Wordish Wednesday: I’m A Sucker…
The only picture we have from the night we got engaged. It was too dark to take more and we didn’t want to waste film (yes, prior to the wonders of digital!). What you don’t see is that Colin set one tea light for each month we’d been together (43) into the sand around our picnic blanket – I had to swear not to peek while he set up and lit them all. Neither one of us can remember what he said, but it made me cry.
Team Nuun Tuesday
Big news on the Team Nuun front! Okay, so it’s big news if you’re on the team… Team #1 has decided on a name!
Melody was both kind and pro-active enough to put together a survey of all the names we’d brainstormed and tally the votes. While we’re definitely a creative bunch the favourite name won by a landslide. It was actually the first name suggested, which may or may not have been the reason we loved it. Henceforth (my big word for the day) we shall no longer be known as Team Nuun #1, but
More fun stuff; again, if you are on the team (or living vicariously through us):
Team Outfits:
Kelly and Carrie are on Team #1 and have graciously said that they will provide us with Team Sparkle skirts. Of course, it helps that they own the company! We’re going to go with different colours for each runner and they’ll each represent a Nuun flavour.
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| How freaking cute are these?!? |
Nuun is providing shirts for us and we can customize them as we see fit once we get them.
Contests:
Nuun’s been thinking up contests to run between teams 1 and 2 during the relay. They totally sound like fun, but I’m not going to share them quite yet since there hasn’t been complete confirmation. Let’s just say that the ladies on Team #1 are going to try their hardest to win any prizes that are up for grabs…
“Back to School”:
I’m going to need to memorize some facts! Since we are essentially Nuun reps for the weekend it’s kind of important that I know what I’m talking about.
If You’re Looking Out For Fozzie, Make Sure You Don’t Step On Kermit!
When Colin came home from his run last night he told me that he had come up with a great title for a post (see above). I said, “Ew, you stepped on a frog!?!!?” He then told me about his eventful run:
While running along a local path in the rain and dark he came across what he thought was a good sized leaf. Turns out it was a freakishly large frog (well, actually a toad) that had come up from the river because the ground was so wet. Apparently they scared the crap out of each other and both jumped about the same height in the air! At least he took the time to “shoo” it off the path – with a blackberry bramble, but he didn’t poke it with the thorny bit – before it got itself squished by a person or bike. When I asked him how big it was he held up his hands in a circle the size of a side plate. Yuck!
Have a great weekend! Watch out for toads, frogs and amphibians in general…
T³
1. Where the heck is summer around here? Mother Nature is waffling. It’s like she’s saying to herself, “Hmm, I really did enjoy spring this year. Maybe it shouldn’t be summer even though it says so on the calendar.” The last few days were beautiful: sunny, hot, verging on being just this side of unpleasant. Today we get this:
2. My first ever 2-a-day went so well! I took Spud out for a 7.5km steady hour long jog in the morning on Tuesday. It was a little later than I should have been out simply because I was a hot, beet red, sweaty mess by the end of it. I completed my second run (a tempo) with my clinic, going 3.2km in 19:46. That’s about a 6:10/km average. I was good until about 2km and then ran with a friend who I know is faster for the last bit. I was about ready to die, but I blame that mostly on the earlier run. My legs felt heavy, but I was super pleased. Best thing of all was that I felt fine the next morning.
3. I didn’t mention it in my post on Tuesday because things were still being decided, but here are my teammates for Hood To Coast. Make sure you check them all out – they are an amazing bunch of women and I’m so excited to meet them all!
Van #1:
Leg #1: Me
Leg #2: Dorothy @ Mile Posts
Leg #3: Nuun Staffer
Leg #4: Jocelyn @ Enthusiastic Runner
Leg #5: Emily @ Sweat Once A Day
Leg #6: Lauren @ Health On The Run
Van #2:
Leg #7: Nuun Staffer
Leg #8: Carrie @ This Mama Makes Stuff
Leg #9: Mel @ Tall Mom On The Run
Leg #10: Melody @ I Run Like A Girl
Leg #11: Kelly @ According To Kelly
Leg #12: Megan @ Watch MeGo Run
Team Nuun Tuesday
Welcome to my new Tuesday feature where I discuss all things relating to my Hood To Coast adventure with Team Nuun.
