Second long run of the season plus two hikes - all in one weekend

For two weeks I have been quite adamant on staying with my training schedule, some easy runs in throughout the week, some cross-training on my bike (sadly, just my stationary one), and the Saturday that just passed, it was no different - despite that I had an 11km scheduled hike in the evening. Do note at the time, I had it in my schedule to be a 6km hike. Silly things that don't get recorded right...

The Saturday morning started off quite well. I was actually well awake for 6am (much better than the previous week), I dawdled a little in the kitchen, frying up yet again my two sunny side up eggs and toasted whole wheat bread. As I chewed on my food offhandedly I filled up my water bottles with fruit punch flavoured Gatorade. I decided I didn't much like the orange one - tasted too much like vitamin c (like the chewable Flintstones one I used to have as a kid).

Geared up with the usual, IT band - check, ipod - check, hat - check, keys and phone - check, emergency $5 - check, ...

And out the door, I went and discovered...
it was raining.

hmm. unexpected.

For a moment, I thought about heading back inside - only a second though - and banished the thought. Here I was in full running gear and I was going to quit because of a little drizzle? :P I've been through much worse - thinking back to last year when I ran with Team In Training while literally pouring rain, lightning and thunder, with all that jazz.

I started running, headed straight to the boardwalk. Surprisingly - though I know I shouldn't have been, there was a good turnout of runners that I saw; not only runners, but some pretty hardcore volley ball players! With light rain peeter patting on and off, I did my 16km run. Saw some cute dogs along the way, bumped into an avid walker 3 times (Still been putting off figuring out a more interesting route). I finished the run in 2 hours, which wasn't too bad. I had to keep in mind though, it was the boardwalk I had been training on -- I have yet to try running on concrete. Have been thinking maybe to warm up a bit before trying it.

After my run, I headed home, freshened up, finished packing, and off I went to meet my friends so I could go with them up to Barrie for the hike.

Oh, I have to say, while I was waiting at the mall to meet with them, I saw this most disturbing commercial about magic goo. Yes. Magic goo that apparently starts off as liquid, but you can add some substance and it turns into goo. And get this, cool as it is if you're just stirring it around in a container, but if you show a commercial with kids bathing in this stuff, it's just plain weird. My opinion of course.

Met up with my friends, did a little shopping, went to Vaughan Mills -- ah, wonderful mall, endless supply of shops... went to Bass Pro shops to get some items we still needed for the hike; got sucked into Lululemon...,and ended off all the shopping with a pasta dinner in the food court.

We checked in to our hotel, geared up and took our first official team picture! lol this is in fact, the first time all four of us were able to get together to do a hike. The event is only what, 4 weeks way?! :P

We headed up to horseshoe Resort to meet with our Oxfam group. Signing our lives away (the waiver), we were transported via a bus to CP4.





11.3km later, we congratulated each other on managing to finish the trail well within our expected finish time. During the hike, I introduced my friends to the cliffbloks that I used/am using when I do my runs; they kept saying it tasted so good! lol surprisingly, I thought they tasted quite good too. I guess having not eaten them for nearly half a year has brought back my love for them. Let's hope it keeps up haha. We also all used our hydration packs. Ok, not all of us - I hadn't filled mine with water... so water breaks for me entailed sliding my bag down, swinging it forward, unzipping the bottom compartment, pulling out my water bottle, unscrewing the lid, and then finally drinking it. My friends just uncorked the water tube and drank. Hydration pack envy. And irony was I HAD a hydration pack - just... unused. This would change the following day.



After doing a couple of stretches, we drove back to the hotel, freshened up and had instant noodles. We talked about our plan for the next day - our own little familiarization hike. We wanted to do a hike from checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 2, that alone in one direction was about 17km. That meant to get back to our car, it would be 34km. The idea was vetoed, and instead, we opted to go from checkpoint 1 to the rest area, approx. 11km one direction, making it only to be 22km hike cumulatively.

Sounded like a good plan.

Sunday morning, we all woke up - some more refreshed than others - ready to hike! We had instant noodles for breakfast and decided to drop in for the complimentary breakfast. Had a second breakfast (we felt like hobbits!!) and stocked up for lunch :) Made peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Hadn't had that for a long time.

We began the hike at Forrest Hill Public school, following a printed map provided by Cecilia (good thing she printed it out, otherwise, hiking would have been interesting while lost..)

