Missed the last few weeks!

Well, I've found that writing weekly recaps of my training is rather, well, boring. I've been managing to squeeze in all of my workouts each week and have stuck with running five days a week. I'm currently in week 10 for my 15k (or week 5 of my half marathon plan).

I finished week nine with a bang by getting a PR in the 10k event at the local marathon on Sunday!! I took 7 seconds off and finished in 57:52. My goal was to break an hour and I really did not think I'd be even close to getting a PR. It was a lovely mother's day surprise. Considering I haven't really put in a solid training effort since 2009, I'm happy to be back to my 2009 paces again.

I have one more run this week before the 15k on Sunday. Tomorrow I hope to do a nice, slow, easy recovery run and then a couple of rest days are in order!

Next update will be after the 15k!


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Week six

Week 6 of my 10-week 15k training plan is done, also known as week 1 of my 10-week half marathon training plan. I prefer to think that I'm on week six instead of week one though.

Week 6 recap
Miles: 23.79
5 Runs;
252 Minutes

Tuesday: 4 miles, 6:1 interval
Wednesday: 4.15 miles in 40:00, no walk breaks
Thursday: recovery run, 35:00, 2:1 interval
Saturday: 8.13 miles, 6:1 interval
Sunday: 4.38 miles, treadmill at 1%, 45:00, no walk breaks

I increased the difficulty this week by removing walk breaks from a second run and increasing my intervals to 6:1. I didn't find either change overly challenging. I'd like to be at a 7:1 interval in time for my half.

I also made my long run a bit harder this week by running on a route near my home that has a lot more elevation change than the trails downtown. I still managed a faster long run pace than last week, so that helped my confidence. The half marathon route, while not tremendously hilly, does have a rather long, gradual incline for several miles. I ran this event a few years ago and said I'd never do it again lol.

My first event of the year is fast approaching. I have a 10k the week before my 15k. I'm starting to obsess about my goals a bit:

10k
- hopefully no walk breaks
- A goal is under 60 minutes
- B goal is under 65 minutes
- C goal is under 70 minutes

I'm feeling ready for the 10k and 15k, however it does feel daunting to have another 9 weeks of training for the half! Thank goodness that a few of those weeks are race weeks and the training will be a little lighter. I only have 5 more long runs plus 3 race days. That sounds manageable. At least I keep telling myself that.

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Week five - done!

I had grand plans to include a few photos and a recipe with this post but the weekend got away from me.

Week five was a great week for training! Running felt so much easier after running with a head cold all of last week. In particular, this week's long run of 8 miles felt so much better than last week's 7-miler.

My triumph of the week was today's run. Sunday is my "no walk day" run and I managed to do 3.98 miles in 40 minutes exactly. I haven't had a run like that in *years*. I'm considering changing one of my weekday interval runs to a "no walk day" run to try to improve some more. My rule used to be that I would not use run-walk intervals for any run less than 6-7 miles. I'd like to get back to 6-miles without walk breaks level of fitness for sure.

Week five summary

All of my runs in week five were downtown on various running trails...very flat terrain, but it was a bit windy for a couple of runs.
Monday - rest
Tuesday - 4 miles, 5:1 run-walk
Wednesday - 40 minutes, 5:1 run-walk
Thursday - 35:00 recovery run, slow, 2:1 intervals
Friday - rest
Saturday - 8.15 mile long run, 5:1 intervals
Sunday - 3.98 miles, no walk breaks

Looking forward to tomorrow's rest day!!


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Week Four - done!

Happy Easter! We were up bright and early since someone was so excited to see if the Easter bunny had stopped by. I think we will be finding eggs for several days to come! Thank goodness, there were lots of Aero mint lambs hidden for Cameron to share with his mommy. If I'm running five days a week, I am entitled to some chocolate!

After lunch (and my nap), I hit the treadmill for 40 minutes of running. Why didn't I run outside? It is has been snowing hard ALL day! I'm not about to run around in slush and snow and ruin a pair of perfectly good sneakers.

