NOT SURE WHAT THE HECK I AM DOING...

This getting out the door to exercice is hard... Since Quebec City half-marathon I am in a coma like state.... I felt really crappy Thursday and Friday, some sort of start of cold and now that it has seem to pass. I just can't motivate myself to go out the door. For the last 3 days I got dressed for a bike ride just to sit on the couch all day... sigh. We'll see what happens today.... but I am not hopeful. Not even the thought of sucking at my next sprint tri is kicking me in the butt.

I don't think I speak of my personal life very often on this blog, as I like to be this always happy person that I know I can be. But for the last week I can't shake this unhapiness. I have now been looking for a job since January and finished my Ph.D. since April and haven't found anything. Niet. Nil. Nothing. The worse is that I have only been called on 1 interview and just receive a negative reply on Wednesday. It is starting to affect the way I see myself, and all the sacrifices I made to finish this damn Ph.D. and then realise I have nothing in front of me??? This is not fair. I just can't understand why this is so hard....

Plus my foot/ankle is totally wack!

SMART... ME? YEAH NOT SO MUCH....

So, I went to Quebec City conviced I would ran the 10K with Lisa but we finally went for the half-marathon.... decision made after having too many beers! Maybe not my smartest decision but time will tell... the good news: I survived. I ran with a good friend and thank god she was there or I would have given up as I was in a lot of pain starting at mile 10. Let's just say those easy 5Ks with my Dad are NOT the best training for a half... and I knew that. We just decided to be silly and do it for fun and fun we had as you can see in our 'costumes'....


We got lots of cheering because of what we were wearing and the fact that Quebec City is celebrating is 400th year. It was a great boost of energy. It was a PWed for both of us but it was HOT (ask Leana....) and we were there to have fun. =) Couldn't have asked for a better racing partner! So glad I did it and my foot is not so bad today.

I spent an afternoon with Leana and her Mom and it was very nice to meet her, she's a lot taller than I expected ;-) Sorry, you didn't have the race you were hoping for but the weather is so unpredictable... Monday would have been a GREAT day for a race!!!

MY DAD'S FIRST RACE!!!!

All of you know that since I moved back home, I started a 5K program for my Dad and Aunt. Early in the training my Aunt started to have leg problems and had to quit but my Dad was committed and he was/is doing SO WELL.

We run together about 2 times a week and he goes once by himself and can now do 5K consistently. He averages 42-43 mins and is improving his time almost everytime he goes out. =) I'm definitely very proud of him for keeping at it. So to celebrate his achievement we're going to run the Oasis 5K at the Montreal Marathon on Sunday September 14.

He's pretty excited and already decided we have to wear the same colours shirt to match. My Mom and Aunt are going to come and cheer him on too! And what he wanted the most what to get a medal!

I just wanted to tell everyone how proud I am of my DAD =)

P-S I'm off to Quebec city tomorrow, finally decided to be reasonable and run the 10K... Well, my foot hurts a lot these days so the decision was rather easy. I will be racing this with a good friend of mine coming down from Halifax and we will be wearing 'costumes'.... I'll post pics when I come back!

WHAT DOES YOUR MEDALS MEAN TO YOU?

A while ago She who makes Waves ask us about the meaning of medals. And I promised I would do a post about it so here it goes!

Since I moved out of my apartment and back in my parent's house my medals have had more glorious days....

They spend their time in a little box at the bottom of my closet without getting any exposure. While I was in Windsor they had a prime spot right in the living room. And anybody who visited my house could see all the nice medals along with a poster from a race that said: "I'll keep on running"...

I started my racing career on May 13th 2006 with the 5K Path to a better heart, finished in 33:53 and got hooked on racing!! I continued racing 5Ks and 10Ks throughout the summer and fall with races from the Running Factory (a local running shop there) and they never gave medals, which always disappointed me. I remember finishing my first half and not getting a medal bummed me out...

So when I finished my first marathon and they put the medal around my neck this was the culmination of a lot of efforts and it stays my favorite medal so far and the only one I got engraved with my name and time. My 2nd marathon finishers medal look really small compared to that!

Except my first half, Get to the Point, I have received medals for the 5 others and I cherish them all: the good races (Detroit, Miami, and Run for Retina) the hard but rewarding (Chilly PB!) and the bad (Trot to the beach) ones.

