What the....Fun Run!?

So, our Seawheeze training schedule on Wednesday alternates between sprint drills and hill drills and today was hills (which I prefer to sprints…I can probably chug slowly up a hill forever if I had to, but I can’t sprint worth a damn).

The last 2 months of hill training have been “jog up hill for 90 seconds, then jog slowly back down and run easy recovery and then repeat until 50 minutes is up”, with the easy recovery time getting shorter and shorter as the weeks went by (ie, the first week you only did the hill 3 times and then had lovely 10 minute recoveries, and the last one was run up the hill 8 times so your recoveries were only 3 minutes). You know, the gradual buildup to hills that are a staple in half marathon training.

This morning was different though.
 
The drill call for the same 8 hills, but instead of easy recovery jog back down and then around the block, you then SPRINTED BACK DOWN THE HILL and then repeated…so the “recovery” was actually at a high speed.

 

So what ended up happening was a jog up the hill and then a sprint back down gleefully waving my arms and shouting WHEEEEEEEEE with a vague feeling of terror that I would trip at such breakneck speed. Which was EXHAUSTING because we never really got a proper recovery, but was probably my favorite drill work EVER, because the running down the hill was SO fun…it was like when running down hills as a little kid was the funnest thing ever and running was for the fun of it before I grow up and it became all hard and horrible because I am out of shape and my joints are getting old. And while it was exhausting because there was no recovery time (and to tell the truth, at the end the jogs back up were slower and slower and had more walking than usual), the sprints down the hill were exhilarating and meant that instead of 50 minutes of varying levels of horrible, I got 8 minutes of pure unadulterated joy in the mix. I actually couldn’t stop the WHEEEEEEEEEEE from escaping, and I’m sure anyone driving towards me would have wondered how someone could run with such a smile on their face.

Anyway, now my legs hurt in all kinds of crazy new places and I am struggling to stay awake. So I will assume that means it was effective training and Friday's long run will be a breeze!

PS… I promised I would post about the 2 Toronto runs I did last month and I haven’t forgotten…I even have fun pictures! They will be up by this weekend!!

NWT = A OK!

Week 3 is now underway, and I’m very proud to report that we are all still on track with the training program!  We have done sprints, hills, maintenance runs and everything, but the one struggle I am finding is trying to schedule my long runs. The schedule says to do them on Saturday, but I find I almost never have the time to do them Saturdays and end up switching them for Sunday instead. This makes Sunday a great day of Run. Laundry. Nap. Eat Everything. I’m still DOING them, don’t you worry, but I find that with summer around the corner my weekends are filling up and I am having to plan well ahead of time to get in the vital loooooooong runs to build up the stamina for race day.

 

For example, last weekend I was in Yellowknife because it was the week before the equinox.  The last 2 times I was in the Territories were in the winter and the sun came up for an hour a day and it was colder than all heck so I wanted to see what it was like at the other end of the spectrum so off we went.

For the record, it is MUCH nicer there in June than in February. And it is darn right UNSETTLING to have the sun still shining at midnight. But we drank $14 bottles of beer, ate some (unexpectedly) delicious food and I got in both the scheduled weekend runs. And I’m happy to report that while I was a poky little puppy for both the short run and the long, the scenery was great, the temperature was just about perfect, I didn’t get too many bug bites and I didn’t get lost.

 

See how pretty?!  The view, not the sweaty rumpled princess. FYI, 2 minutes
 after this I took a "nature break" in those trees....and got caught by a local out walking their dog.

The only downside was that I was expecting it to be easy breathing since I was 3000 feet closer to sea level than usual, but I ended up gasping along and walking more than I wanted to. Am pretty lazy when I'm by myself. Plus I was one Sweaty Betty, I didn’t realize how humid it was there! I also forgot to bring some carb chews, so I had to eat a granola bar at the halfway mark…tasty but not the best feeling to be choking down sawdust halfway through a 14K run. Will have to remember to pack some for the next few weekends when I am away.

The NWT Legislature! Sadly closed on Sundays or I could have used
 their bathrooms. I mean, taken a tour and learned about the government process.

 

Tomorrow is our first Official Trio Seawheeze Training Run, and it will be 50 minutes of Fartlek training. Which pretty much guarantees I will be struggling for breath for 49 minutes as I laugh childishly.

Caution- Extreme Grossness Below!

So, did you guess?

Well, here it is in pictures. After the Princess Half Marathon, my left big toe started hurting. Nothing crazy, and I could still run, but I was aware that it was there and not feeling great. A few weeks after that when I was changing polish, I noticed my toe now looked like this:



Thaaaaaat's....not a good thing?

