The #1 Thing I Will Miss About Vancouver...

Running Friends! Anytime I want to go running, there are always a ton of people up for it. I have not run alone in months! Everyone who I run with here please move to China. Thank you. Wednesday morning I met with Keiran for a run around Main Street.

One of my top 10 favorite race photos. Eyes on the road. Tongue out. Is it the Michael Jordan of running?

 I had never ran around the Main Street area before so it was a nice change of scenery. It kind of reminded my of running at home because we ran through a lot of neighbourhoods. Lil suburbia up in hurr. We ended up running about 13.2km at an average pace of 5:15/km.  Longer then I had anticipated but it felt really good... until we finished on Queen Elizabeth hill. It was like a steep hill and stair-master all in one.

I was definitely cursing Keiran out as we  ran up but the view at the top was an awesome way to end the run.

I ended up running again Wednesday evening with the Running Room because I made these bad boys during the day.

They were a reward for my MCAT studying roomie. I will probably eat them all and she will get one. They were a healthy recipe until I added Reese Pieces and mini-eggs to the mix. ;) This was the second time I have baked all year. Maybe my mom's domestic side is wearing off on me??

Wednesday evenings tempo run was a little slower then usual because I was listening to Dave's 50 miler race report. Seriously, if there was a running hell... that race sounds like it. At one point they had to cascade down ropes?! Dave is a rock star for completing the loop. Running for 9 hours= HC to the max.

We ran 10.48km at a 4:58/km pace. It was a pretty hilly route but my legs felt good the whole way through. Maybe 2 a days are a good thing? This brought my total mileage up to 23.7 km for the day. A lot for a Wednesday.

Today is Canada Day!! I seriously have no idea what people do in Canada on July 1st because I haven't been in the country during the summer for the past 7 years! Crazy. This morning Carolyn, Alan, Jason, Ken and myself went up to the track for a little speed work session.

I dressed up for my country...but didn't smile. Woops.

My legs felt really heavy on the jog to the track. We did approximately 3km warm-up and some strides and drills at the track. Then, Jason, Care and I decided to do 4X800m. We wanted to try the Yasso 800s theory which meant running 800m at your marathon goal time. I want to run a 3:23 hour marathon so I would need to run a 3:23 minute 800m. The break-down went like this:

1- 3:00

2- 3:06

3- 3:07

4- 3:04

5- 3:02
(Ended up pacing Ken and Alan for their last mile)
          6- 1:29 (400m)

We did 400m jog walk breaks between each. I'm interested to see how well this theory plays out if you do a full recovery (800m) between each set and do more sets (up to 10). I didn't feel great throughout the work-out and never really got into the speed-work but glad I did it.
We cooled down with about a 3km jog.

 One more lesson learned from the Scotiabank half marathon- Ladies: Do not put gels in your sports bra while running. The only people who think this is a good idea are men. They don't know. It's not comfortable. I have the scar to prove it.