hi, i'm jenn

The past few years I’ve enjoyed developing and delivering workshops and presentations at IBM’s Centre For Advanced Studies conference. This is the first year that I’m not going to be getting the presenter’s bag. I wonder what the gift is – last year it was an electronic sudoku game 🙂 In any case, it should be nice and relaxing to attend as a participant.

And hopefully the afternoon session on Distributed Scrums will be worthwhile!

Oh, not to worry, I haven’t gotten lazy – I’m giving a workshop next Wednesday as part of the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario’s (ECOO) conference to a group of educators. Should be awesome!

I don’t have cable. I justify it because I live alone and cable would be expensive. Especially since I’m never home when things I want to watch are on TV so would need to get a DVR. I also can watch lots of things online so am not completely deprived.

About a month ago I came up with the brilliant idea to get a library card. They have DVDs at the library, and I can reserve them online. That way for downtime when I’d want to just chill in front of the TV, I’d have something to put on. And I’d finally get around to watching some movies I’ve been meaning to see.

Now, I don’t know when movies will arrive from the library (there are waiting lists of different lengths). But in my mind it would be just like netflix only free! How novel!

Yeah, well, I now have 8 DVDs taken out of the library with another 4 waiting for me. I’ve watched 2/8 of the movies I have at home, and don’t have a single night free this week to watch any of the others.

Not to mention the trashy Chic-lit books I keep taking out on a whim take up a lot of my time. Silly me, I took out a “best bets” (meaning I only get it for 1 week – no renewals allowed) so am working hard to finish it before it’s due on Thursday.

Hehe, everyone should have such problems.

My long runs are normally done with a purpose. There’s always some race I’m working towards that’s motivating me to run a distance larger than, say, 8km. And I do them, and am happy and proud when they’re done.

Today was different – today I just ran for me.

I was supposed to run with my trainer and friend Kathleen who was planning herself a 20 miler. I figured I’d tag along for ~10km of it, since we haven’t seen each other in awhile (I’ve had to give up personal training for Crossfit) and it would be a good opportunity to catch up.

I woke up to an email from her letting me know she was sick.

First I went back to bed. Yay sleep-in! But I couldn’t sleep. I got up and sat around dilly-dallying on the computer and looking out at the sun. I was feeling guilty. It’s the perfect weather! What was my problem? And yes, I was tired from going to be late, but a run would be the perfect thing to energize me!!

I checked out a suggested 10km from the running room nearby and went on my way.

In true Jenn style the run didn’t go completely according to plan (read: I got lost and Genki helped me find my way home) but I loved every second of it.

I had DNTO keeping me company.

I got to hear the crunch crunch of the leaves under my feet and admire the bright pretty trees (well, at least the ones that aren’t naked yet).

I found new hidden streets I never new existed with pretty houses and kids playing.

And the whole time I felt energized. Not once did I worry about “making it home” okay.  Or how far I had gone. For that matter, I wasn’t even worried about how much further I would have to go.

I was amazed at the ease with which my legs just kept carrying me forward.

I smiled at passer-bys like an idiot (they smiled back! it’s more contagious than h1n1 – har har) and fancied myself an explorer in my own city.

I know that we all have good days and bad days with everything. But today was one of the best. I love running.

I was perusing some blogs and came across this:

NaBloPoMo sounds like a child’s insult or a bad Japanese “short form” (where Sexual Harassment=SecoHaRa). But in actuality it’s a challenge to post once a day for all of November.

I think that’s doable. So let’s see what happens!

Had a great start to my day this morning. Finally managed to get my alarm set properly which meant I headed over to Crossfit for a 7AM class. It’s a good thing I’ve been doing the workouts on my own this week – all of those Double Unders (skipping, but getting the rope under twice instead of once) helped me get through the MORE double unders (60X3) today.

What made me even more smiley is that I realized when I got to the gym at the office (that’s where I shower since there isn’t one at Crossfit) my pony tail had stayed intact my entire workout.

