Category Archives: Fitness

Fitness Friday: Goals for 2015

January 2, 2015Fitness, Running, WeightliftingRacing, Weight LossChelle

Last year I started something I’d never really put down on paper before; my fitness goals for the year. Having a handy list online to refer to was great at keeping me motivated (even though, realistically, the only one keeping tabs on myself was me) and for having an easy reference point whenever I wanted to re-focus my fitness efforts.

I didn’t succeed on all of last year’s goals, but that’s okay: Not succeeding in all my goals makes me realize I need to refocus if some of them are just too far off the mark (or completely unrealistic).

Here’s my list of things I’d like to accomplish in 2015:

WeightLoss – Let’s try for 145 pounds instead
- Jesus, Mary and Joseph, this must be on everyone’s list and I don’t think it’s ever really going to disappear from mine. I had a goal of hitting 140 pounds last year and never made it. I originally chose 140 as that would make me “healthy” if we were going by those nasty BMI charts (I know, I know, BMI is a really bad indicator of “healthy”). The closest I ever got was 147, and that was pushing it. I only managed to hit that when I was at the peak of my half marathon training in September, and I definitely wasn’t able to sustain it, since I blew up like blowfish throughout December when my running bottomed out. I’m currently looking at a weight of 157 on the scale and it’s… uncomfortable. I felt the healthiest around 148, so I’m kind of aiming for around 145 pounds (gives me some leeway cuz I love me my wine and fries).
  
  lol ain’t it the truth?
Race Pace for 5 and 10Ks – Sub 25 minute 5K, sub 54 minute for 10K
- While I really enjoyed running two half marathons in 2014, I’m not really looking to work too hard on my pacing for that long of a stretch of time (pushing myself for two hours straight? Nothankyou.). What I would like to do is achieve an under 25 minute 5K (my personal best right now is 26:10) and an under 54 minute 10K (pb of 55:14). I’m going to have to work more on interval and speed training (something I really, really despise) and I’m going to go have to get on it PRONTO because I’ve got races already starting in March! I think this is the toughest goal I have set out for myself this year because it means I can’t just “naturally” get better at running, I have to actually push myself to do so, and that can be discouraging and frustrating to me.
  
  Toronto Island 10k – clocked my personal best for a 10k in 2014
Weightlifting – STICK WITH IT
- I really enjoy lifting. It makes me look leaner, burns more calories when I’m sitting on my ass and gives me bulges in nice places as opposed to the not-so-nice places when I’m not lifting. I had goals for how much weight I wanted to lift last year, and never managed to achieve them. I hurt myself pretty significantly throughout the year and I want to avoid that, but I also want to STICK with lifting. I feel like I’d go back to it every few months, get sick or injured, then stop for another couple months, THEN go back to lifting and start at rock bottom again. So while I would like to see a 100 pound bench press and a 160 pound squat out of this body, what I really want is to just freaking stick with the lifting and not let it fall by the wayside. Lifting is the first thing I drop when I need some space in my schedule, and it’s kind of stupid because it’s the one that takes the least amount of time out of my schedule – seriously, 30 minutes three times a week? I can’t manage that? Come on now.
  
  I looked, and was, stronger than I am now. Need to get back to it!
Run more – run over 550k in 2015
- In 2015, I would like to run slightly further than I’ve run in previous years. Given that I have no intention of training towards a full marathon, or working towards consecutive halves, this basically means I just have to run more consistently. I’m not bad when I have a plan, but there were some months throughout 2014 when I only ran about 20k (or like December… 10k :s ). However, I have done as much as 80k a month, and that’s closer to what I would like to be doing. So the goal to run over 550k in 2015 is only a small jump from the previous year (514k) simply because I want to remain consistent.
- For reference, here are my distances for the previous four years:
  - 2014: 71 runs, with an average distance of 7.2k. Total distance covered: 514k
  - 2013: 77 runs, with an average distance of 5.4k. Total distance covered: 417k
  - 2012: 46 runs, with an average distance of 4.3k. Total distance covered: 200k
  - 2011: 50 runs, with an average distance of 3.4k. Total distance covered: 173k
    
