Check!

I did it. Sort of.

Originally my goal was to finish my half marathon in 2:10:00. Honestly, as my training went on (or didn’t go on at all, CaliforniavacationIholdyouresponsible), I was thinking I’d be happy if I finished the half in under 2:15:00.

2:11:28! Bam! I know that’s not that impressive to some people…in fact, the first person to finish the FULL marathon that was going on at the same time whizzed by me just before I hit the final stretch, but man, I was really happy with that time.

• Mile One:Holy mackerel there were lots of people! The last time I ran a race it was locally and 126 people participated. This race had 18,000 half and full marathoners. I felt stuck and slow, but it was probably good to start out this way. The first mile took about 10:35. I was way behind!
• Mile Two:Still pretty slow, still pretty crowded, but felt great. Finished mile two around 20:20 or so. Did I mention the sun wasn’t up yet?
• Mile Three:I don’t remember much from this mile, but I do know that when I hit the 3rd mile marker I came in at 29:40 and that I was now on track!
• Miles Four through Six:I felt really good. I came in every mile in a time that had me running faster than a 10:00 minute mile pace. The sun started to come up, and although it was cloudy and cool, that was nice. There were still people everywhere, but it was starting to break up.
• Miles Six through Nine:I still felt amazingly good, even though there were some hills and such. When someone said we half marathoners hit the half way mark, my watch read 1:03:something, I was doing really well. Something about running in a crowd, plus the adrenaline and the music and spectators really made a different compared to my training runs.
• Mile 10:I was getting pretty tired. I took a walk break (I had taken some short ones earlier, too). I thought I only had three miles to go, but I realized it was four, as I hadn’t reached ten yet. I was tired.
• Mile 11:I kept repeating, “I can run three miles in my sleep, I can run three miles in my sleep.”
• Mile 12:I kept repeating, “I can run two miles drunk, I can run two miles drunk.” Don’t ask. Also, there was a guy in front of me who was probably 70, and I figured I could at least try to stay up with him. Honestly, I was freaking tired. There were more damn hills and my legs did not want to move fast. I hit mile 12 at 11:59:and some change, and I knew making it under 2:10:00 probably wasn’t in the cards. And I was okay with that.
• The last 1.1:Ugh! I knew it was almost over, there were people yelling, telling us it was almost over, but I was slloooooowwwww! I didn’t stop, but I didn’t run fast. When I came around the corner and saw the finish line I was beaming like an idiot! I crossed the finish line when the clock said something more like 2:16 or 2:17, but I had a late start because there were so many people. On the website (and my own watch) my official time was the aforementioned 2:11:28. Wahoo!

Anthony actually took a pic of me just before I crossed the finish line, and a couple of pictures of me sweaty and medaled. However, the pictures are trapped on the little magical box that is his new camera, and though I’m normally pretty tech savvy, it’s not even six in the morning and I have no idea how to transfer the photos to the computer other than hoping that the magical box can read my mind. Which apparently it can’t. So those pictures will be coming soon!

What’s Next?

I am finding that goals in the land of fitness make it so much more fun! Which is why I need to have new goals in place to keep me motivated. I definitely plan to continue running, but shorter distances: I don’t see me racing in anything longer than a 10k, ever! (Although I feel pretty darn good today, considering).

My new goal consists of adding muscle and fitting into a pair of green pants that I own.

Muscle: From what I understand, we start losing our muscle mass when we hit 30, which I turned last November. My legs are strong, but I really, really could use some help with my upper body, and I don’t want to lose the strength I’ve gained running. My goal is to add some muscle mass and tone all over, mostly by adding regular strength training to my routine. I’m doing a 7 week plan, because that’s how long I have a gym membership for, and because I need to have deadlines to get myself motivated.

Green Pants: So I am not one to hold to clothes that don’t fit/are ugly/have holes in them/are orange, but I have this one pair of green pants that I love, love, love. I can put them on. I can zip them. I can’t leave the house in them, though. They fit, but not really, know what I mean? I’d like that to change. I hate weighing myself because it makes me stupid, and I’m not really the type to diet, but I am going to continue with cardio, add weight training, and work on late night eating in hopes of getting these pants to fit properly again. Hopefully in seven weeks, but I can be flexible.

Phew, it’s time for me to get going and go lift some upper body weights!

What motivates you to stay fit?

[Via http://recipesforcreativity.wordpress.com]

Running in the cold to fight a cold

Temperature: 0 degrees C

Distance run/type: 11.26 (group run) + 2.19 (run home) / LSD

Clothes: Lululemon running pants, Nike base layer, Addidas top layer, Addidas coat, Lululemon hat and gloves, Asics TrailRunners.

Feeling: Too hot. I had to take off my Addidas top layer and tie it around my waist. I ended up taking off my gloves halfway through the run and holding them in my hands. I felt like I could have probably lost another top layer as well.

