Still feeling good!

Still feeling pretty good and positive after my long run on Sunday. I'm either having issues hydrating OR I'm coming down with a cold. I'm hoping its the former and not the latter.

I'm also supposed to be resting (so not resting) for my V02Max testing tomorrow. Pretty excited about that, I'm sure knowing the zones I'm to train in for at least running will help with my triathlon training. Or at least make me feel a bit more confident. I'd be fibbing if I didn't say I was scared shitless at the moment but you never know what you can accomplish by sitting on your ass!! Unfortunately, I decided to accomplish a lot!

So, that leads me to this, a friend sent this to me recently and I've decided to adopt it as my new motto. I'm not good at everything I do, but, at least I'm trying! I'm trying to improve my times, myself, my goals. I have some pretty big goals this year, I may fail, but at least I'm off my ass trying them, even if I suck at it!

What a weekend!

Drinking in the boss' office

Well, this was certainly an interesting weekend. Started off by tormenting one of my bosses who was off for the day. Me and a coworker took a couple shots of us "drinking" his scotch in the office and then texted them to him at 10am asking if it was too soon to start drinking. His response BASTARDS! Use a glass.

I then went for a beer with these same people before meeting up with someone I met online for a date (and that's all I'm going to say about that, except I hope we can figure it out to meet up again).

Saturday was long bike day. Started with two brunches though, yes, two, both with eggs! Yes that is also a shark in the back ground of this picture. We like to get to Little Nest when it opens to steal all of the kids toys so we can play with them at our table. Great food if you've never been then, you can get vegan and gluten free options, but more the brownies, muffins, etc (which, really is also amazing). The staff is pretty fun as well!

After I left the first group went and had second brunch! Yes, more eggs. After that I did manage to do about 40kms on the bike (without the padded shorts, sore today) through Vancouver streets. Love Ontario with the new bike, fun! I had to post this picture online yesterday to torture my friends/family on the east coast, they just got another dumping of snow on the weekend, while I was out in my ride. A ton of people out Saturday (many more on Sunday).

Saturday I continued my carb-loading with beer with a friend on the Drive. Mmmmmm, blonde beers are very tasty. The Dime had a great beet, peacan, goat cheese salad as well, but, alas, I'm getting too old for the clubs. My friend and I (she's also my age) bitched the entire time about how loud it was and that we couldn't hear each other. We're the first one each other will call though to go out for a night of dancing, so explain that!

Sunday morning came pretty fast and so did the 32km run! WHAT THE FUCK! I ran 32km today! Yes, I actually walked around the rest of the day saying to myself, HOLY FUCK! I RAN 32KM TODAY! The furthest I ran before that was 26km. I missed both of the 29km runs due to a triathlon and then half marathon race (consecutive weekends) so I was a tad worried how I would do today (apparently not that worried, I was drinking beers the night before). Except for the toe, it was fantastic! I felt great during, finished off strong, we finished in 4 hours 1 minute. I was hoping 4 hours but thought it was a long shot. My foot and toe is currently taped up, feels better but around the 14km marker to the 24km marker I was in a lot of pain, hard to run, walk, anything. The toe went numb, I could barely feel it and all was right with the world! Today we ran through 6 or 7 neighbourhoods, through 3 film sets, through or around 2 parks, passed a couple beaches, through a university, across the finish line and back to the store. My GPS said we did 32.06 kms, my friend's said almost 34 or 35 but I think there's something wrong with the iPhone GPS :)

Whatever it was, it was over 32km!!! I ran that today! Incredible!!

Shameful song moment

OK, I have a shameful song moment, I`m addicted to this song and it was great for hill training tonight.  I don`t even want to type it in but great song for hill training (or booty shaking) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfe_-dgoXhs

Struggled to train this week

This week was a huge struggle, after a disappointing half marathon finish on Sunday (disappointing in my head, it was still 20 minutes faster than the previous one) I struggled for three days to be able to do anything. Really struggled. The run on Sunday was on trails, and, while some people seem to love the trails I find them very difficult on my legs. My quads were sore the next day, so sore I wasn`t able to even do yoga. Yup, you heard correctly, couldn`t even do yoga. Tried in the morning and evening and it was horrible.

