Sunday Runday.... Yesterday

18km turned 19km... Started off a little too fast around 6 min/km (tooooo fast for my long slow), dropped down to 6:20 and felt better, but because it has been so so long since my last long run (ok it hasn't been THAT long, but definitely a while since crossing over 12km) at 13km I started to crash and really had to work on keeping my mind focus on my form, which made the whole thing easier.
I think I also began talking to someone I had caught up with around here, which dragged me down quite a bit.  Note to self: talking and me makes running harder. ;) Even on a long slow.
So I really had to keep my mind occupied to get to 18 which put me at a slight incline hill, that we all dread.... I could have stopped and walked the last km but it was just ONE km, so I pushed through it, slowly, terribly.

I completed my 19 in 2 hour 5 minutes, not toooo bad.  One 18 and one 20 before race day left.

I tried Stinger Cherry Cola chews this time, I had 2 every other 1 minute break (so about every 20 minutes), I think this worked but I will try it again this weekend to be sure.  I have been having so much trouble with upset stomach during runs that I had to try something that wasn't Gu.

I didn't get the upset stomach until around km 15 or so I think.  That is not too bad for me.  And it wasn't completely debilitating (bonus).

Back at the store I walked around more than after other long runs, maybe 5 minutes, until I knew I could make the 3 minute drive home without doing something terrible in my car.

I had my quick hot bath and got dressed and crawled in bed to assume the fetal position my body was beginning to crave.  But after 5 minutes, my DDs came in and I forced myself out of bed.  I was a little wobbly ;) BUT I think it was best I stayed out of bed, walking around kept me fully functioning and not dying in bed for hours!!  I even had a dance party in the kitchen not too long after.  For me this is progress.

Around 3pm my hunger hit.  At 5 we had spaghetti with tomato/meat sauce.  This almost did my guts in but I prevailed. :)

I had a nice sound solid sleep .... until 5am. Oh well!


Today I had a nice recovery day, 40 minutes on the treadmill just casual walking (got to keep those fitbit steps up!).

And super excited that my Dynamaxx products arrived today.  Now I can truly try them and be excited to either keep using them myself (because they better do good things) or use them myself AND promote them onto others.  Lets hope the latter works out well. :)

Tonight I shall try my lights off.  And see how it tastes and how my sleep goes.  :D

Days go By

I am terrible at doing this every day! But thats ok.  Because it is my blog.

Nothing has really happened though. I am about the same, running at 7 or 8 even out of 10 for mood, energy.

The weather is beautiful, PRd a 5km run (not a race, just me against me/tempo) yesterday and it was around 15C.  28 min 40 seconds, pretty darn good for me! I wanted to vomit when I was done though.  That's the truth.  I wore the wrong socks too, they were too thick.  *note to self, will be faster wearing not hot socks* I also was in a tank and some run crops, I really couldn't have worn less (sorry no flat stomach here, can't go just sports bra style, and shorts I still chafe in sooo no) and I was so hot, felt like I was being swallowed by the warmness....

Today I will rest, seeings how yesterday I was supposed to rest.  But I still will walk for an hour or so later on the mill... must get my 10,000 steps in for my fitbit, I must be at or near the top of my friends for step count, I MUST.

Also can't wait for my Dynamaxx products to arrive, and try and go without my needed coffee.......... HAHAHA. No really I will try.  But WHY must it take forever to come from Dallas. Why oh why?

And because my blog is really about me talking to myself and my every day life.........

I transplanted some bulbs today from my soon to be run over by a tractor garden, and placed them in my beautiful newly landscaped front yard, probably destroying the image my landscaper had, but whatevs, its my yard.  And its just bulbs.  And I hope they bloom because they will add some spunk and pizzaz.

I have no idea if anyone ever sees this blog.... but if you do, and enjoy rambling as I do, let me know!

Too Long!

Hello again, it's been too long.
TOO long since I wrote.
TOO long since I ran consistently.
TOO long since I ate healthy and felt good!
Ok maybe not that bad.

I do have a (hopeful for PR) another half marathon coming up in less than 5!!!! Weeks. Oh man I'm way behind training.

**side note** I did successfully run the Fort Langley Half, and shaved 6 or so minutes off my previous half time, and it was very hilly! So there is hope for an upcoming PR.

So this week I have amped it up!
And trying to drop a few pounds along the way (fingers crossed, I like food).

I will not eat so much junk (like a family size bag of chips). I will drink more water. More. Water. And tea, instead of coffee? In addition to maybe.....

