Half Training Ver 2.0 - Week 9

What a crazy week it's been! The snowstorm of the year was forcast for wednesday, so I headed out for a run on Tuesday. I ran the beach route twice, and at the beginning I felt AWESOME. After the first 2k, I was feeling much less awesome, and the only thing that made me turn around at the mailbox and run it again was autopilot. I really struggled on the way back up the hill, but I got it done and felt good that I did it.

Then, Wednesday afternoon, the snow came. And the wind. It was a CRAZY storm here on the north shore of PEI. School was cancelled. We were lucky, though, and only lost power for about an hour and a half. On wednesday at about 5:15, I turned the stove on to make supper and the power went out. Of course! Thankfully, I expected the power to go out, so for supper on Tuesday, I made 6 big baked potatoes so that we'd have leftovers. We cut up a few potatoes and some hotdogs, put it all in our cast iron pan and cooked it over the wood stove. Little Fox thought it was the greatest thing ever. The power came back on as soon as we finished eaing!

On Thursday,  I woke up early. I'm a huge weather geek, so I was excited to see how much snow we got. I was NOT disapointed. For the rest of the day, I wavered between awe and dismay. There was just so.much.snow. School was cancelled again.

Dude, where's your car?!

This is what the guest house cottage looked like.

That's a LOT of snow.

Lost a few shingles from the roof of one of the cottages.

Those are the tops of trees. Little 4-foot tall trees.

The drift behind the barn

The snow blower had to work pretty hard!

 

We spent Thursday waiting for the snowblower to arrive. He finally got here at about 7:30pm. He said that he started that morning at 6am, and we were the worst he saw all day. School was cancelled again on Friday! So we all spent a lot of time outside, shovelling out the truck, playing in the snow, and walking aound to see jsut how much we had.

On Saturday morning, I saw on twitter that they announced the slogan winners for the Blue Nose Marathon. I didn't win. BUT the winner of the kid's slogan was "Run til you're blue in the nose". Sound familiar????? I emailed them and asked how the winners are chosen, since that is the slogan I submitted, and I submitted it about 5 minutes after the contest was announced. I don't really expect anything to come of it, but I was pretty annoyed. Free entry to the race would be awesome. My race fee is a Christmas gift from mom, but still, free is free!

Anyway, after that, I was annoyed so I went ouside to vent my frustrations on the snow. We had to get into the barn to get some wood and the oil cans, but the door was snowed in. After lunch, we went into Summerside for some oil and groceries. The boys dropped me off at the Credit Union Place so I could run on the indoor track while they ran the errands. I wanted to get my long run done, and I was worried that I'd be bored running around the track. BUT I was really looking forward to running on a level surface, with no ice or snow, no cold, and no wind in my face! It was glorious. LOL There was a hockey game, and I had some music, so I wasn't as bored as I thought I'd be. Also, it took a lot of brain power to keep track of all the laps! I did about 60 laps, which is about 15 km. I may have lost count, but I was running for about an hour and 40 minutes, so it seems about right!

My plan of attack was to run 10 laps, and then have a drink and walk one lap. After about 30 laps, my legs started to get pretty sore, but I kept going. Even with the sore legs, I REALLY enjoyed this run. I was surprised a how "easy" it was to run on the flat surface, and surprised at how much easier it was to keep my pace consistent.

When we got home from Summerside, we drove down toward the beach. Our road is basically flooded with all the melt run-off. The flood waters (ok, maybe not a FLOOD, but there's a lot of water!) start at the cottage driveway, and go all the way down to the beach. I'm SO glad I ran inside!

We're under another weather warning for today (Sunday) and tomorrow. Snow and freezing rain. Seriously. This has got to stop!

After all the shoveling and the long run, I am REALLY sore today. My back and shoulders hurt, and my thighs are killing me. Its amusing to note that the right side of my upper body hurts the most, and my left leg hurts more than the right (from running in a "circle"??). I am feeling a little unbalanced today! I plan to do some foam rolling and have a warm epsom salt soak!

