Catching Up

Wow.  December.  Here you are.  I'm not really sure where November went.  Like the rest of this year, it flew by in a blur.  My dad had a heart attack, we spent weekends trying to get settled in the new place and then BOOM, it's December.  Work ramped up to crazy again a couple of weeks ago but at least I'm winding things down to make way for my replacement.  I just wrapped my last big project at Westside and it was a doozy.  To top it all off, I got sick just before we shot and had to spend a 15 hour day running around an airport hangar with a box of kleenex in tow.  But I survived.

So a wee update on life......

My dad is doing somewhat better.  They kept him in the hospital for a while as he had blood in his lungs.  There was a lot of damage done to his heart so part of it wasn't working, thus the blood wasn't getting pumped through and ended up pooling in his lungs.  He was finally sent home but ended up back in the hospital last Monday as he was having trouble breathing.  They kept him in for a few days to monitor him and then adjusted his medication.  He's now back home and taking it easy.

On the running front, I have finally made it up to double digits!!!  And I got the all clear from my physio to continue building up my mileage.  I can't even being to express how happy that has made me.  Of course, I have a race in mind, but we'll see how the next few weeks go.  My goal is to get up to 16km by the end of this month.  If I can do that pain free then I'll hit enter.  I've been warned that I absolutely need to be careful when adding in any speed.  I need to continue to strengthen my hamstrings so I'm diligently doing my deadlifts and single leg curls.  I know that once you tear a hamstring, you're more susceptible to tearing it again so I have to be smart about this.  I think I have to accept the fact that my very speedy running days are over for me.  Just the thought of being able to race makes me happy so I'll go with that!

I've also been testing out a few different shoes and so I will be posting a couple of reviews in the coming weeks.

On the home front, we have almost settled into our new place.  The kitchen is finally done!  I still have a few boxes of things that have to be unpacked and there is a bunch of stuff in our storage space under the stairs that needs to be purged.  That will be task number one over the Christmas holidays.

Speaking of Christmas, the tree is up and things are starting to feel pretty Christmas-y around the Kennedy Compound.  Amazingly I've gotten almost all of my shopping done already!  I think I did most of it on Black Friday, ha ha.  I only have a few more things to get and then I'm done.  I do need to get started on my Christmas baking though!

Only 2 more weeks until I'm officially no longer a full time employee.  It's kinda scary but it's also very exciting.  I'm looking forward to working with some new clients and getting back into the swing of things with some previous ones.   My BBT athletes are going to kick some BUTT in 2017!

All around I think 2017 is going to be pretty awesome.  And really, after this year, I think the only way to go is UP.    Here's to bigger and better things in 2017!

Farewell Summer + Moving On

Hi!

I'm BACK!

Stage one of Operation Florida is done.  Last Saturday we said goodbye to the home we lovingly rebuilt just over 4 years ago.  We had spent a total of 12 years in that house.  To say that we're going to miss it, would be an understatement.  I had a really tough day.  I would burst in to tears at the drop of a hat.   I'm still a little emotional when people ask how the move went (it went REALLY well thanks to the awesome crew from Tippet Richardson).  I think if we had moved into our new place right away, it wouldn't be so hard.  Unfortunately we couldn't make the closing dates align so we are in temporary lodging right now.  Nothing like living out of a suitcase for a month to keep your life pretty simple.

What this move had made me realize is that I hang on to a lot of shit.  I've never thought of myself as a hoarder like the ones you'd see on Intervention, but I do tend to put a fair bit of emotional attachment to certain things so they end up hanging around for sentimental reasons.  I'm also fairly practical in that I don't like to see things go to waste.  So, if I paid good money for something, I don't want to just throw it out.  I try to re-sell things as much as possible.  If I can't re-sell it, then it gets donated, eventually.

This move forced me to purge so much crap.  Honestly, it feels SO good to get rid of things.  Moving forward, I am going to think twice about what I purchase or bring home from work.  I work in a photography studio and sometimes we have leftover props or wardrobe that the client or agency doesn't want.  Sometimes they get donated, sometimes we keep them.  I have brought home so many things from shoots over the years and I"m pretty sure I've only used about 10% of what I've brought home.  So from now on, I'm going to ask myself:  Do we really NEED it.  Will we actually USE it?   If it's a maybe, then I don't need it.  Period.

Our goal with this move was to downsize into a townhouse.  We wanted a maintenance free lifestyle and we got it with this new place.  We no longer have a lawn to mow or a driveway to shovel.  We have a small back patio and a deck off the dining room so we have some outdoor space which is perfect for us.  Surprisingly this new place is bigger than our house by about 300 square feet, so we actually have more living space.  The best part was that we significantly downsized our mortgage as well.   Which means that we will be mortgage free much sooner.  Wahoo!

What have I been up to this last month....?

When I last left off,  I was still not really running often.  That hasn't really changed.  I go out once, maybe twice a week.  Running feels hard.  Although once in a while I have glimpses of that "flow" that I used to feel and that's what keeps me going.  I'm thankful I've been on my bike a lot this summer, I at least still have some good cardiovascular fitness!

