30km in 3:04. Did I mention this course has HILLS??? Possibly my biggest running accomplishment yet :). More details in the next few days…

From your three boys …

From Luke:

From Evan:

From Michael:
I was going to do a card but my computer crashed just as I finished it – yah, that’s my story!! Have a great race!

Dear Winter,

I like you winter, really I do. I’ve had some great runs these last few months, even on those days when other runners were so fed up with you that they wouldn’t even bother to head out the door. Apparently you have managed to screw up so many people’s training schedules that a record number of Around the Bay registrants have put their bibs up for sale. Countless others have modified their goals significantly. But not me. I have run my way through some of the coldest months in recent history. Of course since my main goal for ATB has simply been to finish, there really isn’t much in the way of modifications I can do. But I digress.

I have stood by you. I have spread the news to everyone that there are so many advantages to running while we are in your grasp. For me your best quality is the fact that you don’t make we want to pass out or throw up. These are important qualities that shouldn’t be overlooked.

But here’s the thing…it is time for you to go. Now. I had one final run to do today, just a nice easy 3 or 4k. When I looked out the window you were showing off again – you know, that horizontal snow thing. There I stood, realizing that I just couldn’t do it. I could not make myself go for yet another run in wind and snow. You may not be done, but I am.

Winter, it’s been fun and thanks for coming out, but I think it is time for us to take a break for a few months. I know there will be times when I am running in the heat and humidity while being attacked by whatever bug is in season and I will miss you, perhaps even wish for your return. But for now, it is time to say goodbye and part as friends.

Until next year,
Kristi

Five more sleeps until my first attempt at North America’s oldest road race, the Around the Bay race held in Hamilton, Ontario.  On the agenda for Sunday morning is 20km of fairly flat running, followed by 6 or 7km of hills and then a final run into what was Copps Coliseum (I have forgotten the new name) for a grande finale of a finish.  That unfortunately will not be the end of my day since I will then have the 5 or 6 hour drive back to Ottawa.  I have already warned my husband that when I get back home I may have to call him so he can come out and pry me out of the car.  I have never done a long run followed by and even longer car ride.  My gut feeling is that it won’t be pretty.

Today I finished my last double digit run before the race; a 10km route that at the beginning felt awful and by the end felt great.  What are the chances of being able to say the same thing as I cross the finish line on Sunday?  I have absolutely no idea what to expect – other than the fact I am guessing it is unlikely that I will feel better at the finish line than I did at the start.  I have bounced through so many approaches to this race that I can no longer keep track of all my ideas.  The plan for the most part has been to simply treat it as a training run and that would be the most sensible plan.  I started training for this race a month late and I really should have a couple of more long runs under my belt.  In fact, now that I think of it, I have only run 30k or more 3 times in my life, one of them during my first marathon.  The other two times had a good half hour break in the middle.  O.K, that sudden realization is not making me feel any more confident about this whole thing!

There is (perhaps unfortunately) a little voice inside my head that is saying why not just go for it, treat it as a race and not a training run and see what happens.  The voice of common sense then tells me what will most likely happen in that scenario – I will end up a stumbling, staggering, teary eyed walker. The famous ATB Grim Reaper will spot me from a mile off and then gleefully offer to carry me to the nearby cemetery.

So, a few days out and I don’t actually have a plan.  This may be a run based on feel and nothing more.  Ideally I would like to come in under 3:11, which was my 30k split time at the Toronto Marathon.  That said, the marathon had virtually no hills.  Right now I have this little fantasy going on in my head that when I hit the ATB hills I will discover that they really aren’t that bad and just what was all the fuss about anyways?  I can hope…

Winter hit Ottawa yet again yesterday in the form of a snowstorm.  At any other time I would have used the prediction of 15cm of snow as an excuse to stay in bed and delay my run for a day.  Instead though, I found myself up at 6:30 in an attempt to beat the incoming storm.  Unfortunately, for what I believe was the first time all winter, the weatherman was actually correct in predicting that the heavy snow would start falling in the early morning.  But this didn’t stop me because, quite frankly I wanted this run done so I could say I was officially into my taper.

I did a slow warm up down our long driveway, followed immediately by a complete wipeout on the snow covered ice at the road.  While laying on the ground I made a mental note to make sure I kept to a very slow pace and off I went.  It didn’t take me long to realize that I wasn’t going to have an option about my speed anyways.  When you are running in a snowstorm on an unplowed road it is safe to assume you will not be doing a speed workout.

In short, what should have been a miserable run really wasn’t all that bad.  When blocked from the horizontal snow and wind it was actually quite peaceful.  Running in ankle deep snow for 15.5km also provides one heck of a muscle workout with minimal joint stress – and you can actually have the centre of the road to yourself for the entire run (no one else, pedestrians or drivers, is stupid enough to be out there with you). The two wild turkeys I passed looked a little pissed off fighting through the snow and wind, but then again, wild turkeys just look pissed off at the best of times.  In the end it was a perfect final run to finish a week where I had done a little bit of everything: race last Saturday, speed work on Monday, yoga on Wednesday, steady 10k on Thursday, hills on Friday.  Why not finish it up with a workout in the snow?

So now my taper week begins.  Next Sunday is the Around the Bay 30k Road Race.  I am trying to tell myself that if I can run just over 15km in snow, I should be able to run 30km on dry roads…assuming the weather doesn’t throw yet another storm our way.  And hopefully when I finish the race it won’t look like this:

Snowstorm run done!

There are 12 days left until Around the Bay.  Since I haven’t really been following a schedule, other than getting ideas from the Running Room’s marathon training guide, I have no idea what I should be doing right now.  I have looked at the 30k training guide on the race’s website, but I am pretty sure that was created with really crazy runners in mind – honestly it looked tougher than marathon training.  So, do I start tapering?  I’m not sure, somehow I feel a little undeserving of a taper considering I started training a month later than I should have.  I swear if I had one more month I would be so ready for this race!

Instead, I am making it up day by day and it is rather liberating.  Other than knowing I will take the Friday and Saturday before race day as rest days, I am simply going to put on my shoes (or not) and see what I feel like doing (or not doing).  In other words, no pressure and whatever happens, happens.  Am I nervous about the race?  Absolutely.  Nervous enough to have to force myself to avoid thinking about it when I go to bed for fear of not falling asleep – or perhaps even worse, falling asleep and dreaming of never ending hills looming as far as the eye can see.  But ultimately I am glad I am getting the chance to try a race that everyone seems to love, despite the dreaded hills.

My somewhat fast time for the St. Patrick’s Day 10k seems to have given me a mental and physical boost.  I headed out today planning to do 10 – 14 steady km’s.   Within 2k, feeling good, I changed my plans and decided to push harder and complete a faster 5k then take a break, run another 5k but slower and then a slow run for however many km I could fit in before getting the kids.  The first 5k was done in just over 28 minutes.  The second “slower” 5k lasted for about 28 and a half minutes.  I was originally aiming for 30 minutes but halfway through I felt good and decided to go for a sub 29.  Then I finished it up with a relaxing 3k with some small hills.  It turned out to be a pure “run by feel” day and it was, dare I say it…FUN!  I love these days that remind you running is not a chore, or at least it does not have to be all the time.  Sometimes it is simply the  highlight of your day 🙂

Yesterday I ran the 10k St. Patrick’s Day Run on Colonel By Drive in Ottawa, completing race #4 in my 14 in ’14 challenge.  Two years ago this was the race that was going to be my first 10k race.  I remember being so excited, not to mention incredibly nervous, about it.  Then my first ITB injury occurred and I ended up dropping to the 5k and my introduction to the 10k had to wait for almost 2 months.  This time however, this little race was sort of the ignored event in my schedule.  With only two weeks until Around the Bay and with plans officially forming for a trip out west for the Vancouver Half, I spent little time even thinking about this race.  I had no plans for time or pace and was simply looking at it as a training run that would hopefully be a little faster than what I have been doing lately.

I admit it was nice to start a race with no expectations.  When my Garmin somehow stopped during the first km, and I didn’t notice until it turned itself off, I just reset it and figured at least I could keep an eye on my pace for the rest of the run.  Unfortunately by the third km my head was full of negative talk (that came on quickly even for me) and once again I had to remind myself to just run in the moment.  My legs felt sluggish and I was reminded of the fact that in the previous 7 days I had done not one, but 2 long runs (24.5k and 27k) so I was already making excuses to myself as to why I would just take this slowly.  I was pretty convinced  that I just no longer had any speed in me and perhaps I should just learn to accept it.

Somewhere after the 3k mark though I started to feel good.  Even better, I was feeling comfortable.  After 5k I felt really comfortable at a steady average pace of 5:42.  I kept backing myself off a bit – or so I thought – in an attempt to save some energy.  What a pleasant surprise when each time I checked my watch thinking I was a little slower, I was always in fact at the same pace or faster!  And while I was definitely working, I did not feel I was working ridiculously hard.  That just doesn’t happen enough to this average runner.  When I hit an average pace of 5:39 I did force myself to avoid another increase of speed but when I had a couple of hundred metres left I let myself go.  Final 10k time – 56:30, only 16 seconds slower than my P.B. set at Ottawa Race Weekend almost two years ago.  I admit there is a little part of me thinking I should have pushed just a little harder and I would have beat that P.B. but in all honesty I couldn’t even remember for sure what my best time was.  I hadn’t looked at previous 10k race times prior to the race because I had intended to finish around 58 minutes.  This race did leave me knowing that I have a sub 56 minute 10k in me if I actually choose to work on the distance.  Generally speaking when I run a 10k it is as a part of a longer run.  As a result, it just isn’t a distance I focus on.  Now I am thinking maybe I should put a bit of work into this distance and give it some respect.  I also feel fairly confident I could have held on to that pace for a few more km’s, making me think a sub 2 hour half marathon is a little closer than I thought.

As for the race itself, the main appeal is probably the fact that it takes place in March.  Not that March is a particularly nice month in terms of weather, but it is lacking in organized races so a mid month race is a nice addition to the calendar.  As with my January and February races, I love the fact that the St. Patrick’s Day Run offers a large indoor space (Immaculata High School) so no need to hang around in cold weather before your run.  At this time of year that makes it so much easier to decide what to wear; if you get to wait inside you can dress for the run rather than for the long wait before the start gun.

There were 365 10k participants and 386 5k runners, making it a nice sized race without being overcrowded.  It was an out and back course along the canal, which always makes for a nice run.  I have to admit I never realized that there is some noticeable incline on that route at around the 4k mark.  I was cursing that a little, especially as there was also a headwind at that point.  Of course it being a winding route, the wind managed to hit you on both the “out” portion and the “back” portion of the run, though thankfully never for long. The 10k runners headed out about 15 minutes before the 5k race.  The only slightly awkward part about this is it leaves average 10k runners like myself having to pass 5k walkers (of which there seemed quite a few) during the last 2.5 km of the race.  These weren’t race walkers or Nordic walkers, so they were definitely not looking for speed.  I love seeing walkers out on a course and I love the fact that often those walkers are taking the first steps to a new life of fitness.  I just wouldn’t mind it if they were asked to stay to the right if runners are coming up behind them rather than spreading out in a group of 2 or 3 (often deep in conversation) forcing the runners to go around.

The race was well organized with no shortage of cheerful volunteers.  Parking, at least when we got there, was easy and I ended up parking only a couple of hundred metres from the doors.  I opted to not drive all the way downtown the day before to pick up Evan’s and my race kits, despite the fact I usually hate leaving it to the last minute on race day.  There were no line ups however an hour before the race so I am glad I saved myself a drive.

Of course another advantage of races with an indoor venue is the indoor bathrooms … no porta potties 🙂  As always though, the ratio of women’s bathrooms to men’s wasn’t working (as in one set of bathrooms each).  Realistically if a race is going to provide marked men’s and women’s washrooms there needs to be a 2 to 1 ratio.  At the best of times at any event you need more bathrooms for women; let’s face it, we take longer.  Throw in the fact that many races, including this one, have more female participants than male, it is a given that there will be long lineups for women right until the starting gun and this race was no different.

No medals are offered at this race but there were lots of draw prizes plus prizes for the winners of each age group.  When Evan, who was I believe one of only a handful of kids running the 5k, finished his race a very kind volunteer just handed him a prize – a $25 gift certificate for the Royal Oak Pub.  Needless to say as his driver I get to share the prize.  This is actually the second time Evan has been handed a prize at a race, proving that if you are young and cute running races can pay off!  As Evan pointed out, people always seem really excited to see kids or grandmothers running a race, the rest of us just aren’t as exciting.

A tech shirt came with this race too, I’ll definitely put it to use but can’t say it is one of my favourites.  It kind of looks like they forgot to put the name of the race on the shirt since the entire black shirt is blank on the front with all the sponsors on the back along with a small race logo.  It seems kind of odd to not have the race name emblazoned on the front of a tech shirt.

Evan, as always, appreciated the food: bagels, bananas, oranges, granola bars, water and my personal favourite – chocolate milk.  For me, any race that provides chocolate milk gets bonus points!

So, for $35 is this a race I would do again?  Why not?  It is good timing for kicking your race season into gear, particularly if you aren’t into doing races in January and February.  With only 11 weeks to Ottawa Race weekend it is a perfect training run no matter what distance you plan to to in May.  My guess is I will be there next year, particularly since I do not plan on running Around the Bay again next March, or at least that is what I said to myself over and over again when doing my last long run!

