so I was...

Completely unprepared for this post. Work has been swallowing my weekdays and my weekends have been way too busy! Deenie needs more downtime.

Laughing at a voicemail I got last night from my friend. He said "you're probably doing some sort of, I don't know, swimming and then shooting a gun and then beating up a shark with a hammer". I may never stop laughing. 

Relieved my friend is unhurt after a car accident last night. 

Gearing up for another super busy weekend. I may have Saturday night to myself, there will be a yummy dinner and perhaps some wine.  (are you all laughing at 'perhaps'?)

Hungry for my morning oatmeal.

Excited to be helping out at the Tri-Fair in Burlington this weekend. I was going to help out the TCoB but things got screwed up on my end (sorry Jackie) but I will get to go later in the afternoon and help out coach Nancy!!!

Also excited to be signing up for a 10km race with my trainer (different than a coach) at the beginning of May. She has not kicked my ass in quite some time, I don't miss that pain but I kinda do. She is a marathoner and will kick my ass at the race but it will be awesome to do a race with her regardless. I need to get much faster by beginning of May. 

Sad to say this will be a quickie, do ya miss me? Tonight we have spin class and tomorrow it's a run and then Saturday it's our endurance ride and Sunday my long (painful) run.

that's all I got...

ATB! Go team and everyone else!

Just a quick update.  I'm heading out soon to meet up with Mrs LoTC to cheer on Mr. LoTC for the Around the Bay Race.  Many of my teammates from the Iron Canucks are also running it, Lynn, Nancy, Daryl, Kevin, Patricia and I can't even remember who else.  The sun is shining and I'm layering up for the cheering portion of my day because I hear it's bloody cold out there.  I can't wait to see everyone!

There seem to be lots of races today so I'm also cheering for my TeamBaha teammate Lady Baha who is running a Rock and Roll half today and I hear she's looking strong already!  GOOOOO TeamBaha!!!  Note Jason, we need a logo!

On Saturday morning around 5am I woke up with a horrible cramp in my calf, not my preferred way to wake up that's for sure.  Holy moly that hurt!  I went and did my team endurance ride, another 1:45min this week hoping the ride would loosen it up or work the knot out.  While it helped a little the ride wasn't great and it's still pretty sore.  If it's looser later today I'll go for a run but I don't think I'll make my 10km today, if no run then at least a good walk.  I need to pick up groceries anyway I could do that walking.  Note to self, buy bananas.  :-)  

So, weekend report is so far so good.  :-)  How is your weekend shaping up?

that's all I got...

GO TEAM!!!!

I stole this pic from Allison

I swapped spin class last night for an hour of hardcore snow shoveling or should I say ice chunks. I did both driveways, well 1.5 because my neighbours park their second car in the driveway. Normally this would be time saving as there is less snow but all it did was cause a 3 foot high drift on my side of the driveway. Everything hurt by the time I was done. Methinks someone needs some upper body conditioning!!  Mealsothinks it's time for someone to downsize from the house. 

I am not running tonight either, I am going to put it off until tomorrow and hope that the roads are dryer than they are now. I am not chancing a wipe out with my record.  Sonja may kill me when she sees me for skipping two of her workouts this week.  YIKES.

Busy weekend for me ahead I am working at home tomorrow but have some personal appointments to get to.  Then there's learn and burn and coach Nancy's party.  We have our endurance ride on Saturday and I believe we are going 100 minutes this week, that will be 5 less than last week. I need to get to MEC for shammy cream because one girl in class (ironman or is that ironwoman) last week told me to use a lot of cream and wear my tri pants with the thinner shammy. I don't have a clue how a thinner shammy would help but I'm willing to try anything to be less uncomfortable than last week. I also don’t have a clue how to spell shammy. I have a weight watchers weigh in and another appt at the bank and then there's cheering on people at the Around The Bay race and my Sunday long run. I can't forget groceries and laundry searching for my work access card either.  Oh and I need to find time to take my car in to see about the stupid speedometer.

Can we skip ahead and make it Monday cause I'm tired just thinking about it all.

that's all I got...

so I was...

Surprised when out of the blue I thought 'oh I can't wait for my long run on Sunday'.. And then immediately thought WTF?

Wondering where Adena went.

