The injury

Finishing the Triathlon, meeting Kathrine Switzer, joining the Boreal Club... all these things gave me a renewed excitement about running.  I was going to break 30 minutes for my 5k, I was going to get a new 10k record... I was going to keep improving and enjoy my runs.  That was the plan.

During my very first Boreal Team training the program called for a very lengthy workout.  Since I was already the slowest I wanted to make sure that no matter happened I would finished.  I may not win them over by being the most impressive with my speed, but I would win them over with my perseverance, my unwillingness to quit...

Unfortunately my body had a different plan.  Most runners know, that as a general rule of thumb you should only increase your distance by roughly 10%.  In August I was averaging between 5k and 8k during my weekly runs, yet on this training day in August we ran the equivalent of 13 km on the track. That's when I started feeling it.  The pain under my knee cap. Damn.

It has been almost a month and a half now, and the pain is still there.  Patellofemoral pain syndrome, AKA Runners Knee.  Apparently that's what I have.  Going to Physio, using K tape, IT band stripping, Quad stretches, Glut exercises... Hopefully I will be running again soon, but for now I have to tolerate running 2 minutes, and walking 5 minutes. 

Being a Borealite

On Wednesday August 14th I officially joined a local running club and became part of the Boreal team.  Immediately after I handed in my registration papers I proceeded to run a PB of 30:22 (so close to breaking out of that darn 30 minute finishing time) at the DDO 5k race.  A good omen I hope. 

Tomorrow I will participate in my first team practice.  I am excited and nervous all at once.  Under normal circumstances I will likely only be able to participate in the Wednesday night track training sessions every once in a while because Jarrod works nights.  But since I am very new, I thought going to the track to meet everyone would be a good idea.  Alana will be there, which will certainly make meeting everyone a little easier.  Saturday I will be taking part in the Boreal weekly long run, which I am also nervous about because my longest runs recently have been about 6k, and I am fairly certain that being the new team member I am also the slowest out there... for now.

Refocused

On Saturday August 10th 2013 I had the great honor of meeting the one and only Kathrine Switzer.  Kathrine Switzer was not only the winner of the 1974 NYC Marathon, but in 1967 she broke the gender barrier by becoming the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entry (5 years before women were officially allowed to run).  About 4k into her marathon a race official realized that a woman was running in his race, ran after her and tried to rip her numbers off of her.  Mrs Switzer was kind enough to autograph a copy of the below picture for both myself and Alana (mine is already framed and hanging beside my treadmill).

Famous picture I had Kathrine Switzer sign for Alana

It was surreal listening to Kathrine Switzer speak about her experience in the 1967 Boston Marathon.  I was lucky enough to be able to speak with her after she got off stage.  She autographed the picture for myself and Alana, she autographed her book for me and she asked if I had ever completed a marathon.  "Not yet, I am working on running my first half marathon next year" I told her.  How exciting to share my goals with a running legend. A pioneer in women's sports. She signed my book with "Melanie - Remember, the marathon is the reward, but the real VICTORY is the process".  Such an inspiration.  She gave me a hug, we took a picture together, and we said goodbye she made sure to tell Jarrod to "make sure you keep her on the roads". Needless to say, she far exceeded my expectations.

Now that the triathlon is over I have two goals I am focusing on.  The first of which is to complete a 5k race in under 30 minutes in 2013.  The next is completing the Montreal Oasis half marathon in September 2014. 

I know that the including long runs in my training plan at least once per week will be crucial to my success, especially for the half marathon, I have decided to join Alana in the Boreal Running Club.  I will be submitting my registration form on Wednesday.  I am super excited to be officially part of a team, but am also nervous about my ability to keep up with the rest of the members on the Saturday morning long runs.  My first long run will take place on Saturday August 24^th.  Wish me luck!

Triathlete

On July 14^th, 2013 I completed my first triathlon. What an amazing experience.  Here is a photo journal of the day.  I was hoping for a better finish time for the run, but hey, it was over 40 degrees and I was exhausted!

 

 

My blogging has left something to be desired over the last several months.  Although I have not been posting regularly my training has been consistence and time consuming.  The triathlon is now only days away and I am a little nervous, but very excited.

