I did it!

I ran the Mississauga Marathon on Sunday and finished in 3:51:28. The ankle was still a bit sore and then I rolled it at the 18k mark (oops) which definitely caused some pain, but it did subside, but I was left with a swollen ankle (swelling's down now).

All in all, I was definitely happy with the race. There was wind and rain, but I didn't mind. I ran a marathon. I even knocked a few minutes off my half marathon time.

I don’t know what happened.

Yesterday morning, I got up and ran 9km. The run felt good and it was great weather. I got home and stretched as usual. Stretching my left calf felt a little odd, but that’s it.

All day, my left ankle hurt and it felt like it needed to crack, but even if it did, it didn’t feel any better. I already had a massage appointment booked because my low back and right hip were acting up on Monday/Tuesday. By this point my back and hip were fine, but my ankle, not so much. RMT worked on my back, hip and ankle, but couldn’t get the ankle to give.

Today, it felt a bit better, but still not right. I wasn’t limping today, but it still felt odd. I attempted a bit of a run tonight, which turned more into a 10-15 minute fast-paced walk with some intermittent brief spurts of jogging and then a 15 minute easy run afterward.

I’m not sure what’s going on, but I certainly hope that it’s better very very soon. I took some muscle relaxants tonight and rubbed some pain-relief cream on my ankle and lower leg in the hopes that it fixes itself overnight. It’s 3 days to marathon day and I really hope I don’t need to walk most of it.

** update – I wrote this post last night, but blogger was down, so I couldn’t post it until today. The ankle is still hurting today. **

I finally did it!

I finally got past whatever strange mental block I had with the 10K race distance. You know something is wrong when you can run the first 10 km of a half marathon faster than a 10K race. That was the position I was in for almost 2 years.

In September 2009, I ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll Virginia Beach 1/2 Marathon, with my first 10 km of that race being completed in 51:27. Click here for my results from this race.

I had run 4 10K races prior to this half. My times were as follows:
Oct 2008 – Zoo Run: 54:57 (chip time)
May 2009 – Mudpuppy Chase: 53:22 (gun time)
June 2009 – Waterloo Classic: 55:54 (chip time)
Aug 2009 – Muskoka Rocks: 54:46 (gun time)

At this point, one could argue that my training was paying off and that’s why I did so well for the 10K portion of the half, but then I look at the results for 10K races AFTER September 2009.

Oct 2009 – Laurier Loop: 52:30 (c)
May 2010 – Mudpuppy Chase: 52:30 (c)
Jun 2010 – Guelph Lake: 53:47 (g)
Jun 2010 – Waterloo Classic: 55:50 (c)
Oct 2010 – Laurier Loop: 52:03 (c)

Then came the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll 1/2 Marathon in December 2010 where I once again finished the first 10K faster than any 10K race. This time it was 51:31. My results for this race are here.

So.. this brings us to today. I ran the Downtown Mudpuppy Chase, which is one of my favourites, due to it’s close proximity to my house and fabulous post-race food. I ran the 10K distance (the race has a 3K, 5K, and 10K) and I finished in a gun time of 49:04. My chip time was 48:52.

I’ve finally run a 10K race faster than the first 10K of a longer distance race! I’ve finally broken 50 minutes, which was my goal for last year that didn’t happen, and I’ve crushed my previous best 10K race time by over 3 minutes!

I think I’ve gotten over whatever it was that had been holding me back. Today was a confidence boost indeed.

Bring on the marathon in 2 weeks!

I’m going to run NYC marathon… in 2012

Today was the non-guaranteed entry lottery drawing for the 2011 marathon. They had a live draw of the 40,000 runners who were chosen from the 140,000 runners who entered the lottery. From what I can tell, I was not chosen.

I’ve been entering the lottery for this race since 2009, so this was my third year. Not being chosen 3 years in a row, guarantees your entry for the following year, so.. I’m in! Next year.

Runs since my last post:
April 20 - 5km
April 21 – 9 km
April 23 – 36.25 km (my final long long run before the marathon)
April 26 – 5.5 km
April 27 – 2 km on treadmill, then I smartened up and went outside
April 27 – 8.25 km

Will I be ready?