Contemplating my weeks in terms of how close I am to Friday rest day. For example today is not "Wednesday" but "2 more workouts til rest day". It may actually be 3 if Sonja makes me swim after spin tonight.

Grateful for a lovely email I got from a woman about my blog this week. 

Wishing everyone could have a community of people like the tri/running/cycling community to blog/tweet/facebook/train with.

Looking for my paper training schedule. I took it off the wall at work to take home on the weekend and it's gone missing. I had so many awesome checkmarks!

Also looking for my work access card, it's nowhere to be found. I may be arrested, they take this kinda thing very seriously, well the guy in charge of the cards does.

Happy that "Q on the move" is BACK!

I love the Pinarello.. 

Recommending you follow my friend Jackie on twitter. She competed in Kona last year, she's hardcore.  She lent me the "Pin" last season so I could see if I would even like triathlons and I hold her 50% responsible for what's happened to me.

Listening to music on my brand spankin' new iPod. Why is it I like listening to music on this iPod even though it's all the same music?


Watching videos on my new iPod!! I couldn't watch them on my old one, the screen was smashed.

Laughing at my coach, she is too funny. If you haven't seen the video for the Brian Smith Charity Ride please click, she dances at the end.

Asking that you sign up for the charity ride on May 29th.  If you can't ride or don't want to (why the heck wouldn't you there's gonna be COOKIES at all the rest stops), please consider volunteering.  We still need people to drive with/behind the cyclists.  If you are interested please contact me for details. 

Looking forward to learn and burn this week at Millcroft, it's about heart rate training. I will be learning but not burning, it's a rest day for me!!

Excited that after learn and burn is a team party at the coaches house.

More excited that after 4 months Amazon finally notified me that my other 2 copies of Beth Hart's My California have shipped.

Thinking I am not happy with DailyMile.com, it is so slow to load and I still can't find things. It's probably just me.

Contemplating a new tracking system, but maybe I don't need more than pen, paper and a highlighter.



My friend Amanda was cleaning her fridge this weekend and found this.  I don't like olives. 

that's all I got...

monday monday..

I did 7 hours of exercise last week and hit every workout hard so I was over the moon happy with a rest day on Friday. I know some people say 'oh I don't like rest days" and all I have to say to those people is 'WTF?'. I enjoyed every single minute of not working out on Friday. Friday night I headed to Fran and John's for dinner. On the way there I had a phone chat with my twitter pal @pedalmanTO, it was great to talk to a 'voice' after more than a year of tweeting.  I arrived at F&J's half hour early, there wasn't any traffic, the drive was spectacular!! We did not have pizza, John BBQd steaks and there were grilled veggies, sweet potatoes and garlic bread with cheese. It was their son Blake's 19th birthday so there were presents and ice cream cake too. The boys obviously take after Fran because they were polite and well behaved. Haha After dinner Fran and I registered for the Peterborough 70.3.. No turning back now. OH EMMM GEE

Saturday I was up and out for my first weigh in at WW and despite the garlic bread and ice cream cake I lost 3.1 pounds my first week. They wanted me to stay for the meeting but I had a more important meeting to get to, my 90 minute endurance ride with the team. I can't think of a single thing I would hear at a WW meeting that would trump the things I would learn with the people at the ride. Last week there was alot of talk about shammy cream and lubing!!  I took George with me for his first indoor ride that was not in my living room. The class was packed, I think there are 45 of us in all. Daryl set up his bike beside mine so at least once in our training season I was able to stay beside him for a ride. When we move outside I won't be seeing any of these people, just the person that ends up on sweep, we'll be great friends!! It was a super uncomfortable ride for me, I was not happy from the start but I powered through. In the end we did 1 hour and 45 minutes and my butt was on fire. I will be going to MEC today to pick up some butt cream, I am not convinced it will help but I'm willing to try anything. After the ride home to shower, do some errands and attend a surprise party for a very good friend. It was so nice to see my friends for a few hours!

