Back At 'er

Today I went for my first run in a month and a half. It felt good and I remembered why I like it. Sometimes you just need a little break from the things you love to remember why you love them in the first place.

A New Obsession

I have a new bike obsession. Finally, after about 15 years, I bought a new set of wheels. When people ask what kind of bike it is, I have to snicker a little when I reply that it's a Giant mountain bike. And I love it. I brought it home 2 weeks ago and have ridden it every day since (every day that I've been home that is). As par for the course I've taken up reading magazines with titles like Adventure Cyclist and Bicycling magazine. (I just read an article in the latter that gave tips on what kind of bike one might consider for their fifth bike, as apparently their average reader has 4 bikes. Four. I've never considered the possibility of more than one bike.)

Anyway, my new wheels reside in my kitchen next to the patio doors when not in use, which may help explain the setting of the pic above.

I've ridden downtown several times (to work once) and will ride with the smallest excuse. ("Hey Nicole, I'm just going to return this movie...time me, ok?" - incidentally I can now return a movie in 3 minutes flat).

Today was a great day of exploring on wheels. I rode downtown, returned a pair of shoes to the Bay, stopped at the bank, rode through the 2nd Ave sidewalk sale, then took off to the Farmer's Market. (I tried to return something to Oceanquin Athletics only to discover that they've gone out of business in the few days since I bought my item!)

Today I noticed that my "indignant cyclist" attitude is developing quite well. Downtown there are spray-painted reminders on almost every sidewalk corner that you have to walk your bike on the sidewalk. That's fine. I imagine that law is in place for the safety of pedestrians, which is fair enough. However, have you ever tried to ride your bike downtown? It's not easy. Some streets are just not wide enough to permit both vehicle and cyclists to co-exist peacefully, and there are more than a few inattentive drivers to ratchet up the tension. But I don't know of anyone who would be willing to walk their bike block after block just to get through downtown. So today I employed a varied approach, staying on the streets when possible and taking to the sidewalks when it felt like the only safe course. It worked ok, but I think I'll prefer to stay out of the downtown whenever possible.

At the end of almost every ride, I take a detour and make one lap around the little lake by my house because, inside, I'm still an 8 year old kid who doesn't want to come inside yet...just 5 more minutes on my bike...please?

Pictures From Race Day

Another medal for my collection. And notice our race bibs had our names on them.

Moments after finishing...just trying to stay upright.

Surprised to see people I knew.

More About the Marathon

I run so that I can race. Fitness has never been a good motivator for me, and if I couldn't race then I don't know if I would continue running.
The best part of a race is five minutes before the gun goes off. At this point you can't train anymore. You've done your warmup. You've stretched. You're as mentally prepared as you're going to get. The past several months of training were all for this moment. Everyone around you squeezes in, waiting for the gun to go off.
I like to look around me when I'm waiting, and note all the different people who will be running that day. In Calgary I was standing beside a girl who had a picture of her dad pinned to her arm with the words "I run for you Daddy" written around it. It brought tears to my eyes (still does) and I wondered about her story. Everyone has a different reason for running, a different path that brought them to that race on that particular day. In Calgary there were over 6000 people running from 25 different countries. I was glad to be a part of it all.
In the moments before the gun goes off, you still feel good, and anticipation rises above all other emotions. By the end of the race I'm just glad to be finished. Making it to the starting line carries with it it's own sense of accomplishment.
I hope to make it to at least a few more starting lines this season.

Calgary Half Marathon

I ran a new personal best in Calgary on the weekend - 2:16:56! (The time on the clock in the picture is the gun time, but my chip time is my official time.)
Before the race I was feeling disappointed with myself, because I'd let my training slip in the last 2 weeks before the race. I was tired of running, particularly the long runs, because I've been in training since the end of January. Mentally, I was lowering my expectations and trying to convince myself that as long as I finished the race I would be happy, regardless of my time.
The morning of the race came early, as I was staying in Airdrie and had to rise at 4:30am to get ready and have Nicole and her mom drive me to downtown Calgary. (They were good supporters, not complaining too much about the early hour, and I saw them at 2 different points along the way, as well as at the finish line. My friend Donna and her kids came out to cheer me at the end as well. After such an extreme effort it's always nice to see a friendly face at the end!)
I lined up with the 2:30 pace bunny with hopes to finish a little bit ahead of her. After a short while I decided on a new "pacer" - a guy with a bright yellow jersey and a serious-looking water belt (he was carrying 8 bottles!). I overheard him say that he wanted to finish the full in 4 hours, 30 min, which means if I could keep up with him, them I should be able to finish the half in about 2:15. (The courses for each race were the same up until the 18km mark).
I felt fairly strong in the first half, trying a variety of mental tricks to keep my pace up. I finally settled on repeating my own mantra in my head, "find your own rhythm and run in it." In a crowd of over 6400 runners, it's sometimes hard to find your own pace and stick to it.
I usually start to bonk around the 14k mark, and was happy to find that I was doing ok at that point. At the 16k mark, I met up with my pacer and we ran together for the next 2km. His name was Wayne, from Edmonton, and I don't think I could have finished the race with such a good time if I hadn't had someone to follow. We talked for 2k until he branched off to continue with his full marathon. It was nice to have the distraction for a little while, when my body was starting rebel a little.
After climbing the hill right at the end (what the heck is a hill doing right at the end of the race?!) I managed to cross the finish line upright, with a new personal best. And having said before the race that this would be my last for the summer, I now wonder if perhaps I might try just one more this season...maybe just a little bit faster?

Half Marathon

A few kilometres into the race.

Finished!

The Secret

Being an adult means many different things. It means renegotiating your mortgage, making sure your bills are paid on time, remembering to change the oil in your car, and calling the repairman to fix your washing machine when it breaks. It means being responsible, and making decisions that are usually farther reaching than those that confronted you back in your school days.
But.
It also means you know the secret.
That eating one of your Subway cookies, in the car, on the way home after work, before your supper, will not spoil your appetite.
Being an adult means being responsible, but it also means savoring those delicious moments of freedom and choice.

Reasons

"There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life,

every one of them sufficient."

- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

quote of the day

"We are, every one of us, going to die. Rotting is the way of all things. A tree, a cheese, a heart, a whole human chassis. Now, knowing that, understanding that, living begins to seem less important than living the way you'd like to live...So, life, by definition, is impermanent. All the energy we spend in trying to fix it, secure it, save it, protect it, leaves damn little time for living it. Pain or death or any other pestilence doesn't pass over us because we're careful or because we have insurance or, God forbid, because we have enough money. All right. So how does one come to understand exactly how one wants to live? How one wants to use up his time?"

- from A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena De Blasi

I Believe...I don't want to run anymore

Each year, (all 2 of them), I seem to have a theme song for when I run. A particular song that I play when I need a little audio encouragement. This year it is Believe by Suzie McNeil.

If you just believe
You can move mountains with dreams
The higher you climb
The better it gets
Cause you will see things
You'll never forget

and particularly the following verse:

No one says it's easy
And no one says you have to be perfect
But as long as you try
You're always gonna find
It was worth it

Today was my toughest run yet. I just had no juice in the tank. Tired from the word go, by the halfway point (9 km or so) I was running on fumes. I blame it on not eating enough for breakfast, not drinking quite enough, the heat, and not putting in the training time during the week. Surprisingly, I had no specific sore points, and my feet felt better than they have during any of my past long runs. However I had to give in and walk more than I usually do, putting me 9 minutes slower than my projected time.
By the time my condo came into view I was ready to pack it in and never run again. I'm starting to feel better now that I've had time to rest and shower and reflect on what went wrong.
I did a lot of thinking about what I like about running, and I think the greatest thing I've come away with so far, is that running has taught me a few things. It's taught me that I can do more than I think I can; that willpower counts for a lot. (I ran the last half of my training run today on nothing more than that.) I've learned that when things go wrong, or get difficult, you have a choice to pack it in or to keep going - it's a specific choice that has to be made, and if you choose to keep going, you'll be stronger for it. I've used this lesson in other areas of my life lately, which makes my running seem even more worthwhile.
Today I think I learned about wisdom. That while sometimes you have to make the choice to push on, you also have to know when to step back and admit that things aren't going as well as you'd hoped, and make adjustments accordingly.
All in all then, my run today was not a total failure, as I came away with another lesson learned.
And also my first sunburn of the year.

Victoria Moments

Sam's Deli - the fabulous restaurant where we dined on shrimp and avocado sandwiches the first day we were there.

A magnificent garden on the way to Craigdarroch Castle

Nicole and I having high tea at the Empress Hotel

The view from our 6th floor balcony

Victoria

Having just recently returned from a 4 day excursion to Victoria, BC I'm already planning my next trip.
Victoria was wonderful. What a treat to see (and smell) so many flowers and trees already leafing out at this time of year. While the weather was mostly cool and windy, we were still out and about every day. We decided not to rent a car, and ended up doing a lot of walking. A lot. Lots and lots of walking. One day, nearly 6 hours of it. Which was probably a good thing, because we also did a lot of eating.
Mmmmm...we ate at some fabulous restaurants. The lunch highlights were Sam's Deli and Willie's Bakery, and supper was absolutely amazing at Pescatore's. Halibut is in season there right now, and my meal was melt-in-your-mouth good.
We took a partial city tour, visited the wax museum, toured Craigdarroch Castle, and watched a show at the Undersea Gardens. We had high tea (afternoon tea) at the Empress Hotel, which I would recommend to anyone who visits Victoria. Using solid silver utensils and fine china, served tea and the most amazing food by a gentleman named Josief, relaxing in huge comfy chairs listening to a talented piano player, looking out over the harbour...it was a lovely experience.
Now...where to next?

$20? For Socks? Really?

I bought some running socks today. From an actual running store. Thank goodness I had birthday money. Granted, I didn't buy the cheapest ones in the store, but rather the ones recommended by the salesgirl, who has used them to run admirable distances.
I took the socks for a test run as soon as I got home, and they performed beautifully.
And yes, I can actually tell the difference between the Walmart socks I was using and the Brooks beauties I bought today.

Long Run - Too Long

I woke up this morning with a sore back from moving around some heavy furniture in the basement yesterday. I thought I should probably forgo my weekly long run, so as not to turn what was just discomfort into an actual injury. As the day wore on and the sun broke through the clouds, I found myself unable to resist the pull of the run. "Just a short one," I told myself. An hour, tops. As my internet connection wasn't working, I was unable to plot out a route, leaving me free to run an exploratory route - a turn here, a jog along that path, wherever I landed was fine with me. I love these kinds of runs, because there are no rules - just go for as long as you can or want to. The pitfall, unfortunately, is that I always think I can go further than I really should.
Alas, it happened again. An hour passed and I found myself downtown, by the Bessborough. Now, if you know where I live, you know that I probably shouldn't have run that far, given that my scheduled distance, even if I had been feeling up to it, was only 16 km. I called Nicole to let her know that I would be longer than my imagined one hour. She offered to come and pick me up, but I wasn't feeling too bad at this point.
Off I went, across the Broadway bridge and heading home. My feet were really starting to ache at this point and I was happy to turn onto Taylor. I usually end my runs coming home on Taylor, and as such feel that it is my home territory, even if I am still many kilometres from the end of my run. I probably should have called for a ride at this point, but the crazy part of me didn't want to concede defeat to the route I had chosen.
Well. Now I pay the price. Overall I'm sore, but not unexpectedly so. However, my right calf has decided that it no longer wants to flex when I walk, forcing me into an unusually slow, stiff-legged gait. I hope I haven't done any serious damage with my ill-advised and probably a little foolish 20 km run today.
In comparison, though, my back does not ache nearly as much :-)

