Travel Mugs

I haven't run in about.... a week maybe. My dailymile page is empty and sad. :(

Whereas I'm usually full of excuses not to venture outside (in the snow) for a run, I have little excuses now. I WANT to go for a run! I miss running :(
But I went to sleep in a super soft bed and slept weird, and I woke up with the right side of my back hurting :(
I haven't been able to properly yawn in a couple of days. I sneezed twice today, which is relevant because I haven't been able to breathe in deeply since the incident. It hurts when I take a breath, and I need to stretch to try and do it.
Weird.
It's not too bad... you know... I just start panting walking up 5 stairs.

I am a little worried, but I'm sure a trip to the Dr's would result in me being sent home with a 'muscular injury' and told to take Ibuprofen. So I am chillin' for the rest of 2010.
I am doing a super awesome long (slow) run as soon as I get back home! I. Cannot. Wait!

Oh and I got a crazy purple travel mug for Christmas.

If I put boiling water in with a teabag, the contents stay warm for hours. HOURS. Like... 4 hours.
My boyfriend's dad says he doesn't like it because it keeps his tea too warm for too long.
Just wanted to let my blog readers know that if you want a travel mug, this one's it. Also: it is impossible to spill, as it has some crazy autoseal something or other. I've tried :)

Greyhound

I left Edmonton, AB at midnight on the 22nd. I spent 50+ hours on the bus travelling across Canada to get to London, ON.
I finally made it yesterday morning! And I saved at least $600 by skipping the airplane....

I went to be at 7pm and woke up at 10am. I am no longer sleep deprived! (it's hard to sleep on a moving bus)

On that bus ride I hardly moved (my bum sure hurts now!!), ate little and hydrated even less.
I have a horrible dehydration headache this morning and am forcing myself to drink water.
My stomach also felt really weird yesterday, and I'm slowly returning to normal eating (aka = not a granola bar every 6 hours).

Being a bus for 2+ days feels very close to putting yourself in a time capsule: I felt very isolated despite twittering about where I was and messaging my friends occasionally.
I read 3 entire books and started knitting a scarf but did little else.
We would get out and stretch every 3 hours, and take an hour pause every 6 hours...

The point is, I'm sure glad to be out of that moving box. And I may go for a Christmas run tonight! :)

London (ON) Forest City Race

.... is May 1st.
I chose this one because:
-my boyfriend lives in London
-my roomie Mike also lives in London, so he's doing it too!
-It's 2hours away from Windsor (where I live).
-it's pretty decent-priced for a HM.
-Beginning of May is decent weather time!

That being said... the race is 131 days away!!
That is 18.7 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I should start looking for official training plans... or make up my own.
Oh... and I should also register?!! :)

Edmonton

I'm just going to do a small post today; I flew half-way across Canada to spend time with my sister (and then she took us to the library to bury her nose in a textbook!) Haha, jk, I am parked not too far away from her in the library downloading Smallville and just soaking up the unlimited internet (her room has a 5GB/week limit). I have also been instructed to watch Dexter.....


I went running yesterday, in -12C degree weather! It sure felt colder, and it's been snowing non-stop since I got here. I bundled up for my run:

running tights

awesome warm socks

thermal race hat :)

scarf

gloves (should have doubled)

waterproof & "snowproof" Adidas shoes (they have crazy grip)

buff

Lacing up, I realized I have A LOT of running gear - from the hat, to the shoes to the running tights. So much for just needing a pair of shoes for the sport....

Well my run was pretty great. My hands felt cold, and I coughed a bit the rest of the day. I managed 26 minutes in the snow before I decided to go and warm up in the dentistry building.... Yes, I got lost on campus and the stupid maps don't help since the place is huge!!

We had some dinner, went swimming (in a full size pool with different swim speed lanes!!!) and then went to the High Street... where we got cupcakes!

I got the minty-chocolate one:

My sister got a chocolate one:

 and the two people (insta-friends: people who are friends with your sister but must be nice to you when you visit) with us had the Scarlett O'hara (red velvet :))

Pictures are from the Fuss Cupakes website

They were amazing, to say the least :)

I am super lucky because my sister has too much money on her meal plan, so she encourages me to eat/get whatever I want :)

We are sitting in the library with Starbucks.. and not feeling bad, because if she doesn't finish the plan money, she'll lose it :)

--
So much for my small post... but it's been a great couple of days here already :)
We're going to the fancy West Ed Mall (it has a roller-coaster inside!) tomorrow and hopefully I'll get to sneak into their massive gym & pool again in the next week.


My feet hurt from running on the snow - it's almost like sand - crazy!