Feeling the first inklings of concern, I did the only thing sensible and painted my toes with OPI's lovely shade of Black Cherry Chutney. Yep, just like turning up the radio to block out the funny noise my car makes, I opted to cover up the problem and pretend it didn't exist. Plus, my toes looked great and were right in line with the end-of-winter colors.




Problem SOLVED! And it looks way awesome too.

I kept this up for a few weeks, working through all my darkest shades, and feeling all happy about my pretty toes as the discomfort in my toe slowly increased. Still not to the point of horrible pain, but I was now having trouble running long distances without it really REALLY hurting.

A few weeks ago, I went deep water running. During some of the flutter kicks, my toe started feeling WEIRD. As in, it hurt a LOT and was starting to feel...well....FLAPPY, is the best I can think of to describe it. Relaxing in the hot tub after DWR, I examined it a bit further, relieved to see foot was still intact (and horrified at thought of nail coming off in public pool?), but something definitely wasn't right.

When I got home, I armed self with some antiseptic and bright lights, and braced myself for the worst. Gave it a little wiggle to see how it looked.



Sure doesn't look like the other toe.

Wouldn't you know it, the whole thing just swung away from the toe bed. Trying not to vomit, I tugged a bit, terrified it was going to hurt, but the whole thing wouldn't quite come off. No pain though. I was able to cut the whole nail off.



No No No No No NO NO NOOOOO!!!!!



It looks like a giant beetle. It was
prettier on my foot than in my hand :(



It actually looks even worse now too.

I spent the next few minutes staring at the nail and fighting off waves of horror. And nausea. And rage that this had happened just as open toe shoe season was starting. And just the teeniest sense of pride...only Very Real And Serious Runners lose toenails. But mostly horror. But hey, toe felt fantastic after that, no pain at all!

You can't fake the horror in my eyes.

I've had a few weeks to try to get used to it as the new nail slowly grows in (seriously, this means closed toed shoes ALL SUMMER) , but I am still totally grossed out by self. And I just can't muster up the courage to book my first pedicure of the summer....maybe I can get a 10% discount??

Tomorrow is my long run day and I'm going to run around the reservoir. That means a fresh self pedi afterwards, which feels great after a long run. Am sticking to pale pinks only these days so as not to draw attention to feet!

Happy Easter, Happy Birthday to me, oh and...

Well, it's been longer than I had intended, but honestly, not much to report. Am just trucking along, doing my weekly runs and increasing distance on the weekend. Nothing rigid, nothing fancy as far as training, I am just trying to keep up with my yoga and my maintenance runs so when the actual training takes off, I can literally hit the ground running.

Well...except for one thing that happened that was so horrible I am still having trouble coming to terms with it. I'll post some disgusting pictures soon, but in the meantime try to guess based on these clues...

1. It was like something out of a horror film

2. It officially makes me a Real Serious Runner

3. It eliminates most of my summer shoes from wardrobe contention this summer

4. I hope I get to enjoy a discount the next time I get a pedicure

Any guesses?

Badass Mudders!

It's that time of year again...the clocks have spring forward, the days are getting longer, bunnies are trying to jump over each other but not quite making it and the urge to run outside gets overwhelming.  Today's forecast called for 12C, sunny and windy like the bejesus so I was just itching to get outside. Princess Chris and I made plans to run at lunchtime and I asked Lindsay, who I had coaxed into registering for the Seawheeze to join us.

The weather did not disappoint. While windier than I like (and it changed directions on the way back so it felt it like whole run was into the wind) the sun was shining and it was WARM out...not just a Chinook, it definitely felt like spring, and man, it felt great. I was wearing my new Mickey running shoes for the first time, and kept squealing when i looked down at my feet. But I quickly remembered the one thing I don't love quite so much about spring running...

MUD.

Ohh maaaaah laaaawd, the mud.  

Within 5 minutes of leaving the building, my gorgeous new Mickey shoes were covered in so much mud I bet they were 5lbs heavier. And even running through patches of (rapidly melting) snow couldn't rinse 'em off. A quick rinse when we got back to the office did little to restore their glory and to be honest, a quick whiff made me worry it wasn't all mud. I opted to wrap then in paper towels and stick them in my bag to let them dry out and hopefully clean them off later....

This was after the FIRST cleaning attempt. sorry Mickey!

