km a day so its totally doable. I also would like to shed a few more pounds and inches. I bought a scale today; my first scale ever. It does body fat analysis and hydration status. Now Im not stupid enough to think this would be an accurate measure but it might be interesting and might give an idea of trends. And hydration could be interesting; Id love to see what it is before and after a run lol.
I also want to try to do something active daily. The tv just had a commercial that mentioned that 60 minutes a day of activity. Where do people find the time? There isnt that much I can just leave out of most busy days. maybe I should walk instead of eating? lol. no wasted minutes.

I ran on New Years day. It was cold and snow kept me on the road but I did the 5 km run. I did not run on the 2nd of Jan; a snow/rain mix kept me in, I still have this lingering cold and cough and Im not pushing it in cold rain. I did however play hockey so I did some activity and feel ok about that. Maybe a little Wii Fit tonight? Gotta get back on that thing sometime soon.

Tomorrow- still expecting crappy weather but I will get out if possible even if just for a run up and down the hill. a couple of repeats would do the job.

5 km down, 1495 to go.

Post Christmas Run

OK so its been a pretty dismal workout log since Vegas. After the trip and the run I totally concentrated on finishing up some work and getting ready for Christmas. I didnt do a single thing as far as working out and running. Just cant wrap my mind around it all. Sometimes I needed the physical activity to feel better but just wouldnt take the time to do it.

Yesterday (27th) I did get back out for a run. It wasnt anything special just 4 miles of comfortable running. Just keep going until spring and real training begins.

Rock N Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon Race :)

Only taking a week to get this done; not very photo heavy because there was no one there to take photos :) the ones the photographers took were great but way too expensive. Even for this once in a lifetime chance.
This is the first time the RnR people did the Vegas run and consensus was they did a good job despite the complaints I heard AND the freaking long long wait to get going.

The Race Expo was awesome. The dinner...was ok. But the expo had tonnes of stuff to see and do and we only saw a bit of it despite going the day it opened when there were fewer people there. It was a long walk from our room (albeit all inside hehe.)


We got up at about 430 am to get ready. The night before we did the gear checks and pinned bibs on and got mostly ready; Ive never been so ready. I got up and the first thing I did was go get coffee. I need to start with coffee. Got to get things moving ;) The lobby was absolutely full of runners. I know I had seen a lot of them around but this was like they were all there waiting to get going. Some were actually running. I was in jammies getting coffee hehe.

So we did get presentable looking and climbed into more or less appropriate running clothes, we were not really dressed for the weather as I really was not expecting to be running at 0 C! In Vegas! It was COLD. I wore shorts and a tank top and a long sleeved shirt; I also had a fleece coat I could "toss away" when finally warmed up as there no one to grab stuff. I tossed a pair of gloves too; I hate running with hot hands haha. I wore the Canada running hat Scott got for me to wear; bright red is hard to miss ;) CHILL.






We didnt check any bags at the bag check but carried all we needed; we walked to the race start getting there in plenty of time and at this time we
were a little confused about where we should go; there were lines for the bag drop off and on the other side, over a bank, behind the portapotties, there were corrals set up. We were supposed to be in corral 17 but this confusion left people wandering and it was obvious as soon as the race started that people were not where they should be, as they were totally walking from the start. SIGH.
The gun went off and there were fireworks for a good 15 minutes which was nice but it was dark and it was cold and we waited for our chance to go for like 45 minutes! By the time we went we were cold and stiff and not well warmed up. And it was the slowest start ever! Once we got to the start and began jogging we had to pass many many people who were jogging and walking and TEXTING yes texting or even talking on Cell phones. Although it was nice to be passing people it was also frustrating and we spent a lot of time running up on the edges of the road or diving to avoid people who stopped in the middle of the road to text or rest. It was like this the entire 21.1 km. Honestly. Great mentally to be passing people all the way but very frustrating to be passing people all the way. that is why they set people up in corrals; to avoid the start stop confusion. I didnt love that.



The route took us out of town for a bit (desert running; very cool) and then back up the strip; this was awesome. Even with the passing and texting ;) Always something awesome to see. The water stops were out of water very quickly and people totally rude about crossing in front and stopping to drink RIGHT in front rather than moving off to a side.
Because of this I dont think I stopped for water/Cytomax (sport drink) often enough. Was pretty nauseous later. I also didnt have anything to eat; no Jelly beans or anything just a bite of fruit bar and that didnt go down so well. I really like something in my stomach to settle it and that added to the nausea felt later. I dont mind pushing it to get a better time but I should have also added some food during that running part. LOL Missed my oatmeal bar.
Past the strip (and that tower - Stratosphere I see its called) it was a little shady; kinda empty and people were peeing on the sides of the road; I did think I smelled a little too much sewer while running ;) this was where we turned and came back around to running on the strip again. Second time was not as fun; starting to feel things a little too much ;) It was interesting to see how many people were behind us; thousands.
Annie really encouraged me through the last 3 miles or so; it was awesome to have someone to run with; she set a good pace for the end (even tho I know I held her back) and helped me get to the end still running hard; with a time that was 7 minutes faster than my previous best! at 2:17 dead on, we were in the top half of the race!

17880 finishers




11356 of those female :)
I was 7305 overall...
3579 of the women...

Ill break it down when my Garmin is near ;)

After the finish we kept moving; picked up the medal ITS AN AWESOME MEDAL and moved on to the food area where rock hard bagels and an assortment of snacks were offered up PLUS water thank goodness lol and then we kept moving to the hotel and back to our room. We showered and slept for a bit before heading for the hot tub downstairs. All in all didnt feel toooo bad.
It was an awesome race and an awesome experience and I was really lucky to be able to go thanks to the help of Scott and some good friends :) and Lucky to experience it wish Annie who continues to be a wonderful friend despite 8 years passing since we last saw each other. Im already looking forward to the next time :):)

http://las-vegas.competitor.com/features/finishreplay/

Before the Rock n Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon

After a long run of 12.8 km on Monday I didnt run again until Thursday, before leaving for Las Vegas. It was dark and cool in the morning when I went and it was nice although running those roads in the dark isnt my favorite thing to do. 4.9 nice slow km and I was ready to go! Everything packed up and in the car, work finished, off to Vegas!
Trip was stressful because of the unfamiliar nature of flying standby which Im now familiar with lol I snoozed a little on the second flight, and by the time I landed in Vegas it was almost 11 their time which is almost 3 am our time; awake for alomst 24 hours and really tired.

What an exciting city; I couldnt sleep at all for ages. Annie was out so I took some photos out the room window and went to bed; only because I was sure I wuld feel awful the next day if I did not.

Morning got up and Went for coffee at about 630 Vegas time. Was good. Annie wasnt feeling well so I went for a run at about 8 to loosen up and stretch. Again just easy running, 5.6 km at a really easy pace. I didnt know my way around so I tried to keep things in sight like familiar landmarks (hotel, MGM Grand, mountains on the same side...) and I didnt get lost. I crossed a few over the street walkways and circled the Block our hotel was on (5.6 km...big block) went around the Excalibur, the Luxor, and Mandalay Bay. At one point the city kinda ended and it was like running in desert. It was beautiful, not too hot, and absolutely awesome for running. Couldnt wait for the half to come! Decided to rest HAHA til then.

That afternoon Annie felt better so we went for a walk through the hotels; we could go through 3 without going outside; we shopped a little and then went to the Race expo (so walked that way twice) which is a lot of walking lol

Race Expo was really excellent with loads of stuff to see and buy. I wanted to buy a sweater like Annie's at Adidas but they were all gone by the time I went there. And there wasnt anything at the expo I could afford. Ok I didnt look hard enough either ;) It was late and we had to leave.

Next day was Saturday and instead of resting we went walking around lol. It was really nice. We went to Adidas and we went to the M and M World and bought candy; Got some facial stuff at Lush and at the least had an early evening.

Race on Sunday morning EARLY!