An Ambassadorship
It’s that time of the running year when training for a fall event is in full swing. And, amazingly, I have a fall race to train for. I have been asked to be a blogger for the Surrey International World Music Marathon! I was a blogger for their inaugural race in 2012 and I’m excited to be invited back.
Last year I ran the half on a bit of training and, while I had a good time, it was nowhere near to being a PR-worthy race performance. This year things are different. I’ve been running a lot more as well as cross training. I am hoping that I can PR or at least come close! I am also hoping the medal is similar to last year’s 3″ round behemoth!
The course this year has been redone to be less on closed roads and more in city parks. This should be great for the runners! I live close to Surrey, but rarely go over (have to cross a bridge!) so it will be nice to see a bit more of the city.
If you live in Metro Vancouver I would love to see you there! The race runs on Sunday, 29 September 2013. There is a marathon, marathon relay, half marathon, half marathon relay, 5km, and Kids Fun Run. It is friendly to pretty much all abilities and ages of runners!
If you have other goal races – I know there are lots in October – this is a great opportunity to give back to the running community and volunteer. I’d love to see / hear you out on course! You can sign up here: www.surreymarathon.com/volunteer.
Some Magic Would Be Nice – Surrey Half Saturday
Today marks the first day of training for my upcoming half marathon, being run as part of the Surrey International World Music Marathon weekend. I haven’t run a half since June 2010 as I focused on 3 fulls, one ultra, and, now, adapting to heart-rate training. I guess the only thing I can really say about how I’m feeling is, “This should be interesting.”
I have only ever trained using one program’s methods – that of the Running Room. If you’re Canadian you know that RR is a bit of a Canadian institution. You might not be a fan, nor do you have to be, but when I was starting out in 2009 they were the closest running store offering a learn to run program. I liked their promotion of walk/run training (all long runs are done as 10+1s) and have found some great friends because of them. However, I dropped out of the half clinic last summer due to never being able to make the runs and, to be honest, not really clicking with the instructor. You might remember that I also dropped the full clinic this past spring once I had the lactate test because I simply couldn’t keep up. So where do I go this year?
Well, I’m not “going” anywhere. This is a purely self-directed training cycle as it didn’t make any sense to drop out of a 3rd clinic! I am really excited to be following the training program found in Train Like A Mother by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea, who also penned Run Like A Mother. It’s titled HALF-MARATHON: Own It and I have high hopes for it! It follows the standard training regimen of long runs, easy and recovery runs, hills, tempo runs, and speed work. I think the reason I want to do it is that it’s just different enough from what I’ve been doing to seem new. I get the principles already so I’m not intimidated, but they are much more specific than what I have been doing so it will be challenging. What I also like is that they include what zones I should be running in and, since I’ve already got my numbers (you could do it by perceived effort if you haven’t tested), I should be able to achieve those runs with (hopefully) few problems.
Another thing that is different for me is that my long runs are moving to Saturdays! I have been a firm Sunday LSD runner since I began running. However, with work commitments and Colin also wanting to do long runs, Saturdays just seemed like a better fit. I’ll be getting out really early or going out in the evening depending on my shifts, but at least it will keep it interesting!
As you can see from the post title this will be a regular blog feature. Surrey Half Saturday will cover how my training is going, what I was up to during the week (training log style), and any other stuff going on with the event. Please check back each week to follow along, give me encouragement or a kick in the butt, and let me know how your running is doing as well. If you are running any of the Surrey races tell me so we can catch up on race day!
Three Things Thursday: Everything’s Coming Up Roses
GOOD
I won another Twitter contest! I be getting a prize pack from Shower Pill (makers of towel-like wipes for stinky athletes) just by following them on Twitter and retweeting about their contest. Yes, it’s marketing at it’s best, but I’ll take it!
I haven’t even tried their product, but I already love their customer service. I was contacted, told that they didn’t have my shirt size, and was it okay to send a substitute size? For the “hassle” (I guess) of potentially being out the shirt as I wanted it they also said they’d send a second box of wipes! I assume most companies would just have had a take it or leave it attitude since it was a contest so I’m extremely impressed! And now I have extra wipes for my stinky self at Ragnar in June.
BETTER
I finally got to try Nuun All Day! The new line is enhanced with vitamins rather than electrolytes so, stating the obvious, you can add it to your water all day! Smart cookies, those Nuun people…
It comes in four flavours: Blueberry Pomegranate, Grape Raspberry, Grapefruit Orange, and Tangerine Lime; there are 15 tabs per tube and it works out to be the same cost per tab as regular Nuun. Colin and I tried them all out yesterday. A little more water than I needed to drink right before bed, but I was excited to try them. The order above is how I’d rate my favourites. Since I don’t drink water very often (it doesn’t taste like anything!) I decided to see how a very diluted tab would taste. I put one tab in 48oz/1.4L. It is perfect for me! Just enough flavour and colour to trick me into drinking water. I’m sure I’ll still drink it according to directions (1 per 16oz/473mL), but I’m loving this alternative.
Just a little bonus for my American readers who want to try All Day or buy any regular Nuun for that matter (sorry, Canada, they don’t ship up here yet):
Use the code bloggerslovenuun when purchasing at shop.nuun.com to get 15% off your order!
BEST
It never ceases to amaze me how much social media can open doors or what happens when you get up the courage to ask. For the second time this year I get to be a race ambassador! After completing Earth Run on Sunday I was tweeted a congratulations from the Surrey Marathon for finishing the race. If you remember from a few posts back I was considering them as my fall marathon until I decided I just wasn’t ready for another full. Anyways, I said thanks and cheekily asked if they needed an ambassador for their race. Turns out the answer was yes!
I am going from having nothing on the schedule after Ragnar in July to training for a half marathon on 30 September! You can bet that there will be many blog posts about my training in the weeks to come so please, please keep me accountable!
Love My Runners 