I left early because there is an 8:00am run with my team and I wanted to be up in time to go. Sadly (or not) I slept through that so I opted for brunch with my friend Sukhi and after brunch we shopped for an iPod. My iPod has been on it's last legs for quite some time so I got a classic 160GB one for myself as well. I got home and set that up to sync while I headed out for my run. Right out of the gate I felt good. No first sucky 20 minutes which was fantastic, my breathing stayed steady and my HR stayed between 155 and 160 for the most part. After 8km I was dead but I was still 2km from home so no choice but to run the rest of the way. I ended up with 10.65km an will try for 12 next weekend. Get this I even 'enjoyed' some of that run, the sun was out, I was out of the wind in a subdivision and listening to a great mix on my old ipod. I won't tell you how slow I was but I kept my usual 5km pace which I think means I can kick up the 5km pace a notch now.

This week I'm shortening my Tuesday run to 45 minutes (from an hour) and adding in 30 minute strength session to that day. I talked to my spin/running coach and told her I wanted to swap out her Wednesday spin class for a swim and now I'm doing both. WTF? I was going to call her a bad name but she might read this and then I'd really pay. I will add in a second 30 minute strength session to my week for a total of around 9 hours of training this week. Oh what the hell maybe I should also do Yoga tonight too. Haha yeah right.

For any of the people that were on the ride no Satuday that may be reading this, the story that Coach Nancy told about how I ended up enrolled in the half iron training was NOT TRUE!! What really happened?? She put me on the email list for the half, I responded and said 'I think you made a mistake including me on this email distribution list', she said 'no, you can do it' and here I am.. She's a sneaky bugger.

that's all I got...

no picture, no drama, no long winded post

Friday I registered for the Peterborough 70.3.

Today I ran 10.65km.  Longest run for me to date and I ran almost all of it.  I walked about every 8 minutes or so and my heart rate did not go over 160bpm.  I ran 10.65km?  I ran 10.65km!

What a weekend.

that's all I got...

Ten ways I break the rules

Beth at Shut Up and Run told us to post this so I am.  I always listen to Beth, don't you??

1.  I would say I drive over the speed limit on occasion but my speedometer is broken therefore there's no proof.
2.   I don't wait an hour after eating to swim.  It depends on what I ate and how I feel.
3.   I definitely don't drink enough water.
4.   I ripped the tags off my mattresses despite the warning that it would be a legal disaster for me if i did that. 
5.   I write blogs at work (occasionally) but I turned off the thing that shows the time I post them so there's no proof. 
6.   I don't always let the oven fully preheat before I put stuff in there to cook.  Except when making yorkshires cause they don't work if you don't do everything exactly. 
7.  Sometimes I drink before noon and by drink I mean an alcoholic beverage or 2, or 3.  What like you never??
8.   Last week I would have said I skip more workouts than I should but this week I'm hardcore.
9.   At a restaurant I usually end up eating with the wrong fork but act like I'm doing it on purpose if someone calls me out. 
10.  I will use my iphone while in the bathtub but never my hair dryer.

One rule I never break is that one in the pamphlet that comes with a hair dryer, "Do not use while sleeping".  I NEVER do that.

I ran with my group last night and it was a slow painful 6km.  I think that since I haven't missed a workout I am just tired overall and that contributed to the pain.  I have a rest day today (woohoo) and tonight I'm signing up for the Peterborough 70.3 with Mrs. LoTC, at least I think it's tonight else I'll be showing up at their house unannounced and John kinda scares me. 

that's all I got...

Hopefully this will be my running view on Sunday

**for those that are asking how to turn off the 'time' feature of the time stamp go to 'Settings', 'Formatting', 'Timestamp format'.  Select the date with no time option from the dropdown. 

runnin' on empty

Darn it, I had pre-written half a post yesterday and when I looked for it on my computer, gone.. Argh I hate it when that happens. 

I wanted to say that I am seeing some success with this whole heart rate, slow and steady whatever you call it thing I'm doing with my running. I think most importantly I have only missed one run so far this month, consistency baby, consistency. On Tuesday I went out with the intention to run 30 minutes, I wasn't 'feeling' it. I know when am I ever 'feeling it' but I thought 30 minutes was a good compromise. I arrived home just over an hour later having completed 7.4km, go ME. Slow, yes but I felt good. The other thing I realized (and Julie has blogged about this before) is that the first 20 minutes of the run suck, it's all coughing and lung burning and start and stop but after that 20min mark I start to steady out and get into a groove. One other thing happens at the 20 minute mark religiously.. my ipod dies. ARGH! 

