Wind Chill

OK, it's been blowing all week long and the snow is heading this way. London, Montreal and Barrie have already had more than their fair share of it! Last night I braced myself for a 40 min. tempo run outside, windchill be damned. There was no way, I was going to do 3 nights in a row on the beige treadmill staring at the beige walls! So this is how I layered up:
2 pair of running tights
1 long sleeved wicking shirt
1 wicking t-shirt overtop
1 wind jacket
1 pair el-cheapo stretch gloves with a hole in one finger, because someone in this house swiped my Mizuno wicking stretch gloves, which look like cheapies except for the logo and the price tag!
1 thin wicking balaclava, pulled up over my face only when running head on into the wind, otherwise pulled down under my chin - now there is a real cute sight. Top that for an even cuter look with
1 Mizuno beanie
1 pair Asics Cumulus 11 with duct tape over the mesh, oh, forgot, only need that when the mercury hits -30C. Maybe I should think about getting a pair of these?
Here we go, out into the cold dark windy night! Love winter running, once I get going I'm as toasty as can be. Had the streets to myself too - bonus! That's like 6:00p.m. - pitch black!

BEIGE & BOYS

Wow! Two nights in a row on the treadmill. Not the usual for me, but there is a bitter windchill tonight so opted to spend a little time of the treadmill. Shelby was disappointed :(
Here is my view from my basement TM.

unaware of the camera, love how chill they look (could that room be any more beige!)

goofing around, trying to hide from the camera - the straight haired one is my kid. You have no idea how many times a similar scene has occurred  in my home. With seven boys in the house we have had every system, and popular game, trading cards, etc. etc., not to mention how many broken controllers there have been, never a dull moment - although now we are down to three boys and that one is the youngest.
When I got bored of staring at the blank wall, I got to look at this. I kind of felt like those pink guys while running on the mill.

At least it wasn't some first person shooter game, or worse yet, Grand Theft Auto - that would be the older boys domain. Come to think of it, running on the TM, if it were a color, it would be beige. Sorry Emz! Think I'll run outside tomorrow, windy or not. :)

Buy a lottery ticket!

That's what my husband said to me just a little while ago, because you know, good things come in threes!
Woke up to this

Yes, I live in a construction zone. This was around 7:00 this morning. You can't tell but snow was falling pretty heavily.
Here is Shelby waiting for me to go running. She loves my running socks. She always manages to find one and curl up with it or hide it behind the couch to curl up with later.

Nothing smells better to her than my running socks!
First Good Thing of the Day:
By 7:30, Shelby and I were out on the road, in the snow, like good Canadian girls Temp. -1C- love it!  and... drumroll please.... I ran 10K for the first time ever! It's hard to believe that only 4 wks. ago I had only ever run 7- 8K and that was with taking 1 minute walk breaks after every 10 mins of running. I was so stoked about running the full distance. I realized something too, no wonder my runs seem more challenging in the evenings. I've been up 12 hrs. and have put in a full day in a very physically and mentally demanding job. Duh! And I thought it was just me being wimpy!
This morning's run was so nice. The first couple of k's were a little slippery but I thought that would just be good practice for the Resolution Run on New Year's Eve, those were the conditions last year. Then by 3K my MP3 player died. I had a momentary panic but adjusted within seconds to the sounds of the quiet falling snow, which gives this insulated sound to everything and to Shelby's footfalls. I looked around at all the beautiful snow covered trees - so pretty. That stretch of road, about 1 k was a dirt road which was gravelly and slippery so my pace slowed. Then I got to the pavement on some back roads which were only wet, and no cars - so I was able to fall into a nice rhythm and felt really good. The next 5k was really nice, quiet, country, no cars, not slippery. Once I got back to the main road I had about 2k left. I picked up the pace and felt really good but then I had to start going onto the gravelly, slippery shoulder every time a car came by, and had to finish off on some slippery sidewalks until I got back to my neighborhood and did one little loop to make it a full 10K - YAY! Everytime, I'd get to the end of a long stretch of road, I'd look back and say - Hey, I just owned that whole stretch of road! Empowering!

Second Good Thing of the Day:
Got a call on another job I applied for and was offered the position. I accepted. It's not the library job, but that one still might be a possibility. What a relief to be able to leave the job I am in. This new job has more flexible hours, pays more even though I'll be working less hours and is less physically demanding. It will allow me more time to focus on family, and I'll be able to get some morning runs in. It really is time for a change! I've been feeling kind of burnt out, and it's the running that has kept my energy levels up and sanity intact.

