Race Week, and Mud Hero, and Mike Does a Duathlon, and Early Morning Workouts....

Wow, It is already race week!! The past 10 weeks flew by, here is a how the last 2 weeks have gone.

Tuesday (Aug 13) I did indeed go for a swim after that post. I was pretty sore from Body Pump, so it wasn’t a very glamorous swim. But I did it!! Wednesday I biked 20km home from a meeting in Etobicoke (Mike dropped off my bike on his way home from school..yay planning!) Thursday I had a impromptu rest day. To make up for it, Friday was a 50 min run in the AM..blech, plus about 15 km of walking around Toronto with my parents. Saturday was another rest day with more walking. To get back into routine I did a Brick (15 km Bike, and a 30 min run/walk) on Sunday AM. Last week, I did a big Swim on Monday (800m). Tuesday I did a 760 m swim and a 45 min run pretty much back to back. 

On Tuesday night I also borrowed my friend's road bike, so on Wednesday I got to test it out by biking to Etobicoke. It was all uphill!! I was biking out to a dinner, so I packed up nice clothes, and planned to change/shower at a Goodlife out there. On my way there I realized that I forgot shoes, and I REFUSED to wear sneakers with my dress, so I quickly stopped at a Shoppers and bought some of those "Flats to go". I was so proud of myself for biking and saving gas/parking money, but then I spent $15 bucks on crappy "shoes"..fail. It also took me forever to get to the dinner. After the dinner, I biked to the TTC, took it back into town and then biked from Bathurst Station to home. On the way home, I dropped my cheap bike light, and these really nice guys ran to catch up with me (I was probably going 15 km/hr) and gave it back...amazing!!

After all that exercise, I took Thursday as a rest day (still some walking), and then Friday (I had a EDO) I finally got caught up on the schedule when I did a 20 km bike ride in the AM, then went out to Lake Kelso in Milton (the location of my Triathlon) to check out the lake, and do a open water swim. It is a beautiful area, and I am looking forward to the run and (surprising hilly) bike! The water was very warm, but cloudy. I was swimming in the swim area, not the actual spot of the Tri, but still good training. It was a pretty awful swim, but I did 750 m. I may be the last person out of the swim, but I am ok with that. I just need to not freak out, remember that I can float if I get tired, and just keep moving and breathing.

On Saturday I was up bright and early, to Albion Hills for Mud Hero! This is the 2nd time I did it, and this year we cut 8 minutes off of our time. It was a very hilly 6 km run, with obstacles, and of course MUD. The best part was I didn't even feel that tired after it and I had no muscle soreness! I am in much better shape than I was last year!! 

On Sunday morning I was up bright and early (again, zomg I need sleep) and headed over to Toronto Island because Mike did his first Duathlon! Back when I came up with the crazy idea of doing this, Mike agreed to do a duathlon. He was in the first leg at 8:00 am, and he finished in 1 hr and 35 min, not to bad for a 1st timer. 

While he was doing it (and I was running around taking pictures) I also got to go check out the swim of the Triathlon. It was pretty cool to see the swimmers all starting, and then the transition. It was definitely a good way for me to visualize everything! This event was a competitive event, so there were some world champions competing  they were pretty intense to listen to, and to check out the gear they had! We came home, watched an Ironman thing on TV (also pretty cool to watch..key word being WATCH) and then I went out for a 20 km bike. Every time I do a 20 km bike, I am cutting 3 mins from my time, so I am looking forward to see how I do on the race. 

This morning I woke up dark and early (zzzzzz) and went to Hot Yoga, and had an awesome class. It felt nice to stretch out my sore biking muscles. I only have two more big workouts, then I start to taper before the race on Sunday!!! I did every single workout on the training plan!

Yay! Actually Sticking to the plan!

I am excited but nervous. I know I am going to be at the back of the pack, but that is OK. It is my first race, and I have gotten the benefits from the training that I wanted. I have lost about 6% body fat in the past 10 weeks, which has put me from the high-normal range to the fitness-normal range!! Huzzah!! Not only that but I got to spend a lot of time outside in the beautiful early morning weather. When I get done training I will stop to take some pictures!

Anyone else prepping for a race? Anyone else needing some sleep??

City Chase Round 3!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

What a week..whew! I feel like vacation was forever ago. In this post triathlon training and city chase!

After publishing last week’s post, I went out and did a 50 min run/walk (just under 10 km) and it felt great! I only took a few breaks, and I ran the last 16 minutes straight. Booyah. Pretty good from my first 30 min outside run where I couldn’t run for more than 2 minutes about 8 weeks ago!

