So even though I'm all about the food, I generally don't write restaurant reviews...but because Sizzling Tandoor was that good, I'm making an exception. Hubs and I were looking for restaurants to take my parents to for Father's Day - it was funny, because we kept taking them out for Chinese food, because we figure hey...that's what they wanted. When we were kids, we never went out for dinner ever, and always ate homestyle Chinese meals. So assuming that all they wanted to eat was Chinese, for every occasion we'd truck them to our favourite place in town. One day, I ask my mom for dinner and she kind of brushes me off...so after some questioning, I find out that they're totally sick of Chinese food!! Well that opened the culinary floodgates for my parents...and also opened my eyes to never, ever making assumptions. We've taken them out for Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, steakhouses...so thought a cuisine that they'd never tried was Indian. We'd heard great things about this place called Sizzling Tandoor here in Victoria, so thought we'd better try it out before we take them there. Gotta test it out, right? Hah!
We decided to order take out - lamb rogan josh, dal makhani, fish pakoraas and chicken vindaloo. Unfortunately, they missed the rogan josh (argghhhh!!!) so we only got the other three dishes. Now I like dal as much as the next guy, but it's generally all the same...nothing too different. The dal from this place however...well, it absolutely and completely blew us away. The fish pakoras were tasty and the vindaloo was delish...but the dal was so amazing that I felt compelled to blog about it - it's that good! Thick with incredibly deep and complex flavours...we couldn't get enough. The food was...dare I say it...even better than what I had at Vij's...and to me, that's sayin' something. Hubs and I are still craving the dal. If tha't's what the takeout tasted like...I can only imagine what the other menu items must be like!
So if you're in Victoria and you've got a hankering for Indian food - give this place a try...you won't be disappointed.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Me and O
I love Oprah. OK, there. I said it! I've been watching her off and on for years and liked seeing how her show transitioned to be more meaningful, rather than the trashy talk shows a la Maury and Sally Jessy. Bleh. Oprah is the only talk show that Hubs doesn't mind me watching, as he feels the other stuff has absolutely no redeeming value (yes...he knows my penchant for a good ol' episode of Jerry Springer now and then). Now think what you want about Oprah. Some people love her, some people hate her, some people are meh. I personally looooove Oprah and have gleaned a lot from her shows...maybe it's the stage of life I'm going through but her shows really give me a lot of food for thought.
Because there's all the hype around the end of her show, I started recording the last few weeks so I could watch them at my own leisure. The other day I watched her finale show, and I was blown away. It was just her, talking about the things she's learned from her show. You know how sometimes you hear something, and it really hits home? It was like in this show, she was talking to me directly. I'd been struggling with finding my passion for years before discovering my love of running, food and all things healthy. There's a few potentially life changing things on the horizon where I feel like I'm on the brink of something big, and the "whispers" are pointing me right at it, to take the chance and go for it. Here's a piece from the transcript of her last show to show you what I mean:
On what our jobs are in life:
What I knew for sure from this experience with you is that we are all called. Everybody has a calling, and your real job in life is to figure out what that is and get about the business of doing it. Every time we have seen a person on this stage who is a success in their life, they spoke of the job, and they spoke of the juice that they receive from doing what they knew they were meant to be doing. We saw it in the volunteers who rocked abandoned babies in Atlanta. We saw it with those lovely pie ladies from Cape Cod making those delicious potpies. … We saw it every time Tina Turner, Celine, Bocelli or Lady Gaga lit up the stage with their passion. Because that is what a calling is. It lights you up and it lets you know that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be, doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. And that is what I want for all of you and hope that you will take from this show. To live from the heart of yourself. You have to make a living; I understand that. But you also have to know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world.
On what your life is saying to you:
...and your life is always speaking to you. First in whispers. ... It's subtle, those whispers. And if you don't pay attention to the whispers, it gets louder and louder. It's like getting thumped upside the head, like my grandmother used to do. ... You don't pay attention to that, it's like getting a brick upside your head. You don't pay attention to that, the whole brick wall falls down. That's the pattern I've seen in my life, and it's played out over and over again on this show. A couple weeks ago, we brought back Carolyn Thomas whose face was literally shot off by her boyfriend. You ask Carolyn now: 'Were there whispers? Were there bricks before the disastrous bullet?' What Carolyn would say to you? 'Don't wait for your face to get shot off before you hear your own life speaking to you. What I've gleaned from this show: Whispers are always messages, and if you don't hear the message, the message turns into a problem. And if you don't handle the problem, the problem turns into a crisis. And if you don't handle the crisis, disaster. Your life is speaking to you. What is it saying?
Powerful stuff. I know I for one, will miss her show. Thanks for 25 great years, O!
Because there's all the hype around the end of her show, I started recording the last few weeks so I could watch them at my own leisure. The other day I watched her finale show, and I was blown away. It was just her, talking about the things she's learned from her show. You know how sometimes you hear something, and it really hits home? It was like in this show, she was talking to me directly. I'd been struggling with finding my passion for years before discovering my love of running, food and all things healthy. There's a few potentially life changing things on the horizon where I feel like I'm on the brink of something big, and the "whispers" are pointing me right at it, to take the chance and go for it. Here's a piece from the transcript of her last show to show you what I mean:
On what our jobs are in life:
What I knew for sure from this experience with you is that we are all called. Everybody has a calling, and your real job in life is to figure out what that is and get about the business of doing it. Every time we have seen a person on this stage who is a success in their life, they spoke of the job, and they spoke of the juice that they receive from doing what they knew they were meant to be doing. We saw it in the volunteers who rocked abandoned babies in Atlanta. We saw it with those lovely pie ladies from Cape Cod making those delicious potpies. … We saw it every time Tina Turner, Celine, Bocelli or Lady Gaga lit up the stage with their passion. Because that is what a calling is. It lights you up and it lets you know that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be, doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. And that is what I want for all of you and hope that you will take from this show. To live from the heart of yourself. You have to make a living; I understand that. But you also have to know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world.
On what your life is saying to you:
...and your life is always speaking to you. First in whispers. ... It's subtle, those whispers. And if you don't pay attention to the whispers, it gets louder and louder. It's like getting thumped upside the head, like my grandmother used to do. ... You don't pay attention to that, it's like getting a brick upside your head. You don't pay attention to that, the whole brick wall falls down. That's the pattern I've seen in my life, and it's played out over and over again on this show. A couple weeks ago, we brought back Carolyn Thomas whose face was literally shot off by her boyfriend. You ask Carolyn now: 'Were there whispers? Were there bricks before the disastrous bullet?' What Carolyn would say to you? 'Don't wait for your face to get shot off before you hear your own life speaking to you. What I've gleaned from this show: Whispers are always messages, and if you don't hear the message, the message turns into a problem. And if you don't handle the problem, the problem turns into a crisis. And if you don't handle the crisis, disaster. Your life is speaking to you. What is it saying?
Powerful stuff. I know I for one, will miss her show. Thanks for 25 great years, O!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Marathon Quest 2011
Sooooooooooo...I admit...I've been a bit lax after the Oak Bay Half. I was riding the high of a PB, easing back a bit on the workouts and had a fantastically chill long Victoria Day weekend. I'm fully enjoying this break because now it's time to get down to business and get on the marathon train!
I registered for the Running Room online clinic...there's actually lots of run clinics in Victoria, but they always do their long runs on Sundays (doesn't work for Hubs and I want to keep running with him) and they do their speedwork after work on weekdays (I get sidestitches no matter how many hours earlier I stop eating - yes, I know, I'm so much trouble). Sometimes I get a little wistful as it would be cool to meet other runners, but the online clinic has lots of forums so maybe I'll get to meet some friends virtually. The running community is pretty tight knit and supportive of each other so I'm looking forward to it!