So I am all gearing up for this and a friend of mine messages me while I'm on vacation and basically "listen up, I've found a new awesome product, you need to get in on this!" (note again: I've done some direct sales, did pretty well, stopped, and have now been enticed into something again but on the ground level)

I say to friend, send me the info! She gives me what I need to research. I keep an open mind.
I choose to give it a try.
My package and product arrives in 10-12 days.
The following, for fun, is a collection of how I feel for this week leading up to the arrival of product, and then how it *hopefully* brings extra qualities to life.

Don't mind me while I try and find a good format.

Sleep (last night) terrible! I had anxiety from signing up and buying this product I've never tried, kids played nasty no sleep games, husband would not stop snoring! Really they are lucky to all be alive.

Energy (today) Meh. Coffee, and 7km in on the mill before 10. That felt good, always brings those happy hormones out. Day got better after that and after I distracted myself from impending phone meetings that I always get freaky deaky about. The actual meeting calmed me down. I'll be honest and say I was giving myself enough anxiety that I felt like perhaps I was selling my soul to the Devil. Have no fear. It's nothing like that. So far they are good people.

Evening (presently almost 11pm. Crap! I need to sleep)
Felt ok early on, a bit strung out maybe, not winding down well. I need sleep though so I did something I don't usually..... Melatonin.

See how my Journaling goes tomorrow!

The Advice Givers

Sigh, Pet Peeve alert.

Today I went for a glorious sunny day run.  It was 12C here in BC this afternoon at 4pm.  On a WINTER day. In my inspire CROPS and TANK and a light vest, no hat, sunglasses, and music, I just busted a quick 5km out.  Yup quick for me, eve though I walked maybe 7 times.

Why oh why did ,I walk?  6min/km pace and I was walking!! geez...

SHIN SPLINTS, THE DEVILS.

oh well, so it was over, I got home, I synced my watch, I posted on FB, "good run even though I had shin splints" or something like that.  And then the advice givers kick in.

"Don't run, walk, save your knees"... um ok first of all shin splints are NOT your knees, but thank you, and for that piece of advice you get the 'running is great for you and perfectly fine for your knees. My knees are great because I make sure to practice good form' yada yada response.

Next up : "You need new shoes" ... nope, don't need new shoes but thanks! Where have you been the last 8 months of me posting almost every day about my running, my NEW shoes (frequent) my sunny day, my cloudy day, my rainy day shoes.... In case you haven't noticed I actually count my km on my shoes.  They are fitted for my feet and I use orthotics.  Not that I expect people to remember that BUT, come on, its not my shoes.  You get the 'its not my shoes but thank you, it is just simply me not taking the time to properly recover my legs' smiley face, reply.

And then, what is this? ANOTHER "new shoes, you know they look new but they don't actually last that long" piece of advice.. hmm yes this is true, I fully admit it.  However, see answer above. ;)  This one got a 'I count the km on my shoes, its not my shoes its me' response.... smiley face? maybe.  Hmm maybe my bitchy side is coming out.

My sad life.  Sitting here on facebook, watching donut showdown on tv, donuts which I would never be able to eat, getting bitchy over people simply offering advice. .... yes I should go to bed. smiley face? ;)

On a plus side for my poor shins, they are going to play in the snow for the next 2 days!  No running until Monday or Tuesday unless I sneak into the lodge workout room for a quick few km on a treadmill..... And I also see there is a run around Lightning Lakes in Sept.. I wonder if I could be up to a 27km race... the ultra, no way, the 13 maybe? We will see, but it sounds fun, and a great way to get some km on my NEW Salomon XA Ultra 3D GTX!

Jasper Skyline

(This is actually a hike I did at the end of August, and also the beginning of this post is from that time)

I was healing up so, so well!!
And then I proceeded to take my healed leg on a 9 km run on Saturday.
And that evening we began the drive to Jasper National Park. I was feeling great! Everyone was feeling great!
Got to Armstrong late. Watched a movie on a screen in a field under the stars. Had a few Jell-O shots.
Slept
Woke
Drove another 6 or 7 hours.
Arrival, at last. We stayed in Whistlers campground. Kind of dumpy actually, but we got campfires and hot showers and real toilets. Woohoo! Ran into Jasper for a looksie and then back to camp before it got too dark to actually pack our packs for the 3 day adventure awaiting us.

