Getting Back on Track

Alright, here it is in writing, I am planning on running the Manitoba Full Marathon again. The last time I ran it I won in 3:04. I suspect I will have to run much faster than that if I am trying to win again.

So far training has been going fairly well, although marathon training hasn't been going quite as smoothly as previous years. In November, December and the beginning of January I was playing soccer 2-3 days a week, doing 2 treadmill workouts a week and a long run. I also was running 6-7 days a week. My workouts were doing great, I was going faster than I have gone before for tempos and interval work. Sure enough, something had to give. While playing a soccer game on January 18th, I all of a sudden felt something tweak in my right calf, I couldn't take another step. I assumed it was dehydration or something so of course I tried to play soccer on it again the next night, but it felt exactly the same way. I went for a massage the next day, and it started to feel good. I took a week off running (and soccer) to give it time to recover. A week later I ran on it and it felt fine. I ran on it easy for a week, before getting back to workouts and it felt pretty normal. Two weeks later I tried to play soccer again. NOPE. It cramped up the exact same way again. I ended up doing the same thing again, taking days off, running and then playing soccer and then it acting up again. I gave up trying to play soccer. I love playing soccer and I feel like I let my teams down, but I couldn't make it through a half of the game without it cramping up again. So that was it, I had to quit soccer for good. I figured that it wasn't worth messing up my running to play soccer.

I ran about 3 weeks, doing workouts, easy runs, long runs, averaging between 50-60 miles a week, feeling good and then the next thing came. I was in a meeting at school and I started feeling a stabbing pain in my side. I went to the doctor the next day and he said that it was probably an ulcer (again) so I started to take antacids and it started feeling better. This was extremely frustrating, I wanted to train, but my stomach was not feeling it, so I had to take another few days off.

Now I've been training for a solid 3 weeks again and am starting to feel good again. Most of my workouts have been between 6:40-6:45 pace and I have been doing some long runs with my friend Gina. I would not have made it through this rough patch without the recovery benefits of chocolate milk, Mike Booth and the awesome people at Massage Athletica, my long run buddy Gina and my husband-to-be (in 6 days!) for his patience and workout wisdom.

I have continued to listen to podcasts on my easy runs, pretty serious rap mixes on Google Play Music during workouts and this on my long runs when I'm on my own: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqPLipRthHo&list=PLpLuJZm-j6BpOiD53Fd6BMsWzUGA7u4EG

It is a great new musical that my friend Megan and I listened to for a weekend at the lake and now I am completely addicted.

Next week I am off to Jamaica for our Wedding! I am for sure bringing my runners! I can't wait!

Until next time, adventure on!

Twin Cities Marathon 2015

Wow! What an amazing race. I missed my sub 3:00 goal by 48 seconds, but I had an amazing experience running this race.
 
Kristjan and I drove down to Fargo on Friday night and stayed in hotel. I ate a sub that night for dinner and was making sure to drink lots of water. On Saturday we drove 4 hours in the morning to Minneapolis and we checked into our hotel. Next we went to the race expo, which I thought was great! Kristjan said that I made him feel like running a marathon.

After the race expo I went for shake out in the parking lot/around the block. I did some drills and a 20 minute jog. After that Kristan and I went for dinner at the hotel restaurant, it was pretty good, I predictably ordered pasta. That night I went to bed at about 9:30 after lying everything out and got my brain ready!

 
In the morning we got to the start line pretty early, downtown Minneapolis was shut down completely for the event!  I had a great pre-race warm up, there was lots of room for drills and such.  The temperature was pretty ideal that morning, it was dry and clear and about 7 degrees, throughout the race it warmed up to about 12.
 
When the gun went I was ready and I gave it everything I had! I held back for the first half, because I'm told that's what we need to do, but I think I could've gone faster overall if I had gone harder when I felt really good - but, really who knows. At the end I was dead to the world, I was thrilled with the result, taking off 3 minutes off of my previous time. My race gear passed the test, I took 4 GU packets and one pack of shot blocks. I didn't chafe or get blisters this time, I came prepared with Body Glide!
 

We immediately jumped in the car afterwards, we swung by the hotel to take a shower and then we hit the road to come home. We didn't get home too late and I actually decided to go to work the next day because it was a PD day at school. My legs actually didn't actually feel that bad after running a marathon and sitting in a car for 8 hours. It seems like every marathon I run I get less sore afterwards.
 
Props to my awesome boyfriend Kristjan for driving the whole time and cheering me on throughout the race and throughout my training! I will definitely run this race again, the race course was beautiful, the amenities were great, one could not ask for a better race!  All in all it was a very positive experience! I would recommend this race to anyone and everyone!

