Rainy Monday

Knew I should have tackled the lawn yesterday, but whatever. I won't stress that the grass will get to grow for another week now. Woke up this holiday Monday (Happy B-day, Queenie) to the sound of rain hitting my roof (joy of living on the top floor of a flat top building) and knew I could stay in bed, guilt free. I did just that, snoozing until after 9. I love waking up without an alarm.

So what have I been up to these past days? Didn't go to boot camp on Friday. I have had this weird voice thing going on for a few weeks now, where it sounds like I have the worst case of laryngitis, but my throat doesn't hurt and I don't feel sick. However Friday, I felt a little congested (surrounded by sickies at work) so I decided to take a night off. I made up for it at zumba on Saturday, and I did go for a good walk at lunch (5km) with a friend.

Zumba was a blast, as always. I am starting to convince my Irish hips that they have a little Latin in 'em, and we shook our groove thing!! In fact, my back is still feeling it today!! According to marathon schedule, we were to run a 16km at race pace on Saturday, but since I don't do any of the Saturday runs (usually 6km) due to boot camp and zumba, I also skipped this one. I am ready for Mr. Marathon, and really don't think missing 16 is going to hurt me all the much. Besides, Fun Uncle Garrath doesn't really believe in over doing it, and he runs a 3:11 marathon, repeatedly. I'm going to bow to his wisdom.

But Saturday did start with a quick trip to Mom's hairdresser for a much needed haircut, then a quick cup of coffee with H-woman and E., before heading to Zumba. Then off to my hairdresser for an even more desperately needed cut and colour. After that, H. and I headed off to E.'s place by the river for an evening of wine and food. H. had some chicken marinating in tandoori spices (Epicure, thank you very much) and I worked up a real culinary sweat picking up a couple of salads and cheese and crackers from the store!! E. provided the grill, champagne and some fruit and veggies. A lovely evening was had by all. Sadly, there's a fire ban in Alberta right now, otherwise we could have had a fire to sit by at the river's edge, but we just retreated inside when the air turned crisp.

Yesterday's long, slow run was a taper, of course, so at only 6km, there were all of 6 of us from the clinic that bothered to show up!!! Granted, it is a long weekend, but still. I ran with D., who paces the 4:30 group, as none of our peeps showed up. I am pleased to say that I kept up with D., as we ran a 7:34 pace for 6.9km. My usual Sunday pace is 8:34, so I was really happy. Out of breath, but happy!!! Bring on the marathon!!

This week will be spent getting ready for Sunday...choosing good carbs all week, light proteins (fish and chicken) and getting lots of water and sleep in me! I will go to boot camp later today, but will go Thursday instead of Friday, to help the legs, and will have a nice, easy shake at zumba on Saturday, just to get the blood pumping.

Goals for Calgary...I always pick 3, as Garrath always says to pick one you'd be happy with, one you'd be extra pleased with, and one that would send you over the moon.

So, #1 - finish of 5:30. Faster than last year's time (my hips seized at the 33km mark) of 5:43, and within my training times.

#2 - 5:15 finish. This will be a PB, knocking a few minutes off Toronto, but Calgary does have way more hills! However, I did do okay on most of the hills in Canmore last week, so I'm not going to let them scare me here.

#3 - sub 5...even if only by 1 second...4:59:59! I will literally try to do a cartwheel if I do this. As long as I can kill the hill down (which I love) and settle into a good pace on the long, boring stretch back, and kill the little hill up to the finish line (yes, we get to run up, not one, but two hills to get to the finish line in Calgary - mean!), I think this is within my sights. I'm going to line up with the 5-hr bunny, even though I like to run 3km/1 minute intervals, rather than the 10/1's the bunnies do, I think as long as I have them in my sights, I should do okay.

Okay...I should try to do some laundry, and clean up my kitchen on this rainy day. Plan and get some groceries and get ready to face the short week.

Later,