First day of this marathon cycle - June 5th and then 18 weeks of nose-to-the-grindstone training. I'm going to stick with doing bootcamp a few times a week as I honestly feel that if I'm stronger overall, my running will be better. I really didn't like how weak I got last year and we do a fair amount of running and hillwork in bootcamps. So my week will look something like this:
Sun: rest
Mon: bootcamp
Tues: medium run
Wed: medium run (or bootcamp)
Thurs: rest
Fri: bootcamp
Sat: long run
Other things that I'll be doing this training cycle - I promise I will stretch every night and I promise I will do my exercises...basically I'll do whatever it takes to get my butt across that finish line! I'm going to do up a big calendar, post it up where I can see it daily and mark off runs/exercises as I complete them - I'm all about the visual! And of course, I'm going to pay a little visit to my physio every month and maybe slightly more leading up to the marathon to make sure I stay healthy and injury free.
Nutrition is also going to pay a bigger part of this cycle as well. Last year...sigh...I admittedly packed on more weight than I would have liked, as I definitely used all the running as an excuse to eat everything in sight. And not super healthy stuff either. Not this year! I'm logging all my food into My Fitness Pal, so I keep an eye on making sure I balance my food and I'm going to really try to focus on keeping the diet clean (with one off day per week in moderation). Doing the Ten Pound Challenge has really helped my running so I'm going to work hard to keep my weight steady. And....I really don't want to have to do another challenge during Christmas, like I did last year! Seriously, that almost killed me. Ha!
So time goal, you're probably all wondering? I would be absolutely thrilled beyond belief if I finished in 4:30 so will focus my training on that time. I have no illusions of grandeur of a sub four hour, and honestly just want to finish feeling good and enjoying the experience of my first marathon - you only get one first marathon so I really want it to be a good one!
And...as a reward after the marathon - Hubs and I are heading to Maui again! We were going to skip a year and not go since we already went to Hong Kong...but there was an amazing seat sale on Westjet...and well, we just had to. So we've booked to go Oct 18 - 25, so about a week and a half after the marathon. The bad thing is...because we're taking that time off, I'll be using up all my vacation so I'll have to go to work the next day after the race...aaaaaaand....there are lots of stairs at work. The good thing though is that hopefully I'll be recovered enough to be able to enjoy it, as we were originally trying to fly out the next day. I told Hubs he'd have to piggy back me throughout the airports!
I'm excited. I'm hepped up. Game face on. Marathon Quest 2011, here we go!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Oak Bay Half Marathon Race Report
Wow, can't believe that the race is done and over! The Oak Bay Half Marathon is a fairly small and intimate race that winds its way through the beautiful streets of the Oak Bay neighbourhood in Victoria. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like it since most of the races I've run in the past are pretty big with thousands and thousands of entrants, but overall I have to say I really enjoyed a smaller race. More room to move - nothing drives me more crazy when you have to deke in and out of people who run five abreast (grrrrr!) - and no massive line ups for the portapotties. Excellent! They also do a relay at this half as well, which I took part in a few years ago through the bootcamp I go to.
For about a week before the race, all I kept hearing about on the weather reports was about an impending weather system that was going to hit us - you guessed it - smack dab on Sunday. I kept obsessively checking the weather and it just kept getting worse and worse - rain, rain and more rain! Argh! I haven't raced in the rain before, so I didn't really know how to handle it or what I was going to wear.
As usual, Hubs and I set out our gear the night before. I kept changing my mind and eventually changed the shirt to a short sleeve - I figured the rain would just make any sort of sleeve unbearable. I also decided to wear a fuel belt as the course map didn't note what kilometre the aid stations were at.
I also did something this race that I hadn't tried before - a pace band:
Note the time..hee hee:
The last race I ran I really wished I'd had one - I had my garmin so I could see my pace, but I didn't know if I was losing or gaining time. Because I knew it was going to rain, I covered it in packing tape so it wouldn't turn into a big soggy mess on my wrist.
For this race, we never ended up running the race course so we decided to drive it the night before to get an idea of the hills and markers. SO glad we did this because there were some long gradual hills that were pretty killer, so we knew that we had to gird our loins. The start of the race course was fairly flat and there were some good downhill portions, but the second half wasn't pretty. There was one fairly big hill at the end, followed by a short one that crested just before the final sprint to the finish line. This hill would haunt me as it stayed on my mind the whole race.
Our plan was to get up at around 6:30am to get down to the race by 7:30-ish. Hubs didn't have a great sleep, but I slept fairly well the night before and felt pretty refreshed. Of course, the first thing I did was look outside and sure enough...it was a torrential downpour. To keep ourselves dry while we waited for the race to start, we tried to stay under some awnings and had brought along garbage bags to cover ourselves with. I was actually going to bring my iPhone with me so I could take photos, but I knew it was going to be way too wet, so sorry guys...not many race photos! We meandered our way over to the start line, and hung out at the back of the pack. At 8am sharp, off we went! I gave Hubs a kiss, we wished each other luck and I took off.
0-7K
The first few kilometres flew by and to be honest, I don't remember a whole lot about them. I kept checking my garmin to see what my pace was, and was surprised to see that I was hoofing it...my target pace was 5:41, so my goal was to stay below that for all my splits. My race strategy in the past was to go out conservatively and try to run a negative split but I decided to try to maintain a 5:30 pace this round to start and try to hang on to that. I was feeling really good, so went with it but tried to keep mindful of the fact that I didn't want to go out too fast and risk burning out at the end. For the most part, the majority of this section of the course was flat or downhill, resulting in some good splits. I also kept checking my time against my pace band, and was happy to see that I was banking some time.
1K: 5:28
2K: 5:33
3K: 5:27
4K: 5:30
5K: 5:22
6K: 5:22
7K: 5:24 - Gu time!
8-14K
I was feeling strong up to about 9K, when I hit my first hill - not a sharp one, but a long gradual climb. I started to feel winded, and thought uh oh...not good considering I wasn't even half way yet. I tried to put it out of my mind, but was wondering if I had gone out too fast. I had to really start concentrating on my stride and was trying to find someone who could pace me. I ended up picking this girl in a hot pink shirt that ran around the same pace I was running, and tried to keep her in my sights. I was really happy to see the halfway marker and boy, it was raining hard. At one point, I took water at the aid station and sloshed it all over myself but it didn't really matter since I was already drenched!
8K: 5:18
9K: 5:25
10K: 5:22
11K: 5:25
12K: 5:35
13K: 5:32
14K: 5:36 - Gu time!
Time at the halfway point - 57:00
15-21K
This last stretch was pretty tough and admittedly, I had a bit of a mental breakdown. The hills were really getting to me, and I ended up taking many 10 - 15 second walk breaks to gather myself as I was really, really tired. The only saving grace of the hills was that around halfway through the race I started to get a stitch which was made worse by the downhills, but going uphill made it better. A double edged sword! I was running slower on the downhills because of the sidestitch, but ran faster on the uphill - I guess just to power through it. I kept thinking about the big hill that was waiting for me, and I started thinking that I wasn't sure if I could even run it. I knew I had some banked time, but my legs were feeling really heavy and my mental focus started to disintegrate.
At around 15K, I grabbed some water at an aid station and took a quick walk break when one of my bootcamp instructors who was in the relay spotted me and screamed out "Goooooo Cindy!!!" That really perked me up and gave me energy to keep moving. A few steps later, the owner of my bootcamp absolutely screamed out my name which gave me a huge giggle! Feeling brighter, I found the energy to keep moving on. I was exhausted though...and you can tell by my splits I was totally slowing down. I'd lost sight of my hot pink race bunny ages ago. As my garmin chimed out 20K, I looked up and saw the nasty big hill was ahead of me. I really had to dig deep and managed to run the whole thing but it wasn't pretty. As I crested the last hill I could see the finish line, and could hear the announcer counting down to how many seconds left for a sub 1:56 finish...gaaah! I can admit this now - anything in the 1:55 range was "my secret whisper goal"...but I just didn't have the kick in the end. Sorry I held back on you guys. Final splits:
15K: 5:34
16K: 5:39
17K: 5:45
18K: 5:39
19K: 5:53 <----- as you can tell, this is where I completely fell apart
20K: 5:45
21K: 5:47
I couldn't believe it...my A goal was anything with a "1" in front of it, but I was stunned that I'd done four minutes under that and a personal best by five minutes! As I grabbed my medal, I hobbled off to the side to wait for Hubs to come in - I could feel my legs cramping up almost immediately and my feet were raw from the friction of the wet socks. I watched and cheered some of the other racers coming in and as always, it's absolutely part of the race that I enjoy so much. I soon saw Hubs and cheered him on - he finished with a time of 2:08:54, and was happy with his time especially considering he could barely run 10K last fall without being in pain! So proud.