Well, might as well break them in sooner or later, and a 5K didn't give me any trouble, hurray! It was windier than we would have liked, but overall a gorgeous day, great company and a pretty darn good run. We even spent the rest of the afternoon on a bit of a runner's high!
Plus, it was our first trio run. Next thing you know, we'll be running the Seawheeze in August!

One Week Later

OK, so I still feel like I haven't recovered from the Princess on Sunday. I still feel tired and achy...like I fell out of a tree or something. Plus, darn it, I deserve a bit of a break. So I haven't run once since then, or even been to the gym in the past week. That's fine, I think a few days to fully recover is a good idea. So in the meantime, please enjoy our before and after pictures from the race:

Why are we smiling? We're about to run 21K in 25C!

Note we both have a touch of the crazies in

our eyes...we're dazzled by the new bling!



Also, a friend sent me this, but I'm thinking it's a pretty good idea....might give this a whirl the next time I'm downtown...DANCE WALK BABY!!

Mother Nature takes a Midol

That's right, it's been a while. I fell again and this time it was worse....I fell forward and bashed up both knees and rewhacked my elbow, which put me out of commission for a while. I did try to get a few runs in, but even walking hurt quite a lot for a few weeks so I took it pretty easy----still active every day, but no running. But I'm back in action and back to running, which is certainly getting easier as the weather improves and the days continue to get longer. Now it's fully daylight at 6am which makes early morning training that much easier to plan.

That is, until Saturday rolled around. My alarm goes off at 8am and I hop out of bed for a run before a busy day. I take a peek out the window to THIS:

Yeah, it's May.

Seriously? It looked like December out there. Although I had full intentions of going for a run, I do NOT want to go out in 4 inches of slush accumulating on the roads or the sleet that would soak me within minutes. It may not have been cold, but it was certainly miserable. So, I did the only sensible thing to do during a snowstorm and went back to bed for 2 more hours. Really, I had no choice.

Of course, Princess Chris and I had a 10k run scheduled for Sunday, but I didn't feel too good about it yesterday. Now, I do live in Calgary, so my fears were unfounded. By Saturday night the snow had stopped and melted and our run was still on. Sunday dawned clear, crisp and about a million times greener than it had been a few days earlier.

Ahhhh, that's more like it.

We met at the Weaselhead as scheduled and not only did our 10k, but we overshot a bit for 10.5k. The sky was blue, the sun was shining and the weather was that perfect running temperature of 4C with just a hint of breeze to keep you cool without being chilly. And we weren't alone, the path was packed with smiling runners just happy to be out on a gorgeous day! With today's 10k, we're slowly building up our long runs and getting back into half marathon form. Heck, we might even register for a race soon!

War wounds

It's been over a year since I first started -and promptly fell in love- with winter running. It feels amazing to bundle up and face the elements, and not turning into a sweaty mess feels pretty great. And you can't beat a sunny day with crisp white snow, frosty trees and that noisy kind of quiet you get from muffled snow running. I can't believe how many gorgeous winter days I wasted inside on a treadmill thinking my lungs would freeze or I would slip on the ice.


So after all this time in the great outdoors and the unpredictable Calgary weather, it was bound to happen. On Saturday, a few days after an April snowstorm, I went out for a quick morning 5k in the ravine behind my house. I had breakfast plans and had overslept a bit, so my timeline was pretty tight. As I approached the switchback path down to the ravine I recalled how slick it had been the week before in the spring thaw, so I slowed right down as I came to the halfway point on the path. I had moved off the snow covered path to what I thought was bare road...


BOOM.


Before I realized what had happened, I was sitting flat on my ass, too stunned to move or even comprehend what had happened. Did I just...FALL??? A shriek of pain and rage was heard over my iPod as pain set in. Now, I had fallen right down, no twisting or sliding, but rather one second I was upright, the next picking dirt out of my palms. I sat there for at least a minute, still shocked that I was sitting instead of jogging up the ravine admiring the trees before I dared move. I was so afraid of finding out I'd twisted or banged an ankle or knee and that it would be a long walk home followed by rest...

Fortunately, the only thing I'd hurt was my hands and elbows as I crashed down. Well, guess I smacked my rump pretty hard too, but there's certainly enough padding to protect me there. My palms certainly stung, but the cool air helped, and there didn't seem to be anything too permanent and nothing to stop me from running. I carefully picked my way down the hill and very cautiously finished the run. Took a few minutes longer than usual, but no more mishaps and I got the sympathy I was hoping for when I got home and showed off my puffy hands and slowly brushing elbows. I self treated with ice and a few beers and I should be as good as new in no time!