Long Run 16 km - 1 hour 49 min

Every long has its own personality. Last weekend I was all about the focusing and forgetting; focusing on my music, on a spot on the road a ways in front of me, on a daydream or rabbit trail of thoughts, anything to keep my mind from thinking about my sore body. At times I got so good at dissociating myself from my lower extremities that I had to actually look down and make sure I was still running and hadn't come to a standstill.
Today was just the opposite. I found my pulsing joints and sore feet became my companion as I ran. The pain was not something to be endured or forgotten or frustrated about, it was just a part of the experience. Today was also one of the first long runs I've done where I didn't get tired, which was encouraging. In the last 4 kms or so, I had to really pin it sometimes to get through an intersection before the light turned red, and it was nice to know that somewhere deep down there are reserves of energy that I can call on even after I've been running for well over an hour.
At one point as my hips were starting to seize a little, I thought about what I must look like, and pictured an arthritic chicken hobbling across a farmyard. I'm relatively sure that I didn't look quite that bad, but it made me smile nonetheless!
All in all, I think today's run was a success.

Wayback Track

Apparently I shouldn't have posted my previous entry so hastily. I just came across another band that I have vivid memories of - WhiteHeart! Oh how I loved them. Remember the concert at Elim, Sher? Remember Sing Your Freedom, Hotline, and Convertibles? It was one of my favorite concerts, made even more memorable because my big sister let me tag along with her and her friend!
I feel like I'm putting together the soundtrack of my teenage years.

The Good Old Days

I got an iTunes gift card for my birthday, and decided that I would try to find 20 different songs from 20 different artists previously unknown to me. In my searching I just stumbled onto a group that I listened to a lot growing up - the Christian rock band Guardian. Wow. Talk about stepping back in time. It brings to mind all the hours I spent listening to them on my first ghetto-blaster (back when it was still called that!)
Songs like Dr. Jones and the Kings of Rhythm, Never Say Goodbye, The Captain, Forever and a Day, You and I, C'Mon Everyone, Fire and Love, and Endless Summer were some of my favorites. (I'm not sure how many people would even recognize any of those songs, except maybe my brother-in-law.)
I may just have to add some of those to my $20 playlist.
Aaahh...sweet memories.

Long Run March 22 - 14 km

I got home from this weekend's long run a little while ago, and I'm feeling pretty good. The weather was about perfect - a little cool and breezy, with the sun peeking through the clouds just often enough to offer a little encouragement. The roads have dried up considerably in the last couple of weeks, making for a less stressful run. In fact, this is probably my first time out that I could classify it as a run - other times it was more of a shuffle, leap-frogging over frozen ground.
I felt fresh and motivated until about the 10k mark. This is usually where the hip pains start to set in, and they showed up right on time. However, this time I managed to figure out a way to focus and bring myself into a rhythm where the pains actually went away. (They were replaced shortly after with the irritation of a growing blister on my right foot - you win some, you lost some.) This was the first time I've taken along a bottle of Gatorade, and it definitely helped to keep my energy level up near the end. I even set a new time record for myself!
After a little stretching and a cold bath, a large helping of my sister's Easter bread, and a few lines of writing, I think I might be ready for a nap now.

Long Run 12 km

My mood yesterday during my long run reflected the weather like a mirror. I didn't feel particularly buoyant, but not overly bad either - just neutral. About 3/4 of the way through the run, I began to feel sore, and tired. I forgot how sore I get at distances over 10 km. It may be time to start the post-run ice baths! I need to do more running during the week so that next Sunday doesn't come as a shock.
Sometimes I wish I could carry a little recorder with me as I run, because I'm usually composing my blog entry out on the streets. By the time I get home it's lost some of it's oomph and I'm just glad to be off my feet. Hopefully the snow will continue to disappear this week, and my run next week will be on dry ground.

Birthday

Thanks to my friends who made my birthday a fabulous day!