Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

This eye. Times two. Polarized sunglasses makes it even more striking. But I don't complain, it's my own augmented reality. Just like Instagram.

The reality of my bike rides is that I can't get enough of the beauty of our countryside and oftentimes I take photos while I ride, in the hope of improving my bike handling skills. Or so I think. I also improve the chances of either my phone or my head hitting the pavement as well, but when you ride for a lot of miles, your memories start to get fuzzy and what better way of reviving them other than looking at pretty pictures?

Next week we will be going with our tri club, the FMCT to Muskoka for a training/chillaxing weekend and given that we want to take the advantage of being "on site" to ride the Muskoka 70.3 bike course, we had to ramp up our outdoor rides to a mileage that can guarantee that we're not going to die on those hills. As a reminder, there are 94km of those mother effing hills and not a single break in between.

Given how winter lingered around these parts, we've only been outside on our bikes less than a dozen times, but we've made good progress and kept adding about 10-20km to our long rides and almost doubled the elevation each time.

Last week we tackled 60km and a total elevation of 460m. That profile doesn't look too friendly, does it? But I loved every moment of it. That was Caledon East.

The weather kept changing which made for some interesting photo opportunities. I snapped away and in over two hours, we went from cold and rainy to a gorgeous sunshine that almost put the fields on fire. On a second thought, these may have been dandelions which soon are going to end up my nose and in my mouth. Reminder: stop grinning for the damn camera and close your mouth when you ride your bike.

Drama in the sky

Gold farm

Yesterday we went on our longest ride to date (the pattern is going to continue, please bear with me). It was a perfect day, not too hot, no rain, just a bit of cross winds, but nothing upsetting. This time we chose Caledon West to keep it interesting.

Add 740m of elevation that looks like the elephant inside the snake in the Little Prince. I have no words for this ride. It was just.... wow. Speed, sweat and sun. Nuff said.

Look, I found the elephant!

Does this hill make me look bad ass?

The long hilly road ahead

Next weekend I will most likely be crying in pain, but for now I am looking at these pictures and I am thankful for being able to ride my bike and discover new places, new gears and new muscles in my calves. Life is beautiful. To stay with the Little Prince theme, "it is only with the heart that one can see rightly. The essential is invisible to the eye". Despite the polarized glasses and Instagram, I have been looking within my heart and it longs for the outdoors and adventure. I am learning every day to embrace the moments that flee too fast in life and riding my bike makes those moments last, at least as long as a triathlon season.

Speaking of which, I signed up for another olympic triathlon, less than a month from now. I want to be out there and feel my heart racing with the wind. I want freedom from all the bad thoughts that come haunt my brain more often than necessary these days. This is one of the magic pills and it works for me. I'll keep snapping pictures to document this journey, I know it's all worth it.

Free Stuff Giveaway: the results are in!

This was a lot easier than I thought. We got a whooping number or 13 comments on the giveaway post, out of which 8 were draw entries and 3 were my own ramblings. I put everyone's name in an Excel spreadsheet to make as official as I could, then I went to the random.org website where I used the random number generator to find the winners.

Since there were two hats and only two entries for these, that made it straightforward enough, we have two winners!! Mihai and Marga will both get a technical Running Room hat.

For the Under Armour tshirt, there were also two entries, but only one shirt, so I had to use the random generator. Man, the computer took much longer than I thought to give me that number. It ended up being 1, so the tshirt will go to Fran!

As for the New Balance tank top, we had 4 entries and 2 tops, so I worked that random number generator twice. Below are all the results.

That means Cori and Marga will get a tank top each! Sorry Julia and Jenny, it looks like it wasn't the day for the letter J. 

If you are a winner send me your address by email to ririnette [at] gmail [dot] com. Thank you all for participating, it was fun to put this draw together. Have a great weekend!!

