See Nat Run

I love myself today...

... it's the humidity I can't stand.

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 26:30 (too fast by a minute)
Attempted Pace: 13:48 minute mile
Actual Pace: 13:15
Time of run: 6:34 a.m.
Time I usually get up: 7:15 a.m.
Temperature: 20C/68F
Humdity: 80 per cent

It was so hot, hazy and humid that I could wring out the sweat from my shirt when I came home. But shuffle had beads of sweat on it. Yucky.

I decided, as I am want to do once in a while, that I was being a pansy ass and if I was going to race this half marathon right after my birthday then I needed to get my ass in gear. So I did what all unprepared slacking off runners do I went to Smart Coach at RunnersWorld.com and had them custom make me a program using my PB marathon time from last year and I vowed I would take it SERIOUSLY.

Now see, Smart Coach has these "easy runs". And they suggest a time. And the time is usually so slow, I look at it and say "but it's not really running." Then I go out and sprint it. I realize this is not what is called for. But it's what I do. How can I go faster by going more slowly. At this pace the little old ladies with the walkers out for a stroll early in the morning were smoking "You keep going deary, soon you'll be as fast as us."

But I had lunch with the running ladies, and Miss G's other woman. They were talking training and zones and someone explained about the slow/easy runs. (And I thought this makes no sense. Then again neither does running 26.2 miles.) Then I was reading my Runners World (I should get a free subscription for the plugging they get hear but I don't.) And Coach Jenny explained it differently. Sigh. Now it still doesn't makes nouch sense but I am giving it try. Besides it's too hot to go fast anyway.

Here is what they didn't tell me, going slowly is HARD. (And you feel stupid.) Because it's not natural or something. But I will stick to it. And tomorrow I am going to get up before the sunrise at 5:14 a.m. and go for a five miler with three faster miles. We'll see how that goes.

I just want to dance the night away

Distance: 5.5 miles
Time: 1h11
Temperature: 23C not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately.
Present addiction: Getting an A in Dance Dance Revolution.

I must admit that in spite of it all, I am, in fact, acclimatizing. Case and point, it was a bright sunny day and the run went well. I'd hoped to get a full 6.2 miles in but I overslept and we were going to be late for my niece's first birthday party. In retrospect, I could have gotten the last 0.7 miles in and still not missed cake or lunch.

While the rest of you are using the Wii Fit as the lastest excuse to mix technology and working out. I have gone relatively retro and got Dance Dance Revolution. Ok. It had nothing to do with cross training. More to do with being at one of those indoor arcade places and watching the cool kids do it.

Me and the kool kids. I look exactly like that. Except that I am much much slowing and I risk losing my balance every 30 seconds. "Feel the rhythm." OH... I am feeling the rhythm I am just worried about my feet. Never mind the hand thing. And why is there music that is 190 bpm? What the heck is the point in that? Now I work up a sweat. I also work on my use of profanities. I tell you George Carlin may have 7 words you can't say on television. I am pretty sure I am up to about 20.

The reason I slept in is because I was determined. Yes. Determined in the way I sucked it up and finished the last 15K of the last half marathon, to get more than a D. (As a point of reference The Man got a B with no effort at all. Insert expletive here.)

So it's a gorgeous day, and I'm out on my deck doing a blog entry. (I *heart* WiFi.) But my brain... well my brain wants to DDR again.

She's got the look

Workout: 4 x 100 m Hill workouts.
Distance: about 2.6 Miles

The first time I ran up the hill, the grand-motherly 60-something woman wearing light blue crocs and magenta polyester pants gave me The Look. When I walked down the hill trying not to die, and smiled. Then I ran up the hill a second time. Yup definitely the look. Two more to go. Really this hill thing... not nearly so bad as I thought... OK. This is bad. Ok go. Push push push... don't stop... keep going almost there... ooooooof. Yup. There it is again. Inhale... exhale... No dying. Will to live strong. Just one more mother-effing hill repeat. Would she stop with the look! Ok. One last time with feeling (yes, I talk to myself this way) ... (with the voice of the skip on a curling team) Sweeeeeeeeeeeeep.... push push push.... wheeze... when does fall start?. And there it's over. Gasping I look up. Yup.

