Ferritin Blunders

I have not written in a while because I have had some hiccups in my training. I'm back on track now, so not to fear.

After our trip to Cuba, I had two months of solid training. My long runs had reached 20 miles and my workouts were very strong. I did a 20 miler, where I felt great on March 5th. I did it in Birds Hill Park. The next day I felt terrible. I figured it was from the 20 miler, so I took a day off. The next day I was bagged, so I did a really short workout. By Wednesday, I was frustrated that I could only run 5 miles. Over that weekend, I struggled through some easy runs. By the next Monday, I knew something was wrong, so I headed to the doctor to get a blood test.

Not only were my runs feeling terrible, but I was exhausted throughout my days at school. I would come home and nap, wake up, try to run, eat, go back to bed. Finally I just gave up on the running part of the cycle because I honestly could not keep my eyes open throughout a day. I took the entire next week OFF training. It was a total blow to my self confidence and my attitude. I quickly became depressed and barely left my bed for the week.


All of the Iron

When my blood test came back, I found out the my ferritin levels were low, which means my body wasn't getting enough iron. I have no idea what the numbers meant, I was told that my level was 12, which is at the low end of the average scale. I started taking Ferrous Gluconate twice a day, as well as, eating way more meat, leafy greens and vitamin C than normal.

There are so many crazy rules for iron absorption, like: no caffeine and no calcium. For someone taking iron in the morning, what the F*** am I supposed to have for breakfast? It was quite an adjustment.

Spring Break came and went, I tried running 3 times during my entire week off and still mostly felt like garbage. The first week of April I was FINALLY starting to feel better. I was very cautious as I was starting to get back into it. It seemed like a switch just flipped though. One day I felt great, the next, I felt terrible. I described it to some of my friends as if I was superhero that lost my superpower. It was truly terrible. I couldn't run a mile without becoming out of breath, meanwhile, I knew I was in shape because I had just run a 20 mile run @ 7:20/mile pace.

After several disappointing runs, I felt good again by the second weekend in April. I felt totally back to normal. I honestly don't even feel like I missed out on any training. I did 21 miles this past Sunday and felt totally normal. I have my superpower back and I feel like I appreciate every single run I go on now.

I don't know what caused this change in my body. I have never been low on iron before. Nothing major changed in my training or diet. Low iron is something that affects so many females and runners, but I always thought that sucked for "those people". Now I'm one of those people and I will be very careful to never get low again!

There is one month until the Ottawa Marathon. I have every intention on racing to go sub 3:00. I think if anything, this whole experience has given me time to rest and it ensures that I will not be over trained for this one. I'm registered in the Elite field 💀. If I run much slower than 3:00 it's going to be embarrassing for sure. So that is going to be my motivation for being strong and smart over the next month.



OOOOWWWWW!

Other news that is kind of related:

• I've been listening to some new Podcasts: My Favorite Murder, Run Selfie Repeat, S-Town. They are all great in their own ways. MFM is hilarious, RSR always says what I am thinking and S-Town is super addictive and a great story.
• I got weirdly into running to Cat Stevens
• I chaffed worse than I ever have before in my life and had to bandage my arms up for a week and a half, like an IDIOT
• Hunty got me a guitar and I am taking lessons!
• I've been working some shifts at City Park Runners, the best dang running store in the city

  

  I'm so cool

• My bestie Megan became a co-leader of November Project Winnipeg because she's the bomb and I'm so proud of her!

That's all for now! Happy running everyone.

November Project #PBCM

Happy New Year - Run-cations and New Beginnings

The new year doesn't bring any crazy changes to my life. I will be trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and be trying to build enough speed and endurance to run faster than I ever have before in a marathon.

Since running Twin Cities in October, I have been taking it pretty easy, running 35-45 miles a week. I have been having fun taking a breaking, but I always feel like I lack purpose when I am not training for something. My marathon training began on January 1st (sort of). 

Kristjan and I booked a vacation on the 30th of December to leave on the first of January. We went to Cayo Coco, Cuba. I know that many runners choose not to run on vacation, but it is how I relax! Running on vacation is not always easy. I have always struggled with dogs chasing me in Jamaica or Mexico, but in Cayo Coco there were no dogs! It was like a dream come true! Every day I got up in the morning, ate breakfast, went for a run for an hour or so and then came back to stretch and do core. The road conditions were fantastic for running. There was a two lane highway that connects all of the hotels on Cayo Coco. There is very little traffic and no stop lights, just roundabouts. There was a large patch of grass between the road and the forest that you could also run on, if you don't feel comfortable on the road.


