A Little Push From A Friend

Last night I had my best run ever!!  I ran with the group and from the minute I left the store I knew it was going to be a good one.  We left the store and Benny told us to run to Montebello Park.  I wasn't really happy about that but once I started moving it all changed.  The first part of the run is a downhill followed by an uphill.  Usually I am way behind the group by the time we get to the top and have to wait for a light which puts my even further behind.  Last night I was right there with the group through that whole stretch, got to the lights with them and kept up all the way to the park:)  We then stopped to stretch and I figured that would be the end keeping up but nope.  I was still behind the group but I could still see people.  I made it further than I expected before I had to turn around which was a bit of a problem since I tuned Benny out after he gave the 6k route.  I made it to 3.57k and it was time to turn around.  I started to head back and stopped at the truck for a drink break.  Judy was there and feeling under the weather so suggested we start back to the store together.  Judy is much faster than me but I accepted thinking I felt pretty good and if she was too fast I could send her ahead and move along.  Well her not feeling well was great for me because she went slower than usual but provided enough of a push to make me go faster.  So I finished 7.02k in exactly 60 minutes.  That's an 8:35/k pace!!  That is fast for me:)

So now I have two pictures for you.  The first is the one I took yesterday morning to post which shows a 0.5lb loss.  The second was taken this morning, it shows me what a really great run can do.  I'll base any loss next week on what I weighed on Tuesday since that is my official weigh in day. 

Three Rung Ladders

As previously stated I had hill training tonight.  We run from the store to the bottom of a big freaking hill then stretch some then the pain begins.  Tonight Benny said we were going to run ladders of three (or six for some people).  I looked at him confused then listened as he explained.  We were to start running at the bottom or the hill, run "through the chute" then up to the first telephone pole, down to the bottom and around the little loop, up to the second telephone pole, down and around the loop, up to the third telephone pole and down then stop and have a little one to two minute break then go again and again.  Three repeats of this three pole loop.  As I went up to the third pole on the first repeat I thought it was bad but not terrible, on the second repeat as Benny was screaming at me to dig and drive I wanted to push him in to the bushes and on the third all I could think was I will survive!!!  On that last trip to the third pole Benny is there yelling about how awesome I am and how it's a good sign if I puke.  Luckily for all of us I didn't puke and by the time I got back to the store I felt amazing and was so happy to have done my hills. 

It's an interesting thing this training.  It's been about 18 months since I started running and finally feel like a part of the group and a real runner.  I know I've been a real runner since the day I walked in the door but now it's starting to really feel like it.  I watched the group that was doing six poles today and thought they make this look easy and one day so will I:)  By the time I got to my car and looked at my phone there was a message from Celine saying she heard the herd run by on the way back and asking how it went.  My response was that if she had asked half way through I would have said horrible but now I will say great.  I love that feeling of elation after a good run!!!!

Ready? Set? Hills!!!

This week sure is flying by!!  Tomorrow is already Thursday and I feel unprepared for my hill training tomorrow.  I have done hills before but more on an instructional level not an actual training level.  I have no idea what I'm in for tomorrow but I'm hoping it will go as easily as the speed work did last week.

I'm so excited for this weekend though:)  We don't have any major plans and I am hoping to enjoy some good old fashioned lazy days.  I know I've posted about lazy days before but they never really turn out that way.  There is always some sort of running around to do.  I'm looking forward to my long run on Saturday followed by my weekly trip to the Farmers Market.  After that I have no plans and hope to keep it that way until it's time to go out and celebrate Meaghan's acceptance to college.

Good Bye 240's:)

It was a weekend of family and food.  I was a bit nervous this morning getting on the scale after all the food I ate but I had faith in my exercise and closed my eyes then stepped on.  I didn't have my phone ready because I was so nervous so I had to grab it and hope to be quick enough. 

Back to the weekend though, we went to a birthday party on Saturday where there was pizza, brie, spinach dip, crackers, veggies and cake.  Sunday I made a huge pot of chili and homemade bread and we had lots of crazy snacks watching a movie that evening.  Lollipop shrimp, more brie and roasted chick peas this time.  Then Monday I was more careful but we still had a big dinner and some snacks in the evening.  Luckily I also ran 60 minutes on Saturday and did the elliptical for 35 minutes both Sunday and Monday.  I think that's what saved me.  I also drank about 100 glasses of water because I knew I needed to flush the junk out. 