I have been killing spin class lately. When the intructor says 'turn it up!' get this, I actually turn it up!

I am thinking about swapping out a spin class for strength and swim sessions though. I need to continue to focus on my run so 3x per week is needed but I think I can get by with 2 bike sessions for a few weeks. Then again the Brian Smith Charity ride is at the end of May. I'm gonna have to chat with Nancy about this, coach are you reading this??   Speaking of my coach, she posted a blog/testimonial about me on her site.. Go lookie  She called it 'from couch to half ironman' and I just realized how alarmingly true that is.. OMG

One more run until rest day on Friday and I can't wait! 

that's all I got...

lookit all those checkmarks

so I was..

Walking around singing 'it's a new dawn, a new day, a new …' nevermind.

Ending every sentence with, 'how many points is that?' They are starting to get annoyed with me at work.

Wondering when my legs will stop burning.

Excited because that means I'm hitting all my workouts hard.

Hoping that all this spin class pain (turn it up!!!) will translate to stronger quads and more efficient (less painful) hill climbing on the bike.

Not sure how I'm going to live through adding in more workouts to my schedule.

Thinking I am pretty sure I have a doctor appointment coming up but can't quite remember. I hope they call to remind me.

Listening to Eminem, yeah I'm a rapper, that's me.

Sure I qualify for an iphone upgrade by now, my phone is dying and I'm tired of fighting the urge to chuck it across the room.

Going to get a standard desktop MAC but am now thinking about a MACbook. Are they a bajillion dollars?

Interested in sponsoring a backwards giveaway, WHO WANTS TO GIVE ME A TREADMILL?!!!! anyone? hello? hellew??

Buying too much stuff over the internet, I must be stopped!! Someone take my CC please.. please… please.. (no there isn't any room left on it)

Recommending that you go over to EMZ's blog and check out her 24 hour run for charity, yup 24 hours!! Her training run is a freaking marathon. She is my hero. There's a donate button there too, just so you know.  pssssst you should totally donate,  she's running for 24 hours that's totally worth a donate...

Promising that on the same day that she does her run. May 6 (or 7) I will also run for a long time... until it hurts... I will not be running for 24 hours but definitely at least 24 minutes. 

SOOOOO happy for DST. Some people loathe it, I don't get it, it's only an hour.  And by loathe, I mean they won't stop complaining about it, it's like they've never lost an hour's sleep before.

Loving these sunny warmer days, they have me itching for spring

Meaning to ask you how can I tell how far I'm pedalling on my bike while it's on the trainer?  My computer is on my front tire, not my back tire. 

that's all I got...

what a week...

What a training week!!  I did spin class on Monday and Wednesday, ran on Tuesday, did a 90 minute endurance ride with my team on Saturday and did my 'long run' today.  I ditched out of my run on Thursday because I had what we thought was a popped rib, it hurt to move in any way.  After two days of resting it, I felt much better yesterday morning.  Thankfully no adjustment was needed.

It was my first group ride with the team which includes the IronCanucks as well as people that are participating in the Brian Smith Charity ride at the end of May.  I had alot of fun at the group ride, ass pain aside. Nancy makes me laugh and now she's running around calling everyone homey, I think she got that from me.  hah!  I'm even looking forward to next week. Each week we will ride longer and longer but the time goes fast.  

Today I went for my long run which was 12km on the schedule but that would have been way too high a mileage jump for me so I decided I would do 8km.  This was a reasonable increase and I knew would still be a challenge.  My breathing was pretty steady and although I was doing a slow run and keeping an eye on my heart rate, it was higher than I planned but it was steady so I just ran as long as I could before talking a short walk breaks.  My ankle gave out at 6.5km, I walked a bit and tried to run again but it wasn't happening.  Sadly I was 2.5kms away from home when it happened which made for a slow, cold limp home.  

In weight news, I'm on the yoyo and I've had enough.  I do great for a week but then something happens, or nothing happens and I'm off track.  I need accountability and portion control and to make the right choices 90% of the time.  Last week I ran into a fellow Mommie in Motion on the train and she was telling me that she had joined Weight Watchers.  She was explaining their new points program and it seemed pretty appealing.  Points are now based on protein, fat, fibre and carb values so I'm not restricted to this much protein and that many carbs etc. It's worth a shot and the price is pretty reasonable, always was.  I entered my activity into the 'tracker' today and died laughing, with my run I earned a bunch of extra points, plus my 30 minute walk on top of that earned me even more.  I won't be using my activity points unless I'm totally starving but it will be interesting to see how many extra points I'll need to use day over day with all this training.  It's worth a shot and sure as hell didn't hurt Jennifer Hudson, holy jeez she looks good.  

