Family Day Long Weekend

Hey folks, I hope everyone had a terrific weekend!  Monday was Family Day here in Alberta, so it has been a long weekend here.  It has been full of workouts, friends and family, and of course, the Olympics!!  I’ve been soaking up as many events on TV as possible and I am so proud of all of our Olympic athletes!  Anyhow, let’s recap, shall we?

Saturday

Time for a long run!  I waited till around lunch time to knock out this run out, but it stayed a bit chilly at –7C (19F).  I had an 1:15 run on the schedule, but I arbitrarily decided to aim for 8 mi instead which would take me just a bit longer than that.  I ran another out and back from downtown and west along the river, just like last week.  The major difference was that the entire run went really well though!  I carried water and a gel with me, and I downed a Gu Roctane pomegranate blueberry gel at the halfway mark.  This was my first time trying out this flavour.  It wasn’t my most favourite, but then again I tend to not care for berry flavoured gels.

When I turned around I was running into a fairly strong wind, but this fuelled me to keep to keep the speed up so I could minimize my time in the wind.  I finished up at the YMCA in Eau Claire and immediately grabbed a chocolate milk and some cottage cheese.  Before I had finished eating I had really cooled off so I ran to the changing room and had a long, hot shower to warm up.  A great long run!!

Sunday

I’ve been having a tough time fitting in a long run and a swim on Saturdays lately.  This mostly has to do with the fact that I feel so cold by the time the run is done that all I want is a hot shower.  I could try swimming before I run I suppose, but I haven’t tried that out yet.  Instead I tried swimming early Sunday morning.  I was at the pool soon after it opened and I knocked out a great 2000m swim.  I showered, went home, then had a brick workout to take care of.  It was like a mini-triathlon day!

My bike workout was a full of low cadence work to build strength, plus a couple of times where I had to hop off the bike for squats and lunges.  70 minutes of time on the trainer.  Once I was done I quickly changed into running tights, threw on a jacket and went out for a 15 minute brick run.  This was my first brick in ages!  My legs felt wobbly and like they didn’t quite belong to me for the first few minutes.  Bricks are a bit tough in this weather as even though I was warmed up it was still a bit of a shocker to transition from indoors to outdoors in the cold and the wind.  My legs were tuckered after all of that!!

Monday

My only thing on the schedule for today was a drill swim.  I hit up the Y later in the afternoon.  The pool was fairly quiet and I had a lane to myself for probably half my workout.  I ran through some 6 kick rolls, fist drills and fingertip drags for my drills.  I also added in some paddle work to help build some strength.  I definitely love working with paddles.  I feel like it really helps to drive home certain aspects of good form.

And with that…now bring on the week!  This one looks to be busy and fun!

A Tale of Many Gloves

Gloves…  Pretty important accessories around here in the winter.  I seem to be on quite the kick with gloves lately.  I have a pair of Smartwool gloves that I use every day, although I recently picked up a pair of Lululemon Cheer Me On Mitts that I thought were pretty cute.  New glove count: 1.My friend Debbie lent me some mitts and liners to use for my downhill ski lesson on Thursday.  Debbie is a pretty avid skier so she had some extra mitts that she doesn’t use anymore.  Those mitts worked okay but they were pretty bulky.  They probably wouldn’t work well for XC skiing, so I ventured out to MEC and Coast Mountain Sports in search of suitable gloves.  I picked up one pair at MEC that I need to return (not pictured here), plus a pair of North Face waterproof gloves and some fleece liners.  New glove count: 3.

Back to my downhill lesson.  It was warm enough on Thursday evening that I didn’t really need the outer mitts so I just used the fleece liners.  Those fleece liners were also quite convenient for wiping my nose while I was outside so I told Debbie that I wanted to wash her mitts before returning them.  On Sunday I went to grab those mitts and wash them…and well…what’s wrong with this picture?

I felt SO BAD for losing one of her mitts.  It must have fallen out of my pocket somewhere between taking my ski boots off and walking back to the car.  Those zippered pockets on your jacket do serve a purpose I suppose!  I fessed up to Debbie on Monday morning and she told me not to worry since she got the gloves for free and hasn’t used them in years. 

I then went for a run at lunch.  It was –12C and snowing out when I went out, so I was wearing a short sleeve tech shirt, a lightweight middle layer, my new favourite jacket, hat, gloves, tights and wool socks.  I have a favourite pair of running gloves.  I had gone through a couple pairs of Nike gloves before I found the perfect gloves from Lululemon last year.  In March I was on a run where I stuffed them in my back pocket of my top and they fell out.  I think I went from my run to the Lululemon store to replace them right away as they were slowly disappearing from stores.

Anyhow, back to yesterday’s run…despite the wind and blowing snow it felt pretty nice out there.  In fact as I ran into the wind I heated up.  Time to take the gloves off and open the pit zips on the jacket!  I ran a 30 minute out and back.  Just as I was near the end I reached down to pat my jacket pockets.  Uh oh!!  My left glove was still there but my right pocket was EMPTY!!!  Once again I didn’t do up the zippered pocket!  Debbie laughed at me when I told her the story since I seem to be incapable of hanging on to gloves.  Don’t trust me with your gloves my friends!  Of course that meant an emergency run to Lululemon after work so I could replace my gloves.  I almost bought two pairs given my history.  Sigh…  New glove count: 4.

Any bets on which gloves I’ll lose next?

Six Things for Sunday

Number 1

A little while ago I decided to upgrade my TV in my living room. I had a 30-something inch Acer that had been given to me, but it used to be a demo TV and the screen has issues. So when Costco was running a deal on a 40 inch Samsung LCD, plus get a Samsung blu-ray player for an extra $100 it seemed like a good deal. But now I had four TVs. The first TV I got when I moved away from home that is upstairs in my bedroom. The upgrade to TV number one, a 27” Sony flat screen that is hanging out in my garage for trainer workouts. Plus the Acer and the new Samsung. Four TVs for one person seems a bit excessive, right?

Number 2

So I put an ad out to sell the 27” Sony last week. And here is the response I got back from someone:

“I am looking for a TV to donate to an elderly gentleman in a nursing home. As he doesn't have any family in Calgary nor does it appear he has anyone to visit him, he is always striking a conversation with people going by to find out the highlights of hockey games - for which he is very interested in and loves the game. Due to his eyesight not being what it used to be, he is unable to read the paper. Therefore, a thought was to try to find this gentleman a TV so he can enjoy watching a game and bring a little pleasure over the holiday season.”

So he came by and picked up the TV yesterday, and I’m happy that I was able to give it to someone who will get some enjoyment out of it.  The Acer is now hanging out in the garage.

Number 3

Things have been a little bit…arctic…in Calgary this week! Work (and a few fun activities too) sucked up all my time and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday wound up being rest days. Unless you count a bunch of walking that I did to get to meetings or pick up Christmas presents. It has been in the minus teens and twenties around here with snow falling off and on for what seems like about three weeks straight now. November was so beautiful that December is a bit of a shock.

Number 4

I managed to knock off a great trainer ride on Saturday morning. It involved a bunch of gear pyramids, which are always fun, and took me 55 minutes. Later in the day I dropped my bike off at Bow Cycle to have a few things adjusted – the derailleur needed to be repositioned as the chain was rubbing on it. An easy fix though. She’s also getting some new bar tape and will be cleaned and shined up.

Number 5

It would feel wrong to not run once all week, so I made it to the Y just as they were opening up at 7 am. Given that it was -28C (-18F) outside a treadmill run was really the only option. At least I got to run in shorts though! I hopped on for 30 fun filled minutes. I kept cranking up the speed as the run went along and watched the visual display show me as a little red dot running around a track. Talk about boring! You are running on a treadmill, visualizing yourself running round and around on a track…

Number 6

And reserves are coming along. Everyone keeps asking how they are going but it is really hard to quantify. The best I can say is that they HAVE to be done by December 18^th. And that I’m getting on a plane at 8 pm on December 18^th. And that I’ll most likely pass out the entire way after being so sleep deprived for so long..!!

Hope you guys had a great weekend!

I Love New Things

It was a ridiculous -25C this morning. Seriously, I am so over this cold weather... I had no desire to go outside at all so I bucked up $25 to park in the parkade across the street from my office building that is connected by a pedway. If I couldn't even walk a couple of blocks from my car to the office in the cold there was no way my 30 minute run was going to happen outside today. So to the Y and on the treadmill it was.

I had a couple new gizmos to try out on this treadmill run which gave me something to look forward to. I was looking at the mileage on my couple pairs of Asics Kayano 14s and I figured it might be time to break out my brand new Kayano 15s that I picked up at the WDW marathon expo. What isn't readily apparent on the picture is that they have changed up the lacing system on the shoe. The bottom of the laces are offset, so rather than centred over the toe box it is closer to the big toe. I'm not sure how this will work out when I swap out the regular laces for my Yankz, but it is an interesting concept. I guess it is supposed to help relieve pressure from...somewhere..?? I can't remember what the shoe salesman told me. Anyhow, they felt pretty comfortable so the Kayano still remains my absolute favourite shoe.

Second up, I had a brand new playlist on my iPod to listen to. And new music is definitely a good way to get fired up for the treadmill:

• Flo Rida - Right Round (I blame this song choice on this America's Best Dance Crew routine)
• Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
• V Factory - Love Struck (I have no good excuse for this song, other than it is rather catchy. But it sounds so boy band...)
• Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (this song reminds me of when I lived in Laredo, TX for some reason)
• Kevin Rudolph - Welcome to the World

The Kevin Rudolph song is the BEST workout song ever! This got me running so quickly that I had to keep bumping the speed up to avoid running into the front of the treadmill. And yeah...I was totally lip syncing along. So if you were at one of the Y's in Calgary and saw some girl on the treadmill lip syncing like a nut and wearing gray shorts and a pink top...that was me. 3.21 miles done in 30 minutes, and it felt like I could have kept going and going...

I had another cool gizmo I was trying out, but I'll tell you about that later once I've played with it more.

After the run was done I ran through some abs, foam rolling and stretching. I think the foam in the rollers at the gym have lost a little bit of structural integrity. I'm guessing this is the case because I didn't want to whimper like a little puppy while I was rolling my IT band tonight and I'm sure it hasn't gotten that much better.

Alright, time for me to head to bed since I have a 4:30 wake up and a 5:30 date at the pool in the morning!

Super Sunday Intervals

Last night a blizzard blew in.  This was what I woke up to this morning…  Tons more snow!

Maggie was one happy girl.  She loves the snow.  Leave her to her own devices out there and she could spend hours eating the snow.

I had a 90 minute ride on the schedule entitled Super Sunday Intervals.  There wasn’t anything overly technical about the ride, I just had 5 x 5:00 intervals that I had to ride at a higher heart rate than my rest intervals.  I rented WALL*E which was about the perfect length for my ride.

The movie is super cute…and pretty insightful…and at parts it makes you feel pretty thankful that we live in a society where activity is a part of a lot of our lives.  It maybe isn’t the best movie to spin to since I think I need a little more action and noise, but it is a really good movie.

After the ride it was time to whip up dinner.  I knew I wanted to make something with lamb in it and I found a really interesting sounding dish – Iraqi Lamb and Eggplant Stew.  It calls for pomegranate molasses which I didn’t bother to look for, but it is easy enough to make your own.  This is definitely what makes the dish.  I modified things a little bit – I used lamb leg steaks instead of shanks and cut back the volume of water in half.  This helped the dish to cook a little bit faster.  Thank goodness, because I started cooking at 6:30 and then saw the cook time was 3 hours…and this probably cut off an hour just by using a different cut of meat.The picture definitely doesn’t do it justice…but I would definitely make this again.

Otherwise, this week is a bit of a cut back for me since I’m racing the St. Patrick’s Day 10K on Sunday.  In some ways…thank goodness…because it looks like it is going to be miserably cold for most of the week!  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Frigid Hills

Weather is always a hot topic of conversation here in Calgary. For the last couple of days everyone has been talking about how cold it was going to get on Wednesday. I tried to tune them all out because I really didn't want to know. I needed to run hills on Wednesday and there was no way that I was going to wuss out and run on a treadmill. A treadmill is painful enough with no incline, never mind throwing a hill workout in!

I had something going on over lunch today so I knew my best course of action would be to get the run done first thing in the morning. I was up around 5 am and wandered downstairs to take care of something important first. The Melissa's Road Race registration was up and running and I wanted to make sure I got into the 10K. I pulled together the stuff I needed for work, then bundled up. I didn't check the temperature, I just knew I'd need to dress as warmly as possible. So I layered up in:

• Under Armour shorts
• Long johns
• The warmest pair of Sugoi tights I own
• The thickest pair of Smartwool socks I own
• Long sleeve tech top
• Midweight half zip top
• Sugoi Firewall jacket
• Gloves
• Two hats
• Fleece scarf

It looked perfect outside. We had gotten a light dusting of snow overnight so it was great for throwing the Yak Trax on. I got started just before 6 am with a 15 minute warm up, followed by a few short accelerations. After that it was into my 4 x 2:00 hill repeats. My pace wasn't anything to write home about, but the repeats went not too badly. They were over and done with before I knew it, then it was time for a 10 minute cool down run back home.

I felt pretty well bundled up against the elements and I was pretty comfortable out there. The worst part was probably that my eyes were watering a fair bit...and well...extreme cold...watery eyes...you get frozen lashes. Talk about a weird sensation! Once I got back home I checked the weather. It was -21C, or -31C with the windchill. That's -6F/-24F for all of you Imperial folks. I would say I redeemed myself after bailing on an outdoor run on Monday in -7C. (Although really, if I wouldn't have run at the Y on Monday then there would have been no great Leana versus the Weightlifter on the treadmill story...)

In the evening I ran through a quick strength workout, followed by some abs and some stretching. Alright folks, I'd better head off to bed. Tomorrow is another swim/spin combo!

Brr!

I fully admit that I've been a wuss this winter. Despite all my rambling that "there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear" I have really not run outside in the cold weather this winter. On Saturday I was so busy running around to and from Bow and doing a few more errands that I put off running until about 4 pm. Even though the temperature was -20C (-4F) it was beautiful and sunny out. I bundled up and headed outdoors with a plan to run about 30 minutes or so. Once I got going...I was still pretty cold. Well, my torso warmed up, but my face, hands and legs were still cold. Once I was about two miles in I felt pretty good though, so I detoured to make my route longer. Maybe I'd aim for five miles? Once I detoured the sun started to go away and wow, it felt colder! All of a sudden I became painfully aware that my rear end was freezing. Absolutely freezing. Maybe I should have worn some long johns underneath my tights... Anyhow, I detoured again and headed towards home just as the sun was setting. Oh well, four miles done in the cold weather...at least I finally made it out there!

