Today...

...I run a half marathon!
I signed up at the very last minute, as in 10:00pm before the midnight cut off, to run the Police Half Marathon. Am I ready? Short answer...NO!!
Long answer....I have been running, I have been getting long runs in, I have found some great gals to run with on Saturday mornings, they will be running too...I will rack this one up to peer pressure....
And I want to run because I can.
My sister called me this week with very devasting news about her 37 year old friend battling cancer. Its very upsetting and my heart aches for them and their family.
Its going to be a gorgeous morning, I will put my iPod on, I have downloaded some aweseome new tunes and I am looking forward to a couple of hours to myself running along the river bank here in Saskatoon.
What better way to spend a Saturday morning?

didn't think I could do it...

Sunday swim day today. Filled my truck up with gas on the way out to the pool...$72...today was the last time I drive to the pool...on my bike...every sunday from now on!!! I have even googled mapped a route...all set!

Today's workout was a warm up...and then 5 x 300s. First, third and fifth one at your 1500 meter race pace...numbers 2 and 4 at your 400 meter pace. The repeat times for my lane were on the board as 5:30 minutes per 500...okay...no problem!

Yeah right.

I swim with boys and their testosterone...so they decide to make our repeat times 5 minutes. Okay...now we have a problem.

We did the first one in about 4:16....holy....mother....of....god. I could not breathe, my arms were dead, 4 more of those? Thank goodness I had brought my legs with me to the pool...yesterday was only a 12 km run...my goal after that first one was to hang on for dear life. I considered moving down a lane...we had lost one dude...but I made my mind up to just try.

Let's call it a pride thing.

Throw out the goal pace. I was just trying to keep up and not embarrass myself.

A little guts goes along way!

Kept up with all my runs this past week...My hip hurt like a bitch after the 18 km run last Saturday so opted for some less intense stuff and just run for the hell of running. Have decided to run the Policeman's Half next weekend (Sat) AND the big daddy...Queen City Marathon in September. The full 42km. My run in Boston has not sat well with me all year. I can do a much better job of a marathon. And I have a training partner this time around so it should be a good time until those last 5km next September....

Sunday morning swim

I must have really wanted to swim today. I had gotten an e-mail from our swim director reminding me the Sunday swim was at HBAC this week rather than out at the Shaw Center.

However, I missed that the time had changed!

I show up at HBAC...there is nobody there. So I start thinking, maybe it was a different day that the location had changed? I jump in my truck and head out to the Shaw Center. Gotta love Saskatoon, one end of the city to the other in minutes....obviously we were not swimming at Shaw...there were 1000 cars in the parking lot, 2000 people in the pool for some age group swim meet. So I drive back to HBAC. Sure enough, our swim actually started at 9:00am. Duh. But I was in the water at 9:03-ish...again, gotta love living in a small-ish city!!!

Here was our workout:

20 minutes continous swim - so basically, swim a few 100 meters, stop and visit, swim some more, stop and pretend to stretch, swim a bit more. Oh LOOK! The 20 minutes are done.

8 x 50 meters alternate kick and swim...build through the 50. My legs hurt like a mother-f*cker. I sort of forgot that I ran 18km yesterday...I had no legs to speak of for swimming. Bummer.

Main Set: 15 x 100 meters. On your pace time, leaving in about 3-5 seconds. So a touch and go set. I led the lane for about half. We had decided as a group to start at 1:45s and work our way down to 1:35s. Holy hell...I led the for 7 of these things but could not get down to the 1:40s. Bummer. On a normal day without that big run the day before....quite possibly....but not today!!

Saturday morning run

Last night was the wine and cheeze night with the Just Tri It gals at our locally owned running store, Brainsport. Was a good time. I spent far too much money BUT I will blame it on the wine! Saucony came back with their Omni shoe and let's just say I shouldn't need running shoes for a very long time! I LOVED that shoe...but they took it away for one year and now its BACK! Hello Future PBs!!! maybe...

Got home at a decent time but was reading on the Just Tri It site some had their cars sleep over on Broadway...hmmm... I guess I missed the after party!?

Since I am such a focused athlete (ha!), I had to get my shit together for an 18km run this morning.

