Bluenose Marathon - May 17th 2015

This is a lot late in coming. And it probably is going to be shorter than it should be.

I had an amazing time. I finished in 5:04 and some change. I was hoping for a sub-5 hour, but I'm ok with my time. I wasn't last. I was strong. I felt good. I was continually passing people.  I had a couple of issues that couldn't have been avoided. And yep. It was clearly more than 4 minutes worth.

I had a panic attack on the bridge. Going over was ok, there were lots of people and we were on the bridge deck. Going back it was windy and I was alone, and on the sidewalk and I panicked. I was actually ready to start screaming or crying when three lovely ladies came up behind me from Newfoundland and helped me across the bridge. I heart them.

The second issue I had was actually kind of funny. My lovely pace bunny, Sharon met up with me just after the first half. (The full winner past us just after I me up with her.) We were cruising along and I realized that I had a rock in my shoe. I couldn't move it around out from my foot so I had to stop. This was about 28km in.  I had my shoes tied in a manner so that I wouldn't get black toenails, but that meant that they were a bitch to untie. I finally got my shoe off, got the rock out and couldn't get my damn shoe back on. I ended up having to sit down on the grass to put my shoe back on. Sharon had to put my shoe on, because I couldn't even figure it out. LOL.

So back to the race. The first half was phenomenal. Across the bridge. Behind Mic Mac Mall. Through Shubie Park. Shubie was hard. It's twisty, turny, trail running. I could feel the twinge in my IT band and I thought I was going to suffer. I was dreading having to walk down the hill just before the finish line uphill because of my ITB. Hit Waverley Road. Got some high fives and a hug from my virtual friends. And an RL friend, who I didn't see and didn't even realize she was there. oops. Up Maple. Maple is my bitch! Cathy was at the top waiting to cheer me on and take pictures.

I have to say. It was amazing to have my running group there to support us. There were 5 of us from the running clinic that were running the Bluenose marathon. And 10-15 from the group cheering us on. 1 taking pictures on the route cheering. And 1 more out for a leisurely Sunday run, pacing me. It was so awesome. :)

Back to the race. Over the bridge and up beside the finish line, around the Hill and off to do the second half with Sharon by my side. :) HRP Chief Blais was out directing traffic at one of the intersections, with his nice smile. Right Sharon? Down to the North End of Halifax. I ran the entire first half without a walk break, but the second half I did 10 and 1's. Which worked well. I needed every one of them.

From the North End of Halifax, we made our way all the way back to the South End and the dreaded Point Pleasant Park. PPP is a nice place to run. But it's nasty as hell at the 35km mark. The trail. The gravel. The Hill that never ends. And after you manage to get through that hill, with so little energy left in the tank, you still have probably another km to go before you actually get out of the park and get back on the road for the final 5km.

I tried to kick it up a few notches in the last few km's because I could see that I was losing my sub-5 hour goal. But in the end, it wasn't meant to be. I had lost too much time, and I hadn't had a gel since 27 km and was using gummies as my fuel.  It was still a 20+ minute PR, which is incredible to say the least. And I did meet my secret goal.

Speaking of gels. Here's another funny Sharon story. So, I took my 3:00 hour gel right on time. I was taking them every 45 minutes. It was about the 27 km mark I think. And it did not settle well at all. I thought I was going to have to take a potty break. Out of the blue Sharon asks "Need a pepto?" I was shocked LOL. So I took a pepto pill. It settled my stomach. And we were off again.

Remember I mentioned my ITB was flaring during Shubie. It did ache for most of the race. But the only time it actually bothered me was at the bottom of Devonshire. That's a really, really steep downhill. I actually had to take that as a skip and a hop down the hill. I couldn't run that straight on. The downhill that I was really concerned about was down Cogswell just before going up Brunswick and the finish line. That didn't bother me at all.

Some pictures.

I loved the training for this marathon (Once I moved my tempo runs to the treadmill), I really enjoyed the clinic, I will probably join another one in January again. This race re-ignited my love for this distance after the disaster of Niagara falls. 

