Quick Race Results!

I'm going to write something longer later (when I'm at a computer instead of a phone), but the freezing cold 5K went well this morning. Half- way time was 13 minutes, final finish time of 28:11. That's a full 2 minutes better than my previous PB. Whaddya know, training works!


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End of the madness!

So the lead-up to Christmas was quite insane around here. Last year business pretty much died in December, and I was expecting the same again this year - however - quite the opposite happened! I ended up working right through December, even so far as into Christmas Eve! Still, all is quiet now (except for the sounds of the husband playing Forza 3 on his newly acquired Xbox of course...) and things have a chance of being slightly more sane in January. I have at least been keeping up with the training through all the madness - fitting in what I could where I could, but what's been weighing on my mind is the weight plateau I hit in November and wasn't able to shake. It's tough when I'd been losing pretty consistently over the past year to hit a point where I'd changed nothing and suddenly the weight just stagnated. Course, the smart amongst you will have read that and gone - ah ha, you said it exactly - you changed nothing! Bingo. So a couple weeks ago I changed things up a bit, both in diet and in exercise. I'm taking a bit more notice of the types of carbs I'm eating and trying to keep as low GI as I can now (I may go into a GI post when I feel I understand it more... Santa brought me a book I have to read!), and my training sessions at the gym have been stepped up. I'm still aching a bit from the session I had on Thursday morning - something about doing 101 squats with a bar above your head angers the quads - and then to carry on with another hour of training after that! I've changed my interval training from being time based to heart rate based now also - so shorter bursts for the moment but at a higher speed (I do my intervals on the treadmill). I'm running a whole lot faster than I thought I could now though, so obviously something's working!

Speaking of running, my last race of the season is tomorrow. It's the Toronto resolution run, a 5K race, and is a couple of laps around Exhibition Place. The weather looks like it's going to be good for it, and it's also going to be my first race as a Sugoi Brand Champion. I'm aiming to get a personal best time for my 5K - the last one I did was the Zoo Run, which is full of hills, and I managed it in 30m + change. Plans are to break the 30 minute mark tomorrow. I'll have some help also, as this is the first run that my husband will be running along with me - he's faster than me (so is everyone for that matter, but I digress...), so he should be able to push me to beat the 30 minute mark!

I'll update with race results tomorrow, although probably not many photos this time given that my photographer is running with me!

A Challenge For You

As pretty much everyone and their dog now knows, I did my first Triathlon this past summer - it was part of the HSBC Triathlon series, and in particular I did the Toronto Island Try-a-Tri. So, here's my challenge to you - yes, I mean all of you! I want some company at the Toronto Island Try-a-Tri this year. Looseyfur already has it marked on her calendar - it will be her first triathlon. I want a whole team of us out there.

The event is on August 14th, 2010 - all the details are here - so there's lots of time for training.

This is my challenge to you - this time last year I was sitting on the couch doing nothing for myself, and I was able to compete in this exact same event. Trust me, if I could do it, you can most definitely do this. There were entries last year of everyone from pre-teen all the way up to a guy in his 80's.

I know I've been muttering about fancy bikes recently also, but you don't even need to worry about that for this race - I saw lots of people doing this race last year on mountain bikes - I did it on a $20 garage sale special.

I've heard from quite a few people how inspired they've been from reading what I've been through in the last year - now's your time to act on it and pass on the inspiration.

Tell me you want to do this, and I'll be sure to hold you to it. I'll encourage and help with your training where I can, and answer questions where I can, or at least point you in the right direction of somewhere to get your questions answered.

So hands up - who's inspired enough to stand up and do this?

10 Things I've Now Learnt About Cold Weather Running

1. The first 5 minutes of the run are just going to be cold - suck it up and deal with it.

2. Windchill sucks.

3. I've got my layering right for -4C with a -20C windchill (after the first 5 minutes of course!)

4. Headwinds suck.

5. Headphones don't fall out of your ears when you're wearing a hat (bonus!)

6. Gusts of wind suck.

7. While the thought was I'd get to look at everyone else's pretty Christmas lights I was so preoccupied with watching for ice on the ground I didn't really see any lights...

8. -20 windchill, headwinds and running up-hill really suck.

9. City of Toronto actually does a fair old job of clearing the sidewalks - there was only a couple of patches where I had to really slow pace for the ice.

10. -20 windchill, headwinds, up-hill and sudden side-ways gusts of winds suck the most!

700+ Calories and How I Love the Toronto Public Library

It's Wednesday - which makes it the one day of the week that starts with a nasty irritating noise coming from the side of the bed, followed by a groan and sounds of me walking around half asleep convincing myself that 5:15AM is an hour that people should be eating breakfast to be closely followed by a 6AM running class... really...

