On the mend...

I haven't been the best blogger lately and I think part of it is that I'd rather not write sometimes than having this turn into me just being negative all the time about running. I've just been very frustrated lately and it seems like my progress will be moving along nicely and then bam! something else happens and I feel like i'm back at square one again. Everything else has been great lately...it's just this running stuff. Argh.

I think the last time I wrote, I was talking about my migraines and neck/back issues. It eventually went away after a straight week of them...funny, this is exactly what happened to me for about a week last summer while training for Transrockies. Anyhow...because of all the pain I was in I didn't run for 9 days which is not really a big deal. So then last week I managed to get 2 easy runs in and another cardio day but I was having serious issues with my left hamstring that i pulled/tweaked over a month ago during hill repeats. It was so bad/tight/sore last week that I couldn't jog across the street to get the bus! After that I was just fed up and took another 4 or 5 days off from running.

Easter Sunday rolled around and Andrew and I got up at 4:30am...with maybe 3.5 hours sleep...and left Calgary by 5:30 for a day ski trip to Revelstoke...yup, you heard me correctly...for. the. day. For those of you that don't know...Revy is a 4 hour drive from Calgary (and yeah, it was actually worth it!!). We had wanted to camp or stay with a friend of his that lives there but there was the issue of putting Logan somewhere. If you don't plan things well in advance, there's no way you'll get a vacancy at a kennel on a long weekend! We actually ended up getting there about an hour early because we forgot about the time change. Anyhow, it was a really fun day and we found some amazing powder in the back bowls. I of course, had no idea what I was doing and took quite a few spills in the fluffy stuff! I'm not used to skiing in quite so much powder and not being able to see your skis at all lol. Plus Andrew tells me i'm not going fast enough to get through it which is another huge problem of mine...going fast...freaks me out. But what can I say...i'm still 10x a better skier than I was at the start of the season so at least i'm improving!

After enjoying some beer on the patio at the end of the day with Andrew's friend, we left around 4:30 for the long drive home. The worst part about driving back is the time difference makes you get home even later than you'd like. We were back to Calgary by 9:30pm and in bed within the hour. Poor Andrew had to get up and go to work the next day while I did not. I'm not really sure what the deal is with "Easter Monday" anyway but i'll take the holiday!

Needless to say...monday I was exhausted. When I got up, I actually looked like I had gotten punched...both eyes were puffy as heck and I just looked all around like crap! I ended up eating breakfast, walking Logan, and then back to bed till noon. By then I looked a lot more like myself. The rest of the day was spent relaxing with Logan and catching up on mounds of laundry, chores etc.

That brings us to the rest of my week...and back to some kind of running routine...finally. I have run the past 3 days in a row...easy runs of course...with each day feeling a little better than the next. My body actually feels like it's forgotten what it's like to run so much...even though "so much" is really not that much compared to what i've gotten used to over the past year. My hamstring was super duper tight and sore on tuesday but i've just allowed myself to stop and stretch every couple of kms which helps and then stretch and roll it after the run. Today I only had to stop and stretch it once and it finally feels like it's getting better.

And you know what's the best part? My foot is turning out to be a rockstar. I think all of this other rediculous time off i've had to take has helped and all of a sudden i'm running 3 x 9-10km runs in a row with zero foot pain...and virtually no pain after the run. Today as I was running along I kept thinking...wow, I had actually forgot what it felt like to run on two good feet...freaking awesome is what it was.

I'm sad to say that I won't be doing the Police half marathon in a few weeks...but as long as i'm running pain free then i'm just happy to get out there for a run no matter how long or short or fast or slow it is. The Seattle marathon will also be iffy so we'll see over the next month how I feel about still doing that. Again, i won't mind bailing on that race either if it means I can trail run and hike all summer long!

Anyhow, that's about it for me! I have another long weekend this weekend which i'm pumped about. Lucky Andrew is headed off on a cruise on saturday for a friend's wedding...while I'm headed off to Sunshine for a day of skiing with some work friends. It will likely be my last day of skiing this season so i'm going to soak it up!

Have a great weekend!

Seattle?

For some reason I find myself dreaming of road races lately...mainly the marathon. I really don't know why...because everyday that I run, I dream about running on the trails again soon and all the kick ass runs I want to do in the mountains....as our weather becomes more and more springlike. Strange, I know. I guess I'm not a huge of fan of training on the road...but do love a good, fast road race and improving my times.

So for those of you who are strictly trailrunners and pretty much shun the road running scene...I apologize for this post...maybe you should move along and come back another day! My brother is one of those people...likes to jokingly call me a road runner as he's definitely not a fan and is all about trail for sure...but who got him hooked on trail running last summer? Yeah, that's right! Me! :D It's pretty wicked actually...he has several ultras lined up for this summer and even informed me that maybe we should do Transrockies again sometime. Whoa! After his sick summer of trail racing he's got coming up...I might end up out of his league as a partner for that race, but who knows.

And why the heck am I thinking about road races right now? I dunno...I guess i'm not really mainly a road runner or a trail runner...but am liking to do both. And right now I'm really wanting to run a marathon...and not just run it just to do it...but to run a fast one. I've had mild success in both trail and road races so far...with most of it all happening last season....and after the Okanagan marathon last fall with my fastest time yet, I find myself really wanting to keep improving my marathon time and get even faster. Not sure how possible that is and when I'll possibly stop setting PBs in the marathon but I really hope it isn't anytime soon. I'd really love to one day break the 3 hour mark...and even though i'm "only" 12 mins off...I think that's probably pretty significant and not sure if there's any possibility of me doing that! Who knows?!

On that note, i'm starting to think about doing the Seattle Marathon on June 26th. I'm already well into training for it as i've been training for the Police half marathon that's at the end of next month. I definitely plan on doing a significant amount of trail running this summer and have some good races lined up...but not sure if there will be any ultras in there...that might have to wait another year. Seattle is not a definite thing yet but i'm giving it some serious thought. I guess it depends on how well my foot progresses over the next while and how it feels during and after the Police half. It's doing well so far and allowing me to get in some good mileage lately.

K, that's it for now!

Less than 3 months....

Ok ok...I KNOW I'm jumping the gun here and getting a little too excited by my foot's progress...and perhaps even jinxing myself but....

Deb Russell is now Registered for Calgary Police Half-Marathon

I can't help it! This is one of the races I've been planning on doing for a while and I haven't raced it since 2007. Oh my...i've got less than 3 months to prepare...the race is April 25th! I highly doubt there will be any PBs going on so I should just settle on being happy to race again eh?

Registration opened on saturday and this race sells out FAST...and I briefly thought about signing up that day and then said nah...no point in doing a race so soon. I decided to check today if there were any spots left and there were so I said screw it! If something happens and I can't run it then it's no big deal as it's a very easy race to sell your bib for!

This is going to be kind of interesting for me as I've never really trained for a half marathon...or the shorter stuff! Usually i'm in the middle of marathon training or something and just decide on a whim to do a half marathon or 10km as part of training. I guess I'll try and approach this race differently!

I think partially the reason for deciding to sign up afterall is the great runs i've been having...i'm so pleased with my foot!! Sunday was my longest run so far...11km and I felt great! Tuesday I ran 9km with half of it at tempo pace...then last night I joined the group for a 10km tempo run which was fun! I miss running with a group...it was me and about 10 guys...it definitely suits me best to be running with a faster crowd as I definitely push myself harder!

Wahoo, i'm officially training for a race again!!