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Wordless Wednesday
Monday Musings – Weekend Recap
- Volunteering is fun! I got to do bag check for a local half marathon. When I got there at 6:30am there were already a couple of bags. Apparently, one woman checked her bag and then asked where the start line was… the race started at 8:30. Not sure why she wanted to stand in the cold and dark for two hours. It was fairly steady from 7-7:30 and then all hell broke loose. Eventually we were all just standing in a huge pile of unsorted bags. It took us an hour to get them all placed in ordered rows.
- I got to see some friends before they ran their race. I didn’t get to talk for too long, but it was nice to be able to say good luck.
- The winner set a new course record of 1:04:39. FOR A HALF!!! They could have run the course twice and still come in faster than my PR.
- I got a few little things as a thank-you for my time: free burger and fries (at White Spot if you’re local), sample pack of coffee – that’ll go to Colin, and a scarf with the race logo/sponsor. At least they were small as I had to stuff them in my bag and run them home. The scarf wedged in with my water bladder actually made it sit perfectly on my back so there was no movement!
- My run was great! It turned out to be 24km instead of 23 (+1 since I didn’t want to walk the last km to my parents’ house). I was slightly intimidated by the uphill-the-whole-way aspect, but it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Thankfully I was really familiar with the route so I could just run on auto-pilot and not think about too much. I only had to be present enough to shoulder check at every street crossing. Amazingly I didn’t come across any idiot drivers.
- I love to listen to the radio when I run. The ads are a little annoying, but I don’t have to put any effort into selecting my music. Our local rock station, CFOX, has a 90s brunch on Sundays from 8am – 12pm so I was pretty much set. I’m a sucker for the music I listened to in high school…
- I completed my run in 2:52:33, which was an average of 7:11/km. That’s including a 1 minute walk break every 20 minutes as well as many waits at traffic lights.
- One GU (since I didn’t have time to buy more) plus dates is not enough for a 3 hour run. I knew this going out, but a second GU would have been super! On that note, Mandarin Orange is okay. Not great, in my opinion, but it got the job done. And it’s infinitely better than Jet Blackberry. I think I’ll stick with chocolate and coffee flavours.
- I got drenched about half way through my run. Typical Vancouver. The people with umbrellas or safe in their cars were looking at me like I was crazy.
- I will never skip out on a week of core/strength/stretch again. By 22km my hips were killing me (shades of the marathon). I was so lazy last week, but couldn’t bring myself to do my workouts. Obviously that was stupid. I will make a better effort from now on.
- I usually hate V8, but my mum had some in the fridge and I was dying at the end of my run so I had one. Tasted like cold tomato soup, but had something like almost 500mg of sodium and potassium so my body was happy after I drank it.
- Work sucked on Sunday after my run, but I figured on that before I even got there. I’m just happy that I wasn’t scheduled til 1am like everyone else.
Weekend Randoms
- I have convinced 100
suckerspeople to become followers! Love it! Thanks for thinking that I’m interesting… sometimes I’m not so sure. - Working Saturday. Not fun, but pays the bills and isn’t hard. Plus it keeps me in athletic goods since I work for a sporting goods store and get a fantastic employee discount.
- I’m volunteering at a half marathon this weekend. Should be fun. I’m on bag check so I might get to see some of my friends before they race. Unfortunately I have to be there for 6:30am and I live just over 1/2 hour away. Hello, early!
- Since I’m volunteering on Sunday and it’s also a long run day I’ve come up with a “could-be-the-stupidest-thing-I’ve-ever-done” plan: My long run is scheduled to be 23km. It’s just shy of 24km from downtown Vancouver to my parents house in the suburbs. Guess who’s decided that it’d be good to RUN THERE? Oh, and I’m doing it by myself (yay, iPod) and it’s almost entirely uphill. I may not be able to walk on Monday.
- After my lovely, wonderful, most-likely rainy long run I have to work again. It’s for inventory and I’ve been assigned something easy-peasy, but I have to work till 9:30pm. Must pack compression socks.
- I think I’m going to crash and burn once I get in the car Sunday night.
- Don’t forget I have a $35 CSN Stores gift certificate to give away. Enter here until 16 February.
