shorts in november

Wow! It's been busy. Seems like I haven't updated in awhile. I have planned to write something many times but haven't gotten as far as to put pen to paper (fingers to keys?).

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The days are winding down to the Vegas trip and I am getting super excited! Geoff and I leave 2 weeks from today - yahoo! That means the marathon is just around the corner and the training is beginning to back off this week. I am ready for a good taper and hope my legs and body can finally absorb all the hard work and mileage that they have pounded out over the last few months. Now is the time for the adaptations to take place. I have put in a LOT of hard work the past few months, and need for it to sink in right about now! I am really looking forward to running this distance!

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I have been feeling off and on the past couple weeks. Great some days, not so great others. Several of my runs during this period have been the type where you find yourself running into a headwind in every direction you turn, struggling the whole way. Today was one of those runs. My "10km pace" for the 3 min intervals seemed like it was closer to 1/2 marathon or even marathon pace. I made myself push through them, however, and managed to churn out 7 of them, with my speed improving the last few. But my legs felt 'stuck' today for some reason, like 2 stiff blocks of wood that cannot bend or bounce. It was a weird feeling and one I hope not to experience again anytime soon! During the run today I used my mind to focus on positive thoughts to try and turn things around and push myself through it. It was a good exercise to practice...

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This got me thinking of mental plans and what to focus on during the race. We train ourselves so that we can go into a race as physically prepared as possible, and with a plan of attack for pacing and where we're going to pick it up/back off/ etc. How much do we ever prepare ourselves to deal with the unexpected? I usually plan out the perfect race in my mind and think about what I expect (hope) will occur. I must admit, I rarely (if ever) plan what I am going to do if things start to go sour. And when they inevitably do on occasion, I find myself consumed with negative self talk, low motivation, and thoughts of 'why is this happening to me? I've worked so hard!'. I need to come up with a plan B of how to deal if plan A does not quite work out. Gives me something to think about over the next 2 weeks!

My reward tonight for the challenging run:


Wylie is growing every day, he's now 6 months old. Hugo and Wylie think they can both squeeze into the teeny baby bed:
Sitting in his toy box:


They seem to have brought some shoes into their bed:

Holla

Some days that you have it, other days you don't. Most of my runs in the past week and a half unfortunately fall into the latter category. I think that everything is sort of catching up to me all at once; those longer mileage weeks and being overly busy at work the past month or so. Things at work are starting to settle down a bit now, which is great as that will give me more chance to focus on running and RECOVERY these next 4 weeks. I can rest easy this weekend knowing that I did not have to bring work home with me - first time in quite a while! I can't rest completely as I have a LOT of housecleaning to get done... and Geoff, you get to help! Other than that, I will be spending time playing with the two monsters (actually the three monsters if you count Geoff).

On Sunday I am faced with the daunting challenge of a 20 mile run. I plan to do the 10 miler race route twice. It can't get any more convenient as the route actually passes by my house! The route is not easy, though, and includes several long and gradual hills; nothing I haven't been doing in my other long runs, however! I am up for it!

And - I will have some good company with Christina and Cindy joining me.

But first, I have a 60 min tready run on the schedule for tonight - with some speedwork in the form of 12x1min @ 5k pace.

The Vegas trip is now all organized and booked - and my BFF Stephen is now signed up for the 1/2 marathon, so it should be lots of fun! Only one month till race day! Where does the time go...

Sh!t shoes

I'm in calgary for a few days at a Health & Safety conference/trade show... I get to go home tomorrow. Sunday was another 2:40 run, during which I struggled at times. What a beautiful day, though! I overdressed wearing tights and a long sleeve + vest, wishing I was in shorts or capris. Christina M. has been awesome throughout my long runs for marathon training - she has been my running buddy on these lengthy workouts and she is not even really training for anything! I am very grateful for the company and someone to push me through these workouts. Thanks Chris, you rock!

