Midsummer Night's Race 15K

My second time running this race and I wanted a bit of redemption from last year. I spent last year's race feeling sick to my stomach, finishing at 1:53:31 with a overall pace of 7:35/km. Like last year, I wanted to use this race to see where I'm at for my fall half marathon. A few weeks ago, my goal time was 1:47 but with the training I've been doing, I decided to go for a 1:45 finish time with pace of 7/km.

My husband and I trekked out to the island. We got down to the ferry docks around 4:15. I figured I had an hour and 15 minutes before the start of the race, that should be enough time. Wrong. Joined the giant line up of racers and waited. And waited some more.

Finally got on a ferry just after 5. I put on my sparkle skirt, pinned on my bib and got my fuel belt on while on the boat. Got off the ferry at 5:28 (feeling really bad for the 30K people who started at 5:30), found one of the girls from my clinic that I was going to run with (she got down to the docks at 5 and managed to get onto the same boat), quick bathroom stop and went on a search for the start line. Some signage on the Island would have been great. Volunteers were directing people over the bridge - half of which had 5K runners coming over it, the over half was mostly blocked by a van. Finally found the start line a couple of minutes after the 15K had started. I had no hope of finding the 1:45 pacer so just got in and went.

Turns out I was smack in the middle of a bunch of walkers so did a whole lot of people dodging for the first kilometre. The paths were generally pretty narrow and there was often runners going in both directions. At one point on the course there was 15K people on the right going one way, 15K people on the left going the other and the 30K bike escort yelling to clear the centre for the 30K leaders. Throw in a bunch of pedestrians, baby strollers, beach goers and some quad bikes for extra fun. Good times.

Yay! I saw a photographer so did crazy "I love running pose/face".

The scenery on the course was beautiful. I do regret that I didn't take any pics on my walk breaks. We hit all kinds of different terrain - pavement, I think there was some gravel, sand, grass and what I am now calling The Boardwalk of Doom. The boardwalk started around the 10K mark and went on for almost 2K. Bouncy wooden route. You would hit a board that looked nice but it would sink an inch or two. I saw one woman just ahead of me trip and cut up her arm. Luckily a bike aid cam to help her pretty quick. Just before the Boardwalk of Doom, volunteers were yelling to watch out for the posts - little series of 3 or 4 posts at the start of the board walk about waist high. Impaling oneself right in the gut at that point in the race would have sucked miserably.


Enough about the course issues - back to my run. I felt really good for the majority of the race. Me and my clinic buddy were keeping up 10 & 1's with an overall pace of just under 7min/km. I did have to stop quickly to retie my shoe as I could feel some blisters forming (they're not pretty). We were hitting the route markers just under where we needed to be for a 1:45 finish. Around 12K I said I'd never felt so good on a race (which was completely true).

Yay! Still hamming it up for the photographer!

Than I hit a bit of a wall just after 13K.

I'm still working on where the wall came from. I probably didn't have enough of my Honeystinger chews. I was drinking mostly nuun and not straight water as my fuel belt bottles had heated up and so my water tasted like plastic (think I'm going to get some new bottles).  Might have been the time of day. Might have been mental, I'm not sure. The mistake I made when I hit the wall was not sticking with my running buddy but taking an extra walk break and telling her to go on. I am regretting that now as I think I could have pushed through it better if I had someone with me.

I kind of struggled through a kilometre. I tried to shake it off, said to myself "just run". I came around the bend and saw the finish and  just needed to get it done.

I managed picked it up for the last 500 metres as I just needed to be done. I crossed the finish strong having no idea where I was with my time goal since my garmin was acting up.

I finished with chip time of 1:45:05 so I'm pretty happy (if only I hadn't stopped to tie my shoe!). Overall pace of 7:01/km This is 30secs/km faster and 8.5 minutes off  of last year. 15 secs/km off my best half marathon time and I still have another 8 weeks to go with my training. I'm feeling confident I can hit my 2:30 half in October.

Post race, the line ups for the ferry were ridiculous so my husband and I went for a drink and some food in the hopes that the line would clear up a bit. Didn't really happen so after a 50 minute wait, we finally got on a boat to leave.

