Hill Training .. at City Hall?

Today was my first hill training I've done in a long while. And it wasn't even a hill! Via google, I found a site that suggested some good hill training places in Toronto. One of them was the ramp at City Hall.
After running up it 10 times, I have to agree, it is a good training hill. Not long enough of one though but somehow I managed to rack up 3km. That was pretty shocking to me. I guess the mantra of "I can do this" combined with a little of Gaga's music on my iPod helped :P
Next hill training will be on Friday. Where to run??

Goodbye waterbottle...

Today I did my long run, 13.12km. I'm finally using my iphone's gps system, so accuracy of my results are getting better :) My run was only so-so today, woke up a little later than I wanted to (7am), so rushed my 'breakfast' quickly. I ate half a slice of bagel, with some peanut butter. I gave myself maybe about 15 minutes to let things settle before leaving my house to start my run.

I think about half way through my 13km, I started to feel cramps. Cardinal rule, you have to make sure you have time to digest what you eat. Sigh. lol. At any rate, nothing particular happened. Saw a lot of runners at the beaches. It was rather nice weather, so I didn't need to wear a sweatshirt over my tshirt.

There was though something that did happen to me when I was literally 2 minutes away from my house after finishing my run. I realized while crossing the road, that I was missing a water bottle on my belt. It was one of the ones that was secured at the rear. I was devastated.

Ironically, at that same moment I had turned my head (maybe out of an odd instinct) and looked behind me, to see a water bottle exactly like mine, just mangled and dirty lying in the middle of the road. I checked both ways before rushing back to pick it up, and also the cap, lying not far away from it.

Such a sad day. Goodbye waterbottle...what will I replace you with? I'm on a saving streak, so buying a whole new set may not be an option. We shall see how desperate I get as my milage increases :) So far, I've only been drinking from two waterbottles out of the four. Not sure if that's a good thing, but I'm sure for the events I participate in, I'll be able to refill before I run out. Or push my pacing up so I won't die of dehyrdation before the next water station ;)

-- Edit --

Added a 17.20km bike ride at the end of the evening (weather was just way too nice not to take advantage of). Slipped on some gravel at a turn :(
Got a nice shot of the city line at sunset.

Today started off well, Did a 7km run in the morning :) Such a rarity for me to do one on a weekday - and just before work too! My initial plan was actually to head to the gym for a body combat class. However, as a person who loves to put the alarm on snooze control, that sadly didn't happen. In effort to make the best of it, I made my way to the beaches and did a quick run. The run went well, nothing much happened aside from the usual battle with my allergies. Oh wait, I did see a familiar face! There was this fellow that I always bumped into when I did my weekly long runs on the weekends. It was such a coincidence, such a small world.

I finished my run around 8ish, and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to work. Feeling rather accomplished, after work, I pushed myself a little further by doing a bike ride. I admit, my legs were a bit sore, but through my friend's (Jeff) encouragement, I managed to do 3 consecutive up hills on the bike. Mind you, I'm no pro at it, but I was quite proud to have made it up. This was the same hill that I had so much trouble at the beginning, the one I could barely manage to do once! Practice makes perfect :)


Afterwards, we biked our way back to the other end of the boardwalk where the rocks were. We explored some of the other paths and found the scenery there to be quite beautiful. We biked for a while, I would say about 10-11km, more or less, and finally called it an evening.

By the time we headed back, the sun was already setting, just starting to dip below the horizon. I forget sometimes how the simple things in life are the most beautiful. Just have to remember not to stare at it :P Black Spots are a side effect to that.

Back in training: 6km easy run

Last night I felt a little nostalgic, so I decided to watch some old movies - The Planet of the Apes (1968 version). I remember my brother watching the Planet of the Apes when I was younger, but the marathons always ran so late into the night that I couldn't stay up... dozing on and off, I would only catch pieces of it. Sadly, I never really caught on about it except that there were talking apes, human slavery, an orangutan named Dr. Zaius, and some great revalation at the end of the first movie. I was sorta right, but I missed out on a whole lot of stuff appearantly.

It was funny though as I was watching the movie(s), I couldn't help but think back to a simpsons episode... that song "Dr. Zaius, Dr. Zaius" kept popping up in my head...



Not going to go into spoilers about the movies (yes, I imagine anyone reading this will rush out to get the boxset :-) you never know...), but I was hooked. One movie led to the next and the next, it wasn't until nearly 2am that I realized how late it was. Getting up at 5:30am was not going to be easy.

I was right. lol. In fact, I didn't even hear my first alarm. The 8:30 alarm finally managed to pierce through my cloud of dreams. I wasn't too happy, but I knew that putting off my run would not bold well for the rest of the training schedule I had planned for the next few months.

After freshening up and eating a mango (ran out of bananas), I hung around in my backyard and did some stretches. I also checked out the progress of my garden. I am sad to report, nothing edible has really grown up yet - just lots of flowers that I'm allergic to blossoming about... They are very pretty though.

