Posted by: Karen | April 10, 2008

Weather Report

Last night before the movie it was dry and warm enough to take my new bike out for a spin around the block. I managed to change gears, go down a hill and up one, and didn’t fall over with my feet stuck in the pedals. Oh, and the brakes are easier to manage than I thought.

This morning it snowed a record amount and traffic was nasty, so I stayed home for the morning.

Then the sun came out, so I went to work.

Then it snowed another blizzard.

It also rained and hailed, and there was lightning!

And then the blizzard happened again on my way home.

Now? at 6 pm, the sun is shining again, and I’m getting ready for run class.

THIS is what a Calgary spring is like. We wait all winter for this!

Splish Splash, I think I’ll wear old shoes.

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Posted in Bike, Canadian Content

Posted by: Karen | April 10, 2008

Spirit of the Marathon Movie

Last night I watched the Spirit of the Marathon movie, open one night only in Calgary. We were glad we’d bought tickets ahead of time on-line, as they sold out earlier in the day. I said hi to Karin G, who was waiting for Carla M in the lobby. The theater was almost full when we walked in at 7:45 for an 8 pm showing. Dawn, Leana, my new friend Leaha from the halfathon group and I all sat together.

The movie was very inspiring, especially since I’d experienced some of the same struggles the first-timers in the film had, and I could understand the feelings behind their words.

The best thread that the director managed to carry through his story is that the elites, mid and back of the packers all have challenges, huge ones, that they struggle to overcome. Deena Kastor had a foot injury that she had to train around/through. The Kenyan that he followed to Africa and Japan struggled so hard with his history. My heart raced during their approaches to the finish, and the audience applauded at one point!

We were bawling by the time the mid and bop’ers started crossing the finish line. It was like when you’ve just been married, you cry at everyone else’s weddings, too. You get the importance of the experience.

The older man the film followed throughout his training and race was hilarious. He described himself as a “sweeper”, because you know, sweepers clear out all the dead bodies along the way… He also said he had to do another one because he thought if he trained a little better, he could probably knock 15 minutes off his time. It totally cracked the audience up, because we’ve all said it to ourselves.

Oh, and that’s why I have to do my next one (sigh). But probably not until ’09 or ’10. And my next one will involve hills. And I have to build this year’s Moose Mountain 29k into my training plan for it – maybe that will help.

When it comes out on DVD we’ll have to have a viewing party and see it again.

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Posted in Marathon

Posted by: Karen | April 7, 2008

Tri Training, and Togas

I made it through the rest of the week, too. Then I kicked back so far on the weekend that I forgot to blog it!

Thursday we had a small learn to run class again (where did everybody go?) and made it through 10 rounds of 5:1’s. By the time we’d walked a couple of cool down blocks back to the store we’d covered about 8 km. Great job, class!

I didn’t do hills after class again – it had been quite a tiring week already.

Friday evening I was so glad to be looking at a nice, quiet weekend, that I plunked myself into the computer chair and wrote a short story for a challenge in a writer’s group I’ve recently joined.

On Friday night I wasn’t sure if I would go running with the halfathon group at the store the next morning. I contemplated waiting until Sunday, as I had a swim planned for Saturday afternoon. Then I woke up Saturday morning and saw 2+ inches of beautiful, white, sticky, SNOW! GLORIOUS SNOW! everywhere, and knew I HAD to show up.

If I didn’t show up on a snowy morning in April, I’d get labeled as a weather wimp, which I’m not. Besides, the snow made everything so pretty! and it gave me puddles in which to go SPLISH. Nope, I couldn’t resist. I ran a nice, social 5k with the group over some hills and an overpass, and then squelched mostly downhill back to the store for 5 more, in under 64 minutes.

Later that afternoon my buddy Dianne (who’s doing a triathlon with me later this year) and her family came up to my corner of the city and we did some laps before hanging out with the kids at the Y. I managed 500 very relaxing meters in under 18 minutes, with some instruction between laps. I mostly swam breaststroke, but inserted about 6 laps of freestyle as well.

I hadn’t been super-worried that swimming would be a barrier in completing my first tri, but I still wasn’t sure what I could do. Saturday’s laps gave me some confidence and a benchmark, and I’m looking forward to spending more time in the pool.

Somehow I forgot to get on the bike on Sunday. Keeping my new bike and myself undamaged through the season and the race remains my biggest concern, but we’ll work on addressing that very soon.

Did I promise togas in my blog post title way up there? Oh yeah… um, Dawn has a lovely photo of us partying the last of the cross country season away with a certain running film director.

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Posted in Bike, Canadian Content, Silliness, Swimming

Posted by: Karen | April 1, 2008

Made it Through Monday

Yesterday the kids went back to school after Easter break and my husband and I carried on with work.