Back and Better Than Ever! + Time to Taper!

After being out of proper training and workouts for a week at the beginning of September, I was a little bit concerned about the marathon that was quickly approaching. To my amazement and pleasure, I actually came back from my cold stronger and quicker than ever! I have actually been going quicker in workouts than I have ever gone while training for a marathon before! Normally I struggle to get under 6:30min/mile during tempos and workouts, but to my amazement I am now going 6:10-6:25 pace. Now, I know that the amount of rest I took was good for me, but I also think there is something else that is making me speedier as well. We have been having cooler days recently, which makes it so much easier to run effortlessly. Although training in the summer was miserable at some points (running 24 miles in 27 degrees), now I am so glad that my body is acclimatized to hot weather.

The marathon is now a week away and I am getting into taper-mode! (Yay!) I used to hate tapering when I ran in university because I felt like I was losing my speed and mentally I became out of it. Now, I LOVE the taper! I get to store up my energy this week and use it all on Sunday. I am actually so excited for the race next weekend! I've posted about tapering before (before Boston), but I'm going to re-highlight the main points of tapering, more for myself than anyone else. 

1. Sleep! 8-10 hours a night! No exceptions!
2. Eat! Eat smart, don't be an idiot, eat foods you normally eat, more carbs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
3. Hydrate! Drink lots all week, mostly water, some tea and juice.
   
   
4. Take days off running! 2 or more depending how I feel, only one (short) workout this week.
5. Don't do anything differently and be careful! No biking to school this week, no soccer, be smart.
6. Make a race plan and visualize the race. 
7. Stretch and get a massage: Take care of yourself!

I will probably post again before the race. If not, my bib number is 4332 and you can follow me running online here: https://www.tcmevents.org/events/medtronic_twin_cities_marathon_weekend_-_october_2-4_2015/health__fitness_expo_and_more/spectators/ or here if you want to get updates on your phone: http://athletetracker.cloudapp.net/

Have a great week everyone! Run Happy! (and taper happy!)  

The Week I Got Sick

After my 24 mile run two weeks ago I was feeling great! I was feeling like I was on track for the marathon that was just over a month away. The week after the 24 miles I was trying to stay on top of training, but by the end of the week I was starting to feel pretty run down. By the the time Friday hit, I had a full-blown head cold. 

Being sick always gets in the way of training and it's always hard to know how much to do when you are feeling under the weather. Even after running competitively for almost 10 years I still don't know how to listen to my body all the time. This was actually the fastest I have every recovered from illness while training, so maybe I am learning! Instead of doing my long run on Sunday like normal, I took Sunday off. Monday I did 10 miles instead of the 16 I was supposed to do, but instead of pushing myself I just took it easy. Tuesday was my first full day back at school and I didn't get home until 7:30 pm and by that time I was ready to sleep. Wednesday I was beginning to feel eager to get back to running, but I knew I still didn't feel 100%. Kristjan told me to run 30 minutes (what's the point right?) actually, I felt like garbage and I honestly don't think I could've gone any longer. Thursday I ran an hour and almost felt back to normal (except for a little leftover snot). By Friday I was able to run 10 miles at my normal pace (7:45-8:00 minute miles). Saturday I did another 10 and today I ran 18 and felt great.

Although, I did miss some training during the past week, I truly feel as though I didn't lose any fitness and I don't think it's going to hurt my marathon at all! I did miss two workouts, but it was a much needed recovery week. 

Here's what Runner's World says about running when you're sick: http://www.runnersworld.com/health/should-you-run-when-youre-sick

Today was my first time not running the Winnipeg 10&10 race in 3 years. I didn't register because I was sick, but I ended up running 30k anyways and I could have probably won the 30k race with the pace I ran for my long run. This year has been pretty different. I have only ran 2 races this year (Boston and Manitoba Half). I guess this is maybe the life of a marathoner... Lots of training and not very much racing. Normally I would have run 6-7 road races by this point in the year. Honestly, I kind of like training better than racing, it's not nearly as stressful (or exciting sometimes). I do feel a little bit more pressure that I put on myself  because I am only doing 3 races this year, like I'm putting all of my eggs into one basket. But I do think I can still go faster for the marathon and I am going to give it everything I've got!

Until next time, drink your chocolate milk and run happy!

