The best weekend

I had the best weekend.

Friday I was busy, non-stop busy all morning. I had a call with my soon to be former Manager to talk about next steps. After that was busy getting some quick housework done, and out the door to meet Steve at his work - he had a transfer in my car, which he forgot to take out before going to work. I spent a few minutes with him, then zipped a few blocks over to my friend and former colleague Ginette's house, where we sat in her hot tub. For FOUR hours. It was great to catch up, decompress and just relax. I want a hot tub :) Anyway, met up with Steve, and we headed to the race expo. We picked up our kits, and looked around but didn't buy anything. We did register for the HBC Canada Day 10k. Registering early we got a free shirt (from the 2006 race, but quite honestly, they are the most comfortable shirts that I wear my old ones every time I run!) and a discount on the entry fee.

Saturday we went to my nephew Joe's baseball tournament. It was so fun. And so cute! He's 8, so you can imagine the cuteness of the little ones playing. And some show real talent! From here we went back to the expo because I apparently forgot to sign something for the Canada Day race, and I wanted to look for shorts. No shorts that I liked, but I did find a nice long sleeved shirt. I only have one, Steve borrows all of them and throws them out I think! We bumped into my former trainer, the great Ray Zahab at the OneXOne booth. He's such a star now. I'm so happy for him, and thankful to all the hard work he is doing. From here we raced home, and our deck guys were almost done, so we had to go buy the risers and wood for the stairs, now that he had exact measurements. We were back within an hour, and it was time to change for the race! We hopped back in the car and motored downtown. Found parking for $3 (wooo!) and headed to City Hall. Holy crap there were a lot of people! I love race weekend! I tried to position myself properly, but there were so many people (7463 racers Steve says, but not sure how he'd remember that exact number... ;)) it was hopeless. I got really concerned when the group of ladies next to me were offering each other PBJ sandwiches and bananas. Sigh. The gun went off, and of course we walked. It only took a 3 or so minutes to cross the start line, and we were officially off. For 5 seconds. After about 15 more seconds, which felt twice as long, I was able to scamper around people and run a little. I never did get to just run, there was always jockeying for position, or leaping around the walkers who link arms and take up most of the road, or the sudden walk breaks that some runners take. I saw Steve 300m from the finish, and I was pushing, but I was feeling really good. My goal was under 35 mins, but dream time 33 mins. I was thrilled when I crossed the finish at 32:01! Looking over my race results, I haven't run a 5k race under that time since 2003! Ok, haven't run a 5k race since 2003 :). But even in training, I haven't seen 32 mins for a 5k probably since that time. At least since I got my Garmin in 2006. Anyhoo, I might have PR'd on that course had I moved closer to the front - I was 21 seconds away...

Steve lined up for his race, and I watched the elites warm up at the front. The women got a 4 minute (or 4.5 min, can't remember!) head start on the men, and if they crossed the finish first would walk away with an extra 5k. Oh, and Frank Shorter was there, he looks awesome. Anyway, after the gun, and the three minutes it took Steve to cross the line and fight the walkers (and he was coralled in the 50-60 mins area), I wandered over to the finish. Wow, those elites are amazing. And the lead woman I thought had crossed the finish before the lead man, but apparently he beat her at the line. It was that close, and that exciting. Love it. Steve did really really well, a 10K PR. Congrats Honey!

We came home, marvelled over our gorgeous deck, ordered pizza, ate too much, and fell into bed pooped.

Today we were up and out to watch the Marathon and Half Marathon. We took our bikes, biked around to find a good spot, watched the leaders go by (they are truly different creatures than we are!), and went for a bike ride. In all we covered 36k, and had a blast. Oh, maybe Steve not so much, he took a tumble on his bike. Poor pup. We came home and put the gazebo on the deck, got the furniture out and organized, planted the veggie garden, had dinner, and here we are. It's going to be an early night, we are pooped. And a little sunburned.

Anyway, this was one of the best weekends ever. Tomorrow, I have some housecleaning to do, some prep work for the resume and career workshops I have on Wednesday, and then I may sit on the deck and read a book.

Well, it's done. After 7.5 years at my company, and I think the count is 15 rounds of layoffs (that I know of!), I received my notice on Wednesday. I am sad, because I really love my job and my company. I understand the reasons why, we are in trouble and it never seems to get better. But I don't want to go. I have 60 days where I can still apply for internal postings, and if anything suitable comes up, I just might. When the sting to the ego fades, I may just decide to walk away with my severance, and start new somewhere where (I hope) I won't be faced with layoffs every half. In that respect I'm relieved. After living in fear for 7.5 years, it's happened, and it's over. And I'm ok.

