FYTO 5K!

Well, it's another January FYTO virtual race, hosted by The Boring Runner!

This would be my second year doing it, and you'd find last year's attempt here.

And while I actually did this race late this year (on a Monday instead of Saturday), I think I rocked it!

I did plan to do it Sunday evening, after a volunteer shift. However, the weather was not cooperative, and as soon as I walked out after my 4-hour shift, the world was covered in snow. And you know I had a great shift, since I didn't even notice there was a blizzard happening outside! Ha.

Well, since it was Sunday, the buses don't run after 7:45, and I ended up walking home. During the half-hour it took to get to my cozy warm home, my face froze, my legs turned to stone and my nose started dripping. I told myself I'd warm up for a few minutes, change and then head out for the 5k. After all, we're SUPPOSED to freeze for this race, right?
But I'm lazy, and maybe a little smart (there was ice everywhere) because I ended up staying in, making a gym date with my friend for the following morning (TODAY!).

And this is where the 5k report begins.

I woke up at 8am this morning, to the funniest radio show ever. They were talking about the weirdest thing to be put in a child's mouth, and they mentioned that some parents found their toddler chewing a snake's head. He'd bit it right off. And as that's hillarious because they allow it on Detroit radio, it's not something I want to hear in the morning. So I hopped out of bed and ate a Snickers bar.

At 8:30 I get a message from my friend saying that she hasn't slept well last night, and that she's ditching me and the gym today to get some extra zzz's. I replied that I'm still going. She ended up feeling bad, and came anyway! The power of positive peer pressure, yay!

So we walked through snow and ice and wind (not really) and I got to the gym at around 9:15. I changed, psyched myself up, and then we noticed that the women's only gym had opened up! This is 1.5 hours every Mon/Wed/Sun dedicated to the ladies. There's weights, some balance balls, a lot of mats and mirrors, and a couple of elliptical machines and bikes that we are able to use. There's also a very nice trainer there to supervise and help out if need be. So I'm going back on Wednesday!

When we got upstairs, where all the cardio machines are, we were lucky enough to snag the last 2 treadmills. :) However, I got the broken one that didn't seem very stable. I'm thankful that I brought my music, because if I could hear the machine, I'm sure I'd have gotten nauseous because it felt a bit like being in/on a washer.

Oh well. I warmed up for .25mi in about 5 mins. I then cranked the speed up to 6.1mi/hour and went from there. I kept it at that for 1 mile.... 2 miles.... and then I took a tiny, tiny break to grab some tissues, as sweat was pouring into my eyes. I stretched a little because my knee was feeling weird. Then I put it back to 6.1mi.. and did another 1.1 miles! So I ran at 9:49min/mi the entire way, with a 1min break at mile 2! I'm very proud!

(I wont tell you that it was at 0.0 incline.)

I finished with a time of 31:22 (which includes the little stretch/wipe sweat break), which is faster than my official 5K PR! I wont count it, however, since it's on a treadmill, and treadmill runs usually feel different than outside runs.

Off to shower, school, read, relax, go to night class and sleep!
Have a wonderful week everyone!

Motivation

A demo of my Paint skillz

Hi Everyone!
Today was spent studying too little, playing poker tournaments, enjoying some London Fog tea, and cleaning up the house a tiny bit. It was a fun day! :)

I wanted to talk a little bit about the power of competition and how I'm motivated to workout in order to beat my roomates :)
The two Mike's I live with have signed up for the same race I'm running on May 1st. It'll be their first 1/2 and my second. I've known all along that they'll be waiting for me at the end, having finished at least an hour earlier. And I'm okay with that.... I keep telling myself it's because they have longer legs than me.

One Mike went to spend the weekend with his parents and he's been running in order to get out of the house. He's been forming a running streak, and Mike and I have been hearing about it over here. Well, the first day we both went for a run because Mike did. And when he did it again the next day, I went for a bike because my muscles were sore.
Well, when he did another 5k today, Mike and I declared that we can't let him beat us and decided to go for our own runs today. (I was thinking of going for a swim as my calves/ankles/shoulders still hurt from my run.)
We didn't go :( Life got in the way, and that's okay for me. (The extra rest will ensure that I should be able to go out tomorrow.) But I found it interesting that we felt obligated to workout in order to keep up with him. Perhaps the competition is what the Mike's needed to sign up for their first half marathons, and we each keep each other motivated to train hard and keep consistent.

So I strongly suggest you pick someone to run with, cycle with, or go to the gym with. You'll enjoy the company and try to kick their butt :D

At the very least, being with someone else will make the time will go by faster.