So training is done, laundry is almost done, I just need to make some food for lunches for next week and then I can relax.  

that's all I got...  

You know what your problem is??

Naw, it's not your problem, it's my problem but that saying makes me laugh. So, my comment about heart rate training yesterday caused a few questions and comments so I thought I'd try to clarify what it is that I'm doing. Keep in mind that I don't know what I'm doing but I have discussed this with my coach and I am hopeful it will work. Incidentally it was a commuting discussion with Rodney that got me thinking about the idea but it's not yet JohnP approved. 

Background: despite last year's training I am still not 'fit'. I'm most definitely fitter than I was before so let's use that as a basis. I have done running the in past, 5km race in June of 2008 and last year's sprint tri. I trained for these events but I am by no means a 'runner'. I do what I think I need to do, I go out and run. While I have seen improvements in cycling and swimming from practice last season my running is still exactly where it was 3 years ago. It sucks, it's sucky, sucks the big one, it's BAD... I certainly don't help the situation because if I skip a workout guess which one I skip, hence registering for 2 half marathons this year. Whether I'm ready or do well is beside the point, I needed a goal and a scary one at that to motivate me to get out there and run and figure this thing out. One day I would love to say that I love running or even remotely like it in any way. 

Problem: my problem, well the running problem, I have lots of other problems and I'm happy to share but you would need to ply me with alcohol to get me to spill so BACK to the running discussion.  So, when I run, I do just that, I go out and run and within the first 10 minutes my heart rate is at 175 and I keep going until I can't run anymore and am completely out of breath. I walk for a bit to let my HR come down and catch my breath and then I start running again for say 5 minutes before I'm topped out at 175 again and want to throw up. As the run progresses the running portions gets shorter and shorter (as my frustration level grows) and the walking portion increases until I hit my time or distance or give up or whatever my goal is that day. 

This happens at every run. It's effing frustrating because I never seem to run longer or seem to get faster or feel better during a run. Some days I get home completely convinced my pace was better only to find out it was exactly the same as my last run.  W T F ? ? ? 

I know there are tempo runs and speed workouts and Sunday long runs and they should all be different but at this point all my runs look the same.

SO when I say I'm doing heart rate training I am probably using that term inappropriately. What I am doing is, on my solo runs, is trying not to go over a certain heart rate, I hope this will help me slow my pace down so I can sustain a run/jog/whateverwearecallingit for a longer period of time. I'm not looking to keep my heart rate in this range, but I need to learn how to run slower so I can run for longer periods of time.  Does that make any sense? I've talked to coach Nancy and she says this is a good plan and to practice and it will get better.

If you have any thoughts or advice or support (or heckling, I know you wanna) I'm all ears. What I do know is that I enjoyed my run on Tuesday. I felt good, obviously I walked when my HR got to 150 and I wouldn't let it get lower than 140. I wasn't upset at my time when the run was done, I hated my pace time but I have the hope that I will see improvement. 


I went back and read my diary entry from my first 5km race in 2008.   I remember the training for that was brutal and finishing felt crazy good. It's funny because 5km is a short training run for me now, so I guess I have progressed more than I thought even if it is more mental progress than pace time progress.  I will figure this thing out.  

I will.. 

no I really will!

that's all I got...

oh by the way, remember when I said yesterday that my team had gone all healthy, yeah that was before someone brought in BAGS of candy and someone else bought cookies.  oy 

so I was...

Good morning, oatmeal, coffee and email

Chatting with a friend on another website about life and all that and she said "Funny that. We'd probably be on the verge of some deeply profound, life altering epiphany here if only we didn't drink so much. :p" I love her.

Impressed that the co-workers in my area have gone heathly, no more junk food, it's oatmeal all round.

Amazed at how slow a running pace I have to keep to keep my heart rate below 150. I ran for 40 minutes last night and my avg heart rate was 143. I hear I will get faster with practice but my god I barely got around the corner.

