Phew it was a busy week! This week will be about the same, and I'm really not complaining.

Work - love my new job. I'm now getting into the soy of it (I don't eat meat... ok, lame joke). I just hope I can keep it. Next round of layoffs by end of Q2. Hate my workplace sometimes.

But now for the fun stuff! Last week was run 6 walk 1 repeats - each run I found my pace increasing. I didn't feel I was pushing it any more than normal, it never once felt easy, but never once did it feel too hard to continue. Yesterday marked the beginning of 8/1. And it was awesome! The weather was in the 20's (Celcius) all week, and yesterday no different. The wind wasn't too bad, there were loads of people out, it was just so nice! The 8's never felt overly hard, except for one repeat (3rd last I think) where my heart rate got a little high (ok, considering I'm on meds to keep me from going into SVT, I shouldn't be seeing 180's!) and I knew it was happening before I looked at the watch, because I could feel my pace slow dramatically, and effort increase at the same time. It righted itself after my next walk break, and it felt great again. I was almost at the end, and there were two women running behind me chatting away, who never overtook me, and I wasn't about to stop to walk at 8 mins when I only had about 2 mins left, so I ran through it to 10 mins. I know I'll be able to do 10/1 next week. I'm BACK! :D Oh, and I passed several people. That hasn't happened in years!

On Friday we went for a ride along the Rockliffe Parkway. I realized I never got there last year once. How sad is that. They paved it last year, and they paved a little shoulder! There's one part that was redone a few years ago, and isn't that great (and my speed dropped accordingly). My bike fit was so worth it. My speed increased on average by 7 - 10 km/hr. It was really windy and a little cool (the storm hit just as we finished) so in perfect conditions I should be about 15km/hr faster. That's crazy talk! I loved it. And my flat repair held :D This Sunday is the Tour Nortel. We're doing the 35k and hoping for no rain!

So got all my runs and bikes in, but for the third week in a row, forgot to do strength training. I have a serious mental block there! I even asked Steve to remind me and he said he did, however we were in the car at the time.

Weight loss down 2.8 lbs. But the week before I was up. Taking the last two weeks into the equation, I'm down 0.3 lbs. LOL. But my body is changing rapidly. My post-surgery skinny legs are getting muscle tone back, and my hip bones and ribs are starting to be feelable again. :D I still have my big belly, but it's shrinking. The city - the daffodils came up on Tuesday and are in full bloom everywhere. Saturday Steve had to get a run in, and I came along to the Canal and went for a 40 min walk. I saw my first tulips of the season - most beds are still green, but the two that weren't are a beautiful shocking red. It was so gorgeous out!

I'd better get to work. Not sure if I'll run today or not, I have three more to get in this week, but I'm feeling a little piriformis since last night, which is normal for me after an increase in pace/distance the day before. A slow treadmill run usually works it out.

It's about time!

So I figured I'd better get back to this!

After coming back from vacation to a week of project meetings, covering for a colleague and 4 huge consulting requests, finally, yesterday, it's settled down. Of course at 3:45 another large request came in, but I'll start that one next week, once I get the requirements. I LOVE my job so much. Geeze I hope I don't lose it!

Anyway, throughout all this work stuff my workouts have suffered a little bit, however my heart rate has settled down (touch wood).

Today I ran a fantastic 7k at the canal. It was white-cap windy, and much much cooler than the temps we've been having, so I wore a jacket and it was perfect. My heart rate was a well behaved average 153 (I'm looking forward to this dropping but at least this is the acceptable range!).

As I was finishing my last km, I saw some guy in the distance and I thought "oh he's fishing". Then realized that no, "I think he's looking through binoculars". Of course as I get closer I think to myself "what the heck do you think you're looking at you pervert". And finally "OH! It's Steve and he's filming me running!" Boo-urns. His reasoning? "I thought you might want to analyze your running gait". Um. Not really ;)

So this small speck of blue in the distance would be me questioning the pervert ;)


This would be the up close and scary photo:


And the last one:


I'm the speck in blue coming back towards Steve. On the right is the locks at Hogsback Bridge. Honestly, the winds were awful and the water was horribly choppy on the other side of the bridge!

