summer goals

Well... where have I been? Away from the blog, focused on school and not holding too true to my training plans.

I ran my first full marathon on Saturday and surprise, surprise... it was really freakin' hard! Who knew? Dusting myself off, ready to shave some serious time before the next one, I'm ready to commit to my goals. So here are my goals for the summer:

1) Break 35 minutes for the ride in to work.
My best ride in time so far has been 36:12. It's going to require luck at the lights, no routing issues, and I'm going to have to go hard and curb the urge to recover at the top of hills.

2) Run 8K in under an hour.
Not gonna run any faster unless I try to run faster right?

3) Drop 21 lbs.
I've gained back a little of the weight I lost... this gets me back to my previously achieved low, and the weight I was at when I posted my best half time. I exercise a lot so to achieve this I'm going to need to get my food under control. Drink too... we are heading into G&T season after all!

All this by Labour Day? Let's see...

@ home biggest loser day 4

Made it out for that 20km run I've been postponing. Perfect running weather. I ran out to the airport, then along the dyke, over the Golden Ears Bridge, did 5K or so in Langley and then headed back. I switched from my usual long run 4/1s to 5/1s. It started to feel really hard at 16km... not a big surprise since that has been my long run staple for the last 3 months. So at 16km, I stopped with the walking breaks and just ran it out.

Legs have been sore all day and my left hip is twinging but ahhh, so good to be out there for a good long run. Realling looking forward to the half in October!

That was it for exercise. But we did get the spare bedroom reconfigured as a modest home gym!



And I ate all 24 of my points plus 3 flex points.

@ home biggest loser day 3

Another lackluster day - this is getting to be a trend. I woke too late to get out for the 20km run I was supposed to do on the weekend. After getting home from a mid-day appointment, since it was warm and sunny, I opted to do a short run (5.7km) at the gym, on the dreadmill. And that was it for exercise. Although my abs are still so sore from the previous 2 days' workouts that rolling over in bed taxes them. Can I count that?

Still missed my points target, eating 22 of my 24 points.

@ home biggest loser day 2

Well, I'm off to a slow start. I did not get out for a run yesterday - not the 20K long run my schedule called for or even a short one for the sake of getting out.

I did do a workout video: Slim in 6 "Start it Up" in the morning. I am feeling my abs today.

In the afternoon, I suggested a hike in the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. It was a bit of a bust. Tessa came along, reluctantly. I told her she could bring her i-pod and wouldn't actually need to talk to Mom and Dad, at which point she seemed to consider it. I sealed the deal with the promise of an ice cream cone if she could do the hike without complaining. She acknowledged that would be a miracle but a DQ dipped cone was enough to get her out the door. She did have a few caveats though: bear warnings? Not doing it. Even one solitary slug sighting? We're coming home.

When we got there, there was a cougar sighting sign but when I pointed out that the sighting was two and a half months ago, she popped in her ear buds, ready to go.

We had looked at the maps online before we left, I suggested we do the 3.2km yellow trail and Tessa bargained me down to the 1.4 km red trail. Unfortunately the signage wasn't great when we got there - no "you are here" map at the start so we weren't sure which way to go. We ended up on the green trail which we only discovered after we got to a little information spot which had a "you are here" trail map. On the map, we were on the green line, at the 90 degree bend, east of the Alouette River. We'd have kept going, despite Tessa's protests but there was a sign letting us know the suspension bridge was out. We made our way back, hoping to sneak onto the red trail if we could find the start, without Tessa knowing. Once we were heading back the way we had come though, Ms. Complainer ("I'm not like you guys. I can't walk for hours" - note, we had been out for about 20 minutes when she said this), stepped up her pace and power-marched towards the parking lot.

Andrew and I may go back next week when he's on vacation as well and do one of the longer hikes... if we can fit it in to our other plans for when the kids are back in school, including golf and a few bike rides, including cycling part of the Kettle Valley Railway.

So, once again - no intense exercise. And we didn't get the pseudo-gym set-up. And I only ate 19 of my 24 points. Ooops.

Today: exercise more. Hit my points target!

@ home biggest loser day 1

OK, the best of intentions... and um, yeah, that was not enough.

Despite my determination and commitment for tons of exercise, yesterday I did an 11-minute ab video "Slim & 6 Pack". And... that's it.

Food-wise, I ate 21.5 of my 24 points. Ooops.

Today, I'm determined to get out for a run and repeat the ab video... and do something else.

