After watching Beth run her marathon last year, Nicole and I decided to train for the Vancouver Marathon. We've joined the YMCA marathon clinic and we meet every Sunday at 8:30am at the YWCA (while the other Y is being rebuilt) on Hornby and Dunsmuir.
I ran a marathon in 2004 and was a bit disappointed with my time - 5hrs 23min. I've run 4 half marathons with times ranging from 2:03 to 2:12. Running the marathon kind of killed my running spirit and since then I've only run bi-annually in spring and fall 10k races. I've been happy that despite my lack of training I've kept up pretty consistent 60-70 minute 10k times. Nicole has run a few 10k races and each week of our training is breaking new distance records - it's pretty exciting and I'm glad to be running with her. :)
The clinic started the Thanksgiving weekend but instead of the 6 mile run scheduled, I ran the Turkey Trot 10k race. The following weekend was a 7 mile run and then I was away for 2 weeks in Mexico. I really did plan on running, but the altitude combined with a general sense of uneasiness at the thought of running alone kept my running shoes in the closet of our hotel room. I did make it out once to run in the Oaxacan version of the "Run for the Cure", but it ended up being only a 3km loop in the city. Oh well. The day after I got home I set out and put in 9 miles going around the seawall until where it was closed then up on the trail through the devastated forest. I hadn't been through there since the storms last year and it was amazing to see the destruction. It was a beautiful blue sky day and I was so thankful to be home and to be living in such a wonderful city. A perfect day for running.
The Y was closed for the Remembrance Day weekend so we met at the False Creek Community Centre and ran practically the exact same route I had done earlier in the week. This past weekend we were back at the Y and following a short talk on how to choose the correct running shoe we were off. Just like everyone else that day, we headed for the seawall - it's finally open all the way around again! Just in time for more storms? We'll see. It was a very nice morning and by 11:30 we had run 10 miles and I was back home having a hot shower.
A few things to point out:
- the clinic schedule counts our distances in miles. It takes a little getting used to, but it kind of ends up being a mental thing for me... I'd rather run 10 miles than 16km, or 26.2 miles (marathon distance) than 42.2km.
- I'm really happy to be doing the training this time around with a friend. I think it will make such a difference and so far that has been true! A partner will get you out running when you don't want to go and will keep you distracted on the long runs with good conversation.
- the weekday runs killed me last time. I was finishing my degree at UBC and not really enjoying being there and coming home and running in the evening was the last thing on my mind. I didn't run enough and it hurt me in the long run - it literally hurt me... I got stress fractures in both shins. This time around things have been good so far. I've been running 5km at least twice a week and trying to do some sort of cross-training once a week. A couple weeks ago Nicole and I rode bikes from her house on Capitol Hill to Deep Cove. It was great! (Except for the sore bum parts) Luke has been trying to get more exercise and so we are trying to get out together - I run and he rides his big unicycle. It's really nice and works really well.
- I'm doing way more yoga now than I was when I was training before and I think this will really help me. Running so many miles is hard on the body and yoga can be very restorative. I'm trying to keep up my 4-6 days per week of Ashtanga and looking to incorporate some Yin yoga as well which is supposed to be great for deep tissue opening and relaxation.
Anyway, I didn't mean for this to be such a long post, but I'd like to keep this blog as something of a training log for the marathon and I should have started a month ago so I had a bit of catching up to do. The marathon is May 4th, 2008 - 24 weeks away! :)
I didn't run today. The Mondays after the long runs are rest days. I did go for a long walk with the little guy I babysit in the stroller and was pleased that my legs felt pretty good. No stiffness, just a bit tired.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Oaxaca, briefly
- the grasshoppers are caught in nets, sorted and roasted in a variety of ways with varying spices, giving them unique colours and flavours
- the outdoor market is amazing - row upon row of fruits, vegetables, meats, grasshoppers, chiles, arts and crafts, clothes... - I am hoping that I will work up the nerve to ask the people selling their wares if I may take some photos... wouldn't you like to see a whole stand of dried Mexican chiles or mounds of grasshoppers ready for snacking? I just don't want to offend anyone.
