Wow, what a weekend! It was great. I love great weekends.

But I forgot to do my strength training, or rather, ran out of time. Nah, I could have made the time, but I truly did forget! I'll add it to this week. Just because.

Yesterday we headed to the Canal for our run, Steve had an easy 60 mins on the schedule, mine called for run 5 walk 1 repeats. There's something up with my heart rate monitor, or it's the vaseline gumming it up that I put over my incision, but it's not reading correctly at all when I run. There were a few times yesterday where I thought I'd be nearing my limit and it read 111. Steve thinks it's the meds, but I don't - I saw 140's running last week. The first repeat, feels like my heart stops for a beat or two. This is the 'new world'. It's really strange, there are a few things different since my surgery. When I start running my heart feels like it's stopping for a split second and then settles down, when I eat, the first bites feel like they are getting stuck in my esophagus, and I have a tough time swallowing stringy food (Chinese broccoli, spaghetti, etc), I can't swallow properly and feel like I'm going to choke. Weird!

So back to the run (must learn to focus!), the next few 5/1's went really well, to the point where I thought I'd set the repeats wrong to 4/1, but my math told me they were indeed 5/1, but it felt so good! Then the wheels came off :). I don't know why, but as soon as I hit the 5k mark (this is where I thought the HRM was reading wrong) I couldn't push myself any longer than 2.5 mins each time. That was a little disappointing, but it's ok, my first return to fitness goal is a 5k at the end of May. And I know if I had to run it today, I could run that feeling great!

We did make it to the cottage and back yard show, nothing stellar, no great deck ideas, but we got in for free thanks to the couple in front of us as we were heading to admissions (here, don't pay we have extra passes!) and entered a few draws. I'd be quite happy to win that little jacuzzi!

Yesterday Steve drove his son back to Toronto after our run, and KT's friend left his Wii here, so we played for a few hours. It's cute. While boxing was the most fun to play, watching the opponent's expressions of pain was too much for me to watch. It's a cartoon! I couldn't handle it. Softy.

Going to run on the treadmill at lunch. Then go bike shoe shopping with Steve after work... he bought a pretty new tri-bike with Look pedals, his shoes fit SPDs, and besides, he needs a bigger shoe to hold his orthotics!

Oooh, and lost 1.6 lbs :)

Well, I'd better get to work.

My exercise week is almost over - 30 mins of strength training today will cap it off. I'm not sure what I'll do though. How do people do 45 - 60 mins of ST? What do they do? Any suggestions? I generally do 2 sets (or 3 if I'm feeling really energetic) of squats, lunges, calf raises, pliés, overhead tricep whachamacallems, bicep curls, seated rows, a couple of shoulder ones, then crunches, reverse crunches, hamstring curls all on the ball. That usually brings me to 20 mins.

Had a great run yesterday on the treadmill, I wanted to take it easy because it was day 5 in a row of leg cardio and my legs were tired! I may have gone easy, but I got good and sweaty! Thursday Steve and I opted to take the mountain bikes out. It wasn't horribly windy, but I watched enough dust/salt/sand/gravel fly around all day that I knew I didn't want to have to deal with that on the bike too. My brother also noted that since the post-winter (it is? really?) street and sidewalk cleaning is to begin next week, I'd better bring an extra inner tube and co2 cartridge. Seriously, not worth the effort :)

So back to the bikes. We did 15k on the mountain bikes again, but it wasn't quite as tough as last week. Yes I needed to stop a few times to prevent myself from imploding, but not as often as last week. There were several sections where I know I stopped before, and was able to make it through this time, although I would have been more than happy to stop :). Steve is so sweet, I know he'd rather go all out but he patiently rides back while I catch my breath. He says that as long as he keeps his cadence up, he's happy. And on the mountain bikes you can be going 5km/hr and still have a cadence of 100, so it works for us.

I am horribly out of shape still, but I think my fitness is getting better. Tomorrow will be my third time of re-starting running after a layoff, and usually run 5 walk 1 I find a really tough increase. Truth be told, I did this last January (remember? sigh...) and both 4 and 5 mins were tough. 4/1 was easy peasy this time around, so I'm feeling pretty confident that 5/1 will go just as well. Time will tell.

I'd best get this house tidied up, it is Saturday after all. Steve and I are going to look at a tri bike this afternoon. He's been using a very very entry level giant for the past 4 years and I've been pushing him to upgrade to a less entry level bike ;). Of course if he likes this bike it just means that I'm going to be left in the dust even more. But I'm cool with that if he is :). After looking at the bike (and maybe buying it) we are supposed to go to the cottage/backyard show, but Steve's son is in town this weekend and Steve invited him over for the afternoon, then we were going to go out to dinner, and then drop him off at his buddies'. It's his 20th birthday tomorrow, so pretty exciting for him.