“Team Nuun Tuesday” has a nice ring to it so I thought that I could condense all of my ramblings and thoughts into one post a week rather than have a smattering about it here and there. It puts it all together nicely and, if you are sick to death of reading about HTC, then you can just avoid my blog on Tuesdays until the end of August!
Fun and exciting things that happened this week:
* We received our leg assignments! Drum roll please and hip, hip, hooray: I’m running Leg #1 (13 and 25)!!! This was my first choice and I am extremely excited to have gotten it. It’s listed as the least difficult and has the lowest mileage, but that isn’t why I chose it. I wanted to do it because leg #1 runs down the side of Mt. Hood. Literally. It’s a steep road and there is a 2000ft elevation LOSS in 5.64mi/9km.
* One of the reasons I’m happy with my assignment is that I can train for it. All I need now is to find one or two of my real life friends who are willing to help me out. If anyone wants to run down Mt. Seymour Parkway with me or at least drop me off 9km up the road let me know! I’m not joking.
* I came home from work on Friday to find not only 2 emails from Nuun regarding placements, but 21 other messages from teammates! We are all apparently very proactive. So far we’re brainstorming team names and slogans to write on our vans.
* I found out my teammates and couldn’t be happier! Lots of amazing women and I’ll get to know the ones who aren’t in my van in the time before and after the race.
* Today marks my first ever 2-a-day! Like many things running, if you’d asked me 2 years ago if I thought that it was a good idea to run twice in one day I would have looked at you like you were nuts. I ran a steady and slow 7.5km in about an hour this morning with Spud and will do a 3km tempo run with my half clinic this evening.
Monday Musings
→ Happy long weekend to those of you (Americans) who are still enjoying one! I hope you get to spend quality time with your loved ones.
→ Although I had to work all Canada Day weekend (by choice, we need the money) we were able to take Spud out to see fireworks on Friday night. I worked until 6:30pm and, after getting home and getting Spud fed, we eventually left our house just after 9pm. We decided to walk to the site rather than try to street park with everyone else. The weather was perfect and Spud ended up falling asleep about 10 minutes before we got there, which was great. We found some friends to sit with and let Spud get a bit of a rest until it was time to start. Since we haven’t been to the local fireworks before we were pleasantly surprised how good it was. It’s put on by the local fire department and for a community event it was pretty big. I’d definitely come back. The only issue we had was that Spud found it a little loud and we had left his “ear puffs” at home since he said he didn’t want them.
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| Not my picture, but it is from our fireworks display. |
By the time we got home Spud was out like a light and all 3 of us went straight to bed. All the fresh air and exercise had gotten to us. I had thought that the walk there and back was about 5km/3mi. Turns out it was just under 9km/5½mi and the elevation looked like this:
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| Yup, that’s in feet. |
No wonder we were tired!
→ Knock on wood, but it seems like summer may have finally decided to show up and stick around in Vancouver!
→ The only problem with getting a lot of sun here is, like Vancouverites forgetting how to drive when there’s snow, we forget how to deal with it. Colin took Spud to the beach on Friday and did a great job of getting him sunscreened and protected. He took the same precautions with his own skin. Unfortunately he forget to get his upper arms when he rolled up his sleeves. Result? A wicked red burn that looks super-painful. Thank goodness we have a huge bottle of aloe, but it looks like it might be time to stock up on Solarcaine too.
→ How do you explain to a 4 year old that he can’t scratch his bug bite? Spud was bitten by something – he thinks mosquito, Colin suspects an insect with eight legs – while sticking his fingers under the door jamb playing on the patio. It is right between his thumb and index finger so I get that it is uncomfortable, but it’s not bad and he doesn’t seem to get that if he continually touches it it won’t get better. Calamine lotion will just rub off (and he might freak if we do it because he doesn’t even like band-aids). I don’t dare try After Bite because if he popped the top off of the bite it’ll sting like crazy. Any suggestions? Other than duct taping a mitten to his hand?
Happy Canada Day!
