One Thing After Another

Foot seems to be healed. Now I have a cold and a chest cough.

I was hoping to get 10k's in today, but I don't want to do that until the cough is gone.

I'm beginning to get worried about the half marathon on May 6th. My last long run was 18.3 km on March 25th, pretty much a month ago. Since than, I've done 3 runs. Talk about super long taper.

I'm hoping that if I rest all day today, my cough will be gone soon and I can do 10km sometime during the week and 15km on Sunday. Providing that nothing else goes wrong, I'm feeling like 21km will be do-able, but I don't have high hopes for any kind of time goals.

DNS

I'm supposed to be lining up soon for the Yonge Street 10K. Instead, I'm sitting at my computer in my pyjamas.

After 3 weeks with a stress fracture in my left foot, I did a pretty good 5K run on Friday morning so it was looking like a possibility that I could run today. But I figured that running 10K on pavement might not be the best thing right now. Then I woke up with a cold yesterday so I think that my body was saying "sit this one out".

Ah well. I'm bummed, but if I ran the race today, made my foot worse and couldn't run the half marathon in two weeks, I would have been very sad.

Back on Track

After a few weeks lacking motivation, I’m feeling like I’m back on track.

Last week’s workouts:

Sunday

Spent 40 minutes in the condo gym. Started with 10 minutes of elliptical trainer then moved onto weights.

I also went to a 90 minute Intro to Moksha Yoga class with my Passport to Prana. I say this after every yoga class – I need to do more yoga! I feel so good afterwards.

Monday – Family Day

My long run from the previous week. This was supposed to be 10km, but I didn’t really map out a route so ended up being just over 11km. This round of half marathon training I’m trying to incorporate more hills (and running up them, not walking). I’m also making a point to run more on pavement. Last fall I did all of my long runs on a trail and I was limping by kilometre 7 – I’m pretty sure it was the change from soft packed dirt to unforgiving concrete.

Tuesday

More condo gym time.

Wednesday

Treadmill. I was going for 5km but the treadmill doesn’t do metric so I stopped at 3.1 miles which turned out to be 4.99km. So close.

Thursday & Friday

Rest days.

Saturday

LSR – 12.05 km. This run felt really good.

 

On tap for this week – 14km LSR, maybe another yoga class.

Spring 2012 – Race Plans

My current plan for the spring is 4 races in 6 weeks. I am registered for all of these so I’m committed.


Toronto Yonge Street 10K on April 22nd.
This is the former Sporting Life 10K, but Canada Running Series and Sporting Life are no longer working together on the race. I registered for this way back in May when the registration was pretty cheap.


Goodlife Fitness Half Marathon on May 6th.
I went back and forth a lot on this race. I wasn’t going to do it because I didn’t want to do 10K, 12K etc in the cold and snow. However, I set a goal last month to take every possible opportunity to enrich my life and decided that this fell into that category. I don’t have high expectations, but I’ll be able to finish. Also, it’s on my 32nd birthday!

Sporting Life 10K on May 13th.
Again, another race I wasn’t going to do, but they were offering a $50 gift card to Sporting Life and registering was $45 so I pretty much made $5! Also, it will be interesting to compare the two 10K’s. They’re both following the same route so the organization will be different.

And finally Toronto Women's Half Marathon on May 27th.
Running Jennie convinced me. I love the Toronto Women’s Runs and will already be through half marathon training so why not?

So that’s the plan for the spring. I was thinking of adding Harry's Spring Run Off into the mix, but maybe not.
Very much looking forward to being done with the cold!

First Post of 2012???

This is pretty lame that my first post of 2012 is up on February 18th!!

So what have I been up to?

Spent a great week in Puerto Plata

Experienced a death in the family that made me think a lot about how I live my life.


Signed up for a bunch of races (more on that later).
Started half marathon training.
Completely lost all motivation.
So I’m recommitting. Made a meal plan for next week, did some healthy grocery shopping. And back to the blog.

2011 in Review

2011 was a good year. I don’t think I ever blogged about my goals for the year, but we’ll look at them now. I’ve had them saved on my iPod since last January so I can regularly review them.
Improve 5K Time
In 2010, my best 5K time was 40:17. I really wanted to break 38 minutes and with the help of Running Jennie, I crushed that in October finishing in 36:23.

Weigh Less
I’m down 9 pounds and 9% body fat from the beginning of the year.I did see my weight watchers goal weight a couple of weeks back but then Christmas happened. Ah well.
Workout 5+ Days Per Week
2008 and 2009 were the years I stopped working out because of my arthritis. 2010, I started working out but not regularly. 2011 was the year that I embraced fitness. 6 workouts a week is my standard now and I love it.
Apply for New Jobs
This didn’t happen because my position at my current job changed for the better so I’m happy again where I am.
Run a 10K Race
Not only did I run two 10K races, I ran my first half marathon.


Races run: 5 (2 5K’s, 2 10K’s, 1 Half Marathon)
Fitness Minutes (according to Spark People) 13,192
Kilometres Run: 576

Looking forward to a fabulous 2012!

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.