Tagged

Since I'm done with exams, my life feels like a 24hr weekend. It's pretty great:

- I had time to go to the gym twice yesterday.

- I went to bed at 5am

- I woke up at half past noon, and didn't have to be anywhere.

:)

I've been tagged by Stacie at Impossible is Nothing, and I'm really, really excited because I've never been tagged before! 

1. What was your toughest race?

I would say it was my first ever race, the Running Factory's Spring Thaw in 2008. It was raining and I didn't know what to wear or what to eat. It was cold, very early and my friends were all drunk! I dragged them out after they'd slept about 2 hours and we got on the bus for an hour-long journey to the start. I was very very nervous, and started closer to the front than I should have (my friend is a college track runner - finished in 20 mins!). I was okay with my time since it was an automatic PR, but I felt sick and swore I would never do it again (and believed it). However, it's a race I've done twice in a row, and I know I'll do it again in 2011 - where I'll be in a different age group, since I'm 20 now! :)

2. What are your goals for 2011?

To do lots of races, and NOT get injured.

Spring Thaw, March

London HM, May

Trot to the Beach, June

I also want to add a 7th country to my list of places I've run - I'm looking to go on an internship in either Brazil or Uganda :) 

That's about it so far for next year :)

3. If you could live anywhere where would it be?

I would live in the Mediterranean! I went camping in Cyprus, and we went hiking in the mountains for 3 days. We camped on the beach, in NOVEMBER, and the weather was perfect. The sea is blue, the stars are clear..... I would love to live in Cyprus.

4. What is my guilty pleasure tv show? 

Hahahaha.... well, at the moment I'm trying to watch all of Smallville - I'm at season 3! I know the plot is ridiculous, the acting is lame and the stunts are bad, but it's like crack... can't stop. This is the reason I went to bed at 5am actually!

I also like Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, House, How I Met Your Mother.....

5. How do I keep my sense of balance? 

 Even though I'm in school to become a social worker, I find I love spending time alone. Running, reading, watching TV & knitting... just being alone helps me feel balanced and relaxed.

Working up a good sweat makes me feel that I've done something worthwhile with my day - which is why I love running/going to the gym early in the morning - I've already done more in a day before most people wake up :)

I'm not sure who actually reads my blog - I don't get many comments - so I won't tag anyone :(

But feel free to answer the questions if you're bored :D

Some snowwy updates

Yesterday, it snowed the ENTIRE day. There were big, fat, fluffy snowflakes falling everywhere outside, while I sat inside drinking hot chocolate-coffee. :)
My boyfriend and I braved the snow to go to the mall to exchange some things and buy some presents.
We managed to lose the car, coming out of the wrong entrance! Everyone was looking at us weirdly as we were running around the parking lot looking for nothing. Let me just say that snow turns to mush in parking lots and it got all over my pants :(

I also managed to forget to buy the Christmas cards! I'm thinking of making home-made ones, but I don't have a lot of craft materials :(

I have finally uploaded some pictures from my camera. Here are a few randoms ones that are relevant to my life:

this was a kitten we found walking home from school one day. There was a tornado warning, and our neighbour said he had been outside for a few days so we took him with us. He didn't get a long too well with our cat (next pic) but after 4 days they had bonded. The owners took him back after we had posted 34millions posters that he was lost :)

I know he looks evil, but that's only cos I woke him up :)

This is a sunflower I planted recently in soil my worms had made (from composting newspapers and banana peels!). It's growing slowly, but I blame that on it being so close to a cold window in order to get sunlight....)

I had promised my roomates I would make pancakes one day, and we were out of milk AND eggs. So I ended up making them vegan, with soy milk. They were the best pancakes I've ever made, and I've been making them regularly since then (on average everyday :)). I made some banana chocolate chip ones yesterday.

Well that's all. Today ended up being an errand day, since I managed to get my student card re-programmed to work at the gym (it wouldn't swipe since I lost my newest one, and then found an old one, blah blah) and gave in my evaluation for placement....

I also stopped by the gym and did 2 miles. I couldn't do any more because the person next to me was the smelliest person in the world and it was really hard to breathe..... :(

Gym time

I spent 7 minutes on the indoor track before the male track team came in and I got intimidated. They have such nice legs! In a runner sort of way... ;)


I then spent a half hour on the treadmill, where I played with run/walk minutes, speed and incline.
I ran at a speed of 8.5 for about a minute. Did a few minutes at 8, and of course I love walking.
So far the knees are okay. (They do not get along with the treadmill, but it's icy outside.)
I did 5 minutes at the end at 7.0 incline.


