Not quite my reflection, but close to it

I sort of took last week off of running.  I managed two swim days, several long walks with my mom and a cross training class with my friend JS. This time I was the person leaving the pool of sweat behind me at every station we did.  It felt really amazing to get out there and do some exhilarating working out! Sadly, I have been very lax in this area since my trainer and I took a break. It made me realize how out of shape I really am and how much I really need to get back at it. Especially if I want to run relay races with my cousin! My only dilemma – I don’t want to pay 400 bones to be a member of any gym or club.  Why the heck can’t I just pay a drop in fee once a week or twice? I tried to get that response from the center where we were, but the lady behind the counter was too focussed on making protein shakes and kept ignoring me.  Now I was there at lunch, really lady do you think I have time to wait for you to prepare a shake on your machinery that is apparently all busted up for an answer.  Needless to say, I wasn’t overly impressed with the customer service – the trainer was great.  Will I go again, probably, if for nothing but the workout. Will I join that specific location if they can give me a good rate – no chance in Hello!

Swim was great this morning, as usual, all Monday morning swims are amazing.  I love getting up, and going for a swim.  Today we did DPS – which I know is Distance Per Stroke, however I have no idea how to calculate, determine and know WTF it is for.  I do know that I swam hard for 20 minutes solid – how many laps – not a clue – I lost track after 10.  That may have been when I started to get dehydrated and really just wanted a drink of water.  Surrounded by and swimming in it, but not going to drink it – it’s all chemicaled up. I caved in and stopped for a drink from my water bottle then had to pick up the pace for the 5 seconds it took me to sip my water. It cost me a lot, I had to let someone go in front of me because I needed water.  Oh well better that then pass out in the water.  I even changed strokes for a length or two – just to get my breath.

My recovery time between strokes was way too long, so I tried to remember to push my arms down hard when my fingers hit the water. Yep this is where the cross training classes would come in handy – need to get some strength from something!

It was tough trying to remember to stroke, breathe, stroke, keep kicking, breathe, push hard, breathe, stroke, kick, stroke, kick, breathe, push hard, extend, are you extending properly, keep kicking, push harder and keep your fingers apart for crying out loud!  Sometimes we are our worst critics.  I need to get waterproof headsets where I can listen to music and just swim! LOL – like that would happen.  I am improving and that is all that matters, eventually it will all come to me like water off a duck’s back.

Bacon Brent was there too.  The way he feels about water is how I feel about bikes.  He continues to inspire me to realize that I can ride a bike and conquer this fear.  He is not a fan of water, yet he gets in the pool twice a week and pushes through it all.  When Spring rolls around, I hope to remember that today I decided I would never let riding on the road make me afraid! I would embrace my ability to pedal and enjoy the ride.

I also realized that based on the races I have signed up for I will have 10 races under my belt by December 31, 2012.  They are races of all different types, 5Ks, triathlons, ½ marathons, 7.5ks of hills and 10Ks. Had we have run in NYC this Spring I could have said I have run from coast to coast, but alas not this year.  Perhaps next year my husband and I will be able to do a run on both coasts together and not sleep in.

That being said, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged me to keep going: this includes my sister in law who invites me out to run with the women, my WW buddy who ran with me in a 1/2, my coworkers for encouraging me to go do the tris with them, my friend LC for still being my friend after all the times I bail or don't call or hang out because I have to be out running or training, Bacon Brent for getting me out on the road and riding with confidence, my parents for their patience when I say I can't because I have to run, my brother and his wonderful wife for their encouragement and support and inspiration to know that I am stronger than I think I am and most importantly my hubby for flying from one end of the continent to the other for races he didn't participate in, for tossing buttertarts my way and being there for the last minute bit of love to get me to the finish and my daughter for always encouraging me and giving me advice and offering to run with me and for sharing hot tub time to recover!

Superstitious – hardly!

This past weekend I ran my 4^th 21.1 K race.  It is called the 9 run run (911) in support of Ottawa’s First Responders (Fire, Police and Paramedics). I agreed to run this back in June when I was out running regularly and getting things in gear.  Well summer came and went and as usual I was feeling unprepared for race day. I practically offered up my first born to my running partner so that we could start earlier with the walkers.  I was going to need at least 3K of walking to warm up my hammy.

I came home from work on Friday so exhausted that I went for a two hour nap.  When I woke, I was still stressing out and skitterish but prepped up my kit. This meant organizing my gels, yes I have succumbed to using energy gels, and my Sharkies and my belt, bib, running gear and post running clothes and my all-time favourite prerace/run booster – the raisin buttertart. I was in bed by 9 and out like a light by 9:05. Normally I get so nervous I don’t even sleep.  Not this round. Five AM came way to early, but I crawled out of bed, stretched a bit, slowly got dressed and had a bite to eat, stretched a bit more and then counted the WW points for the gels, tarts, and chews. That freaked me out – 9 points for the tart.  I started to second guess the eating of a tart.  What the heck bring the tarts any way, I have a 45 miniute drive to debate eating a raisin butter tart.