The ocean is unbelievable in Cuba and the beaches are gorgeous! Everyday after my run we sat by  the adult pool or went to the beach. We didn't go on any excursions or anything. We just sat back and relaxed for a week straight. It was perfect!

Since returning from Cuba, I have been increasing my mileage and intensity. I have started doing workouts, tempos and long runs again and it feels good!

Mileage for the first 3 weeks of January:
Week 1 - 42.5 miles (Cuba)
Week 2 - 51 miles
Week 3 - 62 miles

I've got very little speed as of right now, but we will be putting in a lot of work in the next couple of months and I am looking forward to it!

Happy running everyone! 

Training for Ottawa 2017 and Trail Running

 

I have decided to train for the Ottawa Marathon in May 2017. Right now I am base training. This consists of running 5-6 days a week (40-50 miles a week), cross training 1-2 times a week, and playing soccer 1-2 times a week (just for fun). I have also begun doing some circuit training twice a week to work on strength. I will start doing workouts in a couple of weeks. I'm not looking forward to spending more time on the treadmill, but I will continue doing the majority of my easy and long runs outdoors throughout the winter.

Most people would consider me to be a road runner. The majority of my runs are on pavement and I regularly compete in road marathons and other races. Trail running is a secret passion of mine. It doesn't really make you faster for road races, but it can distract your brain during long training runs. In the past month, I have run many of my runs on trails.

I only run on trails during the day for safety reasons, which means only on the weekends. Here are the trail runs that have done since Twin Cities in October:

•  Birds Hill - Big Bluestem Trail
• Assiniboine Forest and Harte Trail
• Fat Ass Frosty Beaver Trail Half Marathon
• Trails at Victoria Beach
• Forks/Waterfront/Whittier
• McBeth Park
• Bunn's Creek

 

One more thing before I go: I have been listening to this audiobook while running.



 

This book contains insight into the lives of those who are getting close to breaking the 2 hour barrier for the marathon. I'm obviously not a two hour marathoner, not even close. I still find this book to be exciting and motivating. I would definitely recommend it!



3:00:56 - Now What?

 

 

9 seconds slower than last year. Am I disappointed? Nope. After a less than successful Manitoba Marathon finish this year, I was extremely happy to finish to my potential in Minneapolis.

 

The trip itself was a huge success! I drove down with 4 friends: Gina, Megan, Katie and Mel. Gina, Megan and I did the marathon. Katie and Mel did the 10 mile. I am extremely proud of my group for conquering their goals: first post-baby marathon, overcoming a summer injury, training and running consistently and finishing her first race in several years.

 



 

 

After every marathon I run, I'm left with the question: NOW WHAT?

This time, I was extremely excited at the potential of breaking 3 hours. It's clear that I should have been able to do it in Minneapolis. Now I am eager to try again. The problem is, there aren't really any marathons until May. What can I do between now and January, before I have to start marathon training? Cross Train? Strengthen? Work on speed? I really don't know what the answer is, but I'm going to figure it out. 

Summer Recap: Run, Fun, and Sun

Today was my last day of summer break. Being a teacher, I get two full months off. This was my first summer since starting teaching, that I made every single day count. 

After the Manitoba Marathon, I was pretty exhausted, so I took the next two weeks off running completely. When school ended I was eager to start running again, but my body had other ideas. The first week back at running was rough, luckily I had lots of friends to run with. I headed out to the Whiteshell for a couple of days and went on some runs with my friend Alex. It was a beautiful few days, as it always is at Betula Lake.

I headed home for a day to prepare for Winnipeg Folk Fest, which I was going to be volunteering from Tuesday to the following Monday. I spent 4 glorious days volunteering in the campground, enjoying the music, and running the trails in the mornings. By Saturday, I was pretty tired from late nights and long days, so I was glad to head to Lac du Bonnet for Shauna and Scott's wedding. It was a fantastic day despite the rain and a few hiccups in my transportation arrangements (my car battery died in Birds Hill and I had to get rescued by my hubby). 

By the next weekend, I was out at the cottage with my friend Mel. We were running and enjoying pizza buns from the famous Einfeld's Bakery. By this time several of us had decided that we were going to train for the Twin Cities Marathon and 10 miler! That's right, I loved it so much that I am going back this year! I logged a 16 miler that weekend and was starting to feel good again. Some of my family was in town from Calgary, so I got to visit my aunt and uncle and cousins from Calgary. By the time I got back from the lake on Tuesday, Kristjan and I started packing for our road trip out to Kelowna for Alex's bachelorette weekend.

We left Winnipeg on Wednesday morning and got to Kelowna Thursday evening. It was a long 20 hours of driving, but it was well worth it! We stayed with my Auntie Marilyn in Calgary overnight on Wednesday and we stayed with Kristjan's Auntie Lesley and her family for the weekend from Thursday until Monday. Kelowna was beautiful! Of course, I was there with a group of runners, so we ran many hills and even got a hill workout in. Highlights from Kelowna: Visiting vineyards, Tree Brewing Company tour and food, running down the boardwalk by the lake, late night Pokemon catching with Syd G., Kristjan and Paul, going out in style wearing our matching pink tanks, playing sociables, floating down the river getting attacked by ducks, meeting a man with a baby that was haunted and so much more! It was an unreal 5 days with friends that I will never forget!

On Monday, Kristjan and I drove to Kamloops with Paul, where we had planned to go on a hike. We ended up running into some crazy hornets or something and giving up on that completely! He ended up taking us to a place called "Paul Lake" (not named after him I guess). There, we hiked a trail that took us up to the top of a cliff. After a short hike, I did an 8-mile trail run that was beautiful, despite me being a little paranoid about running into a bear or mountain lion. I didn't see anything special, just a garter snake. After my run, Paul showed us around town a little bit and we found a nice little rooftop patio to spend the evening on. 

The next day, we headed to Jasper for the night on our way to Edmonton. We didn't think ahead, to book a campsite, but it turned out the overflow camping was just as beautiful! Kristjan and I went for a 6 mile run at Medicine Lake before eating supper in Jasper. Jasper is unbelievably beautiful, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes being outdoors (I liked it better than Banff for sure)! We had terrible reception on our cell phones in Jasper though (I guess that happens a lot in the mountains) we were trying to get a hold of friends but couldn't. In Jasper, we saw mountain goats, a caribou, and a bear. We also saw paw prints that we thought were wolf prints but turned out to be Watson (Alex and Casey's dog). 

For the next two days, we hung out in Edmonton with our friends Jack and Melina and their adorable little kiddies. When in Edmonton, I went on a couple of runs, but spent more time running around after the cute little ones. I also got to spend a bit of time with my cousin Lucas. I also went for a visit to Alex and Casey's. We got back to Winnipeg on Friday before the August long weekend. 

The next day, Megan came and got me at 10 a.m. to go to her cottage. At her cottage, we went for an easy 6 miles and then paddled around 20k to Elbow lake in Nopaming Park. We portaged, we canoed, we portaged, we canoed, we cooked (sort of), we foraged, we boiled our drinking water, we played cribbage, we hammocked, we relaxed, we camped and then we canoed and portaged some more. It was an awesome way to spend a weekend. We got back early on Monday (thankfully) because there was a brutal storm that hit at around 2 p.m.

I spent the next couple of days in the city, logging miles and relaxing. I headed to November Project at the Forks for the first time on that Wednesday. By the next weekend, I had logged 70 miles that week and I was starting to feel a bit more "normal". The next weekend was Alex and Casey's wedding. Spent lots of time with the bride and groom before they had to go back to Edmonton for the year. The wedding was amazingly fun. The Kelowna gang, friends from track, and many others, reunited to make one epic wedding!

The next week, I was putting in the miles that I wanted, but my runs were a bit slower than anticipated. I was ready to put in some serious work! The next Tuesday, my brother Tom and I went to the track and hammered out 800/400/200 x 8, I swear it just about killed me. It must've been about 35 degrees when we finished! I certainly need that workout though. Ever since then, my workouts have been significantly quicker and it has been easier to hit my pace goals.

Finally, two weekends ago I was at Grand Beach hanging out with the trackies. I went on a couple of runs, on one of them I saw a Blue Heron, which I thought was awesome, but apparently they are everywhere. There were big waves to play in and we built an epic sand castle on the beach! During the week, I spent most days in my classroom organizing and planning.  By the next weekend, I was ready to hit the lake again. This time, my own cottage. I headed out with Megan, Vanessa, and Mel. We ran, we canoed, we went to the beach, we played games, and we ate pizza buns of course! 