Now, for some of you that might seem trivial. But I have a lot of hair, and am frequently having to stop during runs/skipping/workouts to redo it.

So it’s nice to feel that my Goody Stay Put elastics were a worthwhile purchase. They don’t stretch out and become useless, and best of all they keep my hair in place! I love you elastics!

One word of warning – I’ve had one of these bad boys snap before, so they’re not *perfect* but they’re the closest I’ve found!

Saturday night I took part in the Nike+ Human race. I am not a night runner, but decided to participate anyway. The idea of the Human Race is that anyone with a Nike+ chip can take part anywhere in the world. All you have to do is run 10km on the same day (this year, it was 10/24) where and when you can.

Several cities hosted live events. Toronto had 2 – and both were less than a km from my house. So how could I not join in!?

I decided to sign up at the Toronto Nike Runner’s Lounge location because I thought it would be cooler than the Running Room location since I know that even for the running club Nike has out DJs. Not to mention Vitamin Water is kinda tasty.

The Nike Lounge even gave you the chance to customize you shirt for free if you picked up your race kit on the Wednesday or Thursday nights (the running room didn’t) so I think I made the right call.

The night was a little on the chilly side, but I jogged to Yorkville and found a crowd of folks in their red shirts dancing around to DJ music to keep warm. Things were lively and fun, but a little on the disorganized side of things – the route had not been published ahead of time and no one was giving us information. There were two world champion runners – and we were told each was going to lead a group. They tried to split the crowd into two based on times (sub 50 went north, and the rest of us went west) but it was really hard to tell who was where. Especially when they decided to switch up the positioning just before the race started. Not to mention, everyone had the same start line. So when they said go, I just started running and followed the person in front of me.

There were volunteers with yellow shirts on the course directing us. Eventually I was given an option of North or West – so I knew I was on the right track.  I would often see the volunteers running up ahead to direct us as we approached.

There were some cops along the route, but no roads were officially blocked off. Though with several hundred runners taking over Lowther and eventually Davenport with our flashing armbands I don’t think that cars really knew what to do with us. That was super fun 🙂 And that was the route – West along Lowther to Spadina, North on Spadina to Davenport and then all the way to Dufferin where we turned around. They were handing out water bottles which I appreciated. I didn’t realize there were no garbages to toss it in during the second half (I didn’t want to litter since I was pretty sure the “course” wasn’t going to be cleaned)!

The “race” finished at the Lounge where they had coffee, water, Vitamin water, Muffins and Granola bars. I went to use a computer to sync my run (their macs are faster than mine 🙂 ) and was given a little card. Had no idea what it was for and so asked someone. They pointed me to the VIP area and told me it would give me access. Um, okay.

Back behind the curtain (yes, there was a curtain) was more food – granola, fruit and some sort of fried thing I avoided. They also were giving out massages! It hadn’t picked up yet, so I got my rub down quickly (yes, I know it was only a 10km, but if someone offers you a free massage you TAKE it). Then I headed home, stopping outside to see if I won anything in the raffle (I didn’t – but there were a lot of prizes!!) and then ran home freezing cold. It’s amazing how fast you freeze once you stop moving!

So yes, despite the lack of organization, I’d do the race again. It was a fun way to get in a 10km but definitely wasn’t the same as the Sporting Life or another big race event. I also would not recommend it as a first race because there were no folks out and cheering, and you didn’t know the course ahead of time (at one point I thought we were going to be running north on spadina up the fun hills and was not happy) — those are things that would be important to me as a newbie. But it was a fun novel way to crank out a 10km.
Plus, it only cost $20 and they were selling the shirt alone for more than $30 in the store. AND I really like my LED reflective armband. Will definitely be busting it out in the future for early morning and evening runs. Thumbs up for the Human Race!

In case you didn’t know, I’m a techie. I work in computers, and so am expected to have all sorts of gadgets. But since I like to spend my moolah on other things, like black knee high boots (of which I have at least 4 different variations) and running shoes/clothes, I don’t always have new video games (well, I do have a wii…) or tech toys or cell phones. Or cable (but that’s another story).