Bummed to come in after 4km but I needed the ummmm bathroom if you know what I mean. That's never happened before!

Looking forward to spin class with Sonja tonight.

Dreading the run group with Sonja tomorrow.

Kicking some ass and hitting all my workouts this week, two more til my rest day.. Woot!

Reading "Brain Training for Runners" hoping it will take the whine out of my runs.

Asking for people to send me 'so I was' entries because I am running out of things to post but I asked my twitter friends and I can't post anything they sent me.

Planning to get back for my first swim of the year on Saturday before or after my endurance ride with the team. I may die.

Laughing my head off at Elmo and the Cookie Monster on an episode of Top Chef. I felt like a 5yr old.  Cooooookkiiieeee!!! 

Honest this morning when I went to purchase a new coffee 'go mug' and the guy wasn't going to charge me. The guy behind me told me should have kept my mouth shut.

Thinking I need one more follower so I feel a little less dirty, I'm at 69 now.

Counting down to the Cupcake Marathon!!!

Wishing it was Friday already

that's all I got...

Chilly.. brrrrrr

The weekend started off great.  Friday after work I met some friends at our favourite Thai restaurant, Salad King.  I am happy to report the food is as delicious as ever!  As you can see from my plate I ate all of it.

On Saturday our IronCanucks team had our first indoor endurance ride but unfortunately I couldn't make it, I had to get my hair done.  A girl has priorities.  What this meant was that I ended up having to do my ride solo after I got home and it was a loooong painful 80 minutes but I got it done.  I was not surprised that my butt was hurting so much when I got off the bike and realized I was wearing tri shorts, not my extra padded cycling pants.  Dumb!

I was up bright and early this morning to meet my coach and the team at the water/eload stop sponsored by Second Wind Conditioning.  I have never volunteered before but I do remember how grateful I was to the volunteers passing out water at my tri and was excited to return the favour and do some cheering.  I love our team and we all had as many giggles as you can have while loading up eload and water for the racers to come.  We were 6kms in for the half marathoners and were on the route for the 5km racers as well.

We were ready for them however when I heard there were over 4500 runners I was sure we didn't have nearly enough.  Turns out we had more than we needed.  Some cup grabs were super smooth, the runner would point at me and they would take the cup and off then went, but more often than not it was a grab or worse grab and drop.  One runner was already drinking water and asked if I had eload which I did so she threw down her water to grab the cup in my hand but unfortunately when she threw the water down it came right back up, in my face!!!  Nice.  Alot of the water was starting to freeze, some runners came by chomping ice.  As time passed and we cheered everyone on JP and I started to get cheeky and instead of yelling 'eload, this is eload!' we were yelling, 'shot of brandy?!  rye and coke anyone!!'.  We had some giggles with many of the runners.  Many many many of them took the time to say thanks for volunteering.

I was waiting to see Rodney, see his race report here, but as I was running back up to the table to get more eload I heard someone yelling my name and saying something harassing and sure enough, it was him.  He was looking really strong so early into the run.  My fellow mommie in motion Linda who was doing her first half looked great when she came by!  I didn't see Daryl until the end and he was looking really fresh and beating the 1:30 pace bunny.  He is legendary in our group, they say he runs like a gazelle and it's true, that guy is FAST!!

I didn't get to my run today, the miss was 'coach approved' because of the weather but I did walk 4km to and from the water stop, I parked way too far away but I enjoyed the walk. Add that to my 6km of walking on Friday around Toronto and I'm not unhappy with my weekend.  Home to do laundry and make chicken pot pie (sans crust) for my lunches this week.

When I opened my volunteer kit and was reading through some of the materials I came across a 5km run/walk in memory of my swim coach Meredith who died in a tragic cycling accident last spring.  Her friends and family have set up a foundation in her memory and they are running a 5km run/walk in Campbellville on June 25.  I'm definitely adding this race to my calendar and I would love to have any of you join me for this one. I only knew her briefly but I will never forget her.  I read an entry on her blog once and I saved it, it was so Meredith..