In August, I worked my way up to a 20 miler for my long runs and then last weekend I went short again to rest up for the big one that I did yesterday! I did my 24 miles in 2 hours and 57 minutes and felt pretty great for most of it! Special shout out to my mama for riding a bike me the whole way and feeding me water! It is making me excited to race next weekend at the Winnipeg 10 and 10 race!

This summer I have run in so many different places, with so many different people. I didn't spend one weekend in the city, and it was perfect! It didn't exactly add up to the best marathon training, but it did keep things interesting and fun! There are 34 days until my next marathon and despite a summer of inconsistencies in my training, I am really looking forward to it! I am feeling strong and fresh and eager to get back to routines and school tomorrow. It has been an awesome summer in so many ways, but I am ready for the next chapter! 

Happy new (school) year everyone!

Congrats Shauna and Scott!

Running at Folk Fest

Ready for our road trip!

Beach babes in Kelowna

Spending some girl time

Vineyards at Grey Monk

Paul Lake Trail in Kamloops

Made it to the top!

Beautiful Jasper!

Camping in Jasper

Canoeing

Relaxing

Congrats Alex and Casey!

Too much fun

Some serious sandcastle building

Running 24 miles - Powered by Chocolate Milk

Post Manitoba Marathon

Well, it's over. It didn't go as planned, but I guess sometimes races don't.

We woke up on Sunday to thundershowers and the weather saying that it felt like 24 degrees with the humidity. That was at 5:00 am, it just got hotter and more muggy as the morning went on. At the start line at 7:00 am I was already sweating after a short warm up. I knew this race was going to be trouble! 

As I was getting my massage last week, my very smart massage therapist/runner friend told me that if it was going to be hot, the smartest thing to do would be to slow my pace by 10-15 seconds per mile. Now, I have been training for this marathon for 6 months, I really wanted to go under 3:00 hours, do you think I'm going to change my pace now? No way Jose! 

Mike was right. I should have slowed my pace. I started off with my 6:45 miles as planned, slowing to 7:00 minute miles by half way, and finally giving up on pace completely and just focussing on finishing for the last 10 miles. Occasionally I checked my watch in the second half and at one point I was going 8:30 miles. Oops, my bad. 

It was my slowest marathon to date and there are many possible reasons why. 

- it's been a busy year with buying a house and getting married

- I was injured in January with a calf strain 

- I have been sick a few time this spring, leading to several breaks in training

- I wasn't smart on race day 

Now for the positives... 

It was definitely not my best day, but it wasn't a complete waste of time. I did end up finishing 2nd (better than expected). I had family and friends on the course supporting me. I like running the Manitoba Marathon because they treat you like rock stars. Their expo and post-race food are top notch. Kristjan was able to bike around on the course and motivate me to keep pushing and working hard. I am kind of proud of myself for letting go of my watch and expectations and just running the way I felt. Yes, it led to a poor finishing time, but it made feel like I was in charge, not my watch.

It was awesome to see the running community out in Winnipeg, even people who don't consider themselves runners toed the start line. My best friend Megan also ran the race, so it was great celebrating with her and her family afterwards. I have had so many people supporting my running journey this year, I'm just going to name a few. Kristjan, my husband and coach has been consistently  patient with me, while still not letting me get away with too much. Erick from City Park Runners, who has continued to support my dreams and my running needs with shoes and whatever else I need. The people at Powered by Chocolate Milk have continued to support me throughout this year. Mike and Kyle from Massage Athletica, helping me get through my bumpy patch with my calf in the winter. My friends for their kind words of encouragement and my family for their awesome Sunday dinners to help refuel me after my long runs. I got the chance to run alongside many great runners while have been training for this one: Megan, Kristjan, Sheldon, Gina, Alex, Tom, Paul and I am sure I'm forgetting a few.

It was not my first Manitoba Marathon event, and it certainly will not be the last one. I look forward to running in it for many years to come. 

For the next couple of weeks, I will enjoy taking some time off of running while the school year is winding down. Coming up I will be looking to do some fun trail runs and triathlons this summer to stay in shape and then I will be training for another marathon in the fall!

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!