So this week looked like:
Monday- 650 m swim, 50 min run
Tuesday- Run 30m, Body Pump (missed swim)
Wednesday- Swim 600 m, Bike 15 km
Thursday- Swim 400 m, (missed Brick)
Friday- Hot Yoga
Saturday- City Chase (instead of a 50 min run)
Sunday- Rest
Monday-15 km Bike in the AM, 500 m swim in the PM

Tuesday-30 min Run, body pump, 600 m swim


On Saturday Mike and I did City Chase for the 3rd year (it is an amazing race style 6-hr event in Toronto..click here to find out more). For some reason this year we finished our mandatory 10 chasepoints really fast, so we decided to go for the Enduro –chase, which is basically you just try to do as much as possible during the 6 hour race.

We ended up getting 19 done in the nick of time. Chase points included:

A. Nathan Phillips Square to Start

Still Early!

SOOO EXCITED!!

 B. Learning a dance and performing it to a judge

C. Jumping in a pool and finding a matching sunken puck and a floating duck-nice cool down for the day!
D. Holding a giant lizard, and answering animal trivia questions

Daww it's adorable!

E. A photo scavenger hunt of us/strangers doing funny things using the new Blackberry Q10
F. Performing a joke to a panel of comedians, or getting a pie in the face. (I didn’t get the pie, and they were tough!)
G. Shot for Shot-One team member tried to hit a target with a paintball, if they missed the other had to do a gross shot (juice and either hot sauce, soy sauce or vinegar). I did all three..thanks Mike.
H. Leading your blindfolded team member through a marked path, if you touched anything you had to eat something gross we didn’t have to!
I. A SLIP AND SLIDE/Puzzle Challenge

J. Portage Obstacle Course- Physically the hardest challenge
K. Sledge Hockey
L. Slack-Lining
M. Climbing over a bus/figuring out how to use the Z10.
N. Truck Pull-We were the only team there so we had to do it ourselves

Sooo intense!!

O. SCION SOCCER!!

Mike was pumped for this one!

P. Frizbee Golf
Q. Australian football pass and kick (with super nice Aussie Guys!)
R. Kangaroo Shoes
S. “Scion” Says
T. Goodlife Fitness Challenge- We had to burn 200 calories as a team- in less than 10 minutes. Mike did well on this one!
U. END!

19 Chasepoints!

We barely made it!

All over the city!!!

Whew that made me tired just thinking about that! In the end the team that won got 22 chase points, we were most likely 5th for the enduro-chase. If you ever have an opportunity to try City Chase I highly recommend it!!

Now off to swim!! 

Have you ever done an adventure race? Anyone else make friends with a lizard?

Vacation Part 2- Training in the Rain

Hey all, hope you are enjoying your long weekend and/or Monday!

I'm back from vacation..boo. But this time I was smart and gave myself the holiday Monday to unpack (aka watch 4 episodes of True Blood) and relax before heading back to work tomorrow.

When we last left off I was in Dartmouth NS visiting with Mike's family. On Wednesday we had a big family dinner, then on Thursday we got to see some of our University friends! On Friday we got up and went to the gym, then headed to Cape Breton to visit Mike's extended family. Friday-Monday was spent in Sunny/Rainy/Cloudy Cape Breton, and then Monday we headed back up to Bathurst. In Bathurst we enjoyed a family party with my family, seeing one of my besties, and a surprise visit from Mike's parents (surprise to my parents, not to us!).

While we were on vacation we managed to stick so most of the training plan, out of the 16 days I missed 3 workouts..boo. But I am going to make sure I get them in.

Thursday- 15+ km Bike (IN THE RAIN)
Friday- Body Pump+ Walk
Saturday- Missed Bike (Did Yard Work instead)
Sunday- Missed Run (Long walk instead)
Monday- Missed Swim (crappy weather for a swim)
Tuesday- 15 km bike (IN THE RAIN)
Wednesday- 40 min run
Thursday- Pitiful 600 m swim
Friday- Brick (IN THE RAIN)
Saturday- 60 min walk in the sand- that totally counts as a 30 min walk/run.
Sunday-16 hr drive and sleep 

Monday- Swim (800ish m) and I'm planning a long run tonight

I officially registered for the triathlon this week. No backing out now!! I am kind of scared though because I know I am ready for a try-a-tri now, but I don't know if I am going to be ready in 4 weeks for double that distance, even though I have stuck to the training plan pretty well. Specifically, I am seriously freaking out about the swim part of this triathlon. I was suppose to use my vacation for swim training, but it was only about 20 deg outside, and colder in the water, and there were jelly fish, so every time I would swim, I would freak myself out that I was going to get stung in the face. My plan is that for the next 4 weeks I swim 5x a week. That should work to get me ready in time.