I seem to have hit a plateau with my running speed, but I guess that is understandable since I have been stretching myself a little thing trying to train for three disciplines.  Once the triathlon is over I’m going to have to dedicate more time to speed training (and blogging) so that I can break through the 30 minute 5k barrier before the end of the year.

Stay tuned...

I lay in bed last night realizing that the months are quickly ticking by and that the triathlon will likely be here before I know it.  Last week I splurged and bought myself a bike suitable to train on and also one that would serve me well for the upcoming triathlon.  I got a great deal on it and I am super excited to go pick it up.  It has an aluminum frame and a carbon fork for better driveability.   But mostly, look at how pretty it is!

 

 I'm still swimming at least once per week and running as often as I can.  Unfortunately, between March break and a terrible head cold I haven't been training as much as I would have liked over the past two weeks.

Yesterday when I got home from work I did a tempo 3k run, it was by far the worst day for my cold but I needed to get in a few KM’s.  When I got back home I took Nathaniel on his “training” 1k run and when we got back from that Abigail was all dressed and ready for her turn to run up and down the street.  I love that they are catching the running bug.

Brrrrrrrrr

Blizzard Run is appropriately named because it was freezing out.  At least -21C with the wind chill factored in.  At the start line my toes hurt from cold and my legs were starting to numb.

This Ile Bizard course is always tough for several reasons:

1. It's the first race of the season
2. It's always ridiculously cold and can be icy
3. There are a lot of hills (the first kilometre is all up hill)

As I stood there at the start line I started to question my sanity to get up early to stand out in the cold, toes feeling as though they may turn black and fall off, and legs yelling at me for not being at home wrapped in my favourite sweat pants.  Then, the starting pistol fired and we were off.  I felt strong the entire time and although I never expected to break any records on this course, I was pleased with my results.  I felt strong, and I finished strong refusing to let someone pass me in the final 200 meters...

 

 
Over nine minutes off my first time racing this course all the way back in 2011 and almost a full five minutes off of my time from last year.  I crossed the finish line in 31:22:4 knowing that under better conditions, and a different course, maybe, just maybe, I could have broken into the twenties.

Blizzard Run

The first race in the 2013 Circuit Endurance is on Sunday, and despite the fact that I have run several 10k races and have been very good with my training I am still a little nervous. I hope I perform well.  This will be the first gauge at how far I am from breaking the damn 30 minute barrier.

Plus... It's called the Blizzard Run... I hope it's not too cold!

Triathlon

 

I have a feeling this will be me after the triathlon in July!

 

yawn & yay

This morning my alarm went off at 5:00 am, which gave me all of 15 minutes to get up, get ready and get out.  I could have given myself more time, but I refused to set my alarm in the 4 o'clock hour. Even 4:59 would have been totally unacceptable!

Why did I get up so early this morning? I am glad you asked! Since I registered for the Triathlon I have been feeling nervous about the swim portion.  Don't get me wrong, the idea of participating in Triathlon is daunting and the whole thing makes me nervous, but the swim portion in particular since you can technical drown swimming.  That being said, I wanted to feel more confident in the swimming leg, and the only way to do that is to practice.  But how do I practice if I have nobody to correct me when I'm doing something wrong?  After all, the last time I took swimming was in high school gym class!  So the only way to rectify the situation was to join the DDO Masters swim club. 

The swim club offers a few different practice times, but with two kids and a husband who does shift work the only feasible one was the 5:30 am to 7:00 am time slot.  I said it was "feasible" not "ideal".  It is a sacrifice, but if I am going to commit to this triathlon I want to make sure that I give it my full effort.  I want to go in knowing that I did everything I could to finish.  I want to go in feeling comfortable in the swim portion.  That way, even if I finish last, I'll know that I gave it all I could.

5:00 am the alarm went off, 5:30 am I was in the pool doing laps. Happy Monday!

Three, Third, Trois, Tres, Drei....

Third place! Third place! Third place!

