My first 5k?!

I went to the Pride Run today! It was such a nice and sunny day, with a little breeze to keep you comfortable...

I followed everybody's advice and hydrated well (not too much) before the race :)


so here is how I did today:



It says I was 227th out of 810 people! I did the race in 23 minutes and 11 seconds, at a pace of 5:01, 39/284 in my category, 51/383 in my gender... That's impressive isn't it?

Well, don't get excited... see - here's the map of the race:



Notice how there's a giant loop there? I was supposed to go around it... twice... Yes, I screwed up and only went around it once - making this a 3.52 kilometer race, and not a 5km race!! I thought it was odd that they were making us go the one way - I thought it would be pretty simple and clear - but no, I am just that confused!! lol It was too late when I realized I went the wrong way and going back was not an option, so I kept going, sprinted to the finish line, and met with S who thought I would finish at least 15 minutes later and was slowly approaching the finish line to get a shot... I'm disappointed, to be honest, but I can say this - the positive is I think this was fantastic and I want to do it again asap!!! :) It was sooooo much fun!!!

I am definitely doing this particular run again next year - such a nice course and the crowd was so friendly... I caught a glimpse of someone very famous in the blogosphere but I was too shy to approach him :) I recognized him on the course when he passed me with his pink skirt and a camera in his hand :) He did very well WOW!! (Marie, let me know if you/he would rather I remove this photo - I will remove it no problem if you/he is uncomfortable with my posting it...)


If I look at my iPod/Nike+ stats this is how I really did (approximately) pace was 6'23'', so I would have been somewhere around the 565/810th place... not too bad! It's sad because as I was turning where I thought I had just looped around for the first time I thought - man I can do this, I can really do this! I was doing ok... Except for the drink of water I tried to have without stopping and then completely choked on LOL

ok, I think I need to say more about this, but my mom decided to 'surprise-visit' from Montreal and she's just about to show up now, and I can't review my post right now - I'll just update it later in a different color :)


oh! One thing I need to say is THANK YOU SO MUCH everybody for your nice encouragements and advice, here and on twitter... you made my day!!! I want to give you all big HUGS!! :)

My first 5k...

Is tomorrow!!! I'm going to run the ''Pride Run'', as suggested by Marie.

To have that goal set, to know I was going to run a 5k, certainly gave me a motivation 'boost' - I trained more seriously, more regularly, I worked hard at following the c25k program... I ran for 28 minutes without stopping yesterday morning - for the first time in my life, and I'm pretty proud of that...

Tomorrow morning, it's the real thing. I am looking forward to it, and also a little bit scared :) I hope I'm going to sleep well... Not sure what to eat for breakfast yet - I'm out of bananas (I forgot that I was saving the last one for tomorrow - ugh...)

In other news - I still can't believe that Michael Jackson is... gone....

you know what? I feel like I forgot something about myself- I forgot about it for a very long time, and now it's too late... it's dead... that's my clumsy way of saying how I feel about MJ being gone...

yeah...

Drum Roll Please... and the winner is..........

Random.org said #3 Marie-Claude!!

Here's her comment:

The two Etobicoke Elite Drill Instructors are Leigha Borland and Natasha Moore.

I'll keep my fingers crossed LOL

Congratulations Marie-Claude! You've just won a free 4 week Booty Camp Fitness Session!!

Please send me your details at cinemarie@gmail.com!


Thanks again to the ladies at Booty Camp Fitness Session for this great giveaway - can't wait to start working out with you guys! Giveaways are fun, hope I get to do another one soon!! :)

Bonne St-Jean Baptiste!!!

It's St-Jean-Baptiste Day today - I wish I was in Québec to celebrate!! :)

A difficult 25 minutes...

I did the second day of week 7 of the c25k program this morning - it was very difficult. I tried using my own music - I shuffled through my entire library, that was a big mistake. I really need to concentrate on running, on my body and performance on my breathing... not on 'I don't like this song so much, how do you skip ahead?' and 'Ok the Charlie Brown Xmas song I like so much at Xmas time is NOT a good song to run to...' LOL I also expected to run for 5 minutes on each song, but realized quickly that most songs are 3 minutes long (or at least that's how long I can tolerate them for before I need to skip...)

It probably sound pretty superficial, but it was a real problem - because I wasn't focussing on my breathing and my form, I was pretty dizzy and uncomfortable at the end...

I know about how you can create playlists, but I seem to get sick of the songs anyways...

I was thinking of maybe getting something like a 'remote' so that I can keep it in my hand and easily skip, but I don't think holding something in my hand is really an option... unless I clip it on my clothes? I don't know... hmmmm

Basically, after 15 minutes of running I decided to go back to good old Robert's mix... I don't particularly like the music in the podcasts, but at least it's not distracting!! Well, maybe except for the one song in week 7 where it sounds like someone is laughing at you... oy! lol

I am starting to wonder what I am going to do for the Pride Run... will think about it...

don't forget to enter my giveaway!!! You don't have to have a blog to enter! Just leave your name!! I will use radom.org to pick a winner on Wednesday night!! so make sure you come back to find out who won! :)

A Giveaway on Cinemarie in English!!!

