Toronto Waterfront 10!

On Saturday I finished my 6th (?) 10K with the amazing Lindsey (and her friend Melissa), Michelle, and Stephanie! It was Lindsey and Melissa's first 10K race too! We decided to all run the new Toronto Waterfront 10K race months ago and it was very exciting running a race with a bunch of friends. Though, it was also brutally hot on Saturday too- who decided to put a 10K in late June??

The race started downtown around 7:45am so we all met up at 7:00am full of excitement! Steph and I were in an earlier corral than the rest of the girls, but I decided to hang back and start the race with Lindsey, Michelle, and Melissa. At 7:45 we were off! Because I was back in a bit of a slower paced corral, I spent the first two km or so like a gazelle on the sidelines, passing everyone. It made me feel like a Super Speedy Gonzales! I don't usually get that feeling with a race so it was cool.

The weather was hot hot hot. I had decided in advance not to try and PR, but at the same time I wanted a challenge so I was aiming for a 5:30 average pace and a 55 minute finish. I was going around 5:20 for the first half, but the sun and heat in the second half got me and I ended up finishing with a 5:30 average pace after all! My overall time was 55:07! Couldn't be happier!

There was a never-ending chute at the end of the race and I kept walking and walking trying to find some shade. I had told the girls I would meet them by the banana stand (there is always a banana stand). I finally found it and thankfully there were shady trees just behind it so I had a nice little rest while I ate my cookies and banana. The girls ended up finding me back there when they had finished and we had all done so well on our race!! Yay to kicking this 10Ks ass!!

We then all wandered over to Hunters Landing for some well deserved brunch, where we sadly remembered too late that alcohol cannot be legally served before 11am. I had a breakfast poutine, which is basically the love child of poutine and eggs benny and it was fantastic!!

All in all, a great race and good practice for racing in heat because my next race is the Beaches Jazz Half Marathon in July!!

Monday in Motion- Another RunTOBeer Recap!

Hello hello!

This week was kind of lax on the "not being lazy" front, but what can ya do?

Monday- 9300 steps. Can't remember what I did
Tuesday- 7.5km run
Wednesday- Felt SO lazy. Did some running exercises and stretches but basically relaxed!
Thursday-11.5km run
Friday- I was babysitting my niece and nephew so I didn't get too much exercise. Unless you count basketball golf with a 1 year old.

Saturday- 10,000 steps! I took my very pregnant friend to the spa for a massage and pedicure to celebrate her 30th birthday this past spring and her upcoming baby. I meant to get a photo of us in our fluffy white spa robes, but I forgot. We went to Elmwood Spa, which is one of my favourites here in the city. We had so much fun!! I 100% recommend the spa gift for any pregnant ladies. Then we went out for lobster rolls (delish). Later in the evening I went to my friend Bri's 30th birthday party where I totally kicked butt at Pie-In-The-Face, being the only person to not get pie in my face. Hua! #talent

Sunday- RunToBeer again!! We met out at Woodbine and Danforth and ran 15km to the Loose Moose for a Side Launch party. It was HOT. Like 30 degrees and no shade hot. I was so beat after. It probably doesn't help that I got home at 2:00am from Bri's house the night before and then up at 8:30 and slightly hungover. Oops.

And then in the evening I drove to Ajax for a buffet dinner with my Dad and fam! Busy weekend!!

I guess now it is officially summer so the hot days are only going to get hotter!! Next weekend I am running the Toronto Waterfront 10K with Lindsey and Michelle so fingers crossed for whatever the opposite of a heat wave is!!

Mondays in Motion: RunTOBeer recap!

Welcome to another week where I recap all the exercise shenanigans I get up to. I really should blog about other things, but all this working out makes me lazy ;)

Monday- I can't remember what I did on Monday but I did log over 9000 steps so I must have done something...?

Tuesday- 6.5K run

Wednesday- 10K fast run

Thursday- 12,500 steps! I was meeting some of my blogger friends (Michelle, Shannondoah, and Jeanette) for our Blogger Book Club we started (we read The Book Thief this month). We were meeting at Michelle's later in the evening so I wandered all over getting errands done before heading there.

Friday- I totally forgot to do something active! It was like 11:30pm when I realized. Oh well :)

Saturday- I didn't have any running planned and I really didn't feel like weightlifting so I ended up doing a 30 minute yoga class on youtube (Runner's Yoga- it was pretty easy....basically stretches). I also met with Lindsey and Liz for brunch that day! Mmm lazy Saturdays. Then I went to my Mom's to take advantage of her pool and I ended up pushing my niece around and around the pool on this giant inflatable flamingo I scored at Winner's. It was a good workout!!

I promise I am wearing a bikini top

Sunday- Sunday was my main event for the week because I was doing my first RunTOBeer! It's a big running group that holds runs sponsored by various breweries. You sign up for a run on the FB group and then meet the group at either the 15K, 10K, 5K, or 3K start and it is all staggered so everyone arrives at the designated bar at the same time (and there are various pace groups and ALL levels of running ability). I ran it with my friend Steph (who recently started a blog! Read it here!). I had always wanted to do a run but it never worked with my schedule!! I did the 15K distance with the slow-poke group. As everyone reaches the bar there is a big tunnel of high-fives- it is actually more fun to be last.