This is what is left, but a lot of snow has melted already (we got about 10cm):




Weekly wrap-up
Monday - rest
Tuesday - rest (sick)
Wednesday - 40:00 run on trails, 5:1 intervals
Thursday - 40:00 run on trails, 5:1 intervals
Friday - 1.75 mile slow recovery run to try out new Garmin
Saturday - 7.15 miles, 5:1 intervals, 10:45 pace, 1:16:43
Sunday - 40:00 on the treadmill, 3.8 miles, no walk breaks

I'm happy with my running this week considering I've been suffering from an annoying cold and cough for the entire week. Hopefully I'll be back to normal health soon. I'm starting to get a little anxiety for the 15k and subsequently the half marathon. 7 miles felt quite long on Saturday. I'm going to keep my long run at 7 miles for another week before increasing to 8.

We just finished a Kinect session playing the new Disney game that Cameron got for Easter. I think my arms will be sore tomorrow!

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Sick of coughing... again...

I had a rough start for week four of my training plan. I woke up Monday morning with an incredibly sore throat. I ended up taking a rest day on Tuesday rather than doing my normal run. By Wednesday, I was able to do a 40 minute run on my lunch break, although I was coughing a lot during the day. Ditto for Thursday.

So the week shaped up like this:
Tuesday - first missed workout for the entire *year*
Wednesday - 40:00 run on the trail at lunch (5:1 intervals)
Thursday - 40:00 run on the trail at lunch (5:1 intervals)
Friday - 1.75 mile, new Garmin test run

Today is normally my rest day, but since my new garmin 405 arrived yesterday, I felt motivated to try it out! I went for a 1.75 mile run to make sure I knew how to set up the intervals properly and switch between views on the display. I wanted to get these little details down today before my long run tomorrow!

This cold that I have is so strange. I cough and cough throughout the day and yesterday evening was positively horrid (my abs are sore from coughing so much), but I don't cough a bit while I'm running! I guess I should consider myself lucky that I only had to skip one planned run this week.

New running toy, I replaced the hard plastic strap with one of the Velcro straps that came with it and it is so much more comfortable:




Now, to enjoy the remainder of my rest day. Scallops for lunch, a movie with my mom and cousin this afternoon and a BBQ for supper! I plan on enjoying this 4 day weekend to the utmost!

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End of week three

I finished week three with my highest mileage week of the year so far, 20 miles!!

On Saturday, I ran 10k on the trails using a 5:1 run-walk ratio. On Sunday, I ran 40:00 around my subdivision without any walk breaks. The temperature was perfect both days and there was relatively no wind. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I was really happy with my pace both days.

I also made two running related purchases at the end of the week, semi spur of the moment. Now that I'm running five days a week, I'm running out of running jackets FAR before it's time to do laundry. I splurged on two jackets from the Running Room. I wore them for each of my weekend runs and I *love* them. If I maintain my running momentum into the fall, I foresee the purchase of a third (or requesting that someone buy me one for Christmas).

Today was a rest day and I've used it to consume large doses of Cold FX to try to get rid of the cold that I woke up with this morning. I'm sure I will be able to run tomorrow, but it might not be a very high quality run, depending on how I feel.


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Week three

Expenses
This year I am trying to track all running related expenses for myself. Sometimes they overlap with Trevor since we might be traveling to run in the same event. I thought it would be interesting to review at the end of the year and see how much this "hobby" costs on a yearly basis.

So far this year, my purchases have included:
- 2 new pairs of running shoes
Asics Gel Nimbus 13s ($135)
Wave Rider 15s ($115)
- 2 pairs of compression socks (love these and well worth the $60, although I'm going to start ordering from a different company because the customer service where I regularly order them is horrific)
- race entries for 10k, 15k and half (anticipating 3 more races in the fall)
- hotel for the half ($79)
- hotel for the 15k ($100; we're making a weekend out of this event and I get to do a little shopping as well, this one also overlaps with Trevor's running expenses, since the weekend was originally for him, I'm only going to count 1 of the 3 hotel nights with my expenses)

I expect to buy another 2 pairs of running shoes this year. I'm leaning towards more Wave Rider 15s. I will probably buy more running socks as well.

