Weekend on the Water

Just saying, I may have to try this whole not racing thing again sometime. I had such a fantastic weekend full of friends, adventures and a really solid workout.

I headed to Hamilton on Friday night and spent some time with two of my best friends from university. We grabbed pizza and ate it by the river and spent the evening catching up and seeing how life has changed our little days in class together.

Saturday, I helped out at the Amish auction in Perth County. Let me explain. I live in an unusual corner of the world with a very specific culture of the Mennonites. This is the most unique event I know that involves them raising funds for their school system. There are hundreds of people that come out to check out the auction which features everything from livestock and antiques to farm equipment. My father’s Home Hardware store puts in a booth every year and I helped out and went to check out some of the culture!

Athletics-wise, it was my second last big volume weekend before my marathon. I had mentioned that I had worked out a system with my coach where I would do an hour long cycle before my long run to get my legs good and tired for the run to simulate a marathon without pushing my milage too high, too fast.

Of course, it was POURING rain for me, but my cycle went quickly.

It was hard to mentally wrap my mind around the fact that I would be out there for 3 and a half hours, but that is all a part of the training. I also experimented with a new form of fuelling, experiment being the operating word.

I had heard that chocolate pudding was a similar nutritional profile as gel and it works fabulously for fuelling training. Typical me, I was all into using myself for an experiment so I filled a couple plastic bags with chocolate pudding and took off for my run. Didn’t google the validity of it or ANYTHING because I am unusually optimistic about using incorrect foods for fuelling. 

Well. I kind of wish I would have. Firstly, my legs felt like junk the first 6 KM off the bike but it magically disappeared after my first tempo portion, despite the rain. I took my pudding(I grimace even writing that) at around 15 km or half way.

My digestive system was less than thrilled. Let’s just say, it was a good solid effort and I will never use pudding on a training run again. Full stop. The run can be seen here.

Sunday, I took a complete rest day and spent the day with my cousin. He is a paramedic and is constantly inundated with health questions from me. (Hey Chris – when you run a hard workout and are violently ill 4 hours later, what causes that? What does hogweed burn look like? What does…)

He clearly loves every second of it.

My sport for July is kayaking and we met up with a friend for a fantastic day on the water.

We were rained on for a portion of our 5 hour session, but it didn’t matter. I absolutely loved the change of pace and working on my upper body strength and perfecting my technique. I love being on the water and it was the perfect recovery day.

Don’t forget to enter my Genuine Health giveaway! Winner is drawn on Wednesday. Just leave a comment on this post to enter.

What did you do this weekend?

What is the newest sport you have tried lately?