I did a brick on Friday, and as per usual with any bike training it was in the rain, but that made it awesome. 

Soaking wet after the Brick..but feeling good!!

I did a 9km bike, and a 3km walk/run in 44 minutes, which is half of my goal time for the 20km bike and 5 km run (1:30), that made me feel a little better about registering for the sprint distance. 

I think I was freaking myself out because I made a goal of “not being last”. I have now revised my goal to finish the friggin thing. I don't care if I have to crawl across the finish line!!

As for sticking to a calorie restriction on vacation...umm..yah that didn't happen. I did track it, but it was pretty bad. I may have ate 1/3 of a coconut cream pie #sorrynotsorry. At least I got some sort of exercise every day so I'm pretty sure I didn't gain copious amounts of weight I just definitely didn't lose any! Back on track with the healthy noms this week!

Other than that I totally am using training to distract me from post vacation blues. Exercise is better than sitting around moping. Plus August is going to be awesome...featuring: family, friends, mud hero, city chase, and MORE!! Mike and I have 2 days with nothing planned for the whole month! Ready...GO!!! Plus I was pretty excited to come back to these cool cats. 

The are sooo excited that we are back..can't you tell. 

Anyone eat a 1/3 of a pie and have have 0 regrets? Anyone else have exciting plans for August?

Training While on Vacation!

Hi from Rainy/Sunny/Rainy Dartmouth Nova Scotia!

It is time for update of my training!!

Friday-Hot Yoga
Saturday- Swim (350m), Bike 10 km
Sunday- Rest Day
Monday- 40 min Run
Tuesday- 20 min Run, Body Pump, 1.5 hr Rollerblade, 400 m swim
Wednesday- Hot Yoga
Thursday- 30 min Walk/Run
Friday- 10 km Bike, 15 min Run
Sat- 400 m Swim

Sun- BRICK (10 km bike, 4 km walk/run)

Mon-15 min Run/ 25 min walk

Tues-30 min walk/run, weights, Body Flow

Wednesday-450m+ Swim

Two weekends ago (last minute plans) I went up North for a friend’s stag/doe and we made a road trip of it stopping at Sauble Beach. 

Source

It was totally worth the drive, gorgeous white beaches, and super warm water! Sauble itself is such a cute town, and for supper that night I had a delicious fish taco and some roasted corn on the cob from a hipster food truck. The Stag and Doe was a lot of fun too..stayed up way too late, but overall a good time!

Knowing that we were not going to able to fit in a workout Saturday or Sunday, Mike and I decided to get up super early on Saturday before we left to fit in our own Try-a-Tri. At 6:45 we got up and did the swim, then hopped on our bikes for a 10km loop. Mike has a road bike so he bikes faster than me, but I thought the understanding was we would just do it in our own time and then meet back near the apartment. At one point in our route the path splits in two and rejoins, and we both took different ones. I assumed Mike had just booked it home, meanwhile he had stopped to wait for me. So I arrived to the apartment, and no Mike. I waited for a while and then headed back down the trail to find him thinking something had happened to him and/or his bike..he also assumed that I was injured/stuck, and came looking for me…long story not so short after an extra 15-20 mins of biking we finally reconnected, but by that point we had no time to do the run, so the run was pushed until Monday night when we came back.


Monday’s 40 min run was the longest I have ever ran (Walk/ran) in my life! I did 10 mins of running, followed by 1 min walk/3 min run for the rest of the time..it felt awful/awesome all at the same time. Tuesday I had planned to do the run/body pump/swim, but my friend Brittany asked me to join in on a rollerblade (yes it was 35 degrees in TO yesterday), so I did it ALL! The 400 m swim was painful, but awesome. Waking up Wednesday morning at 5:45 to go to Hot Yoga was slightly more painful..With all that extra working out, I treated myself to ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI on Wednesday night om nom nom. Thursday I did a 25 min run, and packed to go on vacation! 

I’m off for two weeks! Currently on a road trip back out east to see my family/Mike's family.Typically vacation for me means 0 exercise and lots of snacks, but not this year! I am taking full advantage of the opportunity for some open water swims, and we even brought our bikes with us. 

I went for a swim before the storm hit!

For the road we also packed a ton of healthy snacks for the road to avoid the temptation of McDonalds and Chippies. 

Mmmm snow peas!!