The lovely ladies over at Booty Camp Fitness are generously offering a free 4 week Booty Camp Fitness session to me and one of my readers! So it's time for a Giveaway! Wheeeeee!

There are 95 locations all over Canada so don't hesitate to enter!!!

I am so excited to have jumped on board - I needed to commit to that kind of an activity... It's great because it's in the evening and it's right in my neighborhood! It's at 6h45 which is perfect - the first thing I do when I get home... It's 2 days a week, which I think is absolutely manageable... I need to get in shape for my wedding, and this is exactly what they offer:

Look Great with a Bikini Belly, Booty Shorts Butt, & Tank Top Arms
in as Little as Two Nights a Week!

• Up to 16 lbs weight reduction
• 1 - 6 inches reduced in your thighs, midsection, and arms
• A boost in your immune system, and a decrease in sick days
• 25 - 100% increase in strength and stamina
• An energized yet relaxed feeling...

PERFECT!!

I like that it's a mix of a lot of different activities such as yoga, strength training and cardio... It's designed by women for women, so the classes are women only - which is great!

It includes: 2 Physical fitness assessments Work Out DVDs (so you can do it at home, one more night every week) Lots of interesting books (Guide, Cookbook and Nutritional Guide) And they also have a forum where you get 24/7 support and you get to exchange with other participants or 'Recruits' :)
I can't wait to tell you all about it starting July 7th - I need to push it, I need to kick it up a notch and get ready for my wedding - I need to be as healthy as I can be - how about you?:)

So here's how to enter: leave a comment on this post and answer this question: Who are the two Etobicoke Elite Drill Instructors?

That's easy - you can go to their website, navigate to 'locations'... Etobicoke is in Ontario ;)

You have until Wednesday, June 24th @ 7pm to enter - I will announce the winner when I get home that night. It's your chance to de-lurk!!!

Good Luck!! :)

Amy's 15 week Challenge

Go visit Amy's blog - she is challenging you - um, blog people :) to participate in a 15 week challenge!
I'm so excited!! Wheeeee! :) She has LOTS of great ideas for the challenge so it promises to be an awesome 15 weeks!!

Breathing and running - how do you do it?

I have done day 1 of week 7 of the c25k program this morning. I remembered how I wanted to talk about breathing. A few years ago - I think it was 2003-ish, way before I started WW - S had tried to make me run, the plan was to run around the neighborhood... I thought - sure! why not, I can do that! Boy was I wrong. I could barely go around the block without feeling like I was going to cough up a lung... S had asthma as a child so he pointed out right away - you're not breathing right!  That's when I first found out that I needed to control my breathing while exercising. (Yeah, I was clueless, I know!! :)

A few years later, I lived near High Park and thought that it would be such a great place to run, so I decided to try again. The first time I did it, I remembered quickly why I had stopped - ouch my throat and lungs!! So what's that big secret about how you're supposed to breathe a certain way for this to be possible? Well, I had no idea, but I tried this - breathe in through the nose for 2 steps, breath out through the mouth for 3 steps. And it seemed to work! I was so impressed at how simple this was and how much better I felt, how much more power I had, how much longer I could run...

To this day, that's still how I breathe through a run. And it's so silly - as soon as it starts being difficult I am always tempted to stop it and go for a big gulp of air. But now I know that I have to keep up with it, I find it tough, but it's the only way it works for me - if I control how I breathe...

Now, I pretty much 'made that up' for myself, and recently I was curious to see if there was info out there about breathing when you run, you know, to see if there was an even better method... I found a few articles on the subject, and now I'm confused:

How to control breathing while running
The Ins and Outs of breathing during exercise
Breathing during exercise

So my question to you is - how do you breathe when running?

Angie's and Farmgirl's Bootcamp Giveaway!

Just found out about a great giveaway that you can enter via Angie all the way and Farmgirl .

Go look it up! There are locations all over Canada, so don't hesitate to enter - it's so exciting!!! :) Time to 'up' the challenge for me!!! :)

I have to do a proper post soon - I met with some wonderful ladies last Saturday for the Blog Girls GTG in Toronto, and I have to talk about that!!!

Have a nice Thursday!! :)

OMG OMG OMG - What did I just do :)

I signed up for my first 5k!!!

A big thank you to Marie the Mouse for letting me know about the run - She is such an inspiration! I couldn't pass up on it, you were pretty convincing :)

And another thank you to Mel from A Box of Chocolates for pushing me to do this, she rocks: less then a year ago she wasn't even a runner, and now she has 3 5ks under her belt! Thanks for your encouragements Mel, you're the best :)

In other news, I stuck to my meal plan until 8pm, and then I had an extra 6 points worth of dark chocolate and 1 piece of Twizzlers, hmmmm... Let's put it this way - it's better than yesterday's snack fiasco where I had umm 19 points worth of snacks, ugh... I find that I need about 5-6 extra points a day, to feel 'full'. And most days it has to be a treat - I just crave it too much! Maybe if I 'train' myself to eat some every day, but less and less gradually... I just need my chocolate you know? :)

We're having another strange 'outing' at work - after the Zoo adventure, we're now going to go on a boat for the evening this Friday! We're going to screen some completed episodes and have some food and tour the Toronto Islands... That should be fun! :)

Also, I am excited to meet some blogging ladies on Saturday at the Keg in Toronto! This idea came up amongst some of the BLBE people and being in Toronto already I couldn't miss it! Looking forward to see you there :)

The plan...