"Its a perfect day to...get outside, go for a run, walk to the coffee shop, read a book, write a letter to a friend, smile, play with your kids, call your parents, laugh with friends, share a quiet moment with someone, dance, buy a new pair of shoes, go spinning, take a long shower, tell someone how much you love them, skip, watch an old movie, do a hot yoga class, paint your toes, listen to music really loud..and sing, share, give something away, do a cartwheel, write in your journal, take a wee nap, stretch, do what makes you happy and enjoy every moment of the day.Be Phat!"

Here is a link to a video of Meredith that I just found via the foundation website.  

This has turned into a much longer post than I originally anticipated, hope you all had a great weekend!

that's all I got...

I wasn't gonna....

Ice (cuber)

A-Age: 45, when the hell did that happen?

B-Bed size: I have a queen size but what is a California King and why does everyone but me have one?



C-Chore you hate: Folding and putting away clothes

D-Dogs? 2 but they don’t live with me. Ice (cuber, minime, snugglebear) a Weimaraner and a Little Sister (peepeepants, nugglebum, sugarbear) is a German Shorthaired Pointer. I miss them every single day.  I dogsit Sadie, Mia, Tavish and Max (but Max is a cat)

E-Essential start to your day: hello coffee!!

F-Favourite colour: Green

G-Gold or silver: White gold, silver, platinum

H-Height: 5'5.5"

I-Instruments you play: I played the piano as a kid but doubt I could even bang out chopsticks now

this is a ball, do you wanna play huh huh huh?

J-Job Title: Program Control Officer

K-Kids: None

L-Live: Burlington Ontario

M-Mom's Name: Janice (and why only mom?  Isn't dad important too?  Bob's my dad, not my uncle)

N-Nickname: yeah like I’d tell YOU guys.. ummm no.

O-Overnight hospital stays: had my tonsils out when I was 3 or 4

P-Pet Peeve: people that get out of the shower and step directly on the bathmat. Dry off FIRST and then step on the bathmat. I hate having wet feet

Q-Quote from a movie:
Steve McCroskey: Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines OR
Hanging Lady: Nervous? Ted Striker: Yes.
Hanging Lady: First time? Ted Striker: No, I've been nervous lots of times.

R-Right or Left handed? Right

S-Siblings: Older sister, younger brother, younger step sister and step brother

T-Time you wake up: no clue, there are so many alarms going off it’s a crapshoot as to when I actually get out of bed

U-Underwear: Fruit of the loom, cherry..

My girls hanging with their fav person, Gramma M

V-Vegetable you dislike: peas!!!!!

W-What makes you run late: getting anywhere first thing in the morning, see wake up question. I’m generally always 15-30 minutes early



X. X-Rays you've had done: Foot, because a horse stepped on it, it wasn’t broken, go figure

Y-Yummy food you make: Yorkshire pudding?

Z. Zoo-Favorite animal: I don’t like the zoo, or marine land or places like that. I feel bad for all the animals

what did you say?

It's funny how a simple word can change how you view something. Typically on a day when I have to do a trainer session I spend most of the day dreading it. Let's face it, I spend most of the day dreading every workout, this is one reason I should really get up early and get it out of the way but getting me out of bed that early is an entirely different problem Oprah. I was talking to my pals Fran and John about my March training program and John had said that my Monday spin sessions would be hard and that my Wednesday solo trainer session would be an easy pedal. Now I realize "easy" is a relative term but everytime I would start to dread my trainer ride I would say to myself, "it's easy Wednesday, it's just an easy pedal" and sure enough I got home, got in my tri pants and did 65 minutes. Saying it was an "easy pedal" did not mean that I didn't work hard, I was definitely sweating and had a rhythm going, making it harder during commercials etc but saying "it's just an easy pedal" made all the difference in my mindset. After 65 minutes on the trainer my butt is killing me and I'll be shopping for a new saddle very soon. I had to stop 3 different times and get off the bike because my feet/lower legs had fallen asleep / gone numb. I know I say they were numb but this is not to say I didn't feel a thing because it's definitely uncomfortable.

I was checking my mail last night and there was a surprise from my friend PedalmanTO.  Another postcard!! I love getting mail that does not ask me to send money to someone. I have put it on my fridge along with my other postcards. I'm going to need more fridge magnets.

Tonight is a group run and sadly I know it won't be easy but I will get out there and push msyelf and it's always easier with a group. PLUS my running clothes are clean and smell good.. It's going to be cold tonight, I'm going for 4 layers again.

