Blog catch up!

My summer got a little busy and I got a little lazy catching up my blog. the mid-life crisis is in overdrive now and I've done a lot to fuel it, all of them fun!

12th Grind of the Year

I did the Grind for Kids and, along with everything else I was doing this summer, managed to do 18 grinds and raise approximately $1,100 for the BC Children's hospital. It would have been great to raise more but every little bit helps! Money went to the Cardiac Care ward the hospital is building. I even got my friend Claire up for her first Grind this summer! Half way up she vowed she'd never do it again, 3/4's of the way up she thought, well, maybe, at the top she thought, screw this, I'm doing it again and getting a better time!

Colour Me Rad

Probably one of the most interesting runs was the Colour Me Rad! Hard too because I had just injured my knee the Wednesday previous (apparently, I'm not very good at soccer, ended up with nerve damage that could take up to a year to heal). It was a 5km race (not really a race and it sure didn't feel like it was 5kms) and at every kms you had colour powder thrown at you! A blast! I went with a number of friends, two of which were doing their first race! if you're going to do your first road race, this would be a good one! I'll probably do this one again next year if it's not around any of the triathlons I'm doing next year.

The Liquid Awesome AND The Fast, The Slow and The Pretty

Another great run was the Whistler 50 Ultra and Relay. My friend Thom and I put together a couple teams, made sure all couples were split up between the two teams (more fun that way). The two teams were pretty comparable in pace. The Liquid Awesome (my team) was ahead at the start over The Fast, The Slow and The Pretty. Then, one of my runners got lost, we were behind by 10 minutes or so and Thom's husband (on my team) pulled out the fastest 7km run for both teams and caught us right back up! We ended up winning by 49 seconds only. Fun, although very long, day! Snowed most of the time, a little bit of rain at one part but right back to snow! Fireball and scotch was used all day to keep warm (did I mention it was a very long, snowy day?) I'll be back to Whistler for this race next year! Was a blast more so because I was running with a fantastic group of people, very low key, low maintenance, no drama! Who else can say that about their running friends?

Tough Mudder, mission accomplished! Part One

Well, this past Saturday I did the Tough Mudder in Whistler Olympic Park. My friends and I all went up on Friday night to relax, hot tub, have a good healthy dinner and get to bed early to prepare for the next day. What really happened was we got there early, had some dinner, hot tubbed, started playing cards, then started drinking, then got a noise complaint and went to be about midnight or 1am!

Friday night the rain came down in buckets, it poured from 10pm until 3 or 4am. I slept until maybe 5 or 530, probably had at least one hour of solid sleep! Every time I woke up I jumped out of bed to look outside. No idea why probably nerves.

The old people (myself and my friend Selina) were up early so went over to Starbucks. I was too nervous to sit still for long in one place! We ended up cooking breakfast in my room (6 of us rented a 3 bedroom condo at Creekside! Pretty sweet set up), everyone was nervous, excited, myself terrified.

Tough Mudder wanted all participants at the site 2 hours ahead of time. We jumped on the organized school bus at 10am for our ride up, everyone was excited and there was an electric/excited feeling in the air! We get dropped off and start a 1 or 1.5 km trek to the registration/start line. After you pick up your package (number, drink ticket, etc) you got your bib number written on your forehead and leg/arm, check in your bag and watch people start/come across the finish line until your heat starts.

We decided at noon to just go line up and started with the 1215pm heat instead of 1230pm heat. To get to the start line you had to climb over an 8 foot wall, where I got my first (of very many) bruise. You get seriously charged up at the start line! The have an MC at the start line (same guy at all of the Tough Mudders) that gets everyone chanting HOO-YAH, WHEN I SAY TOUGH, YOU SAY MUDDER, TOUGH MUDDER! etc. We were LOUD! Then, the anthem us sung and off we go! We did a 1 mile or so run up switch backs until our first three obstacles. I'm sure I'll be getting the order wrong, it all seemed to just happen and I'm still processing the event in my brain (and trying to clean all of the mud off me!)

The first obstacle was Kiss of Mud, you had to crawl under barb wires in mud, and this isn't some wimpy mud, its about5 or 6 inches deep (maybe more) and gets into everywhere! Anyone on our team that came out clean got hugs from those of us covered in mud. The next obstacle (I think) was the Arctic Enema. You go from getting super muddy to colder then you've possibly been in your life! As soon as I got in my throat closed, then you had to duck your head the water (my head hit a few giant blocks of ice). As soon as my head came up I started yelling I needed help out, the first aid guy there was over in a second, told me where to put my feet and had one of my teammates help pull me out. That one screwed me up for at least 15 minutes!

