Sleep

Oh how I love thee. My love of sleep makes my alarm clock my greatest enemy. As much as I truly wish to rise early, I blindly and frantically press that snooze button at least four or five times before I can will myself out of bed. This morning, I slept past my alarm for one whole hour! How can I wake up feeling good when I’ve already failed on my first goal for the day?! My sleep is not all that restful so when I am in that dreamy space, the intrusive sounds of overly cheery morning radio show hosts only remind me of all the millions of things I have to do during the day. As I visualize the foreboding ‘list’, I press my snooze button again snuggling deeper under the covers.

I have tried multiple alarm clocks and set them up in various locations in the house. This strategy has proven unsuccessful. I have tried changing the alarm sounds from the horribly obtrusive beeeep beeep beeeep to the softer sounds of morning radio. Neither make a difference.

I wasn’t always a “snoozer” and I’m not exactly sure how I came to be one. Maybe it was when my life became consumed with sitting in front of a computer screen day and night. Or maybe I just have no discipline. Could it be my iron levels? Or could it possibly be age? Rising at 5:30am used to be be part of the daily routine for several years - to go to swim practice, do yoga or fit in a morning run. Why is this so difficult for me now? Could I be so sleep deprived that I am constantly in a state of sleep debt?

If that is the case, why then will a sunny vacation allow me to be free from alarms and rise with the sun? Hmmmm......

ALS Adventure

Every year, through my so called racing and recreation adventures I aim to contribute to a different charity. This year I've decided to put my efforts toward raising money for ALS by participating in the ALS Adventure Challenge. This race is in honor of my friend Art, who was recently diagnosed with ALS. If you are interested in supporting our team Art's Army, please check out my fundraising page.

The race is a short adventure race that consists of trail running, mountain biking (that part will be laugh for me), kayaking and of course some 'mystery' events along the way.

The picture you see here is Art looking over the Grand Canyon. I thought this race was an appropriate event to support Art as he approaches life with a sense of adventure, enthusiasm and greatfulness. He inspires me with his outlook on life. I hope you will join me in helping to give something back...

Not Quite as Planned

Planned Run:
30:00 @ HR Zone 1
40:00 @ 8:10/mile or somewhere close to it
30:00 @ HR Zone 1

Actual Run:
1:54 penguin pace

My body was just not capable of upping the pace at all today. There was just one speed and that was slow! It may have been all the travelling this week, or remnants of the flu from last week or quite possibly it could have been the big flax muffin I stupidly ate for breakfast. What was I thinking? Anyway...despite my inability to stick with the plan, the sun was shining through the trees and the clear skies were magnificent! Every moment I thought of how painstakingly slow I was going, I reminded myself that I am so lucky to be running for the pure sake of running. I think of other parts of the world where it's actually illegal for women to run. I think of those that want to run that are physically unable. I think of those that are running but running for pure survival..away from violence and other terrors. I am grateful to be healthy and free to run.........

Blowing Snow and 30 Below

The bite of 30 below experienced in Moose Jaw this weekend is a brand new experience for this chickadee. I'd like to say that I'm unlikely to repeat the experience any time soon but I have a few work trips that are going to take me into the northern cold this month. That kind of cold with the wind chill dropping temperatures even further makes it feel like your face is going to freeze off within seconds. The frost bite warning was 10 minutes but with my circulation, 10 minutes sounds like an eternity.

You guessed right that my workouts took me indoors this weekend. Eighty minutes on a treadmill made me feel a bit hamster-ish but I was happy to be over with the viral evil that took me out last week and thrilled to get in some good mileage without any knee pain. I suppose those boring physio exercises are doing me some good. Also, with Tim running along beside me on his own treadmill, how could I complain?

As much as Saskatchewan winters inspire me to dream of palm trees and warm surf, it's hard to come home when you're leaving someone behind. I'm thankful that my other running partner, albeit he has 4 legs instead of 2, was here to greet me back to Vancouver where to no surprise, it's as wet and grey as when I left. Geez...30 below doesn't sound all that bad.

Oh my aching head

I've pumped my blood with extra vitamin C, Cold FX and tried thinking anti-flu thoughts to somehow boost my immune system. Psychoneuroimmunogy and vitamin therapy aside, I still feel my head gradually getting bigger and the increasing exhaustion is making it hard to complete a sentence. This is not looking promising for a Yeti race tomorrow morning. Hopefully soup and sleep will boost my T-cells overnight and kick this evil out of my body.

When a runner can't run...