Week 3 Training
Run 1 - Tuesday on the treadmill with 1% incline for 3.5 miles (5:1 run-walk ratio)
Run 2 - Wednesday on the running trails at lunchtime for 3.5 miles (5:1 run-walk ratio)
Run 3 (X-train session) - Thursday, 3.1 miles in 35:00, easy recovery run (2:1 run-walk ratio), followed by a ten minute walk

Tuesday's run on the treadmill was tough mentally, I just did not want to run inside after having run outside for the last two weeks. It was too windy and cold for me to consider running outside. I couldn't make myself do it. I was 30 seconds faster on the treadmill than on Wednesday's run, so not much difference.

I squeezed in Wednesday's and Thursday's runs during my lunch break at work. I'd love to be able to continue running at lunch while the weather is nice and cool.


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Recap of week 2

I cannot believe that the first two "official" weeks of training for my 15k are over! (There were several weeks of base-building leading up to my training plan since I was essentially starting from scratch again.)

I'd have to say that this was a good week for my training, even with the crazy warm temperatures. There's a reason I do not plan to train for anything during the heat of the summer. I like running in cool weather! This summer I plan to run 3-4 miles on each weekday run and 4-6 miles during weekend runs to maintain my base for fall training.

Back to this week, I completed 4 runs and one cross training session. Yesterday I ran 10k and this morning I ran forty minutes without walk breaks. It felt so good, I know I could have run much longer. I love ending a run like that!

The stats for week two of training:

Total weekly mileage: 16.15 (excludes cross-training)
Four outdoor runs
One hill walking cross-training session on the treadmill
Total training time for 5 workouts: 207 minutes

I've been trying to do lots of stretching daily and I think that is helping prevent little aches and pains so far.

Must run off now to buy some cream to make some cherry ice cream! We've had company for the last few days during the CIS hockey nationals and brownies with homemade ice cream sound like a good company dessert to me!

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Lunch time run!

This morning I threw everything I needed into my workout bag with the intention of running on my lunch hour.  We have a lot of last minute company prep to do this evening, so I didn't want to waste time with a workout.

I forgot my Garmin.  I had duplicates of almost everything else that I needed... but no Garmin.   I couldn't say the last time I ran outside without it!!

Fortunately, I have a 5k route near my office that I've done many times in the past, so it wasn't a big deal to know the exact distance.  I just don't have accurate stats for my run.  I tried using the pedometer on my iPod Nano and that worked okay, but I couldn't see the display in the sunlight, so I wasn't able to use it to time walk breaks.  So, I skipped walk breaks today and just took a couple of strategic breaks that were less than a minute each at various points of the run (i.e. the uphill slope of the overpass, each time I hit it).

It was nice to run such a flat route for a change!  Very nice to have my workout done for the day.

Shorts, in March?

Today is March 20th and it is 23 degrees Celsius. That is unheard of for this area!! The previous high temperature on this date was 14 degrees Celsius and that was in 1976.

I cannot believe that I just got back from a 5k run around my subdivision wearing shorts and a tank top. In March. The next two days are supposed to be even warmer. Maybe our snow will melt.

I used a run:walk ratio of 4:1 today and finished 5k in 33:30. I probably should have pushed myself a bit harder but it was just so nice to be outside in the sunshine!

My latest baking obsession? It is still bread related but doesn't have anything to do with the no knead bread that I'm constantly baking. The last couple of nights I played around with baking my own hamburger buns.

The first night I tried making a batch of whole wheat buns, but I rolled them out too thin. They are very yummy, but not the right shape/thickness at all. Last night I tried a white bread version and met with success. I formed them in bun shapes myself rather than rolling and cutting as I had with the previous batch.

Do these look good, or what?




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Week one - DONE!

This morning's run finished week one of my 10 week training plan for Sugarloaf!

Numbers for the week:
4 runs
1 bike session
14.93 miles (running only, does not include biking miles)
192 minutes

My runs yesterday and today were both outside. Yesterday was 5 miles with walk breaks and today was 3.11 miles without walk breaks. I wish I'd realized how close I was to 15 miles, I would have run a bit further this morning.