    Nike+ 2014 log

And that’s it for me! Pretty short and sweet. The goals are a bit more vague this year compared to last year, but I think it gives me opportunity to grow without getting panicky, which is what I started to feel towards the end of 2014 with my lifting goals (and promptly bombed out of every single one of them). Do you have any fitness goals for 2014? Tell me! I’d love to hear about them. 🙂

Fitness Friday: Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront (Half) Marathon

November 7, 2014Fitness, RunningRacingChelle

I really wasn’t planning on doing the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon race. After the race in Prague, I hadn’t been interested in doing another half marathon any time soon. However… I had mentioned to some people on my Ultimate Frisbee team that I was looking for people to run races with (because standing at a start line by yourself really does suck) and one of them invited me out for the half marathon. I was like weeeelllll mayyyyybe I can do the half.

Morning of the race – crack of effing dawn

So race day came and I was really worried about my knees. REALLY worried. I met up with my teammates and we huddled together (it was dang freezing COLD) at the start zone in a slower corral than I was marked for (it didn’t matter, they weren’t really checking our line up skills it seems). One thing I noticed right off the bat was just how well this event was handled.Nothing like Ottawa Race Weekend’s utter fucking disaster zone at the start. And even though there were tons of people in this race since the half and the full started at the same time, it went off without a hitch. At no point were we forced to stop and walk because the crush of people was too large. I cannot say how much I appreciated that. Having to stop and walk because there’s too many people is just soul-destroying as you watch your few seconds/minutes of edge dwindle away into nothingness. OTTAWA – You need to fucking fix your shit for next year because every other city is managing to do this with MORE people than you have and they’re not nearly as clusterfucky!

So we took off and the first section was uphill ( 😐 ) to Bloor Street. It then cut along down Bathurst and out to Lakeshore. I saw some amazing signs (“Pain is temporary, but internet race results last forever” was definitely my favourite!) and some cute costumes (Captain Canada stuck out in my head as he would stop to high five little kids on the side of the street! I also saw some crazy guy JUGGLING the whole way! He ran the half at an incredible pace AND juggled the entire time!). I was having a GREAT first 10 kilometers. I was doing a fantastic pace (around 5:51 per k) and not feeling out of breath or in pain. I hit the first 10k mark at 58:55 which surprised and pleased me.

But then, rather rapidly, around the eleventh kilometer, my knees started to get tighter and tighter as I pushed on. I tried correcting my stride to straighten out my legs/knee. Then I tried knee ups and high kickbacks – those seemed to help a lot and they’d alleviate some of the pressure on my kneecaps, in particular the left one. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t super painful yet. There were some nasty uphills on the loop back into the city (we had run out to High Park, then u-turned back down Lakeshore to head back to the downtown core) and I wasn’t too happy to see those suckers towards the end of the run. (It seems the race organizers have a different definition of a FLAT RACE than I do!)

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront (Half) Marathon Route

When I finally hit the 20k marker, I started to get incredibly emotional. As I approached the finish line, I was on the lookout for my husband who would be very close to the finish line (assuming he could get a spot in the crowds of people) and he had never seen me run a race before. I was really looking forward to seeing him and I was in so much in pain from my knee and broken down physically that it was started to have an impact on my emotional state. (I can’t even imagine what running a full marathon feels like.) I was near tears towards the finish line (although I didn’t spot him due to a miscommunication: he thought I’d said I’d be finished by 11 a.m. whereas I had said I’d be done just slightly after 11) but sucked it up for the last 300 meters and actually managed to sprint towards the finish line (which is interesting, I thought I had been pushing it more than that… I don’t know why I suddenly had more gas in my tank.).

I crossed the finish line at a gallop and came to a grinding halt right after the track mat that logged my official finish time. My left knee completely seized up – I suddenly couldn’t bend it anymore, and if I tried, I was gritting my teeth with the pain. I exited the finishers’ chute slowly and painfully with a peg leg that was not bending. I’m sure I looked ridiculous. I grabbed my medal and silver foily blanket and made my way out to the family area where my husband was waiting.

In the end, I managed to finish in 2:07:25, which was over a minute faster than the half marathon in Prague last month. This surprised me because I hadn’t been training and I was significantly heavier than I was last month as I had gained about seven pounds. I was really happy to have done even that small bit better because it’s such a confidence booster!