Hiking at a steady pace, I had them try out the edisks -- which as Cecilia pointed out, tasted like concentrated Gatorade. I don't contest that. It does. Lol

For the first 5-6km, we were mostly still enjoying the scenery. The weather was also keeping good with us, drizzling on and off, keep us cool. I noticed though there was a dull ache in my left ankle. Of course, I ignored it, hoping that it would stretch out eventually as we hiked.

The path along the way wasn't always clear. There was a good point where we lost the white marker we were trying to follow and had to do backtracking. And hills. Lots of hills. Have I mentioned that I loathe hills with a passion? We decided as a group that we would run up those hills - better to get them over with. Worked out pretty good at the beginning ... but after 15km of hiking uneven ground, running up a hill becomes ever more difficult.

When we finally reached the midpoint of our hike (the 11km), we rested and had a 10min quick lunch. I don't think a peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever tasted so good. My friends who made their own variations for sandwiches - one just had a bagel with butter - even loved it. Funny how we all gain a new appreciation for the simple food sometimes.

After finishing up our lunch and having some snacks(trail mix, sandwiches,chocolates, etc) we headed off again, back to the same direction we came from -- to where our park would be parked at the end of the hike. Our speed at this point had dropped a bit, although we attempted our best to keep the pace up. My ankle by the 14km mark had began to complain a lot, but we needed to keep moving, none of us wanted to be out there in the dark.

By the 16/17km mark, we began realizing that we were running low on water. Lol. Our estimations were a little bit off - but we still had some extra Gatorade set aside in a water bottle. I was actually the first to discover that my hydration pack was clear of water. The Tremblant hiking incident flashed through my mind ... I will tell that story another time :)

At any rate, let us just say, it was not a good feeling. For the remaining km, we all began conserving our water, drinking as needed and of course we all agreed, anyone who needs any water, who ever can provide, shares :P Fantastic team eh? I guess deep down inside none of us wants to have to carry a fallen team member. hahaha Joking of course! :D

When we finally arrived at our destination, I wanted to hug the car. I never realized that walking could be so strenuous - coming from a person who ran a marathon. But then again, when you're running a marathon, you don't carry about 2L worth of water on your back, plus extra other gears in the backpack.

Before we could sit down or do anything else, we took our after the hike photo. I think we hid our exhaustion quite well :)

In total, we did 33km hiking that weekend.

Tomorrow our team will be getting together to do another practice hike, about 9km :)
Piece of cake! But wish us luck any way ;)

First long run of the season

Seems like forever since I had run more than an easy 6/7km, but today, I finally felt ready to punch it up a notch and get back into my old long slow distance training weekends. Not easy I have to admit because I love sleeping in!
Admittantly, I did sleep in a little more than I wanted - got up for 7:00am instead of 6:00am.

Todays breakfast: Buttered bread with sunny side up eggs. I would have added the bacon if there was any...

I was out the door by 8:30am and off to the boardwalk.

My great plan for the running route was really lazy work :) I had been contemplating it greatly throughout the week: do I want to do the beltline? Sunny brook? Map out my own route? There's the nifty app called mapmyrun.com that would make that pretty easy... But on the friday I proclaimed to my coworker that, yes, my great plan was to basically run the boardwalk 3 times (which would make it 18km). Easy to measure. Refilling the gatorade will be simply with the purchase of a new bottle, and in my mind, point of purchase would have been from the little stand that usually sets up beside the volleyball area of the beach.

Plan worked out pretty well for the most part. Only part that did not work out was the refilling portion - the stand I had been hoping to be set up was not there, even the pizza pizza wasn't open yet. I forgot it was Sunday -- likely they opened up a little later into the day. I managed though to conserve whatever gatorade I had; next time though I would get some of those e-discs and have some plain water instead. and... those cliffshots. Jubes jubes that I dreaded to eat for the longest time since the marathon (over saturated! :P)

After finishing my 15km (though my intention was 16km -- missed my mark by 1km!), I did a quick check - knee? felt good. face? not burnned. hungry? Very!

Next week, I rejoin my team 'Fantastic Four' for a night hike up in Barrie! This one will be I'm uber excited (I get to use those super headlights again!). We've got about 5 weeks to go till the Oxfam Trail event!

I also want to thank kindly to some new sponsors: Kimberley Bailey, Anna Do, and my amazing cousins! Thanks so much for your encouragement and contribution! :)

The Price is Right ...

So for the past few weeks I had been been shopping (more like online browsing!) for a bike to replace my old one. Nothing, however, would suit the budget I was going after (my friend Jeff had something to say about making a long term investment...).

