It's a long weekend!

A long weekend means heading to a cottage!

I figure I'll try to get in some open water swimming (with fishes and large turtles).

Other than that, time to relax and fish!

Have a great weekend!

I'm actually going to do this!

Last week, I mentioned that I had updated my bucket list.

I added a Ironman 70.3.

Since then, I've been researching and reading all about triathlons and I've set my sights on the Sprint Triathlon in Peterborough next July as my first one.

Eeep!

Something completely changes as soon as you pick a date!

Want to know the coolest part?

My husband said that he might do it too!

The fact that it is in Peterborough is amazing because it's where my in-laws live. My in-laws are amazing people who will watch the boys while we are participating in the event and still watch and cheer for us.

Now, where to begin!?

First, I have to get through my half marathon in October.

I figure I can use my rest and cross training days for 'tri-training'.

I'm assuming I'm going to need to start logging more kilometers on my bicycle (even though it's definitely not a great bike for triathlons).

Honestly, I had thought about doing triathlons a long time ago, but knew that running would be my weakness. I think I have it under control now, especially a 5K (I know running at the end is hard though).

I can swim fairly well and can probably handle the swim involved in a triathlon, but the open water will probably be my issue (not a fan of not seeing the bottom). I'll have to figure out where to train come the spring and I'll probably hit up lane swimming during the winter at the community center.

The blogs and websites I've been reading are definitely helping me figure this all out. Luckily, I have about a year to get everything under control.



This chaos scares me!

I'm just really excited that my husband might actually do it with me!


I'm going to try to get myself to an event this summer, either just to watch one or to do a 'try-a-tri'. There is one at the beginning of September that is on my radar but it's the first weekend after the first week of school and is usually when the exhaustion from the first week hits. I really just want to watch a transition and figure out how to do it all and what exactly I need for everything!


I'm completely psyched!!!

I can't let go!

I've been noticing that my legs are much more sore than they probably should be for the amount that I am running.

I probably could should do more stretching and strengthening and plan to, it's just always pushed to the side.
But I'm not sure that even strengthening and stretching can fix it. I'm beginning to think that my shoes might be the culprit!

My babies! Saucony ProGrid Ride 5's!

I've been contemplating bringing in my next pair of shoes. I can't believe how difficult it is!

Why am I so attached to a pair of shoes?

It could be any number of things:

- They led me to losing 30+ pounds after having the two boys

- Got me to love running

- Have gotten me through multiple difficult runs

- Been with me for over 250 miles

- Carried me through my first 5K race, 15K race and Half Marathon

- Traveled to Washington and ran some important streets and around some very historical buildings
- Were the basis of this blog

It's going to be weird to look down (I know, head up) and not see my pink running shoes with fluorescent yellow laces below me.

Here's what the new pair looks like:

They are the exact same shoe, just a different. I do like them and I'm sure if they were my first pair I would also have difficulty letting go of them too! I probably would have even picked them off the wall at the Running Room! Instead, it was the pink ones that stood out and the ones that I wore on my first run!


I know I'm just being silly and it'll be beneficial in the long run (*pun intended*) but I never thought it would be this difficult to change shoes!


How often do you change your shoes?


Did you have trouble giving up your first pair too?

STWM - Week 1 Recap

By the way - STWM is Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

This week's training was fairly easy.

Monday - Rest

This was nice and easy. I ended up taking the boys to a playground/splash pad and now that they're getting bigger I just have to watch and make sure Andrew doesn't break anything. When they went into the splash pad, I was able to relax and get some reading done (with quick glances to make sure the boys were still there).

Tuesday - 5 km (31:39)

Wow! It was hot. I waited until after Andrew went to bed to go for my run and it was definitely still very warm. It felt like I was running through a pile of molasses! It was sticky, slightly sunny and there were lots of people out walking. I almost got hit by a car or two (or three) along the way.


Wednesday - Track (2 sets of 5 x 200m)
The temperature wasn't too bad so the track workout was pretty good. My legs were sore but I decided to push since I have Thursdays as a rest day. All of my 200s were down under 60s except the last one of the second set. I'd just run out of gas. I had a great time and came back home feeling great. I did 8.11 km overall.


Thursday - Rest
The boys and went for a walk to the playground and then through a path in the little forest to another playground. They walked for some of it, but rode in the wagon for the entire way back. They are getting heavy! I also did some abs and stretching in the evening.
Friday - 5 km


I'm going to really try to push runs on Friday nights or at least stay below the 6:15/km pace. I'll have had a rest day between the track and this run. This week, I managed to squeak out another 5K PR of 29:37. It's a PR by 0.02! I'll take it. I did really well in my first 2K but once I turned a corner it became a battle with the wind tunnel I happened to be running in, I slowed down significantly. I had built up a buffer of 30 seconds to keep myself under the 30 minutes and took advantage of it.