Here's a picture of what the weather was like (photo credit to Body Dynamics Bootcamp)...it was absolutely pouring out, and I was soaked right through to my underwear. I didn't feel it at first, but after I found Hubs and we started walking back to the car, I started getting really, really cold. I actually think I was carrying around an extra two or three pounds of water weight as I was wringing out my vest. Apparently a girl who was walking the race started going hypothermic and they had call an ambulance, poor thing. I didn't feel the rain when I was running, but I am completely and utterly thankful that there was no wind because that would have completely horrible. Definitely the long, hot shower I took afterwards was the best.thing.ever.
For about a week before the race, all I kept hearing about on the weather reports was about an impending weather system that was going to hit us - you guessed it - smack dab on Sunday. I kept obsessively checking the weather and it just kept getting worse and worse - rain, rain and more rain! Argh! I haven't raced in the rain before, so I didn't really know how to handle it or what I was going to wear.
As usual, Hubs and I set out our gear the night before. I kept changing my mind and eventually changed the shirt to a short sleeve - I figured the rain would just make any sort of sleeve unbearable. I also decided to wear a fuel belt as the course map didn't note what kilometre the aid stations were at.
I also did something this race that I hadn't tried before - a pace band:
Note the time..hee hee:
The last race I ran I really wished I'd had one - I had my garmin so I could see my pace, but I didn't know if I was losing or gaining time. Because I knew it was going to rain, I covered it in packing tape so it wouldn't turn into a big soggy mess on my wrist.
For this race, we never ended up running the race course so we decided to drive it the night before to get an idea of the hills and markers. SO glad we did this because there were some long gradual hills that were pretty killer, so we knew that we had to gird our loins. The start of the race course was fairly flat and there were some good downhill portions, but the second half wasn't pretty. There was one fairly big hill at the end, followed by a short one that crested just before the final sprint to the finish line. This hill would haunt me as it stayed on my mind the whole race.
Our plan was to get up at around 6:30am to get down to the race by 7:30-ish. Hubs didn't have a great sleep, but I slept fairly well the night before and felt pretty refreshed. Of course, the first thing I did was look outside and sure enough...it was a torrential downpour. To keep ourselves dry while we waited for the race to start, we tried to stay under some awnings and had brought along garbage bags to cover ourselves with. I was actually going to bring my iPhone with me so I could take photos, but I knew it was going to be way too wet, so sorry guys...not many race photos! We meandered our way over to the start line, and hung out at the back of the pack. At 8am sharp, off we went! I gave Hubs a kiss, we wished each other luck and I took off.
0-7K
The first few kilometres flew by and to be honest, I don't remember a whole lot about them. I kept checking my garmin to see what my pace was, and was surprised to see that I was hoofing it...my target pace was 5:41, so my goal was to stay below that for all my splits. My race strategy in the past was to go out conservatively and try to run a negative split but I decided to try to maintain a 5:30 pace this round to start and try to hang on to that. I was feeling really good, so went with it but tried to keep mindful of the fact that I didn't want to go out too fast and risk burning out at the end. For the most part, the majority of this section of the course was flat or downhill, resulting in some good splits. I also kept checking my time against my pace band, and was happy to see that I was banking some time.
1K: 5:28
2K: 5:33
3K: 5:27
4K: 5:30
5K: 5:22
6K: 5:22
7K: 5:24 - Gu time!
8-14K
I was feeling strong up to about 9K, when I hit my first hill - not a sharp one, but a long gradual climb. I started to feel winded, and thought uh oh...not good considering I wasn't even half way yet. I tried to put it out of my mind, but was wondering if I had gone out too fast. I had to really start concentrating on my stride and was trying to find someone who could pace me. I ended up picking this girl in a hot pink shirt that ran around the same pace I was running, and tried to keep her in my sights. I was really happy to see the halfway marker and boy, it was raining hard. At one point, I took water at the aid station and sloshed it all over myself but it didn't really matter since I was already drenched!
8K: 5:18
9K: 5:25
10K: 5:22
11K: 5:25
12K: 5:35
13K: 5:32
14K: 5:36 - Gu time!
Time at the halfway point - 57:00
15-21K
This last stretch was pretty tough and admittedly, I had a bit of a mental breakdown. The hills were really getting to me, and I ended up taking many 10 - 15 second walk breaks to gather myself as I was really, really tired. The only saving grace of the hills was that around halfway through the race I started to get a stitch which was made worse by the downhills, but going uphill made it better. A double edged sword! I was running slower on the downhills because of the sidestitch, but ran faster on the uphill - I guess just to power through it. I kept thinking about the big hill that was waiting for me, and I started thinking that I wasn't sure if I could even run it. I knew I had some banked time, but my legs were feeling really heavy and my mental focus started to disintegrate.
At around 15K, I grabbed some water at an aid station and took a quick walk break when one of my bootcamp instructors who was in the relay spotted me and screamed out "Goooooo Cindy!!!" That really perked me up and gave me energy to keep moving. A few steps later, the owner of my bootcamp absolutely screamed out my name which gave me a huge giggle! Feeling brighter, I found the energy to keep moving on. I was exhausted though...and you can tell by my splits I was totally slowing down. I'd lost sight of my hot pink race bunny ages ago. As my garmin chimed out 20K, I looked up and saw the nasty big hill was ahead of me. I really had to dig deep and managed to run the whole thing but it wasn't pretty. As I crested the last hill I could see the finish line, and could hear the announcer counting down to how many seconds left for a sub 1:56 finish...gaaah! I can admit this now - anything in the 1:55 range was "my secret whisper goal"...but I just didn't have the kick in the end. Sorry I held back on you guys. Final splits:
15K: 5:34
16K: 5:39
17K: 5:45
18K: 5:39
19K: 5:53 <----- as you can tell, this is where I completely fell apart
20K: 5:45
21K: 5:47
I couldn't believe it...my A goal was anything with a "1" in front of it, but I was stunned that I'd done four minutes under that and a personal best by five minutes! As I grabbed my medal, I hobbled off to the side to wait for Hubs to come in - I could feel my legs cramping up almost immediately and my feet were raw from the friction of the wet socks. I watched and cheered some of the other racers coming in and as always, it's absolutely part of the race that I enjoy so much. I soon saw Hubs and cheered him on - he finished with a time of 2:08:54, and was happy with his time especially considering he could barely run 10K last fall without being in pain! So proud.
Here's a picture of what the weather was like (photo credit to Body Dynamics Bootcamp)...it was absolutely pouring out, and I was soaked right through to my underwear. I didn't feel it at first, but after I found Hubs and we started walking back to the car, I started getting really, really cold. I actually think I was carrying around an extra two or three pounds of water weight as I was wringing out my vest. Apparently a girl who was walking the race started going hypothermic and they had call an ambulance, poor thing. I didn't feel the rain when I was running, but I am completely and utterly thankful that there was no wind because that would have completely horrible. Definitely the long, hot shower I took afterwards was the best.thing.ever.
Chip time: 1:56:09
Pace: 5:32/km
Overall: 388/777
Age Group (F40-44): 26/62
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Gratituesday - The Running Edition
In light of the race I just ran, I'm grateful for the following:
- A wonderful and supportive Hubs who trains with me, even though he admittedly doesn't love running but loves the benefits (he says he only runs so he can eat!)
- Friends who cheered me on - means the world to me and I love you for it
- Long hot showers after cold, wet races
- Awesome race volunteers who stood in the pouring rain to cheer us on, give us high fives and make sure we had water.
- The spectator who saw me trying to check my pace and yelled "don't worry, you're right on target, you look awesome!" Made me smile even though I felt like dying
- The girl with the black braid and hot pink shirt who I used as a pace bunny - I don't know who you are, but thank you for helping me PB
- All the hill training we do at bootcamp
- The chance to discover running and how much I love it - it means so much more than just one foot in front of the other
- Advil
- No stairs
Sunday, May 15, 2011
And the Results Are....
