September in Review

Total Distance Ran: 115.99 km

Longest Distance: 19.74 km

Best pace: 7.47/km

September was a monumental month for me, running wise. I pushed myself both in terms of distance and in terms of speed. While 7.47/km is slow for most people, its heading in the right direction for me.

 

What’s Ahead in October:

• Thanksgiving (yay!)
• Half Marathon
• Last 5K of the year

Update

Arthritis

Still pain free! My rheumatologist is sending me for an MRI to see if there’s any inflammation in my joints that she can’t detect. If everything comes back clear, then we’re going to start scaling back my medications!

 

Half Marathon Training

Half marathon is in three weeks!! I’ve gone from being nervous to being super pumped. I did 19.75K yesterday and felt good for about 90% of the run. The last 2 kilometres were tough. I was able to keep a decent pace (8:20min/km). I’d prefer to be around 8min/km but most likely I’ll speed up a bit at the actual race.

I added a new leg to my usual running trail to get the extra distance in and it’s beautiful. Meandering paths through a forest, by little creeks. The ground is pretty uneven and there’s some brutal hills but it keeps me motivated.

I’m focusing on keeping my diet relatively clean and I’ve cut out alcohol until the race is done. A cold beer with be a nice reward once I’m done with the race.

13K

This morning I did a 13K run.

The weather was pretty much perfect for running – slightly chilly, overcast. I was comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts.

I felt good throughout the entire run. I did 2:30/2 run/walk intervals. I think I’m going to move to 3/2 to improve my pace a bit.

6 weeks to the half marathon. EEK!

Passport to Prana: Yoga Sanctuary Danforth

A few months back, I picked up a Passport to Prana


Passport to Prana gives you access to one class at a bunch of different yoga studios. It’s available in a bunch of different cities in both Canada and the U.S. Basically the cost ($35 for Toronto) works out to be about 2 classes. It expires one year after activation.
Yesterday, I took my passport to The Yoga Sanctuary – Danforth.
I used to live up the street from this studio and it’s where I first discovered yoga.
I went to a 90 minute Hatha level 1 class on Sunday afternoon.

The studio itself is beautiful. Very large with wood floors and brick walls. I always liked to position myself by the windows to get the occasional view of the busy street. Being right at a busy intersection, you do hear the streetcars and traffic below, but that doesn’t bother me.
The class itself was very relaxing. The last yoga class I attended was a bikram class so this was the complete opposite. The instructor kept telling us to do what feels the most comfortable and offered a lot of options for poses.
I would come back to the yoga sanctuary however I think that a different class would work better for me. Something with a bit more of quicker pace that’s a bit challenging.
My plan for September is to either attend one yoga class a week or do a yoga DVD. My muscles have been very tight after my runs lately so I think this should help.

Week So Far

• Had a good run yesterday. The weather is starting to change so even though it was still 30 degrees with the humidity, it didn’t feel as hot as it has been the last couple of weeks. Or maybe I’m just used to it now.
• Just finished P90X Legs & Back and Ab Ripper. I’ve been doing Ab Ripper on and off (mostly off) for about a month now and its slowly getting less hard. Not easier, just less hard.
• Pictures from Saturday’s race are up. There’s a bunch of pictures of me grinning like a maniac.

Toronto Women’s 10K

Today marks 1 year since my first 5K and yesterday, I ran my second 10K.

The race kit consisted of the usual flyers, a luna bar and the brightest yellow t-shirt.
I got to the park just after 7. Race time was 8. Had a good amount of time to drink some water, visit the porta potties repeatedly and get ready.
The 10K was divided up better than May’s 5K. I positioned myself in the 60 minutes + group but once we started, it was clear that some there were some people who should have been in faster starting positions. Bit annoying. Also, I saw a couple of 5K people turning around and heading back so they started at the wrong time (5K’s started 15 minutes earlier). The announcements were pretty clear – if you have a yellow bib, get out of the starting line. That really sucks though for them. I’d be very annoyed at myself if I had started at the wrong time and already run half the race.
The 10K course starts off following the usual TO Women’s 5K course which after 3 times running it, I’m pretty familiar with. Than we turn off and run through part of the park that I hadn’t seen before. It was very pretty – over little bridges and along streams. Over to the expressway. Up a hill, down a hill (stupid hills).
I felt good throughout the entire race. I was doing 2:30/1:30 run/walk intervals and kept pretty much dead on my 8 min/km pace throughout the race. That was one of my main problems with the Sporting Life 10K – I went out too fast than struggled later. There were 3 water stops along the way plus I had my fuel belt and some sport beans. I was at the back, but wasn’t concerned about it. I was running the race that I wanted to run and feeling good.
My husband came out to the park to see me finish and he was about 50 metres ahead of the finish line. I was very happy to see him!

I had enough energy left at the end to pick up the pace and finished strong.
Official Time: 1 hr 20m 22s
Chip Time: 1hr 19m 50s
So I beat my Sporting Life 10K time by 48 seconds which I am very happy amount. 1hr 20 minutes was my goal, and I’m 10 seconds under it. I felt good covering the longer distance which makes me feel better about October’s half marathon. And I got a medal and a shirt! Yay for swag!!


Things I liked about this race:

• Course was pretty
• Shirt & medal
• 3 water stations
• The volunteers were great – really supportive and encouraging.
• Post race food – bananas, breakfast pita, chocolate bar, water and bag of chips
• General energy of the racers. I like women’s races.

Things I didn’t like:

• People not positioning themselves properly at start
• There’s a parking lot that we run through at the beginning and end of the race. I hate that parking lot for some reason. Rest of the course is fine.
• Course is open to the public which worked out fine but is a bit annoying.

Week Plan Aug 22 - 27

Monday:
Run 44 minutes

Tuesday:
P90X Legs & Back, Ab Ripper

Wednesday:
Run 44 minutes

Thursday:
P90X Shoulders & Arms. Ab Ripper

Friday:
Rest day. Pick up race kit.

Saturday:
Toronto Women's 10K

Goals for week:
Track food Monday to Friday
Pack lunch the night before (Monday morning = fail)

Thanks for the recent comments! I'm trying to change my set up so I can actually reply to them.