So what's next? I decided very early on in this training that I don't do well training in the summer heat. But I can maintain a half marathon fitness level. So I'm going to run three half marathons, in three weeks, in three provinces. Valley. PEI and then Moncton. However... Secrets be told I will attempt to follow a marathon training schedule for Moncton. Once I get close to the end, I will decide if I will attempt it or not. After 4 marathons, I'd like to see what I can do on a flat course.

In January I will join another marathon clinic. And decide later in the cycle whether I will attempt Fredericton or stick to Bluenose. I like racing on home turf, but I have my eye on Boston, so I want to race on a flat course to gauge an attempt. Bluenose is a very hard and technical course. Brag, brag, brag. LOL.

Well, I guess that this is longer than I wanted it to be. I'm sure I missed something. 

Marathon Training - Vacation

This is a recap of weeks 14 and 15 of marathon training. I had so much to do to get ready for vacation that week 14 was in the crapper. My car died on the Wednesday and ended up in the shop and I couldn't have gotten to Bedford anyway without hitching a ride. (Which I was offered, but because I had too much to do, I didn't take). I also missed my two last long runs. a 29 km and a 32 km. I had the routes all planned out, but in the end, I bailed. I was really iffy on running that kind of distance in unfamiliar territory. I am disappointed with myself. But I will deal with it.

It's been so long, I can't even remember that far back.

Week 14

Monday -  1.6 km - Mile rest day.

Tuesday -  2.6 km - Today was our association spring fling so I couldn't do tempo after work and unfortunately, I forgot and didn't get up early enough to do 6 km. But it was still tempo pace.

Wednesday - 1.6 km - So very tired today from the excess everything last night. I remember this week now. Oh boy it was busy. And my car broke down to boot.

Thursday - 6.5 km - I did yesterday's 4 x 800 missed workout. That was really, really hard.

Friday - 3 km - Got up early and hit the treadmill. Worked until lunch time and then hit the road.

Saturday - 3.8 km - This was the start of 10 days of Sam and I out for our morning jaunts.

This is us sporting our new Canadog Cani-cross harnesses. 

Sunday - 5 km. We went exploring Salisbury, Massachusetts.


Week 15

Monday - 3 km. Marathon Monday. After walking and standing for hours and hours and hours. I still had to make sure I got my run in.

We had a great viewing spot. We were about 500 m from the finish line. This is the women's first place sprint to the finish. Not a great picture but it was great to see live.

Tuesday - 15 km. Sam and I went out for our 5 km walk, then I hit the road for a 10 km. I had planned to do my long run today, but it just didn't happen. 15 of 29.

Wednesday - 5 km. Sam and I out for loops.

Thursday - 7 km. Sam and I headed out for our morning romp and were rudely interrupted by an off leash dog. Effer. Scared my little baby. We geared up the harnesses and headed out on the town for a tour.

Friday - 1.75 km. This turned out to be a rest day. We headed out for our morning walk but Sam just was not into it at all. So we called it a day.

Saturday - 5 km. Our last full day in Massachusetts.

Sunday - 15 km. Sam and I hit the loops for our last morning. Then we headed to Groton Massachusetts where I ran a 10 km race. I PR'd the heck out of that thing. By a good 8 minutes. I was very happy with this pace. This was a little slower than marathon goal race pace, but I'm ok with that. Even if I'm 15 - 20 seconds slower than that on race day, I will be thrilled.

I also didn't do my last long run today. 15 km of 32. This, I am concerned about. Heading into the taper this week. 3 weeks to go. The plan calls for a 23 km long run on Sunday. I'm wondering if I should up this by an additional 4 - 8 km. Just cause.



Week 14 / 15 - 25 of 59 km run the first week and 52 of 64 km run the second week 

                - 792 km run in 2015
                -  0 lbs lost this week. - Didn't weight at all these 2 weeks.

                - 18.3 lbs lost since January 1. 

                - 11.4 lbs to lose to goal. 3 weeks to go.
                - Streaking 515 days and counting
                - Boston vacation was awesome!

Now lets get back to the task at hand.

