Alrighty...it's the last day of 2010...time to put all of this being injured business behind me and welcome in a new year and hopefully a fabulous year of running ahead of me. I'm excited for the year to come and for what might lay ahead. I don't really have any set plans...just playing it by ear really. For the last month i've been running on the treadmill 2-4 times a week, along with other workouts...and Christmas Day was my first run outside in ages...it felt amazing!
I hope that run was the first of many and it'll be nice to start thinking about racing again in the not so distant future. My plan right now is to see how my foot likes to run throughout January and if all is good i might start training for the Calgary Marathon at the end of May. I'm not signing up for any races until i know i can run them uninjured...i'm just going to see how things go and enjoy running whenever i can!
Happy New Year and hopefully i'll see you out on the trails soon!!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
It's been a while...
So...it would appear that I just up and abandoned my blog altogether hey? Anyone out there miss me?! Yeah, i pretty much gave up on it as I remained on the injured list. I guess originally this was intended to be a running blog and since I wasn't really able to run anymore then I didn't feel like just getting on here to complain about being injured and how much i miss running!
Well being injured wasn't really the only reason i haven't been blogging...i guess i've just been busy with life in general and took a brief hiatus. Since i wrote last, here are a few things that have kept me busy...I took a trip to Newfoundland, I moved house, I quit a boring job and started a great job. Life is good right now...and once I get past this running problem then it'll be even better!
My last post in July would make you believe that things were good and i was getting ready for a good 4 months of marathon training for NYC last weekend. Sadly that race didn't happen for me as you may have suspected. I'm not "depressed" about my running situation anymore...i do get bummed now and then but i've kind of accepted that taking real time off is needed and that's just what i've been doing. Now that i've had this foot problem for over a year and missed a great running season...and sat on the sidelines and watched my brother and friends have a blast in so many races and on great training runs...i've realized that i really don't want to miss another running season. My focus is getting healed and ready to go for next season!
Well being injured wasn't really the only reason i haven't been blogging...i guess i've just been busy with life in general and took a brief hiatus. Since i wrote last, here are a few things that have kept me busy...I took a trip to Newfoundland, I moved house, I quit a boring job and started a great job. Life is good right now...and once I get past this running problem then it'll be even better!
My last post in July would make you believe that things were good and i was getting ready for a good 4 months of marathon training for NYC last weekend. Sadly that race didn't happen for me as you may have suspected. I'm not "depressed" about my running situation anymore...i do get bummed now and then but i've kind of accepted that taking real time off is needed and that's just what i've been doing. Now that i've had this foot problem for over a year and missed a great running season...and sat on the sidelines and watched my brother and friends have a blast in so many races and on great training runs...i've realized that i really don't want to miss another running season. My focus is getting healed and ready to go for next season!
I'll try to start blogging more regularly again as I do miss it! And now that winter is upon us, you can expect lots and lots of ski stories and pics that's for sure! Andrew recently purchased a VW Westfalia and you can definitely expect some adventures in that on blogs to come :) I'm friggin pumped!
Not sure how Logan feels about it yet :)
Monday, July 19, 2010
Getting Down to Business!
This past week was my first official week of training for the New York marathon on Nov. 7th. Because my foot has been a problem for so long, i've never been able to get into any kind of routine with running and I wasn't getting in more than around 10km for most runs. Lately though, it's been good....real good. I'm hoping that last week was the start of some good training to come.
I was dreading my "long" run of 16km on Sunday morning as I feared that i'd get to about the 10km point and then the foot pain would start and i'd be limping home for the last 6km. It always seemed to be good until around 10km so i haven't attempted anything longer in ages. I was relieved that it all went well yesterday and I was walking around perfectly fine after without pain and again had zero pain when getting out of bed this morning, wahoo! Since one of the causes of Plantar Fasciitis is tight calves, i've been stretching and rolling the S**T out of them, as well as wearing compression socks more often (like all day yesterday after my run!). I think this is a big reason why my foot has been doing so well lately.
Hopefully this is the beginning of a good solid 4 months of training for this marathon. I really miss training and miss running fast. I feel like I have a lot more speed in me and after a great season last year, i'm hoping I can continue to improve from here on out! I've heard the course for New York is pretty tough and not to expect any PBs...I think they say something like, take your marathon PB and add on at least 10 mins to get your projected time. Ah well...getting PBs aren't going to happen all the time and it's not like I need one to have a great race...but hey...they also told me I couldn't PB in Boston and look what happened there ;-) So who knows right? I'm not going to lie and say it isn't a goal of mine!
I'm taking today off but am looking forward to tomorrow already as i'm itching to get out for a run! I'm also already pumped for next Sunday's long run and where I might go.