Free Stuff Giveaway

Right off the bat, I wanna tell you guys that this isn't going to happen very often. First, I have received no compensation from these companies that I'll be talking about today. The stuff that I'm giving away I either received as a gift, I won or I redeemed, but often with things that come for free, you don't have much of a choice. I could have sold these things or donate them to a thrift store, but since they are pretty good quality and people reading my blog could benefit from them, why not. Everything I am giving away today is brand new and has never been worn before. But let's get started, so I can get it over with before I go to my job interview. And yes, I am writing this post as therapy since I am anxious out of my mind and I feel a panic attack coming any minute now. I need a distraction before noon and this is a good one.

Here's what I am talking about. Looks like Christmas yet?

1. Two New Balance Lightning Dry® Tank Tops M (women's)
2. Under Armour Technical Tshirt XL (women's).
3. Two Running Room caps.

More details below.

1. Two New Balance Lightning Dry® Tank Tops M (women's)
Sometime at the beginning of the year, Kellogg's started this campaign to give out technical tank tops made by New Balance if you were eating enough of their cereal. We don't eat cereal, but we eat lots of cereal bars, which were also good in this promotion. So we bought 4 boxes, we got a tank top. And I really liked it. I got mine early, a size S. And then we ate more cereal bars. And redeemed more tank tops. But by the second and third time, there were no more small sizes left, so I asked for medium, already thinking about you, my blog readers. Therefore I have two extra tank tops, that are too big for me.

I wore mine during the Run4Hope 5K race as you can see below. It's very light, it stays put (does not ride up) and indeed, it dries lightning fast. And I got a PR and second in my age group in it. I bet it has some magical powers that you'll have to discover as you wear it.

I took more pictures of my tank top, as a reminder, I did not open the other ones, they are still in their baggies and not very sexy looking when you point a camera at them.

There is a reflective New Balance logo on the top right and a Special K on the back between the shoulder blades, really not that big, it didn't bother me at all. Given my camera's inability to choose a proper RGB combination, you will have to take my word on the color combo: the tank top is made of a red front panel and a back burgundy (dark red) one. 

Again, both tank tops are a size M and I would say that they are good for sizes 8-12, depending how snug of a fit you want. I am not small (134lb, 5'3" and I have a healthy chest), but the small fit well, so now you have a reference point.

2. Under Armour Technical Tshirt XL (women's).
My mom bought me this tshirt from France and I'm pretty sure she spent good money on it. It's incredibly soft, light and I'm sure I could fold it and fit it into a Kinder Surprise egg. Ok, maybe not that small, but you get the idea. It feels very comfy to wear, the only problem is that it's 3 sizes too big for me. Mom didn`t get the memo that I lost 30lb, but I'm sure she meant well.

As for the color, I'm sure that you must be rather puzzled by now, but my camera didn't quite know what to do with it, again. I would say that the following picture (with the tank top) is probably the most accurate. It's... green-yellow-ish.
By reading the sticker on the front, it appears that it has built-in sun protection as well, so you won't need to put on sunscreen underneath. D'uh. It has two Under Armour logos, in the front and on the back, both I believe are retro-reflective.
Last thing about this thsirt, it's pretty big, but not huge. I don't think it fits my husband for example, so I'd say maybe a women's size 12-14. Below I put the tank top that I described above (size S) on top so you can see the difference.

3. Two Running Room caps.
These two I got when I went to the Around the Bay runners' expo and spun the wheel at the Running Room booth. Both my husband and I won one of these caps, but we have many others, so again, one of you may want one instead.  They are orange, I bet they dry fast as they are mostly made of mesh and have quite a few reflective logos.

The black lining is made of absorbent fabric (towel like) to prevent sweat from dripping into your eyes I suppose. A nice touch. They are size adjustable in the back so these look pretty unisex to me (or rather anysex).

Now, how do you get to win one of the above? You will have to leave me a comment for each item, if you want to participate to the draw for more than one. Of course, tell me which item you want in each post. Do NOT request more than an item by comment because it will make my brain hurt. Ideally, it would be nice to have some competition in the draw, or at least as many entries as there are items, so feel free to tweet about this giveaway or talk about it in your blog. I can understand if you don't want to, but some people like to live more dangerously than others. Or if you know someone who wants something but you don't, let them know. It's that easy. Tell them to come over and leave me a comment for a chance to get it.