Alright, off to clean!

Meet Smokey

For the past few years Steve and I have been talking about taking up mountain biking. We LOVE running the trails, and invariably meet some bikers there, and always thought "some day". Now that we've moved to the burbs, biking from home to half decent pavement on the road bike is next to impossible, at least if you want to make it to your destination alive! So a mountain bike would allow the opportunity to get my bike in when I might not have enough time to get the bike rack on the car/drive to wherever. I'll be able to get it in by opening up the garage door and going. I think this will be a very good thing! And a chance to mix it up :D

So without further ado, I present, Smokey:

She's got an aluminum frame (light!), dark grey paint (smoke grey) and I plan to smoke the trails on her. She's definitely an entry level bike, and that's totally fine with me. If I find she's not good enough and I'm putting in a lot of riding, I'll upgrade, but for now, I think she's perfect! Steve loved her just as much, so he bought one too (name TBD). We pick them up on Thursday night. I think I'll buy some SPDs when we're out and swap out the pedals right away. I have touring shoes so I'll be ready from the get go!

The best part is since we still have 6 feet of snow all over the place but the sidewalks and roadsides are cleared, lots of potholes, ice and frozen muck, and there's not way I'd take Beethoven, my roadie out. THIS baby, is going out this week :D. I may have to wear a snowsuit, but I'm going! I'm so excited!

I'm bored

I must be getting better, because I am bored silly.

I slept a record 7 hours last night! Still sleeping on my back and not moving apparently, so of course when I woke I was locked in that position and my back was screaming!

KT's friend Fi was going to come over and watch the first season of The 4400 but cancelled because her honey had a high fever. So glad she called when she did, the house was already cleaned and floors washed! :D

Steve and I decided to get out and go shopping for a bit, as he was in dire need of new pants and shoes for work. I was so tired by the time we finished buying his pants, I couldn't believe that I agreed to go downtown with him to another store to pick up a really nice pair of shoes in his size (the store we were in didn't have them in the right size). We had to walk about .5 km to the store, which was ok, but by the time we had the shoes paid for, I was seeing spots. Felt better by the time we got outside in the fresh air, so instead of asking Steve to get the car and pick me up, we slowly trekked back to the car, stopping once for a Beavertail (Killaloe Sunrise of course!) for Steve... because I was such a disaster this year, we missed Winterlude, where we traditionally eat a Beavertail. He's only a week late in getting it! Because I'm still mindful of my fat intake, I had a bite to taste. So yummy.

We came home and I was almost in tears in the car, my insides were so sore! I'll feel stronger soon I'm sure. I hope! Running still seems so far away :(

Finished Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs today - I'm reading her series in order and this is the best so far. Started the 6th Harry Potter (Half-Blood Prince) after we got home, but fell asleep!

Tomorrow we're expecting hours of freezing rain, so KT may be working from home, but if not, I'll be all by my lonesome until 10PM because both she and Steve and class. It will be a great day to rest, or go out of my head with boredom!

And I rocked it

Last night I was eating portobello risotto as a really late dinner. As I was finishing it my throat got all fuzzy, itchy and it was hard to swaller. Hmmm... never had that before when I ate risotto. It was packaged so I figured maybe there was something in it I was becoming allergic to. So I drank tons of water, and ate some potato chips (purely for the sharpness of the chips, not for the flavour, honest) to try and get my throat to stop feeling swollen and like there was something stuck in it.

I went to bed early, and slept like the dead. So much so that I was snoring so loudly I woke Steve up at 4AM. That never happens. I woke up at 8AM and my throat was still sore. I was feeling mildly nauseated, my eyes were runny and half my head was sore. I figured a cold was coming on.

So I went running. I set Gamine to 10/1 (thanks txskatemom, I never knew it did this until reading it in your blog!), and went to the canal. It was beautifully cool but boy was it windy. There were white caps on the canal. Or as whitecappy as it gets.

I had 10k planned, a loop of the canal including the arboretum. It's been at least a year since I ran it. The first 3/4km was into the wind, so naturally I had mostly a tailwind for the Queen Elizabeth side, half the run. It felt awesome. I had no trouble running the dinky hill that I normally find tough (no doubt because it usually hits me 200m into the run) nor the much steeper and longer hill at the locks. I even forgot to walk once. Of course after crossing the locks to the Colonel By side, I was hit with the wind, and watched my pace drop by almost 30sec/km. But it still felt awesome. It wasn't until my last km when I started to feel my quads. After I finished, I walked another km to cool down, stretched, hopped into the car, and stopped for soup for my throat. My nausea was gone, and frankly I was feeling great.

