Hungry Eyes...

So Nick and I did some cooking today. It was the first time I had actually cooked food from scratch (obviously following recipes from a cookbook... my skills are not that amazing). We did some taste-testing as we went along and it was amazing!! I'm going to some of the recipes here, give them a try. All are completely vegan!
*Disclaimer! These recipes are from the cookbook Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia C. Simpson. I highly recommend her cookbook, tons of easy ideas for breakfast, smoothies, desserts, salads, soups, sauces, and entrees. These are not my recipes! 


Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons & Dressing

Croutons

• sourdough bread
• vegan butter
• garlic powder
• sea salt

Butter the bread and sprinkle with garlic powder and sea salt. Put them in the oven and broil them until the bread is toasted. Be careful not to burn the garlic powder

Caesar Dressing

• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard (I used honey mustard- same thing? I have no idea)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
• 2 chopped garlic cloves (I used 2 teaspoons of store bought chopped garlic)
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons capers (skipped this... had no idea what it was!)
• 1/4 Vegan Worcestershire sauce (also skipped this.. couldn't find any)
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the croutons and lettuce. Add some Vegan Parmesan Cheese on top :)

Veggie Casserole

• Canola Oil for the pan
• 10oz package of frozen mixed vegetables
• 1/2 cup of couscous
• 3/4 cup of vegetable stock (we used water... Nick forgot to bring the stock..)
• 1/2 cup of white onion
• 2 cups shredded vegan mozzarella cheese
• Sea Salt & Pepper to taste

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Boil vegetable stock and then add couscous. Simmer and Cover until all liquid is absorbed. Combine all ingredients, reserving 1/2 cup of the cheese. Spoon the mixture into the pan and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for 10 mins.

Mushroom Gravy

• 5 cremini mushrooms, minced
• 5 shiitake mushrooms, minced (our grocery store didn't have these, used 10 cremini mushrooms)
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock (didn't use this.. see reason above)

Saute the mushrooms in canola oil over medium heat for 2 mins. Stir in flour, nutritional yeast, pepper, salt, and cook for another minute, stirring occasionally. Whisk in the stock slowly until desired thickness is reached.


We also made green beans and mashed potatoes. I don't think I've ever been this excited for a christmas dinner. We've sampled everything but the casseroles (Nick wanted to, I refused to let him touch them, I didn't want to serve casserole with a chunk taken out of it), so I'll let you all know how they turn out. I'm hoping to try and convince some of my meat-loving relatives to give them a try!

Back on the Chain Gang

So I've completely neglected this blog for about a month and a half now.
The marathon recovery period was frustratingly slow, but believe me, I was happy to have the excuse to rest.
I've since transitioned to a completely vegan diet, and the shock on my system has caused me to go through a bit of a detox, leaving me feeling a bit crappy. I'm definitely feeling way better now and I'm slowly getting back into a routine. I've re-discovered the joys of running, instead of just feeling the obligation of the training. But at the same time, I do kind of miss the structure of it.
I've been making big plans for myself over the next few years, in terms of academics, traveling, and athletics, and I've decided to expand my blog to be more than just my athletic adventures, I want to share with everyone my other adventures :)
Now it's late and I need to get up early, so I'm not going to go through a lot of detail tonight, this is just to let you all know that I still exist!!
Over the next week, I'm going to post more about what I have planned, so you can all share in the excitement. I'm very excited!
P.S. I've also completed a Bucket List (though adding to it all the time!) of things I want to do before I'm 30 (can you believe that's only 10 years away?!!!?). I'm going to post it here so you all can share in my dreams :)

Night <3

Scotiabank Toronto Marathon!