So that is why my husband said I should go out and buy a lottery ticket. Good things do come in threes. As far as good days and bad days go, so far this one is pretty high up there on the good list!

Morning

Hit the pavement by 5:30. Temp 0 Celsius - my favorite running temp.
Things I saw:
-black lab rolling on the lawn, totally oblivious to Shelby and I
- a runner
- a bunny
- a guy scraping his windshield
-another runner
-some dog walkers
-the sky change from black to blue
Put in 8k, no breaks - Yahoo!
Off to Syracuse for a weekend of shopping with my 71yr. old mother. Hope I can keep up with her - seriously - she's a shopping machine.

Running in the Dark

Wow! It's getting dark so early now. By 5:00 I was out on the road and it was already dark.

Shelby and I ran 6.4k/3.5miles. I didn't feel like running today but I did. I'm still getting used to running without the walk breaks and to running 5x a week. So I could feel it in my legs, especially after doing those 400m intervals last night.  I was amazed that I could complete the distance without a break. There she is my loyal running partner with my son Sean.

EZ 30

Yesterday, my easy 30, didn't feel so easy. Got home from my 4 mile run the night before around 10:30 then woke up Saturday and the first thing I did was go out for an EZ 30. Shelby came along of course. She is her most doggie self when she can be off-leash, running around and exploring. She is such a good running partner on leash as well. She keeps my rhythm going.  Maybe I should have waited until the evening to run that 30 mins. My legs were protesting the whole way, but I took it really easy and got it done. Definitely have ramped it up this week. The biggest changes being not taking walk breaks, and adding in two more days of running. That's a lot in a week, but I don't feel I overdid it. Glad today is a rest day though. Maybe I should be trying this thing:

Girl Run

Tonight I went out and ran with 3 other women. One of them I know and the other two were new to me.
Talking with runners is like talking with mothers. Instead of comparing birth stories in detail, you compare races, training plans, the good, the bad and the ugly of running. Just like a birth story, you know all the details, play by play and so it is for training and  running races.
Instead of running past cows, corn fields and pumpkin patches the scenery on our route looked more like this:

This is an actual building in north Kanata, also known as Research Park - lots and lots of high tech companies there. Ottawa is mostly government employees or high tech geeks.
So the run started off feeling kind of weird. I'm so used to putting on my music, having my dog Shelby with me and zoning out. But this was a very chatty group. At first I found it distracting, and then I noticed it was more effort to talk and run. But I got used to it after awhile and the chit chat made the time pass by quickly.
This is my third run this week with no 1 minute break after every 10 minutes of running. I'm doing it!
 So, although I was slow I was pleased that I finished the 6.6k, just over 4 miles without a walk break. Not too shabby for me. In one week I've gone from running 3x week with walk breaks, to 4 x a week without walk breaks + one day of 400m interval runs.The human body is an amazing thing. Shelby seemed a little insulted when I got home but  tomorrow it's a 30 min. easy run and she'll be coming along.

4X400

So started my 10K training today. First on the list - 4X400 - On paper that sounds pretty easy. Saying it out loud, sounds pretty easy - doing it - not as easy as I thought! But I did it and felt great when I was done.
It's my first time training like this and I think I'm going to like changing it up, with the tempo runs, long run, and what I did today, I can see how a person could barf doing that type of interval training. I like the idea too of some days running for distance and some days running for time.
Here's my Garmin screen capture:

Round, and round.... where the red lines jut out  shows me walking to pick up dog poop during my cool down walk at the end. I let Shelby off leash at that point and, well, dogs will be dogs. Then you can see where I had to walk past my car to find a garbage can. Love my Garmin!

I'm havin' a good time

So, woke up to this,not bad.

The sky looked a little foreboding

but the forecast is calling for sun. They didn't mention anything about the freaking wind coming out of the north that assaulted me the moment I walked out the door!