You know the look. We all get the look. When it's -40 and we're mid 10 miles run and we have frost on our skin. In the pouring rain, on that long desolate road where only vehicles dare to go... from people who wouldn't fathom walking three blocks to get milk, let alone running a mile. They give you the look. "You runners are out of your friggin' minds." Apparently running up and down the same hill four times is also considered a bit strange.

So walking down the hill for the last time, I turn to her smiling and say "Great hill. I'll be back." -- Here it comes. "Watch your knees. My husband blew out his knees running." I take the grandmotherly thing back. I smile thinking. "Running away from you, no doubt." I say "I'll be careful, I promise. I'll be back -- I may bring friends." Muhahahahaha... and then I ran away.

A word on the workout. It was supposed to be a 45 minute, 4 x100m workout. But life gets in the way. So it ended up being a 31 minute 4 x 1 min hill workout. Because I forgot to charge the Garmin on July 1 -- I was using it to time my planks. (Yes, those still suck monkey balls.) I timed my run with The Man's Timex. I get to the hill which is the "correct inclination for hill repeats" he says. Don't ask me how he figured it out - he did math, I will tell you that it is characterized as REALLY FUCKING STEEP.

Now 100m is not THAT far. But I wanted to make sure I covered the full 100m. So the world's record for a woman in the 100m is 10.49 by FloJo but she was on drugs. I reckon that she did not run up hill so this number is useless to me but some I know the men do it less than 10 sec. Also on drugs. Also not uphill. I reckon I am at least six times slower than so man on performance enhancers but I took an advil sinus pre-run which gives me an advantage (also my internal dialogue is very loud when I don't have my shuffle.) And I do about a 6 minute/km -- oh no I don't... well know I do a 12 minute mile... fuck the hill, it's math that kills me. 1.2 minutes for 0.1 miles which is more than 100m. So I decide one minute up hill. Then I stop. Try to go a bit farther. (According to Runningmap.com it's 0.1 miles.) I thought hills would kill me but with intervals it's not so bad...

except for Croc wearing peanut gallery.

3k and lots of swag.

This morning to celebrate Canada Day, the three of us donned our fulled racing regalia and headed over to Jacques Cartier Park for the HBC 3k. The Boy ran most of the distance and we came in, in about 20 minutes. He toughed it out in spite of what he said was: ankle, shin, knee, and stomach pain. I told him he could walk. He said he wanted to run the whole thing and by and large we did. Because he was going to get it done.

I think this may be the farthest distance he's run yet. We did a 5K last year, which was tortuous. The Man carried him part way and there was so much whining I thought I was going to kill myself. So I decided that one only partially counts and by partially I give it at most at 2.5K. But there was no whining this time, it was a happy fun run. I can tell there will be a day when I won't be able to keep up.

Now one of the reasons, you run the HBC is for the swag. They do swag well. Check on the race shirts as modeled by The Man and The Boy.

Ok, that had nothing to do with the shirts since you can't see them. Totally showing off my peeps. (I'd never say that in real life. Ok, I would but only after a few beers.)

But back to the kits. You'd think a big old bank like ING, could stock up the kits. But this year, not so much. This year for the half the kits sucked. So the swag award goes to HBC. (It did last year too.) (For the non-Canadian: HBC or Hudson's Bay Company is a major retailer in Canada known mainly for Zellers (think Target) and The Bay (think Sears).)

Compare and contrast:
Shamrock Marathon. Sponsored Yuengling
Long sleeved Tech-shirt,
caramel corn.
Ball Cap at finish, more pretzels and a cookie. (seriously all the food their was - can't fucking get over that.)