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| Source |
Three Things Thursday
1. Where in the world is summer? I just want a few consecutive days of sun…
2. Happy long weekend both north and south of the border! We’ll be taking Spud to see the local fireworks display on Friday night to celebrate Canada Day. Other than that I have the good fortune (note sarcasm) to work all three days… Sucks that I don’t get to spend time with my boys, but we need me to be working so I’ll take all the hours I can get.
3. For any of you who are interested in seeing what I’ll be doing this summer, and simply because I like talking about it and Colin’s sick of hearing about it every day, Hood & Portland To Coast Relay has created their own YouTube channel. You can check out the trailer for the documentary that came out earlier this year as well as lots of participant videos. Pretty sure I’m going to need to bring a Costco-sized pack of batteries and multiple memory cards for my camera!
A Belated Virtual Race Report – SYTO 5K
I have a terrible time committing to races. Generally I don’t race a lot because they’re pretty expensive around here. As much as I’d love to do a 5k event every weekend I’m not willing to fork over $25 for the pleasure of being out for less than an hour. So you would think that I’d be better at committing to a virtual race. Yeah, not so. Mainly because I haven’t got a monetary loss to think about.
This weekend was the Sweat Your Thorns Off 5K Virtual Race hosted by Adam at I Am Boring. Now, I signed up because a) I wanted to make sure I ran this weekend and b) I felt kind of bad about banditing his Freeze Your Thorns Off 5K back in the fall.
Gotta say that I am a terrible race participant. Here are the reasons I didn’t run on the day of the race:
- I worked from 10:30am – 7pm.
- I don’t run in the mornings by myself so wasn’t going out before work. I also like to sleep in.
- I wasn’t going to run by myself after work. By the time we got home and got Spud to bed, Colin decided to go to a friend’s place and all I wanted to do was sit on my rear and watch
Bridget Jones’ Diary againsome crappy TV.
I’ve counted my first 5km from Sunday’s run as my official race time. Given that it was part of a long run, I take a planned 1 minute walk break for every 20 minutes of running, and I had a whole bunch of traffic lights to contend with, I’m pretty happy with my performance.
Monday Musings
Yes it’s late in the day, but I need to get this out of my head before bedtime… Ah, the bullet point. It makes posts so much easier!
- Went for my long run yesterday. 7km was on the schedule, but I ended up with almost 11km… I forgot how fun half marathon training is because the runs are so short! I was trying to kill time between my shift ending at 5pm and the start of the cashier meeting at 8pm. I tried to keep it not too hilly and sort of succeeded. No huge uphills, but a couple of gradual hills that went on forever… like 2km. Ugh. Would have been fine if it was on a normal road, but it was all driveways. My butt was killing me at the end. It didn’t help that it was super muggy out as well. Most of my co-workers thought I was crazy.
- Ran my first run in a running skirt yesterday. Colin stopped by the Sugoi sample sale the other day and picked me up the Stamina Skirt for $15. Seriously not too many complaints. It fits really well and doesn’t move around a lot. The shorts rode up a little on the inseam, but nothing Body Glide and quick readjustments couldn’t fix. Not too sure about having a white under short, but unless I get caught in a strong wind no one is going to see my backside… Besides that the only thing that irked me a tiny bit was that the edging at the front flips over on itself. Purely an aesthetic thing though.
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| Looks like this only it’s light blue with white piping. |
- I think I’m now a confirmed skirt girl. But it has to have the shorts, not a liner. Maybe one day (Christmas, hint, hint) I’ll receive the holy grail of skirts: a runningskirts.com skirt!
- A while back (before the Canada Post lockout) I received the Eazy-Bandz headband that I won on Amanda’s blog. I ♥ it! I picked out the Iridescent Sequin band. I wasn’t quite sure what it would look like because the pictures online look gold or white, but the ribbon part is actually silver. It’s awesome. I also love the fact that they have sizing. Because I wear mine close to my ears and forehead I was a “tween” size. It barely moves when I run and I’ve worn it a whole day with it moving only about 1/2cm back. The only time I notice any movement is if I crane my head back to look up really far. Matt at Eazy-Bandz was great to deal with and was willing to ship it to me in Canada even though that’s usually an extra cost. Like running skirts, I didn’t know that I’d love headbands until I tried one!
