Training Notes

run.

My husband broke his toe. 

Not the one he dropped the bottle of wine on. The other one. 

Actually, my daughter stepped on it. It was not a good time. Both toe incidents brought him to his knees. When the wine incident happened, I heard a yell then I came upon my husband on the floor with all this red stuff around him I thought was blood. Brittany also dropped to the floor to prevent an all-out faint. Good times. But back to the toe, the broken one. If I thought you'd enjoy seeing a picture of a swollen toe compared to a non-swollen toe, I would show you. Because I took one. But I think that would pretty much make me vomit somehow, if I had to see that on your blog, so I'm not going to do that to you. Especially on a Monday morning.

You're welcome.

Good morning!!

The sad thing is that it has limited his running somewhat. Mostly that's sad for me, because I really enjoy having his company on the weekend long runs. This weekend, I ran ten miles. He joined me around mile six after already having run five miles in a different location. But by then, his toe was killing him, his IT band was acting up (old running injury), and frankly, he brought me a lot of negative energy. He ran one mile with me before calling home for a ride, and I think he made a wise decision to not push on. 

Not all negative energy though, because somewhere in that mile we ran together he looked at me and told me how well I was doing and how proud he is of me. Sigh ... melted my heart. When you're having a bad run like he was, its not easy to praise someone else, so THAT was the good energy that carried me through those final miles. Love that guy, broken toes and all.

I wanted to take a picture of these cattails so I stopped briefly just after mile 8.5, and I didn't know it at the time but my running app (which notifies me of every 0.5 miles run) got paused somehow. I was running and running and thinking, pwah, this is one long half-mile! I had probably run over ten miles when I finally took the phone out to check. Oi!!!

The other thing that got me through the miles and which I highly recommend, was having a special intention for each mile. For example, there was a mile dedicated to each of my children and my husband. Its related to the redemptive value of suffering, even if your suffering is just little (like a killer workout or the miles of a long run). It brought focus and purpose to each moment.  The concept isn't new among runners, I've seen runners with names written down each side of their arms, a name for each mile of a marathon. I am totally going to do that for my race. And, the concept isn't new among Catholics. We believe in the redemptive value of suffering when you unite it (offer it up) to Christ's own suffering (Coll 1:24, Lk 14:27, Phil 3:8-11, 2 Cor 1:5-7). 

I planned my nutrition much better this week. I am trying to keep a careful record of the fuel especially pre and post-runs. I've been doing a lot of research and tried a couple of new recipes. I think the best thing I came across, well two best things actually, was Sarah's blog and a running nutrition book. First, Sarah is a runner and nutritionist living in Vancouver, her blog is about running, but its linked to her nutrition blog and lots of fabulous recipes! She has introduced me to recovery shakes with really weird ingredients like tart cherry juice and kale and hemp hearts, whatever, and quinoa salad.  Yep, I hadn't yet jumped on the quinoa wagon, but we had it Friday night as a carb-loader the night before the long run, and it was absolutely awesome. Awesome I tell you!!! I am heading out to buy quinoa in bulk. 

OK, so the second best thing I came across and downloaded to my handy dandy kindle was Matt Fitzgerald's book about marathon and half-marathon nutrition. New rules, and lots of food for thought. I'm slowly working my way through this book. 

I fuelled the long run with Honeystinger organic energy chews in the orange blossom flavour, which tastes pretty much exactly like Orange Crush pop. They also have cherry cola flavour. Mmmm!! I think I like them better than the GU chomps, because they are tasty and less chompier.  But, based on what I was reading, I decided to begin fuelling a little later in the run, at the one hour mark instead of beginning at 20 minutes. You wouldn't do this for every long run, only some of them during training. One of these days though, I need to bring myself to seriously try a gel ...

ANYWAY. I leave you with a peek at the latest recipe in progress, this one from the Runners World cookbook, a spinach-bacon-sweet-potato salad. One thing I've learned for meal-planning is to plan your veggies first, ensuring a red and a green, then plan everything else around that. I used to plan the meat component of supper first. So that's a shift, but a good one. We definitely get our veggies now!!

All for now dear friends. Happy 2nd Monday of Lent!!

xo

How Goes the Running?

run.

Running is like the best kind of solitude for me. I work things out on the road. Its funny, because I really believe God put this in my path quite intentionally. There have been several times in my life when I felt like the Holy Spirit just kind of placed something in front of me and said, "Hey, here you go. I think you might like this." And it would be just what I needed, but wasn't actually seeking. Has that ever happened to you?

So its no accident that I identify myself with something really positive right now, like being a runner. Even though I'm pretty new at it. It stretches me, it gives me confidence, it strengthens me - mentally, physically, spiritually. It brings me closer to God in a different way. Even though I feel so strong and alive, I know that God is the One behind it all, the real source of my strength and life. I have no idea why He thinks running should be my thing right now. I know I love it, I'm slightly obsessed, and its wrapping me up as a better person (I think and hope), but really .... running, Lord? Never would have thought. So glad He did.

So I have officially begun my half-marathon training plan for the Calgary Scotiabank race at the end of May. I haven't taken any time off running since the race last month, but I did ease up the week after for a bit of a recovery. My first long run after the race was only 6 miles - but I've been steadily increasing again. This weekend, I ran 9 miles followed by a 1.5 mile cool-down walk. Oh, you guys, it was so gross. The weather here on Saturday took a turn. It was really windy and snowy and felt like -18C with the windchill. Y'all, I really love cold weather running, but I do not dig the wind. I had to push myself to get out there, but what motivated me most was knowing that I didn't want to do my long run on Sunday. I live for Sunday ... especially Sundays during Lent ... my coffee after Mass, a little reading, hanging out with the kids, maybe a little sewing ... Sundays are our glory day. So yeah, I decided to brave the gross weather Saturday for the sake of Sunday. Hey, you pretty much never regret a run.

Every long run is a practice for race-day. I'm experimenting with pre-race meals, hydration and fuel during the race. These are hot topics in the running culture. What to do, what to do??? The GU chomps seem to work well but I don't really have anything to compare it to, yet. I tried a gel once and eeeewwwwwww, yuk, I really could barely lick it without gagging. But I'm thinking I should try it again since the gels are pretty ideal in terms of fuel and you won't choke on them like the chomps. I'll have to keep experimenting. On Saturday I fuelled with a cheese-toast and coffee a couple hours before the run, then a few pretzels about half an hour before I left. I also took some pretzels with me because I get the munchies during the long run. All that seemed to work ok but I think I can improve. Next weekend I'm going to approach it more objectively by fuelling with calories based on body weight and miles to run. We'll see. Any tips?

All for now! 
xo