Half Training Ver 2.0 - Week 8

On Tuesday, I ran 5k in under 30 minutes. I can't remember the last time I ran a sub-30 5k! Well, maybe I've been running them this whole time, and didn't know it cause I rarely take my Garmin! It was a pretty good run and I felt great when I was finished.

Thursday, I ran hill repeats. I was feeling a little run down, so they weren't done well, but I did them.

Today, Sunday, I headed out for my long run. I planned to do 10k, because last week I ran 15 and thought I should step it back a bit this week. I ended up running 300 metres!

Yesterday I had a sore throat and felt really blah. The muscles in my arms and legs felt weak and shaky, and I was really sleepy. It feels very similar to how I feel when my blood sugar drops.I ate and ate and ate, thinking it was just that I needed some fuel, but I didn't help. We went for a drive and I barely had the energy to hold up my head. Red Fox kept asking me what was wrong, but I have no idea! I even napped yesterday afternoon, which is something I do only VERY rarely.

So anyway, today, I am feeling the same way. Throat isn't as sore, but still feels weird. Arms and legs still feeling really weak. Not as sleepy, either. I had breakfast and put some chocolate chips in a baggie for my run. I got dressed and headed out, but I only made it to the stop sign before deciding I probably shouldn't go today. My knees were buckling a bit, and I didn't want to get 5k from home and get "stuck" with no way of contacting Red Fox (cell phone was dead). This is so strange... I hope I'm not getting sick.

I feel ok about missing today's long run. I had a great long run last week, and my mileage was ahead of schedule. I had some decent short runs during the week, and I'm hopeful that I'll be feeling stronger in the next few days.

weird.

Half Training Ver 2.0 - Week 7

Tuesday morning, I finally decided I was feeling "better enough" to run. I still wasn't 100% better, but it was more of a sinus problem than a chest problem. I checked the weather and decided to run after work when the wind would be lighter and the temps warmer. I finished up at 4:30, got changed and headed out with the plan to take it nice and slow and easy. It felt SO good to get out and run after more than a week. I pretty much sprinted down TDH, but then stopped to... blow my nose. I have been so stuffed up, and it was nice to be able to employ the "farmers blow", because my nose is so sore from using issues.

Anyway, enough with the grossness. I ran the River Rd, and I felt great. It was warm-ish, not much wind, and quiet. It was the first run since October that I felt like my old runner-self. Like I could stretch out and run freely, instead of fighting my way through the weather and just "Get it done".

Now that I said THAT, we're getting a snow storm tonight and tomorrow, so... ugh. Come on spring!

In other news, The Blue Nose marathon just opened their slogan contest. Here's my submission. It would be so cool to win and see everyone wearing it (not to mention the free admission to the race!). But I'm sure it's a long shot!

 

 

Wednesday night it started snowing at about 6, and didn't stop until Thursday evening. The wind was crazy enough that my bedroom curtains were moving (we obviously have leaky windows). School was cancelled on Thursday and we again have giant snowdrifts everywhere. The driveway got snowblown today (Friday) at about 10, so I waited until after work to go for a run. I couldn't wait to get out and run... my legs were achy from sitting down at my desk all day, and I needed to get some blood pumping. The wind was light, it was sunny, and warm-ish. I planned to do hill repeats today. But by between the top of the hill and the bottom, I was chased by 3 dogs, and there was one other dog which was being held back by it's owner. Where did all the dogs come from?! Usually there might be ONE dog, but 4?! So, I decided to just keep going and not run past the dogs over and over. I ran the River Road (with a little extra across the highway), and felt pretty good. I was almost sad when I got back home!

 

Sunday Runday! Today was long run day. I had 14k on my schedule. I planned to run the beach route twice (which would add up to 5k) and then head out toward the Anne museum. But after my first lap of the beach route, my garmin died. So I decided that since I knew that the beach route is almost exactly 2.5k, I'd just run that a million times until I got the total kms I wanted.