- tequila is made from the blue agave plant, mezcal from any type of agave and is the local drink of choice
- mezcal has the same smoky aftertaste as scotch
- having a siesta after lunch is awesome
- eating vegetarian is basically impossible - I gave up on trying to sort out the menu at lunch yesterday and just ordered something from the "local Oaxaca" section. When my meal came I gulped... a tortilla baked with a layer of black beans and local cheese, topped with avocado and tomato... ok so far so good, but then on top of all that there was a thinly pounded piece of what I can only guess was pork - deliciously seasoned, but also nearly bigger than the whole tortilla itself. I ate about a quarter of it and then shared the rest with the others at the table. I love trying all this local food but I'm really surprised by the lack of vegetables! My spanish isn't nearly good enough to order a custom meal... and I kind of enjoy exposing myself to the local culinary delights.
- Oaxaca is surrounded by mountains and nestlend in at the intersection of 3 valleys
- Oaxaca is a mountain town with an elevation of over 1500m (5000ft)
- this means it's a bit colder than what I would have expected of Mexico... although yesterday mid-morning the sun finally came out and it's been wonderfully warm since with a slight breeze carrying along all sorts of delicious smells
- this also means that climbing up the hill from the town to our hotel leaves me breathing heavily. We've done this ~30 minute walk several times now and after spending all day wandering around the streets in town I am more than ready for the afternoon siesta.
- margaritas in Oaxaca taste better than margaritas I've had anywhere else
- being redheaded and fair-skinned makes me stand out like a sore thumb. Doesn't help that I've usually got a camera hanging around my neck either.
- children on the streets trying to sell you candy won't give up or let go of your shirt even after you've walked into a restaurant and sat down
- La Carrera Panamericana is a car race that starts today or tomorrow in Oaxaca. It goes ~3000 miles and ends somewhere in Texas. There are a lot of racers staying at our hotel and their fancy cars are parked in the lot. Apparently only 25% of cars actually finish the race.
- yoga in our villa in the morning is wonderful
- not sure how I'm going to get my training runs done, but I am sure that I'm nearly walking the equivalent of what I need to run each day
- successfully made my first transaction in the local farmacia... 4 pesos for 4 bandaids (that's about 40 cents - 10 pesos to the dollar)
- the outdoor market is amazing - row upon row of fruits, vegetables, meats, grasshoppers, chiles, arts and crafts, clothes... - I am hoping that I will work up the nerve to ask the people selling their wares if I may take some photos... wouldn't you like to see a whole stand of dried Mexican chiles or mounds of grasshoppers ready for snacking? I just don't want to offend anyone.
- tequila is made from the blue agave plant, mezcal from any type of agave and is the local drink of choice
- mezcal has the same smoky aftertaste as scotch
- having a siesta after lunch is awesome
- eating vegetarian is basically impossible - I gave up on trying to sort out the menu at lunch yesterday and just ordered something from the "local Oaxaca" section. When my meal came I gulped... a tortilla baked with a layer of black beans and local cheese, topped with avocado and tomato... ok so far so good, but then on top of all that there was a thinly pounded piece of what I can only guess was pork - deliciously seasoned, but also nearly bigger than the whole tortilla itself. I ate about a quarter of it and then shared the rest with the others at the table. I love trying all this local food but I'm really surprised by the lack of vegetables! My spanish isn't nearly good enough to order a custom meal... and I kind of enjoy exposing myself to the local culinary delights.
- Oaxaca is surrounded by mountains and nestlend in at the intersection of 3 valleys
- Oaxaca is a mountain town with an elevation of over 1500m (5000ft)
- this means it's a bit colder than what I would have expected of Mexico... although yesterday mid-morning the sun finally came out and it's been wonderfully warm since with a slight breeze carrying along all sorts of delicious smells
- this also means that climbing up the hill from the town to our hotel leaves me breathing heavily. We've done this ~30 minute walk several times now and after spending all day wandering around the streets in town I am more than ready for the afternoon siesta.
