Saturday 21 September 2013

Longest Training Run

35k - 21.75 miles to be exact (because I'm American, ha!) Done!

My longest training run of the Chicago Marathon training season has been looming on the calendar for today for 22 weeks.


Last Saturday for my 29k run it was the most perfect running weather! 50 degrees, clear skies, no wind - really perfect!

This morning, not-so-much. . . Rain for the entire run - it was 60 degrees, but I still got a bit chilled with being really wet the entire run. I struggled to know what to wear so again I went to the Runner's World "What to Wear" Tool

Here's a mental picture of the 35k's this morning:

Start - Ugh, it's raining and a bit chilly, what do I wear? I had shorts and a long sleeve shirt on when I arrived to meet my group and after seeing what others were wearing I changed into a t-shirt and a vest.

First 5 to 7k - Fine, I'm just going to be wet, but it's cool and makes for decent running temperature. This is going to be a long run though if we keep running around and over puddles.

7 to 14k - Ok, I'm in a rhythm with the run. I've decided to stop hopping over puddles and just go through them (at least the "little" ones). My partner Jim mentioned that we only have a half marathon left to run today - great! :-)

15 to 20k - Why on earth did I sign up for a marathon again? This is ridiculous! I'm soaking wet, I feel blisters forming on my toes and I'm cold every time I stop for water. I can't imagine going 15+ more kilometers for this training run and more for the actual race. Race day better be good weather because I've trained for this race in snow, extreme heat, & rain. 

20 to 30k - Alright, this isn't so bad. I'm doing pretty good. We are keeping our 6/6:15 per kilometer pace and we actually feel pretty good when we accidentally increase to 5:40/5:50 pace. I just want to keep moving to get this finished. I have decided that my reward for after the run should be a Bloody Mary and a big plate of Nachos!

30 to 32k - What? I have to pass by my car to finish this 35k? I'm sopping wet, I want dry clothes, there is a coffee shop right there with warm coffee. If I was by myself I would say - that's it, this is far enough. My legs are getting to the "please don't make us move any farther!" stage.

32.5k - 34.66k - Turn around for finally the last push to the end. I'm feeling better again - it's amazing what your mental status does to your body. I pick up the pace a bit because I'm feeling like I can and I just really, really want to finish.

34.66k - I'm done. High fiving one of my running partners Deanna. We did it! 

34.66k again - Jim comes up and say "I have that we need to go 200 more meters to get to 35k, let's keep going we can't stop now!" Ugh, ok! We run to the end of the block and turn around and pretty much run around the parking lot. 

34.93k - Close! Frickin'! Enough!

Woo! Hoo!

Chicago here I come!

Taper time is going to feel fantastic!

I didn't get my Bloody Mary and Nachos, but I'm writing this with a margarita in hand and the hubby grilling steaks for dinner!

Wednesday 4 September 2013

{ 9 Year Wedding Anniversary }

Today is our 9 Year Wedding Anniversary. Hubby planned a day and night in Toronto for us on Saturday. We have an overnight babysitter so we are going to relax and enjoy our evening in the city and sleep in the next morning (is it sad that's the part I'm most looking forward to?!?!)

I saw this idea for gifts on the hour as birthday or anniversary gifts from Thirtyhandmadedays.com and thought I would do that for Josh.

I decided to put together 9 gifts - one for each year of our marriage and put a little recap note with each gift of that year of marriage. It was really fun - and actually challenging - to look back at the last 9 years. I thought I would easily remember everything that happened during each year, but I need to pull out scrapbooks and look through the date stamps on my iPhoto to get it all organized. If I can keep this up it would be a great way to look back on 15, 25, 30+ years of marriage together.


My Notes on what happened each year

Since today is a work day I centered most of my gifts around what he might be doing at that time of the day: breakfast, post workout food, coffee, afternoon snack, etc. But then I threw in a few things that were more of Anniversary type gifts: funky socks he's been asking for, wallet, movie tickets, Toronto Soccer tickets.

Here's a glimpse at the notes from our years of marriage and the gifts I sent with him.





Pre-workout Banana Muffin


                                    
Post workout smoothie & granola bar

I gave the funky socks with year three, but I forgot to take a picture

Just a nice note!

Movie Date Night!

Toronto Soccer Tickets!


New Wallet with picture already inside!


Afternoon Snack!



Afternoon Coffee Pick Up!

I packaged them all up and wrote the times of when (or approximately when) he should open them throughout the day. Before I went to bed I left them with a note in a bag by his workout stuff for him to see in the morning. 


This was the text I received this morning. I would say he was excited about the bag of gifts and I was glad I got him excited for every hour to see what the next "year" brought! Isn't that what marriage should be about? Being excited about al the years together?!?!


Happy 9th Anniversary Honey! 

Sunday 1 September 2013

Labor of Running

I hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend! I feel like I have been constantly running through mine and I mean that literally!

This weekend many of my running group members are in Virginia Beach for the Rock n' Roll Half Marathon. Here are a couple pictures I've received from their first couple days there - looks heavenly!

Cindy relaxing on the beach the day before the run!

View from Grace's Hotel Room

While many of the half marathoners in our group were in Virginia Beach this weekend the marathoners had a benchmark run scheduled. The gentleman I always run with was going to be in charge of creating and marking out the route for the group's run on Saturday morning. I told him I would run the route with him on Friday so he didn't have to alone. We had a concert to go to in Toronto Friday night so I was happy to get the 30k run done with prior to the concert so I could sleep in on Saturday morning. He wanted to run the route to mark it rather than bike it so that he was done as well and could stay at "home base" to support the other runners Saturday morning.

So many things were just not right with us doing 30k on Friday. First of all, it was hot! I'm probably going to say (and have said) that I don't want to train for a Fall marathon again! I don't like the heat! Ugh! It was 80 degrees with no breeze. Our only saving grace was that it was cloudy for most of our run. 

We started our run at 11:30 a.m. because the hubby needed to work in the morning and I didn't have anyone for the boys. It's just an odd time to start a long run like that. I'm used to running significant distances first thing in the morning, not mid day.

The final nail in the coffin for this run was that we were marking the route for the group to follow on Saturday morning. We stopped on average every 1/2 kilometer or so. It was nice to stop and take a quick drink of water in the heat, but it was horrible that we never got into a rhythm of running. It was too choppy. 

Marking the Route

We only made it 19 of the 30k we were planning on running. We just didn't have it in us any longer. I was feeling so good about my marathon training up to this point. This 30k run was going to really give me a feeling of running the long distance and prepare me for our longest training run of 35k in a few weeks. But we didn't want to push it. With the heat we both stopped sweating and our legs felt like lead! It wasn't worth making ourselves sick or worse - getting injured!

Really tough 19k

We decided that we would meet with the rest of the group on Saturday morning and run another 10k to make up for the the 10k that we didn't do on Friday. This heat is just killing me. At 8:00 in the morning it was already 80 degrees, the humidity was high, there was no breeze again and this time it was sunny! Luckily I only had 10k to push out and was able to do that. I definitely felt the fatigue in my legs from the 19k the day before so although all 29k wasn't ran together I feel like I got my long distance in this weekend. 

10k add on run

I guess I was bound to have a long run weekend like this along the way with my training. It reminds me of this quote from the movie A League of Their Own (which is a great movie I can watch over and over again!):

It's suppose to be hard. . .

It's the first day of a new month and less than 42 days until the start of the marathon. Plenty of time for me to make up for this weekend's terrible feeling runs. I'm training well everywhere else so I need to keep my head up and my feet moving one in front of the other. Chicago will be great!

Have a great rest of the last weekend of summer!