Easy? Now get commenting! I hope someone will want something, if not, that's gonna be embarrassing.

You have until Saturday midnight (EST) to leave me a comment. I will come back with the results on Sunday.

Taking it easy

Almost a week has passed since my last race, the Goodlife Toronto Half Marathon and under orders from my coach, I did my best to stay put. Thankfully there has been enough excitement this week to keep me from going cuckoo. Here's a little update, with pictures, because I can't keep my phone away. It's like having a third eye, minus the wisdom.

As expected, Monday was slow. Woke up to very achy quads and hubbs suggested that I take some Advil. Oh the miracle, I found 3 gelcaps in a bottle, enough to last me the day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yum. I think they helped, mostly with going up and down the stairs without screaming Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

Whenever I'd find myself near the backyard, I'd go out and take a peek. For the first time ever, I have a flower bed and stuff is coming out of it! Living things, that I planted last fall and never thought they would survive the winter, with my luck and all. Since then, there are a lot more tulips in bloom, red and yellow ones.

Nature in progress

So that is going pretty well as you can see. Also, my baby Katsura tree is more beautiful than ever, in its third year of growing roots in my backyard. Since I am such a good mom, here I was giving it water because it was thirsty, and it smiled back with a rainbow.

Can I have a Unicorn with that?

It is a safe thing to say that aside from looking at the pretty flowers and rainbows (and my computer screen), I did nothing all day on Monday. A true lazy bum. On Tuesday, I picked up the pace, so to speak, which meant getting out of the house. The mission was to make it downtown Brampton with my camera and take pictures of the cherry blossoms. I started by going to Target to pick up a chess game to play with my sons, after they proudly announced that they have mastered the rules and it's now time for some face to face action.
After completing my mission of finding a decent looking chess board, I started making my way towards the cherry blossoms, one or two kms north on the Etobicoke Creek Trail. Hint, there is a creek running along it. I took a small break to retrieve a geocache and pause my thoughts for a bit.

Unfortunately, since the mosquitoes were already out and ready for a bloodbath, I decided to leave my reverie and continue on the path, onto safer grounds. Stopped for another cache, but after 20 minutes of turning over rocks under a bridge, I decided to give up. Too many possibilities, my patience ran away.
Eventually I found the Sakura and they were as beautiful as I had imagined. You definitely cannot compare them with those from High Park in Toronto, but they were good enough to lift my spirits and inspire me to take a few pictures.

It was all worth it. After I got tired of snapping away, I went for one last geocache, on the other side of the creek, inside a wooden area. It was quite fun, until I noticed prints on the ground. A lot of them. Not human. They didn't look like deer, they didn't look like raccoon, but something scarier, and rather BIG. I am no expert in wilderness, but I'll take a guess and say coyote. I decided to GET THE HELL OUT as quickly as I could.

For sure that got my heart racing. I am such a baby when it comes to facing anything that's faster than me and has long and sharp teeth. After feeling pavement under my feet again, I walked back to my car and returned to safety, aka curled up in a ball in my bed. Workout : almost 5k walk and a near cardiac arrest to make it count.

In the evening, I went back to the pool, for more pull. Did a repeat of Sunday night, swam until I was too dizzy to count the laps. On Wednesday I went for massage therapy and it was a beautiful sufferfest. Nuff said. He knows what he's doing, so I trust this man to give me new legs every single time. Came out of there refreshed and to prove it, took my bike out for a spin in the evening, my second outdoor ride this year. A very straightforward out and back, and seeing how I was zooming on my way out of the house, I figured that it was not going to be that easy coming back. Indeed, a fierce wind made the second half totally miserable. However, 25k in the bank, I did not complain. It needed to be done, it was on the schedule after all.