- margaritas in Oaxaca taste better than margaritas I've had anywhere else
- being redheaded and fair-skinned makes me stand out like a sore thumb. Doesn't help that I've usually got a camera hanging around my neck either.
- children on the streets trying to sell you candy won't give up or let go of your shirt even after you've walked into a restaurant and sat down
- La Carrera Panamericana is a car race that starts today or tomorrow in Oaxaca. It goes ~3000 miles and ends somewhere in Texas. There are a lot of racers staying at our hotel and their fancy cars are parked in the lot. Apparently only 25% of cars actually finish the race.
- yoga in our villa in the morning is wonderful
- not sure how I'm going to get my training runs done, but I am sure that I'm nearly walking the equivalent of what I need to run each day
- successfully made my first transaction in the local farmacia... 4 pesos for 4 bandaids (that's about 40 cents - 10 pesos to the dollar)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Arriving in Oaxaca (Wa-ha-ka)
Luke arrived this morning at 9am and checked into our hotel - the lovely Hotel Victoria which sits up on a hill and overlooks the city. I left Vancouver last night at 11pm and flew to Toronto. Left Toronto this morning at 9am and arrived in Mexico City just after noon. Had a lengthy stay in the airport where I was able to dig into a new book (more about that later) and finally left for my last leg to Oaxaca at 5:45pm. Got to the aiport where I was hoping to see Luke, but unfortunately he had mixed up his time zones. Oops! I was able to get myself a taxi and 30 minutes later I was relieved to be showering off the travel grime in our lovely villa.
Had an absolutely wonderful night. 4 of us went for a walk down to the Zocalo (literally "town square"), which is where everyone seems to congregate. The city streets are beautiful and the churches amazing. I'm really looking forward to spending some time walking around and exploring. We met up with a friend of the retreat organizer who has been living here for many years and had a wonderful dinner and fantastic conversation. We started off with the mezcal blanco and some grasshoppers. For dinner I had prawns with mole and Luke had the tuna special. Enjoyed a 2nd type of mezcal, some more exciting discourse and then onto dessert... coconut flan and "chocolate" (hot chocolate, Oaxacan style). Amazing. Wish I had brought my camera but I'm sure there will be more opportunities.
Off to bed for now. Got a bunch of sleep to catch up on. Buenas noches!
Had an absolutely wonderful night. 4 of us went for a walk down to the Zocalo (literally "town square"), which is where everyone seems to congregate. The city streets are beautiful and the churches amazing. I'm really looking forward to spending some time walking around and exploring. We met up with a friend of the retreat organizer who has been living here for many years and had a wonderful dinner and fantastic conversation. We started off with the mezcal blanco and some grasshoppers. For dinner I had prawns with mole and Luke had the tuna special. Enjoyed a 2nd type of mezcal, some more exciting discourse and then onto dessert... coconut flan and "chocolate" (hot chocolate, Oaxacan style). Amazing. Wish I had brought my camera but I'm sure there will be more opportunities.
Off to bed for now. Got a bunch of sleep to catch up on. Buenas noches!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Warm inside
I am sitting on the couch watching the tree outside the window twist and turn in the wind. Slowly our patio is being covered by leaves. I can hear the rain and the busy traffic and yet inside it is warm, dry and quiet. I have so much to be thankful for; good health, happy and inspiring relationships, a wonderful family, the freedom to do and say as I please... I am very fortunate. I look forward to finding more ways to use my unique talents to help those around me and to share the love I have within. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Another reason to to go veggie...
"Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/19/nbeef119.xml
I love a good filet mignon, but come on! People are bulldozing the rainforest to make more room for grazing cattle. Illegal immigrants are put to work in meat processing plants and when they are injured by the crazy machinery and a production line that is moving way to fast, they don't have the health care to cover their medical bills and because they are usually taking uppers to increase their speed on the line, the company claims they are not responsible for the unsafe conditions.