Marathon Training Week 13

5 weeks until the big day. And I have a huge ITB problem. This is not going to be good. Time to really start getting diligent with the ITB exercises. It would really suck to work this hard for 18 weeks only to be derailed by an injury. Vacation is next week, and although I'd like to say I will keep to the schedule, I know I probably won't. Which is probably I good thing. Rest for what ails me.

This week I also hit the 500 day #runstreak milestone.

Thinking back over this week. It wasn't a great mental week. Or Physical week. I spent most of the week fighting off a cold that finally grabbed hold on Saturday. And a lot of this week I was fighting stomach problems which don't make for good runs, but they also drain strength too.

Monday - 2 km. Rest day and strength. I see a slight improvement in my strength stamina. That's a good thing. I like this strength program. It's not intense. It doesn't take long. And I don't need any equipment if I don't have any available. I just need to find make the time to add more sessions during the week.

Tuesday -  6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. This was the sub 6:00 km pace that I had two weeks ago. It was uncomfortably uncomfortable. I hope to improve on this next week.

Wednesday - 15 km. HILLS! I am so glad that this was the last night of hills. 10 x 500 m @ 6%. I wasn't feeling the greatest with this run. The cold is trying to get hold. Stomach problems all day.

Thursday - 8 km. Treadmill run after supper. Not a bad pace for having a full belly of chinese food.

Friday - 6 km. Got my run out of the way early. I'm starting to doubt my choice of too many treadmill miles in the run of a week. I hope that it doesn't bite me in the ass come race time.

Saturday - 1.6 km. Runstreak day 500!!!!! And I celebrated with a mile rest day run. Well actually we went to the campground today and lugged our camping gear up the hill on snowshoes. That was a huge workout. 3 trips up the hill with heavy loads. Then I ran a mile on the treadmill once we got home.

Sunday - 23 km. Long run. It was an absolutely beautiful spring day for a run. We ran the Bluenose Marathon route in Dartmouth. The bridge of course was a major shit fest. Actually it wasn't as bad as it has been in the past. So, thanks to my co-runners for distracting me. :)



Week 12 - 62 km run this week 

                - 715 km run in 2015
                - 1.3 lbs lost this week. 

                - 18.3 lbs lost since January 1. 

                - 11.4 lbs to lose to goal. 6 weeks to go.
                - Streaking 501 days and counting
                - 20 minutes of weights plus 45 minutes heavy lifting and lugging.

                - 6 days until my Boston vacation. 

Marathon Training Week 12

I'm slow on the draw this week. Really busy on the home and work front these days. Month end. Income tax time. Business bookkeeping. Campground business. Association business. GAH! The list keeps getting longer and longer. Boston bound on the 17th. I hope the snow is gone by then. Just heard from the campground we are supposed to stay at, and they still have snow. Not a surprise, but not good. Not good at all. I should probably check to make sure that if BeachRose falls through, we can stay at the State Park. Because I don't think I'm in the mood to camp for a week at the Wal-mart.

Back to the task at hand. There are only 6 weeks left to go until the big day. I am very confident that I'm going to knock at least 30 minutes off of my marathon time. The A goal is a 58 minute PR. That's the time I'm training for, and that training is going very well But I do know that all the stars need to align in order for this to happen.This week was a very, very tiring week. 90 km in 6 days, from Sunday to Friday. And I felt how tired I was with every step.

As I type this post I am eating a delicious salad. Burnside got a new Freshii restaurant this year. Their salads are SOOOOO GOOOOOD. But they are really, really expensive. The Metaboost Salad that I get costs $12 something with tax. That's an expensive salad. So I don't get them very often. This week however, after the gluttony of Easter, I needed a food kickstart so I bought all the ingredients for the metaboost salad and have been eating them all week.

Freshii Metaboost Salad

Romaine Lettuce

Kale

Edamame

Mango

Carrot

Almonds

Goat cheese (I bought a goat cheese with fig. So delicious)

Tofu (I pan fried it in the honey balsamic vinaigrette)

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

2 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar
1 TBSP Honey
4 TBSP Olive oil
1 tsp mustard powder
(next time I'm going to add garlic)

Monday - 1.6 km Mile rest day. Did some strength training. I've modified the strength program to suit my needs. HA! I definitely felt the workout on Tuesday, so my changes are ok.