Clearly I am pleased with myself.  Sunday January 27th 2013 Alana and I both participated in the Montreal JogX indoor 10k race.  This race consisted of 53 laps on a 190 meter indoor track.  It was sweltering, there were lots of turns and yet somehow I was actually the third female finished! And yes, there were more than 3 women participating.  I did not set a new PB, but I did finish pretty close to my best time.  Considering how hot and how many turns we had to do (turns slow you down) I am super pleased with myself:

9th place finish over all / third woman finished

Alana was the first female finished again.  This accomplishment allowed her to proudly walked from the JogX series having completed every 10k JogX race in first place.

 

Although I am very pleased with myself, I know that this is just the beginning.  I have a lot more training to do if I have any chance in reaching all the goals I have set for 2013.  

A new PB!

Sunday January 20^th was the second of the three part race series of 10k indoor races this winter.  The first of the three was done in Sherbrooke in December with the disappointing finish of 1 hour 12 minutes.

Sunday morning I got up at 5:55am and Alana and I made our way up to Ottawa.  I felt more prepared this time and was going into it slightly nervous, but confident that I would pull out a better end result than I was able to in Sherbrooke.  And if lucky, I was hoping to scrape a seconds off of my personal best time of 1:10:52 for a 10k.

The race took place at the Louis-Riel dome in Ottawa on a 400 meter track, which means in order to complete the 10k we were required to do 25 laps.  I felt strong and the results from the increase in my training paid off big time.  Not only did I complete the race, I left there with a new PB (personal best) of 1:06:40 - more than four minutes off my last PB.

Alana completed her 10k with a new PB as well and we left the arena on cloud nine.  Then there was the drive home. ...

This was taken when we could actually see a little bit of what was going on around us.  We survived the entire drive home even though there were moments of intense fear whilst in the middle of complete white out conditions on the highway.

The next and final race of the indoor 10k series is on Sunday January 27th.  I hope to be able to hit the same finish time.  Fingers crossed.

Gasp!!!!!

It is done.  Panic has officially set in. Triathlon registration completed.

Hit the indoor track with Valerie and Alana on Friday as promised and was able to push through 8k (40 laps) in just under 55 minutes.  I felt pretty strong throughout and am feeling a little more comfortable with the idea of doing another 10k in Ottawa on January 20^th.  Of course this is just the beginning of 2013, and I still have lots of training to do in order to hit my goals this year.

• Ottawa Race weekend 10k (May 2013) – complete in under 1h05
• 5k Circuit Endurance (2013) – break through the 30 minute barrier and finish in 29:59 (or faster)
• Be more awesome

Also, in an attempt to do some general health improvements I have started to try and find some delicious vegetarian recipes to add to the repertoire.   Last night I made some Tofu Parmigiana and promised myself that if it was good I would have Valerie and Brendan over for some tofu deliciousness.

 

 

Everyone enjoyed it.  Nathaniel dubbed the dish "Cheese Thing in the Oven part II" and devoured every bite.  Since it was a hit, I guess Valerie and Brendan will be receiving a dinner invitation from me soon.

With all the excitement of Christmas and the holidays my blog entries have left something to be desired. 

First off, let’s go back in time to December 15^th which was the date of the Indoor 10k race in Sherbrooke.  I was really looking forward to the event itself.  It sounded like a lot of fun, I had never run on a track before but was fairly confident that without the outdoor elements to contend with I would be able to easily complete the 10k distance, and perhaps be able to leave with a new personal best time.  Unfortunately that’s not how reality works.  The reality of the matter is that although I had been doing a lot of cross training (biking, swimming and weights) I hadn’t put enough running miles in to my workout schedule.  The lack of preparation combined with a far too aggressive starting pace was my doom.  In retrospect I had a good time, but had you asked at the finish line of the 10k race if I had a good time I would have likely grumbled under my breathe that it was horrible.   My 10k finish time was 1:12:27.88, which isn’t all bad, but I felt like it was a struggle to finish and I know I am capable of doing better. I just know it.

The good news is that I have already committed to two more 10k indoor JogX races in January.   On December 23^rd Valerie and I signed up at an indoor track with Alana and we did a little training.  I completed 8k in around 56 minutes (I forgot to stop my watch) and the plan is to go again this Friday.  Preparation is going to be the key and I definitely want to leave Ottawa 10k feeling good about my performance. I also want to be able to break that damn 30 minute mark for the 5k’s this year. I want to see some serious time improvements in 2013.

Treadmill time tonight, then track time on Friday.