Why I Love March

March is awesome! I used to go away for the entire month of March to spring training camp for canoe/kayak. Since quitting paddling I am realizing there is a such thing as Spring! It's in March! After 4 months of winter it is such a refreshing time. It is time to say goodbye to the "dreadmill" and say hello to the quickly clearing sidewalks. In this post I will highlight the reasons why I love this glorious month.

Doing Workouts Outside

In the winter months I try to go outside for my easy and long runs, but I do all of my interval and tempo workouts indoors on the track or treadmill. I do this for a few reasons. 

1. I don't want to slip and hurt myself.
2. You can't go fast when you are knee deep in snow.
3. It's dark ALL THE TIME in winter and running alone in the dark is sketchy.

It is a little bit tricky to go outside and try to stay as consistent with my pacing. On the treadmill, the machine just tells you how fast you are going and doesn't fluctuate at all. When it's me, my Garmin and the streets, I am all over the place! That is something I will be working on for the next three weeks.

March is the new May

For the last two years I have trained for the Manitoba Full Marathon, which takes place in June. May has always been my favourite month of training. Mostly because it is my highest mileage month and I usually feel like Superwoman coming out of May. This year because my marathon is in April, this month I feel like Superwoman.

Boston is Almost Here

I am very excited to go to Boston. It is now three weeks away. I am in the home stretch. I did my last really long run today (20 miles). The anticipation to run a marathon is so weird because you know it is going to bring you so much pain, but still, I'm dreaming about it every few nights. I'm excited to run a marathon where I'm not by myself for half of it! There are going to be hundreds of other people going the same pace as me. It's also exciting to take a trip in the middle of the school year. I'm taking two personal days, so I will be in Boston from Saturday until Tuesday.

My Brooks Stuff Came

My package arrived from Brooks Canada containing 3 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of socks, 2 tank tops, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 hat and 1 pair of arm warmers. Just receiving the package motivated me ten times more for the race. I'm gonna be running totally decked out in Brooks shoes and apparel, feeling and looking awesome!

 

Oh yeah, and it's SPRING BREAK!

We've been working very hard at school for the past 3 months, and finally it's time to take a little break. We've decided not to go anywhere this spring break because we are saving for a house. The plan is to lay back, relax, clean, doing my taxes, going to the lake for a couple of days, get a massage (or 2), read, do some planning and get my last training week in before my taper starts.

Happy Spring Break to all of my teaching family and friends! Thanks for reading and enjoy the last couple of days in this awesome month!

My Running Brain

Running is extremely psychological. What’s going on in my head can make the difference between a good run and a bad run, a good race or a bad race. I’m not a psychologist, so don’t expect this post to be factual, this is purely my experiences in training and racing. 

While training for a marathon, I spend a lot of time by myself; sometimes on the treadmill, sometimes on the track sometimes on the road. So far in 2015, I have spent 86 hours running and it’s only mid-March. That is equivalent to 3 days and 14 hours. So, what do I think about while I’m running? Probably 10% of my time I have spent thinking about my big race. Boston. It will be my third marathon and I am putting quite a lot of pressure on myself. I am training to go sub 3:00. My training has been going extremely well, although I will not get a chance to race until that day (April 20^th). 

It feels as though I am putting all of my eggs into one basket. My last race was the Manitoba Marathon last June. It took me a long time to recover after the last one, almost 2 whole months. After my last marathon I was physically, emotionally and psychologically beat up. I almost went into a depression after my last race. I spent so much time training up for it and by the time it came and went, I mourned my marathon after it was done. I’m not sure if I mourned it because I didn’t hit my goal of going sub 3:00, or because I went from spending 15+ hours running a week to 0, just gave it up cold turkey. It is a little bit scary going into another marathon now, knowing what is going to come afterwards.

I have been recently been getting super pumped for Boston. It is just 4 weeks away and I know my body is ready. Now I think that I need to get my mind ready for the race and after the race. My parents are flying out with me, which surprisingly makes my less nervous. It will be nice sharing a hotel with them, they will help me acclimatize to the city, probably help me get around and they will be cheering my name throughout the course.

I have spent approximately 20% of my time running with my favourite running buddies. I run 1-2 times a week with my friend Lacey or my other friend Mel. It makes such a difference running with people. They entertain me with their stories, they listen to me rant, they set a different pace than my same old boring pace I always do.

I have spent about 40% of my time thinking about whatever I am listening to/watching as I am running. Over the winter months I probably spent 50 of my 86 running hours on the treadmill, which can be excruciatingly boring. During these runs, I have listened to several podcasts, including Serial, Invisibilia, and Stuff You Should Know. These podcast help me learn new things as I am running. As I am running sometimes I listen to music. Usually it’s whatever band I am obsessed with at that time. Sometimes on the treadmill I will just watch whatever is on TV that evening, or turn on something on my phone or iPad. If I go Netflix, I watch this awesome show called Departures or watch a movie.

The last 30% of the time I am thinking about work/school/my personal life.

…to be continued

I started writing this post last week and it’s interesting how much my mindset has changed in a week. Last week I was stressed and tired.  I was probably still feeling my run from the week before, which was 24 miles. I was definitely over thinking my running and the race, considering it is still a month away. This week I was feeling way more back to normal. My workouts were fast and my runs went well. I think a big difference this week was that I wasn’t over thinking my runs. This week I had a stressful time at school and I think that caused me to think about school instead of thinking so much about running.  

I don't think I can talk about the psychology of running a marathon without talking about motivation. At the beginning of my training I struggled with motivation because I knew that there was so much time until my race. As soon as I sat down with my coach and came up with a 16 week training program, I instantly became motivated. Of course I have moments of thinking "Why am I doing this again?" That is when I go on my phone and look on my countdown app that is telling me that the marathon is only 28 days, 15 hours and 1 minute away.

Any sport psychologist will tell you that you need to visualize your race, and of course it is true. Last week I think I was obsessing over it, and it was stressing me out. This past week after stepping back a little bit, I am feeling a lot more comfortable about the race. It is now 4 weeks away, which means only 2 more weeks of serious training. I know my body is ready and my mind is still getting there. In the next two weeks I will continue to work on my race pacing and practice running long up and down hills.

Sorry for the deep blog post friends! Here's some fun for you!:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4IGYcdroyk 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omfvt33aOQw 

Run Happy!

My Running Soundtrack

Hello blog world!

Another week is gone, and I am another week closer to the big day. If you read my blog last week, you know that last week I had put my mind and body through the grinder. I vowed that this week would be different and guess what, it was! This week I ran a lot, but I fueled my body with lots of fruits and vegetables and dairy (especially chocolate milk after my workouts). If you know me, you know that I LOVE CARBS. I eat carbs for every snack and meal of my day. When I say carbs I mean pretty simple carbohydrates like cereal, bread, pasta and rice, lots and lots of rice. As a marathoner, I burn most of it off, but usually my diet is very unbalanced. This week I was putting extra effort into eating properly. This week, I must say, it was different. I ate lots of salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, kale and carrots. I ate lots of fruit: raspberries, apples, nectarines, strawberries, blackberries. I ate lots of dairy: yogurt, cheese, milk, chocolate milk. I ate a little bit of meat: chicken, eggs, pollock, hamburger. As usual, I ate more than enough of my grains, but all in all I think I did really well this week. A couple of days in, I felt great, like a well oiled machine. 

Saturday I did my longest run of my training. I did 24 miles and it felt great! I am very pleased that it went so well, it makes me feel ready for my marathon in 6 weeks. Now I know that I can do it, I just need to work on some speed and recovery. The game plan for the next 6 weeks is to continue fueling my body properly, go for massages (with Mike Booth at Massage Athletica) and recover properly with stretching and drinking lots of water, chocolate milk and electrolytes.

I don't have a lot to share for today, I'm pretty tired and just about ready for bed, so I will share with you what I have been watching/listening to while I have been running on my own in the past few months.


My Running Soundtrack 

1.  First Aid Kit - A great female band full of upbeat songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKL4X0PZz7M
2. The Dead South - A band that we heard at Festival du Voyageur, their songs tell awesome stories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiqZvsoY0Q4
3. Hootie and the Blowfish - I think you know who they are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYES9WI-hIk
4. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - I recently found out that they will be playing at the Winnipeg Folk Festival this year so I have been listening to them to get me ready for the summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8
5. Dan Mangan - also coming to folk fest!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRcXULN6mp4
6. Hozier - A little emo at times, but I am still a big fan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSVMgRr6pw
7. Imaginary Cities - So good, local, upbeat, fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEcm3G3bMf0
8. The New Basement Tapes - compilation of  unrecorded Bob Dylan songs sung by a variety of people including Marcus Mumford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MwOarNpBcw
9. The Strumbellas - Just pure fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gm-y6c925s
10.  Random dance music including: Calvin Harris, Mark Ronson, Milky Chance, Mr. Probz, Vance Joy

My Running Podcast List:

1. Serial by NPR
2. Invisibilia by NPR
3. Stuff You Should Know by Howstuffworks.com
4. TEDtalks by TED

My Treadmill Netflix List:

1. Departures - Canadian travelers going around the world http://www.departuresentertainment.com/
2. Happy Endings - group of silly friends, I've watched all of the seasons 3 times now...
3. Friends - another group of silly friends
4. Full House - an oldie but a goodie
5. Portlandia - hipster goodness recommend by my friend at school
6. Various movies including: The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Way Way Back, Across the Universe, The Interview

Thanks for reading! Have a great week everyone!