I ran 27km yesterday.  27km is a really long run.  Really, really long.  Kind of stupid long.  I know there is a lot of research out there that says humans are made to run.  But it still begs the question, are we made to run 27km???  I remain unconvinced.

When I managed to stagger up my driveway, stumble through the door and quickly lay on the ground with my legs up the wall, I had time to plan for Around the Bay.  Let’s just say I am changing my approach.

I will instead be running the lesser known Around the Bay 20km race.  I hear it is pretty flat and there will be lots of people with me on the course.  My goal will be to run a steady but somewhat slow race.  When I am done I will congratulate myself on a good 20k training run.  Then I will head for my car.  Of course my car will be 10km away, apparently over a bunch of hills.  But that is o.k. because I won’t really be in a rush.  In fact, I may even throw my Garmin in my pocket.  After all, if I go somewhere, I don’t time myself to see how long it takes me to get to my car in the parking lot, why should this be different?

When I have finished my 10k path back to my car some very nice strangers will give me a medal and some food just for – you guessed it – making it back to the general vicinity of my car.  At that point I might find a place to simply lay down and contemplate the final steps to the parking lot.  There will probably be some cursing that the parking lot isn’t closer to where I am laying down.  There is a chance I will keep laying there until someone – a cranky janitor or understanding security guard perhaps – tells me to get off the floor and go home.  I will then make my final victory lap to the car, head back to Ottawa and congratulate myself for not only running 20km, but successfully making it back to my car…however long that takes!

For the first time ever I just ordered shoes online and had them delivered to my door – less than two working days since I ordered them.  I was more than a little excited to sign for the shoe box just now, but there is a story behind my excitement.

Last fall I bought my favourite shoes ever, my happy shoes I liked to call them.

My happy shoes 🙂

They were bright, they were colourful and the first day I used them I ran 32km without a problem.  I knew then that Asic’s Gel Nimbus 14’s were for me.  Thinking ahead, I bought another pair for the winter.  As posted before, that plan didn’t work since only after losing a toenail did I discover that the left shoe of the second pair was mislabelled and was in fact a half size smaller than the right shoe.  Who checks to see if the shoes are mismatched?  Well, I do now.  Running Room refunded the money but of course we are now in a new year and the Gel Nimbus 14 has morphed into the Nimbus 15.

I will try to keep the following rant brief.  Why do shoe companies insist on changing something every year???  If they had thousands of people buy a specific shoe, do they really need to screw around with the product?  If I buy Ketchup in 2013 and like it, I want the same product in 2014.  Go ahead, change the colour of the bottle if you want, but don’t give me some supposedly new and improved Ketchup that tastes nothing like the condiment I happily used until the bottle was empty.  I can’t begin to describe how ticked off I was when I tried the Nimbus 15’s only to discover it was like putting on a completely different shoe – and  a shoe that didn’t fit me properly at that.  It ends up the sizing isn’t even the same, many runners are finding they have to go up a half or whole size to get them to fit.  I have heard that fans of Nimbus 13 though are happy since 15 is similar and of course 14 wasn’t.  You almost need a degree in shoe research to be able to keep track of what is going on with your favourite shoes.

When I realized the 15 wasn’t going to work, I switched to the Brooks Ghost.  They are perfectly good shoes BUT….they are not my happy shoes!  They have done the job on several runs, definitely good enough for short runs, but I wasn’t convinced I was going to love them doing 30km in Hamilton in 3 weeks.  So it came time to search the web.  Runner’s Mark and Running Room had no Nimbus 14’s left and while I found a few pairs in my size (even in my favourite happy colour seen above) in the States I didn’t want to deal with the exchange rate and shipping charges.  Finally I found them on a site called 33-off.com.  I went a little more subdued – actually a lot more subdued since that was what was available – but I was prepared to have any colour just to be able to say I love my shoes again.

New Shoes!

So when I realized that the knock on my door today that I was ignoring was not in fact my children trying to be irritating, but instead Canada Post, I raced to the door just in time before he pulled away.  Did I care that it was 2:30 in the afternoon and I was still unshowered and in my pyjamas?  Hell no, my shoes had arrived !  And hey, it is March Break…I’m on holidays!  Once I have tested these ones out on a run (memories of the last ones that didn’t work out) I will probably order another pair (or 2) so that I don’t have to endure the craziness of shoe shopping for some time to come.