Getting Back in the Grind

The internet may think I've dropped off the face of the earth, but it's not true! Believe it or not I am still here, and I am training for another marathon. My weeks have been full this summer, I've been averaging about 80 miles of running per week. So far my longest run has been 20 miles, I have a 22 miler planned for this weekend. We got possession of our new house last Monday (Aug.17) and we moved in that day. Moving day was fun because we had lots of friends helping us and it ended up turning into a party! I'm still getting used to all of my routes in my new neighborhood. There's lots of great stuff near me! There's Scotia Street, which you can take all the way to the Forks, Kildonan Park, Chief Peguis Trail, and the Gateway trail. I'm sure there are more to discover, and I have miles to burn! If you have a favourite route in West K, please share!

Here are some of my new routes!

I don't think I have spent one weekend in town this summer. I went to my friend Alex's cottage, Folk Fest, my family's cottage for 3 weekends in a row and then my friend Sarah's cottage for her bachelorette party and then back to Alex's cottage. It has been fun to switch up the locations of my long runs. 

I have been continuing to listen to the "Undisclosed" podcast about the Adnan Syed case from "Serial". I also have been listening to the "True Murder" podcast, although it has kind of spooked me a few times while running in unfamiliar areas. I have also been listening the audiobook "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells and it's excellent! I just started a new podcast today called "Criminal". Surprisingly, Criminal is not as dark as the others. If you have any suggestions for podcasts or audiobooks, please let me know!

I've started to go back to my class to set up for the new school year, although I still have 11 days of holidays left. My new house is so much closer to my school (5km!), I think I will be riding my bike there quite a bit and running there too.

That's all for now, I will try to write more consistently and keep everyone in the loop as I'm getting ready for the marathon in October! Remember to drink your chocolate milk and run happy!

Back to Training

Hello again friends,
Since my last blog post I have been up to a lot. I took some much needed time off, it's always hard to start running again, especially when you don't have any goals. In May and June I did some shorter runs and workouts to prepare for the Manitoba Half. I ended up running 1:29:28 - goal full marathon pace :-p. It was obviously not the fastest half marathon I have ever run, but in the end I felt that it was still respectable. About a week later I decided that it was time to start training seriously again. My goal is the Twin Cities Marathon on October 4th. My training is basically the same as what I did for Boston, except I will be going a bit further on my easy days, working a bit more on my dynamic warm up and strengthening after runs.

Since I am a teacher, I have 2 full months off work in the summer. This lets me run for 2+ hours a day without it getting in the way of my personal and professional lifestyle. So far, my summer vacation has been very relaxing and my training has gone according to plan. I have been really focusing on sleeping enough, and recovering effectively. Chocolate milk continues to be an important part of my post-run routine. This summer has been hotter than usual and I am finding hydration has been extremely important. The average temperature in Winnipeg this July has been ~26c. This has taken me a bit of time to get used to. Some of my running gear has proven to be essential this summer in the heat.

Here are my summer must haves:

• Hat - not only does it block the sun, but it also has a handy sweat band so that sweat won't drip in my eyes
• Sunglasses
• Bodyglide (to avoid chafing)
• Spandex shorts  (also to avoid chafing)
• lightweight, loose fitting running shirts (Brooks)
• Gatorade 
• Cold showers and/or a lake to jump in

That's all for now! Stay cool!

Post-Boston and Going Forward

Hello everybody, and welcome back to my blog! I haven't written since the marathon. So I just wanted to fill everyone in on what I've been up to for the past three weeks. At the end of this post I will go into my experience at the Boston Marathon. If you are someone who loves Boston as race, I would advise you not to read that part of my blog, because you may start to hate me. 

MY RACE

I was happy about my race! It wasn't exactly what I wanted, I am still pleased with what I was able to do. The race course itself was difficult. I think I underestimated it a little bit. I went out at the perfect pace and I held it for a long time! Here were my splits and what was going through my head for each mile:

Mile 1: 6:53 - Race started, I was a bit afraid of going out too fast, so I held back a bit.

Mile 2: 6:44 - Perfect pace!

Mile 3: 6:37 - May seem a bit fast but this was very downhill

Mile 4: 6:31 - This too!

Mile 5: 6:45 - Perfect

Mile 6: 6:36 - Downhill

Mile 7: 6:43 - Perfect

Mile 8: 6:45 - Perfect

Mile 9: 6:43 - Perfect

Mile 10: 6:49 - A bit of an uphill but still feeling good

Mile 11: 6:48 - Good

Mile 12: 6:44 - Perfect

Mile 13: 6:48 - Good

Mile 14: 6:46 - Perfect

Mile 15: 6:46 - Perfect

Mile 16: 6:35 - Downhill

Mile 17: 6:55 - Uphill

Mile 18: 6:54 - Uphill

Mile 19: 6:44 - Perfect, legs beginning to cramp up

Mile 20: 6:59 - Uh Oh!