I have other medals from races I thoroughly enjoyed running, Around The Bay is the best road race EVER!! The Nissan 10 miler where I met Jelly, Kenny and Francis last year. And my 10K PB, still, at the Run for Canada 2007 race.

FOR MARCY!!!!

That totally reminded me of you and your pregnant pic!!! LOL


What an amazing performance by Tomescu-Dita in the women's marathon! And the sprint for the silver by Ndereba! WOW! Simply amazing =) Kudos to Radcliffe who had been hurting for a while for finishing. When she stopped to stretch and seem to want to cry, I knew exactly how she was feeling! Well except I've never run a 2h30 marathon lol

GLUED TO THE TV....

I had the option to go out and enjoy a band outside but no came back home to watch the Women's marathon in Bejiing!! My family thinks I am totally insane... Poor Deana Castor out after only 5K... it makes me pretty sad.

I biked to my cousin's house today, about 34K in 1h16 for an average speed of 26.6K! That means I can speed up in a race more than what I did last time. Did I tell you how much I LOVE my bike?! It was my longest ride so far =) It went really well.

It's coming back driving that I almost got into an accident. A car who was turning left went in my lane as if I wasn't there!! WTH! I had to go in the lane of the upcoming traffic, thank god nobody was there... so yeah big scare... But Rocky and I are alive lol

Tomorrow is a long run, I'm aiming for 1h! Have a good week-end everybody!

ABOUT A YEAR AGO........

I was so sick I couldn't even move out of bed. Yes, I am celebrating my 1 year anniversary of having caught mononucleosis.

I feel a lot better than at first but I still have moment when I am SOOOOOOOOO tired and don't know why. Like yesterday when I ditched my swim workout and replaced it with a 1h30 nap.... I still did 15K bike ride but had no energy left for the swim. And today, I am putting off my brick workout...

I read online that about 6% of people who have had infectious mononucleosis will relapse... I feel like I'm in contant relapse lol

I watched the Olympics too late last night so when my Dad woke me up at 7:30AM to go running, I said no thanks!! Instead he had a canine companion! He decided he doesn't want to do the race tonight, it is suppose to rain and he told me he wants to get a medal for his first race. Both are good reasons so I'm looking for another event.

THE DAY AFTER...

Thanks to everyone for their comments on my last post, I feel a lot better today, in a much better spirit about the fiasco race. I was pretty sore when I woke up this morning, surprisingly, not my legs at all but my upper body (shoulders and neck). As expected my foot was pretty sore but nothing that I can't handle. I didn't wrote it yesterday but it did bother me a little in the run part of the race....

I did nothing today and it was fine by me. =)

I am trying really bad to convince my Dad to do his first 5K race on Wednesday night!!! He's afraid it is going to be too hot but the weather says 20°C (and rain) but this can all change in a matter of split seconds. So, we're going to wait and see, and he told me that if it is nice out he'd love to do his racing debut there! YAY!

Moving on to preparing my revenge...

FEW TOUGHTS....

Ok, this race was not what I was expecting.... I'm really disappointed because I missed a loop on the bike course... I did 17.21K instead of 20K and that pisses me off beyond belief... It takes away from my sence of achievement of doing a sprint tri. I feel like Icheated and I'm a big loser but I had no idea until the end of the race... and I definitely didn't do it on purpose... sigh I need a bike computer.

I also have several issues with the race itself, lack of organization, they change the swim from lane to mass start (OMG!!!) and that did not make me happy to learn that at the last minute. I also had to wait 30 mins in line, yes 30 mins to get my chip and that's despite getting to the site 1h15 before my wave start which I was almost late for...

I might write something more tomorrow but right now I just feel like a big loser, I know it's my fault since I didn't do the loop but guidance and indications were not good at this event. I'm so pissed off.

The numbers:
Swim 750 m @ 14:57 (2:00/100m)
Bike 20K* @ 40:46 (29.4 km/h) +T1&T2
*Actual 17.21K in 37:55 (27.2 km/h) from Garmin without T1&T2
Run 5K @ 36:19 (7:09 min/km)

TOTAL 1:32:14 ...

I guess what pisses me off is that I was really happy with the whole experience until I finished and realised my mistake... I will get my revenge... I am not done with you Sprint tri!!