Saturday - Cross Training
I didn't do any cross training. I did do some shopping. I always let my husband go bike riding/roller blading first since weekends are really his only time to do when it's decent and sunny outside. Unfortunately, when it was my turn it was rainy. So I went to Chapters and investigated triathlon books instead. I promise the cross training will pick up (eventually)


Sunday - 6.5 km
So this didn't quite happen. The Husband decided to take my youngest to the 'big city' for the day so I ended up having a date at Chuck E Cheese with the older one. After that, he had soccer, then we headed to my parents for a swim (in the 33 degree humidity) and then we ran into a thunderstorm. So , I've moved my long run to today since 6.5 km isn't really that long of a run for me.




Total kilometres in Week #1 - 18km


Here's what's up for this week:

Week #2
Monday - Rest 6.5 km
Tuesday - 5km
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 5km tempo
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Swim
Sunday - 5 mile (8km) run


We're heading to a family cottage for part of the weekend so I'm going to do some open water swimming (along with some fishing).


My motto for this week:



What's on your plan for this week?

The mental game

This round of training is completely different than the training for Niagara Falls and definitely for Washington. My mind was a mess for those last two.

I feel like I've got this and that I'm definitely going to hit my goal.


Here's what happened prior to the Niagara Falls half:
It was my first half, I started back to work about half way through the training after being on maternity leave for a year, the boys started back at daycare and I was just so nervous about the entire thing that my mind was an absolute mess.


Washington was a beast on it's own. Two words helped to mess up my training. Polar Vortex. That's what I get for signing up for a spring half marathon. I never got a really, really long run in. The longest was 12 km prior to leaving.


This time, my motivation is through the roof. I've established myself at school and know exactly what to expect come September so settling back into the routine should be really easy. The group I train with does long runs on Sunday that I'm going to start going to (after our vacations) so that will help me get those done and out of the way.


I just feel like I'm in a better place right now and that this training is going to be amazing. However, I'm on in week 1 and I know a lot can change, but I think I've planned/thought out most scenarios (apart from really serious ones) so I'm ready!





Bring it on sub 2:30!

The Track

I started running in January 2013 so approximately 18 months ago.

For about 16.5 of these months, I've essentially done the same thing.

I run around my neighbourhood, either following a training plan or just trying to get out there and keep my weight down.

The school that I currently teach at has one of 'those' families. You know the ones. They have 4 or 5 kids and by the end of their time at the school they've gone through almost every teacher, but they're an absolute blessing to have in your class and the parents rock? Well, the mom of that family and I would quickly discuss running at the end of the day pick up (her daughter was in a different class). I eventually ran into them at a (fairly popular) neighbourhood race and she quickly convinced me to join their running club.

That's it. Boom. I'm now part of a running club.

The club trains once a week at the high school track across the street from my house (they also do long runs but that's for a different day). Literally, a 5 minute walk from my door to the gate of the track.

As I walked over, I thought, there is no way this is going to go well. I'm going to make an idiot of myself. They're going to lap me 700 times. They're all going to be little, fit stick people. They've probably all been to Boston a million times and here I am trying to break a 30 minute 5K.

Well, I was right on most of the points.

Yes, they've all been to Boston many times (as noted by their swag), they're all extremely fit, by now they've lapped me at least 700 times but I didn't make an idiot of myself.

They welcomed me with open arms, asked about my running history and my goals and then got me started on track workout.

It's honestly been fantastic.


I broke through my 5k goal in about 3 weeks after starting at the track and now have a PR of 29:39 in the 5k.

At this point, I've only been doing 200m repeats, but apparently I'm moving up to 400m repeats next week. Things are getting serious! I'm hoping it will all help with my sub 2:30 goal at Scotiabank Half Marathon.


I also enjoy listening to them talk about their goals, times and events. They're all so accomplished and I can only hope to do that well in the future.


I find myself coming away from it with a good sweat, lots of calories burned and a positive attitude. I'm having a great time. 





Are you part of a running club?


Do you do track workouts?

My *updated* bucket list!

My bucket list keeps getting longer and longer and longer.

I already have one started that I came up with when I started running. You can find it here.

I've added to it.

While the Disney runs are on my list, I'm now looking at the Dopey Challenge. I was planning on doing it in 2016, but we were also thinking about going on a Disney cruise with family so that might not be an option. However, it will be done at some point.

I've also added a Ragnar race to my bucket list. I think it would be a blast and a challenge all at the same time. I just need to find a team, a place and the money to do it!