So what was the result of all this food and exercise??? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's a 1.2lbs loss folks:) 

Yep I'm pretty proud of that number!!  We will never, ever see a number in the 240s again!!  Oh and for the record my house isn't a disaster.  My scale is right beside the wastebasket in our room and it seems like someone missed when they were throwing something in, again.

Snowy, Sunny, Perfect Run:)

Today we woke up to a winter wonderland.  It was only maybe 1cm of snow on the ground but it was enough to make it pretty.  It was just around 1 degree and the temperature just kept climbing while we were out there.  The only slight problem was that the little bit of snow made the sidewalks a little bit slippery.  Overall it was the perfect day for a run though!!  I ran 6.56k in 57mins.  I was supposed to run 60 mins but forgot about stopping my watch at red lights.  My Garmin said 60 mins so I stopped.  I was a bit disappointed because I thought I could make it to 7k in an hour.  When I connected it to the computer to upload my run I came to realize that I had only done 57mins.  Ah ha!!!  On the plus side I ran 5k in about 44mins which is considerably less time than the last timed 5k I ran.  I'm quite happy with that.  I knew I was getting close to 5k so I started watching the time since one of my goals for the month was to increase my 5k time by a minute.  I did it :)

Tomorrow is supposed to be a 40 minute recovery run which I will do bright and early before the day gets started.  We have really no plans for the day.  I'm going to make a big pot of chili for supper and maybe some fresh bread.  I haven't made fresh bread in a while and I think it's time.  I'm looking forward to the next two days of relaxing and just hanging out with the family. 

Speed Work and a Teething 18 Year Old

Well last night was our speed work out!  We had to run 300's and I had to run 4 of them.  For the non-runners out there that is running 300m almost as fast as you can 4 times.  Doesn't sound like much but let me tell you it sure feels like a lot when you're doing it!  I'm pleased to say I was able to finish all of them and didn't entirely feel like I was going to throw up.  I ran almost 2k to get to the spot that we do our speed work which also means a 2k run back to the store after the speed work.   So in total that's a 5.2k run.  I'm pretty happy with that and am really happy that I could run the whole thing.  Next week is hill training.  We'll see if I  am happy after that one:)

On a totally unrelated note it seems that Meag is teething!!  Yep that's the 18 year old.  Last night she was talking about strange pain in her throat on one side.  Not like a shore throat but more like a bruise, then said it kind of hurt behind her ear.  I figured she was coming down with something until today she said she thought a new molar was coming in.  Ahhh...Wisdom Teeth.  The interesting part is that these are all the same symptoms they say babies might feel when they are teething.  I always just thought that was a bunch of doctor's assumptions about what babies must feel based on the way they act.  Clearly they are right:)

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

First Official Training Run! Huge Fail:(

In my defense though I had a really good reason.  Little Christina is so sick!!  She had a slight fever yesterday but was fine at the end of the day and we went to the Y.  Then she threw up all the way home from the Y and spiked a fever shortly after.  She woke up many times in the night crying for water or just wandering around.  She then woke up this morning just crying and coughing.  It was so sad:(  She went from her bed to the couch and camped out there for the morning then moved to our bed for part of the afternoon.  We ventured out to go to the doctor because she was coughing and wheezing so bad and not eating.  Turns out she has bronchiolitis(something like bronchitis but not quite the same) and a throat infection.  Off to the pharmacy we went for some antibiotics and inhalers.  Came home and gave her a dose of the antibiotics, some shots of the inhalers and some Tylenol.  She stopped coughing so bad almost right away but still wasn't eating much.  She was OK for a bit and I should have taken advantage of that time to get my run in but Mama Bear doesn't like to leave the cubs when they are sick so I didn't go.  She got some of her energy back for a while and was fairly happy.  Right on that four hour mark the Tylenol started to wear off and the cough came back.  More meds in and off to bed with her.  Hopefully she'll be able to sleep most of the night and will be somewhat back to normal tomorrow. 

I took this two ways, first I felt guilty for not getting that run in and worried that it would set me back, then I realized that missing one run this early in the schedule isn't going to destroy anything and not being there for my kids when they need me will.  One of my biggest excuses for not exercising and missing runs over the past bit has been my kids and when I started the Do Life Challenge that was part of week one.  Identify your biggest excuse and eliminate it.  Tonight I had to look at whether I was making an excuse or whether I was doing the right thing.  I feel like I did the right thing.  I will put the guilt aside and get tomorrows run in.  She should be fine for daycare and usually the rule is 24hrs on antibiotics and you aren't contagious anymore.  Depending on how she feels I may take her to the Y or she may stay home with Grandma.  Either way I will get my run in and she will survive!