So you take the bus to work, or carpool, you recycle, have energy efficient appliances and switched all your bulbs from incandescent to fluorescent... maybe you should take a look at what's on your dinner plate. Eat local, eat organic and for the love of the planet, cut out the beef!!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/19/nbeef119.xml
I love a good filet mignon, but come on! People are bulldozing the rainforest to make more room for grazing cattle. Illegal immigrants are put to work in meat processing plants and when they are injured by the crazy machinery and a production line that is moving way to fast, they don't have the health care to cover their medical bills and because they are usually taking uppers to increase their speed on the line, the company claims they are not responsible for the unsafe conditions.
So you take the bus to work, or carpool, you recycle, have energy efficient appliances and switched all your bulbs from incandescent to fluorescent... maybe you should take a look at what's on your dinner plate. Eat local, eat organic and for the love of the planet, cut out the beef!!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Busy busy
this seems to be the first week in a while with no plans. nice to look at the calendar and see 5 empty days in a row. so far it's off to a good start. i just got back from Mysore this morning. i was able to bind in Marichyasana D twisting to the right, which I've never been able to do on my own before. my left knee is a bit sore, but it seems to be coming from a tight left IT band. rolling my left outer thigh on a ball seems to help loosen that up and boy does it hurt! it's a good hurt though, there's obviously some deep tightness in there.
so i'm sitting here now planning out my week and enjoying a tasty smoothie: 1 banana, 10 almonds, ~1 cup rice milk, 1/4 tsp vanilla. blend! yum!
these are the things i want to do this week:
- finish Anatomy of the Spirit and maybe write the exam at the end of the week
- go berry picking
- grind it up
- go for a hike - since the weather forecast is so freaking awesome I was thinking maybe of trying Mt Cheam, Mt Gardner or Garibaldi Lake. we'll see.
- go to kits pool
- book a limo for Nicole's wedding
- sew new curtains for the van
i'm so super impressed with my roses this year. they are flowering like mad and they smell wonderful. as i was walking home from yoga this morning i could smell them from about a block away. every now and then the breeze coming through our apartment carries the scent in too. my sweet peas are blooming now as well and i am in flower heaven.
victoria this past weekend was a ton of fun. had a great visit with my granny and spent some quality time with the girls. went to the silk road spa in victoria and we each had a super relaxing treatment. the pampered chef party was a huge success and i think i will have made enough to pick myself up a super sweet zoom lens. :)
i'd better get moving so i can start crossing things off that list... happy monday!
so i'm sitting here now planning out my week and enjoying a tasty smoothie: 1 banana, 10 almonds, ~1 cup rice milk, 1/4 tsp vanilla. blend! yum!
these are the things i want to do this week:
- finish Anatomy of the Spirit and maybe write the exam at the end of the week
- go berry picking
- grind it up
- go for a hike - since the weather forecast is so freaking awesome I was thinking maybe of trying Mt Cheam, Mt Gardner or Garibaldi Lake. we'll see.
- go to kits pool
- book a limo for Nicole's wedding
- sew new curtains for the van
i'm so super impressed with my roses this year. they are flowering like mad and they smell wonderful. as i was walking home from yoga this morning i could smell them from about a block away. every now and then the breeze coming through our apartment carries the scent in too. my sweet peas are blooming now as well and i am in flower heaven.
victoria this past weekend was a ton of fun. had a great visit with my granny and spent some quality time with the girls. went to the silk road spa in victoria and we each had a super relaxing treatment. the pampered chef party was a huge success and i think i will have made enough to pick myself up a super sweet zoom lens. :)
i'd better get moving so i can start crossing things off that list... happy monday!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
July already?
Happy belated Canada day and welcome sunny weather!! I'm having a hard time blogging regularly. I doubt I'll get much better while the weather is nice and there is so much to do that doesn't involve computers.