Despite still feeling a little off this morning, I decided to go for my LSD run and hope for the best. I knew I’d feel guilty if I missed it, and the chances of making up a missed long run on my own decrease exponentially as the day goes on. Breakfast was a mix of Kashi Go Lean and Go Lean Crunch cereal (1 cup), with natural peanut butter (1 tsp) and chopped strawberries (1/4 cup) in vanilla rice milk (3/4 cup). As always, I washed breakfast down with a few cups of warm water and lemon.

We ended up running a really nice 11.26k around Toronto – winding through the Mount Pleasant cemetery, and around Casa Loma. Once again, I passed by many condos and townhomes that I will likely never be able to afford. One can dream, right? I was happy to note that I actually felt much better halfway through the run than I did earlier that morning. After we made it back to the store, I left the group and ran back to my apartment (2.19k). Once I got back, I had a banana, some vanilla green tea yogurt, and a few other things that I found in my cupboard to tide me over until brunch.

After brunch with a friend, I did some laundry, shopping, and spent some time with my cats who are now living at my parent’s house after I decided that it wasn’t fair to them to live with me in my teeny tiny bachelor apartment. I also watched The Blind Side. I’ve always been a fan of Sandra Bullock, but now I am half in love with her. I’m really glad she won that Oscar. It was well deserved.

[Via http://fuelingforfitness.wordpress.com]

26.2 KMS!

Hooray!! So we ran the race on Sunday and it went really well. We did it in 2:54:22, which was fine by me as my goal was to do it under 3hrs. We did the first half in 1:24:40, so we slowed down  in the second half, but not too much.

The weather was perfect, the sun warmed us up in the morning and then it clouded over and kept it nice and cool for the full race. It was actually a really interesting experience. As this was my first real race, and there was about5,500 people participating, being with such a large group of people, all running was really interesting, and surprisingly quiet. We got finisher medals and long-sleeve t-shirts and race packs full of goodies which was nice.  There are photos up here but I doubt we will shell out and buy them…they are a little expensive.

So now what? Well, Phil and I both decided that the run wasn’t THAT hard, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we did another one in the future. I don’t know about a full marathon though…that would just be sooo long. Who knows though. Right now I am going to take a bit of a break from running and try and mix up the physical activity by getting a gym membership and maybe doing some classes.

[Via http://librarianwithoutglasses.wordpress.com]

Tex-Mex and the Treadmill.

I had a very busy today. It started with an early morning trip to my doctor’s office for blood work (fasting, and believe me when I say that no food is bad enough, but no coffee? Yeah, okay, just stay out of my way.). And it ended with a relaxing massage courtesy of my man Josh. In between, I tackled a lot of chores (including five loads of laundry), hit the gym to run intervals, and even managed to go out and have a lovely lunch with my friend, Jackie.

Tex-Mex is one of my biggest downfalls, and the grilled mahi mahi tacos were wonderful. As were the few chips I allowed myself, and the salsa. I didn’t, though, fall off the wagon enough to allow a prickly pear margarita into my meal. And it’s a very good thing. Because running intervals an hour after eating Tex-Mex is not something I would recommend. I wondered if the chips and salsa were going to make a reappearance more than a few times, and I’m positive a margarita would have been the deciding factor. I have made a habit of losing things on the treadmill this week – my nano, as reported in an earlier post, and, oddly enough, two navel rings. Losing my lunch would have been the icing on the cake – or rather, the Tex-Mex on the treadmill.

But I managed to hang on to everything today, and I had a nice little interval session indeed.

In the gym by myself:

Speed Intervals: 5 minute warm up @ 4 mph. Twenty minutes of intervals: 30 seconds @ 6.5, 7, 7.5, & 8 mph. with 60 second intervals @ 4 mph. Cooldown, 5 minutes @ 4 mph.

Polar Info: 30 minutes, 336 calories, 40 % fat, Max H/R 162; Avg H/R 139.

Total: 30 minutes, 2.4 miles.

[Via http://musclegirl.wordpress.com]

Run Tonight Was Hard...

Run tonight was hard… unbelievably hard… I barely kept the tears at bay. The frustration was evident. I am so terrified that if I have a break and not go back again on the weekend I will not go back at all.  Maybe I am emotional today I do not know… My mind would not switch off.  I was obsessing on my ability to do this, I was obsessing on the fact I am not doing a training session this weekend. Overall, I was obsessing on my life in general.  I started focusing on the fact my shoulders were up around my ears and that my breathing was all over the place.  I just could not seem to cut a break tonight. Nothing was working for me it was as if everything was against this run.

I am trying to tell myself I did not fail. Nevertheless, to tonight I only ran 1.99km. The elusive 1 km until I hit 1st target, seems so far away and I’m struggling. That negative voice was back “ha-ha I bet you can’t run up that hill” and I almost believe it, I almost just sat my arsed down on the pavement and hope for some damn miracle… but I ran up that freaking hill even though it felt like it was at a snail’s pace. I seem too survived tonight but saying to myself if I ran another 10 steps I would be okay, that mantra was repeated until finally I began to slowly believe it again.

It does not matter that at this moment every part of my body is throbbing, the positive is I ran.

