Mixing it up a bit!

I decided to try a couple of different things to keep me in shape during my off season.  I figured I would get back into serious tri training in January but I didn't want to get too out of shape.  I am still running and swimming with the Masters groups so that definitely helps!  And really, I can't get out of shape with those groups!  They really do keep me in check!  I haven't touched my bike though since my last race in September except for commuting all around the city on my single speed (which I really do enjoy!).  But this time, I decided to give bootcamp and yoga a whirl!

I have done yoga before and have done ashtanga, moksha, and bikram classes but it has been more than a year since I have practiced any yoga.  I usually stop practicing yoga once training and race season starts but I am hoping this time it will be different.  I went to a new studio for me at Fireflow Yoga and I loved it from the moment I first stepped in which is quite different from my other yoga studio experiences.  In the past I had to return to a few classes to warm up to the studio and a couple of them I just never did warm up to because I felt it was a bit to stuck up for me.  But this one is great!  I LOVE going to classes!  They offer both vinyasa and athlete yoga classes and I am enjoying them very much.  And I really hope I can maintain a consistent practice throughout the year and for many years to come.

Bootcamp was something I wanted to try for a while.  I found an awesome deal through WagJag where I got one month unlimited for $30 so I figured I had nothing to lose.  Classes are offered every morning within a 10min walk from me.  So I started it and get my booty kicked.  I do have to say I am quite impressed with myself and I realized I am quite in shape.  Anything abs, core, and legs I can do no problem.  My weakness are my arms.  And I think I have never seen my biceps so defined as they are now, lol!!!  It is definitely a great hour of working out which I don't think I would ever do on my own.  There is a lot of pain and lactic acid involved but it is a lot of fun!  However, once the month is up I do not think I would continue because quite frankly it is too expensive for me.  It would be great to keep this up over the winter months and really tone up and get my core in tip top shape but I can't see myself paying that much for these classes.  I am hoping I can learn from them and do some of these exercises on my own though!

I can run!

On Sunday I ran which I believe would be my last race for 2011.  I ran the Whitby Waterfront 10km race.  Another fairly last minute decision but I wanted to see what I can run a 10km in since I have been working on speed on the track this year.  The last time I ran a 10km was in 2006 at the Sporting Life 10km which is known to be a fast course.  I wanted to go under 50min and I was hoping to better my 2006 time of 49:34.

Got picked up by Marianne as her son and his friend were running the 5km.  Got to the race site nice and early and I did a warm up run.  The weather was great for running except for the wind.  It was another very windy day!  So I decided to look more like a runner and by-pass my running hat that I always wear (except for XC this year) while running.  This decision was more due to the wind and I did not want to worry about losing the hat. 

The 5km, 10km, and 10 miler all started at the same time right after the kids 1km run.  This was a much smaller race then what I am used to and it was a nice change from the big crowds and having to try to get some space and run your pace.  The race started and the first km was pretty fast for me.  I went about a 4:30 but I also wanted to get around some of the slower runners/walkers.  I then tried to settle into a fast but comfortable pace and found myself trying to hold back a bit.  My plan was to hold back and then go for broke at the turnaround at the 5km mark.  Got to the 5km mark in 23:30 and was really happy with that.  I still felt really comfortable.  Then I tried to pick up the pace, however, we were met by a nasty headwind.  So I may have been assisted my a tailwind on the way out but now I was paying the price for that.  I then had to dig deep to keep pace and the wind was not making it easy.  I got passed by one guy just after the turnaround who I ended up passing back at around the 7km mark.  I also passed one other guy at about the 6km mark.  Without the crowds it was all up to me to push hard and I liked that.  I found that I was pretty focused and just tried to run as hard as I could and the last 500m I gave what I had.  Marianne actually ran with me for about 200m to get me to run a bit faster and I did.  I was gaining on one guy just in front of me but I did not catch him at the end.  Crossed the line in 47:33 for a new 10km PB!!! Yay!!!  I was really happy with that!  Later I found out I was 4th out of 41 in my age group and 7th woman overall out of 100!  Woohoo!!! Ok, so maybe it wasn't a fast field but I am happy!  I feel that I ran a smart race and left it all out there.

As I was updating my PB's on the right column of my blog, I noticed that all of my running PBs are from 2011!!! Woohoo!!!  I actually would have PB's at all distances (minus IM)  if it wasn't for the cancelled swim at Steelhead and the shortened swim at St. Anthony's!!!  Here's hoping for more PB's in 2012!