Nine weeks from today until the 15k. Although, it's rather bittersweet. I'm feeling motivated and keen to run again, after a long break. However, I only signed up for the 15k since Trevor was signed up for the marathon. After training so hard all winter and logging so many miles during the most difficult time of year to run, he is now injured and not running at the moment. I will feel so bad if he doesn't get to run his spring marathon.

Now off to do some major cleaning and prep for company later this week!



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What have I done?!

I did not plan on signing up for a half marathon until I was further into my 15k training. However, the running bug has definitely bitten me again (after leaving me a couple of years ago). Registration opened today for a half marathon that I've been considering and before I chickened out, I decided to just go for it and sign up.

I'll evaluate the wiseness of that decision in a few weeks when I'm tackling 2 hour long runs.

The last time I ran the half marathon distance was in January of 2010 in Houston. It's been a while!

Workouts since my last post:

Thursday - 30:00 cross training session on the stationary bike (program 7)
Friday - rest day
Saturday - 5 mile run outside

I've been wearing an old pair of Asics while running outside (because I don't want to get any of my newer pairs muddy) and I've got to break out the new shoes sooner than later. Blisters are not a good thing.

In other news, Cameron had a successful showing at the cub car races today. He won a couple and got a ribbon, but he was eliminated from moving on to the next series. He didn't seem disappointed in the least. We decided to finish our afternoon by going to see the Lorax.




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"Freezing rain" day

It was pretty evident that school would be cancelled today based on the freezing rain warnings in the weather forecast. I made the "executive" decision yesterday to use a vacation day if Cameron didn't have school today. We have been enjoying a relaxing day at home!

Week 1 Training Log

Tuesday. Treadmill @ 1%, 30:33 for a total of 3 miles.
Intervals of 4:1, running at 6.2, walking at 4.0.

Wednesday. Treadmill 40:00 for 3.817M.
25:00@1%, 15:00@0.5%, 5:00@0%.
Running at 6.0, walking at 4.0.
3 x 7:1, 1 x 5:1, 1 x 4:1, last 5:00 at 6.0 .. 5.6

Tomorrow I have 30 minutes of easy cross training on the agenda.



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Training Plan

The first 10 weeks of my training plan (in yellow) are to prepare for my goal race, the 15k in Sugarloaf.  The next 5 weeks (in green) are adding on to the 15k in prep for a potential half marathon.  Then I plan to scale back for summer and stick with 3-4 mile runs on weekdays and 4-5 mile runs on weekends.

Training for a 15k is definitely not as time-intensive as training for a half or full marathon.  I hope it still seems manageable when I'm in weeks 6-9.  At least I'll have taper week to look forward to in week 10!

{Click to see a larger image}

Week 1, Day 1

First day of my training plan and I'm on track so far! Today is a rest day, so that's pretty easy.

Each week my plan resembles the following and I move days around depending on my schedule:

Monday - rest
Tuesday - interval run with speed work
Wednesday - easy cross-training session
Thursday - interval run with speed work
Friday - rest
Saturday - long run
Sunday - run without walk breaks

I've been following this schedule for the last 6 weeks and it has worked really well. I haven't missed a single workout in that time. Now that I'm moving into my official training plan, I'll just be increasing the distance and duration of some workouts.

In the past, even when training for my marathon, I stuck with 3 days of running and 2 days of cross-training. So far, I'm enjoying the four days of running, but with low mileage of primarily 3-4 mile runs, it hasn't been difficult or time consuming.

Recipe
I finally tried a no-knead bread recipe that was popular on many food blogs a few years ago. I have been making it several times a week ever since trying it. It is so easy! It takes five minutes to toss the ingredients in a mixing bowl the night before then I bake it the next evening. I had no idea that having fresh, homemade bread all the time would require such little effort.

Here is the link for the no knead bread recipe
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It's been a while... back with a focus!

Well, I've decided to update the old blog again. I might be the only person who ever reads it, but that's okay. I'd like to use it to track my current training plan and workouts. I might as well write about them here rather than bore my friends and family to tears. It's also nice to have a record of some of my favourite recipes.