I left the house by 9:00am, and started my run by 9:15am. The run wasn't as smooth as I'd like to have been, I admit sleeping so late was a large fact. My speed was steady, but not very fast. I was, however, not breathless any given time. Minor annoyances consisted of just my IT band slipping off every once in a while.

I am happy though that despite it all, I did finish my 6km within 45 minutes and in my 10 and 1 interval. No slacking in the water breaks this time around.

I'm going to aim for some hill training sometime this week, tomorrow? I've been avoiding it for a while now. Time to face the music! And it isn't going to be pretty...

In the meantime.. maybe I'll watch another part to the Planet of the apes series :-) Can't wait till "Rise of the Apes" comes out in August!

Becel Heart&Stroke Ride for Heart 2011 - 50km

Today was race day for the 2011 Becel Heart&Stroke Ride for Heart..and I can say it was an amazing experience! I have always wanted to do the ride but have never the courage to ride the distance that it demanded. In fact any long distances with biking made me rather tense given my novice skills with the bike. And sharing the road with other bikers, crowds of them, did not make it any better.

Some years ago (Actually, many many years ago... HS years...), I had two biking accidents. Rather...unbelievable ones that could happen to someone, but they happened to me no less. It was really the second accident though that had quite an impact on me, where the breaklines of the bike nearly punctured my neck.

After that accident, my mountain bike went into storage in my basement... and... stayed until just the past 2 years. Last year I replaced it with a lighter framed bike - the Trek 7000 series. Best bike ever.




This year in preparation for the race, I had wanted to start biking earlier in the season - on stationary ones at my local Goodlife gym. But sadly, in mid-february, I threw out my back. One morning I couldn't even sit up to get up from bed. I went to see my doctor and a physiotherapist, and after doing a series of recommended stretches, hot yoga, and rest, my back was feeling back on par in may.

Training for the ride for heart event however, started later in the game than I anticipated. After returning from my trip to Asia (Taiwan and Vietnam), I was sick from the common flu. It took me about a full week to recover and by then it was mid-may. Weather in Toronto also wasn't great, some rainy gross days came about, and so it was only the gym and stationary biking there.

It was fortunate that I had a hardcore biker buddy Jeff to do the rideforheart with, that really pushed me to get out there and just bike - regardless of how nice or bad the weather it was. Lucky for me though, the days that were chosen turned out to be nice :-)

Within 3 practices, I was starting to get into my grove, having more control with the bike, and a slightly better time going uphill! As Jeff says, it's all in the gears and the breaks. They're my friends :-)

Fast forward about 2 weeks, its June 4th, and I'm eating a pasta late at night at a local place on the Beaches (Tulips!). We literally stepped inside the restaurant at a quarter to 11pm. Jeff's younger brother and his aunt were there to join us as we wolfed down our carbs in prep for the next day's race.

We finished quickly and I got dropped off at my place by 12:30am. I was so exhausted, but mentally very alert. My pre-race day adrenaline was going through the roof. I think I layed in bed unable to sleep till 2am in the morning! Finally, realizing that I had set my alarm to go off at 5:30am, it was a good idea to just SLEEP.

So sleep I finally did. Alarm went off at 5:30am. Got up, turned it off, and went back to sleep. I finally got up at 6:30am, and by the time Jeff and I left the place to go to the Ex it was 10 to 8.





We started the race on time, 8:30am. It was crowded, but not so bad as I imagined. We rode up about the halfway point for the 25km (which was what we had originally signed up for), but neither one of wanted to turn back. Our sticker allowed us to go on the 50km route, so after a quick discussion, we went for the 50km :-)

We stopped a few times, had some apples at a rest station, took water breaks and photos of the downtown skyline, the rogers centre (formally known as the skydome), and the cn tower.

The ride back to the Princes' Gates was more leisurely than expected because both Jeff and I had expected a tough uphill to go through, but it turned out to be not so bad at all. It was in fact easier than the circuit route at the water filtration plant I had trained on. Phew :-)

We finished at the 50km finish line and made our way to grab some food: Bagel, Water, Banana, and a Juice box.

I don't think I ever polished up food that was given at an event that quickly. But I have a feeling it was because I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast since we were pressed for time to head out.

The entire ride took us about 2 and a half hours. I was really happy that I didn't "tap" out on any of the hills :) I barrelled through them, grit and sweat!

So ends my ride for heart journey of this year. Next year, I hope to do the End Cancer or perhaps the Ride for Heart 75km. Maybe the latter first :-)

But before signing off: Thank you again for the wonderful sponsors who contributed to making this event possible for me! My cousins, Cecilia, and Kai (the sane). Special thanks to Jeff who really helped me train for the event!

Speaking of events...

Next one up... Warrior Dash?! We'll see how training goes for that!