2011 Year of Running

Copies from Marlene who was inspired my Miss Zippy

1) Best race experience? I would have to say the Ottawa Marathon in May. I had been trying to break that 4:00 marathon time and this was #4. It was a humid race at the start, then we had pouring rain. I ran through that finish line and broke 4 hours. Arms in the air I was thrilled. It was a good race, ran the whole thing. Steady pace throughout. Good day! I since ran a faster race but nothing compares to finally getting that 4 off the clock. Oh and I qualified for Boston too!

2) Best run? Probably Rebecca's Run for SMA this summer. It was a PR in the 5K but more than that, I paced my girlfriend's 15 year old daughter Marisa to an awesome PR and a 2nd place age group finish!

3) Best new piece of gear? Definitely the Nike+ GPS Sportswatch

4) Best piece of running advice you received?
Not sure it was advice but something I remember "It's a 20 mile warmup and a 6.2 mile race."

5) Most inspirational runner? This year, without question it has to be Ethan Zohn....New York City Marathon while under chemo treatment for relapsed Hodgkins Lymphoma.....

6) If you could sum up your year in a couple of words, what would they be? I have shown myself this year that anything is possible!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I've Been Hacked!

My computer was hacked. I was at work the other day and two co-workers sent me emails saying that they'd received a scam email from me from my yahoo account....thing is, I don't have a yahoo account. So I quickly log into my email through the email providers website. I see there's an email from facebook saying that I've added a second email to my account and if that's ok don't do anything, if not, click on the link provided.

I can't get into facebook from work so rush down to the internet cafe, log back in and email gone.... Another friend calls me to tell me that he's chatting with the guy on FB. I've been locked out of facebook as after that new email he created got added, he took my email off. I no longer had access. He also disabled my wall so no one could post.

I tried to get facebook to shut him down but it wasn't taking my email, so of course it took a while to figure that out and to put the fake email in. Page finally got frozen.

Called my internet/email provider and had them reset the password and remove the info he had put in. He was having all my emails responding to the fake yahoo account and any replies I typed looked like they were coming from the yahoo account.

The friend that was chatting with him on facebook gave him a run for sure and the exchanges were quite interesting to read. It was a Nigerian money scam I'm guessing. The appropriate reporting was done as well.

Here's what got sent out through email to my contacts and facebook friends, and what he was saying to people on facebook.

Hello ,

I'm writing to let you know about our trip to Hayes United Kingdom has been a mess. We were having a great time until last night when we got mugged and lost all our cash,credit card cell phone.It has been a scary experience, I was hit at the back of my neck with a pistol gun.

Anyway,I'm still alive and that's what's important. I'm financially strapped right now and need your help.As we speak i need $1250 to add up and sort my bills,don't worry i will def refund it as soon as we get home.

You can get the $1250 or some part of it,to me via western union as it takes only few minutes for the money to get across to me,below are my details needed to send the money;

Receivers Name: XX
Receivers Location: XX

You should send me the below details as soon as you sent the money using western union as suggested;

Sender's Name:

Amount Sent:

Western Union Claim #(MTCN):

I promise to reimbursed your money including the transfer charges back to you as soon as i return home safely.

Thanks
Rob.

So spent the last couple of nights trying to get all the trojan viruses etc. off my computer. These guys can get access to your computer through these trojans, take over your computer completely. They work quickly and don't seem to stick around long.

Anyway, fun times for me! Certainly cutting into my running time though.

Oh on the bright side, I made my 30th blood donation today!

Pooped!

Well my training is back in gear, and last week I completed 31 miles, which included a 14 mile long run on Saturday. I know, that's not much for most marathon runners, who would consider that off season training mileage. But for me, that's all I can handle. I don't mean all I can run, heck I could double that no problem if I was able to get outdoors more. But since all of my week night runs are on the treadmill, I can't possibly face mid week 10 mile runs....not without having therapy to go along with it, as surely I'd lose my mind.

My plan actually only has me go as high as 45 miles, and that's only once! It's not a lot of mileage but it seems to work for me. I qualified for Boston (almost twice...missed this year's by 4 seconds), and I keep achieving PR's so I stick with the plan, at least until I can get outdoors. Here's the snapshot of my marathon performance, based on my Intermediate Level 1 training plan





Now that I'm heading to Boston though, I am trying to pull up my socks a bit and while I can't increase my mileage, I can try and increase my speed.

What I have changed is that I've started interval training this cylce. The plan always called for intervals, I just ignored it. That's not to say I did no speed work, I try to register for 5K races, and try to increase my speed on the treadmill so that my fastest running is at the end of a run. There's certainly benefit to that. I'm not going to change those things but I am going to add the intervals as well.

So far I've done 3 interval runs, and boy they're tiring. Last night I was supposed to do 5 x 3 minute intervals in a 5 mile run. I could only muster 3. I was just too tired. After the 31 miles last week, the first heavier week of training, I was just too pooped. I'm not giving up though, I'll continue and wait and see what Boston brings me in April!

Happy Training!

All Things Santa!

Amelia is officially ready for Santa! The letter is written/mailed and the visit to Santa at the mall is complete (a very long and slow process there). I always keep a photocopy of the letter, figuring she may want to see them when she's older. She's asked Santa for a Nintendo DSi XL and the "if you can't make it" statement refers to Santa's ability to "manufacture" the product. I told her that he may not know how to make those. Good thing she has a back up plan....to manufacture a camera...





As for running, I did my first 14 mile run yesterday. That's the farthest I've run (in one run) since the Scotiabank Marathon in October. Now I feel like I'm back in the swing of things!

I received an email from the race directors for the Angus Glen Spring 10 Miler as registration is open. I have to say, that I'm a little sad I can't compete. This is the 4th annual and I've participated every year since it started. It was my first 10 mile race and maybe even run.... It's a great, hilly workout through the golf course at the Angus Glen Golf Club. They give out a great jacket, and the swag bag is usually awesome! Lots of good stuff. It's nice to have lockers, showers and a great meal afterward too.

Why can't I run it this year? It's the same weekend as Boston.... As much as I'm excited about running Boston, I have to say I'm more bummed about missing this race...for some reason it's really bugging me. I guess it's because of Easter, it's that weekend or none...darn.

But anyone looking for a great spring tune up race...the 10 miler is awesome. It's expensive but totally worth the money (in my opinion).

Oh I noticed that they've put information about the jacket on the web page. I know there were some complaints in the past as every year, the jacket is a new style so sizing changed. Last year the jackets fit big but the year prior, they fit small. So the end result was that last year, a lot of women received jackets that were way too big for them. It's a great idea to post the sizing of the jackets on the web page. It seems that the women's jackets will be white and the men's will be black.