23 Dec 2009
Big Weekend
Wednesday, Dec 23, 2009
I have been a bit distracted this week with the concerts over the weekend. Both went really well and it was truly a joy to sing Handel with a lovely orchestra, choir and soloists. I feel really grateful that I got that opportunity.
Nothing too exciting to report running-wise. I gave a go at a hill wo on Saturday morning (the day after the first Messiah concert). 30′ of 1 minute hills up Hillwood. I saw the group who started at 9am doing their repeats as I parked the car. I got out to tease them a bit, then met Matt who had kindly agreed to run the hills with me an hour later so I could get an extra bit of sleep. After the high from the performance the night before, it was hard to fall asleep. The wo went as well as I thought it would – it was crap. I managed 9.5 repeats out of 13 then called it. I hate bailing on a wo but I didn’t want to muscle or push so I stopped while I was still at least moving forward! I wasn’t surprised because I was pretty fried.
The concert on Sunday afternoon was even better than Friday night’s. Everyone seemed to be really on their game and the flow was even better. Joey did a terrific job and I think the audience appreciated the energy he gave. He is such an instinctive conductor and made it so easy for everyone to perform at their best! When we got home, we changed into running gear and headed out the door for a run. We ran together over to CH and up Braefoot to Mount Doug. I then went ahead and got on to Lochside and ran over to the Browns’ where I made a quick pit-stop to check in on their cats while they were awayon holiday. I then ran over to Quadra to get back home. The run felt pretty decent although I wasn’t very happy running in the dark, in the rain all alone…blah.
The rest of the week will be more aerobic running, plyomtrics and strength/core work with another hill wo on Saturday. I am taking a well-deserved blog holiday so you won’t see too much here during the week.
Pics from the shows!
Andy, Mar, Barb and Isaiah
The Maestro and Mar
Guess who called this pose
Divas!
At Intermission
Hello Marilyn,
I saw your photo in the current Canadian Running magazine and was thunderstruck: Wow, an opera singer who runs a half in 1:15 and change. Then I saw your age! I’m a new runner (I lost 45 lbs in 2008 and took up running to speed up the weight loss – I’ve used the running to keep the weight off). I’m also a musician, currently on parental leave from teaching middle school music. I play piano, but my love is singing – no solos for me though – choral only. Today is my 46th birthday. So no need to say that I was inspired to google you and browsed my way here. After reading your bio, I think we perhaps were at McGill music school at the same time, though I can’t be sure. I graduated in piano performance in 1991.
Anyway, I’ve subscribed to your feed and I really look forward to reading more of your blogs. I’d love to also hear about what you do for cross-training – what kind of time you spend on strength training and that sort of thing. I browsed some of your blogs here just now and I can’t believe your average HR on your runs. Whoah!
All the best,
Maureen
PS Tried to post this several times, so if you gets repeats of it I apologize.
Maureen
December 26th, 2009 at 9:03 ampermalink