Vistas Race recap

After handing in my pledges (thank you again so much to my generous family, friends and clients) and picking up my race package at yesterday’s Vistas Run, I did what any runner should do 30 minutes prior to a race, I went in search of a friendly toilet to have my pre-race tinkle.  Sometimes you receive signs that a day is going to be good or that you should go back to bed, and after being smacked in the forehead by the stall door while having my pre-race tinkle I pretty sure that this was not going to be my day.  Thank goodness for my obsession with squats and lunges, it sure paid off at that moment because the toilet was not all that friendly.

This year the organizers of the race had changed the format a bit, instead of the usual age category groupings (under 19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, etc) it was now 0-11, 12-19, 20-39, 40-59, 60+, so I was going to be running against the young things.  Usually age category groupings don’t bother me, but yesterday I was defending my silver placing from last year.   I had checked around to find out who was running the 5km distance and there was one young thing that I knew would give me a serious run for my money and there were quite a few that I didn’t know.  My friend Daryl told me on Saturday that I should have retired with my placing last year, I was beginning to think that I should have listened.

The start line

I placed myself right at the front of the pack to start, and hoped for the best.  The race started and I was away, the only female ahead of me off the line was Soraiya, but she was running the 10km (and would have killed me in the 5km).  Out of nowhere young thing passed me, I think that she may have even got ahead of Soraiya for a moment or two . We hit the 1km mark and the first hill, young thing was still out in front, I managed to close the gap a little but I knew that I was out way too fast and had to reel it in a bit.  Up the hill and onto the flats, and just before the 2km mark I caught and passed young thing.  No sooner had I passed young thing I was passed by another woman (with fantastic running form I might add), thankfully she was running the 10km distance.

I love the Vistas race because it is half road, half trail and it isn’t flat (I have a bit of a hill sickness, I love hills) so we hit the trail and I didn’t look back. My goal on this next section was to cover as much ground as I could before hitting the last hill on the road, if young thing was going to catch me it would be there. Other than my heart rate being way too high and my breathing a little weezy (I like to run with music for this particular reason, but didn’t want the distraction of it all today) I felt great. As I rounded the corner out of the trail and onto the road for the last km the volunteer directing us gave me the news I wanted to hear…I was the first woman!

Up the last hill and towards the finish line, I took a quick peek (ok maybe six) over my shoulder and could see young thing behind me. I wasn’t going to let what happened years ago (actually it happened twice, there are photographs documenting both occasions) when my competition caught me just before the finish line, so I pushed hard. I set a PB, 25:59, first woman, 5th overall!!!  Young thing came through not far behind me, we woohoo’d and high five’d eachother, the race was over so we were no longer mortal enemies!

Jenn (young thing) and I

Me, Connie, Angie, Soraiya, Cheryl and Gisele

Another change to the race format was the omission of an awards ceremony and medals, instead first place finishers were given loot bags.

Wearing our lime green loot bag medals!

The contents of my loot bag

For me, part of running a timed event is the recognition in front of your peers, so I wish to congratulate all of the participants and recognize the following runners for their achievements:

Colin McLean – 5km race winner

John Graham – 10km male winner

Nicol Aherm – 10km female winner

1. MAIR, MACEO

2. METIVIER, NICHOLAS

1. GRANT, MARLEE

2. BOWES, OLIVIA

3. MORRIS, HAILEY

1. BRODOWSKI, RYAN

1. GABRIEL, CONNOR

2. SPECKMAN, JOEL

2. BURTON, COLIN

3. BROWN, MATTHEW

3. GARDNER, JACK

1. TYMCHYSHYN, CELINA

2. WALLIS, BETHANY

1. MAIR, CHRISTOPHER

1. GRAHAM, JOHN

2. MORRIS, JEFF

2. DAVIDSON, BRENT

3. BORROW, BRYAN

3. LYONS, NATHAN

1. CAWTHORNE, KERI

1. AHERM, NICOL

2. HICKS, JENNIFER

2. ABDULLA, SORAIYA

3. ROSS, EVA

3. NELSON, SARAH

1. MCLEAN, COLIN

1.  LEYLAND, TONY

2. TOURAND, TOM

2. SCHACHTER, DAVE

3. GABRIEL, WARWICK

3. TIERNEY, KEVIN

1. SCHACHTER, RAEANNE

1. EIKELENBOOM, AGNETA

2. KISELYCIA, SHELLI

2. HAYTER, DEANNE

3. HOL, CONNIE

3. BURTON, DONNA

1. SOMMI, KEVIN

1. HEDRICK, TED

2. BORROW, DAVE

1. SHAW, CAROLE

1.  KENT, JOANNE

2. TYMCHYSHYN, ADDALIN

2. RADJAH, OKIE

3. KURY, MARGARET

Something old, something new, something borrowed and something Lulu

I am feeling so much better about the Vistas race tomorrow. I had a fantastic rainy and muddy run this morning with the Saturday morning trail running group thanks to a massage, a good night’s sleep and my new friend Muscle Eze (the race souvenir from the Golden Ears 5 Peaks Trail race in April)!

