Helen's Running Journal
2005
The quality of a person's life is
in direct proportion to their commitment
to excellence, regardless of their chosen
field of endeavour.
Vince Lombardi
The first year I began running seriously was also the first year I
ended up with a knee injury. Just as summer was beginning and everyone was
lacing up their shoes and heading out, I was stuck inside my apartment. What
kept me inspired and hopeful was another runner, Peter, who posted his journal
on the Web. It's no longer around (much to my dismay), but his daily entries
of his training highs and lows - as well as his own recovery from a similar
injury - got me through summer and to the 1999 Canadian International
Marathon. Every evening when I came back from the office I followed his
struggle, right up to his first marathon in Quebec City in 1999. I never sent
an email to him, much less met him, but he was a great coach. To Peter from
Montreal, thank you.
2005 Goal: Complete an Ironman
and
Walk the Camino de Santiago
This is it: this is the year I go for Ironman. Of course, I'm excited that I'll be venturing into new territory. My goals in the past two years were to refine what I had started three years ago in doing a half-Ironman. But I've never done an Ironman before, and, quite frankly, I'm terrified. But that's the whole idea, isn't it? To wake up every morning and do one thing we're afraid of. How else do we grow?
- Week of January 1
- Saturday Happy New Year! I sincerely hope 2005 is better than 2004, which was mostly foul. Went out on New Year's Eve just after 9pm for the annual New Year's Run. I don't know if this was an unusual hour, but there was lots of traffic on the road, while things had been exceptionately quiet in previous years. It was also above freezing, pounding rain, and high gusting winds. Ran along Charlotte to University, then down to Waterloo Row, up to Alexandra, and back towards Charlotte. Went downtown along Queen Street, trying to avoid massive puddles and icy sidewalks. Up Westmorland back to the apartment, and noticed the rain had died down. Of course, within an hour of the run being over the wind and rain had stopped completely!
- Monday Very mild day - above zero again, in fact. A short (45min) run around the courts. Well, I call it the courts: I run down the Parkhurst/Inglewood loop and run every court on the loop. It might not sound like much, but it adds ten minutes to the usual course and it seems to make me slow down and run with more rhythm. Felt totally out of breath the entire time, mostly because I ate before leaving.
- Tuesday This was going to be an indoor cycling night, but one look at the weather forecast for the next few days changed my plans. This was the last night of clear roads, no wind, and warm temperatures before a week of January chill. I took full advantage of the great conditions and went out for a wonderful one hour run. I didn't have the breathlessness problems of yesterday. Instead, I kept my pace very slow and my strides very short. Trotted around Parkhurst/Inglewood, then along Aberdeen to Queen Square, downtown on Queen Street, and back home. One of those nights when my feet felt quick and light on the ground.
- Saturday Winter is nature's way of making us grateful. Like today: I'm grateful that it's NOT -15 outside, that it's NOT windy, and that it's NOT overcast. In fact, it's a beautiful, warm, quiet and sunny day. Run! So I dress up and read a few paragraphs in Roger Joslin's Running the Spiritual Path and head out the door. I bought the book last year when it began to dawn on me that I no longer looked at my runs in the same glorious, almost heavenly way I used to when I had first started running. Back then, the silence of running was almost a drug and I used the opportunity to clear out my mind completely. I seemed to have lost that ability in the past two years; now it seems as if the chatter never ends in my head. So when I saw Joslin's book at Chapters late last summer, I thought that maybe it would be a good way to find a way back into making the mind a larger part of the run. And it's not as if I didn't want to do so: it's simply that I forgot because my head was full of other things. So I put Joslin's book on the shelf by the front door, where I keep my running shoes, and make sure I read a section before I head out for a run. Joslin describes various exercises and central themes that he uses when he's running to connect with God. The one I use today is sensation. As I run the Parkhurst/Inglewood loop, I feel every crack and lump of snow and ice beneath the soles of my feet. I focus on the pressure of my foot from mid-strike to toe-off, and the snugness of my feet in my shoes. Going down Aberdeen to Waterloo Row, I think about my calves and how they're working, what my running tights feel like. Up Alexandra, then down to Queen Street and home, I think of my knees. I'm so, SO grateful that they don't hurt and that I can actually run for over one hour. What a wonderful run.
- Week of January 10
- Tuesday Day 1 of the first phase of the triathlon training. As in the past two years, I'm using the eGrip training program to get me to Ironman Lake Placid. Already the workouts are considerably longer than they were this time one year ago when I was aiming for a half-Ironman.
Before leaving for my run this evening, I open up Joslin's book and land on a section that has one of my favourite titles: "When you cook....cook!" There is no specific exercise for this section. Instead, Joslin simply talks about the futility of multi-tasking when you're running. The premise is as straightforward as you can get - do what you're doing right now with 100% of your effort and focus - but as hard as can be to put into practice. I head off toward Parkhurst/Inglewood in -15C trying to calm my head. I'm glad I didn't choose to focus on my feet this evening because my left foot feels crushed from the last run when I overtightened my shoes. I do spend time listening to my feet crunch over the snow, especially when I'm running on the sidewalk down Waggoner's Lane toward Smythe Street after finishing the first loop. The unpracticed mind is a bit like a vacuum: it sucks in every thought and idea. Keeping it quiet and empty is frustrating. But the effects, again, are worth the effort: I feel divine while I run, the motion is effortless, and as I do long lace-backs from Beaverbrook down to Charlotte time flies by until an hour is over.
- Thursday This is most definitely NOT 2004, and in more ways than one: it's a balmy, Marchish 3C when I step out for my run this evening, and the temperature is supposed to go up to 12C tomorrow. Last year at this time, we were talking -30C. I'm liking 2005 already.
Today's paragraph in Joslin's book is about breathing and running. Since I had a bit of a hard time focusing on nothing during my last run, I feel a bit discouraged and try to think of another way to meditate during this run. The weather is on my side: I head out to Parkhurst and then decide to do Golf Club Road, which I've stayed away from because of my knees. The advantage of Golf Club Road on this particular evening is that there's no traffic, no wind, and lots of fog from the snow evaporating on the golf course. It's like running in a dream; I couldn't ask for a more perfect evening. Feeling stillness in this environment comes so easily. The trick, of course, is to remember that feeling so well that it stays even when the environment turns hectic. On my way back home I start thinking of Aristotle's famous quote: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not just an act, but a habit." As I'm running, I'm suddenly struck by the first part - we are what we repeatedly do. I repeat the mantra over and over again to myself as I pad by the quiet, foggy field at the top of Golf Club Road. I am what I repeatedly do. Is it possible to run "excellently"? How could I run so that it reflects not only who I am, but, more importantly, who and what I want to be?
- Saturday The chill is back, but the snow hasn't arrived yet. It looks like March outside: bare roads and patches of grey-brown ice. I really like the bare roads. Today before leaving the apartment I listen and dance to Moby's Extreme Ways to get a bit of a warm-up. It's funny that in all my years of running, dancing remains THE best way to warm-up and almost always guarantees a great run. Today wasn't exactly great since my legs were really feeling the effect of a 1.5 hour bike/elliptical trainer/bike workout at the gym, but I still had a steady rhythm and found myself running better and more effortlessly as time passed. I had read a bit of Joslin's book before leaving, but the tune and words of Extreme Ways were in my head and I let myself get into the music. Because of the bare asphalt, I grabbed the chance to do the courts around Parkhurst/Ingelwood and then some lacebacks between Northumberland and York. It was a bit chilly so I only managed an hour before going back.
- Week of January 23
- Sunday Finally, my first run in
two long, agonizing weeks. It's the annual January Deep Freeze; I've been using the extreme windchills as a great excuse to do more workouts on the bike and the elliptical trainer. The bike is a fantastic way to rehabilitate my knee, and the elliptical trainer is great for working on cadence (yes, even for running) and rhythm. Today the temperature warmed up to -7C and I headed out in mid-afternoon just as the wind was picking up. Gratitude was the underlying theme for most of my run. I was grateful for the sun, for the (relatively) warm weather, and for the fact that I could actually run. Around the 35min mark my left knee began to complain. I haven't been stretching it as much as I should these days, even forgoing the foam roller altogether. Out for a total of one hour, going around Parkhurst/Inglewood and then down to Waterloo Row via Aberdeen. Things were great when I had the wind in my back, but heading back home along Charlotte with a sore knee and a nasty windchill was a bit tough.
- Week of January 30
- Tuesday Hopefully the January chill has gone away with January. I left rather late for my run this evening, having spent some extra time at home furiously typing a letter to the editor. That's probably not the best state to start a run in, but oddly enough I found it fairly easy to concentrate on feeling tranquil and relaxed during my run. Maybe it's because the extra swimming and weights have made me stronger. Anyway, running was physically easy tonight. I tried to imagine that the motion of running was as easy and as relaxing as that of walking. In other words, it was a completely natural state that could be maintained almost indefinitely as long as everything was relaxed and in balance. It really worked! What I most enjoyed was the mental change that this brought: I wasn't out for a 50min run anymore; I was an efficient machine floating around the streets and enjoying the experience of seeing places.
- Thursday More warm weather! I thought running conditions would be perfect this evening, since the temperature was above zero and the sun had been out most of the day melting the snow on the pavement. But then it was snowing lightly when I started my run, turning the road surface to mush. I stuck to quieter roads where the surface was more packed and less mushy. Two loops around Parkhurst/Inglewood, with little courts and odd streets here and there, all for one hour of good running. Actually, REALLY good running. Maybe the fact that I had to run more slowly at the start because of the road conditions meant that I warmed up better, but in the last 30 minutes my legs, though sore and tired, felt so powerful. I picked up the pace and concentrated on grace and power, imagining my feet grabbing the earth, taking in its power, then launching forward. I had enough upper body strength - well, maybe it was fatigue from swimming - to stay upright and steady, relaxing my shoulders down and letting all the energy go to my legs. I was amazed that I could keep up that state and that pace for so long. It wasn't a tempo run, but definitely the fastest I've run in a long time.
- Saturday I don't think a more beautiful, warm, sunny day could be possible in February. It is actualy +5C - and no wind - when I head out at noon for a long run. Everything feels, looks, and smells like spring. I dance to Moby's Extreme Ways to warm up (and celebrate the weather), then it's down Charlotte Street to Parkhurst/Inlgewood for the run. My legs are tired (nothing new there) but the transition to running in daylight isn't as bad as I thought it would be and my knees are behaving. After the loop I run down Waggoner's Lane, back on Parkhurst, then over to Waterloo Row via Aberdeen. I try to go back to the state of perpetual motion and relaxation I felt on Thursday but have sporadic success. After about an hour I start to get tired. It's a bit of a bummer - I thought I was in better shape than this. But it's not so bad when I think that a year ago this time 1h20m in would have been too long!
- Week of February 6
- Tuesday One more evening of perfect running weather. Best of all is the bare pavement everywhere in the city. I have a long easy run tonight, but my mind is working hard. The excerpt I read from Joslin's book before I start my run is about using the breath to massage the heart. Imagine the air filling your lungs, which expand and support your heart as you run. The air leaves your lungs and in turn your heart expands. Visualising this is not as easy as I thought it would be. In fact, as I run around Parkhurst and Inglewood I seem to have a really hard time getting beyond the image of air entering my lungs, mostly because of a strange fear of getting a stitch. Still, focusing on the breath does have a very relaxing effect and I feel unusually smooth as I run. Every once in a while I imagine myself running like this during the Ironman in Lake Placid.
- Wednesday I took advantage of the great weather to go for a run this evening. We're supposed to get another mother of a snowstorm tomorrow. I'd rather stay in on a snowy night and bike in front of the TV, inspired by the great battle scenes on my Lord of the Rings DVDs. Tonight is a 45min tempo run, according to the training schedule, which turns into a great one hour run on the hills on Golf Club Road. I'm running Golf Club Road tonight because I'm actually looking for peace and quiet. There's very little traffic on that route and the view at the top of the hill to the other side of the river can be very soothing. I need all this because I want to practice visualising my breath again. I struggled with the overall process yesterday, so tonight I break the process down into steps and parctice only the first one. I also try to make the connection between my breath and the lower part of my body. It's funny how we implicitly divide our body into halves, without realising the obvious: that it's all connected and that we should treat it that way. My breath is linked to the power delivered to my legs and the fluidity of my stride. It's only in the last third of the run that this becomes easy to practice.
