Edmonton!

It's been a great holiday so far:

• I went to placement for a few extra days to make up the hours I will lose in January because I'm going back late.
• I covered a few extra volunteer shifts because I had some free time.
• I was able to go to Calvin's house for dinner, and I ate a whole lot of chocolate :)
• We tried to take advantage of some of the after-Christmas sales, and we got a movie called Baraka. Ha, I didn't actually know it was so old!
• We went rock climbing, which was an awesome time! I've never been before, and I know I'll do it again :)
• We left to the airport at quarter to five, expecting slippery roads and a late arrival at the airport (we wanted to be there at 6.) But the roads were clear, there was no traffic, and we found the right exit easily, so we were there at 5! We went for a Macdonald's breakfast and chatted for an hour before I checked in. At the desk, the lady was very, very excited to change my seat, even though I had changed it online, because I was sat next to an infant. I don't really mind where I sit... but it was funny at the time :D
• I arrived at Edmonton after some interesting conversations on the planes.
• Edmonton has been good so far
• had some chocolate-bread-cake that my sister made.
• I sent out a message on couchsurfing to meet some new people, and a couple replied already
• We went to the mall to find my sister a skirt and we succeeded :)
• We watched some TV and went to bed early

• Today was spent having a lovely breakfast, spending a few hours in Value Village (purchasing 5 awesome new books for $20) and then we spent some more time reading in Chapters, and buying another 2 books as presents. 
• I also bought a map, and I hope to highlight where I've been. I plan to go on many walks when my sister's busy, and go running if it a) gets warmer so the ice melts or b) snows and covers the ice!
• I brought one of my lenses for my sister's camera, so I expect I'll post a few pictures soon.

Have a lovely New Year's Eve, and an excellent ringing-in of the shiny, new year :)

Return to Real Life

Okay, a quick recap of my 2 months in India, and I'll try and keep it brief and in order:
(I stole some of the pictures from two other interns, Analucia and Emily. They're very nice and I doubt they'll mind.)

We arrived and had to adjust to crazy traffic.

We ate a lot of food, with a lot of new friends.

We went to the AIESEC June National Conference (JNC) and made even more friends.

I even met someone I knew before! 

As it was an internship at a school, I spend a lot of time with kids.

Sometimes it was too much time, and sometimes there were too many kids.

I worked on learning the alphabet and I can now spell my name in Gujarati.

There were 5 of us working at the school from AIESEC, and I left India knowing that I had 4 amazing new friends that I could count on in the world.

We went travelling together.

We jumped together.

We sat on the road together (I'm not sure why).

And we experienced a new culture together.

I tried to fit in a bit of exercise when I wasn't busy travelling, playing with the girls or helping judge sports competitions. 

I went running along the riverside a few times.

I got blisters from rowing at Nakki Lake.

And we walked a few times... when our rickshaw's engines stopped working... in the middle of a rainstorm :)

And now I'm back in Canada after 4 very long flights. I've spent a lot of time thinking about all the things I've learnt this summer, and how I can incorporate these things into my life and my work placement, to be a better person and a better social worker.  I've got a couple of weeks before school starts and I plan on getting a head start on the new semester. I'd like to be a lot more organised this year, as well as be a lot stricter with my time.

I thought I would start running as soon as I got back - the weather is GORGEOUS! - but my bag with my running shoes got lost between Toronto and Windsor and I'll be separated from it until Friday. And for some reason, sitting in a seat for 18 hours on a plane isn't comfortable for my knees and I seem to have problems with them after a flight.

No worries - I plan to bike a lot and swim often and take an easy, but consistent, approach to running. No fixed races for the near future (because it's a lot of pressure) but I'd like to see some progress before it starts snowing :)

Does anybody plan work-outs around the weather?

I used to live in the Middle East and I would try and run in the evenings/early nights to avoid the sun and the worst part of the heat.

Now that I live in Canada and experience changes in the weather, I have gotten into the habit of checking the weather online. I like to check the 5-day forecast and plan my outside workouts around the weather. (Or if it's snowing, hide inside head to the gym.)

The day after tomorrow is supposed to be +3 and rainy. I think I'll head outside for some fresh air on the day!! Nothing like relativity to make above-0 temps feel warm!

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!!! :)

Swimming

After my (speedy) little run last night, I had some trouble falling asleep as my knee was hurting.


Have you ever heard about Patellar tendinitis? According to Runner's World,


"Patellar tendinitis is inflammation of one of the knee-joint tendons. Tendinitis occurs when tissue breakdown outpaces regrowth, and is caused by increased mileage, hills (especially downhills), and pace. Running through tendinitis will make it worse and prolong your recovery, says Davis. But treated early, it can heal in a few weeks. Here's how: cross-train, ice, wear a patella strap, take anti-inflammatories, stretch, and do exercises to strengthen the joint and quadriceps, such as leg extensions."

As I was laying in bed, I was thinking that perhaps it would be a good idea to use some heat cream on my knees (we don't have ice in this house). Alas, I couldn't find it, but stretching and massaging a bit did help! :)

Well since my knee/s hurt, I had decided to take today off as a rest day or a cross-training day at the very most. Since my roomate Mike wanted to go swimming, I decided to keep him company.

I swam about 22 laps before I decided to quit because there were just too many people there.

I then went into the main gym and did? ran? stepped 3 miles on the elliptical. I figured low impact would get me the cardio I wanted without the force upon my knees :)

However, tomorrow I will not be persuaded to go to the gym or go on a run. It's getting cold and I will really appreciate a warm, indoor, snuggly day studying for my Friday midterm :)

I know people say you will never regret going for a run (rather than skipping it), but I really know that this is the smartest thing to do to protect my knees before they get worse.

New blog

Hello everyone!


I've just deleted my old blog and started this one. :)


My last blog saw me training badly for my first half marathon and running it close to my 20th birthday! It has seen me move houses three times, run 3 races and document my time at the gym over the course of 2 years.


Perhaps I should introduce myself:
+I'm a social work student.
+I'm very interested in health.
+I'm a vegetarian and 5 years will be marked on Nov 11.
+I live in Canada and love how many road races are put on every month of the year :D


I hear that goal setting is a good way to stay focused and motivated. So here are some goals for this blog:
+ to meet other people that stay fit through running or have similar goals to me.
+ learn about how to get faster.
+ document my journey to my second half marathon and little races along the way.
+ a place to keep my thoughts regarding running so they don't float away.


My running goals for the future are:
March 6th - Spring Thaw 5k, Windsor
May 1st - Forest City Road Race HM, London
June 5th - Trot to the Beach Half Marathon, Blenheim


And finally, here's some running stats from DailyMile, since I joined that site (jan 25th):


196 total miles, 60% of which is running.
My other miles were done walking, cycling, swimming and using the elliptical (although I mostly don't include it since it's weird mileage).