I have put my menu for tomorrow into my Points tracker - and I thought I would share what the plan is here, so I stick to it. I am having trouble doing that these days, I have had trouble keeping track - the only way it works is if I kick my own bum and plan the night before... count first, then eat - not the other way around...

Breakfast:
'Oatmeal' PC bagel, with some 95% fat free cream cheese, and I'm going to throw in some spinach, see if it'll taste good (4 pts)

Lunch:
A Lean Cuisine frozen meal (5 pts)
A fibre one bar (or any of my 2 pts bars...)
100g of Fat free Activia Yogurt (2pts)
1 1/2 cups of strawberries (1 pt)

Dinner:
9 PC Blue Menu Chicken Meatballs (5pts)
A whole lot of fresh asparagus (Roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper) (1.5 pts)
A cup of Ocean Spray low-calories cranberry juice (1 pt)

That's a total of 21.5 points (I get 21 a day...) That's not bad...

Have a happy hump day! :)

20 minutes...

Oh my Oh my!!! I just wrapped up week 5 of c25k - that means I ran for 20 uninterrupted minutes for the first time in my life!!! I can not believe I just did this!! Although I am quite shake-y :)

It was pretty intense/challenging. My body was definitely trying to make me quit ''oh, um, hey, what are you doing? Pff, that's way too difficult - see how tired you are and it's only been 2 minutes?! You're really thinking of doing this for 20 minutes? Uh huh, nope, no way, I really don't think so...''

My head was thinking a mix of the following - ''Keep going, at the end of this you'll have accomplished something wonderful, 20 minutes of running! Think of Mel who's done it before - she said, stick to the program, it works! And she's a runner now! Think of Jess, who's still running during her pregnancy! You want to be a runner, you want to feel great, you want to get better at it, you have to keep training...''

I want it to become easier, to become a hobby - I want to go run outside for a longer preiod of time, I want this to become a habbit... So I pushed through it, and now I want to keep going more than ever...

I actually kept 'brisk' walking for an extra 8 minutes, just for fun - I get more time to run on the weekend, so I better take advantage...

ok, I better get ready, I'm going to see Toronto FC beat LA Galaxy this afternoon ;)




Next time I want to talk about 'breathing' when you run...

150.4 - maintaining...

I've been having a hard time blogging recently... and I am also having a hard time being on program. I feel like dissecting a typical day - maybe if I read it to myself I'll find some sort of 'answer' :)

I usually get up at 7h30, get ready for work (showering and drying my hair always takes exactly 1 hour:) Leave for work, eat in the car on the way... (I have recently started to try and get up early every morning to sneak in some exercise, but since I often end up having to come into work 1-2 hours early once or twice a week, it throws me off a bit...)

I have 0 time to blog at work (On a regular day, I start at 9h30am and end at 6pm, I do not take breaks, or take time for lunch - every thing happens in front of the computer, most of the time running 3-5 tasks at once...) I spend a lot of time getting distracted by what I would like to write on my blog, what I would like to do to be healthier, sneaking a peak at twitter and some blogs... but it's often interrupted with last minute changes in the list of tasks for the day, and a panicky coordinator who tries hard to make the most of my time by re-arranging everything as material and directors becomes available...

Then I get home at around 7 - 7h30pm... I prepare dinner, most of the time it's something that takes less then 15 minutes to prepare because at that point I am dying to eat, and most of the time I didn't plan ahead what we're going to eat... Rarely we prep something from scratch, often we are picking up something on the way home, often we eat pre-packaged foods, not always a bad thing, but there's room for improvement...

We pick up our plates and take them to 'the office' where S and I each have a computer. We eat in front of the computer, most of the time we also have the TV turned on in the background...

At that point, I go online and try to read everything that 'teased' me throughout the day at work - an article that got my attention, something on twitter, something on Youtube, some of my favorite bloggers who've posted something I can't wait to read:) At that point, on some days, I have time to blog - yes! But then inspiration doesn't come... It's like my brain can't focus, there's too much pressure... I start twittering, commenting on blogs, and of course, I spend a bit of time with S... before you know it, 9h30, 10pm comes around and it's time for bed (well, we usually watch TV in bed for an hour :) At that point I feel like I've left my whole evening go by being zombie like, absorbing as much info as I can without really being focused on anything specific...

Now I'm going to read this when I get home tonight, and think about it, then come up with a plan :) That's how I write on my blog these days - write as it comes to my brain, then read when I have time, and take action - hope you don't mind :)

I want to write so bad...

but for some reason, I never get around to it, I am such a bad blogger these days - please stick around, I'll get back to it :)