I was glad we were starting 1:15 ahead of the runners.  It was going to be a long run for me.  My goal was to complete in 3:30, that’s how unprepared I felt. On the drive out to Stittsville I decided that there would be no tart in my future. I wasn’t going to blow my healthy eating strategy because of my “race day tradition/superstition”.

I have been doing some training, just not running as much as I should be. My hubby and I drop of our food bank donations, and meet my running buddy.  We head to the starting line for the walkers – there is about 10 of us.  Oh oh, porta potty…I was thankful this was not the Ottawa race weekend where I would have had to stand in line for an eternity with prerace panic setting in.  The Mayor climbs up into the fire truck to unleash us beastly walkers.  Off we go……

We start walking at a pretty fast pace, one I am sure is faster than my run pace. I start to feel weak in the knees and think I am sweating bullets and we have only moved about 50 paces. I start to panic and think I am going to pass out.  You know that feeling when you haven’t eaten in hours (more than 8). I get all clammy trying to figure out what is going on.  Then it dawns on me – BUTTERTART, I didn’t eat the freaking butter tart.  I call hubby up on the phone, get his location and tell him to meet me a specific cross road with the tart.  Next thing I know most of these “walkers” have started running.  We need to kick it down. When I see Marc with the tart box in hand I start yelling at him to open it up and hand me the damn tart.  It’s like I was possessed.  Sure enough I don’t have to break pace and I even got a kiss out of it.  I am so lucky to have him support me.  I shovel the tart in my mouth as we are walking along, hoping it doesn’t come back up.

At this point I realize I did not bring my sun glasses – SAWWEEETTT I say to my buddy.  This means it is going to be sunny the whole race.  Sure enough Mother Nature cooperated. Not a spigot of rain fell during the entire time we ran.

Surprisingly enough, the tart stays down and we start to walog (walk/jog) at a nice pace.  I feel I could do the next 19+ kilometers at this pace. I am confident now that I will have the energy (what with the tart, two gel packets and two gummy packets). I pass up on water at the first station.  We turn up the LONG road the bulk of the race is up this road and there are cars driving up and down both sides.  We walkers apparently aren’t worthy have having the road closed.  Oh well, not like I have never run on a road facing traffic before.  Seriously why do some jackasses have the need to speed when they see people on the road!

This is a long long long long road for me.  It’s the first time I have run with someone, the first time I have run without my music on, and the first time I have run with NO,  ZERO, ZILCH, NADA crowd on the road cheering the runners on.  It feels awkward for me, but I know I can adapt.

My buddy and I take walk breaks along the way and I realize at the pace we are going at I need to call Marc to tell him when we hit the 10K mark so he can meet me at the end.  I give him notice we are looking at a 3 hour finish now and not 3:30.

We were around the 16K marker when the first runner from the 9:15 start comes whizzing by – actually it was the lead motor cycle. Cool thing … a dude on a handcycle (he was operating the horizontal bike with his hands – pardon my ignorance on the proper term for this vehicle) was keeping up with the motorcycle and the lead fast dude was not too far behind.  I wondered how running so close to a motorcycle’s exhaust would affect lung capacity, and acknowledge I that would never have to worry about running behind the lead vehicle!

I have exhausted all my watered down gels and have a few gummies left over.  My buddy starts to cramp up and so we slow to a walk, then I start to cramp up so I move to a walog pace. My walog is as fast as her walk. She tells me to go ahead. I say no, obviously she doesn’t know me very well.  I couldn’t leave her behind and finish without her so if we walk across we walk across.  Oh oh, people cheering on the trail at a street crossing, we decide to pick up the pace and look good, when no one is looking, we slow down again.  No point in forcing an injury.  After all, to complete is my game, not compete.

As we turn off the trail and onto the road, I start scanning the crowd for my man, he was nowhere in sight and I only hope that he is okay and stuck in traffic.  We finish, under 3 (2:58:52!) get some delicious chocolate milk, which I believe I inhaled mine fresh from the carton.  I call Marc because he was nowhere to be seen at the finish area and I did not get my traditional finishing kiss.  He had to park a long way away after waiting forfreakingever to come down Shea road.  We get a post run photo, some chili, a couple of burgers (all free for participants) and I get to use an indoor bathroom, this was the highlight of my race!!!