OMA XC Provincials

On Sunday I ran in the OMA Ontario XC Championships in Guelph and I really had a blast!!!  This time it was a 5km run and the weather was quite favourable except for a pretty harsh headwind at times.  I travelled with two other teammates (thanks for the ride!) and got to see my first ever big cross country meet.  Other races were going on and it was fun to watch some speedy youngsters rip the course up.  I did a 20min run in the morning before leaving for Guelph and I did another ~10min run once we arrived in Guelph on the course. 

Part of the reason why I am having so much fun is being part of a team!  And I got to put on my UTTC singlet and spikes again! Furthermore, everyone is so encouraging and positive, how can I not have fun!?  We did our little cheer at the start line and then the race was on.  I think I started out way too fast because I had the lung-burning feeling early on.  I was also running close to people I normally don't run close to, lol!  But I paid the price for that!  Before the half way mark I was getting passed by other runners again.  No passing on my part this time....oh well!  And I was just hanging on at the end...I faded fairly quickly.  The wind didn't help though but I probably should have paced it a little bit better.  I ran a 24:33 for the 5km...a PB for me!  Yay!  I also got a medal for placing third in my age group...although there were only three in my age group! Haha!  But I can say that the first place woman is a pro-triathlete!  UTTC maintained our second placing for the OMA XC series!

Hmmm.....I am liking this XC thing!!!!  Too bad it's the end of the season and I'll have to wait til next year to try it again!

Up next: 10km road race in Whitby this Sunday....I'll be gunning for a PB!!!

XC Race #3

In my state of insomnia (flipping back and forth from night shifts to days is not working right now!) I have decided to finally get around to writing a report from my third XC race last weekend at Sunnybrook park.  This was the same course as the 4km we did a couple of weeks before this race but this time we ran the loop twice for 8km.  That meant we had to run up the steep muddy hill twice.

I did not have to work the night before and it made a huge difference in how I felt.  Ok, maybe not so much in performance but this time I felt like I was able to push it a bit more in places and my legs felt fine. I rode to the run again and that hill actually wasn't that bad either, lol!  It was an absolutely beautiful day to run though!!!  Even wore sunglasses!  As well, our girls team decided to dress up in Halloween costumes for this race and we came out as cheetahs!  One of our team members made some ears and tails for us!  Lol!  So much fun!!!  Oh....and and this was the first time I ran in a UTTC singlet!!!  Now I felt like a serious runner! haha!

The run started and I just tried to hold a good pace.  Also tried to be more aggressive in the downhills but I still need to work on that.  Got to the big hill and passed two guys who just passed me before the hill as we were going up.  I thought that they would re-pass me after the hill but I managed to keep them away.  Going up that hill actually was a lot of fun! It was so muddy that when I planted my foot down it would slide back a bit.  Also almost lost my shoe as my heel popped out when my shoe got stuck in the mud.  I passed one more person, a female runner, before the end of the first loop!  Yay!!!  I am finally passing some people.  Completed the first loop just a bit slower than the race a couple of weeks ago and then tried to push it more on the second loop.  Got to the hill the second time and I caught up to and passed my friend Tim as I was huffing and puffing!  I could not say two words to him!  I wanted to pass on some encouraging words but no can do!  Got to the top and I thought he was going to re-pass me and I tried my darnest to stay in front of him.  I was successful but at one point he was really gaining on me.  I was hoping for a 40-41min run but I was a bit ambitious with that goal and was off by a bit.  I clocked in at 42:30.

Good times though!  I am liking this cross-country thing! Haha!  UTTC managed to hold onto our second place overall in the standings! Yay team!!!  I also decided to run at the Ontario Masters Championships this weekend in Guelph!  Go figure, I am running at provincials!  Out of my league but I am having fun and hope I can just run my heart out!

Round Two!