The Work Song-based on a true story!

OK, it took a few hours, a paring knife, 2 needles, and quite a few pokes in the thumb, but we now have two (hopefully) awesome running tanks with Minnie Mouse sleeves!!!

As the mice would say...

She goes around in circles Till she's very, very dizzy

Still they holler Keep a-busy Cinderelly!

We can do it, we can do it

We can help our Cinderelly

We can make her dress so pretty

There's nothing to it, really

[Gus:]

I'll cut with these scissors!

[Jack:]

And I can do the sewing!

[Girl Mouse:]

Leave the sewing to the women

You go get some trimmin'

And we'll make a lovely dress for

Cinderelly!

(Thanks for not suing Disney!)

Now we just have to wait for the skirts to be ready and we're off to the races!

Running out of time

So, in just over 5 weeks we'll be leaving for Disney.

HURRAY! 

Um, at which point we'll need to run another half marathon.

CRAP! 

I'll be honest, we're not quite as prepared as last time. We're finding summer is actually tougher than winter training and man, do we miss that snow (for running! We still love summer!) There are more bugs, more sweat and less time to do things like...well....run 15 or 20km at a time.

As far as the trip, we have booked our hotel, we're not renting a car for this trip (Disneyland is so easy to get around, we figured there's no need) and our flights look fine, so that's good.

Ummm....we don't have costumes yet either, and this is just as stressful as the lack of training.  We know what they're going to look like, but haven't gotten around to buying/making them yet.

Never fear, the upside is that we still have 5 whole weeks to get back into shape and whip up some snappy running outfits. We're starting with tomorrow's 15k run at 545am...yeah!

BARNACLES!!!!

You won't like me
when I'm angry

Now, this is totally going to sound like I'm making excuses, but I swear I'm not! It's Sunday at 2pm and I'm not very confident I'm going to get the weekend long run in today. I'm supposed to run 14K this weekend. I tried to do it yesterday, but I'm still having tummy troubles and wasn't sure I wanted to be more than 5 minutes away from a bathroom at any point. This morning I crawled out of bed at noon (and only because someone had brought home Timmies breakfast, YAY!) and spent 30 minutes on the patio enjoying the sun and my steeped tea....until the wind started blowing and the clouds blew in. The Internet says the temperature dropped 8C in 30 minutes and now there's a severe thundershower warning. In short, it's not looking great for a run this afternoon.

Still, the day is young, so it could happen. Who knows, Calgary weather changes on a dime, so it could clear up in the next 10 minutes...then again, my brunch date is running a few hours late, so I might get waylaid by an early supper instead. And ribs trump long runs pretty much ALL the time, even when you only have 8 weeks of training left...

Mexico Runs

dónde está la playa?!

Now, before you jump to conclusions...I'm talking about sunrise beach jogs during my trip to Cancun last week, people. Man, I don't think I'll ever grow weary of running somewhere I can see the ocean. I woke up at 6am last Thursday for a 5K run along the beach. Now, you may remember I've gained some notoriety for getting lost, but this time I was ready! Well, sort of...I turned on my trusty Nike Plus and started jogging along the edge of the pool towards the beach, what should have been about a 2 minute walk. Well, I was at nearly a kilometer before my feet touched sand, but no worries, I made it! 

I turned left and started running, making notes of my surroundings to ensure I wouldn't have to try and learn Spanish should I get lost. Happily, the resort I was staying at had the only long dock around, so I had a pretty good marker even from a distance. I had hoped for a sunrise run, but was about 20 minutes too late (damn you, snooze button!!) Nonetheless, I happily plodded along the sand, occasionally misjudging the waves and soaking my feet and even tripping once when a tiny (but surely bloodthirsty) crab popped out of hole at my feet. Now, did I mention it was June in Cancun? Even at 615 in the morning it was already nearly 25C, and the sand running wasn't helping me either.  Long story short, I ran out nearly 3k before turning back and then quit at 4K instead of the five I had planned...I was exhausted and slow, but still happy with the run and totally proud of myself for doing what I did (not get lost, get up early, run in tricky sand).

Next day, I head out at 515 to try and catch the sunrise. Big mistake...while jogging in the dark along the edge of the pool, I missed the last step and landed nastily on my left ankle. I shrieked and stopped short, and in a panic over ruining the rest of my trip, walked for a few minutes. The pain subsided, but I was now leery of it happening again. Nonetheless, I walked out to the beach and up about a kilometer before meeting up with a few coworkers where I opted to quit and watch the sunrise from the beach loungers they had set up. I figured with 22 hotel inspections in 3 days, I would still get plenty of time on my feet!

