First official run without Janelle - Afton

Well tonight was the first official run without Janelle, over the past months I may have had to trudge on without her a time or two, but I always knew she would be joining me for the next run... Needless to say, it's a really strange feeling, to think, I'm not gonna run with, let alone see Janelle till the day before our half marathon in Prague!! EEKKK! Panic is slowly setting in. Back to tonight, it seems I was missing my usual group as well, it was only Sara who showed up, and I am sure glad she did, that made the run way easier to get through! So onward and up-up-upward we dashed to our finish line at the tech shop. We followed Laurens' group tonight as they took us on a hill filled evening, yet we still managed to pull through an awesome 7 kilometers in 50 minutes. I have to admit there were times I thought to myself "why exactly are we following these crazies?" Then the answer came, oh yeah... because I now have no idea as to where I am!! Just kidding, it was an awesome run, and I would do it all over again ;) Well I think it's about that time to say au revoir, I'm off to tend to my sore ankle. See you back here on Thursday. Thanks to everyone who's reading :)

The Four Muskateers - Janelle

Finished our first 12.5km in 87 minutes

What a way to spend my second last afternoon in Canada! Jen, Sara, Afton and I hit the trails from Eau Claire to Inglewood. We managed a smooth 12.5 kilometers! This is the longest run so far for all of us, except Jen. She led the pack to success! It is going to be so strange training without these lovely ladies by my side. I spent all day Saturday packing, and REpacking my backpack. Ontop of my running and teaching necessities; the bottles of maple syrup, the boxes of maple cookies and the HBC memorabilia has put my pack overweight by 4lbs. Now, 4lbs may seem like nothing, but I have already paired down the essentials so much to get it to this point! I think I may have to leave a bottle of beer or two behind. So much for showing those Brits how great Calgary brew is....

Today, Jen gave us some great tips on nutrition while running. I hadn't thought about bringing any snacks/electrolytes/energy wafers, but she opened our eyes to fueling our bodies. Tonight, Afton and I are going to hit up Costco one last time to grab a few energy bars. Maybe Sara won't go so white if she eats more on her runs ;) Also, I am giving my beloved runners a wash for the first time today. I hope they survive the spin cycle. My next blog post will be from London! I hope it doesn't rain too much.

Getting down to the nitty gritty! - Afton

Goodevening everybody! Well, It is only 65 more days till my actual race in Prague, And oh man am I excited!! I am also a tad bit scared and worried but it's my first run, so of course I'm going to be a bit nervous. My worst fear right now at this moment is.... what if I can't finish? To be honest I don't think I would be able to let myself give up at this point. I have pushed this hard to get to where I am now I HAVE to finish! So onward I march my head held high, the wind at my back, and running shoes on my feet, if only they had little wings on them so as a girl could take a break in the middle of the race ;) As the next few weeks unfold I'm sure I will see just how capable I am, starting this Sunday I'm going on some long runs with running buddy Jen. I'm sure My "long runs" will be nothing close to what she would call a long run seeing as though she just finished her full marathon in December, but I know she will wait for me when I need it, push me when I slow down and perhaps carry me back to my car at the end :) I guess what I am really trying to say is that she is such a supportive person , and I know I can count on her. So thanks in advance Jen! As for this evenings run it was a little bit chilly, but I had good company, we ran a cool 52 minutes which must have been about 8 kilometers, I'm sad to say I dont know for sure, sometimes those gps watches drop their satellites and there's not much you can do about that. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you back here next week!

Bavarian Night - Janelle

Welcome back NICE weather! No more minus 40 for us :)

Tonight we had a new face along for the ride; Julia from Frankfurt, Germany. I joined a website called couchsurfing.org. The premise is; while at home, you host backpackers for free, and while you are travelling, you can "surf" people's couches. So far, I have already hosted 4 people, and have had MANY more requests. Yes...tourists want to come to Calgary in January! I think they must be crazy. Today, while showing Julia around, I found myself saying "In the summer....it's nicer in the summer...at stampede, which is in the summer..." What can I show her within the city that truly captures the heart of Calgary? I think we may hit up Ranchman's tomorrow for some two stepping lessons. Thank you to my lovely running troupe for welcoming Julia with open arms. Jen and I even took her out for a bite to eat afterwards. Now, you may think we're crazy, but we decided to bring her to Wurst. Yes, you heard me right. We brought a German to a German bar. What a way to end one of my last nights in Calgary!

Jen and Julia enjoying some German delights - including my favourite: THE PRETZEL!

Julia and I in front of the Stein Wall. You can rent a locked box to house your own beer stein.

 Also, a big CONGRATULATIONS to Afton on reaching 100% of her fundraising goal! Way to go girl! (Now send some love my way ;)

-40 with wind chill... ummmm no thanks! - Afton

Hey all, I hope everyone is staying warm this week! If you are here in the Calgary area I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, might I say BBBBRRRRRRRRRR!!! Well it's no secret, winter has decided to show up after all, today it was -30 and with wind chill it took us down to a frigid -41, eepppp! So as for Janelle and I getting out to train, well that just didn't happen although we did hangout for a few hours, we did some shopping which most the time we stayed warm doing so. Let me bring you all up to speed on fundraising, I did my last batch of cookies which were yummy gingersnaps! I started baking at 5:00 pm on Sunday and finished up by about 12:30 am. I am very proud to announce that I have reached my fundraising goal as of today! My gingersnap, sales tipped me over the top by twenty dollars. With that being said I want to thank everyone who helped me reach that goal, whether it be from donating their time, talent, auction items, being a cookie buyer, handing over bottles or simply making a personal donation, thank you, thank you, thank you! That money will make a difference. As for Janelle, she is still needing all the help that you can give, please visit her fundraising page to make a personal donation, or drop a comment on different ways she may be able to do some fundraising. I now leave you with a picture from my baking extravaganza.