It's done! 18 weeks of training paid out with last weekend's race. I ran it in 5:13, which was slower than the time I had in mind (I was anticipating under 5:00; my idealized "I am a Kenyan" time was 4:30... but one day i'll get there) but considering the main goal was to finish strong, I am unbelievably, jumping-off-the-walls happy with my time. I ran a pretty steady, consistent pace throughout and was joined by my mom just before km 27 (which was a much needed help- I felt like lying down on the road right there and giving up, I felt like I wasn't going to finish). I definitely regained some of my confidence though when I realized that slow as I might be running, I was one of the few people who were still running at that point. People around me were limping, walking, or running at that pace where it looks like more of a shuffle than anything else. The fact that I was still able to run at the pace I had started at made a big difference (popping some advil helped too!) My mom left me around km 38 (4k to go!!!) and I battled the last few kilometers out on my own. I was able to pick the up pace a lot in this last leg (for those familiar with running jargon, I had been running between a 7-7:30 min kilometer throughout, and I picked it up to a 6-6:30) where I (oh so modestly) passed probably around 30 people. The faster tempo, plus knowing I was so close, made those last 4 kms fly by. I just kept running until I saw the next km marker. Those red flags were my favourite by the end of the race. In the last 500m I picked up the pace even more, and I sprinted full out across the finish (I'm positive there is a great picture out there of me crossing the finish line. I can't wait to find it).
With the exception of probably about 7kms in the middle of the race, I throughly enjoyed the experience, and definitely plan one doing another marathon (probably Scotiabank 2013, I want to do triathlons next summer, and marathon training takes up too much time to do both).
I know I say this often but marathon runners should be able to use their bibs to get handicap parking after the race. I couldn't walk the rest of Sunday OR the next day. I basically was confined to one floor of my house because I couldn't make it down the stairs.
I feel like I have so much more I want to talk about regarding my experience.. but I'm having a mental block right now :) My brain/body still isn't functioning at its normal (and brilliant) level, although I do now have full use of my legs again, which is appreciated. But my toes are still too bruised to wear normal shoes, and it is very cold out. :(

Until next time! Time to go post some pictures. :D

Marathon Woman Pt. 2

So it's down to the final inning. 20 days to go! I had my last 32k run yesterday and it went amazingly! I'm so close that it is finally becoming a reality. I trained for so many months that it was always a distant, far-off goal. But now it's almost here! One more 23k next weekend and then I start tapering.

But there is something else I wanted to talk about here. There is a reason I titled these entries "Marathon Woman". There is a fantastic book I have been meaning to bring up.

Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. Her story is amazing and very inspiring. When she was running her marathon, a race official tried to physically throw her off the road because he was so outraged that a woman had the audacity to run a marathon, and that was in the late sixties (so really, not that long ago). I think all athletes and all women should read this book. Just reading the struggles she had to go through to simply just run is astonishing, and completely eye-opening. And by run, I don't even mean in Boston. I mean just to run down the street. Women would try to run her over as she trained because they were so outraged that she was challenging the status quo. Can you believe that it was thought to be dangerous for women to run farther than 400m because their uteruses would fall out.
I know this sounds like a rant, but it is something that just seems so ridiculous to me, yet it also makes me feel very appreciative for everything I can do now that I don't have to fight for.
Another book I recommend (although I never finished reading it, school got in the way) is called Run Like a Girl (appropriate title, no?). This book discusses how incorporating sports into life can be beneficial. It also discusses the challenges women have faced and still face when it comes to the athletic world. Once upon a time, it was revolutionary when someone decided to make athletic clothes designed specifically for women, instead of just giving them the smaller, shrunken down versions of the mens clothes (in the colour pink, of course). It also talks about the attitudes of men (some men, not all!! and some of this is also in the past) towards athletic women- they are either threatened by them, or under the impression that they are at a more superior level of athleticism than women.
Reading this stuff really lights a fire under my butt. It's incredible to read the stories of other women. It's a reminder not to take everything for granted, and it's also a reminder to be appreciative of what they went through. Even as recently as 20 years ago, when my mom started running, it was a male-dominated profession. My mom even had to wear the shrunken down version of the men's athletic clothes that are mentioned in the book.
It's amazing how far we've come, isn't it?

