game of life run!

I participated in my first 5km race of the year! My sister Nikki and I ran the Game of Life race this morning at the beautiful point pleasant park. The event supported Commonwealth Games Canada's grassroots sports programs in Africa and the Caribbean.  This program uses sports as a means for social development of people in these countries. When I was younger I played basketball and soccer in city leagues and in school, and also coached a basketball team of boys aged 9-10. I believe that participating in sports gives children confidence and team work skills that can extend to multiple areas of their lives. SO of course I thought this was an awesome cause!


I love that the event was held at Point Pleasant Park. The route followed the perimeter of the park which is a wide trail with great views of the ocean. Thankfully it was bright out (cloudy) and not too windy. A breeze off the ocean can be mighty cold, so I was glad it wasn't too bad today! They had tons of volunteers that were helpful in guiding the way. It was a simple out and back, with the first half being up hill. This made the second half of the race a treat! Knowing the last half was downhill was definitely something I looked forward to.

A few negatives were that the 10km race was an out and back, TWICE. Maybe some people don't care as much as I do, but I think that would be extremely boring. I think they could have taken advantage of all the trails in the park and made it a loop or something. This would have meant more volunteers though, which maybe wasn't possible. My only other negative were the other people at the park. Since the race was small (I would estimate 100 participants in the 5 and 10 combined) they did not close the park. The park is notorious for people bringing their dogs, and some areas are off-leash. I believe these people had every right to be in the park; however I wish some people had shown a little more consideration and tried to move their dogs out of the way of the runners. Nothing that could have been controlled by the race coordinators though!

Overall it was a great start to run season, and I'm happy with the result. Nikki and I ran together (except for the final sprint). The clock time when running through the finish said 31:47, yet my chip time was 31:55 or something. This doesn't really make since to me as usually the chip time is lower? Either way I'm happy with that time!

Now I just need to get my butt in gear as I decided I'll be doing the 10km in the Bluenose! IN ONE MONTH! Ack. Stay tuned for my procrastinator training plan.

p.s. I returned the sneakers I posted about earlier. Still on the hunt for ones I like...

an adventure in hummus making

As I mentioned in my last post I decided to try to make my own hummus. This was partly due to the fact that it's insanely overpriced, and also because I'm trying to choose cleaner foods with less processing.

I decided to use dry chick peas rather than canned (again to decrease preservatives) so it was difficult to find an exact recipe. Most recipes called for one can of chickpeas, or a specific amount of ounces. And being Canadian I was like 'ounces?!? what!??' so I ended up looking at a bunch of recipes and just kind of winging it. Will it taste good, will it be bad... who knows!!

For my recipe I used dry chick peas, tahini, juice from a lemon, fresh garlic, salt, cumin, olive oil and water.

Nuts to You Nut Butter - made in Canada! cost, aprox $6.50 for  500g

I started by soaking 1 cup of dry chick peas over night. I then cooked the chick peas on the stove, by boiling  chick peas in water, then letting them simmer for an hour, then letting them cool. Some recipes said that by removing the skins of the chickpeas will lead to a smoother end product. I thought this would decrease the amount of fiber and who really wants to peel chick peas?!

I then used a magic bullet blender to mash the chick peas. I had originally thought I'd be able to mash them with a fork... definitely not. It would have been really difficult and would have taken forever. Most recipes call for a food processor but some type of blender would definitely work!

After this was definitely a bit of a guessing game. In the end I ended up adding approx 1 cup of water, 2 tbsp of cumin, 1/8-1/4 cup of olive oil, the juice from one lemon, three cloves of garlic and 1 tsp of salt. I ended up putting it back in the magic bullet with the liquids added in order to get it as smooth as possible.

It tastes great but... different. I am just so used to the taste of canned chick peas that even the plain, cooked chick peas tasted pretty different to me. I will definitely make it again... especially since I have an entire bag of chick peas left haha. AND 1 cup of dried peas made about 3 cups of hummus! WAY cheaper than the store made version.  So cheaper and healthy gets two thumbs up from me.

Have you ever tried to make anything from scratch that you usually purchase?

holiday runs

So I went on a few runs while I was home over the holidays. It was wonderful to run with my family again, it's been awhile!

I did a 5km run at the KC Irving Centre in Bathurst. It's an indoor track that surrounds a hockey rink:

It's a great place to run. It cost $2 (or you can buy a pass), and since it's beside the rink it stays pretty cool around 14C. And if you're lucky there may be people playing hockey which provides some free entertainment! Another plus is that you go the opposite direction of the walkers, therefore you don't have to be continually passing people. I went to this track and had an awesome run! I ended up running 5km in about 29 minutes.

