Category Archives: Fitness

Fitness Friday: 2015 Sporting Life 10K

May 15, 2015Fitness, RunningRaceChelle

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This was my second year doing the Sporting Life 10k and I was excited to be back. It’s a lovely downhill course down Yonge Street that nearly guarantees you a new personal best. I had a few odds stacks against me, but I kind of hoped I could somehow bust out a new personal best (pb) regardless.

Sporting Life 10k – looking up Yonge Street at Wellesley

With an 8 am start time, this race is slightly awkward to get to since the subway doesn’t actually open till 9 am on Sundays in Toronto. I hopped in a cab to get up to the starting zone and met up with Jenn from A Beautiful Zen who was also running the race. Hooray for beauty bloggers running races! I was glad to have the company before the start because waiting for your corral to start by yourself can be especially boring.

I had signed up for the 50-55 minute corral months ago. This was… ambitious. My time last year on this course had been around 56:20, and my all time personal best was around 55:10 (Toronto Island 10k). I had expected to train a bit better throughout the winter months in order to get under 55 minutes, but I knew I hadn’t done a good enough job by the time race day hit.

As it stands though, corrals are determined by yourself, and no one else. Some people sign up for the faster corrals (sub 50 minutes) who don’t even have a hope in hell of completing the race in under an hour and a half, so it’s a bit frustrating at times. (Which leads me to an upcoming post I’m going to make to vent out my frustrations on racing etiquette…)

ANYWAY. My corral started out around 8:20 and it was… HOT. Hot, humid and just all around nasty feeling. My first 2k were fine, but there’s that nasty slight uphill around the 2.5k mark that got me last year and it got me again this year. It just feels so unexpected to suddenly be climbing in such predominantly downhill race.

My husband was waiting, camera in hand, at the 5.5k mark at the intersection of Yonge and Wellesley. It’s actually a rather emotional experience to see him while racing, but it’s a good one. Unfortunately, by the time I saw him, I knew this wasn’t going to be a good race. My 5k split time was just over 28 minutes and I ALWAYS slow down in the second half of the race, so I knew I was going to be well over 56 minutes for a finishing time. Ugh.

And away I go. Mmm check out that back sweat.

Unfortunately, although I wasn’t feeling especially terrible despite the disgusting humidity and heat, I just couldn’t pull it out to run any faster. The extra ten pounds I’ve been carrying on my frame since Christmas just haven’t fallen off and it was definitely causing me to slow down a little bit.

I finished with a disappointing 58:53. Roughly 3:45 slower than my best 10k and 2:30 slower from last year’s race. It also feels especially weird that I turned out such a poor race when my 5k in March was such a good one!

Oddly, despite my time being significantly worse than last year, I actually MOVED UP in the ranks. How weird is that? Last year I was in the top 25% for both my gender and category placement, but this time I clocked in around the top 21%. Additionally, I finished in the top 30% overall, whereas last year I was in the top 36%. This has given me some much needed perspective! While my race time might have been highly disappointing to me, I can see that other people struggled on the course this year, and I’m pretty happy that I moved up in placement compared to last year!

In the end though… I’m not happy at all, and it’s given me the push I need to really up the ante with my training. I can no longer just “go for a run” really – I have to be focused on tempo runs and intervals which aren’t fun, but seem to be necessary for improving my speed.

Right after the finish line. Not looking terrible, but not overly impressed either.

Race Summary

Finish Time: 58:53
Pace: 5:53 per kilometer
Overall placement: 7754/25802
Age group placement (Female, 30-34): 520/2435
Gender placement (F): 3158/14963

Fitness Friday: Staying Active on Vacation

April 10, 2015Fitness, Miscellaneous, VacationChelle

I’m at the tail end of a week long stay in Panama City Beach, Florida, where I’ve been partaking in plenty of eating and drinking, loads of sunbathing, sticking my toes in the ocean and overall just sitting around on my duff a lot. It’s been fabulous, and I’m sure I’m overdoing it on my caloric intake, but I am doing my best to at least stay somewhat active.

Over the last year, I’ve made it a point to find a race to do while on vacation so that I could take part in a fun event, stay active and (more than likely) see a new area that I wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. Running is phenomenal for this! While not everyone is gungho on racing, running is still one of the easiest activities there is to do. All you need is some running shoes and (if you’re female) a sportsbra and you’re good to go. I wasn’t able to lockdown a race while in Panama City, but I did make it a point to head out for two separate runs.

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5k run along Thomas Drive in Panama City, Florida

My first run out was rather bracing. Having come from a “just above freezing” Toronto to a 21C degree early morning temperature with 100% humidity Florida… well… my lungs were dying. I had intended to do 8k or so, but could barely manage 5. But hey, it’s a start right?

