running

Well, Kev and I are back at it, training for our long distance running endeavours... Okay, so Kev's are probably more endeavours, mine are certainly more in the struggle category.

We're not necessarily training for the marathon this year, in fact, I'll only be running the half come Ottawa Race Weekend. But we'll be training as if it's the marathon I guess. My goal is to try to get to the point where I don't need to take breaks, and run the half straight through. Oh, and to see if I can lose some of this extra weight I've been carrying around for the last 10 years.

Well, here it comes... This week I had my air conditioning on a couple of nights, so without doubt the summer is about to hit full swing.

Ultimate is almost a month in, my Tuesday team (Dr. Teeth) will play their fourth game of the season this week. We're 2-1 so far, though we haven't showed the patience that I think we should have and thus have been somewhat lucky to have this record. The Wednesday team I'm playing with for the first time (Air to the Thrown) has played two games so far (the first was rained out) and is 2-0, they've shown quite a bit of potential, though we've had fairly different rosters for both our games and have been short women.

Well, I did it, and so did my friends... I ran the Ottawa Marathon this past weekend, though it might be more appropriate to say that I ran/walked it. I didn't get the time I was hoping for, or even the time I thought I'd be able to make, but I did get a time (I finished) which was really my overall goal - so I'm happy. I'm not sure that I'll ever do another marathon, but I think I'll at least try to continue running - it's gotten me into better shape than before. But I'll work my way up slowly this time, instead of plunking my way into a marathon training program :)

Well, it's passed... and suprisingly enough, I enjoyed it. I don't know if it was the knowledge that this was the longest run that I'd have to do before the marathon (according to Hal's plan), or whether it was the weather (rainy, overcast and fairly cool, but not too windy), or whether it was listening to my iPod, or whether it was just that I was running at my own pace. Nevertheless, I had a great run - and for me to say that about a 20 mile run is certainly something - and it gives me a boost of confidence heading into the marathon.

So, this is it... The big week of training, the 40 miles in a week in preparation for the marathon. I did 5 miles last night as seen in the photo. I'll probably do the same run Thursday, which leaves today's 10 mile run on the treadmill and Saturday's loooong run of 20 miles around downtown Ottawa (from my place, down to the western end of Byron, over to the river, to parliament, along the canal to the arboretum, into the experimental farm, big loop and then back to my place... crazy).

I'm getting up there in distance now in my training. Ran the third longest distance I'll probably ever run this past weekend. Kev and I ran 18 miles around downtown Ottawa on Saturday. (Kev's got a photo over here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/haggaret/133558475/)

The run went pretty well... Kev does run a bit faster than I tend to, but a.) he's in better shape, b.) he's got longer legs and c.) he's probably much more disciplined. I need to buy a watch that I can wear for the race so that I can watch the numbers tick by and remain disciplined - this is probably the biggest drawback that running outside on my own has right now. When with Kev or someone else I let them do the timing. When on the treadmill I time myself with the computer. Alone, umm.. I walk when I'm tired and run when I'm not... probably not the best thing for my training, but oh well, getting a bit late to change now. :)

Well, a few weeks and no posts is no good. But I'll put an end to that for at least a moment. Did my long run yesterday, Sunday was a change since I went to Belleville for the first part of the long weekend. Then it was back on Saturday afternoon to have a nice evening with Meg, a run Sunday and then off to dinner with Meghan's parents.
The run this Sunday wasn't as bad as last weeks, this was only 12 miles, but there was still a bit of a headwind at times (and headwinds and I are mortal enemies....). The 16 miles Kev and I did from Stittsville to Richmond and back last weekend were much worse. I kept up to Kev for probably somewhere in the 10 mile range, but after that the headwind destroyed me. I split a lot of walking at that point with some running. I finished 20 minutes behind Kev, but, at least I finished.

Well, with a blustery day outside, and no one to run with (I'm sure I could have found someone to run some of the distance with - but didn't bother trying really), I decided to do my 15 miles on the treadmill.

I did it pretty slowly, with lots of walking breaks in the last 4 miles or so. But really, that's okay, finishing the marathon (which is still a distinct possibility) will be satisfaction enough for me. If it takes me five hours, it'll take me five hours. At least I'll be able to say that I did it.

The run was pretty good, my legs aren't too sore today, but my toes were really sore yesterday.

So, as we get closer to the marathon, my thoughts around whether I'll do the whole marathon or not have begun to be filled by more doubt. I'm seriously leaning towards only doing the half at this point, and then doing a full later on... we'll see though. I haven't yet decided to change my training to reflect that yet though, so if something remarkable happens and I feel like doing the whole thing, maybe I will.

It's off tomorrow morning to Courtice for me, meet up with Spill and head onto Pickering to catch up to Whiten. We'll eat some breakfast and then head on to meet up with Rick.
We're off to Buffalo you see, in order to take in what is likely to be yet another loss for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Should be fun, it's actually my second trip to see pro sports in Buffalo in 3 months. I was there in December to take in my first NFL game between the Bills and my Denver Broncos.
We're staying over in Buffalo on Friday which should be interesting, then back to Courtice to Bill's where I'll undoubtedly spend some time trying to work on my boxer in Bill's Xbox Fight Night: Round 2 game. :)