- Saturday It's warm, it's a bit windy, and there's snow on the smaller roads and the traction is really crappy. I decide to do a bit of mental training for Lake Placid (which, after all, is only 28 weeks away!) Both the bike and run course at IMLP are two loop affairs. I hate loops with a passion, the result of a bad experience with them at a marathon in Iceland. However, I decide that it's high time I get used to them and find mental tricks to deal with them, starting now. So I do three loops around Parkhurst/Inglewood, going to Hanwell along Waggoner's Lane, than back down Inglewood. That means six times down Inglewood. But that mind-body stuff I've been practicing since January really helps here. Along Waggoner's Lane, I look across to Odell Park and see the sun shining through the huge pines in the hill that comes down to the road. So beautiful. When I'm going down Inglewood, I try to focus on running sensually. No, it's not what you think! To me, "sensually" refers to experiencing a moment with all the senses, with particular emphasis on how my body feels. It's a bit like the run I had several weeks ago when I concentrated on feeling the Earth through my feet as I stepped ahead. Now I feel the world around me through my skin, listen to it all, see the colours and the shadows lay side by side, sense the air through my nose. I can keep this up for quite a while, and even find that I try to run more gracefully through this exercise.
Time for a product review: this is my first run with my brand new Nike Triax C6 watch/heart rate monitor. I really like this watch - a lot more than I liked the Polars (total crap: they are NOT waterproof and their menus are not intuitive.) The C6 didn't have the dual time zones I had wanted, but the easy menus are a nice change from Polar, and the buttons work better. I really like the optional views you can select during the workout. The Polar heart rate band works with the Nike watches, by the way. Like Timex, the Nike band is awfully big and bulky, though not as big as Timex's. The watch itself is also a bit hefty.
- Week of February 13
- Tuesday I'm lovin' February! This evening the wind died down completely and the temperature is over 0 C. The best part is the fog that's hanging over the city, giving it an otherworldly, serene feel that I remember experiencing while running in St. John's. Reading Joslin's book before leaving gives me the idea to focus on a mantra as a I run. Joslin uses "Toward the One" and physically taps his fingers to it as he runs. I like the "We are what we repeatedly do" mantra that I discovered while running Golf Club Road a few weeks back, maybe because I remember that run as being such a wholesome, powerful run. Tonight I go around Parkhurst/Inglewood, along Waggoner's Lane, then across on Aberdeen to Queen Square. My right knee is very tender and the surface of the road is just beginning to freeze. When I focus on the mantra, I also find myself trying to run as one body part, not as a torso being propelled by a pair of legs. This is a really positive change in my attitude that makes me run physically better and more smoothly.
- Wednesday According to the forecast we're supposed to be heading back into the Deep Freeze by this weekend, so I switched tonight's bike workout with tomorrow's tempo run, since the thermometer is supposed to dip starting tomorrow afternoon. Running conditions are perfect this evening. I read a section in Joslin's book about intentionality. Joslin explains that it comes out of "the desire to pray", but he's not very specific in how it applies to running. It seems to be a very specific type of mindfulness that has as its only purpose to find a connection to God or the greater being/spirit. I really struggle with this one throughout the run. It's not that I can't relate to the greater being or concept during my run - I do this almost all the time - it's just that I don't understand how to do so through intentionality. For once, speed doesn't seem to be a problem as I run. In fact, I seem to be having a really hard time slowing down; I'm actually enjoying the more rapid tapping of my feet on the ground and feeling my lungs burn a little. It's the advantage of building an endurance base that allows you to do this! But to focusing on intentionality is really tough. I imagine myself running toward something, almost a letting go of the stress and trivialities of being human. Something else to work on.
- Saturday A bit chillier than usual today. I waited until late afternoon to go for my run, and by then the temperature was reasonable and the wind had died down. I didn't want to do too much mental work on today's long run, so I left Joslin's book alone, had a great dance to the Moby song, and let it play in my head while I did my 1h30min run. I was really surprised at how well it went, but that might be because I was making a point of running slowly with short strides.
- Week of February 20
- Wednesday Thanks to a massive amount of chocolate and Cadbury Easter cream eggs in the last two days, I have a heartrate of about 170 bpm when I leave the apartment this evening, and the concentration span of a fruit fly. I read a paragraph in Joslin's book, but it's no use. I still manage a great one hour run, though. I decide to go for Golf Club Road to get some peace and quiet. My right knee complains mightily on the way back. This has me really worried since Ironman Lake Placid is ONLY SIX MONTHS AWAY!!! In spite of the sugar I've had recently, running is easy and steady.
- Saturday Oops, slacked off a bit this week. And because of a busy day today, I only had time for a 30min run. Thank goodness the training schedule had this week marked as a step-down week. I went out for a decent run in windy weather, feeling great even though I hadn't danced, warmed up, read Joslin's book, and had eaten like a pig all week. Read an article online this week that suggested aiming for at least 90 steps per minute for cadence, higher than what I usually aim for (85.) I have to admit, the short steps/quick cadence can be almost refreshing once you have the technique downpat.
- Week of February 27
- Monday The annual first-week-of-March winter snowstorm arrives tomorrow, so I switched my off day with my run workout. Not that it was much of a run: 36min of fast, short-strided trotting around Parkhurst/Inglewood thanks to a stiff IT band. I have finally made an appointment to got see a whatchamacallit, you know, someone who examines feet and makes orthotics. And while in Chapters today at lunch, I bought two phenomenal books that I highly recommend: ChiRunning, by Danny Dreyer, and Running Basics, by a German author. The ChiRunning book is an extension of Roger Joslin's Spiritual Running, though in a more physical sense. Actually, it's mostly common sense about running and posture, but I love its philosophy of "running from the centre" and flow. I'm really happy that I'm putting so much emphasis on completely changing how I run and my attitude toward running. It's making the sport more exciting and more enjoyable.
- Wednesday Yeah, we really did have a snowstorm yesterday, but the snow is already gone and the streets are clear! I went out for over an hour tonight. What bliss to be able to run like this! Instead of reading Joslin's book this evening, I looked at a few pages in ChiRunning and worked on some of the suggestions in the photos. Mostly, I tried leaning forward from my toes (rather than running in my usual upright position.) The result is a very high cadence during the run and an impression that one is running extremely rapidly. Anyway, my knees didn't bother me at all tonight, so there may be some correlation. And I really like the idea that I FEEL like I'm running faster!
- Saturday A beautiful, warm, if rather windy day. I felt pretty horrible when I started my run. In fact, I was sure I'd have to quit long before my 1hr15min plan. And then my knees really started to hurt. Oh misery. I tried to shift my focus onto the information and suggestions outlined in ChiRunning, thinking mostly of "running in circles" (that your arms and feet should be moving in circles, as if you were pedalling a bike, rather than straight lines or arcs). The most effective suggestion, however, was trying to relax my leg from the knee down. As soon as I started thinking my my calves, feet, and ankles as completely relaxed and being "swung forward" rather than moving themselves ahead, the knee pain disappeared and I didn't need as much energy to run. So I finally did end up running 1:15 without feeling all that bad!
- Week of March 7
- Tuesday It's March, and what do you get in March? Wacky weather! Tonight as I leave my apartment it's +7C and the winds are just beginning to pick up. And it's pouring, pouring rain. But I decide to go for my one hour run anyway because...it's pouring rain. Call it mental training. I mean, what if it's pouring rain on July 24th at Ironman Lake Placid? And I really want the satisfaction of knowing that these kind of conditions don't bother me. So out I went for an incredibly wet run. The streets were full of huge puddles, some of them half a block long and ankle-deep. I happily splashed through all of them as I ran along Charlotte to Waterloo Row, laced back Alexandra, Grey, and Aberdeen, then came back to the apartment along Queen Street. I felt really great while I was running, and nary a twinge from my knees. Must be the ChiRunning suggestions. It also might be because I have Tom Waits' beautiful song, I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You , in my head. Great mental training!
- Friday It's been a long, long time since I ran on a treadmill. I put in a whole hour on one tonight after work. I used the time to really focus on my calves and footstrike, and like last year I put up the incline a bit to simulate outdoor running. Unfortunately I think that really aggravated my knees. Around the 50 minute mark my left knee began hurting, and when I slowed down to a walk the pain became extremely sharp. I'm seriously worried now.
- Saturday Warm but unbelievably windy today. Winds gusting between 40 and 40km/h when I leave for my run. Hey, gotta build tha toughness for the Ironman. If I can run in pouring rain, as I did last week, then I can run in warm, sunny, windy weather. And it really wasn't all that bad once I got out there. I trotted down to Waterloo Row, laced back Alexandra, Grey, and Landsdowne, and then went along Aberdeen to Parkhurst/Inglewood to get 1hr30 minutes. I really couldn't believe how great I felt, even though I didn't have much concentration. Around the 1hr10min mark my legs started feeling a little tired and my left knee was a bit angry. Then disaster struck going back down Rookwood and taking the little crescent: I twisted my ankle and fell hard with a loud yell. I got back up, hobbled for a few minutes, and came back home. I could still run, but my knees took a beating and my ankle is throbbing. Even my palms got scratched up, in spite of my mittens. Gotta do more one-leg poses in yoga.
- Week of March 14
- Tuesday More warm weather! We've been really lucky this year as far as winter goes. This week is a step-back week for running, so I've got only 40 minutes of easy running this evening. What with the massive bruises on my knees from Saturday's fall and the occasional twinge in my IT problems from the Friday treadmill adventure, I'm all for taking it easy. This evening I read a passage in Joslin's book about looking for the divinity in everyone you meet. Hm, running in the dark around 8:30pm in Fredericton makes that kind of hard since I really don't meet too many people. So I change the exercise to looking for the divinity in everything I pass. Trees, people, animals, even inanimate objects such as houses. Rather than becoming things that decorate the background, I try to see them as part of a larger plan and where they are for a reason. It's a truly great way to run; after all, it puts you in a pretty happy mood and is enlightening in almost the literal sense of the word. I occasionally try to practice some ChiRunning, but I'm having a hard time remembering everything. What is hardest for me to learn is bringing my elbows in so that they move in the same linear path as do my hands. When my elbows are following that line I overcompensate with my torso by rotating it excessively around my spine. I think I need to focus more on loose, open hips. Practice, practice.
- Thursday As I'm out doing a short 40 minute tempo run this evening, I realise that it's been a long, long time since I've had a bad run - you know, one of those runs where your lungs feel like they're filled with cotton and concrete has just been poured into your legs. In fact, I can't even remember the last time such a run happened to me. I think that observation alone testifies to the success of the ChiRunning and Spiritual Running books and principles. Most of all, it goes to show that, contrary to conventional wisdom, running is mostly a mental activity. "It is the mind the makes the body," as the quote goes. I listen to Strange Advance's Worlds Away to get ready for my run. I forego the Spiritual Running book this evening, though, deciding instead to focus on the ChiRunning idea of opening my hips. However, this is an even bigger problem to work on than my elbows (which I had a hard time with during the last run) because I really have no idea what Danny Dreyer is talking about. I do find that tucking my hips slightly under me will almost magically push me ahead faster and more efficiently, but my right knee doesn't seem to like that too much.
- Saturday It snowed last night and this morning, because the wind is calm and the sun is glowing softly, it looks almost ethereal outside. Because of a busy afternoon at the UNB Master's Swim Meet, I do my run early while that ethereal quality hangs around. I only have one hour to do and I struggle a bit due to a cold. On Monday I start my peak training for Ironman Lake Placid, and my long run next Saturday will be two hours! The best thing about today, beside the beautiful weather, is the fact that my knees aren't even twinging. I've been quite aggressive with the foam roller lately, which is probably the key difference. I'm still looking forward to getting my orthotics, though!
- Week of March 21
- Tuesday Oh, misery. I've had the flu for the first time in my life, and I'm not impressed. I haven't done a darn thing all week and now that it's Easter weekend, the weather is great, and I'm on the mend I go out for a bit. According to the training schedule, my long run is supposed to be two hours. Ha! I crawl back after 43 minutes, dizzy, lightheaded, and weak. My head feels as if it's humming.
- Week of March 28
- Thursday It was a Eureka run! You know, one of those breakthrough runs when you finally get a glimpse into how things are supposed to be. I had been doing indoor bike workouts for several days in a row, so that may have been behind why things went so well this evening. But I think the turning point came some time last night when I read one of the final chapters in the ChiRunning book and saw an image that referred to loosening the hips to increase stride length. Dreyer described it as relaxing the hip so that it would sway in counteraction to the shoulders - the opposite of what I've been trying to do all these years (keep everything still.)
I had decided to run Golf Club Road because my workout called for a one hour tempo run, and because now that the snow is more or less gone running along Woodstock Road is not as perilous as it can be in winter. As I was heading up I started repeating the mantra I once discovered on the very same route: "We are what we repeatedly do." I think this mantra will be the one that carries me through Ironman Lake Placid. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." (Aristotle.) Anyway, that was my mental workout as I ran along the quiet Golf Club Road. Then I remembered the image of the hip swinging back and Dreyer's advice to relax the hips so that they sway. And I tried it. And it was amazing! The very first thing that I noticed was that my arms and shoulders relaxed and my elbows came down, something I normally can't seem to do when I run. I also relaxed my legs and made sure my footstrike was below the vertical centreline of my body, not ahead of it. I couldn't believe how much faster and easier it was to run this way. OK, so it's not like it was effortless: my lungs still had to work hard to get air in and out and it was definitely a tempo run, but this was still one of the most amazing runs I've ever had.