Lots to do in the coming weeks with the outplacement agency. Truthfully, I just want to take a break and curl up in a ball for a few weeks. :)

I had a terrible run on Tuesday, my legs were tight, but nothing compared to my lungs. It's been a long while since my lungs were bad enough that I thought I'd need to go to the hospital to be tented. So I sat on a bench (a spider family's bench apparently!) and concentrated on my breathing for a while, and that made it a little more bearable. I walked every 250 metres, I just couldn't do more than that. On the upside, because of these breaks I saw two deers in a field (so pretty) and baby duckies!! These were the smallest I've ever seen, they must have been only a few days old. They could actually run on water! Amazingly fast tiny creatures. I was beaming from ear to ear, and in near tears watching them. Just gorgeous.

Haven't run since, just don't have it in me. I'd better get it back soon though, I have a race on Saturday evening! Ooooh, I also got my bike back. They replaced my brake cable, did a complete tune up (I seriously thought it a new cassette and chain!). If it doesn't rain, I may take it out for a little ride tomorrow. I mean really, I have nothing else to do! :)

Today I felt the pain of weeding. Oh.My.God. My hammies and my rear. So tight! So sore. Allergies? Check. Full swing. Let's go!

My goal was to run 10/1 and have today be the start of my LSDs. I did the first 10 mins with Steve at my side. I was pushing it, any harder and my hamstring was going to snap. Quick air kiss and he was off, getting smaller in the distance. That's cool, one day I'll run next to him. Well maybe not, he's a lot faster than he used to be!

I decided on 6 10/1 - 66 mins. I started at Pretoria Bridge, ran out to the little bridge in the Arboretum! The trees were in full bloom, I was a sniffling mess, but it smelled so wonderful, and looked so pretty, I really didn't care. It's so worth it. This is the furthest I'd run on Queen Elizabeth side of the Canal. I passed the little marsh on the way, and there were several red-winged blackbirds sitting on cattails. I love how they sit there and sway. I debated whether to do the loop, or to turn back. Decided to turn back. And for the first time in a very long time, I had wings! By the time I reached the end I was only 500m to 10k, so I went for it. Finished in 1:08:18. I'm thrilled! I just checked last summer's 10k Canada Day race, which I finished in 1:11:01. Granted, the race is very hilly and congested, but I think I can beat it this summer. Actually, I'm going to kill it. Today was one of those great running days.

My hammies and rear are still very cranky with me. But they'll forgive me tomorrow when we go mountain biking in the Gats. Here's a shot I found on the web, off the trail we're going to be biking on. Which is the same trail as we ran on last week. Considering it's going to rain all night, should be good and muddy! Will report tomorrow.

I'm taking today off. I'm really tired, physically and emotionally. These 60 hour weeks aren't my thing anymore. And not so great news on the work front. Need to make some plans for the future now.

Been running, and improving every time. I can now run a solid 5-6km without stopping. Because of work and fatigue I missed two of my runs this week. TWO!! But the two runs I had were quality runs. Wednesday I went out after work to the canal and wanted to do 5km straight. That's it. And I did 6 something (I haven't uploaded my Garmin yet, so not sure!). I was tired and sweaty afterwards, had a little Wenckebach, but that went away within 20 mins.

Thursday my workday started at 6:30 and after all the OT, I felt no qualms about calling it a day at 3PM. Steve was off, so we headed to the Gats for another trail run. We opted for the trail we used to do - trail 1 > trail 3. There was no one around the parking area we were at, which has never happened before, but it was only the first official day of mountain biking. There were many cyclists on the road area though, climbing, climbing. So the run, my ankles are still pretty weak. I died on the first hill, because it's a killer. Actually, I died on all the hills on the way out! It was a lot wetter than I remember (a lot of marshes and a lake), we saw a beaver. I took my mini camera and took this shot of the beaver swimming, which you can't see. Trust me, he's there!


Yeah, seriously overexposed! It was really sunny out :)

There's a little area in the middle of nowhere where someone built a bench! how cute is that?!? I didn't sit, though I was tempted! We turned around at the 3.8km mark. The run back was so much easier, I was much more warmed up. Though I was getting hungry and should have had more to drink. I took this picture at 'Teenaged Snakeland', where they like to sun in the summer. This would also be where I scream like Flanders every summer. I'm scared of snakes. Very scared.


Anyway, it was a wonderful wonderful run, and really helped clear my head. It's a long weekend in Canada (Victoria Day), and Monday we've decided to take the mountain bikes to this trail :) It's not terribly technical, and will really test my skills (or lack thereof) and intestinal fortitude (again, or lack thereof).