So I took my prednizone for 4 days. The swelling is gone and the blisters too. The skin on my palms is just really dry and rough now. Glad that's over with.
I finished my Nutrition and Mental Health course last week and started today on the Anatomy of the Spirit course. From what I can tell so far, this course discusses the control we have over our health and healing through positive thinking and overall outlook on life. I agree that our attitude affects our health, I'm not so sure about how far that can be taken... the author of the textbook discusses a case where an HIV positive patient was cured of AIDS. I need to see more information before I can fully accept what she's claiming.
We had a wonderful weekend camping in Manning Park. Aside from the torrential rain on the way up we had beautiful weather. I've put up some photos here. I was hoping that my new wide angle lens would have arrived in time, but it didn't. I had a call from FedEx today, and it will be here tomorrow. As soon as I got out of the car at our campsite on Friday I was instantly reminded why I like Manning Park so much. It smells wonderful up there. Ok, so I think it smells wonderful in most of the forests I've been to, but there's something a bit different about Manning Park, not sure what it is. We went for a couple nice walks and on Saturday morning before anyone was up I found a nice quiet space for a wilderness yoga session which was very nice.
Did the grind today with Nicole in an hour and 14 minutes. It still kind of surprises me how much harder it starts to get when it's hot out. I didn't make it up last week so maybe twice this week?
We bought a van today. It's a Mitsubishi Delica and it's pretty cool. Looking forward to taking it camping. Here's a photo. Runs on diesel or biodiesel, has sunroofs, an icebox/hotbox, and built in karaoke! It was kind of an impulse but we're pretty happy with our decision. With Luke being able to work from anywhere with internet, and me being away from work, we're pretty flexible and having a car makes it easier for us to be more mobile. We realized this summer that we were going to have to rent a car nearly every weekend and with me home during the week we've been using the co-op a lot more too. Anyways, we've got a 2002 scooter for sale now. Excellent condition, just tuned up, comes with 2 helmets and a large trunk, all for $2000. :)
What's next? So we stopped and bought some berries on our way home from Manning. Going to have to get back out there and do some picking soon. Raspberries are ready now, blueberries should be ready in a couple weeks.
I'm heading to Victoria this weekend to do 2 Pampered Chef shows so that should be fun. I have to say I'm really disappointed with the Pampered Chef recipe collection. I have to choose a PC recipe to prepare during the show, but I'm having a hard time finding easy, quick and healthy recipes. There are very few vegetarian options and it just seems like so many of the recipes call for premade croissant rolls or blocks of cream cheese.
I haven't had much time recently to work on my website, hopefully next week. I'd like to get the recipes section up and running and get this blog fully transferred over.
I've planned out my Anatomy of the Spirit course and I should finish this week or early next week. I'm looking forward to the following course which discusses the business side of things and talks about the legalities of giving nutritional advice and setting up a consulting practice. Once that course is over I'd like to spend some time working on my case studies and then I'll be halfway through the program!
One thing that's been on my mind a lot lately is the idea of hiking solo.... I've got a huge list of hikes to do and not enough weekends to fit them all in. Is hiking alone a terrible idea? I think maybe I'll try something familiar on my own first and then maybe work up to an overnighter. I think it could be really fantastic as long as I'm ready and prepared to handle whatever might come up. I'd like to get back up to Manning Park for the summer wildflowers and I'd love to take Luke back to Black Tusk and try to get to Panorama Ridge too - maybe a 2-night trip. I also would like to do the Musical Bumps again while the flowers are in bloom. That could also be worked into an overnighter by heading up to Russet Lake and staying at the wilderness site there. We'll see. There's so much to do, I'm so glad I'm not working right now. I'm really looking forward to the August long weekend. That's when we did Black Tusk last year and I think this year we might go to Golden Ears.