Overall a good night with some snags. I love this event still but if its on the Island again next year, I might skip it.

Toronto Goodlife Half Marathon Goals

My fifth Half Marathon!

I'm excited going into Sunday's race. I think I trained well for the most part and I'm definitely a better runner now than when I started my training in January.

Each of my half marathons have gotten progressively better.

My goals for this race:

A+. Sub 2:30.

A. 2hr 30minutes. 8 minutes off my current PR at a pace of 7:07/km.

B. 2hr 35 minutes. Still a PR at a more reasonable pace of 7:23/km

C. New PR. Honestly, I'll be kind of disappointed with this but if I'm not having a good race, I'll take what I can get.

Since I have serious issues pacing myself, I'm going to stick with the 2:30 pace rabbit as much as possible. My biggest issue is always starting too fast and slowing down substantially during the second half. If I'm feeling good after sticking with the pace bunny, I'll speed it up a bit towards the end.

My mantra for Sunday.

Weather should be good and I'm looking forward to the downhill course and running along Rosedale Valley Road (my favourite stretch from last year). If anyone is out tomorrow, look for me and say hi! I'm wearing a blue shirt and a white hat.

Race Day!

First race of the year for me!

This is my first year running Harry's Spring Run Off and my first 8K race. I entered this race with a bunch of my co-workers. It's the first race for most of them.

I'm looking at this race mainly as a testing ground for my upcoming half marathon. I'd like to run this at my goal half pace (7.07/km) or faster so I'm hoping for 56:56. According to MacMillan running calculator, if I can run a 2:30 half (which remains to be unseen) I should be able to do an 8K at 53:23. This would put my overall pace at 6:40/km which would be a bit of a stretch for me, especially with the hills on this course.

Either way, I'm just going to have fun, enjoy High Park and do whatever I can to make sure everyone else from my group has a good time.

Toronto Women's Half 2012

This past Sunday, I ran the Toronto Women's Half Marathon. My 3rd half marathon and my 6th event in this series.

I arrived at the Park about an hour before the start time. I mostly hung around the bag check area trying to find Jennie. Gave up as there were too many people there and got into the start corral. Managed to find Jennie and Lyndsay right before we started.

We ran 5/1's together for the first part of the race. It was fun having people to talk to and made the time go by.  We split off around the 9km mark or so. I needed to slow down my pace a bit. I threw in my earphones and turned on my nano and continued on.

I had set my garmin for 8 repeats of 5/1's which wasn't really going to work for 21km. I ended up resetting it about an hour into the race and again about 10 minutes later. So I was kind of running blind for the last hour and a half. I had no idea how long I had been running or where my overall pace was at. I only had the route markers to tell me how far I'd run. It was kind of refreshing. I just ran at a pace that felt good, walked when I needed to and hoped for the best.

While I really enjoy the park setting of all of the TO Women's races, the narrow paths are a bit bothersome. Often got stuck behind other slower runners because the path wasn't wide enough to go by them.

I started struggling a bit around kilometre 13. Just felt very tired both mentally and physically. I ate a bunch of chomps and drank as much water as possible and struggled on.

Around 19km, I passed the chocolate station where volunteers were handing out cadbury thins. The thought of chocolate at that point was disgusting. I took one and managed to fold it up small enough to stuff into my fuel belt. Was much more enjoyable later in the day.

I was very happy to get to the last leg of this race. I saw Jennie near the end and she cheered me on to the finish and I managed to pick my pace up for the last bit and finish strong. My chip time was 2:40:27 so I met my goal of a 2:40 half and beat my PR by 3 minutes.Yay!

Overall, very happy to finish my third half marathon and three races in a month.

Things I liked about the Toronto Women's Half:

• Size - running a smaller race was nice after the 20,000 people at Sporting Life
• Finishers necklace - while I love a giant medal, I like being able to wear my necklace around.
• Park Setting
• Lots of inspiring women runners
• Running with friends
• The friendliest volunteers that I've encountered at any race

Things that could be improved:

• More water stations. I think there were 5 stations. I think at least 2 more would be good. Thankfully ran with 4 bottles on my fuel belt.
• Narrow pathways that are open to the public

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.

