~Lululemon Downtown TO Run Club- Saturday~

Every Saturday morning I run with the Lululemon Downtown Toronto Run Club. There are two groups the Learn to Run and Run to Race, I usually run with the Run to Race group who is training for ScotiaBank Half Marathon.

Since the lovely Run Ambassador’s are all busy this weekend with their own races, I was asked to lead the groups, Learn to Run is doing 8km and the Run to Race is doing 18km.

This is my invitation to all you lovely runners to come out and run with me and the Lululemon crew this weekend. We meet at the North West Corner of Queen and University at 9am Saturday morning.

Would love to see all your smiling faces Saturday morning no matter what distance you want to run!!

Are you looking for a running group? or a new running experience??

Come Join!!!

~Morning Runs- the Love Affair Renewed~

As my blog can attest, I have been extremely busy, hence a lack of posts. Since life and especially work have become increasingly busy, it has been getting tougher and tougher to get all my runs and hot yoga in after work. I have just managed to squeak in all my runs in but hot yoga has definitely suffered.

Therefore last night I made myself promise that I would get my run in before I go to work, that way I have time for hot yoga and other fun things. There have been a couple times, clearly a lie..there have been numerous times this summer that I have made myself  promise to run in the morning only to negotiate with myself in the morning that I can do it after work. Somehow I found the will to suck it up and wake up early to run.

I devised a plan to try and ensure that I would run in the morning. I gathered all my gear and laid it out beside my bed so that I would see it when I woke up. I set my alarm to not include any snoozing (as this is when I begin to negotiate with myself) and I instantly got out of bed and started to get dressed so that there would be no excuses.

It was one of those mornings where you can decide whether you need long sleeves or short sleeves, so I wore long sleeves. I didn’t want to get my hydration belt ready so decided I would run without it. Through on my compression shorts, decided I didn’t need bodyglide or any fuel. Well about 500 meters in I realized I have never worn these compression shorts without applying BodyGlide, and as it turns out since they are slightly too big on me they kept riding up. It looked like I had the hungriest bum (biggest wedgie ever) and the shortest shorts. Since I wasn’t wearing my belt my shirt wouldn’t stay down and then part way through the run I was way too hot in my long sleeves. After some major adjusting while running, including tucking shirts into shorts, using deodorant I was wearing to help stick my shorts to my legs and bearing the too hot long sleeves, I hit my rhythm and just began to feel free and happy. Once I got home, got showered and got to work. I felt on top of the world, oh sweet sweet runner’s high, you make me such a happy and productive person.

Needles to say this morning is when morning runs and I reignited our love affair, it wasn’t pretty and was actually kind of an awkward start, an ungraceful mid, but in the end it was beautiful. And our love was reclaimed.

Here is to making this a long-term commitment and not a frosh week like fling…

Do you run in the morning? How do you get yourself out of bed??

Back Running

I have been very quiet these last couple weeks, and its partly due to being too sad about not being able to run that I couldnt write about and partly, that when I started running again I was too scared to jinx it by talking about it.

But since I have now been back running close to my typical mileage this last week, I figured it was time to break my silence. I’MMMMM BACK!!

I am not only back running, but back on track with my marathon training. It has been an interesting last couple weeks learning when to push it and when to pull back and rest. The resting part was tough, real tough!! There was too many times to count, that I wanted to go run out my stress, join my friends on their long runs and run with my lovely clinic peeps, but the end goal of healing was much more important. And it has been worth it all!

This is not to say my injury journey is over because its not. After a week or so of thinking thinking that I had strained my calf, My sports doctor got my ultrasounds back and realized that it was actually a strained peroneal tendon.

Apparently my double jointed ankles are good and a bad thing, good thing is its hard to sprain my ankle and bad thing is I have loose tendons….and yes my Doctor told me I am loose. Since my tendons are already loose it is much easier to strain then from repetitive use or overuse. So I’ll will be at physio for the next while trying to strengthen my tendons to prevent any further injuries. The good thing is my Doctor does not want me to stop running as the tendons will just get weak and lazy. I just have to be cognizant of overusing it again and straining it.

Loose tendons cannot hold me down!! Physio and running here I come!! and I am Back with Avengance B@#!!%s…

How have you come back from injury?? How did you feel??

 

~Perseverance~

 

 

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small compared to what lies within us ~ Raplh Waldo Emerson

 

I received this poster from my Mom in the mail yesterday. I dont know how Mom’s do it but they always know what you need and when you need it. It is exactly what I needed, Thanks Mom!! xoxoxo

~Week 1 of Injury ~

So it has now been ONE  full week since I was injured. Once I got over the depression and stir craziness, well OK still dealing with that one, I started to try to focus on other things that I haven’t had as much time for  while I was training.

