Birthday trail run
I am not there yet (actually not even close) but when it comes time to celebrate my 50th birthday I think that I might like to take a trip, I could even be ready to cruise by then, somewhere exotic, or maybe a party, surprise of course, with a theme, that’s just me.
Tomorrow, Ron from my running group turns 50, if you have met Ron before you will remember him, Ron is memorable! To celebrate his 50th birthday Ron wanted to run around Hayward Lake, a 17km trail run, ok I’m in. I met Ron back in January when he signed up for my Intermediate Road/Trail Clinic, we started our runs at 30 minutes and by the end of the session in March the group was running a comfortable 60 minutes on the trails. In my half marathon training clinics, I use the Hayward Lake loop as one of our final long runs, it takes you pretty much the same amount of time to run that 17km loop of trail as it does to run a 21.1km road route (for those that don’t run, an average time to run 10km on the road is about 60 minutes). It was going to be a bit of a push, but I knew that Ron had the tenacity to pull it off.
So, Ron and I met this morning and started our trek around Hayward Lake. We started from the main parking lot so we had a 6km stretch of trail with 3 bumps (decent sized hills), which was the perfect warm-up for the other side of the lake which is just plain undulating. When we arrived at the Ruskin Dam we were met by Marcia, Kimberley, Anna, Theresa, Jody and Mona from the Intermediate R&T Clinic, they cheered Ron in and then joined us for our remaining 11km. The ladies were fabulous, such a great source of support for Ron as well as each other, for most of them this was their longest run to date as well. By the time we hit the Stave Dam, Ron was just about out of gas (I mean that in every sense), I don’t think that we had heard any obnoxious spandex comments for quite some time, so he must have been tired!
He rockstar’d on. It took 2 hours and 45 minutes, lots of woohooing, a package of Cliff Shots, a couple of falls, plenty of mud and a bit of rain to make Ron’s birthday wish happen. Happy Birthday Ron, thanks for letting us celebrate with you! Cheers!
Mission accomplished!
Food Revolution
As a general rule, I am fairly well behaved on Friday nights. Being short on sleep and hydration makes a Saturday morning run suck (not that I would know, ok maybe there was that one run…). If you are a television watcher like myself on Friday nights, you will know that there is some stimulating programming out there, although not suitable for the whole family, bow-bow-chica-bow-wow. But if you had seen the previews and heard the buzz chances are that you may have watched the new series Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Jamie Oliver (something about the way he talks, not just the accent, he has that tongue thing going on when he talks) so I didn’t need to be convinced to watch, it was a given. For those who missed the premiere, the premise of the show is Jamie Oliver (aka The Naked Chef, but not really naked) leaves his family in England behind to start a food revolution in Huntington, West Virginia, recently named the unhealthiest city in America (by government statistics). He starts his food revolution in the cafeteria of Central City Elementary, his goal is to change the food the kids are eating, prove that the kids enjoy it and to do it on budget, and our hero has only one week to make the magic happen. Of course he is met with resistance, he is trying to change a town where half of the adults are considered obese. The trailer for tonight’s episode shows Jamie fighting the good fight with one night and one moment that will make his revolution even stronger (ABC, 9pm). You know I will be watching.
It isn’t just Huntington, West Virginia that face these problems, they exist in Canada as well. Some frightening statistics were released at the beginning of this year from the 2007-2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey and they didn’t just pertain to the adult population. Part of the survey compared the youth (children 6-19 years of age) of today to the youth of 1981. The results, “children are taller, heavier, fatter and weaker than in 1981”.
At the risk of dating myself, in 1981 I was ‘the youth’. Although we didn’t have to walk six miles to school (the claims of our parents’ generation), we did walk to and from school, we played team sports, we played outside afterschool, we ran and we rode our bikes everywhere. So what happened? Can we blame it on technology, the fast paced lifestyle of today, pre-packaged and convenience foods, drugs, crime or that are children are spoilt for choice? I don’t think so, but they do play a key role in our children’s lack of activity. Kay, so now I am getting all serious on you, but it is very serious when you think about what this means for Canada’s future. It means increased risk of disease, increased healthcare costs and decreased life expectancy. Their findings are not a shock to me, but when I see in black and white that my daughter’s life expectancy is shorter than mine, I am scared shitless.
So what are we going to do? The answer comes right from Jamie Oliver’s tongue, I mean mouth, with a little effort we can make massive difference. I am not saying that we should run around in a peapod costume like JO to make our kids eat veggies. But we should have fun with it, being healthy is fun…obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are not fun. If you are reading this blog, chances are that you are already health conscious, but I think that we all have room to improve. So here it is, my April Challenge, let’s step it up peeps, I challenge you (and myself) to educate ourselves about what we are eating, read more labels, educate our families, eat 7-8 servings of fruit/veggies a day and get rid of the processed crap. What have we got to lose? Decreased risk of disease, healthcare costs, weight, body fat… I am more than ok with decreasing those.
Let’s play ball
After the day that I had yesterday, I was pretty much done with March. When I turned my calendar over to April this morning it was like having a fresh start, and what better way to start off the month than with a four day weekend, woohoo!
Along with it’s showers and a visit from the Easter bunny, April brings the end of my semester at school, the 5 Peaks Trail Running season and the official start to ball season (although it feels like it never stopped from last season). As much as I enjoy ball season, I do not enjoy ball season meal planning. I start the season out with great ‘Suzie Homemaker’ (that’s my domestic goddess name) ideas, but by the end of the season we are in the drive-thru line with the rest of the team.
Sounds like I have given up before I have even started…not this year. My goal for this ball season is to make it as healthy as I possibly can for my family (notice how I said “family” so this includes you too Bill). I cannot guarantee that I will be cooking meals on ball days at 4pm, but I will guarantee that if food is to be picked up it will be from the healthy variety (sandwiches, sushi, wraps). I will however allow myself ONE ball park burger loaded with fried onions and a side of fries for the month April, I guess I must choose it wisely (I am not stupid and know that this number will be up for negotiation with Bill). I will also limit my macchiato intake to ONE per week (will also choose wisely) and reserve the right to substitute that macchiato for a rootbeer slurpie without consequence (again, yes I know up for negotiation with Bill). I also reserve the right on those evenings where the game is cancelled, to let Rob Feenie cook for us at the nearest Cactus Club. 