- Saturday The rain has held off and I'm off for a 1h40min run. I start off by heading up Woodstock Road, mostly because I want to see what condition the path is in. It's clear of snow, so I run to the Coburn Street and start up the hill that makes the far end of Golf Club Road. I've got my Nike heart rate monitor with me today, which tells me that my heart rate is over 160 bpm - and stays there for the entire run!! This is so discouraging! Am I really in worse shape than last year, when I used to average 150bpm? What exactly is wrong with me? Not quite sure how to deal with this.
Throughout today's run I really try to focus on loosening my hips, which I had done so successfully on Thursday. Today my legs are tired, though, thanks largely to a 90 minute session on the bike last night (which I eventually cut short from the planned two hours: watched Finding Neverland and had to get off the bike because I was sobbing too hard to stay on. See this movie.) I notice that it takes me much longer than previous years to warm up, which apparently indicates a better level of fitness. So I hope that my hips' unwillingness to loosen up is in part because of this. After Golf Club Road I head to Parkhurst/Inglewood, then Aberdeen over to Queen Court, and finally across the pedestrian bridge and back home along George/Charlotte. We're having an early spring, the earliest I've ever seen for Fredericton, and the path is remarkably clear of snow. I'm quite tired at the end of my run, but all my workouts this weekend were tough. Hopefully this is just temporary and due to recovery from the flu.
- Week of April 3
- Tuesday Hello from sunny, warm Alexandria, Virginia, on the very southern rump of Washington DC! I'm here for a few days and most happy about the weather. I got up bright and early this morning for my usual exploratory run, and found out just how badly the hotel was situated. Well, it's not so much a bad location as it is a problem of finding interesting running routes that don't involve six lanes of traffic. And since this is the US, six FULL lanes of traffic at 6am is pretty normal. After literally running in circles in an area I call The Projects, I finally wander back toward the hotel, then find a route with houses and no traffic. All this time my running feels so fluid. I'm wearing my Nike Max Motos from last year...with my orthotics! OK, so the pedorthist said not to do exactly what I'm doing this morning - run one hour with them for my first run - but I like to gamble a little. The best thing about these Nikes is that they're so quiet. The fact that there's no sound makes me feel even more lightfooted and fluid as I run. Watch the sun rise over far-off Capitol Hill as I head back to the hotel, and the largest yellow sliver of a moon behind me.
- Wednesday An early morning start means that my early morning run is bumped up to after lunch. That's actually a pretty great thing today: it's 25C and brilliantly sunny!! Shorts weather! I really miss my sunglasses, though. Since I have to run barely an hour after lunch, I struggle quite a bit and feel like I'm trudging, but the beautiful weather is worth the effort, especially since we won't be seeing this kind of weather until June. There are lots of other people running in the area, which is pretty much the only quiet area I've found. Head back to the hotel after an hour, very hot and sweaty and blisters starting to form under my right arch.
- Thursday Back to the morning run. I miscalculated the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius of the temperature given on the radio and end up being way, way overdressed on my run. It's 15C and I'm dressed for 8C. Oops. I do the same routes as the previous days, this time with a bit of exploring in an older, richer area I've found on the other side of a steep gulley. My legs are very tired; they're not used to running three days in a row for over an hour each day. It's a struggle, though not as much as yesterday.
- Saturday Back in New Brunswick and the good weather seems to have followed me here. It's 8C and sunny, though quite windy. I wear my heartrate monitor for this run. I wore it last Saturday and was discouraged to see how high my heartrate was. I feel better and more energetic today as I'm running, but my heartrate is still very high. The thing is, it doesn't feel high. I start out by heading for Golf Club Road, then come back down, go down Rookwood, and run along The Green until the pededstrian bridge. Cross the pedestrian bridge and go to Canada Street, then turn around and come home. I concentrate on running very slowly, trying to hink of form more than speed. As most swimming coaches point out, technique is perfected at very slow speeds, not high ones. Mostly I think of moving my feet in circles, as if pedalling a bike. Every once in a while I add the looseness in my hips, but I can't keep that up for very long. My heartrate starts to drift up in the last 40 minutes. Two hours - not bad!
- Week of April 10
- Tuesday Quite a bit of snow on the ground this morning and high winds all day, but it all magically cleared up this evening and turned into a beautiful time for running. In fact, the entire city was unusually quiet, hardly any traffic, no wind, no noise. My 1:30 run (yep, that's the length of my recovery runs these days. I tell ya, Ironman training is something else.) was serene and fluid - good time for some mental practice. I did two loops around Parkhurst/Inglewood, with a loopback on Waggoner's Lane, and finally a little excursion along Woodstock Road to make up another 30 minutes. Running was incredibly easy tonight, more like floating, which further confirmed my weird theory that I run better at night when it's dark. What had also helped was that I had read an excerpt from Joslin's book before leaving. It was the "Touch of God" section, one of my favourites. Definitely will be relying on that one when things get rough in Lake Placid.
- Thursday Another great evening for a run, and another really great run. The schedule called for a one hour tempo (!), so I headed up Golf Club Road. As soon as I started my legs wanted to go fast. They were in a hurry and didn't have time for warming up. The most incredible thing was that they stayed that way throughout the entire run! OK, so going up the hills was still hard, but that was only for the really steep ones. Throughout the run I tried to keep my mind focused on form - in other words, not let my legs get out of control with the speed but to make them run properly. I worked mostly on loosening my hips and on having my feet fall either directly in line with or behind my vertical centre of gravity.
- Saturday Wow, 17C, clear skies, no wind, and an amazing day all around. How often does weather this beautiful come on the weekend? I'm pretty happy about it, and not just because I have a 2hr30min run today, but because I have a 4hr30min brick tomorrow, and the idea of spending four hours on the indoor bike trainer makes me a bit mental. So today I set off for Golf Club Road. It's always a bit harder in the daylight, for reasons I have yet to figure out. My heartrate is still insanely high - 160 bpm average - which makes me wonder if maybe there's something wrong with my heartrate monitor. Anyway, the hills are pretty easy on Golf Club Road. Definitely nothing wrong with my legs. Today's song in my head is Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill . Good song, but not really a running one (actually, it's a great biking one: I remember singing it to myself as I did indeed climb a very, very long hill just west of Salisbury in England with my bike.) When I come back down from Golf Club Road I head for Rookwood, then the Sheraton, along the Green, across the river to the Valley Trail and back. The Valley Trail is closed just past the church, but I think it's only to let the trail dry out a bit. Amazingly, the trail is clear of snow almost all the way to Marysville. That's over a month earlier than usual, for those of us who follow these things.
My legs feel OK and at the two hour mark I'm not as tired as I expected to be (snacking on a PowerBar helped.) I don't hit that point where I get really hungry and discouraged on runs over two hours, so that's good. It was the weather that did it.
- Week of April 17
- Wednesday Switched my recovery run, which I usually do on Tuesdays, to Wednesday this week because of fabulous biking weather yesterday. My run is a quiet 1h20min through the streets and paths of Fredericton tonight. The neat thing about Ironman training is that it expands your world in ways that you didn't think it would. Trying to find enough room for the long bike rides and long runs this early in the year when the paths are still off limits because of the early sunset has made me look for new routes and consider places I don't usually go. So cool Anyway, as I start off tonight I feel pretty good. My single focus is on loosening my hips so that they sway more. In the past few weeks I've found this really hard, except for one or two brilliant runs. Tonight is a bit easier; it seems I don't have to warm up as much before the new stride comes more naturally. I'm also working on Joslin's "Touch of God" workout, by far my favourite. And I've got my heartrate monitor on tonight, and it's not giving me scary 160bpm readings as it last week.
- Thursday Now I know why the Ironman training program schedules the recovery run on Tuesday nights rather than Wednesday nights, as the half-Ironman program did. Because the runs are so long that running two nights in a row is tough on the joints. Tonight I have a 50 minute tempo. I used to really love tempo runs but that's changed a bit in the past year. I think it's just too early in the season for me to really get into them. I start with 15 minutes of easy running around Parkhurst/Inglewood, then pick up speed as I go down Rookwood to the Green. It's easy to run fast, but my heartrate starts climbing so after another 20 minutes of running I settle back into an easy pace, cross the pedestrian bridge, then head back home.
- Saturday Sigh, it's not quite last weekend's weather. Oh well, at least it's not snowing! I have a two hour run today that is cramped in between some high-stress activities, which would explain why my heartrate averages 160 bpm. I feel surprisingly good as I start out with a loop around Parkhurst/Inglewood and then along the Green. The pedestrian bridge is closed for repairs so I take the path out to Lincoln and then back. It's an OK trail at this time of the year; I simply like it so much better in summer. As I'm running I keep experimenting with various parts of the ChiRunning technique to see if anything will help lower my heartrate. Interestingly enough, leaning forward makes my heartrate climb. If I relapse into my old, very upright and open posture I can feel myself relax a bit and see my heartrate go down. At 1h30min I rejoice over the fact that running this distance is now so easy.
- Week of April 24
- Tuesday A 90 minute recovery run tonight. I decide to leave my heartrate monitor at home because I find it so discouraging to see how high the numbers can go. The weather is beautiful, and I'm lucky enough to find myself running along Woodstock Road toward the Sheraton just as the sun is setting in spectacular orange and red behind the hills on the other side of the river. The path along the river is completely flooded thanks to lots of rain over the weekend - the same rain that kept me from biking outside. But the atmosphere is quiet and I run feeling relaxed. Cross the pedestrian bridge, then come back home finding myself running faster and more fluidly as the evening gets darker.
- Sunday Skipped Thursday's run (oops), rescheduled the long bike ride that normally gets done on Sundays for yesterday (rain in the forecast), did a decent five hour bike ride and 30 minute run yesterday, and got through 1h30min of today's 2h20min run before my legs froze. I had expected to feel much worse during the run, given the fact that I'd biked for so long yesterday, but actually things were not bad. My pace was the best part: it seemed as if I had finally found a pace and a stride that could keep me going through anything. My stomach had other ideas, however. Most of the paths in the area are blocked because of high levels of flooding, so I had to get a bit creative for my route. I started out with Golf Club Road, doing well in the hills. After a while it started to rain lightly and my legs began to get quite cold. By the time I was back downtown I was starting to worry about overdoing it, what with yesterday's bike and run and this morning's hard swim. The remote possibility of another injury sent me back home.
- Week of May 1
- Tuesday This Ironman training stuff, it's not easy. When every workout is at least an hour and a half long, your attitude toward working out is...challenged. And I've still got 16.5 weeks to go. I really think it'll get better when the weather warms up a little. Anyway, tonight is a 90 minute recovery run. I ate cereal with milk for supper, which wasn't the brightest of ideas because milk always makes me feel bad and run worse. The first 20 minutes out were the toughest as I dealt with a queasy stomach and tired legs from this weekend's workouts. I had decided to take the path upriver along Woodstock Road, partly because other paths are closed due to flooding and because I wanted to watch the spectacular sunset as I ran. It was indeed the most incredible evening. When I got to a section of the path that was completely flooded, I stopped and watched the sun set behind the hills on the other side of the river. There were these massive, soft clouds coming up from the west, turning yellow to orange to red. After the sun had set, I turned around and ran a ways, looking over my shoulder to watch the sky change colours and see the sun set again at a lower point in the hills. It started raining a little as one of the soft clouds passed by, making everything seem otherworldly.
The rest of the run was much more comfortable than the first part. As usual, I felt better and better as the evening got darker and darker. I also managed to keep my mind quiet for extended periods of time and I relaxed my shoulders and hips to keep things efficient as I ran. Headed back to Parkhurst/Inglewood, along Aberdeen and around Queen's Court, across the deserted pedestrian bridge to check out the water levels (high), and back home along Queen Street. It's always nice to finish a run feeling better than you did at the start.
- Thursday Not too often these days that I have a workout that's under one hour. Tonight's tempo run is 55 minutes, which I spend mostly on Golf Club Road for the hills. I really believe in Arthur Lydiard's philosophy of making hill-training a major part of any running program if used beyond merely climbing hills. It's a great way to work on technique, strengthen ligaments and create power, especially if you incorporate bounding. I didn't bound too much tonight, but I did run unusually well. My legs felt a bit stiff after yesterday's bike tempo, but they also felt strong and I didn't falter toward the end of the run.