Marathon Woman Pt. 1

Okay, Sorry, I know. I have once again woefully neglected the blog (although to be honest, I didn't realize it had been quite so long since I had written).
So you know about my amazing 19k run. Since that lovely morning I have had 2 extremely successful long runs (both at 29k!!) which made me feel on top of the world when it came to my running. In my head, I was totally winning Boston after those runs :D
Last week I had my first 32k run, which for the record, is the farthest I run before race day (leaving the last 10k for me to deal with on my own come Oct 16). It was very humid on Saturday morning and that humidity only gave way to extreme heat as the day went on so that definitely played a part in the run. This run was a little more difficult than the previous ones had been, but I still believe that had it been only 5 degrees coolers with a little less humidity I would have felt just as great as I did on the 29k runs. Once I hit probably about kilometer 26 I was ready to be done! But luckily, I was running the last 10k with my dad, and as my mother, and his friend/running buddy Shakey know, my dad has the "delightful" ability to talk anyone's ear off (As the story goes when my dad and Shakey crossed the finish line of the Ottawa Marathon, Shakey turned to my dad and said "man I just wanted you to shut the f--k up, I spent the last half of that race trying to run away from you!"). But my dad's ability to talk about endlessly about randomness paid off because it distracted me and kept me going. We covered favourite albums, books, artists, movies, songs, etc (It was once again confirmed that I am my father's daughter... we had a lot of overlap when it came to listing off our favourites). Over all though, I think it went pretty well. Not every run can be your best, and given the surprising heat of the day, and the distance, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.
I've also come up with a new system for doing my 29 & 32k runs which are really making a difference. I  spilt the run up into 2 loops: Loop A is a long one, normally between 21-23 km, run solo or with my mom depending on her running schedule, ending back at my house. Loop B is short, between 7-10 km depending on the distance. I like to plan out the first loop so that on the second loop I have 10k or less to run. Again, depending on availability, my dad runs the second loop with me. So what happens is, I finish loop A, run inside, use the bathroom if need be, switch my belts so I have more water (which I prepared previously so its waiting for me in the fridge) and then hit the road again... so its pretty much the same as ducking into a Tim's to use the bathroom mid-run. But what I've found is that mentally, it really helps. It's almost like I think of it as two different runs. One long one (but not intimidatingly long) and one shorter one. That way I only have to focus on little bits at a time, instead of the whole damn distance. I've decided that any run I have to do over 26k, I'm going to do in this fashion. Whatever helps, right?
Also, on a side note... I did my last week of hills this morning! Woohoo! For all you runners out there, you know how awesome that is... and if you don't know what it is.. ask me next time you see me.


Now, because we're getting so close to race time I'm going to give you all a little sneak peek into what's left of my training schedule. Now keep in mind, these are just the long runs. I'm still doing 3-4 other runs during the week.

Sept 10: 23k
Sept 17: 29k
Sept 24: 32k
Oct 1: 23k
Oct 8: 16k
Oct 16: RACE DAY!!

only 6 weeks left (holy crap!) and only 2 long runs left! (is it sad that 23k doesn't seem long anymore)
and let's all cross our fingers, and do some cool weather dances and wish the heat away for me! Because as experience has taught me, my body does not respond well to running in the heat!!

Let the Good Times Roll

Quick update: my 19k run last saturday was absolutely FANTASTIC! It was a beautiful day, no humidity, and I got a nice early start so that helped as well. I had a faster pace going, and I felt great the whole time. Mentally (and physically) it was really refreshing to have such a great run (especially after the last two runs-those were so difficult). It gives me hope for my looonnngg run this weekend (29k!!). Here's hoping for some cooler weather, because I am going to be out there for a long time. I've been feeling a little less tired, occasionally cutting one of the 6k runs I have to do on either Monday, or Friday, and I've been running after work sometimes, so I'm getting more sleep too. I think this new plan is working, so fingers crossed.
On a side note, I am now officially registered for the Marathon!! Registered this morning. Not going to lie, I freaked out a little bit after seeing my confirmation, especially when I realized that it's only 9 WEEKS AWAY!! (oh my god.. take a moment to freak out).

