Friday night at the Running Room

Runners have run days.  Although our mileage may change from week to week, as a general rule our run days don’t.  We may get crazy and live on the edge once in a while and change the time of day we put our runs in, but for the most part we are creatures of habit.  I am a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday runner.

I look forward to Friday night all week.  Friday night involves going out for dinner (my Mum started a tradition long ago that she didn’t cook on Friday night, I am all over that tradition) a little wine, plenty of water and getting to bed early because I run on Saturday mornings.

I had never thought about running on Friday night until Theresa invited me to The Running Room to speak to her 5km running group about the importance of cross training.  When I arrived at the store I was really shocked to see just how many people run on this particular night of the week.  I met Theresa and her group at the front of the store and chatted for a few minutes while the beginner group finished up their weekly lecture at the back of the store.  I found out that not only does the group run on Friday night, they also put in their long run on the same night, now that is hardcore!

Once the beginner group was done, we made our way to the back of the store to start our talk.  My talk lasted 30 minutes (I could have talked for hours on this subject) we covered cardio cross training, strength training, core training and of course stretching. The group made me feel really welcome, they were super upbeat and asked lots of questions.

Thanks for having me out Theresa, next time I will bring my running gear.

Operation Beautiful August Challenge

New month, new challenge! Yesterday I wrote a post about Operation Beautiful. I liked the concept so much that I have decided to get the ball rolling here in Canada, and what better way to do it than turn it into a challenge.

So here is your mission, post anonymous notes in public places for other women (and men) to find, when you post a note you are choosing to be positive, the notes that you leave may make one person smile or truly touch another.  Take your post-it-notes with you wherever you go, let’s see where we can take this challenge to. After you post the note, take a picture of it and send it to me (you can even send them as well to Operation Beautiful), each day I will post the pictures that I receive on the Challenges page.   The prize for this assignment is simple and we can all share it…ending negative self talk or “fat talk”, making someone smile or making someone’s day!

Stepping away from the scales

This week is change the way you see, not the way you look week at Operation Beautiful.com. For those of you who that have not heard of Operation Beautiful before, you are going to love this. The goal of Operation Beautiful is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The point is that WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL. You are enough… just the way you are! 125 of the best notes ever received have been published in a book, Operation Beauty which was released today.

Caitlin, the editor of the website has invited health bloggers from all over the world to share their own stories and experiences with body image, healthy balance and self-confidence.

Here is mine, ahem…

My husband used to tell me that the number on the scale would determine my mood for the entire day, and I guess it did. I remember once being in a very busy department store whilst on a trip to Seattle and seeing a scale in one of those bathroom displays and actually stepped on it. My husband begged me not to and for good reason, the number that I saw was not less than the number in my head, and I was a mess for the rest of the day.

When I think about that day, it makes me “eesh”, not only could I not walk by the scale in my bathroom without weighing myself, now everyone in that store knew that I couldn’t even walk by the bathroom department without stepping on a scale!

In high school I watched helplessly as anorexia nervosa nearly destroyed one of my very close friends. I consider myself very fortunate because my weight obsession stayed just that, I was never a dieter or binger, but it did stay with me through my 20’s and well into my 30’s.

So what changed? For me it was having a daughter. I don’t want her to grow up and fear numbers, the size of her clothes, calories and the bathroom scale. I know that I can’t control how the media portrays beauty and body image or the standards that are set by society, but I can be a positive role model for her. I eat a well balanced diet, I exercise and I enjoy life. I haven’t thrown away my bathroom scale although I should; it has been broken for the past couple of years. I now judge my weight by how my clothes fit and how my body feels. I do still weigh myself but now it is once a week, Friday morning at the gym and it is only for training purposes.

I don’t have the body that I had in high school and nor do I want to; I am fitter and stronger than I ever have been. The curves that I have now are from hard work, squats, lunges and push-ups. Oh, and I am proud of them!

Running with a rockstar

Running defines me. I am always wife and Mum first but after family, running is my other true passion. It’s more than just exercise for me, yeah it keeps me fit, but it’s who I am.  It challenges me to set goals and keep them in check, it makes me dig deep (deeper than I would like to go some days) and makes me feel like I can do anything. How’s that for passion?