Training is set:)

I have just returned from chatting with Benny about my training schedule for the Niagara Falls Womens Half Marathon on June 3rd!!  I'm getting really excited for this now.  We worked together to set up a schedule that will work well for me.  My longest training run is going to be 150 minutes and lands right on the weekend of the Chocolate Race where I wanted to run 16k.  It should be exactly the right amount of time.  I might even be able to finish the 16k in less than the 150 minutes and then I'll have to run around the parking lot or something.  The major nerves have passed for now and I'm just excited.  I'm sure I can handle it and I will trust my training.  This week seems like a pretty easy week.  I am running 50 minutes tomorrow, 30 Wednesday, doing Speed Work on Thursday, running 60 minutes Saturday and another easy 40 on Sunday.  Sounds crazy but when I look at what I'll be running in 10 weeks this is nothing!  The plus side is that I realized I have 16 weeks until the race.  That's a whole lot of time to get ready!!  When I am done here I will go print out a couple of copies of my schedule and stick them up in highly visible spots around the house and at work (or maybe in my car since I'm there more than at my desk somedays).  Everytime I begin to feel like I don't want to run or want to eat crap I will look at the schedule and remember what I am doing all of this for. 

To go along with that I have another wonderful picture to show you!!  I am so happy with myself for working so hard and finally getting to see results.  Maybe by the time I am done all my half marathon training I will be able to shop in a regular store with regular sized clothes!!!  It's not a wild dream either.  I'm only about 20lbs away from that and once I pick up my running and if I keep eating the way I have been I should be able to drop that by summer for sure.  Small steps really are adding up!!  At the beginning of January I set the goal to lose 7lbs and with todays loss I have done that plus a tiny bit!

Hopefully this will be the last time we see a 240+ on that scale:)

What is everyone else training for??? Any exciting first time races coming up??

Anna Update

So Anna's appointment went as perfectly as they always do.  She could run the tests herself at this point since she was telling the cardiac nurse everything that she needed to do next.  She was a trooper through all of the tests and very patient while we waited in between.  We had really no wait before the appointment which was nice.  Her heart is doing well and only showing a slight change from last time.  Her left ventricle is what they are really watching at this point because it is where the damage will occur.  For now there is only slight dilation and it's only a fraction more dilated than six months ago.  This is good news despite sounding like more damage is happening.  This change is what they expect and her ventricle is still within the normal range.  It's just a little bit bigger than it was last time.  Of course it is starting to change which isn't great but the cardiologist said that she is so happy with her exam that she doesn't need to see her for a year instead of six months.  The other good news we got was that after staying at the same weight for a year she finally gained weight and is now big enough to have the repair done when the time comes.

Here's the flip side of it though.  When it's time for her to have it repaired she will be going back to Sick Kids Hospital (Formally known as Hospital for Sick Children) in Toronto.  It's one of the leading pediatric hospitals in the world and has some world class doctors.  The doctor that her cardiologist wants to do the repair was an integral part of inventing the heart catheter.  He might be retiring before the year is up.  Interestingly, he had a heart attack.  What does this mean for us???  Even though she is doing so well she might be facing the procedure to repair the tunnel sooner rather than later.  Ideally they will go in through her wrist or groin and close the tunnel.  There is always a small percentage (something like 2%) of a chance that this will not be possible and they will have to do it the old fashioned way but they won't know until they try.  Is this scary?  Hell yes!  Despite the fact that her defect is something that is a fairly routine fix it's in a very odd place and could be more complicated to repair than the average tunnel.  However I know that she is in the best possible hands and that people from all over the world come to this hospital everyday.

I'm happy with the outcome of her appointment despite all of the ups and downs.  Every time we go for her check ups I wait for the news that there has been a drastic change in her heart and that it needs to be repaired immediately to prevent permanent damage.  Every time we leave without that news is a good visit:)

McMaster Bound!

Today is Adryanna's check up at McMaster.  We have to be there for noon for her echo then we see the cardiologist.  I think her regular one should be back today but she would be so happy if it turned out to be Dr Adrianna again.  She still remembers that from the last time.  She is doing well so I'm not worried about anything.  I am curious to see if there is any change with her left ventricle since it was slightly enlarged last time.  By our next appointment she will be six and that is the beginning of the range where they will fix the tunnel.  I'm eager to get it done but know that they have to wait for her to be big enough.  I'll post the update tomorrow.