So far we have been sticking to the plan pretty well. Obviously on vacation there is a little more calorie intake (pie anyone?) but there is more free time to work out! Today I went for a swim at the local pool, and realized that my condo pool is definitely not 25 m, so I am way behind on my swimming training! Yikes!

One thing I am noticing though, is I am hitting a wall with the training. Running more than 30 min is hurting my soul, more than 10km bike is painful, and swimming without stopping is becoming an issue as the lengths go up. I don't know if this is normal and I just have to work through it, or maybe it is my sign to just do a try-a-tri this year. I am going to push myself for the next few days and see how it goes, and then make a decision what race to register for. 

Is hitting a wall normal?? Anyone else exercise for pie?

Thursday Triathlon Training Tidbit

I’m on Week 4 of the training plan!!

Recap Time:
Saturday- See last Blog Post
Sunday- 10 km Bike IN THE RAIN
Monday- Rest day and Toronto Flooded (We are ok, my building was ok, my work was ok)
Tuesday-300m Swim AM, 20 min run+ Body Pump PM, 30 min walk after the gym
Wednesday- 10 km Bike IN THE WIND
Today- Attempted to Swim in the AM, pool was closed for maintenance. In the PM I went and got my Hair did, and then came back to the apartment and did a 25 min run and 30 mins of strength training. And I ruined my hair.

Before Hair Cut

After Hair Cut (Before Gym)

Two realizations

1. Back when I was trying to lose a little weight it was my goal to work out 5 days a week. I think I actually met that goal maybe twice..so far with this plan I have been working out 5/6 days a week and not even realizing it. Yay!!

2. I think I could do a try-a-tri right now (375 m swim, 10 km bike ride, 2.5 km run). I am going to test this theory on Sunday with my own try-a-tri (including biking/running in wet gear to get used to the idea).


Food stuff:
Since I am working my butt off, I have decided to also watch what I eat in order to maybe lose a few pounds..nothing major, I still want to fuel my body for training!

Both Mike and I (and apparently 90% of our friends) are using myfitness pal to track calories. My first week I was way over (it included Canada Day weekend), but the past two weeks I have been doing really well. The days I don’t exercise I have a really hard time keeping it in my limit, but the days I do exercise (Tuesday’s and Friday’s especially) I can pretty much eat what I want. Keep in mind when I say I eat what I want I mean healthy food with a treat or two, not a big mac and fries..nom nom.

My food for the day looks generally looks like this:

Bottom right  (Clockwise): Breakfast- Eggs and Swiss Chard, Lunch- Chickpeas, Brown Rice , Zucchini and Garlic Scapes, Snacks: Cucumbers, Almonds, Yogurt, Carrots and Hummus

                   
Not pictured glass of Milk in the AM, Fruit and obviously supper which is normally some sort of protein and veggies. Drinking milk in the morning is a new thing, but I realized I was really low on Calcium and was getting sick of drinking water. Double win.

This all being said, on evenings where I do come home after working out (like Tuesday for example) I am so HANGRY (Angry because I am so hungry..grrr). And I still am craving junkfood a little...but this poster in my gym made me laugh..

Thanks gym for praying on me at my weakest moment..but no I didn't go get anything from the vending machine :P. 

Time to head to bed..Hot Yoga in the AM!

Anyone have any healthy snack ideas? Anyone else get a hair cut/style only to go ruin it :)?

Training my Butt Off!!

Hello homies..guess what??...It is two blogposts in 1 week!!

As mentioned before, I am a crazy cat and decided to run a triathlon at the end of the summer…

I am going to do a Sprint Triathlon, so that means 750 m swim, 20 km Bike, and 5 km run. After getting my bike in April and realizing how much I enjoyed it, and then doing a 20 km bike ride for fun, I realized that I could do the 20 km Bike + 5 km run with some training…and I always have loved swimming/the water, so why not!!

Since I had decided to do this right smack dab in the middle of tutoring time I didn’t have time to start training, but I had time to start researching, and I found a good plan online, it is a 11 Week Training plan, which worked perfectly with the timing. I also added some strength training and some hot yoga so my ideal schedule would be:

Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday AM: Swim
Tuesday PM: Run/Body Pump
Wednesday: Bike Ride
Thursday AM: Swim
Thursday PM: Run/ Body Pump
Friday: Hot Yoga
Saturday: Long Run
Sunday: Long Bike


I started on June 18th with a quick 15 min walk/run, then body pump, and after not doing anything except for biking and hot yoga for a long time I couldn’t walk for two days. It got better.

Swimming is my new favourite  I typically go for a swim in the morning (benefits of living in a Condo) and I find I don’t need any tea or coffee when I get to work, it really wakes me up. It is also super easy to roll out of bed, put on a bathing suit and walk down to the pool. Also, at 6:30 in the morning, the pool at the building is completely empty!