The goal race... Sugarloaf 15k

My 10 week training plan begins tomorrow! The first couple of weeks are relatively easy and my mileage is pretty low throughout the plan since it's only a 15k. I've been base building since January 1st when I had to essentially start running all over again. I was quite sick for 3 months and was unable to do any exercise during that time.

No exercise + someone who enjoys food + too sick to cook good food = weight gain

Since January, I have definitely returned to my preferred way of cooking and eating. Processed foods are limited and lots of healthy, fresh foods are back in the mix. I've also been baking all of our bread since Christmas to avoid some of the nasty ingredient lists. I'll share my favourite no-knead (no work!) bread recipe in another post.

Goals:
10k on May 13th
15k on May 20th
Half? on June 24th

Training week one begins tomorrow!

No-knead bread recipe... later... it is AMAZING.


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Cooking frenzy

I decided that I should use this weekend to prepare for a few busy weeks ahead. If I'm not spending every available moment in the kitchen each night, I feel more able to cope with everything we have going on. So this morning, I prepared a few things to have on hand for the next three weeks:

. Mini cheddar loaves
. Meatballs (for sweet 'n sour meatballs and pasta)
. Taco meat for tacos and shepherd's pie
. 4 lbs of Shredded chicken breast for stir-fries, soup, wraps, casseroles
. Squash-carrot-apple soup

I made a spinach ravioli lasagna for tomorrow night's supper. It's stuffed full of mushrooms, broccoli and peppers. I'll probably freeze some of the leftovers for upcoming lunches.

I expect we will have a few breakfast-for-dinner meals since those are fast to prepare and we all enjoy them. I find that meals are easy to get ready if the main component is done and I just have to make salads or cook some veggies to go with them.

I also pressed, marinated and baked some tofu for a variety of dishes. However, I don't think I like the marinade I chose and am not sure I'll be able to use it :(. It might be okay in soup.

Additionally, I stocked up on a few convenience items to make life easier:
. Frozen haddock filets (plain, I'll bread them and pan fry or I'll bake with salsa and peppers to serve on rice)
. Plain cheese pizzas that I'll add toppings
. Broccoli cheese puffs to use as an occasional side
. Veggie spring rolls, for a side
. Texas style garlic toast to grill as a side for pasta/soup nights
. French onion soup

Still on the agenda for today? Bake some more kale chips, get my run in, tidy and read! I wouldn't mind getting to the craft fair downtown either, but I'm not sure that will happen. Cameron also has requested a few board games that he wants to play this afternoon.

Guess it's time to make lunch! I have some sub rolls, so I think we will have pizza subs.

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Swamped!

Fall and back to school are such busy times of the year! This year, Cameron has joined a local Cub group and that makes Tuesday evenings in our house very hectic. Cam has also joined two choirs (mixed and boys choirs) at his school. I expect that will lead to some running around town eventually.

At least homework in the third grade has decreased substantially. We've gone from 45-60 minutes a night in grade 2 to about 15-20 minutes a night in grade 3. I'll take it! They're in school for an extra 70 minutes a day this year, so less homework makes sense.

All that aside, it's also a busy time of year for running. Trevor's marathon in Bar Harbour is right around the corner and we just finished the Fall Classic 5k/10k in our home city. I ran the 5k with a friend who was doing her first 5k. I think it's so exciting for someone to cross that finish line for the first time and prove to themselves they can do it. It makes me so happy for them.

Trevor probably won't have the marathon that he had hoped for this year. He has some sort of infection that he's currently using two puffers to get under control. As soon as he starts to run, he has a horrendous cough. Not something you want to experience after several months of training.

I don't know what it is about fall, but each year as soon as it hits, I tend to start stocking my freezer again and cooking things in larger batches to freeze. It's nice to be able to pull something out of the freezer to thaw for lunches or dinners on busy nights.

We've already done our apple picking this fall and I have a huge slow cooker filled with apples right now, soon our house is going to smell very good as the applesauce cooks. I love applesauce made in the slow cooker!