Three Things Thursday
1. I have a cold and it sucks. Spud thoughtfully passed it along last week and now I’m stuffed up, but have a drippy nose at the same time (?). Hopefully getting out to run will get it out of my system.
2. I abhor am learning to love hill repeats again. Every training cycle I do them and then after every race I slack off. I completed week 1/7 yesterday with 4 repeats. I’m supposed to do 600m hills with a grade of 6-8%. I figure that my 410m hill with an average grade of 10% (12% for 200m, turn corner, 8% for 210m) is good enough. Thankfully my friend came by with her little girl and she was nice enough to watch the kids at a park while I ran. This meant that I didn’t have to push Spud up the hills with me. I know I won’t be this spoiled every week, but it made my run so much more enjoyable!
3. I’m off to bake. I don’t do it often – it’s more Colin’s thing, but I can make a couple of things pretty well. Today it’s Apple Crisp and Banana Bread. Good thing I run so often so I can eat what I make!
Finished product: Is it bad that I want this to be my dinner when I get back from clinic?
It’s Kite Flying Day! How About A Giveaway?
Yup, it’s that time again! CSN Stores has offered to host another giveaway and the winner will get a $35 gift certificate to spend on any item at any of their 200 stores!*
Now, they always give me the choice of doing a review or a giveaway and I always choose to help one of you out. That’s because they just have too much good stuff to buy and I’d go way over the value of the review product! I’m don’t think that they would be willing to send me über-expensive office furniture for free… but if they are reading this and change their minds here’s what I’d like:
| Only $3,799! |
To enter:
Mandatory:
- Tell me what you’d love to buy from CSN.
Bonus:
- Be or become a follower.
- Add me to your blogroll.
- Tell others about this contest.
- Tell me your favourite holiday. Mine is St. Patrick’s Day since it’s also my birthday!
The winner will be chosen using random.org on 17 February, which is fitting since it’s Random Acts of Kindness Day.
* does not cover any shipping costs.
Hey, Look, It’s Me (Again…)!
In another edition of Alanna’s Shameless Self-Promotion I’m featured today on Long Legs on the Loose!
If you live under a rock haven’t been reading Katye’s blog it’s definitely one you should check out. She is an amazing runner who ran her first marathon last year. She travels to all sorts of awesome places to race which helps feed my armchair traveler tendencies. And she is a fundraising phenom! Katye has raised money and coached for Team In Training (Leukemia/Lymphoma). She is currently raising funds for her trip to BOSTON (!) where she will be running as a charity runner for both the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress and Back On My Feet. In the past year both Katye and her family raised $30,000 for charity! You can’t help but be inspired by that!
A Belated Thank-You!
Last week I received an awesome package in the mail. It was my prize from Kevin at Half TRI-ing. I had found out and told him the name of a toy he had when he was a child. As a parent I cannot believe anyone would even have let it in their house – click here to see what I mean. To reward me for my investigative skills effort he sent me a hodge-podge of fun stuff.
Now, I’m pretty sure that it was just free food from races, but it doesn’t matter. I got a GU two days before I needed one so I didn’t have to fork over the $2 myself! I’m also sure that they didn’t look quite so “used” when they were sent (right?). I guess the Posties don’t give too much care to what’s in a bubble envelope… it made everything look kind of like it had been kept in someone’s back pocket.
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| Snickers Marathon Bar, Strawberry Clif Shot Bloks, Forze Energy Bar, Vanilla Bean GU, HS Extreme Energy Drink, Chamois Butt’r* |
Kevin drew me a cool thank you as well:
* The Chamois Butt’r is NOT food! More like BodyGlide for your bum… I don’t ride a bike, but I’m sure it’ll work just as well for chafing from my socks…
January By The Numbers
This is actually the first time I’ve ever written out my monthly stats on my blog. It is more for me to see how I’m doing and where I can improve than it is for you to read about it. I figure it probably isn’t that interesting to read. Mind you, I’m always nosy and love reading other bloggers stats so maybe you’re the same?
