What I will miss most about summer

I love summer, I love everything about it and right about now I am feeling a little boo-hooey.  The mornings are cooler, the nights are getting darker sooner and the leaves are starting to fall.

Here are the top 20 things (it did start as 10) that I will miss about summer:

20. Floating in the pool.

19. My tan.  Even though for most of the summer it was in the shape of my sports bra and running shorts.

18. Being able to see the Lake when I am teaching on Monday evenings.

17. Berries, berries and more berries, and being able to pick them from your own garden.

16. Running skirts.  They are too cute to only be worn six months of the year.

15. Big Brother.  Sorry I’m not sorry.

14. Naptime outside.

13. Flowers.  There is nothing like the smell of honeysuckle to get me through a road run.

12. Leaves on the trees.  Life in the country gets pretty bare in the winter.

11. Lack of routine and schedule.  I am not the planner that I used to be, really.  I love seeing where the day takes me; sometimes it may not be anywhere.

10. Driving with the windows down and the music loud (the music is still loud in the winter but the windows are closed).

9. Flip flops.  I could still wear them, but they aren’t conducive to those who spend hours on end in a hockey rink.

8. The golf course isn’t always open, which adds an additional 7 minutes to my commute to the lake.

7. Having a clean car inside and out.  Trail running is not a clean sport.

6. My body doesn’t hurt quite as much.  I don’t care what Dr. L says.

5. Adventure Thursdays.

4. The patio, any patio.

3. Impromptu happy hours.  They never need a reason in the summer.

2. Finishing our morning trail runs with a swim in Hayward Lake.

1. My summer partner in crime.  Most parents are excited about their kids going back to school, me not so much.

Guess who’s 1?

Today is a special day. Today ironmountainmovement.com is 1 year old!

I have never considered myself very techie, so when the wonderful people at SmarttNet handed my website over to me I felt a little like a new parent…mmmmk, so what do I do now? Fortunately for me, my website did come with a hands on tutorial, a reference guide and plenty of techie advice when I needed it, but the thought of linking pages, inserting images, Google Analytics frightened me to death.

And then there was the blog. Really, what did I have to say (apparently a lot) and would anyone read it (there is evidence that a few of you do). I found out quickly that the only way that my blog would work for me was if I quit worrying about what I thought everyone wanted to hear and was just myself. So what started out as my official running diary (I hated the word blog back then) still does document my running and races, it also is a place where I can write about health, fitness and wellness and even rant a little as well.

As Conny and I discussed last night on our way home from spin class at the Sheep, life is about living and learning from our mistakes, not regretting but instead handling the situation differently if it happened again, and that is what I have done with my blog. Being new to social media (and I was a total rookie), I have had to learn where to set my boundaries, because when you write something, it is pretty much forever (and really, you don’t need to know and nor should you care that I had a handful of chocolate chips after eating a lunch that was completely null and void of any nutritional value).

I have also opened the door to other forms of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. For me this was a pretty big deal because until very recently I was quite a vocal anti-Facebooker, I have eaten a lot of crow on this one, which has only re-affirmed “never say never” people. It also re-affirms boundary setting. I am still surprised at some of the things that people post and also at the horrific spelling errors (I don’t understand why Facebook does not have spell check on status updates but it does when you comment on some else’s update) on Facebook.

One of the things that I enjoy most about my website is the comments that I receive not only from my clients but from people outside of the lower mainland, please keep them coming. It’s always interesting to see how people found the website (I now love Google Analytics), the most unusual one to date came last week when someone searched “Ted Bundy Summit Park” (I had mentioned this in my Sprint to the Summit post)…yikes!

The past year has required patience, nurturing and a whole lotta courage. What seemed to be such a scary thing a year ago is now a part of my day which I look forward to. I would like to send out a HUGE shout-out to my Mum (my editor) and her 17th century English, one day this will be a paying gig you know.

Happy birthday ironmountainmovement.com, lemon drops for everyone!

Butter shoes


Over the past ten days my feet have taken a total beating. Two Fridays ago I rolled my right ankle, last Tuesday I received several wasp stings on my right ankle and then on Saturday while trying to shop for my 100 mile supper at the Farmer’s Market, I was stung on my left middle toe, affectionately referred to as my arthritis toe (any toe but this poor little piggy; it is so challenged to begin with). I had originally thought that my new runners were cursed, but each of the three incidents happened in a different pair of shoes…three, I guess if I believe what they say, my feet are now out of danger. Enough already with my feet, today I am all over them.

Although the swelling and bruising has disappeared from my right foot, it is still a little tender to touch especially the area just below my ankle (when wearing my runners the area in question is right under the outside edge of my shoe) and the stiffness of my new runners has only been aggravating it more. I know that I could do the wise thing and take a week off and let it heal, but today is the last sunny day of the week, I did take yesterday off, it was only a 5km run…I pulled out my old runners.

There always seems to be a bit of denial when it comes to getting new runners. Your knees, hips and ankles may be sore, you know that your runners are no longer providing any kind of support or cushioning, but they feel just so damn good! Worn in all the right spots, so many miles, so many memories. And when we finally give in and jump off our wallets and buy a new pair (usually the same as the last pair only in this season’s colours), we keep the old pair. I am guilty of it too.

So this morning when I put on my old runners they were butter…
1. Pronounced slowly in a slightly deeper tone bud-ah, as in perfect fit…my runners felt like butter.
2. Pronounced quickly and slightly sarcastically but-her, as in but her…nice outfit but butter shoes?
…both examples pertain to my old runners!

With relatively little discomfort, I enjoyed a sunny 27:25 5km hilly run and felt so good I added an additional 2km loop. I’m not sure how my knees and hips will feel tomorrow, but ankle felt fantastic today.