I could get used to this!

Swimming also is the most terrifying part of the training. I know that if I get tired with the running or the biking I can take a break, whereas if I take a break from swimming I drown. Which is why I want to really practice that part. I also have been doing lots of research about swimming learning about sighting (for open water swimming) and getting used to getting kicked in the face during the start (Mike is also practising swimming, so he swims in front of me for practice). So far 200 m/300 m is pretty good, but I still need breaks, still have a ways to go to build up my cardio for swimming!

Having this goal for the end of the summer is really motivating me to stick with it. I have shuffled around the schedule a bit, but overall in the past almost three weeks I have only missed 1 “long” run (20 minutes) and a few BodyPumps. In order to be prepared for the summer, I put all of the work outs from the training program on google calendar, and if needed I can move them around, but I can’t delete them. I also put them on that day, and then schedule the exact times week by week. What this means is sometimes I need to be a bit creative, yes I was at the gym a few Sundays back at 8:30 am because that was the most convenient time, and the past weekend I made myself go to bed at a decent hour on Saturday to go to Hot Yoga on Sunday AM. Who am I??

This morning I went for a 30 min walk/run, and THEN went to the gym for an hour (to make up from a missed BodyPump on Thursday). I made up my own total body workout based on BodyPump moves: 

Every exercise x 10...

Squats with Weights (10lbs), Normal, Bottom Half, Wide

Biceps: (7.5), Normal, Bottom Half, Bicep Row

Triceps: Tricep Extension (7.5) Dips(no weight)

Back: (20lb dumbbell) Dead lift, Wide Row, Clean and Press

Chest: (20 lb dumbbell) Bench Press, Lower Half Bench Press, (5 lb free weights) Flys

Lunges: (No weight) Normal, Bottom Halfs, Lunge with Knee Lift

Shoulders: (7.5lbs) Kneeling Upright row, Rotator Raise/Peck Deck

And Repeat! 

Then I ended with 6 core exercises (10 reps each), which I cannot remember :P.

Oh and stretching..that is important..

And then I biked home. Whew. No wonder I am tired haha!

Yes Mom I typically wear a helmet while biking!

I hope to do a recap every week in the week past in Triathlon Training updates..mostly to keep me accountable!

June Recap in Meme Form!

IT IS SUMMER TIME!!!
It has been 30+ degrees all week in TO, and I am loving it (a little rainy and thunderstromy, but that is ok!) (I started writing this post on the weekend..now it is about 18 degrees...cursed :P)

After finishing up with all of my tutoring students, and moving to a job with less crazy hours, my schedule has freed up just in time for the nice weather..lovely how that worked out!

In the past little bit my free time has been full of Potlucks, Biking, Adventures, and TRIATHLON TRAINING.

Also also...I took no pictures of any of these things...FAIL! So I will describe it in MEMEs!!

The last weekend of May I volunteered with the World Partnership Walk, and spent a warm Sunday morning telling people all about the event. This was after a late night out with my friends, but I managed to make it through the morning (Coffee, lots and lots of coffee!) Mike was awesome and volunteered too!

I may have been the ESPRESSO one!!

Another adventure was paintball…never again. It was a groupon, and I realized spending an afternoon shooting people in a dim lit arena thing, not my idea of a good time. It was also painfull..I got hit in the head and and had a headache for the week. Luckily we only spent about 15 bucks for the whole afternoon. I think laser tag sounds more fun.

This Paintball seems less painful

What was way more fun than paintball: A weekend escape at the Cottage. Some friends and I headed up to my families’ cottage in the Muskokas and spent the weekend relaxing, swimming (it was really cold), and playing hide in go seek, yes we are all in our twenties, yes it was awesome.

Some food highlights from this past month: 2 epic potlucks…

1. Slider themed potluck, everyone brought a different kind of slider..I made chickpea sweet potato burgers from Clean eating magazine, and they were delicious!!

2. Bacon potluck, everyone had to bring a dish that included bacon, we had ceaser salad, bacon weave quesadilla, bacon and cheese biscuits and pork back...and bacon ceasers!!! (Sodium overload!!)

Some exercise highlights:
I got two weeks out of the 11 week training program done pretty much exactly! Finally back on track with going to the gym/working out 5 days a week+!! I will go into more detail with the training program in the next little bit, because over the summer I want to blog at least three times a week, and actually take pictures just not leave memes :P.

Do it!! All the Comments!

What is your favorite meme?? What is your favorite BACON/Potluck idea!?