Now, I'm not a cussin' or cursin' kind of gal, however there was a time... back in the day... and those little cursin' demons pop into my mind from time to time, like this morning

Things I was cursin' on my morning run today:
%$$# northerly wind broadsiding me
%&#*hard sidewalk for about 1rst 10 mins.
$&#* slippery gravelly shoulder for about the next 10mins.
$&#! northerly wind, causing me to contort into some weird kind of running form to not lose my hat and to just bear up against it
*%&$* loose dogs causing me to stop to put Shelby on leash before they got closer and she'd want to run off after them and trying not to get all tangled up in three dogs
%*$& noisy farm machinery drowning out my music and  with their #&@^# diesel, that smell makes me nauseous
#%@% north wind hitting me head on for a stretch
!#$#!@ overly strong manure smell coming off the farms

Okay, so things I liked about my run this morning:
being out in the country
running by a little house with the smells of a wood stove coming from it
seeing a blue jay in flight
telling the wind - you aint' gonna stop me
listening to Freddie Mercury reminding me - "Don't stop me now i'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball don't stop me now" This really put a smile on my face, reminded me to enjoy the moment and helped me pick up the pace - it was so fun, I played it again
Having that northerly wind at my back for the last km and some AC/DC kicking my butt all the way home, helping me to finish strong
So, 6.84 k done, wind be damned!

end of work week run

Thursday is the end of my work week. After a not very good sleep and a long physically and mentally demanding day, and a long commute, I just felt like plopping down on the couch. How's that for a run-on sentence!
However, I put on my running gear, funny how Shelby knows even before I go change that we are going for a run. On days I arrive home and won't be running, she doesn't get excited. She seems to know.
I ran 10/1 intervals. The first interval, I was feeling the effects of all the things mentioned in my first sentence. It was kind of gloomy and raining a bit. I wore my running jacket, or 'cult' jacket as my Learn to Run coach liked to call it. Should have known, I was feeling too warm by the start of the 2nd interval but not unbearably so. I was running down country roads. Shelby stopped to crap along the side of the road, I guess she's a real runner! I'm not part of that club, yet!
My run continued on pretty good. The last k was on the main drag that goes through our village so it motivated to keep my posture good. I finished strong and felt good. My run ended right in front of our local bakery which smelled great! I walked the last 1/2 k or so home as I'd accomplished my 6.5k that I wanted to by the time I reached the bakery, 6.59k to be exact. Not bad for this 46 yr. old gal who's lugging around an extra 20+lbs. Gotta get that off so I can run more efficiently, longer and farther. Funny how that's my motivation. I'm not running to lose weight, but I want to lose weight so I can run better. On my run, I ran past some of these flitting by

 then Shelby and I startled some of these, when we ran past a farmer's field,

and we also ran past a field like this on our last stretch

It was a good little run.
Happy Trails,
Lee

running in the dark

Ran 5k tonight. I dropped Sean off at church for Scouts and thought I'd run there instead of going home and having to come back. It was nice to have a new route, but I forgot there is a stretch of road with no street lights before getting to suburbia. I had my flashing Nike light on my running jacket but a headlamp would have helped. I was hoping I wouldn't step into a hole or trip on a rock, as I was running on the unpaved shoulder. Not good!

Beautiful clear night with stars and moon shining brightly
temp: 8C (about 46F), very nice for running although 0C is the temp for me. Felt odd not to have Shelby with me, especially in the dark. Also my friend Patti, who ran her first marathon this past summer has invited me to run a marathon in Kansas with her next year. Why Kansas, I don't know, we just talked in passing so I will have to get more details. Wonder if I'm up for that? hmmm.......

Fall Garden

This is one of my favorite Group of Seven paintings. It's be J.E.H. McDonald. It reminds me of this time of year and kind of how my back yard is looking right now, there's work to do tomorrow...

I am finally starting to feel better, but still keeping the kleenex close by. Man, I've been so sick and have not gone out running. I'm hoping I'll feel fully recovered by tomorrow and test out my endurance.
It felt great to turn the calendar over to October this morning. I don't work Fridays and I started the day feeling lots of hope for this month for many things. I spent the day reveling in domestic bliss. It's a treasure to be home, puttering around the house, nesting this time of year. I'm looking forward to the cooler temps. for running too. It's been almost a year (end of October) since I signed up for my first running clinic. I think I'll do another one as I'm getting a little lonely running alone, well Shelby is ever faithful, but I did enjoy the camaraderie of running with a group.
During my 2nd clinic which took place in the winter months, I distinctly remember having a wonderful 6k run with 3 other women, we broke off from the larger group and chatted on for awhile. The temp. was hovering around 0Celsius (about 32F) and a few flakes of snow were falling, it was dark outside. The conversation slowly died out as we became almost lulled into the quiet rhythm of four pair of feet falling onto pavement - it was the best- and I want more of that... but it's not winter yet... looking forward to some nice Fall running.
Lee