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I had a rest day today but I felt like I could use a good stretch. I dug the yoga clothes out of the closet and went to hot yoga after work today. I was a little worried I wasn't going to make it since I had this nagging headache/weird dizziness feeling happening this afternoon. Luckily a little Advil helped to alleviate the situation though. Class was busy and we had a new-to-me instructor who was pretty cool. I could tell that I was out of practice, but I definitely started to loosen up as the class went on. I found some of the poses challenging, but after I was done I was glad I had gone. Tomorrow...swimming and spin class!

Survivor: Treadmill Island

The wicked arctic temperatures continue here in Calgary. I was supposed to have my final long run on the schedule but it was just too cold to attempt it outdoors and way too long to attempt it indoors. Coach reworked my schedule and I now had 10 km to run on Saturday and a 2 hour marathon race pace interval run for Sunday. I've never spent more than about 35 minutes on a treadmill so this was definitely going to be one exercise in treadmill survival. The question would be weather I could outwit, outplay and outlast the treadmill?
Saturday:

I slept in a bit on Saturday but was still at the gym at about 9:30 since I had somewhere to be by noon. I started off with my 10 km run on the treadmill which quickly was bargained down in to a 6 mile run. Even though there is supposed to be a 30 minute time limit on the cardio machines I was able to plug in a desired workout time of 65 minutes. I started on my merry way. I tried to focus on the music on my iPod, tried to think of anything except for the fact that I was like a little hamster running and running and going nowhere, but the time just dragged by. I hopped off after my 6 miles were up and quickly changed into my swimsuit and hit the pool. If you are looking for a time to bask in the quietness around the pool and just bust out some laps...Saturday morning is not the day to do it. There was only one lane open for lane swimming and the rest of the pool was dedicated to lessons for kids or other kids horsing around. Even with only one lane open there were only three of us swimming for most of the time so I was able to crank my laps out. I had hoped to get 2400 m in but it was going to be a stretch to make it so I decided to cut back to 2000 m. I was on my final 400 m set before a 200 m cool down and I was kicking with flippers on. All of a sudden my left calf seized up. I couldn't kick with my left leg anymore, but thank goodness for the flippers because I just kicked with my right leg to get me back to the other end of the pool. I stopped and stretched it out. Obviously it wasn't enough because half way through the next length it seized up again. Once again I kicked with my right leg down to the end and stopped to stretch. I abandoned the flippers and just decided to finish out with a pull buoy since crossing my ankles would keep my left calf in a stretch. Just at the end my right calf seized and I was so frustrated...and in so much pain! On every stroke I was pretty well just shouting expletives in my head. Thank goodness I was at 2000 m...I was done!

Sunday:

On Sunday there was no alarm, I just let my body wake up when it wanted to. Which was somewhere just after 10 am. Unfortunately I stumbled out of bed feeling like I had a tennis ball in each calf after yesterday's cramping in the pool incident though. I had stuff I needed to accomplish around the house and finally made it out to the Y just before 3 pm. Since this was going to be a fairly long run I hauled some nutrition along with me. This week I got a great little stocking stuffer in the mail from the wonderful folks at nuun that I couldn't wait to try out. They sent me some u to try out, and I had my choice between tangerine ginger, goji berry green tea and lemon chai. I went with the lemon chai and brought along a lemon sublime Gu to go with it.

Since this was going to be a two hour run in warm temperatures (inside) I figured this would be a good opportunity to try out my marathon race outfit. It is going to be great for running down in Disney World, but I felt a bit goofy looking at the Y... Oh well! I realized that once I got there I had forgotten to bring any Body Glide along. Gulp!

Outwit:

Yesterday I had no problems plugging in a 65 minute run, but the first treadmill I jumped on wouldn't accept anything more than a 30 minute run. Luckily yesterday's treadmill was open so I moved over and lo and behold, it took a 120 minute workout like a charm!

Outplay:

My workout called for a 2 hour run, with 3 x 20:00 at marathon race pace with 10:00 aerobic running between race pace efforts. About 15 minutes in I had to hit the bathroom. I tried to wait it out, but there was going to be no way I was going to last the full two hours. I made it to 30 minutes, hit pause and hoped that my bottle of nuun and my Gu would be enough to hold my treadmill... Ultimately I think taking that quick break at 30 minutes in helped me to break the workout up a bit. I was feeling pretty good on the intervals and my heart rate climbed nicely through zone 3 and into zone 4 throughout them. Having these different chunks of workouts also helped to break the run up so the 2 hours didn't seem like near the drag I was expecting it to be.

Outlast:

There was a bit of a question as to whether the skin on the inside of my thighs would outlast my two hour run. Seriously...must not forget Body Glide in the future... Surprisingly enough it hurt less when I was running fast then when I was running slow. Thankfully the calves held up during the run, but the left one was pretty tight after I was done. And yes...I finished 2 hours on the treadmill! I couldn't believe it, I outlasted every other treadmill opponent and won...!!

It's Friday...

If you've looked at my Buckeye training log on the sidebar you can see that I haven't been up to too much this week. At least not exercise wise. After 60 hours of overtime in the past two and a half weeks reserves are done. I have eaten more soup and toast in the last two weeks than I did in the past year, I've averaged 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night and have barely had contact with the outside world. My brain has reached a whole new level of exhaustion, but I have to admit that the work that I was doing was so incredibly interesting. It felt really rewarding to put my reserves project to bed this afternoon.

The weather has been downright arctic here. We had a slight reprieve on Tuesday when the temperature came up to -10 deg C. It might as well have been +10 because anything felt better than the -20s we've been in. I went out for a 45 minute run over lunchtime around the river and there were so many people out. We must have all been suffering from some wicked cabin fever! It was a bit slow going because of all of the packed snow and ice on the pathway, but that was just fine.

I didn't make it to the final spin class before Christmas on Tuesday night, but I did make it out for the social at the pub afterwards. It was great to chat with a few more teammates and it also gave me a chance to talk to coach about when to get my final long run in before the marathon. Because it is way too cold to run outdoors here this weekend and running over 20 miles indoors is just insane I'll be running on Wednesday when I'll (hopefully) be someplace slightly warmer.

I did manage to get in a run on Thursday night on the track at the Y. I had a speed session that consisted of a warm up and 8 x 1:00 hard, 1:00 easy, followed by a cool down. I was exhausted and didn't expect the run to feel too great, but thankfully I was wrong! I think busting out some speed helped me to release a bit of tension, and then I went home and slept like a baby.

This weekend is a busy one...and it isn't. I've got some workouts to make sure that happen - a swim and a 10K run on Saturday and a 2 hour run on Sunday. Otherwise I plan on taking it pretty easy the rest of the time, just puttering around my house and letting my brain recover. Anyhow, that's about it for me...I think I'm ready to get to bed! Have a great weekend all!

Nearly There

Wow...I am absolutely knackered. I have logged 49 hours of overtime working on reserves so far, most of it within the last week. Finally I had the "there's a light at the end of the tunnel" moment today at about 2:30. That isn't to say that all of my work is done - not even close - but I can fathom finishing everything in time for my Friday deadline. I am so happy that Finlay is at his grandparents' right now. I definitely made the right decision.

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On the running front I kind of felt like a wuss this weekend as I heard that a bunch of people I knew ran outside. I was freezing on just a 5 minute walk to the mall yesterday so serious kudos to my friends who braved the cold weather here. However, in my defense, I had a 45 minute run with strides to do, and who wants to run strides on a snowy, slippery surface? So I hoofed it to my Y to run inside instead (feeling ever so grateful that I did decide to join a gym this year). The track at my Y is pretty tiny...15 laps equals 1 mile. I got a little dizzy after running 71 laps yesterday. I ran at a warm up pace for 10 minutes, then ran a 30 second stride followed by 4:30 of regular ol' easy running to finish out the 45 minutes. I loved the striding part. I felt so speedy and I definitely got the heart working.

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So...the bad news is this cold snap seems to have no end in sight. Temperatures for the weekend aren't looking like much of an improvement. Coach has told me that it is downright insanity to run 35 km (or 21.75 miles) indoors. Thank goodness, because I would have a hard time trying to mentally suck it up for 155 laps (or 326 laps depending on which track I went to). And I'm not even sure if I could run and count that high. If I can't run outdoors then I'll most likely aim to run on December 24th when I'm in Kelowna. So if anyone in Kelowna can suggest a nice 35 km route for me, I am all ears. I looked at the running route maps on the Running Room website, but it sends me through the park on the same route that I got lost on this summer. So apparently I need something that is extraordinarily simple - i.e. doesn't involve veering off on to trails.

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I'm not one to make an official announcement about anything until I've financially committed to it, but it seems like everyone wants to know what I meant about Lake Stevens being good prep for my future plans. It's true, I want to race Ironman Canada in 2010. The seed was planted in my head way back in June. I met and chatted with Ray Fateaux at the Footstock race expo. He's the author of Ironstruck and we talked about his decision to go from zero fitness to racing an Ironman. At this point in time I was still throwing around the idea of just entering my first triathlon! I specifically started looking for a coach because I wanted to go from 70.3 next year to 140.6 in 2010. I almost signed up for IMC in 2009 when I heard that spots were opening up for online entry...but I knew 2009 was not the year to attempt it. I will be in Penticton in 2009 though, cheering on my friends and teammates and getting ready to commit to 2010. While Penticton is a tough course (with plenty of hills), it is supposed to be one of the most amazing. The entire town really supports the race. It isn't too far from where my folks live so it helps out with logistics, plus they will be able to come cheer me on when I toe the line. So there we go folks, I have a plan all of the way until August 2010. This is definitely one evolution...

Brrr!

Snow started blowing in yesterday and we had near white-out conditions. The drive home was particularly nasty as plenty of vehicles were having a hard time making it up hills and were spinning out all over the place. The drive in to work today was not much better, but I drove like one scared...er...cautious Vancouverite/Texan and gave myself plenty of room around other cars.