This is our whole group once we reached our bar- 3030 Dundas West! (Stolen from the RunTOBeer instagram)

Once inside we all got treated to a free tallboy of Oast (the sponsor) and then we all sat around chatting, drinking beer, and eating some brunch. It was such a fun day and really solidified the idea that I should find a running group because the run flew by.

Now onto another week!

Monday in Motion

Hellooo party people! I hope you all had a great weekend! On Friday I went out to the Danforth to visit Von Doughnut for a delicious donut with my friend Lisa (did you know it was National Donut Day on Friday? Which is odd because I thought every day was National Donut Day). And then we met up with Cam and ate some delicious dinner at the Auld Spot. But I was so tired when I got home that I basically failed on my goal to be active every day. However on Sunday Cam and I went to the Toronto Islands where we walked 15,000 steps! And I also ran 5K that day! So I feel I caught up on being active :). Sunday was a lazy, rainy day, but I did my morning run and I visited my Grandma! So a successful weekend overall!

Let's recap my mooooves this week:

Monday: Walked 8000 steps, most of which was my walk to meet Lindsey for the Chef Cartel event. I had planned to walk home, but it went much later than we had anticipated. And I was on my feet ALL night, even if I didn't record many steps.

Tuesday: ran 6.8km. My run the previous Sunday was one of those terrible runs where I felt crappy and cut it short, so I wanted Tuesday's run to be more therapeutic. I brought no music or phone and, while I had my watch on, I didn't look at it once. It was a great run!

Wednesday: I biked the 13.5km to and from work. I was actually super proud because I didn't walk up any of the hills (and there are some DOOZIES). I also was a bit faster? Still trying to figure out why I bike so slow. My friend theorizes I need to pump up my tires more. I just think my bike sucks and there are too many hills. Here is my pace and elevation chart for the ride home (I hit a lot of red lights near the end, which is why my pace drops). That big ol' steep hill at the beginning is SO MUCH FUN GOING UP at 7:45am. Just kidding- I cry.

Thursday: 10km "fast" run. I am working on speed a bit more this training now, especially since I dropped all speedwork trying to come back from my IT Band injury in my marathon training. So Thursday I worked my speedy butt off on my tempo training run- it was hot and tiring but successful. I consider anything under a 6:00/km pace a speedy pace :)

Friday: 6,000 steps. As I said above, I was so tired after dinner. Probably from digesting that massive donut. #noregrets

Saturday: 15,000 steps around the Toronto Islands and a 5km run in the evening! Saturday's run was supposed to be a tempo run as well, but my watch couldn't pick up a signal downtown and I have no idea how far or how fast I went! But it was at least 5km based on how long I was gone :)

Sunday: 13km run. Nice and slow- my legs were a bit tight and it was like 90% humidity out.

As always I am going to work on improving this again next week! It is supposed to be a bit cooler, but also some rain so I am not sure if I will be biking to work much this week! We shall see!

Oh Oh- I also want to share my new favourite podcast!! The Mystery Show. The narrator solves a mystery every week and they are hilarious and random- like how tall is Jake Gyllenhaal and why someone had a license plate that says iluv911. It is really funny and entertaining and so far every mystery has been satisfyingly solved. I only have 1 episode left and then I am going to be so sad because they aren't making more until mid-July.

The Chef Cartel with Happy or Hungry

On Monday night I went out to The Chef Cartel with Lindsey from Happy or Hungry! Actually, I was the guest of Lindsey, who I am always bugging to take me with her to cool events she gets invited to :). And this event was pretty cool! So thanks for taking me, Lindsey!!

I stole this from Lindsey's instagram because I didn't have a picture of us from Monday

So what is The Chef Cartel, you may ask? Well it is a showdown of local chefs, Iron Chef style! Each event pits two chefs against each other to make two dishes that incorporate two different secret ingredients, and then they get judged on taste, presentation, and creativity. The winner of Monday night's challenge was going to go on to the the semi-finals. Monday night's chefs were Elia Herrera of Los Colibris and Takumi Saito of Hapa Izakaya.

For guests of the event, there were local vendors with wine and food samples (I love a good sample!), and full-sized food and drinks to be purchased! I had a couple beers and some croquettes and a brisket sandwich and it was all amazing! I have no pictures because I failed Blogging 101, but I am sure Lindsey will have some when she blogs about the event. Lindsey and I unfortunately got there unfashionably early, but lucky we make good company and within no time the competition began!

The mystery ingredients for Monday night were edoe (a sort of root vegetable) and lake whitefish (a sort of fish :P).

We found ourselves positioned near Chef Elia's prep station, so naturally we rooted for her!

I snuck over to Chef Takumi's side for a minute

It was REALLY cool watching them do their chef thing! I am no chef...my chopping is quite laborious and uneven. These people were wizards in my eyes! They had one hour to prepare and it went super fast. Chef Elia made a ceviche to start and her main dish was seared fish. It was all served family style and looked really yummy. I told Lindsey next time we need to apply to be celebrity judges at this thing.

I am not sure what Chef Takumi made in the end, but I do know one of his dishes was a risotto and risottos are delicious so I thought for sure he would win just based on the awesomeness of risottos in general.....but Chef Elia won!!! Woooo go our side of the room!!

All in all, it was a great evening! Lindsey and I had no idea what to expect, but it was a really cool experience and a fun event. Plus we all got loot bags with two types of spray olive oil, a knife, a spiralizer, an issue of Canadian Living, and a loaf of olive bread. And yes, I ate the whole loaf the next day. Best goody bag ever.