November was a good month

A very good month for me on the running front. I had the new personal best in the 5K at the Cookie Run. I've also been following a training plan that I built for myself.

The goals of the training are to increase my mileage to 20-25 miles per week (that's 32-40km a week for the metric folks) and to run four times a week. Now I can't do this all at once, so Novemeber was just mileage building. This past week I ran 27km, which is a new weekly mileage record. And for the month of November, I ran just over 101km. That number is huge for me! It beats my old mileage high by 20km.

December should deliver a new mileage record, too... providing all goes as planned. I increase by 2km again this week (8/8/13) then a break next week (5/5/10). After that I'm moving to the 4 runs a week phase for 4 weeks, with no mileage increases planned. I might be able to add mileage at the end if I'm feeling okay, but for now the plan is to tackle one phase of training at a time.

I also plan to run the Running Room's Resolution Run on December 31st. Hopefully it'll be warmer than the -25C we had last year!

Superior Scribbler Awards!

IT'S TIME FOR THE SUPERIOR SCRIBBLER AWARDS!!!

These are the rules:
- Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass the award on to five most deserving bloggers.
-Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom s/he has received the award.
-Each Superior Scribbler must display on his/her blog, and like to the Scholastic Scribe, which explains the award.
-Each blogger who wins the Superior Scribbler award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. linky list. That way, they'll be able to keep up to date on everyone who receives this prestigious honour.
- Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

I received this award from my friend Sadie, who has a wonderful and inspirational blog about all the random thoughts she has about life, love, exercise and weightloss.

Some of the blogs I read regularly and consider to be interesting, valuable and inspiring are the following:
Second Ferment - All about the wine scene in Ottawa and the writer's wine adventures. She's on a bit of a forced hiatus right now (babies do that) but I love her witty writing style.
West Side Action - The author writes about all kinds of random things he notices in the downtown core of Ottawa, in addition to major issues facing the city, especially those affecting Centretown and the West side of the city inside the Greenbelt.
Tired Mama Running - a teammate of mine on our Miles Game writes this blog. She's preparing to run the Boston Marathon in 2010. She just qualified again on a challenging marathon she didn't even train seriously for. Wow.
Lori's Footprints - Lori's another teammate of mine and I love reading her race reports and how she faces the challenges of running.
Cathartic Creativity - Dawn is a friend of mine through a private messageboard. She began painting as an outlet to handle stress and her work is just amazing. She's also a very talented photographer.

Happy reading!

Bring on winter!

I'm looking forward to getting out running tonight. I didn't want to yesterday, that's for sure. I got the flu shot on Monday night and both my husband and I felt awful yesterday. Not to mention that I ended up working 8-6, even though all I wanted to do was cozy up on the couch with a blanket.

I knew my body was telling me it needed a rest, so I dutifully bumped my runs by a day. This week I'm running 8/8/11 and have a couple more 3 run weeks until I plateau at 28K/week for most of December and divide up the mileage into 4 runs per week... just as the weather starts to get cold and snowy.

But I have to admit, I'm a masochist. I love winter running, especially in snowstorms. Snowstorms are actually one my favourites, because I get to see who all in this city just as crazy as me! There's some strange extra endorphin rush that I get when I run in crazy weather.

Another great part about the weather turning cold is the fact that it's easier to dress for my runs. Lately it's been between 7 and 10 degrees during my runs. Normally that's an ideal temperature! But then there's been a lot of wind and either rain or sun. It's tough to figure out what to wear, which usually means I end up freezing when running into the wind or toasty when the wind's at my back.

Bring on winter!

The inspiration for my blog name

The song that inspired the name of the blog is called 'Racing Like A Pro' by the National. I always mishear the lyrics (as do most people)... but given that this blog is about me, involves writing and, not to mention that, I spend most of my day writing. The National is an amazing band that I wish more people would appreciate.

Speaking of writing, today I get to work from home in order to be able to write without the constant interruptions at the office. But, this also means I get to run at midday, in the beautiful, sunny, warm weather!

Listen to it in iTunes!

You're pink you're young you're middle-class
they say it doesn't matter
fifteen blue shirts and womanly hands
you're shooting up the ladder

Your mind is racing like a pro, now
oh my god it doesn't mean a lot to you
one time you were a glowing young ruffian
oh my god it was a million years ago

Sometimes you get up and bake a cake or something
sometimes you stay in bed
sometimes you go la di da di da di da da
til your eyes roll back into your head

Your mind is racing like a pro, now
oh my god it doesn't mean a lot to you
one time you were a glowing young ruffian
oh my god it was a million years ago

you're dumbstruck baby
you're dumbstruck baby now you know
you're dumbstruck baby
you're dumbstruck baby now you know

Your mind is racing like a pro, now
oh my god it doesn't mean a lot to you
one time you were a glowing young ruffian
oh my god it was a million years ago

you're dumbstruck baby
you're dumbstruck baby now you know
you're dumbstruck baby
you're dumbstruck baby now you know
you're dumbstruck baby