Even though we may not all run for the same reason,  I always love to hear about other runners. Earlier this week I was like a giddy schoolgirl when I found out that one of the members of my favourite bands ever, runs. According to a tweet by Nikki Sixx, (founder of Motley Crue), he “was off 4 a 2 mile run”. I am not sure whether he is a runner or if he just runs, there is a difference (passion), but it got me wondering what going for a run with Nikki Sixx would be like.

Not only is Nikki the bassist of Motley Crue and Sixx Am, he is also a photographer, author of the Heroin Diaries, host of the Sixx Sense radio show and is dating Kat Von D. This guy has lived LARGE and lived to tell about it. I bought a copy of the Heroin Diaries on my way to Vegas to read on the plane, I could not put the book down, I even took it to the pool with me, this book was more interesting than the pool on a Saturday afternoon in Vegas!

The stories that he could tell me on our run aside, I can’t help but speculate what Nikki would wear. I think that after his Theatre Of Pain days, he would be long over spandex, especially the black and white stripy kind, so I can only assume that he would wear a longer version of running shorts, and of course a tank, with some random saying, to show off all of his ink. Nikki has A LOT of hair, so most of my curiosity lies here; does he wear a hat…a headband…a pony? He would have to wear something, so I am going to go with a bandana, it would serve the purpose while still allowing him to be hardcore.

I am just going to throw this out there, Nikki, if for some strange and crazy reason you are reading this, and you are ever in Vancouver or next time I am in LA, if you want to up your distance or hill train, I would even be willing to jog, have your people call me. I promise that it wouldn’t be awkward or stalker like, we can talk life, love, music, art or just running.

Jumping in the lake

Day 5 of running this week for me.  They haven’t been huge distances but combined with my classes and activities, I was bound to hit the wall and I did.  The wall came somewhere around the 30-minute mark, the only thing that got me past it was the thought of jumping off the floating bridge into Hayward Lake.  Who am I kidding, the only reason that I ran this morning was so I could jump off the floating bridge and into Hayward Lake.

This swimming ritual has been going on for years now and is reserved only for early morning runs and of course our end of summer group run.  We talk about the swimming ritual in the middle of winter when it is pouring with 2-degree rain as we run over the bridge, it’s what keeps us going sometimes.

This morning Conny and I lived our beer commercial life for the second time this week just after 8am, and it rocked!  The water was refreshing and chilly enough to numb the aches and pains without turning my lips blue (which is a usual winter/spring occurrence).   Conny lowers herself in where I am a diver, if I had to lower myself in it would probably take me 10 minutes to get in and it would be time to go, so I get it over in one swoop and spend the 10 minutes alternating between breast stroke and floating on my back admiring the lagoon.

I don’t enjoy getting out, there is nothing graceful about getting back up on the dock.  There is a place to put your foot as you hoist yourself back up, but with every approach that I have tried (and there have been many) I end up sprawled out like a wet noodle on the side of the dock…perhaps I need longer legs or a really new approach.

Running in the same area for so long, you seem to run into the same people and dogs over and over again.  This morning we ran into Charlotte, her friend, her Mom and her Mom’s friend.  Charlotte is a beautiful weimaraner dog ( or as I like to call them weimar-heimar-schleinar dog), she is quite memorable, we were told her name once a long time ago and we have never forgotten it,  but we have no idea what Charlotte’s Mom’s (human Mom) name is.  We always get a kick out of Charlotte’s Mom and her friend, we always seem to be way more underdressed than they are, or maybe they are more overdressed than we are, either way it’s funny because we are in the same place but dressed for two completely different climates.  This morning was no exception; you should have seen the look of surprise on Charlotte’s Mom’s face on hearing that we had just been swimming.

Feeling refreshed after our swim we were ready to go again, we got back on the trail and tackled the last three hills.  I think that the swim was exactly what I needed because we finished the run with a negative split, 1:45 to spare.   All runs were not created equal, but even with my tired legs this morning it didn’t matter…I love summer runs.

Toning Shoes

You have seen them out and about, in the malls and at the grocery store, toning shoes.   They claim to tone muscles and improve weight loss and posture while you walk or stand (not recommended for running), and they don’t come cheaply either, prices range from $100-245.