A few days later I went on an 8km run with my dad, sister Nikki and brother in law Ray. It was super warm out so we decided to run around town. We were faced with some melting snow which lead to some wet feet, but it was warm enough that we didn't mind. Afterwards we took some photos:

vacation again!

The great thing about being in school is that I get a lot of mini vacations. I love it! I can't believe that I will be finished in December. By the time I will finish I will have attended university for 7 1/2 years. THAT IS A LONG TIME! I really can't imagine not living the student life. Working 9-5 EVERY day?!? No summers off?! No month long Christmas break?!? These things scare me.

However, for all the good that comes from being a student, having these multiple vacations can really throw off my running schedule. I am a creature of habit and order. I like having a plan, and being thrown into vacation mode can snowball for me, where I end up laying around and doing absolutely nothing!

So as you may have guessed I'm on vacation again. Back in Halifax for a week as I finished my summer practicum.

Last week I was on week 9 of my training program:
M - 3k
T - 4k
W - off
T - 5k
F - 4k
S - 10k
S - off

I stuck to fairly well. Even ran 4k after I had driven for 7.5 hours on Friday! BUT I did not do the 10k on Saturday. It is my first 10k and I am a little nervous, but also excited.

This will be week 10:
M  - 3k
T - 5k
W - off
T - 5k
F - 3k
S - 11k
S - off

Since I didn't make the 10k on Saturday I'm going to tweak week 10 to:
M - off (I visited my nanny for the day... probably the only valid excuse I will ever have)
T - 10k
W - off
T - 5k
F - 3k, or off depending on how the 5k goes
S - 11k
S - off

I have 3 weeks left of my training program! I am really proud of how much I have done and it will feel SO good to complete it. Getting super pumped for the Maritime Race Weekend!

What race(s) are you training for? Are you looking forward to running in cooler weather, or do you love the heat? Let me know!

times flies when you have no time

I have been so busy with school!  I can't believe I haven't updated in a week. I trust you I have not been slacking on running though.

This past Saturday I ran the farthest yet.. 9km. It was BRUTAL!! SO hot, absolutely no clouds. I took a lot of walking breaks but I got it done, and feel more confident to do it again.

I started week 8 of my training program:

Monday - off (went canoeing  and swimming)
Tuesday - 4km
Wednesday - walk 30 mins
Thursday - 4km
Friday - walk 30 mins
Saturday - 6km
Sunday - walk 30 mins

I might change it up a bit because I don't have a lot of free time tomorrow (Thursday) and I am supposed to move on Saturday. I'm thinking I will walk again on Thursday, run 4km Friday, move Saturday and do 6km on Sunday.

As my schedule says I ran 4km yesterday and it was my fastest time ever!! I ran it in around 20 minutes. I am SO happy with my time and hope I can improve the speed of my longer runs as a result. 

One thing I noticed that is different while running in Maine is that fellow runners don't seem to acknowledge each other (or maybe it's just me?). I want to change this!! On my last few runs I have waved at every other runner I see, and it feels awesome! A huge motivation and confidence boost. It's like saying 'Look I'm doing it!! And so are you!!'. Do you wave or acknowledge other runners? What is the running etiquette like in your town?

I haven't had much to brag about lately in the food department, but I thought I would share a meal from this past weekend. This was an 'I need to get groceries' lunch, which consisted of eggs, almost bad spinach, frozen vegetables and turkey in a wrap. It was delicious but a little salty:

My new obsession lately has been flavored seltzer water. Specifically Polar Seltzer Water. I love the bubbles but it doesn't make me feel disgusting like pop does!

And a picture of me canoeing with my friend Sarah:

Last thing is that I'd like to give a shout out to my readers in Russia! I don't know who you are but thanks for reading!

get up and try again

One great thing about Portland was that I finally got to check out Whole Foods. It was pretty amazing! Their fresh food looked delicious and they had so many options. I wasn't able to get a full grocery load so I picked up a few treats for myself:

I bought a re-useable sandwich bag from Built and two Justin's single serving Almond butter. One original and one maple! 

Yesterday I ran 3km. It was incredibly difficult. My legs felt like lead. I just could NOT move them any faster. I ended up finishing, but it was a struggle.

I am usually a morning runner. I think I perform better in the evening, but usually by the time I get home I am feeling too wiped out from my day that I can't force myself to run. This morning I woke up and felt like I really needed an extra hour of sleep, so I gave that to myself. When I came home this evening this is how I felt about running 6km:

Do I have to?

Today was the first time since I started my running program that I have really felt like calling it quits. 100%, not doing it. So, I told myself not to think about it and just get dressed and go. So that's what I did!