...1:56:09, average 5:32/km pace - oh yeah baby!!! PB by over five minutes and A goal smashed to smithereens!
Needless to say I'm sore, tired and absolutely famished but I can't wipe the smile off my face as I sit here and type! Race report to come soon...
PS. I totally credit the cupcake. Heh.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Half Marathon Eve
Whoa! What's been going on with Blogger recently? I haven't been able to write any posts for the last few days and I couldn't read a lot of blogs...ack, I need to feed my bloggie addiction! Anyways, looks like everything is OK now so here I am.
Down to the wire, man! Half marathon tomorrow morning at 8am. I've been hydrating like mad today, and was feeling kinda stiff and headache-y so went to yoga this morning and I feel SO much better. I was pretty good the other night and didn't overindulge in alcohol (only one drink) and haven't had any sugar. Well, I made one exception - Fabulous Boss brought in some cupcakes and I had one, partly because it seems that every time I have one, I have great runs...but mostly because I just wanted one, dammit. Ha! But I'm feeling pretty good today now that I've gone to yoga so am really hoping that tomorrow I can finally break the 2 hour speed barrier. The only thing that might hamper a great run is that it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Light rain, not so bad...I'm just really hoping it's not torrential or something.
So before I get on to my ABC goals, I'm just going to talk quickly about something that's been under my skin for a long time, and I've blogged about previously. Do any of you guys have to deal with people constantly commenting on how/what you eat and your workouts? I have this individual who is constantly making remarks about what I eat (food commenters are one of my biggest pet peeves in life), supplements I take, or haranguing me when I choose not to drink when I'm training for a run. Or when I do have a treat, they have to make a comment about it - "should you have that?" "what? you ate that?" - argh. I know I should just brush it off but it's difficult sometimes to not take it personally. It incenses me when people feel they have the right to comment on my choices, especially when this person doesn't lead a very healthy lifestyle themselves. I keep my running really, really low key (which is why I blog about it - I gotta let it out somehow!!) but this person seeks me out to make comments. I like to run, I like being healthy and I like taking care of my body so bugger off. OK, rant over. Wow, I totally feel better. Ha! Moving on now.
Goal time! As you guys know, I've been trying to break 2 hours for the half marathon. And you guys also know...I'm goal oriented. It feels scary posting specific time goal because there's always that "fear of failure" thing going on, but I'm just gonna throw all caution to the wind and just go for it:
A - finish in any time that start with a "1"
B - finish in 2:01:24 (my previous PB)
C - finish in 2:10
Here we go - race report to come soon! Woohooo!!
Down to the wire, man! Half marathon tomorrow morning at 8am. I've been hydrating like mad today, and was feeling kinda stiff and headache-y so went to yoga this morning and I feel SO much better. I was pretty good the other night and didn't overindulge in alcohol (only one drink) and haven't had any sugar. Well, I made one exception - Fabulous Boss brought in some cupcakes and I had one, partly because it seems that every time I have one, I have great runs...but mostly because I just wanted one, dammit. Ha! But I'm feeling pretty good today now that I've gone to yoga so am really hoping that tomorrow I can finally break the 2 hour speed barrier. The only thing that might hamper a great run is that it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Light rain, not so bad...I'm just really hoping it's not torrential or something.
So before I get on to my ABC goals, I'm just going to talk quickly about something that's been under my skin for a long time, and I've blogged about previously. Do any of you guys have to deal with people constantly commenting on how/what you eat and your workouts? I have this individual who is constantly making remarks about what I eat (food commenters are one of my biggest pet peeves in life), supplements I take, or haranguing me when I choose not to drink when I'm training for a run. Or when I do have a treat, they have to make a comment about it - "should you have that?" "what? you ate that?" - argh. I know I should just brush it off but it's difficult sometimes to not take it personally. It incenses me when people feel they have the right to comment on my choices, especially when this person doesn't lead a very healthy lifestyle themselves. I keep my running really, really low key (which is why I blog about it - I gotta let it out somehow!!) but this person seeks me out to make comments. I like to run, I like being healthy and I like taking care of my body so bugger off. OK, rant over. Wow, I totally feel better. Ha! Moving on now.
Goal time! As you guys know, I've been trying to break 2 hours for the half marathon. And you guys also know...I'm goal oriented. It feels scary posting specific time goal because there's always that "fear of failure" thing going on, but I'm just gonna throw all caution to the wind and just go for it:
A - finish in any time that start with a "1"
B - finish in 2:01:24 (my previous PB)
C - finish in 2:10
Here we go - race report to come soon! Woohooo!!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Almost There
Alright...down to the last five days before the half! Last weekend in Vancouver was fab-u-lous...lots of shopping, lots of eating and lots of hockey - unfortunately my boys didn't win that night, but they ended up closing out the series against Nashville and moving on to the semi-finals. Woo hoo! Go Canucks Go. We also fit in a nice run around Langara College and it was a nice easy 10K to get ourselves firmly into taper week.
So - last five days before the race, so what are our plans? I must...MUST...update my ipod with some new music. I'm going to start hydrating like crazy, and going to bed earlier to get lots of sleep in. They say that the most important sleeps are the ones that are a few days before the race, not just the night before. No sugar, no junk food and no boozahol. OK, I might have to have just a tiny splash of alcohool as my BFF's final goodbye work party is tomorrow - but I find it really affects me if I overdo it so I'll have to take it easy. Must.be.strong.
I'm starting to get pretty excited! We still haven't run the course (gah!) so we're going to drive it so we have an idea of the hills and markers. Look out for my ABC goals in the next few days!
So - last five days before the race, so what are our plans? I must...MUST...update my ipod with some new music. I'm going to start hydrating like crazy, and going to bed earlier to get lots of sleep in. They say that the most important sleeps are the ones that are a few days before the race, not just the night before. No sugar, no junk food and no boozahol. OK, I might have to have just a tiny splash of alcohool as my BFF's final goodbye work party is tomorrow - but I find it really affects me if I overdo it so I'll have to take it easy. Must.be.strong.
I'm starting to get pretty excited! We still haven't run the course (gah!) so we're going to drive it so we have an idea of the hills and markers. Look out for my ABC goals in the next few days!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Three Things Thursday
1. Spring Clean Check In
So far so good on the spring clean! I've cut back a lot on the mindless snacking and am back on the supplements. Another thing that I've been also trying to watch (but wasn't listed as part of my goals) was to increase the grams of protein that I get per day, so I'm also back on the Vegegreens protein powder. A side effect of taking all this stuff is that I couldn't sleep Monday and Tuesday night - multivitamins have that effect on me (I think it's the B vitamins), so I got mayyyyybbbeeee two to three hours of sleep each night. I was an absolute zombie at work. I could barely keep my eyes open on the way home from work yesterday (good thing Hubs was driving), it was horrible! So I only took one multi yesterday, and was able to fall asleep no problem last night. I was so tired, I don't even remember Hubs coming to bed! Lesson learned...ease into things slowly.
2. Go Nucks!
Wheeee! Hubs and I are heading to Vancouver this weekend to get ourselves firmly on the Canuck bandwagon. We were heading over there anyways to see family that are coming from Edmonton and Hong Kong, so when the Canucks made it into Round 2 there was no question about getting tickets if there was a Saturday night game. So we've got our jerseys and will be hooting and hollering for our boys. Go Canucks Go!
3. Last Long Run
One more long run and then we're into full-on taper for the last week before the half. Ten kilometres up for Saturday, which we're running in Vancouver. I had a last check in with my physio and while there were still a few issues (still not standing correctly), she was pretty happy overall and wants me to check back in again after the half. I was getting some burning under my arch which I was afraid was plantar fasciitis, but she thinks it's nerves. It doesn't hurt when I get up in the morning but I can feel this burning sensation when I start running, but it goes away after about ten minutes. We're also testing out our carbo-loading theory, so we're upping our carb intake for the next few days. Bring on the bread!