I wasn’t feeling tired at all and I didn’t feel my usual exhaustion when we got home.  Even my attempt to nap was futile, apparently there would be no napping for me!  Off to our friends 50^th birthday celebration and I have a couple of beers, some snacks, mostly healthy and then it’s 1 AM before I get to bed. Come Sunday morning, I cannot move my legs.  My quads feel like they have been sledge hammered to smitherines.  I could barely make it to the bathroom.  Since Marc is exhausted from the rum running the night before I take a muscle relaxant and head for the couch, where I lay for the entire day with the exception of hot tubbing it for one hour.  I even started longingly at my foam roller thinking of how painful yet useful it would be to roll my quads and hammies out on the floor. Somewhere in the day I realize I have to get organized for my swimming lesson on Monday, which schizza – that’s tomorrow.  Crap I hope I can walk by then!

Off goes the alarm at 5 am Monday morning, snooze, then 10 minutes later it goes off again.  I toy with the idea of not swimming and realize that is probably the worst idea ever.  Up I get and struggle down the stairs and out the door.  Legs aren’t as bad as yesterday and hopefully a swim will help out.  4X50 of kicking, ya that went slow.  I probably shouldn’t have used my legs today, I would have gotten further faster.  Oh well, I still love my lessons, because I am learning all kinds of things and am trying to correct my bad swimming habits, like relaxing my arm as soon as my figure tips hit the water.  I am learning about recovery while swimming, and DPS (I have a test in this next week) and the faster I get the lap done the more rest time I can have.

I now walk like a puppet on a string and anticipate that by Tuesday I should be okay to run again. Overall a good run and I will have to run more since I want to run a marathon in 2013 along with completing a few tris.  Now I just need to focus my eating habits and work on the recovery process. Sure hope that some of the stuff I am learning in swimming rubs off on me! And oh ya, remember to eat a butter tart before every race and all the right stuff I did before that too!

Come Monday!

Sunday this week involved going for a 15K run. Was feeling pretty under the weather most of the week and wondering if I had it in me to even get out there and do it. 

I stuck to the commitment I made and out with a running buddy.  We met and decided to start with a walk and run when the mood hit and would go as far as I could go, but had to remember that I had to turn around and go back to where I started.  My running buddy was great, in that she knew the neighbourhood and so looped us around.  We didn’t get our 15K in, but we did get in 10K in 1.5 hours.  Slow, yes however, not too shabby for a walk/run. With the chest feeling not as bad as I thought it would afterward.

Had a great cardio workout in the pool on Monday morning and off to work I go. I went for a short lunch walk and by short I mean around the block short!

I missed my evening walk with Mom to go see Mark Sutcliffe speak.  It was mostly about his book and the people he has met and why he runs. It was interesting.  He spoke of his fundraising, his experience, how he keeps track of everything – details back to his first race. I am looking forward to reading it.

So I am sweating this weekend’s ½ 9 run run. Not feeling ready, not sure I want to run actually. My friend says I will do it because I am so strong mentally. And she is right, I know I will do it, I will pick up the kit, I will show up for the race and I will complete it.  I will feel much better after I get it done. And when it is all done and over with, I will take a day or two and plan my next one. And why I know this will happen is because I asked myself why I run and the answer is complex(ish).....

I run because I like it

I run because I want to be fit

I run because I want to challenge myself

I run because it is cheap – well at least until I get to an Expo!

Mostly - I run because I can.

So I am feeling a bit more motivated, even though I know it will be a tough run. I have my music all selected and working to get my mind and body prepared to be in sync with each other, I will finish it. What is really keeping me committed to this run, I know that come Monday, I will be back in the pool and I will be focussing on training for my tri goals.

Why be excited about focussing on triathlons, well what ND said, once you get the tri bug you don’t want to do other things.  She is right, I want to focus on triathlons, not just running, I want to train hard for my triathlons. When I said I had to focus on doing a marathon first she chuckled and said, no you don’t, and you will train to run the distance when you train for your triathlons.  She is right, so that is what I am going to focus on come Monday!

What have I been doing these days?

Been a while.  Being busy always means something’s got to give – and it was my blog.  Going to try to catch up if I can.

We (my wonderful husband and I) trained for our 5K run in San Francisco.  The week before was a little chaotic. My mother-in-law came with us to San Fran.  The flight wasn’t too bad, broken up by a stop in Detroit and some drugs to sleep.

We drove to our apartment; it was nice once we got rid of the smelly sticks.  Grocery store was around the corner and we stayed close to GG Park and the Pacific Ocean.  We were in bed early enough for our run the next morning. Up early, in the car and out to navigate the streets of San Francisco.