Sunday I participated in my second ever XC race!  And this time I was equipped with spikes thanks to Marianne!  Yay!  The Don Farquharson Memorial Harriers XC race was at Sunnybrook park and was approx 4km.  I considered this race a bit harder than the Taylor Creek run...that one uphill was evil! ;)  I again was silly enough to race in between my 12-hr night shifts!  And again, I managed to push my body with no sleep and tired legs.  I rode my bike to the race site which involved one pretty steep hill.  I have ridden up that hill before on a bike with gears which is no problem.  But on a single speed commuter bike it was a whole different story.  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it up that hill when I was trying to figure out a route to get to the park.  I decided to ride it anyway and it was a toughy!  I suffered going up that hill.  I pretty much destroyed my legs going up that thing and I was winded and sweating...haha!  After I checked in I decided to do a warm up run and that lasted no more than 100m.  My post marathon and post night shift legs were done!  Their response: "ahem....what do you think you are doing! I want to go back and sleep!".  I honestly did about a 100m jog and then walked back.  I decided to save whatever I had for the race.  The gun went off and we were off.  I think I started a bit too fast because I felt myself die early in the race.  But the spikes made a huge difference.  I had a grip going up the hills!  Awesome!  There was one long downhill that I once again got crushed on!  Got passed lots but passed some back on the flats and some uphills.  The one steep uphill was muddy but the spikes did their job.  My lungs on the other hand were on FIRE!  They were burning and hurting!  And probably about half way into the run I got a good side stitch and I wasn't able to push the last part as much as I wanted to.  Oh....and this time I didn't follow my team mate's line.  It wasn't because I didn't want to...it was because I couldn't!  Oy!  I had my a$$ handed to me! Haha!  I ended with a near asthma attack as I was coughing away trying to get my breath back.  I did have fun out there and clocked in at 20:58, good enough for a 3rd place medal in my age group.  LoL!  UTTC as a group came in 2nd!  Good job guys!  Nice work! I didn't contribute to that but am proud to be part of the team!  Next challenge is the Sunnybrook 8km XC race in two weeks!  I hope to get out on the course and practice a bit and try to become a better XC runner.

Chi Town 26.2

October 9, 2011
Chicago Marathon
Chicago, Illinois

Chicago...the race I really wanted to do well at did not really pan out.  I arrived Friday morning with Marianne and Saila in Chi Town and we headed to the expo for registration and some shopping.  This expo was probably one of the biggest expos I have ever been at including all Ironmans!  It was huge!  Which meant lots of walking but that was ok.  I got some swag and then we played tourist for the rest of the day even trying out some famous Chicago deep dish pizza and Garrett's popcorn!  Saturday I ran about 6km in the morning with 3x1km at race pace and I felt ok.  We spent the rest of the day shopping along the Magnificent Mile and site seeing.  Had some pasta for dinner and went to bed early for our early wake up call.

Race day Sunday.  Got up, had some oatmeal, a banana, and a boost and got ready for the race.  We were really close to the start/finish area so that was really handy.  Walked over to the race site and got into the corral with about 45min left before the start.  I was not seeded so I was in the Open corral and went to the 4:00 hr section as that was my goal - sub 4hr.  This was for sure the biggest race I have ever been in.  There were over 50,000 people who started this run. Wow!  Insane!  The gun went off at 7:30am but it took me about 7min to cross the start line.  And I consider that pretty good! Lol!

My goal was to hold around a 5:40 min/km pace right from the beginning to about the half way mark.  If I felt good I would then try to bring that down, if not, maintain pace and reassess at 30km and if I still could not bring it down then just try to maintain the 5:40.  5:40 was what I needed to come in just under 4hrs and I REALLY wanted this!  I was prepared to hurt for this.  At the start I was really careful to try not to go out too hard as can happen with adrenaline and all the energy surrounding you.  However,  with all the tall buildings in the downtown core and running under some bridges I noticed that my Garmin was not reading my pace correctly.  It was jumping all over the place and I quickly realized I could not rely on my avg pace reading anymore.  Darn!  That was ok as I was quickly doing math to figure out the mile pacing.  Next time I will know what mile and km pacing I want.  I figured I needed to maintain around a 9min/mile and that was what I tried to do.  I was so focused on maintaining pace that the first half of the run just flew by.  This was also aided by the enormous amount of spectators!!! It was absolutely incredible.  The whole 42km were lined with spectators and in some places it went about 5ft deep!  We were never alone.  And it was also sooo loud with music and performers along the way.  It was so loud I could not even hear myself breathe.  At the same time though with the huge number of runners it made running in some places tricky.  The corners were tight and at times there was a bottleneck effect.  The aid stations were a bit crazy but they were so long that I waited until there was some clearing before I got fluids.

I was so focused on the pace that I did not notice or look around the different neighbourhoods we were passing.  I was careful to take both gatorade and water at the aid stations as it was a HOT day!  I believe the temp was about 30C!  Yikes!  And I was soaking wet!  I took a total of four gels throughout and I also took a couple of salt pills because I was caked in salt.  At about 22km I also took a redbull shot hoping it would give me some wings! ;)  As the temperature was rising I was really starting to feel the heat and I was grabbing sponges and running through water to try to cool down.  Just before the 30km mark the heat started really getting to me but I did not focus on that at all.  I was maintaining a good pace right until about 34km where I guess my wheels fell off.  I had stayed in front of the 4hr pacer until then and then I got passed.  I tried to stay with them but I just could not.  I tried to fight and was focusing on trying to push but it wasn't happening.  I made some more calculations and realized that I was not going to come in under 4hrs.  Maybe once I realized that I let my pace go even more but I tired to bring it back as I wanted to get as close to 4hrs as possible.  Yup...not so much!  With 2miles to go we entered the inspirational mile and I tried to pick it up again there.  I even had volunteers telling me I looked great!  But when I looked down at my watch the pace just wasn't there.  I had little left in me.