Soccer Boy called me at work after school, to tell me he’d be staying for some more soccer try-outs, and wouldn’t be home until later. He’d probably catch a ride with someone.

Little Runner had homework (which almost never happens), so I asked Hubby to keep her on task after supper.

When I got home from work I threw a tuna casserole in the oven and hurried off to run class, to find three brave souls had showed up to run 5:1’s out in the freezing cold (we have 3x that number registered). Instead of a talk about nutrition (that segment is being revised), we had some fun talking about what not to do on race days.

The run itself was a struggle for most of us, but we completed 9 x 5:1’s. My legs got all tight and the only body parts that ever felt warmed up were my hands towards the end.

When I returned home I discovered Soccer Boy home minding Little Runner, but no homework was being done, and Hubby had had to leave for a meeting he’d forgotten about. Supper was sitting, untouched but still warm, in the oven.

Soccer Boy’s mouth hurt from the braces. His body hurt from soccer. Little Runner hadn’t been hungry earlier, because she’d scarfed down some Easter chocolate. We all had a late supper, I folded laundry while LR did her math, and Hubby came home in time to give her a good night hug.

O-o-o-o-n to Tuesday.

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Posted in General

Posted by: Karen | March 30, 2008

Snowperson Snow

I don’t understand why people whine about a little snow. Why, we’ve barely had enough to build a decent snowperson this winter. Little Runner and I were quite delighted this afternoon, when the snow was just barely sticky enough to clump together. Look who we made!

Snowperson

If you’re a Sadie and the Snowman fan, we used grapes for the eyes, a carrot for the nose, and a wedge of apple for the mouth.

We used up nearly all the snow in the yard.

That’s pretty much all the exercise I got this weekend, and I’m just fine with that.

2 Comments

Posted in Canadian Content, General

Posted by: Karen | March 26, 2008

Catching Up

This is one of those posts in which I toss a bunch of items that didn’t mention earlier, when they happened. I like to go back in my blog from time to time to re-experience memories, so bear with my babblings as I make some notes for my future self.

St. Pat’s Race
On March 16 I volunteered at The Original St. Patrick’s Day race. I was going to help at the finish line, but Jim found me an even better post as the last course marshall before the finish. I got to cheer on everyone as they came out of the final turn into the parking lot. It was a cold, snowy, slushy day, and the yelling kept my heart a-pumping. Jim even gave me a radio, so I could call in the race walkers as they came in, to alert the judges. Cool.

You can hear more on the St. Pat’s event from Liesbeth and see this year’s cool shirt on Leana‘s blog. Go check out Dawn’s husband’s account of another race he ran the same day – hilarious!

Inspiration
The next day Dawn came to my Learn to Run class as a guest speaker. Her topic – “Inspiration”. We brought our medals and some photos and she had some great tips for keeping motivated.

Movie
Wednesday last week some of us had free tickets to the Run Fatboy Run movie. Sure, it had a ton of immature boy humour with an English twist, but it was funny enough to give me some good belly laughs, and I enjoyed the hokey scenes towards the end the most. Dawn’s husband Darren thought it was going to be a chick flick, but it definitely wasn’t.

Thursday I did hills after class. I think I already mentioned that.

Long Run
Saturday I showed up with the Tech Shop again to run a ways with the halfathon group. Only one runner from the North store showed up, but quite a few from the South store had come too, so we got to make some new friends.

The North store guy (I forget his name, shoot) stayed with me when I peeled off from the halfathon group. They were running 18km – I didn’t want to go that far. We ran about 15km and I felt amazing in the last two. I guess I could have done three more, but I already had a packed weekend planned.

Runners Banquet
After the run I shopped for some special groceries and headed home to clean up. I cooked up a pan of spanakopita and another pan of mississippi mud slide brownies for the Grand Prix XC potluck. I haven’t eaten that much at one meal for a very long time! At the banquet I received my fifth Iron Person (perfect attendance) award; third in a row. I also found out I placed fourth in my age group in the series, which is pretty good when you consider what it takes to qualify to place, and that I live in a big city of runners.

Easter Break
The next day was Easter Sunday, and Hubby and I enjoyed watching the kids hunt down all the candy the big bunny had left out overnight. I cooked up a big turkey, everyone pitched in to tidy the house, and we welcomed seven guests over for dinner.

On Monday Little Runner and I took a long drive up north. We visited with my 91 year old grandma, and then my mom took LR home for spring break. From all reports, they are having a blast.

Bike
I have been riding my bike inside. I spinned (span? spun?) for about 30 minutes on Easter Sunday and again last night while watching the Rick Mercer Report.  I got a good ab workout, laughing while I pedaled, especially since last night’s show involved Rick kite skiing and learning to ride a bike in a velodrome.

