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.