I’ll be running Mississauga Marathon on May 15th, so it’s now less than a month until my first full marathon.

I missed some workouts including shortening up some long runs due to the cold I had. I’m now over that, but I’ve just done my first run longer than 30 km in weeks. I did run 65 km last week, but the longest day was just a 20 km day. This coming weekend, I’ll do a 36 or 38 km run.

I’ve run several half marathons and now I’ve done one 30 km race, but nothing longer than that. I’m looking forward to running my first marathon next month, but there are also the doubts. I’m mostly confident, but hey.. it’s something I’ve never done before! I hope it goes well.

Kicking the Cold

In my last post, I mentioned that I ran Around the Bay with a cold that had started a few days before the race. Well, it didn’t end there. I spent a fun week with lots of Kleenex and night time cold relief drugs. Due to this lovely, I missed 3 of my training runs. I had to skip my Quality Workout with the store on Thursday and well.. it was frustrating.

I started to feel better, energy-wise, on Thursday night so I started easing back into the running this weekend. On Friday evening I ran 5 km, Saturday I ran 10 km, and today, 15 km.

I still have a bit of stuffiness, but overall, I feel a lot better. I hope this cold is completely gone by Tuesday so that I can get back into my regular training routine.

Today I ran Around the Bay

For the last few weeks, I’ve felt like my body was fighting off something. I was more tired at night than usual and I’d fall asleep quicker. It wasn’t affecting me during the day at all, so it was all okay. Well, this week, my body decided to give up the fight and allow the cold to find it’s way in.

Thursday, I started to have a bit of a sore throat, but chalked it up to a dry house. I went to my Quality Workout session with Runners’ Choice as usual and had a good interval session.

When I woke up on Friday, my throat was not good. I decided to stay home from work (I still worked, just from home instead of the office) and hang out in my PJs for the day. I also didn’t want to spread germs at work and I thought my co-workers might appreciate that. I hoped that by taking it easy, maybe it would be the quickest cold ever and be gone in a day (yeah right… I know that never happens).

Saturday morning, the cold was more prominent. I felt out of it and drained. Went to the expo to pick up my race kit and to do a little shopping, but I probably walked right by some great deals since my brain could only focus on one thing at a time. I was looking for arm sleeves and I found some for $12.50 + tax. Yay!

This morning, when I woke up, I had a lovely coughing session where Ryan said he was considering telling me I couldn’t run. But it went away as quickly as it came, and body-wise, I felt good. I promised him that if I felt bad during the race, I would stop and not complete it.

So.. in order to run the race with a cold, I stocked up on supplied, and clothes for that matter. I purposely dressed warmer than I would normally because if I ended up needing to walk a large portion, I wanted to be comfortable. I brought way more gels & shot blocks than I needed to be sure I could avoid another emergency donut situation like 2 weeks ago, a pocket full of Ricola cough drops, and 5 kleenex.

During the race I used:
- 1 gel just before the start
- 1 package of shot blocks throughout the race
- several small cups of Gatorade on the course (I stopped at every aid station starting at 11km and had some)
- 5 cough drops
- 4 fuel belt bottles of water
- and only 1 kleenex that I actually got from a spectator who was holding out a box

I only had 3 small bouts of coughing during the race and taking another cough drop did the trick each time.

I finished the 30 km race Around the Bay in 2 hours, 56 minutes, 2.5 seconds. Not too shabby.

A four town tour

Today’s long run took place through 4 different towns: Kitchener, Waterloo, St Jacobs, and Conestogo.

It was an interesting run. I had puddles to deal with on the way out of town, a car that almost ran me over (no worries, I’m not injured or anything), a closed road and detour, and an emergency donut stop (I was out of gels and needed some energy).

I ran a total of 30.35 km today and overall it was pretty good (aside from the above mentioned occurrences). It was my longest training run so far and I finished it in 3 hours 15 minutes. I’m looking forward to pushing myself further in the future.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 30.35 km
Weather: 0 C, felt like –5 C, NW wind 17-20 km/h

A Quick Summary of a Week Gone By

It’s been a while. I apologize. I will now quickly bring you up to speed on my running over the past week-ish.