Just went to meet my brother Donald for a quick little run followed by dinner at the Keg (where we were both guilty of gluttony). We ran an easy 40 minutes, which was about all we could both manage! Donald has not run in over a month (he is not really a runner but does it more for fitness), and I was simply not feeling great. You know when you feel out of shape or something all of a sudden and find you're breathing harder than you should be? Yes? No? That was me today. Very likely b/c that was my 8th day of running in a row. Tomorrow is a day off!!!

After the run, I walked into his neighbour's yard to pet the 2 boxers, which were really friendly and cute. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I managed to step both feet in a pile(s) of crap and while wearing brand spanking new shoes nonetheless! I got my new pair of Nike Free's in the mail last week, and this was literally the 3rd or 4th run they have been on. Unfortunately these shoes have VERY deep grooves on the soles and this resulted in a very lengthy and extensive clean up process. Which is not complete - I think I will have to find a high-powered hose somewhere to finish off the job. UGH!

This week is a recovery week, so a shorter long run on Sunday - only 1:50. Funny how right now I consider running for 1hr 50 to be short! Well after running nearly an hour longer the past 2 weekends, that's what happens! Two 20 milers remain for November. I hope the weather holds :)

Longest run ever and some doggy pics

I meant to write this sooner - in fact, I got as far as writing the title several days ago and am now just sitting down to write the actual post. Seems these days there really is no time for writing blogs and reading blogs and internet surfing. I try and check in when I can, but it's certainly not as often as it used to be.

It has been awesome having another puppy in the household. Wylie has fit in perfectly and is the sweetest thing ever! He's learning from Hugo and copies him a lot (the bad habits too unfortunately!) but has his own unique personality.

Running is going well. Sunday was my longest training run EVER, and my 3rd longest run ever if you count races (behind the 2004 leg 4 of the Death Race - 34km; and the 2006 IMCDA - a marathon of course - both of these races done on very insufficient training!). 8am start so I had a couple buddies to run with, which means I had to get up at like 7am. UGH! I had a REALLY good run, however, and ended up with 2 hr 40min, about 18.5 miles. I was actually only planning to do 2:30, but when my running partners cut off just before 2 hours, I headed in the other direction to complete a loop I thought was about 30 mins, but which turned out to be 45 mins. Let me tell you, those last 15 mins were killer! During that loooong run, I consumed one gel and a couple sips of water. I started getting hungry near the end so next time I will need 2 gels. I have become a less is more person when it comes to nutrition for long runs/races (and I'm not talking about Ironman here because that is different than a marathon or 1/2 ironman).

After I finished I was very happy with my accomplishment! Buuuut I was a lazy lug the whole rest of the day, and after re-hydrating, re-fueling, and stretching really well, all I did for the remainder of the day was watch t.v.! I really did not feel like doing anything else. At least I iced my legs while doing this so there was some multi-tasking involved. Actually I didn't watch t.v. ALL day, I had a couple visitors over and walked the dogs with Geoff. Christina brought her 3 kids to see the puppies, and then later Alice came by to see the new puppy.

Anyway, this weekend is another long 2:40 run - kinda scared but looking forward to it as well. Then I think there will be two 20 milers left and some shorter runs. I hope the weather holds out another month! We shall see...

I thought I had something more to talk about here but it seems to have escaped my mind and I need to haul @$$ to bed as I have to fit in a recovery run on the tready tomorrow a.m. Bye for now!

As promised...

Wylie, 5 months old, newest addition to our household. He is a dark brindle Boston Terrier, every bit as crazy and rambunctious as Hugo. SO CUTE! The two of them together is a little scary...

Great weekend... nice to have 3 days off of work. Not nice that my 3 days are almost up and Tuesday is already almost here and I have to go back to work. It was very exciting to watch Kona on Saturday, it is always very inspiring and motivating to follow the pro race. Had a solid long run yesterday morning, 2hr 20 min (about 26km). Was able to finish the last portion strong and with no knee problems at all. Yahoo! I will keep up my religious routine of icing and stretching, trigger point therapy ball and foam roller.

