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...

Treadmill.. shredmill.. #$%@&^$

So overall Calgary’s winter weather isn’t so bad comparably speaking. I mean, we like to complain on really cold days (and don’t get me wrong there have been some this season) but now with the runs getting longer and the weather getting colder, it was bound to happen… hitting the euphoria wall and having a bad running day!!

We've found that each run completed together usually ends with positive energy including congratulations to and for each other on continually showing up and putting in our best efforts. These actions can be explained the sense of accomplishment AND the euphoria you feel after a run caused by endorphins.


We have come to get used to this and wait for it, so even though at times during hills, long runs, tough runs, etc.. you can count on the fact that when you are done, you will feel better than when you started...That was before today. With the weather hovering at around -18C, the only logical option for me was to run the 7km (yeah, I know ONLY 7km) on our gym’s state of the art treadmill… still not feeling sorry for me, I get it.

I gave myself 45minutes to complete this task, set my pace accordingly and raised the incline to 2% (as per what we were told would simulate outdoor running). The run started off OK, the first couple km’s were completed with help of Julia Roberts running from her husband in “Sleeping with the Enemy”.. keeps your mind off of things for sure. The next couple kms got progressively harder with nothing on TV to keep my mind occupied enough to forget that I was running. I did make an effort to keep my mind busy trying to answer questions on “The Cash Cab”.. didn’t help as the commercials kept interrupting my make believe bliss.

By 3.5km or half way, usually I get kind of excited because I’m on the downhill now, halfway finished .. not so much today. All I could muster (in my own mind of course) was.. “Are you kidding me.. I’m only half way now!?!?” So switching between “Showbiz Tonight” and the “Cash Cab” during commercials got me to around 5km (my maximum treadmill run ever).. but still 2km to go… urghh.!!!

I should know better than to even have the km reading up on the treadmill because the last hard fought kms were the longest time spent ever on a treadmill I'm sure! I am sweating by this point (having gotten used to running outside), can’t concentrate on the TV (partly because I can’t answer the $100 questions) and have started texting Felic for encouragement (which she thankfully obliged to with return texts of support). Thank God it finally ended, I thought I was out of my misery, just waiting for those endorphins to check in and make me feel like I’d accomplished something, that I’d feel better because I finished.. NOT! Didn't happen.

So I guess another lesson learned.. treadmills for longer than 5km runs and for the most part aren't something I am inclined to do often AND make sure that when I am done that I tell my princess partners about the experience and who make sure to bring you that feeling of endorphins to you in words and praise afterwards.

How Jurassic Park failed me

Yesterday it hit 24C in mid October in Calgary. This morning when I woke up to go for my long run, it was gusting wind and flurries, temperature 4C. I know I harp about Calgary weather a LOT on this blog, but seriously, this is crazy. Maybe if I had my fellow princesses, then MAYBE I would have gone for a run outside.  But I draw the line at running in the dark, cold, wind snow by myself. I did think about scrapping the run altogether, saying go back to bed and I can always do it Monday.  Then I realized if I didn't do it now, it wasn't going to happen at all. I'm great at lying to myself. So, inside on the treadmill it was. 

I used to love the treadmill.  Running in place while watching TV or movies was great, so I thought.  Now I've really come to hate it, and hate it I did this morning for 6 whole miles.  I put in Jurassic Park to cheer myself up, but it didn't come close to a good long run out by the reservoir or the airport or anywhere that wasn't just staring at the same 4 walls. In fact, the movie was...starting to look like it was 20 years old.  What was with all the high waisted pants? Marky Mark was 20 years ago, but he's still awesome! And for probably the first time ever, I started thinking the whole premise of the movie was stupid and implausible. I bet a T-Rex would eat more than a single goat for lunch.  And I bet scientists would know when they were splicing frog DNA that the species can switch genders, that seems like a pretty stupid mistake. 

Sorry JP, I think this is the runner's low talking

I was so busy being angry about running on a treadmill I couldn't enjoy the movie at all, but nor did it distract me from my task at hand.  I get sweaty anytime I run, but running inside on a treadmill is the very worst, I was DRENCHED when I was done.  My headband was actually heavy when I pulled it off, and my shoes were soaked.  Also, I realize now that 6 miles is actually 9.6K, which means I ended up running an extra half kilometer because I can't do simple math!? GRR!!

I'm not saying treadmills are useless, I like them for speed intervals and hills and for sometimes just mindlessly watching the Food Network (yes, I love to watch bacon fry while I run, don't judge me) .  And yeah, they will sometimes beat the heck out of running in the snow or paying a $15 drop in fee to run laps at your local rec center, but I just didn't enjoy my run at all today.  I won't dwell on it, because it's done and next week's run will be outside for sure.  On the bright side, now I won't have to run on Monday with a hangover.

RE: Salad Schmalad

I think this picture says it all and I never need to go on a rant about hating salad ever again.

But what do Scissors and Paper eat?

What's awesome is that I see this sign ever single morning when I drive to work. Well, every single morning since Christi told me to look for it! It's oddly on the opposite side of the road for a bill board. I had to pull a highly risky, covert move to snap this picture, but the near death experience was well worth it!! And I know this is a running blog, yet all I do is write about food, so I'll tell you about my training and the ever persistant muscle spasm I have another time. Right now, I'm going to make some bacon!