Mile 21: 7:23 - I'm in trouble!

Mile 22: 7:01 - I saw a sign that said 4 miles left and I knew that if I could run at least 7:20's I could still go under 3 hours

Mile 23: 7:24 - Nope

Mile 24: 7:38 - Nope

Mile 25: 7:44 - When is this going to end???

Mile 26: 7:52 - %$#@*!

 

There was so much downhill that my quads felt like they were going to explode. At about mile 10 I started to feel my quads and I was able to hang on for another 10 miles but in the last 6 miles I was sure that my quads were going to burst. The next day I couldn't bend my legs at all. I think I can mostly blame it on the hills, but also the wind, rain and cold really beat me up.

RECOVERY 

For the rest of the day after the race, I was so sore from the cold weather and the hills, I just laid in bed for the rest of the day, took a bath and drank lots of chocolate milk. That night I had lots of beer and lobster for supper!

I was pretty sore for the next couple of days and I absolutely could not think of running another marathon anytime soon. I got one massage from Mike Booth at Massage Athletica and within a week, my legs felt totally back to normal.I didn't run again until May 3rd, which was pretty much 2 full weeks off. 1 week after the race I started riding my bike to school and could still feel a little tweak in my quad. 

GOING FORWARD

This past week I ran about 45 miles (about 72kms). The first couple of runs felt a bit rough, they were slow and felt very unnatural. By Thursday I was able to do 3 mile repeats at about 6:40 pace. Compared to how I felt after the Manitoba Marathon last year, I feel way more motivated and recovered and ready to start training again! (I think I was a bit over trained last year). I'm ready to jump back into training and I am going to train for a fall marathon this year. I'm thinking either Twin Cities or Toronto Waterfront. Many people have asked me if I am planning on do Manitoba, to go for the win again and my answer is no. If I did Manitoba I will certainly not go faster than my 3:03 from Boston, the races are too close together. I am planning on running the Manitoba Half Marathon this year and I am excited to give it a go! There are 3 other quick girls from Winnipeg right now, and the prospect of racing against them, seems like a lot more fun than running for 3 hours by myself. I'm really going to have to go for it, because one of the other girls ran 1:24 last weekend and another one is planning on going 1:21. My PB is 1:23 in the half from when I was 19, I would love to bring down my record!

Alright so there it is my sum-up of the race and post-race! I will be beginning to post more, now that I am back to training again! Below is my rant about the things that bothered me about the Boston Marathon. Like I said before, if you love Boston, don't read it. 

The Boston Marathon - My Experience

The hype begins at the airport

I decided to do the Boston Marathon because, well why not, right? I knew it would be an experience. The qualifying times were not really a big deal, for a woman of my age you only have to run 3:35, that was 30 minutes slower than my first marathon. I think for some people qualifying is a really big deal. People try over and over again to qualify and when they get there it is a really big deal for them, so I think they look at things differently while they are there and remember things differently and continue to try to go back as many times as possible. I guess that's kind of what made me want to go there, was the hype surrounding it, which failed to convince me while I was there.

The city of Boston is nice. I love the vibe of an oceanfront city. The smell of the ocean, the abundance of sea food and the 36,000+ runners walking and running around. The city is so proud about the marathon and the whole city booming with excitement on marathon weekend. I've never seen a city that supports runners like it. There were thousands and thousands of spectators even though it was raining, windy and freezing outside. There were people throughout the entire course cheering and willing us on. Every so often, I heard a "GO CANADA" and it motivated me a bit.

  
When we went to the race expo, my mom asked me if I felt like I was with "my people". The answer was no. People were so excited to be here. Out of 36,000 runners I'd say that 1 in 3 runners at the expo bought themselves a Boston Marathon jacket the day before the marathon. I'm not sure what the draw is towards those jackets. Maybe it's that it is an exclusive club that only 36,000 runners get to join every year? Maybe it's the fact you spend $110 on something with the event name on it, so that you have to finish the race to wear the jacket with pride? I don't know. People seem to hold their heads higher when wearing them and give off a sense of entitlement or give off an elitist vibe. The whole thing is a bit odd. I couldn't make myself buy anything with the Boston marathon emblem on it because there is constantly a sense of doubt in my mind about running, what if I run like crap? What if I don't finish? Even as a 3:03 marathoner I have doubts sometimes, because I have experienced races like that.

