IWBMATTKYT

I will beat my ass today to kick yours tomorrow.

Man I love those sufferfest videos! Just the right amount of taunting and ego bashing mixed with a great hard workout- good enough to fog up the windows of my little room! Training seems to be going very well, and I am finally getting happy about where I am in regards to my current fitness level. My track workout on tuesday consisted of: 1xmile, 6x400m, 6x tempo 100m. Brutal. But, I improved upon my mile time by 20s- now that's what I call progress!

My 12k race this past weekend went smoothly. I went into it with the mindset of just running to see what I could do- no goals or expectations (well... I really wanted to break 1hr, but I wasn't going to kill myself to do it) and I came out with a very positive experience. Great, rolling, hilly challenging course- beautiful scenery and great volunteer action! And to top it off I ran a 3min 20s personal best! New 12k time of 56'56. The best part was that my 5k/10k splits were faster than what I have previously raced this past year! I went through 5km in under 23min and my 10k mark was right around 45-46min- if it wasn't for those damn hills my total time probably would have been even faster. Overall, I left the race feeling positive about my abilities and feeling happy that training is finally paying off!

With another race less than a month away I am beginning to gear up for my triathlon season. I have a feeling that this will be a good year. I've been biking on the trainer wednesdays and fridays doing the sufferfest workouts, and swimming wed and friday mornings as well. Today, I added another swim in the morning, as I am hoping to swim 3-4x a week. If I want to get good- I need to put time into the pool! I plan on adding another bike a week to make it 3, but just a spin- not a hard core workout. My running mileage is slowly increasing after having done two long runs of 1hr30min, and two of 1hr15min. Feeling confident about successfully completing a half marathon in may.

Just to put it down on "paper" here is what my weekly workout schedule is going to look like:

Mon- off

Tues- SFU track team workout (intervals, high intensity)

Wed- a.m swim, afternoon cycle

Thurs- SFU track team workout (hills)

Fri- a.m swim, afternoon cycle

Sat- a.m SFU track team workout (intervals), swim in afternoon

Sun- a.m long run (70-120min), evening cycle (easy)

Time to hit the books for one last quiz before reading break! Home in 4 days- yahoo!!

Vacation(ish) Time

I am going to Nanaimo next saturday! It's time for a vacation, and the chance to explore a new place! Heading out on saturday, taking the horseshoe bay ferry to Nanaimo and then seeing Cassidy!!! I've never been to Nanaimo before, and from what I've heard, it's a beautiful place- and a beautiful place to race! On sunday I am going to race/run the Cedar 12km, my first race of 2011. Hopefully this will be a good first race back, given it is a spur of the moment idea (I decided to race it today) I think that I can taper back my intensity this coming week to be prepared to run the race... goal: under 60min. I am really excited to get out of my "rut" and I think that this trip/race will be just the trick! Check out the website here: http://www.bastionrunning.ca/index.php?p=1_2_Cedar-12-k

In other news, home in two weeks! Cascade hwy here I come!

Cheers!

rut

once again it's raining here in burnaby, and it is ugly. After living atop burnaby mountain for 5months now, I still have the feeling of dislike for the city. I know that SFU isn't the city- in fact it is quite removed and very isolated, but I just can't get the fact out of my head that I don't like it here. Maybe I am in some bad head space today- but I am not a city person. I want to be in a place where I can ride my bike without fear of being killed by traffic and where I can run without worry of freaks in the bushes wanting to rape/murder me. I want a more relaxed lifestyle where people aren't hustling around from one place to the next- always in a rush. Honestly, the 145 bus to Production station and the skytrain give me a huuuge headache! I guess all I can do is count down the time until I am out of here and living where I want to be, probably the kootenays or maybe canmore (I like the atmosphere there). Almost 1/4 done, and three weeks until reading break and home.

I guess I just need to vent and get out the negative.

Back into the swing of things

I am back at uni and ready for everything that 2011 brings! The best way to start that off is, of course in my fashion, by breaking things. At circuit practice this morning I managed to break a hurdle. I jumped over it, it fell and hit my heel and then split in two. What luck?! Oh well, the rest of my a.m was great: said goodbye to my dad at seven, hit the pool (for only 1200m because the guard was 45min late) and hit the hurdle in circuit. With the first official practice of the new year I am feeling pretty good, so I put down the 3000m for my first indoor track event that is on the 15th in Seattle. I am nervous to say the least. I don't think I am ready for track yet- as I am not up to speed (literally). I might compete in this one and then redshirt and train for the rest of the season to really get good so I don't make a fool of myself! Decisions, decisions.

In other racing news, I am pumped to do the UBC Duathlon in two months on March 6th. The team will be at Indoor Nats, so that will be the perfect time for me to try my first duathlon! I am super excited! I plan to scatter some other triathlons throughout june, july and august- and possibly run a half marathon sometime in there to prepare me for 2012 because.... I am going to do a 70.3!!! Probably the Calgary 70.3 on august long. I figure why not? I will be 20, and that's the perfect amount of time to get myself ready. Plus I should get serious about it, because I will probably be registering for it sometime this year!