ING Direct Ottawa Half Marathon
Technical T-shirt
Box of chocolate
A handful of hard candies
Toothpaste

Where's Franktown 15K
Gym bag
Gatorade
Lipton Sidedish (no clue)
A pen
A bunch of magnets
Magnetic grocery list thing

HBC Run for Canada 3K
Very nice tech shirt (but made in China... to be fair I don't know where the others were made.)
2 tubes Blistex
2 packs of 2 goody stay-put rubber bands
1 355 ml bottle of Minute Maid Anti Ox
A pedometer
1 tube 55 SPF Aveno sunblock (I tried it this aft... seriously loving it.)
4 samples of Ice Breaker Gum
3 sample doses (2 pills) Motrin IB
3 samples GUM toohtpick thingy with the string
2 Medium Hooks self-adhesive hooks from 3M (no clue)
1 bag Werthers sugar free candies
3 samples of Tums Smoothies.
4 samples of Off Skintastic Towelettes.
4 samples of Extra berry gum.
4 samples of hand creme.

In other words enough to fill The Boy's lunch box. (And that was just the one kits, we got three.)

Tramps like us...

Distance: 5 miles
Time: 1:00:55
Goal Run: 30 minutes of "just" running. No walk breaks.
Song of the Run: Heartbreaker, Pat Benatar (going up a steep hill.)

A girl could get used to this pace of life.

Tomorrow is Canada Day and we'll be undertaking a family 3K walk in support of Canada's Olympic athletes. In lieu of bibs you get technical shirts. (Not to be picky, but why the heck are they made in China? It's odd and the what everyone will be laughing at in Beijing come time for the Olympics. (Scroll down to the matching track suit.) Gah!) Unless it rains, in which case we'll have bacon and eggs for breakfast and explore downtown if the rain stops. Big old 3K.

This morning was bright, sunny and hot. But nanoseconds after I put the clothing out to dry, it clouded over and look rainy. (I'm 0 for 3, for putting stuff outside to dry this year.) BUT this meant better running weather. All by my lonesome. Funny when running becomes the 'all my chores are done end of day' treat. I am working on lengthening my intervals. The goal was to run a full 30 minutes without a walk break. (I can't run and drink. So glug glug... and run again.) Managed to run 25 minutes non-stop, really needed some water. It really wasn't that hard I just need work on the head game. I took my time on the way back.

The path got busy as offices in the area closed down at 2 p.m. I had an Ethiopian runner point out that there was a row of cyclist behind me. (These folks belong on the road not on the path, IMHO. They exceed the 20 kph speed limit and don't give a fuck about anyone. I got hit by one of them last year.) I keep my spot on the path. (Share the road applies to them as well.)

But I notice that he is waiting for me up ahead. He's mister 4 min/mil. He tells me he is trying to take it easy on his 10 miles run home. And he wants to chat. Problem is that we are doing a 10 min/mile, I'm 4.5 miles into a 5 mile run. AND I am trying to keep up my end of the conversation without sounding like a moron.

He tells me he plans to WIN the 10K tomorrow in Kanata. "Wow." (one syllable.) And he tells a bit of his life story and he asks me where I live. I point vaguely "Over there" (I wonder if he'll stop if I drop dead.) "Are you running tomorrow." "Yup *gasp* *snort* *gag*. My husband and my son and I are *wheeze* doing the family 3K walk."

Then he loses all interest in me. Either walk time was over, or he was disappointed in my 3K walk, or he was trying to pick me up, or he realized that he didn't know CPR and I was going to die.
"Well, I need to head home."
By the time, I make it round the corner in about 100 feet, I've lost him entirely. He'd probably run a mile by the time I walked that. Still made me miss running with people, just a touch.

"Ok, have a nice run."

TIART: A runner in 13 words

This weeks' theme on Take it and Run Thursday is to complete the following sentence in 13 words or less.

You know you're a runner when...

But I've skipped a few TIARTs and I decided 13 words was NOT enough. And I miss you all so much with this hectic life of mine. So, I am ignoring the rules.