That's all for now. Kind of a random update, but better than nothing I hope. Got to get settled into a routine. No time for that now though. Maybe in the fall. :)
So I took my prednizone for 4 days. The swelling is gone and the blisters too. The skin on my palms is just really dry and rough now. Glad that's over with.
I finished my Nutrition and Mental Health course last week and started today on the Anatomy of the Spirit course. From what I can tell so far, this course discusses the control we have over our health and healing through positive thinking and overall outlook on life. I agree that our attitude affects our health, I'm not so sure about how far that can be taken... the author of the textbook discusses a case where an HIV positive patient was cured of AIDS. I need to see more information before I can fully accept what she's claiming.
We had a wonderful weekend camping in Manning Park. Aside from the torrential rain on the way up we had beautiful weather. I've put up some photos here. I was hoping that my new wide angle lens would have arrived in time, but it didn't. I had a call from FedEx today, and it will be here tomorrow. As soon as I got out of the car at our campsite on Friday I was instantly reminded why I like Manning Park so much. It smells wonderful up there. Ok, so I think it smells wonderful in most of the forests I've been to, but there's something a bit different about Manning Park, not sure what it is. We went for a couple nice walks and on Saturday morning before anyone was up I found a nice quiet space for a wilderness yoga session which was very nice.
Did the grind today with Nicole in an hour and 14 minutes. It still kind of surprises me how much harder it starts to get when it's hot out. I didn't make it up last week so maybe twice this week?
We bought a van today. It's a Mitsubishi Delica and it's pretty cool. Looking forward to taking it camping. Here's a photo. Runs on diesel or biodiesel, has sunroofs, an icebox/hotbox, and built in karaoke! It was kind of an impulse but we're pretty happy with our decision. With Luke being able to work from anywhere with internet, and me being away from work, we're pretty flexible and having a car makes it easier for us to be more mobile. We realized this summer that we were going to have to rent a car nearly every weekend and with me home during the week we've been using the co-op a lot more too. Anyways, we've got a 2002 scooter for sale now. Excellent condition, just tuned up, comes with 2 helmets and a large trunk, all for $2000. :)
What's next? So we stopped and bought some berries on our way home from Manning. Going to have to get back out there and do some picking soon. Raspberries are ready now, blueberries should be ready in a couple weeks.
I'm heading to Victoria this weekend to do 2 Pampered Chef shows so that should be fun. I have to say I'm really disappointed with the Pampered Chef recipe collection. I have to choose a PC recipe to prepare during the show, but I'm having a hard time finding easy, quick and healthy recipes. There are very few vegetarian options and it just seems like so many of the recipes call for premade croissant rolls or blocks of cream cheese.
I haven't had much time recently to work on my website, hopefully next week. I'd like to get the recipes section up and running and get this blog fully transferred over.
I've planned out my Anatomy of the Spirit course and I should finish this week or early next week. I'm looking forward to the following course which discusses the business side of things and talks about the legalities of giving nutritional advice and setting up a consulting practice. Once that course is over I'd like to spend some time working on my case studies and then I'll be halfway through the program!
One thing that's been on my mind a lot lately is the idea of hiking solo.... I've got a huge list of hikes to do and not enough weekends to fit them all in. Is hiking alone a terrible idea? I think maybe I'll try something familiar on my own first and then maybe work up to an overnighter. I think it could be really fantastic as long as I'm ready and prepared to handle whatever might come up. I'd like to get back up to Manning Park for the summer wildflowers and I'd love to take Luke back to Black Tusk and try to get to Panorama Ridge too - maybe a 2-night trip. I also would like to do the Musical Bumps again while the flowers are in bloom. That could also be worked into an overnighter by heading up to Russet Lake and staying at the wilderness site there. We'll see. There's so much to do, I'm so glad I'm not working right now. I'm really looking forward to the August long weekend. That's when we did Black Tusk last year and I think this year we might go to Golden Ears.
That's all for now. Kind of a random update, but better than nothing I hope. Got to get settled into a routine. No time for that now though. Maybe in the fall. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
