Four for Friday

1.  Serious work issues + long days = major stress.  The LAST thing I wanted to do Thursday night was run but I was in ‘charge’ of our run club. (if I didn’t show, no one was getting into the clinic) So I showed up, told everyone I was just going to run and see how I felt…and had an amazing 10km run.  It’s true – you never regret a run you do, just the ones you don’t.

2. Especially when you can run in these bad boys:

There are my marathon kicks so if you are around in Hamilton, look waaaaayyyyyy down and that is how to recognize me.  :)

3.  The ‘swag’ is out the Boxing Day 10 miler – 90th edition this year.

Snowman mittens?

Medals with this guy on it?

I’m in….anyone else?

4.  I have had some wicked ice cream cravings of late…and I don’t even really like ice cream.  (IT IS TAPER CRAVINGS…NOTHING ELSE!)  In an effort to abate it, I made a batch of this:

Frozen bananas + frozen cherries + food processor = deliciousness

What are you craving?  Don’t bother to tell me pumpkin as I don’t get the obsession…I find it pretty bland…

Gearing up for Race Day and Turning 89

In exactly 12 days I will be at the start like for the Road2Hope.

  

I am getting excited and nervous but mostly excited….seriously.  Running of late has been good – really good actually:

• Saturday was an amazing 9.5km tempo run
• Sunday a 13km LSD…that really wasn’t an LSD as we were pushing pace a bit but that was because we were chatty Cathys the whole time.  I swear we never run out of things to say.  The hubs has run with us a few times and wonders how we can keep track of so many conversations at once…EASY – it takes your mind off of any pain you might be feeling. 

Though we are in taper, I have really just cut back on the longer distances and still kept up the intervals and tempos and 2 mid range runs.  This week will be the same and next week is going by the following motto:

• if you can stand, lean
• If you can lean, sit
• If you can sit, lie down

There are about 10 of us running either the full or the half so we are busy making plans to carpool and take the shuttle up, talking about goals and race plans and lining up our cheering squads. 

‘cause cheer-ers are the best.

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Sunday we had the pleasure of attending a bday party for my Grandpa-in-Law who turned 89.  He is an amazing man and more active that a lot of people I know…he rides his bike along the beach path almost every day.  If you ever feel like lazing around, think about what activity can do for you…kick ass at 89. 

Do you think about living to 89?  80? 70?  In all honesty, I don’t fret about getting old – though the last bday I hit was a bit tough to take but at the end of the day, you get one life, one mind, one spirit…

and if you aren’t busy living, you’re busy dying.

Four for Friday

1.  The wackiness that is work continued this week.  Wanting to ensure I didn’t miss my Thursday tempo run as I was working later, I did it in the morning:

(photo of my oven clock) 

It was actually fun to get out that early in the morning.  I almost ran right into a skunk that was digging for grubs but saw him in time and I backed away quickly.  I’m sure you guys would have loved a story about me getting sprayed by a skunk, but that’s one bullet I’m not going to bite.

2.  I made homemade pommodoro sauce this week from a Recipe in last month’s Runners World.

It was perfect and I froze individual portions for quick dinners.  It went well with chicken stuffed with spinach and ricotta w/ ww pasta:

3.  For every cooking win, there is usually a fail:

Chicken NOT Pie – a health-i-fied version of chicken pot pie.

Next time I will indulge and have the chicken pot pie as this recipe took a lot of time and was just …ok. 

4.  This is a really interesting article from the NY Times about Elite athletes and pushing through:

How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do

From the article:

In studies of college runners, he found that less accomplished athletes tended to dissociate, to think of something other than their running to distract themselves. “Sometimes dissociation allows runners to speed up, because they are not attending to their pain and effort,” he said. “But what often happens is they hit a sort of physiological wall that forces them to slow down, so they end up racing inefficiently in a sort of oscillating pace.” But association, Dr. Raglin says, is difficult, which may be why most don’t do it.

Jeez…I guess having a power song isn’t all its cracked up to be. 

Happy Weekend!  Just a Sat tempo run and a 12km Sunday run on the schedule…Taper…you = rock.

Hitting the 1000 mile mark and KTape

This weekend’s run put me at 1004.79 miles run for 2010.  Boofreakingyah.   Fist pumps and high fives all around my cubicle this morning when I logged this into Daily Mile.  To be honest, I didn’t think I would be able to reach that goal but with 2.5 months left in 2010, one big running goal is achieved.  Bring on the rest.

The weekend brought awesome running weather so I did a 9.5km tempo run Sat and 23km on Sunday.  There aren’t many of us left who were doing that distance but we managed to have a lot of fun.  The stuff we talk about kills me …none of which is running related. 

My one knee has been bugging me a bit so I thought I would try out KTape:

(taking a picture of your own knee is not easy…this is as good as it got).