Tuesday - 6 km Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. This was a tad slower than I wanted and it was still very very hard. But like I said, it was a very tiring week and I felt the workout from Monday night.

Wednesday - HILLS!!!! 14km. 9 hills. Only 1 more week of hills to go.

Thursday - 6 km. A steady run through Bedford after our clinic talk. My paces were really consistent for this run. The most consistent I've ever run. 6:49 6:53 6:49 6:56 6:56. The talk was with a Boston qualifier and an Ultramarathoner. It was an interesting discussion, it just could have been more.

Friday - 32km Good Friday long run. Emotionally this was a really fun run. The group I run with are a fun bunch. Physically this run was a real pain. And I mean that literally. The route was on "rural" roads (Rocky Lake Road) and so the grade was very uneven, which flared up my ITB. That last down hill on RL was excruciating. Things I learned while on this run. I need a water belt with more capacity. I need more sugar. Gels are good, but sometimes I need a quick rush. And take tylenol in case I have any pain. I'm ok with the liver damage. Here's an interesting article on meds and runners.

I've been seeing all of these pics with the #fitsnap hashtag. I didn't find out until this week, that it's actually an app. Fitsnap. Here's my first pic from our 32 km long run.

Did I mention that we stopped for munchies?

Saturday - 1.6 km rest day. As can be expected, I was tired. The knee felt ok. So that's good. The plan was to get some strength in today too, but I didn't. However, the Spartan Race is in 9 weeks, so I really should get my act in gear. Yes. I am registered for this race. Yes. I'm scared. :)

Sunday - 10 km. Ran from home today. This is the first run from home in months. The old knee started bothering me at the 5 km mark so we headed back. But I was running on uneven road, so I'm not too too concerned right now. I'm doing my exercises (PS: that's a video showing 10 exercises. It's legit because they are the same exercises I paid money to a physiotherapist for)

Week 12 - 72 km run this week 

                - 653 km run in 2015
                - .2 lbs lost this week. 

                - 17 lbs lost since January 1. 

                - 12.7 lbs to lose to goal. 6 weeks to go.
                - Streaking 494 days and counting
                - 20 minutes of weights 

                - 13 days until my Boston vacation. 

Marathon Training Week 11

WOW! 7 weeks to go. I'm working really, really hard and smart (I think), to reach my goal. The goal is a 4:30 ish Marathon. That's a HUGE PR, so anything remotely close is going to be AWESOME. The two most important things I did this year is switched my tempo runs to the treadmill. I think I said that before. And added weight training. I haven't been very structured or consistent with it, but I can definitely tell that it is helping.

Monday - 1.6 km This was my mile rest day. I had a bit of hip pain from my long run the day before, but it wasn't sore while I was running, so I kept on keeping on.

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. I hit a sub 6 minute tempo run this week. I am over the moon about this. I was hoping to reach this by the end of the cycle, but gosh darn golly gee, now I have to set a new tempo goal. The new tempo goal is 5:30 pace. That might be a little lofty for the next 7 weeks, but I guess this cycle has been all about the loft.

Wednesday - 9 km HILLS! On the the treadmill. This was a little slower than prior weeks, but I got it done. 8 x 500 m @ 6%.

Thursday - 8 km. Clinic night. It was the talk about the feet. General consensus was that it was probably one of the best discussions to date. It was really interesting. It was a great run. And NO SNOW! We got rained on instead. But that's ok.

Friday - 6 km. Got my run in before Costco and beer. Yep. You heard that right. My beer free streak is back to zero. Or actually 2 for the end of the week. I found this fun little app for my pebble watch that I wanted to try. It is called SoberUp. You have a drink. You click the button. It tells you what your estimated BAC is, how long until your BAC is back to zero. And your condition. Euphoric. Disinhibited. etc. Yea, I know. Not much to do with running. But hey.