My running consisted of:
- indoor mini reverse triathlon (30 min run, 10 min bike, 15 min swim)
- 2.5 hour evening-time icy run
- hills with the group at Runners' Choice 
- rainy 12 km run (but at least it was nicely above freezing and I could wear a hat instead of a toque!)
- 3 hour run that started out nice and sunny, ended up dark, had some clear stretches, some very snowy stretches, some ice, slush, and some puddles

And now it’s my day off.

First Quality Workout Since Vacation

Tonight, I went to Runners’ Choice for the Thursday night Quality session of the Marathon Group. We ran did a ladder workout tonight, starting with 1 minute hard, 1 minute recovery, then up to 2 min, 3 min, 4 min hard segments with 1 minute recovery between each, then back down. This whole set was done twice.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 12 km
Weather: –1 C, felt like -6

Re-Fridgee-Eighter Run

This morning was the 14th annual Re-Fridgee-Eighter 8 km and 8 mile races at RIM Park in Waterloo.

The race was well-run as always with plenty of support both on the course and at the start/finish area.

Chip pick-up went very smoothly, the intersections on the course were well managed with police and volunteer help, water stations were plentiful, and the finish area was easy to manoeuvre through. The post race food at any RunWaterloo event is always good and today was no exception. There was coffee, hot chocolate, pizza, hot dogs, fruit, bagels, cream cheese, and even ice cream.

I ran the 8 mile race in 1:08:44, which was over a minute faster than my time last year, so I’m happy with that. I didn’t know what to expect today as my body kept telling me that it didn’t want to run today. The weather was great, so I’m sure that helped. We had nice clear roads and it wasn’t too cold, which great.

First run of the year down and many exciting events to come.

Correr en Cayo Coco

I just got back from vacation, staying at the Emperador Laguna Villas Resort in Cayo Coco for one week.

I went for several runs during my vacation in Cuba, including a 17 km long run. I brought a camera with me on this run just in case I saw interesting things on the way.

I started my run first thing Monday morning, leaving my husband and friends to have breakfast without me. I headed out of the resort, past the gates and turned left to start my adventure. As I approached the first roundabout, there was already a photo worthy moment: two wild horses were grazing in the grass between resorts.

Making my way down the road, I decided to turn left and head toward the ocean just before Sol Cayo Coco. As I ran down, I noticed that I had been to this area a couple days before, but had approached via water and beach. This time I came by road. I had arrived at the rocky point, so I climbed up and snapped some photos.

 

 

From this point, I looked to the east at the resorts where I would head next: Sol & Melia. The resorts looked quite nice from up here, so I was intrigued to check them out. I carefully climbed down from the rocky, coral peak and ran back out to the road. Next stop would be Sol Cayo Coco.

I ran around the Sol, which was a nice looking resort, much smaller than the Emperador Laguna. The buildings looked nice and the beach smaller and windier, but still quite beautiful. I didn’t really stop anywhere at this resort, I kept on running.

When I arrived at Melia Cayo Coco, I was instantly impressed with the grounds. Everything looked well kept. Again, this resort was a lot smaller than the one where we stayed. I decided to check out their beach as well and when I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find a brown pelican right close to where I stepped of the steps to the sand.

The bird stood so quietly on the beach and I could easily approach him. I decided I needed a self-portrait with my new friend.

After hanging out for a minute or two, I realized that I wasn’t getting too far in my run (I was only a few km in at this point) so I should probably keep going.

Melia is the end of the road, so when I left the resort, I was heading back past Sol and Emperador again, this time continuing through the next roundabout where I would pass by more resorts. I did not stop at these, as I wanted to head out to areas where I could see the ocean from the road.

