Author: hoodieruns

bike failure!

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the little blue monster, seen here, has had a wee bit of a meltdown and is currently in the shop. poor guy decided to spit bits at me and not change gears for my back gears. I wasn’t happy with this behaviour so the little blue monster is at the doctors to get fixed.

I still managed to get almost an hour of cycling in last night, interpersed with a couple of 20min runs. a tough workout for sure! Koach is preparing us for race season with double bricks! despite the hard effort last night I still didn’t sleep well.

tutu pictures are coming I swear… just waiting for the race photos to go up so I can link to them!

10K PR!

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yeah! 10K PR (personal record) in the books!

my previous 10K best was 55:08, and I trimmed that to 54:43 on Sunday! woo hoo! that time was good enough for 9/38 (a top ten finish ma!) in my age group and 61st out of a field of 246 women. smiles all around :o) oh yeah, and all this was done in a tutu that was pretty much like running with a parachute on. I’ll post a picture once the race photos are available. (because I’m awesome like that and didn’t document any of my day… duh)

at the race, I was hoping to meet Heather of Books and Quilts who is an awesome volunteer and runner on the K-W running scene. unfortunately I didn’t find her. Heather – I’m sorry we didn’t connect!

update on the june challenge and my health

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so far I’ve been doing ok with my June challenge.
I’ve got my workouts for the month written below and for the days that are done, I’ve included their status.

PASS
Partial pass
FAIL

1 – 15 mins stretch, Koala’s run (scheduled: 30mins yoga, Koala’s run)
2 – 40mins swim (scheduled: Koala’s bike – cancelled, inclement weather)
3 – 45mins run (scheduled: 45min run)
4 – soccer (scheduled: soccer)
5 – none (scheduled: 20mins run, 1hr bike)
6 – none (scheduled: 30mins bike, 30mins run)
7 – golf (scheduled: 30mins weights, golf)
8 – Koala’s run (scheduled: 30mins yoga, Koala’s run)
9 – Koala’s bike/run (scheduled: Koala’s bike/run)
10 – 1hr Koala’s swim (scheduled: 45 min run)
11 – soccer (scheduled: soccer)
12 – 20mins run, 40mins bike (scheduled: 20mins run, 75mins bike)
13 – none (scheduled: 40mins bike, 40mins run)
14 – 30mins weights, 30mins run (scheduled: 30mins weights, golf)
15 – 30mins shred, Koala’s run (scheduled: yoga, Koala’s run)
16 – Koala’s bike (scheduled: Koala’s bike/run)
17 – none (scheduled: 45mins run, beach vball)
18 – (scheduled: soccer)
19 – (scheduled: easy 20min run)
20 – (scheduled: Waterloo Classic 10km, 30-60mins aerobic bike)
21 – (scheduled: 30mins weights, golf)
22 – (scheduled: yoga, Koala’s run)
23 – (scheduled: Koala’s bike/run)
24 – (scheduled: 45mins run)
25 – (scheduled: off)
26 – (scheduled: run 20mins/bike 40mins/run 20mins)

this has been a really interesting exercise because it’s showed me which days I tend to bail on (hello Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, you guys are really hard to work out on!) and has helped to improve my overall consistency and commitment.

in other news, I’ve been working on leaning out and dropping some weight in preparation for the multi-sport season and a fall marathon. obviously I’ve still got a ways to go (thank you wet suit for reminding me of that…) but I’m pleased with my progress so far. it’s a very fine balance to strike, making sure I’m getting enough calories to fuel my workouts and keep my performance up but not too many that I have the opportunity to store them. this week I definitely did not strike a balance. on Wednesday night’s bike I was dogging it pretty badly. I just didn’t feel fresh or strong. the legs were heavy, I was very tired. since I struggled so much on the bike I decided to skip the run portion and head home early. probably for the best. I’m feeling much better having taken yesterday off altogether and getting some more sleep. last night my calorie deficit from earlier in the week caught up with me and I was ravenous. ate so much last night that I was still feeling sick and overstuffed when I woke up this morning!

on Monday this week I had my followup blood pressure appointment. my readings were within normal range this time which was great news! yay for drinking lots more water! (yes, I know that you are supposed to watch salt intake too and I discussed my diet with a nutritionist at my first appointment and she felt that I wasn’t consuming enough salt to be causing my high blood pressure on its own. she and my doctor both felt it was likely my training and work stress coupled with chronic dehydration causing problems.) next to get off the list is an ECHO for a heart murmur. that’s not until July though.

wetsuit!

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a big thank you thank you to my lovely friends and family for their generous birthday gifts! because of them, I’ve made a purchase….

a wetsuit!

(KT says “you look so professional” my brain says “oh, hello. not much left to the imagination there…”)

I’m very excited for this arrival. it’s making my decision to do a sprint tri this fall all the more real.
now to get out for some open water swims so I can try this sucker out!
ps – thank you little Hood for the hot pink swim cap > it’s going to go very well don’t you think?!

a thank you and a tutu plan

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first off, a thank you:

lovely Julie at debsaidno.com, wrote an awesome post about reasonably priced sunglasses which she claims started with me but my belief is she’s too modest and really she’s the one with the great style. thank you for the mention Julie! you all should follow her blog. it’s all about real life looking and feeling great.

so, remember this?

this is the stink at nothing shirt, featured in my hoodie has been MIA post.

whelp, on 20 June, I’ll be running the Waterloo Classic 10K in that and this:

after the half marathon fail, it’s time to reinvigorate my running with some fun!