Finally there is some ACE (American Council On Exercise) research that puts claims by the manufacturers of these ridiculous looking shoes to the test.    According to the ACE study, a team of exercise scientists from the Exercise and Health Program at the University of Wisconsin, designed two studies.  In the first study researchers recruited 12 physically active female volunteers, ages 19 to 24 years to evaluate exercise responses to walking in traditional athletic shoes (a New Balance running shoe) versus the popular toning shoes. A second group of 12 physically active female volunteers, ages 21 to 27 years, was recruited for the second study, they performed a similar battery of five-minute treadmill trials rotating shoes at random.

The outcome….

”Across the board, none of the toning shoes showed statistically significant increases in either exercise response or muscle activation during any of the treadmill trials.  There is simply no evidence to support the claims that these shoes will help wearers exercise more intensely, burn more calories or improve muscle strength and tone.”

I can’t say that I am shocked, I mean really, if you want to improve muscle tone and lose weight you have got to put in the work, cardio, squats, lunges and diet.  There are no quick fixes. There were even concerns that long term wear of toning shoes could alter gait mechanics due to their instability.  I for one am going to stick to my professionally fitted athletic shoes for the gym, and when I am looking for an unstable shoe to walk in, I am going bang for my buck and pulling out my 4 inch black stilettos.

Race day at Mount Seymour

3:40am wake up call this morning…gotta love race mornings! It doesn’t matter if I am getting up at that time to go on vacation or go to set up for a race, it never feels quite right until I am well into my second cup of kick ass coffee. It could have been worse (and it has been), it was warm and most importantly, it was dry! It also felt weird to be applying sunscreen and bug spray at 4:15am, but that was the kind of day it was going to be. With the truck loaded with the last minute things, we hit the road at 4:33am.

We arrived on top of Mount Seymour just after 5:30am, as promised the sun was shining and the bugs weren’t all that bad after all (as long as you were standing in the sun). Set-up went extremely smoothly and the music or noise pollution as an extremely grumpy (I am being very nice here) hiker called it, was pumping by 7:00am. I would like to give a dumbass shout out to the boneheads who thought that it would be funny to mess with the route markers…thank you to our pre-runners Kevin and Linda for pre-running the race routes and fixing it all up.

With no other hiccups, I got through my race director briefing without hacking up a lung and started the race on time. Congratulations to the 416 racers who came out to play this morning, a special congratulations to Stephanie Hamilton who broke her own Enduro course record, which she set last year! A huge thank-you to all of todays fabulous volunteers, we couldn’t have done it without you.

So who is up for a road trip? Next race is at Whistler on August 21st.

5 Peaks Seymour courses are ready to go!

Had a fantastic morning at Mount Seymour with Marky and Kat marking the 5 Peaks Seymour race courses. The trails are in excellent condition…compared to previous years, very little mud. I do believe that this is the prettiest BC course, beautiful lakes, babbling brooks, fantastic views and a little bit of snow for those running the Enduro course.

Racer check in and race day registration ($50) is from 7:00-8:45am, arrive early to avoid the line-ups, the Children’s Challenge starts at 8:30am and the Sport and Enduro races start at 9:00am. The forecast is for sunny skies and warm temperatures, so don’t forget your sunscreen and yes, bring bug spray…

Conny

Your running partner is more than someone you run with. They see you at your worst (sweat, snot, spit and tears) and they see you at your best (when you are kicking their ass up the hill). They become your therapist, your partner in crime, your vault, your sounding board and friend. When you run with someone a couple of times a week and do it for several years (or like six or seven), when you miss three weeks and two days, even if it is for vacations (and a sinus issue), you feel like a part of your world is missing. This morning my world was re-balanced when I met Conny for our first early (still not sure why it had to be early, nobody worked this morning) morning summer trail run.

We shared vacation stories, caught up on the latest goings on and had plenty of time for banter, which we LOVE to have. This morning we decided that as fabulous as Conny is, she is gross one (really she is, I had to “la-la-la” her out), and I was the immature one (I am not going to apologize for thinking that fart sounds are funny…they are).

Looking forward to our run next week, the sun better be out, because I AM going in the lake.