So far so good on the spring clean! I've cut back a lot on the mindless snacking and am back on the supplements. Another thing that I've been also trying to watch (but wasn't listed as part of my goals) was to increase the grams of protein that I get per day, so I'm also back on the Vegegreens protein powder. A side effect of taking all this stuff is that I couldn't sleep Monday and Tuesday night - multivitamins have that effect on me (I think it's the B vitamins), so I got mayyyyybbbeeee two to three hours of sleep each night. I was an absolute zombie at work. I could barely keep my eyes open on the way home from work yesterday (good thing Hubs was driving), it was horrible! So I only took one multi yesterday, and was able to fall asleep no problem last night. I was so tired, I don't even remember Hubs coming to bed! Lesson learned...ease into things slowly.
2. Go Nucks!
Wheeee! Hubs and I are heading to Vancouver this weekend to get ourselves firmly on the Canuck bandwagon. We were heading over there anyways to see family that are coming from Edmonton and Hong Kong, so when the Canucks made it into Round 2 there was no question about getting tickets if there was a Saturday night game. So we've got our jerseys and will be hooting and hollering for our boys. Go Canucks Go!
3. Last Long Run
One more long run and then we're into full-on taper for the last week before the half. Ten kilometres up for Saturday, which we're running in Vancouver. I had a last check in with my physio and while there were still a few issues (still not standing correctly), she was pretty happy overall and wants me to check back in again after the half. I was getting some burning under my arch which I was afraid was plantar fasciitis, but she thinks it's nerves. It doesn't hurt when I get up in the morning but I can feel this burning sensation when I start running, but it goes away after about ten minutes. We're also testing out our carbo-loading theory, so we're upping our carb intake for the next few days. Bring on the bread!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Spring Cleaning
I've been inspired by yesterday's gorgeous spring day. The weather today isn't so great - grey, cloudy and crazy rainy - but I've had a taste of spring and I'm all over it now!
So what do a lot of people do when it's this time of year? Spring clean, right? I'm going to put a bit of twist on this though and do some spring cleaning....of myself. To kick things off for the half marathon and the next marathon training cycle, I'm going to work on my eating and a few other things to start off on the right foot. I admit...I haven't been really mindful of what I'm eating, and I'm starting to snack a LOT on processed carbs again (hello, yummy crackers)...mindless eating and snacking are my total and absolute downfall. I've been getting really lackadaisical and dairy is starting to creep itself back into my life, and so are eggs. I've been sporadic in taking my supplements and vitamins. I'm sneaking in the occasional artificial sweetener too, which is something I'd cut out completely from my diet (that was really, really hard to do). I'm definitely not eating enough veggies lately, especially over the last month....and I'm not watching my portion sizes.
How am I feeling? I don't feel terrible, but I know I could feel so much better. I've been having a lot of headaches lately and definitely more tired and puffier, especially in my face and hands. I'm feeling loafy and my mind is fuzzy. I've been feeling kinda irritable lately too, and normally I'm not really like that. So they say it takes 21 days to form a new habit, right? I'm giving myself 30 days to finish what I'm calling my Spring Clean Challenge. As always, I'm posting this on the interwebz so I can keep myself accountable. While I've been slacking in some regards, I haven't been all bad and there's a few things I'm totally rocking...I work out at least five days per week and am really happy with how my running is progressing. I menu plan and make all our meals from scratch and only eat out once a week, on our off days. I'm faithfully doing all my exercises that my physio has prescribed, and I've been running pain-free for weeks. I drink at least 2L of water every day. I've cut back a lot on my sugar intake, and haven't gone crazy on sweets since I did the Ten Pound Challenge. So all is not lost! I don't completely suck.
As you guys know, I'm a goal oriented kinda person and this is essentially a re-hash of one of my new year's resolutions that I've realized I needed to buck up on. Eat mindfully was the resolution, but I wanted to define that better so have decided on the following mini-goals for the next 30 days:
- No snacking after dinner - if I'm absolutely starving and have to eat something, it has to be things with whole ingredients that I can pronounce
- Reduce dairy and egg intake - once per week, if at all
- Must have some sort of vegetable at lunch and dinner
- Watch portion sizes - palm of hand/fist rule for serving sizes
- Take all my supplements and vitamins
- Cut out artificial sweeteners
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Half Marathon Week 11 - 13K - Wowza
Into the homestretch now...two more weeks to go until I hit the Oak Bay Half Marathon. Hubs and I decided to run on Sunday and I'm glad we did...it was absolutely perfect running weather this morning, which is fabulous because Victoria is having its Times Colonist 10K run today, which is a really popular event...plus the BMO Vancouver marathon is on right now too. So a shout out to all those who are participating in those runs today!
I've been feeling really tired the last few days so I woke up feeling a bit worried. We were on the trail by 7am, and was feeling parched from indulging in a bit too much sodium yesterday...when I woke up, I looked at my wedding ring and it was absolutely encased in my bulging fingers. Feeling a bit unsure, we headed off...and I had the BEST.RUN.EVER. I decided to see how fast I could post a 10K run today, just to compare my fitness to what it was like a year ago when I did a PR of 54:17 at the Times Colonist 10K but practically died doing it. Today, I hit 54:04 easily and had enough juice to keep running 5:15 splits after that! I felt like I had so much energy out there, and Hubs felt the same way...today was our best run that we'd had ever.
After we got home and were having breakfast, we realized that we may have done accidental carbo-loading. We were reading an article in the newspaper about carbo-loading, which said that essentially you drain your body of its glycogen stores by doing strenuous activity then reload them back up again, filling the muscles with more glycogen than they held before:
"In his book Exercise Physiology, William J. Kraemer, et al, describe a more modern way of going about carbohydrate loading. Six days before the event, the athlete works out for 90 minutes. On the fourth and fifth day, the workout is 40 minutes. No diet change is made on these days. On the second and third day before the meet, exercise is shortened to 20 minutes and a high carbohydrate diet is eaten on both days. On the day before, continue with the high carbohydrate diet but do no training."
Huh. Last Saturday we had our last long run which was 20K and took us almost two hours and I'm sure sucked every once of glycogen out of us. Check. We did some workouts early in the week that were about 40 minutes and we ate normally. Check. I wasn't able to go to bootcamp this week, so did some short 20 - 30 minute workouts on Wed/Thursday and skipped Friday. Pretty close. On Friday and Saturday, I ate way, way more carbs than usual thanks to the Royal Wedding breakfast (yum, scones!) and had two huge bowls of white rice which I never eat and indulged in some left over cinnamon buns that I'd made for our neighbourhood Easter egg hunt. I just checked my carbs on MyFitnessPal and yup...I went way over my carb goal...and my calorie goal, for that matter! Check, check!!
Soooo...pretty cool! We're going to test this out next week as we have one more run until the race and see if it makes a difference. I'd heard of carbo-loading but didn't know that you actually had to drain your stores first and then build them back up - I just thought you ate more carbs a few days before and that was it. I actually had to rein myself in a few times when I was out there today because I was hitting a 5:10 - 5:15 pace and it felt easy.
Oh! And my stats for this run - 1:10:27, average pace 5:25/km. If I kept up that kinda pace, I could do a 1:53 half. Hello carbs...here I come!
I've been feeling really tired the last few days so I woke up feeling a bit worried. We were on the trail by 7am, and was feeling parched from indulging in a bit too much sodium yesterday...when I woke up, I looked at my wedding ring and it was absolutely encased in my bulging fingers. Feeling a bit unsure, we headed off...and I had the BEST.RUN.EVER. I decided to see how fast I could post a 10K run today, just to compare my fitness to what it was like a year ago when I did a PR of 54:17 at the Times Colonist 10K but practically died doing it. Today, I hit 54:04 easily and had enough juice to keep running 5:15 splits after that! I felt like I had so much energy out there, and Hubs felt the same way...today was our best run that we'd had ever.
After we got home and were having breakfast, we realized that we may have done accidental carbo-loading. We were reading an article in the newspaper about carbo-loading, which said that essentially you drain your body of its glycogen stores by doing strenuous activity then reload them back up again, filling the muscles with more glycogen than they held before:
"In his book Exercise Physiology, William J. Kraemer, et al, describe a more modern way of going about carbohydrate loading. Six days before the event, the athlete works out for 90 minutes. On the fourth and fifth day, the workout is 40 minutes. No diet change is made on these days. On the second and third day before the meet, exercise is shortened to 20 minutes and a high carbohydrate diet is eaten on both days. On the day before, continue with the high carbohydrate diet but do no training."
