No updating = no running.

It's true, I've gone soft, and I'm going softer every day.

I bought a bike today! A pretty little Raleigh town bike --- 18 speeds, built for comfort over functionality mostly. I'm so excited to have it -- excited enough that I'm ACTUALLY considering biking to work tomorrow! And trust me, I work probably about 20 km from my house! I'm not sure how long it'll take -- or if it's that smart on a brand new bike -- but if I get up early enough, and I'm excited enough --- I think I might just do that :) At least it'll be some wicked exercise. I'll probably leave early anyways because I don't want to get stuck in crazy traffic or anything like that. But it'd be fun to bike to work, and possibly bike home again that night from school. The only thing that's stopping me is bike theft -- which is a problem in Toronto......

I dunno.


Either way though -- I need some exercise tomorrow!!!

In the clear to Run again!!!

Hurray!

I went to the doctor yesterday and got a prescription for anti-inflamatories, massage therapy, and physio. I also got the go ahead to go running again as much as I'm able without pushing myself --- once I start physio I'm to listen to the physiotherapist in terms of what's okay and what's not.

I saw the massage therapist today -- that woman ROCKS -- seriously - it was awesome. She was working primarily on my hips and shoulders -- the ULTIMATE combo for a massage...

I also joined the gym at school again -- in the name of not overdoing it I'm going to aim to run 2-3 times a week and cross-train another 2-3 days as opposed to just running 5 days a week. Hopefully that'll help keep my hips in check and my legs injury free. End of July I'm going to seriously start half-marathon training again --- probably with Hal Higdon's program this time.... We'll see -- I"ll update on that later.

Sitting around....getting fat :)

hahaha -- not really.

But I still can't run. I try occasionally to do a light jog for a few feet and it usually results in sharp pains through the hip -- which sucks.

I got goggles today though so tomorrow I'm going swimming! Yay!

It'll be a fun way to get some exercise at least.

6km in 45 minutes....

Did 6km with the amazing Dawn last night... it was slow -- but fun -- it was sore - but I pushed through.

We did a steady run -- with 2 very short walk breaks.....

Okay -- I'll be honest, it was a CRAPPY run, a shitty, crappy run. I felt like shit - I wanted to walk, I wanted to cut the whole thing short. There was nothing FUN about it at all.

But it was done.


I'm sore today -- my hip hurts and I've developed a habit of icing it at night and taking advil during the day. I'm going to see the doctor next week to get a referral to physio..... hopefully that helps a little.

Not running tonight - no part of me wants to run tonight.

Going to clean the house and sleep.

MudRun Report!

Well --- according to the results I finished in 1:32:05 ----- Yikes! That’s a LONG time for a 10k --- not that time mattered in this event. I came in 87th out of the 186 women who ran the race --- not a bad place at all.

It was a TOUGH race – tougher than I thought. I knew it would be cross-country, but I was envisioning a casual run through the forest, relatively flat – with the only real hazards being having to watch out for the odd stray tree root. I WAS WRONG!

As we got going there was a bottle-neck run through the forest --- sooooooo many people which made running basically impossible. Within 5 minutes my shoes were wet and muddy – oh well, it’s all part of the fun. We opened up into a field with a relatively wide trail and the runners began to space out a bit. I ran pretty consistently for the next half-hour or so until we hit fields where the trail was just a narrow strip through the field --- the people in front of me were walking so I had no choice but to stop and walk a little up hill. The worst part of running through those fields was the uneven terrain --- there were parts that I was afraid to run because the dips were idiosyncratic and deep enough to cause damage if they were misjudged.

I was worried about the obstacles before the race but they weren’t too bad at all --- ramps and a small wall to climb over --- the ramps were slippery but totally not worth the worry at all. The river crossing was…..cold! Rib-deep water about 20 metres across. It wasn’t so bad because I had shoes on of course – but I wouldn’t have wanted to be in that water without shoes on!

All in all it was a fun race. My only complaint is that none of the kilometres were marked – which made it VERY difficult to judge my pace – when I hit the hour and ten minutes mark I kept expecting to hit the finish any minute --- but it never seemed to come – that was tough mentally.

It was well organized though – and we got Advil in the swag bags – which was awesome because my hip was totally acting up that day – gotta love those free drugs!

Would I do it again? Maybe. I’d want to be better trained and in trail-running shoes ---- it’d be super fun to do it on a team next year.

Okay – that’s my Mudrun report! As for below – a picture’s worth a thousand words!

(Photo By: Toby Cockcroft)

Mudrun is tomorrow morning!

Yikes!

That's all I have to say about that.

Running in the Park is fun.

Well -- I ran about 7.7km tonight after work --- and in total travelled about 9.5km

It was hot -- but it felt awesome... This 10k on Sunday is definately going to be a stretch, but I was running up and downhill today and I think Sunday's run is supposed to be flat so once I get my cadence going I'm sure I'll be okay until about the 8km mark -- and it won't be too hard to push through those last 2km I think.

I'm going to work tomorrow -- and run again Friday afternoon -- I'd like to do another 8k - but I don't want to push it ---- if I'm feeling it I'll do the same route around the park that I did tonight.

Tonight's run was awesome -- I felt great. Much easier than Thursday's run for sure. I'm hoping that it keeps getting better and better and that by Sunday I'll be good to run that 10k like a champ :)

MUDRUN!

THE MUDRUN IS ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Yikes!


Pay no attention, this is just me trying to pump myself up -- especially considering it is in less than 5 days and my lungs are still a little stiff and gross-feeling.

I really would love to make it through this one without dying - making it through with a smile on my face would be awesome as well :)

Slow and Steady finishes the race without Dying...

So I haven't posted in a week, the reason for this is that I haven't run in a week. Seriously. I haven't even laced up at my running shoes in a week.

It's been brutal, I've been sick -- I lost my voice, then I sounded like a pre-pubescent boy for 2 days, then I sounded like a Porn Star for 2 more days --- today I was told I sound like a phone sex operator, all deep and husky.

Okay -- enough about future career possibilities...

I finally realized today that I have a race coming up this Sunday and I hadn't run in a week --- Time was ticking. So I made up my mind to go out and do a slow 5km tonight as a way to get my lungs working again... It worked out well, I moved slowly, but ended up taking a new route and all in all I did about 8km tonight. I didn't run all of it, there were no rules -- if I felt like walking, I walked, if I wanted to run, I ran -- I'm guessing I ran/jogged about 5km of it, and walked 3 in there -- which isn't bad. All in all that 8km took me about 75mintes -- which is about 9 minutes per kilometre, pretty slow in my book -- but acceptable.

My goal is to finish the 10km race on Sunday in 75 minutes as well. I know it won't be my best possible 10k time, because I've been so sick lately, but if I can finish still moving and smiling I'll be a happy girl.