Crossed the line in 4:09:12.  And to be honest, I was very disappointed.  I really thought I was capable of a sub 4.  I consider myself to be realistic with my time goals and I thought sub 4 was possible.  Maybe it was too rich for me or maybe it just wasn't my day.  My garmin read a 5:48 min/km pace but it also read 43km, it looks like I ran a 5:55 pace with an avg HR of 164bpm.  Stats: I was 10,649 out of 35,628 finishers.  I was the 2839 women to cross the line out of 15,453 and I was 541 in my age group out of 2845.  On the bright side this was a PB for me! Yay!  My first marathon was a 4:16.  At the finish we were given free beer and here is me enjoying one:

Afterwards, we went to Niketown to get our medals engraved and look at the finisher's gear and we had the best welcoming party ever.  We had to enter through a specific door since we were finishers and the employees were lined up on either side and cheered us in as we walked inside.  It was a first for me and it was amazing!  That was a lot of fun!  I do have to say that this was a very well organized race.  All the aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers were great!  And we also got free medal engraving and photos courtesy of Nike!  How cool is that!

Right now I am considering a November marathon!  Do not know if this is insane or not.  Hmmm???  I do have the run training in me right now....maybe try again at a sub 4!?!?

Muddy, rainy, dirty!

And cold!!!  This was all part of my first cross country running experience!  This past Sunday I participated in the Taylor Creek 5km XC race as part of the Ontario Masters Athletics (OMA) series.  Unfortunately, I was working nights on both Saturday and Sunday which meant I was racing in between my 12-hr night shifts!  Not ideal!  Especially with the shifts that I had....no sleep break for me! Boo!  It was quite busy!  But I always surprise myself as to how much I can push my body!

Sunday morning I rode my bike home from work in the pouring rain and I started to worry about the race.  I do not own spikes and even though the course is suitable for flats I wasn't sure if this was still the case in the rain.  So I sent out an email in the morning wondering if I did in fact need spikes or if this would be a good excuse to bail on the run and stay home and sleep.  I was honestly thinking of bailing!  I tried to sleep for a couple of hours but it wasn't the greatest.  I woke up at about 11am and went anyway without spikes and hoped for the best.  It was very rainy and cold and quite suitable to stay in bed! Ha!  Got to the race site and saw the Nachos which was nice and other members of the UTTC.  We were warned that the course was quite muddy and to be careful out there.  I drank a Redbull shot about 15min before the race in an attempt to wake my body up.

I was given advise from a few people when they found out this was my first XC run and all of them told me to not go out too hard.  So I did exactly that.  I went out at a comfortable pace, not easy but not balls to the wall either.  Got to the first downhill and almost wiped out.  I quickly learned this was a whole other world of running.  There is a whole different skill set to this and I had no idea what I was doing! Lol!  I got passed big time on the downhill as I was taking it cautiously.  Then the mud run began.  Every corner I was losing my footing, I was slipping and sliding, almost lost my shoe at one point and even turned my ankle and almost fell as I quickly gained my balance.  All I could think about was next weekend and Chicago and not wanting to do anything silly out there.  So I held back and made sure I did not injure myself trying to go faster.  It wasn't worth it for me.  Next time I'll be more aggressive but not that day.  So I stayed behind my teammate Duncan and followed his line!  Thanks Duncan!!!  When he ran right through the middle of the muddles, so did I.  If he took a corner wider I tried to do the same.  That was a huge help to run behind him.  And let me mention he is many years my senior and is an absolutely incredible runner!!!!  I truly admire him and my other teammates who are all incredible runners!  I hope to learn lots from them the more I train with the club.

I completed the 5km in 25:42 as I kicked it up in high gear at the end as someone else was chasing me down. The Nachos were yelling at me letting me know I was being chased and egged me on to go faster.  She did not catch me but apparently she was really hoofing it and I was afraid to look back to see how close she was.  I was hoping to run this in under 25min so I was just short.  The team I was on (W30) came in 2nd and UTTC as a whole also came in 2nd.  Not incredibly pleased with my time but again this was not road running and I found it to be technical.  I did have fun out there even in the rain and cold.  I am looking forward to getting a pair of spikes and trying this again and try to go even harder.