Friday, November 11, 2011

My Running Bucket List

A Mid Summer Night's Run
Running in the evening by the lake with fairy wings? Yes please.

Ottawa Marathon or Half Marathon
I've heard good things about this race. Again, running by water is right up my alley.

New York City Marathon
Looks like a ton of fun and amazing crowd support. Also, I want to run through Central Park.

Las Vegas Half Marathon
Running up the strip at night.

London Marathon
London is my favourite city so any excuse to go is a good excuse.

Goofy's Race and a Half
This is my ultimate racing goal. I have a 7 year plan that works up to this race (half marathon on Saturday followed by full marathon on Sunday). My goal is to run Goofy in 2018, which will mark 10 years since my rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

New Gear

I picked up a couple of new running related items today.






Old Navy Compressions Crops

The pair I got is slightly different then the pair posted (they have some pink at the waist and around the leg). I quite like them. They're about mid calf length, have a small zip pocket on the back. Best of all - super cheap! The regular price is around $27, but they were reduced to $15 and I had a 30% off coupon so they came to $10.50!













Lululemon Brisk Earwarmer

This is super soft and feels very warm. Looking forward to wearing this when it's chilly.




Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Toronto Women's 5K Recap - October Edition

This past Saturday was the final race of the year for me - The Toronto Women's 5K and 8K.

My original plan for the year was to run the 8K. But I ended up signing up for the 5K for two reasons - It was two week's after the half marathon and I wanted an opportunity to improve my 5K PR.

Saturday morning was quite chilly but Sunnybrook park was lovely with fall colours. I met up with Running Jennie who was also running the 5K. We've been blog/daily mile friends for a while so it was great to meet in person. Jennie contacted me the week before and asked if I wanted to run for her and she would help me get to my goal of running a 5K in the 38 minute range. I've never run with anyone else (other then my husband who is much faster then me and we both end up annoyed) but thought this would be fun so we meet up.

Racing with a buddy was super fun. We chatted the whole way and kept up a decent pace. Having someone to chat with made the race go by fast.

We did 3-1 run/walk intervals most of the time and had enough energy left at the end to finish strong. Completely crushed my goal of running a 38 minute 5K.

New 5K PR
36 minutes 23 seconds

I'm flying! Weee!


This was pretty huge for me. Let's look at my previous 5K times, shall we?
August 2010 (first race) - 41:26
September 2010 - 40:31
October 2010 - 40:17
May 2011 - 39:36

I'm pretty happy with cutting over 3 minutes off my previous 5K time.

Thank you Jennie for pushing me out of my comfort zone! 
Running Jennie's Photo

I learned a couple of things at this last race. First, that I'm not pushing myself hard enough. I've been coasting in my 8min/km zone so I need to work more on my speed. Also, running with other people is fun! I'm going to look into a running room clinic for the spring.