Marc didn’t run the race and I did it in 36 and change.  I finished on Giant Stadium left field, got some photos and then headed out to see the city.  We stumbled onto a popular pancake house in Hayes Valley, conveniently with an Artisan market happening right outside.  It was delicious. The market had so many unique and different things.  Like a wood burning pizza truck, problem with that, I was so stuffed from the coconut banana pancakes.  Then there was the NFL game.  OMG 49ers fans are amazing.  Not like I have been to a ton of professional football games!  Loved the atmosphere, just not the freezing cold wind.  People openly drinking on the bus ride down and standing at the entrance gates chugging whatever they had left!

We walked a lot in San Fran, I got a run in down to the ocean (40 blocks there and back). What happened on this run, I did things people should never ever ever do.  A little old lady was putting out her garbage and stopped me to ask if I could help her with something in her basement.  Yes, indeed if I were reading this I would be thinking the same thing... So she takes me through her garage to the back of the house (a basement is the garage and storage area really) and asks me to help with the washer because it was unlevel. I say sure, and doesn’t all 4 feet nothing of her heave on the washer to lift it so I can slide the coasters underneath the leg.  This is when it dawns on me she could have a whackadoodle partner who would bash my head in.  So I slide it under, stand up and head out as quickly as possible.  All the time I am wondering what the heck was I thinking, I watch too many murder mysteries! She was really a nice little old lady.  And I set off down the street to finish my run to the ocean. I looked as I crossed the street and there was the tip of the bridge, next block a little more to my right and a little more of the bridge! Not a stitch of fog. It was a nice sight to see. 

When I turned around to head back to the apartment, I realized I went the wrong way at the start of the run.  I should have headed towards downtown.  My run back to the condo meant a 20 block run uphill!

We walked 1/3 of the Golden Gate Park, down Haight and beyond Ashbury and all the way back. I must admit the number of beggars was a little overwhelming on Haight, and they would smoke pot openly and congregate in packs begging for money.  I opted to ignore them, yet they were still annoying, mostly because of how young they were.  Awesome shopping there.

We hit up the aquarium in Monterey; it was spectacularness at its best for me.  I was in heaven in the aquarium. I was actually thinking of hiding in a closet somewhere so I could hang with the jellies and seahorses.  We hit up Pebble Beach, yet another spectacular sight.  The drive up the CA-1 was phenomenal, beautiful scenery, so peaceful.  The only thing missing from our trip to Monterey is that we were a few years too late to hook up with our American friends.

We walked around Alcatraz, then to Pier 39, hit up Ghirardelli, enjoyed chocolate and a hot caramel sundae in the soda shoppe. Walked the malls, around Sonoma, through downtown, along Embacardo, in through Chinatown, into little Italy, up Lombard to the crookedest street in America and back down. We walked all the way around the base of Coit Tower, ½ ways across the Golden Gate Bridge and back.  Yes indeed it was an action packed walking vacation.  I do have to go back, only to run the bridge and take the trolley car!

So if ever you find yourself in San Fran and want a good place to stay, check out the Duck’s Nest on VRBO.  It was not in the heart of downtown, so we saw a lot of the city via public transportation, we found a pub that was great to have a few bevies in.

One night we took the bus downtown and took a cab home.  We jumped in the Prius and off we went, seriously the dude was driving like he was a modern day cop on the “Streets of San Francisco”! I was a little afraid the car was going to bottom out.

Now that I am back home, I took the 3 pounds I put on off and am back to focussing on the running and training.

I had my first swimming lesson earlier this week.  I can swim; I have strong legs and pretty good technique.  I have been swimming for as long as I can remember.  I think my brother and I both were swimming before walking. Holy Freakoly, what a difference one lesson can make. Turn your feet, spread your fingers.  Loved the lesson, and I am hoping to really get my timing down pat. The coach was supportive, the other students were friendly. The sad part, we don’t meet for another week and a bit – thanks to the long weekend.

That being said..... This weekend is Thanksgiving.  I have so much to be grateful for.  Today my Mom made her lifetime goal at WW.  This is a huge feat for my mom.  She won’t have to pay any more.  I am grateful for being able to be there to share this with her.  I am thankful for my family for all the support they give to me through my training, whining, and ups and downs. I give thanks for all of my friends who understand that sometimes I am so wrapped up inside of myself that I forget to be as good of a friend as they are to me.  I am grateful that I have a job, a roof over my head, pets who love me unconditionally, my health and that my family is healthy and we are all happy together.

The next few weeks are promising for me as I gear up to run my ½ marathon with a friend from WW.  We will be running in the 9-run-run.  Check it out at 9runrun.ca.

Today I did 10K.  Slightly behind where I should be for the run, however, I will complete the ½ and that is what I am a completer not a competer. I will get some runs in this week – 3 times a day if I have to.