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11k loop around the lagoon, Panama City, Florida

My next run was far more ambitious. Thursday morning I woke up determined to do a full loop around the lagoon – an 11k jaunt, once again in 100% humidity. Since I was out of my element, I kept my pace incredibly slow. I also brought along cash so I could buy some water at a gas station at the halfway point and that really helped me out. So while my pace was nothing to write home about, I still managed to crank out 11k and see some vistas that I otherwise wouldn’t have explored. And I sure did look like a tomato by the end of it!

I have managed to go to the gym at the resort as well, but aside from doing a few dumbbell exercises, I really haven’t gone over the top. It’s mostly just been nice to keep up with some minimal lifting while away so that I don’t feel like I’m going back to square one once I get back.

So what am I getting at? Well, number one is that running is a fantastic way to stay active and explore new areas on vacation. Number two, that it requires very little in terms of equipment and can be done in almost any weather conditions outside. Maybe consider bringing your running shoes the next time you leave for vacation!

Fitness Friday: Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K

March 20, 2015Fitness, RunningRacingChelle

Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K 2015 – bib number

Finally! My 2015 race season has begun!

I signed up for the Achilles/Steamwhistle Brewery St. Patrick’s Day run because it was a 5K, it was early in the season without being during a period of time when it’s unbearably cold in Toronto and it was… a St. Patrick’s Day themed (and as I’ve already indicated, I overly enjoy that particular “holiday”) which means I got to wear my amazing neon green Adidas running pants with extreme pride!

Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K 2015 starting zone

Unfortunately, it was a really windy and cold morning. While it was only around freezing, the wind was so horrible that the windchill pushed the temperature down to about -6C. The wind was regularly blowing around 30km/h, with gusts up to 50km/h – it was highly, HIGHLY unpleasant.

It was a smaller race, around a thousand or so people, which makes for faster race times since you have to do a lot less weaving around people before you hit your pace. I wanted to think I’d bust out a new personal best, but I had some harsh realities in front of me: I wasn’t in nearly as good shape as I was last summer when I hit my running peak for speed, I was almost ten pounds heavier as well and while I had been training, I had mostly been “sorta training”. Some weeks I was doing great, and others I just completely fell off the wagon. The only thing I really had going for me was that I had been keeping up with weightlifting and that was going *really* well.

I found the race pattern oddly disorienting for whatever reason (I thought I was going south when we were really running east). Not that it mattered, it wasn’t hard to follow as it was a straight there and back type run. We exited Steamwhistle Brewery (where the start zone was) and ran our way up into the financial district. I don’t remember a lot of the run to be perfectly honest. I was so focused on keeping my pace consistent that I really didn’t look around much. Most of my scenery was watching the kilometers climb on my Garmin!

The last part of the race was incredibly windy. So much so that as I was crossing back over the bridge towards the last section of the race, the wind actually blew me two paces SIDEWAYS! Holy crap! I wasn’t feeling so awesome by the last 400 meters, but I spotted my husband about a hundred meters from the finish line and it gave me that extra push to just freaking finish. What I was really happy about is that I couldn’t bring myself to sprint too much at the end of the race, which means I was pushing myself appropriately throughout the whole race. This was GOOD news because I wasn’t sure I wasn’t really sure I had been pacing myself properly.

Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K 2015 Race Map

I ended up clocking in at exactly 26:10:00. My jaw dropped when I saw my chip timing. Right down to the millisecond, that was EXACTLY my personal best race time from 2014 for a 5K. While I’m slightly annoyed that I didn’t manage to a least squeak in a SECOND faster, I’m rather floored that I managed to bust out my previous pb on the first race of the season! Since I’ve set myself a goal of hitting a sub 25 minute 5K this year, this bodes extremely well for the rest of the year – I just gotta keep at my training plan! (For reference, last year I managed to knock off 75 seconds between March and June, so I’m hoping that’s do-able again this year.)

5Ks don’t usually have medals since they’re considered a pretty easy race and the fees are usually quite a bit lower than longer races. However, we were provided a lovely bottlecap opener on a lanyard upon completing the race. Highly amusing! Steamwhistle Brewery then hosted an event inside their building after the race where racers got some beer (yeah, that wasn’t sitting well in my stomach afterwards…) and some seriously amazing chili.

All in all, a fun, simple run, although with a weird course map. I liked that it’s a smaller race, so I’ll probably continue to sign up for it in coming years.

Race Results

Finish Time: 26:10
Pace: 5:14 per kilometer
Overall placement: 283/1129
Age group placement (Female 30-39 years): 27/217
Gender placement (F): 76/634

Fitness Friday: Finally Back On Track

February 27, 2015Fitness, Running, WeightliftingWeight LossChelle

It’s now the end of February, and it’s taken me two whole months to finally get back on track with my running and weightlifting. That feels like an excruciatingly long time. I’m still slipping up every now and again (3k calorie days are cramping my style), but for the most part, I’m feeling positive and upbeat – frustrated at times, but still mostly positive.