 

 After the first 2 laps, I had a really sore spot on my toe. I made a quick trip into the house, trimmed my toenails, put some tape on the sore spot, changed my sneakers, and then headed back out. I originally had my old sneakers on with my ice spikes, but the road was clear so changing my sneakers was something I wanted to do anyway. I ended up doing the route 6 times, which added up to 15k. 14k ended with me down at the beach, so why not run back home, right?

 

It was a good run, and there were a lot of people out walking. Met some new people, got some compliments on my Christmas decorations that I still have hanging outside, and got some applause for my running efforts. Whenever I got down to the beach, I picked up a rock to put in the mailbox so that I could keep track of my laps. The lady who lives down here must have been thinking "what is that crazy woman doing now?!" The weather was pretty decent, except that one short stretch where the wind whips across the road. That last lap was pretty awesome. It was my longest run ever, and for some reason the 15 km distance made me feel like a "real" runner.

 

 



Half Training Ver 2.0 - Week 6

No running this past week! I started coughing last sunday after my long run, and am still coughing a little bit. I was also really stuffed up and had a bad sinus headache for days. Today is the first day I feel "well" enough to run, so I'm hoping to get out at lunch time or after work. Now that the time changed, there's enough light after 5 for me to go running. Thank goodness!

Because I didn't run, I don't have much to say... so here's a photo dump from my phone.

 

Molly, waiting for Little Fox to get off the bus.

Warming up by the fire before school

Summerside sunset

A representation of the past week.

Little Fox helping Red Fox with the wood in the barn

Putting together the bird feeder he got for Chrismas

This is my shirt from the Lucky 7 Relay (in November). I commented on one of their photos and said hat my shirt has a sticky spot, so they are sending me a new one!

Molly, snuggled up for a nap by the fire

Today is "When I Grow Up" day at Little Fox's school. Here he is, dressed as a teacher.

Say it ain't so

I think I'm getting a chest cold. That's the worst kind of cold for a runner to get! I coughed once or twice this morning before going for a run, and I pretended it didn't happen. But since about lunch time I've been coughing more and more. Hopefully it doesn't last long!

Half Training Ver 2.0 - Week 5

Another good running week! Yay. I think I'm finally getting my groove back.

Tuesday was a 5k. I need to start writing run recaps as soon as I finish because by the time I get around to writing my weekly blog on sundays, I forget the details. I know I ran, I know it was 5k, but's about all I remember. LOL

Thursday, I did hill repeats for the first time ever. A guy I know from High School runs trail ultras, so I asked him for some tips for training for the trail race in august. He said exactly what I dreaded expected: hill training. Ugh. So I went out on Thursday and ran That Damn Hill 4 times. The run from home down to the bottom of the hill is exactly 1k. I ran up 4 times, and then ran home, and the total came to 4k. I did have my garmin with me for that run, so I knew how long it took, but I can't remember now.

Today was long run day. I thought it was going to be terrible. My mom and step-father arrived yesterday to visit for a few days, and I had a glass of their wine last  night. Apparently, home-made wine doesn't agree with me well. I woke up at 3am, feeling hung over... from ONE glass! I slept off and on til 6:20, then got up. I had 2 blueberry muffins and 3 slices of bacon, got my running gear on and trudged out the door. It was about -7 with the wind chill, which is damn near balmy considering the weather we've been having lately! Yesterday's wind chill was -25. I had 11k on the schedule for today, but I "secretly" planned to do 12k. I ran to the beach, and from there headed out to the Anne museum, which would total about 7k, and then 5k back to the driveway. It was SO WINDY. At one point I stopped in my tracks, looked into the wind and said out loud "come on! what the hell!?". I had to stop a few times and turn around so I could rub some feeling back into my face! I got the full 12k done, but it wasn't very speedy. I think my average pace was 6:53/km. But hey, I got it done, right?

After the run, we all went to a community brunch, and I am having some lingering "digestive distress". Ah, the joys of being a runner, right?!