I was dreading my "long" run of 16km on Sunday morning as I feared that i'd get to about the 10km point and then the foot pain would start and i'd be limping home for the last 6km. It always seemed to be good until around 10km so i haven't attempted anything longer in ages. I was relieved that it all went well yesterday and I was walking around perfectly fine after without pain and again had zero pain when getting out of bed this morning, wahoo! Since one of the causes of Plantar Fasciitis is tight calves, i've been stretching and rolling the S**T out of them, as well as wearing compression socks more often (like all day yesterday after my run!). I think this is a big reason why my foot has been doing so well lately.
Hopefully this is the beginning of a good solid 4 months of training for this marathon. I really miss training and miss running fast. I feel like I have a lot more speed in me and after a great season last year, i'm hoping I can continue to improve from here on out! I've heard the course for New York is pretty tough and not to expect any PBs...I think they say something like, take your marathon PB and add on at least 10 mins to get your projected time. Ah well...getting PBs aren't going to happen all the time and it's not like I need one to have a great race...but hey...they also told me I couldn't PB in Boston and look what happened there ;-) So who knows right? I'm not going to lie and say it isn't a goal of mine!
I'm taking today off but am looking forward to tomorrow already as i'm itching to get out for a run! I'm also already pumped for next Sunday's long run and where I might go.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Summer Fun
What has a slack ass blogger like me been up to lately? Time for a little update I suppose! Since my last post, my weekends have been pretty busy...not really with a whole lot of running...but definitely a whole lot of fun! A couple of weeks ago I drove out to Vernon to visit my brother, sis in law, and niece Julia and cheer on my brother in his first 50 miler...Scorched Sole. He did awesome and it was a long day out there for me...about 30km of running and 3000 ft of elevation...my biggest run since last summer I guess. I achieved my main goal of dropping water bottles off for him at two different aid stations but somehow managed to screw up and miss seeing him run by where I had been waiting for a while to cheer him on. I got bored and started off on a little hike and took a wrong turn off the race course and therefore missed him. I was soooo pissed! Anyways, it was still a good day and a fun weekend.
The following weekend was the long Canada Day weekend and Andrew and I had a wedding to go to in the little town of Taber, Alberta. Taber is where the fabulous corn comes from out here but unfortunately it's not ready till August and that's when they have a big corn fest! Yum!!! It's a pretty little town and many of the guests camped in tents or trailers as it's about 3 hours away from Calgary. Andrew's friend was kind enough to lend us his tent trailer for the weekend so we took full advantage and headed down to Waterton for a little camping and hiking for a couple of days before the wedding. The weather wasn't the best but we had a blast and managed to get out on a fun hike, had some campfires, and even took in a movie down in the village of Waterton. We brought the kayaks but Waterton Lake was whitecapping pretty huge out there the whole time with crazy wind...but as far as I know, Waterton is ALWAYS windy as all hell so that's nothing new!
Saturday we drove to Taber and it was a beautiful day for an outside wedding! I forgot my camera but here are a couple of pictures I took with my iphone of us hanging out by the trailer in between the wedding and the reception.
Andrew and Conrad
Conrad deciding he wanted to test out our kayaks :)
This weekend past, both my friend Leanne and I had friday off. Because the Calgary Stampede started on friday and that day is parade day...usually most offices are closed downtown that day. We decided it was a perfect day to take our dogs and go hiking! We decided on Buller Pass which was a little over 15km and had some awesome scenery! There was still a nice amount of snow around and the dogs loved it as you can see below!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
K-100 Race Report
Saturday was my first race of the season...exciting yet depressing at the same time...I can't believe it...i'm so late starting this year because of my foot. But guess what...the race turned out great and I had zero pain whatsoever during the run and even afterwards it was just a little stiff but no big deal at all. I'm so happy and relieved, what a great day! This means there are definitely more races in my future this summer, wahoo!!
Ok, on to the good stuff. I arrived at the start of Leg 7 way early because last year I arrived a bit late to the start of my Leg and didn't want a repeat of that. I barely had enough time to use the bathroom before my teammate had arrived and it was time for me to go! I do like arriving early but saturday was a bit too early...if I had known, I would have brought a book! There's no cell service where I was either so I occupied my time with a few games on my iphone. I was feeling sleepy and even dozed for a bit. Finally more and more people arrived so I figured it was time I get my running gear on and get psyched! The sun was out and it was starting to get hot. I was feeling pretty anxious waiting around and wondering when our runner would come along!
I was feeling nervous as I haven't raced since October and have been injured ever since so I have had majorly inconsistant "training" until recently. When Tanya arrived (our Leg 6 runner), I took off fast...way too fast...what was I thinking? I couldn't help it though! I felt great and it was a rediculous downhill for the first 4-5 km so I took full advantage! It felt effortless to hit 4 min/km and I was loving every minute of it! At about 5km was the start of a hill, which seemed to go on forever...it was only 2km but it felt like forever to me! I was impressed that I flew up the first part of it feeling good...then it flattened and turned into a bigger hill. That was where the suck happened...I was still feeling strong initially but all of a sudden it started raining and I was running into a gross headwind. I immediately felt like ass. I cursed myself for going out too fast...rookie mistake!...and just allowed myself to slow down...and then finally I crested the hill and it was flat once again.
