Friday, 27 June 2008

Reality Bites....

After great angst, I finally had to make myself sit down and re-cap the year so far, concerning my running expenses.

  1. January ~ Phoenix ~ for the weekend!!

  2. February ~ start marathon training : more winter running clothes, ran through three pair of Saucony's, not to mention gels, bars, groceries (yes, I gained weight, oink) and sports drinks.

  3. March ~ Trip to Hamilton for the 30K Around the Bay.

  4. April ~ Chiropractor visits and massage therapy....

  5. May ~ more chiropractor visits and new running clothes for warmer weather. Oh yes, another pair of Saucony's.
Would you care for a little cheese with that whine Lily...????

So, here we are in June and I want to start training for my first Try-a-Tri. Well, this is where reality fits in, dang, I really hate reality....because I bring it upon myself....

  1. July ~ Utica 15K Boilermaker, wooo hooo!

  2. September ~ The first ever, Army Run Half Marathon.
  3. September ~ Toronto Half Marathon, meeting up with Vickie and Tiger!
So, the Tri ~ It's not going to happen this year!

  1. Don't have a proper bike, need to get one,
  2. Get a bathing suit, goggles, cap etc....
  3. Entry fees,
  4. Getting a bike rack to get me there,
  5. More groceries, hahahaha
  6. Kaching....!!!!
However, being the proactive type of person I am....I'm bringing the mountain to Mohamed!!

Yes, we are going to have the Very First Ever Duathlon with the Woooo Hoooo Girl Friends in August at my place with our Mountain Bikes!


We might even throw in a swim which would in fact turn it into a Tri! How great is that?

I feel a party coming on!

Nothing better than the Wooo Hooo's, running, biking, swimming and a Pot Luck Barbecue afterwards!



I love summer!

Life's fun if you don't weaken!

Lily

Monday, 23 June 2008

Keep Believing

Recently I was given this lovely little book for my birthday by a very good running friend.

I just love books where you open the pages at random and read the messages in no particular order. I believe that the universe opens the pages for you and you read what you need to read at that particular moment.

Day after day I read different excerpts but somehow I keep coming back to this particular passage, (and no, I haven't dogeared the page, nor spilled margarita mix or used a gooey peanut buttered finger to mark the page!)

I thought I would share it with you and oddly enough, it is the title of the book!

Keep Believing in Yourself and Your Dreams

Every goal that has ever been reached began with just one step...and the belief that it could be attained.


Dreams really can come true, but they are most often the result of hard work, determination and persistence.

When the end of the journey seems impossible to reach, all you need to do is take one more step.

Stay focused on your goal and remember that each small step will bring you a little closer.

When the road becomes hard to travel and it feels as if you'll never reach the end...

Look deep inside your heart and you will find strength you never knew you had.

Jason Blume


Life's fun if you don't weaken

Lily

Friday, 20 June 2008

Catching Up

What a week, I felt like I was on the fast train to Crazy Town!

You have them too, the weeks where nothing gets done quickly. The "guy" in the office who is a total pain is in rare form, (I even check to see if there is a full moon when he starts to ramp up).

The yard work is falling way behind because of the crazy rain and thunderstorms we've been having all week. (oh by the way, I did not take the photo of the storm seen in my Wordless Wednesday, as much as I'd like to take credit for it, I can not tell a lie.) And I haven't even started training for my Tri.

Running three days per week is the sanity I need and I have to say, I'm loving the commitment to the group I run with. Our mileage is starting to increase which is great, I just love the longer runs.

So here I am, catching up with life;

Last week, the ever lovely Kim and Archaeologist student extraordinaire Xenia tagged me.

So I'll try my best to answer the questions:

1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?

I wasn't running the way I run now. I was running very quickly away from becoming a person I didn't want to be. I made the decision to go single, bought my own house and had to deal with a major health issue. I always say I "lost 225 lbs" that year by becoming single!

2. What is your best and worst run/race experience?

My best running experience was my first 10K race over six years ago, well, other than my marathon in May. I had no "formal" training for my first 10K race and I just wanted to run.

My running friends were really fast and wanted me to run it in an hour, I almost did too, my chip time was 1:02:27. 10K seemed like such a long way back then.

When I run 10Ks now, I'm reminded. It IS a long way.