- Saturday Brrrr and wet. The weather gods simply are not on my side this year as far as weekends go. My long run gets shifted to a bit earlier in the day than usual because of the wet forecast for this afternoon. And there's still flooding in the area, so I plan to go upriver for as long as I can until the path gets too wet. I feel pretty good when I leave, which is a big thing considering I had a three hour bike ride yesterday. My legs are a bit heavy, but after a while that feeling shifts to solid rather than fatigued. My heartrate stays around 148bpm. However, I've cast aside some ideas from ChiRunning, especially the part about leaning forward, and have resumed my normal and very upright, open posture. I seem to be more relaxed that way and it really shows up in my heartrate. OK, so I'm also running with a major tailwind! As I go past the Bucket Club for the first time ever (new path!) I revel in the fact that the path is pretty much deserted. I focus on being totally present in the moment, part of an Oprah column I once read that has had a huge impact on my running by bringing me back into the moment.
I truly love this path once I'm past the Bucket Club. It's natural, quiet, and deserted. When my mind starts to wander or my thoughts get a bit dark, I play back Tina Turner's Better Be Good to Me that I had been listening to before leaving. It's guaranteed to put a smile on my face and make me feel like a million bucks. On my way back I have to deal with the headwind, which gets worse as I get closer to Fredericton and nearer to the shoreline. It also amkes my heartrate climb to around 152bpm; toward the end of the run when I'm doing two loops around Parkhurst/Inglewood I get readings around 160bpm and my legs are getting stiff. Thank goodness for the ClifShot (Orange Cream - better than it sounds) and a bit of a PowerBar. Total time: 2h40 minutes.
- Week of May 8
- Tuesday Because of crappy weather on Sunday, I did my long bike ride yesterday (Monday). And then tonight I went right into this week's training program instead of taking a day off (which I had done instead on Sunday. Got that?) Anyway, that's a long way of saying that I felt like crap for the first half of my 1.5 hour run tonight. Bloated, tired, stiff, etc. I was really trying to slow down to keep my heartrate low, but that wasn't much help. Ran along the Northside trail, which was very crowded (this is the first bit of good weather we've had in a while.) Then, believe it or not, just before the trail goes through the fields before the cotton mill, there was a huge orange barricade and, behind that, the trail had two large sections about 20 feet long each that were completely washed out! I can't imagine how much water must have been pouring down the hill for that to happen. And I can only imagine how long it's going to be before it gets fixed and I get to do my favorite loop again.
Felt much, much better on the way back, oddly enough. I was trying to stride differently, putting more emphasis on tensing the hamstring in order to lengthen the leg and propulse the body forward. It really seemed to work in terms of speed and efficiency, and I clued into what better runners are talking about when they say to use the hips for running.
- Saturday Short 30 minute run today - after my six hour bike ride out to White's Cove. Actually, I can't believe how great I felt during the run. It must have been the new shoes: a pair of Adidas Response (Control) that I bought yesterday at Cleve's. My heartrate shot up in the first ten minutes, but I actually felt better and better as I kept running. This is good!
- Sunday OK, so I rescheduled the six hour bike ride to Saturday because of the weather, which means that my 2.5 hour run is today... AFTER my bike ride. Now last year this would have been cause for serious trepidation and about a week's worth of recovery, not to mention 2.5 agonizing hours of running with dead legs. But not this year! I don't know if it's the new bike, the new shoes, or simply that I'm fitter, but today's run was easy. Not a word of protest from my legs! Mind you, my pace was about as slow as I could get it while still technically running, especially in the first 25 minutes of the run around Parkhurst/Inglewood before heading to the Green. Mostly I focused on the concept I had explored during the last run, when I found that extending my hamstring in the last half of each stride and running with stronger hips had translated into a better run overall. Cool weather and overcast skies also helped.
- Week of May 15
- Tuesday I started running down Charlotte Street this evening and actually couldn't feel my legs moving. It was the oddest sensation. Not in a bad way, mind you, or as if my legs were completely dead. Running simply felt absolutely effortless. That showed up in my heartrate too: it stayed around 135 bpm for the first ten minutes, then settled around 147bpm for the rest of the run. My goal is to keep it under 150bpm for the long easy runs - building a bigger engine, as the Mark Allen training website says. It was a peaceful night to be out running, since there was hardly anyone on the trail, no wind, and quiet everywhere. Ran along the Green to the pedestrian bridge, then out along the Northside trail, turned back, and finished in 1h40 minutes. My focus was on my stride (pushing from the hips and hamstring) and on maintaining a quiet focus.
- Thursday The first speedwork session of the year (for running, anyway. I did bike speedwork last night and nearly died of agony when my legs cramped.) As in the past two years, the first speed session has always been fartleks (as opposed to track and distance intervals.) I looped around Parkhurst and Inglewood, first warming up with 4x15s pickups, then going on to the main set of 10x1 minute sprints. I read recently in a research article that most athletes go far too hard on their easy runs and to easy on their hard runs. This is why recently I've been putting so much focus on keeping my heartrate low on my long runs. Today I was pushing myself harder on the sprints than I have in the past. Maybe it's because the memory of the pain of sprints is almost a year old; we'll see if I can keep this up week after week! Anyway, it was nice to be done a workout in under an hour for a change.
- Saturday Life is all about balance: after an easy, mild winter, we're getting a miserable, wet, cold spring. It's amazing to see the imapct that such a long stretch of grey weather has on our attitudes, though. Anyway, it's a holiday weekend and there's nothing but rain in the forecast except for today. So the big debate is: do I use today's "clear" weather to do my long run or my long bike? I opt for the long run, since my knees are a little sore and I don't want to do a long run on the day after a long bike. Set out this morning to do pretty much the same route I did last week. My heartrate is quite high to begin with. This might be because I'm unusually tired today, or because of two hard and long workouts yesterday. I finally get so fed up with checking my watch and seeing my heartrate above 150bpm that I turn the watch to the inside of my wrist and cover it up. What a great idea: I find myself immediately focusing more on how I feel rather than how disappointed I am that my heartrate is high. And the truth is, I actually feel really good. My strides are very short and steady, and the pace is easy. I go down the Northside Trail, cross the part of the trail that's washed out from the flash flood a few weeks ago, then across the fields to Marysville Place. It's quite chilly since the wind has picked up. Run around Fisher Avenue to check the house that I've made no less than two offers on. That was a great reality check: the house is not looking so good these days. I feel much better about myself now.
Back up the Northside Trail. I'm amazed how much of it is in bad shape from the spring flooding. I'm a little warmer now, but I'm starting to realise that normally I'd be acclimatized to warmer weather by this time of the year. No wonder my long runs have seemed so easy. I'm going to have to start wearing more layers in order to get myself used to summer weather (if it ever gets here.) It's not until I cross the pedestrian bridge and I head back up the Green that my legs start stiffening. It's now been 2h40 minutes that I've been going pretty steady. According to my Nike C6, that's 1800 calories. Two medium Blizzards at Dairy Queen!
- Week of May 21
- Tuesday Very windy this evening. This is a long, tough week as far as workouts go: it seems that every session, except for weightlifting, is the longest one so far. Tonight is a 1h45m recovery run. I feel like total crap when I start (which of course had NOTHING to do with the three pieces of cheesecake I had today!) My head feels like it's not getting enough oxygen and I seem to be barely aware of my surroundings. I can't feel my legs at all. I run up Northumberland in a daze and turn toward the path behind the Superstore, then down Rookwood to the Green. My heart is telling me it's ready to go into cardiac arrest; my Nike HRM is blinking 203bpm. I've got a serious headwind along the Green that doesn't help at all, but once I've crossed the pedestrian bridge and the path is a little more sheltered I start feeling a bit better. I run along Canada Street then up toward the NBPower facility. I love that road: it's just a short stretch, but the fields are always beautiful and the sun makes them look spectacular. I can even hear insects and toads chirping away. Head back home along the route and things are falling back into place. My heartrate stays below 150bpm, my legs aren't tired, and my head has re-attached itself to the rest of my body.
- Thurday Almost skipped this evening's run because of the massive amounts of rain we've been having. It was a track workout, and there was just no way I wanted to be out running around in circles in the pouring rain. So I adapted: did an awesome tempo workout indoors on the treadmill. I started out feeling terrible, but after ten minutes at 6.4mph things seemed to be going OK. Having an mp3 player is such a great thing! I also had my heartrate monitor. Then I started cranking up the inlcine (to stay at 1%) and the speed so that I spent 25 minutes at a tempo pace. I really wanted to push it on this run - feel my legs burn and get right to my lactate threshold. I don't think I quite got there (my lungs were burning before my legs), but I did get my heartrate to sit at 165bpm, even going up to 170bpm at the end. I felt so incredibly great after that run!
- Saturday Grey, overcast (of course) and no wind. I suppose these are ideal conditions for a three hour run, but the fact is I'm CRAVING some sunshine and heat. I put on gloves and no less than three layers, even though it's not THAT cold, because it's time I start getting used to heat. To get psyched up for three hours - haven't done a run that long in almost three years! - I listen to Moby's Everloving from the Seabiscuit movie (I also watch the scene from the movie that features that song. Man, talk about inspiring!) Started by going up Northumberland, then across to the path behind the Superstore, around Parkhurst/Inglewood, along the Green, and across the river. Running is very, very effortless, though I do have to pay attention to my heartrate to make sure it stays under 150bpm. My tempo is steady, and it's not until after two hours that my heartrate starts to drift up. It's normal for it to do that, but I don't know if it's normal for it to drift up from 149bpm to 157bpm. I'm also running more with my gluteal muscles and trying to use them to extend my hips, much like described in the ChiRunning. Things get tough just past 2.5 hours and my two energy gels seem to bother my stomach. I'm using the Clifshots with caffeine.
- Week of May 28
- Tuesday Sunshine! And temperatures above 10C!! What do I do? I figure all the bad weather is really a good thing: it came early enough in the summer that we'll be even more grateful than usual for any good weather that lies ahead, and gratitude is always a good thing. Among other things I'm grateful for today: having consistently overdressed during my previous runs to get used to heat. Still, tonight's long, easy run is tough. My legs are still tired from a killer bike ride in the rain on Sunday (six hours riding in the pouring rain, and the last hour with only one pedal after a cleat snapped. Geez, I'm tough!) I feel out of breath, heavy, and quite nauseous as I run. The feeling lingered all evening, so I think it has to do with something I ate today. I head along the Green and cross the (very crowded) pedestrian bridge to go up the Northside Trail. The trail is deserted except for thousands of these huge flies I've never seen before. I can keep my heartrate at around 150bpm, but it goes up quite easily.
- Thursday Major sprint workout tonight, and there are hordes of people at the two tracks because of silly soccer practice. Adults seem to think that the only sport a child should be in is soccer. There are other sports, and it is perfectly acceptable to have a childhood that does not involve team sports. Whatever. Anyway, I have 4x400m, 2x800m, and 4x400m sprints. I finally end up doing them by approximating 2 minutes per 400m, and I head up Parkhurst/Inglewood and out to Woodstock Road, then back (after watching the sun go down, of course.) At the end of the second 800m I start getting a headache, and I only manage two of the last four 400m before my head tells me that it's had enough. What a brutal run. Speed is definitely not my thing.
- Friday Click here for the 2005 Mooseman Half-Ironman race report.
- Week of June 5
- Thursday I took Tuesday off, even though I was feeling fine after the Mooseman and had no soreness (yeah! Talk about an improvement over previous years.) Then yesterday I went really, really hard on a speed bike ride. So that might explain why tonight's run was beyond horrible. It was supposed to be a speed run session: 10 minutes warm-up, 4x15s pick-ups with 10 seconds rest, 2 minutes easy, then the main set of 6x3minutes hard with 1.5 minutes rest. I started down Charlotte Street and went through Wilmot Park, which was heavenly beautiful in that summer way: all the flowers in bloom, scent of lilacs, heavy red sun. I started my pick-ups and felt quite odd, as if my head weren't connected to my body. When I started into the main set, my heartrate hadn't gone up and I immediately felt like I was going to vomit. I started losing control of my legs and stumbling everywhere, almost punch-drunk. It was the most bizarre, frustrating feeling, and there was absolutely no way I could keep doing sprints. I finally settled for an easy one hour run along the Green and back home, concentrating on form and using my hamstrings for propulsion. Heartrate stayed very, very low: between 141 and 147 bpm. Better luck next time.
- Sunday I wasn't taking any chances with the weather this weekend, not after my infamous six hour bike ride in the pouring rain two weeks ago. The only good thing I can say about that bike ride is that it extended the limits of what I consider misery. Anyway, I did my 6.5 hour bike ride/30 minute transition run yesterday in glorious sunshine - such beautiful, intense sunshine, in fact, that my thighs are sunburnt in tiny polka dots, the pattern of my bike shorts. Ha ha ha! The transition run wasn't bad, but I crawled back into my apartment wondering how, in six weeks, I will be running a marathon after a seven hour bike ride!