Saturday - 1.6 km. Mile rest day. And a little bit of strength training.

I'm trying a new program. We will see how that goes.  The gist is that you work your way up from very easy to very hard exercises in 5 categories of movements. Pulling. Squatting. Inline Pushing. Perpendicular Pushing. And Bending. Starting with 2 sets of 12 reps in each exercise. 20 minutes. 3 times a week. I should be able to manage that. Monday is a rest day. Friday is a rest day. Wednesday is hills, so I will have to force myself into that one. I did manage to break a door on my first workout. Only 7 doors to go. oops.

Sunday - 29 km. Seriously! I am really sick of the snow. It's the end of March it should be over now. /endwhine. We were supposed to get 5 - 10 cm of snow. It turned into 20 - 25 cm. Woke up to a winter wonderland again this morning. This was a good run, but it was a clusterfuck of a run. The original plan was a few klicks, then up Rocky Lake Drive. Snow turned that into Shore - Union and back 3 times. But once we hit Shore and were about to hit Union, some other runners told us that Union was very snow covered, so we thought we'd take our chance on the Bedford Highway. Going out was not bad, but coming back was miserable in a "We are either going to get run over by a truck or hit by a road raging driver" Are road raging drivers that irate at pedestrians walking down the road, or is it just runners that make them go bat shit crazy?

Week 11 - 62 km run this week 

                - 581 km run in 2015
                - .5 lbs lost this week. 

                - 17.2 lbs lost since January 1. 

                - 12.9 lbs to lose to goal. 8 weeks to go.
                - Streaking 487 days and counting
                - Alcohol free for 2 days. 
                - 20 minutes of weights 

                - 20 days until my Boston vacation. 

Marathon Training - Week 10

The last week of winter sure went out with a bang. We had snow Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday night. We had more snow on Sunday and Wednesday then we had during White Juan. And that was on top of the already 2 or 3 feet of snow that was everywhere. There is just nowhere left to run. The roads are just barely wider than single lane. And most of the sidewalks are not plowed, and if they are, they are ice covered.

All my runs this week were done on the treadmill and the track. Yep. Long run on a track. I also kicked up the treadmill a notch. The 5 mph was getting too easy, and I noticed that my steady runs were too slow based on my training schedule paces. Oops. I thought they were ok at 8:00 / km. The steady runs should have been at 7:08 / km, so 5.4 mph on the treadmill.

They finally did manage to plow our sidewalks at home. I was able to get Sam out for a little walk this week. My poor old running buddy isn't getting any running in. He does go to daycare, so he is getting his exercise. He also found a new fence to jump in the backyard, so now we are back to leashing him and taking him out.

Mom, I can't see what's going on.

Monday - 1.6 km. A mile rest day.

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. I really pushed it for this run. I did have to stop a couple of times because there was a pebble in my shoe that I couldn't get out. But I'm happy with the pace.

Wednesday -  8 km. Storm day. I think in the end we got about 60 cm of snow. My car was buried and we had to shovel it out.

Yep. That's my car.

For whatever reason, I actually thought I'd be able to do my run after shoveling. (What was I thinking?) I hit the treadmill and could only manage 3 of 7 hills. I had a rest, had some supper and hit the treadmill again. I was able to finish the other 4. So 1 km warm up. 7 x 500 m x 6%. And 1 km cool down.

Thursday - 8 km. I did this one at the faster pace. On the treadmill.

Friday - 6 km. There's another storm coming Saturday night. It's supposed to be rain and it's supposed to be over by 8:00 am, but just in case the clinic decided to run long on Saturday, I wanted this run done beforehand. My thought was, with that much rain coming, the roads might be flooded.

Saturday -  1.6 km. Another rest day. I'm actually glad we didn't run long this day. I was plum wore out from this week.