Yesterday's training plan was a ride after work. From the first KM my bike felt strange. It just would not shift properly. At 4km I hopped off and took a look. It seemed to be working ok. I hopped back on, and I'm up-shifting, and suddenly I'm spinning, thinking that my chain fell off. I pull over again. Still can't see what the problem is. Steve comes back and has a look, he can't see a problem either, so he hops on and tests it. No problem he says. I've already made up my mind that I'm going home because something is definitely not right. Steve comes with me (even though I keep telling him to go on and get his ride in, we're only 5k from home) and after 2 or 3 minutes it happens again. I pull over and we see the problem. The rear cogs (I think it's called?) where the chain moves up and down have split from each other and are spinning on their own. It looks like it's the bottom 2 so we pick the middle gear, and decide I'll stay there until we get home. We don't get 1 minute done and it goes to. They are all pulling away from each other. So I hop off, and start walking. Steve rides home to get the car, because walking 5k in bike shoes isn't that comfy! We took the bike to the shop today, and it seems a spacer has fallen out. I think they are replacing the whole thing, since they are replacing my chain too. I'm going to get a proper tune-up while it's in there, since they need to fine tune it anyway. I can't wait to get it back and try it out!

Tomorrow I'll be running 10/1 for 60 or 70 minutes. I was supposed to run today, but after popping dandilions in the lawn for an hour, my hamstrings were screaming. And I really didn't feel like it to tell the truth. Work is weighing a little too heavy right now.

Happy Mother's Day to all! I'm including Mom's of human, fuzzy, scaly... to whatever babies you nurture and care for. Shout out to the boys out there who fit the Mom role to a T as well.

I've been searching around for a small camera that I take running/biking with me. I used to carry my regular digital camera, but it's a little big/heavy/awkward. And I don't want it damaged. A couple of weeks ago Steve comes home with a mini digital camera (actually, one for each of us). I realize the pictures are not going to be great, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice :). Yesterday's run on the trails in the Gatineau's was to be pinky camera's maiden voyage. As you can see from the photo, it's wee. And I'm about to run out of ink in my pen.

I also tried out my new trail shoes, that I bought on clearance several weeks ago. I tend to feel rocks and stones that I step on through my shoe, and after an hour my feet get really tired. I was curious what the difference might be to regular running shoes. I also tried out my new Dirty Girl Gaiters! I don't know how I do it, but the minute I walk out the door, I get a pebble in my shoe. I thought they would be a good investment (at $13? you can't lose!) for a more comfortable run. I chose the pink leopard print, since they match my running shoes too. And now my new mini camera!

There's a Cross Country Ski group that meets up all summer long for trail runs in the Gats. We've always wanted to run with them, but we can't make it out there in time for their Tuesday night or Saturday morning runs. But in the event we can we were curious as to what they consider a 3/10 difficulty (based on hills and technicality). Since they post some details of their runs, we decided to do the run they did yesterday, but 4 hours later! Here we are at the start, testing the new camera. Nothing like a nostril pic.

We got to the Gatineau's at 1:30. We were late because we both blanked on where we were going and took the scenic route. We forgot our trail map, but thankfully there was one posted. We knew the morning run was to park at P7, then take trail 17. Hmmm... Trail 17 doesn't join up to P7. But if we take #30 to #8 we can get to #17!

The first minute of the run was on a slight uphill and beautifully maintained 5 person wide packed trail. GORGEOUS. I could run on this all day. Hold that thought. We turned a corner and it was all up hill. I ran for another minute straight up, and then walked, gasping for air. That first hill was too much too soon. Steve made it to the top, and discovered there was another hill right after what we thought was the top. He ran to meet me and tell me this, then scampered back up. I thought this was going to be rough. By the time we got to the slight downhill, I wasn't able to find my footing, and my sunglasses (prescription) were bouncing because the arms touch the back of my hat (if that makes sense) and the ground was moving under my feet. I was sure I was going to tumble. Another hill and we hit #8. This trail was much more technical. I think there was only 50 feet or so that was smooth, the rest was tree roots, sharp rocks, rocks to leap over, fallen logs, stream crossings and hills... tons of hills. I thought we were on a different trail than the running group, or I never want to know what they consider 10/10 if this was a 3/10! As tired as I was, and I still walked a lot of the steep hills, I was having a blast. Especially when we made it to the top! We stopped to snap these photos from the lookout.