Total Kilometres/Miles: 161.22/100.18
Long Runs: 5 (every Sunday; lengths ranging from 10km to 16km)
Runs Missed: 5 (3 of those I consider optional runs anyways)
Core/Strength/Stretch Planned/Completed: 18/14 (78% – not bad!)
Push Ups: 172 on stability ball + 53 real = 225 (considering I hate them I’m quite impressed with myself!)
Time Spent Running: 19-1/2 hours.
Not much else to add. Marathon training is in fully swing so I’m really trying to get my runs/workouts in, but not worrying too much if I can’t/don’t want to complete them. I’m not killing myself trying to make up runs or anything like that. I know I probably need to make a little more effort getting in my 5th run of the week, but I’m okay as long as I don’t drop below 4. February should be fun!
One Thing Thursday
Nothing of much consequence has been going on here lately so today you only get one thing:
The Environment Canada weather person is a total liar! A couple of days ago we were supposed to have a lovely sunny Sunday for our long run, but as of today the next week looks like this:
Now I know that this is glorious weather compared to so many of you. And I am definitely thankful that we don’t have freezing temperatures or ice and snow. However, it is like this here ALL THE TIME! Would one measly nice day be too much to ask for?
Mind Games
How does one tell their brain to shut up? Do you know? Because I really need to start ignoring the garbage that mine comes up with. I have had two really good runs this week and they should be confidence boosting, but they just haven’t been. I don’t know if it’s because I still am identifying with the old slower me or if it’s fear. I haven’t been able to be proud of these runs. Actually, that’s not totally true. I was doing a happy dance around our kitchen on Sunday, but for some reason I’ve stopped.
On Sunday we dropped Spud with friends for an early morning playdate and then headed to the store for our group 16km run. I don’t run with Colin due to obvious speed discrepancy issues. I’ve tried to be pretty consistent and keep with the same long run group each week. I found early on that I can keep up with the 4 hour marathon group which runs a 6:22 – 7:11/km (10:15 – 11:33/mi). I always find that the first 5 kilometres or so are my worst so I wasn’t too worried that I was on the slow end of the pace. As the run went on I settled in nicely with a few other ladies. The route was a long rolling out and back up to the watershed (had to touch the fence!). I ran so I could talk and had a good run. The second half was great! I think we finished at about a 6:55/km pace (and that was with doing 20 + 1s).
I know my problem with this run. My brain. It keeps telling me that it was a fluke. That I didn’t really belong. That the people I ran with are SO MUCH faster than me. Intimidated, much? It’s like I have a sign on my forehead that says “Not Good Enough”, but only I can see it. I shouldn’t be competing against anyone but myself. And not even against myself on a long run.
And then there was today’s run. I went out with my friend Lindsay with whom I run once a week. Because she brought a friend along I ran an extra 2-1/2km each way to meet up in a convenient spot. It actually worked out well that I had a long run today (17km) since I wasn’t going to be able to do my 10km run tomorrow due to another running partner being out of town. So I rolled two tempo runs into a long steady run with Spud. I figure that the weight cancels out the speed of the others and I’ll come out even. Anyways, once we met up we ran out along a trail for 40 minutes, turned around, I ran a little extra so Spud could go over a bridge and back (never promise a 3 year old anything), and then I ran home. All told I was out for over 2 hours. I’m not fast when I have the stroller and I walked up all the hills that were even remotely steep. The weather was decent – a drizzle that was more like mist – and the company was good.
I know my problem with this run. My brain. It keeps telling me that I’m slow. HELLO?!? I was pushing 60+lbs of stroller and kid. Anybody would be slow. And really, an 8:11/km with walking up hills and stopping to attend to the whims of a toddler isn’t shabby.
So where do I go from here? I obviously know what my problem is. I just don’t quite know how to fix it. There’s no easy off switch for this. I can’t keep comparing myself to other runners. Especially ones that aren’t really faster than me. And I can’t keep telling myself that I’m slow. A middle-of-the-pack runner, yes. Slow, not so much anymore.
I think I’d really benefit from reading about positive self-talk. I read a book a while ago that touched on it, but I don’t remember too much (and it was relatively old). Do any of you have suggestions for hippy dippy mumbo jumbo running/sports psychology books?
Love My Runners 