1. No matter where you are in your city, you know exactly how far you are from home in miles.
2. You own more running clothes than work clothing.
3. A new pair of Brooks, Ascics or Mizunos beats Manolo Blahniks any day.
4. You never wear your race shirt before the race lest the running gods smite you down 100 meters from the finish.
5. You consider Body Glide much more important than deodorant
6. You know how far and fast you can go, but you know you can faster and farther.
7. You take your running far more seriously than you take yourself.
8. In case of fire you would grab: the kids and the running shoes and ask the firemen to go in for the Garmin and your Shuffle.
9. You know the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon even if you'll never actually make it.
10. You'd pick a good long run over a stiff drink.
11. You know which model of running shoes you wear and take it as a personal attack when they change them.
12. You have pre-race day ritual that rivals the Ancient Egyptians Sun Worshippers in its complexity.
13. And Finally...
You know you're a runner when driven by to find those perfect miles and humbled once you find them.

Coulda been a contender

Distance: 5.1 miles
Time: 1h04 minutes
Song of the run: Violet, Hole
Yes I listened to it twice: WMA, Pearl Jam (it's got this crazy running beat.)

The plan was to run along that mall thing in Philly up to the Museum of Art, then do the Rocky thing again on Friday morning. The Man traveled early last week and we're too busy at work to sneak out for a run otherwise.

Jewel and I were on a pilgrimage to Pearl Jam. They were playing Camden. She talked me into it. We had a blast. Unfortunately the running thing didn't happen. Call it, too much beer. Getting slightly lost on the way home. But we did get out exploring on Friday morning. Then she took a nap.

Me, I walked around some more, checked out the running stores in the area. You know you're a runner when you get excited about running stores in different cities. The prices not too good, quite a bit steeper than Boston (funny that I know the price of sneakers in various cities eh?)

Jewel is not a runner, not into regular exercise either. (She's had some health issues of late too, poor kid.) I wasn't surprised she needed a nap. But I was surprised how much stamina the running gives me. How I react to heat when walking (not so much), or how I can stand for a three hour concert and feel fine. You know it's that kind of life altering benefit that we don't talk about so much. I remember feeling tired and winded when we traveled and were on our feet all day. I remember feeling sore and wanting to sit half way through a concert. Now it's really not a big deal. I can shop all day. Catch a show, all on my feet. And it feels ok. I'm not bone tired by the end of it. And that gives me inspiration to keep going.

But some things don't change, some things get worse as I get older. For instance, we failed to take our livers into account. We grabbed a late lunch and headed off to the venue. For Supper -- a pretzel and three or four (not sure to be honest.) 20 oz beers. It was hot so we packed them back. In about 2 hours. Hence, we were a touch intoxicated. (I think it was only three... but well... not sure.) Hmmmm... no wonder we had to pee.

But the hangover the next day. Fucking brutal as ever. In fact, I'm pretty sure my liver has yet to forgive me. Concert though... totally worth the liver damage.

And today was an easy 5 miles in the humid. A penance and a catharsis to wipe off 14 hours in the car. And just move... :) Thought about Mike McCready while I did it, apparently he's a runner too. See it's not all sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. There's a few good miles in their too.

Where are we running?

Well kidlets, been one of those weeks where everything else made impossible to get the running in. Work is nuts, The Man was traveling and well... I got no advice on 5Ks and 10Ks since I hardly ever run them -- so no TIART this week for me either.

Alas.

I just want you to know that I miss running. Ironic that when I need it the most is when I can't get it.

Tomorrow I am off indulging in the other passion. Loud music. Loud music involving Eddie Vedder ... and the oh-so beautiful Matt Cameron... wouldn't kick Stone out of bed for eating crackers either. I am Philly bound and get back to it next week.

Hope you can sneak in a few miles for me. I'm going to try and run my way to the Rocky steps. Why? Well because they are there. Silly.

Gonna make you sweat

Distance: 6.55 miles
Speed: 13.17 min/mil
Temperature: 24C/75F feel like 30F/86F
Days until the vernal equinox: 3 months 1 week 1 day
Song of the summer: Oakridges, The Sadies.

Ever hear a song that just describes a run to a T. I've talked about this before, techno/dance/pop crap just doesn't motivate me to run. I like interesting music. Music I can crawl up in and hide for a few minutes when it get rough. This run, can be described by Oak Ridges by The Sadies. (You can here the songs by clicking on this link and searching for Sadies. I looked for a more direct link but alas.)