Banana Burp in Etown - Janelle

Edmonton River Valley
Unfortunately, I am missing another group run tonight! But never fear, I am practising for my solo time in Russia by running without my support system. Well, that's a bit of a stretch, because this afternoon I hit the river valley in Edmonton with my friend Hilary. She kept me motivated. After the 5km mark, I started to feel ill, and I started regretting the trail mix and the banana smoothie I scarfed down right before our run. It got to the point where my lunch came back up to say hello to the sidewalk; but despite the cold, the regurgitation and the extremely ICEY sidewalks in our fair capital city, we kept on trekking. I was actually amazed at how packed down the snow is on the paths. In Calgary, the paths are fairly clear, whereas in Edmonton the odds of finding pavement without an inch of ice were pretty low. The scenery was great, we ran past the Edmonton Queen Riverboat, past most of the bridges to downtown, and along the scenic Saskatchewan Drive on top of the river bank. Edmonton is where I grew up, so I definitely have a soft spot for it. However, I can say now that Calgary is my home, thanks to the great people, including the running group, that kept me coming back for more!

Edmonton Queen Riverboat

Extremely Icy Paths in Etown

And a shout out to my Girl Afton! She is SOOO close to her goal! Congratulations on all your hard work!

Freeze yo butt off cold - Afton

Well goodevening everyone, I wonder how the weather is where you are... I know it was darn cold around the Calgary area. Mind you if it wasn't for the wind I'm sure I wouldn't be complaining. It's only -11 outside but when you factor in the wind chill we are looking at about -19 and that is considerably cooler then it has been for probably pretty close to a month. Needless to say non of us runners have been complaining. Tonight John, Jen and I ran ten kilometres and we finished an hour and five minutes later, I thought for sure that I had froze my backside off but when I got home it was still there ;) . I hope mother nature decides to keep the weather mild for the rest of my training time before the half marathon *fingers crossed* I wouldn't want to end up with any frostbite mishaps!

I will close this evening off with some fundraising details, so as of today I have been doing my bottle drive for two weeks total, and I have made 320.00 dollars, although I am formally done my bottle drive now the bottles keep pouring in so keep'em coming guys! I have also thrown up an order sheet here and there for ginger snap cookies which I will bake this coming Sunday, I haven't recieved as much interest in my cookies this time around so I'm hoping it will pick up before Saturday I would like to hopefully make around the same amount as I did with the shortbread cookies but I suppose we shall see. Until next time, Stay warm! :)

Resolutions - Janelle

This afternoon, I met up with our running mate Sara for a quick jaunt. We met up at the usually spot - the Tech Shop and the boys were nice enough to let us mark down our cars for their parking lot. Thanks Boys! 

It's been about 3 weeks for little Sara, so we had a nice steady run - nothing overly exerting. We shared stories about our holidays and had a merry ol' time! Running with a friend sure makes the time fly by. I've started getting nervous about training by myself while I am travelling. Not only will it be tough to fit the time in, but keeping motivated by yourself is tough! My New Year's resolution is to be accountable to myself. I need to start doings things for me, not because the trainer is expecting me to show up at 630pm. I need to be able to run without an invitation from Afton, Jen, or Sara. Self-motivation takes courage and perseverance! I love my running mates, so it will be tough to leave you all for so long :( and doing something for yourself is tough, but so rewarding. Take a look at this list to get you on a positive track for 2012.

AND no more sleeping through my alarm... Resolution #2. Maybe I need an alarm clock like this one?

It's not ten kilometres... but it'll do! - Afton

Wooohoooo! Well we finished our first run of the new year this evening, I'm not sure how Janelle felt about it but it seemed a bit tiring to me. Mind you my asthma has been bothersome the last week or so, but I was even feeling a tiredness in my legs. Despite the lack of energy we managed to pull through 8 kilometres in our 55 minute run, we were planning to run ten kilometres but as we got closer to home base a mutual agreement of ending early was made. We better get ready to step up our game pretty quick though, our trainer John told us just before Christmas that starting in the new year we will be adding another 15 minutes onto our runs every second week, EEEPPPP!! As for my fundraising I'm still doing my bottle drive, so fellow Joints In Motion marathon runner Jen was so wonderful to bring a whole slew of bottles with her this evening, so much it filled my car, thanks Jen!! So far with my bottle drive I have made over 100 dollars, I haven't gotten to the cookies at all this week, due to a late Christmas party with work I'm not sure I will have enough time to do so, perhaps I will get it done the sunday after. If anyone has suggestions on fundraising some input would be greatly appreciated, so comment away, and I will see you back here next week. Thanks for reading! This is not my car, but this would be pretty awesome!