So what's the deal with the injury?  Well I don't have answers yet.  I had my MRI last week.  I go back to Dr. Galea in two weeks.  Some days I feel fine and other days, I don't.  I know I've aggravated the nerve this week because I've felt that twingey-ness a lot.  I think I actually did it in the pool of all places.

I've been seeing a variety of health care practitioners to keep me from completely falling apart.  I seem to fix one thing and something else crops up.  My back has been a problem for the last few months and I'm chalking that up to poor mobility through my T-spine and weak chest muscles.  All the more reason for me to get back into the gym (which I have been doing).   I've had a couple of interesting treatment experiences that I will elaborate on in another post.  I do know that I really need to work on my mobility and flexibility.  It's absolutely atrocious.  I make a point of stretching every day, even if I haven't worked out.  I've definitely got a long way to go to undo all of this though.  That's ok, I've got nothing but time....

A few months ago I was chatting with my friend Lauren, and she commented that with all the things going on my life at the time, it was probably just as well that I wasn't racing as that would be one more thing on my plate.  I agreed wholeheartedly with her and I've thought about that often over the summer.  It's been strange not racing the MSC circuit this year.  Had I been healthy, I still may not have raced much simply because we put so much time and energy into house selling, house hunting and moving.   Did I miss being out there?  Of course.  I love to race.  But I feel like the universe gave me as much as I could handle this summer and racing just wasn't in the cards.  That being said, I couldn't let a perfectly good summer go by without toeing the line in some form or another.  I had a $25 credit from Multisport Canada for being a series award winner last year so I put it towards my entry fee for the Ontario Women's Triathlon on September 10th.  My old coach Paolina Allan is the race director so this is going to be AWESOME.  I'm in no condition to race a 5km so I opted for the swim / bike.  My swimming has gone to shit but my cycling seems to have improved a fair bit over the summer, even without following a specific training plan.  It will be fun to get back on my tri bike and see what I can do.  I was also roped in to being the swimmer in a relay team at The Barrelman Half Ironman.   I had wanted to do the bike but the boys I'm racing with are both lousy swimmers so I get to do my least favourite thing of the three sports, ha ha.  I am looking forward to swimming in the Welland International Flatwater centre though.  It looks amazing.

While this summer may not have been what I had hoped for in terms of racing, it hasn't been a total bust.  There have been some wonderful moments.  Most of them spent on two wheels with great people and spectacular weather.

The 100km Crew from the D'Ornellas Girlz Ride

Hanging on for dear life with the MGCC Butter Tart Boys. 

Cruising around the Burbs

Goofing around at Professor's Lake with Irina

Riding to Erin for butter tarts.  That's how we roll....

Chasing the MGCC Boys around High Park

The MGCC Sunday Cannoli Crew

Sticking to G's wheel during a Thursday morning MGCC Ride

OH HEY

Hello People of the Interwebs!  I'm alive.  Back from holidays and trying desperately to catch up on work and get back into some kind of routine.  My body was pretty tired after Eagleman so I was happy to take the week off of any sort of workouts.  I just enjoyed relaxing, some shopping, a fair bit of walking around and lots of exploring.  Oh and eating and drinking of course. 

This biscuit weighed at least a pound.  I couldn't finish it. 

G chilling on the balcony

Selfie while we were exploring a state park in Delaware

 We got back home around dinner time on Friday, unpacked and lounged around.  Of course the first thing I did was watch the season finale of Game of Thrones.  WTF.....AHHHHHH!!!!!   I was going to have the Game of Thrones beer that I bought but opted to save that for another day. 

We did a ride on the Saturday, I went for a disastrous run on Sunday and got back into the pool on Monday.  Then I had two crazy long days at work.  Yesterday I went back to the gym after taking 5 weeks off lifting.  I'm a bit sore today.  I was going to swim this morning but opted to sleep in as I had a massage last night and felt that sleep was the best option.  Besides, I'm going to be getting up stupid early tomorrow because G and I have signed up for another race.  He's doing his first off road triathlon tomorrow and I've decided to do the 12km trail run they have happening as well.  Whether or not that's a good idea a week before the Muskoka 70.3 relay, remains to be seen.  I had planned on doing a run anyway so now, it's just going to end up being in a race.  I don't suspect I'll go that fast since it's on trails so that's perfect.  As long as I don't hurt myself, I should be just fine. 

I'll start to ramp things up again after Muskoka 70.3.  I don't have any more long distance triathlons (just short course for the rest of the season) but I do have a 125km ride that I signed up to do in September as well as the Scotia Half in October.   So I won't be sitting on my duff for long.  I'm actually going to join Morning Glory Cycling club to work on improving my bike even more.  I also want to learn to be more comfortable in a pack.  I'm always a bit nervous when I'm around other cyclists so this should help with that. 

Another little tidbit of info for you - Tri Talk Tuesday is now bi-weekly.  So next week we're back and we're talking about wetsuits.  If there is a topic you'd like us to discuss, send me a note phaedrakennedy (at) sympatico dot ca

Hope everyone has a spectacular Friday!!!