ME is gonna love showing up with me in this.

ahh… the scent of chlorine

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I jumped in feet first last night. literally.

KT, the bestest workout buddy, invited me over for a swim last night. we swam for 40mins.
omg, I’d totally forgotten what a full body workout swimming is and how fast my heart rate skyrockets while swimming! it was awesome!

according to an online calories burned calculator, I burned approx 275 calories. not too shabby. running is more efficient but swimming is a better full body workout.

I could do 2 full lengths without stopping and probably could have done more but I was getting water in my ears and that was super uncomfortable. need to pick up some ear plugs. speaking of stuff to pick up, I luckily thought to try on my bathing suit before heading over to KT’s. good thing I did because after owning that sucker for a full decade (admittedly not wearing it much) the elastic had kicked the bucket and the ass of the suit was approximately at my knees. nothing like dragging a parachute behind you while you swim. so, I ripped over to the mall and picked up a new TYR suit that is thankfully less obnoxiously coloured than old Droopy Bottom.

the swim was precipitated by KT and my respective sports getting cancelled due to weather last night. and while I really need to get back on my bike, I was really glad to hop in the pool!

ottawa 1/2 marathon report and june’s challenge

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sunday, ME, his little sister HE, and I ran the Ottawa 1/2 Marathon. HE was running with a friend and had a comfortable and happy race. she said she felt strong and enjoyed her race. ME kicked ass – he ran sub two hours! 1:59 and change! now that he’s achieved that I think he’s more motivated to train properly for a 1/2 to see what exactly he’s capable of. I was very jealous of him but that’s b/c I mentally had a terrible race.

my race went like this:
kms 1-12 > felt awesome, was clipping along at around 1:57/1:58 half marathon pace
kms 12-15 > bad cramping, tried to run through but ended up wasting time trying to push through. mentally checked out. started beating myself up a bit. convinced myself I’d lost any chance at the sub 2hrs goal.
kms 15/16 > saw the sign and checked my watch, continued beating myself up.
kms 16-17 > started to realized I messed up and could have pulled my shit together
kms 17-21.1 > had a 3 mins deficit to make up and had I realized it before the 17km mark I probably could have done it.

finish: 2:02:40

that was a 8min course PB and my fastest time this year in a half. when I finished I was a mess, so upset, frustrated and in tears. it wasn’t until later on, on the drive home that I started to reassess my race and realized I do have things to be proud of for this race. a course PB and my fastest time this year and an age group PB. so not as bad as I first thought :o)

june’s challenge

so, I’ve got a new, refreshed motivation to kill a half marathon this fall. and I mean it! that means I need to get on the work outs now, especially to build a strong fitness base for the summer’s set of multisport races, a fall half marathon and full marathon ! as a result of all these big plans, I’ve set myself a june goal:

complete all scheduled workouts Koach Koala has assigned.
-this translates into at least one activity a day for the month of June! giddy-up!!

today’s schedule: 1/2hr yoga, Koalas run practise.

easy peasy lemon-squeezy!

happy birthday to me!

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my birthday was yesterday and a bunch of friends came by our place for beers and icecream to surprise me after koala’s practise. thank you everyone for coming by! thank you also H family for the throw back to my 5year old self!

I’m much healthier this week, having fought off a cold and pink eye (yarrrr). did the Koala’s workout last night in W’Loo park and felt good. there is hope for this weekend’s half marathon! I was definitely concerned on the weekend when I was still feeling miserable and an easy 5km run put my heart rate in to the 200’s. not good. everything seems to be good now though and systems are go for this weekend. it’ll definitely be interesting to see if I can maintain a sub-2hr pace to get me to my goal: sub-2hrs or bust.

update on the stink shirt:
after two 5km runs on the weekend and never really getting dry it was… well… skanky. I had to break and wash it. it’ll be interesting to see if that smell lingers. you know the one, the smell that hangs on to tech fabrics and just always kind of stinks even when the clothing item in question is clean.
it’s currently hanging to dry so it’ll get another use tonight when I get out for a bike ride.

training update to come.

I think I dodged a bullet??

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I’d signed up for the Freewheels Project put on by Ziggy’s Cycle to celebrate their 25th anniversary. if you follow the link you won’t see my name listed as one of the 25 selected applicants. but, I think I dodged a bullet.

the wait for the last few days was killing me. I really wanted to participate but after looking at my commitments list and thinking through the logistics of biking to golf on Monday nights with my golfbag… well, I started having doubts. then the doubts became pangs of anxiety. what if I get selected?! what was I thinking? adding in another ‘thing’ to my list of commitments. I mean the project is a brilliant idea and will definitely help raise awareness of cycling issues and opportunities in our community. but, I do not need to add to my ‘stuff to get done’ list by biking everywhere and having to plan the logistics for that AND blogging about it. that would have probably put me over the edge.

and the thought of me biking with a golfbag sending me into fits of laughter. I tried to find a picture of what that might look like and my search turned up these gems:

smiles for my monday morning

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so this is the week of refocusing and getting back to being consistent.

I got a good night’s sleep, packed my lunch, and got to work early.

at 6:15 this morning I had a purring happy kitty on one side of me, a big warm sleeping boy on the other side, the sunlight was coming through the blinds and the birds were singing. it was a great start to the day and the week.

got to work and checked my feeds and saw these two gems:
New Toy from my friend K(F)S about breaking the rules.
Nailing It from runnr grrl about being alive and embracing the positive

it’s going to be a great week.