So today was my long run day. I've decided that the Mark Allen online training program has one big drawback for me: the running mileage is far too short for me to run my goal event comfortably. The one year I ran well at a half-Ironman distance was in 2003 at the half-Ironman UK, and that was because I was running marathon training distances. Last year my runs didn't feel as good at Timberman. Today's long run called for 2h20m - not enough by a long shot. I decided to add one hour to that, which is a major risk given that I should still be recovering from Mooseman and after Thursday's horrific run. But this year I'm all into taking risks. I did much of the same route as I used to do for the marathon training for Venice: two loops around Odell Park, out to Golf Club Road and the hills there, then back along the Green and out to the other side of the river, back along the Northside Trail.
This weekend I've been making a major effort to test various nutrition strategies for the Ironman. I figure that nutrition will be the single most difficult challenge for me in Lake Placid. It was almost my undoing in my first half-Ironman (to this day I can't eat a chocolate-flavoured PowerBar.) Today's strategy is a Clifshot every 30 minutes starting at the 1.5 hour mark. I think I should have started earlier. The two loops around Odell Park were wonderul and easier than I thought they'd be. I had my Nike heartrate monitor and really wanted to keep things below 150bpm. And I was wearing an extra layer to train for the heat. Man, I was SO DAMN HOT during this run. But I know that it'll be worth it in the end. Golf Club Road also went well. I entertained myself by watching a huge black sky move over the north shore. Things got a bit tougher going back to the Green since I was getting hungry by then but I wanted to eat my Clifshot only when I got to the fountain by the Small Craft Aquatic Center. From the Green to the pedestrian bridge my heartrate started drifting over 150bpm, finally settling down after my second Clifshot. The section to Marysville was fine, but I got a delightful surprise when I headed back on the Northside Trail and found that the areas that had been wiped out in April's flash flood had been entirely repaired. And to make things even better, the trail was desolate since everyone had stayed away due to the wet forecast. By then I was onto my caffeine Clifshots and they don't seem to go down so well. That's fine: they'll have defizzed Coke during hte Ironman, so I'll probably stick to non-caffeinated Clifshots on the course. Made it back to the apartment in 3h20, feeling the effects of the heat but otherwise quite happy with myself given that this was the longest run I'd done in over two years.
- Week of June 12
- Thursday Nope, didn't run Tuesday. Didn't do a whole lot on Wednesday, either. It's been another truly bad week in terms of weather, and...I'VE MOVED!! Yep, a new home! My legs have still been getting a workout on all the stair-climbing. I finally had a free hour this evening for a run. Normally Thursday is a speed run day, but I didn't want anything too intense, so all I did was a nice one hour loop to Parkhurst/Inglewood, then along the Green, and back to my new place. (As you can tell, I haven't moved very far.) As I started my run - in gloves, long tights, and sweater during the month of JUNE - I was surprised to find that my legs were quite tired. I'm not sure if they're recovering from the past weekend's long run and bike ride, or if the stairs were a tougher workout than I had thought. Anyway, it was a very beautiful evening to be out. Yes, it was grey and cool, but the city felt completely deserted and the run had a special aura to it. I was in my own world, listening to my footsteps and the wind past my ears. Running down the center of the deserted pedestrian bridge felt wholesome. I came back feeling like a real runner.
- Saturday It's misty outside and I've got a four hour run scheduled. Unfortunately, a week of miserable weather and a house move have meant that my training plans have been pretty much written off lately. I cut today's run down to two hours, and hope that next weekend will be better. The one advantage of this kind of weather is that no one else is on the trails. There's something going on at the Lieutenant Governor- General's mansion as I run behind it, but that's all the excitement I get. The focus of the run is trying to get back to some ChiRunning principles I had practiced over the winter. Before starting today's run I had also read a part of Joslin's Spiritual Running book and focused on thinking of Toward the One. Heartrate stays below 145bpm for the first hour, then over 150bpm in the second hour.
- Week of June 19
- Tuesday It's the first day of summer! In my world, that's a big thing. It also feels like summer for a change: hot, sunny day and only a wisp of clouds in the sky. I head out for my long recovery run fairly early in the evening because I want to be back in time to watch the sun set, a ritual I've had for several years on the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. My right-after-work runs are always the worst ones. It seems as if I don't run well unless I've taken a few hours off between work and running. I'm glad that I've come to expect this and it comes in handy tonight. My legs feel heavy and my heartrate is over 150bpm for the first 30 minutes along the Green. Things settle a bit when I cross the pedestrian bridge and my mind is using some ChiRunning concepts to "come back to center." The Northside trail is gorgeous, making it easier to keep a quiet mind. Coming back is OK and I even start feeling better. What really helps is shortening my stride and simply slowing down. It's not the speed that counts, it's the low heartrate. That's what I tell myself, anyway. As Mark Allen puts it, I'm building a bigger engine when I'm working out at a low heartrate.
- Thursday A track workout at last. I'm passed halfway in my training program for IMLP, and this will be my first track workout of the year (though not my first speed workout.) I wait until late in the evening when I'm sure that the swarms of soccer kids and parents have left and I drive up to the Fredericton High School track. It's a cool evening and a tough workout: 10 min warmup, 4x100m pickups with 100m rest, 400m easy, 1x800m, 1x1600m, 2x800m, and 4x200m. I'm no faster or slower than last year on the track: every single fast loop is precisely two minutes, just as it was last year. Well, at least I'm consistent. And although my legs don't seem to know how to go faster, my body doesn't find it as hard as before and I don't get any massive build-up of lactic acid in my legs like I used to. The 1600m is tough, I'll admit. Feeling my lungs burn is quite a nice feeling, though. At the end I realise that this workout has taken a lot out of me when I barely get through the 4x200m. And then it's off to Dairy Queen for Blizzard, which of course makes it all worth it!!
- Saturday YEAH!! It's HOT today! I mean like baking, sweltering, suffocating hot! I live for this kind of weather: as winter drags on the thought of those hot summer days when everything is lush and growing is what keeps my spirits up. Anyway, I've also got my longest run of the training season planned for today: four hours (after a four hour bike ride yesterday.) That quickly gets cut down to three when I see that the humidex is just shy of 40C when I step out. And even then I have a hard time. The first hour isn't too bad. I do two gorgeous loops in Odell Park, alone on the trails and amazed at how beautifully green things are. I then commit my first big mistake of the run: I go out to Golf Club Road. I really shouldn't have done hills like that in this sort of heat. All it did was push my heartrate up to over a scary 160bpm and keep it there. There's no way I can run three hours at 160bpm. I walk up the critical hills, but on my way back as I'm going downhill I notice that my heartrate isn't going down! Now that's a first. I go back to the Green and have a ClifShot and some water by the rowing club. The problem is now that the wind is at my back and I feel like I'm running straight into an airless oven. At the fountain on the other side of the pedestrian bridge I make mistake number two: I drink and drink and drink and drink. As I start again I feel bloated, and that feeling gets worse. The tailwind/vacuum situation is also getting worse, and at one point it's so bad that I start losing it and my body gets chills - a critical sign of heatstroke. I immediately turn around and head for home, which is another 40 minutes away. Running into the wind has a major effect on keeping me cool and conscious, although my pace is not much faster than a walk. I cross the bridge, get back on the Green, but at the lighthouse I opt for running on Queen Street in the shade of downtown. I finish off by running every other block up Northumberland, telling myself I get TWO Blizzards tonight!
- Week of June 26
- Tuesday I bought my plane ticket to Spain this evening! I'm a little scared (of the bill) and awed by the whole idea of doing a month-long pilgrimmage, but this has been an idea I've had for several years, so it's time I put my money where my mouth is. Anyway, I felt much better after my easy run this evening. Well, it was supposed to be easy. However, as with most runs after work on a hot day, my legs were stiff, I felt a bit queasy, and my heartrate was probably really high. I was smart enough not to wear my heartrate monitor for the run; I didn't want to know just how bad things were. Ignorance is bliss. The evening was gorgeous, humid, and sunny, and I was really looking forward to being on the trails on the other side of the river. I cut through Rabbit Trail Park and made my way to the pedestrian bridge, then out to the Northside Trail at a slow and steady pace. It was such a beautiful evening, which helped take my mind off all the parts of me that hurt from this past weekend's training. Every once in a while I'd try to put some ChiRunning concept into practice, focusing on straightening my hamstrings as I pushed off the ground. All this and then a nice strawberry milkshake at the end. Ah, summer!
- Thursday The eve of a three day weekend in summer. There's no feeling quite like it. I doubt there were any soccer games at the tracks tonight, but just in case there were I do my speed workout at the FHS track at 9pm. It's blessedly quiet and no one around. My workout is over an hour long, and during that time as I run around the track, which is at the top of the hill, I watch the evening light changed and am amazed at how long the light lingers. It reminds me of my years in Val-d'Or and the long summer nights of the north. Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good this evening and also very focused. I need both, since this is a tough workout: warmup with 4x100m pickups (100m rest), 400m easy, 1x4800m (accelerate on straight stretches and slow down on curves), then straight into 6x400m sprints. It's a seriously brutal workout. Ironman training. The 4800m is intimidating: that's a LOT of sprinting! It's also a lot of laps to count (12.) I don't do nearly as badly as I thought I would. The first six laps go very well, and I find it in me to keep it up in the final three laps. The middle three...well...they're tough. But they're nothing compared to how I feel when I start the 6x400m. As soon as I start the first one I know I won't be able to finish them. I switch to 6x200m and run until my legs feel like they're in casts.
While surfing the web for a Virginia Woolf quote, I find this truly amazing website: Roger Darlington's Homepage.
- Saturday Warm and really, really humid today. Showers all night left the ground fairly wet, so when the sun came out all that water got hot and evaporated. And today is the first day of the Tour de France. I kept that in mind as I worked my way through a 3h45min long run. My legs felt a bit stiff as I started my run, but that was better than I had expected after a morning of vigourous housework and a strong 3h30min bike ride yesterday.
I started with two gorgeous laps around the bottom of Odell Park. I loved hearing the sound of my feet padding on the wet wood chip trail. Then down to the Green, where the wind had suddenly kicked up and gave me a little boost over to the pedestrian bridge. The Northside Trail was even more lovely than usual. I think last night's showers had cleared the air, because everything seemed so clear in the sun. My hamstrings were cramping quite badly - the first time I've ever had to deal with muscle cramps. Wow, are they ever painful! Looks like I need a little more stretching after tough bike rides, and a little more magnesium in my diet. A bit of water and a Clifshot at the Marysville Ysmen Centre, then on toward Penniac. As I crossed the Nashwaak pedestrian bridge the memory of the last time I had run by that very spot made me smile: it had been just before the trip to Egypt, and my IT band had given out at that very spot. I was so discouraged, and wondering if I would ever be able to run long distances again. Things had been going badly in general, but that was a low point. And here I was today, nine months later, doing a 3+ hour run, three weeks before Ironman, new job (sort of), new place, new discoveries. Life is pretty amazing.
I was doing remarkably well on all fronts - motivation, staying focused ("Be fully here" was my mantra and "Better Be Good To Me" by Tina Turner my theme song) and nutrition, but when I turned around at the end of the municipal trail at 2h15 I felt a little woozy. At 2h45 when I made it back to the Ysmen Centre for water, I knew the last stretch home would be a challenge. On the long straight stretches I felt lightheaded and totally out of it. Then I remembered the problems I've had in previous years with what seemed like motion sickness on those very same stretches. It's a version of highway head, created by the strain on your eyes when they focus on one far off point for too long. I also remember discovering the remedy one year quite by accident: it was mid-October, the leaves on the trail out to Penniac were exploding in fiery red and orange colours, and I kept turning my head to the side so that I could look at the far cliff where it was most beautiful. At the end of that run I realised that I hadn't gotten sick or lightheaded, and since then I've simply looked to the side or kept my eyes constantly moving and refocusing. I started looking around today (not hard: the sun in the foliage was hard NOT to look at!) and immediately felt better. However, once I got downtown and started my final route home I could barely keep moving. I don't think it was a lack of fitness: I had done a 3h40min run previously and done better. I think it was the humidity and the lack of Gatorade. Clifshots are great, but way too sweet on a hot day like today.
- Week of July 3
- Wednesday An extra day off must have made all the difference. I went for an easy 1h20min run tonight and felt great. A bit of stiffness in the legs, but not the bad kind that feels more like concrete. I went out to Golf Club Road, mostly because I know that road is always deserted and I like to hear the sound of my feet on the pavement. I didn't even notice the hills - that's how well things were going! The weather today was grey and cool, but as I was running I could see the edge of the huge cloud system that had been hanging around all day. It was about to move on, and the sun was coming in below it. I watched in awe as the hills on the far shore lit up in the evening light. My shadow was well over 30 feet long. What spectacular timing for a run. Feeling refreshed, I went down to the Green for some extra time. The scenery was just as amazing. Coming back through Rabbit Town Park I let my strides get long and got a good fast run in.
