Carol Levesque's Blog

Wow, time has gone by fast. There is now only 7 days until I run the Waterloo half-marathon.

I drove up to Waterloo this afternoon so I could drive the course to familiarize myself with it. Holy crap there are a lot of hills. Like a lot, a lot. There were maybe 2 steep hills, but they didn’t seem long. But many of the other hills were long but less steep.

I have done a bit of training on the hills but usually just on the treadmill. My regular long running route has a few hills but nothing too strenuous. I was hoping for a time of 2 hours & 10 minutes but I think I need to re-evaluate that. It may be closer to 2 hours & 30 minutes. I can’t really compare it to my time I had last year at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront half-marathon (which was 2 hours 15 minutes & 59 seconds) as that was a very flat course.

I will be running the Waterloo Half-Marathon on Sunday April 25th, 2010.

I’m starting to get very excited & nervous about the run. During my training my knees have been bothering me near the end of my runs. I’ve also experienced a little pain in my lower back. Nothing too bad, I think I just need to stretch that part more. Other then that my training runs have been great & I’ve been really lucky this passed winter as there hasn’t been a lot of snow.

Last week I ran 13 miles & yesterday I ran 12 miles so this coming week I start to taper. Only running 3 days this week & the following with the half-marathon being one of the 3 runs next week.

Wow, it has flew by so quickly! I feel like I am more prepared this time then I was last September for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon. During my training for that last year I didn’t run hills, fartleks or intervals, but I have been doing those things this time around.

This week & next are my most intense training period for the half-marathon I am doing in April in Waterloo. On Thursday this week I ran 7 miles and this morning I ran 12 miles.

Next week I will be running my usual 5 k on Monday & running intervals on Tuesday (5 miles + warm up & cool down). But here’s the kicker, I will be running 8 miles (13 km) on Thursday & 13 miles on Saturday. Ouch!

Since my running schedule this week & next is more intense I have decided to slow down on the strength training. I only did it twice this week. Next week I will be starting a new workout routine. I am going to a full body workout but only twice a week. My half-marathon training schedule allows for 2 days of crosstraining which could be the strength training. Before I would run & do my strength training on the same days, but with these longer runs I am getting too tired & I don’t want to burn myself out. I don’t want to give up my strength training, but for now I’m just rolling it back a little.

FYI: Here is the half-marathon training schedule I have been using since November: Toronto Women’s Half Marathon – 24-week (6-month) Half Marathon Schedule for a 2-hour – 2:15 finish time.

I was originally going to sign up for that half-marathon, but I have a family wedding to go to the day before, so there wasn’t any way I could get back to Toronto & then do all that running the next morning!

A series of over 200 Panorama images from in and around Toronto by photographer Rannie Turingan. All shot from an iPhone via the Panorama Application. Check out Toronto landmarks as well as hidden gems as panoramic images.

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Billy Bob Thornton has been slammed by the media, blogs & twitter users for the awful interview he gave on CBC radio this week. Well, it’s finally gotten to him. They have cancelled the rest of the Canadian tour with Willie Nelson.
willienelson.com – Billy Bob & The Boxmasters – no more Canada

Q TV Interview

NOTE: The interviewer is Jian Ghomeshi, formerly of Moxy Früvous. They have some great songs. Go check them out!
My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors
King of Spain

Today is the 1st day of spring (in the northern hemisphere anyways)! W00t! Time to get outside and enjoy the sun.

“The Forbes.com Web Celeb 25 is a list of the biggest and brightest stars on the Web. From penniless bloggers to geek entrepreneurs, these are the folks who are capturing eyes, influencing opinion and creating the digital world from the bottom up.”

Leo Laporte & Kevin Rose are on the list. I’ve met 2 out of the 25. Although more then 1/2 of them I’ve never heard of.

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Keith Olberman has a lot to say about Proposition 8 passing in California.

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The company announced Friday that it would donate $100,000 to the No on Prop 8 campaign, which opposes a measure to ban gay marriage that California voters will consider a week from Tuesday. Google has also spoken out against the ballot measure.

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The late-night comedian was none too pleased that McCain decided to bail on an appearance on the “Late Show” tonight so he could rush back to Washington to deal with the economic crisis –- particularly since he stopped and gave an interview to CBS News anchor Katie Couric along the way.

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