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon Medal

Race Results

Finish Time: 2:07:25 (new personal best!)
Pace: 6:02 per kilometer
Overall placement: 5959/10542
Age group placement (F30-34): 431/912
Gender placement (F): 2531/5627

Fitness Friday: o.b. Tampons (+ Giveaway!)

October 24, 2014Fitnesso.b.Chelle

201410_obtampons5

You might be thinking “What the hell do tampons have to do with fitness?” but bear with me, I’ll explain my madness shortly.

I’ve been a user of o.b. tampons since my mid-teens. I’ve never been one to carry a purse even in my adult years (except for a brief stint at the age of 16 when I thought my CD Walkman carrying case could double as a purse and I was not only clever, but cool to be doing so! /shudder), so I need something that is small and compact. Something that could fit into the pockets of whatever pants or shorts I had on, or, if I was wearing pocketless shorts like I often did to play sports in, something small that would fit into my sports bra.

o.b. tampons in Regular (pink), Super (green) and Super Plus (yellow)

When I was first introduced to o.b. tampons (I don’t even really remember how to be quite honest, it was probably an ad I saw on TV), I’m sure I thought the concept was pretty weird. For some people, not using an applicator feels pretty unhygienic I suppose. But the more I used them, the more I got used to the idea and the ease of use of them. And there was definitely no beating the convenience factor of carrying something impossibly small and inconspicuous.

o.b. tampons spotted while I was on vacation in Prague

One huge comparison, for me, between tampons with applicators and those without, was that, for whatever reason, an applicator would always pinch me in areas I definitely did not want to be pinched. This pinching problem isn’t something I ever experience with o.b.. Once you unravel the tampons from their plastic covering, you use the tampon string to wiggle apart the base. This creates an indent for you to place your finger and use it to guide it up to where it’s supposed to sit. It does require some maneuvering but it’s not something that ever feels difficult.

The usual box of o.b. tampons I buy – a medley of sizes depending on what I need

After having used o.b. religiously for 15 or so years, I was surprised (and pleased) when the brand reached out to me when I made a comment on someone’s blog saying how much I enjoyed o.b. tampons. Their timing was almost serendipitous: The day before they contacted me I had run a 10K race on Toronto Island while on my period and I had packed several of their itsy bitsy applicator-free tampons into my running shorts simply because I could. No chance in hell would I have gotten a full-on tampon with applicator into those shorts (pictured below). And if you’re in need of a tampon mid-run, you damn well better have it on you or you’re going to be looking at a pretty gory finish line. (This is thankfully not a problem I’ve ever had!)

Just look at how tiny these things are! They’ll fit in any pocket you can think of! Skinny jeans? Short shorts? Athletic shorts? In your hand as you head to the bathroom at work? FOR SURE!

Honestly, you can barely even tell it’s there.

All this to say… I can’t recommend o.b. tampons enough. They are small and inconspicuous, and come in varying sizes depending on how heavy your blood flow is that particular day. They’re a brand that has held my loyalty for over a decade now and I couldn’t be happier.

o.b. Tampons Giveaway!

o.b. was kind enough to sponsor a giveaway for my readers! Please see below for details.

A box of 18-count o.b. tampons (regular)

25 lucky winners will receive an 18-count pack of o.b. tampons (regular)!

Details

Open to residents of Canada (you must have a Canadian address that we can ship to).
Giveaway runs from October 24th until November 7th.
Be aware that all entries will be double checked to ensure fairness.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fitness Friday – LCC – Internationaler Babenbergerlauf 10K

October 10, 2014Fitness, Running, VacationRacingChelle

Another race while on vacation! This time in Vienna, Austria. This was the original race I intended to run while on vacation in Europe in September. It was the only one I could find close to Prague that was a reasonable enough driving distance away. Originally, I hadn’t signed up for the half marathon, so this was to be my only race while on vacation.

I didn’t know much about this race other than that it had an exceptionally long name I didn’t understand (Babenbergerlauf), it was a 10k race and it was in Vienna, roughly a 4 hour drive from Prague. A friend from Germany (an ex, actually) had offered to drive to Prague, pick me up, and then drive us both to Vienna where we could do the race together. Always up for a fun adventure and a challenge, I definitely wanted to do this. It was my last weekend in Europe before I flew home to Toronto so I really wanted to squeak this last race in.