"I"m still not sure what I should try to keep it all from coming back to haunt me. If I can get away from harm's way, I'll deserve whatever they unleash upon me. The only thing that's left to do is try to keep on walking Even if it means that I came way out here for nothing. It's not the kind of thing you'd want to run from. No matter what it might have been I don't ever want to go back there again."

The goal for this weekend was to get a half marathon in over two days. But it's bloody humid again. Sigh. The Man's away for three days next week. We're busy at work, and while I've committed to getting a good run in. I'm not sure it's actually going to happen. I may have to rejig to schedule.

It's muggy again and well, this doesn't make for good run. I had to have a little sit on a park bench around three-mile mark. Needed to make the path stop weaving and well, I just needed a bit of rest. I thought about Amy and her 20 miles and I thought about Bill and his run in the sun. No sense pushing it for no good reason. I ended up walking a lot of the last 3 miles. Just got the miles in. Still not an atrocious.

I knew it was hot. I wonder if the CamelBak may be relegated to the shorter runs in the heat -- I'm just not cooling properly. I'm also on the flip side of a migraine. (Post weights, I get these from time to time, does anyone know why?) And yeah... maybe I am just going to have to accept that running in the heat is going to have to be slow and that it may be a good time to look at inside speed work. Pretty sure I'm the only runner who goes inside in the summer.

The strength training seems to be doing wonders for my shape. And while I'm not dropping tonnes of weight, I feel skinnier. I'll take it. I'd forgotten who curvy the strength makes me or it makes me in mind, which I'll take. I just don't get the buzz from working out with the weights. Running makes gives me a sense of accomplishment. Weights just feel like vanity. (And yeah, I'll give it cred for helping the running.)

Now, the trainer totally called my bluff and added a WHACK of core work. Whack is a relative term, so given that I did NO core work for six months. Any core work would be a whack. Her core work (this is above and beyound the push-ups and montain climber ab work) includes of a circuit of planks -- which I have YET to complete in their entirety. But I will channel Nancy and I will do it.

So you do the circuit three times. Don't laugh. This kills me.
45 second hold plank.
45 second hold the bridge
30 second EACH -- side plank.

You know generally speaking there are time when 45 seconds seems like an eternity. Holding a plank -- is one of them. But I am seeing some progress. I just find it less satisfying than breaking a 12 min/mil you know?

Three miles after the storm

Distance: 3.01 miles
Time: 34:30
Speed: 11:29 (check me out would you?)
Temperature: 20C and climbing

It's calm after the storm and I might just sleep tonight. Ottawa has been Canada's hot spot for the last week, and we're dealing with temperatures in the high 80s with Humidex reading of more than 100F. Good god, we've messed up the planet something good. Summer never used to be like this.

Last night, I did the full workout -- too bloody hot to be doing that, but I stuck it out and most have sweated out at least two or three liters of sweat. It's a hard work out but in the heat, doubly so when you are a polar bear. I think I need to work harder, I'm not sore at all today. (Watch tomorrow I'll need help to get out of bed.) But the bloody heat. Today, I had to get some sort of cardio in.

The original plan was to take the mountain bike out for a spin after work. However, the wind as I walked to my car was a touch blustery. You know that slightly windy blow your car off the road kind of way. Looks like after all that heat and humidity we were finally going to be in for a big storm. About 10 minutes after we got home, the wind really picked up and all the kids ran to their respective homes. It was definitely not biker friendly weather. (In that two-wheeler kind of sense not in the Mom Boucher sense.)

But after the storm, the wind became breeze like. The temperature had dropped and all of a sudden ... it was awesome running weather. I asked if we could postponed dinner by 45 minutes as I dashed out for a quick 3 miler. Nice zippy little run. (Mile 2 was 10:50 --under 11!.) I prefer my runs a bit longer, but I made the most of it. Cranking up the speed just a touch. Felt good and gives me hope that there may be a warmer weather runner in me after all. Now if only I can find a solution of the sweat pooling at the top of my butt crack. ha!