D and I started a race tradition and saying a few years ago “something old, something new, something borrowed and something Lulu”. You know that I can’t break tradition, so here it is…the old my – running skirt and socks, the borrowed – my race belt (another fabulous 5 Peaks souvenir from last year, mine seems to have disappeared so I had to borrow Ry’s) the new and the Lulu – a Power Y Tank in angel blue. I am still undecided on a hat or headband and if I am going to run with music.

I was not ecstatic to hear that my age category would include females from 20-39, but I guess it will be incentive to run harder. See you at the finish line.

Mmmm massage

Today I had a fantastic appointment with Brenda, my masseuse, or as I like to call her the lady who rubs me! For some unknown reason for most of the week my muscles have been tight and sore, but after a 30-minute sauna and a 75-minute massage I am now a new woman.

I am a huge fan of massage, not the frou-frou type or the kind where you are left screaming on the table, I guess I am like Goldilocks, it has to be just right.  Unfortunately Brenda has ruined me for most others, I know that when I see her I will receive a complete head to toe or rather toe to head massage (because that’s where she finishes – the ear part is my favourite, I must have been a dog in a previous life).  When I have cheated on her in the past I usually end up spending most of the 45 minutes in a game of compare and contrast, which is not relaxing.

Once my husband and I went to a spa downtown for a couples massage.  I had been teasing him earlier in the day that I had requested a man to do my massage, obviously he didn’t believe me, I can be all talk like that sometimes.  When our masseuse came down to greet us and take us to our room she introduced herself and shook my hand, I was soooo disappointed (I’m quite certain that you could have seen it on my face) she had delicate little hands, the kind that give you a facial or a manicure, not the strong massaging kind that I was hoping for.  When we got to the room, the door opened and out came Tony (yeah baby) and all of my disappointment vanished.  I flashed my husband a little smile and settled in for my massage.  It was good (although I had to change is name to Antonio in my mind, Tony his my Dad’s name), not as good as Brenda, but definitely worth the price of admission.  Earlier this year while in Hawaii; I really didn’t want to take the chance on a mediocre massage, so instead I spent my spa budget on surfing lessons!

I have learned over the years that the key to a massage is to make a day of it and stay in that zone for as long as possible, which can often take special planning.   Go for a quiet lunch afterward, read a book, have a nap, don’t shower until you have to (only if your masseuse has used pretty smelling essential oils) and absolutely no caffeine, maybe just a glass of wine instead.

Spin bike set-up

I cannot promise that your first spin class will be pain free, but having proper bike set-up is the key to having a more enjoyable ride.  Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Standing next to the bike, the saddle should be hip height.

• Handlebars should be higher than the seat.  If there is an option to adjust the handles forward and back, keep in mind that you do not want to feel like you are reaching for them, at the same time you shouldn’t feel like you are hunched over them.

• When choosing how far forward or back to position the seat, sit on the saddle and at the 3 o’clock position in your pedal stroke, your knee should be in line with your ankle.

• To quickly check that your seat is at the correct height, at the 6 o’clock position of your pedal stroke, there should be a slight bend in your knee, your knee should never feel like it is hyper-extending at the bottom of the pedal stroke.

Tip: When sitting on the saddle, try not to sit on it like you would a chair, sit towards the back of the saddle, you should feel like you are spilling off the back of the saddle.

Can you lose your gazelle like running stride as quickly as you lose your golf swing?

Before mortgage, marriage and baby I loved to golf.  I didn’t do it well, but man did I ever want to do it well.   But during a trip to Arizona and hacking up some of the most pristine courses there, a friend suggested that I take a few lessons (he actually gently suggested but English was his second language so the gentle part got lost in translation).  Slightly embarrassed but encouraged because he saw some potential, my search for an instructor would start as soon as I returned home.

