My turn!

While Steve was out running his race, I did a training run. I'm up to a whopping 7k doing 10/1s, but today, thanks to the thousands of runners racing, I kept forgetting to take my walk breaks.

Running is getting easier overall, and each run brings me closer to the runner I was, and will be again soon. Rah!!

I really, REALLY, wanted to be part of the race today. I'm hoping that on this day next year, I will run the NCM full for the second time. :)

So proud

This post is dedicated to Steve. Wow. He has not run a step in probably a month (but he is walking around all day at his store, and I mean ALL DAY).

Today was race day, the race he was so prepared for a month ago, before he got injured. It's apparently a bone deformity which is causing him to overcompensate. He has run half marathons before, but never with any training (shakes head) and as a pack a day smoker. This is the first time he'd trained for one, since he was in high school. And he hasn't had a ciggie since that first episode.

He was on crutches for a week 7 days ago. He's been getting ART, Graston, accupuncture, and lord knows what else three times a week. Hard to tell by the picture, but he has bruises from Friday's treatment :(. Poor pup.

His goal today was to run what he could. I found him at the 11k mark, and was so disappointed that the camera was out of battery (he never told me he took 150 photos of his store opening yesterday!).

He said he was going to finish. He was running, sort of, and I ran along beside him for a half km or so, then let him finish up.

He came in at 3:04. He is not upset in the least by his time (he was looking at a 1:50 before injury) because he gutted through it. The Gotta Run team waited for him to finish :)

Any Canadians interested in watching the race, it's on CBC Sports Saturday this coming week (June 2), and there is supposed to be quite a bit of the Gotta Run team as well.

Oh, and anyone who knows Carlene... she did awesome :)

Since I don't have a race finish pic, how about a starting shot (Steve is on the left)? And some duck babies!!

Busy times

Wow, it's been busy!

I'm at school now Tues/Thurs nights, and prof does like to give homework! We also had a long weekend and wow, it was lovely! The weather was a little cool, though I still got a mild sunburn, and it rained on Sunday, but we still spent a ton of time planting the veggie garden, doing some spring cleaning, and hanging with the nice neighbours. So nice :). Freakshow neighbours hung several more bags of dog crap off our side of the fence again, so we gifted them a garbage can and put them in it, on their side of the fence. These people refus to speak with us, so it's not like we can tell them they are being disgusting. Sure enough, Monday morning they emptied the garbage can, put it behind their fence, and hauled away the dog poop. Can't wait to see if they gift us again this weekend. Sigh.

Anyway, this was the last weekend of the Tulip Festival. While my tulips are in peak, most of those by the canal were done. But it was still gorgeous and so many people out! My daughter and I went to the canal on Saturday, me for my 7k, she to read under a tree. My goal was 10/1, and I was successful for the first 4 repeats. Then I had to walk when my heart rate hit 165. On the upside, my average heart rate over 5k is dropping, as is my time - I took 30 seconds off the week before. After my run, my daughter and I went for a cooldown walk for 2 more kms. It was lovely out. We came home in time to catch the last period and the OT win for the Ottawa Senators! Wooooooot! We will be facing Anaheim for the Stanley Cup, our first time in modern franchise history. Sooooo excited!!

In other news, running this week is going well, though my knee is a little sore. I'm not in the least bit concerned, because it hurts every year at this time. No idea why.

Better get to work!

Date Night

Steve and I have very little time together. He's working 6.5 days a week getting the new store set up, I'm working weekdays and schooling two nights a week.

Yesterday we threw my brother a birthday bbq in our new outdoor living room! It's awesome, but darn it, we woke to a temp drop. Boo-urns. We reached a high of 13C and in the sun under blankets it wasn't bad! Ok, it was, so we took it inside after an hour. But the patio was a hit!

After the mass exodus (it was hockey night in Ottawa), KT went out, and we decided to have date night. Yes, we'd miss part of the hockey game, but it's too stressful to watch the first two periods. Really.

We decided on The Notebook. All we knew is that it was a love story. We thought, woooo cuddles in the future! Um, what we didn't think of was that we'd spend the last half hour of the film sobbing. Snot is not conducive to cuddles. So we watched the last period of the game, and with fear we both had 'the feeling'. Sure enough, within 5 seconds of the horn, Buffalo scored. We continued to cry. Argh!! We won in 2nd OT, thank goodness. How I can watch the last period and OT, and not find that stressful is beyond me.

I woke this morning feeling all stuffy from crying. Not the best in date nights! Except for the win, that was totally worth it.

Woot!!

I had the best run today. It was my first 6k since graduating to 10/1. My heart rate was down 5 bpm, and my speed up 19s/km. This is progress over 1km longer.

I know it's not much, but finally, FINALLY, I'm starting to feel like it's all coming together! I topped off my run with a cool down of a 1km walk.