Learning to Breathe

I ran 26km yesterday. And my legs are still sore. This is the time I've really been sore like this the day after a training run. But it was a hard run. I know after my 23k last week I was hoping that if I took it easy this past week (which, for the record, I did) I would feel energized for the 26k. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I started out feeling great, but by 10k, I was beginning to feel a little sore, by the 15k mark I was just tired. The last 7k were horrible. I thought I wasn't going to make it home just out of sheer exhaustion. My legs were doing me in, they were so sore and tired (probably from water skiing for the first time in 4 years at a cottage 2 days before the run) that just willing myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other was brutal. However, despite all of this, I did finish my run. On the downside, it was so physically and mentally exhausting that I kind of (and I'm not proud to admit this) burst into tears as soon as I walked in my front door, and then I was out of commission for the rest of the day.
So now here comes my dilemma...
My goal has been to stick religiously to the training schedule, which has been tough, but I've been doing pretty well with. BUT with my crazy busy work schedule I've been burning myself out. Waking tired, running, working out in the sun all day, and just being utterly exhausted by 8 or 9pm. Because of this exhaustion, my long runs have been suffering.
I'm toying with the idea of cutting back on my training, or at least cutting a run from my schedule (so I would run 4, instead of 5 times a week), or maybe fitting my run in later in the day so I'm not waking up at 6am to run before work. This week I'm going to experiment a little, and we'll see how that effects my 29k I have to do next Saturday.
Also, some cooler weather would help. I think this extreme heat and humidity is playing a factor in all of this.
So wish me luck! Hopefully my experimentation with my training will pay off and my next run won't be quite as exhausting.

Don't Stop...

So I completed my 23k run yesterday. It was hot and I had been exhausted all week so I knew right from the beginning that this run was going to suck. My legs were heavy so I just accepted that this was just going to be a long morning. I had a beautiful route though. I spent about 12k of my running along the waterfront trail in pickering/ajax. I had never run along the trail before and I'm definitely going to go back there again. It was gorgeous to run down by the lake. However, the last 8k or so I was dying. I just wanted to be home and in bed. But once again, my stubbornness kicked in and I just kept telling myself to put one step in front of the other until I hit 23k. This was also my first run with my new Garmin so that was very helpful. I knew once I hit 23k I was stopping and if I wasn't home yet my parents were coming to pick me up. I found that made a difference because previously I had just mapped out my runs online so I knew I would get the distance in, but I never knew exactly where I was in the run, distance-wise (especially since I'm so horrible at judging distance!) I'm looking forward to doing 26k next weekend, and I'm hopeful that if I rest a lot during the week, the run will be easier than this last one.

She's a little Runaway...

I've reached the point in my training where now I feel like I am actually training for a marathon. All the other distances I've been running thus far have been under 21.1km. However, this Saturday I am running a 23km run for my LSD (long slow distance). From this point on, every new distance I run will be the farthest I have ever run in my life. This realization has made me reminisce back to last September when I ran my first every half marathon, where every distance was completely new, a new accomplishment every week. I remember hitting that 20km mark, running up University, and feeling a lump rise in my throat, tears come to my eyes. I remember feeling, in that moment, that I was going to do it, nothing was going to keep me from crossing that finish line.
I'm looking forward to having that feeling again. Running may come easily to some people, but it never has to me. This time last summer, I was training for my first 10km race and that distance seemed astronomical.
I'm proud to say I've come a long way in a year and hopefully this time next year I will be racing towards even better things.