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Hillbilly 5k

EDIT: Results are out! Official finishing time was 48:16, and I wasn't last!! Perhaps I will do a trail race again :)




Hi everyone! I hope you've been enjoying your weekends :)


My weekend was spent ice-skating, going to the gym with friends, sitting in our igloo, breaking a light bulb in my hand (super painful) and my very first trail race.

Malden Park hill, in the summertime. Picture this with snow on top!

I will just copy and paste my race recap from DM:

Another shot of Malden Park - imagine this with lots of snow

My first trail race. I loved that it was low-key (they took back our race numbers!!) and there weren't too many people running it. We all got on the trail and received instructions, and I was standing at the back, so couldn't hear since everyone started talking. I heard to keep the red arrows on my right, but I didn't get the course details....

Once we started, it was straight up a hill. The snow was about 20cm deep, and I knew it was going to be a tough race since I had to walk 1.5min in. I ended up pacing behind Mr. Snowman (he walked all the downhills because he didn't want to be the Rolling Snowman) and there were two ladies behind us. I stayed with this group for about 10min, before we let the women run ahead. I started going slow due to the snow (never really ran in the snow before), the knee (****ing hurt this morning, luckily the strap is sort of dulling the pain), and the incline (need to train on hills more). I lost Mr. Snowman after the bridge, where he turned around to make sure I took a right and didn't get lost :) Very nice of him!

After around 15min, I was by myself. It was nice - there wasn't pressure to keep up or keep running if it hurt or I didn't feel it, because I was already last. This is one fear I've conquered! Being last isn't so bad :)

The course was mostly off the normal tracks, and certainly off-road, through the trees and up every single hill they could find! I got lost because I found the road and followed it  - I should have known they wouldn't have made it that easy!!

I came up to some ladies taking pictures of everyone coming downhill... and when I asked which way everyone went they said I was off the track!! They weren't very helpful - they just said to go back and find the arrows. So ~8 mins later, I'm back on track. The worst part was that the first two ladies that were behind me in the race, also went past the picture-ladies. They weren't told to turn back, they kept running. Turns out they only ran about 3k though! So I'm super glad I turned back.

Walk, walk, walk, run... I get passed by 3 people doing the 10k! Haha, at least the first girl was really nice :) I then met a family cheering all the runners, and they told me it was just down this last hill to the finish. FINALLY!! 48:17 and I was last.

My boyfriend was waiting at the end with a hot tea :) They took my race number away (I was 255) and Calvin told me a lot of people doing the 10k dropped to the 5, and several people got lost. Most people were saying it was a tough course!

I sat in the car crying because it was a really tough race for me - I didn't want to skip it and get a DNS (why sign up anyway?!), but I also didn't want to start it and drop out and see a DNF with my name. So I walked a big chunk of the course, I WENT BACK to find the course route, I finished my damn 5kilometres and know I didn't cheat.

My time isn't stellar, but I'll take it for my first (winter) trail run!!! :)

Saturday

Hi everyone!

I know the last post had a lot blood in it, but this post should be happier!

Here is a picture of my kitty:

This is from a while ago, and he was angry that I woke him up :(

I slept in today, until almost 11am!! It was awesome:)

I then had an AIESEC  meeting which was a lot of fun! Our OGX (out going exchange) team is awesome and I look forward to working with these people :D

I studied a bit after I got home from that, and wasn't planning on going outside since it was snowing all day.

We were supposed to go food-shopping, but it's on the list for tomorrow.

(I looked up some cool recipes for Indian dishes, and I am super excited to try them in the next week!!)

---

RUNNING PART OF THE POST! :)

I had plans to go to the gym with Julia at around 5-6, but we ended up going at 7.

I always see a bunch of people I know at the gym, and it's fun because I sometimes don't get to see them in the outside world. I was on the treadmill next to my summer room-mate today and I got caught up on the house drama lately :) I am super glad I moved out of that place....

I felt pretty great today running. Considering I donated blood at the start of this week, I am 99% back to normal, it feels like. :)

However, my knee is really acting up. It's my stupid left knee, and I bought a knee brace to try see if it helps, but I keep forgetting to take it with me to the gym!

Muscles are hurting when I do crazy inclines on the treadmill, so I may try to stay away from that.

I did a few reps on the 'rowing machine' yesterday and my arms hurt super crazy. It's such an odd feeling, since my arms almost never hurt in normal life.

I have a 5k next weekend!!!! It's a TRAIL run AND a hill run. I am more than a little scared, but I'm not looking for time on this race... I just want to come in before the last person!

It should be a fun time, and at $15 I think it's one of the cheapest races I will do! :)