Me after a run in Florida in April a few years ago, but it does depict my current annoyance!
Hooooo boy. You know, it’s like one step forward, two steps back lately for me. I’ve been on a great training rotation, and then it was less good, and then it was adequate, and then I started eating garbage and it basically destroyed all the work I’ve put in. [insert various curse words here] Why am I telling you this since it’s not especially uplifting? Because I don’t want anyone thinking that exercise, fitness and appropriate caloric-intake is always smooth sailing.
My “happy” weight is around 147-149 – that’s where I feel the most comfortable. But I’m around 158-160 right now and it’s BEEN DRIVING ME NUTS. That being said, it’s been driving me nuts for two years now so clearly I’m not headed in the right direction. I occasionally fluctuate down to 156 at times, but I can’t seem to cross back into the 155 and under area. My pants are fitting uncomfortably tight right now and it’s making me super damn grumpy.
I exercise about 5-6 times a week and that may seem excessive to some people, but I enjoy it. (I run 2-3 times a week, weight lift 2-3 times a week and play soccer once.) So it’s not like I’m lacking in the physical fitness department – I am exceptionally strong and my endurance is such that I could go out and run a half marathon on a whim.
So my problem isn’t how much (or little) I exercise, but rather my food and alcohol intake. I frigging love food and I frigging love wine. And I have a bad habit of consuming a lot of both. I’ve gone through phases in my life where I’ve had a lot of willpower, I mean, I did go from 196 pounds down to 149 several years ago:
So I know it’s possible, but I seem to be lacking the drive to get there in the last few years. I need to somehow relocate my sense of self control when it comes to food, but damn if it isn’t hard!
Anyway, thank you for listening on this rather off-track blog post, but if you’re struggling with something, maybe you’ll take heart in the knowledge that you’re not the only one! If you’re up for sharing, let me know what your current personal complaints are and maybe what your goals are! I always find it motivating and uplifting to hear others talk about their plans so maybe you’ll give me the drive to more forward with mine. 🙂
Although my fitness posts may have fallen a little bit off the radar in 2016, I still managed to stay really consistent with my exercise. In 2016, I ran two half marathons and four other races ranging from 5 kilometers to 5 miles. And while I did okay with these races (except for that terrible Iceland half marathon – that was just BAD), I never really improved upon my race pace. It’s been a dream of mine for a while to get better and faster at my races, but when it comes down to it, I’m more than willing to put the hours in to running on a regular schedule, but I generally don’t want to put the effort in that is required to get faster. (Because let’s face it – getting faster usually involves doing something like sprints and those are pretty nauseating.) I can usually do it for a handful of weeks, then I fall completely off the rails.
Almost there!
Anyway, where’s this going? One of my favourite races is coming up in the middle of March – the Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K race. I put out my personal best time on this race back in 2015 and I’d really like to beat that. Ideally, I’d like to get under 25 minutes, but for now I’ll settle with under 26:10 which was my previous PR. Considering I barely squeaked in one race under the 27 minute mark in 2016, I’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’ve only got three two months to do it (shit, I literally thought I had three months, but nope)! This may seem like short notice, but I like it for a number of reasons:
It gives me a concrete deadline. The race is March 12th – which means I need to get my butt in gear immediately.
I’m better at accomplishing things with a relatively short timeline and under high stress. This is because I have zero opportunity to push it off till “later”.
I frigging love St. Patrick’s Day and want to do well in a race I already have immense fun doing.
So, where to start? I have always used the Hal Higdon training programs for running. This time I’m going to be following the 5K Intermediate Plan which is intended to make you faster. Having done Hal’s programs in the past, I know that I usually need more time than what’s allotted (just in case something happens like injury or laziness). This 5K program is an 8 week one, which is great because (as of typing this) I have 9.5 weeks until the race.
Although I won’t be able to complete all of the runs on a weekly basis in the race chart found in Hal Higdon’s plan, my goal is to complete the difficult ones (like tempo runs, long runs and the horrific sprint/recovery/sprint runs). I’m opting for this because I do not want to give up weightlifting and I still play soccer every week which is a lot of exercise to shoulder on top of everything else in my life.
I’m excited to get this going because the timeline is really contained. I’ll try to do an update here and there on how I’m doing and I’ll definitely be posting a race recap after the 5K to see just how well this training schedule worked out. Wish me luck!
Two weekends ago I took part in the Pride and Remembrance Run 5K race in Toronto. It’s one of my absolute favourite races to run, not only because I literally live around the corner from the start zone, but also because it’s a community event for me in the gaybourhood that has a lot of “feel good” moments surrounding it. I’m running/racing with my community, my friends always sign up for it so we get to hang out at the start (and afterwards) together, and the energy of the event is so welcoming and inviting.
Somewhere in the middle of the race
You may also remember that the Pride Run is also my racing anniversary as this is the run that got me into racing in the first place. I first took part back in 2013, and since this is 2016, this is the fourth time I’ve done this run. Truth be told, it’s not my favourite course I’ve ever done (it’s a double loop and back to the start) and it’s always wayyyy too hot during this run, but I do it because I love my community and this race holds good memories for me. They also offered free photos this year (pictured above) which is really, really nice. I wish more races included that in their signup fee!
Coming up near the finish line
As with the Rat Race, I did far worse that I was hoping to do. But you know what? It was a few seconds faster than my race from two weeks ago, so that’s okay, at least it’s not a downward trend.