I then did 6 miles on the bike :) It took about 23 minutes since I averaged 3:52min/miles.
4.04 
4.02 
3.43 
3.59 
3.58 
3.26


It was a good time at the gym!


I'll be done with finals for 2010 in 12 hours! Will be trying for double gym visits once I'm done :D

Blood.ca

Today was pretty great:

-Woke up at 9am.

-Breakfast, making coffee, waking up boyfriend, playing with cat...
[Breakfast was awesome - muesli-type cereal with chocolate chips & soy milk + microwave for a min!]

-10am blood donation appointment. I had made sure to drink lots of water and not skimp on breakfast, learning from last time. I got cleared for all the health & risk factors and donated my unit in around 6 minutes! By far my fastest time :)
(Everyone was saying that London had gotten a tonne of snow and how I'm lucky I'm in Windsor... well I'm spending Christmas in London, haha)


-Came home, studied for a bit.

-Watched How I Met Your Mother, lunch and a nap.

-Went to meet with my book buddy at the Public Library. Sadness because it may be our last meeting together... but happiness cos I got a crazy-cute card!

-Walked to Ferrary's where the boy-roommates were, studied a bit more.

-Gym @ 9:30, where I did 30 mins on the elliptical.

-Got back home, had some ice-cream with chocolate chips. Posted on dailymile, read some blogs... debating whether I should just go to bed or read a bit more. Hmmmmm....

Snow

Let me tell you about my run last night.
It was a 'long run', since my long runs nowadays are anything over a 5k :)
I ran 6.4km in around 50 mins. Lame, but I got them done.

I was dressed warmly, so I wasn't cold except for my face. I felt strong in the beginning, and I only walked 2.5 mins overall.
Don't you hate it when you get to a traffic light and wish it would turn red so you can stop... but you just get all of them green in a row :(

I came home, and if it wasn't bad enough that it had started snowing at the end of my run, I had decided to buy a bag of ice and try an ice bath.
[I do have pictures, but due to technical stupid Iphone issues, I cannot post them]
It wasn't as bad as I was expecting!

-make a hot chocolate
-fill tub half way with cold water.
-sit in it until you're semi comfortable
-add bag of ice
-start the timer (I did 20 mins) and try and enjoy your hot chocolate!

I then got up, dried off and put on pajama pants. I was shivering for a good half hour until I got warmed up.

I was pretty upset because my legs DID hurt yesterday after the ice-bath, but they don't this morning! (There is some soreness, but nothing that would stop me from working out today!)

I will do this again.... but not until at least next week because a bag of ice is $2.99 and we can't make ice cubes ourselves :

Pandas

Did you hear about the Pandas? Scientists in China have figured out how to breed Pandas and they've reached their goal of 300 babies. They're planning on releasing them into the wild soon :)


You can read about it here. [Thanks Lui!]


In local news....
It's snowing outside!
It's those kind of lazy flakes that get blown around so I feel a little bit like I'm in a snow globe... :D


I woke up late this morning (at 11:43!!!!) instead of at ten.
The gym opens at noon on Sundays, but I had planned on getting some studying and breakfast-making in.
So I think everything's been pushed back.


I did make chocolate chip soy-milk pancakes :)
I will try and study for a half-hour.
And then I'll see if my room-mate wants to go to the gym!


[I woke up this morning and my arms really, really hurt.
Oh swimming, why are you so good for me?]

Swimming

Back when I was a little girl, I took swimming lessons at an American school in Kuwait.
I graduated through the classes steadily: I learnt how to dive, do mouth-to-mouth and how to swim in full clothing. The tests for finishing up a class was swimming a certain number of laps and demonstrating you had learnt the skills.


I think I did one swimming race when I was little, where I represented my school - The English School.

I remember swimming with my breath burning my lungs. I was splashing my arms frantically trying to beat the person in the next lane....

And I came third!!!!

... out of 4 people.

The point of this story is that I KNOW how to swim! I kind of like swimming, actually. (Once you get into a rhythm, all you can hear is your squishy breath and splashing... :))

I occasionally go to my University gym and do some laps. I like to go with my rooomate, who's training for tris. (http://swimbikerunrun.blogspot.com)

A few months ago (March?!) I started swimming. At first I could only do ONE lap before I had to take a breather. The next time I went, I did sets of two and then rested. Within a month I was able to do SIXTY (60) laps without stopping!

And now I can only do 10...  because I've stopped going.

The entire point of this entry is that I would like to keep swimming, in between running. I went swimming for 34mins (with breaks) yesterday.

HAPPY WEEKEND! :D