- Colin went on a run before dropping me off at work on Sunday. I specifically asked him not to run through one of the trails since it’s (black) bear and cougar season right now. As in the sign at the trail head says, “Cougars Are In The Area.” When he came home I asked where he ran. Of course, he said, “First I ran through X.” Seriously? It’s 7:30 in the morning! That’s when the animals are out!
- During the aforementioned run Colin said there were signs that the bears had been about. Besides the easily identifiable poop he said he saw where they had walked through the tall grass, etc. He also came across an odd phenomena that we dubbed “Slugpocalypse.” He kept seeing slug trails that abruptly stopped and the gravel looked disturbed. The best we can guess is that the bears bunted the slugs as they ate them… Funny and disgusting all at the same time.
- I love summer! Sure the weather here is leaving a lot to be desired, but the season means fresh fruit. Colin took Spud out to a local strawberry farm on Saturday for their opening weekend. Spud got to pick strawberries, play on a tractor playground and, because he’s lucky, loved and they were in the area, Bramma and Baba bought him a strawberry milkshake. I’m looking forward to the raspberries coming out! And blueberries… Once we go up to Colin’s parents’ place in the summer we’ll be able to gorge ourselves on peaches, apricots, etc. since they live in the Fruit Stand Capital of Canada.
- Still riding the Nuun HTC high. Every so often I’ll break out in a happy dance, much to Colin’s amusement. I’ll hear later this week (I think) which leg I’ll be running. Choices were 1, 3 and 2 in that order. We’ll see what happens. It doesn’t really matter which one I get because I get to run HTC!!!
- Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but Colin and I are doing Warrior Dash this August! Some friends from our marathon clinic mentioned they were going to be signing up at a post-run breakfast ages ago and I basically invited us along. We’re renting a house in Whistler, BC and plan to have quite a party weekend. Should be super fun!
Super.Freaking.Awesome!
Thanks everyone for your congratulations yesterday! In case you couldn’t tell I’m excited too!
If you happened to be stalking Nuun’s Facebook page on Tuesday night (and, if you entered, don’t pretend you weren’t) you would have seen that I had a bit of a conundrum. Spud’s end of year picnic started at 8:45 Wednesday morning. It was at a park about a kilometre away from where we live so we had to be out of the house by 8:30am. Nuun was announcing their team at 9am PST. I don’t have a smart phone so there wouldn’t be any checking from the park. What to do?
I hemmed and hawed all evening. I had a couple of “Negative Nelly” moments when I was just convinced that I wasn’t going to be chosen. I kept apologizing to Colin for being a “Debbie Downer.” To which he told me to be a “Positive Polly” (or “Positive Perogy” since that was dinner). It at least made me laugh. Going to bed, I still was unsure about what I’d do in the morning.
Finally I decided that I would call Colin at work once I arrived at the park. He said he’d probably check even if I didn’t want to call and, of course, I didn’t want to find out when I got home if he’d known all along. Impatient, much? Our conversation on Wednesday went something like this:
Me: Have they posted it yet? (it’s 8:58:37am).
Colin: No.
Me: Have they posted it yet? It’s 9am, by my watch.
Colin: No. I’ll call you.
5-ish minutes later…
Colin: I already called you once.
Me: Sorry, have it on vibrate/ring and they’re mowing the grass. Yay or nay?
Colin: Yay you!
Me: What? Really??! I got in?!?!?!? Commence happy dance in middle of the park, which is me tippy-toeing on the spot with my arms in and hands up by my face.
Colin: Yup. There are 20 on the list and 6 alternates. You’re first on the list, but it doesn’t mean anything because it’s alphabetical.
Me: That’s fine. I’m in!
I had so many other things I wanted to ask, but I could tell he was busy. The rest of the morning was spent having fun at the park and making sure Spud didn’t fall off of any playground equipment. I didn’t have much time to think about it until I got home.
Of course, the first thing I did was turn on my computer and check Nuun’s blog and my email. Then I congratulated the other runners. Then I stalked my stats to see how many people came by my blog. It wasn’t long before we were all contacting each other and trying to figure stuff out. It’s crazy how fast things move.