A little embarrassed by the quantity of salt on my face though. That's not pretty.

After a quick shower Steve arrived from work and we went bike shoe shopping. I got a great pair, and I really hope they will help alleviate the fatigue my right foot feels after 10k. We'll find out tomorrow when we bike the Graham Beasley Du bike leg. No the race isn't on, but I know the route and want to test myself with new shoes. And try to get some confidence back.

Hahaha, Lance Armstrong has a cameo in You, Me and Dupree. Back to the movie.

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. :(

On an upswing

It must be spring, or summer, we've had weather in the 20's/70's. Because I feel like I could fly the past few days!

Back to consistent training, and a little more activity, and loving it. Ran by the canal Wednesday, it was 18C/65F. After 8 inches of snow on Monday. Ya baby! I was able to run 10/1 for 5k, though at the end my heart rate was getting too high for comfort, so I walked for a minute just before my last set of 10. Time was crappy, as expected, but I took 90 seconds on Sunday's 5k time. Progress! And I ran in SHORTS! Ran again on Friday by the canal. Oooh I could get used to this again!

I saw my doctor Thursday, to finally get my results of the tests 6 weeks ago, and another BP check. Oh! but before that I picked up my glasses that I bought on the weekend. I got a great deal, and lucked out with being able to afford prescription sunglasses that I can run in too. Yay! I haven't bought new glasses in 4 years. Wow, it's a bright shiny world out there! Anyway, I had time to spare before my doc appt, so motored over to Mooney's Bay, threw on the iPod and power walked for 25 mins. All morning long I felt my anxiety levels grow over the BP check. I had been following the DASH diet, limiting my sodium to 1500mg as much as possible. I had been working out, but not as much as I'd wanted to because I got sick. And then I passed kidney stones for 2 weeks (this was a party I tell ya). And yay, I lost 3 lbs (by eating an extra 200 cals a day approx), but didn't think that would have an impact. So after my power walk that got me all sweaty and gross, I sat in the car and meditated for 15 mins. Then it was time. After only a 5 min wait, I was called in. My results:

1. Glucose test - not diabetic, not even close. Wooooooot!
2. Thyroid - normal
3. Cholesterol - normal-high. Nothing to worry about yet. This is my next project.
4. Other blood testy stuff - normal
5. Blood in my urine 6 weeks ago, only traces last week, none this week (kidney stones).

Then the BP cuff went on. First reading - 153/98. I say I demand a rematch. He says 'shhhhhhhh' and holds my hand! LOL Second reading 128/90, and the third slightly higher. He thinks that I have white coat syndrome... geeze ya think? I'd been telling him this all along! It's because he keeps threatening to put me on BP drugs! So he told me to buy a BP machine at Costco, and take my BP every morning, and track it. If it's above 140 for 2 months, to go see him.

This morning? 117/73, pulse 56. Boo yah!!

Good times

Finally! I hesitate to say it, as I don't want to jinx myself, but I finally feel like these healthy habits might have an opportunity to stick!

I'm still having some stomach pain, but so infrequent (a few times a day) and so minor, that I hardly notice them. It's more a reminder... "oh ya, I haven't felt this in a while". Yay!

I think I may have been saved. Well not really, but who know! Thursday evening we went to see the Blind Boys of Alabama. I didn't realize it was a benefit concert to raise money for a machine to be used for early diagnosis of degenerative eye conditions, for the eye institute. Even better! I fell in love with Gospel when I began volunteering at the Ottawa Bluesfest in the Gospel tent almost 15 years ago.

The show was wonderful! We clapped, we danced (eventually... this is Ottawa after all) and we sang. I left with a huge smile on my face, which hasn't left me since. Honestly, if I could find a church like that here, I think I could be persuaded to give this religion thing another shot. I am after all, a former Catholic.

Now to those healthy habits. Yesterday I had a frustrating moment, thought about ordering a pizza (seriously) but instead raced across the hall to get my running bra. I hammered out my first 10/1's since restarting this running gig in January. The last set felt hard (they always do don't they!) but I got a great sweat going, and had the endorphins to boot. Not sure I would have felt that great after pizza. Well maybe.

Today I went shopping for glasses, yet again. But this time I got lucky and found some I liked! And one pair of prescription sunglasses too. I'm so excited :)

After our shopping we went for a walk by the canal for an hour. It was lovely out (5C), though overcast. Since we moved I don't get to the canal as often as I used to, so it's a treat!

I can't think of anything else. Life is good! Run by the canal planned tomorrow (the canal two days in a row!), while Steve races.

A clip from the group, same lineup, of one of their slower songs played in December somewhere!