Week 3...almost

Getting to the last day of week 3 tomorrow and was actually on track all week...cross trained on Monday and Friday and ran Tuesday through Thursday, plus strength training.  I think the fact that it rained for 10 days straight in Calgary meant I had nothing to do but stick with it and pound it out on the treadmill. I have to do 6.5K this weekend, and I'm sort of looking forward to it, as I  feel like the whole running thing is slowly starting to come back to me.  Also, in certain lights and at just the right angles, my abs are looking sort of awesome!

Also, I added a new map below.  We thought it would be fun to keep track of the distance of every run and see how close we would actually get to Disneyland on foot during the course of our training.  We're only going to count running distances, not cross training, just to keep it like a half marathon would be.  Since I'm Google Map Illiterate and that simple map took me 45 minutes to figure out, I'm only going to update it on the first of each month, but below you can see our progress up to September 1...halfway to the border, we're currently in Claresholm!  I'm guessing by October first, we could be virtual shopping at the Target in Great Falls and refueling at Fuddruckers.  Check it out!

Lastly, since Halloween is already all over the shelves, I've been checking out the Disney Princess costumes. I'm thinking if I can find a large child's costume, I can hack it up to make a princess running outfit since I have zero sewing skillz.  So far no luck, but I got some laughs tonight at Toys R Us when I tried to cram myself into an "age 3 and up" costume.  I swear, it almost fit.  And the accessories in that aisle are awesome; I might carry a wand for the run.

A few more fails

Two more days by myself and I seem to be getting worse instead of better.  The "flexible" schedule turned into absolute slovenliness until yesterday, when someone actually came to my house to pry me off the couch and onto the Weaselhead path by the reservoir on what has been the only non-rainy day of the past week. Where am I, Vancouver?  So, I think I got my long run in yesterday, it was at least 5K, maybe a bit longer, but I was actually wearing shoes and moving forward, which was a total success in my books.

The weird thing is that this isn't my first half marathon...or my first Disney run! I did the Disneyland half marathon in September 2009, and when I started training for that one, I couldn't run for 15 seconds straight.  By race day, I could run K after K after K!  I did that training by myself, so why is this so hard now? 

 Everyone gets a medal, not just the first 5 thousand finishers!

Oh, right, because now that I've realized it's more fun to run outside with other people than inside on a treadmill, I can't go back to the hamster wheel...even if Food Network is on and it feels like I'm running towards bacon wrapped cheese poppers.  I'll be very happy when my fellow princesses get home, finding other people to haul me out on the trail is exhausting!

One is the loneliest numberrrrrrrrrr.....

Yeah, training by myself sucks. Yesterday I conned a work buddy to meet me, so I did get in my 4K run because I knew I had to meet someone, but today since I was carpooling I thought I would run at home on my treadmill. Here's how it went:

5am: Alarm goes off, I hit snooze
508am: Alarm goes off, I hit snooze
516am: Alarm goes off, I hit snooze
524am: Alarm goes off, I actually get up.  Go to put on shoes, decide running on treadmill with no TV and no one to talk to is worst idea ever.
527am: Go back to bed
6am: Alarm goes off, I hit snooze
608am: Alarm goes off, I get up and get ready for work, no time to run.  Revise schedule to this week to make today a rest day, tomorrow I run, and Sunday I cross train.  Good thing it's flexible or today would be a big fail.

Too bad too, because last night I totally carbo-loaded at Watchmans Pub with their awesome mac and cheese.

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

I think we've become REAL RUNNERS.  We had arranged to meet this morning at 6am for our 4K run, and met at work in the rain...and dark...and cold.  It was 7C and raining just hard enough for intermittent wipers on the drive in. Nevertheless, we headed out on a route we've previously mapped as being just over 4K.  The next 20+ minutes were speckled with <sploosh> "NOOO!" as it was still too dark to see the puddles until we stepped in them.  We didn't actually time the run, but we all agreed that it might have been our fastest time ever as we wanted to warm up quickly and get this over with as soon as possible.  Anyway, what can you do but....



Both the other princesses head off on exotic vacations tomorrow, so I guess I'll have to find me some lady-in-waitings to keep me company until next week!

You have entered Critter Country

For the Labour Day Weekend, I went out to my folks place in BC, a cute log house (built largely by hand!) set on a mountainside between Radium and Golden. The last time I was there and said I was going for a run, my dad said "well, it's bear season and if you're going for a run, you have to leave your headphones behind and take bear spray". I pondered on this for a few moments, and instead opted to sit around the house eating cookies and drinking beer in my running pants all day.  This time, I was ready.  Rather than run near the house, I hitched a ride into Golden with Bryan who wanted to get the paper and a coffee, and while he did that, I started back home, running on the shoulder of the highway under the theory that the constant stream of cars would keep any bears away.

It was actually a pretty great run.  Since this road is between two mountain ranges, I was running through a valley on a crisp September day as the sun shone.  It had been smoky in the area, so I was a bit worried, but I didn't have any breathing troubles, and actually felt like I was moving along pretty good!  Plus, the combination of mountains, fall colors and blue sky was pretty hard to beat. I had to run 5.5K as this was our first "long run" so Bryan gave me a 35 minute head start and then caught up with me 6.1K outside of Golden.  I was actually surprised when I saw him pull up, as I was feeling just fine and felt like I could easily have run further without any trouble.  He had thoughtfully brought me cold water and a cheese and pepperoni plate from the store, plus he drove back a mile to get a picture of this:

I can't outrun a bear at the best of times, let alone after  5K?

Yeah, I have to say, when I saw that sign, I realized my theory of bears staying away from the highway might have been a load of scat, but at least I had felt pretty safe chugging along listening to Rhianna and counting beer cans (I kept losing count, but Kokanee was definitely the frontrunner).  And the sign was good for a laugh as I passed it...plus I definitely sped up at that point, so maybe bear crossing signs are a good personal motivator?  Maybe we should post some around the airport for our daily runs.  Then again, Hawksy seems to be keeping us on our toes, so maybe we don't need any more predators in the mix.