>>>> (I left this back in September, and it is now January and I totally don't remember as much anymore)
Day 1 was POURING at the start, sad faces, garbage bags on packs... mud... fell in mud right away, awesome!
Came to a 10ft little shale ridge, I don't do well apparently with these ridges but I had no idea what lay ahead.  I quickly scurried across. Oh Em Gee. I thought I would die. BAHAHAHA.. just wait.
The hike was beautiful, saw cool new plants and some okay views, but with the clouds it was so so.
Got to our first sleep stop and set up.  I bunked with my brother this first night.  It was windy and pouring at night, it was crazy, we were in bed at 6 because there was nothing else to do and we were exhausted.
Day 2, WAKEUP, use the john, those were awesome.  Had some omelettes I think the first night with some mashup of veg. Got locked and loaded and ventured on our merry little ways.  The weather was on and off all day.  Mom was not having the best time, her leg was starting to bother her.  And then. We. Hit. The Ridge. Area.
This is where I learned I do not like ridges, especially with 50 lb packs on that are taller and wider than I am and the wind is blowing something awefully hurricane fierce and you are leaning into the wind away from the mountain, but it was mostly not so bad, in comparison to after the next section.  We got to the Snow bowl? I can't remember the names.  We were trying to spy where our fellow hikers that were on the same 2 night journey we were had made it, we woke up early and were pretty ahead of most of them.  Then my sister pointed out, no no no, we arent going that way, we are going THIS way, and points to a straight up climb over loose rock and shale, I nearly crapped my pants.  Even writing this is bringing back anxiety.  The wind we had just endured was rough, but we made it... This looked ferocious.
We begin.  Moms leg is bad, we have to help.  We are on our hands and knees at points... How the heck can that couple ahead of us just be moseying.  We took a long time... loooong time.  We made it to the top. It was beautiful, and flipping windy as hell. Blow yourself off a mountain windy. Got some pics. Hooray look at us.  Turn. Oh shit thats a ridge.  Thats a ridge that is not 10ft, that is like 4 km of non stop on the side of your foot, if you fall you are going to fall for hundreds of feet and just roll to the bottom broken, loose shale ridge.  We begin.  Then moms leg is worse, she is trying to not even bend her leg now. The hail begins.  It is still nearly hurricane wind so it comes sideways and cuts at our faces.  There are no views on this day. Except the view I see is down the mountain, like 45degree slope of shale...... We are leaning so far into it that if for some reason that wind ever stopped we would fall, if we didn't lean we fell into the mountain, also not good, this is a small thin path.  We walk along the side of the mountain for a while and get to the TOP of a ridge, just where you can fall either side of the mountain.  This is our breaking point.  Mine anyways.  I am tired, I am scared as hell, and I cry.  We are trying to hide from the wind that is throwing us around, quite literally.  We can't hear eachother it is so loud in our hoods. Buffs covering every inch of skin, sunglasses on our eyes.  But you can still see we are all scared, or hurt, or both.  We have a few minutes of time here, because we really can't go too far it is so strong.  Theres really no choice. No one can get us, and we have no satellite call out.  The last people on our route have already passed us and are a km ahead on the next dang ridge so they are no help.  We trudge along.
Ok here I admit I pretty much took off, I was freaking scared out of my mind. I assumed my tiny granny step position and booted the F out of there until the ridge fell onto the other side of the mountain.  I felt so horrible, leaving everyone, they weren't far behind, but I just couldn't bear to go slow and fall down, I was SO SCARED.
Well we survived that part, we made it out of the wind and it took forever. I cried several times.
Mom was pretty much disabled.  My brother took her pack, and we headed out ahead of her while she and my sister made their way slowly behind us.  The switchbacks looked like they were 'right there' and you could see people getting to the bottom 'right down there'..... man that took a long time.  Finished the mountain there, and waited for mom and sis to get down.
At this point you can see we NEED to figure out where camp is, it can't be too far.  Mom and sis say go ahead, get to camp, set up a tent, preferably not a horrible pad.  There are only so many and we know almost everyone is ahead of us but not sure who is going to try for the end that day or who is coming from the other direction.  There was no admiring beauty anymore.  It was all call to action: get to camp.  We bolted, My brother took moms pack on his front and his on his back, I took a bit from her pack into mine to help but lets face it, neither of us was lucky.  Camp TOOK FOREVER to get to.  It was seemed like it was another 5km.  But we got 2 ok pads, set up the tent and I head back to mom to let her know how far it was, because I know she needed to be done for the day.  Found them, and made our way back, she went straight into the tent. We started on dinner and water.
We were quiet and tried to enjoy it all but it was rough.  That day was hard.  We laughed about how scary it was, and that it was nothing like we expected.  Still one more day to go.
Day 3 was much better, but still too long for mom.  The hike was easy and peaceful for most of us, everyone starting to feel aches and pains of course.  No major climbs, just nice alpine forest going down into coniferous forest. But for mom it was nearly unbearable.  She could no longer bend her knee and had to swing it around the small inches wide, foot deep path, or around and over rocks.  But too stubborn to let us support her too. We had no idea how long until the service road that would lead us out.  And then we heard THUNDER, and we are in the wide open space, with aluminum poles and thats it.  Perfect! But it did not amount to much.  We tried to joke and not get on eachother nerves but it was hard.
We made it to the service road, again, we had left first but had been passed by all but one group.  We get to the service road, HALLELUJAH.  We sit on a bike rack and snack.  We are tired.  only 10km more to go right? Down this wide road right?  The last group comes out, a bunch of kids, one has a stick to use for his knee is gone too.  2 Run the road to go get cars from the drop point, the rest start walking.  We think, ok cant be THAT far.
It was probably a 4 hour walk? Longest, and most boring 4 hours of our lives.  At one point a mountain bike guy comes bolting up and we have to stop and ask him how far? 5 more km.  He is super annoyed at us, but buddy we are hurt, so shove it.
Was so slow going, mom and brother are in full limp/leg swing. Not talking.  The arrival at the car was the most remarkable feeling.