We continued on, which was downhill for another 10 minutes, and we still hadn't seen #17. At 35 mins I suggested we turn around, since we didn't know when 17 was coming up, nor how long it was before reaching the other side of 30. I was only at 2.85km on my Garmin, LOL. In 35 mins! On our way back we met a group of hikers. Steve was a little ahead of me (of course!) and I heard the hikers talk to him as he was running by - uphill. I got there right after and one of the women said "oh good for you, you're keeping up with him!" I laughed and said "I'm trying, but I'm really not!". She then commented on my shirt, my race shirt from "Dances with Dirt". She thought that was adorable. Steve met me at the top and was laughing, he said "I hope you realize how lucky you are to be with someone so famous". Sure enough one of the men hiking had said to him while he was running by them "aren't you from CBC's Gotta Run?" hahahahahah! Steve told him he was from last year's. (This year they are training a group of men in Recovery). I thought it was a hoot that a year later, in the middle of nowhere, he's recognized. Most of the run was downhill now, though still so technical we didn't gain much by way of time. We finished in 1:05 or so. We checked the map again, and looked at the legend... oh... trail 8 is a black diamond trail. Sheesh, no brains I tell ya! But we did it, I slowed Steve down so he ran back a few times to find me, and in total he ran almost a km longer than I!

Shoe report - I noticed a HUGE difference with running in trail shoes. Much 'grippier' than running shoes, didn't feel anything poking at me on the underside at all. I LOVE them.

Gaiter report - Not one stone to be had :D Completely forgot I was wearing them, they are that light and comfortable. I'll definitely be getting another pair when these get grungy.

We raced home, showered, and arrived an hour late for my brother's birthday parter at my sister's. We ate too much, slept like the dead, and here we are Sunday morning!

I'd better get back to work, lots to do before tomorrow morning work-wise, but I also want to get my Sunday run, which, now that I've officially graduated from my self-imposed learn to run program, Sunday's are 10/1 LSD. If my legs can handle it (they are tired!), I'll be running 60 mins, or 6 repeats (66 mins). I haven't quite decided yet! Each Sunday run I'll be increasing slightly. I also want to visit Mom and Dad at the cemetery. It's been a while.

Have a great day all!

I forgot to report on my run on Monday, THE DAY AFTER. Ok, tried to make that dramatic. I was cold from the get go, hungry, and just wanted it done. I was flying! I was averaging 6:15/km for the first 2 repeats of 10, until the 28 minute mark, where I apparently discovered teleportation. I know in all my years of running, I've never, EVER, a 4:53 km. Ever. There was a tail wind, which I noticed from the water which had peaks, and then of course when I hit the turnaround and it was full on. My pace slowed to 6:51/km until the end. Which was fine with me.

So yesterday's run was day 5 in a row of leg stuff, and I was tired. My legs were tired from this week's activity, and sore from my little bike spill (left knee and right ankle felt loose so I had to focus not to trip or turn out). My cut has turned to bright red road rash, which I found interesting, considering there was no road to be seen. Anyhoo, I didn't want to do it, but forced myself too. Within the first 5 minutes I knew it wasn't going to be good. Headwind on the way out this time, and my average pace was 6:51/km. Not a great start. But my heart rate was nice and low, so I decided I would give myself a break, and run only 5k for a change. I love it that 5k is now my cop out distance! It was never easy, and my pace got progressively slower over the run. I didn't care, because I decided it would be a good day to run it straight, with no walk breaks. And I did :D With walk breaks I was running at least 15 sec/km faster overall. But I had no legs, so I know it's not a true measure. Or it's a measure of my performance with dead legs!

Tomorrow we're going to do some trail running in the Gats, if time allows. My brother's birthday bash is in the afternoon!

We'll, I'd better get to work. It's going to be another long weekend. :(

And the moron of the year award goes to.... ME!! I'll get to that in a bit.

I ran yesterday on the treadmill as planned, it helped, my legs were less tight from the ride, but still tired. So I did not want to run again today. I wanted to ride. I mapped out a 35k route from the front door, avoiding (I think) busy country roads during rush hour and crappy paving. Naturally at 4:30 the skies opened up. Change of plans. I'm not a fan of skinny tires on slick potentially busy roads during the after work commute home.

I had a brilliant idea! Let's take the mountain bikes out and find a trail in the greenbelt! So that's what we did. I wore my black MEC long johns (which they aren't really, basically a base layer that's pretty thin, but toasty in the winter) under my bike shorts, same as I wore at the Tour on Sunday. That would keep me warm, and if I wiped out, hopefully keep the stones out of my cuts. I have enough scars and dirt tattoos to last me, thank you very much.

We hadn't taken the mountain bikes out since putting on the SPD pedals, so while I was getting a feel for them in the parking lot at the trail, Steve was fighting with his since they didn't fit right. He had to switch out the shoe clip for the ones that came with the pedals since they were slightly different.