Gravenhurst Give-It-A-Tri

So this past weekend, I competed in my first triathlon. I had registered with my brother for this event months and months ago. As the date grew closer and I got busier and busier I started to dread this race. I just wanted to be able to sleep in given I was so tired from work/school/training. But my dad had already paid the entrance fee and my little brother had entered the race, meaning my mother was counting on me to make sure he got out of the water!
The event was a 400m swim (so 16 laps of a standard 25m lap pool), 10k bike, and 2.5k run. The swim was no problem and the run I could do in my sleep. I was worried about the bike so the only real training I did for the event was taking my mom's road bike out for half an hour to figure out the gears and get used to the new bike (which I did two days before the race). The bike is definitely the weakest part of my athleticism.
So then comes the morning of the 17th. My alarms goes off at 4:00 and I start gathering all my stuff. I had accepted the fact that this was going to suck, but I was going to do it with Jimmy, so it would be fun to spend an hour out with my brother. We piled in the van, picked up Nick, and headed off. As we got closer, my competitive side began to come out. I started to feel the dread lifting off my shoulders. We got there, set up the transition area,  I got changed into my wetsuit and prepared to start. I was feeling happier and much more excited. There is definitely a vibe in the air at events like these. There is an excitement and anticipation. It turns out about 80% of the people doing the event were also first time triathletes. That made me feel a little better too.
The first wave started, with all the men shooting off into the water. I jumped in with the other women in my wave and prepared to start. The gun went off and we all pushed off the dock and began swimming. Immediately I was feeling a little crappy, my arms and legs were tired, and I couldn't get into a rhythm. I just decided to suck it up and swim. Then something changed. All of the sudden I looked up and I was at the first buoy marker. I put my face back in and kept swimming. I found my groove as the crowd spread out and I started swimming faster. I began to pass other women in my wave, and also some of the slower men from the first wave. Before I knew it I was climbing out of the water and running across the dock, fumbling (rather awkwardly) to undo my wetsuit. When I got to my bike I found my brother waiting for me. We hopped on our bikes and proceeded out of the chute. The bike was easier than I expected, the dreaded hill I had heard about was nothing to brag about (haha I actually went up the hill and then a couple mins later went, "wait? was that the hill??"). Jimmy and I finished the bike, and started the run. We went pretty slowly which I was okay with (considering I had done my 19k long run the day before) and we spent the run talking (which was nice, we don't normally spend a lot of time together). We decided to sprint the last 200m or so to the finish line. The best part was I started sprinting and Jimmy looks at me and goes "when do you want to start sprinting?" and replied "I am already" he goes, "oh" and starts sprinting himself which with his long legs meant he breezed by me in about 2 seconds. I caught up with him though and we crossed the line together :)

In conclusion, I fell in love with a sport I thought I would hate. I am going to dedicate the rest of my summer to my marathon training, but I've already decided that next summer I am going to do the Sprint distance of the Gravenhurst Triathlon. The tri-a-tri distance was fun, and a great intro, but not really challenging. Plus, I want to jump off the boat at the start of the swim :)

Long Time Gone

So after about a week of everyone bugging me to write again, I am finally back. I have woefully neglected this blog during the last month, partly because I've been crazy busy but also because I've been feeling a little uninspired lately.
As you all know, the last race I did wasn't exactly my best. It was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting meaning I had a hell of a recovery afterwards. To top it all off, a week after the race I got horribly sick with some funky stomach virus so I was down for the count for 4 days. I couldn't keep any nutrients in and I felt so weak that I was sure I wasn't going to run for months....
So that was my sob story. And now it is time to let the cat out of the bag...
On June 11 I started the Running Room's training program for the Scotiabank Marathon on October 16, 2011. The program starts slowly with a 10k long run and it has slowly been increasing each week. I am now up to 19k. I definitely learned my lesson from my last training session where I went too hard and too fast. The long runs are taking me a ridiculously long time (especially in this heat!) but this time I'm taking care of my body properly. I am running (or am supposed to be running) five times a week, and I'm doing my best to do every run. It's exhausting, especially since I'm working eight or nine hour days at the pool, so getting my run in means waking up at 6 most mornings. But I'm doing my best.
I think the trick is to take it one step at a time, one run at a time. To look at the schedule and to think about how far 42.2 km actually is, is very very daunting. But this program works, I've seen it.
I have been toying with the idea of running a marathon this fall for a while now, but seeing my dad and his friend run the Ottawa Marathon this past spring inspired me. Watching the two of them go out and run through rain, snow, ice and wind chills all winter while they suffered through bruised bones, messed up knees and hips and seeing how proud they both were of their accomplishments made me want to be a part of that marathon club. They trained and ran while their bodies were literally falling apart, they finished in just under 6 hours, which no matter how fast/slow you are running, is a damn long time.
I've been nervous about spreading the news of my goal because so much can go wrong in the remaining three months, but one of the reasons I started this blog was to try and open up more to the people around me.

So from now on, I pledge to be more faithful about updating this page, and I will do my best to include to you all in my journey to Scotiabank.