While I’m still a little stunned that I made it I know it’s real because I have to send in things like my 10k time, leg number preferences and other fun stuff. Thank goodness I have almost 2 months to prepare for this. Not only do I need to get my training underway (at least I’m in a clinic already) I have to figure out what to pack/wear/etc. Colin’s taking vacation and will hopefully spend the 4 days in Seattle with Spud. Lots to do.
Here’s why I’m stoked that I’m on the team:
- I’ll get the chance to figure out stuff about me. Get to know myself if you want to be all hippy-dippy about it.
- This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. All the talk of HTC when the movie came out really peaked my interest, but to be a part of it now is so cool.
- I’m the token “foreigner.” I’m sure I’ll hear a bunch of “oot and aboot” jokes.
- I will finally get to meet some ladies whose blogs I read. A few teammates know each other and some don’t so it’ll be a nice mix.
- I just gained 19 friends! Crazy!
- I will represent an awesome company!
Tuesday On Tenterhooks
Yippee!!! Nuun is announcing their HTC team tomorrow! Still stressing, but feeling as confident as I possibly can.
I never posted my actual entry. I couldn’t figure out how to put it up without making a HUGE post. Sure, you saw the video outtakes, but the video wasn’t even my real entry. Mad props, by the way, to those of you who did a video and sent it out into the online universe. You are far braver than I! But I was emailing with Tricia at Endurance Isn’t Only Physical yesterday and she asked to see it. So I figured I should probably figure it out and just put it up for everyone to read.
Like I told Nuun in my (scripted) video: My entry [one reason for each of the 197 miles in the relay] is honest, I like to think it’s funny and sometimes it’s just downright dumb. But it’s what I’ve got.
To read: click on white box with arrows at top right corner.
"Ain’t Too Proud To Beg" – The Temptations
Yes, the title of this post is very EMZ, but it seemed appropriate.
As you all know I applied to be on Nuun’s Hood To Coast relay team. The deadline was last Wednesday and the “winners” will be announced this Wednesday. Let me say now that this has been the longest week of my life. It even beats out the last week of my pregnancy. Spud was 10 days early so I didn’t know my last week was my last week; capisce?
Anyways, about this last week. I think I have officially driven Colin nuts. A lot of “do you think it was good enough?” and “do you think I’ll make it?” type questions. I know that he does support me and does think my entry was good. Pretty sure, though, that after asking him for the 20th time in one day he just starts to humour me. The other thing I’m doing is practically stalking the Nuun Facebook page. Thankfully I’m not the only one. I know it’s silly since there is no announcement for another 2 days. But I figure it doesn’t hurt to make sure they know I’m still out there and stressing!
So back to the title. I know that this isn’t a popularity contest. If it were the team would be made up of the most popular “big” bloggers. Which would be cool. However, I wouldn’t be on it. As I was reminded: If you don’t get what you want, it’s probably because you didn’t ask for it.
Therefore, I’m asking. Again.
Please let Nuun know on Facebook that I should be on their team. Will it make a difference? Who can say? For all I know, they’ve already selected their favourites. But at this point I’m not above begging.
Thanks!
Back to stalking ’til Wednesday…
Why I Love Vancouver
In the wake of all the bad press due to rioters after the Stanley Cup final there actually is good news. People are advocating posting pictures of rioters and urging people to identify and turn in their friends/co-workers/employees, etc. There were clean up crews of volunteers who traveled downtown to help get rid of the messes. Although city crews got most of the garbage there were tons of people out making sure glass was out of sidewalk cracks and graffiti was cleaned off of walls and sculptures.
I think the one thing I’m most proud to see is this:
One of my friends was in the first riot squad unit to respond. Having people recognize that he and his fellow officers put their lives on the line to keep their city safe is awesome (Thanks, Ian!). Yes, there have been questions as to how the police put their plan in place and lots of “what-if” questions. That’s inevitable. The one thing that I haven’t even seen suggested is that the police weren’t doing their job well. In a day and age where emergency services rarely get their due the fact that people took the time to tell the police thank you makes me so happy.
It’s days like this where I’m so proud to be from Vancouver.
Words Can’t Begin To Express…
…how completely angry, distraught, disgusted, outraged, disappointed, sick, mortified, ashamed, etc., etc., etc., I am of what happened in Vancouver last night.
