Training

cycling, hiking, aqua jogging, pilates, baking

Living in speed hell

Running, Training, Uncategorized

In the midst of Monday’s speed intervals, these were the thoughts formulating in my head: 800 metres? At this pace? Are you freaking kidding me? Holy freaking crud monkey, I can’t breathe! I think I’m having a heart attack! Ohmygawd, alert the authorities, I think Coach NZ is trying to kill me! Why did I not pack along water??? This week’s speed training had me running 4 sets of 400 metres fast/90 seconds easy/800 metres fast/90 seconds easy and repeat at a 4:30 min/km pace. For those of you who’ve been following me for awhile, you know that while I very much want to be faster in my running, I absolutely loathe speed training. And so, when I saw 800 metres on the schedule, I had serious thoughts of skipping it. But then, that stupid little smug angel on my shoulder reminded me of just how guilty I’d feel if […]

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Cycling in America

Training, Uncategorized

Not long after crossing the border, with my lactic-acid filled legs pushing Holly Goquickly’s pedals, classic American anthem style music began to fill my ears. Not full songs, just blips; it was as though my mind was switching stations until it found the perfect tune. Born In the USA… nope. Jack and Diane… nope. Don’t Stop Believin’… ohhh yeah. “Just a small town girl, livin’ in a cycling world…” 😀 So last week Big Ring started his annual Tour de France holidays where he spends two weeks waking up super early to watch the Tour live (because apparently watching it on the PVR isn’t the same) and then getting on his bike for hours and hours after. And on Saturday, thanks to my super awesome parents for looking after Little Ring, the two of us, and our respective lovelies, hit the roads together. We debated riding through the familiarity of

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Running: to infinity and beyond!

Diabetes, Running, Training, Uncategorized

This past Friday I ran 70 minutes, which a year and a half ago wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but now, it’s a milestone – not because of the time, but because of the distance. After what has seemed like eons, I have finally reached that point in my training where I am once again surpassing the 10 km marker. Wahoo! But the fact I was running longer than an hour, in temperatures way hotter than previous long runs, presented a few new challenges. I couldn’t just rely on a swig of water and a couple shot bloks; sufficient fuel and hydration were required. That meant the ol’ fuel belt came out of storage. Now, I don’t remember having a huge problem running with the fuel belt in the past, yeah it gave me elbow bruises, but I was able to live with that. Well, Friday, I was none to

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Grouse Grind: Eight years of love-hate

Training, Uncategorized

The girl looked over at the boy sitting at the desk kitty corner to hers. “How hard could the Grouse Grind really be?” she asked. The boy was a good person to ask, she thought, after all he was an ardent climber of said mountain, going at least once a week, oftentimes more. And the girl, who’d only just recently been taking more of an interest in her health had been toying with the idea. She’d been going to the gym for awhile now, had started referring to herself as Queen of the Stairmaster, and the Internet told her the Grouse Grind was nature’s stairmaster, so really, she was practically made for. The boy paused. He looked up from the photos on his computer, let a smile form on his face, and asked, “Do you want to go? I’ll take you.” From 2010 That girl was me. That boy was

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Endurance training and baby

Running, Training, Uncategorized

I knew that when I got pregnant with Little Ring, our lives would change huge. We would no longer be able to go out at the drop of a hat, traveling would become more challenging, $200 jean expenditures less frequent, etc., etc.. And that was okay. But the one thing we were both adamant we would not do was become gluttonous couch potatoes. We would not give up touring the outdoors via our sneakers, hikers and bicycles. We would not stop doing what we love. Keeping that promise, however, has required some serious ingenuity. We don’t have a babysitter. Big Ring’s family lives in Onterrible Ontario and mine live across the pond, and because most of our friends are outside the New West area, we don’t have a pool of trusted sitters to draw from. (Really hoping to change that soon!) But instead of throwing our arms up in defeat,

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