Not wanting to run into anyone that I knew (I don’t know why I was so secretive about it at first) I found a nice golf course that I had never golfed at, and decided that this would be the perfect place to perfect my craft.  I booked my first lesson that week with one of the resident pro’s, Tom.  Uncle Tom as I liked to call him (not to his face of course) was what you would imagine a golf pro to be, early 50’s, handsome, tanned (although I am sure that it ended below his socks, above his knees and his shirt sleeve line) and smooooooth, I would refer to him now as a silver fox.  I met with Uncle Tom several times a week for a few months, we worked mostly with my 7 iron and would only let me bring out my driver now and again, but I was really hitting the ball, and hitting it straight.  Uncle Tom encouraged me to practice as much as I could which I did, it’s always fun doing something that you do well, that was until I decided that it would be a good stress relief to blow off some steam and hit a bucket of balls.  It didn’t take long, before I finished the bucket my swing was gone, and I sucked all over again.  I lost interest with golf soon after that, and then life with responsibility took over and my dream of being on the tour died a short painful death.

I do try to get out once in a while now and on occasions I see glimmers of that fantastic swing, I even took a couple of lessons at a driving range near my home with a few ladies not so long ago, but I couldn’t take the instructor seriously because he wore skater shoes (I know that I shouldn’t get that caught up on the outfit, maybe he taught skateboarding too) and he broke the timing of our swing down into the word mar-garita.

So what does all this have to do with running?  My question is, can you lose your gazelle like running stride as quickly as you lose your LPGA (or PGA) golf swing?

Lately I have been feeling super strong, my running has felt fantastic, the tweak that I had behind my knee that in March has resolved itself, even my feet have been relatively pain free.  I have run 4 out of the last 6 days, not huge distances, all road, 3 out of the 4 days the same route, and for the last 2 days my runs have literally gone down the tubes, my body is hurting and feel like a slug.  Today I ran the same route as yesterday and ran it a minute slower, and my time from yesterday was slower than normal.  I have gone through my mental checklist

• Runners are in decent shape
• I am fueled as well as hydrated
• I am well rested; I have not stayed awake solving the world’s problems for over a week.
• I am not over training in other areas, in fact my workout schedule has been fairly light (for me) for the past week.

I was away for the long weekend, and although I did live a little larger than normal it should not interfered with my running.  The only thing that I have changed in my diet over the last few days is adding almond butter to my morning toast.

Are these aches and pains psychosomatic because of my race coming up on Sunday, am I teetering on the edge of an injury, or have I just had one of those days two days in a row? The drama.

I was complaining about my crappy run earlier today in cyberspace and was reminded by a fellow runner that “any run…is a good run! From someone who can’t run at the moment.” So for now I am going with my last scenario…I am going to break the cycle and think positively, I am going to take a break from running for the next few days and rest my legs, I have a massage scheduled for later this week, but in the meantime I am going to put my feet up and have a nap this afternoon, maybe finish my non-fitness/health book and definitely not panic.

My first trip to Trader Joe’s

I love long weekends, especially when you get to add an extra day to them, visit another country, play a little ball, power shop and manage to hit a winery or two!  The weather wasn’t fantastic and my favourite bra has been discontinued (this is going to be a HUGE problem), but I am restocked on lotions and potions, had dinner at PF Changs and I visited Trader Joe’s for the very first time.

In Canada we have Whole Foods (which I love and have been known to plan many a family outing around), they sell natural and organic foods, but a little on the pricey side, the USA also has Whole Foods, but they also have Trader Joe’s, similar to Whole Foods, just not as pricey and they carry their own store brand so the selection isn’t as vast for some items.  Over the last few months I have been reading a lot of the food and health blogs, and have somewhat secretly, or maybe not so secretly, been turning into a bit of a foodie.  I have read so much about Trader Joe’s, that I had to experience it for myself.  Luckily for me, one of the ladies that I was traveling with was a Trader Joe’s veteran and was more than happy to help me navigate the aisles.  We decided to beat the Sunday morning grocery shopping mayhem so planned to arrive at the store as soon as it opened.

After an early, rainy morning run (perhaps too early, the only human interaction that I came close to was with a homeless man with one shoe who liked the look of my Salomons a little too much and a friendly Canadian man who thought I looked tired and asked me if I would like a ride), armed with my cooler I met Sharon in the hotel lobby to start our excursion.

Not wanting anything to get in my way, I left my jacket in the car (oh you know I am meaning business now) and got rid of my coffee, grabbed shopping cart (which I didn’t have to pay for) and became a scholar of TJ’s for the next 90 minutes.  As we walked through the door, I was completely taken back by the smell of fresh basil, and by the size of the basil plants. I am kicking myself still for not buying one, but I wasn’t sure how it would hold up after two days in the car, and we do have basil in Canada.

Check out the size of the basil plants!

After taking a few pictures (I am quite certain that the staff thought I was on a day pass and Sharon was my chaperone) I jumped right in at the bread department, so many seeds, sooo much fiber!  It’s funny how you can be so far away from home and run into people that you know, which worked out really well because now I didn’t have to ask a complete stranger to take a picture of Sharon and I, and if anyone can take a great picture, it’s Ron.

Distracted by another fantastic smell, I wondered away from the group to find samples.  I love samples, because they allow you to do just that, sample.  (Now what I don’t like about samples are the vultures that flock to them with their shopping carts, leaving no room for others.  I really do believe that there should be grocery shopping etiquette police that are situated throughout grocery stores and Costco for this specific reason.  I mean really, it’s not like we are in the middle of a natural disaster and someone may steal the milk or luncheon meat out of your cart, so why not just move it to the side? This also applies to the label readers, I appreciate that you too are looking for the finest nutritional choices for you and your family, but please move your cart to the side of the aisle stand behind your cart, not at the side of your cart where you completely block traffic.)  Ordinarily it would have been a bit early for turkey burgers, but the toast that I had eaten after my run had already worn off and I was feeling a bit peckish, so I decided to help myself.  The turkey burgers were great (I was not a fan of the gorgonzola cheese that was melted on top) and I added a package to my cart (see marketing people, samples work).  The lady giving out the samples told me that I didn’t need to buy buns because I can get all the carbs I needed from fruit and vegetables…I do agree that fruits and veggies are great sources of carbs, vitamins and minerals, but I STILL NEED GRAINS damn it.  It was not too early for turkey burgers but it was entirely too early for a nutritional lecture from the opinionated sample lady so I politely smiled and made my way over to the wine section.

It's true

150 wines for under $6…really?  Are they good you ask with hesitation?  This would require further investigation, I purchased a bottle of Contadino Pinot Grigio for $4.99, which was pretty good and a bottle of Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio for $2.99 (I know very cheap but it was billed as the world’s best selling wine so I kinda had to buy it) which I have not opened yet, when I do I will let you know.

The food blogging world seems to be mad about nut butters and oatmeal.  Oatmeal is one of those foods that I lost a taste for when I was pregnant and the mere thought of it still sends me into a green moment. I am not a fan of nuts, no allergies, just not a fan, but I do like almonds, so I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to purchase my first jar of almond butter.  To be quite honest with you, I had a hard time finding the nut butter section and when I did I was a bit disappointed with the selection, I guess with all of the talk about it, I thought that it would be grander.  I selected the creamy unsalted variety; my report will follow later this week.

how convenient is that?

I reconnected with Sharon and she introduced me to a few things that her family enjoys that I had missed like pizza dough, fresh salsas and dips.  Just like Whole Foods, when you shop at Trader Joe’s you can be completely food stupid and come out looking like a freaking gourmet cook.  Lots of things already prepared and kits to make things, I especially liked this guacamole making kit, although didn’t buy it, it’s totally stupid proof!

So all in, I spent a grand total of $60.31.  No, this will not feed my household for the week, but it will give us a few new foods to try without scaring the crap out of my family (I had to draw the line at the organic ketchup, I think that I may find myself and my belongings out on the lawn if I replaced the Heinz).  So Sharon, I will join you again on your next trip to Trader Joe’s, and looking at my receipt I see that they are open from 8:00am to 9:00pm daily, good to know.

Here's what $60.31 can buy you at Trader Joe's

Crazy cardio Tuesday, a day late

When double cardio Tuesday came to a grinding halt last night, my intentions were to write, instead I ate and went to bed.   I would like to tell you that I slept like a baby and felt refreshed and rejuvenated when I woke this morning, but I would be lying.  I don’t know about you, but on days when I have done too much activity, it’s like my legs won’t stop moving, I dream about running or spinning (I have actually woke up doing the Pilates side leg series)…following each of the half marathons that I have ran, I have this exact sleep pattern.  I can tell you though, tonight I will sleep like log and feel like a million bucks in the morning.

Yesterday was a busy day; Conny and I hit the trails for a rainy morning run.  The first rainy run after a solid couple of weeks of sunny runs always sucks in theory.  Really it only sucks until the first few raindrops have hit you, then you are already wet.  We had only seen each other briefly since the weekend so we had so much to catch up on, a lot happens in two days.  Have you ever zoned out in mid conversation with someone?  Of course you have, for whatever reason (usually boring conversation) you completely tune out what the other person is saying, their lips are moving, but you are thinking  “hmm, the black shoes would look fabulous with that outfit” or “what shall I have for lunch”, and then you get busted…you are asked what you thought of that comment or what would you do or if you even heard a word of what was being said.  When I have been put in that situation I always try to cover my tracks as best as I can without making the other person feel like Charlie Brown’s teacher.  Conny told me a story yesterday where the person who zoned out actually said “sorry, I drifted off”…I thought that it was really funny, as much as you may like to say that sometimes, can you imagine if you did and can you imagine how furious the other person would be when you said that?  We finished run with our usual debate as to whether the end of Canoe Landing as three hills or two.  For the record I still say it is three, when a hill goes down and then goes back up again, it is the start of a new hill.

I finished off my sessions with the Thomas Haney Recreational PE class yesterday.  We covered Pilates, ball and finished off with a 45-minute spin class.  I worked much harder than I meant to, I am sure that they will remember me as the sweaty instructor!  I love working with the young things, although they don’t really like to sweat they are willing to try anything and always give a good effort.  Last session I was given a property of Thomas Haney t-shirt, and I have been wearing it with pride!

The Speed Clinic also met at the track for a final-final 1.5-mile test.  The results were fantastic; everyone met my ambitious goal of a 5% improvement!  So proud of the group, they have been working very hard; give yourselves a big hug and a pat on the back!

I finished the day hill training with the 7:30pm group at the Leisure Centre…no wonder I was tired!

Register for Summer Parks and Leisure programs

Goodbye sun…and Sean, Don and Sammy

I couldn’t let today come and go knowing that it would be the last sunny day for the rest of the week and not go for a run.  So after a lively ‘Works’ class, I quickly changed from fitness instructor extraordinaire into ready for the cover of Runner’s World and hit the road!  Didn’t break any records, today was all about being and enjoying.

Sean (that’s his name) the cow broke through the fence again and came for a visit.  When his Dad came to escort him home I was really sad to hear that Shawn, Don and Sammy were “ready” and would be leaving next week.

Pool Running Can Be a Great Recovery Workout

Tom Henderson
The Detroit News

Nina Bovio, a highly competitive runner from Brighton with 72 marathons under her belt, has been fighting a nagging quadriceps injury for nearly two years.

She’s been advised to substitute some of her runs on roads for running in a pool, where pounding is at a minimum.

Running laps in a pool can be mind-numbing, but it is invaluable as a way to keep in shape while healing from an injury, says Laurel Park of Ann Arbor, who used a pool three years ago to recover from a hamstring injury.

The time passed most quickly for her, she says, if she did an interval workout, such as 10 minutes of easy running followed by 2 minutes hard, 1 minute slow, 2 minutes hard, etc.

“The most I could handle in one outing was about 45 minutes,” she says. “Those workouts were certainly equal in intensity to any land workouts.”

Ann Boyd uses pool running even when healthy, as a means of cross-training when aiming toward a marathon.

“When I’d train for a marathon, I would train for six weeks and get injured, and always a different injury, too. So, I started doing a second run in the pool. And I always run in the pool after a marathon to ease back into running.”

Veterans of pool running suggest buying a waterproof Walkman-type device to help pass the time, as well as a flotation device specific to pool running, available at running stores, to keep you aligned at the proper angle.

Kathy Rounds, a world-class 800-meter runner and certified strength and conditioning coach in Ann Arbor, says that pool running isn’t just for the injured, that it has benefits and can be used as a regular cross-training tool.

“Because the atmospheric pressure increases as the water gets deeper, water running has some interesting training adaptations,” she says.

Because the blood in your feet at the bottom of the pool in deep water is at about three atmospheric pressures, and the blood in your chest is at about 0.75 atmospheric pressures, she says, more blood gathers in the chest area. This requires the heart to work harder to pump it.

In addition to reducing the pounding on injured joints, muscles or tissue, Rounds says the pressure of the water against your legs as you run through it helps flush wastes from the muscles.

“It’s a free massage,” she says.

But after running in the pool exclusively, she warns, it takes a couple of weeks to get used to the pounding when you go back outside.

Water Fitness Tips

• Do an interval workout, 10 minutes of easy running followed by 2 minutes hard, 1 minute slow, 2 minutes hard.
• Run in the pool after a marathon to ease back into running.
• A waterproof Walkman-type device helps pass the time in the pool.
• Use a flotation device, available at running stores, to keep you aligned at the proper angle for pool running.

Next Page »