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!

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.

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.

Scotiabank Waterfront Half Marathon 2011 Recap

3 days later and I'm still collecting my thoughts on my first half marathon. Its kind of a blur.

Pre Race

I got up at 5:30 which ended up being about 20 minutes too early. Had a shower to wake up, ate a bagel with jam and juice for breakfast. Headed off for the blue line buses to get downtown. Noticed other runners on the bus which was fun.

Conveniently, the start line was directly outside of one of the locations I work at so I hung out inside. No porta potties or bag check for me (thank goodness cause the bag check situation turned into a two hour nightmare for a lot of people). Filled my water belt, called my husband to say hello, ate a cliff bar.

I headed out to the start corrals twenty minutes before the start and thankfully I allowed myself a bit of time as I went completely the wrong way and ended up walking around for 15 minutes to get to my proper corral.

I hate being in start corrals by myself, but I just took the time to take in the whole atmosphere. I was chilly in my t-shirt. Next time I need to bring a throwaway sweater.

Race

Being in the slowest corral, it was 15 minutes after the official start that I finally crossed the start line. There was a good crowd along the first stretch which was fun.

I was super pumped up and on a bit of a adrenaline high for the first three kilometres. I loved running down front street as I normally walk that route to go to work.

I hit the 5km mark in 40 minutes so I knew I was on my 8min/km pace.

Around 8km, my left hip starting hurting during my walk breaks.

I was super happy to reach the turnaround point around 12km at Windermere. Turns out one of my staff was around there but I didn't see her.

The volunteers and spectators were great. I enjoyed the signs along the course and the encouragement from random people at the side of the road.

I walked up every hill to conserve energy and I walked between kilometre 19 and 21. My hip was hurting, my feet hurt, my right knee felt wonky. I had a cup of Gatorade at the last water stop and that gave me a bit of energy.

When I turned onto Bay street, I was determined the run the rest of the way. I took out my earphones so I could hear the crowds and get the full experience.  I saw my parents and my husband around the 300 metres to go mark. They were yelling and waving.

This is when I started to get emotional. I started thinking how when I started running in March 2010, 3 km was super tough and all I wanted to do was get to my first 5km race. I remembered limping the 10 minute walk to the subway station in 2008 when my arthritis was at its worse. I thought about how happy I was when I got the okay to start working out again in 2009 and I was able to get on an exercise bike for 15 minutes at a time. And here I am now, about to finish my first half marathon.

I crossed the finish line with a chip time of 2hrs 50 minutes and 45 seconds. Not a great time for most people but I'm super proud of it. Got my medal, picked up a bottle of water, a bagel and a bottle of Gatorade. Saw the ridiculous crowds at bag check and snuck out through an opening in the fence. Found my family and headed home.

I loved every minute of this race. It was tough, the food selection at the finish line was lame and the weather wasn't ideal but it's always going to be one of the highlights of my life.

Did it!

2hrs 50 min

8:03 min/km

I'm on a high.

Race recap to come.

Almost There

This evening I did my last pre-race run. 3 km at 5/1 run/walk intervals. I decided to do a shorter distance so I could push it a bit.

I'm focusing on healthy eats, lots of water, rest. I've upped my calories for the week. The focus is on fueling for Sunday, not weight loss.

I'm hoping to get to the race expo tomorrow afternoon but I had a last minute MRI scheduled. My rheumy has sent me for an ultrasound and an MRI for my feet and hands to see if I have any inflammation that she can't see in my x-rays. My hands have been feeling good but my feet hurt on and off. I am concerned that she'll tell me to lay off the running but I'm not going to dwell on that.

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.

11K’s

Spent 5 hot sweaty days in Vegas. We came home on a red eye flight, getting in early on Tuesday morning. Completely put me out of commission for the entire day.



5 days of eating not so nutritious food and no exercise other than walking up and down the strip. Last year’s Vegas trip, I came home with an extra 6 pounds.