Fingers crossed for some warmer temperatures... it WILL happen!

A slight hiccup... and a sigh of relief

It's been a busy week for me. Flew to Calgary Sunday evening, met my brother Donald for a drink and some food at my hotel in Calgary, conference all day Monday in Calgary at the Fairmont, fly home, conference all day Tuesday in Edmonton at the Hotel MacDonald. The fun part of my job was Tuesday evening - we took some potential lawyer clients out to dinner at the Bar 100, and then to the Oilers game against Dallas.

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We had some pretty cool seats... front row on the glass! It was a fun place to sit as you get a bird's eye view of all the action. It is certainly very loud whenever the puck hits the boards or the glass. I managed to get some pics on my phone of the action:

Shoot-out:


Blurry action shot!
Oilers celebrating the exciting win!

Last weekend I was worried as I thought for sure I was coming down with a knee injury. My hopes of continuing my consistent marathon training and racing the marathon were dashed. The left knee (lateral side) started hurting a bit during my interval run on the tready Friday evening, then during my run on Saturday it become progressively sorer throughout my easy 45 mins. I did my drills and skipped the strides. After my run, my knee was sore for the rest of the day, even to walk. No! I iced it that night, and went crazy with the foam roller.

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My long run on Sunday was supposed to be 1:45 as it was a recovery week, and the knee was sore for the first half, but then felt better the last part. I was able to finish the run and still held a pretty decent pace (12 miles total). More icing, more foam roller. I took Monday and Tuesday completely off and did some more icing, took ibuprofen, and foam-rolled it when I got home from Calgary.

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Apparently this did a WORLD of good as when I started running on Wednesday, it was fine! I didn't even feel so much as a twinge during the 75 minute run. Same on Thursday and Friday- my knee was fine. PHEW! I am very relieved. I have a very long run on the schedule for tomorrow (2:20-2:30), which I am starting very early (8am - call me crazy), as I'm running with a friend, Christina. What I am not relieved about is this bloody cold weather we are experiencing - BRRRRR! It's freezing right now, not even above zero, so I have had to get out the tights and toque this week, which I was hoping to leave in my closet until November. No such luck.

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Stay tuned for some EXCITING news coming up on Monday....

Back on the bike and a much needed recovery week

Yesterday was my first bike ride in 2 months, and I opted for the trainer as the wind was FIERCE! And it was a long and tedious 50 minutes, which was all I could manage as the motivation is still not there to do bike training.

I am very thankful this is a drop-back week for my running, as the past 2 weeks I have averaged 7 hours per week of running (7:15 the first week, 6:45 last week). WOW, that is a lot! Close to 80km both weeks. My long run at 8:30am on Sunday morning (sooo early!) was especially tough. About 25 km, 2hr 10min, and after only about 75 minutes my hips become sore and just start to ache! All that repetitive pounding and my joints start to feel like they are 80 years old and trapped in the body of a 29 year old. After completing that run, doubts crept into my head about how on earth am I going to run 20-22 miles in training, let alone run an entire marathon! I really need to keep those thoughts from creeping into my mind and instead be confident and continue to be consistent. There are still 2 months to go - and Geoff knows what he is doing with our training plans!

An excellent but painful massage today (it's Wednesday now - I apparently can no longer finish writing an update in one sitting) has done me wonders. Having the day off of running doesn't hurt, either! I was supposed to do some core/strength exercises but it is now 9:30pm and I still haven't done them. It's looking like I'm going to take a pass on doing any exercise today after all!

This week has been super-busy for me with work and it will only continue to get busier! I'm flying to Calgary Sunday night for a conference on Monday, then back to Edmonton for the same conference on Tuesday here. But I will not continue to talk about work here as I'm sure nobody really wants to hear about that! Enough already. Things are busy for me in all aspects what with coaching 3 swim practices a week again but I quite enjoy that and would not consider it work at all.

Happy Wednesday!