Up to about the 11km mark it rained and was super cold...my arms and legs started to go numb but I actually felt pretty good. I was relieved it wasn't hot out there and preferred these conditions anyday! My teammates in the support vehicle brought out a longsleeve for me but I decided i'd rather keep going as is. Even though the weather was kind of gross for part of my leg...I soaked up the amazing scenery out there...wow, Kananaskis is so beautiful. I ran into Blaine (another fellow Newfie and ran Transrockies last year as well) before the start of my leg and he had said he thought Leg 7 was the most scenic of them all. I think he was right! I just wish I had some pictures to show!
Anyhow, I took a gel at about 11km and it gave me a huge kick in the ass...suddenly I felt great again and my last 5km flew by. I kept surprising myself with the pace I was able to hold...and really relieved that I wasn't going to let my team (or myself) down. The last 2km had a lovely downhill to lead me into the finish and I just let my legs go. I was hurting but it felt great! I ended up finishing the 16.5km in 1:15:29. Not too bad. Bring on some real training again and speedwork. I can't wait! Man I love to race!
Our team did awesome! And I can't wait to do it again next year! We finished 3rd out of 28 in the Mixed category and 21st out of 164 teams overall.
Ok, on to the good stuff. I arrived at the start of Leg 7 way early because last year I arrived a bit late to the start of my Leg and didn't want a repeat of that. I barely had enough time to use the bathroom before my teammate had arrived and it was time for me to go! I do like arriving early but saturday was a bit too early...if I had known, I would have brought a book! There's no cell service where I was either so I occupied my time with a few games on my iphone. I was feeling sleepy and even dozed for a bit. Finally more and more people arrived so I figured it was time I get my running gear on and get psyched! The sun was out and it was starting to get hot. I was feeling pretty anxious waiting around and wondering when our runner would come along!
I was feeling nervous as I haven't raced since October and have been injured ever since so I have had majorly inconsistant "training" until recently. When Tanya arrived (our Leg 6 runner), I took off fast...way too fast...what was I thinking? I couldn't help it though! I felt great and it was a rediculous downhill for the first 4-5 km so I took full advantage! It felt effortless to hit 4 min/km and I was loving every minute of it! At about 5km was the start of a hill, which seemed to go on forever...it was only 2km but it felt like forever to me! I was impressed that I flew up the first part of it feeling good...then it flattened and turned into a bigger hill. That was where the suck happened...I was still feeling strong initially but all of a sudden it started raining and I was running into a gross headwind. I immediately felt like ass. I cursed myself for going out too fast...rookie mistake!...and just allowed myself to slow down...and then finally I crested the hill and it was flat once again.
Up to about the 11km mark it rained and was super cold...my arms and legs started to go numb but I actually felt pretty good. I was relieved it wasn't hot out there and preferred these conditions anyday! My teammates in the support vehicle brought out a longsleeve for me but I decided i'd rather keep going as is. Even though the weather was kind of gross for part of my leg...I soaked up the amazing scenery out there...wow, Kananaskis is so beautiful. I ran into Blaine (another fellow Newfie and ran Transrockies last year as well) before the start of my leg and he had said he thought Leg 7 was the most scenic of them all. I think he was right! I just wish I had some pictures to show!
Anyhow, I took a gel at about 11km and it gave me a huge kick in the ass...suddenly I felt great again and my last 5km flew by. I kept surprising myself with the pace I was able to hold...and really relieved that I wasn't going to let my team (or myself) down. The last 2km had a lovely downhill to lead me into the finish and I just let my legs go. I was hurting but it felt great! I ended up finishing the 16.5km in 1:15:29. Not too bad. Bring on some real training again and speedwork. I can't wait! Man I love to race!
Our team did awesome! And I can't wait to do it again next year! We finished 3rd out of 28 in the Mixed category and 21st out of 164 teams overall.
Friday, June 18, 2010
First (and hopefully not last) Race of the Season!
A year has flown by since I ran in the K-100 relay last year and i'm back to do it again tomorrow! Because I was training for a ton of trail stuff last year, including Transrockies, I had opted to do Leg 5 which is the hardest leg of the relay so I could work on my hill training! It was pretty tough indeed and I happily refrained from volunteering for that leg this year! Here is my race report from last year in case you missed it!
