Creative Commuting

This week we have a Commuter Challenge going on at work. Try to reduce the amount that you drive to work during the week and see how your company stacks up for participation against others. I also happened to have a 20K (12.4 mi) run on my schedule on Wednesday. And my home just happens to be about that far from downtown Calgary. What better way to get a long run in than to run from work to home?

When I first moved here I used to drive to the train station and ride the train into work. About a year ago I landed a parking spot downtown so I've been driving in ever since. I've never actually navigated the bus system. So I poured over the Calgary Transit website figuring out what bus I would need and what time I would have to catch it at. Riding the bus was quick and easy, but where I dropped the ball was on the logistics slightly. As I walked towards the bus stop with my running gear and my purse in my hand I realized that I hadn't really thought about my purse! I was carrying all this stuff to work that I'd need tonight...tomorrow...but I certainly wasn't running home carrying my purse. Oops! Luckily I was able to pass a few key items off to Debbie (like my glasses) and I could pick them up at her place this evening.

It was a warm one here...for us at least! Sunny, not a cloud in the sky and 23C (73F). That might not be hot to some of you, but around here, that is definitely warm. I headed out on the road around 4:30. It was a bit hairy getting out of downtown with all of the cyclists heading home, but no big deal. I was at Edworthy before I knew it - 4 miles down. That gave me a chance for a bathroom break and an opportunity to fill up my water bottle. I'd already used up half of it and I still had a ways to go. There was a couple having a picnic out there with a boom box, head bopping to some Lionel Richie. Yeah... It was a short jaunt to Shouldice and then the work started. Bring on the uphills. And there was no shade. There was a whole lot more walking and I was slowing down. My mind was playing games with me...your running isn't as good as it used to be...these hills are eating you alive...you can't run distance anymore...how are you going to run a half marathon at the end of your half Iron? It wasn't pretty.

I hit a neighborhood called Silver Springs 8 miles in and passed by a little strip mall. I was out of water so I stopped in at Mac's. I sussed out the Gatorade section and settled on a bottle of blue stuff. Honestly, what flavour is blue? I can't exactly tell. All I wanted was to pay for my bottle and finish this run off. But there was a guy at the counter who was trying to hit on the lady at the till and it was taking forever...!! Finally he had to go so I was able to get my drink, refill my bottle and get back on the road.

Gatorade...you were my saviour! The cold, blue drink felt so good going down, and about 10 minutes or so in I started to get some vroom vroom back in my step. Never has something felt so good, yet so indescribable. An amazing thing happened. My brain wasn't back in the game, but my legs sure were. They were picking up. The only bad thing that happened after that was that I failed to duck low enough under a tree and I bumped my head but good. Finally...finally...I was back home. 12.15 miles later. So the plan worked out not too badly.

And now I'm exhausted, so I'm off to bed!

Outdoor Run in Shorts!

I was in a training course all day today, and I looked wistfully outside over lunch today. Such bright sunlight...such warm temperatures... But my lunch break on the course was too short to attempt my run. Sigh... I was ecstatic while I drove home to see that it was still 12C (54F). That is shorts weather in my book! I quickly fed the pups, changed, and rushed out the door. 3.22 rolly hilly miles done at a 9:41/mi pace! I saw a few other runners bundled up in track suits and toques, but it was so comfortable out there in shorts around the melting snow.

So Suz and I are going to enter as a team for the Nike Women's Marathon. Is anyone else interested in joining our team? There isn't a lot of information on the website for a team entry. It almost looks like there is only one entry for the team, so adding people doesn't increase your chance of getting picked. But...hopefully once the lottery opens on Wednesday morning that will be more clear. So, if any of you gals are interested in going in for a blogger meet up, then let me know. E-mail me at runnerleana at gmail dot com and we'll go from there!

