Tag Archives: Race

Weekend Recap

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Well. I made it.

Saturday dawned with a chill and the promise of rain. I donned my Warrior gear and set out for Guelph to run on of my last varsity races this season.

I have had a lot of pain in my right knee since last weekend, but I deemed it runnable. I checked in with my team therapist who suggested I have a mild tendonitis in my adductors in my right leg.

Great.

I went for a nice warm up jog and before I knew it, it was 10 minutes to race time and I was feeling good to run!

The race began and the first loop went well – I did my first 2.5 km in 11.17. The second loop was when the wheels fell off the wagon, so to speak. I mentally checked out because I started feeling pain in my achilles. I finished with a 21:29 and Jesse and I grabbed my gear and headed out for our first Saturday together in forever. We did some errands and watched episodes of Breaking Bad all afternoon, while eating a stuffed pork roast. By that, I mean he literally made a pork roast and we had it between us and were alternating bites. Pork is the new popcorn.

Fist pump for a boy who cheers me on at a race in the morning and cooks for me in the afternoon!

I had a fantastic weekend full of family, running and good food which is the best kind.

To take the pain out of your Monday:

Sent to me by a coworker and author of http://livingwellinkw.com/

 Remember to check back on Friday – I have a giveaway! 

Weekend Recap

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This weekend was INSANE! Friday night, I was scampering around my house preparing for each step of the way because everything  was break neck speed from Friday night forward!

Saturday morning dawned early and I was off to the market to buy apples and bagels for 250 people at the University of Waterloo Homecoming XC Varsity race. I spent the morning getting race bibs prepped and readying the race course until it was time to race!

I was unsure of how the race would go as I have been doing more trail running this summer than racing and I have not done the proper levels of interval training for an event with this level of competition. I actually enjoyed the race and sustained a decent pace throughout considering the type of terrain we were racing on. Some race photos:

Sprinting to the finish

And DONE!

I had a time of 21:45 which is not at the top of the roster to say the least, but I felt great and and finished strong!

A little weary post race.

After cool down and awards, I headed to David’s Tea to meet up with Angela to catch up on life and do a book swap for the As Good As Gold book! You know what that means! Keep checking back for a giveaway!

Saturday night, I spent time with Jesse for the first time in forever. We tried to watch a movie with his room mate and I fell asleep in the first half hour of the movie. They were making fun of the many movies I have only seen half of. My argument is that I go full speed all the time, so the moment that I slow down…I crash.

Sunday morning, Jesse and I headed to a local event called Sustainability in the Park, a great teamup of local sustainable businesses, Women in Action and World Accord. We signed up to do the 33 km route and were excited to take our road bikes out for another spin.

Ready to GO!

Jesse. Listening intently to ride instructions.

He was such a trooper this weekend. Firstly biking 33 km in the morning and heading to University of Toronto to participate in my fitness certification exam.

In all honesty, the bike was perfect. Fresh apples at the half way point and gorgeous banks of trees beside rivers to help us climb the hills to the finish line. Beautiful fall ride!

We stopped by Starbucks to get lattes and fuel ourselves for the next part of our day…my fitness exam.

We went back to his apartment and were greeted by his room mate, cooking up a storm!

We picked up my sister and another friend and headed to Toronto to do my exam. Honestly, I have such amazing people in my life to be willing to ride in a car for an hour and a half, one way, listening to me stress talk. And then doing a hard cardio workout and saying they were happy to be there.

I passed my exam and we went to The Works to celebrate. (Where else, really?) Sadly, the waiter recognized us and we realized that we had just been there last week…we really need to look into getting another go-to place.

Those of you who follow me on twitter may have seen I kicked off my weekend with this arriving on my doorstep from Vega:

Being a smoothie die-hard, I have tried all the other flavours and I am so excited to try the French Vanilla. I will let you know what I think.

How did everyone else’s weekend go?

And I have to know…am I the only one that falls asleep during every movie they watch?

Pre-Race Checklist

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It’s the day before a big race for me and I have slowly learned through trial and error what works best for me before a hard run. Perhaps it would have been simpler to glean the information from running professionals, but I wouldn’t have followed it anyways. I have this small issue of needing to make the experiance mine before I can do something wholeheartedly.

So what am I wholeheartedly doing today?

  1. Eating. You cannot be shocked at this. I am making attempts at eating whenever I get hungry and constantly. Again- how is this any different from normal, you may ask? I just finished eating oatmeal and a peach for a snack…before lunch. Ergo, I am seeking out carbs and trying to make them as healthy as possible.

                                               

Me. Eating some good (edit: yummy) carbs.

2.         Shaving. And before you rush away, I will not post any picture for this. And don’t assume I live as Sasquatch, I definately don’t, but the day before a race I always shave, no matter what. Nothing is more annoying then wearing those unsightly short shorts with any semblance of hair on your legs. Plus, it makes you more aerodynamically correct! (At least that is my arguement)

3. Hydrate! I use the best water bottle in the world and I drink as much as humanly possible the day before. (Mind you, science tells that the coffee I am slugging back has an opposite effect, but I rebut with the simple fact it is a liquid! See? Common sense! )

                                                         

My fabulous water bottle.

4.   Get my sleep. (ish) It is frusterating to get enough sleep for a Saturday race because I am 21 and Friday nights are my specialty. But really – sleep makes a huge difference. I am not too worried about tomorrow because I race at 5:30 pm.

5. Get my stuff together. You know: shoes, clothes, map to race, keys, BOOK if you don’t have people coming to cheer you on and talk to (often it is fruitless to drag any friend or relative out to the highways and trails before dawn to watch me run..I can’t imagine why not???), water bottle, snacks (like granola bars, fruit, nuts), monnnnnnnnnney, etc. That is a lot of things to remember when you are not fully conscious, so do it before you go to bed!

6. Don’t think about it too much. I am not one of those people that visualizes my races. I am there to run and have fun. So I put it out of mind until I am lining up to start. This will encourage ” What was I thinking? What did I get myself into?” thoughts about half way through, but this is normal for most aspects of my life, so why stray from the normal?

7. Move as little as possible.

I, for one, would love to spend the day on the couch today watching Gossip Girl and carb loading with popcron, but I am at work. So I take the stairs as little as possible, I am not running today and I am just chilling. It is pretty nice for now, but I will be antsy to move once the starting gun sounds. Perfect.

I will post a recap following the race. I am doing the 30 K Midsummer Nights Run in downtown Toronto. As if 30 K of night time city streets isn’t enough of a Jess thing, it is a Shakespearian theme. Hello!!!!! :)

The link: http://www.amidsummernightsrun.ca/

Run strong!