So we all know I can't do a turnaround, no matter how hard I try. Tight corners? I get off the bike. So embarrassing. Today? Slowly turning around, because I need the practice, but for some reason I was going as slow as humanly possible without falling down... oh wait... I am going slow enough to fall down... I teetered to the left, the left foot I never clip out from, and yes, wiped out. Right there in the parking lot. In full view of commuters going home. With Steve watching me. He later told me it was a Six Million Dollar Man slow-mo fall. So there I lie, still straddling the bike, on my side, covered in mud and cut up from the "I wish it were gravel" crushed pointy rock parking lot. Steve came over to help me up, because I was sitting on the bike and since my foot was still clipped in, I couldn't get off. Now THAT's embarrassing! I got up, clipped back in, and rode on the grass for a while. And I have a hole in my MEC long johns :(

We got our ride in, Steve rode through some very deep water/mud filled trenches from the snow melt, I opted out, since I'd already wiped out today, and didn't want to dirty up my bike shoes further since I didn't have time to put the new cleats on my old bike shoes, which are now my mountain bike shoes. We did get wet though, since it was still raining.

Did we have fun? We had a blast. We saw a couple of hawks, a Blue Jay and some ducks. I love ducks! Oh and I know where the Deliverance Banjo family moved to...

We won't be going back to that trail though, it's mostly pointy rocks like the parking lot. The area is beaver land, very very wet, so I understand the need to building up the trail with the rocks. But I want a real trail! So we'll head out to the Gats in a couple of weeks when they allow mtn. bikes, and try again. It should be very painful, since I suck at hills! But I can't wait to try it.

And my knee should be healed by then. And my hip. And forearm.


I know it doesn't look like much, but it hurts!

I am toast. Today was the Tour Nortel, and I thought it was going to be a breeze, I really did! I tweaked my lower back yesterday, not sure how, and was very sore last night, coupled with a horrible headache. Woke this morning and had problems getting my shoes on, my back was still a mess. Greaaaaat. Still had funky head too. Couldn't even think of breakfast, so grabbed a handful of cheerios, forced it down, and we went.

The weather called for rain, and rain it did... right until the start. Then it stopped! Thank you weather gods! I have only done one bike event that wasn't a race, and the same bottleneck happened. Within a few minutes, Steve was out of sight - he's so funny, when we talked about the ride his plan was to ride with my colleague and I - that lasted all of maybe 5 minutes. I think he spotted a pretty Cervelo and it was game on. That's cool, Ginette and I peddled away feeling great. We turned the corner and a little kid says "there's the killer hill". Oh look at that! Ok, I can take it. So early in the ride it killed my quads. This is going to be fun ;). By the turn for the 12k ride I was thinking maybe I should take it! But I don't give up that easily. And the little kid did say "the killer hill", so it's got to be the worst one.

The kid's a liar.

Every corner we turned there seemed to be another hill. I think there were 5 total. I think. The last one was a monster (at least by Ottawa's standards). At the top of the last monster, my chain didn't want to get back on the middle ring, and I hit the wall. So I stopped, got off, and had a long drink. My heart rate was at 150 and I was dizzy. Lovely. Oh, and there was an earthworm squished onto my seat. How the heck did that get there! And ewwwwwww!! I cleaned off my seat, and talked to another man stopped at the top, and asked him to check my back and hair please, for earthworms. He looked me over and said "I don't see anything". And then he hightailed it out of there! LOL So did I.

At the 20k rest stop there was an angel with oranges. I bellied up to the buffet and had 4 slices. Delish! 5 minutes later, I had wings. I was also cursing myself for not having a snack in my seat bag. Carried around energy bars for YEARS, and tossed them out last week without replacing them. Such a dough head.

On the way back we had the wind behind us for part of it, and I was averaging 30km/hr +. Finally. I did have to walk the hill because my granny ring wasn't behaving, and frankly, I wanted to save my legs. Then I zoomed to the finish.

Steve biked back 3km to meet me, and I was feeling great at that point. My colleague, Ginette finished ahead of me as well, she had the legs and didn't stop on the hill - atta girl!

I feel tired, didn't stretch after the ride (oops) so my legs feel heavy, headache is still there, but my back ache has worked out. I am thrilled with my ride, because it was really tough. There are no hills in the south end. We need to get to the Gats ASAP and start hill training again!

Tonight KT and I are going to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood (of Who's Line is it Anyway fame). Should be a blast. I'm so excited!

Well, I was supposed to work today, worked all day yesterday, and late every day last week, but I'm just not focussed. So going to eat something and watch a movie. And probably fall asleep before the credits ;)