Toronto Women's Half

Sometimes I feel like as a runner, I can get jaded about the distances I'm running. My mom has run 4 marathons in her running career and probably about 10 half marathons. On the same day as the Women's Half, my dad was running in the Ottawa Marathon. In comparison, 21 km does not seem like a big deal. But it is a big deal. Even though it's "only" the half marathon, it is still a long freaking way to run. That's like running from Whitby to Scarborough. I had been hoping for a faster time than 2:15, my goal had been sub-2:10, but I started out too fast and my body quickly betrayed me. At about 8 km I felt like there was no way I was going to finish that race. But my mom stayed with me the whole time and kept me going until the very end. But I could barely stand afterwards. Nick pretty much held me up as a hobbled my way over to the bathroom and tried not to throw up.
At first I was a little disappointed that I didn't run the fast race I had been envisioning, but considering the amount of pain I was in when I was running, I am just happy I completed it. I think I had been so focused on running at a fast pace that I had pushed my body way past limits in the last month. And as Nick has pointed out to me, every race cannot be a PB. I know my body can run a 2 hour half marathon, and some day I will do it again. In the grand scheme of things, I ran 2:21 on my last half marathon, and 2:15 on this one: still a 6 min difference. :D

It's a Long Run

So sometimes the run is all about the physical... and sometimes its about the mental. I did my final 21 km run on saturday before the Women's half in 2 weeks. Saturday was a day full of crappy weather, which I was thankful for when I started the run (I hate running in the heat), but it quickly became humid. 20 mins into my run, my entire body was drenched in sweat and rain. Still, I was going strong, not at as fast a pace as last time, but I purposely ran slower because I didn't want to burn myself out 2 weeks before the race, where the pace actually matters. But then I hit the 13k mark...and it all fell apart. I was feeling some aches, but physically I was ok. What was lacking, was my mental focus. I was exhausted and emotionally spent (and feeling very dehydrated as the humidity had caused me to drink all my water earlier in the run). At about 15.5k I knew I needed some encouragement so I called Nick and hearing his voice made everything a thousand times better. Feeling a little stronger, I continued running. However 15 mins later, I felt my body giving up on me. My head was throbbing and I knew I was desperately in need of some water. So I called my wonderful boyfriend again and begged him to bring me some water, which thankfully he did. 10 mins later, with 2.5 k left, he found me and I don't think I've ever been so happy to see his face. He refilled my belt and gave me a water bottle to drink and I felt instantly better. With some final words of encouragement and a kiss, I went on my way determined to finish the run (there's that stubbornness again). After all of that I made it home, and picked up my pace significantly during the last couple kms (although I think that was more out of a desperation to get home than a renewed feeling of strength).

And now, 2 days later, I'm still feeling tired. I had my usual rest day on Sunday, and woke up this morning to go for a short 5-7k run and just couldn't bring myself to do it. I even got up and started getting changed, but it wasn't happening, all I wanted to do was eat... and eat.. and eat.. and eat.
Hopefully the extra day of rest will mean that I will be ready to go tomorrow. Now if only the weather will cooperate....

Sporting Life 10k

Yesterday was the Sporting Life 10k race in Toronto, my first race of the year, and my first race since last fall's half marathon. This race was a bittersweet moment for me. My goal was to run a comfortable sub-hour race, which I did (56.13), but it wasn't exactly comfortable. Given that the race was on Sunday, and I ran the distance of a half marathon at an incredibly fast pace on Friday, I definitely underestimated the amount of time my body would need to recover. Within the first kilometer my legs started feeling like lead. I could feel my hips tightening, and my legs felt heavier and heavier as the kilometers went by. I felt like I was trying to sprint through mud. Given that there were no km markers (I found out afterwards that there were... but the wind had twisted them around so they were hard to see... a lot of help they were) I had no idea how far I had run and how far I had left to go. Trust me, I have never been so glad to see a finish line, and have never wanted a run to be over so badly. Looking at my watch as I crossed the finish line, I was filled with a little bit of disbelief, I had still run a PB even though I felt like my body had taken a severe beating. So I guess the bottom line is that I am happy with my time, but I wish I had run a stronger race. The silver lining of all of this I know that I can keep up a decent pace when the only thing my body wants is to curl up and sleep on the side of the street. A promising sign considering my next goal is to run in the Scotiabank Marathon come October.
And now I just feel motivated to run in another 10k race... and this time have a happy race.

Baby, We Were Born to Run!