In case you missed it, the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup. They deserved it. Just like their goalie, Tim Thomas, deserved the Conn Smythe award for MVP and will likely win the Vezina Trophy next week for being voted the league’s best goaltender. As much as I want to be saying that the Canucks won, they didn’t, and the better team won the series. It doesn’t even pain me to say that. The Bruins earned the right to lift the cup.
Please, Enjoy Watching Me Make An A** Of Myself
What I’m about to post is essentially my worst nightmare. If you’ve known me for a long time you already know that public speaking is not my forte. I speak too quickly and usually feel extremely nauseated. I just don’t do centre of attention. Never have.
That said, I’ll apparently do anything for Nuun’s HTC contest. I’ve put myself out there more in the last 5 days than I have in the last 5 years.
Without further ado here is my HTC “blooper reel”:
I had plenty of time to mess up when I taped myself. It was just take after take for 15 minutes (hence the fading light). Note that I have 1:27 of screw ups; there were way more, but these were the good ones. By contrast, the video I sent them is only 58 seconds long.
Monday Musings
1. Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final is tonight. If you read this blog you know who I’m rooting for. That’s all I’ll say out of fear of jinxing it.*
2. There is nothing worse than obsessing over things that are out of your control. I submitted my entry for the Nuun Hood To Coast contest on Friday. The problem with being somewhat proactive is that now I have to wait. And wait. And wait. You get the idea. The contest doesn’t even close until the 15th. They don’t announce the team until the 22nd.
I’m confident and my entry will speak for itself. But I’m terrible at biding my time. Just ask Colin. I’m a ball of anxious nerves. It sounds kind of silly, but I’m honestly sure this is why I don’t put myself out there too much. The “will they like me” question is killing me because what if they don’t? In my head I know that it has no bearing on me. That’s the insecure 15 year old me talking. It’s not like they’re going to send me an email saying, “You know what? Yeah, just not good enough and we don’t like you.” Either my entry was more creative than the other hundreds or thousands of entries or it wasn’t. If I don’t make it onto the team, I don’t.
After reading that last paragraph it’s obvious I simply need to let go and stop over-analyzing. Easier said than done, of course. I’m sure you’ll hear about it a couple more times before the 22nd.
3. My half-marathon clinic starts tomorrow! Hip hip hooray! It’s 16 weeks long (I think) and will train me for the half in Victoria, BC in October. Colin’s going to be training on his own for the full. It’ll be nice because I’ll be able to watch him finish since my race will be over first. I’m so glad that my running is back to being scheduled. I’ve been so lazy lately. The best thing is that the runs is how (not) long they are. I’ll be able to do most of them on my own since they’re short (think 4km tempo runs, etc.) and it stays light out for longer.
4. I’m considering having a Facebook page for Running 42km. I think my real-life friends might be sick to death of all my running related status updates and blog post links. Question is, though, would any of you “like” it? It’s another added thing so I’d only want to do it if you are interested. Let me know.
5. My parents, Colin and Spud surprised me yesterday with my birthday cake. This is only significant because my birthday was back on 17 March. Things were just too busy around my birthday for my mum to make my labour intensive cake so we had a different one that Spud picked out. Of course, being a mature 31 years old, I complained that I didn’t get “my” birthday cake. For the past month or so the cake and icing were in the freezer, but there was never a chance to assemble it. Spud did very well not spoiling the surprise yesterday! I wrote off his comment, “Happy Birthday, birthday girl!” (said with a big hug) as just him being his cute 4 year old self since he made me a block birthday cake a couple of days before. I’ll post a picture of what’s left of it for Wordless Wednesday!
*No snide remarks from you Barefoot Neil Z.
197
That’s the number of reasons I sent Nuun in hopes of getting to participate in the Hood To Coast relay with them.*
When I heard that they were inviting female bloggers – thanks AMR– to get creative and enter their contest I knew that I wanted in. I just didn’t know how I wanted to go about it. I’m not terribly artsy-craftsy, nor am I competent in front of a camera. Being that I’m a history major I found something written to do. I’m crap at essays (or anything for that matter) extolling my virtues. But a list was a little less intimidating. Until I decided that I should give them reasons why I should be on the van. And maybe one reason for every mile of the relay. It went well for a while then became daunting. I begged Colin to come up with reasons. He gave me 2. When I couldn’t sleep I’d lie there and think of things to add. I finally finished a week after I started. Some of them are great, some good and some mediocre. Some are personal and some are funny. Thankfully I never had to resort to “This is reason 186” as a reason.