Since the spare bedroom doesn't have a bed, we've talked about making use of the room by moving in the weight bench and free weights from the closet downstairs. We'll try to get that done today too.

I wanna be a big loser

Today is the first day of 2 weeks of vacation... or rather, staycation, since I'm not going anywhere. My weight loss in the last year has been sloooow. I'm a little more than a month away from the Royal Victoria Half and when I think about the Victoria 8K race last year and the weight I entered on the back of my race bib, I'm only 13 lbs lighter. In 10 and a half months, 13 lbs.

Last week, I stepped on the scale to discover another pound gone and this put me past the halfway mark on this weight loss journey. From where I started to where I am now, I'm 58 lbs lighter... from where I am now to the arbitrarily selected number I'm aiming for, I have 57 lbs to go. It has taken me 20 months to lose 58 lbs. In 10 months, I'll turn 40 and I'd really like to be done with the battle to lose weight when I enter my 40s. Really. So done. So, if I'm going to drop the next 57 in half the time it took to lose the first 58, I'm really need to step things up. And what better way to start then by using this 2 week staycation as a bit of a bootcamp or intense period of excessive exercise and deprivation, a la Biggest Loser?

These folks report double digit weight loss each week, and why? Because their days are filled with exercise, exercise and more exercise. Now I can't fully devote all day every day to working out. I've got kids to get back to school and grad school to give some energy to. But since I'm not working for these next 2 weeks, I can exercise more than I usually do and so that's my plan. I've set a goal of 10 lbs for these next 2 weeks - modest by Biggest Loser standards but certainly much faster than the rate I've been losing at.

Think I can do it?

I'm a triathlete

OK, a little late here, have been focusing on that damn paper for school again...

My First Triathlon... I did it! And gosh, was it ever fun. I will definitely do another.

Headed to the chiropractor on Friday, whined to Dr. Matt about my back being out the day before the tri when these flare-ups were not supposed to happen if I committed to regular chiropractic care. He gave a very painful adjustment, said to ice, ice, ice, stretch as much as I could tolerate and to keep moving and cross my fingers for the morning. So Saturday morning, the back wasn't great but it wasn't horrible either, and I could manage to straighten up without too much spasming. I was good to go.

First off, the swim. Hmmm, if I had to sum it up in one word: breath-taking! Is that two words? The water was so very, very, very cold that as soon as I immersed myself in it, I began gasping for breath. On a positive note, it was like a giant ice-pack for my back. I did my usual slow breast-stroke. When the back spasmed, I switched to side-stroke for a bit, and then went back to breast-stroke. I swam the whole 400m distance but was irritated that, as the water was so shallow, people were walking the distance and making swim motions with their arms. It probably wouldn't have irritated me if it weren't for the fact that they were passing me. Yeah, I know. Time for the swim: 17:41.225 and 65/73 out of the water.

Transition was a little awkward - didn't realize how hard it would be to run up to the transition area after swimming my leisurely pace. Dried off and pulled bike shorts on over my swimsuit, threw on a shirt, socks, shoes but then struggled with my cycling gloves. Swim to bike transition was 4:25 - quite a bit longer than I expected.

The bike was great. The hunched over position was awesome for my back (no, not being sarcastic). I passed loads of people and really enjoyed picking them off on the hills - which it seems are a strength for me. Who knew? Only passed by two people on the bike. One was a guy on a road bike, all kitted up in cycling glory and he passed me very early on - he was probably only behind me because he would have walked or carried his road bike out of the swim transition. The second guy who passed me, I managed to hold his wheel until we hit a hill, then I passed him. He'd pass me again on the flats and I'd hang on and overtake him on the next hill, and so on it went. My time on the bike was 43:10.433, placing 39/73. Not bad given I only took up cycling in May.

Bike to run transition: 52.595. Looking at the overall results, only 12 people transitioned any faster than me so I guess that's a reasonable time. Especially since they transitioned sooner, when the racks weren't as crowded.

The run was tough on my back. The course was hilly, nothing steep, but every incline caused my back to spasm and forced me to walk. At the top of each hill, I'd resume running, telling myself everyone had sore legs, and there was no walking because my legs were sore! Run time was a very slow 44:53.924 and 69/73 (ouch!).

Overall, I finished in 1:51:08 and 56/73. I did take fourth in my age group but still didn't secure that elusive last place finish as there were five of us competing.

Really looking forward to doing more of these next year - and thinking it might be fun to actually train for the next one!