I'm also going to make a couple of pans of ravioli-lasagna and squash-carrot soup this weekend. I have several bags of homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer too, that's helpful for quick weeknight meals.

Now I must return to a laundry and cleaning filled day. I need to upload a few pics from our recent trip to Chicago. What a fun weekend!

Wish we were back here... Still on summer vacation!!


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Where have I been?

We've been enjoying our very short Canadian summer! Now that's over, school has started and we are getting back into our normal routine.

I have a few recipes that I tried over the summer. I love using the Paprika app for the iPad to track and organize my recipes. I *love* my iPad and use it all the time.

I also have a couple of vacations to recap. We had our annual trip to PEI (Prince Edward Island) and we stayed in a cottage again this year, rather than camp. We also went to southern California for two of the best vacation weeks ever.

Cameron has started third grade. It's been a dramatic week but I'm sure we will survive. Coming up this week? The Harvest Jazz & Blues festival is happening in our city and then Trevor and I will be heading to Chicago for the weekend (very quick trip!) because he won a trip.

I expect a busy fall ahead filled with the Fall Classic, Legs for Literacy and Trevor's marathon in Bar Harbour. Cameron is also joining Cubs this year. I'd like to get back into providing little updates for friends/family via the blog but I wouldn't expect much consistency!

So, a few recaps to come and perhaps I will start sharing bits and pieces of our weekly meal plan and recipes that we enjoy.

San Diego Zoo




Also at the San Diego Zoo



Lego store at Disneyland



More pictures to come in the trip recap!!

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The longest 10k EVER

So the long weekend is over and so is my "10k". Let's get my whining out of the way, shall we?

A) the course, according to a few garmins was longer than 10k. Mine said 6.4 miles (instead of 6.2) others read 10.3km. So there you have excuse number one.

B) the course was H-I-L-L-Y. In fact, I think referring to it as 'mountainous' would not be exaggerating at all. I was warned by a very savvy blogger who ran it in the past, but I still didn't comprehend it's drastic rise/drop in elevation until I was running it.

During my extensive five weeks of training for this event, I tackled one six mile run on the treadmill with a 1% incline. Uh huh.

I ran outside exactly one time (for the 5k on mother's day).

All of my previous 'official' 10 k's have been in the 58:00 range. I knew I had no hope of breaking an hour on this one after hearing of the hills, so my goal was 65:00. In addition to being hilly, the course was very congested. I didn't get to start running until a minute or two after passing the start. I didn't bother to squeeze around people unless they were walking. It just took too much energy!

It didn't take me long to change my goal to being 'anything under 70!!'.

Did I mention the hills? The bridge was epic. For the first time ever I saw someone throwing up in a race. A girl in the cutest lululemon running clothes tossed her cookies over the side of the bridge before reaching the half way point. I felt like joining her, but decided to trudge along.

I didn't take any walk breaks until I reached a hill somewhere around the 3.5 mile mark and then I walked for about a minute.

I finally made it back over the bridge and another woman mentioned that we were home free and there wouldn't be any more hills. Well. That was only partially true. There was a grade that felt like mount everest to reach the finish line!!!!! Who designs a race with a hill at the end?! A cruel sadistic person, that's who.

With the finish line in sight, my garmin reading almost 6.4 miles, I took my second walk break. Yes I did. I walked at the *end* of the stinkin' race. I was so done. I did pick up my feet and jog as I neared the finish line.

This will not go down as one of my prouder racing accomplishments. My final time was 69 minutes.

Nana and Grampie drove Cameron and I back to the hotel since Trevor wouldn't be finishing the full for another couple of hours. I decided if there was ever a time that I deserved room service, it was then. Cam thought it was pretty amazing to have food delivered to our door. He shouldn't get used to it, I hope not to repeat a 10k like that anytime soon lol.

Trevor has a great race report on his blog. He finished the full in 3:45. I'm so happy he had a great race (because when he doesn't, he complains even more than I do lol).

Now that I've allowed myself to wallow in pity for a couple of days, it's time to get back to training for the next big event. In four weeks we are participating in the father's day 5 miler. It better not be hilly or an inch over five miles.


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