The Babenbergerlauf 10K is a varying distance run (there’s a 5k, 15k and half marathon track that sets off at the same as the 10k we were doing) that has very, VERY few people in it. The 10K we did actually only had 40 people in it! Definitely the smallest race I’ve ever done and had some of the fittest people I’ve ever seen running this thing. Seriously, I think I was the heaviest one there.

The race takes place on a paved path through one of central Vienna’s parks. It’s right beside the Ernst-Happel Stadium, a huge soccer venue.

I had been kind of hoping that the path would be through a shady area of the park, but a lot of the run turned out to be in the incredibly bright sun. The forecast had also under-predicted the temperature at 14 degrees and instead it turned out to be an almost blazing 22 degree day.

So the deal with this race is that I had stipulated to Nilo was that, given all things equal, a man should be 10% faster than a female. A (somewhat healthy) competition got started then between us, but it quickly deteriorated into him saying “well I hope I just beat you”.

😐

(I’ll also point that he’s an entire foot taller than me, too.)

Anyway, I didn’t know how well I was going to do. This was a race done at the very tail end of my vacation. I had already run a half marathon the week before and I had been eating and drinking like it was going out of style (because really, what ELSE do you do on vacation?!). Realistically, I knew I couldn’t beat my previous fastest 10k time (55:14), but I had small fledgling hope that I’d find some burst of inspiration during the race and bust out at a 50 minute 10k (baaaaaaaaahahahah yeah no).

Found this on the event’s Google+ page, I’m famous!

So we set off and it was fine. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot of the run. It kind of comes to me in waves, my thought process being:

<1k: Okay, Imma beat him. Imma beat him! *goes fast*
2-4k: Why am I doing this? This is stupid, you’ve been on vacation for a week or more, what are you trying to prove? *goes slower*
4k: God it’s hot out here, where the hell are the water stations?
4.2k: Oh man, that sun is REALLY shining down on me.
4.4k: WHERE. ARE. THE. WATER. STATIONS.
4.8k: EESH there’s the water station, why the heck wasn’t there one sooner??? *grabs two glasses and gulps them down*
Perpetual thought throughout the entire race: Why are there so many chestnuts on the ground? This isn’t safe! I’m going to roll my ankle!
5-6k: Halfway there, this thing is almost done really.
6-9k: WHYYYYYYYYYY AM I DOING THISSSSSSSSSS? (seriously, this whole chunk is a blur)
10k: I’m done! THAT WAS AWESOME! Let’s go again!

In the end, Nilo beat me which I entirely expected. I finished in 56:24 which is the same finish time I had for that entirely downhill 10k in Toronto in April so I’m pretty pleased about that. Nilo finished in 54:07 which is a solid two minutes faster than me… but still wasn’t 10% quicker! (So really, I think I won this challenge!)

Race Results

Finish Time: 56:24
Pace: 5:38 per kilometer
Overall placement: 29/39
Age group placement (Women 30-39 years): 3/5
Gender placement (F): 8/13

Fitness Friday – Ústí nad Labem Half Marathon

September 26, 2014Fitness, RunningRacingChelle

Over the last year, I’ve developed this habit of wanting to do races while on vacation. So when my friend Sara and I decided to go to the Czech Republic for a week, I started hunting down races to run in the area.

One of the only ones I could find was a half marathon race in Ústí nad Labem (and another 10k in Vienna the following weekend, which I’ll also be doing). I was a little wary: I had never run a half marathon before, I was going to be in a different country that was six hours ahead of my current time zone and I would only have 48 hours to recover from the time change before the race. I also had to do some serious training for the weeks leading up to the race because I hadn’t completed any distance of over roughly 12k.

So uh…

Upon hearing that I was going to be doing this, my brother, who lives in Paris, offered to come out and do the run with me. So with my good friend and brother in tow, we made our way up to Ústí nad Labem from Prague on the morning of the race.

The weather wasn’t great – it was cold and rainy, and the outlook for this run wasn’t good. But frankly, I was too excited to really care. Despite the cold and rain, I knew that I would warm up enough on the run to not freeze my butt off out there and, if anything, the rain would feel refreshing. I very much dislike running in the heat, so I’d opt for rain over bright, boiling sunshine any day.