Huh. Last Saturday we had our last long run which was 20K and took us almost two hours and I'm sure sucked every once of glycogen out of us. Check. We did some workouts early in the week that were about 40 minutes and we ate normally. Check. I wasn't able to go to bootcamp this week, so did some short 20 - 30 minute workouts on Wed/Thursday and skipped Friday. Pretty close. On Friday and Saturday, I ate way, way more carbs than usual thanks to the Royal Wedding breakfast (yum, scones!) and had two huge bowls of white rice which I never eat and indulged in some left over cinnamon buns that I'd made for our neighbourhood Easter egg hunt. I just checked my carbs on MyFitnessPal and yup...I went way over my carb goal...and my calorie goal, for that matter! Check, check!!
Soooo...pretty cool! We're going to test this out next week as we have one more run until the race and see if it makes a difference. I'd heard of carbo-loading but didn't know that you actually had to drain your stores first and then build them back up - I just thought you ate more carbs a few days before and that was it. I actually had to rein myself in a few times when I was out there today because I was hitting a 5:10 - 5:15 pace and it felt easy.
Oh! And my stats for this run - 1:10:27, average pace 5:25/km. If I kept up that kinda pace, I could do a 1:53 half. Hello carbs...here I come!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Three Things Thursday
1. Gratithursday
Zoiks, I missed Gratituesday again this week! I was too caught up with the Canucks/Chicago Game 7 hoopla and kinda forgot. So before I get into what I'm grateful for this week, I was reflecting on the whole Gratituesday thing and I find it's really made a difference in my perspective. You know how when you buy a certain type of car, and then next thing you know you're driving down the street and you see your model of car all over the place? That's kind of how it's been for me...now I keep seeing things to be grateful for everywhere and it's really shown me the power of thinking positively. Now don't get me wrong...I'm by no means perfect in this and I still have my moments when I kvetch or need to rant, but now I'm really trying to be mindful of what comes out of my mouth because lately I've come to realize just how draining I find negative people are. Like completely energy zapping. And I don't want to be one of those people who other people avoid or hate to be around, so I'm going to really try to curb the negativity. Anyways...on to what I'm thankful for this week:
- I'm grateful for the Canucks winning Game 7!
- I'm grateful for long weekends
- I'm grateful for gorgeous sunny spring days like we had today
- I'm grateful for cool neighbours who want to hang with me at 3am
- I'm grateful for my health
- I'm grateful for my friends and family
- I'm grateful for My Best Day Ever
2. Tapering
Taper time! Last week was our last longer run, so on the schedule this Saturday is a nice 13K run. Hubs is back on the Saturday rotation, so we'll be up and it 'er early to get our run in before he has to head to work. I don't think we'll taper a ton so we stay sharp for the half, but definitely will rest up the last week before.
3. Royal Wedding
So is anyone else kinda caught up in the royal wedding gig? I wasn't that excited about it but last week there were a gazillion shows about William and Kate, and I kinda started watching and now I'm all sucked in. A neighbour of ours is having some of the girls in the hood over for a proper English breakfast complete with scones, devonshire cream and other assorted goodies! Can't wait...I'll have to be up at 3am, but you only see the future King of England get married once in your life, right? Hmmm...better head to bed soon...
Zoiks, I missed Gratituesday again this week! I was too caught up with the Canucks/Chicago Game 7 hoopla and kinda forgot. So before I get into what I'm grateful for this week, I was reflecting on the whole Gratituesday thing and I find it's really made a difference in my perspective. You know how when you buy a certain type of car, and then next thing you know you're driving down the street and you see your model of car all over the place? That's kind of how it's been for me...now I keep seeing things to be grateful for everywhere and it's really shown me the power of thinking positively. Now don't get me wrong...I'm by no means perfect in this and I still have my moments when I kvetch or need to rant, but now I'm really trying to be mindful of what comes out of my mouth because lately I've come to realize just how draining I find negative people are. Like completely energy zapping. And I don't want to be one of those people who other people avoid or hate to be around, so I'm going to really try to curb the negativity. Anyways...on to what I'm thankful for this week:
- I'm grateful for the Canucks winning Game 7!
- I'm grateful for long weekends
- I'm grateful for gorgeous sunny spring days like we had today
- I'm grateful for cool neighbours who want to hang with me at 3am
- I'm grateful for my health
- I'm grateful for my friends and family
- I'm grateful for My Best Day Ever
2. Tapering
Taper time! Last week was our last longer run, so on the schedule this Saturday is a nice 13K run. Hubs is back on the Saturday rotation, so we'll be up and it 'er early to get our run in before he has to head to work. I don't think we'll taper a ton so we stay sharp for the half, but definitely will rest up the last week before.
3. Royal Wedding
So is anyone else kinda caught up in the royal wedding gig? I wasn't that excited about it but last week there were a gazillion shows about William and Kate, and I kinda started watching and now I'm all sucked in. A neighbour of ours is having some of the girls in the hood over for a proper English breakfast complete with scones, devonshire cream and other assorted goodies! Can't wait...I'll have to be up at 3am, but you only see the future King of England get married once in your life, right? Hmmm...better head to bed soon...
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Go Canucks!
WOOOHOOOO!!!! As a hockey-loving Canadian girl, I was on pins and needles all night...Hubs and I were so anxious we couldn't watch...so kept the TV off but would check in every so often. You should have heard us scream and jump up and down when they scored in overtime! And tomorrow...because I said if they win tonight I would do this...I'm going to get myself a Canucks jersey and wear it every game until they WIN the Stanley cup.
Bring on Nashville!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
The Best Day Ever
Awesome...I finally figured out how to download pics off my iPhone so I'll now have tons of pics for the blog...eggsellent! Ha ha, couldn't resist a little Easter humour. Yesterday I had one of the best days ever - it was the end of my birthday long weekend...I hit good old 42 on Wednesday (my god, how did that happen?!) so figured I may as well drag it out until the weekend. Why not, right? We all deserve a little spoiling!
Because we got our long run done on Friday, we decided to take a total rest day on Saturday and sleep in. We didn't really sleep in much though - darn internal clocks! Hubs and I have been mourning the fact that we're not getting our aloha this year and going to Maui, so decided to have some Hawaii-like foods to help bridge the gap until next year when we head back to our favourite place on earth. On the menu was homemade banana buttermilk pancakes with coconut syrup....ahhh....as soon as we put the fork in our mouths we were transported back to paradise. After getting a hearty breakfast in, we were off for our day - Hubs wanted to check out some bikes as he wants to ride along with me when I do my marathon training this year as he worries about me when I'm out on my own. Such a caring boy! The day was absolutely gorgeous...beautiful, warm...which of course brought out the hordes thinking the same thing that we were. The bike stores were all humming! It was crazy. Anyways, looks like Hubs has his eye on a few bikes so we'll see what happens. Marathon training doesn't start until June-ish, so still some time.
After a day of vigorous bike shopping, I was thirsty so stopped at a little corner store and picked up some of this stuff:
I've heard a lot about kombucha, so thought I'd give it a try. It supposedly has all sorts of cancer fighting properties, and is kind of like a fermented tea. It has a really interesting taste...kind of tart and vinegary almost, and sort of fizzy. I didn't mind the taste at all but maybe not for everyone.
Next stop? My favourite place on earth, Lululemon! I've been wanting a pair of their Wunder Under crops, and have been coveting their Savasana wrap:
I've tried it on a few times but I was always swimming in it so decided to try a way smaller size than I normally wear in Lulu stuff. Bingo! I LOVE this jacket. I normally can't do this type of style as I tend to look like I'm pregnant, but the cut of this jacket is perfect. SOLD! Even Hubs liked it and he's meh about Lululemon stuff.
After our retail therapy session at Lulu, Hubs and I had a date for dinner to a cool new restaurant called Ulla that's been the talk about town recently. It recently got an honourable mention in Vancouver Magazine for best restaurant in Victoria, so when Hubs asked where I wanted to go for my birthday, this place was at the top of my list. A good sign when we first sat down - a shelf full of fabulous cookbooks - Keller, Larousse, David Chang...I felt a frisson of excitement.
