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



Really need to start documenting this...

That's right, still not photographic evidence that we are actually doing any of this, but trust me, we're sticking to our program, we only have 11 weeks to go!

This is how I waddle

So, we're a few weeks in and yesterday was our first official "long" run...we did 9k on Sunday morning. We were going to do it Saturday after work, but when 5pm rolled around it was pouring and so windy it looked like our cars were going to blow away, so we pushed it back.

I'm really glad we did.

Now, I don't mind running at the airport, but there isn't much to see there. And we sort of do it a lot, so while it still beats the old treadmill, it can get stale running the same route, particularly since there's only one now with all the construction.

Anyway, yesterday 9am rolls around and it is clear skies for the first time in a week. It's roughly 13C out and the sun is shining when Princess Chris and I meet at the Weaselhead for a 9k run around the reservoir. It was pretty great. The leaves were rustling, the grass was green and the air smelled amazing, all fresh and with a hint of lilac on the breeze. Plus, since we were running towards the same route as the nearby Running Room morning run, we passed dozens and dozens of runners who cheerfully returned our hellos.  We had both worn the same shirts (not on purpose, but I guess great minds think alike!), so they probably thought we were our own race or something.

We had planned to run 5-6K out and then come back, but at around the 4.5k mark, we hit a puddle so deep we couldn't go around it (even though it was sunny, I guess 2 hours can't erase a week of torrential downpour?) so we turned back (umm, wait, where did all those Running Room people come from then??). We had to double back just a bit, but it was still pretty great---instead of running through the cool, sun-dappled shade, we were running along the edge of the Weaselhead overlooking the water and it was glorious!

We're still not in the shape we were in at the beginning of the year, but we finished up our run in one piece. Then maintaining our winter tradition, we headed to the Pannenkoek Haus for an amazing breakfast served by the friendliest folks in town.

Tomorrow might be our last run as a trio for a while...I leave for Mexico on Wednesday and Princess Chris leaves for a Europtrip soon after, so hopefully we can get in a few blogs on the road in the next few weeks!

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!

We're Back!!

Here's a quote that I saw on the RunDisney Facebook page this morning from famous running author John "The Penguin" Bingham that sums it all up for many: "The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." Or in our case.. start again! It's been a very long 3 1/2months of excuses, half hearted attempts at restarting training and life getting in the way.. but we're back and if what they say is right and it takes 21 times to start at habit.. we now have five less days to attain our new habit goal!

This week was a lot about just 'doing it' aka.. re-starting the morning workouts and re-start we did. All three of us are complaining about aches and pains and lack of lungs while running.. but you know what? It feels so good to be back at it and the pains are more of a reminder that we are making a difference and if feels REALLY GOOD.

For example, today Felic and I did our first run from our new running plan courtesy of Jeff Galloway to increase our speed (well actually it was more that it only contained three running days a week and we like that!)

**Sidebar: Now if you are looking at our countdown, you'll notice that we only have just over 80days left before our next Disney Half Marathon so mathematically & judgmentally speaking, yes we are currently behind 5 weeks and starting our training in week 6 .. YIKES!! Oh well.. like I mentioned earlier.. it's about the courage to start.. right?**

Ok, back to today.. we did our first "Speedwork" day for this Half Marathon. We did six 700m repeats. We mapped it out and did all six repeats on goal time. We were pretty happy with our time, the fact that we did it AND this new method to our training. Both of us experienced a kind of runner's high after we got back to work and are looking forward to running that method again!

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.