Our last day was the only day we had any free time, so once again, the trusty alarm was set for 7am for a12k run along the beach...I woke up to buckets of rain and monsoon-like wind. After quelling my disappointment over not getting any beach or pool time on the last day, I went back to bed for 2 hours of well deserved rest (did I mention 22 hotels in 3 days??)  I did sort of make it up this morning out at the airport with a solo 10k route though, so I did get a long run in this week, even if it was a bit short and super slow.

PS...for the record, it turns out the port-o-potties at the construction site by my work running route aren't locked, which really came in handy this morning around the 9k mark when I wasn't quite sure I was going to make it back to the office in time to avoid a "Bridesmaids" type disaster. Crisis averted thanks to the good people of YYC, whew!


Funny in movies, not in real life



I remember this part...

When it's game time, it's pain time!! WHOO WHOO!!

Week 2 and I remember something that really sucks about re-starting running. EVERYTHING hurts right now. My toes, heels, feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, bottom, hips, and lower back are all fighting for attention this week for who hurts the most. Plus, I fell on the weekend (in a non-booze related incident, I swear), which probably didn't help.  I even ran out of Aspirin this morning.  Now, I'll be honest, we aren't stretching that much (OK, not at all) before or after we go for a run and that is going to change, we swear, but in the meantime we're going to gripe non-stop about our aches and pains.  We're also started back in on some general cardio and strength training on non-running days so the muscles that have been asleep since February just got a nasty wakeup call.  Seriously, the only situps I've done in the past four months were when I was reaching for the chips when I was watching TV and unfortunately, they don't want to snap back into shape.

So, the bad is that this readjustment back to a highly active summer lifestyle has been a bit tough. We're tired, achy, and I'm pretty much starving all the time.  The good, of course, is that we've been training together, sticking to our schedule and having some fun doing it!

Back for real. No, really this time!



This morning the three princesses went for our first run together since...well...our Princess Half Marathon. We've each had the odd run here and there, but it's been a while since we were a trio! It was really great to run with the ladies again, I've missed it.

What's up, you ask?



My toes look prettier, but the idea is the same

-Princess Fliss and Princess Chris have registered for the Disneyland Half Marathon in September, which means we get Coast to Coast medals for extra blingy glory on race day!

-Princess Crys wasn't able to commit to the race before it sold out (back in March, guess we aren't the only ones who want the Coast to Coast) but has promised to keep up the race training with us

-Nobody's running pants fit quite as nicely as they did when we were running 30-40K a week.

So, we have a PLAN and we're sticking to it! Disney was kind enough to even make one for us and while we're starting a few weeks behind, I think this one will work nicely. We have the basics under our (stretched out, in my case) belts and hopefully the flexibility of this plan will help us stick to it.  We were a bit slower today that we used to be, but I think everyone felt good about the run.

As for our paths, the airport construction is in full swing but they've been kind enough to add an actual running route back in for us that's a near perfect 5K, thanks YYC!  Plus, if we run after 7am, the mosquitos are so thick out there they keep us running away from them.

What wears a tiara, has two thumbs, and sucks?

Yeah, there's a plate of poutine just out of the shot

 I gotta say, since our half marathon, I've really fallen off the running wagon. In my defence, I got kicked REALLY hard during the last 10 seconds of my last indoor soccer game this season. A few x-rays and a set of crutches later, I wasn't doing any running for a few weeks. Well, at least it hadn't happened a few weeks earlier. I used that time wisely to sit around "resting" my bruised foot and eating as much poutine as I could. I also went to New Orleans, where it turns out, it's extremely easy to scarf 5000 calories a day thanks to a strict deep fried seafood diet washed down with so very many tasty Miller Lites.

Long story short, this means I gained nearly 10lbs in April and totally forgot how to run. Last week I did my first 5K in 5 weeks and it was almost like I'd never run in my life. It took me 40 minutes, not including the time I spent lying on a bench near my house trying not to vomit, and every step was like torture.

Short story long, tomorrow I'm doing the Mother's Day 10K which I am totally unprepared for, and just might kill me, since I've also had a cold all week. But it should be a good chance to get on with training...more on that later!

PS, if you're wondering WTF are the photos from the Princess Run we've been promising since, oh, March, they ARE still coming, I just don't really understand how to use Flickr.