Crazy in the Spring?

I’m contemplating spring races and this is my newest plan:

April 22nd	Yonge Street 10K
May 6th	Goodlife Half Marathon
May 13th	Sporting Life 10K
May 27th	Toronto Women's Half Marathon

I’m already registered for the Yonge Street 10K so that one has been set for a long time.
My original plan was to run the Goodlife Half (which is on my birthday!) then the 5K portion of the May Toronto Women’s Race.
Then I found out that the Sporting Life 10K is offering a $50 gift card for Sporting Life if you register before January 15th. Who can pass up a free gift card?? Plus it will be interesting to compare the two 10K’s since they’re on the same course. So that went onto my list.
But lately I’ve been thinking that I might not be ready for a half marathon at the beginning of May, so I started thinking about Toronto Women’s Half Marathon and adjusted the training plan I had created accordingly.
After adjusting my training plan, my 20Km LSR falls conveniently on May 6th. So if I’m going to run 20Km anyways, why not just run the Goodlife half?
Is this nuts?? Its a lot of race fees but I already paid for the Yonge Street 10K last May. And I have a new pair of shoes stashed away that I bought at the outlets in Vegas last summer so I shouldn’t need any new shoes for a while.
I’m happy to hear any opinions.

Goals Check In

1. Increase run time
I've done 10/1 run/walk intervals twice now. The first time was easy, the second time not so much. My pace is slower than normal, but its a start.

2. Keep running over the winter
I was going to run this morning but it was -6, feels like -13 and I chickened out. I'm hoping to get some near (warmer) gear for Christmas which will make a big difference. Right now I'm running in a long sleeved top and a windbreaker which is good when the weather is around 0. There is a couple of treadmills in the condo gym, so I might have to break down to use those.

3. Strength Training 3 Times a Week
This is going very well. I just finished week 2 of the Push Circuit which is the second phase of Chalean Extreme. I'm feeling stronger and my push ups are getting better. Plus I have actually have some definition in my arms now.

4. Yoga
Fail. I haven't been to any yoga classes and have only done my DVD once. Maybe I'll get to a class tomorrow.

5. Loose the last 5 pounds to get back to my Weight Watchers goal weight.
I'm at my Weight Watchers goal weight. Very happy about that.

Weigh In Day

May 2005
Started weight watchers at 198 pounds

February 2006
Hit goal weight of 147 pounds

January 2007
Slowly started putting the weight back on

January 2010
Hit 173 pounds and decided enough was enough. Time to loose it again.

Dec 2 2011
I'm back at my goal weight!!!!!!!!!

My Running Bucket List

A Mid Summer Night's Run
Running in the evening by the lake with fairy wings? Yes please.

Ottawa Marathon or Half Marathon
I've heard good things about this race. Again, running by water is right up my alley.

New York City Marathon
Looks like a ton of fun and amazing crowd support. Also, I want to run through Central Park.

Las Vegas Half Marathon
Running up the strip at night.

London Marathon
London is my favourite city so any excuse to go is a good excuse.

Goofy's Race and a Half
This is my ultimate racing goal. I have a 7 year plan that works up to this race (half marathon on Saturday followed by full marathon on Sunday). My goal is to run Goofy in 2018, which will mark 10 years since my rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.

New Gear

I picked up a couple of new running related items today.

Old Navy Compressions Crops

The pair I got is slightly different then the pair posted (they have some pink at the waist and around the leg). I quite like them. They're about mid calf length, have a small zip pocket on the back. Best of all - super cheap! The regular price is around $27, but they were reduced to $15 and I had a 30% off coupon so they came to $10.50!

Lululemon Brisk Earwarmer

This is super soft and feels very warm. Looking forward to wearing this when it's chilly.

Toronto Women's 5K Recap - October Edition

This past Saturday was the final race of the year for me - The Toronto Women's 5K and 8K.

My original plan for the year was to run the 8K. But I ended up signing up for the 5K for two reasons - It was two week's after the half marathon and I wanted an opportunity to improve my 5K PR.

Saturday morning was quite chilly but Sunnybrook park was lovely with fall colours. I met up with Running Jennie who was also running the 5K. We've been blog/daily mile friends for a while so it was great to meet in person. Jennie contacted me the week before and asked if I wanted to run for her and she would help me get to my goal of running a 5K in the 38 minute range. I've never run with anyone else (other then my husband who is much faster then me and we both end up annoyed) but thought this would be fun so we meet up.

Racing with a buddy was super fun. We chatted the whole way and kept up a decent pace. Having someone to chat with made the race go by fast.

We did 3-1 run/walk intervals most of the time and had enough energy left at the end to finish strong. Completely crushed my goal of running a 38 minute 5K.

New 5K PR

36 minutes 23 seconds

I'm flying! Weee!

This was pretty huge for me. Let's look at my previous 5K times, shall we?

August 2010 (first race) - 41:26

September 2010 - 40:31

October 2010 - 40:17

May 2011 - 39:36

I'm pretty happy with cutting over 3 minutes off my previous 5K time.

Thank you Jennie for pushing me out of my comfort zone! 

Running Jennie's Photo

I learned a couple of things at this last race. First, that I'm not pushing myself hard enough. I've been coasting in my 8min/km zone so I need to work more on my speed. Also, running with other people is fun! I'm going to look into a running room clinic for the spring.

Week So Far

After the half marathon on the 16th, I took things easy the rest of the week. I did a couple of short runs but my hip was bothering me. I ended up going out of town on the week-end to visit my parents and purposely didn't bring any workout gear with me so I would take a rest break.

That seemed to be exactly what I needed. Sunday I came home and went out for a run. One of my goals for the year is to lower my 5K PR to 38 minutes. I did run/walk intervals of 3/1. My run intervals were between 6.26min/km and 7.25min/km and I hit 5km at 37 minutes and 59 seconds. Hopefully I can repeat this at Saturday's race.

When I got home, I did 40 minutes of stretching which seemed to help work out all of the lingering kinks.

Monday evening, I went back to my buddy Tony Horton and did P90X Back & Biceps and followed up with Ab Ripper X. Ouch. I've been neglecting my weight training in the final weeks of half marathon training so I was quite sore afterwards.

Pouring rain when I got home last night so I hung out with my other Beach Body friend Charlene and did Fire 30 followed by more stretching.

So back into regular workout routine and feeling good.