Today I ran the entire half marathon distance, 21.1 km. I wanted to do the whole distance a couple times before the race on the 29th so that I could get an idea of what my finishing time would be. So, incredibly, my time was.... 2:01. I've never been good at talking about my accomplishments, but I'm going to do a little bragging here. Last week when I ran 20 km, I finished in 2:04, so this is a huge improvement. I'm pretty blown away that I was able to run this fast, and it was a pretty consistent pace throughout, based on my times at the 5 km, 10.5 km, and 15 km points along the route. I was dead tired by the end though, although I don't think it was because of the pace, it was because of the wind. I hit a nasty head wind once I turned west to head home, so the last half of the run was brutal (I swear the wind was coming from the north when I started- every corner I turned it seemed to change direction. I was a very pissed off runner by the end). But good news is that based on this pace, and how I was feeling at the halfway mark, I should be able to run the 10 km race this Sunday in under an hour (which is my goal!). Let's hope I can keep up a similar pace when it comes to the actual race day for the half on the 29th. And let's hope that there is no wind, or else I will once again become a very annoyed runner.
And this time is definitely going down as one of my personal bests!!
- Meg

And the Thunder Rolls...

For me the only negative aspect of running is that it occurs outside. And this is only a bad thing when the weather sucks, like today. This past winter was my first winter training outside, and I did a pretty good job, I ran through the cold, snow, and ice. But I still hesitate sometimes. I had planned on doing my 21 km run today but the weather is pretty dicey. I'm ok running in the rain and wind, but I'm nervous about getting caught in a thunder storm with an hour left in my run. This guy I work with is also a runner and he did some intense training throughout the winter, he ran through every snowstorm and extreme wind chill. I wish I was that good! I hate having to rely on the weather in order to get a good run in, it is on days like this where I wish I lived somewhere where there is hardly any weather.

Looks like today is going to be a swimming day at the local pool. 

Luckily, my trusty friend The Weather Network, is predicting sun tomorrow, let's hope they pull through. 

Either way, I'm stuck running tomorrow because I'm running in the Sporting Life 10k on Sunday, so I can't do my long run on Saturday as per usual. Everyone pray for some good weather tomorrow!!

-Meg

 

Make it Hurt So Good :)

So I ran 20km today, and I finished strong with a decent time, which I am very proud of. But boy am I sore now. I've decided that there are 3 mindsets I go through when I'm on a long run. #1- thoughtful and reflective, where I think about random things in my life, what inspires me, what I am proud of, etc. #2- totally happy and blissed out, where I feel strong, powerful, unstoppable. #3- tired and aware of every ache and pain, where its just about putting one foot in front of the other. Believe me, today was a lot of #3. But its the hard runs that I'm most proud of. It's easy to keep going when you feel great, but it really speaks to your determination when you can run through the fatigue. I definitely think long distance running is 90% mental. It would be too easy to sit down on the side of the road, whip out my cell phone and call someone to come pick me up. Imagine those people who run ultra marathons (like holy crap- 100kms in NUTS!) no matter how in shape you are, you are going to be exhausted- Its all mental (or in my case, stubbornness). I definitely think my mental strength and clarity has improved dramatically since I started doing this. In the end, it doesn't matter whether it was amazing or a struggle, I always feel strongest (both physically and mentally) when I'm running.
- Meg

Hello, I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name?

In the last week or so I've been surrounded by people writing blogs, and my curiosity got the best of me. Prior to this the only experience I've ever had with a blog was that one episode of House a few seasons ago where the patient was a chronic blogger. Never being much of a diary girl myself, I was surprised by how much the idea of starting a blog appealed to me. Some how the idea of people potentially reading what I have to say makes it secretly thrilling. I've also heard that blogs tend to have a theme, so here is mine: Running. I've embraced a new lifestyle in the last year and I'm loving everything it has to offer so far. I want to share everything I've learned and explore what else is out there. Being a new vegetarian and a new yogi as well, I have found that these go hand in hand with the happy and zen attitude I have found that runners in general all seem to possess. Already in the past year, I've had some great experiences and insights, so there will probably be a lot of posts coming your way  as I reflect on what has happened. Hope you enjoy my recollections.
- Till next time, Meg.

P.S. Loving the title of this blog, it's inspired by this shirt I bought that at the Goodlife Marathon Expo that says "Ya I run like a girl, try to keep up"