I went to the canal to run, knowing that Steve would be somewhere there at that time, with the Gotta Run team. He had a great 20k run on Thursday, then it all fell apart on Saturday, when he couldn't finish 10k. He could barely walk. Today walking wasn't a problem, but the minute he started running his 5k time trial, the wheels came off again. I found him on my way back, and he was hobbling. It broke my heart. Luckily he went straight to Dr. Geoff for ART, Graston technique, massage therapy and acupuncture. And a scolding for missing a week's therapy. He will be back in on Wednesday, but as it stands right now, he can't do stairs, and can barely put any weight on his leg. And being the goof men can be (no offense to men, but you know it's true) he doesn't want me to borrow the crutches from my brother. But he can't walk :(

Back to 24. Mmmm Jack....

Venting

I need to vent. I love my house so much. There is only one thing I hate about this house, and that is my neighbours who share my wall. Why am I always stuck with freaks? Since we moved in, they hide when we come out and try to avoid saying hello. He works for the military, not sure what she does, they have 3 children under age 7 or so, and 2 black labs. Here's the problem.

Before we moved in we noticed that they would bag up the dog poop in grocery bags, and leave it sitting in front of their garage, but on our side. But since we didn't live there yet, we figured of course that this behaviour would stop when they had people living next door. Think again. So last summer we put up with it for 2 weeks, then one day when it was raining and there was poopsoup dribbling down the laneway we share, I picked up the bags by the handles and whipped them far to the other side. I won't even go into the flies. Then it stopped. We thought it stopped because they got the hint (remember, you can't speak with them because they run away). Turns out the dogs were away for a couple of months. Great. The bag reappeared last week, so I pitched it, yet again, over to their side.

Their other nasty habit is to hang bags of dog poop off the back corner of their fence, ON OUR SIDE (our back yard is only 34 ft deep!!). Again, when we first saw this when we inspected the house we thought YUCK, but figured once we moved in that they would stop. Um. No. 3 times in the past 4 weeks I have sat at our breakfast table to the view of steaming bags of labrador dog poop hanging next to my bird feeder. I could barf. So the first time I hung it off the middle of their fence, where they could look at it. Last week a new bag was back, so I picked it up and pitched it right behind their fence, the whole time making comments about how revolting this was, only to turn around and see them looking right at me from their kitchen table. Yesterday? THREE massive bags from their back yard clean up. KT was so pissed that she went back there and picked up the bags hanging on our side of the fence, and threw them in the middle of their back yard.

OH MY GOD PEOPLE!! Part of the problem is it's the 7 year old slave boy (he puts out the garbage, walks the dogs) who cleans up after them, so was probably told 6 months before we moved in to hang it off the fence, and doesn't know any better. But what kind of grown humans think that this would be acceptable? They can also see it hanging off the fence from their kitchens. I just don't get it. I've had dogs, and I picked up after them, but threw the poop in THE GARBAGE.

So yesterday I spent 4 hours (yes, 4 hours) putting together our barbeque. The thing has far too many pieces and lousy instructions. I saw the neighbours come and go, and other than the time the dogs tried to suck the pants off me (serious nose dogs) and I laughed and said good morning, and got a grunt back, they never said two words to me. Meanwhile every other neighbour across the street, and on both sides waved or said hi. Why do I live next to the freakshow?

So the bbq is awesome - we grilled last night. KT put together the tables, and today after my run I will put together the rest of our outdoor living room. Every muscle in my body is killing me from the bbq assembly positions (seriously, I could sell fitness DVDs on this) over 4 hours, and my hands are swollen and sore. But I want my outdoor living room! And I want it free of dog crap!!

Done with the vent. :(

Progress, I think

My running is going great! I'm trying really hard to run 10/1's without dying in the last repeat(s). I have so much work to do, but I'm seeing progress. I think. I ran 5k on Sunday in what felt like a blistering pace, and it turns out it was 1 second faster than 2 weeks ago! Hahaha. I think it's crazy that I'm red faced, with an average heart rate of 160, pushing as hard as I can not to give up, and then people run by me like I'm standing still. I guess all that matters is that I feel like I'm improving. Though I really wish the scale would budge. Weight loss would really help!

My biggest struggle right now is mental. Mr. Media is out running with people as part of his commitment to the CBC. I can't remember the last time we ran together. It's been probably 4 years. This makes me sad. Once upon a time I was faster than him! Granted, he hasn't gained 60 lbs from meds and resulting reduced activity, but he quit smoking and started running consistently, only a few weeks ago. And his 5k time is now under 24 mins. I've never seen that number, and doubt I ever will. My goal is that one day we can run together again. One day when he's doing an easy run, and I'm doing tempo, that we will actually run side by side again. I miss that. Our runs together now consist of a kiss and 'good run', then I watch him rapidly get smaller in the distance. And boy, does that take the wind out of my sails sometimes.

Wow, this is bleak. Not intending to be, truly. I feel I'm at a really good place with exercise right now, back to my crunches and trying really hard to strength train (man I hate it!), back to 40 mins a day. The sun is shining, spring is here, life is good!

Now that I have 5k down, it's time to start training for the Canada Day 10k. Today's run calls for 4k. This should feel easy. I can't wait to be running in hours again. Sigh... :)