This year – stayed the same! Yay!
However it’s back at it now. Half marathon is coming up quick.
Thursday’s 5K run was painful. It was my first run in a week and I was moving rather slow. Than the 5K turned into “hunt for the missing fuel belt bottle”. While looking for missing bottle #1, bottle #2 fell off. I found bottle #2 and gave up on #1. I’ve been thinking about getting a new belt anyways, so this was a sign. My old belt was too big and I wanted one with 4 bottles instead of just two. Came home to find a 20% coupon for the running store in my e-mail. Score!
I set off with my new size smaller, 4 bottle fuel belt this morning. 11 kilometres later, I was home. Tired, hot, moving really really slow but pumped. This was my longest run yet. This time last year when I was prepping for my first 5K, I would never have thought 11K would be possible. Yes I’m still slow. Yes I still walk 50% of the time. I’m constantly reminding myself that I’m a slightly overweight 31 year old with rheumatoid arthritis that doesn’t have an athletic bone in my body and avoided the 100 metre dash at track and field days. The fact that I’m even doing this is enough.

Toronto Women’s 5K May 2011 Recap

This was my third time doing this race – I did the 5K portions on August and October of last year.
I picked up my race kit from the Running Room on Saturday. A couple of good samples in the kit – a mini luna bar, chap stick, Immunity FX (I keep getting this in race kits and I can’t use it – my immune system wants to attack my joints so it’s not getting any support!).
Fabulous blue long sleeved shirt. I requested a medium but the shirts ran a bit small. Luckily I was able to exchange it after the race.

Sunday morning, I was up early and left my place around 6:45. Had no issues with Sunday morning buses and got to the park by 7:30 (half marathon started at 8, the 5K at 8:20).
The half marathoners went out first in 3 waves. Than all of the 5K’ers were clumped together. There were around 1500 doing the half and 700ish doing the 5K. So not a huge race, but I wish that there were at least signs saying “under 30 minutes”, “35+ minutes”, “walkers”, etc to split everyone up properly. I tried to position myself further back, but there were lots of faster runners dodging people to get ahead and lots of walkers ahead of me that I had to get around.
The race runs through Sunnybrook park which is pretty and green with winding paths. Only problem with this is that you have a ton of people all on a smallish path plus whoever else is in the park that day. There were narrow sections where it was really hard to pass people. This didn’t bother me last year but after running down Yonge Street in the Sporting Life 10K, I appreciate having some space.

The course is and out and back. It was great seeing the leaders coming back. Everyone on the other side of the path cheered for them.
Just before the water station, volunteers were handing out Cadbury Thins chocolate. As much as I like chocolate, it was so not appealing while running. Some people just took them to carry, but I didn’t particularly want to carry a chocolate bar for the rest of the race.
I was slowing down on the way back, feeling kind of tired. As I was approaching the finish line, I looked at my Garmin. I was at 39 minutes – I just wanted to break 40. So I sprinted to the end. Looking at my Garmin splits, the last 500 metres I was running between a 4.5 to a 5 min/km pace. I hit the mat, looked at my watch, saw it was under 40 minutes and leapt into the air. I may have yelled something.

Got my medal and a brown bag full of snacks (more chocolate, a banana, bottle of water, a breakfast pita and a bag of chips) than headed home.

Overall, I really like the Toronto Women’s Races. They’re well organized, not too big and the post race area is always well laid out. The volunteers were great, the energy was fantastic. I’m planning on doing the 10K and either the 5K or 8K in October.
Thinks I liked:

• Shirt (and easy size exchanges)
• Medal
• Beautiful park setting
• Post race food

Things I didn’t like:

• No start corrals for the 5K
• Narrow paths

Week Off: Tuesday

Another fabulous vacation week day.
The temperature hit 30 degrees Celsius today, with humidex up to 40! Bit crazy considering that it rained for pretty much the last two months and I seem to remember wearing pants and a jacket to work last week.
The husband is still thinking of doing his crazy Spartan race and has been meaning to do some running. He went out last week and borrowed my Garmin - he's fast. Much faster than me.
I was going for a run today so I dragged him out with me. We left together, but no way were we going to run together. He's been athletic his whole life, played numerous sports. I found every possible excuse to get out of gym class and mocked things like pep rallies and athletic award banquets in high school. I trekked off on my 25 minutes at my usual slow pace and he did 5K in half an hour. Still, it was nice to be out together.
I puttered around Yorkville which is a swanky shopping district in Toronto. Shops in the area include such stores as Gucci, Prada, Chanel. I skipped those and headed to the Gap and Lululemon. I had a wonderful facial (courtesy of a group buy coupon that I got a few months ago) and took my first trip to Whole Foods - I completely understand now why people refer to it as Whole Paycheck!
Came home and have had another relaxing evening.

May

I completely dropped off the radar. So what have I been up to?
Had my 31st birthday!
My parents gave me a fabulous Garmin 405 for my birthday! I love it.
The husband took me on a post-birthday trip to Niagara Falls. We did touristy things, some outlet shopping, lost some money at the casino.


I registered for my first half marathon! Happening October 16th.
I'm starting my training next week.
I went to a fabulous Astanga Yoga class last Monday. Since moving to my condo, I haven’t done much in the way of group classes – I either work out in the condo gym, run or do videos. It was great to be with a group of people and I loved the class! Challenging, but not too much so.
In terms of my running, I decided to go back to basics - Couch to 5K. When I first started running last year, this is what I started with. I got to week 5, gave up after not being able to run 5 minutes straight and started doing my own thing. I did complete three 5K’s just kind of winging it, but between my first 5K last August and my last 5K of the year in October, I didn’t improve at all.
So I started at week 5 (run 5, walk 3) the other week. I just finished week 6 (run 25 minutes with no walking) the other day. This is definitely making a difference – when I go back to run/walk intervals, I don’t loose steam. I’m able to watch my heart rate on my Garmin and slow down when it starts getting too high.
Proof of the training working – ran my 2nd race, first 5K of the year.

• Previous 5K PR – 40:17
• New 5K PR – 39:36

Difference of 40 seconds but I just wanted to get under 40 minutes and I did!
I’ll write a longer 5K recap later.

Sporting Life 10K Recap

Last Sunday was my first 10K race, the Sporting Life 10K.

Bag check closed at 7:40 and as this was a big race with a lot of people, I wanted to get there early.
I completely overestimated how long it would take me to get there - I was at the race by 6:15 (race time = 8 a.m.) They were still setting up.
It was chilly, overcast, still dark so I went to sit in a coffee shop for a bit. I didn't fully warm up though for the entire day.
This was by far the largest race I've participated in (15,000 people). It didn't seem crowded though on the course as we were running on the street so there was a lot of room.
I was doing alright for the first 6k. Looking at my nike+ after the race, I apparently hit 5:55/km for a bit which is a bit ridiculous for me. Around the 7K mark, I hit a wall. I switched from run/walk intervals of 4m/1m to run 2 minutes/walk 2 minutes.  I was tired, cold, thirsty - there were two water stations on the course which wasn't enough for me. I hadn't brought my fuel belt either.
My main goal for my first 10K was just to finish, but I was hoping to finish in 1hour, 20 minutes. I made it in at 1 hr, 20 minutes, 39 seconds so not too far off.
Things I like about this race:

• Few bands along the route.
• Running down Yonge Street.
• Great t-shirt
• Medal!
• Lots of people – so many people running = great energy.

Things I didn’t like about this race:

• Lots of people – was very crowded. Especially at the post race party.
• Post Race Area – crowded. Really spread out so it was hard to find where to pick up my bag. The food selection was lacking (bananas, apples and bagels).
• Lack of water stations – there were 2 along the course. Probably fine for the speedy people, but being out there for over an hour, I needed more water.

My husband came to meet me at the finish line. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it down there until after I had finished. Ah well. He took a picture of me anyways.

Afterwards, I was a bit sore. I didn’t stretch which didn’t help matters and I was still cold! I came home and dove under the covers for a much needed nap.
My next 10K will be at the end of August. I’m hoping to improve my time a bit, finish feeling stronger and I’m going to wear my fuel belt!