Finally, Dear President's Choice. I bought a sheet set and comforter from you a week ago. I generally love every product you sell but please do me and everyone in the world a favour, stop selling sheet and comforter sets. OH MY GOD they are the scratchiest most uncomfortable sheets I have EVER slept on. Sadly I washed them and have slept in them so I can't return them. My old comfy, soft sheets are back on the bed.

that's all I got...

so I was

Feeling restless and still thinking about picking up and moving clean outta town. But that would take a lot of work and I'm lazy. Move along.
Wondering if I'd really do it.

Thinking I am not a fan of taxes in fact, I hate them, there I said it.
Wondering if I'll ever get over that or at the very least get a decent paper filing system so it's less painful every year.

Happy to catch up, with a very very very old friend this week who lives very very very far away now. We've known each other since we were 13 or 14 and reconnect every few years.
Wondering where we'll be in 2 years time when we catch up again. I bet he's still laughing at the whole triathlon thing, in fact he claimed my identity had been hijacked.

Wishing I could find a good pair of headphones for my iPod. Got any recommendations?
Wondering why, whenever I ask a question here, no one really answers.

Listening to the new Slash album over and over. Soooo good.
Wondering if you noticed that I called it an album, how old am I? 

Missing the experience of buying albums.  Going to the record store, flipping through the bins, bringing a record (or 10) home.  Pulling it out of the sleeve and looking at the inner jacket and looking at the pictures, reading the liner notes.  Put it on the turntable, adjust the penny (or nickel) on the needle and let it play. 
Wondering if I am the only one.  

Excited that daylight savings time is coming soon. I know most people loathe losing the hour but this means it will be light outside til about 7pm and that makes me happier than you know.
Wondering if you knew that half the clocks in my house are still on the old time, plus the clock in my car.

Loving our team logo for IronCanucks! One of the guys is saying he's going to get a tattoo of it.
Wondering if that's going to far? ;-)

Looking forward to dinner out on Friday night. We are going to Salad King. It's my FAVOURITE Thai restaurant and it just reopened after a long stretch because the building it was in crumbled. Yup, crumbled. Friday night it will be Cashew Chicken with 4 chilies and spring rolls. I'll also get the Panang Chicken Curry, 7 chilies to go.
Wondering if it be wrong if I just brought tupperware and asked them to fill it? I could take home more food that way.

Writing this on Wednesday afternoon and scheduling it to post tomorrow morning.
Wondering if it will work.

that's all I got..

Group run, group ride + a cupcake

Can't wait to get the shirts!!!!

Our team IronCanucks half ironman training started this past week. We started with a learn and burn. Learn and burn is where we all get together at the club and ride spin bikes while we learn about something.


This week we learned about nutrition while we rode for about 45min or so. Janicke did not let us off that easy though.  She busted me tweeting when I thought we were done because she wanted to throw in a few challenges at the end. It's not the same as a spin class but when we were done I was sweating and felt good. I love how the team is shaping up and my goal is to get from the back of the pack to somewhere at the slow end of the middle. Is that even a place? Slow middle?

In the meantime our other coach Nancy sent out our training schedule. She has 4 swims per week on there. Really? Yeah no.. I need to focus on my run at the moment (hai half marathon) so I changed the program around a bit. I started with our half marathon training schedule. A group run on Thursdays, long run on Saturday and a solo run on Tuesday. Then I added in 3 cycling sessions, well I didn't have to add them in, they were already there. Spin class one day per week, solo trainer ride and a long group endurance ride on the weekend. I only have one swim per week down and one strength training session but if my runs are less than an hour I will throw in another session. I'd like to do 2 half hour sessions per week (push/pull). Saturdays are turning out to be mini-tris with a swim and then a brick. This could be good, or at least funny because the ride is our endurance ride and I'm going to look like a duck trying to run off the long bike ride. Is it too late to pray?

I also joined Jason's cupcake half marathon but I opted OUT of the cupcakes portion, it kinda defeats the purpose. I figure with my training schedule I'll more than meet the mileage required and it's always fun to this kinda thing.

My eating has been really great lately, I'm very proud of myself but at the same time my jaw hurts from chomping all the vegetables.  I feel good!!

that's all I got..