I wasn't sure for a long time that I'd be able to run it this year because my foot has been giving me problems for such a long time. But i'm happy to say it's doing quite well lately and although my fitness is nowhere near where it was last year, my team still wants me so I said that the best I could do would probably be 5 min/km (~ 8 min/mile) for the 16.5km that is Leg 7...one reason is because of my inconsistant running/"training"...and the other reason is because I don't want to kill myself racing and risk hurting my foot...and screw up my chances of running the rest of the summer and training for the NYC marathon in the fall.
Here are the stats of the leg below and while the profile pretty much makes it look like a piece of cake since it's all downhill, i'm not so sure. With any luck I will find it fairly easy and maybe all the downhill will help me run a faster time...guess you'll just have to wait for my race report next week! Wish me luck!
LEG SEVEN
START: Roadside turnout 860m past the service road at the top of a small hill.
DISTANCE: 16.5 km
DIFFICULTY RATING: 5 - 6
FASTEST RECORDED TIME IN 2006: 1:02.27
PACE: 6:06 per mile
DESCRIPTION: The drop from the Highwood Pass continues through the first 5 km with a 170m loss of elevation. The last 11.5 km are moderately hilly with a further overall elevation loss of 90m. The course has now entered the Kananaskis Valley. The surface is older asphalt.
I wasn't sure for a long time that I'd be able to run it this year because my foot has been giving me problems for such a long time. But i'm happy to say it's doing quite well lately and although my fitness is nowhere near where it was last year, my team still wants me so I said that the best I could do would probably be 5 min/km (~ 8 min/mile) for the 16.5km that is Leg 7...one reason is because of my inconsistant running/"training"...and the other reason is because I don't want to kill myself racing and risk hurting my foot...and screw up my chances of running the rest of the summer and training for the NYC marathon in the fall.
Here are the stats of the leg below and while the profile pretty much makes it look like a piece of cake since it's all downhill, i'm not so sure. With any luck I will find it fairly easy and maybe all the downhill will help me run a faster time...guess you'll just have to wait for my race report next week! Wish me luck!
LEG SEVEN
START: Roadside turnout 860m past the service road at the top of a small hill.
DISTANCE: 16.5 km
DIFFICULTY RATING: 5 - 6
FASTEST RECORDED TIME IN 2006: 1:02.27
PACE: 6:06 per mile
DESCRIPTION: The drop from the Highwood Pass continues through the first 5 km with a 170m loss of elevation. The last 11.5 km are moderately hilly with a further overall elevation loss of 90m. The course has now entered the Kananaskis Valley. The surface is older asphalt.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Beautiful K-Country!
Last weekend, Andrew and I went camping with some of his friends down in K-Country in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. While everyone had plans to go fishing on Saturday...Logan and I had other plans...we were going trail running, wahoo! I decided since it was a bit of a warm day for a husky (18 degrees) that we would run around Upper Kananaskis Lake (16km) which is pretty flat and we can pretty easily go down to the lake for him (us) to cool off!
Unfortunately Logan doesn't know how to pace himself as he likes to take off and go balls out for as long as he can. By about the halfway point he was getting tired and I realized this run was going to take a lot longer than I had intended! We stopped lots to take pics and for him to cool off a bunch. I was pretty happy when we saw Andrew at the parking lot when we were just over 14km as Logan was so beat that I had already decided we were going to walk the last 2km to where the guys were fishing. Turns out fishing had not been so good and everyone else had gone back a half hour or so earlier and Andrew had to wait for me.
I had an awesome day out there though and vow from now on to not put my dog through torture like that again...only if it's a cool and a non-sunny day! I think he prefers hiking anyway :) Here are some of pretty pics from our run around Upper Kananaskis Lake!
Unfortunately Logan doesn't know how to pace himself as he likes to take off and go balls out for as long as he can. By about the halfway point he was getting tired and I realized this run was going to take a lot longer than I had intended! We stopped lots to take pics and for him to cool off a bunch. I was pretty happy when we saw Andrew at the parking lot when we were just over 14km as Logan was so beat that I had already decided we were going to walk the last 2km to where the guys were fishing. Turns out fishing had not been so good and everyone else had gone back a half hour or so earlier and Andrew had to wait for me.
I had an awesome day out there though and vow from now on to not put my dog through torture like that again...only if it's a cool and a non-sunny day! I think he prefers hiking anyway :) Here are some of pretty pics from our run around Upper Kananaskis Lake!
I heart Yosemite!
Over 2 weeks ago now, Andrew and I took a short trip down to San Francisco...with most of our time spent on a little road trip from there to Yosemite for a few days of camping...with a stop in Santa Cruz along the way. Upon arriving to SF, we discovered it was Memorial Day long weekend in the States...oops. I always thought our May long weekends happened at the same time...dang. It definitely made things difficult...especially when we hadn't reserved any places to camp etc...but we lucked out a few times. Fewf! Since it was a while ago now, I feel like just having a photo blog of our trip so enjoy!
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