We picked up our packets and huddled in a few buildings until the start of the race. Sara took our bags (bless her cotton socks) while my brother and I made it down to the race start zone. He was in a faster class than me, (sub two hours) but it didn’t seem to matter since we all basically ended up in the same area.

It wasn’t too packed of a race either – roughly two thousand people and the start zone wasn’t a disaster which was hugely appreciated.

My goal for this run was just to complete it. I had some idea I’d like to get around two hours, but given the road conditions, my overall fitness level and the fact that I was on vacation, I knew I wasn’t going to be busting ass the whole way throug. My good friend Cory had suggested a pace of around 6:10/k, so I took him at his word and decided to stick with that.

201409_ustinadlabem_race3

I started off too fast. I was doing the first few kilometers around 5:30 and feeling pretty awesome, but I knew that couldn’t last. The rain dwindled off around the 4th kilometer and the sun started to come out so my pace actually ended up slowing down at that point.

The first leg of the course was through a fairly industrial area of Ústí nad Labem. It wasn’t particularly picturesque, but the lanes were wide and there was tons of space to move around through the crowd. I was passed often and frequently, but that was okay because I was out there to have a good time.

One thing is for sure though, despite this being labeled a flat course, it definitely was not! By the end of the race, we had done 125 meters uphill! Uphills are not my friend, and I appreciate them even less on a half marathon course!

201409_ustinadlabem_race2

Having never done a half before, I have to say I was impressed with just how many water stations there were. Not only water, but power drinks (not something I go for though), actual pre-peeled fruit like bananas and oranges and even wet sponges to use on yourself if you’re too warm. The run was put on by a company called Mattoni, which turned out to be a water company from the Czech Republic. The only slightly odd thing was that brand was the only water they were serving on the course and it was lightly carbonated. In any and all situations I opt for flat water, so I wasn’t sure how my system would handle the carbonation of the fluid. Thankfully, it was such a low amount of carbonation that I didn’t feel especially gas-y while drinking it. (I did have a small bottle of tap water on me that I had filled up prior to the race though.)

I had three running gels on me and I consumed one right before the start of the race and another one at kilometer 7. By the time I was supposed to take my next one (kilometer 14), I was just really grossed out by the sugary gel and only ended up eating half of it. I actually had to force myself to do so because I didn’t really want to eat it, but I could tell I was getting a bit lackluster and thought maybe some of the carbs would help me out. In the end, I don’t know if I really noticed much of a difference.

Bam!

All in all, it was a good run and I didn’t feel strained at any point. None of my joints hurt, and my muscles didn’t really start to feel any kind of soreness until roughly kilometer 19. I wasn’t pushing a pace that made me out of breath, so I think it allowed me to enjoy the race a lot more than if I had been busting my ass for a sub two hour run. I enjoyed the run as a whole, although I’m not sure how much I’d like to be physically pushing myself for faster and faster times for such a long distance.

I saw Sara several times throughout the course, and it was such a huge boost to see her out there supporting us! It put a smile on my face every time I saw her (and I saw her loads of times and at varying intervals! I think she got around that course faster than I did!). She snapped pictures of me and my brother constantly for those two hours and it really warmed my heart.

I also really enjoyed getting to see a city I’d have no other reason at all to visit if it weren’t for this race. The people were friendly, the course was… err… interesting, and I got to experience my first half!

As you finish the race, they hand you your medal and these shiny silver foil cloaks. I always thought they looked a bit silly, but oh my god did I ever need that after the run. It worked well to keep my body temperature up because as soon as I finished the run the warmth started to leave my body and I was shivering within seconds.

I met up with my brother (who finished around the one hour, fifty-five minute marker) and Sara at a designated spot after the race. I clocked in around 2:08 something or other.

201409_ustinadlabem_afterrace1

Yay! Completed my first half marathon! One thing that interested me, and of course made sense, was that in this echelon of racing, I’m no longer amongst the more physically fit people out there. Usually in 5 and 10K races I’m in the top 25%, but for this one I was definitely in the bottom half! There was also a huge discrepancy in how many women (25%) ran this compared to men (75%).

Race Results

Finish Time: 2:08:46
Pace: 6:06 per kilometer
Overall placement: 1450/1831
Age group placement (Women up to 34 years): 134/219
Gender placement (F): 272/452