After my last trail debacle I decided to try out another trail nearby. This trail is one straight path that goes along the river. I'm glad I gave trail running a second try! Beautiful wide paths, and I actually saw real live people!!

The trail goes directly beside the river which is gorgeous and if I decide to run on a hot day, I can just jump right in!

During my run, I am feeling great and I am SO happy that I forced myself to come out. And then...

BOOM! I took a huge nose dive (probably over a root)! I scraped up my knee and jammed my finger a little. More than anything I was SO embarrassed, and thank that there was no one around to see. I kept running (a bit more cautiously) and made it home in one peice.

And on that note, I am going to bed.

busy bee

What a busy week! Back in Maine, getting settled back into the school routine. Managing to keep on top of my running which I'm happy about.

Just completed week 5 of my training which included:
M - off
T - 3k
W - 4k
T - off
F - 3k and I did kickboxing at the UMaine Rec Center! (Beautiful new gym, check out their facilities!)
S - 6k
S - walk 30 mins

I actually ended up doing the 6k today (time 39:39, pace 10:35, 3 - 1 minute walking breaks). I ended up waking up too late on the weekend and so by the time I got up it was WAY too hot! Today was beautiful though. It was a tough run which I attribute to me not sticking to my schedule. So I want to make a point of trying to stay on track.

Some photos from my run today:

Two photos while I'm crossing a bridge.

View of the bridge from another part of my run.

The route I've been doing lately has allowed me to check out my current neighbourhood a little bit which is nice. I go over that bridge twice (there and back), which allows for gorgeous views and a nice breeze. Today I ran through the University of Maine campus which has great tree cover. My only complaint is that in a lot of areas the sidewalks are TERRIBLE but there is usually a wide shoulder, so I run there instead.

My running schedule (week 6) for this week is:

M - off (but I ran the 6k)
T - 3k
W - 5k
T - off
F - 4k
S - 7k
S - walk 30 mins

I am trying to increase my strength, and so I am trying to incorporate more strength workouts in my routine. I find this difficult to do on my own, as usually by the time I get home from a run (even just 3k!) I am WIPED out. I think the heat has a lot to do with it. This is why I attended kickboxing last week. 
I want to do kettlebell on Wednesday, but I'm not sure if I'm up for a 5k AND kettlebell. Looking for some opinions here... should I keep my current schedule and try to do a 5k and kettlebell? I could also switch my T/W run and do 5k tomorrow and 3K & kettlebell Wednesday, but then I would be doing a 6k and a 5k back to back. Let me know if you have any insight! Thanks

source: http://umaine.edu/wp-content/rotator/222/Rec%20Ctr%20At%20Night.jpg

The beautiful UMaine Rec Center lit up at night!

a day in the life

I started out today with a 5k run. It was amazing! Perfect weather... sunny and hot but not humid, with a bit of a breeze. It was fantastic. And I came home with a healthy glow, aka sweat:

I haven't posted much in terms of food so I thought I would take a few pictures of what I ate today. Sorry the quality of the photos isn't great.

Post run snack consisted of cottage cheese, 1/2 banana with a little bit of honey bunches of oats on the top. I've been trying to incorporate cottage cheese into my diet because it's high in protein, and relatively low in calories and fat.

Next was lunch. I opted for one of my favorites: eggs! I fried two eggs and toasted two pieces of sourdough bread. I put avocado and a slice of deli turkey on the bread with some spinach. Cherry tomatoes on the side!

For supper I grilled with my friend Sarah. I had shrimp skewers and corn on the cob. So delicious!

I hope this gives you some ideas for healthy meals. If you have any favorite healthy recipes (especially those including cottage cheese!) please send them my way.

rain rain go away

I am now on week 3 of my 10k training plan:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 4k
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 4k
Friday: rest
Saturday: 6k
Sunday: 30 min walk

This means that today would be a 4k run. I look outside when I get home from work and:

downpour, including high wind gusts. Even a rainfall warning! So I decided to keep my workout indoors and repeat this circuit I did on Friday. It was still brutal, however I managed to increase on all my reps and take shorter breaks. I really like circuit training as a way to cross train. If anyone has a favorite circuit that requires minimal or no equipment please share!

I recently bought some new workout clothing that I can't wait to try out!

First off, I bought this adidas running skirt:

Photo credit: http://runsweatsparkle.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/awsprps-wh-1.jpg

 

 

 

I've never owned a running skirt before so I'm pretty excited! The polka dots are black and red.

I also recently purchased this top:

I love how the back is mesh. I have a tendency to get overheated while exercising, so I'm hoping this feature will keep me cool.

Now let's all hope for good weather tomorrow so I can get my 4k completed!