Sprint to the Summit

I spent last week in beautiful Park City, Utah. I watched some World Series ball, shopped a little (and I mean a little, only purchases were a new pair of sunglasses which I had planned to buy and a bra…really that’s it), enjoyed some fine cuisine (especially when Tracy cooked a fantastic pasta dinner), got some sun and didn’t work out nearly as much as I should have or wanted to.

Due to “scheduling issues”, I missed the Tuesday evening Park City group trail run that I had been so looking forward to for weeks…shit happens. With my last full day rapidly approaching, I decided that I needed to get out and do something. As I was putting the lid on my Starbucks coffee, I looked up at the community bulletin board and there it was, Sprint To The Summit, a 12km trail race happening the very next day, it had to be fate. Registration was free, but you were required to bring a dish to share, sign me up! Now for those of you who have never visited Park City, it has a very impressive elevation of 7,000 ft /2,134 m (let me put this in perspective, elevation of Maple Ridge 49ft/15m, elevation of Whistler Peak 7152ft /2180m), the course description referenced a high point of 8,500m, holy crap, talk about altitude training for a sea level girl!

I carbed up, hydrated and probably stayed up a little too late on Friday night, like I said earlier, shit happens. I got up bright and early on Saturday morning and did my best to replicate my pre-race routine 1600km away from home. A little, ok a lot nervous, I arrived at the start line in Summit Park (notable resident: Ted Bundy), picked up my race bib and looked around at the competition…although there weren’t many there, those who were looked very hardcore…gulp. We had our race briefing, we were told that there was a small hill and then a big hill and that we should walk the big hill, there was also some talk of trail access roads etc, which really meant nothing to me, today I would follow and hope for the best. The race started and off I went, I rounded the corner to the small hill and found my heart in my throat, so less than 2 minutes into the race I was walking…omfg, what was I thinking when I signed up??? Ok, so I wasn’t alone, when I looked around there were others walking and when we got to the big hill it looked like the majority were walking, I think. I channeled my inner Daryl and focused on maintaining my heart rate, so I walked what I had to and ran what I could. The trails were great, a steady uphill, not too technical, and for the first 2/3 I felt pretty good, out of breath, but pretty good. I maintained my position behind three firefighters and in front of a lady wearing Canada socks. The last 1/3 of the ascent was too technical to run (even if I could breath), the higher we got the harder it was to breath, I literally had to slow to a snail’s pace to keep my legs moving, I felt like I was climbing through molasses. It was a crazy feeling, and I couldn’t wait to get to the summit. When I finally arrived at the top, I was greeted by a friendly fellow with a camera (I can only imagine what that picture must look like), I had a quick gulp or two of water and tried to take my own picture but wouldn’t you know it, my blackberry was locked out…crap.

1:07 into the race I started my descent…the views were absolutely breathtaking. The lady wearing Canada socks was now ahead of me, now that we were going down I was able to breath/talk and was able to find out that she was from Calgary but now lived in Park City, I also found out that she was two weeks away from Iron Man, so now she was my hero as well as my trail guide. We stayed together for most of the descent, that was until my bladder could no longer take it and I had to pull off. I don’t know why all of my race bathroom breaks seem to take place during “Rockstar”, nothing like Chad singing to you while you are squatting at the side of a trail! My Canadian friend had warned me about one last mean hill before the finish line; it had nothing on the others, but my legs were tired and I was ready to be done. At the top of the hill were my fireman friends, I tucked in one last time behind them, but I didn’t expect them to take a wrong turn. They knew the trails and told me that the one that they were on would get to the finish line or I could double back and connect with the course to the finish line, decisions…I decided to stick to the course so I doubled back. As this was a very small race, there was no MC so I was never quite sure how close I was to the start line. I had hoped to complete the course between 1:30-1:45, but with my wrong turn I was now just over 1:50. Tired and done, I had a near death stumble, I recovered less than gracefully but had to walk it just to make sure that everything was ok. As I looked up, I could see my cheering squad. Time to suck it up…I put on my best race face and picked up what little speed (more like a trot) I had left and crossed the finish line. Unofficial time, 1:54 and change, two leg scrapes (that’s why I always shave them before playing in the trails) and a nasty running short chafe….priceless! It took me a little longer than I had expected, but I was so happy that I had done it. I would like to thank the volunteers and race crew for putting on such a great event and to my new running friends for making me feel so welcome.

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