A few weeks ago when I posted about my new trainer set up in my garage Wes was musing over how cold it would get in my garage. Wes, I am happy to report that even with temperatures in -20s outside I was still plenty warm in my garage! I did a 47 minute workout focusing on 8 x 2:00 hard spins while finishing off the end of 27 Dresses and starting in on Charlie's Angels Full Throttle. Say what you will about Charlie's Angels but it has a fantastic soundtrack to spin to while watching along!

Warning: Igloo Ahead

The weather forecast does not look too promising for a long run this weekend. Apparently the only way to describe the weather on Sunday is to depict it with an igloo. That definitely says cold! Also says cold is that the temperature will feel like -39°C (-38°F). Even though my run will be a relatively short two hour run that is about two hours too long to run outside or on the treadmill. Saturday really isn't much of an improvement, so what to do? Friday looks like the most run-worthy day, but given that I have lunch plans with a friend (for Indian food no less) and a massage in the evening it is going to take a little bit of juggling to work. But I have a plan...

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Also important was how to fit in all of runs this week if my long run was now going to be on Friday. Wednesday called for a 45 minute run with strides and Thursday a tempo run/hill repeat combo. Since coach is out of town I e-mailed Richelle to ask for her opinion on what to do. She suggested to do the tempo/hill combo on Wednesday, long run on Friday and strides on Sunday on the treadmill. Sounds like a good arrangement to me! I took off over lunch and it was a gorgeous 4°C (39°F) out. That's good enough for capris if you ask me! I took off on my 15 minute warm up at a nice and leisurely pace. As I climbed the walkway up to the Centre Street bridge it felt like I got a sharp kick in my abdomen. Yowza... I continued along, but wow it hurt. Even though the weather was nice out there was still a pretty significant amount of snow on the pathway up the hill that I picked for my hill repeats. Luckily there was a bunch of gravel thrown down so footing wasn't too bad. As I started in on my hill repeats I knew my legs were tired. I got through my three 1:15 hill repeats, then it was time to take off on a 15:00 tempo run. Initially I was feeling good but a few minutes in the pain in my abdomen was back in full force, this time kind of around my belly button. I had to stop a couple of times and when I started back up again I was having a tough time holding the pace. I probably could have called it a day but I'm stubborn and wanted to finish this out. On my way back to the hill I came to some sort of agreement with this pain and while it hadn't gone away I was able to tune it out somewhat. Once I started my second set of hill repeats it faded away. I finished up the second set of three repeats and headed back on a 15 minute cool down...which miraculously felt amazing.

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My 2000m at the pool last night felt amazing and it was a great way to zone out after a late night at work. For about 15 minutes it was just me and the lifeguards it was so quiet in there...

Tips for Winter Running

A few weeks ago I was invited to participate in a podcast for Runners' Lounge. A bunch of us got together to talk about winter running - how to get out the door and get through the run in the cold. Head over here to check it out. Thanks so much to Matt for putting the podcast together and inviting me to be a part of it!

Let's Talk Uncomfortable

My thoughts feel so discombobulated that I'd love to do another bullet point post, but really...that's just copping out.

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Yesterday's run called for a nice and easy 30 minute jaunt. It was -7°C (19°F). Why is it that your Garmin takes forever to catch satellites when it is cold out? I thought I dressed pretty warmly, but I was freezing...my tummy off. It looks like all of my running tights are a bit big and even the drawstring doesn't help adjust enough to keep those babies from riding down while I'm running. And my long sleeve shirt was a bit on the short side so it came untucked. And it was windy. And my stomach was freezing. I was so happy to turn around and get that run done. 3.34 miles in 31:50 and I never really warmed up again that afternoon. Yes, I think we could say that was uncomfortable.

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The traffic to get to Walmart after work was ridiculous! I was pretty shocked to see no line at all for Customer Service so that I could return my DVD. Somehow or other it still took the three people behind the counter several minutes to help me out. I was absolutely knackered last night so I wasn't even going to attempt to get up at 4:30 this morning to try to make it to swim class. I gave myself an extra half an hour and woke up well rested. I have a scheduled rest day tomorrow but if all goes well I might try to hit the pool instead. I will feel guilty if I don't swim at least once this week!

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I wasn't going to miss my run today, that was for sure! I had a 50 minute VO2 max run scheduled. It contained 15 minutes of :30 fast and :30 easy in the middle. The description from my coach? "This should feel really uncomfortable Leana. Be prepared." As if the -10°C (14°F) temperature outside wasn't going to feel uncomfortable enough, this was going to throw it right over the edge! I tucked in a longer shirt today and threw a vest over my mid-weight top and this felt a lot better today. My warm up was nice and easy, and I have to say that I loved the VO2 max intervals. There's something about busting out those intervals that makes you know that you've worked really hard. And running fast made the temperature outside seem not too bad... Anyhow, that's about it for me. I've got strength, core and stretching tonight, then we'll see about the pool tomorrow. Have a good Thursday all!