- Thursday I haven't had much success with speed run workouts this year. This might partly explain why I've had nightmares about Ironman Lake Placid for three nights in a row - all involving the run section of the event. The latest one has me dead last (as usual), trying to run faster while eating bread. Whatever.
Tonight's track workout is 4x100m pickups, 400m easy, 3x1600m, 400m easy, then 8x100m sprints on grass. The problem wasn't that the workout was hard - it was, but I'm getting used to that - it was that my left leg was behaving very oddly. As I started my third lap of the second 1600m, the leg simply seized up. It felt more like a nerve problem than a muscular problem because there was no pain involved, only that dreaded tingling feeling. It was worst just around the inside of the kneecap. A few minutes of easy running went by with no problem, but within minutes of sprinting again it returned. Very disappointing.
- Saturday Phew, not a twinge in my left leg today. Thursday night's workout really had me worried. I've been having the occasional angry reminder from both knees with respect to my IT band, but nothing lasting. Lots of extra stretching and using the foam roller seem to help. Today's cool, damp weather also helped make the 2.5 hour run seem quite easy. It was about 18C when I started running, usually a temperature that would make me put on an extra layer to keep up my overheating-in-training (as opposed to on race day!) program. But I forgot that extra layer and went out with only shorts, a t-shirt, and lots of gels instead. Because it felt unusually cool, my body had an easy time with the run and that ease showed up in a remarkably low heartrate (averaging about 142bpm!) Yes, putting on an extra layer all through spring and summer has definitely been one of my better ideas.
OK, about the run. Two loops around Odell Park, then down Rookwood, to the Green, across the river, onto the Northside trail to Marysville, a loop on Marshall, and back home. The best part: the Northside trail was completely deserted, and it running was such a quiet and serene affair. My cadence was quite high and I didn't even feel as if I was putting any effort into keeping it up. I noticed that my heartrate would decline quite a bit and I'd feel more relaxed when I ran with a more upright posture, rather than when I leaned forward as recommended in ChiRunning. That's my style, I guess.
- Week of July 10
- Wednesday Ah, time to taper. Actually, what that really means is being struck by the overwhelming desire to sleep all the time. Waking up in the morning is a workout unto itself. The training program calls for three workouts today: a sprint swim, a sprint bike, and a sprint run. Since achieving all that while still showing up for work and getting on with life's little errands is all a bit much, I do only the sprint run and save the other two for tomorrow. The workout is the usual warmup, followed by 1x4000m on the track, sprint the straight stretches and recover on the curves. I really don't feel like driving up to the track this evening, so I use approximate times (30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy) for 20 sprints. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. I'm not feeling all that great, though. Heartrate averaged 165bpm on the sprints - better effort than on the track.
- Saturday How strange to not try to find a four hour block of time for my long run today. Saturdays and Sundays have become all about finding time to live in between bike and run workouts. Today: a teeny-weeny one hour tempo run. It wasn't all that easy, thanks to a tough day on the bike yesterday in the hills, followed by a one hour run. But today was quintessentially summer, and that in itself was enough to keep me happy as I ran with very stiff muscles in rather high temperatures. Did Golf club Road, just to get away from all the people who surely would have been on the trails on such a spectacular day as today. Didn't feel all that great on the run, but certainly glad I was outside enjoying the day.
- Week of July 17
- Saturday Click here for the 2005 Ironman USA race report.
- Week of July 24
- Saturday My first run since the Ironman. Everybody kept asking me what I'd be doing this long holiday weekend, and all I could reply was "swim, bike, and run." That has been my life for the past seven months. I don't know what else to do.
I had gone out for a two hour bike ride yesterday and, although my legs hadn't been stiff or sore all week, I found myself weak and breathless during the otherwise beautiful ride. Today was the same when I started my run. I found some weak spots in my legs and I felt breathless as I ran. Still managed 1h40 minutes to Marysville. Had the Northside trail all to myself. Talk about lucky. All week I've been debating whether or not I should do the Timberman Half-Ironman in three weeks. I've already signed up and would love to do the triathlon, but the idea of getting ready to do more traveling this soon after Ironman - and only three weeks before the trip to Spain - is less than appealing.
- Week of July 31
- Monday It's a holiday weekend here, and a perfect one at that. Two days of beautiful weather and a sublime bike ride out to Keswick Ridge yesterday. Today is a downpour day, which I always love because it's so perfect for staying in, cuddling with the cats in the papasan, and reading a good book. But I did want to go out for a run, and when the rain ended in late afternoon I was out for a short, wonderful 45 minute run along the Green. The Armed Forces personnel were getting their tanks and trucks ready for the drive back to Gagetown, but that was pretty much all that was going on. Even my heartrate was quiet: low 140s until the end when my legs loosened up and I felt like going faster.
- Wednesday Too windy for a sprint bike workout, but not quite up to a speed run. So I did Golf Club Road instead, figuring that some steep hills would substitute for the sprints. My real reason for doing Golf Club Road is that it's always quiet and watching the sun play across the valley on the opposite shore is always breathtaking. Tonight I got a bonus by watching the sun set from the top of the Road. Running on the path to Golf Club Road was its own delight: the sun seemed unusually golden and was filtering through the trees and lighting them up in ways I had never seen. I felt a bit heavy as I ran, but not tired after a solid hour of good running. I also realised that it had been some time since I had given any thought to some of the practices and concepts in the Spiritual Running book. I tried the "We are what we repeatedly do" practice - OK, it's not in the book, but it works really well - and decided to keep working on that for the upcoming Timberman.
- Saturday A quiet 1h45min run on a beautiful summer day. Just before leaving I read a few paragraphs in the Spiritual Running book, mostly a chapter called "When you cook....cook!" The idea is that running is about focus, in the same way that meditation is. The point is not to multitask but to elimate all the extra chatter going on in your head as you run. I'm glad I read that today, because it made me look more closely than usual at the sun, the vibrant greenery, the blue, blue sky. As I ran along the Northside trail I could see people playing in the Nashwaak River, which made concentration a bit tough in the heat. On my way back my heartrate started climbing over 150bpm and my legs were stiffer than usual for such a short run. I blame all that - and the angry twinges from my knee - from two days of hard cycling.
- Week of August 7
- Wednesday This is a taper week for the Timberman, so I had both Monday and Tuesday off. I'm starting to look forward to the time of the year when I'll be able to go out for long, non-training runs in the evening - running for the sake of running. Tonight, though, there are sprint workouts to get through. In following with what seems to be a theme this year with respect to track workouts, I don't make it through the entire session. Warming up is fine: my heartrate stays low and I find myself content just to be running. The 4x100m pickups are also OK. The main set is 1x4000m, sprinting on the straights and recovering on the curves. I've been having a bit of a problem with a pulled hamstring lately. Just over halfway through the 4000m set the hamstring begins to throb more than usual. This reminds me of the workouts before Ironman when I was dealing with nerve twinges in my leg. I'm really not impressed. It's been tough watching my already minimal capacity for speed decrease even further. Anyway, with Timberman a week away I decide not to push things further and job back to get my backpack. Things are fine when I'm running at an easy pace.
- Saturday One of my favourite types of summer days: no wind, heavy humidity, and a strong sun. The trees are coated with heat and summer. I have a one hour tempo run, which I do in the afternoon when the humidity and the heat have peaked, of course. It's not hard to get my heartrate up - in fact, it won't go below 160bpm after I've started running hard and even when I ease up. But I don't feel tired. I'm still dealing with hip problems. In fact, today not only is my left hamstring giving me angry reminders but my right hip is acting oddly. I do my regular route in reverse, going first to the bridge, then coming back along Charlotte and doing the Parkhurst/Inglewood loop. I like doing the long courts on the Inglewood side because all the trees are older and on a day like today they seem so full of summer.
- Week of August 14
- Monday Wow, what a gorgeous summer evening. My 35 minute easy run turned into a solid, sort of fast 50 minute run as I wanted to make the most of the great weather. I went up Golf Club Road to watch the sun on the opposite shore. Some fatigue and stiffness after two days of tempo bike rides and runs. More ominously, the left hamstring/hip problem felt quite bad. I think the hard biking is the cause of it, but running up hills didn't help. The sun came straight down the path that parallels Waggoner's Lane, and as I ran I watched the flies and the summer dust and pollen filtered up and down, backlit by evening sun. The sound of crickets - one of my favourites - made this pretty much a perfect evening.
- Friday Click here for the 2005 Timberman Half-Ironman race report.
- Week of September 25
- Tuesday My first run in six weeks. I have new shoes, but no orthotics. In the past four years I've never stopped running for so long, and I wonder what the effect of all the walking in Spain will have on how I feel. I set out after supper as it's getting dark, going across Wilmot Park to the Green, across the bridge, then back to do some loops along Waterloo Row. Running is....amazing. Maybe it's the dark, maybe it's the fact that I'm not thinking about any upcoming races. I'm just running because it feels great and I've missed it so much. My legs know exactly what they're doing and they're doing it very fluidly. Running across the bridge I can't help but go faster. I'm concentrating on emptying my mind and thinking only of my legs and feet. It's easier than usual because it's something I did a lot of while in Spain. The only challenge is that there is always some noise: people, cars, voices. I miss hearing silence. Back after 1h10min of running, although I had some wicked problems with my left hip in the last ten minutes.
- Saturday Has anyone ever seen an Indian summer like this one? It's incredible. Today is clear, strong breeze, and 17C. It's supposed to be even nicer tomorrow. After some housecleaning this morning I lace up my shoes (still no orthotics) and go out for a long run. Ideally, I want to be out for two hours, but I remember how much my hip hurt last Tuesday. I head out for the trails on the Northside. This time of the year when the leaves are changing colour they are even more beautiful than usual. I feel really good when I leave the apartment. Again, the same feeling of strength in my legs and no problem finding a steady pace. Before starting my run I read an excerpt from Joslin's book on intentionality. It's about praying and the idea of trying to connect to God (or whatever you believe it) and succeeding in doing so. If you intend to pray or to connect, then that's all that matters. I find this very confusing and vague as I run, but on the long straight stretch of the Northside Trail that goes by the school I begin to understand. Then I reach that curve around Victory Avenue and suddenly it hits me: this connection isn't something you go out to find and bring back to yourself. You've got it in you all along. It's not some feeling that comes out to reach you. How incredible! And once I understand that, I find it easy to come back to myself and connect with that Greater Force.
Needless to say, this turns out to be an amazing run. When I reach Marysville I keep on for a few more minutes on the road that leads out to Penniac. I stop by a field just past the baseball park. Running through the field is so tempting; it makes me think of walking through fields and paths in Spain. Instead, I just stand and feel the wind, thinking to myself that it's great to be alive. I've just run one hour and I feel like life just can't get better. I turn around and head back home, taking time to look at the sun in the woods. My left hip is threatening to get worse, but I keep it under control by paying attention to my posture. Two hours total.
- Week of October 2
- Tuesday It's hard to get used to the darkness so early in the evening. I know it does wonders for how I feel while I'm running, but I miss seeing the sun in the trees, not to mention the sidewalk and the cracks in the road! It's also strange to run simply for the sake of running, without thinking of training goals, heartrate, distances, etc. Anyway, tonight I do a bit of a strange route: around Parkhurst/Inglewood, double back on Waggoner's Lane, out on the Woodstock Road until the sidewalk ends, then back to Wilmot Park, down Charlotte, across the pedestrian bridge and back, and finally back home on Queen to Northumberland. It takes 1h20min and a pretty fast pace. I notice while I'm on the bridge that my stride rate is quite high and that running quickly is easy tonight. The really good news is that my orthotics have finally arrived and they make a HUGE difference. No hip or knee pain, and I feel anchored and strong as I run.
- Wednesday A short 40 minute run tonight, following the first half of yesterday's route. I don't feel tired and my foot turnover is great. What's bugging me is a very bad pain in my left hamstring. I can't recall doing anything to it, so I'm not sure what the cause is. It dulls a little after running for a while, but I can tell that it's not a mere muscle-soreness pain. However, I've started doing weights again three times a week, and I've added squats to my routine, so my legs do feel a bit more tired than usual.
- Friday Yeah! Friday before a long weekend! The only bummer is that the forecast for the next three days is heavy rain. That's probably a good thing, since I won't be tempted to run too much and make my hamstring worse. Tonight it's 20C when I leave the apartment after 8pm. The temperature is supposed to fall to 8C overnight and stay there. I do the same route I've been doing this past week, except that I hop onto the The Green after doubling back on Woodstock Road. Running, as usual, feels great, and even my hamstring is fairly quiet. I try to keep the pace slow and avoid the temptation to run fast, especially when I'm crossing the pedestrian bridge. I've got the song Everloving in my head. I haven't used it in a while, and I had forgotten how great it was for putting me in a groove. 1h05min.