It’s the mental aspect of this relay that I know I need. I’m having a hard time explaining this in words even though it makes sense in my head and my heart. I need to figure out who I am. Right now whenever I think about me all I think is “I’m just a stay at home mum.” Yet I know that I’m so much more than that. But I don’t know what. I’m stuck in a rut. Sometimes I feel like there isn’t much of me left even though my 20-something self before I had kids didn’t really know me either. See, not making much sense, right?
All I want is a chance to figure it all out and I see this as the way to do it. When else am I going to get to escape my life (and it’s a great life, don’t get me wrong) for 4 days?
Here’s where I need you:
There is no “most votes gets it” winner. The van teammates are picked at the sole discretion of Nuun. I think that my entry holds its own and can probably get me in. It meets all their criteria, but I’d love for you to show your support.
How? And don’t feel pressured to do so. Honestly only do it if you think I deserve it.
- Comment here. You don’t have to tell them I’m awesome (though I won’t complain if you do!). If you want to explain why you’re “voting” for me, feel free.
- Let them know on Facebook. All you have to tell them is that you think Alanna at running42km.blogspot.com should be on their HTC team.
- Let them know on Twitter. I don’t tweet, but if you do you can contact them @ministryofnuun. Same as above, just say “Alanna at running42km.blogspot.com should be on your HTC team.”
Three Things Thursday
1. Where have I been, you ask? Mostly just reading other blogs. It’s not like I’ve been out of town or anything. Just kind of blog lazy. I haven’t been running much since I don’t start half marathon training until next week so there really hasn’t been much to say.
2. I think my blog stats are messed up. I went from having about 5-10 pageviews to having 151 yesterday. The weird thing is that they’re coming from blogs I read, but they haven’t linked me anywhere. Not that I mind my stats getting skewed. It makes me feel more popular than I actually am…
3. I’ve almost completed my entry for Nuun’s Hood To Coast contest. It’s taken me a week, but I hope to submit it tonight. I think (and hope and pray) that I actually have a shot at making it! For those of you who don’t know Hood To Coast is a 197-mile relay in Oregon. I’ll post about it once it’s sent off.
Insanity Is For Crazies
And I, for one, am not one of them. Oh, I’d like to be. I’m just not quite there yet. There’s also the pesky little fact that living in an apartment is not conducive to doing a lot of jumping around type exercises. I’m pretty sure that our downstairs neighbours would complain and it would also freak their poor little high-strung Jack Russell terrier right out!
That said, Colin and I aren’t just sitting around twiddling our thumbs every night. Colin decided that he would start using hand weights – I’ll follow, but need to buy some 3lb “baby” weights. I thought that I could do okay with the 5lb, but failed miserably. I shouldn’t fear dropping one on my head! In addition to that, I have forced encouraged him to join me in doing the following programs:
These programs are exactly what they say. They train you to be able to do the set number of exercises in one go. It sounds kind of daunting, but it takes 6 weeks to build up the strength to do it.
The training is set up so that you start with an initial test and then pick which of 3 levels you should be training at. I’ve chosen to start in the middle with all 3 (so has Colin, except he isn’t doing squats because they’re hard on his knee). After 2 weeks I do another test and see if I need to move up, down or stay where I am. I only have to do this 3 times a week so it doesn’t take up too much time. You wouldn’t think that 4 sets plus a set to max out would be hard, but I was done at the end of last night, especially with the push ups.
The whole reason I am making Colin do this with me is that I need the accountability! It’s way harder to skip your workout when someone else is ready to do it with you. Hopefully in 6 weeks I can tell you that I’ve completed the program and that it’s actually done something for me. There will be before and after pictures à la P90X, but I’m way too self-conscious to post the “befores” prior to having something to compare them to.
Love My Runners 