I have had a good couple of weeks of running.  Nothing spectacular, nothing that leads me to think I am on my way to some PB’s this year, just a series of nice runs.  As a teacher, I am often telling kids to use adjectives other than “nice” and “good”, after all the English language offers a rich and varied vocabulary for all of us to use.  But sometimes “nice” kind of covers it.  My two long runs of 19k and 22k were comfortable, my 10k runs felt strong and my shorter runs were just plain enjoyable.  In short I was blessed to have a couple of weeks of simply enjoying running.

You know where this is going now, right?

When I headed out for a 25k run I had my usual pre-long run jitters, but I was also looking forward to the day.  It was bright and sunny out and the temperature had actually risen to just over 0 degrees.  I had a hilly course set out to help me prepare for Around the Bay, so I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy run, but for the most part it would be the same route as I ran last week for the 22k run.  Really, what is another 3km???

Let’s start by saying warming temperatures don’t necessarily make for a better run.  The fact is I am now very, very used to running in temperatures between -15C and -20C.  So as much as 1 or 2 degrees may not be hot, it is significantly warmer than what I am currently accustomed to.  Another downfall of warmer temperatures – the melting snow.  This would  not be a big deal if sidewalks were graded in a way to deal with the run off.  Unfortunately most sidewalks have an endless number of dips and valleys, all of which allow for pools of icy cold water.  My first soaker came at the 3k mark and the water was cold enough to send a few stabbing pains up my leg.  If I wasn’t landing in water, I was precariously balancing on icy snow on the banks of the sidewalk, often having to walk my way to dry land.

Then there was the wind, which I ran into for most of my first 12km.  If you managed to turn out of the wind it was warm enough to be in a t-shirt, but once that wind hit you, layers were required.  I made several stops to remove, then replace layers of clothes.  And of course the one time I dropped a glove had to be while working my way through yet another puddle.  My first four hills all managed to be positioned perfectly to ensure I had to run into a strong headwind while working my way up to the crests.  I can’t say I was having fun, but I was managing.

Then something ugly reared up in front of me.  Chances are you have met it too.  The Wall.  I wasn’t hurting, I wasn’t out of breath, I had no stomach issues (amazing for me on a long run), but I just had nothing left.  And this was at the 12.5 km mark.  I took a walk, had a snack, started again…and The Wall was still there.  Plan B was put in place.  I was still going to finish my run (besides, it was going to be a long, long walk back to the car if I didn’t) but I decided I would instead run two separate runs.  So I went for a 20 minute walk, ate all of my salted raisins and almonds (too late to save the run, but they were very tasty!) and headed into the nearby recreation centre to warm up, take a bathroom break and dry out that glove I dropped.  I even had the chance to say hi to my kids and husband as they had just arrived there to go for a swim.  I joked that they would probably be home before me.  Ends up it wasn’t a joke, they managed to swim and get home long before I arrived.

Finally, and with little enthusiasm, I headed out again.  I am just going to say it was a very, very long 11k.  I had done 12k a couple of days before this long run, and the time flew by.  This time it dragged by so slowly I was honestly starting to believe my Garmin was malfunctioning.  Despite all of this I threw in some more hill work – three 300m hill repeats and one long gradual hill before finishing for the day.

I’m not really sure what to call this run.  Is it still a long slow run when you take a giant break in the middle?  Or was it merely two shorter runs that happened to fall on the same day?  I do know that I at least achieved the “S” in my LSD – keeping it slow was not an issue!  In fact it was the slowest pace I have run since the marathon in October.  As to how I feel about the run…hmmm.  I should probably be upset by it, the run certainly didn’t even come close to my expectations.  But at the same time, I did manage to run about 24.5 km, no matter how ugly they may have been, and I did a total of 9 good size hills.  I wish it had been better, but I was still out there running, so that has to be worth something.

Why did the run go so wrong?  Honestly, there are too many factors to begin to guess.  I don’t think I ate enough before the run, in fact I was hungry at the start.  I probably should have refueled before the 12km mark.  Now that the temperatures are warmer I need more water with me.  The days of water bottles freezing within 10 minutes are over (I think?) and the two bottles I had in my belt did not last the entire run.  This was also my heaviest week of running in months, so good old fatigue may have played a major role.  Finally, to be honest, the wind killed me.  That is a concern since I have a feeling wind could be a big factor at Around the Bay.

In my attempt to see the glass half full, I have decided to look at yesterday’s run as something I survived and something that will make me stronger.  O.K., not as strong as if I flew through an uninterrupted 25km, but with only three weeks to Around the Bay, I’ll take what I can get.