Lastly, I've just recently added an Ironman 70.3 onto my crazy bucket list. Honestly, this seems completely insane. I'm going to start out small, but I've been inspired by Phaedra over at Blisters and Black Toenails. She's amazing and I want to be like her! I'm aiming for a Sprint Triathlon next year in Peterborough in July as my first race. We'll see how that goes. I need to pick up some swim training and biking (luckily I'm a decent swimmer), but for now my focus will be my half marathon and my cross training will be the swim and biking.

I'm sure this will continue to grow and as the boys get older and more independent I'm hoping to have more time to myself to train for all of these.

What's on your bucket list?



It all starts today!

Today is the first day of my next round of 'training'.

The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront (Half) Marathon is 90 days away (eep!)!

I've got my calendar all written and ready to go up on the fridge. It's ready for the 'X's' that's I'll draw on them as I complete each run.

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 3 mile run

Wednesday: 2 sets of 5 x 200 (around 60s/200m)

Thursday: Rest/Cross Train

Friday: 3 mile run

Saturday: Cross Train

Sunday: 4 mile run

I'm hoping things go well for Week 1 and that I have a strong start to this training plan. I'd like to be around 80% 'accurate' with my training and hit most (if not all) of my long runs. I find those are the hard ones.

I'm aiming for a sub 2:30 half marathon.

Here goes nothing!

Are you currently training for something? How is it going?

A dream is a wish your heart makes!

Yesterday, my Facebook and Twitter were inundated with posts and tweets all about the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon Weekend.

These are the types of races that I currently am dreaming about! The Disney runs, run-cations and Ragnars!

There are a few barriers to my participation in these races.

The first problem I have is that I have two little boys under the age of four that attend daycare full time (at least during the school year). The cost of races like the one above is insane and I'm sure that they are going to get more expensive as the years go on. Also, they are a handful right now. Maybe when they get older, run-cations and trips to Disney will be more enjoyable than they would be now. My stress level would be through the roof, which isn't a great way to run.

The second issue is my job. Being a teacher, I do enjoy having summers off, but there isn't any 'vacation' time available to attend a race in January or May. I'm hoping to find a way around this in the future, but right now, it's not possible.

So right now, I'm 'stuck' doing races around town. Granted, there are a lot of races and lots of cities around us, seeing pictures and blog posts of people attending all of these other races makes me slightly jealous!

I'm just hoping the future that I'll be able to attend these races!

Have you done any Disney races?

Want to be on a Ragnar team with me at some point? I'm warning you now I'm slow!

Scotiabank 1/2 Marathon training plan

My next half marathon is a couple months away (95 days to be exact).


I'll be running the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon on October 19th.

Since the summer usually involves vacations where training is difficult to do, I chose a 12 week training plan, but have repeated weeks in order to ensure I haven't missed anything. Those weeks that I am away I'm hoping to run, but I think that taking a break from it to relax and have fun with family will be fantastic too!

My new training plan begins on Monday (July 21).


 Want to know what the best part is? It starts with a rest day!


I'm following Hal Hidgon's Novice 2 Half Marathon training plan but I've adjusted it to fit my schedule and needed rest days a little more than what is written. I'm still running the distances and number of days he recommends, I've just shifted things around to be able for it to work better for me.



I'm switching Thursdays and Fridays and may switch my cross training and long run days to be able to run long runs with the Nomads.


This week I'm just going to do some short runs (sub 5K) in order to get things moving without a lot of pain and discomfort. I'm also planning my nutrition and cross training in order to be in the best shape I've been for when the half arrives.


Any tips?




I'm back!

So I kind of disappeared from here but it's ok because...

It was too hard to maintain two blogs plus teaching and keeping up with the boys.

I've decided to post on both blogs, but since I'm really focusing on my running and the boys are getting older (and not as interesting to everyone else as they are too me) I'd focus on this blog more than my other one.


My last post was last November after I'd completely the Niagara Falls Half Marathon. Since then, I've done 3 more 5k's and the Nike Women's Half Marathon in Washington D.C.


I've also joined a running group called The Nomads. So far I've only joined them for track workouts to work on my speed and it's going really well. They also do long runs on Sunday morning that I'm hoping to join for my half marathon training.


I set some goals for this summer of training. The first was to do a sub-30 minute 5K (I did it, but I'll explain more in a later post). I also want to set a new PR for my half marathon. The current one is 2:39 (done in Niagara Falls) and I definitely did not set a new PR in Washington. I'm aiming for a sub 2:30. I've also set a goal to do a sub 1:10 10K as a part of a half marathon relay team. Lots of goals!



I'm currently starting to get ready for my third half marathon which will take place in October. After watching the Scotiabank Marathon on TV last year, I decided that I was going to run it this year. I was torn between this and Niagara again, but I figured I'd branch out and try a different one this year. I've just finished getting my training plan in place. Come back tomorrow to see my plan!


What have you been up to?