Bad Runs...Good Runs...

Wednesday: Optional 30 min run

When Wednesday's run said optional, apparently the better option was to not run. But I didn't know that when I set out... It snowed overnight and the pathways were a mess of spotty patches of ice. I ran slow...I don't know if I even got my heart rate in to zone 2...I just didn't want to slip and fall. But something about the surface most likely affected my gait and I developed a pretty intense pain in my lower right shin. Of course at the time you think:

1. I just changed shoes. Maybe it is the shoes.
2. Maybe it is the snow. Maybe I'm running funny.
3. Maybe something else is wrong...

I stopped to stretch my calf and shin and it helped a bit. A concerned runner asked if everything was okay, which was nice of him. I got back to work feeling a bit defeated and worried.

Thursday: 6 x 2 min intervals

I really didn't know what to expect with running intervals. I promised myself that if the pathways were as crappy as they were the day before I wouldn't run. I also promised myself that if my shin hurt that I would immediately stop and turn around. I wasn't going to mess around with running intervals if things were hurting. And oh yeah...it was -6°C (21°F) out. Brr! Luckily the pathways were so much better as it looked like they finally threw some salt down to get rid of most of the ice. I ran my 10 min warm up at a nice and easy pace and everything felt pretty good so I continued on with the workout. This run felt so much better than my slow optional run the day before! And despite the chilly temperature it actually didn't feel too bad out. I was well bundled up, the sun was out, and thankfully it wasn't too windy otherwise it might have been quite miserable. Anyhow, fingers crossed that all is okay with the shin and Wednesday's run was just a weird fluke.

As for the rest of the week I've got a rest day today. Tomorrow is a 2:00 run with 3 x 15:00 at marathon race pace with 10:00 aerobic running between race pace efforts. Should be a good one! Sunday is Grey Cup - the Superbowl of the Canadian Football League! Last year we had the Great Grey Cup-Cake Off. This year we are working around the theme of Montreal vs. Calgary and it promises good times!

Weather Related Procrastination

When my new coach tells me to make sure I'm well recovered from my marathon because she is going to really up my intensity...apparently to me that means do a whole lot of nothing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Well...I did swim on Thursday, and if you want to count the sweat I worked up while wetsuit shopping on Saturday as crosstraining then I wasn't entirely sitting on my rear. Anyhow, I did really want to get some form of a run in on Sunday. I slept in because it is so cold here in the mornings now that I wasn't in much of a rush to get outside. (We've been getting to around 4 deg C or 39 deg F overnight). I took some time eating my breakfast and puttering around the house with laundry and what not. Then it was finally time to get geared up and outside. As soon as I stepped out of my garage some sprinkles started to fall so I turned around and went back inside. After more puttering around I noticed sunshine streaming through my blinds so I figured I'd better get out there before I changed my mind. I had no real idea of what route I was going to run or how far. My calf had been feeling tight all morning so I didn't want to push it, but it actually felt really good on the run. I just ran with no real plan and wound up running some loops through the neighborhood finishing up at the grocery store in time to pick up some items for lunch. A fairly successful run of just over 5 miles. Dark clouds were menacing the entire time I was out there so I never did get that bike ride in that I was thinking about this weekend.

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I did really want to ride in to work this morning though. With the sunrise being later and later I didn't really want to leave in the dark and ride all the way from my house. I figured out a spot I could leave my car at about halfway along the route and started out from there instead. Brrr, it was absolutely frigid outside. My hands were frozen for the first little bit, although everything else was reasonably warm. By the time I made it down to the river my hands had warmed up a bit and I was glad I was out for that ride. The sky was a beautiful blue and I know I'm going to enjoy the ride back this afternoon too. As for that calf, it still feels tight. I'm hoping to get in for some ART today to help sort it out.

Checking In

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the wisdom teeth went smoothly and it was all done in less than an hour. No swelling and minimal pain so it went as well as possible. Unfortunately I'm now battling a cold that seems to be making its way around the city. Thanks to my bout with bronchitis in January I feel like I've been sick more than healthy so far this year which is pretty unusual for me. Hopefully I'll be back at it tomorrow though!