Sunday - 26 km of 29 km scheduled. So I wake up at 6:00 am this morning and look outside and there's 5 - 10 cm of snow on the ground. FFS!!!!! I was up with Sam at 3:30 and had him outside and it was still raining, so we had a full fledged blizzard in 2.5 hours. The clinic decided that we would run at the track. 132 laps of the 220 m track. It's a nice facility. I wouldn't mind running laps there again. Just not 132 of them. I could only manage about 30 at a time before I was going shack wacky. And I was forgetting to hit my lap counter, so then I was getting annoyed. I did 33 laps. Hit the treadmill for an hour. 32 more laps and then hit the treadmill again.

Week 10 - 57 km run this week 

             - 519 km run in 2015
              - 2.2 lbs lost this week. 

              - 16.7 lbs lost since January 1. 

              - 13.4 lbs to lose to goal. 8 weeks to go.
              - Streaking 480 days and counting
              - Alcohol free for 72 days. 
              - 0 minutes of weights 

              - 27 days until my Boston vacation. 

On the agenda for Week 11 is 6 km Tempo Run, 8 Hills, and then the regular 8 km and 6 km steady runs.

Marathon Training - Week 9

This was a really good training week. I feel like I'm progressing really well and I feel like my 4:30 goal may actually be within my reach with 9 weeks left to go. Switching to the treadmill for my tempo and hills runs was probably the best decision I have made.

Benefits of Treadmill Tempo runs

• I'm able to push harder on the treadmill than on snow covered roads.
• I'm able to maintain an even pace for longer duration which carries over into road running.
• This is really interesting. I find that because of all the miles at the same pace that I've done, that when I zone out, I'm actually running that pace and breathing at that rhythm. That whole repetition thing. Very interesting.
• It's not as easy to slow down on the treadmill as it is on the road.
• I'm not a victim to the elements.

Monday - 1.8 km. This was my mile rest day. I did a bit of everything, run, foam rolling, yoga, weights. I'm trying to be a little more proactive with the post run recovery. 

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. I was really happy with this run. It was almost uncomfortably hard, and I had to slow down a couple of times to get my breathing back under control. 

Wednesday - 8.77 km. Wednesday night hills. I actually went to the clinic for this run. That was a pretty decent hill. 6 x 600m @ 5%. I'm a week ahead of most people, so it was a little awkward when I had to run an extra hill by myself while everyone patiently waited. The hills are definitely harder on the treadmill. So I won't be that upset if I miss a clinic run to run them at home. I will say that I was pleasantly runner's high from this run. Gotta love it.

Thursday - 8 km Steady. After two relatively hard workouts, I was surprised that my "easy" pace for this run was a 7:30 / km. It was probably a little harder than an easy, but when I think back (I actually looked back) to this time last year my tempo pace was 7:30 and my easy / long run paces were between 9:00 and 10:00 / km. 

Friday - 6 km There was a big storm brewing for Sunday, so we decided to run our long run on Saturday this week. I have found in the past that I prefer to run this 6km easy run on Friday instead of waiting until Sunday or Monday when we run long on Saturday. I could tell my legs were a little weak, but that was totally expected.

Saturday - 19 km. This was a cut back week. Other than being a little sick with a cold (I took some tylenol cold and sinus that worked really well), this was a great run. OK. I did have a little hip pain from running on sloped roads, but it's long forgotten now. The temperature was fantastic, if not a little cold. No wind. No tummy troubles. I didn't run out of water, but I am going to have to address that before next week. The only thing to complain about was the lack of patience of the drivers on the road. They were not happy at all. FYI, we really would prefer to run on the sidewalks. But the choice is ice or irate drivers. We'll take our chances with the drivers. Most of them have a conscience and morals. Ice would take us out and not give two shits about it.

Sunday - 2 km. Rest day. HA! I actually like doing my long run on Saturday and having Sunday and Mondays as "rest days" I feel like I can get a half decent strength workout in on Sunday without having to worry about compromising my running due to DOMS. I did two 15 minute HIIT strength circuits after my run. 

Week 9 - 52 km run this week 

             - 462 km run in 2015
              - 2 lbs lost this week. 

              - 14.5 lbs lost since January 1. 

              - 15.5 lbs to lose to goal. 9 weeks to go.
              - Streaking 473 days and counting
              - Alcohol free for 65 days. 
              - 60 minutes of weights