Up in lots of time as I like to eat (lots) and get organized and have my visit from the poop-fairy. The Saturday am run group was meeting at the Farmer's Market and I started from the weir and ran back to them. Dear Husband gave me strict instructions to be home by 9:00 as he had to get to a job today...aye aye Captain! The run started tired and slow and just super heavy legs. I was hating the first 10 minutes. But the beauty of meeting up with others is you know they will be looking for you and there is no way you can bail. So I told myself, to run to them and figure it out from there. Found them and they were doing their pre-run walk and....they have this ritual of walking for a good 5 or so minutes before they start running. Some visiting and some laughs and some plans made for the run. After that I felt pretty good! Was a gorgeous morning. Dumped my jacket and mitts in the truck at the weir...this was a huge mistake...on the way back, about 4km left, we turned back into the wind and holy hell...my body and hands got so cold. I ended up leaving my Saturday am group and busted a gut, ran my ass off to get back to the truck. I was THAT cold! Could not feel my hands and ran a few minutes alternating them down my pants at the back...I am sure that was a sight. You do what ya gotta do! A long hot bath felt great at home!! (At least I did not stop and pee on them as one local Ironman dude did last year...he got a flat, his hands were cold so he peed on them to get them warm enough to change his flat...this is a rumour but he is also super competitive so I do not doubt it!)

All in all, got 18km done! I am ready for that half marathon in two weeks! I know it ain't going to be a fast one, but at least I know I can get the distance in. Yey!!

Next up is a bike ride to swim practice tomorrow.

Did I mention I want to get 2000km in on my bike this summer? I have given myself until September 30th. I know, I know....some put this in on a long weekend...I, however would be super pleased if I get that kind of mileage on a bike!! So far I have 20 in from my ride to and from the Just Tri It group ride...only 1980 to go!!!

having a ton of fun

I have started working out again. Like, really working out.

Here has been my week...we will start with Saturday....a 15km run with my Saturday am run gang. I really enjoy these ladies! But 15km? Really? It was a steady, slow, average HR 143 kind of a run. They do 10 and 1s and we had to walk a bit with the city paths being crazy slippery in the mornings but I felt really good about the morning, the run and myself.

Sunday brought a swim with the tri-club. About 3500 meters. Was kind of a boring swim. Not many coming out to the tri-club in my lane anymore. Not sure what the deal is. And its either move down and swim in a full lane or swim in a lane with just me and some dude who SHOULD move down a lane. So my goal was to see how many times I could lap him...for the record it was 5. And I left early as I got the workout done, so if I had kept going, maybe 6 or 7?

Monday brought a run. A nice steady, let the legs recover from the weekend run. What gorgeous weather we are having! I love the mornings. I love being outside. I love this time of year. I love running. Lots of love on Monday!

THEN....I have volunteered for the Just Tri It Ladies Triathlon group. I have never done this and every year, I say, I wish I would take the time to help out. Two of my Saturday morning run group gals are the head organizers...I had agreed to help out on the bike and then also saw my name on the run group...thank-you Michelle!! Monday night brought our first ride outside. I grabbed my mountain bike, pedalled aaaaaalllll the way to the Meewasin bathrooms (26 minutes!!) and my job is a trailer for the intermediate group. So I am at the back of the pack making sure everyone is a-okay. What a riot! These ladies are so keen and so motivated and trying so hard.

I LOVE IT!!! I have gotten all motivated myself now as I think Cindy from my Sat am Run Group has talked me into a marathon....that's another blog entry.

The bike was lots of fun. The most fun I have had on a bike in a long time. We pedalled about 30 minutes that included the Pembina hill...and then I pedalled home...another 30-ish minutes. See? I was not joking...I am starting to come back to the land of fitness!!

NEXT...was a rest day Tuesday...cause I kind of needed it.

Then was another rest day Wednesday as I did not sleep at all Tuesday night.

Thursday morning brought a hard run. I have been following a half marathon training plan and it called for 9 time 400 meters at my 5km run pace. Since I don't really know what my 5km run pace is, I took a guess. Managed to do all of them below that goal....so now I know a little bit more of what I can do! I am thinking of entering the Policeman's Half Marathon in two weeks. I ran a ton when we were on our trip (Shaun surprised me (40th b-day in February) and kids with a trip to DisneyLand for a week and then over to Phoenix for a week) I ran lots and I ran long lots. It was so nice there!! So I am feeling pretty darn confident I could pull a half marathon out of my ass it two weeks...it won't be my best time or anything, but all of the Sat am Run Group will be there and I am not doing anything that morning anyways...

Thursday night brought a run with the Just Tri It ladies. I am a leader for the 30 minute continous run group. Lots of different paces so lots of circling back. Again...fun...fun...FUN!! My legs were tired and did not have fun...but they are not in charge here.

Next up is another long run on Saturday morning. We are going for 18km...then a swim on Sunday. I need to swim all summer as I just got put on a team for Frank Dunn (thanks Mom!). Her partner is 67 years old and has taken up cycling. He has biked all winter in AZ!! I am doing the swim, he is biking and his daughter is doing the run. I need a team name....suggestions welcome!

This is going to be a GREAT summer!!