THE CURSE OF THE INJURED ATHLETE IS...

To not feel ready for any race that you enter... yeah it sucks real bad!! Tomorrow is going to be my first sprint triathlon, after taking care of lots of pain and ache this week, I really don't feel ready for this. I ran 5K with my Dad yesterday, it went well BUT my foot is really sore... at least my back seems to be back to normal but I don't think I'll be able to swim as fast as my first/last TRI. Oh well, it's all for fun, right?!

Have a good week-end everybody =)

POST CONTAINING EXPLICIT LANGUAGE... PEOPLE WHO GET OFFENDED EASY SHOULD NOT READ...
















You were warned!

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ARGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

Seriously that felt good to let it out.... so my back is still hurting but a lot less than yesterday so I'm happy about that. I'm doing the heat/rub all day today too so hopefully my back will be all good for my first sprint try on Sunday!

WHAT PISSES ME OFF IS MY STUPID FOOT.... so I just learned that my insurances covered the cortisone injection (YES!)!! They paid 140$ out of the 210$ it cost me so I tought I would just set another apointment for a 2nd cortisone injection to solve that new problem (the neuromas) BUT THE BAD THING IS that I called the clinic they can only give me an apointment in September and my insurance ends August 31... so I am totally pissed off. At my insurance for taking so much time to reimburse me, at them for being so busy and at myself for not knowing that miraculously this would be paid by my insurance... I also haven't run or biked or swim since Friday so I'm going a little insane here... in case you haven't noticed lol

I'm out, sorry for the negative post!!

OUCH! MY BACK!

I've been having crazy upper back pain since yesterday afternoon. Not sure what happened but it sucks. I did not sleep well but was up at 7AM for my 1h run.... I ended up not going, my Mom convinced me I was totally insane, and I want to race next week-end so I'm taking time to get rid of this.... I'm being REASONABLE... l0l

MOSAIC

I stole this idea from Sarah, I think it looked neat!

The way it works
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

Here's mine:

First name? Sonia

Favorite food? Potato chips is food... right?

High school? Collège Ville-Marie

Favorite color? Purple (big shocker here!)

Celebrity crush? Vincent Damphousse (he was captain of the Montreal Canadiens)
Favorite drink? Wine (any color!) But I do prefer a strong red. It's from my French backgroud

Dream vacation? Russia

Favorite dessert? Chocolate cake

What do you want to be when you grow up? No idea... chemist had been in my mind since high school and that's what I am!

What do you love most in life? My Doggie!

One word to describe you. Energetic

Best feature? My calves, seriously they are nice runner's calves lol

DECISION AND BIKE STORIES

Ok, so here's the deal, I'm registered for the the Quebec City half which I would love to do.... but I'm definitely not sure it's a good idea!! 1- My foot is screwed up and 2- It's called I haven't done the training for a half, in fact I haven't run over an hour in the last few months! But I really want to do it anyway... Does that make sense?! LoL

Last time I pulled a half with no or little training I had an awesome time and did well, 2:22 in Detroit but I believe some of my foot issues might be coming from that event.... So yeah, the 10K would be better for me...but I just can't seem to commit to downgrade...

Thurday: 1250 m in 29 mins at the pool

Friday, was my long ride of 30.3K in 1h16. It was a little more but I stopped my watch at a red light to have a sip of water and forgot to start it again... I realised about 5 mins later, oh well no biggie!

I was going pretty fast (for me!) at 30-35 Km/h at some point and got super scared. I kept thinking what if I hit a rock? What if I fell off the bike? Or what if a car hits me? At the speed I am going, I might be very injured or die... so pretty dark toughts on the bike for moi. Not sure why I was thinking about that... silly me! Anyhow, it reminded me how much I love running, where my toughts just keep wandering while on the bike you gotta concentrate on all other stuff (road, rocks, people, car etc.) than your toughts!

Oh and I might not have done a 300 miler bike ride yet like Ken, but Bijou is hurting my private parts.... so yeah lots of vaseline will be put before I head out next time... lol

I'm going to do my long run (55 mins) tomorrow in Montreal (if I get up early) or in Ottawa! Going to Ottawa for a second week-end in a row! This time to see friends from Windsor who are on vacation.

Have a good week-end everybody =)