And then Thursday came and I woke up with no pain at all in my legs. That was the signal that I could run again. In the morning I had to go to a job interview (oh yes, things have started moving, hallelujah! Two more interviews next week!), which went very well. I was feeling quite joyful the whole day, so I put on my shorty shorts (another first!) and went for a 6k run, a quick and easy one, right? What I had not anticipated was that by the time I went out, there were already 27-28 degrees C, which made the day August material. With no water, I quickly got thirsty and the entire workout was a countdown to me drinking a tall, cold glass of water in the shade. I think it also made it faster than what I had planned, oh well, I didn't die and my legs didn't complain either.

Cooling down with a stretch and lots of water

Yellow as far as you can see. Thankfully I have no allergies.

And with another swim in the evening, the loop is now looped. I have reached the end of another hard week of training and racing and I can rest my bum on the good ol' couch, while I apply to jobs and enjoy the time off. Soon, I know that the madness will start again and I'm going to beg for 5 minutes of laziness.

UPDATE: Some people told me that those prints in the mud are rather those of a big dog, like a Great Dane or similar. What do you think?

PS. Totally unrelated: check out my Bling-bling page, new with my medal and race shirt collection. ;-)

2013 Goodlife Toronto Half Marathon Race Report

When I signed up for this race early in the year, I was planning on doing it as a training run for Welland 70.3, but since new coach came on board, things have changed a little. I was told that it wasn't a good idea to do the 70.3 in June, and that I should be aware of recovery times after each race and that everything I do this year has to be carefully planned so that Ironman Muskoka 70.3 in September is not jeopardized. Alright, I said, but I'm already signed up for a 30K, a 5K, a half marathon, all before June... can't I race just a little then? At Around the Bay, I only "raced" 10 of the 30K, but at the Run 4 Hope 5K I had no specific directions, so I went all out. Little I knew, the day of the 5K, I found out what coach had in mind, written on my May training plan:

I want you to train through the half marathon. Therefore there is no rest. You run on tired legs.

Damn. Shit's getting real. Okay then... keep calm and train on. I ran, I biked, I swam... I even went night geocaching again. On Saturday I had a 2h long bike in the morning (50km), then I had to drive downtown and pick up my race kit, then quickly come back and go to a BBQ with Zin. In pictures, the day went like this:

Yeah, I don't get it either.

Can you believe this weather?

The horses are out for a trot

I wish my flower bed looked like this

Direct Energy Centre, deserted outside, buzzing with athletes inside

Inside Direct Energy Centre

And finally, the runners' expo. You thought I'd never get to it, I bet.

Here's a picture of my BBQ dinner to make up for it.

Moving on, this pic is making me hungry. I only had about 15-20min to spend at the expo, as in my infinite wisdom I had parked the car about 2km away and I still had some serious walking and driving to do. So I picked up my bib and my t-shirt, had a quick chat with Alex at "Boston, we run with you" fundraiser booth, then went back home to shower and get ready for the BBQ. I would like to mention this initiative, started by Rob Kent, a member of a runners' Facebook group that I am part of, for giving people the opportunity to show their support to people of Boston and be able to help by donating money to Boston's Children Hospital in memory of Martin and all other young victims of this tragedy. I was definitely proud to pin my bib on this beautiful t-shirt:

Proud to be wearing yellow and blue

Sunday morning I set my alarm for 6:15am and planned to leave the house an hour later. No problems there, managed to get a decent sleep, I had very little to worry about. Funny how shorter races don't give you the butterflies as much. But it was the first time that I was racing the Goodlife Toronto Half Marathon, so I was excited to discover new running paths in the heart of the city. Despite getting this email the night before, I was relatively at peace with myself.

All I would ask of you is to try to negative split the race.

Wait a minute, a negative split?? How in hell am I going to do this? How can I beat gravity? So, not only I run on tired legs, coach wants me to negative split (I love you too, coach). I replied saying that I was going to "do my best" and honestly, that's all I could hope for. I had no idea how I was going to race, other than follow whatever my legs and heart would want to do. My lovely husband drove me to the start and dropped me off with about 15 minutes to spare. People had just started to gather in the corral and I looked for the 2:00 pace bunny, after all, this was my goal time. Then all of a sudden, people started moving back and I found myself just ahead of the 1:55 pacer. Interesting... was that a sign? I tweeted my friend Carol to join me, and she arrived just on time, seconds before the race started. With a hug, I told her that I was planning to average 5:30-5:40/km, but let the downhills do their thing.