5 Comments

Posted in Bike, General

Posted by: Karen | March 24, 2008

Starting Over, and Labels

If there is one thing I have learned about runners, it is this:

They start over and over and over and over.

Sometimes they take long breaks – months. Years! But inside they still want to have that good running feeling again. Sometimes the breaks are a month, a week, a day, or a minute.

All runners progress through cycles and they are unique to each runner. Many people cringe at having to begin again and again, but in my experience, it’s just part of the lifestyle.

Once you accept that starting is an integral part of being a runner, you can find a way to enjoy starting (I realize this is a challenge). When you find a way to like beginning, you do it more often, and before you know it, you’re starting at higher levels.

Jon started me off on this topic by wondering if he is still a runner. I think it took me a good year or two of running until I thought of myself as a runner for life. Until then, I was someone who trained sporadically for various races.

Like Jon, I still am challenged by labels. My challenge is not “are you a runner” anymore – it’s “are you a marathoner?”. I’ve run one, so technically, I am. I might run another marathon some day (not this year), however, I really prefer shorter distances. I don’t feel a need to run a marathon ever again. Am I still a marathoner?

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Posted in General

Posted by: Karen | March 20, 2008

Easy is not the Point

My apologies to those who are not Celine Dion fans, but I got one of her songs stuck in my head this week, and it wouldn’t leave. It stuck with me through a busy, hard week, and kept me going. I don’t personally own any of Celine’s albums, but I like some of her music.

Below is an exerpt of the lyrics that kept me going up 5 hills tonight after run class.

It’s an uphill climb, and I’m feeling sorry
But I know it will come to you

Don’t surrender ’cause you can win
In this thing called love

When you want it the most there’s no easy way out
When you’re ready to go and your heart’s left in doubt
Don’t give up on your faith
Love comes to those who believe it
And that’s the way it is

When you question me for a simple answer
I don’t know what to say, no
But it’s plain to see, if you stick together
You’re gonna find a way, yeah

So don’t surrender ’cause you can win
In this thing called love

When you want it the most there’s no easy way out
When you’re ready to go and your heart’s left in doubt
Don’t give up on your faith
Love comes to those who believe it
And that’s the way it is

Substitute “run” for “love”, and you’ve got a pretty good running song, there. It’s also part of my answer to the questions I asked earlier this week.

  • What does easy running mean to you?
    It’s the part of the run when I’m not wishing I wasn’t.
    Usually that involves not totally busting my lungs, but not always. Some trails are worth busting my lungs for, and the enjoyment of being on them eases the effort.
  • Has it ever been so?
    It happens a lot more now than it used to, sometimes for entire runs, even during workouts that take all my effort. It happens more often when I’ve been putting in hard efforts on a regular basis. But then, I’ve grown to enjoy working at my runs. Who would have thought that I would come to enjoy hard work?! Huh.
  • What is an easy run for you?
    Running with someone my pace or slightly slower is often easier than running on my own, mostly because the chatting distracts me. Even when we are quiet, and are running at a slightly faster pace than I would normally go, company makes it easier. I also like runs when I’m working at a specific set of tasks, like speed or hill repeats. It’s easier if I can break it up into sections. Of course, descents are the easiest for me.
  • When did it happen for you, how, and why?
    I don’t exactly remember when I first experienced an easy run, but it was probably when I was running for more than 5 minutes at a time.
  • Is easy running a good thing?
    I guess that depends on your definition of an easy run. If you want all your runs to feel effortless, you will often be disappointed, and you won’t improve. You are running to improve yourself, right? It takes hard ones in between the easy ones to build up enough fitness and appreciation for when the really great runs happen.

That’s the way it is for me.

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

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Posted in General

Posted by: Karen | March 18, 2008

Trashing Treadmills

It just occurred to me why I avoid treadmills so much.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with a “down hill” setting.

4 Comments

Posted in General

Posted by: Karen | March 16, 2008

When Did It Become Easy?

An emerging runner asked me this week “When does it become easy?”

I’ve been rummaging through my memories of my early running years, trying to remember when some runs, in between the hard ones, felt “easy”. I do experience easy runs now, often in fact, but I wonder if my definition of easy has changed since I began. Finding the answer to this question is tougher than I thought.

  • What does easy running mean to you?
  • Has it ever been so?
  • What is an easy run for you?
  • When did it happen for you, how, and why?
  • Is easy running a good thing?
  • If not, do you ever hope to experience an easy run?

I think I may have the beginnings of a meme, here. Feel free to answer these questions on your own blog, tag three others and link back if you like.

If you don’t have your own blog, I’d still love to see your answers in the comments. In the meantime, I’ll work on my answers, too.

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Posted in General

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