Theme of this training week was brought to you by the word RAD. I ran the Color Me Rad 5k as an offical Jewels and the ‘Holi’grams team member – rounding up the official team was myself, Tiffany Astle and Jewels Gibran – together we were colour bombed, ran up and down and all around Downsview Park, and most importantly, we dance around the rave like colour party (and across the finish line) in tiny white booty shorts. Oh yes, our team outfits were something else. And that’s how I sent my Saturday run, getting splattered with paint in every which way possible. More on the race in a separate post to come! My life is full on TIFF overload right now.

I’m so RAD!

Ending week 9 on a bit of a upward spiral, my long run left great, which is really important at this stage of the game. I want these runs to feel good and I want to have the confidence going into each long run knowing it’s going to be okay. For the most part at least. The outcome may bag to differ, but my confidence needs to be on the up going into it. Monday was my night to work the desk at the studio, so I practiced! The balance of yoga with my training is going to save me come October. This I know. Tuesday morning I woke up to get my run in early, knowing it was going to be busy week with work I was hoping this would give me the kick in the butt I needed to wake up early and get out the door. Sadly, this was not the case. I’ve been so tried in the mornings lately it’s exhausting. But I got up early enough to squeeze in a quick 6k (quick, the run was not). I ran around Central Tech’s track, realizing that kind of running I hate. I can’t think of anythings worse than running on a treadmill, but running around a track could be worse. I left the track circled the neighbourhood then headed to work after that. Never again. I will never run the track again.

Wednesday was a long(ish) hilly route, so naturally Julie and I planed to meet up and run this thing together. Starting at the store running through Riverdale Park to Rosedale Valley Road, it was a run that would not end! Oh my goodness, it was not fun for either of us. I was tired, the run took us forever, lately I’ve been feeling like I hit a wall with my running. Alice, you need to come back! And fast. Alice has been absent from the Running Room (with good reason of course!). She was gone to run some races of her own – The Lululemon SeaWheeze, a bunch of Disney Races, did lots and lots of training runs – then spent a good chunk of time at my second studio home, Moksha LA.

After the emotional exhaustion from the hilly run, I went straight to the studio. I needed to practice! On Thursday I did the same thing. I did yoga instead of running. Although I know this is cheating and I do feel bad on the days I don’t run, but I needed to practice. When my life feels out of control it’s the best thing for me. Friday morning I may have done the same thing again. It was another day I did not run (I am terrible!), but instead I finally took Marianne on her offer to drive me to the Beaches for a sunrise standup paddleboard session. And boy oh boy it was worth every second waking up well before 6am. The water, the sky, the sun, it was all so spectacular!

This is Marianne! Isn’t this picture great?

Saturday was race day! Colour Me Rad 5k here we come! I loved the fact this race was totally for fun. There was no timing involved, no time check ins, nothing of that sort. It was all about the colour bombs and having a great time. Because it was Tiffany’s official first race ever, there may have been some celebrating that occurred that evening. Which may have lead to me miss the long Sunday run, which I may have tried to make up on my own, but failed drastically. I did run 8k Sunday and practiced yoga. I tried to make up the rest of the distance from Sunday’s 29k on Monday. But again I failed drastically.

I’ve accepted this week as a fail and decided to moved on. But no I was not happy about it. All I can hope now is next week will be a different story.