Whoop Whoop!

Well it has been an arse kicker of a week for me. My training has ramped up and I am remembering how it feels to be so.very.tired.

Rather than bore you with the gory whatfores, I will take my turn at this game Amy tagged me in.

The rules are:
1. Fill it out
2. Change one question with one of your own
3. Add an additional question
4. Tag 3 other people to do the same

1. What are your current obsessions?
Sleep, eating, and getting knocked up :)

2. Which item from your closet are you wearing most often?
my thermal tights (unfortunately)

3. Last thing you bought for yourself?
A lot $$ of lingerie (see #1)

4. What’s for breakfast (my change)
Oatmeal, almonds for first breakfast, 2 eggs and 2 toasts for 2nd breakfast

5. Say something to the person who tagged you:
Amy is a funny chick who I wish I could meet in person. I think she'd be a hoot to train with, and even more fun to drink wine with :)

6. What is one item you could not live without?
My water bottle (and water)

7. Vacation spots you must visit before you die?
South of France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Rome, India, Africa, Australia and NZ with my hubby.

8. What is your most immediate short term goal:
To stay awake long enough to watch Grey's Anatomy.

9. What are you reading right now?
Fifth Mountain By Paulo Cohelo

10. What is the last movie you saw and enjoyed?
"Yes Man" with Jim Carey. It was awesome.

11. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Wine and Chips on Thursday nights (although I am off booze now). Fries and Beer before a race :) But I never feel guilty about what I eat, I earn that shiz.

12. What’s your favorite smell?
My husband. My dog. Coffee.

13. Whats something you look forward to?
SUMMER heat.

14. Favorite Quote?
I have lots, but my current favorite is "Make hay while the sun shines!"

16. Whats one thing you can't go a day with out doing?
Pooping.

17. What do you have an addiction to?
the internet. thank god for my iphone :)

18. Whats your favorite holiday?
Any holiday I get to spend with family. But I really love birthdays.

19. How many pairs of shoes (not just running) do you have??
This is an area of contention in our house, so I'm not counting! But I have less than 5 pairs of non running shoes. And many many (many) running shoes.

20. Tell us one random thing about you.
I was the shortest person in my school (grades 7-12) when I was in grade 7. They lined us up tallest to shortest for some picture thing and I was at the very back. I actually physically forced the kid in front of me to switch places with me. I was, (and still am), small but mighty.

21. Why did you start your blog?
I started it as a training log, and never imagined anyone other than D and maybe some family would read it.

22. (The question I added) What is your silliest/ most embarrassing triathlete rookie story?
When I was training for my first tri I went to a clinic to learn about transitions etc. They told us to make sure we practice everything so that we would be prepared on race day. So I went home and set my bike up in the basement with all my transition gear. Then I put on my wetsuit, got in the shower and then ran downstairs, practicing getting it off, and getting dressed while wet. The 2nd or 3rd time I did it I slipped on the hardwood floors and nearly flew down the stairs. :)
I guess I take preparation more seriously than others because it wasn't until I shared what I had done that I found out how ridiculous I was...

Tag! You're it.. (I picked 4)
Megan
Lisa G
Hallsy
Naomi

Just watch it...

Lance Armstrong's Strength Training Workout -- powered by http://www.livestrong.com

Your Welcome :)

Back to the Basement

Well the weather this weekend continued to be craptastic, which nixed our outdoor training plans. Thankfully, the sun is always shining in the Hunter family basement. We had our asses handed to us by Coach Troy Saturday in a tough 45min Uphill Grind workout, followed by a Lean n Mean 50min session. Awesome.

Today we woke up to another snow storm. D headed out with H-dog and they returned covered in mud. I was not in the mood to run long in the blowing snow, so I decided to head back to the basement sweat lodge. I took my inspiration from Dean Karnazes' Twitter update this morning: My neighbor asked me this morning, “Doesn’t running hurt?” I told him, “It does if you’re doing it right.” Go out and make it hurt!

So I made it hurt. Sometimes pain is a good thing. Not pain from an injury, but the pain of pushing beyond what your mind wants to believe is ok. The pain the comes from breaking out of the comfort zone and into the land of unknowns. "How long can I stay in this zone? Will I fall on my face? Will my heart explode?". I had one of those sessions today. It was short, dirty, and it hurt. First was a bike ride in which I alternated between seated climbs and standing climb sprints (1min at each) for 30 mins. My hr monitor was beeping the entire time beyond my 10min warm up. I even made a little puddle in that short time.
Then it was on to the treadmill. My goal was to run 3 miles under 20mins. I started off a bit slow and ended up missing my goal by 55 secods. The last mile I just kept increasing the pace and I ran the last quarter mile at 10.5mph. This was me after the run...

So tomorrow I will do my long run, outside. The weather forecast still looks wet and cold so I will take my inspiration from the video below...


Congrats to Julie, Keith and the rest of you lucky Calgarians who ran the Police Half this weekend!

The Wrath of Mother Nature

Wednesday was Earth Day and just for fun I counted Hummers in GP. During my 45 min morning walk with Harley I counted 4. Later in the day I counted another 3. That evening on our walk I saw 2 more. Yes, GP has an abundance of Hummers. Probably the highest number per capita in Western Canada.

Anyway, I think Mother Nature is pissed, cause the temperature dropped and it snowed the last few days. The wind was unreal on Tuesday and it went from plus 18 to 0 overnight. Yikes.

I am soooooooo glad it is Thursday night. Classes are done for the week and I am beat. I can't wait to have a whole day to clean house, run errands and get life in order before the weekend. D comes home tomorrow night....YAY!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Back to Blogland!

Well I've taken a bit of a break from blogging, but I am ready to return. After a week of holidays, 10 days without internet, and then the start of all my classes I haven't been able to keep up.

The last few weeks have been great, and busy. I have 36 women in my classes and am back to 4:50am wake ups. They are all awesome groups and I am back to being immersed in doing what I love. Training has been going well also. The weather has been much better and we have been out on the road for all but one ride. The first 100km ride was a shock to the system but I was happy with how I was able to ride. This weekend I rode 3hrs on the trainer in the mall to support Team Grande Prairie in the Ride to Conquer Cancer. I rode hard most of the 3hrs and my legs were completely depleted by the end of it. 

My parents are in town and they came with my brother, sister in law and 3 nieces to see and support me at the mall. It was fantastic to see them and I was able to finish up and have lunch with all of them. We had some really good family time all weekend as we celebrated a late Easter together.

I had a great run on Sunday, with lots of company on the trails. There were 138 people out for the Press Run Training and I ended up running at the same time so I got to say Good Morning about 138 times...LOL. I did 20km in 1hr 40 with an exact split of 50mins per 10km. I felt good, but I need to get some speed into my legs over the next month if I am going to race the way I want to at the end of May. Physically I am feeling healthy and strong. I am LOVING being outside on the bike and running in fewer layers. I am not sure what this season will hold yet, but regardless I am sure happy I trained all winter so that I can enjoy myself now.
In other news....D and I celebrated 6 months of wedded bliss this past week!

 Isn't that is like a 50 year anniversary in Hollywood?

Good Luck to Husband Extraordinaire tomorrow night as he writes his Technical Analysis exam. He was teaching Harley the material and H-dog thought it was pretty fun. 

No internet=no blog!

I have been without internet at home since I returned from Jasper. This means I have about an hour a day at Starbucks to try and keep up with my course registrations, confirmations and inquiries. Not enough time to blog or read all the blogs I love to read! Hopefully Telus will get it together and have me online by tomorrow.
For now, just time to post photos from my awesome week in Jasper...