Our appetizer - grilled octopus with potato, lemon, mint, yoghourt and pickled cucumber.
I couldn't believe how tender the octopus was...it was the texture of chicken, slightly smoky and so good. The accompanying veggies were a nice touch...I wouldn't have thought to have pickled cucumber and potatoes, but it was a great combo with all the different textures...really fresh and different.
Here was our mains:
Mine - lamb sirloin with spinach and ricotta gnocci, roasted peppers and olives with a red wine/garlic au jus:
Hubs' dinner - crispy chicken with israeli couscous:
Our dinners were outstanding...I haven't felt this way about a restaurant in Victoria in ages. The lamb was fantastic, hardly gamey at all and the perfect level of doneness (and I'm super picky about how my meat is done). Hubs' chicken was the most moist chicken I've ever had in a restaurant and the meat was perfectly seasoned all the way through.
We also had these drinks:
A yummy pomegranate fizz for the boy and mine was a ginger soda made with real ginger syrup - both were so good and refreshing. A wildly enthusiastic two thumbs up from us for Ulla!
Hubs had noticed that a Cold Stone Creamery had opened up in town. Our first experience with Cold Stone Creamery was in Maui - so we had to finish off the evening with some ice cream from there:
I had the Peanut Butter Cup Perfection (choco ice cream, peanut butter, peanut butter cup, fudge) as I'm obsessed with peanut butter - I can't get enough of the stuff. Hubs had the Coffee Lovers Cup (coffee ice cream, almonds, toffee bits and caramel). And of course, a waffle cup. Yum!
So overall, the best day ever - sleeping in, beautiful weather, my favourite guy, ample retail therapy and great food. What more could a girl ask for a birthday weekend, right?
Because we got our long run done on Friday, we decided to take a total rest day on Saturday and sleep in. We didn't really sleep in much though - darn internal clocks! Hubs and I have been mourning the fact that we're not getting our aloha this year and going to Maui, so decided to have some Hawaii-like foods to help bridge the gap until next year when we head back to our favourite place on earth. On the menu was homemade banana buttermilk pancakes with coconut syrup....ahhh....as soon as we put the fork in our mouths we were transported back to paradise. After getting a hearty breakfast in, we were off for our day - Hubs wanted to check out some bikes as he wants to ride along with me when I do my marathon training this year as he worries about me when I'm out on my own. Such a caring boy! The day was absolutely gorgeous...beautiful, warm...which of course brought out the hordes thinking the same thing that we were. The bike stores were all humming! It was crazy. Anyways, looks like Hubs has his eye on a few bikes so we'll see what happens. Marathon training doesn't start until June-ish, so still some time.
After a day of vigorous bike shopping, I was thirsty so stopped at a little corner store and picked up some of this stuff:
I've heard a lot about kombucha, so thought I'd give it a try. It supposedly has all sorts of cancer fighting properties, and is kind of like a fermented tea. It has a really interesting taste...kind of tart and vinegary almost, and sort of fizzy. I didn't mind the taste at all but maybe not for everyone.
Next stop? My favourite place on earth, Lululemon! I've been wanting a pair of their Wunder Under crops, and have been coveting their Savasana wrap:
I've tried it on a few times but I was always swimming in it so decided to try a way smaller size than I normally wear in Lulu stuff. Bingo! I LOVE this jacket. I normally can't do this type of style as I tend to look like I'm pregnant, but the cut of this jacket is perfect. SOLD! Even Hubs liked it and he's meh about Lululemon stuff.
After our retail therapy session at Lulu, Hubs and I had a date for dinner to a cool new restaurant called Ulla that's been the talk about town recently. It recently got an honourable mention in Vancouver Magazine for best restaurant in Victoria, so when Hubs asked where I wanted to go for my birthday, this place was at the top of my list. A good sign when we first sat down - a shelf full of fabulous cookbooks - Keller, Larousse, David Chang...I felt a frisson of excitement.
Our appetizer - grilled octopus with potato, lemon, mint, yoghourt and pickled cucumber.
I couldn't believe how tender the octopus was...it was the texture of chicken, slightly smoky and so good. The accompanying veggies were a nice touch...I wouldn't have thought to have pickled cucumber and potatoes, but it was a great combo with all the different textures...really fresh and different.
Here was our mains:
Mine - lamb sirloin with spinach and ricotta gnocci, roasted peppers and olives with a red wine/garlic au jus:
Hubs' dinner - crispy chicken with israeli couscous:
Our dinners were outstanding...I haven't felt this way about a restaurant in Victoria in ages. The lamb was fantastic, hardly gamey at all and the perfect level of doneness (and I'm super picky about how my meat is done). Hubs' chicken was the most moist chicken I've ever had in a restaurant and the meat was perfectly seasoned all the way through.
We also had these drinks:
A yummy pomegranate fizz for the boy and mine was a ginger soda made with real ginger syrup - both were so good and refreshing. A wildly enthusiastic two thumbs up from us for Ulla!
Hubs had noticed that a Cold Stone Creamery had opened up in town. Our first experience with Cold Stone Creamery was in Maui - so we had to finish off the evening with some ice cream from there:
I had the Peanut Butter Cup Perfection (choco ice cream, peanut butter, peanut butter cup, fudge) as I'm obsessed with peanut butter - I can't get enough of the stuff. Hubs had the Coffee Lovers Cup (coffee ice cream, almonds, toffee bits and caramel). And of course, a waffle cup. Yum!
So overall, the best day ever - sleeping in, beautiful weather, my favourite guy, ample retail therapy and great food. What more could a girl ask for a birthday weekend, right?
Half Marathon Week 10 - Now You're Talking
Alright! Lovin' the long weekend so far. Hubs and I decided that instead of doing our usual Saturday long run, that we were going to get up early and hit the trail by 6:30...none of this sleeping in business! Saturday was a gorgeous day, and it felt really good to be out nice and early before the trails got too busy...there was maybe three other people there when we first arrived. We decided to do Elk Lake, which is this awesome 10K loop around the lake and decided to go counterclockwise first as its just slightly uphill for most of the run.
Off we went...the first 7K felt a bit tough but overall not bad. I started getting my speed up between 8 - 15K, and felt pretty good up until about 18K when I got pretty tired...the last 2K felt harder but overall I was pretty happy with how I felt. And it was SO much better than last week, I can't even tell you!
Overall stats for this run - 5:57/km pace, 1:59:18. Tomorrow, Hubs and I are going to do a short 6K run around the hood so I'm going to do a tempo run at race pace. Woohoo - two and a half more weeks until the Oak Bay Half!
Off we went...the first 7K felt a bit tough but overall not bad. I started getting my speed up between 8 - 15K, and felt pretty good up until about 18K when I got pretty tired...the last 2K felt harder but overall I was pretty happy with how I felt. And it was SO much better than last week, I can't even tell you!
Overall stats for this run - 5:57/km pace, 1:59:18. Tomorrow, Hubs and I are going to do a short 6K run around the hood so I'm going to do a tempo run at race pace. Woohoo - two and a half more weeks until the Oak Bay Half!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Thoughts on Boston
Whew. OK, I'm totally glad it's not just me...I was reading Jessica's blog and so glad that I'm not the only one who gets all emotional reading, hearing and watching all the goings on as related to the Boston Marathon. Yesterday morning I turned on the TV, which happened to be on the marathon and I caught the first half hour of the womens' race, and the start of the mens'. Almost immediately I could feel my eyes start to well up as I thought about all the runners in Boston, fulfilling what I can probably say for most of them is a dream.
For the non-runners out there...what's the big deal about Boston, you ask? It's one of those pinnacle races...almost all runners have heard of it, and I can say that the majority (not all though, I'm sure) of runners have dreamt or thought about qualifying for Boston (or BQ, as we like to call it). I gotta say the qualifying times are pretty fast - for my age group, I'd have to run a 3:45 marathon (and I'm no spring chicken!) to even have the hopes of getting in...and now that they've changed the registration process, it'll be even harder to qualify. I'd hazard I'd have to be in the 3:30-ish range to even dream of getting in. This race is most definitely for the fastest of the fast.