Lastly, before I go and have a nap- thanks to everyone who was a part of my Christmas/New Years/Winter Break celebrations! I am so lucky to have such amazing people in my life!

Cheers and best of luck in 2011

Seeya Fbook (for a week)

"This is temporary. I'll be back." That's the button that I clicked as my "reason" for deactivating my facebook account on monday. Facebook is like an addiction, it's always there, always available (expect when the sight is being stubborn and not working properly- which is quite frequent) and even though it is hard to admit, the book is a part of our lives in today's society. More and more often companies are putting on their commercials and adds, "find us on facebook," as a way for the public to connect with them. It seems as though we are becoming reliant upon this social networking site- instead of going out and doing things ourselves. Granted, the world today is a very busy place, and having facebook does make things 100x easier to connect with people, especially those who live far away.

My biggest reason for deactivating my account is temptation. I have to study for finals, and I can't be tempted by having facebook open. Logging off isn't good enough, because you can always just log back on five minutes later once you get bored of studying- so deactivating seemed like the best choice. No temptation to log in because "I don't have facebook anymore." Well, technically I do. I can reactivate my account by simply entering my email and password again- and bingo everything is back to how it was. I am hoping to make it a full 10 days from yesterday to next wednesday the 15th. After that, I guess I will determine if I really want it back or not. Unfortunately there are so many people on their that I use it to communicate with that it's too big of an outlet just to throw away.

Happy studying!

Snow mayhem

I guess the one benefit of living on a "mountain" is that it snows here. Actual snow, not just Vancouver slush- but big powder flakes that send everyone into a frenzy. Vancouverites assume freak-out mode as soon as they see it- and then EVERYTHING shuts down. I had my first ever snow day on thursday, because of the bad road conditions. The buses couldn't get up the hill, so classes were cancelled, and the uni basically shut down.... unfortunately, classes were cancelled after I had finished mine- so no luck there. Even the gym shut down, so I was forced to run in the snow on the trails. I have never got so many "what the hell is that freak doing running in this weather?!" looks from people- honestly, running in the snow is not a death sentence, it's fun. I even saw an xc skier, a mountain biker and another runner weathering out the elements.

The snow has mostly melted here, but little patches of it are hanging on still, and the track is covered in slush, so back to the gross winter conditions- but only 16 more days until I am home again and back to a real winter!

First final is this tuesday in bisc 102- open book lab final!

Back to study hall for me- two more hours of study crunch time, without facebook or blogging, or cellphone, or youtube, etc distractions. Technology is great, but it sure can be a bugger when you want to study.

-peacee && love-

teensy bit overdue

After receiving a friendly reminder about the state of my blog (or its unstate) I've decided to give an update.

Time has just flown by since September, and now there is less than a month left before I am back to the koots! The killer onslaught of final exams begins on November 29th and finishes Dec. 14th. So close to a three week winter break! I am excited for some good skiing, and a nice vacation from university/city life. I've found that there really are differences between city people and country bumpkins such as myself. People are seem so stressed and always in a hurry to get somewhere... they just can seem to enjoy the minute of life that they are in. Now the snow factor is something that really gets me. It started snowing on Burnaby mountain on Thursday morning... and it's stuck on the ground. oh my god. snow. People are seriously freaking out! It's almost funny to see how people react to this foreign white stuff falling from the sky.

I found some people slightly similar to back home today while at an AMAZING Sugoi factory outlet sale down by Burnaby Lk. Right away you can tell the type of person... not to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, someone by their car- but the parking lot was filled with subarus, volvos, trucks and other sporty hatch-back cars, most all with roof and/or bike racks. Typical outdoorsy people, all dressed in puffy Northface jackets and tights... not giving a damn about dressing nice or wearing torturesome high-heels- people like Rosslanders. Seeing that made my day! The sale was great- I bought a jacket, xc ski tights, long sleeve bike jersey, knee warmers for cycling and a pair of running tights all for under $90! I think I may need to go back tomorrow....

Running has been slowly coming back. I had my first real "hard" Mundy park practice this past tuesday- 3x 2km loop and it's definitely not flat! The injuries are coming along, the occasional strain, or ache, so I am very thankful for the amazing physios here. This weekend the girl's xc team (top 7) and two of the guys from the men's side are down in Vancouver Washington for XC Nationals... the last race of the season! The girl's team has been killing it this season- so go clan and bring home the title!!

I still don't know what I will be running for indoor track season which starts in january- but I have a feeling that it will be long distance :)

My first multi-event race will be the UBC tri/duathlon in the beginning of march. I am thinking of trying a duathlon, as the swim portion of the tri is inside the pool, and the thought of swimming 30 lengths is frankly horrible! Hopefully by the late spring/summer I can throw in a half marathon if all is going well... and focus on a couple of Olympic triathlon races around the Vancouver area in the summer.

Other than training news, I now know that I have Celiac's disease... which isn't all that surprising. I will just keep on doing what I have been doing since summer, and avoid wheat/gluten products to keep my stomach happy.

Seeing that I am a student, I do have homework that is calling my name, so I will cut this blog post short. Hopefully, I will update more frequently after final exams have subsided.

"Be the change you want to see in the world."