Finally after been driven to two different locations of Canadian Tires, some visits to other stores and to Costco (yes, not a bike store, but they're known for their good prices!), I ended up at Cyclepath after some urging from my friend that it IS the place to get a bike if you're serious about biking. Which I am. Honest :)

The personel at Cyclepath were very helpful, they helped me out in picking the right frame, offered several alternatives to fit my budget... well, an attempt was made :) Most of the bikes there were over my budget to start, but they made up in quality (much lighter frames!). I ended up picking a Trek 7000 series -- very pretty :) Pricy, but pretty.

After making the bike purchase, both Jeff and I were pretty tired and hungry (and we hadn't even started biking yet!) so we headed off to Pho House (formally known as Pho 88), a Vietnamese restaurant on Broadview. Best way to power up! :P

We decided after eating, that we would wait until early evening when it wasn't so hot (and until I installed a bell on my bike), so I got dropped off at home. You would think I did something constructive during the time, but I ended up taking a nap. It wasn't until perhaps 10 minutes before I had to meet with Jeff I hooked up my bell, filled up my water bottle and jetted out of the house.

We met on Coxwell and Queen, and headed on the bike path and we made our way to this oversized parking lot. I practiced a lot of my turning and testing of the gears here (Jeff's biking bootcamp ;)) and once I got my groove with my new bike, we did a few runs (well, 2 really) of the actual path. Still, all in all, quite productive! I loved the feel of the new bike, the ease in changing gears, awesome brakes (that work!). The price for bike was high, but it feels ... right :)

Aside from getting a new bike, I had been doing a lot of hiking/walking long distances - mostly 6km - 7km. Nothing too streneous, but still keeping the training up for the long hike. Tomorrow, however, will be picking up the pace and doing a easy 6km run.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I want to thank my current sponsors to my event: Hoanh T. Ngo, Jeffrey Lam, Joyce Quan, Kai Liang, Lynette, Manh Nguyen, Phuc Nghiem Phu, Phung Nguyen, Vinh-The Lam, and Richard. Thank you so much for your support! :)

Dusk to Darkness

Saturday our team the Fantastic Four (minus one, because the lucky girl is in Japan!), did our first hike together - up at Horseshoe Valley in Barrie. The hike was organized by Oxfam as part of a familiarization of 100km trail, in this case, a 6% taste of what's to come in the last weekend of July.

Gearless as I was (notice the past tense reference :P), the three of us dropped in on Vaughn Mills Mall on the way up to the meeting spot. For those who have not been there, the mall's interior resembles a figure 8.. or an infinity sign :) You can wander in there forever!

Our first stop in the Mall was to hit the Bass Pro shop. The multitudes of things you can buy in there when you're planning an outdoor activity! Hydration packs, hats, flashlights, first aid kits, iodine, ponchos, sleeping bags, boots, shoes, tents, ... so many options.

First stop though was to get headlights. The title of the posting was selected purposely (and also named activity by Oxfam). I got myself a Petzl® Tikka2 LED Headlamp, followed by an sleeping bag (Can't even find a picture of it, but it resembles much like a emergency blanket), a 5-in-1 survival aid kit (liquid filled compass with a luminous dial, a waterproof match box, a whistle, a fire starting flint, and a nylon lanyard). My teammates got themselves a hydration pack (I was fortunate enough to have gotten one as a gift :P Now I get to put it to use!), headlamps and flashlights.

We grabbed a quick bite and headed off to our destination, excited with our purchases. Sadly to note, at this point, I have not bought my hiking boots -- I was going to make do with my old runners. May as well make use of them before they are officially retired.

We arrived at Carriage Ridge Resort (a place we booked for overnight stay) a bit earlier, and had time to unpack our stuff, and gear up for the night hike. Before we left, we took a quick team picture (see first pic), and drove to the meeting spot to sign in.

There was, as it was, a big turnout for the hike, approx 94 people. A school bus full of hikers. They drove us to the start point of the event, and we started the hike approx. 8:19pm.

I was eager to try out the headlights -- it said it could give visibility up to 29m! It didn't get dark until 9pm, (between all that time, cracks of daylight could be seen through the tall trees, lighting the trail for us), but it was hard not to want to turn it on earlier - :) I do love to try out new gadgets!