As the day went on and I read more and more race reports and blog posts about fellow runners who were at Boston this year, I kept getting more and more verklempt. As I heard about the first place finishers - Geoffry Mutai in an absolutely blazing, course record setting 2:03:02 and Caroline Kilel in a smoking 2:22:36 - I was in total awe. I started thinking about why I was getting so darn emotional about Boston this year...and I think it's because I feel like part of the running community. I can (in a very, very small sense mind you - I'm most definitely not an elite or even close - I haven't even finished my first marathon!) identify with how tough it is to train for the marathon. I could imagine how absolutely amazing it must feel to be there with all those runners, and how incredible it must feel to cross that finish line. So maybe it's a bit of a feeling of kinship with everyone who was there yesterday even though I'm a kajillion miles away.
To everyone who was there in Beantown - congrats and can't wait to read all about your races!
For the non-runners out there...what's the big deal about Boston, you ask? It's one of those pinnacle races...almost all runners have heard of it, and I can say that the majority (not all though, I'm sure) of runners have dreamt or thought about qualifying for Boston (or BQ, as we like to call it). I gotta say the qualifying times are pretty fast - for my age group, I'd have to run a 3:45 marathon (and I'm no spring chicken!) to even have the hopes of getting in...and now that they've changed the registration process, it'll be even harder to qualify. I'd hazard I'd have to be in the 3:30-ish range to even dream of getting in. This race is most definitely for the fastest of the fast.
As the day went on and I read more and more race reports and blog posts about fellow runners who were at Boston this year, I kept getting more and more verklempt. As I heard about the first place finishers - Geoffry Mutai in an absolutely blazing, course record setting 2:03:02 and Caroline Kilel in a smoking 2:22:36 - I was in total awe. I started thinking about why I was getting so darn emotional about Boston this year...and I think it's because I feel like part of the running community. I can (in a very, very small sense mind you - I'm most definitely not an elite or even close - I haven't even finished my first marathon!) identify with how tough it is to train for the marathon. I could imagine how absolutely amazing it must feel to be there with all those runners, and how incredible it must feel to cross that finish line. So maybe it's a bit of a feeling of kinship with everyone who was there yesterday even though I'm a kajillion miles away.
To everyone who was there in Beantown - congrats and can't wait to read all about your races!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Food for the Soul
After yesterday's long run debacle, I decided to take a total rest day to try and recharge my batteries...no weights, no running, no walking, no nuthin'! I'm not gonna lie...I'm getting antsy and I really want to get some exercise in, but I'm going to listen to my body and take cues from how I was feeling this week during my workouts...which was pretty crappy. I decided to take some "me" time today...I've been reading Jillian Michael's new book Unlimited, and I love it. Loooooooove it. It's all about trying to find the best life for yourself, whether it's getting healthy, finding love or getting that whiz-bang job that you've always wanted...whatever 'best life' means to you. At the end of each chapter, you have to do some work and answer questions that she poses, which help you work through things and hopefully makes you have some a-ha type moments. Some parts are difficult...I had to put it down a few times because sometimes her questions dredge up thoughts, feelings or memories that maybe aren't so much fun, but necessary if you're to move ahead. I know there's a lot of self help books out there, but I really like this one because it's not all airy fairy, it's not all "oh, poor you"...it reads like she speaks and there's been quite a few moments where I've thought wow...that totally makes sense! I highly recommend this book...I'm about halfway through and have already had a few a-ha type moments.
Anyways...in one part she talked about when you're feeling stressed or tired, to remember to take the time to do things that feed the soul...for her it's getting on her horse or her motorcycle...so I thought dammit, Imma gonna go and do something that feeds my soul! I know this probably sounds lame, but it's a gorgeous day (or it was, before the rain and hail started...what is up with the weather?!) so I went to the garden store. Gardening is right up there with cooking and running in the "things I love in life" category, so off I went. I wandered around the store, browsing through all the new plants and just soaking it all in...the colours, the scents, the beautiful sunshine. Totally awesome. I bought a bunch of herbs for pots on our deck and a gorgeous orchid for our bedroom, and happily toodled home with my purchases. Now...well, I have to buckle down and work on my Finance homework (blech) and a few other things (double blech) but feel much better about having to do that stuff since I gave myself some chill time today.
Ahhh, that Jillian...so wise. Plus I want her body. Heh.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Half Marathon Week 9 - 15K - Meh
Oh.my.god. That run was probably one of the hardest and worst runs I've ever had in my life! Hubs and I lazed around this morning and didn't get out there until about 11-ish which is crazy late for us to start running, so we're not sure if that was a factor. I've been feeling really pretty tired this week at bootcamp, and really gassed during the workouts which weren't any harder than normal - at one point I had a hard time catching my breath and another time I started to see stars. Anyways, poor Hubs struggled from the get go - he played hockey last night, so likely used up a lot of his energy then. I started off poorly as well - I had a terrible stitch that didn't go away until about 7K - I felt OK up until we hit about 10K and then it was all downhill from there. If this was what hitting the wall is like...I ain't never want to revisit it again! I kept having to stop and walk, and couldn't even get half a kilometre without taking a walking break. Not good. We even ran on a new trail (Lochside) which was gorgeous and relatively flat, but it still didn't help.
So...I won't shame myself and post my stats. Afterwards, Hubs and I talked about how interesting it is that some runs are so awesome, and some so crappy. I always wonder what it is that makes the difference - is it the food? Did we eat too much carb? Too little? Too early? Too late? I think what we have discovered is that the earlier the better for our runs so while it felt nice to sleep in...we'll have to try to get out there by 9am at the very latest.
Next week - 20K run on the race course. Then taper time!
So...I won't shame myself and post my stats. Afterwards, Hubs and I talked about how interesting it is that some runs are so awesome, and some so crappy. I always wonder what it is that makes the difference - is it the food? Did we eat too much carb? Too little? Too early? Too late? I think what we have discovered is that the earlier the better for our runs so while it felt nice to sleep in...we'll have to try to get out there by 9am at the very latest.
Next week - 20K run on the race course. Then taper time!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Power of Words
Whoa...don't know what's wrong with my eyes right now...must be allergies or an eyelash or something *cough, cough*. OK, OK! You caught me...I was a little verklempt after watching this video:
Wow. I love this! There's so many different ways that people can interpret what it means, and apply it to their own lives. I know for me, words carry a lot of significance and can change how I react to a situation. Cool.
Wow. I love this! There's so many different ways that people can interpret what it means, and apply it to their own lives. I know for me, words carry a lot of significance and can change how I react to a situation. Cool.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Gratituesday
Yay, it's Gratituesday today! I always like Gratituesday because I enjoy reflecting on the good things in my life - it's so easy to get caught up in the minutae and shite of the day to day that can drag you down. So...here are the things I'm grateful for today:
- Yoga. I went to that free session at the place by my house I was mentioning last week, and I feel great. Better than great, incredible. My back and upper neck were feeling so sore and tight, but after this session they feel so nice and loose. I feel soooooo good right now. Thank you, yogis of the world, for spreading the word about yoga.
- I'm so grateful for my friends and family. I know, I say it all the time but I can't say enough how important they are to me, so I'm sayin' it again.
- I'm grateful to the makers of Holy Crap for...well, creating Holy Crap! I'm hooked on this stuff and so happy that it's so good for me too. I've been doing a raw muesli type mix of 1cup Silk organic soy milk, 2 tbsp of Holy Crap and 1 package of Nature's Path organic hemp oatmeal the last few days and I can't get enough of it. I put it all in a bowl, let it sit for about five minutes to thicken up and then chow it down. So.freaking.good. Stats for this vegan brekkie is 340 calories, 30g carbs, 11g fat (good fats!), 15g protein. Excellent.
- Blogging and the whole blogging community. I've learned so much from blogs, met some cool bloggers online and have found a creative outlet that I absolutely love. I only wish I had more time to blog and read blogs as I'm totally addicted. Darn day job, such a nuisance. Kidding!!
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