Tuesday I was still sulky, went to the gym (trainer on Tuesday and Thursdays before work) and then was feeling off by the afternoon so went to my clinic talk but didn`t do the hills. Didn`t swim Wednesday morning, didn`t run Wednesday night. By Thursday it was only my 3rd workout for the week (not counting commuting on my bike, I don`t count that anymore). Gym was good, my trainer pushed me, I thought about sulking but it doesn`t work on him so just did whatever he told me to do, started feeling a little better. By the time I finished my run tonight, fantastic! This is my garmin after just my hill repeats. Such a great time for me, considering I was doing hill repeats! I managed to do 5 and then the stomach said ``feed me before I barf all over the sidewalk please and thank you`` so off home I went. Its also a PB for me!

So, Friday is tomorrow, I do plan on pool in the morning, run right after work (slow slow run), long bike on Saturday, then the dreaded 32km on Sunday. I`m terrified but I know that my dad will be looking out for me that day. Its the three year anniversary of his passing. It still hurts thinking that he`s gone when I still feel like I need his guidance. I have a lot of friends that I can talk to when I need guidance or help but there`s just something about sharing your successes, failures, feelings, fears, wins, etc with your father that I so dearly miss.

Horrible run, happy with the results

I did another race today, a half marathon in Burnaby (around Burnaby Lake). Hated it the entire time, I couldn't run as fast as I wanted, my legs felt like crap, I didn't have any fuel in the tank (mainly because I drank Saturday night and was hung over most of the day on Saturday) and I've spent the last few Sundays running with at least two other people, so, boring as well! Good training for the full though, mainly because I'll need to run on my own, remind myself to have gels, to drink, that its ok, that I'll be fine and that I'll cross the finish line, even if its not the time I wanted (like today, I wanted 2 hours 30, I think I got 2 hours 37 so its still 20 minutes faster than last year).

One of my friends running it said the same thing, she did FANTASTIC but she forgot to walk (we do 10 and 1's), forgot her gels, forgot to drink, was bored out of her mind and was thinking about all the stuff she had to do at work to distract herself. When that same thing happened to me I started visualizing that I was in Whistler finishing Ironman through the trails, then when that didn't work I put on my bellydance music and started coming up with a new routine, that distracted me for a while, until the toe pain came back.

Running, really, why do we do this to ourselves! That was what I was thinking after I hurt myself, why the hell am I doing this, why don't I just quit and start doing nice little 5kms, I could just work on my 5km pace, get really fast, maybe do one in 28 or 29 minutes, that'd be nice. But no, I have to get it into my brain that maybe one day I'll be running an ultra marathon (that's what I'm possibly thinking of trying next year. OK, I'm sure if one of my friends said they were signing up for an Ultra next year I'd also be signing up without questioning it, that's how I signed up for Ironman!)

Do you know your Grouse Grind time?

This was the question asked, mockingly (and rightly so) last night by an English guy leaving my company and going back home (he was on secondment from our parent company). As I was leaving he was in conversation with a couple other people about their Grouse Grind time, half marathon times, 10km times, etc and that it was bizarre that we all know this, and why do we know this! Its ridiculous! (his words). It was highly entertaining.

He had a point though, once you get into fitness (and it wasn`t always so for me) you become obsessed with bettering yourself, you compete with yourself but that's it. We celebrate other`s successes but we don`t say, I want to beat your time (unless of course you`re very good friends and its smacktalk!). We just try to better our last time up the mountain, or better our last run, but we don`t try to compete with our friends. And this is where its hard to explain to others (once the bug really hits you!), you do compete in races but you`re still competing against yourself, trying to place well, trying to finish within the time you wanted.

Song of the day

Holy hotness! I just discovered Lana Del Rey (Summertime Sadness) and started checking out her other tunes....this one, wow. Sexy, steamy and erotic....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx_dTSPzXlk