If I hadn’t been inspired by other running bloggers I probably wouldn’t be running my second marathon in 10 sleeps. 

If I hadn’t been inspired by other career-driven individuals who enjoy what they do every day I probably wouldn’t be at my current workplace. 

If I hadn’t been inspired by quotes, movies, music, books, art and more I might not be the same person I am today.

If I hadn’t been inspired by a fellow classmate’s blog I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog post right now. 

If I hadn’t been inspired by world travelers I probably wouldn’t have experienced my own world travels and constantly be thinking about and planning the next big trip. 

Inspiration is a funny thing isn’t it? We feel powerful, happy, even on cloud 9 when we’re inspired by something and when we set goals for ourselves that are just out of our reach – at least that’s how I feel when a wave of inspiration hits.

Who Inspires You is a contest sponsored by Tri-Cyclen Lo to help inspire young women across the country. To enter the contest you need to upload a video of five minutes or less to YouTube telling the judges what you aspire to be and how you would use $10,000 to get there. Pretty awesome, right?

Last year’s winner, Daniela, used the money to pursue her dream of making music her career. I can’t wait to see what this years winner aspirations are!

To learn more about the Who Inspires You contest check out their website, twitter and facebook!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Tri-Cyclen Lo. All opinions expressed are my own.

Question of the day: Who or what inspires you? Have various forms of inspiration helped you get to where you are today? 

I saw this post idea on Britt’s blog yesterday and loved it so I’m stealing it since I really don’t have a lot to say these days!

• The last two days have been very go-go-go.
• Eric finished building our deck and fence this week!
• It looks awesome, I’ll share photos once it’s all cleaned up and we’ve (and by we’ve I mean he’s) finished painting.
• I’ve seriously lost my blogging mojo lately and I’ve considered stopping all together.
• But then I remember how much I love blogging.
• Marathon #2 is only 16 sleeps away. Omg.
• I am running 14 miles (23 km) today after work. So not excited about this but it’s the only time I can fit it in this weekend.
• And that’s about all I have to say. Jeesh, it took me like 20 minutes to write 7 bullets. See why I haven’t been blogging much?

What are you up to this weekend? What’s the longest distance you’ve ever ran in the evening? The farthest I’ve ever ran after work is like 8 miles (13 km) so I’m a tad nervous for my big run tonight!

Happy Sunday everyone! I am now back from Ottawa but didn’t really post any updates this past week on what I was up to. It was a very busy week with training all day every day and in the evenings I kept myself busy with fun social things, either with the new friends I made at training or blog friends!

It’s funny because this was my second time visiting Ottawa and I was there for 5.5 full days and 6 nights. Last time I was there for 4 full days and 4 nights. But I feel like I saw so much more of Ottawa last time. Probably because for 3 of the 4 days I was touring around with Anais! That trip is recapped here, here and here.

In my true “photography” fashion lately I took a bunch of instagram photos last week so I figured I’d recap my week in one post, through those photos!

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When I first arrived in Ottawa last Sunday night it was cold. Like -20 C with the windchill! I was not happy since I had left a balmy 15 C behind in Kamloops. But it did give me the opportunity to wear the toque Lisa made for me finally!

After a long day of training on Monday I met Anais for a (very cold!) run. We ran 5.5 miles along the Rideau Canal in Ottawa and then went back to her house where she made me a delicious dinner of rainbow trout and quinoa salad. It was great! Silly me didn’t get any photos of us together, though.

On Tuesday I participated in one of the social events with my training group! We did a tour of Parliament and then went for dinner and drinks at a nearby pub. It was really fun and great to get to know all the people in my group better! I ended up making some awesome friends by the end of the week.

Wednesday I hung out with Anais again and went to hot power yoga at her gym. The gym she goes to is AWESOME. It’s massively huge and it has a hot yoga studio right inside of it that is included with the membership. It was an intense workout and I was glad to fit in some yoga during my trip. We then went for tofu burgers (same one I had with her last time), which were amazing! I once again failed at getting a photo of the two of us though

Thursday was super fun! Our training group went to the Ottawa Senators game and had box seats, which was so cool!

Friday our training wrapped up by 1:00 PM. It was really sad actually, it was very group-focused training and I met some awesome people from all across the country. All of my friends were flying out that day and I wasn’t flying out until Saturday but a few of them had a late flight so we wandered around Ottawa a bit more. We walked back to Byward Market so I could eat a Beaver Tail!

A beaver tail is just a piece of fry bread with your choice of topping! I had maple butter which was super drippy and sweet, but delicious!

I love this photo I took near Parliament in downtown Ottawa. The contrast of the new skyscraper beside the older parliament building is so cool to me. I really love Ottawa and could actually picture myself living there one day.

After saying goodbye to my friends I got ready to meet Cynthia for dinner! She just happened to be in Ottawa that weekend for work as well so it was really fun that we got to meet up. I, once again, failed on taking any photos of us. Probably because we talked for two hours straight without stopping. It’s crazy how you can meet someone for the very first time but feel like you know them so well! We had delicious pad thai and then it was early to bed for me as I had a long run planned in the morning.

I met up with Rebecca bright and early on Saturday morning to run 18 miles (29 km). I woke up to see that it had snowed and was about -10 C outside so I admit I was really dreading this run.

Well it turned out that this was by far THE BEST long run I’ve ever done. Rebecca and I literally chatted non-stop the entire three hours and I felt amazing. By the last mile or two the bottoms of my feet were starting to hurt from walking lots the day before but overall it was a really amazing run. If I feel that good during the marathon I will be one happy girl! We also ran along the Rideau Canal which was gorgeous and even though it was chilly it was also bright and sunny.

Afterwards we went back to the Scone Witch for a delicious brunch which I basically thought about the entire last half of the run.

And then it was time to head home for me! I felt really good after my run and all day yesterday but I’m definitely pretty stiff today from running for three hours and then sitting on a plane / in airports for 8.

I had a really awesome week though. I met some great new people working for the same organization as me, I learned A LOT and I had some super fun times with blog friends. Nothing wrong with that!

How was your week? Do you like traveling for work or no?