- Saturday The rain is here, and the warm temperatures are gone. I don't really mind the weather because any disappointment is offset by the fact that I can go running in daylight, and running in daylight means I can run on the trails for a bit. It's +8C when I leave, and there's a sprinkle coming down. I get my feet soaked as soon as I start running (argh!!), and things aren't any better on the Green because of the massive puddles all over the trail. What's most fun is running on the pedestrian bridge with no one else. 45min.
- Week of October 9
- Monday No running yesterday: pouring rain. The wet, cool weather continues, but it's warmed up a bit and the rain is only a faint mist really. I'm anxious to head out on the Northside trails since there aren't many opportunities left to do that this year. Today's song is Hear Me Out (Frou Frou), which has a nice soft rhythm that keeps me relaxed and running quite happily. A few minor complaints from my right knee, but other than that this is a really great run. My strides are short and fast, and I don't have to put too much effort into keeping a steady pace. I spend most of the run simply looking at the fall colours everywhere: most trees are now a vibrant red or orange and have still retained their leaves. I cross Bridge Street and head out to Penniac. I'm making this my thanksgiving run: every time I meet someone on the trail, I mentally "give thanks" to them and smiled. It reminds me of the habit I picked up on the Camino, to give thanks every time I saw a yellow arrow. In turn, that reminds me that I haven't really found anything to replace that now that I'm home. This is something I do have to think about, since I'm beginning to discover the power of gratitude.
- Wednesday I still have Hear Me Out in my head as I'm running! A bit cool tonight, and I didn't get going until fairly late in the evening. It's funny to think that it was +6C when I went running, which in October is a bit chilly, but in six months from now +6C will feel like Florida. I did much the same route as last week and ended up running for 1h15min. But I was really tired at the end and my back was aching from doing weights this morning. Still, having that song in my head and running in the dark makes the runs feel almost surreal, and when I get back to the apartment - especially if the last little stretch was on the trail through Rabbit Town Park - I feel almost ridiculously happy and content. Which I suppose is the point of running, isn't it?
- Friday I don't normally run so much on Friday evenings. But sometimes you get an energy on Friday evenings, or (in my case) you feel so tired that you end up running well. I can't explain it; it's a bit like my running-at-night phenomenon. I did the same route as I've been doing lately, but I noticed that my stride rate is not as quick as it was after I had just returned from Spain. Actually, I had done A LOT of yoga yesterday and my hamstrings were really tender. 1:15 running.
- Saturday Guess what? It's raining! It's beginning to feel like that horrid spring we had. The rain just never ends, and the fact that I have to keep the lights turned on inside all day long is a tad depressing. Anyway, I see a break in the downpour this afternoon so I head out to the Northside Trail. No one is outside. My knees complain occasionally and I use a lot of ChiRunning principles to work on them. For those of you considering buying that book: go for it. There are some weird and useless bits of advice in it (no matter what the author says, DO NOT take a hot bath after a long run), but on the whole it's a great way to visualise running in a far more holistic and relaxed way than most of us do. When my knees complain, I focus on relaxing my leg completely from the knee down. Nothing happens immediately, but after a few minutes the pain is always gone. It just takes patience and practice.
The best of the fall colours is over. Lots of leaves are falling this weekend, which means that things are about a week behind from a normal year. The rain starts up again in the last hour of my run. My legs get cold and stiff, but they also go numb so I'm not too bothered by it. As I run back across the pedestrian bridge I meet a couple running in the opposite direction. "It's crazy to be out here running in this rain!" yells the man. "Yeah, it is!" I yell back while laughing. It's a nice feeling, that us-vs-them mentality that runners have when they're out in miserable conditions. We do feel so much more superior to everyone who decided to stay inside that day, and the man had just reminded me of that bond. My feet get soaked on the bridge, and I make it home at two hours of running as a wet, sopping mess.
- Week of October 16
- Tuesday A lovely fall evening, perfect temperature (9C), and only a bit of wind. Taking two days off running seemed to have been a good idea, since tonight's run was one of those effortless dreams when you think you can run forever. I did my usual loop, which I've really come to like because it's interesting and because I can run for over an hour without doubling back too much. I tried to focus mostly on my breathing, something I had a hard time with earlier this spring. Maybe because I was in a happy frame of mind, or maybe because my body felt rested...anyway, it was easy tonight. I had also danced a bit before starting the run, and of course that always does the trick for having a great run! No knee pain, no twinges. 1h15min.
- Thursday I really didn't want to go out for my run this evening. The wind was howling and the temperature was dropping fast. But all that sound and fury, as usual, signified nothing. Within minutes of starting my run I was warm and comfortable, my legs were happy to be out, and I felt great. I haven't had a bad run in a while (knock wood), which reminds me of that long streak of amazing runs I had earlier this year. The focus tonight was on relaxing my torso and my shoulders so that I could run more efficiently. It's easy to do, but not easy to maintain if your concentration wanders off. Still a great run, though.
- Saturday This is hard to believe, folks, but it was sunny today. Seriously. I was so lost that I had to spend some time looking for my sunglasses. I read the section in Joslin's book about seeing the divinity in everything as you run, and danced to Sensation before leaving home. Everyone and their dog was out on the trails today. I ran out to Marysville to the field that's an hour away. I don't know if it was the sun, the people, or the sheer happiness of being out running on such a gorgeous day, but my mind didn't settle at all. Running was fairly easy: my strides aren't as quick as they were a few weeks ago and I can tell that my endurance is slowly slipping. I stood by the field for a few minutes, listening to the last cricket of the year and enjoying the moment. 2 hours.
- Week of October 23
- Wednesday Had to let a few hurricanes blow by this week before heading out for a run. What a rough patch of weather we've been having. The wind died down a bit this evening and it was chilly enough for winter tights. I also tried on a new bright yellow reflective hat I bought last week. That, plus my Nike reflective jacket, probably made me look like I was a couple of days early for Hallowe'en. The extra days off gave me lots of energy for the run this evening, although I could feel the effects of yesterday's bike ride and this morning's weightlifting on my quads. Actually, by the end of the run my left quadriceps were in pain, and not the kind that I usually get on such a short run. My cadence was great, and I could feel the effects of a stronger upper body on my stride. Very relaxed but swift run. 1h10min.
- Thursday My legs were still a bit stiff this evening, so I was out for only 40 minutes. I can tell that the weightlifting and the squats are having an effect on some upper leg muscles, since these felt quite stiff and tired but they did make for a steady rhythm. It was a quiet, cool evening, making it easier than usual to clear my mind and run with some focus. What I have to do is put the Spiritual Running book closer to my running shoes so that I remember to glance through it before I leave for my run.
- Saturday Sunny! Hard to believe, but true! I really wanted to go running for an entire two hours, just to get all the way to the field on River Street, but my legs are no longer up to it. It's just that end-of-season decline and I'm actually not too upset about it. This is the low end of the cycle; in January, things will pick up again. And I really busted my butt last night at the gym, so it's kinda natural that my legs are a little slow today. I read The Touch of God section in Joslin's book, put on my sunglasses, and run out to the Northside Trail. Nice steady pace, no knee pain in spite of all the squats I've been doing at the gym. Cool weather makes all the difference in energy levels. I imagine the Touch of God every time my feet hit the ground, and it's a nice focus on such a gorgeous day. 1h40min.
- Week of October 30
- Tuesday November started off on quite a high note: +18C today and sunny. It had cooled off by the time I started running late this evening. The wind had started gusting in a strange way. It was the kind of wind that you wished you had when you were biking. No matter what direction I ran in, it was always at my bike. That meant that I was running in this lovely silence and I could hear my footsteps with unusual clarity. The switch to off-season running obviously means running in the dark most times, and I'm beginning to notice that it dulls many of my senses, including the sense of listening. My legs are in great shape and I've put a lot of emphasis on relaxing the points below the knees. That in turn leads to one heck of an efficient stride. 1h.
- Wednesday Out again this evening for an hour. I had met with a friend about the Camino de Santiago and by the time I got home the temperature was cool with a bite. Out for about one hour trotting around town, but I had to take it easy due to the heavier-than-usual weights I had done this morning.
- Thursday It's been a while since I've run three nights in a row. Geez, I don't think I even did that this summer when I was training. My quads are not quite as stiff as yesterday, but my legs are a bit tired (lots of kicking at swim practice this morning.) I changed my route a bit, going up to Dundonald first, then Waggoner's Lane, then down to Parkhurst/Inglewood. I was happy with my stride and my posture (all that weightlifting is paying off, except for the fact that I'm just not losing weight). However, at the end I ran up York Street to Dundonald to loop back home, and I noticed that the little incline up to the first light was putting a strain on my quadriceps. I haven't done hills in a long time in order to maintain endurance. Might be time to reconsider that.
- Saturday Yeah! It's NOT raining! And it's almost sunny! I look forward to a 1h30min run out to Marysville, and I do seem to be in a quiet frame of mind, the kind that's conducive to meditative runs. Which happens to be the section that I read in Joslin's book: when you cook, cook! It's all about NOT multitasking and instead turning running into a very focused experience. I also ran with a lot of focus on keeping my stride very low to the ground for efficiency. Last week when I ran out to Marysville I remember feeling quite stiff by the time I returned. Much better this week.
- Week of November 6
- Sunday I've signed up for the 2006 Madrid Marathon !!! Yes, the trip to Spain in September has had a lasting impact. I'll be going back, and running with a friend who will be doing his first marathon. I also need a goal to get me training through winter.
It's not too often that I get to run on Sundays. Between a brutally long swimming practice in the morning and all the chores to finish in the afternoon, there's really not a lot of time. But I really felt like going out for a low-key run, something short, and the weather was grey and windy enough to make sure that no one else would be out (I like having the trails to myself.) I was quite tired at the beginning - out of breath for the first 20 minute, cramping, a bit cranky - but eventually the blustery day got rid of all that and I ran with a steady pace for a total of 45 minutes. High heartrate, though.
- Tuesday Brrrr. 2C and very windy. My feet got cold as I ran by the YMCA and straight into the wind. Guess it's time to find a pair of winter running shoes, but my favourite Nike Air Teocalli isn't on the market anymore. Nike has this bizarre tendency to pull shoes off the market if they're exceptionately good. Anyway, it was one of those evenings when running seemed quite effortless although my quadriceps were a bit stiff from the squats. Toward the end of the run a hamstring began to cramp. Even so, an hour of running flew by. I noticed some issues going up slight inclines. Sooner or later I'll have to get back into running hills.
- Thursday I wanted to do a bit of a longer run than usual this evening, even though I started off quite late. The wind had died down completely and for the first part of the run the streets seemed deserted. I love those kinds of nights; running takes on an otherworldly feel, and indeed I have this idea that I'm running in my own world. I've noticed that those kinds of runs are always among my most satisfying. I return home content and whole again. Rather than crossing the pedestrian bridge in the last half of the run I opted to go to Waterloo Row and back up Alexandra to Landsdowne. I ran back across town on Queen Street and was surprised at how many people were wandering around and bar hopping. I did everything I could to avoid them (I didn't want to ruin the illusion that I had the world to myself) and returned home on York. My right knee bothered me quite a bit and I had to deal with a few very sharp pangs, painful enough to make me stop. I've been depending on some of the ChiRunning principles more and more to deal with my knees. Actually, I don't think I could keep running if it weren't for those principles. 1:20
- Friday Remembrance Day. Cool and windy. I wanted to go out running earlier this morning, but ended up leaving after lunch. Regardless of the time, I was pretty happy to be running in daylight. Suddenly there are so many more routes to chose from. It being Remembrance Day, I practiced the Divinity Run (see the Spiritual Running book), smiling at everyone I met on the trail and seeing the divine in them. There are some days when I think we just exude that kind of positive aura that people react to with little effort on our part. This seemed to be one of those days. I ran with a lot of emphasis on the ChiRunning techniques that call for a relaxed lower leg and for movement from the hips; they seemed to work, since I barely heard anything from my knees. Ran across the pedestrian bridge and stayed straight after the bridge to head directly to Marysville (rather than taking the Northside Trail.) It was a great, refreshing run, although I pretty much froze on the way back as I ran into the wind. 1:20
- Week of November 13
- Sunday Yep, out for a run on Sunday again. I actually didn't run yesterday because my right knee and left quadricep have been overworked during the week with the weightlifting. However, I'm bound and determined not to reduce the weights (squats, in this case) because they're having such a great impact on all the other aspects of my running. And not running yesterday turned out to be a great idea simply because the weather today was spectacular. Warm, sunny, no wind. I put on my IMUSA cap and out I went to Marysville. Keeping a quick foot turnover seemed easy today, as was focusing on the quiet, my breath, my footsteps. Lots of people walking their dog, but for once that didn't seem to bother me. My right knee only bothered me right at the beginning of the run, but after about 25 minutes that stopped. Great run. 1:40
- Tuesday The first snow of the year. And I still don't have a decent pair of trail running shoes. I did the usual route this evening, starting out straight into the wind and almost blinded by the snowflakes coming down. As I did the loop around Parkhurst/Inglewood I marvelled at how little effort running now requires from me. Eight months of dedicated ChiRunning practice and focus on efficiency (low, quick strides with a relaxed leg below the knee) have really had an impact. However, my right knee was complaining more loudly than usual this evening. When I wasn't concentrating on relaxing my legs even more to deal with the twinges, I was listening to myself running. OK, that does sound really self-absorbed, but what I mean is that I stopped listening to my brain chattering on and on about work and life, and instead listened to my breath or footsteps. 1:00.