For today I have a great scale number to show!!  I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Week 5!!

Today marks the end of Do Life Challenge Week 5!  We were to reassess our goals from week one and set new ones.  We were also to max out on our push ups.  I switched from doing what I call "real" push ups to doing the girly kind and found them easier and therefore I can do way more.  I can do 40 with only a couple of short breaks (30 seconds or so).  That is a major improvement over my 3 that I could do at the beginning:) 

My other goals included:
1.  Losing 7lbs which I didn't quite achieve but I'll take the 5.6lbs that I did lose and call it a victory! 
2.  Spending more time playing with the kids and less time watching them play.  I feel like I met this goal.  We have spent more time interacting and yesterday we were outside playing with the dog and on the swings for over an hour (hard to believe it's February in Canada).
3.  Improve my 5k time by a minute, I have no clue if I met this goal because my Garmin watch died and the one night that I tried to time myself it died before I even hit 2k.  I will re-evaluate this one with the new Garmin watch that I got yesterday:) 
4. Run 60k total for the month.  Again, no clue!! I would guess at about 45k though since I missed a whole week of running when I was sick. 
5.  Eat out less than once a week and I am happy to say that I made my lunch everyday (except the two where it was provided at training) and we only at dinner out a couple of times.  Overall I would say I made good progress on my goals for the month. 

I have decided to make this months goals a continuation of most of those goals or at least they go hand in hand with them or take them one step further.  I will list them in another post, another day.

I feel like this week was a really good week as far as doing life goes.  I attended training all week and kept an open mind.  I learned a lot and was reminded of why I do what I do.  I enjoyed the week but am looking forward to getting back to the clients and putting some of what we learned into practice.  I also did really well with exercise.  Although I didn't make it to the run group during the week I did exercise 6 times this week including 3 runs with 4 trips to the Y (one trip was one of my runs).  I tried two new classes at the Y and definitely worked hard.  I watched what I ate and avoided snacking all day during most of our training.  Overall I'm pretty happy with the way things went.

Friday night, as I already posted, I signed up for my first half marathon and Saturday did what I will call my first official training run.  I felt good about that run at the end but still feel a bit sick when I think of the half marathon.  I know I can do it and I know it's going to be life changing in the face that I will have to eat well and train hard over the next 4 months to perform my best come race day. 

It's going to be a wild ride and I am so ready for it.  Bring on week 6:)

Well that's that!!!

I've done it now!!!  I'm not sure how I feel about it all but I've certainly committed!  June 3rd I will be running my first half marathon:)  I'm excited and so very nervous all at the same time!  I had planned to run one in September but this one just seemed too cool to pass up and really I know I can handle it!  I feel like I might throw up right now but I'm sure that will pass.  What I have signed up for is the Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon.  It runs along the Niagara Parkway and past both sets of Falls twice.  It's going to be a great run and a great day.  Now I must get to bed so that I can get up early tomorrow morning and train, train, train!!! 

Too much sitting!!!!

This week is training week at work and it's so much sitting!!!  I'm not used to sitting in one spot for so long.  In my day to day job I am moving around all the time.  I go from appointment to appointment, house to house and even when I'm in the office I don't sit around all the time.  It's crazy!  This was a long week of sitting!!  Lots of great training, some interesting discussions and some really good debates but lots and lots of sitting.  So I have had to make sure to exercise every night.  I have been to the Y where I did my usual elliptical and last night tried a Run Circuit class.  It was really fun and energizing.  I ran on my own Tuesday night and had planned to get out with the group tonight but just didn't make it.  The Y made a mistake entering my banking info and there was some confusion because they got the payment for Anna's daycare but the mistake was on our membership and for some reason it got switched around and the daycare was showing as not paid instead of the membership.  I had to go in and straighten that out then pay the missing payment.  It's all worked out now, the person who fixed it punched in the info very slowly and very carefully.  He assured me that everything would be fine for the next payments.  I sure hope so!!!  I figured since I was already there, and it was too late to make it across town to Runners' Edge, I would just work out there.  It was short because the program Anna went to ended earlier tonight than it does on our usual nights but it was ok.

I'm hoping the after work exercise will counter act the lack of activity during the day.  I've been trying not to eat too much during the day and have been drinking lots of water so hopefully things will be going in the right direction next week!!  Only time will tell I guess.