When darkness did finally fall, turned out my headlamp was as awesome as I had imagined it to be. On its own, it could light up the trail enough for all three of us AND the people ahead of us. Sweet. Got my money's worth! *grin*

The hike continued with light chatter, some talk about "what kind of bird would I be?" We have the answers: Goose, Phoenix, Penguin. Lol, Guess which one I am? ;)

A few times during the hike, I tried to convince my friends (inspired by the headlamp) that we should go Spelunking again. They.. have yet to be persuaded. I have learned, thought, that no doesn't always mean no...

We finished the hike in a little over an hour, signed out, and drove back to our resort. Having settled in and microwaved up some Uncle Ben's rice (surprisingly good after a hike), and indulging on some munchies, we settled down on the couch and watched the ending of "Goonies" (ah, such a classic!) on the tele. Following up with it, we all somehow (ok, it may have just been me :P) hooked on watching "Holes". We slept away at around 1am, and checked out promptly around 11 in the morning... and headed to the Cookstown outlet mall.

Originally, we had had planned to put in another hike in the morning, but it had rained during the night, making the ground exceptionally muddy, so as an alternative, we opted to use the time to get some uniforms for our team and any remaining necessities for the hike.

In Cookstown we found ourselves with some good bargain deals on a dryfit shirt for our team, but nothing else jumped out for us, so we headed back down to Vaughnmills Mall to check out other options. This time around, we found our team hat, another set of team tshirts, and most importantly, hiking shoes. I also found myself a pair of new runners that matched the current series I had been wearing. Made my selection much easier! One of my teammates also bought a pair of hikers.

Noted, all these purchases took us nearly 5 hours. And we had only ventured into the stores that were relevant to our "mission". Compared to the hike itself, I was more tired after shopping :P We ended the day at the mall with a Gelato icecream/milkshake. *grin* I can't complain, my weekend was well spent! :)

After a long winter of hibernation - that is what tends to happen when it gets cold outside :) - I have finally returned to running outdoors. Although my knee is not as tenuous as last year, I am still very careful with it - one has to be if you expect it to last!

My first run of the spring season was in fact on the Easter long weekend. Having been under the weather for a while, the idea of feeling well enough to do a short sprint on the boardwalk sounded like an excellent idea. The start of the run was amazing as always, feeling the cool breeze hit my face, the sun warming my body, and the thought of having an ice cream afterwards... :)

My speed wasn't as fast, but the good thing that came about was that I was running with out the knee support. AND that it felt normal! Can't imagine the victorious smile on my face afterwards.

Next few days, however, my left foot was feeling rather painful. It was only then I realized that I should have retired the pair of runners (yes, the same pair I used to run my marathon in addition to the training that led up to it. So give or take its been used for over 363 km). I am pretty sure the cushion... er, wait, there isn't any! has been worn to nothing but a thin pad.

So. Task at hand: Get new pair of runners before engaging in any new running activities. The next few weeks I did stretching exercises and random Yoga classes thrown into the mix.

Just the past week, since I have yet to get my new runners, I participated in a few spin classes at my local gym. If you recall in all my previous bloggings, I hate hills of any sort with a passion (My friends who have hiked with me in Greece know that by personal experience). So there is some irony that the spin classes that I joined in on were all- terrain ones. What better way to conquer your fears? Or in this case, fears and arch nemesis :)

Turned out Spin Classes are quite fun. My enjoyment was surprising and it worked well in my goal of training for my Triathlon (coming up in 2012 hopefully! Provided the Mayans were incorrect on their predictions ;)) and for helping me strengthen the calve and quad muscles; should help me in preparing for my long hike event.

Good news my avid readers! I completed the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Full Marathon (42.2km)! Yipeeee!

My legs right now, though, feels like rubber! I had thought my long runs on all those Saturday training sessions were exhausting on my muscles, but boy, this is a whole new feeling. Despite the soreness, I have to say, I am very proud and happy to have made it through my first marathon! I'm now in the 1% of the world who can complete a marathon. A proud achievement for me :-)

Details on pre-run date: On Saturday I checked into my room at the Hilton Hotel, met up with my two room mates, had a pre-race jitter talk with them, had a most delicious pasta dinner with all my team mates, listened to 3 speeches that teared me up, and proceeded to sleep at 11pm in night ... only to have to wake up at 4:45am the next morning.

Had breakfast at 5:50am (Had to run around downtown toronto to look for the 24 hour Tim Hortons); successful, but I didn't end up getting the hashbrowns that I wanted :-( They were not serving it yet until 9am. Had a butter croissant and small double double. Tastey.

My two roomates and I rushed back to our hotel, to our rooms, got our water belts, jackets, (and luggage for me -- planned to use the baggage check-in at city hall), and proceeded downstairs to the lobby to meet the rest of the TNT group.