The first was nutrition. It is such a integral part of being healthy but something I have avoided getting too knowledgeable on. Mostly because I hate to cook and try to avoid it if possible. I have been reading a lot of blogs that deal with nutrition and have great recipes in an attempt to spark a love affair with cooking. So far the love affair is not there, but we are becoming better friends. A couple blogs that I really took a liking too were Meals and Miles, Healthy Hungry Happy, The Athlete’s Plate and last but certainly not least Healthy Tipping Point.

The second is my friends. With running almost every evening and every morning on the weekends I have not been able to find as much time to as I use to with my lovely friends. So I have definitely utilized this extra time during the week to meet friends for drinks and dinner. I was actually able to go out both nights on the weekend with friends, and have been probably been taking advantage of being able to have drinks more than I care to admit. I have such amazing and supportive friends, they are all so empathetic, positive and helpful. They have been given tons of wicked tips of recovering from this injury which has been helpful since I have to wait until next Tuesday to see a Sports Doctor and Physiotherapist.

Also, work has really helped keep my mind off not being able to run. It has been non-stop crazy busy and fun at work. With projects coming at a mile a minute and taking on more responsibility it has definitely provided me another outlet for achievement which I really needed.

Now I have to figure out what I would like to focus on Week 2…Hmmmmmmmm..more nutrition…more friends..and maybe some hot yoga

Contemplating...hmmmm

What have you focused on while injured? Do you have any tips on recovering? Any advice on adjusting my marathon training schedule?

Injury ~ Every Runner’s Worst Nightmare

Injury is the boogeyman of running, everyone is scared of it and it always feels like its lurking. We are all scared of injury as it means losing a big part of our lives, running.

Boogeyman...sorry couldn't resist

I know this personally right now. It has taken me a couple days to finally come to grips and write this post because it means that its real now. I AM INJURED…GRRRRR…

During the amazing mojo getting back long run on Saturday within the last 500m I started feeling a pain shoot up the side of my calf. When I walked home it felt fine, but on Sunday when I went to run I realized that it was sore and that I should rest it. It took me until Monday night to realize that I was injured and I was going to be forced to rest it for a couple weeks. Not gonna lie, I shed some tears

Dealing with injury is hard, its like losing an important part of your life, you feel anxious, irrational and sad. First, I pretended I wasn’t injured and that I could run on Tuesday with the Lululemon run club, then I accepted I was injured and became inconsolable. This is when I realized that their is a grieving process to injuries. You deny, then get anger and depressed, and then finally accept it. Now that I have accepted I have a strained calf, I am now planning on how I can look at the bright side and what to do to fill the void of not running.

Inconsolably Sad

The bright side is I am trying to learn some lessons from this injury as to become a better runner. As well I am trying to focus my extra time on educating myself about proper nutrition for runners as well as being wheat-free. This is always something I wanted to focus on but have never had the time.  I will also take some time to tweak my training schedule to accommodate for this injury.

Have you ever been injured? What did you do to overcome it? Any tips and advice?

The Bad Run ~ and the bad taste it leaves

So as runners we all know that we are going to have the dreaded BAD runs..and they can leave a bad taste in your mouth. They can really bring you down, hurt your confidence and make you fear or dread your next run.

A couple weekends ago I experienced a really BAD run, probably the worst run I have ever had. It was 16 mile long run and the humidity was smothering. I ran the first 7.5 miles before meeting up with the Lululemon run club, and I noticed it pretty early on that my body was not cooperating with me and the weather was just making the situation worse. I tried to push through it, but it was really tough. We all had to take numerous breaks, we ran out of water and had to stop and get more, and we were all hoping that every light would be red so that we could stop. I felt defeated

This BAD run left an awful feeling, I felt like I lost my mojo and some of the joy I get from running. I was extremely happy that the next week was a drop back week and that I would be running in Montreal. But even still this awful feeling of that run kept lingering and I didn’t feel like running much this last week. Come Saturday morning and an impending 18 mile long run, I was nervous! It took a lot in me to muster up the strength and confidence to get out there for the run. And I couldn’t be happier than to have my friend Vince along with me for the first half and knowing that the whole Lululemon Run Club would be there for the second half. Having a great running support system truly helps. Not only do they help make sure you get out, but there also amazing for quieting your fears and anxiety, and making your runs enjoyable again.

So a HUGE THANKS and BIG UPS to all those who I got to run with for this Saturday’s 18 miler because it was a success. I felt great, completed it and was able to crush all the self doubt that crept in from that last BAD run! SO thank you all…

Lululemon Downtown Run Club

I have bad runs before, but none that left such a bad taste and such feelings of self doubt. But with a little help from your friends and the courage to try again, you can overcome the BAD run, and find your mojo again! But you can’t do it if you don’t try!!

Have you ever had a really bad run? How did it leave you feeling? How did you overcome it?