Well, I'm supposed to be doing school work but noticed I have not posted in over a week! The usual franticness (yes, it really is a word) of school and work have officially set in. To make things even more stressful (or shall we say exciting?) my overall ability to be my usual resilient self (some may argue this point) has been somewhat compromised by my lack of running this past week. Oh, yes, 4 weeks into the year and my left knee starts complaining to me. Can you believe it! I am so bummed but I am not going to let this get the better of me. We (that is my mind and my body) are going to think positive and believe that all that soft tissue will calm down and get strong very fast.

Let's go back one year. Too many hours spent in front of a computer working and studying did not stop me running. However, they did inhibit my ability to fit in swimming, cycling and all the 'maintenance' stuff that I obviously took for granted in terms of my physical function. Eventually, a serious bout of patellofemoral pain in my right knee kept me from running the Honolulu marathon. Not too bad considering I've been pretty much injury free up 'til now. Regardless, this put me back to the old run/walk plan and set me on a path of religious physiotherapy. The past year has been a painstakingly gradual approach to increasing running distance.

Despite my efforts to be smart, my left knee (feeling somewhat left out I suppose) has presented itself with this lovely syndrome. After a fantastic snow shoe run last Thursday, my left knee put me in slump of self-pity as I felt the familiar sensation of the joint 'giving way' , swelling up and providing sharp tastes of pain. Determined not to let the dreaded 'syndrome' fully show itself, I made a quick trip to the physiotherapist and I'm back to a rigid schedule of boring core and stabilizer exercises. No running for 5 days but snowshoeing is okay.

So, snowshoeing it is. Got up for a great run to Dog Mountain again last Friday night. Woohhooo - knees felt fine. I love it up there when the night is clear and you can see the city lights. I truly feel alive. Otis was feeling particularly spunky in his reflective coat (see pic). After a great night of romping in the snow, I slept soundly for the first time all week. Got up to Cypress again on Sunday for a solid hike up the peak trail. Nothing vigorous but it felt great to be breathing in all that mountain oxygen on such a beautiful day. Tomorrow is day 6 so I'm going to try running home. Wish me luck for pain free knees.

Canine Capers in the Trails

Woof! It’s Otis here…I’m stepping in for my owner today. She’s occupied with reading lengthy text books and journal articles. I’ve already tried a million times to get her to play with me with my stuffy toys but no luck. So here I am!

My owner and I get into the trails most days - mostly UBC and North Van and when I'm really lucky, we go up to the top of the mountains and run in the snow. That's my fav but the car ride is a real drag...... anyway, one of the things I’ve noticed about you humans is that you always run in straight lines. You ALWAYS stay on the trail and you generally run at pretty much the same pace. You never bother to chase wild life and man, you don't even bend down to check out the great smells! Well, I want to tell you, you’re missing out – there’s a lot you could learn from a dog like me… I want to tell you how to make your trail runs much more fun. Check it out.

1. First, pull you’re your owner to the trail head by pulling on the leash as hard as possible – show her where you want to go. Enthusiasm counts for something!
2. Sit nice so she lets you off leash and you’re free to sniff around.
3. Make your mark at the next bunch of bushes where that other dog (must be a terrier) keeps trying to claim the trail. Share the trail man…….
4. Chase as many squirrels as you can…the more you chase, the more likely you are to catch one. I haven’t caught one yet but I dream about it. One day!
5. Lie down in the middle of the trail until the pretty chocolate lab comes up to you wanting to sniff your butt and then – bam – spring up and chase her down. Yahoo!
6. Run into the bush and chase more squirrels
7. Pee again. It's really cool when you're in the snow!
8. Sniff….sniff…sniff……….ahhhh yeahhhh…sniff…
9. Go back to your owner, heel beside her for about 50 meters or so and she’ll give you a treat…sucka!!!!
10. Pick up the big log in the middle of the trail and run as hard as you can until your mouth hurts so much you have to stop.
11. Try to persuade your owner to throw the stick so you can chase it. If you wag your tail really fast it usually works
12. Don’t forget to take water breaks…stop at the nearest creek and chug back as much water as you can. There are occasionally signs that say ‘no dogs in the creek’ but I don't think the same rules apply to humans, so you're probably safe. Is that discrimination?
13. Chase more squirrels in the bush.
14. Pee
15. Sniff
16. Run
17. Sprint
18. Pick up more sticks
19. Man…are we back at the car already?
    
20. Show your best puppy dog eyes for a really sweet post-run snack!
    

Now, that my human friends is trail running! Guaranteed much more fun than running on the beaten path.