Race Day Prep

This week's post for Running & Reading Long is about what we need to do to prepare for race day.  Since my race is a 5K, it's not too complicated in terms of fueling.  However, I did learn a couple things from my first race that I need to keep in mind this time.

1. Have all the clothes out the night before, including water bottles and snacks for after the race.  This was really helpful the morning of my first race as I wasn't in my own home, and it will be the same this time.
2. Don't eat "junk food" the night before the race!  With my first race I went to the drive-in the night before and ate things I wouldn't normally eat like nachos and cheese.
3. Drink lots of water the day before the race.  Refer to #2, nachos and cheese plus other salty foods and not a lot of water the day before the race meant I ended up with a stitch in my side.  I'm guessing that this is what caused the stitch and that by following #2 and #3 I can avoid it (or at least minimize it) this time around
4. Take your heart rate monitor and watch.  I want to pace myself this time, as my goal is to complete the race in under 30 minutes.

I think those are the key things for me this time around.  Of course, I expect I'll learn something new this time and will just keep adding to my growing "running" knowledge.

My focus this week and next is running.  I've put my cross-training on hold, and I'm really trying to get out for my runs.  Which is a bit tough with dates and work getting in the way and/or making me very, very tired.  At least the heat is breaking a bit today, so that will help with my run tonight.  And with these runs I'm trying to extend the time spent running, and walking less frequently.  I think this will help build my endurance for August 5th!

This race is going to be fun, and I'm a bit nervous as I'm not 100% sure I'll make it in under 30 minutes and my Mom is planning on coming to watch too.

Vacations

I love being on vacation - getting away from work, and away from my normal surroundings.  Last week I was on vacation and had a fantastic week.
Started off on Saturday in Burlington at the Country, Blues and BBQ.  Not a fan of country music, so was a bit disappointed there weren't more Blues bands.  However, the company was great.  My good friend Elizabeth, her husband Keith and their daughter Daisy (10 months old and super sweet!).  And the boy joined us as well.  Yes, he is still around, and I'm feeling more certain and a little less uncertain as the weeks have been going by.
Sunday I packed up and headed to my parent's place.  Always enjoy my time there.  Swimming, kayaking, hiking, day trips to Peterborough and North Bay.  Saturday I went in to Peterborough to meet the boy and one of his friends for dinner/drinks, and a movie (Dark Knight Rising - which was good and I understood what was going on inspite of not seeing the two movies before it).  Sunday we met his friend for a very late breakfast (or in my case lunch as I had a burger and fries), and checked out the Peterborough zoo.

A zoo that's free!  Not huge, but they have a splash pad for the kids and regular play equipment, lots of park area to hang out in, plus animals of course.  We were there in lots of time to see the otter feeding which was fun, and inspite of the heat the animals were out.  I'd definitely recommend the zoo as a great outing for a family.  It's small enough that no one gets bored or too tired, and lots of space for kids to run around.

Back to work this week (boo!), but looking forward to an extra long, long weekend at the beginning of August.

A Life Changer

This week's post for Running and Reading Long, is about overcoming big challenges, life changing challenges.  I'm not sure what to write about.  I've had a couple major challenges in my life, or at least ones I felt were challenges, but I'm not 100% sure that I actually want to share either of them.
Big, deep, breath - here we go:

One of my biggest challenges came in the middle of high school.  I was overweight (by a lot), unhappy, and the people I thought were my friends really weren't.  I was so unhappy that I seriously considered what life would be like for my family if I just wasn't around anymore.  Luckily, I think a lot before I do anything and like to gather lots of information too.  And as a typical teenager I watched a lot of television.
One day I was unhappy, and bumming around on the couch watching talk shows.  I can't remember which talk show it was, but they were talking about "Choice Theory".  The basic premise of which is that everything is a choice, even if the circumstances are out of your control you can still choose how you react to them and deal with them (or not!).
From that moment on "Choice Theory" has played a huge role in my life.  I started being conscious of the choices I was making on a daily basis, big and small.  I started to try and make choices that I thought would make me happy.  Some were small, like choosing what to listen to or wear, to big things like telling my "friends" that if they didn't want me around I wasn't going to bother with them anymore.

Since that day, I've looked at everything as a choice, and I strongly believe that my choices should be things that make me happy, or at least make me less unhappy.  This has led to some incredible experiences like travelling to Manila, Philippines for work three times, weight training with an amazing trainer and loosing almost 100 lbs, going to lovely warm weather destinations with girl friends and having a blast.  Dating is a bit tougher, as I can choose which guys I want to date, but I don't have as much control there :)  But I do my best to control my reactions to what they decide to do/not do, and so far I've been relatively happy with those choices.
I can't think of any choice I've made since that fateful day that I've regretted.  It's amazing to live a life knowing that I'm capable of making choices that I won't regret, and that make my life that much better.  I still have those sad moments, and do give in to not great choices at those times (usually sugar/chocolate related), but they are few and far between.

We finished reading Matt Long's Long Run this week, and I would definitely recommend this book to everyone!  My favourite part matches my belief in choice theory, and I found it so inspiring.  The day he finally decided to stop moping around, and took control of how he was reacting to his injuries and recovery.  I felt so great for him when I read that section of the book.  He proved that how I live my life can be applied to even the most devastating/tough circumstances.

As for my running - the heat has finally broken, and I'm back on track to be able to run the 5K in under 30 minutes the first weekend in August.  Although I've come to the realization of the past three weeks that hot weather plus dating does not equal great nights of sleep.  And lack of sleep means I'm not willing to get up for the early morning workouts.  So this week my schedule has changes to after work workouts followed by a late and very light dinner.

Hope everyone else enjoyed Matt's book and the running is going really well!