Hey Gang

June where, oh where is the time going?? This month my goal is to try to get some speed into my running, I must get faster! I have already started this week to do some HIIT training, along with hill intervals...I hope that will do it!

NEXT!

I cannot believe it is already JUNE! I have about 5 weeks left of my program...although...there is a 5k at the end of June in my hometown so I may get high hopes and try to do it before I am done...OVERACHIEVER...haha.

Is it running if I only averaged 5 miles per hour?

Abssolutely!! I rarely run faster than that... Susan in my book if you're going faster than a fast walk it's running

Susan: Yes it is!!! We all run at different speeds, but unless I am racing, I average somewhere between 8-9KM per hour which is in the neighbourhood of 5 miles per hour!

Ilene, I saw in last month's thread that you did the 10K last weekend. How did you find it? A lot of people at work and I know through running participated, they wished they coralled the runners better and that there were more water stations. I went and saw my DF run the half marathon on Sunday... That weather was brutal, way too hot... I went in the shade and rested when I could.

right now.... still not running. I do plan on starting back in about 10 weeks!


Cheers!

Ali

Ali, yes I did run, I enjoyed the run and surprisingly being surounded by 4000 people didn't bother me. My time was horrible though 1:13 I did better in my very first race which was a 10k 2 years ago! But I will blame it on the heat and the race being held at 6:30PM. I was definitely tired after a full day of shopping and I do not do well in heat at the best of times. I also didn't sleep well the night before because of the excietment I guess ... YES there definitely could have been more water stations!! There was one at the 5k point and one at the 8k, I think it was... There should have been some at the very least every 2k... You say that your friends said that "they wished they coralled the runners better", I'm not sure what you mean ... But all in all it was a great experience and I will definitely do it again next year but I will bring a water bottle ...

Ilene: yeah I didn't think that came out right. A lot of major races will corall runners by their estimated race times. The MDS Nordion will make sure the elite level runners are at the start line, but that's about it. I did the Boilermaker in Utica NY last year and they made our bibs different colours based on our estimated times, it made the race work very well, the only bummer since I was at the back it took forever to cross the start line, but it was worth it!

As for water, Eek 5K? yuck, the last 10K I did had a water station about every 1.5KMs (it was a small race though) and that was great. I also did a 10K once with one water stop at 5K (and of course that was the race I forgot the water bottle).

Nobody I talked to had a personal best over the weekend at whatever race they were at so don't worry about it! You did well regardless and it's hard to race in heat when you're used to cooler weather.

Take care!

Ali

Here I am in the Ottawa 10k race last weekend, I look fat

Guess what ladies---I ran my first race today!!! I'm so proud of myself! I ran a 5k in 31:19. I'm just happy that I finished, but I ended up 274 out of 1225. I had no clue what to expect of the whole event! Ali, I couldn't agree more with starting people according to their expected finish time. I thought I'd be one of the worst runners there, so I started toward the back. Little did I know that I would actually be passing people! Me? Passing people? There were big groups walking, and it seemed like they started way toward the front, and they travelled in herds, so it was so hard to pass them. Anyway, I just completed the Couch to 5k about a month ago. I'm very pleased with my first 5k. My goal time was 33 minutes. Yeah for running!!

Oh, and Ilene--you absolutely do not look fat!!!

Congrats on your first 5K and exceeding your time, Iowasteph!

Ilene- You do not look fat! You look so fit and strong and I think that is the greatest combination!

My shin splints are s-l-o-w-l-y healing so hopefully I will be back to my regular running schedule in a couple of weeks! Keep up the good work everyone!

Steph that's awesome time for your first 5k ...

Thanks so much!! I really had doubts on running the race. The thought of spending money to run somewhere just seemed silly to me! But...I'm glad I did it, and I'll surely run some more. Thanks again, and thanks for inspiring me!

Steph, that's a fab time, well done!

It was my half today and it felt MUCH harder than my last one, even though half of it was exactly the same course. I was hoping to finish in around 1:50 and I was on track for that up to about 7 miles then I got a blister and my legs decided to give out on me. I managed to get back in 1:54 which is still just about a PB (a minute or so quicker than last time), but I wish I'd been able to carry on past half way. It was the hottest weather I've ever run in though (I didn't run outside last summer, and it's been the hottest weekend of the year so far here), and I've had a dodgy knee all week which can't have helped.

Not much running this week probably between recovering from that and preparing for a 10k on Sunday. Then that's probably my last race before the marathon in September. I like doing races, but they mess around with my schedule too much really and I want to go back to building up slowly and steadily rather than trying to fit long runs round race weekends.

And Ilene, you don't look fat

Look at those little black shorts! That's not fat, my friend!

I did 1.8 km in 13 minutes this morning. I think I'll go mark off 2 kms just for good measure. A nice round number.