Getting Serious

My marathon training is starting to get serious. I am officially running 3x a week and the Tuesday night run actually involves intensity training, called tempo training. That means we run faster than our easy talking pace (which we do on our long runs Saturday morning) but not too fast that we can't talk at all. Don't worry if this isn't clear because I'm still trying to make sense of it myself (and DO it!)

For tempo training, we run around Queen's Park (a beautiful shady park behind our provincial legislature). This is the same place where my running partner and I do our weekly runs together. We have to run a total of 8 laps around Queen's Park and each lap is .8km. We do the first 2 laps an an easy pace, then the next 4 laps at the faster tempo pace (with a short recovery walk in between each lap) then 2 more laps at the slower running pace to cool down. The first night I could only do 3 of the 4 fast laps. Then I just did my cool down (total of 7 laps). Next week I will do better but I didn't get home till after 9 which makes for a long day on a work night.

Yesterday (Saturday) I ran 11K for the first time - YAY! And at the end I ran all the way up the hill in High Park for the first time without stopping - DOUBLE YAY! I was pretty tired and a fellow runner kindly gave me a lift all the way home. Thanks Karen!! I also got a lot of great visualization tips from Lynn - the Marine Corps route will be up on my wall for inspiration starting this week. Plus, I really miss my running partner - Hardish I can't wait to see you on Sunday!

Last night we saw Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End. It was fun but long. I think 1 lap around Queen's Park is longer than Keith Richards was in the entire movie. Even with my 2 hour nap in the afternoon I couldn't wait to hit my pillow at 11.

Ocean's Thirteen

Danny Ocean's gang
not as strong as the first two
George and Brad are hot

Saw Ocean's Thirteen Saturday night at the Varsity with my film club and my parents joined us as honorary members. Some good lines and great shots of Vegas and the boys looked good but I have to say I didn't like it as much as Eleven or even Twelve for that matter (don't know why everyone's slagging it). Richard thought Thirteen was ludicrous (especially the part with the chunnel digger). Today I did buy Ocean's Eleven and Twelve for only $5.99 each at HMV to add to my DVD collection. For some bizarre reason I can watch them both over and over and I just get sucked in every time. Same thing happens with (don't laugh) Just Like Heaven with Reese Witherspoon. One of these phenomena I can't explain.

NOTE: AVOID VARSITY (massive construction - the escalators are completely torn out - you have to take the stairs everywhere.) We'll have to find our next film club picks at Cumberland or the Beaches since it is not fun to be in a construction zone.

Happy Anniversary and the ROM

... to MM and Rich. Five years... WOW! We had a wonderful dinner with MM's parents at reds and Rich enjoyed his birthday gifts (80G iPod, case, Nike running shirt and Lee Iacocca's memoir)

Mom, Dad & I went to the ROM to see the naked Daniel Liebeskind crystal (it's only open for a week and then closed for another 6 months to install the exhibits and bring in the dinosaurs.) It's officially called the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal and was very impressive and engaging. However, the views on Bloor are nothing to write home about (McDonalds, Pizza Hut) and the angles get tiresome after Level 4 so I'm looking forward to seeing the curves of the Frank Gehry project at the AGO whenever they're ready. At the ROM we also saw lots of wonderful exhibits in the old building including treasures from ancient Peru and the perennial kids favourite: the Bat cave (plus a stuffed version of the raccoon who's taking over my garbage.)

Tomorrow I run 11K starting at 7am. I'll let you know if I make it (a chest cold is settling in, after 2 winters of being cold-free.) Ciao bellas... MM/haikugirl