While running along a long stretch of road, I ran into two men working on the median of the road. Well, one of them was working and the other appeared to be hanging out with his friend. I stopped to talk to them for a few minutes as I had actually met the non-working guy (who king of looked a bit like Usher) the day before at Playa Prohibida and he recognized me (I was running the prior day as well). He spoke Spanish and French, but not English, so it was a bit of a choppy conversation, but we got by. I let them know that I was going to keep on running and started moving on.

I discovered a path that looked interesting and I could hear waves, so I thought it might be a fun place to run. It was more sandy (go figure) than I thought, so it was a bit tough to run on, but was still a nice change from the road. I saw lots of hoof prints in the sand, so I’m pretty sure this is where they do the horse riding to the beach and along the beach that you see advertised in the excursions from the hotels. It lead me to the water, where I briefly ran along the beach before heading back out to the road.

The path and the end of the path where it opens to the beach:

Back on the road, the next section became hilly, but gorgeous. There was so much foliage along the sides of the road and the road ran along the shore, so there was a wonderful ocean breeze. I saw a sign up ahead, so I decided to run up to see what it was. My turn-around point turned out to be a bar and grill, but sadly, I didn’t have any money on me to stop and enjoy.

The run back to the resort was pretty uneventful, although, at one point I heard a loud, long call of “hola” so I turned and saw that it was the Usher look-alike calling at me from down away from the road. I gave greetings of “hola” and “Buenos dias” to the two guys as I kept running, wanting to run without any further stops on the way back.

I arrived back at the resort and stopped at exactly 2 hours. My time wasn’t too bad for the distance considering the stops I made. I wasn’t going to be concerned about the quality of my run too much as I definitely wanted to take in the sights and experience of running in Cuba.

My Run in Cayo Coco:

My longest run so far

This morning I ran in the snow. It was a tough run and a great workout. I ran my longest run ever. So far, that is.. of course they will get longer. Until now, my longest was a half marathon.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 24 km (but snowy hills made it seem longer)
Weather: –4 C, felt like –10 C. Cloudy.

Short, but enjoyable run this morning

I expected the cat to wake me up at 8am like she normally does, but today she didn’t stand on me until 9. Oh well. I’m not complaining about being able to sleep in, but it did cut my morning a bit shorter.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 4.5 km
Weather: –5 C, sun & cloud

I skipped my group workout tonight…

but still did speed work on the treadmill at the gym, so I didn’t really skip my running workout at all. I just did it while watching Grey’s Anatomy instead of running around an indoor track.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 11.26 km
Weather: n/a

A new month & another new pair of shoes

This time they are New Balance 860s. So far so good. No pain today. I’ll take them for another spin on the treadmill tomorrow just to be sure.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 7km
Weather: n/a – I was at the gym on a treadmill

Around and around I go

Today I decided to run loops. Well, run to a loop, do the loop a couple of times, run to another loop, run it, then on to another and I’m sure you get the picture. I ran around parks and a university today and the paths and roads in between.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 21 km
Weather: –8 C, felt like -15

Run 2 of 2

Tonight was the Quality Workout at Runners’ Choice. We headed out for some 400m repeats on a nice paved path. It was great to have a workout with no cars and a nice wide path that was clear of snow. It was a nice tough workout, running hard for 400m and then easy for 400m and repeat 6 to 12 times.

Tonight’s Run:
Distance covered: 13 km
Weather: –4 C, felt like –9 C

Run 1 of 2

It’s Thursday today, which means Quality Workout with Runners’ Choice tonight. Normally, that is my only run of the day, but this morning I headed out the door for a short run in the nice mild weather.

Distance: 5 km
Weather: –7 C, light snow, wind E 4 km/h

Another new pair.. another sore heel

On the weekend, I exchanged the shoes that gave me heel pain for a different pair of shoes. Tonight I tried out the new shoes on a treadmill. Pain. I tried to suck it up thinking that maybe, just maybe, it was “new shoe” pain and not “bad shoe for me” pain. I ended up having to switch shoes half-way through my run (I brought 2 pairs to the gym just in case). I guess Reeboks just don’t fit my feet right. It’s too bad, too, because I liked the shoes in all other aspects.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 9.75 km
Weather: n/a – I was indoors