My worst running experience was a training run for the marathon this past winter. It was a really cold, windy day, I think it was a 26 or 27K run. The last 5 or 6K were straight into the wind and there were freezing ice pellets. I couldn't catch my breath and I just wanted to cry, but a running friend dropped back to keep me company and that made it more bearable.

3. Why do you run?

Running challenges my inner strength and mental well being. I've always been very competitive, riding show horses. Running for me is social, it allows me to challenge myself, I've learned to be more accepting of my strengths and weaknesses and there is no one to blame but me if I have a bad run. I am very spiritual and running allows me to do a lot of reflecting when I'm out for a long run, I've been very blessed in my life.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?

I really don't remember anything in particular being the best or the worst (so far). I take everything in, mull it over, filter it through and do what I can.

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.

I'm actually kind of shy.

I KNOW, who knew!!!

But I always love an adventure. If no one else wants to go and do things with me, I just do them on my own and I'm quite happy with that!!!


Well, it's not earth shattering information is it? But that's me and that's why I run!!

Have a great weekend everyone, good luck to all of you racing, running, cycling or Tri-ing!!

Life's fun if you don't weaken,
Lily

Monday, 16 June 2008

Wild Weather, Wild Weekend and even Wilder Friends!

Don't know what the heck is going on with the weather this past week, but we have been having Wicked Thunderstorms! Yesterday afternoon we had one heck of a storm that lasted for hours, houses were hit and destroyed, trees branches were down and we even had power outages.

Monday afternoon was no exception, so I'm trying to post this early Tuesday morning...hey, where did my coffee go?

Luckily we had planned for our girls day on Saturday even though the weather forecast was calling for rain. We were so lucky, nary a rain drop fell. We even had hazy sun for most of the afternoon.

Once we unpacked all the food and beverages, raspberry vodka and pineapple juice was poured, we headed for the dock and some rays.





Glenda, Nancy, Barb and Anne


Our little group of friends have been through it all, as life goes. Happiness, sadness, loss of friends, family members and jobs, health issues, elderly parents, but through it all we have had much laughter, actually, laughter until we've cried. We have shared many experiences, travels, training and races but most of all we have made fabulous memories together.

We were missing one of our Wooo Hooo friends, Brenda, due to an emergency appendectomy earlier in the week! We missed you Brenda....get better soon!

Because of our busy schedules with family, jobs and training for events, we try to get together to just chill'x a couple of times a year, this being one of them. It's always pot luck and everyone converges with some sort of cocktail recipe to boot.

Normally the food venue is very organised and this causes us to bring the same sort of salad time after time. However, this time I said, well if we all bring Caesar salad so be it. In my subliminal mind this would make us to come up with something quite different.

It worked!! We had an amazing assortment of different salads and snacks, along with an assortment of meat for the barbecue. (Although we did forget about dessert, sorry Barb).

Some of us, who shall remain nameless were adventurous enough to go swimming! The water was beautiful, cool and refreshing!

After our swim and much laughter we headed back up to the house to try out Anne's new Martini recipe!



Cheers!!!




Nancy, Anne, Glenda, guess who and Jen







It was one of those days were we all just kicked backed, laughed, told stories of past races and shared fears and hopes for up coming events. They were even trying to talk me into an Olympic distance instead of a Try-a-Tri, girls, give it up, I don't have a proper bike for that!!!

The day flew by, what with the stories, a few more and various cocktails, we headed back up to the deck to fire up the barbecue. Chicken marinated in a fantastic sauce, salmon with peppercorns and onion, potatoes and of course a wonderful selection of salads.

We were so lucky with the weather, it was warm and pleasant and we had no bugs! Our meal was out on the deck over looking the water, WOW!!

Our day concluded with a final visit to the dock to watch the sunset, while the fishermen were out in their boats for the last catch of the day.

















End of the day on the dock, we left a space between Glenda and I for Brenda,

Nancy and Anne with Minnie

It was one of those "you had to be there" days, hard to explain but we had a GREAT time.

Thanks everyone, you are truly the best friends I could have ever met.



June Sunset

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

p.s. My personal favourite cocktail of the day was one I stole from Carly

Recipe for Beer Margaritas (oh, let's think up a name for this)

1 Cup Tequila

4 Beers

1 Can of limeade

lots of ice!!

Mix and serve cold.

thanks Carly!!

Woooo Hoooo Saturday!

Due to the extreme weather system that went through our area yesterday I could not post about our Saturday get together. Pictures and stories to follow later today!!

Woooo Hoooo

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily