The new receptionist at my Dr.’s office is so much more pleasant. It made my day. I usually dread calling to make appointments because I always get sass. No sass today just friendliness! And she even said to have a good day! 

Now I have to get my ass to get blood tests or risk being scolded by the doc when I go in for an appointment. tsk tsk. I’ve been really procrastinating about it because I’m nervous. I’m not nervous about the actual test taking. Stick a needle in me, I won’t flinch or care and will stare at it because I think it’s neat. But for some reason I’m nervous something will show up, it’ll say there’s something abnormal. I suppose that’s the reason I’m getting the tests taken in the first place, to check to see if there is something wrong with me that might account for certain things but it’s nerve wracking. Especially for someone like me…. 100% hypochondriac. 

Ok. Time to get some more work done. 

Rest day today. I’ve been feeling guilty about that… but I guess I shouldn’t. My week so far:

Mon - 1 hour yoga and walk to and from which is about 7km

Tues - Treadmill Run 5km

Wed - 5km outdoor run in the searing heat

Thurs - P90X Shoulders + Arms in the AM & 30 Day Shred in the PM

Fri - (today) Rest

That’s acceptable, right?

Sat - hopefully 6 miles and hopefully just as beautiful and breezy as today *fingers crossed*

Sun - 4 miles easy - might split it into two since I have work. 

Very excited for this summer’s half marathon. I think last summer’s 50km really made me less anxious about racing in the summer. It was tough but it wasn’t awful at all. I liked it running a race in the heat way more than I thought I would. Getting a video of myself talking about running out of water like I was recording my last moments was pretty great too. I still look at that video and laugh. The RD for this summer’s half even sent a personal welcome email. I thought that was lovely. 

Anyhow, very glad to be building back up and to be working on different things like strength and core work to be a better balanced runner. Slow build. Sometimes it’s so tempting to just go out and run stupid but I know that if I train smart now I’ll be able to achieve the goals that I want without burning out. 

This weekend’s training went well. I didn’t have enough time to get in the 40 mins I wanted before dark yesterday but I managed 20 ish minutes and I was fine with that. It happens. 

Today’s run was a success. I felt good and had fun on the run with a friend and of course Zoe. 

I feel ravenous today though. I had breakfast post-run, eggs, beans and toast with mini muffins my friend brought me (delicious!). And then a tea in the afternoon, then a nap because I was just wiped out. And now I’m just so freaking hungry. Having beans and rice for dinner and I can’t wait to shovel it down. NOM NOM NOM.

Not a super productive day, but hopefully I’ll get a few practice problems done for physics before I hit the hay tonight. 

After a not so great week of running, today was lovely.

I spent the week with a headache that just wouldn’t go away. When it’s that time of the month it’s like my whole body just starts saying “nope” to everything. My energy levels go down to zero and my general feeling towards everything is “don’t give two fucks because it’s time to snuggle in a blanket and sleep”. Of course, some folks don’t understand this. My dad assumed I was being lazy. I just mention that I have my period and he shrinks back in horror. Throw out a mention of tampons and he literally clamps his hands to his ears and “tralalalas” to drown out the sound of my voice. 

And now I am back to normal. When you feel like crap for a week, the days when you feel good are magnified 10x. So this morning’s run was really nice. I almost didn’t stop, but I did since I knew I didn’t want to start training being sore or achy. Training begins with a rest day - good, I need to study! 

It’s so nice to go out and just run. Just run to enjoy it. To have fun with Zoe and talk to her - yes, out loud - even though she doesn’t respond. I think this little break from seriousness have given me time to realize that I really do love to run. I don’t do it for superficial reasons anymore. It may have started like that but now it’s just that I enjoy it. I feel bad for people who don’t take the time to come to that realization, or for those who maybe just really hate it and do it because it’s a path to something else. It’s so amazing to feel your body moving, you feel alive when you run. And in doing so you make it a little more certain that even when you grow older, your body will retain some of its strength. I want to be able to run for a long time. And it needs to be enjoyable. As I start training this coming week, I will try to remain focused, consistent but not wholly serious. I want to continue to run with Zoe. I want to be able to stop and take a photo if something strikes me. The fields today were so beautifully lit by the sun that I had to stop and snap a picture. They’re not really real fields, but they’re my fields, my imaginary fields. I want to be able to stop and make a snow-angel when it gets really snowy outside. I want to be able to smile and wave at other runners and pedestrians - today I saw a guy warming up for his run like a total boss but when we crossed paths he still had time to wave and say good morning.

It’s weird to be going back down in distance. I think part of the magic was gone when this summer I realized I had sort of reached all the goals I had imagined for myself and even some I had never thought I would want to achieve - at that point I had done, a whole bunch of half marathons, 3 marathons and 2 ultras. What was next? Nothing. I realized I was too slow to try to get to my ultimate goal - the 100 miler. And it was sad for me. I couldn’t put in the training if it was going to take that much time because of my slow legs. But now I’m excited for 2013, the year of the 5ks. The year of building speed and mixing things up. 

I thought the magic was gone, but it isn’t. I still finish runs feeling exhilirated no matter what the distance. Because it’s the feeling of being out there that matters. It’s how much I love it that matters.

And gosh do I ever love watching the world wake up. 

Great run this morning, short but sweet.

Not feeling very great today, the run didn’t cure it completely but it helped. I have a lot to study today so I needed a little pick me up.

I’m excited to start training. I decided this week I’ll do 3 strength/HIIT sessions and bump it up to to 4 the week after. And maybe to 5 the next week. But for this week just 3, so I’ll do them Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. 

I’m excited for the 5km training because I finally feel like I’m back to my own regular runnin’ self. I’m enjoying it again. It helps to have an awesome running partner: my doggie! She really has to stop pooping anywhere though. It’s always right in the middle of life. BAM. POOP TIME. It’s okay, I still love her.

Bookshelf organized by color! (Taken with Instagram) So after yesterday morning’s not so great long run I didn’t even take off my running clothes or shower I went straight to cleaning the shit out of my room. From 11am until 7pm I was in cleaning mode and today I’m still putting the finishing touches on things. Not much to say about the run. My run buddy and I both felt like crap and so we ended up walking the last 5km. And I ended up not finishing my distance. Honestly though, I didn’t feel too bad about it, my body was just not cooperating. I felt exhausted, not “oh gosh I’m so tired I can’t stop yawning” kind of tired but just… my body was tired. I could feel it. It was still a gorgeous day and I think we enjoyed it. After a nice breakfast with my run bud I headed home. Maybe it was feeling a little bad about not finishing my run, maybe it’s the fact that school starts next week, but I went into cleaning madness when I got home. Purging clothing, books and other junk that I’ve stuffed away. I feel better, but this morning I felt the after effects of yesterday’s anti-hoarding insanity. I ended up going to the pet store to get my dog her food but it was closed so rather than head home and come back for opening I went to the grocery store to look for dog toys and nail polish. I ended up overhearing a pretty funny conversation. I don’t know if the manager didn’t see me because I’m that un-noticeable or if she just didn’t care but wow I’m glad I was there to overhear. I love overhearing stuff. Essentially the manager was trying to explain to her employee that you do not compliment someone on having gained weight and then proceed to congratulate them on their pregnancy. It really was funny to hear. I then heard other employees snickering about it. I never thought being out at a store so early would be as interesting as it was. Speaking of weight. I’ve been tracking my weight and body fat for some time and today I was rather confused when I stepped on the scale. Unhappily I have felt pudgy and fat for the month off after the ultra. And the scale showed that the gains I had made previous to the race has been erased. Back to square one. Today it seems I’m back to where my progress had taken me (body fat and weight). Strange. But it makes me feel a little better. I’m excited for the school year to begin. I’m organized like a crazy person and I’m ready to study and train like a fool!!
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Bookshelf organized by color! (Taken with Instagram)

So after yesterday morning’s not so great long run I didn’t even take off my running clothes or shower I went straight to cleaning the shit out of my room. From 11am until 7pm I was in cleaning mode and today I’m still putting the finishing touches on things.

Not much to say about the run. My run buddy and I both felt like crap and so we ended up walking the last 5km. And I ended up not finishing my distance. Honestly though, I didn’t feel too bad about it, my body was just not cooperating. I felt exhausted, not “oh gosh I’m so tired I can’t stop yawning” kind of tired but just… my body was tired. I could feel it. It was still a gorgeous day and I think we enjoyed it. After a nice breakfast with my run bud I headed home. Maybe it was feeling a little bad about not finishing my run, maybe it’s the fact that school starts next week, but I went into cleaning madness when I got home. Purging clothing, books and other junk that I’ve stuffed away. I feel better, but this morning I felt the after effects of yesterday’s anti-hoarding insanity. I ended up going to the pet store to get my dog her food but it was closed so rather than head home and come back for opening I went to the grocery store to look for dog toys and nail polish. I ended up overhearing a pretty funny conversation. I don’t know if the manager didn’t see me because I’m that un-noticeable or if she just didn’t care but wow I’m glad I was there to overhear. I love overhearing stuff. Essentially the manager was trying to explain to her employee that you do not compliment someone on having gained weight and then proceed to congratulate them on their pregnancy. It really was funny to hear. I then heard other employees snickering about it. I never thought being out at a store so early would be as interesting as it was.

Speaking of weight. I’ve been tracking my weight and body fat for some time and today I was rather confused when I stepped on the scale. Unhappily I have felt pudgy and fat for the month off after the ultra. And the scale showed that the gains I had made previous to the race has been erased. Back to square one. Today it seems I’m back to where my progress had taken me (body fat and weight). Strange. But it makes me feel a little better. I’m excited for the school year to begin. I’m organized like a crazy person and I’m ready to study and train like a fool!!

Tough run tonight. Gosh darn evenin’ runs. I know some people have no other time to run but after work but honestly, I feel like it’s preferable to wake up at 4am and treadmill-it than to deal with the heavy-air of the evening and the exhaustion from the day that just builds up. Wouldn’t you evening runners prefer to get it over with early in the morning and get that nice fresh rejuvinated feeling in the morning? That way you’re not relying on a pot of coffee to get you going into some fake state of awareness. Do you actually enjoy WAITING that long? I don’t understand you. For realz.

Thank goodness for my run bud who kept me going, little does she know. We saw a cool car zoomy thing so I stopped and took a picture while exclaiming loudly how “COOL!” and “WEIRD!” it was. I’m a huge awkward nerd. And that’s me in my run gear there up above. An orange day it was.

I know for a fact it’s the time of day that’s messing with me now. I ran Sunday and felt like a bunny hopping in the grass (except not hopping and not on the grass) and that was like 11 miles. And today it was only 3 and I was like a manatee out of water that was dying from a gunshot wound.

It’s all good though. I’m happy to have found the culprit of my woes. But I really do need to be slowing down my runs from now on.

Let that be a lesson to ALL YA’LL. You may feel like you’re already going slow, but sometimes you might still be going too fast. Easy runs and long runs are not meant to be for racing. You know I think that little “virtual partner” feature that Garmin has on many of its watches is really fantastic. It’s a cool little feature and when used properly it can tell you a lot. But it’s not good to race yourself in training. Training is for training and races are for racing. I remember when I started running, everything was a test. I needed to see if I could do better than the last time. And for some reason I was either constantly feeling aches and pains or I was noticing that when I raced there wasn’t much improvement or…. *gasp* I did worse! 

I hear the following a lot: “But it’s hard to slow down!”. Oh. Gee. Ya think? I think that’s when the lightbulb should go off. Usually in life when something is hard, it’s probably worth a second look. The stuff that’s difficult to do is usually the stuff that we are supposed to do: eating your vegetables when you’re a kid (except this never applied to me), doing your homework, practicing an instrument, etc etc etc. So practice makes perfect. 

And if I can do it, so can you.

Also I need new shoes. Can’t I just wear pillows on my feet? I’m tempted to go minimal again. I’m sick and tired of the clunky Brooks Adrenaline’s I’m wearing. It’s been 2 months and I already feel like they are worn out. It doesn’t help that I wore the left shoe (I think) for my ultra and forgot the right one at home and wore the old right shoe. But seriously, a heavy heel hitter could take this pair off my hands and get a couple hundred more miles out of them. Meanwhile I’m penalized for my forefoot hitting tendencies and what little of anything is in the forefoot is gone within mere months. It’s bullshit. And I really need to find a pair of shoes that can last a little longer. I settled for the Brooks because they were actually not that heavy compared to other models, but they really just aren’t doing it for me anymore. Too stiff, too little forefoot cushion and the wear is awful. If you look at the forefoot it seriously looks as if I’ve been running in them for a year. NOT ACCEPTABLE! 

I need pillowy soft forefoot running shoes that are pretty light. Does that even exist? And sorry, the Newtons haven’t lived up to the hype. The lugs aren’t as springy as I wanted as much as I do like them, and the toebox just doesn’t work with my foot. 

*sigh*

*super sigh*

*sigh*

Maybe I should design a running shoe…….

MCM - Week one finale

So the week has ended on a good note.

I really was nervous going into the run this morning. It’s cool if you bonk and crash when you’re running on your own - depending on my mood I can deal or not. But when you’re running with a group it’s a bit different. I was afraid to crash and have to head back hanging my head in shame.

Not so. The humidity was tough, near 100% and I found myself wheezing as we neared the halfway point so I had to stop to walk a bit to catch my breath since the trouble with my breathing was causing my heart rate to spike like crazy. But I wasn’t worried about it, I knew it was just a matter of getting my breath back and going on, and then getting my breath back as I needed to. I purposely chose the route this morning to be one that I knew like the back of my hand so I wouldn’t get lost if I was at the back. That worked out well because when I essentially lost the group I ended up chatting with myself, listening to my tunes, and taking pictures along the waterfront.

I had a really great run. I finished feeling like I wanted to run more so that’s always a good sign and the only thing that felt sore after were my feet (as usual) and my shoulders (again, as usual). I need to find my perfect pair of runners… it just hasn’t happened yet. The Newtons were promising but gave me really bad black toenails and the lugs while they gave me extra cushion could have been better. They’re great for speed work but they just don’t work for someone who is a natural forefoot runner. I want something that isn’t meant to train heel strikers. I’m curious about the Hoka but those are mad expensive. Hey Hoka, want to send a pair my way? If they work for this forefoot runner I’ll kiss you and write Hoka <3 on my backpack for school. What else is there to try now? 

Anyhow, it was a great run. The group started out way too fast. They slowed down as the run went on. I slowed down even more and still did much better than I had anticipated. I’m really not interested in killing myself on a training run though. So despite the fact that they probably thought I was having a bad run or dying or whatever, I was happily enjoying myself. I swear I was frolicking. At the top of a bridge the wind was kissing my face and the sun was shining on my cheeks and I could see really far into the horizon. There’s all the hustle and bustle around me, the cars, the noise, the technically ugly scene, but that moment was really beautiful. 

Tomorrow will no doubt be a rest day. For now, I await the bf so we can head out and get ingredients for dinner and then eat some pre-dinner frozen yogurt. It was his idea! Not mine! 

Happy running ya’ll

First training run for MCM. It was an easy 5 miler. 

Of course I knew that was what was on the schedule and then thought to myself, “There’s no way anything will be easy at this point”. And I expected a sluggish and tough 5 miles. I also expected to only get out of bed later in the morning.

I was dead wrong. 

I didn’t set an alarm because waking up naturally is much more pleasant. I ended up waking up around 7:30am ish. No 6am phone call this morning either. But if it happens again I will create a very rude voicemail message. I sort of lay there thinking to myself that it was a sign that I had woken up without trouble at this time. The temptation to close my eyes and fall back asleep was there but there was also something pushing me to get my run clothes on. I think part of my motivation may have been that I felt like I seriously needed to shower, so why not sweat first? 

I got dressed, filled two bottles and stuffed one in my mini pack with a little bowl for Zoe-pop. And off we went. I had planned an out and back route that wouldn’t be too much hassle with the doggie. She doesn’t like cars very much - and frankly neither do I so I steer clear of busy roads when I’m with her. I was nervous about her going out for a 5 miler since the last time we did a long-ish one like that together was probably a year ago. Since then it’s been max 3 miles and usually 2. But she was absolutely awesome. I stopped to give her water twice and she sort of licked it and then snubbed her nose at it.

As we were running along a path I noticed an older lady wandering around in the field. I passed her and she started to mumble at me. She had a strong Jamaican accent so I couldn’t hear her at first. I’m a little hard of hearing FYI. And then I noticed she was crying and I immediately asked her what was wrong and what happened. She continued to tell me that she had lost her cat. I swear I almost started to cry with her. She kept saying how he was her best friend and that he always came home in the morning but there was a change in the household and that she thought maybe he ran away. I tried my best to comfort her while Zoe sat patiently beside me. I honestly wasn’t sure what to do. I really wanted to hug her, but I was sweaty and gross and didn’t want to be weird. So I gave her a squeeze on her shoulder and told her that I would skip the route I was planning and just loop around the neighbourhood with my dog to see if we could spot her cat. We did just that and no sign of the kitty. It made me so sad. I was looking around and telling Zoe to sniff her heart out but no cat. I really hope she finds it. I know how hard it is to lose a pet, I can’t imagine losing a pet and not knowing what happened. 

After going around a bit Zoe and I retraced our steps to finish the altered out and back and I was just having such a great time. No music. Just me occasionally babbling to my dog. I really hope no one noticed that part. I probably sound like a lunatic. Whatever, she totally understands me. As we got home I checked my watch and noticed that I had completed my run with a negative split and had done it a lot quicker than I thought and without even thinking about it. I just went with the flow and enjoyed the beautiful morning. 

It was cloudy out, about 21 degrees celcius and 78% humidity. I decided to start using Garmin Training Center again and in addition track the weather for each run because I find that’s something that really affects my runs. Today I was dripping sweat, especially from my face. It was pouring off me but I felt so good. 

Very pleased! I have to say that one thing I noted on the run since I’ve been doing so many evening runs for the past year or more because of group training I didn’t realize what it was that was bringing me down. I think I pinpointed at least one thing. In the morning people are SO MUCH NICER. Folks are out running, biking, walking, playing with their dogs, and they are smiling. People say hello, good morning. Even drivers were nicer! 

I think in the evening people are in a hurry to get home, they want to be done, some may have had a bad day. But the morning is a magical land of smiles and gum drops. Seriously. I really really missed the friendly hello’s and good morning’s, the smiles and other dogs roaming about. The morning is just a whole different world. 

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