 
The way the event was run was a little bit interesting. The pre-race expo was awesome. There were so many interesting booths and exciting people to see. I saw Shalane Flanagan, Meb Keflezighi and Katherine Switzer on Sunday, so cool! A few of the people working at the expo asked me if this was my first marathon, which is a bit of a weird question considering you have to qualify for the race. The bib and race package pick up was super easy and fast except that they ran out of XS shirts, so I settled for a small which was fine.

 
 
Race morning was a little bit ridiculous. Wave 1 had to load onto the buses at 6:00-6:45 am. On the buses we weren't allowed to bring anything except what we were racing, with and some clothes that we were going to donate to charity. I had sweats and a sweatshirt, but I was nowhere close to being warm enough. To be warm enough I would have needed to have had a winter jacket and ski pants. The bus ride was an hour to Hopkinton. I sat on the the bus with a nice guy from Mexico. He was not wearing sweats or a sweatshirt, just what he was racing in! He talked about how the Boston organizers treat the runners like prisoners. I kind of got what he was talking about, but when we got to Hopkinton we stopped outside a school at about 7:30am. They let us our and I assumed that we would be going in the school. NOPE. We were directed to go behind the school into the school yard and there we sat outside for 2 hours before the race. I have never had a pre-race experience like that before. Why did we have to be out there for 2 hours???? Ridiculous. If I could give advice to people going in the future, I would say that they should rent a car and take that to Hopkinton instead of the stupid prison buses. That way they wouldn't have to wait outside for 2 hours in the freezing cold before the race. There were no heaters or anything! They didn't take care of our most basic needs! (warmth and shelter) I was pretty outraged.

Freezing people

As I crossed the finish line, I was looking forward to getting out of the rain and into some warm tents or something. NOPE. There was nowhere for the runners to warm up after the race. It was pouring rain and 3-5 degrees out. I was frigid! They told to keep walk down the road to get to bag pick-up. I was hoping so hard that there would be somewhere warm where we could go. NOPE. They kept telling us to keep walking. We walked for about a mile after the finish line. So I ran 26.2 miles and then had to walk an extra one at the end.

They were handing out sandwiches and water after the race, I couldn't grab anything because I couldn't use my hands because they were so cold. So I grabbed nothing except a warming poncho, which didn't do me much good. As I was walking and shivering and whimpering, I started to hope that someone would come and let me get in their car, or let me come into their restaurant to warm up. As I was looking around thinking "Why isn't anyone helping me? I am SO %$#*ing cold!", I noticed that everyone else was in the same boat as me. No one was talking, or enjoying themselves, there were thousands of people around me who were having the same miserable experience. Then I spotted my parents, I honestly felt like Rose from the movie Titanic when she was in the water and the rescue boats were going around. I almost couldn't get their attention, because I had no energy to call out to them or walk fast enough through the crowd of people. Finally I was able to reconnect with them, and I instantly started crying. My mom helped me change in a small changing tent, because my hands still were not working. While my dad was waiting outside, he helped several people open water bottles and their bags because their hands weren't working either. 

Me in McDonalds FML

When we got out from the changing tent, we went to the closest place possible to warm up. It ended up being a McDonalds. I was not impressed. I ended up getting a chicken burger and a hot chocolate and I sat and ate it while being extremely bitter and feeling very sorry for myself.

The whole thing was an awful experience. I am never going back. It's so weird because normally I am a very positive person and I try to see things in the best possible light, but this was ridiculous. I have ran so many races in my life, marathons, half-marathons, track races, road races, cross country, and all of them have taken care of their runners better than the "Almighty Boston Marathon". If they had rented a few heaters at the start line it would have made such a big difference, fires even! At the end they could have put up a few tents for us to warm up, or let us into the convention centre where the expo had been. I'm sorry, but when I pay $200+ to run in a race, I expect to have my basic needs met. 

When I got back to school so many people asked me how it was. My short answer is "Well, it's a marathon, so it was a hard". They tend to follow up with "Was it awesome though?" I can honestly tell them that the Manitoba Marathon is a better event and it's not worth the trip or the money.

Last weekend while I was watching the Police Half Marathon, I saw one of my favourite kind of people, someone wearing this year's Boston Marathon jacket. I overheard him talking to someone while watching the race and the other person asked "How was Boston?!" and he replied, "IT WAS AWESOME!". I felt like yelling in his face "In what world was that awesome?????", my mind was blown. 

Please forgive me for being so negative, but I really just needed to get this off my chest. My parents, on the other hand had a fantastic experience going to Boston with me. They thought the whole thing was very cool. The results were so fast and the athlete tracking had most of my family and friends jumping for joy. I wouldn't recommend this race anyone, but I also don't expect anyone to take my word for it either. When there so much hype behind something, people need to try it for themselves.