Category: Running

From Pictures of the Day 2012

Today was another full day with lots of great pictures. The picture I’ve chosen is of Danny, Jacob and me at the Harry Rosen Spring Run-Off. It was taken after Danny and I had finished our 8k run but before Jacob had a run his 800m run. It was a great day with tons of pictures, that I didn’t have time to sort through during the day. I hope to have a separate post about the day soon.

From Pictures of the Day 2012

Today I picked up my race kit for Saturday’s Harry Rosen Spring Run off. What was different about today is I also picked up Jacobs. Last year it was my first race ever, so I think it’s fitting that this year it will be Jacob’s first race ever. I’m also excited to see if Jacob is going to get interested in running. Today a 800m for in the future maybe we’ll run a Marathon togeather.

With a new year comes new resolutions and goals.  I’m working on a whole post that looks back on last years goals and sets out a bunch for this year, unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to write it, but today’s POD will give you a hint of some of my goals, the first is that I’m going to continue posting a picture a day, the second is that it’s time to get back into running. I want to be running 3 to 5 times a week, so to inspire me I thought I’d start the year out right by going for a run. Before heading out I captured a picture of me in my running gear.

 

A quick note about my picture of the day, with yesterday’s post I had complete 2 years of taking a picture and sharing it every day for 2 years. That’s 730 Pictures, and that doesn’t include the bonus pictures or pictures from family events that I’ve posted on my blog. That’s a lot of pictures, and this year I’m going to organize the Picture of the day photos a little differently. If you want to see my pictures in one place you can see them on this Google Plus Album ( Picture of the Day 2012 ).

Today my iTab arrived for my Toronto Waterfront Marathon Medal. It adds my name and time to the medal I received after completing the race. It’s offered as an extra when you sign up for a race, I didn’t do it for my first two runs, but for my Half Marathon in the spring I did and once I had it on the medal, I knew I wanted to get it for all my future races. It just adds a nice personal touch to my medal.

Sunday I took to the streets to compete in my second Half Marathon. The weather was nice and cool, and thankfully the rain held off. Running through the downtown and along the waterfront gave the race a feel of familiarity that I didn’t have during the mm. though having not really looked at the route before I did have a few surprises along the way. Finishing in the heart of the Financial district
. It was also great to finish the race in the heart of the city.

going into the race I was confident that my training would propel me to a quicker finish then last time, unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. I finished on 2:12:55 more than two minutes slower than in Mississauga. It has me wondering if I didn’t do enough training leading up to the event or if that it was a ‘flat’ course cost me the time. Mississauga was a downhill course, and I think I didn’t appetite how much a help that was. Of course RunKeeper reported that I set a personal record for ‘Biggest elevation climb’ during the run makes me question how flat it really was.

I know it was probably a mixture of the two but considering how sore I still am today, 2 days after the run, I might have to put more blame on training. Usually after a long run I like to follow-up the next day with a short run, but last night I just wasn’t up to it. So I think regardless how sore I am I will have to get out to-night. Probably just for a slow 5 or 6 km. I need to continue with the focus I found when I sat down at the end of September and planned my training for the last two Weeks before the race. At the time I set out an ambitious schedule, one that I followed for the first week but pulled back from a bit the second week. But one I think that was good for me.  As I ran on Sunday I kept thinking I really needed to stay that focused on my training, not just on the races.

I really liked having my planned runs spelled out for me, being able and look back at what I had recently run and what I was about to run was good motivator. So I think once I figure out what I will be doing with my training I will continue that, though perhaps I should look at adding some automation to the process. It was a pain to manually update the list after each run.
Continue reading “Recovering… and Looking forward”

Back in march when I was coming off a disappointing winter of running, I signed up for the for my first Race (First Race). In fact at the time I signed up for 3 races, a 5k, 10k and my first Half Marathon. As we switch seasons from Summer to fall, I realise that I didn’t run nearly as much as I had hopped this summer. So now as the weather cools I want to get back out there and prepare to run my first full marathon next year. So once again I’m setting a goal. This time it’s the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. I’m running the Half-Marathon in memory of my aunt-in-law Debbie who passed away after battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. So I’m hoping that my friends and family will support me and give to Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto:

Please support the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Charity Challenge.

This is also the kick off for my larger goal of running a Marathon in 2012. I’m still undecided of when that Marathon will be, so stay tuned. You can also expect to see a lot more posts about running in the coming weeks and months.

Todays picture is of my growing collection of Running Hats. In the center you have my first hat, that I got when I completed my first 5k. On the right is one I picked up for the 10k run. On the left we have one that Danny got me for my birthday.  It’s odd it took me almost a year to get my first running hat and in the last 6 weeks I’ve gotten 3.

Today was the big day, today was the day I run my first Half-Marathon. While training for this run I read an article that said after you finish your first Half-Marathon you will either decided it’s not for you or you’ll get hocked. Well I’m officially hooked. My time today was 2 hours and 10 minutes and 32 seconds. That beat my personal goal of 2:15, though it has me thinking of changing my time-table for running a full marathon. When I came to the part of the course where you could either keep going straight for the half, or turn right for the full marathon, part of me was tempted to take the  turn. I wouldn’t have, but I had always planned on running a full next September (2012), now I’m wondering if I might not want to run it this September (2011).  I’m sure reason will set in and I’ll settle for trying to beat 2 hours on the half this fall, but I have to admit I’m tempted by the full 42.2km.

Continue reading “POD: Half-Marathon Day (2:10:32)”

Today was Race Prep day. We picked up the race kit at the Running expo and when we got home Melissa and the Kids made a sign to bring to the finish line. It’s very exciting to think that tomorrow morning I’ll run my first Ha;f Marathon. I would write more, but it’s late and I need to sleep so I’ll be well rested for the big event.

Last week before my big 10k run, I found my way to the a couple of Running Room Stores. There I got a bunch of Goo which I shared last week and some other things. It’s the other things that I’m sharing today. My new Running Belt, Hat and Shoes. It’s great to be running with new shoes again and having a belt to hold my phone when I run is so much better. Of course I’ve got some more new running stuff, but you’ll have to wait for another day to see them.