I want to say thanks to Jodes and her constant support of me and this challenge…And for picking up the pieces tonight. She always listens and of course checks out my run maps after each attempt.  She reminds me constantly that she believes in me and has no doubt in my ability to achieve the goals I have set for myself. So apart from doing this for myself, I am going to say I am also doing this for my amazing supportive cheerleader. You Rock and no I’m still not telling you the song until I reach 3km!!

[Via http://emmacastagna.wordpress.com]

Food Blogger for a Day

After signing up for the MMRF Race for Research 5k, I sat myself down and had a little talk…with myself. Maybe I was just feeling guilty from the 2 1/2 bowls of low-fat frozen yogurt I had eaten, or maybe I just realized it was time. I’ve plateaued for awhile now and I’ve attempted the whole, “Woe is me, I don’t know why this is happening,” blah blah, somebody call the waaaaambulance routine. The truth is, I could do better. I’ve worked really hard and gotten really far, but I know what my weaknesses are, I know where I could push myself harder and I can do better. So I started today.

I think that taking pictures of everything I eat is really tedious, but therein lies one of its benefits: it makes me think about what I’m eating, when and why. I am going to try to document my daily eats as much as possible for as long as I can before I get sick of it. Above on the left are the two tea bags I started my day with: a combination of Puuka Cleanse and Trader Joe’s brand Jasmine Green. On the right, though it’s hard to tell in the picture, I actually wore a skirt and cowboy boots to work today, and thus rode my bike in a skirt and cowboy boots. Not gonna lie, I felt badass.

I bought this box of instant oatmeal because it was on sale. I’m a sucker for sales and it shows: this oatmeal is not gluten-free. My bad. I’m still going to eat it this week, but I probably won’t buy it again to be on the safe side. For breakfast today I had a packet of the maple nut flavor.

Along with my oatmeal I had a side of Rainbow Light Digestive Enzymes. This one in particular received really good reviews. I started taking them over the weekend, so hopefully soon I will notice a difference.

For lunch I had the last of the leftover eggplant parmesan rolls with swiss chard and mint that Zac made for dinner Sunday night. This recipe is amazing and refreshing. Zac and I even agree that we like it better than tradition breaded and fried eggplant parmesan. I heated my leftovers and put it in the bowl with a couple of mixed salad greens. I was physically sad when I had finished eating.

B-a-n-a-n-a. Times this by three and please excuse my chipping nail polish. I also had one apple, one tangelo, and one clementine as snacks throughout the day. That’s…a lot of fruit. I think my problem with only bringing fruit as snacks is that it doesn’t give me any protein/fat to satiate me. Instead of so much fruit, I might try to bring say an apple and a tablespoon of almond butter to eat, because fruit might be healthy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not made with lots of calories. (Over 500 in fact for all the fruit I ate today. Yikes! :\)

Above is said apple and the third banana I ate today, around 2:30 when I also had a hankering for an iced coffee with cream. I managed to get halfway through the day without coffee, but there is just something about the 3 o’clock hour that screams, “NAP TIME!” to me.

When I got home from work I was feeling really dehydrated. I had two tablespoons of almond butter and a pinch of shredded coconut (not pictured) before working out. It is another beautiful, warm night, so I did Day 3 of Week 3 of my C25k plan. Earlier I  figured out that I didn’t actually have enough weeks before the race to finish my plan as I was, so I created a workout plan for the next month so I can be sure to get all my runs in.

After I finished my run and showered, it was dinner time. I had mixed greens with an entire chopped green bell pepper, two carrots, a sprinkle of sesame seeds, and a tablespoon of Newman’s Own Light Balsamic Vinegar. I also had another enzyme tablet and some Tazo Passion iced tea that I made over the weekend. Sadly, this was all the calorie allowance I had left for dinner after eating all that fruit earlier. I’m going to plan better for tomorrow and in fact am boiling some eggs right now as I type.

G’night!

[Via http://waterbutterandwine.wordpress.com]

New Boot Camp Dates For April!

Check out the new ‘Early bird’ and the ‘Weekend Workout’ Boot Camps!

A.M Fitness Boot Camp is an outdoor group training program that offers outstanding fitness instructions with a large helping of motivation to keep you on track every step of the way!

Each session is filled with fun and energizing activities specifically put together to help you successfully achieve your fitness goals.

Choose from either the ‘Early Bird’ Boot Camp or the ‘Weekend Workout’ Boot Camp and secure your place for only £10.

NEW DATES! 

‘Early Bird’ begins Monday 12th April @ 6.30am

‘Weekend Workout’ begins Saturday 17th April @ 8.00am

‘Early Bird’ Boot camps are offered every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, three days a week for a block of 4 weeks, rain or shine! Each camp lasts 45 – 60 minutes and starts at 6.30am

‘Weekend Workout’ Boot camps are offered every Saturday and Sunday, two days a week for a block of 4 weeks, rain or shine! Each camp lasts 45 – 60 minutes and starts at 8.00am

Click Here for more info and prices!

[Via http://amfitness.co.uk]