YMCA indoor track - photo courtesy of blog.to — YMCA indoor track – photo courtesy of blog.to

February has been spent mostly running around the track above at my gym (I snagged that shot from blog.to – that’s the track I run on, but I’ve never seen those people there in my life). I was originally gearing up for a 10K race I intended to do in Panama City, Florida while on vacation in April, but the whole race moved to the week before we’re going to be there, so I’m kind of training for nothing right now (so irritated… who moves a race that people have already signed up for?!?!). However, having a schedule is what’s helping me stay on track so I’m sticking with that. I’ve been running indoors this winter season because the sidewalks are a goddamn disaster in Toronto!

I do have a St. Patrick’s Day 5K that’s rapidly approaching and I’m a bit nervous for that because I don’t feel like my 5K race pace is anywhere near what it was last year. And sinceI’m planning on breaking a sub-25 minute 5K this year, I’m fairly confident this won’t be the race I do it in. I do, however, enjoy St. Patrick’s Day immensely so I’ll wiggle my butt into my green running pants and freeze my tush off during a mid-March race. If anything, it’ll help me get back into the swing of things.

Most of my running plan has been adapting Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 10K race plan as it’s geared towards lowering my race times. And man, I was not prepared. The tempo runs are interesting, and I can definitely see how they’re speeding me up, but those interval days can go die in a bloody fire.

I’m also planning on running the Sporting Life 10K (early May), a half marathon during Ottawa’s Race Weekend and, of course, the Pride Run in June (when it’s always face-meltingly hot).

My gym... except this shot was probably taken during the summer... because right now it's covered in snow. — My gym… except this shot was probably taken during the summer… because right now it’s covered in snow.

I’m also really happy to report that my weightlifting is also back on track!

Currently squatting 125 pounds with plenty of room to grow.
Bench pressing 75 pounds, although this one is a bit dicey – I’m quite weak in the chest area.
FINALLY doing deadlifts again after more than a year of not doing them due to a piriformis issue (I started back at 95 pounds and like with squats, there’s plenty of room to grow there).
Amongst other many other smaller muscle groups that are all coming together nicely.

While running gives me that “hell yes I’m a super hero!” feeling, it’s really weightlifting that makes me feel the best about myself. It’s shaping my muscles the way I want to be shaped and it’s tightening areas that were wobbling around only last month. I’ve also happily dumped three pounds in the last thirty days which I can only attribute to the consistent exercise.

Now if only I could stop thinking about all the food I want to eat ALL. THE. TIME….

Fitness Friday: Current (Frustrated) Musings

January 16, 2015Fitness, Running, WeightliftingChelle

So I’m kind of irritated with myself when it comes to my exercise routine.

To be perfectly honest, this about sums it up.

I have a 5K race coming up mid-March (Achilles St. Patrick’s Day Run) and a 10K planned at the start of April in Panama City, Florida (we’ll be on vacation there), but I’m feeling kind of like I’ve shot myself in the foot in regards to training. I put on a heap of weight in December and I’m struggling to get it off. All while trying to work on getting my running distances and speed back up to parr. I know that as the weight comes off, my speed will increase, but it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating because while I’m not starting from scratch, I’m working back up from a deficit just from having whacked on the weight and not exercised much throughout December. And that’s just stupid. Why do we do this to ourselves? We just let exercise fall by the wayside and then when we dive back in we’re in all kinds of pain and/or frustration. So while I’m lugging myself to the gym four times a week, I’m still annoyed that it’s gotten to this point. No one likes starting from scratch.

201412_ff_recap2

I’m lifting low amount of weight right now since I need to re-adjust myself so that my muscles don’t cave under the sudden pressure. I’m also only running around 5-7k at a go, which feels really, really puny compared to what I was doing when I was training for that half marathon last year. On the upside, I do have another half marathon planed (Ottawa Race Weekend in May) so I know that at some point I’ll be covering those distances again.

Anyway, that’s a brief amount of moaning about my miseries. It’s not always easy to try to stay fit. I’m not really motivated all that much right now, but I am thankful that I have enough of a “must exercise” mentality that I can drag my ass to the gym at 9 pm at night without having to put too much thought into it. One of the massive upsides to having maintained a consistent level of physical fitness last year is that I no longer find it difficult, or strenuous to push myself to go to the gym. Now it’s just a matter of fact and I do what needs to be done.

So while it’s not always easy, I’ll persevere regardless. I’m sure in a month or so I’ll feel back to normal, but for now… I grumpily push on, all while reading fitspo tumblrs to try to get me motivated! How about you? Are you struggling with your exercise routine, or your motivation to start one?