Compounded by the fact that we had our first snowfall of the season last night (yea, class is going to only be inside, boo, it's really quite icky outside) this morning was a particularly sluggish morning. Apparently I wasn't the only one affected as only 3 of us turned up for the group class this morning and we proceeded to run circuits of the building the gym is in, drills and sprints down the hallway, then lots of core strengthening (read bridges and planks - ug!). Still, just over 500 calories burned from that, and then I spent the next 20 minutes on the spinning bike getting out another couple hundred knowing I was going to be stuck in a server room through most of today!

There's something so very wrong about getting home before the husband has even gotten up to have breakfast yet though - although I'm letting him off easy today as he had his personal training session last night - it sounds like he only just lived to tell the tale!

Onto the library - I've not owned a library card since... well, University if you count my student cards there - but otherwise I had one growing up, and then not since. We recently got our cards for the Toronto Public Library and I've been playing on their website. The branch closest to us is a fairly small branch, but with a decent selection, but not a lot in the realm of triathlon training and organic gardening/cooking.... what I discovered yesterday is that I can search for whatever I want through the TPL website, put it on hold and they'll bring the book to my local branch and e-mail me when it's sitting there waiting for me... sweet! So, a few training books are currently on hold and making their way to my local branch so I can get some ideas for spicing up my pool training!

Back at it!

Well, with 18 days and counting until the Resolution run, I'm finally able to run again. I got back on the horse with some interval training yesterday - and running after two weeks off is nothing like riding a bike! I will admit I was trying a new interval program that is a bit faster, but shorter intervals, but once my heart rate spiked to 196 I decided to back off understandably! (Don't freak out, January last year my heart rate topped out at 206 from time to time!)

I still haven't decided on the whole bike situation - it's a lot of money to part with! I've seen a couple bikes on Craigslist that would come in around $1000 by the time all was said and done, but something about buying a 2nd hand bike from someone I don't know considering how long I'd like to keep this bike and what I'm going to be putting it through for that kind of money makes me uneasy. I have just found out that there is a Toronto Bicycle Show on in the spring, so perhaps that's the answer to be able to really compare and find a great show special...

I do need to get back in the pool also... I used to train with a team all through High School and University, so always had someone dictating my training to me, now that I swim on my own I find it hard to focus and stick to a plan - or even have a plan for that matter! Anyone know of a good source for some swim training routines that I can stick in a plastic sleeve to take to the pool with me?

"So, Do You Understand Japanese?"

I pondered about posting this, but thought that it may help others by making it public, so here it is! The Title is the first thing the doctor said to me this week when I went in to see him - followed soon after by a "Well, you will now." (huh????) He continued on to tell me I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (Oh, Japanese physician who first described the symptoms!)- short form is that I have antibodies in my body that are attacking my Thyroid gland causing it to be enlarged, and it can eventually stop your thyroid from functioning altogether - this would affect the 2 primary hormones the thyroid creates the T3 (triiodothyonine) and T4 (thyroxine) levels in your body and quite drastically effects your metabolism. T3s and T4s maintain the rate at which our bodies use the food we consume, and then also help maintain our body's temperature and control the heart rate.

Presently my T3 and T4 levels are stable, but I do get the joy of being stabbed with a needle more frequently than I'd like to check them now. I'm staying away from foods that are high in iodine also - which is essentially seafood - but I can take fish oil in capsules (on a side note, has anyone found a fish oil capsule that doesn't give you a salmon aftertaste? I'm really not a salmon fan!). My doctor has chosen to not put me onto thyroid medication - in theory less drugs in the body is a good thing - there was a 2001 study of people in the same situation as me where the antibodies were increased, but the thyroid was still functioning where half the group were given a small amount of the thyroid hormone levothyroxine - this half found that their thyroid decreased in size and the number of attacking antibodies significantly decreased, where the placebo group's antibodies either stayed the same or increased. There are some more natural solutions out there that I'm going to take a look at first though - like taking a selenium supliment and generally keeping away from things that have toxins in them (see my previous post about organic foods). And we'll see how those pesky antibodies like that!

In other news, the back is so close to being back to normal. I'm still waiting a few more days before getting back into running again, but I did do my very first ever spinning class this morning - 776 calories burned later - and I actually enjoyed it. I did have misgivings wondering how exactly sitting on a bike in a class for an hour could be anything but dull, but some good music, an entertaining instructor and the hour flies by - if this doesn't help with the bike portion of the tri's next summer nothing will!