I wish I could give an accurate review but after 6km…it peeled right off the one side.  I know I did press it down…maybe I have un-sticky skin?  I will be giving it a try again this week and will try to stickify it more.

With 19 days until the marathon we are now officially moving into TAPER….which I am going to embrace with open arms this time around…I promise!

Four for Friday

1.  I can’t believe it is a year since all this went down with the hubs.  It was one of the scariest things we have gone through so I am so thankful he is back to his usual wonderful/irritating/athletic/crazy self…

2.  I am kungfu crazy with work/life right now…Is anyone else like this? Don’t they know I have  a MARATHON IN 22 days?

3.  Sunday is our last long run – 23km - before we are officially in taper.  I say officially as I don’t consider it taper until we get this 23km run done with.  Yes, last week was 35km so 23km will be ‘easy’ right?  WRONG – you gotta respect the distance and I know that this 23km can bite you if you aren’t prepared.

4.  I have made it a week without injuring myself!  Though I do have a bruise on my arm that I have no idea what I did to earn that.  Maybe I exercise-sleep walk?

 

Happy weekend and good luck to everyone racing this weekend.  (Marlene, Linz, Aneta…I am looking at you guys…)

Six for Sunday

1.  No Four for Friday…cause I was away looking for a couple of days at this:

2.  And having a couple of these:

while doing this with the hubs:

4.  After Sunday’s wipe out…I managed to do it again on Thursday in any even more spectacular fashion – slipping on a wet leaf covered wooden bridge.  Bubble wrap suit, here I come!  The knee isn’t pretty but feels fine due to lots of this:

5.  Today was 35km run…which equated to 25km of good running and 10km of crapulous running.  My running peeps stuck with me and I got ‘er done.  I hurt right now….bad.  Thank goodness tomorrow is a sleep in day…should anyone wake me..there will be issues.

5.  Cause I ran 35km I can eat ‘what I want’..which in my house is not turkey on Thanksgiving but steak with a port reduction and blue cheese, roasted Brussell sprouts and sweet potato squash:

Bad pic…awesome food.

6. CONGRATS to everyone who ran Portland/Chicago/Victoria and any other races this weekend.  You are my heroes…

Happy Thanksgiving Canuck peeps!

The best long run yet and a wipe out

Sunday dawned rainy and cold.  The Weather Network said it would stop raining around 7am but still stay chilly so I opted for:

Long Sleeves and a sparkly Bondi Band…cause sometimes a run just calls for fancy.

This quickly turned as we we got to the clinic, it was now cold, raining harder and windy.  32km is a long way so I switched out for a hat and added a vest. 

It was a tough go…it rained pretty much the entire time and we were soaked by the end.  With 7km to go, a running buddy was at our final refill stop taking pics to document our Sunday feats:

Cold, wet, gross one moment:

Delirious the next:

In the end, it turned out to be the best long run yet.  I managed all 10km of the hills we did, I finished strong and in the words of the hubs: “made that 32km run my bitch”.

Annnnnnnddddddd…NO BLISTERS.  Not a one.  Thank you Vaseline..you and all your squishy goodness rock.

Après run, we decided to go our for lunch with the troopers that were left.  Me being the spectacle of grace and poise that I am managed to misstep and wipe out, landing on my knee:

(Luckily no one saw me…..I need to find a full bubble suit I swear)

Busted up knee and all, I feel really good today.  Spin won’t be prudy tonight and if there is  a lot bruising I won’t be going but that still won’t wipe the smile off my face from yesterday’s mini victory. 

Are you smiling after your weekend?

Four for Friday

1.  I tried something new last week on my 30km run in order to combat my blister issues – plain old Vaseline….and it worked.  It is gross but I am doing it again and will squish my way through a hopefully strong 32km run on Sunday.

2.  Whenever I have my blister issues (and they are some serious wounds), it always reminds me of this scene from Run Fat Boy Run:

Best line ever in comparing the blister to a womb: “Do you think there is a little man in there who looks just like you but is really good at running?”

3.  My eating has been pretty random this week.  I have been focusing on smaller portions of lots of different things and really just eating them when I want in the day. I have found that this keeps me from totally mowing out which I am prone to do at this stage in training.   Randomness has included having a small serving of couscous and veggie chilli for breakfast yesterday and a poached egg and spinach for dinner last night.  Today’s haul at my desk:

• bfast: Tim’s coffee w/ milk, 1/4 c Liberte yogurt and 1/2 c Kashi
• snack: sugar snap peas – I eat these like candy
• lunch: ww thins with spinach and hummus, apple
• snack:  Cliff bar – if needed
• dinner:  pasta with pomodorro sauce and a small salad

4.  I have been reading a lot about people who don’t really drink a lot of water through the day.  I cannot imagine this…I must be a sponge or something.  I drink at least 3 1L bottles of these a day:

and then hot water at night.  I have always been like that so it isn’t a sign of some illness or something like that.

Does anyone else drink a lot of water?  What is your average intake?