My car odometer lied to me!

Ottawa Marathon Training - Week #2

Day #1: 15 km

Distance ran: 6 km on Monday ... was supposed to run Sunday, but what the heck ... figured I'd do the long run the day after

Day #2: 7 km

Distance ran: 14 km, but thought I had run 15 km! Really!!

Last year, I measured today's route with my car odometer ... Then tonight, I went to verify it on http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ and found out that I've been lied to! Grrr ... I thought I was being a good girl forcing myself to go the complete distance, only to find myself one measly kilometre short!

Not only that, but my legs are paying for this sudden increase in mileage. Just love that lactic acid buildup! I am so looking forward to tomorrow morning ... NOT! I'd forgotten how difficult running is ... so much easier on the body to cycle and swim.

Alright, so far this week, I am two km short of my training goal ... sigh.

Note to David Fein, my dance buddy in New York ... thanks for calling to encourage me for this marathon ... I'll call you back tomorrow - I promise!

Went out to catch "300" with KC. Pretty cool film. Pretty cool fight scenes and effects. Pretty cool script. I especially liked the part where the queen ... (can't tell you or I will give it away ;-) It was fun to see myself in it for all of two seconds as one of the slave girls ... try to pick me out ... I'm carrying the bowl of fruit ... LOL!!!

The Master Plan

Looong 11-hour work day yesterday that finished super late. Crawled into bed exhausted and got a wickedly short 5 1/2 hours sleep last night. Agh, that's all I got Friday night too what with DM in town ready to party.

I wish it could have slept more but I had to meet up with Turtleboy for a personal send-off. He's running the Paris Marathon on April 15 and is all excited. Understandable, since he's been training hard for the past 6+ months gearing up for it.

We met up at Mon Shing in Chinatown, one of TB's favourite haunts. As usual, we pigged out - soup of the day, crab-stuffed fried tofu, snow pea leaves with garlic, beef and green peppers chow foon, and of course, rice.


Great fun to catch up. TB chided me for my lifestyle - "lots of socialising with a little hint of work". We laughed. The funny thing is, this is mostly true. That made us laugh even harder. Yes, I do work, but given all the things I do for my living, my schedule is all over the place, so it just "looks" like I play a lot ... Alright, confession ... I do play a lot. It feeds my soul albeit not always the overhead. Well, as some people have said to me, "That's the path you've chosen." I think of these folks sometimes while enjoying a mid-afternoon coffee with another freelance friend as we ponder how their 9-5 day is going.

As I've mentioned before, it's all about choice ...

After brunch, of course, we made a pit stop at Boutique Endurance, since pretty boy TB had to pick up some new running duds and look "styling"... Just poking at you TB! xoxo

Final Destination: Roberto's on Bélanger, famous for it's gelato. I took hazelnut gelato and a café au lait since I felt like I was falling asleep and TB took chocolate and mint chocolate chip gelato. Scrumptious!

Turtleboy and I got to talking seriously about our 2007 planned athletic endeavours.

TB: So what's your next race?

SS: Well, I was thinking of doing a Half Ironman later this summer, the same one I did last year. I know what to expect this time round but maybe I'll do something before that.

TB: (raising an eyebrow) Oh, like what?

SS: I was thinking about running the Ottawa Marathon at the end of May. Do you think that would be possible? Maybe we could go back to my place and sit down and figure out a training schedule.

TB: Hey, why don't we do it here? All we need is a napkin.

So, lo and behold, yes, I am SERIOUS sometimes about training and do draw up schedules ... Lookee here ... A picture tells a thousand words and four pictures tell even more!

Beware the inner workings of Silly Sally's mind!

Can you read the napkin? Yes, yes, I am breaking the 10% weekly mileage rule ... rule, schmules ... and yes, I do realise that it is only a three day running schedule, but how else will I be able to fit in the swimming and cycling? And dancing and socialising?

But as Turtleboy says:

"The most bang for the buck! 8.25 km training for each kilometre racing."

Not a bad deal, I say!

SS: Sorry, I won't be able to give you a lift all the way home, only to the metro. I have to squeeze in a 10k run before my dance rehearsal and if
we leave now, I will JUST fit it in.

TB: No probs!

And off we went.

Got home, checked my e-mail as I waited for my gluttonous tummy to settle down. It didn't. DANG! Alright, Plan B. Go to dance rehearsal, then run afterwards. I made a quick call.

SS: Hey there, I have to run a 10k before we eat supper. Think you would want to run part of it with me? I can run two loops and you can run the first one with me.

KC: I can run all of it if you don't go fast.

SS: You sure? Don't worry, I'm real slow right now. I've only run once in the last three weeks because of this cold.

KC: See you later.

I left for dance rehearsal and exhausted and hungry afterwards, headed to Killerchop's. Did we end up running? Nooooo! Dance rehearsal finished really late and KC ended up enticing me with this!

Alright, Day#1 of my new training schedule has been thwarted! Ugh, I have no discipline. Well, at least this marathon schedule is longer than some of the other ones I've had ... I still have time to catch up!

I've been eating way too well ... burp!

I ate supper tonight with Killerchops. Quite yummy - baby bok choy with garlic, tofu in oyster sauce, BBQ pork (char sui), and white rice. He thinks it's cool having a Chinese friend who cooks well. (Cute, my kids think it's cool that I'm a Chinese mom who cooks well.)


Then we went to see the film "Number 23", starring Jim Carrey. Don't go see it 'cause ...

IT SUCKS!!

Felt like a parody about obsession, or some trashy film noir with a low-budget script and a high-budget set. I wanted to laugh out loud and diss it openly, tear it to shreds, but I don't think the audience would have appreciated this as they "gripped their chairs in fear".

Managed to slip in a half hour swim afterwards ... my doing, heh heh heh ... KC was a good sport about it though. I think he would have rather just relaxed over some tea instead ... Thanks KC!

Oh yeah, KC also saw a lady ram her car right into the underground garage support beam. Everyone who parks underground secretly harbours this fear. The only difference is, we watch out for those beams so we don't charge into them!

Happy Year of the Pig!

We went to Beijing (the restaurant) tonight for a little Chinese New Year feast. My oldest son was born Year of the Pig, how quick the cycle comes round again! No food pics though ... we were too engrossed in woofing it all down, it was too delicious!

What we ate:

Shrimp stuffed tofu

Garlic snow pea leaves

General Tao chicken

Salt and pepper shrimp

Cantonese chow mein

Dry beef chow foon

White rice

Here are the remains ...

Who was present:

Silly Sally with two sons

Killerchops with his son

Turtleboy

I have never met a non-Chinese person who has refused to celebrate Chinese New Year with me. I even hosted a Chinese New Year's party once for 30+ guests and there were only two Chinese people attending, one of whom was me, the other an old school friend from Toronto. How cool is that?