St. Patrick's Day 10K

Sunday was the 21st annual St. Patrick's Day Run being put on by the Calgary Roadrunners. I had somehow or other convinced Neil that he should run it with me but the fellow was in need of some proper runners so on Friday night we went down to the Tech Shop to get him fitted in some fancy white and orange Adidas. After that we made our way to Strides for the packet pick up. I love the race shirts - they have women's and men's cut shirts, and they are a really great quality Puma cotton shirt. The logo is on the front with no mention of the race, and the back has the race name and sponsors on it. It is definitely a nice, wearable shirt. The weather here has been pretty nice for the last few weeks, but all of a sudden on Saturday night it started to snow. When I woke up Sunday morning to let Finlay outside it was like a winter wonderland out there with -13 deg C (8 deg F) temperatures to boot. Lovely... I got dressed up in pretty well every piece of green running gear I own - green Smartwool socks, my Feeling Lucky tech shirt (because if you can't wear this to a St. Patrick's Day race, when can you?), my green Under Armour zip up hoodie and a green tuque.
One of the main selling features of this race is the opportunity to win your weight in beer from this year's sponsor Mountain Crest. They had all the beer piled on the stage to tease you before the race. I tell you, in the picture above it looks like I was already dipping into the Mountain Crest... Luckily you don't have to win the race to win the beer, they draw for names instead. Whew!
After pinning our race numbers on it was time to head to the start line and at 10:00 am sharp we were off. It might have been chilly outside but once I got moving the temperature felt comfortable. Thankfully there was no wind, the only bad part was the ice and slush on the road. At the 1 mile mark Darryl Janz from CTV News was calling out our times - very neat! The race started and finished at McMahon Stadium and we ran two laps around the University of Calgary. Neil and I hung together for the first 5K but after that we parted ways and I was on my own. All of a sudden snow started coming down in buckets. I was happy I'd left my glasses in the car but I kept having to brush the snow off that was clinging to my eyelashes. Given my spotty training I had no illusions of glory and inside I hoped that I could at least come close, or maybe even beat, last year's time of 1:07:03. My pace picked up a bit and I was passing people but it was going to be tough. At least I was feeling half decent on the run - I had a bit of shin pain at the 1 mile mark that quickly faded. As I turned the corner to run through the parking lot of McMahon Stadium towards the finish line Karen was working as a course marshall and hooting and hollering encouragement at all the runners. She told me that if I had anything left inside this was the time to dig down deep and leave it all on the course. I ran across the finish line and turned off the Garmin - 1:07:12. Okay, so I didn't beat last year's time but it was pretty close. I started walking back up the way the runners were coming in and Neil appeared soon and crossed the finish line maybe 2 minutes after I did. We headed inside the Red and White Club at McMahon Stadium to get our Irish Stew, some rolls and some coffee. We found Instructor S, her husband and another runner I recognized to catch up on the race. Sadly we didn't win any door prizes and despite wishing hard we didn't win our weight in beer either. If you did win they had a teeter totter set up on the stage and the 6 packs of Mountain Crest were piled on until the teeter totter was even. As we walked back to the car the snow had let up and the sun was out...go figure!
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As an aside, the founder of Mountain Crest, Ravinder Minhas, seems like a pretty interesting guy. He's 24, has a degree in Petroleum Engineering and he built the company from the ground up. Pretty impressive, eh?

Getting my mojo back

Saturday morning I had an invitation to a BBC session at Edworthy Park on the NW side of town and the group run was going to be at the Glenmore Reservoir on the SW side of town. The locations were a bit too far away to make both so I opted to run 6 miles on my own at Edworthy in order to finish in time before BBC. I started running east towards the city and about half a mile in I realized I was a bit too overdressed, plus all of a sudden I really had to hit the bathroom so I turned around. All of a sudden I was running into some crazy wicked wind. After dropping by jacket at the car and what not I decided I wanted the first half of my run to be into the wind rather than having to deal with it on the back half when I would be a bit more tired so I headed west. After I had been running for awhile I realized that this run was feeling effortless...no more huffing and puffing and looking at my watch. I was feeling so good I even inadvertently missed a walk break. Hurrah, my running mojo is coming back! I wasn't being particularly speedy, but this is the best I've felt running since the marathon. I turned around and headed back towards the car. With a mile left to go I wanted to test myself to see if I could pick up the pace to finish. I kicked it into another gear and kept running without looking at the watch and I ran a minute and a half faster than my average pace up till this point in time. I had a quick walk to cool down, changed out of my sweaty tops and headed over to meet Instructor S and some of the other BBC gals. All of a sudden I was FREEZING....I had a short sleeve tech shirt on, a long sleeve mid-layer and a windbreaker on and it wasn't enough. I had to run back to the car to grab my fleece jacket as the temperature was plummeting. Just as everyone showed up for BBC there was an odd type of hail/snow that started to fall... Once we got moving by running a lap around some picnic tables we started to warm up and the snow let up a bit. BBC was tough...step ups, tricep dips, knee ups, grade 7 dance, jump rope and abs....it was quite the workout. My abs were so sore yesterday that it hurt to cough. Luckily I think they have recovered enough for what will likely be an intense Fit Ball session tonight though. The abs in the park were my favorite part. We were doing various sit ups on a mat lying in the park and you could still see the odd snow flake coming down. It was kind of a neat, surreal experience.

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On another note, run on over to Iron Bob's page (a.k.a. Bob Almighty) to congratulate him on a fabulous finish at his first ever Iron Man in New Zealand this past weekend. Good job Bob!

Getting out of dodge

Let's just say that I'm very happy I'm flying out to Las Vegas tonight where it looks like it is infinitely warmer than it is here. I haven't done anything since Tuesday....but I have my running shoes packed because a part of me really wants to say I've run up and down the Vegas strip. Have a good weekend all!