It was still dark when we began heading over to Nathan Phillips Square to our tent. The race did not start until 7:30am, so there was still lots time to be nervous, worried and having thoughts of of a number of possible, but rather unlikely events that could happen before and during the race. 42 km was a pretty long way. Stepping on a pothole, my knee injury coming back, headache, cramps, hip pain, rain, too much sun, wind... all of it was an unknown. Rain was probably the worse thought on my mind. A member of my team said that it was suppose to shower a little bit; and there was chance of a little sun between 8-9am. How comforting.

It was about 7:10am when we began to move towards our corals (our starting area). While we waited until the race started, I took the time to take in the excitement, the energy around me. I could hear the sound of music, laughter, friends and family cheering.. it was amazing.

The national anthem then started and we were all silent as we listened to it.

The gunshot sounded; the race was on!

To make it easiest to describe the run, I will list the few pivotal moments:

15km -- Felt so happy that it was not raining nor was it too sunny.
21km -- I felt this rush of pride, I passed the 21km mark @ 2:32 hours
27km -- I hit my mental wall, anxiety on not having enough time to finish hit me (my coach was thank god there, and talked me out of my fear - I had about 3 hours still and I was more than half way)
30km -- My right quad cramped up on me, and I devoured all the peanuts I had in my pouch (Thank you Lise for the idea and Lynette for the trail mix!)
33km -- My left and right quads cramped on me, coach offered me a salt tablet
34km -- Started to dislike drinking Gatorade and those little cubes meant to help me restore the balance of my electrolytes. There is only so much love for those supplements ...
36km -- The top of my left knee began to spasm on me, forced me to slow down a lot
40km -- My IT band began to hurt a little bit
41km -- Used an unknown stored energy to sprint to that finish line.
41.5km -- I thought about the cause I was running for and wished for the good health of my family, my relatives, my uncle, my friends, my supporters.
42.2 km -- A victorious feeling :-)

As I crossed the finish line, it felt amazing. First - I finished a marathon! I had run 26 miles! Second - Yes, I could now sit and eat. I was famished.

I hugged my parents and brother who were there to support me, and my three wonderful cousins who trekked all the way downtown to see me, from morning until I finished my race! My two friends Kai and Jeffrey who special delivered me food that I requested :-) (namely chinese buns and gatorade).

After having a brief lunch with my two friends, I headed home. At this point, my legs were tired, it was not until I got home and sat on the sofa, when I felt the soreness creep in. By the time my friend Madeline dropped by to congratulate me on my run, I could feel the stiffness in my legs. I was walking very oddly. lol. I definitely needed to do some light stretching.

This morning, when I woke up, my poor legs only got more sore. lol. Will be booking with a massage therapist this week! :-)

Well, so this ends my marathon journey for this year :-) Thank you all for following me and supporting me on my training for the marathon.

Next weekend I will be doing a short run/walk (let's see how my legs feel hehe), for the CIBC run for the cure - Breast Cancer. Wish me luck!

P.S. Thanks M for the kind donation!

First thing I have to say is, YAY! Thank you thank you wonderful supporters! Without you guys, I wouldn't have been able to reach my fundraising goal! =) You guys are the best!

Special thanks to my new sponsors: Bill Petruck, Marty Kobayashi, Lise Hansen, Richard Tanha, Diana Trac, and the anonymous people who kindly contributed to my little tincan :-)

Now to the running bit:
This weekend, :-( bad news came about with my knee again. Tricky little fella I have to say. It had not complained for the last two weeks of the long run training - 23km and 32km respectively, but on Saturday, having just run just a little past 10km, it faltered on me again. I was fortunate to be close to home (ironic since our new route passes my house), so I was able to head home straight away to to ice the knee. No sense in injuring it further since race day is literally at this point 14 days away.

The knee, as I iced it, was all red and inflammed. I applied some a535, did some stretching afterwards and it was not after I took a long nap that afternoon did it start feeling better. I was able to walk around and not exactly run, but trot about without any pain. This was a huge relief. Previously when I first had this happen to me, walking even hurt me. I took this as a good sign. This morning, did more stretching, and my knee feels good again - which means good news I can resume my training again! I am going to taper down with lower milages than the training schedule. My knee will be more happier, I'm sure. And a friendly visit to my doctor again for an assessment (just in case) of my knee too :-)

Tomorrow, I will do yoga ... 14 days ... in counting!