The next obstacle was the Devil's Beard, a cargo net on top of a huge pile of snow! you can either walk behind someone (which I did) or crawl along the snow. After that, you run again, to the first set of Berlin Walls (I might be missing an obstacle!). Our group was fantastic! There were two walls and everyone helped everyone over the walls. Teamwork was key for this obstacle (as well as most). I also received a number of odd shaped bruises at this one (I think it was this one). Lets just say that Berlin Walls aren't the most comfortable thing to sit on for any length of time!

After that, water! I was never so excited to see a water station in any of my other races!

After the water station we were running again. Here's where everything gets foggy for me! I know there was more elevation gains, more freezing water, snow, climbs but I need to process more to remember! We were on the course for many hours and the middle is a blur!

More to come.

Day 2 of the 30 day challenge

I`m doing my gym`s 30-day challenge again, trying to build some extra muscles for Tough Mudder, lose a little bit more weight for running and my triathlon in July and just some overall extra fitness! I`ll be doing three semi-private lessons a day, as well as extra gym days, swimming, biking, running, soccer, dragon boating, etc. Its going to be fun or I`ll completely go mental!

The 30-day challenge isn`t just about working out, its also food, you change your diet for the next 30 days as well (and by diet, I don`t mean like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig). It means no sugar, alcohol, grains or dairy for 30 days (well, we can have dairy in our tea and coffee!). Its hard, I did it once before, but this time I`m hoping to be more prepared!

I will miss my bread most of all, I just found this absolutely fantastic brown rice bread! Very yummy with avocado, sheep feta cheese and very hot mustard. mmmmmm. Yup, going to miss that for the next while!

It`s day two half way down, 28 more days to go!

Vancouver Sun Run and BMO Half Marathon!

From the end of March to now I`ve completed the Vancouver Sun Run and the BMO Half Marathon. Wow! Both were too much fun!

The Sun Run is one of the largest in North America, most don`t run it to get a personal best (although I did beat my January 10km time by 4 minutes!) Me and the girls from work afterwards! The Sun Run is a good one for new runners and the best thing about it is its very relaxed!! Luckily my building I worked in at the time was at the start line, we were able to hang out up on the 24th floor (overlooking West Georgia Street) and watch people cross the start line for a bit (we weren`t starting until the middle of the pack of 50,000 people!)

Next race for me was the BMO Half Marathon!

I woke up today with barfy feelings, they got worse after I ate and even worse while I was waiting for the bus! They started leaving a bit once the bus was packed with other half marathoners! Then the crowds leaving the King Edward SkyTrain station were amazing! I missed one SkyTrain because it was jam packed with people!

Once we got to the site (I went with three friends) we were greeted by one of our coworkers (as well as boss type person!) and his wife, they came to cheer us on which was very nice! Made me a little less nervous to be distracted!



We had to wait a bit to cross the start line, however, since they did have to get 10,000 people across the start line. I was still having some barfy feelings waiting for the start but, it was fun!

I had great fun running the course though. There were cheer groups (all competing to win money for charity), music bands (also competing!) and 4000 volunteers handing out water, gu, and other things to keep you going! Plus, just high-fiving the volunteers was kind of fun!

Sepand was great! (in picture with me to the left), she stayed with me when I started loosing steam at the very end! And man was I loosing steam! Coming up to the end though, the streets started getting a bit more packed, about 5 or 6 blocks from the finish people started yelling out your name (your name is on your race bib) and you feel motivated to finish strong! I felt a bit like a rock star as well, it was a fantastic feeling and a fantastic way to finish the race!

Picture to the right is Andy (he did the full and has to sit on a 5 hour flight to Toronto on Monday), Gavin (he decided at the last minute to sign up), myself and Chrissy!

Attempting 16kms Saturday

But knowing how I'm feeling now, it'll probably happen on Sunday. I'm lacking motivation, more afraid of the upcoming 1/2 marathon then I am of the Tough Mudder, don't know where that's coming from! I just have to remember that the running is 95% mental and 5% skill! The 95% mental might be winning out a bit though.

After the summer, will start training for my first full marathon! Doing the crazy drinking one in France, I mean, really, if you're going to do a Marathon doesn't it seem more wise to do one running through the Bordeaux region of France (my favorite type of wine) re-hydrating with wine and in your last 1/4 of the race all you can eat oysters, breads, cheese and cold cuts? I mean, makes sense to me!

I guess bad runs are good for you!

As soon as I posted my crappy run post I found this! http://authorjimlynch.com/bad-training-runs-are-good-for-you

Crappy run!

I now understand why you do a long run every weekend. I skipped last weekend just because (probably the correct answer is lazy) and the weekend before I had my triathlon. I can't skip anymore long weekend runs. It felt horrible AND it's getting harder to hold back running fast, never thought I would say that! My pace for my short runs are getting faster, almost one minute faster then my long runs. Thankfully I have a GPS watch that tells me my distance and pace and I can pull myself back when I'm going too fast on the long runs.

But still, I'll be doing a Running Room training session for my next 1/2 marathon!! None of this, I can do it on my own crap!