- Thursday Maybe it was the full moon, but tonight's run was amazing. I started out on the usual route and found it a little chilly running into the wind. I didn't spend as much effort as usual concentrating on relaxing. That might be because that concept is now quite engrained. I wasn't running all that fast, so when I turned around at the bottom of Golf Club Road to head back across the city I had the wind in my back and picking up speed was quite easy. Normally I would resist the urge to run faster, but tonight I just relaxed even more, lengthened my stride, and really started running. As I turned on George Street the memory of a wall plaque I once really, really wanted (but couldn't afford) came to mind: it was a simple clay plaque with the engraved inscription from Hebrew of God speaking, "Be still and know that I am." You can take that phrase in a more general, spiritual way if you're not religious and the idea stays the same. As I ran (faster and faster) I reflected inward on that phrase. I repeated it to myself and found that as I did I would see the stillness inside me, and that somehow gave me a tremendous amount of energy. Using this concept was a lot easier than some of the Spiritual Running practices I've used for "finding God" or however you'd want to word that. I ran across downtown, ran up Northumberland and was amazed at much energy I had, and that it didn't diminish even though I was running at a tempo pace. 1h00
- Saturday Housecleaning this huge place having become more or less streamlined, I had a bit of extra time for a run today. It was sunny and according to the website -6C when I left, but somebody must have calculated wrong. It was probably over 0C, so I seriously overdressed. I was trying out my new Saucony Gird Hurricanes today. Damn! I like these shoes. More stability than my Adidas, and about 50% heftier in terms of price. Oh well, you get what you pay for.
I left for the trail out to Marysville. The quiet on the far side of the bridge as I ran down that long straight stretch was incredible. Nothing: no leaves rustling, no birds, no traffic. Just this incredible quiet that felt so peaceful. I also had a gorgeous song in my head that I had recently heard on Radio-Canada, Jours de plaine by Daniel Lavoie. I hadn't heard it in years. It made for a quiet and surprisingly strong run. Some twinges in my right knee, but I think the switch to the Hurricanes may have been very positive. 1h45
- Week of November 20
- Sunday I felt so great after yesterday's run that I decided to skip swim practice today and go back out for another long run before noon. Lots of runners on the trail, and one older man out for a walk who saw me trotting down the trail and cheerfully remarked, "I remember when I used to be able to do that." Hey, it put a smile on my face for a while. In Marysville I looped around the old cotton factory and then came back on the trail. The last 30 minutes were a bit rough: I was definitely low on glycogen and tired from yesterday's long run so I had to stop for a few minutes. Still, I'm impressed that I can run 1:45 two days in a row.
- Wednesday Out in the snow this evening. I was a bit worried when I started since I had done a strong one hour run last night on the treadmill and my knees and right hamstring had been pretty upset about that. I did my usual route and added another 20 minutes by running to Waterloo Row, up and down Alexandra Street, then back home on George. There was a strong wind (as well as pelting snow; next time, I'm wearing something to cover my eyes!), so on the way across town running was delightful. Running back across George Street, however, meant heading into a strong headwind and my legs started getting a bit colder. I started feeling tired and had to slow down considerably. 1h20.
- Saturday A bit of snow and ice overnight, yet by the time I set out this afternoon most of it was gone. These will be the last few weekends I get on the Northside Trail until next May. Gosh, what a thought. All the things that could happen between now and then. Today, however, was perfect for running. There was no wind at all, the sky was overcast, and it was the kind of day or mood when you get the feeling that everyone in the world is somewhere else. It all had a hushed feeling to it, like I had the entire outdoors all to myself while everyone else was at the mall going crazy with Christmas shopping. My legs were tired and heavy when I started out and it took at least 40 minutes before I seemed to get into running. The Northside Trail was covered by a thin layer of snow, enough to make a lovely crunching sound when I ran on it but not enough to lose any traction or notice any difference from running on crushed gravel. I loved running with the sense of stillness and the grey sky overhead. Running by the two small streams that gurgle under the path was a special highlight. I turned around a bit earlier than usual but made up some time by running along the Green before turning onto Smythe Street to come back home. The best part of the run: not a sound from my knees! 1h30
- Week of November 27
- Sunday Lots of snow last night, so the world was pretty white when I started this afternoon. I wish winter could always be like today: enough snow on the ground so that the world looks like a fairytale, but not so much snow that it interferes with running. I decided to go up Golf Club Road to see how pretty the view would be across the valley with the snow as it was. In spite of yesterday's run I was feeling pretty good, if a little breathless. Running on the snow on Saunders Street was actually fun. As I started up Golf Club Road I noticed that the new extension of Marlborough Drive had been paved sometime in the past month or two, which meant that I no longer had to take my chances on Woodstock Road in winter to get to Golf Club Road! Woohoo! And climbing Golf Club Road was easy! Well, the first steep part was much easier than it used to be, but I did have to deal with cramps in my quadriceps when I started the second, more gently sloping part. Even so, I can confidently say that my legs are indeed much stronger than they were this summer. The view along Golf Club Road was OK. Ran back on Marlborough Drive and tried the path to stay away from Woodstock Road. 1h20
- Tuesday You gotta love it when the weather goes backward. It was +5C tonight, no wind, and perfect for running. For once, my clothing even matched the weather. The good vibes kept getting better as I started out feeling pretty decent and ended my run 1h10 later feeling great. I changed my route a bit, taking advantage of the new Marlborough Street extension. Running through a neighbourhood of expensive homes on a wide street with a bit of fog was quite nice. What was so great about this run was being able to stay very relaxed and yet running quite quickly.
- Saturday Yep, haven't run or done a thing since Tuesday, except work. Lots and lots of work. That meant missing out on some really nice, warm running days, but that's the way life goes. Today made up for it, though. I started down Rabbit Town Trail and marvelled at how relaxed I felt and how easy and long my stride was. I don't know how to explain it. Hm, maybe the tailwind helped. As I ran across the second train bridge over the Nashwaak I watched the snow whip up the river. It wasn't really snowing; more like snow floating around in the air. The snow and the wind were with me all the way to Marysville, where the path became a grey strip above flooded fields and trees. Turned around and shuffled into the wind. I paused when I heard the familiar squawking of Canada geese flying south for winter, and wondered why they were three months late (they normally start the journey in September!) As I ran back across the main pedestrian bridge I watched the sun set behind UNB. A column of red light seemed to ascend straight up into the clouds. I was amazed at how easy running was, even though my legs were getting a little stiff and my face was most definitely frozen. I kept the pace slightly higher than I normally do. I think that will be the focus now that posture and a relaxed form seem to come naturally. 1h20
- Week of December 4
- Sunday Things always balance out: yesterday's great run was evened out by 44 minutes of huffing, puffing, cramping, and shuffling misery. It's been a long time since I've had a bad run. I blame today's on a particularly long swim workout and the state of near-starvation it induced. I ran on the path a bit and planned to do Golf Club Road, but that plan changed to just getting across the Green when I realised in what rough shape I was. Then that plan changed to cutting everything short and heading back home when I ran past the Small Craft Aquatic Centre and saw that the path had been flooded.
- Tuesday I'm always impressed with myself when I head out for a run even when it's cold and windy. It was only -5C when I started, but the wind was quite nasty. Did the usual loop, ran through the Marlborough Drive extension, and then decided to cut my run short and go up Northumberland and straight home rather than cross downtown. That's the great thing about the off-season. My legs were very sore and inflexible. Not quite sure why. 1 hour.
- Friday 'Tis the season for Christmas parties. If I go to one more I'll start twinkling and smelling like eggnog. But this evening I escaped one party to get out for a run. The evening was just too magical to pass up: it had started snowing in the afternoon, that big quiet sort of snow that puts you in a festive and content mood. I laced up my new Nikes, put on my new running jacket from Running Room (early Christmas presents for some serious winter running. No excuses when the weather gets foul in January!) and out I went. The snow had gotten packed down enough on the roads so that traction wasn't an issue. With my shoes and their sticky rubber soles, it was actually lots of fun to run on the packed snow and listen to the crunch. I did my usual route, marveling at how quiet the city was for a Friday night, and also at how well I was running on the snow. 1h00.
- Saturday Day 1 as a vegan. I had to do it. Since starting Ironman training my body has had increasing issues with things like sugar, white flour, and cheese. So today was Phase 1 of my transition to life a vegan. If you're wondering what kind of wingnut would do this to themselves during the Christmas holidays, the answer is in the "Phase 1" part. Anyway, I started today's run with a serious lack of energy, so that wasn't too good (too much brown rice?) My legs were stiff and tired from running on the snow last night, and I really seemed to have a hard time breaking out of a shuffle. The snow had turned mushy during the day, so now traction WAS an issue. I decided to go up Golf Club Road for a bit of quiet and lots of bare pavement. Today's run was focused on debating the merits of the Madrid Marathon in April versus the Dead Sea Ultramarathon, also in April, in Jordan. I really, really want to do an ultramarathon, and I also really, really want to travel to the Middle East. I'm a lot more excited about the idea of running 50km in April than I am of running a plain marathon. 1h20
- Week of December 11
- Tuesday The Environment Canada website says its's -10C outside, -19C with the windchill. And it's a north wind, too, which cuts right through you. I hummed and hawed and wavered, but finally dressed up until I looked like the Michelin Man's wife and went out for a run. At -19C, it was kinda like a dare: if I had stayed in, I would have felt like a wimp. So out I went with longjohns, tights, my new Running Room winter track pants (AWESOME!), a tank top, a shirt, a long-sleeve shirt, a sweater, a jacket, gloves AND mitts, a tuque, and my blue face cover. I didn't run, I waddled. But I waddled pretty fast and the best part was that I wasn't cold! Not even chugging down Saunders Street with the wind being funneled between the buildings. I did a few courts along Parkhurst/Inglewood to take a closer look at the wonderful and brilliant Christmas light displays, ran the Marlborough Drive extension, and made my way back on the path. 50 minutes.
- Saturday I started out today with the best intentions and a great song in my head, but that was probably the high point of my otherwise rough run. I did the usual loop and the pavement was reasonably clear after last night's brief little storm. My legs, however, felt like concrete blocks, my hip flexors refused to flex, and my lungs just couldn't seem to do their job. To counter all of that I relied heavily on some ChiRunning principles, particularly the idea of relaxing the lower legs and swinging the hips more. I put the run out of its misery after 55 minutes and crawled back home.
- Week of December 18
- Saturday Um, a whole week without running. Not that I haven't been doing anything all week (lots of biking), but today was the first day that I was out. 1h20min of running at home in Montreal, and wearing the new Nike Air Orizabas (for women) that I had received this week. The weather gods have been smiling on me for a few days in a row now, and today I got nice warm weather with a bit of wind and clear but not sunny conditions. Running along the river I never had to worry about snow or ice and in fact had the entire shoulder of the road to myself. Things felt great, not too tired, and lots of focusing on relaxing and running as efficiently as possible. As I ran out to the Trans-Canada bridge and up Prevert, I reflected on the very same run I had had last year at this time. Lastyear I had done the same route on the same day, and I remember being shocked at how angry I was, wondering what had happened that a normally optimistic and positive person like me would fall into a pattern of recurring negative thoughts. What a difference a year makes. Sometimes these annual runs are the best way to measure how far we've come in our lives and what precisely in them has changed. Things are so much better now; my thoughts during the run were happy and quiet. How lucky am I.
- Sunday Merry Christmas! What a wonderful day! After being spoiled rotten (again! I got an IPOD for Christmas!!! YEAH!) by my family, and sleeping in until obscene hours (10:00 am!), eating chocolate for breakfast, I figured that maybe a run would balance things out nicely. It was a warm, overcast day, no slush or ice on the road, and even though my legs were a bit stiff from yesterday's run I was running smoothly and happily, retracing yesterday's route. The run ended up being yet another amazing Christmas gift. I had planned on doing only 45 minutes, but at 30 minutes, standing under the Trans-Canada bridge, I decided that I felt so great that I wanted to keep going up Prevert. I had Everloving playing quietly in my head, and my legs had found a smooth, low stride. On my way back night fell quickly, and I got lost in my thoughts, almost detached from running. Echoing yesterday's thoughts, how lucky am I.
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Last updated on December 25 2005 by Helen Rooney