Nearly there…
I huffed and puffed my way to the finish line, not even spotting my husband who managed to get close enough to me to get some up close shots! End result? Not my best, but still not my worst!
Happy Fitness Friday! Since this is my third time doing this run, I’ll keep my recap fairly brief. The Scotiabank Rat Race for United Way is a charity 5k fun run (raise a minimum of $100 and you can race) that everyone can participate in. Since Scotiabank is the main sponsor and they’re also my employer, I usually put together a team of people to race in the event. This year I recycled the team name “The Grumpy Cats” and had a fair number of people joining me!
Queuing up for the start of the Rat Race
I’m keeping this post short mostly because I’m fairly disappointed in myself. Here’s a little context for that disappointment:
Last year my fastest and personal best time was 26:10 for a 5K.
On the other end, my slowest time was 26:32.
I had done training runs up to this race that were not difficult (easy to breathe, felt relaxed, etc.) that clocked in at 27 minutes EASILY.
Even my 5K race in March of this year was under 27 minutes.
Coming up to the finish line
So how did I finish this race? With a really disappointing 27:38. I was so, SO sad. I *know* it’s only about 60-90 seconds slower than last year, but that’s a LOT of time in a 5k. (For example, if I’d shaved 60 seconds off my personal best, I’d be ECSTATIC!) So I’m doing what I can to reformat how I’m exercising and training in the hopes that I can get back to where I was. The Pride 5K race is coming up next weekend and I’m really, really worried I’ll be clocking in over 28 minutes. Ugh.
2016 Rat Race Course Map
I feel like I’ve been whinging about slow race times for a while now which isn’t a good thing. There’s only so much whining you can do before you have to change how you approach things. So that’s where I’m at right now – thank you for listening. 🙂
Race Results
Finish Time: 27:38
Pace: 5:32 per kilometer
Overall placement: 519/1441
Age group placement (Female 30-39 years): Not available
I was in Iceland for just over a week last month, and in true Chelle-style, I decided to find a race while we were there!
Starting out!
The only one happening while we were there was the Reykjavik Spring and Autumn Marathon. Thankfully, almost every marathon event has a half marathon tacked on to it as well. Good thing for me since there was no way I wanted to run a full! I was pretty excited to run this one because I had pictures of gorgeous vistas while running and I knew I would love the temperature since it would be somewhere in the range of 0-10C.
Somewhere near the start of the race
Sadly, I was so exhausted the morning of the race that I was very close to saying “forget it, I’m not doing it”. Our rented apartment in downtown Reykjavik was on a decently busy street (Laugavegur) and I hadn’t managed to fall asleep until after 4 am. The race was at 10, so I was up at 8 am to have breakfast and sort myself out. I felt absolutely wrecked. I was near tears I was feeling so awful. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that if I finished this, I could scratch off yet another country on my running list AND the fact that I had told sooo many people that I was doing this that I would’ve felt like such a chump to go back to Canada and told people I had bummed out of it. Never EVER underestimate the power of telling people your plans. Doesn’t matter if it’s fitness related, or something else – telling people you’re going to do something gives you a lot of mental power. I am absolutely convinced that is one of the only reasons I even got my butt out of bed that morning to run this damn half marathon.
And somewhere near the end!
We took the local bus out to the race start zone (David came with me), and I was nauseous the whole way there. I was even worried that I’d get 10k into the race and then just be like “nope, I’m done”. So suffice to say… I had no idea how this was going to go.
So how did it go? Well, not great. The weather was misty and rainy and there was a lot more uphill than I was expecting. It was so foggy/misty that there honestly wasn’t a ton to look at either. It was an awkward temperature that I didn’t really have the right clothes for it (that purple Lululemon thing you see was far too heavy and not rain repellent – and yet, had I not worn it, I would’ve frozen my butt off). I was slow and tired, but I just kept telling myself “just finish it. Just run at a pace where you don’t want to die, and just finish it”. One of my mantras in my head no matter what I’m doing is “just keep pushing” and it really helped me after the 18th and 19th kilometers.
Coming up to the finish line!
I clocked in with a chip time that was easily my worst half marathon timing to date: 2 hours, 19 minutes and 49 seconds. Given my slow pace and exhaustion, I actually thought I’d be closer to 2.5 hours, so I’m happy I managed this in under 2:20! In hindsight, I’m really, REALLY happy I did this race, but my god… that morning was really rough.
Finisher
We came back to the airbnb we’d rented, I took a decent photos of myself with my medal and then I promptly got back into bed and slept for another four hours. What a bizarre experience… get four hours of sleep, get up, run a half marathon, then go home and go right back to bed. Like a bad dream or something!
I have to say though… a huge thank you to the organizers of this race. It was a very small group for both the half and full (under 300 people total), but it was well organized and the water stations were well-manned and easy to access. When I asked one of the organizers about how to get the local bus back to central Reykjavik, he actually found someone who drove us instead. I usually prefer far larger groups for races since there’s more of an “epic” feeling to them, but the size of this race allotted us the comfort of a safe drive home in a warm vehicle with good company. I really can’t thank them enough!
Close up shot of the medalReykjavik Spring Half Marathon Course
And there’s the course above as tracked by my Garmin. It was a loopback course, so we covered the same ground twice. Thanks so much to Pétur Helgason and Torfi Leifsson for some of the photos in this post.
So there we have it! Five countries (Canada, USA, Austria, Czech Republic and now Iceland) on my completed race list, and hopefully many more to come.