In other news, this week Steve and I began P90X. OH.MY.GOD. On Sunday we passed the fit test, but much of it barely for me - at least anything involving upper body strength. Darn little raptor arms. Anyway, on Monday we did the 'Core Synergistics' DVD. 60 minutes of pure pain. Our heart rates were almost as high as running, and we were both sweating madly. And it's NOT a cardio DVD! This was all strength training. I hurt for 3 days after! Thank goodness the next day was a cardio day, I opted to run in lieu of the cardio DVD. The day after was Yoga. NINETY MINUTES. I have zero flexibility in addition to my lack of upper body strength so I was a-hurtin'. There were some poses I couldn't do at all, so in all I completed 70 minutes of it. Very proud of this! My shoulders are still sore though! But it's a good feeling! I think I'll like this program - finally a strength training program I don't hate!

So in other news, Steve got the results of his MRI. Two lower back discs are bulging but not pressing on his spine nor any nerves. This is great news! However he's still in constant pain, as he says 'always there in the background', and can't run. Well he can, but it hurts. A lot. Stepping back to April, when Steve was getting his new store set up and working 16 hour days, not eating well, and training for his half marathon with Gotta Run, the doctor supporting the team thought the pain in his leg was radiant pain from his back. So they performed every treatment they could. Which is where the MRI came from. Back to Monday, Steve reviews the MRI with his own doctor and tells him his leg is still sore. So they schedule an x-ray of his leg for Tuesday. Once the x-ray was done, Steve was told his doctor wanted to see him right away, but first he had to get the intern. Steve of course now thinks the worst! The doctor (also a runner) came in, shook his hand and said "you have my respect. you ran a half marathon on a broken leg". Steve was stunned and said "you mean stress fracture?". "NO - a full break of your tibia".

There were a few days where the pain was so bad he was popping Advil like candy (well the Advil he took for probably 2 months), and I forced him on crutches, which he grudgingly accepted as a compromise - as the alternative was my driving him to ER. So a full break in his leg, caused by over training, over working and not eating/sleeping enough, probably came out of a stress fracture, and only 4 days on crutches. FOUR.

His leg is almost healed now, though he does have a calcium deposit and it's not a clean heal, so he's not allowed any impact sports for 4 weeks (swimming and biking are ok, and definitely no P90X), then they will re-assess. If it's not better, or not better looking on the x-ray, he will have to have it surgically broken and properly set.

I don't know whether to hug him or break the other leg ;) Stubborn boy!

Other than that, we checked out the Renoir exhibit at the National Gallery last Sunday. Love Love Love it!

I'm going to have to try harder at this!

It's been several weeks, but I've been busy! Had a great vacation in the townships, then Steve's daughter visited for a week, then back to work, straight into the office for 3 full days of project meetings, and last week pretty much catching up there. Of course the rest of the world is slowly getting back from vacation too, and I now have 4 consulting requests due on Aug 31. I'm in trouble! But it feels good to be back and busy.

Today we're going for a short run, and hoping the heart rate stays down - it's not Wencke anymore thank goodness, I'm so done with that! It's just loss of fitness from the past few weeks of crappy runs, stopping because of Wencke. Then we're off to the Hershey's Chocolate Factory. I've never been, and it's going to close soon :(

Sadly, my du plans for next weekend, and half mary plans for the fall have been postponed. Heart's not quite there yet.

Laterz!

I'm tired now

It was a great day today. I got to bed way too late last night after homeworking until midnight. I had every intention to drive Steve to work and nab the car, but I couldn't face 6:30AM. Next thing I knew it was 8:45!!

I knew Steve was taking a short day today, after not having a day off this week, so Katie and I had a large breafast. Steve was home at 1:30, and by 2 we were out the door on our way to the canal for a run. I haven't run outside in a few weeks, my winter running clothes not fitting and too cold to not dress for it. Today was -7C/20F, but with the wind, and there was some serious wind, it felt like -15C/5F. Which would be ok if I was dressed appropriately. But I wasn't. I was FREEZING. It was the crappiest of runs, I could barely run the 5/1, on the way back opting for 3/1 or 2/1. I have no idea why, but my tummy felt like rock. It was very painful and the main reason I bailed on my 5/1. Anyway, these runs happen.

After a quick shower, some lunch and my hair dried, we bundled up and went to Winterlude. We knew parking would be a bear, so opted to park 1km away. After my crappy run, I needed the distance anyway! We walked around and took in the ice sculptures. Below, some of our favorites:

And one of us:

All 28 shots can be found here.

Tomorrow starts with a memorial mass for Mom and Dad, then my nephew's hockey tournament.

Off to bed!