And then there was no more thinking, only the rhythmic breathing, legs moving fast, watches beeping, the energy of the race immersing almost 5000 people. The first water station was at 2km, that was quick, I told myself. Shortly thereafter legs started to get ahead of themselves, so I told Carol that I was going with them! First three splits 5:33, 5:19, 4:51. Those downhills were fast, indeed. But before I knew it, Hoggs Hollow, a long, bloody beast of a hill appeared in front of me. I didn't even know it had a name until yesterday. I did my best to keep a strong and steady pace, but here the 1:55 pace bunny passed me. Gave myself a little pep talk, no need to fret, I'll make sure to stay ahead of the 2hr pacer. 

Hoggs Hollow on the horizon.

The first 10km went really fast, they were all on Yonge St., lots of people out cheering, even saw a band or two. I  decided not to stop at the water stations and drink my Metagenics Endura mix only. I was also taking 3 Clif Shot Blocks every 4km, so nutrition was going well. First 10k split: 53:19.

Right after we turned on Rosedale Valley Road, I caught up with the 1:55 pace bunny and I passed him!! That was also going to be the turning point of the race for me. Coach said to do a negative split, there was my chance, I'd better take it. Picked up the pace and decided to stay ahead of the 1:55 pace bunny for as long as I could, hopefully he was not going to catch up with me, or ... I don't know what I would have done, but a slingshot made out of my SpiBelt, sounded good enough to knock him out.

I really, really enjoyed this part of the race, too beautiful!! Alas it only lasted for 3km, then we arrived on Bayview Ave and it already had something of a home stretch with 6km left. I knew that we were going to get back on the streets of downtown Toronto, and then the crowds were going to take us home. Or something like that. The anticipation helped keep the adrenaline up. I did my best to keep my vitals in check and it looked like everything was holding up well. Not slowing down, I had a bunny on my tail! Actually, I don't even know, after I passed him, I never looked back, but I was aware of my blind spots and so far so good, he wasn't on the left, and he wasn't on the right. 

I stopped taking pictures, this was not a time to play, too many potholes and tramway tracks to look at anyway. And I hammered down some more. It felt harder, I didn't think I was going any faster, but the watch was there to tell me, you are going strong, so keep at it! Soon I was running on Front St. and was praying the Police Gods that they weren't going to stop me to let the cars cross the road, or I was gonna be really mad. And you don't want to get mad at a police officer, ever. Worst idea of the day, I said. Thankfully they all saw it in my eyes and feared my wrath. And I kept going. Eventually we turned down on Bathurst St. and I knew that I had it, there was only 1km left and I didn't feel too bad myself.

So many people were at the finish line, I could see the chute from far away and it just drew me in like a magnet, I couldn't feel any pain, it was just perfect. I, too, had the perfect race. I finished strong, proud of beating my 1/2 marathon PR by 13 minutes, with an official chip time of 1:53:59. I could not have asked for better conditions, I ran in shorts and t-shirt, I didn't get too hot, I didn't drink too much to get stomach pain, I didn't get any cramps, and I was able to pick up the pace and deliver a solid time. I don't have official pictures yet, but I got the funky stats below:

After crossing the finish line, I got my medal, ate 2 bananas and drank 4 cups of water, before making my way out of the crowd and back to Direct Energy Centre where hubbs was waiting to pick me up. He drove me to the nearest Tim Hortons, where he bought me an iced capp. I love this man!! Here I was waiting in the car and taking a selfie with my medal for the road. 

I could not get enough of that feeling, I was happy to my ears! 24h later, I am still happy and still smiling. Today my quads are a bit achy here and there, but given how much TLC I gave my legs since yesterday, they better thank me soon : ice bath, foam roller, walk, swim. I may not run today, but tomorrow I should be all good. It's all good. It's just wonderful.

