Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Some Snaps

I've nothing important to share, but felt it was time to empty my phone of some #100happydays photos. So...

Day 53
A nice sign.
Day 54
Obviously an old photo, but the discovery of it made me happy.
Day 55
Bedtime tea.
Day 56
Early morning runs along the waterfront. The photo doesn't do
it justice, but the mountains were stunning!
Day 57
Early morning spins.
Day 58
A delicious red coconut curry from Foo.
Day 59
Such a high energy dog!
Day 60
#FatGuyFriday (or in my case, #FatGirlFriday I suppose)
Day 61
Mt. Fin summits and awesome trail runs with the sis.
Day 62
Sunday morning strolls.
Day 63
Yum.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Run. Whales. Shattered. Photos. Friday.

1) I did a fartlek workout a little over a week ago that I'm still thinking about – because it went really well! It's nice when that happens.

So, the workout. Essentially it was about a 1km loop (just over?). On the first section of the loop we were to hit half marathon race pace. Next section was 10k race pace, 3rd section was 5k race pace, and then we closed out the loop with a short little easy section. The half and 10k portions were pretty similar in length I think, and the 5k and easy sections decidedly shorter.

I wasn't wearing a Garmin, and actually never looked at my watch the whole time I was running, I just hit the lap button on my Timex at the start of each section, and well, here is how things shook out:

Loop 1 = 1:54 ~ 1:40 ~ :39 ~ easy
Loop 2 = 1:55 ~ 1:40 ~ :39 ~ easy
Loop 3 = 1:50 ~ 1:41 ~ :39 ~ easy
Loop 4 = 1:54 ~ 1:40 ~ :39 ~ easy

When I looked at my times after the fact, I was pretty pumped and pleased with myself for how evenly paced and consistent I was through each of the 4 loops. Definite win!

2) I was up in Ucluelet this past weekend with Shane. On the Saturday, we went out on his friend's boat for a little west coast adventuring.  We explored some beaches you can only get to by boat, wandering the quiet trails and taking in the atmosphere of the area. We saw sea lions and seals and eagles and cormorants (I think) and all sorts of nature.




The highlight however was coming across a pod of maybe a dozen gray whales. We cut the engine on the boat and sat drifting as the whales got closer and closer. At first you could just see the spray from their breath in the distance. Eventually you could start to make out their backs and tail flips as they surfaced. They grew bigger and bigger as they got nearer and nearer and before we knew it, they were all around us. It was a really cool and stunningly beautiful experience. I'm not sure I've ever said “WOW” so many times in one afternoon.

3) On Tuesday morning I went to the Loft for a bike workout + core session, as I usually do on Tuesday mornings. I'm not sure if it was the time change or just fatigue from a weekend away, but when my alarm went off that morning it startled me awake, and honestly, if I hadn't preregistered, I probably would not have gone. So, needless to say, I went into the workout a bit tired. Couple that with the fact that it was a pretty challenging workout, and well, I was absolutely shattered at the end of it!

As such, it's been a bit of an easier week for me on the workout front. It was nice to leave a workout feeling like I gave it absolutely everything I had, but my body felt pretty ko'd after the fact and my motivation to do much other than easy workouts since has been pretty nil.

Perhaps I'm actually getting better at this whole "listening to your body" thing.

4) I'm over half way through #100happydays version 2.0.

Day 39
New shoes!
Day 40
The arrival of a photo album I made of the Rustbeast.
Day 41
Remnants of one delicious candy apple.
Day 42
Winter (Spring?) blooms.
Day 43
Socks with no holes - oh yeah.
Day 44
After weeks of driving past DQ every night and massive
blizzard cravings, I finally gave in and treated myself.
Day 45
A good reminder.
Day 46
Early morning trainer rides.
Day 47
Just one of the reason I'm looking forward to life on the edge of the island.
Day 48
And another. We need to get some kayaks, stat.
Day 49
I've seen lots of these little libraries popping up around town
lately, and well, I think they are very cool.
Day 50
Drizzly morning walks to work.
Day 51
Looking through old photos is always fun.
Surprisingly my weekend 'around-the-yard' attire hasn't really changed.
 Day 52
A lovely evening walk with Maggie Mae. She's been nice
enough to fill the dog-shaped hole in my heart this week.

HAPPY FRIDAY FRIENDS!