Or a smart phone.

I used to think that was a good thing for a number of reasons:

• It’s healthy to be offline sometimes (at least, that’s what I tell myself)
• I drop my phones, throw my phones, lose my phones…. which isn’t the biggest deal when it’s a free phone (and the free phones I’ve had are normally pretty sturdy!). So I’m not sure how a smart phone will survive under my care!
• I have an addictive personality so might be really cracked out.

But now I’m starting to wonder how my life would change for the better if I had an iPhone (even without a data plan!) or a BlackBerry. Most importantly I could keep my google calendar on me! And, well, I think that’s what I’m hung up on right now. Since, as much as I hate being left out of my friends’ BBM chats [btw, one of my friends BBMed most of the time she was in labour] I would rather an iPhone any how so that problem would remain.
…. And it’s not going to happen. Why? N has told me if I get a smart phone, he’s getting a motorcycle. I have told N that if he gets a motorcycle, I’m breaking up with him. So, um, yeah.

And that is why I’m stuck with my old Nokia Stupid Phone.

This past weekend my cousin got married in Stowe VT. It was a long drive but a lot of fun. The outdoor ceremony was beautiful, and I couldn’t feel my toes for almost an hour afterwards. The best part was definitely spending time with cousins from here, Montreal and Boston.

 

 

And I’m just getting warmed up.. That was my first wedding of three that I have in the next 4 weeks!

So today was the last day of bootcamp. We did the same workout that we did three weeks ago (the one I blogged about below).

My time then: 9:44

My time today: 7:00

How’s that for an improvement, eh? I no longer felt the need to lie down and die during burpees!!

Anyway, I’m hooked. Plan to try and do 3 classes as week and start incorporating running back into my week for some more endurance work. Yesterday’s 5km turned 7.5km reminded me how good a run makes me feel – not to mention it’s totally the best time of year for it (save for the rain that is!).

Yesterday I woke up bright and early (well, early for a Sunday, but not as early as my normal wake ups for boot camp nowadays) to participate in my second Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Only this year I was participating as a spectator instead of a runner 🙂

I spent Saturday stressing over what to put on my signs (note – buying a new box of crayola markers is as exciting at 27 as it was at 7). I had a hot pink one that simply said “You Can Do it!” with the names of people I knew that were running. And then I made a second sign that said “You kick Assphalt!”  I added the names of the people I knew running on the boarder of that one too once I realized how much nicer it looked than the pink one 🙂

My plan was to be around the 5km mark for a bit and then leave to catch some zs before brunch. But after my friends ran by, and Elaine joined me at the sidelines, runners were already coming the other way (so we were at the 18km mark) and we decided to stick it out. I was there from before 8 until after 10. I recognized runners at the 18km mark that I had seen at the 6km mark – and they knew me too.

After awhile I took to yelling out people’s names from their bib “You can do it Dave!” “Just 3 more km Katie!” “I can’t read your name in the red but you’re AWESOME!” – as I runner I know that encouragement goes a long way. Elaine and I laughed a lot – she liked to yell “THREE K” over and over. She got chastised once for leaving the .1 off her 3 km promise, and one guy stopped and exclaimed “FREE CAKE?”

He seemed pretty dissapointed. And it did sound a lot like Free Cake after we thought about it.
There was also one man that begged me to come with him. I told him I couldn’t, since I was wearing big rubber boots, so he gave me a sweaty hug and continued on his way.

Other highlights were seeing friends – some of whom I didn’t know were running. Loved reading the bib, and looking up to see a familiar face.

And to every runner who gave us a thumbs up or even just a smile, thanks. It made it well worth losing a sleep in and ruining my straight hair in the humidity!

So congrats to all those who ran yesterday. I’m so happy you all finished, and that I was able to be part of it. Now if only I could motivate myself to start the running again!

(The next race I’m registered for is the Toronto Women’s half in May – might have to do one sooner though!!)