Running for the Hills

I can admit it, most of my runs have pretty well all been the same. Get out there, put the distance in, maybe there are some hills along the route or maybe not, and every run is close to the same pace. Last year I was running hill repeats pretty consistently in preparation for the Nike Women's Half in San Francisco, but since then I've stopped running them. It is time to shake things up a bit. On the training plan for yesterday were hill repeats. Here was the deal:

• Warm up with 15 minutes of easy running to the hill.
• Between 15 and 20 minutes run 10 second accelerations up the hill, then 50 seconds of easy running.
• 4 x 2:00 hill climbs, recovery is the run back down to the bottom.
• Cool down for 10 minutes.

As it was pretty warm when I got home (at least for around here) I waited before going out for the run. I had a Banana Manna Fruit and Nut Bar (I got a whole slew of these for free at the Quebec marathon expo), hung out with my dog, and caught a few minutes of ANTM (I got suckered in by it being the makeover episode). By 7:00 I figured I was good to head out. I live in a pretty hilly neighborhood, but I picked the biggest hill I knew of, which was quite luckily a 15 minute run away. As I didn't want to be staring at my Garmin the entire time I created a workout in the Garmin Training Center and uploaded it. (I tried to create it in Sport Tracks, which is a way nicer piece of software, but I couldn't quite figure out how to upload it to the device. I could only export the workout to somewhere on my computer. If you use Sport Tracks and know how to do this, please let me know!) The workout program worked well as I liked it beeping at me to let me know my repeat up the hill was done. I'm pretty sure I started too fast on the first repeat, then each repeat was successively slower by just a bit. It was a good run though. I didn't get home until 8:00 and I didn't want to put dinner off too much longer so I skipped out on my strength workout. I'll try to fit it in another day this week though...

Next week I've got 5 hill climbs on the schedule, so that should be fun!

The End of an Era

It is the end of my need for pretty, colourful training schedules in Excel now. I had a really nice one that mapped out my training for the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge. I had my entire year mapped out in Excel, telling me what I would be running, any cross training activities that I had signed up for, and of course where holidays and trips fell on the calendar. Planning ahead for the year kind of suits my type A personality I guess! My program from my coach started up yesterday, and it included an easy 5 km run and a 30 minute strength workout. I hit the pathways downtown over lunch for my run. Summer has returned this week and it was really warm out. The run felt good, and while I didn't break any speed records like last week, I felt like I was going at a pretty good clip the entire time. I've noticed some definite improvements to my pace on all my runs now since the Quebec marathon. I was wearing my Strathmore Tri race shirt and wound up talking to a lady as we were walking back to our office building who had done the race as well. Triathletes seem to pop up everywhere now it seems! I did the strength workout once I got home from work. It was pretty basic with step ups, lunges, squats, tricep dips, pushups and core. I then whipped up a quick dinner (grilled turkey and cranberry sausages and a spinach salad with loads of veggies thrown in), then crawled in to bed to watch Project Runway and Wipeout before falling asleep for seven quality hours of shut eye. A definite improvement over the night before!

Running Update

Hurrah for me, because I ran today as well! 3.29 miles around the river at lunch. My running isn't completely stinking, but it still doesn't feel all that easy either. Hopefully after a bit more regular activity a bit of easiness will come back. It was a nice 6 deg C (43 deg F) at the start and a whopping 11 deg C (52 deg F) at the end of the run. I saw the same fellow I saw yesterday wearing purple running tights and a purple running jacket. At least I assume it was the same guy...

My sister-in-law T said I could blog more often, so T, this is for you. Two posts in one day!

Hot Hot Heat

Today I had a 7 mile long run scheduled. I woke up nice and early thanks to my dog Maggie, so I really had no excuse to not get going earlier. I did a few things around the house and then drove out to Shouldice around 11 am. Big mistake....by this time it was pretty warm....about 80 deg F. As there was no shade along the path it made for a pretty warm run. I must learn to get out the door earlier...

This coming weekend is my first of two back-to-back 10Ks. The first one is the Footstock 10K in Cochrane. I'm actually scheduled for an 8 mile run that weekend so I'll probably aim to get the first 2 miles in before the run, then finish up with the 10K race. I'm looking forward to heading up there, and excited for the pancake breakfast and beer garden we get afterwards...!!

**Also, an update on my hills. I finally downloaded my Garmin data....At McHugh Bluff I gained 152 ft over 0.3 miles.**