You suddenly realize that yes you were so so so so so scared.  And worried about others.  And its okay.  We are at the car and it is okay.  Now lets just sit on these nice seats and let that sink in!  We have a drink right then, cheers.  And hop... er... hobble, in.

Now to decide where to sleep? Well in the end we called and visited a few places but they all were so expensive, and the cheapest place ended up being 2 minutes outside of the main tourist area.  It was a whole cottage! Big amazing bathroom with handicapp accessibility.  Yeah baby we NEEDED those hand rails! Big soft beds.  So glad we didn't choose to go back to the campground.  I mean we could have.  But once in this nice cozy cottage we really got to feel how we were really feeling.
Oh and the Elk were everywhere, it was really creepy actually, just at this place they were around the cottages and eating.  Weird.

We started home the last day.  The cell phones are tweeting and dinging.  We are back to life as we know it... oh wait, then we took the ice fields.  that only adds like 4 hours to your 8 hour drive :S FAIL.
Was pretty.  And I got really light headed at one point and needed someone else to drive.

We made it. We survived.  I don't know anything about the views because it was either cloudy, rainy, or too FREAKING WINDY to look away from my feet or I would lose my balance.
I know there were many moments that I would have given almost anything to not be worrying about if I was going to fall and never see my family again, because there were a few hours that it was a real possibility.  I cried for that alone, that I DID make it, and that they need not worry, mom was coming home.

And it made a great memory with my brother, sister and mom.  How often does a person get to do that?
Was amazing.  And I hope to get to do another one again. Just hope to heck there are not nearly so many ridges.  And no water either, open water scares the F out of me.

I made it nearly injury free too, just some shoulder impingement, which to this day in January I am still fighting off.

Another thing this trip inspired in me was the possibility of trail running something like that.... Maybe one day.

January 1... something new

Today I achieved a PR! It is small, but for me it is mighty.
I have only been running since.. March? 2013 ish. And I went straight head on into the half marathon idea.
Sept my fastest 5km was 32 min 23 seconds. I was positive I would stay above the 30 minute mark for pretty much my entire life. But today on a nice fun Resolution Run, I managed 29 min 11 seconds!
Some other fun stats for 2013:
Longest run was 23.4km in 2:37:23, 6:44 min/km, Long Slow Distance and out of the blue on a rainy Sunday
Half Marathon PR: 21.4km in 2:23:28, 6:43min/km, "Racing" against myself but also with the only goal of finishing...
10km: 1:12:16, 7:13min/km (not a race, just a 10km run)

Also I logged approximately 1035km since I began my running journey in 2013.  326 hours, 107000 calories :S (okay the scale seriously never saw those get burned! In fact I gained like 8 pounds in December... 160... not cool, not cool at all!!)

What else has happened this year in that lifey life thing battling food and exercise.
Raw food (fruit and veg, not meat) cleanses (super fun)
Juice fasts (exhausting and expensive)
Workout DVDs
Spin Bike purchase
Home gym reno....

ummmm oh right, the family!

Fabulous year of laughs and... testing children.
A lot changes in a 3 year old and 4.5 year old in a year and now I have an almost 4 and 5.5 year old :S HOLY CRAP

My gift to myself starting tomorrow, (because today I HAD to finish my gluten free pumpkin pie, have a Starbucks, some shortbread.....), is the gift of 5am working out downstairs.  Followed by a short run when my dear husband gets home from work.

I don't have anything amazing to share. Sadly. Just another day in ?paradise?.