Bad Dog

Today's run:
Temperature - 21C (about 70F) - a little warm for my liking but had a breeze while running north, more of a strong head wind at times
Food - ate an apple, 1/2 banana and 1/2 a Fibre 1 bar on the commute home, about an hour before running
Sleep - good, really needed to catch up last night and did
Distance - 5.7k - felt pretty good and steady throughout, took it slow, my feet were a little sore, think it's time for some new shoes.
Distractions - Cows

At one point during my run I came up along side some cows and they started running along the fence. I was just hoping that I didn't look like one of them! I knew I was a target for a good joke by anyone driving past - hey, look, one of the cows got loose - yes I do feel a little self-conscious when I run sometimes and have , 20, 30 lbs.( gained  10 over the past few months, in fact weighed less before I started running last fall) to lose so hoping I didn't resemble the cows too much.

Dog Antics - Shelby was very well behaved but as I was running down a dirt road, out bounded this big beagle mix dog from a farm fairly close to a busy road. This is not my first encounter with this dog. I yelled out - 'Call your dog', again, 'you need to call your dog' no response. I kept running and the damn dog followed me to the busy road and all the way down it for a couple of kilometres right to my front yard- It was so frustrating - I had to worry about the dog getting itself killed and try to keep my pace and rhythm going- I think the owners shouldn't leave him loose even though they are on a country road, especially at rush hour when there are lots of people coming and going. I don't feel it was my responsibility to bring the dog back. That happened the first time. The dog followed dh and I for 2 or 3 km, and then we walked him back to the farm( round trip of 10k when we were planning on 6) - no one home had to let him in the porch.  Bad dog or bad owners?

Wild Turkey Run

This is such a nice time of year. I woke up this morning and while everyone was still fast asleep out I went for a  5krun. I guess it was around 8:00 a.m.  I came across some 

wild turkeys having breakfast in a farmer's field.  It was quite a large rafter of turkeys. There seemed to be a mix of toms, hens and poults, about a dozen or so total.
What a nice sight to see, just about ten minutes in. Turning the corner onto a long stretch of farms, I could smell very strongly the smell of what put me in mind of hops. Not sure if that's what it was. Of course there were the regular farm smells permeating the warm late summer morning air and I had to dodge bits of manure on the road that a farmer's tractor was leaving behind down one section as he traveled  from one field to another.
Shelby was loving the off-leash run. Oh, I haven't mentioned Shelby yet have I.
She's my running partner, but I'll introduce her to you in a future blog.
Hope your morning was as pleasant as mine. I've even got our bed linens hanging out on the line.
Rural living, it's so nice this time of year, and running through the farmlands really makes me aware of the subtle changes of the seasons.
Happy Trails 'til next time.
Lee

Dog Crap kind of Day

So it was back to work for me today. I'm always anxious for about two days before the start day. I love the work I do, but not the logistics (setting and schedule) that gets me flustered. So, after a restless night I woke up to dog crap all over the den, not a usual thing for our dog Shelby to do, but happens if she's gotten in to some human food. This couldn't have happened yesterday, no, she saved it for my already stressful day. I tried to stay positive thinking that it could be worse, she could have done it on the carpet. Glad the den door was closed.
Work was information overload . Okay, so driving home with a headache, I arrive to DH at the door waiting to drop a bomb or two on me about our teenagers and their antics. Oh, and the dog decided to leave a little more crap on the carpet afterall.
Arghg-gh. So just when I felt like running away for home, or tuning out to something mindless with a mindless snack of something with too many empty carbs, I heard a little voice inside my head, I think it was Beth from Shut Up and Run telling me, well, you know....
So I did. I wanted to go outside to run but it started thundering and lightning, but I didn't let that stop me. I trudged downstairs to the  treadmill and put in 40 minutes. I'm doing 10/1 intervals. I sweated out all that stress and frustration to some rockin' tunes, truly therapeutic! Relaxed with a shower and some stretching and life doesn't look so bleek afterall. I'll try to get a good sleep and tomorrow is a new day. Blah! Felt good to get all that off my chest! Take Care - Happy Trails