Thrift Power!

I’m gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket

I’m, I’m, I’m hunting, looking for a come up, this is fucking awesome!

For those who know me well, I hate spending money on clothes. I am really cheap, and although I do appreciate a well made piece of clothing, I rarely splurge on something that is over $20. So, it should not come as a surprise that my favorite clothing stores are actually thrift shops. I have three of them within 15 minute driving distance: Talize, Value Village and The Salvation Army, ordered by the quality of their merchandise. What I really like about these stores is that you can find brand name clothing that fits well for dirt cheap. If I were to buy the exact same piece of clothing new, it would cost me 10 times more, so why bother? And no, I don't care about bugs, that's what a good washer and dryer are for. Never had a single problem in the 10 years that I've been buying most of my clothes from these stores.

Anyway, you'd think that I should not be spending any money now that I am unemployed, but it's actually good therapy when you know that you only shop twice a year and now you have a good reason for it. I don't have many clothes that are "corporate" attire, given that my previous company was all about jeans and tees and I needed a bit of mental boost in looking for clothes to wear at my next (hopefully coming soon) interview. I already had the black dress pants, I bought those at Ricki's before I went to CES in January. This week I was on a hunt for shoes and a top. I came across a pair of shoes last week at Sears in downtown Toronto for 75% off in the sales section, and found a second, more relaxed pair as well, so I took both for $80 (bottom two pairs, the top two were found at Talize for less than $8).

But back to the thrift stores, yesterday I adventured myself in Talize, my favorite of all (very good quality, as you can see from the pictures). With all this talk about Lulu Lemon, I was curious if I'd come across something from there, as in a hoodie or a pair of shorts. I actually did find a hoodie, but was so small, only one of my boobs would fit in, plus the color was poopy (literally) and the fabric was  hard, thick cotton. It had a Lulu patch on the arm, but I didn't have scissors with me to make it mine. However, in the process I did come across a few "technical" hoodies (with more or less hood), which fit perfectly (did I mention that I needed clothes that actually fit me now that I've lost weight?) and one official Team Canada Olympic Games  which I had been eyeing for years, in red nonetheless!! 

I may have gone overboard with 4 hoodies, but these are going to last me for a long, long time. You can't go wrong with $25 for the four of them. Plus, everyone around me must be really tired of my Pink Floyd hoodie, my only hoodie until today. Next, as I said, I went looking for shorts, especially running shorty shorts because I was curious to try a pair of those without spending $75 as I saw at the Running Room (no chaffing is ever worth that much!). No Lulu shorts again, but found a pair of Sugoi! They are dark brown, which is not one of my favorite colors, but since I have a yellow tee, I don't risk to upset the fashion gods too much, they kinda go together well. I also came across a pair of Champion shorts, which I hope won't run up my legs. I will test them today!

Last but not least, knowing how swim suits go for $80 and up, I went to check those as well and there were so many of them, I had a really hard time choosing, so I picked up 3. One of them is a brand new Speedo, that will soon replace the one I use in the pool right now and which is in the process of disintegrating, the other two I will use at the beach because they also fit me really well (no boob spillage!) and they have a little vintage look that I like.

Are we done yet? What about the dress top? Oh yeah, found that one too, a very nice, light and funky top from Le Chateau, for the price of $4.99. No need to iron it! How much you said? Less than 5 bucks, alright, because that's how I roll! Now here is my interview combo, ladies and gentlemen, hope it will bring me luck!

In total, I spent $75 at Talize yesterday and I came home with everything you see. With the other $80 spent at Sears, I think I did pretty good and stayed on a budget. You can certainly congratulate me for not having bought the vintage spin bike or one of the fabulous leggings below. Now that's will power!

What did you splurge on recently? Do you ever shop at thrift stores?

UPDATE: Because inquiring minds most likely want to know. Did the Champion shorts ride up or not? Tadaaaa:

Not at all! Or not enough for me to notice. Which means, I may be running in these on Sunday at the Goodlife Toronto Half Marathon. Win!!